The Faerie Master (Aaron's Kiss Series) (4 page)

~CHAPTER 3~

Shawn MacFarland wandered around the woods most of the night.
He couldn’t seem to get his bearings on where he was.
Sitting down next to a tree he closed his eyes against the pain and took deep breaths.
He needed to feed, and soon.
He couldn’t remember what had happened after he had come out of the bar in Columbus, but he was bleeding badly.

Looking down at the wound he tried again to piece together what had happened.
The woman he had been with was coming out to have sex with him and to let him feed.
The latter she wouldn’t remember, but she would let him.
She had seemed tense as soon as they walked out onto the sidewalk and then...nothing.
He woke up in the woods with blood on his clothes and the knife, a switchblade, still stuck in his ribs.

Whatever it had been it had not been robbery. His wallet with his credit cards and money had been still in his pocket. His car keys too.
He just couldn’t seem to remember the name of the bar, how he had gotten here.
But worst of all he only knew his name because of his driver’s license and nothing more about himself.

Oh, he knew he was a vampire, that he had been one since the mid-third century.
He knew that he had powers and other than being able to move quickly couldn’t remember what they were or how to use them.
The name of a friend was just there, but he couldn’t remember it either.
There was something else too, something just beyond his reach that he should know, but that too eluded him.
Getting up, he started walking until he came to a deep cave.

~~~

“I’d feel better if you stayed here tonight, Cade.
The weather is supposed to turn wicked and all you need is to catch pneumonia.
No one sleeps up there and you’ll be warm.”

She wanted to, and after a few minutes of doing the pros and cons of whether
or
not to stay, she told Paul she would. “But only if I close up.
That way Mary Margaret will be grateful to me and I’ll get some brownie points.
And you, my friend, might get laid.
The entire bar would be happy if you would get some more often.
You’re a real bastard when you’re horny.”

Cade grinned when he looked shocked.
Then he gave her a smile that looked less friendly and more predatory.
It made her think of the people she had met today.
A quick shiver when down her spine.
Vampire
s
and wolves, oh my.

“Deal.
Its Mary Margaret’s birthday tomorrow anyway. This will put me in good with her too.
And you aren’t allowed to comment on my sex life until you have one of you own.
You haven’t been out on a date in all the time you’ve lived around here.
What, the men around here not good enough for you?”

Cade just smiled.
It wasn’t that, but she was not going to tell him she was too tired to try and figure most men out.
She liked men, enjoyed them even.
It was just who had time to get to know anyone when one was working four jobs and trying to save every penny made? Not her.

When the kitchen closed down at midnight she went out to the bar to finish up and tend bar.
Paul left sometime after twelve-thirty.
At one-forty-five she called last call and then at two-ten closed up the bar.
By the time she had cleaned up the last of the glasses and swept behind the bar it was nearly four.
Wondering if she could get an hour in before having to leave for the MacManus’ Cade decided to take a long, hot bath and shave her legs.

At five, with the rain still coming down, she went out to her bike and tried to get it going.
After several tires and getting soaked to her skin Cade called a cab.
She hated to do it.
Not only would it cost her to get to the MacManus’, she would have to pay to get back here again too. By the time the taxi showed up she had changed again and had bundled her clothes in a bag, hoping that she could throw them in the dryer when she got to work.

At six-thirty she had the batter made up for waffles and the dishes from the night before put away.
Duncan told her that he could load the dishwasher without any problems so he would make sure they were done.

“Miss, I was wondering if you had anything from the grocery store that you needed?
Her ladyship and I are going into town this morning when the young ones are off to school. I could pick up whatever you needed.”

A thousand and one things entered her head.
Everything from a bag of really good potato chips to a newer car.
Shampoo that cost more than seventy-nine cents on clearance, tuna that came fresh and not from a can, a bra that lasted more than three months, shoes without holes, the list was endless and unfortunately not what he meant.

“Thank you, Duncan, but I don’t know what the people here eat.
You’d be a better judge of that than me.
I’ll cook whatever they want me to.”

Lizzy came into kitchen first.
She really was a pretty little girl, Cade thought.
She had made the little girl the requested waffles and sausage links and Lizzy thanked her politely.
When Mac came in a few minutes later he was upset about something and Mrs. MacManus was too.

“You’d better drop the attitude, young man.
I’ll not have you acting like you have no idea why you’re being punished.
If you don’t make the grade today then you won’t go to Brent’s birthday party.
That’s final.”
Sara growled slightly in the back of her throat when he glared at her as his mother left the room.

“He has a math test today and he thinks math is stupid.
Mom told him that if he didn’t make at least a C then he couldn’t go to our cousin’s birthday party.
He’ll be nine on Saturday.
He has the best parties,” Lizzy explained as she poured syrup on her waffle.

“Mac, what is it about math that you don’t like?
It’s the best thing in the world and used for everything.
There isn’t one thing in the world that math doesn’t have some kind of
e
ffect on.”

“Yeah, right.
Mom told you to say that, didn’t she?
I hate it.
I mean, who cares how many teaspoons are in a cup or stuff?
I don’t.”

“There are forty-eight.
And you should care.
Math is the only way to keep things moving in the world.
Without it there would be chaos and nothing would work.
Without math there could be no time, no television, and no cars.
Math is the universal standard; math is what holds everything together.”

Cade pulled out a bowl and then the flour, eggs, and baking powder.
She set them in front of Mac.
Then she did the same for Lizzy. “Here, you both are going to make the waffle batter.
Lizzy will use the measuring spoons and cups, you won’t.
Which do you think will taste better?”

She helped them both, giving Lizzy a short lesson in how to measure, and watched as Mac tried to measure the ingredients in the bowl in the same amounts as his sister.
When they were finished she cooked them both and put them on the plate.
It was obvious which was going to taste better.

“Okay, so you have to have math to cook, but what else?
I don’t use it for nothing.
I still hate it.”

“You don’t use it for anything, and you do.
How does your mother pick out your clothes?
Does she just go to the store and grab stuff for you?
No, she needs sizes.
It would be ridiculous to think you and your father were the same size.
What about your body?
Did you know that you are made up of all sorts of math equations?
If you didn’t have enough fluids in you you’d be dehydrated.
If you’re dehydrated then you get constipated.
Without enough food, the right amounts of each kind of food, you’d die, right?”

“My dad doesn’t eat food and he does just fine.
What about that?”

Okay that threw her, but she would deal with that later. “Your mom, she...she is the...you know, I’m not going there.
But if your dad didn’t get the right amount of...of, shit, of blood then he’d die.
He has to have a measured amount or he is a dead man.
Same principle with everything.
I’ll tell you what, you work on it all day and when I come in tomorrow, if you can think up one thing that has nothing to do with math then I’ll make you my famous pizza. I make the greatest too. What do you say?”

“What about my test today?
Mom said I have to make a C or I’m in trouble.
I don’t want to.”

“Ah, so you can make a C, but you choose not to.
Stupid thing to do, don’t you think?
Bring your mom down on your head because you think you’re smarter than she is?
Nah, not touching that one.
But I will tell you, if you can make better than a B I’ll give you five bucks—ten if you make an A.”

“Hey, that’s not fair.
How can I make ten bucks?
I want money too,” Lizzy said with a pout.

Cade looked at the two of them.
They lived in a house worth more than she would see in five lifetimes and she was paying them money to make good grades.
Shaking her head she thought it over.

“Okay, Lizzy.
Let’s see.
You’re a smart girl, so we’ll make yours different.
You have to be nice and polite to three people today, not once be snarky or anything, and I’ll give you ten bucks.
If you are nasty to one—just one, you have to...you have to do dishes after dinner tonight.
And without complaint.”

Cade was sure the girl could do it, even more sure that Mac could make the grade. Her concern was what the parents would say when they found out.
Neither kid said anything when Sara came back into the kitchen.
And Sara did not say anything when Cade started cleaning up the waffle disaster.

The morning was quiet after the kids, Sara, and Duncan left.
Mr. MacManus came in shortly before they left and had left the kitchen when everyone else did.
He didn’t say much; he seemed upset and distracted. Cade put her things in the dryer after gaining permission from Duncan again and set about making lasagna for dinner.

The pantry had bottled sauce, but Cade liked to make her own so
,
taking the cans of tomatoes and other sauces she would need into the kitchen, she made a huge pot of rich basil sauce.
She hesitated about the garlic and then decided to not add it in.
She had no idea what it would do to anyone and figured on not taking the chance.
The homemade noodles where tricky in that she had only a rolling pin to roll them out, but she got them at the right thickness after rolling for an hour.
Stacking the noodles and sauce pattern in the pan, she put it on the counter with a note on how to cook it.
Buttered bread slices where also set out on a sheet tray with written instructions on how to cook them as well.
By three she had cleaned up her mess and was waiting on the taxi at the end of the drive.