Luna's Sokjan (Book one) (40 page)

“I was doing it for the
clan dad. We need to expand our territory if we want to grow.”
Daniel told his father. “Everything I was doing was for the benefit
of our clan.”

And he would go to his
grave believing every word he said.

I stepped
forward.

“It’s time Daniel.” I said
very quietly.

He shook his head at me
and looked at his father in disbelief. Coward did he think his
father could or would save him.

“You’re just going to let
them kill me?” he asked his father in a small voice.

“Justice must be served
for what you and Anthony did.” Tiberius moved away from his son.
“He is yours. He is no son of mine.”

“I challenge Gabriel
Obrien Garrison.” Daniel called out.

“You can’t challenge him.”
I laughed at Daniel.

“Why not? I’m lower in
pack rank than he is, and he has to accept my challenge or lose
face.” He told me
.

Well for one, he’s dead
and another I’m about to kill you, dumb bastard.

“Your fight is with me
this evening, Daniel.” I told him quietly. “If you win, then you
can fight Gabriel.”

“It seems a shame to rob a
child of both her parents in one night. Don’t you think, McKenna?”
He asked me.

He thought he could win, I
could have cried with laughter.

“Go stand with your Da,
Jennifer and watch the show.” I told her as I took off my jacket
and handed it to her. Never taking my eyes off of Daniel, “I will
allow you to name your conditions of the fight Daniel. How do you
want to fight?”

“Alright McKenna, during
this fight we can only use the weapons on our bodies. We will use
only the power that we were born with, no added power. Your mate
can’t help you, McKenna.” He stated.

He walked in a slow steady
gait towards me and stopped within a few feet of
me
.

“Agreed,” I accepted,
“Daniel son of Tiberius, Alpha of the Watauga cat clan. I condemn
you to death for the crimes you have committed against the cat and
wolf clans. For the lives you have taken without any remorse.” I
stepped forward, “There are six young women on some plane in hell.
All because of you, you dumb bastard.”

“I will kill you slowly,
bitch.” Daniel promised me and started shifting.

That was the best he could
come up with? Whatever, I rolled my eyes.

While I waited for him to
finish changing I hummed, ‘Bad Company’ and pulled my power to me.
Daniel produced a long lion’s roar to the sky when he finished
changing. He was close to twelve feet tall, with a mouth full of
knife-sharp teeth, ten broad claws and complete with a lion's mane.
He was a magnificent sight to behold, much bigger than I had
imagined. I cracked my neck unimpressed I’d seen much better.
Myurr, for example, was much more impressive. I looked into his
yellow glowing eyes, with my white eyes and smiled.

“I am Branwen McKenna
MacDaibhidh, mate to Cullen Gabriel MacDaibhidh,” I told Daniel in
Gaelic, and then switched to English, “daughter of Luna, and her
Sōkjan.” I didn’t need to look at Gabriel I could feel his ego grow
ten inches, by my statement. “I am your judge, jury, and
executioner.” I snapped both of my wrists and felt the familiar
weight of my daggers in my hands.

He took two steps towards
me on those long lion legs, before I threw both daggers at his
knees. He crumbled to the ground with a cry of pain and tried to
pull out the daggers. Pulling, my sword I charged straight for his
chest. He quickly caught the long black blade by the flat of the
blade. In his dinner plates sized hands, just inches from his
chest.

“I said only the weapons
on your body, McKenna. Where did these come from?” He growled at
me.

I kicked him in the ribs
knocking the air from his lungs. At the same time I twisted the
blade slicing the skin off of both palms.

“From my tattoo dumb ass,”
I whispered as he screamed in pain
.

Jumping back I gave him
time to recover from my attack. I watched as his hands healed and
he laughed at me. I grinned back at him. He got up slowly, taking
his time, and watched me as he stood up.

“I should have known that
you would have lots of little tricks, McKenna.” He said stalking
towards me again. “Do you think they will save your life?” He asked
as he circled around me.

I tucked the sword against
the length of my arm and moved with him, almost mirroring him step
for step. He made a mock attack. Like lions in the wild do. I
stepped back just out of range. I could play games too. I wanted
him to suffer just like those girls had. We danced around some
more, before he committed to his attack. He came in low and tried
to swipe my legs. I side stepped and ran my blade down the length
of his back. Turning, quickly I stab down at Daniel, but he had
rolled away in just the nick of time. He grabbed the blade and
jerked it hard, trying to force me off balance. I released the
sword and danced away.

“Come back to me.” I
commanded softly.

Daniel stood up, giving me
a smile of triumph. He had my sword in hand and then it was gone. I
smiled at the shocked expression on his face. Just
before
,
I threw a
dagger hitting him in the shoulder
.
The blow packed just enough power to knock him
sideways off his feet. I landed on top of him before he could
recover. Now this was familiar. I grinned down into his
face.

“I can play like this for
hours, Daniel. Can you?” I asked him and then leapt off of him.
“Kill.” I whispered as I pulled another dagger.

By that one word, I had
changed the playing field. Now the blades would do real damage that
would take a lot longer to recover, if, the wounds could be healed
at all. Werebeings can heal damage quickly, but there is a cost. It
makes you tired and you need fuel to replace the energy you burn
off while healing. Daniel was running out of time, and he knew it.
He got up into a crouching position.

“How many of those black
things you got, McKenna?” He asked.

“Enough to kill you with
Daniel,” I told him.

He sprang at me like a
great cat. He got in one lucky strike before I knocked him in the
chest throwing him off balance, and dodged away. I rolled to my
feet and waited in a crouch for him to attack, but when he turned
to face me. I could see my dagger buried deep in his chest. He fell
to his knees with his hands moving to the empty hole in his chest.
Desperately he tried to stop the blood flow. I snarled at him and
wiped blood from the side of my face. He had managed to cut my
cheek in his last attack. It would be the last time he would ever
draw blood. I sprang forward pulling my sword as I moved and rammed
him in the chest with my shoulder pushing power to knock him on his
back.

Quickly I raised the sword
high over my head, before thrusting it into his throat. Blood
sprayed out and covered me. I leaned all my weight on the blade
making sure that it went through the neck. When I felt the ground
under him, I twisted the blade with all my strength ripping his
throat apart. Quickly pulling out the sword, I thrust it into his
chest and pierced his heart. There was no way he could heal that
much damage, it was over. Turning my back on Daniel’s body, I moved
slowly away from him. Not from pain but from blood lust. Breathing
hard I went to down to my knees. Fighting to control the impulse to
tear him apart and play in his blood.

Nothing around me stirred.
No one moved, and it was a damn good thing. In my current state of
mind, I would have attacked anyone and everyone. Breathing deeply I
threw my arms wide and looked into the moonless sky with white eyes
of power.

“It is done, Great Mother,
two killers dead. Come shine on your children once again.” I
lowered my arms and head.

I blinked my power filled
eyes at the earth and waited for the normal feelings of
achievement. They didn’t come. It felt as if I had left something
undone. Slowly standing up I walked to Tiberius. Gabriel joined me
when I stopped to face Tiberius.

“Our bond is done, both
killers are dead. You have my contract?” I asked them both. They
nodded in agreement. “Payment should be made within twenty four
hours. Tiberius, I am truly sorry for your loss. I hope his spirit
is at peace.”

I actually meant every
word. When, Gabriel spoke softly to Tiberius. I turned away from
them. I could no longer bear to see his sorrow.

Jennifer ran up to me, and
I hugged her tightly. Together we walked in silence back to the
SUVs, surrounded by the boys and some of Gabriel’s guards for
protection. Like the stunned, hushed crowd would attack me. I, the
Sōkjan, covered in the blood of their Alpha’s eldest son, not
bloody likely.

I knew that the grief I
felt for Tiberius and the families of the six women would pass in
time, but it hurt all the same. The drive back to the house was a
quiet one, save for the soft music playing on the radio. Once home
I took along hot shower and went to bed, all my playful banter with
Gabriel forgotten
.

Chapter 25

The next day the tattoo
had moved to cover my cheek. I studied it in the mirror, it made me
look more exotic, I liked it. Gabriel was waiting for me in the
sitting room when I came out of the bedroom. I stopped and leaned
against the door frame.

“What’s up?” I asked
him.

“How are you feeling?” he
countered.

“I am fine. It usually
takes a day or two and then I will be back to normal.” I told him
with a shrug. “Is there any coffee made?”

I walked to the small
kitchen before he could answer me.

“You are not alone any
more, Branwen.” He told me. When he trapped me in the kitchen, “You
will never have to do this by yourself again. I will always be with
you.”

“I know, but I have to
deal with the guilt, Gabriel. I knew Tiberius loved his son, yet I
killed him anyway. I know that the families of those girls loved
them, but I can’t bring them back. I know I didn’t kill the
victims, but it feels like it. If, I had done something sooner,
maybe, I could have prevented all of this from happening.” I said
and held up a hand to stop his reply. “I know that I couldn’t do
anything to prevent any of this, that’s just how I
feel.”

“I love you, Branwen.” He
said entwined his fingers with mine. “Tell me what I can do to help
you deal with this.”

I leaned into him as if to
kiss him.

“There’s no coffee in
here, and I really need some coffee.” I told him with a smile, and
he laughed.

Hand in hand we walked to
the main kitchen and ran into Angus and the kids. Jennifer and the
boys watched every move I made. As if they weren’t sure what to
make of me now, after the fight.

“What?” I asked when I
could no longer take the silence.

“We want to learn how to
fight like you.” Ben, the unspoken leader of the pack, said. “I
have watched a lot of fighters back home, but none fight like you.
The way your move it's just,” he broke off searching for words,
“Incredible. You’re fast, smooth, and fearless. You somehow combine
moves together, moves that shouldn’t work together. Like when you
throw daggers, there’s a force behind them. How do you do
that?”

I drank my coffee looking
at the little group.

“You have to learn how to
focus your power and make it do what you want it to do. Each of us
has some level of power, but it’s what you do with it that makes it
more.” I told them.

“That is what we want to
learn McKenna. We want to learn how to channel our power into a
force like yours.” Jennifer said.

I looked at Angus and
Gabriel for a moment. They looked back at me, waiting for me to
decide what to do. A lot of help they were.

“Okay, but it will be hard
work and sometimes painful.” I agreed after a moment.

So after lunch we started
practicing throwing daggers in the backyard. I had thrown power
pushed daggers for so long. I actually had to think through the
steps of the technique to teach it to the kids. It turned out to be
a lot of fun, and I was feeling much better afterwards.

Later that day we took the
boys back to the village. I was sad to see them go, if the truth be
told. Gabriel and Angus held a meeting with the families of the
missing girls, to explain what had happened to them. Jennifer met
up with a group of girlfriends.

I wandered the grounds
trying to ease my troubled mind once again. I’d spotted Gabriel’s
men following me at a distance when I left the house. I was in no
mood to play with them today, maybe tomorrow. I finally ended up
stretched out on the roof staring at the stars, and that is how
Gabriel found me.

He lay down beside me and
pulled me into his arms resting my head on his chest.

“How did it go with the
girl’s families? Was Angus any help at all?” I asked him running a
hand over his chest.

“As well as expected and
yes Angus did help a lot. He explained how this could happen to the
girls. In time, they will heal. It helps them to know that the
killers have been brought to justice. They send you their thanks
for that. When did you kill Anthony? Was during my fight with four
arms?” He asked me.