Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God (2 page)

“My father called that his family crest,” I
said quietly.

“It’s a bit more than a family crest, though
it is hereditary,” said Kieran, sounding amused as he dropped his
hand to his side. The sigil of blue began to fade from sight
slowly. “I would very much like to meet your father, if that could
be arranged.”

“Perhaps,” I said, not wanting to say I
hadn’t seen my parents in over half a year.

“Yes, I suppose a measure of trust is in
order,” Kieran said. I more heard the grin than saw it. “Draw up
your Sight, Pact-man, and look at me.”

“If you mean check out your aura,” I said
with chagrin, “been there, done that. You ain’t got one.”

“What?” he said, shocked. “But you should see
my natural aura…” As he spoke the words, I was battered, and I do
mean battered, with the image of his aura, brighter than anything I
have ever seen in my life. If it was real light I was seeing, I bet
my retinas would have been scorched.

“…my Pact sigil…” he continued, and I caught
the image of his Pact sigil, just like mine, blazing in blue on the
afterimage of his aura. Just the sight of it said Not Yours to me,
but it was still beautiful. My own sigil hummed in resonance with
it.

“…and symbol of the Pact I carry,” he
finished. I caught my breath on the next image. I had no idea what
it was, besides old—it reeked of old. And danger, and beauty beyond
words. It was very well protected by the Pact sigil below it. I
knew that from all the blackness around me. And the pain. Maybe
that was the gravel in the back of my head from hitting the ground
that caused the pain. I really don’t remember falling.

“You’re all right, boy,” Kieran murmured in
my ear. My head was in his lap and my whole body was tingling.
“I’ve got you, just relax for a moment.”

I felt a push of energy from him, soothing
the pins and needles that had started in my legs. The cuts on my
arms stopped nagging me, too. My headache started to recede. I
didn’t remember even starting a headache. The energy seemed to ebb
out of me and Kieran helped me up. I was right—he was
barefooted.

“What happened?” I asked, rubbing my temples
at the half-remembered pain.

“I was going to ask you,” said Kieran, his
hand on my shoulder, steadying me still.

“Last I remember, I was seeing your aura, the
Pact sigil, and your Pact with freaky intensity,” I said, shifting
away slightly. I wanted some room between us. “Just for a flash,
anyway, and it hurt.”

“That is… odd,” he said, thoughtfully.
“What’s your name, so I can quit calling you ‘Boy’?”

“Seth,” I answered. He gave me one name so I
stuck to that.

“Okay, Seth,” Kieran said, “Where are
we?”

“Bankhead National Forest,” I said, “I can’t
get more specific since this is the first time I’ve been here and I
really don’t know anything about it.”

“Huh,” Kieran grunted. “Try less specific,
then.”

I wasn’t sure what he was looking for here. I
decided to go the smartass route. “Alabama,” I said, not
remembering which county. That seemed to shake him. He turned back
along the road and pointed to the lake in the darkness.

“How long has that been there?” he asked.

“What? Lake Smith?” I asked, confused. “I
don’t know, maybe eighty, ninety years. I think that’s what I read
about them damming up the rivers.”

“Well then,” he said, rubbing his hands
together briskly. “We may not be as lost as I thought. Damnably
clever of the old ghost.”

“What?” I asked. Clever of me, I know.

“Come along, now,” Kieran said. “We just
might have you home by sunrise.” He took off down the gravel road
at a pretty good pace. I had to hurry to catch up. I wondered what
his feet were made of to handle this road so easily without shoes.
He didn’t seem to flinch at all. He veered off the road onto a
firebreak path a couple of hundred yards down, so I followed close
behind.

“Do your parents know you’re out here?” he
asked without preamble.

“I haven’t seen my parents in over eight
months,” I said. Crap. That slipped. Kieran stopped and I stopped a
step later. I tried to keep my emotions in check. Tonight had
already been a roller-coaster ride and I didn’t want to lose it in
front of this guy, this stranger. But if he could see my aura, he
probably knew…

“Haven’t seen them?” Kieran prompted me,
seeming concerned. I tried to build walls around myself before I
answered but I didn’t know if it was enough.

“Yeah,” I said, as stoically as I could
muster, “Both left on business trips about eight months ago. Our
family lawyer came to Savannah about two weeks later and moved me
to a house between Huntsville and Scottsboro. Said my parents would
come there to get me when they were through with their business. I
haven’t seen them since then. Their cell phones have been cut off.
I don’t have a way to get in touch with them.”

I lost the stoicism battle just a little. My
voice quavered and there may have been a few tears, but I wasn’t
going to wipe them away. That seemed weaker than actually crying
right then. I don’t know what I expected out of him, but a hug
wasn’t it. It felt good though, comforting. He was a big man,
strong. He reminded me of my father. Even kind of smelled like him
in an earthy sort of way.

“Well, Seth,” he said when he pulled away,
“My problems have waited years to resolve, they can wait a bit
longer. I think we can see to yours first.” He put his arm on my
shoulder and started walking through the woods again. He started
off slowly, letting me collect myself, I think.

“We’ll need to move a little quickly through
here,” he said. Detaching himself from me, he jumped in between two
trees, pulling my arm as he went. It made me a little dizzy for
some reason. As we moved into the canopy of the forest, it got
darker, which confused me. We were too close to the lake to be
under the canopy. I hurried to catch up, trying not to think about
it. I looked up to see him on the other side of a small box canyon.
Startled, I stopped. Suddenly, he twisted me around by the
shoulders to face him, and then I was on the other side, too. I
shook my head, disoriented, and looked across the canyon. I could
have sworn I was over there a second ago.

Kieran pushed me between my shoulder blades
and I took a step… directly into the lake. I backpedaled into
Kieran, who chuckled at my confusion.

“We took a few shortcuts,” he said, mildly.
“It’s easier on you, the first time, if you don’t know what’s
happening.” He stood at the shoreline looking out over the darkened
lake. The moon was in descent; it was going to get really dark
soon. He put his hands together like he was praying, mumbled
something I couldn’t hear, then pulled his hands apart, fingers
splayed. Tendrils of yellow energy played between the fingers of
each hand. I was watching real magic performed and I was in awe of
it. Why I wasn’t scared to death, I wasn’t sure.

The tendrils coalesced into a ball in front
of him, growing larger as he let the energy collect. When it was as
big as a softball, I suppose he was satisfied because he brought
his wrists together, fingers still splayed, and shoved the ball out
over the lake. The ball shot out, veering left and right, searching
for I don’t know what, but it dove under the surface in the middle
somewhere. Kieran stood by the shore watching the darkness, wrists
still together and yellow energy still arcing between his
fingers.

“What is that?” I asked, watching the
darkness for the ball of light to reappear.

“A seeking,” mumbled Kieran. “Something of
mine is near here.”

It took a few minutes, but the ball
reappeared over the water. It was much paler, almost translucent,
and it had grown, from three inches to about a foot and a half
across. It moved more slowly across the top of the water too. A few
minutes passed before it got to shore, popping like a soap bubble
when it hit the ground. Inside was a stone box a little less than a
foot to a side. Each side was marked with symbols I didn’t know
that glowed in fiery red or deep emerald green. It looked
dangerous.

Kieran walked over to it and knelt down
beside it. I was right with him. “Don’t touch it,” he said, “It’s
still hot.” I didn’t know if he meant heat-hot or explosive-hot,
but I didn’t touch it. He just looked at the top of it, where it
looked scorched. I really didn’t know how hot you had to get rock
to scorch it like that, but it had to be pretty damn hot. Kieran
twisted one of the emerald sigils a quarter turn and that side
popped out. All the sigils darkened and he tossed the panel away.
Reaching inside, he pulled out two large leather-wrapped bundles
and stood.

Grrrr!

Both of us jerked toward the treeline. It
sounded like a big dog growling. The moon was on the horizon in
front of us—no help in lighting the woods. I scanned the darkness
looking for movement. Kieran took a few steps forward, but I stayed
close to the lake. I figured I could out swim a dog if I had
to. I hoped.

Grrrr! There it was, sniffing at the ground,
moving slowly out of the growing dimness and out onto the tiny
peninsula we were on. It was a big dog, maybe a wolf, not that I
really knew the difference, especially in the dark. Its head
snapped up at us and it growled again. It padded forward a few
feet, centering its attention on Kieran. It had us trapped unless
we took to the water. It was unlike any dog I’d seen before, its
aura rolling strangely behind it and disappearing in a halo of
blackness.

Kieran stood his ground as the dog started
running at him. About four feet out, it jumped at him and hit
something in the air about two feet out. It crumpled to the ground
with a loud yelp. Whining, it got up quickly, scrambling back
toward the treeline a ways, whining the entire time. It sat down on
the rocks where it started and glared at Kieran, growling.

“What is that thing?” I whispered to Kieran
after moving a little closer. He had a way to stop it, so that’s
where I wanted to be, behind whatever it was.

“I don’t know, but it’s more than just a
dog,” he said quietly. He kept his eyes on the thing. So did I.

Still, I don’t think either of us actually
saw when it changed, it was so dark. I saw it when it started
running at Kieran. It was totally reflective, almost invisible. The
starfield above mirrored on its back and small stones from the
ground. When it hit that invisible shield this time, it exploded
around Kieran like hundreds of tiny lightning bugs swirling around
him. Kieran was rigid.

I circled around in front of him slowly. The
moon was below the horizon so it was really dark and I could barely
make out anything. Well, I could see he was completely naked. That
worry was for another time, though. The dog was nowhere to be
seen.

“Kieran?” I asked softly. He didn’t move at
all. This was seriously scary stuff and I didn’t know what to
do.

“This is an interesting experience,” he
whispered. It startled me. I don’t think I’d call a dog exploding
around me “interesting,” but if that’s the word he wanted to
use…

“What’s happening?” I asked, cautiously.

“I believe,” he answered slowly and quietly,
“that the being animating the beast is trying to possess me, but
I’m not exactly sure.”

“Can you get rid of it?” I asked, panicked. A
demon dog possessing him and he was calm. I was panicking and he
was calm. One of us belonged in a nut house and I don’t think it’s
me.

“Yes,” he said, sounding casual about it.

“Don’t you think you should, then?” I asked.
I didn’t believe this side of the conversation. I seemed pretty
damn obvious to me: ditch the devil dog immediately, no possession
required here. Kieran’s skin got all sparkly and he tensed up all
over. The sparkles shot up and out in front of him, coalescing into
the shape of the dog again, jumping out of Kieran this time. It
yelped like it hurt. I can only hope it did.

It ran out to its spot again, yelping the
whole way, and turned back to us, yellow eyes gleaming in the dark.
Then it did something really creepy. It spoke.

“Kir,” the beast said. I didn’t think dogs
could make that sound. “Kir,” it said again and started running at
us again.

I think Kieran was ready for it this time. He
took a half step back and held up his hands in front of him. I even
felt a thrum of power from him—I don’t know how, but I did. I
backed up to give Kieran room to work, to get out of the line of
fire. We didn’t see our mistake until it was too late.

I watched the dog change this time. I watched
it start its run at us. And I watch it launch itself at me. Yeah,
that was our mistake, thinking Kieran would be the target again. I
had time to think, This is gonna hurt.

It did.

I woke with a start. Confused, but I didn’t
know why. I looked around my room. Everything looked right. Clock
read 9:12. Bit late for me to be getting up, but it’s not like I
had anywhere to be. Dresser, chair by the window, chest of drawers,
everything looked normal.

Then I remembered what happened last night.
No, I thought I remembered, but looking at my arms and seeing,
well, my arms, perfectly normal told me I didn’t go running through
the woods in the middle of the night. I didn’t hurt anywhere and I
definitely remembered hurting last night. It must have been a
really bad dream, a really bad nightmare.

I threw back the covers and moved to the edge
of the bed and stopped. I was naked. I didn’t sleep naked normally.
Usually, I slept in a pair of shorts, ever since moving here by
myself. Ewww. Someone had undressed me after breaking into my house
and putting me to bed. The thought of it being that guy, Kieran,
who I didn’t know, was creepy. Maybe the guys came back for me.
That was kind of creepy, too. Ugh. Now I felt dirty.

I grabbed some clothes out of the dresser and
headed for the shower. As I passed through my closet, I glanced
down into the hamper and saw the clothes I wore last night. That
stopped me. Certainly couldn’t have been a nightmare, now. I pulled
out the T shirt. It wasn’t as dirty as I thought it’d be, but
was surely caked and dusty enough. Gonna have to soak that or toss
it, one.