Prologue

Finny didn't let too much upset him anymore. He did. There were times he'd lose his temper, and people would pay, especially him, for that, but here, in the last few years, at least a decade, he'd been better at controlling things for himself.

As he watched the woman struggle with pulling boxes out of the large cargo van, he thought that she needed a good, strong man to help her. Then, he dismissed that idea right away. Young or old, women would not appreciate him thinking that old man thought. The more he watched her, the more he thought that she didn't ever need a man in her life. She was doing just fine on her own. But she was a pretty little thing. Finny wouldn't say that to her either. He liked his balls right where they were.

When she pulled out one of those old-fashioned luggage carts that used to be in old-timey hotels, he sat up and watched her load all the boxes she'd already pulled out and a great deal more that seemed to be in endless supply coming out of the van. He'd not heard that someone was going to be living here but then, most people kept their ideas to themselves. Finny did, too, but he was just bored enough to keep watching her move boxes around until they were as near perfect as she seemed to need them to be.

He'd seen this particular woman coming and going for a week or so now, not with boxes nor a big loading van. She had a fancy car that she was in and didn't seem to care that others, mostly men, envied her when she was getting in and out of it. He loved the fire engine red color, too.

There were usually two or three people with her, but today she was alone. Just like he was, he supposed. After she was able to get the luggage cart up the two stairs and into the front hall, he watched her closely to see what part of the house she was going to be using.

About a hundred years or so ago, the big old place used to house one of the richest families in town. Then, little by little, the town started to fall down around everyone's ears until there wasn't nothing but a big old mansion that nobody came to anymore. After that, people started moving away and not returning. He thought this place, his old place actually, was going to be around with nary a person filling the walls with fun and laughter until a couple of weeks ago. Just when he'd noticed the pretty young woman coming around.

Finny made his way to the upper floors. It was his spot that he'd made his own a long time ago. He was able to see the town below him and would make up stories about the people going about their business. He was a silly old man, he knew that, but again, he told himself since he'd been looking out the window that they were just his stories that he had made up on his own when he didn't know who the people were. There was a time when he knew everyone about. But he'd lost interest in people a very long time ago.

There was an old elevator that still worked in the middle of the house, but like the sofa and fainting chair in the gathering room, there wasn't anyone around to go and enjoy it. He sat on the window sill, just watching over the town until he heard someone else talking on the first level.

She'd been sorting through boxes and bringing in more since she'd pulled up the first thing today. That was about as boring as watching people in town, so he gave up on her and made up stories about her, too.

The woman, he didn't yet know her name, was talking to a big fella that seemed to be pissed off about something. It wasn't her, the man assured her, but the fact that she'd stolen the house right out from under him. Finny didn't know what that meant. He'd never been privy to how the young woman had ended up moving her things into the house, so he stayed out of sight. Finny had had plans for the old mansion, too. The other man was saying that he wanted her to move out of his home and get on with her life. Intrigued, he moved into the doorway and hid while the two of them talked.

"How about I double what you paid for it? That'll make it so that you could get whatever you want someplace else to live." The girl, she said something but her voice didn't carry like the man's did so he didn't hear what she said. "This place has been sitting empty without a buyer for twenty-some years, and you had to buy it now? Christ woman, of all the times that it's been sitting here, I could have just moved in and taken over. No one would have bothered with me. Just…I tell you what, lets share the house. That way, we can both have the place to ourselves."

"No, I have no desire to share anything with you. And I've tried to tell you three times now that I didn't have to buy it at all. It's mine through family. My great, too many to count, built this house about a hundred and fifty years ago, and I'm just now getting all the paperwork finished up to prove that it belongs to me. Now, I have asked you four times now to get out of my way, or I will call the police. You're trespassing." She looked out the front window, one of the more beautiful pieces of art in the house with stained glass there, and saw what he did. The police were here. "Good. Now, we can get you moving on. You're starting to get on my last nerve and I was having fun until you showed up.

The officer, he thought his name was Joe, asked the young woman if she was all right. Finny was hoping that he'd call her by name, but all he called her was ma'am. She didn't look like any ma'am that he'd encountered, but he kept his mouth shut. That was another touchy subject with women. They didn't like to be called ma'am and never madame. That would get the crap slapped right out of you.

"Mr. Fairaday, it's time you got moving along. I told you yesterday when you came into the office to tell me someone was trespassing on your land that it didn't belong to you. This woman right here owns it lock, stock, and barrel. She is one of the last Shamus Farleys that could claim it, so she's been working on this for nearly six months. It's hers, and there isn't anything you can—" Mr. Fairaday seemed to not care for the officer's conclusion that the young lady owned the house. "Be that as it may, she not only owns the house but the land surrounding it as well as the money that was left in the bank when Mr. Farley passed. I agree, it's been a good long time, but she's been through a great deal in order to prove that she's the rightful owner. I would think that you'd be happy that it's off the market. I've never seen a man so hyped up about a piece of property that's been just sitting there empty in all my life. Move along before I have to arrest you. You've bothered this woman enough as it is."

"I didn't think that they'd done anything about trying to find—" He waved at the young lady like she was meaningless to him. "This person after all this time. Where was she hiding out? Prison, no doubt. That's why it took this long for you to hunt her down. And it is too my place. I've been trying to buy it for the last five years. Damn it all to hell and back, Officer, this isn't fair. I want this place for myself."

"Can we get this moved out of my house, Officer Joey? I have a lot of work to do before my furniture comes here in the morning." Officer Joey nodded, tipped his hat to the woman, and half pulled, and the other half dragged, the man out of the house. The door was closed firmly behind them both.

The house had been cleaned up yesterday. There had been a crew of people, more than fifty, he'd bet, that went from floor to floor scrubbing the place from ceiling to floor. The windows were new, no more of that wobbly kind that was in here when he lived here, but shiny new ones that looked beautifully clean. Even the fireplaces, all six of them, had gotten a good cleaning, and the whole house smelled great. Following the young woman into the kitchen, he watched her put things in the cabinets where they belonged.

Each box was labeled with what was inside it and said, other than which room it went into, that it either went in the top cabinet or the bottom ones or even in the panty. He'd loved that old pantry. The best thing that he'd had installed after he'd gotten here. It was sad, really, that—

"Are we going to have a problem, you and I?" He thought that the man had returned and looked around. "If you want something done around here, ask me before you do something, or I'll have you banished. I know just how to do it, too. I'm assuming that you're Findley Farley, who goes by Finny. Is that right?"

He stared at her for a full minute before he realized that she was speaking directly to him. "You can see me?" She not only told him that she could but she described what he was wearing as well. All the way down to his single shoe and the hole in his shoeless sock. "How is that possible? Nobody has seen me since I passed on being laid out right there in the parlor. There wasn't much in the way of visitors by the time I died, but nobody in all that time ever spoke to me before. Good lord, miss, it's been a very long time since I've spoken a word or two since I passed on."

"I'm different. Something about how I was born with some kind of shawl or something over my face. Old time legend says that I would have the gift of sight." He asked her if she could see other things. "Just ghosts. Spirits, I guess you could call them. They told me when I was filling out the paperwork that people said that this house was haunted. I saw you the first day I was here and realized that we were related. I don't want any trouble, Finny and it will behoove you to remember that. If you don't bother me, I figured that we'd be all right. Will we be?"

"Yes." He asked her who she was related to in order to have inherited the house. "I heard you telling that man, whoever he is, that you were tested. I don't know what that means, but I'm surely glad that it was you and not him."

"Shawn. Shawn Farley's is my name. I've been called Shawnie for most of my life. My father was your great-grandson. And since he passed on, they figured that there wasn't anyone else. I'm a product of the affair that he had with one of the housemaids. My mother used to tell me that there was money to be had here in this house. I didn't care about that, and I still don't, but I'm going to live here and put up electrical fences all the way around the house so no one bothers me. I won't want to leave here until I need something."

She rolled up her sleeve after taking off her sweater. Right there on her arm was the prettiest faerie that he'd ever seen. The detail was better than anything that he'd ever seen. Rolling up his own sleeve, he showed her his. Neither in life or death had he ever seen anyone marked like he was. No wonder, he thought that she was so confident in being the rightful heir to this place.

"Ain't as much detail as yours, but it's something…how did you know that I had one?" She touched her fingers to the one on his arm, and it changed. The wings on his skin felt like they fluttered a bit before he realized that it was a female faerie, unlike the obvious male on her arm.

With greater detail than it ever had, he watched as she touched her fingers to the little person's head. His faerie pulled from his arm, not the least bit painful, and he stood on his palm. He was speechless. Which was something for him on account he never shut up.

"Mine protects me. I would imagine that yours would have, too, had someone woke her for you. Her name is Blue Bonnet. It's a kind of flower. Mine's name is Todd. He's been with me since birth, moving around on my body to keep others from seeing him." He didn't say a word yet, still looking at the beautiful little creature like he'd never seen her before. "Finny? If you don't speak soon, I'm going to have to figure out how to slap you out of your stupor."

"What do you mean nobody woke her up? I don't remember how I got this, but I woke up one day with this here thing on me. I figured that somebody played a trick on me and put her there for other women to see. Not that I had much trouble in the woman…hey now, girly, you never explained to me much about how you come to be my…let me count. Never mind, my granddaughter." Shawnie told him that her grandfather was a womanizer, thinking that he could have whomever he wanted. That was how she'd come to be. "I don't guess there are any more of my family around but you. Not that I mind. I do surely love you being here. But to think that my line of family name will be gone when you are."

"I don't want you to think badly of me, Finny, but I have a son out of wedlock. His name is…well, you're not going to believe this, but his name is Findley, just like yours. I call him Finn, and he's okay with that. He'll be thirty in a few weeks. I'm a good deal older than I look. When Finn was born, I was quite a few decades old. Todd keeps me from dying, and when I found out about Finn, I decided that he could give me immortality and Finn the same so that we could have fun together living in this old house. I didn't know about you until I came here." He asked where he was now. "Away at college. He's brilliant. And a great kid. I love him with all that I am."

"Well, of course you do. What kind of person wouldn't love their own son?" He thought about some of the things that he'd witnessed since dying and let it go. There were lots of people out there who didn't like their kin, much less their kids. He followed Shawnie around the house while she put boxes in the rooms, peppering her with any thought that came into his head. By the time he'd worn himself out, he was ready to go up to his window sill and rest. It wasn't hard for him to be a ghosty all the time, but conversing with someone and letting them see him that took a bit more effort. He was just thrilled beyond words that someone…

Going back to the kitchen where he'd left Shawnie, he watched her talking on the phone. He wasn't sure if she could see him. Sometimes, he'd fade out if he'd used up too much energy. She was sobbing, crying hard enough to break his own long-dead heart.

"Yes, I understand what you're telling me, but I've also told you that I'm not going to come back to work for you. You pestering me isn't getting me anything but pissed off. Just leave me alone." The person on the other end must have screamed at her because when she jerked the phone away from her ear, she simply put it on the table after pushing a few buttons.

He didn't want to disturb her. Not when she was this upset, but he had a way of getting information that she might not know of. Since he'd been a little boy living right here in this house, he'd had a couple of fae friends that would come by to play chess with him. Finny stood out in the yard by the big old apple tree and called out for Adonna and Dent. Sometimes, he thought someone should take over naming the little people. They didn't do such a good job of it most of the time.

~*~

Lance wasn't used to people coming out to his building, or for that matter, anywhere he had worked. Today, he'd had no less than four people coming out to speak to him when he was right in the middle of something he was doing. And being interrupted while blowing glass, even the hot boxes that he had going, could get someone badly injured or killed. He thought about what he was going to put on the door when he didn't want people to come in. A sign that said ‘Go away! I'm too busy to fuck around with you.'

He wouldn't do that, however. No matter how much it appealed to him to do it. His grandparents wouldn't appreciate it because it was so rude, and everyone else would just come in thinking there was no way that his sign meant them. Idiots. Lance turned slowly with the ball of glass on the tip of his pipe and saw three people standing there.

Not acknowledging them for what he was doing. They didn't look like they were upset. His assistant, who had called off this morning, would have been a big help in this piece. While it wouldn't be easy, it was still doable if he had to do it himself. Like he was right now.

"Here, let me cut for you. You'll have to give me inches, not metric numbers on account I don't understand them. But I can help." True to his word, the man did an excellent job of cutting the thick, hot glass when he told him to do it. "If you tell me which direction you're headed in, I can clear the path for you."

The two of them worked on the glass pitcher for nearly an hour before he was satisfied that it was finished. Having put on a pair of gloves when he first arrived to help, the man picked up the piece and put it in the cooling area without being asked to do so. Finally able to sit down, Lance thanked the man several times for his help.

"I've been there before when you only have one set of working hands. My name is Robby Fairaday. This is my wife, Beth, and her mother, Bethany." He shook hands with all three of them. "I know that this is out of the blue, but I was wondering if you know a woman by the name of Shawn Farley. I think that we're her relatives. The DNA tests show that we're her relatives by being cousins of sorts. She's taken over the Shamus Farley place a few weeks ago, and it belongs to me as I'm the oldest."

"I don't think I've ever heard that name before. I'm sorry, but I can't help you." If he had not been looking directly at the man, he would have missed the spurt of anger that took over his body. "I've only just moved to this area a few months ago. As for the mansion, I don't know anything about that either. I've been too busy to explore the town much."

"She told everyone that she was the last heir to the estate, and she claimed it. I'm the oldest, so I should have been notified." He told the man that he still didn't know anything about Shawn or the mansion. "We came here on the notion that she's got a lot of money, and you guys give out money like you have an endless supply of it."

"I've already told you that I don't know anything about it. And as for an endless supply of money, that isn't any of your business either. I'm going to ask you nicely this time to please get out of my workplace and leave me alone. If you have a problem with—" the man pulled out a gun and aimed at his heart. "So you plan on killing me, or is this a threat that you want information that I've told you several times that I don't know what you're talking about."

Letting his lion out, just enough for the people to see that he wasn't going to be bullied about something that he knew nothing about. The man backed away from him, and Lance reached out to his entire family to let them know he was in trouble. He wasn't the least bit surprised to see that even Brook showed up. The queen of lions looked about as pissed off as he'd ever seen her.

"What the fuck are you doing here? Everyone in town that you've threatened has told you that they don't know—what relation are you to this Shawn person anyway?" He said that he was her uncle. "Don't lie to me again. Why are you trying to get the house and land from Shawn?"

"There is buried treasure somewhere on the land, and I want to find it. It's said to be worth millions of dollars." She asked him if he was related to her at all. "No. Fuck, how are you doing this? I'm a pretty good liar most of the time, but you're making me tell you the truth. While I was looking for an attorney to doctor up some paperwork, I heard that Shawn had already claimed it as her own."

"Is she the rightful owner?" He said that she was, but he wanted her out so he could look for the treasure. "I see. So you come here to see if you could bully Lance here into making…I do believe that you've been told by several attorneys that there is no way that you can claim the land as your own. So you resorted to coming here and threatening someone to do what? Do you even have a plan?"

"I want her to have to appear in court so that I'll get the chance to kill her and take the land for myself." Lance glanced over the man's shoulder to see what was happening when he heard the door open. "I think that's a reasonable conclusion. She won't be burdened with the debt of cleaning the place up and all the hard work to make it pretty again. I'll just look around on the land like I should be able to do. But she's called the police on me five times already, and I'm sick of fucking around with her. So when I kill her, that'll be the end of her causing me all kinds of heartache."

His family, all of them, were there as their lions. The women noticed them first. Two of his brothers were standing in front of them. But the rest were standing right behind the man who hadn't turned yet to have a look around at what he was up against. As soon as he did, he screamed like a little girl, and Lance had to hold onto his laughter, wondering how he would have reacted if he had seen them shift.

"You're one of those abominations like that girl is. She can talk to ghosts. Or so she says. I think that she's just looking for attention and making up stories like everybody does. You go on up there and get her out of my house." Brook asked him if he'd like to test that theory. "To be a ghost? I'd have to be dead. I'm not."

"Not yet, you're not. But I'd gladly help you along with that. I was in the middle of something important when I heard one of my family members was in trouble. Who knew it was going to be a lesson for someone to see if a stranger can look at ghosts. That might come in handy to use at times. It would close a lot of open cases, don't you think?" He took a step back, and Denver, by far bigger than the others, put his paw on the man and knocked him to the floor. Again, Lance thought it to be one of the funniest things he'd ever seen. "You see behind you that Lance has a very good family that would be willing and able to tear out your throat with just a swipe of their paw. Henry, since you're the closest to all of them, show him how big your pretty paw is."

Henry, his brother, put his paw on the man's chest, knocking him back down to the floor. He could smell the fresh urine when the man pissed himself. Lance could no longer keep his laughter hidden away. He started laughing so hard that he leaned against his table and held on. Christ, he'd not had this much fun in a very long time. He only wished that Georgie was here to see it all.

By the time the police had shown up, Joe being one of them, he arrested the three trespassers and took them away. Joe, shaking his head, asked if anyone had been hurt. Lance thought he knew the answer to that but was just making small talk, building up to something else. When it was just him and Joe in the big building, he sat down at Lance's desk.

"The man has been testing my endurance all week. First, he went to the banker to get him to void the ownership to this woman named Shawn Farley, who owns the land fair and square. Then he threatened someone when they'd not tell him what was going on. Now this here." He asked him about the woman. "Her name is Shawn Farley. Her parents must not have liked her overly much to give her such a name. But she showed up here about a month ago to tell me that she was going to take the mansion as her home. I don't see how that place would be all that comfy to live in. The place is huge. I think you could fit this barn of yours on the main floor several times. Lots of bedrooms too. Anyway, she told me that there might be strangers in town who would try and take it from her, and there has been. Just a week ago, I had to arrest another man claiming to be the rightful heir."

"I'm not sure where you're heading with this, Joe." He asked him if he or some of his family could keep an eye on the place. "Just watch, or do you mean patrol the place?"

"She won't take kindly if she knew that I was taking liberties with her privacy, but I'm worried all the same." Lance told Joe that she saw ghosts. "She does. While she was in my office, she told me that I had one who was attracted to me. Gave me information on my momma that had me in tears, I tell you. Yeah, I know she could have looked that up, but nobody would have known that my mom hated ice cream in all flavors but vanilla and that my daddy killed her."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that either." Joe waved him off and said that it was a mystery that he could close the books on now. "Do you know anything else about her?"

"Yeah." He looked like he didn't want to say the words, whatever they were, out loud. "She's wealthy. I don't mean like she's rich and all but she's like the richest woman in the world rich. She had five crews working on that house even before she came into the office to talk to me. I bet right now that the sucker is about finished."

"That's a lot of workers, too." Joe nodded. "All right, we'll keep an eye on the place, and you can let us know when strangers show up if you can."

"I can do that." They shook hands and before he left him, Joe stood in the doorway just looking at him. "She has a son. He'd be about your age, Lance. I don't have any idea how old she is, but I have a feeling that the two of them lived in that house at one time or another as part of the family. Not that I care, mind you, but I just wanted to give you a heads up about what you might hear or see coming from up there."

"Thanks." He thought about a great many things at that moment, but he didn't have any idea how to talk about them. "Joe, do you think she might be any trouble?"

"No. I don't know why, but I don't think so. She's hard, I think, is the way that I'd put it, but not totally unredeemable." Joe laughed. "Lance, I surely do hope that she's one of your other brothers' mate. It sure would take a load off my shoulders knowing that she has a pride there for her."

It was pretty much the same thing that he'd been thinking when he'd heard about her. But now, now that he knew more about her, he figured that she wasn't going to be related to them at all. Not that he would turn her away if she needed it, but Lance thought that she'd be better off taking care of herself than having an overly possessive lion hanging around her. And pissing her off.