Blood Prophecy: Kallen's Tale (4 page)

 “Are you sure?” Xandra’s
father asks.

Dragging my eyes from the
Angel, I reassure him.  “I am positive.”  Angel liar or not, she is still as
bound to this oath as I am.  Xandra is giving me funny looks so I try to avoid
moving my eyes in her direction.

The Cowan spirit’s doubt has
not been relieved by my lackluster attempt at reassurance.  He turns to his
wife.  “So, what, now we’re supposed to just welcome her into our home?  I
don’t like this, Julienne.  There is something going on with that woman,” he
flings his arm towards the Angel, “that I don’t trust.”

Xandra is trying hard to get
my attention.  “What’s going on?” she hisses.

I know she is not going to
believe me, and I know cryptic answers anger her, but I try anyway.  “All is
well.”  Her eyes are practically jumping out at me she is so mad, now. 

Apparently, though, she is
going to wait to kill me.  She is probably thinking of ways to make it more
painful.  Turning her attention to her mother, she says, “What now?”

“I would like you and Kallen
to get your Grandmother’s bags from the driveway.  Your father and I need to
talk to her.”

A chance to get out of this
room.  I will carry a thousand bags for the opportunity to walk through that
door at this moment.  Perhaps being kicked out is not such a bad thing.  I
could build a little place up the mountain and come back when things have
calmed down. 

Xandra stomps ahead of me
and throws the door open.  She is in all out tantrum mode, I believe.  This
should be interesting.  Taking a deep breath, I follow her outside as I
consider the floor plan for my future residence.

I catch up to her and put my
hand on her arm.  “She is telling the truth.  She is here to help.”

I’m pretty sure she is going
to sprout another head just to have two mouths to rail against me with.  I want
to step away from her, but I hold my ground.  “Really?  Just how do you know
that?  Because some blood smoked and sizzled and you and Grandma made eye
contact?  Forgive me if that isn’t enough to make me want a group hug with the
two of you.  I’m a little too selfishly concerned right now with keeping myself
alive.  I figure one of us should be.”

That was uncalled for.  If
she does not believe that I am as concerned about her safety as she is, then
she does not know anything about me.  Nor does she care to find out.  Well, I
am done trying to prove my loyalty to her.  Crossing my arms over my chest, I
say, “I thought I heard you say in there that you trusted me.  I must have been
mistaken.”

“So, what, I’m supposed to
have blind faith in you?  Even I’m not that naïve.”

“Is blind faith such a bad
thing when you claim to care about someone?”

 “Are you going to tell me
why you suddenly think that Grandma is one of the good guys?”

Okay, maybe blind trust is
asking a bit much this soon in our relationship, but could she not
try
to have more faith in me than this?  I will attempt a different tactic.  “There
are some things that should be explained by the person who holds all the
answers.”

Did I say two heads?  I
think she’s about to sprout a third.  That was definitely the wrong answer.  If
I could take it back, I would.

“Enough of the stupid
cryptic speak,” she growls.  “Between you and Mom, I’ve had enough of it to
last me a lifetime!  Are you going to tell me or not?”

“I can tell you that she
took a great risk making that blood oath with me.”  That, apparently, was not
the right thing to say either.  Basically, I think I am screwed no matter what
I say. 

“Oh, well, that clears
everything up.  Thank you.”  Yes, I am definitely screwed.

I am so frustrated; I could
pull my hair out.  I settle for running my hand through it.  “Xandra, I am
sorry.  I cannot tell you.”

“Cannot or will not?”

Finally, a question I can
answer honestly and not die a tragic death.  “Cannot.”

“Why not?”

This one is a little
trickier.  “Because I’m bound by Sheehogue law.”

“Are you trying to make me
hate you?  Because you’re on the right path if you are.”

I can see that.  Each word
that drops from my mouth is like a wedge, determined to push us farther and
farther apart.  I have no clue how to make this better.  “Xandra, I am not
deliberately keeping something from you.”

She snorts.  She is the only
Fairy I have ever met who sounds cute when she does that.  “Funny, it feels
like you are.”

I look down at the ground as
my brain scrambles for something, anything, that I can say to make this right. 
Okay, I will see how much damage these words do.  “I made a mistake when I set
the guidelines of the oath.”

Confusion starts to override
the anger on her face.  “You made a mistake?” 

“Yes.” 

“What kind of mistake?” she
asks, not satisfied with my monosyllabic answer.  I could have guessed that,
but I’m going for the safest answers possible.  I have no desire to burn from
the inside out.

“I weaved Sheehogue law and
magic into the oath because I was sure that your grandmother was not the Witch
she says she is, and that would have exposed her lies.  But I stumbled into an
ancient law by mistake.  I am now bound by it.”

Confusion was winning the
battle with anger for space on her face, but the tides have now turned again.  “Kallen,
that doesn’t make any sense at all.  What ancient law?”

Does she not understand that
if I explain to her what ancient law, I will then be telling her what I cannot
tell her?  When I do not respond right away, she crosses her arms over her
chest and begins tapping her foot.  If I was not so desperate to fix this
situation, I would be annoyed.  “Well?” she asks.  If patience was measured by
the beauty of a painting, hers would strongly resemble a finger painting. 
Created with mud.

I close my eyes a moment. 
There is nothing more for me to say, other than what I have already.  “Xandra,
I need you to trust me.  Please.  Your grandmother is not going to hurt you. 
She cannot.”

She makes a noise that
strongly bears a resemblance to a squeal.  “So, now we’re back to the blind
faith thing.”

Crossing my arms over my
chest again, I ask, “Have I given you reason not to trust me?”  Other than
lying to her about why I came.  And about the blood oath.  And several other
things that I have not told her that could be considering lying through
omission.  Perhaps that was not the wisest question in the world.

Several long heartbeats pass
without a response.  I do not like that it is taking her so long to respond to
my question.  Even if I have misled her once or twice, my own anger is rising
again.  I came clean on most of that stuff.  Finally, she says, “Is she really
bound by the blood oath?”

There are still miracles.  “Yes,
she is.  Her intentions can only be pure.  She would suffer greatly if not.”

With a sour, but not angry,
look, she says, “Fine, but you’re carrying her suitcases.”

I give her my most charming
smile.  “Of course.  I am always a slave to your desires.”  I ignore the tiny
voice in my head that is saying there is more truth in that statement than I
want to acknowledge.

“You’re absolutely sure that
Grandma’s on our side?”

I nod.  “I am.”

She looks at me long and
hard, until I want to start squirming.  Whatever she is looking for in my face,
she must have found it, because she says, “Then I believe it, too.” 

Music to my ears.  Putting
my hands on her waist, I pull her closer.  “Thank you for trusting me.”  She
wraps her arms around my neck and our lips meet in a kiss that erases any doubt
of how she feels about me.  If we were not in her parents’ driveway, I would
let my hands rove over her luscious body.  Even the thought of it almost pushes
me over the edge.

Good thing I decided against
the hand roving thing.  “And you wonder why I follow you two around.” 

I step back so quickly, I
almost fall over my own feet.  These ghosts need to wear bells or something. 
It’s unnerving how they can creep up on you.  The Witch spirit I can sense to
some degree, the Cowan spirit not at all.

Xandra groans as she looks
at her father, which I believe is only going to make the situation worse.  I
prepare myself for a verbal lashing.  Instead, I get an amused spirit looking
at us as if he is more amused about interrupting us, than being irate that I
was once again kissing his daughter.  There has to be a catch.

“We were just coming back
in,” Xandra grumbles with more than a little attitude. 

“It might be difficult to
carry the bags and walk to the door with your lips locked like that.”  There
are several large rocks around here.  I wonder which would be the easiest to
crawl under.

Color floods into Xandra’s
face, which hopefully draws attention away from mine.  “Dad, really?  Aren’t
you supposed to be talking to Mom and Grandma?”

That sobers him up.  “I
don’t believe this is a good idea.  I’m worried about letting that woman into
your life.”  I wish I could reassure him, but I do not think he would believe
me without an explanation, as Xandra has chosen to do. 

Xandra looks as thrilled as
he is at the idea.  “Yeah, me too.  But it doesn’t seem like we have much of a
choice.”  I half expected her to push for more information from me again, or at
least let her father know that I am holding something back, but she does not.  I
would smile, but I would probably look like an idiot for doing so at the
moment.

“That may be true, but I
still think it’s wise to take precautions.  If trusting Athear turns out to be
a mistake, I don’t know that your mother has it in her to stand against her own
mother.  She has always clung to the belief that her mother had not agreed with
your grandfather and his lackeys, and Athear played right into that.  But even
if your mother could stand against her, I’m afraid that she doesn’t have enough
power to hold both of us in this plane, and still wield enough magic to fend
off an attack by a Witch who she believes is more powerful than she ever was.”

“That’s not very comforting,
Dad.”  I do not believe she cares for his brutal honesty.

He is resigned.  “I know.”  Looking
at me, he says, “That’s where you come in.”

There are a whole gambit of
things that he could mean by that.  Anything from chasing the Angel off to
killing her.  I am not sure how curious I am to hear what he wants me to do.

Clearing his throat, the
spirit says, “If someone had told me an hour ago that I was going to say this,
I would have pronounced them insane right on the spot.”  What a great lead in. 
I am even less thrilled to hear what he is proposing, now.  “I want you to be
glued to Xandra’s side.  Every minute of the day.”

It is impossible that I
heard him correctly.  Xandra seems to be suffering from the same deafness as I
am.  “Every minute?” she asks.  That brings to mind images I would not care to
share at the moment.  But, I would certainly like to carry them out.

The look on his face
expresses how difficult it is to answer that question.  “Yes, every minute.”

I believe Xandra is
dumbfounded.  I do not hear her objecting, though.  “Oh, okay.” 

Her father says stiffly, “I
heard what you said this morning.  You said that your grandfather’s magic
didn’t even show up as a blip on your radar when you forced him to leave the
house.  But, you said that Kallen’s magic is strong enough to at least give you
a challenge.  If he’s truly that powerful, then he just became your own
personal bodyguard.”

Guarding Xandra’s body.  If
I do not relax, everyone will be able to tell how I feel about that.  Not
trusting my voice at the moment, I nod my head in agreement.  To my
consternation, Xandra still looks dumbfounded.

Her father tries to smile.  “Humor
me, kiddo.  I’m worried about you, and it would make me feel better knowing
someone powerful is watching your back.”

She nods.  “Okay, I get it.”

Her father turns back to
me.  “I’m assuming this is okay with you?”  Again, I do not trust my voice, so
I nod.

“And I expect you to be a
gentleman.” 

I do know the spell to
exorcise a ghost.  And it is begging to come out of my mouth.  How dare he
accuse me of using this as an opportunity to take advantage of his daughter? 
He knows nothing of me, or of the Fairy ways.  If Xandra was not present, I
would tell her father what he could do with his request.  Instead, I just do my
best not to exorcise her father.

The spirit is not finished
offending me.  “Do I have your word?”

Why would he believe my word
if he feels he has to ask this question?  Xandra takes an unconscious step back
from me, so my rage must show on my face.  In as even of a voice as I can
manage, I say, “Yes.” 

“Alright then.  I’ll see the
two of you inside.”  He turns and starts floating towards the house.  I take my
first deep breath to try to calm down.  I do not know why I bothered.  When the
spirit is about fifteen feet away, he says over his shoulder, “Kissing is
fine.  Just not when I’m around, please.”  Now I am insulted and chagrined at
the same time.