The Unveiled

Veiled Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Rallying the troops

Turid's head jerked toward the door when she heard a knock. She stood, steak in hand, and made her way slowly over to the window. She sighed with relief and set her steak down on the table when she realized it was her brother. She pulled the door open. "Come on in." As soon as he was inside and she'd shut the door behind him she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly.

She turned her head when she heard Buddy growling, he leaned right into her side, eyes trained on Kian. "It's okay Buddy, this is Kian, he's my brother." She spoke with her magic. He looked at her and hesitated for a moment before taking a step forward and sniffing her brother's hand. He turned back to her and sat on his haunches.

'Lady's family is Buddy's family.' He said before trotting off to lay in the corner under the sink. He wasn't doing well with all this stress, none of them were.

"You've got a good guard dog." Her brother said, his voice broke. She hugged him again.

"I'm so sorry about Cable." He pulled away from her and patted her shoulder before wiping at his eyes.

"Whatever you did to him ten months ago had begun to wear off. His arthritis was so bad he could barely make the block or the stairs. He couldn't jump in bed. He just shouldn't have gone out like that." He said and cleared his throat. "Where's Agnar?" He asked before sitting down at the table.

"He went out to get more ash wood to make stakes and bullets, we're low. He nodded, resting his head on his arms. "You alright?" He shrugged.

"No sleep, I headed straight here after we got off the phone." She was quiet a moment, she wasn't sure what to say.

"Is it really all gone?" She asked finally, before sinking down to the side of the bed.

"Most of dad's office survived, that thing was so warded I doubt a nuke could have destroyed it. I had all the books moved out to prevent damage from the elements." She nodded.

"If you wanna take a shower and a nap you can borrow something of Agnar's, I'm sure he won't mind." He sat up straight and looked down at himself, apparently he just now noticed that he was covered in ash. They both looked up when Agnar entered. He dumped a pile of branches into the corner and turned back to hug Kian when he stood.

"I'm sorry man, don't worry, we'll get these sons a bitches I swear it." He said before slapping him on the back. Kian nodded with a sigh. Agnar turned to her then and put a hand on her cheek. "You alright?" She shrugged, he nodded in understanding and gave her a quick kiss before pulling her into him. "It's all going to be okay, you'll see."

"The hell was that?" She pulled back and looked around Agnar to her brother's confused face. She realized what they'd just done.

"We're sort of together now." She said with a blush. Despite everything her brother smiled and clapped them both on the back.

"Dad, is finally literally going to kill you both." He said with a smile then sighed. "If we find him." Agnar placed a firm grip on her brother's shoulder.

"When we find him." Agnar said, "and I'll make him okay with it"

...

Agnar looked up from his work at the sound of the bathroom door opening. Kian stepped out in the clothes he'd let him borrow. His eyes landed on Turid. She'd fallen asleep while he was in the shower. He walked over to join him at the table.

"Sorry, don't take offense to her going out like that. She's been working hard lately, that and we weren't really able to fall back asleep last night after mom called." Her brother shook his head.