Page 19 of The King

Wasting no further time on someone she obviously could not have cared less about, Dr. O’Baoill’s tone softened as she coaxed, “What were you about to say, Nurse Weatherly?”

“You said this specimen was one of the Daughters of Lugh. Is there more than one?”

"Yes, there absolutely is," the quack asserted. "Ettie Featherstone is only one of at least seven women whose father is the Celtic God of the Sun and whose mother is an Aviary Shifter revered for her strength and Power in the Paranormal Community."

"You don't believe the stories about their mothers." It was a statement, not a question.

“Oh, I more than believe in them,” Dr. O’Baoill sneered. “I have seen these wretched beasts in action.”

The tap of high heels on a tile floor told Ettie that the doctor was pacing. Not only was she tired of standing and waiting for the all-clear, but she was obviously gearing up for a grand and glorious oral dissertation about the Paranormal threat on 'normal' human society. In the Demi-Goddess' experience, it was precisely what egomaniacal narcissists did. For some sick reason, they found it necessary to spout and spew their propaganda to anyone who would listen. It was a game of wearing people down until no fight was left, then going in for the kill and bringing them into the fold.

Sadly, Ettie knew she'd hit the nail on the head when the doctor started with, "You see, my father was a great man. He was well-educated and took that knowledge to form groundbreaking ideas that he passed on to everyone in his organization. He knew all Paranormals, especially Shifters, were a blight on society – nothing more than glorified zoo animals who had lucked into abilities they neither had the right to have nor knew how to use. And they misused those gifts they were given by the gods to subjugate anyone weaker."

“Well, how do you do, Dr. Coo-Coo-Kachoo? Wonder how many times one of us has saved your happy heiney, and you didn't even know it?”Eden seethed.“I damn sure hope somebody kept the receipt. We need a refund on this one.”

“Hush, her bid for an Emmy Award is gearing up,”Ettie answered, trying not to let her rage cloud her mind and hamper her returning abilities.

“The great Tariq O’Baoill,my father, believed they needed to be contained before they tried to contain us. He knew we were smarter, with more ingenuity and foresight than these mere enhanced animals could ever possess. Furthermore, he theorized that we could extract what made them special, their Magic…" She spat the word like it burnt her tongue. "…their DNA, their genomes, their blood, and whatever else made them the freaks that they were and use it to our advantage. He believed in the right hands, the hands of like-minded humans, the enhanced abilities of these abominations could be used for good and not evil."

“What a fucking load of crap!”Ettie sneered.“It doesn’t matter what kind of sentient Being it is – human or Shifter or anything else for that matter - they all – WE all fuck up sometimes. It happened right after God with a capital G convinced the other Powers That Be and Chaos to give us all free will. It’s why Eve ate the apple - because she could. Tell us something isn’t good for us, and that’s the one thing we run towards. It would be comical if it wasn’t so sad, but we also have the choice to do good – to make the right choices. This bitch thinks we have no free will, that we are just mindless killing machines with Powers we can't handle. Can you believe her? After what she's done? Can you even fathom that she thinks she's the one who is doing what's right and good? Now, that's a delusion with a capital D.”

“Yeah, well, I’m gonna ignore her diatribe because if not, my anger mixed with your fury will blow our collective head right off our gorgeous shoulders,”Eden snarled in agreement. After a few seconds of silence, ones Ettie knew were to gain her composure, the Empress Eagle with whom she shared her soul started again. This time, her tone was sarcastic and right on point.“And give that girl a gold star. You were right. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t heard it with my own ears. That crazy broad really IS an O’Baoill.”There was another pause, then came the question they both desperately wanted the answer to.“But how? Is it a cut off the head of the Hydra and get nine more situation?”

“Hell, I hope there aren’t another four or five of these assholes out there. Besides…”

“Besides what?”

“Well, it just… Oh, nothing.”

“Yeah, like I believe that,”Eden grumbled. “But I know you will tell me when you’re ready.”

“Or you’ll just read my mind as soon as you can.”

“Yep, that’s the plan,”Eden chuckled.“And back to my question, how many of these assholes do you think are out there?”

"I have no clue. Everybody thought the last one was Eve, and that's when their huge network of Hunters fell apart."

“Who is everybody?”

"You know damned good and well, that it was Olive. Since she's Mated to Kellan and living right there with the Blue Thunder Clan, she talked to the uber-super-duper tech wizard Guardsman, Brann, and together they searched every database they knew of and could find to be sure we got 'em all."

"And didn't Max say that his sister, as well as the Bengal Tiger who is part owner of Dragon Tech, Julian, I think his name is, double and triple checked everything? And even made sure the members of the O'Baoill Hunter group were either dead or incarcerated."

“Yeah, sure did,”Ettie concurred."And I have to give you credit. That was a nice way to slip HIS name into the conversation. Just couldn't help yourself, could ya'? Been savin' that one for the right time?"

“What? I didn’t do anything.”

“How many times has your innocent act worked?”

"About as often as your 'I swear I saw Max, and we need to follow him' act has worked."

“It did work because we did follow him.”

"Only because you were in charge. I don't think it was Max in the first place."

“Whatever,”Ettie scoffed. "I DID see him. I KNOW it was him we were following. Just like I know that he was walking right into a trap."

“Ever think the trap was set for us? And old Maxy boy – or a reasonable facsimile thereof - was the bait.”

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