My Furry Valentine

by Karen Ranney

  Nor was she smart enough to figure out that if Mark was strong — and different — so was I.

  Dumb bunny.

  "Who are you?" I said. "And whoever gave you the idea that I talked Mark into anything doesn't know Mark very well.”

  She didn't say anything for a moment, merely blinked up at me with eyes that now looked as if they pooled with tears. I was almost ready to admit that I was at fault. Anything but have her cry. She was a first rate champion cryer. I should be so good.

  "You’re Mark's sister-in-law," I guessed.

  She nodded.

  Dear God in heaven, did that mean that Mark’s wife had been this gorgeous? Probably. Damn. I couldn't even compete.

  "I don't know your name," I said.

  “Danielle," she said, rather regally. "Danielle Rocheleau.”

  Good manners dictated then I invite her into Graystone, but I was feeling a little contrary right now. I didn't like being insulted on my own doorstep, so I wasn't inclined to invite the person insulting me into my home.

  I really should have said the spell because I could hear the traffic on the other side of the band of trees separating Graystone’s land from the rest of the world. An insect a good ten yards away made a buzzing sound, almost as if he were talking to another bug remaining behind in the grass. And Danielle? She was breathing rapidly, her heart beating hard as if this encounter was revving up her adrenaline.

  “Where is Mark?" I asked her.

  I half expected her to refuse to answer, get on her high horse and turn and walk away to her cute little car at the base of the steps. It was a yellow convertible, something that attracted attention, just like the woman herself.

  “He’s with me,” she said.

  And that's exactly where she wanted him to remain.

  I wondered if Mark knew that his sister-in-law had the hots for him. I had no doubt that Mark was spending time with his daughter and that being around Danielle was only incidental. She on the other hand, was intent on making it more.

  Danielle was here more to take the lay of the land, as it were, than to announce to me that Mark was in trouble.

  The two of us exchanged a long look and in that few seconds I knew that war had been declared.

  I hadn't yet decided if hostilities were going to erupt between me and Mark or me and Danielle. Why the hell hadn’t Mark told me that he was staying with his daughter? Did he think I couldn’t be trusted? Did he believe I would put her in danger?

  “Stay away from him," Danielle said. "For his sake. Everyone in our clan knows who you are. Just because your father is important doesn't mean you are.”

  That was a new one. I had never been accused of wanting to be important simply because my name was Boyd. For most of my life I’d done everything in my power to avoid being linked to my father in any way.

  Pepper growled again and I almost sicced the Brood on her. I was afraid that if they bit her, however, they might get poisoned.

  Wasn't there a Disney witch who was gorgeous and red-haired? My memory might be playing tricks on me, but I recalled, even as a child, thinking that beauty really didn't count if you were a mean person.

  "His clan doesn't approve," she said. “His brothers certainly don’t approve.”

  Up until two weeks ago, I was all for being loyal to siblings and all that jazz. After my brother had tried to kill me my attitude had undergone a profound transformation. Loyalty simply because of blood or familial ties was less important to me than loyalty earned.

  If Mark's brothers couldn't deal with who he had become, that was their problem, not his.

  "I would think that you'd be on Mark's side," I said. “Given that your sister was married to him. Does he know that you’re his brothers’ spy?”

  It was just a guess, but it was an educated one.

  Her face changed from angry to no expression at all. That is, unless you noticed the hatred in her beautiful green eyes. Hatred that I had no doubt was directed solely at me.

  Well, it was pretty much mutual.

  I really wished the aura thing that I saw from time to time didn’t work on its own schedule. I would have loved to learn what this woman wanted to keep hidden.

  I really had too much to do to stand here and exchange barbs with Danielle. She’d come here to see who I was and she had seen. Lucky her, at least I had dressed this morning and put on makeup and done my hair. I wasn't wearing scrubs and I wasn't covered in dog hair – well, not that much dog hair.

  Competition I wasn’t, but I’d never go to her house to check her out. I wasn't that juvenile. Or insecure. Or grasping, for that matter. If Mark wanted to do the hanky-panky with his sister-in-law, that didn't involve me. However, I would make sure he didn't darken my door again or cross the threshold into my bedroom.

  As far as his brothers? We’d already discussed that and it was something that he would have to handle all on his own. Mark was a grown man and a damn intelligent one. He didn't need a woman trailing behind him gnashing her teeth, wailing, and rending her garments. Mark could handle whatever he had to handle without Danielle's assistance.

  Of that, I was certain.

  I didn’t bother to tell her that, however.

  "If that's all you wanted," I said taking a step back and reaching for the door.

  "You won't be safe," she said, looking almost triumphant as she said the words. "If they come for him, they won't spare you.”

  Let's see, over the past two weeks I’d been transfused almost to the point of exsanguination, had a rabid vampire clawing at my home, been terminated, learned a deadly secret, and was faced with a family “reunion" I didn't even want to contemplate.

  Now this woman, this strange Frenchwoman, was lobbing threats at me. Pardon me if I didn’t respond.

  “Okay, warning issued and received," I said, and closed the door in her face.

  Chapter Fifteen

  All in all it wasn’t a good feeling

  I headed to the porch, putting Pepper down and making him walk for himself. Everyone, blessedly, had stopped barking although I didn't blame them for the earlier cacophony. Just for grins, I said the spell as I walked toward the back of the house.

  At that point in my day I was feeling unwanted, unloved, stressed, angry and maybe not ugly but certainly not attractive. All in all, it wasn't a good feeling.

  I wanted to cry, but crying would only make me angrier. I couldn't quite figure out who I was angry at. Mark? My father? Austin? Alice and Derek? My grandmother? The list went on and on. Or, I could just simplify everything and admit that I was mad at myself.

  I was in love with Mark and I wasn't going to pretend that I felt otherwise. I’d been jealous standing in the doorway looking at Mark’s sister-in-law, knowing that she and Mark had a history together and more than one emotional tie. It didn’t help that I imagined Mark’s wife as this gorgeous creature, either.

  I walked back into the dining room, withdrew the sniffer from my pocket and pointed it at the window again. It registered in the red zone, just as it had earlier. I examined everything again, just like I had the first time, but I couldn't find anything. Maybe I needed to go outside and look around. Maybe there was some kind of antenna embedded in the brick. What did I know about eavesdropping electronics?

  Or maybe it was just picking up on some electrical wires or incoming cables. The cable box was not far from this corner of the house.

  I made myself some iced tea and went to sit on the porch — the human side — staring out at the lawn. Wilson and Simon were both hard at work. I needed to talk to both men, Wilson about the rose garden and Simon about building a clinic.

  I tried to remember what I’d done when I got home yesterday, after I’d signed the release of my contract. I had gathered up the Brood and I’d talked to them. Had I actually come out and told them that I was terminated? Had I said the words once I gotten back to Graystone? I couldn’t remember. So if my father didn't overhear me say anything then how had he learned of my termination? Did he
have a mole inside the clinic?

  For that matter, if there was actually a bug somewhere at Graystone, wouldn't he have learned of Austin's actions two weeks ago? Wouldn't he know what my brother had done?

  That question only spurred a few more. If he had known, did he tacitly approve? That thought made me sick to my stomach. Was my father a Wolfie, too? I knew he was a stickler for rules and regulations, but he’d never struck me as the kind of Were who’d go overboard by believing Weres were better than any other creature.

  Had he been willing for me to almost die to become pure again?

  All my life I’d understood how powerful my father was. Maybe the power, the sense of control, had gone to his head. Well, when it came to me, he was just going to have to live with the idea that I wasn’t his puppet.

  I finally got off the couch and made my way to the back of the property.

  I spoke to Simon and asked him his thoughts about building a clinic. We talked for a little while and he gave me several names of people he’d worked with in the past. A good thing, since I didn't personally know any architects.

  "You'd have to arrange for a parking lot here, too, Torrance," Simon said.

  I nodded.

  “And maybe you could have Wilson plant a hedge between the clinic and the rest of the yard, just to give you some privacy.”

  I nodded again. I would have to talk to Wilson before he did any more work on the rose garden. Where I was tentatively planning on putting the clinic would destroy half the area he had planned. He would just have to move it a few hundred feet away.

  I didn't know what a proper timeline should be. Should I meet with the architect before my attorney or afterward? I suspected I would be better off consulting my attorney — who did not work for my father — before I did anything else. I dialed him and made an appointment for the next day.

  I never had a problem getting in to see him. That had a lot to do with my inheritance. The shipping fortune my grandmother left me was probably a huge part of the annual income for my attorney. Heaven knows it felt that way when I got his billable hours.

  I walked back to the house, letting the dogs free. As long as I was with them, I didn't mind if they explored Graystone. My only worry was the heavy traffic beyond my property. I didn’t want them wandering into the path of a car.

  They stuck close to me, however, almost as if they couldn't believe that I was home and wanted to make sure that I wouldn't disappear when they turned their backs.

  When my great-grandfather had built Graystone, he’d also purchased several acres of land around the house. Now it sat like its own fiefdom, perched on a hill with woods surrounding it. The trees had been planted sometime in the past fifty years, probably to obscure the view of Graystone from curious eyes.

  When I climbed to the top of the bell tower, which wasn't often, I could see the skyline of San Antonio as well as the latticework of streets in our incorporated city.

  While I was outside, I examined the area around the dining room window. Just as I remembered, the cable box was there, along with the electrical and gas meters. Maybe that's what the sniffer had picked up. I pulled it out of my pocket and aimed it at the brick wall. It gave me the same result as it had inside the house.

  I was inclined to think that it was nothing more than electrical interference. If in doubt, look for the simplest answer.

  I dialed Mark again, but this time I left a message. Maybe I should have waited a while before I called him. Maybe I should have given myself time to decompress. Maybe I should have written the message down, edited it, and thought about it before leaving it on his phone.

  “Your sister-in-law paid me a visit,” I said. I deliberately smoothed my voice so I didn’t sound emotional. I didn’t want him to know I was upset. “She said that you’d been staying with her. Perhaps that’s a better arrangement than being here at Graystone with me. Let me know and I can leave your stuff with Wilson or Simon.”

  With that, I hung up, gathered up the Brood and went inside my house, feeling not so victorious as desperately depressed.

  Chapter Sixteen

  So we were all nuts

  The meeting with my attorney was anticlimactic. I’d anticipated that he would be reluctant about my plans to open my own clinic. It was only after I left that I realized I’d given him a windfall. He’d have oodles of reasons to bill me for more administrative work. I’d have to set up a PLLC with all the attendant paperwork, not to mention other stuff I didn’t even know about yet.

  It was my CPA who was going to have a cow. He didn’t like me spending any money and was parsimonious to a fault. The fact was, I had gotten good investment advice and I’d already added to Sonny’s bequest, even considering the funds needed to pay for my education. I was going to start off the meeting by giving him the check I’d received from Derek. Buying into the practice had been a nice little chunk of change.

  The next two weeks were both agonizing and fast enough that they passed in a blur. I kept busy doing all those things I’d never had time to do, like cleaning — be still my heart. I was an industrious little bunny, keeping the dust flying and the vacuum running. The vacuum was so loud and my hearing so acute that I had to keep mumbling the spell. I single handedly cleaned all fifty-three rooms, ensuring that I fell into bed exhausted each night.

  Simon installed all the cameras I purchased at the spy store and never once questioned my paranoia. Nor did he ask why Mark had suddenly vanished.

  I wouldn’t have known how to answer that question, especially since Mark’s absence was beginning to worry me. I even called Marcie and asked if she’d gotten any “feelings” about Mark. We were all telepathically linked, more or less. Marcie and I more than anyone else since I’d received two transfusions from her. But if Mark was in trouble, she should have gotten some sort of bat signal or something.

  You know how when someone is sympathetic to what’s going on with you, but they don’t want to come out and ask any questions? Maybe they thought it would be too personal. Or maybe they sensed you were an emotional wreck. So they talked about mundane subjects like the weather or how Jack was fitting into life at the castle in a really soft, sympathetic voice. Marcie’s obvious compassion both made me wish that I could discuss Mark and embarrassed the hell out of me because I felt so needy.

  I was almost relieved to hang up.

  I hadn’t broken down and called Mark again. Nor had I called his sea hag of a sister-in-law. I didn’t have her number anyway, but I knew it wouldn’t be all that difficult to get.

  Simon and I met with three architects, talked to them about my dream for a clinic, and commissioned drawings from each. It was probably an unnecessary expense, but I wanted a structure that could be expanded, if necessary, in the future. The most important element, however, was that it remain true to Graystone. In other words, I didn’t want an industrial looking, square structure. If that meant putting gargoyles on the eaves of the clinic, that was fine with me.

  I also wanted whoever got the commission to look at certain aspects of Graystone with an eye to how they could be preserved. I was especially concerned about the intricate fireplace surrounds, the bell tower, and the grand staircase, not to mention my great-grandfather's wood paneled library and the stained glass windows on the upper floors. A great deal of artistry had gone into constructing Graystone. The least I could do was ensure that I was a good steward to the house.

  For those weeks I was a hermit as far as anyone outside of Graystone was concerned. The Brood was thrilled. They had me all to themselves with the exception of Simon and Wilson.

  We played endless games of fetch, to Pepper’s delight and Cherry Pip’s utter boredom. I taught Dalton some tricks and he was so good at learning them that I thought I should enter him in a few obedience trials.

  Finally, I made an appointment with my CPA and girded my loins for what would probably be a contentious meeting. To my surprise it wasn’t. Evidently, love had come to the accounting ranks and most of our convers
ation consisted of my CPA rhapsodizing over his lady love while I made appropriate approving murmurs and nodded.

  Everybody was lucky in love except for me.

  Nope, didn’t want to go there.

  It wasn’t until I got home that I realized it was a full moon tonight. I’d been a little preoccupied lately, but it had slipped up on me and that had never happened before. Not only was it a full moon tonight, but tomorrow was a Council meeting. I had to attend, either that or expect the entire Council to come looking for me the way they had last time. Of course, they’d saved my bacon then.

  I shooed the Brood outside to do their thing. When they returned they sat at my feet panting as I ate my sandwich and drank a glass of iced tea. I ignored their “I’m starving” looks as I contemplated the evening.

  I wasn't going to do what I’d had done the month before, drive to Kerrville and go on the Hunt by myself. I’d learned my lesson when the scary Were had approached me.

  The fact was, I wasn't sure I had completely healed from the transfusion yet. I hadn’t felt like myself for the past two weeks. Of course, that could be because I was still depressed about the end of my love affair.

  Love is an amazing emotion, but it’s finite in some ways. In order to be truly experienced it has to be reciprocated. We can’t just sit and gaze on our loved one from afar. Love isn’t a one way emotion. It grows and deepens when the one you love responds and loves you back.

  Maybe that’s what was wrong with me. I was lovesick. I felt slightly off and certainly more emotional. I needed to keep a tight rein around my feelings. Otherwise, I could explode in a burst of anger or end up telling someone exactly what I thought when I should just keep quiet.

  Even worse, I wasn’t in control. I’d come close to confessing everything to my father. I wanted to tell him what Austin had done to me, who I actually was now, the transfusion, and my enhanced abilities, such as they were. I'm not sure how super hearing would benefit me. Maybe it would just end up being a pain in the ears. My sense of smell seemed greater, too. Witness the incident with the scent of roses.