Crimson Secrets

by Garnet Davenport

  ***

  I opened my eyes as I lay on the ground, the mac tire stone was only two feet in front of me as I looked around. There were drops of blood starting to dry on the red stone. There were hunters standing at attention as guard for them and then some were moving back and forth. I kept looking around now that we were on the side of the river I had last seen Declan and Duncan. I was cold. My jacket and pants were gone, and my shirt was wet from melted snow. I continued to look for Declan and Duncan, but they were nowhere to be found. I had to know if they were safe. I looked over and saw the Morrígan lifting me up slightly to speak.

  “Are they safe?” I asked.

  “They ran like cowardly dogs.”

  I sighed in relief. I eased back down to the ground.

  The moon was at its highest in the sky and two hunters in black walked over to me pulling me from the frozen ground. They moved me over and tied rope around my wrists and then to the blackened tree where I had seen Sophia die. I could see this circular stone structure that had been pieced together below my feet as I hung just inches over the stone. It surrounded the red stone that I had seen only a couple months before in the woods. The rest of the stones were a normal gray that fit together into the circular form. Each stone had its own unique ancient markings in some kind of language. I had seen this on Declan in one of his tattoos.

  The hunters walked off. I was facing the river and I couldn’t turn at all behind me to see what was happening. I already knew what was to come, but I still wanted to see it coming.

  I took a deep breath as Cas Corach, in his deep steps, walked around me in a circle for a moment. The Gael Fearg sword was gripped in his hand as he passed by me the blade turned and hit the moonlight, revealing a writing on the edge of the blade.

  I read, ‘Bás ó stair.’ I said it in my head as the sword turned and from the moon’s light and the writing vanished, and then he passed behind me.

  The moon’s light was directly over me as Cas Corach pushed my head forward, and all my hair draped the sides of my face to where I could not see past it. He pulled the neck of my old T-shirt back as I felt a blade go downward cutting through the wet cloth with ease. Cas Corach pulled and ripped the rest of my T-shirt until it was completely removed.

  I hung from the trees stripped of clothing, feeling the cold air hit my body. I gasped and cried out, “No!”

  Cas Corach laughed as the Morrígan took a few steps toward me, clasping her hands together. “Do not get me wrong. You will feel all the pain, but it is best not to scream.”

  I could feel the necklace gently hanging around my neck. At least I had a piece of Tommy here with me. I could take comfort in the only good that could come from this. I would see my brother.

  I heard snow cracking behind me. “My Goddess, the time,” Cas Corach said, interrupting her as she stared into my eyes looking for anything I may have been trying to hide, but there was nothing.

  “Cas, you may have the honor,” the Morrígan said.

  My head hung forward as Cas Corach stepped closer to me. He lifted the sword and let it tear into my back. I screamed out in agony. It continued the full-length of my back. He lifted the sword, and I could hear the sound of the first drop of my blood hit the rock as if it were amplified. The Morrígan walked over with the basin already containing blood from the others, as more blood dripped from the gash down my legs and fell from my toes, hitting the mac tire stones.

  The Morrígan placed the basin onto the stone, and then my blood started to drip into it, making ripples of dark blood as it dropped one after the other. Cas Corach lifted his Gael Fearg sword and made another cut along the other side of my back. I lifted my head and screamed. I felt the blood drip down my legs to the tip of my toes and then release into the basin. I dropped my head back down from exhaustion and pain.

  Cas Corach laughed as the Morrígan spoke. “You see there is no fear. No healing will occur. You will be brought to death soon.”

  I heard the hunters moving around. There were loud rustling sounds and then a thud below my feet. Sophia was thrown onto the stone structure in front of me. Her body was dirty and covered in gashes that had dirt and leaves stuck in them. Her eyes were still open, but lifeless, her death looked to me exactly like what I was facing now. Then the second thud on the other side of me, it must be Emily Braiden. I was told about her. She looked similar to what I had imagined. She had met the same fate as Sophia. Her body had been sliced open in the same places, her face untouched. She had a gentle face with blonde hair that looked like she let it go wild all the time, her eyes also open and lifeless, though the pain of dying was still haunting her.

  I could feel my heart sink, and tears came from my eyes with so much pain and sadness. They treated us with such disrespect, even in death. With my head down, I let the spit in my mouth drop to the ground and could barely let the words leave my lips as I whispered, “I need you.”

  Then Cas Corach came around in front of me, stepping on Sophia’s body as he walked. He lifted his Gael Fearg sword and drove it just through my chest just below my ribcage.

  I couldn’t scream this time. Even if I wanted to, nothing would have come out. My hands were clinched until I couldn’t hold on any longer, and I opened my fists, letting my fingers go limp as I hung by my wrist from the rope. I closed my eyes.

  I felt a falling sensation as Cas Corach pulled the Gael Fearg sword from my body. And then I heard a howling in the air off in the distance. I could barely open my heavy eyes to see a brilliant red and yellow flickering comet of light traveling toward me. As I lifted my head the flickering comet hit the gemstone of my necklace entering into it. My head jolted backward as far as it could, my palms tense extending my fingers out, and the rest of my body stiffened with electric energy, I opened my eyes to the sky and could only see red; then it turned to a bright white as the fire around me changed to a vivid white flame.

  I heard the howling continue in the distance as I grasped the rope in my hands, and it started to burn just above the knot around my wrists. The rope broke through as it pulled tight, releasing me to the ground onto the edge of the mac tire stone structure. I turned as I stood from my landing crouch, looking straight at Cas Corach. Then I saw a surprised expression on Cas Corach’s face, and the Morrígan yelled, “Hold her.”

  The hunters started to approach as I looked at each of them in turn.

  Another howling came from the distance. The tree that had held me was now burning, and I turned and saw Cas Corach. He was gathering the basin of blood.

  The Morrígan cried out, “Cas!” She pointed off in the distance.

  Everyone turned when they heard a deep, aggressive howl. There was a mac tire standing on the other side of the river, aggressively baring his teeth. He stood tall and dignified, with his black coat and brilliant blue eyes. The black-furred mac tire howled and took a few steps backward.

  I tried to pull my wrists apart that were bound by the cuffs and chains. It seemed as if movement was slowing all around me. I could see two mac tires join Alex as they jumped the river’s embankment—the blueish-silver-furred mac tire, and the silver-furred mac tire. Both I loved. As they stepped with might, their fur extended in anger. Their paws hit the snow as it flew upward and then back down. When they jumped across the river together, a gust of wind guided them.

  I pulled the chain harder as a hunter shot an arrow at me. I screamed in anger and fear with all my power, and the arrow disintegrated into ashes before it could reach me. My mouth closed and I felt myself being pulled upward from my chest as my feet left the ground and I defied gravity in a vibrant white sphere circling around me.

  I looked around at my family, fighting for me, for our heritage. Then the lock broke with a snap and fell from my wrists to the snow, the cuffs clinking against the chain. Alex, Declan, and Duncan descended upon the ground with might to the other side of the embankment with me. The snow lifted from the ground and shot into the air where it picked up in my sphere of white fiery energy, and it swi
rled in the air around me. Their eyes glowed blue, and their hearts were beating with strength and resilience. I could feel every movement of all their hearts beating with mine. My vision turned darker to a rich crimson red as I relived the Gael Fearg sword slice through my flesh. My wounds closed instantly, and I pulled my arms down to my sides, engulfing my entire body in white and red flames as the snow and fiery energy continued to circle around.

  Alex, Declan, and Duncan all stopped in their tracks and watched as I turned to Cas Corach. “You are a worthless filth of a man.” I saw Striker standing on the other side of the river, watching his mac tire friend as he took a step closer to Cas Corach.

  Cas Corach stood ready with the Gael Fearg sword in his hand. I panicked for a moment, then moved my hand over my head and in front of me with my palm facing the sky. I pulled my hand toward my chest, and I could feel the water lift into the air from the river as everyone stared in shock. I moved my arm up and away from me, and the waters swept Alex away from the danger of Cas Corach’s reach. Striker bent down and pushed up from the ground with magnificent force, landing on the same side of the river as me. A hunter came running at him. Striker charged head-on at him, staying low then lifting himself off the ground and descending downward with his elbow out creating a downfall of power onto the hunter bringing him to the ground. Striker pulled out a ridged hunter’s knife and plunged it into the hunter’s gut, pulling it toward him, creating an opening from his navel to his neck, then throwing him into the rushing river. Striker turned toward me and his eyes glowed yellow and he went charging at another hunter. Declan ran at Cas Corach as he turned with the Gael Fearg sword to him, taking a step closer to him. He swung the Gael Fearg sword wild at Declan as he jumped backward and growled baring his teeth.

  The Morrígan ordered her hunters to attack. “Ionsaí!”

  Duncan ran at one of the hunters with a bow and ripped at him taking him down to the ground shredding into him as the hunter stopped moving and his head fell to the side.

  I heard footsteps approaching quickly and turned to the river. I saw Gauge and Fancy leaping to help Striker. I heard a manly growl from Striker as a hunter drove an arrow into his shoulder. Duncan was being cornered by three hunters as his hind legs stepped backward to the edge of the river. He had nowhere to go, his head was low as he growled, and saliva dripped from the edge of his mouth. His back was curved, and his fur was spiked up his spine. Fancy and Gauge went after the hunter that stabbed an arrow into Striker as he kicked the hunters footing out and took him to the ground. I heard a gun fire, and I watched a bullet rip through the air with a whistle. It went right for Fancy. It tore through her clothing and lodged into her hip as she was knocked off her feet in a semi spin, falling to the ground in a scream of pain. The tree was still burning as I floated in the fiery sphere between them. Cas Corach swung again at Declan, almost hitting him across his nose with the tip of the Gael Fearg sword.

  My family was in danger. My vision went darker, but I could see more than ever before. It was like a gray scale of night vision. I lifted my left arm where my hand was in front of my chest and clenched my fist. The water in the river swung back and forth reaching the edges as it grew in volume. The water separated into small drops that looked like rain drops held suspended over the river’s channel. I moved my left hand back down to my side holding my fist tight. The water drops joined my fiery sphere that now contained a deathly fire circling around me. It spun in circles rapidly in the cold air, the water drops turned into hard spikes as it elongated and froze.

  The Morrígan cried out for Cas Corach. “Grab the basin!” She had fear in her eyes, which now glowed orange-red.

  I looked down at him, then at the basin of my bloodlines; my body pitched backward, my head shot upward, with my mouth open to the stars as my arms, legs, and finger tips extended out. There was a rumbling coming from the ground as it started to shake, everyone stopped and held silently still.

  The basin shook, making ripples in the blood as it boiled, a froth produced on the top of the basin. Cas Corach tried to grab the basin, but it was too hot; he pulled his hands back quickly, shaking them as he took a step back. The Morrígan screamed, “Cas!” He looked over to her and started toward her. This despicable man was trying to escape after he helped murder Emily and Sophia, tortured and tried to murder me and my family.

  The wind had picked up around me and the fiery sphere was circling faster, creating a whirling motion that came to a curled point at the sphere over my head. I let out an eerie scream that almost sounded like a howl pulling my head forward. The sphere exploded, sending the fiery ice shards through the cold air.

  The ice shards tore through some of the hunters’ uniforms and flesh, forcing them off their feet.

  The Morrígan was nowhere to be seen. Cas Corach looked at me with shock; he had blood on his mouth and fingers as he fell kneeling over the basin. There were larger shards of ice wedged in his chest. “You have not won.” His eyes glowed red for a moment. He must have consumed some of the blood from the basin. He stood with a maniacal grin, gripping the Gael Fearg sword in both hands, lifting it over his head as he turned to Declan.

  It happened like a dream in slow motion. I released an explosion of white and red fire from my hands as I dropped to the ground and charged at him. He swung the Gael Fearg sword down as it cut the cold air. Moonlight hit the blade again, revealing the words bás ó stair. I placed myself between the blade of the Gael Fearg sword and Declan as he turned his head to the side I seized the edge of the blade in my hand.

  It cut through my skin, and the words were revealed without the moonlight. I pulled it in toward me, grabbing Cas Corach’s head. I pulled him close. “There is no elation in victory.” I released him and pushed him backward as he regained his balance. I flipped the Gael Fearg sword around in my right hand, grasping the sword’s grip, and it was engulfed in my same fiery energy as I reached with my left arm to his shoulder and then plunged it through his chest. I pulled it out ripping more flesh from the wound as I pulled, the blade was covered in his blood and his body dropped to the snow covered ground.

  I held my position as I looked around. The hunters that were alive had retreated, Gauge stood with Fancy in his arms, Striker had broken off part of the arrow that was in his shoulder blade and looked at me with a proud smirk, Alex in his mac tire form looked at me in shock and disbelief, Duncan had blood on his beautiful silver fur as he took a step toward me and his eyes glowed a deep ice blue. I turned to Declan as his eyes glowed his normal ice blue, and then he bowed. I turned back around to the rest of my pack; they had started to bow. Gauge held onto Fancy as they tilted their heads down with respect. I held the Gael Fearg sword in my hand as my vision turned lighter to red and then back to a normal state. My knees gave out, dropping me to the ground, letting go of the Gael Fearg sword as my body released the last bit of fiery energy into the air. I heard a mighty scream echoing through the woods in fury.

  Alex traveled toward me; he transitioned from his mac tire state, reaching down and grabbing furs from Cas Corach’s lifeless body. He swung one over his body, threw two off toward Declan and Duncan, and then knelt down covering me with the last one he held. “Shay?”

  I looked up at him, and then around at the family I now had. I stood and looked around at the massacre that was created. The blood that had fallen had stained the embankment of the river and started to stain the ice and water as it flowed slowly down stream. I looked down at Sophia and Emily lying on the mac tire stone structure.

  Alex looked at them. “They will have their proper burial.”

  I nodded my head but did not look toward him. I took a deep breath of the brisk winter’s air. “Is everyone all right?” I looked at Gauge, who was holding Fancy.

  Declan spoke from behind me. “We can take her back to the mansion. Nate should be there. He can help her.” I turned to hear him but did not look at his face.

  “I can stitch her up. I just need the needle and surgical thread.” Str
iker spoke not to impose but to take care of his own.

  “Yeah, Nate’s got everything you will need.” Declan didn’t want to offend him and spoke with respect for his pack.

  I nodded as they all watched me with amazement. I wasn’t sure what had really happened here. There were now more questions than before and I had no answers. No one had answers, no one knows enough about the Morrígan, except for Aodhan O’Dorcha. He is the one we need to get the real answers out of.

  Duncan started to walk. He showed Gauge and Striker where to go. Alex and Declan stood with me for a moment longer.

  “Are you okay?” Declan asked as he took a step into my vision.

  I smiled at him with love, and he smiled back. “Okay.” I sighed deeply as I spoke.

  Then he held his hand out for mine. Alex had started to walk away from us to catch up with the others.

  I turned my head back to Sophia and Emily, but Cas Corach wasn’t there. My eyes widened. “Where is he?” Declan turned in a panic, searching around the brush and woods.