Chapter 9
Lauren fiddled with the rim of her cup of coffee as she awaited Bo's arrival back upstairs. She worried how her minor interrogation was going when she heard the basement door open. She turned and saw Bo walking out first and smiled at her. She smiled brightly back, giving Lauren an indication that things had gone well.
When she looked past her to Brynna, the other succubus look drained, not of Chi but just tired and not looking pleased about something. The doctor saw her give passing glances to her sisters, conveying some kind of message to them, and then sat beside Shona, who took her hand in hers and passed her a stout.
"How did it go?" Lauren asked after Bo slid in beside her at the bar. Kenzi on her other side concurred.
"It went pretty well , but she still has something important to tell us all and after that there's gonna be a vote and then some more storytelling."
"A vote? For what?" Lauren was confused by the look of apprehension on the succubus' face.
"A part of the geis put on her is that if she tells the truth about everything to someone, it will put them and all close to them in danger. That's why she's been so adamant in not telling us much."
"So does she really know who put this geis thingy on her?" Kenzi asked.
"No. She's as much in the dark about that as everyone else here." Bo answered as she got Dyson and Hale's attentions.
"What's up?" Hale asked after watching the whole eye communication going on.
"I need to know the whole truth but Brynna and Shona's geis won't allow them to tell us everything without getting trapped in the curse. That's why her sisters and their husbands are with her. They've all been running because of this curse."
"So she could pull us in with them?" Dyson didn't like it one bit. He knew how powerful geasa were; not even the Norn could make a deal to break them and the Blood King's writings would do no good either.
"Yeah and she wants to tell me but she wants me to clear it with you all first."
"I'm in." Kenzi spoke up first, raising her hand and putting it in the middle of their small group. Bo tried to make her see reason but she wouldn't listen.
"Nah-ah, Bo-Bo. Just like when you almost left town, I'm with you a bazillion percent." Kenzi's loyalty always surprised Bo. She smiled at the young human who she had become like a sister to and vice versa.
"Count me in. Someone has to help you watch Lil Mama." Hale smiled and put his hand on top of Kenzi's.
"Me too." Dyson begrudgingly repeated the action. He owed it to Bo.
Bo looked at Lauren and didn't have to hear her answer, already knowing she would help her any way she could. Lauren put her hand in with the others anyways.
"Where you go, I go." Bo smiled at her and placed her hand on the top, squeezing Lauren's a bit.
"Alright. Lets put the rest of the pieces of this puzzle together." Bo said and they parted and turned to the others. "They've all agreed, Brynna. It's time to talk some more."
The blonde heaved a sigh and gestured to the few empty seats around the big bar table. "Take a seat. You'll need to for this." Brynna began telling them of how the wars began, of Shona's people's demise, and how she became the Morrigan.
Lauren ached for the druidess' sorrow; she guessed in a way they were connected to each other – humans enslaved to supernatural beings and casually tossed aside when they are of no use to them any more. When she looked to see Shona's face, the profound sense of loneliness and sorrow she saw in those blue orbs struck her; somehow Lauren knew she hadn't met another of her kind in a long time, if any were still alive and practicing the ancient craft.
"That must have been unspeakable for you to endure." Lauren said quietly as she expressed her sympathy.
"Thank you, Lauren." Shona said somewhat hollowly. Brynna appeared guiltier than when she told it to Bo.
"What's the rest you have to say?" Bo asked the blonde after the sad moment had passed.
She stood and began a slow pace as she thought about what she was about to do. "Are ye sure ye all know the ramifications? Your lives from this point on will be that of the hunted."
"Ugh! Just get on with it! Believe me, all of us here have had some weird types of Fae hunt them. No biggy." Kenzi answered for everyone. They looked to Brynna, conveying silently that they were in accordance with the human.
"Very well." Brynna sighed, condemning yet more innocent people to her curse. She looked to Bo. "Ye can ask your questions now, Bo? I'm prepared to answer them." For some reason, Bo thought Brynna looked like she was about to be put in front of a firing squad.
"What's your real relationship to Aoife and Trick? You said you were 'of their clan'. Trick told me the same thing when I asked about Aoife."
Brynna looked to her, gaze never wavering as she told the truth. "Aoife and Trick are – " she was cut off when she saw Shona stand quickly, turn around, and slam a brute of a man with white-blonde hair square in the chest with a small cyclone of air. He smacked into the brick wall of another building and stayed slumped over. Bo and Brynna both took the swords from their sheathes and took protective stances as the others did the same.
"Talk about this later?" Bo asked as she saw two more men emerge from one side of the building.
"Certainly." Brynna saw three more burly men come from the other side.
"Wait." Dyson sniffed the air coming through the open door and his eyes shifted, then turned to normal. "Get Lauren and Kenzi downstairs. Now." Bo wrangled them to the stairs. Both were adamant to stay and help but Bo's worry for them won out.
"What did ye smell?" Brynna watched the other five men sneering as two of them checked the other man.
"Cwn Annwn."
Brynna cursed at that and sent Lorna and Donovan to protect Kenzi and Lauren.
Trick came from behind the bar with a shotgun. "Brynna, do you know what this means?"
"Unfortunately I do. Means we're another step closer to finding who cursed me. I think these lads know who that is."
"But they can't come into the Dal when someone's invoked Sanctuary, right?" Bo asked as she saw the men walking to the entrance.
"They are from Annwn, the Welsh Otherworld. Hell hounds, as humans know them, aren't subject to our laws, only their master's will." Trick replied.
"These dudes are hell hounds?" Bo knew she shouldn't be surprised but she was.
"They can hold a human form during the day, but once the sun sets, they turn into hounds. Be lucky it's not even noon yet. I'd rather face them in this form." Dyson said as he watched the blonde men closely. He could sense them beginning to get riled up; they wanted the hunt and their quarry.
"We need to dispatch them as quickly as possible before they call the rest of the hunting pack." Brynna ordered as the men growled low and charged them.
Dyson growled and grabbed the closest man and flung him into the door frame while Brynna and Blair rushed outside to fight two more. Bo skewered another one with her sword and smacked the one behind her with the hilt of it.
"These guy don't seem so tough." Bo regretted her words as she saw the Cwn Annwn she stabbed through the stomach slowly rise from the puddle of his blood with a completely healed stomach wound. He glared at her menacingly and bared his teeth.
"What the – " She saw the other three who had been knocked out stand up and join their brothers again in the fight.
"They're from the Otherworld. The only way to kill them in corporeal form is to decapitate them." Bo heard Keiran as he grabbed one of the men and slammed him to the ground. While the Fae was stunned, Keiran drew the sword at his side and effortlessly chopped its head off. A small sigh escaped the severed head and it dissolve into fine, white powder as did the body.
"One down, five more to go." Keiran said before he heard a thunk and Ceili's voice.
"Make that two down, four to go." Ceili wrenched one of her kukris from the wall she had cornered the Fae into; powder sloughed from the newly sharpened blade.
* LOST * GIRL *
The dull clanging of metal could be heard from upstairs as Lorna watched the door from the stool she sat on waiting for the all clear. Kenzi sat cross-legged on Bo and Lauren's cot nervously picking at her striped sleeves while Lauren paced. She paused every time she heard Bo shout or heckle the Fae hounds or hear the sound of a body thudding to the floor like a bag of potatoes. She had never encountered a Cwn Annwn before but she knew how dangerous they could be. Cwn Annwn were the apex hunters of the Fae world. They only did what Gwyn ap Nudd told them to do. They often grabbed up unsuspecting humans and spirit them away to the Otherworld.
"Okay, Hot-pants, enough with the reenactment of the Pong pixel." the petite human placed her hands on the worrying doctor's shoulders. "Bo's strong and she has the biker gang with her; she'll be fine." Kenzi gently shook Lauren's shoulders and released her. Lauren knew she was right, but that nagging feeling she constantly felt gnawing at her insides was telling her differently. Ever since joining the Fae, that feeling had never really left, just hanged in the shadows of her mind and pounced as soon as trouble reared its head.
"I know what you're trying to tell me, Kenzi, but – "
"It's almost over." Lorna cut her off as she listened carefully to the commotion upstairs. She heard two more dead thuds and Blair's victorious laugh over them.
"We could've just left Blair up there by herself. She'd slaughter 'em all without breaking too much of a sweat." Donovan commented as he look up at the ceiling above them.
"Yeah or just have Mrs. Trigger-Happy snipe 'em..." Kenzi trailed off when she felt a chill run up and down her spine. It was the same feeling she got when they had encountered Baba Yaga and if she was having that feeling again, then something more was happening here. And then she heard it, the low, gravelly sound of something huge and menacing coming from a dark part of Trick's home.
"Uh, guys..." They all turned to her when they heard her nervous voice. Kenzi started to back away slowly and Lauren followed her lead.
"It's a trap. The ones upstairs are a distraction so this bloke could just sneak through the back door." Donovan grabbed up a sword and stepped in front of the human women. The growls intensified and the Cwn Annwn spoke.
"Give 'em to me, incubus." it growled out as it stepped into better lighting. His platinum blonde hair was longer than his brethren and his eyes burned like two coals, indicating his irritation. His body was bigger than the others, too, and his thick neck bulged with muscles and tendons with something akin to a collar tattooed around it. He wore better clothing, nothing at all like the plain blue jean and t-shirt combo, but it was a tailored white suit with a red dress shirt and cuffs. Donovan guessed that this was their pack leader.
"Lorna, get up there n' get us some help. Tell' em we got the leader down here. Take the sheilas with you." Lorna grabbed an arm each and ran up the stairs. She heard the loud, enraged growl of the leader and then his large footsteps as he clashed with Donovan to get to them.
* LOST * GIRL *
Brynna grabbed the Cwn Annwn from Dyson's back and spun him around, keeping him from gaining his barrings, and deftly cut through his neck. She heard the door open and raced to it.
"What are ye doin'?" she asked Lorna as Lauren and Kenzi follow close behind.
"Donny's down there fighting the leader. He won't be able to fight him off for long. We have reason to believe he's after Kenzi and Lauren."
"Why? I haven't told Bo anything yet." Brynna couldn't understand.
"Guess it doesn't matter. They might have seen us with them and knew they were helping us."
"Feckin' great." Brynna groused as she called Bo over.
"What's wrong?" she asked as she saw Kenzi and Lauren not where they were suppose to be hiding.
"Think someone's figured out your helping me and now Donovan's down there fighting off this pack's lead hound." Brynna answered as she walked to the doorway. "I'm going down there and getting some answers."
* LOST * GIRL *
Donovan grunted as the lead hound's knee came into contact with his solar plexus and sent him to his knees. He blocked the kick to his face and managed to throw the hound off balance so he could gain back some of his ground. Donovan grabbed his aching ribs and tighten the hold he had on his sword when he heard a sharp whistle. The hound looked over at where it came from and grin maliciously at the blonde in the doorway.
"Well, if it ain't Goldilocks." his gruff voice held humor but his eyes told Brynna he would very much enjoy her being his chew toy.
"I'm here for answers and I think you're just the right dog I'm looking for." Brynna's stance held no fear, something that irritated the Dark Fae hound, and casually strode down the steps. "So now, tell me why Gwynn wants to bother with us." Her voice held no patience for toying answers.
"I take my orders from him and him alone. I don' need to tell a succubus a damn thing."
"Then your furry arse ain't goin' anywhere until ye tell me." Brynna pointed her long sword at him. The hound could feel the rage pouring off of it and it shown in the blonde's eyes as they were slightly illuminated.
"You ain't gonna get me to talk by swingin' your shiny bit of metal around me." the hound bluffed. He didn't even want that rage-filled object to touch him for fear that it might burn him.
"Last chance, ye Welsh Corgi. Tell me why Gwynn is in on this geis and I might let you live with your tail between your legs." she narrowed her eyes at him. She noticed the little half-step he took back from her.
"Won' be livin' much longer if I tell you anyways, so what's the point?" he glared at Brynna.
"Fine," she shrugged, "be that way." The hound visibly relaxed a bit... until Brynna stabbed his side, pinning him to the oak shelf behind him. He screamed in pain and clutched at the hilt and the blonde's hand. "I know this wound won't kill ye, but I know it damn well hurts like a bitch. You're going t' tell me right now, aren't ye?" When she heard nothing from the hound except for a few choice phrases pertaining to her heritage and sexual preferences, she twisted the blade.
"Oh, fuck me!" he screamed kicking his feet uselessly from the pain.
"Not into that. Tell me now and I will take away the pain."
"Go to hell." he spit in her face showing bloodied teeth as he laughed like a mad man.
Brynna growled and punched him square in the face. More blood went flying as he held a hand to his busted nose; she thought she heard him whimper.
"When I'm done with ye, ye'll be wishin' for Gwynn's punishment. Donovan," she called calmly to her brother-in-law, who had been watching the whole scene unfold, "lock the door. I'm going to have to get him to talk." Realization sparked in his hazel-blue eyes and he gave a nod.
* LOST * GIRL *
Bo panted as she looked around at the man-sized piles of powder and wiped sweat from her brow. She saw Donovan emerge from the basement a little paler than normal and holding his ribs.
"You okay?" she asked concerned.
"Never better. Just a few bruised ribs. Bryn's fighting the leader. She'll be done in a jiffy." Donovan sat beside Moira and she proceeded to check his ribs.
"She need any help? I'm sure I can – " Bo was cut off by a scream from below.
"No worries. She's got it under control." Moira said absently a she checked Donovan's bruised eye. Bo thought it was a little weird that no one really reacted to the scream.
"What's she doing to him? Torturing him?"
"More than likely." Blair said nonchalantly.
"Okaay. Is torture just an everyday thing for you guys or is it for special occasions only?"
"We don't like it anymore than you do but we're at the end of our ropes and ain't no one gonna throw us anotha one. This may be the only lead we'll be able to get." Moira defended her sister's actions and Bo could tell they really didn't like torture.
"Well, I hope for the hound's sake he says something soon. Sounds like she's castrating him in there." Dyson commented as another scream was loosed, this one considerably higher than the previous.
"Can't she just, y'know, succubus him?" Bo asked.
"Cwn Annwn aren't like most Fae. They don't have their own life force so chi-eaters like incubi and succubi can't feed from them." Lauren explained. "They are creatures from an earlier era and technically classified as UnderFae due to the fact that they don't behave in a normal human way when in human form." Lauren explained as she examined the piles surrounding them.
"So who's their master?"
"Gwynn ap Nudd." Brynna emerged from the basement and looked weary. It was evident she had cleaned her sword.
"And who's he?" Bo watched her carefully as she plopped down in a chair.
"He's the Welsh king of faeries who rules in Annwn, the Otherworld, and he's powerful. He has a big influence in the Dark Fae world as one of the three most powerful Dark Elders."
"So what does this Gwynn want with you, Brynna?"
"He, as well as Aengus Og and Balor, are the ones who put the geis on me." Brynna's anger then became no match for the tempest brewing in Shona's chest.
"Aengus Og?" Despite her fair frame, her voice shook like rolling thunder. Her hands were clenched at her sides with small, wispy strands of energy seeping through. Unconsciously, Brynna's sisters and brothers took a few steps back; they knew how strong Shona could be.
"Shona, socrú síos." Whatever Brynna had told the druidess, she calmed down to a somewhat lower level of anger.
"We have to destroy them, there's no other option." Shona began to go back downstairs to gather her druidic objects but Brynna had caught her arm and gently turned her away from the open door.
"We can find another way to break this without getting us all killed first. I have more connection we can use to – "
"No, Brynna!" The blonde's eyes widened; she couldn't remember the last time Shona had yelled at her like that. Brynna gazed into Shona's eyes and saw the anger, fear, frustration, and hopelessness in those blue orbs. She saw the tears glistening at the corners of her eyes and wanted desperately to wipe them away.
"I'm tired, Bri. I'm tired o' not havin' a stable home, tired o' not knowin' what chases us half o' da time, tired o' seein' da people I've come ta love as a family get hurt. I want peace." Shona's tears started falling as her original Irish accent shone through. She buried her face in Brynna's neck when the blonde gathered her up.
"Please don't cry." Brynna looked devastated at Shona's tears as she rubbed soothing circles on her back. "If it can't be avoided then so be it. Aengus Og will be brought down even if we have to kill him."
"Brynna," Shona sounded more in control of herself and speaking in a more subdued accent, "we will have to kill him. There is no other choice; death must come for him."
Brynna held her out at arm's length and stared into her brilliant eyes. "Alright." she said quietly, strangely saddened about killing this Aengus Og.
"Who's this Aengus guy to you, Brynna? You sound like you don't want to kill him." Bo pointed out.
"He's my father."
Bo felt her jaw drop and she blinked several times. "What?" She had to have heard it wrong. Would someone's father really put a curse on them? She thought a moment and then came to the realization that she wasn't thinking about the Faeworld.
"Aengus Og is my father." Brynna repeated, this time a bit annoyed. "Can we just move on to the bigger problem. He's just one of the many obstacles we'll most likely be facing. He won't make it a walk in the park for us to get to him. If anything, he has tighter security than the Ash or the Morrigan."
"Wow. Paranoid much?" Kenzi commented
"Very much."
"You and your sisters are succubi, so one of your parents must have been a chi-eater."
"I don't know what you would call Aengus Og. He's not quite an incubus but he has a significant amount of animal magnetism. He can adjust that and pinpoint it on any woman he wants and she's a goner for him. If he makes a strong connection with them, the women would do anything for him, even fight to the death."
"How strong is his pull?"
"As long as he lives, he can keep women under his spell. It'd take something major to make him weaken the link momentarily."
"Do you think he went beyond the bounds of the treatise and gained assistance from the other pantheons?" Trick asked. Still after all these years, he hasn't quite figured out the Fae's warped mind.
"That's what I concluded from my analysis of Anise's body. She had markings baring the symbols for Bacchus and Cybele." Lorna explained as she snatched up a piece of paper and quickly sketched the images for Trick. He peered at the symbols and confirmed them.
"These is very problematic, Trick. How do we even begin to form a strategical plan clever enough to take out a Dark Elder without drawing attention to ourselves?" Lauren fretted.
"Oh, don't worry your pretty little smart head, Doctor. Mommy's got it all figured out."
Bo turned swiftly, leveling her sword at the familiar figure standing just inside the Dal. It was Aoife, minus her crew of thralls.
"Aoife." Bo and Brynna were confused at seeing the supposedly dead succubus standing right in front of them.
The plot thickens! ~ The Blotness