Hey everyone - sorry for the long hiatus. As many of you know I've simply been overwhelmed with everything going on which included moving my grandparents across the country to live out here with us. I've also begun to manage some of their finances, and have had to address a number of other things that have come up on various fronts. Honestly I sometimes can't believe just how much I actually got done last year. lol
Anyway - I'm trying to get back into the writing swing so I can get this story completed. I do know exactly where I'm going with it - I simply haven't had time or energy to write to the point where I've quite literally fallen asleep at the computer on more than occasion. Anywho - here's the next installment. Enjoy!
*********************
Eogan studied the young man in front of him, taking in the height and grey eyes that he shared with his sister, though that was where the similarity ended. Where Lucienne was curvy and seemed to project a solid presence, Keith had taken on more of his Unsleir heritage being slender and fine boned with a softer sensibility about him. Even his shoulder length hair was very pale, looking closer to Eogan's own silver-white rather than Lucienne's honey gold.
"It's good to see you, grandson," Eogan finally spoke, breaking the silence.
The young man's lips twisted slightly before he replied, "Wish I could have heard that about ten years ago."
"I apologize for not tracking both you and your sister more closely. I know I failed you both, and I can only try to fix things moving forward. I want you to know that I did leave trusted people in place to help you. I haven't yet found out what happened to them, finding you and your sisters was a higher priority, but you weren't supposed to be alone."
Keith snorted, "Yeah, we never heard from anyone. I know Luce's pretty much forgiven you, but I don't know if she'd have been so quick if she knew the real reason why you forgot about us. I admit Klieara was a hot piece of ass, but we're your blood, oh great clan leader."
Eogan's eyes flashed blue before he calmed himself, taking a deep breath. "You will not disrespect her again," he replied, a cold note to his voice. "The failing was mine, not hers, and you should only hope that you are never in such a bad state as to need her help. If I ever hear her name from your lips without proper deference again, you will not find me so forgiving."
Keith nodded in acknowledgment and Eogan noticed a brief flash of respect shift across his grandson's face. With that, several pieces suddenly fell into place and Eogan almost laughed aloud when he realized Keith had been testing him. Well at least in part. He's still angry and he's enjoying getting some revenge out of this, he thought to himself, carefully considering Keith's reactions so far.
"Clearly your vision is clearer than most, grandson," Eogan continued smoothly, lifting his eyebrow in an unspoken query for more information. After all, there was only one way his great great grandson could have known so much about Klieara.
Keith's lips tightened in anger before he gave a sharp nod, refusing to comment. As far as Keith was concerned, Eogan didn't deserve for this conversation to be easy, and he had no intention of making any of this any smoother than necessary.
Eogan shook his head slightly, noting both the reaction and his grandson's quick suppression of his emotions. "You have too much anger in you and it wasn't all of my doing. You must let it go, or it will rule you and your abilities."
Keith snorted, "Yeah, abandonment and dead siblings do that. It's worse when you know they're going to die before it happens and they won't listen to you," he spat out, and then clamped his lips shut again, clearly having said more than he intended.
Eogan shook his head again, "You weren't abandoned and you know that. Your brother, Ian, made his choice and stood for his beliefs. I have been training Lucienne and she showed me his last moments. Did you know that she merged with his mind when he was killed?" Eogan asked, reading the answer in the stricken look that passed across Keith's face.
"Lucienne experienced everything Ian did. She felt his emotions, heard his thoughts and endured his death. He died protecting his team and the people they'd been sent to rescue and he was proud that his sacrifice meant something. His final thoughts were of his family. Of how much he loved each of you, and I'm proud that he is the blood kin of my blood, though he shares no direct relation to me. He was a man of courage and deep conviction, a true protector and guardian in every sense, and I honor that. I also know that his character was strong enough that my presence would have had no impact on his decision, and I believe you already know this, too."
"Maybe it wouldn't, but if you'd been there, you could've at least stopped our father from going nuts," Keith lashed out, though Eogan knew it was from the pain and guilt the young man was feeling, rather than real anger.
"In the short time I've been here it's been clear to me that you are gifted with strong vision. Have you used your ability to look into the branches of the past? Have you followed the paths of every possible timeline to know how my presence would have affected the outcome?" Eogan asked him calmly, already certain of the answer.
"I don't exactly have a lot of control, and my feelings make it worse," Keith gritted out from behind clenched teeth.
"If you wish to see for yourself, I can assist with the control issue. As clan leader, I am able to offer some degree of stabilization to any of those sharing my blood," Eogan commented mildly, watching the emotions play across his grandson's face till finally he settled on resigned acceptance.
Keith gave his great great grandfather a short nod, and Eogan extended a mental hand, waiting for his descendent to accept his assistance. The moment the link was formed between them, Eogan stabilized his grandson's ability and Keith's eyes took on a blue glow as he looked into a myriad of alternate futures. After several moments the glow faded and Keith seemed to sag into his chair in defeat while Eogan gently disengaged.
"It would've been so much worse," he finally admitted, not meeting his great great grandfather's eyes.
"Now you see the reason I stayed away, grandson," Eogan spoke quietly, not bothering to comment further. "Though my vision is not strong, it is very accurate. At your birth I saw two paths clearly laid before me. Staying away from all of you, aside from attending your sister's birth, provided the best outcome. To protect all of you, including your half siblings, I stayed away from my own blood kin. Perhaps in time you'll understand the true cost of such an action, but for now, know that it was the hardest thing I've ever done. Without Klieara's assistance, I may have tread a very dark path indeed."
Keith bowed his head, his body sagging in defeat and shame, finally realizing the true extent of his great great grandfather's sacrifice. "I'm sorry for what I said to you before," he half whispered. "I should have looked more carefully instead of assuming."
Eogan nodded, a small smile lifting his lips. "I understand perfectly and there's nothing to forgive," he replied before wrapping his arms around his blood kin in the first hug he'd given since Keith was a toddler. Keith stiffened at first, but then quickly relaxed and tightened his embrace, fully accepting Eogan as his family.
"Hallelujah the boy can be taught!" Brigid's voice floated out from the surrounding trees before she herself appeared, almost materializing out of thin air. "I was about ready to start beating you on the head with a stick, you know."
Keith sat back with a sigh of exasperation, "Yes, well at least..." he trailed off as he stiffened and his eyes began to glow again. Fear and anger crossed his features before the glow faded and he bent over double, panting as he recovered. Eogan looked on with concern, but knew better than to interfere.
"It's time for you to go," Keith gasped out, still bent over. "Lucienne and Michael need your help right away."
Eogan stood, ready to leave immediately, but Keith put out a hand. "Wait. You need to get back quietly. Don't let anyone but Michael and Luce know you're there. I saw that somehow their enemy will know you're there if anyone else knows, but nobody's betraying Michael, either," Keith said, a confused look on his face as he relayed the information. "I can't see them clearly, so I can't figure out what they're doing, but if you can get there without them knowing you're back, you have a chance to trap whoever's the puppetmaster here."
Keith looked up and the look in his eyes was both powerful and haunting, and Eogan knew his great great grandson was linked with powers much greater than any of them. "Don't assume you know who's pulling the strings. Sometimes the most obvious choice is just a diversion," he warned, an odd note rumbling underneath Keith's light tenor voice.
Eogan nodded, acknowledging the warning as the unearthly power faded from his great great grandson's eyes. "Will you accept my blessing before I leave?" he asked, quietly.
"I would be honored, grandfather," Keith replied with a small smile, no longer anything more than the young man he was.
Eogan calmly placed a hand on his great great grandson's head and murmured something in the liquid tongue of his native language. A light silver mist settled over Keith before disappearing, the protection settling in soft as a feather.
"Thank you," Keith said with the first look of content Eogan had seen from the young man. "Would you please tell Luce that I'll be sending our sisters to her as soon as she and Michael have taken care of their little problem. Brigid's arranged for a teacher who specializes in my particular gift, so I'll need to leave soon. Besides, our sisters need to get to know Luce again, and Luce deserves to have some of her family back."
Eogan raised an eyebrow in surprise, realizing that for Brigid to arrange for training outside of his clan meant that she'd lined up someone of the highest level, and he had a strong suspicion of who that would be. Tucking those thoughts away he replied, "You deserve to have her back as well."
Guilt flashed across Keith's features as he shook his head, "Not really, not after the things I said."
"You had a vision about her, didn't you?" Eogan asked calmly before chuckling at Keith's surprised look. "Don't be so shocked. I have a few more years of experience on my side and I'm certainly capable of extrapolation," he said with a grin. "You should remember, though, that you gave her, and the rest of our clan, the greatest gift by putting her on the path to her Annagealta. I know you can't come to her now, but please visit when you have a break in your training. I know she'd be very happy to see you."
"I'll try," Keith replied with a rather weak smile that wasn't fooling Eogan. Not that it really mattered. Unsleir blood did tend to call out to family, so it was only a matter of time before the situation resolved itself.
"Until I see you again, grandson," Eogan said before once again shifting languages to offer the traditional farewell within their clan.
Keith smiled a little stronger this time, the Unsleir part of him clearly finding comfort in his acceptance and inclusion into his family clan. In a sense, it was rather as if he'd finally found firm ground to walk on after nothing but shifting sands for so long, and he reveled in the feeling. "Until we meet again," Keith replied before his kin and clan leader stepped back into the forest and disappeared into the trees.
*********************
"No, damn it! You're screwing up the whole fucking project! Nepotism's great and all, but it won't keep you here if we have to keep holding your hand!"
Lucienne paused in shock outside the office door at the sound of Elijah's voice growling through the heavy wooden frame. There was a vicious note in it that she hadn't heard before, though Michael had, and she rushed inside at the sense of urgency that filled her Ruach. The scene that met her gaze was more than a little alarming considering both Michael's memories and her own impressions of the man. A disheveled Elijah was glaring at Maria who was sitting at the computer, staring at the reports on the screen with an intense stony gaze.
It was that look on Maria's face that really tipped off Lucienne. She knew her friend probably seconds away from losing control of her anger, something Lucienne had only witnessed a bare handful of times in all the years they'd been friends. In short Elijah had to have been way over the line long before that last little comment and she needed to put a stop to this right now.
"What the hell is going on in here!" she demanded, giving Elijah a cold glare of her own that told him he'd better start explaining and she wouldn't tolerate any more abuse.
"Where's Michael? The whole fucking Coconut Grove proposal is falling to pieces and she's not helping the situation!" Elijah half hissed at her.
Lucienne calmed the anger that flowed from Michael and leveled a severe gaze at his Made before pointing to a nearby chair. "Sit down," she ordered, using a touch of the command voice that was now under her control after a lot of practice with Eogan.
Elijah was clearly beyond pissed, but he obeyed which was all that Lucienne cared about at the moment considering the weight of Michael's protective instincts and reactions running through her. After all, their bond was completely open to keep him stable, which meant everything he felt flowed through her and vice versa. She felt Michael pull some of his emotions back, obviously feeling her starting to get a bit overwhelmed.
"I'm sorry, My Heart," he said. "You're not alone in your inexperience with such intimate company, though admittedly, my abilities and training do prepare me to some extent. I will endeavor to put my skills to better use that I may not burden you."
Lucienne was filled with equal parts amusement, love and exasperation, all of which she knew Michael was now feeling as well. "Michael, stop trying to carry the weight of the world. There's really nothing to prepare anyone for having your mind and heart completely open to someone else for an extended period of time. It's going to be difficult sometimes, and that's okay. We're both strong enough to handle this. We're just literally embodying the whole two minds as one concept," she finished with a mental laugh, feeling a flush of pleasure when he chuckled as well and his mood lightened.
Refocusing on the room again, she shifted her attention to her friend who was giving her a questioning look. "Maria," she said with a small smile, "Michael says he'll meet you in the White Room so you can get that project sorted before we start up the Alpha meetings after lunch," she said, giving her friend an excuse to leave, which Maria quickly took.
As soon as the door clicked shut again, she leveled an icy glare at Elijah. "Care to tell me what made you think it was okay to dump on Maria? I know what's happening with that project, and none of the problems have anything to do with her. Add to that she's still human and under Michael's protection. You know how he feels about that. If you had the common sense God gave a flea, you'd have looked for me when you couldn't find him," she said, pausing to see if her words were having any impact. Unfortunately, while she could tell he was listening, he still needed to be shaken out of his anger so she could find out what was really wrong, and since she knew Michael's life, she also knew what would strike home for his Made.
She sighed, giving him a disappointed look before saying, "You know, Elijah, I really didn't peg you as a bully."
That last comment did it. His head snapped up in shock while his face paled and he trembled slightly in anger before running his hand through his hair in agitation. She remained silent, knowing he was working through a fair amount of emotion with that comment, and that guilt would probably be rising up in him. Finally, Elijah took several deep breaths and then seemed to completely deflate in front of her.
"I'm sorry," he finally said before rubbing his face. "I don't know what came over me. Something's off with Michael. He's shut us out, but it's still echoing down the Maker bond. It's unbalancing me more than I thought and it's worse because I haven't been able to find him all morning. I swear when he doesn't want to be found..." Elijah trailed off before bringing himself back to the point. "Anyway, I'm sorry, and I'll apologize to Maria, too."
Lucienne nodded her head in acceptance and moved to sit behind Michael's desk, her Ruach's amusement coming through loud and clear. "Hey, at the moment it's like we're almost interchangeable. Maybe I can send you to my next gyno appointment," she joked, feeling even happier when he was able to laugh at the situation.
"You're right that there's something a bit off right now," she said to Elijah, her face and tone turning serious. "I'm sure you get that this absolutely goes no further, not even to your Ruachs," she said, and was surprised when he gave her a quick nod.
Elijah flashed a small smile at her reaction before saying, "We already figured there'd be things like that and came to an agreement. Misha and Harriet already dealt with some of that since she answered to her Alpha and he answered to his Lord. Being under the command of the Dragon Touched as part of their tester integrated unit helped the situation, but..." Elijah trailed off, giving her a shrug.
She nodded her head, understanding perfectly before continuing. "Very good. In that case, the reason you couldn't find him was that Michael needed to try and regain some calm and his sense of center. Last night, his ability to hear the minds of others suddenly, and with absolutely no warning, got exponentially stronger to the point where he nearly lost himself," she paused at Elijah's shocked hiss.
"I'm currently stabilizing him which requires our bond to be completely open at all times. In essence, when you talk to me you're also talking to him and vice versa. You haven't been able to contact him because he's afraid of losing control if he taps into his mental ability, so he's been keeping it locked down."
"Shit," Elijah said as he leaned back in his chair, obviously processing the information. "That can't be comfortable for either of you," he commented and she smiled.
"We were actually just talking about that a moment ago. It's not as bad as you'd think, though it's definitely very... exposed. I don't think either of us could handle it with anyone else, but with the way we bonded... Well I think we can actually sustain this indefinitely, though we do want to solve the issue for obvious reasons," she finished, feeling the flush of pleasure rise up in Michael at her words.
"Honestly, the hardest part for me at the moment is the weird double conversation happening since Michael's currently talking to Maria. If it weren't for the fact that he's been managing multiple mental conversations for years, and that I have the benefit of that experience, I probably wouldn't be able to talk to you right now.
Elijah nodded, and while he didn't share the same level of brilliance as his maker, he was certainly no slouch and was more than capable of analyzing the situation. That meant neither Lucienne nor Michael was surprised at the next question.
"Do you think it might've been some kind of attack? Maybe a drug or poison?" he asked with a frown.
"At this point anything's possible," she replied with a sigh. "Michael's never heard or read of anything like this. He's already contacted Victor and asked him to quietly research the matter, but we're obviously trying to keep this to as few ears as possible. You were a bit busy this morning," she said with a knowing smile, "and he didn't want to interrupt, so he decided to go do bit of re-centering and planned to tell you afterwards."
"Occasionally I wish he was less considerate," Elijah replied with a rueful smile before turning to business again. "I think it would be a good idea if you both avoid any of the private stocks till we know they're not tampered with. I'll also make sure we double up on scanning all the staff for threats, and I'll change up some of the security. I'll also alert Silas and Kate so they don't go off the deep end either."
Lucienne nodded acceptance, a slight smile twitching her lips as Michael's approval for his Made radiated through her. "Thank you, Elijah, and Michael says he's sorry he didn't stop to tell you about this earlier. Not having the convenience to delicately interrupt mind to mind rather than face to face, threw him a little bit."
Elijah snorted in reply, "I'm amazed he's handling it as calmly as he is, I don't think there's too many others out there that would be so collected if they were in his shoes right now."
Lucienne smiled, feeling the humble deflection coming through their link while letting her pride in her Ruach well up to reinforce Elijah's words. Amazement was the response she got before he felt him shake his head at them and refocus on his conversation with Maria. Lucienne chuckled and gave Elijah a wink, confident the man knew Michael well enough to guess at the interplay going on.
Elijah gave an answering smile before running his hand through his hair one more time. "Thank you for stopping me earlier," he said, his tone the most serious she'd ever heard out of him. "I was way out of line, and there's no excuse. I'm old enough and well taught enough to know better than to let something like that affect me to that degree. I'm sorry you had to step in."
Lucienne gave Elijah a sharp nod, her expression becoming as serious as his. "Remember this and learn from it," she told him, paraphrasing words she knew Michael often repeated to all his Made. Elijah nodded again and rose from the chair, giving her a small bow of respect before leaving.
Lucienne sighed briefly before settling down to do the work she'd actually come in here to take care of in the first place. She still had some ongoing projects that needed a small amount of management even though she was technically taking time off. After all, she thought with a smile at Michael's amusement as he followed her thoughts, 'time and tide wait for no man...'
"Indeed, granddaughter," Eogan's voice drifted across her thoughts startling both her and Michael whose mental presence automatically moved to defend her. A moment later he pulled back again having confirmed Eogan's identity.
"I see I have returned not a moment too soon," he continued a small thread of concern in his mental voice. "If it is convenient, I would like to meet with you both, preferably without notifying anyone else of my presence," he requested, putting both her and Michael on alert and filling their minds with questions.
"Of course," Lucienne replied, knowing Michael was still hesitant to access his mental abilities even enough to speak directly with Eogan himself. "We'll meet you here immediately," she replied, sending him a mental picture of the location.
Eogan acknowledged her and then cut their communication, clearly on the move. It was mere moments before she and Michael were following suit, hope rising in her that Eogan might be able to help.
"It is possible, My Heart," Michael spoke through their bond, and she felt a small thread of hope rise in him as well making her smile as they went to meet her great great grandfather.
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