Lost Wanderer Awakened - Book One of the Airendell Chronicles

by Audra Hart

  “Judging by that lovely glow on your face, I would say a certain Mr. George Welborn,” laughs Morna. Brigid nods enthusiastically, and starts putting her files in her leather case then picks up her purse. Morna shoulders “monster purse” and locks arms with one of her best friends from childhood. The pair walk arm in arm to the elevator to ride to the lobby. They are laughing chatting together like they did when they were girls in Airendell.

  CHAPTER 22 - AN UNEXPECTED ALLY JOINS THE FIGHT

  After going down in the elevator the ladies can see a man waiting just outside the double glass doors to the clinic. Morna can immediately see one source of Brigid’s attraction to the man. He is very handsome and well built. He’s tall, about 6”3”, lean but muscular. He has jet black hair and brilliant sapphire eyes. His handsome, strong facial features indicate Native American heritage. He’s wearing a beat up old straw cowboy hat, a worn western shirt and jeans, and boots. He is obviously a working cowboy, the real thing. His face lights up when he sees Brigid coming his way.

  On the other side of the glass George is watching the girl of his dreams walking toward him. He smiles when he looks at Brigid O‘Boyle. She’s amazing, five foot even, maybe a hundred pounds of lovely curves. She has beautiful long black hair and dark violet eyes. She is confident, kind and graceful in all things. And something else, his grandmother would say Brigid is a shaman. George wouldn’t argue. He should not be as healthy as he is now, and he knows it is all Brigid’s doing, above and beyond her renowned medical skills. George thinks of Brigid as his Irish faerie.

  George finally turns his attention to the lady Brigid is walking arm and arm with. She may be older than Brigid, but it’s hard to tell. But she’s the total opposite of Brigid. He has already met a few of her friends from her home in Ireland, and had assumed they were all tiny like her. This lady is over a foot taller, very sturdy and strong looking, yet lithe and smooth in her movements. She carries herself like a woman who can handle anything. Her short strawberry blond hair frames her strong, lovely face. Even from here he can make out those brilliant green eyes. “Wow! She’s a real Amazon!” he thinks to himself; “Can this be her childhood friend Morna?

  As soon as the ladies step out of the building, all hell breaks loose! The women aren’t two steps out of the doors when the tall redhead, bares her teeth and snarls, pushes Brigid behind her. The redhead has taken a defensive stance and she’s looking at George snarling, she sniffs, and then looks up.

  “Hells bells!” he growls viciously, “I must be losing my touch. Why didn’t I see them up there?”

  Three vampires are clinging to the face of the building. When they realize they have been detected, they drop and surround the trio. George can see that the tall redhead thinks she has to defend Brigid from three, possibly four assailants. He takes a chance and looks over his shoulder to the Amazon and says, “Morna, I can help defend Brigid. Let me get past you, I will cover your back. I know what they are, I can help.” George pulls a small wooden thing from a leather case at his hip. It’s about 8 inches long and it looks like a lizard of some sort. It is orange and black. It looks very old. George utters something in a primitive sounding language that Morna knows she has heard before.

  Morna looks over her shoulder at Brigid, “Do you have your iron-lion spell woven?” Brigid nods. Morna looks back at the vamp to her left and snarls, the vamp was trying to take advantage of her distraction and sneak in. But Morna was on to him. Morna says, without looking away again from the attackers, “Stay back Brigid!”

  She snarls again, and says, “George, if she gets hurt I will destroy you for it. You better be able to protect her as you claim.” She motions him forward with her head and George starts past her to get to Brigid. He hesitates for a second. She almost smells like a vamp too. He turns to face Morna crouched in a defensive stance, he’s not sure now if she is friend or foe.

  Morna is temporarily distracted by George’s defensive posture and the middle vamp reads the distrust in George and dives at Morna. He is snarling and snapping at her, he clips her wrist with his venomous teeth. The pain is intense. Morna punches his jaw so hard that an audible crack resounds, and attacking vamp screams in agony and rage. She grabs the vampire and back hands him savagely knocking him 50 yards in the air with a vicious snarl. She crouches ready to face the other two. “Quit screwing around George, protect Brigid, I am not the enemy!” She grinds out between snarls.

  Brigid says, “George, watch Morna’s back. I am not in any real danger!” Morna and George, shoulder to shoulder, step forth as a unit. Then he raises the lizard thing and charges at the vampire closest to him. Morna charges the other vampire simultaneously. The attackers are uncertain. They were expecting to attack two immortal Spell Weavers, not a Spell Weaver, a vamp and a damned Stone Breaker!

  Morna charges at the one closest to her. She hears the vamp George went after crack, and scream in rage. “Well I’ll be damned!” she thinks, “He does know what he is doing!” She’s about five feet from the vamp who is charging at her head on. She leaps into the air and does a somersault over his head, lands behind him and grabs his head, twists and yanks viciously. The head snaps off in one smooth movement. The body falls. Morna tosses the head at least ten feet from the body. Then twists to face the one who bit her. He has recovered from the break he sustained when she hit him the first time. He is very angry and charging straight for her.

  Morna suspects these are newborn vampires, and therefore very strong. She knows better than let him get at her head on, so she darts to the left then jumps and spins and kicks the charging vamp in the side. She hears stone crushing at her impact. She lands on her feet, and spins to face him again, but he has recovered quicker than she expected.

  Morna hears stone crushing from the vicinity of George and the third vampire, but she can’t spare a glance his way, the attacking vampire is nearly on her. She holds her hand out and weaves the binding spell, quickly followed by the levitation spell. The charging vamp freezes, and rises a foot off the ground almost simultaneously. George has disposed of his vampire and is now crouching beside Morna, expecting the vampire caught in Morna’s spells to attack any second. Just then a black car comes roaring across the parking lot, and slides to a stop directly in front of them. A tall man flies out and charges toward them. George can smell what he is and takes a defensive stance in front of Morna.

  Morna laughs and puts her hand on George’s shoulder, “He’s okay friend. That is my mate.”

  Luca is now in front of George, they are both in defensive crouches, expecting the other to charge. George sniffs and says, “Your mate is a vamp? That why you smell almost like one yourself?” he demands.

  Morna sighs, and says, “Yeah, something like that.”

  Brigid comes up behind George and wraps her arms around him. “Oh God George! I thought he was going to kill you!” George relaxes at her touch, but he is still watching Luca warily. Luca is watching him with mild surprise. He knew George was okay just because he had seen Morna crouched shoulder to shoulder with him. George straightens up and says, “Well, let’s figure out how to dispose of the garbage, and then I think we all have some explaining to do.”

  All four of them laugh. Then Brigid says, “Let’s drag them inside. I will fire up the medical waste furnace in the surgical wing.

  Luca turns to Morna and says, “Can you sustain the spells so we can question him or should I destroy him?”

  “I want to talk to him, but I am out of practice with the spells, and my concentration is not great at the moment. I am afraid my binding spell is slipping,” admits Morna. At that moment, Luca notices the bite mark on her wrist; he takes her hand to gently examine it. The wound is nearly healed already, but he knows she is in a great deal of pain. He brings the wrist up to his mouth and kisses it gently. His eyes searching her face to make sure that she is okay.

  George steps up; he’s taking a leather pouch from around his neck. “I can help with that,” he says. “Let me wrap this around
him, he won’t be able to get away. It makes them sick. It’s ancient magic. He will be as timid as a cowardly puddy-tat.” He winks at Morna and pulls a long thin ancient looking cord out of his pouch. He starts winding it around the suspended vamp and the vamp starts crying and begging for mercy.” Just in time, George finishes wrapping the cord around the vamp because Morna’s binding spell and levitating spell fail simultaneously. The vamp drops to the ground writhing in agony, and screaming. Brigid weaves a “mute” spell and the vamp’s screams produce no sound. The trapped vamp falls forward on his face into the concrete with a loud grinding sound.

  Luca is still searching his mate’s face to make sure she is okay, when he smiles and kisses her gently. He releases her before he picks the bound vampire up by the back of his shirt and his pants and tells Brigid to lead the way to the furnace. Morna and George start gathering up the shattered pieces of the other two. About a minute later Brigid comes running back out with two heavy duty plastic medical waste disposal bags. George and Morna put the pieces in their respective bags. George swings his over his shoulder and reaches for Morna’s.

  She chuckles and says, “Seriously, after what we just did you think I can’t carry this?”

  George tips his hat back on his head and drawls, “No Ma’am. I was just raised to never let a lady carry her own bags.”

  Morna laughs heartily. She sticks her right hand out to shake George’s hand. “Mighty nice to meet a true country gentleman here in the big city,” she drawls in her best Oklahoma slack-jaw accent. They laugh together, while Brigid looks on, feeling slightly confused. George takes Morna’s bag and tells Brigid, “Please lead the way darlin’.”

  When the three of them join Luca in the furnace room, Brigid and Morna are amazed to see the bound vampire lying on the floor, whimpering weakly. George eyeballs the specimen and says, “If you folks want to ask him some questions, you better do it quick. He will be comatose soon.”

  Morna reaches down and yanks the vamp up by his hair until she’s looking him in the face and his feet are several inches off the ground, “Who sent you?” she demands in a terrifying voice.

  The vamp growls, “Go to hell bitch!” Morna punches him in the face and part of his cheek cracks and falls off, crashing to the floor. “That’s for being rude. Start talking or I will rip you to tiny pieces, very, very slowly,” Morna promises.

  Luca chuckles, and says, “I would obey if I were you. You and your friends have made my mate very angry.”

  Finally, the vampire says, “I don’t know who she was, just some silver-haired witch. She had some vamp create a bunch of us a few months ago and has been teaching us how to fight. She called us her hit squad. She gave us orders yesterday to come after the redhead and the tall vamp with her.”

  Morna continues looking him in face. “Was anyone else with her?” she demands.

  The hostile vamp hisses weakly, then says, “Yeah, some tiny woman that looked a lot like her,” he says as he his eyes dart towards Brigid.

  Brigid gasps, in shocked disbelief. George puts himself in front of Brigid in a defensive crouch against Morna and Luca. The couple looks at each other in confusion then comprehension lights Luca’s face. “The vampire doesn’t mean Brigid, he means her cousin.” George relaxes, but doesn’t move away from in front of Brigid.

  Morna quietly adds, “Yes, Brigid’s cousin and my mother.” She sadly shakes her head and then turns her attention back to the rapidly weakening vampire.

  “Son, how old were you before you were changed?” she asks gently.

  “Seventeen!” he hisses.

  “I am so sorry for what was done to you because of me. I deeply regret having to destroy you, but you are full of evil and bitterness. The air around you is heavy with it. I see no hope of you becoming civilized. I will, however, destroy you as painlessly as I can because you answered our questions,” her voice is heavy with sadness as she says this. Then fast as lightening, she rips his head off and tosses it in the furnace. The rest of the body falls to the floor, and she covers her face with her hands.

  Luca quietly picks up the decapitated body, unwinds George’s cord and hands it to him. “Thank you,” Luca says. “Someday you have to tell me where you got that from.”

  George catches his cord. And shakes his head as he stares at Luca in amazement. “You should not have been able to touch that thing without getting sick.”

  “I have never fed on a human being George. I am not what you might call a typical vampire. I am sure that’s why the cord doesn’t bother me.” Luca quietly informs the Stone Breaker.

  Luca tosses the stone corpse in the furnace, and turns to his wife. She is pale and trembling. He knows by the set of her lips that she is angry, no she is beyond angry. He walks over to his mate and takes her into his arms.

  She collapses into his embrace and sobs against his chest. “Luca, I guess I knew she was behind it all, but to have proof is truly devastating. My own mother has been trying to kill me for nearly 600 years.” Luca kisses the top of her head, and gently strokes her back.

  George clears his throat and says, “Folks, I hate to be rude. But can anyone tell me why a shaman and lady warrior are cozy with a vampire.”

  Morna lifts her face and wipes her eyes. She smiles at George. “If someone will order me a couple of pizzas I will explain to this fine country gentleman, and then I will find out exactly what and who he is,” she says with a big open smile on her face.

  Luca laughs and asks Brigid for a phone book. She gets one out of a nearby desk. Luca walks away a few feet and to order Morna’s pizzas. He looks over his shoulder and says, “Either one of you want any pizza?” George and Brigid both say, “No thanks.” Luca puts the phone back to his ear, “Yes, I want to order 1 medium hand toss supreme, and 1 medium hand toss meat lovers. And a two liter coke please.” Then he gives the restaurant employee the address and his cell number.

  George looks to Luca and then to Brigid with a question on his face. Brigid shrugs and says, “Morna has recently undergone an interesting evolution. Her nutritional needs right now are probably great.”

  George chuckles, “Two pizzas? Yeah I guess so.” He tips his hat back on his head, and then seems to recall he is inside and in the presence of two ladies and removes the hat. “Pardon me ladies.”

  Luca looks into the furnace; the vampire corpses are nearly destroyed. Very little remains but ash. He looks at Morna, these are almost finished. I will meet the delivery driver and bring your pizzas to Brigid’s office. Why don’t you go get comfortable? I also need to call Ari and Almeda, to let them know what has happened.”

  Morna gets a concerned look on her face. “Someone needs to be protecting Samantha, and the other girls at The Bridge.”

  Luca smiles and says, “Rinda got there this morning. She has moved into The Bridge to act as bodyguard for the girls, and in house therapist. A multipurpose hire don’t you think?” He chuckles.

  Morna nods, “Good, Rinda can handle those girls. I just wish Damian was ready to act as a backup for Rinda.”

  “He is,” says Luca. “Sorry, I failed to mention that part. Mac moved back in, Damian is patrolling the neighborhood. And Rinda is stationed in the house. I decided to step up security when we realized you were being attacked. I didn‘t want anyone to go after the girls in an attempt to get to you.”

  “Good,” says Morna. “But we need to provide protection for the girls so they can go to work and school.”

  “Enya and Carrick are on their way from their vacation in Wales.” He assures her. “They should be there soon.”

  Morna laughs, “I should have known you were all over this love. Thank you. I think Mad Mike is probably okay. I have never been to his house and he‘s not been going around the bar much these days. Unless someone has been watching me a long time, he should be safe.”

  Luca smiles and says, “I didn’t want you distracted by worrying about your kids, Morna. And no one but me has been watching you, so yes I would agree that Mike
is safe. Besides, Bronwyn and Brian are coming in from Vancouver soon as well.”

  Morna nods, and then turns to George and Brigid. “Brigid, may we retire to your office?”

  Brigid nods, and says, “Better yet, I have an apartment on the 4th floor. Let’s go there. Luca, you will be able to find us right?”

  Morna and Luca laugh. “Brigid, he has found me in thirteen different lives, I think he can manage to find me in a building.”

  Brigid taps her forehead with the heel of her hand, “Duh, what was I thinking?” and laughs. Poor George looks more confused than ever. Brigid puts her arm around his waist and says, “Come on sweetheart. I think everyone needs a few answers.”

  Once they are settled into Brigid’s apartment, Morna is drinking her 2nd glass of water and has removed her shoes. She is sitting on the love seat with her legs curled up under her. She looks at George approvingly, “Brigid… sis, I think he will do.”

  Brigid smiles, and says, “I know he will.”

  “Okay George to answer your question. “Can anyone tell me why a shaman, and lady warrior are cozy with a vampire? Well you figured out what Brigid is, essentially. She is a spiritual healer, of sorts, as well as a talented scientific healer, and neurosurgeon. She is what is known as a Spell Weaver from Airendell. A race of immortals descended from a light elf that fell in love with a mortal, about two thousand years ago. They had 52 children in a year‘s time. Each child gave rise to a magical race that protects this world from the other worlds.”

  George hugs Brigid and says, “I know of the Spell Weavers. I could feel the magic in her. I had asked my grandma to come up and meet her to confirm what I was feeling. Then he looks at Morna, “What about you? You a Spell Weaver too?”

  “The short answer is yes,” confirms Morna. “My mother, as we said earlier is Brigid’s cousin. She is a full blood Spell Weaver. I, however, have a slightly more complicated lineage.” She sighs and says, “I wish that pizza guy would get here.”