Carter (10 page)

“You and the rest of your family are immortal. You could all heal quickly before, but now…well, now you’re an immortal. The only way to kill you or anyone in your family is to behead you. I’m pretty sure that’ll be harder than it sounds now, as well.”

“My child?” Nildale didn’t answer, so he turned to look at him. “My child, what will happen to him?”

“Nothing. I mean, yes, he’s immortal as well, but he’ll have…a bit more than you do. Each child you have will have more of you, more of us. They’ll all be immortal, but their powers will be…unchartable.” Misha sat back down. There had to be more. How much he wasn’t sure, but there was, he’d bet his life on it. “Yes, you’re right, there is much more. You’ll have the same abilities that my children have. The ability to come and go should you need to. To speak to anyone and anything that has a mind. You’ll be able to heal like never before, as I said, and even your cat will be bigger, meaner when necessary, and you’ll—”

“I’ll what? And if you tell me that I’m going to grow a second dick right now, it could not be any worse than what’s going around in my head.” Nildale stood up, and he had a feeling he was moving himself out of harm’s way because he was worried. Smart man. “Nildale, you’re an immortal, but I’m betting I can hurt you.”

“You can’t do that either. Not now that you’re a family member.” Misha heard him say “Thank God” and stood up. “All right. I was trying to think of a way to tell you this so you’d not be angry. Or in this case, angrier. You’re rich. I mean…what your mother calls sinfully so. It comes with the package.”

Misha growled. “Explain. And no more fucking around. What the hell are you talking about? And tell me straight out.”

“As a part of the family, you were all entitled, and rightly so, to a portion of the family coffers. It’s a great deal of money, but since she’s given you all this extra, you now get a bigger portion. I think it’s a grand idea, but you…I don’t think you’re going to see it that way.”

He didn’t think so either. “How much? I mean, I have millions now. Thomas a good deal more than that.” Nildale nodded. “That does not help.”

“A good deal more than that.” Misha stood up, then sat back down. “It’s not just money. There are jewels that have been laying around for some time. I think they’re worth more in your world than mine. Then there is the…did I mention that you couldn’t hurt me? It’s true, you know. I would really appreciate it, Misha, if you were to have a seat now and not menace as you are doing now.”

He hadn’t realized that he’d stood up again. But when he sat, Nildale didn’t look any less afraid. Misha tried to be calm, but his cat wasn’t having it. For some reason he wanted out. To run, not just to hurt the man in front of him. Misha asked him again how much more.

“Think of the richest person in the universe.” Misha said the first name that popped into his head. “Yes, he is rich but not…okay for now, take his money and let me count….”

Misha watched the man. He wasn’t just teasing him, he was counting. And that terrified him more than the thought of living forever. When Nildale sat down again, he didn’t look any happier than Misha felt right now.

“I’m afraid you’re not going to believe me.” Misha nodded. “Should I give it a number, you’re going to be upset. If I don’t, then you will as well. It is a lose-lose situation for me. You are tens of millions of times richer than the man that you mentioned. I don’t believe there is a number for you and your family’s worth.”

“I can’t think. We share in that amount of money?” Nildale shook his head. “Thank God. You had me going there.”

“No. Each of you are worth that much more.”

The humming started, and Misha lowered his head this time. He just sat there, his head between his knees, and tried to think of a number and how many zeros that it had.

“I don’t think you’re helping yourself.”

“Fuck off.” Nildale laughed and Misha looked up. “Does my family know? Any of them know any of this?”

“I’m sure that Thomas is aware now. As for the rest of you, no. I doubt it. Because you are the leader of your leap, you took it the hardest. There was much to improve in your life, so it would have hit you the hardest. I would imagine that your wife has had a hard blow as well, but she would have gotten it much more gently than you. Because of the baby and all.” Misha nodded. Nildale was sounding like he was gaining his confidence back now. “Misha, you’re going to need it before this is all said and done.”

“No one needs that much money, Nildale.” He shook his head. “You mean the power. I guess you might be right. This man, this Daniel Murphy, you know him?”

“I don’t. I’ve never met the man, but from what I’ve gathered from Leila, he is not anyone you’d want to tangle with as a human. He wants the boy. And I don’t blame him. Max is…he’s nearly a pureblood, and his powers are…. Max will need to learn control. He’ll get it, but he will need to work at it. Carter will be good to him, teach him to be the best he can with it, but he cannot teach him how to use it. He’ll need to come here for that.”

“His mom won’t like that.” Nildale nodded. “Ah, I see. You’re hoping that I’ll help you with that. You’re a slick, sly man, Nildale. Why have I never seen that before?”

“I hide it because it gives people the sense that I’m a doddering old fool. When in reality I’m a mean mother fucker that can take you down with just a look.” The vase next to him exploded and Nildale laughed. “I can no more hurt you than you can me, but it is fun to show off when I have a captive audience.”

“I’ll help you, but I have a favor first.”

“Anything.”

“From now on when you think or even suspect that something like this might be coming my way, I’d like a heads up.”

“It’s a pact.” Nildale put out his hand, and Misha stared at it. “Trust me. I’d never hurt you.”

Misha left him standing there with his hand out and laughing like a loon. The man was a doddering old fool if he thought he’d ever touch him again.

Chapter 10

“She’s smarter than we first thought.”

No shit, Daniel wanted to say. He’d had everything in place. The men to get the Lanning woman that was having a kid, the car to take her out of the way, and even a nurse at the door to meet her once she was in the fucking building. What the hell had gone wrong?

“Then what happened that made her turn tail and run? Did she have something more pressing?” Victor said he didn’t know. That the extent of his knowledge was the program on her computer. “What about the office? Did you have a man in there? Should we just, I don’t know, go to the office and get her?”

“Not going to happen. Not only do you need an identification, you have to have a retinal scan. These people are serious about their safety. And before you ask, yeah, I did go and find out about the property that butts up against theirs, and someone bought it yesterday.” Daniel asked him if he offered them more for it. “Contract is signed and the happy couple move into it in a few weeks. Some renovations are going on now, so we have to wait before approaching them. But….”

“What is it now? Please don’t tell me a fucking Lanning bought it.” Victor nodded. “Mother fuck, what is it with these people? It’s like I am thwarted at every single turn. I need that kid or her. I fucking don’t even care which now.”

“Also, our tag on the bitch’s phone is gone too. She either broke it or someone broke it for her.” Daniel sat back in his chair, too afraid to say a word as Victor continued. “I’m thinking that daughter of yours is a little too helpful with keeping you from what you want. If you don’t care which one to get, I think I have a better chance at the kid now. He’s not…he can’t be as smart as the mom or those others. I can nab him more than likely without any issues.”

He didn’t want to settle, that was the problem. But he was so pissed that he was willing to cut out the middle man and go for broke on this. Now he didn’t just want one of them, but he had to have them. They were messing with his plans and that just wasn’t working for him.

Daniel was far from broke. But Dane had things that he wanted. Like her inheritance, for one thing. He had known when he married Leila that she had money and that she was leaving it to their children. It hadn’t mattered much to him until Dane had left. Now there was no way he could manage her money, even the substantial interest that had been coming in. But the little bitch had done the meanest thing he could have thought of. She’d gone to the courts without his knowledge and had herself declared an adult when she’d been sixteen. Now he had none of it.

He sent Victor out of his sight. Daniel really didn’t care where he went so long as he left him alone for a bit. Things were just not going his way and he wanted to hit someone. And hitting Victor, even on a good day, was not a good idea. The thought of firing Victor came to mind, but he dismissed that quickly. If it ever came to that, Victor would have to be killed. He simply knew too much to let him live for very long.

Daniel didn’t know why he hated his daughter so much. He supposed some of it had to do with the fact that she’d spoken. Not just about him but in the first place. Things had gone downhill once she started talking and having opinions about things. Like telling him she didn’t like helping him. Her having the nerve to tell him what he was doing was wrong. Daniel thought that was why she’d wanted to be a lawyer so badly. He wondered if she’d failed at that, seeing that she was only a lowly cop right now. But when she’d left him to go to college, his hatred toward her had gone from just an occasional flare to a raging fire.

There were things in motion now that he needed her for. Like the audit that was coming up. His company was going to have the IRS come in and look over his books on the second of January. Not a great deal of time to get Dane and her son here and make her do what he wanted. Changing the auditor’s mind about what he would find would keep Daniel not just out of prison, but also from being shot. He was pretty sure that more than one of his clients would gladly kill him for what he had on them if he made any kind of deals. And Daniel would sing like a bird to keep his ass out of jail.

The knock at his door had him looking up. The butler cleared his throat and looked at the fireplace twice before he said anything. Daniel found himself looking up there too. His wife Leila’s picture was there, and an urn of her ashes. When he turned back to the butler he was gone, but his long dead wife was sitting in the chair across from his desk.

“Do sit down and close your mouth, Daniel. You look like a fish out of the water.” Daniel staggered to the chair. “Good. Now, we’re going to talk…well, I am, and then you’re going to do what I tell you.”

“You’re dead.” She laughed. “I saw your body. You’re dead and they…what the fuck is going on? This is a trick of my daughter’s, isn’t it? Dane, this isn’t funny, but I’m glad that you’ve finally come to your senses.”

“I’m not Dane, you moronic fuck. I’m Leila. How could you tell me she was dead? How could you…you told me that she’d died, and that just broke my heart.” Daniel wanted to get up and pinch the woman across from him, but was almost afraid to. “You’d better be afraid, Daniel. I’m going to make you suffer in ways you’ve never even thought of in your little house of horrors down the street.”

His skin crawled when he thought of the house she was referring to. Victor had set it up some years ago, and when someone would piss either of them off, Victor would take them there. Daniel had been there once and that was all it had taken him to realize that Victor was a sick mother fucker, and if he ever pissed the man off enough for Victor to take him there, Daniel would hurt for years and years.

“You gave me a daughter. What the hell was I supposed to do with a daughter? I told you the entire time you were fat with that thing that it was to be a boy. I didn’t want a fucking girl.” Leila stood up, and Daniel felt the power from her surge around the room. “You’re like her? You and Dane are the same?”

“Where the hell do you think she got it from? You?” Her laugh was maniacal. “You could barely hold a gun when I first met you. Now look. Killing people is a way of life for you. You’re going down for what you’ve put me through, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”

The man that appeared in the room with them sat down. He never said a word to him but leaned to whisper into Leila’s ear. When he leaned back in the chair, Leila looked at Daniel and he could see the anger in her eyes. She was going to kill him, he just knew it.

“I can’t. Much as I’d like to, I can’t do a damned thing to you so long as we live.” For some reason that made him feel so much better. “But I can make your life a living hell until such time that one of the others kill you. And make no mistake, Daniel, they are coming for your ass.”

“You think I’m afraid of them, whoever they are?”

She grinned and nodded. It was a scary grin, one that showed all her teeth and make him think of her sinking them into his throat and ripping it out. She laughed then and that pissed him off too.

“I’m well-guarded here. Leila, you of all people should know that.”

“I got in, didn’t I? And without even alerting that stupid bear shifter you have down at the gate. What I do know is that very little will stop them should they want to come after you. And they will, trust me on that one. And my grandson? You would be smart to keep away from him and his mother. Should you harm either of them, I will bring a fury down on your head that you will never know what hit you.” He pointed out that she couldn’t hurt him. “Not me, you fool, but my people. I’m going to unleash them on you.”

When Leila disappeared, the man continued to sit and stare at him. Daniel only stared back. He liked to think he was better at this, but the man didn’t move. And he was sure he never blinked the entire time he sat there. When he smiled at him, Daniel watched him carefully.

He had no idea who her people were. Not a clue what Leila was talking about, but he did know that should this man hurt him, there would be no coming back from it. Even long after his daughter and grandson were gone.

“You’re not going to stop, are you?” Daniel wanted to tell him he was going to stop just to placate the man, but he heard himself telling him that he was going to do whatever it took to get them here. “Then what do you think will happen?”

“I’ll have what I want. I get what I want when I want it. And there is little that anyone can do about it.” The man nodded. “It’s good to know that Leila can’t hurt me. She always did have a bit of a temper when things were upsetting to her.”

“She’s the queen of her kind. The oldest in a long line of Doran that once ruled worlds by just their presence. You’d do well to remember that she is more than any human or supernatural has encountered in a very long time.” Daniel just shrugged. “My name is Nic, by the way. I am the keeper of the Doran and have been for thousands of years. When I tell you that you’d be better off simply forgetting you have a child and grandchild, you will live longer should you do that.”

“Like I said before, I get what I want.”

Nic stood up and stretched. Daniel actually felt his balls tighten against his body and his cock shrink. It was painful and terrifying at the same time. When Nic smiled at him—this time there was not even a hint of humor in it—Daniel whimpered.

“They’ll come to you. Both Dane and the child. And when they do, you’ll regret it with every breath you take, all the way to the last that passes your lips. Her mate will not be the one that kills you, though he will want to. Dane will not either, but she will attempt it before you harm her.” Daniel asked him if it was his grandchild that he thought would try and kill him. “No. It will not be an attempt.”

Long after he was gone, Daniel tried to figure out what he’d meant. Did he just tell him that his own grandson would kill him, or that he wouldn’t even attempt it because of another rule that he had no idea about? And his wife? What was she still doing alive, and why did she look no different now, not a single gray hair or her body out of shape, than she did all those years ago?

His daughter would be hurt…that much Daniel did understand. And while he was glad of it, he was worried about her mate. Daniel had been dealing with the other species since he’d been old enough to know there was a difference. So a mate, he knew, was just about the closest thing to a husband as you could get. But the Lanning man that she was staying with had a mate, so where did this one, the one his daughter supposedly belonged to, come in? He wondered if they could have more than one. Making a mental note on the question, he called for Victor.

“I’ve just been informed that my wife is alive.” Victor looked as shocked as he felt. “Good to know that you didn’t have a clue either. But I have a problem. If she’s alive and makes that known, then I’m going to be in some serious trouble with the insurance companies that I had policies with on her. Do some checking and tell me what you can find out. Oh, and get rid of the urn. I have no idea who is in it, but they mean less to me than my wife does right now.”

Victor walked around the desk and took the small brass urn down. He was nearly to the door when he turned back. “You say that she’s alive, right? Then why don’t we get her to bring them to you? I mean…they know too, right?”

“I would think so. She knew about me looking for them.” He sat back in his chair. “She can’t hurt me. Leila just told me that. So if I bring her here, that’s not to say you can’t hurt her, correct?”

“Pretty much. I’ll see what I can work out. You can call her back, I’m assuming?” Daniel told him he had no idea but he’d work on that too. “Good. I’ll see what I can find out. What is she, do you know?”

“Doran. I have never heard of that, have you?” Victor shook his head. “Me neither, but it can’t be all that bad-assed if she’s the queen. And while I don’t have any idea how old she really is, I’d say they live a long time. This guy with her, he said that he’s thousands of years old, so we’ll figure on that. And assume, like vamps, that the older you are, the more shit you can do.”

After Victor left him again, Daniel started feeling better. To have them all here at once—the wife, daughter, and grandson.—would be like a family get together with him in charge. Maybe he’d put up a tree this year too, give them all a little treat right before he locked them away. But Leila he had the biggest plan for. Victor was going to take care of his wife once and for all.

Daniel called the butler in and told him to hire someone to come in and decorate the house for the holidays. If the man was shocked, he hid it well. He also told him to get some gifts for a boy. When asked the age, Daniel had to think and couldn’t for the life of him remember what he’d been told. He told the butler he thought he was about five or so. All Daniel knew about his grandson was that he was male and nothing more. Fucking bitch was going to pay for that too.

~~~

Maribel was handing ornaments to Max and watching him think where to put them. He’d been doing that for over an hour now. At the rate he was going, it would be after Christmas before the tree was finished. And looking at Hannah, she saw that she wasn’t doing much better, changing the placement of each ball or toy several times before she’d pick up another one. Jackson came into the room with a tray of snacks and winked at her before turning to the decorators.

“Are you enjoying this?” Both of them turned and looked at Jackson. Max shook his head and sat down. “And why is that, young man?”

“I just wanted to see it up and pretty. I’ve never even seen one before this close.” Hannah nodded, just putting the bulb she had in her hand on the first branch she touched. Jackson nodded and left the room. Max looked at the tree again, and Maribel felt sorry for him.