Nadine Book 7

12. Vault

We cuddle and then go to the front yard. I explain the dragon and flying a bit. He picks right up on it.

I connect Marcus's feather.

"Hi angel. Give me a minute, we're at the 2nd property."

"What was the first 1?"

"Mining business. It was a salt mine."

"I own a salt mine?"

"I guess you do now."

"What the hell do I do with a salt mine?"

"Mine salt."

Johen lands in front of me and gives me a kiss. "What's going on?"

"I own a salt mine."

"The whole thing? Those are worth massive amounts of money. Humans need salt to live." He gives me another kiss.

"You are so lovey today."

"I can't help it. I love you."

"STILL HERE."

"Sorry Marcus."

"Angel, I am going to disconnect and talk to these people. Then I'll reconnect."

"Ok."

The feather goes dark and Johen kisses me again. "How do I check the bond?"

"Relax and concentrate on your heart. Let your mind focus on it."

"I can feel it. I can almost see it."

"It's amazing like that. But if it breaks, it hurts like hell. Even without us being bonded. It hurts."

"I don't want to ever hurt it." I snuggle him. "The feather. I need that in you. I hate not being able to talk to you whenever I want."

"You have to ask the dragon about that. I don't know anything."

He turns to a dragon and pulls a feather out. He turns back to vampire form. "Where should I put it?"

"Wherever you put it on me, it shows up on the same spot on your body. And you generally want it someplace we can see. That's why they're in my arms."

"I want it somewhere that will look neat." He ends up putting the tip of it between my thumb and finger. Then curves it over the back of my hand. "It's like a feather tattoo."

"It issssssssssssssss. I like it there. It will be hard to miss when it's flashing too." I send love through it.

He smiles and pulls me against him.

We hug until Marcus's feather flashes.

"You own a winery."

"I make wine?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's amazingly good news."

After they stop laughing, I give them the address, and we fly towards it. I land with Johen outside of town. He turns into a vampire before he lands. So, he lands on his ass and jumps up quickly.

"Remember, land all the way."

"Yea, I'm not real good at it."

"You'll get there. You're actually doing better than most people. You're already flying around."

He smiles and kisses my head. Marcus and Kane come up to us.

"I think it's over there. If Tre decoded it right, it's a bank."

"You own a bank?"

"No property papers for this. I'll be right back."

Kane shakes his head. "You're not going alone."

"Fine, come on."

A lady smiles. "Key please."

I hand her the key.

"Very good. This way." She hands it back.

We follow her through a door and down a bunch of steps. There are doors everywhere. I guess she knows where she's going.

We walk down a long dark hallway that has so many doors in it. The farther we go, the closer Marcus and Kane get to me. Johen is doing fine. "It's vaults. Relax you 2."

By the time she stops in front of a door, the boys are smothering me.

She lifts her eyebrows at them. "This is your vault."

"Thank you."

"I assume you will remember the way out?"

Marcus nods. "Yea, that's no problem."

I put the key in the door and the boys push me back. "You know, I really remember why I don't like the 2 of you doing security on me."

Marcus nods. "Go stand over there while we open the door."

I lift an eyebrow and move away. Then they open the door.

This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. It's set up like an office.

There's a desk facing the door. There are paintings on the walls. There's a woman and kids in most of them. "He had kids?"

"Not that we found out about."

There's a stack of gold bars in the corner. Maybe 60 or so. Above that are 2 paintings of me. "How did he get those?"

"Must have stolen them from the castle. Our painter did them."

"Toys. This is so weird."

Kane picks up a painting. "This is him and his brothers when they were little. Victor was a baby."

The painting has their names and ages on it. "That would make..."

Kane shakes his head. "I guess it's the boy's mom in these paintings. I have never seen her painting anywhere else." He opens a box on a shelf. "Letters from her."

Marcus searches the desk. "The man kept records of everything. Tre is going to love this. Ledgers for businesses. Where the gold came from. How much he has."

I look at the paintings of me. Why would he have those? They are me. I look happy but they are nothing special. Then I see a box on the floor. I kneel down beside it. The first thing I see is a cloth napkin from Tye's island. Then a couple of seashells. There are some gambling tickets from our arena. A feather from my pirate hat. I know that color anywhere. A paintbrush. A unicorn feather. An empty container of my oil. A note from China. Maybe a receipt, I can't tell on that one. A piece of tree bark. A piece of the fireplace he pulled down to find his crown. I remember those weird stones. A piece of wood that says board by board. I smile and tears fall out of my eyes. I remember that. A spoon.

Marcus kneels down beside me and puts his hand on my shoulder. "Let's move everything here to Dipak's office. He even kept records of the castles they attacked. And there is a full log of how they got into our castle. And the plans for that. Who are the paintings of?"

"Him mom, him, Nadine, and his brothers. As far as I can tell, there's no one else here. There are some letters from his mom. Random old toys."

"It'll all have to be gone through. It's going to be a long night. Connect the feathers please, angel."

"DON'T FORGET MINE."

"You're right there. You can hold her hand."

Kane laughs and Johen's going to pout.

I connect them all. He smiles and accepts it. "Let him enjoy that."

"Hi sweetheart."

"Hi Love. I got all of you. Marcus wants to talk to you."

"I GOT A FEATHER IN HER. I GOT MY OWN."

When they stop laughing, Tre says, "That has to be a record for getting the dragon."

Dipak says. "Yea, but he was ready a long time ago. What did everyone find out so far?"

"She owns a bunch of random businesses on our stack. And they seem to be legitimate businesses. Nothing weird going on."

"Same here. It's different. We did find 1 empty castle though. No one's in it, but she owns it now. The rest were businesses."

Marcus smiles. "We found 2 businesses. Then we followed the address. We are standing in a vault. All the paperwork is here, for all the businesses. About 60 bars of gold. A desk. Paintings everywhere. From what we can tell, they are his real mom and brothers when they were younger. There are also some letters from his mom. Then he has a couple paintings of Nadine that he appears to have stolen from the castle and a weird box of s**t he was keeping to remember her by. We're moving it to Dipak's office. It is going to be a long night. Hell, even the plans are in here for taking our castle. He kept records of everything."

Johen opens a drawer. "He keeps more files than you Tre."

"Oh fuck." I can tell Dipak is rubbing his eyes.

"Why take paintings of me?"

Johen smiles. "He knew he wasn't going to stay. But he still wanted to remember you forever."

"This is creepy. He planned to kill me then build a shrine, so he would never forget me."

Kane nods. "Of tree parts and spoons."

I look at a painting of who we guess is his mom. She's got the ring on. It's a gold band with a purple heart shaped stone. I stare at it until Marcus puts his arm around me. "What do you see?"

"That ring. I think I have it."

"Did he give it to you?"

"It was in his wall safe. Then I found a card. It was addressed to me. I guess no. He didn't give it to me."

Marcus nods. "Anyone close to Dipak's office? I want to send this shit."

"Not yet."

"Mary's there. She said Frode has them there."

"Frode still has them in the office. We are going to send this stuff."

"Alright."

The boys send the desk and everything through. Then they stare at the empty walls.

"I think you got it, boys. You didn't even leave any dirt."

Kane shakes his head. "You can never be too careful."

I roll my eyes. "Anyone home yet?"

"Yea, we're back."

"Ask a brain to lock onto my location and bring us up in the red."

I hear him talking to a brain. Then he says, "We see the 4 of you in the room."

"Can they see anything else in it? These boys will not leave."

"Yea, there's a door, sweetheart."

"Where?"

"Put your hand on the wall, Johen. Good. Now move to your right. You've got your hand on the center of it. It doesn't have a knob."

"How am I supposed to get through a door without a knob?"

Kane rips it off the wall.

"Never mind. We got it. About 100 bars of gold. And a lot more files."

Marcus rubs his eyes. "It's old files. It's the plans for every castle they hit. Also, logs of what actually happened."

Tre says. "They'll have to be gone through."

Half an hour later, the room is clear.

"See anything else, Dipak?"

"No, and we've gone over every inch, sweetheart."

Marcus nods. "Alright, we're walking out of here. We'll keep the key."

We get to Dipak's office. Everyone is reading everything everywhere and the place is a total disaster.

"I am really glad I gave you a big office, Dipak."

He's sitting at his desk with a whole file cabinet beside him.

Thora and Coral are organizing paintings by age on 1 wall.

Tre and Frode are both elbow deep in business papers.

Elek and Tye are reading journals of some kind.

Daddy and Bud are organizing and counting gold in the middle of the floor.

Omar has his own file cabinet at the conference table.

Mary is reading the letters from his mom on the floor in a corner.

Gunner is taking the empty desk apart.

"Can you deal with all the winery stuff? He has good record keeping."

Marcus picks a seat. "Yea send the winery stuff here."

Kane looks around. "Who has the plans they made for taking this castle?"

Dipak looks at him. "I do. Over here."

I scratch my head. "This might be a bad time. But I would like to go over and clear his office at the other castle. If anyone needs a break."

Thora runs over. "WE'RE DONE. WE'LL GO."

Tye throws a book. "Yea, I need a break."

Dipak nods. "Elek, Tye, Gunner, and Johen. You can take the girls over." Then he stands up. "Last time we sent you with Elek, you threw Tye in a fishpond and tried to stab him. You need to listen to Elek and Gunner. Do what they say."

"I'M OLDER THAN ELEK."

"CORAL. She threw him a piss-filled fishpond. You need to listen."

"WELL HE STOLE THE GONG HAMMER THING."

"Woman. Do not test me. You listen and if I have to go over there and separate you. I will be pissed, and you will all be in trouble."

I give Tye a dirty look.

Gunner looks at Elek. "We're feeding them before we go."