Authors: M C Moore
When they had finally made it home, there was a consensus that Bowen would be a much needed addition to their team. Meckenzie knew that her night was nowhere close to being over though. There was her father to deal with for one. She was also going to try and contact the Morrigan at some point. Meckenzie consoled herself with the fact that tomorrow was Saturday and there would be some sleeping occurring in her future.
The trips’ father was waiting for them in the kitchen. He looked ten years older from the stress of just this one night. Meckenzie toyed with the idea of performing the calming spell on her father, but she decided that using magic to change his current emotional state, would probably only make him angrier. Somehow, they were going to have to protect him. Between his ability to worry about them and the possibility that someone would come for him as leverage, Meckenzie had to devise a plan to get him to Aquanis with them.
“It’s about time you three got home. I was worried sick. Meckenzie if you ever hang up on me again, I will ground you till the end of time.” He was ready to lay into them good when Bowen, Jeff, and Isabel came in behind them. “Who is he,” their father gestured to Bowen, “and what is he doing here?”
“Dad that is Bowen.
He knows mom and apparently Isabel as well. He helped us resolve the problem we were having tonight. We want to tell you all about it, but I didn’t actually eat and Taggart is going to need something too. He did some healing tonight.”
“Who did Taggart heal? Who is hurt? What happened?” Lawrence Desmond was sending himself into some kind of panic attack.
“Lawrence as you can see all three kids are fine. They were actually great tonight. We’ll all sit down and talk about it. Let’s just get them something to eat first. Why don’t we all go to the dinner table and I’ll make some sandwiches.” Isabel was trying as best she could to calm him down.
Taggart decided he needed to do something about it before their dad had a heart attack, so he gave him a hug and held on a little longer than necessary. The healing power of Taggart’s touch calmed their dad down immediately. Taggart led them into the dining room and everyone took a seat at the table. Meckenzie hung back in the kitchen and grabbed some bottled water out of the fridge. She got out a couple of serving trays and started to help Isabel get stuff ready for sandwiches.
Meckenzie didn’t have a plan for this. How would they make it all work? She really wanted to go take a long shower and cry. Meckenzie had been so caught up in making sure everyone was safe that she hadn’t taken any time to think about herself not being safe.
“You don’t have to do this all on your own.” Isabel said as if reading her mind. “You have a brother and sister to help you. You have me. We can get through this. Your mother would be so proud of you right now.”
“I know that you’re saying that to reassure me, but all it does is remind me that so many people know my mother more than I do.” Meckenzie had been told too many times today that she reminded people of a woman who had abandoned her and her siblings. She wanted more than anything to have a relationship with her mom. Meckenzie just wished people would stop reminding her that she didn’t have one.
“How are we going to convince dad to let us drop out of school? How are we going to convince him that we have to leave at the end of the school year? How are we going to convince him to hire Bowen?”
“That last one is all on you. I didn’t suggest you hire him.” Isabel seemed upset about the situation.
“What happened between the two of you?” Meckenzie thought she might have an idea. Love is the only thing that causes that kind of reaction in a woman.
“We were lovers. We were to be married actually. When I got the call to come here and help your mother, I tried to get him to come with me, but he felt he was of more use there. It just ended. That is all I’m going to say about that.” Isabel had finished preparing the trays of meat and cheese, so they moved everything into the dining room.
As they entered the room, Taggart was shaking his head. Their father had a look of determination on his face. Something had him upset. Meckenzie knew the list of things was too long, so she decided she would just wait for him to voice his problem. It didn’t take more than two steps before it happened.
“Taggart tells me you want to hire this man to help train you and guard you. Am I not still the father in this relationship? Shouldn’t I be consulted about these things? You call and demand two limos on short notice none the less and then you bring home a stray that you want to hire. What happened tonight?” His face was cherry red, which meant his blood pressure was up.
Meckenzie sat down at the table and took a deep breath. This was going to take some finesse. She recapped the evenings events, allowing Kellan and Taggart to fill in the blanks were necessary. Meckenzie explained how the date had gone wrong, but that she had escaped unscathed. There was a brief moment when
Kellan’s being
burned almost sent her father over the edge. He wanted to take her to the hospital and have her checked out by a real doctor. It took everyone in the room to convince him that Kellan was better than before. Kellan finally had to let him look her over with a fine tooth comb. He could find no signs of trauma so he let it go.
When the story had been completely recapped and he had all of his questions answered, he returned to the subject of hiring Bowen.
“So what is it you can do that will be beneficial to my children?” He asked skeptically.
“Well sir, if I wanted to, I could convince you to hire me without the help of your children. I have a way, a magical way of convincing people to do what I want them to. I am also trained as Isabel is in self-defense and fighting techniques. I have a way with herbs, so I can teach Taggart how to mix potions that will help him in healing. I have what is called a mind gift, so I can help Meckenzie understand some of her gifts. Kellan’s gift is better served by Ardan, but I make a good punching bag as well.”
“Ardan, who is Ardan?”
Their dad asked confusedly.
“I am sir.” Jeff responded. “Jeff is my human cover story. My Fae name is Ardan, and since we are past the pretense of hiding my heritage, you can call me Ardan.”
“Well that is going to be confusing. Okay, so you will train with them.” He said to his children.
“Then what?”
This is the part that Meckenzie was dreading. She wasn’t ready for another fight, even if there wasn’t going to be any bloodshed. Though it was entirely possible her father would come to blows over their education.
“Well dad, we need to leave school.” Taggart took the lead. He had a way with their father. It must be the father-son bond. “We won’t be safe there. We will ask the headmaster to let us test out of the rest of the year. We will need to learn to control our powers and cast spells and we will need to learn how to fight and defend ourselves.”
“Then we will have to leave to Aquanis. We were thinking at the beginning of summer. We will still have our birthday party and be here for a couple of more months, but we are going to have to leave.” Meckenzie added, expecting a fight from him.
Their father didn’t protest. He simply sat back in his chair. Rubbing his temples, he looked as if he was going to cry. They were leaving and it broke his heart. He had spent so many years protecting them, loving them and now he was losing them.
“I understand.” It was like all the life had left his body. “I will need to tie up some loose ends around the office, but I think I should stay home as much as possible. I don’t want to miss a moment with you kids while I still have you. I knew that you were going to leave to go off to college this year, but I thought I’d at least have holidays and summers with you. This, however, is a different scenario all together. You will be in another world, another plane. When will I get to see you? When will you
come
visit?” Tears were running down his face.
Meckenzie began to cry as well. She couldn’t stand the heartbreak this was causing. She had to figure out a way to get her father to Aquanis with them. Isabel stood and began clearing the table. Ardan and Bowen took their cue and left to the kitchen. Kellan got up and wrapped her arms around their father.
“Dad if you could come with us, would you?” Meckenzie knew the answer to that question before she asked it. He would go anywhere to be with his children.
“Of course.”
He sat up in his chair. There was hope that he wouldn’t lose his children forever. “Would your mom allow that though?”
“Mom asked about you. I think she would. She owes you that much.” This is what Meckenzie was hoping for. She knew that it was a risky gamble promising him something she didn’t know if she could deliver. Her dad was part Fae, so it would make sense that he could travel to Aquanis.
“I think that we should all just sleep on it and we can start finalizing plans later. I know I could use a good night’s sleep.” The strain of the day was evident in Taggart’s eyes. He needed sleep. Even Kellan looked worn out.
“Yes, we should sleep on it. I think that we should set up a place for Ardan and Bowen to sleep. I don’t want them leaving the house tonight. I still don’t know if Ty will honor our agreement. Kellan can you find that air mattress we got a couple of years ago and some sheets. Taggart, maybe grab them some sleep clothes. We can put them in the gym. There are showers and a bathroom down there. It might be worth it to find a place for them to stay permanently. What do you think dad?” Meckenzie turned to her father.
“Sure, we can fix up a place in the gym. There is room in the back corner where we have the storage room. I even think there is a bed in there.”
Everyone went off to do their assigned tasks while Meckenzie went to ask their guests to stay. She found them all in the kitchen sitting around the island. They were deep in conversation, which stopped as soon as Meckenzie entered the room.
Meckenzie ignored the abrupt end to their conversation. Frankly, she didn’t have the energy to be curious. “I was wondering if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, if the two of you would stay here tonight. I don’t want to risk Ty not observing the truce and breaking in when we are weak. We would also like to invite you to move in for the next couple of months. We have a space in the gym that we can convert into a room for the two of you. There is a full bathroom down there because of the pool and gym.”
“We were actually discussing how we were going to protect you three at night. This solves the problem. We can go get what we need from our places tomorrow.” Bowen answered for the both of them. Ardan still hadn’t really said much to Meckenzie since he had been knocked out at the restaurant.
“Kellan’s getting an air mattress for tonight and Taggart is going to bring you some sleeping clothes. I’ll show you downstairs if you’d like.”
“Sure.” Ardan got up to follow her. Bowen remained sitting.
“I think I’ll have Isabel give me a tour of the house so that I can familiarize myself with it.” Meckenzie knew that Bowen probably wanted to talk to Isabel alone about the new living situation. This could get touchy, so Meckenzie turned to head downstairs with Arden.
“How are you feeling?” Ardan asked.
“Tired.
Sad.
Scared.
Mad. I’m a little bit of everything right now, except happy.” Meckenzie felt so much that it was almost numbing.
As they reached the garden level, Arden reached out and grabbed Meckenzie’s hand. He led her over to the garden. His touch was electrifying. Pulling Meckenzie into him, Ardan brushed the hair from her face. His breathing was shallow and quick, there was no mistaking the attraction he felt for her.
“I was so afraid that something had happened to you. I would have never forgiven myself if you had been hurt. I know that we have to work together and Isabel threatened to send me away if I was distracted by you, but I just need you to know that I will always be there to protect you.”
The events of the evening melted out of Meckenzie’s mind. There was only Ardan, standing in front of her, holding her close. She wanted his lips to touch hers, to erase the first kiss that she had experienced with Ty. Ardan’s hands were playing with her hair, touching her neck. Meckenzie was bursting with electrical energy running throughout her body at his touch.
“That date was the hardest thing I’ve ever lived through. Him holding your hand, it was all I could do not to punch him. You were laughing with him and flirting. Did you like him? Did his betrayal hurt you?”
Meckenzie was having trouble finding her words. She wanted to scream out that Ty was nothing to her, but Meckenzie’s mind was reeling with so many thoughts; she couldn’t make any of them come out of her mouth.
Before she could answer him, they heard Taggart and Kellan talking as they came downstairs. Ardan pulled away from her. The cold of the night struck Meckenzie for the first time. Ardan’s body had been providing warmth that was now missing. Her brother and sister headed down to the gym. Leaving them hiding in the shadows of the garden unseen.
“We should probably get down there. I’m sorry if I have offended you. I know that you are a princess. I just,” Ardan paused looking for the right words. “I guess I just thought you liked me. I won’t bother you again.”