Steele (12 page)

Then, just like a snap of a finger, Emil disappeared. Beth picked up the fallen letter again and reread it, each and every line, looking for some clue that would tell her that they were not as they seemed. There was nothing there, of course. How could one read it from a letter anyway? But still holding the pictures in her hand, she went to bed. Closing her eyes, Beth expected to toss and turn again, but fell into a sleep so quickly she had no time to let her mind work out her problems.

~~~

“Hello.” Kari had been about to go outside and run when she saw the pretty little ghost standing at the door. She’d never seen her before, but would guess by her dress and shoes that she’d been gone for a very, very long time. Smiling at her, Kari decided that if she wanted to harm her, then she would have already done it. “I’m Kari Bennett.”

“I’m Emil. If I had a last name, I don’t remember it. I’ve been gone from this place for a good long time.” Kari sat down, then stood again. The woman was nearly vibrating with the need to flee, and Kari was nervous about her doing just that. “You’re the mistress of the house?”

“I am. I don’t know what you’re capable of, but would you like to have a seat? I’m just going to have a cup of tea. It’s not going to be the kind I really want, but it’ll have to do. The men in the house don’t drink caffeine, and I’ve been trying to keep it out of my system as well.” Emil sat, but she didn’t really sit so much as she hovered just above the chair. Kari was no longer freaked out about it like she used to be when that happened. “Have you been around this area for long?”

“No. Just arrived.” Kari nodded and finished making her tea before sitting again, and Emil spoke again. “You’re very pretty. Not what I expected.”

“Thanks. If I knew more about you…perhaps why you’re here…maybe I could make the same observations.” The woman smiled but said nothing. Kari had a feeling she might know why she was there but not a hundred percent.

“You’re not a human.” Kari shook her head as she sipped her tea. “I was just passing by when I thought to come by.”

“No. That’s not right. Let’s not start this on a lie. You’re a person who knows my husband’s mother. I’m thinking she didn’t send you, but you’re here for her.” Emil nodded slowly. “Good, this is much better. Let me see…you know her father. Did you know that I work with him? More than likely not. He told me that he’s able to go there without her—”

“He’s been to the house?” Kari hid her smile and nodded. “He never said. When you visit another, it is only polite that you let them know.”

“Did you?” When she looked away, Kari continued. “I didn’t think so. But it’s okay. We had to be sure it was her. When she took on another name, it was hard to know. All this time, we thought she was dead.”

“She did her child as well.” Kari had already figured that out. “We didn’t even know there were twins until just recently, much less a living child. The Bennetts, they said her child had died. And it was all I could do to get her up and out of there before something untoward came to hurt her. Bennett, the senior, was not a particularly nice person.”

“No, he was not. But I’m surprised you didn’t know about the children.” It wasn’t meant to be a slight against either woman but simply curiosity, but the woman took it as something completely wrong. Emil stood up and the room heated to about twenty degrees warmer than it had been. It was only seconds before both Aster and Billy were there, and neither of them looked all that happy. They stood in front of her as if they would do battle.

“She accused me of harming my human.” Kari started to protest, but Aster moved to stand in front of her more so that she could barely see Emil. Then as she took a step forward, Emil took one back.

They stared at each other for several seconds before either of them moved. Then Emil, gently and slowly, moved her fingers to touch Aster’s forehead. Of course they didn’t touch, but even Kari could feel the emotion that ran between them. It was then that she realized again how much Aster must favor her mother.

“You look like her.” Aster nodded at Emil. “So much so there is no doubt that you’re her child. You even have her lovely eyes.”

“You know my grandda?” Emil glanced at Billy but said nothing. Her entire focus was on Aster. “You’re kind of creeping me out staring at me like that. Can you at least say something please?” Emil smiled and looked at Kari before turning back to Aster.

“Your brother, does he look like you?” Aster nodded, then laughed. Emil did as well. “I suppose he does but not pretty…no, beautiful like you. You are. So very beautiful, like my human. She will fall in love with you the moment she sees you.”

“My mother.” Emil nodded. “Then you believe us? That we’re her children? I need to see her. I want to…we want to tell her that we want to get to know her. Spend some time with her too.”

“I’ll tell her. I’ll let her know.” Emil disappeared, then returned almost immediately. She smiled hugely. “I forgot to ask you your names. I heard it was Aster and Steele, but—”

“I’m Aster. And yes, my brother is Steele. You’ll love him. He’s so wonderful and his wife is amazing. But you know that already if you’ve spent any time with her. They want to have a baby soon.” Emil looked at her and then at her belly. There was no child as far as she could tell. And from what she’d been learning, she’d know as soon as Kari conceived.

“We’re still trying to have a baby. It’s been…we haven’t been trying very long. But we’re hoping. I’ve been…I don’t know a lot about being a panther yet, but that too is a learning process. It’s been an uphill battle to get as much information as we could find until recently.”

“Your sire, he is dead?” Kari shrugged. “He would be in a great deal of trouble to have left you without training you. Dead or alive, there are those that do not take kindly to leaving your own without help. I’ll see what I can do about finding out where he might be.”

“He didn’t have her permission to change her either.” Emil looked shocked, and Kari nearly laughed. But when Billy continued she seemed to relax a bit. “He took a bunch of them, girls, and changed them. We’re working to find them all.”

“You have been back there then?” Kari shook her head. “You should return. They would come to you quicker than they would a stranger. It is something that we cling to if our lives were taken with much violence. I would take another with you, just to be safe, but I would think no harm would come to you from them.”

“I’ll try.” Emil looked at Aster again, and Kari watched them both. She could tell that the spirit was in awe of the younger woman, but she never made any attempt to speak to Billy. She wondered if he was hurt by it, but he didn’t appear to be. When Emil looked at her, Kari could see the determination there and almost felt sorry for her mistress. Kari would bet anything that Bethany would be here sooner rather than later.

“I still don’t fully trust you.” Kari nodded at Emil, expecting this if only because she was married to a Bennett. “I’ll tell her what I’ve found. I would like to have met the younger Bennett, but he is not here.”

“No. He and the others are working. They are on a site where nineteen bodies have been located. They’re working to help identify them as well as give the people there closure.” Emil nodded but said nothing. “I will have him here when you can convince Bethany to come to see us.”

“I didn’t say I would.” Kari only nodded. “If she were to come, and I’m not saying she will, what is it you want from her? She has nothing to add to his life.”

“Oh, but you’re wrong there. She has everything to add to his life. Mine too. We want her to be a part of our lives if she’s willing. Have a chance to get to know her and let her get to know us. There are so many gaps in Steele’s life that I know that he’d like to have filled in.” Emil said nothing, but Kari knew that she was listening. “You as well. As far as we’re concerned, you’re as much our family as Bethany is. More if I’m correct in thinking you’ve kept her from joining you.” If Emil was shocked by the words, she didn’t show it.

“She had no life, she thought. Nothing. That man…her husband was a good man and didn’t need to die so young. But things happen that way and no one can know why. Then the baby…there was no saving it when she took ill. Her depression was so deep it was as if she had fallen into a pit of tar, and it was almost too hard for her to fight her way out. After a time, I thought her to be getting better. Then that man Bennett came into her life and took everything again. More I think. But to have thought all these years that her child, her only child, had died too was nearly too much for her. She is not the same person that she was, even after the baby and husband had passed.” Kari wasn’t sure what to think when Emil came toward her. Billy stood nearby, but he didn’t interfere with them. Emil put her hand on Kari’s heart. “I can feel your love for her. You’ve no idea of her, and yet you love her.”

“I do. Her son is my life. Her grandchild, when we have one, will be my life as well. I need her. I need her more than I need anything, because she’s a part of the lives we’ve lived. Without her, none of this, none of us would be here.”

Emil stared at her for so long that Kari wondered if she was looking into her soul. When she smiled, it was as if she’d lit up the room with it, even the world. There was so much understanding in that smile that Kari smiled as well.

“I shall bring her to you. It will not be easy nor will she be happy, but I will bring her to you.” Kari, too overwhelmed with emotion to speak, nodded. “You will have her son here? He’ll not hide away from her?”

“No. He’s not hiding now but working. He’ll be here. I promise you, we’ll all be here.” Emil looked at Billy and walked toward him. He only smiled, but Kari knew the man well enough to know he was nervous.

“You’ll be here as well?” Billy nodded. “She knows you’re dead. I’ve asked her to summon you so that she could talk to you, but she was…. Her life has not been a good one these past years. She might have needed her daddy, but didn’t want to disturb your rest.”

“I wish I could have been there for her. And I will rest when she is safe and happy.” Emil nodded. “Could you tell her that I love her? Tell her that after all this time thinking her dead, it is wonderful for me to be able to see her again?”

“I shall. Will you do me a favor as well?” Billy nodded. “When she comes here, could you please welcome her to your place of rest? She will want to visit you, but to be welcomed there…it will be good for her.”

“I shall.” Kari wondered what that meant, to be welcome to the cemetery, but Emil nodded and disappeared before she could ask her. Billy must have known because he smiled at her. “She wishes to visit my grave and stay for a while.”

“She needs your permission to do that?” Billy shook his head. “Then I don’t understand why she asked if she could.”

“She wishes to lay flowers upon my chest. It is an old tradition, one she and I did for her mother. We would ask if we could visit before laying the flowers there. Her mother, God rest her soul, was not a fan of having flowers cut. We did it, Bethany and me, when we went to see her grave. She’d ask her mother if it was all right and there would be a small bloom, no matter the time of year, opening just as we went to the garden. I never understood it much until now.”

Kari nodded. She thought it was amazing how the dead made their presence known, and it was something that the two of them did, so she knew it would bring Beth comfort. As she made plans to have rooms aired for her mother-in-law, she thought of what Steele was going to say. The man was going to be as excited as she was.

Chapter 11

Steele moved around his office twice, making sure everything was put right before he sat back down again. If Kari had been in here with him, she would have told him to stop pacing several times by now. Instead, he was here with Nick.

“You do know that she’s going to love you, right?” Steele looked at his best friend and shook his head. “There’s some sort of law, I think. That moms have to love their kids. Not all of them get that thing in their heads, but it’s there all the same.”

“She doesn’t even know me. And my father raped her.” Nick nodded and leaned back on the couch almost to the point where his head was resting on the wall behind it. Then he closed his eyes. Steele knew that he wasn’t resting so much as trying to appear as if he was. The man never stopped. “Do you ever get all hyped up about anything?”

“Sex.” This was said without Nick opening his eyes or moving. “And food. I really get hyped up for food. Especially those little apple things that Kari makes. They are delicious.”

They were too. She called them fritters. Best way to cook an apple as far as he was concerned. And he had to beg her to stop making them. He’d eaten ten of them last night after dinner.

“My grandmother said that you’ve been out to the cemetery a lot more lately; that you are often there when Mitch isn’t. Are you all right?” Nick nodded but still hadn’t moved. “Nick? Are you all right, really?”

He sat up now and stared at him. Steele noticed the dark circles under his eyes, the vacant, almost scary look in his dark eyes too. But his smile, sad as it was, made him think that his friend wasn’t anywhere close to being all right.

“I’ve been dreaming of her.” Steele sat down but didn’t speak as Nick continued. “There’s this woman who’s hurt. I can’t save her no matter what I try to do. Every time I dream the dream, she’s dead at the end and I feel as if I lost a great…something because of it.”

“Who is she, do you know?” Nick shook his head and got up to go to the bar. He was pouring himself a bourbon when Steele spoke again. “Do you think that she’s dead now or that you’re to save her from death?”

“I’ve no idea.” He drained the glass and refilled it before he came to sit again. “The way she dies is never the same. And before you ask me, no, I have no idea what she looks like either. When I’m dreaming, I see her. As clear as a bell, and I think, wow, that’s for me. But by the time I wake, not only is her face gone from me, but the reason that I need to save her.”

“Your other half maybe?” Nick snorted and sipped his drink this time. “I can’t help you without more details. And you should think of finding someone in your life. It changes you. Calms the inner beast.”

“You’re so full of shit. But I know you love Kari. But this woman…her name is something short, sassy, and something so exotic that it makes me hard just to think about it. Her hair is long, but I’ve no idea what color it is. Her mouth…her mouth is lovely. I have an insane urge to taste it and her, though if I did, I can’t remember it. She’s smart and mouthy. That much I do remember, and she’s in deep trouble.” Steele nodded but said nothing while Nick got up to pace. “There’s something else too. Something that…she’s not like us. She’s normal.”

“You’re normal.” Nick snorted again. “Well, you are. What makes you think that you’re not?”

“I have seen normal, buddy, and we are not it. We try. We try very hard, but we’re far from normal.” He pointed around the room with his glass. “There are seven people in this room, including us. Two of them are your friends, one is a woman that I have no idea, and the other two are…they’ve been here a long time. I would say since the house was built.”

Steele looked around the room and saw everyone but the two that Nick thought had been there. He didn’t see them. Not that it worried him overly much, but he was worried about his friend. Nick was tired and maybe a little on edge. Steele wanted to help him in the worst way.

“This woman…is she from around here? Maybe you can tell by the way you have to save her.” Nick shrugged but said nothing as he stared out the window. “Nick, what if she’s your other half? Your love?”

“I can’t love anyone, Steele, and you know why.” Steele used to think he did but not so much anymore. What had happened to his friend was nothing he could have prevented. “I’m damaged goods, and I’ll never let anyone hurt me again.”

Few knew what his life had been like before Ray had found him and brought him to work with them all. Ray didn’t know the horrors of Nick’s life, and the only reason that Steele knew was because they’d gotten drunk one night, really drunk, and Nick had told him. It was a horrific and bloody life the younger man had led before Ray had recruited him.

“I said the same thing, if you remember correctly.” Nick nodded but didn’t turn around to look at him. “Nick, what else can you tell me?”

“The first time I dreamt about her she was laying in the street. Someone had hit her with a car and she was already nearly dead. The dream came back to me over and over, showing me just a little more of the event that put her there each time. Until I saw that I had hit her with my car. I killed her.” Nick came back to the chair again and sat, his nearly full glass of liquor apparently forgotten. “The second time…the second time a different dream came to me, about her and I on a date. I have no idea where we were other than we were together. A person came into the restaurant and opened fire. I was the only one that lived, and she died in my arms that time as well.”

“She dies in your arms every time?” Nick nodded, but Steele could tell he wasn’t really paying any attention to him. He watched him closely. He was reliving each of her deaths, and it made Steele wonder how long this had been going on.

“Last night we were having sex. It was…it was really great. But she looked at me when she was…Christ. I’m glad this is you I’m talking to and no one else.” Steele nodded but said nothing in reply. “She was riding me. My cock was buried so deep inside of her that I knew it was real. I could feel her heat, her wetness holding me. When I touched her breasts, they were full, warm, and her nipples were hard and tight. I wanted to suckle them, but then she looked down at me. Her face twisted until I didn’t know who she was, but she rode me harder, faster until she screamed.”

He was standing next to the window again, staring out it as Steele waited. He had no idea where this was going but knew that it was going to be bad. When Nick poured himself another glass of the dark liquid, Steele realized that his friend was drinking a great deal more lately, and thought it was because of his haunting woman.

“Her body seemed to change. Shift I guess. Not like Kari does, but into something monstrous and evil. As I held her…emptied inside of her…this thing, whatever it was, laughed and rode me faster, harder until I came again. Then she….” Nick drained his third glass but didn’t move to refill it. Steele had a feeling that before this was over he was going to need a drink himself. “She opened her mouth, and her teeth started for my throat until I woke up covered in sweat and nearly screaming myself.”

There was more. Steele knew as he sat there that something else had happened, and either Nick was afraid to share it or he was still trying to believe what had happened himself. And as much as he wanted to help his friend, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to know either.

“They’re here.” Steele looked around the room and Nick laughed. “Not my haunting woman, but your mom and that lawyer guy. They just pulled up.”

Steele stood up, then sat back down. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t ready for this. He was, but he had thought to have more time. He looked at Nick when he laughed again.

“I don’t know what to say to her.” Nick nodded and sat down across from him. “She’s my mother, my biological mother, and I haven’t a clue what to say to her.”

“‘Hello’ is where I would start. Then from there, let her lead the way. From what I’ve heard, she’s been pretty hurt by this too. Not by you but your father.” Nick grinned. “Wish I could have met the bastard. He and I would have gotten along famously.”

“You would have killed him.” Nick nodded and said that worked for him as well. “She might not like us. We might be wrong about everything and she’ll not want to have a thing to do with us.”

“And she might love you.” The door opened up, and Nick stood up to kiss Kari on the cheek. “Your hubby here is having a panic attack. Perhaps you should show him how wonderful he is so that he can get back to business.”

The door shut behind him, and Steele was all alone with Kari. She frowned at him and then sat on his lap. “It’s a little too late to tell her you don’t want to meet her. However, if it makes you feel any better, she’s having a hard time letting go of the car that brought her here.”

Steele stood up with Kari in his arms and walked to the window. There she was, his mother, holding onto the door handle of the limo like her very life depended on it. Setting his wife down and giving her a quick kiss on the nose, he took her hand and led her out of the room with him. It was time to meet his mother.

~~~

Beth wanted to get back into the car and leave. She was making the biggest mistake of her life, and she was pretty sure she was going to die of a heart attack right there. When the big man, her son she assumed, came out of the house and started toward her, Beth whimpered. He stopped moving and stood very still.

“Hello.” Beth nodded, unsure if she could speak or not. “I’m Steele Bennett. I wanted to welcome you to our home.”

“I don’t want to be here.” He nodded but didn’t make fun of her or tell her that she was stupid. He looked as if he might understand. And that confused her more than anything. “This was a mistake.”

“I don’t think so, but if you do, then I want to help you.” She didn’t believe him, and she was sure he knew it. “I’m really glad that you made it this far. I can see…Aster looks a great deal like you. I’ve seen pictures of you, of course, but it really brings home the fact that you’re our mother.”

“Your wife sent me a picture of you too. And of Aster. Emil tells me she looks like I did at that age.” He glanced over his shoulder to the woman on the steps, and when he looked back at her, Beth could see his love for the woman. “Your father raped me.”

She hadn’t meant to say it like that, but it spilled out before she could think. Steele nodded and smiled sadly at her. Beth wanted to go to him and hold her little boy, but she was still afraid. She told him she was sorry for being so rude.

“I’m sorry for that, truly I am. But had you not been then neither I nor Aster would be here. And I would never have met Kari. I’m very sorry and I wish I could have changed that for you, but we have each other now.” Steele smiled again. “You’re beautiful. If a son can say that about his mom. Aster would have been just as lovely too.”

“I missed her. Both of you. I missed everything about you.” Steele nodded, and she noticed that he was closer than before. She wanted to be afraid of his move but wasn’t all of a sudden. “I can’t get those years back. Not seeing you grow up, not being there for you. Nothing. It’s all been taken away from me.”

“Yes, it has. And I’ll be the first to say my father was a bastard. Eloise was a bitch and treated us as if we were nothing to her. But you can make some memories with us now. Good ones too.” He reached out his hand and ran his fingers gently over her cheek. “Hello, Mom.”

Beth sobbed, and once that dam was broken, she cried harder until she could barely stand. But large comforting arms came around her, and she leaned into her son. He held her to him, saying words such as he was sorry for her loss, that he loved her, and that he was there for her. Still, she cried. Not just for her but for all of them. All the people that Bennett had hurt by his evilness. Beth felt for the first time in nearly thirty years that she was safe.

When she felt she could, Beth looked up at him. Steele, her son, looked so much like her father it took her breath away. And when he smiled, her mother’s smile was there as well. No traces, or at least none that she was willing to see, were there of his father.

“Would you like to come in now?” She nodded at him, and they turned to go to the house. Two men, large as her son, came out and went to the car to get her things. “Kari has set you up in the blue room. So you know, there’s not a spec of blue in the room, but she thought it suited it somehow. She’s trying her best to make this her home too.”

“She’s very persuasive, your wife.” Steele laughed and agreed with her. “She said that she’s talked with Aster. And my father. Are they both here?”

“Grandda is here now. Kari is still trying to learn how to be a necromancer. And I try to stay out of her learning curve. She very much wants to learn this on her own. Very stubbornly, as a matter of fact.” Beth nodded, already liking the young woman. Then she was standing in front of her and Beth looked at her for the first time.

“Hello.” Beth nodded and was surprised when Kari hugged her tightly. She’d never been much for hugging, especially since that night, but it felt right. “I’ve never had a mother, much less a mother-in-law, and I have to tell you, I’m really excited.”

“As am I.” But Beth noticed something that she hadn’t before and took a step back. “Panther? I’ve never met a panther before.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good thing or not. Until Steele and his men, I’d only heard of necros, and the stories I’d heard were not fit for bedtime stories.” Kari smiled and turned to go in the house. “I was told that not only could they raise the dead, they would eat their souls if it was still left behind. Stupid now that I think on it, but….”