Testing My Patience

By Stacy Lee

Testing My Patience --Patronus Series Book three--
It is highly recommended to read the two books before this one first!
EST 294 digital pages

Will she choose the man for her...
Or will fear send her into the arms of another?

Patience Moody has known since she was old enough to comprehend it that there were things in this world you just didn’t mess with. Then there are times you just have to throw firecrackers at their heads! A healer who prides herself on the fact she saves the humans form the attacks of the supernatural breeds that tear them apart she moves from town to town keeping her secret safe and herself hidden. With an angry shifter chasing her across New York state for the better part of eight years she has learned to keep herself under the radar. Till now.

Fin and Bane are sent to retrieve the newest Patronus mate before Monty’s vamps can snatch her. When he sat out on the adventure Fin never expected to find the tiny gun toting street smart healer much less to realize instantly she was his. He also never expected her to shoot him! With anger and flash backs from spending time as Monty’s prisoner a year ago clouding his head he makes a few decisions that lead the little woman to fear him more than trust him.
Will she let her fear rule her choices? And if she does what will he do to her when he realizes she was no longer his?

Fear, anger, memories and love lead us on a new journey into the world of the six ruling Patronus brothers. Will Fin have his mate or will Bane take her from him?

**Mature Content**

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stacy Lee
• Release date: Jun 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310948589

Stacy Lee

Hello Y'all!I started writing children's books as a way to get my very stubborn younger two children to read. My oldest was an avid reader and still reads everything I write (she is 19 now!) but the younger two still refuse to love the written word as the two of us do. So now I am trying my hand at adult fiction. It is a big change from the simple stories of make-believe I have written in the past and I cant wait to get feed back from ya'll. I am a native Texan (as I'm sure you have figured out!). I have lived in a small coastal town all my life and love our small farm. I am a professional photographer by trade but have always picked up a pen (or peck at the keys) when times turned rough, although now it's more for fun. I hope ya'll enjoy the world I have created!Happy reading Y'all!

Book preview

Testing My Patience

by

Stacy Lee

Patronus Series

Book Three

Testing My Patience

Copyright© 2014 by Stacy Lee

License Notes

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events: to real people, living or dead: or to real locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts is entirely coincidental.



Acknowledgments

To B.J,. C.J., T.J., J.J., and D.J. with all my love!

And to W.H.

Thanks for believing in me even when you wanted to pull your hair out over my grammar! I still have that problem with tenses but now I recognize it!!!

You will always be my Malcom.

☺

Prologue

Patience Moody

Patience, you have to run. That man is the most powerful Shifter alive. He will track you down and kill you for what you just did! Travers bellows at me. What I just did. Even I can’t believe I did it! I have thought of that Shifter as a friend for years even though I have never said a word to him in the nine years since I first saw him. Hell, I didn’t even know his name! He has been trying to catch me for three years now. Ever since he found me spying on him I have been on his list of people to get rid of. I felt guilty for what I did, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I had to force myself to stop caring about him and I can’t let myself think of him as anything, but an enemy now. But….

Can’t we find someone who knows him to talk to him? Explain who I am. That I’m not his enemy. I don’t understand why they all have to be bad! I know I haven’t seen much from them, but someone has to be good and I thought it was him! Aren’t any of the races good, Travers? I pace back and forth through the store of the man who has meant so much to me, taught me, guided me, was like a father to me. Now I listen to him tell me he wants me to leave him.

This isn’t happening!

No, they aren’t good. Not even him. I know you want to care about him, but he is a Shifter. A deadly creature than can kill you with one swipe. Patronus are the only ones who claim to be looking out for us, but I haven’t met any. I don’t know about them. However I do know Shifters, Stroli, Witches, Vampires, Fairies, Elves, Thanus, Babbles, all of them are bad and you know this. We have been over it many times throughout the years. They will kill you verses look at you. Even as I listen I shake my head.

I have seen Fairies and Elves be nice to the humans. One worked in the dinner across the street and she was nice to me when I was in there. I didn’t know which of the two she was, but by the glow surrounding her I knew she was something supernatural.

Patience, think about the others at the orphanage. If he finds you there he could hurt the other kids trying to get to you. What if he sends a Thanus? How many will die then? You have to leave. Go away, far away child! I plop down in the chair in the breakroom and pout.

I didn’t want to leave.

Fine. I knew he was right, but it didn’t make it an easier pill to swallow. At sixteen I still wanted to believe there was good in the world. Even in the races that weren’t mine. I’d seen the damage they could do, but….

Good. His body relaxes with my acceptance of this fate. It aggravates me. Why did he want me gone so badly? It was only one Shifter. Yes, he was a powerful Shifter, but still… Now listen to me. Do not get a job where they pay by check. Make sure it’s off the books. Don’t fill out any paperwork or give your social security number to anyone. Use the name Pat Travers when you can. You don’t want him to be able to find you. Stay permanently off anyone’s radar, Patience. Go get what you need from the orphanage then return to me. I will pack you a bag of what you might need. He sprints to his wall safe and pulls out a stack of bills. He doesn’t make much here, but he stays in the good most months. Maybe sensing that if I walk out that door I won’t return again, he brings the money offering it to me.

Travers, I can’t take your money. I try to refuse the bills he shoves into my hands.

It’s only a few hundred dollars. Please, use it for a bus ticket. Cab fare. Anything that will get you out of here before that man or someone like him finds you. I sigh and take the money reluctantly. If I was really doing this I would need it.

Where am I supposed to go? I whine like the teenager I am.

"Anywhere. But you watch, pay attention to your surroundings like I taught you. Notice when you get there how many supers there are in the town and if they multiply, even in the smallest amount, you need to run. Do you hear me? Run Patience, run and keep running for as long as you can. Do not let anyone and I mean anyone know who you are or what you can do. If you use your gifts make sure no one sees you. Make sure they don’t remember you. No one can know about you child." I don’t know why he is lecturing me. No one knows about me now. I am very careful with my talents to never leave witnesses. It has only happened once and Randle is my best friend.

I want you to call the shop every first Monday of the month. Make sure it is at different times, never call at the same time twice and never from the same number. Now go get your things and be quick. Watch for him, don’t let him see you. He will kill you if he finds you. Him or his Shifters won’t let you explain. Do you understand me? He pulls me into a tight hug. He is the only adult that has ever given me a hug, ever shown me any affection and I would miss him horribly.

Yes. I understand. With a heavy heart I leave Travers store and run at a human pace towards the orphanage. Slowly my pain of having to leave my few friends, Travers and the only home I have ever known, turns to anger. Anger at the Shifter who wouldn’t listen to reason, even if it bit him on the dick. Anger at the supernatural world in general just because I could see them. Anger that they hurt so many of my fellow humans through the years. Anger at the gifts I had been blessed with at birth but had to keep hidden. Anger that no one would ever love a freak like me. By the time I reach the orphanage I was even angry at Travers for making me leave.

I was given a gift, why couldn’t I use it without hiding? Would I spend my whole life running from supernatural jerks like the Shifter that cornered me today? Would he never leave me alone? My anger grows to hate. Hate for the supernatural races that wander this planet free when I have to hide.

One day I would no longer hide from them. One day I would be old enough and big enough to kick their supernatural asses. One day I would be queen of my own destiny. Until then I would help no one except the humans, just as I always have. They were my breed and it was them I would protect.

Only them!

Before, it was out of fear and the need to hide that I helped only the humans. Now, the others weren’t worth my time.

With a bag over my shoulder, my dagger hidden in a sheath on my back and a pistol tucked in my waistband I flee the orphanage and the town I grew up in. One day I would come back here with my head held high not hiding from anyone.

But for now, I will run.

Chapter One

Eight years later

Leaving awful late tonight, Miss Patience. You need an escort? Bobby, the building security guard, was probably seventy years old and couldn’t stop anyone who really wanted to harm me. He is more for show than security. He always asks though. If he knew what was really out there he would never leave his home. If I didn’t have to, I know I wouldn’t. I’d rather be alone for the rest of my life then face the creatures that wander this earth. Unfortunately, that wasn’t my path in life.

No thanks, Bobby. I’ll be fine on my own. I have Faithful with me tonight. I pat my hip and give him a wink as I leave the building. Faithful looked like a normal .357 Magnum, but was in fact recalibrated to shoot special rounds that will puncture a Vampire, Patronus, Babble, Stroli or Shifters tough skin. Unless I was faced with a Thanus I could knock just about anything to the ground long enough to run if I needed to. I have no false ideas it would kill any of them, only beheading or fire could do that. With a Patronus only beheading or Vampire venom would do.

I may live in the human world, but since I was old enough to talk I knew there were otherworldly things in this universe you didn’t mess with. Unlike other kids at the orphanage I grew up in, I could see things going on around me more clearly. People of the supernatural races held a glow around them that tagged them as trouble for me. It doesn’t tell me what they are, only that they are not human. Most were only a faint glow, but I have run across several who were pretty bright. One shifter in particular shone brightly enough to blind you. A shiver runs down my spine thinking about him. I push him aside and move through the parking lot silently.

I could also see through their magic. If a Fairy spelled a Stroli to look normal while it walked among the humans I still saw the Stroli. I also realized early in life you didn’t go tell the nuns that a Shadow Demon was following you. If it wasn’t for my special gift I would still hold scars from where they tried to rid me of the evil in my head. I learned to keep it to myself after that. Nuns weren’t something you played around with even if you were telling the truth.

It was shortly before that incident that I attained the knowledge I could heal myself and others. One of the boys in the orphanage, Marvin, was always being picked on because of his size. One of the older boys told him he couldn’t climb the only tree in the play yard because he was too small to reach the limbs. There was more to the entire scene, you know how bullies are, pushing and pushing till someone cracked, in the end Marvin set out to prove him wrong. He managed to get up, but then couldn’t get down. When the branch he was on broke he fell chest first onto the next branch down then kept going, crashing through the tree taking out limbs. He ended up falling from about ten feet up.

Everyone else stood around laughing when he finally hit the ground. It made me so mad. I shoved myself to the front of the crowd to make sure he was okay. When I laid my hands on him it startled me that I could feel the damage inside his body. He was hurt badly; a rib had broken and punctured his lung along with other breaks and fractures. Of course at six I didn’t know all this, I just knew he was hurt.

Going on fear and instinct alone I let the power I felt swelling inside me go. It wrapped around his internal injuries healing them in a matter of minutes. When the power returned to me I felt the pain he was in before it dissipated. I will never forget how much agony he had been in and how he laid silently crying through his gasps for air for almost three minutes before I got to him.

Marvin ended up taking his own life a few years later after the same boy tied him in a chair naked and left in the hallway for everyone to see. He was already dead when they found him and there was nothing I could do that time.

Ever since the incident with Marvin I strived to learn how to control the power inside me. It took me years to figure it all out, but eventually I ran across enough injuries to ascertain I could heal anything. I’m sure there were some things I could probably do that I didn’t know about, but without real life patients I would never know. I didn’t have anyone to teach me so I worked on instinct alone. I could drain Vampire venom from a freshly bitten human as long as I had something to dispense the poison into after I took it out of the body. I learned that the hard way and had to then remove it from myself after removing it from the human boy. Thank God it hadn’t been an adult or the amount would have killed my seven year old self immediately.

I have mended broken bones, sealed gashes and punctures, aided with sprained ankles, cured cancer once or twice by accident. Helped victims who were mauled by shifters and other races, removed venom and healed vampire bites, released humans from Fairy spells meant to harm them, and even mended a Patronus bite once. Along with all the normal aches and pains I hadn’t found much I couldn’t do. I can heal any injury, cure any disease or remove any poison from a human.

Not knowing who my parents were I don’t know where the strange gifts I have come from. I cursed my otherworldly sight and extraordinary hearing when I was young, but when I realized what I could do to help people in pain, I embraced my strangeness and have done everything I could to help those in need since. I keep what I do to myself though, only healing those who are discombobulated after an attack or fall or such. I’ve never healed anyone except humans, no one else was worth my time.

Why would I help one of the races that hurt the humans I was healing in the first place? None of the races, supernatural or otherwise, have figured out I wasn’t a normal human yet, but it was only a matter of time before they did. Meaning I was always on my toes waiting to be attacked. When I wasn’t waiting to be attacked I was waiting to be found. I never let my guard down.

I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stay here. I usually leave a town when the races become active in it, especially the Shifters. The last week has been more energetic than anytime I can remember. The Vampires were out in rare numbers. Vamps can walk in the daylight, eat garlic, drink holy water, wear a cross as a necklace and even have kids if they want. The only part the human myth’s got right is they are pale, cold, fast and have powers you don’t want to screw with. Their favorite to use on unsuspecting humans is hypnosis. If their metallic eyes begin to swirl you better look anywhere else.

I have seen several more than usual out and about in Syracuse over the last week. As a matter of fact in the last two days I have seen Vamps, Strolis, Babbles and Shifters roaming the streets searching for something. Shifters aren’t much different from a human most of the time. If it wasn’t for that glow I could see I wouldn’t be able to spot them at a distance. However they tend to be bigger and stronger than your normal human.

I thought I caught sight of a couple Patronus this morning also, but I’m not sure. Sometimes they can be mistaken for Shifters beings they can shift. Patronus also have fangs like the Vamps, either’s bite will kill the other, and they can use magic like the Fairies, Elves and Witches, giving them a defense against all races except us puny humans. Patronus supposedly govern all the races, keeping death and chaos to a minimum. They are also charged with keeping the other races a secret from humans. Patronus therefor are technically the good guys, but the way I look at it is, if they aren’t human, they are only good for a bullet. By the shine of the two I thought I saw they were powerful men I would do well to stay away from.

Where Vamps and Shifters aren’t great, Thanus, Stroli’s and Babbles aren’t something you want to come up to in a dark alley, even in a bright alley you would want to run. Thanus are also known as Shadow Demons because their main form is a deadly black mist. They can clone any living thing, taking its form and screwing with your head. I could see through the clone. I usually see all breeds for what they are, more now than when I was a child, unlike every other human who can’t see the danger till it’s too late. They were still dangerous in this cloned form because most of them could kick my ass easily, but if you can tranquillize it, immediately knocking it out, you could then behead it to kill it.

If it’s in the mist form the only known way to kill it is to freeze it with liquid nitrogen then shatter it. The problem with that is the mist puts off a toxic fume that resides in a four foot radius of the demon and you have to be three feet from it to hit it with the nitrogen. In any other breed the mist would drop them in pain leaving them open to attack. In a human you were dead before your body hit the ground.

Stroli’s are half humanoid, half animal. The bottom half being the animal which looks like longer skinnier bear legs that end in powerful claws. Their faces were grotesquely deformed, but humanish, their skin a translucent white, their arms hang to the ground with claws for hands and most have broad chests that were too broad and disfigured. They in no way could pass as a human even with their hairy butts covered. Stroli didn’t have any special talents that I know of other than they were fast, strong, had super hearing and were completely stupid. Well, most of them I’ve encountered were. Their voices were a series of roars and growls making it hard to understand them at first. After years of listening from the shadows I’ve got it down pretty good now.

Babbles were short, usually three to four feet, ugly little creatures whose faces resemble that breed of dog with the squashed face, pugs. Besides being flattened they resembled a human except their eyes are too large, their noses too small and their mouths wider than normal with pointy sharp teeth. They had a poisonous bite that would knock most breeds flat, but not kill them. It would kill a human. Their skin was tinted in different shades of green instead of white, brown and black. Though Babbles were the more common of the three, I hadn’t seen many of these breeds up until recently. In the last week alone I have seen one Thanus, five Stroli and two Babbles between work and home. I would hate to know how many there were in the main part of the city.

I double time it to my car with my hand on Faithful. I don’t take chances at night. Although sunlight doesn’t inhibit any of the races, darkness seems to call to them. A noise behind me has my pace picking up to a sprint and Faithful locked and loaded in my grip. My car is only three feet away when an icy hand grabs my arm.

Vampire.

I turn, lock eyes with metallic pink and fire. Definitely a Vamp. The metallic eyes give them away every single time. He stumbles back in shock, but I don’t wait to see if he falls. Running full tilt I reach my car then curse myself for not having the keys in my hand. I dig in my pocket quickly to pull them out and insert them in the lock. An arm wraps around my waist, the heavy sent of copper over taking me. I knew fighting with my body was useless, he was stronger than me, so I aim the gun over my shoulder and fire blindly.

His howl of pain barely registers in my throbbing ears. Next time I need to remember not to shoot so close to my head. His grip loosens enough for me to pull away and wrench open my door. Throwing myself into the driver’s seat I jam the key in, throw it in gear and floor it, jumping the curve before my door is even shut. Somewhere behind me laughter rings out above the Vamps howls sending a chill down my spine. I try my best to ignore it as I leave my office and the Vamp behind me.

I drive around in circles for hours hoping he won’t follow me before heading towards my home. Knowing I wasn’t in any mood for a TV dinner I pull into the Jack-In-The-Box a mile from my turn off. I shouldn’t eat fast food with my disease, but really, I couldn’t resist when the alternative was my cooking. I was horrible when it came to cooking.

Welcome to Jack-In-The-Box may I take your order? The teenage voice whines out crackling so bad I can’t understand her, but know exactly what she said.

Jumbo Jack and a large Coke, please. I respond while digging in my bag for cash. Unruly red hair falls in my line of vision as I search. Struggling with the Vamp must have knocked the raging curls free from the hold of my clip.

That’s a Breakfast Jack and a large fry? Why could they never hear me? Unclipping my auburn hair I try to restrain it once more while I yell out the window to the moody teenager.

No. I said a Jumbo Jack and….

WHAM!

Something slams into the side of my car hard enough to spin it. My clip flies out the window with the momentum, leaving a mass of unruly curls to fall down my back and into my face.

Holy shit! I scream, twisting my head this way and that to see if it was the Vamp or if something else has found me. The Shifter?

I’m sorry, what was that? The voice crackles in surprise.

Never mind! I shout out, throwing it in gear I drive, cutting around the cars in front of me, barely missing them in the tight space. Once clear I cut off oncoming traffic, leaving honks and shouts behind me. Dammit! I slam my hand against the steering wheel in aggravation. I couldn’t go home if that thing was still out there. I wasn’t worried about the dent I was sure was in my car, it was an old clunker Volkswagen Beetle anyway and a new dent probably wouldn’t even show up. Travers bought it for me on my eighteenth birthday and I refused to get a new one even though he has offered several times. I owned very little in this world, the car was mine and I would keep it till it stopped rolling down the street.

What I was worried about was the fact it was almost out of gas. I started with almost a half a tank and where I normally don’t let it get that low I was too tired yesterday to stop. I figured I could wait till today. Then I was running late because of a wreck on the highway and hadn’t stopped this morning. The half a tank was before I drove in circles for two hours hoping to lose a Vampire I royally pissed off with not one, but two bullets. Now I was running on fumes, it was dark and he was still out there. That’s what I get for putting it off.

Something flashes outside my window prompting me to turn my head. White blonde hair tied back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck flaps with his momentum as he runs beside my car, is what drew me. His soft grey eyes are what stops my heart from beating. He is gorgeous, with a jovial face that made him look younger than he probably was. A merry light sparkles from those haunting grey eyes telling me he was more than likely a fun man to be around though he held many grueling secrets. Although something deep in the dark pupils sparks with fire and restraint causing a squall to brew in their grey depths. His eyes widen in surprise then he falters, falling behind and knocking me out of my stupor.

The lack of metallic coloring in his eyes said he wasn’t a Vamp, the white hair almost guaranteed he wasn’t a Shifter, unless he was a white tiger. Rare species, too rare. With the speed he is moving down the middle of a highway without a car, the massive size of him and the bright glow around him all said he was supernatural. Probably Patronus. He was something to behold. Random images flit through my mind against my will. His naked body above mine. His grey eyes staring at me with passion. His ruby lips taking mine. His firm….. I shake them away wondering what the hell was wrong with me?

Another flash of color has me turning to the passenger side to see yet another brightly lit man running beside my car. This one has Hershey Kisses for eyes, his hair close to the same color brown is cut short, the bright red shirt being what drew my attention. He was just as gorgeous, however he held no interest for me where the other man’s eyes still danced before me. He reaches out for the door handle, his movement startling me enough to press the gas harder, leaving his shocked smile behind. A normal human never would have seen him. If they had they would have dismissed it as something else completely. It’s just how the normal human brain works.

I wasn’t normal.

A Vampire and not one, but two Patronus, were after me all in the same three hour span? What the hell was going on here? I have lived under the radar for years. Making sure no one ever knew what I could see, what I could do, who I was. I only take cash paying jobs and other than my driver’s license, which has the wrong address and a GED test I took six years ago in a town hours from here there is nothing of me on file anywhere. Now the otherworldly take a joyride to overpopulated overnight and they just happen to find me?

Nope, I wasn’t buying it.

Someone smelt fishy and I would bet anything it was Randle, the only person in the world besides Travers who knew my secrets. The only reason he knew is because I saved him from a Vamp when we were kids. Try as I might I couldn’t heal the scars on his neck from where the silver eyed beast latched on before I could light the firecrackers I used to startle it enough to drop him. The loud noise hurt their sensitive ears. It wasn’t very effective in hurting them, but if I could get them to put the person down they could usually run, or I could drag them, back into populated areas before the Vamp caught on what was happening. It was stupid, but what can I say, I was ten!

I pick up my phone from the console where it’s charging and speed dial Randle. Before he can even say hi I cut him off with a hiss. Who did you tell?

Patience? His normally upbeat and happy voice loses its pep with my tone.

I have a Vamp and two Patronus after me! They would only know if someone told them. You are the only person who knows my secret and where I am, Randle!! My name might be Patience, but I had very little of it.

I didn’t tell anyone anything! I swear it, Pat! You promised to feed me to the Vamps if I ever told! I chuckle at the obvious fear still in his voice. I was a badass ten year old. Fear came with age and at ten I was fearless. I wasn’t so much anymore. Turning twenty-four last month sucked.

I was ten when I made that promise and you know damn well I never meant it. I would never give a human I hated to a Vamp and I love you, Randy. I normally helped people who were too out of it to acknowledge I had done anything for them, but Randle was conscious enough to remember and understand I healed him. Beings he was only four years older than me and lived at the same orphanage I did we became friends after the attack. Neither of us had many and he was a life saver for me just as much as I was for him.

"I don’t care how old you were. I know what would happen if any of them freaks knew you could see them, much less if they knew you could heal their victims. Besides, I know what would happen if any of them knew I knew about them. To tell your secret is to tell my secret! No way, girlfriend, it wasn’t me!" I sigh out hard. Problem is, I believe him. He was a good guy, but he was weak and scared. He would never chance something coming after him. Not after what happened with that Vamp.

Fine. If I make it out of this alive I’ll let you know. I hang up before he can cry about anything, like me dying. I didn’t need that right now. I glance to the speedometer, I’m hitting seventy. This clunker wasn’t going to do this for long. I’m surprised it could do seventy!

And just like that, thinking about it makes it happen.

The engine sputters, something pops and groans loudly in the motor, and smoke begins to cover the back windshield making it impossible to see if they were gaining on me. I work her over to the side of the road with trepidation. I can’t say I’ve had a good life, but it has been an interesting one. Funny thing is I always figured it would be the Shifter that finally killed me, not Vamps. When she sputters to a stop I drop a few bullets in the pocket of my blazer and reload. With Faithfull clutched in my hands I step from the car ready to go down in a blaze of glory.

The Vamp shows first, only now he has friends. Four metallic eyed men come to a halt about fifty feet away. A fifth, the one I shot, joins them a few seconds later. Blood still drips from his chest and the side of his head where it looks like I might have taken off his ear with my blind shot. Vamps heal themselves, but the bullets were meant to do damage that takes a while for them to recuperate from. I had even taken the time to soak them in venom from a Patronus bite I healed hoping it would prolong their rejuvenation. The small dose of Patronus venom on the bullet would slow the Vamps down, not kill them. It would do nothing to the Patronus following me.

The wounded male pushes to the front of the group to stalk towards me. Pure unadulterated rage pours off the pink eyed Vamp. I don’t wait, I fire. Hitting him between the