The next three verdicts went without incident.They were given a fine to pay and time served on their judgment.The fourth one was a little more complicated in that several witnesses testified that he’d been doing whatever he’d been doing when he’d been arrested.She had tuned them out and was thinking about her mother.
Tabby had never realized just how selfish her mother was until recently.She knew that she wanted things that were out of her reach all the time, but she never put it to anything but her having nothing as a child.But then she’d never known any of her grandparents, and for all she knew, they’d given her everything that she wanted and more.
What little she knew of her mother’s childhood was more than likely lies that she’d made up to make herself the victim.And she was good at making herself out to be that.Everything was about her, and if it wasn’t, she’d make it so that it was just to get the attention that she supposed she deserved.
When her mother’s name was said, she turned to look at the judge.He wasn’t happy, it seemed, and she couldn’t begin to fathom why.Something must have happened, like her mother had set him off again.She hoped that he would throw the book at her for her sentencing, and she’d be thrilled beyond words to have her out of her hair.
“It says here that you were only visited by your daughter yesterday, yet you claim that a vampire, Mr.Smith, came to visit you and told you that he was a vampire.Is that what you’re telling me?”She said that he wasn’t able to be recorded because of what he was.“I see.He told you this, did he?”
“No.He didn’t have to.I’ve read enough books about his kind to know that they can’t see their reflections, nor can they be recorded.Also, they’re afraid of garlic.”He asked why they were afraid of garlic.“I don’t know, that’s just what the books said.”
“More than one is there.Tell me, what’s the name of the book so that I can see for myself what it says.”She told him two books, and they both sounded like romance books.Apparently, the judge thought so as well.“Are those romance books?Books of fiction, I might add.”
“Everyone knows that they have an insider view on the shifters of the world.There are those as well.I’ve hired one to kill my daughter.Well, he was supposed to bring her to me, but all he managed to do was get himself killed.He was a bear shifter, and I heard that his bruin had him killed for his help in helping me bring my daughter to me.”He just stared at her.If she didn’t know for a fact that she was telling the truth, Tabby might well think she was nuts as well.“It’s all in the books that I was telling you about.All you need to do is pick up one with a handsome guy on the front of the cover, and you’ll get all the information you need about them.Especially vampires.That’s all they seem to want to write about.I personally think that all shifters are sexier than a vampire.All those sharp teeth and all.”
“I don’t care what you think is sexier, Ms.Williams.We’re here to determine if you’re fit enough to stand trial.It started out with you being in jail for threatening your daughter, but I think we’ve gone well beyond that, don’t you think?”She asked him if he was making fun of her.“I do believe that I am.No one but you seems to believe that there are shifters in the world, much less vampires that are afraid of garlic.You never did answer me about why they’re afraid of the thing either.”
“I said I don’t know, but that’s what I read.”He nodded as if that explained it.“Ask him what he is if you don’t believe me.And ask my daughter about having the insider information about the horse races that are going on.”
“Mr.Smith, I hate to ask this, but are you a vampire?”He said not only was he not one, but he didn’t believe in them either.“I didn’t think so.Mrs.Smith, do you have insider information on the horse races?You don’t really have to answer that.I don’t believe you would be able to predict the outcome of races anyway.This is just a formality, you understand.”
“No, sir.I can’t tell the outcome of the races.If I had, I’d be on some tropical island right now instead of here with my mother spouting off things that come from a romance novel that someone has written.”She asked for permission to speak to him.When it was given, she nodded once to make sure that he understood how upset she was.“Is she going to be able to get out to roam free, sir?I mean, she’s threatened to kill me no less than five times since yesterday.And even when she was behind bars, she made it clear that I wasn’t going to be around much longer.What’s going to happen when she gets out and is free to roam the streets?Streets that I walk on daily?Am I going to have to hire myself a bodyguard to keep me safe from my own mother?”
“She’s lying.”The judge asked her mother what she had been lying about.“Every word out of her mouth is a lie.I did threaten to kill her, but who wouldn’t if she didn’t help them get enough money to live off of?Anyone would.But she’s being selfish.And she can too tell you what the horse races are.Just ask her to give them to you.”
“Ms.Williams, I’ve had about enough of your telling me what to do in my own courtroom.”She told him that he should do things right.“In your favor, no doubt.I won’t do that, and I take threatening people very seriously.You’ll be remanded over for a trial and stay in jail while you await things to be set up.Also, I want you to be tested for your competence to stand trial.I think that something is wrong with you.”
“The only thing that is wrong with me is that my daughter isn’t giving me what I want.Damn it all to fuck and back, what the hell is wrong with you?I’ve told you what they are.Isn’t there some law about people lying about what they are?If not, then there should be.He’s a fucking vampire, and she’s got magic too.And if they’ve slept together, there is no telling how much more magic she has.The same books say that about them, too.”He asked her if she meant the romance novels.“Of course, that’s what I’m talking about.Where else is a person supposed to get their information than that?She’s probably a fucking vampire by now, too.You know that the blood is better for them if she’s coming when he drinks from her.”
“I’ve heard quite enough.”When he banged his gavel again, he ordered her mother to be taken back to jail and her to stay there.“You’ve messed with the wrong man in this courtroom today, and I want it to be known that you’re off your noodle.”
“I want her to give me what I want.Are you listening to me?She’s got magic, and I want a part of it so that I can be rich.Are you listening to me?”She was dragged away, screaming about blood and magic.Tabby sat down in her chair and looked at Sirous.He looked like he was on the verge of losing it when she asked him what was wrong.
“Nothing.Not really.However, I think it’s funny when I know for a fact that the judge is a leopard shifter that has quite a large claw of cats around here.”She looked at the judge who was calling the next case.It was almost too funny for her, and she needed to get out of here before she lost it.He stood right there at the front of the courtroom and asked about shifters and romance books like he wasn’t one of the ones mentioned in them.
She was barely out the door when she started laughing.It was something that she thought that she could laugh about for the rest of her life, the look on the judge’s face when her mother was talking about shifters as if he wasn’t one himself.Yes, she thought, she’d be laughing about that for the next hundred or so years.
~*~
Sirous thought it was wonderful how much he laughed nowadays.He’d been in such a funk for the last thousand years or so that he found himself sore from laughing so much.He supposed that being in love helped a great deal as well.
And he was in love with Tabitha.Daily, she made him happy that Yosef hadn’t killed him.Even when he’d begged him to, he’d not done it because he’d found his mate.Sirous had given him the pick of the treasures from the paintings and sculptures, but he felt like he needed to do more for him.He owed him, quite literally, his life, and he thought he’d be a long time in paying him back for it too.
“Have you ever given information to a writer about your kind?It seems to me that they had a great deal of it wrong but enough right to make it believable.”He said that he’d never done it, no, but he did know of vamps that had.Just enough to make them believe them.“I see.Well, it’s kind of scary the information they have, I think.I’m betting that the one about reflections and garlic has gotten you out of a sticky situation.”
“Yes.Then, when you reach a certain age, it’s nice to be able to see the sun rise.That one has saved me more than the garlic test.I have learned to eat a whole clove of it without even a grimace.Nasty stuff, but I can do it.”She laughed, and he had to admire once again how beautiful she was.“I’ve not told you because when I’m around you, I nearly forget my name, but we are legally married in the eyes of the law.It was filed some weeks back when we got together.That way, there’s no question when you were able to use my credit cards.”
“Good.I don’t need a ceremony anyway.I’m just happy that we’re together.”He said that he was as well and kissed her on the nose.“What do we do now?I mean, besides living our lives the way that we want them.I’ve no doubt that my mother is going to be found not fit to stand trial and be sent away.I hope so anyway.It’s nice not to have to worry about her trying to kill me at every turn.”
“I know you understand this, but there is no way she would have been able to kill you.I wanted you to understand that she’d have to remove your head the same as she would me.It’s not going to happen.Not that I can see her trying to do that, but you can be hurt.Not badly, but something like a broken bone will heal quickly, but it’ll hurt all the same.”She asked if he’d broken anything of late.“Nothing that I can worry enough over.I’ve been hurt before.Someone will get it in their head to shoot someone, and I’ll be standing there, but nothing that I’d not heal from.Not even silver will bother me at this stage of my life.The only thing that could harm you is childbirth.Again, it’s only pain and nothing that will kill you.”
“Will we have children?”Sirous told her that it would be totally up to her, as it was her body.“That doesn’t tell me if you want to have children or not.Do you want some little ones running around?I know that Calla is breeding, I think you call it, and Brew seems to be happy about it.So do you want children with me or not?”
“I do.As many as you want, I’ll be there for you and them.”He put his hand on her flat belly and smiled.“You’re not breeding now, but you could be if we keep making love daily like we are.I can tell when you’re ovulating and when you’re with child, but that’s about all I know.I believe that Brew could tell us more, but I’d just as soon not have him having more information than we do about our child.”
“Do you think we could wait a while?I feel like I’ve just been given my freedom from my mother and would like to enjoy getting to know you better.”He said that she would wait as long as she wanted, and that he wanted to get to know her better as well.“We have so much time to have children that I find myself thinking about all the things I want to do with you while we still are just the two of us.”
“I understand.It seems like we learn more about each other daily, and I love that.I know things about you that I’m sure not even your mother would know.”She didn’t doubt that; she told him because he listened to her.“I do.I hang on every word you say to me because I love you.Very much, my dear.”
