The Legacy of Kilkenny (26 page)

“Yeah, that’ll work for me.
 
It’ll give me time to take a nap before you get there.
 
I’ve been so tired lately, Arien has me taking a multivitamin he thinks I might be anemic.
   
I haven’t noticed it helping but he thinks it is.
 
He really is too good to me.”
 
She says, voice almost a whisper, her eyes looking right through me.
 
“I’ll see you Wednesday.”
 
She gave me a small hug and did her fake kisses on each side of my head.

I pushed the big heavy door going out to the parking lot.
 
This afternoon just got a little complicated.
 
Oakley was
leaned
up against my car with his arms crossed.
 
I couldn’t see his eyes because of the dark sunglasses, but I could tell by the way he held his mouth that he wasn’t happy. I couldn’t help but think of the conversation Allie and I had about sex.
 
I’d love nothing more than Oakley to pull me close to him and kiss me and whatever else came next, yeah whatever was next.
 
I shook my head, I had to clear it so I didn’t look like some sex-starved teenager.
 
He was wearing a tight black thermal shirt and a pair of William
Rast
jeans that fit him just right.
 
Damn.

“Hey Oak, what brings you out on this lovely day?”
 
I flash him a toothy smile.
 
Let the lecturing begin.

“Prudence Phelan, do you have any idea how difficult it is to protect someone you’re assigned to when they keep running off with vampires.
 
Is there some type of mental block with you?”
 
He took off his sunglasses for a dramatic effect.
 
His finger wagging and his eyes piercing through me as he scolded me like a child. I grabbed his wagging finger pulling it to my mouth and bit it.
 
“What the hell is wrong with you, you bit me!”

“It got your attention didn’t it?
 
It wasn’t like it was a secret! Did you bother sending me a text or call me?
 
You know, there is a little invention called a phone.”
 
I shouted. Men could be so annoying.

He points to my purse.
 
“I did call, look at your phone and see how many missed calls you have!
 
Pru, this is serious, don’t you get it?
 
I’m your shadow, we’re a team
dammit
and I can’t protect you if I’m always having to go to I.T. having them run a check on your GPS in your car.
 
Sooner or later your dad will assign someone else if he thinks I can’t keep up with you.
 
What gives?”

Guilt settling in the pit of my stomach, I close the gap between us and put my arms around him, he stands rigid not putting his arm around me.
 
“Oakley, I’m sorry.
 
It has nothing to do with going somewhere without you; I was just meeting her to convince her to spend next Wednesday with me.
 
I never heard my phone.
 
Forgive me?” I lay my head on his chest and finally feel his arms go around me, I hear him inhale deeply.

He whispers to the top of my head.
 
“You have no idea what you do to me.
 
You’re everything to me Pru, not just because I’m assigned to you, because you’re my friend.
 
You’ve got to be careful hanging around vamps P.”
 
He kissed the top of my head and I felt chills go down my back.
 
“You cold?”

“No, I guess someone just ran across my grave.”
 
I repeated the old superstition to cover my real reason for chills.

The Pack had a meeting with Alecia about the vamps.
 
Apparently the leader of the clan had originally agreed to meet us, but something has come up and he changed his mind.
 
Alecia’s
coven sells charms and apothecary without discrimination to all the supernaturals unless of course it is for the dark arts.
 
She told us the vampires have all been very cordial and have only wanted charms to protect them when they are sleeping and some homeopathic remedies for vitamin deficiency for the blood donors.
 
She remembered someone recently asking for allergy medicine. How considerate,
whatever
.
 
So that is why they don’t sneeze around us, they’re taking allergy med’s.
 
I bet the vitamin Arien is giving Allie is an allergy pill.
 

Why Oklahoma?
 
I couldn’t figure out why, historically vamps don’t venture far from their clan.
 
I wasn’t sold on the cordial mumbo jumbo.
 
I think they are up to something and if I’m right… they’re trying to get to Abel.
  

I raised my hand.
 
“Alecia, did they give you any idea when they will be able to meet with us?
 
Or even why they’re here?”

She told us she thinks they are friendly and doesn’t believe they’re up to anything.
 
After the meeting, Oak and I went to talk to Bryon letting him know he really had to keep an eye on Abe.
 
We didn’t include Abel in the meeting figuring the less he knew, the less he would tell in case he is able to be
glamoured
by the vampire.

The days were full of speed training just in case there was any hand-to-hand combat with Arien.
 
One of the Texas Pack members is a master of
Capoeira
. I’ve taken some classes with him in the past but it was just the movement training, now we are sparring.
 
I suffered a concussion from one of the head butts he did to me, thankfully I fully recovered in a few hours.
 
Abel joined in on all the fun, he was a natural.
 
We all watched in amazement as he mastered every task.
 
Abel caught on the
Chamada
before I did.
 
It is a ritual-like call to the game of
capoeira
.
 
I excel in signals in our Pack but not so much with the
capoeira
.

Tuesday night I went out to the farm wanting to spend the night in my old room and spend some time with my dad.
 
After dinner we settled in on the couch together to talk about Abe’s training.
 
The Pack was starting to warm up, and no one went out of their way to avoid him anymore.
 
 
Not from what I can tell at least.
 
His leadership skills were a subject of interest to my dad; he thought we need to instill more confidence in him.
 
 
The melon candle filled the room with a nice summer scent.
 
The big wrought iron lamp with its energy efficient bulb giving the room a warm glow, I stretched my legs kicking off my sandals to curl up more against my dad.
 
I asked him to tell me the story of the Great Wolf just like he has done since I was a little girl.

On the 20
^th
day of September 1805 your great
great
grandfather
 
Conri
O’Connell arrived in New York City after a long and tiresome voyage.
 
Many of the passengers on the ship were afflicted with scurvy due to the lack of fresh vegetables and fruit.
 
Weres are resistant to the common day diseases and he stayed in good health.
 
Conri
was jubilant to have arrived in the America’s and was hopeful that his quest to find the tales he had heard was true.
 
Conri
left Ireland after hunters had killed most of his Pack, leaving only four to carry on the family name.
 
He came to America in search of the Great Wolf.
 
The Pack was told about the Great Wolf when a Pack from Germany traveled through his hometown of Kilkenny, Ireland.
 
The German Pack had been traveling in search of other weres that may know more about the tale of the Great Wolf.
  
They told the
O’Connells
the tale of a man that will be the Great Wolf and will be of American decent.
 
The American wolf would be born to a non-were mother with no mention of the decent of his father.
  
The German weres talked about another Pack in America that would help raise the Great Wolf to his powers. After hearing all of the stories,
Conri
decided it was his duty to locate the Great Wolf and challenge him for his powers.
 
Conri
traveled throughout the territories that are now known as the United States looking for another wolf Pack.
 
He traveled for the next twenty years without finding any signs of any weres.
 
He was lonely and needed to find a mate to start a Pack.
 
He traveled to Louisiana after finding out there were French that had traveled by boat.
 
He was hopeful that another were had come to America too.
 
Shortly after arriving in Louisiana he met a mortal girl Helena.
 
It is understood she was beautiful beyond words, long raven-colored hair and eyes as blue as the ocean’s depth.
 
Conri
bit her early on in their courtship when his loneliness overcame his restraints. He was determined she would be his mate for life.
 
Helena embraced her new life as a werewolf. Together, they had fifteen children, one being your grandmother Estelle who married Patrick Phelan, a were that had traveled from Ireland in search of the Great Wolf.
 
In the late 1800s Estelle, who was also a shaman, dreamt of the land of the Red Man and one of the Red Men in her dream told her the ancestors of the wolf they sought had been born in their land.
 
The dream gave Patrick and Estelle the new found strength to continue
Conri’s
quest in finding the Great Wolf.
 
Before
Conri’s
death he told his daughter Estelle that the Great Wolf will be nearing adulthood when he completes his first shift.
 
His reign will be fierce and uncompromised; a great war between the Others will cause deep pain to the empathetic wolf.
  
Once he shifts he will have thirty days to choose the Pack to which he will pledge his loyalty; the Alpha of the chosen Pack will relinquish his reign.
 
It is told that any wolf that challenges the Great Wolf and successfully kills him will gain his powers.
 
If the challenger loses the battle he will be banished to Romania, the land of the damned.
 
If the challenger was Alpha, his Pack can pledge their allegiance to the Great Wolf and vow never to strike again or they too will be banished.
 
His mate will bear him five sons and one daughter.
 
The Great Wolf’s Pack will gain new abilities that have not been foretold.
 
The attributes that give signal of the Great Wolf

Born on August 17th

Born of a mother that heals

Born with a crescent moon shaped birthmark

Once around Pack wolves he will gain superhuman strength and speed

Empathetic

I’d forgotten the empathy ability, hmmm, not sure if he is empathetic.
 
“Dad, what happened to Helena’s children?
 
Are they still alive?”

“As you know love, our kind can be careless, this causes hunters to hunt and kill.
 
One of the largest problems was the vampires.
 
They had taken up residency in Louisiana and wanted to have squatter’s rights. They demanded the weres leave and gave them a generous amount of time to go.
 
My understanding was
Conri
and ten of his children fought the vamps and lost.
 
Helena lost her life to a hunter’s arrow.”
 
He lowered his head making the sign of the cross.
 
“The remainder of his children scattered across the country and started their own packs.
 
I only have contact with one, they are in Maine.
 
They aren’t the friendliest group but they are strong and intense rogue hunters.”

“We have relatives in Maine?
 
What’s their name?”
 
I felt a little betrayed, it was hard to explain but I’d kept the log on the packs in the United States for the last five years and not once was there ever mention of a pack in Maine.
 
I watched his expression to see if he showed any tell sign of lying to me.

He sat there what felt like forever.
 
“Yes, there is a Pack in Maine.
 
They are ruthless and trust me the less you know of them the better.”

“That seems a little contradictory to what you’ve always said to me though.
 
You’ve always told me to know my enemy, now you’re telling me the less I know the better?”
 
If another Pack wolf talked to my father like that, they would be punished.
 
I walked a fine line with him at times, just because we were so much alike. “So, which is it dad?”