Murder

by Sandra R Neeley

  “You are too good, Phrygia. You deserve more. Someone has to answer for this,” Murder growled.

  She shook her head and reached out laying her hand on top of his. “Answer for what? For giving me so many extra years of life that I have the chance to live another life. The chance to see a world all traces of me should have vanished from so many years ago I wouldn’t even be dust any longer? However it happened, whatever the cause, I’ve been given another chance. I get to live another life. Acaelo can’t hurt me anymore, and I’m free from Hell. I’ve paid my price. I get to start again. That in itself is retribution enough. I don’t want that kind of life again, the kind I had with Acaelo. I want simple. In tune with the land and what it provides. Back then, I was so mixed up. But now, I get another chance, Murder. I won!” she said with a huge smile on her face. “There is nothing for anyone to answer for. I won.”

  She jumped when someone knocked on the front door firmly.

  Murder stood and smiled down at her. “I will see to it that you are happy always Phrygia. Always!” he promised.

  Phrygia just smiled brightly at him.

  There was another knock at the door.

  “I’m coming!” Murder shouted irritatedly. He stalked to the door and yanked it open. “What?!” he snapped. His entire demeanor changed when he saw Aubreigne standing there, looking up at him with worry in her face.

  “Aubreigne? What’s wrong?” he asked, ushering her into his home, and realizing how upset she was, he stepped past her to glance around the front of his home to be sure nothing and no one was following her.

  Murder closed the door and ushered her down the hallway toward the dining table he and Phrygia were just relaxing and talking at. “Aubreigne, tell me what has happened? Where is Deaumanique?” he asked, pulling out a chair and sitting her in it.

  “I’m not sure,” Aubreigne answered, and looked at Phrygia apologetically.

  “You don’t know where Deaumanique is?!” Murder asked, alarmed.

  “She’s with Carolena. I meant I’m not sure what’s wrong,” Aubreigne explained. Then she looked at Phrygia. “I’m sorry to interrupt so soon after your mating. I just wasn’t sure who else to go to. And we always said…” Aubreigne’s voice faded off realizing what she was about to say may offend Murder’s new mate.

  “… that we look after each other. That will never change, Aubreigne,” Murder finished for her.

  Aubreigne nodded. Then she pulled a folded sheet of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Murder.

  Murder looked questioningly at her and slowly began to unfold the paper. He looked at it closely, then met Aubreigne’s eyes. “It’s a beautiful likeness. I do not recognize the male, but you did an excellent job, though I still don’t understand what the problem is.”

  Aubreigne offered him a strained smile before explaining. “I didn’t draw it. It was in my sketch book when I woke this morning. And I was on the sofa in my living room, rather than the chair I intentionally fell asleep in.”

  Murder became tense. “Are you sure, perhaps you were just excessively tired…”

  Aubreigne shook her head. “No, Murder. I would not forget sketching all the detail in that drawing. I didn’t do it.”

  “Deaumanique?” he asked, already knowing it was unlikely.

  “No. She couldn’t have done this. She’s not this talented, not yet. And she’d have drawn me with a flower or something, not a shirtless male.” She fidgeted a bit before admitting the rest of it. “I’ve had the sensation of being watched since I picked up Deaumanique from Carolena’s house yesterday. It was the reason I decided to rest in the chair last night, rather than going to bed. I wanted to be alert in case someone was about.”

  “Have you seen any other signs of anyone around your place?” Murder asked, a growl rolling deeply below his words.

  “No, but I honestly didn’t check this morning. There was a roar the likes of which I’ve never heard. It unnerved even me. I waited to be sure there was nothing outside; then, I hurried Deaumanique to Carolena and came to you right away.”

  “I thought I heard a roar, but with the music playing, and my cottage being stone, it muffles the sound from outside. I should have checked, but Phrygia didn’t seem to notice, so I thought it nothing,” Murder said.

  “Human,” Phrygia said, pointing to her ears. “Can’t hear some of what you do, I’m guessing.”

  “Of course,” Murder agreed. Then he realized that Aubreigne and Deaumanique had left home without anyone to protect them after they’d heard the roar. “Why didn’t you call for me? You and Deaumanique should not have left home alone!” Murder insisted.

  Aubreigne lifted one slight shoulder in a shrug. “I didn’t even try, you’re mated now. You wouldn't have been able to hear me.”

  Murder’s growl continued to rumble.

  He got to his feet and started pacing, looking down at the sketch in his hand of Aubreigne sleeping with an unknown male looming over her.

  “I need to search your home, your land, be sure all is as it should be. You and Deaumanique will come here to stay with me until we are sure you are in no danger,” he said as though the decision had been made.

  “What? No! No, I would never intrude that way,” Aubreigne objected. She looked at Phrygia. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude on your newly mated status. I just hoped Murder would check to be sure it was all my imagination and no trace of someone watching our home could be found.”

  Phrygia reached out her hand, clasping her fingers around Aubreigne’s. “Of course he will. And it’s not an intrusion.”

  Then Phrygia looked up at Murder. “Go. Go make sure her home is secure. If you think there’s a problem, bring her back and we’ll figure something out.”

  “I will. Thank you for understanding, my Phrygia. You are so kind,” Murder said, stepping close to Phrygia and running his thumb along her cheekbone. He was doing what was expected of him. Playing the part, even trying to force the bond into being again through touch and tenderness. Speaking the words to tempt fate into forcing him to be pulled toward her again, while waiting for the invisible thread that connected them to pop back into place.

  “I will not stand by and watch any woman be abused or stalked by anyone. I’ve spent too much time on the receiving end. This new Phrygia will not allow it,” she said, smiling up at Murder.

  “Thank you, Phrygia,” Aubreigne said softly.

  “No thank you is needed,” Phrygia answered.

  Murder stood with his hand still caressing Phrygia’s face. Something wasn’t right. Something was off, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He felt an immense amount of responsibility toward her. And he wanted to confront Lore about his part in her being condemned to Hell. But he just couldn’t make himself recapture that inescapable draw that he’d felt when he’d been around her in Hell. Or even the little bit he’d felt since he’d gotten her back safely to Whispers. It was as though that pull toward her was just gone.

  “Do you want to go now, Murder?” Aubreigne asked.

  “What?” he said, looking up at Aubreigne. “Oh, yes. Yes, let’s go now. I need to know that you are safe.”

  Phrygia followed them to the back patio and stood in the doorway waving and watching as Murder unfurled his massive wings and with Aubreigne in his arms launched them into the bright morning sky. He’d made her promise not to wander away from his home and to stay inside until he got back. She didn’t really mind. She had ideas of a long, hot bath with sweet smelling water and a warm cup of tea. She smiled as she hurried to the far side of the back yard and picked several of the wildflowers and primroses growing there to drop into her bathwater as she soaked.

  She went back inside, secured the door and began to draw the water for her bath, sighing as she went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. “This is going to be wonderful,” she promised herself, thankful for the quiet, and a little time to herself.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  Carolena was setting cookies o
ut on the table on her deck, so they’d cool and Lily could decorate them. Lily had bowls of white, pink and blue frosting before her, and a bowl of sugar for dusting the cookies with after she frosted them. She was watching her mother transfer the still warm cookies to her platter for decorating when suddenly, she jumped to her feet, looking this way and that before turning in a complete circle and finally facing toward Carolena again, her eyes searching for something that just wasn’t there.

  “What is it, Lily?” Carolena asked.

  “Aunt Luci,” Lily answered. Then her eyes focused on a spot behind Carolena, and she smiled.

  Carolena turned and watched as deep, midnight-blue mists swirled before the woman Lily called Aunt Luci stood before them, her mists beginning to dissipate as her form solidified before them.

  “Aunt Luci!” Lily called, skipping toward her to hug her. When Luci hugged her in turn, leaning over to kiss her head, Lily gasped. “I can feel you!”

  “Of course you can,” Lucitari said, smiling at the girl she loved like her own.

  “No, I mean. I really feel you. You’re not a ghost anymore!” Lily exclaimed.

  Lucitari smiled at Lily, shaking her head just a bit. “You miss nothing, do you?” she asked.

  Lily just grinned.

  “I am indeed myself again, Lily. Stronger than I’ve been in a very long time. I am whole,” she said resignedly, not quite as happily as one would expect.

  “Lucitari?” Carolena said. “Are you okay?”

  Lucitari winked at Carolena. “I am. I’ve come to help you with the baby party. I have decided that it is better to display one’s strength and happiness, than to fade into the shadows and be forgotten.”

  Carolena smiled, nodding her head. “It is indeed.”

  “What are we doing?” Lucitari asked, looking over the cookies and bowls of frosting.

  “We’re decorating cookies. And Momma is making cakes, too, and a venison roast.”

  “That sounds delicious!” Lucitari said, smiling at Lily.

  “And Aunt Felicity is making bread so people can make sandwiches if they’d like one. And Evangeline is making pretty decorations to hang in Aunt Rowan’s living room. Uncle Destroy will make her go for a walk so we have time to decorate everything while she is out.”

  “This will be so much fun!” Lucitari said, clapping her hands together, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes as she met Carolena’s concerned gaze.

  “What color do you want to frost?” Lily asked Lucitari.

  “I shall frost blue of course,” she answered, taking a seat and reaching for the spoon that was sitting in the blue frosting bowl.

  “How did you get the frosting such a beautiful blue color?” Lucitari asked.

  “We used blueberries,” Carolena answered. “But only a few, too many would have made it purple.”

  “And the pink?” Lucitari asked.

  “Raspberries,” Lily answered.

  “How ingenious!” Lucitari said, smiling as she spooned a small amount of the frosting onto a cookie and began to smooth it out.

  “Momma has lots of genius,” Lily said, nodding, the expression on her face as she concentrated on her cookie one of pride.

  “Oh, yes, she is quite talented,” Lucitari agreed.

  There was a crash from the kitchen, and Carolena spun around and started back that way. “Boon! Are you okay?” she called out.

  “Mine!” he insisted from the kitchen.

  Carolena hurried into the house, with Lucitari and Lily right after her.

  Carolena came to a halt right as she got far enough into the house to get a good look at the kitchen. “What have you done?” she asked.

  Boon sat on the floor, the bowl of cookie dough in his lap. There were burst bags of sugar and flour lying around him on the floor, and quite a bit of each dusting both him and the floor.

  There was a bowl of what must have been eggs at one time lying behind him and oozing slowly across the kitchen floor.

  Boon looked up from the bowl he had cradled in his lap, his legs spread out before him, and met her eyes as indignantly as a toddler can and shoved another hand into the cookie dough he was eating raw. “Mine,” he said again.

  “I told you it had to be cooked first!” Carolena said.

  “Lee, cookeeee,” he said, his lip pouting out exaggeratedly as he pointed at Lily.

  Carolena realized then that he thought all the cookies she was taking out to Lily were for Lily, and he had yet to get any.

  “Those were not Lily’s cookies. We’re making them pretty for Aunt Rowan’s party. She’s not eating them,” Carolena explained.

  Boon looked at Lily, then at his mother. He was a very, very smart little boy and it appeared he would have no problem speaking since it came so easily to him. He had his father’s features and would no doubt look a lot like Carnage when he got older. His skin was just a slight bit lighter than Carnage’s, and the telltale nubs that grew on the immature male gargoyle’s heads before they reached puberty in preparation of horns after they crossed that rite of passage, were already beginning to take shape beneath his silvery hair. His hair wasn’t as light as Lily’s, but it did have some of the same light silver highlights in its darker, silver-colored strands. He was fiercely independent and had no patience at all. Pretty much like Carnage. And while he adored his papa and his sister, he was at heart a momma’s boy.

  “Mine,” he repeated as he plunged his little hand into the bowl of cookie dough again and stuffed it into his mouth.

  “I said to wait!” Carolena said, looking at Boon with her hands on her hips.

  Boon’s forehead wrinkled up while he looked at his mother, and he used his heels to turn himself around so that he presented them with his back as he continued eating cookie dough.

  “Boon!” Carolena snapped, her voice rising.

  Lucitari and Lily tried to hide their grins as they stepped around Carolena and began picking up the mess he’d made climbing onto the table to help himself to the cookie dough he knew was in the bowl his momma had left there.

  When Carolena fussed at him, he scrunched up his face and started to let the tears flow, reaching toward his momma with one outstretched hand while still eating cookie dough from the other.

  It got Carolena every time. She just couldn’t stand his tears, no matter what he’d gotten into. When he cried and reached for her, she caved every single time. Carolena huffed out a breath and picked him up. “Fine. I suppose I should have given you one sooner,” she said snuggling Boon, who was still gripping the mixing bowl, to her.

  Carolena kissed his forehead. “But give me the bowl. I’ll give you some cookies instead, okay?” she asked.

  Boon started to whine, and refused to give up the bowl until she presented him with three cookies.

  He looked at the cookies in her hand, then looked at the bowl of cookie dough. He decided he’d rather have the cookies and reached out a hand for the cookies. As soon as they were in his hand, he released the mixing bowl to Carolena and grinned at her with cookie dough streaking his face and hands and flour in his hair. “My cookeeee,” he said happily.

  “Boy, what am I going to do with you?” Carolena asked, kissing his forehead again as he happily munched on one of his cookies.

  Chapter 11

  Enthrall and Lore spent the morning moving through Whispers, stopping to speak to everyone they saw. They took the time to explore heavily wooded areas and even sought out those that didn’t come to meet them of their own volition. They warned each of their people about an uninvited individual among them, and to be on the lookout for anything unusual.

  “The male can’t just disappear,” Enthrall said frustratedly as they walked away from yet another inhabitant’s home hidden deep within Whispers.

  “He’s not disappeared,” Lore answered. “If he’s here, and we don’t know that he is, he’s most likely found an ally and is keeping himself hidden away there. And why do we have to walk?” Lore asked.

  “You bel
ieve as much as I do that he is here,” Enthrall accused. “And because we can’t see traces of him if he’s passed nearby if we are not covering every foot of ground,” Enthrall answered.

  “No, I do not. I said there is a chance. We’ve found no trace of him, at all. He may not be here,” Lore answered, swatting at a low hanging branch as they walked beneath it. “I’m tired of walking,” he complained.

  “Then what was responsible for that godforsaken sound we heard this morning?” Enthrall asked. “And would you rather just go home and allow him to hurt our people? Even Lily and Carolena possibly?” Enthrall demanded.

  “Could have been anything,” Lore answered. “And no, I would not rather allow him to harm anyone. Just keep walking,” he snapped.

  They came upon a small, very neatly kept home with fishing nets and crab traps stacked outside. Before they were fully in the yard, Simon came from around the back of the house to greet them.

  “Enthrall… Lore…” he said.

  “Simon, how are you and yours?” Enthrall asked.

  “We’re doing well. Seth and Serena are happy, plenty of food. The ladies are keeping Serafina busy with her embroidery, so we have more than we’re used to,” he answered truthfully.

  “Good, I’m really glad to hear that,” Enthrall answered.

  “Have you heard or seen anything dangerous?” Lore snapped out. He was tired, missed his mate, and didn’t know why they had to walk to each individual person’s home rather than mist or ghost there.

  Simon looked at Lore, his surprise apparent. “What exactly do you mean by dangerous?” Simon asked.