Chapter Fourteen
“Let me go, you overgrown caveman,” Brennan spat as she ripped her arm out of Kayne’s hand. Spotting Kevan, she stormed over. “You know, you have some nerve,” she accused her, as the tirade continued. “I can’t believe you had us kidnapped!”
“I have some nerve? Look who is talking!” Kevan threw back at her. “If you would have answered any of my calls or texts, I wouldn’t have had to resort to drastic measures to get you to talk to us.”
“So it’s us now is it?” Brennan stated glaring at her with arms crossed. “I knew it, I told the others, but they all said no, Kevan won’t forget what the cairbare did to Daphne.”
“I haven’t forgotten Brennan, but unlike someone that we know and love, I’m willing to listen to all sides of the story.”
“Yeah well, you do that, but I’m not willing. You may think they’re nice guys, but we don’t, and we don’t want anything to do with them,” Brennan screamed at her sister. “We know what they did.”
“No, we know what Grandpa Joe told us,” Kevan yelled back, not backing down this time. She was tired of Brennan’s know it all attitude. “He wasn’t there, he doesn’t know what happened. He found the body and made assumptions about what he believed happened, but as far as we know, nobody has ever figured out what actually happened. Stop telling us who is, or isn’t, the bad guy, we don’t know, no let me rephrase that,” Kevan stated, getting into Brennan’s face, her finger poking into her chest. “You may think you know who the bad guys are, but I can tell right now, I know who the bad guys aren’t, and you need to accept that fact.”
“I don’t have to accept anything,” Brennan shouted, stepping away from Kevan.
“Unfortunately you do,” Eve informed her. Brennan twisted from Kevan, glaring at Eve.
“Why am I not surprised to see you here, Eve? The doctor thing is going to get you real trouble, especially if you get involved with these people,” Brennan slammed her sister as loud as she could.
“Oh Brennan, stop making an ass of yourself, it not very attractive,” Eve informed her. “I’m about to give you a few facts about these people. One thing is that they have been involved with our family for a long time,” Eve told her calmly, pushing away from where she was leaning.
“If I want to make an ass out of myself, that’s my right,” Brennan shouted, getting frustrated. They weren’t listening to her yet again, she was the oldest, and she knew what was best for all of them; when were they going to realize that?
“Well you’re right about that, Brennan. If you want to make yourself look like an ass that is your right,” Eve nodded in agreement. “But the other thing you have to realize is you can’t distort the truth, making it suit your point of view,” Eve pointed out to her.
“Ah, but you see, as our dear sister, the traitor, has just pointed out, we weren’t there. Nobody but the killer and Daphne were, so we don’t know the truth. We’ll likely never know the truth, unless you can speak to the dead?” Brennan stated, crossing her arms and giving them a smug look. “If I want to believe they were the ones behind Daphne’s murder, then guess what, that’s what I am going to believe, and there’s nothing that you can say or do to stop me.”
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong my dear, dear sister. You see, we do know the truth,” Eve stated, dropping the book she was holding onto the table in the center of the room, where it landed with a echoing thwack, “or at least we know some of it.”
“What’s that, the history of their lies?” Brennan joked, staring at the book, a worried look flashing across her face.
“It’s Great Grandma Daphne’s journal,” Eve shot back. “A while ago, when Mum realized that I wanted to be a doctor, she told me she thought I might be interested in reading Daphne’s journals. I phoned Mum a couple of days ago asking about the journals, and she thought that they were in the attic, so I went searching when everyone was out, and as you can see I found them. Last night I did a little reading, but I didn’t discover this until this morning.”
“What?” Kevan asked, feeling anxious as well as terrified to hear what Eve had discovered.
“I read her last entry,” Eve told them, the tears welling in her eyes. “It was written the day she died.” Her voice dropping to a whisper, they stood silently waiting for Eve to continue. This was something that affected all of them, and it was good that they were together when they finally learned the truth. Looking at them, reading the excitement in some and fear in others, she knew what she was about to tell them would change their lives, though whether for better or worse was still to be determined.
“Eve?” Kevan reached out to try to comfort her sister.
“I’m okay, really,” she assured her. “It’s surprisingly hard to know that the things we grew up believing were the truth, aren’t.” Drawing in a deep breath, she started to explain what she had discovered. “Daphne had seen someone that afternoon. She wrote that something was off about him. He was passing himself off as cairbare, but she knew that he wasn’t, or at least not like the cairbare she knew. She writes it was like they were and weren’t cairbare; he didn’t behave like any of the cairbare she’d ever encountered before.”
“A cairbare, who isn’t a cairbare,” Kevan looked to the guys, “does that make any sense to you?”
“Unfortunately, yeah it does,” Niall admitted reluctantly.
“What do you mean?” Brennan demanded, whirling around to confront them.
“Your sister’s right and wrong about who may be responsible for Daphne’s murder.” Caleb looked at Niall while still watching the women’s confusion.
“You’d better explain, Niall,” Caleb told him.
“It was a cairbare, just not a warrior,” Niall stated. Kevan gasped as it suddenly dawned on her what he was meaning.
“One of Joseph’s people!” she whispered.
“Who the hell is Joseph?” Brennan insisted. “What the hell does he have to do with Daphne’s murder?” Kevan suddenly whipped around, as something invaded her senses. Holding up her hand, she silenced everyone, scanning the room. Watching Kevan hunt through the room ramped up their wariness and concern, especially when she caught the scent of something.
“Show yourself, you bastard!” Kevan shouted, staring at the bookcases. She needed to stay calm and focus, but a creepy feeling that buzzed through her gut made control of her senses difficult.
“Kevan ...?” Eve questioned taking a step towards her sister.
“I’m fine; I just really hate when people drop in unannounced, and eavesdrop on private conversations. He’s listening to every word we’re saying, and I think if he wants to hear what we’re talking about, then he should show himself, join the conversation. Isn’t that right, Joseph?” And Kevan reached out, grabbing hold of what appeared to be nothing, but the second she touched him, his disguise spell broke, and he became visible to all. Feminine gasps and male groans landed on the sorcerer at his appearance out of thin air, and anger washed over him from all.
“Well, well. Joseph, so nice of you to join us again,” Niall greeted his brother. He wasn’t happy that they hadn’t sensed him. “So do you have something to tell us? Perhaps an explanation about why you feel free to trespass.”
“Tell you about what?” Joseph questioned, staring at Kevan, who still held his arm. He was shocked that this woman, who’d never had a minute of training, had detected his spell. He was very good at invisibility; most people never knew when he was there, but she had known from the moment he had stepped into the room.
“You heard what we were talking about,” Eve questioned; “What do you know about the murder of our great grandmother?”
“I didn’t know your great grandmother; it’s the warriors that mingle with the humans. We sorcerers don’t, so what would I know about the murder of your great grandmother 80 some years ago.”
“You are so busted, buddy!” Kevan shouted, ma
king everyone jump.
“Excuse me?” he looked at her; she was starting to make him nervous.
“If you don’t know anything about Daphne’s murder, as you claim, then how the hell would you know that it was 80 years ago? You bastard, if you had anything to do with her death, I will see that you suffer.”
Caleb took her hand, pulling her away from Joseph, giving her the time to get her emotions under control. Caleb didn’t trust that Joseph wouldn’t do something to hurt Kevan; his anger over the accusation she had hurled at him surged over him and they could all see and feel it.
“I had nothing to do with your great grandmother’s death,” Joseph snapped at them, before he looked to his brother, and admitted something that he really did not want to admit to them, or to anyone for that matter. “I think I may know who was responsible.” Silence engulfed the room. Not even a breath was detectable as they waited for him to continue with his remarks, until a voice broke the hush that had settled over the room.
“Joseph?” Niall questioned his brother, needing answers.
“It was Dreyden,” he remarked with no emotions. Kevan saw the look that passed over Niall’s face, more surprise than anger, which confused her.
“What?” she questioned, wanting to know what was going through his mind.
“Who’s Dreyden?” Brennan demanded sick of being uninformed, as the men all stood silent watching each other. “Who is Dreyden?” she asked again, only louder. The anger erupted as Niall stared at his brother.
“Damn it, Joseph, what the hell happened?” he yelled at him. Kevan was getting pissed that he was not listening to her, and she grabbed his arm, capturing his attention.
“DON’T talk to him, talk to me,” she demanded. “Who’s this Dreyden, and why would he want to kill Daphne?” Niall’s attention turned back from Kevan to Joseph, who stood defiant and smug as ever.
“Well, are you going to answer them, or are you going to stand there acting like you know nothing. I’m telling you, if I’m the one that starts explaining, you will not like what I have to say,” Niall warned.
“Fine!” Joseph hissed at his brother. If anyone was going to tell the story then it should be someone who knew the whole story, and the warriors didn’t know the whole story, and he wasn’t looking forward to informing them about what they’d missed. “Dreyden is a sorcerer,” Joseph explained.
“I think we kinda figured that one out on our own. What I would like to know is what he had to do with Daphne’s death,” Kevan barked at him.
“Dreyden’s a dark sorcerer,” Joseph announced, and with that one statement, the tension in the room that was already riding high, tripled.
“What the hell is that?” Brennan ground out, resenting every second she had to spend with these people.
“Ah, I’m kinda with Brennan on this one,” Kevan told him. “What the hell is that?”
“Dreyden is the former head of the council of L’Dern,” he told them, expecting them to understand what he was talking about.
“Okay, here’s the thing, you need to think like we have no idea what you are talking about, due to the fact that we don’t,” Kevan informed him. Joseph shook his head, looking at his brother.
“Have you taught them nothing?” Joseph spat at Niall.
“Hey don’t blame us, we’re just learning about this too,” Niall threw back at his brother. “Hell, the last time you even consented to talk to me was, what, almost 100 years ago, and that lasted for all of about 5 minutes, long enough for you to not listen to me, and to tell me that you weren’t interested in anything that I had to say, before you even knew why I had contacted you.”
“What did you want to tell me?”
“That’s not important, we dealt with it ourselves,” Niall stated. “But this is something that you should have told us.”
“We’ve been dealing with it. Besides you couldn’t even look after the one thing that was your responsibility. You were to ensure that they knew the history of the races,” Joseph spat. “You couldn’t even do that right. So why would we want your help with anything else?”
“Sounds like you can blame yourself for it not happening,” Kevan butted in, “because the cairbare weren’t even in our lives until about a week ago, and even that was an accident. If it was up to my family, we’d never have had anything to do with any of you. See, my family’s been blaming them,” Kevan pointed at Niall and the others, “for the murder of our great grandmother, when it would seem they’re innocent, just like they have always claimed. Now you, I’m not so sure about. What do you know about our great grandmother’s murder?”
“Hold on, we’re getting off track,” Brennan stated. “We need to hear what he has to say about this Dreyden character, and I want to know why they all reacted the way they did when he told them that he was, whatever?”
“Thank you,” Joseph told her, “At least one of you knows when to listen to reason. Now, have you ever heard about magic?”
“Joseph, don’t push it,” Niall growled a warning at him.
“Fine. As you know, there are many different types of magic. White, black, good sorcerers, dark sorcerers, earth magic etc.,” He paused and looked at his audience. “Good, I haven’t lost you. Magic users use all magic, but most pick one type and stick with it. Mixing magical qualities is dangerous, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be deadly, especially dark magic. Magic takes energy, and what it takes from a user depends upon what magic or spell is cast. We didn’t know that Dreyden had been practicing dark magic. We knew that he was researching it, but when we discovered that he was practicing dark magic, we had no choice but to ask him to step down from the council. He wasn’t happy with the decision of the elders, at my urging, to have him removed as head of the council. He claimed that he was the only one able to withstand the corruption that dark magic instills in the one invoking it. He was ordered to stop all his research, and his practice of dark magic. He agreed, albeit with the greatest reluctance. Unfortunately, he went right back to it as soon as the eyes of the council were focused on other things. We began to notice happenings, events, and when we investigated, it was discovered that he had gone against the council, and resumed his studies, experimentations as he called them, so Dreyden was imprisoned.”
“How long ago was that?” Caleb questioned.
“About 75 years ago,” Joseph stated.
“So what, he left wherever, and went directly to Daphne’s and murdered her?” Kevan asked, not sure how she was feeling about what Joseph was telling them.
“No, he spent almost 5 years searching for something. We’re not sure what, but whatever it was, it seems to have led him to your great grandmother.”
“And that’s when he sliced her throat?” Brennan spat, her anger at the cairbare careless disregard for others spilled over.
“What are you talking about?” Niall questioned Brennan. “Daphne was strangled.”
“No she wasn’t. I know the truth. Grandpa Joe told me when I was very young that Daphne was killed by someone, a cairbare, who sliced her throat,” Brennan screeched at them.
“Then he’d changed the facts to suit his belief, because Daphne was strangled. She did not die by someone cutting her throat,” Niall ground out.
“Niall’s not lying Brennan,” Roderic spoke up. “I was there, I saw her, and she was definitely strangled. If you don’t believe us, ask your mother and aunt, I’m sure they both know the truth.”
“You’re lying!” Brennan confronted him, tears flowing freely down her cheeks, as the emotions of the past few days overwhelmed her.
“No, he’s not,” Joseph commented. They all turned to face him. “Daphne was strangled. We believe he was trying to force her to tell him something. When she couldn’t or wouldn’t, he got angry and ended up killing her.”
”How do you know that?” Kevan asked. “Why go after Daphne?”
“We??
?re not sure. Our investigation was focused more on finding Dreyden; it was more critical at the time, which was all that mattered.”
“All that mattered? How can you say that? She was a person, that’s what makes what happened to her important!” Kevan cried out, furious at his lack of emotions about the murder of their great grandmother. His saying it wasn’t important just made her angrier.
“I’m sorry, she was only a healer, a very good healer, but nothing else,” Joseph stated.
“She was a wife and mother, and she was our great grandmother. She never got to see her only child grow up, get married and have her own family,” Kevan snapped. “So you need to understand, she was much more than just a healer, as you say.”
“If she was only a healer, then why go after her,” Kaitlyn challenged. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“I have to agree with Kaitlyn, as much as I find that disturbing,” Marcus growled, eyeing Joseph warily.
Joseph looked at the general, noticing the underlying weakness in Marcus’ body, but he didn’t want to deal with the stubborn man right now.
Eve moved in closer to the sorcerer, demanding, “Tell us what you know about what Dreyden wanted?”
“What are you talking about Eve?” Kevan questioned her.
“He knows something, something about Daphne’s murder, something that none of the rest of us knows, and whatever it is, it could explain why Daphne was targeted.”
“Why do you say that?” Kevan looked to her sister, suddenly worried by the look in her eyes. There was something new yet very old moving within her sister. “Eve, are you okay?”
“I know it, I can feel it. With every fiber of my being, I know that he’s holding something back. I don’t know what it is but ...”
Eve’s entire body shook as a sudden rush of energy exploded through her body, and faster than any would have thought possible, she latched onto Joseph’s arm. His reaction was instantaneous. He tried to pull his arm from her grip, horrified when he discovered he couldn’t free himself.
“Let go!” he ordered her.
“Tell the truth! I DEMAND the truth!” her voice allowed no argument. Eve’s body suddenly stilled, and they all saw the energy building, beginning to emanate all around her. It was thrumming through her body on the ebb and flow of her emotions. The energy built bubbled over and surged through Eve, slamming into Joseph where she held his arm. His body jerked as he attempted to loosen her grip on his arm; he needed to get away from whatever she was doing to him. “The truth!” she demanded of him.
“I don’t have anything to tell you,” he ground out, cringing as the pain radiated from where her hand gripped his arm, tendrils moved outward through his body. He attempted to twist his way out of her grip, but she was a hell of a lot stronger than she looked. Roderic could see something was happening with Eve, they all could, and he took a step towards her to try to help.
“Eve?” he inquired, but she turned, throwing up her other hand, stopping him.
“No!” she yelled, making them all jump as an energy bolt jumped from her hand, smashing into Roderic. The energy picked him up and tossed him across the room, bouncing him off the far wall. He slid to the ground in a crumpled heap.
“Eve, what the hell are you doing?” Kevan screamed in horror while Kaitlyn and Marcus raced to where Roderic lay dazed, but okay.
“The truth!” Eve yelled at Joseph. Tightening her grip, they could see he was rapidly losing color, as the pain she was pushing through his body took hold. Joseph attempted to shimmer, tried using numerous spells, anything to break her grip, but nothing was working. Her grip tightened on his arm, once again. He had to get away from her, and soon, for she was unknowingly drawing on his power. Adding it to her own untamed magic, she could kill him. If she wasn’t stopped, she would drain his life force, effectively ending him. For the first time in a very long while, he felt scared, his emotions felt ancient and unused, giving him a feeling of weakness unlike anything that he could recall. That was why he had trained himself to look beyond them. Emotions were useless, he didn’t need or want them, and he hated that these women had exposed what he had buried for so many years.
“Eve!” Kevan shouted, as she attempted to get her attention. She shook off Caleb’s attempt to stop her. “Eve, look at me.” The face that turned to her wasn’t Eve, it was a distortion, and Kevan felt a ripple of fear race down her spine.
“Eve, this is not you!” Kevan blurted out, anything to get through to her. “Eve, you’re a doctor. Honey, you want to stop pain, not cause it.” If she hadn’t been watching Eve so closely, she wouldn’t have seen the hesitation that washed over Eve’s body. “Eve,” she tried to work the hesitation, “Eve, damn it!” Kevan shouted her anger tight and visible. That got the attention she was looking for. “Listen to me, we’ll get the truth, I promise, but not like this.” She took a cautious step towards her sister.
She could see that she was getting through, so she pressed on, talking to Eve quietly, calmly, even though that was the last thing that she was feeling. Her heart raced and she could feel the trickle of sweat winding its way down her back as she continued to talk. “Eve, you have to stop,” Kevan pleaded with her. “Stop before you kill him. If he dies and you’re responsible, you’ll never forgive yourself,” Kevan beseeched her, as she watched the tears flowing down Eve’s face. Kevan pushed her own insight, trying to see every minute change, fearing she was losing the battle, when she heard it. A weak and desperate plea escaped Eve’s magical override, and nothing could stop Kevan from answering that plea.
“Help me?” Eve whispered.
“It’s about time kiddo, I was just getting ready to kick your ass,” Kevan cried quietly. “I’m here Eve, I’ll help you, all you have to do is just let him go.” Eve’s eyes pleaded with Kevan; she felt like she had no control over her body. She kept trying to tell herself to let him go, but the magic split her will. Her mind and her body had two different needs, the rational doctor, and the uncontrolled truth seeker, and they were working at cross purposes within her.
“I can’t,” she sobbed.
“Yes you can, just let go,” Kevan told her.
“I’ve tried, but I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t have control of my body. I can’t let go.” She gasped, struggling against the control she seemed to be losing rapidly.
Taking another step forward, Kevan dropped her voice so that only Eve could hear her. Kevan could see the pain in Joseph’s body. It convulsed with each wave of energy that surged through him. She knew if she didn’t stop Eve quickly, she’d kill him, and Kevan couldn’t let that happen.
“Help me, Kevan!” Eve begged.
“You can do it honey; see it in your mind.”
Eve squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on Kevan’s voice and what she was telling her. Slowly, after what felt like hours, a picture began to form in her mind. It was so hard, to think beyond the pulsing burn to know the truth that dominated everything. She liked the surging power rippling through her body, but deep down she knew if she didn’t stop, she’d kill the sorcerer, and she didn’t think she could live with that. In the distance, she could hear Kevan telling her to think of it like a puzzle, start with one piece then move on, so she did, thinking only of moving first one finger then the next. It was so hard, the battle continued to rage between the two parts of her body, fighting her every step.
Kevan gasped with relief when she finally saw one of Eve’s fingers move. She continued to talk to her quietly, encouraging her keep going, assuring her that she was winning. Finally, Eve inched her way to gaining the upper hand, and slowly one knuckle, then a finger at a time, released the sorcerer’s arm, and control was hers again for a second before she collapsed to the floor.
“Eve?” Kevan cradled her drained sister in her arms. “Eve, talk to me, are you okay?” Eve struggled to a sit up, looking around the room, faces staring back at her. T
hen it all came flooding back, the harm of what she had done.
“Oh my gods, what have I done?” she sobbed, as she grabbed onto Kevan’s arm. “Is he okay?” she pleaded, needing to know, and crawled towards the stunned Joseph, but he moved away from her. He didn’t want another lesson from the human today.
“He’s fine,” Kevan assured her. “What happened?” Kevan wanted to know, as she pushed Eve’s hair out of her eyes, soothing Eve’s mind even as her body still shook from the aftermath of what had just happened.
“I don’t know,” Eve cried, grateful for Kevan’s help. “I just knew he was lying about something, but I don’t understand what happened to me. I couldn’t control it. Oh gods! Roderic,” she saw him getting to his feet.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” he told her, as he moved towards her. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t really know.” She looked at Niall, then down at hands that understood healing instinctively, but had almost betrayed her by taking a life. “What happened to me?”
“I wish I knew,” Niall told her. “I’ve never seen anything like that before, but if I were a betting man, which I am, that trick had everything to do with your powers!”
“I know what happened, and I refuse to let this level of power go unleashed and untrained!” Joseph croaked forcing them all to pay attention to him, reminding everyone he was still pompous. “Leave me alone, I’m fine,” he snapped, pushing Rhiannon away, struggling to his feet, his body swaying as he fought to take control again. “It’s your powers; they’re beginning to manifest themselves. You need to learn to control them quickly, or you’ll kill someone.” Niall stepped into the animosity building around Joseph, but Kevan broke the tension with exacerbation of his attitude.
“Would you get off your soap box, we’ve already told you we’re not going anywhere with you!” Kevan advised him. “You can’t scare us into changing our minds.”
“Kevan, stop,” Eve whispered. “I know we all agreed we didn’t want anything to do with what he was offering. But I’m changing my mind. If what I did to him has to do with these so-called powers, I’m willing to take his help. I don’t want to ever experience anything like that again. We need to know how to control our new powers, whatever they might be. I thought I was going to kill him, and nothing I did would stop me. Kevan, you got through to me, but I can’t do that again. I have to be to be able to control what rides inside.” Eve felt sick at what she had almost done to Joseph, flinching over what flashed through her mind. “Trust me; you don’t want to ever do what I almost did. I don’t want you to have to go through it.”
Kevan looked from Eve to Joseph, then back to her other sisters, wondering when she’d been appointed as the one making all the decisions for them. “Fine, you can train us,” she snapped at Joseph, her voice echoing her resignation, but her attitude spoke volumes, telling him that she really didn’t like this.
“Finally, you’re seeing reason.” Joseph accepted her answer, but in the back of his mind, something nagged at his brain.
“Not so fast mister, we have some conditions,” Kevan warned him.
“Are you trying to tell me how to train you?” Joseph huffed.
“Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist,” Kevan told him.
“What?” Joseph asked, completely confused. This language that they spoke confounded him at times.
“Nothing, just agree to our conditions, and we can start; otherwise, you can just get lost.”
“What?” he demanded, as he rubbed his head, which was starting to pound. He was furious that a human was able to hurt him at this level. He couldn’t understand why these women were so aggressive, never trusting anything that he said. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, considering he thought of himself as an honorable man.
“We’re willing to let you train us, but it has to be here, and it has to be on our terms.”
Joseph scowled at Kevan, waiting for more. “Is that all?” he finally asked her.
“No, I’m waiting to see what you have to say to the first one,” Kevan told him.
“It would not be my first choice, but if it means getting all of you to take this seriously, and accept training, I will not try and remove you from here.” How he hated to concede to this pushy woman.
“Good. Next, no lying to us, ever,” she told him, “and no zapping us anywhere without permission. No. Matter. What.”
“Zapping?” he questioned.
“Shimmering,” Niall explained to his brother.
“Fine, no shimmering or lying to you. I concede to your demands. Now, if that is all, we should get started as soon as possible,” Joseph told them. “You all need a lot of training in the basics of magic before we even start on your powers. You are so far behind,” he muttered more to himself than to anyone else.
“Agreed,” Kevan told him with a nod of her head.
“Hold up there Kevan,” Brennan chimed up. “You’re being awfully presumptuous, aren’t you?” Brennan demanded of her. “Why does it sound like he is talking about all of us? Why would we want, or need, to train with Mr. Olympic here? And what, pray tell, is Eve talking about? What powers?”
“Oh gods,” Kevan whispered, realizing that she still hadn’t told the rest of what had occurred the previous night. “Okay, Brennan, you saw what happened, right?” Kevan questioned her.
“I did, and don’t think that I don’t have a whole bunch of questions regarding that, but right now, I can only concentrate on one thing. Why would we agree to train with that person? And we are training for what ?”
“To prevent you from doing what Eve just did,” Kevan stated quietly, her face scrunching up as she waited for it.
“Why would we be at risk of doing what Eve did? What the hell did Eve do, anyway?” Brennan’s anger started its slow bubble to boiling.
“Well,” Kevan hesitated, unsure of how to say what they might have done.
“Kevan?” Brennan pushed.
“Okay fine,” Kevan gave her family a dejected look. “Did anything unusual happen last night that you noticed?”
“Nothing,” Brennan told her firmly. “What are you worried about having happened?”
“Are you sure nothing odd happened?”
“Nothing,” Brennan stated, then she paused, “unless you’re talking about the power surge that cut the power to most of the Lower Mainland, but it was only for a minute. Why?” Kevan couldn’t look her in the face, knowing what was about to happen.
“Well, you see, it wasn’t exactly a power surge.” Brennan looked from Kevan to Eve, and finally to Kaitlyn, neither of whom would look at her either.
“Okay, you’d better do some explaining, and quick,” Brennan hissed at her.
“Calm down, Brennan.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down. Tell me what you did, now!” she ordered them.
“Boy, where to begin. You see, we did this ceremony thingy last night, and it was only supposed to affect us, but things kinda went haywire, and unexpected.” Kevan let what she was saying sink in.
“What do you mean kind of haywire? I really don’t want to hear this, do I?” Brennan asked her sister, closing her eyes, rubbing her forehead where she could feel a headache coming on. Kevan’s face spoke a thousand words, and confirmed her trepidation. “Don’t keep me in suspense, get on with it,” Brennan said with an impatient sigh.
“Okay, here are the facts. We were attempting to access the knowledge of our ancestors, and it wasn’t supposed to affect anyone else, until you were ready, but as I said, something unexpected happened when Niall invoked the spell.”
“What the hell have you done?” Brennan hissed at her. Kevan cringed as she heard the anger, mingled with fear, in Brennan’s voice. “Kevan, stop the stupid act, and tell me what the hell you idiots did.”
“Hey, there is no need for name calling,” Kaitlyn told her big sister, giving a smile
when Brennan shot her a look that would snap steel.
“Nobody got hurt or anything,” Kevan sighed, “but what we did last night had some unexpected consequences. The general consensus: we unlocked powers that we all have, but didn’t know about because they were bound by someone. At this point in time we don’t know who, or why?”
“You what?” Brennan whispered, barely holding onto her anger.
“Oh Brennan, you heard me. Shall I say it again? We fucked up, okay. Niall invoked a spell that was supposed to affect only those participating. You wouldn’t have known a thing, but instead, it turns out that we unbound powers that were in all of us, who knew?” Kevan tried to joke with a little giggle, but it was weak, and not believable.
“Oh, my gods, I told you that your obsession with these people was going to cause us a problem, but would you listen to me? No, you had to be the bigger person and try and befriend them,” Brennan ranted. “Now what the hell have you gotten us into?” Kevan cringed at Brennan’s anger. She had never seen her sister this angry before, and in some ways, she couldn’t blame her.
“I’m sorry,” Kevan told her, “but I can’t believe you. You’re mad because we did something that you don’t like! Well excuse me. Did you not hear the part about us having powers, or the fact we didn’t know about them, because SOME ONE BOUND THEM SO WE WOULDN’T KNOW,” Kevan shouted at Brennan.
“WE DO NOT HAVE POWERS,” Brennan asserted, her entire body shaking with fury, glaring at Caleb. “Why the fuck couldn’t you have left us alone?”
“I know that you don’t want to hear this,” Caleb stepped up to stand beside Kevan. “You’d rather bury your head in the sand, and swear at us; well, deal with it. We’re here, and we aren’t going anywhere. Have you even heard anything Kevan just told you? We performed a ritual last night that called upon the powers of your ancestors. But something we weren’t expecting happened, and it caused the power outage.” He stared at her, feeling frustrated at her stubbornness. “Your denial of your senses does not make the unbinding a lie, and bitching with ignorant prejudice, yelling at everyone, about the fact that we’re part of your life … I don’t understand you at all.”
“Caleb,” Kevan touched his arm.
“I’m sorry Kevan. She may be your sister, but she needs to start listening to us. This isn’t a joke.”
“I know,” she told him, “but let me talk to her, okay?” He gave a snort of frustration, walking away. Brennan watched the interaction between the two of them, seeing something was happening, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what, only aware of her own anger.
“Okay, I’m listening now. So we have powers. Well, I don’t. I don’t feel any different than I did two days ago, other than I’m getting really pissed off.”
“I don’t know how to make you understand this ...” Kevan stated, only to stop when Joseph interrupted them.
“With some people, their powers come in differently than others. She might not feel different, but she is,” Joseph explained. “I can sense the power now, whereas before I couldn’t, so whoever it was that bound your power was a very strong talent. And you can be sure that your talents will manifest; it just may take some time.”
“So tell me, if you can sense these so called powers, what are mine? Will they all be like Eve’s?” Brennan spat at him.
“No,” Joseph told them “All of your powers will be different. I believe that one,” he looked at Eve, “is a truth seeker.”
“A what?” Eve questioned. “What the hell is a truth seeker?” Joseph watched them.
“It is exactly what it sounds like,” he told Eve.
“So I’m a human lie detector? Lovely, if that’s what’ll happen every time,” Eve remarked.
“It won’t. This is only the beginning. As you learn to control your powers they’ll grow and evolve,” he explained, talking to her like an adult would speak to a child. Joseph was getting sick of these disrespectful humans, and the fact they had to question everything that he said.
“Evolve into what? I’m a doctor. If I can’t touch my patients without almost killing them, how the hell do I treat them?” Kevan reached out, grabbing Eve’s hands.
“Stop, you’re not going to kill anyone,” She told her sister. “You haven’t hurt me, and you won’t hurt your patients. I swear it is going to be okay.”
“She’s right. If anything, your ability to treat your patients will become even better,” Joseph tried to make her understand.
“How?” Eve demanded.
“A truth seeker is able to know what is wrong with their patient with a touch,” Joseph told her.
“Really?” Eve remarked, suddenly thinking that these powers might not be so bad after all.
“Yes, it doesn’t come right away, but when it does come, it will make you a better doctor,” Joseph stated, even though he had only his belief to go on.
“You said that we’d all have different powers. What about the rest of us, what will our powers be?” Kaitlyn wanted to know.
“We won’t know until they start to manifest themselves,” Joseph explained. “So far, we have a truth seeker, and detector.”
“Detector, huh, I guess that is me?” Kevan couldn’t help grinning. “Cool, I guess, but what about the others, when will their powers start to manifest?”
“Again, that is unknown. It will come to each of you when it comes.” Joseph looked around the room, seeing them all looking wary. What bothered him was the look of distrust they all carried in their eyes and that for some reason bothered him. He was a sorcerer, and it shouldn’t bother him that a human didn’t trust him. “If I am to train you, you’re going to have to trust me. I can’t do it properly if you don’t.” He looked at each of them. Kevan looked to her sisters, then back at Joseph.
“Sorry, can’t change how we feel. Trust is something that you have to earn, not something that you get because you demand it.” Her voice was firm and full of conviction. “Prove to us that you’re trustworthy, and you’ll have our trust. But let’s start with showing us how to control our powers.”
Joseph thought about what Kevan had said, and for the first time in longer than he liked to admit he began to shift his thinking. He had always believed that humans were to be tolerated, but not to be taken seriously. They were like children with their petty differences and squabbles, but these women were different; he wasn’t able to put his finger on how they were, but there was something about them that surprised him, and that hadn’t happened in a very long time.
“Tomorrow, sunrise, be here and we will get started,” he told them.
“What?” Myrna gasped. “Are you crazy? It’s Friday night the club doesn’t even getting hopping until midnight, I won’t be home until the early a.m., and I’m sure that some of the others work also?”
Joseph gave her a look of confusion. “Why would a club be hopping?” he asked yet again as his lack of understanding of the modern language shone brightly.
“Oh man, Joseph, you really need to get out of L’Dern more often,” Niall told him.
“You misunderstood me,” Myrna told him.
“I’d say that’s an understatement,” Kaitlyn stated with a snort of laughter.
“Give him a break you guys,” Myrna snapped at them. She gave Joseph a look of sympathy. “I work at a night club, and it doesn’t get busy until almost midnight and goes strong until early in the morning.”
Joseph scratched his head, “I wish you would all learn to speak English,” he muttered. “The way you speak is so confusing.”
“We are speaking English. How hard is that to understand?” Kevan laughed yet she felt guilty for enjoying his discomfort. “But relax, you’re not the first one to be confused, so don’t feel bad. You just need to bone up on your slang of the 21st century. Now, about tomorrow morning, those who can make it will, but at 8:30. Nobody in their right minds wants to be doing a workout at
sunrise. That’s like 4:30 in the morning.”
“But we can get so much more done.” The sorcerer wanted to be done with these creatures as soon as possible.
“Go for it if you want to start at that time, but us being there at that time, it just ain’t gonna happen. You need to understand something. We have more in our lives than just this, whatever this is. You’ll have to work around our schedules, not us working around yours, capiche?”
He got the look of a little child on his face as he reluctantly agreed to their conditions. “Good, now that we have that sorted away …,” Kevan shot a look at Brennan, daring her to object, but she stayed quiet. “You have a few questions to answer about this Dreyden fellow.”
“There really isn’t much to tell you,” Joseph stated.
“Nice try, but I’m not buying. Why go to Daphne’s? He went there for some reason, he went there for something, and I think you have an idea what that reason was,” Kevan told him.
He shifted his weight, uncomfortable under their gaze. “Fine, this is what we know, and just so you can’t accuse us of lying, we only pieced this together since your great grandmother’s murder. If we had known before, we would have tried to stop him.”
“Okay, what is it?” Kevan put to him, before turning to the other cairbare. “Obviously you know of this Dreyden character. But you are all shocked by the fact that Joseph believes that he is the one behind Daphne’s murder, don’t bother to deny it, your reaction said it all.”
“Shock, I would say that’s putting it mildly, but considering how long it has been since we have had any contact with the council, or with our fellow cairbare sorcerers, I can’t really say a whole hell of a lot. As Joseph has already stated, Dreyden was the head of council; obviously things have changed.” Niall shot his brother a look. “From what I recall of him, he was a quiet, reserved scholar, who always seemed more comfortable with a book than he did as head of the council, but surprisingly, he was very good at his job. How does someone with so much intelligence change so drastically?”
“The craving for power is addicting,” Joseph apprised them. “Being head of the council of cairbare holds a lot of power, which we believe went to his head. The change was slow and subtle, so it wasn’t something that you’d notice. His fascination with dark magic pulled him in; he’d studied it for a long time. We believe that he started to think he could use it, and not be contaminated as everyone else would, and from what we have been able to discover, he started experimenting with small spells and slowly worked his way up to bigger and bigger spells. When he was removed from the council, he was very upset; he convinced several of his friends on the council that he would stop. But he didn’t. What we didn’t know until it was too late, was how much he had been affected by the dark magic.”
“Okay, I’m confused. You talk about dark magic; isn’t that the same as black magic?” Kaitlyn questioned.
“No. It’s much, much worse. Black magic can be used, it will cost you, but you can also redeem that cost with good magic. Dark magic, on the other hand, is all bad,” Niall stated. “Dark magic is thousands of times worse. Most races don’t talk even about it.”
“Let me get this straight, there’s dark magic, black magic, white magic, good magic? I’m so confused,” Kaitlyn told them, trying to get it straight in her head. Joseph noted Marcus’s snort with interest.
“There are different levels to good magic or white magic, just like there are different levels to bad magic; dark just happens to be the worst of the worse,” Caleb explained.
“Oh, okay, that makes some sense,” Kaitlyn told them.
“May I continue?” Joseph queried them.
“Yes, please do,” Kevan told him.
“Thank you. We believed, no let me correct that, the council wanted to believe that Dreyden had stopped his studies, and his practice of the dark, but then we noticed people disappearing. We didn’t think anything of it at first, but after about five people went missing, we began checking into things, and quite literally stumbled across a body. It showed all the signs of dark magic symbols. That was when we began to realize Dreyden might be the one behind the disappearances. When he was questioned, he didn’t deny it; in fact, he went on about how we needed to know the dark as well as the light of magic . You could see it in his eyes, he wasn’t quite right.”
“So you didn’t want to deal with the problem, and you sent him out into the world?” Brennan accused him.
Joseph whirled around to face her, his entire body pulsing with anger, as he exploded at her callus accusation. “We did not release him onto the world. We are not monsters.”
“If the shoe fits!” Brennan snapped back.
“What does any of this have to do with the fit of a shoe?” Joseph demanded of Brennan.
“Figure of speech,” Kevan explained again, “It’s just a figure of speech.”
“It doesn’t matter; we did not send him out into the world. We locked him up, but it’s hard to keep a ninth level master sorcerer locked up when he knows most spells to break the locks that hold him. I thought I had found one that he might not have known. It kept him locked up for almost a year before he was able to break it. Before he disappeared, the wardroom was broken into. It’s where his spell books were stored, but he didn’t attempt to take or even access any of them. The rest of the council believed that when he found them blocked with a spell, he decided to leave without them, but I wasn’t so sure. I ordered an inventory done on the contents of the ward room.” Joseph paused; his face took on a grim look.
Kevan got a sick feeling in her stomach. “What did he take?” she questioned, afraid of what he was about to tell them. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
“It could be very bad,” Joseph admitted.
Niall looked at his brother with a sinking feeling. “What did he take?” he wanted to know.
“He took the …” Joseph stopped, not wanting to admit to them what had been taken.
“Joseph?” Niall ground out; he had to hear him say it.
“He took the Samhain diary.”
It was as if the room was suddenly devoid of oxygen, leaving the guys choking, as if breathing was suddenly a foreign act. Marcus attempted to speak, but words failed him. He just stared at Joseph, shaking his head.
“What the hell is this Sam hell diary?” Kevan demanded.
“You’re kidding right?” Niall snapped at his brother. “You’re just telling us this now? I can’t believe that you have hid this for almost 70 years. You know, we may not have always agreed on anything, but I can tell you right now, we would have never hidden this information from you for so long.” His anger was palpable in his words, his sun tattoo rising up, reflecting his ire. “This is something that affects all us, warriors and sorcerers alike. So much time has passed since his escape. Talk about a cold trail.”
Marcus finally found his words, which he didn’t mince. “How dare you allow your bigotry to put all of us in danger? As Niall said, this affects all of us. Damn arrogant sorcerers, yet again thinking only of themselves!”
“Uh, hello, I’m speaking,” Kevan spoke up, only to be ignored yet again.
“What would you have done?” Joseph threw at his brother and Marcus. “We had no idea why he took the diary, or what he would do with it.”
“That’s absolute bullshit, and you know it. You didn’t want to admit that you guys fucked up. We all know exactly why he took the diary,” Caleb threw at him, raking his hands over his head. “For fucks sakes,” he swore.
“FINE! We know why he took the diary,” Joseph admitted. “At least we believe we know why he took the diary.”
Kevan watched accusations fly back and forth between them, until she was tired of them ignoring her. Putting her fingers to her mouth, she let out a loud shrill whistle that did exactly what she wanted: she got their attention.
“Good, now that I have your attention, one o
f you had better start talking,” she looked the men in the eyes, ending with Caleb. “We’re waiting? We will hurt you so start talking right now.” Still no one spoke. Kevan got into Caleb’s face. “You’d better start talking, buster, before I tell Eve to go all ape shit on your ass, and don’t think I won’t, just because the sex is unbelievable.”
She didn’t even look in Brennan’s direction when she heard her gasp. “What is this Sam hell diary, and why would this guy, this Dreyden, want to steal it?” Caleb glared at Joseph, barely able to contain his anger at being kept out of the loop on something this big, but now he needed to explain it to Kevan, and her family, and try to make them understand just how serious this really was.
“The Samhain Diary is the diary of a madman,” Caleb stated. “According to legend, the diary is the key to finding the Drusa grimoire.”
“Okay, I feel stupid, but what the hell are you talking about?” Kevan admitted.
“It’s supposed to be directions on where to find the grimoire.”
“I understood that, but what is this Drusa grimoire?”
“Oh gods, the Drusa grimoire is a collection of spells that have been gathered for thousands of years.”
“Not just any spells,” Niall interrupted.
“Niall is correct. They aren’t just any spells; they are the worst of the worst dark magic spells. There is more information on magical use than anyone being can retain in life.” Joseph kept his voice low, almost hushed.
“Why the hell would someone put them into a book?” Kaitlyn interjected. “It sounds like the plot of a really bad B movie.”
“Yes, well, dark magic can be used by all the different races, and they all have their dark magic spells. The creator of the Drusa grimoire collected and wrote out all dark spells, creating a grimoire,” Joseph explained to them.
“Okay, I understand that. I may not like it, but I do understand. What I’m still confused on, is what does this have to do with Daphne?”
“We’re not sure, but we believe that he may have thought that she could lead him to the grimoire,” Joseph told them.
“But you don’t seem so sure,” Kevan stated.
“We have no idea,” he reluctantly admitted to them. “We had no idea what he thought until she came up dead, and even then we weren’t sure about anything other than that one of the healers of the cairbare warriors was dead under very strange circumstances.”
“Why would the Council decide to keep secret the fact one of the most powerful sorcerers in 5000 years has lost his mind, and is now searching for a book of spells that, if found, could mean the end of all of us?” questioned Niall.
“We don’t even know if it really exists,” Joseph stated. “Besides, what would you have done differently that we haven’t done? You’re warriors, not sorcerers; it’s not like you could stand up to him for even a minute.”
“Maybe not, but we sure as hell could have been on the lookout for him if we had been aware of what was happening. But yet again, you refuse to give us the necessary information, and now look where it’s gotten you, nowhere.” Niall accused his brother.
“We’ve had our best people tracking Dreyden since he escaped.”
“And look how well they’ve done with that, because according to you, he’s still missing,” Niall interrupted his brother.
“They can sense magic within a five mile radius.” Joseph threw back at Niall.
“So they’re able to sense all the witches, werewolves, vampires, fairies, and all the other supernaturals, and not be confused by it all.” Niall queried.
Joseph shot Niall a look that could kill for doubting his ability. “We know the difference between the magic of the races.”
“Stop!” Kevan shouted at them as she stepped in between them. “I’m so sick of this, it’s not even funny. You’re totally getting off the subject at hand. Why would he go after Daphne for a book that I’m sure she had never heard of; we certainly never had anything like that in the family book case?”
“Well, something led Dreyden to your great grandmother.” Joseph was losing his composure.
“So that is why you wanted us to go with you?”
“Yes, we would be better able to protect you within the confines of L’Dern,” Joseph admitted.
“Protect us from what?” Kevan asked. “We don’t know anything!” She let out a loud expulsion of air, as she tried to calm herself down. “We really appreciate that you want to protect us, but we can’t accept it,” Kevan told him.
“It might be safer for you!” Caleb was suddenly very concerned about her safety.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kevan assured him, “we can’t bury our heads in the sand. We have to deal with this whether it is here or L’Dern. We need to find out why he went after Daphne, and the only place that we are going to get those answers is here. Besides, we have you to protect us.” Caleb smiled at her. “We’re going to figure this out, then we’re going to track down this asshole, and take him out, don’t think we won’t. He went after one of our family. We may be new to a lot of this stuff, but family is family, you attack one of ours, and look out, because we’re out for blood.”
“Okay,” Caleb told her, pulling her into his arms, “We’ll stop him. I don’t know how but we will stop him.”