“You won’t.She’ll make her statements, and that will be the end of it after she’s laughed off the dais.She’s been spreading it around that Tabitha can tell which races the horses are going to win.This will just be one more thing to have her looked at oddly when she’s around people.Did I tell you that she can read the lottery numbers as well?Her mother doesn’t know that.I can’t wait until tomorrow to see how things go.”He said they were all looking forward to it.“Good.I know that Tabitha and I are going to enjoy her going to jail again.”
“Do you think that she will?I mean, what has she done wrong but threatened Tabby?There is no law that will get her prison time for that, I don’t think.”He said that she had hired Carl to kill her daughter.“Yes, that’s her word against Linda’s.I don’t know, Sirous.She might be out before we can see a reason for that not to happen.That would be bad for her, no doubt, but it would still have her out there going after the two of you again.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see.I never thought that she’d be getting out for threatening her own daughter with death.I mean, if one of us were threatened, they’d be dead before they could get within a mile of us.That’s just the way things would go.But this is something that the humans will decide.”He looked at his old friend.“Do you really think she’ll be getting out?That would upset Tabitha a great deal.I can protect her to a point, but she’d still be out there all the time.”
“You couldn’t kill her either.Not with her threatening you with exposure.That would bring people looking into her death.”He said he’d not thought of that either.“We’ll have to think of something to keep Tabby safe.Even if we have to send her away when she tries to expose us.She’ll still be a threat to Tabby.”
“I’ll give it some thought.I don’t suppose that you got with the burin about her making Carl do the things that he’d done.”Brew told him that the burin was satisfied with the way things had ended for the man, and they wanted nothing to do with a human.“I don’t blame them there.Not at all.”
For the rest of the evening, he tried to think of ways to get Linda out of their lives.And Brew had been right.They couldn’t just kill her because that would bring people out of the woodwork, trying to figure out what had happened to her.She wasn’t anyone important in anyone’s lives, but she had a name for herself when it came to this little town.Yes, even though killing her would solve a lot of problems, it would just make more for them if they were to do it.
Sirous told Tabitha what was going on.She didn’t seem worried about her mother getting out, and he couldn’t blame her for that.It was her mother after all.And while she didn’t like her overly much, she was still the person who gave birth to her.At least that’s what he figured.He wanted to comfort her about her, but she seemed resolved in the opinion that her mother wasn’t getting out of jail.And she didn’t have a reason either.She just believed it.
“I’ve decided that I’m going to wear a different colored suit to the courthouse tomorrow.”Tabitha just stared at him.“I was thinking blue or brown, but nothing too bright.It occurred to me that I’ve been wearing the same color suit since I was changed.It was the thing to do back then, to dress in black because we had money.I’ve noticed that Brew has been wearing jeans and t-shirts a bit more, too.What do you say?”
“I’d ask you what made you decide?I’ve been complaining about you wearing all black for a while now.”He said that her mother had pointed it out that he was dressed in black from head to toe.“Yes, you have been.And I know you want to wear a suit tomorrow, but how about if you wear a pair of shorts for—no, not shorts.I believe that your legs would be so white that it would be blinding.”
“Oh my, was that a shot at my being a vampire?”He tickled her then and had her laughing hard.“I do believe that you’ve teased yourself into a corner.I will show off my blinding white legs tomorrow just so you can be embarrassed about them.What do you think of that?”
“I think that if that doesn’t proclaim you as a vamp, then nothing will.But you really shouldwear some jeans and some comfy shirts.Wearing a tie all the time has to be too much.Have you ever worn anything but suits?”He told her that when he’d been younger, but they weren’t black suits, but more colorful at one time.“I can’t imagine you in anything but what you’re wearing now.Change into something like I said and let me see you.”
He willed jeans and a sweatshirt on.It was comfortable, but it felt like he was wearing someone else’s clothing.Sirous looked into her eyes and was shocked to see humor there.He asked her what was so funny.It took her twenty minutes to stop laughing so she could tell him that he did look like a different person in them.
“This was your idea.What on earth could be that funny?”She would look at him and burst out laughing again.It wasn’t that he was hurt by her laughing at him; he had hoped to put her in a better mood, but he was surprised that she thought him to look so funny in something that she wore every day.“Tell me what has you busting up like you are.”
“I just never thought of you in jeans and a sweatshirt, I guess.I thought that when you stopped wearing suits, it would still be dress pants and a nice polo shirt.Not that you don’t look good in what you have on, it’s just not what I expected.I love it.And you.”He had a feeling that it was more than that, but didn’t try to get more out of her.“You need some tennis shoes now.Dress shoes are nice with jeans, but only if you’re going out or something.”
For the rest of the afternoon, he changed clothing to suit her.She wasn’t laughing any longer, but she was helping him find a style.While he did like wearing jeans when they were together, he was happier with the dress pants and a nice button-down shirt.He could even wear a tie with it if he wanted to dress up.By the time they had exhausted all sorts of styles of clothing for him, he’d picked out one that suited him best.He loved to be clean-looking and dressed up a bit, too.He did wonder what the others would think of his new mode of dress and decided that he didn’t care.Tabitha was happy, and that was all that he cared about right now.
When they made their way up to bed, having dinner out on the deck had been nice, and the two of them got into bed and held each other.They’d made love before dinner, and she was tired, so he only held her tonight so that she could rest.He’d not mentioned that she’d been having bad dreams, and when she had one, he’d put her into a deeper sleep, but he was worried about her all the same because of her mother.Something was going to happen tomorrow, and he had a feeling that it was going to be bad for his little family.Sirous would go to jail for his mate if it came to that, and he would gladly take any blame, too, if she were to do something to her mother.
He hoped that it wouldn’t come to that, but he just didn’t know.Rolling to his back, taking Tabitha with him, he held her tightly while she slept.Tomorrow was going to be good or bad, and there wasn’t going to be any gray area either.It would be all good, or it would end badly.Any way he saw it happening wasn’t good, and that scared him more than just a little bit.
As the sun was coming up, he checked in on Linda.She was resolved to expose him, and he thought it funny.There were thoughts about her daughter in her mind and exposing her as well, but mostly she was centered on having him get into trouble.What sort of trouble he didn’t understand in her mind, but it was there for him to see that she wanted him dead and out of her daughter’s life.So that she’d do what she wanted.That wasn’t going to happen either, as Tabitha had turned into a very strong-willed person and wouldn’t be bullied by her mother again.
Chapter 9
The courtroom was packed, and she thought it was all for her mother.When the judge said he was going to hear several cases today, he also told them that he wanted no shenanigans either.He wanted things to be orderly and quiet so that he could get out of here at a good time.She didn’t see how that was going to happen when there was so much noise in the room, now you could barely hear him talking.But she didn’t know what was going to happen today, so she let him rule the room.Her mother was fifth in line to be seen, and she was glad she’d gotten there early to be able to see her in action.
The first judgment didn’t go as planned.Even she could see that.The man who had been brought from the jailhouse decided that he didn’t want his day in court today, as his wife and children weren’t present.The judge, Judge Jim Markus, said he didn’t care about his family and told them to go forward.He wanted his family there to say he’d been a good man, but had slipped up when he’d gotten drunk and beat the shit out of his wife and two of his kids.He was remanded over to a jury trial, and he’d spend his time in jail waiting for a date that could be agreed upon.Of course, that didn’t go over very well, and it took a good half hour to get everyone to settle down again.
“I’m going to be an easy trial, your excellency.I just want out of jail so that I can spend some time with my daughter and her new husband.”Her mother had stood up when the room was getting settled down.“I don’t have any drunken things on my docket, nor do I want any special treatment.I just want to be released.I think I’ve been a model captive, and I want out now.”
“We have an order to things and I won’t have you messing things up for me.”He picked up a file, and before he could read whatever was on it, her mother appealed again to be released.“Everyone in here wants to be released.I’m not in the mood to just give a sweeping release of people just because they have a daughter who just got married.Sit down and shut up until I call your name.”
“It’s Linda Williams.I’m sure that you have it right there in front of you.If not, the man behind you who’s hovering can find it for you.”Mother paused and smiled.“I just found out that my daughter is married to a vampire and that she can tell me who’s going to win the races at the racetrack.”
The room went silent.Even the bailiff behind the judge stopped in mid-sentence to whatever he was saying to the judge.Everyone turned and looked at her mother, and she just kept staring at the judge and smiling.He asked her what she’d said.
“My daughter.She has this special magic that allows her to see when the ponies come in to win, and I’ve won a lot of money from her.Her husband, that man over there beside her, is a vampire.I saw him with his fangs.He came to see me in jail just last night.”Everyone turned to look where she was pointing, and she stood up.There wasn’t any way that she was going to be blackmailed into doing what her mother wanted now that she’d exposed her to everyone.“See her?She’s not too terribly pretty, but she does have that magic.I’m assuming that’s why the vampire married her, so that he could have the money that belongs to me.She owes me for me bringing her into this world.If not, then I’m going to kill her and that husband of hers.Just why he’s out in the sunlight now is a mystery to me, but he said he was old.”
“You want us to believe that your daughter is married to a vampire?And that she has magic, too, that knows the winning horse when there are races?”Mother nodded and said that what she was saying was true.“I see.You really believe this.There is no such thing as magic, and there certainly isn’t anything like vampires around.Unless you mean an attorney.I was one once, so I know what I’m talking about.”He laughed a little, and it fell on deaf ears.“I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I won’t have my courtroom disrupted because you have a burr up your bottom.And I won’t have you threatening anyone while I’m up on this seat.You’ll sit down and be quiet, or so help me I’ll send you back to jail where you’ll stay.”
“I know for a fact that he’s a vampire.He told me so.You have to record the things that go on in a jail cell, so have them bring it up and tell them to read it to you.Or you could put it on one of those big-screen televisions.I don’t care.I just know what he told me.”She looked at her then.“See?I will get what I want, and you’re going to suffer from it.I don’t care if the whole world knows what you can do and wants some of it from you.I’m going to get what I want, or I’ll kill you.It’s as simple as that.”
“Nothing is as simple as that.”Judge Markus banged his gavel down on the small wooden board and said he wanted order in his room.She thought that the room was waiting for something else to flow from her mother’s mouth that would qualify her to be sent away.“I’m not through with you yet, and you’ll sit down and shut up.Think very hard about what you’re saying, Ms.Williams, or you’ll be sent back to jail, where you’ll hear about your judgment later.I told you that I wanted nothing like this to happen in my courtroom today, and I demand that you sit down and shut your trap.”
Mother finally sat down, but she had the strangest smile on her face.It would have scared her a little had she not known that her mother was going to be tried for being insane.Who went around spouting about vampires and magic when they had no proof at all of it?She was going to end up in the loony bin if it was the last thing that she did.
