Wruin (Brothers Of The Dark Places Book 1)

by Miranda Bailey

  I let my eyes go wide and gave an imperceptible nod of my head. What did that mean, I hoped the move conveyed. I went along with my obvious hallucination, not sure what else to do in that moment. My house had been broken into, some weird sword left behind, and I’d been hallucinating the man of my dreams for a good while now. Yeah, let’s just play that out and see where it goes, I decided.

  “Your mother didn’t tell you then? She knew all of the stories and she didn’t tell you any of them?” His sadness deepened and he sat back on the seat, settling in.

  “Abigail, I’m going to go set that burglar alarm thing in the doorway, I saw the code on that note the agent left us. Then, I think we need to call the police. This is all just getting too weird. Freaks breaking in and not taking anything, but leaving swords stuck in the sofa. You’re talking to an invisible man. It just doesn’t make any sense...” Her voice trailed off as she walked away.

  I waited until she was gone and sat down beside my new imaginary friend. Immediately, I felt pulled towards him, but held myself away. He’s imaginary!

  “Have you heard of the Tuatha de Danan? The fairy folk? The old gods? Thor and Loki, Valhalla, Tir na Nog? Ragnorak? Any of that ring a bell?”

  “You’re a fairy? Or Thor?” I wasn’t sure what he was telling me and I just couldn’t get my head around any of what he’d said. There was a lot of that disbelief stuff going around.

  “Neither. I’m a dragon. A dragon shifter. The dragon shifter, in fact.” He paused, letting that sink in.

  “Who are these Tuatha de Danan? Do they make yogurt?” I asked as I totally blanked that whole dragon thing. I wasn’t even going to touch that right now.

  “They were the supernatural beings of all of the land to the west of Tirfothwin, until Tirfothwin finally submitted to the waves completely.”

  “Huh?” I knew I looked totally lost now.

  “This is going to take far longer to explain than we have. Take these.” He held out glowing hands and two pairs of boots, really kick ass, sweet boots of soft black leather. “There’s a pair for Holly. Put them on, and then we have to go. He’s near.”

  I stared at the boots and at Wruin’s hands before taking the boots. Later, later I’d argue that none of this could be real, later I’d ask the stupid “how is this possible” questions that were only a waste of time. Badness was coming, and somehow I could sense it now too. Ugly, black, badness that filled me with dread.

  I called out for Holly, as my hands began to shake. She came in, her face grim.

  “This is some seriously freaky shit, Abigail. It’s gone completely dark outside and the wind is picking up. What the fuck is going on?”

  “Can you see these?” I asked, holding up the boots in my hands, my left eyebrow high on my forehead. For a moment I thought I’d truly gone around the bend as she gaped at me incredulously.

  “Those are gorgeous!” She said, taking the pair in my left hand. They were exactly the same as the other pair so I let her have them. “Where did you get these? More importantly, why am I lusting after boots in the middle of this total fuck-fest of a day?”

  “No time for questions, just put them on.” Wruin had started to look a bit agitated as he stared at us, and I knew he sensed my father getting closer because I could too.

  “Right, you know I’ll follow you to Hell and back, but at some point, you’re going to give me some answers, girl!” She kicked her trainers off and slid the boots on her feet while I did the same.

  “Whoa! Who the fuck is he?” She screeched as she looked in Wruin’s direction.

  “You can see him now?” I said dumbly.

  “Is he the hottie?” She whispered to me as she took in the man that had suddenly appeared in front of her.

  “Yeah.” I said lamely, my nerves starting to scream at me to run, danger Miss Abigail, danger!

  “Wow. Where’d he come from?” She started to move towards him, but he moved first, headed to the front door.

  “Later ladies. It’s time to go.” Wruin handed the sword to me and I looked at him blankly.

  “What do I do with it?” Another stupid question but really, I didn’t have one of those handy sword holding thingies on my back, did I?

  “We’ll need it later. Here, put it in this.” And just like that, he magicked up a handy sword holding thingy.

  Later, Abigail, later, I thought as I put the holder on too and stood up. I felt a bit awkward with the weight on my back, but it would work.

  Shod in our, apparently, magical boots, we left the house and walked out into a storm that had blown up out of nowhere. The wind whipped my hair out of the tie that kept it knotted on top of my head and I struggled to move my hand enough to push it out of my eyes.

  “Wruin, where are we going?” I wondered if the wind was so powerful it had blown my voice away, but he eventually answered me.

  “Back to the cave. We have to leave.” He headed for the water of the cove, but I balked.

  “Look, we can swim, but why would we want to go into a flooded cave? You told me earlier the time was coming in.”

  “Abigail…,” frustration made him say my name harshly but he stopped. “I know this is all very strange for you, but right now, you have to trust me. That’s what your mother told you, right? Come to me? Let me do my job, please.”

  He reached for my face in the darkness and I melted against him, my body instantly responded to him. That’s when I realized why he was so familiar. Why it felt so right to be with him.

  “You’ve been in my dreams…” I began, but Holly interrupted.

  “Uh, if you two are going to make out, I’m going back in the house. No offence, but I don’t like being rained on.” Holly’s voice intruded and we broke apart.

  Wolves began to howl in the distance and Wruin went still. “He’s here. We have to go, now!”

  Wruin grabbed both of our hands and we ran for the water. I could hear the snarls of wolves behind us, and Holly screamed as one nipped at her heels, but Wruin ran back and kicked it, before we all started running once more.

  We made it to the cove and I balked. Water now covered the entrance to the cave I’d gone into earlier. Water that crashed and roiled against the shoreline. How were we supposed to swim into that?

  Wruin took my face in his hands, his eyes darted between me and the wolves that were now only feet away.

  “Alright, the boots will keep you safe. Notice that your feet are dry, despite the rain? When we go into the water, they will form a bubble around you, though you won’t see it, and you’ll be able to move just fine. You’ll be fine, just swim as normal, and breath. You won’t have to hold your breath.”

  I wasn’t sure about that, but from the moment I’d met him, I’d basically thrown logic and sense out of the window. Why start asking questions now?

  Wruin dove into the water, and though it rushed around him, he was able to tread water as if he was only in a calm pond. I took a deep breath and with a literal leap of faith I followed him in. The sword thumped against my back as I landed in the water, but it didn’t drag me down as I’d feared it might.

  Immediately, the wind stopped tearing at my hair and the rain stopped hitting me. Though I was in the water, and had to kick me feet to stay above it, I couldn’t feel the water as a wet liquid. Okay, I thought, this just gets weirder.

  “It’s alright, Holly, come in the water. I swear. Hurry! They’re here!” One of the wolves howled as it came near to my best friend, and I saw her resolve harden just before she jumped in after me.

  “Take the leg of my pants, Abigail. Holly, grab Abigail’s. I’ll lead the way.” Wruin didn’t waste any more time on words but dove under, kicking his right leg back so that I could catch his pants. I did the same for Holly and that’s when things became even more surreal.

  Wruin surged deep into the water and found the entrance to the cave. A soft blue light surrounded us, and I saw the walls of the cave as we coursed through tunnels much further than I thought they’d go. Wrui
n swam like a snake, sinuously, slithering through the water as if it was air, and I could only gape as we swam deeper into the caves.

  Holly’s grip loosened as we neared a place where it looked as if the tunnel finally came to an end. When her grip disappeared completely I yanked on Wruin’s leg and screamed at him to stop. He looked back at me and his eyes went wide.

  10

  Abigail

  “The sword, Abigail. Use the sword.” I didn’t know what he meant, but I took it out and waved it at the now seven wolves behind us.

  They were holding Holly in a circle between them. She looked at me with terrified eyes and anger surged through me.

  “Give her back!” I screamed at the wolves that appeared to be leering at me.

  “Baby girl...it’s me, your old dad!” The biggest wolf of them all said as he walked up to me. With a fluffy white coat, he was one of the most beautiful wolves I’ve ever seen. I reached out to stroke him but Wruin pulled me back.

  “Let her go, Airitech. She’s not a part of this.” Wruin’s deep voice was like metal scraping over gravel as he spoke to the wolf that was, fuck it I know I’m crazy now, my father.

  “Well now, dragon, you can have her, for sure. I just want my daughter.” The Irish accent wasn’t changed by the fact that the words came from a wolf mouth, not a human one.

  “You can’t have either.” With that, the man that was a man suddenly became a dragon. A very large, very angry red and green dragon covered in scaled with black tips. The dragon from my dreams!

  I scrambled away, unsure if the dragon that had been a man would remember who I was or if he’d be an animal. Aren’t dragons mean and grumpy? Would he kill me too?

  The wolves fled as Wruin sprayed a jet of fire at them and his tail, covered in dozens of long, sharp barbs, slashed at them. Holly screamed and kicked out until she reached me.

  “Let’s get out of here. This is all just too insane!” We pushed away from the yelping wolves and the roaring dragon, until we found something like a shore and sloshed up it.

  The blue light still surrounded us as we ran down what appeared to be a passageway. Our labored breathing and the sound of dripping water was the only sound to be heard until we came to a large wall.

  “We’re trapped!” Holly screamed, her frantic eyes going between the darkness behind us and the wall.

  “Look Holly, it’s some kind of door!” I’d been feeling along the wall, made of wood that should have rotted away long ago. I’d found a keyhole, and Wruin’s words came back to me.

  “It’s the sword of the key, it unlocks the door.”

  He’d said I was the key, but his words implied I needed the sword to open the door.

  I took the sword from its holder thingy and looked at it. Where the blade met the body, there were odd shapes, shapes that matched the lock on the door.

  “I think this is the key, Holly.” She huddled next to me as I started to slide the sword into the lock.

  A humming started above our heads as the length slid into the lock, and the sword began to warm. Unlike Holly, however, the sword did not burn me, it just became warm.

  A howl from the darkness caught our attention, and I turned to see my father and his wolves heading right for us.

  “Turn it, Abigail. Do it, oh my God, I don’t want to die in the middle of the biggest hallucination of my life!” Her words spurred me on and I turned the sword in the lock.

  The blue light exploded around us, becoming far brighter, and the door swung open. Bright light filled the cavern as the door revealed a dark world, lit by enough street lights to act as a sun! A forest of trees sprawled before us, small building in each one, and beings rushed by. A hectic world of bustle and noise that simply should not be there.

  “Hi there ladies, I’m Lothar and I’ll be your Giant Viking Ginger Dude tour guide today. Please step this way as the dragon exits Perdition.” A very, very tall, very ginger dude pulled us out of the way just as a very pissed off dragon rushed up behind us. His flames scorched at the fur of the wolves and they rushed back into the water behind us.

  My father stood at the edge of the pool for a moment, his angry wolf eyes glowed an angry shade of green.

  “I won’t forget this betrayal, daughter! Your mother kept you from me, but Wruin won’t! I’ll find another way into the Tirfothwin and bring back Tir Na Nog, you traitorous little whelp! I should have known better than to lie with a human woman anyway! Dammit!” He ran back into the water as Wruin sent out another jet of flames.

  That’s when I fainted and the world went black. My brain had had just enough, thank you.

  11

  Abigail

  “Look buddy, you might be a giant Viking dude with tits, but you’re not going to stop me from seeing my friend. Hallucination or not, you aren’t going to stop me!” Holly’s voice penetrated the darkness of my sleep and I stirred in the softest bed I’ve ever laid on.

  “Oh, come on, beautiful. My Giant Viking Ginger Dude tits slay the ladies. They love my sweet, sweet, Viking man boobs!” I recognized that voice, but knew the impossibly large man that had spoken them couldn’t be real.

  “That might work here in fantasy land, Lothar, but not on me. Now let me through!” Ah, Holly was still certain she was hallucinating, right.

  So was I. Maybe I’d had a stroke while I was sitting there being written up all those weeks ago. Maybe we’d been in a car accident, and we were both in some unknown version of Purgatory. Or maybe, just maybe, this was all real.

  “Holly?” I called out, sitting up to push away the softest leather I’d ever felt that served as my blanket.

  “You’re awake!” Holly finally pushed past the giant and came to settle on the bed with me.

  “Yeah, what happened?” My head ached as I sat up and I put my hand to it, trying to find the source of the pain.

  “You, uh, you kind of spontaneously combusted. I don’t know how else to say it.” Holly stared at me in awe.

  “What?” I didn’t believe her, how was I still here if that happened?

  “Well, you know that blue light that surrounded us while we were swimming? That was apparently from you. You started to glow just as your father was giving his “I’ll be back” speech and then, we were all just knocked over as the light just exploded out of you, slammed the door shut, and sealed it closed.”

  “Ahha.” A simple answer, but I couldn’t think of what else to say. “So, I’m magic now?”

  “Not magic, only half magic.” Wruin’s voice came from the darkness in a corner of the round room I’d slept in.

  “Right, my father’s, what? A werewolf?”

  “An Irish one, yes.” Wruin sat down next to my bed on the floor, pushing away a silky curtain that hung over the bed that was basically a pallet on the floor.

  “Does that mean I’ll be...?” I don’t want to be a wolf!

  “No, you won’t ever shift, but your powers are growing stronger. I used my own magic to protect you and your mother long before you were born. When she passed away, my connection to you remained, but my protection ended. That’s why your mother sent you to me. So that I could protect you. From your father and yourself. Your own magic will grow now, especially now that we’re back in Tirfothwin.”

  “Ah. Right.” I looked down at my hands. Would a pill help bring my sanity back, I wondered.

  “You aren’t crazy, Abigail, and this is all real. You and Holly both are as sane as you were a year ago. You’re just in a totally different world now. You’re in the world of legend.”

  “I’ll be glad to finish my tour, if you ladies like.” Lothar broke in, joining us on the floor. “If you’re not also my King’s mate, you foxy little thing, I’ll give you a special tour.”

  He only had eyes for Holly and her glare only made me want to laugh. I could tell she was interested in the Viking with the braided beard, definitely interested, but she wasn’t going to let him know that. Not yet, anyway.

  “I don’t need a special tour fro
m a man that can wiggle his eyebrows like that, or one that wears more jewelry than I do. Are those tiny skulls in your beard-braids?” She leaned over and inspected his beard in the white artificial light that glowed from sconces on the walls.

  I fell back onto the comfortable bed and sighed as they continued to bicker. Wruin took my hand and I opened my eyes to gaze at him. He was just so incredibly handsome!

  A hint of his scent trailed across my face, and my nostrils flared. His eyes went dark and he turned to the others at the bed.

  “Why don’t you two go have a look around? I’ll keep an eye on Abigail.” From the way they shut up I knew his eyes must have told them to go away and leave me in peace.

  “Sure, yeah. Hey, where can we get some food in this place, Lothar? Do you guys have Mexican food here?” Holly’s voice trailed off as they left the room, and Wruin turned to me.

  “Are you hungry, Abigail? I can have something brought to us.” He started to move but I stopped him.

  “No, I’m fine. I need answers more than food. Where are we? What are we?” I let my fingers linger on his skin where I’d reached out to stop him. Touching him felt so right.

  He glanced down at where my fingers touched his skin and he paused. He’d changed clothes since we’d arrived. He was now dressed in some kind of black leather kilt made up of panels of leather, and his shirt was now the same soft black leather material of my blanket, laced at the throat. The loafers he’d worn were now black leather boots, laced tightly halfway up his calves. A man of stunning beauty showcasing just how powerful he was.

  I think I might have drooled a little. Wiping at my mouth I sat up against the soft fur cushions that served as pillows. Pure sophistication and smoothness I was not.

  “This is the land that is no more. What’s left of Tirfothwin. Many centuries ago, long before you were born, before even the Vikings were born, this land was above the sea. We had the best hunting in all of the known world, and people crossed from Tir Na Nog, to our land, and came and went to the lands far east of us. We were an advanced civilization, but not as modern as the current world. We didn’t have planes but we did have rudimentary ways of creating electricity.”