Celtic Evil The Fitzgerald Brothers A Celtic Christmas, Page 2

keep him upright even as he was feeling the change in the air.

  As Mac struggled to get up, Kerry finally sighed, raising a hand and dispelling the snow and wind easily. "You know what Mum told you about doing that crap, Ry." he warned without looking.

  "Sure, but we're all mostly adults and it's not my fault if Mac still can't stand up under a little wind and snow." Ryan laughed as he exited the house munching on a cookie.

  "When the bloody hell did you get here?" Mac demanded crossly, hating to be wet as a general rule and hating snow worst of all. "Never mind, how'd you get in the house?"

  Ryan shared the same dark looks as Roarke only he wore his black hair longer, though today he had it pulled under a black knit cap as he stepped off the porch with his usual smirk.

  "Back door," he replied, reaching into his pocket to toss Ian the cookie he was carrying. "The boss of the kitchen said that this is your last one until after dinner and that if you even think of sneaking any that she was tanning your bloody backside worse than Mum did when you were two and you bit Roarke."

  Ian had caught the cookie with a grin then he frowned. "I bit Roarke?" he was doubtful of that until he saw his brother's scowl. "Did I?"

  "Da had to take him for a rabies shot since we weren't sure you hadn't inherited any?unusual talents from some of Mum's more unique relatives." Ryan replied, grinning easily.

  "It wasn't that bad, Ian." Roarke broke in, giving Ryan a slight shove before frowning. "Though you did have a furry look until you were one."

  As Ian shot looks between his brothers, Kerry chuckled and pulled Mac out of the snow. "What happened to the beach, the sun, and warm weather?" he asked Ryan in order to change the subject since he wasn't ready to tell the boy that their brothers weren't totally kidding him.

  "Andi happened is what happened to those plans," Ryan scowled, turning from teasing Ian to looking at Roarke before finally focusing on Kerry and remembering his recent days. "Andrea Michelle Colleen McCabe is what happened to my vacation plan in Rio."

  Not remembering his brother ever having that tone before told Kerry that there was something else brewing but rather than bring that up just then, he simply waited, as he knew that Ryan would eventually get to the point.

  "Damn bloody woman only had to install a simple security system in a house but no, she decides to go all righteous and bloody feminine on me when she learns out the sod who hired us for the job is a womanizing, two-timing son of a bitch." Ryan rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Broke both the blokes' arms, four teeth and took the video feeds to his wife when he propositioned her."

  Roarke turned from Ian, running his tongue over his teeth and knowing how he would react if it had been Jessica. "You blame her then?"

  "Who the bloody hell said I blamed her?" Ryan returned sourly. "I threatened to break something else but the issue is that little incident totally ruined my mood for mindless women on a beach." he sighed, finishing the cookie. "So, I told Andi to stay out of my sight until January and came home to bug the brat and see if Deirdre has anything that Ian won't eat."

  "You know, his fondness for the weird and ultra strong stomach may still have something to do with you giving him that bone to teeth on when he was a baby." Roarke mused, smiling when Ian shot him a dark look. "Hey, you were a strange little baby, Ian."

  Ian considered using the snowball on Roarke but then shifted and hurled it at Ryan who, almost expecting it, had already dodged it and snagged a handful to throw back at his brother.

  "Ian, ask the brat, I was a champion snowball thrower when we were lads, he warned with an evil laugh that changed to a snarl when something slammed into his back. "Roarke, if I didn't know that your girlfriend could either fry me or have her mercenaries shoot me, I'd get you for that one."

  Roarke just smiled, shifting slightly away from the snowmobile. "Since when did Jess scare you, Ry?" he teased, seeing his brother's eyes go dark and balanced himself for what would come next.

  "Ryan, don't do?" Mac had started to say but Ryan had already decided to ignore that in order to lunge. "Yeah, this will go over bloody well since Jess is still pretty protective of Roarke." he muttered, shifting a look to see that Kerry was watching the scene calmly. "You know that we should stop this since we both know what this will turn into."

  "Yes, I know," he acknowledged, watching as Roarke turned but wasn't fast enough to avoid the blow that landed both himself and Ryan into the snow while Ian began stockpiling snowballs. "Listen to that, Mac," he encouraged.

  Frowning, Mac did listen but all he heard besides the Christmas music Deirdre had playing in the house was his dopey brothers laughing like?and then what Kerry was saying dawned on him, understanding his reluctance to break them up.

  He would have been about fifteen, almost sixteen years ago, since he could recall listening to the sounds of his brothers laughing and playing in the snow. "Mum would have come out yelling by now," he murmured.

  "Aye, but Da would just tell her that boys would be boys?unless Ry tried to drown Roarke in a snow bank again." Kerry grinned. "I need to believe that somewhere they're happy that we're here on Christmas Eve together and that we will make this work."

  Mac dodged another snowball, pulling his gloves on. "We will, Kerry and we will put Sebastian back in Hell," he declared, eyeing the growing pile of snowballs that Ian had. "However, the first thing that I'm doing is dumping baby brother in that mound of snowballs he's made."

  Ian had been so fascinated by watching Ryan try to bury Roarke in the snow and was pleased that Roarke was tensing as he would have once that he didn't notice the change in the air until he felt the snowball barrage hit him like a gentle wave and he lost his footing. "Mac, knock that off!" he shouted, laughing.

  Kerry shook his head when something caught his eye from the tower window. Toryn Fitzgerald would always watch his sons from the tower and as Kerry looked harder, he saw his father's calm face watching his grown sons playing in the snow as they had as boys and Kerry knew that for this day, for the coming holiday, that his brothers were safe.

  "Ryan! Don't do?" Mac's voice cut off when a pile of snow was thrown in his face and the wind whipped up.

  "Well, safe from Sebastian at least. I won't say that Mac won't kill one of them before Mass." Kerry muttered, and then decided to give up and join in when he easily took Ryan off his feet.

  Roarke spit snow as he managed to roll and dodge a snowy missile. "One of us should have called no powers!" he snapped, knowing that Ian was using his.

  "The May it harm none rule does not apply to snow fights, brat," Ryan replied, slipping and landing next to him on the ground. "Oh, in case I forget or Jess kills me for this fight, Merry Christmas and don't say I never gave you anything." he muttered, quickly pushing up to find Ian.

  "Ry?" Roarke frowned, looking at the small box his brother had shoved at him before opening it and staring at the well-worn gold pocket watch.

  Even without touching it, he knew what it was and recognized it as the one their father had always worn. "Ry, this is yours and?"

  "He meant for you to have it, Roarke," Brenna Fitzgerald's spirit spoke from the porch where she was standing, dressed in the same bright red winter coat that he recalled from years earlier. "Ryan knew that your father meant the watch to go to you and he has kept it for you until you were emotionally healed enough to receive it.

  "This is one of Ryan's gifts to you." she smiled, her eyes trailing to the ensuing snow war her sons were now waging before looking at Roarke. "His other was coming home to Fitzgaren to spend the holiday with his brothers rather than spend it at a Greek villa with that rather interesting young woman that makes his blood pressure climb."

  Roarke understood what his mother was saying, slowly nodding as he closed his hand around the watch. "Merry Christmas, Mum," he whispered, looking up as Kerry held a hand out to him. "I usually spend Christmas with Jess alone?this is?"

  "I'm sure you can squeeze time in with Jess after dinner, brat," Ryan called over, swearing when Mac'
s hand shoved his face into the snow.

  "Being together is new for all of us, Roarke, but it's the strength and love that binds us as a family that will always keep us together." Kerry told him, helping him up and seeing Ian's head jerk up even as the front day was banging open.

  Deirdre O'Connor stepped out onto the porch to eye the scene with a well-practiced eye. "What the devil are you hooligans doing out here brawling in the snow?" she demanded, eyeing each of her former charges critically. "You'll all have your death of cold before the New Year comes, now get yourselves in his house and changed before I take a hand to all of you!" she snapped, turning and marching back into the house.

  "Gee, Doc, I think you ticked Deirdre off." Maggie laughed as she went back into the house.

  "If I didn't know she'd actually do it, I'd call her bluff." Ryan muttered, climbing back to his feet and shaking his hat off where it had fallen into the snow. "She's worse than Mum."

  "You'd know since they were always yelling at you." Mac replied, grinning at the hand gesture his brother shot him. "Happy Holidays to you too, Ry."

  Kerry held out a hand, a simple gesture that Mac recognized. "A gesture for the Yule that Mum and Da always did and taught us was that on the Eve of the birth of our Lord we reaffirm the strength that has always united the Fitzgerald family."

  "It was a silly act too," Ryan muttered but sighed as his