The Legacy of Kilkenny (49 page)

The fireworks were going off; the music that they set to go with it was great.
 
I was honestly having a good time.
 
Earlier we played in the water and things felt normal, as normal as things can feel.
 
The fireworks just started when Oakley had gotten up to go to the bathroom, his stomach must have been messed up.
 
He probably ate five burgers and twenty roasted marshmallows so he earned it.
 
The fireworks stopped and everyone was applauding when Oakley came out from the woods.

“Hey everyone!” He yelled.
 
“Please sit down.
 
This is very important and I need you to be seated.”
 
Everyone looked at him, half expecting some gag that he was famous for. “Now, I need you to be quiet.
 
Pru please come over here.”

Oh, he better not propose.
 
I’ll throw up…. how could he do this, right in front of everyone?
 
He knows I don’t do things like this.
 
I’m going to beat him later.
 
Damn, damn, damn!
  
“What’s going on Oak?”

He whispered “It’s all good.
 
Look behind you.”

I’ll remember that moment for the rest of my life.
 
He was beautiful, just simply beautiful.
 
“How?
 
When?
 
Just now?”
 
Oakley and Abel shook their heads up and down.
 
I ran to Abel, I put my arms around his neck and hugged him.
 
“Abel, my beautiful friend, I can’t believe it finally happened.
 
You’re amazing.
 
Oh, you really are amazing.”
 
I buried my face in his neck, breathing his essence in. My friend, the Great Wolf.
 
“Are you ready for everyone to see you?”
 
He nodded.

I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled.
 
“Silence!
 
The most wonderful thing has happened.
 
Everyone, please stand, I want to introduce you to our legacy, our Great Wolf Abel Casey.”
 
I stepped to the side and Abel walked forward, he stood there and everyone dropped to their knees.
 
It was like something you would see in a movie, when a Queen walks in.
 
I too dropped to my knees and we all bowed forward for a full minute, showing our respect.
 
Chrissy went to him and I saw her hug him and cry.
 
She stepped away and said to everyone that he is okay if you want to touch him.
 
Our kind don’t ever touch the Alpha unless invited.
  
One by one every member of the Pack hugged him.
 
My mother finally had a chance to have a minute with him and she kissed his muzzle, tears streaming down her face.

“Oh Abel, my sweet Abe, oh how I wish he could have been here to see you.
 
He would have been so proud of this moment, oh he really would.
 
You are the most beautiful wolf I have ever seen in my life.
 
You’re going to be a wonderful warrior and leader.”
 

ABEL

Later that evening I finally back, which was much simpler then shifting, I sit down with Dolly in the man cave to talk.
 
She tells me if I pledge loyalty to her family, she will allow me to be the Alpha of her Pack.
 

“As the Great Alpha over all Packs, we know that ultimately we will answer to you. We are willing to be your warriors, and what is ours is now yours.
  
Abel, you are now a very wealthy wolf.” She takes my hand in hers squeezing it a little and smiled at me.
 
“You must also know that all
weres
pay into a fund for the Great Wolf, it is a tax of sorts. It has been going on for at least the last hundred years.
 
That account is yours now, or whenever you want to come out to the world.
 
The wolf world.”
  
She smiles at me endearingly.

I’ve never been told about the tax before, it totally flabbergasted me.
 
I’ve never actually thought about the money issue so it is a huge surprise.
  
Dolly tells me about some group of Alphas that are in charge of the account and soon I’ll be heading to a board meeting to meet everyone.
 
Apparently the tax can’t be lifted so everyone will have to pay for as long as I live.
 
Great, another reason to out me.

“Dolly, what do I do about my parents?
 
Obviously I’m one with my soul or whatever Pru kept stressing.
 
Do I still have to pretend to die?”
 
I pop open a can of Coke and sit back in the leather bar stool.
 
I shove a handful of peanuts in my mouth and try to wipe the salt off my hands without rubbing them on my jeans.
 
That was classy
, I think to myself.

Dolly took a deep breath before saying: “Abe, I think you’re right, I do.
 
I don’t think we have to continue on with the death plan.
 
I’m not sure how we’ll tell your parents, but I think they can handle it.”
  

I look at her, really look at her, she is very beautiful.
 
I can see where Pru gets her stunning looks.
 
Why haven’t I noticed this before?
 
I figure it must have been the embarrassment of seeing her naked on our first meeting.
 
The way her eyes slightly crinkle as she smiles.
 
Her perfect white teeth, the way her hair had a natural curl that frames her face.
 
She isn’t as fashionable as Pru or my mom, she is a t-shirt and jeans mom, but it fits her.
 
The sadness behind her smile makes my heart hurt for her.
 
I wonder to myself if she will find another mate, a person to appreciate her awesomeness.

“Thank you.
 
Can I bring my parents over here and we tell them together?
 
I want to do it soon.”
 
I take a sip out of my Coke trying not to dribble any out of my mouth as I sometimes do.
 
I might be great, but I’m still a kid.

“Why don’t you bring them out tomorrow and we’ll tell them together.
 
Sound like a deal?”

“Thank you.”
 
I get up to leave and she gets up and hugs me.

“You’re going to be awesome Abel Casey.
 
I love you as if you are my own child.”
 
I hear her choke back her tears.

My family, this is
my
family.
 
I will guard them with my life.

Pru and I hang out in the family room talking and laughing about all of the training, cuts, bruises, and hell that she put me through over the last ten months of my life.
 
“You just wait Miss. Thing, paybacks are hell,” I say as we joke around.
 
The stresses of the last few weeks seem like history, ancient history.
 
All of the nights I thought of my parents having to go through the death of their son, the nights I cried thinking of their pain, all of it finally over.
 
“You know what I find so funny Pru?”
 
I point at her.

“I’m sure you’re going to tell me, in another knee slapping way,” she said to me, pointing with one hand and one over her mouth.

“Oh good one.
 
Ha.
 
Ha.
 
Now that I’ve shifted for the first time and all, I can honestly say, that I thought you were full of crap when you told me I had to be one with my soul.
 
Seriously?
 
Don’t get me wrong, our training did one thing for me.”
 
I lift my shirt showing off my abs.
 
“I’m straight up hot now.
 
Oakley, I suggest you put your tail between your legs and run.
 
I’m
great
and
hot.”
 
I
bust
out laughing at my own joke.

Pru sucker punched me in my stomach.
 
“Oh, look Mr. Greatness just got punched in the gut by his very spiritual advisor that without her, he would totally be one with the ground six feet under right now.
 
Yeah, you heard me Abe, I can take you down any time.
 
You became one with your soul because of me, don’t forget it.”
 
Pru half laughed and half taunted, but something in me made me believe there was more truth behind it than not.

Bryon and I drop Chrissy off and I rush home to make it by curfew.
 
No matter my status, I’m still their son and still follow their rules.
 
Shaynie stayed at the farm to help clean up.
 
Dolly and I agreed that for the time being, she will continue to run everything and she slowly turn the reins over to me.

The heat hadn’t let up even after the sun went down.
 
You can still hear the locust and the frogs croaking, but it is too hot for them to be as loud as they usually are.
 
Walking in the house feels different, like I haven’t been here in a year.
 
Everything is brighter and better.
 
The fabric softener in the dryer smells sweeter and it is everywhere that clothes have touched.
 
Mom’s leather purse smells rugged and rich; dad’s lunchbox smells like a school lunch room.
 
I hear a cricket in the hallway singing out loud.
 
I hear my parents sleeping, the sound of their breath going in and out.
 
I hear the owl outside notifying other owls of his existence, the neighbor’s dog whimpering outside of their door.
 

I turn to Bryon and whisper, “Is it always this intense, I mean I was enhanced before I shifted, but it feels like I went from stock speakers to Bose.”

Still laughing when we reach my room….up until the minute we see Allie sitting on my desk chair in middle of the room.
 
She turns slowly facing us looking as menacing as I’ve ever seen.

“Oh look my brother and his faithful companion coming home all jazzed about their secret little night out with their secret little friends.”
 
She laughs slightly manic like a whack job without their lithium.
 
“What’s wrong boys?
 
Cat got your tongue.
 
You do like a little humor don’t you.”

“Allie, are you okay?”
 
I can tell that she is different, she is too cocky and entirely left of center.
 
“Why are you being so weird?”
 
I ask.

“Oh, aren’t you a hoot Abel.
 
You might want to be quieter, I think I heard mom roll over, if you’re not careful, she’ll get up and come in here.
 
You don’t want my friend Arien to, well let’s just say, he gets thirsty really easily.”

“Is he here with you Allie?
 
What’s going on sis, I’ve never seen you like this.”
 
I try to get a little closer to her and in that moment I knew.
 
She stands up and flashes a fanged smile at me.
 
“Oh shit.
 
You’re a vampire,” I say barely audible.

“You’re quick.
 
I love that about you, that lightening quick brain of yours and all.
 
Was it my charming personality?
 
Or is it these lovely new canines I have?
 
Oh, look, we can see whose are bigger,
mine
or yours.
 
I’m guessing mine,” she said with a wink at me.

“Allie, what do you want?”
 
My eyes shifting between Bryon and the door, Allie never turned to look at him, it was as if she didn’t see him.
 
“Sis, I think there is an antidote, I’ll try to find it for you, just don’t hurt mom or dad.”
 
I can hear Bryon in my parent’s room getting them up.
 
I hear him hurry them down the stairs and into my car.
 
I’m not sure why Allie wasn’t paying attention to them.

“Oh what’s wrong Abe, you can be the only one in the family with special powers?
 
Is that how it goes?
 
Please.
 
I don’t want your
friggin
’ antidote; I have everything I’ve ever wanted right now.
 
I will give you a piece of advice, you’re a wanted man by the vampires and if I wasn’t pissed off at half of them, I’d give you to them.
 
Consider yourself lucky.
 
Your whore of a girlfriend Pru?
 
She better watch her back, next time it will be her to die.
 
Tell her that Arien is mine and she better not forget it.
 
I figured you out before I left for Reno, when you guys paid me off to get away from my lover.
 
You aren’t a very bright lot are you?”
 
She tapped her fingers together, faster and faster as she spoke.
 
“It doesn’t matter to me anyway.
 
So you’re the Great Wolf, the one that vampires and werewolves have been hunting for all of these years?
 
Interesting.
 
You’re a marked man Abel Casey.
 
I am giving you a heads up, only because I promised you as your sister I’d always have your back.
 
You see, something interesting about vampires, as the venom runs through my veins it weakens my grasp on my human self.
 
Before too long, I’ll no longer know what it’s like to feel for parents or siblings. I’ll no longer be in touch with that humanity thing.
 
You’re antidote?
 
Yeah, there is one, but it is as elusive as the Great Wolf, good luck.
 
Time is ticking, soon all of the supernaturals will know who and what you are.
 
For what it’s worth, I did love you.
 
Take care of mom and dad; they will be easy targets now.”
 
She looks down at her watch.
 
“Next time you research about vampires you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet. You missed one thing…. Blue moons… it will cause the venom that is already running through the veins to turn a person.
 
I didn’t even have to be around my lover to get infected.
 
I have things to do.
 
Good bye Abel Casey, it sucks to be you.” Allie snarled.