Lord of Rain (The Dragon Demigods #5) - Charlene Hartnady Page 0,114
on rent. Of course, she’s offering to pay me back every cent. I fully intend to make her pay it all back; I have enough money, so she’ll pay me in other ways. I don’t plan on telling her that, she’ll get mad.
“Is that Mrs. Elliot?” Ash asks as she peers across at a group of people painting just ahead of us. “I see quite a few of our old clients…” Her eyes are wide. “I can’t believe it. This is great. They came back.”
I squeeze her tight for a moment. When I let her go, she gives another gasp. “Oh, and there’s Simon and his family.” She waves at a tall, lanky guy. He waves back. I see his four kids with paintbrushes in their hands. The youngest is very small, two or three years old. A lady holds his hand. They look happy. I want kids with Ashley. I never wanted them before. Now that I’ve met the right person…I find I can’t wait. I asked Ash to marry me a couple of days ago, but she turned me down flat. I’m going to have to work for it, which I love. Hopefully she doesn’t make me work too hard.
Emily appears at my side. “You two need to get to work,” she whisper-yells at Ash and me. Then she hands us rollers and paint trays. “Get busy. The paparazzi aren’t going to wait to get action shots.”
I laugh, because it’s funny how things have changed. There was a time I hated the press; lately, we’ve been calling them. We start painting because if I don’t, Emily will kick our asses. I stay just long enough for the photographers to get some shots of us, then I turn to Ash, “I’ll be back in a few.” I wink at her. “I’m going to say ‘Hi’ to the guys.”
“I’ll join you in a minute,” my girl says. “I’m just catching up with your mom.”
That’s another thing I love. My mom and my best lady get along so well. I kiss Ash, and the cameras click like mad behind us.
“Glad you could finally join us,” Tri says when I reach the guys.
I chuckle. “I have my duties.”
“You want to get yourself tied down.” Tri laughs. I notice how Candice’s eyes cloud. I say hello to her, and she smiles and waves.
“You give us huge shit about being on time, and you’re late,” Night says, brows raised.
“Something came up.”
He chokes out a laugh. “I’m sure.” We paint and talk for a while. Ash joins us. We joke and laugh. The photographers eventually leave. I notice that Stephan has disappeared. I see him painting inside…all alone. I’m sure he’s just worried about someone accidentally touching him. His life can be a bit of a nightmare. Our powers can also be a curse.
I see that Ash is with Candice. I’ve organized a food truck to arrive in the next fifteen minutes. I decide to go and check on Stephan before they get here.
“Hey,” I say. “Wow!” I add when I see how much of the inside he’s already painted. “That’s impressive.”
He keeps on painting. Going at it, hell for leather.
“Is everything okay?”
He turns to me. I can see from his eyes that everything most definitely is not okay. “You know that incident that happened last weekend?”
I nod. Long story short. Rage, Stephan and Jarrod had a run-in with some non-humans. We’re not sure what they were exactly. We don’t know where they are now. We know nothing!
“One of them touched me…a woman.”
I nod. “I take it you saw something.” I lift my brows. “Something bad,” I add when he doesn’t say anything.
He shakes his head. “I got nothing from her.”
That’s mostly the case with non-humans. Something has to be really bad for Stephanus to see a non-human’s future. “What then?”
“She did…see something.”
I frown. That means. That… Wait what?
“She saw something from my future, and it wasn’t good.” I notice for the first time how pale he is. His hand is shaking a little. I watch his Adam’s apple work. “It wasn’t good at all!”
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About the Author
Charlene Hartnady is a USA Today Bestselling author. She loves to write about all things paranormal, including vampires, elves and shifters of all kinds. She lives on a couple of acres in the country with her husband and three sons. They have an array of pets including horses and a gecko named Pickle.
She is lucky enough to be able to write full time,