“You don’t need a law degree to be our mayor. I’d love it if you went to college and got a degree, but it’s not necessary for you to be mayor.” He pointed out that Adrian had one. “Because he’d been an attorney before he even thought of being president. But you could just run in the next election and more than likely win. Dad, you’d have the vote just on your family voting for you.”
Dad laughed with him. “You think I can do a good enough job? That bozo that we got now, he ain’t worth spit, I don’t think.” Blake said he’d been thinking he was dumber than that, but he was right. “By golly, I think I might just do it. The worst that can happen is that I don’t win, right?”
“Do you think you will?” Dad watched the kids playing instead of answering. “What sort of improvements do you have in mind? I’m sure you’ve thought of that as well.”
“I have. A great deal. Only one, however. This one is near and dear to my heart. I think that there needs to be a playground for the kids around here. A running path for their parents as well. Also, and I’ve not worked out the details on this yet, but a crew of sitters around the playground to keep a good eye on the kids while their parents take a run or rest.” Blake loved that idea but kept it to himself until Dad was finished. “There is a place in town were those old buildings have been sitting empty for ages. They’re bad places, people living in them all year round. I’d like to have them tore down, and that’s where the play equipment would go.”
“Dad, that’s brilliant. I think you have the right idea too about where it should go. Right in the middle of downtown around where the shops are. It would bring more business to the area. The extra security is a wonderful idea. That way, no one is afraid to leave their kids when they need to shop for a little something for dinner.” Dad said that it would only cost a few dollars for the security. “I like that. If it were free, I think people would take advantage of the service.”
“You boys think on what you’re going to do with that money? I had no idea that he’d been saving it up. It was his money, but there was a great deal of it, don’t you think?” Blake told him that they’d all been surprised by it. And the fact that he’d had it all in cash. “Yes, I asked him about that. When the insurance money came through, he asked if he could have it in checks smaller than the whole amount. He said when he was in the bank, he’d just cash it out and put it in the chest with the rest of it. I asked if what he was going to do if the house caught fire. You know what he said? He told me if that was the plan for it, then there’d be nothing he could do about it. That man. I loved him to death, but I sometimes think he had a nut or two that needed some tightening.”
They sat there until the line for food had dwindled down to almost nothing. Dad didn’t take much, but Blake was able to talk him into taking a couple of pieces of pie. Whatever it took to keep him up and around, Blake didn’t care what it might be that he put in his body.
When they found themselves a place to have a seat, the rest of his brothers joined them. It wasn’t long before Dad was telling them of his plans and him going to college. They were all very supportive of it but mostly keeping him out from under Mom’s radar. Mom had a system, and if Dad was around, he’d mess it up for her.
While the others were talking, Blake thought about Joey. He knew that he’d taken off just after talking to grandda. Joey said that he didn’t know when he’d be back, but he’d contact them when he could. This was the third time he’d gone off like this, and each time Blake thought he’d left a little part of him behind.
He was worried for his son. Not the others. Even Bennett had bounced back a few times when trouble had found him. It amazed him that they were so close, being that they were both adopted and not at all related to anyone. But they had all fit in. There was never a point in any of their lives that anyone thought they were anyone but their biological children. Shadow had taken so much pride in it when people pointed out that Joey looked just like her.
Joey had grown to be a loner after the trial. He would come to family gatherings, but he’d stand off in the distance. Even if he was standing next to him, Joey always felt like he was miles away. Blake had tried talking to him once about it. The conversation had saddened him more than he could have imagined.
“I’m not trying to be rude to anyone.” Blake told him that he knew that. “People are scary to me. I don’t know why. No one in this family has ever hurt me or turned against me, but I’m afraid of them.”
“You’re afraid of them because of what they’ll say or what they might ask of you?” He said both. “I know that there isn’t a person around here that would do anything to you, son. They love you too.”
“And I love you guys as well. But my heart, it’s just not into being friendly. It’s like that part of me never developed or grew after the trial. I guess you could say that I became untrusting of just about everyone.” Blake told him that he was sorry about that. “It’s not your fault. It’s just me.”
“I don’t know how to help you.” Joey said that he didn’t either. “Is that why you leave us? Go wherever you go. Do you find something there that helps you?”
“When I go away, it’s so quiet. It’s like I’m living in the world all alone. I don’t particularly want to be that alone, but I can think about things. Read something in the sand or dirt that hasn’t been touched by anyone in a long time. There are times when I see the wild animals and watch them at their lives. That is peaceful to me. Knowing that other lives, other beings, can go on despite my being close by.” Blake understood some of it but not all, and told Joey that. “How do you think I feel? I don’t understand much of it either.”
And now he was gone again. Blake wondered how long he’d be gone. What his mate might be like. If they’d have a family. Mom seemed to think that he would. Maybe that was what he’d been searching for all this time.
~*~
Pitching his tent, Joey was glad that he’d remembered to bring his rake with him this time. He didn’t mind sleeping out in the wild, but he didn’t much care for stones or pinecones to bite him in the back. Once he had a fire ring set up for his dinner, he sat down and thought of his grandda. By now, he would have had his funeral and been buried.
Joey had loved the old man. There were times he thought that he was closer to him than he’d been to his dad, Blake. Grandda wouldn’t take his bullshit, nor did he try to take him apart for answers that were none of his business. Dad didn’t do that either, but he didn’t know what Grandda did. Grandda knew everything.
Touching his fingers to the dried wood he’d gathered up, the flame shot up high before settling back down. That was just one of the many things that he could do, and some more that he’d not tried out yet. Joey thought it was because of the accident that had led to him being arrested. When he’d been in the jail cell, he’d figured out that he’d been marked in ways that no one would understand. Hell, he didn’t understand it.
Joey could touch things, but instead of knowing their history like one of his aunts did, he could clean it up. Bring it back to its original state. Old things would look brand new, the polish on them so bright it would blind a person looking at it.
There was also his ability to dig into the earth and find strength from it. Also, he could find items long lost that had kept him in money while he was on his sabbaticals. People too, though he’d never told anyone about that. If the person needed to be found, he’d call it in and hang up before they could trace the call.
Changing his appearance was another trick he could do. For reasons that he couldn’t figure out, he could also mimic voices so that it was impossible to tell who he was when he was in hiding. Things like that and the dreams that he had were bugging him to the point where he had to get away at times or burst.
Just as he was getting up to go fishing for his dinner, which only meant that he had to put his hand in the water and a nice fat fish would come to him, Tanner showed up. They didn’t spe
ak for several moments until Joey got up to go to the waterway he was near.
“I gave you a great deal of my blood.” Joey didn’t move, nor did he say anything. “When you were in that car. I saved you. But you should also know that the faerie queen was helping you along as well. I didn’t know until last night when I saw it in your grandda’s mind that you had any abilities from it.”
“I had already figured out that you had more than likely saved me from something. Why? I mean, I’m an immortal. Why would it matter that you had to save me from the wreckage?” He told him. That had Joey turning around. “Me being scarred is not something that I’d think anyone would care about. Why would you care?”
“Not just the scarring, Joey, but your inability to be able to breathe after taking a few steps. Being able to father children. You were so badly damaged that, as an immortal, your quality of life would have been horrendous. We, the two of us, didn’t want that for you.” Again, he asked him why he’d do that. “You have a mate out there. She is close to seeing you.”
Joey looked around, wondering how long it would take him to pack up and leave. “I don’t need a mate, thanks. I can barely stand being around my family. How will I be around a mate all the time?” Tanner said that she’d save him. “From what? From who?”
“Yourself. You’ve been thinking hard on asking me to take your immortality away. I can’t do that now. You’d need to have the permission from the queen now as well.” Joey said that he’d ask her for it. “You can ask, but she’ll turn you down. Even before you showed your powers to the earth, she knew you were destined for great things. I know as well, but not as much as she does.” Joey said that they’d have to find someone else. “It’s much too late for that, I’m afraid.”
Joey reached out and looked through Tanner’s mind. Another trick, he thought, and it didn’t matter that Tanner had blocked a great deal from him. When he found what he was looking for, he sat down.
“You plan to meet the sun when you leave here.” Tanner nodded, whipping the blood from his nose from what Joey had done to his mind. “I’m sorry I hurt you. To be honest with you, I had no idea that I could do that until I thought of seeing what you knew.”
“When you dig into the earth, Aurora, mother of the queen, can see what you can do. She warned me that you were getting stronger with each passing day, and asked me to see you.” Joey asked how much stronger he was going to be. “We don’t know. But there are a great many things you can do that even I, at my age, cannot. You can become invisible. And you can become whatever you wish, with or without a heartbeat. And size does not matter. You could be as big as a skyscraper or as small as a speck of dust.”
“All because you and a faerie queen decided that you want me to be a fucking breeder.” Tanner stood up, and anger was written all over his body. “I’m sorry. But you’re throwing a great deal at me all at once. Which makes me think that there is a reason for it. What is it, Tanner?”
“Your mate will need you to be all these things and more. Not just more, Joey, but all that you can be.” He looked at his campsite again. “It will matter little if you were to run and hide again. She will find you because there is a need for you to find her to become mates.”
“And what might that be?” He started to get lippy again and saw the look on his face. “She’s in danger? I have to be her knight in shining armor, Tanner? I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but I’m not the knight sort. I’m more of a stand back and let others do the hard shit type.”
“You’re not. And we both know that. Ollie would come back to haunt you right now if he were to hear you say such a thing.” Joey apologized. “I’m sorry as well, young Joey. But there are things that are happening that I cannot see, nor can I control. It will be up to you.”
“This mate of mine. Is she human?” Tanner said that she wasn’t. “Does she know anything about me? Like the fact that I’m not sure what I am?”
“She knows nothing of you or your family. I would have told you sooner, but to be honest with you, I had no idea until the day that Ollie passed away. His last thoughts were of you. He loved you very much.” Joey nodded, too emotional to speak for a moment. “You’ll help her, won’t you?”
“It sounds to me like I don’t have a choice in the matter. Did you tell my family what you’ve discovered?” Tanner said that he’d not. “I’m guessing that they’ll need to know now, won’t they? I mean, if I just come home with a bride and all this crazy shit going on in my body, they might notice that something is off, I’m thinking.”
“They hurt for you. Your mother especially. She has it in her head that she somehow failed you.” Joey said that no one had failed him. “Yes, but she is your mom, and that is something that she would feel even if you were to stay at home.”
“This is just too much, you know.” When he looked at his fire, there was a thick steak on it, and what he assumed were potatoes wrapped up in foil. “Did you or me do that?”
“I didn’t.” Joey nodded. “You’re powerful, Joey. I’m only just realizing that you’re much more than even I was told. What else can you do? Or have you figured it all out yet?”
“If you have a way, I don’t know, to check me out and give it all to me at one time, I’d be grateful. It would certainly save me a lot of time trying to figure out if I’ve done something or it was someone else.” The magic inside of him started to build, and he could feel it all over himself. “You or me?”
Joey woke up laying next to the fire that was still going, and nothing on the grill now. Tanner was sleeping in a hammock that wasn’t tied to anything, but it swayed back and forth like it was. Sitting up, Joey knew that he’d been out for only a little while as the tent wasn’t covered in dew, and the leaves were not dripping down on the thing. He looked at Tanner when he said his name.
“Are you all right?” Joey told him that he wasn’t sure. “Yes, well, you nearly gave me a heart attack too. What was that? Your request to know it all?”
“I’m assuming so. I can see it in front of me. Like a list of things I can check off when I learn them.” Standing up, he had to hold onto a tree for balance. “I’m a little lightheaded, but it’s more from hunger than thirst.”
Another steak appeared on the grill. Potatoes again as well. There was also a basket of apples, as well as grapes, both his favorite snack. Stretching, he could see things that he’d not been able to before. The hot outline of animals lurking in the woods, all wild, and Joey could understand them. Looking at Tanner, he smiled.
“You leave to meet the sun, and I will find you. Don’t ask me how I’ll just know.” Tanner nodded, fear a little evident in his eyes. “It’s you and me, Tanner. Until I get this shit straight, you’re going to be hanging with me.”
“All right.” Tanner stood and put out his hand. “Is it safe to touch you? At one point, you were glowing. I don’t think it would behoove me to glow when I am hungry.”
“I guess we’ll both find out, won’t we?”
Taking his hand into his, Joey saw what the connection gave the old vampire. He debated on telling him, then thought, what the fuck? “You no longer have to fear the sun, my friend. You are as safe from that as I can make you.”
If Tanner’s cursing was any indication, he wasn’t happy about it. Joey didn’t care. He’d gotten one on the man, and he was going to enjoy it for as long as he could. But he did pack up after eating. He needed to practice this shit, and being so close to wildlife didn’t make him feel good about maybe hurting something.
Chapter 13
“Autumn Hunter?” Autumn stood up and made her way to the medical assistant. “Your name is really Autumn? Your parents hate you or something?”
The same question, along with a few others she got every time she met someone new. Smiling, she didn’t tell the assistant that they did indeed hate her, but not until later, after she’d been older. Instead, she stepped up
on the scale and thought about how much weight she’d lost in the last year and a half. Being terrified of being caught up in shit and on the run all the time would do that, she supposed.
“You’re here about your belly issues and the results of the test, correct?” Autumn told her that she was also out of her pain medication, and could she get a refill. “We’ll have to clear it through the doctor first. Once he’s told you—”
The assistant looked at the folder in her hand, then at Autumn. She knew it was bad, but how bad was something that she was about to learn. Reaching over to take the folder from her, she read the words there before the woman asked for it back. Handing it to her, Autumn was at a loss for words.
“He’ll be able to explain your options.” It was on the tip of her tongue to tell her that she knew what her options were. There was only one. Death. The only question was just how she chose to do it. “You’ll need those pills. I’ll make sure you have them if we have samples before you leave.”
Nodding, Autumn wondered if she should even stay. They’d told her—well, she’d found out that she had stomach cancer. She supposed that knowing how she got it would be good, but it wouldn’t change the outcome. Standing up, Autumn was ready to leave when the doctor came into the room.
“I’m sorry, Miss Hunter.” She nodded, sure that he knew that she’d read the notes on her chart. “There are things we can do to make things easier on you. A great many more than we had even ten years ago. We’ll make you’re as—”
“How long do I have? I mean, you know that, don’t you?” He nodded. “I don’t know if you remember my first visit with you, but I don’t care for bullshit answers. Just tell me how long I have and whatever pertinent information I need right now. The rest of whatever you tell me is going to go in one ear and out the other otherwise.”
“Yes, I remember. You have just about a month. I don’t know how far you got to read, but it’s spread all through your body. Had someone bothered to give you good care when you were ill the first time, you would have had better chances of survival than you do now, two years later.” She asked him what he thought had caused it. “Someone tried to poison you, as you know. And that weakened your immune system, which was ripe ground for cancer to dig in. I’m really sorry, Autumn.”
Blake: The Whitfield Rancher – Tiger Shapeshifter Romance Page 15