“Renee, grab the bowl,” Jacob said loudly, picking up the three glasses.

“What?”

“The bowl…the bowl,” he said, using his head to point behind me on his way down with the glasses.

“The bowl!” I yelled, grabbing it off the wall and running around busting my backside by slipping on the blood that was spreading in spurts of red showers every time the pig’s heart beat.

Jacob had all three glasses filled to the rim when he slid on his knees to grab the bowl from me. I was pulling myself up using Cates’ back, who was still trying to hold the front of the enormous beast up to keep the flow of blood at an angle to get it into the stupid bowl.

“You’ll be knocking me over next if you don’t get off me back.” Cates lifted his one good shoulder to give me the hint.

“And my accent gets bad,” I replied, reaching up and grabbing the table top, smearing blood on everything that I touched, and managed to get to my feet.

The thin, white nightgown that I was wearing was clinging to my body in the now nice color of the pig’s blood. We all had a gross amount on us, when all we wanted was to get it inside of us. Jacob looked up at me with the most innocence that I had seen in his eyes in a long time and said, “Maybe we should have waited?”  It made me laugh so hard I almost went back down.

“What have you all gotten yourselves into now?” Garvin asked, smiling like a Cheshire cat from the kitchen entrance.

“Would you believe, we wanted to surprise you?” I laughed.

“Not really, and I mean no offence by that,” he replied, walking carefully around the table.

“None taken, because a surprise was not our plan,” Cates admitted, lifting up on the back of the pig’s body. “But, one that we got anyway.” Then he chuckled, causing Jacob and me to absolutely lose control of our laughter.

“Young Jacob has returned and to think it has only been what…three hundred and seventy five years?” Cates proclaimed, dropping the pig’s dead carcass to the floor.

“I laugh so hard my stomach feels the pain,” he replied, as he tried to gain composure. “I once thought it would be the blade in battle that ended my life, but I now think it will be from laughing myself into the grave.”

“My ma used to say that laughter healed the soul.”

“Then I should be well on my way,” he shook his head, then looked up at me. “She was a wise woman. It must be a true statement, for I do feel different than I once did.”

“It is good to see the young Jacob once again,” Cates said, putting his blood coated hand under Jacob’s chin. “Though, you missed a spot there.” Then threw his head back and burst out laughing.

Jacob dove on the big man and knocked him over the pig’s legs, and onto the blood coated floor. Cates grabbed Jacob around the neck spinning his little body around so fast that his feet caused a spray of blood to take Garvin right across the face. I lifted one of the glasses in a ‘salute’ manner then turned it up, while Cates and Jacob wrestled at my feet. Garvin, being the individual that he was, lifted one of the other glasses toward me and drank up without mentioning a word about the mess that just splattered across him. By the time Cates and Jacob got to their feet, they looked pretty close to the same way they did when we came in from our adventure in the tunnels the night before, and I let it be known.

“Yeah, but you have to admit they smell better,” Tammy said from the hall entrance. “Do I even want to know?”

              We all laughed, explaining our actions, then handed her a glass that she took with timid fingers. About that time the others made their way to the kitchen; Sydney coming down the stairs that Garvin had, with Fala behind him, and Tanda and Derek from the hall that led to the rooms. I couldn’t stop watching the two of them act like nothing had happened between them, while Garvin and Jacob bounced back and forth telling about the mess in the kitchen. After the rest had their fill of what was in the bowl, still snickering at the look of the floor, and us, we went to clean up…again. ***

Later, after the mess we made was cleaned, we went into the study at the front of the house and made plans on who would be going to find the note that Felicia would be leaving by his master’s gate. Derek and Tanda, looked like they were having words in the far corner, and I wanted nothing more than to walk over and find out what was going on, but the look on Jacob’s face made me stay out of it. A few minutes later, Tanda came over to me.

“He thinks I should stay behind when we fight. Do you feel the same way?”

“Why would you think that I would feel that way? I brought you here, didn’t I?” I replied, a bit confused.

“It’s not her choice,” Derek said, stepping up beside her. “It’s our choice, and I say you stay here.”

“Why, then, did you allow me to come this far, if you mean only to keep me behind?” she spoke with a cracking in her voice.

“Because,” Derek’s voice was soft as he moved in front of her. “I have lost the most important person in my life, and now that I have found someone that I love just as much I cannot, and will not, take a chance on losing her, too.”

“You really mean that?” she smiled as a cascade of tears fell down both cheeks.

“How could I not?” he replied, taking both of her hands.

“Then I will wait here.” Tanda lifted his hands, kissing them both.

“My little sister has become a woman,” Garvin interjected with pride.

“And my little boy, a man,” I added in jest.

“Come on guys. I’m serious here,” Derek frowned back at us, more so me than anyone else.

“It looks like not only are you the bringer of destruction, Lady Renee, but the bringer of love as well,” Cates said, gripping Tammy’s thigh.

“I have to agree with him on this one,” Tammy added, kissing him on the cheek.

              Chapter Ten

Tammy was sitting on the arm of the couch that Cates was sitting on, while Jacob and I sat at the desk to go over the map of Inara’s castle, as Felicia had called it. Garvin and Sydney sat in the matching chairs by the French doors that led out onto the front porch, not far from the place that we were sitting the night before. Derek sat down on the floor, pulling Tanda down onto his lap. No one had said a word about him losing his cloak when he’d tossed it off in the round cylinder of water, and he didn’t seem to be bothered without it. Jacob had decided it would be himself, Garvin, and Cates that went for the note. But it was Garvin who suggested that Sydney accompany them due to his ability to see certain things with his mind. Jacob agreed.

I wanted to go to just get out and see the place that we would soon bring down, but Tammy, Tanda, Derek, Fala, and myself were going to explore the place that we were in, trying to find any other passages or clues as to the previous owner, hoping it would lead to more knowledge of the other three estates. Before the others readied themselves to leave, we were given the works about watching for any traps if we went into the lower levels of the house and to stay out of any tunnels that we came across. It was the moment that Jacob mentioned staying away from the grounds, that I looked back at him and said, “We aren’t crazy. That one run in with the Shadow Walker/Specter things, was good enough for a lifetime.” Fala was nodding the whole time I spoke.

“Lock the door. Martin has told me where the secret latch is above the doorframe. If you are still on your search, we will be able to get in without your assistance upon our return.” Jacob then left with the others to change.

This night the boys dressed in black, to better hide on their way. Only this night they walked out the front door and planned on going right through the city, using its alleys to bypass the normals that enjoyed the night life. We closed the door behind them, but only after Tammy gave Cates a swat on the backside after a long, drawn out kiss. The look on his face as he turned and hugged her was of pure agony, because she must of hit the part of his back that was giving him trouble. He leaned back smiling, said he would see her soon, and let her lock the door.