The Last Keeper (27 page)

Helen called out her goodbyes soon after breakfast, and left to join one bus tour or another for the day. She’d taken to her day trips, maintaining that it was a good way for her to get out and make new friends.
 

I stayed in the back garden until it was time for Lizzy to leave. Moving into the hall, I watched as she raced down the stairs, running late as always. It was strange seeing her dressed in my leather jacket. Fortunately, I’d remembered to take all of the essentials out of it. It would do her no good to turn up on her first day of university with pockets filled with cash and passports in various names.
 

“You know, for someone with such wonderful precognitive abilities, I would’ve thought you would be able to get yourself ready on time.” She was double checking her bag, flustered slightly.
 

“Sure I can’t persuade you to join me?” That was another question she asked on a regular basis. Did I want to join her at university? The answer? Absolutely not. There wasn’t a point in gaining a higher education when I was more than capable of teaching any of the classes.
 

“No, I do not want to come to university with you. This is your first time through, you might learn something.”
 

“Well, I best be off then. Not a good idea to be late on my first day.” She grabbed the keys off the hook and raced out to the garage.
 

“Hey! Hold up!” I called, following her.
 

She barely turned around. “I know, I’ll be careful.”

“Come here.”

She walked slowly, head down, shuffling her feet. When she was standing right in front of me, I handed her a small parcel. She looked up, startled.
 

“What’s that?”

“An early birthday present.”

She frowned. “My birthday was five months ago.”

“A late one, then.”

She ripped the wrapping off eagerly, then frowned once more at the little red book in her hands. When she turned it over, her brow furrowed in confusion.
 

“But I already have a driver’s license.”
 

I nodded to the book. “Open it.”
 

Inside was a full entitlement for any car or bike. The license she had was fine for driving in America, but the rules here were different, including the recently instated helmet laws.
 

She threw her arms around me, squealing. “Thank you!”

“One endorsement for
anything,
and I’ll take it off you,” I warned. “And don’t forget, you need your crash helmet here.”
 

She nodded frantically, kissed me on the cheek, and raced out the door again.
 

“Be careful!” I shouted over the roar of the engine.
 

If I was lucky her car would arrive early. It wasn’t her ability to control the bike that I was worried about—she’d learned a lot since the last time—it was the other people on the road. One mistake; that was all it would take.
 

It was fine for me to race around the world on a bike with nothing but a pair of jeans and a leather jacket. If anything happened to me, I could survive it. I also had sharper reflexes than she did. If anything happened to Lizzy, Jayne would be devastated.
 

“What are you planning on doing with your time?” Jayne asked when I returned from the garage.
 

“I was going to see if I could find some of the Great Cats.”

“Do you know where they are?”
 

“Roughly.”

“I could help,” she offered.

“I’d like that.”

There was a lot of work to be done. The Cats were the most reclusive of all the Weres, preferring to stay away from everyone else as much as was possible. It would be hard to find them, and harder to convince them to help me. As reclusive as they were, they were even more suspicious.
 

Rumour had it they’d gone into hiding during the witch trials and that most of them were related to various witches. I couldn’t prove or disprove that one, but it was highly unlikely. With the recent rise in popularity of the occult, the many people claiming to be witches were nothing more than dabbling teens.
 

The true witches, those immortal weavers of magic, were underground. They were even further hidden in the shadows than the vampires were. The chances that one of them had mated with a Were was slim.
 

“Where do we need to start searching?” Jayne asked, spreading out a map of the area.

“Last I heard, they were somewhere in the Pennines. Rumour was they’d moved somewhere near here. After the Wolves were attacked, they decided to live closer to humans. For safety, of all things.” I pointed out our search radius on the map.

“I can see their logic. If someone came to the middle of nowhere in the dead of night, you wouldn’t notice the damage until morning. Living nearer to civilisation would cut down their ability to run free, but it would mean someone would notice them going missing.” It was sound reasoning, but we couldn’t exactly go around asking if anyone had seen any giant black leopards.
 

“I don’t suppose we’d be lucky enough to have any news reports on sightings?” I sighed, staring blankly at what looked like a hopeless task.

“I thought you would never ask.” Jayne smiled, rising from her seat and riffling through a bunch of papers on the desk. “It just so happens I kept an eye on local news for the past couple of years, and kept a few things you might be interested in.”

“You’re a star.”

“Aunt Sere, you know I’d do anything to see a smile on your face. Even if it’s a work-related one,” she told me with absolute sincerity.

“I’m trying, Jayne. I really am,” I whispered, all traces of my mood gone.

“I know. Now, how about we split these and go through half each?”

“I’ll take the bigger half.”

We split the pile of papers. Most of them were nothing more than a brief glimpse, or the history of big cat sightings in Britain. Then I found the one that brought almost a true smile to my face . . .

Teenagers today are being urged to avoid rural outings, especially overnight. Local specialists confirmed recent sightings of big cats in the area earlier this week. The sightings have become more recent over the past decade, and have gone so far as claims of actual attacks by the animals. Experts insist the animals will not attack a fully grown adult unless there has been extreme provocation but are urging teenagers hiking in the area to use caution. The animals are reported to have been around twice the size of any other big cat spotted in the country. Though there has been no official comment, it has been stated the breed appears to be that of the black leopard.

“Here we go,” I said, comparing the area to the map. “Otterburn, Otterburn. Ah! Here we go.
Nice.
”

“What?”

“Looks like they’re living on the outskirts of the National Park, right outside an army base.” I beamed. “What a perfect place for them to have picked. All that space for running, and all that protection just around the corner.”

“When are we going?” Jayne asked.

“I think I need to do this on my own. It’s going to be hard enough to convince them that I am who I say. Most of the world believes us to be dead. As much as I’d rather keep it that way, I need to talk to them, and they can be hostile.”
 

“I understand.”

We spent the rest of the day looking at various other places they’d been spotted, but none of them were as good as the National Park. In the end I decided I’d go over on the weekend. It would take a whole day to find them, and even if I found them straight away, I needed time to talk to them. That was going to be the hard part.

“Lizzy should be back soon,” Jayne whispered when the clock struck five.

“She’s not going anywhere.” I tried to give her a smile, but it didn’t work very well. “As much as she says she wants to travel the world, she doesn’t want to leave you.”

“You can’t know that.” She started dabbing at the tears that were threatening to overspill. “Look at me. I’m turning into my mother, aren’t I?”

“Just a bit, though I don’t remember Helen being this emotional.” That got a smile out of her.

The day Jayne left home for the first time I had to almost drag her mother back into the house. Helen was such a wreck that day, and for days afterwards. Jayne had seen the whole thing and almost decided to stay at home. Anytime since then when Jayne got overemotional over one thing or another regarding Lizzy, I reminded her about her mother.
 

“She was hysterical,” she admitted.

“And you’re nothing like that. It’s normal, getting emotional when your little one leaves home. She’s growing up, that’s all,” I reassured her. “I saw the same thing with you and Helen and her mother. Even I used to get emotional about it.”

“And you will again.”

“Can we not talk about that?” I asked, not wanting to ruin the good mood I was in.

“Only if you admit my daughter is right.”
 

“How about we leave it as: we’ll see what happens?” I asked, hoping that was the end.

“I’ll drop it,
for now.
”

She only did so because the roar of the bike announced Lizzy’s return from her first day at university.

“First words she says?” I looked at Jayne, hoping for a distraction.

“I can’t wait to tell you everything?”
 

The door swung open, clattering against the wall. Lizzy laughed as she shut it, then bounded into the room. There was a huge grin on her face and her eyes were wide with excitement.
 

“I cannot wait to tell you absolutely everything, and we’re going out this weekend.”
 

Jayne and I burst into laughter, though mine was somewhat forced.
 

“Can I talk now?” she asked, staring at us as we calmed ourselves.

“Please, tell us everything.” I gestured grandly to the nearest chair.
 

“You could at least pretend to be interested.”
 

“Damn, and here I thought I was.”

“Anyway,” she began, ignoring my attempt at sarcasm. “Classes were, well, they were all right. That’s not important, though. I made the best friends. We arranged to go out this weekend.”

“You are
not
going to any discos,” Jayne interrupted.
 

“Yes, Mum, I’m going to hop into your old miniskirt and go out with all the boys I met.” She rolled her eyes. “No, we’re not. We’re going hiking!”

That was a good thing. She wasn’t the kind to spend her evenings dancing and getting into trouble. Hiking was the sort of thing she’d enjoy. Though . . .

“Hold up, where are you going?”
 

“
We.
We’re going up to the National Park.”

“No. Not this weekend.” I had things I needed to do.
 

“Aunt Sere, I already know about the Cat sightings. The boys might know a couple of them. That’s why I told them I was bringing you.”
 

Jayne scowled at the mention of
boys.

Lizzy smiled brightly, arms crossed over her chest, and I knew I’d lost whatever argument I planned on using.

“How well?” I asked.

“James’s second cousin is called Martin. They’re related via their grandmother, and apparently he lives with some people who might be the Cats you’re looking for,” she proclaimed.

That was too good of an opportunity to miss out on. If they were the Cats, then having someone who knew them would be an advantage when it came to talking to them. And any advantage would be helpful.

“Besides,” she continued, “I’m pretty sure James is a witch.”

“Regardless, if I agree, and that is
if,
then I want you to promise me you’ll stick by my side unless I tell you otherwise. I don’t want you going anywhere near them alone.” Neither Jayne nor Helen would forgive me if Lizzy got hurt. “We don’t know if they can change around you, and I will not take chances with your life.”

“Absolutely. I’ll stay with you, unless you say otherwise,” she vowed.
 

“Then it looks like I’ll be hiking this weekend. Now, what about the rest of your day?”

Having Lizzy with me when I went anywhere near the Cats wasn’t something I wanted. They were known to be hostile when it came to people outside of their families. All Weres were. The only outsiders they admitted were those to whom any of the Cats were mated. It was the same for the other Weres, too.

After our conversation, I spent the entire night searching through the oldest of our books. It was a worthy task, no matter how laborious it would be. What would happen after I was gone was never discussed again between Helen and me. She refused to hear any more on the subject after making me promise not to start on the house until it was time. Then after we lost William it was never discussed again until she found me working on the plans for the house. No one dared to go near that subject for fear I’d either break down or snap.
 

Why was it all my memories of that time were bombarding me now? Just when I’d rather forget them. Just when I wanted this pain to be over with.