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“She’s hanging on really well. I think her being able to shift today helped a great deal. Like I told you the other day, it’s like getting a better outlook on life and even like the slate has been washed clean.” Ace said that he felt the same way. “It’s like being given a cleaning shower, and you have washed away all the trouble you had before.”

They talked a bit more about how Serenity was handling things. He wasn’t in the room with her right now, but he knew that if she needed him, she’d not hesitate to call for him. As he stretched out his long legs, he thought of his life just a few months ago. He’d been looking for a house for himself, and not only did he have a mate, but he was in love with her as well.

Getting up to stretch out more, he walked the halls of the hospital quietly. There were others on the floor who were going through the same thing, and he didn’t want to be a disturbance to them and their families. As he was rounding the corner again, he saw Serenity at the nurse’s desk. He went to her immediately.

“She’s just sleeping. I’ve tried to talk to her, but she’s ignoring me right now, over me telling her that I don’t want her to die just yet.” He held her tightly while she cried. “I’m going to stay and try to talk to her. She might not care, but I’m going to be here for her when she takes her last breath.”

“All right. I’ll be here for you.” She looked up at him, and he could see the determination in her eyes. “I’m going to be here for you.”

“No. I have to do this on my own. You go to your brother’s home, and I’ll be right here. Waiting on her to make her next move.” He asked if he thought that she’d try to hurt her. “I don’t know, but I don’t think so. She’s very weak right now and not doing anything but lying there. This is the way that Helen went. Just sort of closed down until there was nothing left of her. I’m going to stay with her until the end so that if she wants to say something to me, she can. In my heart, she can hurt me, but in my mind, I’m over her trying to make me feel bad for something that I don’t understand at all.”

He left her there, as much as he didn’t want to, he knew that she was right. He’d just be sitting around, and he could have been at home with his family. It was breaking his heart that he couldn’t do more for her and her sister, but since he didn’t know how to help with this, he was going to leave it up to Serenity. His heart broke for the two of them, and he wasn’t sure what he could do anyway.

Going home, he decided to make sure that there was food in the house for when she returned. There were all kinds of things that she could eat, and he was glad that he’d suggested it to the cook. She said she’d make sure there was plenty of juice as well. Serenity had been drinking a great deal of juice of late, and he knew it was because of her magic. She might not know what she’d gotten from him, but he was sure it was there. She’d been bringing things to herself for the last several days, and there was more than that.

He wasn’t sure that he wanted to go to Ace’s home and see the others. They were a good group of people, and he loved them with all his heart. But like Serenity, he wanted to be alone tonight, and there wasn’t anything going on there that he couldn’t have missed. As he was lying down on the bed that Serenity had been sleeping in, he brought the pillow to his face.

It smelled like her. Not only that, but when he inhaled deeply, he could smell her dragon as well. He should have guessed she’d be a red dragon and wondered what Tucker would say when he told him. He knew that he’d be excited as well.

Kings had been selected to be the king of their kind when he’d first changed. But his mother, the worst kind of bitch there ever was, had refused the faeries’ training him for the job. So it was centuries that he should have been being trained, but no one did anything about it. So when he met his mate, Skye, all the magic that was to come to him as king startled them both, and they’d been down in pain for a long time.

It turned out that Kings nor Skye wanted to be the king and queen of their kind. It was a great deal of work and traveling, and they were only just getting to know one another. Plus, with all the traveling meant that they’d have to have children on the go all the time, and that wouldn’t be good quality time for anyone. The faeries were bad enough, having to hang around all the time.

He’d have to ask Lady Earth if he was going to get faeries at his home now that he had one. They were handy to have around, and he was looking forward to having them at his home. Just as he was getting up to go take a shower, one of them came to him from the hallway.

“Lord Sherman?” He said he was just plain Sherman. “Nay, you nor your brother are plain anything. There is a castle that has been left to you as dependents from the Savage side of the family. It is for both you and your brother to live in it, should you like, or do with it as the others have done before you. Make it a showcase so that others, humans and shifters alike, can enjoy it for all time. It also brings in a great deal of money to the coffers so that you don’t have to worry about the upkeep on it.”

“What does it look like now?” He was told that it was falling down because it had not had repairs done to it, but with the right magic, faerie magic, it would be back up to par in no time. “You mean it’s falling down around their ears.”

“Yes, my lord. It is reputed to have been a beautiful home at one time, but it has since fallen into disrepair. Even the grounds are something of an eyesore. With word from you and Lord Ace, we can have it put back in order so that if you were to live there, it would be the perfect setting for one such as yourself.” He asked about the magic that would be used. “Oh, the faeries would love to do this for you, sir. It has been something that they’ve wanted to do for a very long time. The longer it sits, the more faeries want to work on it. I would say in just a week, they could have it in better shape than it’s ever been.”

“Then you do that. I’m sure that Ace will agree. And you said that it could become a place that will make money for its own repairs?” He said that people would pay to go through the castle once again after it had been repaired. “Then go ahead and do it. I’ll talk to Ace about it, and we’ll see about going to visit it once it’s finished. You said it would only take a week?”

“Yes, and that’s mostly the gardens. The estate at one time was known for its gardens. There were beautiful flowers and other trees around it so that people would come from all over the world, all worlds, to just see what the faeries have done with the place.” He nodded. This was something that he could get into. The fixing up of his ancestral home. “I shall make sure that the Lady Earth knows of your plans as well. She will have to approve the flowers being there, but there will be no problem with that. She, too, has wanted the castle to be in wonderful shape as well.”

He decided to go to Ace’s house then. It made him feel useful now to know that he was going to be helpful in raising the home again. As soon as it could be arranged, he was going to take Serenity there and perhaps have their honeymoon in the place. It sounded like something that she’d enjoy knowing about, too. He laughed when he realized that she’d be Lady Serenity and thought that she’s love that most of all. Rubbing his hands together, he was almost too excited to drive to the house where everyone was. He was going to have to ask the others if they had castles as well. He would bet there were plenty of them going down the line of Savages. Sherman was sure there was a special one for Kings and Skye. He couldn’t wait to talk to them about it.

Chapter 8

Beth died just before midnight. It broke her in ways that she couldn’t describe, how even at the end, they’d had harsh words. Even though she couldn’t move all that much and had lost her ability to see her from the medications, Beth told her that she was going to kill her as soon as she got better. It was the last thing she said to her.

Not moving from the chair that was sitting close to the bed, she thought of her two sisters dying from cancer, and it hurt her heart. It had spread quickly and quietly through their bodies, leaving her alone in the world for the rest of her life. Holding Beth’s hand, which was as cold as ice, Serenity kissed the back of it and laid it back under the covers. The staff had been in, of course, when her monitors sounded, but after turning them off in favor of the noise, she was able to sit there and be alone with her until she was ready. Serenity didn’t know if she’d be ready again.

Crying softly, she thought about her two sisters and the fact that they’d been so unalike even in death. Helen had only said goodbye to her before taking her last breath, and Beth had said she was going to get better and kill her. It hurt her heart something terribly when all she wanted to do was to be happy with them again.

“Ms. Jamestown? I’ve called the doctor and let him know what’s happened.” She nodded. “I’ve also called the funeral home for you as well. They said they would be here in an hour if that’s all right with you.”

“Yes, of course. I’ve made arrangements for her funeral while being here all day. I knew that it was close; she was much like my other sister in that way.” She told her she’d be there for her if she needed. “No. I just have to call my mate and let him know. Right now, I want to just sit here and think.”

“Yes, of course.” She went out of the room and closed the door. As she was getting ready to hold her hand again, she thought of the arrangements that she’d made that weren’t at all like Helen’s had been. No one would know Beth from around here. She’d not lived in this area for a long time. She’d already contacted her doctor in Tennessee, and he was grateful for the heads-up.

The plot by their parents had been hard to get; they wanted to make sure that there was no one else going to need one there, but in the end, they sold it to her for a reasonable price. There would be a graveside service in a few days, and that would be the end of it. After the marker was made and ready to be put in, she’d go and see it to make sure that it was right. Getting up, she made her way to the window.

“You were so selfish all our lives. Even Helen said so when you visited her right before she passed on.” Straightening up her back, she wanted to show the world that she was made of sterner stuff when all she wanted to do was to find herself a corner and hide herself away and cry some more. “The more I’ve thought about you, the more I’ve come to realize that had you been able to get loose from the restraints, you would have indeed killed me.”

She’d said it so many times that she was sure that even the staff had heard her. The staff had been good about keeping records of all the times that she’d said that she was going to kill her; even if she had lived, she would have been in jail. The police didn’t take too kindly to having people threaten other people.

“I’ve come to so many decisions about things, and I’m going to make you aware of them. I know you can’t hear me, not that you’d care anyway, but I’ve decided to live here in Ohio so that I can be close to Sherman’s family. They’ve been so supportive while you’ve been so mean to me, and I’m going to enjoy being around them for the rest of my long life. I even have a brother now, and I’m so excited to have Ace in my corner. He and Sherman get along really well, and I know that he loves me. Another decision that I’ve come to is that I’m going to put your name on the scholarship program that Helen wanted to set up. It will be the Helen and Beth Foundation for Future Teachers. You didn’t do well in school, but that doesn’t matter. You would have hated it, and that’s why I’m doing it.”