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9781950890996_TXT_eBook Page 5

by Barton, Kathi S.


  Charlie hoped that he was right. But from the look on Roger’s face, she had a feeling that whatever was coming to them, dealing with Will and Dorcus was going to seem so easy. She only hoped that he loved her when this was all finished. Because she was sure that she’d never find anyone to love her again as much as she did Dominic.

  Chapter 4

  Dominic looked over all the paperwork that he’d collected from his parents and brothers, all of it about the land and buildings being built. They’d been very busy while he’d been gone. As it stood right now, he had construction going on with nine more retreats, and the two here in Ohio were completed and ready for the next spring. The way things were going, he’d be able to have people in all but a couple of the places by as early as April. He put his paperwork down when he realized he was no longer alone in his office.

  “You’ve made me proud.” He thanked O’Reilly, and told him about the rest of the projects that he had going on. “You say that all the different packs are going to be willing to keep an eye on the places?”

  “Yes, but you should know that they’re not just packs as in wolf. There are cats, bears, and snake groups that are willing to not just keep an eye on the compounds, but also keep up with the repairs and lawn work. Most of their leaders are so happy to have their groups working that they’ve agreed to also have a cleaning crew set up, as well as some cooks.”

  “I knew you’d be the right one for the job. I told my wife, Mildred, that it’d be the best idea that I’d ever come up with. Don’t you be letting her tell you that she had a hand in this. She dinna, I tell you that right now.” Dominic bit the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing while shaking his head no. He, as well as everyone in the entire place, knew who the real brains of the place was. And it wasn’t the man in front of him. “I have ye more coins to use. Those parents of you’rn, they sure is as smart as I’ve ever come across. Even Mildred thinks so.”

  “I’ll be sure to tell them that. It’s high praise indeed, coming from you.” Dominic was sure that O’Reilly didn’t know if he was being insulted or not, and rephrased his statement a little. “My parents will love that you and Mildred think so highly of them both. Mom was just saying the other day that she’d not seen her sister in some time. You should send her to see my mom. I’m sure that they’d love a visit.”

  “I’ll see if she can pull herself away for a bit. Mildred is a good woman, but she does need me to guild her at times.” Dominic wasn’t able to stop his laugh then, but he thought that he’d done a very good job of coughing around it so he’d not notice. “There is a lot of that going around, so’s you know. That brother of yours, what’s his name? Oden? He’s been coughing all morning when I was there to see his pretties. Sure didn’t strike me as a fancy boy.”

  “Owen is his name, and what do you mean by fancy boy?” O’Reilly explained. “You think he’s fancy because he sells teacups? I assure you, he’s just a regular wolf like me. He got those when he inherited his home. It’s his hope that he can sell enough of them to not ever have to touch the rest of what was left to him. His wife is Clare. She and her brother both paint.”

  “Aye, I seen that too. Conrad can too.” Dominic asked him what Conrad could too, almost afraid of his answer. “What was we talking about? I done plum forget.”

  “Painting.” O’Reilly shook his head. “First we were talking about teacups and you thinking that Owen is a fancy man.”

  “Nay, that’s not it.” He moved around the room and looked at the books he could see on the lower shelf. “Oden is an odd name, isn’t it? Did your parents think he’d like it?”

  “Owen.” O’Reilly looked at him. “It’s not Oden, but Owen. You messed it up again. But he’s named after my uncle on my dad’s side, I think.”

  “Who is?” Dominic told him Owen was. “Who’s Oden then? I thought for sure somebody told me his name was Oden.”

  “No, it’s Owen.” O’Reilly asked him who that was. “My brother. His name is—you know what, never mind. Did you need anything else?”

  “I did tell you that I have you more coin, didn’t I? Other than that, what else can I talk to you about other than the name of your brother? One that you seem to be slightly confused about.” Dominic growled, feeling his wolf laughing as he raced over his flesh. “You all right there, boy? You having a feud with Charlie? If’n ye’d like to know, she scares me some too. Well, she scares me a lot.”

  After another hour of him talking in circles, O’Reilly left. Charlie had gone into town to meet with the bank about putting her name on his account. Also, while she was there, she was going to find herself someplace that she could open with dried herbs, as well as plants and things. Dominic was getting as much work done as he could before she returned.

  There were still several properties that he needed to purchase. As he looked over his choices, he noticed that two of them were near a university, and one of them was about as close to the ocean as a person could get without being wet all the time. He wasn’t sure about either of them. Mom joined him when he decided that he wasn’t going to take any of those three.

  “I know that you’ve been gone for a few days, but I’ve yet to see you put up a single decoration for Christmas.” Dominic told her that he’d forgotten. “I thought that was what was going on. So I was wondering if you could let me do it for you. I’ve been finished with my house for some time now, and I want to do more. You don’t think that Charlie would mind much, would she?”

  “Would Charlie mind too much about what?” Charlie came into his office and sat on the floor across from him. He explained to her what Mom was talking about. “Christmas isn’t our thing. I mean, we enjoy it, but we’re more of a Saint Paddy’s kind of group. We enjoy getting drunk, dying our hair green or red, and getting drunk.”

  “You said that last one twice.” Charlie grinned at his mom. “I see. Well, if you don’t mind me doing this, then I’ll take care of it for the two of you. Christmas is only a few days away, so it’s now or never, I guess.”

  Mom was upset about something. While he didn’t have any idea what it was, he thought through all the things that he’d done lately that might have upset her. As he started to tell her that he was sorry for whatever it was that he’d done, Charlie grabbed his pant leg and then shook her head. Dominic didn’t know what to think of that, so he kept his mouth shut.

  “Sara, I was wondering if I could ask you a question too, while ye be here. I’ve been to the bank for some work, and did ye know that there is a homeless man that is sleeping on the heat vents there?” Mom said that his name was Victor, and he wouldn’t go to the shelter. “Aye, he told me that too. Said that you bring him things to eat, and blankets when it gets colder. Did ye know why he’d not go to the shelter?”

  “I did ask him, but I don’t think that I got an answer from him. Do you know?” Charlie told Mom that she did. “If it’s not too personal for him or you, can you tell me what’s going on? I do like that man, and I’d hate for him to catch his death out there all winter.”

  “He’s not human, did you know that?” Mom nodded, and then looked over at him before she asked what he was. “He was sure that you didn’t know because you’ve been a saint to him. His words, not mine. I do like ye, but I’d not be canonizing you just yet. He’s a vampire. While he could use a good meal too, he’s a feared that you’d turn him away when you found out. And by good meal, I mean just that. He’s very old, and will and can eat human food when it suits him.”

  “Why should I care if he’s a vampire or not? I’ve nothing against anyone.” Charlie said that she knew that, and then Mom looked at him. “Did you know about this?”

  “No. This is the first I’ve heard about any of this. Mom, how did you not know what he was?” She told him that she’d never been able to touch him. “All right. That makes sense. Why not go there and invite him in, then?”

  “Does he need to be invited into th
e shelter?” Charlie said that since it wasn’t a single dwelling, he could come and go as he wanted. “I don’t understand this. The sign over the door does say one and all welcome.”

  “Aye, it does at that.” Mom seemed to get it then, and said that he couldn’t read. “Nay, he cannot. To his way of thinking, the sign says only humans may enter. Not that he’s been spying on the place, but he knows most of the people in there are humans, and that they are downtrodden. While he’s not that far gone, he is a little on the side of facing the sun soon. He is tired of living like he is.”

  When his mom stood up, he did as well. Charlie didn’t move, but did ask if she’d allow her to go with her. Dominic didn’t think it was a good idea for either of them to see this vampire, but sat down when he was told to do so. They were out the door before he could get a kiss from either of the women in his life.

  Closing up his computer, Dominic started to think about the poor man being faced with not just his mom, but his Charlie as well. Going into the living room to watch the nightly news, he found Roger in the room.

  “I’ve not broken my promise, but I did need to speak with you. You may tell me no and I’ll understand. But it is important that I make you aware of a few things before you’re down for a little while.” Dominic told him that he could come there any time. Also that he’d been trying hard not to think about the magic that would come tonight. “I would as well. It is quite painful. But the reason I’m here is to tell you that I’ve been keeping an eye on Shape. That’s the demon’s name, by the way. He is the only one that is involved in things with the O’Farrells. The children, sadly, are all dead. I’m sorry about that.”

  “Why?” Roger appeared in the room with him just as he asked him the question. “Why kill an innocent child that is barely old enough to breathe on its own, much less one that had no control over who birthed him?”

  “I have a theory on that as well. I would like to make it clear that I wasn’t aware of any of this. I know you find that hard to believe, but I didn’t. Had it gone on more often, not that it’s an excuse, I might have caught wind of it. But since it didn’t happen regularly, I had no idea. Also, none of the children have been made to suffer. If I could, I would return them here to your realm and give them a life.” Dominic thanked him. “Shape is killing the children, yes, but not in a violent way. He’s just never figured out that a human, which is what the O’Farrells are, cannot survive where we live. I think, for whatever reason, he thought that it could. Be that as it may, I have more information for you. They’ve decided on what they’re going to ask for when this payment is made. They want to be the king and queen of the leprechauns.”

  “Do you know why?” Roger told him what he’d found out. “So they think that by being the king and queen all the riches will be theirs. I’m not sure how that works, but I’m certain it’s not that simple.”

  “It is not. They aren’t descendants of pure leprechauns. Nor are they any kind of royalty. I do have a fear that they think by simply killing off O’Reilly and Mildred it would come to them. This isn’t the way it’s done. I am also not sure of all the laws regarding who becomes king when the sitting one is gone, but I’m sure that Charlie would know. The fact that they think they could do it frightens me on a great many levels. And not just for the coin they think will come with the job. They’ll destroy the leprechaun realm in a matter of months, and no one will have a place to rest.” Dominic asked him how many others rested there. “All of us. All the gods of the world. All the creatures that run a realm. It’s always been a place where we could go to be ourselves. The rules we’re told to abide by are why the realm is so nice and quiet. No weather changes to deal with. Nothing that would harm the people living there. It’s a home for us for a few days. We’re ignored, and that is the way that we want it.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you find out about their plan?” Roger laughed and said that he’d simply asked them. Dominic laughed a little too before realizing how stupid they really were. “How much do you know about them? I mean, I’ve heard that they killed their parents. Is that true?”

  “To a point. They didn’t kill their father, and only indirectly killed their mother. The mother caught them in bed together, you see, and decided to have them die in a house fire. The father, a simple man, broke a wall down to help them out of the house.” Roger stood up and a platter of foodstuffs appeared on a table that had not been there before. As Roger paced, he continued the story. “I’m not so sure that I wouldn’t have killed her myself when I heard about it. She was in the kitchen of the big house she and her husband worked in when one of the stoves was said to have been over filled with wood and began spitting hot cinders into the work area. One of the hot coals landed in the hair of their mother and she caught fire. However, before anyone could have put her out, the flames bounced from her to each of the others in the room until they were all dead or dying. It didn’t take long before the entire household was dead from not just the burning fire, but the smoke that had made its way up the stairs of the house, killing the rest of them. While Shape wasn’t the demon that had caused the second fire, it didn’t take him long to hook up with the two and make all kinds of promises to them. The way he was able to make good on these promises is something that I’m still looking into, but you can be assured that I will find it soon.”

  “You said that he was a simple man, their father. Did he have a change of heart when the kids were about to be killed?” Roger told him what he’d meant by calling him that. “So he was a great deal like the children that I’m working to save. Do you know how he ended up with their mother?”

  “She wasn’t one to turn down a good fuck, and got caught. I’d been told that it was because of condom failure, a term that needs to be used more often if you were to ask me. But once she found out she was carrying a child, in order to keep her job, she had to marry. William—his name—was a hardworking man who had been dealt with some of life’s very terrible aspects.” Dominic asked him if he was the kids’ father. “I never thought to ask. I will find out. I don’t know what it should matter, but I will find out.”

  “If she liked to fuck around, perhaps they’re not brother and sister at all, but only half. That might make my Charlie feel better about herself.” Roger nodded. “I thank you for telling me all this. You’ve made things more clear for me to think about.”

  After Roger left him, Dominic just sat there on the couch. He had so much work to do, and he still needed to get gifts wrapped. Feeling someone in the room with him, he looked up to find Charlie standing there. It was evident on her face that something had happened. Going to her, he was barely able to catch her before she broke down.

  ~*~

  Charlie wasn’t positive, but she thought that she was being followed. Twice she’d stopped to look into a window and saw the same man moving through the same street. Just before she was ready to confront the man, she turned in time to see O’Reilly walking toward her. The man slipped into the store a few doors down from where she was.

  “I’m being followed. That fool man. Did you see him?” She nodded, wondering if the person had been following him instead of her. “I came here to have a little talk with your mate and I seen him.”

  “What did you talk to Dominic about?” O’Reilly took her arm into his and they headed in the direction that the man had been. “I don’t think this is a good idea, O’Reilly. What if he’s out to murder you? Not that I’d mind all the much. You’re a pain in the arse most of the time. But telling Mildred would be a nightmare.”

  “Hush now.” They entered the store just as the man was paying for something. O’Reilly smiled at the store owner before speaking. “Hello, Sarah. How’s sales today? Pretty weather we’re having, don’t you think?”

  The man, O’Reilly, drove her insane. He made her go with him only to talk about sales that Sara was having, compared to what they sold on their side of the realm. Then he spoke of th
e weather. Charlie kept an eye on the man. When he left, she started to follow him when O’Reilly held her back.

  “What? Don’t you want to know who he is? What he might want with you? How do you even know it was you he was following?” He said that he knew who he was. “Who? If you don’t tell me right now, I’m going to bash your head in until you’re nothing but mush on the floor. You’re not even supposed to be here.”

  “You don’t know him?” She heard something akin to surprise in his voice. She pulled away and he let her. “Charlie, honey. I thought you knew that—”

  “No. I don’t want to know.” O’Reilly nodded and didn’t say anything more. “I have to go. I need to find— I’m going to find Dominic.”

  “Yes, you do that, honey. He was at home when I saw him.” Not turning her back on the king, she moved out of the store. “Charlie, I’m sorry. So sorry.”

  She wasn’t sure how she made it home. Once she was there, standing on the steps to the house, Charlie was glad that she hadn’t driven. She might have hurt someone if she had. Going into the house, she heard voices and stood outside the living room while Roger said his goodbyes. As soon as he saw her, Dominic pulled her into his arms before she could tell him what she’d discovered.

  “He was right there. Just a few feet away from me and I didn’t know it.” Charlie was happy when he didn’t ask questions, but continued to hold her. “O’Reilly told me, or he started to tell me, who he was when I just knew. I knew even though I’ve never seen him before.”

  “Your father.” Charlie looked up at him and nodded. When Dominic wiped her tears away, she asked him what he knew. “Roger came to see me. He said that he has people watching them both. He’d heard that they were around town.”

 

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