Seven Days

Astral Plane Publishing Books are published by

Astral Plane Publishing
117 S. 4
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Street
Spring Lake, NC 28390

Copyright © 2014
by Shari Richardson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

All Astral Plane Publishing titles, imprints and distributed lines are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund raising, educational or institutional use.

Special book excerpts or customized printings can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write the office of the Astral Plane Publishing Special Sales Manager, Astral Plane Publishing,
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ISBN
:
978-1497531352 

First Astral Plane Publishing Trade Paperback Printing:
July 2011
Second Edition Astral Plane Publishing: April 2014

Printed in the United States of America

Other Titles by Shari Richardson are available via Astral Plane Publishing

http://sharirichardson.blogspot.com/

A note about the second edition:

To all my readers, I want you to know that the second edition of Seven Days (and all the other forthcoming books from the Highland Home Series) has been edited and rewritten to give you a much deeper and fuller experience with the characters and their stories. While the second edition is not an entirely new book, it is a better book than the first edition was. I hope you agree and I hope you enjoy the books as they return to circulation in the second edition.

About The Author

Shari Richardson holds a master's degree in English Education and has spent much of her life teaching students the joy of reading and writing. Her love of writing began when she was in elementary school and has carried through her entire adult life.

Shari is the author of the Highland Home series which currently includes Mourning Sun, Captured Sun, Seven Days, Banished Sun and Nine Lives. Two Suns, the next book in the series, will be coming in late 2014.

Shari currently lives in North Carolina with her two Chihuahuas, Buster and Gracie.

Acknowledgements

The editing and rewriting of the Highland Home series has been an arduous task that has required great patience on the part of my friends and family. To them, I am always grateful for their love and support.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1--

Chapter 2--

Chapter 3--

Chapter 4--

Chapter 5--

Chapter 6--

Chapter 7--

Chapter 8--

Chapter 9--

Lane leaned against the door frame and watched Dorothy wring her hands. He supposed he should feel bad about making Dorothy uncomfortable, but after years of isolation from her and their son, Lane was beyond caring how Dorothy felt.

“I can’t let you, Lane. I won’t let you do that to Xavier,” Dorothy said.

“Why not, Dot? I’m his father. It’s about damned time he knew it.”

Lane could feel Dorothy’s eyes on him as he began to pace the small confines of her living room. Sounds of chainsaws and axes biting into wood filtered through the open window on the heavy muggy air of the Florida summer day. Lane knew Dorothy’s husband, Tyler, was out in the heat helping a neighbor clear some trees the last storm had brought down around the house. Tyler would be livid if he knew Lane Cordero was in the house, but Dorothy had never had the strength to keep Lane completely out of her life.

Lane had lived in a small house at the end of the street where Dorothy grew up. They’d been thrown together as children because they were the only kids in the area and they’d remained close through elementary school and middle school. When they’d gotten older, the comfort of being with someone familiar had kept them together, but Lane had always known he’d loved Dorothy more than she’d loved him. It wasn’t until Dorothy had chosen the University of Florida and Lane had gone to work after high school that they had started to drift apart. The separation became permanent when Dorothy met Tyler at a freshman mixer and stopped returning Lane’s calls and began denying him entry when he tried to visit her at school.

“Tyler is Xavier’s father, Lane,” she said softly. “Xavier has never questioned who his father is and I won’t let you change their relationship. Tyler loves Xavier and Xavier loves his father. I can’t let you come between them. I won’t.”

Lane felt the fury he kept buried deep in his soul bubble slowly to the surface. For seventeen years, he’d been forced to watch another man raise his son. That same man had stood between Lane and Dorothy at the single most crucial moment of Lane’s life and Lane had never forgiven either Tyler or Dorothy for that day. After so many years of watching from the fringes, Lane was determined to be a part of Xavier’s life and he didn’t care what Tyler and Dorothy thought. Xavier was Lane’s son and it was long past time he knew it. Lane’s anger and frustration must have shown in his face because Dorothy recoiled from him. Coward that she was, Dorothy always ran from him.

“It has always been Tyler between us,” he said. His deep voice had a doubled timbre reminiscent of the panthers who roared in the swamps. Lane could see gooseflesh the sound raised on her arms and he felt a deep, twisted satisfaction. Dorothy had good reason to fear him. Lane was finished being civilized. “First it was Tyler who stood between us when I begged you to accept what I am and now he stands between me and my son.”

“There was never an ‘us’ for Tyler to come between, Lane. One night, a lot of tequila and seventeen years of regret for hurting the man I love does not create a relationship.” Dorothy’s voice shook with emotion, but Lane was unmoved.

Lane paused at the window. When he turned back to Dorothy, he knew the feral grin he sometimes saw in his own mirror stretched his lips. He breathed deeply, allowing the scent of fear to tease his senses. Dorothy's fear, unlike any other he'd tasted in the years since his attack, had always been the sweetest.

“Tyler doesn’t know, does he?” Lane asked.

“Yes, Tyler knows I betrayed him‘” Dorothy said. “He knows Xavier isn’t his biological son and he doesn’t care. Tyler has never cared.” Dorothy stood uncertainly in the living room. Lane could see her debating calling for Tyler and the scent of her skin, soaked in terror, flooded his senses.

“I care,” Lane said, turning away from Dorothy. This was the woman whom he’d loved for so much of his life and yet she would not give to him even the tiniest scrap of herself. He could feel his beast rising. His soul was equally divided on the issue of allowing his beast to take over when it came to Dorothy. He loved her, but the isolation and rejection he'd suffered at her hands was almost enough to negate that love. There was so much he could be asking for, but what he really wanted was just a little bit of her, a tiny piece of the love he felt returned, but not only did she not love him, she wouldn’t even allow him to see their son. Xavier might have been born of a night of tequila and regret, but he was still Lane’s son and Dorothy had no right to keep Xavier from him.

Lane heard Dorothy step behind him and shuddered when she laid her hand on his shoulder.

“We decided it would be better for Xavier if he had no reason to doubt Tyler was his father. You know how close Xavier and his grandmother are. It would destroy her if something came between them. You’ve stayed away until now, Lane. I’m begging you to keep your silence.”

“We,” Lane said, bitterness sharpened his tone and made Dorothy tremble. “You mean you and Tyler decided. No one spoke to me about anything. No one considered how I might feel about letting another man raise my son.”

“Lane, please,” Dorothy begged.

Lane looked at Dorothy’s hand on his arm and then at her face. He could see the same weakness in her now that had been in her from the first time he’d seen her crying by the side of the road, a broken toy lying in the dirt beside her. She’d never been strong enough to make Lane stay away, nor had she been strong enough to stand up for herself against anyone when she felt pressured. Lane knew if he pushed hard enough and long enough, Dorothy would give in and let him see Xavier.

“Dot, is everything okay?” Tyler asked from the kitchen doorway. When Lane turned toward the voice, cursing under his breath, he saw that Tyler hadn’t left his ax in the yard with the other tools the men were using. Instead, it lay casually against his shoulder.

“Lane was just going, Tyler,” Dorothy said. She pushed lightly against Lane’s arm, and Lane knew she was hoping he’d take the hint. He debated staying and fighting this out with Dorothy. If he stayed; if he pushed, he could get what he wanted, but he knew that once Tyler was on the scene, Dorothy would hide behind her husband. Hadn’t she always hidden behind Tyler? Lane sighed. There was no point in staying now that Tyler had come to Dorothy’s rescue yet again.

“Yeah,” Lane said. “I was just going...” He stalked toward the front door. “I just had to tell Dot something.”

Tyler stepped behind Dorothy and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I’m sure the phone would be easier than our driveway next time, Lane,” he said.

Lane tipped his chin up just once, a quick, almost violent motion. “Yeah, but easier isn’t always the way to go,” he said before he stepped into the heavy air outside the house. He slammed the door to his truck, cranked the engine to life and spun the tires in the yard until he saw the curtains twitch in the living room window. Was it Dorothy or Tyler who wanted to see the damage Lane was doing? It didn’t matter, of course. It was almost Xavier’s birthday. The boy came to Florida every year for his birthday so Dorothy and Tyler could throw a huge party with all the family in attendance. Dorothy and Tyler wouldn’t want a confrontation that would shout the secret of Xavier’s parentage to the entire family at that party. He’d be there to see his son turn seventeen and then he’d give Xavier the gift of the truth. Lane stomped on the accelerator and headed up the long and twisting driveway. Lane wasn’t always the most patient of men, but this was something he knew he could wait for.

“Maire, can I borrow your backpack for the plane?” I called. I hated packing. I sucked royally at it under the best of circumstances. Add in the stress of meeting Xavier’s parents for the first time and I was trying to shove my entire wardrobe into a small suitcase and a carry-on. I wanted to be sure I had everything I needed to make a good impression, but shipping my room to Florida was impractical.

“Here, sis,” Mairin said, tossing the bag on my bed. “I don’t know why you’re taking everything you own, though.”

“It’s not everything,” I said. “Just the essentials.”

Mairin leaned against the doorway. “I don’t think the dress you wore to the spring formal is an essential,” she said, smiling. “Kerry, you’ve got to relax. Xavier’s parents are going to love you.”

I flopped onto the bed, cursing when the pile of clothes on the end toppled to the floor. Mairin wasn’t a mind reader, but she knew me too well sometimes. We were two years apart in age, but Mairin often seemed closer to a mother than a sister in the ways she protected me. Our mother loved us, but she had her own life and a business to run. She was also almost pathologically unaware of the metaphysical influences in our lives. Mom could close her eyes to the most blatant evils as no one else could. If it meant she could pretend her daughters were normal, we were happy to let her do it, but her illusions often kept her away from us and out of the line of fire. Her absence left Mairin to step into her shoes. Having a sister who acted like a mother was frustrating, but Mairin never lorded anything over me. She was willing to let me make my own choices and mistakes, maybe even more so than Mom, and she was always there to help me pick up the pieces and learn my lessons. I knew everything Mairin did was done because she loved me.

“Xavier says the same thing,” I admitted.

“He’s a smart guy, Kerr. You should probably listen to him.”

“Like you listen to Mathias?” I asked. Mairin and her boyfriend, Mathias rarely agreed about anything. Their fights were becoming legend with the panthers. Most of the guys couldn't understand why Mairin would want to be with a vampire, but they couldn't deny that she could hold her own with him when they fought. I'd seen some of the panthers back out of a room when Mairin and Mathias got rolling. If I hadn't also seen them when they believed no one was watching--hadn't seen how deep their love was--I might have worried as well. Instead I sometimes had to suppress the urge to tease them about cavities being bad for fangs and begging them to ease up on the public displays of affection.

“Entirely different situation,” Mairin said, laughing. “I know Mathias is right ninety-nine percent of the time, but he’s so much fun to annoy that I can’t resist arguing with him.”

“Only you would think arguing with a vampire is fun, Maire.”

“And only you would think anyone could help but love you once they meet you,” she said.

“You’re biased,” I said. “You think I’m great no matter what.”

“You’re right, I do,” she said, “but biased or not, I know Xavier’s parents will love you, Kerry. Elise already loves you. Don’t you think her opinion should be a good indicator of how Xavier’s parents will feel about you?”

I wanted to believe what Mairin was saying, but no matter how much I wanted her words to be the truth, I couldn’t shed the fear. I was strange. I knew that. My entire family was weird. I mean, how many families would be willing to accept that their daughters dated vampires and werepanthers? Okay, so Mom didn't know about Xavier's full moon activities or Mathias' diet, but her partner, Tawnya, did. But what about Mom and Tawnya? What if Xavier's parents were put off by their relationship? Or The Astral Plane? What if Xavier’s parents thought our strangeness was too much and told him he couldn’t be with me? Could I ask him to choose between me and his parents?

“What if you’d had to meet Mathias‘ parents?” I asked. “Wouldn’t you want to make a good impression? Wouldn’t you be worried about how they would feel about accepting you and our family? Wouldn’t you be just as freaked out as I am?”

Mairin sat on the bed next to me and threw an arm around my shoulders. “Of course I would, Kerr,” she said, “but I’d also trust that Mathias wouldn’t take me to meet them if he didn’t believe I was the right woman for him. Xavier is the same kind of man Mathias is. Xavier loves you. He wants you to meet his parents because he wants you to be in his life for good.”

“Don’t let Xavier hear you compare him to Mathias,” I said, laughing. “He’d freak.”

Mairin grinned. The uneasy truce between the men we loved was something we both dealt with on a regular basis. Considering that Xavier and Mathias had begun their acquaintance with each other as mortal enemies, the fact that they hadn’t killed each other was something Mairin and I both celebrated as a victory. We’d even gotten them to work together a few times and to stop snarling at each other when they had to be in the same room.

“For once, can you trust me, sis?” Mairin said. “Xavier’s parents are going to love you. For one thing, you’re fabulous on your own and no one can resist you.” I felt the blood rush into my cheeks. Mairin wasn’t a terribly demonstrative person except with Mathias. To hear her say she felt I was fabulous was overwhelming.

Mairin ignored me and continued. “Second, they’re going to see how much Xavier loves you. Nobody could resist that kind of love.”

“Yeah,” I said, sighing. No matter what Mairin said or even how much I agreed with her, I just couldn’t be as confident as Mairin seemed to be. There was something about this trip to Florida that had my emotions in an uproar. As much as I hated to ask Mairin about her premonitions, I was ready to press her for details so I wasn’t going into something blind. “Um, Maire, you haven’t...well...”

“Dreamed anything about your trip?” Mairin finished for me. She had always had a knack for knowing exactly what was on my mind. “No, sis. If I had, I’d tell you. You know that.” I saw her flick her eyes from me and my anxiety ratcheted up a notch. She may not have seen anything about my trip to Florida, but Mairin had had a premonition about something and she wasn’t sharing.

My sister’s premonitions came to her in dreams. These dreams were so much a part of who she was, I couldn’t remember a time in my life when I hadn’t been afraid to hear her scream in the night. I knew Mairin hated her dreams sometimes, especially when they came too late for her to do anything, but I also knew that if she’d seen something dangerous about my trip, she’d tell me. What I worried about was what she might decide was “dangerous enough” to share with me and what she might want to keep to herself to protect me. If she thought what she saw meant I would learn something I needed to know, she’d let me learn it so long as I came home alive. Some might think having a psychic sister was cool, but for me it was more often an annoying guessing game I played with someone who already knew the answers I was forced to search for.

Mairin stood up and stayed next to my bed. “Look,” she said, “I told Mathias I’d come out to his place today to work with Gino and the others, but we’ll be back in time to take you and Xavier to the airport. Do you think you can get through the next five hours without hyperventilating or trying to pack your entire wardrobe into my backpack?”

I knew she really had to go, but I also sensed she was avoiding talking to me about what she might have dreamed. I let it go and decided to just let my life happen and try not worry about things I couldn't change. “Yeah, I can handle that,” I said. “Say hi to Mathias and Gino for me.”

Mairin hugged me, hard and fast. I could feel how much she was worrying about everything in her life and I felt a stab of guilt for having added my own problems to her plate.

“Will do, sis. Love you,” she said.

“Love you, too.”

When she’d gone, I dumped everything out of my suitcase and started over. Mairin was right, the spring formal dress was really too fancy for a vacation in Florida. Especially since Xavier had told me his parents lived on the edge of a swamp in some tiny town. I doubted there would be any formal occasions for us to attend in the next seven days.

As I packed, I considered the strange year I’d lived through. The past year had definitely been the most interesting I’d ever had in my life. As though starting high school wasn’t enough trauma for a teenaged girl, I’d also had to deal with almost losing my sister twice. Losing Mairin was a nightmare I had had since I had been a toddler. After Daddy had been killed in a car accident, Mairin had clung to me while our mother had turned to Tawnya and left us much to our own devices. It was Mairin who had taught me to tie my shoes and who had made my lunches before walking with me to the elementary school we’d attended. And it was to Mairin I often turned when I was frightened or worried. I loved my mom, but she wasn’t always the most aware member of our family and something about Tawnya had always intimidated me. Mairin loved me and let me be myself.

When I’d almost lost her twice in the past year, my anger and fear had turned on Mathias. As much as I liked him, I still hated that Mathias seemed to be the reason Mairin was on the edge of death every couple of months. I guess it was just a hazard of spending so much time around vampires, though I had to admit that Mairin’s love of a vampire actually had less to do with her near-death experiences than her own hard-headed determination that it was her job to save the world. The first time, she’d gotten between a demigod and Mathias. The second time, she’d taken on one of the most powerful vampires in the world so she could save the man she loved. Of course, who was I to talk about dangerous company? The werepanthers in East Hampton weren’t that much more civilized than the vampires currently camped out at Mathias‘ house.

As though it wasn’t enough that my sister had chosen to spend her time with Mathias and put her life in the hands of one vampire, she was now spending her days working side by side with a couple dozen vampires. Since her return from England, more than twenty vampires had taken up residence at the mansion Mathias called a house. Mairin wouldn’t be more specific than to say they were there because of some weird thing to do with what had happened in England. I wanted to know more, but she wouldn’t give me the details. I could be patient, but only for so long. Sooner or later Mairin was going to have to explain the vampires' presence to Xavier and the panthers and I was going to be there when it happened.

Despite the stress of the year, there had been one brilliantly bright spot in the midst of the darkness. Meeting Xavier almost made up for everything else. The first day I’d seen him in my mom’s shop, I’d known I wasn’t going to forget him. Sure, he was kind of gorgeous, but it wasn’t just his looks that made an impression on you when you met him. You might find it hard to miss his luminescent green eyes, strong features and sandy hair, but it was this air of leadership and protection he exuded that would keep you riveted on him. It wasn’t until he’d told me about the werepanthers and his role as the head of the pride that I’d really understood why everyone sort of stepped back for him. Despite his age, Xavier was the leader of the pride. He’d never explained why, but I could see in the way the other panthers watched him, they trusted him to do the right thing for the pride and those whom they loved and protected. Even when they didn’t agree with Xavier’s decisions, the pride would go along with them and give everything they had to guarantee the success of the task Xavier set.

When Xavier had asked me to go to Florida with him for his annual trip to visit his parents, I’d been certain my mother and Tawnya would say no. But surprisingly, my mom and her partner had agreed to let me go with very little discussion. After the year of metaphysical uproar and Mairin’s “accidents,” I’d been sure Mom and Tawnya would insist I stay close to home, but Elise, Xavier’s grandmother, had convinced Mom that I’d be fine in Florida with her son, Tyler, and his wife, Dorothy. Mom trusted Elise when it came to the metaphysical things that seemed permanently attached to my family and had come to see Elise as the final word on so many things. If Elise said I’d be safe, Mom believed her.

Tyler and Dorothy Meyers lived outside of some tiny town near
Gainesville. Xavier swore his parents were looking forward to meeting me, and that I’d love them, but I still doubted him. Well, I didn’t actually doubt Xavier. It was his parents who worried me. I guess part of me wondered what kind of parents would leave their child with his grandmother and allow him to live half a country away. Xavier said it was because his mother missed the Florida weather when she tried living in East Hampton, but the sadness in his eyes when he said it made me wonder if there wasn’t more to it.

My cell phone struck up the ring tone I had set for Xavier, jerking me out of my thoughts, and I scrambled around until I found it buried under a pile of shoes at the foot of my bed.