The Third Fate (13 page)

“
To what do we owe the honor of a visit from the Fates?”

“
One of your vampires has intentionally altered Fate! I want him punished.”

“
Which of ours has committed this act?” Elinor questioned from her seat.

“
Cael of Clan Maccinnis,” Jael informed. “I get to choose the game for him,” she continued proudly.

“
Maccinnis?” Malcolm repeated in disbelief. “The vampire keeps a low profile. How has he interfered?”

Charity hopped up onto the long table and teetered along its edge, her arms stretched outward for balance. She continued to the end in silence, turning around with a smile.

“
I made it the whole way, Harry. Now it’s your turn.”

The Council members sat unmoving. Childish ways were expected when dealing with the Fates; there was no getting around it. Malcolm held in the sigh that threatened, reasoning that it would not help matters to anger them.

“
How has he interfered?” Charity mocked, repeating Malcolm’s words. “How has he
not
interfered? That is more like it! He bit a woman he believed to be a mortal, and I know this because it was by my enchantment the vampire half-born was cloaked. And then he bonded himself to her. He began an Awakening that was never to have happened. Her aunt bargained her first Fate -
to me
- on the condition that if ever her vampire Awakening occurred, she would be mine. Cael Maccinnis stepped in again earlier today, changing my plans by kidnapping her from the airport.”

“
She was to die in the tragedy of this evening?” Rhys attempted to clarify.

“
I didn’t say that,” Charity smiled impishly. “He made me angry, so I threw the airplane. It’s all his fault.”

Her pouting face was pinched and pitiful.

“
Then how did he ruin anything for you, child? Why cannot you simply carry out your plan in another place and time?” Elinor questioned, her flawless features unmoving in the face of the little Fate.

Charity gaped at her as if she were stupid, prompting Harry to chime in as he balanced his way in front of them.

“
That’s not what was supposed to happen. Paige was supposed to…”

“
That’s enough, Harry,” Charity hushed her brother.

“
So you harmed innocent people because you were angered at not getting your own way?” Elinor probed, hoping to induce self-reflection in the small girl.

“
No one died,” Charity said flippantly. “Besides, it’s up to us to decide that anyway. My Father said so.”

The pronouncement was stated with neither malice nor spite. It simply was.

“
I’m still not understanding why you’re here, Charity,” Elinor stated.

“
Cael Maccinnis must be punished for changing Fate. That’s not allowed. He has opened the half-born to the Third Fate without permission.”

“
And what do you propose to do about it?” Malcolm inquired.

The hairs on his neck were standing on end. In this moment he might lose his only link to finding the daughter he’d never known.

“
I’m going to take the half-born from Cael Maccinnis,” Charity announced as if taking a piece in a game of checkers. “Paige Kinnell belongs to me.”

“
Who bargained for her Second Fate?” Rhys asked sharply.

“
Her aunt. What’s that matter?” the girl answered, tracing her fingertip across the table’s trim.

Jael and Harry followed behind her, tracing the exact path.

“
If the girl did not bargain for her own Second Fate then you cannot hold her responsible. The Third Fate was unknowingly invoked,” Rhys tried to reason with the children.

“
The Third Fate is special. It’s not for just anyone,” she sighed. “Cael Maccinnis didn’t ask.”

“
Why would he have?” Rhys questioned suspiciously.

“
Because I showed him what might happen to her,” Jael chimed in, forgetting the game for a moment.

The littlest child beamed with pride for playing her part.

“
Jael…” Charity warned.

“
Are you implying that a vampire intentionally invoked the Third Fate because you showed him the future – one possible future?” Elinor inquired accusingly.

“
We cannot interfere,” Conrad interrupted. “Cael Maccinnis seduced a mortal – or what he thought to be a mortal – and bonded himself to an unchanged half-born! This is outrageous! The Council forbids such actions!”

“
Enough!” Malcolm roared. “There is something I must add.” All heads turned to him, questions unspoken but plainly seen in the eyes of his fellow Council members. “The half-born is my descendent, blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh.”

None of the Council’s members moved, but Malcolm saw Elinor’s eyes widen. Knowing he risked severe censure and even estrangement from the Council members he’d worked with for centuries upon centuries, he continued.

“
I loved Agnes Kinnell, a mortal woman, passionately and had every intention of changing her, but she disappeared without a trace before I had the chance. Her sister, Anna, contacted me almost a year later and told me she had died giving birth to my child, and that the child had died also. A few weeks ago when we felt the ripple in the psychic link between vampires, I knew it to be my child. I have no idea where she is or what is going on, for as quickly as I connected with her, she was gone. Cloaked. Enchanted.”

Charity giggled, drawing attention once again to herself and her siblings.

“
Malcolm! This is most serious. You know it is forbidden to risk impregnating a mortal!” Conrad forever adhered to the rules, and Malcolm expected nothing different from his longtime associate.

“
Agnes Kinnell was no ordinary woman,” Charity snorted, happy to show the stuffy vampires up with her knowledge. “She and her twin Anna are the daughters of Catrionia.”

“
The Druid priestess?” Malcolm breathed, dropping to his knee at the stunning revelation. “Then…then why would she have died from carrying my child?”

“
She didn’t,” Rhys spoke in a tired voice.

For the first time, Malcolm thought his friend haggard of face and body. Since vampires did not age he knew his longtime ally carried a heavy burden.

“
Malcolm,” Rhys began, his voice strained, “I learned of this only after it was long past, my friend. I could not bring myself to tell you. Had I known the child lived, I would have.”

The powerful vampire leader and friend poured out his knowledge to Malcolm and how he came to it, sharing his own secrets.

“
I, too, Malcolm, love a Druid, the high priestess, Enya. For years we’ve remained apart, knowing I could not resist drinking from her.” Rhys laughed low, sitting beside Malcolm. “It never occurred to me that I could cloak her Awakening until she was through it. But our Cael has managed it – he masks the changeling’s presence even now.”

“
Excuse me,” Charity huffed. “Have you all forgotten that I’m owed a Fate?”

Malcolm stood, rising in the regal splendor of an ancient, a smile playing on his full lips beneath his dark beard.

“
Have you forgotten, little Fate? You have no say over vampire Fate? The undead pass over the Netherworld but do not enter.”

“
That’s all right,” Charity answered him. “I told you already. I’ll punish Cael by taking the half-born from him.”

Smugly satisfied that she’d tied up the loose ends, Charity awaited the vampires’ concessions and peace offerings.

“
Paige Kinnell is half vampire – maybe already turned completely. She is not yours to take,” Malcolm played the ace he prayed would save his child.

The girl halted in puzzlement, realizing too late she hadn’t considered the vampires taking this position. From the high backed chair she had climbed into, she swung her feet in unison out and in while she hummed, thinking.

“
Harry, can you jump through before I swing my legs out again?”

“
I can. Easy,” the blond boy said proudly. “Watch!”

“
I want to try,” Jael said excitedly, hopping while awaiting her turn.

The distraction gave Charity time to decide.

“
I know!” Charity said slyly, never looking up from her legs. “We’ll play a game.”

The vampires looked at one another uneasily, and when no objections were voiced immediately, Charity smiled.

“
Since the half-born is not fully changed – if she were you’d all know it – then half of her is still mortal. That half is mine. I could find her right now and take all of her, and there’s nothing you could do to stop me. But since there is a special circumstance, I say let chance decide.”

She looked around the table at the ashen vampire faces.

“
The changeling has until Samhain to choose her vampire life. If she has not completed her Awakening, passing over the Netherworld and drinking as a true vampire by midnight on that night when the barrier between worlds is thinnest, then no choice remains for her. She will be mine.”

Malcolm was the one to respond, and he remained stone faced as he bargained with the ancient, yet childlike, Fate.

“
Give your word you will not interfere with my daughter’s choices.”

“
I promise. Cross my heart and …”

“
You cannot die so that doesn’t count,” Jael interjected in a grown-up tone.

Charity giggled.

“
She’s right; I can’t. Oh, well. I suppose you’ll have to take my word for it.”

“
You must promise not to cheat. No tornadoes, no earthquakes, no anything that will alter the natural outcome,” Malcolm lectured in a severe tone. The child continued smiling, telling that he’d missed something important. “And one thing more, little Fate. No magic.”

Her face fell, her bottom lip pouting and sulky.

“
No magic,” she agreed reluctantly.

“
Not from you or your siblings, agreed?”

“
Agreed,” the girl answered, then added, “Oh! I almost forgot the fun part! No one may tell Paige Kinnell about the game. That’s cheating,” she looked pointedly at Malcolm, smirking.

Conrad spoke up, “Why should we agree to your game? It is likely that Cael Maccinnis will continue cloaking the half-born until she is fully Awakened.”

Charity tapped her finger alongside her cheek in deep thought a minute before smiling devilishly.

“
Because, silly, if you don’t play, I’ll make another game you’ll like even less. Maybe Malcolm won’t mind if I play with Pilar Michaels or maybe he will, but I know that Rhys won’t want me to play with Enya. Do you, Rhys?”

Neither vampire answered, standing stoically to await the reactions of fellow Council members.

“
I see,” came Conrad’s clipped reply. “Very well then, little girl. You risk much in pursuit of your games.”

His words hung in the air only for the vampires to consider, the children already happily making plans for their next adventure. Skipping from the meeting chamber, the children sang of mussels and cockles, the tune fading as they bounded away.

Conrad faced his fellow members, anger lacing his tone.

“
What have you done? We should have handed Cael Maccinnis over to the Fates and washed our hands of this mess!”

“
Conrad,” Elinor censured him, “what are you saying? We’d never abandon one of our own. That is not the vampire way.”

“
The vampire way?” Conrad shook with indignation. “It is not the vampire way to bed mortals – whether they be Druid or otherwise – and produce half-born vampires! It is not the vampire way to carry on illicit affairs with Druid priestesses! It is not the vampire way to work in tandem with the Druids at all! Cael Maccinnis is a blight upon my clan’s name. He refuses his duty to take a leadership position and shirks all responsibility, trotting across the globe and bedding lesser vampires such as Rose MacAllister – and that’s not mentioning the fiasco with Kaiden Douglas and Gwendolyn. Now he’s bonded himself to an unchanged half-born, invoking The Third Fate, and uses Druid magic to hide their whereabouts! The Third Fate is dangerous, its implications far reaching. We haven’t dealt with it here since the Tuatha De Dannan roamed the Isles. This half-born would be a powerful being simply being the child of an ancient, but possessing the Third Fate invites gifts from the other realms.”

“
Cael has never forgiven us for what happened with Kaiden,” Rhys said sadly. “We were wrong to punish him. The lad was wronged and we knew it, but Kaiden promised so much hope where Cael was always bucking the system.”

“
The female swore that Kaiden spoke the truth!” Conrad blustered.

“
You cannot exonerate yourself, Conrad. None of us can. The lad opened his mind fully to us, but we refused to see the truth before our eyes and acted unjustly. By standing for him now we right a wrong done long ago.”

Malcolm came alongside Rhys and clasped his shoulder, a show of solidarity.

“
Rhys speaks the truth, Conrad. Your clan name was not maligned by Cael, but by the Council.”

The words failed to penetrate Conrad’s hardened heart.

“
Cael Maccinnis is no clan to me. I’ll not see him and that half-breed recognized within the vampire community! It’s sacrilege!”

Elinor bowed her head, sorrow marking her fine features.