by Shea Balik
Brandr had the furthest to travel, which wasn’t going to be helpful if anyone ended up getting injured, for it would take time to get him back. Then again, they had a private jet on call at a nearby airstrip for the longer trips.
According to Eirik, the guy who owned the plane never asked any questions about what they were doing so long as they kept him paid. He would drop them wherever they needed to go, and more importantly, wait for them to return.
“Have you heard from Brandr yet?” he asked. The man had flown to Australia, which would mean Imbolc had already begun. He glanced at the clock on his phone. Ten thirty in the morning. It would nearing midnight if he had his time zones right.
Bjorn shook his head, his chin grazing the top of Kegan’s head. “No.”
He appreciated that Bjorn didn’t try to sugarcoat reasons why that could be. Obviously, it didn’t necessarily mean anything bad had occurred, but it could have. Up until he’d found out just how important these rituals really were, Kegan hadn’t given much thought to the other druid families.
Now? Well, he wanted to find the others and warn them. According to Eirik and Bjorn, that was easier said than done. Shortly after that fateful day when the druids were the victims of a Viking raid that had not only caused the death of most of their elders, but a larger fracture in the veil opening, some of the families left, scattered. At first, they had only extended throughout Scotland and England. Then they’d gone to Ireland, where relatives had migrated years before.
But then they’d started to move further away. That was when Eirik and the others found it impossible to keep track of them. The stories of the raids had been still too fresh for the druids to really trust anyone within the Viking group to not cause more death and mayhem, so they’d refused to tell them where they’d be going.
A thousand years later, it had been nearly impossible to find the descendants. Only if they were nearby, which, considering the sheer number of miles of land the earth contained, was a crap shoot with the odds stacked against them.
“Look.” Bjorn put his hands on Kegan’s shoulders and turned him until they were facing each other. Then he leaned down and placed the sweetest kiss on Kegan’s lips. After he broke the kiss, Bjorn rested his forehead on Kegan’s so all they could see was each other. “Worrying about the others isn’t going to do anyone any good. All we can do is our part and trust the rest will work out, one way or another.”
“What if it doesn’t?” Kegan’s throat had tried to close, making his voice strained and barely audible. It was as if something inside of him didn’t want to say the words aloud in case it made them come true. “If the Unseelie’s pets are considered lower beings, what are the Unseelie like? Or even the Seelie?”
He pushed from Bjorn’s arms, unable to handle the comfort he was providing at the moment. His gaze went back to the snow covered scene outside. “Fen may be an ass, but even I can feel the power he has. There’s no way we’d be able to survive and they’re supposed to be the nicer ones.”
“We’ll always survive, dollface.” Thankfully, Bjorn didn’t try to hug him again. Kegan’s emotions were too raw to be able to deal with even something he usually craved to feel, Bjorn’s love.
“Yeah, we will,” Kegan’s voice had gone flat. “We’re immortal. But what about the rest of the world?” He turned from the window to stare at the man he loved more than anything in the world, wishing to God the fate of the world didn’t rest on their shoulders. “What about Meghan?”
“We do whatever it takes to save her,” Ryley said without any kind of hesitation or doubt as he entered the room with his backpack over his shoulder. “I get this is hard to accept.” Ryley barked out a laugh at his own words. “Hell, I had a panic attack before getting out of bed, but fear, guilt, or any other emotion you’re feeling about the possibility of failing, has no place at the bonfire.”
Ryley’s eyes burned just as bright as that bonfire would in a few hours. “We might fail. We might even succeed, and the rest of the world falls. Either way, we do our job. If more than those monsters steps through that veil, we find a way to either kill them, or send them back to their realm, but either way, we fight. I’m not willing to accept anything less than all of us surviving.”
His gaze bore into Kegan’s for a full minute, before he added, “Got it?”
Kegan nodded resolutely. “Got it.”
Oddly enough, he did feel better. More importantly, he was ready to take on whatever came at them. Ryley was right. They could only do their part. If that meant something more terrifying than the Unseelie’s pets came through that Veil, well, then they’d do their part to send them back.
Either way, he wasn’t alone any longer. Maybe that had been what had terrified him the most. For so damn long, Kegan had been on his own, running from monsters too horrifying to be real. Now he had others by his side to fight.
Now, he had Bjorn.
His gaze went to his lover. “I love you,” he said as he stepped up to Bjorn, who instantly opened his arms to enfold him in his embrace.
“I love you too, dollface,” Bjorn said as he held him tightly.
“Not again,” Meghan complained as she came into the room with a backpack slung over her shoulder, just like her brother. “I swear, between you two and Ryley and Eirik, I’ve seen more hugging and kissing than ever before, and I was in high school before this,” she said with enough drama in her voice to remind Kegan just how horny and hands on kids had been in high school.
“Sorry, princess,” Bjorn said as he started to take a step away from Kegan.
But Kegan wasn’t about to let that happen. He liked being in Bjorn’s arms. And he didn’t give a shit who was in the room. If he wanted to kiss his lover, he wasn’t about to stop just because it made others uncomfortable.
“No we’re not, brat,” Kegan used the nickname he’d been calling Meghan for years when their families got together. It was something he hadn’t done since arriving, but Kegan felt it best, especially today, to keep things as they should be, instead of freaking out about what was to come. “If you don’t like it, you can always turn your sassy butt around and walk out.”
In true Meghan fashion, or at least the one he’d grown up with, she stuck her tongue out at him, then spun on the ball of her left foot and stomped from the room. When she arrived in the entryway, Eirik must have been out there, since she loudly said, “Unless you want to watch Bjorn and Kegan making out, I suggest you stay here.”
Kegan could hear Eirik chuckle.
Never having been one to let Meghan have the last word, Kegan yelled, “If you call hugging making out, you weren’t paying attention in high school.” Just to add another dig, he added, “Maybe Ryley should have the sex talk with you just to ensure you know the difference.”
“Gross,” Meghan yelled. “I’ll be waiting outside,” she loudly told Eirik just before the door slammed shut.
Bjorn was laughing, but Ryley glared at Kegan. “Was that really necessary?”
Kegan shrugged. “Probably not, but at least now she’s thinking about you talking to her about sex than what we’re about to face.”
Ryley’s scowling expression morphed into a grateful smile. “It won’t last long, but thanks.”
Out of all of them, Megan had the most to lose. They were immortal. Sure, they could be hurt and it would suck ass for it to happen, but they would survive. For Meghan there was no guarantee. If she was going to have any semblance of a life, or sanity, she would need for things to get back to normal. Well, as normal as possible, considering.
For Kegan, that meant treating her as he always had. A brat.
CHAPTER 18
The trip to the ritual site was better than Bjorn ever imagined it would be. They had decided to take two vehicles, so they’d be able to take more weapons, as well as medical supplies. When Kegan had heard that, he’d tried to get Meghan to ride with them, but she adamantly refused.
Leave it to his dollface to not let that stop him from annoying the
shit out of Meghan. Bjorn knew he was only doing it to help her keep from stressing herself out about the ritual, or more specifically, the Unseelie pets that would undoubtedly try to attack them.
First, Kegan synced his phone to the Bluetooth in their vehicle so Bjorn would be able to hear everything. Then he called Eirik, knowing his phone was already synced to his own SUV.
“What’s up?” Eirik answered. “Did we forget something?”
Bjorn shook his head in pity. Eirik would regret answering the call soon enough, no point in letting him know in advance, especially since Kegan threatened to withhold sex for a week if he did. Nothing on this earth would get him to even open his lips, much less talk with that kind of punishment on the table.
Kegan was grinning like a loon, although he managed to keep his voice serious. “Nothing we have to turn around for, but I thought, since we have a few hours of driving time I would find a good audiobook on sex education…”
“Uuuggghhh,” Megan yelled, probably from the backseat from the sound of her slightly muffled voice. “Disconnect the call, Eirik,” she told the man.
But Eirik only chuckled. “Oh, really?” he asked Kegan. “I think she brought her tablet. Does it have pictures to go along with the narration?”
“Ooh.” Kegan was bouncing in his seat with excitement. “There was one with pictures.” Kegan scrolled through his phone quickly, because, yes, in fact, he had found these audiobooks before making this call. “Here it is,” he said animatedly with one hand waving around as if the others could see him. “And its only two hours. So, you can all listen, while Meghan also looks at the pictures, then still have time to discuss any questions she has when it’s over.”
“Dis-con-nect-the-damn-phone,” Meghan demanded.
“Meghan, you know if you have any questions, this might be…” Ryley managed to get out before completely cracking up.
“You’re all mean,” Meghan accused. “Just because I don’t want to see my brother or his friend groping someone, or,” she went quiet for a second, which Bjorn guessed was because she shuddered. “Worse, kissing, doesn’t mean I need any of you tell me about sex. I’m sixteen,” she insisted. “It’s not, like I’m a virgin.”
Kegan’s eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. Through the speakers Bjorn could just make out twin gasps of shock, mostly likely from Ryley and Eirik.
“What?” Ryley finally exploded.
Kegan placed his finger on the end button on the screen. “I think it’s time for me to go.” Then he pushed the button and disconnected the call. “Fuck,” Kegan said as he started to rub from the top of his head down to his chin several times. “Nope, not enough to get rid of that horrifying image. Do we have bleach?” he asked. “Because I think I need to pour some of it in my brain to erase what I just heard.”
Now it was Bjorn’s turn to laugh. “I think Meghan just managed to turn the tables on you, dollface.”
Kegan’s hands stopped scrubbing his face. He narrowed his gaze as he turned to Bjorn. “Are you saying she just said that to get me off the phone? That she really is a virgin?”
Bjorn shrugged. “Yes, to the first question, but I have no idea if she was telling the truth or not.”
Kegan’s jaw dropped. “She played me.”
“I don’t know about that,” Bjorn admitted. “I mean, it wasn’t as if she knew you were going to call with that ridiculous idea. But she was able to do the one thing she wanted.”
Those cute grey eyes scrunched up in confusion. “What was that?”
“Getting you off the phone.” Although, she accomplished much more than that in Bjorn’s opinion. “Actually, it was kind of brilliant, if you think about it.”
Kegan slowly nodded as if just realizing the implications of Meghan’s move. “That little brat,” Kegan exclaimed. “Now I can’t bring up sex unless I want to risk having to hear her talk about her own love life.”
Those pretty lips twisted into a frustrated scowl. Bjorn swore he could see the wheels turning in Kegan’s head as he tried to figure out another plan.
Tormenting Meghan might sound cruel, but Bjorn agreed with his dollface. If it helped to take her mind off the monsters that were after them and give her a small bit of normalcy, even a somewhat mean one, then he was all for it. No one that young deserved to have her world turned upside down. The only positive had been that she hadn’t witnessed her and Ryley’s family die. Thankfully she’d still been inside getting dressed for the ritual.
Having witnessed his own father and brother’s death, Bjorn knew it wasn’t easy to live with those images. And in his time, death was fairly common. Yet, he still saw them being struck down in his dreams.
When he saw Kegan suddenly grin out of the corner of his eye, Bjorn forced the past back from his thoughts. “What has you so suddenly happy?”
Kegan actually laughed outright before saying, “She might have gotten me off the phone, but she has to deal with both Ryley and Eirik about her sexual experience.” He winked at Bjorn. “I think my work for today is done.”
Bjorn couldn’t help but laugh. His dollface had a good point.
***
The moment they turned off the paved road and onto a long gravel driveway, Bjorn could feel the tension ratchet within Kegan’s body. Those slim hands curled into tight fists and his back was so damn straight and tight, Bjorn feared Kegan might snap in half if he didn’t relax.
Reaching across the center console, Bjorn placed his hand on Kegan’s thigh and squeezed. “We’re going to get through this.” That was a promise Bjorn could keep. They may not have any clue what will come afterward, but he did know, no matter what, they would find a way to survive.
It helped that they were immortal, but that didn’t mean it would be easy. The Unseelie’s pets had been bad enough. He could only imagine what it would like to face an Unseelie. He prayed he’d never have to find out.
“Just remember, there are two of you now. If the prophecy is right, you are just the start.” Bjorn prayed he hadn’t gotten it wrong. “Together, you and Ryley should be more powerful than a dozen druid families.”
Some of that tension eased. “Maybe,” Kegan admitted. “But there’s also no way to know that.”
Bjorn nodded as he pulled up a mile later next to where Eirik had parked. “True. And maybe we should write down the curse, pick it apart, maybe even get Fen to ensure we have it right. Then we’ll known.”
More of Kegan’s tension leeched from his body. “Yeah. That sounds good.”
“In the meantime,” Bjorn said as he opened his door. “We do what we came here to do. There’s no point in worrying if it doesn’t work, for we have no idea what might come through that veil.”
That might be true, but even Bjorn knew worrying was something none of them would be able to stop doing. All he could do was to be ready to fight, to protect Kegan, Ryley, and Meghan. Which he would.
“Ready?” he asked.
When Kegan nodded, Bjorn stepped from the SUV and went around to open Kegan’s door. The first thing he did was to pull Kegan into his arms. The second was to say, “I love you.”
Kegan sank against him. “I love you, too.”
Then they turned to the back of their SUV and started unloading. A week ago, Ulf, Fritjof and Hrafn came to cut enough wood for the bonfire they would need for the ritual. Bjorn wasn’t sure such a big fire was necessary, but it was what the druids had always done, so they continued the tradition.
Once the weapons were unloaded, Bjorn and Eirik placed them in strategic places around the area for anyone to be able to pick up if needed. During the ritual itself, Kegan, Meghan, and Ryley would only have a knife strapped to their bodies since anything more would interfere with their movements.
But, should they need it, there would be weapons close at hand. Bjorn just wished he’d had more time to train Kegan. His dollface was hopelessly inept when it came to the most rudimentary use of any of the weapons. Even the knife he currently had strapped to his low back wou
ld most likely end up cutting Kegan than anyone he tried to use it against.
Bjorn had to pray when it came to defending himself, Kegan’s druid ability would kick in. For that was one weapon, when he used it, that killed in an instant.
When they were done, they headed back to the vehicles and pulled out the sandwiches they’d brought. Kegan held his, uneaten, in his hand. “I know it’s hard, but you need to eat.” Bjorn nudged his hand to encourage Kegan to take a bite.
“He’s right,” Ryley said from beside them. “The ritual will take a lot of energy out of you, but if you need to use your lightning, it will drain you quickly. The last thing you want is to pass out because you couldn’t eat.”
Reluctantly, Kegan took a bite, but that was okay as far as Bjorn was concerned, so long as he ate. When they were finished, Bjorn and Eirik moved the SUVs far enough away to hopefully not sustain any damage in the fight that would most likely occur.
“Fuck me,” Kegan and Ryley said in unison when Eirik and Bjorn had just made it back to the where the wood was piled to light for the bonfire.
They turned to where Kegan, Ryley, and Meghan, who appeared frozen in place, were staring.
Bjorn’s heart sank. There, less than a hundred yards from where they stood was what had to be at least a hundred Unseelie pets, stepping out of thin air, heading right for them.
Yep. They were definitely fucked.
CHAPTER 19
“Start lighting the bonfire,” Eirik barked at them, propelling them all into action.
Before that, Kegan had been frozen in place, kind of like he’d been in Alaska. Except then, he’d foolishly still believed he could run. Now he knew better.
Completing the ritual was imperative, which wouldn’t happen if they didn’t get the bonfire started. Not that he was sure it would make any difference, since there was no way it had a chance to truly ignite before the monsters got to them. And fuck, did there really have to be so many damn slimy ones?
