8. She wants to fight you. #2
I gave it twenty-four hours before I got a card giving me Federal jurisdiction, too. I should’ve applied for one after my ex-wife had kidnapped Bailey and taken her to Vermont. Then again, the CDC had given me basic jurisdiction on the fly, which had limited my desire to fill out the forms.
Within two hours, the rental company hooked me up with their tracking software and gave me the vehicle’s code along with a promise they’d give me the codes of any vehicles Bailey or Tiffany rented.
To sweeten the deal in my favor, the state police got in touch with every other major rental company and had the women flagged.
If they rented a vehicle in the United States, I’d know about it within an hour.
Once I verified their location, I pulled up the weather map, as I liked knowing how bad the drive would be. Within a few minutes, I regretted being thorough. I bowed my head and sighed. “Hey, kids?”
Beauty and Sylvester stared at me with wide eyes, and I couldn’t tell if they were overwhelmed they were in a police station or if they hadn’t anticipated me asking them for their opinion.
“Do you like snow?”
They nodded.
“My bride and hive queen is about to drive right into a blizzard, and knowing her, she hasn’t checked the forecast. We’re going to go get some snow gear just in case and go to make sure she stays out of trouble.”
“Is she hopeless?” Beauty asked.
I laughed. “Only when it comes to snow. Fire-breathing unicorns do not like the snow. She’ll want to hibernate, and she gets grouchy.”
“Unicorns aren’t real,” Sylvester announced with the confidence only a child possessed.
“I’m going to do you a favor and not tell Bailey you don’t believe in unicorns. She bites people who don’t believe in her. Well, almost bites people.”
Perkins snickered. “She snaps her teeth convincingly.”
Very convincingly. I shook my head, smiled, and watched her rental’s progress on my phone. “Only Bailey would drive right into the heart of an isolated blizzard.”
“At least it’s not a huge storm. It’ll be fine.” Then, Perkins laughed. “Who am I kidding? This is going to be a disaster. My wife will love it. In good news, Tiffany has done extreme weather research. She’s crazy, but she won’t intentionally put Bailey in danger.”
I believed him. Tiffany was a lot of things, but beneath her drive to collect misdemeanors and her mad-scientist tendencies, she had a heart of gold. “Bailey will find a way to test Tiffany’s skills.”
“I’m trying not to think about how likely that is,” Perkins confessed.
Knowing Bailey was driving right into the heart of some bad weather was going to make me a candidate for the prescription my great-grandfather had arranged.
After months of adapting to having her around every day, I only had one method of controlling my worries: work.
“I’m thinking we should’ve brought our work laptops with us. ”
“Our phones are fine. We’re on vacation, Sam.
That doesn’t mean we work. If we really need to do something for work, we can head to the nearest station.
Let’s not waste extra time on unnecessary things.
” Perkins pointed at the mountain our wives drove towards.
“Tiffany can make a viable shelter out of almost anything. Your wife breathes fire. They’ll be fine. ”
“Bailey hibernates when it gets too cold and she isn’t moving around a lot,” I reminded him.
“I know. They’ll be fine, Sam. Try to relax. We’re tracking their vehicle, so even if something does go wrong, we can get to them. Right now, we’re eight hours behind them accounting for the weather and traffic. We have the kids, so we’ll have to stop more frequently, but we’ll catch up.”
I remembered what my great-grandfather had said.
We’d catch up, but something would still happen to Bailey—and when a divine said something would happen, it would.
Not knowing what would drive me insane. “We need to do some shopping for them, too. Books, toys, and games they can play in the car and hotel.”
“E-book reader and access to a digital bookstore,” he suggested.
Beauty tugged on my hand.
“Yes, sweetie?”
“We have readers.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Gorgon males did everything they could do for their children.
I crouched in front of her and smiled. “I’m going to get you a new one so you can have two if the other needs to be charged or you want new books.
Once we’re home, we’ll take you to the library so you can check out paperbacks, too—or to the bookstore so you can buy them if the books you want aren’t available digitally.
Bailey loves paper books.” Like with most things, Bailey hadn’t accepted she could buy as many books as she wanted.
Then again, if she ever figured that out, I’d have to remodel the entire house to make space for all the books she wanted.
I hoped Bailey never lost her sense of wonder. Everything was still a treasure to her.
Beauty’s eyes widened, and her serpents stirred, lifting their heads. “Really?”
Uh oh. I recognized her expression. It was a perfect match for Bailey when she was about to goose me for something because I’d mentioned she could get something. “Really.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her the real reason behind the new e-reader. I would have to muster my courage sooner than later, but how was I supposed to tell them their father wouldn’t be coming back? I was still a stranger to them. I would have to, soon, but it could wait for a day or two.
Just because my grandfather hadn’t seen a future with their father in it didn’t mean us humans couldn’t change the future. We could.
Maybe.
That was the problem with us mortals. We changed things.
But while mortals changed things, I didn’t doubt my grandfather’s word. Their father had likely already died.
Until I found the courage to tell them what we feared, I would buy the books they already had, fill their e-readers with the books they wanted, and prepare for when they learned the truth. “Why don’t you and your brother make a list of books you’d like to read while I finish this?”
Beauty abandoned me, darting to her brother with a squeal.
Uh oh. I also recognized that level of excitement from Bailey. “I see I’m adopting a pair of book dragons.”
“It could be worse.”
Yes, it could be. “Since we’re talking technology for them anyway, if they ask about phones, they will not be getting phones with data access. They’re not to use our devices, either.”
“All right. Basic at most?”
“Text messaging and calling only, and they’ll have strict rules they need to follow. Gorgon whelps are often trafficking targets.”
“But why?”
I shrugged. “They’re exotic sentients, and they’re very pliable when they’re young, so they’re stolen to become pets of the wealthy.
They’re almost to the age where they can better protect themselves, but not yet.
Until they’re eighteen, they’ll be homeschooled or tutored.
Some hives send their children to public school, but it’s dangerous.
For now, I’ll bring them to the station on workdays with laptops.
I’ll ask my grandfather to set up the schooling software he uses for his hive. ”
“It takes a village to raise a child?”
“And an entire station of cops. It’ll be interesting. They’ll want to help.”
“That sounds like a disaster in the making.”
I laughed. “I hope not, but we’ll see. If the station doesn’t work out, I’ll make arrangements with another hive. Beauty will be in demand.”
“Bailey won’t like that at all.”
“No, she won’t. But in good news, Beauty will have her choice of man when she’s ready to join a hive.”
Perkins snorted. “Bailey is going to need a very big stick until that girl’s eighteen.”
“I think Bailey will be fine.” She didn’t need a stick. She had a horn and breathed fire.
“I’m going to remember this later,” Perkins promised.
He would. “She has claws, teeth, and a horn. She doesn’t need a bat.”
“I’m definitely going to remember that, too—especially when Bailey resumes her self-defense classes with Amanda.”
“I can’t win this, can I?”
Perkins grinned. “Not this time.”
“All right, you win, but only because Bailey does have this bad habit of finding trouble.”
“Where are we going to find e-readers for the kids, anyway?”
“Where else? The bookstore.”
“You’re going to take two book-starved kids to a bookstore?”
“Yes.”
“We’re never going to catch up to our wives.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’s a bookstore, not a maze.”
The look Perkins shot me informed me I was wrong. As he was probably right, I shrugged and hoped I’d be able to rein them in somehow.
Bailey
The trail led us straight up a mountain into the heart of a blizzard. With ten foot visibility at best, by the time my glittery, glowing path veered off into the trees, I regretted everything.
“Well, your furry ass isn’t going to like this. I’ll stay in the car with Blizzard.”
Sighing, I bowed my head. I would freeze, I’d want to hibernate, and I’d definitely catch a cold. With my luck, I’d come down with pneumonia again.
Shit, shit, shit.
“When I’m hallucinating in the hospital again, tell Quinn I did this because I love him that much.”
“You’ll be fine. I’ll drive us down the mountain after, take you to a hotel, and make sure you get warmed up properly. You can handle a little cold.”
I pulled over, turned on the hazard lights, and retrieved a transformative pill from my purse. The idea of standing naked in the snow didn’t thrill me, but I had an orphaned kitten to rescue from a blizzard. “Its name is Avalanche.”
“Can you please stop naming your pets after possible disasters?”
I snorted, threw my clothes at her, and got out of the SUV. As I didn’t want to frighten Blizzard, I refrained from slamming the door.
Transforming in the snow hurt like hell. The cold stabbed through my fur and stung my nose. I snorted steam and cursed my dumbass self for thinking adopting some random, orphaned big cat was a good idea. Then again, I couldn’t leave the poor thing to die.
Nature sucked, and I didn’t like letting it run its course.