Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God (79 page)

“Go back! We are not leaving him there!”
Ferrin shouted at Peter.

I thought that took some guts, especially
considering the shape Ferrin was in. I mean, I was sure Peter could
lay a damn good smackdown on Ferrin when he’s in good shape, but as
he was now, Ian might be able to take him down.

“Leaving who where?” I asked as I walked up
the steps to the front door.

“You at the school,” Peter said mildly as
Ferrin whirled around to face me, relief washing through him. “I’ve
been trying to tell him you’d be here shortly but he wouldn’t
listen.”

“Oh, well, thank you, Ferrin, I appreciate
the concern, but I don’t think that Peter could open a portal into
the campus through those wards,” I said. “I know I can’t. Getting
out is much different. Where is everybody?”

“Enid and Felix pounced on Gordon and Martin
the second we got here,” Peter said with a smile. “They thought the
soldiers were tough, now they’re dealing with worried and relieved
parents.”

“And you let Ian go with him?” cried Ferrin.
“Can’t trust you for nothing. I have a hard enough time with the
lad as it is without giving him a mother.”

“Aw, dude,” said Peter, grinning and turning
for the door. “You so don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Come on,” I said, following Peter inside,
chuckling. “Let’s get you cleaned up. I’m afraid that suit’s seen
better days.”

“Cripes, me best suit, too,” he muttered from
the doorstep. “A bleedin’ secretary, that’s what he wanted me to
do. Can you believe that? Ian had me dress for a job interview as a
bleedin’ secretary. Refused to tell me anything about it till I got
there. Prolly some ol’ codger, can’t wipe his own bum.”

“Would you have taken it?” asked Peter from
the stairs. “If it was offered to you, anyway, through that
charming personality.”

“I can be charming when called upon,” he said
defensively. “And, yes, probably. That school was expensive,
scholarship or no. Christ, what am I gonna do now?” He stopped on
the stairs, lost in thought.

“About what?” I asked from the top of the
stairs. “Come on, Michael, or we’ll never get there.”

“Yon, what am I gonna do about Yonnie?” he
asked, holding out his hands like he was lost in the dark. “He
needs this school. I can’t afford to put him in another one,
especially midterm.”

“Michael, the sun hasn’t even set on the
attacks at the school yet,” I said sitting down on the top stair.
“They may just shift everyone to another school or they may just
close certain buildings. There’s a lot that can happen. Let’s just
give it a few days to see. But I will say this, if all you’re
worried about is keeping Ian in school, I’ll pay for that. Now come
on, I really want a shower.”

He narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously and
started back up the stairs slowly. Peter was waiting midway up the
next set of stairs. “What do you mean you’ll pay for it?” Ferrin
asked.

“I mean when y’all decide what y’all want to
do let me know and I’ll give you the money to keep Ian in school,”
I said, getting up and continuing up the stairs. “It’d be good for
him, though, if you could be close to him. He idolizes you,
y’know.”

“Huh, silly little git, idn’t he?” he
muttered. “What do you get out of this? And where are we?”

“A slightly lower bank account?” I suggested.
“And we’re at the Cahill’s home. As guests, so we’re minding our
manners. That’s the family’s quarters that way. Ian’s down there
with Martin. We’re this way.” We turned down the main hall toward
our rooms.

“Pixie alert!” Peter barely got it out before
Shrank hit us in dizzying loops of color and high-pitched
chittering. Shrank had both Peter and me so disoriented we were
reaching for the walls to steady ourselves. Peter ended up laughing
so hard that he fell on his butt, flushed and gasping for breath.
Ferrin had stepped back and was ready to swat at the pixie.

“Shrank!” I yelled, between laughs anyway.
“Shrank! Settle down! You’re making us dizzy.”

Shrank slowed his rapid circles around us for
a slow circle around Ferrin, then turned back to me. “We’ve been so
worried, Master Seth! Master Peter! When that thing attacked
through Lucian, Ehran was livid in anger. Then Martin’s ward fired
off and we knew you were caught in between somewhere, his anger
turned to fear. I’ve never seen him scared before.”

“I haven’t either, Shrank,” I said helping
Peter up. Ferrin hadn’t relaxed any, still watching Shrank and
ready to swat. “Where is Ehran?”

“Still in the sick place with Lucian, trying
to fix him,” Shrank said sadly. “The plan now is to get together
for dinner in an hour downstairs. Lady Cahill said to make sure
everyone knew that casual dress was expected and to expect a simple
dinner since most of the staff was away for a time.”

I pushed open the door to the room across the
hall to mine. It was unoccupied at the moment but it looked
available. “I guess we’ll put you and Ian in here,” I said. Ferrin
followed me into the room as I lit the lamps. “You mind sleeping
with him for the time being?”

“Christ, no,” he muttered, eyeing the room
from the doorway. “The bed alone is bigger than me flat in
London.”

“Let’s get you something to change into.
Shrank?” I called, walking across the hall into my room. He flew
into the room between Ferrin and me, making Ferrin flinch. “Would
you help Michael find something to wear while I shower, please? At
least two days worth. I think all of us are gonna need more clothes
again, if we can find the time to go shopping. We have got to find
some help.”

I left Ferrin in Shrank’s care and
disappeared into the bathroom. I wanted, no, needed a few minutes
respite from the day and it wasn’t over yet. I could almost feel
the sun setting over the mountain behind the castle and wanted
nothing more than to run a few hundred yards out to just watch
twilight fall. Knowing I couldn’t, I turned on the shower and
starting disrobing.

“It was him, watn’t it?” I heard Ferrin to
Shrank.

“Him, what?” asked Shrank, chipper as ever.
“This should fit and would go well with your coloring. Pants may be
a problem. We may have to raid Peter’s closet, too.”

“That’s too expensive,” said Ferrin. “I don’t
want to steal from the boy. He saved my arse today. The job
interview that Ian and Martin set up; it was with him, wasn’t
it?”

“Peter and he were interviewing personal
assistants today, yes,” squeaked Shrank. “How about this one?”

“Still too expensive,” Ferrin said.

“Would you quit worrying about that?”
squealed Shrank. “Apparently you haven’t noticed that ‘the boy’
doesn’t care about money. He does what he believes is right.
Frankly, if any of the man’s friends thought you might be stealing
from him, you might live long enough to see your skin stripped away
an inch at a time. He generally gives us good reason to feel that
way.”

I shoved the toothbrush in my mouth and
jumped in the shower. It’s not like I was eavesdropping. They knew
where I was. There wasn’t any sneaking going on. Still it felt kind
of creepy to me. Luxuriating in the hot water while I scrubbed my
mouth out, I relaxed into the heavy spray, letting go of hundreds
of tiny tensions held tightly throughout the day. The big tensions
wouldn’t go away through a little hot water. I started washing up,
making my skin rosy pink in the offset lighting. Checking for
damage, I noticed I’d toned up over the last few weeks. Gained a
sharper six-pack, tighter thighs. Killing over thirty people is
good aerobic exercise, I suppose.

That sarcastic thought was the lead-in to my
little breakdown. I don’t remember much about it, just flashes of
gore and guts, then sitting in the bottom of the shower crying for
a long time. Then Peter coming in and turning the shower off. Then
holding me in a damp towel while I sobbed even more. Peter didn’t
say anything, didn’t offer any empty platitudes or vapid clichés.
He was just there.

“God, I’m being such a tool,” I muttered,
coming back to myself some. Getting up from the floor of the shower
for a dry towel. Peter’s clothes were soaked. “Why’d you let me go
on for so long?”

“You needed it,” answered Peter. “Stop trying
to be superhuman, Seth. This is what your friends are for. You’ve
done more for me than you know without even trying and helping you
still helps me. Besides there is absolutely nothing wrong with your
reaction to what you saw today.”

I slowed, pulling up my pants, thinking about
what he just said. “Is that why translates to ‘Seth loves me for
me’? I don’t really understand why.”

“Yeah,” he answered. “I think so. It was a
moment of clarity that allowed me to set my self-identity. If the
perfect man could look at the whole of my life, twice, and still
say he loved me, there had to be something worthwhile in there. And
when you put everything back that I took out, you forced me to
relive it all. And the bad wasn’t so bad and the good was as good.
And the thought ‘He loves me for me’ was running through my mind
when reality slammed back into place and stuck.”

“The ‘perfect man’?” I asked, chuckling,
pulling a shirt over my head. “Now who’s trying to make me
superhuman.”

“Well, that’s the image I’ve held of you for
years. No help for a teenage crush. Why has it taken you so long to
acknowledge this, anyway? Ethan’s been making off-color jokes for
days.”

“I thought the coming-out process was
important to gay men,” I said, shrugging. “You’d talk to me about
it when you thought it was important. Besides, you were lusting
after Ethan, not me.”

“Who looks an awful lot like you and don’t
you dare tell him that!” Peter said, getting off the bed and
peeling his damp shirt away from his chest.

“How late are we, anyway?” I asked, combing
my hair at the dresser. I gave up on the more unruly strands
sticking out at odd angles. My face was puffy and red so I doubted
straightening my hair would help me look better.

“Just a few minutes,” Peter said, ducking
into my closet. He came out with a shirt similar to the one he wore
and quickly swapped them, laying the damp one on a chair in the
corner to dry. “We can take more time if you want. Everyone will
understand.”

“No, I think I’m all cried out at the
moment,” I said, meaning it. “It doesn’t get easier, does it?
Killing people, I mean.”

“God, I hope not,” said Peter. “You
ready?”

I slipped my shoes on and followed Peter out.
By the time we were at the stairs, I found myself agreeing with
Peter, hoping killing didn’t get any easier. The act itself was
simple: insert blade and end life or squeeze trigger and end life
or any of a hundred thousand different ways. If it were any easier,
everyone would be doing it. It was the aftereffects that caused the
problems. I was responsible for a lot of problems lately. A lot of
problems.

When Peter and I walked into the dining room,
I had an epiphany, seeing everyone around the table, that assuaged
my guilt some. The sense of family is a curious thing: you can find
it in many places when you really aren’t looking for it and it can
reach out well past the confines of tradition. And it can grow. I
started a quest with Kieran, a man I didn’t know, to find my
parents. I got a brother in the bargain, someone I could trust and
depend on, not just a word. I got the same thing in Peter, more
than a friend—he’d already called me his “little brother” several
times now, and it was comfortable. I wasn’t exactly sure where
Ethan fit in, being so tightly centered around me, brother and
alien, but brother was closer.

The Cahills started out helping me from a
sense of obligation to my father and now I was obligated to them.
They didn’t think so, but I did. From the doorway, I watched Ian
and Martin talking excitedly about some innocuous topic. Enid was
listening with rapt attention, just happy to still be hearing her
son’s voice. Ferrin sat beside Ian, lightly rubbing his shoulders.
For all his aches and pains, Ferrin was happy to be there with Ian
and Martin, too, though he was not paying as close attention to
their conversation as Enid. Kieran, Gordon, and Felix were
clustered together a chair away talking quietly. I assumed to keep
their conversation away from the boys, because Ferrin was paying
attention to them.

When I saw Ian look up at Ferrin and smile
briefly, it hit me: this is why, this is what mattered, and this is
what made those “problems” I created far less of a problem.
Somebody was trying to kill my family, but I got to them first. It
was self-defense, in defense of my family. That, I could live
with.

~ ~ ~

The hero of the Cahill castle attack turned
out to be Shrank. Specifically, it was his odd dislike for Lucian
that created the first suspicions that something was wrong. He told
Kieran that Lucian smelled wrong, that there was something attached
to him, that something wasn’t there that should be. The dislike was
strong enough in the pixie that Kieran looked more deeply at Lucian
and watched him carefully through the night and into the next
morning. Kieran had seen something, too, but he thought it was the
trauma and curse damage. He was wrong.

At roughly the same time we noticed our
followers on the road, several Loa emerged from their weird
cross-dimensional space. The strongest of them merged immediately
with Lucian and attempted to crash the wards on the castle and its
surrounding properties. From there it would have been a quick
takeover with the snake in Lucian facilitating the takeovers of
humans by the other Loa.

Then Kieran got in the way. The Loa got its
first bite into Lucian and he was able to crash the wards, but only
long enough for Kieran to lock another one into place that kept the
Loa both out and in before Lucian brought them all back into place.
From there, Kieran destroyed the entirety of the Loa clan, slicing
them to shreds with the sword he kept tucked away. The sword I’d
only seen twice before.