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

by Kathi S. Barton

  “I think I kinda knew that. I’ve been seeing them around. Not just working for people in their homes, but even at jobs like regular people.” He might have been embarrassed had he any skin to redden. “I just don’t know what to talk about with people anymore. They’re all different than we are.”

  “I’m sure that there are a great many things that are different than when you were alive. Would you have a problem with having people live in this house?” He asked him what would happen if he didn’t want anyone coming to the house. “Then I’m afraid that I’ll have to have you banished. You know that I can, don’t you?”

  “I know that you can, but I don’t think you’re really aware that you can. You seem to be fobbing me off on a few things. I don’t cotton to being lied to, sir. I don’t care if you’re better than me or not.” Bryson told him that he promised he wasn’t lying. “Then why you telling me something when we both know that you can do whatever it is you want?”

  “I’m not lying, but I am unsure of things that I can do now. But I wasn’t talking about me banishing you, but the people that we hired to have you removed if you didn’t cooperate with us.” A man with equipment came into the room and started taking things out of the box. “He’s the man that will do it. He has the magic to do so.”

  “I don’t want to be banished. I want to live in my dadburn home. I bet you have a nice house that you live in. What if I were to go there and haunt you around?” Bryson asked him if he’d do that. “No. I can’t do that, and you know it. I can’t leave the house, and neither can my family. We’re stuck here. But that don’t mean that I want to be kicked out either.”

  “I’m only asking you to not scare the people staying here. I need for them to have a place to live that doesn’t frighten their children and give them bad dreams.” Chadwick thought that over and looked at his lovely wife. “You can stay here for as long as you wish. But I need for you to be nice. Can you do that for me?”

  “We can. But we don’t like being forced into something that we don’t like.” His wife told him to be nice. “I am being nice to him. Didn’t you hear him, Martha? He wants to banish us if we don’t play in the garden like he wants us to.”

  “Would it be so bad to live here with people that don’t have anything left, Chadwick? Have others around that we can watch and maybe take under our wings when they need it? I surely do miss having someone in the kitchen making all them pretty smells. Not to mention, our children having someone to watch over. They’d love that too.” Chadwick looked at his two sons, both of them dead because he’d not been able to keep them safe. “You don’t go on thinking like that, you hear me? I will not have you blaming yourself for us all dying, because you didn’t see into the future and see that no matter what you did, and you did a lot, we was still going to die.”

  “I should have moved you out of the city.” She just waved him of. “I might have been able to save you all had I just taken you to the old cabin at the back of the property.”

  “What do you think would have happened to us in that cabin when winter set in? We’d of been found frozen like that pond that was there, with no one the wiser where we’d gone. No, you tried and it didn’t work. At least we’re all together, and not spread out all over the ground like the Hendersons were. They were just buried in a mass grave not even close to their loved ones. I didn’t want that either. You go on and tell that man that we’ll behave for them. Just so long as you’re here with us, we’ll do what he wants. If’n he banishes us, Chadwick, there ain’t no telling where we might go. I want to be with you and our boys.”

  He did too, and turned to look at Bryson again. “You promise me that we can live here for the rest of our days, and I’ll be nice to everyone that comes here. My family, they want to do that too. No more scaring off humans just because they walk through us once in a while.”

  “I would like for you to scare off people that don’t belong here. There might be women here with their children that have run from their husbands or boyfriends. They hurt them. Sometimes if they can, they’ll kill them when they find them.” Chadwick said that wasn’t right. “No, it’s not. But they have this thing about them that makes them think that they’re better and smarter than a woman, and show them with their fists or even guns.”

  “I heard tell of that once. A man, he was beating his wife all the time when he thought that she was having affairs. She wasn’t. Just working hard to keep food on their table and money to keep the fire lit, while he just sat round on his bottom and cussed about every little thing she did. He killed her because she would go to houses to clean them for a few coins. Jealousy is what they called it, but me and my Martha, we knew that he was just a lazy man that hurt them because he was bigger. I don’t cotton to that. No sir.” Bryson told him that he and his family didn’t either. “All right. You come around and tell me when you got one of them families in the house, and we’ll keep them safe. We have learned a few things since the pox took us. Heck fire, we’ll keep them all safe if you tell me what we’re hiding them from.”

  “I’ll do that. And I can’t thank you enough.”

  When Bryson turned to the other man still setting up and told him he was no longer needed, Chadwick was thrilled. He didn’t want to be banished any more than he’d wanted to die all those years ago. But today, he could do something about it.

  Bryson told him that there would be carpenters in the house for a little while. He asked him if there was anything they could remember that the men and women working on the house might find. Chadwick said that he didn’t know of anything when his wife reminded him of their money.

  “I got me a little cash around here. Some of my wife’s things too. If you could see that they’re put someplace safe too, I’d appreciate that.” Bryson asked him if he wanted them back when the house was finished. Chadwick looked at his wife when she spoke. Shaking his head at the niceness of his wife, he turned back to Bryson. “Martha, she says for you to use it to help these here people out that lost their homes. It might be a little bit by what they have now, but it would be nice for us to be able to help them a little too. I got me a Bible around in the walls of the dining room too. Maybe you could put a new one or two around if you sell off ours. We got no people left that would want it now.”

  After Chadwick showed him which panel he’d hidden the things behind, Bryson went out to his car to get a prybar. In no time at all, not only did he find his wife’s things, but a few things that he’d forgotten about—the family silver, a gift from his momma when he’d married Martha.

  “You go on and sell that too. Not sure if it’s worth much, but you can surely use whatever it brings you.” Bryson ran his hand over the big Bible that he’d gotten when his momma had passed away. “It’s sad, don’t you think, that a family can work so hard to get something special, only to have it worth not much more than spit?”

  “You’d be surprised at how much we’ll get for these pieces, Chadwick. And this home, it’ll be called the Chadwick Home, and known as that for as long as it stands. Then we’ll just build again when we need to. Thank you for this.” Nodding at the big man, he waved him off when he said that he was indebted to him. “I’ll come back and visit you and your family often, Chadwick. I think that I’ve made myself a good friend today, and I’d like to see that friendship grow.”

  After Bryson left, Chadwick gathered his family around him and held them. He couldn’t touch anyone else, but he would hold his family every chance he got. They were his life, the reason that he had worked every day of his years. They were all that mattered to him from that side of life to this side of death.

  Chadwick had been on his last legs when he’d buried his children. Not that he’d been sick by then, but it had taken his heart right along with each shovel full of dirt he’d had to put on them. When his wife had passed on, he’d wanted to crawl into the grave he’d dug for her too, not wanting to go on without her fussing at his side. It ha
d taken all he had left in him to make sure that she was by her children as she had wanted.

  He’d died in this house too—or what had been the foundation of this house that was sitting here now. He hadn’t any idea where he was buried. It wasn’t until years later, after coming back here, that he realized someone might well have buried him in any of the land that surrounded his home. For all he knew, he could have been dumped in the crapper that they’d all used. Wouldn’t have surprised him in the least after how they’d treated him when he’d built his home.

  He had money hidden in other places around the house. Some of it he checked on when he could, some he’d forgotten about. Chadwick might well tell Bryson yet about the money that was hidden in other walls, but he didn’t trust him much yet. He did a little, but not enough to tell him where all the gold was in the house. And there was plenty of it too. Mayhap, he thought, it wasn’t worth spit either.

  Chadwick made his way to the sublevels of the house after making sure that his family was safe. This was where he’d hidden most of the gold that he’d found when digging a well to this house. They’d been the only family with running water right up to the house when he’d passed on. He knew now, from this home, that just about everyone had it. Even had crappers inside.

  “You going to tell him?” He turned and looked at Martha when she joined him. “I know you better than anyone, Chadwick. You should have told him right away. He didn’t make it so I’d not see you anymore. Tell him about the gold down here.”

  “You think I can trust him?” Martha only gave him that stare that always made him afeared of her. “All right. But if he does us wrong, I’m going to blame it all on you.”

  “You know as well as I do that he’s married off to one of them birds that were here when we moved to this town. And you remember how much they helped us when the town wouldn’t.” He said that he did. “Then you know that had Bryson been a not so honest man, they would have killed him by now. He’s trustworthy, and the gold might help a family or two that needs it. Lord knows that we don’t have much use for it anymore.”

  He knew that, and decided that he was going to tell him the next time Bryson came around. He surely would like to see the birds again. Just one more time see them darken up the sky with their flying. Telling Martha that he’d take care of it soon, she went away from him. Chadwick would do this, he knew, if for no other reason than his wife thought it was a good idea.

  He’d not blame her for a thing, either, if Bryson did anything that caused them harm. Not that he thought Bryson would, but if he did, he’d lay the blame right at his own feet. His wife was a beauty, and the smartest person that he’d ever come to meet. Chadwick loved Martha as much as he was sure that Bryson loved his wife. Blaze, she’d been his friend a long time ago.

  ~*~

  Bryson was glad that he’d finally been able to wake before Blaze. They’d been making love every night, but he wanted to make love to her with the sun shining down on them, when he could see the dewiness of her skin, taste her sun drenched flesh. All of this for the first time, he realized.

  Kissing her shoulder, she moaned. His cock, already hard, hurt him when she did that. He wanted to take her now, not wait until she was ready. But this was special. A morning for them—no people calling to them, no ringing phones to be answered. Nothing to keep them from being together, just the two of them.

  “You’re thinking very hard.” Bryson laughed and told her that he was really hard all ready. “Maybe we can do something about that. I know that I’d very much like to ride you.”

  “Not today. Today is all about you and your pleasure.” She rolled to her back and looked at him. “Christ, you’re the most beautiful creature in the world. In any world.”

  “I love you, Bryson.”

  He moved over her, his body aching to fill her. But instead of giving in to his basic needs, he moved down her body, removing her gown as he did. “There is something so sexy about a slip, don’t you think? I mean, it’s not meant for sleeping in, I don’t think. But to me, it’s a perfect item to see over a woman’s flesh. The way it slides down over your shoulders and tangles at your thighs.” It moved down as easily as he said. When her breasts were both uncovered, he nibbled gently on the tips, making Blaze moan and shiver twice before he moved down her body more. “Your navel is even sexy to me. The way that your waist tucks in at the middle, the way that it’s perfectly set between your lovely breasts and your pussy.”

  Moving the slip over her waist to her hips, he was thrilled when her breathing became shallow, the way her small puffs of air made her body dewy with need. Licking a path from her pretty navel to the patch of soft curls at her womanhood, he laid down across the bed and watched as creamy liquid streamed from her.

  “You’re beautiful.” She groaned, then begged him to touch her. “All in good time, love. I need to make sure that you enjoy this as much as I do.”

  Her panties were just thin pieces of the same silk, but they were wet with her need. Pulling them off her, he brought them to his nose and nearly came with the scent. Christ, she smelled as wonderful as she looked.

  Putting them aside, he moved closer to where she smelled the strongest. Sliding his tongue over her nether lips, he moaned at the hot velvety taste. Using his fingers, he pulled open her lips and suckled in her clit. When she came with just his tongue, Bryson lapped up all that he could of her smooth taste.

  He ate her for what seemed like forever. Each time she came, he was rewarded with more of her taste. When she cried out that she could take no more, he proved to her that not only could she take all that he gave her, but made her come four more times before he moved up her body.

  Bryson touched his mouth to every part of her that he could touch. First her hips, then her navel again. She was moaning, begging him to finish her, but he didn’t want to rush things just yet.

  There was something so sexy about a woman in need. He knew that to push her too far would be painful later. She was all about getting back at him, he’d come to realize. Just when he was sure that he’d pushed her to her limit, Bryson entered her heat and felt the walls of her strangle him with her climax. Kissing her, tasting her, Bryson knew that he was as close as he’d ever been to losing all control.

  Moving deliberately now that she had released, Bryson watched her face. Lifting up her bottom so that she was closer to him, he continued to take her slowly. Her face was beautiful in the throes of her need, and he thought that if he could paint, he would paint her just like this. Beautifully his.

  “Come for me.” She shook her head, telling him that she was finished. “No, you’re only just beginning, love. Come for me and I’ll finish you off.”

  “Please. Please, Bryson, I’m worn out.”

  He moved into her deeper, twisting his hips so that he touched something inside of her yet untouched. When she screamed, digging her nails into his back, Bryson thought that if he died now, this would be the best memory that he’d take with him.

  He came then, his body exploding with his release. Throwing back his head, he felt something take him along his back—feathers, he knew. There were feathers racing over his back as he came a second, then a third time with her.

  Dropping atop Blaze, he laid there feeling like he’d been drained. Not just his body, though that was bad enough, but his mind too. Bryson thought that if he had to think too hard about anything at all, he’d be done.

  Smiling when she shoved him off her, none too gently, Bryson pulled her to him and held her. Finally, his mind started to settle into a groove that he could think with. Instead of getting up, as he knew that they both should, Bryson told Blaze what he had planned for the day.

  “If I can get up anytime soon without fainting from you exhausting me, I have a meeting with Nathan Raglan at one.” Blaze asked him to remind her who that was. “The son of the couple that had gathered coats for the needy. He is going to be in for a gr
eat surprise. I just need a way to get him out of the building so that he doesn’t push the kill switch that he has in his office.”

  “Pull the fire alarm. Or better yet, give him notice that there is going to be a fire drill today and that his people are going to be timed for getting out in a good timeframe. I’ve used that one several times.” He loved that idea. “Also, if you know he has a kill switch on the computers, then I’d say that he’s doing some very bad things other than just selling the coats that are donated to him through charity work. I’d take Remi with you. She’s good at finding out shit like that.”

  “Thanks. I think she was going anyway.” She sat up on the side of the bed and turned and looked at him. “I felt my bird when I came. It wasn’t a strange feeling or anything like that, but it does feel that way now.”

  “It was powerful what we did. I’ve never, in all my years, ever felt anything like that before when I came. It was like I was being broken into small pieces, then put...no, slammed back together in a better way. You do that to me often and we’ll both be crippled up in bed without the strength to move.” He had no idea why, but he felt like she’d just given him the best compliment in the world, and told her so. “Only a man would think that. I was trying to make a point.”

  “Oh yeah? What was your point?” She leaned over and nipped him on the thigh. Laughing, he got up with her and brushed his teeth while she showered. “I was thinking about the money that is to come to me from Dawn’s family. I think I’d like to donate it to local charities to help out with backpacks and the like. Also, with Mercy working on the high school that is nearly finished, I thought that they could use some help with classrooms. What do you think?”

  “Do you know how much money there is?” He said that he’d never asked. “Maybe you should before you make those kind of decisions. Hand me a towel, will you?”

  Before handing her the towel, Bryson dried her back. “I’ll call the council today and find out. Are you thinking that it’s a great deal of money?”