A Shadow of Scarlet (Book #3)

She looked at Karen's face. Deciding. Love and friendship and a place to be safe. Or the cold loneliness of rejection. Her rejection, not theirs. Callie's fingers curled around to hold on. As her fingers wrapped around Karen's hand, Karen smoothly closed her fingers to return the clasp. Wolfe cupped Callie's hand over her heart with her own.

"Three."

The three voices spoke as one. Chasandra's lips silently syncing with theirs. Callie sat up as the world tilted once more before it steadied then locked in place. Her nausea disappeared. She found her center. She suddenly knew who she was again. Where she was. Who she was supposed to be. This was right for her. There was no question in her mind, this was where she belonged. This relationship. This place. Here. Now. YES!

"Trust always goes both ways." Karen's eyes captured Callie's.

"Always." Wolfe echoed with a gentle press of her hand over Callie's.

"You do not need words to trust. You will know." Chasandra stood up and stretched.

The actual oath ceremony was simple. Callie asked, and both Karen and Wolfe promised, that she would never be required to do anything she could not do with a free and clear conscience. That she, and she alone, would always choose when to act and when not to.

In return, they demanded that she promise to refuse any task or request which would violate her sense of right or wrong. That she swear to never refuse to protect the innocent from harm.

Wolfe repeated her earlier promise to protect and care for her. Reiterating that anything she had she would freely give to Callie if she asked for it. No matter the reason, she need only ask to receive whatever Wolfe had. Wolfe kissed Callie on the lips to seal that promise. As she'd said she would. Callie refused her offer to cut herself to prove it in blood.

Finally, Karen repeated her first promise to Callie.

"I swear by my Word and Seal that I will protect you from harm from within and without. To care for your welfare to the fullest extent of my power and authority. I swear to never abuse you, harm you, or unfaithfully or uncaringly cast you aside. I swear to do this regardless of the personal cost or pain I must bear to uphold this promise.

"In return, I ask only that you use your skills to keep me from harm. To protect what is mine. To keep safe those I love and cherish. To keep my secrets. To answer only to me and no other."

A slight pause before she continued. Deviating from her first oath.

"Will you accept me? Will you join with us? As one? As an equal? In love and strength and harmony? Forever?"

Callie's simple 'yes' set off a cheer from Rose. She couldn't contain herself. Jumping around pumping her fist in the air, she grabbed Erik to kiss him. Once. On the cheek. Erik turned stunned eyes on Wolfe who openly laughed at the look on his face.

As everyone congratulated Callie, Karen, and Wolfe; flashlights flickered in the main mall concourse. The door to the fitness center opened. Policemen, with a fire marshal, came in asking them what they were doing there.

Karen met with them before they could enter further. She told them she was the CEO of the mall management company. They were waiting for word about the power coming back on. As she spoke, another man entered. Callie knew him. He was the cop who had shown her the photograph of the tattoo. On the dead guy he'd been trying to identify.

Callie had discovered what he needed to know and had called him. Right before she'd called Scarlet. Before she'd changed her life forever.

Wolfe lifted her hands to the newcomer.

"Steven! How wonderful. Are you here because of the electrical problem? Or, is there some other reason?"

Callie looked at the both of them wondering how and where Maria knew the cop by his first name. She looked for Karen to ask, but Karen was busy hugging Callie's father and mother and introducing them to her husband.

Callie's mother was confused by the fact that Karen was married yet was always kissing someone else. Mostly other women. And her daughter too. Callie decided to let Karen and Maria sort that all out with mama. If she tried to do it herself, mama would go ballistic again. Karen and Maria would be better for that than she would be.

Himura was asked to not repeat what he'd seen. He replied that he had no idea what he'd witnessed and no one would believe him if he tried to tell them about it. He left muttering about holding hands in the dark and mystic mumbo jumbo. Sei-i Taishogun? Hah!

Callie made a mental note to go see him. Her relationship with her former master was not a bridge she wished to burn. But not yet. She needed to feel secure in her own place here first. Her visit could wait until after then.

The police and fire marshal left to go search for clues to the electrical failure elsewhere. The cop lingered for a moment. Wolfe returned his look calmly until he turned and left without saying goodbye. Callie watched Maria's eyes track the cop as he walked away.

Karen asked for quiet. She stood and raised her arms.

"By my Word and Seal, Calla Lily Mee is my shadow. Where I go, she goes. Where I am, she is and will be. Always."

"But, she is only my shadow, she has no substance. She is not, and will never be, of Scarlet. This I promise to her, her family, and the House."

"This violates the rules of the House. I ask the Dominus to ratify this exception to the rules so I may continue in the role chosen for me by the House. So there will be no misunderstanding of what place Callie holds here, I say this: She will have no voice in the House. Not to the House. Not to me regarding the House. She is not of the House. She is mine. For me!"

"Do the Dominus support this exception?"

The men whose names Callie didn't know all nodded agreement. Karen nodded in return. Raising her arms and turning her palms up, she tipped her head back once again.

"It is done. By my Word and Seal as Scarlet, the House is open. As it was. As it will always be. The House is open once again."

The lights flickered and came back on. In the steady glow of the overhead lights, Callie looked for, but did not find, the black woman with whom she'd made the bargain. Callie shivered in reaction to the creepy thought the woman truly might have been only a shadow in her mind. A figment of her imagination. Karen and Wolfe immediately looked over at her as she shivered. Both of them held out their hands. To her. For her. Always and forever.

Callie smiled in response to the concern in their eyes. She received a pair of answering smiles in return. Two of the most beautiful smiles she'd ever seen. Bar none.

Eight

T Rose didn't want to lose the independence she'd found while staying with Callie when Callie was sick. So she stayed even though Callie was fine now. After Callie swore her oaths to Karen and Maria, all of her sickness and other problems had completely vanished. She was like she'd been before. Rose still slept with them both in Wolfe's huge bed though. No one complained about it either. Nor did anyone tell her she was in the way or intruding. No one mentioned there were too many people in the bedroom. Or even the bathroom.

She only went home when Karen stayed overnight. It was weird knowing they were only sleeping yet bonding in some way she didn't understand. Not completely. Karen's husband was ok with it too. Somehow he knew there was no hanky panky going on in Wolfe's bedroom. The whole thing was very weird, yet normal somehow. As if it was supposed to be this way for them.

When she did go home, her mother always asked about Callie. How was she? Was she really getting better? Mama never asked about how Rose was doing. Tulip and Poppy were busy with school, homework, and friends. They had adapted to the new family situation without Callie or Rose in the house. Rose felt she didn't belong there anymore.

She had no luck finding a job. No one called her for an interview no matter what job she applied for. Her days were spent picking up after the three of them, cleaning the apartment until they came home. Then, it was make dinner if she felt like it and watch Callie snuggle with Wolfe or Karen. After that it was sleep in Wolfe's giant bed with Wolfe and Callie. It was very repetitive. Worse, neither Wolfe, nor Callie, or even Karen, seemed to care she was there. Rose wasn't their focus or objective. Rose was just an outsider. She didn't belong there either.

It eventually became too much and T Rose rebelled. When Erik brought Karen, Wolfe and Callie home, Rose was packing the few things of hers that were there into a plastic trash bag. Her toothbrush, PJ's, and some clothes were just being stuffed in any which way. There was no dinner waiting. No warm comforting smells. Just T Rose shoving her things roughly into a trash bag.

"Rose?" Callie asked her the unfinished question.

"I'm leaving." Rose's voice was angry.

"Why?" Wolfe asked her in confusion. "I thought you liked it here. You're welcome to stay. You can come and go anytime you want."

"Because I'm tired of being the unhired help." Rose twisted the bag closed before she tied a knot into it.

"Rose, you're not hired help. You don't have to leave." Wolfe spoke to T Rose yet watched Karen and Callie on the couch.

"I didn't say I was the hired help. And, apparently, I'm not lesbian enough for you either!" T Rose shouted at them before storming angrily out of the apartment. Karen, Wolfe, and Callie looked at each other in shock.

Late the next morning, Erik knocked on the door at the house. Rose answered the door still in her pajamas.

"What do you want Erik?" She sounded surly.

Erik just handed her a sealed envelope. Rose looked at it, then at Erik. Erik just waited. Rose opened the envelope. A single sheet of paper was inside.

"We're sorry."

"Forgive us."

"Miss you."

Each of the three lines had a lipstick kiss on the paper after them. Rose gave the paper and envelope back to Erik.

"Tell them I hope they all got chapped lips."

Erik nodded. He turned away without speaking.

"Erik, wait." Rose stopped him before he'd taken a single step. "I'm sorry. You don't deserve that. You've been good to me. They have too. So, don't tell them that. Instead, tell them . . . tell them I said I was sorry too."

Erik nodded again. Rose watched him get into the limo and drive away.

In a week, Rose had sold her car. She didn't have any money for gas for it anyway. Instead she bought a bus pass. She'd ride the bus into town to go through the help wanted section of the paper at a coffee shop making a list of potential jobs. Then use her bus pass to go around and apply at each place. The only thing she was told besides 'we're sorry' was by one HR manager. He told her they didn't have anything for someone without any skills or training. Kindly, he recommended she go back to school.

Two weeks later she'd given up. Even the burger place next to the coffee shop wouldn't hire her. Nor the coffee shop where she'd spent so much of her time each day and knew everyone's name.

"Apparently I'm only good for being a free housekeeper." T Rose explained to her mother after she'd been found sulking while sitting cross-legged on Callie's empty bed.

"So, why not go back to school?" Her mother asked carefully.

"Because I can't pay the tuition. Or afford the books. Besides, my bus pass is only good for another couple of weeks. What would I do after that?"

"Rose. You know your father and I will help. We helped Callie. We'll help you."

"Thank you mama, but I really want to do this on my own. I just need to find someplace that will accept me."

"You will." Her mother patted her knee. "I'm sure of it."

"I hope so. I'm out of ideas."

"Why don't you go see Henry tomorrow. He may be able to think of something. You can stop to see Callie too. Find out how she's really doing. All she tells me on the phone is that she's fine."

T Rose thought about it. The last time she'd seen her sister, and the other two, it had ended with bad words and hurt feelings. She didn't know what kind of reception she'd get now if she just showed up.

What she needed was a peace offering. Something unique. Making up her mind she went into the kitchen and began to prepare.

The next day she borrowed her parents car. She was not going to entrust her basket of goodies to a bus trip across town. There were cookies, cupcakes, some tiny divinity confections, and other things too in the basket. She had spent hours baking and decorating them before packing them carefully into the wicker basket in layers.

Covering them with the matching lid prevented greedy fingers from sneaking tidbits after the rest of the family gobbled up all the extra goodies she'd made for them. Poppy was the worst. She had these sad eyes that you just knew wouldn't ever be happy again unless she got another cupcake. And a cookie. Two cookies. Just the memory of Poppy's eyes made T Rose want to head back into the kitchen. Rose kept to her guns, firmly sealing her basket with the lid.

T Rose parked in the general parking lot before going upstairs through the public entrance. Lainey was at her desk on the phone as usual. T Rose smiled at her. She hefted the basket in explanation before opening the door to Karen's office. Going inside she announced her arrival with a genial "Surprise!"

Lainey dropped her phone. She ran around her desk to try to stop her. "Miss Rose, they're not here."

Disappointed, Rose set the basket on Karen's desk, automatically looking through the glass wall at Wolfe's matching desk. The wall was closed. The drawbridge was raised. Wolfe wasn't there either.

There was a naked man kneeling on the floor in Wolfe's office. He was completely hairless. Shaved scalp and no body hair. Anywhere. She was certain of that since she could see every inch of everything. His spread knees didn't hide a thing from sight. He had shackles with short links of chain dangling loosely from them on his wrists and ankles. There was a collar around his neck. A rolled blue tube was placed on the floor in front of him. His hands rested on his thighs. His eyes were closed. He was waiting for something. And, wearing chains. And, naked. T Rose just couldn't wrap her head around that part. At all.

Rose looked at Lainey who had stopped dead in her tracks once she saw that T Rose had noticed the naked man in Wolfe's office. Noise from the reception area came through the open office door. In moments Karen, Wolfe and Callie walked into the office.

"Oh, crap!" Karen swore as soon as she saw T Rose in the office while the naked man in Wolfe's office was visible. Wolfe crossed her arms glaring at Lainey. Callie, reacting to the sudden change in attitudes, turned to each of them with a surprised look on her face before she noticed the naked man on Wolfe's side of the office wall.

"Karen, you need to leave. Now." Callie tried to drag Karen backwards by the arm.

Karen resisted Callie's tugging. She tapped Callie's hand lightly.

"It's ok. You can let go."

"Karen. I'm still too weak. I can't really protect you yet. You have to leave before he sees you."

"Callie, it's ok. I can explain. There's nothing to protect me from right now. Ok?"

"I want to know why she's in here." Wolfe was stern, looking at Lainey for an explanation while pointing at T Rose. "How did she get in here in the first place?"

Lainey looked at the floor. She didn't say anything.

"Uh, I can explain." Rose offered. "That is, if someone will explain to me what's going on. Because this looks really weird. Like illegal weird."

Wolfe looked at her. "You don't belong in here." Her voice could have taught zero degrees kelvin the real meaning of cold.

"Maria." Karen looked at her friend. "That's a bit much don't you think? After all we've been through together? So, if everyone will just calm down, and relax," Karen looked meaningfully at Callie with that last word. "Everyone will hopefully get answers to their questions."

"In the meantime, I need to deal with this." Karen touched the submission figurine on her desk to lower the glass bridge.

"Karen!" Callie moved to grab her arm to prevent her from opening the wall.

Karen blocked Callie's grab. "No! Just stop. I know what I'm doing. There's nothing to be afraid of."

"But . . ."

"No. Remember, I told you that there were aspects of me you didn't know about? This is one of them. Now, I really need to deal with this, then I will explain. In the meantime, everyone please have a seat."

Karen looked directly at Wolfe. "I mean everyone. Lainey, thank you for your help. Please return to your desk and regular duties now. I'll come talk to you in a little while. In the meantime, don't worry about this."

No one moved.

"SIT!" Karen commanded in the same voice she used on her son when he didn't want to do what he was told.

With a sigh, Wolfe took the wingback chair. T Rose, looking around, chose the day bed to perch on. Lainey walked backward out of the office. She softly closed the door with a muffled thump behind her. Callie remained standing.

"Callie . . ."

"No. I'm not letting you go in there alone. I may not be in fighting shape, but I can delay him long enough for you to get away."

"You don't need to worry about any of that." Karen tried to explain again. "Just relax and sit down."

"No."

Karen sighed as the glass drawbridge finally slotted into place even with the floor. "Suit yourself. But, you are not allowed to cross the bridge. Not one inch. Not one toe touch. I mean it. You will not cross the bridge. Do you understand?"

"I'm not Scarlet. I don't have to obey you."

"Scarlet isn't telling you that. I am. This is private."

"Oh. Why didn't you just say so?" Callie's whole demeanor changed. She thumped to the floor in a lotus position. "I'll wait here until you decide I'm trustworthy again."

"Callie . . ." Karen was showing her irritation.

"Don't you have something urgent you need to do? Something private?" Callie flicked her fingers over her shoulder at Karen as her eyes closed. She folded her hands into a meditation pose. "Besides, I'm trying to meditate."

Karen threw up her hands in disgust. Walking across the bridge to stand in front of the naked man she ignored everyone else. When she was in position she spoke.

"Obedience is its own reward."

The naked man fumbled picking up the scroll. He had to try several times before he was able to grasp it. Raising his open hands, the blue paper cylinder nearly rolled off of his upturned palms. Karen grabbed the scroll before it fell and opened it. She began to read. The watchers in the other office could see her eyes dart around the paper. After a few moments Karen looked up.

"This appears to be another rendition of two other petitions you have made for this. You have been denied twice already. Why should I waste my time on this again? Why should I not have you punished for this?"

"Eeeassssse." The man replied while repeatedly making grimaces with his mouth in an obvious effort to force himself to form more words. "Ssseeeeese?"

His plea made Karen focus all her attention upon him. Everything changed. She reached down tipping his face to one side then the other.

"Your petition is granted. You will be settled with a new Master as soon as one can be found for you. In the meantime, you are fully Red until further notice from me. You may NOT even assist in light duties."

"Your current Master will be officially reprimanded. An investigation for possible reduction in rank or reassignment will be conducted. Punishment will be considered. Reparations will be made."