Milo: Xavier’s Hatchlings ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  As soon as she got out of her car, Pem met her in the parking lot, as excited as she’d ever seen her. As she gushed on about the cafeteria and how it was coming along, in between her need for breathing, Jamie told her about Sarah wanting to beat the dragons with her brooms.

  It was the way they’d always been, her and Pem. Not only did they talk all over each other, but they also managed to finish each other’s sentences, as well as be a great team when working together. It was as if they could read minds even back then. Dragging her to the main floor where they’d decided to put the dining area, she was seated with the cook, who was giving samples of the desserts she wished to make.

  “How will you be able to make these in bulk?” The cheesecake bites were the best she’d ever eaten, and Jamie thought she could make a diet of only the apple dumplings. “I mean, I’d get sick just to eat here.”

  “The hospital is going to be open to the public too for a little while. We don’t know yet how that will work out, but we’re going to give it our best to provide meals for anyone that needs them.” Pem turned to Mrs. Milner, the chef Pem had hired. “Show her how you can make this work.”

  With a snap of her fingers, not only was the table cleared off but there was a large moving cart filled with little bowls of the treats. She asked her what she was and was told that she was a pixie, mother to Color.

  “I wanted to help out here because of the things you’ve done for my son and the others. They have had so much fun being able to play with the little creatures in your yard. He said you were getting a cow. I don’t think they know how to contain themselves in thinking they’ll be able to ride the blasted thing.” Mrs. Milner laughed. “I hope you allow them to see milk come from her. I think that would have them wanting fresh milk every day. And if it gets them to drink more than just juice, I’d be so happy.”

  The way it was going to work was that Mrs. Milner would have only her kind working with her. It would hurt that there would be no humans or shifters getting the jobs, but if they could provide the kind of food she was telling them about, it would be better all the way around.

  After they had eaten more than they should have, the two of them went to inspect the rest of the building. It would be open in a month, they were told. She thought it would be a lot sooner than that, but then she started noticing things that weren’t quite finished yet. Bathrooms with no doors. There were a lot of beds that needed to be put together yet and moved. Offices needed to be set up for new staff. Even the trash company hadn’t been chosen yet. Jamie wanted it done now, but she knew that rushing it wouldn’t help anyone. Just thirty days, she told herself, and she’d be working with her buddy again.

  Even Rachel was getting in on the excitement. She was going to help with the menus for the people on special diets. While Mrs. Milner could do that, she had no idea what it might entail.

  It was nearing two when Jamie was ready to call it a day. However, she had one more thing she wanted to check on, and that was the houses at the back of their land. There was a driveway that connected the house to the back roads, so that was the way she went. They were in worse shape than the kitchen had been, and she was disgusted by how much her parents hadn’t done to keep the property up. If she were able to ever talk to them again, she thought she’d be willing to give them a piece of her mind. There was no sense in leaving things to fall around your ears when there had been more than enough money to take care of things. Jamie set Jangles to work on not just getting things taken care of but also making sure the barn and the other house were livable.

  Chapter 5

  “The foundation is well funded, but we’re still having a lot of trouble finding someone to run the thing. I know we’ve been doing interviews for a while now, but the fact of the matter is, no one wants to take this on that we can trust. Aunt Carson said that for every three applicants we have apply, four of them have prior records to do with not just embezzlement, but also child support issues and a lot of other shit.” Milo asked his brother, Dover, how that worked, with four out of three being bad people. “I asked too, and she said that some of them were so bad she felt they needed to be counted twice. I don’t know, Milo. This isn’t anything I think our parents had as a problem when they were doing this.”

  “Because they did it all themselves until their children were old enough to help them out. Maybe we have to figure out one of us to take it on. Just until we have someone trustworthy that we can hire. I’m not saying it has to be you, but we need to see, first of all, who would like to take it on. If everyone is too busy, which I think is going to be the issue, I can do it. I wouldn’t mind at all. I know that Finn has his project with the hospital. Jamie and Pem are helping him with that. George is working on the pantry projects. You’re working on the school system to make sure there is funding for the kids that wish to go to college. Even Hedley is following up on projects we have working in town. As it stands right now, I’m the only one between jobs now that we’re working together on everything.” Dover looked so relieved that Milo had to laugh. “You could have just asked me to take over, Dover. I would have told you I could do it.”

  “It’s not that. I just don’t know how our parents did this for so long without running into trouble all the time.” He told him his opinion on that. “I guess you’re right. Having people investigated right from the start would have saved them a great deal of trouble. Not that they didn’t have it anyway, but that was more on a personal level. What are you and Jamie doing now that you’re getting settled into your home?”

  “Mostly, it’s been just me hanging out around the house. Jamie’s been working with Finn so much that I only see her at dinnertime. I don’t mind all that much, not really. I know that once the hospital is up and running, I’ll see her more. So I have a lot of things I’m sort of just doing as busywork. That’s why I can take on this job.” Dover asked him what she and Pem had decided on with working there. “They’re going to be a team. Once the hospital is complete, she’s thinking she can find some of her contacts from the service to come and apply for jobs. As it stands right now, we’re getting in about two hundred applications a day for nurses, kitchen staff, as well as general workers. If nothing else comes of this hospital, it sure will generate a lot of jobs for the area.”

  “How many of the pack has applied? I’m to understand that since they’ve been working in the buildings around town, Peter’s had an influx of people, young shifters, coming to join his pack. He needed that more than anything.” Milo told him what he’d found out. “Christ. A hundred more to his pack? Peter must but thrilled to death with that. I’m sure I would be.”

  “Not only that, but since he stood up to his brother, the pack seems to have taken on a better attitude toward helping out around the land. He no longer has to threaten people to get them to work.” Dover said that was good. “I thought so too. By the way, I think you might already know this, but we’re invited to the next pack meeting. Peter wants to introduce us to everyone so they know we can be trusted. Not only that, but also that we’re the ones responsible for them having such a good year.”

  “This feels like a win-win for all of us.” Milo agreed with his brother on that. “All right. I feel much better now that things are working in a good forward direction. I have two more things I have to take care of, and then I can take a couple of days off. I’m headed out of town to look for some shops to fill out the empty spaces in town.”

  After his brother left him, Milo wandered around the house and ended up in the staff’s quarters on the upper level of the house. He wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, but just filling out time until he had to go to the meeting he was having with his parents at their hotel. He had a hopeful feeling that they were going to move closer to them, but he wasn’t sure. They had a good life at home, and they were into a lot of projects going on. Milo was afraid they were going to tell him that he needed to tell the others to start standing up on their
own and stop calling them to rescue them so much. Either way, he knew he wasn’t going to beg for either of them to go his way.

  The first room he was in reminded him of a dorm room in older hospitals. There were still beds lined up against the walls, but the mattresses had all been removed. A little stand was between each of them. Mostly it was just a stool or something like it. Of the ten beds in the room, only one of them had a headboard. He wondered what that was about.

  There were pegs above each bed, mostly just pieces of wood from a tree, but there were a couple of actual hooks. Going to the end of the room, he looked out the only window and could see the wooded area behind the house, as well as a better view of the barn.

  Opening the door to the left of the window, he found a smallish kitchen. The room was devoid of anything other than a sink and a cabinet—which he thought might have been a pantry of sorts—hanging on the wall. Again, there was a view of the outside, but this one was of the driveway. He watched as a car pulled into the curved drive and parked just under the window.

  He didn’t rush down to see who it was but stayed at the window and watched. A stranger walked to the front of the house and disappeared. Jamie had hired a few people to work around the house just a couple of days ago, so Milo continued his looking around.

  In addition to the room he was in, there was a second door across the hallway. There he found a few things. Nothing that he’d not expected, he supposed. There was a single bed in the tiny room and a few pegs on the walls, but this one had a shelf that held a couple of books. Pulling one off the shelf, he was thumbing through it when Lily came to talk to him.

  “There is a man downstairs that wishes to speak to the lady of the house. He said he would speak to you if you’d see him.” Milo asked her what he wanted. “While he did not say, I have read his mind, and he is here to see if you and Mistress Jamie would give him some money for a project he is trying to set up. There is no project in his mind, my lord. He believes the mistress to be as stupid as her parents were. They had given him money before without any return of it.”

  “So he wants to scam us the same way he did her mom and dad.” She nodded, then asked what he wanted to do about it. “Tell him that the lady of the house will return at four, and he should return then. If he asks why I won’t see him, tell him that—just tell him I don’t work with the money or something. Just so he thinks I’m stupid too.”

  “That is very good. The mistress, if you don’t mind me saying, will kick his bottom but hard.” Milo thought the man would be lucky if he didn’t get himself killed over this. “Are you thinking of redoing this room?”

  “I don’t know, to be honest. When the man leaves, will you come back here? I’d like to run a few things by you to see what you think.” He reached out to his mom as soon as Lily left him. Is there a way for you to reach out to Jamie’s parents? I’d like a couple of answers on some things I’ve come across.

  I can. Right now, if you have the time. He said he did. The mister is here. My goodness, son, I had no idea he was so badly hurt in the accident, did you?

  I don’t even know what might have been the cause of the accident, to be honest. I never thought to look into it. She asked him what he needed. There is someone here that is supposedly setting up a project and wants Jamie to give him money for it. I need to know if they remember him and if there are others they might well have given money to. Not a biggie, I guess, but it would help to be prepared for this sort of thing if it’s going to be an issue.

  Milo thumbed through the book some more while he waited for his mom to get back to him. The book contained not just the names of the people that had at one time worked in the big house, but also an accounting of their wages, when they were terminated, as well as the why. Milo wondered if Jamie knew she might well have a couple of bastard relatives out there. Laughing, he put the book back and picked up the second one just as his mom got back to him, laughing.

  He said his name is Mark Wheeler and that he is a good friend of the family. It’s no wonder they didn’t set up anything for Missy, right? They’re not very good business people. Anyway, he isn’t happy that his daughter is living in the house now. I don’t have any idea why he’d care because he did leave it to his children. Anyway, he wants her to shut up and give the man what he needs, as he has been giving him money for years. When I asked, Booker, her father’s name, couldn’t think of a single time he’d either paid him back or had any kind of return on the funds going out. Milo asked if he was serious. Oh, son, I don’t think this man has any kind of sense of humor when it comes to his daughter. I think she’s better off that he’s not around. By the way, we have a meeting today, correct?

  Yes. I’m looking forward to it. Mom told him she was as well. Thanks for the information, Mom. I’m going to have to look into whatever this man has taken from her family. That way, I can have a good accounting for Jamie when she meets with him later.

  I’m speaking to Carson about it now. She said she’d send what she has on this via your email. There are plenty of men and women out there like this one. Carson has been able to find about a dozen of them in the little time she’s been looking. I think she’s bored, to be honest with you. He laughed. Knowing that she’d been more helpful than he’d asked for, Milo thanked his mom again. Now. What’s the second thing?

  Milo told her about the books he’d found. The second one seemed to be a diary of sorts that had information about the family he didn’t think was public knowledge. Just reading her a few entries from it, she seemed as intrigued as he was.

  Bring it with you today—I’d like to look it over. Just because it has things in it from when I was younger and human. He laughed with her. I love you, Milo. All my boys have been my reason for living since the day you were all brought to me as my children.

  I love you as well, Mom. So much. Every day I think of something I’d like to talk to you about, and it’s so wonderful to be able to just reach out to you and talk. I never realized how much I loved that until now. She said he was making her teary. Me too. All right. I’m going to continue to look around here, then I’m going to—

  What is it, Milo? I can feel your fear from here. He told her to wait a second. No, I will not. Tell me what is going on.

  A ghost is here. I can see her. Mom didn’t say anything, and he thought that was more frightening than seeing the ghost. I’ve never been able to do that before. See ghosts. What do I do?

  Find out what she wants. He asked the woman standing before him why she was there. He knew her to be ancient simply because of her mode of dress. Milo, you’re scaring your mother. I’m going to have Winnie bring me to you.

  I’m all right. I mean, if you want to come and make sure I don’t mess this up, that’s good too. She’s just staring at me. Mom said she was on her way. All right. I’m all right, though. I don’t know that she realizes I’m real, either.

  When she looked around the room, Milo let out a breath he’d been holding. If he was honest with himself, he wasn’t as afraid as he was startled. But when she looked at him again, he knew that she knew she was dead, but not why she was there.

  “I died in the early part of seventeen-eleven. There was a winter storm that made a great many of us ill. Why are you here?” Milo told her he was the new owner of the house, with his wife. “The others, they’re gone too? The younger couple with the crippled up child?”

  “Yes. They’re both dead. The child has been put into a nursing home for care. Do you know your name?” Mom entered the room from the doorway, and Milo could see Winnie just outside the room. She told him she was going to get Jamie if she was free. He nodded and turned to the woman again. “My mother. She’s visiting from Ohio.”

  “I know of Ohio. It is a pretty country. I believe one of the slaves living here, or that was living here, was from there.” He remembered seeing that in the book. “My name is Mildred. I was the head of the housemaids for the second floor
here. There were a great many slaves here at one time, and housemaids too. How many do you have?”

  “No slaves. We have people working for us, but they’re free to come and go as they please. Have you figured out why you’re here? I’ve never seen ghosts before.” Mildred looked at his mom. “You know her.”

  “She is the Death Watcher.” Mom nodded and then smiled at her. “I’ve done nothing wrong, my lady. I think when your son opened the book, it somehow summoned me. I have no quarrel with anyone in this house.”

  “Why are you here? If you were summoned here, there had to be some magic that attached you to the book. What is it you have to tell us?” Mom took the book from him and found the entry that had Mildred’s name. “It says here that you died of pneumonia. It is of the same hand. How is that possible?”

  “I came back to finish it. When I see one of the others pass or have children once they were beyond this place, I come back to finish their entries. It is my job, you see. To make sure the records are well kept.” Mom nodded and then asked her who had done this to her. “‘Tis not a hardship for me to do so. The man that owned this home during my time here, he was the one that told me, ordered me to finish the book. It was easy enough to find a witch to make sure I was to complete my job. I wish to continue to do so if the new owners have no issue with a ghost in the house.”

  “I don’t. Do you, Milo?” He kissed Jamie when she entered the room and told her he didn’t care either. “You can come and go as you please so long as you cause no one living here or the family any harm. Winnie told me you know who the Death Watcher is.”

  “I do, Mistress. My, but you do look like your ancestor. Your great-great grandma could have been your other half when she was alive.” Mildred told them where they could find some of the old photos taken long ago. “I will return then to keep my job. If you would lay out the book so I can get to it, I can find it easily. Thank you for allowing me to do my job.”