Evil Eyes 1

This is a sequel to my story "The Bear and I" It will be necessary for you to read that story first or you will be lost in what is going on in this one.

I'm sorry it has taken so long to start publishing this story. There were a number of complications which required a number of re-writes. Hopefully i have caught everything, but if somehow i missed something let me know and i will fix it and repost that chapter.

The idea is to post daily, but this story is coming along a little slowly and needs frequent re-wites it seems so it may turn into an every other day update.

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Late October, 2002 - Ava is 10 weeks old

Rick was procrastinating and he knew it. His only excuse was that Ava was running around the house in her Amethyst Dragon form while playing with Midas and Maggie. Midas and Maggie were barking while Ava was doing her best to mimic their bark.

He and Kate had already put away things like lamps and other breakables since she had the tendency, being so young, to spread her wings inside. And while the house was big, it wasn't that big. He was also trying to watch TV which wasn't easy in the living room even though he could go downstairs to the theater room. He was a good dad and had to keep an eye on everyone.

"AVA! ...Come here sweetie," he coaxed, trying to get her to come over to him. She had her head down and tail tucked between her legs convinced she had done something wrong. He reached out and pressed her wings to her body. "Wings in inside the house baby girl." He kissed her scaly head. "You can play with Midas and Maggie, just keep the wings in tight." He pressed them in again and let her go play.

The same thing had been on all the channels the entire morning and he was trying to catch up. "Dad?" Alexis was next to help him not write. "DAD?" she tried again and moved to block his view of the TV. "DAD!" Rick blinked his eyes to focus on his older daughter. "What's up pumpkin." She finally had his attention.

"When's Sam coming back over?" Alexis was willing to share Midas and Maggie with her sister, especially since when she was a Bear she was more than a match for a baby Dragon. She really wanted to have someone else to play with though. Her question saddened Rick. He and Kate had talked about that very subject just the other day. Samantha was still coming to spend the night when her mom worked in the office, but she always left in the morning. The only time Sam and Alexis ever had any time together was over breakfast before Kate drove Sam back to the office.

Another problem was they didn't want to crack down on Ava until she got to be too big to run around inside the house as a Dragon. Since only Kate's mother and Oscar knew anything about Ava being a Dragon, they were not yet willing to let Sam stay longer.

They both suspected that Serena and Joanne knew since Joanne was a Mountain Lion and knew the tendency for shifter genes to be dominant. With both parents being shifters it was a no-brainer that Ava would be.

"Go find the phone for me and we can call your mother," Rick said as Alexis squealed and ran for a phone, any phone. Kate may not have given birth to Alexis but all of them saw her as being Kate's and that wasn't going to change, ever.

Alexis crashed into him while jumping up onto the sectional then handed him the first phone she had come across. "Good morning Elizabeth, may I talk to my wife, please," Rick requested. "Hi babe, did I forget something?" Kate didn't know of anything but she had left before he had even gotten out of bed since they had a case to work. "I have someone who wants to ask you something." He handed over the phone to Alexis and heard one of the dogs yelp in pain. "Talk to your mother, I'll be right back." He got up to find out what had happened and if it was necessary, to drive one of the dogs to the vet because Ava had gotten carried away.

"Hi, Mom!" Alexis loved her and was happy to get to talk to her since she didn't get to see her this morning. "Hi, sweetie. I'm sorry I left before you were up this morning. It's just that we have a case that I'm working on and I needed to be in the office early." It was another thing Kate felt bad about.

"That's okay, Mom, you have work. ...Mom, can Sam come over for a sleepover or something? Maybe Paige or Jenny?" What Kate heard was sadness and it hurt her heart. She also heard not only "why can't Sam come over" but all of her friends, which only increased the problem. She just didn't know how to get past that. Kate slumped in her chair. "Please, Mom?" Kate had taken too long to respond. "Go find your father and give him the phone, please." They needed to make a decision. "Dad, Mom wants to talk to you." Alexis held out the phone. "What happened to Midas?" There was blood on the floor and on the dog. Midas and Ava were lying on the floor looking equally guilty.

"I think Ava hurt Midas," Rick told Kate after he walked away, hoping he was far enough away from little ears, leaving Alexis to look after Midas and his wound. "OH NO!" Kate let her head fall onto her desk. "I'm going to take him to the vet and I have to bring Ava and Alexis with me," he said. "Is it bad?" Kate was sure this was her fault. She should have put a stop to Ava running around the house as a Dragon the very first time she had done it. "Bad enough, and Alexis has seen everything." Kate moaned into the phone with her forehead on her desk.

"I can't come home yet. I can't leave this case. Take Alexis and Maggie over to my mother's and take Ava with you to the vet. She needs to see and understand the damage she's done. I'll read her the riot act when I get home. No more running around the house as a Dragon. Actually this may work. Alexis wants her friends to spend the night again and she's been so good since Ava was born. We need to come up with a plan." Kate felt bad that they had procrastinated this long on a decision.

"I need to get going before Midas makes too big of a mess on the floor," Rick told her. "Just go, babe, get Midas to the vet and leave Maggie and Alexis with my mother and Oscar. The restaurant's closed today so they should be home. Call and warn them what's coming their way. We'll talk tonight after I talk to Ava. But for now tell Alexis yes, and that we'll work on a date for her and her friends. Maybe Ava and I will stay with my mother for a night. We'll think of something. Go help Midas, babe." Kate felt bad about being stuck at work but she couldn't help it. "I love you."

"I love you, too. See you tonight. Is Sam coming with you?" Did they have another complication to deal with. Kate let her forehead fall back down on her desk. "Yeah." Their lives had gotten so complicated of late. "Solve your case, babe, I'll handle everything else. I have to go." Rick hung up on her.

"Problem, ma'am?" LT was at her door. "Midas and Maggie got a little too rambunctious and Midas is hurt. Rick's going to take him to the vet. Drop off Maggie and Alexis at my mother's," Kate informed him. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Dogs that get along so well rarely do damage to the other willfully. Here's the background information you asked for." LT entered her office and handed over a folder. "Thanks LT." Kate took the folder and tried to look at it but her mind was on her daughter and what she was going to have to do tonight. It was going to hurt, she wanted her daughter to have fun being a Dragon while she could. As she grew up, being a Dragon was likely going to be more difficult. Plus she still had to wait for her to be older and teach her how to fly.

Rick found Ava in baby form when he made it back to Midas. Alexis was on the floor with the dog, cooing at him while crying at all the blood. Rick could see that while there was blood, there wasn't that much of it and the puddle wasn't getting any bigger.

It took two trips to get everyone in the Expedition then across the road to Jo and Oscar's house which was undergoing a massive remodel downstairs while they lived upstairs. There was even another large dumpster outside that workers were even now throwing debris into.

Jo was bigger but not by much and only those that knew she was pregnant could actually see it. Rick didn't have time to explain much and had to do it on the fly. He had to get Midas into the vet and took Ava with him like Kate had asked.

"Midas will be fine honey." Johanna hugged Alexis who looked none too happy. "There was blood, Grams," Alexis complained, still a little scared. Johanna couldn't help but hug her and kiss the top of her head.

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"Mommy!" little Katie cried out after she found her precious little kitty missing hair, bleeding, and barely alive. "Night is hurt, Mommy." The tears were flowing fast. Johanna lifted up her daughter and held her tight while Jim picked up the damaged cat, hearing it cry out in pain which was only mimicked by the cry of pain from Katie. Johanna had done everything she could think of to console her daughter. She even tried getting her to help her make her favorite cookies with her. It didn't help. Katie wasn't interested in cookies or being consoled, she wanted her little friend back.

From Johanna's point of view Jim was back too soon and without Midnight the cat. "NO!"And his coming back empty-handed had little Katie Beckett running for her room and slamming the door closed with Johanna chasing after her. What she had missed at the time was the small smile that was on her husband's face watching his daughter running away crying and in pain.

Much later that night Jim was sitting on their bed, his head in his hands, bent over and weeping softly. "It's not your fault. Midnight was just hurt too badly." Johanna had only left her daughter after she had finally cried herself to sleep. Now she was consoling her own husband.

However, Jim shook his head. "You don't understand. I hurt it and threw it in a dumpster knowing its death would be long and painful and that it would hurt Katie." Jim lifted up his head to look at his wife. She watched his eyes turn a bright red filled with rage. "I killed the filthy animal on purpose and loved it! I even tasted its dying blood." The voice was rough and menacing and Jim grinned, baring his teeth, completely happy with himself. Suddenly the fiery red eyes faded and he was up off the bed and buried himself on the floor in the corner of the room.

"I'm sorry, Jo, I'm so sorry. I couldn't stop it, I just couldn't." Jim started crying. Immediately his wife's arms were around him and she tried cooing into his ear that she understood. That he wasn't evil. It was a momentary weakness that wouldn't happen again. He was a good man, a good father, and they both loved him.

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"Midas will be fine. It was only a small wound. He'll be up and playing with you, your sister, and Maggie, and even Patch and Thor in no time. You'll see. Your father won't let anything happen to him." Johanna hugged and kissed her while Oscar ran a hand through Alexis's hair.

"How about you come outside with me and look over the construction? I'm going to need your help with the horses when it's done," Oscar said and helped Alexis to stand and walk out back to look over the construction that was happening out back.

Eventually there was going to be one big building. One big barn with three – fourteen feet by fourteen feet stalls on each side, large double doors on each end and a large loft upstairs to hold bale after bale of hay. It only had a concrete floor at the moment, however at some point it would have structural eight inch block walls all around with wood studs to put the insulation into. Over that would be wood and each stall would have a window up high that would be electrically operated to open and let air in with screens to keep the bugs out.

There were going to be two propane fired heaters, one on each end, to keep the barn from freezing. A 100% plastic water heater was going to be installed so that they they had water that didn't freeze during winter. The roof was going to be metal with gutters along each edge that took the water out into the field and away from the building. The floor inside was going to be a rubberized product made from recycled tires so that none of the horses had to deal with slippery concrete floors.

The room with the water heater doubled as a small office to keep track of what they had and what they needed. Several months before the barn was going to be finished a contractor would come in and put up a fence to create pens for the horses.

Centaur HTP - equine rail fencing was the horse friendly fence. The flexible design of the fence rail ensured that if a horse pushed or rushed the fence, the rail would give just enough to prevent injury without compromising the ranch perimeter. The exclusive high-tensile polymer bracket with steel reinforced bar was indestructible. It even came in three different colors: white, black, and dark brown.

KleeFLex Door was another product that was going to be used at each of the barn door openings. It consisted of thick plastic strips that were hung vertically that over lapped each other by three inches. However they parted easily to allow entry and exit. The use of this system helped reduce the loss of cold or hot air as well as help keep flying insects out of the barn. Each strip was easily replaceable when required.

"You think you can help me with the horses? You'll get to ride them anytime you want," Oscar told her. That got Alexis's mind off of Midas and onto riding a horse as she nodded her head enthusiastically, her face wreathed in a huge smile. "We're also going to have cats to help keep the mice away from the horses. Not to worry though, the cats will only be way out here and not in the house. I don't think Thor would approve of having cats in the house." Oscar tried to build mighty little Thor up into a big dog which made Alexis grin while shaking her head. No cats in the house!

It wasn't until later that Rick returned with baby Ava and Midas. The dog was limping, his left rear leg all wrapped up. The other dogs reached him first, checking him out and sniffing everything including his dressing. "Midas?" Alexis worked her way past the dogs to hug her dog. "It's not serious. Yes, Ava bit him but it wasn't that deep and the damage shouldn't be permanent. He's suppose to relax for a week and take his pills." Rick shook the pill bottles to emphasize his point. "He cannot play with the other dogs, Alexis. Understand, he has to be off his leg as much as possible," Rick told her. Alexis hugged Midas and kissed his fur and when he found a place to lay down, she joined him.

Rick sat down with Ava in his lap. "Are you staying for dinner and will Katie make it?" Johanna asked him. "Kate will only be home after they find their guy and they haven't yet." His reply told her what she needed to know so she went into the kitchen to start work on dinner.

"I'm sure she didn't mean it, she loves those dogs and Alexis," Oscar said, giving his opinion. "We know, she just took it too far. The timing's good since Alexis wants to invite her friends over for another sleepover. It would be bad for there to be a baby Dragon running around the house," Rick pointed out. "A baby Dragon who doesn't understand why she can't," Oscar added while Rick nodded.

"By the way, have you seen the news lately? It's been on every channel all day long," Oscar said. Rick shook his head. "I took a break from writing and tried but that was when these three decided to run around the house and play a little rough," Rick admitted, which was code for he wanted not to write and to do something fun. Making an emergency run to the vet wasn't his idea of fun.

Oscar turned on the TV to show him since it was still likely all over every channel. Maybe tomorrow they would find something else to talk about, but for today this was the top story.

Rick was watching and listening, but he came in somewhere around the middle and was missing something. "An entire carrier strike group? For what?" That was where Rick came in and all Oscar told him was to just keep watching. They always went back to the beginning of the story at the top of the hour and added anything new. It took while as Rick watched and listened to all this side information. Where the carrier group was going to be coming from, how long it would take for them to get there, how many ships were involved, till finally, "If you're just joining us we have received confirmation that the US Navy has lost two of their Arleigh Burke destroyers with what is believed to be all hands. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Russians have also lost two of their guided missile cruisers of the Atlant class. It is unknown at this time if all hands were lost."

"This is all in addition to the Indian military vessel that was lost months ago followed by eleven cargo ships of various types. At this point cargo ships been forbidden to enter the Indian Ocean unless escorted by a military vessel."

"Unconfirmed sources have indicated that there is movement of the Chinese Navy all along the southern edge of their country. Vietnam and the Philippines have issued warnings for China not to enter their territorial waters."

"There is speculation that one or more submarines have also been lost in the area, however, no one is willing to confirm this. India has placed great pressure on the United Nations for countries to help them open the Indian Ocean. All of India's shipping is forced to go through this area."

"As of this date there is no confirmed report as to who is sinking these ships. We'll now go to our panel of experts who can help us understand what is happening in this area and perhaps speculate as to who could do this and who would benefit from ships being sunk in the Indian Ocean. We'll start with our distinguished..." Oscar killed the TV since he has been listening to this all day and they seemed to know nothing new. "Military and civilian ships?" Rick queried.

"Earlier India informed every nation that their civilian ships would be escorted by guided missile destroyers and possibly submarines and that they would fire on any ship that approached too close to prevent their passage in and out of port," Oscar informed him. "And we send an aircraft carrier to help or because we lost two destroyers?" Rick questioned. Oscar shrugged. "Both, neither, your guess is as good as mine. The other two destroyers have given up helping and are in search and rescue mode now. What happens when the place is packed with military vessels from several nations all worried that their ship is next..." Oscar trailed off. It offered the perfect scenario for one nation to go to war with another. All that was needed was one wrong move.

"What's Kate up to?" Oscar wanted off this subject since it was too easy to see one or more countries in combat with someone else. "She has her own problems. It was a hit and run. Someone in a pickup truck ran down two teenagers that were walking down the side of the street. If this was New York she would be thinking..." Oscar interrupted him, "Gang members or maybe a drunk driver."

"But this isn't New York. Newcastle doesn't have video cameras on every corner. We don't even have traffic light cameras. Add to that the fact that no one saw anything and she has her work cut out for her." Oscar shook his head. Someone was sinking ships and people were still running people over with their cars and driving off. "Has she got any leads? Hopefully not someone local." He didn't like the idea that it was someone who lived here. "She hasn't said, but it might not even be a local. It could be someone who was passing through. What she needs is someone who saw something, even if it wasn't the incident itself," Rick replied.

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Kate threw her papers on her desk in frustration. She had nothing except two dead kids with broken backs and a broken neck. What she needed was information. Even how they died would help her determine at least which direction the truck had been traveling.

"Hi, girlfriend," a new voice called out from the door into her office. "LANIE!"