***
“Get the hell away from me, woman!” roared the man standing in the middle of the foyer, as he staggered back and forth, barely able to stay on his feet. Catherine and Rhiannon stood on either side of him waiting to catch him when he fell.
“You can barely stand up! Where the hell do you think you are going, Marcus?” Rhiannon pleaded with him.
“Marcus, what are you doing?” Roderic demanded of his friend. The illness in Marcus was evident in the obvious weight loss, and the fever that was ravaging his body, burning in his eyes.
Roderic winced when Marcus bellowed, “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that Niall’s coming?” he demanded. “I have to find out by overhearing Rhiannon and Catherine talking. I should have been informed immediately.”
“I found out two hours ago. Besides, what difference would it make? You’re sick!”
“I’m well enough to deal with Niall. Where the hell are my clothes?” he yelled at the women. Roderic motioned for everyone to back off, leaving Marcus teetering on his unsteady legs.
Eve watched as what little colour was in Marcus’s face drained away in his struggle to stay upright. Her entire demeanor changed as she went into doctor mode. Walking up to a rapidly fading Marcus, she grabbed his arm, and steered him to a chair.
“Are you trying to kill yourself?” she demanded, checking her patient’s pulse when he collapsed in the cushioned chair.
“Who are you?” he demanded of her.
“I’m your doctor, that’s who I am, and you will get back into bed, right now,” she ordered him.
“I have a job to do,” he tried to tell her, but she wasn’t listening. “Caleb,” he pleaded with his brother.
Eve glared a challenge to Roderic and the others who had joined them. “No,” Eve ordered, “I’m the doctor here, not you, so what I say goes. You’re not well enough to do anything, and unless you can tell me what is wrong with you, you will do as you are told.”
Marcus pushed her away, using his quickly waning strength to push himself to his feet. Swaying back and forth, he stayed quiet, too sick to argue, only strong enough to stare at her.
“And here I was under the impression that you were going to be stubborn. Gentlemen, get him back into bed,” she ordered Caleb, who was standing close enough to grab him when he fell.
“I’m fine,” Marcus argued, as he attempted to shake off their hands.
“Marcus,” Caleb told him, “you’re not fine.”
“But Niall will want to see me, we have much to discuss. The sorceress, the attack on Sanctuary...”
Roderic stepped next to his friend, holding Marcus up, “Stop my friend; the rest of us can help. Kayne, Caleb, and I will see to it. Trust us, okay?” Marcus sagged into his brother’s arms.
Caleb looked at their cousin, Kayne, who along with one of the others had picked him up. “Take him back to his room please.”
Eve watched as her patient was carried back up the stairs, before turning to face both Caleb and Roderic, seeing their worry for Marcus.
“He’s not good,” she told them. “I would really like to do some blood work, and maybe a CAT scan.”
“Why?” Caleb wanted to know.
“Why? Because he is a very sick man and those tests might tell me what it is I need to know in order to make him better.” She watched the looks that past between them. “What?” she demanded.
“Well ...” Caleb hesitated.
“Oh gods, you are unbelievable. You may think you’re indestructible, but you’re still flesh, blood, and bone. If you want me to help, then you have to let me do what I need to in order to make that happen.”
“Fine, draw your blood, but I’m sure it won’t show you anything,” Caleb told her.
“We’ll see,” Eve told him, as she walked away to check on both her patients. Kevan watched the entire drama unfold from the door of the breakfast room.
“So, is that why Roderic left the room earlier? Niall, your Prince, is coming?” Caleb turned to face Kevan.
“So it would seem,” he stated.
“You don’t seem too concerned?”
“Unlike your Princes, Niall doesn’t really go for the pomp and circumstance. He has the title and the position, but he is just one of us; as your sister has just pointed out, we are still only flesh, blood, and bone,” Caleb explained. “All we need to do is make sure that we have a room ready, stock up on our tequila, and have a car ready for him. Niall … how do I say this in mixed company?”
“Niall’s a party boy, and that’s what he’s here to do,” Brody added, appearing from the den.
“Exactly,” Caleb agreed.
Kevan was tempted to bug Brody about ghosting about, appearing from some unseen room, but stilled her tongue before it got carried away.
“So, now tell me, why didn’t you want Eve to draw blood?”
“What are you talking about? I agreed to let your sister draw blood,” Caleb told her.
“Only after you thought about it for a minute; you really didn’t want to let her do it, but you’re worried enough about Marcus, and how sick he really is, that you agreed to it.”
“Your point being…?”
“We humans, if we’re lucky, can live to be hundred or so. How long do you live?”
“What difference does that make?”
“That’s what you’re worried about, that something might show up in your blood that could expose you to the whole world,” Kevan stated. “You have to admit that the knowledge of the other Races in the general population would cause a huge problem for you guys. You could be kidnapped and experimented on, to see what makes you tick.”
“Yes, correct, we’re worried about the wrong person seeing the blood work, and what it might reveal,” Caleb admitted.
“I’m surprised you’ve never had it tested before, just to know what would show up. I’m also kinda surprised you don’t have physicians in your ranks.”
“That would mean trusting someone outside of our circle, and that isn’t something we do easily, just like some others we are getting to know,” Caleb admitted. “Remember, we’re warriors by nature. Field first aid we can do, but none of us has had the interest to study further.”
“Well, if you are really worried, talk to Eve, she’s a Doctor, she wouldn’t do anything that would put you in harm’s way. Eve took an oath, which she takes very seriously. Explain your concern; you might be surprised by her response.” Caleb watched her for a moment.
“If I thought for one moment that she would do any harm to my brother, she wouldn’t have gotten within ten feet of him. She’s a healer, so we have to trust that she will put the good of her patient ahead of anything else. We’ve spent centuries protecting ourselves from discovery, because we believe that the world isn’t ready for the knowledge of us yet.”
“I would have to agree with you on that,” Kevan stated.
“I’m glad we can agree on something. Please tell your sister that it’s not only Marcus’ life, but all of our lives in her hands,” he paused, letting that sink in. “We’re placing our trust in you, all of you, whether you want to believe it or not.” He turned and strode up the stairs, followed closely by Roderic. Kevan watched them before she turned at the sound of Brennan’s voice.
“You’re really are going to trust them,” Brennan had stayed quiet during the exchange with Caleb, but her face promised a lecture, “aren’t you?”
“They’ve proven trustworthy so far,” Kevan stated.
“We’ve known them, what, 16 hours, and you’re making assumptions that they are totally good. Don’t you remember our family history at all?”
“Yes Brennan, I remember our family history, and no I am not assuming that they are totally anything. Until they prove that they aren’t trustworthy, or I sense that something is off, I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
“Just know, by the time you’re proven wrong, or sense something, it might be too late,” Bren
nan reminded her. “You can go ahead, give them the benefit of the doubt; I’m going to go home, I have a shop to open. Raven’s well enough to go home, so we are going. You can do as you wish.”
Kevan watched her sister start to walk away. “You’re really upset,” Kevan threw at her, “because I want to give someone the benefit of the doubt?”
“Kevan, I’m disappointed that you can brush aside our family history so easily. I can’t; I’m sorry, it’s just not in me. I have chosen to believe what our parents and grandparents have told us. I’m not giving the cairbare the benefit of the doubt, and once I leave here, I will do everything I can to ensure that we stay away from them, permanently.”
“Brennan, when did you become so judgmental, couldn’t they be telling us the truth? That is a very real possibility, you know.”
“Kevan, you don’t get it. It doesn’t matter if they’re telling the truth or not.”
“How can you say that?”
“You’re so blinded by a misguided perception in your head that makes you want to think of these men as being needy. You want to embrace them, and make things all better, but you have to take that risk on your own, because I can’t take it with you. I think that the chance that they aren’t what you’re hoping is too great, but as you have told me many, many times, you’re an adult and can make your own choices. I just hope the rest of you aren’t so easily swayed.” Brennan looked to the others who were watching and listening. “I don’t like the way you want to throw everything aside, and accept everything they tell you without asking any questions.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it! I have lots of questions, but the thing is, I’m willing to ask them and listen to the answers; why aren’t you?”
“Because I don’t care about either the questions or the answers, I care about our family. You need to think long and hard about the choices you’re about to make, Kevan, because it could be something that you can’t come back from,” Brennan informed her, as she headed towards the front door.
“You make it sound like it’s an either or situation,” Kevan yelled after her. “If I choose to listen, I lose you; that’s not fair, why should I have to choose?”
“We all have to make choices, Kevan, choices that we may not like, but choices none the less. So think long and hard on what you really want; otherwise it’ll have to be you live your life, we’ll live ours.” Brennan sighed without looking at her.
“And never the two shall meet again,” Kevan supplied for her.
Brennan stopped at the front door and looked at her sister, “You’re my family Kevan. I will never turn you away, but I refuse to take the risk you seem so eager to embrace. Do as you wish; just don’t involve me. That’s all I have to say about this.” Brennan moved out of sight.
Kevan suddenly felt very lonely, something she had never felt before. She looked around at the other members of her family. “So, are you all going to cut me out of your lives if I decide that I want to find out the truth?” Kevan demanded of them. Myrna walked over to her cousin, giving her a quick hug, but she didn’t say a word as she followed Brennan out the door. One by one, the others followed suit, until she stood alone in the foyer, her heart breaking as fast as her resolve had set in.
Brody stood just out of sight as he watched the interaction between Kevan and her family. He liked Roderic’s house for the way the doors seemed invisible, tucked in beside massive bookcases or cabinets. Bedrooms and baths had doors so deeply recessed that the halls seemed blank, colour masking telltale shadows. The doors in the kitchen blended in with the fridges. It was kind of spooky how people would just seem to appear.
At first, he was tempted to turn and walk away, leave her to her battles, but something stopped him and he turned back, seeing the tears slide silently down her face. She needed a friend, he understood that, recalling a time in his life when someone had held out a hand in friendship when he had thought he was alone. He walked up behind her, touching her arm, turning her to face him. “You alright?”
Reading the concern in his face, “I don’t know,” she whispered, as emotions bubbled up, and she fought not to let it out. “It’s always been us, all of us against the world. Now I feel like I’m all alone.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Looking up, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, “I’ve got to get out of here,” her voice cracked as she tried to keep it together.
“Come on, let’s take a ride,” he offered, “maybe it’ll help you forget your worries, at least for a little while.”
Kevan stared at him. “A ride.” she felt that instant, what would Bren say before nodding her agreement. Taking the offered hand, she followed him out of the house, climbing on the back of his waiting bike.