Clayton's Jade (Runes Stone Series) (7 page)

There was so much to see that she really didn’t want to leave, but they had to check on the guys.  They were probably frantic by now.   When they had arrived back at the bathroom they had to wait as there were so many people waiting to use the bathrooms.  When they finally got into a stall she just closed it but didn’t lock it so that a person could still get into it after they had left. 

Vie popped them into the kitchen area so they guys wouldn’t know they were back.  Kaylee threw out the empty cup and started to work on the full one.  There was no way she was sharing with the guys.  Besides she had earned them with the training she had done today.  Walking back to the guy’s room yet again, she actually was not looking forward to the whip lashing she was going to get from them. 

“Where the hell have you been?  We have been worried about you since you and Vie up and vanished!”  He was almost yelling but not quite there yet.  That might just be because of his injuries though. 

“ummm we went to Pikes Place Market and got a Starbucks coffee, then watched some guys throwing fish around.  It was quite fun you should have been there.”   That last part was mean even for her.  “So maybe next time you won’t spy on us with your camera that you put up for protection not for your enjoyment.” She watched as he swallowed what he was getting ready to say.  He knew he was busted and couldn’t figure out how to get out of it.

He could not come up with a good reason as to why he was watching her.  “Fine, what I did was wrong, however, what you did was also wrong.  What were you thinking of?  You know what is going on out there.”   He really had been worried about her.  He knew that Vie could vanish like that, but not knowing where they were was not a good feeling.  It was like a big ball of stress sitting in the middle of his stomach and not moving an inch.  Granted Vie could get them out of any situation quickly, but if they were in public that could cause some problems with the general population that didn’t know about them.

“What, just because of what’s going on I’m supposed to put my whole life on hold?  I will learn how to be a better fighter, but I am not going to give up my freedom.  No matter what there are always going to be bad people in the world and they don’t have to be like us to be bad.  I have to hide part of what I am out of necessity, not because I like it.  I will not hide away in my house for the rest of my life just because of what’s out there.  If I do that
, then they win.” She had an understanding of what was going on out there but that didn’t mean she had to give up her freedom along with it.  She knew that there would be enough changes in her life, she didn’t want to give it all up.

“I’m sorry
, your right.  I just don’t want anything to happen to you and right now I am stuck in a bed due to injuries.  I can’t even protect you if something happens. When I first decided to watch you it was just to keep an eye on you and to watch what you were learning so that we could just pick up where you left off today.  I should have told you what I was going to do instead of trying to hide it from you.”  By the look on her face she was starting to see where he was coming from at least in part. They were going to have to work on their communication skills if this was going to work.  That had to start here and now.  “From now on I will tell you what is going on and what I am up to and you have to do the same if this is to work.”

“I will agree to that.  No more secrets between us.”  For a peace offering she handed him the rest of the coffee.  “It really is as good as they say it is.  Try it.”

Reaching out with is left hand he grasped the cup and took a sip. It was a warm, sweet, caramel cream that was just a little bit thicker than regular coffee.  These could get addicting, they were really good. “Wow that is amazing. I have had their plain coffee with cream and sugar but not this.”  Reluctantly he handed back her cup.  “So what are you going to do for the rest of the day now that you are done scaring the shit out me?”

“I need to go down to the lab and get some work done.  Before I go there though I will lock the doors and Vie will make sure I am done in enough time to get dinner going.  I am just going to grill some fish tonight and steam some veggies.  Nice, quick, and easy.”  She really did need some time to herself.

“Have fun working.  I have to go through my emails so that will give me something to do while you are busy.”  He smiled as she walked out of the bedroom.  It was going to be a long afternoon. 

When they heard the door shut to her lab Brad turned his head towards Clayton, “So I have more of this to look forward to?”

“I wish I could say you didn’t but I can’t.  Some fights will be easy and some will be worse.  We have two things in our favor one Vie can heal and the second is we are all naturally fast healers.”  Looking over at Brad he could already see a big improvement over yesterday.  He had been worried if Brad was going to service or not.  “In another day or so you should be back to normal.” 

“I hope so.  I hate not being by the water let alone stuck in a bed.  Tell me you killed that SOB.”  Brad looked down at his body he could see the wounds that the shark had inflicted on him.  He ran his hand over the top of a few of them.  He was going to have some scars from this.  He was just glad that women like scars.  His first badge of honor.  “How many different creatures are out there that we are not aware of?”  He could tell by the way Clayton looked at him that he didn’t want to say.

“More than you realize.  For the time being we will leave it at that.  You have enough on your plate for time being.”  He could have just scared the shit out of him and told him that the things that go bump in the night really do go bump and most of them are not nice.  He had found out over the year that, a little bit of information over time is better than overloading people.

“I can accept that for now but over time I expect more information from you.  Now why did you come down to the ocean when you knew I was supposed to come here for dinner?  Don’t get me wrong I am glad you showed up when you did.”  He wasn’t going to tell him he had never been so happy to another person in his life.  There were just something’s you keep to yourself.

“I was going to talk with you about how your fighting skills were.  I didn’t want Kaylee around because you get very protective and defensive around her.  I am going to go out on a limb and say not good in seal form…so how about human form?”  He got a got to hell look from Brad.  He wanted to say something smart but reformed from doing it.

“There is really not a lot of fighting I can do in seal form.  I can swim very fast if I need to.  There was nothing I could do when I was caught by surprise like I was with that shark.  The damn thing came at me from below.  I never saw it coming.  I was doing good to get to shore after that bite.  From now on I will on the lookout.”

“I knew that would rile you up.  By the way you can use your powers while in shifter form.  We will teach you some water fighting as soon as we can.  Until you get some good fighting skills you have to more careful in the water.” 

“Jeez thanks! That’s just what every guy wants to hear.”  He knew Clayton was right but it did not make it any easier to hear.  Why had the stone picked him?  He was not a fighter.  He would put everything that he had in him to win this war because he didn’t want the world to end.  “Whenever you want to train me I will be ready for it.  Just for the record I am a fast learner.”

“Bridget will train you in the water.  If she can fight so can you.  I will be training you on land.  Kaylee was only leaning the basics from Vie today.  Both of you still have a lot to learn.  Why don’t we get a little nap in while Kaylee is working in the lab?  It will do us both good.” Brad nodded his head in agreement and was quickly dozing off.  He still had some major healing to do before the full moon hit.

  The bedroom had a television and DVD player so after dinner she brought in a movie for them to watch.  For some reason she could never watch enough of the Die Hard movies.  Vie wanted to watch it with them so she put off healing them until the movie was over.  Kaylee curled up next to Clayton in bed and Vie rested next to Brad on his bed.  Clayton had to remain on his back with the pillows elevating his head so he could watch the movie.  She had to lie on his left side so that she wouldn’t hurt him.  Her head lay on his chest so that she could see the movie.  At first her arm was on her side then he took it and placed it on his abs.  Her hands wanted to explore
, but she made them stay in one place.  He seemed to enjoy messing with her hair, but she didn’t mind though it did cause some tingling in some areas that she hadn’t really acknowledged before. 

Just as the movie was about to end he started making little circles around her ears and running his fingertips up and down her neck.  She could feel her pulse speed up as her hands moved over his chest getting used to the feel of him.  She moaned in pleasure lucky for her that it was during a scene that the machine guns were going off, otherwise Vie and Brad would have heard her. Shocked at what she was feeling she jumped off of the bed and just waited for the movie to end.  She was unsure of what she was feeling and just wanted to go to bed and think about things.  She wanted Clayton in way that she hadn’t wanted any other man she had ever been around.  He made her feel alive and wanted.

He looked at her and reached for her hand and brought her body over to him.  Then he pulled her down towards him and he kissed her.  He stared by just nibbling on her lips until she sighed and opened them.  Taking advantage he slipped his tongue into her mouth.  He did not leave any inch of her mouth unexplored.  She responded kindly and for once gave into her passion.  It was like having cold water poured on them when they heard the coughing coming from the next bed.  Why did he have to be sharing a room?  Timing sucked! He was going to have another long night he feared. She stood back up and looked at them.  “Sorry.” Now she just had to wait for Vie to heal them both a little more then she would lay Vie on her bed and go to the couch to sleep.  Vie did used as much energy as she had the day before so she was still awake when Kaylee put her in the bed.  The only reason she didn’t sleep next to her was she was afraid of rolling on her in the middle of the night.  It was safer this way. She headed out the couch and lay down and went to sleep.

CHAPTER 8

Having given chase after a rabbit.  Kill. Food.  Very few animals came after her
, she went after them.  This was the life running, jumping, and climbing.  She knew in the back of her mind that she would have to go back to her human form and that for some reason she was supposed to be careful, whatever that meant.  Things didn’t have the same meaning in animal form.  Her only responsibility in animal form was survival and she was good at that.   As she was chasing the rabbit,her sense of smell kicked in. The forest was too quiet and at night that was the last thing you wanted.  That meant something was wrong.  There was a vile musky smell in the air, in fact it triggered her flight response. She could feel her heart pounding as she tried to figure out where the smell was coming from. Skidding to a stop she turned in the direction that she had come from
.
 

Running as fast as she could back towards the house with people in it, she hoped they were still awake.  She didn’t know if they could help or not.  She didn’t know if she was going to make it there anyway.  She could feel other creatures around the area some of them had good intentions and others she could sense the evil rolling off of them.  The bad thing was they were not from this area. She came to a complete stop when she saw a bunch of creatures blocking her way to the house and a Tasmanian devil in front of all of them.  With this being the second night of full moon she couldn’t change into her human form. She looked behind her and realized that she was blocked in.  She wished she had practiced fighting in cat form, but she didn’t think she needed it. The Tasmanian started to advance toward her. 

Waking with a start, her heart pounding so hard she thought it would pop out of her chest.  She needed to get more of her kind around the house.  Land shifters, that is.  Seeing some of what was going to happen helped but there was a lot of work to get done and some people to heal quickly.  She needed Clayton’s help, this was beyond her capabilities. She grabbed a chair from the kitchen table to take to his room so she could sit on it till he woke up.  As she put the chair on the floor next to the bed he moved a little.  She didn’t want to wake him for he still needed the healing sleep.  Taking a deep breath she sat in the chair and waited for him to wake up.

He really was cute when he was asleep.  His bangs had been swept to the side.  This had emphasized his eyes that were usually so piercingly direct you couldn’t really look elsewhere.  Lines that etched his face were now relaxed which gave her a whole new perspective of him.  He was calm, not worrying about what was on the horizon.  She knew the minute he woke up everything would go back to normal.   She would keep this moment to herself.

He was starting to wake up.  She knew instinctively that he was going to stretch as he awoke.  Leaning over she brushed the back of her fingertips down his cheek. “Good morning, and just so it stays that way don’t move too quickly.”  Then she kissed him tentatively on the lips.  For once she wanted to be in control of their kiss.  She slipped her tongue between his lips and began to taste and explore.  When she retreated, he invaded taking over in a very demanding way that took her breath away.