Highway 12 W Rural

Lewis County, Washington, United States of America

8 Aug 1986

1355

"Turn left here." Matron Aine told me. I was tempted to ignore her command and keep going along straight, but she was playing some sort of game and I wanted to get as much information on it as possible.

"Well, that went to total shit." I lied, looking in the rearview mirror at Matron Aine. She was wearing a gingham dress, and I knew from experience with her daughter that she wore nothing underneath it. Her red hair was intertwined and held in a braid by a bright blue ribbon, her emerald eyes glowed with excitement, and her too long tongue licked her ruby red lips as I made the turn. She had tiny sharp teeth, like she had never lost her baby teeth, sharp cheekbones, and a pointed chin that completed her heart shaped face. She looked like a young woman, in her early 20's at the most, but I knew that she was almost seventy.

All the Aines were like that. Apparently ageless, identical looking, with identical preferences. Back during the Roman Empire's invasion of Pax Britannica and Germania the original Aine had bred into the McDaurn and McCullen's blood lines, and in each generation one was born. Aines lived in a different world than everyone else, one of the magic, or portent, and the supernatural. While it was easy to discount their words, seeing an Aine crawling across a ceiling, upside down, would make a believer out of anyone.

"Boys should not make plans outside of combat and war." The blonde said. I had to restrain an urge to punch her in the side of her head.

"Please be silent, Briana." Matron Aine told the younger woman. "You had a plan, Anthony?"

"Yeah, and it all went to shit between you grabbing me at the airport and what went down in front of the Matrons." I lied again. I glanced at the rearview mirror and saw that Matron Aine was smiling with amusement. Aine's made it a point of pride that they could tell when a boy was lying to them, but Aine back in 2/19th seemed to have problems with it, and from the looks of it, my newfound ability to lie wasn't registering with Aine's mother.

"It served my purposes, and my daughter asked me to watch over you to ensure her newly claimed boy was safe." Matron Aine smiled. "You realize that if you bond with her, I can move control over you  to the McCullen Matrons, no longer will you have to dwell under the shadow of that pack of widows and plotters." She smiled widely. "Unlike the McDaurns, the McCullen Matrons still revere a family Patron."

"I'll pass." I said.

"Turn right." Matron Aine said, cutting off the rest of what I was going to say. I did as she  told me, noticing we were heading toward Tenino, a small town that only had a few of either families living in it. Relatives, sure, but not full blown family under the Council's control.

"You shouldn't have come alone, Aodan." The blonde girl said, looking at me. I could see that she was one of Matron Aine's daughters, but lacked the crimson hair and the petite body, instead she was blonde and slightly chubby in that sweet way that gave her filled out curves and a full bosom.

"That's not my name." I snarled at her, jamming on the brakes so the car slid to a stop on the highway.

"He has a new name, Briana, one earned in fire, steel, and blood." Matron Aine said softly. "I do not know it, but I quiver in desire to hear it from his own lips."

"There's a McCullen family farm about a mile from here." I told Briana. I leaned across her and pushed open her door. "Get out."

Briana looked back at Matron Aine, so I put my hand on her shoulder and shoved her hard. She wasn't buckled in and fell out onto the shoulder. I glanced to make sure her legs or an arm wasn't under the car and hit the gas. The acceleration slammed the door as we swung away from her and I pulled a quick three point turnaround. She had just gotten to her feet when I passed her, and she was yelling something and waving.

I just gave her the finger.

"Oh my, it appears you have me alone." Matron Aine giggled. I turned and looked, finding her in the front seat. Her blue and white checkered gingham dress, which had been buttoned up to her neck, had the first three buttons undone. She had small apple sized breasts, which meant that she wasn't really showing cleavage but it wouldn't take much to expose her.

"Not interested." I lied. Of course I was. I was a nineteen year old male, and no matter how many years old she was, all of my senses insisted that a twenty-something year old woman sat next to me.

"Turn here." She said. "A back way."

"To where?" I asked, making the turn. We hit the dirt road and I downshifted, preparing to head up the hill and into the woods.

"A piece of property." She laughed. "Pretty simple, eh, Anthony?"

I just grunted, piloting the year old car through the logging roads, making turns onto other logging and fire access roads when Matron Aine told me too. We were silent, except for the odd chuckle Matron Aine made as I drove.

No matter what the McCullens or my own family had planned, an Aine's plans were her own.

Matron Aine reached out and turned on the radio, smiling at me as she did so. She lifted her leg slightly, letting the gingham dress slide down her leg to reveal a milky smooth thigh. I was tempted to tell her to forget it, that it wasn't going to work on me, but instead I let it ride and dug in the pocket of my Class-A jacket, finding the little blister-pack of white pills. While she watched curiously I pushed one of the pills out and popped it in my mouth, then tucked the blister pack back.

"Poison." She shuddered as I dry swallowed it.

"Yup." I told her. "I'm an hour or so from getting a nosebleed if I don't take it." I downshifted to get the Escort to take the dirt road's incline.

"My daughter, is she well?" Matron Aine asked, and I could hear genuine concern in her voice, which startled me.

"As well as she can be. Two-nineteenth is hard on people." I told her honestly. The car was whining as we got closer to the summit. Country music was playing on the radio, and I suddenly missed John.

"She defied me, you know."

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know. She told me."

"She entered military service. That is forbidden to an Aine."

"She a goddamn good troop, and a lot of good people who are alive wouldn't be if it wasn't for her." I told her, swallowing down anger. Who was she to judge what happened in the dark and cold?

"She is a kelly, which is forbidden to an Aine." Matron Aine said. She was trying to sound angry, but instead it came across as sorrow.

"She's what she needs to be." I tried being cryptic back. "There's a lot of shared blood between us, Matron Aine. She saved my life."

That made the Matron crow with laughter. "Then her hand is around your heart, Anthony, and all of your Matrons plots won't matter."

So she wanted to trade punches? Fine. "I've had to cut her hair."

That made Matron Aine hiss and draw back from me. "You dared touch her hair?"

...the muzzle flash of the rifle igniting Aine's hair, singeing, scorching, searing, burning. Nagle shoving her into the snow to put it out. Aine weeping softly and making small cries of pain as I trimmed the scorched and burnt hair out until she only had a pixie-cut left...

"You wouldn't understand." I said.

The car managed to make it to the top of the hill and I could see Highway 12 W in the distance.

"Stop here." Matron Aine said.

It wouldn't hurt, so I stopped the car in the clearing at the top of the hill, putting it in reverse, hitting the parking break, and killing the engine. Without saying anything to her or asking permission I got out. I was on the downward slide of the combat high, my muscle trembling, and as I got around to the back of the car everything came up in a rush of bile and adrenaline.

Matron Aine rubbed my back gently as I heaved up my toenails, holding onto the trunk of the car. When I was done vomiting and straightened up she had a cold orange Crush in her hand, the top already popped open. I nodded gratefully, grabbing it and chugging down at least half of it without stopping.

"Thanks." I said, wiping my mouth. She just nodded regally as I set the  can on the trunk and moved around to the rucksack. I pulled it open, bringing out a pair of button-fly levi's, an Iron Maiden "The Trooper" T-shirt, my combat boots, a pair of socks, and a flannel shirt.

"No weapons?" Matron Aine asked me.

"No. Couldn't get them through airport security." I lied again.

"Then you are foolish. You are unarmed in the face of your Matrons and their servants." She chided me.

"I'm never unarmed." I told her. "There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men."

She nodded at that, moving over to the edge of the grass and sitting down on a moss covered log while I took off my Class-A jacket and loosened the black tie.

"You realize that they plan on making you kneel, bringing you back into the family." She told me as I unbuttoned my shirt. "Martha and Jed are being insistent, and Tera seems sure she can control both you and Logan."

"Then she's a damn fool." I told her, letting my hatred for my ex-wife well up.

Matron Aine laughed, a sparkling thing that echoed through the forest and made the leaves and needles on the trees rustle. "Something has changed you, Anthony. I think it might have changed my daughter too." She grew serious. "There is a darkness within you, stalking you, be wary, Anthony."

...too long arms terminating in fingers of sharpened bone. dark pits for eyes above a too wide grin full of too many jagged tearing teeth...

"Yeah." I stripped off the bluish-green dress shirt, leaving just my T-shirt.

"Your Matrons still burn with humiliation over Tiernan, Anthony, they will not let you escape." She told me.

"They planning on using the Wild Hunt?" I snorted, acting as if I didn't believe.

She shook her head. "I don't think they would go that far."

"It doesn't matter. As soon as I find out what happened to Niamh I'll go back to Germany and be out of their hair."

"No vengeance for poor Niamh?" Matron Aine sounded disappointed.

"They don't want me to go on a revenge kick." I told her, my voice flat and harsh.

"You may have no choice. They may force you to attempt revenge." She told me.

I stripped off my T-shirt and turned to face her. I knew what she was going to see. Red scars, some barely healed. Bullet wounds, shrapnel, and bayonet scars. Matron Aine's eyes glowed for a moment, bright vivid emerald, and she licked her lips. "They need to stick to their petty little bullshit. If I go on a revenge kick, I'll kill anyone who gets in my way." I smiled, feeling my face twist as muscle and nerve damage on the left side of my face pulled everything out of synch. "I'll go through them like a goddamn thresher."

"Oh." Was all she said. Was that doubt in her eyes? I hoped not. She still had her part to play in my plans, and it was best if she stayed Matron Aine.

"I've gotta get out of this monkey suit." I told her, undoing my buckle. I stared at her challengingly. "Feel free to watch, Matron Aine. It isn't like your daughter hasn't seen it all."

Matron Aine watched as I stripped down in the August heat, standing under the sun and letting its warmth ease the pain in my muscles. My shoulder hurt, even though it was supposedly healed all the way, throbbing inside the joint around what felt like a chunk of ice lodged deep in the socket.

I carefully put my Class-A's in the storage bag so I could take them to the dry cleaners, still standing naked. I should have known better but I was running the numbers on my plan. The outcome was still the same even though some of the variables had changed.

"Anthony." Matron Aine's voice was breathless.

I turned around despite myself.

She was standing in the forest clearing the dirt logging road ran though. Grass beneath her feet and coming up to her knees. Her hair a fiery wave that not only cascaded down her back but covered her small breasts. Her gingham dress was nowhere to be seen and I could see tufts of crimson at the juncture of her thighs.

My mouth went dry.

"Come here, boy." She said softly, motioning to me.

...why not?...