by Ashlyn Chase
Amber winced. “You don’t want to know.”
“It can’t be that horrible. We’re her children, after all,” Shannon said.
Amber remembered being turned into a baby and told she might have to start all over again. Yet Brandee and Bliss seemed to think it was an empty threat.
Mayday, Mayday, Mayday…
“Oh crap,” Amber muttered. Could these emergencies be timed any worse? “I’ve got to go.” With that briefest of explanations, she followed the voice into the ether, disappearing in front of everyone there.
Uh-oh…
Mother Nature met her with arms crossed and a stern scowl on her face. To Amber’s surprise, she was back in her apartment.
“Ah, was that you who called, Gaia?” Amber asked.
“I had to do something before you spilled every bean in Boston. Now go to your room and stay there, young lady. You’re grounded!”
* * *
Amber wanted to commiserate with someone—and that someone was Rory. But she didn’t know where he was.
“I am in soooo much trouble,” she mumbled on her way to the bedroom.
“I am in soooo much trouble,” Rory muttered from his sitting position on the floor of their kitchen.
She halted. “What are you doing down there?”
“Ah, lass. I’m all right.” He struggled to get up. “My knees went out from under me.”
Concerned, Amber rushed to his side to help him up. Of course, lifting a two-hundred-pound man wasn’t really something she expected to accomplish. He got to his feet and wrapped an arm around her.
She guided him to the futon. “What happened?”
“Your boss happened.”
“Mother… I mean, Gaia?”
“Yes. The big boss of everything.”
Amber gasped. “What did she do to you?”
He leaned forward and clasped his head in his hands. “Just threatened to rip me a new arsehole.”
“What for?”
“For givin’ me sister permission to marry a human.”
Amber glanced around the apartment. “Where’s Finn?”
“He’s upstairs in the girls’ apartment. She said she’d made him sleep, and when he wakes he’ll think the whole thing was a dream. Now she wants me to undo it with Shannon.”
“Undo the engagement?”
He nodded sadly. After a long sigh, he said, “You might as well take me to her. Puttin’ it off won’t help.”
Amber grimaced. “I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
“She grounded me.”
“Ah, feckers. We’re feckin’ fecked now.” He sprang to his feet. “I don’t suppose I can borrow your phone…”
“Of course you can.” She went to the bedroom and grabbed it from its charger.
He looked so beaten as she handed it to him. She couldn’t stand seeing him this way.
After several rings, a hysterical-sounding Shannon answered. Even if Amber didn’t have goddess-like hearing, she’d be able to understand her.
“Relax, luv. What’s happenin’?” Rory asked.
“You’ve got to get here right away!” Shannon blubbered. “Chloe tried to stop Aiden from flying down to the caves. He shifted to get away and she shifted to catch up to him. Then she sunk her fangs into his leg and he screamed, and they went over the edge of the cliff together! Oh, Rory. I can’t see them! I think they hit the rocks and fell into the sea!”
“Where’s Conlan?” he shouted.
“I don’t know. Probably at the B and B. They said they’d go and come back when you were here to reason with. Aiden must have snuck back on his own.”
“Well, go get Conlan. See that you calm down, and don’t scream the story to the whole town.”
“Why can’t you come and get him? Just get Amber to bring you.”
“Amber’s sittin’ right here. But she’s lost her powers.”
Shannon shrieked. “Lost them? How? Oh, never mind. If you can’t get here, we’re well and truly fecked.”
“Go get Conlan. I’ll be on the next plane.”
“What about Finn? Where is he?”
He slapped a hand over his eyes as if he’d forgotten all about the young man he’d promised could marry his sister.
Amber placed a hand on his shoulder. “Go to Ireland. I’ll see what I can do to help Finn.”
Rory gave her a quick nod. “Finn’s fine. All right, Shannon. Listen to me well. Get Conlan to help you with the others, and feck it if he wants to see the castle. Let him look. There’s nothin’ to see.”
She sniffled. “And you’ll get here tonight or tomorrow?”
“At the latest,” he promised.
Rory said a quick good-bye and disconnected the call.
“Can you get me on the next flight to Ireland? Sayin’ it’s a family emergency should help, right?”
“It might. But I have another idea. Let me make a quick call.”
He handed her the phone. She stopped and thought a moment before punching in the number.
Hell, it’s an emergency and he owes me.
* * *
Rory took the steps two at a time and entered the private jet. He met the pilot at the top of the stairs and shook the man’s hand. “I thank you fer helpin’ me to get home in a hurry. I’m glad Amber knew a pilot with his own plane.”
The guy chuckled. “It’s not mine. Well, not completely. A group of us own it and fly private gigs. It’s mostly to impress the ladies.” He winked.
Rory took an instant dislike to the guy, but he’d have to take what he could get.
“Why don’t you sit up front?” the man said. “We don’t have a copilot. Hell, we don’t even have a flight attendant. Just don’t touch anything. The view will give you a thrill.”
“Sure,” Rory said. He didn’t tell the guy he could sprout wings and get a dragon’s-eye view any time he wanted—as long as no one witnessed it.
The pilot did a cursory flight check, then communicated with the tower. Before long, they’d taxied down the runway and taken off.
As soon as the plane leveled off, the pilot turned to Rory and seemed to be appraising him. “So, you’re Amber’s new fella…”
Rory didn’t know what Amber had said to the guy. She’d closed her bedroom door when she spoke to him. Now Rory just nodded and kept quiet.
“Yeah. I regret cheating on her,” the pilot said. “I hope you’ll be smarter than I was. She was a great girl.”
Rory’s eyes rounded. “What?”
“Oh, she didn’t tell you? Yeah, we dated for about a year. I tried to keep it in my pants, but hey—sometimes there’s just too much temptation.”
Rory was infuriated. He knew he wasn’t her first, but how could anyone treat his Amber that way? This bastard was probably the reason why she’d wanted nothing to do with men when he’d first met her.
It was all Rory could do to keep himself from bashing the pilot’s head against the controls and causing the plane to crash.
The pilot droned on about this new flight attendant he was seeing, and how he was trying to learn from his mistakes with Amber. But after a short time, Rory knew the pilot hadn’t learned much at all.
“Well, it appears I’ve arrived in Amber’s life at the right time,” Rory finally said.
“Huh? Oh yeah. Timing is everything,” the guy said and grinned.
What he meant by that, Rory could only guess, but he didn’t really want to know either.
He gazed out the window and didn’t say another word until they landed at the airstrip near Ballyhoo. Rory was relieved when his feet hit the tarmac.
The pilot’s parting words were, “For what it’s worth, Amber thinks the world of you. No one has ever threatened my balls if I didn’t help a new boyfriend before.�
� He’d laughed and slammed the door.
* * *
For some reason the damn toilet wouldn’t stop running. Amber jiggled the handle, but that didn’t help a bit. She sighed. She didn’t know a thing about plumbing. That’s one reason she had always rented. Maintenance was definitely not her thing.
Fortunately, nice buildings came with people to maintain them. She didn’t know who that would be here, but the managers certainly would. She found her phone and called Sly.
He answered on the second ring. “Sly Flores,” he said.
“Hey, Sly. It’s Amber. I seem to have a plumbing problem. Can you tell me who I need to call for maintenance?”
He chuckled. “Yeah. Me. What kind of problem is it?”
“The toilet won’t stop running. I’ve jiggled the handle…”
“I’ll need to take a look at it.”
“I’ll be here,” she said and mentally rolled her eyes. Thanks to Mother Nature grounding me like an errant teenager.
“I’ll come right down.”
A few seconds later Amber heard a knock on her front door.
Sly was there, toolbox in hand.
“Wow, that was fast!”
He smiled.
“Let’s see about that toilet…” He went to the bathroom and removed the porcelain cover on the back of the tank. His eyebrows shot up. “Well, here’s your problem.” He carefully set the cover down on the bath mat and fished out a gold coin. “This was blocking the drain from closing.”
“What the…”
“There’s more in there.” Sly collected all the coins and showed her six in the palm of his hand.
She bent over them and tried to identify the writing. “I can’t make out the denomination or what country they’re from.”
“They look quite old.” Sly rinsed them under the tap and laid them on a towel.
Amber picked up one of the coins and turned it over in her hand. “I think there’s a picture of a crown on one side. And maybe that’s a horse on the other side?”
Sly plucked the coin out of her fingers and put it in his mouth, then bit down on it.
“Ewww… That was in my toilet.”
He laughed. “But not in the potty. It was probably cleaned every time you flushed. How long has this been happening?”
“It just started. Do you think they’ve been in there all along?”
“It’s hard to say.”
“Who used to live here?”
He laughed again. “I did. Before that, my daughter’s best friend, and before that, my daughter. I doubt any of us had solid gold coins.”
“How do you know they’re gold?”
He held the one he had bitten out to her. A sharp puncture mark marred the surface. She was going to ask why it didn’t look more like the line of a tooth, but then she realized…her maintenance man must have fangs. He could probably use and retract them at will. Oh lovely.
“Well, I guess that mystery is solved. Thanks for coming down on such short notice.”
He pointed to the towel holding the rest of the coins. “What are you going to do with these?”
She shrugged. “I’ll show them to Rory in case he’s knows something about them.” Then she smirked at him. “You can keep the one you put in your mouth. If he misses it, I’ll tell him to talk to you.”
* * *
By the time Rory got to the cottage, all hell had broken loose. Apparently the ruckus had been heard by a neighbor who came to investigate, then probably ran to the pub to announce the Arish girl was having a complete knock-down, drag-out fight with a stranger whose shouted accent gave away his Ulster citizenship.
More like a knock-down, dragon-out fight.
Who knows what the man saw, but by the time half the village arrived, Chloe and Aiden had to be back in fully human form. Rory jumped into the fray, trying to pull Aiden and his sister apart. Chloe wasn’t doing half badly, he was proud to observe.
One of them accidentally swiped him with their talons. “Shite,” he yelled. “Stop this right feckin’ now!”
Chloe had to obey. Who knows if Aiden would recognize him as the prince. Conlan was the one he was more apt to follow. The Ulster elder had been hanging back and observing the whole thing.
Rory whirled on him. “A little help here?”
Conlan snapped his fingers. “Aiden!”
Aiden fell away and landed on his back in the bright emerald grass. Chloe went the other way and landed on her side. Her nostrils flared and her fangs were still bared.
“Human. Now!” Rory said.
They both retracted their talons and fangs, then launched themselves at each other again.
“For feck’s sake!” Rory cried.
People from the pub were pouring over the slight rise. His sister and cousin were still locked in mortal combat—but thank the Goddess, at least they were human.
Without a second thought, the local sheep-farming brothers tackled Aiden and gave Chloe the advantage. She got in a good right hook before Aiden shook off the farmers. Rory was mortified that the entire village was seeing his sister’s temper, and—ahem everything. Shannon rushed over to her with a robe.
Before he knew it, the fishermen charged, yelling, “Protestants!” and jumped Conlan.
“Stop!” Rory shouted. Unfortunately, the villagers didn’t know he was a prince and didn’t have to obey. They were just itching for a fight, and a stranger from Ulster was fair game as far as they were concerned. More villagers followed the fighters’ lead. Even Mr. O’Malley got in a couple of punches.
Thank goodness Rory had superior strength and managed to yank the villagers off Conlan two at a time. Aiden wasn’t faring as well until Chloe jumped in to help.
An Irish cousin was family and had to be protected from nonfamily.
“Christ Jaysus, Chloe,” O’Malley yelled. “Do you want this bastard taught a lesson or not?”
“Sure’n I do, but by me. None of you touch ’im further.”
Aiden got up slowly. Shannon helped him into Rory’s robe, and he nodded his thanks to her.
“Everyone into the house now!” Rory ordered.
The villagers began to walk toward the cottage until he said, “This is a family matter. The rest of you can go home.”
There was a collective whine, but the villagers fell away and plodded back toward the pub. They’d be discussing the matter all night—probably all week. Maybe all month. It was the most excitement anyone in Ballyhoo had seen for a while.
Rory held the door open as each Arish made their way into the living room and found a place to sit. Then he slammed the door shut and locked it.
Hands on his hips, he glared at the entire group. “What the hell were you thinkin’?”
Aiden was starting to speak when Conlan held up his hand.
In a calmer voice, the Ulster elder said, “He was standin’ up for what he felt was our right. I didn’t stop him because he’s not wrong.”
“What right are you talkin’ about?” Rory asked.
“The right to examine the caves. You said yerself if we came back this evenin’ we could have a look.”
“But it’s not dark yet, is it?” Rory stated. Then he pointed to Chloe and Aiden on opposite sides of the sofa. “And the two of you know better than to shift in daylight. Have you lost your minds?”
Neither one answered. They stared off in opposite directions.
Rory shook his head. Conlan rose and faced Rory. “I think we need to have an elder-to-elder talk.”
As much as it hurt to hear that his cousin didn’t consider him the elder, Rory had to swallow his pride and make peace with the other Arish family.
He nodded. “Let’s go outside. We can keep an eye out for curious villagers who might sneak back and try to spy in the windows.”
Before he ope
ned the front door he said, “If we hear a peep from any of you, we’re comin’ back in and it won’t be pretty.”
He looked to Conlan for confirmation and he nodded.
Finally. Rory sensed some kind of truce, however tenuous. Outside he said, “We should look around the place to be sure we’re alone first.”
Conlan accompanied him without speaking.
When they returned to the front of the house without seeing anyone lurking about, Rory sighed. “I think the first thing we need to discuss is what we are to each other.”
“What do you mean?”
“Are we family or enemies?” Rory stared at his cousin and waited.
At last, Conlan said, “We’re family. But until we face a common enemy, it can appear to be the other.” He smirked.
Rory had to chuckle. “So it seems. But peace has to be struck, and it has to happen before one of us is maimed.”
Conlan returned to his serious demeanor. “Sure’n that would make things far worse.”
“Exactly.” As much as he dreaded it, Rory had to tell his cousins that he had sold off the majority of their ancestral treasures. “Now, I have some bad news, and it may come as a shock.”
Conlan groaned. “Speak your mind, Cousin.”
“I’m afraid the caves truly are empty.”
Conlan’s eyes widened. He seemed to be wrestling himself under control. At last he let out a deep breath. “I see. That’s why Chloe didn’t want Aiden flyin’ into them.”
“To be sure.”
“So, you must have moved the treasure…”
Now the moment of truth had arrived. Rory prayed that his cousin would understand. He had to present the news as only an Irishman could.
“I have to tell you a little story.”
Conlan’s eyes narrowed. “It better be a true story.”
“I assure you, it may seem unlikely, but it’s the God’s honest truth.”
Rory leaned against the door and slid down until he was seated on the stoop. He hoped his cousin would follow suit, in case the story grew long. He waited.
At last, Conlan slid down the clapboards until he was seated beside him.
“Ah, now here’s where the story begins.” He took a deep breath and covered all the important details. How the leprechauns dragged them out of bed and magically marched them to the edge of the cliff. How the leprechauns accused them of stealing Clancy’s pot of gold. Most important, how the accusation was untrue.
