“I was, but I have no idea if my parents are dead or not. For all I know they could be living it up in some exotic island with ten other children.” She turned to look at him and noticed he was staring off again. “Tell her that I don’t care what they’re doing. I was being a smart ass.”
Mitch laughed. “She said that you’re very good at it too. Also, they’re both dead. She can check on those kinds of things. I don’t know how she does it, but she can. I’m sorry.”
“I guess that means they won’t be coming back for me.” It hurt her that they were dead. All her life she had expected them to come for her, more so as a child and less and less the older she got. Now, in one single conversation, she’d lost them both.
“Steele is a good man. Confused but a good man.” Kari moved to another headstone without answering. She’d heard it before, several times now. First from Ray and then Izzy, and just this morning from Izzy’s husband, Jake. “He’s had a very hard life.”
She snorted. Who the hell hadn’t? As she read the headstone, she realized that this was the grave of his sister. She’d only been seventeen when she’d been killed. It wasn’t until that moment that she knew how young the poor girl had been.
“The people that she tried to help, the Colmans, they said that she’d been talking to their little girl before she took that final step. They had seen the entire thing and said that it would never be erased from their memory.” Mitch said something to her, but she was reading what someone, more than likely Steele, had put at the bottom of her marker.
“Loving sister and best friend. My heart will never be the same without my other half.” Kari turned to Mitch. “They were twins?”
“Yes. Few know that. And those that do…well, their mother is in no shape to have anyone believe her. The woman went a little over the edge when she found out her husband had committed suicide.” She waited for him to continued, knowing that he would. “She loved her husband more than she ever did her children. Their grandmother, Connie, lived with them until her death. She said that they only brought their children out when there was company, and then only for a few minutes. It was as if they were ashamed to have them. And Steele wasn’t at all what they wanted. He was rebellious and strong willed. But he had nothing on his sister. Aster was…from all accounts, Aster was a force to be reckoned with.”
The last headstone she looked at was for a man by the name of William J. Pike. There was no birthday and no date of death to accompany his name, just a small rose that had been etched into the stone at some point. When she asked about him, Mitch said that he had no idea and Connie never wanted to talk about him.
“I suppose he was here when they arrived and simply let him join the family anyway.” Mitch laughed, and she moved to the opening at the other end of the little plot. “I’m going to take a walk. Do you know what time it is?”
He pulled out his cell phone and told her it was just after one. Nodding to him, she turned to go when he said her name. She was afraid that he was going to tell her not to go out alone, but all he asked her was if she had a phone.
“Things could happen to you out there alone. I know that you’re not human, but you could still be hurt.” She nodded, not able to talk around the lump in her throat. He was the first person to think of her welfare in a long time. “Will you take my phone in case you need it?”
“No, but I thank you. I wouldn’t know who to call that would care if I fell into a bottomless pit anyway.” She turned to leave then, and hurried her step. She was not going to have him feel sorry for her, and she felt stupid for saying that to him. As soon as the woods closed up around her, she pulled her clothes off and shifted. Her panther would make sure she was safe.
The run felt good. She was on her third travel around the property when she finally had to sit down. She was exhausted and closed her eyes for a few seconds.
The breaking twig had her opening her eyes but not moving. The deer standing there looked right at her but didn’t run. Kari watched as three more doe came close to where she was, as well as a little fawn. The buck, a big guy with a rack on his head that looked heavy, kept an eye on her but never warned the others away. They were beautiful.
When one of the females lifted her head, she knew that someone or something else had come to where she was. Not moving or making a sound when they all suddenly took off, she saw Steele come into view. He wasn’t happy, if his stomping was any indication.
The second time he shouted her name, she had a feeling that if she came out now he’d be even more pissed, so she stayed where she was. As he moved by her, taking off in the opposite direction, Kari heard his phone ring. It was loud in the deep woods.