The Weapon Bearer's Son

by Steven F. Warnock

  “Hi, I’m Athena Duchen. I’m looking for Mac and KC.”

  “Oh, hi! I’m Mack’s youngest sister, Anna. Anna Monroe.”

  Athena smiled appreciatively as she shook the hand Anna offered to her. “Now, I didn’t think Mack actually had any sisters, not by blood, but you’re just as pretty as he is handsome.”

  Anna’s blush gave Athena a little thrill. Then, Athena realized what was happening and started reciting the points of Montana State law that she’d been studying recently. Her estrus always started on the first Saturday of the month, which tomorrow would be, and she was feeling the swell towards her heightened hypersexual state.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be all flirty and embarrassing,” Athena apologized.

  “You’re a Cupid, right?”

  Athena nodded.

  Anna tapped her nose. “I can smell it and the Fae. I’m guessing you’re feeling the affects of some kind of geas, right?”

  Athena nodded again, impressed by this young woman’s perception.

  “My boyfriend is a sidhe with some Infernal ancestry,” Anna said as she tucked one of Athena’s hands into the crook of her arm and began to guide her toward another house on the other side of the football field sized yard. “Now, he’s got a really weird geas that disrupts our lives every three months.”

  “Is that so?” Athena mused as they walked. She realized that the distance to the other house was a bit further than she had estimated, closer to 125 yards as opposed to a mere 100.

  “For one whole day he can’t eat meat, and he can’t have any kind of physical contact with a woman, but at the same time...” Anna lowered her voice and looked around to make sure none of the children were nearby... “he gets this raging boner that just won’t go down, not for the whole day!”

  “And he can’t have any physical contact with a woman? Wow. That’s gotta suck.”

  “Yep. The crazy thing is, he doesn’t have any sex drive during that time. At the end of the day, he urinates this black bile, and everything returns to normal. Have you ever heard of anything like that?”

  Athena shook her head. “No, but your story has distracted me from my personal problems for the moment.”

  “Here we are!” Anna declared as they rounded the second house to reveal the recreational vehicles parked there.

  “They weren’t kidding about the big blue bus, were they?”

  “No, but they’ve been living out of the Airstream ever since they got back. The social worker just left a little while ago, and they’ve been approved to be Billy’s foster parents, and the adoption process has started. Hey, Mack! Look what I found! Your pretty little lawyer girlfriend.”

  Mack grinned when he saw his sister arm in arm with Athena. “Get one thing straight, Anna: Athena is KC’s girlfriend, pending Pilar’s approval.”

  Athena was enveloped in a bear hug by Mack.

  “Well, I’ll let you have your reunion with your friend in peace,” Anna giggled. “Athena, you’ll be expected for dinner in the Lodge tonight. Mom and Dad will want to get to know Mack and KC’s new ‘business partner’.”

  “C’mon. KC’s on Busster with Billy, making him do math problems,” Mack chuckled.

  “Why? Isn’t school out yet, or is that next week?”

  “No, school’s out as of yesterday, but Billy has tested as gifted in math, which has KC gooey with delight, so she’s making it her mission to turn Billy into as big a math geek as she is. Crazy thing is he likes it.”

  “Takes all kinds,” Athena grinned.

  “We started teaching him to shoot when we first got here back at the start of April, and now that he knows long range shooting involves math, that’s the kind of problems the two of them are working on.”

  “How are the legs working out for him?”

  “Really well. He’s already doing cartwheels, but he’s smart enough to pretend that he can barely walk. I think he’s enjoying the attention.”

  Mack ushered Athena onto the bus. KC and Billy were seated at the bar table on the far side of the refrigerator. Billy was a little surprised when KC jumped up and ran to hug the newcomer.

  “Billy, I want you to meet your Auntie Athena,” KC pronounced.

  “Auntie?” Billy and Athena repeated in unison.

  “I think it sounds nicer than just plain ole ‘aunt’, don’t you?” KC explained. “Auntie Pilar; Auntie Athena...”

  “What about your sisters?” Mack asked.

  “Oh, those bitches he can just call ‘ma’am’.”

  “Wow, Mom!” Billy exclaimed. “That is messed up!”

  Athena grinned and crouched down by Billy’s chair. “You are a very handsome little man, sir, and I would very much like to be your Auntie.”

  Billy shrugged and glanced over at Mack. “Can we keep her? She’s got very good taste.”

  “Yeah, Mack, can we keep her?” KC asked, sticking out her lower lip.

  “Athena? You want us to keep you? Even though that makes you sound like a stray dog we found?” Mack asked.

  “Yes, please and thank you!” Athena responded. She turned back to Billy. “Now, you, mister, why don’t you show your Auntie what you and your Mom were working on?”

  “Ballistics tables,” Billy said. “I’m gonna do a science project on comparing the velocity and muzzle energy of a variety of types of ammunition within the same caliber, probably a .22 since I’m not allowed to use anything bigger yet. KC was just showing me how to create a statistical group.”

  “If you want anything bigger, I’ll do the shooting for you, little partner,” Mack laughed.

  “Are you a monster bounty hunter, Auntie Athena?” Billy asked.

  “No, I’m a lawyer, but I’m gonna learn how to be a hunter so I can help Mack and KC run their business,” Athena replied. “Maybe we can learn how to shoot together?”

  Billy grinned. “Cool. Have you met Pilar and Liam yet?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “Can I go get them?” Billy begged.

  “Okay,” KC smiled, “but take your time and don’t forget your crutches!”

  Billy was already halfway out the door before turning around to come back and grab his crutches. “Sorry. Forgot.”

  “I think I’m in love with your son,” Athena sighed.

  “Well, that’s good because we want you to be one of his godparents along with Pilar and Liam,” KC said.

  “Really?”

  “If you’re gonna be living with us, yes, we want you to help us raise our kid,” Mack confirmed. “Any future kids, too.”

  “Okay, speaking of kids and how they come into this world, tomorrow is the first Saturday of the calendar month, and I’m already feeling my estrus starting,” Athena admitted. “I kinda flirted hard with your sister.”

  “The family has been warned about your geas,” Mack said. “However you want to deal with it, we’re here for you. If you want us to take you to a singles bar, we will. There’s a surprising number of folks in Bozeman on that Paraweb dating app.”

  “No. No more ‘dates’,” Athena said. “If I have to, I’ll take cold showers and burn out my vibrator.”

  “Freebie Five, Mack,” KC said.

  “We’ll talk about it tonight, in private. Billy’s coming with Liam and Pilar.”

  Athena looked out the window. “Oh my god. They’re gorgeous. I just wanna tuck her in my pocket, and he’s boy band pretty!”

  “Settle down there, Athena,” KC giggled. “You can handle this.”

  “Yeah, but later I want to hear exactly how this geas of yours is worded,” Mack said. “Figure out the loophole to fix you.”

  Athena nodded gratefully and readied herself to meet her new business partners. The initial business meeting was kept short and on the topic of the partnership agreement. Athena drew up the document, carefully going over every clause in the contract, keeping her explanations simple, and closing whatever loopholes anybody else spotted.

  “That’s the bones of it,�
� Athena declared. “Unless you want to go over the details of our partnership assets?”

  “No, I think we all need a break before we do that,” Mack declared. “Come on, Athena. It’s time you met the Double M family.”

  “Yeah, about that, I need to get some documents from my car. Matters of Uncle Ebenezer’s will that I need to execute,” Athena said. “Did you hear the details yet?”

  Mack shook his head. “I felt it when he died, though.”

  Athena frowned sadly. “I’m sorry to hear that. Fischer and Perkins contacted me. According to them, Ebenezer made it to Georgia, but not before zig-zagging across North and South Carolina.” Athena giggled. “He went to Pigeon Forge and spent a couple of days at Dollywood and taking in shows.”

  “Bucket list kinda stuff,” Liam guessed.

  Mack nodded. “I didn’t know him for long, but he seems like an eccentric.”

  Athena continued the story. “The report says he made it to Dillard, Georgia, just over the state line.”

  “I bet he went to the Dillard House,” Mack chuckled.

  “Oh, the food is so good there!” KC enthused.

  “We chased down a Cherokee forest spirit in the area that was getting hikers lost and feeding on their fear,” Mack explained.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, that’s where he made his last stand, at a horse stable on the Dillard House’s grounds.” Athena smiled now, still sadly, though. “Six Cutters showed up for him. He killed three, badly wounded the fourth, and I double checked: no green haired woman among the dead and wounded.”

  Mack’s face had grown stern. “We need to find her, first,” he ground out.

  “What? Why?” Pilar demanded.

  “Her name is Althea Baylor. She’s the twin sister of the man who killed my parents, and, according to Ebenezer’s copious files...” Mack patted Ebenezer’s laptop laying in the driver’s seat of Busster... “she is a vindictive psychopath. I mean, she’s got a geas-level compulsion to seek revenge.”

  “Oh, god,” Athena gasped. “Mack, I didn’t take any kind of precautions to hide the fact that I was coming here. What if Alpha followed me here or had me followed here?”

  Pilar snorted. “Then, she will have picked the single worst place in the world to attack. Besides the foster group home, the Double M hosts a battered women’s sanctuary. The Monroes may not be wizards, but they know a lot of spellcasters, and those people have laid a number of early warning wards on this place. Then, there’s the fact that the Monroes are a pack of werewolves. Heavily armed cowboy werewolves protecting their young.”

  “Not to mention there are two or three packs of MacDuff werewolves in howling distance, and all of us here,” Liam added.

  “Just the same, I’m telling Uncle Silas. The green haired woman is a danger to our family,” Mack growled.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Big Sky, Montana

  Friday, June 21, 2019

  THE KIDS AT THE DOUBLE M Ranch were excited. Today was the first day of Summer, and it was the first day of the annual camping trip! Mack was giving the big Bruder trailer a final inspection before his brother, Ben, hooked it up to Silas’s big Ram 2500. Mack would be going along in his own Ram 1500, which KC had named “Red Leader,” to help carry additional tents and sleeping bags.

  “Did you call for a tow truck?” Ben shouted as he stopped the big pickup.

  “What? No,” Mack scoffed. “Keep it coming!”

  Ben ignored the oncoming tow truck and finished maneuvering Silas’s truck into position for Mack to hook the Bruder up for towing. While Mack was hitching the trailer, Ben observed the newcomer. Unlike most flatbed tow trucks, this one didn’t have any kind of company logo or phone number painted on the door. It was just a flat sort of gray color, but the vehicle loaded onto the flatbed looked familiar.

  “Mack? I really think you should check this tow truck out.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s got a blue SUV on it that looks a lot like your Toyota.” Ben noticed something else. “Hey, there’s some kind of black SUV following the tow truck.”

  Now, Mack was interested. He started walking toward the Lodge at a brisk pace just short of a jog. Ben followed at a more normal pace. He checked the RIA Rock 1911 Ultra holstered on his belt. Ben made extra money as a hunting guide, and the 10mm caliber sidearm made a great back-up piece to a client’s hunting rifle since the 10mm was on par with the .357 Magnum in stopping power. The fact that it held sixteen rounds in the magazine made it an excellent personal defense option, too, and ever since Mack had gotten back from his trip and declared the family to be in danger, every adult living on the Double M Ranch had been going strapped.

  Mack was aware of his brother’s preparedness. The MacDuff-Monroe clan were peace-loving folk by choice, but they were warriors by nature, and as ironic as it was, they were more than willing to do violence in the service of their peace. Besides, the ranch was currently hosting a passel of innocent children and several abused women hiding from their abusers. Nobody was harming a single innocent under their protection while there was still life in a single MacDuff-Monroe, which included the unofficially adopted members of Mack’s pack. He noted that Liam and Pilar had taken up vantage points on the Lodge’s front porch. Silas had stepped out onto the porch, casually holding a Winchester 1886 lever-action rifle in his off hand.

  The rest of the family were preparing themselves to rush the children to safety. That included KC who had Billy on Busster. Of course, that also gave KC access to their long-range guns, the Ruger Hawkeye Alaskan and the Thompson Center LRR, and a secure platform to fire them from atop Busster. Mack felt well covered as he approached the flatbed tow truck that was coming to a halt well short of the Lodge. The black SUV, a GMC Yukon with Wyoming plates, pulled around the tow truck and stopped a little ahead and to one side of the other vehicle.

  The driver of the SUV was a tall red-haired woman dressed like she was ready to go hiking. “I’m looking for Hieronymus MacDuff.”

  “I prefer ‘Mack’.”

  The redhead squinted at him. “I should have known. You look like a nice blend of Al and Marian.”

  “Do I know you, ma’am?”

  The redhead shook her head. “No, I don’t see why you should. My name is Ronnie Burke. I’m the Assistant Director of Operations, Southeastern Region, for the Washington Program, and I investigated your parents’ murder.”

  “You’re Uncle Ebenezer’s friend.”

  Ronnie smiled. “Aye, that I am. I’m returning your property to you at his request, along with whatever effects he had on his person...” she paused to swallow a lump in her throat... “ahem, I mean, what he had when he died. What survived the explosion.”

  “Explosion?”

  “Yes, it would seem somebody had given him a Program-issue frag grenade, which he used as a spoilsport trap there at the end. Classic Ebenezer.”

  “Did he get Alpha?”

  “No, of that we’re certain.”

  “And my uncle’s remains?”

  “After forensic examination, I took custody of the remains and had him cremated. I’ve got his ashes with me. Splurged on a fancy urn, too.”

  “Thank you, Director Burke.”

  “No, call me ‘Ronnie’.”

  “Thank you, Ronnie.” Mack noticed that she wasn’t alone in the SUV. Two men and a boy were riding with her. “Recruiting kinda young, aren’t you?”

  Ronnie smiled. “That’s my son, Lincoln, my husband, Arthur, and... Hoo, boy, he’s complicated. That is Sir Cassavus Ogmios Krey’shh’aw, Spring Knight of the Principality of Oglethorpia, Wizard of the Grey Council, recently immigrated to Earth from the Faerie Realm of Tir nan Og, my future husband.”

  Mack blinked. “Well, y’all may as well get out of the car and stretch your legs. Ben, can you show the tow truck driver where to put the Blue Runner?”

  “And where would that be?” Ben challenged.

  “With Busster. KC’ll be happy. I think.”

>   “Alright.”

  “I have some paperwork for you to sign, too, if you don’t mind,” Ronnie said.

  “Okay, um, just follow the tow truck, and y’all can park over behind the Old Homestead. We’re in the process of getting the kids off on their annual overnight camping trip. Probably have a bunch from church showing up soon, too, but we got time to talk and sign papers. With my lawyer present, of course.”

  “SO, HOW DOES THAT WORK?” Athena asked.

  “Yeah,” Pilar added. “Isn’t that kinda... loco?”

  “It’s a geas thing. Cass was gifted a vision that he would meet the woman he is to marry on Earth, and he’d know her as soon as he saw her, which is what happened the first time we met. He was smart enough not to discuss it with me then, but here we are a week later, and he goes everywhere Arthur and I go.” Ronnie snorted as she took a pull off the beer Mack had offered her. “Honestly, he and Arthur are acting like brothers separated at birth.”

  “And it doesn’t weird you out, like, at all?” Pilar insisted.

  Ronnie shrugged. “Kid, I’m a bit over three hundred years old. I met Arthur the day he was born in the same hospital where my last husband had just died, and I knew then I’d marry him when he grew up. My two worst geasa: I cannot tell an outright lie, and I always know the man I’m gonna marry next as soon as I meet him. I’ve gotten used to weird.”

  Athena and Pilar’s eyes bulged at Ronnie’s admission to her age.

  Mack looked up from the other side of Busster where he and KC were finishing the paperwork after Athena had gone over it and assured them it contained no legal traps. “Ronnie, would you mind answering a couple of historical questions for me? I mean, purely for research purposes.”

  Ronnie laughed. “Maybe in the future, Mack. Do you want to let Ms. Duchen have another crack at the paperwork or are you done with it?”

  “I’m done with it.”

  “And my name isn’t ‘Duchen’ any longer,” Athena added. “I’ve legally changed it to MacDuff.”

  Ronnie raised an eyebrow. “And you were giving me crap about having two husbands, sister-wife?”