Dianthe's Awakening (10 page)

I think having got the run around for so long now with all my paranormal other halves had finally sent me over the deep end.

"Arghhh! What is wrong with you freaks?" I threw up my hands and yelled at him. “A god freak," I pointed a slender finger at him. "That’s what you are. I swear, freaks surround me!" By this time, my hands were waving in the air while I vented. "Fae, furry, and now godly, I can't win." Storming up to him, I poked him in the chest. "You want me to learn how to be part of the Hunt right, god boy?" The gasp behind me did not come only from Brónach; it was more of a communal intake of breath. If I hadn’t been so wound up with losing my ever-loving last nerve, I might have noticed the majority of the Hunt behind us. Even my hound had lowered his belly to the ground while whining in worry. As it was, my attention had zeroed in to the current bane of my existence.

I continued to poke him in the chest. Each time my fingernail stabbed those rock hard pectorals, I enunciated a point.

"I was blissfully unaware of any of this until a vampire tried to eat me."
Poke.

"I had my own place and for the first time ever was living on my own!"
Poke.

"I was happy!"
Poke.

"Then," I swallowed. "Then a stupid vamp gets hungry, Kale saves me, Robin breaks into my first ever sex time, and then Kale fucking bites and knots me!"
Poke…
Poke... Poke…

"But,"
I paused again. "That’s okay. I got past that. I got past having three men in my life and meeting my bio-mum. I handled my mates going off to Faery for weeks and finding out my dad is an honest to goodness god.

That’s all g..r..e..a..t! Then lo and behold, from the fucking sky a horde of nightmares ride down and kidnap me. My guys have no idea what has happened to me. I bet they are worried to death," I sniffled forgetting to poke him.

"Dianthe," he reached for me but I slapped his hand away. Again, I ignored the shocked murmurs behind us.

"No, you don’t get to
Dianthe
me. Not only did you kidnap me, you bound me with my thanks. You declared like the almighty king you obviously are, that you are my mate as well.

"That’s not normal! You can't expect me to just fall at your feet as if I should be thankful. To top it off, over the last weeks you have made me want to love you. You're right. I would not love a fourth child less because I already loved the other three. Damn you," I choked on the last word.

Emotion had clogged my throat as tears poured down my face. I slowly sank to my knees while covering my face with my hands. "I don’t know what to do anymore," I sobbed. "What to think… I just feel so lost."

I shuddered and lost it then. All of the repressed emotions I had been ignoring over the past months seemed to explode outward.

Everything, every fucking thing that had happened from the night Annie and I went to Cable flashed through my mind. My body hunched over tighter as I curled into a ball trying to block all the memories. The reality that paranormal creatures were real and that I was one of them was only the tip of this colossal clusterfuck.

Images of my family came to blaring clarity in my mind. My mother, the one woman in the world who was always ready with a smile and a word of encouragement, now had eyes that always looked strained and worn from the infighting.

My sister, Mara, who was the cookie cutter wife and mother and had thought having a little sister was the best thing ever. Just weeks before my birthday she was helping me pack as we laughed about how dad would be harassing Sean to make me move in with him. Or better yet, to send me packing right back home.

Her laughing face merged into the disgusted and hate-filled visage of our last meeting. We had been standing in mum and dad's hallway. It was where she called me a whore. That moment when she screamed in my face and slapped me so hard, it knocked me back a step.

I could still hear her voice shouting at me in fury.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Dia? You were raised better than this."
She pointed one well-manicured finger at me.
"You are nothing but a whore! Thank the good Lord for small mercies that you are only adopted and not a Mclearey by blood. I never want to see you again. You are no longer welcome in my home or near my family, do you understand? Do not come near my children! I will not have them contaminated by your filth."

I stood there in shock while she left the hallway only to come back a moment later with the kids.

"What's wrong with Auntie Dia, Mummy?" My six-year-old nephew, Liam, asked.

Becka looked at me with the innocence of the four-year-old she was. "Dee has a boo-boo, Liam," she piped. "Her face is all red and she's crying. Did she fall down, Mummy?"

Mara threw a hateful glance at me before turning to her children. "Don’t worry about it, babies. She will be fine. It's time to go home. Mummy needs to talk to daddy and she," Mara nearly snarled the word,
"was just being clumsy. She should have known better than to be so silly."

The words were filled with double meaning. The shock from Mara's slap and vicious words had frozen me in place and I could only stand there with my hand to my burning cheek while she took her children away.

The scene fast-forwarded to the moment that dad destroyed what was left of my heart. He had refused to speak to me on the phone and I finally went home to confront him. Mom had pleaded with me to give it more time, but Sean had already been by and while he threatened everyone's lives if they didn’t take care of me, at least he still loved me.

I thought it would be similar with dad. He would be angry and hurt but at the end of the day, I was his little girl. He would forgive, if not forget. Ohh how wrong I was.

"What are you doing here," my father's voice was low and angry.

"Daddy, I wanted to come and talk to you. Mom said to give it time…but I wanted to—" Before I could say more, he cut me off.

"Don’t ever call me that again," he roared suddenly.

"What?" I gasped.

"I'm not your father! My little girl is dead! She would never have become the amoral creature you are. You are nothing more than a trollop with your string of men. It’s a sin, girl, and I will not be having that in my home.

"Go back to your den of iniquity to ply your whorish ways there."
He flung a hand in the air, spittle flying from his lips before he continued.

"If I knew what sort of base creature you would have turned into, I would have never brought you into my home. No wonder your own mother dropped you at the doors of a nunnery. It's where you should have been left!"

"Daddy," I whispered brokenly.

The sound of his name from my lips enraged him. His face turned bright red and he began to shout obscenities at me.

"Get the hell out of my house you little bitch. If I ever see you on my property again, I swear I will have you arrested for trespassing!"

Sean's voice came from the front of the house before my father could continue with his rant.

"Dad? What's going on back there?" he called. "Is everything all right?" he came around the corner to find us in the garden.

My face must have reflected the horror of what dad had said to me because the worry in Sean's eyes hardened into something I had never seen before. He had put on his detective face and that was scary.

His hurried walk slowed and his hands dropped to his sides. Some part of my mind observed him forcing his body to relax as he walked toward us.

"Dad," he said again in a soft controlled voice. "Everything okay? I heard you and our baby girl arguing and just wanted to make sure everything was good back here."

The calm that my father had managed to collect fell apart at the endearment. His face mottled and for a moment I was afraid he was going to have a heart
attack.

His mouth opened and shut several times gasping for air while his already ruddy complexion turned a startling purple with rage. Finally, able to get past the anger, hateful words filled the air. Things I had never even known my dad was capable of thinking, much less speak, erupted from his lips.

Dad pointed a finger directly in my face, wagging it menacingly while he ranted at Sean. "This little viper in our nest is not our baby girl. I doubt she could even repent now if she tried. It will be hell for her and if we are not careful she will be dragging the rest of us down with her!"

It was as if he had lost his mind and Sean saw it as well. He went to take a step closer when dad's hand shot out and grabbed me by the arm. He shook me like a terrier with a rat. I could feel my head whipping back on my neck with the sudden force of it.

In all honesty, I was too shocked to do anything but stand there while he shook me back and forth.

"Dad!" Sean shouted now. The concern was obvious in his voice. Dad paused and turned to look at my brother for a moment and I took the time to try to wiggle out of his grasp. What the hell was happening here, I wondered. Where had my father gone and who was this mad man?

"What the hell, Dad?" Sean's words echoed my thoughts. "What is wrong with you? You have never raised your hand to any of your kids. Dad, please think about what you are doing. This is Dia, even if you are angry with her for her choices...they are still her choices. It does not change the fact of who she is and that we love her. You can't turn your back on her for loving more than one person."

"Aye, I can."

Dad pointed at me once again. "This little strumpet is going to be the ruin of all of us. Do you have any idea what she has already done to our family? The church is talking excommunication, my career, hell your career, is on the brink and all because this tart here couldn’t keep her legs closed!"

He glared between Sean and me for a moment. Then he dropped his bombshell. "You have always protected her, boy. Did she seduce you as well? Her own brother in all but blood? Bat those big gold eyes of hers and beg you prettily on her knees like the whore she is? By God, I'll not suffer it under my roof!"

The words themselves were a vicious blow, and then came the biggest shock I had ever experienced. My hero, the man who hung the moon and stars for me, and had been the one I had always ran to in comfort struck me.

The momentum with which his palm landed on my cheek was so hard the crack reverberated through my head. Its echo bringing me back to the present where the sound of that crack intensified until something deep inside of me finally broke.

Everything that I had held in broke loose. All the anger, hurt, and power. All that enormous energy that I had not been able to understand or tap into was suddenly free.

It was terrifying and freeing. The world went white and then I knew no more.

Chapter Ten

Cernunnos

Centuries from now this moment would be remembered. The entirety of my Hunt gathered around us watching in both fear and wonder.

Dianthe had collapsed onto her knees and wrapped her arms around herself. She had curled into the tightest ball she could manage and rocked back and forth, as memories assaulted her.

The energy built as each new emotion rolled forth increasing in volume. I knew when it broke it would be a psychic tsunami.

With a gesture, I stopped Brónach and the hound from approaching her. To do so would endanger them both. In fact, I had all of our people move back several hundred yards because the force that was coming would not be small. In the end, it was more than I had even imagined.

The power built until the very skies above us darkened with angry storm clouds. Electricity raced over my skin and the urge to shift into my natural form grew stronger.

The mother of us all only knew how strong her power could grow. It was my responsibility to make sure it did not expand too much.

Dianthe suddenly threw back her head and screamed. Her eyes flew open and the beautiful soft gold they normally glowed had now turned into a burning molten copper. Her gaze met mine for a fleeting moment, but it was blind. She was not seeing me nor the Hunt surrounding her. She was lost in her own torment and it was causing her to lose the tight control she had unconsciously been holding over her gifts for years.

The pressure around us began to grow and I knew it would only be moments before a torrent released.

Once more, I sent my Hunt further back. I had no idea how far the backlash would go once Dia let go. I did however, know that it would be impressive.

The tenor of her scream reached a crescendo and I watched warily as her eyes closed once more and she threw out her arms releasing the hold she had held upon herself.

The training field exploded in light. A pillar rose straight up into the heavens as if a small sun had shot off a flare. It grew and expanded in pulses and after the first wave only grew stronger.

The second pulse of power knocked Brónach and the hound to the ground. The third had my second and his men, and by the forth, I was struggling to stand against her.

I had wanted to let her expend herself, but Dianthe's strength exceeded what I thought it would be. Instead of decreasing, the waves were getting stronger.

I no longer had a choice. I would have to intervene.

I began to take the first steps toward her. We were only a handful of paces apart. However, each step felt as if I was going against a gale.

The energy began to strip my own layers away. It did not please me, as I did not like to expose my true self to others. By the time I had made it to her side, my own glory shone from me.

The golden and green aura of my natural being bled into and mixed with the reds and golds of her own. So much fire and passion and absolutely no control.