“You never ran away,” Waylon frowned.
“I had you,” I smiled. “And now I’m returning the favor.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s got her Aunt Violet. And I will find her.”
Chaz cleared his throat behind me. His anger radiated out around him like a heater at my back. “Why don’t we go up to your place and see if she left us anything?”
“No we need to be out hunting and—”
I put my hand on Waylon’s arm. “No. You need to calm down, I need a coffee, and we can look at her room for clues.”
IT WAS A battle convincing Waylon to stay in his hotel room without busting out the “don’t worry, my fiancé has psychic GPS and can find anything.”
But unfortunately, it left Chaz and I alone to discuss things as he kicked that GPS into gear.
“You were a little forceful with Waylon back there,” Chaz said as he drove, his eyes glowing as he steered us this way and that, following his psychic trail to her.
“Jordans are blunt, said so yourself. Besides, got the job done.” I plucked the little panda bear from the console between us and held it in my hands. It had been Lexie’s baby toy and Chaz locked onto her in three seconds flat. “Where is she going?”
“She’s not far now,” he said softly.
I picked at the panda’s worn ear. “I’m sorry that I yelled at you.”
“Technically, I yelled first.”
“I was only trying to say that if you needed help, they aren’t just my boys.”
Chaz shook his head as he turned exited the highway. “I’m not in the club, Violet.”
“Neither is Jessa.”
“But you guys are Key Holder and Guardian.”
“But we weren’t before I was attacked and I’d still have taken a bullet for her.”
Chaz squeezed his knuckles around the steering wheel. “Get to the moral of the story, Aesop.”
“You guys hang out, play football. Joke around with each other. They don’t just hang around you because of me. They don’t feel they owe you for anything. You’ve got yourself a family now, little orphan boy. Use it.”
Chaz was quiet for a good long while as he wove through the streets. “I was already on my way back from hunting down the thing that tried to break in when you called.”
Anger sizzled around me, making the insides of the car hot enough with my Legacy that Chaz flipped on the air conditioner in defiance.
“You’ll be happy to know that Shadow fought me on it. But I took the cloth from your dresser and followed it.”
I took in a deep breath. He was right. He’d done this for years before me, and his father before that. “Well, you’re in one piece, so I’m guessing he didn’t stomp on you.”
“Not just one, a group of them, but they were gone. It was a loft-apartment thing with lots of computers. Look like they’d been gone for about a day.”
“What were they?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have your preternatural senses. None of the usual signs. But it was like they’d up and gone. Food in the fridge, clothes still in dressers, shoes still by the door. Just gone.”
Listening to his voice was calming me down. Helping me remember what he was before me, before I’d completely turned his life upside down. “How do you know they weren’t just at work?”
Chaz shook his head. “Didn’t feel right.”
“Do you think they’ll come back?”
“No. Don’t think they found what they were looking for.”
“And now they are just wandering around town, shoeless?”
It was quiet for a little while. “Guess if I’d called Tucker, he might have been able to sniff something else out.”
“Actually, Nash has a stronger sense of smell.”
“Good to know.” Chaz relaxed and when he did, so did I. This was the part of him that I’d first fallen in love with, the fighting-the-good-fight part.
“What did you mean that Waylon saved you?” he asked
I picked at some food or wax embedded in Lexie’s poor panda’s fur. “They never let me go back home. After my parents died. My stuff was just brought to their house. I had it in my head Mom and Dad were just waiting for me to come home, like some lost princess story.”
“Sounds like you.”
“One night I’d had enough and I packed my bag and I started to walk home. Waylon found me about four hours later walking down the highway.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that if I was so intent on running away he was going to run with me. He wouldn’t let me be alone. We spent the night at this completely vile hotel room, playing gin rummy all night and eating pizza. I’m pretty sure he called Aunt Glory when I was in the bathroom.”
“How’d he get you to come home?”
I looked over at Chaz. “He said he would drive me there to see the house but it wouldn’t look the same. Wouldn’t have the life it had with the three of us in it. And if he had to choose, he’d want to remember it like it was at Christmas when Mom would string lights on everything and the tree was in the front window. Not like it was now, dark and cold and empty. I told him to drive us home the next morning.”
“What happened to you two?”
I sighed. Chaz was my family now, right? He was marrying into this mess. “He left me. Aunt Glory was there, but Waylon was with me and the moment that I was getting happy, he left for college. Part of me knew he would come back, but it wasn’t the same after that, and then I went to college and that was that. I did the leaving. I’m the schmuck in this scenario.”
Chaz reached out to take my hand. “You’re making up for your schmuckiness.”
I took in a deep breath. I certainly was trying. “I’m learning about family at the same rate as you.”
“Uh, Violet?” Chaz stopped the car and pointed to the building next to us. “Lexie’s at your coffee shop.”
I looked up at the building next to us. My coffee shop. Lexie had found her way to my safe spot? Goose bumps ran up my arm and I tried to push away what that meant and the complications that might follow.
“You okay?”
“Why this place, Chaz?” My voice wasn’t more than a whisper. My brain flew in a million directions at once.
“We can’t deny they are Wanderers, talent or not. Maybe she just went to a place that felt safe to her.”
I licked my lips and nodded. It was purely coincidence. There was no way she was just called to the coffee shop because her Wandering blood told her it was safe, right?
“I’m going in.”
BASTIAN, THE MANAGER, was behind the counter rearranging the coffee mugs. Business was slow as usual. “Hey, Violet. What can I get you?” he greeted.
“Actually, that’s what I’m looking for.” I pointed to Lexie curled up in the back corner. She was definitely related to me. She had her bag on the floor and was reading a book the size of War and Peace.
I adjusted the charm at my throat and walked over to her. “Hello, Lexie.”
“Hey, Aunt Violet.” She pushed up her glasses and looked at me defeated. She curled her feet up and hugged her boney knees.
“You okay?” I slid down in the chair next to her.
She scratched an ancient scar on her knee and kept her eyes down. “I just needed fresh air. I couldn’t be cooped up in the hotel room anymore.”
“And you didn’t think you could call me?”
Lexie’s eyes darted up to me. “What?”
“Didn’t occur to you that you’ve got a pretty amazing aunt who would gladly help you escape your tower for a while, if you’d ask?”
Lexie’s lips parted.
Honesty was the best policy, right? Maybe I needed to take a moment to teach this kid something if she was going to be in my life. And as I looked at her, a blend of Waylon and Aunt Glory and maybe a little of me, I knew that I wanted her to be in my life.
“I know about moving around. It wasn’t until Dallas that I felt like I belonged
anywhere.”
“Why’d you wander around the country?”
I wondered if she knew what she was asking, what words she was using to conjure the story. But I told her the truth anyhow. “I was searching because I was alone. And I found it.”
“What was it?”
“A family. I found people who loved me, despite my many flaws.”
“And you found love.” Lexie shifted in her seat and I saw the book that she was reading. I couldn’t even imagine the idea of love and searching that the latest teen fad was filling her head with; it had done a number on me at her age.
“What?”
“You found Chaz. Do you think you were searching for him?”
I thought about the man waiting out in the car, giving me the space I needed while staying close enough to save me from myself. The man who needed to fight, but was staying still for me.
“I think so. And when I found him, I opened up for a lot of others.”
Lexie bit down on her lower lip. “Is Dad angry?”
“Yes. You have no idea just how scared he was when he called me.”
“He’s going to yell at me when I get home.”
“He probably will.”
Lexie closed the book. “Guess you’d better take me home.”
“Not necessarily,” I said as I curled my feet up too, matching her little cat position. “If you don’t want to go home, we can stay here. We can go to my house, whatever you need to do to feel better.”
Lexie thought about it for a while. While she was thinking, I ordered a hot chocolate for her and a double latté for me. Chaz walked in at some point and stayed over by the newspaper rack.
“Soccer. I miss soccer.”
“You want to go play soccer?”
“Can we?”
“I think I can arrange a pick-up game.”
“WHO ARE ALL these people?” Lexie asked as we walked across the soccer field. The lights were only going to be on for about ten more minutes at the park just around the corner from my house, but ten minutes might be all I needed.
“Remember when I said I’d found family. These are them. Tucker, Nash, Kandice, and Shadow.”
Lexie gave a small wave. “You have a dog?”
“He chose me, actually. I do not claim ownership.”
Shadow danced around her legs and Lexie cracked a smile as she reached down and scratched behind Shadow’s ear. “Dad won’t let us have a dog.”
Tucker and Nash chuckled softly and Tucker spun the ball in his hands. “So I thought we were playing soccer?”
Lexie smiled. “I get Aunt Violet.”
“Your loss,” I sighed as we put our stuff on the bench and walked out to the middle of the field.
Lexie played hard and she was good, like too good. Against a super fast guardian, a panther, and three dogs, she’d scored three goals before we even knew what was happening.
I pulled out of the game and Shadow took my place as I went to make the phone call.
“Vi? Please tell me you found her,” Waylon sounded tired, like worrying had zapped all his energy.
“We found her.”
“Oh, thank heavens. Where is she? I’ll come get her.”
There were a million questions I wanted to ask him. Watching Lexie, there was something special about that kid as she completely schooled a field of men at soccer. And how did she know about the coffee shop?
“How about I keep her for the evening? I’ll order pizza and we’ll talk. Maybe she just needs a girl right now.”
I heard Waylon run his fingers through his hair. “Okay.”
“Relax, Waylon. Isn’t this why you came to Dallas? So your daughter would know her family?”
He just sighed as a response.
“What did you guys fight about?”
“She doesn’t understand there needs to be rules, needs to be order. Especially now when so much is up in the air.”
I frowned. That didn’t sound right. But I wasn’t going to argue with his philosophy of being. But I could be the aunt she ran to when she needed a little freedom from the rules.
The pops from the lights echoed across the now dark fields. The group walked over, already sweaty.
I wrapped up my conversation with Waylon. “Got to go. I’ll return her tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Violet. You have no idea what this means to me.”
As I looked at my line of boys and thought about another one of them disappearing, I knew exactly what Waylon meant.
“You owe me one.” I hung up the phone and looked at the group and then caught a whiff of them on the wind. “God, you guys smell horrible.”
“Yep,” Chaz said as he sat down next to me and put his sweaty arm over my shoulder so I could get a clear whiff of his armpit.
“How about some ice cream and then back to my place?”
“I’m staying with you?” Lexie asked.
“For tonight, yeah. And then I need to take you home, okay?”
Lexie nodded as she grabbed her bag from the ground.
NASH SLEPT ON the couch, Kandice was in the guest bedroom, Shadow was someplace, and Chaz had volunteered to sleep in my writing chair.
“You’re a saint,” I whispered to him as he took some pillows off the bed.
“Yes, I am. And I’m taking care of my niece. Hey Lexie, pecans or cinnamon?” he asked.
“Cinnamon?” Lexie answered.
Chaz smiled back at me. “She really is a Jordan.” He gave me a quick kiss, just long enough to leave me with the feeling of his lips and his stubble before he left.
“You guys really going to get married?” Lexie asked.
“Does seem to be the plan.”
I pointed to the bed and Lexie hopped on and snuggled underneath the soft blankets. She was fighting sleep and I knew it.
I flipped off the lights and walked around to my side of the bed. We both snuggled in, facing each other, blankets up to our chins.
“How come you already feel like family, Aunt Violet?”
“What?”
“I’ve only known you like a weeks and you already feel like family.”
I shrugged. “Dunno, Lexie. But it’s mutual. I think you’re stuck with me.”
Lexie smiled. “Dad was mad, wasn’t he?”
“No, actually. Just relieved. Dallas isn’t the safest place on the planet.”
“You live here.”
Good point. Dallas was dangerous for her because of me, though, how did I say that in a way that wasn’t going to bind my words around my feet and let her trip me up? Avoid it.
“What drew you to the coffee shop?”
Lexie pressed her lips together. “I dunno. It was just inviting. And when I got there, I knew it was safe. And the manager was really cute.”
I chuckled. She was right. He was pretty cute. “But you weren’t afraid?”
“I was afraid until I got there.”
“Why?”
“Don’t know. It was well lit. And it smelled good.”
“Smelled good?”
“I like the smell of coffee.”
I laughed. There really wasn’t any doubt that this was mine. Something tingled down my spine, and then I smelled roses. “We have company.”
I jumped out of bed and opened the door just as Jessa was fumbling with a tray of hot chocolates and a cosmetic bag the size of my head.
“Are you having a sleepover without me?” she asked as she pushed through.
“Jessa, this is my niece Lexie. Lexie, this is my best friend Jessa.”
“I’m so happy to meet you,” Jessa squealed as she set the cosmetic bag on the bed and doled out the hot chocolates.
I closed the door behind her and took my hot chocolate.
“How did you find out?” I asked as I carefully sat back down on the bed.
Jessa waved it off with more alacrity than I’d ever seen her blow off something. “Never mind that. We have a young impressionable girl. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here, Vi.�
��
Lexie giggled.
“Toes and nails now.” Jessa slipped off her slippers and it was then I realized that she was already in a pair of satin pajamas.
Chapter Eight
LEXIE FELL ASLEEP somewhere around midnight. Her toes were now a vicious shade of hot pink that hurt my retinas to even look at and she had flowers on her fingers.
“How’s she doing?” Jessa asked softly, sitting next to me on my window seat as we both watched her sleep.
“She’s amazing,” I said. “And I think she wanders.”
“Oh.” Jessa’s perfectly arched eyebrow arched. “Really?”
“I’ve yet to feel anything off of Waylon, but she found the coffee shop.”
“Seriously?” Goose bumps covered Jessa’s arms. “Guess it’s official.”
“What?”
“You’ve turned the place into a haven.”
“What’s that?”
Jessa sighed. “Think of a church. It is holy because people believe that it is. You’ve made it into a safe space because you and all your power believe it is a safe spot.”
I sighed in echo to her sigh as I got the whole picture. “And just like Wanderers will come to me when they need help because I’m a Prima, they will go there if they need help.”
“Bingo.”
“Poor Bastian.”
I sighed as I leaned my head against the cool window. Poor Lexie.
There was a cool ripple that echoed out from Jessa, like she was the pond that the stone had been thrown in. “Crap,” Jessa hissed as she clutched her chest.
I would have laughed and said something to the effect that I really was wearing off on her and not the other way around, but the light in Jessa’s now lavender eyes told me different.
“The Veil.”
IT WAS A flutter of pink and taffeta. She spun in the mirror and smoothed her hand over her hair, perfectly done at the salon earlier that day. She adjusted the charm at her neck, hidden in the sparkling necklace that lay perfectly at her throat. Everything was perfect.
When the doorbell rang, she jumped and spun around again before the full-length mirror. She briefly touched a picture of a woman on her dresser and flew downstairs to answer the door.
Her father beat her there. He stood in front of the door with one of her uncle’s shot guns.
Nine Lives of an Urban Panther Page 8