WickedBeast (8 page)

“Black wif wings. Birds,” Minuet clarified.

“In that case, someone is using the birds, honey. You know
how you can talk in someone’s mind? Sometimes a person who can do that will
take control of a little animal and use it. That person can see and hear
everything the little animal does and so they don’t have to go everywhere the
animal can,” Cord explained. “I need you to be very careful of animals. If you
feel one watching you, you have to tell me or Mommy.”

“Okay,” Minuet agreed, obviously bored with the animal
conversation and ready to be done with it.

“If it’s okay with Mommy, I’ll teach you how to make sure
they can’t reach into your mind and hear you,” Cord offered, watching Kelly’s
reaction to the offer.

Kelly’s eyes rose to his. There was no fear in them, just
sadness. “I think that would be a good idea. It’s important to be able to
protect ourselves.”

“But you said no-no magics.” Minuet frowned at her mother.

“Yes, baby, I did. It wasn’t safe for us. Weren’t you afraid
of the loud birds?” Kelly paused as Minuet nodded. “Cord is here to help us
now. It’s okay to do exactly what he shows us how to do. Do you understand,
Minuet? No trying anything unless you tell Mommy or Cord. No matter what.”

Minuet’s eyes glanced between them and a huge smile appeared
on her face. “Cord make daddy?”

Chapter Six

He couldn’t say Little Miss Miracle was slow on the uptake.
She nailed them with the one question he was more than willing to answer but
suspected he shouldn’t.

Kelly hesitated a moment, glancing at Cord. “He is our very
good friend. It takes time to be a daddy.”

“How much?” Minuet wanted to know.

“Honey, being a daddy is about loving us, loving us with all
his heart. You can’t expect it from someone who just met us and it’s not polite
to ask,” Kelly explained as she fed another spoon of food into Minuet.

Minuet frowned and chewed. Taking a big swallow, she leaned
toward Kelly and whispered loudly, “How we see him love us?”

“Let’s just be happy we have a new friend. Okay?” Kelly
stated, trying to cut off the endless questions.

Cord decided it was time to give Kelly a break and distract
Minuet from the subject. “Minuet, I have a very important question for you.
Don’t be afraid of answering honestly. Taking responsibility for what we do
makes everything much better. You know you can tell me anything. Right?”

Serious little face chewed and nodded as she looked into his
eyes.

“Why do you think the loud birds followed the truck that
brought your boxes? Was there magic they could feel in it?” Cord asked.

Minuet looked down at her bowl but answered clearly. “I not
magic anyting we pack. Mommy said no-no. So I magiced truck, no breaking. Maybe
birds feels it.”

“Minuet.” Kelly frowned at her daughter. “You know that was
wrong.”

Minuet defended. “No magics our stuffs. Smelly man’s truck
is all.”

Cord interrupted. “When does the magic end, honey?”

“End?” Minuet asked puzzled.

“You didn’t put an end on the magic?” he asked.

“No. How do dat?” she wanted to know.

“Mommy didn’t teach you to end the magic?”

“Mommy not like magics,” Minuet explained seriously.

“I didn’t teach her to spell either,” Kelly said calmly,
“she knows how though.”

Cord looked at Kelly. “A natural gift. She’ll be fine with a
few lessons,” he stated as if it were a simple thing. “The smelly man’s truck
just became his best machine. It will never break. However, someone felt
Minuet’s power. They will follow the truck for a while, but eventually they’ll
give up and backtrack. I’m guessing we have maybe two months.”

“Two months before what?” Kelly asked then glanced at the
little face swiveling between them. “Never mind. So we might move again?”

“This is a good place for a while. You two can learn how to
handle the craft. That’s the most important thing,” Cord emphasized seriously.
“Especially Minuet. She has to be taught, Kelly. Next time she could
unwittingly cause damage. You can’t act like she doesn’t have the gift.”

“I know. It’s just, well, things have changed,” Kelly
finished softly while she pasted on a smile for Minuet, who was watching the
adults with sharp eyes. “What about my job, our life?” she couldn’t resist
asking in the next breath.

“You’ve recently came into a huge inheritance,” Cord informed
her with a half smile. “From a great-aunt. She left you everything. Quitting
your job will be understandable. Besides, you just moved here, right? No big
deal.”

Kelly frowned. “Do not think I’m about to become dependent
on you. I can support my daughter, thank you very much. Molly got me the job at
the place she works. I do not want to make her look bad. Besides, it’s a very
good position.”

“Molly inherited more than you did. How difficult do you
suppose it is for an earth dragon to find a vein of gold? Or diamonds? Or any
other thing he might need? Molly will not be working there either,” Cord
informed her.

Kelly raised a brow. “Can you even afford us? Wind doesn’t
exactly make money.”

Cord chuckled. “When an investor has been around long
enough, he owns a share in every bank, every company, everything worth
investing in. Inventing shell companies made me invisible and has been very
profitable. But the point you’re not getting is all of it really is yours. I
was created for you. Everything I might own is yours.”

Minuet took the spoon out of her mother’s hand and continued
eating.

Kelly cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “No, it’s not
and you’re not. I don’t own living beings. No one is owned.”

Cord reached around behind Minuet and lightly traced a finger
down Kelly’s cheek as he said softly, “Yes they are and you do, but it’s going
to work a bit different than you’re thinking.”

She got his message. He could see it in her unblinking stare
and soft gasp. She did own him and everything he was. It would be his pleasure
to show her how that was going to benefit her.

“You have to think of Minuet,” Cord continued in a normal
voice, pulling the trump card. “Sending her to daycare while you work might not
be a good idea. We’ve been given a small window of time for both of you to
learn a great deal of skill. I can teach you, but not in the evenings when
you’re both tired from a long day. Your new job has to be helping your daughter
master her talents while honing your own. Your lives depend on it.”

“You really think… I mean, we don’t even know who the birds
are from.” Kelly stumbled around, voicing her real concerns in front of Minuet.
“Surely it’s not as serious as all that.”

“There is a truck rolling around the country with a
powerful, endless spell on it. Obviously the wielder does not have to be near
it for the spell to continue at full strength. The best we can hope for is only
one interested party has noticed it and wishes to find the source of such
never-ending power,” Cord said conversationally to shield the importance of the
statements from Minuet. “I’m not that optimistic by nature.”

“Oh. Can’t we find the truck and un-spell it?” Kelly asked.

“Sure, but you or I can’t. The little lady responsible would
have to, and I don’t think she has the skill at the moment. Removing is always
harder than putting on. If she made up the spell on her own, the words could be
tricky. We can’t risk the explosion of power a mistake would cause.”

“I sorry,” Minuet said quietly, proving she was following
the conversation much more closely than the adults wanted her to.

“Sweetie, it’s okay. Mommy and Cord will take care of it.
All you need to worry about is not doing something in secret again,” Kelly
cautioned.

Big eyes blinked as she looked at her mother. “I pomise.”

“Good girl.” Cord smiled into the worried little face. “We
will not be making that mistake again.” He picked up her empty bowl and took it
to the sink.

“Am I gowned?” Minuet asked Kelly.

“Gowned? You can put on your dress-up gown if you want,”
Kelly assured her. “We unpacked dress up a few days ago.”

“No. Gowneded for being bad,” Minuet insisted. “No dress
up.”

“Grounded? Is that what you mean?”

Minuet nodded.

“Where did you learn that word? You can’t be grounded,
honey. You don’t drive or use the phone,” Kelly explained to her worried
daughter.

“I see TV. Gownding is da worst.” Minuet nodded confidently
as she said it. “Can I play Coco? She waiting.”

Cord had felt the little dog sitting at the back door too.
The animal hadn’t made a sound and he’d waited to see if, as he suspected, it
communicated with Minuet. Quickly he questioned the relationship. “Who owns
Coco?”

“She is Molly’s,” Kelly explained. “A sweet little border
collie who has as much energy as Minuet. They spend hours running each other
into the ground with fetch and chase.”

“Minuet, does Coco ever use words when she talks to you?” he
asked seriously.

“No. She happy,” Minuet responded.

“This is important.” Cord looked into Minuet’s eyes. “If any
animal, even one you know, uses words to talk to you, call me right away. Do
you understand? Small animals are easy for bad people to control. Always use
words out loud when you talk to them. Do not use mind pictures.”

Minuet nodded. “I no talk Coco. Play now?”

“Honey, go put on play clothes. Do you need my help?” Kelly
asked.

“By myself.” Minuet’s statement was left behind as she
dashed out of the kitchen at her normal speed.

“Is it safe?” Kelly asked in concern. “Should I call Molly
and tell her about this?”

“It’s fine,” Cord assured her. “I can shield an area.
Nothing will happen in the backyard I don’t know about. I wouldn’t worry about
Molly, she should know all about small animals. She’s much more in tune with
her craft than you are.”

The child shedding pajamas and pulling on clothes was easily
heard and monitored by both Cord and Kelly. Movement only slowed for the few
seconds it took to pull on socks and jam feet into shoes. The soft scrunch of
Velcro fastenings pulled tight and she was barreling down the stairs again.

Kelly looked worriedly at the back door as Minuet dashed
through it with a laugh for the little dog jumping about in welcome. “Molly and
I never talked about it. Are you sure?”

“I’m sure, but we’ll ask if you want. Interrupting her and
Root Rot should be fun right about now. Or did she call him Wood Rot?”

Kelly smiled and stood up. “Let’s sit on the back patio and
you can explain shielding to me. I think the lawn chairs are in the living
room.”

“Of course they are. Wouldn’t you rather we unpack while we
talk?” Cord asked as he dried his hands.

“Unpacking just dropped to the bottom of my to-do list,”
Kelly commented as she turned to the living room to find the folding lawn
chairs.

“I didn’t mean actually handling the boxes. I meant
commanding the items to go where they belong. We can sit and watch Minuet and
unpack.”

Kelly stopped in the door and frowned at him. “How do things
know where to go? How will I know where they are? Wouldn’t that cause the
explosion of power you’re talking about that would draw attention?”

“Shielding is multifunctional. You’ve got to learn how to do
this stuff,” Cord explained, walking up to her. His arms went around his Wind
Witch to pull her to the side as lawn chairs floated past her and across the
kitchen, out the back door and set themselves up on the small concrete patio.

“That’s the long way of doing things,” he explained while
nuzzling her hairline. “Here is the short way.” Boxes in the kitchen
disappeared.

Kelly melted into the tall, broad man who gently pulled her
into his body. She was aware of the lawn chairs moving behind her and
abstractly watched the back door open on its own and the suspended chairs moved
through it and settle on the patio. The vanishing boxes were disturbing enough
for her to interrupt his nuzzling.

“Hey. I know where the chairs went, but I can barely
remember where I put things by hand in this kitchen. Now how am I supposed to
know where those things are?”

Cord turned her to the back door. “You think of the item you
want and draw it to you. Why are you so resistant to using the abilities you
were born with?”

They moved outside. The morning was warm as sunlight
splashed over the lawn. Minuet’s laughter lilted on the air as she and Coco
raced around, chasing a ball.

“Family roots in New England,” Kelly stated as she sat. “And
a religious, fundamentalist family makes for a closed view of what you call
talent.”

Cord took a deep breath. There was a world of information
she wasn’t sharing in that short explanation. “None of your family are
talented?” he pushed.

Kelly shrugged. “If they are, no one is talking about it.
I’ve never asked. Until I had Minuet, it wasn’t a concern.” Her smile was a
little sad as she watched her daughter plop down and laugh as the border collie
bounded up with the ball. The two bodies became a squealing mass of giggles and
yaps.

“You moved out here to get away from them?” Cord asked
shrewdly. What could make a single mother choose to move away from her family
to a place where she had one friend and no one else to help with the burden of
rearing a very talented child?

Kelly nodded. “It was safer for everyone. I know whatever is
in me is untrained and uncontrollable when I get mad. A mother defending her
child is a dangerous type of mad. A child blindly trying to defend her mother
could be worse though. It was time to leave.”

Cord nodded and figured he’d have time later to delve into
that subject.

The yard was fenced with a short chain link. The fence was
shared by two other yards, Molly’s on the right and the other neighbor on the
left. Out the back beyond the chain link was a brush-covered strip of land
sloping down to a stream. On the other side of the steam was a wooded area.