Blaze: Queen’s Birds of Prey: Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Queen's Birds of Prey Book 2)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “He did.” Reba pulled back and looked at Blaze. “I’m betting that you didn’t know your name was not Andrews either, did you? I just knew that bastard had Bryson. But I was afraid that if he didn’t, then it would break my heart even more. Curt, he told us that if we came sniffing around again, his words not ours, that if he did have Bryson he’d smother him in his sleep. It’s why we didn’t look. We were terrified. But knowing that Bryson would grow up someday and perhaps know about us, then we could feel as if we saved him for that.”

  Paul nearly dragged Bryson to the couch. Blaze laughed; it was pretty the way it sounded. Holding her hand, hoping that this wasn’t a dream, her and Paul spoke at the same time, asking them about their lives. Reba noticed that Paul was holding onto Bryson’s hand as well.

  “We’ve only been married for a short time. Less than a month.” Reba was so saddened that she’d not been invited, then laughed at her silliness. Bryson told them that he’d never been happier than he was at this moment. “The minute that I met Blaze, I knew that she was the perfect person for me. We’ve been having so much fun getting to know one another.”

  “Oh, pictures. I have some pictures for you.” She jumped up, but Blaze said that she’d get them for her. Pointing out where they were, the pretty young woman brought the two albums to the couch with her. “These are the ones from before our Rosemarie met that terrible man. Please tell me that he didn’t beat you or tie you up.”

  “I wish that I could, but I survived him, and that’s all you should think about. And that I’m here. I had a sister while I was there. Like me, she just found out that she wasn’t related to the Williams either. I can tell you that there will be justice served, but I’m not supposed to tell you any more than that.” Reba understood, but she wanted to know if Curt was going to jail. Instead of asking him, she asked them if they were hungry. “We are, thanks. Blaze and I would like to have dinner with the two of you if you don’t mind, Grandma.”

  Her heart, broken in pieces for all these years, healed up with that simple name. Grandma. No one had ever called her that before. Getting all weepy, she made her way to the bathroom so that she could clean up.

  Looking at herself in the mirror, Reba could see something she’d not seen in decades. The spark. The same spark that she’d had the day that her daughter had handed little Bryson to her the first time. It, like her broken heart, had been weighing heavily on her since that day, four months later, that Bryson had disappeared and her daughter, her beloved little girl, was taken from her.

  Even though Rosemarie had killed herself, she would forever blame it on Brian. The things that he’d done, even before Bryson had been born, were too numerous and too heinous to name. The things that Rosy—what her father had called her from birth—had to endure had made her want to hunt Brian down daily and beat some sense into him. But some people, she had come to realize, were just too stupid to understand that they needed help. Gambling had taken her daughter and grandson away from her entirely too soon.

  Dinner was a lavish affair. Reba never would have believed that she’d be doing this, having such a fine meal with her grandson and granddaughter. Blaze was so wonderful, and Reba could almost touch the love that the two of them had for each other. As they talked about all the things they were doing, the charity work and other works of kindness, Reba was ever so happy that Bryson was not like his father, but just like Rosy was when she’d been younger. Generous to a fault.

  Paul talked to Bryson and Reba asked Blaze what she did for a living. The smile that she gave her made Reba smile right back at her. It was another thing that she’d never thought to have. To—

  “I’m dwelling too much on the things that I thought I’d never get to do without Bryson around. I need to stop that thinking right now.” Blaze told her that she was so happy that they’d found each other. “I am as well. I was losing hope, you know. After so long, I wasn’t sure that I’d ever see him before we died. And now he’s here. You both are.”

  “Yes. Mrs. Shepardson, I wanted to—” Reba asked if she’d mind calling her Grandma. “I’d love that. Thank you. But I wanted to tell you something. I’m not human.”

  “I didn’t think you were, my dear. I don’t know why, but you are just too elegant to have only been around for thirty some odd years. You have a way about you that makes me think you’re even older than we are.” Blaze told her that she was. Nodding, Reba spoke again. “Did you think it was going to make a difference as to how we’d feel about you? I can tell you right now that I don’t give a fig what you are. So long as you continue to keep looking at Bryson the way you do tonight. He might have been out of our lives for nearly forty years, my dear, but I love him like he’s been here all along.”

  “I’ve taken it upon myself to heal you.” Reba looked at her husband, then back at Blaze. “Him as well. Now that Bryson has found you, I’d hate for his time with you to be cut short because you have cancer and Paul will die with you. He will, you know. Die of a broken heart, the same as I would if anything happened to Bryson. He’s my life. Bryson owns my heart as well. I could no more go on without him than you or Paul could without the other.”

  “I don’t know what to say.” Blaze put her hand over hers that were tightly grasped on the table. “You’re an immortal. You made Bryson one as well, haven’t you?”

  “I have. I could you too, both of you, if you were to allow me to change you. Nothing more than a touch. Nothing that would harm either of you. But I want you to think on it before either of you say yes. You will be around for a very long time. You will never hurt or get sick, but forever is a very long time.”

  Reba nodded. “There would be perks too. That’s all I can think about at the moment. The perks that will come to us if we agree. Great grandchildren and beyond. Spending time with you and Bryson. Also the woman that he thought of as his sister. I’m assuming that they’re close.” Blaze told her as close as they could be and not be blood related. “I’d like to adopt her as well. Take her into my heart and give her whatever she wishes from me and Paul.”

  “It’s doubtful that she’d want anything from you that you’re not willing to give her. Dawn, she’s a great deal like Bryson. And as sweet.” Reba felt the tears roll down her cheeks. “I have five sisters. A brother-in-law, as well as a niece. They, too, would benefit from having grandparents around. Even though my sisters and I are a great deal older than you, we’d benefit in ways that I can only imagine. But you must think about what forever means, Grandma.”

  “Paul and I have money. A great deal of it. We’d not be a burden on the two of you.” Blaze told her that she had a great deal of money too, far more than they did. “I’d not take anything from either of you that you weren’t willing to give us.”

  “Just your love. That’s all we’d want. And a hug when we need one, or you do. Or even if you just pass me in the house and hug me.” Reba lifted her head up then, looking at Blaze. “A great grandchild will also need you to tell him about his grandmother. How she was happy as a child. Since Bryson never knew his mom, it would help him as well to get to know her through your eyes. See her when she was only a child. Tell them about her schoolwork and how she excelled so much better than the other children. That learning to ride a bike got her a broken arm. How you and Paul both cried because you thought that you’d failed her.”

  Sobbing now, Reba didn’t even care that Blaze was reading her mind. Those memories and more were things that she’d not thought of in years. Hugging Blaze, hanging onto her for support, she told her that she’d talk to Paul tonight. And then made Blaze promise her that she’d not leave them at the old peoples’ home forever.

  ~*~

  Curt waved at everyone in town that he came across. It was, or it had been, a very friendly town until the meeting yesterday with Bryson and Clara. Since then he’d been treated with disdain and meanness. Even the grocery guy had given him a pass on an apple or two when he went by h
is place. Today he’d run him down and demanded that he pay for them. It had taken his last buck to get the guy off his back.

  He wondered how a single person like his boy could command a little town like this one in such a short amount of time. Then he thought of the woman—Beano, or something like that, was her name. Beano was the one that wore the pants in their family. He’d known that even before she took that cheap shot at him and hit him when he wasn’t looking.

  “Women.” He looked around to see if anyone heard him. Just yesterday he’d been warned about talking to himself. The cops told him to be crazy on his own time or they’d take him in, whatever the hell that might have meant. Even if that was what he said. Curt had trouble keeping what people said in reality straight with what he wanted to hear. Usually it involved him getting cash, but he’d been using that trick so much that it was becoming a habit for him.

  Curt wanted to get in touch with Ellen. She might well have been the one that told them how he’d come to be the father of them two ungrateful curs. Ellen didn’t care for the way that he’d picked up Bryson. And she’d been wholly pissed off when he’d come home with Clara. Not even naming the kid after her aunt soothed her into staying to help him raise them. Of course, she did tell him, with her body all stiff and her teeth not moving, that Clara wasn’t her aunt’s name.

  He never bothered with names all that much. He’d learn them if he had to, like with his wife and the kids. But the rest of the world could go to hell in a handbasket for all he gave a shit. Curt was better at “Hey you” or “buddy” than he was with some name that your parents stuck on you when you couldn’t tell them that you’d rather have a normal name, rather than being named after some dead relative to get money from them.

  He’d even changed his name when he got away from home. His name, he remembered. It was a name that got him into so much trouble at school that he just quit going after a while. Renaldo Cortland Williams. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he was the sixth. Five other people had had to endure what he had when he’d been a kid.

  Getting to the grocery store, he saw the man putting out his fruit for the day, like this place was back in the fifties and had never seen a big grocery store like Curt loved. The man guarded his fruit like he was guarding his family jewels. He didn’t want the fruit any more than he did the guy’s jewels. They were more than likely as dried up as he was.

  “They said you have the only payphone in town. It’s not that I don’t believe anyone—hell, you more than likely have had the same one for fifty years. But I gotta make a collect call.” The grocer nodded to the back of the store. “Thanks.”

  Sure enough, not only was there a phone in an actual booth back there, but it had a thick cushion on it like his mom had made it. Ruffles and all. And the sucker had a rotary dial. He was still laughing when the zero made its way back to its home to call the operator. When she answered, he had to straighten up to answer her.

  “I’d like to make a collect call to Ellen Williams. She lives in Texas.” The operator said that she’d need more than that, like an address. “Address? I don’t have that. Just Texas. Can’t you do a search for her like that?”

  “Sure, why not?” He heard a tone there, but wasn’t sure since he didn’t know her. “Sir, there are seventy-three hundred Williams in the state of Texas. Over a hundred are Ellens, and another five hundred have the first initial of ‘E.’ If you have a pen and paper, I can give you all those numbers.”

  “Are you kidding me right now?” She said that she didn’t have any kind of humor in her today, it was Monday. “It can’t be Monday. But that’s beside the point. I can’t be writing down that many numbers. We’d be here all day. Then I’d need a quarter to each to see if that’s her or not.”

  “A phone call is now fifty cents from a payphone, sir.” He wanted to hang up on the woman, but was afraid, like with the town, that she’d tell everyone that he’d messed up and no one would try to help him anymore. “If there is nothing else that I can help.…”

  “You didn’t help me at all. I need to talk to Ellen Williams. Can’t you just call them all at once and find out which one was my Ellen? I know you can do it. You’re the phone company.” The operator huffed at him. “Look, you mean person. I pay your wages, and you’re supposed to help me when I call in. It’s your job.”

  “Okay, first, you don’t pay my wages. I work for the phone company. They pay my wages. Secondly, if you think that I have the ability to call over six hundred people at once, you’re mistaken. There would be no need for robot calls to annoy people all at one time and hope people bite on the scams. Thirdly, and this is the most important thing I can say to you, find Ellen yourself, if you need her that badly.” Then, like he knew she would, she disconnected the call.

  People were just rude anymore. He knew that he was as well. Hell, he’d made a living off taking advantage of people and being a snot. But she worked a job, and she should have been nicer. This was one of those times he wished he could remember a name. That way he could have called her boss and had her fired or written up or something.

  Coming out of the booth, he saw Bryson there waiting on him. One look at the grocery store person made him think that he was the one that had called him. He started to tell his son the same thing he did every time he saw him, but Bryson told him to come with him and to shut up.

  They were on the sidewalk when he got his tongue working again. “That ain’t no way to talk to me, son.” Bryson stopped and turned so quickly that he nearly ran into him. “Watch what you’re doing there. You nearly knocked me down.”

  “I should put you in a grave, is what I should do. What the hell were you thinking when you stole that man’s fruit? Don’t you realize that he has to make a living too? Christ. And then to call the state of Texas looking for your wife?” Curt told him that it was his mother, same as he was his dad. “No, you’re not. Neither of you are my parents. You stole me from my mother a long time ago, as well as took their home. In turn, she killed her husband, then herself, thanks to you.”

  “You can’t be pinning that one on me. I didn’t have nothing to do with that shit. Besides, I did a fine job raising you up. Look at you now, a man about town. And money out the ass. I only need a few thousand bucks, son. Once I get enough investors, then I can be on Easy Street plus paying you back.”

  “You want me to finance another one of your schemes.” Curt said not to be so negative. “You’ve made me that way. Broken promises and lies have turned me into a man that doesn’t believe a single word that flows over the rotted teeth in your head.”

  Closing his mouth, he glared at Bryson. He used to be so sweet. Then here lately he was hard to even have a conversation with. It was always how he’d messed things up. Taken money that hadn’t been his. Now this, even with Bryson having enough to share, he was putting up another fuss about that. He asked him if he had any cash on him.

  “I do. About two grand, I think. I also have credit cards with my name on them, as well as credit accounts all over the country. Some homes, too, that we’re going to visit soon. Things that belong to me and my wife.” He told him that he should tell her that he spent the cash and to give it to him. “No. that is never going to happen. Not to mention, I won’t lie to my wife about it. There is no way in hell that I’m going to ever do a damned thing for you or with you again.”

  “She’s sort of butch. Don’t you think?” Bryson just put his arms over his chest and said nothing. “Boy, I never noticed how big you’ve gotten. You must have gotten that from your old man.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I never saw him after he was killed and you took me from them.” That wasn’t what he meant and he told Bryson that. “If you mean I got it from you, then that’s not even possible. You’re nothing to me. Not by blood or love.”

  “You don’t love me? Hell, I made you what you are today, didn’t I?” Bryson told him no. “You sure do like that word, don’t you? I m
ean, you say it pretty near all the time now.”

  “No, I don’t love you. I don’t know that I ever did after you made Ellen cry when you took the money that was to buy Clara and me food for the week. You made her cry a great deal.” Curt said that she got over it. “I’m sure she did. But I didn’t. We went hungry because you were a fucking gambling addict that needed a fix all the time.”

  “Your sister said that same thing to me.” He waited for Bryson to deny Clara being his sister. “So, she can be your sister, but I can’t be your daddy? You do know that she’s no more your sister than I am your daddy. Right?”

  “I love her. You’re a pain in the ass. Why are you looking for Ellen?” Curt started to ask him where he’d heard that and eyed the store again, knowing that little shit had told his boy. “She’s not going to help you with whatever you have going on in your head. I just found out that you were having affairs, and she had had enough.”

  “How the fuck did you get that? That man in there, he sure is nosy, don’t you think?” Bryson asked him again why he was contacting her. “I don’t want her talking to you about my business. I’m thinking that you’ve already spoke to her, and she’s giving out things that don’t concern you.”

  “Yes, I’ve already talked to her. In fact, she’s coming here today so that I can have a nice long talk with her. About you, if you want to know.” Curt asked him why. “Because I think you’ve been holding onto secrets long enough. I want answers that you’re not giving me. Not unless we pay you. I called Ellen, and she said that she had stuff on you that would put you in jail.”

  “Why on earth would she do that? Damn it, Bryson, why are you making trouble for me? What did I ever do to you?” Bryson asked him how long did he have for him to go down the list of things. “You’re not at all nice. Not one little bit. Does that wife of yours know what a person you are?”