Clayton's Jade (Runes Stone Series) (6 page)

“No problem, I will be working in my lab.  I will lock myself in and blare the music.  When I do that I am in my own little world.”  That was her time.  When she went into the lab she forgot the rest of the world.  “Be careful and listen to Brad when it comes to the tide pools.  He really does know what he’s talking about.  I will see you when you get back.”  Grabbing a bottle of water she headed to her lab. 

He made sure the doors were locked on his way out the door.

CHAPTER 6

The tide was coming in as he climbed down the steep incline to Pebble Beach.  Waves crashed the beach and the surrounding rocks.  He sensed something was not right.   Someone was lying on the beach.  It was Brad.   He did not seem to be moving.    His eyes   scanned the area for movement.  At the beach area close to the tide pools he saw a man headed towards Brad.  The person looked to be a man of about medium build.  He did not have a shirt on and looked to be coved in tattoos. In his right hand he gripped something.  When the light hit it he could see it was a blade.  At least it was still light out. The reddish tint to the sky indicates that he would lose that in a half an hour.

A closer look at the terrain he saw what he had to work with and it did not look promising.  If he had to fight that person out there to protect Brad it was going to be hard.  Water, rocks, and waves did not make it a good area for a fight.  Some of the plants such as seaweed, sea anemones, and sea grasses would make it slippery.  There were also animals that could hurt him, barnacles and sea urchins were just a couple of the many creatures that lived in the tide pools.  Medium rocks surrounded pools of water.  In the deeper water there were larger rocks jutting out.  The beach consisted of pebble type gravel that ended at a cliff rising straight up.  There was one easy way onto the beach and he had just used it, the rest you had to climb down.  The seagulls were flying out around the last two rocks that he could see before it became just water.

Why would they want to kill Brad?  He was brand new to what was going on around him.  It didn’t make any sense unless they knew something that he didn’t.  If that was the case he would be having a long conversion with Odin when this was over.  He could feel the rage building up in him the more he thought about it.  He couldn’t let out the berserker this time though.  He had to keep his head straight.   His left hand skimmed over the dagger tattoo on his right shoulder and he willed it into his grasp.  He felt the weight of the dagger in his hand. It didn’t matter if it was small or large the cold weight of the blade felt right in his hand. He could hear the tattoo man yelling.

“Come here little seal so I can finish this.” The man scanned the beach until his eyes caught brads unconscious form lying in the sand. “Ah there he is.” The man muttered to himself. “This is going to be easy.”

Clayton hurried over to one of the large rocks he had seen. He hoped that as his feet hit the tide pools that is did not make a loud noise.  He crouched down, the dagger ready to plunge into the tattoo man.

When his adversary was in reach Clayton thrust the cold steel into him.  He heard a scraping sound as it sank into the tattoo man.  The dagger had brushed one of the many piercings adorning his body. As he pulled the dagger out, he realized that while it was in fact a deep wound, it was not quite fatal.  The opponent turned.  As he advanced, Clayton stumbled backwards as he tried to regroup.  Blood poured out of the wound as the tattoo man kept coming at him.

“Why hurt him?” Clayton eyed the overly muscled man trying to figure out his next move.

“I was told to. Now I get two for one.”  As the tattoo man stepped forward Clayton stepped back.   The man was pure evil. Clayton could feel it rolling off him in waves.

“I don’t think so.  My dagger tasted your blood first.” This dude was cocky, and cocky people always made mistakes.  

“Let’s finish this.  I have two rune stones to collect.” His opponent gripped the shadow knife.  The knife slashed at him.  Clayton arched backwards.   The knife sl
iced, and fire raced through Clayton’s chest.  Blood soaked his tee-shirt. Then he straightened up, and leaned forward, just close enough for his dagger to rip across tattoo man’s thighs.

Clayton
felt water drip from the tip of the knife as it cut through the air.  As he stood back up he stumbled back to avoid the next pass of the enemy’s weapon.  His own dagger slick with blood made it hard to hold.  Clayton’s foot splashed as it sunk into a pool, finding a medium rock that didn’t move, he braced his foot against the rock.  Pain shot through him as a blade pierced his lower rib. He leaned in pushed with one arm and jammed the dagger into the guys shoulder.  Clayton twisted the dagger and yanked it out, letting loose a stigmata of blood as it poured from the wound. Just then, the ground started to shake just as his opponent started to strike.

The rock that Clayton’s
foot was braced against shifted.   He tried to turn as he fell as a head injury would be bad right now.  His opponent had fallen backward and slammed his head against a rock.  Even as he fell he knew someone had bought him a few minutes.  The right jaw, hip, and shoulder took most of the blow as he landed.  That was not a natural event.  Who or what had made that happen Clayton wondered.  With a quick glance at the shoreline he ended up with dust in his eyes.  He blinked his eyes repeatedly to clear them as soon as possible.

When his eyes had cleared, he noticed another section of tide pools. If he could lead the man over there, he wouldn’t have to focus on avoiding Brad so much, and could focus on the fight instead. The guy was up before he realized it so he started to move toward the other section.  It might just give him a chance.  The water felt cold enough to be a slushy without the ice.  By the time he was able to breathe normally, he was in water up to his chest. 

Clayton
could not see the other guy.  It was as if he had disappeared.  Something slick and hard brushed up against his leg.   Sharp knives tore into his thigh.  Pain seared through him causing him to forget he was in the water.

As his head hits the water his eyes open and he sees the great white.  That asshole was a shifter.  Now he was just pissed.  Taking his dagger with everything he had, thrust it into the shark, driving it into the front of the gills.

Blood darkened the water around him.  Whatever he had hit on the shark had been lethal.   He had to get to shore.  As he limped toward Brad, he realized that the wounds on his leg were serious.   He had several other areas that had been split open by the guy’s knife, he would stich then up at home.

Brad was in bad shape by the time he reached him.  With Brad’s labored breathing he knew that help was needed immediately.  Time was running out for him.  Doing the only thing he could think of he closed his eyes and envisioned Vie and thought help.

Vie blinks in right in front of Claytons face.  “Can you help him?  I don’t think that the hospital can help.” He knew that he was cutting the time close, but he didn’t have any other choice.  She had barely had enough time to heal him.

“Yes.  We need to get both of you to the house first.  Then we will fix you up. I don’t know if I will be
able to heal you completely.   No matter what, you will have to stay out of trouble for the next few days.  Do you think you can manage that?”  She looked tired.  Clayton would bet that she had not fully recuperated from healing him last night.

Smirking, he looked at Vie “I will do my best as long as the others do not attack.” The next thing he saw was his bedroom at Kaylee’s home. 

“Kaylee we are going to need clean sheets for the bed.”  Brad’s breathing was getting worse.  He would take a breath then let it out with very long pauses in between each.  She had to start healing him now. “He is bad, I will do what I can for each of them, however you may have to play nurse to them until I can heal them completely.”  This time she placed her hands differently.  One hand on Brad and one hand on Clayton.  She watched as they both started to heal.  Brad was slower to show improvement.  As the wounds started to show on Vie she collapsed to the floor.

Kaylee went over to her and checked her pulse, this was not an easy thing to do considering how tiny Vie was.  It was slow but steady. Picking Vie up being careful not to touch the wounds, she carried her across the hall.  As she was putting her in the bed the wounds that had opened and were dripping blood started to close up enough to stop the bleeding. After making sure that Vie was ok, she went back to the men and checked on them.  Brad still had a ways to go before he would be moving around again.   He was out of danger and that was a relief.  Clayton was healed just enough that he was going to be a pain in her ass.  Right now he was out cold, but she could already read the writing on the wall.  Covering both of them with a blanket she left the room.

What had happened?  This was insane.  She wanted her quiet peaceful life back.  Facing the reality of the situation which really sucked, she started making a list of all the things she was going to need. Then she started to put supplies on the kitchen table.  Dinner was simple grilled fish, mashed potatoes, and carrots.  She could cook that without thinking about it.  

After she had put the potatoes on to boil she went back to the bedrooms to check on everyone.  Once she got to Clayton and Brads room she couldn’t seem to leave.  She felt at ease just watching Clayton sleep.  He was a very complex man and she found herself wanting to find out everything about him.  She was attracted to him physically, but what about the man
on the inside.   That was the question she had to find the answer to.   Turning she walked to the other room, then out to the front room to read for a while.  She had not had that luxury since everything had happened.  It was still too early to grill the fish that only took about ten minutes.  So she sat down with one of her books and began to read.

When the potatoes were almost done she put the fish on the grill then went back in to finish the side dishes.  When everything was ready she dished up a plate for Clayton and herself then went to the bedroom with the food.  She had not bothered to fix a plate for Brad knowing how bad his injuries still were.  He would be out cold for the rest of the night.

Helping to sit Clayton up in bed to eat dinner had not been an easy chore.  At least he was somewhat moving around.  She had been scared to death when she had first seen them.  Vie was still out cold and would be for a while yet.  After dinner she removed the dishes then helped him lie back down.  When she was done, Clayton held onto her hand and looked up at her.  “May I have a kiss goodnight?”  He had such a hopeful look on his face that she couldn’t resist
.
  Leaning down she kissed him lightly on his lips. What she thought would just be a simple kis
s
turned into something more when his hand reached around her neck and pulled her in closer. Opening her mouth to protest ended with his tongue delving into her mouth and dueling with her own.  The taste and feel of him was driving her insane.  Hearing a slight cough brought her back to reality quickly.  Why was he awake?  He should still be in a healing sleep. Tuning a few shades of red she said goodnight and left the room.   She knew that she needed to get over her fear of intimacy if she wanted to be with him.  Going into the front room she turned off the lights as she went.  As she walked past the chair she grabbed the blanket off of it and lay down on the couch to sleep. 

7 CHAPTER NAME

When she woke up the next morning she went to check on the guys to see how they were doing.  She didn’t really expect much change.  She made oatmeal for breakfast for anyone who wanted it.  She really didn’t have much of an appetite.  All she wanted was coffee.  She had a tray and put a two bowls of oatmeal, two glasses of milk, a glass of orange juice, two straws and two cups of coffee.  Then she took it with her into the guy’s room.   She helped Clayton to sit up then sat between the two beds.  She took the glass of milk and put a straw in it then helped Brad to drink it.  She was able to get a few spoonfuls of oatmeal in him but that was it.  It was better than nothing though and it would give him energy during the day that you could use for healing. It was a very slow process.  By the time he had finished the milk she was ready for another cup of coffee and Clayton was done eating. 

She took the tray with all the empties on it back to the kitchen, refilled the coffee and went back down to their room.  She handed Clayton his coffee and went to see Vie with the orange juice.  She didn’t know how Vie was going to drink this but she figured this was a safe bet.  When she got to the bedroom Vie was sitting up.  “I brought this.  I don’t know how to help you drink it but it was the best I could come up with.”

“Thank you, that was very thoughtful.  If you will hold me up to the lip of the glass and put the straw into it, then we will be all set.  I figured that since the guys are stuck in bed you and I get to practice on your new abilities.  If they try to get out of bed you can just freeze them or at least you will be able to by the afternoon. Go get something comfortable to wear because you also have to work on some fighting techniques.”

“I thought I was getting out of that with everything that has happened.”  She was smiling at her as she said it.   She was glad it was Vie that was going to help her and not Clayton.  She knew that if Clayton was training her that her mind was not going to be on fighting.  This was definitely better. She grabbed an old pair of sweet pants and a long t-shirt.  It was white and had a cat with its claws showing and its fur sticking straight out.  At the top of the picture it said STRESSED OUT in bold letters.  It was just one of her many cat shirts.  She just couldn’t help herself.

Going into the bathroom she changed clothes.  When she came back out she picked up Vie and went in to see the guys.  She thought Vie wanted to give them a, you get out of bed and you will die speech.  When they walked into the bedroom, Clayton was trying to get out of bed.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?”  Both Vie and I asked at the same time.

“I ummm needed to relieve myself.”  He had needed to go for a while now.  However he was running into the problem of getting out of bed.  He thought it would be easy enough, but found out it was easier thought than done.  “Could you help me Kaylee?”  He hated to ask for anything, he just didn’t see any other way around it.

“Yes, I will help you get up and get to the bathroom.”  Ok, this was going to be the most embarrassing thing she had ever done.  She was not going to stand in there while he took care of business.  She would wait outside the door and he could yell when he was done.  She sat Vie on the end table and went to help Clayton.  She had to give him credit, he had asked for help.  He didn’t seem like the type that would have asked for it.

She tried to be very careful about where she put her arms.  He would stiffen up if she moved to fast or put her hands in the wrong area.  By the time she got him to the bathroom he was sweating.  That was not a good thing.  “Are you going to be ok in here by yourself?”  She hated asking but she had to. 

“I will be fine.  I will yell when I am done.”  He seemed to be turning a little red in the face from her asking that question.  She shut the door and leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway.  How many times was she going to have to do this today?  Then the other question was how was she going to help Brad?  Life was so not being fair to her lately.  Maybe between her and Vie they could come up with something that would work for him.

She heard running water so he was almost done.  It was another two minutes before she heard him call for her.  When she got in there she realized that he had brushed his teeth while he was in there.  “Let’s get this over with and you back in bed.” 

“Sounds good to me.”  He seemed a little too happy about that.  His eyes scanned over her body.  The way he looked at her made her pulse jump. 

“Alone.  I have to practice on my new ability and some fighting techniques.   You get to recuperate in bed and keep Brad company.”  She had to smile, it made her feel good to know that he wanted her.

“He is not very good company right now.  I guess I could do some work on my computer while you are practicing.  I don’t want anything to happen to you, so get your butt out there and work hard.  I will be checking you out when I feel better.”  He didn’t want to tell her that he would be watching via cameras that were in place. 

“Working on the computer would be a good idea.  That will keep you out of trouble while we are outside.  We will come in every hour and check on you and see if you need anything.”  She bent down and picked up his computer and set it on his lap.  Then she found the power cord in the case and plugged it in for him.  “Ok, you are all set now.”

“Thank you.  Have fun and be careful out there.”  Kaylee picked up Vie and they headed outside to start working on some skills for fighting. She didn’t know if fun was going to be the right word for it.  For the next hour Vie had her ducking, squatting, bending backwards, blocking, jumping, she also learned a few different stances.  When it was time to check on the guys she was ready for a nice cool drink.  As she learned these new moves she realized it was harder than any workout she had done.  Her legs were shaky by the end of the hour and she thought she was in good shape.

She poured three glasses of ice tea and took them down the hall to the guys’ room.  She didn’t know how much she would be able to get into Brad, but some was better than none.  Clayton on the other hand looked like he had been up to something, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.  She handed him one of the glasses then went over to Brad and put a straw into one of the glasses and held the glass close to him.  “Not right now.  Maybe in a little while.  I can’t believe how sore I am.  I am glad that Clayton showed up when he did though.”

He still didn’t look very good, but at least he seemed to be healing.  “Rest is the best thing you can do right now.  When Vie is able to she will heal you some more.  You have to be somewhat healed before you can to shift.  Vie is still recovering from last night, but this evening she should be able to give you another dose.  I d
on’t know what else to call it."  She would be glad when he wasn’t in so much pain. 

“So what are you doing on the computer?  Do you need anything?”  He had everything minimized on his computer so she couldn’t see what he was working on.

“I’m just working on some business stuff.  How about a kiss before you go back out.  Are you working with holding a knife yet?”  He knew that all she had worked on was avoiding getting hit with anything yet.  Though truth be told, until she actually sparred with one of them it wouldn’t really sink in.

Smiling she decide to give him a little tease.  So she leaned down and kissed his forehead.  She made sure it was quick then pulled back out of his reach. “See you in an hour.”

“That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”  He called out as he heard them down the hall. Brad started laughing.  He turned his head and glared at him. “Not funny.”  Pulling up the cam that viewed the back yard he went back to watching her. 

“What are you watching?”  Brad was watching the different reactions on Claytons face as he asked the question.

“Kaylee’s training.  If you don’t tell her I will let you watch.  It’s better than looking at the walls.”  He turned the computer so that Brad could see what Kaylee was learning.  Vie was making her use a knife this time.  This should be interesting to watch.

“You realize when she figures out that you have been watching her you are going to be in big trouble.”  Kaylee had a tendency to get even.

“Let’s just say I owe her one already.” He was not going to give him details.  He was sure the word would get out on its own without any help from him.  So they both settled in to watch her work with a knife.

Out back she was trying to understand how to grip the knife so that she could work with it in an actually fight.  It was not very easy when she was just hitting air.  It was not very practical at all.  She figured it would be easier if she had something to hit.  So she walked towards the trees at the edge of the yard.  She thought if maybe using a tree as a dummy would help.  At least she would hit something solid. 

When she got to the tree, she tried a couple of thrust and swipes.  Vie was telling what she was doing right and wrong the whole time.  In a way it, was annoying, but probably better than what Clayton would do.  She practiced like this for about a half an hour then she stopped to catch her breath for a minute.  Every muscle in her body was hurting.  Muscles that she didn’t realize would hurt were screaming at her.  At least it was almost time for a break.  After this she was done with the physical part and now just had to work on the new mental ability.

She had been hearing a noise while she was out here, but she didn’t know what it was.  Deciding that she was, going to find what it was she let her cat ears detect where the sound was coming from.  A normal human couldn’t hear it, because of how high pitched it was.  When she was just about ready to give up, she looked up into the trees and saw the camera.  Well, now she knew what Clayton had been doing.

“Vie, do you want to have some fun with me?”  She was looking at the ground as she talked.  She didn’t want to take a chance that he could read lips.

“I am always up to some fun.  What’s up?”  She said as they headed back towards the patio. 

Sitting down at the table with her back towards the trees she looked at Vie and told her what she had seen.  “So how can we mess with him?  There has to be something we can do to scare the shit out of him and teach him a lesson for spying on us.” 

“Give me another hour and we can just disappear for a little while.  I know we will get coffee from Starbucks.” Vie suggested.

“There are not any Starbucks around here.” she had heard that it was good coffee.

“Not around here, we will go to Seattle they are on every corner, at least it seems that way.” That was a good idea they could come back with coffee for them but not the guys.  That only seemed fair since it looked like they were having fun watching her practice. 

“Let’s go check on the guys and then we can work on my new ability since it doesn’t affect you.  You know the thought of freezing the guys is sounding better every minute.” As they walked into the house to check on the guys she knew that they had to pretend that they were not on to them.  Somehow she knew that Brad was in on it.

“So how are you guys holding up?”  She wanted to ask them if they would like some popcorn to go with the show but, she refrained from doing so. 

“I think we are both fine.”  Just go back to working out that was fun to watch.  Actually it turned him on and there wasn’t anything he could do about it right now with Brad sharing a room with him. What he really wanted to do was drag her into this bed and feel every sweet inch of her against him. 

“Ok. Well we are going to go work on my new ability.  Maybe I should try it in here first just to see how it works, what do you think Vie?”  Now that was just plain mean. She was proud of herself for thinking of it.

“Nope, don’t want to be a Ginny pig, but thanks for thinking of us. Go outside and freeze some birds and rabbits would you.”  Just the thought of being frozen with a hard on was not a pleasant thought. 

“You are no fun.”  The corners of her mouth turned down in a pout.  It was fake, but everyone knew it.  “Fine we will practice outside.” Walking out the door they went outside so she could practice.  She tried yelling, screaming, and just loud talking nothing seemed to work.

“What am I doing wrong?”  She didn’t freeze anyone the other night, but something had happened both Vie and Clayton had felt it. 

“It might be an emotion trigger.  You were upset the other night so maybe if you were in a high danger level it would happen.  You will just have to keep working on it every day until you find the trigger and then figure out how to keep it so that you can always use it.” Vie made it sound so matter of fact.  Right now there was nothing they could do about it. “So are you ready for some coffee?”

“Hell yes!  Are we close enough to the cameras?”  She wanted to make sure they were in full view of the guys when they did this. 

“Yes.”  Then they were in Seattle.  “Just so you know ordinary people can’t see me.  If you talk to me you will look a little crazy, but then again it is Seattle and it is somewhat expected.  There are a lot of amazing artist that live in the area.”  They had appeared in an empty bathroom stall.  That was a good thing at least no one would see them.   After walking around for a little bit she finally found a Starbucks coffee shop.  She ordered two caramel macchiatos with two shots. She decided that she didn’t want to go back yet.  She had heard about this place that tossed fish and wanted to watch them work.  It sounded kind of interesting.  She stood mesmerized by the workers.  It looked like they were having so much fun interacting with the people that were looking at the fish.  They made it seem like a place where you would want to work.