Celtic Rose

by Campbell, Jill

  “You didn’t tell the monks about the sound in the last life did you?” Ephiny said, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

  “No. It wasn’t relevant to the situation. It’d never happened before so I figured it was a glitch of some sort.” Gabriel’s anger flared as he defended himself to her menacing eyes. His teeth and fangs grew but it was exceedingly obvious that he was becoming defensive, maybe too defensive for the issue. He didn’t like being made to look incompetent.

  “Oh, calm your furry tail down.” Ephiny turned away from him. He scowled at her back. For a moment, Kallisto thought he was going to take a swipe, but his claws and fangs distended and he shook from head to toe like a true wolf just out of the water. He closed his eyes and breathed for a moment, and once he seemed calm he opened his eyes. Everyone stared from one to the other in awe. None of them would ever have pushed him like that. William might push him so far, but when the claws and fangs came out, he stopped. Ephiny didn’t even seem the slightest bit scared.

  “Gabriel, if you had told the monks everything that had happened the way you were told to, the monks would’ve told you about the hawk. It lives and dies as many times as you do. It’s born and raised by others who know of the curse. They raise it the way it had been raised in its first life. She retains her memories, Kallisto, all of her memories. She looks for you in every life only to die without seeing you, but she still keeps looking. You must find her in this life Kallisto. Don’t let her die alone again,” Ephiny pleaded as she went to Kallisto and placed her hand on her shoulder. There were tears in her eyes. She loved all people–that Kallisto knew, but she didn’t know she had such love for the hawk.

  “The closer you get to her, the clearer the sound will get. Once you find her she’ll sense where you are at all times, and she’ll be able to find you in any life after that. She was one of the factors that gave me life. The king didn’t want to take the chance of losing her. You saw how valuable she was to the kingdom. She refused to eat because you were always the one to feed her. I took the responsibility of caring for Lady, and I tried so hard to get her to live and be happy, but she was miserable. Your father set me free when she died. He saw the care I tried to give her and the love I felt for Lady because she was yours. He realized how much I loved you and let me live. Maybe, in part at least, that was more cruel than taking my life; but then, of course, I met my husband and found happiness again. After the first child the enchantress came and asked me to be your adopted family. I accepted without thought. I wanted to repay your care in any way that I could, but in a way I cursed my family to repay you as well. They don’t seem to mind though?” Ephiny said questioningly as she turned to look at Hope.

  “Oh no, Grandmother. They’ve been a blessing to our family, never a curse. It’s sad when we must watch them die, or when they never come home, but we gladly take on the responsibility. We know exactly how important it is, and we’d never change that. My other children don’t know the story yet because I didn’t want them to have to watch their siblings die this time around. I’ll tell them when the deed’s done and after they’ve had the chance to mourn for their fallen siblings. They call every year to find out how they are, and I long to tell them to come home to see them so I can tell them the story, but I don’t want them to go through what I did as a child; it was too painful. I don’t think it’ll be as bad on them since they don’t know, and it’ll give them something to look forward to. They’ll be comforted by the fact that they’ll see them again,” Hope said happily. Kallisto and Kalan stared at her in shock. They never knew she had children other than them.

  “Wait! Why have we never seen them?” Kalan asked.

  “I wasn’t sure if you were ever going to come to me. My siblings and cousin had already received Ramina, Talus, and William, but you two were late. Your birth mother was supposed to give you to the monks but she didn’t want to give you up. The birth parents are told about the curse by the monks when the mother is pregnant. The monks have ways of knowing when a cursed one is conceived. The birth parents are usually individuals who would give the children up for adoption anyways; people who aren’t really ready to have a child of their own. Instead of going through the foster system, the monks handle everything and bring you to one of the sons or daughters of Ephiny’s line. This birth mother changed her mind, which was very uncommon, and tried to keep you, but finally found that it was best for you to go along with the curse. The monks let her bring you to me herself. You were both nearly two years old before you came to me, and by that time, my children were off at college.

  I was seventeen when my parents got you; they didn’t tell me about the curse until you and Talus met. I always wondered why they had to take you. I didn’t mind having two more siblings, of course; I was just confused. My parents finally told me and I kept the secret until you died. To tell you the truth, until it actually happened, I didn’t believe it. My brother got Ramina; he was gone by the time you came to our family, but my parents told him about it. That’s one of the reasons you two were able to be raised in the same town, because we were family. You guys never knew we were related because we made the secret our number one priority. Secret first, family second; that’s our motto.” Hope finished, smirking.

  “Seriously though, my children have their own families now and I don’t want to burden them until after you’re gone; that way it’ll be more of a blessing. The parents that took William and Talus are distant cousins of the family, daughters and sons of siblings in the past. That way the women in our family can have as many children as they want. They don’t have to have children if they don’t want to. Everyone in the family has a choice. Even though I have five children, they don’t need to take a member of the curse if they choose not to, because there are others that are willing. All who take in a cursed one has chosen to do so, therefore we are not cursed.” Hope gave Ephiny a long hug and then proceeded to give all of them hugs. By that time the sensitivity to sound had faded and Kallisto was able to think.

  Kallisto thought about the dream and all of the events that happened before the screeching started. “The peaceful feeling we feel when the river flows between all of us is love. I feel that deep down, so that means the painful burning flow that we felt had to be our anger. There’s no other explanation.”

  Everyone in the room stopped and turned to look at her. Ephiny wore a knowing look on her face, but everyone else, even Gabriel, stared at Kallisto with looks of confusion. Gabriel’s expression changed to a look of shock, then realization, and finally anger. He turned to the door and walked out with his fists balled up. Kallisto thought she saw a drop of blood on the side of his hand. Everyone else watched Gabriel walk out and followed suit. Talus came and took Kallisto’s hand as they followed. His expression turned to anger as they stepped into the living room.

  The realization had hit. Merrick and Serena found out they could feed off anger at the battle. They never thought anything about it. They thought their love had healed Merrick, not anger; even Gabriel had thought that. That’s why the river was painful. And because it was anger that healed him, the healing wouldn’t last. To keep Merrick alive, they’d need a continuous stream of anger. If they didn’t feed off the anger they both would’ve been dead long ago. That’s why they were both still alive.

  “How do you kill someone who feeds off anger? The more you fight them the more they feed and the angrier we get. It’s an endless cycle; even if we die, we’ll come back and it will start all over again. We can’t kill them.” Talus paced back and forth as he spoke. Kallisto sat in a chair watching him; it almost made her dizzy. Kalan and Ramina were cuddled on the couch. Gabriel sat on the arm of the couch, watching. William sat by Kallisto on the floor, holding Ephiny, and Hope sat in the other chair in the corner. They watched Talus rant and none of them could think of anything to say; they were all thinking like Talus. Kallisto stared at Gabriel, concentrating hard to get his thoughts, but he was blocking so she couldn’t get through. He must’ve felt her because he
looked at her and shook his head. He was either telling her not to read his mind or that he didn’t know what to do. Since he wasn’t the type to say outright that he didn’t know what he was doing, Kallisto was betting on the former. He probably didn’t want her to hear him cussing. Gabriel jumped up all of a sudden and started to walk for the door.

  “Gabriel, where are you going?” Kallisto said as she jumped up and followed him. The others looked in their direction. Kallisto grabbed his face and stared intently. He pulled away.

  “The stores closed for today, come back another time.” And with that, he was gone. Kallisto would’ve laughed except for the fact that she was hurt and confused. She couldn’t remember a time when he’d walked away from her without telling her something. He never left without giving her at least a small bit of comfort. There was a first time for everything though. The curse was showing them that more and more this time around.

  With nothing else to discuss and since they’d only gotten a couple of hours of sleep, they went back to bed. Most of them were hoping not to dream, but Talus and Ephiny thought they could get more answers if they dreamed more. Kallisto was worried about Gabriel, but he was a big wolf and could take care of himself. She figured he’d wake them in time to leave for the airport.

  Kallisto woke to the smell of meat cooking. She couldn’t place the scent but it smelled so good her stomach rumbled. She looked around the room; Ephiny and Ramina still slept. She thought that maybe Hope wanted them to eat before they left. She crawled out of the bed and went for the door. She looked into Kalan’s room and saw that he, Talus, and William were still asleep also. Making her way to the living room she noticed Gabriel wasn’t on the couch. The blankets were where they’d left them when they went back to bed, meaning Gabriel never went back to bed. Kallisto’s heart dropped. She guessed he didn’t come back last night. She could see the dining room from the living room but no one was at the table. Hope must’ve been at the stove.

  Kallisto walked on into the kitchen and received the biggest shock of her life. Gabriel was at the stove with a chef’s hat on his head and an apron wrapped around his mid-section that had a scary looking werewolf on it; on closer inspection Kallisto saw what it said. ‘CAUTION: COMPLAINTS TO THE COOK COULD BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH!’ She started laughing.

  Smiling, he turned and looked at her. “What’s so funny?”

  “I like your apron, it sounds just like you.” Kallisto walked a little closer to him. He was still smiling. He put the spatula down and picked her up like a child, under the arms. He held her above his head, looking up at her for a moment, and then brought her down into a bear hug. She thought it felt wonderful. Since he was being playful she thought she would be too.

  “Oxygen becoming an issue!” she spat breathlessly. He knew she was joking, and laughed as he sat her down. He did like everyone else did when they thought she was cute; he put his finger to the tip of her nose quickly. She wrinkled her nose and scowled at him, which made him laugh more. Whatever he did the night before seemed to put him in a better mood. “You do know William’s going to make some sort of comment about the apron, don’t you?” Kallisto said, crossing her arms.

  “I’m counting on it,” he said with a fierce smile, which normally meant that he was up to something devious. Kallisto just shook her head, still grinning. Moments later the others started filing in. Everyone looked at Gabriel strangely but none of them said anything. The aroma of the meat he was cooking smelled wonderful.

  “What is that you’re cooking?” Kallisto asked finally. He looked at her with the same devious grin.

  “I’ll tell you after everyone tries it,” he said. Kallisto waited for him to say more but he didn’t. She looked at him suspiciously, and she wasn’t the only one. Ephiny, as always, was the only one with a knowing look, but she said nothing. Gabriel met her eyes with a smile and she returned it. Kallisto didn’t like the way it looked. There was a joke in there somewhere but it was beyond her that early in the morning. William walked in, took one look at Gabriel and stopped.

  “If you’re cooking I’m not eating. There’s no telling what you might put in that crap. You’d probably poison me without a second thought,” William said, angry at Gabriel yet again. The animosity between them was as confusing as ever. Gabriel turned toward William, giving him the full view of the apron. A low growl escaped his mouth, and his teeth and fingernails grew slightly. The look on his face was feral. William took an involuntary step back, realized what he’d done and took back the step. His face looked calm but his eyes were too wide. Kallisto could almost feel the fear vibrating off him. He clenched his fist as if he was preparing to fight. Kallisto saw the blue electricity start in his hands. Kallisto put her hand on his shoulder; the blue static hadn’t advanced that far yet. He turned and looked at her and the blue crackle ceased. They both looked back at Gabriel.

  Gabriel smiled. “That was just a warning Billy Goat.”

  “Don’t call me that!” he shouted angrily. “My name is William!”

  “Oh, I didn’t call you that because of your name. Goats are used for sacrifice; remember that...William.” Gabriel turned back to his cooking. William glared at him and stalked over to the table, and sat next to Ephiny. She looked at him and smiled warmly in comfort.

  “It’s all right, William, his bark is worse than his bite.” Ephiny tossed Gabriel a glare. Gabriel looked at her unconcerned.

  Gabriel finished cooking and they all sat nervously as he gave them each a portion of the meat, keeping the biggest portion for himself. They waited and watched as he took a huge bite before they tried it. Kallisto’s taste for meat ran from chicken and turkey to pork and beef. She never touched exotic meats and that was what she was afraid it might be. She slowly cut a small portion and took a bite. It was very good, but the texture and flavor were different than anything she’d ever eaten before. Everyone ate at least a bite and then turned to Gabriel, who was eating quickly. He stopped in mid-bite as he realized they were all watching him. The fork never wavered from in front of his open mouth.

  “I’ll tell you what it is, but not before you eat it all.” He shoved the fork in his mouth with a smile before anyone was able to protest. He never allowed himself another chance to speak. Before he’d swallow he had another bite ready to go in so his mouth was always full, and he never spoke with his mouth full. He was a gentleman with good etiquette and being a werewolf would never change that. Everyone picked up their forks and started eating again.

  They all finished and looked at him, waiting expectantly. He got up from the table and started clearing the dishes away.

  William rolled his eyes. “I thought you said you were going to tell us when we were finished.”

  William stood front of Gabriel, whose arms were filled with dishes. When Gabriel looked at him, Kallisto could’ve sworn his eyes looked blood red. A low growl trickled from between his lips as he leaned toward William. When his face was as close to Williams as he could get without touching the growl stopped. William’s eyes were wide.

  “Get out of my way, runt,” Gabriel whispered in a growl. William moved to the side so Gabriel could get through. He put the dishes in the sink and started washing them as everyone watched in astonishment. William remained standing where he’d moved, staring at Gabriel with his mouth open and eyes still wide. Everyone else sat in their chairs with close to the same expression, even Ephiny. Kallisto decided enough was enough. She rose from the table and approached Gabriel. He turned, looking at her in a side-glance. She walked right up to him with a sobered look in place. After a second, she beamed brightly at him and grabbed a towel to dry and put away. He gave Kallisto a half grin and went back to the dishes, and after a moment when she looked back at him he wore a smirk. Kallisto never really saw him do that unless he was thinking about doing something to William, but she let it go. When the dishes were done and put away Gabriel turned around and leaned against the cabinet with his arms and legs crossed, and looked at the group with an obnoxious
look on his face.

  “Okay, I think you’ve all had enough time to digest.” Gabriel’s lips twitched up like he was fighting not to smile. Kallisto started getting a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew it was something she would never have eaten on her own. Her mind filled with images of all the different animals there were in the Oklahoma area that might’ve been something she didn’t usually eat. Horrible scenarios kept running through her head, like goats and sheep and horses. Of course there wasn’t enough meat for a horse unless he didn’t cook all of it. Her head spun at the thought of eating a beautiful horse–surely Gabriel wouldn’t do that; he loved horses as much as she did. “It was bobcat,” Gabriel said, like it was normal.

  Kallisto’s face paled, as did everyone else’s, but it wasn’t as bad as she had thought. She was just relieved that it wasn’t anything that she could’ve called a pet.

  “A bobcat?” William said sarcastically.

  “Yes, William, a bobcat,” Gabriel said seriously, and then he straightened and put his arms out. “Oh, come on. I fed you that one William. I’m a dog. I couldn’t pass up chasing a cat.”

  Everyone froze for a moment. Kallisto looked at Gabriel for a minute to assess his attitude, and saw that his eyes were shiny with the start of laughter. It was true–she knew it was–but for him to find it funny was a shock all on its own. She started laughing, doubling over with it. He really was okay today and he was having fun again. She heard others chuckling, nervously at first, and then they all joined in, even William.

  When the mirth was over, they needed to get ready to go. Kallisto gave Gabriel a grateful squeeze and started for the door. Talus gave her a quick kiss on the way past.