Clayton's Jade (Runes Stone Series) (9 page)

“If you need anything else let me know. I think I am going to do some laundry while you guys are busy.”  He just waved her off as he got busy.  Well, it looked like luck was on their side today, the cell was working.   She stripped the bed that Clayton had been using and her bed as well.  After she started the sheets in the washer she pulled out fresh sheets and remade the beds. 

Going out to the freezer she did a quick inventory of meat that was in there.  She pulled out hamburger so that it would thaw out before she needed it tomorrow.  With any luck one huge batch of spaghetti would feed everyone.  Out in the garden was enough lettuce and vegetables for a garden salad to go with it.  At least she had a back stock of food not only in the freezer but the shed was full of canned goods.  The main concern she had was where to put everyone to sleep? 

As she walked into the kitchen Clayton was on the phone so she took out a scrap piece of paper and wrote ‘where are we going to put everyone to sleep?’ Then she laid the paper down on the keyboard of the laptop. Pouring a glass of water she took a swig then opened the refrigerator and took the makings for tuna sandwiches for lunch.  She took a plate into Brad along with a glass of milk and sat it on the nightstand.

When she went back into the kitchen Clayton was off the phone.  “Several of them are flying in and renting motorhomes.  We will just have to find places for them to park.  I had already thought of that.  We need the help but they need their own place to stay.  I want to be able to have you to myself when I want.”  She so wanted to drag him back into the bedroom right now and knew that she couldn’t.  They needed to get people on the road and here as soon as possible.  “I also gave each of them a shopping list of stuff to pick up.  You will not have to worry about supplies and several of the girls will be helping cook.  I also made sure that Brad had extra people out there with him just in case.  He still will not be fully recovered and I need him alive to protect this area of the coast.”

“Ok, I’m impressed.  You have been busy.”  She leaned down and kissed him. She had planned on it being a quick one, he however had different intentions.  He pulled her in close and ran his hands up her back to the base of head. By the time he pulled back her legs felt like rubber.  She needed to stay away from him, they all still had a lot to do.  “I guess you can eat.” She went and got his plate and sat it in front of him.  “I am going to do some work in the lab, yell if you need me.”   

She had water samples all over and they were all labeled with the coordinates of where they were taken from.  She had a long afternoon of going through the slides and checking the sediment in the tubs of water.  Then she had to write up a report to send into her boss for the weeks work.  Right now she needed to get busy and put the outside world on hold for a while.

It seemed that she had just sat down to work when she heard someone coming in the lab.  When she turned around she saw Clayton walking up to her.  He started massaging her shoulders.  It felt so good, she didn’t want him to stop.  “So are you going to work all night in here or come out and socialize a bit with us?  Brad had one of his friends bring a pizza from Stockade Pizza, I don’t know how long it will last with three guys eating it so you better hurry up and finish.” 

“Just let me finish this slide and write a quick report then I will be in.”  After looking at the side she typed up a two page report with the information she had learned and sent it off.  She had to look at another set of samples tomorrow but she was done for the day.  She shut down the computer and turned off the lights on her way out.  Now it was time relax and eat.

When she walked into the front room she saw Tim.  Tim was about six-four red hair and brown eyes. He was an intimidating man if you didn’t know him.   He had a temper to go with that red hair that and the fact that he was a walrus shifter.    I guess that meant he was here to help out.  He could bunk with Brad tonight.  “”So I take it your part of the help at least for tonight.”

“For tonight, tomorrow afternoon I will take Brad into town.  I promise not to leave his side.  Clayton was telling me he had more lined up to help out there.  We won’t let anything happen to him.”  He took a long swig out of the beer bottle in his hand, and then grabbed another slice of pizza.  “Kaylee if you don’t mind I will take a couple slices and a beer and go hang out with Brad.” 

She knew it was his polite way of saying I will leave you two alone for the rest of the evening.  “No problem.  You will be sleeping in the bed next to his so make yourself at home.”
She went over to couch and sat next to Clayton.  She liked being able to touch him.  “How many are we expecting to arrive?” 

“Between the two of us there will be thirty people to help out here and twenty will be around Brad.  There are going to be some strange shifters arriving in this area.  Some of the local shifters wouldn’t come over because of some of them.  It’s a good thing you are so isolated here.  They are going to have a harder time in the ocean.  How are you holding up with all of this?”

“I will manage, I always do.  I am more concerned with the wildlife here than anything else.  It has always been a good balance and I am afraid of what will happen with so many new shifters.  I am hoping that having everyone eat before they start shifting will help alleviate some of the problems.”   Now that she had voiced her concerns she knew he had already thought of that and had something figured out. 

“They will do the best they can and yes eating before they shift will help.   I have asked a friend of mine to help out.  He is a wizard.  The thing is he can’t fight for either side.  He is only going to help keep the balance for the natural wildlife.   I will let him explain what he does, he is much better at telling his story than I am.  Besides all I’m thinking about is how long it’s going to take you to eat that slice of pizza so we can go to bed.  I’m still recuperating you know.”

“Done.” She got up and almost ran to the bedroom.  “I thought you were a fast healer.  I guess I will just change my clothes that way you can get some much needed rest.  I don’t want any further damage to happen to you.”  The next thing she knew she was in the air falling towards the bed.  To which she had a soft landing until his body covered hers.  She couldn’t get his clothes off fast enough.  He was having the same trouble with her clothes.  By the time they were out of their clothes they had enough foreplay. 

As they lay in the aftermath of round one.  Kaylee decided she wanted to explore a little.  All of this was still very new to her.  Starting at his chest her h
ands moved over the broad expanse of his chest before moving lower.  Where her hands started her mouth followed trailing little kisses as she went.  Her hand lightly stroked his cock.  As she touched him he seemed to get larger.  She wondered what would happen if she licked him there.  Curiosity got the better of her, however she liked the results.  His hands tangled in her hair seeming to want to guild her.  Remembering what she had done to his finger earlier that morning she decided to try it here and see what happened.  

As her mouth took him in he felt his body jerk in response to her administrations.  He thought he was going to die before she was done exploring.  Then she took him in till he hit the back of her throat then slowly pulled up letting her tongue drag as she went causing him to groan in response.  Keeping a steady rhythm she kept going until he grabbed her and dragged her body up on his then plunged into her.  Taking one hand he rubbed her clit while thrusting into her, until she moaned in release. He followed shortly after with his own release.

“I don’t want to move.  I like it right here.” She had laid her head on his chest and felt safe and protected in his arms.

“Then stay.”  He liked the way she felt on him and didn’t want her to move either.  He just laid there playing with her hair.  When she had fallen asleep he very gently rolled to the side taking her with him.   Using his foot he was able to maneuver the blanket at the foot of the bed until he could reach it with his free hand and cover both of them. 

After years of being alone he was glad to have her in his life.  She was his other half and he wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.  He had waited several lifetimes for her now she had to realize that he was hers. 

CHAPTER 9

They were awakened by a pounding on the door.  Clayton yelled and told them to hold on just a minute.  “Go back to sleep.  I will get this.  It could be one of my people.”  He got out of bed and put on his pants and went to answer the door. 

She didn’t want to move unfortunately a new day and she had to get up like it or not.   Might as well get up and take a shower and get dressed. As she washed she realized that her skin was very sensitive to the touch.  Now she just wanted to get out of the shower and go out to Clayton. She was also wanted to meet the person in her home.  She was never going to remember all of their names. 

After getting dressed she headed out to get a cup of coffee to find that Clayton had already made it.  A girl could get used to this.  Taking her cup with her she went out the back patio to meet her newest guest.  As she looked out through the glass doors she saw a beautiful blond woman sitting next to Clayton laughing at something he had said.  What made it worse was the fact that she was touching him.  It may only be his arm but that was too much as far as she was concerned. 

Taking a deep breath she opened the door, put a smile on her face and stepped out.  “Hello, I’m Kaylee and you would be?”  Dead meat would fit right there as far as she was concerned. 

The woman held out her hand and said “it’s nice to meet you, my name is Coreen.”  She took her hand in an effort to be polite.   Was it sad to say she could hear her inter kitty growling. Her mind however decided to go on field trip.  Up by where the fight was to happen she saw one of the stones.  If she was right it belonged to this woman.  Could this be the woman that Odin had told them about? Sitting her coffee on the table she grabbed one of the chairs and moved it as close as she could get it to Clayton.  Just as her way of saying mine.

“Nice to meet you.”  Picking up her coffee cup she took a small sip from it.  “So how do you know Clayton?”

“I met him through my husband Mark who is out in the motorhome.  Mark is a berserker like Clayton.  I am a quoll shifter which is a carnivorous marsupial.  I hope that we will become good friends
.”  Now she was starting to like her better as long as she kept her hands to herself.

“I am a bob cat shifter.  Just so you know I am horrible at names so you may have to remind me a few times.  We have already met one of the bad guys a Tasmanian devil.  Then Clayton killed the great white that attacked him and Brad.  I don’t know what else is here but I’m betting it’s not good.”   She had been trying not to think about it. The Tasmanian had gotten her good during that little exchange, it was a good thing she healed quickly.  There were a lot of dangerous creatures out there.  She was just fine if she never met any of them, thank you.  

“Clayton was telling me about that.  When everyone gets here would you mind showing us around the area?    The area where you are going to get attacked should be gone over.  I think we should see the weakness and advantages of the area before the fight.  I believe everyone else would agree with me.  Even when we shift we still retain the ability to access our human thoughts.”  Standing up Coreen brushed off her slacks. “Now if you don’t mind I’m going to go catch a few zzz before the others arrive.”

“Actually before you go to bed we need to take a quick walk out in the woods, Clayton will you come also.  I just need to check something out.”  She took Claytons hand and she led them out tow where she had seen the stone.  “Coreen could you look on the ground by that log over there, you are looking for a blue stone with a hole in it.”  Kaylee pointed in the direction that she wanted the woman to go.

When Coreen got to the log it only took a second for her to locate the stone.  If she was right Coreen would be able to tell whether people were lying or not.  She held it up so that they could see it.  Then Kaylee smiled and said “I hate you.”

At first the woman started to get defensive then she smiled, “You are lying. How did you know I would be able to tell the difference?”

As they walked back to the house Clayton explained what Odin had said and what Kaylee’s abilities were.  “Now you can go catch some zzz.” He told her when they were back at the house.

“Make sure you have jeans and walking shoes on if I’m going to take you out there.”  Kaylee pointed towards the woods.  As Coreen walked into the house and shut the door, Kaylee leaned over and kissed Clayton good morning.  “So I guess we have to be on good behavior for the rest of the day.  We can’t do anything major until everyone else shows up.  I have some slides I can go work on unless you have a better idea?”

“People are going to be coming in sporadically thru the morning.  I am just going to go over the maps some more.  Maybe I can come up with some other ideas.  Why don’t you go get your work done, that way you won’t have to worry about it later.”  They both got up and went into the house and refilled their coffee cups.

“Make sure I come out of there by noon please.  I have to get the sauce going for dinner.  I think you have already figured out that I lose track of time when I get going down in my lab.”

“I promise, now get going.”  He watched her walk away getting hard as he did, which was the reason he had her go work in the lab.  If she had stayed out here they would have ended up back in bed.  He had no sooner sat down when the doorbell sounded.  Getting up he went to answer it.  When he opened it there was Dagda.  “Thank you for coming to help.  Kaylee’s main concern was the wildlife balance being affected.  I know that you can only help with that area.  We need to maintain the natural balance in this area.”

“Where is this young lady?  I would like to meet her.”  Clayton knew that he liked to meet everyone that he worked with so there were no problems later. 

“Right now she is in her lab going over water samples.  She is trying to get her work done before everyone else gets here.  I have Kaylee’s family maps of this area if you are interested in looking at them with me.”  It was his way of saying he could meet her when her work was done.  Besides, knowing his luck they would end up talking about her work for hours.  They both had a lot in common.

“Ok, let’s see this map and the area I am going to be protecting. What is so special about this girl, I mean even Odin is intrigued by her.”

“One she is my mate, two she can see where the stones are, and three she dreams of the future.    In fact, she helped Coreen find her stone this morning.” The look of shock hit his friends face.  “She doesn’t know that she is my designated mate yet.  I figured that could wait until this battle was over.”

“Why do I think I will be spending a lot of time out here?  I may end up buying a place out here.  I guess I better see what’s for sale.”  He stated it like it was a matter of fact.

“I don’t know we can ask Kaylee when she is done.”  As they approached the kitchen table with the map spread out on it his noticed how well done and old it was.  It was the same reaction that he had.  “Amazing isn’t it?”

“That is putting it mildly.  I wonder how old it is.  You can even see how much erosion has happened over the years.  This is a rather large piece of land that she holds.  No worries though I can handle it.”    He went outside to look around and to get a feel of the area.  “Her family has taken very good care of this land.  Not many do these days.” 

“How can you tell?  I mean to me it just looks like everything else.”  It was always puzzling to him how Dagda could see things that he couldn’t.  He guessed it was because he was a wizard. 

“You better go get the door, more people have arrived.  I will be fine out here.  You will have people showing up off and on the rest of the morning.” He went out and started walking through the garden.  Clayton went into the house and heard the doorbell.  He decided to go out and walk around the front yard and just wait for everyone to show up.  By the time he remembered to go get Kaylee it was ten after twelve. 

“Sorry I got caught up in greeting everyone as they got here.  While you wrap up things I will get things chopped up and start cooking.  I believe you put everything on the counter that you were going to need so it shouldn’t be that hard.”    He turned around and shut the door before she could get mad at him.  By the time she got there he had the meat in the pan and the cans opened and everything else chopped up. 

“Ok that’s one way to get out of trouble.”  Leaning over she kissed him. Then with a smile she started to walk out to the garden to get some herbs that she needed for the sauce when she saw a strange man out there.  “Who is that in my garden?”  He had light brown hair down to his shoulders, was about six four to six five in height with an athletic build.  His broad shoulders were emphasized by the leather jacket that covered him to the waist.  The jacket hung open at the sides allowing a deep purple shirt under it to show through. 

“That is Dagda; he is the wizard I was telling you about.  He wanted to talk with you earlier but I told him you were working.”  He looked uncomfortable about her meeting him.

She thought about how she felt this morning and decided to fix it “Would you go out with me to talk with him.  I would like you by my side.”  A smile that lit his face up and she saw him relax all at once.  He turned the burner on low and went over to her and together they went out to the garden to meet Dagda.  He turned around and looked at them before they reached the garden. 

“Dagda this is Kaylee.”  He had the brightest blue eyes that she had ever seen. 

“Thank you for coming out to help.  This land is part of who I am and the fact that you are going to be protecting it in the coming fight means a lot to me.”  She held out her hand for him to shake and he gently grasped it.

“The pleasure is mine.  It is rare to find land in such good condition.  I have a feeling that I will be spending a lot of time out here.  Maybe you could help me find a place to buy.”  He had caught a flash of something when he had touched her hand. “I believe this is the first of several battles to be fought here.”

“How do you know that?” she had almost caught something when he had shook her hand but it was gone before she could catch it.    It was like a string that teases you always just out of reach.

“I could see several events over a long period of time.  I can’t pin point them like you can.  So, that being a fact, I need to set up a home base here.” 

“We will see what we can do for you.”  Reaching down she picked some of the herbs that she needed to make dinner.  The sooner that was finished the better.  She still had to show everyone where the fight was going to happen.  As she finished preparing the sauce to simmer, Clayton went to round up everyone that had arrived.  He was going to meet her out by the garden and walk from there. 

After all the introductions had been made, not that she would remember them twenty minutes from now, they started walking into the forest.  Thank god there were no tests she would just look like idiot for a while until she had their names down. She had tried to remember the berserker’s names but had only remembered three which was better than none.  The ones she remembered were Mark, William, and Gavin.  Walking into the forest most of the people were amazed.  For the shifters in the group it was like Disneyland and they had just been handed a free pass.  Every fern, leaf, or bird that moved caught their attention.  She could tell who the shifters were in the group just by their reactions to the environment.  Tonight they would get to play tomorrow would get here soon enough.  When she had reached the spot where the attack would happen she stopped. “This is where it happens. I end up boxed in right here. Feel free to look around and see what you can come up with. Which will allow you to prepare your defenses.  

Everyone went in their own direction. Each one knew their strengths and weaknesses.  When everyone was done they would meet up for dinner and talk over what each person came up with.  “Clayton I’m going to head back to the house.  Are you going to be ok?”

“We will be fine.  Go take care of dinner.  I think we are going to be here for a while.”  He watched her head back wondering how she was really coping with everything that was hitting her.  He wished he could go be with her right now but they had to figure out a plan of attack before tomorrow.  There were so many different places for them to hide that it was equal on both sides.  They needed to make it tip to their side.

His main problem was hiding the berserkers and animal shifters that were not of this area.  He would have to figure out how to blend in.  He was looking for places th
at would work for him.  One or two of them could hide in the bushes there was thick foliage to cover them.   There just were not that many places in the area where the fight was going to take place.    Looking around he saw something he hadn’t noticed before that he should have.  Some of the trees were hollow at the base.  Maybe even enough for a berserker to hide in. 

Calling all the berserkers around him he told them what to look for around the area.  It took them over an hour to find suitable trees that would fit them.  Ones that didn’t work for them they let the rest of the group know about.  It took another hour for the rest of them to finish looking around at the area.   He knew they wouldn’t have a good idea about it till the night.  He knew they would all converge here tonight and get a feel for the area in animal form.  Tonight
, he and the other berserkers would work on ideas for traps to set up in the area.  There was a lot to talk about and do tonight.  “Those of you that brought supplies that we need for setting the traps go and get them.  While the rest of you are out playing tonight we will be working on locations of traps and the type of traps to set.”