Chapter 10
It didn’t take as long as he thought to get the building up and under construction.
There was a lot to be said for magic in abundance, and Rance had a great deal of it.
Getting the water lines hooked up to the bathrooms in the building was easier than he thought it would be, so he finished those up in no time.
His house was going to be a showcase when he was finished with it, and one that he thought he could live in for the rest of his life.
He only hoped that if a mate came along, she was under the same assumption as he was that going green was better than using up all the resources in the little town that he lived in.
Petunia, his faerie, came to sit on his hand. It was somewhat startling to him when she did that, but he had not had the heart to tell her that she couldn’t do that. He just smiled at her when she asked if she could tell him something.
“Of course you can. At any time.” She fluttered her tiny wings and rose up from his hand several inches before she settled back down. “What is it you have to tell me?”
“There is a man in town who is looking to buy up land. He has it in his head that the land you bought belongs to him. I’ve checked the records, and you’ve been the owner for quite some time now, and there is no record of him owning anything around here.
” He asked her for his name. “Walter Hudson. There are other records about him with the police department, but they’re not anything that would make me believe that he’s here on good terms. I believe that he is scamping people. ”
He corrected her. “Scamming people is something that happens all the time. I’d like to say that it’s just humans that do it, but all shifters and vampires do the same.
Especially when there is something that they want.
” She told him that it was sad. “It is at that. But this man, what do you know of him other than he thinks that the land I’ve owned for decades is his?
I’m sure you’ve been following him around to get as much information about him as you can. ”
“I have. He is staying at the hotel that is in Columbus and drives here daily to look at the public records that are filed downtown. I think he’s looking for land to take over all over.
He’s been writing down the names of people that I believe he hopes to scam out of their land.
” He asked her if she had a list of the names as well, and should have known that she would.
“I have them marked off, too, when he goes and visits them. He is pushy for a human, but then I think that all humans are pushy to a point. I don’t know that I care much for them. Pushy people, I mean.”
“I don’t either, to be honest. They usually get their comeuppance once things start to fall apart around them.
” She agreed with him, but he had a feeling that she didn’t understand what he was talking about.
“Keep an eye on him so that we can know his next move. My home should be finished in a couple more days, and then I’m going to start moving in the things that I’ve already purchased for it. ”
“Very good, sir.” When she left him, he got back to work on the water lines.
There were things that he wanted to incorporate in his house that he knew were going to save water as well as electricity.
He had been studying up on things for a long time and knew just what he wanted in the way of his home.
It was so easy for him to do the work that he wanted that he would often find his mind drifting.
And of late, it had been about finding a mate.
Not that he didn’t want one, but he didn’t want her to be human.
Being around the other two women showed him that they were a great deal of work, and they were just too young for him.
He often thought himself too set in his ways for a mate.
He liked to do things on his own time and didn’t want to have to wait on someone else when it was time for him to go.
He’d not see that in the other two mates, but he was sure he was going to get a dud when it came to mates.
She’d be forever making him late for things, and that wouldn’t sit well with him.
Also, there was the age difference. He was simply too old for someone who was born at the end of his life.
Not to say that he was planning on dying anytime soon, but to have a mate that would be forever wanting to have things going her way wasn’t anything that he wanted.
He had his life just the way that he wanted it, and be damned if he was going to change himself to suit a young upstart.
He nearly missed an entire floor of his home with the water lines as he was getting angry about the upstart.
He couldn’t call her that around the others.
Calla would have his head, and Tabby would knock him around, too.
They were upstarts as well, he thought, but he’d never say that to them.
He liked his head just where it was right now.
As he finished putting in the water lines, he noticed that the front door to his home was open.
He’d put up the shell of his home several weeks ago to keep others from seeing what he was doing to his home, but seeing the door open gave him a start.
He made his way there now and was sure that the man who had been asking around town about his house and land was standing in the middle of his living room. He asked him what he was doing.
“The door was open, so I thought I’d see what was going on.
I have just been to the courthouse, and it says that you’re building on my land.
” Well, that was news to him, and he told him so.
“Yes, well, I love the house, but I’m afraid that I’m going to have to have you stop now, as I didn’t want a house put on my land.
You’re just lucky that I’m not going to sue you. ”
“Where is your proof that you own this land? I’m sure you’ve brought proof.
” He said that he hadn’t brought it with him, he’d not known that someone was building on his land.
“No one is building on your land, as I’ve owned this property for a good long time.
I have a copy of the purchase agreement as well as I’ve been paying the land tax on it for decades. ”
“You don’t look old enough to have owned anything for decades.
” He didn’t bother answering the man as he knew to the day how long he’d own the property.
It was well before this man had ever been born.
“I do own this land, and I’m going to have to ask you to stop building.
I have plans for this property, and it doesn’t involve having a house sitting in the middle of the land. ”
“Whatever floats your boat. When you have proof that it belongs to you, you come back with the police, and we’ll see who owns what.
In the meantime, I’m only going to tell you this one time to get off my land and don’t come back.
I don’t care for trespassers, and that’s what you’re doing.
” He told him that he couldn’t trespass on his own land.
“As I said, you come back with proof and we’ll talk about it.
In the meantime, I’ve asked you to leave, and you’d better be on your way. I’m finished talking about this.”
“You’re not very nice, are you. All right, I don’t have proof that I own this land, but I can buy it from you twice what you paid for it.
That’s more than fair.” He told him no. “Just like that? You’re not even going to listen to the deal that I have for you?
That seems like a man who doesn’t have any idea what he has is worth. ”
“I know what it’s worth as I’m building my home on it.
I’ve no time for you, as I have said to you several times now.
Move on, or I’m calling the police. You’ve been warned.
” When the man didn’t move, he pulled out his cell phone to call the police.
The man actually knocked the phone from his hand.
Rance could feel his other half take hold of him, and he was barely able to hold him back.
It would be just like this man, a human again, to try and say that he’d hurt him in some way so that the police would need to arrest him.
Not today, he thought. He had better things to do other than mess with someone who didn’t seem to understand that he’d said no.
Picking up his phone, he had the police dialed before he put it to his ear.
Telling them that he had a problem on his land had them asking if it was Walter Hudson.
Since they knew who he was, Rance figured that they’d had problems with him before.
It wasn’t going to bode well for the man if he kept this up. They said they were on their way.
After putting his phone away, he stared at the man.
He was older than he looked, and Rance could tell that he was also sickly.
There was something wrong with him, and he wondered if he knew it.
Not that it mattered to him. Hudson was going to get his ass killed if he kept up doing what he was doing.
And Rance really wanted to be the one who did it to him.
As the police pulled into his property, he felt a little better about shoving the man off.
“Mr. Hudson, you’ve been warned about trespassing on other people’s property twice now.
This is going to get you run in if you keep harassing the good people of this town.
” He said that Rance had threatened him.
“Of course he did. Like Mrs. Warner did when you were harassing her about her land. She’s a ninety-year-old woman who has lived in that same land for the last fifty years or so.
Move along, or I’m going to run you in. And you won’t like that one bit when I call your boss. ”
“What boss?” He told him the name of the person that he worked for. “You can’t do that. I’m here on sick leave. It’s none of her business what I’m doing around here.”