by D. N. Leo
“Do you have a preference for the leader, Anna?” Daly cocked an eyebrow in challenge.
“Why would this old woman have a preference for this sort of thing? I just want to be left alone.” Anna stood.
Braden wrapped his arm around Orla’s waist protectively. “I think we should let Orla rest. I’ll take her upstairs.”
Anna chuckled. “You speak like a leader already.”
Bradan stared at her. “I’m prepared for whatever comes my way, Aunty.”
Anna gave Bradan a dismissive look. “I think you should let Alana stay with Orla tonight. I want to be sure you won’t strangle her in her sleep.”
“Don’t accuse my son of something like that!” Daly raised his voice and advanced on Anna. Bradan stopped his father.
“All right. I think it’s a good idea that Alana stay tonight . . . Alana?” Bradan asked.
Everyone turned to look at Alana, who was examining her manicure and looked as if she would rather be anywhere else.
“Alana!” Braden called again.
“Huh?” Alana jumped.
“Would you mind staying here tonight with Orla?”
“What? Why?”
“We just need you to stay with her . . . to make sure she’s okay.”
Alana rolled her eyes, then forced a smile and said, “Of course. I’m sure it’s going to be a pleasant night.” Then she turned on her heel and marched up the stairs. Bradan shook his head.
“Come on.” He reached his hand out to Orla. She grabbed it and followed him up the stairs.
Braden entered the bedroom first, glancing around. “I’ve already been in here. The room is fine, Bradan,” Orla said.
He shrugged. “You never know. The clan has developed a lot since you’ve been away, and there are a lot of people in our clan who I don’t care for.”
Orla nodded. Bradan was so mature now. Remembering when she and other girls picked on him when they were kids, she smiled on the inside.
“You should go to bed.” His voice was deep and enticing. Orla shook the uncomfortable thought off and headed for the bed.
Bradan opened the window and looked around. Seemingly satisfied with what he saw, he closed the door, locked it, and exited the room.
Alana had already lay down on the inside wall of the bed, and she’d put a long pillow in the middle, suggesting that Orla could take the outside half. Alana quickly dozed off.
Orla stayed awake for a long time, listening to Alana’s even breathing. When she was sure her bed mate was really asleep, she hopped off the bed and moved to the window. The roof arched over a porch below. Orla stepped out onto the roof and inched toward the edge. She looked down and let out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t too high up from the ground. She looked up to the clear Irish sky in the middle of the night, breathed in the clear air, and bent down to make a jump to the ground below.
Damn it! Orla cursed in her head as she hit the ground.
On the porch, next to the door, Bradan was sitting on a chair, smoking.
She hadn’t surprised him in the least by both trying to flee the clan in the middle of the night and landing from the sky in front of him. He squashed out his cigarette and smiled. Orla smiled back.
“You took longer than I thought you would,” Bradan said.
Orla had her hands on her hips. “So you’re a mind reader. Handy!”
He chuckled. “I wish I had such talent. My father trained me well in logical deduction. I don’t have any magical talent. You’d be a much better leader than me because you’re a natural.”
“But I don’t want to do it. Everyone knows that. You don’t sound like you want to do it, either.”
Bradan merely smiled.
“Oh . . . you do want the post!” Orla said. “That’s good. Can we swap? Can you just tell them?” Orla put on the most gracious smile she could.
“I can’t, Orla. If you want to see your man, I’ll take you to him.”
“Why help me?”
“You said it yourself—I want the post, and you don’t. If you leave again, then the post will be mine. Simple!” Bradan smiled.
Orla narrowed her eyes. “I can go by myself. All you have to do is to pretend you didn’t see me.”
Bradan shook his head. “I can’t let you go through that wedge of the woods by yourself. There’s a nasty group of shapeshifters lurking around there lately.”
Orla hesitated, and Bradan continued. “Now, I might kill you in the woods in order to take the position, but between me and these shapeshifters, I’m a much safer bet. If you want to escape, now is a better time. Tomorrow, more family members will come. It will become more difficult.”
“Why are you helping me, really?”
“As I said, I want the post, so I have to help you escape.” Bradan grinned. Now Orla wished she were a mind reader. It would certainly be a handy set of skills to have. Bradan appeared to be good, but he could be dangerous. She was sure her magic was better than his, because she had been trained earlier. Plus she had some white magic tricks she had gotten from Maeve.
He was right, however. The shapeshifters in the woods were dangerous. She guessed they were related to Bricius. Bricius had cursed Lorcan’s parents. His clan here must have something to do with it. The more she thought about it, the more the option Bradan offered appeared to be more attractive. Orla put her doubts aside and nodded.
Chapter 9
Lorcan opened his eyes and sprung off the bed. He had gotten back to his room and crashed in order to heal his wounds from the fight with the yellow wolf. He couldn’t have been out for long, he thought. There were so many questions he wanted to ask his father and his sister, and he was sure they had some for him, too. There was no way to have a conversation when he was in his fox form.
Roy had told him once that most werefoxes didn’t remember much of what happened when they were in the animal form, but some did. Mori had perfect memories and was well aware of what she was doing in any form because she was an alpha. Roy had such memory, too, but he was half fox and half wolf. Lorcan knew he was in none of those scenarios. As Roy had told him, he was different. In his fox form, his brain functioned normally and with clarity.
He put on the clothes he used to wear during his teenage years, grateful he had built himself up in the right places. His T-shirt fit more like a muscle shirt now, and his baggy jeans now fit him perfectly.
“Lorcan!” Keeva screamed out his name from the living room, a terrible sound that tore his heart and got him to his feet, running downstairs. Next to the fireplace, his father sat on the reading chair, holding his mother’s wedding ring in one hand and a pistol on the other hand. His eyes were bloodshot, a sure sign of that he was trying to hang on to the last thread of consciousness. He didn’t know where he’d seen this before, but he knew he had seen it.
Something was eating at his father’s mind, and he was trying to fight it.
“She’s dead. They’ve killed her.” Ferris grunted out the words and pointed the gun to his temple. “It’s my fault.” Tears welled up in his eyes.
“Father, please don’t do that. Give me the gun,” Keeva cried.
Lorcan approached his father slowly. “Father, Mother is not dead. Someone tried to help us. That’s why they gave us her wedding ring. Please calm down and give me the gun. We need to talk.”
“It’s my fault.” Ferris brandished the gun. “I shouldn’t have given you to her.”
“What do you mean by that, Father?” Lorcan inched closer.
“Don’t come near me. I knew I shouldn’t have signed up for that. When I gave you to your mother, she was so happy, but I should have known that it wouldn’t last long. You’re such a disaster.” He pointed the gun at Lorcan.
Keeva hissed and pulled at Lorcan, but he shoved her behind his back. “You adopted me?”
Ferris laughed. “I wish it’s that simple... There is only one way to end this.” He pointed the gun to his head.
“No!” Lorcan flew at his father and tackled
him. He knocked Ferris to the floor and took the gun off of his father. From the floor, his father looked up at Lorcan with eyes that weren’t his.
“Remember the curse?” The voice croaking out of Ferris was familiar. It was Bricius’s voice. “No one can break my curse. Someone will die. I curse . . .”
“Stop.” Lorcan yelled and muffled his father’s mouth with his hand. His father wriggled hard. Keeva heard what her father just said, she jumped in helping Lorcan. Ferris roared, kicked and moved with incredible strength, the strength Lorcan knew wasn’t his father’s. He didn’t know how long he and Keeva could hang on to this.
Then he felt a wedge of cold breeze coming from the door. A woman appeared from nowhere stormed right into the living room uninvited.
“That’s black magic. You can’t fight that using physical strength,” the woman said.
“I don’t do magic. Who the hell are you?” Lorcan asked.
“I’m Maeve, Orla’s cousin. I’m here to let you know someone is using mind-control and black magic on Orla, making her hate you and curse you. That same magic is working its dark energy on that man.”
“You sound like you know what you are talking about. Can you help my father?” Lorcan asked.
Ferris grew stronger and almost pushed Lorcan and Keeva back.
“That’s black magic. I don’t know how to break it. If Orla keeps thinking about you, she’s going to burst into flames.”
Ferris growled and pushed and Lorcan and Keeva.
“You have to help my father first before I can do anything else,” Lorcan said.
“You have to knock him out. That way you can temporarily keep him under control.”
“You want me to hit my father?”
“The thing in his head is not your father.”
“I don’t give a shit, I won’t hit my father.” Lorcan shoved hard and pushed Ferris into a chair. “Get something to tie him,” he asked Keeva. Lorcan all but sat on Ferris to hold him down. He still had a hand on his mouth to stop him from chanting a curse. Keeva came back with rope and tapes from the tool shed. They tied him up and stuffed his mouth with cloths.
Maeve stood there with hands on hips. “And how long do you think you can keep him like that?”
“I’ll find Orla, and we’ll work out a way to handle this.”
“You don’t sound like you totally dismiss the possibility of using magic.”
“I don’t have a choice,” Lorcan growled. “Can you take me to Orla?”
“I can, but it’s not going to help the situation. Before I figure out how to control the curse, you guys are best not seeing each other.”
“If Orla couldn’t figure it out, how can you ?”
Maeve smiled. “Are you saying I’m not as good as she is?”
“I don’t know you. I just want to be realistic. They must want her to lead the clan for good reasons. There must be something she does that’s better than others.”
Maeve laughed. “I can see how she’s falling head over heels for you. You guys are made for each other.”
Lorcan narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe she’s kept in touch with her family over the years. You seem to know too much about us.”
Maeve shook her head. “We can communicate via a psychic channel. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Can you use white magic to help my father?”
“I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to go against them. That’s why I’m here to tell you to stay away from Orla. I need a bit of time to figure things out, and the two-week deadline is coming faster than I care for.”
“That two-week event again. What the hell is that?”
“It’s the full moon when the clan chooses a leader. The other candidate is okay, but he’s not as good as Orla. I don’t think he’s over-ambitious and would harm Orla or you to protect the leadership post, though”
“He?” Lorcan asked.
“Yes, as far as I know, Bradan is a male.” Maeve raised an eyebrow. “I read in Orla’s mind before she passed out about her encounter with you and another woman . . .”
Maeve’s voice started to echo. Feeling the cold air creeping up his back, Lorcan withdrew and mentally braced himself to fight what was to come. His vision wavered slightly, and his head start to go numb. You can’t use the same trick twice on me! He looked at Maeve, and a surge of lust rose inside him. Control! Lorcan distanced himself. The second he let the feeling grow because he thought the woman at the riverbank had been Orla was the very second he lost control of his body and mind.
Chapter 10
Lorcan shook his head, trying to stay alert. He felt as if he was drowning in deep water. He turned toward Maeve. Her image flickered. And then in front of him was Orla. She smiled, and he couldn’t breathe. His head was going to explode. He swayed. Orla approached to help him. But he knew it wasn’t Orla. He stepped back.
“Stay away from me.”
The image of the woman flickered and returned as Maeve.
“Lorcan!”
He heard Orla’s voice from the door. Lorcan looked up and saw Orla with a man. This might not be her, he thought. “Stay away from me,” he repeated.
Orla approached.
“Stay right there!” he yelled and that stopped Orla in her tracks. That’s how she looks when she’s surprised. That’s the real Orla. “Orla,” he whispered just before the hot rage took over. He hadn’t experienced this before. He staggered back. The urge to kill and destroy consumed him. He hated as if he had never hated before. Why is Orla with this man? Who is he? Is he using the black magic on her and on his father?
“You did this to my father!” Lorcan roared.
“I did what?” the man asked.
Lorcan staggered back, leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. He had to force his mind out of his body. He could see himself now—he looked like a madman, bloodshot eyes, yelling profanity, rushing at Orla, Maeve, and the man who had just walked into the house with Orla. He could see himself out of control, but he couldn’t stop it. He saw a tear roll down Orla’s face.
He had made her cry. Again.
Then he lost concentration for a second. That was all it took. He was sucked back into his body, and the next thing he knew, he had shot two waves of electric current at the strange man. To Lorcan’s surprise, the man was as calm as still water. He waved his hand, and it seemed as if the current had hit a metal shield and diverted. It didn’t come back at him but headed in his father’s direction.
The heat burned the rope and set his father free. Charged with rage, his father grabbed the gun lying on the table and aimed it at Keeva.
That was all Lorcan could see.
At that very moment, his mind was as clear as crystal. He could shoot the electric wave and burn his father into ashes to stop him from pulling the trigger on Keeva. There was no other option except . . .
As quick as lightning, Lorcan grabbed at Keeva, pulling her backward. The momentum pushed him forward and into the path of the bullet. He could see the scene in slow motion. The penetration of the bullet into his chest wasn’t bad at all. It was like a prick of pain at the entry point, and then the pressure of something disintegrating into his body, and then the heat of his own blood.
He slumped to his knees. Lorcan had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to heal himself from this injury very quickly . . . if at all.
His mind was perfectly clear. It seemed as if the magic—or whatever it was that had caused the craziness in the room—had vanished. Everything was back to normal.
He fell backward and into Keeva’s arms. His father appeared to snap back to reality as if the demon had just left him. And Orla, he could see her approaching him with tears on her face and determined eyes.
Lorcan leaned into Keeva’s arms. Orla crouched in front of him and held his hands. “It’s not too bad. You just need to crash and you’ll heal,” she said with a shaky voice.
“I don’t want you anymore. I don’t want to see you anymore. Leave me, Orla,” he said.
>
“No way in hell I’ll leave you. That trick doesn’t work on me, Lorcan.”
He didn’t have enough energy to pull his hands from Orla’s.
“Maeve!” Lorcan called out.
“Yes. You broke the black magic, Lorcan. If there was a black magic curse on your father, you broke it.”
“Great news!” He smiled weakly. “Can I break the curse on Orla?”
Maeve said nothing.
Lorcan nodded. “All right. If I can’t fix this, I don’t want Orla near me. Can you keep her away, please?”
Maeve nodded.
“Maeve!” Orla hissed and withdrew when she saw Maeve glance at Bradan. Bradan approached from behind and snatched Orla off the ground. While Orla kicked, screamed, and struggled, trying to get out of Bradan’s grip, Lorcan nodded a thank you to Bradan. In a short moment, Maeve and Bradan dragged Orla out of the house.
“Keeva!” Lorcan called his sister.
“Yes?”
“I don’t want anyone to use magic on me. Promise me you’ll keep those people away from me—even if I die because of it.”
“I promise.” Keeva’s voice cracked with tears.
“I don’t want a doctor, either”
“If you don’t take magic, you have to go to the hospital,” Keeva cried.
His father crouched in front of him. “Lorcan, tell me what you need.” His eyes were calm and still, but his hands trembled.
Lorcan gazed into his father’s eyes. “Am I your real son?”
“Yes. I can’t take back the bullet, but I would like to take back what I said. You are my son, and I love you. Now if you want to know where you came from and your special conditions, you have to stay alive.”
Lorcan smiled. His father was the same, a man with a mind as hard as steel. The world was blurring by the second. His father’s image flickered in front of him.
“I’ll have to take you to the hospital,” Keeva said.
“No. I can’t go to the hospital. I need Riley.”
“Who?” his father asked.