Blood Diamond

by R. J. Blain

  “How did you find out I was there, anyway?”

  Gerald zipped his way through traffic fast enough that I clutched the armrest of the car, praying I wouldn’t end up in another wreck. “Please be careful,” I whispered, shuddering at the thought of the Camry colliding with the concrete wall or one of the other cars in an equal hurry to get home from work.

  Instead of slowing, he sped up, chuckling as I squirmed. “Your ID. What were you doing with your brother’s anyway? The nurse admitting you was about ready to have a litter of kittens. You were in the ER, and the only difference between you two is your height. She ended up calling the police with both names. They pulled your records and started calling around until they got a hold of Maggie. Since we already knew you’d crashed and that you were the one on board, it was easy to sort out from that point. Your brother is frantic, by the way. I’ve never heard an Anderson on the brink of hysterics before. It was something, I’ll tell you that. I wasn’t sure anyone in your family was capable of it.”

  “He’s going to kill me, especially after what happened in Georgia.”

  “So I heard. Zachary took the phone from your brother and explained all of your misadventures recently. He’s playing the adult supervision for your brother and Yellowknife’s Second at the moment. I was given strict orders to notify them as soon as I learned anything, but I disregarded their demands. I thought it’d be nicer for them to hear from you directly. In case you were wondering, it took the EMS three chainsaws and two hours to pull you out of the wreckage. They were amazed they weren’t dealing with a corpse.”

  “It took them two hours?” I gawked at Gerald, my head spinning at the thought of how much work it must have taken them to extricate me.

  “Sure did. I was told they might have been able to shave off twenty minutes of the time if they could have cut out the back of the seat, but since they had no idea how badly you were injured, they took the safe route. Richard smacked the bird directly into a tree, which took out the center of the plane. Judging from the photos I’ve seen, the whole thing was a mess. There’s a pretty nasty rumor going on right now that if there were other passengers, they got eaten or dragged off by a wild animal thanks to the number of claw marks in the back. It looks like they tried to get you out as wolves and ultimately had to give up.”

  I was both alarmed and relieved by the news. “I don’t remember anything like that.”

  “I’m not surprised. What did you do to your knee, anyway? The doctors told me they were pretty sure it was an older injury.”

  “I got into a fight with a crazy woman. She won,” I grumbled. “It’s a souvenir from my misadventures on the Wave Dream. What else did they say?”

  “Not much. They’re looking over the black box data, but so far, all they’ve found out is that there was a sudden drop in fuel levels in the tanks. I was hoping you knew something.”

  “I was asleep. I had piloting duty at North Bay, so I was getting what rest I could so I could take over from Richard.”

  “Unfortunate. Oh well. I’ve got some of my best forensics guys looking over the debris, so hopefully they’ll find out something. Still, I feel like I should take you to the casino. Why did you have your brother’s ID, anyway? That caused a ruddy mess, eh?”

  “Long story.”

  “I’ve got time. You’ll be staying at my place for the foreseeable future. It’s more secure than some dingy hotel room. The girls are going to love to see you, and unless I’m severely mistaken, Maggie’s just waiting for a chance to feed you.”

  Groaning at the thought of food, I shook my head. “She’ll feed me and I’ll throw it right back up.”

  When Gerald parked at a pharmacy, he went in, leaving me in the car while he fetched the prescriptions. Twenty minutes later, he returned carrying an alarmingly large bag filled with boxes and pill bottles. He tossed it in the back. “I told them you were nauseated at the thought of food, so they added another prescription to the list. Sorry it took so long. The pharmacist had to call one of your doctors and confirm a bunch of things. You’d figure they’d get these things right, seeing how often they have to do it.”

  I grunted, curious about the medicinal cocktail they wanted to shove down my throat, but not enough to twist around and make a grab for the bag.

  “Zachary tells me you have a new woman now.”

  “Her name’s Evelyn. She’s one of the Fenerec,” I replied, unable to keep my worry out of my voice.

  “Huh. Good for you, Jackson. It’s about time you found someone.”

  “I think you’ll like her. She doesn’t mind the idea of me having a mistress.”

  Gerald glanced at me. “Are you getting a new mistress? Finally given up on that ratty Corvette?”

  “It seems my devil twin has been hiding the Jag in his garage. I am going to need a second mistress though, something new and with an automatic gearbox. Evelyn bought herself a BMW motorcycle and doesn’t know how to drive it.”

  “I call dibs on a ride in the Jag at a track,” Gerald informed me before chuckling. “Good. Sounds like this Fenerec has her head on straight. I look forward to meeting her.”

  “I’ve got to find her first.”

  “I’ve got people on that, don’t worry. The last thing we need is three Fenerec causing problems in a tourist area.”

  I sucked in a breath at the thought of what measures they’d take to keep Evelyn, Richard, and Vicky from causing problems. Gerald bumped my arm with his fist. “Non-lethal force, Jackson. I’m not stupid enough to put out a kill order on your mate—or the Yellowknife pack’s Alpha. I’ve got a few people on the hunt for them until Mrs. Murphy and her witch can get in town. Since she refused to get on a plane, she’s driving over now. Wouldn’t surprise me if she was here by tomorrow.”

  My Canadian geography wasn’t one of my strengths, but I thought it was a lot longer than two or three days to drive from Yellowknife to Ottawa. “How long is the drive?”

  “Two days if you swap drivers and don’t stop,” he replied. “A little over fifty hours in total. I’ve learned not to question the wizard when she’s upset. If she says to keep you in town and that she’ll arrive by tomorrow morning, I’ll do as told. That said, I’m surprised at you. Your woman’s a Fenerec?”

  “She had a compelling argument,” I replied, hoping I sounded dignified. To my ears, I sounded hoarse, tired, and rather pathetic.

  “Must have been some argument. I swear, you’re the shyest man I’ve met in my life. I’m expecting an introduction, eh?”

  “As soon as I find her and make certain she’s okay,” I promised.

  “She’s a Fenerec. I’m sure she’s fine. Fenerec are tough—much tougher than witches like you, and you survived.”

  “The same won’t be true for anyone who gets in her way,” I warned, remembering all too well what she was capable of doing. All I could do was hope that the three Fenerec hadn’t lost complete control of their wolves. If they had, I didn’t know what I would do.

  No one had taught me how to help a Fenerec regain their humanity once it was lost.

  Gerald shook his head, and as though he’d developed the ability to read minds, he said, “Mrs. Murphy will know what to do. Don’t worry. If anyone can track down her husband, it’s her—and Fenerec travel in packs. Your woman’s probably with Richard.”

  I kept my concerns to myself, unable to quell my worries for Evelyn and the others. Just because I had survived didn’t mean anything. For all I knew, the three of them were running wild, and I had been left behind, unable to follow where Evelyn roamed.

  Chapter Fifteen

  It was a little after eight when Gerald pulled into the driveway of his house on the outskirts of Kanata. The place classified as a mansion in my opinion, tucked away in the woods a twenty-minute drive from the highway. The four-car garage was larger than my house.

  Gerald parked, leaning down to pop the trunk. “How are you holding up?”

  “On top of the other errands, you took me shoppin
g at three different clothing stores,” I grumbled, glaring at my long-time friend.

  “You needed the clothes, the prescriptions weren’t going to fill themselves, and don’t even try to deny your enjoyment of the pit stop at the dealership. I’m just glad they could fit me in for a late-hour oil change. I saw you leering at the sports cars,” he countered, hopping out of the car with enough enthusiasm that I winced at the thought of trying to match him. I didn’t try, stifling a groan as I lurched out of the Camry.

  “Toyota doesn’t exactly have a very wide selection of sports cars, Gerald.” I wasn’t about to tell him I had been eyeballing price stickers for the cheapest car on the lot that didn’t look like it was about ready to break down. My prepaid credit cards were still in the duplicate of my brother’s wallet.

  With a car, I could go searching for Evelyn on my own, if I could give Gerald the slip.

  “That little Mercedes they had in their used lot was pretty nice.”

  “A little pricey for what it was. Not sporty enough, either.”

  Gerald pulled the bags from the trunk, leaning around the car to point at me. “You can’t trick me, Jackson. I caught you staring at a Yaris. You want to be on the road. It’s not happening, so give it up. If you want to look for something sporty for your lady, we can browse dealerships to your heart’s content soon, maybe tomorrow before your next doctor’s appointment if there’s time. There’s no way you’re going out into the bush after them. Not only would you be in the way, you would distract those trying to find the Fenerec, plus worry everyone. You’re not even cleared to drive, not for at least another three days. Give it up.”

  I stared at him, scowled, and sighed my surrender. “Concussions suck.”

  “That they do. Now, let’s get you inside. Your brother’s likely beside himself with worry, seeing as I was too busy fetching you and running those errands to call him to let him know you were being released from the hospital.”

  The blood drained from my face at the thought of my twin having been left in the dark yet again. “You haven’t told him?”

  “I was a bit busy, Jackson. The three Fenerec and you came first. The last time I had spoken with him, all I knew was that they had found the plane and managed to pull someone from the wreckage. After that, I was doing quite the dance figuring out who had survived. At least it made identifying you simple, seeing that I knew it wasn’t your twin on board. Besides, I enjoyed putting your brother on the spot. He does it to me often enough. Did you know it took me four hours to bully my way through the hospital’s administration?”

  I groaned. “He’s going to kill me.”

  “Likely. He was headed to Ottawa when we spoke, catching a flight from somewhere in Maine. Right now, he’s probably scheming how he can infiltrate the local hospitals. Yellowknife’s Second is likewise in a panic, another problem I didn’t need or want. Anyway, I ordered them to sit tight in their hotel until I could call them back tonight.”

  “You fed the fire and fanned it,” I accused.

  “Pretty much. It didn’t help that I left the card with their number in the kitchen when I left to go to the hospital. Maggie’s eager to confirm you’re still among the living with her own eyes, so let’s get you inside instead of hanging out in my garage.”

  Maggie was at the stove when I opened the door, spinning around to face me. “Jackson!”

  At a hair under five feet, Gerald’s wife had a delicate look to her, and it always caught me by surprise at how strong she could be. She wasted no time crossing the kitchen to give me a hug, standing on her toes in her effort to kiss my cheeks. The custom seemed a little silly to me, but I leaned down to make her happy.

  “Hey, Maggie. It’s been a while. Sorry for the fuss,” I replied, kicking off my shoes, which had been the only bit of my clothing to survive the crash. Gerald shoved them aside as he came up behind me.

  “Nonsense. First they tell me you about got yourself killed down south, then they call and tell me you crashed your plane. Mr. Jackson, I am displeased with you!” She grabbed hold of my hands and pulled me into the adjacent dinning room, pointing at one of the chairs. I limped the entire way, too tired to pretend I wasn’t in pain and on the brink of collapse.

  “Sit,” she ordered. “Dinner will be done in about ten minutes.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” I sat down, biting back my groan as every last one of my muscles protested the movement. “I’m sorry I worried you. In my defense, I wasn’t the one flying.”

  “I suppose I will forgive you this time. Who was the pilot? Gerald, was it that Richard fellow you were talking about earlier?”

  “Yes, Yellowknife’s Alpha—the one with the wizard wife.”

  Maggie winced. “Ouch. Is that the firecracker you were on the phone with before you left for the hospital?”

  “One and the same,” Gerald replied, leaning against the kitchen’s island, setting down the bag of prescriptions. “These are Jackson’s medications. Can you put it out of the reach of the girls?”

  With a laugh, Maggie grabbed the bag and stashed it in one of the cabinets above the kitchen counter. “The girls would love to play doctor for him if given half a chance. Want anything to drink, Jackson?”

  “He’s having all of the water he can stomach,” Gerald replied before I had a chance to say anything. “No coffee or soda. Juice is on the allowed list. They don’t want him on caffeine.”

  I groaned. “No coffee?”

  “Not so much as a single drop.”

  “That’s cruel, Gerald.”

  “Doctor’s orders. After dinner, you’re getting a lovely dessert of pills, which I’ve been told will make you higher than a kite. Maggie, there’s a pink box in that mess of pills, can you make sure he gets a dose of that before he tries eating?”

  “Sounds like a fun time,” Maggie replied, filling a glass from a pitcher before bringing it to me. “The girls are preparing the guest bedroom, Gerald.”

  My friend laughed. “That’s my cue to undo their destruction, then. Please excuse me. Call you brother before he has a heart attack, Jackson.”

  “He’s exaggerating,” I informed Maggie, who handed me a cordless phone and a business card with a number scribbled on the back of it. “Your girls are incapable of mass destruction.”

  Maggie retrieved the medications, digging through them and reading over the labels. “You’re not going to be higher than a kite. You’re going to be sound asleep, if the warning labels are to be believed.”

  “I meant the girls. How are they, anyway?” It’d been over a year since I had seen Ruth and Beth, and I was under the impression children as cute as the pair of brunettes were incapable of any wrongdoing.

  “They’re good. Don’t tell Gerald this, but it’s obvious they’re too angelic to be responsible for any of the disasters occurring around them. He’s the one who makes the messes and keeps blaming the girls. Make your phone call while I finish up dinner, Jackson.”

  I picked up the card, glad that Maggie had been the one to jot down the number; if it had been Gerald, I would’ve been dealing with five or six wrong calls before getting through to my brother. I dialed and cradled the phone between my ear and shoulder.

  “Anderson,” my brother answered, and I heard him yawn.

  “If someone ever invites you to a plane crash, decline. Richard ditched the bird in the water, and upon deciding that wasn’t bad enough, he wrapped it around a tree,” I said instead of a proper greeting.

  If he yelled at me for whining, I’d blame the medications or the concussion and its accompanying headache.

  There was a thump and a curse on the other end of the line, followed by the clatter of the phone bouncing on something hard. “Damn it, Dante!” my twin bellowed.

  I winced. “I’m reasonably intact, Elliot. I lucked out. However, I have a concussion, so if you could not yell in my ear, I’d appreciate it.”

  “Sorry,” he replied in a much softer voice. There was a sharp edge in his tone as he demanded, “Wher
e are you?”

  “It’s a top-secret location. I’m about to be wined and dined by one of Canada’s finest chefs, but apparently I don’t get to drink any of the wine.”

  There was a long moment of silence. “Are you all right?”

  I sighed. “I’ll live. I have a couple of stitches, a sprained wrist they insisted on trapping in a brace, a variety of cuts, and even more bruises. Add in the concussion, and I’ve seen better days. Nothing broken. I don’t know what happened to Evelyn or the others.” I could hear the worry in my voice. Maggie paused in what she was doing to stare at me. I shook my head and waved her off, earning a narrow-eyed glare.

  “Alex is frantic with worry about both you and Richard, let alone the ladies. Remind me to thank Gerald for the sleeping pills he managed to get me a prescription for. I don’t know what are in his, but they calmed him down.”

  “I’m sorry I worried you.”

  “Damn straight you worried me!” he bellowed.

  “Headache,” I reminded him.

  “Sorry. Seriously, where are you?”

  “I’m with Gerald, who has informed me that he didn’t mean for me to end up hospitalized when he wanted me to enjoy Canadian hospitality.”

  My twin snorted. “You’re in a good mood.”

  “It’s the drugs.”

  “What do they have you on?”

  “No idea. Gerald had Maggie guard the hoard to ensure they’re out of the kids’ reach and ensure they’re stuffed down my throat at the appropriate intervals.”

  Maggie laughed. “Tell your brother I said hello, please.”

  “The drug dealer’s lovely wife wants me to tell you hello,” I relayed obediently.

  “Tell her thank you for me, and hello as well.”

  I played messenger before saying, “Richard’s wife is apparently trying to set a land speed record driving here from Yellowknife.”

  “Good, if Richard was hurt in the crash, we’ll need her to keep him under control. But seriously, are you all right?”

  I had the feeling he wasn’t going to leave me alone until I told him everything I knew, so I said, “I came within a few inches of losing my head. That said, if I hadn’t been trapped in the cockpit, I probably would have walked away. From what Gerald has told me, it took the rescue people three chainsaws and two hours to cut me out.”