The Templar's Legacy (Ancient Enemy) Page 23

  Detente

  The next day, I sat down with Dave, Jen, and Colette in her room at the Courtyard. It hadn’t been easy, but Dave and I had gotten out of our respective houses. It had taken me by guilty surprise when Dave showed up in one of his parents’ cars. I’d forgotten we’d left his beloved Mustang in Detroit. He hadn’t, and wasn’t shy about saying so.

  Jim, Alan, and Jeff’s families were also in danger and they deserved to know what was happening, but they were all off at college, and I couldn’t bear the thought of telling them I’d taken their family’s life into my own hands. I earnestly prayed to God that I would never have to tell them.

  I had no choice but to fill Jen in on what she had missed, but I would have left her out of it as well, given half a chance.

  I sat on one of the comfy hotel chairs, Dave sat in the other one, Jen sat on the floor between us and leaned against the air conditioning unit. Colette sat cross-legged on the bed in her short shorts—which was a little distracting and conjured memories of my night at the dance club. Have I mentioned she was hot?

  And psychopathic.

  And psychopathic.

  And playing you like a broken fiddle.

  Probably.

  I led the discussion. “Okay, we all know we have to stop Wendigota. It makes sense for us to team up against it. Dave has the bear, and I have the Caduceus, so we can both be useful in a hoodoo smack down.” I met Colette’s eyes. “We’re not giving you either of these, and you need to accept that. We can offer you the St. Christopher medal and one of the pendants Dave liberated from Smith. Jen will get the last pendant. You’re not getting it back.” The spotty memories Il Saia left in Jen’s mind gave her some insights into using the power. She was an expert compared to me, but I knew she barely held a candle to Colette and her family. “In return, we need you to bring several of your Bearers here to protect our families as best they can. Additionally, you’ll train us in the uses of the Caduceus and the bear totem. Any other artifacts of yours we recover will go to you.”

  Dave pulled out a phone. “Don’t forget, I also have this. It’s Smith’s phone. I’ll bet there are some good juicy contact details in here.”

  Colette looked at me with big doe eyes. “Finn, I am sorry for what I did to you yesterday. It wasn’t planned. It was just a spur of the opportunity decision. I didn’t mean to hurt you, but we are taught from a very young age to respond quickly when someone tries to ensnare our free will. I did not think. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “If we can get this agreement between us, then everything is forgiven—as long as you don’t try to stab me again.”

  She smiled with soulful sweetness at me before she became serious again. “I spoke with Mémèr for a long time last night. I warned her that you would not be willing to give up the Caduceus. She was quite unhappy with that. She feels that we are God’s appointed guardians of the cross. Having something so powerful free in the world is very dangerous.”

  Dave snorted a laugh. “And I suppose that she is the only trustable person in the world?”

  Colette looked at him seriously. “Oui, Daveed. We have held to our sacred duty for over seven hundred years, and in that time we have not sought to control governments, nor use the cross for our personal agendas. That in itself is proof that we are conscientious caretakers.”

  “So you say,” said Dave.

  She looked at him, “Who else would you entrust with such power?”

  “Finn,” chorused Dave and Jen. I blushed.

  Colette smiled and said, “Oui, I know this to be true. Finn is a man with honor and Christian principles. As long as he has it, I do not fear for the world, but what happens if he loses it? What happens if he dies?”

  The three of us looked at each other. I’d considered that at length, but that didn’t mean I had any good ideas.

  “So what happens if one of your bearers die when they are out in the world hunting?” asked Jen.

  “Euu,” Colette studied the ground and pursed her lips with thought before she answered. She looked back at me, not Jen. “I am sorry, but old habits of secrecy do not die easy.”

  “They’re like hobbits,” offered Dave.

  We all looked at him with question marks on our face. His grin gave me time to brace for it.

  “Come on, everyone knows ‘Old hobbits die hard.’”

  Colette looked confused, Spring laughed at the pun, and Jen and I groaned. “Don’t worry Colette, it’s not worth explaining,” said Jen. “Now, you were saying...”

  “Ah. yes. We have protections on all the Iesu-sacrificium. We bless the container, so we may find it if it becomes lost, and we have other blessings that will cause others to avert their eyes and not see it.”

  “So no one will pick it up,” I guessed.

  “You are correct, Finn.”

  “We can do the same thing with the Caduceus,” said Jen.

  “You would need to place it in something, some container that Mémèr can bless.”

  “You can just go down to Build-a-Bear and put it in a teddy,” said Dave. “Nobody would ever suspect, and they would always underestimate you because you carry a teddy bear.”

  I grimaced at him. “Gee thanks, Dave, that was very helpful.”

  “Helpful is my middle name.”

  Colette also scowled at Dave. They hadn’t been the best of friends since she’d stabbed me.

  Yeah, he’s the smart one, Spring snarked.

  “We’ll need something to cover it. We normally put the Iesu-sacrificium into a pendant or a ring. This does not gather attention, but the Caduceus is too big for that to be practical,” said Colette.

  “I’d say we just dip it in gold or silver,” suggested Jen.

  “Where would we get the money for that?” I asked.

  “The money would not be a problem, my family would happily pay for this. This is a good plan.”

  “Okay then,” said Jen. “We’ll agree to that and agree to have the sp... blessings put on it, so that if Finn dies, you can find it and no one else can.”

  Colette pursed her lips and considered this. “This, I think, may work. I will call Mémèr.” She pulled out her phone. The conversation took several minutes in rapid-fire French, during which time, Colette’s expressive face clearly showed us the idea was not going over well. Colette hung up and looked pensively at the phone for a few moments.

  “So what did granny have to say?” asked Dave.

  She slowly pulled her eyes away from the phone and looked over to me.

  “Mémèr says this cannot be allowed—”

  “Allowed?” I said before Jen or Dave could say it. “I’m not asking your permission to do anything. The Caduceus is mine. I found it, I keep it. Your Mémèr doesn’t have a say in the matter.”

  Colette purposely met my eyes. “I told her you would say this. She told me that if you keep it, then you will be our enemy, and we will do everything in our power to take it from you.” She held up her hand, and I closed my mouth. “But she also has a solution to this.”

  Colette looked down at her leg and absently wiped at some imaginary blemish there. She seemed a bit hesitant to continue.

  “What’s the solution?” I asked.

  “Outsiders are often brought into the family. She would allow you to do this.”

  I thought about it. Who knew what sort of weird rules they lived by? Would I have to pray every time I ate?

  Spring’s laugh floated around me. That’s it? She talks about you joining this cult of assassins, and all you are worried about is praying before dinner?

  My face flushed.

  “That sounds like it might be okay,” I replied eventually. “It depends on what I have to do to become a member.”

  Colette paused and then visibly swallowed. “The only way to enter the family is by marriage.”

  “She wants to marry me?”

  “Non, not her.”

  I had to ask to be sure. “Then who?”

  “Me.”

/>   The Ties that Bind

  Marry Colette? The thoughts crashing inside my head nearly drowned out Dave’s laugh and Jen’s objection.

  “Mémèr would gladly accept you into our family if you married me,” Colette said.

  That’s a good solution Finn! You’d finally get to have sex with a real girl, and because she’s French, you would be expected to have lots of mistresses and secret rendezvous with good breeders.

  I tried to ignore Spring and struggled to pull this particular rock out of the cogs of my brain, so I could actually start thinking again. Colette had tried to kill me—twice! But, she was cute, fun, and sexy, and her legs were so distracting, and I’d get to peel away those shorts to see what—

  “You can’t seriously be considering this!” exclaimed Jen. “It’s ridiculous. It’s medieval!”

  Sure you can! This is a great idea. A loveless arranged French marriage is your best shot for spreading your seed widely.

  I scowled harder, and Dave’s laughter ratcheted up a notch.

  Jen smacked Dave on his arm.

  “Ow!”

  She glared at him. “Just shut up for a minute, you blond bimbo!”

  I looked down at Jen. My face felt as if it must be glowing from the heat. “Uh...” I squeaked out. “Well, I’d, uh, have to think about it.”

  Colette dropped her gaze from mine back to her legs. “But of course. I would not expect this to be easy for you, because I have treated you so badly. For this I am sorry.”

  Her reaction left me confused. “This can’t be easy for you, either.”

  Colette glanced my way and said, “I do what I must for my family...” She uncrossed her legs and pulled them up tight to her chest. “And I would not like to see you hurt any more. But...I think I would not find it so unpleasant. You are kind, you are caring, and attractive.”

  “Oh come on, Finn!” exclaimed Jen. “You can’t believe she’s serious about this!”

  “I am very serious about this. It is the only solution I can see. It will be good for everyone,” Colette said.

  Jen bounced up, grabbed my hand and said, “Come on Finn, let’s go.”

  I let her pull me out of the chair. “Colette...I’ll have to think about this.”

  She shrugged and pursed her lips. “It is understandable.”

  ***

  Once we were on the road, Dave looked at me through his rear-view mirror. “If you do marry her, don’t take her across the Seine on your back...”

  I looked at him blankly.

  He rolled his eyes. “You know...scorpion and frog? Scorpion stings frog? ‘It’s my nature’?”

  “Oh...”

  “He’s not going to marry her,” said Jen from the passenger seat. She scowled at Dave. “It’s just absurd and wrong.”

  Dave laughed. “Do I detect a note of jealousy?”

  Jen sputtered and said, “Of course not, you ass-boil. It’s just...absurd and wrong.”

  That was a thought. Could she be jealous? No, of course not, she’s like my sister...and I killed her brother.

  I didn’t hear Dave’s reply. Spring overrode it. You really are a lost little lamb, aren’t you? You didn’t kill Gregg, Erik the Snake did. Gregg sacrificed himself for you and Jen both.

  But I should have saved him.

  Dork.

  “Fuck you Dave,” said Jen.

  “Dave, give her a break,” I added, certain that whatever he’d said had been crude, rude, and socially unacceptable.

  “All right! I’m sorry Jen. I’m just yanking your chain.”

  “Keep it up and I’ll be yanking something of yours.”

  “Hmm, that could be—”

  “Off Dave! I’ll yank it off! And feed it to you for breakfast—with your liver on the side.”

  “Gulp! Okay, okay, I’ll be good.”

  We spent the rest of the ride in silence. Dave dropped us off at my house. Before he left, he said, “Finn, we need to road-trip back to Detroit to get my ‘Stang.”

  I nodded, “Okay, if I’m not in jail, we’ll go tomorrow or the day after.”

  “The sooner the better. If my car gets hurt...” He shook his head and put his parent’s car in drive. “Okay kiddies, be good. Remember Finn, I get to plan the bachelor party.”

  “Go away, Dave.”

  He left like a Christmas song—“laughing all the way.”

  As soon as we got in, I called out a hello to my parents and headed for the back yard. I looked back at Jen. “I’ve got to mow the grass before it gains sentience and demands equal rights.”

  Lost in her thoughts, she just nodded.

  It was a measure of how ridiculous my life had become that I was using mowing the lawn as an escape. I loathe mowing the lawn. Or at least I did before I started working out, and Spring started improving my body. Now, the realization dawned that I actually didn’t mind it so much. This time, I actually craved it.

  I couldn’t let my parents see me with the Caduceus, but I wasn’t willing part with it, so I stuffed it in my jeans pocket with the point carefully placed up to avoid poking holes in my leg.

  Once I got the mower started, I began on the side yard. The mountain of limbs and trunk that had constituted Spring’s tree was now smaller. I’d been steadily working it down, cutting it into manageable sizes and stacking it next to our shed. My dad had wanted to hire a crew to take it all away, but I wanted to save as much as I could. If the acorns packed a metaphysical punch, who knows what properties its wood might have.

  I started in and immediately appealed to Phred—my personal god of lawn mowing. I’d been praying to him ever since I’d started mowing. He was sort of a goofy nerd experiment that I knew was silly, but for whatever reasons, when I was a bit dumpier and allergic to physical labor, it seemed to help me endure the hard slogging, the heat, the exhaustion, and the sweat. This time, I didn’t recite my little rhyme asking for an easy mow. I started talking to him.

  Phred, if I needed you before, I really need you now. I need some advice...

  Spring, of course, had been eavesdropping. Hey, I can give you advice!

  I need some advice from a wiser and greater being than myself. Now shush please... Phred, what the hell am I going to do? If I marry Colette, I’m afraid for my family jewels, and how am I going to tell my parents? Is there any other way forward that would keep my friends and family safe? Give me some of your grassy wisdom, Phred...

  I mowed a couple more strips in internal silence. At least without any thought loud enough to be heard over the roar of the mower.

  How’s that praying working out for you, Finn?

  I sighed. No one’s home.

  Not very grateful, is he? You’d think he’d have time for his only follower.

  I agreed, but realistically, you probably needed to have thousands of followers to create a god...and to live in a fantasy world.

  Maybe you ought to talk to the Big Guy?

  I don’t know, Spring, I haven’t prayed for a very long time. Seems kind of shallow to ring him up now and ask for a big favor.

  When I was done with the mowing and trimming, I still didn’t feel sorted out, so I went to work on the woodpile. Who would have ever guessed that I would find release and contentment in hard work? Certainly not me.

  I took a break and made a futile attempt to wipe the sweat from my eyes and the wood dust from my chest and stomach. I’d taken off my shirt to save it from the grass stains and wood chips, but I was still hot and sticky. I leaned on my ax and looked around. Jen sat watching me with serious eyes under one of the young oak trees at the edge of our new back yard forest. The oaks were less than a half year old and already twenty-five to thirty feet high.

  I ambled over and plopped down next to her.

  She forced a smiled and said, “Hail mud-boy.”

  It was a nickname given to me by a woman I had worked the dig with. I tend to sweat profusely and when I worked the dig during the hot summer day, I got coated in dirt mixed with body juice. Jen hadn�
��t been on that little adventure, but my friends had made it a point to tell her. The name irked me when my friends (or my dad!) said it, but somehow when Jen said it, it didn’t bother me at all.

  “Easy for you to say, lounging under a tree eating bonbons and lemonade.” I grabbed her half-full glass and downed it.

  “Hey!”

  “Voyeur tax.”

  She actually blushed, which in turn made me happy. “Want me to get you a refill?”

  “No, your mother would be annoyed if you tromped through her kitchen like that.”

  I grinned at her. I leaned back on my elbows and looked up at the blue and white sky. It was one of those Ohio days where you couldn’t easily tell where the clouds ended and the sky began. There was just a gradual fade from white to light blue. As the sun lowered in the sky, the division became even less clear.

  We sat in amiable silence for some unmarked time. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t ashamed to be seen without a shirt. My pudgy stomach and boy-boobs had been transformed into padded muscle. I was still a little soft around the edges, but I didn’t let it bother me. This peace lasted until the first mosquito of the evening tried to get to my juicy brain through my ear. I slapped it away, carefully not smacking my ear, and jumped to my feet.

  “The skeeters found me. That’s my signal to go in.”

  I gave her a hand up, and we headed back to the house, where I let her hose me down. She got a little over enthusiastic, and it turned into a water fight. It was great fun and both of us were laughing by the time I called a truce. She looked like a drenched cat. Her shirt clung to her and emphasized her generous endowments, lacy bra, and clear evidence of the coldness of the water. She smiled knowingly at my attention, and I wrenched my gaze away. The water on my skin vaporized from the heat she’d generated.

  We spent a pleasant dinner with my parents. Both of us carefully downplayed the day. According to us, we’d been visiting with Colette to try and see how we might help each other. Afterward, we watched a couple of old reruns of The Big Bang Theory—which represented my friends and me with eerie accuracy. It was good to laugh again.

  After that, I excused myself and went to bed.