Celtic Evil: A Fitzgerald Brother Novel: Roarke (15 page)

Kerry lifted his eyes over
his coffee cup to watch this scene, nodding to Mac who knew to
watch for what was bound to happen next. “Ryan,” he called
lowly.

Laughing, Jessie smacked his shoulder as he
bent her back just as Roarke stepped into the dining room.

Narrowing his eyes
slightly, he shot his brother a warning look that Ryan met
evenly.

“You always were late for
breakfast, brat,” Ryan didn’t look away as he brought Jessica back
to her feet to smile at her. “We’ll take this up later,
luv.”

“Don’t pick a fight this
early,” she warned, trying to give her friend an easy smile, but
Roarke was still awkward and still glaring at his
brother.

Kerry cleared his throat to
break the tension as Deirdre brought Roarke a plate full of food.
“Ry, I don’t want blood spilled this early so cool it.”

“Not my fault if two of my
brothers are blind fools,” Ryan sipped but winced as Maggie kicked
him under the table.

The red head from Mayo knew
he was teasing and guessed that Mac had enough sense to know it.
But she wasn’t sure how much their other brother would take and
even she could see the attraction he had for the president of
Hadley Industries.

“Miss Cavanaugh, I never
got a chance to ask you why your newspaper was interested in my
brother,” Kerry settled back in his chair to finally look at the
petite redhead.

“Wondered how long it would
take for this,” Mac muttered under his breath, giving his oldest
brother a sour look but Maggie only laughed.

She was surprised it had
taken this long since she knew how private these men
were.

“My editor thought a story
on Mac would be interesting since he’s so many things, not to
mention he was one of the famous Fitzgerald brothers,” She smiled
as Mac rolled his eyes again. “Though he really hates it when I say
anything like that.”

“I hated it when your
editor told you to ask me how I managed being a witch,” Mac
corrected sourly. “Ry, now there’s someone you can play
with.”

Seeing Ryan raise his cup
cheerfully reminded Maggie of something. “Do you all believe in the
rule of ‘and may it harm none’?”

“For the most part, we do,”
Kerry replied after a moment’s thought, deciding to trust this
woman. “It’s the basic rule we were taught when learning to use our
powers that magic shouldn’t be used to harm others or for personal
gain.”

“He’s looking at me, isn’t
he?” Ryan snorted, noticing that Roarke was just picking at his
food while Jessica sipped the juice Deirdre sat in front of her.
“My luck runs hot or cold by nature. I don’t use my abilities to
change it,” he eyed the reporter seriously. “As for the other,
innocents are never harmed but I will defend my own against
evil.”

A clattering as silverware dropped on china
but Ian was quick to divert attention away from Roarke.

“How do we define evil?” he
asked, being the one with probably the least experience.

“Human evil or magical
evil, it’s all and the same,” Roarke spoke for the time since
entering the dining room but his voice and accent were
quiet.

Jessica looked at him hard
for a second but gave up when he refused to look up at her.
“Actually, evil’s defined on various levels,” she told Ian gently.
“The one you face now is probably rated…”

“He’s an eight,” Mac and
Ryan spoke at the same time then grinned.

That caused both of their younger brothers
to look up but with various expressions of shock.

“There’s something worse
than whatever this is?” Ian blinked at that, clearly surprised.
“What?”

“Mostly our lives, this is
just…” Roarke muttered but cut off, his emotions still raw even
though he knew it wasn’t his younger brother’s fault.

Kerry just shifted a look
down the table then stood with a look to Deirdre. “Could you bring
some drinks into the living room when you get a chance?”

“Of course, though I could
do it faster with Maggie’s help,” the older woman
acknowledged.

Guessing this was a way to
distract her, Maggie let it go since she figured this might not be
a good time to be around.

“I’ll help ‘em,” Jessica
started to move but a shake of Kerry’s head stopped her.

“Cam can help in the
kitchen but you were in New Orleans so I need you for a moment,” he
told her, also wanting to try to ease some of the tension between
her and his brother.

Mac could feel the tension
as well but he paused by Kerry. “He’s wired too tight,” he warned
lowly.

Roarke wasn’t ready for a
face-to-face about this yet and he didn’t want to bring back
anything to his friend, so he didn’t like his brother including
Jessica in this meeting.

However, what he really
didn’t care for was the way Ryan was flirting with her. He knew how
uneasy his friend could be at times and his older brother was a bit
too close; which brought back other things.

“Darling, after all this
drama is over, please say you’ll sail away with me to some distant
land,” he was lightly running a hand down her shoulder in what
appeared to be a flirtatious move but was actually gauging her
injuries, both physical and emotional, for himself.

Of course, his tired and
still wired brother didn’t see it like that. Ryan realized when he
felt the slight zap go through the fingers of his hand. “Someone’s
jealous,” he smiled, his usual cockiness clear. “That little tingle
really supposed to scare me, brat?”

“Quit teasing him, Ryan,”
Jessica urged, moving away from him to reach out for Roarke’s hand,
but something flashed and she jerked back. “Roarke, what’s
wrong?”

The sudden concern in her voice made Ryan
turn just as his jaw exploded in pain as Roarke’s closed fist hit
home just as Ian walked into the room.

“Ahh, boy!” he whistled
lowly, not having to use his extra senses to feel the negative
energy in this room. “I don’t think this is good.”

The blow had surprised Ryan
so he’d taken it fully but after he landed on the floor, bumping
into the ivory piano, he shook his head to clear it then looked up.
“Little boy, if I didn’t know Kerry would yell for a bloody hour
I’d remind you of why I could always beat you when we were lads,”
he gritted.

“I told you not to ever
touch her,” Roarke’s tone was low and dangerous but strained, and
his eyes weren’t focused really as he took a step, but a hand
grabbed his arm.

“Roarke, stop it,” Jessica
snapped, feeling his power and not understanding his reaction.
“Ryan didn’t mean…Roarke!”

Her friend’s reactions weren’t clear nor
were his thoughts as he mistook her gentle hold as something else
and he started to whirl and lash out and that was when Ryan
moved.

“Get Kerry!” he snapped at
Ian, moving between his brother and the girl before his blow could
contact and they both hit the floor with Ryan doing as he had long
ago in a fight with his brother and sitting on him, twisting an arm
behind him. “Brat, you better knock this off and hope you didn’t
touch that girl.”

Ian had only started out the door when Kerry
and Mac came in, read the scene quickly and reacted.

“Ryan, get the hell off
him,” Mac ordered, but saw how pale Jessica was and Ian quickly
told them what he saw.

Kerry walked over and knelt
down to where Roarke was struggling. “That’s enough, Roarke,” he
urged quietly.

Jerking under his brother,
Roarke tried to free himself from the hands holding him. “Let go!”
he yelled, twisting, but years of fighting had let Ryan know how to
restrain his brother without hurting him. “You won’t touch her! Do
it to me but never…”

“Oh, no,” Jessica whispered
as Mac laid a hand on her shoulder, keeping her back. “They’ll hurt
him, Mac.”

“I’m the one bleeding,
lass,” Ryan reminded her in a grousing tone, ducking an elbow and
shoving his brother’s head hard into the floor. “He doesn’t have a
mark. He doesn’t yet at least.”

Kerry reached out but hit a
wall of fear, anger and shame so he resorted to means that are more
basic. “Roarke Michael Quinn Fitzgerald!” he snapped in a tone
perfected from breaking these two up as kids.

The sharp tone of his
brother managed to slow some of Roarke’s struggles, but not all of
them, until finally he stopped fighting under Ryan’s hold and
stayed still.

“Let go,” Kerry ordered
when he was sure the worst was over and he laid a hand on a shaking
shoulder. “He’s almost back.”

“Then I can hurt him?” Ryan
asked as he carefully let go and backed off slightly but not far,
wiping blood from his mouth. “Even as lads, if I bled then he
bled.”

Mac’s hand tightened on
Jessica’s arm as Ian came in with a bag of ice and some water and
towels. “You flirted too much, he flashed on something and you got
it full force,” he shrugged. “Before this is over we may all go
through this with him, depending on what he sees. Retrograde
amnesia means he’s pushed a lot of the stuff that’s happened to him
back and they hit him in flashbacks and nightmares.

“Did he ever say if the
Walshes or anyone threatened you or anything like that?” he asked,
figuring that must have been what happened.

“He never talked much about
it, either after it happened or now,” the girl shook her head,
chewing her lip as she watched Kerry continue to work on getting
through to his brother. “I only know what I do from his nightmares
or visions.”

Ryan scowled as he took the
icebag and placed it on his jaw. “So what the hell did I do?” he
demanded sourly. “Jess talks to all of us including our baby-faced
youngest brother, so why did I get picked to be first?”

As Mac began to gently rub
his friend’s shoulder to soothe her upset emotions, he considered
that. “Ian’s not a threat because he’s only eighteen and would be
more like a little brother to Jessica,” he reasoned. “You’d be more
of a threat since you’re only two years older and you flirt
more.”

“Lucky me then, I guess,”
Ryan muttered, shifting so he could sit down and watch the scene
across from him.

Kerry was concentrating
hard on his younger brother now, looking up. “Mac, come
here.”

“Go get some tea, luv,” Mac
urged Jessica, wanting the girl out of the room when he saw her
mild fear. “He’ll be fine, Jessica,” he promised, going over to
where Kerry was kneeling and already knowing what he wanted. “I
can’t take all this at once.”

“I don’t want you to,” he
replied, keeping a hand on Roarke’s arm and feeling the trembling.
“Just ease this enough that we can get him over it.”

Ian crouched down so he
could watch as Mac took a couple deep breaths before placing his
hands gently on his younger brother. Keeping one hand on his hand
and the other one on the small of his back, he was careful. “Hush,
boyo,” he spoke softly, his voice dropping to the soft, musical
lilt it always did when he played medic.

Roarke trembled as his
brother slipped in the language of their birth, speaking Irish as
he spoke the spells to ease his pain and his fears, and clearing
his mind of the tormenting memories.

Once he was sure that Mac had done as much
as he could at this time, Kerry began talking to bring his brother
back.

“C’mon back now, Roarke.
Come back now,” he urged, speaking Irish as they all did in certain
times. “Roarke, listen to me. It’s Kerry and you’re safe in our
house with me, Mac, Ry and Ian.”

Gasping, Roarke was able to
roll on his side but didn’t open his eyes yet as his mind had a
hard time reaching for his brother’s soothing voice. “Don’t hurt,
please,” he whispered, hand trying to grip at something but not
touching anything.

“Something’s blocking it,”
Mac felt the intrusion and swore. “Kerry.”

His brother felt the same
thing, reaching into his pocket to get something he’d removed from
the family safe earlier. “Leave him in peace. No harm shall touch a
son of this house.” He placed a silver Trinity medal in his
brothers’ hand and closing the fingers tight.

As soon as Kerry closed his
brother’s fingers around the medal, they all heard a loud noise
from somewhere and everywhere, then Roarke’s eyes snapped open to
stare at Kerry.

“Tog e goboge
(Take it easy),” Kerry urged, keeping his hand
loose on his shoulder. “Stay still and let it level
off.”

Not moving right away,
Roarke hated the blackouts when they came and he could tell this
one had been bad just by the way his stomach was turning and his
body hurt, though usually he didn’t come away from these hurt
physically.

“Ow,” he groaned, lightly
touching his head and frowned at the small bump. “I hit the ground
hard or what?”

Mac sat back and snickered as Ian shook his
head at Ryan who was opening his mouth to reply.

“No, actually you and Ryan
hit the floor hard,” Kerry replied standing and extending a hand.
“Let me help you up.”

Frowning, Roarke stared at
the hand for a long moment then finally did reach out to accept it
to allow him aid in getting up. “I’m fine,” he started to say but
nearly fell forward if Kerry hadn’t caught him. “Fine, I’m fine.
I’m just a little off balance.”