“Would you hold up a minute? What was that? You didn’t need to pull me out of there like that. We have far too much to do to sleep now.”
“There’s why everyone needs sleep. We need our heads on straight to deal with the Fear Mongers and everything else coming at us tomorrow. Any information the others found can wait until tomorrow morning. We all need sleep. Now, no more protesting. I am your protector, and I will protect you from yourself if I need to. If you won’t go to sleep now by yourself, I would more than happy to come to lay down beside you to ensure you sleep.”
“I don’t believe you just said that.”
“I t
Larin entered Gemma’s bedroom a second time and realized they wound need to share a bed because he would not sleep on the scarred hardwood floors. “So where do you plan to sleep.” Gemma hoped he realized there wasn’t an acceptable way to make this arrangement decent. They either slept in the bed together or he lay on the floor. The room was small, and his size made it smaller. She could feel his closeness behind her. “There really is only one location to sleep comfortably and plenty of room. I said I would lie beside you while you slept.” She could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck, and it made her shiver. “Then we need to
Gemma woke up disorientated to her alarm, and she stopped moving when her brain registered an unusual warmth of her bed and the weight holding her middle down. It didn’t take long for her brain to register why and what it was. Larin snored softly behind her. How did she sleep through that? Before he woke up, she grabbed her phone off its charger with her free hand and shook it to turn on the sleep mode. With that temporarily silenced, Gemma tried to extricate herself from the bed and Larin. “Good morning. I’ll assume you would wake after you’ve put yourself together a bit?” “Yeah, morning. Something like that.” Truthfully, Gemma wasn’t sure she’d wake him or how. She hadn’t thought things throug
“Larin, could you and Evan deal with the last of those security measures we discussed doing while I talk with Mr. Winters? Becky, the historical documentation still needs to be reviewed. Please see if you can make a dent in it. Any clues from the past might help us pinpoint what’s happening here. I’ll arrange a plumber to come in and have them look for any possible plumbing problems we might have.” “I’ll get breakfast on the table while you talk with Mr. Winters. I hope pancakes and sausage are good for everyone. We’ll need to get more food in the house with triple the mouths to feed. It’ll get dicey soon.” “I’ll have your household budget adjusted to reflect the increased number of people
Becky and Gemma returned to the breakfast room and settled in to start their work. “I feel like crap sending everyone off knowing I’ll sit here safe and sound.” “Gemma, there’s too much to do. Yes, we need to get the magic stuff settled and done with getting the mundane things going. But we still need to have something to show that we’ve kept our word to the workmen. Now, what was it you needed to tell us that everyone forgot about?” “Oh geez. The people pushing for this place to become a museum and research centre are holding back why they want this done. Several town council members have family on the controlling board of the local University. The University is pushing this transformation at the demand of
“Since you have the weapon. I think I should be the one warding while you guard against attack. Is that alright with you?” Angelica asked. She tried not to sound pushy because she wasn’t sure how much he trusted her. She figured he wouldn’t allow her to have a weapon just yet, and he’d be double-checking everything she did. But she needed to do something useful and if they accepted her enough to do this, then she’d do the best she could to prove that she was trustworthy. “For now, let’s see how it goes. The herb bundles are in the bag with the maps. There’s a device in there to light it. Let’s start with the building and then work our way into where the ruins are. That way we can give the most time to the ruins and know our job’s done correctly.”&n
Evan eased open the door to the pool house. “Okay, first off. That door should not be open like this. That means we’re likely to find something in here. Whether it’s an animal or one of those things, it’s a tossup.” “Good to know. So, there are two floors?” Larin walked into the first space carefully. Evan stayed behind in case something jumped out at them. “There’s a small basement where we keep the pool equipment and machinery. But other than that, the most space is between the two floors. Upstairs is just a single room for quiet reflection, as Aunt Esme called it. Down here are rooms to change, and a space to entertain pool guests. The thing is, most of this space is bright and airy. If what you sa
“Now the great hunt for these ruins. I have no clue what they want me to do with ruins. Well, it all depends on how much of the building still exists. Even cave entrances need to have a ward placed on them. But it’s finding them. How are we to find them with these maps? None are to scale, and half of the symbols don’t have an explanation for them.” “Hugo, it’s less about what the symbol means and more about what we bother to investigate. We don’t have a clue what is out there. What has cropped up? Or how the land has changed. All we can do is cover this land as best as we can and deal with things as we get to it. Isn’t that what Gemma and Larin want?” “More information would have been nice.&rdqu
When Evan’s light slid through the inky darkness of the room, the two men heard the hisses and grumbles coming from the shadows. “That’s what I heard the night I came here. They’re in there. How are we going to do this?” “If you can hit the far wall with the light, we can see if there’s a door in there or not. No door, then I’ll ward this place and come back to clear it out later. Otherwise, we need to clear it out now, ward the doors and then get out of here. I don’t want those things rushing us. So, we’ll do one wall at a time, then return the light to the centre of the room. Go clockwise.” The room’s walls bore niches, and, within each niche, the men could see shadowy forms that p