rogue shifter 05 - caught between (11 page)

"I've heard some of the horror stories." He looked us over again and shook his head. "You're both rather incredible. I may wake up tomorrow and think I've dreamed this evening." We all laughed, which lightened the mood in the room.

"You don't know the half of it. Wait until you meet the crew. We're all rogues of one kind or another and we've taken that as our team name."

"Rogues, huh? Adele would have loved that too. She was a rogue in many ways herself."

I thought of something, blurting out, "Do you have a picture?" I was surprised to hear my voice crack with emotion.

"Of course." He pulled open one of his drawers and took out two photographs, handing them to me. Garrett and I looked at them greedily, my hand trembling slightly as I held them.

She was lean and blonde like me, with the same green eyes and straight nose, although she was petite like Bridgett. In both pictures she stood next to my father on the beach, clutching his hand, the wind blowing her hair to the side and her smile radiant. In the second picture she seemed to be laughing at him.

After a moment of not breathing, I whispered, "She was so beautiful..."

"Mon ange, you look so much like her." Garrett kissed my cheek.

Simon nodded. "You do, Jackie. Although there's some of me too."

"Bridgett looks a lot like you, but she's got Adele's green eyes and is closer to her height. She's bright and really good at languages, like you."

"She is? "He seemed to like that. After another few seconds, I reluctantly handed back the pictures, but he returned the one where she was simply smiling, keeping the laughing one for himself. "You keep that one. I'll hunt around and see if I can find any others. If you leave me your address, I'll mail you more. Or I can scan them and email them to you."

"Thank you." I couldn't stop staring at this lovely woman who'd given birth to us and then died so young. A mass of jumbled feelings tumbled through my heart. I felt sad and angry and cheated but mostly I felt grateful that she'd decided to carry us to term and love us for the short time she'd been able.

Simon and I were quiet as we stared at the pictures cradled in our hands.

"Are you alright, love?'
I felt Garrett's warm breath on my cheek as he leaned in closer and took my other hand in his.

"Yes. I'm good."
I looked into his eyes and smiled. "I'm fine." He sweetly raised my hand to kiss my knuckles and as usual, every care disappeared and only this glorious man who'd chosen to share his life with me remained.

I leaned against his chest and yawned. Garrett turned back to Simon. "We have to be leaving, but if you could give us your email, we'll contact you when Charlie makes an appearance and also about the plans regarding your Christmas visit."

They exchanged cards then we walked to the door, turning to say our final goodbyes. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Simon."

"And you, Garrett. I'm glad you two found each other. Take care of her."

"Forever." They locked eyes and shook hands, something passing between them that seemed strangely fitting in these odd circumstances.

Simon turned to me and opened his arms. "May I? This is all new to me, but..." He hesitated. "Adele is so present in you."

I hesitated for only a moment and then walked into his arms. It was slightly awkward at first, because our bodies were stiff from nerves and the unfamiliar closeness, but after a few seconds we relaxed and I allowed myself to feel comforted by a gentle hug from a father who hadn't known I existed until just a few minutes ago. He was Garrett's height, so I guess I inherited his taller DNA. Being a shifter, I automatically took in his scent. He wore a light citrusy cologne which didn't mask his earthy almond aroma. I liked it.

When I'd moved beside Garrett once more, I said, "I'll email you later in the week. Thanks for believing me and not throwing us out."

"You'll find that I'm fairly even-tempered. Adele was the fiery one."

"Ah, well I knew she got it from somewhere." Garrett smirked and Simon laughed while I punched my mate in the arm with a scowl.

Garrett rubbed his arm pretending to be in pain. "Simon, do you practice your art?  I only ask because sometimes we have need of a sorcerer on a job we're working."

"Yes. I feel it's important to keep in practice. Keeps me on my toes mentally, too."

"Great. I'll place you on our team contact list as a possible consultant."

"Thank you. I think I'd enjoy working with both of you."

We walked hand in hand to the car, both of us silent as we went over tonight's extraordinary events in our heads. We found Isaiah asleep in the back seat with french fries spread around him like an offering. Garrett actually growled.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Garrett, Isaiah and I beamed into the kitchen Star-Trek-style, surprised to find the house completely empty. It only took Garrett a second to contact his nest and find out that they were all playing soccer in their new back yard. Even Samson, our Rottweiler, was there acting as out-of-bound ball chaser. Garrett told them not to stop their game and that we'd walk over in a minute.

Isaiah looked around the large room, taking in the enormous refrigerator, the eight burner stove, the two ovens and the long table where we usually held our team meetings. Sometimes we'd be cooking for a dozen or more people, most of them wolves or shifters, both groups notoriously big eaters. We were always prepared for whatever cropped up. Of course when I say 'we' I mean mostly everyone else. My cooking skills were limited to spaghetti, scrambled eggs and boxed mac and cheese.

Isaiah had absolutely no luggage, which was odd but easy. On the other hand, I had a large suitcase, which Garrett sweetly took into his room along with his one smaller bag. His room was now officially
our
room since my old room across the hall was the new nursery. Most nights Garrett and I had started out curled up together in his bed, but he'd never been comfortable with me waking up in the morning in total darkness next to a cold non-breathing body. I didn't mind at all, since it gave me a chance to check him out. I'd turn on the lamp and smile, looking at him and feeling like the luckiest female on the planet. Of course it wasn't just his 6 feet of lean muscle, his gorgeous features and his thick wavy auburn hair that made me feel lucky, but c'mon, those things sure didn't hurt.

We walked over together, Garrett holding my hand and Isaiah straggling behind us, looking at the garden and the woods beyond them. We'd placed the new house so that a narrow strip of forest blocked our view, giving all of us some much needed privacy. The path that Aaron's team had constructed between the houses wound around parts of our garden, under an arched trellis, around the end of the wooded strip, through another arched trellis and into their garden, keeping with Garrett's modern Victorian theme.

The new house followed a similar design to the original, sporting a large porch with plenty of seating, tall windows which let in lots of moonlight but locked down with steel shutters during daylight hours, and even a rounded Queen Anne style turret. A circular driveway that ran adjacent to a three car garage, made the house easy to access from the main road. The garage was mostly empty as of now, but that would probably change soon if Garrett's nest had their way.

Looking at it from the outside, a passerby would never know that a nest of serious badasses lived in this quaint house surrounded by wildflower and rose gardens. In fact, that was exactly the point. We hadn't mentioned to the general shapeshifter community that Garrett's nest was moving out of our basement, because a lot of the shapeshifters in town might feel on edge about it. Garrett believed in trying to keep under the community radar, avoiding confrontations with nervous neighbors whenever possible.

The interior was designed more with the vampire's tastes in mind, without going into 'zombie-goth' or anything too drastic. I hadn't actually seen it yet, but I knew that there was a huge 'man cave' which included the largest flat screen TV you could purchase, an office for William with a lot of high-tech computer gear and an artist's studio for Sasha. Heinrich was planning on rebuilding a couple of old Harley's he'd been able to purchase, so he'd taken over one small section of the garage with his hogs.

Samson, the Rottweiler and fae dog mix we'd inherited from our murdered friend, Carly, ran over to lick my face and hands and nuzzle my belly as if he was greeting Charlie as well. The others hadn't noticed us so we stayed downwind and stood silently, watching them enjoy their new soccer field.

It was hard not to admire their natural grace and athletic abilities. The three vampires who made up Garrett's nest were Sasha, Garrett's second, a 6'2" strikingly handsome Slav, probably descended from Tsars, Heinrich, a 6'7" German giant who usually dressed right out of "Easy Rider" but spoke with a politeness that always disarmed me, and William, a much younger tech genius who'd won the heart of my twin sister, Bridgett, and whose skills on the computer had come in handy on several occasions.

Add to that our newest team member wanabe, Flynn, a lion shifter as large as Heinrich, but even younger and less experienced than William, who was still learning the ropes. They were an eclectic group who'd managed to grow dear to my heart over the short time that I'd known them.

Heinrich looked exasperated with Flynn as he watched William get up from where he'd been brought down. "I told you, no tackling." He shoved him toward the goal that they were defending.

"Yeah I know, but you said we were playing football." Flynn looked just as annoyed.

"That's what they call soccer in other countries, dumbass."

"Well, I'd rather play
real
football. This game is just a lot of running around, kicking and bouncing a ball on your head. Football's a man's sport."

"Oh yeah. They move one foot and pile up on top of each other and then everyone has to wait while they stand up again, decide what they're gonna do next and then maybe they move another foot. That's a real man's sport, alright. Anyway, you could use the exercise, tubby. C'mon, I'll kick it to you."

"I'm the same size as you."

"Yeah, but you're not as buff."

"Well, maybe when I'm a senior citizen like you, I will be." Heinrich was around sixty years old but he'd been turned at thirty, never aging from that point.

Rick's eyes took on a mischievous gleam. "When we're more settled in the house, I'm gonna get you on a workout schedule that'll make your little kitty whiskers curl." Heinrich teased him unmercifully about being a lion and surprisingly, Flynn took it well. As odd as it seemed, they'd actually become friends.

Sasha, however, had lost his patience with both of them. "Would you two get a room? Will and I've been waiting for five minutes for someone to kick the freakin' ball."

Garrett and I both laughed which brought all of them vamp-speeding over to where we were standing, except for Flynn, who still managed to run over pretty fast for a big guy.

Sasha grinned at Garrett "Welcome home, boss." He turned to me, "We've missed you, Mistress," he teased, knowing I wasn't too crazy about that title. Although, to be honest, when I'd found out that he'd been tortured by Eleanor because he'd
refused
to call
her
Mistress, I'd taken it as a sign of his respect for me, plus a little bit of a mutual joke between us.

"Are you well?" he asked, looking at my larger belly and smiling warmly. Sasha and I had gotten closer over the last months, especially since I'd been posing in his studio for a portrait I'd planned to surprise Garrett with at Christmas. He was doing a beautiful job, even though he'd had to adjust my actual dimensions to pre-baby size.

"I'm feeling fine, thanks." I smiled and placed a hand over Charlie's current home.

The others took turns welcoming us back, Flynn asking, "Did you eat donuts for breakfast?" He was having trouble taking his eyes off of my baby bump, which at this point was growing larger by the day.

Garrett and Sasha scowled at him but I laughed. "Charlie likes homemade chocolate chip cookies, so I probably overindulged."

Ignoring the other's annoyed looks, he added enthusiastically, "I'll make you some this week in our new kitchen. I've made them before. You just slice the dough and put it in the oven."

"Thanks, Flynn." He'd come so far in a relatively short time span. When I'd first met him he'd been angry and confused,  tied to a hospital bed after trying to kill himself. Having been raised a human, he just hadn't been able to come to grips with the fact that he was actually a lion shapeshifter. He'd fought Robert fang and claw, refusing to shift after the first time. I'd brought him home with me, feeling that he needed to spend some time with other supes, and that seemed to bring him around. His animal form was magnificent, and much larger than my cheetah or our other feline team members. He'd have been dangerous if he hadn't let go of his anger and finally accepted his new reality. I'd been in the same situation myself only a few months before.

Isaiah had finished exploring the wooded area that formed the border of our property. He gave Garrett's nest and Flynn a polite nod. "So this is the demon?" Sasha moved closer and took in a long deep breath, narrowing his eyes as he assessed the danger Isaiah presented to the group. Sash was Garrett's second in command, a vampire with incredible speed and fighting skills and a keen ability to size someone up quickly.

In response, Isaiah sucked in a breath of his own, possibly taking in all of their scents. "I prefer to be called Isaiah." He allowed his eyes to flash orange, which didn't faze the vamps, but made Flynn take a step backwards.

Samson growled deep in his throat, his doggy eyes splashed with a red fire. I hugged his neck, scratched behind his ears and whispered. "It's okay. He's a guest. You can keep an eye on him, but don't hurt him. Good boy." His stumpy tail started to wag, making his whole rear end wiggle. After a moment, his eyes returned to their usual black.

Garrett scowled at Isaiah, who was enjoying all the drama, and then turned to the others. "It's important for you to know the bargain we've made with Isaiah because if he breaks it, he goes home. He's here to train Jackie, not to cause trouble. He's agreed to treat all of you and any of our other guests with respect and I've explained that you'll do the same. He can't provoke fights, although he's allowed to defend himself if his life is in danger. He has to stay on our property the entire time he's here, which includes the two houses and their grounds. He's agreed to remain in this form and he cannot lie to any of us."