“In the Decker’s case, with Lauren, he didn’t see it, because she never showed her true self in his presence. But she slipped up with me and Liam a couple of times, because she really didn’t want us near Decker.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from your own experience with psychos in addition to Decker’s.” Harper looked to Brody.
“Um, yeah. I knew another psycho once. But the true psycho experience came when Lauren full on stalked my brother.”
“The poor woman. I wonder if she understands what people really think of her.” Erin shook her head.
“I don’t think she does.” Liam patted her arm. He turned to look into her eyes. “I guess we should feel somewhat sorry for her. She’s addicted to something again or off her meds. Somewhere, something isn’t right in her head. So it’s bad to laugh at her and call her names, I guess.” He shrugged.
“I didn’t say what I said for that reason exactly. I was just trying to get into her head a little. Though I do feel sorry for her, she might come after my friend, and I’m a girl, so I can hit her! I would if it came to that,” Erin added with a wink and a grin.
Liam laughed. “I was not expecting that from you, Erin. You have the kindest heart among us, well with a little bit of an evil-streak apparently.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “You took me by surprise with that one.” He laughed again and opened his laptop.
“I try to be kind-hearted, but sometimes, I do fail.” Erin giggled. “I had a couple of psycho boyfriends in the past, so, I can commiserate. It’s not a pleasant experience to go through.”
Jade noticed the way Liam looked at Erin. She saw empathy in his eyes, and something more, something tender. She wondered if Erin knew Liam had a thing for her. She doubted it. Erin tended to shy away from dating these days, as she did have a string of really awful relationships in her past. The last guy she went out with hadn’t seemed so bad, until she found out he had a gambling addiction. She had come home one day to find he had let himself into her apartment and taken anything of value to sell. Erin hadn’t even known he gambled. He had pretended to be someone he wasn’t. She found out all of the details later when he continued to call her. Finally, she stopped answering when she realized she would never be able to believe anything he told her.
When Jade actually thought about it, Erin had been single for almost the same length of time as she had. Hmm.
She knew better than to point anything out to Erin, it would make her uncomfortable, and she might even distance herself from Liam. At present, they seemed to get along very well as friends, and appeared to enjoy one another’s company. Jade would let fate, the powers that be, and Liam handle it. Something told her, that Erin might be heading into a storm. The kind where she would have to realize that a totally awesome guy could truly care about her.
“We’re on Skype with Niall, now,” Liam said. He placed his laptop on the dining room table. Decker and Jade stayed seated beside him. The others rose and stood behind them.
Chapter Sixteen
“Cousin Niall?”
“Yes, and this is also your cousin, my sister, Fianna O’Flynn.”
“Hello, all,” the pretty, auburn-haired woman waved at them. She had a beautiful smile.
“I’m Liam,” he began and introduced the rest of their group.
“It’s lovely to finally meet you all. As I explained to Liam in my email, this branch of the O’Flynns has served as guardians of your side since the day Ciaran O’Sullivan was cursed by Aoife.”
“What does that mean exactly, Niall? That you are guardians of the O’Flynns,” Decker asked.
Niall looked puzzled for a second then asked, “How much did your mother tell you before she passed, cousin?”
“Not much. She told us that we would meet our ‘ones’. Decker first and after that, my brother and I would meet ours. She explained that the three of us, once we met these three women, would be the ones able to destroy the old, evil demon that has been around for hundreds of years. We found one of Mom’s notebooks with family history, so we know a bit about that. We traced Jade’s ancestors to the Murphy’s in County Cork, but not past the seventeenth century. We know the sons of Bearach and Aoife were married to a Murphy, and a couple of other names we can’t pronounce. So far we just have a Murphy,” Liam provided. “We don’t know how to defeat the demon. And we really need to know how.”
“We’ve seen Ciaran O’Sullivan once when all of us were together, but he appears to be concentrating on Jade. He’s tried to attack her three additional times. We need help. We don’t know how to find out what it is we need to do to defeat him,” Decker added.
“He found you? Oh, Holy Mother Mary. I take it you aren’t in possession of the other book.” Niall’s eyes narrowed in concern.
“We just found it today. We haven’t had time to look at it yet. We came up here, to Sedona, from the Phoenix area to look for it because this is where my parents were before their tragic accident.”
Niall let out a low whistle. He shared a concerned glance with his sister. “The situation is critical.”
His sister nodded and spoke, “Cousins, for four of you are cousins since Jade is a Murphy, your parents were correct in what they told you. We, meaning your parents, my father, brother, and I have strongly suspected that you three brothers would be the O’Flynns to face O’Sullivan. For, you see, there hasn’t been three brothers and three women, one of each original family of the wives of the first three brothers together in one lifetime. We weren’t certain if there were women of those lines in the picture, but we suspected there might be. Though our ancestors lost track of the Murphys, McCarthys, and O’Driscolls over the years, we knew some of their lines had long since moved to the U.S. There is one other very good reason we suspected this might be the time for the O’Flynns to defeat the demon. I’ve a question to put to you. Are you aware of the heritage of your father, by chance?”
“No, not really. We know his great-grandfather came to America from Germany,” Brody commented.
“Good heavens, Niall, we’ve a bit of work here, haven’t we?” The petite woman brushed thick strands of auburn hair over her shoulder and sighed deeply.
Niall smiled and nodded. “We do at that, but it can be done. Well lads, your grandmother’s lineage traces all the way back to the O’Sullivans of Beara, the clan of Ciaran O’Sullivan in Bearach and Aoife’s time. Only once since that time did the blood of three O’Flynns of Ardagh meet with three who descended from the blood of the original O’Flynn sons and their wives. That was in the late seventeenth century.”
Niall continued, “They were unsuccessful in eliminating Ciaran. We think we know why. There were two O’Flynn brothers and one sister. One brother married an O’Driscoll, one a McCarthy, and Dugald Murphy married Kathleen O’Flynn. It wasn’t quite as it should be without three of the O’Flynns being sons. It is why we’ve suspected you three are the ones, because there have never been three O’Flynn brothers and three women descended from the other clans together since the day Ciaran O’Sullivan killed the sons of Bearach and Aoife. Never has an O’Flynn married the blood of the O’Sullivan of Beara and brought forth children, much less three sons, the amount required to end the curse. We have a candidate for one of the three women; we are just hoping there are two more. We feel confident there are, for there are several branches of the other families in the States.”
“As we sit here now, looking upon the three brothers of that mixed blood, and one ancestor of the Murphy clan, we still feel certain this is the time. There has been a feeling, an awareness in our clan since your mother married your father. The other two should surface soon. These things tend to move quickly when the time to gather is at hand.”
“Aoife cursed Ciaran by her words, a spell, mixed with her strong magic. She lured him to the circle at Drombeg after he murdered her sons. After he stabbed her, she told him that three sons from the blood of her sons and daughters from their wives’ blood would avenge their fathers’ deaths, if it took a
thousand years. She cursed him to live an eternity of hell, of never belonging anywhere, until her sons were avenged, the land ran red with his blood, and he was destroyed. He would know nothing but unhappiness, loneliness, and be shunned by his clan and theirs all the rest of his days.” Niall sat back in his chair and looked at Liam then Decker.
“So, if we are from his blood as well as the O’Flynn bloodline, how does that make this special or different? I would think that would give us a tie with him, if anything,” Brody questioned.
“Quite simply, it is because he was shunned by his own clan, and cursed by them as well. They were ashamed of what he had done. They banished him, his own blood kin did. You three brothers carry his family’s blood; a cousin once or twice removed from him, but you are not directly from him, which makes for very strong magic to end him.”
“We are from O’Flynn ancestry, but not O’Flynns or even Flynns, we were born Deckers. How can this work?” Liam asked.
“Ah, your mother was an O’Flynn, though her grandfather dropped the O’ when he arrived in America. Mary Kate Flynn was a direct descendant from the Bearach and Aoife line of the O’Flynns of Ardagh, and your father’s mother was born into a direct line from the O’Sullivans of Beara, so there is power in those connections. You three brothers are direct descendants and the blood of the three Ardagh O’Flynns, the sons of Bearach and Aoife, who were murdered.”
“I looked up some family genealogy two years ago, and I distinctly remember my Grandmother’s maiden name as being Mary Ryan,” Liam mentioned.
Niall smiled. “Well, I can tell you that Mary Ryan was the only child born to her mother and father. She was baptized, Mary O’Sullivan. Her mother died when she was but two. Sadly, her father moved on after. She was raised by her mother’s parents, the Ryans, and took their name as they were the only parents she had ever known.”
“Ah, I just found a marriage license. I never saw a birth or baptismal record. That would explain it.” Liam gave a nod.
“Now that we have the basic history bit out of the way, I must ask, how are your magics coming along?” Fianna queried.
“Magics?” Decker cocked his head.
“Your gifts, your powers,” Niall clarified.
“We don’t have super powers,” Brody offered as he shook his head.
“We are not really magic, I am psychic, and the brothers are as well, though they have never actively worked on their abilities until now,” Jade offered.
“So you can’t control the elements and such?” Niall asked.
“No.” Liam shook his head. “None of us can. Jade knew nothing of the curse until she met Decker, so…”
“Oh dear. Fianna, be a love and ring Aunt Neave. We need her sooner than later, I’m thinking.”
The six watched as Fianna rose and disappeared from the camera. They could still hear her voice in the background as she spoke to someone.
“Well then, cousins. How long do you plan to be in this vacation home of yours?”
“For a week,” Decker answered.
“It’s not much, but it will have to do, won’t it? Do you have space for the three of us? Fianna and Aunt Neave can share a room if needs be.”
“Yes, we have two extra bedrooms and a guest bungalow, but it’s a long trip from Ireland. By the time you could get here, there would only be a few days left. You could return to Phoenix with us, if you like though,” Decker offered. He turned to Brody. “They can stay at your house, right?”
“Sure. I’ll have to clean.” Brody nodded.
“I assure you, we can get there very quickly. Can one of you send a map of your general area marked with your exact location to my email quickly, please?” Niall asked.
“I’ll do it.” Brody flipped open his laptop, clicked some keys then sent what Niall requested a minute later.
Jade watched the laptop screen with interest as a smiling older woman with tidy gray hair and brilliant blue eyes appeared on the screen. She took the chair Fianna had occupied.
“This is your Aunt Neave. She is something of the O’Flynn historian, also a guardian in a bit of a different way than we are. She is an authority on magic, especially family magics.”
“Niall, darling, just say it plain.” Neave smiled into the camera. “My dears, I am a witch, and have been for some time. I, along with Niall and Fianna, of course, need to teach you a great deal in a short amount of time. It is imperative you learn these things. I imagine your dear mother was waiting, for I know she feared that Ciaran might be able to sense the elevation of your powers and find you. Fianna told me he has found you. Let me make a few preparations, and I will be on my way. I will see you very soon.”
The six looked at one another. Brody shrugged. Liam turned to him with a confused look on his face.
“We have your location. Please remember, that we have magic, as did your mother and father. Keep an open mind and-”
“Oh, would you look at the view. It’s breathtaking. I’ve always been fond of the American southwest,” a feminine voice with a definite Irish lilt sounded from behind them.
All six turned to see, standing right behind them, the same gray-haired woman they had just viewed on Skype in County Cork, Ireland. She was looking out the wide windows at the mountains in varying shades of red that loomed in the distance beyond the house.
Silent, and more than a little surprised, they stood, turning full around to face her.
It was then Jade noticed a smart gray travel bag beside her on the floor.
“Oh, my dear!” The petite woman, dressed in stylish black slacks, a white shirt, and a beautiful gray and black cardigan, gushed when Jade met her gaze.
She walked briskly toward Jade. “Forgive my staring at you, child, but you look so like my mother when she was about your age. You must be the Murphy.”
Jade smiled. “I am. I am Jade Murphy.”
“I’m Neave O’Flynn.” She looked to Decker and said, “I met your mother, young man.” She turned to Liam. “And your father. I daresay you are the image of him. Your name is?”
“I am Liam. This is Michael, though most everyone calls him Decker, that’s Brody.” He pointed to each one of his brothers. He added as an afterthought, “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. O’Flynn.”
“It will be Aunt Neave to all of you, please.”
“Ah, I met your mother while she carried you, and look at you, so tall and handsome now. You’ve the look of both your mother and father. I knew when I laid my hand on her tummy you would be the third son.”
She turned back to Jade and took her hands in hers. “You’re just as beautiful as she was Jade, my dear mother, I’m meaning.” She turned to Decker then. “You, Michael, look very much like my father. Forgive an old woman a moment of nostalgia, please.”
“Of course. We’re happy to have you here, Aunt Neave. You are welcome in our home.” Decker stepped toward her.
The elderly woman reached out and took his large hand in her small one.
Jade noticed how the woman’s eyes dampened.
“Cousins?”
They turned to the forgotten laptop screen to see Niall and Fianna, both displaying wide grins upon their faces.
“I take it Aunt Neave made it safely.”
Brody hooked his thumb back to where Aunt Neave still stood behind them. “Yes. She’s, um, here.”
“Of course I’m here Niall, it’s not like I haven’t been doing this forever, you know. You and Fianna make your arrangements at the hotel and come quickly. I can feel him. He is not far, and these young people need a great deal of lessons before they are ready.”
“Of course, Aunt Neave. Cousins, I’ll turn it over to our Aunt for now, since she is there with you. Fianna and I will be along in a bit after we sort out some business here.”
“Okay. See you soon.” Decker looked to a wide-eyed Jade then to each of his brothers and shrugged his shoulders.
“Let’s get down to business, shall we. Might I take a wee break for some tea, dears? Flying
always makes me thirsty. It depletes the energy so. If you have a biscuit or two, I would love a bite to eat.”
“Of course, Aunt Neave, and please have a seat.” Jade motioned the short, slender woman toward the sofa.
“We’ll have a coffee and tea break before we begin,” Decker suggested. “Aunt Neave, we do have tea bags, I’ll have to make some tea. Would you like a sandwich?”
“Don’t bother about the tea, dear.” She waved her hand toward the end table nearest to where she sat and a pretty porcelain teapot appeared along with a matching cup and saucer. “I’m a bit particular about my tea. I’ll take some chilled water if you don’t mind and a sandwich does sound wonderful. Do you have any crisps? Oh, and if you have some, a biscuit or two would do nicely.”
At Decker’s blank look, she chuckled. “I believe you Americans call them chips and cookies.”
“Oh. Sure. Do you want turkey, ham or roast beef? We have Swiss, Colby, or pepper cheese.”
“Roast beef sounds lovely and though I love your spicy cheese, the peppers might not agree with me after I have flown so far. I’ll have the Swiss.” She looked to Jade as Decker went into the kitchen. “You and Michael are a couple, aren’t you?”
Jade blushed. “Yes, we are.”
Decker grinned. “We definitely are a couple, Aunt Neave,” he called from the counter where he was making her sandwich.
She looked to Harper. “Ah, a McCarthy.”
“No. I am Harper McKinley. I’m Jade’s roommate.”
“Oh?” Neave didn’t look convinced. “You certainly have the looks of a McCarthy. You and young Brody are…” she pointed her finger back and forth between them.
“No.” Harper giggled and shook her head. “The only couple in our group is Decker and Jade. Erin and I here because we are friends of Jade’s, and her roommates,” she explained.
Brody crossed his arms, grinned, and winked at Harper.
“Hmm, I see.” Her gaze moved from Brody to Harper again then she turned to Erin. “The O’Driscoll traits run strong in you, young lady, what with your tall, slenderness and that head full of dark hair. You’ve the look of an O’Driscoll aunt of mine. And what is your name, dear?”
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