Rare Find (23 page)

Stefan woke from a deep sleep, silently, stealthily. Alert. As if he was under attack – or preparing to attack. Only there was no sign of anything. Or anyone. He shifted his vision to search the energy in the room. It all appeared normal. His guards were still in place. The house remained safe. His security system untouched.

So where was the danger
?

Faint images of a collapsed man filled his mind. He sorted through the images, trying to figure out who the man was. And why was Stefan receiving the images?

He grabbed his pencil and sketchbook and went to work. The picture came together relatively quickly.

After a few moments, he closed his eyes to bring the image up again. And caught that same scent of wrongness he'd felt on waking.

He sent out a probe, searching the ether for what had disturbed him. Nothing. He lay quiet for a few moments, listening. Nothing obvious, but still…something was wrong. He couldn't identify it. But that didn't mean it wasn't there.

Tabitha?
He wished he knew for certain. Too often he dealt with multiple cases at once. There could be any number of things wrong. Restless, he set the sketchbook aside and stepped out onto his deck as the early morning light was cresting the horizon.

He took a deep breath of the crisp air. There was still a bite in the cool morning, but not enough to ease the rising temperature of worry. If only he could figure out what was wrong. He stared across the property. He was far enough out of town that he was often visited by wildlife. No animals moved.

He cocked his head to the side, turned to glance back into his bedroom, then walked through to his front door. He threw it open. Then stared. There was the merest whisper through the large bushes in front of him. He shifted his vision to search for energy. Blues and greens swirled in the early morning dawn. He used colors to help his plants grow. Those not native to the country utilized the energy to adapt. The colors helped stabilize, helped them to adjust. In part, that was why they'd done so well here.

Tabitha's face rose from the colors, letting him know he was between realities. She opened her mouth, but the words flew from his lips. "My grandfather's box."

***

Fez sat quietly in the corner of the warehouse. His head was killing him – and his boss looked like he wanted to finish the job. When he'd first arrived, he'd had a genial smile on his face that made Fez's blood run cold.

Now he was talking to the buyer. Only Fez didn't understand the conversation. And yeah, that might be from the knock on his noggin. He reached up a tentative hand to touch the wound. Blood was still dripping down the side of his neck.

He needed medical attention but had no money. He was also damn sure the boss would toss him in the river rather than help him. The longer he listened, the more he realized the boss was dousing his chances of ever getting away.

"No," the boss said into the phone, "I'm sorry to say, she's definitely not improving. I don't think she's even going to make a week even. I should be able to refund this transaction by the weekend."

This time Fez couldn't hear the buyer's half of the conversation, but the glint in the boss's eye said he wasn't backing down. None of this made any sense. He groaned and leaned back to rest his head.

For whatever reason, the boss wanted to back out of this tiger deal. And that was seriously bad news.

His boss continued. "No. There's no option at this point. I'll make the arrangements."

When he hung up the phone and stared at Fez, Fez said querulously, "We did everything we could to make this deal happen. Now you cancelled it?"

The boss snorted. "Damn right I did. She's pregnant. That changes everything. There is no way in hell I'm going to sell short the best deal of my life." He smiled, a cold, hard smile. "She's worth so much more now."

Fez didn't know what to say and couldn't think straight either. Money...he needed money. "But…my paycheck?"

"Oh you'll get paid. No worries there." His boss pulled out a small notepad and dropped it on the floor in front of Fez. "We're going to run a private auction – contact a few more people. Some high-end collectors."

"I need money now," Fez protested. "And this buyer… What about when he finds out?"

The boss opened his wallet and pulled out some bills. He threw them at Fez. "This will tide you over for a week. It won't be longer than that and you'll get your full pay."

Fez leaned forward, shuddered at the pain, and picked up the money. "And the buyer?"

"This buyer can go to hell," the boss said calmly. "Once I give him the money back, he’s got nothing to do with this anymore. If he wants her after that, he can bid in the auction. If he asks, I'll tell him she's made a miraculous recovery and is pregnant to boot." He smiled. A twitch of his lips that made Fez's heart quake with dread.

"And if he doesn't like it, too damn bad." The cold smile turned to ice. "I have solutions for assholes like him too."

Monday morning

T
abitha had to get home again. It was early, she'd heard something out in the warehouse a while ago, but it had calmed down.

In fact, outside of trying to grab something useful for Ronin to help her and the tiger, she'd had no real reason for staying as long as she had. Except to provide comfort. Trinity was calm and peaceful when Tabitha was there beside her.

But once she left her, Trinity's energy would thin and she'd feel the fear and panic that much stronger – even with Tabitha’s suppression energy.

Tabitha understood Trinity was sick. In a way that was beyond healing. Heartsick. And maybe soul-sick. There was only so much she could do to make Trinity's remaining time as easy as possible. Given the situation, that wasn't much. If they could get her to the reserve, she'd do better but any measure would be only temporary. As for the cub inside...

If it could survive this nastiness, then there could be a decent life for it. Tabitha already felt the same warm maternal feelings the tiger did, as if the cub were her own. It would be brutal if something happened to it, but she also knew the dangers of getting this attached. The cub most likely wouldn't be able to stay with her, although it could live at Exotic Landscape quite nicely. She'd have to fight for it. Better these assholes had left her in the wild.

Tabitha sent a warm, loving energy jolt to the tiger's energy chakra and then to the baby. She poured protective energy around them both as she backed up and away before finally turning and sweeping into the ether to find Tango.

As her energy had never left Tango's, he only gave her a surprised greeting as if to say, 'What is your problem, I was sleeping here?'

She laughed with joy at the familiar surroundings and gave the big cat a warm hug. His energy rolled through her, around her, warming her and bringing tears to her eyes. She felt so sorry for all the lonely people in the world who never had a chance to connect on this level. She'd been truly blessed. Her father was one of those who'd never connected, and as such had missed out on one of life's truly great experiences.

She shifted back to check on Tripod, who barked a warm greeting, before she dashed back to her physical body. This time she slid back inside effortlessly.

She opened her eyes. And saw she was back in the hospital.

This trip had been much easier on her body and on her soul. Her room was empty. She had no idea where Ronin was, but he couldn't be expected to stay here forever. Knowing that, she wanted to return to her house. Even connected as she was and knowing that the tiger could pull her back at any time, Tabitha would be better off at home. She could only hope that the protective healing energy she'd left behind had the power to keep Trinity calm for a day or two at least. That would hopefully free Tabitha long enough to sort out her life here. She did not want to get tugged backwards like she'd been twice, but that appeared to be the only thing the tiger knew to do to make herself feel better.

And Tabitha would have done the same thing under the same circumstances.

She threw back her covers and gently sat up, letting her legs swing over the side. The room swam in front of her. She clasped a hand to her face and shuddered. Then groaned. "I feel like I'm going to puke."

"Oh dear." Footsteps raced to her side. "Let's get you back into bed."

Strong arms reached around from behind Tabitha and helped her shuffle backwards to lie down again. "Now, let me raise you up a little bit and see how that feels."

The nurse pressed a button and the top half of the bed rose slightly. Then a little more. As it moved up again, Tabitha protested, "That's good." Not quite what she meant to say, but the nurse appeared to understand and lowered the bed slightly.

Tabitha took a deep breath, grateful when her stomach and the room behaved. With a small smile, she whispered, "Thanks. I guess I wasn't really feeling as good as I thought I was."

"You just need a day or two to recover."

Tabitha gave a broken laugh. "That much time I don't have. I have an hour or two at the most."

"I don't think there is going to be a doctor here for several hours." The nurse patted her hand. "Just rest." She walked out.

Tabitha let her head roll to the side. She wouldn't let something like the lack of a doctor stop her. She'd leave the minute that she could stand and walk that far.

You should wait until you're strong enough,
Stefan announced in exasperation.

She smiled tiredly.
That would be sensible, but just think…you wouldn't recognize me then.

No, but I'd be totally okay with you trying the sensible route once in a while. Especially if it would keep you safe.

"Well, I'm not strong enough to walk across the room yet."

Good thing. You also need to speak with Ronin.

She bolted upright – only to cry out as her head started pounding. When the pain eased, she threw back her covers for a second time. Dizzy or not, she did need to speak with Ronin.
I'll call him. I have a name and a twist in this psycho situation.

Good. And I have another piece of art. I sent it to him a few moments ago.

"Do I get to see it?"

You need to. Confirm if it's your Fez character.

She gasped.
You did it.

Maybe. Not sure it's a decent likeness. Had no idea cats saw in that perspective. Grays and blacks.

I know. But her night vision has been a blessing in the dark.

Tabitha...

She froze at the warning tone in Stefan's voice.
What? What do you know?

I saw you early this morning. You were trying to say something about your grandfather's box.

She straightened, her mind racing.
My father has it. There were documents in it. I thought he'd need it to handle the estate. Then this nightmare with the tiger started and it slipped my mind.

It's important. Find out what's in it.
Having said what he needed to, Stefan slipped away.

She searched the room for her cell phone and found it on the little portable table.

She dialed Ronin and got his voice mail. Rather than leave a message, she redialed. Again, there was no answer.

Calling the Center, she caught up on work with Wendy and learned about the sabotaged fence.

That was majorly bad for a lot of reasons, but the biggest was that normally that type of disturbance on the reserve was something her psychic radar should have picked up on, on an energetic level. The mess with Trinity was screwing her energy radar around. If she'd overlooked that incident, what else might she have missed?

At least the lynx hadn't run from the pens, which meant the protective energy she used to calm the animals had worked – partially at least. Please let the new security system have caught this person on camera. She pressed Roman's number on her phone to see what he knew.

"Tabitha," he said. "Sorry to hear you're in the hospital."

"Me too. I'm on my way out of this damn place. Never to return, if I can help it." She went on to explain about the vandalism and the location and asked about the cameras in that area. The damaged pens were on the side of the center but reached back into the trees.

"Do you have someone else who can check the feeds while you are in the hospital?" He paused. "I'll check mine here, and I can send it to Ronin. If there isn't a feed, I'll run by this afternoon and make sure all the cameras are working."

She frowned. "I'm on my way there so will check it out first thing. This has to stop. I seem to be plagued with problems on all sides."

"Maybe it's all the same problem."

"Maybe." Distracted, Tabitha hadn't realized she'd made it to the cupboard and pulled out a large paper bag with her belongings in it. She dressed quickly.