"Do something else," Leigh begged, so I looked through the options and chose Take a Bow.
Leigh's brothers, Weldon, Glen, Winkler and Kellee all came in shortly after the song started. I ignored them and went on. Leigh was back when that one was done, asking me to do one for her father. I did To Where You Are for Thomas Williams Sr. If I'd had a piano there, I would have provided the music as well but the bar didn't have one. There was a standing ovation when I finished that song. I left the stage afterward.
"I wish I'd known you could do that," Winkler muttered in my ear.
"We don't always get to know everything, do we?" I said and walked out of the bar with Leigh and Brady.
They dropped me off at the hotel as I asked and I went walking after that. I even called Gavin. "Lissa?" he sounded so surprised. I suppose he should be.
"Hi, honey," I said. "I just wanted to see how you were."
"I am well," he replied. Yeah. I was homesick. I didn't think that was possible, but it was. And Winkler's defection for bubblehead hurt a little, too. I knew I should make the call short and sweet before I embarrassed myself. "I am home for the moment," he went on, "but they will most likely send me out again."
"Always a problem, huh?" I asked. "Honey, do they ever let you take a vacation?"
"I could request time," he said. "Would you like that cara?"
"Yeah. I think I would," I replied. "All this traveling is wearing me down, I think."
"When you return, we will plan something."
"That sounds good, honey. I should go. I love you."
"And I you, cara mia." I snapped the phone shut before I started blubbering like a fool.
Thomas' confirmation went very well and Weldon handed over a framed certificate afterward, along with a photograph of his father's gravesite on his North Dakota property. The certificate was similar to mine only it denoted the service that Thomas Williams Sr. had rendered to the Grand Master and the werewolf race as a whole.
Thomas and his entire family hugged me before we left, including his mother, who apologized for crying. I told her that her tears were an honor and worthy of her husband. She hugged me again. Kellee and Winkler had their first fight that night; I could hear it even though Weldon and I were two rooms away. Glen must have been going crazy since he was right next to them. The sex afterward was almost as noisy. I just shook my head. Weldon covered his head with a pillow and turned over in an agitated manner.
We stopped in Fresno briefly so Weldon could pass a second certificate off to Martin Walters. It was nice to see him again and he smiled and took my hand. His wife was there so a hug was probably out of the question. Too bad he couldn't receive mindspeech; I'd have told him he looked nice and asked about his two children. Another stop in the Los Angeles area followed and it went without a hitch. We went on to Arizona after that and it was fine. Kellee and Winkler were still at it hot and heavy, either sex or fights. I wondered why they didn't just head on to Dallas. Weldon did his best to ignore them, most of the time. Glen rolled his eyes every chance he got when Winkler wasn't looking. I just kept my mouth shut. New Mexico was next and that was the one I was worried over.
Chapter 12
There were three confirmations in New Mexico: Albuquerque, Taos and Santa Fe. Lester's Pack was in Santa Fe and I had no idea who had taken it over. Weldon wasn't sharing that information, either. Albuquerque was our first stop; we landed there and would take cars or SUVs to the other locations. At least my skin wasn't itching; that was a good sign as far as I was concerned. We arrived late enough that Weldon wouldn't be doing anything until the following evening. I knew the trip was wearing on me so it had to be wearing on him. I walked up beside him as we headed toward the two SUVs and slipped my arm through his.
"Are you holding up, Grand Master?"
Weldon stopped, pulled his arm away and placed it around my shoulders instead. "I've been better," he said. I knew then that he wasn't looking forward to dealing with New Mexico any more than I was.
"We'll get through this," I said and leaned my cheek against his shoulder.
"We will," he nodded and we walked on.
Kellee was already whining when we arrived at the hotel. Thankfully, she and Winkler drove their own SUV so Weldon, Glen and I were spared at least that much. The werewolves were all hungry too, so we dropped off our bags and trooped out to a restaurant to find something to eat. It turned out to be a twenty-four hour diner that the truckers liked, just off I-40. Winkler growled at a trucker who leered at Kellee on the way in. Kellee was a werewolf; she could have put that poor man through one of the plate glass windows lining the restaurant. Kellee—all six feet of her—simpered for Winkler's benefit I'm sure. Yes, she was pretty and she knew it, with long, straight, almost black hair. She had dark eyes, too, but she wore colored contacts, not because she needed them but to change the color of her eyes. I'd never seen a werewolf that needed glasses. Her eyes were a gray-blue with the contacts. She could have been a model if she wanted but she'd gone into her father's business. He was an attorney in Boise and the Packmaster on top of that. Kellee hadn't gone to law school; she was a paralegal and happily told anybody and everybody. I'm sure daddy paid her well or still supported her; a pair of her least expensive shoes would feed a family of six for two weeks. I think Glen hated her already.
Winkler ordered two stacks of pancakes with extra bacon and sausage. Kellee only ordered two pancakes and two strips of bacon and then proceeded to eat off Winkler's plate. Weldon noticed and just shook his head. I'm sure he was with Glen all the way on this one. Everybody always said love was blind. They just didn't say anything about it being deaf and dumb, too.
* * *
Merrill inspected the Enforcers and Assassins that lined the wall of the warehouse. Wlodek had even considered coming for this but he'd been convinced to stay behind. "No sense losing both of us if that's what comes to pass," Merrill said and Wlodek eventually nodded his head in agreement. The information was kept from most of the Council. Flavio knew and he was there now, the only Council member that had come. Radomir had also come, as had Russell and Will. Robert and Albert, the mindspeakers were there, along with Gervais, one of the misters. Gavin would have come if Wlodek asked but this involved Lissa and he didn't want Gavin anywhere close since Lissa might guess at his nearness. They didn't want her to know; they wanted her out of the way while they attempted to take care of the situation. All they needed was for Saxom's brood to get their hands on her. Saxom was very old when he'd been killed. Adam Chessman, the former Chief of Enforcers had taken Saxom down before his own swift and subsequent disappearance. Saxom never registered any turns with the Council so these vampires could be many and quite old as well.