Chapter 17 #2
Henri and I didn’t go far before I spotted something ahead—multiple somethings. Two wiry bodies were shuffling through the trees and foliage, the normally sweet air tinged with a hint of day-old vomit and decay.
If I hadn’t already become desensitized to pulling long strands of grass covered with poop out of Duncan’s butt from time to time and having to gag on the few occasions he’d thrown up a carcass he shouldn’t have eaten, I might have started retching.
Maybe I wouldn’t be able to eat dinner tonight after this, but I’d worry about it later. A breeze picked up from behind us, going straight for the two figures.
The bogeymen whipped around.
I didn’t like to call anything ugly, but… damn . With splotchy pale gray skin, thinning hair at the tops of their heads, and a build that was borderline emaciated, they weren’t attractive beings. Small, membrane-like wings, that didn’t look like they could carry five pounds, were dark and tucked against their bony, hunched bare backs. Apart from their body odor, I could confirm that they had terrible breath in both forms—the one I’d met as a human man had apologized for his halitosis from the beginning.
There was a reason why rumors said they didn’t mate often.
I lifted my hand and waved at them.
Thin mouths parted, and beside me, Henri went still.
“Hi,” I called out.
Henri’s head swiveled in my direction, but he didn’t tell me to stop.
“Forgive… us….” The first one slurred through large, too blunt teeth. He might have had an overbite.
Before our eyes, the air shimmered and two lean men, about average height, appeared. They were both dark-haired and dark-eyed. They were okay-looking, but there was nothing memorable or striking about them.
One of them started wringing his hands. “We tried the gate, but no one would let us in,” the bogeyman claimed, his eyes nervously sliding to Henri. “We parked at the road and used our magic to follow a trail.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t Crown Prince Wolfiness standing there, silently, breathing loudly through his nose, the muscles at his arms flexing as his hands formed fists.
Their throats bobbed, and the men glanced at each other.
The second one seemed to steel himself before his voice came out strained. “We mean no harm. We’re looking for….” The man, who looked to be somewhere in his thirties or forties, glanced at the other guy, who, now that I could see them well, had some physical similarities that made me assume they could be related, even brothers. “We heard a rumor of a young one….”
Henri took a sidestep in my direction, his hand palming my lower back.
“One who smells like life,” the bogeyman finished, his lean features expectant but clearly nervous.
I didn’t need visual confirmation to know Henri was pissed, and if they had decent noses, they’d be able to tell that too.
“We want to have kids,” the other man almost blurted out, his voice emotional. “We were hoping for a blessing. We’ll pay for it! It would mean the world to us. We mean no disrespect. We tried the gate so many times, and we leave tomorrow….”
The fingers on my back went from flat to clutching the material of my T-shirt from Idaho.
“What is it?” I whispered, peeking up at him.
His left eyebrow went up that signature millimeter he wasn’t allowed to go over without special permission. He seemed to be thinking real intently about something. His attention was on the bogeymen, but I knew he was talking to me when he finally replied, “They’re not looking for me, young one.”
I wouldn’t say I smelled like life. I wouldn’t say that at all. No one had ever given me that idea. Not in any way. It had always been the opposite—except for the kids and Henri telling me I was the equivalent of a pastry, that is.
But right then, Henri was standing there like he was waiting for me to say something, to do something….
He peeked at me right back I guess, when I didn’t reply.
I did that “come here” gesture he was so fond of with my index finger and was pretty pleased when he leaned in close enough that I could ask straight into his ear, “You think they’re talking about me?”
He stayed right where he was with his earlobe a hair away from my mouth. “There’s nobody else it could be,” he answered, and I’d swear I felt his skin graze my lip for a millisecond.
“You’re sure?” I whispered, backing up an inch so I wouldn’t do it again.
His head twisted, and those amber eyes roamed my face when he was at the right angle, and… was that a tender little smile on his mouth? On that serious face? “What do you think fertility is?” he asked before lifting his hand and touching my chin with light fingers. “You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to.”
“I can’t do anything; that’s not the way I work,” I explained, forcing myself not to stare at his lips so close. The top one had the most perfect little bow to it. How had I never noticed that before?
“Tell them that, then, because I’ve been ready to drag their asses off my land for the last fifteen minutes, and they’re lucky I’m feeling more generous than I ever have before with a trespasser.” That time, he didn’t bother lowering his voice. Not at all. “They’re risking their lives coming onto my land, and they know that.”
He did have murder eyes a couple minutes ago. I grimaced.
The pad of one of his fingers slid to the corner of my mouth, and he did that scowl-frown thing again. “I’m running out of patience. Do what you’re going to do, or don’t, but decide. Their odor is starting to give me a headache, and I’ve been told I get grumpy when I get one.”
I smirked at the idea of him being grumpy. Serious, often and frequently. Broody, every once in a while. But grumpy? Aww.
But the weight of his words settled into my heart, at what he thought they knew they were risking by trespassing. At what they wanted. Just reproduction. No biggie. Sure.
I nodded at him and turned to the men. Might as well be up front about it. “That’s not the way my magic works,” I called out and scratched my cheek.
Two sets of eyeballs went wide, and I tried to ignore the fact that even they didn’t believe me. “You’re the one?”
That was definitely a touch of disappointment in their voices.
I smiled. “Neo is the one. I’m just Nina.” I shrugged. “But I think it’s me you’re talking about. Maybe. I can’t just… you know… it isn’t like that. I haven’t done a study if I work on men or women, or both.”
There was a sigh beside me. “It’s her,” Henri assured them, the slightest little growl in his tone.
If we were doing this, we needed to hurry up. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said he was losing his patience.
The men turned to each other. One of them bobbed his head. “A blessing… a touch… anything would be welcome.”
“Anything,” the other reiterated.
A blessing?
“Please, we would love a son or a daughter. Would do anything for one,” the bogeyman on the right pleaded, his wish so heartfelt even if I wasn’t convinced they believed us.
A slightly louder low growl started up in Henri’s chest, and I made a decision right then.
Telling myself to hold my breath, I started marching over there. At least I tried. I made it two steps before a hand landed on my shoulder. Before the momentum could stop me, Henri’s velvet grumble muttered, “Hold on a second, cowboy. You’re not going over there alone.”
I was such a sucker for Protective Henri. That was an undisputed fact.
And Matti’s admission came back right then and there, trying to lull me with a false sense of hope. Maybe my smile dimmed a little as I put a lid on it, but….
Henri was just trying to take care of me in his own way. And that was going to be all right with me. I smiled up at him so hard my cheeks hurt, and I didn’t miss the way his features softened. Only for a second, but they did.
Side by side, we walked toward them together. Henri was so close, his arm brushed my shoulder when we stopped a few feet away from the two. “I can’t do anything like what you’re asking for on purpose, but what about a hug?” I offered, telling myself I wasn’t wasting their time. I’d been up front about it. They’d insisted.
“A hug?” Right Bogeyman asked carefully.
All right, guess not that. I thought about it and held out my hand. “A handshake…?”
A thought made me straighten, and I took off my bracelet and bent to set it on the ground. “Or maybe I’m not who you’re looking for.” I raised my head and they… they… they both looked stunned all of a sudden.
Not a little stunned but s-t-u-n-n-e-d. I might even say flabbergasted.
And in the blink of an eye, whatever adjective that could’ve been used to describe the one bogeyman’s face turned to pure excitement, and before anything else came out of my mouth, they both threw their arms around me.
These two strange men with questionable body odor, whose names I didn’t know, who I had never seen or sensed before, hugged me.
Hugged the crap out of me the same way Sienna did after we hadn’t seen each other in a couple months.
The same way my parents did every time we were reunited since we’d moved away from each other.
Their frames trembled as I closed my arms around them too, trying to hold my breath in case I smelled something I couldn’t hide a reaction from.
I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.
“Oh,” Left Bogeyman said in a way that sounded so… relieved? The arms around me tightened, their shaking intensifying. One of their hands curled into my T-shirt.
“That’s enough,” a deep, snarly voice barked at the same time a palm landed on my lower back one more time.
The bogeymen reacted instantly, releasing me, and one of them bowed. Then the other one did the same, their unremarkable, lean faces bright and shining and so hopeful it made my heart squeeze.
Was one of them tearing up?
“Thank you, thank you,” the one on the left choked out with another bow that made me uncomfortable.
Right Bogeyman reached into his back pocket, earning a clear, loud growl from Henri that was anything but human, and the man lifted his hands, palms toward us, holding his wallet. “I mean no harm,” he gulped as he dug into it and started pulling out cash.
I watched as he held out a handful of bills. Hundreds and twenties it looked like. “Please, for your blessing,” Right Bogeyman explained.
The hand still on my back twitched, and I could see Henri’s face out of the corner of my eye. He was gritting his teeth, so I shook my head at the stranger. “No, you don’t have to. That wasn’t… I told you, that’s not how it works.”
The bogeyman eyed Henri, before rushing out, “In the old days?—”
“I’m only in my thirties!” I cleared my throat and lowered my voice. “The old days for me was having a flip phone,” I told them with a slight laugh.
“But—”
The human chainsaw beside me got louder.
For their sakes, I took a side-step closer to Henri, the hand on my lower back moving with me, and the next thing I knew, his arm was draped over my shoulders.
And the man, who I’d been thinking less than an hour ago that I might be developing serious feelings for, drew me in to his side, tight, so much tighter than I ever would have expected, my shoulder nestling perfectly under his armpit while he literally tucked me into him. Fingertips grazed the exposed skin of my arm before he wrapped his whole hand around it. Lifting my head, I found him glaring at the strangers with narrowed eyes and a…
That was an interesting face.
He reminded me of Matti when we’d been young and a human kid in school who didn’t know any better would try stealing food off his plate.
That poor idiot had no clue how close he’d been to getting bit.
“My patience has run out,” Henri spat through clenched teeth. “Pretend this never happened. That can be your payment.” He looked at them through slitted eyes. “If I catch you anywhere near here or hear that you’ve told someone about what happened today, I will find you. Both of you. Understood?”
The bogeymen bowed immediately, the one holding his wallet stuffing it back into his pocket. “Thank… thank you for your graciousness,” the left one stuttered before he focused on me with his simultaneously nervous and joyous plain face. “Thank you for your kindness, your gift?—”
“Get off my property before I change my mind and show you what I do to trespassers.” The hard body lined up along mine pointed at a specific direction and growled, “Be fast.”
The men took off.
We watched them, or at least I did for a minute before tilting my head up.
Henri hadn’t been paying them any attention anymore. That focus was down. On me.
His mouth was already flat, his gaze narrowed. He was thinking. He was thinking long and hard, all right. His cheek was doing that pop thing. Pop, pop, pop.
Reaching for him, I squeezed the fingers that were holding my other upper arm. “You okay? You’re sure you’re fine letting them go?” I asked, not positive what I would do if he said he wasn’t. I didn’t want him to hurt them, not as long as they were really leaving and would keep their word.
“I’m fine,” he answered, staring me right in the eyes with that sober freaking face.
“That’s good,” I said before biting the inside of my cheek and coming to a decision. “About that….”
Henri was taking me in like he’d never seen me before.
It made me nervous.
“Don’t finish that sentence. The last time I met one of their kind, it didn’t end well,” he cut me off. It was what he said next that had me blinking. “You did a nice thing. Hope in itself is a gift.”
He wasn’t wrong about that, but it didn’t make me feel less self-conscious. A part of me wanted to pretend that hadn’t just happened, so I did what I usually did when I wanted to change the subject.
I poked Henri in the solid wall that were his abs. “See? Told you I was going to be your bodyguard.”
He blinked, and it made me grin.
But a thought occurred to me suddenly. My stomach dropped. “I’m not worried about myself, but if someone in the community is talking… are they going to spread rumors about Duncan?”
“No.” Henri sounded so certain. “You don’t need to worry about that. The children are the greatest treasure we have in our community. No one would say a word. Not even Dominic. To put a child in jeopardy is to sacrifice your life.”
I almost sighed with relief, trusting his every word.
“Come on, let’s—” His ringtone went off, irritation taking over his face as he pulled his phone out. “One second,” he warned before touching the screen. “Henri,” he answered, his tone deceptively polite. The person on the other line would never know his jaw was clenched the whole time.
Since his focus was still on me, I tipped my head in the direction of where we’d left the UTV, and he nodded. He didn’t say more than “yes” and “correct” the entire walk back to it. Even when he picked up my bracelet where I’d dropped it, he only handed it to me. Something else came out of his mouth when he got behind the wheel that sounded like he’d ended the call, but Henri had barely pulled the phone away from his cheek when it went off again. It was another call from the ranch based off his “Henri.”
No wonder Matti and his dad had left this place behind.
Did they ever leave him alone around here? Did he ever get a day off to relax? I deflated at the idea that he didn’t, because every time I racked my brain for a sign that he got time off, not including the few play sessions outside and the night he’d watched movies with us, I couldn’t get any solid evidence otherwise.
Which got me thinking….
He stayed on the phone the entire way back to the clubhouse, shooting me an occasional apologetic face, his hands flexing and gripping the steering wheel, his knuckles going white on and off the whole ride. When we got to the warehouse, he pulled in, still listening to someone ramble on the other end.
Those amber irises slid toward me after he parked, and he shook his head, his whole expression just… tired.
Almost pained.
I held up my index finger just like he’d taught me and got out, leaving him there to run into the clubhouse. It didn’t take me long to get up to my room and get what I needed. My trip to the kitchen didn’t take long either, and neither did jogging out to the parking lot to back my truck up to my RV and hitch it up.
It might have been about fifteen minutes max by the time I circled back to the warehouse, not sure I was going to find Henri still there, but he was .
In the same position I’d left him in. One hand was cupping his forehead, eyes closed as he said in a flat voice, “I know you’re upset that your water heater can’t be repaired today, but if Shane said you need a new one, then you need a new one, Margaret. You’re more than welcome to stay in the clubhouse until then.”
He lowered his hand and gave me a flat smile when I slid onto the bench seat beside him.
A few more things were grumbled, and about five minutes of reassurances and apologies later, he dropped his hand with his phone in it on the seat between us.
He blew three normal-people-sized breaths out of his mouth at once.
I gave him a second to decompress before setting my keys beside where his hand was resting on the seat. The movement caught his attention, and he gave me that neutral expression he was so good at. I flicked the keys a little closer to his fingers.
“Right now, there are a whole bunch of leftovers sitting in the fridge of my RV. There’s enough gas in the generator and water in the tanks for maybe two days, if you don’t flush the toilet every time you pee. My best guess is that there’s two days of drinking water in bottles, if you don’t stop and get more. My trailer is already hooked up to my truck, ready to go. We can trade phones, so you aren’t without one in case of emergencies, and I’ll deal with whatever calls come in while you’re gone,” I explained my plan to him in a rush.
Henri blinked.
“I’ll tell everybody you got called into work, and if your work reaches out, I can contact you on my phone and pass the message along,” I went on, hoping I’d covered all our bases. “ And nobody will know I’m lying because it’ll be on the phone.”
That bottom lip slowly unpeeled from his top one in what I would call the closest thing to his mouth gaping as he might ever get.
I kept on going. “I know I’m not qualified to handle running this place, but I can listen to someone complain just as well as you can. Plus, I have no problem telling them to call whoever gets paid to do that specific job, Fluff. I work in customer service. I’m a professional at resolving issues,” I told him with a straight face. “If you want to look at it like this: I’ve kind of been training for this, not my whole life, but for a long time.”
Henri blinked again before his attention dropped to my keys sitting beside his hand again, and his throat bobbed.
I pushed them closer. “I’ve got about half a tank of gas in my truck,” I let him know.
Another very, very deep breath left that incredible body. And I almost didn’t hear him start to say in a strangled voice, “You’re….” He paused, his forehead wrinkling. “You’d do that?”
Did he have to sound so surprised?
I pinched my lips together. “Your Furry Highness, you’re tired, you’re overworked, and I think you might have needed a vacation five years ago. Go. If it’s life or death, I’ll call you. I’ll lie out of my teeth if I have to first though. I promise to exercise sound judgment. I won’t let you down. You can trust me,” I told him seriously, meaning every word and hoping he was aware of it. “You’re the one always taking care of everybody else. Let me help you out this time.”
He was quiet for so long, his expression so blank, so still, that I honestly had no idea what he was going to decide.
Then those amber irises caught mine, and he started shaking his head. “I don’t?—”
“You don’t have anything to feel bad for. From everything I’ve learned around here, it’s a well-oiled machine. Residents don’t bother you when you’re on shift, and I’ve heard some of your work conversations—they’re not that important. Right? If it’s an emergency, I can call you. The only people who might text or call are Matti and Sienna. I talked to my parents last night, so you won’t hear from them either. My phone won’t go off much if you have it,” I told him.
That chest I might have been becoming obsessed with rose and fell, and… he nodded.
Henri freaking nodded.
Those long fingers curled around my keys, and he palmed them. “I don’t know where I’m going,” he let me know. “I won’t go far.”
“I don’t need to know.” I shooed him. “Go. I’ve got this. My job is dealing with upset people. It’s a science, and I’m nice, but I’m not that much of a pushover. The customer isn’t always right when they’re shopping at the Nina Trading Company. A little tough love never killed anybody. Go.”
He didn’t go right then; he hesitated with my keys in his hand, thinking it over, and probably thinking it over again.
But Henri gave me a look—a warm, nice one—that made me beam at him.
At this hardworking, loyal man who made the bones that made up my chest feel too small for my heart.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, and in the next second, he was gone.
* * *