Saoirse, p.1
Saoirse, page 1
First published by Graffridge Publishing 2023
Copyright © 2023 by T.K. Eldridge
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Contents
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
About the Author
Dedication
To everyone I've ever called family – know that no matter the legalities, we still are family.
Epigraph
When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching — they are your family.
Jim Butcher
Chapter One
The sound a body makes when it hits the ground from ten stories up is distinctive. Saoirse closed her eyes and let out a huff of breath, then went over to the edge of the roof to look down at the body sprawled in a spreading pool of blood on the parking lot below.
“Well, that was unnecessary,” she muttered as she turned away from the rooftop ledge and headed for the stairs.
“What was unnecessary?” Beau’s voice said in her ear. The high-tech earpiece made it sound like he stood beside her.
“The target jumped off of the roof on the north side. Bloody and not moving,” Sair replied. She knew better than to assume he was dead. Shifters could often heal from a fall like that. “Better go pick him up and make sure the cuffs are on hands and feet.”
“Not my job. I’ll send Lyri,” Beau replied.
“It’s all of our jobs, Beau. You can’t just sit your ass in the unit all the time. Don’t make me write you up,” Sair replied as she jogged down two flights, then took the glide the rest of the way down.
“You tell him,” Ant replied as he met her in the lobby. He gave Sair a smile as she ran a hand through her short reddish-blonde hair. “He’s got you annoyed again, huh?” he mouthed to her so only she could ‘hear’ him.
Her dark green eyes flashed with her mood. “Yep.” Ant had the dark hair and swarthy skin of his Mediterranean ancestors, and the patient empathy most common in witches. He knew how to diffuse a situation with humor, and Saoirse appreciated that. Especially now.
“I’ve got him cuffed,” Lyrika spoke into their ears. “Bring the van around so we can get him out of here. Got a couple of lookie-loos getting interested.”
“We’ll head out the back way and meet the van there. Think you can manage to drive, Beau? Or is that not in your job description, either?” Sair said. She let him know she was pissed with the tone of her voice. This was supposed to be an easy bag and tag pickup, and now they’d have to fill out reports for hours.
The four of them were relatively new at being a team, but Saoirse was confident they’d eventually click. She’d worked with Ant and Lyri before on other ops, but Beau was new to SIN and new to working with a team—and it showed.
Once they were all loaded up in the modified camper van, Saoirse checked on their target. Budger Cole was a six-foot-six bear shifter who’d been spending his days doing smash-and-grab robberies all over Myrtle Beach. The local cops had asked for help and the request had ended up at the Supernatural Intelligence Network’s offices. It was unusual for vampires, witches, shifters, hunters, and humans to work together. It was more unusual to have an entire organization full of mixed teams, but Saoirse loved her job.
“He’s still out, but I can feel the bones shifting under his skin, so he’s healing,” Saoirse said. “Let’s get to the satellite office and get him into a holding cell before he wakes up, yeah?”
Lyri untied her braids and let them fall around her shoulders. Her dark skin only made her light gray eyes stand out even more. As a jaguar shifter, Lyrika was unusual in the northern American regions, but she’d been recruited to SIN a few years back and loved the work.
“I’ll sit with him. You go ahead and get started on the report,” Lyri offered.
“Do I have to drive the whole way?” Beau whined and Saoirse clenched her jaw.
Ant put a hand on her arm and shook his head. “I’ll deal with it,” he murmured and went to climb into the passenger seat. “Driver gets to pick the music,” he told Beau. “Or you can pull over and I’ll drive and you’ll have to listen to Pavarotti the whole way back.”
“I didn’t like listening to him when he was alive, I’m sure as hell not going to start now,” Beau said and hit the pedal. The electric vehicle sped up and moved into a lane for the highway.
Anatoli leaned back and smiled. Unlike Saoirse, he had hope for Beau. His tech skills were exceptional, but his teamwork skills needed a lot of help. If he could just stop being an arrogant prick about everything, they might make some progress. Ant didn’t think the man’s underwear model looks helped much, either. The whole ‘I’m gorgeous, give me what I want’ thing never played well for long. Beau’s brown hair, pale skin, violet eyes, and killer cheekbones made his looks memorable—which was also not great for an intelligence agent.
“Hey, did you call Kellen yet?” Lyri asked Saoirse.
Kellen O’Grady and Saoirse had been a couple for a few years, and he’d asked her to let him know when she was headed back. They’d been doing the long-distance thing for a while now, and he was supposed to be coming down to Maryland from Maine that weekend. He ran his family’s blacksmith business in a remote part of Maine, up near the Grove. The Grove was what Saoirse’s extended family called the compound, where their hunter families lived and trained. It was also where Sair had landed at age seventeen, and where her cousin Meggie had been born and raised.
Saoirse had an apartment in the College Park, Maryland complex that housed The Wilder Institute and SIN, right next door to her cousin Meggie Riordan. Meggie was the assistant to Aisha Lincoln, the head of the hunter’s cadre, of which Saoirse was one. Meggie and her wife, Kadence Morgan, were glad of the extra room when Sair moved out. They needed it for their son, Kevin Morgan Riordan, a rambunctious three-year-old who was already showing signs of being a witch like his birth mother.
“I haven’t called him yet,” Sair replied to Lyri. “I’ll call when we’re on the shuttle. I don’t want to get his hopes up and then have to let him know something else came up and we’re stuck here still.”
“Bite your tongue, Sair. We don’t need this jinxed,” Ant called back from his seat up front.
“No jinxing needed or wanted,” Sair replied. She should’ve known better, though.
After they dropped off their prisoner and filed the report, they grabbed their bags from the hotel and got on the shuttle. Everyone found their seat and settled in to try and catch some sleep before they were back in Maryland and had to drive home.
Saoirse had just pulled up her favorite sleep sounds when the flow was interrupted by an incoming call.
“Call from Shay Williams, marked urgent,” rang in her ears and she sighed.
“Accept call from Shay,” she said as she got to her feet and walked to the small kitchen in the back of the shuttle.
“Good work today,” Shay said. “But I need you to change flight paths and head to Kingslake, Tennessee. I need your team to work with the other agencies at a high school bombing. It’s being filed as a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism.” Shay took a breath before they continued. “It’s bad, Sair. Over three hundred dead or injured. And there’s a manifesto that says more bombs are scheduled to go off.”
“Is this the Rejects again?” Sair asked.
Lyri’s head snapped around to stare at Saoirse. Shifter hearing meant she heard the conversation.
“This particular group of terrorists prefer Greater Patriotic League, or GPL. Although, Rejects is still my preferred tag for them,” Shay said. “And yes, it appears to be tied to the GPL. We need confirmation, so get Beau online and figure this out.”
“I don’t care what they prefer,” Saoirse bit the words off. “They killed my first family. They can all rot in hell.”
“Then let’s send them there. I’ll send the packets to your devices. Let me know when you land. Good luck,” Shay replied as they disconnected the call.
“They’re going to need the luck,” Saoirse muttered. “Revenge may be best served cold, but I’ve had more than enough years to chill. Time to heat things up.” She grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and went back to her seat. “Check your devices. We’ve got a new assignment. We’re headed to Tennessee.”
Time to do what she did best—put the puzzle together - and maybe get herself some payback.
Chapter Two
Saoirse slept the rest of the flight—and dreamed of that last day with her family. The run with her Da, and the dinner with everyone at home, even her two older siblings, Patrick and Siobhan, who shared an apartment the next town over while they went to university.
Some of her friends thought her parents were too much in her business. That their need to know where she was at all times was suffocating. Saoirse never thought about it like that. It was just being a good member of a family unit. You let them know, so as not to have people worrying about you.
As she joined in the laughter and conversation, Sair thought about how much she loved these times when they were all together.
“So, have you decided what you want for your birthday?” Siobhan asked Saoirse.
“I just want a family dinner with all of us together, and a small cake and ice cream for dessert,” Sair said. “I already told Da what I wanted for a present.”
“The Celtic Myth and Legend by Charles Squire,” Michael said with a laugh. “Child after my own heart.”
Siobhan wrinkled her nose. “A book? That’s all you want?”
“I don’t really need anything else. I’ll be living here while I go to school, since I’m going to Da’s college instead of the university in Lakeville,” Sair replied.
“Well, I bought a new car,” Pat said. “And I spoke to Ma and Da, we’re going to fix up my old Kia and you can have it.”
“Are you sure?” Sair asked, eyes wide.
“Very sure,” Colleen told her. “Your Da will have a different schedule than you, and I don’t want you walking home in the dark. We were going to find you a reliable used car before school started, but when Pat said he was buying a new one, we arranged to take the old one for you. It needs a couple of new tires and a tune-up, but it’s still in decent shape and will last you a good while.”
“Thank you, all of you. That’s a wonderful gift,” Sair said.
“You still have to cover the insurance and gas and such, but you’ll be able to do it with your job at the library, easily,” Michael said.
“I know how you and Ma are about us walking alone at night,” Sair said. “I don’t mind it, but I don’t want to worry you two, so yes, having my own transportation will be excellent. I can handle it.”
“We know you can,” Michael said.
“I wasn’t much older than you when my parents were taken from me,” Colleen said. “I know I’m a touch clingy, but you’re all my whole world, and I need you to be as safe as possible.” She took in everyone at the table, then looked back at Saoirse. “You’re still keeping up your training program?”
“I am. I’ve even scheduled my classes around my boxing and Krav Maga sessions.” Sair turned to Siobhan. “I even moved up a rank over Shivy last week.”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s because I had finals last week. I’ll kick yer butt this week and take my rightful place once more,” Siobhan teased.
Colleen arched a brow as she stared at her eldest. “And you, boyo?”
Pat chuckled and gave a half-shrug. “I’m still working out. I just don’t do classes anymore. I found a couple of guys at the university gym who like to spar, so I’ve been doing that. With my course load and my promotion at the lab, I’ve not had a schedule that works for classes.”
“You know how important it is to stay in top physical form,” Colleen started, and Michael patted her arm.
“Easy, macushla. He’s a grown man and can make his own decisions. He’s not stopped altogether, just made adjustments for the reality of his world.”
“But, Michael,” Colleen started, and he smiled at her. She sighed. “No, you’re right.” She turned back to her son. “As long as you keep fit and sharp, I’ll be okay with that. Just don’t get sloppy and lazy about it.”
“Speaking of sharp,” Sair spoke up. “There’s been a black SUV with tinted windows around today. A Cadillac Escalade, and I’ve got the plate on my phone.”
“I saw it when we were running,” Michael said. “And it drove by when I headed out to work.”
“I wouldn’t have thought anything of it,” Sair added. “But it followed me around the block when I did my extra mile and then slowed down out front when I came in and you came out.”
“Send me that plate,” Colleen said and pulled out her phone when Sair sent the photo over. She then typed a few things on her phone before she lay it face down on the table once more. “I sent it over to Samson. He’ll check it out.”
“He’s come by the university a few times to spar with us,” Pat said. “He’s got reflexes I only hope to have someday.”
“Is he still trying to recruit you for his mercenaries?” Siobhan asked her brother.
“They’re not mercenaries, Siobhan Eileen,” Colleen said. “They’re a private security company.”
“Poh-tay-to, poh-tah-to,” Siobhan teased her mother.
“And with that, miss smarty pants, you can help clear the table. Come on, I think that new superheroes movie is on the streaming service tonight,” Colleen said.
Pat stretched and got to his feet. “I should probably head back tonight.”
Michael watched Colleen stiffen, then gave her a nod and turned to his son. “I think your mother and I would appreciate it if you stuck around tonight.” He lowered his voice so even Saoirse could barely hear from her spot on the other side of Pat. “Something’s got her worried. Stay and ease her fears, aye?”
Pat looked his father in the eye, read his expression, then gave him a nod. He grabbed a couple of plates and turned towards the kitchen. “Is there pie, Ma? Because if there’s pie and coffee, I’m staying.”
For the first time in months, the whole family was under one roof. The three siblings hung out and talked and laughed for a couple of hours after their parents had gone to bed, then they each settled into their own rooms.
It wasn’t quite dawn before the silence was shattered with the sounds of breaking glass, an inhuman battle cry, and the screeching of the security alarm.
They were under attack.
She remembered every moment of the battle. How she rolled out of bed and onto the floor to grab the long knife her father had given her when she was sixteen. How she crouched in place and tried to clear the fog of sleep and figure out what was going on. The security alarm was screaming, and it made it hard to think. Something roared, and it vibrated the floor beneath her feet. She didn’t know then that it was a type of demon, but she had lived a lifetime since that night.
She could hear the grunts and cries of fighting happening in the hall, so she cracked open her door to see. There was something fighting her father and brother. She could hear her sister and mother downstairs.
Sair drew the knife from the sheath and launched herself at the back of the creature attacking her family. It cried out and turned. A fist slammed into her and drove her into the wall, cracking the sheetrock beneath her.
Her distraction gave her brother enough time to behead the thing and her father charged down the stairs, a war axe in one hand, a short sword in the other. Pat stopped to check if she was okay, and she nodded, then grabbed her knife out of the back of the…thing…and followed them down. A part of her mind registered that the blood seemed greenish, but that wasn’t possible, so she focused on the fight. There were three or four downstairs that she could see, and she could hear the sounds of a fight coming from the family room towards the back of the house. She stayed close to the wall as she went down the stairs, then spun around the frame to attack a man from behind that had Siobhan pinned against the dining room table.
