Rex watched her from the front porch of his Grandfather's weathered log cabin. Three days. They had been here three days and Jaycee had barely spoken to him, except to politely ask him to pass the salt at the dinner table. She was hiding, emotionally at least. Not that he could blame her. He knew he had been heavy handed that morning. But he did not regret that. When it came to keeping his family safe, he had done what he needed to do.
His cell phone rang. He looked at the number and pushed the reject button...again. Tim Masters, his boss. It was probably the tenth call the man had made since he had sent the email that night informing him that he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence to handle some pressing family business. It was not a lie. They were his family...in every way that counted.
The man had been less than thrilled to have his lead investigator just disappear, but it was the disappearance of the horses and the call Masters had received the next day from the sheriff that had begun this barrage of calls. Rex had taken the first couple of them, explaining that he had taken personal responsibility for the animals, was ensuring their safety. He had suggested that perhaps it was not really an animal attack but something more sinister dealing with the court case. Tim Masters has insisted that it was in the best interest of the animals that they be brought to the shelter then.
Rex had refused, politely of course. He had explained that might put other animals in danger. That much was the truth at least. The Chupacabra had come after the horses because it knew somehow that they were important to his woman. If he had her somewhere that it could not get to her, then the thing would use the animals to draw her out.
Rex did not tell his boss, likely soon to be his former boss, the real reason. He did not trust the man. He had never liked the ambitious center director, but now he trusted no one. The Chupacabra had a human form. A human form that like Masters would be ambitious, greedy, and unscrupulous. Or worse.
While Rex wanted to believe that he would smell the evil, he could not be certain. What was more, even if Masters was not the Chupacabra, he could be in league with the monster or unknowingly used by it to find his family. No, the fewer people who knew where they were the better. Not even Hector and Lupe were privy to that information.
But right now, his job was the least of his worries. Keeping them safe was first. But close behind was how to rebuild the bridge between him and his Mitawa Naya. He watched her smile as Grandfather taught Angel to speak with the horses.
He remembered the lesson well. That first summer, Grandfather had taken him into the corral. He asked Rex what the horses were saying. He had scoffed at his Grandfather, "How should I know, Old Man?" His Grandfather had smiled and replied, "But they are speaking so clearly. Can you not understand them?" Rex had been torn been curiosity and thinking the Old Man truly had lost his marbles. In the end, curiosity had won out. By the end of that summer, he could hear them talk too.
He smiled, his Angel had not been as stubborn though. She had held out her hand and replied, "I can hear them. I always hear them. But I cannot understand." He was not sure who had been more surprised...him, who understood the significance of her innocent words or Jaycee for whom they were cause for further worry.
Oh yes, Angel was most definitely a Night Walker. Perhaps the strongest and purest. She did not seem to possess the same darkness that most of their kind did. Maybe that was why she had so much trouble though? There was nothing to filter out the screams. She heard them constantly: the cry of wolf without its mate, the fear of the deer as it bounded through the woods away from hunters, even the buzz of the bees, she felt the weight of the ants as they struggled with burdens far beyond themselves. The tears of all the weak...the abused...the pain of all their hurts. This tiny girl felt it all...all alone.
But no more. She had become almost an appendage to Grandfather. From the time that she woke up in the morning until they put her to bed at night...and likely even then, she clung to him. She absorbed every story that the Old Man told her. Asked hundreds of questions...some of them shockingly astute. She rode horses with him, cared for the animals. In essence, she did pretty much everything that a six year old little girl would do who lived on a farm...and then some.
He saw and heard the conflict in Mitawa Naya. On one hand, her heart soared with pride and joy at each of the little girl's accomplishments. She beamed when her daughter asked a question that stumped even Grandfather. She glowed when the child told her the details of all she had learned that day.
Yet at the same time, she hovered as she was now. Always leery, always fearful that something would happen, something would go wrong. That Angel would have another seizure or fall and hurt herself. Rex understood. That had been her life for so long that she feared to relax her guard for even a moment.
What if she did and something happened? Had she noticed that Angel had only one small seizure since they came here? Had she seen the way that her daughter was learning to center herself and build her own filters? And how was she going to handle things when her precious baby no longer needed her all of the time?
Rex had his own ideas...his plans for how to distract the woman. But with her barely speaking to him now...well, that would just have to change and now was as good a time as any to begin, he thought as he stepped from the porch and walked across the dusty yard to stand next to her by the wooden corral. He did not speak. He waited patiently. He smiled as he caught snippets of her thoughts...so he made her uncomfortable, made her aware of things she did not want to think about...made her want things she did not think was possible. It was a start.
***
Could the man not take a hint? Jaycee thought. Watching her daughter's curly head bent so close to the straight grey, almost white, other one tugged at her heart. The smile of her child's face went soul deep, she could see that. A blond man could see that Angel had never been happier. If getting her away from the pollution, crowding and noise of Dallas had seemed to improve her condition, there was no doubt that the past three days had been almost miraculous.
But it was too soon for her to give up her vigilance just yet. This could just be a fluke. Although something told her that it was not. There was something special about this place. About Grandfather. After looking to doctor, scientist and expert after expert for six years, was it possible that there was another path...a different option? That there was more to her child's condition than medicine could understand? Perhaps more to the world than the eye could see or the ear hear? She was no longer sure.
She just knew that since the moment they had driven up the bumpy, dirt road; the second that the faded logs came into view with the sun setting behind the hills which surrounded them, she had felt like she belonged. Like after a life time, she had found home. The home she had craved since she was a little girl in foster home after foster home.
Of course, the sane part of her argued that it was just a childish fantasy. This was his home. His Grandfather's. His legacy perhaps. They were intruders for a time, visitors. When the danger was passed, they would go back to their ranch.
She could not stifle the chuckle at that thought. Five acres, a barn and a wood frame house that all of her efforts to re-decorate never seemed to cover up the fact that it was falling down around them...ranch? No, this was a ranch with hundreds of acres, where even wild horses could roam free, a place seeped in history and tradition that went back generations. Angel was not the only one listening to Grandfather's stories.
As much as she wanted to believe these strange feelings, she could not allow herself to build up her hopes...not anymore. She had done that so many times as a little girl...each open house at the adoption agency, she just knew that some family would claim her. But they never did.
Then Sean, she had thought that they could build a family together...be the perfect couple. But the sad truth was that they had never shared the same dreams. Her ex wanted money and power and sex...lots of sex. With as many women as he could get. When Angel got ill, her sand castle of dreams had crashed around her. There was not room in the man's life for a sick child or a wife that 'did not pull her weight' as he has accused when she gave up the law to care for Angel.
She had promised herself then that she would re-build alone. That she could give her daughter what she never had: stability and family. As hard as it was as a single mother bearing the twin burdens of a sick child and a job, she had been determined that she would do it...that she needed no one.
Until that night. Until she looked into the glowing yellow eyes of that thing...that monster. She had been afraid then...alone and afraid. She had wondered what would happen to her daughter, who would care for Angel when she was gone, when that thing ripped out her throat and broke her neck just as it had Blu's.
She still trembled every time she thought about it. Her vision blurred and she brought the back of her hand up to swipe the tears away. She felt a strong arm wrap casually about her shoulder. She was tugged gently closer. She told herself that she should push him away. That it was just another girlish fantasy, another stupid dream, another castle built of sand.
But she did not have the energy just then to fight him...or herself. What would it hurt for a couple of minutes to pretend that this illusion was real? That she and Angel belonged here. With this man. That this truly was the home she had been searching for a lifetime.
She heard and felt him sigh heavily. He turned her slowly in his arms until their eyes locked. He bent slowly and at first she was certain that it was going to be another of those soul shattering kisses that they had stolen in her old barn. Instead his soft lips gently brushed her forehead. She could not deny she was a bit disappointed.
But his next words shook her to the core, "That is no illusion, Mitawa Naya. You are home. And nothing in heaven or on this earth will ever make me let you go again."
She sucked in a deep breath and prepared to set him straight. Her logical brain argued that those words sounded oddly stalkerish...she could use things like that to get restraining orders for her clients. And wasn't it oddly strange that she had never had any trouble until he came into their lives?
But before she could get a single word out, a tiny projectile launched herself at them both. Angel wrapped her arms about them both and drew them even closer together. The three way hug brought her body into direct contact with his. His hard body. And her own, traitor that it was, melted instantly against him.
