by Amber Lynn
Kent climbs on top of his horse and trots it around in a circle. “I take it you are used to the stares?” he asks stepping in line beside us as we start home.
“It's just another day in my life. I think even Jonas has gotten used to it at this point,” I reply.
“With you as a charge, I have learned to be very adaptable,” he says trying to be diplomatic.
“Sadly, there are some things you cannot adapt to,” I say smiling thinking of my wings.
“Well, if you are naughty, I will just run and tell Alex so he can deal with you,” he responds.
“And we all know how good he is about disciplining me. He isn't very good about sending me to bed without dinner.” The guy doesn't like pain, and he can feel my pain through our bond, so spanking me for being naughty is right out. No matter how many times he threatens it.
“So, what exactly are your relationships?” Kent asks. “I hear and sense some very confusing things. I get Jonas is a guard, but I am not sure what Alex is to you. You also have a vampire next to you that seems to be touchy.”
“Here is a quick rundown. Jonas, Jake, Smitty, and Marcus are my guards. You could probably throw Clyde in with them. Although, there are rumors he is supposed to be a practice child for me. I am pretty sure any baby I have won't be as cute as he is. Moving on, Sebastian is the love of my life and Alex is my mate,” I inform him.
“Technically, Sebastian is my mate too, but I prefer love of my life.” I am hoping the bonded mate thing will be true again within the next couple of days. Sebby squeezes my hand letting me know he likes my summation.
“You have a vampire and a werewolf mate,” Kent states trying to work it out in his head.
Now there is a website for me to launch. Pictures of the faces people make when they hear I have two mates. Not a lot of people know it for a certainty, but the ones that do always have this weird look on their face, like I just laid out all the principles of nuclear fission or something. Of course, I don't know a thing about nuclear fission or if it even has principles, but it does have nuclear in it, so I am sure it is awesome.
That is enough of my mental vacation. I have a conversation I am supposed to be interested in.
“Either that or I am a big hussy, and judging by the men I have chosen in each faction I would have to be one stupid hussy. I am currently a little altered, or so I am told. Otherwise, you would be able to smell a stronger scent of wolf on me. I am what I classify as defective and what others call special.”
“You are dual-natured?”
“Sure, we will go with that.” I don't really want to get into the little technicality in his statement with a guy I don't really know. Plus, being tri-natured would probably blow his mind.
“For this case, smelling more wolfy would have been better, but we will have to deal with the issue as it comes up.”
“Just think about it, a whole three people in your town might be willing to talk to me. That is probably three more people than would usually speak to me by just knowing my reputation alone.” By now, we are back at the compound.
Alex may have been listening in, so he would know I am planning to leave, but even if he does, I need to tell him face-to-face. It is all part of my plan to be more mature. The plan started a whole five seconds ago.
“So, how are we on clearance?” I know the guys tend to be sticklers about just letting anybody walk into our castle.
“I think Alex would be okay with letting him in, but it is officially Sebastian’s place, so it is ultimately his decision,” Jonas answers.
“You vouching for him, Jonas?” Sebastian asks.
“He has helped some of our people when we have needed him. I don't think he will use anything he learns against us. He already knows Princess is a little bit different, and I don't see him finding out all her little secrets within the ten minutes we are in the building.”
“Then he can come up. We may need help carrying stuff down anyway. Might as well put him to work.”
We make our way upstairs and find piles of boxes in the lobby of my apartment. “Look Clyde, your presents are here.” Clyde bounces over to inspect the boxes. Not impressed he starts to lift his leg. “Clyde, what have I told you. We don't potty in the house. Plus, that box is your new puppy palace. When we get home from our trip we will put it together for you.”
“Do you think this is all the deliveries you are expecting?” Alex asks joining us. I swear the guys never go home. “They have been coming nonstop over the last hour.”
When Sebastian first gave me this place to live, I thought it would be a hideaway for me that he would visit occasionally. Now, it is like a big clubhouse for all the guys. The guards have sleeping areas in the apartment proper and Sebastian and Alex both have separate apartments not far, but they only visit them about every other day.
“I cannot imagine there would be anything else. As it is, I think I might have gone just a tad overboard,” I say taking another look at all the boxes. Jonas has already started opening them looking for things we might need.
“This box contains swimming floaties and goggles for him,” he says looking at a packing slip. “Did you really think those were necessary?”
“You had to see the picture of them on a puppy. I could just see them on Clyde and we don't want him to drown, do we?” I say stating my very weak case.
He just shakes his head. In fact, everyone except Sebastian is shaking their head at me. What? Sheesh. It sounded like a good idea at the time.
“You two go get packed. Sebastian should have enough stuff here that he can throw a bag together with you. Me and Kent will go through these real quick looking for the leash and collar and anything that would be helpful for a road trip. Hopefully the picture that went with the doggie sleeping pills was just as cute as the one with the floaties,” Jonas says giving up on one box and moving on to another.
“Fine by me. Come on guys,” I say dragging Clyde and Sebastian along. Alex comes with us, which is just what I planned.
I grab a bag from my closet. “Do you want separate bags or can we throw everything in one?”
“I am fine with sharing. That way my clothes will smell like you,” Sebastian says grabbing things from his drawer. Yes, they both have designated drawers in my room. I had a moment of weakness one day.
“How much do you know?” I ask Alex while grabbing three sets of my favorite tops and pants before weaving to my underwear drawer.
“I heard everything and, of course, do not want you involved and know even just saying that is a waste of breath,” he says with a sigh. Well, at least he is learning. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks. “Any idea on how long you will be gone?”
“I would love to be able to catch the guy before he skins again, but tomorrow is the deadline and I don't even have the lay of the land yet. It is really hard to say. For sure within six days. I won’t let him get two girls under my watch.” All of our stuff is packed. We don't even bother folding anything. I don't know about Sebastian’s choices, but mine are wrinkle free so if they get curled into little balls, it won't matter.
“Do you by any chance think your situation will be taken care of by the time you get back?”
Not immediately knowing what he is talking about, I look at him. He is staring between me and something behind me, which could only be Sebby. Oh, that situation. Sebastian had taken a moment to keep his hands to himself, so I almost forgot.
“I don't know that the opportunity will arise in the middle of a murder investigation. It was implied that we are missing some wording as well. Unless you figured that part out during my meeting,” I say spinning around to catch Sebastian leaning in to smell my hair. I did mention he was going to drive me insane.
“I found some references to the text I think I need to find and have some people working on it. Until we get it, though, I don't think we can do much.”
“I can get my people looking, too, if you want. I would really like to see this bond back together. I never knew h
ow tiring it was for you to be the pillar in this crazy relationship,” Alex says ignoring me and speaking to Sebastian.
“What do you mean pillar?” I ask curious about his wording.
“As fragile as our little triangle is, one of us guys has to be strong enough to hold us all together. I tend to allow Sebastian to serve that role. He is the oldest and has the most knowledge out of any of us. He rarely becomes impulsive and keeps his head on straight under all levels of stress.” That does sound an awful lot like Sebastian and I have always thought of him as my rock.
“I, on the other hand, like to lead my army during the day, but want to come home and let loose. I do things without always thinking them through and have to hope in the end they were the right thing. I like to have fun, take you to fights, taunt you about sex and, just in general, live life to its fullest. With your connection screwed up, I am forced to try to keep my head on straight and you don't know how hard that is. So, even though, it is weird to have to think about you two sleeping together, I wish you guys would get on with it.”
I look over at Sebastian and he just shrugs. Having a guy you are kind of in competition with telling you to hurry up and sleep with his girl is probably a little weird. Oh well. It will happen when it happens.
“I will do what I can to fulfill your request,” I say smiling back at Alex. “I wonder if Sebastian’s dick is solid stone like yours.”
“You really are going to get a spanking from me one of these days,” Alex says grinning from ear to ear. “Now get out of here before I break down and make it today.”
“Yes, Master,” I say bending down to remove the rope from around Clyde's neck to make room for his new collar. “We will get of here immediately to steer clear of your wrath.”
Chapter 15
Techno what? Oh TecnoJunk
I may be biased and all, but I have to say Clyde looks like a little heartbreaker in his new collar. It has to be the cutest thing I have ever seen, and he knows it. He has developed a little strut to his walk that hasn’t been there in the day or two that I have known him. It is making his already too big head even bigger.
“How soon before you have him in a little sweater?” Jonas asks as I try to get Clyde to settle into the big doggy bed I have put in the third row of the Suburban. I think he understands I will not be sitting next to him and is getting a little agitated.
“I will be right up front. If you get hungry or need to potty, just let me know. You can look out the windows and drool all you want back here.” My words don’t seem to be making a difference and he turns on the puppy dog eyes. “Fine. You can sit on the floorboard between me and Sebby, but you have to behave.” I take him out and walk around to get him resettled.
I can already tell traveling with the tyke will not be fun. He snuggles happily into his new spot and I am ready to get this show on the road. Well, once I get the holster and back sheath off, I will be ready.
The guys have been loading the rest of our stuff and the horse. Sebastian takes his place beside me, while I thank the gods I don’t have a bench seat. Although, Clyde would serve as a good chaperone in between us. Once Kent and Jonas get in their spots, Jonas directly behind me, Kent next to him, we are really ready to go.
“Why would he need a sweater?” I ask Jonas picking up on his previous comment. “It isn’t like we live in a cool climate. Not only that, but I am pretty sure he is his own little furnace. The flames have to come from somewhere.”
“I know that, but you see human girls all the time with their tiny dogs in sweaters stuffed into a bag they can carry the poor dog in. I figured eventually you were going to get to that point,” he comments.
Not even over my dead body is Clyde getting stuffed in a purse. “Rest assured my craziness can only go so far and that is about ten steps past that point.” I meet his eyes in the rearview mirror and he gives me a doubtful look. It is just another thing to be added to my list of things to prove to Jonas. I hope that he didn’t get a good look in all the boxes. Not that there were any purses, but the floaties probably hurt my standing.
“So Kent, you got some directions? Maybe some coordinates I can log into my GPS?”
“I imagine you know how to get to 48 from here. Just follow it when it becomes Highway 50 and I will tell you where to turn and stop when we get closer,” he claims.
“Are we staying in what the humans call West Virginia?” I call it West Virginia too, but the paranorms weren’t involved in naming the state. We have so much cooler names for things.
At first, the fact that it took Kent quite a few hours to get to Night Owl City made me wonder on the distance we would have to travel, but he was riding a horse at the time, so any guesses flew out the window.
“Yeah. It is only a couple hours away on the highway. From there, we will have about fifteen more minutes on some back roads. It isn’t far from Tygart Lake, so when you start seeing signs for it, you will be getting close.”
“Sounds good,” I say heading in the direction of the open road. “Why don’t we play getting to know Kent on the way? Since I have to work with you on this, I would prefer knowing a little something about you.”
“I am game, but there might be questions I don’t answer.” Well duh. I don’t plan on getting to know him that well, just the basics.
“So, what is your real name?” I ask deciding that is a good starting point.
“And there is a reason why you don’t believe it to be Kent Newhouse?” he asks with a little devilry in his voice.
“Just the little fact that I couldn’t find you in any of the databases I checked, even the Collective’s. You mentioned one of their people was after you, so you should be in the database.”
“True and I imagine I am. I was born Nathaniel Rogers, but I wouldn’t answer to that name these days.”
“And just why was the Collective after your ass?”
“Never have really figured that one out. I am leaning towards a case of mistaken identity. I am not inherently a violent person. I just woke up one day and they were after me. If you ever figure out the reason, I would appreciate being let in on the secret.”
“Now that I know your name, I can get into their system and see what they have on you. Where are you from originally?”
“Emerald. I used to run a small tech firm. Nothing fancy, but I made enough to be happy.”
“It wouldn’t have happened to be called TechnoJunk, would it?” The little clues snap together in my brain and I may be able to help him figure out his dilemma without a computer.
“That would be the one. I take it you have heard of it,” he replies.
“Oh yeah, I have heard of it, it was before my time really, but it made big news in Collective scuttlebutt. Since my Collective father was involved, it was a story I heard many times over the years. I didn’t know any specific names, but you would be the one that got away.”
This is too good to be true. I am out of the Collective for a month and I run into the guy Frank could never catch. I should take pictures and send them to him.
“Would you care to share said story? I think after a couple decades someone should clue me in on why I had to run,” Kent says not finding the same humor I am in the situation.
“Sure. It isn’t that long of a story. You know the end of it anyway. Frank, my Collective father for those keeping score, ends up staring into space as you disappear right in front of him. It is classic. I was just a whippersnapper at the time, so I cannot remember what happened when he got home, but the ‘incident’ was brought up years later when people wanted to joke around with him.”
“I am well aware of the ending scene. I am pretty familiar with the middle parts, too. It is the beginning I am interested in learning,” Kent says still not enjoying the moment.
“Wait. First,” I say giggling like a schoolgirl. No one better be taping this because me giggling does not leave the vehicle. “When you walked past the barrier to your ‘Ghost Town’ did you turn around and see him standing the
re?”
“You can see the outside scenery from inside the town, so yes, I saw him. He searched the area for at least a day before giving up.”
“Oh how I wish I had a video of that,” I say picturing it in my mind until I hear a throat clear. “Fine. The reason you were targeted is that one of your little developers made a program the Collective didn’t like. They wanted to erase anyone who had knowledge of the program.”
“It has been awhile, but I cannot think of anything we were working on that would have raised any red flags,” he replies after thinking to himself for a few seconds.
“I don’t know all the specifics, but it was a tracking program and since it was twenty years ago, I think it was a little before its time. As far as I know, other than you, the rest of the employees have been held in a Collective lab happily sharing their brains to better equip the Collective. So surprise, they weren’t actually going to kill you. The order was for you all to be brought in alive.”
“For at least a year after I got away, I tried to think of what they could want with me. I tried to think of anything we could have been doing at TechnoJunk, but we were doing only low-level work. I cannot think of anything that would have been considered for tracking.”
“I got no answers for you there. For all I know, they were scanning your projects and found something that with a change to one line of code it became interesting to them. There really is no rhyme or reason to the things they do.”
“Well, I like to think I am better off where I am now. There are some people I wish I could go back and see, but those relationships are long over these days.”
He seems a little sad remembering the days long past. His is just another life abruptly altered thanks to the great bunch of men over at the Collective. Luckily for him, he is still breathing. Most of the people they go after don’t have that luxury.
“Let’s refocus my questions to your current life. Has technology reached Ghost Town? For some reason, I don’t expect you to have Internet connection.”