rogue shifter 06 - torn apart (3 page)

"Then his body must be learning how to deal with his bloodlines in combination. The healer and demon are working together. That's probably a good thing, right?"

Liam nodded. "In this instance I have to agree. We'll watch his aura carefully. A compassionate nature can be a disadvantage during wartime. If he takes the pain from someone who is grievously injured, he may not be able to cope."

"He's five years old." I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. "Compassion is a trait I'd never discourage. Let him keep his sweet innocence for as long as he can."

Liam scrutinized me for a moment before speaking. "Will you tell him about his father soon?"

"Garrett is his father." Liam knew better than to continue on this particular subject when I was in stubborn-mode, so he simply shook his head and kept his mouth shut, the two of us agreeing to disagree.

I helped Liam pick up the scraps of paper and ribbon strewn around the patio by the light breeze. Charlie had been so thrilled when he'd opened the package, I wished I'd thought to bring my phone so I could have captured his expression with a photo.

Reaching for the same shredded piece of wrapping paper before it blew away, my gaze locked for a moment with Liam's, bringing forth a smile, relief etched across both of our faces. Witnessing the little guy run off without a care in the world had put our disagreement in perspective.

It had been a difficult and sometimes frightening few years and we'd all had moments when we were convinced that Charlie wouldn't be waking up the next morning. The sun warming my face, I took in a deep breath of wildflower scented air and grinned at my friend. On this perfect September morning, Charlie was a healthy five year old, about to enjoy his first real birthday party. This was going to be a good year for our family.

CHAPTER TWO

After my shower, I joined Liam and Kyle for a light breakfast, the two boys and Farrell having already eaten. Liam had made scrambled eggs and toast and had also put out fresh fruit and OJ, along with coffee.

Kyle poured juice for us as I looked him over. He hadn't bothered to comb his hair, which was still sticking up crazily from Jay's mishandling, a state he would have rectified immediately in the days before Jason came into his life. He was dressed in jeans and a black button down shirt, conservative apparel as far as he was concerned. The tats and piercings were still in place, but there was a calmness about him that didn't exist five years ago. "You've turned into a great Dad. Are you under some sorcerer's spell?" I teased.

"Peter's a natural. I have to work hard at it, but Jay's worth every minute." His dark eyes glittered as we smiled at each other. "Now that your boy's healthy, you're gonna need to be on your toes every minute with that one." He pointed toward Charlie's room. "It's hard enough raising a normal shifter kid, but yours has serious mojo."

"We have plenty of help." I looked at Liam, who smiled back at me before taking a bite of his toast.

While I poured myself a cup of coffee, Kyle swallowed a mouthful of eggs and asked, "Who's comin' to the party tonight? I mean besides the usual crew."

In addition to Kyle, the usual crew included Sash and Rick who lived next door in the "Vamp Villa", Ethan, a cougar shifter and my closest friend, and Rob, a black leopard shifter who was Garrett's good friend and my first trainer. This group made up the core of our crime solving team, Rogues Inc. On occasion we'd enlist the help of various fae warriors, including Liam, and even an occasional sorcerer or witch. My birth father Simon, a sorcerer himself, had helped us out a few times, as had Angel a sorcerer Garrett had worked with for many years.

We'd been working together for five years now, assisting a lot of shifters and wolves who'd been victims of various crimes and had been ignored by their local authorities. We'd solved some murders, found some lost kids and located quite a few valuable stolen items. Sometimes we were forced to take down the bad guys, whether blood witches, rogue wolves and vampires or sorcerers gone over to the dark side.

Under the watchful eye of all the necessary supernatural governing bodies, we had the authority to execute a murderer, although we preferred to hand them over to the appropriate agencies. Ending a life was never something to be taken lightly.

Two months ago, we tracked down a two hundred year old vampire who was compelling his nest to bring in young human women, using them as blood and sex slaves, then turning them to enlarge the nest. He was well hidden, but not well enough to escape our sleuthing skills. Because most of his nest was lost to their blood lust, we had to destroy over twenty vampires, saving only a few. Only two of them were from the original group of missing women. Garrett found other nests with responsible masters to take them in, because they couldn't ever go home to their human families again. Unfortunately, the master vamp criminal, Theo, had escaped, so Garrett was forced to contact other nests with the information and had deployed scouts throughout his district.

I took another sip of coffee. "Aaron is coming to the party with Sammy. Cathy can't come because the new baby has a cold." Aaron was Garrett's cousin, a powerful alpha wolf who oversaw four packs in Southern Oregon and Northern California. He was also a bit of a goofball when he wasn't in alpha-mode and I loved hanging out with him. Sammy was his adopted son, who'd just turned five a couple of months ago. He and Cathy had recently adopted another infant, a little girl who he'd named Erin, after his mom.

"That kid Sammy's a wimp. I don't think he'll ever choose to join Aaron's pack. Jay just looks at him and the kid cowers." Kyle had no patience with anyone else's kid, except maybe mine.

Liam scowled. "He's young and he's human. Jason intimidates him." Werewolves adopted human children and then at eighteen, if they were willing, introduced them to life as a wolf by infecting them with the virus. It was all part of some private ceremony I knew nothing about.

"Jay's a good kid." Kyle scowled back at Liam, his protective ruff up.

I kept my voice soft, hoping to assuage some of the tension. "Jay's very large and very loud and he likes to play harmless practical jokes on people. Charlie doesn't care, but Sammy gets scared." Kyle started to protest, but I continued. "And yes, he's a very good kid. He never does anything out of malice. He just jokes around like his dad."

"I never joke around. It's Peter who does that." He gave me a crooked smile and we both cracked up at the outrageous lie while Liam rolled his eyes. Kyle was a vibrant cut-up compared to calm, practical Peter who was the anchor in the relationship. Somehow they seemed to balance each other perfectly.

"At least he has one stable parent." Liam teased. As unlikely as it seemed, Kyle and Liam had accepted each other's quirks and become friends.

Kyle ignored Liam's jibe. "So who else?"

"Aedus and Philly and Linn are coming." I looked at Liam for confirmation.

"They've been talking about it for days." Aedus was Liam's older brother, a full blood fae and the heir to his father's legacy as an elder. Philladre was his lovely mate and Linn was their natural child, the first full-blood fae born to their Sidhe in seventy-five years. She'd be turning five in another week and had been named Jacqueline to honor me and what I'd done to save Aedus. Everyone called her Linn to avoid confusion.

My kidnapper, Kennet, had attacked Aedus' mind during a battle, keeping his body from healing properly. Through my healing abilities, I was able to get into his head and dissolve the vision that was driving him insane.

Kyle grinned at me. "The little faerie princess is coming? All the boys'll be fighting over her."

"Not at five, Kyle." I looked at him in disbelief.

"Hey, I was totally a Don Wand at five." Liam and I almost choked on our eggs. It took awhile, but the three of us managed to regain our composure, at least until Kyle said, "And Jay's already seven." He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Stop. Please. I'll never digest my food if I keep laughing."

"
It feels good to laugh
," Liam sent to me. He'd been there through it all, from when I'd first found out that I was pregnant after the rape, to delivering little Charlie himself. He'd done all he could every time Charlie took a turn for the worse, sometimes even spending the night by his side.

I smiled, sharing the moment, then nodded. "Is Kellie coming with Grady?" Kellaine was Liam's long time lover. Five years ago Sinc had dug up some information on an orphan who'd been placed in a hospital because he suffered from hallucinations. He'd been labeled 'unadoptable', but Sinc felt that the child might have some fae blood. Liam and Kellie had disguised themselves as human and adopted the young boy, who was already six years old at the time. Now he was eleven and thriving under their care.

"Yes, Grady's excited to see Charlie and wants to get in another soccer lesson with Sasha. My father is coming as well." He saw my very surprised look and shrugged. "He wasn't sure he'd be able to make it, but it turns out that he can." Lord Caelen was the queen's twin brother and also one of the four Fae Elders of the Cascade Sidhe who'd proven himself to be a true friend over the years. However, Liam's smile had disappeared with his announcement.

"How do you feel about that?"

"He's your son's great-uncle and should be here. This is Charlie's day. I'm fine with it." Liam and his dad hadn't been on the best of terms ever since Liam had moved out of Faerie into a house not far from ours. Because Liam was half human, he'd decided he wanted to spend more time outside of Faerie, possibly finding out something about his human ancestors. He and Kellie were raising Grady in Crescent City, but took him to Faerie at least twice a month so he could be around the magic of his people. Part of the reason Grady had been so ill was because he'd never been exposed to it. They figured out from his records that he was probably only 1/4 fae, but his physical and mental health had improved dramatically as soon as he'd entered Cascade. Liam and Kellie's families had welcomed him with love and Grady looked forward to each visit with enthusiasm.

"We also have a room full of presents from people who couldn't make it." Francois, Garrett's grandsire, had sent a gift, as had Fred, the alpha werewolf of the Brownlow pack. We'd helped him out when there was an attack by a rival werewolf pack led by a pair of blood witches. It had been a messy business, but my sister Bridgett had been raised by that pack, and since Fred was an honorable guy, Garrett had felt it was important to assist them. Currently they ran 'The Wild', a club in nearby Gasquet that catered to many different supernatural species. Garrett and I were also on the board of directors for the club, so we made sure that security was tight to discourage interspecies fighting. It was doing better than we'd originally expected and Fred was making enough to support half a dozen families.

There were also presents for Charlie from quite a few shapeshifters, weres, vampires and fae that we dealt with on a regular basis, many of them coming to love the little boy who'd had such a tough beginning.

There'd been no word from my sister, Bridgett, although I hadn't expected to hear from her.

"Charlie's gonna be so spoiled." Kyle remarked.

"We're encouraging him to give some of his older toys away." We'd already packed them into boxes, under his supervision of course, and we'd be taking them to the local shelters and preschools. Our area had many families struggling to get by, so some gently used clothing and toys and books were always welcome. Charlie had helped me pick out and box up some of my older clothes too.

"Mommy, put that orange dress in the box. It only matches you when your eyes turn orange. You should wear green and gold like you and me and blue like Daddy." Those were the colors of our auras, although it startled all of us that he could see auras at such a young age.

"You've never seen my eyes turn orange."

"Did too. Remember that time when you were mad at Sasha and Sir Farrell for letting me climb the tree?"

"Oh. Well, what about the red one?"

"Red is a heart color. That's okay. You look pretty in red."

"That's very sweet."

"Mommy..."

"What, honey?"

"Climbing the tree was awesome. Can I do it again? I promise I won't fall."

I took a long sip of juice. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, Sinc's coming with Gabe." I was feeling nervous about seeing them.

"Her foot's healed completely?" Liam asked.

"That's what she told me on the phone." Sinc and I had been close for a while, but when she took Gabriel as her mate, we'd slowly grown apart, keeping in touch only around holidays or other special occasions. I had gone to their mating ceremony two years ago, feeling that it would have been unforgivable of me not to attend, but it was difficult to let the past go even though I sincerely wished them well.

Gabriel had been a member of a pack that had tried to kill all of us after we'd discovered that his brother, Karl, was a dark sorcerer and had taken some teen boys to use as blood slaves. Gabe had known about the bomb, but hadn't seen fit to warn us, although he'd tried to save Sinc. Unfortunately, the blast had injured her foot so badly that it had to be amputated, while the rest of us escaped relatively unharmed.

Garrett's plan to have his nest rest back in Crescent City and not on the pack property saved all of their lives. The blast was centered in the basement where they would have been resting and completely helpless.

Gabe's mother, a witch, had come up with a potion to help Sinc's foot regenerate, so along with Sinc's shifting to her snow leopard form as often as she could physically manage, her foot had actually grown back. It had taken four and a half very painful years, but she'd never given up. A shifter without a foot, wouldn't be able to run or hunt in animal form, taking away so much of the inherent joy in being a shapeshifter. She still worked with the team when she could, but usually only as a consultant.