Andi was at work the next morning when
Lizzy showed up again. She tried to ignore her, but the woman wasn’t having any
of it. She continued to talk about nothing at all and get into her way. She
finally turned to her and growled.
Lizzy laughed. “Pretty good. But if you
want to be really scary, I’d show my fangs. That impresses people more than a
little growl.” Lizzy was the most beautiful irritant that she’d ever met.
Andi finally sat down with her and
looked around the room she’d been working on. She was actually glad for someone
to talk to. Her own thoughts were going to get her into trouble. She looked
over at her.
“You know I have fangs how? And why do I
have them? I can eat food. I can be in the sun too. Why is that?”
“You’re not a vampire, only the mate to
one. Mac is magical so you will be too, and having fangs make it so that you
two can…enjoy each other. As for the food part, you need the extra energy so
that you don’t get hurt when he needs you to live.”
“Why do you know so much? Is it because
you’re as old as him or are you just bullshitting me so that I’ll be impressed?
You should know that I don’t do impressed very well.” Lizzy laughed and so did
Andi. As much as she didn’t want to, she liked the woman.
“Okay, how about we start over and you
tell me why you’re really upset. And so you know, Mac doesn’t know we’re
talking. He’s sleeping and I’ve blocked us. For now.”
Andi got up to place another sheet of
drywall. Lizzy didn’t even bother trying to fake holding it with her.
“That woman, Pete, said that my stepfather
hurt another man yesterday. She said he’d live but he’s going to be laid up for
a while. Do you know if there’s a way for me to help him without him finding
out who did it?” She continued to work and not look at her new sister-in-law. Mac
said they were as good as married.
“My dad has already taken care of it. But
I’ll tell him you want to help. What else is bothering you?”
Andi put in the last few screws before
she turned to her.
“You can tell me, Andi. We’re going to
be friends and family for a very long time.”
“I’m not cut out for this.” Lizzy
laughed and Andi flushed. “What if he gets tired of me? What if someone else
comes along and…well, they taste better to him? What if something happens with
my dad and he decides that I’m not really worth it?”
“None of that is going to happen, Andi. I
swear. You have to believe me when I tell you there is no other for him. You’re
the one that the fates chose and you’re the only one that is going to make him
happy.” Lizzy stood up and Andi watched her. The woman moved like she was
gliding and Andi wished she was as graceful.
“When my stepfather comes here, he might
change his mind. You know how men are.” Andi nearly laughed when Lizzy shook
her head. “You can’t tell me that you’ve never been with anyone. Someone like
you? You must have men eating out of your hand.”
“Not so much. Have you met my father? He’s
scary to most vampires, humans too. Nah, I shy away from them. I’m waiting for
my mate to come along and sweep me off my feet.”
Andi snorted.
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly. But don’t
worry about Mac. He’s in love with you and would do whatever it takes to keep
you happy.”
As she continued to work and visit with
Lizzy a total of nine people came by. It wasn’t until after lunch when Pete
brought over someone named Shade that Andi had a feeling that she was being
watched. When Shade left and a woman by the name of Bailey came she knew it. Just
after two, she said she was going to the bathroom and slipped out of the
building. She’d had enough.
Andi felt the first touch of her mind
nearly an hour later. When it got a tad harder, she tried to figure out how to
block it out. But someone was really insistent and she was getting a headache.
“If you answered them, they’d probably
leave you alone. Maybe. Where are you going?” The queen was standing right in
front of her and Andi stopped before running full into her.
“I take it you used your mumbo jumbo to
find me. Or do you have this crystal ball that you use? I’m betting it’s not
something so mundane as you just happened to be here.” Andi rubbed her
forehead. She was getting sick from the pain.
“I can find you because of your
connection to Mac. The others, Bailey especially, can find you by scent. She’s
a bounty hunter, by the way.”
“Why do you need a bounty hunter? Wait,
do I want to know?”
Mel shrugged.
“Why are they keeping tabs on me? Is it
because Mac is out?”
“Out? I suppose that’s one way to put
it. But to answer your question, yes. He didn’t ask them to do it, but they
love him and, in turn, love you as well. You’re having a reaction again. I
thought it was because you missed Mac, but I don’t think that’s it. May I touch
you?”
Andi took a step back. “I’d really
rather you didn’t. You have this thing about you that makes me think you know
entirely too much already. And you have that basket thing going on. What’s with
that?”
“I’m going to have another child. No one
else knows it, but my mate is worried. He thinks I don’t get enough vitamins. I
don’t know why he’s worried, we’re both immortal.” She sat down in a chair that
hadn’t been there before and Andi looked at the one that seemed to pop out of
nowhere for her. She continued to stand.
“You’re freaking me out. Just tell me
what it is you want and I’ll go back to the party they’re having watch over me.
And for the record? I know how to take care of myself. Been doing it for some
time now.”
“No doubt. So had Sara before Aaron. Did
she tell you that she lived in her van for a while so that she could protect me
from my first mate?”
Andi started to ask about that. Lizzy
had said there was only one mate to one vampire or magical creature.
Mel continued. “He wasn’t really my mate,
but had made me think he was. I was stupid. And when I’d lost my child when he
tried to kill me…well, you don’t have to worry about him. He’s a tree in a lot
near here.”
Andi sat down. There was nothing in her
head right this minute other than the fact that the queen turned someone into a
tree. What the hell would she do if she fucked up and let them all down?
When someone touched her head, she knew
she was no longer on the street. She looked up and saw she was right. There was
a dragon across from her and a little…person? Sitting on her foot. She didn’t
move for fear of hurting it.
“That’s Yve. She’s going to work with
you today.”
Andi looked up at Shamus.
“Mel has been called away. Yve is good. She’ll
help you in any way you need her to.” As he moved out of the room she looked
down at the brightly-colored winged person.
“Hello,” the tiny voiced person said. “I’m
a pixie. My lady said that you’d need help with a human. I think you should
simply shoot him, but she said that humans frown upon that. Do they?”
“Yes. Generally. What’s a pixie? I mean,
aside from the one on television, I’ve never put much thought into you
guys…girls.”
Yve laughed.
“Plus, I don’t know what you can show
me.”
“You have magic. Master Mac has been
here several hundred times and he is magic too. I can show you things that will
not only help you with the human who bothers you, but those that seek to invade
your mind too.” She flew up to her knee and Andi sat back. “But you’re not well,
are you? There is something not right in your head. May I look?”
Andi started to say no, but in the end,
didn’t. Her head was pounding now and she wanted to just lie down and sleep it
off. But she was still nervous about these beings. They didn’t work on the same
plane she did. When the pixie flew up to her shoulder, the movement nearly made
her cry out. Andi laid back and closed her eyes. That was the last thing she
remembered.
~~~
Mac didn’t move her, but watched as she
slept. When Mel had come for him, he’d been resting and had had a hard time
waking. But the moment she’d told him that Brandi was ill he was awake and
ready to go to her. She’d been moved to this bed before he’d arrived. He looked
up at Yve when she flew to his knee.
“She was ill before I came to her, sire.
I swear it.”
He smiled at her nervousness.
“I didn’t even get to ask her if you
were going to come here more often. We’ve missed you so much.”
“I know you didn’t. She’s been hurting
for some time, I think.” He wondered how long and decided to wait for the
castle physician to tell him. “She is something else, isn’t she?”
The doctor came in a few minutes later.
He was as old as time, Mac had always thought, but liked him. Every time he
came to the castle when he and Lizzy had been children he always had a piece of
candy in his pocket for them. Sometimes a rabbit too. He laughed at the memory.
“Well, young man, you’ve yourself a hell
of a mate here. She’s going to be fine, just fine. But I found a little bit of
a lump in her brain. Nothing serious, but a nasty one to say the least. It
looks like someone might have slugged her good with a wooden object and it
moved a bit.”
Her stepfather. Mac wanted to find the
man right now and take his head off for him. He looked at Brandi as he spoke to
the doctor. “When can you remove it?” He looked up when the doctor laughed. “I’m
not waiting for her to get worse. I want to have it removed before she has—”
He handed him a large cloth. Mac opened
it slowly as the blood in it terrified him. He found the long splinter of wood
in the middle. It was about three inches long and about half an inch wide. Christ,
it must have really hurt her when the bastard had put it there.
“I’d say a baseball bat, but I may be
wrong. Do you know who put it there?”
Mac nodded.
“Man’s as good as dead then. You should
know that she’s really going to be fine, as is the baby. Congratulations.”
He was gone before what he’d said
registered. Baby? Brandi was going to have a baby. Mac tried to wrap his mind
around that when he heard someone enter the room. He looked over his shoulder
at his mom. She moved toward him slowly until he couldn’t help but smile at
her.
“She’s going to have a baby. Brandi and
I are going to have a child.”
His mother stopped and put her hand over
her mouth.
“Christ, I’m going to be a father.”
He had to lay his head down. Baby. Fatherhood.
He looked up at his mom when she hugged him close.
“You’re going to be fine, Mac. I’m sure
of it. And so will Andi. I’m so happy for you both. Wait until I tell your dad
he’s going to be a grandfather. He’s going to have a kitten.”
She left him an hour later. Brandi
hadn’t moved much, but he could hear her heart beating strongly at her breast. Mac
laid his head down her on her belly and listened. He was ready to hear the
baby’s heartbeat when Brandi spoke.
“I’m not in the mood right now, but if
you give me a minute you might get lucky.” He looked up at her and smiled. She
frowned. “I don’t care for that look. What have you done, or what is it I’ve
done? Oh my God, I didn’t hurt that little person, did I? She was there to help
me, not me to crush her.”
“No. Yve is fine. She was here until the
sun went down. She had to go and put the flowers to sleep.” He crawled up in
the bed beside her. “No, I was thinking about what the doctor said. You had
this in your head.”
She took the piece of wood and looked at
it. She handed it back to him with a shiver. “He hit me with a ball bat once. I
couldn’t go to the doctor because he’d hit me the week before and I’d ended up
there. It took me nearly a week before I could raise my head without throwing
up. My mother said it was for the best, the bills were piling up.”
“Your mother was a peach.” He wrapped his
arms around her, careful of her head. “The doctor said you’d have to be still
for a couple of days if I didn’t feed you. Hours if I did. What’s it going to
be?”
Brandi sat up over his lap and looked
down at him. She didn’t move, but continued to look at him. He waited, knowing
from Lizzy that something was on her mind.
“I have something to tell you. I don’t
want you to interrupt until I’m done, okay?”
He nodded, telling her he had something
to say to her as well.
“This mate thing, I know you need me to
live, but if you’d like to just keep it at that, I’d understand completely. That
man, the vampire, knows us now because I touched that woman. My stepfather is
coming because I couldn’t give him what he wanted, and now this. I’m a little
overwhelming for you. I know what I’m like.”
When she didn’t say anything for several
seconds, he pulled her down for a kiss. He’d only meant for it to be a quick
one, but the moment her mouth touched his, he had to deepen it. Moaning, he
rolled her to her back and covered her.
“I love you. And all this other crap? Nothing
compared to what my parents had to go through to get together. Did you know
that my mom killed five men that were going to kill him before she knew who he
was? And he didn’t want a mate at the time. He had just taken over this realm
and he didn’t feel…never mind. That’s for another time.” He kissed her again,
this time not even bothering to keep it simple. “Oh Brandi, I love you. And the
baby you’re going to have.”