My Healer (Bewitched and Bewildered Book 3) (2 page)

She stood and walked over to stand between the family room and the kitchen. "Let me put a frozen lasagna in the oven, though I don't know if I'll be able to stand the smell. In my nightmare, the attackers smelled like rotten cheese, I woke up gagging." Swallowing hard at the memory, she turned to head into the kitchen when suddenly, Athan's hand grabbed her upper arm. When she looked up, his eyes looked a bit wild.

"What did you say about how they smelled?" His tone was serious. She looked around at the other men, they all looked worried.

"They smelled like death and old cheese. It was disgusting. Why?"

Athan pulled her into his arms. She turned her head to see the men were already moving. Levi's hands were glowing as he spoke low. From the Latin she'd learned in med school, he was asking for protection. In all the years they had spent together, he'd never once cast a spell in front of her. Dax left the room and went out the front door.
 

Radek stepped in front of her. "Rheia, this is very important. Is there anything else you can remember from your dream? Anything at all, no matter how small?"

She shook her head then paused. "Just the man's voice. He sounded so desperate when he yelled. He said, 'Run! Call for help! Come to Lycaonia!'."

Marco's olive-toned skin drained of color. Cussing under his breath Radek pulled his phone from his pocket. Rheia heard the front door open and close. Dax returned with a large duffel bag, which he set on the coffee table. When he unzipped it, she saw he carried an arsenal.

"You can't have that around Penny! Is that ..." she looked closer. "Is that a grenade launcher?" she practically screeched.
 

Marco turned to Athan. "I'll leave her to you." He walked over to where Dax was already loading weapons. He picked up a shotgun and took up a position in front of the picture window.
 

She looked up at Athan. "What's going on?" She had been scared of her nightmare, but now she was terrified.

He ran a hand over her hair. "Even though you've known about paranormals most of your life, we've tried to keep the scarier details about our world from you. You know about the four pillar cities and how mates work, but what we haven't told you is that our people have been waging a long time war against something we call ferals. They are paranormals who have lost their souls. That horrible smell you described from your dream is the decay of a person's body, rotting from the inside out."

She stared at him. "You're telling me that those things are out there, right now? That what I dreamt is real?"

He nodded. "The man you heard in your dream said the word 'Lycaonia'. That is the name of the shifter paranormal city. It's about eight hours south of here. A couple months ago, a spell was cast to bring all the unit warriors their mates. Shortly after that the Unit Commander, Aiden McKenzie began dreaming of his mate. There's a pretty good chance that the man's voice you heard in your dream was your mate's," he explained.

Rheia was stunned. All her life she secretly dreamed of finding a paranormal of her own for a mate. Her last boyfriend had fallen woefully short of the standards she had set using her brothers as examples of manhood. In addition to being self-absorbed, he'd left the night she brought Penny home and never returned, saying he didn't want a child in his life.

"Maybe he will be a vampire," Athan said softly. When she looked up his eyes were twinkling.

"I hope to all the Gods she does have a mate. I for one was not willing to lose her to old age," Dax said, walking up to hand Athan a gun.

"Aiden, I have a situation here," she heard Radek say, holding his phone in one hand, his gun in the other.

Marco walked over to her. "I'm heading upstairs to pack for Penny. Did you want me to pack for you as well?" he asked.

"Pack?" Her head was swimming.

"Honey, you can't stay here. You have to go to Lycaonia," he explained gently.

"But my house! My things!" she protested.

"We can pack up all your things and send them to you," Dax offered.

"What about my house? This is temporary, right? I can come home later when you kill these things, right?" she asked desperately.
 

Marco shook his head, sadness in his eyes. "Pumpkin, if your mate is in Lycaonia, that's where you belong."

"This was my parent's house. I grew up here! Why is this happening now? Penny's been here almost a year?"

Marco growled low. "That sonofabitch Bruce Johnson at the Herald just released an exposé about the recent murders and linked them back to Penny's parents. He let the cat out of the bag that they were survived by a little girl that may have witnessed the murder. He also mentions that the poor orphan was adopted by a local humanitarian and surgeon. He must've hacked the records, because that was not for public consumption."

"Let's just get you and Penny to safety, then we can figure things out," Athan said, squeezing her hand.

She turned to Marco. "Our suitcases are in my closet. Pack as many of her things as you can, she'll need familiar things around her. I'll be up in a second to pack my clothes." He jogged up the stairs and out of sight.

"Commander, I need to send her to you. It's ten pm now, she should be arriving around six am, can you have someone watching out for her? Yes, sir, yes, sir. I'm going to give her directions. Your idea to have unit warriors outside the four cities is starting to pay off, isn't it? If we can save even one mate... yes, sir. I'll check in later with more details. Goodbye, sir." Radek ended the call and turned to her. "Aiden McKenzie will have someone waiting for you, to escort you into the city. You need to go pack, Pumpkin Dumpling." He pointed to the stairs.

Feeling numb, she turned and walked up the stairs. She went to Penny's room first. Marco was making her dollies walk then jump into the suitcase. Penny watched intently, a serious look on her face. The little girl didn't have much. She had refused all of her toys from her parent's home except a small, handmade cloth doll. Rheia believed that Penny's mother had made it for her. Penny rejected everything else, including her old clothes.

Even later Penny hadn't expressed much interest when they'd gone shopping, so the amount to pack for her daughter was painfully small. Not wanting to disturb the two, she turned and made her way to the master bedroom. It took her two years after her parent's fatal car accident to move into the master bedroom. Marco had left the large and medium size suitcases open for her on her bed. Looking around the room with a critical eye, she decided to pack her clothes and toiletries in the large suitcase and pack her sentimental items in the medium suitcase.

She emptied her small closet and nightstand into the large suitcase and frowned. She had a lot of space left over. Ironically, she hated clothes shopping as much as Penny. She mostly lived in her scrubs, rotating between the same seven pair. The rest of her wardrobe was comprised of some tee-shirts, a couple pair of jeans, sweaters, a couple nightgowns and undergarments. Her clothes selection was as pitiful as her daughter's. She transferred the clothes and toiletries to the medium suitcase and zipped it shut. In the larger suitcase she packed the small set of fairy tale books her father had read to her as a child, all of her mother's jewelry, her own favorite books, a small shoebox of keepsakes, three photo albums, and the accordion file which held all of her legal papers. Looking down at the nearly full suitcase she realized there was only one more thing she had to have with her. She turned and raced downstairs to the kitchen. Lovingly she wrapped her mother's china tea service, which included a teapot, a creamer, a sugar bowl, and four cups with saucers in her kitchen towels and headed back upstairs with them in a laundry basket.

When she first came to this home, she hadn't been that much older than Penny was now. She could clearly remember her mother sitting her down at the table and making her a pot of sweet chamomile tea. All the ugliness of her past slipped away as she sat holding that delicate teacup. She carefully packed the small tea service in the suitcase using her kitchen and bathroom towels to keep it safe. She zipped up the suitcase and stood back.

"You ready, hun?" Marco asked. Penny peeked out from around his side, holding his hand.
 

Rheia nodded. "Yes. Surprisingly I was able to get most of my personal things into two suitcases. Everything else is just household items, but the things that matters will be going with us." She walked over and scooped Penny up, the small girl laid her head on her shoulder.

"We're going to a very nice place, Penny. It's called Lycaonia. It's a city where all the people are like Uncle Radek and Uncle Marco," she said, walking down the stairs. Behind her Marco easily managed the three suitcases.

Penny looked up and pointed to her chest with her thumb. Rheia nodded. "Yes, darling, people just like you, a whole city of shifters. Won't that be nice?"

Penny scrunched up her face for a second, thinking about it, then nodded.

"Okay, here are the directions. Things are pretty normal until you turn off the highway. No matter how lost you think you are, stay on the dirt road. You'll have someone waiting for you," Radek explained, handing her a piece of paper before plucking Penny from her arms. He kissed the toddler's face all over the place. Penny squirmed, trying to avoid his whiskers. Radek pulled back and smiled at her. Penny without changing expression tweaked his nose. He gave a long booming laugh.

"You're not coming with us?" Rheia asked, feeling uneasy. She tucked the directions in her pants pocket.

"Car's loaded, Boss." Marco said, returning from the garage. He handed the keys to Rheia.

Radek shook his head. "You'll be safe in Lycaonia. I'm going to stay with the guys and try to find this threat and eliminate it. There have been too many..." he hesitated. "Incidents lately. I want to find where these guys are and take care of it."

In Rheia's mind she translated;
There have been too many murders lately, and they wanted to find the ones responsible and kill them all.

Rheia took a deep breath. "What if..." she didn't want to sound childish. She was a grown woman, a doctor even. She shouldn't be relying on these men to tell her that everything would be okay.

"What, honey?" Athan asked. The men gathered around to say their goodbyes.

"What if I don't like him? What if he isn't like you, any of you? What if he doesn't want me?" she said, voicing her greatest fear.

"Oh, honey, you're breaking my heart," Levi muttered and pulled her head close to kiss the top of it.

"You love us, Pumpkin Dumpling, but your mate will complete you in ways that we never will. You're our kid sister. But you'll be his mate, his partner, his equal. He'll see sides of you, we, and correct me if I'm wrong gentlemen, never want to see. You're our kid sister for crying out loud!" Radek said, the tips of his ears turning red.

"Ahh, you mean sex." Rheia grinned.

Levi gasped and covered Penny's ears. Rheia rolled her eyes. "It's a natural part of life Levi."

"Not for you," Marco grumbled.

"If he hurts you, just call us. We have no problem explaining very thoroughly how he should treat our baby sister," Athan said, his blue eyes turning dark.

Rheia turned to Penny. "I wonder what they'll be like when you find your mate?" For a second Rheia thought she saw the hint of a smile on Penny's face.

"That will never happen! Our Penny Baby isn't allowed to mate. Ever," Marco said, growling.

Penny rolled her eyes. Rheia's heart swelled with pride. Penny may not be her daughter by blood, but this tiny kiddo was turning out just like her.

"Okay, enough crazy talk. You head to Lycaonia, find your mate, tell him if he hurts you we'll skin him alive and Penny stays a baby girl forever. Got that?" Radek demanded.

"Yes, sir!" Rheia laughed, taking Penny from his arms.

She was just about to head towards the garage when she heard a loud bang and the sound of splintering wood.

"Run for it!" Radek yelled. The men turned and ran towards the family room, blocking the danger so she and Penny could escape.

Heart in her throat, Rheia clutched Penny tightly and ran into the garage. She opened the driver's side door and got in. Penny scrambled over to the passenger seat and hit the button to lock the doors.

"Good girl! Now, get the seatbelt on and hold on tight. We don't have time to get you in your car seat," she said and started the car. She hit the garage door button. Slower than she could remember it ever moving in the past the door rose. Before the door was completely up, the same feral from her nightmare appeared behind her car, grinning at her in the rear view mirror.

"I don't think so!" she muttered and threw the car in reverse. Pressing her foot down on the accelerator she had a second to appreciate the surprised look on his face before he disappeared under her car. Both she and Penny bounced up and down as they ran him over.
 

The car screeched to a halt at the bottom of the driveway before she executed a 'K' point turn that would have made her father proud. She slammed her foot down on the gas pedal and sped away.

After a few minutes, a small, warm hand took hers. She looked over and saw Penny was watching her closely. There was neither fear nor panic on her face. Her brave angel was trying to comfort her.

"Oh, baby, we'll be okay, and your uncles will be okay too. We'll get settled in Lycaonia and they'll come to visit and this will seem like a really bad dream. You'll see." Penny nodded and pulled her hand up and kissed it sweetly.

"I love you too baby girl. I know one thing, my mate has a hell of a lot to live up to." Rheia said, trying not to think of what could be happening to the men they'd left behind.

Looking serious Penny nodded again. She let go of her hand and popped her left thumb into her mouth.

"Get some sleep, baby. I'll drive for a bit to put some distance between us and the house. Then we'll stop for a snack somewhere and I'll put you in your car seat, okay?"

Penny nodded again.

Radek, Athan, Dax, Marco, Levi... you better be okay.