Succubus Ascendant: An Urban Fantasy (The Telepathic Clans Saga Book 4) (29 page)

“Want to go see him tonight?” Brenna asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll be right back,” Brenna told Morrighan. “Don’t stand on that rug over there by the bed.”

She took her sister’s arm and sent a spear thought to Carlos in Washington. Then the two women disappeared. Five minutes later, Brenna reappeared on the rug by the bed.

“It must be nice to be able to just go anywhere you want, anytime you want,” Morrighan said.

Brenna pursed her mouth and said, “I used to think it would be nice to have enough money to do anything I wanted. I’ve discovered that when you have that much money, you can’t do everything you want. Hell, sometimes I can’t do anything that I want to do. It seems like everyone wants a piece of me all the time. If I could teleport around the world on my own, like a jetsetter, then I’d get excited about it. But I can’t. All the security and my responsibilities get in the way. The logistics prevent it.”

Morrighan nodded. “So, what now?”

“I guess I need to get into the finances and business of O’Byrne so I understand what’s going on. I’ve tried to keep up with it the past two years, but I don’t have as good an understanding of this Clan as I do of O’Donnell. Then I need to figure out how to integrate the two Irish Clans with O’Donnell. I need to put Collin and Devlin together to get the security stuff straight. And I need to figure out what to do with Andrew and Rebecca.”

~~~

The next day, she teleported to Dublin to speak with Michael O’Byrne, then to Washington and had a second breakfast with Rebecca and Carlos.

“Have you two figured out what you’re going to do?” Brenna asked them.

“I’ve been toying with the idea of shooting you,” Rebecca said, raking her hand through her hair. “But Carlos thinks there are less drastic solutions to our problem.”

Brenna and Carlos both laughed.

Rebecca’s husband, tall, broad-shouldered, dark-haired and movie-star-Latin handsome, said, “I’m resigning my position in the military. I knew this would come, and I’ve stayed on in this job because it gave me an excuse to be here in Washington.” Carlos was a general in the Ecuadorian army and his country’s military attaché at their embassy in the United States. He was also heir to the Vargas Clan in Ecuador.

“My father plans to continue as Clan Chief for another forty years. We have talked about what would happen when you and Rebecca moved to Ireland. He says it’s time I became more business oriented, so I’ll be taking over our trade office in Paris. It’s not the ideal living situation, but we’re going to get a place in London so we can meet in the middle.”

“It’s less than a two hour flight from Dublin to Paris,” Rebecca said. “An hour from Dublin to London and an hour from Paris to London. We’ll manage.”

“Rebecca, what do you want to do?” Brenna said, leaning forward and looking directly into her sister’s eyes. “I know that Morrighan’s idea makes some sense, but I can find someone else to coordinate security. What do you want to do?”

Rebecca leaned back in her chair, sipping her coffee and staring off into space. Silence extended for several minutes, with Brenna and Carlos also preoccupied with their own thoughts.

“You know,” Rebecca said at last, “I didn’t object to that because it makes sense. Not just sense in a strategic way, but in a personal way. I enjoy being a Protector. Goddess help me, but the rush, the excitement of being in Scotland, of the work I did in Russia, was something I liked.”

She took Carlos’s hand. “As much as I love you, I don’t want to sit around knitting sweaters and keeping house. Maybe someday, but I’m young and I need to be active. I enjoy all the travel, seeing new places. I feel as though I learn something new every day.”

Turning to Brenna, she said, “That sounds good. Let’s go with security coordinator for now, and see what it morphs into. I’m sure that we’ll figure it out over time.”

“Okay,” Brenna said. “I have a present for you. I know it’s not enough to make up for what the two of you are doing for me, but maybe it will help.”

She held out a piece of paper to Rebecca.

Rebecca’s eyes about popped out of her head. “Brenna, I wasn’t serious!”

“What?” Carlos asked.

“She bought us an airplane! Jesus, Brenna. You can’t do that!”

“I already did. If you’re going to be coordinating security for three Clans, you’re going to need to be mobile. This plane will fit the runways at all three Clans and its range will take you from Paris to West Virginia. We’ll write it off as a corporate expense to O’Byrne.”

They stared at her with their mouths open.

“Now, señor de Vargas, what kind of business ventures do you plan to explore in Europe? Should I have Brian O’Byrne contact you to develop an integrated strategy for taking the Continent by storm? Should I put you in contact with the Clan Chiefs in Russia? I’m sure they have a need for warm sweaters, even if your wife refuses to knit them.”

~~~

Leaving Carlos in Washington, Brenna and Rebecca teleported to West Virginia, where they spent the rest of the morning closeted with Seamus and Callie. Brenna had an intimate lunch with Collin, then she and Rebecca teleported back to Ireland in time for dinner, each carrying two large suitcases full of clothes.

Seated at the head of the table, with her grandparents to her right and Rebecca and their cousin Jared to her left, Brenna felt very uncomfortable. Only family attended, but there were sixty people at the table. She had gotten to know most of them over the previous two years, but her place in the Clan had undergone a major change in the past day.

Dinner conversation was subdued, with everyone focused on their new Clan Chief. Brenna assured them that she planned no major changes in the Clan or its business operations. She also told them that she was open to recommendations or suggestions, and encouraged them to meet with her to discuss anything they might want her to hear.

The following day, she traveled to Dublin for a business meeting with her uncles Michael and Brian and her Aunt Morrighan. They rode in two limousines, sandwiched by two vans full of Protectors in front and two behind. Brenna was amused by Rhiannon and Brian trying to avoid sitting next to each other. Being the Clan Chief had its perks, such as micromanaging minor things when the whim took her.

Brenna directed Rebecca to join Morrighan in the lead limo with Michael. Brushing past Rhiannon, actually being a bit rude, she took the seat Rhiannon had targeted and set her briefcase next to her. The only empty seat left was the one next to Brian.

The sexual tension in the back of the limo was sky high. Brenna was sure the two people sitting across from her thought they were masking their feelings, but it’s almost impossible to hide attraction from a succubus. She knew from Rhiannon’s memories that her cousin was madly in love with Brian, indeed had been since she was a teenager. But Brian had brushed her off once, and Rhiannon had never gotten over the humiliation. It sat like an aching tooth in the back of her mind, and seeing Brian brought out the pain.

What Brenna couldn’t figure out was why, since Brian was obviously smitten with her, he’d never tried to rekindle a relationship.

As they slowed to enter a roundabout before the M11 highway near the town of Rathnew, a streak of light from the trees on their left hit the lead van and it exploded. Immediately, air shields went up around the limos and the other vans. The second lead van skidded and barely missed hitting the flaming wreckage in the road.

A fireball hit the shield around Brenna’s limo, and then an explosion rocked the vehicle. The driver pulled as far to the right as he could and stopped. The two trailing vans pulled up to their left, shielding them from the attackers in the trees.

Brenna scanned the area, finding a confusion of minds and telepathic communications. She tried to filter out what she could, concentrating on the trees to their left.

Dismayed at what she found, she told Rebecca, *
There are over fifty of them.*

Brenna shifted her attention to the right, where there were no trees, only grass and low bushes inside the roundabout. She sensed two minds there and, using her O’Donnell Gift, shattered their shields and captured their minds.

*
Rebecca, I have the only two men on the right. They’re armed with automatic rifles and a bazooka.*

*
Just hold them,*
Rebecca responded.
*Contact Jared and tell him we’ve been attacked.*

Fireballs flew from the trees and the chatter of automatic rifle fire filled the air.

Brenna sent a spear thread to Jared back at the estate. He told her that help from there was at least twenty minutes away.

The limo’s driver began to inch forward, then gunned the engine and shot forward, driving on the shoulder of the road. They passed the burning van and took the on ramp to the highway. Looking back, Brenna saw the other limo following them and the battle continuing behind them. The surviving lead van followed the two limos. They hit the highway, and the driver pushed the limo up to over one hundred miles an hour.

Shortly thereafter, she felt her grip on the minds of the two men she held begin to fade. With a sick feeling, she stopped their hearts and slumped back into her seat.

“Did you lose them?” Rhiannon asked.

“Yeah, but I learned what they knew,” Brenna answered. She telepathically sent the information she’d gathered to Rhiannon and her sister. It included where the men thought Andrew was hiding in Dublin, and then she transmitted it all to Jared.

When they arrived at the O’Byrne headquarters in Dublin, the building and the blocks surrounding it were swarming with Protectors. Brenna and her family were hustled from an underground garage to Michael’s office suite on the sixth floor. The first thing Brenna noticed was that metal shutters covered all the windows. The Protectors were taking no chances.

A man in Protector-black gave them a quick report. “We hit both places where we expected Andrew might be. Both were abandoned. We found no weapons, money or computers, but they left some of their communications equipment behind. They left food and personal effects, including clothing, so obviously they bailed out in a hurry. The warehouse where Jared told us to look had beds for about a hundred men. After we’ve finished sweeping it, we’ll use it as a barracks for the O’Donnell personnel when they come in.”

“O’Donnell personnel?” Brenna asked.

“Yes, Jared said there are several hundred O’Donnell Protectors coming in. We expect two hundred from England tonight.”

“I think your grandfather is concerned about your safety,” Michael said, referring to Seamus.

As the largest Clan in the western hemisphere, O’Donnell had a security force almost as large as the entire O’Byrne Clan.

“What about our operations outside Ireland?” Brenna asked. People exchanged glances, but no one answered her.

Finally, Brian said, “I have one hundred Protectors in Paris. I think there are about the same in Cardiff.”

Brenna turned to Rebecca. “Double Paris, triple Cardiff.”

Rebecca nodded and pulled out her phone.

“Please alert O’Neill,” Brenna said to the Protector who had briefed them. “We had intelligence that Andrew and Finnian O’Neill were in contact with each other. With Finnian dead, some of his men might be looking for someone to take them in, and they might contact Andrew. If you can coordinate with O’Neill, maybe we can avoid something falling through the cracks. I’d prefer to avoid any nasty surprises.”

The man nodded and left them.

“Well, if I can get a shot of whiskey to calm my nerves, shall we get back to the reason we came here?” Brenna asked, giving Michael a shaky smile.

The group was ushered to a conference room where a bottle of Irish whiskey sat with coffee and tea on a sideboard along with finger foods. Several aides showed everyone to their seats, handed them the business documents prepared for them and served drinks and small plates of food.

~~~

Chapter 21

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. - Alan Watts

The next two weeks passed like a whirlwind. Along with two hundred Protectors, Fergus and Caylin moved to Grimaud, France. Before she left, Caylin informed Brenna that she was to move into the Lord’s rooms, and brooked no discussion on the matter. Andrew’s room and the room next to it were converted to quarters for Brenna’s grandparents when they visited.

One small group of Andrew’s men had been discovered and most were either killed or captured, but otherwise things were quiet. The attack on Brenna had shocked everyone, and the outpouring of support and sympathy from those at the estate was almost overwhelming. Jared and Devlin reported that Andrew’s support had dwindled, while Brenna’s had increased.

Collin flew in from the States and five hundred Protectors flew in from England and Scotland. He spent a week meeting with Jared, Devlin, Rebecca, and Thomas O’Neill. Although the circumstances weren’t the best, Brenna enjoyed having Collin in her bed every night.

The third night he was there, Brenna reminded him of his promise to move to Ireland with her.

“We’ll have to upgrade the communications and computing infrastructure here before I can do that,” he said. “It will be expensive. I’ll be able to spend considerable time here, but I’ll also need to be in the States a lot until all the construction and cabling are complete and the new computers are installed.”