Dhampirs of Sgiach

29. Kieran

When Kieran got home, Kage wasn’t in his room. A sniff at Echo’s door let him know that Kage was in her room with her. The tension that had been in his shoulders eased and he smiled.

Echo had left a neatly wrapped roast beef sandwich for him in the fridge that he took out with the open beer that was next to it. She had also left a note.

Kage said you wouldn’t give him a beer at the bar, so he tried one of yours. You missed him learning why I drink milk with hot wings.

Kieran chuckled and went to his room. Dragon’s Breath was a mead made with ignis peppers and flame fruit. It wasn’t as spicy as the bottle of Ignis that Kieran had, but it was up there. He sat on his bed and ate his sandwich as he just stared off into space at the crib that was leaning against his bookshelf, still in its box.

He had always been the hunter. Ever since his father had allowed him to begin going with the Sleuth for their mercenary work. The more proficient he got with weapons and his Shadow Spark, the more Auron let him go on solo hunts.

His mind wandered back to that room and Kieran shivered at the memory. And his fear. He was the hunter. But Lacey had made him the prey without him even realizing it. And it wasn’t the fun prey a couple of past girlfriends had made him into, pursuing him before he had noticed them. Lacey had used his love for her against him. Kieran had thought with his d**k.

“Stupid,” he growled at himself as he set his empty plate on the bedside table and stood up. There was an envelope on his bookshelf with two pill cases. The envelope was blank and unopened. Rand had dropped it off a couple of days ago. Kieran picked it up and opened it.

Inside was a picture of Lacey’s last ultrasound. Kieran didn’t really know what he was looking at, but one part was circled and it looked like something in all that dark mess he supposed. He flipped the picture over and saw a note from his mother on the back.

You’re not him. -Mama.

Kieran took in a deep breath and counted to ten before he let it out slowly. Was he any different than the asshole that knocked up his mom? That rejected him when Auron and Erin approached him when Kieran was five because Kieran was a dhampir? Kieran looked at the shadow in the picture that was his kid. He set the picture down and turned to his closet. He always slept in his closet when he slept alone lately. Like a coward.

He froze as he looked at the nest he had made on the floor. What am I doing? Hiding like a child from the monsters? Waiting for mommy and daddy to make them go away? In that moment, Kieran hated himself more than Lacey and that damned rat. Hated how weak he had allowed himself to become. Martin would have hurt and killed Echo to get Kage to submit after killing Kieran. Kieran had no doubts about that.

“I have some bad news,” Dr. Sorcha said as she sat across from Kieran in the exam room.

The room was dim with only a few candles lit for light. Kieran had been surprised when he was led to the room by a nurse. Normally, they just used a dimmer light for his appointments. It was his first appointment since he got out of the hospital and he was by himself. Everyone else was busy with work.

Kieran frowned at the doctor. “Bad news? I haven’t been overly tired for a few days now. By the end of the day, I’m exhausted, but I haven’t needed to lean on anything.” The exhaustion had been easier to hide from Kage and Echo than the shaking and gripping things to just stay upright.

Dr. Sorcha looked down at her clipboard with a sad frown. “There’s been genetic degradation that hasn’t stopped. We’ve managed to slow it but not stop it.”

“What does that mean?”

“You have maybe forty years at the minimum left,” she said softly. “Maybe more if you avoid light as much as you can.”

“I have been avoiding artificial light,” Kieran said with a frown.

“All light is speeding the degradation. Natural light is just not as fast. We’ve reached out to the Obsidian bloodlines and requested that any Shadow Walkers among them come in for testing. But I would like to contact-“

“No,” Kieran cut her off. “Contact the Obsidians, but not him. And don’t tell my family. Did you prepare the Blood Crystals?”

Dr. Sorcha glared at him like he was being an i***t, and he was. Forty years would put him in his sixties. It wasn't the hundred and fifty average for a dhampir or shifter, but it was plenty of time. Time with his family.

“Yes.” She set two pill cases on the counter. “Cheetah and bear. There is a problem though.”

“What kind of problem?” Kieran asked.

“We did a few tests. If you go through with this, the (for lack of a better term) cancer will kill you faster.”

Kieran froze and it felt like his blood had turned to ice. “How much faster?”

“Maybe twenty years at the most…”

He looked at the ultrasound picture that he had placed back on the bookshelf. He would have raised you in his image and used you.

Kieran snarled as his fangs elongated with his anger and rage. No more hiding from the monsters out of fear…

The duffle bag that held his weapons for his hunts was hidden at the top of his closet in the back. The heavy feel of it was familiar and soothing as he set it on his bed and opened it.

He pulled a sheathed short sword from it. Single-edged with a slight curve. The silvery steel gleamed in the dim light from the window as Kieran pulled it slightly from its sheath. Harrelson had taught Kieran to use it, and its twin. Rand had tried. But his big burly stature hadn’t given him the finesse that Kieran naturally had with his leaner form.

Kieran smiled as he changed into dark clothes and armed himself. The twin swords were at each hip and his twin daggers were in the small of his back. He also had a thin knife sheathed on each forearm. Across his back, he had both his caster rifle and his bolt rifle. The caster was loaded with explosive rounds, while the bolt had armor-piercing rounds and a mounted scope. Next was his .357 caster revolver in a shoulder holster.

He didn’t think he’d need the firepower. Martin Diaz wouldn’t even know Kieran was there until his blades slipped home. But he had already let his own arrogance cripple him when it came to Lacey. If Martin was smart, he would probably be hiding behind more sunlight spells and heavy-duty lights. If he was, Kieran’s bolt rifle had a decent range.

He picked up the ultrasound picture and looked at it for a moment. He heard Echo and Kage wake up and begin to move around in the kitchen. Kieran looked at his door. They wouldn’t come to wake him up until breakfast was almost done. He set the picture on his side table and leaned it against the lamp, so it was facing his bed.

This is my family.

Kieran put on his CGH and grabbed one of the pill cases as the color bled from the world and he slipped out of the apartment through the shadows. He didn’t emerge from them until he was in the parking garage of the apartment complex. It felt good to be on his bike and hunting once again.