Authors: Quinn Loftis
“Bloody hell not this again,” Peri snatched arms and motioned for Elle and Adam to do the same. “Show me where we are going in your beloved Texas Sally so we can get there and get out before my own ego grows out of control just from being in that blasted state.”
Costin grinned wickedly. “Wait if your ego will grow just from being in that state does that mean my
…,”
“Shut it wolf,” Peri snapped and then looked at Sally expectantly.
“You can see in my mind?” Sally asked.
“Not usually but your mind is so open right now that if you think something directly to me I will get it,” she explained quickly to her.
Costin growled at the idea of one more person have access to his mate’s mind, but Peri ignored him. She didn’t have time to placate jealous wolves at every turn.
Peri waited as Sally closed
her eyes and sent her the image. Peri shared it with Adam and Elle and then they were gone, leaving the sorrowful looking house in worse condition than when they had arrived. For a mother would now come home to that house to find her greatest fear realized, a child gone without a trace and without any hope of returning.
∞
Heather Banks stood on the front porch of her small home as the Texas heat beat down on her. Even the wind only brought warm air that did nothing to sooth her overcooked skin. She was convinced she was keeping Burt’s Bees Body Butter in business with the speed in which she used it only to turn around and buy more.
“Another day in paradise,” she mumbled to the tumbleweeds that she was sure were roll
ing by. The land around her had once smelled of rich, green grass, fragrant blooming wild flowers and that little underlying hint of fertilizer, and not the bagged kind. Now all she smelled was dirt, dead things, and more dirt. The drought had been hard on all God’s creatures in this part of Texas, whether human or otherwise. For months not a drop had fallen from the sky, and she knew the small town of Shady Grove wasn’t the only place affected. She tilted her head up to the sky and prayed that God would have mercy on them, if only for a few minutes. She imagined the angels looking down at her and remembered how her mama use to tell her that when it rained it was the angels tears as they wept for the lost souls of men. Heather wondered as she stood with her face aimed at heaven if the lack of rain meant no souls were being lost, or if the angels were just tired of weeping over so many. Then, not for the first time, she thought, is there something more? Her eyes closed and her heart ached for what she did not know. “There’s got to be something more,” she whispered so only the angels heard.
She h
eard the familiar sound of tires crunching her rock driveway and smelled the gas fumes of the old Chevy as her longtime friend pulled up. By the sounds of the prancing paws in the back, Cheryl had only brought three dogs with her this time. She heard the door slam and the tailgate creak as it opened.
“One, two, three,” she counted as the paws hit the ground and smiled at being right.
“Why in seven hells are you standing out in this heat cooking like a Ball Park on a weenie roast when you have a perfectly good air conditioner inside?” Cheryl hollered more loudly than necessary. Then again, Cheryl did everything more loudly than necessary.
“Oh come on Cheryl, it’s a beautiful day! The sun is shining and the birds are singing,”
“I know you’re blind, Heather, but ya ain’t stupid,” Cheryl interrupted.
Heather laughed. “Okay so it is hotter than
Hades in August in South Texas, how’s that?”
“
Gettin’ there,” Cheryl huffed.
“So who’d you bring me today?” Heather asked as she knelt down and held her hand out. She felt wet noses against her hand and arm and once they had her scent she reached out and ran her fingers through each
dog’s fur.
“I’ve got
Hillary, Bill, and Chelsea; they’re all Australian shepherd mixes.”
Heather rolled her unseeing eyes. “They do realize that this is Texas right?”
“We just train ’em, we don’t name ‘em. You know that, Heather,” Cheryl chided.
“That,
and
make fun of their name choices,” Heather said with a shake of her head. She stood back up and stretched her arms over her head. “Suppose we better get started.”
“Well
, their names aren’t getting any better with us just standing here like blooming idiots.”
Heather followed after Cheryl and the three dogs, counting under her breath only by habit now. She didn’t need to count to know where the traini
ng building was from her house, she could do it in her sleep. She snorted to herself at that thought, because without her sight sometimes it felt like she was doing things in her sleep.
She felt the cool air of the building the minute Cheryl opened the door and the familiar smell of
the many and varied dogs that had passed through her door. She smiled as she heard the excitement in her three current students as Cheryl let them lose to get some of the energy out of their systems. Dogs were a lot like children; they listened better if you just let them run it out.
“So where are they at in their training?” Heather asked.
Cheryl was just about to answer her when the training room door opened and the warm air blew in bringing with it a strange and oddly scented group of people.
Heather’s head snapped around as she heard the shuffli
ng of feet and smelled the distinct musk of men, feminine smell of women and a tiny hint of fur. She started to take a step in the intruder’s direction but was stopped when Cheryl put a hand on her arm.
“What can we do for ya?” Cheryl asked the group. She watched as
a brown eyed, brown haired beauty stepped forward and smiled with all the innocence of a bunny rabbit. Cheryl would have believed it except for the fox at her back. The man that stepped up behind her was tall, built as they say in Texas like a bull bought for studding, and inhumanly handsome. His narrowed eyes spoke that of a predator, and any on the other side of that woman was his prey.
“We’re sorry to interrupt,” the girl spoke and they heard the Texas lilt in her voice. “My name is Sally, and this here,” she pointed to the fox, “is Costin my ma
—,” she paused then seemed to correct herself, “husband. We wanted to talk to Heather if we could.”
“You sound awful young to be married,” Heather spoke up.
Her heartbeat sped up and she used all of her senses to reach out and “see” who it was that had entered her training building. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was her “something more.”
“Well
, he hit me over the head and drug me into his cave, so what could I do?” Sally joked.
Heather relaxed just a bit
, though Cheryl didn’t remove her hand from her arm.
“What do you want to talk about? Do you have dogs that need training?”
There was a burst of feminine laughter and Heather turned her head slightly as if to look at Cheryl. “Am I that funny or do I have a boogger or something on my face?”
“Pfft, please, Heather if you could see this bunch you would not be asking me that. They’re not,” she paused and then finally finished as their laughter died down, “normal.”
“I can see your face with the touch of my fingertips. I can feel your breath though you’re a world away. I can hear your voice
clearer than the purest tone. I can smell your skin sweeter than the richest morsel. I know you. My heart sees you better than my eyes ever could.” ~ Heather
“
We do not have time to deal with the human, love,”
Lucian purred through their bond.
“Does everything you say have to sound as though you’re about to have your way with me?”
Peri asked irritated at her reaction to him, especially when she needed to be paying attention to the matter at hand.
“I promise you that when that time comes you will have no doubt of my intentions, now please deal with the human so that we can abandon this place before you
sister graces us with her presence.”
“Good grief, give you males a little bit of power and suddenly you’re giving the orders,” Peri muttered under her breath before she flashed right in front of Cheryl. She looked the startled woman in the eyes and said, “I do apologize for this because you will have one hell of a headache when you wake up.”
She touched wide eyed Cheryl’s forehead and as her body began to crumple Peri slowed its decent so that the human didn’t hurt herself. Then she turned to Heather who was looking right at Peri, though Peri knew the woman couldn’t see her.
“What did you do to Cheryl?” Heather asked in a surprisingly steady voice.
“I didn’t hurt her if that’s what you’re afraid of,” Peri assured her.
“Well what else would I be afraid of, that you had turned her into a pig that oinked the national anthem?” Heather asked as her hands landed on her hips and she
looked up where she knew the tall woman’s face to be. She could feel the woman’s breath on her hair which told her she was definitely taller than her, which wasn’t hard since Heather was five foot nothing.
“I thought everything was bigger in Texas.” Heather heard a deep voice mutter and then a grunt which assured her
that the male who had spoken received an elbow to the gut.
“Well I see being blind hasn’t
made you docile.” Heather could hear the grin in the woman’s voice and though she sensed that this woman was no one to trifle with, she didn’t feel threatened.
“And being able to see hasn’t given you manners.”
There was a collective groan from the group still by the door. Heather turned her head in their direction. “Should I be shaking in my boots? Is that why you, let me see…,” she paused to listen to their breathing, to the shuffle of their feet and the little noises they didn’t even know they made. “You
six
stand over there looking like I’ve just insulted the Governor of Texas by telling him I voted against the death penalty?”
“I don’t
even know what that means,” one of the girls muttered.
“Don’t ask, it’s a touch
y subject in these parts,” another girl responded.
The woman standing closest to her cleared her throat bringing Heather’s attention back to her.
“All you need to know at the moment is that we will not hurt you. But there is another who will, if you don’t come with us.”
Heather considered her options, not that she really had many. Shoot, she knew she was a blind girl from a small town in Texas with no family to speak of and living on next to nothing.
She wasn’t so blind to believe that something big wasn’t happening, something
more
had finally come.
“Will Cheryl be alright?” She asked tentatively.
“She will be fine. She will wake up believing that you found a long lost cousin and have left for a nice long visit.”
“
I’m not coming back am I?” Heather’s forehead wrinkled as she thought about never seeing her little house again, or never spending time training her beloved dogs for people who needed them so badly.
“You might one day convince your mate to bring you for a visit,” the woman said as she took her arm gently in her small but firm hand.
“My what?” Heather asked just as she felt a powerful pull against her body. She didn’t know what was happening but she knew she wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
Peri let go of Heather as soon as they appeared in
her home across the veil in Farie. She stepped away from her as soon as she was sure that the young woman had her bearings. The others appeared seconds after her and stepped back to give her room.
“Another one?” Stella asked as she, Anna
, and Crina came into the room. She stared at Heather with unapologetic curiosity. “And she’s blind. Are you trying to make the beginnings of a bad joke? A stripper, a gypsy and a blind girl walk into a fairy house.”
“Been gone two minutes and already this is more
interesting than my life,” Heather chirped.
“We don’t have time for introductions or explanations,” Peri ground out as her hands clenched at her sides. She could feel the last healer slipping away from her, could feel her sister getting closer and she couldn’t let it happen, not to another one.
“Heather, here’s the group, group this is Heather. In case you are just that dense, she
is
blind. She is not deaf, she is not stupid and she is not going to answer every ignorant question that pops into your heads.”
“She also can speak for herself,” Heather added dryly.
“Pipe down, Helen Keller,” Peri retorted. “Just because you can’t see doesn’t mean I will treat you any different than any of the rest of these know it all’s.”
“She’s all bark and no bite,” Sally added unhelpfully.
“Literally,” Lucian added.
Peri’s head snapped around to glare at him. He shrugged. “
Sarcasm, I learn quickly.”
“I would like to point out that
, since you said I’m not stupid, that Helen Keller was blind
and
deaf. I can hear your screeching voice just fine.”
“What is with you people? You’re supposed to be frightened and confused and yelling about wanting to go home?
You should be frantic with worry about your families or blubbering on about Mr. Whiskers who will pee all over your house if you don’t change his litter box at exactly six o‘clock.” Peri stared, huffing and out of breath, at the three girls who didn’t seem the least bit afraid.
“Maybe what’s behind us is much scarier than
what is in front,” Anna spoke up for the first time.
“It can
’t be that easy, but I don’t have time to psychoanalyze three gypsies who are obviously not in their right minds. Those of you going, grab a hand,” Peri nodded to Crina, “You got this?”
Crina nodded. “I’m good, go get the next one and bring my mate home safe.”
“Sally, where we headed?” Peri looked at the healer, her shoulders tight as if awaiting some horrible verdict and, in a way, she knew she was.
∞
Lorelle felt as if she were on some elaborate race against time, only it wasn’t time she was contesting with, it was her sister and her own life. She knew Volcan would follow through on his threat, if she didn’t deliver more than one healer he would destroy her. How he would go about doing that, she had no clue, but who’s going to argue with a spirit that has somehow survived for centuries in a place that was supposed to have been basically quarantined? Yeah, she wasn’t going to either.
She had left Jewel standing in the dark forest, no doubt more than a little confused
and scared and allowed the pull of Volcan’s magic to take her to the location of the next healer. As she opened her eyes and took a deep breath of salty ocean air, she could only hope that her sister hadn’t beaten her there. She didn’t know how Volcan’s magic worked or how she was able to pick out the healers from all the other Joe blows in the vicinity, she just knew. Then again wasn’t that why it was called magic, something unexplainable, something that should be unattainable but somehow made possible?
Lorelle
heard a sea gull call out only to be answered by another and then another. She turned in a slow circle to find the very big ocean behind her. Light brown sand made for what she was sure was a nice beach, if you liked nice beaches and liked being half dressed with a bunch of strangers bouncing around in what amounts to a giant bath tub like rubber duckies, then yeah she was sure those yahoos enjoyed it.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus, tuning everything else out. “Come out, come out wherever you are
, little healer,” she muttered under her breath.
Okay, creepy much, Lorelle,
she chastised herself. That was when she felt it, the goodness, the wholesome purity that only came with a healer. She followed the direction of the power to a diner just off the beach. The sign read
Crustaceans, they’re what’s for dinner.
Lorelle’s eyes narrowed and her lips puckered as she read the ridiculous sign. “Seriously, that’s what you came up with?” She retorted as she paused for just a moment to watch the people who unknowingly found themselves in the presence of a predator. A small smile escaped as she considered the irony of the ocean at her back with sharks swimming to and fro, hunting, and searching for that perfect meal; just like she was.
∞
“I swear if one more person snaps their fingers at me for a refill, or t ells me their fries are too chewy or too crispy, I just might have to accidently spill my pitcher of water on them,” Kara whispered to Lisa.
“I hear ya, waitressing in the summer time with the tourists blows serious crab chunks,” Lisa huffed and blew a stand of hair from her face as she quickly wrapped silver ware into napkins to put on the clean tables.
“I’ve got one year left Lisa, one year and then no more greasy burgers or pushy customers.”
“Where ya gonna go Kara?” Lisa asked
, smacking on the gum that she seemed never to spit out. “Not to be a total buzz kill, but with no family and no money, your prospects are looking pretty grim.”
Kara knew Lisa wasn’t trying to be
cruel; she was just honest in that way that made you want to stuff a Twinkie in her mouth and tell her not to chew. “I’ve been working since I was fourteen and saving my money,” Kara explained. “I have a plan. It’s not like I live in some fantasy land where I get saved by some white knight or some crap like that. I know exactly where I’m going and what I’m going to do.” Lisa started to speak but Kara held a hand up stopping her as yet another customer snapped their fingers at her and pointed to their half empty drink glass.
“More lemonade?” Kara asked politely though she wanted to tell the rich tourist to get their own
damn lemonade. Kara didn’t know what was wrong with her lately. Usually she wasn’t so testy. Usually she had more patience with people. But for the last couple of weeks she had been restless and short tempered.
“I really shouldn’t have to point it out to you, it is your job to take notice of these things,” the lady griped.
“I do apologize about that ma’am,” Kara told her as she picked up the glass and hurried to fill it and then return it to the woman before she could say anything more. She honestly didn’t know how much more she could take. She worked constantly in the summer to save money because she couldn’t work as many hours during the school year. Her foster mom, or really it was more like foster grandmother because Pearl was ancient, hardly had enough money to feed the hoard of cats she kept, let alone take care of Kara. But Kara didn’t complain because at least Pearl let her be. She didn’t hit her, yell at her, tell her she was a burden or touch her in ways that made her want to peel off her skin. She did, however, treat her like one of her precious kitties from time to time and that was pretty disturbing.
Grab your bootstraps, pull yourself up, and carry on,
Kara thought to herself as she ground her teeth together. There was, after all, nobody to do it for her or even offer a helping hand. She was on her own, always had been. There were times that she feared she always would be.
It was late afternoon when Kara felt something shift in the air. She turned to Lisa who was wiping down the fountain machine and frowned. “Do you feel that?”
Lisa paused and looked around expectantly. “Feel what?”
“I’m not sure, it feels dark, or evil,” Kara shivered
, though it was still quite warm outside.
“Kara
, I’m not sure what to think about you when you get your little
feelings
. I’m not saying I don’t believe you because, hey, I’m totally open minded and all that, but sometimes you kind of wig me out.”
Kara smiled. “Sometimes I wig myself out.” She was trying to keep it light because she didn’t want Lisa to know just how ominous the feeling in her gut was.
Something was wrong, like seriously wrong.
She stepped out onto the outside of the pier and began wiping down the tables and folding down the umbrellas that shaded them.
Her eyes roamed over the beach that was beginning to empty as the beach bums and tourist began to head home, or just for dryer endeavors. It was as her eyes scanned back to the left that she saw her. Just as her eyes met the cool grey eyes of the indescribable beauty, she felt another pull to the right only this one was bright and full of hope. Her head swung around and she was sure she was seeing double as she looked at a woman who looked nearly exactly like the woman on her left.