The Morrigan: Damaged Deities (40 page)

“So it was that CuChulainn did to the Morrigan the three things he had sworn.”

Táin Bó Cúailnge

Kamden loudly shuffled the pages of his newspaper again, hoping to drown out the screams and bellows and,
Christ
, the cursing. 

It had been going on through the night and into the next day. 

Sundown had come and there’d been a small reprieve only for it to start up again with greater, louder fury at dusk. 

For such a small lass, the horse trainer had a set of lungs on her, bested only by his brother’s loud booming bellows.  Several times pictures had fallen off the walls, even from several floors below.  The racket had sent Lorna into hiding, as he hadn’t seen the housekeeper in a couple of days.

Neither of them had come downstairs and the few times Kamden had gone up there to check on them, to at least make sure Morrie was okay, his brother had slammed the bedroom door in his face, cracking the plaster and raining dust from the ceiling. 

Kamden might have persisted had Morrie not assured him of her status with an annoyed, “I’m fine!” snapped at him from inside the room.  Two peas in a pod, apparently.

After that, Kamden gave up.  Any more attempts at intervening and the house would fall down around them.

It would seem Kamden would be kept in the dark a little while longer for why what seemed like a blossoming love affair turned into the next World War. 

In the meantime, he counted their good fortunes that their home was located in such a remote area, otherwise the neighbors would have certainly called the police on them. 

At least he knew the “killer horse” was contained and wouldn’t be causing them any trouble for the time being.

 A loud knocking on the front door drew Kamden’s attention away from the drama upstairs. 

“What fresh new hell is this?” he muttered. 

As Kamden stood up to answer it, the visitor continued to drum, literally drumming a steady beat against the hard wood. 

The constant barrage of sound set Kamden’s already raw nerves on edge so that he was harsh and short when he swung the door open. 

“What?” he snapped.

A waifish lass with short, black hair in a sleek and stylish bob stood before him, her fists still suspended in the air, knuckles red. 

Dressed in skin-tight black leather like a rock video vixen, he’d have thought her quite stunning if she had given him the chance.  But ignoring him, she was turned to her companion, a breath-taking redhead with pale, freckled skin.

“That was a perfect performance of
Immigrant Song
,” the black-haired one said to the redhead in a voice so sultry and raspy it could probably bring men to their knees. 

Her companion shrugged. “It was a little off.”

The other’s heavily lined eyes widened as her red lips parted.

“Off? What do you mean
off
?!”

“Your rhythm was a little off,” the redhead replied in a beautiful posh accent.

The dark one’s hand whipped up and with it the snapping gleam of a switchblade.

“Say that again,” she sneered.

“May I help ye?” Kamden asked.  The two completely ignored him.

The redhead glanced at the blade before rolling her eyes.  She uncrossed her arms and threw up her hands in surrender.

“Fine, I take it back.”

“Thank you!”  The drummer finally acknowledged Kamden, turning dark eyes on him.  The blade disappeared back in her pants. “Yo.  We’re here for our sister.”

“Yer sister?” Kamden repeated.

“Our sister—petite little brunette with big blue eyes and a perpetual scowl?  Walks around in her tight skinny jeans like she’s in need of a good, deep dicking?”

Shock had Kamden coughing his response. 

He glanced over at the redhead, but the lass remained quiet, simply watching him with pale, intense eyes.

“We heard she shifted,” the first one continued.

“Shifted?” he repeated.

“Yeah, shifted. You know, opened her wings and flew?  Flew the coup? Shed her feather? A bird, dude, she became a bird.”

“Ye’re Morrie’s sisters?” he asked.

The dark-haired one rolled her eyes to her sister, leveling a droll stare at her and mumbled, “You’re gonna have your work cut out with this one.”

The redhead blinked, looking surprised.

“Come on, bubba,” the first one said, patting Kamden on the chest as she slipped by him inside. “Take us to the little monster.”

As both women entered the manor, Kamden stood back and eyed them warily.  But as soon as the redhead passed him he felt the air around him grow thick, the earth shift. 

Compared to the other, she looked so serious, like some sort of executive or investigator in her snug little pants suit that clung to her curves possessively. 

The sway of her hips as she moved drew Kamden’s eyes down to her round, perfect ass and suddenly feelings he thought long dead stirred back to life.

“I’m Bev, by the way,” the black-haired sister announced as she walked down the hall towards the stairs.  Pointing her thumb over her shoulder, she added, “The one’s ass you’re checking out is named Macy.”

Macy jerked her head over her shoulder just as Kamden raised his eyes. 

These two were already a handful—one for her mouth, the other for her ass Kamden couldn’t keep his eyes off of.

Bev pointed at the stairs. “This way?”

Feeling dumb and in over his head, Kamden nodded and swallowed. “Um, aye.  Upstairs, third floor, third door on the right.”

While they climbed up before him, Kamden made damn sure he kept his gaze trained on the floor. 

“Nice digs,” Bev said as she walked casually down the hall. 

Kamden wondered if Macy ever spoke, or if Bev did all the talking for the both of them. 

And how could they possibly be triplets? 

Aside from being nothing like Morrie, they looked completely different—no similarities at all.

At the third bedroom door, Bev stopped, facing the dark oak and looked at Kamden. 

She pointed at the door. “This the one, right?”  Kamden nodded.

Once again, the crazy lass began to wrap methodically on the door, bouncing in time to the beat as she nodded her head. 

She actually made it through several runs.  But once again, her performance was interrupted when Kade jerked the door open, cheeks enflamed.

“What?” he demanded, his reddened eyes blazing and darting with madness.

The scent of sex hung heavy in the air and Kamden cursed his pointless concern. 

Kade came out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.  Unbuttoned and unzipped, his jeans hung loosely from his hips while he held them up with one fist.  He’d obviously just yanked them on.

“Wow, you haven’t changed a bit.” Bev leaned back and made an obvious play of checking Kade out. “Though I gotta say, definite upgrade on the body.”

She turned to Macy as she trailed her fingers down Kade’s torso.  His brother flinched and pulled back from her.

“Don’t you think, Mace?” Bev asked her sister, undeterred. “This taller, leaner version is much better than that bulky, beefy body from last time.”  She looked back at Kade, still sizing him up. “Definitely like you better with auburn hair, too.”

Exasperated, Kade glared at his brother. “Who the fuck is this and what is she bloody talking about?”

“Well that’s a fine how-do-you-do to an old friend!” Bev retorted with all the drama of a stage actress.

Kade dropped his cold gaze on her.

“Look, lass.  I don’t know what class o’ crazy ye came from, but I have my hands full with my own right now, aye?”

Bev pouted at her sister. “He doesn’t remember us.” 

She seemed to have finally caught Kade’s full attention as he stared at her in suspicion.

Bev pointed at herself and then her sister. “Badb.  Macha.”

Realization alighted on Kade’s face. “The hag’s sisters!  I remember ye crazy bitches, now!”

“This crazy bitch gave you immortality, you ungrateful ass,” Bev shot right back, her thumb jutting at her own chest.

“
Ye’re
the bloody witch that cursed me?” Hysteria flashed in his eyes.

“Cursed!” Bev recoiled before rolling her eyes. “You’re eternally thirty-four and hot, yeah, you’re cursed. You should be thanking me, cocksucker.”

Kade seethed through clenched teeth, “Ye’re lying for her. I will hear no more lies.”  He gripped the door handle and wrenched it open.  In that brief time, Morrie could be seen naked and tied to the bed.

Bev leaned forward on her tip-toes, peering into the room as she wiggled her fingers and said, “Hi, Morrie! Did you get some?  You look like you got some! We’ve come to help.”

“Bev!” Morrie cried out, but was quickly shut off in the room behind Kade slamming the door. “You son of a bitch!” could be heard through the rattling walls.

“Could either of ye tell me what’s going on?” Kamden asked the two lasses.

“Yes, of course,” Bev nodded, her face for once somber. “But first things first and this is of the utmost importance…,” she put her hands up in a stop motion and paused, “…where is your liquor cabinet?”

Kamden blinked with surprise as Bev turned her open palms into pointed fingers, tilted them to her right and quickly followed it with her head, spinning around in what almost looked like some kind of dance move.

“I need a Hot
Toddieeee
!” she sang out, skipping down the stairs.

Staring at the empty space she left behind, Kamden then turned to the remaining sister. “Is that one always like that?”

With her arms crossed over her chest and her shoulders back, Macy just blinked up at him, her expression never budging, before she turned away and followed her sister down the stairs.

“Alright, little immortal man,” Bev said, resting her elbows on her knees as she leaned forward.  She held a crystal tumbler with both hands.  She’d already cleaned Kamden out of his best whiskey and had now moved onto his scotch.  “How about you tell us how you and your brother’s story began and we’ll tell you how it ends.  And leave no detail out.”

Clearing his throat, Kamden gripped his drink and stared at the amber liquid for a moment before returning his gaze to the odd woman.

“There’s no story.  We’re just a normal, borin’ family.”

Bev’s face soured. “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, dude.”

Kamden sighed, certain he’d get nowhere without the truth.  The little he had of it.

“The story has always been a bit shaky, our mother was never the most forthcoming.  But what we’ve been told was thousands of years ago, our mother gave birth tae Kade; his father unknown.  Not long after he was born, she left Kade with an ancient relative, a great-grandfather many times over, I believe, tae raise him.  This land has been in our family since my early forefathers claimed it from a dying tribe of warriors.  Kade has been on the land nearly as long.  My family’s…kind ages a little longer than most…”

“Yeah, we know.  You’re a herd of kelpies.  Continue.”

Not quite, not all of them at least, but Kamden didn’t correct her.  Instead he chose to let her believe the lie, because no matter how much time passed, he was still ashamed of his truth. 

“Then ye know we age verra slowly before we stop agin’ at all.  Well, Kade aged even longer than that.  While the men and women of my family grew old and died, the next heir inherited Kade along with the land—turns out it had originally belonged to him somehow.  He was a boy still when I was born and our mother returned so we could be raised together and yet I quickly surpassed him.  By the time she came back again with Kristian, I was leaving for university and Kade was at a reckless age.  About ten years ago, after I had been frozen in my immortality for some time, he stopped aging as well…”