The Morrigan: Damaged Deities (41 page)

“Your mom sounds like a delight,” Bev said with an upbeat sarcasm.

Kamden took a drink, letting the liquid burn a slow path down his throat before he muttered, “She’s no’ winning any awards, no.” 

“Well, you try to raise three boys on your own and see how you fair,” said a new voice.

Kamden and the two lasses turned to the voice. 

Its owner stood in the doorway of the study, clutching a thick fur tight around her neck.  Her timeless face was as cold as her heart, the small smile on her lips without feeling.

Kamden placed his drink on the table and stood.

“Mother?”

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY-
F
IVE

 “With my spear I kept her off; I put out the she-wolf’s eye; and I broke her lower leg at the outset of the strife!”

Cú Chulainn, Táin Bó Cúailnge

Bev sat back, her black eyebrows raised while Macy remained in her chair across from Kamden, unmoved, those pale eyes taking in everything.

As he crossed the room to greet his mother, two more women entered behind her. 

“Nan?  Robina? I must have suffered a blow tae the head, it’s been ages since ye’ve visited here.”

His former nurse and nanny smiled warmly at him, her cheeks rosy from the cold outside, her golden hair in a long braid. 

It was like a memory of her, as though the many years that had passed since the last she appeared like this had never happened.  Her companion, Robina, was the same. 

Both women looked as they had when he was still a boy in knickers.  But they had spent the last few decades masquerading as elderly women. “I doona understand.”

“Good evening, Kamden,” Nan said. “I’m afraid many truths must be revealed tonight.”

Kamden turned to his mother. “What is she talking about?”

His mother sighed and shrugged off her fur.

“In due time, dear.  First stop standing there like a gaping-mouth trout and take my coat.  That housekeeper of yours is shirking her duties, I couldn’t find her anywhere.  Gods, we stood at the door in the cold for ages.”

His mother, always the melodramatic.

Kamden took the fur, placing a quick kiss on his mother’s cheek and helped the other two women with their coats as well.

No longer able to remain a bystander, Bev stood up, her grin and twinkling gaze lighting up her mischievous face.

“You’re familiar,” she narrowed those dark eyes on Nan, slowly approaching her like a circling panther. “How do I know you?”

Nan looked uncomfortable, her lips parted, but she didn’t speak.  In order to ease the awkwardness, Kamden stepped up and made the introductions.

“This is my…,” Nurse sounded absurd, but then again, his visitors were not exactly normal themselves. “Mine and Kade’s former nanny.”  Nan nodded, offering a tight smile and Kamden gestured to her companion. “And this is her friend, Robina.  Ladies, this is Bev and Macy, they are sisters of our guest from the States.”

While the women sized each other up, Bev smiling bigger than ever, his mother cleared her throat behind him.

“Oh,” he turned to her and took her elbow, drawing her into the odd circle of guests. “And this is my mother, Bradana.”

“So,” Bev clasped her hands behind her back and began to pace before the three women like some kind of cat-eyed Sherlock Holmes. “We have here a Seer, an enchantress, and a succubus.” She twirled around to face Kamden. “You have yourself quite the collection, Mr. MacLeod.”

Kamden gaped at the lass. 

In all his many years, he and his family had managed to go hidden among the humans; none of the supernaturals he socialized with had ever been detected.  And yet this strange woman showed up and with just a look, knew everyone.

His gaze volleyed between the two sisters, both who looked as young as Morrie and yet both seemed to carry a weight on their shoulders, one only worn by the old. 

After seeing Morrie somehow turn into a bloody bird, Kamden wondered about all of his sudden visitors.

“What kind o’ immortal are ye lasses?  I get no sense from any o’ ye.”

Bev sat back, disgust twisting the features of her face. “We’re not
immortals
!  We’re deities.  We’re not the same as you.”

“Deities?” He frowned at her. “Do ye mean like gods?”

“Not like gods…gods.”

“And is Morrie the same?”

“Aye,” Bev answered in a mocking Scottish brogue, rolling her R’s. “She be
The Morrigan
.”

“The only Morrigan I’m familiar with is from the myths o’ old.”

“That’s her,” Bev replied brightly, snatching up a bottle of rum and smiling as she sat back down.

It wasn’t possible. 

The Morrigan was deeply entrenched in Irish and Scottish myth.  She was the goddess of battle and strife.  Used as a villain to frighten small children to eat their vegetables and go to bed on time.  It was like saying they had Pan or the Boogey Man upstairs. 

“And what about ye two?” he asked, glancing between the two sisters.

“I’m Badb,” answered Bev. “She’s Macha.  With Morrigan, we are the trio goddesses of War and Sex.  I predict death and Macha stirs the shit pot.  We are part of every war and battle there has ever been.”

Kamden shook his head.

“But the Morrigan’s a myth,” he repeated, still not accepting the lass’ words as truth. “Like Loki.”

Pulling the cork out of the rum bottle with her teeth, Bev leaned back and brought the neck to her grinning lips. “He’s been chasing skirts in Miami Beach for several decades now.” 

She took several long swigs while still pinning him with her gleeful, dark gaze.

Confusion pounded inside his skull, a headache taking root. 

There had been too many absurdities spoken already.   So Kamden focused on something a little more normal.

He had a lot of guests now and no Lorna to help him.  Where was the old lady?

Offering everyone a seat and something to drink, Kamden refilled his own glass and sat back down. 

“So what brings the rest of ye out tae the manor tonight?”

Bradana tilted a pointed look at Nan.

The Seer looked across the group, her features set with a serious line.

“Something big is coming, something that will change all our lives.  It all starts here, it all starts with Morrie and Kade.  I’m here to help them remember the past so they may help with the future.”

“Help them remember the past?” Kamden repeated, wondering if he would ever understand what was going on. “What do ye mean?”  He turned back to Bev. “What happened with Kade?  How do ye know my brother anyway?”

“In another life, Kade was a demigod warrior, the most famous hero in Celtic legend.  He defended the land when it was once known as Ulster against invasion after invasion.  In some cases, he single-handedly defeated armies.” Bev shrugged. “He was a bit of a badass back then.  Kinda why our sister fell so hard for him.  She likes heroes.”

“Are ye saying my brother is the Irish folk hero, Cú Chulainn?”

“He was, in his former life.” 

Kamden stared at Nan, unable to believe anything. “Why did he never tell me?  And how’d he come to be a kelpie?”

Bev opened her eyes wide and held up her hands, “This is my design.”  Blinking, she relaxed and looked at him, at everyone, smiling. “That’s from
Hannibal
.  You ever watch
Hannibal
?  It’s awesome.”

“Focus, Bev,” Macy grumbled.

At this the dark-haired lass looked uneasy, readjusting in her chair. “Well, even demigods can die.  I made him immortal. He died and I brought him back as an immortal by having an immortal give birth to his reincarnation.”

“By making him a kelpie?” Kamden was genuinely curious, but Bev seemed to take it as an affront.

“Look, I’m not like Morrie!  The only way I can dole out the immortality pill to a mortal is by making them something that isn’t mortal.  Like a vampire, or a werewolf, or whatever.”

As Kamden studied her, he could feel Macy studying him.  Already he expected she kept secrets, she missed nothing in her nearly constant state of silence.

“What else are
you
?” Macy finally asked while her sister tossed back the rest of her drink.

“What?” Kamden turned to her, dread sinking heavily in his gut.  While Bev had gleaned quickly what his mother was, he had hoped they wouldn’t put the pieces together about Kamden.

The lass looked back at him with an impatient and droll gaze.

“Kelpies are only ageless if they’re pure blooded, but most mate with human women so they age.  Kade stopped aging at thirty-four—appearance-wise—not because he’s a pure-blooded kelpie, but because he was made that way by a goddess.  You stopped aging more recently, no?”

Once again, Kamden could only clear his throat as he tried to process the accuracy of the lass’ statement.

She continued, determined. “So what else are you?”

Bev gasped, her eyes growing wide and she sat forward in her chair. “Dude, he’s an incubus!”

A muscle flexed in Kamden’s jaw and his mother remained silent on the sofa.

Bev turned to her. “You’re a sucubitch and he’s an incubus, am I right?”

The monster his mother truly was nearly showed its ugly self, the features of her face twisting into hard and dark lines. 

For a moment Kamden thought she would lash out at the lass, but she considered the woman, then her sister, and reigned in her anger. 

With a sniff, she said, “Yes, you are right.”

“And the brother that died?” Macy asked, nodding toward the framed photo on the nearby table.  Kamden didn’t answer her, instead impressed by her keen mind.

“Human.”  His mother answered for him.

“How many baby-daddies do you have?” Bev asked, leaning in as though highly entertained.

Bradana glared at her, but eventually answered.

“One.  Only one.”

“But Kade does not share a father with Kris and I,” Kamden added.

“Dude! Call Maury Povich,” Bev cried. “Y’all got some stank on your family tree!”  She shimmied up to his mother and plopped herself down in the sofa beside her, squeezing in between her and Robina. 

One knee bent to her chest, Bev hugged it and leaned in close. “So did anyone do the dance?  Did they do the Not-The-Daddy dance?”

“What?” His mother looked incredulous.

“You know, the DNA results are in and I’m not the daddy.” Bev stood up and began bouncing her arms and shaking her ass all around the room, making some weird beat noise with her mouth. 

“Badb,” her sister regained Bev’s attention and with a look, had her slumping down in her chair with a slight pout.

Bristling, Kamden’s mother answered cooly, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but there was no father to Kade.  He simply appeared in my womb, without any seed to put him there.”

“Immaculate conception?” Bev cried and laughed uncontrollably until it stopped as though cut off. “Oh, wait, no—that was me. I put him there.  You looked different back then.”

Bradana’s eyes widened, but Macy jumped in and took control of the conversation.

“What happened with your brother?”

Kamden leveled a heavy look on his mother before answering.

“Our father, Malcom MacLeod, was half-incubus.  He was clan chief and he was powerful and lived a long life, but he wasna invulnerable.  He died at the Battle of Culloden.  After that, Kristian looked up tae Kade and I, more so tae Kade.  He knew we were both…different.