Elijah: Calhoun Men _ Erotic Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance (9 page)

Doug looked over the paperwork, impressed that they’d been able to put this together on such short notice. “The plant that I have in mind for here would need at the very least two hundred-fifty people to start with. Then more as we gear up. Of course, we’d need to have a training crew come in to help them out. Would there be accommodations for them to stay as well?”

“Baker Bed and Breakfast can hold ten. She’s a widower that had ten children, so it won’t be a hardship on her. Also, TJ is renovating two of the buildings in the downtown area for apartments. Short-term ones for the present.” Noelle pointed out one of the buildings as they drove down the main street. “The larger building will hold, I think he said twenty-two, the smaller building only about six. The space is larger there for families should someone bring them.”

“I thought maybe, when you’re all done with the comings and goings for this place, I’d turn it into a homeless place. Not a shelter, but a place they can come and get a shower, pick up a few items that they need. It’s also gonna be a place where we can get them some training, like on computers and such. Get them back into society.” Doug loved that idea and made a mental note to see about getting some of his people there to train them for the lines at his plant too. TJ continued, and Doug could hear the pride in his voice when he spoke of his sons. “Trent, he’s got a buddy that has one of them tour bus businesses. He’s going to rent us a few of them to get some of the people back and forth to the plant should they need it. A lot of these people have been out of work for some time, and a car isn’t something that they’ve had for a time. Scott has donated some computers that his company is no longer using for them to use for resumes and such. Randle is a teacher, and he’s been talking about an after school program for the kids of the families that get to work. If you move here.”

As soon as the limo stopped and they got out and they were standing in the open field, Doug came to a decision. Really, it had been made when he spoke to Noelle, but seeing the land and the potential, he knew this was perfect. As he made his way around, looking at what he wanted done, he talked to Noelle.

“What can you tell me about the Calhoun family that I might not have already figured out?” She looked back at them, and he realized that they were allowing her to sell them. “You made this deal for them. I’d like to know the family.”

“They’re the best that I’ve ever been around. They pick you up, dust you off when you fall, but they don’t push you into anything. TJ and his wife, Christine, they did well raising them up, making them into men that they could be proud of.” He smiled when she got a sappy smile on her face. “I’m in love with their son, but the entire family has taken me into their hearts, and I like it there. That’s probably not what you’re asking me, but that’s what I feel. And Trent does want this for his community. He’s a good man, a better leader, and a pack master like none other.” She looked up at him then.

“You know what I am.” She nodded. “I’ve known that the others were aware that I’m a cat. Even Jerry is. But you’re human. I wasn’t sure how you felt about that.”

“I don’t care what you are so long as you’re honest and trustworthy.” She stopped walking, and so did he. When he looked at her, he could see something that he’d not before. Determination. “You hurt them or this town, and I will make it my life’s work to make you regret it. I’m not threatening you into bringing your plant here. I think with what we have to offer, people will come anyway. But I’m talking about them personally. I love them and I won’t see them hurt because I got my panties in a twist about someone that works for you.”

Doug laughed. It had been a long time since he’d been impressed with someone that he was working with. Especially one that had put him so nicely in his place. And not only did he want to work with her, he wanted her to come and work for him. She was smart, loyal, and she told it like it was. Something few did when it came to him.

As they made their way back to the others, he knew that this was the site that he’d use. It wouldn’t have mattered to him if some other place was giving him the land. This was where there was going to be heart. And that was what he’d strived for since he’d opened his first plant thirty years ago.

“My wife just contacted me. She said that I’m to bring you back to our place for dinner. It’s family night, and she said that she’s not going to miss it because we have company.” He nodded at TJ. “Mr. West, you’re more than welcome too. In fact, she insisted on it. And so you know, she’s not one to turn down. My wife can be a tad on the fussy side when she makes plans and someone messes with her.”

“I’d be honored. And I’ve been thinking about my boy, Gordon, too. I’m going to let him stew a bit, think he’s pulled one over on me. Then tomorrow when he’s to go to the airport, I’m going to be the one taking him. It’s the very least I can do since he’s done with my company.” He put his hand out to Noelle. “I want to personally thank you for what you did for me. Like Doug here, I have a name that I’d like to keep untarnished. This was a black spot on my company for some time now. And I don’t want you feeling badly because I’m going to fire him. He did that all on his own when he lied to me.”

“He pissed me off, if you want to know the truth. I had been walking around with him for two hours, and all he did was dig at everything I said.” Doug wanted to hug her. She was the freshest thing he’d seen in business dealings. “If you guys go someplace else, that’s fine, but I won’t have someone thinking we’re not what we are, hardworking people with only the best in mind for the people here.”

Doug asked questions about the town as they rode back to the Calhoun home. He found out a great deal about the family, the area, and their plans for it when things were settled about a plant. No one asked him if he was moving here. It was assumed, he thought, that he wasn’t. Doug decided that he liked this family more with every minute he spent with them. And when he pulled up in front of the family home, he could only stare at the house and grounds.

The house was a three story mammoth of a place. Tall white columns held up second and third floor porches. There were rockers, pots of geraniums at each window, and pretty flowers at the railing all the way around. He’d bet anything that there was a pool in the back, as well as a kitchen garden. The place looked like something straight out of the movies. Then Mrs. Calhoun came out of the house, and he smiled. Christ, she looked like a tiny and younger version of his own mother. Only this one would hurt him if he got out of line. His mom spoiled him.

“Mrs. Calhoun.” She took his hand after hugging her sons and husband. “I wanted to thank you for inviting us to dinner. I hope that we’re not intruding.”

“Nonsense. Had I not wanted you here, I would have said so. We’re having steaks on the grill tonight, and some sort of side that I don’t know what it’s about. And apple pie with homemade ice cream. Come along now. Meggie makes the most amazing pies this side of the country. And Joe is gonna whip up some of her biscuits.” As they followed her into the house, she mentioned they had company. “I don’t know what you feel about vampires, Doug, but you make a butt of yourself and I’ll have to kick yours.”

Doug paused on the step. Not that he cared about the vampire, but what she’d said. It was as no-nonsense as he’d come to realize that the entire family did things. Christ, he loved this family. They were all about as honest as it came. As he made his way into the house, Jerry pulled him aside.

“If you don’t put your plant here, you’re a fool. And you should hire that girl to work it in some way. She’s got a hell of a head on her shoulders. If you don’t, then I’m gonna. Christ, she’d be running my business in a week if I don’t miss my bet. And I’d let her. She’s that good.” He told Jerry he’d already been thinking on it. “Good. I don’t think you’d do any better if they paid you to be here, either. This place has it all. Including a family you can work with.”

Doug didn’t think he would find a better place either. And now all he had to do was convince Noelle that she needed him as much as he did her. He might even bring his kids here and let the Calhoun elders whip them into shape. Do them some good too.

Chapter
9

Helenia was sure that she’d never hurt this badly, and felt as if every time she moved, she’d find another place that hurt. Noah was going to pay for this. He’d hurt her and no one got away with that. Not and lived to talk about it.

She could no longer hold her other form. Going out in the daylight didn’t burn her as it did a vampire, but it did weaken her. The sun could help her when she needed a little extra power, but right now it felt like it was cooking her flesh. Holding to the shadows, she tried to keep an eye out for any fool that was looking for her.

When she’d returned to her lair last night to rest and to recuperate, ten men had been there waiting for her. The Board had found her place of rest. She watched them from a distance, trying to decide if she could have taken them all, when she smelled it. Olive oil. They were killing all chances of her ever being able to stay in her lair again.

Olive oil, unknown to most anyone that hunted vampires, and herself included, would kill them. Not just the oils from the nasty fruit, but also the fruit itself. Just one touch to one of them would burn through their flesh to the bone, and then make it so fragile that it would no longer support them. Helenia could not believe that they’d do this to her.

As she watched, her anger getting stronger by the minute, she saw the flame just before it was tossed at her home. It was old and made of wood, so it went up quickly. The red flames ate at the only resting place she’d ever known. The only one that she could ever use.

Helenia wondered if Noah had seen where she lived in her mind and had sent them here to do this to her, knowing, as few did, that without her stone and her soil to replenish her, she’d begin to lose her power. Like the lore of vampires, she did need her home soil to survive. And the large stone she’d been put upon when born.

Helenia thought of how she’d come to be, how her power had come to her, and what rituals had been done to make her as powerful as any other being in the world. Few knew what it had taken to make her what she was, and those were long since dust in the ground. Killing them had been her greatest triumph.

Her mother had been a witch of the darkest path, her father a vampire that had long ago turned rogue. They created her, a babe, and had taken her to the sacrificial altar that they’d fucked on to make her. Even as her body, still damp from her birth, cooled her, they were pulling out the things needed to make her what she was today.

After summoning the demon from the other world, he blessed their blade and what they were about to do. He’d only asked for one thing…their own souls in return for helping them with their child. Then he looked at her, and Helenia knew him for what he was, and what he was going to do for her.

“You will be strong, my child. Your magic as powerful as I can give you. Once you are matured, your body no longer of this earth, I will come to you and give you it all.” Even as a babe newly born, she knew his words and what they would do for her. “I will help them with this, but you will owe me still. A boon that I will collect when you have been destroyed.”

She wanted to tell him that she would never be killed, that destroying her would be impossible. But he moved away, and Helenia had felt calmed by the things that were coming.

The blade was taken by him to finish what her parents had started. He dipped it in his own blood before it was plunged into her heart; the power of it, of his blood and magic, gave her small body so much. Helenia hadn’t screamed, her body accepting of what was to come. And when the blade was pulled from her chest, the blood that had sustained her all those months in her mother’s womb covered the stone she had been on until it was stained with it.

The screams of her parents had sounded like music to her ears. Helenia was sure that they had thought they would be around for a long time, that they would see their creation run the world. But he took them both, killed them, then sent them to hell to serve him. Helenia smiled at the demon when he picked her up from the stone and laid her upon the soil at his feet.

“The ground here will accept you like no one ever will again, save me.” She felt it covering her, the soil as hot as the breath of the demon. “When you are mature, your body ready to come forth, I will brand you as my own and you will be free to do as you please for a period of ten thousand years. After that time, I will come for you, if you are not harmed by anyone in any way.”

Just as the soil was at her neck, the heat of it burning at the flesh she’d been born with and replacing it with something more, he leaned to her once again and spoke. Helenia had forgotten the words he’d said to her until she’d woken after Noah had hurt her.

“A man will come to you. If he should wound you first, then you are finished. Your powers will go to all that surround you and you will wither and be gone if I am not there to take you. You will not die, for you are no longer living. And the power that you have now, it will no longer be yours. Do you understand me, Helenia, my child?” She had no way of answering him, but he seemed to understand that she had said yes. “If you allow this to happen, for this man to harm you, then I will expect you to be my slave, a slave like none other for the rest of eternity and beyond. Do you take this deal?”

Again, she had no way of answering him verbally, but he nodded once and stood. The darkness took her then. The soil cradled her into its depths for one hundred and one years. And when she rose up, her body as it was now, he came to her. The magic that he gifted to her was nothing compared to what she had gained as the years went by, but it had been a good start.

Now not only was she now without her home and her place of rest, but her plans to take over the entire world were put on hold. Moving closer to the buildings that held the most heat, for her body was freezing all the time now, she thought of what she was going to do to Noah when she found him. And find him she would.

Have they found you as yet, Helenia? The Board was most happy that I was able to give them specific directions on not just where to find you, but how to destroy your lair as well.
Noah’s voice made her pause. But it was his laughter that made her anger spiral out of control again.
I would like to tell you about the man that you thought to take as your own. He is safe from you. You will never take from him what you planned.

You think not? Well, I have marked him first, and as such, he is mine.
She laughed when he said nothing.
Can you see what I did to him, Noah? The dreams that I have given him so that he’d be weak when I took him? The way that I tainted his blood? When he is hurt, does he not heal as he should? I have heard that he has no will to have a child. I will have many by him, monsters as I am. They will do my bidding and eat the one that sired them for his blood.

The last time I saw him, which was only a few hours ago, he was hale and hearty. His mind cleared of your dreams and his body as whole as mine. I wonder now if you are as strong as you think you are. I mean, the man has nothing at all wrong with him.
Helenia didn’t believe him and said as much.
You can or not, I don’t care. But I do have to ask when you’re coming here. You are, aren’t you, Helenia? Oh, I so hope so. When you do, you had better be ready. Oh, I just realized that you won’t be as strong as you might have been. Taking that information from you was very helpful.

You think you hurt me by burning my things? I have many houses with many things in them that I care nothing for.
She was sure he didn’t hear her fear. But when he laughed again, she felt her temper take hold of her.
Noah, when I find you I’m going to enjoy killing you. And when I do, I want you to know that I will take my beast with me to my bed and let him create many children with me.

He knows what you are. He also knows that you cannot create anything with him, not even so much as a selfie. You cannot bear a child any more than I can.
She had no idea what a selfie was, but decided that she’d make him create one with her just to prove Noah wrong.
I will enjoy watching him destroy you.

She refused to talk to him any longer. Her temper drained her, and she couldn’t afford to lose any more of her strength sparring with a fool. When he laughed again, telling her where to find him, Helenia used some of her magic and turned herself to air and moved along the current to him. Noah was going to die, and she was going to kill him. It was all she could think about as she was tossed along the air like a bobber in water.

~~~

Elijah was worried. Not about what the small test results gave them, but how she was going to react to them. Noelle was afraid that they’d all shun her or turn her out. And no matter what he said to her, she steadily believed that they would. Myra came into the room just as they were all seated around the big living room. Doug and Jack had left for their hotel not an hour ago.

He was sure that Myra found the most hideous colors and smashed them together into some sort of dress. Tonight she was covered from head to toe in the most brilliant shade of purple he’d ever seen. It was almost neon, but not. Her hair, also purple, hurt the eyes when she moved, and looked as if it had a life of its own. When she winked at him, he was almost afraid to ask her.

“I understand that congratulations are in order.” It took his mind a moment to catch up to what she was saying. While he’d been watching her, her color palate changed from the purple to a green just as blinding. “The plant will be here. It will give the area a much needed boost. So you know, my cat friends, the Bentley men, said to tell you that should you need any help they’d be more than happy to do so. I have told them all about my new friends, the wolves. Micah Bentley, he’s the leader of their leap. He was most pleased that you are doing so well.”

“Tell him that I’ll keep that in mind.” Myra nodded at Trent and sat down. “We were just talking about this test and what it might tell us.”

“It will tell you wondrous things, I think.” She looked at him again. “Elijah, are you taking the job working with Mr. West? I’m to understand that you won’t even have to relocate, that you and Noelle can work for him from here.”

“We have to talk about it together first. We’re not sure. I have a job that I love, and Trent needs Noelle here to help with this plant and things with it. For now, we’re working on this thing with Sterl and Helenia.” Myra nodded, and they all looked at Noah when he appeared in the room. “We’re ready when you are, Noah.”

“Now, as I have said before, this will not only tell me if you are the child of a vampire, but if I know him, I might be able to tell you who he is as well. At the very least, I’ll be able to know if he has passed on or not.” Noelle nodded and held Elijah’s hand tightly in hers. “I promise you, this will not hurt at all.”

“Before you do this, I want to thank you.” Noah asked her for what. “This thing with my stepfamily. Had you not helped me that day, there is no telling what might have happened to me should he have left me by the side of the road. You saved my life, I think.”

“I think you would have done well no matter what else might have happened that day. You’re brave and very smart. And today you were begged by not one but three men to work for them. I knew the moment I met you that you were something special.” Noah looked at Elijah as he continued. “I don’t have to tell you what a precious thing you have here with her. You will take care of her as she deserves, I know this. I’m very proud of you, Elijah.”

“Thank you.”

When Noah pulled her wrist to his mouth, Noelle dug her nails into Elijah’s hand so tightly that he felt the trickle of blood as it raced over his hand. And when Noah lifted his head and leaned back, it was all he could do not to pull his hand from Noelle’s and shake off the pain of it. His dad laughed and patted him on the back.

“You are the child of Roman Gallegos. Roman was a great and powerful vampire, and a man that I called friend. He is, sadly, passed from this world.” Elijah let out a breath he’d been holding. “I do not believe that he knew of you. If he had, I think he might not have met the sun like he did. He was, like a lot of us when we get older, bored with his life, and ended it rather than turn rogue.”

“So I’m part vampire.” Noah nodded and smiled. “I guess my next question to you is, what happens to me now? I mean, can I be changed into a wolf like the rest of the family?”

“I’m not the one that can answer that.” He looked at Myra, who smiled at them all. “She’s been looking into a few things for me. In addition to Helenia, she had a lot of information about this sort of thing as well.”

“Yes, there is no reason that either of you, Joe or you, cannot be converted. However, that being said, I would think on this for a little while. First of all, Joe would be able to be a wolf, but with the power that she received from Noah, she would also be able to shift into other animals as well. And so would Trent. As the alpha, that could be a good thing so long as the pack doesn’t care.” When she looked at them, he knew whatever she said to them wasn’t going to be as easy. “Roman and I were friends as well. He was a kind and generous man, and if he lay with your mother, then he did so out of love, not as a one-night stand. They more than likely came together at a time in his life when he was low and her otherwise committed. He would not have taken her from her life if she had a husband. He ended his life not long after you were conceived. I would imagine, as Noah has said, had he known about you, he would have lived.”