Celtic Evil: A Fitzgerald Brother Novel: Roarke (7 page)

“Telling him I saw a vision
of Mum may not be a great plan,” he muttered, starting to reach to
brush her face and frowning when she caught his hand to hold it.
That’s when he noticed the scarf. “What happened in New Orleans,
luv?” he asked.

Jessica and Cameron had
made the choice to keep a lot of what had actually happened while
he’d been out away from Roarke since both knew he’d feel bad, so
she hid the bruises she’d gotten with the scarf and hoped to keep
him distracted.

“Nothing, we went through
that,” she smiled easily but his eyes narrowed. “Later, let’s just
go see Kerry.”

Seeing he was about to downright refuse, Cam
blew out a breath and decided to pull his ace card out.

“Roarke, you don’t want to
make this harder ‘cause if you don’t move it or keep giving me
grief on this, I’m going to remind you that you still hold reserve
status on the Mavericks, which makes me your damn leader. So if I
say get your ass down those steps and into the car then you damn
well better do it!” he snapped, in a tone only used
infrequently.

Silence drew as his team
stopped unloading the equipment and Roarke’s eyes stared down at
him, but Cam wasn’t intimidated by that look and leaned against the
Chevy Blazer, waiting.

“I could turn him into a
toad,” Roarke muttered under his breath, wondering just how far his
friend was bluffing.

“And may it harm none,”
Jessica whispered in his ear, quoting the one oath any true witch
or believer lived by. “Plus, you’d be grounded within ten minutes
if you did a spell like that this close to Kerry.”

That was exactly what
Roarke was worried about but finally he scowled and started down
the steps. “Fine, but when this backfires, it’s on your heads,” he
returned, refusing to sulk but looking close when his friend just
smirked at him.

“Yeah, this’ll be fun,”
Jessica sighed, following him down the steps but pausing when she
saw something from the corner of her eye.

On the edge of the airfield
sat a row of trees that had lost their leaves for winter, but in
the center tree was a large black bird that sent shivers down her
spine.

The bird seemed to be
watching them intently as the Mavericks finished loading the truck
and Cam and Roarke continued to bicker as they came to bottom of
the steps.

Jessica’s eyes narrowed as
the bird’s eyes shifted to red and its wings began to flap.
“Roarke?” she spoke quietly but heard the wind pick up, and the
voice it carried worried her.

“They seek to protect the
chosen one but it took two sacrifices to keep it at bay this long,”
it seemed to howl as the bird began to fly at them. “Refusal will
cause the ultimate price but the boy will die alone before he sets
foot on that sacred land.”

She saw the bird’s eyes and
realized what it was. “Roarke!” she screamed, starting down the
steps faster but it was too late.

Hearing the girl’s panic,
he had begun to turn when he felt the wave of energy strike his
chest, then there was nothing but white-hot pain and blinding
images as he went down, and his helpless friends could do
nothing.

Killarney Hospital,
Present:

“Sit-rep, Peter?” Cameron
Young brought himself back to the present by the approach of his
main medic and wanting a situation report.

An odd type to be on a
mercenary team, Peter Daniels was a thin, slender young man who had
been born in Alabama but raised in Germany. His light eyes were
usually hidden behind wire-rimmed glasses and his black hair kept
short.

Right then he was pushing even his skills
since there was just so much one could do when he couldn’t define a
condition.

“I’ve had to restrain him
because he’s still convulsing too much,” the medic spoke in his
quiet, oddly accented voice, eyeing his leader grimly. “Physically
there’s nothing wrong with Roarke except for his old scars and some
of the newer wounds he’d gained. His MRIs, cat scans, X-rays, blood
work have all come back normal.”

Pushing his glasses up with
a finger, Peter frowned. “I’ve tried giving him sedatives, a pain
killer to dull whatever’s making him scream like that but nothing
is doing any good.”

Scowling at this, Young
knew his medic well enough to read between the lines. “Alright, now
hit me with the rest of it.”

“Roarke has had a link with
Jessica since they were younger, you said.” Peter closed the chart
to face his leader fully. “Whatever this is, is affecting her
because she’s getting paler and more upset that she can’t make him
better. Plus, she keeps saying that something’s taking his
soul.”

“Do I need to scare up a
priest or an exorcist for this?” Cam asked, hearing the elevator
ding and pulling his ever present Magnum when a hunch told him not
to. “Oh, never mind. I can ask you to tell me what the hell is
happening since I didn’t sign on for soul eaters.”

Kerry Fitzgerald had gotten
the basic story from those mercs holding the lower floors when he,
his brothers, and Mary Margaret Cavanaugh had arrived at the
hospital.

This statement, however,
took him totally off guard. “Ian, stay here with the young lady,”
he spoke softly but firmly to the youngest Fitzgerald but motioned
to Mac. “Mac, come with me.”

“Yes, he was this intense
even when we were lads,” Mac cut off Maggie’s unspoken question
even as he was tossing his jacket over a chair but caught her eye.
“Keep him here.”

The red-haired pixie-like
woman could read the younger boy’s dislike of these orders but also
understood them. She was the youngest child so she immediately
caught onto to the overprotective element happening
here.

“Big brothers are a pain at
times, boyo,” she laughed lightly, sitting down and hoping the edge
of tension and power she was picking up wasn’t what was going on
further up the hall.

Ian slumped in the chair,
very close to sulking. “I know they’re protecting me but they won’t
be able to ‘cause I can see what they can’t.”

Maggie’s eyes shot up at
this, knowing that at certain times some magic was stronger in
certain users, but even she hadn’t been expecting this baby-faced
boy to be a seer and she doubted his brothers did
either.

“How bad is he?” Kerry was demanding as they
followed the mercenary leader up the hall.

The eldest had tried a minor surface scan
but only got shoved back by something he had never felt before.

Cam shifted a look over his
shoulder then opened a door. “You tell me.”

Expecting the worst by the
call and from the surface power that they were picking up, neither
Kerry nor Mac had prepared them selves for what they walked
into.

Both men knew this would be
hard as, unlike the rest of them who had had casual contact over
the past fifteen years, Roarke had avoided contact with his
brothers unless totally necessary.

In fact, Ryan seemed to be the only brother
he had contact with and that was only when businesses meshed.

“Sweet Mary, this is bloody
well not good,” Mac whispered, stepping in and instantly being
bombarded by the feelings of fear, despair, anger and death.
“Kerry.”

His brother was looking and not liking what
he was seeing or feeling in the room.

Their brother, as both
recalled, had been an energetic boy that was always climbing,
jumping, singing or being a typical eleven year old with bright
eyes and black hair always too long.

The young man lying on this
bed, strapped down to prevent him from hurting either himself or
someone else, was a sickly pale color now and trembling. His voice
that had charmed royalty while singing and fought bitterly in
childish fights with his brothers had turned hoarse from screaming
in his native tongue.

Sitting beside the bed and holding onto one
clenched fist, Jessica Hadley looked up as they entered and the
strain was clear in her blue eyes.

“I…I can’t block it out,
Cam,” her British accent tight and her fear was clear. “He was too
weak to start with.”

Getting a look from his
brother, Mac slowly approached the bed. What he hadn’t admitted to
Maggie was that while he did have a legal license to practice
medicine, he was more attuned to practicing the healing arts
another way.

Early on, all of them knew each had stronger
abilities in some areas and Mac had found out that his deepest
affinity was in healing.

It was on this power he
began calling now as he approached the bed, but was careful to
assure the girl of his intentions first.

All of them had known
Jessica Hadley and her company since they’d been kids and through
the years had stayed in touch. Though Mac knew the young British
woman’s strongest loyalties remained with Roarke.

“Easy does it, luv. I just
want to see him.” He assured her, voice going to the low, deep and
soothing tone he always used playing medic. But as he got closer he
also sensed something else. “How about we see how bad these are
first.”

Cameron Young nearly winced
at this but just rolled his eyes. “She may fry him for that,” he
sighed seeing the lanky Irishman slowly reach for the
scarf.

“What happened?” Kerry asked, knowing the
girl’s injuries wouldn’t have come from his brother.

“What attacked in New
Orleans tried to take my employer out of the equation early,” Cam
replied grimly, shrugging. “Clearly it doesn’t like
her.”

Kerry knew this wouldn’t quite be the case
but let that go for now as he approached to see Jessica was trying
to redirect Mac’s attention back to his brother.

“They’re just bruises. He
needs help now,” she argued, not even aware when some of the pains
went away. “Mac, it’s killing him.”

“Who’s killing him, darling?” Kerry asked
gently, trying to probe but only getting static and pain.

Jessica’s eyes shot to his
and she explained about seeing the bird, hearing the wind and what
she’s felt since then. “It’s destroying him, Kerry, and I can’t
block this out. It’s not like the shadow creature in New Orleans
that made him see your mother.”

That caused both Fitzgerald
brothers to exchange looks. “That’s low,” Mac muttered but did turn
to place a hand on Roarke’s trembling wrist, and was shocked when
something physically shoved his hand away. “Roarke?”

“Luv? It’s alright,”
Jessica had looked when something, a twinge in her head, made her
look up to see her friend’s eyelashes beginning to flicker. “Is he
waking up?”

Kerry wasn’t sure since
something was still blocking him, but it wasn’t until his younger
brother’s eyes did open that he knew for sure. “Mac!” he snapped,
whirling to shove Cameron Young back from the bed.

“Oh, well isn’t this just
perfect,” Mac swore, grabbing Jessica and pulling her back just as
she was going closer to help her friend, when Roarke’s normally
smoky gray-blue eyes opened to reveal pure black and he sat
straight up in the bed, restraints going away in a simple burst of
flame.

“This is bad, isn’t it?”
Maggie Cavanaugh was asking Michael White who had come at her
shouting when Ian Fitzgerald had literally screamed as pain
bombarded his head and fell to the floor.

The California-born native
wasn’t sure but had to figure given what they were involved with,
then it couldn’t be a good thing.

“Ian! What happened?” he
was asking, getting word from his radio of varying things. “Shit!
Roy, keep the staff outta this! Adam, yell for Nick if the power
readings get worse and Bry, tell him to get up here!”

Ian was still trying to
regain his balance but finally gave up and slumped to the floor,
his head down; images still vivid. “He’s here but he’s inside him,”
he was whispering. “He’s screaming!”

“Who’s screaming, luv? What
do you hear?” Maggie asked gently, trying to get the young man up
to his feet but couldn’t budge him until a hand reached over her
and gave a quick pull that brought Ian to his feet and into a
chair.

“Look at me, boyo.” The stern voice got
through his haze better than Maggie’s soft tones did.

The boy and Maggie both
looked at the new arrival to see a well-tanned man with windswept,
almost unruly, long black hair, but his eyes were a sparking smoke
right then as he stared hard at this boy.

It didn’t take Kerry’s more
natural gift of sight or scanning for Ryan to see what his youngest
brother did. That and the power he felt from down the hall told him
what he needed.

“This hurts,” Ian
whispered, rubbing his head but nearly recoiling as strong fingers
gripped muscles in his neck and squeezed. “That’s
worse!”

While the pain hurt, the
deep laughter he heard over it was more relaxing to him for some
reason that he couldn’t place.

“A little pain or no gain
as the saying goes, baby brother,” Ryan replied, letting his hand
rub lightly and felt some of the boy’s pain ease away, then he shot
the woman a look, an instant read on her. “Stay with him, little
witch, and keep him away from that room.”

Maggie never got a word in
edgewise with this one but didn’t try as he shot White a look
before heading down the hall, just as the whole building seemed to
shake.