Blown Away (Rogues Shifter Series Book 4) (31 page)

Garrett took my hand. “We’ll take a walk, if that’s okay, Aaron. I'll show Jackie the grounds.”

“Sure, knock yourself out.”

He walked beside Sinc in her wheelchair as they headed toward Franklin’s large, but unassuming home. There were gardening tools tucked into an open shed, a hose left unraveled near a flower bed, a kid's plastic pool, and a tricycle in the yard. This was a house where a family laughed and argued and played and loved and lived. This was a home.

When they reached the steps, Aaron lifted her up as if she weighed nothing at all, Sinc managing to grab her cane at the last second. Sharon opened the door and after only an awkward couple of seconds threw her arm
s around her daughter. I was very happy to see Sinc relax into the hug and not pull away.

Garrett and I walked west toward the school and the meeting hall. Children were playing outside in the school yard
, so we paused to watch them swinging on the enormous swing set, some playing volley ball or jumping double-dutch off to the side.

Garrett put his arm around my shoulders and drew me closer,
kissing my cheek and whispering, “Today is an anniversary of sorts. I spoke to you for the first time in the Solo Island cabin three months ago today.”

“And you made note of the date?" I laughed.

He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "I'd waited a long time to speak to you face to face. You were perfect; an angel glowing in the last of the firelight."

"I'd just gotten out of bed. I
was a crazy mess and I was so nervous. You were my first vampire."

"I fell in love with you that night."

I smiled as his warmth washed over me."You have low standards."

"You still don't know the effect you have on me." He kissed the corner of my mouth.

"We've come so far, so fast. Another three months and you’ll be all—been there done that—nothing much left to do. It's kinda boring around here.” I smiled, but part of me wasn't kidding.

He slid his hand to my lower back and then smashed me up against him. Some of the kids looked at us and giggled. “Mon ange, you are as far from bori
ng as it is possible to be. I have many ideas as to how we can spend our years together.” He kissed me sweetly and quickly, not wanting to get too serious in front of such a young audience.

My body still managed to tingle.
“I feel like I’ve lived these past months on the spin cycle. As long as it’s you I’m tumbling around with I guess it’s okay.”

“You guess?” He was nuzzling my ear now and there were a few kids up against the fence watching more closely.

“We have an audience and I think they’re a little too young for this kind of an education.”

He
smiled at the kids. One brave little boy, probably around seven asked, “You a vampire?”

“Yes.”

"Can I see your fangs?"

"It's probably not a good idea." We crouched down next to the fence and Garrett whispered, "I wouldn't want to scare the others."

The boy nodded sagely. “I thought you smelled different. And you, lady, are you a shifter?”

“Yes
, I am. How did you know?”

“I’m a really good smeller. Wh
at kind? I can't figure it out."

"I'm a cheetah."

"Wow, that's sooo cool. My teacher says cheetahs are...," he tried to remember the word, ...rare." Lifting his chin with pride, he glanced toward the meeting hall. "Are you here because of the bad wolves? The ones who used blood and blew people up?” His curly blonde hair fell into his eyes so he pushed it back.

“We’re here for the trials, yes.”

“You should never do that, ya know. Never use blood for bad magic or blow people up.” He looked very serious, like he was teaching us a lesson.

Aaron had made his way back to us.
“Excellent advice, Joel. How are your classes going?”

“I li
ke all of them except history, alpha. Why do I have to learn about a bunch of American humans who fought a bunch of English humans when I’m gonna be a wolf one day?”

“Because our race of wolves might have been wiped out of existence if those American humans hadn't won
their war. And anyway, it wasn’t only humans fighting.”

“Really?”

Aaron put his hand on Garrett's shoulder. “My cousin, Garrett, and I could tell you all about some shifters and some wolves who fought right alongside the humans.”

“Cool.” He ran off to tell the others.

I stood again and turned to Aaron. “He’s a good smeller, huh? I thought I caught a faint whiff of leopard shifter.” I was getting better at sniffing out shifters as children.

“We’ve considered that.
He’s extremely bright. We could use a genius on the payroll. Or there’s a team of shifters I know of that might be able to use him somewhere in their organization.”

“Oh I’m sure Jackie will be happy to add Joel to her collection.” I elbowed Garrett in the side and he tried to look contrite, while Aaron laughed.

Dinner was delicious and never-ending. Catherine, looking spectacularly beautiful even in casual clothes, was the perfect hostess. Besides our crew and Gabriel, she’d invited Franklin and his mate Gloria, Sharon, Sinc’s mom and Dr. Kruper, whom I’d never met. He was on the shorter side and slightly chubbier than most wolves, but he put you instantly at ease with his warm laugh and his twinkling eyes. He asked me how I was feeling and wanted to know what it was like to go through a pregnancy that usually took nine months in only two and a half. I explained that since I’d never gone through the usual kind, I had no frame of reference, but it did seem like my belly was growing larger by the hour.

The fae sisters arrived just in time for dessert and even in that they held true to form. Brina ate gooey chocolate cake while Kaera munched on a plain cookie. I opted for the gooey cake myself.

After dinner, we walked to the meeting hall where the trials would be held in a smaller room set up like a courtroom off to the right of the main room. Keara, Brina, Garrett, Sinc, Gabriel and I were all given seats in the first row. The rest of the courtroom was filled up with some of the key members of Aaron’s pack, along with a few of the Los Altos Pack members who were still awaiting their new pack assignments. The other two representatives of the Western Pack Council sat at the central table raised up slightly on a long platform. Aaron sat in the center.

Karl was the first to be tried.

When he entered the room, I could see right away that he’d lost weight. Liam explained to me that when a sorcerer or a witch uses blood with their magic, they become addicted to the power, and so suffer a kind of withdrawal when they no longer have access. Aaron had told us that Karl had refused to eat solid food, only taking a few energy shakes and a minimal amount of water. Besides his two guards, he was accompanied by another wolf, his lawyer. The man carried a briefcase and a sour expression, either because he knew his case was a tough one or because Karl had been giving him a hard time. I’d have put money on the latter.

One of the WPC members read the charges and then asked us to testify as to what we remembered on the day of the bombing. Kaera and I gave as much detail as we could, but it was Sinc’s testimony as to how Gabriel behaved that
afternoon that seemed to interest them the most. When Sinc was helped down from the stand, having to use her cane to get back to her seat, the room was respectfully quiet. All of the wolves understanding the significance of a shifter without a foot, especially a species known for its ability to climb.

Gabriel faced his brother and told the court about all the times that he’d suspected Karl of using blood magic. He spoke about the disappearances of other children who'd never come back, and the recent kidnappings as well. He talked about how the pack had prospered financially from the spells that Karl had used and
how the alpha, his father, had given up leadership in lieu of his powerful younger son. He’d watched the codes and laws that pack wolves lived by to protect themselves and the supernatural and human community ground into the dirt by a bloodthirsty young man and a greedy pack leader. Finally, he told them about the threat Karl had made on his own mother’s life.

Karl took the stand in his own defense. No one else stepped up to defend him, not even his father who had the right, even though he was in custody.

He was allowed thirty minutes to speak and plead his case. I tapped into the lines to keep an eye on the amount of power he’d pulled up, but it was within normal levels. He started to talk, and what he said surprised us.

“Esteemed c
ouncil members, I thank you for allowing me to speak before you roast me on the spit later tonight." He looked at his lawyer. "Phil, I'm sure your advice was sound, but I'll never grovel."

His gaze
then locked on Gabriel. "Gabe. I’ve wondered why you haven’t seen fit to visit me even though you’re living here on the grounds. I didn’t enjoy listening to you turn traitor to your family to save your own skin. While you sat around mooning over your lost love these past years, our father and I built up our wealth and power. When you eventually took over as alpha, you'd have been respected and feared. Not that you deserved to take over as alpha. You were a great disappointment to Father—and to me. I can't believe I used to look up to you.

His gaze passed over Garrett and moved to Sinc. “Sinclair, I'm sorry to see that you were injured and that you wo
n’t be hunting for a while. However I’m sure you’ll come up with some kind of nifty device with your little gay leopard, which will work, roughly, as well as the real thing.

"
You're even more beautiful than I remembered. Did you know that I almost stole you for myself on my thirteenth birthday? You must remember that day. We’d had a party in the backyard and you and Gabe were on the swinging chair on the porch holding hands and laughing about something. I came through the gate in the rear with blood on my hands.

You asked me if I was hurt. But I lied and said I was with an older wolf who’d gone hunting and that I'd tagged along. Actually, I’d just tortured and killed the neighbor’s dog and had tried to twist a spell to bind you to me, but it hadn’t worked." He scowled and shrugged. "That was when I realized that I needed to use human blood. A few weeks later, before I’d killed my first whore, you changed into your lovely snow leopard and so that was that. I couldn’t convince Father to let you stay no matter how I pleaded.” He laughed. "Gabe thought that I was trying to help
him
get you back."

Sinc was trembling a little so Gabe put his arm around her. “Ah, so it looks like you might win the princess after all,
brother.”

He turned his attention to m
e. “Jacqueline Crawford Cuvier. What a surprise you turned out to be. A healer cheetah, so rare. And then there’s that other little gift. I know quite a lot about demons, as I’ve called upon several to help me out here and there.” His voice got deeper and he leaned forward. “It’s such a pity you don’t yet know how to use those powers, because when they summon you, and believe me, now that the higher levels know you exist they
will
summon you to their realm, you’ll wish you had something up your sleeve a little more powerful than what you’ve used so far.

They’ll
probably want to examine you, especially now that you’re pregnant with a half fae. You’ll be a fascinating morsel for one of the archdemons to taste, as will your baby son. I wish I could be there but, alas, I’m afraid that I’m scheduled for my own barbeque.”

Garrett sent to me,
“They can’t summon you, my love.”
Unfortunately, I knew that if I’d been assigned a summoning name and my grandmother got hold of it, I could be summoned, just like Karl said. I snuggled a little closer to Garrett, feeling shaky and needing the comfort.

Karl sneered at Kaera and Brina. “You’ll have your temporary revenge, bitches, but this isn't the end."

He looked at the row of judges. “I confess to it all. I’m guilty of killing human whores and human children, no great loss to the world as far as I’m concerned, but if you feel it’s a crime then sentence me as you will. Death is just another swinging door. I'll be returning shortly."

Aaron asked. "Who else knew about the children and the spells? Who set the bomb?"

“My father and Jake were complicit in the bombing but had no power to stop the kidnappings or the blood magic spells, short of turning me over to the council. Of course if they'd done that, people they loved would have died. My mother is innocent of everything except loving a morally weak alpha and a natural son who inherited her gift, but twisted it in a much more interesting way. I have nothing else to say.” He sat on the stand calmly as if he’d just pleaded guilty to shoplifting and not torture, kidnapping, and murder.

Karl was returned to his cell and Quentin was brought in. He sat at the defendant’s table and looked down at his hands the entire time, too ashamed and cowardly, I thought, to look anyone in the eye. Gabriel testified against his father the way he had Karl and we could see that it was very difficult for him. Quentin was
also sentenced to death, because it was proved that he knew about the kidnappings and Karl’s use of blood magic and yet didn’t come to the WPC with the information. He was also instrumental in the decision to set off the bomb.