7—Raindrops and Kitten Whiskers
Dallas stepped away from the others, trying to blend into the crowd on the courthouse steps, but a blue glow caught his eye, and he looked that way, thinking it was Dakota.
It was someone else entirely, a beautiful woman wearing a plain tan dress and brown glasses.
At first her blue glow was all he could see, but the more he looked, the more the glow faded into the background.
The woman climbed the courthouse steps, her long hair flowing down her back in the prettiest way.
Dallas double-timed up the steps to open the door for her.
Other people passed through with her, but she smiled at him.
Their eyes locked for a second that stretched into lifetimes, letting him study her at his leisure.
Her eyes were a pretty green, reminding him of the ocean close to shore.
Her scent was like the ocean, too, a fresh summer storm rolling in over the waves.
His mother had glowed a soft white and Dakota had glowed a soft blue from the moment she’d been born. He’d never known what it meant, and others had not seen what he’d seen when he’d mentioned it. Here in Nantahala he’d learned that the blue glow meant ‘Belief switch.’
Fascinated, Dallas followed the glowing woman.
Was she a switch? He hadn’t seen her at the training grounds.
She went inside a courtroom and Dallas followed.
She walked all the way down the center aisle, through the little swinging gate, and sat at the counsel’s table to the right.
She greeted the bailiff and court reporter warmly and they both smiled at her.
Dallas sat a few rows behind, watching, soaking in her graceful movements. She spread out her papers, put several pens on the desk, then sat and began to read the top paper from a stack.
“All rise,” the bailiff called out. “Court is now in session, with the Honorable Judge Sturn presiding.”
Dallas stood with the rest of the courtroom as the judge entered.
She was an older woman with pale, doughy skin, lips painted red, and a helmet of stiff blonde hair.
She reached the bench and looked out over the courtroom, first patting her hair, then fiddling with her white lace collar, her judicial robes whooshing as she moved.
“Be seated,” Judge Sturn said, as she sat down. Her eyes landed on the glowing lawyer and her already sour face soured further. “Ms. Candor.”
The glowing lawyer stood. “Yes, Your Honor?”
Dallas swallowed hard. Now he knew her last name and that her voice sounded like raindrops falling from kitten whiskers. Shit! He hadn’t noticed a woman in eighteen months and now he was one.
“What are you wearing?” the judge asked.
“Your Honor?”
“Ms. Candor, I thought I made myself clear. Your choices are black, red, or navy blue.”
“Yes, Your Honor. I apologize,” the lovely Miss Candor said.
She didn’t sound contrite or offended, only agreeable.
Before Dallas had time to wonder what it was all about, the judge lit into the other lawyer for his laptop being too big, and Dallas thought maybe the judge was just ornery, like an old mother hen who’d had enough of raising chicks.
The judge spoke but Dallas lost himself watching the pretty lawyer, hearing little, the pain in his leg faded and unimportant.
An hour went by like nothing, and then the judge declared a courtroom break.
They all stood while she left. The glowing lawyer gathered up her things and ran out so quickly that Dallas couldn’t reach the door before she’d disappeared into the crowd. He returned to his seat and waited.
Court readjourned, but the lawyer didn’t return. Dallas was disappointed, but it was just as well. Heartache was the last thing he needed. But what now? Maybe he would buy a motorcycle and ride off into the sunset. ‘The Cause’ wouldn’t want to babysit a disabled shifter.
A blue glow flashed through his vision, blinding him, applying a strange pressure inside his head.
Quickly, the pressure subsided, and so did the glow.
An image pushed its way into his mind of a giant baby being born, butt-first, from the earth, and then the image morphed into a massive house pushing its way up from the dirt amid a vast field of sunflowers.
It left as quickly as it had come, leaving Dallas confused. A sudden urge to get in his car and drive to the sunflowers hit Dallas. He got up and left the courtroom, then walked outside to his rental car, the feeling growing stronger.
Dallas spotted something was wrong inside his car before he reached it.
All his suitcases were missing from the backseat—what the fuck?
He broke into a run, his heart in his throat.
Everything he owned had been in there, including $28,000 worth of prosthetic legs.
He reached the car and the back seat was completely empty.
He popped the trunk, boiling with rage that someone would take his shit. The trunk was also empty.
That stupid-ass picture of the big-butt baby house thingy pushed its way into his mind again, knocking Dallas’ anger aside and leaking the emotion out of him. Strangely settled, he took a closer look at his car. It had been locked, and there was no sign of forced entry.
He circled the car, examining the locks and the windows, and then he got behind the wheel, mulling over the mystery in his mind. Something told him to start the car, and drive, so he did, heading south on the one highway that cut through the mountains out here in the middle of Bumfuck, Switchland.
Dallas drove and mused, feeling steadily called…
somewhere. The mystery of his missing stuff felt unimportant for the moment while he tried to figure out what he was hearing.
Was it a voice? A siren coming from a great distance?
Was it inside him? Eventually, he decided it was a pulsing coming from everywhere, vibrating strongest just behind his breastbone, and it was calling him by name, but the name was not Dallas.
He listened intently. Was the name he was being called…
‘Jaguar’? No, he thought not. ‘Soldier’?
No. It sounded like a one syllable word, rumbling over and over through his body, but it’s possible it started with an ‘S.’ He drove and he listened, feeling lulled by the call.
The pain in his leg felt calmed and soothed, letting him focus.
In fifteen minutes, he was driving up a mountain over switchbacks, and the sunflowers were there, lining a private road. A large rock that sparkled with color loomed in the distance, and the house he’d seen in his mind sat near it. Fucking cool.
It was a modern-looking spread, dripping with expensive details, with marble walls and a blue marble patio. It felt almost like a person to Dallas, welcoming him home, which made no sense.
Near the edge of the driveway were two people.
Dallas slowed, seeing Aven and a walking blue light bulb that must be his sister.
Her blue glow was brighter than he’d ever seen it.
But why was she here? This place was obviously ‘Cause’ related and since she couldn’t shift, Jameson should have sent her packing already.
Dallas rolled up to them, his attention still on the house, while that unknown name pulsed in his chest. He stopped the car, staring at Dakota, then staring at the house, his thoughts loud in his mind. He wanted to pitch a brotherly fit, but something told him to be quiet and listen.
Aven was speaking, but Dallas heard nothing but his own thoughts.
He reached out to touch his sister’s glow that was two or three times stronger than it’d ever been.
Dallas shook his head, not knowing what to make of any of it.
He eased his foot off the brake and rolled toward the house, leaving Dakota and Aven behind.
He approached the house of white stone slowly, then stopped his car and got out, ready for anything.
He went up the steps, which were made of a polished blue marble.
He opened the door and went in, expecting something grand.
On the opposite wall hung a chiseled stone sign that read, “Credence, Stone of Truth. Rest your Belief on me and it shall never crumble.”
Dallas loved it, even though he wanted to stay skeptical and aloof, but the house was pulling him in, welcoming him. He wandered through the house, taking in the massive fireplace and the contemporary kitchen.
Maybe he did belong somewhere.
Behind him, the door opened and Aven and Dakota came in.
Dallas could hold his peace no longer. He turned and asked, “Why are you here, Dakota?”
Dakota gave him the ‘fuck-off’ look she’d perfected as a toddler.
“We need beer,” Aven said quickly. He pulled out bowls of dip, plus veggies and cheese from the fridge, telling Dallas to look in the pantry for chips and crackers.
Dallas shook his head and looked around for a pantry. He opened two double doors and found one fully stocked. He grabbed a bag of something and a box of something else and headed out after Aven and Dakota.
Aven stopped abruptly in the doorway and did a quick about face, seeming flustered. “You know what, the couch is more comfortable,” he said, pushing Dallas in another direction.
Dallas and Dakota went the way he was pushing them, back into the big room with the fireplace.
Dakota sat on the couch and Dallas sat on the arm of a chair.
Dallas gave his sister his best assessing big brother look. She rolled her eyes.
“Your glow is stronger,” he told her.
Her hand flew to her chest, the snarky expression falling off her face. “My what?”
Dallas shook his head slightly. “I told you that you glowed when you were seven. You hit me with a wiffle bat.”
“I…I don’t remember that,” she said.
Dallas tore open a bag of chips and ate one, his mind a whirling tornado, his eyes roaming over the room.
“And you’re covenbound,” Dakota finally said. “Do you know what that means yet?”
Dallas smiled, filing the word away for later. “I know it means I’m staying here… which is the best news I’ve heard all week.”
He stood and took off to roam the house, strangely thinking that the stuff missing from his car was somewhere here, in the house. He followed a set of stairs leading down and found a rec room with a pool table as the centerpiece, and a hallway to two doors. He opened one because it felt right.
Inside was a military bunk, a military desk and chair, and all of his suitcases!
He opened the biggest one. Three lower leg prosthetics were inside, wrapped in their casings.
Perfect. The next suitcase held clothes, and the last one had his military paperwork, a second pair of boots, his bathroom gear, plus a thick, strong cylinder of lightning sand, which was the only thing he’d saved from his former life that wasn’t essential.
Dallas made his way to the bed and lay down on the camo-green blanket and the crisp white pillow. He fell asleep in moments, feeling like he belonged somewhere for the first time since the Navy had medically discharged him for being dumb enough to get shot up on a mission.