Jackson: House of Wilkshire ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance, page 13
There were black round balls in her salad that Dak loved, but she didn’t like. Also, the peppers were good. As they were getting their second bowl of the large salad cheesed up, another thing that she’d have to learn about, they brought the food for them.
“I have never seen so much for just one person, have you?” Dak stared at her plate and shook his head. “We shall feel full tonight, I think. You taste it first, as it was your pick this time. If you are happy with it, we shall come here again and again.”
It was better than it looked. The creamy gravy was all over the pasta. The chicken—she discovered what it was by accident—was tender and moist. She could have easily eaten another plate of the food, but was fearful of giving herself away as a dragon. Dragons could eat a great deal, of course, and that was how many of them were caught.
When they were finished, every drop of the food and bread eaten by the two of them, she did what she’d learned from the other tables and pulled the little black machine to her. The sliding bar over it confused her for a bit, but Dak moved it for her and told her that it was the tip. Not that she knew what it was, but Dak seemed satisfied that they were to put a lot of it on there. Whatever they needed to do to blend in, she was fine with that.
Sliding her finger over the area that she’d seen the others do, she was happy when it seemed to work. While they were awaiting information on when to leave the place, Aisling asked if she could use that for many things. To buy food or at other places.
“You will need to have a card to put down, but I shall make you one that will work. Some places, I have noticed, do not have that nice little machine.” His face reddened a little. “The thing that we put the slider on, I think we put too much tip on it. I heard the others talking about how much tip we put onto our bill, and it seemed to surprise them all that we had tipped so much. I will look up on that when we are settled.”
“All right. Now, to find us a house.” Dak confessed that he was still hungry. “So am I. It was very good, don’t you think?”
“It was. But not nearly enough for us when we have been without for so long. I have found in the minds of the humans that there are several good places that we can go. Should you like to try them.” She said that she was ready when he was. “Good. It will be nice to be full so well, don’t you think?”
They ended up at seven different places to eat. Two places that served steak, which she dearly loved, and one other pasta place. It wasn’t as good as the first one, but it had been good enough to fill her and Dak up.
It was late when they traveled back to the cave. It had been much too late for them to find lodgings tonight, so they were to sleep there. By the time she was able to stretch out her dragon for a little while, it was almost dawn. Lying on the slab that she’d been resting on for decades, she spoke to her friend.
“I know how long I’ve been here. Also, I am aware that I should have died.” Dak said nothing as he settled on her chest again. “You were right in not telling me, Dak. I know that. But I would liked to have known how many had died.”
“So many.” She nodded as she cradled the little faerie in her hand. “The war raged on for many years after you were here. I feared that they’d find us, but no one entered but a bear or two. It was easy to scare them out after a bit, but that is all.”
“The people that we encountered, they seem to not have an idea that they are living where many dragons lost their lives. That even many humans were slaughtered in the name of the king that lived here.” Dak said that he noticed that as well. “It is sad to me that they are forever looking at those shiny things in their hands rather than noticing what was given to them by the shed of so much blood.”
“You will see that it is no different as we move on toward the king, my lady. I fear it will only get worse.” She didn’t want to think about that, but said nothing to Dak. He was only trying to warn her. “I have seen your mother out and about. She is living her life well now. I did not contact her, as I knew you would have not wanted me to, but I have been keeping an eye on her through the forest creatures.”
Aisling shivered. Her mother. She wasn’t anyone that she’d want to be around most of the time, and Aisling thought that death might be too good for her at other times. It was because of her that the war raged on. She might even well have been the cause of it from the start. If nothing else, Aisling would have to tell the new king about her deception to the order, as well as tell him what she knew of her profiting from the death of dragons.
“You are thinking too hard, my lady.” She smiled at Dak without commenting. “Your mother, she will have her comeuppance, you will see.”
Aislings father had been a dragon. And even though they should not have been able to create a child, something happened and they had her. Dak had told her once that she thought that her mother had taken another’s hatchling and had told her father that it was her child, but there had been no proof of it to make the claim stick. Aisling, being a white dragon, would be able to mate with any color dragon and be whatever he was. To have purebred children. Their love would make them one.
Not that she believed in such things as love. It was an illness, she had come to think of it. Something that would ail you for a while then wear off. But by then, it would be much too late for you to get out of the bed with it. Closing her eyes, she was just falling asleep when she thought of something.
“We will need to travel too, you know. Eating like we are, I will not be able to get my dragon off the ground.” Dak laughed. “Tomorrow, after we have a way to travel that no one will think wrong, we will find the king of dragons, then come back here to find lodgings.”
“Yes, my lady. I like that plan.”
She only hoped that the king didn’t wish to hold her mother’s actions against her. It had been done to other dragons in her time here. Going to sleep after having such a wonderful night and good food, Aisling let it take her under.
~*~
Connor didn’t care for this house either. It was nice, he supposed, if he were the type of person that liked to have to go out of doors to see the sunshine. It was too closed up—not enough windows in the place. Hell, even the kitchen, which was a place he enjoyed being in, had only a single window that was too small to make a difference. The yard, now that he was out of the stifling home, seemed to be too closed in.
“The fences around the property are all electrified, sir.” He asked the agent why that was necessary. “To keep out the riffraff. You’d be surprised to know that there are all sorts of types around this area that would just stop by at any time of the day or night.”
He didn’t comment, thinking that she’d be the only person that he’d want to keep out. However, if she tried to touch him again, he was going to murder her right here in this place. Keeping his distance from her, Connor moved to his own car, glad now that he’d insisted on driving himself. He looked at her, trying to gauge if he wanted or even needed to spend any more time with her today.
“Are there any more homes you wish to show me today?” She said she had one more lined up, but she didn’t think he was going to like it. “Why is that?”
“It’s said to be a cold place.” That didn’t bother him. Connor was a dragon, he loved cold places. “There are things that people have complained about in it as well. Ghosts, they said. I normally wouldn’t have told you that, sir, but I have to disclose everything. There was, or there was reported, a murder in the home long ago.”
“I’d like to see it.” She stood there as he got into his car. When she finally got that he was serious, she got into hers and he followed her to the home.
From the outside it looked like any other home on the street. However, this house sat alone between two large empty spaces. Connor would bet anything that the houses on either side had been torn down because no one wanted to live in them and they fell to disrepair.
Getting out behind her, he stared up at the older home. It would need a lot of work, on the outside it seemed. He asked the realtor what had happened to the houses on either side of it.
“The city was reclaiming these homes to build a mall of sorts down here. It was in the early nineteenth century, from what I understand. There are no records that we can find on when this one was built. People have lived here over the years, but there is no original paperwork for this one for some reason. The other four homes were torn down easily. This one, it is reported, wouldn’t allow itself to be taken down with the rest.” Her little laugh made him think that she’d not believed that any more than she did that this house was beautiful. “Anyway, after the other four were gone, this house stood the test of time. And no one would build on these sites because of the— Well, the noises that emanate from it at all hours. Or so it is said.”
“You don’t believe in ghosts, I take it.” She shook her head and asked him if he did. “Yes. They’re all around us all the time. What do you think happens when you lose something in your home? Something is moving it.”
“No, I’ve misplaced it, that’s all.” Her tone was clipped, and he smiled as she headed toward the front door. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Wynn, but I cannot go into the house with you. It— Well, if you must know, it gives me the willies to go inside. Not because anything has happened to me in there, but because of all the stories that I’ve heard over the years.”
“I understand.” He took the keys from her. It didn’t surprise him that it was a large skeleton key. “Should I just drop these off at your office when I’m finished looking around? There is no reason for you to wait out here alone.”
“You’d do that?” She sounded so eager that he was tempted to tell her that she had to come in with him. “Well, that’s grand. Thank you. I’ll see you back at my office. While I’m waiting on you, I’ll look into some more homes for you.”
She was gone before he was able to slip the key into his pocket. Laughing to himself, he opened the door and stepped into what he was sure going to be his new home. Connor Wynn was a dragon with a special magic. He could and did love talking to ghosts.
Two of the ghosts he saw as soon as he walked into the door. Not acknowledging them, he made his way into the rooms off to the left of where he was in the large entrance hall. Connor found himself standing by a long hall. Across from him was a parlor of sorts, as well as the most beautiful fireplace he’d ever seen. The sofa had probably been made for the house when the realtor had been born, and he moved by it to check on the mantel.
“Not that you’d care to hear, but I bought that before we moved here for my lovely bride. However, she passed on her way across the ocean to here. Terrible times it was.” Connor found the markings on the fireplace that told him where it had come from as the ghost continued. “There are other mantels like that one. One in the master bedroom, as well as in the family room. Back then it was a room for the children to be put out of the way, but I go there at times.”
“Who are you talking to?” The second ghost joined the two of them. “You know as well as I that you’re wasting your breath on him. Durned man is going to buy this place, then tear it down. I’d let him, too, if I had me a place to go. Do you suppose we can spook him out of the place?”
“No. Leave him be. He’s not doing nothing but looking around.” The first ghost got up and moved to where Connor was at the fireplace. “If you push this right here, you can see all sorts of treasures, you little shit.”
“I’m not a little shit.” The two ghosts screamed. It was the funniest thing he’d ever seen, and Connor sat down on the apron to regard the two of them. “You should take better care, you know. What if I had been someone who came here to run you all off?”
“Blimey hell, you can talk to us.” Connor pointed out that they could talk to him; he could talk to anyone. “You really can talk to us? That’s wonderful. My goodness— Well, I’m guessing that now that you know we’re here, you’ll not be buying this place? Not that we care, you see, but we’re all bored here. Can’t even get up a good game of chess or the like.”
“On the contrary, I am going to buy the house. But I will have rules regarding me living here.” They both nodded as four more ghosts joined them. One was a small child that looked to have been a servant here at one time. “How many of you call this your home?”
“Just us six. Oh, and the maid. She died by her own hand by fire one night, and hasn’t any place to go. The household, they left her here when they were scared out of the place by herself. She’d been too...too inebriated to keep an eye on the candle. She resents all of us and the living, I’m afraid.”
“She’ll behave or I’ll put her out.” They all nodded, and Connor had a feeling that they may or may not believe him, but were glad to have someone to talk to. “Rules are this. I have to have this place remodeled. It won’t take long—perhaps a day or two. There are creatures of the forest that I shall call upon to make the house what it once was. You will not try to harm them, none of them. You may speak to them should you want. I will make the house so that all that who enter can speak to you should they want, but you aren’t to harm them. Do I make myself clear?”
“Faeries? You’re really going to have faeries come to see us?” Connor said that they were there to work. “Yes, we get that. But we can be seen by them. You’ve no idea how that will be for some of us.”
“I will need to know your names if you plan to stay.” The first ghost he encountered asked him what he meant. “I can let you move on, go to another place, or stay should you want. It’ll be up to you. So long as you behave yourselves.”
“We’d like to move on.” The ghosts, two of the four that had joined them, said that they were sisters and were ready to move on. “We have no one left here, and there is no one for us to visit should we want. Please, we’d like to move on.”
“Anyone else? Any of you want to move over to the next realm?” No one said anything, so Connor just put his hand over where their hearts would have been. After they were gone, he sat back down on the skirt of the fireplace. “Anyone else want to go someplace else? To a neighbor that has a friend of yours? Anywhere?”
“I’d like to stay, sir.” The little boy bowed to him. “Name is Newt. A book, it fell on my head once, and the master named me after the book. I can’t read, but he sure liked that book. Carried it with him a lot.”
He found out that the maid was April, no last name. The others were, from the first one he’d encounter to now, were Duncan, Louis, and Archie from the kitchen area. Connor now had a home with five extra residents, and he was happy about it.
After explaining to them what he had to do, buy the house and set up the cleanup times, he also wanted to know anything about the house that wouldn’t be from anyone on the outside. The first thing that Duncan showed him was the wine cellar that was below them, and that it was stocked full.
“No one’s been down here in forever, I don’t think. When my wife to be passed on, I guess I needed myself something to bide my time.” Connor pulled one of the bottles off the shelf and was charmed by the label. “Yes, well, at one time, I was a romantic. Now I am not. I’m bored, I suppose one could say.”
“Just don’t let your boredom get you into trouble.” Duncan said that he’d not. “How long have you all been keeping people away from here?”
“Since before you were born.” Connor said that he was much older than he looked. “A creature of the night, are you?”
“Dragon.”
Chapter 11
Jackson looked over the furniture that was in storage. There was a great deal of it. Over the years his mother had remodeled the home every year, it seemed, on the orders of his father, to make them look like they were wealthy. Even though they were and everyone knew it, his father wanted everyone to have it rubbed in their faces that the house of Willow was very wealthy. So, instead of tossing the things away or giving them to staff, as most did, she was to store them away. The only reason that Jackson could think of for him doing that was to show people how much he’d spent in previous years for his crap.
“Some of this stuff is very old, isn’t it?” He laughed, and asked Nicole if that was her way of telling him that he was old. “I don’t care how old you are, I really don’t. But some of this— Well, I don’t see you having it around you.”
“No. Some of these things were taken out of the house before I was born, I guess, and then after I left on my own.” He opened one of trunks and saw that it was filled with linens. “When I see this all now, all I can think about is that it was such a waste. Who cares if you’re using last season’s tea towels? Or for that matter, if the vases that are in the living room were at one time in the dining room? Not for my father. It was total clean out, then restarting every four months. It was a nightmare.”
“I bet the staff hated it more than you. Toting all that shit up the stairs only to have to bring it back down a few months later. Then there is getting used to where things were placed. Like the dishes. Are there dishes?” He pointed in the direction of the several trunks that were against the wall. “All those are dishes?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so. There had to be seasonal dishes too.” He thought about it a moment. “I think there might be one set that you might like to have. They were a wedding gift to my parents from a relative. I think. I’m not sure now. Anyway, they have these beautiful dragons on them if I remember correctly. If we can find them, I wouldn’t mind having them in the house if you wouldn’t care.”
“I’d love that. But not for everyday use.” He shook his head, and closed the trunk he’d been looking in with more linen. “What about these bed sets? I think that one over there is simply beautiful. I’m assuming that it must have been in your mother’s room.”
“I think it was at one time.” They moved to the dresser, and he looked at Nicole’s face when she opened it to find clothing inside. “I told you, clean out everything and start fresh. Around here someplace are her dresses too. In a trunk. But I will tell you that Mom rarely had more than two dresses a season. Not that she couldn’t get more, but she rarely left the house. And when she did, my father would dress her in diamonds and gems so much that anything that she wore, Mom told me, would be lost in the dazzle. I don’t think they were well suited, my parents.”
