"Ashe," Cori walked away from his desk to stare out Ashe's window. It overlooked the small deck and backyard. "Things are never fair. But you know more about that than I do."
"Yeah. Is she gonna hate me when school starts? Like she used to hate Sali?"
"I don't know. But you could try an apology or something."
"I can send more flowers."
"No, do something else this time." Cori turned around, her arms hugging her waist. "Marco says there'll be burgers, cake and ice cream for Sali around six tonight."
"I'll come if it won't make Dori uncomfortable."
"What difference will it make? Ashe, Sali is your best friend. You can't go around worrying what other people will think."
"Dori's your sister, Cori."
"And if Dori would use her sense, she'd know she's alive because of you. I know that," Cori tapped her chest. "Dori's letting her emotions get in the way."
"It wasn't meant to last, Cori. I have to deal with that." Ashe put his finger on another set of figures and it tingled. "Wait." Ashe went back to double check the numbers. "Cori, will you go find Andy?"
"Sure." Cori went off to find Andy, who'd taken a coffee break.
"What did you find, kid?" Andy was back and looking over Ashe's shoulder.
"These figures don't match." Ashe pointed out the numbers. "I mean the totals here do," he tapped the bottom line on the computer, "but these numbers in the middle don't."
"I see that. Looks like somebody got overpaid. A lot," Andy scooted Ashe away from the chair and sat down. "I'll take care of this. Go ahead and go. We'll see you tomorrow morning. At breakfast."
"Okay. Come on, Cori." Ashe draped an arm over Cori's shoulder and they walked out together.
* * *
"Caught it right off the bat," Andy handed the paperwork to Winkler. "The accountant is overpaying one of the secretaries in Little Rock."
"I'll get somebody on it," Winkler took the folder. "I told you he'd find it right away."
"Yeah, but I thought you were exaggerating."
"Not about this one, Andy. Want a homemade burger with cake and ice cream?"
"Yeah."
* * *
"Look, dude," Sali waved his new license.
"Yep," Ashe took the license away and examined the photograph. "Too bad, man. It looks just like you." Sali elbowed Ashe in the ribs for the jab.
"Come on, let's eat," Sali walked toward the patio doors. Marcus was grilling burgers there. Sali and Ashe grabbed plates, put burgers together and loaded any space left with potato salad, baked beans and chips.
"This is good, Mr. DeLuca. Mrs. DeLuca," Ashe said. He loved potato salad.
"There's plenty here, Ashe."
"Am I late?" Adele walked onto the deck carrying a bowl of fresh fruit.
"You're right on time," Denise found a place for the fruit. Ashe and Sali were dipping out strawberries and grapes immediately. Wynn, Dori and Cori showed up at the same time, escorted by Marco. Wynn held a nicely wrapped gift in her hands. Ashe's small box had already gone into the pile at one end of the folding table. Wynn set hers down next to Cori and Dori's gift—they'd brought one together.
Throughout the evening, Dori stayed as far from Ashe as she could. Sali opened his gifts, admired the key ring from Ashe and then followed his parents outside. A nearly new import sat in the driveway. Marcus handed Sali the keys to the small, red car. Ashe sighed.
"Look at it this way," Marco dropped a hand on Ashe's shoulder. "Sali won't ever be able to travel the way you do."
"But wheels impress women," Ashe muttered.
"There's that," Marco agreed.
"It was really cool driving Winkler's Mercedes." It was—Winkler had a new Mercedes SLR McLaren in black. Ashe thought it drove like a dream.
"I've never gotten to drive it," Marco muttered.
"I think Winkler was hanging onto the handle the whole time," Ashe joked.
"We'll drive to Oklahoma in a few weeks to finish the sale of the store—Marcie and Jason are buying it," Adele hugged Ashe. "I'll let you drive if you want."
"So that's where they went," Ashe said. "That's too bad. I like Jason."
"We all do. But Marcie doesn't want to stay after Jackson died."
"Yeah." Ashe watched as Sali, Wynn and Dori loaded into the car and Sali backed out of the drive. They hadn't even asked him to come along. The sun was going down and Aedan and Nathan joined the crowd shortly afterward. Ashe started walking toward his home.
"Son?" Aedan was beside him in a moment.
"Sali didn't even ask me to go." Ashe told himself that he shouldn't be upset over such a trivial thing.
"Ashe, you can't take this personally. You've been separated from them for weeks now, working for Mr. Winkler, and then we thought you were dead. Things will smooth out."
"Sure, Dad."
"Mr. Winkler told me last night that you have something on your arm. I'd like to take a look at it."
"All right, but it gets itchy and burns if people handle it very much," Ashe said. "And when I tried to scrape it off, I got really sick. So don't try, Dad."
"I won't. I just want to see it for myself."
Ashe sat on a kitchen barstool later, having a glass of water while his father looked at the medallions circling his arm. "That's extraordinary, son," Aedan sighed. "And they just appeared?"
"I woke up and there they were," Ashe said. "I don't have any idea how, why or when."
"Perhaps all the Elemaiya get them—I don't recall ever seeing their bare upper arms."
"I wish they'd given me more information than those three pages," Ashe grumbled, lowering his sleeve. "Maybe that would explain how this got here."
"How are you feeling? Still queasy?"
"No, stomach's fine."
"Just the heart, then," Aedan allowed the accent to slip into his voice.
"Yeah. I hope it goes away soon."
"Ashe," Nathan walked into the kitchen with Lavonna and Adele. "I'd like to see the arm, too, if you don't mind."
Ashe peeled back his sleeve for the second time while Nathan, Lavonna and his mother all looked. Aedan warned them not to touch, so they didn't. Ashe was glad when he could pull the sleeve down again. Another discussion took place, much like the one he'd already had with his father.
"I'm sorry Dori hit you last night," Lavonna sighed.
"It's okay. I had it coming." Ashe slipped off the stool. "Dad, I think I'll go to my room. I have an early morning tomorrow." Ashe walked toward the stairs.
* * *
"I don't have any idea and Winkler already called Wlodek, hoping to get information," Aedan said. "I could have told him not to waste his time."
"He has information we may need and he's holding it back," Adele muttered angrily. The gold medallions were beautiful, but Adele didn't know what to think of them on her son's skin.
"We'll find out or we won't, it's as simple as that," Aedan soothed. "And I won't be angering the Head of the Council by asking a second time."
* * *
Baltis stared at the one before him. He remembered this one, with one blue eye, the other brown. A quarter child, he'd been forced away from the Dark camp years ago at age sixteen. Now he was back, although Baltis' new guards had been rough with him.
"What do you want?" Baltis demanded. "We have little patience with those who seek us out a second time."
"I have information, Dark King," Wildrif bowed low, his hands shaking. He was filthy and his clothing smelled—he'd traveled through sewers and then the old rail tunnels beneath Chicago's streets to locate Baltis and his temporary camp. Most of Baltis' people were with his brother, Prince Beldris, in a remote area of Canada. Baltis wanted to be nearer to his spies. Chicago was a compromise.
"Tell me and be gone," Baltis commanded.
"Your Destroyers? They are dead," Wildrif informed the Dark King.
"You have no proof of that," Baltis snapped. "The talismans have not returned to me."
"They will not re
turn. To you or to the Bright Queen, who has also lost her Jewel Sentinels. The talismans have found a new home. With the Ir'Indicti."
Chapter 4
"There is no Ir'Indicti," Baltis was enraged at Wildrif's wild claim.
"No? Have you spoken to your sources? What have they said?"
"I have not spoken with them since the attempt we made met with failure. My Destroyers may be injured and making their way back slowly as a result."
"No. They will not return. Contact your sources. Find the truth."
"And if what you say is true?"
"Then you need a foreseer. You do not have one; I know this. You depend upon other means to gather information, now. Your former foreseer was also a Destroyer and could not see the Ir'Indicti. None can. To predict the movements of one we cannot detect, we must predict the movements of those closest to him. That I can do."
"Should you prove correct, I will consider this request. Do not count on it, or my patience." Baltis called a guard forward. "Contact my sources. Learn what you can." Baltis sent the guard away.
"May I have food and drink while we wait?" Wildrif asked timidly.
"See to his needs," Baltis commanded.
"Thank you, my King." Wildrif bowed.
* * *
Marco grinned as Sali's arms shook while lifting one hundred seventy-five pounds. "Come on, Ashe can do forty more," Marco said.
Don't make it a contest, Ashe sent mindspeech to Marco. Ashe was doing squats with Trace. Trajan watched Sali with a critical eye while Marco worked out with dumbbells. They went to run on the beach afterward.
"Come on," Trajan ran beside Sali, who lagged behind the others. "You run as a wolf. Now you run as a human, too. Don't expect to be perfect right away."
"Marcus, Nathan and Jonas are going to interview three candidates for the Principal's job next Monday, right after sunset," Trace informed Ashe as they jogged along.
"Do you know who's applied?" Ashe asked, his feet hitting the ground in a regular rhythm, accompanied by the swish of shoes meeting packed, wet sand.
"Somebody is coming from California, I heard. Another one from Colorado and the third from Kentucky. They made the short list."
"Do we know anything else about them?"
"Two are werewolf, one's a shapeshifter."
"Wow. They found a shapeshifter?" Ashe turned curious blue eyes to Trace's brown.
"Yeah. Don't know what he is when he turns, but he's a shapeshifter. The one from Kentucky is a female werewolf. If she gets the job, her husband will come with her."
"You're not giving the shifter a chance?" Ashe frowned at Trace.
"Ashe, it would take a really tough shifter to deal with werewolves, don't you think?" Trace turned his face forward again.
"So, a bumblebee bat just wouldn't be tough enough? Is that what you're saying?"
"Ashe, you know how they treat you. The other kids, that is. Even the shifter kids think it's a joke. I'm telling you that as a friend, not as a werewolf or a bigger shifter. Kids get bullied all the time because they don't fit into some cookie cutter ideal the others hold. Believe me; I know what I'm talking about. The Principal of any paranormal school has to demand respect. And get it. That way, when he challenges somebody for making fun of another kid, they'll back off and listen."
"And there I thought academic credentials and personal integrity were the guidelines," Ashe muttered sarcastically.
"It helps if they can read," Trajan ran up beside Trace. "Stop scaring the help," he jerked his head at his younger brother before dropping back to run beside Sali and Marco.
After his run on the beach, Ashe trotted homeward to shower before getting with Andy to see what the job was for the day. Coming out the front door later, he watched Sali climb into his car and drive away. Breathing a frustrated sigh, Ashe loped down the street—Winkler's house and the community center were on the other side of the canal. He suspected that memories had been altered again. Shaking himself, he rang the doorbell at Andy and Buck's house.
"These are past year accounts," Andy handed a pile of file folders to Ashe when Ashe walked inside their makeshift office. "See if you can find anything wrong with any of them. And we'll see about getting a bigger desk—you're just too damn tall," Andy said with a grin. "On the bright side, though, Winkler says we can get a new computer for you. We'll take a trip to Corpus this afternoon and pick it up."
"Really?" Ashe felt a bit of excitement over buying a new computer.
"Yep. Get to work and we'll drive down after lunch."
Ashe took the pile of folders to his tiny desk and began to sort through them.
* * *
"These are the plans," Buck unrolled the large sheet of architectural drawings so Adele could see them. "We'll put the freezers here," he tapped the sheet where the kitchen lay. The building would take up the entire lot, including the back yard. "And Winkler asked me to tell you that he's buying a restaurant on the water in Port Aransas. He wants to hire you to run both."
"I think I'd like that—Ashe and I ate at Victoria's not long ago. We loved it."
"Funny you should mention that—Victoria's is the one he's buying. The owner wants to retire and just put it up for sale. Winkler got wind of it and was interested. He's got a lot of property in the area already."
"I'd like to keep the same menu," Adele said, offering Buck a smile. "We loved the shrimp and fish we got."
"There's a local shrimping business that's werewolf owned. They'll supply fresh shrimp and seafood, I'm sure. The Sheridans grow enough produce to keep two restaurants in business, plus some. And we have a line on any other fresh fruit and vegetables you want."
"This is exciting to me, Mr. Wilson," Adele said. "Please tell Mr. Winkler that I appreciate this opportunity."
"It's nothing. And call me Buck," he said, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. "We're starting on this one tomorrow," he tapped the sheet again. "If the weather cooperates, we'll have it built just before school starts."
"That's wonderful. Thanks, Buck."
"No problem, Adele."
* * *
"Money's no object," Andy said as they looked through computers at the electronics store. A solicitous employee stood nearby, hoping for a very good sale. Ashe was busy reading the specs for two that he'd narrowed down.
"I want a better printer," Ashe said, pointing out the desktop he'd selected.
"Not a problem," the employee agreed.
After Ashe and Andy packed the new computer and accessories into a Winkler Security van, Andy drove to an office-supply store.
"Pick out a desk. You'll get the office we're in right now. I'm moving my office to the media room. Buck is putting a TV in his bedroom so you won't have to share your office."
"Really? I feel special," Ashe grinned.
"Yeah. Come on; let's find something that will accommodate those long legs of yours."
"This is as good as Christmas," Ashe said later, rolling an ergonomic chair across the tile floor. "I like this one."
"We'll take it. And the desk and credenza," Andy told the salesclerk. Another load went into the back of the van. "I think Winkler wants to talk to you again when we get back," Andy said quietly as they climbed inside the vehicle.
"What about?" Ashe couldn't imagine what the Dallas Packmaster might want this time.
"Not sure," Andy lied. Ashe knew that Andy knew but wasn't going to point it out. He was used to it.
"All right." Ashe buckled up, settled into his seat and watched the van drive past gulf waters.
* * *
"Ashe, I know we've asked an awful lot of you, and I realize your age, but I have a proposition for you," Winkler said.
"What's that?" Ashe was certainly curious.
"You took the SAT already, didn't you?" Winkler asked.
"Yeah—took it at the end of the school year, as practice. Did pretty good on it, too."
"Good. That's what I was hoping for," Winkler nodded. "Now, what I really want to propose is
this; take and pass the GED, start taking online college courses and work for me part-time, permanently."
"What?" Ashe stared at Winkler. "I thought you had to be eighteen or older to get your GED."
"There are conditions for a sixteen or seventeen-year-old to get one, but I can pull a couple of strings. We can get a waiver, but you have to pass the test on your own. Besides, young prodigies and geniuses get into college all the time. Take the GED, Ashe. Pass it."
"I can pass," Ashe muttered, staring at his hands.
"Yeah. I know that too," Winkler said. "But the college courses are a must. I want you to enroll in at least nine hours and pass with a B average or better. I'm paying."
"You're serious about this?" Ashe lifted his eyes. Winkler's dark-brown eyes were quite serious. "What about Mom and Dad?"
"I talked to your mother this morning while you were out running. And with the way things are going with your classmates," Winkler shrugged.
"Yeah." It still stung that Ashe had been ignored by Sali, both the night before and earlier in the day. "Mom was okay with this?"
"She didn't object. She said Aedan would have to agree, but there's really not much of a downside, in my opinion. I don't doubt for a second that you can do this, Ashe. It's like testing out of your junior and senior year. They give the GED test at a community college in Beeville—it's the closest place," Winkler said. "Think it over, Ashe. Talk to your parents if you want, but I think this is a very good solution. You can travel with me, too. Between here, Dallas and a few other places. I have meetings coming up in D.C. with Matt Michaels. I want to be in on the questioning of Jack Howard, as Weldon's representative."
"I see," Ashe said softly. Ashe's talents might get Winkler more information than normal questioning might ever get.
"I see the wheels turning, Ashe," Winkler said. "Go home for the day. You can let me know tomorrow."
"Thanks, Mr. Winkler." Ashe stood and turned to go.
"Tell your mother that we'll be settling on Victoria's restaurant earlier than we thought. She'll have it next week."
"Wow—you're buying a restaurant?"
Vendetta (Legend of the Ir'Indicti #4) Page 4