Grabbing her order from the grinning waitress, Jade couldn’t leave the diner quickly enough. Michelle waved goodbye gracefully. Jade walked down the street to the Real Estate office where Reggie worked. If anyone could relieve her of the offending fries, it would be Reggie.
Jade admired the huge Christmas wreath that sat securely on the glass door. A bell jangled when she walked in. Reggie was on the phone, but her face lit up when she saw Jade. She continued with her call and put her hand on her heart when Jade placed the fries in front of her. Expertly, her eyes on the fries, she brought her conversation to an end and hung up.
“Bless your heart, Jade. You really are an angel. I’ve already eaten lunch, but these days I eat at 11:00 and need to eat again at 1:00. And just to clarify, that means am and pm.” She laughed and put her hand on her belly. She wasn’t showing yet, but Reggie seemed to draw strength from the baby she was carrying. Her laughter was deep and genuine. “Poor Chase, he is having trouble keeping the refrigerator stocked. Me and Egg here are keeping him on his toes.”
Reggie was such a tonic. Jade said, “The thought of Chase on his toes is impressive. Wouldn’t that make him about seven feet tall?”
Laughing, Reggie said, “Can you imagine how huge Egg is going to be? It’ll be like giving birth to a three year old.” She grabbed another fry. “I can’t think of it right now. I wouldn’t want to spoil my appetite.”
In the chair opposite Reggie, Jade laughed and stretched her legs out in front of her. “I think I’m going to go Christmas shopping after work. Care to join me? We could grab dinner quickly beforehand.”
“I’d love to.”
“I thought you might say that. I’m going to put up my Christmas decorations this weekend. Does Maynard’s still grow Christmas Trees?”
Reggie nodded while she chewed.
Realizing she was running out of lunch hour, Jade changed the subject abruptly. “Anything from Constance on Allan’s death?”
Reggie pressed her lips together and shook her head, “I’ve asked her, but sometimes getting her to give me information when I want it is like trying to reason with the IRS. She expects me to do what she wants when she wants, but if I need something from her…somehow my request gets lost in bureaucracy.
“Sounds frustrating.” Jade smiled and sipped her ginger ale. Her appetite was starting to return. The smell of the fries had ceased to make her feel nauseated. Jade spied a bowl of apples and bananas in a bowl on the coffee table to her right. They looked promising. She stood up and grabbed one of each. Peeling the banana she asked.
“What about Gillian? Have you heard from her?”
“Yes, and no she hasn’t come up with anything and neither has Travis. I hate to think that we won’t make any progress until the thing strikes again.”
Jade shuddered and agreed, but something told her there would be more bloodshed before long. The animals had told her as much.
* * * *
The wind chill factor made it frigid on the beach at this time of the year, but the thing that jumped gracefully from rock to rock didn’t feel the cold. The hot fury was hard to control. The thing bled freely from self inflicted wounds on its arms. No more control. Tonight it would hunt and feed. The prey had been selected, the location staked out, and the approach confirmed. This one was young and supple. Ah, the throat, warm blood would pump from the throat and fill its sucking and greedy mouth. It would taste metallic and oh so sweet. More importantly, it would help to ease the constant hunger. The coupling would come later. Panting at the thought, thick drool dripped off its tongue, slid unchecked to the rocks and mixed with its fresh blood.
When Sam returned to the clinic, Jade tried to give him the cold shoulder, but it wasn’t easy because his good humor was contagious. Just as she’d decided to give in to his cheerfulness, Tom Weatherby walked in. Sam frowned.
Tom stopped dead in his tracks, concerned at his expression. “Is Gridlock okay?”
Jade tossed Sam a quelling look and answered for him, “He’s resting comfortably. Come on, I’ll take you to him.”
It was touching to see how much the man cared for his dog. Jade always had a soft spot for men who were good with animals. She stood watching him stroke Gridlock with relief. The dog was very sleepy, but he wagged his tail and tried to get up when he heard Tom’s voice. Of course Tom stopped him with a gentle hand. Since he’d shown no inclination to leave anytime soon, Jade started to slip away quietly.
“Jade, I have to thank you for all you’ve done for Gridlock.” His words halted her retreat. “I think this whole experience would have been much harder on him if it weren’t for you. I don’t know what you did, and I’m not going to ask. I just know you did something.”
He had a very bright and engaging smile and Jade happily returned it. “I’m glad I was helpful. He’s a great dog, and he’s bonded very closely with you. Do you jog?”
He looked at her in surprise. “I run, yeah. How did you know?”
Blushing, Jade said, “Gridlock loves to run with you.”
Tom laughed. “You are something else. Could I take you to dinner some night this week?”
His question took her by surprise, and she didn’t answer for a moment. The pause was impossible to ignore, and he started to fill the silence.
Jade interrupted him. “Sure.” She laughed awkwardly and continued, “I’m busy tonight, but the rest of my week is clear.
She wrote down her phone number and before he left he said, “I’ll call you tomorrow with some suggestions on what restaurant, time etc.”
She was still smiling when Sam made his way into the kennel. He checked on Gridlock and a few other patients. When he was finished, he walked over to Jade and helped her put supplies away. He talked to her about the uses of all the items they were sorting and they worked on the system that would help her to anticipate what he would need and how he’d indicate it to her. She was a quick and eager learner, a fact she’d never been more proud of than when Sam started to explain things to her. He smiled crookedly at her when he’d finished a particularly complex explanation. She looked up at him intently.
“Don’t worry, Jinx, I’ll go over all of this with you as many times as you’d like. So far you seem to be grasping things pretty quickly. I’m impressed.”
She breathed a soft sigh of relief. “I can’t wait until we work together as a unit. I want to be able to anticipate your every need.” When she realized how that sounded she blushed.
Sam showed no mercy. “That’s quite an offer. Are you sure you’re up to it?”
Her chest knotted, and she said nothing.
“Weatherby asked to see you again, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Do I know this stuff or not?” There was an odd edge to his voice that irked Jade. Was he making fun of her? She felt anger rise to the surface.
She lashed out. “My sex life is none of your business.”
“Oh so, you’re planning on having sex with the school principal, are you?” It should have been a teasing question, but the clipped tone in his voice destroyed all hope of that.
“Like I said, my sex life is none of your business.” She moved away and grabbed her coat. Calling to Rags, she spared a word for Sam, “I’ve got plans with Reggie for dinner. I’ve got to go, so I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She almost ran out of the room. In her car on the way to Reggie’s she regretted saying yes to Tom. If he really liked her, it was unfair of her to see him when she knew there was no chance of it turning into anything but friendship and of that she was pretty certain given her reactions to Sam. Perhaps she should be honest with him when he called her tomorrow. She worried the problem in her mind until Reggie came striding out of the house. Chase called to Rags who jumped out of Jade’s car and ran towards him. Pru welcomed him with a brief wag of her tail.
* * * *
The Christmas shopping was an unmitigated success. They drove to the closest mall and power shopped. Christmas carols could be heard in every store, and Jade and Reggie ended up humming along.
Reggie said, “It’s nice to see you happy, Jade.”
Turning to her with surprise, Jade smiled. “Right back at you.”
Reggie shook her head. “No, I mean it. Having you here means the world to Chase. Please tell me you’re going to stay, settle down here.”
Jade reassured her with a smile. “There’s no place I’d rather be. I would never have left New Crescent if I’d had a choice.”
“Chase tried to get custody. He wanted you to stay.”
Jade smiled and nodded. “Yes, he did, but I told him to give up. I realized I couldn’t let my father get away with what he’d done here in New Crescent and continue to do the same thing to other people. I was vigilant and was pretty successful keeping him from pulling his cons up and down the entire eastern seaboard.”
Reggie furrowed her brow. “That’s a lot of responsibility for a fourteen-year-old girl.”
“I had no choice. It was within my power to make a difference so I did what I could. He was abusive to animals too. I think that his cruelty helped me to develop my gift. So I guess Ernestine is right; all things happen for a reason.”
Reggie agreed. “Yeah, that Ernestine is a cagey old bird at the best of times. She gets around. I saw her in town today, bundled up and rosy cheeked. I think she was Christmas shopping too.”
“Has she said anything about what killed Allan Simpson?”
“She asked Travis to give her until tomorrow. Apparently there was something she had to take care of first. He’s going to see her in the morning. I guess the crime scene was pretty gruesome, huh?”
“I didn’t see anything but police tape and blood soaked earth. The animals are scared, and it’s getting worse everyday. It’s hard for me, knowing that they feel real terror and not for themselves but for us. It puts me on edge.”
Reggie linked her arm with Jade’s as she smiled and nodded at an older couple. Idily Jade realized that she and Reggie must look like a study in opposites, one tall fair and voluptuous and the other tiny dark and delicate.
Reggie said, “I can’t even imagine how the animals must feel, knowing there’s something horrible out there and they can’t warn us. I promise to try harder to get Constance to offer some guidance.”
“Thanks, but I have a feeling that we can’t stop what’s about to happen, and the animals know it. That’s part of the reason they’re so scared. They know it’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.” Jade frowned. Reggie frowned too. “Do they ever make any suggestions about what we can do to stop this thing?”
Regret filled Jade’s face as she shook her head. “I wish they had. Tonight when I drop you off I’d like to try to connect with Pita again. My animals are new to New Crescent so they aren’t the best judges.”
Reggie stopped outside Santa’s castle and watched while children whispered in the jolly old man’s his ear what they wanted for Christmas. “Next year at this time, I’ll have a baby. There is no way Egg is going to cry on Santa’s knee.” With sympathy, she smiled at the mother of a bawling four-year-old.
Jade asked, “How do you know?”
“Trust me, I know Egg. I can’t decide whether to tell Chase or not. We’re having a girl.”
Jade’s eyes widened in admiration, so that’s one advantage to being a Guardian. Ernestine knew Reggie’s baby was a girl and so did Reggie. “How have you kept that information from him?”
“It hasn’t been easy. What do you think? Would Chase want to know?”
Jade considered the question for a moment and finally said, “I don’t think you should keep anything from Chase. You have power he can’t even comprehend, better cut him a break. That alone would render most men impotent and obviously, since we’re having this conversation, Chase isn’t most men. Come clean with him. That’s my advice for what it’s worth. What you know, he should know.”
“Good advice. There are enough things he doesn’t understand, what with the whole Guardian thing and all.” Reggie shrugged. “But I have a get out of jail free card when it comes to keeping things from my spouse. Don’t forget he hid the fact that he was my favorite novelist until after I’d agreed to marry him.”
“He told me about that.” Jade laughed. “Sorry. That was a pleasant surprise though, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, but he still had me completely fooled, and I hate when that happens.” Reggie stopped, tilted her head back, smelled cookies and dragged Jade along with her as she followed her nose.
* * * *
Jade drove Reggie home and spent a little time with the inscrutable Pita. Unwilling to open up to her, the cat wasn’t much help. She didn’t stay long because she knew her roommates patiently awaited her return. There was only so much a cat, a rabbit and a chinchilla could do on their own.
Jade pulled up outside her home and looked over her shoulder when she heard Rags whimper. Terrified of something, his entire body was shaking. He was frantic. He smelled something he couldn’t identify. Rags wasn’t a big dog, but he wasn’t a coward. Jade knew it was best not to ignore his instinct. He didn’t want her to open the car door, so she didn’t. Instead, she used her cell phone to call Travis.
“Travis, could you come over to my place and check things out? I’m in my car, and Rags is terrified. He doesn’t want me to step outside, and I trust his instincts.