by Renee George
"Perfect." The romantic in me died a little, but this was the right thing to do. The only thing. It would save Grady, Carol Ann, and most of all, it would save Elise.
Until the next time, the voice in my head said.
Chapter 11
I don't know why, but watching Grady prepare our lunch was one of the sexiest things I'd ever witnessed, and it wasn't like he had to cook anything. It was just lot of taking stuff out of the fridge and heating up some meat and beans in the microwave.
His extremely large kitchen was old-fashioned in decor, but not like David and Olivia's. Theirs was country old-fashioned, and Grady's was town old-fashioned. The wooden cabinet doors had been stained and shellacked several times over the years, and they looked streaky and drippy because of it. It was much larger than the farmhouse’s kitchen with an oak table in the center, big enough to seat eight people easily, and two table leaves setting near the pantry would have stretched to accommodate twelve.
"This is a big room," I said.
Grady chopped up a tomato he pulled down from a hanging basket. "The biggest in the house. My grandfather designed it that way. Lycanthropes get a lot more done on a full stomach." He washed his hands and dried it on a hand towel.
I inhaled the wonderful scents of chili spices, garlic, and onions. "It does smell good in here."
"I can't seem to smell anything but strawberries and raspberries," he said.
I blushed. "I'll send Carol Ann some Bath & Body products as a wedding gift."
He didn't respond to my jibe, and I felt like a mean girl for saying it. But I needed to remind both of us that we weren't making happy home time here. I had a job to do and he had a duty to fulfill.
He put a stack of tortillas into a metal dish, put foil over the top, and slid them into the oven. "I still can't believe you grew up in the eighteen-hundreds," he said. "This world must seem like an alien planet to you."
"I walked this world as a ghost for a long time, so it's not as surprising as you think. However, I enjoy the freedom women have these days that was not afforded to our gender when I was alive the first time around."
"How did you die?"
"Yellow fever. Back in those days, disease spread like wildfire. My twin, Elise, is studying to be a doctor. She thinks we caught it from a farmhand. We didn’t really have contact with anyone else. The poor boy’s family suffered something awful from yellow fever, but he hadn't gotten sick, so he had no idea he could spread it to us.”
“Elise thinks the farmhand was a carrier,” surmised Grady. “Like Typhoid Mary.”
I nodded. “If we hadn’t hired him, we might have survived the whole thing unscathed."
"But you wouldn’t be here now.” He pinned me with a smoldering look. “And I would’ve never met you.”
I swallowed hard. “I am certainly glad to have another chance at life.”
“Being a ghost must have been strange. Could you interact with anyone else?"
"Only Olivia could see us, that is until about ten years ago. The longer we were spirits the more connected we became with the external world. Elise figured out that if we touched Olivia, and focused hard enough, we could connect to this plane of existence. I think it was our love for her, or her love for us, that fueled the manifestation. In these instances, we could present ourselves to other people near her."
He put the warmed tortillas near the shredded lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and salsa he'd laid out. "It had to be lonely."
A sadness crept inside me. "I had Elise and Charlotte, so it wasn’t all bad.” I glanced at him. "But I wouldn't want to be a ghost again."
"How long have you been resurrected?" He took the taco meat from the microwave and set it on the table.
"A little more than a year and a half."
"That's not long at all."
I shook my head. "No. So much has changed. Olivia is married with a little one. Charlotte is a newlywed. Elise is going to college and will one day be an honest-to-goodness doctor. Can you imagine?" I smiled. "That would not have happened in our time."
"Elise is your twin, right?"
"Yes. We're identical in every way but personality," I said, repeating a phrase we used all the time when we were young.
"I can tell you apart."
I smirked. "That's what everyone says, but when we want to, we can fool anyone. We used to do it all the time with our Poppa and our sisters. And they knew us best of all."
"Believe me, Eliza, I know the difference between you and your twin," he said it a little too seductively for my taste.
I giggled, once again, reminding myself that he had no business flirting with me. "Stop that." I looked at the old Regulator clock on the wall next to the kitchen window. It was twelve-fifty. "When is Carol Ann coming over?"
"She should be here anytime." He put a chocolate milk in front of me and leaned in close. "Don't want to be alone with me anymore, huh?"
I saw movement behind Grady, and my eyes widened, as the image of a raven-haired woman flickered into view like a see-through picture. Her lips moved but I couldn't hear anything. She had her hand on Grady's back. Her image fading. "What?" I asked her. But she was gone before she could say more.
"If I have to say it again it's not worth it," Grady said. He studied my expression. "Where did you go?"
I blinked up at him. "What do you mean?"
"For a second there, it looked like you saw a ghost."
I knew he wasn't being literal, but in this case, I'm pretty sure he was right on the nose with his observation. Why would his mother appear to me? I wasn’t about to tell Grady his mama might be hanging around, so I told him, "Just daydreaming, I suppose." Because how in the world could I tell him his mother never really left him? That she might well have been attached to him this whole time? More and more, I believed there was more to this contract than Leonard was saying. Which meant, I needed help. Help of the psychical kind. I needed Ray and his extensive knowledge of para-kind.
"I'm here," Carol Ann said as she walked into the kitchen.
But first I had to make sure I didn't anger a certain demon lord who held my sister's life in his hands. "Grady put out a spread." I gestured to the table. "Let's eat before it gets cold."
The talk with Carol Ann had went the way I'd expected. She was ready to sacrifice love for duty. Grady was reluctant, but eventually he gave in to reason. The contract was pretty clear, he either married her, or both he and Carol Ann would be killed by Leonard. Unfortunately, the werewolves were not covered by the angel accords because they weren’t human.
After, Carol Ann gave me a ride back to the hotel. I wanted to put some distance between myself and Grady, especially now that the wedding was on. I still couldn't understand why these two had to get hitched, and why they had to mate. I couldn't get Leonard's talk about a thousand years of prep from my head, and worse, I couldn't stop wishing this deal involved anyone but Grady. The more time I spent with him, the more I liked-liked him. Those are the kinds of feelings a minion should never have for anyone, much less a werewolf trapped by my demon lord’s heinous deal.
And what in the world was his mother trying to say to me? She never appeared again while I was at the house, which didn't surprise me. Even after of decade of making ourselves visible, it was difficult for my sisters and me to do it repeatedly over a short period of time. You know those paranormal TV shows where lights flicker or electricity fails? That’s true enough. Ghosts can’t manifest will-nilly. We have to draw energy from other places.
Had she heard me talk about my ghost days with Grady? She must have. Otherwise, why would she attempt to talk to me? I felt sincerely sorry for the woman. She'd been a ghost for more than twenty years and could do nothing but watch the boy she loved grow up with a cold father and move toward a fate that was not of his making.
I said goodbye to Carol Ann and thanked her for the ride. After watching her leave the parking lot, I opened the door to the hotel room. and Elise was reclined on the bed reading, while Oli
via still had her nose buried in the computer.
"Have you tracked down Sandra, yet?" I asked.
"No, but I've put several stories out there that hopefully she can't resist. Two of the sign-ins I used are connected to wealthy families in dire need of a demon hunter. I hope that bitch bites!" she said with great animation. Then she looked at me. "How was your afternoon?"
"Terrible."
Elise sat up. "What happened?"
"Nothing alarming. Grady and Carol Ann are getting married."
"That's wonderful," Elise said. "Your work is done here, and we can go home."
"I want to go home," I said. "But I feel like I'm missing something. It just doesn't seem right that two people who don't want to get married should be forced to do so against their will. Do you know that Leonard will kill them if they don't do what the contract says? Either they mate and have babies or they—" I ran my finger across my throat in a cutting motion. "And the angel accords can't stop him because Grady and Carol Ann aren't human."
"That is terrible," Elise said. "But what can you do about it?"
I looked at Olivia as a truly awful plan entered my thoughts. "I could hide them for a while until we came up with a way to break their deal, or at least find leverage against Leonard so he might be persuaded to leave them be."
"A desperate demon is nothing to play with, sister dear." Olivia sighed. “But I’m not against trying to help.”
“I’m in, too,” said Elise.
My stomach pinched as I remembered Leonard's threat to remove Elise's life spark if I did anything to thwart Grady and Carol Ann’s marriage. If I was going to make my truly awful, horrible plan work, I had to assure Elise's safety, too. The only way to make that possible was to tell her and Olivia the truth.
"This might be too dangerous,” I said. “Leonard has already warned me about messing with this bargain. He threatened to take away Elise’s life.”
Olivia's mouth gaped. “He can’t kill humans!”
“Technically, she was already dead. He gave her the spark of life—and according to him, he can take away without breaking the angel accords.”
Elise calmly said, "So I am beholden to him for my life?"
"It appears so." My hands trembled at the thought of losing her. Of losing any of my sisters. "Olivia, do you think your demon warding on the farm could keep Leonard from reaching Elise?"
"Yes," she said, "but if you can't figure out a way to save the day here, Elise may be stuck on the farm for the rest of her life."
"Oh." My voice was thick with emotion. "Then no. I won't risk Elise like that."
"You need to quit talking about me like I have no say in the matter, Eliza. I am not a child, and even if I were, I'm not your child." She stood up. "I think it's worth the risk."
"I don't," I said, sorrier than I can say that I brought it up in the first place. "You are mortal, and you will age. What if you have to stay there until you die? That would mean, no school, no medical degree, no practice. You would just be stuck at the farm forever."
"It's working for Charlotte."
"She has a husband, and a new baby to keep her happy."
"I don't need anything but my family, Eliza. It was just us for almost a century and a half, and I managed to survive just fine."
Olivia raised her hand. "Technically you were ghosts, so, really you weren't surviving."
We both turned on her and said simultaneously, "Stay out of it!"
Olivia rolled her eyes and shrugged. "I was just saying," she mumbled.
I studied Elise's resolve and knew there was no changing her mind once she set it. "Let me talk to Grady and Carol Ann. I'm not even sure if they would, or even could, leave their packs. Not even for a short while."
"They don't have to be married until the end of the month, right?" Elise said. "As long as they are back by the wedding date, no harm done. And getting them on the farm would give everyone some breathing room."
An inkling of hope rose in me, but I squashed it down like a spider under foot. "I'll talk to Grady, you all get packed up and ready to go."
Chapter 12
I called Leonard and told him the good news about the wedding plans, then I got in my truck and followed Elise and Olivia back to the farm. As far as the demon lord was concerned, my job was over, and if I stuck around in Hannibal, he was sure to get suspicious. About an hour north of the farm, I pulled in to a truck stop and waited for Olivia to call me and tell me Elise was safe on the property.
The problem with demon-proofing the farm was that we couldn’t use the Internet or telephones—not even landlines. Cell towers, Internet cables, and even phone cables were places the demonic could easily travel and quite possibly circumvent the supernatural protections we had in place.
So, I had to wait for Olivia to drop Elise off, go into town, and use her cell phone to call me. After she finally contacted me and told me Elise was safe, I called Grady.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"On my way home," I said.
There was a moment of silence before he replied. "I thought you might stop by or something before you left."
I could hear his regret and it pleased me. No, no, no, I told myself. Just no. "I told Leonard that the marriage contract was on. He's very happy for you and Carol Ann to make your vows."
Grady remained quiet.
"But I was thinking that you, and by you, I mean you and Carol Ann, might want to come down to the farm for a little rest and recreation before the big day."
"We know each other well enough," he answered curtly.
"Well, you see, the farm is demon proof. No evil can get inside the property boundaries, and I just thought that might take some pressure off y'all...you could even bring Randy, while we figure things out."
"While we figure things out, huh?"
"It's a place where you can get some breathing room and clear your head."
"I can't run away from my responsibilities," Grady said. "No matter how much I want to, and believe me, Eliza, if I were going to run away with anyone it would be you. But even if I could make Randy safe, I couldn't make my pack safe. Bobby would destroy them, and without me here to defend them, it would be his right."
Damn it, his deep sense of responsibility to his people only made him more attractive. I really thought I'd stumbled on some kind of solution, but I hadn't. I guess deep down, I knew it wouldn't work, him and me, Randy and Carol Ann, all hiding away with most of my family. Regardless of what Elise said, it wasn't any kind of life. Not one worth living, anyhow.
"I understand." I hoped he could hear my regret, too. How had he become important to me in just two short days? The heart wants what the heart wants, I told myself. Only my heart wasn’t getting Grady. Not ever. "Under different circumstances," I said softly.
"Yes, under different circumstances," he agreed.
My voice was husky with emotion when I spoke. "I wish you well."
"And you, Eliza Marie Madder. I wish you well, too."
I hung up then yelped as Leonard appeared. He wore an actual Yankee colonel's uniform, including the hat and tassel. What was it with this demon lord and wearing military outfits? "You will not ruin this for me, Eliza."
"Ruin what?" I asked sourly.
"I was at Grady’s when you called him and tried to entice him down to your sister's farm."
My pulse jumped. Elise was safe, but I was not. Leonard had complete power over me and he’d already proven he’d use his control to make me suffer. I tried to stuff down my fear. “So, you and Grady are pals now?”
“He didn’t know I was there,” said Leonard, obviously irritated. “I need to make sure everything continues to fall into place.” He turned a red-eyed glare on me. "You will not stir the pot, Eliza. Grady will mate with Carol Ann and they will have the perfect child."
What in the world would make this child so valuable to Leonard? Foreboding settling like lead in my stomach "Perfect for what?"
He bared his teeth and growled at me, an a
wful reminder that he was the creator of werewolves. And yet, I still found myself asking, “Why can’t you just make this perfect child yourself? You made the lycanthropes, didn't you?"
"Only Heaven's creatures can create." Leonard’s anger lessened a notch, and he sighed. “Before I fell, I was the angel of animals, and I loved the wolves the best. There were two in particular, Romulus and Remus, brothers."
"Like from the Greek mythology? Did they breastfeed from a female wolf and that's how they became werewolves?"
"You humans and your myths. Always wrong. Romulus and Remus started out as wolves. They were glorious and identical in every way. Much like you and Elise. When Romulus fell in love with a human woman, he begged me to make him human so that he could be with the woman and give her many children. I told him no, at first. It is against nature to change something that our Father has created, because all of his creations are perfect the way they are, and I agreed with him. My wolves were perfect. But Romulus was persistent. He begged me every day for years. Finally, I relented, as long as Romulus never told a soul about my gift to him.” For the briefest of moments, I saw actual sorrow flash in Leonard’s gaze. “But he couldn't keep it from Remus."
I nodded. I knew what it was like to try and keep secrets from my twin, and it was nigh on impossible.
"Anyhow," he continued, "Remus insisted that I change him as well. So, I did. But I should’ve seen even then how Remus envied his brother. Romulus married a human woman and they had a son. But Remus—he wanted what his brother had. So, one night, when his brother was away, Remus snuck into Romulus's marital bed and had sex with his wife. Nine months later, she had another son. Remus’s son. Not that she, or Romulus, knew the child’s true father. Remus knew, however. On a night of a full moon, Remus spitefully told his brother what he had done and revealed that the second son was from his seed."
He looked at me meaningfully. "In Romulus's rage, he reverted back to his animal form, only instead of pure beast, he became a monster that was half-man and half-wolf. He killed his brother.”