“He’s a Jack Russell,” Grace explained. “They’re all like that. And he didn’t get it wrong. That is the way it happens with dogs. Butterflies too. They get stuck like that. Sometimes they fly around connected together.”
“That is gross.” Jamie made a disgusted face. “I mean it is all gross, but that is really gross.”
Thea banged her forehead on the counter—repeatedly. “I do not need a litter of puppies to contend with. I’m struggling to be a good dog momma for one.”
“So, Bailey’s gonna have, I mean going to have puppies?” Jamie said.
“Maybe not,” Nick said. “It doesn’t work every time.”
“But you always have to assume that it will,” Grace corrected, looking pointedly at Nick. Nick’s mouth quirked and his eyebrow went up. Thea suspected something from their past was in that look.
“Oh boy. Won’t they be something! Half Bailey, half Montana. Fuzzy, bouncing puppies. I hope there are a bunch of them.”
Thea moaned and buried her face again.
“So this means Bailey and Montana are married, right?” Jamie went on.
“Dogs don’t do that kind of thing,” Grace said.
“You haven’t checked YouTube lately,” said Nick.
Jamie looked crestfallen. “So dogs don’t stay together? I mean… Bailey’ll have to have the puppies all by herself? And Montana lives in Texas. The Murphys only come a couple of weeks a year so he may not ever see ’em at all.”
Thea looked at Grace. Thea knew it probably wasn’t Montana that Jamie was thinking about.
“There aren’t many animals that have family structures like that. Wolves are close, but not dogs. The momma has the puppies and raises them, with our help, of course,” Thea said. “I’m sure Bailey will be a good momma, if she’s pregnant. We’ll know in a few weeks.” Actually, she suspected Grace could find out right now, if she asked.
“How soon will we have puppies?”
Thea groaned. “Around two months.”
Grace gave Thea a quizzical look.
“Hey, I’ve been boning up on this whole dog thing,” Thea said. “Not fast enough to prevent this, though.”
“Seems kinda sad. They don’t get to stay together as a family,” Jamie went over to where Bailey was curled up on her new bed in the hallway to stoop down and run her fingers through the dog’s fur. “Maybe we should keep ’em all.”
Thea found herself smiling in spite of it all. “We’ll talk to your mom. She might consider letting you keep one.” She got up and went over to crouch beside Jamie. “But the rest will want to have humans of their own. They’ll make families out of their human family. The way people tend to make families where there weren’t any before.”
“Kind of how I’m sort of an honorary Woodruff?” Jamie asked.
“No honorary about that,” Grace said. “You pretty much are a Woodruff. You and your mom.”
Bailey jumped out of her bed and ran through Jamie’s legs towards the door. “And Jake and his mom,” Jamie said, “and Mel and her mom and dad, and—”
“I heard my name. What did I do this time?” Jake stuck his head through the archway from the great room. “Sorry, I knocked, but the doorbell seems to be otherwise occupied.” He stooped down to catch Bailey, who, as usual, threw herself at him, brazen hussy that she was. “There she is.”
“No problem. Come on in.”
“Bailey’s gonna have puppies!” Jamie exclaimed.
Jake’s expression turned comical as he held Bailey away from him and looked her over. “Really? When did this happen?”
“Jamie saw Bailey and the Murphys’ dog…uh…” Thea said.
“On a date?” Jake supplied with a smile.
“If that was a date, I ain’t ever going on a date!” Jamie declared. “I mean, not ever going on a date.”
Everyone laughed but Jamie still looked dismayed.
“Well, Bailey, I am devastated to have been replaced by a…” He smiled at Thea.
“Jack Russell,” she supplied.
“Really?” He set Bailey down and stood. “That little white fellow with the spots? The one that jumped into the goat pen like he was running the steeplechase?”
“That’s him,” Thea said.
“Well, it’s going to get even more interesting around here.” Jake smiled at Thea. “By the way, Jamie, that curly maple you found is going to produce some beautiful instruments,” Jake said. “Keep finding wood like that for me and I’ll have to give you a cut of the profits.”
Jamie quickly forgot her angst over dating. “Really?”
“A finder’s fee. Absolutely.”
“All right, young lady. Back to work,” Grace said. “You told me you had some new puzzle posting about now.”
Jamie looked at the time. “Oh gosh, yes!” She was off and running for the stairs.
“So, what did Beth decide?” Jake asked in a softer voice.
“She’s still thinking about it,” Nick replied. “She’s worried that Jamie keeps hearing how special she is way too much. She’s already a math whiz. This would add yet another layer of complexity to raising a genius, as far as she’s concerned.”
“Well, forewarned is forearmed. At least she’ll be prepared if Jamie manifests any unusual talents,” Thea said. “Beyond the ones she already has.”
“Or maybe that is it?” Nick mused. “The way my gift is intuition.” He didn’t sound convinced, however.
“But it makes it even more important that we find another place to meet.” Jake looked around. “Between your guests and Jamie and everyone else coming in and out of here, this is not the most secure place.”
Grace agreed. “Daniel and Mel have offered up their home. It is practically at the heart of what Jamie calls the ‘Woodruff Triangle’.”
Jake nodded. “Jamie told me about it a while back. I’ve seen it in action. Spent a lot of time rescuing folks because of it. You think it will help shield us from eavesdropping?”
“If it weren’t for the fiber optic line going in there, they would have a hard time receiving any communication signals at all,” said Grace. “Wireless and satellite transmissions don’t work. They had to hardwire the house for their computer network.”
“From past experience, I can tell you that it affects satellite photos of the area, like Google Earth and…others.” Nick smiled. “That’s a relief considering the resolution those things can get.”
“This I’ve got to see,” Jake said.
“Add the physical barriers—the Pisgah, the mountain, the limited-access road, the fence and gate we put in. It’s pretty ideal,” Grace added.
“We should get Emmy to test it,” Jake said. “See if she can hear us. Because if there is an Emmy on our side, there could be some rogue out there with that same talent—like our Italian friend with Daniel’s gift.”
“Rogue?” Thea said, frowning. “That’s not really a fair label, is it? Is anyone who has one of these gifts and has no idea where it came from a rogue?”
Jake lifted his hands, smiling. “Sorry. I guess we need a better word for folks like that Italian guy.”
“Oh no, that guy was totally a rogue.” Nick said, shaking his head.
“Then there was Old Annie.” Grace looked thoughtful. “I can’t help but wonder what she might have done with her gift if she had chosen a different path.”
“What kind of gift did she have?” Thea asked.
“We’re not sure. Some form of telepathy, I think.” Nick said.
“I wonder why the Mother, or whatever is behind all this, allows people to suffer with these gifts—like Marilyn and Emmy and Emmy’s mother.” Thea frowned, then felt a warm hand grip her shoulder.
“And you,” Jake said.
Thea covered his hand with hers. “And you. All of us. We stumble around in the dark an
d get hurt…and hurt other people.” Her voice broke a bit and Jake wrapped her in a warm hug. She turned to kiss his cheek.
“You’re assuming whatever is behind this is aware of us the way we are of each other,” said Grace. “Some biologists would argue there is no such thing as a honey bee as a single organism. The colony is the organism.”
“Great, now we’re bees?”
“Well, I meant that the force behind this might not be able to see us as individuals, only a group. But now that you mention it, maybe we are bees in its eyes.”
“Comforting,” Thea said sarcastically. “And what if one of those rogue bees of yours tries to get into the cave? What then?”
Nick seemed uncomfortable. “Grace?”
“Tell them about Old Annie. Jake needs to know. I won’t have secrets between us.” Grace held out her arms. “Give me my girl.” Nick passed Lily over.
“Sit down, Jake.” Nick looked grim as he settled back into his chair.
“Shit,” Jake said. “Am I going to be sorry I accepted that reserve deputy spot?” He pulled one of the chairs close to Thea and sat.
“No. I don’t think you could charge anyone for what happened.”
“So…you do know what happened to Annie.”
“Yes,” Nick said. “But we didn’t do anything to her.”
“She did,” Thea said. “Didn’t she? The old magic.”
“Annie tried to get to the cave,” Grace said.
Nick cleared his throat. “The old magic won’t intervene directly in most situations, but when Old Annie got close enough to be a threat, someone that looked like Granny Lily stopped her.”
“Stopped her?” Jake repeated.
“That’s about the only word that fits. To be honest, it took a while before I quit having dreams about it.” Nick said.
“Then Old Annie is—”
“She just disappeared in the dark,” Nick went on. “She was…uh…above a bottomless pit at the time, but we didn’t hear her fall.”
“After what she did to Pops and after she tried to kill you? I say good riddance,” Thea said.
Jake squeezed her hand. “Agreed.”
“But it still makes me wonder,” Thea said. “Why is She—whoever or whatever—equal parts of awesome and total incompetence?”
Jake chuckled. “That kind of sums it up.”
“The queen bee doesn’t really rule the hive. Daniel says she barely makes any decisions at all,” Nick mused. “But without her the colony collapses.”
“Seriously, stop with the bee metaphors,” said Thea. “Daniel’s ears are probably burning.”
“Nick? Grace?” It was Daniel’s voice at the front door.
“Okay, that was creepy,” Thea said.
“In here!” Nick yelled.
Daniel practically ran into the kitchen with Mel right behind him. He looked around anxiously. “We alone?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong?” Nick said.
“It’s Diana. Diana Morgan.”
“What? What happened?” Grace said.
“Who’s that?” asked Thea.
“Dr. Morgan is the person who’s been restoring those journal pages for us,” Grace explained.
Daniel leaned on the counter and Mel slipped her arm around his waist. “You know when I met her in Patton Springs a few weeks ago?”
“She brought that journal page,” Grace said.
“Yeah. We invited her to the wedding but she never showed up and…” Daniel seemed to hesitate.
“He was worried,” Mel said. “He had a dream about her in a car wreck on the mountain a long time ago. So I made him call and check on her this morning.”
“She was supposed to go to a conference not long after she met with us. When she didn’t show up for work after it was over, they started checking,” Daniel said. “She never arrived at the conference. They found her car at Raleigh-Durham airport, but the rest of it is wrapped up in red tape. I expect a phone call or a visit any time from someone trying to find out what I know.”
“Damn,” Jake said.
“Oh, Daniel. That’s horrible,” Grace said.
“It gets worse,” Mel said.
“On a hunch, I went to see your mom, Jake.”
Thea had a sudden inkling of where this was going. “Oh no.”
“Shit,” Jake had evidently reached the same conclusion.
“Exactly,” Daniel said. “One of those people she saw in town with those flickering auras—”
“Was Diana?” Nick said in disbelief.
“I guess my gift is not as reliable as Thea’s,” Daniel said.
“Shush. You’ve always said there are a lot of possible futures and they change constantly,” Mel said, patting his arm.
“I hugged her, Grace. I hugged her and I didn’t see a thing.” Daniel slapped his hand down on the counter. “No dreams about any of this. Nothing.”
“Equal parts of awesome and incompetence,” Thea said under her breath. Jake squeezed her hand.
“You think she’s one of the people Greg’s organization has somewhere,” Nick said to Daniel. It wasn’t a question.
“It would make sense. As Mel says, there is no such thing as coincidence.”
There was a long moment of silence. Thea could hear birdsong out in the garden.
“Well, as bad as this is, at least we have a trail to follow,” Nick said.
Jake nodded. “You said Raleigh-Durham?”
“She’s from Raleigh.”
“I guess this reserve deputy thing will come in handy,” Jake said. “Hopefully I can cut the red tape. This might be a real break.”
“But we may need Emmy and Aaron a lot sooner than I expected,” Nick said. Thea could tell he was already mapping out a strategy.
“What kind of gift do you think Diana has? Did Marilyn have any idea?” Grace asked.
“I was going to bring Mom up here later, to talk about the different colors and configurations of the flames she sees—to see if there’s a pattern,” Jake said.
“Diana wore gloves a lot,” Daniel said, “but her job does have her handling a lot of really delicate antique material.”
“Well, while it would be helpful to know what kind of ability she has, it won’t get us any closer to rescuing her,” Nick said.
“Sounds like we need to set up a command center in your dining room sooner rather than later, Mel,” Grace said.
“No problem,” Mel said. “But I’ll need a bigger espresso maker.”
“Take Nick’s monstrosity,” said Grace. “Ouida hates that thing.”
“Hey!”
“And I’ll need groceries.”
“I’ll have Ouida double up our next order.”
“And Ouida. I’ll definitely need Ouida.” She grinned.
“I see what you did there.” Grace smiled. “A temporary loan, maybe.”
“We’ll need to work on our cover stories,” Jake said. “What are we supposedly doing up here?”
Nick smiled. “Mostly, we’re going to do exactly what Pops intended—helping out worthy environmental causes worldwide. And there are a lot of organizations in need of our various kinds of expertise, anything from legal aid and journalistic skills to advice on sustainable agriculture and beekeeping.” He gestured to Jake and Thea. “Even a bit of entertainment for fund-raising purposes.”
“The kids are going to be a challenge.” Jake rubbed his chin. “And my mom.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Nick said. “But we need to get started ASAP.”
As if it were a signal, everyone started talking at once.
Jake stood and Thea reached for his sleeve. “You realize this means you’ll probably have to get on a plane at some point.”
“Yeah, I know. Probably one of those little charter jets.”
“So you’re okay with it? The flying?” Thea was amazed at how calm he seemed.
“I talked to Nick about it. He said he would get me a short flight out of Asheville, to see if I can handle it. Now I suspect I’ll be flying to Raleigh.”
“Can I go with you?” Thea asked.
“Are you kidding? That’s the whole point.” Jake leaned close. “He’s getting one with a private bedroom on board.”
Thea feigned an innocent smile. “Your method for conquering your phobia is to spend the flight sleeping?”
“Nope.” He nuzzled her ear. “I’m going to be in that bedroom with you—making magic.”
Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to Holly Lisle, whose writing courses and articles taught me so much and whose constant encouragement to all the writers she shepherds is invaluable. I also want to show my appreciation for Lisa Dunick, the editor at Samhain who pulled me out of the slush pile and dusted me off. Thank you for being willing to mentor a newbie author and offer invaluable advice.
In addition, I want to thank E.J. Clarke of Silver Jay Media, who did an initial edit of my very first manuscript and helped me immensely in finalizing it for submission. I also want to acknowledge all the book bloggers out there, too numerous to list here, who work tirelessly reading, reviewing and promoting our books, often with no recompense except our thanks.
Finally, someone I should never have left out of my first acknowledgement page and who will get her own book dedication soon. If it weren’t for her and her demand for morning walks every single day, I would not get in the necessary time away from the computer to really think and create and plot. So thank you, Caliente, my dear fur child. Without you, none of these books would exist and this one wouldn’t have a Bailey in it.
About the Author
When she’s not being dragged down the sidewalk by her Jack Russell (if you know Jacks, you understand), Donna June Cooper is belly dancing (shiny!), reading (three books at once), writing (of course!) or complaining about the heat (no matter the temperature). A child of the Appalachians who was transplanted to Texas by her Italian husband, Donna returns to her mountain roots as often as possible and takes us with her in the Books of the Kindling. Visit Donna at www.donnajunecooper.com.
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