Bones Of Contention: The McKinnon Legends - The American Men Book 3 (38 page)

Was it over? Maybe for now, but she was still the heir and she was still not pure. There would be others to come after and follow in his footsteps.

It was good to see her mother back in the arms of her father. It was a happy reunion. At least someone got her happily ever after. For the queen it had been almost four thousand years of walking the earth. It was time to go home.

Josh stood in front of Jamie and waited for her to drop the shield. She hesitated. At least with the shield in place, she could not touch him. She would not feel him in her blood which gratefully had stopped flowing freely from the wound on her wrist.

Once she dropped that shield, then reality would have to play out. He would go back to Texas, and she would retreat into the fourth dimension taking her rightful place by her father’s side until the time came for the wizards to come for her child.

She dreaded it.

She loved the sunshine. She loved her dog, and she was madly in love with this Protector. Nonetheless, she had made a promise, and she was a woman of honor. No matter how much it hurt, she had struck a bargain with the Three. She would hold fast.

“Jamie, drop the shield,” Josh gently commanded.

“No, Josh. Leave me and go back to your men.” She balked, not wishing to face the uncertain future without Josh and Jesse in it. It was a prospect she did not want to contemplate too deeply just yet.

“Baby, I know what happened. I demanded the truth from the wizards and they told me what you were willing to give up for me. There is no reason for you to leave. The battle is over. We were victorious. I’m alive. Your father is alive, and we have Jesse safe and sound.”

“If not today there will be another battle. I’m a liability.” She placed her hand against the shield touching his hand just on the other side of the force.

“The love of a good woman can never be a liability.”

Her father came to stand beside Josh. “Listen to him, daughter. What better protection can you and my grandchild have than one of the Ancients themselves as father and husband.”

“You know,” she asked frantic. How would this change things, she wondered.

“Of course I know. I’m Titan. I know everything. You think the wizards have the market cornered?” He turned to Josh. “You will marry her. I will have it no other way,” the king commanded.

Josh quickly, and without hesitation, agreed. “Yes sir! I just have to get her to see eye to eye.”

“No grandchild of mine will be born without the protection of his father. Jamie, I am your king and it is my command. Now drop that shield and stop all this drama.”

Her mother had joined the two men. “Oh, dear, Jamie, now I have a wedding and a baby to plan for, and the longer you stand behind that shield the less time I have to do it,” Brianna fretted. It was a sight Jamie had never seen. “I fully intend to make this a lavish affair. It will have to be a royal wedding, Kronos, so open the coffers.”

At that moment Kronos would give his wife and queen the world if she asked. He had missed her so. She looked beautiful, older, but more lush and wise. He would be grateful to have her return to his side as queen.

“Jamie, drop the shield and let me take you, Jesse, and my baby home.”

Instantly, it was gone and she threw herself into Josh's arms. “This changes nothing. I’m still the heir, and you know there will be others to follow, and you have to figure out a way not to kill me.”

He held her away so she could see his face. He was determined and up for the test, and it was a challenge. Her powers were strong, but he listened to his head and always came away with friend rather than foe.

“I’ve got that covered and let them come. I have an army at my command to defend you.”

“God, why can’t we be a normal family? And the baby? Are you happy?”

“More than I can say.” He held her close to his heart. “I would like to name him Alexander,” he whispered.

“And what if the wizards are wrong? What if it is a girl?”

“Melitta, after my mother,” he smiled knowingly at her.

“You remember? Everything?” she asked shocked that he would remember her story and deepest heartfelt confession.

“Yes, I remember, but tell me again.”

“I love you, Alexander, the Wizards' Warrior, but I love you, Josh, my friend, so much more.”

There was nothing to clean up after the battle. The ones the defenders killed disintegrated just as VanDarious had done after his death, and the survivors were now in the hands of their king.

Josh could muster no sympathy for those who had dared to raise a hand against the king’s authority, his child, and his woman.

He fully understood Kronos’s anger which matched his own emotions.

Their wounded were few, and none sported life-threatening injuries. The treaty had indeed been defended masterfully. The other Protectors faded back into obscurity, returning to their homes until such time as the services were needed again. His mark had settled back to a faded red, no longer pulsing and trying to break free. The threat was gone and so was much of his power, but not his strength. That, Jacob said was normal. The threat gone, there was no need for such strong magic and supremacy. However, should the threat ever return, so would the power. It was the signal for them to gather.

Jamie’s mark had not settled nor had her powers diminished. He found that disconcerting, but the very fact his powers retreated gave credence to the fact Jamie was no threat. Gage and Jacob agreed.

Gage, Jacob, and he had already decided it was in his best interest to resign his position as sheriff and move to England to continue his studies in the way of the Brotherhood of the Wizards' Warriors. He had thirty-eight years to make up. It also put him closer to Jamie who also had to begin her training.

For better or worse, she had asked for the powers of the Protectors and as such needed to be able to wield and control those powers.

Josh was devastated when he realized the total ramification of her transformation. She would bear him this one child and then there would be no more. The power was too great for conception.

She had cried understanding what the wizards were implying when they asked her if she understood. “Probably not, but there you have it,” she had said. The price was great, but it had saved Jesse’s life. She used those powers against VanDarious which forced him to release the girl. Without those powers, he would have killed Jesse on the spot. VanDarious never had any intention of letting Jesse go. She saw into his mind. She had forced him and it had cost her. Magic pitted against magic. She had won the tug of war for the moment, and he let Jesse go leaving her weaker from the thrust. The wizards had seen it and pushed into her mind telling her what to say. She spoke ancient words she could no longer recall.

Josh and Gage had questions. Both needed answers. The wizards were the only ones with the answers and for whatever reason they were still here at Seabridge. It was highly irregular. However, irregular or not, Josh was glad they were here.

If he was to assimilate into the Brotherhood, he needed to understand his roots. He knew who he was. He just did not know how he had gotten from the Isle of Crete to find his way to the doorstep of Travis and Marsha McKinnon some three thousand years in the future.

Gage needed to know how Josh managed to make it to adulthood without the wizards reclaiming him and without his family being aware. It was as if he were shielded, even now.

Were there others out there like Josh?

If so they needed to find them.

And the most important question Josh had for the wizards -- was he truly a McKinnon?

The wizards answered with a question:
What do you feel in your heart?

He searched his heart and answered truly, “I belong here.”

“Then you are a true McKinnon.”

“And the rest?” He was not going to let them go without some answers.

The younger wizard spoke, “Josh, your mother was a sly one. We underestimated her, something we have never done again. Your disappearance has weighed heavy on us for millennia. Nonetheless, I am proud of you. You turned out just fine, in spite of no true guidance. I can only begin to fathom what you will become with that training backing you.”

“Your mother sent her servant to keep a watchful eye on you. The one known as Alice took you one night shortly after we began our journey to find new lands and to rebuild the treaty defenses decimated by Thera,” the older spoke. “And as you know, for whatever reason, we cannot see your future, so we did not see Alice either as your future was tied to hers. She has the gift of time travel, just as many do in the McKinnon line.”

“Ahh, good old Alice strikes again,” Gage commented. “It is forbidden to change the future or the past, yet she never seems to have an issue with it. I wonder what else she has done through the years?”

“I, for one, am glad she did.” Josh pulled Jamie and Jesse close. If Alice had not meddled, he would be dead thousands of years ago with neither one of these women in his life.

“Not seeing your future kept us from knowing where you were all these years. Your training suffered as a result,” the quiet middle sister spoke then quickly retreated into herself. Josh felt her withdrawal.

“You are lucky the transformation did not tear you to shreds,” they all spoke in unison.

This was something Josh would never get used to as it sent strange waves through his body when they did. There were times when he wondered if they actually spoke or just projected their voices into his head.

“It almost did kill me. So what now?” Josh asked still feeling as if there were something missing, something not quite right. The wizards’ presence was evidence of that fact. They only made their presence known in rare and gravely important occasions usually speaking through the Wizards' Council of Nine. He was grateful for their help in defeating VanDarious’s army, but they were here for some higher purpose. He felt it in his bones.

“As is custom the first born must be relinquished. The child called Jesse, we have come for her.”

“No!” Jamie refused to hear it pushing Jesse behind her. “Jesse was conceived before Josh made the transformation. You have no right to her. I have seen the laws.” That same law was the only thing keeping them from taking her child when he was born. He had been conceived before they granted her powers.

“Princess, Josh was ours from the moment higher forces marked him in the womb.”

“And if I refuse?” Josh felt the world closing in. There was no way he was going to let them take her.

“Difficult still even after all you have seen? You must trust us, Josh.” The younger stepped forward, gently touching his face. “She is a gift we will cherish and treat as the most precious thing in this universe.”

“What you want me to do is impossible.” Josh’s insides churned. He could not let his child go.

Jesse placed a comforting hand on her father’s arm. “Daddy, it is time. You have cradled me in love and protection. Now, it is time to let me go. I’ve felt for a long time that there was something I was being called to do. Trust them and trust me. This is my calling just as it is yours.”

He enfolded her into his arms.

“You are too young.” He breathed her in, remembering her scent as a baby; clean, innocent, tender.

“Daddy, I love you, but something keeps telling me this is my destiny. I am the first born of the first born, something I am very proud to claim.”

Some are born to it and some are called to it. Blessed is she who is both.
Josh kept hearing it over and over in his head.

Jesse held her head high. “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for another. You taught me that, Daddy. I am a warrior and I am a McKinnon,” she proudly proclaimed as if taking some unspoken vow.

He felt the wizards move within his scope of personal space.

“You were born for greatness, Josh. However, sometimes a purpose of being here on this earth is not always immediately evident,” the older sister spoke. “It may be we cannot see your destiny because you have already fulfilled it. Jesse is, to date, your greatest accomplishment, and now, it is time for her to fulfill her own.”

“Trust us. We are not the vile monsters history would have us to be,” the younger spoke looking over at Jamie.

Josh hesitated; this was his baby, his child, his flesh and blood.

“If this is what you must do, then I cannot stop what must be.” The words almost choked him as he held her out from him.

“Josh, it will be all right. Somehow, I feel it. We will see her again,” Jamie promised.

He gave Jesse one last hug and kiss and stepped away.

He was letting her go. It was killing him inside.

Jamie by his side made the decision easier. He had her and he had his child. There was still a gapping whole in his heart.

“Know this, old crones, if you do not guard her with your life, I will bring a wrath down on you the likes of which you have never even dreamed.” He towered over them.

“From our greatest warriors we would expect nothing less.”

Josh watched as they got into the bright shiny convertible. They tossed off the robes and gone were the old crones. In their place were three young teenagers out for the time of their lives.

As the four sped away, music rocked and girls laughed. Jesse waived back over her shoulder, her sleeve rising in the process. It was then he saw it appear as if my magic -

The Mark of the Protector.

Some are born to it.

Some are called to it.

Blessed is the one who is both.

March 31, 2007

Tri-Star Resort

Phoenix, Arizona

Chief Deputy Director Slade Jericho pushed open the door of the plush, five-star resort room suite. To him the soft buzz of activity was as familiar as the voice of an old friend.

“Well, just fucking great,” Detective Green, a veteran homicide detective, mumbled behind Slade’s back.