Joseph: Bentley Legacy (15 page)

“They said that you are older than some of them.” Myra nodded, not sure what the stones had said to her, but the child was smiling now. “I need for you to help me. I want…you have to know that my sister is stronger than any of us, as I have said, but something is coming for her, and I want to make sure she’s prepared for it.”

“She will be.” Angel had nodded and lifted the small moonstone out of the case. When she put it out to her, Myra didn’t even reach for it.

“It says that it belongs to you. She’s missed you.” Myra nodded and put out her hand. When the beautiful blue and white stone was put into her hand, Myra knew that this woman was strong too. Stronger than her. “I won’t hurt you, but you’ll never tell anyone, not even Chris, where I am. She might know, but she will come here and that would wake things in her that she can’t have awaken yet.”

“I won’t tell her. But are you sure that she’ll know to come here? And when she gets here, will you be able to help her?” Angel had shaken her head. “I don’t understand.”

“I won’t be around when she comes here. And I’ve found a way for her to know where this is when the time is right.” Myra had only nodded. “You’ll see. Chris is the one that will bring magic to its knees.”

~~~

The next morning, Myra was at the house when Chris and Joey came down. They had slept well, anyone could see that, but she also knew that they were at peace too. The thing in the barn would be the first thing they dealt with today, then on to the lair of Angel. It was going to take a lot out of the couple, but they were strong enough now to deal with it.

The guard that had been there since the beginning handed Joey the knife. The bands around the box had never been cut until now, and it was hard for him to get them loosened. Chris told him to use his magic, and he only stared at her. By putting her hand over his, the bands came off quickly, and then she stepped back.

The safe inside of the crate was huge, and taped to the front of it was a big envelope. Myra stayed back as the three brothers, Nolan, Bruke, and Micah, helped pull the padding away. The rest of the family had gathered as well.

Joey opened the envelope and read the contents before handing it to Chris. She looked at the pack of wolves that stood nearby. The man that stood with them was a shifter too, but he was the only one that was in human form.

“It says that you belong to him now. That he’s your….” She looked at the papers in her hand before talking to the man standing there. “That Joey is your alpha. How can that be? He’s a cat.”

“And Emmett was a vampire, yet we served him until his death. He told me that he had picked a man to watch over us, guide us. I knew it was him and you that were our alphas when I met you in the woods.” Chris asked him what he meant by her being the alpha. “As his mate, you are as much our leader as Joey is. We serve you.”

The wolves lay on their backs and exposed their bellies to them. Myra told them that this was a sign of giving themselves over. Joey told her that he might have known that but thanked her. Myra watched as Joey went to the man.

“Welcome to my family, Drew.”

Drew nodded and then looked at the box that had been given to him when he’d first arrived. “I cannot thank you enough for this. It was…when I asked for it, I was told that there was nothing to give me. I’m grateful for this little piece of my son.”

Chris told him she wished she could have done more, but Drew backed away. It was time to open the safe.

The guard handed them the combination. If he had a name, no one had ever heard it so far as Myra knew. And the moment that Joey had it, the man as well as the other guards simply disappeared. Apparently their duty was complete now. The instructions were read on how to open it.

“Your mate, should you have one, will turn the dial first. Then you will, my friend. After that, you will turn the dial the third time, and her the last. Be aware that the door will open on its own should you do this correctly. If you have not yet found yourself a mate, then open this with your lovely mother. She will benefit anyway, but the magic will only be opened by two people who love each other very much.” Joey and Chris moved to the large dial.

No one could see the numbers as the dial was moved. The ticking of it, the sound of the tumblers, was heard by them all, but no one moved to see what they were doing. As the two of them stepped back, the feeling of her magic poured from it, and she knew in that moment that the old vampire had done the impossible. He’d given all those present immortality without a single bite from him. She wondered if the old poop would let them know what he’d done to them.

There was a shield in front of whatever the safe held, and yet another envelope. Joey read it then again handed it to Chris. They were both laughing when they turned to the people with them. Joey told Chris to tell them what he’d said. Joey, she noticed, was dealing with so much pain of the loss of his friend that he’d turned his back on them again for a few moments.

“I’m going to read this to you. Some of its…well, he’s going to piss a lot of you off, I think. But here goes.” Chris cleared her throat. “Hello, my dearest boy. You have this because I have moved on or, sadly, I am dead. I do hope that I have gone quickly, but I think with my age and meanness that haunts me still, it will not be an easy death. I am sorry that I could not be with you during this time. But if I were, you’d have no reason to be reading this. I have given you the gift that will last a lifetime. For several of them as a matter of fact. All of you present during the opening of my gift to you will live as long as you wish. I have gifted you with immortality.”

“Excuse me?” Micah stepped forward, his little girls in the stroller in front of him. “What do you mean, the gift of immortality? What if I don’t want to live forever? Did he even take that into consideration?”

“I’m not sure what he took into consideration. But you have it to deal with it.” Joey took the letter from Chris and continued reading. “I have left you this to keep you in a lifestyle that I hope you will enjoy. I started to save my money when I first was turned, in the event that someday I might buy myself an island and live there. The money that you will see in this is what I might have spent on food had I needed it, power of light when it became available and I never used, and also the cars that I didn’t purchase, the gas I never used, and the tires that I had no use for. This, I leave for you and yours.”

Joey went back to the safe and pulled down the protective covering. Inside it were small envelopes, large ones too. Bags of gems and other jewels. There were deeds to properties all over the world.

“How much?” Joey turned to Myra and asked the question again. “You know, don’t you? How much is this worth?”

But she didn’t answer him. Chris did. And when she told him, even Micah was amazed. There was more in this one safe than all the money in all the banks in this state alone. There were billions upon billions worth of cash and jewels. Not counting the property, she told him, they were set for the rest of their lives and then some.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with all this? I mean, this is more…this is just too much.” Chris nodded and told him they’d be able to help so many, and that was when Myra took her leave of them. They were going to be just fine, the lot of them.

Chapter 15

The trip to the warehouse near the house where she’d lived wasn’t long. She was nervous about it, still hating to fly, but with Joey next to her, it wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d thought it would be. As soon as they were in the air, he dismissed the staff and took off his seat belt.

“I’m going to show you how to fly.” Chris thought for sure he was going to take her to the cockpit, and there was no way that was going to happen. But when he sat down on his knees in front of her and pulled her to the edge of the seat, she felt her body respond to his nearness. “We can do this here or in the bedroom in the back. I’d rather be in here, but it’s up to you.”

“What are you going to do to me?” His grin had her panties soaked. “Someone could see us. We can’t do this now.”

“Oh, but we can. And we will. Try not to scream too much. We don’t want the pilot to come and see what we’re about.” Her skirt was pulled up over her hips with her help. Then he ran his hand up under her blouse. “I’m going to eat you. And when I’m done, I’m going to fuck you right here on this floor.”

Her legs were pulled open, and he slid his finger into her. She was riding his hand, feeling her body heat up, when he leaned into her ear and told her that when she came, he was going to bite her on the leg.

“Yes, please.” Joey moved so that his mouth was only inches from her pussy, and she raised her hips up for him. His soft chuckle had her curling her fingers into his hair and pulling him to her. She needed him right now.

As soon as his warm breath touched against her exposed clit, she cried out, and then he sucked her into his mouth, and she came twice before he lifted his head and looked at her.

“I’m not finished, but I need you on the floor. I want you to come with my cat fucking you with his tongue.” She was on the floor before she could tell him she wasn’t sure this was the place for that. And when he shifted, his large cat stilling between her open thighs, she nearly screamed when he lapped at her clit hard, his tongue pressing against her until she thought she was going to pass out, the pleasure was so great.

His tongue entered her, seemed to touch her in places that set her heart to racing and her wanting more. But each time she was close, her body ready to explode, he moved to her clit again and a new pleasure was hers. Chris was begging him to end her torment by then, her body covered in a sheen of sweat that made her hands sliding over her bare breasts feel wonderful. Her nipples ached to be sucked, and tugging on them didn’t give her what she needed. Finally she commanded him to take her, to give her what she needed.

The lick along her thigh had her crying out, not from pain but pure pleasure. And when his teeth sank into her, biting her hard enough that she thought she’d be sick from it, he lifted his head just when she was going to tell him it was enough. His shift from cat to man was flawless. He entered her in one fluid motion. Then he stilled above her.

“You’re in heat.” Chris had no idea what that meant so asked him. “You can have a child if we wish it…if you wish it.”

“Now? I mean, you can know that?” He nodded and her body responded to his slow moment inside of her. “Please, stop and tell me what you want.”

“You. I want you right now. And I want to see you swollen with our child.” He moved again, bringing a shiver of need over her. “If I come in you right now, there’s a good chance that you’ll conceive. If I stop now, then we can wait until the next cycle.”

He moved again, and his cock seemed to swell inside of her. Her mind wanted him to slow down, to think this through, but her body, the master of her it seemed at the moment, told her to shut the hell up and let him fill her. Wrapping her feet over his thighs, riding upward when he moved down, she told him to fill her. Give her a child.

He pounded her hard now. His cock seemed to fill even more, and her body, ready to receive him, seemed to open wider, tighten around him as if needing to take all of him into her. When he took her breast into his mouth and chewed on just the hard peak, she held him, knowing that she was going to fly away as soon as she came.

When her release came, it was as if everything within her and around them paused. The air that moved around them, the small specks of dust in the air floated slower, even the breath she held, her heart beats, all of it seemed to have been waiting for the moment that he came and brought her with him. And then it happened. They were tossed over the edge of their mutual release in the exact moment, and she knew that a child was there. Joey gave her what no other would ever give her, the gift of another life.

As Joey dropped on her, Chris closed her eyes. It was too much. All the colors in the room seemed to have brightened to a degree that her eyes hurt. Every sound in the tiny room, from Joey’s breathing to her own beating heart, seemed to have amplified in that moment. And when he lifted his head and looked down at her, Chris knew the true meaning of the world love.

“I love you.” He kissed her gently on the mouth with a hunger that she knew was love. And when he lifted his head from her this time, he rolled them to his back, taking her with him. Chris thought she could sleep this way for the rest of her days.

“I love you very much. I want you to know that I really do want a child with you. I should have asked you before I was inside of you.” Chris smiled at him and told him he wasn’t getting off that easy. “Yeah, I didn’t think so. But I promise to make it up to you. If we didn’t make a baby right now, when we get to the hotel, we’ll try again. Harder.”

The pilot said they were twenty minutes from landing. Joey gathered their clothing, and as they dressed he asked her what she thought they’d find where they were going. She told him she had no idea.

“I’ve not even thought of the place in years. Angel and I used to go there, this big warehouse, when we got out of school. At first it was a way to get away from our dad. He wasn’t abusive to us, but he was to Mom. While she worked, we’d go there and play. Sometimes coming home after she was already there.” She grinned then. “I think she knew what we were doing, staying away until she was there. We just didn’t care for our father at all.”

“And your sister wanted you to go there and find whatever it was she left you. Do you think it’ll still be there after all this time?” Chris had no idea why, but she felt that her sister would have put it out in plain sight for her and no one else. She told Joey this. “So she would have used magic to hide it for you.”

“Yes. Angel was…she was very powerful. I think, and I know that this sounds crazy, but I think she was always trying to protect me. Not just when we were together, but even when we were separated. I could feel her there, guiding me in the right direction when I seemed lost.”

Joey nodded. “My dad too. Whenever I feel like I’m going to fuck up, I can hear his voice telling me to stop listening to whoever was trying to get me into a mess and listen to my head. It was always right.” They were seated when he continued. “You would have loved him. And he would have been over the moon with you and Reggie.”

“I wish I could have known him. But your mom swears that all I need to do is look at the six of you and there he is. Not in looks so much, she said, but in personality and the way you guys work. She said that Micah looks the most like him, but the rest of you have traits of him as well.”

They landed a few minutes later. It had been so long it seemed since she’d been here, when it had only been a month and a half. So much had changed in that time and it was all for the good. As the limo took them to their destination, she thought of the time when Angel had told her about the place.

“It calls to me. I’m going to own it someday too.” Angel had been all of ten and Chris, nine when she’d said that. “And when I own it, I’m going to make it into a magical place where children can come and play. No big people would be allowed.”

“How will the kids get here if not for the big people?” Angel told her she didn’t know but they’d know to come there.

Chris decided to make such a place when they got home. Maybe not where the adults couldn’t come in, but it would be a place where children, sick children, could think of it as being magical. And to some it would be. She asked Joey about it.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea. I know that there are some empty houses near the downtown area. Not far from the hospital as a matter of fact.” The car came to a smooth stop. “Are you ready for this?”

“Yes. No. I’m not sure.” He didn’t push her, which she was grateful for. “What could she have left me? I only wish she was here. That would be all I ever needed.”

“Let’s go and see. If it’s something too painful for you, then we’ll just leave. As you said, there is very little else she can leave you other than her being here.” Joey moved to the door, and she slid out with him.

~~~

Joey wanted to shelter her from any more pain. It had been a hard few months for her, and he was worried that this wasn’t going to help. Allen was going to be back in a few days. He’d been working on finishing up his mom’s estate with the new will. He’d decided to stay in her home, for now he’d told them. Just to give the two of them some privacy. Joey thought the man felt a little left out, what with his overly loud family. They would make sure he felt welcome when he came back.

The building looked like any other warehouse that he’d seen. There were broken windows on the lower level and a few on the upper ones. But what really surprised him was the new roof. But when he touched the door to open it, the entire building changed.

“Her magic.” Joey nodded, thinking that if she could do this and be a lesser witch than her sister, he was going to be a little concerned when Chris came into her own. “She’s made it so that you can only see what she wants you to see. The windows aren’t broken in this view, and the walls are painted. How much you want to bet that Myra helped with the paint job?”

It looked like someone had gotten a great deal on some very bright and colorful paint but didn’t really plan on how it was to go on the building. Or maybe they had. It looked like they’d taken the cans of paint and simply dropped them from a helicopter. But instead of looking gaudy or weird, it suited the big building. As soon as they moved into the building, he could see more of her magic.

She had made her place for children.

There was color in here too, but it was more balanced, there were great paintings of animals in play, balloons that were in flight, as well as butterflies. The colors were bright, happy, and would make even the most ill child smile. He walked around with Chris, holding her hand as she pointed out different things that caught her eye.

Hanging from the roof above them were streamers and stars and other things dangling from wires. Well above his head, he could see that time had been taken with each one, so that no one would be harmed by them. There were large areas covered with rugs and pillows partitioned off with folding walls. Everywhere you looked there were shelves with books on them. And stuffed animals of every kind lying atop them. In the center of the room was a table; it had a light hanging down so that it shone on a laptop. They made their way to this.

Chris sat down at the chair and then booted up the computer. As they waited, Joey looked around. He realized then what this place was.

“It’s being used.” Chris nodded. “I wonder how long she’s had this going. I mean, someone is watching it for her. So I wonder how long she’s had this up and running.”

The computer started up, and a small sticky note told them where to go. The password was Angel’s middle name. After Chris typed in the word Carolyn, the computer came to life. There was a video to run, and they both could see who Chris said was her sister. Chris pressed the enter key so that it would begin.

“I’ve had this set up in the event that I’m killed. I know that going to work for these people will be dangerous, but things must go in the order that has been set before you can be what you are. You see, I’ve been able to see what you will become, and I wanted to tell you how very proud of you I am.” There was a slight pause, and Angel smiled. “I don’t want to die. I…I’m such a sap. Hang on.”

The video was paused, and then it moved again. Angel was in a different shirt, and the room she was in was darker now, as if some time had passed. She smiled again before beginning.

“Okay, no more talk about dying today. I’ve eighty-five people helping with this project that you’re currently standing in. They come in daily and set up the kitchen that will feed the children breakfast and then again for lunch. We don’t have the funds yet to supply dinner but…. Anyway. We have over a hundred kids that come in for play time here. They can do what they want and the place is safeguarded against anyone that will try to harm them. You’d be surprised how many people have been turned away by the magic because of their true self.” She looked away, then looked into the camera again. “I’d ask that you try to keep this up and running for them. I have some things for you to sell if your funding doesn’t cover this. They’re my little stones. Myra will buy some of them. She’s expressed a desire to have the moonstones. There are any number of people that will want some of them as well. Then there are the ones that I have made just for you.”

The camera panned to a large table, and even before the camera focused on them and not Angel any longer, he could see that there was a great many of them. Angel picked one of them up before continuing.

“This is a moonstone that has been enhanced. I got to be pretty good at it and would make them magical to only the person who holds them. Anyone else…well, they’re just pretty rocks. There is a number on the back of each of them. If you could see if the person still wants them, their names are in this book here.” The book was shown, then it was put into the drawer beneath the table. “If you can’t do this, that’s fine too. I know that you and that husband of yours will be extremely happy and will live a very long time. I helped Emmett work his magic to give to you as well. I’m not sure what plans he had for it, but there you have it.”