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“I’m to meet your grandmother. She called to ask me to help her.” He backed up and allowed him entrance, but he couldn’t enter without the grandmother allowing him to. He was part vampire, and that was one of the things that he got from his dad.

“You’re a vampire.” She’d not asked, but he told her that he was part of one, and the other half of him was a shifter. “I didn’t know that. Are we gonna be safe with you around?”

“As safe as I can make you, my lady.” She nodded and invited him in, and he felt the warmth of the house and the love there immediately. “This house is full of love and good vibes. There is a little bit of violence by the door, but nothing much that I can tell.”

“That’ll be because of Daniel. He likes to come over and make his point by beating on my door and yelling things at us.

We don’t much care for it, but I don’t let him in either.

My daughter was part wolf from her daddy’s side of the family.

My daughter and him passed away a few years ago, about ten, I guess now, and I’ve been keeping an eye on the family since.

” She eyed him. “You’re not nearly as old-looking as I thought you’d be either. Must be the vampire in you.”

“Some of it, yes.” He was invited to have some tea and cookies with young Caleb. “I’d enjoy that a great deal.”

After tossing the little boy’s hair around, he not only knew where the daughter was but that she was indeed hiding from her husband.

She, even after all these years, carried some of the wounds that he’d given her just before she’d run away.

This was a little more of the magic that he got from his parents in that he could touch an object that was well-loved by someone and find them without any trouble.

But his debate now was to figure out how much he should tell the woman about the girl.

He decided to read her mind to figure out what kind of scam this might be or if she was telling the truth about trying to find her.

He found her mind to be clear of anything but the idea of finding her granddaughter because she was dying and couldn’t take care of the little boy much longer.

It was sad, really. She’d given most of her life to taking care of her family, and when she’s needed the most, she couldn’t do it.

All Clara wanted was for her babies to be safe, and they wouldn’t be with Daniel around.

“I have this ability that I don’t tell many people about and that I can find people when they’re missing.

I know not only is she alive but where she is too.

You’re right, she’s not far away.” Clara sat down hard in the chair across from him.

“Don’t faint on me. I know that she’s at the neighbor’s and has been all this time.

She figured that Daniel would think she’d left for good at some long-distance place.

She was using the card so you’d know that she was still alive and well. ”

“My poor baby. I don’t know what to do about this sort of information.

Should I contact her or just let her be?

” He said he didn’t know, but she was all right and missing the two of them a great deal.

“I guess she might well have been keeping tabs on us…Mr. Grander, that’s who she’s staying with, always takes pictures of my grandson.

He said that he takes them to show his wife at the cemetery.

I never thought a thing about it. What a good friend he’s been, and I didn’t know it. ”

After a little bit, he reached out to Mr. Grander, finding out that he was a wolf, too.

He didn’t know if the connection would be one he could get, but he did try.

He couldn’t believe it when he not only spoke to the older man, but he was coming over with Rachel right then.

With Daniel in jail right now, they could have a nice visit without him ever knowing.

Taking full advantage of his vampire blood, he made it so there were shadows all around the young woman when she got out of the car and into the house.

“I don’t know if he has the neighbors in his pocket, and I figured this was the safest way to get her in and out.

” That got him a hug from both women. “Thank you so much. I’m going to go to the police station and try to figure out how long Daniel is going to be in jail for and see what he’s done to get himself there. ”

He left, and the neighbor on the left was out on her porch watering her plants, but she seemed to be keeping a keen eye on the house, too. When he said hello to her, she asked him what he was doing at the house, and he told her that he and Clara had been friends a long time ago.

“She ain’t got no friends. Nobody visits her either.

” He said that she was wrong and he was proof that they were indeed friends.

“No, you’re sneaking around that woman. Helping her find her long-lost granddaughter.

I see how you are. You should be helping that husband of hers find her.

She’s got a kid to raise with him, and they’re not together. ”

“You seem to know a lot about her and her granddaughter. Did it ever occur to you that you could have been helping her around the house some? That she could have used your help with that little boy? Perhaps she’s finally asking for help from Mr. Grander with her yard.

It sure could use a good mowing around it.

” She huffed at him and went into her house.

But that didn’t stop her from sneaking peeks out of her curtain. “Old bitty.”

Making his way to the jail, he did reach out to Mr. Grander and told him about the neighbor.

He said he’d go out and mow the lawn now so she’d not have anything to report.

Didn’t cost him a dime, he told him to mow and to do a little weeding.

And he was thinking about getting with the pack to have them do some things around the house, too.

Melbourne thought when he got back to the house that there would be others around making repairs to the front porch swing as well, and the weeds would be gone from her pretty posies.

Daniel was in jail for knocking over a mailbox.

A serious crime in and of itself, but he had also peed on the mail that had been scattered around when he’d knocked it down.

Those were serious crimes, and they were waiting for the judge to come through town and have his sentencing.

Melbourne reached for his dad and told him what was going on.

Dad, he knew, had friends in high places, and it might just work out for the little town and Clara, too.

“I’ll take care of that for you. Clara Winter was a good friend to your aunt Rain, too.

I’ll have to tell her what’s going on and see if she wants to get in on taking care of her.

” Dad laughed after a few minutes or so.

“His court date is for next week, and that neighbor has been bringing him in dinners since he’s been arrested.

She’s his mother. Rain is going to come to town and see to her needing help.

She hadn’t realized that her home needed some repairs either. ”

He told him how the pack was going to be taking care of it since the daughter and the little boy were part wolves.

Dad told him that they should have been taking care of her all along since she was raising that little boy, but he didn’t go into much with that.

Melbourne was sore as he was standing there that his dad would pull enough strings that Clara would have meals brought to her and little Caleb as well as help with her bills.

Wolves were a good lot, and they helped their own.

He could only think that they didn’t know what was going on with Clara and her great-grandson, or they would have been doing it all along.

He didn’t know what he expected when he saw Daniel Crow.

He envisioned a tall man with muscles from working out and a nice trimmed haircut.

He couldn’t have been more the opposite.

Daniel was short, fat, and his hair was in dreadlocks that looked as if they’d grown out a great deal, like past his big butt, and he wasn’t taking care of them.

In all, he was a mess, and there was an odor about him that made Melbourne sort of sick to his belly.

Like he’d not bathed in the weeks since he’d been in jail. He asked one of the officers about him.

“Won’t bathe at all. We’ve threatened to bring in a hose to hose him down, but since the Captain won’t allow us to do that, something about it being against his rights or some horse poop, we can’t even go back to take him his trays without feeling like we’re going to toss our cookies.

Man, but he smells.” He asked about what he was in for.

“Damage to federal property, not to mention the mail that was in it. He’s going to prison for that.

There will be fines, too, that he’ll have on top of jail time.

Hopefully, it’s not around here. I don’t know if I could take a few more months of the way he smells or not. ”

“Did you ever have an occasion to look into the disappearance of Rachel Crow? Her grandmother asked me to help her look for her.” He said that he’d not, but then he’d only been in the station for the last few weeks.

He’d been transferred into the station house from another state.

“She’s been missing for about five years.

I think her grandmother said she comes in here a few days a month. ”

“You mean crazy, Clara? Yes, I’ve heard about her.

The boys tried to tell her that she was gone, that Daniel must have killed her.

Then he buried her in some shallow grave someplace.

Without a body, we got no case against him.

” Melbourne said that wasn’t true, not in the state of Ohio.

They didn’t need a body to have him arrested.

“I didn’t know that. I’m going to have to look into that, of course, now. ”