Sister's Keepers

by Belinda White

  I grinned. "You bet. Once the puppies come, we may have to move there."

  Jed laughed. "The puppies are the least of our worries right now."

  Turns out, he was only partly right.

  Chapter 12

  I LOOKED UP AT JED and sighed, letting him go reluctantly. If there were some way to keep his arms around me all the time, I would be a very happy lady. In his arms, I felt like I was home at last. So I guess having to give up my little cabin for space issues wasn't such a big deal after all. As long as I could always come home to Jed's arms.

  "I think we are about ready," Jed said, giving my arm one last squeeze. "You can get them situated in the Jeep. I want to check on the dogs before we go."

  I nodded. The pups were going to make an appearance at any time. Luckily all of us Benandanti, or at least all of us but Jed who was still working on it, could send thoughts. As Rebel was a part Benandanti stemming from a line my Great-Grandmother had started a couple of generations ago, he could let me know if things started happening on that end.

  Still, we didn't like to be too far away. Just in case. The pups would be part Benandanti, too, and therefore part of the pack. Maggie was already a member as Rebel's mate. The size of my pack would likely double when Maggie gave birth. Yet another reason for a bigger place. A much bigger place.

  I loaded my sister and MacDougal into the back seat of the Jeep and got into shotgun position myself. I'm alpha, it's my due.

  Dell smiled as I reminded her how to work the seat belts. "A mandatory safety device for even those in the back seat?" she asked, shaking her head. "I'm almost afraid to ask what other changes have been made to the laws here whilst I was absent. Art we still able to walk about without wearing a helmet, lest a rock should fall from the sky and beam us?"

  I grinned. She was so my sister. Growing up, seat belts in the back had been an option that we had decided against. We wolves really don't like leashes, even ones in cars.

  "They haven't gone that far yet, but I wouldn't say it too loud, or they may decide it's a good idea," I said.

  She nodded. "Duly noted." I looked at her. She sounded so serious. I was about to explain that I was kidding when Jed joined us.

  He got in and buckled up, and we were off.

  "It's glad I am that we be going to visit the Lady Rabbit," MacDougal said. "I'd not like to exclude her and earn her disapproval."

  Dell laughed. "You almost sound frightened of her," she said. "I mean, she's just a rabbit."

  MacDougal nodded, his face serious. "But a more fierce creature I've never had the displeasure to meet. Though her fierceness is bound, it be there in spades." MacDougal glanced at me. "Truth be told, I'm far more fearful of the rabbit than of Tazlyn the wolf."

  I had to ask. "Which one?"

  He grinned. "Both, truth be told. Lady Lily has much of her grandmother's spirit."

  And this from someone who hadn't known her during her goth phase. Dressed in black with lipstick and eyeshadow to match, she had been a really scary sight. That was back before she turned sixteen and shifted for the first time. When she went from being Lilith to just plain Lily.

  I looked over at Jed and could tell his thoughts were mirroring my own by the smile on his face. MacDougal was right, they were two very scary rabbits.

  Rose was waiting on the porch for us when we turned into her driveway, and I thought I saw the curtain in Lily's room twitch too. It isn't every day you get to meet a pack mate's sister that has been trapped in Faerie for over a decade. Just wait until they find out she's also a real-life princess to boot.

  We piled out of the car and made our way into the house, with Rose leading the way. Rose kept looking at Dell, and I couldn't get her to meet my eyes. I was starting to get worried that maybe she knew something I didn't.

  Once we were all situated in the small living room, I started to make the introductions, then stopped. I'd been going to address her as Dell, but I still wasn't sure if she would go by Dell or Shaylee.

  I still didn't like the looks that Rose was shooting at her, so taking a deep breath I decided to take the rabbit by the ears.

  "Before we get started, I have one question for my sister," I said, giving Rose a pointed glance to let her know up front where I stood. Faerie or not, we were sisters. "Would you prefer to be called Dell, or your faerie name Shaylee?"

  She tilted her head and thought for a moment. "While Shaylee is my true name, in this realm I was always known as Odella Hunt, or Dell as you called me. For the purpose of keeping my whereabouts unknown, perhaps calling me Dell would be best."

  MacDougal nodded. "True names have power. If it is hiding we be, then Dell you should be called."

  Lily giggled and MacDougal seemed affronted. "Tis truth I speak, not a matter to cause laughter."

  "I'm sorry," Lily said, trying to get her giggles under control. "You just sound so much like Yoda." She giggled again. "You even dress in green."

  Okay, now she had me in giggles, too. Even Jed was fighting a losing battle with keeping a straight face.

  "I'd thought the speech pattern was familiar. Of course, Yoda doesn't have an Irish accent, " he said.

  "Who is this Yoda of whom you speak?" MacDougal asked. Which of course only caused me and Lily to laugh harder.

  "Yoda is a character on a very popular series of movies. He is on the small side too." Jed had to stop and take a deep breath. The others might not realize how close he was to losing it, but I did.

  "I'll rent the movies from the library while you're here, so you can see who we are talking about," I said. It had been a while since I'd seen them anyway.

  "Perhaps that's a good place to begin," Rose said. "I understand...Dell...being here, but why MacDougal?"

  At that moment there were three very precise, very heavy knocks on the front door. Rose sighed. "Lily, will you please go let Coyote in? And be sure he brings in his chair from the kitchen."

  A moment later in stalked the Coyote carrying his purple chair. "I thought we had gotten rid of the little bugger. What is he doing back?"

  MacDougal puffed himself up to his full height. He was probably pulling a glamor to make himself seem bigger. None of us had the heart to tell him we were all packing clover.

  "Tis on a royal quest, am I," he said. "The same as before it is. The queen's orders must be obeyed."

  "Yes, but why did the queen order you to come this time?" Rose asked patiently. "If it was just to see Dell to our realm, you should be free to go now."

  MacDougal looked over at me. "Perhaps Tazlyn should take over from here."

  "Actually, Titania gave me very limited information. I have a lot of questions for the two of you myself," I said. I was really quite proud of myself for holding off the grilling session until the pack was all together.

  "I'll start by giving you all the information I got on my visit to the realm of Fae." I paused. "Which in itself was a very weird adventure, to say the least. But I'll tell that story some other time. The bottom line is this: Dell here is not actually my sister by blood. She was adopted. I never knew that growing up, not that it would have made any difference to me." I looked over at Rose. There just wasn't any way to sugar coat this. "She was given to my parents to raise for her protection. It seems that there are those in the Faerie Realm who would like to see her out of the way."

  "And why is that?" Rose asked. "What danger could a baby in arms be to any of the faeries?"

  I swallowed and then just said it. "She is Titania's daughter."

  Rose's eyebrows raised and her eyes widened. After she had recovered, she looked to Dell. "Surely your mother had resources to keep you safe? From all that I have read regarding the queen, there shouldn't be a Fae alive who would be willing to risk her anger by harming her child."

  "Aye, and in the Seelie Court, you'd be right as rain," MacDougal said. "But ‘tis her father that wishes the young majesty's demise. To keep her from her destiny of reuniting the courts of Faerie."

  Rose seemed frozen. "But
that would make her father..."

  MacDougal nodded. "The King of the Unseelie Court. The Hunter."

  "The Erlking," whispered Rose, closing her eyes.

  "According to the legends I’ve read, which granted may be wrong, Queen Titania and the Erlking abhor one another. How, and maybe more importantly why, did they have a child together?" Jed asked.

  MacDougal shrugged. "Twas one of my queen's finest illusions. One night of drunken revelry and the Erlking in her bed was all she needed to give birth to an heir to both courts."

  "But faeries are immortal, or close to it," Lily said. "So what is there to worry about? I mean it's not like she'd take the throne while the king and queen were still around, right?"

  "I can't imagine the Erlking likes knowing that he has an unwanted heir in the wings waiting for his demise. Especially one that could unite the entire realm of Fae under one Royal court," Rose said.

  "Even so," MacDougal nodded. "Ye have the right of it, Lady Rabbit."

  Rose blinked. "What did you call me?" If voices could cut glass, there would be dangerously sharp shards all over the living room floor.

  Up to that point, I wouldn't have believed it possible for a faerie to cower in fear. I had been wrong. MacDougal sank back in his chair, wide-eyed.

  "Twas meant as a sign of me utmost respect, me Lady Ra... I mean..." he trailed off, looking at me. I could see his eyes pleading for help. He was on his own. I wasn't stepping into this one.

  Luckily Rose backed down, at least a little. "I prefer the name Rose, MacDougal. I'm a Benandanti, not a Fae."

  MacDougal nodded vigorously. "Rose, yes, Rose it is I'll be calling you from here out. Rose, yes."

  She gave him a curt nod. "Okay, then let's move on." She turned to me. "It would be most helpful to review your mother’s journals, Taz."

  I was confused. It happened a lot around Rose. "Mother's journals? I thought you were the Benandanti Chronicler."

  "I am the Benandanti Rabbit Chronicler, yes, and we rabbits do include others' stories in our records as well. However, the Alpha of every pack has a duty to chronicle their lives for the next generation. Adding their knowledge and wisdom to the collective whole." She sighed. "Obviously, something else you didn't know. You'll have some catching up to do in your journaling."

  I gulped. My parents had been killed very shortly after I'd shifted for the first time and learned just what it meant to be Benandanti. They hadn't had the chance to tell me a lot. And at the time Mom was still most definitely the Alpha of our pack. I was now almost thirty-three years old. No way could I write my life's story now. It would take forever.

  Rose saw my look of panic and relented. "I suppose it would be too much for you to catch up. Perhaps if you just started keeping a journal now? Although it would be vital for you to describe our encounter with the Skin-walker last year. That is information that should be passed on. And I'll be checking up on you to be sure you are writing in it." Her look softened. She knew how much I hated stuff like that. "It's not that hard you know. Perhaps you could even con Jed into helping you."

  My eyes flew to Jed and my salvation. Technically he was Benandanti, too. And my Alpha mate. It was as much his responsibility as mine.

  Jed saw my look and opened his mouth, but Rose stepped in before he got anything out.

  "Of course, this discussion takes a far backseat to the priority facing us now. That is why Taz's family journals are so important. Especially those of her mother. If they were protecting a Royal Faerie all those years, surely there is something written in those books."

  "I'm sorry, Rose. I remember seeing Mom writing in gray notebooks, but I don't have a clue as to where they are. When I packed up the things from the house, I don't remember seeing any of them." And I would have remembered because I had directly looked for them. I had hoped to have that link to her. Books written in her own handwriting might have given me some small comfort. At least something more than pictures and afghans to remember her by.

  Rose frowned. "Perhaps your mother kept them hidden. Did you check the attic and basement?"

  I nodded. "From top to bottom and everything in between. Everything was either packed up, sold, or donated to the local Goodwill store."

  Dell leaned forward. "I saw Mother bring up a couple of the gray books from the basement one time. I'm sure she didn't have them when she went down." Dell looked down at the floor. "I'll admit I was a bit self-conscious back then and wanted to know if she was writing about me." Dell glanced at me. "It was right after that time Mom caught me with Terry from next door. I really wanted to know what she thought of me. I guess I wanted to be sure she wasn't too disappointed in me."

  I could totally understand that. Mom had been a lot like Jed in her own way. When she got mad or disappointed, she just wouldn't talk. I mean she always got over it, but while it was going on, it was scary. At least to a teenage girl unsure of herself anyway.

  "So you went looking for them?" I asked. "But I didn’t think you could go in the basement. You always said your stomach started hurting when you started going down the stairs."

  "That was only when I got a lot older. This happened back when I was much younger. For some reason, I could go down there then. I don't know what happened to change that."

  Rose looked thoughtful. "But you didn't find them?"

  Dell shook her head. "But I know that's where she kept them because I watched her after that." She looked at us defiantly. "I was curious."

  I could relate to that.

  "Dell, did you always live in that house, or did you move there? I mean, was the house passed down in the family, or fairly newly built? Do you know?" Jed asked.

  Dell's brows scrunched together as she thought. "I seem to remember us moving, and before that, I remember Dad showing me where we were going to live. At the time, I didn't understand, because there wasn't a house there. I remember him laughing at me when I asked if we were going to live in a cave or something." She smiled at the memory. "I think Dad built the house. Or had it built."

  An old memory floated up from somewhere deep in my subconscious. "Didn't Dad do some construction work in the basement? I must have been really young, but I seem to remember him coming up the stairs holding his thumb where he had hit it with a hammer."

  Dell nodded. "I don't remember that, but Dad did work on something down there." She looked at me. "I hope you don't mind me calling them Mom and Dad. It's how I remember them."

  I grinned at her. "Of course I don't mind, Dufus. They were your parents too. That's what makes us sisters." I mean, duh.

  "Thanks," she said. "I wasn't sure."

  Maybe it was just me, but the Faerie Princess Shaylee that had shown up at my door this afternoon was looking and acting more and more like my old sister Dell with every passing minute. Even her accent was fading back into American Midwest.

  "So if Taz's parents had really wanted to keep the books secret, maybe he built some sort of secret room downstairs," Jed said. "It's what I would have done." He thought for a minute. "It wouldn't even be that hard. Some framing timber and drywall, though there would have to be some way to hid the entrance."

  "Maybe nothing elaborate," Rose said. "Especially if he built the doorway behind something large like the furnace."

  Jed nodded. "That would work. I'll bet that's where we'll find it. If the room hasn't already been discovered by the new owners."

  I shuddered. Now that was a scary thought. They would either think my family had a long history of madness, or else extremely active imaginations. But I was betting they'd go with the theory of madness.

  "Even if they haven't found it, how would we get in to get them?" Lily asked.

  Rose smiled slowly. Oh yeah, I'd totally forgotten her lock picking skills. Of course when she'd used them before it was in the act of rescuing me. I couldn't believe she would use them for thievery. But looking at her expression now, I was beginning to wonder just how she had gotten those skills to begin with.

  "Oh, I don't thi
nk that will be a problem," Rose said. "Do you remember the names of the people who bought the house? We could begin by calling them and asking if you could tour the old homestead. That would give us the chance to case the... I mean to scope out the place."

  Okay, so now I was really wondering. Rose and I were going to have a talk very, very soon.

  Jed must not have caught her slip. "That's a great idea. People are doing that all the time now. We can even tell the truth and say that Dell here just got back and would like to see the place again."

  "I'll look up their number and give them a call tomorrow. If their number isn't listed, we can always do a quick drop in," I said.

  "Okay, so that is solved," Rose said. "Hopefully those notebooks will give us some much-needed information." She looked at Dell and MacDougal. "Is there anything else we need to know?"

  "Perhaps I might make a teeny bit of a suggestion?" MacDougal asked.

  We all looked at him. "Shoot," I said.

  Now I'd confused him. "Why would I be wanting to shoot? It's not armed am I. I merely had a thought is all."

  "It's a term we humans use," Jed explained. Maybe we should get him an urban slang dictionary or something. This could grow tedious after a while. "It means go ahead and say what you're thinking."

  "Okay." MacDougal still seemed doubtful about the phrasing, but continued, "Well, all I was going to say was that if it were up to me, it's closing the closest Faerie gate I'd be. It's far too close to the wolf’s den to be to me liking." He puffed out his chest. "Tis not all faeries that know this world as well as I, and would know to get a ride in an automobile. And them walking a farther distance could only be to our advantage."

  Rose just stared at him. "We can close the gates?"

  He fidgeted in his seat. "Not normally would I be telling ye this, but yes, ‘tis possible to close the gate from this side."

  We all spoke at once.

  "How?"

  Chapter 13

  COME TO FIND OUT, IT's not all that hard to close a Faerie gate. All it takes is a long piece of iron, a shovel, and the ability to sneak past a few rangers while carrying said equipment. Having a Special Investigator with the US Wildlife Department like Jed on your team was a definite advantage with the rangers. The hardest part was transporting the long piece of iron.