Jonni nearly broke down in tears. She had been close to losing everything she had suffered to obtain. One more wish and Lucius would have made her his slave - - again. But she wasn't out of danger yet!
Spinning on her heel she turned to face he creature that had stolen her grandfather's flesh. He was gently floating toward her, radiating invisible power. Jonni had no way of instantly knowing if this thing thought it was her real grandfather or if he was still some twisted menace borne of ill considered wishes - - and she had no intention of waiting to find out.
Clutching the stone to her pillowy chest in one clenched fist, Jonni cried out in a voice high and tight with fear, "I wish you were trapped in a cave in stasis somewhere until I call for you!"
In an eye-wrenching blink of white light, the resurrected form of Grandpa Jack disappeared. Jonni gasped in relief. Whoever the white-haired revenant thought they were was immaterial. With Grandpa's powers they were a threat.
So the voluptuous redhead was left with the burnt and nearly unrecognizable corpse of her husband. She had made a nearly fatal mistake by assuming that DeMorrell's wish they share a bed as husband and wife might be sidestepped by just curling up beside his paralyzed form when it was time to sleep. She was protected from that now, but she was still left with how to return him to a living, but more tractable state.
Jonni realized now that no matter how he was physically subdued her monster of a husband might find some way to outwit her. Maybe she could try it the other way around? After pondering things for a few minutes she buzzed Lucia on the intercom and asked her to come to the office. They had a few things to iron out before she made her next wish.
The next morning found Jonni back home in Lake Pointe, but it was not any sort tof homecoming she had ever imagined. For one thing, she was a woman and more than that, the mother of twin girls. The other thing was that she was married. Her husband, Luke, spent most of the day moving and unpacking boxes while she tending to setting up the new nursery. His name wasn't really Luke any more than hers was Joan, but those were the new identities set up for them by a cooperative witness protection program arranged by Interpol and the FBI.
Assassins had tried to kill Lucius DeMorrell in order to destabilize and take over his vast black market empire. The gunshot had missed its mark. It didn't kill him. Just his memories. He was still a strapping physical specimen and his language and thinking skills were mostly unimpaired, but the devious mind and its wealth of information about the workings of his illicit business dealings was wiped clean.
Jonni agreed to tell everything she knew, which was quite a lot, but she had conditions of her own. Immunity, passports, new identities, and they got to take her two bodyguards and a generous portion of Lucius's ill-gotten wealth with them. They bought the old Grandhorn place on the bluffs overlooking Lake Pointe and quickly moved in. Lucia was left in charge of the legitimate remnants of the DeMorrell Corporation, which was simplified by making her DeMorrell's biological daughter by an Argentinian maid he seduced in his youth. That way Jonni and her husband could be left to enjoy a boring life of domestic ease.
The twins fed Jonni buttoned up the front of her simple green dress and quietly shut the door behind her. Stopped by the bathroom she sat down to relieve herself and then ran a brush through her red hair. She still wore it boyishly short, but there was no denying the womanly body - - or its urges. When Luke crept up behind her and enfolded her in a big hug there was no denying the hardness prodding at her round bottom either.
"Are they asleep?" He kissed her ear, which always made her squirm.
"Yes," Jonni said with a chuckle, unable to help the blush rising to her cheeks. She still had to do a lot of getting used to being a woman and wife. The stone gave her any knowledge she needed, but she was leery about wishing for her mind to adapt or accept. There were too many variables with that kind of a wish. Best to just learn to live with her new role and body the old fashioned way.
"Do you want to take a nap?" DeMorrell whispered huskily.
"Not if you mean taking an actual nap," Jonni pressed her buttocks back against Luke and wiggled a little. She couldn't believe how shameless she had been getting lately. They had christened nearly every room in the new house over the last day, but her husband was insatiable and thanks to his wishes she didn't exactly hate all the physical attention.
"Well, let's go then," DeMorrell swept her up into his brawny arms and carried her to the bed. A few moments later they were both naked. As Luke pressed her back into the pillows, gently spreading her legs, Jonni briefly wondered if she should let her friends and family know she was back in town. A moment after that Luke thrust himself deep inside of her and she forgot about thinking at all.
