Chapter 184: Chatterbox and the Deed

Sunday, June 27, 1971

“Huh?” I sat up in the bed, shaking my head. Had it really been a dream? It had seemed so real.

“Before you ask, it’s almost the fifth hour of the new cycle,” Narvenia said quickly. She was sitting on the loveseat with her legs tucked beneath her. Dressed in a robe, she had a book open on her lap. The small lamp on the end-table cast her in its soft glow while leaving the rest of my bedroom in darkness.

“Uh, what did you say?” I asked groggily. My heart was still pounding as the vision still danced in my head.

“I said ... it is ten minutes before the fifth hour,” Narvenia replied. “I am here because I was asked to keep you from waking all the others with your ... and I quote, ‘infernal cursing at an ungodly hour about not having a watch’.”

“Oh,” I replied, already subconsciously raising my left wrist. I really did need to do something about replacing the ruined Rolex that Catherine had given me.

“You slept through the evening meal,” Narvenia continued. “And when you have the opportunity, I’d like you to explain to me, the difference between the terms ‘dinner’ and ‘supper’.”

“Sure,” I replied automatically. The images of my dream were still vividly running through my mind.

“Anna said that you needed the rest. She also warned us that you would probably wake up before everyone else. And that you would be in great need of nourishment,” Narvenia informed me. “Are you?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess...” I replied. Somehow, I couldn’t get the damned dream out of my mind. I found my mind wandering away from Narvenia’s question, back to the dream.

In my dream, I was standing alone in a dense forest. It was cool under the tall trees, and the undergrowth was full and thick, limiting how far I could see. I had no idea where I was, or how I had gotten there.

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I immediately perked to the unseen danger.

Focusing all my senses, I scanned all around me, but could determine no presence that would cause this eerie feeling. There were no living entities close by, yet the inescapable feeling of danger persisted. Slowly, I pivoted, using my eyes and ears to try and locate what I couldn’t seem to sense empathically. The fact that I felt the danger, but couldn’t locate the source, had me majorly spooked.

The faint snapping of a twig exploded in my ears, sounding like a firecracker to my heightened senses. A fraction of a second later, I saw the leaves of a bush stirring in my peripheral vision. Whirling around to face the danger, I could neither see nor sense anyone approaching.

“Holy shit!” I said aloud when I finally saw it.

Now a bobcat is usually considered the smallest of the four species of the Lynx genus, rarely standing more than twenty-four inches high at the shoulder. But this one appeared much larger. Staring intently, I double-checked its other features. I knew that the bobcat’s coat was generally tan with black streaks on the body and dark bars on the forelegs and tail. However, it was the short, bobbed tail, along with the trademark black-tipped ears with the short, black tufts that allowed me to confirm my initial identification.

It was a bobcat alright. Maybe this one was a mutant, or a freak of nature, because its size was closer to that of a Bengal tiger.

Standing there, frozen in my tracks, I had just started trying to decide if I could make it to a nearby tree before the giant bobcat attacked, when the second bobcat, only slightly smaller, appeared beside the first one.

It was then I abandoned the idea of outrunning them. Penny and I had experimented with using my shield to stop bullets, and now I found myself wondering if it would stop a pair of angry, oversized felines. As I debated it, I became aware of the others. With my shields now firmly in place, I once more turned slowly in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circle, taking in the strange sight.

Something didn’t make sense. Bobcats are crepuscular animals, and like most felines, are largely solitary. It seemed to be the middle of the day, judging by the angle of light filtering through the thick overhead canopy of leaves, and these bobcats were definitely not solitary. I counted nine of them surrounding me.

I could barely sense them, even though they were less than fifty feet away. Once again, I found myself wondering if my shields would hold up against the coming onslaught as my hand came to rest on the hilt of my sword.

“Michael?” Narvenia said, breaking my reverie. “I asked if you were in need of nourishment.”

Funny, that was exactly the same place that my dream had ended before.

“Yeah,” I told her, watching as she reached for the phone on the end table beside the loveseat.

“He’s awake,” she said briefly before hanging up the phone. Then turning to me she continued, “I was instructed to tell you to get dressed. Blue jeans and a polo shirt are acceptable, although I don’t understand why, since no one said anything about you participating in a match today.”

“Uh?”

“They only told me to get you up and dressed and downstairs by five-thirty this morning. Your grandfather’s attorney will be picking you up at six,” Narvenia said as she stood beside the bed, looking at me expectantly. “Do you require assistance?”

I laughed out loud at her question. Narvenia’s matter-of-fact demeanor belied the emotions I could feel churning inside her, despite her efforts to mask them. Pulling her down on the bed beside me, I hugged her tightly to me.

“Good morning, my sexy, other-world vixen!” I growled as I nuzzled the side of her neck. I regretfully avoided kissing her as my mouth tasted like I had dined with Andrew Zimmern last night. But Narvenia was not to be denied.

It was just yesterday that her long-buried passions had been unearthed and she had begun exploring a whole new world of feelings and emotions. Still, I quickly broke the kiss.

Narvenia looked at me sadly, her conflict obvious. “You need to get ready,” she sighed as she stood up, heading for the door.

“I love you,” I thought as she left my room.

Her heart was racing as she quickly thought back, “You have no idea how difficult you have made things for me, Michael. My report is becoming so strange. Even now, I am sure that my father and the Council will never be able to understand all the emotions you have awakened in me!”

“Then I guess we’ll have to demonstrate it to them?” I suggested.

“Oh, my sister would so like that!” she cried, laughing at the thought.

I grinned as I threw back the covers. After a quick shower, I slipped on a pair of jeans and the requested polo shirt and headed downstairs as instructed.

Kip was dressed and sitting at the dining room table with Catherine, Adriana, Grace, and Vickie. They all looked up at me as I entered, the concern etched in their faces.

“What’s up?” I asked, taking an empty seat. Prissy came through the door just then, bearing a large platter of eggs, surrounded by sausages and bacon. Grace set a cup of coffee in front of me, kissing me worriedly on the cheek as she did.

“We don’t know,” Catherine replied. “Mr. Graham called last night and said he had instructions to pick you up and take you to see something before the reading of the will.”

“Graham?” I asked.

“Mr. Thaddeus Hayward Graham, the Third. His father T.H. Graham, Junior, was your grandfather’s personal attorney. Their firm, Hayward, Graham, and Graham, have served Wagner Industries for years, and they are one of the oldest firms on Wall Street,” Adriana supplied.

“All he would tell us is that he would pick you up this morning at six and should have you back to the office by one o’clock,” Grace said.

“From what I could tell, he was surprised at the instructions he found when he opened your grandfather’s file yesterday. I think they involve taking you to see a piece of property or something,” Vickie added, “but I could sense he was confused by the instructions.”

I smiled at Vickie. She was getting better at scanning people at a distance, but she still struggled with figuring out what they were feeling. Narvenia had given me an idea that might help her, but we needed time to work on it. Maybe after the state dinner.

“Kip will be going with you,” Grace said, “and we want you to be very careful.”

“Yeah. And wear your sword at all times,” Adriana added.

I looked across the table to Kip. He didn’t say anything as he nodded his agreement. I wondered what all the concern was about, so I quickly scanned the house and the grounds. Nothing was amiss. The grounds were quiet and throughout the large home, most everyone was asleep. I did note that Izzy was finishing her make-up, intent on accompanying me this morning. I also noticed that Mikeya had arrived from Tapato while I slept.

“Okay. What gives?” I asked Vickie. “Why are you all so worried?”

They looked at each other before Adriana finally sighed, “You might as well tell him. He’ll find out sooner or later anyway.”

But my assistants couldn’t seem to make up their minds as to who would be the one to tell me. Finally, they all looked to Catherine, beseechingly.

“Michael,” Catherine began carefully. “There’s something wrong with Jessica. She called last night and said she couldn’t make it to the state dinner.”

“She was so excited last week,” Grace added. “But last night, she sounded as if someone had died or something. I mean, she said she needed to stay and work on the house plans, but even I could tell that there was something else.”

“Did you say something to her?” Catherine asked. “Or do something to hurt her?”

“No, ma’am,” my response was automatic as I thought back to my discovery of someone else in her bed with her, earlier this week. I scanned and found her in bed again, alone this time. And while not awake, she was not totally asleep, either. Sort of midway between. I could tell she was upset, and had been crying. I connected Grace, Adriana, and Vickie as I scanned her for confirmation of my suspicions.

I didn’t bother to communicate with Jessica, but turned to my assistants and began explaining my feelings about what Jessica had done, reminding them that she had never made any personal commitments to me, except to complete our home.

“We’ll take care of it, Michael,” Adriana assured me as the other two nodded in agreement. Catherine looked at me as she nodded in approval. It could have been for the way I was handling Jessica’s situation, but I had a feeling that it was more that I was finally relying on the team I had begun to build around me.

“Take care of what?” Izzy asked innocently as she entered the dining room. Heading first for the carved sideboard for a cup of coffee and a homemade sweet roll, she settled into the seat across from me.

“They’re going to handle a few issues for me while you and I try to figure out what surprises my grandfather has in store for me with these mysterious meetings before dawn,” I told her. “And by the way, you can’t wear that.”

Izzy’s head jerked up, her eyes locked on mine. She had taken extra care in choosing the pinstriped suit, with its short skirt and tailored jacket and had thought she looked pretty sharp this morning. She had picked out this outfit especially for me and had taken extra time to get everything just right. The disappointment that I hadn’t appreciated her choices or her efforts stung.

“But I do like your choices,” I told her. “That’s the problem. You look too good! Apparently, we’re going somewhere to look at property, and since I have been instructed to wear casual clothing, it might be best that you do so as well. I’d hate for you to ruin that sexy outfit walking around a jobsite in the mud,” I quickly explained to her. “Besides, if you do wear that, you would be in almost constant danger,” I added with a gleam in my eye, “from any hypersexual sixteen-year-olds in the vicinity!”

I could feel Izzy’s motor revving as we bantered back and forth. She was just leaving to go change when Beth entered the dining room.

“Catherine?” Beth said. “We just got a call from someone claiming to be air traffic control, stating that a helicopter is eastbound, headed towards the estate. They’re requesting permission to land on the south lawn. Normally, I’d wake David, but he was up so late last night...”

If you blinked, you would have missed the slight up-tick at the corner of Beth’s mouth as she said that, but you couldn’t miss the glow from Catherine’s smile, or the rose-colored cheeks that accompanied her big grin.