Page 2 of A Vampire in a Pear Tree
She gave a derisive snort.“Of course I took it back from that idiot.I never should have bestowed him with it, but I was misled by you boys until I fell into your plans.Well, no more!That fool Cernunnos has taken over as head of the Celtic Pantheon, and instigated a new rule that prohibits membership from those who don’t possess all their powers.I refuse to be treated in such a cavalier manner!I am a Morrigan!”
“You just said you didn’t like that name—” Owain pointed out her hypocrisy even as Orla gave a burst of laughter that emerged as a rusty caw.
“I am the goddess of war and fate, daughter of the druid Cailitin, and sister to twenty-seven brothers!”Jericho said even louder, drowning him out.
Owain, knowing well what was coming, and waiting for the count of three that his mother always took before reciting her greatest life moments, said in perfect synchronicity with her, “I tested the courage of kings, and would withhold my blessing should they not sufficiently impress me!”
“I heard that she used to bed the kings, and the ones who didn’t please her were left without her grace on the battlefield.I can’t imagine being so callous,” Orla said with a pointed sniff.
“Says the woman who tried to decapitate me,” he told the bird, unable to resist responding to her unwarranted scorn.
“What?”Jericho, who had been going on about how important she, her sisters, and the brothers who made up Clan Cailitin were to the rulers of early Irish history, missed Orla’s comment.
He gestured away the question.“It’s just Orla being her usual self.Regardless of your importance, I think you’ll survive the few months it will take me to find someone who can break the curse.”
“Usual self?Usual self!”Orla turned her head so one beady yellow eye stared balefully at him.“My usual self is a comely maiden with the ability to beguile men and make the rowan bloom.And the sooner you hurry up your pitiful attempts to rid yourself of that curse, the sooner you can return me to my natural state, and I can go back to Ireland where I belong.”
“They’remypowers!”Jericho raged, slapping her hands down onto a small chess table in front of him.“I never intended for you and your brothers to keep them!They were supposed to help you and Rhain take down those pesky demon lords.That’s all!Now that you’ve escaped from the Hour where your brothers are still being held captive, you can bloody well give back what is mine.If for no other reason than as penance for abandoning your beloved brothers by thinking only of yourself and your selfish needs.”
“I doubt if anyone who had their soul ripped out while the curse of bloodlust was placed upon them would view having said curse removed as selfish, but this is an old argument, and a false one at that.I didn’t escape the Seventh Hour; I was ejected from it without warning.As for mybelovedbrothers—the last time I saw Rhain, he lopped off one of my arms and would have gelded me if Rhys hadn’t stopped him.”He flexed his left arm, the memory of the month it took for a mage to reattach the severed arm still a cause of irritation.“I don’t know what Cadell did during that time, since I assume he was re-imprisoned in the Hour when I was expulsed.”
“Tch,”Jericho said, storming past him only to spin on her heel and return.“He was almost as useless out in the mortal world as you are.”
He stood up, having caught the slight movement of white out of his peripheral vision.“I’ve sworn to return the power you bestowed upon me as soon as I break the curse, so if that’s all you want to say to me, I’ll be on my way.I have a lead on a charmer who might be able to help, but she’s not easy to contact.”
“A charmer?”Jericho made a noise of dismissal.“I told you at the time those demon lords cursed you boys that no mere charmer could break it.”
“Which is why I’m trying to contact a charmer who is a dragon’s mate,” Owain answered, picking up the fedora he had taken to wearing in the daylight.While he didn’t suffer the same effects of the bloodlust curse that had resulted in modern-day Dark Ones, being out in daylight wasn’t overly comfortable.“She has more abilities than a normal charmer.Unfortunately, she’s being particularly difficult to find, and I may end up resorting to a thief taker to find her.”
“A what?”Jericho asked, her frown prodigious.Owain watched her with a wariness born of long familiarity with both his mother’s mood swings and the power she still commanded despite bestowing much of it on himself and his brothers.
“Thief taker.Someone who will find a person being sought, in this case, the dragon charmer.”
“Oh, them.”She gave a roll of her eyes as she strode across the room again, ignoring him standing near the door.“I don’t know why you refuse to listen to me about this—no charmer is going to be able to break the curse, dragon-born or otherwise.Not now that Desislav is out in the mortal world again.”
He had reached for the doorknob when she spoke, but he froze as her words percolated through the desire to leave, his fingers a scant inch from the glass doorknob.Feeling as if he were as frozen as the ground outside, he asked, “You—he’s out?How can that be?He was in the Thirteenth Hour.No one can escape from there.”
Jericho shrugged and strode past him, her hands moving in a way that had him wondering if she was about to cast a spell.“I don’t know how he got out, but Vera says a fury is hunting for the blood moon, and has offered some big reward for it.”
Owain could swear he turned into a man-sized block of ice.Alividblock of ice.“The blood moon is still in existence?It’s being hunted by others?Who?”
“Vera told me there were mercenaries popping up all over the place to try to find it and claim the reward.”She straightened up a vase filled with holly, sliding him a look that had warning bells sounding in his head.
He thought seriously about hyperventilating, but decided it was beneath him.He’d wait until he returned to his temporary lodgings before he gave in to the panic attack that was threatening to swamp him.“The blood moon was destroyed,” he said in a voice that rivaled Orla’s roughest croak.
“So we thought, but evidently it isn’t.Regardless, you see why I need to be back on the Celtic Pantheon.If I had my full complement of powers, then that annoying Cernunnos couldn’t ban me from rejoining, and I could help you all, my most beloved sons.”
Owain wasn’t at all fooled by the sudden syrupy tone of his mother’s words.“If what Badb said is true—”
“Vera,” Jericho interrupted him.“Badb calls herself Vera now.You really need to get with the times, Owain.Even Cadell gave himself a modern name, although it was foolish and I don’t remember what it was.”
“The last thing I need is the blood moon falling into Desi’s hands.He’ll throw me back into the Hour again!”Fury roared to life within him.“I must find it before anyone else.It’s the only way I can ensure our freedom.”
“Yes, yes, but you see that I can help you if I have my power back.”Jericho had donned her most persuasive of attitudes, patting him on the arm as her black gaze burned deep into the spot where his soul once resided.
“How?”he asked, too shaken to phrase the question nicely.“What can you do?You can’t lift the curse.You couldn’t when Desi and the two other demon princes placed the bloodlust upon us, and it’s had time to strengthen over the millennia.”
“No, of course I can’t remove the curse, but I can do other things.”Her look turned coy as she absently moved a particularly hideous Santa figurine.“I can get your brothers out, for one.”
