by Dale Mayer
The cottage disappeared from sight.
*
As the cottage disappeared in front of his eyes, Connor turned to look at the three grim-faced men walking toward them.
“Grandfather.” He tilted his head in acknowledgement at the other two men. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
“I’m not surprised to see you though,” Grandfather growled. “Keeping company with that bitch.”
Connor straightened. “There won’t be any of that here.”
“Haven’t you bedded her enough yet? Gotten her out of your system?” He snorted. “She must be good—”
“You don’t want to go there,” Connor snapped, clenching his fists. “This topic will never be broached again.”
“Ha. She’s got you, hasn’t she?” Grandfather pulled his bushy brows together, his eyes bright, scornful. “Just like the rest of that damn family.”
“What do you know about the rest of her family?” Matt interjected smoothly. “She’s a little short on personal history.”
“Granny was a freak of nature, that’s what I know,” he blustered. “And her grandkids were made from the same damn mold.”
Connor had never hit someone older than him, but damn, if there was ever a time and a place, it would be right now.
“Meaning?” Matt kept his voice even-tempered. Connor admired that. Especially considering that one of Granny’s freak granddaughters was the love of his life, too.
But they needed to find out the truth. And with both Grandfather and Genesis here at the same time, maybe they’d get it out in the open.
“Granny was married to my grandfather for a few short months. A union in hell if you listened to my father. Granny divorced him after finding out he’d had a few affairs. The damn woman was disgusting – of course he had affairs.” The look on his face showed such revulsion at Granny’s lack of understanding that Connor wanted to laugh.
Matt once again returned the discussion back to his line of questioning. “So Granny never bore any children?”
“Hell no. Never. Those kids she adopted aren’t her own kin, no matter what the bitch says.”
Connor took a step forward, gaining some satisfaction as Grandfather scrambled backwards several steps. The Portmans stood rigid at his side, glares on their identical faces.
Regaining his ground quickly, Grandfather continued spite coloring his voice. “My father gained the lands through the marriage and although she tried to reclaim them after the divorce, it wasn’t possible.”
A loud gasp could be heard from behind him. Connor understood that Genesis was listening in, cloaked in her own invisibility energy.
“How did Granny get the land in the first place?” Matt asked. “It must have been in her family line.”
“Sure. The whole family damn near owns half the planet. Little Glory wasn’t named after the planet Glory but after Granny’s great-grandmother, who was named Gloria. Back then, there was hardly anyone living here. They had all the land.”
“And now?” Connor asked in a hard voice. “What did Granny own when she died?”
“Nothing,” Grandfather spat. “She owned nothing. It was all my father’s, and now they’re mine. Damn ingrate trying to say the place was hers.”
“And the stargazer part?”
“Crap, that’s all. They were all charlatans.” He pointed a finger at Connor. “They can’t be trusted. Not any of them.”
“Why is that?”
“They lie, cheat, and steal.” He threw his arms out wide. “You’ve seen them. They attract men, steal what they want, and toss them aside.”
Connor held his hand up behind his back in warning. He was afraid Genesis was going to completely lose it. There was something so chaotic about her energy.
It occurred to him that once again he could see energy. Feel her energy. His abilities were stronger here in this environment where there was a healing pool. And where Genesis was.
That also meant he could see Grandfather’s energy for the first time. And the deception in his aura. Why hadn’t he seen that years ago, when his abilities were fully functioning? Connor wanted to beat the truth out of him. He glanced over at the Portman clan, silent since their arrival. Their energy swelled and wafted with distaste and anger, but the anger was directed at Portman Junior.
“What do you intend to do with him?” he asked them, not sure he wanted to release this man into their care. “He’s a danger to us all.”
Portman Senior nodded. “We will look after him.”
“You’re misunderstanding,” Matt said coolly. “It’s not an option for him to be free.”
Portman Senior glared at him. “We take care of our own.”
“Really? You do realize he was planning to take over your company by joining up with Grandfather here?” Connor smiled glacially at them. “Maybe you should be a little more careful about your power-hungry son.”
“He has power beyond anything we’ve seen in this family,” Portman Senior admitted sadly. “And he is the only one to want to use it for all the wrong things.”
“He attacked Genesis, kidnapped and injured several spirit animals–” at that, the other two men winced, but Matt carried on “–broke into Genesis’s cottage, and attacked us all. He’s used his black rocks to damage the pools in the forest and as weapons against us.”
There were startled murmurs as Genesis stepped out from behind Connor. She held one of the black rocks in her hands and held it out to them. “Of course you’re going to want to take this with you,” she said quietly.
They held their hands up and stepped back. “No. We’ve seen what those things can do.”
“And yet you brought him here.”
“Business meetings with Grandfather, that is all. We wanted to commercialize the pools. Grandfather owns the land.” They both smiled genially. “Just a business meeting.”
“Are you responsible for the guard who attacked Connor?” Matt asked, frowning.
The two men shook their heads. “He was hired by Grandfather’s security company. Just overzealous in doing his job.”
“The pools can never be commercialized,” Genesis said, giving Grandfather a glare. “And as they aren’t his to sell, I suggest you go back to where you came from and keep him–” she pointed to Portman Junior standing at his father’s side with a huge, manic grin on his face “–locked up so he can’t hurt anyone again.”
“Or else?” Portman Senior asked gravely.
“Or else,” Genesis responded just as seriously, “I’ll make sure he loses his abilities forever.”
Connor stared at her in shock. “So you did do that.”
She gave him a scornful look. “No, I didn’t,” she said shortly. “But I could.” She switched her glare at Portman Junior and added, “And I will if I ever see him again.” She pointed to the hovercraft. “Get him out of my sight.”
The two men grabbed Junior and hustled him to the waiting craft. Then she turned her wrath on Grandfather. “You dare stand before me, liar, cheater, thief that you are, and accuse my granny of those things?”
“As you were playing invisible as you were, proving my words, your accusations hardly count.”
“This land is mine. The land you claim as yours is also mine,” she added quickly. “It’s mine and my sisters’. All of it. The woods. The pools. The meadows. The whole damn town – we own it all.”
“Rubbish,” he snapped. “You are nothing and always will be nothing.”
“Granny was a stargazer. The land here is stargazer land. It stays in stargazer hands. It can never be handed over by marriage. It can’t be. It can never be sold or given away. Maybe your father should have looked at the deeds a little closer before you started making accusations you couldn’t back up.”
His face turned so red, Connor wondered if he was going to collapse on them. He watched warily, waiting.
“You little upstart. You don’t own anything. I don’t know what fake documents you showed Matt here to turn him again
st me, but I know they aren’t real.”
“And how do you know that?” Matt asked.
“Because I have the real ones at home,” he snapped. “And I’d be happy to show you.”
Connor turned to look at Genesis, but she was smiling. A cold, clear smile that demanded retribution for today’s events. From the look on her face, she appeared to believe she held the missing ace.
He hoped so, for her sake.
Not that he cared. He didn’t understand the energy stuff, hadn’t made any attempt to really learn it over all these years, and hadn’t realized what a mistake that was until he’d lost it all. But he would make up for it. He had much to learn. Much to gain. Much to be.
Now he knew that regardless of what she’d done, if anything, she was part of his heart. And he’d do whatever he had to do keep her there.
He turned his attention back to Grandfather – and swore.
Grandfather stood tall in front of them – with a high-energy impact gun in his hand.
Chapter 37
“Uncloak the cottage, you little bitch.”
Undecided, but not liking the look in his eyes, Genesis complied. “Now inside…” At the wave of the gun, they all followed his orders. Genesis stood at the edge of the pool room, glaring at the man who’d made her family’s life hell.
“Move the rock back to the pool.” Grandfather motioned in the direction of the healing pool. Genesis opened her mouth, but the wave of the weapon in his hand persuaded her against arguing. She had no idea why the healing pool, but she’d take anything at the moment to staring down the gun.
Then she noticed the gray cast to both Connor and Matt. As she watched, a startled cry escaping, both men staggered then fell slowly to the ground. She wanted to go to Connor’s side when the gun lifted in her direction. She stopped. Glaring at him, she snapped, “What did you do to them?”
“Knocked them out. My ability isn’t as refined as some of the ones I’ve seen lately,” he snapped, “but I make up for it in power.”
She nodded. “And is that what your grandfather did? Knocked Granny out so she woke up married, and he figured he owned her lands?”
“Think you’re so smart, don’t you?” His eyes darkened menacingly. “What makes you think we had to do anything?”
“Granny loved someone a long time ago. She’d never have remarried willingly, and even if she had wanted to not be alone for the rest of her life, she understood people and she’d have seen the truth of your grandfather’s energy. She’d never have married him,” she said in a flat voice. “Therefore, she was tricked into marriage.”
There was an odd silence as Grandfather contemplated her with a serious look. “You’re right, you know. He drugged her and married her while she was unconscious.”
“So it wasn’t even legal,” she said in disgust. “Typical. You want something and you don’t care what you have to do to get it.”
“According to my grandfather, when she woke up, besides being livid, she was laughing her head off saying it wouldn’t work.” He waved her in the direction of the room again. “Only it did work. We’d already been living on her lands as it was, so we just stayed there, but now as the rightful owners.”
“But you’re not the rightful owners, and Matt knows this now. The whole Council will know this soon.”
“You’re lying,” he scoffed. “They don’t know anything.”
“The documents I have are centuries old,” Genesis said, “and they are very clear. The land can’t be sold. It’s handed down from generation to generation of stargazers.” She waited a beat then added, “They carry the stargazer’s seals.”
His look of astonishment made her laugh. “You’ve gone along with your family’s machinations for years, and for what? Nothing?” She loved the look of shock on his face. “Now everyone will understand what you’ve lied and cheated to get.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It is. Your father can’t own the land. You can’t own the land, and neither can any of your family.”
As his face worked, she brought up the one bit of the story that had been bugging her. “How did your sister end up with me and my sisters?”
His shock turned to anger. “Granny’s daughter ran way as a young woman and had an affair. She argued with her mother and felt she couldn’t come back here. She lived on my sister’s kindness until she was killed in an accident. My sister ended up caring for you girls as long as she could.”
“No.” She shook her head. “That’s not true.” It couldn’t be.
“You don’t want to think of your grandmother as anything but perfect. Well, she wasn’t. My sister, once she realized who the children belonged to, contacted Granny and arranged for her to have you all back.”
“And not for the first time,” Genesis said, remembering something that had been brought up earlier. “Doesn’t your sister look after orphan children and find families for a price?”
He snorted. “So what? That’s called an adoption fee.”
It wasn’t. Still, it had been a godsend to Genesis and her sisters that she’d been returned to her own grandmother. Somewhere, there were letters Granny had written to the three of them. Genesis had found hers and had learned much. Maybe her sister’s letters would offer more bits and pieces to help fill in the missing blanks.
“And the pools, are you involved in trying to commercialize them as the Portmans said?”
He shook his head. “Hell no. I don’t want tourists through here. Damn place is crawling with enough strangers as it is.”
She didn’t know if she believed him or not. His energy had a darkness to it that she didn’t recognize or understand, but she respected the destructive power within it. She turned to her healing pool, reaching down a hand to trail her fingers through the water. Immediately, the water surged upward to coat the palm of her hand, her wrist, and forearm.
“Why anyone would want anything to do with that water, I don’t know,” he said, stepping up beside the pool. “That’s just creepy.”
“You’ve never been in?”
“No way.”
“That’s why it’s so active then. Your body is in great need.” Although Genesis figured it was his mind the waters really were drawn to help. She should just let the water have him. Who knew what he’d be like when he came out?
“Why don’t you step in?” she invited him. “The waters will help you.”
“Not happening.” He motioned with the gun. “Walk past the pool and go up into the attic. I want all the documents down here where I can see them.”
She stared from him to the attic then back to him. “You can’t have them, you know,” she said in a calm voice. “There are hundreds and hundreds of star charts up there.”
“I only want the ones she drew about my family.”
She narrowed her eyes and gazed at him. “Why?”
“They say things about the family. I want those. No one in the Paranormal Center needs to know anything about my family’s past, present, or future,” he said in a hard voice. “If I’d realized she had these still, I’d have done something about it earlier.”
“Wow, I really opened up a nightmare by taking home the one star chart I’d been working on, didn’t I?”
He laughed coldly. “And that was a fluke. A junkie broke in to your place and saw it and tried to sell the information to Mason.” With another wave of the gun, he added, “You wanted recognition for your granny and a place in society for yourself. It’s to be expected. No one wants to live as the crone in the haunted house, only I now know that the charts my father spoke about actually do exist. They speak about family destiny. Our individual powers. We can’t have that. Too much knowledge isn’t good. In fact, in this case…it’s downright dangerous.”
And she understood. “Because there is a madness in your genetics, isn’t there? A sickness brought on by using your powers with such negative force.” She motioned toward where Matt and Connor were passed out. “I can see the deterioration
in your own energy. The darkness in your soul.”
He shrugged. “Power is addictive and once you use it to get your own way, it’s hard to stop using it.”
“And can you make people do things that they don’t want to do?”
“Not really, but we can use our abilities to get them into a state where they can’t fight us. We can then force them to do things – things they wouldn’t normally do.”
“Nasty.”
“Nothing like what your granny and those damns star charts could do to my family if that mess ever came out. That old woman was a vindictive bitch. She’d have stopped at nothing to get you back after all these years.”
Here it was. The truth. Everything he’d said earlier – a fabrication. She asked softy, “After your family arranged for us to disappear?”
“Your mother. We made her disappear.” He smiled. “To get back at Granny. She had one of the original star charts with her.”
“And she was pregnant.” It had to be. That was the only thing that made sense. Pregnant with triplets.
He nodded. “My father killed her lover only weeks after they were married. When he came back to check on her and saw she was heavy with child and working star charts of her husband’s death at an incredible speed, he knew it would only be a matter of time before she understood. But when he went to kill her, she went into labor. He couldn’t kill the babies. Instead, he gave them to a young family on the edge of town. It took years, but Granny finally found out. She came after you all with a vengeance. To get you back, she had to pay – and in a big way. She had to agree to destroy the star charts.”
He glared at her. “We thought it was over. Until that junkie broke into your apartment looking for easy money.”
Genesis reeled with horror at what had happened to her family. This man and his father had killed her parents. Made her life hell, and that of her sisters, and made sure Granny lived the life of a pariah. Shunned by all.