Page 19 of Storm Dragon
No sooner did she shriek the words than did a wave of Black Magic so strong and so horrific land on Ruairí like a ton of bricks. Struggling to breathe, fighting against the tsunami of ebony smoke that was trying to drag him under, the last thing he heard before he could no longer remain conscious was, “And I don’t give a shit how many Shifters are on my mountain. I only need the heart of that fucking Bobcat Queen!”
7
“Hide you?” Peaches, Tamsyn’s younger sister, laughed out loud. “Did you seriously just ask to be hidden from me?” There was an audible gasp that made Tamsyn bite the inside of her cheeks to keep from laughing out loud. “Sweet, little, old me? I am hurt. I am wounded. I am…”
“And you wonder why I’m takin’ cover?”
“Ha!” Peaches barked with laughter. “That’s fair, but then again, you share a soul with my sister, the one person in all the world who doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘stop’. Everybody in North Carolina knows that Tams is like the Energizer Bunny. She keeps going and going and…”
Chuckling even though her sister poked fun at her, Tamsyn came right back, teasing aloud. “You’re one to talk, Miss Tar Heel 19…”
“That’s far enough,” Peaches warned with a twinkle in her eye and a grin on her face as she appeared at the Bobcat Queen’s side. “You don’t need to go publicizin’ my age to everyone within earshot. There are a lot of good-lookin’ men from exotic lands up in here.”
“Exotic lands?” Tamsyn scoffed with a chuckle. “Like Raleigh? That kinda exotic land?”
“No, Bonehead,” Peaches deadpanned, her eyes shining with laughter. Just barely holding back her laughter, she added, “I was thinkin’ more like the Isle of Skye.” Bumping elbows with Tamsyn, she waggled her eyebrows and shimmied her shoulders until she could no longer hold back her laughter.
Amidst the chuckles, she kept right on teasing, “Don’t look so surprised, Sis.” Tapping her temple, she winked. “Oh, yeah, Bridgette there had the mental party line open. I heard it all, and I have to agree that they damned sure know how to grow ‘em right on that Isle across the pond.” Batting her eyes, she kept right on going, “So you can’t go lettin’ my age slip. You know I like to play the poor, naïve female when the situation calls for it.”
“Nope, not takin’ the bait.” Tamsyn shook her head, pursing her lips to keep from smiling. “I do not need information on your love life.”
“Or lack thereof,” Peaches huffed.
“Girl, what are you talkin’ ‘bout? You’re dance card is always full.”
“Oh, those boys are just to pass the time.” The youngest Ryder sister sighed. “Gotta do somethin’. It’s not like Fate or Her sister, Destiny, has sent the guy the Universe made for me this way. If they don’t hurry, I’m gonna be an Old Maid with a house full of cats and a flat butt from spendin’ all day in a rockin’ chair on the front porch.”
“Whoa, hold on there,” Tamsyn quickly objected. “I’m older than you, and the last time I checked, there’s not an expiration date stamped on my curvy behind. So, I’m pretty damned sure there’s not one on yours either.”
“Yeah, okay, stop right there. What are you, like ten months older than me? “”
“You know it. To the day, Sister Dear.”
“Right. So, we’re… Ummmm, we’re…” Slamming her fists onto her hips, Peaches grumbled, “Okay, Bridgette, I know you’re dying to tell me what it’s called. So, hit it, Encyclopedia Brown.”
“You are so right, Peaches, my Dear, I am at the very least as smart as that precocious little boy,” Bridgette chimed in, sure to open the unique link she shared with both Ryder sisters. “When siblings are ten months apart, they are called Irish twins, and that means…”
“Oh, yeah,” Peaches giggled, cutting off the Bobcat Queen before she really got going. “That’s what it’s called. Thanks, Bridge. I would’ve asked your sister, but as you well know, she’s still squatting in the back of my mind and pouting. The last thing Bethany said was that she needed a break from all my shenanigans.” Pursing her lips, then moving them side to side, the youngest Ryder Bobcat shook her head and added, “Oh, well, she’ll either get over it or she won’t. It’s not the first fight we’ve ever had, and it won’t be the last.” Shaking her head, she squinted. “Now, where was I?”
“You were…”
“Oh, yeah, I was about to say, as long as Tamsyn came first, and I don’t have to be in charge of anything but the horses and the crops, I’m one happy little kitty cat. Call me an Irish Twin or the Runt of the Litter, as long as nobody’s calling me, ma’am, or Miss Peaches, Goddess forbid, Alpha, or late for dinner, I’m good.”
“Yeah, well, you better be ready to take over,” Tamsyn nodded, watching the last of the Shifters from Pounces, Prides, Packs, Clans, Jamborees, and so many others from all over the world appear out of the tree line. “Who knows what’s gonna happen with this storm. I might just get carried off by the winds or the rains or a freakin’ mudslide. I mean from lookin’ at the weather reports, I would swear somebody pissed in Mother Nature’s Cheerios and she’s out for blood.”
“Girl, you know you’re tougher than any hurricane and more stubborn than the Great Manannán mac Lir, the Celtic God of the Sea,” Peaches reassured aloud. Leaning in, her eyes slid left then right as her voice took on a haunted quality. Then she added in a whisper, “But I do have to admit that the name of this blasted hurricane bothers me more than the fact that it’s coming. It’s like a bad…”
“…omen,” Tamsyn said in unison with her sister.
Unable to stop the memories from flashing to life in her mind, Tamsyn turned to the side and squinted her eyes against the rays of the setting sun. It was all she could do to keep the onslaught of turbulent emotions from showing on her face, and she appreciated that the Bobcat Queen, with whom she shared her soul and her sister, was giving her a minute.
Why in all that was holy did those blasted weathermen have to name the impending storm, Hettie? There had to be at least ten thousand or so names in just about as many languages that started with H, right? Why that name? Why now, with the impending anniversary of her parents’ disappearance looming over her, Peaches and the entire Ryder Pounce like a big, black cloud, did they have to be reminded of that horrible Sow?
The Wild Boar was rotten to the core and evil as Satan himself. There was literally no way she didn’t have something to do with Tamsyn and Peaches’ parents’ disappearance. Not one damned thing about any of it made sense.
Everyone, including the Council of Others and their Enforcers, agreed that Hettie Zanderghast, the Wild Boar Sow and Leader of the Zanderghast Herd and her bastard Mate, Milton–a millennium-old Sorcerer of ill repute–had something to do with the strange circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the Alpha couple. It was the only explanation. They were the only people in all of Tamsyn’s life who had ever said a cross word about Virgil and Virginia.
Not to mention the fact that absolutely no one knew the Black Mountains–specifically Mt. Serenity–like the King and Queen of the Ryder Pounce. Not only had they been born centuries ago on the right side of Mt. Serenity, but the Ryder Bobcats had been in that part of the world right along with the indigenous tribes and the buffalo long before anyone knew a ‘New World’ existed.
