Normality, Thy Name is Lynette

Chapter Twenty-Seven

He  glared at me. “Not funny.” 

“I’m being serious, Keegan.”

“You expect me to believe that you just happened to run into my mother who I’ve never met, and then you find out that this stranger you have run into just happens to be my mother. I don’t believe it.”

“I wouldn’t lie to you, and especially not about something like this. Anyway, we are in danger and need to go.”

He stopped arguing with me, but he still didn’t look happy about it. I tried to grab his hand, but he shoved them in his pockets. I fell back behind him, unsure of what I did or how to fix it. I realized after he slowed down that I was the only one that knew where we were going and instead chose to walk in front of him.

Clair met us at the door and waved us in. She offered to fix food for everyone but no one wanted any. Keegan looked at her and then shook his head at me, disbelieving.

Clair looked around the room at us. She walked up to Keegan. “You’re my son, aren’t you?”

“Lady, I have no idea who you are.” Keegan replied coldly.

“Did they never even tell you my name?”

He looked her straight in the face. “No. I was never told who my parents were. Until my father died, then it was revealed I was his son, but never who my mother was. I assume she’s dead. Ermine would have killed her off by now.”

Enide made a disgusted noise, “How dare you talk about my mother that way!?”

          “Shut up, Enide. You know it’s true because you keep thinking about how to get Piper out of the way.” Cassidy said.

I’m sure if Enide could have stomped away, she would have.

Keegan asked, “Jamie?”

“She’s your mom Keegan.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Psychometry. I can obtain information about a person or an object. I know that this is Clair Yett we are standing before.”  

Keegan and Clair stared awkwardly at one another. Darian decided to break in after about ten minutes, “Why are we in danger?”

“There are people coming after Keegan.”

“It would be all about you.” Darian said under his breath, at least he thought it was under his breath.

All Keegan could say was, “Why?”

“Because you are powerful, they are afraid of what you could possibly do.”

Melanie replied, “I bet it’s the same people who wanted to take me. Actually, they probably followed me here.” She explained without being asked, “I travel a lot but there are certain places I come back to. I always liked it here.”

“No, they are here because I am.” Clair admitted.

“What?” we all asked.

“They know that I was part of the cloister. They tortured me until I gave them the secret of how to kill a shifter. I’m the reason Willy is dead.” She sobbed.

Enide leered at her. Keegan on the other hand, walked up to her and wrapped her in his arms. “It’s okay, mum.”

“No it isn’t Keegan.” Enide replied.

“Shut up!” Keegan growled and kicked her in the leg.

“She killed our father, Keegan.”

Keegan turned around to get face to face with Enide. “He might have been the reason I’m here, but that man was no father figure to me. We can keep it as ‘your’ father.”

“You make it sound like he beat you or something.” Enide replied.

“He didn’t, but he certainly wasn’t nice to me. I just thought he didn’t like me, and now that I know he’s my father, it pisses me off.”

Enide didn’t argue back.

“If you already told them, why do they need you again?”

“Because it didn’t work on you. They think I lied to them. I’m just sure of it.”

“The only reason it failed was because Darian got to us right in time and Maria is amazing; she healed me twice for that stupid poison.”

“Don’t make it a third.” Rain ordered.

“I have no control.”

Clair cut back in, “They don’t know that though! They’ll just assume that the normal poison got Willy.”

Thom noticed something, “So you warn us that they might know that Keegan is here, by bringing us to the place they are going to come to get to you. You’re not very smart lady.”

Right then, as if on Thom’s cue, the door snapped in two and a group of men nonchalantly walked in the room. Clair stepped in front of Keegan, even though she is so much shorter than him. I mean honestly, how was that going to protect him?

Keegan stepped away from his mother and shifted into a big black, growling wolf and then he stood tall in front of his mother and me. He bared his teeth and snarled.

“You brought him to us? How nice of you, Clair!” One of the men said ecstatically. He sped up to Keegan, leaned over him so that he was inches away from Clair’s face, and smiled big and creepily. “It still doesn’t change that fact that you lied to us and that he still lives.” He patted Keegan on the head and jumped back as Keegan snapped at him. The man put his hand through a new hole in his jacket. “You really should have taught your son better manners. Now I have to go buy a new jacket, and I just bought this one too…”

The other men stood back by the door and looked around the room. I was unsure of what their true motive was, but this guy taunting us was definitely the man in charge. One second the man was by the door, and the next he was behind us with a knife to Clair’s throat.

“Tell us how to kill the shifter boy.” He demanded.

“I already told you.” She answered, voice shaking.

The man’s face sagged when he frowned. “Why must you lie?”

Keegan jumped at them. He flew through the air and into the wall. The man and Clair were no longer there, now located in the middle of the room.

She yelled at Keegan, “He’s manipulating time, Keegan!”

I heard Piper mutter a long string of curse words under her breath.

About the same time, the man sighed and titled Clair’s head back to look straight into her eyes, “You’ve sealed your fate.” He slit her throat and she fell out of his arms, on to the ground. “You can’t just tell anyone that I am powerful enough to manipulate time so easily. That’s on a need to know basis.”

          Over Keegan’s scream of horror, somehow I could still hear the man’s eerie promise. “And those who know must die.” He grinned directly at me.