Epilogue
Cherry
Hudson purred in my lap as I typed away contentedly. I would have preferred to have been outside jumping on the trampoline my neighbors just got, but as it were, I needed to finish up my report on my last big case.
I hadn’t expected it to turn into such a crazy happenstance that had spanned a month, but when a leprechaun came in trying to find the thief who stole his pot of gold, how was I supposed to know it would end up leading to a cult run by a literal wolf on Wall Street?
But debatably virginal sacrifices for finances or not, that case was done and dusted with the leprechaun getting his clan’s gold back just in time to fund the college tuition for his triplet nieces, who decided that they were going to be a doctor, a dentist, and a lawyer, respectively.
Maybe I could just finish typing this tomorrow.
That’s what you’ve said for the past two weeks.
True.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t do it tomorrow…
Did I take my meds today?
It was a fair question, and I stood to go check the little calendar Paul had set up for me in the kitchen. However, I didn’t quite make it there before a knock sounded at the door.
Curious, I paused, reaching out to sense if there was hostility on the other side of the door.
Unfortunately, in the year since confessing to being an empath on the nightly news, I’d learned that not all company was good company.
We had certain precautions in place—security cameras and the like, shutters that could seal over every entrance to lock the house down—but when Paul had suggested me having permanent security on the VanMarches dime, I politely declined.
Sure, it might have been the wise decision, but I could not imagine a more choking way of existing. And not in the fun way, either.
“Hello?” I asked, wracking my brain to try to figure out who the energy signature belonged to. I felt like it was just on the very edge of my brain, but my recall was totally giving out.
“Miss Psychic lady?” a young voice I almost recognized asked from the other side of the door.
“Uhm, it’s Miss Empath, actually,” I said, crossing to the door and opening it to reveal a young preteen and his insanely huge dog. “Do I— wait a minute! ”
It clicked right as he opened his mouth to show a full smile rather than the gap-toothed one from a little over a year ago.
“Hi. I was just taking my dog on a walk and I thought you might want to meet the guy you helped save!”
“Holy shi- guacamole !” I quickly corrected. “Did you grow, like, a foot?”
The kid laughed like I was utterly hilarious, which made him good in my book. “No, but the doctor says I’ve definitely got more than that in me! Sorry I didn’t come by before. My auntie made life kinda... you know.”
I nodded, all too familiar with how dysfunctional family dynamics could spill out to everyone in the surrounding area.
“I understand. Time can really get away from you. But hey, since you’re here, why don’t you come in and give me an update on how the whole situation went down?
That is, if your mother would be okay with it.
” Because although I knew I was a good guy, essentially, I was some rando adult the kid had met on the internet.
“Oh, she’s the one who sent me. She saw something about you saving some swans that had been stolen from the zoo for a crazy sacrifice?”
“Nene, actually.”
“Huh?” The kid’s face scrunched up in the way that young ones often did when they weren’t sure if an adult was imparting obscure knowledge or teasing them. Man, I did not miss being that young.
“It was Nene, aka Hawaiian geese. Rarest in the world.”
“Why would anybody want to sacrifice a goose?”
“Well, it’s a bit abstract, but have you ever heard of the golden goose from Jack and the Beanstalk ?”
“Jack and the who?”
He doesn’t know Jack and the Beanstalk?
What are they teaching kids these days?
Probably Baby Shark and Cocomelon. ~Baby shark doodoodododo ~
Oh no.
Why did I have to activate that vocal stim?
~Baby shark doodoodododo~
“Eh, I’ll explain later. For now, I want to hear about how you got your best friend back!”
We headed inside, the shaggy mutt mix incredibly polite. He didn’t even jump on me once. Even after a year of being reunited, his adoration and energy seemed to be solely for the boy at his side. Or at least it was, until Hudson came sauntering in in her usual diva strut.
Crap! I thought she was asleep upstairs! ~Baby shark doodoodododo~
Irresponsible!
Oooo biiiig stretch !
~Baby shark doodoodododo~
Not NOW brain!
…~Baby shark doodoodododo~
“Sorry! Let me just put her away!”
“Don’t worry, he loves cats!”
Sure enough, the dog dropped onto his belly so fast I was surprised it didn’t force a burp out of him, his legs splooting out like he was a trophy rug. Given his size and insane coat, he did kind of look like a felled bear.
Hudson clocked the movement immediately, looked him up and down for a moment, then, to my great surprise, walked toward him and sat right in front of the mutt’s face, tail swishing lazily.
“Wow, you have trained your pup really well.”
“I didn’t really do that. He just really, really likes cats. And little dogs. And chickens, I guess, but that was just a one-time thing.”
As if to prove a point, the shaggy mountain of a mutt rolled over onto his back, his floppy jowls hanging comically as he gave Hudson the most adorable set of upside-down puppy dog eyes I’d ever seen (literally).
“You’re not kidding, are you?”
“Nope!”
I watched, terribly amused, as Hudson slowly stood, then marched right up the dog’s jaw and over his neck before curling into a ball on his belly and instantly purred.
Did… did my cat just make a best friend?
“Man, you’re lucky that this guy didn’t get snatched up when he was at that rescue. He’s so friendly!” And wasn’t that the way with so many big, hulking dogs?
“I know! We got him microchipped to make sure that nobody can ever do that again!”
I nodded along, not letting the knowledge that his mother’s sister could be so cruel spoil our moment. “You know, I apologize that I never asked, but what’s your friend’s name here? My cat’s Hudson, by the by.”
“It’s Mycroft,” he answered matter-of-factly like he’d just said Spot or Bruno.
“Wait, did you say Mycroft? ” I repeated, not sure if I’d heard right.
“Yep!”
“Hey, I’m not one to judge, but that’s kind of an unusual name. Where did you get it from? A book?”
“Nah. I was six when we got him, and I wanted to name him after my favorite video game. My mom said I could as a present since I was really upset about my dad being sent overseas, but I wasn’t so good at spelling, so it ended up as Mycroft instead of the video game title I wanted.”
I wasn’t sure if it was okay to laugh at a juvenile spelling mistake, but I really wanted to. “And your parents just kept it that way?”
“Yeah, apparently they thought I was talking about this character from their favorite detective books, and Mom got all cryin’ about it. I never had the heart to tell her it was about a block game.”
“Well, your secret is safe with me.”
He told me a bit more about the adventures of getting his dog, and I was able to glean a bit more of the adult conflict between his mother and sister.
Ultimately, I was glad that I had been able to help him, and I never imagined it would end up with a massive rug of a dog drooling in contentment while my cat turned him into her personal bed.
When it was time for him to leave, I could tell that Mycroft was loath to go, because he was whining in a way he hadn’t since they’d arrived.
“I’m sorry,” the kid said. Was it weird that I knew his dog’s name but not his? “He gets like this sometimes. He really wants a cat at home, but he can’t change the cat litter, so Mom says until he learns it’s a no-go.”
“Funny, I know a lot of dogs would have no problem cleaning up anything left behind in a litter box.”
“Gross!”
“I know, right?” We shared a laugh, and although I wasn’t big on children, it felt like there was something a bit special about this kid.
He was the first “case” I’d taken on that wasn’t a reading within the house, so he really held a dear place in my heart.
Plus, his dog was cool. “Listen, why don’t you talk to your mom, and if she’s cool with it, we can set up a playdate for our pets to hang.
And if you wanted, while you’re here, I could pay you to help me organize things.
I’m sure you can tell, but order isn’t exactly my strong suit. ”
While Paul had helped immensely with the pill calendar, organizing my online schedule, and getting me enough storage for my craft room, clutter was still something I struggled with on the regular.
Especially now that I was keeping reports and files of all my cases, particularly the ones I was officially consulting on with the PD.
“Really? You wouldn’t mind having us around?”
“I wouldn’t mind one bit, and clearly, Hudson enjoys her new heated footstool.”
“Then yeah! It’s a deal!
We shook on it, and he hurried off, practically dragging a forlorn Mycroft with him.
I really should have asked him his name.
~Baby shark doodoodododo~
I returned to my task at hand, and by that, I meant I wandered to the kitchen to check if I had indeed taken my meds for the day, then grabbed an energy drink and gave Hudson treats for being such a magnanimous host. All incredibly vital steps in my process, of course.
Naturally, it wasn’t that surprising when Paul returned from his meeting just as I was heading back up the stairs to my office.
Funny, a year ago that room had mostly been just storage.
But again, thanks to Paul, it was now a clean and tidy space for me to (try to) be organized with my now-official career.
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” he said as soon as he saw me, bits of pink, lavender, and gold sizzling in the air around him. Even after all our time together, I never got tired of seeing such a positive reaction to my existence.
“Rough meeting?”
He nodded as he took me into his arms. “There has been some pushback on some of the measures I want to put in place for exiling people from the pack. It’s too easy for an alpha or someone in power to discriminate against anyone.
Other younger alpha males that they’re concerned will be competition for breeding, infertile females, LGBTQ, latent shifters, disabled shifters, you name it. ”
“Why would there be any pushback against that?” I asked before my brain caught up with me.
“Because many people don’t like change, and some view their inability to hurt others as somehow them being attacked.”
Unfortunately, that made a bit too much sense to me. I truly believed in my heart that most people were good and just wanted to live and let live, but man, the cruel ones certainly seemed to have a way of leaving their mark on people.
“Well, I’m proud of the strides you’ve made so far.
Especially considering that Chris has only been alpha for about nine months.
” And now Paul was his alpha-heir. There had been quite the hubbub when Luther had stepped down, abdicating his role entirely so he could recover and marry the love who had almost been stolen away from him, but now people had accepted it.
“Thank you, Cherry. I appreciate that more than you know.” With that, he kissed me, and as always, the hectic and often overstimulating world of color I saw narrowed down to just the two of us and the love we shared. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I murmured, meaning it with all my heart. And maybe I started to get a little handsy, maybe I didn’t, but Paul chuckled and caught my wrists before they could get anywhere too fun.
“No hanky-panky until you submit that report to the detectives in New York.”
I groaned, and I knew it wasn’t the most mature response, but Paul was used to my antics. “I’ll do it later! Really!”
“That is the ADHD demon talking.”
“I take it back, I no longer love you.”
He laughed, then gave me a chaste kiss. “As if you could lie to me.”
I flushed at that, feeling so seen, so understood. When I was with Paul, I wasn’t some weird alien whose brain didn’t work like anybody else’s. I was just Cherry.
“Though,” he continued. “If you get it done now, I’ll be happy to give you whatever reward you want.”
Now that was certainly motivating. “Deal!”
I ran up the stairs. I got all the way to my office, genuinely committed to finishing my work, only to realize I had left my energy drink in the living room where I’d been talking with the kid and his dog.
“Damn.”
Back down the stairs, but this time, I was interrupted when I was almost to the bottom.
“Ah, there you are,” Paul said. “I was just coming to look for you. It appears that we have a potential client.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. She’s not on the schedule, but she is at the door, and she seems quite distraught.
That sounded intriguing. “I’ll head to the greeting room. Let her in.”
“Will do.”
I hurried to what had once been my reading room but now was the place where I interviewed folks who wanted an official empath and PI to solve whatever case was plaguing them.
I sat down and pulled my notebook in front of me, clicking the end of my pen the necessary even number of times before a dark-haired woman swept in to sit across from me.
“Are you the psychic everyone’s been going on about?
” she asked, her tone blank enough to match the wall she had behind her.
But instead of being bricks of protection laid on top of each other like Paul’s had once been, hers were rows and rows of bars stretching on endlessly through my roof into the sky beyond.
“Empath, actually. But you can call me an oracle if that’s easier.”
“Empath, oracle, seer, I don’t care what you call it. I only care whether you can help me or not.”
“What is it you need help with?” I asked neutrally.
If the woman was going to try to give me nothing, then I wasn’t going to give her much either.
From what I could see, she was in very fine clothes, some even vintage, but there were bite marks on her nails that spoke of stress, and her lipstick was seeping slightly into what I was pretty sure were marks from her chewing on her lip.
The lady was genuinely having a hard time and doing her best not to show it.
“You see, I’m being framed for killing a man.”
“That’s never very fun.”
“No, it isn’t. Especially when that man happens to be connected to one of the biggest crime families amongst the magical folks on the West Coast.”
I was right, this is intriguing!
“Framed, you say? All right, I’m open to helping you. But why don’t we start with your name?”
“Bohemia. Bohemia A. Irene. It’s a traditional name, so I prefer to go by my middle one.”
“And what’s that?”
“Addison. I will accept Addie for short.”
I quickly jotted down her name as Irene, Addie before looking at Paul. Although I didn’t say anything, I didn’t have to in order to know we were on the same page.
Looks like we have another case!