"We can make arrangements to pick you up and take you home," Mom offered. "Someone will be with you, in case threats are made. We can notify the police, too, if they harass you further."
"A ride wouldn't be a bad idea," Sarah agreed. "I don't want that to happen again. They were really rude."
"Then Adam will drive you home today, and Lion will follow you in your car," Mom said. "I don't think those boys are stupid enough to toss insults at adults."
"They're not brave enough to toss insults at adults," I said. "They're cowards, and can't stand up to anybody unless they have friends with them."
"That's true," Gina agreed with me. "If they think they have the edge, they'll be as nasty as they want. Threaten them back and they run."
"That's usually how things work. Just watch out for them to come running back with bigger, badder friends," Mack said. I realized he was talking about the night before, as well as Randall Pierce.
Did what we fought last night have bigger, badder friends waiting? Grampa Frank and Uncle Merrill said they existed and to watch out for them. I wanted to shiver. I forced the fear back as best I could and tuned into the conversation again.
* * *
"If his dad lost his job, Randall will lose his car," Mack pointed out quietly on our way back to class. "He thinks this is our fault, instead of placing the blame where it belongs. He'll retaliate, just wait and see."
"I hope not," Gina hugged herself beside me. "I know he's a bully, but surely he wouldn't do anything serious."
"I wouldn't put anything past him," Sarah grumped. "We saw what he did to Justin's car."
"Yeah. It still isn't fixed," I said. It sat in one of our garage spaces, a forlorn remnant of its former glory. I'd liked my car, even though it wasn't a sports car like some of the others had, or painted a flashy color.
The Honda was reliable, and never failed to get me where I was going.
Your dad says the property here is warded, whatever that means, Mack sent as we walked into our afternoon classroom and lessons with Bearcat.
I think it means that Randall can't get past the gate, I replied.
School let out early that afternoon. I was glad, because Mack and I were nearly asleep when Bearcat handed out a writing assignment and sent all of us out the door.
Just as Dad promised, he drove Sarah and Gina home and Lion followed in Sarah's car. No sightings of Randall Pierce, but that didn't mean anything. I was suspicious of him, anyway.
Mack and I slept until dinner, worked on our homework assignment for a while afterward and went back to bed. Fighting spawn was tiring work, no matter how you looked at it.
* * *
A long grocery list lay on the island when we walked into the kitchen on Thursday morning. Breakfast waited, so Mack and I dug in.
"Extra crackers and peanut butter?" Mom teased Mack as she added things to the list. "Marlianna and I are going to the store after a while."
"Cookies?" I begged. I loved the kind that were crunchy on the outside with frosting on the inside.
"One package, and you have to make it last," Mom pointed a finger at me.
"Will do," I grinned. She didn't buy those cookies often, because of the HFCS and palm oil added. Fresh-baked was always better, but I had a thing for evil sandwich cookies.
Mack and I shuffled away to brush our teeth after breakfast, so we could get to class on time. We'd discovered that Joey liked his students to be punctual.
* * *
Adam's Journal
I was on the phone with Martin Walters when Kiarra and Marlianna went out the door. With so many people in the house, we needed more groceries more often. I waved at her as they walked toward the door leading into the garage.
I should have gone with them.
* * *
Justin's Journal
About an hour into our afternoon classes, I knew something was wrong. So did Bearcat.
"I'll be back," he stopped in midsentence and practically ran from the room. Gina and Sarah turned to Mack and me, but I felt terrified and ill for some reason.
"I gotta go, I think I'm gonna be sick," I ran out behind Bearcat.
I skidded across the kitchen tiles in time to see Dad carrying Mom into the house. She was covered in blood and I wanted to shout.
Lion followed Dad, and he held Marlianna so tightly against his side they looked like one person.
"Out of the way," Karzac appeared from nowhere with Dragon. Pheligar appeared right behind Karzac and looked like a blue thundercloud.
"Justin, come with us." Uncle Lynx arrived, with Aunt Wolf behind him. Lynx wrapped a strong arm around my shoulders and pulled me back so Dad could get past.
"What happened?" I still felt queasy, but now I wanted to cry, too. Mom wasn't conscious, and that frightened me in ways I couldn't begin to describe.
"Humans, backed by larger spawn," Aunt Wolf growled. I recognized that growl. It belonged to a wolf. "In a parking lot, of all places," she added.
"They attacked in the grocery store parking lot?" I squeaked.
"That's right, in broad daylight," Lynx huffed. "Somebody was watching for them to leave the property."
"What the hell is going on?" Merrill raced into the kitchen and demanded. I could tell he was ready to take somebody apart, too.
"Kiarra and Marlianna were attacked outside the grocery story," Wolf explained. "Kee fought them off, but she was wounded and now she may lose the baby."
Before then, I didn't know Merrill's background. I knew enough, though, to recognize Latin when I heard it. He was cursing and running down the hall toward Mom and Dad's bedroom in a blink.
"What happened?" Mack, Gina and Sarah walked into the kitchen.
"Justin's mother was in an accident," Wolf said. "I think school is over for today. Lynx and I will drive you home."
* * *
"They attacked her outside the grocery store?" Mack shook his head in disbelief after Lynx and Wolf herded Gina and Sarah into the garage and drove away.
"Yeah. I don't know how many, but Wolf and Lynx said that humans and older spawn attacked."
"This sucks," Mack shivered. "I mean really, really sucks."
"Yeah. I hope Uncle Karzac can do something."
* * *
Adam's Journal
"Stay with me, Kiarra," Pheligar said. He and Karzac managed to bring her back to consciousness, but she was naked and covered in blood as they struggled to save the babe. She was also crying as she lay on our bed, so I did my best to soothe her with mindspeech while the best physician I knew and a Larentii worked over her.
Dragon was hunched over in a corner, going quietly insane, I think, because his mate, as tiny and inconsequential as she was, was slipping away from us.
Justin and Mack needed information, too, and they'd been left alone in the kitchen while Lynx and Wolf took care of the human girls. Bearcat and Joey waited nearby, in case their healing services might be requested, but there was little for them to do except worry.
Lion had his hands full with Marlianna, and eventually folded her from the room, as she was still terrified after the attack and shaking after seeing what she assumed to be a miscarriage.
"Kiarra, focus on me," Pheligar said. "Connect with me. I will lend you what I can." He began to glow, and eventually Kiarra was bathed in blue light. Karzac pulled his hands away—Pheligar was doing something I'd never seen or heard of before.
We watched as slowly, so slowly, things came back to normal and the blue light disappeared. Karzac placed his hands on Kiarra's abdomen, then dropped to his knees bedside our bed in relief.
"The child lives," he croaked.
"I must feed," Pheligar's voice was little more than a whisper as he disappeared. He'd spent the vast energy he had to save my daughter.
* * *
Justin's Journal
"Your Dad and Karzac will stay with her for a while," Joey and Bearcat walked into the kitchen. Joey sat on a barstool, while Bearcat wrapped his arms around Joey. For t
he first time in my life, I saw Joey shaking while Bearcat did his best to make Joey comfortable and calm him down.
"She's fine; they saved the baby," Bearcat laid a kiss on top of Joey's head. "They're letting her sleep, now."
She's all right, Son, filtered into my head. The baby, too. Karzac's keeping her in a healing sleep, that's all.
Thanks, Dad, I returned.
Wolf and Lynx didn't come back until an hour and a half later, but they had Dad's SUV filled with groceries. They'd gotten what was on Mom's list and then some. Mack and I, still feeling as if the ground had shifted beneath our feet, helped them unload everything and put it away.
I never knew Wolf had a healer until then, but he arrived and she introduced him. Antiani wasn't human. Oh, he looked mostly human, but he only had three fingers and a thumb, instead of the usual four. His skin was the color of pale coffee, his eyes were green and he smiled a lot.
He fixed dinner for us—beef stir-fry, with help from Wolf and Lynx. Dinner that night was a somber meeting with everybody in the house. Daniel, who'd been out most of the night before with the Fresno Pack, wandered downstairs and stopped dead still when Wolf turned to hand him a plate.
Lynx caught the plate before it fell, because Wolf had done the same as Daniel, forgetting she held a plate to start with. Mack blinked at me before we both turned back to stare.
Daniel moved first, raising his hand slowly, as if he were afraid he'd spook Wolf and make her disappear.
I heard her intake of breath, then, because for a few moments, she'd forgotten to breathe.
It's the M'Fiyah, Lynx sent as he stepped back quietly. Mate recognition, he translated, after realizing I didn't understand what M'Fiyah meant.
I think I released a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding when Daniel's hand touched Wolf's face, then held my breath again as Wolf turned her cheek into Daniel's cupped hand and closed her eyes in ecstasy.
We were watching love at first sight, six-point-oh.
"Holy, freaking cow," Mack mumbled beside me.
They heard, Daniel dropped his hand, Wolf turned pink and both laughed. Then, all during dinner, Daniel had his hands on Wolf as often as possible and both disappeared the moment it was polite to do so.
Mack and I did the dishes, so everybody else went to the back deck to talk. Half of them carried drinks. Dragon, who'd come in at the last, didn't speak, ate quickly and poured bourbon from Dad's private stash into a glass before going with the others.
He'd had a hard day, too.
"Think we can sneak in to see Mom?" Mack whispered as he shut the dishwasher door and turned it on.
"I hope so," I nodded. "Let's go."
Karzac and Dad were with her; she was still asleep when we walked in as softly as we could.
I was surprised that the blood had disappeared. Actually, it shouldn't be a surprise. If somebody can build a mansion in a day using power, I guess cleanup is nothing after that.
She's fine—we'll wake her in a few minutes, she needs to eat, Dad sent.
So do you, I pointed out. Leftovers are on the stove, and Antiani made noodles with mushrooms and tofu for Mom.
Antiani is a good cook, Dad replied. That's your mother's favorite dish that he makes. When he and Raheela cook together, your mother always asks for a plate.
Raheela?
Lynx's healer. She's an elf. They're together, they just like to keep that fact secret. Antiani doesn't want to aggravate the Elf King.
There's an Elf King? My head was reeling as The Lord of the Rings swept through my mind.
It's nothing like that, Dad offered a mental chuckle. I hear the Elf King can use profanity better than anyone, and that includes your mother. He was angry that Lynx stole one of his citizens away to become his healer. That's where the secrecy comes in.
I wish I understood that better, I shook my head.
That's when Mom moved on the bed and opened her eyes. "Honey?" she spoke to me, first. "Have you and Mack had dinner?"
Mack relaxed visibly and laughed.
Chapter 9
Justin's Journal
Friday morning, things were almost back to normal. Or as normal as they could be, under the circumstances. Pheligar appeared, though, during breakfast, which was served by a smiling Antiani.
Dad herded Mom to the kitchen, and I guess that's what Pheligar was waiting for. "I know you will not like this, but you must stay on the grounds or ask someone else with sufficient power to be with you if you leave," he said as Mom sat at the island with Dad's help. "This child is draining you in some way, so it is advisable to stop using your power immediately."
"I've already figured that out," Mom frowned at Pheligar. She didn't want to be reminded, I think, of what she'd already discovered for herself.
"I see that," Pheligar said softly. "I wish it could be otherwise, but I cannot change this for you, as much as I'd prefer to do so."
"This is so fucked up," Mom dropped her face in her hands.
Dad rubbed her shoulders carefully while Antiani set plates of food in front of them.
"Are you prepared for this night?" Pheligar turned to Mack and me, then. Mack, who'd been busy shoving scrambled eggs in his mouth, blinked at Pheligar.
"Yeah," I rolled my shoulders uncomfortably. We'd had time, Mack and I, to repeatedly consider the events of Tuesday night and what that had almost cost us, then the events of Thursday morning added to that worry, when Mom had been hurt while fighting off two huge spawn and three humans.
"What happened to the humans?" I thought to ask. I figured the spawn were dead—nobody said they weren't.
"In jail," Dad growled. I went still. "Your mother got injured attempting to save their lives," he added. I could tell that angered him.
"One of them was Randall Pierce's dad, wasn't it?" Mack asked after swallowing a mouthful of egg.
"You guessed correctly," Dad nodded, his eyes showing a flash of red. I knew then that if Dad had been there, all three humans might be dead for attacking Mom.
"Who else, then?" Mack dropped his eyes and picked at a piece of bacon on his plate.
"Friends of Raymond Pierce," Mom said. "Older bullies, just like him, who thought they'd have an easy time of it, getting back at people who had nothing to do with his getting fired."
"It's a no-brainer to see where Randall's habits come from," Mack muttered.
"They had no idea that the spawn intended to bite them after they took me down," Mom explained. "When I fought back against the spawn, they turned on those men, instead. It was all I could do to fend off the humans and still fight the spawn, who wanted to attack all of us at that point."
"Lion and I got there as fast as we could," Dad said. "Your mother was forced to use the last bit of strength she had to protect Marlianna and keep us from killing the humans after the spawn dusted. The dusting hit her—she couldn't shield herself and Marlianna, too."
"Pheligar sent Tiger to deal with the police," Mom sighed. "She took care of all that while your father brought me home. It was inconvenient for her, because she was on assignment."
"Wow," I shook my head. "Have you ever done that?" I stared curiously at my parents.
"Kiarra, as First, is usually the one I rely on, if she is available. Lion is also good at that sort of thing. Dragon generally intimidates everyone, so I hesitate to send him into a situation such as that," Pheligar answered my question. "Your father has gone a few times," he said, "Although his first instinct is to place compulsion to ensure cooperation."
Mom snickered and rubbed Dad's back at Pheligar's admission.
"Kee?" Wolf walked into the kitchen, closely followed by Daniel, who looked as if he wanted to warn every other male on the planet away from Wolf. She hugged Mom while Daniel waited patiently.
"That jealousy will be terminated immediately, it has no place here," Pheligar waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. Daniel stepped back and blinked, confused for a moment.
Dad turned his head to hide a grin. I added another q
uestion to the huge backlog accumulating in my head.
"You okay?" Wolf asked Mom as she pulled away, ignoring completely whatever Pheligar had done and the effect it had on Daniel.
"I'm okay, thanks to Pheligar and Karzac," she sighed. "The baby, too. I just can't use any power from here on out. It's too dangerous."
"It is," Dragon appeared and nodded to Daniel and Wolf. "How is my little one?" he patted Mom's stomach.
"Your little one is fine," Mom said. "I intend to keep it that way."
"I worry that you'll not keep that promise, if things go awry," Pheligar said.
"What?" Mom and Dad said in unison.
"Kiarra, I am asking your permission to suppress your power, so you will not be tempted," Pheligar said. "I will leave your shields intact, but everything else I can suppress until the baby is born."
"But that will mean," she said, slipping off her barstool and blinking at Pheligar.
"It means that you will have to rely on others for the next six months, just as it would normally be," he said. "The only difference is that you can't be tempted to use what you do not possess at the moment."
"You're really worried about this, aren't you?"
"Yes." Pheligar's eyes were half closed as he offered a small nod. "I fear that too many things might go wrong. You were targeted yesterday. I do not wish to see a repeat of that. You cannot go anywhere alone from now on, and you must depend on others to fight the battle. You will still provide input, as you usually do, but the war will be waged by those around you."
"I feel bad enough that we're shoving Justin and Mack into this mess, along with Mack's dad and his sister's fiancé," she complained while Dad helped her onto the barstool again.
"Mom, stop worrying," I said. "We'll find a way."
"Then fine," Mom flopped a hand in the air. "Suppress my power or whatever it is you have to do."
"Kiarra, I know this troubles you," Pheligar rose and placed his hands on her shoulders. "This is to prevent worse things, I assure you."
"I know."
Mack and I watched, openmouthed, as light formed about Mom. When it was gone, Pheligar sighed. "It is suppressed," he said.
"Boys, it's almost time for school," Mom reminded us. Mack and I left the kitchen to brush our teeth.
Wyvern and Company Page 12