No Time to Cry (Nine While Nine Legacy Book 1) (12 page)

“Mortality
declarations?” I grimaced. I’d been on one of those. Gideon had received some
sort of memo that had caused this, had instigated my death. Set it into motion
when he’d sent Liam for me.

“So, the Roghnú
D
eireadh
brought you a
list with
my
name on it, and then the
Lanmhuchadh in
Long Beach poisoned my drink, and then Liam, the Coimhdeacht would have ushered
me into an Ingress,
if
I wasn’t to be brought back here to become a
Coimhdeacht? Is that the gist of it…in my case anyway?”

“Yes.” He smiled. Was that a touch of
satisfaction in his smile?

There was
something scratching at the back of my brain. Something that wasn’t fitting
together.

Why was I on
Gideon’s list instead of someone in Los Angeles? But there wasn’t time enough
to indulge myself in its exploration.

Gideon was
continuing on. “But even the Roghnú
D
eireadh
are not the end
all, be all. There’s so much more to this hidden side of the world, and true
realities, and realms. But for our endeavors this night, these are what
matter.”

“So, no one here
is a Row
…
Rownew
…” I stumbled over the strange word; I’d just said it,
now I couldn’t. They were all such unfamiliar words that did
not
sound
the way they looked on the paper.

“No. No one here is a
Roghnú
D
eireadh
.” He said it
beautifully.

I looked around
the table, realizing everyone had been accounted for, except Gideon, and I
already was aware of his role as, well…another unpronounceable word, but they
had nicknamed him their Cerberus. The word made me think of the Greek three
headed dog, the guardian. He was able to see in all directions at once. I
almost laughed out loud. Gideon was our watch dog! Nearly all seeing, so it
would seem; he was always able to find
my
whereabouts with no problem.

“No, the Roghnú
D
eireadh
are not part of
our group. We are part of the same hierarchy with them, but our Roghnú will
never be here with us.”

“Huh.” I tilted
my head. “Too good to hang with us?” I joked. Sort of.

I couldn’t help
this feeling of dislike towards this Roghnú
D
eireadh
. Shoot the
messenger and all.

“It’s simply not
what they do,” Gideon answered back.

Was that a touch
of irritation I heard in his voice? Had I struck a nerve? Was the Roghnú
D
eireadh
something
special to him? Why would it bother him not to have our Roghnú here at these
meetings? That’s what I was picking up on, that’s what it felt like. Not so
much an irritation with me, it seemed more with the Roghnú, I’d have to ask
Liam.

Of course, I
could only do that if he decided to actually speak to me.

“You already
know my role as
Caomhnoir,
correct?”

“Sure.”

My Cerberus
echoed and
bounced through my head, emphasis on the word
my.

“I think I get the idea.”

“Well then, that’s everybody.”

“Um, no. There was something else you
spoke of the other night,” I told him.

“
Na
Teagmhasach Bháis?” Liam offered out.

“That’s the one.” I
confirmed.

“Of course, yes. Na Teagmhasach
Bháis—” he began.

“Okay, wait, before we go
any further. I’ve got to know. What language are you speaking?”

Gideon’s lips curved into
one of my favorite smiles. It was the one where he looked like he was trying
really hard not to be amused by me, where the corners just barely hitched up
and curved slightly at each side.

The one he tried so hard to
shield from reaching his eyes, but I could just see a hint of it there.

 “Some is Irish Gaelic,
some Scottish. Some of it originates from Ursprache, and some is that of an
ancient tongue that reaches far back to a time before the words were even
written down anywhere, the language of
Na
Síraide
Cinn. We’ve been in this realm many millennia; languages tend to altar and
merge.
 
 

Oh. Weird. An ancient language.
An unwritten language. Then how was it familiar to me at all? But it was. It
resonated somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind…my memories. My mhésen knew
things I did not know consciously…to borrow from what he’d only just taught me.

I heard murmurs…murmurs from
not-so-distant dreams from before this particular nightmare began, but I could
not quite get a hold of them. “
Naw
what?”

“
NA SHEERR-eh
T’kinn
…
The Everlasting Ones.” He
cocked his head slightly to the right as he viewed me, reading me, I assumed.

Just as I began to pose
another question—like what are the everlasting ones—he raised a hand to still
me, and spoke again. “Another time. I only want to cover so much tonight. I
promise we will get to it all.”

 I responded with a
sigh and a slight shake of my head. I just wanted to hear it all and get it
over with. It was all so fantastical anyway. Everything that had happened since
the night of my party was just way over the top in believability, so might as
well just keep pouring it on and let me absorb what I could, because it just
kept getting more and more complicated and mind-boggling.

“So, Na Teagmhasach Bháis.
NA TAHG-
wa
-
saikh
WAISH. You
say the ‘
ch
’ as you would in loch, softly, back of
the tongue, in the throat.” He explained, sounding it out for me.
We
are
Na Teagmhasach Bháis, The Contingency of Death.”

“Wow…okay. Appropriate.”
Tongue,
throat, soft…shut up brain.

“That’s about it where it
concerns us directly.” He looked at me appraisingly. “How is all that sitting?
Making sense?”

“It’s getting there,” I told
him and finished off my glass of wine. I was on overload.

A good bout of loud music
and mindless dancing was sounding better and better after this evening. My mind
was wrapping all around the new facts, it was just…it was all just insanely
astonishing…edging towards distressful.

How on Earth was I expected,
could I be expected, to cut someone’s spirit or soul or whatever from them, to
help them die?

How long would it take me to
be able to pronounce these strange new words?

“Are you alright?” Liam
asked in a voice edged with unease.

“Sure. I guess. It’s just…a
lot.”

“You look a little green, a
little off.” Michael told me.

“Oh. Do I?” I wasn’t
surprised. “Well, I guess having my entire belief system shredded within an
hour’s time can do that.”

I couldn’t look green in
this dress. No way. I was here to make an impression.

I wrote about things this
extraordinary and mind boggling, it’s how I made a living. I almost laughed
again with the irony of it. I wrote about it, now I was living it. Maybe I
could still make a side living as a writer. This story…my story…sure would be a
doozy!

I could handle this. I had
to handle this. It’s not like I was alone in it. And hey! At least I hadn’t had
a
B
reithiúnas
set loose upon me to
torture me.

I mentally gathered myself,
bolstered my reserves. I could feel Gideon watching me, waiting, probably to
see if I’d snap and dash off again, as I had the other night.

“So, this list of the soon
to be deceased, the
Rownu
…” I
tried to get the word to come from my mouth properly, but forget it, that may
be even harder to accomplish than buying into everything being told to me,
“whatever…brings it to you?”

“Yes.”

“And then what?”

Gideon smiled slightly. Was he actually pleased
with my questions? I figured he would be frustrated with my inquisitiveness.
He’d explained, in what should be considered a rather thorough manner, so why
was I still asking questions?

 “I look it over, see what needs to
be done, then I either call or text you with your instructions. There may be
days I call you all in for a meeting here and I’ll give your assignments
directly to you. There may be days when you don’t have any…work.”

I vaguely noticed that all the others, minus
Liam whom was still seated across from me, had moved on from the table.

I guess dinner was done.

Gideon pushed his chair back. “If you’re
finished,” he indicated my plate with a wave of a hand, “we can move to more
relaxed seating also.”

He rescued the wine and our glasses from
the table as Janice returned and began clearing.

We settled into two comfortable arm
chairs that faced each other at the west end of the room.

He set the wine and the glasses on a
small table between us.

Liam had joined the others; they were
going downstairs for coffee. I didn’t want coffee. Normally I would love some
about now, but I thought wine was much more suited for the kind of discussion
we were having.

A rush of apprehension, and some small
bit of excited anticipation, at being alone with Gideon circled my heart,
threatening to break down my careful veneer of self assurance.

I smoothed my hands over my waist, over
the corseted bodice of the dress and across the skirt. I fluffed and teased the
down of the soft petticoat portion, while he poured the wine.

I was very pleased to catch him watching
my movements. Pretending not to notice, I crossed my ankles, played with a
ringlet of my hair while looking out the window, watching the remaining tree
leaves jostle in the wind, feeling his eyes on me.

A secret thrill ran through me, a sense
or power.

I turned my eyes to him and he handed me
my glass, his features were composed, unreadable.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He reclined back into
his chair, crossed his legs, contemplating something.

Me? The situation?

I turned my attention back out the
window, to the night, unable to keep looking at him, it just confused me. And
why wasn’t Liam here. He was the other Coimhdeacht. Shouldn’t he be here? I
don’t know…teaching me or something?

“So, tomorrow, assuming you can break
away from your redecorating for a while, will be your first day.”

I looked back at him, mildly shocked.
I’d have to start already? I had to cull, or Coimhdeacht, or whatever already?

“Already?”

“No point in waiting. We need to get you
out there.”

I wasn’t quite sure how I felt. There
was a part of me that had accepted this fate, and even a small part that was
excited at the idea of being a part of all this. It was so completely bizarre
and yet extraordinarily remarkable. Again, like something I would create for
one of my novels. Something from my dream worlds. But there was a little bit of
me that was still hesitant.

I’d be killing. Well, technically, Halah
and Nicklaus would be responsible for
that part, but I’d be their follow
up.

“You’re reprieve is over. You’ve had
three days to come to terms with this—” he started.

“I know,” I interrupted. “I get that.” I
bit my lip. So much to grasp. I bobbed my head in compliance.

I looked to him. “Okay.”

“That’s my girl.” He smiled, pleased.

My girl

It echoed through me.

I looked towards the door of the room,
so he hopefully wouldn’t see how those two words affected me.

“So how do I do it? Will I be with
Nicklaus or Halah?”

“I’ve got you with Halah tomorrow. Liam will
be with you, he’ll show you the ropes. You are just to shadow him for the first
appointment…” He paused, looking me over to see how I was taking this tidbit of
news. “The second one will be for you to take care of.”

“Wow. Just throwing me right into the
deep end, huh?” I said in jest. He did not take it that way.

“It’s the best way, most effectual. We
really don’t have time for anymore coddling.”

Like I was being given a
choice in the matter anyway.

“Coddling? Wow.” I leaned
forward and sat my glass down. “Is that what all of this has been?” He had
managed to do it again…hit that nerve, punched that button, set my temper
ablaze.