“Okay, I guess I understand that. But as far as how they acquired the pictures. How do you explain that to the public? I think that bringing Ellen in on it would be just as bad as him doing the crime. They’d not believe that she wasn’t in on it. I’m not even sure that she wasn’t, to be honest.” He smiled at her. “You’ve got a very good plan, don’t you?”
“Oh yes. They have me back, and they say that when they decided to see what had really happened that day, someone put these pictures in their mailbox. That way, Ellen is not involved at all, and they can say that this book came with the pictures.” She asked him how he knew that Ellen wasn’t involved. “I don’t. That’s where you and the other birds come in. You can figure it out for me. If she’s even remotely guilty of anything having to do with this, I want her in the cell next to him. I’m done being taken for a sap.”
“Dawn.” He nodded. “You do know that you have to go to see the council, remember? You not only have to explain her death, but what happened to bring you to that point. Not that I think they’ll have an issue with your reasoning, but have you thought about what you’ll tell them?”
“She killed her own parents. Not both of them directly, but she was just as guilty as Curt was for killing them. Now that she’s dead, I find myself as untrusting as I’ve ever been. Not of you and the birds, but everyone I know is under suspicion when it comes to having me trust them.” Blaze said that wasn’t such a bad thing when it came to business. “No, but I’m feeling myself being crippled by it. So much so that I question what I do with every move that I make. I don’t want to feel that way. It’s not a good feeling when I question everything.”
She’d not seen that on him. He was good at hiding things from her, but that, she felt she should have known. Sitting closer to him, she simply held him as he did the same to her. Blaze loved this man more than she did herself.
“I have to go and see the council in an hour. I know that you’re busy with things, but I was wondering if you’d go with me. Then when we get back, we spend the rest of today in bed. I think we need a nice nap or two.” She looked at him. “Or not necessarily a nap, but something will come to us, I’m sure.”
“I like that plan. Let me make a couple of calls and I’ll join you. But you should know that I don’t think you’ll be in much trouble over killing Dawn.” He said that he had no idea what to expect. “Yes, I guess you wouldn’t. Give me five minutes and I’ll go with you.”
He was sitting on the couch when she returned. Bryson was sound asleep. When she sat down across from him, she reached out to Mercy and the others to let them know what was going on. Mercy asked if she should go too.
If you’d like. I think that you’d be a bit more knowledgeable about what he might have to do than either of us. When you were there the last time, what was that for? Mercy told her. Yes, that’s right. You broke up a ring of men trying to form a Black Knights Club. I didn’t think they had those sort of clubs anymore, did you?
No. But you know what they’re about when they’re all gathered. I barely was able to save the woman that they’d taken. Those kinds of clubs generally are filled with men that have nothing better to do with their time than to bitch and moan about how women don’t do what they want them to do. I had to explain to them how that was the twentieth century, and women no longer were slaves to men. Blaze laughed when she did. They find out on the Internet about that old club and try to make it work in today’s world. It just doesn’t work like that anymore.
I don’t know that it did all those decades ago either. Again they both laughed, and Blaze realized that Bryson was awake and looking at her. Just meet me here and we’ll head out.
There wasn’t any way to travel between the witches’ world and this one without magic. Blaze was trying to figure out how to make hers work for them when Bryson just took hers and Mercy’s hands and they were there. It took her several seconds to remember that Bryson had gotten some of the magic that Dawn had had. They were seated at a long table when the councilmen came into the room.
“This won’t take long, Lord Bryson.” He nodded and told them that he’d do whatever they needed. He was just glad that no one had killed him over this. “Kill you? On no, it is us that owe you a great deal, sir. We have been trying to solve the deaths of so many other witches for a great many years. The fact that it...well, that it took a non-witch to do so has made us very unhappy with ourselves. We strive to take care of our own. But in thanking you properly for what you’ve done, we have put the substantial amount of money that was to be Dawn’s when she reached a certain age into an account for you. We also have a bit of magic for you. All of that which Dawn was to get from her parents that day.”
“I don’t need anything, gentlemen. Just to have her gone from my life, that is all I need. I had no idea what sort of person I was dealing with all these years. Nor did I understand what she did to become a part of my life.” One of the five men asked him if he would like his memories returned. “No, I wouldn’t. The ones that I have now are bad enough. But I do thank you for asking.”
“You are a very pleasant man, Lord Bryson. And you being mated to one of the birds, as they call themselves, has made you even stronger than you might have been if you’d only killed Dawn and not met the women.” Bryson said that he didn’t know that he’d have found out what he had about Dawn without them. “Yes, you would have. Somewhere along her lifeline, you would have found out all you needed to destroy her. However, you would not have survived either. This way is so much better.”
“No fucking shit.” The council looked at Mercy when she spoke. “If you’d not mind, I’d really like to get back to my child. This is all nice and everything that you’re not going to fine him for killing a witch, but I’m sure there are other things you wish to say. Get on with it so we can go back to our merry lives.”
“You have always been so pushy, Lady Mercy.” Mercy bowed before him. “Also, you take things that we say to you the incorrect way. But you are right. We all have things to take care of. Lord Bryson, if you’d stand please?”
When he did, the middle man stood up and came to stand before Bryson. When he reached for her hand, Blaze took it. Just before the man winked at them, Blaze felt the power running up from their clasped hands.
~*~
Bryson wasn’t sure where he was when he opened his eyes, but he was careful not to move. He was sure that every single part of his body was going to hurt. Not just hurt, but make him sick with the pain of it. Looking around as best he could without moving yet, he saw that he was in a room, but not one that he’d ever seen before. Turning his head wasn’t nearly as painful as he’d thought it would be, so he raised his head a little bit so that he could get his bearings.
“You’re in our rooms.” He looked at the man who had touched him. “Yes, it is I, Number Three, that has given you the magic that you deserved. I did not think to warn you, but Lady Blaze said that had I warned you, you would more than likely not have taken the riches that now belong to you.”
“What was all that magic? I’m sure that it wasn’t what Dawn had.” He said that it wasn’t after laughing a bit. “Look, buddy. I’m not sure what you gave me, but you can bet that I’ll try my best to beat you to snot if you don’t start explaining what the fuck you did to me.”
“Well, first of all, Dawn has been killing witches for a very long time. She is much older than she let anyone see her to be. Also, she was very good at magic that would not just enhance her looks, but also make people believe that she was much, much less intelligent than she was. That is where we made our mistake in finding her. We were looking for someone powerful. She hid that from us, as I’m sure you can understand, so that we’d not find her.” Bryson asked him what that had to do with him feeling run over. “You got all the magic that she had gotten from others that she killed, stronger and younger witches. Which, I should point out, killing a lesser witch than yourself is against the law
. Our laws. If you were to sit up, I’m sure you’d feel much better.”
Bryson sat up, and did feel much better than he had before. “Thank you. But please tell me why you’d think I would need all this power.”
“You killed her.” Bryson growled a little from the back of his throat. “I’m sorry. Perhaps I’m not explaining this very well. I will start at the first part. That will help you to understand it all. You see, Dawn’s parents weren’t just a witch and a warlock—they were the witch and warlock that ruled all witches. They were powerful in their own right, and when they had to destroy someone with magic, all that power would come to them. But—and here is what got the two of them killed—they did not take more power than they needed, but stored it away to save others. Sort of like a drug to save lesser witches.”
“When Dawn had Curt kill her mother, then she killed her father, that magic might well have saved them had they not horded it for others.” Number Three nodded at him. “Couldn’t they have just called on it when they realized what they were up against? I mean, you know, call it to them so that they’d live?”
“Had they not trusted their daughter, much like you did, then perhaps they might have. But by the time they realized what she was doing, it was much too late for the magic to help them. They did, in their wisdom, make it so that not only did Dawn not get very much of their magic, but they were smart enough to put their riches away so that she could never touch them. I believe that is what they did when the magic could have served them better. They made sure that she wasn’t able to buy her way into having more than she should have in the first place.”
“So they used their last breaths, so to speak, to take the money from her instead of trying to save themselves. Why would they do that?” He told him. “I see. They weren’t sure that the magic would be enough, so they took care that she’d be broke too. I guess that’s much smarter. I mean, it doesn’t sound to me like she’d have given up on trying to kill them off anyway. Perhaps cutting her off just made it so others would live.”
“That’s it precisely.” Bryson asked him why they’d not taken care of her in the first place. “Ah, there is the question of the day. We simply did not know it was her until it was nearly too late. It was too late for a great many others. Because she dwelt and worked in the human world, we would need proof that she did these crimes. It would have been difficult for us to explain why she was killed. Not that we couldn’t have come up with something to explain that. We wanted her dead, not in a human prison.”
“So you waited a long time to capture her.” Number Three told him again that they’d not known for sure it was her. “All right. I guess I can understand that. She was smart enough to hide herself in plain sight.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
The other man stood up and went to the desk that Bryson hadn’t noticed until then. The bed that he’d been resting on when he woke was gone too, and there were several chairs for him to sit on. Bryson wondered where Blaze and Mercy had gone.
“They are at their homes. I told them that I would take care that you were not harmed, and that I’d send you along to them after you and I spoke. There are things going on in the other world for which they are going to receive help from us to handle. Mostly you will be able to handle it now, but we will back you up on it. Here are the monies that belong to you. It is accounted for on each line where they were paid for duties from us. Also, any kind of money they made, it too went into the bank.”
“Why am I getting this? Before I forget to ask, did you tell me what I could do to kill her? Someone spoke to me while she was trying to kill me.” He said that would have been her father. “Her father? I thought that he was dead. I mean, didn’t you tell me that?”
“I did. And I’m sorry for misleading you in that. He is alive, but not well. When she tried to kill him, it did take a great deal of his power and his health away from him. He wanted no one to know that he was still living. Now that his daughter is gone, however, he has decided to come forth and tell his side of the story. That is why we have made these plans with you. Because he has helped in determining what she did to them both.” Bryson asked him why her father wasn’t getting the money or the magic. “Master James no longer wishes to live. He will join his wife in the afterlife and be happy again.”
By the time he was given a voucher for the money and sent home, Bryson wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on. Someone, he’d been told, would come and help him understand the magic that he received, as well as how to use it.
He had asked, several times as a matter of fact, what he was supposed to do with more magic, but he was only patted on the back and told that he’d be fine with it, whatever the fuck that meant. Bryson was standing in the living room of his home when he heard Blaze speaking to him.
“Are you all right?” Bryson told her that he wasn’t entirely sure. “Yes, well, I can well imagine that. Did you know that you’ve been gone for two days? I was ready to go there and get you today if you had not been back here. Did he tell you what was going on?”
“No. He was very vague about a lot of things, including why I was to get the magic in the first place.” Bryson told Blaze about James Lloyd Fitzgerald. “He’s just relaxing, I was told. He no longer wants to be a witch or whatever he would be called.”
“Warlock. I had no idea that he was still hanging around.” Bryson told Blaze that he was the one that had talked to him that day, and that he’d put the pictures in the box. “That explains that. While you were away, Remi and I have been putting some contractors to work in getting the warehouse downtown ready to receive things. We had to hurry because it was arriving daily, and we were running out of room to put it all.”
“The man, he told me that he’d help with that project. I don’t know if that was exactly what he was talking about when he told me that you guys were working on things here, but I bet that it is. He said that he owes us a great deal.” Blaze wrapped her arms around his waist and Bryson held her to him. “There is a great deal of money too. Since we don’t need it, I’d like to fund some of the projects that I’ve been thinking about. Mostly it has to do with the winter clothing drives. There are a couple more that I’d like to work on as well.”
“We have enough money for all that, I’m sure.” He said that he knew that, but he wanted to give it to these projects because he was sure that Glenna and James would like it that way. “That’s wonderful. I think that’s a grand idea. I’ll have someone help you with drawing up the plans to put before the city, if that is where you want to start.”
“I do. Thank you.” Bryson kissed her on the nose and thought about the million and one things that he wanted to ask someone about. The most important one right now was, why was he now able to see into the future?
They also had a meeting with a ghost chaser. Not that he believed in them, chasers or ghosts, but the second house that they’d purchased was supposed to be haunted. In order to do something with the home, Blaze had told him that it needed to be cleaned out. Apparently she did believe in them.
Arriving at the house as their birds, Bryson could feel something off. It wasn’t until he entered the large building that he knew that he’d been wrong about them. Ghosts really were around, and the four that were here didn’t like humans coming around. He saw them as soon as he entered what was called the parlor when the house was built. They had been dead for a very long time if their clothing was any indication.
“You can see us?”
Chapter 10
Chadwick hadn’t spoken to anyone but his wife and two children for a great many years. Just knowing that the man in front of him could not only see them, but could speak to them as well, was more than he could have hoped for. But he had to concentrate on what he was saying rather than just be happy for a time.
“We own this home that you’re living in. Can you tell me if you have lived here since it was built?” Chadwick told the younger man t
hat he’d lived where the foundation was. Now the house was all different. “I’m sorry about that. I am. But the house has been sold now, so if you’d tell me what happened or why you haunt here, maybe I can figure something out for you.”
“Humans walk right through us, like we ain’t even there.” Bryson told him that they couldn’t see or hear them, or they’d never do that. “If you say so. Once, about fifty years or so ago, this here man came around with all these machines and tried his best to run us off. We were here first, dagnabbit.”
“I’m sure that they never thought of anyone being here other than other humans. I’m sorry about that.” Chadwick liked this young man. He didn’t yell or scream about things. “What happened to you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“We took sick. Thought that since we didn’t leave the house or nothing, we’d be all right when the pox came around. First my children, then my wife. I died too when there weren’t no one here to care for me.” He looked over at his wife and smiled. “‘Tisn’t her fault that she took ill and died. We never thought about the people working for us around the farm. We didn’t do much in the way of talking to them, but they got us sick all the same. Took out a lot of people, that sickness did.”
“Yes, I’ve heard about it. I’m very sorry for your loss. But, here is what I’d like to know. Can we work something out between your family and mine so that we can have people living here that are going to be down on their luck, or just lost everything due to fire or other things?” He asked if they meant darkies. “We don’t say that word any longer, Chadwick. We’re all one person as far as me and my family are concerned. They’re just people that are needing a hand up.”
Blaze: Queen’s Birds of Prey: Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Queen's Birds of Prey Book 2) Page 13