Fated Absolution (18 page)

“They’ll probably charge each person the bounced check charge knowing those two.”

After a few more minutes of exchanging gossip and wondering how someone so mean could be married to such and such, or about how ugly another person’s baby was Maddy and Eon took off for her borrowed truck.

Just a few more weeks, she thought and my little baby will be running like a top. And to have Danny fixing it for life, well that might not be so long, it was over thirty years old. She really wouldn’t hold him to that. He needed to make a living as well as anyone else.

She walked around the lot twice before she realized what she was doing. The truck wasn’t there. She went back inside and retraced her step out again and still the truck wasn’t where she thought she’d left it. She looked down the street.

“Maybe that guy Danny drove it home forgetting that he leant it to you.” Eon had walked beside her every step of the way and never once complained.

“Ummm, maybe. But wouldn’t he have noticed when he got back to the shop that my car was there? I’ll have to find a payphone and give him a call.” She didn’t want to call him and tell him his car was gone, what if someone had taken it.

“I have a cell. You can use it.” She took the phone and dialed the number to the shop. He did indeed have the truck, but he said that Kyle had told him to take it home that she wouldn’t need it anymore.

“Well, did he tell you how I was supposed to get home without a car?” She was hot and frustrated and just a little embarrassed. She thought she knew why he hadn’t told her, they had sort of gotten side tracked, but that didn’t make her have a car.

“No, he didn’t. I’m sorry Maddy. Carol, my assistant is coming into town now, I can have her pick you up with the truck and take you wherever you wanna go, okay?

“No, don’t worry about it. I’ll just get a cab. Thanks so much.” She called the only cab company in town and made arrangements to be picked up. The lady said it would be a couple of hours. She handed the phone back to Eon and then the two of them went to the diner on the corner to eat lunch.

“Are you mad at him?” Eon was just finishing his fourth cheeseburger and third order of fries.

“Who, oh you mean Kyle? I don’t know. It seems that one day I am the next I’m not.”

And she did too. Mostly it was mad, but after this morning, she was finding it harder and harder to stay angry.

“You’re his mate now. I can smell him on you. It’s strong, the scent.”

She looked at Eon then flushed. “I don’t know what to say to that. Other than sex, is there another smell you’re talking about?” If he could be blunt so could she, she figured.

“Blood. But not just that, you give off a, don’t know, a
back the fuck off I’m claimed
smell too. Other vamps, especially males would be able to know as soon as they were near you that you are claimed. It’s the same with mated wolves too. You gonna eat that?”

She moved her plate over to him. He polished off her half eaten chicken sandwich in two bites.

“What does it smell like? I mean is it nasty and that’s why they stay away?” This was the most information she’d had about this whole thing from anyone.

“No, the sex, the smell of…you’re…you know, completion is arousing for us, all supers, I guess. But the mated smell, that’s more primal, more earthy. So, is he not answering you?” Eon could change subjects almost faster than she could keep up. It took her a few seconds to catch up this time thinking about what he’d just told her.

“Answering me? I’m not sure what you mean.” She must have looked really confused, because he laughed at her before answering.

“Alpha said that you hadn’t been doing this for long. Kyle? Did you try reaching him telepathically yet?” He didn’t have to talk to her like she was ten years old, she thought. Then it suddenly occurred to her what he meant. Of course!

“Oh my god, the mind melt thingy. I forgot about it.” Closing her eyes, she pictured him in her mind, and formed the conversation to have with him.

“Kyle, Its Maddy Harm.”

“I know love, I feel you when you talk to me. Did you miss me already?” S
he could feel his humor at her. Well how the heck was she supposed to know if it was her or not. It wasn’t like she was calling him on the phone and caller id showed who was calling in.

“Miss you? No. Right now I’d like to smack you. Can you tell me where my car is?” S
he felt him then, the warmth and need he had for her.

“Your car? You don’t… holy fuck! I didn’t tell you! Shit baby, I’m so sorry. I was
thinking about something…you know that’s all I thought about since I left you. You sipped from
me, drank from me. Do you have any idea what that me—”

“Focus Kyle, car! I had to call a cab to get around and poor Eon is eating me out of my
next year’s income.”

“Car, right. We bought you one, a car. A company car, it’s…fuck baby, its right there in
the lot. It’s the dark green Hummer. The keys, the security guard has them. You’ll love it, it has
GPS and voice activated everything. Honey, I’m so sorry.”

“A new car? You guys bought me a new car? A Hummer. Let me go look at it, I’ll call
you…I’ll hummm…let me touch you later.”

“Oh baby. Fuck, I’m hard, don’t tease me like that. You are always able to contact me,
just say my name or think of me.”

She got up and ran to the door. The waitress barely caught her before she darted out. She hastily paid the bill and left the restaurant. In her excitement she forgot all about Eon, but luckily he didn’t forget her and stayed with her.

The Hummer was sitting right where he said it was. It was a smaller version of its older brother, and in a beautiful shade of forest green. She wanted to wait by the car while Eon went to retrieve the keys, but he made her come along with him. She skipped and hopped back and forth all the way in and out of the court house. After Eon opened the doors and checked it out, he handed her the keys. With a squeal of delight, she got in.

“I can feel your excitement. It’s almost as good as being with you right now. So do you
like it?” K
yle touched her gently not wanting to startle her again apparently.

“Are you nuts? It’s beautiful, and so sexy. Where can I go, Oh,”
she thought excitedly
. “I
have to go to one of the sites, I have to meet Mr. Ontag there in twenty minutes, and I can use
this GPS thingy too. Oh I love it! Are you coming with me?”

“No, you’ve worn me out today. And just in case you’d like a repeat performance tonight,
I’ll need to rest. You would wouldn’t you, like a repeat performance?”
Wave after wave of sexual heat washed through her, over her. She felt sexy and warm, soft and wet all at the same time.

“Oh you bet! I love you. Good night.” S
he broke off the connection, not even realizing what she had said to him.

Maddy had been out at the site for nearly an hour with Mr. Ontag walking around one of the last three buildings that needed to be purchased when Eon walked over and handed her his cell phone and simply walked away.

“Hello, this is Madison Harm, may I help you?” She was confused, but she was also a professional.

“Ms Harm, this is David, David Wolff, there’s been an accident. Can you come down to the hospital? Danny…Danny March is asking for you.”

She could hear the hitch in his voice, and something else. He was emotional, but why she didn’t know.

“Of course. What’s happened? Can you tell me that much?” She walked over to her car, thinking to leave as soon as she could let the client know that something happened.

“Carol Martin, Danny’s assistant and friend was killed this afternoon. Danny is taking it pretty hard. He asked me to give you a call, I hope that’s okay.”

“Yes, of course. I have to let my client know and I’ll be right there. Oh, Eon is with me, is it all right if he comes as well?” She was shocked, first of all because David had said that she had been killed, and secondly because Danny had asked for her.

After letting Mr. Ontag know that she needed to go, she and Eon loaded up in the car and went to the hospital, thankfully not getting lost once.

As soon as they entered they were overwhelmed by the amount of people there. Danny saw her he came and engulfed her in a huge hug. She wasn’t much of a touchy feely, but the hug felt good and she returned it with as much vigor as he gave.

“She called me,” he sobbed in her neck. “While it was happening, she called me to tell me that someone was trying to run her off the road and that she didn’t know who it was. She was my friend. I’ve known her my whole life. Why, why would anyone do such a thing to her?”

He was sobbing, and her heart hurt for him. His partner Russell was leaning against the wall looking like a man who had been pole axed.

That could very well have been me
, she thought. If not for the new car, it would have been…Maddy had reached for the box of tissues on the table in front of her and froze.

“They ran her off the road? Where did this happen at?” Sitting back she looked at him, the box of tissues forgotten in her hand.

“Out on Washington, out near downtown, you know where that is,” he asked taking the box from her hand. “She was running errands for me and the shop. She didn’t know the car she said, her voice was so frantic. I had Russell call David on the cell, but he didn’t make it. She was already dead when David got to her.”

Maddy looked around the room, so many people and she knew so few of them, trusted even less of them. She’d been run off the road where she lived, on her street. What to do?

“Kyle, I’m so sorry, but I think I might be in trouble. And I don’t know…you have to tell
me who to trust.” S
he tried to calm herself, tried to sound reasonable and in control.

“What Madison, what’s going on? Where are you?” S
he could hear the worry in his voice, his was strained and hard. There was no joking or humor now.

“I’m at the hospital, with Danny and a lot of others. Carol Martin, the assistant for
Danny’s shop was run off the road today. She’s dead, Kyle.”
She shuddered at the sound of it. “
I
think it was meant for me. I should have been driving that truck, but you had Danny take it back.

Carol was driving the truck that I should have been in. She was killed near my building on
Washington Avenue. They killed her instead of me. Oh, Kyle…”

“Okay honey, stay calm.”
Warmth and a feeling of complete security washed over her.

“
You said there were a lot of other people there, who do you know?”

“Eon, but he was with me, David Wolff, the cop, and Danny March. That’s it. I’m so
scared, what if I’m right?”

“Love, I’m going to have contact Aaron.”
He told her softly
. “You go to David, tell him
just what you told me. I can’t come to you, not for another couple of hours, baby. I want you to
stay with David. All right? Don’t leave his side.”

“You believe me? You believe that it might have been for me?”
She didn’t know whether to be happy about that or terrified, relieved that he didn’t blow her off as some crackpot, or terrified that he believed someone wanted her dead.

“Yes. Of course. I’m going to go and find Aaron right now. Go to David. Tell him
everything, okay? Stay with him, I know I keep saying that, but I need you to stay safe.”

“Yes, I will. I’ll find him now.”
She felt the open connection with him, the support and warmth coming through that connection.

David was with the family, Carol’s family where taking her death understandably hard.

She stood just out of sight, but close enough to keep David where she could see him. As soon as he stepped away, she gently touched his arm and gestured for him to follow her to an empty room.

“I think that that accident should have been me. I should have been driving the truck today but Kyle sent it back with Danny. They bought me a car you see, a company car and I really like it. It has GPS and a…and a…” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m babbling. I’m so sorry. I contacted Kyle with that mind thingy and he said to stay with you, to not to leave your side. I don’t think he meant for me to follow you in the bathroom, do you? I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” She sat down on the chair, sat down hard and burst into tears.

“Maddy, honey, you have to calm down, all right?” David was sitting on the floor at her feet. He’d been there since she started crying.

“Calm down!! Are you insane!! Calm do…That woman was killed today and it should have been me. It might have been me. And you want me to calm down. I should bop you in the nose you idiot. Calm down.” She was calming down despite the outburst, or maybe because of it.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. It was a stupid thing to say to a hyst…to a beautiful woman such as you.”

He grinned at her.

“Good save fur ball. I was hysterical too. I’m so sorry. Kyle told me to find you and to stay close. Oh Captain Wolff, that poor girl died because of me.”

“Why don’t you tell me why you think that? I got that you got a new car. Congratulations on that, but why would that lead you to believe that someone wanted you dead?” He stood and went over to the rooms only other chair and sat down. It was then that she noticed that he had blood on his shirt and that it was torn in a few places.

“You were with her. You were…Danny said that he called you. I’m so sorry. You must have known her as well.”

“It was horrible, I won’t lie to you. She didn’t suffer though. Tell me what you think Maddy, and please don’t call me Captain Wolff. We’re practically family.”

She told him everything, even things that she hadn’t had the chance to tell Kyle, the dreams, the room and with the hissing man. Then she told him about the car, and how she had supposed to have been to be driving it, that Kyle had made arrangements with Danny to take the truck, or she would have been driving it instead.

“I can see your concern and I think Kyle is right, I want you to stay with me until he can get here. I’ll have someone stay with you during the day as well. I’ve already launched an investigation into Carol’s murder, I’ll see that it’s stepped up a bit.”