“Brenna, Rebecca has an immense potential as a Construct Artist. But it’s not just a technical thing. The difference between a good artist like Siobhan and a great one like your mother is imagination, and that is fueled by curiosity. I read voraciously. Many of the greatest leaders in the Clans’ history, people who have guided them through periods of great upheaval, had Shadows. It’s a pairing by the Goddess to create a force greater than two people alone could be.”
She reached out and stroked Rebecca’s cheek. “The Shadow provides the underlying bedrock for the bonding, like the framework of a construct, and the Power fills in the detail.”
“The Power?” Rebecca asked.
“Yes, that’s what someone in Brenna’s role is called. There’s a book written in Old French in the library. It took Maureen and me months to decipher it. It explains the whole thing. It also talks about some powers of a succubus that she was really excited about, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it.”
“Do you remember anything about the succubus part?” Brenna asked.
“Oh, not really. She just said it would make a huge difference in her relationship with Jack.”
Rebecca looked at Brenna, “The Drain. I’ll bet she found it.”
“Did it say anything in that book about halfs?” Brenna inquired.
“Halfs? I don’t know that term.”
“Incubi or women who carry half of the succubus gene pair.”
“Oh, yeah, it talked about incubi,” Lydia said with a toss of her head. “It talked about how to breed succubi and how it required an incubus and what it called a vessel. Very flowery language about mixing the essence of the incubus in the vessel and how to find the proper vessel. You know how writers use euphemisms for fucking. But there are no incubi.”
“Yes, there are,” Brenna said softly, “my father was one. And Rebecca is a vessel. Add together and stir, and you get a succubus. The two halves merge to form one whole. We think that it’s a dominant gene, not a recessive as people have believed. Rebecca has all the Gifts that Callie has associated with what she calls the succubus gene complex. A man, an incubus, also has those gifts. But when they combine, the result is greater than the parts. It potentiates the power.”
The look that Lydia gave Rebecca when Brenna mentioned her father was quick and sharp, but Brenna wasn’t sure Rebecca noticed.
When they got back to the compound late that afternoon, they were informed that Rosie had prepared her famous lamb roast for dinner, and Lydia was encouraged to stay. Rebecca went off to spend some time with Robbie, an old lover of hers. Brenna suspected that her energies needed a little balancing, and Robbie had always been there for her when he lived in the east. Rosie wouldn’t mind at all.
“Are you ever going to tell her?” Brenna asked Lydia.
Lydia whirled about and looked at her like a deer facing the headlights.
“She really does deserve to know. She knows she was adopted, and it hurts her a lot. She hates her biological father, and she doesn’t understand why she was given away.”
“How long have you known?”
“I think I’ve suspected for a while. My father was working on opening a San Francisco office and spent a lot of time out here twenty-seven years ago. Then he met my mother and dropped the plans. You two look so much alike, and it’s in your eyes. You don’t look at her like a friend or a lover. You touch her like she’s precious. I ran the gene matches last night. She and I have an identical X gene. It wasn’t much of a leap to run a match for her other X.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“It’s not up to me. She’ll kill me if she ever finds out I knew and didn’t tell her, but she’ll kill me if I tell her. She’ll consider it an invasion of her privacy, and she’ll be right. I can always plead that I had a right to know if I have a sister, but it’s a pretty flimsy excuse.”
Brenna went into the bathroom and started getting ready for dinner.
After dinner, Lydia asked Rebecca if she could speak with her privately. Rebecca’s room was next door, and after a few minutes, Brenna heard Rebecca shouting. The door between their rooms opened, and a livid Rebecca strode through.
“Did you know about this? Did you know about this and didn’t tell me?”
“I only figured it out last night. I’ve suspected for some time, but I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t my place to tell you, and I damned sure wasn’t going to hurt you by speculating on something that might not be true.”
Shaking with anger, her fists clenched by her side, Rebecca searched Brenna’s face, then turned and walked back into her own room, leaving the door open.
“Just tell me one damn thing. Did you give me away to strangers, head-blind strangers, because you hated me or because you hated yourself?”
Lydia answered in a very small voice, “Because I was a stupid, naïve, twenty-one year old girl who didn’t have a clue how to be a mother. I thought you would be better off with someone who was prepared to raise a child. It’s a decision I’ve gone to sleep hating myself for ever since.”
“You just couldn’t stand the sight of me. You made a mistake and didn’t want to face the evidence.”
“Oh, God no. I love you. I loved you when I first saw you. I gave you to the Healys out of love. She wasn’t a weird religious nut then. That came later. I thought they would do a better job of taking care of you than I could.” The anguish in Lydia’s voice was unmistakable.
Lydia started crying. “I knew I made a mistake. Yes, getting pregnant without telling Jack was a mistake, but not as big a mistake as giving you up. I tried telling myself it would be better for you, but I couldn’t ever stay away. I watched you on your first day at school, with that big white bow in your hair you were so proud of. I knew when you first started hearing voices in your head, and you’d go to the library because it was quiet. I tried to help. I’d go there and read stories to the children, and you’d sit in the circle listening and I’d build your shields while I was doing it. Sometimes I’d sit under your window at night while you were asleep, reinforcing them so you wouldn’t be afraid.”
Lydia was wringing her hands in her lap. She looked down at them and stopped. “I was at your first track meet, your first basketball game. I saw you graduate.” She looked back up at her daughter. “Goddess, Aine, I’m so sorry that I did that to you. I didn’t know she’d turn into that kind of bitch. Please don’t hate me.”
“What did you call me?”
“Aine. It was the name I told them to give you, but they made it your middle name. I’ve always called you that in my mind.”
“I need to get some air.” Rebecca flung open the door with a crash and strode off.
“She’ll be back,” Brenna said softly. “She has a bit of a temper sometimes.”
“She’ll be back to kill me,” Lydia mumbled through her tears. “I don’t blame her. I’ve made such a serious mess of my life. And of hers.”
“My father, did he know you were pregnant?”
“Oh, hell no. Jack O’Donnell never would have abandoned a child. He wanted children so desperately. And I thought if I gave him one he might fall in love with me. I was twenty years old, Brenna, a dumb, foolish kid. I was just a casual dalliance for him.” Lydia’s face was intense, looking directly at Brenna.
“Don’t get me wrong. He cared for me. He touched me the way no one else ever has, before or since. But he was fifty years older than I was. Then he met Maureen. He called me at Christmas, and all he could talk about was her. I was five months pregnant, and he broke my heart, but I couldn’t tell him. I’d never met her. I didn’t know how wonderful she was. She would have taken Aine in a heartbeat if she’d known, and let me be a part of her life. She wanted children as badly as he did, and she had such a hard time getting pregnant. They tried, but it wasn’t until she read that book I told you about that it finally happened, and they had you.”
Lydia covered her face with her hands. “No, Jack didn’t know, and that’s another sin I’ll carry w
ith me to my grave.”
She looked so completely miserable that Brenna knelt down and gathered her into a hug. Lydia cried as though she’d never stop.
They sat together and waited for Rebecca to return.
When she did, she pulled Lydia roughly to her feet and told her, “You lied to me. My whole life has been your lie.” She slapped her mother hard enough to make her stagger. “Don’t you ever lie to me again. I swear I’ll kill you.”
Then Rebecca put her arms around Lydia and drew her into an embrace. Her voice fell to a whisper, “Thank you for having the courage to tell me. God, I’m so angry, but so relieved. I finally know who I am. And I’m going to punish you for it, don’t kid yourself. You might think you escaped all the pain of being a mother, but you’re not getting off that easy. I’m going to make sure you catch up. You’re going to move to West Virginia, or Washington, and you’re going to play mother. I lived without one for too long. You owe me, Lydia. You’re going to make it up to me.”
Shock rippled across Lydia’s face.
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” Rebecca told her.
Lydia started crying again. Rebecca stoically held her, but tears were running down her own face.
She looked over Lydia’s shoulder at Brenna. “I guess we really are sisters. How weird.”
~~~
Later that night, Brenna leaned against the jamb of the door between her and Rebecca’s room. “Do you remember Samhain?” she asked.
Rebecca chuckled, “As if I could ever forget.”
“I know most people who saw anything had precognitive visions. But I had another kind of vision also. The lore you researched said it was a night for communicating with our ancestors. My parents came to me in a vision, Rebecca. My father said something that I didn’t understand until tonight.”
“Oh? What was that?” Rebecca had accepted seeing visions of the future, but visions of the dead speaking seemed a little weird.
“He said, ‘Tell Aine I love her, and I’m sorry I didn’t get to know her.’ Until I heard Lydia call you by your middle name tonight, it didn’t make any sense to me.”
Rebecca stared at her.
“Well, good night, Rebecca.” Brenna closed the door.
Running what Brenna had told her through her head, tears slid down Rebecca’s cheeks. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to know you either,” she whispered to the empty room.
~~~
CHAPTER 22
I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning. – John Boyton Priestly
Brenna and Rebecca flew back into Baltimore. Arriving at the Baltimore house, they carried their luggage into the foyer and discovered the house was silent and dark.
“Rebecca, could you please see if there’s any juice in the kitchen?” Brenna asked.
“Okay, sure. I’ll be right back to help you haul that stuff upstairs.”
Feeling her way through the dark house, turning on lights as she went, Rebecca reached the dining room. She couldn’t figure out where everyone was. There was always someone at home, always some kind of activity. Something tickled at the back of her mind, but she didn’t pay it much attention.
“Surprise! Happy Birthday!” greeted her when she flipped the light switch.
The room was decorated with clowns and jesters. A banner proclaiming ‘Happy Birthday to our Favorite April Fool’ hung across one wall. Streamers and confetti rained down around her.
Rebecca was wide-eyed with shock, a wonder-filled expression on her face. Callie’s camera flash went off, capturing the moment.
Carlos stepped forward and drew his lover into a hug, giving her a kiss that made her legs weak. When she came up for air, she saw Collin kissing Brenna, tears running down her sister’s cheeks. A stack of wrapped presents sat on a table in one corner along with a saddle on a sawhorse.
“What are you doing here?” Rebecca asked Carlos.
“I came for your birthday, and to take you back to Ecuador,” he said. “My mother said that now things are safe, and she wants to meet you.”
“Forget the juice, Rebecca. I think I’ll have a beer instead,” Brenna laughed, filling a mug from the keg and handing it to her sister. Several pans of tiramisu sat on the table, one with candles. Seamus winked at her and the candles lit.
“Oh. My. God.” Rebecca laughed, “You got me. Damn, well done.” Tears misted her eyes even as she laughed and hugged everyone.
Lydia nudged her, “Aine, blow out the candles before the house burns down.”
She whirled and stared at the tiramisu. “Wow, does that look good.” She bent and blew out the candles to cheers and congratulations.
Rebecca took a huge bowl of the dessert from Brenna and turned to the presents. “My saddle. It arrived.” Puzzled, she picked up a white envelope sitting on the cantle. ‘Happy Birthday. Brenna, Collin, Irina’. She shook her head, “Brenna, I paid for the saddle in advance.”
“Not the saddle, silly. It’s just a birthday card.”
“Oh, okay.” She opened the envelope and looked at a picture of a chestnut mare with a white blaze and stockings. She turned it over. ‘Wilder’ was printed on the back. She turned it back to look at the picture, then looked at the back again, trying to make some kind of sense of the card. Then she realized that everyone was quietly watching her.
“Wilder? She’s mine?” Her eyes filled as understanding finally came. “Oh my dear God. You gave me a horse?” She flung herself at Brenna, hugged and kissed her, then turned and did the same thing to Collin.
“Happy Birthday, girlfriend,” Irina said, lifting her beer in salute.
Seamus gave her a pendant with the O’Donnell coat of arms, Callie gave her a camera and Carlos hung a diamond choker around her neck, set with an emerald the size of her thumb.
“Rebecca,” Carlos said as he drew her aside, “I have to go to the embassy. There’s an urgent call for me from Quito.”
“Has the war started again?” she asked.
“No, it has to do with my appropriation of Ecuadorian military assets. It’s not a problem, but I need to talk to my cousin, the minister, and provide him some cover.” One of the Vargas Clan was the Ecuadorian Defense Minister.
“Will you be able to come back?”
“Yes, mi amor, I’ll be back tonight.” He kissed her, spoke briefly to Collin, then left.
As she opened all the presents, she became aware that they weren’t sitting on a table but on a large box. She opened it, and found dozens of gift-wrapped boxes. She opened the first one and found a small stuffed animal. The next held a small doll. As she opened each, she realized they were things she had wanted for each of her birthdays throughout her life. A Barbie, a skateboard, a makeup kit, a charm bracelet, the to-die-for sweater she had lusted after when she turned sixteen.
She turned to her mother with wide eyes. “Lydia?”
“I bought them every year, wrapped them and then chickened out. Each year, I thought I’d finally get up the courage to ask your mom to give it to you, but I never did. I kept them all. The twenty-sixth one is at the bottom.”
Rebecca, tears running down her cheeks opened the last present. Held in a gold frame was a picture of Lydia, incredibly young, standing with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Jack O’Donnell stood with her, his arm around her waist.
“He was a good man, Aine. You and Brenna come from a good man.”
The sight of Rebecca sitting on the floor in the midst of a pile of wrapping paper, children’s toys piled around her, with tears running down her cheeks, was one Brenna would cherish forever.
~~~
The travelers were tired and the party wound down quickly. Brenna hadn’t seen Collin for almost three months. He helped her carry her luggage up the stairs to her room. They hugged and kissed, and the pent up longing for each other exploded.
His hands were all over her, stroking and squeezing and awakenin
g her wherever he touched. They undressed hurriedly and came together again. His touch was magic, lighting fires in her skin. His kiss stole her breath and she gave herself over to him, one arm around his neck and her other hand holding the hard rod pressed against her. His mouth against hers was exciting, stunning, the taste of him so familiar yet so fresh. His hands combed through her hair, holding her head as he devoured her mouth, his tongue dancing with hers.
She felt his lips on her eyelids, trailing down her cheeks, her throat. Her hands traced the shape of him, so hard and smooth, his wide shoulders, slender waist, hard full butt. She moaned, lost, gloriously lost, in a haze of sensations. Their bodies slid smoothly over each other, the fire in her skin sinking into an inferno between her legs. He sank to his knees and holding her breast took it into his mouth. Pressing against him, head thrown back, she held onto his shoulders, her legs buckling, all her strength draining into his mouth. His hand slid over her buttocks, pulling her to him.
His mouth trailed lower, tiny shocks as he kissed and nipped and licked, his hands stroking the inside of her thighs. She pushed her sex toward him, trying to open herself for him, wanting to feel his lips there, desperate for his soft kisses, for his tongue lapping the moisture that flowed from her.
Finally he touched her there, gently, like butterfly kisses. She swayed, she begged, and when he touched her with the tip of his tongue, she quaked and exploded, fireworks shooting through her mind. Her fingers curled in his hair, pressing him to her. She faltered and her legs gave way completely. Collin caught her, picking her up and carrying her to the bed.
Staring up at his perfect body kneeling above her, she was filled with awe that this incredible man loved her. He leaned toward her and again covered her mouth with his, softly this time but deeply. He lowered himself to her and she reached for him, gathering him into her arms and into her body.
She touched his soul, merging with him in that ultimate act of love. A smile of complete contentment spread across his face, and as he drove her to the height of pleasure, their souls rejoiced. When they soared over the edge of their climax, the world went away and existence narrowed to one love, shared by two people who were in that time no longer individuals.
Succubus Rising, An Urban Fantasy (The Telepathic Clans Saga) Page 22