Holiday note

Between getting sick and nearly everything in the house from oven to water pipes staging a rebellion over the last month to the general holiday craziness, my schedule got completely off track.With luck once the champagne of new year's is poured things will get back to normal.  Or as normal as they get.  In the meantime, My book Miss Chrissy's Cooking School for Young Ladies is now on sale for $.99. The price change has already gone into effect on smashwords and should be ready on amazon by this time tomorrow. And for those of you who have asked about the Channel Rider's series, the next book should be out late February, early March.  I will definitely let you know when it is available. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season.  v

Chapter 12 and free book announcement

Hi everyone. Chapter 12 is posted below and for those of you interested, my fantasy novel Rise of the Old Blood will be available for FREE from Amazon from December 10th through December 14th. Download and enjoy! I'll post a link as the date gets closer. v

Chapter 12

Jamie donned a bright yellow rain slicker over his clothes and added a pair of rubber boots over his shoes.  Thus armed he stepped out of the front door and raced to his trusty Toyota. 

“There is definitely snow mixed into that,” He decided as he turned on the car and let the engine run. The day was gray all around.  The snow and sleet obscured most of the forest and left what he could see in deep shadow.  The sky was a uniform sheet of grey with no sign that there was a sun hidden anywhere above. Jamie shivered in the cold metal box his car had become.  Finally when he was certain the engine had warmed up enough, he turned on the defrost to clear away the windshield. Clearing the windows didn’t make the day look any better.

“I hope Michael doesn’t try wandering around in this,” Jamie thought as he shifted the car into drive and headed towards the gate. Even with the crossroads officially closed, Albe’s property stretched for miles in nearly every direction.  It would be easy for Michael to become disoriented and lost. With the temperatures dropping, he didn’t think wandering alone and lost would be a good idea. When he reached the gate, Jamie hopped out of the car, unlocked it and swung it wide enough to let his car through.  After driving through, he returned to close and lock it before continuing on his way.

To Jamie’s relief the bad weather eased up a bit as he drove towards Centerville. By the time he reached the town limits, the sleet and snow had stopped all together although the sky remained gray and threatening.  Jamie glanced at the clock and realized he had arrived far to early to justify showing up for lunch.

“I could always kill some time by taking a quick look at Oak Hill,” he thought. Thought turned into action and Jamie skirted the main part of town taking roads that would lead him to the Oak Hill neighborhood. As the day was gray and cold, he saw no one wandering around. “The kids are probably in school and the adults at work,” Jamie told himself as he passed the subdivision’s entry sign. 

At first the neighborhood looked as it had when he visited as a boy.  The houses were model perfect and looked as though they had been freshly rolled out of a factory or had been scaled up from a model train landscape. While Jamie had always found the subdivisions with strong homeowner association regulation a little eerie in their attempts at conformity, this was something different. Each house and yard in Oak Hill was exactly the same. The roof lines were exact.  All houses were white with blue trim and each yard had one large tree located ten feet to the right of the front door.

Remembering that Dave had lived next to a small well-kept park, Jamie slowly headed towards the area he remembered.  As he drove something kept niggling him in the back of his mind.  He couldn’t quite work it out.  When he saw the park he pulled to a stop by the side of the road.  With the exception of it being Winter instead of Spring, the park and what had once been Dave’s house, looked the dame as they had years ago.  Jamie looked at Dave’s house and then he looked at the house next to it.  They were identical, right down to the tree. Jamie blinked.

“The trees are identical,” he said slowly as he realized what had been bugging him.  He looked from one tree to the other. They were located in the same spot in each yard.  They were the same species and the same size.  Exactly the same size.  Jamie let his eyes take in the pattern of winter bare branches on one tree and then found the exact same pattern of branches on the other tree.  He turned to look at the trees on the other side of the street.  They were exactly the same.

“Nature doesn’t make exact copies,” Jamie said softly to himself. While he could chalk the identical houses up to a builder creating from a template and maintained by an overly enthusiastic Homeowner’s association, he could not accept the trees. Jamie turned back to what he thought of as Dave’s house. He focused on the house, studying it. The house blurred a little around the edges and he thought he saw the shape of an entirely different house for a brief second before he felt a sharp pain between his eyes. He gasped and shut his eyes.  The pain stopped and Jamie rubbed his temples.

“That’s the same pain as my birth certificate,” Jamie said to himself. “Although not as strong.”  When he had studied his birth certificate he had not glimpsed anything and the pain had been intense and long lasting.  Here he had managed to catch a glimpse of what was behind the shield and the pain was less intense. As he sat wondering if staring through the pain long enough to actually see what was on the other side was worth it, the door to the house he was studying opened and a dark haired man about his age stepped out.

As the man crossed the road and headed towards Jamie’s car, Jamie realized how strange he must look.  Here he was sitting in a parked car in a residential neighborhood staring at a house.  His brain tried to come up with a logical excuse for his presence that didn’t sound creepy or illegal.  His mind drew a blank.

The man stopped outside Jamie’s car and tapped on the window.  Jamie rolled it down and looked at the man about to question him.  To his surprise, he recognized him. “Dave?” Jamie said questioningly.  Dave lifted an eyebrow and studied Jamie’s face for a moment.  Dave shook his head and gave Jamie a half smile.

“Looks like I was right after all,” Dave said, causing Jamie to frown. “Why don’t you come on in before the neighbors get too nervous.” Jamie nodded and as Dave stepped back, he rolled up the window and turned off the engine.  He slipped out of the warmth of the car and into the icy air.

Jamie followed Dave back into the house. In the entry way, he slipped off his boots and slicker, hanging the slicker on the hook Dave indicated. Inside the house had been upgraded, altered from Dave’s parent’s taste to what Jamie assumed was Dave’s taste. It seemed very masculine and Jamie saw no evidence that suggested a woman’s presence. Dave led Jamie back to the kitchen and soon he found himself sitting at the kitchen table, his hands wrapped around a mug of coffee.

“What exactly were you right about?” Jamie finally asked when they were settled. 

Dave smiled. “You remember the last time you were here?”

“It was the last day you talked to me,” Jamie said with a nod.

Dave sighed.  “Yeah sorry about that but I was told I wasn’t allowed to play with you anymore. When you commented about the neighborhood and the houses all looking alike it sort of freaked everyone out.”

“It is hard not to notice,” Jamie commented.

“Most people don’t,” Dave said.  “They assume it was just built en masse.”

“How do you explain the trees?” Jamie asked.

“The trees?” Dave replied frowning.

“Yes. They are all the same, exactly the same. Nature doesn’t do that. I actually had nightmares about those trees for weeks,” Jamie confessed.

“The trees,” Dave repeated shaking his head.  “I’ll have to talk to the others about that.”

“That still doesn’t explain how you were right,” Jamie prompted.  He took a sip of the coffee.

“True,” Dave answered. “When my parents told me I couldn’t be friends with you anymore because you could see that something was different, I told them that you could see because you were like us. I tried telling them about the things I had seen around you, but it had been so long since anyone paid any attention that they just wanted it, and you, to go away. And now here you are. So I was right.”

“Were you?” Jamie asked, wondering what Dave had seen as a child, but not yet ready to ask.

Dave smiled.  “I felt you push on the wards,” he said.  “You almost broke through them actually.  Its been a while since they’ve been tested but to do that on your first try means that you not only grew up to be one of us, but you grew up to be quite powerful.” He smiled.  “I hope you won’t hold my actions at school against me.”

“You were a kid following your parent’s orders,” Jamie said, willing to let the past go as he was much more interested in the present.

“True. I have to ask, who did you get to teach you?  If you had trained with anyone here I would have found out and then I could have done my ‘Ha Ha I was right’ spiel a long time ago.”

“That is actually a long and very complicated story,” Jamie said with a smile.  He looked Dave over and decided to trust him a little. “Have you ever heard of the Keeper of the Crossroads?” he asked.

Dave nodded. “Of course, the old man who stands between the humans and the Fae. Everyone’s heard of him, but I can’t say as I’ve ever met him. He couldn’t have trained you though as he had no magic of his own. Well a little I suppose, but not the same sort as we have.”

Jamie smiled and reached into the neck of his shirt.  He tugged the long chain containing the symbol of the keeper out from inside his shirt. Dave’s eyes went wide as he recognized the symbol.  “Actually the old man was my great uncle and he died recently.”

Dave blinked in surprise. “And so you got a promotion.” He said finally.

“Something like that,” Jamie said tucking the medallion back into his shirt.

“But he couldn’t have trained you. Not enough to break through a ward. His magic wasn’t like that.” Dave said, sounding perplexed.

“He didn’t,” Jamie replied.  “He trained me to be Keeper but nothing else. It was recently suggested to me that I might want to look into Human magic.  I’ve scanned through a couple of books but nothing else.”

“Nothing else?” Dave said incredulously. “You mean completely untrained you nearly broke through my wards?” he asked. “Damn.” He sat back in his chair as though stunned.  Jamie could practically see the thoughts swirling through his brain and sat quietly drinking his coffee.  As Jamie’s brain had recently been teaming with formerly unusual thoughts he understood the need for a moment to sort through new information.

“Who suggested you look into magic?” Dave finally asked.

Jamie smiled.  “Honestly, I believe it was some sort of ghost.”

“The ghost of the former Keeper?” Dave asked, seemingly unfazed by ghostly interference.

“No oddly enough it was the ghost or spirit or whatever you want to call it, of one Reginald Huffington the fourth. He left a note on my to do list after I found his book on the shelves,” Jamie told him, leaving out the rest as he didn’t want to trust anyone with the entire truth.  He felt odd enough about confessing to the ghost sighting.

Dave grinned.  “Added a note on your to do list.”  The line seemed to crack him up and Dave started laughing. Jamie smiled seeing the humor in the situation.

“Only you Jamie,” Dave finally said as his laugh died to a chuckle. “Hank Adams tripped over his own feet and fell flat on the ground breaking his nose before he could even threaten to take away the new kid’s lunch money. Sally Jensen was pushed down and cried over tearing her new dress, but when you helped her brush off the dirt, the tear turned into just a crease the was easily brushed out. Now the spirit of one of the strongest mages ever born is leaving you post it notes recommending you get training.”

“I didn’t do anything to either Hank or Sally,” Jamie said.

“Oh I know it wasn’t on purpose,” Dave said with a wave. “That was always clear. You never seemed to realize that you were doing anything, that’s why I thought you belonged with us.” Dave shook his head.  “So it was recommended that you learn magic and you ended up here?” He said returning to the main topic.

Jamie decided to ignore the details and push forward. “It occurred to me that if I was going to study magic I might as well do it right.”

Dave nodded.  “As opposed to going at it on your own with whatever books you happen to come across. Smart. Less danger that way.”

“Seemed so.  Unfortunately I can’t spend that much time away from the crossroads,” Jamie told him.

“Which means you’d need someone out there to teach you.”

“I would,” Jamie confirmed.  He wondered how Del would take to his learning magic. He had the feeling that if he contained the mess to the already stained rooms in the east wing, there would be little trouble. And the brownie did seemed quite fond of company.

“Can you give me a couple of days to think it through?” Dave asked. “Most here aren’t willing to go too far from home.”

“I understand.  I have no problem waiting,” Jamie replied. If you’d like to call or come by the house when you have something, that would be fine.”

“I’ve never seen the House of the Keeper,” Dave said. “It’d be interesting to visit.  I’ve heard the wards on it make ours here look like tissue paper.”

“You are welcome to come out.  You’ll have to call from the gate though so that I can come and unlock it.”

Dave nodded.  “Can’t have people wondering in on their own,” he agreed.

“Can you find the house?” Jamie asked as he set his empty mug down and stood up.

“I can,” Dave confirmed as he stood and walked Jamie back to the door.  Jamie slipped on his boots and slicker. Dave handed him a pen and paper and Jamie quickly jotted down his cell phone number.

“I’ll see you in a few days then,” Jamie told him.  He left Dave and jogged back to his car.  The sky had gotten darker and snowfall looked eminent but Jamie smiled even as he shivered. He turned on his car and circled the block, leaving the neighborhood and heading over to Jim’s office.

“Finally looks like I’m making some sort of progress,” he said to himself as he began to hum a happy little tune under his breath.