Riss (14 page)

“
Does everyone have a specialty? Never mind. I don’t think I want to know that right now. And as for dying for me, that won’t be necessary.” He shrugged at her. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m a real bitch. I know it’s no excuse, but I’m really scared for Dan. He might be…he is everything they say he is, but he was my friend first. The only one I had for a long time.”

“
And for that reason alone, you are mine as well.” She didn’t understand him, and he seemed to know it and explained, “You have a big heart and see the goodness in others that we might miss. We, all of us older protectors, are jaded somewhat. When Riss had said he was quitting the job, leaving us, I was…I thought if he can do this, then I can, too. I’ve been thinking that it might be the thing I need to do as well. Quit, not find a wife. I’ve no use for one at my age.”

“
You wish to die?” He nodded. “I’m so sorry to hear that. I don’t know what you do for Boss, but I’d….” She smiled at him, and he raised a brow. Kala had a feeling that he wanted her to be afraid of him more than friendly with him. “Why don’t you come and work with Riss and me? We were told we could pick our own team.”

He threw back his head and laughed. Then he hugged her to him
, and she felt a strange connection run up her arms where they touched. When he pulled back, he looked at her oddly before kissing her on the forehead. She found it a little weird that he’d nearly had to bend in half to do so.

“
You are with child.” Kala put her hand on her belly and nodded at him. “Good. And I would be honored to come and work with you and Riss. But….” They both looked down the hallway when the surgeon came toward them. When someone took her hand, she didn’t even bother looking but gripped it tightly as he walked toward her. The connection was so tight between this man and her that she knew that if this was bad news, he’d be there for her.

“
Let’s have a seat, why don’t we?” When they were settled, Kala looked around at all the other people with her. They were her support team. Kala looked at the doctor.

“
I’m a person who likes it said and not going around the bush seven times before I get it. Say what’s going on and I can deal with it.” He grinned and nodded.

“
There was…Mr. Carey did have a stroke, but it wasn’t as bad as we’d first thought. When we took him into surgery, we were concerned by the blood loss and did some x-rays of his brain. There we found a tumor. A very large one that has been pressing against his brain for what I would guess the last twenty years.” Kala nodded and felt Riss sit beside her as the doctor continued. “We have removed as much of it as we can, but I’m afraid that the damage is still there. Had it been caught years ago, he might have lived a long and productive life. As it is…I don’t believe Mr. Carey will ever leave a long term facility.”

“
How did it get missed for so long?” She watched his face and saw the anger there and knew. “No one cared enough to look for it. They thought there was something wrong with him mentally and never bothered to look to see what else was going on.”

“
That would be my guess. They knew that he’d had issues as a child, and instead of treating what might have been wrong with him, they gave him drugs to keep him down. And when that failed to work, they gave him more and more. While Mr. Carey did kill all those people, I would guess that a large part of that blame is on the medical field as well as his mother. From the records I’ve seen, he was abused as a child, and it never got any better as he grew older. I would say that the only reason it might have stopped when he reached adulthood was either because she herself had been incapacitated or he was too big for her to control. He was an abused person, no two ways about it.”

When he left them a few minutes later
, Kala sat alone on the couch. The rest of them were talking in low tones, but she didn’t want to join them. She had a lot to think about, and very little of it had to do with the people that were there. Looking up when she felt a presence, she glared at Boss for several seconds until she asked Him to leave her alone.

“
Daniel will die at peace.” She looked at Him as He sat down. “I’m sorry for your loss, Kala. Daniel might have been a good man had someone tried to help him as you’ve done, but it was much too late when he met you. He would not have had that had you not been with him in his final moments before this. I’m so very sorry.”

“
And that’s supposed to make me feel better?” He didn’t answer her but watched her. “He had a brain tumor. Couldn’t one of his watchers have told someone about it? Or made someone look into it? Why would this happen to someone like him? It wasn’t his fault.”

“
No, most of it wasn’t his fault, but he did them all the same. Things had to progress the way they did with as little involvement as possible from us.” She snorted at Him. “I’m sorry that you don’t feel we did a good job with this, but—”

“
Save it. You let all those people be killed because you couldn’t interfere. If you couldn’t do that, who the hell could?” Boss leaned back on the couch, and she got up to pace. She was mad, and He might as well take the brunt of her anger.

“
You would have me take care of everyone in the entire world? Drop everything when someone bumps their knee?” She started to tell Him this was much more than a bumped knee when He continued. “Where would you have me draw the line, Kala? With broken bones? Cancer victims? Who do you suppose should get all of the attention we can give them, and who will be left out when there are not enough men and women to go around? You think I don’t die a little each and every time something like this happens? You think that I don’t know that we should do more but cannot? I care more than you can imagine.”

“
He was my friend.” Kala looked at Him when He didn’t comment. “I’ve said this before, but I do believe he was my only friend for a long time. He was there for me when I needed him to be. I had no idea about the other stuff, his infatuation with me, but regardless of that, he was there when I needed him to be.” Boss nodded and put out His hands, motioning to the people down the hall.

“
All of them are our friends as well. Most of them have only just met you and still they consider themselves lucky to have you here for them. For Riss. What would you say if I told you that three of the people standing there will be dead in the next ten years? And that two more of them will have their bodies broken so badly that they will be in pain for the rest of their days? Days that they will think very seriously about ending their lives.” Kala looked down the hall to the people standing there.

She knew
that five of them were protectors, including Riss. Seven were humans and three that she didn’t know what they were. When she turned back to Him, Boss was wiping at a tear, and her heart went out to Him.

“
Daily I deal with death, Kala. Not in a small scale, but seconds do not go by that I don’t feel the pain of someone’s passing. That even the smallest of creatures pass tears at each of us who watch over them.” Boss stood up and turned her to face Him, and she could see His pain. “I will tell you something else, Kala. The child you now carry? The first of our kind to be born and not made? He will have his fair share of pain and hurt, but he will be stronger for it. Just as the people who love him.”

“
I’m sorry.” He nodded but let her go. “Please forgive me. I’m…I know this isn’t much, but I’m sorry to have taken this out on you. I don’t know why, but you seemed to be…I feel like I can talk to you like I can no one else. I should have taken better care with my words. It was wrong of me to take my hurt out on you when I can see you hurt just as much as I do.”

“
We are going to be good friends, my dear Kala. This I swear to you. Daniel’s passing will be a fading, nothing like his life had been. It will be quiet and without fan fair. No one will grieve his passing but you, and none will care that he killed, not for the sake of murder, but because he was never loved.”

“
That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.” He told her it was. “I’m sorry. Truly, I am. I never meant to insult you or anyone else.”

“
You are a good woman, Kala. Strong and willful. Enough to keep Riss on his toes and me thinking of visiting you more often than I should. I believe you will be a good addition to our teams.” Kala nodded. “Have you thought of a last name as yet? You and Riss, I mean?”

“
I think so. We are going to be Riss and Kala Trainer.” Boss nodded. “It was Riss’s idea. He thought it was something people would remember better. The Trainers.”

“
No one will forget you once they have met you. This is a trueness that I will give you to hold in your heart. As for your name, I love it. It suits.” He nodded and moved to go to the others, but stopped. “Kala, do not ever change, please. I think you are perfect in every way you are.”

She wasn
’t really sure what that meant but nodded anyway. When He was gone down the hall, she sat down again. When Riss came toward her, she smiled at him. He looked so good to her that she wanted to keep him in her pocket.

“
You do know that we can talk to each other all the time, even when we’re not together.” She nodded. “Did you and Boss have a nice talk?”

“
He thinks our last name is perfect.” Riss picked her up and put her on his lap as she continued. “Do you suppose we’ll have any problems registering our names? I mean, we weren’t married in a traditional sort of way.”

“
We have helpers throughout the government. Most of them are humans, but there are a few that aren’t. We have found a need for them, and they can do just about anything. I believe that we’ve been filed in the local offices as married. And I contacted someone this morning to have our last name changed as well.” She snuggled onto his shoulder.

“
Lily and I are having lunch tomorrow. She’s coming by the house. I didn’t know that protectors had to be held in a safe place. Doesn’t the whole immortal thing kinda keep them safe anyway?”

Riss smacked her ass
before he answered her. “You’re an immortal, too. Please remember that. And she doesn’t mean she feels safe there. It’s more of a being free thing. Her wings can be freed, and she doesn’t have to worry about anyone turning her in for being a freak. Also, there’s the added bonus of being with you. That in and of itself is a real plus.”

Kala didn
’t know about all of that, but she didn’t say anything. She liked Lily and enjoyed talking to her. Kala had been making a list of questions to sit down and talk to her about anyway. And this was the best way. As they gathered up to leave, she asked if she could see Dan just one time. Riss helped her find someone who could help her with that.

“
You’ll need to not touch him. His body is very sensitive right now.” Kala nodded to the nurse, who was showing her to the room where he was. Kala noticed the police everywhere and wondered if he’d be watched like this for the rest of his life. Probably. He had killed a great many people.

Kala was shocked by what
Dan looked like. Most of his head and face were covered in bandages, and there were bloodstains all over them. She knew from the doctor that they’d had to take a great portion of his skull off and hadn’t been able to replace it until the swelling went down. There were also tubes and wires all over him. Kala sat down in the only chair and looked at the man who had come to mean a great deal to her, but not necessarily in a good way.

“
I don’t know what to say to you. You should have told me sooner what you felt. I don’t know what I would have done, but this was off the chart in stupidity.” Her anger at him dissipated once she started talking. “I was always there for you, Dan. All you had to do was talk to me. Tell me how you felt. There was never any reason for this to get this far.”

She could see him hanging his head in shame, something that he
always did when she corrected something he’d said or done. He’d been like a big puppy to her, and she had to smile. Trying her best not to cry again at the sadness of it all, she tried to be a little more upbeat.

“
I’m happy now. Happier than I ever thought possible. Riss and his friends have taken me in and have treated me so well. I think maybe….” She looked away, trying to fight the tears again, and lost the battle. “You were such a good friend to me when I needed one. I hate that this happened to you. I’m so sorry. But I understand that you were sick and needed more than anyone would give you. For that I wish I could do something more for you.”

Kala thought about the people that lost their lives because of him.
The Shields and Officer McKay. Both of them had families that would miss them. McKay, she’d heard, had three children and a husband. There were others, too, who had died because of the man lying before her. And Dan’s mother had also died.

“
I’ve heard some things about your mother from Mr. Bishop. He said that she wasn’t a nice person. He told me that as you got bigger he thought things were different because they didn’t see you beaten up like you’d been, but there were still shouts coming from the house. Mr. Bishop said he called the police only because you’d taken your mother’s car. I guess he’d called several times to Family Services on her about her treatment of you. I had no idea that she’d tied you to a tree for days on end when you were bad.” Mr. Bishop had told her a great deal more, but Kala didn’t want to think of that now. Some of the things that Dan had had to endure were too much for her to think about. “I’m making arrangements for you to be put into a facility that will give you good care. I…Riss and I are going to visit you, too. Every week. I’m going to get me a reader to take, and I’m going to read to you. Mr. Bishop told me that you loved to read.”