Legend Has It Book II ~ Complete

Chapter 13 Babysitters

GENEVIEVE

“Phoenix! Phoenix! Oh my Goddess, what’s wrong?”

“Oh s**t, looks like he’s in one of those trance things with Phoebe. Hold her tight, Chance,” Conrad called across the fire. “Double s**t, looks like she sucked Chance in, too.”

“This has never happened before,” Khane started to yell.

“Knock it off. Panicking will not do anyone any good,” Stella chastised. “Help your son.” She rushed to Chance and Phoebe as everyone sprung into action.

Natalie checked the two younger ones and then Phoenix. “Vitals are all good.”

“We just have to wait for them to come out of it,” Conrad advised. “Whoa! Look in the smoke!”

“Hi! I’m Byrdie.”

{~>*•**•*There’s Tamra, Ama, Matt, Cal, Gracie…mom? Mom wasn’t here. Probably stayed back with the kids.

Natalie was checking Phoenix, Dan hovered by her side. “Let’s get you into the truck, Phebes.” I felt her stiffen slightly. “Sorry, I heard Conrad call you that earlier.”

“It sounds different coming from you, that’s all.”

“I hope it sounds better when I say it,” I chuckled. “I should probably check on my new boss.”

“Gen MindLinked and said you could stay with me.”

“I feel like a shitty Beta.”

“Don’t. Gen’s well taken care of tonight. You would have felt a Pull if not. Did you notice they’re all trusting you with me?”

“Does that mean something—special?”

“It does, Chance. It really does.”

I dropped the questions as Dan and Natalie came our way. This wasn’t the time for questioning anyway, not after what we’d just experienced, my instincts told me Phoebe needed some attention. It did seem strange to me, then, that no one fussed over her. I knew she wasn’t normally neglected.

Responsibility accepted. I had plenty of attention to give her.

“Chance,” Dan interrupted my thoughts on the drive back. “They’re postponing the gathering. Phoenix, Esther, Doc and Byrdie are all tired. The pixie wants them present when she tells her tale. She’s waiting on others, too. So, there’s still hot chocolate, but Khane, and I can’t believe this, wants you to stay with Phoebe tonight. He says no funny business, but you make the most sense.”

“Why does he think she needs a babysitter?”

“This is the weirdest fire experience we’ve seen. She used to sleepwalk or stop breathing in her sleep afterwards sometimes, not pull pixies out of the flames. Huh. He’s partnering everyone off. Parker just said he has orders to stay with Kaya.”

“Why would Khane—“ I stopped when Dan held up a finger. He was getting more MindLinks.

“We probably have to evacuate soon,” Phoebe murmured. “Before you got there, Byrdie was explaining that The Fey are holding back the land masses and she doesn’t know how much longer they can slow it down.”

“That’s what is being discussed right now. I think that’s why your father wants you to stay with Chance. He knows how to get to VR.”

“I thought I heard Byrdie say something about six weeks? Does that mean we have six more weeks to prepare?” I asked Phoebe.

“Um, I’m not sure. You and Phoenix both showed up about the same time. I can’t remember what she was saying then.”

“How many of you know how to get to—VR? Is that what you called it?” Natalie asked.

“Yes, VR. No one came up with a better name for it.” Dan shrugged. “There’s around 100 of us who’ve been.”

“And thousands of citizens who haven’t,” I added quietly.

“You just got moved in, too,” Phoebe yawned. “Might as well leave the sound system in the box,” she snorted.

{~>*•**•**•*This has been the hardest thing I have ever had to type. Al has helped me learn a lot and after Byrdie’s arrival, the distortion created by my own mind began to fall away.

I was a horrible man before I met Gen. I may not have taken advantage of unwilling women, but I chose those with no one to remember them and I did horrible things to them all because they weren’t my Mate. I never felt an ounce of regret until the night I should have died.

I witnessed horrific r**e that night. Frederick forced himself on both Isabella and Byrdie, who should have died then, too. He beat them bloody and left their twisted bodies on the floor in pools of blood. He brought back, or at least created the illusion, of those women I senselessly murdered before meeting Gen, and drug me into some of it.

Byrdie insists I’m not a r****t or a murderer. I believe that’s what she was trying to tell me a while ago. She said it was all Frederick.

I’m not sure knowing I wasn’t in complete control of myself will help erase the fact that lives were cut short. I will wait for more of the story to unfold, but—

I don’t know how to follow that up. I have so many tangled emotions, mostly guilt speckled with flakes of Hope. I know I was a pawn. Am I also a monster?