Blood of a Werewolf (15 page)

Darby spoke, “The honor is ours, sir!” She looked at Rowan and back at Mr. Bloomington.
 
“I think I speak for my sister as well, in saying we feel truly blessed to have found these two gentle and kind souls in your sons.
 
Both are very different from the other, but both are loving and honorable, just the same. It reflects a great compliment to you and your wife, in who you both are and how you raised your sons.
 
They are gifts we both treasure and thanks can only be given to you, their parents, so thank you, Mr. Bloomington and please extend our thanks to your wife!” She bowed her head to him and Rowan did the same.

“My wife, Abby, would have adored you two.
 
Boys, take heed. Don’t ever take these two for granted. You don’t find beautiful girls as these just anywhere.
 
Cherish them.
 
A wonderful woman by your side for all eternity is all a man can ever hope for, and these two are beyond extraordinary.
 
Take care of each other and be good to each other and don’t let these girls slip through your hands.”

And with that, the handsome man with the sunshine smile that matched those of his boys, started to disappear and as he did, the four candles blew out.
 
They all sat there quiet for a moment.
 
Blake and Devon, with their arms around their beautiful witches, thought hard on the words their departed father had sent them.
 
They felt sad to see him go, almost mourning him again in his absence, but knowing that without these two lovely girls, they would not have had these treasured words with their father.
 
What a gift they had received.
 
With all their strength, speed, and ability to heal, none of these gifts offered them this most priceless of gifts, the wisdom and presence of their father.
 
Their father was right; these two enchanting women should always be treasured.

Devon turned to Rowan and said, “Thank you so much, Rowan. Speaking to him after all this time was the greatest gift, I think, you could have ever given us.”

Blake, too, turned to her and kissed her hard and said, “Really and truly, thank you.
 
You are amazing!”

She blushed for just a second and said, “The pleasure was mine.
 
I now see where you both get your good looks and that devilish smile.”

Darby laughed and looked at her sister as she hugged Devon.
 
She mouthed to her sister
thank you.

Rowan nodded and mouthed
love you.

Darby focused and thought hard towards her sister and thought,
Love you too, Rowan!

By the look on her sister’s face, Darby could tell Rowan had heard it. Rowan smiled and said, “That is cool. Blake, you’ve got to teach me that!”

The guys looked at her, confused for a moment, and then laughed.

“Well, I guess there is no need to go to Ireland.
 
I can’t imagine there’s anything there that your father hasn’t already conveyed to us,” Darby said.

“Definitely, but aside from knowing why, we still don’t know what’s the best way to stop all of this,” Devon said.

Rowan said, “Well, I hate to say it, but someone that angry and so far over the deep end is probably not going to be up for a little sit down to talk this through.”

“I suppose not, which means that the only way to stop him is to do it permanently,” Devon said.
 

They all grimaced at that thought. “But we don’t know if there is anyone else involved,” Darby said.
 

“What do you mean?” Blake asked.

“Is there anyone else that Paine is working with?
 
I mean, is Paine the top of the ladder, so to speak, or is there someone higher?” she said.

“For as personal as this is, I would expect it is confined to just Paine and his thugs.
 
The only reason Paine would tell anyone about this is if he had a different agenda, say fame, for catching a vampire.
 
If that had been the case, then why wouldn’t he and his acquired army have found us years ago?
 
No, I think he has limited resources in his thugs’ ability to track us.
 
We’ve traveled quite a bit since our parents died and I think now that we have settled, he is just catching up,” Devon said.

“That makes sense to me,” Rowan said. “If this was a bigger plan, with more people involved, it would be more organized and they would have caught up with you quicker.”

“Well, I guess that is a good thing,” Devon said.

“Sure it is.
 
I think if we take out Paine, this will all go away.
 
The thugs have no beef against you and your brother.
 
If their paycheck goes away, then they just move on to the next crazy guy,” said Rowan.

“Then I think the best way to take care of Paine is to go to him.
 
He’d never expect us to go to him. He just thinks we’ll continue to run from his thugs,” Devon said.

“Right, and while his thugs are here looking for us, we will be in Maine taking care of Paine,” Blake chimed in.

“So is there any way we do this without taking him out, so to speak?” asked Darby.

“I doubt it would do any good, but it couldn’t hurt could it? If we trapped him somehow, tied him up, and explained what would have happened to his son if your father had changed him, maybe he would understand.
 
At least that way we could say that we tried to reason with him before we took him out.
 
Having lost our parents and you yours, it’s just, well, life is precious, no matter who or what you are,” Rowan said.

“I think it’s worth a shot,” Blake answered.

“I agree,” Darby replied.

“I don’t think it could hurt anything to try,” Rowan said.

“Okay, then we’re agreed,” Darby concluded.

Chapter 11

 
“I think we still have a couple of things to do before we call it a night.
 
I’d like to enchant Harry,” Rowan said. ”Blake, can you bring the lighter along with the green, blue, yellow, and red candles to the back yard?
 
Darby, could you go get Harry and bring him outside?”

“Sure.”

Rowan went into the backyard. She set an altar cloth on the grass and said, “Blake, the green one goes here to the North to represent the Earth. Great.
 
The yellow one goes here to the East and represents Air.
 
Perfect.
 
The red one goes here to the South and represents Fire, and the blue one goes there to the West and represents Water. Thank you, Sweetie.”

Rowan, with her athame in one hand and a lighter in the other, entered the circle made by the candles. She then drew a large circle around the candles in the dirt with her athame and entered the circle near the yellow candle due East.
 
She said, “Let it be known that the circle is about to be cast.
 
All who enter the circle may do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”
 

Darby instructed the guys to stand outside the circle with her.
 
Rowan continued moving clockwise around the circle, carrying the lighter.
 
At the yellow candle she stopped and lit it and said: “Guardians of the East, I call upon you to watch over the rites of the O’Rielly Coven.
 
Powers of knowledge and wisdom, guided by Air, we ask that you keep watch over us tonight within this circle.
 
Let all who enter the circle under your guidance do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”

Rowan moved to the red candle to the South, and lit the candle. She said, “Guardians of the South, I call upon you to watch over the rites of the O’Rielly Coven.
 
Powers of energy and will, guided by Fire, we ask that you keep watch over us tonight within this circle.
 
Let all who enter the circle under your guidance do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”

She moved to the blue candle to the West, and lit the candle. She said, “Guardians of the West, I call upon you to watch over the rites of the O’Rielly Coven.
 
Powers of passion and emotion, guided by Water, we ask that you keep watch over us tonight within this circle.
 
Let all who enter the circle under your guidance do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”

Then she moved to the green candle to the North, and lit the candle. She said, “Guardians of the North, I call upon you to watch over the rites of the O’Rielly Coven.
 
Powers of endurance and strength, guided by Earth, we ask that you keep watch over us tonight within this circle.
 
Let all who enter the circle under your guidance do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”

Rowan turned towards Darby who whispered to the boys, “Do and say as I do and follow me.” Darby entered the circle with Harry in her arms and a yellow candle in her hand. Rowan asked her, “How do you enter the circle?”
 

Darby answered, “In perfect love and perfect trust.” Rowan nodded to her. Then Blake entered the circle.

Rowan asked him, “How do you enter the circle?”

Blake answered, “In perfect love and perfect trust.” Rowan nodded to him and Devon entered the circle.
 

Rowan asked him, “How do you enter the circle?”

Devon answered, “In perfect love and perfect trust.”
 

Rowan nodded to him and closed the circle drawn on the ground with her athame.
 
She turned to them and nodded and Darby motioned they should all sit down in a circle. Darby then handed the yellow candle to Rowan.
 
She lit the candle and set it in front of her.
 
With Harry in Darby’s lap facing Rowan, Rowan said:

“I call upon the power of Athena

The Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom

Give us the power I do beseech

Teach this feline the gift of speech

Give to Harry a voice loud and clear

One that only we four can hear

This spell we cast will only last

until the full moon’s crest has passed.

Then at peace

his voice released.

Three times three, so mote it be

Three times three, so mote it be

Three times three, so mote it be.”

She leaned forward, picked up Harry, gave him a big hug, and said, “Thanks be to Athena.”

Next she tapped Harry on the head three times between the ears and said:
 

“Tail of rat,

Wing of bat,

Harry the cat

Will now chit chat!”

Rowan continued, “Harry, we need your help.
 
There are some strangers in the neighborhood, maybe snooping around Blake and Devon’s house next door.
 
We need your invisibility and stealth to keep us alerted to danger.
 
These men are here to kill Blake and Devon and we can’t have that, can we?”
 
She pet Harry’s chin and he purred in agreement. “If you see anything that you think is unusual or out of the ordinary, we would like you to alert us, tell us something is not right or danger is near.
 
Can you do that for us?” she asked. Harry purred.

Devon could have sworn he heard a
Yes
and looked with a puzzled expression at his brother to see if he had heard it too.
 
Surprisingly, Blake turned to him as if asking the same thing.
 
The girls smiled.
 

“Thank you, Harry, for your added power to our coven and your gracious help,” Rowan said.
 
Rowan handed Harry back to Darby and made a slashing motion at the edge of the drawn circle in a makeshift door.
 
She exited the circle and one by one they all followed. Darby set Harry down and gave him some extra pets on the chin. He scampered away to the kitchen.

Rowan blew out the candles and brought everything back into the house and they all sat down on the couches in the living room in silence.
 

Darby said, “Anybody hungry?
 
How about some pizza? I’m starved.”
 
With all the excitement they hadn’t realized they barely ate all day.
 
Everybody seemed to answer at once so Darby grabbed the phone and called for delivery.
 
While they were waiting, Devon got on the laptop and checked on flight times for all of them to go to Maine in the morning.

Darby announced, “Okay, pizzas will be here in about thirty minutes.
 
In the meantime, do we know where specifically we are going in Maine?”
 

Devon answered Darby as she sat down next to him on the couch and put her head on his shoulder. “Not really, but Dad said Paine was an aristocrat or from a well established family, so a Google search on the name should give us a few hits for a family home.”