Storm Season (4 page)

Yeah.
Tobias glanced at Darius and then looked into Jasper’s eyes.
I can, um, fix that if you want.

“Fix…?” The touch in Jasper’s mind changed before he could finish asking the question, the light buzzing changing to a gentle pressure that relaxed tense muscles and pushed the ache from his head. His head fell forward and he let out a deep breath as even tension he hadn’t been aware of released.

The pressure eased, again replaced by the light buzzing.
Better?

Slowly, Jasper lifted his head. The room was no longer spinning, the sounds of the barn no longer driving stakes into his skull. “Much.” He rubbed the back of his neck, half convinced he could feel a difference in the muscles. “Thank you.”

I’d, um… I’d help him too, but I, uh, don’t think he’ll let me touch him.

Jasper followed Tobias’s gaze. Darius had dropped to sit on the floor, one hand pinching the bridge of his nose, the other rubbing the back of his neck. He dropped his hands as he looked up at Jasper. “You all right?”

“Yeah.” His eyes flicked back to Tobias. “He says he’s sorry.”

“Lot of good that does, doesn’t it? My head’s going to hurt for three thunderin’ days.”

“He can fix it, if you let him.”

Darius looked skeptical. “And what does it involve? If he’s going into my brain again, tell him no thanks.”

“He can hear you, you know. He just… doesn’t talk.”

“Right. He just reaches in and scrambles your brain without bothering to take it out of your head first. Delightful lad, he is.”

He was, but not in the way Darius meant. Since Tobias had arrived, Jasper had discovered the mysterious not-boy had an engaging sense of humor and a smile that left Jasper defending an almost stranger to his closest friend. “He said he was sorry.”

“Not so I could hear.”

“You don’t want him to touch you!”

“So?” Even with a pounding headache, Darius was a master at exasperating his friend. Given the chance, he’d push every one of Jasper’s buttons.

“Oh for the love of sun!” Jasper threw his hands up in the air. “Stop being such a child! Suffer, if you want. I don’t care.”

The corners of Darius’s mouth twitched. “Don’t you?”

“No.” It wasn’t a very believable lie, but he kept a straight face until he’d climbed to his feet and started out of the barn. “If you want to unload the truck with a migraine, I won’t stop you.”

Jasper brought the next load in by himself while Tobias worked his magic on Darius’s head.

A
SCRATCHING
at the kitchen door made Jasper look up from the dishes, but it was gone before he had rinsed his hands, and he pushed it out of mind. No one would be out this late, not with the howling wind, rumbling thunder, and rain only moments away. Likely it was just a branch blown free from a tree. Nothing to worry about, not when he wanted to finish cleaning up and join his guest in the safe room.

It came again as he was drying the last plate, and he frowned. The animals were secure in the barn. Tobias was upstairs, where he’d retreated immediately after dinner, leaving Jasper alone with Darius and Carla. Both of his friends had overcome their initial wariness of Jasper’s guest, but there was no easy, pain-free way for Tobias to talk to three of them at once, and dinner conversation had been awkward. But Darius and Carla had left over an hour ago, heading out early to beat the storms, and would by now be safe in their own home.

There was no reason to go to the door, to open it to the elements, but the scratching continued, audible now over the wailing wind between rolls of thunder. The door was open before Jasper had truly thought about what he was doing.

A large black dog bounded through the door, barking and jumping, nails clicking on the tiled floor, and his muddy paws leaving wet smears on Jasper’s shirt.

“Down!” Jasper struggled through an armful of dog to push the door shut before the wind did any damage to the kitchen. It clicked and he snapped the lock as the dog, whimpering, pushed at his hand with a wet nose. Jasper took the animal’s head in his hands and fumbled for a collar. “What do you want, hmm? Where did you come from?”

The dog didn’t answer. Instead it licked Jasper’s arm with a sloppy tongue and bounded farther into the house, yapping excitedly. The dog darted around the table, sniffing under every chair and barking at Jasper every time he looked up.

Jasper scrambled after him. “Down!” he shouted as the dog climbed onto the table. At least the animal knew that one, though he stayed as far from Jasper as he could as he climbed off and headed to explore the next room. “Stop!”

The dog didn’t know that one, or didn’t choose to acknowledge it, which Jasper personally thought was more likely. It was hard to stop the animal without knowing its name or anything else about it, including where it came from, how it got to Jasper’s house, and if anyone was looking for it.

“Stop!” he tried again, futilely attempting to prevent a wagging tail from knocking knickknacks off the coffee table. A wooden bowl and two hand-carved figurines tumbled to the floor. Jasper winced at the clatter as they struck, but no pieces shot off and, in the brief second he could spare to look at them, they appeared unbroken.

He had to catch the dog.

It was headed back to the kitchen, no doubt determined to do some destruction there, when there was a squeak on the steps that caught both their attention. Jasper tried to grab the dog while it was distracted, but as soon as Tobias entered the room it bounded into his arms, knocking him back to sit on the steps.

Kyree!

The word cut straight into Jasper’s skull, sending him to his knees as a blinding light flashed behind his eyes. From the constant stream of mental praise and babble, it was obvious Tobias knew the dog, but none of the words piercing Jasper’s pain-fogged brain answered any of his questions.

Good girl! Good Kyree dog! How’d you find me, girl?

“Tobias….” Jasper moaned. This had to stop. He couldn’t see. He could hardly breathe. The dog’s tail was thumping against the floor, accentuating the pain in Jasper’s head until he was on the verge of passing out. He had to tell Tobias….

Man and dog were suddenly right in front of him, and a gentle touch eased the pain in his head and neck.
Sorry.

“It’s… thanks.” He wouldn’t say it was okay. It wasn’t okay. “Who’s the dog?”

Lithe fingers twitched against Jasper’s neck.
Kyree. Her name is Kyree.
Tobias paused, rubbing the back of his own neck with his free hand.
She’s, um, she’s my dog. I lost her when I, um, while I, uh… before I got here.

He pulled his hand back swiftly, leaving Jasper with too many unanswered questions. When, while, what? What had Tobias been doing before Jasper found him? Why had he come here? Why didn’t he talk about it and why didn’t Jasper ever think to ask? How had the dog found them?

A wet tongue lapped at Jasper’s cheek, bringing him back to the present. Two sets of brown eyes peered beseechingly at him, remarkably similar expressions on the vastly different faces. There was no getting around it. “Why,” he asked, not wanting or expecting an answer, “do I keep taking in strays?”

The expression on Tobias’s face meant more than the light,
Thank you,
he conveyed with a brush of his fingers.

T
HE
dog adapted remarkably quickly, seemingly just as happy as her master to cower from the storms in the relative safety of Jasper’s secure room. The tiny area was getting crowded―it had been designed for one, two in a pinch, and now it housed two plus a dog with a tail that never stopped wagging.

It thumped against the bed, the wall, the floor, the closet door, anywhere Kyree sat or stood―and she moved all the time. Jasper checked the monitors and tried to settle down, but every time he’d almost drifted off, the dog would move and the tempo of the thumping would change, drawing his attention to it once more. It was too much, too loud, too crowded, too close. He couldn’t stay.

He couldn’t go, either. The storms were bad―the worst so far this year―and they’d reached the level where it was dangerous to stay near the thick glass windows. They’d held through the entire previous year, but they would shatter eventually, and Jasper didn’t want to be in the room when it happened.

He glared at the dog, glared at the monitor, glared through the ceiling at the storm raging outside, glared at the slender form watching him through the shadows as it crouched before the dog and stroked the animal’s back. Darius and Carla were right. This was crazy. He was mad to have taken in Tobias, madder still to have accepted the dog. And now the two of them would drive him insane.

Perhaps they’d have him committed, locked away in a safe place forever, and take the ranch. Clearly, it had been the plan all along. The dog was the masterful bit. Thump, thump, thump. Who would suspect her of anything but enthusiasm? Thump thump―

The noise stopped with a suddenness that jerked Jasper upright. Kyree had simply laid down, her head on her paws and her tail wrapped around her back leg. “Hailstones, dog,” he muttered as he let himself fall back to the mattress. The silence was almost as disconcerting as the noise.

Warm fingers gently brushed his arm.
Sorry. She’s excited. She’ll stay quiet now, though.

That was a relief, but not the point. “How….”

I asked her to. She says she’ll try. She didn’t know wagging her tail was bothering you.

The dog didn’t know… and now she did. This was getting weirder by the minute. “You talked to her?”

Nodding, Tobias settled down on the bed and found Jasper’s skin again, this time his fingers lightly touching the back of Jasper’s hand. “Is that how she found you?”

I can’t talk to her—to anyone—over long distances.
There was an almost-familiar pressure in Jasper’s head, and he forgot where his questions had been leading.

K
YREE
took to the barn as easily as the house, sniffing the horses, making friends with the goat, and giving the kittens “baths” that, amazingly, the mother cat tolerated. By the time they went inside, she’d marked half the yard as hers, claimed a blanket to sleep on, and eaten more food than Jasper and Tobias combined.

Dog food went at the top of the new grocery list, underlined several times. With luck, they’d make it into town once more at the end of the week, but that would be it until the wet was over. The windows rattled later in the morning and earlier in the evening every day. Within a week, clear skies would only prevail for an hour or two a day, and within two, the sun would be gone for at least a month. The last thing Jasper needed was for the dog―or Tobias―to eat all of his valuable supplies.

By the end of the day, Kyree had calmed significantly and Jasper found himself idly petting her when she walked by. The dog fit in as well as her master, blending into Jasper’s life with an ease that was disconcerting if he thought about it. He’d only known Tobias for a week, and it seemed like forever.

When they settled in for the night, Jasper wasn’t worried the dog would keep him awake, and Kyree found her blanket and lay right down. It was Tobias who had trouble relaxing.

He paced the room, driving Jasper mad with every footstep and restless movement. His hands twitched, then rubbed the back of his neck or fumbled with his shirt hem. His pace increased, getting faster and faster until Jasper grabbed his hand as he walked by. He jerked when he stopped, his eyes curious and his muscles tense.

“What’s wrong?”

Someone’s coming.

It seemed an odd thing to have Tobias so worked up. Whoever it was would hardly be arriving before morning. No one in their right mind would be outside with the storms as close as they were. “Who? When?” What was so distressing about these people?

Brown curls flopped as Tobias rapidly shook his head.
I don’t know! Soon! Tonight!
He tugged his hand free and resumed pacing.

This time when Jasper caught Tobias’s arm, he tugged until the other man sat on the bed next to him. “No one is coming tonight, Tobias.”

Yes! Yes they are! They’ll be here soon and we can’t let them in!

Anyone caught out in the storms would be offered shelter if they made it to a dwelling. It was how things worked, the social code of society, and if Jasper turned anyone away, whatever happened to them would be on his head―morally and legally. “We can’t―” he started, but was cut off by a violent shake of Tobias’s head.

No! They’re not looking for shelter! They’re looking… they want….

“What do they want?” Jasper prompted after a moment of complete silence.

I don’t know.
Even in Jasper’s head, Tobias sounded defeated.
I just know they’re coming tonight and they don’t want shelter. I can’t tell anything else, even when I try.

The question “Try what?” flashed across Jasper’s mind, but he pushed it aside. Tobias hadn’t been aware of Darius or Carla’s impending arrival either time they’d visited, nor had he been aware of the dog until the mutt was in Jasper’s kitchen. “How do you know they’re coming?”