Grim Tempest

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Did you know this?” Cillian asked Dad.

  Dad nodded. “Aisling told me right before she decided to eavesdrop. I thought it would be prudent to keep it quiet, at least for the time being.”

  “Well, as much as I think Jerry acted out of sorts, I don’t think the storm made him do it,” Braden argued. “It was a fluke thing. We all know Jerry isn’t like that.”

  “I agree it was a fluke,” Aidan said. “But I’m not sure I’m willing to simply toss out Aisling’s storm theory. It seems a lot of weird things are going on.”

  “Oh, not you, too.” Dad pinched the bridge of his nose. “I think you’re searching for answers that might not exist. Storms aren’t evil. I can guarantee it.”

  “How?” I challenged. “How can you be absolutely certain that storms aren’t evil? After everything we’ve seen the past year – including a mother who came back from the dead and eats people to stay alive – how can you be so sure I’m not right about the storms?”

  “Thanks for that, Aisling,” Mom growled.

  I ignored her. “I’m not saying I’m right. You’re saying I’m wrong without any research at all. I don’t think that’s fair.”

  Dad heaved out a sigh, clearly resigned. “Fine.” He held up his hands in defeat. “How do you intend to prove this notion beyond a shadow of a doubt?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. We have books and stuff.”

  “And you’re going to search all the books looking for mention of evil storms?”

  “Maybe. I’m not going to do nothing, though. I will do something … I just haven’t decided what.”

  “If that’s your position on the matter, then I’ll back you up.” Dad didn’t look thrilled at the prospect. “If you want to research it, then do it. I don’t want to hear another thing about evil storms until you have proof. Do you understand?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Fine. You won’t hear a word out of me until I prove that I’m right and you’re wrong.”

  “Oh, if only she’d stopped after, ‘You won’t hear a word out of me,’” Braden lamented.

  “Shut up and eat your cake, Braden,” Dad ordered. “I’ve had enough of your mouth for one night.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” I offered.

  “That goes double for you, Aisling. It’s time for a quiet dessert. That’s my only wish for the rest of the night.”

  We lapsed into silence for a moment, and then my siblings and I spoke at the exact same time, mimicking the father we remembered from our childhood road trips.

  “Not one more word,” we growled in unison.

  Dad made a clucking sound with his tongue. “Yes. I definitely would’ve been better off with cats.”

  9

  Nine

  My brothers refused to stop teasing me even after my father threatened to remove them from his will. In an effort to get away from them, I planted myself in the second-floor library with Jerry and Aidan. In addition to refuge (my brothers – other than Cillian – never met a book they wanted to read unless it had photographs of naked people), I also wanted to check in with them to make sure they were okay.

  “You look beat,” Aidan said, patting the open spot at his side as he relaxed on one of the couches. “Join us. We’ve taken to calling ourselves the weary bunch.”

  “I should get Griffin to make our foursome complete,” I grumbled. “I’m not sure where he went. Last time I saw him he was shoveling in cake, but then he disappeared.”

  “I’m sure he’s around,” Aidan said, resting his hand on Jerry’s knee as he gave me a long look. “Do you really believe what you’re saying about the storms?”

  I nodded without hesitation. If Aidan wanted to join in the teasing it would hardly be the worst thing that ever happened to me. “Yes. I think there are way too many coincidences piling up in a short amount of time. The only thing tying all the outbursts together is the fact that they happened during the storms.”

  “Let’s say I believe you – and I’m not sure I do, so don’t get ahead of yourself – but why would it only affect some people?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It didn’t affect me,” Aidan pointed out. “Only Jerry was affected.”

  “Oh.” That actually hadn’t occurred to me. “I don’t know. Maybe we’re immune because we’re reapers.”

  “That seems a bit of a reach.”

  “I guess it does.” I couldn’t help being disappointed. “It still feels off to me, Aidan.”

  “Well, I’m taking your warning to heart. We’re going to do our best to avoid storms as much as possible for the foreseeable future,” Aidan volunteered. “But I still don’t think I believe your evil storm theory.”

  “The rest of the non-believers are cackling on the first floor,” I noted. “You can join them.” I moved to slide off the couch, but Aidan stopped me. “What?”

  “I don’t think you’re crazy.” Aidan’s gaze was even and clear. “You do tend to let your imagination run wild, though. Maybe that’s all this is.”

  “Maybe,” I conceded, “but I don’t think so.”

  “I’m with Bug on this,” Jerry announced. “I would rather believe in an evil storm than an evil me.”

  “You’re not evil,” Aidan countered. “You just had a bad night. We’ve talked it out. It’s over and done with.”

  “I still don’t like it.” Jerry sounded petulant. “I like Bug’s theory better. I’m all in with you on this.” He held out his knuckles so I could bump them. “We’ll stick together like we always do. It doesn’t matter who makes fun of us.”

  “I’m totally with you.” As if on cue, the sky through the window illuminated with a flash of lightning. It was quickly followed by a rumble of thunder. “Another storm.”

  Aidan glanced over his shoulder and followed my gaze. “What are you going to do?”

  I shrugged. “There’s nothing I really can do. For now I’m going to find Griffin. We’re not leaving until the storm is over. I want to make sure he doesn’t wander outside.”

  “I’m actually thinking we’re going to stay here tonight,” Aidan admitted. “Just to be on the safe side, I mean.”

  “But you don’t believe in evil storms,” I teased.

  “Why tempt fate?”

  He had a point.

  I WAS HALFWAY DOWN the hallway and almost to the stairs when I caught sight of something through the open doorway that led to my old bedroom. I paused long enough to push open the door and widened my eyes when I realized what I thought was a pile of unfolded laundry was actually a sleeping Griffin.

  He lay on his back, his eyes closed, and his breathing was deep and even. He was completely out of it.

  “I guess he was more tired than we realized,” Dad whispered, appearing in the hallway behind me. “I half thought the two of you left because I hadn’t seen you in a bit. It looks like he needed some rest.”

  I nodded, my shoulders jolting at another thunder boom. “I’m going to let him sleep. We’ll stay here tonight.”

  Dad cocked his head. “Because you don’t want him going out in the storm?”

  It seemed a simple question, but I knew it was loaded. “Because I don’t want to risk it. It’s pretty simple.”

  “You’re welcome to stay here whenever you want. You know that.”

  I did know that. “I know you think I’m crazy … .”

  “I never used that word and I don’t think it,” Dad argued. “I simply believe you’re misguided on this particular subject.”

  “Aidan brought up a good point. He was outside during the storm with Jerry. He didn’t get angry and throw a punch. It was Jerry. That kind of blows a hole in my theory.”

  Dad took pity on me and argued my side even though he didn’t agree with it. “Unless reapers are somehow immune.”

  I chuckled. “That’s what I said.”

  “Great minds … .”

  “I don’t know what to believe, but I don’t think I’m quite ready to give up the idea just yet,” I s
aid. “I’m going to research it further. If I don’t find what I’m looking for, then I’ll let it go.”

  “That sounds like a solid plan to me.” Dad patted my shoulder. “I’ll leave you to take care of Griffin. The one thing I think I have going for me tonight is that he’s clearly too tired to play the wandering hands game.”

  “Oh, he can play that in his sleep.” It took everything I had not to crack a smile and ruin the moment. “He’s gifted.”

  “Don’t make things worse, Aisling.”

  “I’ll try to remember that for next time.”

  I COULDN’T SLEEP.

  Even though I thought I was exhausted and I climbed into bed early with Griffin, after twenty minutes of tossing and turning I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I left him to his deep slumber. He very obviously needed his rest.

  I paused in the hallway to listen for sounds in the house, but all was silent. That didn’t necessarily mean anything. The game room was soundproofed, and my brothers could’ve congregated there to entertain themselves for the rest of the night. Of course, they also could’ve headed to a bar or holed up in their rooms.

  With little else to do, I headed to the library. I thought I might be able to get a head start on my storm research if nothing else. I looked out the hallway window as I walked. The rain had diminished, but the storm continued, regular lightning flashes casting an eerie glow in the hallway. If my brothers were out in this, I hoped they wouldn’t find too much trouble.

  I pulled up short when I entered the library, surprised to find Cillian sitting on the floor with a book perched on his lap and a glass of what looked to be brandy on the floor next to him.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Cillian shifted his eyes to me and smiled. “A bit of light reading.”

  “On what?”

  “Magical storms.”

  I stilled. “Seriously?”

  Cillian shrugged and patted the empty spot next to him. “I figured it was worth a shot. I’m not doing anything else.”

  “No Maya tonight?” I asked, grabbing the blanket from the back of the couch before sitting. I situated it over my lap before focusing on Cillian’s book. It looked to be big, boring and almost completely lacking in photographs – my absolute least favorite type of book.

  “Maya had to stay at the hospital,” Cillian said, flipping a page. In addition to being Cillian’s very-serious girlfriend, Maya was Griffin’s sister. The relationship dynamics took a bit for everyone to get used to at the onset, but we’d settled in quite nicely ever since. I had a feeling Griffin would’ve had more of a problem if Redmond or Braden were romancing his sister. Because it was Cillian, and he was the sweetest Grimlock in the land, Griffin didn’t put up much of a defense.

  “Is that normal?”

  “Her staying at the hospital for an extra shift?” Cillian shrugged. “She’s dedicated and wants to help others. She sounded frazzled when she called and didn’t have much time, but something she said stuck with me.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “That things were slow until the storm started.”

  I pursed my lips. “You’re starting to think I’m right, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t know,” Cillian cautioned. “I think it’s fair to say that I’m not entirely convinced you’re wrong and leave it at that for now.”

  “I would rather be right.”

  Cillian grinned as he tucked a strand of his shoulder-length black hair behind his ear. “Oh, I know that very well. I’m trying to see if I can find anything that leads me to believe a poisoned storm is even possible.”

  “We’ve seen odd things before,” I pointed out.

  “We have.”

  “You just don’t think it’s possible for something this odd, this surreal?”

  “I didn’t say that, Ais.” Cillian flipped another page, his eyes busy as they scanned the thick wall of text. “I don’t know what to think. Part of me is certain that something really odd is going on. Your idea holds enough weight for me that I’m willing to check it out.”

  That would have to be enough. I knew Cillian couldn’t give more. “What did Maya say about the people coming into the hospital?” I opted to change the subject. “Were they involved in a lot of fights?”

  “Like I said, she didn’t have much time to talk, but she did say that if she didn’t know better she’d have thought someone overloaded the water system with too much testosterone.”

  Hmm. “Because only men were coming in?”

  Cillian tore his gaze from the page and looked at me. “She didn’t really say, but that’s what I figured. Why? What are you thinking?”

  “I don’t know.” I rubbed the back of my neck as I flexed my ankles and stared at a pair of feet desperately in need of a pedicure. “Most everything I’ve heard about – the fights I mean – has involved men. The lone exception is that Lani woman.”

  “She was the one hit.”

  “Yeah, but Griffin said she slapped Peter across the face first. He made it sound as if it was out of character for her. In fact, he made it sound as if they were so flabbergasted by what she did they didn’t see what Peter was about to do until it was too late to stop it.”

  “So you think Lani was affected, too,” Cillian mused. “That would blow our theory that only men are affected.”

  “I don’t know that I ever had that theory. It seems to me we might only be hearing about men because they’re stronger and can do more damage. A lot of the female fights might involve hair pulling and biting, but nothing else.”

  “So basically you’re saying all the women are turning into you and Angelina, huh?” Cillian’s eyes twinkled.

  “That’s a terrifying thought. About Angelina, I mean. Not me. People should consider themselves lucky to act like me.”

  “I believe that’s the word making it around the street.”

  We lapsed into amiable silence and Cillian returned to his book while I snagged another about magical weather anomalies off a nearby shelf. I was just about to lose myself in the text when Cillian spoke again.

  “I’m going to ask Maya to marry me.”

  The statement knocked me for a loop. I almost fell over I was so surprised. “Seriously?”

  Cillian nodded, keeping his face impassive as he stared at the book rather than me. “I’m waiting until after your wedding. I don’t want to steal your thunder.”

  That sounded as if it should almost be insulting. “I hardly think you’d be stealing my thunder.” I said the words before I thought better of them, but even after I spent more than a few seconds considering them I was fine with the statement. “Ask her whenever you want. Don’t let me be your guiding force.”

  “I want to wait.” Cillian kept his voice low. “I need to find a ring first. I need to do something else, too, and that might take more time.”

  That sounded almost ominous. “What else do you need to do? You’re not planning to do something weird like learning how to skydive so you can have a unique proposal? That’s an accident waiting to happen.”

  Cillian barked out a laugh. “Not that.” He flicked my ear as he caught his breath. “You’re freaking hilarious when you want to be. You know that, right?”

  “I am a joy to be around,” I agreed.

  “That’s not exactly what I said.”

  “That’s what I heard.”

  “I’m almost sorry we got off on this tangent,” Cillian lamented. “What was I saying again?”

  “You were explaining that you have something to do before you can propose,” I supplied. “I turned the conversation weird, and now we’re back at the start. What do you have to do before you can propose?”

  “Move out of this house.”

  I wasn’t expecting such a simple answer. “Oh.” I didn’t know what to make of his statement. I was the first and only Grimlock child to even want to leave the relative safety and comfort of Grimlock Manor until Aidan decided to move in with Jerry a few months ago. Before then, all fo
ur of my brothers were perfectly fine living with Dad, even though some of them had not only hit the age of thirty but cruised past it. “Do you think Dad will put up a fight if Maya moves in or something?”

  Cillian let loose with a dry laugh. “No, but I think that moving your new wife in with your father and brothers is probably a no-no. I’m going to guess that Maya wants a home of her own.”

  “I don’t know. Dad likes her. He might hand over a wing.”

  “He probably would,” Cillian conceded. “I don’t think that’s what she needs, though. The truth is, I’ve been considering moving out for more than a year. I’ve always talked myself out of it because Dad seemed to want us to stay, but I honestly think it’s time to go.”

  “Dad doesn’t have a problem with you staying here,” I said. “He made all those jokes about how he couldn’t wait until we moved out when we were kids, but after Mom died … .” I broke off, what I left unsaid hanging like an impenetrable curtain of fog.

  “I think that’s one of the reasons we stayed,” Cillian admitted. “Sure, it was nice to have the cooks and maids around. It was nice not to have to do our own laundry or clean. Part of it was on us for being lazy. The other part, that was entirely Dad’s doing. He didn’t want us to leave.”

  “I can believe that. He completely melted down when I moved out. Even though I was moving in with Jerry he had a fit.”

  “He would’ve kept you forever,” Cillian agreed. “He still has trouble with the fact that you’re living with your boyfriend and getting married. He’s handling it much better than I thought he would, of course, but every once in a while I catch him looking misty-eyed and sad when he’s watching you.”

  That was news to me. “Really?”

  Cillian nodded. “You’re the only girl and you’re the baby. What’s really funny is that we all accuse you of being the most immature, yet the three of us – the three oldest – have yet to leave the nest.”

  I’d never really considered that. “So you’re going to find a place to live and then propose?”