“No, but I thought if it looked like we were together, then she’d not bolt. I can feel her; she is hungry, and the baby, another little girl, is about starved. We’ll have to find a wet nurse for her.” Micky told her what Pena had said. “Yes, she’s been abused. The baby hasn’t been, but it was close. Pena killed them both by poison. She knows her plants too.”
They moved around the ground, not really pulling anything more but talking about the things that they’d found. When Pena returned, she had a baby bundled in her arms, but she didn’t come any closer. Micky was afraid they’d both starve to death if she didn’t do something now.
“This is my sister, Raven. Raven, this is Pena and Kerrie. I was going to take them to my house and feed them a fine feast.” Raven asked if she could see the baby, but Pena backed up. “You will not leave here again. You’ll come to me.”
She fought her, so hard that her nose bled from it, but finally, in the end, Raven took the baby and Micky held onto Pena. They were both unwell. Raven took the quickest route home, magic. Micky couldn’t do that, not with a sick child in her arms. Their magic was different, and while she could do a lot of the things that Raven could, transporting two people was something that only Raven could do. When she returned, saying that she’d found someone to feed the child, she asked if Pena would come with her to see her sister.
“She’s gonna be filled up with milk? I don’t have none. I tried, but I don’t have none.” Micky asked her how old she was. “I’ll be seven in the winter. My momma said that I was as cold as the day she birthed me. And she didn’t like Kerrie none either.”
“Well, I’m glad that you came to us.” When they got to the house, Micky assured her that she’d be welcome. She had contacted Vance to let him know what was going on, and he was on the porch when they came up the steps. “Vance is my husband. He’s been making sure that the town is run right.”
“Hello.” Pena hid behind her and didn’t go anywhere near Vance. “I have some cookies for you, should you like them. My sister and brother cook all the time, and they just dropped off some of the best ones I’ve ever eaten. I can share them with you if you’d like.”
“I’ve never had a cookie before.” Pena moved around Micky, but didn’t go any further toward Vance than to take a cookie from his outstretched hand. When she broke it in half, putting part of it into her dirty dress pocket, Micky felt her heart tear up. The child was starving, and would save some of this for later.
Taking her into the house, Raven took Pena to see her sister. One of the women in the town had just recently had a baby, and had been more than happy to help out. The baby was weak, but with a little magic from Micky, she ate until her belly was full. Pena sat very still on the chair when a burger and fries were set in front of her.
“Now, I know that you’re thinking we’d hurt you,” Vance took a fry and put the whole thing in his mouth as he cut her burger in half. “We’d never do that. You know who we are too, don’t you?”
“The McCades.” Vance nodded and took a bite of her burger. “You won’t poison me, will you? I had to do it. They were hurting me, and they were gonna hurt my little sister. She’s hard to care for, but she’s my sister.”
“I know that. I have a son here; did you know that?” She said that she’d not heard that. “His name is Caelin. I have to tell you something, I think he’d love to have a big sister like you. Would you like that?”
Pena eyed Vance hard, like she was studying him for something that he might want from her. Vance for the most part ignored her, eating his own burger and fries as he got them all a glass of tea. When she finally took one of the halves of the burger off the plate and started eating it, Vance cautioned her to eat slowly so she’d not be sick.
“It’s been a while since you had any food, so if you eat too fast, your belly will be upset and make it all come back up. So take your time. There are plenty of cookies to be had.” Pena ate slowly then, taking a small bite and chewing it fully before swallowing. “See, you’re doing just fine.”
Micky watched the two of them eat. Vance did most of the talking, telling her about their son and the house that she was in. And casually, he asked about her parents between other things. Pena answered him, telling him not only what had happened, but where the bodies were.
“My dad, he was nasty to me. I know that he’s not supposed to touch me like that.” Vance asked her how many times he’d done it. “All the time. But momma, she said that I should just shut my trap and let him. It’d be over soon.”
“I’m glad that you knew it wasn’t right. But to kill them, that’s sort of sad, don’t you think? I mean, maybe they could have gotten some help.” Pena shook her head. “You don’t think so?”
“I told him I weren’t gonna do it no more. That it hurts me when I have to pee and stuff. But he slapped me all over.” She stood up and lifted her shirt. The marks on her small body were terrifying. “I hurt real bad after that, and he went after Kerrie. She’s just a baby, and I had to keep him off her. Momma, she was real mad on account ’a she said she’d have to take my place. Momma said it was better for me than her. That ain’t right.”
“No, it’s not right at all.” Vance looked at Micky, then back at the little girl as he spoke softly to her. “I’m going to get my big brother Kenton. He’s a doctor, and I want him to have a look at your sores. You can trust him not to hurt you. He’s a very nice man with children of his own.”
“I need to see to my sister. She’s gonna need me too.” Vance told her that Kenton would want to examine her as well, just to make sure that she didn’t have a cold. “I tried real hard not to let her get a chill. But we’d been outside for a long time.”
“Do you know how long you’ve been outside, Pena?” She said she didn’t, but Micky could see that she was exhausted. She was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. “How about you go with Micky here, and I’ll go and get my brother. While you’re getting a bath, I can have him look at your sister.”
“He’d better not hurt her. I’m little, but I’m mean too.” Vance said that he could see that about her, but no one would hurt them again. When Micky was taking her to the bathroom to have a bath, she asked her what her last name was. “I’m a Stevenson, but that ain’t my dad’s last name. His is Walter. My sister was born this year, but I don’t remember when. I’m sure tired. Can I take me a nap first, please?”
“I think you’d sleep much better all cleaned up. And one of my friends is going to bring you a pretty gown to put on to sleep in. You don’t want to get it dirty, do you?” Pena said she didn’t, but yawned again. “Let’s hurry up so you can rest.”
Micky was heartbroken by the time she’d tucked Pena into a bed. Sobbing while standing outside her bedroom, she cried quietly against Vance’s chest as he wrapped her into his arms. He never said a word to her—she wasn’t sure what he could say to her that she’d hear right now—but just having him hold her, that was enough for now.
“Kenton said he’d examine her while she’s asleep. He’s going to give her a little something to put her under more. He thinks that if what she says is true, she’ll stress out when he tries to touch her.” She nodded and looked up at him. “The baby is all right. Undernourished, but he said a few more meals and she should be better. He wants us to keep up with having her nursed; it’ll make her stronger.”
“She’s so hurt, Vance. Like someone took a whip to her little body. And the way she talks about killing them, it’s as if she felt that she’d done the right thing.” Vance said that she probably had. “I know that, but I worry that it’ll come back on her someday, what she’s done to her parents.”
“We’ll be here for her. I’ve asked my family if they’d help us with the search for the bodies.” She told him the last names and he said that would help. “I’m not sure what we’ll find there, but you should stay here with her. Pena might have nightmares before this is all over. If she’s asleep, I’ll call Kenton up.”
The examination showed t
hat she’d been sexually abused, and it had been over a long period of time. The child had a broken rib and her knee was badly bruised. Kenton was amazed that she’d been able to get around at all, much less care for a baby.
And he was angry. Micky had never seen Kenton so angry. He told her several times that he was sorry, for what she wasn’t sure, but she hugged him when he seemed to lose the little control he had over himself.
“They did that to their own child.” She said that she didn’t understand it either. “I would have killed them myself if they were right here right now. I don’t understand how anyone, especially a parent, could do that to a child.”
“I don’t either. But they’re safe now, and we’re going to take them.” Kenton said that if they had any doubts about this, he’d take them as well. “I think we’ll be fine with it. She’s comfortable here, and she’s already settled. But she’ll need a good uncle, a bunch of them, and aunts to make sure that she knows that she’s loved, as well as her sister.”
“You know that we’ll do that.” She said that she did. “I’m going to talk to the rest of them. Let them know what we’ve found out here. They’ve gone to find the bodies, and Gabe is going to examine them for the region. I’m glad, and not happy that I can’t do it. If they’re alive, if I were there, they’d not be for long.”
“I think that Vance feels the same way.” They sat in the living room as Pena and her sister slept. She cuddled with Caelin while he slept, needing to hold onto him right now. Kenton said that he understood. That he wished he could do the same.
Handing him her son, she reached into the makeshift cradle of Kerrie and held her. The little girl was so pretty that Micky felt her heart hurt again for what these little girls had endured to live.
Chapter 13
Pena and Kerrie were in her bedroom. So much had changed in the last decade or so. Kerrie was going to be fifteen soon, and Pena had turned twenty-two three months ago. Life, she had figured out, had a way of just changing in a heartbeat, and for her and her little sister, it had turned out very well. Not all children that had been abused like them had had it so well.
“When is he getting here?” Pena laughed and said not until two-thirty. “I can’t wait that long. I bet he’s very handsome all dressed up in his suit.”
“I’ve not seen him in one. He’s always in jeans and a T-shirt when I see him.” Kerrie nodded. “You and I, we have one thing to do today before this happens. Are you ready for it?”
“Yes, but I don’t remember them at all. I’m glad, but I don’t.” Pena said that she remembered them well enough for the two of them. “I’m ready when you are.”
Pena had promised herself that on this day, she’d go and see the graves of her parents. They’d been dead for the same fifteen years that she’d been safe and happy. The McCades had been more than good to her. They’d been the best parents that anyone could ever hope to have. And not only did she have her little sister Kerrie, but she had two brothers now, and three sisters.
Some of them had been like her—children that had been hurt. Not all of them sexually, as she had been, but hurt all the same. And since she’d come to age, as she called it, Pena had decided that she wanted to be there for them as much as Kenton and the others had been for her. So graduating at the age of fifteen, and with the support of so many people, she’d gone to college to become a counselor as well as a pediatrician. It was her life’s dream to be the best she could, too.
They walked along the tree line. She knew that they weren’t buried in a cemetery. The McCades had left them where they were as the house, the shack really, had been burned down around them. For a long time they told her that it was gone when they got there, but when she figured out they were dragons, she had reckoned out that they were the ones that had done it. To spare her, Mom had told her. Pena was grateful for that as well.
She hadn’t been here before today. Pena had thought about it over the years, but never got up the nerve to do so until now. Her life was about to have another change in it, and she was happy to finally come here and talk to her parents.
Closure. She knew what the word meant now, and what it meant to her. Today she was going to go and tell them what she thought of them, as well as how her life was going now. Today, Pena was marrying the man of her dreams.
The ground where the house had been was dark. Nothing would grow there, she’d been told. The dragons had burned the ground deep and destroyed all that would have ever grown where the house had once set. Anger had made them do this. Anger at what she and Kerrie had lived with, and what they’d done to her as a child.
“Why did they die?” No one had ever told Kerrie what had happened to their parents. They had decided well before she was old enough to think of such things that it would hurt her and Pena to have to explain the why of it. So she told them what everyone thought—that the house caught fire while they were sleeping, and they died. “Is that true, Pena? I mean, I hear you having bad dreams. They hurt you, didn’t they?”
“Yes. They did.” She was willing to leave it at that if Kerrie would. She looked at the ground and thought of what she’d practiced to say to them. “You know, I was going to tell them about what today meant to me. What I was going to do with my life, but I don’t think I will.”
“They wouldn’t care.” No, even alive, she doubted that they’d care. “I think that when I grow up, I want to come out here and plant a tree. I don’t know if it’ll grow up or not, but I’m going to do it.”
“I think you should.”
The sky darkened above them, but neither of them moved. Pena was sure she knew who was visiting them, and she smiled when the large dragons landed nearby. Kerrie squealed in delight, and Pena made her way to the big blue dragon and hugged him tightly.
“Warrior, how are you doing today? I would have thought you’d be home, watching over your hatchlings.” He laughed and bumped his head gently to hers. “I love you too, you big softy. Are you and Prisane going to be at the wedding today?”
“We’d not miss it for the world.” Prisane lay down on the grass and Kerrie climbed up on her back. When they were soaring high, Pena looked at Warrior.
“You are well, my child?” She told him she was better for being here today, and for having him close. “You have always been so close to my heart, like one of my own. You are marrying a great man today. You know that, don’t you?”
“I do. I love him with all my heart, and I couldn’t have asked for a better man in my life.” Warrior nodded and lay down as well. “Have you talked to your son lately? I’ve heard that he is still having a wonderful time visiting places. I had hoped that he’d be here today too.”
“He would have, had he been able. But the place he is at now is remote. But they send their love to you. And a bit of magic that will be with you forever.” She and her sister had been made immortal by the magic of the McCades. It was nice to know that she’d live for a long time, but also scary. “You will have many children, won’t you? Vance and his wife, they are happy to have a grandchild soon.”
“So they’ve been telling us.” She laughed and sat down on his great claw. “I came out here to tell my parents what I thought of them. To tell them that I’m marrying today. That I’ve never been happier. But once I was here, seeing this place, I think my heart is as black as the earth that holds them. Not for anyone but them, of course. But as Kerrie pointed out, they’d not care anyway.”
“Nay, they would not.” She looked up to see her sister and Prisane having a good time. “She has needed to get out of the cave for some time now. I thought today would be a wonderful time to do so. To see you married today is a great honor for us dragons.”
“Warrior, I’ve been meaning to ask you—why did you choose to stay as a dragon? I thought for sure, as everyone did, that the two of you would be humans. Or at least look human like. I’m glad that you’re a dragon, but why?” He laughed a little and she felt silly. “I guess it’s none of my business.”
“Oh,
but it is, my child. It’s everyone’s business that has been in love or falls in love. We decided, while we waited for the magic to consume us, that we’d be dragons for two reasons. One, I’ve been her dragon for so very long, and she was never one. It was in her heart to fly the skies with me as she once did upon my back.” She asked him what the second reason was. “To have hatchlings. We so wanted to have our own children, dragons that would be there for us when we were too old to fly. As humans we would have had children, but it meant so much more to us to bring more of our kind into the world. And to raise them to be the best that they could be. Besides, I think there are enough McCades around that we did not need to add to it.”
They were both laughing when her sister joined them. She was windblown, but in high spirits. Prisane laid down again when Kerrie got off her back and ran to the little lake that was nearby. The large dragon looked at the spot where the earth was scorched.
“Don’t.” She raised her head up to look at her, a smile there in her eyes. “Don’t make the ground better here. I like it just the way it is. I mean, if the earth doesn’t care that it’s there, then I don’t either.”
“Your sister wishes to plant a tree in their honor. Does that bother you?” Pena told her that while it did a little, she thought it better that she didn’t know. “I think she knows more than you think. She is very intelligent, your little sister.”
“She is, but I’m not going to ruin her idea of what they were.” Prisane nodded. “I’m sorry. But I don’t want her to think that she might have been hurt. I’m sure someday that she’ll come to me with questions, or to Mom or Dad. But for now, I want to not think about them and what they did. Not today.”
“I understand.” Prisane had always been her friend, ever since she’d found her near a pond near the castle. “You have only to call to me, my dear, and you know that I’ll be there for you. For any of you.”
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