“Because your friend Rupert betrayed me.”
“Rupert? He wouldn’t.”
“Well, he did. I drove here, and when we were circling the place to see how we could get in, he made a hell of a racket, and when the guards came, instead of standing and fighting, he pushed me into them. One of them pulled a gun. I know he’s probably all for self-preservation. But really, he is not coming to the wedding.”
She smiled, and then let it drop from her face. Kain looked as if he’d been through a spin cycle in a washing machine. “I think that was Rupert’s way of getting you through the gates.”
“You want me to believe he planned this?”
“It worked, didn’t it?” She had to believe Rupert was on their side. He was so close to Santa Claus, and Mrs. Claus trusted him completely; he couldn’t betray them all.
“Mommy. Mommy, is that you?” a child’s voice called from the top of the stairs.
“You have to be kidding me,” Marra said. “Did I just turn a child’s daddy into a frog?”
“Only one way to find out,” Kain said. He walked halfway up the stairs and then stopped. “Hey there, fella, have you lost your mommy?”
“I thought you were my mommy.” He pointed at Marra. “You have my mommy’s clothes on.”
“Oh. These? Someone lent them to me. It might have been your daddy. Does your daddy have a name?”
The boy, who was around seven years old, stood up and ran along the hallway, as if on a horse. “His name is Lance, and he likes to knock people off their horses, like the Knights of the Round Table.”
“Yep, frog for a dad,” Kain said quietly to Marra, who had come to stand next to him.
“So I have to undo the spell.” She sighed loudly. “We should have a plan before I do. I don’t want him to outsmart us.”
“Hey, I’m a lawyer, no one outsmarts me.”
“Says the man who was outsmarted by Knecht Ruprecht.” She pressed her lips together, and thought for a moment. “Maybe if we take him with us outside of the mansion and change him back. Then we can run for it.”
“Good plan, although I’d like a more permanent solution.”
“You mean you want to kill him?” Marra asked incredulously. “I know he’s a frog right now, but it would still be murder.”
Kain shook his head. “I’m going to pretend those words did not come out of a fairy godmother’s mouth.”
The boy, who had crept down the stairs to stand beside them, gasped. “You’re a fairy godmother?”
“Worst-kept secret in the world, but yes, I am.”
“Daddy wasn’t making it up? Or are you pretend?”
“No, I’m real, he wasn’t making it up.” Marra crouched down, making herself at the same height as the boy. “What did your dad say about me?”
“That he was going to ask you to find my mommy and bring her home for Christmas.”
Marra sat back on her haunches. “I don’t know if I can do that.” Did Lance think the wand’s magic was strong enough to bring someone back from the dead? “I’m sorry about your mommy, but my magic isn’t that strong.”
“Daddy said it was strong enough to find a needle in a haystack.”
“It is. But…”
“So why isn’t it strong enough to find my mom on a mountain.”
“A mountain?” Marra asked, beginning to understand how Kain had felt when he was thrust into her world, the world of magic. Lance DeVere’s world seemed to be even crazier.
“Yes. She went climbing, and there was a haverlanche. My dad has spent a lot of money paying people to find her, but they couldn’t. He says we’re running out of time.”
“Oh.” So maybe they were back to raising the dead. “I’m really sorry.”
“That’s OK, because you can find her.” He grabbed hold of the wand and held it up. “I can make a wish, and you can wave your wand, and she’ll be right here.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Marra said.
“Then how does it work?” the boy asked.
Marra moved to sit on the stairs, and patted the floor for the boy to sit next to her. “What’s your name?”
“Toby.”
“Well, Toby. We can try a wish, but your mom might be too far away.” Marra didn’t mention the word heaven, which was way out of her jurisdiction. “But if she’s not, you could make a wish, and we could go find her.”
“You mean we’d go to the haverlanche?” Toby asked.
“We could go to the mountain, and if she’s … still there, we can find her.”
“Then that’s what I wish for. I wish to find my mommy.”
“OK.” Marra raised her wand, but Kain stopped her.
“Wait.” He held her wrist, stopping her from using her magic, the same magic that had been pent up inside her, fizzing and popping to come out once her wand was back in her hand.
“What?” Marra asked, hoping Kain wasn’t suddenly going to run out on her. Was he afraid of her, now she had her wand? “I thought you’d accepted my magic. And this way you’ll see real, actual proof.”
“I do believe,” he said, letting go of her and lifting his hand to stroke her cheek. “But we can’t exactly leave the frog here, can we? What if…” He left the words hanging in the air.
Marra looked at Toby, and knew what Kain was trying to say. What if we go to this haverlanche and find a dead body? Toby would need his dad there to comfort him.
“Go get him,” Marra said. “Put him in your pocket or something. I’m not having him try to take my wand again. I’ll change him back afterwards.”
Kain ran back to the office, and there were sounds of a scuffle, before he reappeared, a little disheveled, but totally dashing in his tux. And he’s all mine, she thought.
“Ready?” he asked, ushering them to him, while casting a glance back towards the office, where sounds of movement could be heard.
“OK, Toby, let’s go outside, and we’ll see what we can do about that wish.”
Chapter Twenty-One – Kain
They ran from the mansion, and out into the night. Toby hanging on to Marra’s hand, who held her wand aloft, and Kain, hand throbbing from where he’d punched out two of Lance’s men, who had just caught their employer, and were debating as to what to do with him.
With No Mr. or Mrs. DeVere around, they were figuring out how to get a hold of the family fortune. Kain had ended up rescuing Lance DeVere from a life in a lily pond; it didn’t sit altogether well with him. This man, or frog, was the person who had threatened Kain’s mate, something he did not take lightly.
However, Kain was a do the right thing kind of a guy. It was in his lawyer’s blood. And his bear blood too, his bear reminded him.
Oh, to be a ruthless millionaire, Kain said, with a laugh.
Money doesn’t buy you happiness, his bear said firmly.
Kain knew this from experience: from all the people he had helped, rich, poor, the only thing that made everyone universally happy was love, and family. His love, and family, was standing next to him, wand held up in the air, while she repeated Toby’s wish.
The dark night began to swirl around them, snow began to fall, and for a moment, Kain wondered if the wand was opening up some kind of portal to another part of the world. Was that how they would find Toby’s mom, by walking through a portal?
But then above their heads, there was a jingle of bells, and the sound of a very dry, monotone, ho, ho, ho. This was not the jovial cry of Santa. This was someone else.
“Rupert. I might have known,” Marra said.
Kain clenched his fists, Rupert’s betrayal still fresh in his mind. But the sight of the scruffy man, now dressed in a drab brown coat, while sitting in a sleigh pulled by two huge reindeer, was enough to make him forget his animosity towards Rupert.
“What the hell is this?” Kain asked.
Toby looked up at Kain as if he were an imbecile. “It’s Santa’s sleigh, of course. It’s what I wished for in my letter to him, that he would help me fi
nd my mommy. It’s all I want for Christmas.”
“Then let’s go find her,” Marra said, lifting Toby up into the sleigh.
“Weirder, and weirder,” Kain said, as he helped Marra inside, and then climbed in too.
“Sit down, Kain. Hold on tight, Toby.” Kain didn’t even question how Rupert knew the boy’s name. “Just make sure that frog doesn’t jump out, he’ll go splat if he hits the ground while we’re flying.” Rupert grinned. “On second thought, he’s a wand stealer.”
“Thank you, Rupert,” Marra said abruptly.
“I am allowed to have some fun. You know I was on to a sure thing tonight with Connie?” Rupert grumbled. “Now she thinks I used her just to have some fun. I mean, do I look like I enjoy fun?”
Marra laughed, a high, happy laugh. She raised her wand and touched the reins of the reindeer, and they leaped up, climbing into the air on an invisible road. Around them snow swirled, and sparks flew.
“Aren’t we a little conspicuous?” Kain asked.
“No one else can see us,” Marra said, coming and sitting next to him. “Only those touched by magic, and that’s what we all are, right now. Hold tight, Toby.”
They shot off across the city, the reindeer pulling the sleigh, their legs moving fast, and then they slowed and began to descend.
“Is this where my mommy is?” Toby asked, looking over the side of the sleigh.
“No, we’re making a short stop first.” They dropped down, the reindeer treading the air outside an apartment window. Marra reached forward and touched Rupert on the shoulder with her wand. “Hey, Rupert, I’m returning the favor. Go get Connie.”
“That’s not really in the rules.” Rupert said, but his voice was lighter.
“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Marra said, and winked. “Go get her. Toby needs to find his mommy.”
Rupert got up, and leaned over to knock on the window of the apartment building. The drapes were drawn, and at first no one came. So, he knocked again, and again. On his fourth attempt, a very frightened-looking Connie, eyes red from crying, pulled back the drapes, a baseball bat in her hand.
She didn’t faint. Kain was impressed, there were not many people who would open their drapes and see … “What can she see?” Kain asked Marra.
“She can see it all. She’s been touched by Rupert, who is magic to his very core.”
“Connie,” Rupert said, stretching out his hand and offering it to her. “Want to come for a ride?”
“A ride!” Connie eyed the sleigh and the reindeer. “This is a joke, right? I mean it wasn’t enough to leave me at the party, but now this? What do you think, I’m stupid?”
Kain got up, and carefully walked over to stand next to Rupert; he still didn’t know if he trusted the sleigh himself. “Hi, Connie. Rupert had to leave so he could help me. Marra was in trouble.”
Connie turned to look at Marra, who called, “It’s true, Connie. And this is our way of saying sorry, and thank you. You believe in magic…”
“I did. I believed everything you said, Rupert. Then you left.” She sniffed loudly. “Margo and Vera had a fine time laughing at me for taking the janitor to the party. And I was OK with that. But do you know what it’s like being dumped by the janitor? Do you know how cruel they were?”
“I’m sorry. But I got called away on urgent business.”
“Come on, Connie. Come with us,” Kain said. “Let us make it up to you.”
Connie eyed the sleigh. “This is real.”
“Santa’s very own sleigh. And these are Dancer and Dasher. They’ve had a busy night, they just dropped your friend Bas off at the North Pole,” Rupert said.
That did it, the sleigh seemed to tilt, and he felt the world spinning. This was too weird. Him being mixed up with a fairy godmother, and magic was one thing, but Bas too? This was some weird trick, or a dream. “Must be a dream.”
“Hey, come sit down,” Marra said to him.
Kain felt her touch, and looked up into her face, lifting his hand to touch her pale skin. “Tell me you are real.”
She lowered her face and kissed him on the lips, sending a flood of heat and need through his body. “Does that feel real to you?”
He shook his head. “No, it feels like a dream. A perfect dream.”
“Then let’s not let it end,” she said.
“OK, come on. We have a job to do.” Rupert said in mock disgust. “Connie, please, we have to go, time is running out. Come with me, please.”
His heartfelt words, devoid of his usual monotone, penetrated Connie’s distrust, and she took his hand and stepped into the sleigh. Immediately, the reindeer began to prance and rear, pulling them up, up into the night sky.
Above their heads, the stars flickered, the moon grew bigger, as they rose forever upwards, and then they shot forward so fast, Kain had to hang onto the side of the sleigh. The world below passed in a blur, and all he could think of, was that any moment now he would wake up, and this, and Marra would all be a dream.
And as weird as everything that had happened was, he didn’t want it to be a dream. He wanted it to all be real, he wanted a happy ever after with Marra. He wanted a happy ever after for everyone.
Maybe he was in the wrong job: he should be a fairy godmother himself.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Marra
What if they were too late? Marra asked herself the same thing, over, and over again. What if they got to Mrs. DeVere and she was dead?
“It’ll be OK,” Kain said to her, placing his hand over hers.
“How do you know?” Marra asked.
“Surely if it wasn’t OK, then we wouldn’t be racing towards her.” He nodded, trying to get his meaning over without letting on to Toby what he meant by if it wasn’t OK.
Marra thought it through. “You’re right.”
“I always am,” he said, with a wink.
“Except for when you convince yourself this is all a dream, and I’m not real,” she said.
“You’ve got me there,” Kain answered. “But you have to admit, this is all a lot to take in.”
“I never thought about it. But then I was raised in a world where magic existed.”
“I was raised in a world where nothing magical existed,” he said.
“There is always magic,” Marra answered.
“My parents didn’t believe in Christmas. If Santa ever stopped by, he never left any gifts.” Kain looked at the moon. “That’s why I keep thinking I’m going to wake up. Things like this happen in the movies, not to real people.”
“Believe it or not, it’s true whichever way you choose,” Marra said. The air grew colder, the reindeer flew higher, as they crested a high peak. “We’re over the mountains. We’re close.”
She stood up and waved her wand, and they were all dressed in thick coats, and boots. Then she went and stood at the helm of the sleigh, like the captain of a ship, looking out into the distance, her wand poised, ready for action. Lower they descended, until the sleigh touched down on the ground with a small thud, but the reindeer didn’t stop, only now their small feet were touching the ground, leaving a trail.
As they slowed, Kain looked around, wondering where Mrs. DeVere could be in all this snow. There was no sign of her, or Toby’s haverlanche. “Where is she?”
Marra turned back to him. “She’s in a crevasse.”
“OK. How do we get her out?” Kain asked. “Can your wand make that kind of magic happen?”
Marra shook her head. “I don’t want to risk bringing the snow down on us. We’re going to have to work together.”
Rupert jumped from the sleigh, and sunk up to his knees in the snow. Marra waved her wand, and he rose up, as if too light to sink again. She did the same for Kain, and for Toby. “Let’s go.”
Rupert unharnessed the reindeer, who shimmered into men. “Whoa, reindeer shifters,” Kain said.
“You think only bears get to have fun?” one of them shouted.
“I’m Dan, this is Dash. Bas sends hi
s regards, we’ve had quite the night.”
“I never knew lawyers had such fun,” Dash said.
“OK, Marra, what do we do?” Dan asked.
“We have to dig.” She walked forward, very carefully. “Here, there’s a hidden crevasse, and this is where they are.”
“They?” Kain asked.
“Mrs. DeVere was part of a climbing expedition.”
“This is going to take some explaining,” Kain said. “They are going to freak at the sight of the sleigh.”
“We can deal with that when we get them out,” Rupert said. “I have a trick or two I can use. They’ll believe we are the mountain rescue team, and the sleigh is a rescue helicopter.”
“I hope you never use tricks like that on me,” Connie said, as they all began to dig. Marra had turned the harness into shovels, and marked off the safe areas where the snow was firm enough to stand on.
They dug, and they dug, until the snow gave way, dropping down to reveal a deep crevasse. The silence was broken by a yell. “Quiet,” Marra hissed into the hole. “We don’t want to bring down the snow.”
She looked warily up above them, but there didn’t appear to be any movement. Waving her wand, she turned the shovels into rope. “We’ll pull you up, one at a time.”
Dan, Dash, and Kain took the strain of the rope, and one at a time, the people from below were brought up. As they surfaced, Rupert touched their foreheads, they would see a helicopter, and think they were being pulled out by mountain rescue.
“Where’s my mommy?” Toby asked, as one by one, the people were brought out.
“She’s down there, making sure everyone is safe before she comes out herself,” Marra said comfortingly. “You never told me, she’s a hero.”
“She’s just my mommy,” Toby said. “The best mommy. She’s the only one who can stop my daddy from being mean.”
“Then she really is a hero,” Kain said, patting his pocket.
“You still have him safe?” Marra asked.
“Very. He’s huddled in my pocket.” Kain wiped the sweat off his forehead. “I never thought I’d be hot on the side of a mountain like this. I should let my bear pull them out.”
Claused: BBW Holiday Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Christmas Bears Book 2) Page 11