There was a lot of kissing and hugging and more intimate cuddling going on around the edges of the clearing, too.
It was shortly after dawn when Beth noticed Declan and Zoe and Sera moving through the party, stopping to check the bodies of the vampeen. Declan rested his fingers against the neck of one as Beth approached him, feeling for a pulse.
“So, now you have pulled off the victory of the century, how do you feel?” The question came from her left. Beth looked up. Aithan was sitting on the edge of the stump, there. Cora was lying on her back next to him, her eyes closed. She looked as if she was sun-tanning, although she was fully clothed.
Aithan raised his brow at her.
Beth answered honestly. “I thought I would feel…different. It was such a massive goal, I thought that achieving it would change things. Change me.”
“Yet you feel just the same,” he said. “Sore feet, scratches, in need of a shower and a month of sleep. No magical transformation.”
Beth grinned. He had nailed it exactly. “I think I could eat for a month, too.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing, feeling the same?” He asked it as if he was genuinely interested in the answer.
“I didn’t want things to change at all,” she confessed. “So it’s a very good thing indeed.”
Aithan grimaced.
“Why do you look like that?”
“Big, momentous events…most people don’t notice how it changes their lives. Not at first. The changes can be so radical they only realize in hindsight, sometimes years later, just how much different they are now.”
“Is that what is going to happen to all of us now?” Beth asked, her heart thumping hard. “We’ll all go on as we were yesterday for a while, then…what? We drift apart, away from each other?”
Aithan pushed himself off the stump and landed just in front of her. “I think that’s going to be up to each of us to decide. I’ve been sitting up there, watching everyone. And you know what? I think a lot of us will fight to stay just as we are, no matter how the lack of a war and a common enemy makes things change around us.”
“We could lose our powers, our strength.”
Aithan smiled. “I don’t think that’s what anyone cares about, in the end.” He winked and walked over to where Rhys was arguing over something with Remmy and Blake and put his arm around Rhys’ waist. Rhys reached up and dropped his arm over Aithan’s shoulders, all while talking.
Declan had moved on to another vampeen and Beth went over to him and crouched down next to him. “Checking for life, doctor?”
“Yes.” He dropped the wrist he was holding with a grimace. “Some of them didn’t come through. The tranquilizer was too powerful. The others, we’ll take back to the barn and put through the anti-toxin cycle.”
“Do you have enough of the cure to go around?” Beth asked.
“Not for everyone here. The good news is, the more vampeen we cure, the more anti-toxin we can produce, using their blood to make it.” He stood up. “The war is over. Now the reconstruction starts.”
Beth rose to her feet, too. She looked around the clearing. There were a lot of vampeen.
“Whatever you need, Declan,” she told him. “Warm bodies, or even lukewarm ones. Resources. Equipment. Just let me know. We’ll figure it out.”
Movement at the corner of her eye drew her attention. At the edge of the clearing, just inside the border of light, dryads had gathered. Some of them were bashful, hiding behind trees and peering out. Kaleh, though, was standing clear of all the trees, in full sunlight.
He pointed.
Beth looked to where he was pointing.
There was a fern emerging from the soil, sheltered in the crook of a big tree root. The fern was curled up on itself in a tight whorl. Yet Beth could see that it was responding to the sunlight and the spiral was already loosening and unfurling. Soon it would spread the delicate fronds out.
There were more of the tiny new plants, dotting what had been once barren soil. Little green sprouts were developing, everywhere she looked, all across the clearing.
“I guess they figure it’s time to move on,” Remmy said. He had come up beside her without her noticing.
“For all of us,” Beth replied.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Blake unlocked the apartment door and stepped inside. There were murmurs of sound inside the apartment that said everyone was still here. He hadn’t been gone long. It only takes a couple of hours to quit a job, after all.
His captain had been almost incapable of speech, when Blake laid the resignation letter on his blotter. Harris turned red in the face, making his pale orange lashes and brows stand out. “After nearly twenty years, you’re quitting? I don’t believe it! This is a bluff, right? You want a promotion, or more pay or something. I know it’s been tough around here for a while, but it’s been quiet for more than a week. Sit down, Harvey, let’s talk it out. No one turns their back on a decent pension without thinking it through.”
It had taken thirty hard minutes to convince Harris he was sincere and that he didn’t care about the pension.
Harris had grown churlish after that, walking Blake through the red tape, tossing the right forms at him, taking his service revolver and his badge, shoving them in his top drawer and slamming it shut.
All the way home, Blake kept reminding himself that he wasn’t walking away from a career. He was heading into a completely different life.
Eve bounced into the room, her gray eyes bright. She had all the energy of any eight year old and far, far more wisdom.
“Hiya kidlet,” Blake said and hugged her. “How was school?” This was only her second day of formal education.
“Momma Mia says I am brainy.” Eve grinned. “I did math today and geography.”
The six of them—Diego, Sera, Alex, Mia, Wyatt and he—had decided that putting Eve into the standard education system might be too stressful. She had adjusted to normal life extraordinarily well. Only, the challenges of dealing with other kids, who could be thoughtless and rough, might pressure her into behaviors and responses that would draw attention to her odd background. Home schooling was the only answer and Mia had offered to provide that.
“I’m going to be home with this spud, anyway,” she had said, rubbing her distended belly. “Sera can go study medicine with Declan and have the career for both of us.”
Blake crouched down to look at Eve at her level. “How are the dreams now?” he asked.
Eve’s face drained of happiness. She shook her head.
Blake sighed. “You’re going to keep having them for a while, honey. They might even pop into your head while you’re awake. It will feel like you’re right back there.”
“Even though I can’t remember,” Eve finished, “only I have to tell myself they’re just memories and they can’t hurt me.”
“That’s right. Then you can come and find me and I’ll help you make them go away.”
“Because you know what they’re like.”
“I do,” he agreed gravely and stood up and picked up her hand. “Where’s everyone?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Let’s go and see them.”
They went into the little separate kitchen. Everyone was there. With the table in the corner, it was a squeeze for six adults and a skinny eight year old.
Diego squeezed Blake’s shoulder. “All done?”
“I am no longer a cop,” Blake announced to the room. “I didn’t think I would have to talk so hard to convince them I was serious.”
“Any regrets?” Wyatt asked, looking up from the map he was studying.
“None,” Blake said flatly. “That cop, that guy, was a different person.”
Sera bounced up and hugged him. “We found a house!”
“Really?” Blake was surprised. “Something that can take all six of us and kids, that doesn’t cost over a million?”
“It’s in Walden,” Alex said.
“That’s a long way from Manhat
tan,” Blake pointed out.
“It’s only ninety minutes.”
“It’s a big old Victorian, with four floors, two master suites and a yard,” Sera said. “It’s just perfect!”
“What are the good people of Walden going to think when a commune sets up next door to them?” Blake asked.
“Guess we’ll find out,” Diego said.
Blake sighed. “I guess, if Sera and Mia can still teleport, it doesn’t matter a damn where we are, does it? Walden sounds like somewhere the kids can run wild.”
Mia smiled. “Not that wild.”
“Walden is a good base for us to work from, too,” Wyatt said, tapping the map he was studying. “We can keep an eye on the cavern in Saratoga and work the entire eastern seaboard.”
“Hunters, Incorporated,” Diego declared.
“Watch out, Mia really will incorporate us if you’re not careful.”
“I was thinking it might be a smart move, actually,” Mia said. “We’ll have to think up some sort of bland, non-descriptive name for it and be really vague about what we do, but it will offset taxes…”
Wyatt groaned and Diego rolled his eyes.
Alex held up a hand. “She has a point. The tax brackets we could find ourselves in would be crippling and now we have a big house to run….”
Blake let the conversation roll over him, not quite listening to the laughter and chatter. Instead, he tapped into himself, taking a quick stock of his feelings. For the last week, nothing had changed. The little well of happiness showed no signs of drying up. He still loved Diego. He still loved Sera. Miraculously, they still loved him.
Diego tapped his shoulder. “Where did you go?” he demanded. “Your eyes glazed over.”
“Nowhere,” Blake said. “I was right here, telling myself it’s still all true.”
Diego’s expression softened. “Damn right,” he said. He shifted his lean against the sink, until his shoulder pressed against Blake’s. “We’re not going anywhere.”
“Except to Walden,” Blake added.
* * * * *
Rhys put the phone down and stared at it, expecting that at any second it would explode, or someone would shout, “Fooled ya!”
Aithan, sitting in the one easy chair in the room, had been watching him carefully throughout the call. Now he leaned forward, his hands clamped together. “You turned white,” he said.
“That was Mayor Williams,” Rhys said slowly. “Michael Dobson had a heart attack. He resigned yesterday.”
The lock on the door gave the heavy thud hotel rooms the world over made when being unlocked by a card key.
Cora came in, carrying grocery bags that she put on the counter of the little kitchenette. “I heard that last bit,” she said. “Chief Dobson resigned.” She crouched down next to Rhys and took his hand. “Did Williams ask you to come back?”
Rhys nodded.
Aithan smiled. “I guess your behavior doesn’t look all that unreasonable when you stack up all the events happening around the country the last couple of weeks.”
“He wants me to take over the city police,” Rhys said. He still felt unreal, as if he was watching himself speak. The mayor’s offer had been that unexpected.
Then he stirred and shook off the shock. “I told him I’d think about it. That’s just for form’s sake, to be polite. I’ll phone him back tomorrow and tell him I’ll pass.”
“Why would you do that?” Aithan asked, his voice sharp.
Rhys hesitated. “Because we’re heading to Quebec. Fresh start and everything.”
Aithan looked at Cora. “Is that what you really want to do?”
“I figured…it would be a change,” she said slowly.
“What do you really, really want to do?” Aithan pressed.
Cora pressed her lips together and glanced at Rhys. “If I could do anything at all?”
“Sky’s the limit,” Aithan said.
“I’d buy one of those old houses on the shorefront in Erie and do them up, all by myself. Turn it into the county’s best bed and breakfast. Make my own bread. Host visitors from all over the world, some of them coming back year after year.”
Rhys stared at her. “You said you wanted to leave everything behind.”
“Because I thought you did!” Cora shot back. She flung her blonde locks over her shoulder. “You got tossed out of Erie. Out of the county. I figured you’d never want to see the place again.”
Rhys swiveled his head to look at Aithan. It felt as though his neck was full of ball bearings, some of them rusty. “You, too?” he asked.
Aithan sat back and crossed his arms. “Murphy and Dane in Chicago are going into business, building identities for vampires. High end stuff, that can pass muster anywhere. They say they will set me up with a kit, gratis.”
“So long as you tell everyone else about their services?”
Aithan’s smile was wise. “I’ve got to know a lot of supernaturals over the last century. All of them would find such a service convenient.”
“What would you do with your new legitimate identity?” Cora asked curiously.
“I was thinking…the Penn State campus in Erie is looking for a professor to teach philosophy and metaphysics.”
Cora smiled and it lit up the room. “That would be so perfect for you!” She turned to Rhys. “Please, please, please…take the job!”
Rhys blew out his breath. “Well, I—”
“No, wait!” Aithan cried and lurched to his feet.
Rhys looked at him, alarmed.
Aithan looked at Cora. “He’s reluctant to say yes.”
Rhys blinked. He had been on the verge of saying yes, for heaven’s sake….
“We’re going to have to use every power of persuasion we’ve got to make him agree to this.”
Cora licked her lips, a hungry look in her eyes. “It’s a good thing we know every sensitive spot on him.”
Rhys’ body tightened. He crossed his arms, trying to scowl. “There is no way you can talk me into this,” he lied. “Try all you like.”
As Aithan and Cora threw him on the bed and tackled him, he found himself laughing for sheer joy.
* * * * *
Cole found Gilbert on the verandah, staring at the peaks in the north. He handed him the bowl of spaghetti and a fork. “Enjoy,” he said.
“Thank you. This is most welcome. You are an excellent cook,” Gilbert said, lifting the bowl in acknowledgement. He ate a big mouthful. “Are you not eating with your family?”
Cole sighed. “Zoe and Declan are in the barn, still. It sometimes feels as if they’ll be there forever, only Declan says the numbers of vampeen being sent to them are gradually slowing.”
Gilbert glanced toward the north again.
Cole followed the direction of his gaze. The snow line on the peaks was shifting back to summer norms. “Summer is coming,” Cole said. “I guess that means you’ll be heading out soon.”
Gilbert sighed.
“The bears will all be stirring soon, too,” Cole added carefully. “Do you…get along with them?”
“Bears are loners,” Gilbert said sadly. “They don’t stand for others in their territory.”
“You don’t have a territory, do you?”
“No.”
“So, everywhere you go, you’re pissing a bear off?”
Gilbert grimaced, then remembered the bowl in his hands and ate another huge mouthful.
Cole examined him more carefully, a thought occurring to him. “You know, with Declan and Zoe and Sera all sweating over turning vampeen back into people, I’m going to be short-handed on the ranch this summer.”
Gilbert lowered his fork, looking at Cole directly for the first time since Cole had stepped outside. The hope flaring in his eyes was almost pitiable.
“I could use a good hand around here,” Cole said.
Gilbert swallowed hastily. “I’m strong,” he said quickly.
“I bet you are.”
He smiled. “You won’t have
any trouble with bears. Not while I’m around. Cats, either.”
“The thought had occurred to me.” Cole brushed invisible lint from his jeans. “Are you any good at breaking horses? There’ll be a handful of them this summer.”
Gilbert’s face fell. “I’ve never been near one. They bolt when I try.” He sighed again. “If you want a breaker, then I know a wolf shifter…he can scare a horse into obedience just by looking at it. They don’t bolt for him.”
Cole nodded. “You’d better reach out to your shifter friend. I wouldn’t want him to find work for the summer with someone else. It’ll be your responsibility to make sure he and any of the others we hire behave themselves and blend into the community and look human. If they have to take off time because of shifting phases, it’ll be up to you to make sure their work is covered. Deal?”
Gilbert looked stunned. “You want me to work here anyway?”
“Someone has to keep the supernaturals in line for me. Eat up, Gilbert. You look a bit pasty there.”
Gilbert picked up his fork again and slowly began to eat, a thoughtful expression on his face and a warm, happy glow in his eyes.
* * * * *
Remmy found Octavia and Ángel in the little garden that still flourished around their small house. The land beyond the garden’s border was already starting to generate the heat and dust of summer. Step across the border, though, and the soil was lush and the plants cool. They scented the air with a subtle perfume.
Octavia had been spending most of her spare time in the garden, cooing over new discoveries. Yesterday, Remmy had found her standing on one of the paths, dripping wet and laughing.
“Look,” she said and raised her gaze to the sky. “Rain!”
Abruptly, it started to rain, in warm, gentle fat drops.
“Stop!” she called out.
It stopped just as fast, leaving rivulets and dripping plants.
Ángel was out with her today, bending over green plants and sniffing.
“A new discovery?” Remmy asked.
“Herbs,” Octavia said. “Some of them very rare. Sera says she doesn’t know of anywhere else they grow.” She held up her phone. “I’ve been sending her photos. She wants to harvest some of them, to use for her brand of medicine.”
Terra's Victory (Destiny's Trinities Book 7) Page 21