Warren perrys nest book.., p.1
Warren (Perry's Nest Book 2), page 1
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
World Castle Publishing, LLC
Pensacola, Florida
Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2022
Paperback ISBN: 9781960076120
eBook ISBN: 9781960076137
First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, December 21, 2022
http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com
Licensing Notes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
Cover: Karen Fuller
Editor: Karen Fuller
Prologue
Warren wandered around the rooms he’d been given while staying with Hamish and Lander. It was a great room. Not at all feminine like he’d expected when Hamish told him Lander had decorated it for him especially. The bathroom was done up well, with lots of warm colors like the bedroom had. The windows in here, like the bedroom, were covered in room-darkening curtains that made it so he could rest during the day if he wished.
He hadn’t packed much. A laptop, some books he’d been reading, as well as some paperwork he’d not gotten finished while he’d been at home. Smiling to himself as he left the rooms, Warren wondered what his buddy would think about him owning a blood bank. Not for himself—no, feeding for himself had never been a problem—but for hospitals and other medical facilities that had a need for rare or even not so rare blood.
Lander, he assumed it was her, was coming up the stairs as he was going toward them. When she got to the top of them, she put out her hand in greeting. Taking it, something with the touch of their hands blew them both backward and to the floor. His last thought before he hit his head and passed out was that Hamish was going to kill him if he hurt his mate.
When he woke, he was lying on his bed. Sitting up quickly, not sure what was going on, he was told to lie back down by Hamish. He did as he’d been told because he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d have been able to stay in that position. Hamish asked him if he was all right.
“Never mind that. Is your mate all right?” He just grinned. “I’m assuming since I’m still alive that I didn’t hurt her enough for you to want to kill me.”
“She had a nasty bump on her head, but it, like yours, has healed. Lander is resting right now. Not because of the power exchange, but because she is newly turned and needs to rest during the day.” Warren decided he was feeling well enough to sit up now and cautiously did so. Feeling better, he moved to the chair beside Hamish. “Lander told me that all she did was touch your hand in greeting, and the two of you were blasted by something. I don’t know what you got, but she has a great deal more power on some things than I do. Can you feel any differences?”
“Not yet. My mind is still processing the fact that a new vampire blasted me across the hall.” They both laughed. “I honestly don’t know what happened. Did she give anything to me? Am I the one that blasted us apart? Right now, I’m just grateful she wasn’t hurt.”
“As am I. However, you’ll be happy to know she told me that if I touched you with harm in my mind, she’d break off my fangs and stab me with them. Lander’s used that one before. Every time she threatens me with it, I get more afraid. She’s a pistol, as Grandda says.” Again they both laughed. Warren got up to stretch. Then before he could put his arms down from the most wonderful stretch he’d had, he paused. “You figured something out?”
“Yes. Lander isn’t sleeping right now but coming down the hall toward us. Your grandda is on a construction site on the other side of town, giving the men working a break by telling them stories. He knew they needed to step back a moment. Something about the homeowner changing their mind several times a day about the house. A woman, I’m sure is your sister, is on her computer, looking at her financial records. She’s about broke, so you might want to talk to her about it. Colleen is being extorted by someone in Virginia about her being a vampire. Their last name is Pfizer. She’s paying them hush money, she calls it, so you’ll not find out.” Warren turned to his best friend. “I’ve never been able to do that before. Especially with your sister, whom I’ve never met. Lander is coming into the room now.”
The door opened, and there was Lander. She was staring at him like she was trying to gauge him on some level. Warren asked her what she’d gotten from him, knowing that was why she was here. He also realized at that moment that he couldn’t read her mind. That scared him more than anything else.
“When I touch something, something as mundane as a hairbrush, I can tell not only where it’s been, who the owner is, but what the person died from. I’ve never used the brush set that was laid out, but I know now that it belonged to Hamish’s grandmother, and she was killed by a human who had not meant to kill her. They’d been friends.” Lander shivered when she put her hand on the chair he’d been sitting in. “I want to toss this chair out as soon as possible. It has been used for obscene things that I don’t care to discuss.”
Hamish touched his finger to the chair, and it disappeared.
Just like that, he did his mate’s bidding. And better yet, he believed her when she said it had to go. Sitting on the edge of the bed, his chair now gone, Warren stood up quickly because he didn’t want to think about what had happened on the mattress.
“You’re the only one other than the delivery people who have touched it. If it makes you feel any better, it was sealed up when it arrived, and Hamish used his magic to put it here in this room.” He told her it did. “I can find people. What I mean is I can sense where they are and what they’re doing. I can also tell that you can do the same. Have you touched anything in here?”
“I sat in the chair that is now gone.” She asked him to touch something in the room. Then she suggested the framed art on the wall. Warren did so without hesitation. “No. I don’t feel anything other than I can see that it’s been cleaned recently. Could that be it?”
Warren touched several more things in the room without any kind of feelings from it. When he asked if they could leave the room, the three of them did so without saying a word. Entering the living room, he wanted to just think for a minute. Let his mind wrap around what he was feeling at the moment.
“I came here to say my goodbyes to you, Hamish. I had it in my head that I was too old and lonely to live out my days as a hermit. Then I get blasted across the hall by a pretty woman, and I feel revived. Like? Well, like I’ve been given a purpose again. I don’t know what that is, but I do feel that way.” Hamish told him he was happy for them all then. “Yes, so am I. This thing, finding people, I’ve only just realized that while I know what they’re doing and where they are, I can’t read their emotions with it. It’s like I’ve been given some information, and what I do with it is up to me. Does that make sense?”
“Yes. When I find bodies or cars, whatever I’m looking at, I can feel the last few minutes of their lives. Like the man I found just a few days ago. I knew he thought he was pulling into a parking lot to enjoy his ice cream before it melted. When he hit the water, he had no fear because he didn’t equate where he was with dying. I knew that he enjoyed his few bites of ice cream before he hit the water, but I only know that because I could see it in his mind. Not the emotions he’d have while enjoying it.”
Warren changed the subject about what had happened and told the couple what else he’d been doing. Closing down some of his businesses was one of the things he’d thought he’d regret now that he had a better outlook on life. But he didn’t, he told them.
“I can start fresh. Try new things. Honestly, it’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to do anything more than just go from day to day.” Lander asked him if he suffered from depression. “I believe that for all single vampires, as well as any creature that has lived as long as Hamish and I, depression is a constant battle. With me losing my mate, too, that didn’t help. She was, much like you are to Hamish, my world. I miss her less and less, but my heart still grieves for what I have lost.”
“I’m so sorry about that. But I am happy you’re here with us now and that you will be for a long time. You will, correct?” He said he would, but he couldn’t live with them. “And why the hell not? It’s not like we don’t have plenty of room here.”
“I think he’s telling us he needs his own space, love. Not that he doesn’t want to hang out with us. As a single vampire, he’ll need space.” She didn’t seem to understand but let it go. Hamish winked at him. “I actually have a home you might like. It’s not far from here. And you’ll just take it because you told me about my sister.”
“What’s happening with Colleen?” Hamish told her, and Warren filled in the details as he got them. “What are we going to do about it then? I’m sure you’ve been thinking up a plan.”
“I have. But I’m going to talk to Colleen first. Details will be important in this kind of situation, as this person might have more details than he’s telling my sister. Or, he might not have anything at all and has targeted her for some reason.” Lander said he had to die. “Yes, well, how about we table that one for now and wait on details?”
“Yes, all right.
“Honey, no offense, but I think an entire book could be written about you and being newly changed. And if being called a newbie is something that bothers you? Then I shall promise on my deceased wife’s heart that I’ll never call anyone that again.”
The rest of the afternoon into the evening was spent talking about anything and everything. When Lander got a phone call, she left the room to go answer it. He’d never bothered with a cell phone before as if anyone had wanted to contact him, and they’d not met before that, he wasn’t in the mood to talk to them. But now—well, he wasn’t so sure about a lot of things anymore.
The one thought that kept going around and around in his head was just how strong Hamish was that he could turn a human into one of their kind, and she have such amazing powers? Was he a leader? If not, he surely would make a good one. No one would mess with him once they met his mate. Christ, she was amazing.
~*~
Warren liked the old building that he thought would make a good shop for him. Long ago, he’d been a jewelry maker. The level of concentration kept his mind occupied and not thinking about things that were better not thought of at all. He pulled out his cell phone, a new addition to his life, and called the number on the “for rent” sign hanging in the window. He burst out laughing when he contacted Hamish.
“Do you own everything around here?” Hamish told him about the building he was looking at. “What have you done for improvements then? To me, it looks like it could have been built yesterday but still has its old-time charm.”
“I had the stained glassed windows throughout the house repaired. There are also transom windows of stained glass on both floors. The furnace is new, and so is the roof. It had been slate, but I sold it all off in trade for the tin roof it has now. I guess the installer’s wife is into crafty things.” Hamish asked him if he wanted it. “I’ll give it to you just to get it off my back. I’ve owned it for some time, and since things have been bad around here for a while, no one has the funds to rent it.”
“I can’t just take it from you.” Hamish asked him why not. “I’m not sure. I just don’t want you to give me a house because you’re tired of paying taxes on it. That’s it, isn’t it?”
“Some of it. However, it’s a nice place inside and out. There is ample parking in the back for whatever you want to do with it. What do you want to do with it?” He told him what he’d been thinking about doing. “In the basement, which is super nice with walls and cable hookups, there are two tables that I can only assume were built in the place. Then someone concreted them to the floor. Sturdy as fuck. And the tops of both of them are steel and have electrical outlets all around them.”
“How do I get in?” He told him he was in town and would meet him there in a few minutes. “Is Lander with you? I was worried about her all night last night.”
“She is with me and feeling better today. We’ve been scouting out buildings she can use for her dad’s legacy.” The car pulled into the back lot, and Warren went around to meet them. Lander did look better today. “We’ve found three buildings we are thinking of using. The one we’ll more than likely use is the one just outside of town. That way, the city won’t have too much to bitch about when we’re having things delivered.”
“I’ve been looking for blankets and things for a kit for people in transit, with things like deodorants and shaving kits. Soap too.” Warren told Lander if she needed help packing them up, he’d gladly help. “Thank you. I might take you up on that. Also, I’m looking for a doctor and a psychiatrist. If you know of anyone that would be on board with this project, let me know. I know you were a doctor at some time in your life, Hamish told me, but I’m not hinting that you should do it. I don’t want anyone helping unless they’re doing it because they want to and not because they think they have to. Does that make sense?”
“Yes. And I know of a psychiatrist that might be willing to come here. He’s not a vampire but a bear shifter. His name is Calhoun Meyer. There is also a human that might work out for you by the name of Brad Kirk. Nice man. He’s an ancient that has been around for more than five hundred years. Someone gifted him immortality for saving a life. If he has more magic than that, I don’t know what it might be.” Lander kissed him on the cheek. “Not that I don’t mind, but what was that for?”
“For not telling me you’d do it when I know you want this building for something else altogether. Good for you. I love you, Warren.” He was embarrassed. Rather than digging himself in deeper with his embarrassment, he told her what his plans were. “Now, let’s go see about getting this home in your name so you can make beautiful jewelry that will be on every beautiful woman in the world.”
When she walked off and opened the door to the building, Warren looked at Hamish. He didn’t look pissy because his mate had kissed him. More like he was resigned to the fact that she was going to do it no matter what he asked her not to do. Warren wondered if he’d asked her not to touch other males. He decided he really didn’t want to know.
“You’ll take the building if for no other reason than I need you to. Not for the taxes, but because you’ve made Lander so happy about this. Helping you.” Warren told him he’d make the first piece of jewelry for her. “You do that, and she’ll be sobbing about how lovely it is and who gave it to her.”
They both laughed and entered the large building. The first thing he saw was the stained glass window at the side of the building in what appeared to be a parlor. The fireplace in there was marble, something he had in his home in Spain. He was already in love with the place.
The tour of the house was fun. Lander told him what he should use the extra rooms for on the main floor. It looked to him like someone had added another wing on the house that was one floor. It appeared to have been used as a large walk-in pantry. He told her he was going to use it as a darkroom so he could rest safely during the hottest part of the day.
“Brilliant. I have rooms like that now too. Only we used darkening curtains. It’s amazing to me how much light they cut out and still look pretty in a room.”
She and Hamish went to the kitchen to let him go to the basement. He knew he’d rarely use the kitchen area, but he was going to have it updated. Appearances were everything when you didn’t trust humans all that much.
The tables that Hamish had told him about were perfect in every way for what he’d use them for. One of them was waist level so he could sit while using it. The other was about four feet from the floor and the perfect height for him to stand up and work on. He was also happy to see that the plugs on the table were ones that could take machinery plugged into them and not have a problem.
He unearthed a kiln at the corner of the building outdoors. At some point in his life, he’d been a potter as well. This kiln, used for raku firings, was going to come in handy for other projects he had in mind.
Warren found boxes of clay that weren’t dried out, as well as an entire shelf of glazes in the basement. His creative juices were flowing now, and he wanted to rush the couple off so he could have some fun.
Just as he was headed up the open stairs, he saw something under them. Going back there, being careful of what it might be, he found a safe.
Calling down Hamish and Lander, he showed them what he’d found, then asked Hamish if he’d noticed it before. After telling him no, but it looked as if it had been there for some time, they moved all the debris off and around it. They all agreed it hadn’t just been put in. When Lander put her hand on the six by at least ten safe, she smiled at him.
“The combination is twelve right, twenty-five left, and sixteen right.” Shaking his head, he opened the safe on the first try. Inside of it was not just the combination but a list of things that had been put in it and taken out with the dates. “It looks like the dates on some of those things are a couple hundred years old. I wonder why he did that.”
