“Everything, and everyone, is an object for bets.” Fergus stared out the window, squinting a bit. “I think someone’s casing your store.”
I snorted hard, doubling over, thumping a hand on the counter top. “Damn, he is so bad.”
“You know already?” Venclaire asked, scowling now at the window, too.
Gurgling, I nodded. “Yes. Elder Jacobs and Elder Merrick paid me a visit the other day. My answers weren’t clean enough, so Elder Jacobs is having me followed.” I shrugged a shoulder, every one of them glaring now. “I have no background. Do the math. They’re just looking out for you guys.”
Kincaid grabbed a piece of paper off the desk and started scribbling on it. “These are all of our phone numbers. Call us if the Elders or Kings bother you again.”
“They didn’t bother me,” I muttered, slapping at his writing hand. “I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“Yes…well,” Fergus rolled his shoulders still glaring, “I’ll take care of this asshole right now.”
“Fergus,” I muttered as he started marching away toward the door, Venclaire and Nelson hot on his heels. Kincaid shoved the paper at me before he hurried after them. “Fergus! It’s really alright!”
He just waved an absent hand over his shoulder, storming out of the shop, Nelson turning on his heel back to me, stating, “We’ll see you tonight. We’ll bring the groceries.”
“If he does anything to him, or if any of you make a fuss about this, it’ll only make it worse!” I shouted. “He’s only doing his job!”
“We don’t like his fucking job at this current time,” Venclaire stated casually over his shoulder before he exited the building, the door swinging open a bit too forcefully.
Kincaid grabbed the door before it hit a poor bastard walking by, and Kincaid waved a hand at me where I stood with my mouth slightly gaping as Fergus walked sedately across the street—except his shoulders were stiff and I was fairly sure I could see rocks flying away from him, his power leaking harshly. “See ya, Sadie.”
I waved distractedly as he left, and then stared wide-eyed as Fergus said something offhandedly to the air Elemental across the street while moving past him…just as the earth shot up like a thick totem pole under the chair he was sitting on. I could hear his shout from inside the store, pedestrians stopping to watch in shock—even as Fergus calmly entered the parlor, not even glancing at him. Right when the earth appeared to eat the air Elemental, the totem pole of earth swiftly slammed back down into the ground, the chair, and air Elemental…just gone from view on the even concrete.
Shelly choked as we both stared at the even, spotless ground. “Sadie?”
“Huh?”
“That is definitely a man who can make you shake.”
“Yeah…I got that.” But, he wasn’t the one who made me shake. I reached across the counter to Shelly, using a smidge of my power, making her forget the conversation I’d just had with them, and my missing background.
Fergus, the calm, quiet man of 2035…hadn’t killed the air Elemental…not sure how he hadn’t…but three days later, Shelly and I both witnessed as the air Elemental, and the chair, were “spat” from the ground in the middle of one of my shifts. He was choking and coughing, dirty as hell, but alive to wobble away, holding his hand over his eyes, shading his peepers from the bright sunlight. He didn’t once glance in the direction of the clothing store. And if he did follow me again, he managed to do so without me noticing, although, I was fairly sure I had a fire Elemental tail now, rotating with an air Elemental and water Elemental, who were a hell of a lot better at their job. I did not once mention this to the Prodigies, although, I was fairly sure they also knew, but when I didn’t say anything, and they didn’t attack the tail, it dawned on me they might have reacted that way to the air Elemental because I had mentioned something, meaning to them, it bothered me. Because over the next few weeks of happily seeing them sporadically during lunches, nights, and every weekend, I noticed they were the protective sort, behaving with sound morals, and low morals, a scary four. And I enjoyed their company immensely, oddly, feeling like the glue that held them together sometimes when they started to bicker about ridiculous shit, and them, in return, doing the same if I got into an argument with one of them over something mundane. And God, I liked it. It felt like home.
And then, there was Elder Cain Alek Merrick.
And fuck, did I like our time together, too, just on a completely different variety.
During the first two weeks after meeting him here in this time, our evenings together had most definitely not involved a lot of sleep, the Elder walking in through the door, Cain erupting as soon as he settled down, always deciding to move his car and stay the night, then the Elder rushing off again through my window the next morning.
On the third week, while doing my laundry, I had found one of his shirts, along with two of the Prodigies, but I had also found a pair of his boxer briefs, which I most definitely did not find of the Prodigies, in my dirty clothes I had grabbed off the floor. When I had put everything away, I had hesitated for all of a moment before putting the shirt on a hanger, and scooting over my clothes in the closet, hanging his on the left side, a small place in my drawer for his underwear.
In the fourth week, I bought a toothbrush holder for multiple toothbrushes, adding a few more toothbrushes to it so the Prodigies were thoroughly confused, thinking I had some kind of fetish with oral hygiene, since Cain seemed to have an issue with leaving his out on the counter instead of putting it back in his gym bag he now carried with him on our nights together so he could shower at my place instead of rushing back so early of a morning. And I also found a pair of tennis shoes, worn with love, left on the floor, which I placed inside my closet next to my own under two more of his shirts and a pair of pants that had accumulated through doing laundry. The man, not a very tidy individual, to which he had yanked the shirts off the hanger one morning when his were all wrinkled in his bag, of course, forgetting to take the wrinkled ones with him.
During the fifth week, it slowly began to dawn on me when I rolled over after he had left one morning, my head landing on a different pillow on my bed—a black satin one smelling heavily of him—that I seriously didn’t mind so much him leaving his stuff behind.
Then, the day of reckoning came.
Standing in line for the boxing match we were attending I heard Venclaire mutter, “What the hell are they all doing here?”
As one, the other three Prodigies and I glanced where Venclaire was staring, but I couldn’t see a thing recognizable, so I asked, “Who?”
“The Kings and Elders,” Venclaire grumbled, his eyes narrowing. “You’ll see them in a few seconds.”
I barely kept my heart from escalating, thinking of my calm, cool place, more than happy I had researched what the Kings of this time even looked like, a bit thrilled Elder Merrick would be near, but more than freaked I wouldn’t act right. So…yes. A white solace of nothing was what I coated myself in as I saw them. King Townsend, the Shifter King, was on the far right. King Bridges, the Vampire King, was to the left of him. King White, the Elemental King, was next, also in the middle. King Samson, the Mage King, was on the far left. And Elder Merrick, taller and wider than all of them, walked sedately behind them with Elder Jacobs as people, Commoners and Mysticals, sort of shuffled, or damn near leapt out of their way, as the group came through.
I’d had a feeling the Prodigies were being watched, only non-intellectual Kings letting their heirs go roaming about without protection in the background, plus, every single one of them were eyeing me, confirming my assumption. I knew right then this was going to be a real interesting night of word play on my part as they came to check me out, more than likely already having done their own background checks. I glanced at the Prodigies, all of them scowling, seeing where their Kings gazes had landed, and when they started to step in front of me, I quickly stepped forward, whispering harshly, “They’re just protecting you. Get over it because I have.”
