Page 9 of Conri

That night, when they were getting ready for bed, he cried softly into his pillow.He hurt for his children and, especially, Cass.She’d done nothing wrong to bring this down on her head, and Cynthia was blaming all her woes on her.He thought about how Cass had been asked to move out, and it hurt his heart every time he thought about it.

She’d lived in the big house for all her life.When she’d turned fourteen, she and Cynthia never had a cross word until then.He thought that she’d found competition in her little sister, but Cass was too busy forming her own way in the world to be bothered by her sister’s complaints.Then, one night, Cynthia had gotten violent with Cass.

Cass spent the next month in the hospital recovering from the wounds that her older sister had inflicted on her.She had drugged her with one of her own tablets and then tied her up.Finding her tied to her bed and Cynthia standing over her with a bloodied riding crop had nearly done him in.

She’d hit her with it fifty-seven times before she’d been caught, and only then because Cass had woken up and was screaming.He didn’t want to think about the things that had spewed from her mouth when the police had come to take her away.He had no doubt that this time would be no different, with her saying things that were never true about Cass.

“Are you asleep?”He told his lovely wife that he wasn’t and didn’t know if he could.“Yes, me either.I keep thinking about the things she’d said to me that morning that I left.She was set to kill me.Or have you do it.She told me that you loved her more than you did me.”He said that wasn’t true.“Yes, I know that love, but she was saying things that I believe will haunt me for the rest of my life.She hated me that much, enough to have said you were going to take care of me.”He felt her shiver.

“I never gave into her like she says I did.Like I was the only one to be able to make things right for her.I just don’t know where she got that.”Elizabeth said she’d never been a daddy’s girl.“No, not at all.And I hate that she calls me ‘Daddy’ all the time.I’ve tried to tell her she was too old to be calling me that, but she wouldn’t have it.Like she was just a child, calling me that.”

“She’s called me Elizabeth for the last few years.I didn’t mind that so much as her calling me ‘Mommy.’You’re right.I hated her calling you ‘Daddy’ too.I thought that it was very immature of her.Do you believe that she’s going to be forty-one soon?And we’ve always been slightly afraid of her.At least I have been.Sometimes, she looks at me like she’s wondering where to stick the knife.”She shivered again.“I can’t get over how much she’s taken over our lives.We’re supposed to be in our golden years right now, not having the police go in and arrest her because we’re afraid of her.And I am, too.How about you, honey?”

“I’ve been afraid of her since she hurt Cass.If she could do that to her own sister, there is no telling what she could do to us.”He pulled his wife into his arms and held her.“We’ll make sure that she doesn’t get out this time.I don’t care if we have to pay with every penny we have.She won’t get out to hurt any of us again.”

“No, you’re right.We can’t live like this.And with you only…I’m going to miss you so much, Howard.I just don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.”He held her while she cried softly.His own heart was breaking, too.If only, he thought they’d of found it sooner, he might be around a bit more.Just a little more time to see Conri and his Cass’s children.

~*~

Conri was nervous about this whole thing.Not only was Cindy not at home, but she wasn’t at the horse barns either.He had his brothers go around as their wolves to find her, but so far, no one was havingany luck.Conri was the most worried about Cass and the fact that he’d never claimed her as yet.Too much going on.And now he had every reason to wish he’d just done it to keep her safe.

The two of them were getting along better than he’d ever had with Carol.She’d been spending a lot of time with her father, for which he couldn’t blame her.She had the kind of dad that he thought he would have loved to have.Even Elizabeth was someone that he loved to be around.It had only taken him a couple of times being at the bed and breakfast together that he’d fallen in love with the entire family.

He knew that he loved Cass, too.She was funny and articulate.She could play chess and wasn’t a sore loser when he did manage to beat her.Just hanging around them all made his days seem to go better.His mood had improved as well.

Cass wore the ring that his mom had given him.And just as he’d thought, she loved the plainness of it.When asked if she wanted something different or even bigger, she told him no, the one that he’d given her was perfect.A couple of days ago, he’d even stopped comparing her to Carol as much as he had been.She was just Cass Warmer Valley, and he’d fallen head over heels in love with her.

“I’m not finding her scent anywhere around the house.I mean, not even at the doors.I’m thinking that she has to be inside and we’ve just missed her.Her scent is the strongest in the house, too.”He said that they searched every room in the place.“I don’t know.Perhaps call Howard and find out if they have a secret room or maybe a cellar that we didn’t find.”

“Give me five minutes, and I’ll call him.Just be careful of her.She could just sneak up on you in a heartbeat.”Conri called Elizabeth as Howard still didn’t have a phone.When she answered, he had a feeling that something was wrong.“Is she there with you, Elizabeth?”Her whispered answer made his wolf snarl at him.

“She’s just outside the building.It’s like she knows we’re in here but is teasing us until she comes inside.”He asked where the others were.“We’re all huddled up in the bathroom.Don’t ask me why, but that seemed to be the most logical place.However, now that I think about it, it’s also a good place for her to get to us all at once.”

“You’re right.Go into the little lounge.Just be careful.I’m sending my brothers and the police to you.Don’t be alarmed if you see some wolves.My brothers will be safer as their other half.”She said for him to hurry.“I’m speaking to them now.”After telling them where Cindy was, they took off towards town.Then he spoke to the police.

Since they knew that they were wolves, too, they knew not to be freaked out by seeing them either.Catching a ride with the police, leaving two behind in the event she got away from them, he couldn’t get the officer to go fast enough for him.He was right.They didn’t need to get into a crash before getting there.But he was worried about Cass.

“When we get home today, if we do, then I want you to claim me in whatever way will make me the safest.I can’t protect my family, being just a puny human.I should have thought of that sooner.”He was so glad to hear from Cass that he nearly shifted to be with her sooner.He told her what was going on with the police.“You stay out of harm’s way, too.I know my sister well enough to know that she’ll hurt you if given the chance.”

“I am.I promise that I don’t want to be hurt either.But if she harms you in any way, I’m going for her ass.”She told him she was glad to hear that, which surprised him to no end.She was her sister, after all.“I just heard from Rette.He said they’re coming up on the bed and breakfast now.Stay alert.”She said that she would but to stop talking to her so she could pay attention to what was going on around her.

The police were there when they pulled into the street across from the place.They had spread out all over the big home and were waiting for orders.He’d gotten to the point that he just wanted her out of their lives, but it wasn’t his decision to make.When Lamar said she was coming around the front, he watched her as she came around the building with her empty hands up and a huge smile on her face.There was something so not right about that.

Cindy was arrested without incident.She still hadn’t spoken to anyone by the time she was put into the car but to ask for her daddy.He went into the place to make sure that the Warmer family wasall right.Things couldn’t have been better when Cass leapt into his arms and hugged him.

“Everyone all right?”They said they were, but he still checked them all out.“She’s asking to see you, Howard.The police are saying that it’s up to you.They have her in shackles and arm restraints.The doctors are waiting for the ambulance to come to take her with them.”

“I don’t want to see her.”He nodded.“Do you think I’m a terrible person for not seeing my daughter, Conri?”

“What I think doesn’t matter.However, I would say that if you don’t see her, I wouldn’t blame you one bit.She’s caused enough trouble over three lifetimes to warrant what you’re saying.Also, I’m going to say this now.I don’t believe for a minute that she’s going to be this easy to take care of.She’s planning something.I can feel it in my bones.”Just as he was helping them leave the room, he felt the ground rumble under his feet.Then, a second time.

“Christ, what was that?”They all scrambled to get out of the house and into the streets.Whatever it had been, there was another explosion and another rolling of people around.Just as he was thinking that it sounded like a bomb went off, Yuri, who had stayed at the Warmer home in the event that Cindy returned, contacted him.

“It’s gone.Conri, the entire house is gone.”He asked him what he was talking about.“The house and one of the smaller barns up close to the house have exploded.We felt it all the way out to the horse barns.It’s just in splinters still tumbling down onto the remains.”He pulled Cass into his arms and told her in whispers what Yuri was telling him.

“No, she didn’t do it.Please tell me that she didn’t just blow up our home.”They both looked in the cruiser that she was sitting in the back of.Cindy was laughing hard and pounding her fist against the window.He didn’t know how she’d done it, but he knew that she’d just destroyed the home of her parents.

Telling the Warmers that their house was gone nearly took them all three to the floor.There had been police in the house not thirty minutes ago.His brother could have been closer to the house and been hurt badly.He wanted to pull Cindy from the car and make her tell him why she’d done such a thing.People could have been killed.

---