As Chase took him to the hotel, he wondered briefly if Emerald had given him those thoughts and feelings. If she did, then he was fine with that. She was a good person. A wonderful being. He was going to have to thank her for her help.
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” He looked at Chase as he helped him up to his room. Sean was feeling a little weak, his body worn out. “Don’t thank Emerald for this. Whatever you do from now on will be thanks enough for her.”
“She won’t take it well, I think you’re telling me.” Chase just laughed. “You might be right. But will you at least thank her for covering for me? For…well, for stopping me too.”
“Yes. If you do something for me.” He told his brother anything. “The next time you have to kill someone like this, let one of us do it for you—the same as we’d have you do for us. Monsters need to be put down; I can’t fault you for that. But going home as if nothing happened isn’t going to be easy. If you ever need this done again, I’ll come in and do it for you.”
“Yes. All right.”
Once his brother left, Sean laid on the bed. He was nearly asleep when he reached out to Rachel. He told her that he loved her. I’m coming home in the morning. I don’t think I can face you tonight.
You’d better. This is something we both needed to be finished. If I could have done it, I would have. He told her it was over. Good. You sleep well, and I’ll see you tomorrow. I love you, Sean Crosby.
And I love you, my heart.
Sean closed his eyes and let sleep roll over him. He was sore. While he didn’t allow his mind to dwell too much on the whys, he did know he’d not be sore like this ever again if he could help it. “I love you too, Jon.”
Sleep took him under. Again, just as he was falling into it, he wondered about Emerald. He didn’t care. He was ready to sleep now, and that is what he did.
Epilogue
Franklin was both sad and glad that they’d stopped having reunions. Not only had it been difficult for their town to hold all the extra people that came in from all over the world, but also their homes. Hundreds—no, thousands of family members came together to see each other and to eat. He thought for a while there that they’d have to purchase a grocery store just to have it stocked up for the event.
Now they met in groups throughout the year. He thought that was much better. There was more mingling and talking to those he’d not seen in a while. He was glad they didn’t have the event yearly. It would have been too much for anyone to handle, he thought. Though no one complained.
Franklin was rocking on the swing when Peter, one of Sean’s sons, came to join him. He was the spitting image of his father in all ways but his looks. All the kids the couple had adopted seemed to act a great deal like his son. Even the small mark he’d been given by Queen Killian was there for all to see.
“Well, what do you have to say for yourself, young man?” Peter grinned at him. So much like his mother in that. “I’m right proud of you and Kiley, Peter. I don’t think a person could be prouder of anyone right now.”
“Mom is about to bust something, trying hard not to be all mushy with me. I’ll have to cut her some slack when I go back home. Who told her to be like that around me today?” Franklin thought it was something she’d thought up herself and told her son that. “Well, I don’t care for it. She can hug on me all she wants as far as I’m concerned. We’ve worked very hard on this, and I couldn’t have done it without her pushing me all the time when I was younger.”
Franklin reached over and patted Peter’s hand, and then hugged him. When they parted, neither of them said anything for a few minutes. Franklin wanted to just bask in the knowledge that one of his people was in the White House and President of the United States.
“Also, I’ve not told Mom yet, Grandda, but Kiley is going to have a baby.” Another hug. Tears this time too. “A Crosby born in the White House. Who would have ever thought it?”
“I did. Perhaps not the Big House, but I knew you were for great things. That momma of yours, she pushed all her kids to be something more than a very wealthy person with magic. When she told me not to buy you a car when you were sixteen, I wanted to do it anyway. But she was right in that. Making you work for it surely did make you appreciate it better. You still drive it, don’t you?” Peter laughed and said that Kiley did now. “Now that’s a woman after my own heart, that Kiley of yours. She started pushing you into things more than your momma did, I think.”
“She said she was glad for the money, but there wasn’t any way she was going to be taking it when she was quite capable of working. Not that we didn’t enjoy it when we could, but she and I both wanted to work.” Same as his momma and daddy. “Grandpa, I was wondering something the other day. It was about my Grandma Rena. Do you think she would have had more children with you, as Brandy did? I love that you and her did. It certainly made for a very large family. But what would have happened should she have not died?”
Franklin rocked for several minutes. One of his daughters came around the side of the house and waved at the two of them. She was fat with a child of her own and as happy as he’d been when her mother had come to him. Franklin thought about his answer even as he told it to Peter.
“We didn’t talk about it much. I think she might have wanted more if we’d all been granted the magic we got after she was gone.” Peter said he’d not thought of that. “She would have loved all this, all these kids and grandchildren. But even with the magic, I don’t think she would have wanted more. Rena wasn’t happy being a vampire. I never knew that until later, after I was the sole parent for your uncles and father. Even as a child, her mother told me that Rena would stay out too late in the morning and try to go out too soon in the night. I don’t think she loved being a creature of the night as much as most vampires do.”
“Do you think she would have ended her life anyway? Even without the humans taking her?” Franklin said yes and let it go at that. “I’m sorry, Grandda. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’s all right, Peter. There are times when I wonder myself if she let herself get caught.” He’d never voiced that to anyone before. This thing had been praying on his mind for centuries. “Now, let’s not talk about sad things. When is it you’re going to be going to the Big House? I know it’ll be soon.”
“January.” Franklin said he thought he knew that in some part of his mind. “Kiley and I are going to move to a hotel in DC so we can be close to things. Sort of get used to the way things are there. Not that we’ve not worked there for some time now, but it’s all different with her being the president.”
Yes, sir. She was going to make a fine president too, Franklin thought. As the two of them talked back and forth, something kept nagging at him to ask the younger man. It wasn’t important, but it was something he wanted to ask. Looking at the boy who had come to the family late one night, starved and battered, he asked him what he knew of the men who had hurt him.
“Nothing. Not anything at all. Aunt Emerald, she told me it was better for me if I just let it be. I didn’t think she was right, but since I’ve spoken to her recently, she told me that they were no more, and they can’t hurt anyone else. I think that was what was giving me nightmares for so long. Thinking that there were other children out there that were being hurt by them.” Peter looked beyond where they were seated, to the line of trees that hid Sean’s home from this one. “If I’d not been hurt by them, I would never have met Kiley. I knew who she was to me even as a kid of fourteen. Her waiting for me to grow up and to be with her is another thing I wouldn’t have had if they’d not taken me. She never aged anymore after we met, and that made things perfect for the two of us. Mom and Aunt Jewel, they told me that when something happens in your life, you can either let it take you under or you learn to live with it. I let it take me for a long time. Then one day, this older vampire came to see me and knocked me around a bit, and I realized I had a great deal to
live for. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that, Grandda.”
“You were being a little shit to everyone, and I just didn’t like it.” They both laughed. “I hated that, to have to talk to you that way, but you needed someone to step in. Your daddy would have done it too if he wasn’t so busy all the time trying to make your momma stop crying. You hurt her something terrible.”
“I did. And I tell her how sorry I am about my beginnings as a Crosby every time I speak to her.” Franklin told him he’d better never forget what they’d done for him. “Never. So long as I live, I will never forget anything that everyone in this family has done for me and the rest of this family.”
Franklin stayed where he was after Peter was called away. It was like this every time some of the children, grown up adults now, came around. He’d sit out here on the swing and wait for some of them to come and see him. It was wonderful to him that they still included him in their lives.
Cody joined him some time later, telling him about the Crosby Nursery he’d opened up recently in California. They had them all over the country now. Elliot and Cody still ran the one here in town and had the best flowers and trees anyone had ever seen.
Then he had a visit from Jon, Sean’s son. My goodness, he was a tall young man. Handsome too. Jon had written a book about his life when he’d been just a kid, and it had hit the bestseller list. For about three months, it was in the first position on that list, too.
The two of them talked about this and that, and then Jon told him he was writing again, his tenth novel. It was also about dealing with being abused and hurt by those that were supposed to love you. Franklin was very proud of the kid. Three of his books had been made into movies. He was a wonder, Jon was.
When Emerald sat down on the floor in front of him, Franklin waited for her to speak first. It was the way the two of them had been doing this for years upon years.
“There are two things I think you should be made aware of.” He nodded and didn’t ask. She’d tell him or not. While he loved this woman to pieces, she still scared him a bit. She knew it too. “Were you aware that there are squatters on your land? The scrub land that is just between our house and yours?”
“I did. They’re not squatters so much as people trying to ilk out a living by cleaning up the deadfall and the brush thereabouts. I hired them to do it when I found them there about starved a few weeks ago. Did you run them off?” She just glared at him. Franklin couldn’t help it; he laughed at her. “Emerald, I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but I don’t have to run everything I do by you. I’m a grown man, in the event you might have missed that.”
“You’re an old poop if you want to know the truth of it. All right. I’ll call the pack off—for now. They’re doing a good job of it. I’ve never thought of having that area cleared out.” He said he’d not either until he had to find them something to get paid for. “Proud, are they?”
“Yes. Did you know there are three homes in town that are looking for help with some chores? I’ve hired the oldest boy they have there to do some of the fixing ups for them.” She told him she’d noticed that. “Good. I’m glad I could make you think I wasn’t feeble.”
“You’re in a shitty mood. Why is that?” He said he didn’t know, just feeling sort of nasty today. “Do you want me to tell you the rest of what I know, or let you stew in your old pile of shit for a little while longer? You should realize you’re scaring the children with that frown on your face.”
“Tell me what it is you think I need to know.” She didn’t say anything, and he looked at her. “I am having a shitty day today. I don’t know how much you know about the comings and goings of everyone, but today isn’t a good day for me. I just want to wallow in my pile of shit a little bit longer.”
“No. I don’t think you should.” He asked her why her opinion should mean two shits to him. “Because I love you, you cantankerous fuck head, and I hate seeing you this way. What’s up? Tell me, or I’ll go looking for it.”
“They don’t need me anymore.” She asked him what the fuck he was talking about. “Always one for a good comeback, aren’t you? Things just go on around them, and here I sit with a nasty dragon queen while she insults me for every little thing.”
“Who the hell shit in your oatmeal today?” This time Franklin glared at her. “You are aware that you have about fifty or so family members here that are staying away from you because you’re giving off enough bad vibes to make them think you don’t want them around. Do you have any idea how many times one of us has had to tell them you’re not angry, just an old bastard that wants everyone to go away?”
“You did not tell them that.” She smiled at him. “Well, it does sound like something you’d say to people. I’m just in a mood, Emerald. I don’t know why or what the mood is about, but mostly it’s that they’re all grown up and have families of their own. I do too, but like the others, they’re making their own way in this world.”
“And you don’t think you have anything to contribute to them? That’s the stupidest thing I think you’ve ever said, Franklin. You have said some really stupid things too.” He told her to go away. “No, not until I get you in a place that you’ll listen to me about the second thing.”
“You told me. Everyone is afraid to come over here and talk to me.” She said there was more. “Well? Spit it out, why don’t you? I don’t have all day, you know.”
“Yes, you do. You have many lifetimes left.” She looked behind her, and he did too. Chase was there, holding his youngest grandchild. “Do you know what? I think you’re not lonely so much as bored. You don’t have anything to occupy your mind, so you’re taking it out on everyone else.”
“I am bored, damn it. All you people have shit that is getting done. I know I could join in on any one of them if I wanted, but I want something of my own. Something I can be proud of.” She asked him if he’d looked around lately. “Yes, why do you think I’m bored? Everyone is out there working, and I’m not.”
“So, get a fucking job, moron.” He hated it when she called him that. “Besides, I wasn’t asking you about what they’re doing to make themselves a place in this world, but showing you that without you, without your love and support every single day, none of us would be here. Not one soul would be having children. There would be no faerie queen. No faeries either. The magic that each of us uses every day wouldn’t be around for us. There is no telling what your sons would have been like without you there for them. You, you shithead, are the only reason any of us are as happy as we are now. Well, until you started showing your ass and being an old fart.”
“I’m entitled to be whatever I want.” He realized how childish that sounded as soon as it left his mouth. “Look. You know as well as I do that the fates would have made sure that my boys would have found their mates. It’s the way it’s written. You know that as well as I do.”
“What I know is that Jason would be dead.” Franklin asked her what she was talking about. “You know just what I mean. Had you not been there after Jewel knocked him out, Jason would have continued pounding his rules into her, and Jewel would have killed him. Nothing would have saved him either. None of you had immortality as yet. Then there is Brandy and those baby vamps that were set on killing her. They would have too. She would never have made it as a vampire with them. You saved her life, as you had your sons’, on a lot of things.”
He sat there thinking about all the things she was talking about and more. The other times he’d stepped in to help out his sons. As much as Franklin didn’t want to believe her, he knew that on some level, she was right. Emerald told him she was always right.
“Don’t read my mind.” She told him it was right there on his face. She didn’t need to read it to see what he was thinking. “Emerald, would they have done all right without me around? I know you can tell me. Had I been able to join Rena after she was killed, would my sons have fared as well
as they have?”
“No. They’d all be dead for a very long time too. I’m not just saying that so I can shake you out of this mood you’re determined to be in. But the truth of the matter is, without your guiding hand, Franklin, I’d be dead as well.” He asked her how. “With the queen and her magic gone, I would never have been able to survive. The dragons would all be gone from this world because there were no faeries to share what they have with them. I want you to think about what this world would be like if you’d not gathered your boys up and saved the queen of faeries. There would be no sons of Crosby. Nothing to mark what they did in this world. The children we’ve all had a part in saving, they’d be gone. People would still be starved and out of work. Nothing, not one single thing in this world around us, would ever have or will go on without you. You had the biggest job of all, and you didn’t back down from it. You made us what all of us are. Despite you sitting here and feeling sorry for yourself.”
She was right. He again didn’t want to tell her that, but she was correct. He thought about the argument he’d had with his beloved that morning. It was the reason he’d been sitting out here in the cold while she was out with the others.
“I pissed off Brandy. Not just today like I was thinking, but for a while now. I think she’s thinking I don’t love her. That I wish I’d joined Rena. I never thought of that, I swear it.” Emerald said it didn’t matter if he had or not. It was her heart that was broken. “Yes, I guess you’re right. Once again. I hate feeling sorry for myself, and I think I was taking that out on her. She’s been good for me, you know. I have ten children now. Six of the best sons a man could ask for, and four of the most beautiful daughters that ever touched this old man’s heart.”
Sean: The Sons of Crosby: Vampire Paranormal Romance Page 15