Chapter 12

Elijah - Chapter 12

Sterl thought the plan was a good one…brilliant, as a matter of fact, but he was no less terrified that it wasn't going to work. He'd seen this monster. These people had not. Moving to stand by the window of his studio, he wondered if he'd been too rash in setting this up.

"I'm not going to allow you to be negative about this." Sterl turned and looked at the woman standing there. He'd not seen her in a whole year, yet there she stood looking just as beautiful. "You don't have a hug for your old grandma?"

"First of all, you will never be old, and secondly, you told me some time ago that I was much too strong to give you the kind of hugs I love." She waved him off and told him to get over here. "Grandma, when did you get in? I'm assuming Mom called you?"

"Your grandda had a hankering to come and aggravate his only son, and I thought we'd come now so that when you beat this bitch, we can be here to celebrate. Trent told us what was going on." Sterl nodded but hadn't moved to hug her. "What is it, my boy? You think you can't win this? I do."

"I don't think they're taking this as seriously as they should. Elijah has it all worked out, but I'm not sure that she'll follow along like they think she will." She moved to him, and Sterl did the same toward her. "I have missed you so much, Grandma."

"And I you. Oh my, you have grown up." They hugged; he was gentle with her in that she was a full two feet shorter than him, and tiny in stature. When he held her, just looking down at her, she wiped at his cheek. "Don't worry. I promise you that there is not a person here, wolf or otherwise, that isn't taking this seriously. And your grandda is over at the house now, going over every detail about it. You know him and plans."

"Yes. I know. I think that's where Elijah got it from." She nodded and they sat down on his couch. The studio also had a small cot in it, something that he'd found when he'd been moving things around, and had decided that he liked it. "How long are you here for this time? I'm assuming that you are still touring the world."

"I think I've seen enough for the time being. I have seen things and.... Well, things that I can't believe. Humans can be strange, don't you think?" He nodded. "I do love that Joe. My goodness, she is powerful. And Noelle. And to think I'm going to be a great grandma in a few months. And TJ is as smitten with them both as he was with Christina when she came along."

"Noelle and I have been hanging out together while Elijah works. She owns the shop downstairs that deals in odds and ends. It's called Second Time Around. Dad had been finding things around the buildings that we all own in the area and bringing them to her. I think he's buying things up and telling her that he found them." Grandma said that sounded like something he'd do. "Mom is knitting booties. She's not all that good at it, I don't think, but she's having fun learning. Joe has been working with her on it."

"I tried to teach her once, but she was too busy with you boys to give it much of a go. I have been knitting too. I have boxes of things for each of you boys." She looked at him with that glint in her eyes that he recognized, and laughed. "I know you have no mate as yet, but she'll come along."

"I just want this over with." She asked him about the canvases that he'd set up. "I've been painting. Not much and it's not very cheery, but I actually feel better after I'm done."

He got up to show her the one he was working on. When she stood too and came to look at it closer, he looked at it as well. It was part of the dreams he'd had when he'd been possessed by the monster.

The scene looked pretty enough, he supposed, if you only glanced at it. But if someone looked deeper, really studied the painting, they could see more. There was the tree he was hanging from, the car deep in the dense forest. Even the blood staining the grasses where his friends had been murdered. They weren't in the picture yet. He wasn't even sure that they would be added, but he was there, as was the monster.

"You.... Oh Sterling, this is powerful." He watched her face as she reached out to nearly touch the paint there. He knew that she was aware that it was still wet, but he could tell that she wanted to. "I want to take you out of here, grab you out of the tree, and pull you into my arms and keep you safe."

Sterl knew that of all the people in the world, his grandma would get him the best. She'd always been there for all of them, but Sterl knew that if he had a problem or a question about something, anything really, that he could go to her and she'd give him the answer. No matter how embarrassing or painful it would be to either of them.

"I have two more." He had never shown these to anyone before. It had been in his mind to just paint them, then put them away. It was therapy for him, the feeling that if he put it to canvas, then it would somehow lessen the pain that was still there. It had in a way, but he still hurt. "They're finished, I suppose you could call them, but I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with them."

"You'll put them in a gallery. And I noticed that you signed it simply with your first initial. I like that. Leaves you to keep a low profile when you make it big." That was another thing that he loved most about his grandma—both of his grandparents, actually—that they could encourage him in ways that would make him feel that he could do whatever it was. His parents did as well, very much so, but Grandma made it sound like a done deal. He set the other two up against the wall under the window.

When she didn't say anything, he felt the need to fill in the silence. "I know this one is very black, dark I guess. It's the day after the accident. I kind of blurred the faces—I don't want anyone to know that it was myself and Trent there—but I think it still shows the anguish. They tied me down too. I think...it's what I felt like with her in my head. Tied down."

This time she did touch the painting, his face and then his wrists. When she turned to him, his heart broke for making her cry, and when she held him, he cried as well. Then without a word, she pulled back and looked at the third painting.

He knew every stroke of it, even the way that he'd worked hard to get the red right. The blood there needed to be perfect. It was of the day that Myra had come and taken away all of the poison from his mind.

"You bled that day as well." Sterl nodded. "So much of it too. I know that it was necessary, but I want to hunt her down and hurt her for harming my baby boy."

His face in the painting was once again blurred, but he wasn't sure that anyone could see anything but the blood on his face anyway. Even his ears had leaked out some of his blood, but it was his hands that drew his attention. In them he'd put a gun and a knife. The gun at his head, the knife at his throat. It was his way of showing that he was finished with life. Done with all the pain.

"I felt relieved when I was finished with this one. I know that she's out there still, that I might not survive this, but this is what I feel all the time. Even now, with all the poison taken from me, I still am so tired of this." He looked out the window and down at the people on the streets. "It's not a constant thing now. This feeling of wanting to die, it lessens all the time. But it's there, just on the outer circle of my life."

"You need to see someone. A doctor. He can help you like no one can." He knew she was right, but he'd never do that. Who would he see that he could be honest with? No one. They just wouldn't understand him. "Sterling, look at me."

He did but he felt pained by her sadness. "Grandma, she's coming here. Probably today or tomorrow, but she's going to go to the house and confront us."

"Good." He nodded and looked out the window. "What do you think she's going to see when she arrives, Sterling? I can answer that for you. She's going to see a strong being, stronger than when she hurt him. A family that will be there for him, and has been there right there with him through it all. This thing, this monster that you drew here? She's going to know a reckoning that she's never felt before. And when it's done, you're going to be stronger for it."

"I don't know." She turned him around and smacked him across the cheek. He knew that he deserved it, but asked why anyway.

"You won't talk like that. You're my Sterling Calhoun, and you will be strong. If you let her win, then she will. If you know that you can beat her? Then you fucking will." He cocked a brow at her cursing. "Yes, I used the word. And I will again if you make me. Now, I want you to get busy with your life, and then when she gets here, deal with her as quickly and as efficiently as I know you do everything in your life. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, ma'am." When he opened his mouth to tell her that she'd hurt him once, Grandma lifted her hand. Sterling had to smile. "When did you become all tough and sassy?"

"I've been living with your grandda all on my own for the last eight months. That's enough to make anyone grow some." He laughed when she did. "Now that's what I wanted to see. And so you know, I'm going to see about finding you a gallery for these and whatever else you paint. Sterling, you are going to be famous."

"I just want to be free." She nodded, and this time when she put her hand to his cheek, he felt her love. "I love you so very much, Grandma."

"And I do you as well, Sterling. But if you make me have to get upset with you again over this, I'm going to tan your hide for you." He nodded and hugged her to him. "You're going to be just fine, Sterling. Just as fine as rain."

He hoped so. Sterl really did hope so. As they made plans to go to his mom's house, Sterl thought of the empty canvases that he'd bought this morning, and the paints that had shown up on his table. He was sure that Noelle had done it, and he loved her all the more for helping him.

~*~

Elijah could hear Noelle in the shower. She was crying again. He wasn't sure what she was upset about, but knew that she'd been dealing with it her way, hiding out for a few days now. He'd talked to his mom about it, and she told him to just be there for her. Whatever it was, she'd share it when she was ready and not before. Getting up, he decided that he liked his dad's idea better. Confront her.

Pulling open the shower door, he watched her as she tried to hide from him. He let her for a few minutes, then stepped under the spray to hold her. When she curled around him, both with her arms and legs, he knew that this was the right way to fix it.

"Tell me, love. Tell me what it is. I can't stand to see you hurting like this." She cried all the harder and held him tightly. "I love you, Noelle. I swear that whatever it is, we can overcome it."

"He hurt them." Elijah didn't know who had hurt who, but he had a feeling it was her father. "When they were younger and would tell him what I'd done or said to them that day, the nice things, he would hurt them for it. Daniel called me Monday and said he wanted to talk, and we did."

He'd known that. Casen had told him that she'd gotten a call from someone and had gone out right after. When she'd returned some four hours later, he had said that something terrible had happened. But when Elijah had asked, she told him she was just nervous about the baby. But the crying had started the next morning.

"Daniel has left the area. Did you know that? That he'd left the day Howard was arrested? Ron is gone too. They're together for now." He knew that Daniel had left, but not that the younger one had as well. "He's trying to make it on his own. I guess he's got a job now, as well as a place of his own. His first."

"Did he ask you for help?" Elijah thought of how hard it would have been for him to start over and felt sorry for him. "We can help him out if that's what he wants."

"He only wanted my forgiveness." Elijah took the shampoo from her and poured some in his palm to wash her hair while she continued. "Daniel said that he and Ron are living together right now and it's been hard to find work. But he's been working at a fast food place for a few days now and Ron is still looking. The problem that he is having is that he has a record, and he doesn't have any work experience for anyone to check on."

Elijah washed her hair, running his fingers through the soft strands as he tried to think of something to say. He wasn't sure that he could ever forgive either man for their part in his mate's pain, but if she wanted to help them, he would do whatever she wanted.

"What did you tell him when he asked for you to forgive him?" When she didn't answer him, he picked up the big sponge that had only just recently made it into their bathroom and poured some soft soap over it. Running it down her spine and over her ass, he felt his cock stretch and told it to behave. "Honey, is that what has you upset?"

"He won't take anything from me. He said that he's taken enough from people and he wants to do this on his own." Elijah nodded, thinking that was the smartest thing the man could say, and he respected him for it. "I didn't tell him about the money or anything, but I told him I was working and that I had my own money, but he said no. And Ron said that if they couldn't make it by themselves, then they didn't deserve to. I think that's what hurts me so much. That Howard never taught them anything about being a good person, and they're getting it despite him."

"I have an idea how we can help both of them and not hurt their pride. Trent and the rest of us need to hire a crew to work out at the new site to clear the land. We're doing it, with Doug's okay, to get the wood. A lot of the homes on the pack land heat with it, and then there is the added idea that we could sell the lumber to someone and put the money back into the ones that help." She turned and looked at him then. "It pays well. There is also insurance, as well as housing that could be theirs if they come to help out. When the land is cleared, they'll have a job reference that looks better than anything they can get working where they are, as well as they can save up for a place to buy. I'd even help them with that if this works out."

"Why?" He asked her what she meant. "Why are you going to do this for them? I didn't ask you to."

"No. You didn't. But if they're willing to help themselves, then I'd like to help them as well. Mostly it's only to give them the opportunity to do something for themselves. If they fuck up or just quit, there are any number of people to take their place. I'll get them in. It's entirely up to them what they do afterwards."

"I love you." He grinned at her and leaned down to kiss her. "You're going to get pretty lucky if you keep that up."

"Promise?" Elijah kissed her again, this time picking her up to wrap around him. "We could both get pretty lucky if you play your cards right. Turn around and let me wash you. I find that to be very sexy, watching the soap run down over the curves of your body." He put her down and told her to stand very still while he took care of her.

The soapy sponge was his new best friend. As he moved it over her neck to her breasts, he felt his mouth water to follow the path that the pretty pink bubbles traveled, the way the sponge seemed to curve around each of her muscles and soft skin. When he had one breast as clean as he could manage it, he took the tip in his mouth as he moved the sponge down over her navel to her hips and between her thighs.

Her fingers curled in his hair, her hand around his cock. Rocking into her palm, he moved the sponge over her, feeling her riding it. As he lifted his head, she continued to fist him, her hand sliding over his tip only to go to his root in a smooth continuous motion.

"I love the way you feel. Soft and silky, hard and thick." He moaned when she dropped to her knees in front of him. "I need to have you. Sit down."

He wasn't sure if he sat or fell back to the shower seat when she took him into her mouth. And she didn't slow either, not when he put his hand to her head to pull her back, nor when he begged her to let him finish inside of her. Noelle made him so close to paradise one second, then sobbing with the need to come the next. And when he came, shouting out her name as she held his balls in her hand, he was sure that he'd never had this much pleasure, had never loved anyone as he did her, and that for as long as he lived, Noelle would be his only one true love.

"Come here. I can't stand up yet." Her giggle seemed to give him more strength. Standing up, jerking her body to his, Elijah lifted her up and slammed his cock deep into her when he pressed her against the wall. "Christ, come for me. I'm not going to last."

She came three times, quick, hard, tight punches that left him as drained as she seemed to be. But he needed her, to mark her. And when she bit down on his shoulder, screaming around the flesh, Elijah tilted her head and bit down hard into her throat, tasting her blood as it filled his mouth. It was all it took to bring him over the edge once more, for his cock to empty deep and his heart to fill with love of her.

When she turned off the water, he held her still. There was something so tender about holding the person he loved after having sex that he'd never noticed before. Elijah thought that having a mate at any time was about all a man could ask for in the world. Reaching for a towel when she shivered, he dried her off, then himself, and thought of all the things that he wanted to do with her.

"I think I'm going to hire a crew to work for me." She turned to him, the towel wrapped around her beautiful body, and asked him why. "So I can spend more time being with you. I know that sounds sort of sappy. I guess it is, but I miss being with you all day."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea." He tried not to be hurt, but when she grinned at him, he felt his heart mend just a little. "We'd never leave this room if you didn't need to go to work at some point. And I'd have to close up my shop, and I'd really hate to do that as well. As it is now, I can barely go all day without wanting to hunt you down and jump your bones."

"Hey, whenever the mood strikes, I think you should hunt until you find me." She leaned against the wall and smiled at him. "I miss doing the things that you're doing with Sterl."

"Sterl needs me." He nodded, and he knew that too. But it didn't make him any less jealous of him. "And when the baby comes, you're going to have to help me learn how to be a good parent. I have no idea how that works."

"I'm positive that you're going to be wonderful at it." He looked down at her flat belly. "I can't wait to see you large with our child. To see it move and feel it there."

"I'm afraid." He wanted to tell her that she'd be great with the baby, but she continued. "I have gone without for so long. I know that you have money and so do I. Why you won't let me put the check in your account is beyond me. But I worry that we'll be broke, or someone will come and take the house from us. And the car. I love having transportation and pretty clothing. Warm boots when I want them too."

"I want you to have all of that." She nodded, and he stood in front of her. "I swear, Noelle, that we don't have to worry about money. I've done well for myself, and I have more than enough to keep you in pretty things and warm boots."

"Don't make fun of me." He kissed her and said that he wasn't. "I see others struggling with money. I know this plant is going to help a great many people, but some of them it can't. And if you quit your job, how will I help them?"

"I'm not sure what you mean." She moved into their bedroom, and he waited. There was something there and he was almost afraid to find out what it was. "Noelle, do you have a plan for me to work on?"

"I bought a loom. And a quilter. Do you know what those are?" He said that he knew but had no idea how to work them. "I want learn how to use them, learn them enough that I can show you if you want. I was thinking I'd like to teach the people at the nursing home how to use them as well. Some may already know, but I think it will give them a sense of purpose that they don't have now."

He had no idea why that had anything to do with him quitting his job, but pulled on his clothing while she got around to it. She told him of the material that she'd gotten for almost nothing, the sewing notions as well. And when she was fully dressed, she turned to him.

"If you're here, with me, I won't go anywhere. I won't want to." He started to tell her he was confused when it hit him. "There are so many things that I want to do."

"You're afraid that if I'm out of work, I'll be making demands on your time and you won't want to go to work. Honey, I'd never do that to you. Well, I would be making demands on your pretty body, but not to the point where you couldn't do the things that are important to you." She looked up at him, and he was positive that she wasn't sure about it. "I promise you this…I will work every day if you promise me that when the urge hits you to jump my bones, you'll come and do it. And if I want to chase you around your store, you'll let me do that as well."

"You're not mad." Actually, he was very proud of her but only shook his head. "You don't have to work all day, just enough that I can get this started. I need to do this."

"Well, of course you do. I love it. You're going to be a big hit at the nursing home too. Mrs. Baker, the lady with the BB? She is in charge of the activities there. Mom helps her sometimes. I bet she'd love to get you started."

She was nearly dancing down the stairs. He was going to work every day and leave her to her job because she didn't want him around, and Elijah was happy as he'd ever been. He revised his earlier thought. Having a mate was the best thing a man could hope for in the universe.