My Furry Valentine Read online

  I shouldn't have been surprised when it worked. Marcie hadn't given me bad information yet.

  We left the library and visited the playroom adjacent to the Great Hall. I was surprised by how much Marcie’s son had grown. Maybe one day — way in the future — I would have children. I don’t know if I was that brave, frankly, not with monsters like Maddock roaming around.

  Antonia was having a tea party with Jack who was sitting on his haunches in the opposite chair, watching all of her movements. When she poured some imaginary tea into his cup, he only tilted his head slightly in acknowledgment of it. I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if Antonia had the ability to turn imaginary food into the real thing.

  When she saw us, she looked up and smiled.

  Jack gave us a single yippy bark as if to greet us as well.

  "Say goodbye to Torrance, Antonia," Marcie said.

  “Do you really have to leave, Torrance? Can’t you stay?”

  “Not today, sweetie," I said. “I have something I have to do.”

  She left the table and came and hugged me. I always got an electrical charge when Antonia hugged me, as if she were a being comprised of energy.

  “I’m sorry, Torrance. The cat lady is mean.”

  I pulled back, looked into her almost six year old face and wanted to ask what she knew. Marcie’s presence stopped me. Or maybe it was that I felt ridiculous asking a child for guidance.

  I said my goodbyes and left the castle, still practicing the spell. It became my mantra all the way back to the clinic. Whenever I heard a new sound, I repeated it again. I’m sure it would become automatic after saying it for a few hundred times, but right now it was a pain.

  There was no drama at the clinic. Derek wasn't around and neither was Alice. Maryann didn't look at me as she pushed the paperwork across the counter for me to sign. She did, however, watch me sign my name. I figured out why a moment later when she notarized the documents.

  "Do you want a copy of it now?" she asked in a dispassionate voice. It was as if we’d never laughed together or like we were strangers. Maybe we were.

  I didn't like the feeling I was getting. Everything I had thought was right and proper and normal in my world had suddenly turned weird. It was the same sensation I’d had two weeks ago when my brother tried to kill me. Oh, I'm sure he didn't start off with murderous intent, but I don't think Austin would have been all that upset if his grand plans for me had been screwed up and I’d died instead of being transfused.

  My brother had objected to my Pranic blood and had planned to rid me of it, even if it meant not topping the tank.

  I'd felt that same kind of discordance then and I felt it now, standing there, being treated like I was a stranger by a person with whom I'd worked closely.

  "Or I can send you a copy after Derek signs it," Marianne said.

  “I’d like a copy now,” I said. “And a copy after Derek signs it. Would you like me to pay for the postage?”

  Okay, maybe a little snark escaped. I wasn’t being as professional as I should have been.

  Her mouth turned down at one corner, but she didn't reply.

  I took my copy, folded it, and put it in my purse. Without saying another word I turned and walked out of the clinic.

  Daylight Savings Time ended next month. I, for one, was grateful that it was still light when I headed home. I caught myself glancing west more than once. Okay, maybe I carried an axe in the backseat just in case I encountered Maddock, but I'd much rather be somewhere safer, like home, after dark.

  The Master Vampire had done a number on me all right.

  I waved to Wilson as I pulled into the back of Graystone. Several men he'd hired to excavate the area for the Rose Garden were industriously working, some of them with their shirts off. It didn't get cool enough in South Texas to consider it autumn until nearly December. Air conditioning was almost a twelve month necessity.

  A few years ago I'd spent a fortune installing central heat and air at Graystone. It had been a wise investment, especially since I had set up zones throughout the house. I could turn on the air conditioning in the bedrooms and leave the downstairs alone. Graystone had fifty three rooms which meant that the Brood and I had plenty of space to play hide and seek if we wanted. Before Mark left, Graystone hadn’t felt so huge. And empty.

  The porch area was split in half. One side, for people, was open and only screened in. The other side had louvered windows and was climate controlled since it was for the Brood.

  Pepper, Dalton, and Cherry Pip were barking excitedly before I got out of the car. I was home early so they knew something was up. Some of the barking was in anticipatory protest. They didn't want to go to the groomers and they didn't want to be taken to the clinic for examinations or shots.

  No worries there.

  Instead of heading for the porch I turned and walked toward the back of the property and the small house Simon used as his headquarters. He’d begun as an occasional caretaker for Graystone, but had become full time during the past year.

  I needed to talk to Simon and flesh out the idea that had occurred to me after I left the clinic. I didn't have any zoning restrictions at Graystone. I could do what I wanted with the several acres behind the main house. Because of my grandmother’s inheritance, I had enough money to pull off what I was thinking of doing. I certainly had the time.

  Instead of going to work for someone else and possibly encountering another Alice, I was thinking of starting my own veterinary practice. Simon, Graystone’s genius caretaker, could act as general contractor to build the clinic.

  The more I thought about it, the more feasible the idea became. Plus, I could hire Betty and maybe a few of the other vet techs I liked.

  Wouldn't that just frost Derek?

  Before I continued with the idea, I needed to do some more investigative work. At least that project would take my mind off of other things. Maddock, for one. Mark, for another. He’d called me every day since he’d been gone, but he hadn’t told me what he was doing. I wondered if it had something to do with his blood research, a little bit of information he’d let slip two weeks ago. His secrecy was probably necessary, given that they were working with vampire blood.

  Whenever I got a little itchy about his reserve I remembered that I hadn’t been exactly honest, either. I’d never told him how spooked I was feeling after the vampire attack. My fear annoyed me because I’d never felt that way at Graystone.

  My grandmother had left me the house and the property as well as the shipping fortune she’d inherited and built up in her lifetime. Not a day went by that I didn't think of her. I wondered what she would've thought of what I’d made of my life so far. More than once I’d wished she was here to give me advice.

  We’d been like two peas in a pod. Both of us were rebels and not so secretly. We’d each chafed against the rules of the society into which we’d been born. Things like serving a male Were first and walking at least seven paces behind any male. That, alone, drove me nuts. My father had gotten better in the past few months, however, in that he didn’t demand such behavior. Baby steps.

  An obedient and rules-loving Were female would have immediately turned any inheritance she’d received to the alpha male in her family. My grandmother hadn’t. Neither had I.

  It was a good thing I’d kept it since I was no longer gainfully employed. I would never have to move back home and be taken care of by my parents. Frankly, Maddock invading Graystone would have been preferable to living at home at the age of thirty-two. Oops, thirty-three. I’d recently had a birthday and I kept forgetting to up my age.

  Even as a child, I found that I had more in common with my grandmother than anyone else. Yet I felt almost disloyal choosing to spend my free hours with her rather than my other female relatives. It was my mother who’d given me permission to be my grandmother’s shadow.

  "Go and be with Sonia, Torrance. She enjoys your company so much.”

  My grandmother was Sonia Demetriou, a member of o
ne of the original Were five families. Other than teaching me some dances, she hadn’t passed much of her Greek heritage on to me.

  I called her Sonny. She called me Tor, the only person who ever had.

  She was my idol, the person I most wanted to be like. She was unrestrained, exuberant, and filled with life. I’d never heard her say anything bad about anyone. Even her exasperation with her son — my father — had been couched in affection.

  "All the time he forgets," she’d often said. “He thinks I am sweet and shy, but I am Greek. He is only half Scot; he is half Greek. We are as passionate as the Scots, but we are not so cold.”

  I never talked to my father about Sonny. It was one of the many subjects we chose to avoid.

  Simon wasn’t in the little house, but he’d left a note that he was at the home supply store. He had a credit card that I paid every month, but he’d never taken advantage of it. His purchases were always reasonable, understandable, and necessary. Graystone wasn’t cheap to maintain. Look at how much it was going to cost to repair the area around the bell tower. Simon hadn’t said anything about the long, deep groves Maddock had made in the stone. I hadn’t volunteered any information, either.

  One of these days I have to have a heart to heart talk with Simon and tell him exactly who I was. That was a conversation I didn’t want to have just yet. Alice was probably right. Sooner or later the world was going to learn about Weres. I preferred it was later, frankly.

  The Brood was still barking. I decided to call Simon later about my idea and made my way back to Graystone.

  Chapter Seven

  Cherry Pip had been a basket case two weeks ago

  Although it was a good two hours until dark, I went around the house and double checked the windows and doors just like I had this morning, last night, yesterday morning, etc. Checking the locks wasn’t all that necessary, especially since I had an alarm system and a glass breaking alert. Big whoop. I’d get a whole thirty seconds notice that I was being invaded. However, the ritual calmed me a little and made me feel as if I were actually in control of my life.

  From what Marcie said, Maddock had humans working for him. All they had to do was get into the house and invite Maddock in. He wouldn’t have to wait for me to be the gracious hostess.

  If crosses, garlic, and mirrors had worked, I would've bought a couple of thousand of each and sprinkled them over every threshold and windowsill at Graystone.

  I didn’t want Maddock anywhere near me or the Brood.

  All I had was my trusty axe in the car and a wicked looking scimitar kind of thing that I stashed behind the end table in my bedroom. Mark hadn’t said anything about it when he’d seen it there. If the only way to get rid of a vampire was to cut off his head, I was prepared.

  As far as the Brood was concerned, they probably knew I was acting weird but life had changed for us two weeks ago. Up until then I’d been naive, thinking that being a Furry would be enough to protect me. Add to that the fact that I was now Pranic and I thought I was covered. That was before a vampire horde had descended on Graystone. Now everything was up for reevaluation.

  The Brood followed me up the stairs to the second floor as I checked all the bedrooms.

  My grandmother had been a San Antonio Spurs season ticket holder for years. One of her favorite memories had been meeting David Robinson, the “Admiral”.

  “His hands, Tor! He has the largest hands I’ve ever seen. Plus, he’s very, very tall.”

  I’d been amused at her hero worship, not explaining that any professional basketball player was bound to be tall.

  She’d gone on to name every one of the bedroom suites for famous Spurs players. As I entered each room I couldn’t help but smile at the brass plaques.

  Nothing was out of the ordinary on the second floor, so I went up to the third floor, the Brood following. They weren’t acting odd, either. Pepper wasn’t barking and Cherry Pip wasn’t whining in that way she had that let me know she was worried.

  Every time I came back to the attic I got that empty feeling in my stomach. I clicked on the light, bracing myself for what I might see. I shouldn’t have worried. Nothing was there. Austin wasn’t lurking in the shadows, and his girlfriend, Medical School Carol, wasn’t hiding behind him, both of them ready to un-Pranic me.

  I still hadn’t said anything to either one of my parents or my sister. What could I say? To fully explain everything I’d have to tell them that I was Pranic and admit that I’d agreed to a transfusion. Since my father was the alpha of our clan that wouldn’t be the best admission to make. No one ever came out and said they wanted to be something other than a Furry. The fact that I was now on the Were Council — an appointment my father had made — was an additional complication.

  I turned to go back downstairs, the Brood at my heels.

  Pepper, the Chihuahua and schnauzer mix, was the leader of the Brood. Although she was smaller than the other two dogs, they deferred to her. Dalton, the yellow lab with hints of something else, was the biggest of the three, but he was basically a scaredy cat. Cherry Pip was in the middle, courage wise. She was part border collie, part corgi, which meant that she would probably always look chunky even after she lost the rest of her excess weight. She was a smart dog and a barometer, in a fashion. Cherry Pip was always the first one to pick up on something happening in the house. When in doubt, I always glanced at Cherry Pip. If she wasn’t disturbed, I relaxed.

  Cherry Pip had been a basket case two weeks ago.

  The Brood had been rescued from the streets by a client of mine at the clinic. I made a mental note to send Dorothy an email telling her that I was no longer there. She and her husband, Fred, were on an around the world cruise which I suspected was the last ditch effort to save their forty year marriage.

  "You get so used to having someone around," Dorothy said before they left. "You think to yourself, it's never going to be any different. But then he starts getting the wandering eye at his age, and you start to imagine what it might be like not to have to put up with him.” She looked at me with a smile. “And the idea isn’t so bad.”

  I hoped whatever decision they made would be easy on Dorothy. She was a sweetie with a generous heart.

  We returned to the first floor. As I walked down the hall that bisected the house the smell of roses was so strong it nearly knocked me off my feet. I made a detour into the Silver Parlor and glanced out the window. No eighteen wheeler filled with rose bushes out there.

  Roses had been my grandmother’s favorite flower. That’s one of the reasons Wilson and I were planning the massive rose garden, as a tribute to Sonny.

  Wilson was all for having heritage roses, blooms that had been around for a few hundred years. I’d assumed all the prep work was for just that kind of rose, but I had yet to learn the finer points of horticulture. I depended on Wilson to be my guide.

  The smell still lingered in the air as I walked back to the kitchen. I don’t think I had any room fresheners installed right now. I always forgot to replace them, so it was sort of a one-off deal with me. I’d see something, buy it, either plug it in or put it on a shelf and promptly forget about it.

  I hadn’t done that in a while, so why was I smelling roses?

  Maybe it was my imagination playing tricks on me. Or maybe it was another Pranic hallucination, this one engaging my olfactory senses instead of my visual and auditory ones.

  I looked down at the Brood, all of them eager since I’d entered the kitchen. It wasn’t time for dinner, but they were ever hopeful. To their disappointment, I walked into the porch area and sat on the couch. Pepper jumped into my lap and the other two crowded around my knees.

  “I’ve had a sucky day so far,” I said. “How was yours?”

  They got even closer, Pepper wiggling his butt, Cherry Pip looking forlorn. I did the scratching thing on Dalton and Cherry Pip with both hands while balancing Pepper on my lap.

  “I got fired.” There, I said it out loud. “It wasn’t a fair firing,” I explaine
d. “It wasn’t for anything that I did, although Derek tried to say it was. I had the time coming. I don’t know what Alice said, but it was something. Or she blackmailed him.”

  They all looked fascinated.

  “It was easier just to leave than to fight it.”

  Still, it gave me an odd feeling to have surrendered so easily. I hadn’t been that weak when it came to a battle with the vampires. Maybe I was just picking my confrontations more carefully. Or maybe it was just that I’d realized that there was nothing I could have done.

  The smell of roses was getting stronger. Dalton stuck his nose in the air and sniffed. Evidently, it wasn’t my Pranic senses playing tricks on me.

  I put Pepper down on the floor and stood, walking through the house to the grand staircase.

  The sun was shining brightly through the fanlight atop the double front doors. It wasn’t time for bed yet, but I longed to dive onto my mattress, pull the covers over my head and stay there for a few days. I couldn’t, however. The Brood depended on me.

  I walked down the hall. The rose scent was stronger here.

  Chapter Eight

  My grandmother the ottoman

  I headed for the Sun Parlor, one of my grandmother’s favorite rooms. The furniture was upholstered in a yellow chintz pattern, and every single piece, from the two overstuffed chairs, the sofa, and the large round and tufted ottoman were comfy and inviting.

  I sank down in the chair where I’d often sat when my grandmother was alive, and spoke to the center of the room.

  “Sonny?”

  My grandmother hadn’t wanted to be called Yaya, the Greek for grandmother. Or Nana, Gran, Grammy, or any combination thereof. We’d finally settled on Sonny, a derivation of her first name. My father hadn’t approved, but that had only pleased my grandmother who occasionally — and deliberately — annoyed her son.

  “Why now?” I asked. “I mean, if you’re going to haunt me, Sonny, why today?”