Celtic Evil: A Fitzgerald Brother Novel: Roarke (8 page)

“Mike! Get the woman and
Ian outta here!” Ryan snapped, knowing this had gone way beyond
Kerry’s point of control. Hoping they could bring it back because
he knew he didn’t want to kill his brother this soon.

“No, I can help,” Ian
started to argue but Maggie had grabbed his arm. Instead of pulling
it to leave, as he feared, she shoved a weathered old leatherbound
book at him. “What’s this?”

“How we’re going to help,”
she replied, sitting down to begin sorting through pages to find
one she’d seen often as a child. One her Gran always had
marked.

A sudden wind seemed to come in and blow the
pages until it stopped on one with a rough drawing of a medal and a
spell.

“That works.” Maggie sighed
with a shaky laugh seeing the boy’s eyes had landed on the picture.
“We don’t have one of…”

He unbuttoned three buttons
in order to move his shirt aside and show her the Claddagh medal
he’d had since childhood. “What’s the spell?”

“Roarke! Stop this!” Kerry
snapped, raising his voice and hoping it would get through to his
younger brother.

Roarke Fitzgerald was sitting up in the bed
but his restraints were gone and his normally gentle eyes were a
blank black, sparking with a power that wasn’t his.

“Should I scream for my mystic now?” Cam
asked where he was kneeling, knowing he couldn’t pull a gun but not
sure what else to do.

Jessica still wasn’t sure
what was happening but could feel the change in her friend.
“Roarke?” she called softly, seeing his head turn, but what
happened next surprised them all.

When her friend’s eyes
shifted to look at her, his pupils were black and a low flame was
now beginning to sheen around him. His normally easygoing, flawless
face that at times of having his powers on could and did look
almost ethereal, now looked haunted or evil.

This, she knew in a
heartbeat too late, was not her friend in control but she could not
stop the wave of energy that caught her off-guard and slammed her
against the wall sharply.

“Roarke! No!” Mac shouted,
quickly seeing this had gone badly even as the girl screamed, as
the power didn’t diminish. “Kerry, we need to bring him around
before this kills her!”

Kerry knew this but he just
wasn’t sure how to do that without knowing exactly what possessed
their brother. “Roarke, can you hear us?” he spoke firmly and
loudly but his lips thinned as those now black eyes turned toward
him and he felt the power shoot toward him.

Tilting his head slightly,
Roarke Fitzgerald didn’t seem to see his oldest brother, yet
something inside him did.

“What is it with you boys
and your whores?” the voice that spoke wasn’t Roarke’s, and that
was quickly clear to all of them as the body waved a hand back to
where the power was still holding Jessica. “My Master often asked
your father the same question about your mother but never did get a
solid answer.”

Assured that Kerry had the thing focused on
him for the moment, Mac raised a hand to try a spell that may break
the thing’s hold but found himself knocked off his feet and across
the room.

“For shame on you, Patrick,
I would have expected better” The thing in his brother seemed to
cackle then clucked his tongue in mock shame as he used Mac’s given
name. “Didn’t your sainted mother teach her sons any manners before
my master slaughtered her and your worthless father?”

“Release him, demon,”
Kerry’s temper was raising but he knew to keep it in check.
“Sebastian will not break the circle this way.”

Roarke seemed to stare at
him, and his brother could feel the internal struggle but was
having a hard time breaking through the possessing thing’s
energy.

“It only takes one of you
to die or give in to break the circle, Kerrigan Fitzgerald.” The
thing in his younger brother gloated with a sneer. Throwing a hand
out toward Mac but this time the lanky Irishman was quick enough to
duck the attack and use a spell of his own, but the thing only
increased his grip on the president of Hadley Industries. “Attack
me and I will kill your brother’s whore, and the only way to save
her is to kill him.”

The wind was now increasing
in the room and Jessica’s screams increased. But without being able
to get close to the bed, breaking Sebastian’s lackey’s hold on
Roarke was proving hard as both Mac and Kerry were taken off guard
by their brother’s intense power.

“We need to stop him before
this kills them both!” Cameron Young shouted over the noise,
finally pulling his Magnum. “If I graze him, what would
happen?”

“You could fire and it
could redirect the bullet,” Kerry replied, trying to shield what he
could but hissed as something like a knife sliced into his
shoulder, yet there was no visible wound.

Cam decided he had to take
the chance but before he could, the closed hospital room door was
slammed open with a countering power. A great surge of energy
exploded into the room and shook it while actually knocking Roarke
back down on the bed.

The sudden break in power caused the evil
energy to release Jessica who started to collapse limply to the
floor.

“Catch her!” Ryan snapped
as he entered the room, shooting this toward Mac who had already
been doing that even as Kerry was heading for the bed. “That won’t
keep it down for long but maybe long enough to bring his control
back to the surface.”

Kerry was silently
surprised to see his final brother since even he hadn’t been sure
if Ryan would come back, but he still caught the underlying edge of
anger.

“Did Deirdre tell you to…” he began to ask
when he saw the other’s eyes and read the emotion that Ryan had
always tried to shield.

“Don’t scan me, Kerry,”
Ryan snapped lowly, jerking his jacket off even as he was sitting
on the bed and gripping his brother’s white, clammy sweat-soaked
face in both hands. “Roarke, listen to me. It’s time to wake up,
get moving and kick this thing where it hurts.”

Mac had allowed Kerry to
handle this, figuring he’d be the one best able to keep Ryan’s
temper in check as he looked after Jessica, who was semi-conscious
but only barely.

Using a marginal spell to
ease the girl’s fears and pain, Mac could feel the pain he took
from her but knowing he needed to deal with it later, pushed it
down.

“Kerry, that thing is still
in him,” he warned lowly.

“Of course it is,” Ryan
snorted, rolling his eyes as he focused his power. “That just
distracted it enough that it backed off, but the brat’s still in
too deep.” He looked at Kerry fully. “You know how to end
it.”

“We will not take his
life.” Kerry’s eyes went to pure smoke but they locked with Ryan’s
and read his feelings. “Ryan, it wasn’t his fault.”

Cameron Young’s head
snapped up after figuring what this meant. “Oh, this won’t be
pretty.”

Ryan Fitzgerald’s eyes
seemed to hesitate before lifting to look at Kerry’s. “Do we know
what happened on that island, Kerry?” he countered then waved it
away, hating to have his own emotions played on even as Roarke
jerked under his hands. “We only have his word on what happened and
of course, what you say you saw in the visions.”

“Ryan!” Mac snapped, tone going from the one
he used when playing healer to the firmer, harder one he used to
use when mediating between bickering brothers.

“Are you here to help or
hurt boyo?” Kerry’s voice was ice and the power he summoned was
clear but his black haired, rash brother just smirked.

“If I wasn’t I could have
taken Sebastian up on his offer in Monaco,” he returned, feeling
the power building and shot his own back at it. “Get the hell outta
the brat, demon! Nobody touches him but me.”

Roarke’s eyes snapped open
but while the black was still there, it was obvious a struggle was
going on because his one hand had turned over on the bed and
gripped his oldest brothers.

“You know so little about
this one whom you fight so hard to save,” the voice coming from
inside their brother sounded strained. “You wouldn’t if you knew
the secrets he hid, the shames. Ask… ask the female about them,” he
gritted as if something was trying to stop the words. “Ask about
the scars he hides.”

“Leave him alone,” Jessica
hissed, barely staying conscious but needing to protect her friend.
“Roarke, fight this!”

Ryan’s fingers gripped
tighter as he made his brother look directly at him. “Brat, look at
me,” he commanded, using the tone he knew annoyed his younger
brother.

Only having two years between them the
rivalry between Ryan and Roarke had always been the strongest and
even now when they met on jobs it was clear that Ryan could still
annoy his brother easily.

“C’mon, brat, you never let
me push you around so quit letting this son of a bitch,” he snapped
angrily, seeing those coal black eyes beginning to shift. “Mac,
remember when the brat was seven and Mum grounded him for playing
in her roses?” he spoke over his shoulder without looking, knowing
he needed to maintain eye contact.

Mac rolled his eyes, having
helped Jessica up into a chair then he shifted to watch the drama
unfold. “Yeah but are you forgettin’ that you’re the one who told
Roarke there was buried treasure in the roses?”

“Sure, but Ma didn’t know
that.” Ryan smiled, keeping one hand on his brother’s face while
gripping his other hand. “Fight him, brat or are ya the coward
everyone always said.”

Kerry’s eyes blazed and Mac
shot to his feet but before either could move or speak, a claddagh
medal was tossed onto the bed next to Roarke.

“Get outta my brother,” Ian
spoke from the doorway, eyes gone to smoke and focused on the
bed.

“Oh, bloody hell,” Ryan
groaned, starting to move when Kerry shook his head, and then
Roarke’s fingers gripped his hand in a nearly bone-breaking
hold.

If Maggie Cavanaugh had any
doubts about the lineage the Fitzgerald brothers shared, one look
at the youngest would have taken them away.

After reading the spell in
Maggie’s Grandmother’s Book of Shadows several times, it dawned on
Ian what needed to be done.

Opening up a small portion of powers he
rarely used, Ian stood in the hospital room door with his hand
outstretched and energy flowing; he recalled the spell.

“Born of the Five, I am of
the Five, I call on the bearers of the five elements to shield and
protect the innocents from harm as the circle of five will be
formed.” The chant was ancient and instinctive to him even though
he’d never heard it before. “I order you to leave the form you hold
and return to the depths of hell from which you came.”

The boy’s eyes and voice
changed as the spell was repeated twice, and as it neared the end
of the third time, Ian’s eyes flashed and the medal he’d tossed
glowed white. “And tell your master to stay the hell away from my
family!” he snapped, giving the spell one final push, and hoped for
the best.

The demon possessing Roarke
had believed this boy-witch could be defeated or ignored. However,
it couldn’t keep the hold because as soon as the spell began to
work, Ryan and Kerry exchanged looks and for the first time in
years, four Fitzgerald brothers worked a combined spell that was
powerful enough to pull the demon out.

Roarke screamed in agony
when the spell forced the demon out, and as his body convulsed
while the demon tried to hang on, Jessica reached out with what
strength she had left to touch the link she and Roarke shared and
felt him fighting.

His final scream had him
sitting up and the backlash of power had things moving in all
directions as a black mass came out of the young man and hovered a
second before dispersing.

“Roarke?” Jessica, despite being hurt and
weak, shoved herself to the bed next to her friend where he’d
fallen back.

The backlash had knocked Ian out the door
and into the hallway while Kerry and Ryan, who had been the
closest, had tried to shield the others as best they could.

“Shit. Cam, check on them
while I see to Ian.” Mac had picked himself up from the floor and
hurried out the door.

After a couple minutes of
silence, Ryan finally shook his head and ran his fingers through
his unruly black hair. “So, did the kid come up with that one off
the top of his head or do we have a bloody ringer in the mix?” he
asked casually, watching as Jessica hovered next to his brother.
“By the way, who’s the redheaded witch who was with
Ian?”

“A reporter from Mayo Mac brought in.” Kerry
didn’t bother asking how his brother knew the woman was a witch
just like he didn’t ask him how he’d recognized their youngest
brother.

Ryan had always been able
to pick up things more easily than others had at times. That hadn’t
changed.

“What part of ‘keep him out of this’ didn’t
you get?” Mac asked crossly when he got into the hall to see Ian
leaning against the wall holding tissues to his now bleeding
nose.

“The spell was in the Book
and so was his medal,” Maggie countered, not backing down from his
tone since she also saw the fear in his eyes. “Is he the only one
with one of those?”

Kneeling down to look at
Ian, Mac was relieved to see his eyes were clearing, just tired.
Placing a hand on his shoulder to sense more deeply, he shifted
some attention to the question.