Galin (10 page)

“Well, it’s a little late for that, dumbass.”
Kala had stood up then and everyone at the table stood as well. Not to protect
her, but to move out of her way. She was on fire with her anger and Boss had
enjoyed every second of her wrath. “Just how the hell do you expect me to put
three of them back? Up your dick perhaps? Because if you say the word, I’ll try
my damnedest to put them there. You’re not prepared? Let me think on how to
prepare you for standing around while I have four of your children. Let me
think how my suffering through the labor while you hold my hand can prepare
you. You’ll be lucky that I even let you touch me again after this. Of all the
stupid…put them back? I’d like to put you back where you came from.”

Boss had tried his best not to laugh out
loud, He truly had, but the expression on Riss’s face and him cupping his
manhood had Boss laughing so hard that He’d broken the chair from shaking. And
when He’d been helped to His feet, He saw Kala going after Riss with a spoon
and had visions of her scooping out a child and shoving it inside of him. It
had been all He could do not to fall onto His face yet again. He looked at
Michael when he laughed as well.

“He is happy now?” Boss nodded, wiping at the
tears that streamed down His face. “I should hope so. The poor man would have
been hard pressed to placate her after all of that. And you laughing like a
loon more than likely did not help. You should have left them to their
argument.”

“Nay, it did not help, but I would not have
missed it for the world. He deserved her wrath for his ill-chosen words. But it
made me feel decades younger.” When Michael smiled, Boss decided it was time to
bring him into the plan. “He will tell her he loves her by the end of the week
if everything goes as I have planned. If he only admits it to himself, I will
be greatly satisfied. Galin is a good man and will make her happy once he has gotten
his head out of the sand and sees what is before him. And she will give him so
much more than he can ever give her. The love of a woman, human or otherwise,
will make a man richer than any amount of money ever can. And to have one trust
you…well, there is nothing greater I believe.”

“I hope it works out for them both. He is
stubborn, to say the least.” Boss nodded his agreement. “I do hope that young
Kipling will be happy with Galin as the male in his life. The boy deserves so
much. They suit, the two of them. The need to be loved by Kipling will give
Galin a warmer heart than one of his own could have, I think.”

“He will come to call him Dad before this is
finished, and Dusty Mom. He just needed a shove in the right direction, and
they have given it to him.” Boss leaned back in His chair. “He is to make an
announcement tonight. Should you like to see it? You will love it as much as
the rest will. Of this I promise you.”

“I would very much like to be there. What
sort of announcement does he have? He had been…. You are not going to tell me,
are You?” Boss shook his head as he brought them both to the kitchen of Dusty’s
house. “You are not nice at times; I should like to point that out to You.”

“I know. But it is so much more fun to watch
the expressions on the faces of people when they are not privy to things that
only I know. Surprise, as you know, has its rewards as well.” Boss took a seat
at the table just before a key could be heard in the lock of the door. “Now sit
down and be quiet. I do not wish to disturb the telling.”

They came into the house and he could see
that they were both relaxed as much as they could be under the circumstances. Dusty
was a little tense, but he was sure it wasn’t from the dinner and company of
tonight, but the story that she had been waiting all night to hear of. When she
moved to the living room with Kipling, He and Michael did as well. When
everyone was seated, Kipling stood to pace.

“I have never been to a school that listens
to you before.” Before Dusty was able to comment, Kipling raised his hand to
stop her. “It’s a good thing Aunt Dusty, not bad.”

Boss knew the exact moment when Dusty
realized that Kipling had called her aunt. He could see the pride on her face
and the love that she had for the boy. There was never any doubt about these
two making it, but he had his doubts about the protector that stood behind her
as she sat there, stunned. Galin was falling hard.

“I have been asked by the principle to participate
in the state spelling bee. And she also wants me to ask you if I can take the
placement tests to put me into a higher grade.” Dusty sat there for several
seconds, and Boss saw that her silence was hurting young Kipling. Before he
could make his presence known, however, she finally spoke.

“You can spell that good? Well of course you
can…your mom could too. I’ve never seen a woman who could spell anything like
she did and not even know the definition of the word. Did you know that when
she was in high school, just before she told us about you, that she was supposedly
the greatest speller in the world? She told us almost daily how wonderful she
was. And she was slated to go to the state spelling bee as well.” Kipling’s
chest puffed out as Dusty continued. “She was so excited to go…to be asked to
go…that she walked around with a dictionary for days just spelling words she
just put her finger on. I was so sick of hearing her spell everything I’d say
to her that I took to sleeping on the couch.”

“Did she win?” Instead of answering him,
Dusty got up and moved to the tall bookshelf near the television. She walked
over to Kipling and handed him a small box. With trembling fingers he opened it
and pulled out the beautiful pin with the word CHAMP on it.

“She thought it was lost. I found it when she
left home right after we found out about you. I don’t know why I even kept it,
but it’s been up there on that shelf since I moved here. I kept thinking that
someday I’d give it to her, but…but I didn’t. I’m glad that I didn’t now. I can
give it to you and that’s just as perfect.” She helped him turn it over and let
him read the back. “She was the champion that day to all of us. Mom was so
proud of her that she cried all the way home.”

“And my dad? Was he there?” Dusty shook her
head at Kipling and Boss waited for her answer, but Kipling was a good deal
smarter than he’d thought. “He didn’t hang around after she told him about me,
did he? I guess she never could pick someone that would stay with her.”

“No, she…I’m not sure what happened to him in
the years after high school, but right after you came here, I looked for him.”
Kipling looked panicky and she assured him with a pat to his leg. “Not to get
you to go to him—that was never going to happen—but because…I don’t know, I
thought he should know. But a few years ago he was in a boating accident that took
his life and that of his new wife. He’d been happy by all accounts. And if you
want to know the truth, I don’t think he ever knew about you. Rose was…she left
telling us she’d told him, but when I looked for him, by all accounts he was a
very nice man.”

Kipling tried to give the small medal back to
Dusty but she told him it was his. As he fingered the pretty box, Boss knew
that he was going to ask about something that had been bothering him for weeks
now.

“You had to sell everything, didn’t you? I
mean, even all the stuff that wasn’t worth all that much to anyone but me.” She
nodded and he nodded as well. “I figured it out when I answered the phone the
other day. The guy said that…he said that the auction hadn’t brought enough in
and that you still owed about four grand of the bills.”

“I’m sorry you had to find out that way, Kip.
I never wanted you to know how bad things were there. But I did manage to get a
few of your things for you. A few framed pictures and some of your books.” She
went to the closet and pulled out a large but still puny box and handed it to
him. “The guy I had at the auction for me said that while nothing was going
very high, someone must have trashed some of the things they didn’t think would
sell. I’m sorry. But he’s going to ship the rest, a few things he was able to
get, to us soon. I wanted to get all of it back, but there just wasn’t any way
I could get it and bury your mother too. You don’t know how sorry I am for
that. I just didn’t have the money.” Kipling nodded and Boss felt his love for
these two grow more.

“The guy told me that you paid off the
hospital bill because they wouldn’t let you take her body until you did. He
said that Mom had some big bills there.” Dusty nodded and moved to take the boy
into her arms. “I’m really sorry, Aunt Dusty, about the way I treated you when
you tried to help me. I swear to you, some of the things I said to you weren’t true.
I never hated you. Neither did Mom.”

“I know, honey. I know.” They sat there for
several more minutes before he and Michael left them. He’d seen Galin watch the
two of them with love, and wondered how much longer the man would suffer before
he admitted to himself what everyone around him could see. He was in love with
Dusty McGee.

“I would ask that tomorrow you make sure that
there are plenty of people around Strategize and around young Kipling.” Michael
nodded and looked concerned. “Markum will make a move, and I’d like for Dusty to
see how it is when they band together. He will be there sooner than we had
hoped, but she will be safe so long as we…I love the woman too, you know.”

“You do. I can see that. She will see us at
our best.” Boss nodded, and when Michael left He looked at His wall of
pictures. The one where Markum made his presence known in a very loud way
showed a great deal of blood as well as a broken body. It was one of the first
images He’d printed when He figured out how. He knew who would be harmed
tomorrow and hated it, but it would be just fine in the end. Valyn would
recover soon enough and his induction into the Mystic’s would be set. Time
would tell if his soon to be wife would be a better woman for meeting Valyn or
Valyn a better man for meeting her. He thought the man would be lucky if he
only knew half of what she’d bring him.

Chapter 8

Galin watched Kip like he did every other
morning, and it took him several minutes of him not getting dressed for school
for Galin to realize it was a Saturday and not a school day. When Dusty came into
the room with him, getting a cup of hot tea and sitting by Kip, Galin felt his
heart take a hard tumble.

“Have you decided if you want to go with me
or not?” Kip nodded at Dusty and she smiled. Before Galin could convince Kip to
stay home rather than spend the day with his aunt, they were making plans for
the day. “I have three projects I have to complete today, then I want to talk
to you about a job.”

“A job? Doing what?” He frowned. “Are you
going to make me sweep the floors or something? I hate using your vacuum. That
sucker makes more noise than this guy I knew at my other school did when he
snored. Boy, could he snore like the dickens. If you can’t afford a new one,
I’ll go in halves with you for it.”

“No. And I’m aware of the noise the thing makes.
It’s why it’s here and not at the office. Denise swore that if I didn’t get rid
of it, she’d quit. And I need her more than I need less noise when I sweep. No,
I want to hire you as a proofer.” Dusty got up and missed the look of pure joy
on Kip’s face. But Galin saw it. Then he looked crushed the next moment.

“You want me to read over your stuff to make
sure it’s spelled right then?” She nodded and Kip picked up his spoon to play
with his cereal. “I guess I can do that.”

“I’ll pay you.” She said this to him with her
head in the fridge. Galin could see that Kip didn’t really believe her but he
wanted to. When Dusty turned to look at Kip, it was as if she knew what he’d
been thinking. “I really will pay you. And weekly too. Scale as a matter of
fact. Do you know what that is?”

“You pay me what you think its worth for me
to find out you’ve run a spell check on everything. If you want me to go and
work for you, I will.” She shook her head and sat down across from him. “It’s okay,
Aunt Dusty. You don’t have to—”

“It’s ten bucks an hour in cash. You get that
every payday so long as you show up to work with me on Saturdays and maybe run
for lunch for me when I forget to stop. I’m serious, Kip. It’s a real job. I
need you to keep me from making a mistake like this one.”

The sheet of paper slid across the table and
Kip turned it so he could read it. When he looked up from the paper, Galin read
it over and over without seeing whatever it was they had seen. It wasn’t until
Kip spoke that he got it.

“It ‘your’ not ‘you’re.’” Dusty nodded. “Did
you do this for a customer? Or did you search for it to prove something.”

“You’re very untrusting today, but no, a
customer brought it to me yesterday. He was pleased that I’d caught it as
quickly as you did. That’s why he hired me. And I’m hiring you. Sometimes, and
I mean a lot more than I’d like to admit, things get by us at Strategize that
we don’t catch until it’s almost too late. I think it’s a matter of seeing it
too much. You’d be fresh eyes for us. I talked to Denise and she’s excited too.
She said she’d save a fortune in having to redo emails she has to send out for
me. I never see them but she said she does.” Kip nodded and stared at the paper
a little longer. “What else do you see?”

“They spelled their name wrong. Unless they
meant to be called Printter’s Ink. There is only one ‘t’ in the word.” She came
around to Kip’s shoulder when Galin did and he felt her beside him like she’d
touched him. He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her, hold her, but knew
that it was never going to happen. But her laughter made him pull back until he
realized she was laughing at the ad again.

“I never saw that one and I wonder if the
client did. I need to look this up when we get to the office. That is simply
too funny if that isn’t the way they spell it for real.” They were both still
laughing when they got into the car an hour later. “I can’t wait to have you
look over some of the things I’m doing for Judith. I hope I spelled my name
right, too.”

There were so many people in the area around
Strategize that Galin felt his wings want to stretch from his body and protect
both Kip and Dusty. He moved along with them both, glad now that they were
together instead of him at home with Kip. When a little after ten Judith showed
up, Galin was glad that she’d brought Agon in as well. He spoke to the
protector when he had a chance.

“There are a great many people here today.” Agon
said he’d noticed that as well, and instead of dropping Judith off today he’d
decided to come inside with her. “I think there is something going on. And I
can feel something not quite right in the air. Do you think that Boss sent them
here because He knows something?”

“He knows everything and you know that. But
you are correct, I felt it too. And I’ve called in Riss and asked him to bring
in a couple of trainees from the compound as well.” Galin watched as two
underlings, subjects of a smaller demi god, moved along the walls of the
building. He told Agon about them.

“I didn’t know you could see them. That’s
fantastic. How do you do it?” Galin didn’t know and watched as two more moved
along the building. “How many do you see?”

“Six. And there are two more stationed right
outside the doors. That usually means that someone important from their world
is coming here. They usually show up as extra security for some reason.” Agon
nodded and told Galin to keep him informed. “I will. But you must watch Kip if
something happens. I’m going to protect Dusty. I know that Kip is my
responsibility but I need to know that she is safe as well.”

“I will. But you must know that you will be
in trouble should you do this.” Galin nodded. “You should think hard, my friend,
about why you are willing to do this when you know the trouble it will bring
you. I think you will be pleased with the answer as much as she will.”

A few minutes later Riss and Valyn showed up
as well. With them were two more protectors, and they looked a little nervous.
Galin wanted to tell them to bring in someone more experienced, but knew that
this would be good training for them. He only hoped that they didn’t get in the
way when something went down. It was no longer a concern of Galin’s that
something
might
go wrong, but when. He watched the walls and doors for
something to happen.

When the man showed up, it was all Galin
could do not to laugh. It wasn’t Markum, or at least not him alone. The man who
was with him was a demon that he’d dealt with before. Anthony was a horse’s
butt. When he moved through the portal at the door and was in the building, it
was as if every protector within a few dozen yards was put on alert. Galin
spread his wings and so did the rest of them. Anthony hissed at him.

“I’m alone, protector, and you are making me
nervous. I came to see what the fuss is about. There are a number of your men
here and I only came to see what was happening.” Galin said nothing as the
demon fussed with his long robe of velvet. “As you can see, I’m alone save for
this idiot. He told me about this and I came to see what he thinks is something
amazing.”

“You’ve said that. Several times now. But
you’re not alone and you know it. There are as many as a dozen of your minions scrabbling
around this room to do your bidding, and we both know that they were here long
before you were. Now tell me what you’re here for.” Anthony grinned and his hot
breath fanned over Galin’s face. Not only did his hot breath spill from his
lips, but the putrid smell of death as well. “Does your boss know that you’ve
come above ground? I’m betting that he has no clue that you have gone against
his wishes and did this with that simpleton.”

“Markum? Yes, I do agree with you about him
being stupid. But my boss…he, unlike your own boss, does not have to know every
little detail of our lives. And as for my men being here before me, have you
seen the group that stands behind you?” Anthony took a step toward him and
Galin felt his body respond in kind. His wings spread out wide and far and he
knew the men and women behind him did the same. “You are going to be hurt,
little man, if you do not back down now.”

“I’m not afraid of you.” To prove his words
rang true, Galin pulled his wings into his body just a little closer. He could
tell that he’d confused Anthony by his move and smiled at him. “What do you
want? And no more of those stupid lies you think will get you out of trouble. Tell
me.”

Anthony looked at Dusty as she sat at a conference
table with Judith and Kala. Dusty didn’t know that there were demons in her
office, but the other two women knew. And Galin was grateful that they were
keeping Dusty out of it. The women were talking about some event to have more
people come and see how they could help them get jobs. Kala was talking a mile
a minute, something she did when she was excited or afraid about something, he’d
noticed. Galin looked at Anthony.

“I come for her. And the boy if I can get
him. They would make a nice addition to my harem, don’t you think?” Galin said
nothing but made sure he was between the demon and Dusty. He could see that
Agon protected Kip along with a few other protectors, so he felt a little
better.

“You’re not getting her. She’s not leaving
here with anyone but me.” Anthony laughed and reached out his hand, and Galin
drew his sword from the air when heat started to form at Anthony’s fingertips. “You
touch her and I’ll kill you myself.”

“Such brave words for a man who has given her
up for no reason. Did she not meet with your expectations, Galin the Brave? Or
was she not good enough for one such as you?” Galin said nothing as Anthony
continued. “My subject here says that the boy is the one we have been searching
for. Is that true?”

“You’ve been searching for this chosen one
for more years than I can remember. What makes this kid have anything at all
you want?” He didn’t take his eye off Anthony as he watched Kip. Sweat poured
down Galin’s back as he held his sword in front of him. He would cut the man in
half if he moved toward either of them, and he was pretty sure Anthony knew it.
The demon made no moves, sudden or otherwise.

“No matter. I will take the child then.
You’ve no use for him either, I understand. I would think that you’d be
thanking me for taking him from your care. He is nothing more than a small boy.
Unless you want to fuck him.”

Galin saw the second that Anthony was going
to make his move. When he did, Galin sliced out with his sword twice before he
heard the screams around him. Never taking his eyes off the man, he knew that
the others were caring for the two people that Galin had only just realized
meant the world to him. As he sliced through the air again, he also knew the
moment that one of his brothers had fallen.

~~~

“Denise, I swear to you, if you don’t stop
fussing at me I’m going to murder you.” Denise finally sat down but Dusty could
tell she was on the verge of standing up again. Before she did, Dusty went into
the living room, where the man who had taken a sword for her lay bleeding on
her sofa. Valyn winked at her and she felt the tears threaten again.

“It’s okay love, really it is. It’s the most
fun I’ve ever had.” Someone snorted and they both looked at Tholan. She wasn’t
sure but she thought the man hated her for some reason.

“You would not have been hurt at all had you
simply covered yourself with your wings. It is as simple as cake.” Three people
said “pie” and Tholan glared harder. “Be that as it may, you have wings for a
reason. I would think that a man of your experience would know that and use
them. Unless you enjoyed being hurt.”

“No one enjoys being hurt. But it was fun. I
got to be the hero for this lovely lady.” Valyn winked at her again. “And she
shed some tears for me. I think that’s about the best thing ever.”

Dusty handed Valyn a glass of some amber
liquid and she watched as he drank it down. Kala had told her the more he drank
of this stuff the faster he’d heal. She’d thought of getting a funnel and hose and
pouring it down his throat, but wasn’t sure how that would work. He’d more than
likely find some humor in that too. She looked up when Kip came into the room.

He was cooking. And not just a simple grilled
cheese as she’d wanted, but cooking stuff. She wasn’t really sure what the
things on the tray were called, but they smelled heavenly. Taking one off the
pretty plate, she popped it into her mouth and moaned.

“If you keep cooking like this, I’m going to
be huge.” Kip nodded and moved to three other people who were watching over
Valyn. Tholan even took a couple of them and thanked him for thinking of him.

“Dusty?” She turned to look at Michael and followed
him into the kitchen. There was no one there and she thought it was more
because he’d wanted it that way rather than it just happened to be empty. “I
should like for you to speak to Galin. He is…he is most upset by the events of
the day, and we are having a hard time calming him.”

“Why?” She sat down, wondering why they
thought she’d have any control over him either. “He doesn’t even like me. What do
you suppose I can to do calm him down? And for that matter, what does he have
to be upset about? Valyn was hurt and he wasn’t even there to see it.”

“He was there, love, and he protected you by
fighting the demon that was set on taking Kipling to his lair. No, Galin is in
love with you.” She shook her head and started to stand when Galin was suddenly
there. Dusty moved away from the table and toward the door when he stepped in
front of her.