Opal (Rare Gems Series Book 4) (14 page)

The house was aflame.
He watched as the firefighters, a good two dozen of them, stood by and watched the flames lick at the house he’d called home for over two decades. They were joking around and holding onto the equipment they had in their hands as if they were drinking beer at a block party.

“
You’re not even going to try and save it?” The first fireman turned and looked at him while shaking his head. “Don’t you think you should make some sort of effort to save even a small portion? I mean, this was someone’s home.”
Mine!
He wanted to scream at him. The man looked back at the house, then at him. The smile he gave him made Fletcher think of Crane, and he took a step back from him.

“
Nah, we did all we could and that was just to keep the other houses on either side of it from going up. But it’s a loss…was pretty much by the time the match was lit to start it. By the time we were called in, we knew that there would be nothing we could do. And even if we had the manpower, I doubt whoever owned this is going to come forward.” The man looked at the house when the front wall fell into the flames, licking it up as if it were fuel. Which he supposed it was. “There were enough dead bodies in the place when we made our first sweep that we knew that something huge went on inside that place. Scared a few of the younger men, but we got right out and called it in to the cops. The police said they’d straighten it out when it died down. Don’t know what they’re planning, but there’s not going to be much to work with if you ask me.” Fletcher had forgotten about the bodies and moved back when told.

His name was not anywhere
, so they wouldn’t be able to trace this back to him. There were a few things in the house that he might have liked to have collected, but not enough for him to risk going into a flaming house to get. Fletcher knew that starting over again, getting the equipment he needed to play, was going to be time consuming, but he’d just find a better place and make sure this time that he took better care about the bodies. Perhaps he’d set up his own little cleaning service and have them work solely for him. But he knew, just as surely as he was watching his house burn to nothingness, that he’d never do most of the things on the mental list he was forming. He was simply too lazy. He was still trying to figure out where he could go for the time being when he looked around and saw the woman from New Orleans. And she was staring right at him.

She looked different. He supposed it had to do with being Crane
’s donor, but he had a feeling it was more than that. She looked…well, glowing came to mind, but he knew that wasn’t quite right either. As he watched her, he saw Henson and two other woman come up beside her, and then there he was.

“
Crane.” As much as he hated the man, Fletcher feared him. And when he turned and looked right at him as well, Fletcher lifted his chin and glared. As he watched, Crane took his hand to his mouth and bit down. When he pulled his hand away, he was missing the same two fingers Fletcher was. But his were still attached; Fletcher’s were not. Before he moved to tear the man’s throat out, someone put their hand on his arm.

“
You don’t want to do that, I’m thinking. First of all, he’d kill you right out, and what fun would I get to have? Secondly…well, secondly, it would make a nasty assed mess on the ground here, and even though a little sunlight would clean you right out of our lives, there ain’t no cause to have all these people seeing you get your ass kicked around the place.” He looked at this other man, who hung around Crane all the time, and glared at Rufus. Fletcher had often wondered if they were lovers, but dismissed it when the man laughed. “I’m Rufus, just in case you didn’t catch that when you was looking into Sloan there. And I’m telling you that now so’s you’ll know me when you see me. And I try my best to let the people I kill know my name before I tear out their throats. I’m polite like that. Even to ass whips like you are.”

“
I think it’s ass wipe, you moron. And you think you have it in you to kill me?” Rufus nodded and Fletcher laughed. “I tore you up yesterday and we both know it. Are you slow to heal? Do you need me to find you a wet nurse to bring you back? Throwing you against that wall, did you get a bump on your head from it? You had to if you think you’re going to tangle with me and come out on top.”

“
Nah, I got it covered. I dined on a nice little she-wolf. Tasty little morsel. Then we fucked the night away. What did you do? You kinda smell like…I were gonna say shit, but I think it might have a better scent than you do. I guess not having a thing to change into after sleeping the night away in that there empty building kindsa takes it right outta you, huh?” He looked at his house when Rufus did. “That’s a real shame that you didn’t hang around when I set this fucker to light. Did you know that nearly anything we used to light it just went out? I’m assuming you had some sort of curse on the place. I had to think real hard on getting past it. But as you can see, I got it done.”

“
I did, as a matter of fact. It was supposed to be fool proof, you being the fool. What the fuck did you do?” Rufus laughed again and pointed to his right. There stood the same faerie that he’d hired to cast the spell that would keep him safe. She blew him two kisses as she moved deeper into the crowd. “You must have had something good over her head for her to disobey me. She’s going to pay for this. What was it? You have her family?”

“
No. Just asked her. ‘Course, I did mention how you hurt the alpha and Sloan. And then there was Miss Jade. Did you know that she and that one were on the best of terms? When she found out that you injured one of them there Gem’s mates…well, let’s just say if’n I was you, I’d better hope I never have to go to ground. I don’t think you’re going to find it all that comforting. Them faeries, they can be kinda mean when they get their wings all dusted like you done did hers. She and her family are safe, and you’ll never get to threaten them again. I promise you.” Rufus laughed again when Fletcher shivered. “You done fucked with the wrong family if you’re thinking you can simply get away with this. Those Gems, they do know how to protect what they loved more’n anything I done ever did see. And Sloan, he ain’t no happier with you than that faerie is. In fact, it’s a real toss-up to know who hates you more. ‘Course, I’d be real happy if any of them took you out.”

Family?
He looked back over to where Crane and Henson stood. He could see the woman close to the big vampire and knew that he’d claimed her, but family? Fletcher started to ask Rufus what he meant when he saw Crane put his arm around the woman and kiss her on the head. His woman…Crane had just kissed his plaything.

“
She’s his mate?” He looked at Rufus when he laughed. “That bitch from Orleans, that’s his mate? Did he know it when he stole her from me? I had her first and now…mother fuck, she’s his mate? That is so not right. On so many levels.”

“
I’m thinking he did claim her, but it looks like she don’t mind so much. And never seen a more in love couple in my days. I don’t want a mate for myself, but seeing the two of them together makes you kinda wish for it to happen sooner rather than later.” Rufus cleared his throat. “Oh, and by the way, you might live a bit longer if you don’t call her a bitch. She’s a might touchy on that. She might be a hell of a she-bitch, but she don’t cotton to being called that.”

Fletcher started to tell Rufus he could care less what she
thought of the term, he was going to call her that when he got her into his lair and started cutting on her, but he didn’t. The thoughts of her in his den, her being tied to his walls, made him smile. Fletcher knew that he’d enjoy every scream she voiced and every drop of blood that spilled from her body. But he was standing alone when he started to tell the older vampire. Not just alone, but not where he’d even been standing when the man had walked up to him. Fletcher looked around, trying his best to remember how he’d gotten here and where the hell here was.

Then it occurred to him.
He was home. Not the house he’d lived in recently, but the one he’d called home as a child. Was that only just a hundred years ago? Hard to believe. But at twenty-two he’d finally convinced a friend of his to change him to what he was. It had been hellish, but he was something to be proud of, even though his parents had never seen it that way. They’d been more backwards than he’d ever dreamed, stupid in their inability to see what wonderful things could come to them now. His father had been waiting for him, it seemed, when he’d gone back to tell them what he’d done.

“
You get on out of here. Don’t want your kind hanging around us folks.” His father had stood in the doorway to their lean-to house with the borrowed gun in his hands. He knew it was borrowed because his family had had no money and his father would never steal anything. “You heard me. Get yourself on out of here.”

“
I’m your son, Dad. Let me tell you what’s happened to me. There is so many things I can help you with, so many things I can get for you. Let me in, please?” His father had lifted the gun to his shoulder and didn’t answer. “At least let me see Mother then. She of all people will understand why I’ve done this. And I’ve done this for her especially.” It was a lie. He’d done this not with his family in mind but what he’d gain from it. How he was going to live forever. How, and soon too, he was going to have all the things his family had never given him, which was the world.

“
She’s gone on to meet her maker.” It took Fletcher several seconds to realize that his dad hadn’t meant that she’d been turned too and was seeing the man who had turned her, but that she’d died. “She done went and died of a broken heart on what you done did. And the shame. She was shamed by what you did. Shamed enough to die at her own hand.”

“
Let me see her.” He knew on some level that he couldn’t bring her back, but he wanted to try. “Invite me in and let me see to her. Maybe I can change her too and she can live. I don’t want her to die hating me.”

“
You think I’m gonna let you touch her? With your soiled hands?” His father had laughed. “You always were about as dumb as a rock with a split in it. You thinking…damned if I don’t think you do think that. You think she’d be the monster you are? You think…you done broke her heart and now she’s gone. And I want you gone too. I’m thinking you done did enough damage to this here family and our name. You’re a monster, and monsters don’t have families. Get on out of here.”

“
She’s my mother. I have the right to—” The buckshot tore into his skin, and Fletcher knew that if he didn’t have someone help him pull it from his body before he fed, he’d be riddled with it. “What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to kill me? I’m your son, your only child, and you want me dead? You hate me that much?”

His father
’s “Yes” had him taking a step back. “I’m not telling you again to get yourself away from here. And don’t you be returning either. I’ve quit of you. I no longer have a son, first born or last. You are dead to me.”

Grief took his breath away
, and Fletcher moved back into the trees that surrounded his family home. He’d been shunned by the entire town too. And when he’d been able to, he’d left there, never to return. Until now. And he wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten here. Looking around, he wondered where the years had gone. It had been fun, up until now. But he was going to overcome this too.

The house
, of course, was gone. The one-room shack had been falling down around his parents’ head for years before he left, and at some point someone had simply helped it along its way apparently. Now sitting in its place was a trailer. He nearly turned away when the front door opened. He stood mesmerized as people spilled from it, and he felt a sudden connection.

The woman standing there, huge with pregnancy
, looked like someone he knew. But he couldn’t place her or the man who had come out just ahead of her and helped her down the stairs. As he watched, the young man went back into the house and helped an elderly woman out in much the same way as he had the pregnant one, and helped her sit on the chair with several cushions on it. Fletcher moved closer and pulled the shadows around him to see if he could figure it out.

“
I don’t think I’m long for this world. I’m just hoping that I can live to see that one being born.” The elderly woman put her hand on the protruding belly and laughed a little. “Yep. Who would have thought that I’ve have me a grandbaby. I wish I had more time.”

“
You have a great deal of time, Grandma. And we won’t hear any differently.” Even as far away as he was, Fletcher could hear the older woman’s heart skip beats as it worked in her chest. It sounded tired and out of rhythm with the one nearest to him. The young woman continued as she ran her hand over her huge belly. “I’m just sorry Grandda couldn’t have lived to hold her. So you have to stick around so you can tell him when you leave us. A long time from now.”

The elderly woman looked in his direction.
Fletcher didn’t move but felt as if the woman could not only see him but could hear his own heart as it pounded in his chest. When she asked for a glass of water, the pregnant woman got up and went into the trailer and the man went with her. Fletcher moved closer and let her see him.

“
You’re still alive, I see.” He nodded, not sure what the hell he was supposed to say to her, but had a feeling that she knew who he was. “I told Momma when she talked about you you’d be too smart to let anyone kill you off. I never heard anyone talk about you in a good way, but I figured if you were her brother, there had to be some good in you.”