Author's note: Blah...blah....blah...lynch me later, I don't care. This is
me story....WOO-HA! Okay, so here's chapter one. I'll admit only one fault
of mine, Ciaran maybe alittle off curz I haven't gotten the books he's in
curz everytime I get cash enough to go to the bookstore they're sold out.
So, I've had to do some personality profile hunting and some webpage
searching. So if I'm not doing him right, then tell me....Please?!! (*gives
you puppy dog eyes*)
Another A/n: Okay, maybe not every chapter has a song in it. Feeling kinda hard pressed to make the first part of this chapter with a song. Maybe the chapter'll have a song...I don't know. ______________________________________________
Chapter One: Book of Shadows
"We have to what?!!!"
Sunlight was streaming in slanting beams from windows that sat above the musty room, reminiscent of an oldish library from some Arthurian legend of Merlin's keep. There were book shelves lining the walls filled with all kinds of books on archaic lore, miniature resurrections of small animal skeletons were beside them, white polished teeth like marble, grinning with death's mockery. The room itself was large by far, the size of one third of a football field by comparison. Its floors were hard wood and polished, what little of the wall that could be seen was painted an off white and the ceiling had a very beautiful chandelier hanging from it. Sunlight shone through it brightly, casting all kinds of rainbows around the room.
Hunter was seated at the large, wooden table, able to seat nearly a hundred, arms crossed stiffly in his high backed chair. Consequently, he had been the one to make the loud out burst. Morgan sat next to him, staring at his former teacher, Kennet, in shock. And Danial Niall, though his face was stubbornly emotionless, more blantant and matter-of-fact, he was gripping the armrests of his chair in a viser-like hold that was turning his knuckles deathly white.
"You heard me," Kennet replied in a flat, accented tone. "By order of the council. And you know that you cannot refuse the council's orders, Hunter."
"Like bloody hell I won't!" Hunter shouted in an ungainly show of emotion. His normally cool exterior was shattered with the sudden rush of anger and adrenaline that was flowing through his veins. "D'you know what you're asking?!"
"Hunter." His father's voice was like the blinding arc of a lighthouse cutting through the fog of a stormy sea. The younger Niall's green eyes snapped to his father's in desperation, a silent plea raging within their liquid depths. Danial didn't look at him, only focused a hard gaze at Kennet. He spoke slowly,"You do realize what you're ordering--what the council's ordering?"
Kennet gave a slow nod as if it were costing him something very vital in that one slow movement. Danial nodded in turn.
"Can you at least tell us why you're asking us to do this?"Morgan asked, speaking up for the first time, in a low voice.
"For the good of all,"Kennet replied. Hunter snorted.
"Bloody likely!" He exclaimed. "Is that the bleeding excuse the council told you to tell us?"
Kennet fixed him with a heated glare. "Don't think that I'm not taking this with equal anger or consternation. I'm just not as vocal." He sighed. "Imagine, if you can, me being summoned by the council elders, very wary and suspicious of their want with me. I do not know what is to come when I am ordered to be seated and hear what they have to say. I sit, and they present to me a book. A battered, worn Book of Shadows. But not just any Book, no this looks quite familiar, for I have seen it in all of my investigations of its previous owner. Imagine my consternation, when the elders tell me that this Book, this one Book, may contain all the answers within its pages that just might save the world. That in its owner's mind there had been a key to unlocking the one thing that could save us. D'you understand what I'm saying?"
"What do we need saving from?" Morgan asked tentively. Kennet met her trepid gaze grimly.
"Another dark wave."
The silence in the room had gone from a pin drop's notice to that of a mile-long chasm. There was no hiding the shock of Kennet's words. Not even Danial could muster up a stoical expression. He sat frozen in his seat as years of running, years of hiding and losing and sleepless nights and death and pain came floating back to him from across the mental barrier he had erected against such memeories. It was the present, the here-and-now, he hadn't had need of those old sorrows, he had a future to look forward too. But now......
"D-dark wave?" His voice sounded small and faraway.
"You're wrong," came Hunter's voice sounding alien to his ears. "We'd gotten rid of it. Alisa Soto...Selene Belltower....Ciaran McEwan--"
"Which is exactly why we must preform the *tath meanma gradh*," He said quietly. "There's no other way. The spell will essentially work like a tath meanma, but only on objects. The objects essentially display the person's emotions at the time they were held or used. Those emotions become pictures, almost like a a replay of that scene in the individual's life."
"But why," Morgan began, pulled out of her momentary stupor,"why do you need us?"
"The ties the object's owner had with specific individuals, the ties that Sgath had with you,"Kennet explained. "With Hunter and Danial, there is blood. With you there was a form of l--"
"Don't," Hunter hissed. Kennet gave him a long look and nodded before continuing.
"There are two more individuals that must be called in," he said. "And the council has deemed that it will also be your job to bring them in."
There was a sinking feeling of foreboding in everyone's stomachs. Danial asked,"Who?"
"Ciaran McEwan and his youngest son, Killian," Kennet replied.
"Are they out of their bloody minds?!!!" Hunter raged, his anger abruptly returning. "Ciaran summoned the bloody wave in the first place!! And Killian! He's almost as bad!"
"Nevertheless,"Kennet began. "They are also part of the ties that bind. They must be summoned in as well."
"We don't even know where to look," Hunter replied vehemently.
"I do,"Morgan said in a quiet whisper. "I can get in contact with Killian and he can-he can show us where Ciaran is."
"Indeed,"Kennet spoke quietly. "Indeed."
"And when shall this ritual be preformed?" Danial asked in a professional tone that cut through the sudden silence.
"Three days,"Kennet replied. "On the new moon."
"Alright." Danial abruptly stood and walked swiftly from the room, letting the door close behind him with a gentle thud. They heard his retreating footsteps echo outside the meeting room's doors, until they finally disappeared.
"I can't believe they would do this,"Hunter said angrily and stood. Morgan stood with him, and he, grabbing her hand, left in the same fashion as his father.
(*_* ^_^ _ o.0 '_' x-\)
"Are they out of their minds?!"
Morgan sat numbly as Hunter raged in the car as he drove down the widing streets away from the council building and back into the small town where they were staying. Mr. Niall sat in the back seat, quietly looking out the window and observing the countryside. The sky was grey overhead with a few stray patches of blue that were slowly being covered over. The landscape below looked as dismal as the sky, the grren of the grass fading with the golden beams of the sun that had shone so brightly only a few moments ago in the meeting room. It seemed fitting.
"They can't possibly expect us to do this," he said angrily rounding a corner in the dirt and gravel road."They can't possibly make you do this." That statement was directed at Morgan. She said nothing and focused on the road.
They were in Europe on holiday. Morgan had finally turned eighteen and her parents consented to her visiting Hunter's home country on the condition that she called every night at 9 pm, American time. Her holiday had been going great....until this morning.
She sighed and sat back in her seat as Hunter made another turn in the road and they entered the first tale-tell signs that they were coming back to the town. It was a charming little place with clapboard houses and cottages dotting the countryside, warm, welcoming town square with the schools, the businesses and a wonderful little Pub that played all kinds of music that fit everyone's tastes. Morgan was enamored with the town and its antiquity. It had been up and going for nearly a century.
"There's no excusing this," Hunter growled bringing Morgan back from her momentary lapse of concentration.
"Can you get in contact with Killian here? In Enlgand?" Mr. Niall asked from the back seat. Morgan jumped at his voice, all stoic and emotionless. She looked back saw his face. Much the same as his voice: placid and unyielding of its secrets.
"Yeah,"Morgan replied wondering how he could be so placid at a time like this. He should hve been livid, but it seemed this situation had only driven him into himself where Goddess only knew how many emotions were raging inside: the loss of his wife, the fear that the dark wave had caused, all the death and destruction it had unleashed, and countless many other things.
She turned away from Mr. Niall as Hunter drove into the town square and down a familiar street leading to their hotel: a cozy, three-story cottage with a small eating parlor, a garden that guests could stroll in and a steam house.
"You shouldn't have to call them at all," Hunter said in an angry hiss. "I bet it's bleeding Ciaran. Somehow, in some way, he can't just stay the hell out of anyone's lives. He still manages to be an overall nuisance."
Mr. Niall didn't say anything, and Morgan felt the silence drop around her like a hammer. She had to break it.
"But Killian's not all that bad," she replied quietly. "He's--"
"He bloody well would've sent you down the road of dark magick too," Hunter hissed again. "He's a bleeding prat."
Morgan sighed. "Regardless, I hve to call him. And I'll have to do it when we get to hotel."
Hunter fell quiet at that, and remained that way until they pulled up to the hotel parking. He parked and shut off the car Mr. Niall was the first to get out and head off to the gardens, the placid look slowly evaporating from his face. But before Hunter got out, he turned to Morgan and said,"You do what you have to do." He took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissed each one of her knuckles. "I don't like this....And I'm not too fond of the council right now, but...Goddess, Morgan, I love you....And-And I'll protect you from whatever Cal's Book has to show us."
She gave him a small grin and cupped his cheek with her free hand. "I know," she said and drew him close until their noses were only inches apart. "I know." He kissed her gently on the lips, finally deepening it, savoring the thrills running through their bodies, the hot and cold, the fire in their blood and the ice in their bones. Finally, they broke apart and went up to their hotel room. The minute they were inside, Morgan went to the phone and picked it up, dialling the number Killian gave her to reach him. She knew it by heart.
When the other end was picked up, she barely gave her half-brother a chance to speak.
"Hello--"
"Killian...We need to talk..."
Another A/n: Okay, maybe not every chapter has a song in it. Feeling kinda hard pressed to make the first part of this chapter with a song. Maybe the chapter'll have a song...I don't know. ______________________________________________
Chapter One: Book of Shadows
"We have to what?!!!"
Sunlight was streaming in slanting beams from windows that sat above the musty room, reminiscent of an oldish library from some Arthurian legend of Merlin's keep. There were book shelves lining the walls filled with all kinds of books on archaic lore, miniature resurrections of small animal skeletons were beside them, white polished teeth like marble, grinning with death's mockery. The room itself was large by far, the size of one third of a football field by comparison. Its floors were hard wood and polished, what little of the wall that could be seen was painted an off white and the ceiling had a very beautiful chandelier hanging from it. Sunlight shone through it brightly, casting all kinds of rainbows around the room.
Hunter was seated at the large, wooden table, able to seat nearly a hundred, arms crossed stiffly in his high backed chair. Consequently, he had been the one to make the loud out burst. Morgan sat next to him, staring at his former teacher, Kennet, in shock. And Danial Niall, though his face was stubbornly emotionless, more blantant and matter-of-fact, he was gripping the armrests of his chair in a viser-like hold that was turning his knuckles deathly white.
"You heard me," Kennet replied in a flat, accented tone. "By order of the council. And you know that you cannot refuse the council's orders, Hunter."
"Like bloody hell I won't!" Hunter shouted in an ungainly show of emotion. His normally cool exterior was shattered with the sudden rush of anger and adrenaline that was flowing through his veins. "D'you know what you're asking?!"
"Hunter." His father's voice was like the blinding arc of a lighthouse cutting through the fog of a stormy sea. The younger Niall's green eyes snapped to his father's in desperation, a silent plea raging within their liquid depths. Danial didn't look at him, only focused a hard gaze at Kennet. He spoke slowly,"You do realize what you're ordering--what the council's ordering?"
Kennet gave a slow nod as if it were costing him something very vital in that one slow movement. Danial nodded in turn.
"Can you at least tell us why you're asking us to do this?"Morgan asked, speaking up for the first time, in a low voice.
"For the good of all,"Kennet replied. Hunter snorted.
"Bloody likely!" He exclaimed. "Is that the bleeding excuse the council told you to tell us?"
Kennet fixed him with a heated glare. "Don't think that I'm not taking this with equal anger or consternation. I'm just not as vocal." He sighed. "Imagine, if you can, me being summoned by the council elders, very wary and suspicious of their want with me. I do not know what is to come when I am ordered to be seated and hear what they have to say. I sit, and they present to me a book. A battered, worn Book of Shadows. But not just any Book, no this looks quite familiar, for I have seen it in all of my investigations of its previous owner. Imagine my consternation, when the elders tell me that this Book, this one Book, may contain all the answers within its pages that just might save the world. That in its owner's mind there had been a key to unlocking the one thing that could save us. D'you understand what I'm saying?"
"What do we need saving from?" Morgan asked tentively. Kennet met her trepid gaze grimly.
"Another dark wave."
The silence in the room had gone from a pin drop's notice to that of a mile-long chasm. There was no hiding the shock of Kennet's words. Not even Danial could muster up a stoical expression. He sat frozen in his seat as years of running, years of hiding and losing and sleepless nights and death and pain came floating back to him from across the mental barrier he had erected against such memeories. It was the present, the here-and-now, he hadn't had need of those old sorrows, he had a future to look forward too. But now......
"D-dark wave?" His voice sounded small and faraway.
"You're wrong," came Hunter's voice sounding alien to his ears. "We'd gotten rid of it. Alisa Soto...Selene Belltower....Ciaran McEwan--"
"Which is exactly why we must preform the *tath meanma gradh*," He said quietly. "There's no other way. The spell will essentially work like a tath meanma, but only on objects. The objects essentially display the person's emotions at the time they were held or used. Those emotions become pictures, almost like a a replay of that scene in the individual's life."
"But why," Morgan began, pulled out of her momentary stupor,"why do you need us?"
"The ties the object's owner had with specific individuals, the ties that Sgath had with you,"Kennet explained. "With Hunter and Danial, there is blood. With you there was a form of l--"
"Don't," Hunter hissed. Kennet gave him a long look and nodded before continuing.
"There are two more individuals that must be called in," he said. "And the council has deemed that it will also be your job to bring them in."
There was a sinking feeling of foreboding in everyone's stomachs. Danial asked,"Who?"
"Ciaran McEwan and his youngest son, Killian," Kennet replied.
"Are they out of their bloody minds?!!!" Hunter raged, his anger abruptly returning. "Ciaran summoned the bloody wave in the first place!! And Killian! He's almost as bad!"
"Nevertheless,"Kennet began. "They are also part of the ties that bind. They must be summoned in as well."
"We don't even know where to look," Hunter replied vehemently.
"I do,"Morgan said in a quiet whisper. "I can get in contact with Killian and he can-he can show us where Ciaran is."
"Indeed,"Kennet spoke quietly. "Indeed."
"And when shall this ritual be preformed?" Danial asked in a professional tone that cut through the sudden silence.
"Three days,"Kennet replied. "On the new moon."
"Alright." Danial abruptly stood and walked swiftly from the room, letting the door close behind him with a gentle thud. They heard his retreating footsteps echo outside the meeting room's doors, until they finally disappeared.
"I can't believe they would do this,"Hunter said angrily and stood. Morgan stood with him, and he, grabbing her hand, left in the same fashion as his father.
(*_* ^_^ _ o.0 '_' x-\)
"Are they out of their minds?!"
Morgan sat numbly as Hunter raged in the car as he drove down the widing streets away from the council building and back into the small town where they were staying. Mr. Niall sat in the back seat, quietly looking out the window and observing the countryside. The sky was grey overhead with a few stray patches of blue that were slowly being covered over. The landscape below looked as dismal as the sky, the grren of the grass fading with the golden beams of the sun that had shone so brightly only a few moments ago in the meeting room. It seemed fitting.
"They can't possibly expect us to do this," he said angrily rounding a corner in the dirt and gravel road."They can't possibly make you do this." That statement was directed at Morgan. She said nothing and focused on the road.
They were in Europe on holiday. Morgan had finally turned eighteen and her parents consented to her visiting Hunter's home country on the condition that she called every night at 9 pm, American time. Her holiday had been going great....until this morning.
She sighed and sat back in her seat as Hunter made another turn in the road and they entered the first tale-tell signs that they were coming back to the town. It was a charming little place with clapboard houses and cottages dotting the countryside, warm, welcoming town square with the schools, the businesses and a wonderful little Pub that played all kinds of music that fit everyone's tastes. Morgan was enamored with the town and its antiquity. It had been up and going for nearly a century.
"There's no excusing this," Hunter growled bringing Morgan back from her momentary lapse of concentration.
"Can you get in contact with Killian here? In Enlgand?" Mr. Niall asked from the back seat. Morgan jumped at his voice, all stoic and emotionless. She looked back saw his face. Much the same as his voice: placid and unyielding of its secrets.
"Yeah,"Morgan replied wondering how he could be so placid at a time like this. He should hve been livid, but it seemed this situation had only driven him into himself where Goddess only knew how many emotions were raging inside: the loss of his wife, the fear that the dark wave had caused, all the death and destruction it had unleashed, and countless many other things.
She turned away from Mr. Niall as Hunter drove into the town square and down a familiar street leading to their hotel: a cozy, three-story cottage with a small eating parlor, a garden that guests could stroll in and a steam house.
"You shouldn't have to call them at all," Hunter said in an angry hiss. "I bet it's bleeding Ciaran. Somehow, in some way, he can't just stay the hell out of anyone's lives. He still manages to be an overall nuisance."
Mr. Niall didn't say anything, and Morgan felt the silence drop around her like a hammer. She had to break it.
"But Killian's not all that bad," she replied quietly. "He's--"
"He bloody well would've sent you down the road of dark magick too," Hunter hissed again. "He's a bleeding prat."
Morgan sighed. "Regardless, I hve to call him. And I'll have to do it when we get to hotel."
Hunter fell quiet at that, and remained that way until they pulled up to the hotel parking. He parked and shut off the car Mr. Niall was the first to get out and head off to the gardens, the placid look slowly evaporating from his face. But before Hunter got out, he turned to Morgan and said,"You do what you have to do." He took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissed each one of her knuckles. "I don't like this....And I'm not too fond of the council right now, but...Goddess, Morgan, I love you....And-And I'll protect you from whatever Cal's Book has to show us."
She gave him a small grin and cupped his cheek with her free hand. "I know," she said and drew him close until their noses were only inches apart. "I know." He kissed her gently on the lips, finally deepening it, savoring the thrills running through their bodies, the hot and cold, the fire in their blood and the ice in their bones. Finally, they broke apart and went up to their hotel room. The minute they were inside, Morgan went to the phone and picked it up, dialling the number Killian gave her to reach him. She knew it by heart.
When the other end was picked up, she barely gave her half-brother a chance to speak.
"Hello--"
"Killian...We need to talk..."
