A Christmas Tail (5 page)

“Now to figure out how to heal her soul. Her pain is so deep I want to wrap her in a protective bubble,” he choked out, letting some of the emotion out slowly. Tears slid down his cheeks as Davis reached over and squeezed his shoulder, before kissing him.

“If anyone can do it, you can, and we’ll be here to help. But you are right, she needs the family to know she isn’t alone. Did you notice what she wants to do for Lacey for Christmas?” Davis sighed. “That is going to be too hard to accomplish.”

“Not as hard as you think. You forget, I can go places where you two can’t and if I have to I will personally visit Akaos and have a long talk with him. The women shouldn’t be separated like this. Half of them are so depressed they can’t do anything. They formed a family long ago and it was wrong for anyone to come in and destroy that. It’s time to come up with a way the women can keep in contact.”

Orion shook his head. “You’re forgetting what they did to Lacey, Dan, Isaac and Anthony? Do you really think Isaac wants to see his brother after his betrayal?”

“But was it really a betrayal or a show of one? Remember we have spies everywhere. I have a feeling your king has a bigger problem on your world than he let on and they are dealing with that now.” Barry met Orion’s gaze and noticed his frown.

“Then we should be there helping them, not letting them cut us off. We have family there.” Orion snarled, making Betsy stir in his arms. At once the three of them touched and whispered to her, settling her down.

“I’m sure your families are being protected, but if you are nervous, we could go and make sure, if you want,” Barry offered Orion, but already he was shaking his head.

“No, you can only take one of us and it tires you out. And we shouldn’t leave Betsy anytime soon. She needs to know we’ll be here for her and taking off right now would damage what trust we’ve earned from her.” Orion sighed. “I’m sure my brothers can take care of things there.”

Davis snorted and lay back down. “Your brothers could take on the king and Akaos himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t giving them hell right now for breaking the connection. I’m sure we’ll hear from our families soon enough. Do your really believe my mother is going to allow a month to go by without talking with me?”

Barry laughed waking Betsy. She lifted her head and rubbing her eyes, looked around. “What’s so funny? And why aren’t you sleeping?”

She looked so innocent and cute he had to kiss her pouting lips. Barry leaned down and covered her mouth meaning for it to be a light quick kiss, but once his lips covered hers, it was anything but that. He slid his tongue in her mouth, dancing with hers, loving the little moans she was making. But all too soon he pulled back, knowing he had to slow down.

“Kitten, what you do to me,” Barry whispered against her lips. “We were talking about Orion’s and Davis’ families. Davis was saying that this break in ties with their home planet wasn’t going to stop his mom. You see, Davis’ mom has to talk to her baby every week or she can be very well...”

Davis laughed and leaned over staring at Betsy. “She can be loud and mean. See, my mom almost lost me twice when I was small. Ever since then if she does not talk to me at least once a week, well, let’s say my father and brothers will have hell to pay until she contacts me.” He tapped her nose.

“Then there is my family,” Orion said drawing Betsy’s attention. “You see, I have six brothers that would put fear into Akaos and the king if they get pissed off. I’m considered the small one in my family.” Orion laughed seeing Betsy’s expression.

“But you’re over six feet! Hell, I bet your edging on seven feet tall,” she squeaked and they all laughed.

“I’m afraid his brothers are all over seven feet and that isn’t the scary part. What is scary is the power that radiates from them. Even I can see that Akaos won’t be able to control them. If they want to come here, they will.” Barry stated when she turned and glanced up at him.

“What about you? What’s your family like?” she rubbed her cheek against his chest. “Tell me about your world.”

He smiled, remembering his family. “We are the same in some ways as those of the New Barony, but I had four fathers. As with the
Cometedge,
we too do not have enough females on our world which is one of the reasons so many of our kind have visited Earth. It’s one of the reasons I came here too, and met up with Orion than Davis.”

“Maybe that’s why there are so many different myths about demons here on Earth.” She glanced up at him, grinning. “Maybe a priest noticed a family of four men with one woman and thought it was against his god’s wishes that had them believing you are all bad.”

His smile faded and he tightened his hold on her. “I’m afraid some of the things that have been said about us are true. There are families on our world that even I wouldn’t expose you to. I guess, just like the humans here, we have criminal families or gangs, but even more powerful and depraved.”

Orion reached over and squeezed his arm. “It wasn’t your fault. If anyone is to blame, it’s mine.” Orion turned and smiled at Betsy. “You see we ran into such a family, but didn’t realize it until they had captured me. Barry found me before any permanent damage was done.”

“But if I had paid attention to the signs, I would have noticed what they were beforehand. The thought of one of them getting hold of...” Barry pulled her up and hugged her tight.

“I agree. The thought of them near Betsy has me wanting to call in more help. I think when my brothers show up I’ll ask them to stay for a while.” He ran his finger down Betsy’s cheek. “That family is still out there and my family has been itching to find them after what they did.” Orion glanced at him. “
They could come for her since I killed their female.”

“What did you say to Barry? I want to be included everything, Orion.” Betsy reached over and placed her hand on Orion’s shoulder.

“This family finds a person, captures them and slowly kills them, eating them. When I got there, Orion had already killed their female. I killed one of the males, but the other three got away from us.” She shivered and rubbed her arms.

“And here I thought my father was bad. Okay, no visiting your world. How about your parents?” she asked almost afraid.

Davis laughed. “His family is just as bad as mine. Little kitten, you are going to be surrounded by love when they come for a visit.” Davis leaned up and kissed her shoulder.

Barry laughed. “Davis is right. Mom is very protective. She was once human, but changed when my father, Crowell, found her and introduced her to my other dads. That reminds me, I need to contact them and tell them about you.” She stiffened under him.

“You really don’t need to tell them now, do you?” she asked, almost afraid.

“Sweetie, you are part of the family now. They would lay their lives down to protect you and yes, they need to know now, otherwise, my mother is going to have my head.” Barry rubbed her back and silently sent a message to Crowell, his father, but as soon as he touched his father’s mind his mother was there in his.

“
She has been hurt? Who took her children? We will be there soon.”
His mother’s words poured into his head and then the connection was gone.

He looked down to see Betsy staring at him. “Why would she come? She doesn’t even know me or my children” Betsy asked, confused.

“Tell me something, if someone took a child from any mother, wouldn’t you help find that child? You have to start accepting that you are now part of a very large family. If I’m not mistaken, my parents might stay here until after Christmas. So you will get the family Christmas you’ve always wanted.”

“But where will they stay? I don’t know if there are any rooms here and we are leaving to go to London,” she squeaked, tried to get up again.

“Settle down. I’m sure they won’t be here until tomorrow and most likely they will come with us to search for the children. The more people we have looking, the better chance we have of finding them. I have a feeling that by the time we get back, we’ll be all set to move into the new homes. Maybe I can talk my folks into getting a place nearby so when they do come to visit, they have their own place?”

Their kitten settled down and nodded. “That would work. I’m sorry Barry, but I’m really not comfortable with so many people around all the time. Maybe in time I’ll get used to it.”

“Shhh, it’s okay. Now rest little kitten, the morning will come soon enough.” He opened his mind showing her the beauty of his world. Adding to his mental pictures, Davis started singing one of her favorite songs,
Amazed
, that they had heard her sing one day.

Even Barry had to admit that Davis had a voice that humans would crave, but only allowed those closest to him to hear it. Soon the muscles in her body started to relax and her breathing slowed. She was very close to falling asleep as Davis finished the song.

“
As usual, you honor us with your voice, thank you,” he sent to his weru.

“Anything I can do to help her. You need to rest too. You used enough energy and blood destroying that connection the others left behind. Did you know it was there?”
Davis asked.

“
No, but I will know the one that put it there if he ever gets close enough to us. I have a feeling it’s this Drang that I see in her mind. Sleep my weru.”
He sent them both to sleep knowing they would be furious in the morning, but right now he wanted to think and plan. Yes, this Drang would die a nice slow death. He might even offer him to Zanger as a gift. One could always use the man’s help when things got bad and he had a bad feeling things were going to get ugly soon.

****

Slowly, Betsy opened her eyes and scanned her surroundings. She was in their room, but alone in their bed. Last night not only had the three of them showed her part of their lives, they had made sure she didn’t have nightmares the whole night long. She stretched, throwing the covers back and swinging her legs over the bed.

“
We will be there shortly to take you to breakfast. Take a shower. I’ve picked up a few things to hold you over until we get to London to do some real shopping. I can’t wait to see you in this dress. I hope you like it,”
Barry said, seeming to purr which made her body stir and made her uncomfortable.

“
Your body is slowly recognizing your mates’ voices. It will take time but eventually you will crave to hear them speak and to feel their touch,”
Nella announced.
“Oh, and they can’t hear me. When you are ready, we will tell them about me.”

“I’d rather they hear you, Nella. I don’t want to keep any secrets from them. They will know what I am and if they don’t like it, they know where the door is.” She got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. Betsy didn’t know if she liked the idea of Barry picking out her clothes and she had never worn a dress.

“
Did you tell them about your gifts to them when they finish bonding?”
Nella asked.

“No, but I didn’t hide it. I’m sure they know now since I’m not hiding my conversation and they are already in my head.” She lifted up the black dress and frowned. It wasn’t really what she expected, that was for sure. It was shorter than she would have bought and the neckline dropped a little bit low, but she could still hide her blades if she needed to.

Betsy glanced on the counter again noticing the stockings and what had to be a thong. She hated thongs. She picked them up and threw them in the garbage can as she hung the dress back up and stripped out of her clothes before hopping into the shower. She’d just go without panties. It’s not like she hadn’t done that before.

“
You do know if you’re not going to wear the under garment, your men will be distracted keeping an eye on you,”
Nella laughed and she rolled her eyes before stepping under the hot water.

“I’m sure they will be too busy worrying about other things than noticing what I wear and what I don’t wear,” she sighed and allowed the hot water to caress her.

“Now that is not true, little kitten. Anything you do affects us,” Barry said, stepping into the shower behind her.

“What the...” She jumped and slipped, but didn’t fall to ground as Barry wrapped his arms around her.

“Easy kitten.” He leaned down and kissed her lips softly. “I thought I could share the water with you since I haven’t had my shower yet and I wanted to personally thank you for sharing information.” Barry lowered his head and covered her mouth with his and once more her body trembled against his.

Not wanting to fall, as her excuse, Betsy wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight as his kiss filled her with warmth, wanting, and something that was totally new to her.

“It’s called love, kitten. It’s called love.” He framed her face and kissed her nose. “Let’s get cleaned up. Orion and Davis can only keep my mother busy for so long before she’ll bust in her demanding to meet you.” Barry teased and proceeded to clean her body head to toe, refusing to allow her to do it herself.

She tried to grab the sponge from him but he swatted her hand away, shocking her and scaring her so bad she jumped out of the shower and backed away from him.

“Shit, kitten, look at me,” Barry said turning off the water and stepping out of the shower, but not moving any further.

“You hit me,” she accused him.

“Sweetie, I was playing. I’m so sorry I scared you. I would never hit you. None of us would, and if one of us did, the others would deal with that person. But kitten, you do know some woman like to be spanked. It excites them sexually. I’m sure you noticed that at the club the other night?”

Betsy took a deep breath and released the doorknob behind her back. “I’m sorry for over-reacting and yes, I know about it.” She looked up at Barry. “But I don’t know if I could be like that.” She grabbed the towel on the rack. “I’m sorry for being such a pain.” She mumbled as she bent and wrapped a towel around her long hair.

“Never apologize for being frightened. In time I hope you will trust us enough so we can show you the many ways of loving.” As soon as she straightened up, he took the other towel he had and started to dry her, even to the point of lifting each breast and drying it carefully and kissing Drang’s personal mark on her breast.