The Undertaker's Brides

The injured women sat in the Parlor¢s living room with the television on. A cheesy horror was on and the still blurry-eyed Elentari was being kept company by a few of the other Brides as they had a running color commentary on the movie that would have made *Uncle Vince* proud. The Undertaker had left with Judy for ... parts unknown ... leaving the others in Kane's care. Kane sat in a chair far from the television with the injured Storm on his lap. He'd pulled her against him and held her as she drifted off into a fitful sleep in his massive arms. He kept a strict vigil over the others as well. Despite Judy's actions ... Kane knew ... his father wouldn¢t rest until ... he was dead.

Kiri had lured Cyn into the kitchen and they made breakfast for the others. Eggs were scrambled, fried, boiled and even poached (badly) for the others. Milk and coffee poured out from the kitchen in glass pitchers and pots. Toast was stacked 5 deep on several plates and a tray of broiled bacon (neatly drained of the grease) got put down and the table. Hell, Cyn even found some concentrates in the freezer and mixed up a pitcher of apple juice and another of orange juice.

"Gee, all we are missing is pancakes, biscuits, sausage and grits." Kiri chuckled as Nikki slipped past her to grab a slice of toast.

"And jelly." Nikki said with a mouthful of 7-Grain toast. Kiri laughed and ducked back in to the kitchen after it for her. Kane stayed in the corner even when Storm opened tired eyes and wandered towards the table with a sleepy yawn of *coffee?* Elentari glanced up from her plate to see him staring out the window thoughtfully. She sighed and grabbed a clean plate.

"Here." The plate, which was now filled with scrambled eggs, several slices of bacon and two pieces of buttered toast, hovered about a foot from his face when he looked up. The worry in his eyes caused her hand to waiver and Kane took the plate rather than risk wearing it. He nodded at her and set the plate down on his lap. She hovered a moment longer before retreating back to the table and her plate with glowing cheeks. Kiri saw what happened and got a fairly large glass of milk and walked over to the red lump in the Parlor.

"You could have said *thank you* ya know? She was trying to be nice." She lectured softly as she got close to him. The leather clad face lifted and looked into her eyes. The painful swirl of emotion he barely had a rein on startled her too. Now I know why she was so nervous. She blinked and set the glass down near him. "Not eating won't help. In fact," she glanced at Storm who was chattering ... obviously feeling a bit better despite the hell they'd all been through ... and finished her comment. "It could stop you from doing whatever needs to be done." His eyes locked on her and she swore a vice slapped around her throat, but ... no hand held her and the others seemed not to notice. She coughed silently and the feeling abated. "I mean, I don't think he'll back off either." She leaned close to him and whispered "I'll need your help ...tonight." He blinked and shook his head a little ... fear ... for her safety flashed through his eyes. "With you ... or alone ... I've got a lot of ...business to discuss with Paul." She patted his hair gently. "Please, Kane. I'm begging. Help ... me." He turned his head away and looked out the window giving her no answer. She drifted back to the table with the others who had seen the touching scene and wondered why Kiri was putting a move on Kane. Her polite brush-off of "I wasn't. He's upset and I was playing nice." worked for everyone ... except Storm.

The day passed ... uneventfully ... The Undertaker and Judy returned ... if they did anything passionate during their absence... only they knew. Lunch was skipped in favor of an early dinner. Around 4:30, steaks were slapped on a grill beside corn (still in the husk) and chicken. Fish with slapped on just at the end to cook so even the veggie-lovers in the group had something lovely to eat. A toast was raised over the large table.

"Friends ... Sisters ... Beloved Lord and his Honored Brother ... Lift your glasses to Bride Jean, who walks ...* She snickered. "or trots down her own path." Several of the women gathered chuckled. "To Kaliegh ... gone from our circle, but still a part of us. And to payback ..." Several heads came up. "Because there is no way we are gonna let Paul get away with hurting us ..." Kiri's glass dipped towards Storm and Elentari. "or ... worse. Brides ... lift your glasses to our missing sister and to the cross we are going to nail his fat ass to for taking her away!" Glasses raised and sang as they touched the other glasses. Kiri drained the tall, fluted glass of deep red wine and with a smile that any demoness who be proud of whipped around and flung the glass into the fireplace. A few startled Brides merely gaped at her and a few others ... drained theirs and followed suit. The sounds of breaking glass brought a dark smile to Kiri's face ... not that any Bride could see it with her back to them still ... Sweet daddy. You don't even know the HELL you unleashed. She fixed her appearance and sat down ... pretty smile in place and a playful sparkle in her eyes.

*****

He couldn't read her ... never could in the past either. That's why he hadn't drawn her into the original set of Brides when he summoned them. Something ...was wrong about her. He had no doubt of her faithfulness to him ... to Kane ...to the Brides... but something nagged him. And he wish he knew what it was.

*****

I know that look. I've seen it on Dad's face a thousand times, if I've seen it once. Kane shifted in his chair and Storm's bright eyes locked on him.

"Going somewhere?" She purred, eyelashes fluttering. He shook his head and remained in his chair. Storm's hand on his thigh a few seconds later ... encouraged him to remain seated. Storm recognized the look Kiri wore too. She saw it in her nightmares. But Kiri was one of them ... but Paul once was considered the Undertaker's most trusted ally. Can we trust her?

*****

That evening ... Kane and Storm slipped off to their room ... the Undertaker left for his alone ... and then regretfully ... the Brides drifted towards their own rooms. Kiri was the last to head up the stairs. As she passed the room where Kaliegh had stayed, she stopped and opened the door ... She went in and sat on the bed. Kaliegh's perfume still lingered in the room and Kiri sat there as tears started rolling down her red cheeks.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. This is my home ... I should have protected you ...I should have told you ..."

"Told me what, Kiri?" A whisper of a voice said and Kiri's head whipped around to look at the bed behind her. Kaliegh laid there on her side facing Kiri. Her hair moved as if it was caught in a breeze although the room's air was deadly still. Her eyes seemed to glow in the darkened room as they looked at the Mistress of this place with an unreadable look. Her head was resting on her hand and she continued to stare at the tearing woman before her.

"Told me what, Kiri? That we weren't safe? We knew that. That Paul Bearer was dangerous? We knew that too. Or do you mean that ... you knew the Paul was lying when he said that their mother seduced him? You knew he raped her ... because he raped your mother ..."

"How?" Kiri couldn't force out more than that as her lungs were squeezed shut by the pain of having one of her friends learn her only secret... her darkest secret ...

"Your mother was waiting for me on the otherside. She told me ... about what happened ... about why you became the Mistress of the Morgue and surrounded yourself with death and killed damn near every chance of happiness that came your way ... about why you call yourself a witch ... a pagan ... You can touch the same dark tides of power as they can ... Paul has the ability but can't tap the source ... you can ..."

Kiri only nodded and her tears spilled down onto the comforter on the bed beneath them. "I ... I hate him. He doesn't know... She didn't let him know...He never would have let her go if he knew ... He ... NEEDS ... to control people ... It's ... a sickness and he loves it. God! I can't believe I let him hurt you ..."

"Hon? In case, you missed it ..." Kaliegh ran her arm THROUGH Kiri effortlessly. "He did more than hurt me." Kiri's gasp of surprise degraded into new tears and Kaliegh sighed and sat up. "So what are we going to do?"

"We?" Kiri sniffed. "We ... we aren't doing anything ... you're DEAD, Kaliegh! You can't help me!" Kiri bolted from the room leaving the door open behind her. Kaliegh laid back down on the bed and sighed as she tucked her hands behind her head.

"Kiri ... you're a friend ... when you go to kick his ass ... I'll be there..." She began to fade out. "... to make sure you don't join us over here ...too soon ..." A breeze slipped through the Parlor, it danced from room to room stirring the hair of the sleeping Brides and quickly danced out of Storm and Kane's room as it found them *comforting* each other. It slipped into the Undertaker's room to find him sitting ... awake ... he glanced at the invisible gently swirling breeze as it slipped through his hair. With a sniffle, he said... "Hello, Kaliegh." Then the breeze that had been the form of Kaliegh slipped out of the Parlor and into the night ... to wait ... for Kiri to make her move.

*****

She punched her pillow for about the eighth time and slammed her head down on it in an effort to sleep. But sleep didn¢t come. She could hear ever cricket outside ... every step her hounds outside her window took ... and the sound of her heart beating .... The fact that Kaliegh knew about her past hurt ... she had been going to tell them for sometime ... but never had the chance ... the time was never right ... She sighed and stared up at the canopy over her bed. Twenty minutes later, when she still couldn't sleep, she got out of the bed and sighed.

"If Kane won't help ... I have to do it alone." She rose from the bed and showered ... She slipped through her room nude until she reached her closet. A thin white robe encircled her and a simple braided cord of red, blue, yellow, green, white and black tied it shut. She stopped and looked at a picture hung on her bedroom wall. She walked up to it and her fingers caressed the image behind the glass. She sighed and left the room ... door open ...

Her fingerprints remained on the framed image of a raven-haired woman who smiled at the camera with a small child in her arms. The blue-gray eyes of the woman was clear in the photograph ... as was the love. The tidy child ... a bit plump but cute ... had a hold of the woman's finger ... The little slip of paper within the frame said "I'll always be there when you need a hand to hold. Love you, Mom." The paper also had "Born - Sept, 4, 1970 ... To a mother who loves her...."

*****

She didn't bother to check the rooms. She'd done that before and it hadn't saved Kaliegh. She walked down the hallway past the others rooms and had *willed* them to remain asleep. She went down the stairs ... and stopped short. At the base of the stairs stood the brothers, they looked up at her and waited. She didn't move.

"Come down before I drag you down." The Undertaker growled darkly. Kane adjust his glove and merely glanced at his brother a little. She felt her back stiffen. This was her Parlor, who was he to ... He's your Lord. He's ... a brother in some dark way ... Damn! I never wanted him to know. She came down the stairs and stood, head bowed, before him. She heard him sniff and knew his lip must be tender after the repeated chewing it had been getting. She felt a gloved hand touch her back. She turned and was looking into Kane's ... face? The big man had dropped to a knee and stayed there ... arms open ... waiting ... She choked on a sigh and flung herself into his arms. She had a brother!

*****

The three of them walked down a hallway that she was sure they'd never know about. The double doors of her sanctuary stood a silent guard. She opened them... and let ... her brothers in. They looked around the chamber ... it's guardians standing silent guard and noticed that the sense of doom that hung over them since Kaliegh's death had lifted a small bit. Kiri smiled at them nervously and motioned them to sit. She left them there ... inside a circle and then she built another between them and her. She worked in silence for several minutes ... her lips whispering and eyes half closed ... Then she stopped and went to the center of her circle and laid down. Her eyes closed. Her breathing stilled to near nothing and then her eyes opened to reveal the whites and none of the cool blue-gray.

*****

The breeze blew her hair and she stood in the graveyard she'd been in before. Before her were the graves of the brother¢s parents. She stood there and then spoke.

"You brought me here before ... so I'd now where to find you. You had to know who I am ... what I am ... still you called ... do you think of me as yours as well?"

Then wolf and mountain lion mists rose from the graves to regard her silently. "Or perhaps a weapon to keep close?" The forms did nothing. "No matter. I'm here. It's time."

"Damn right, it is." Kaliegh huffed as she appeared from nowhere. "Took you long enough to show up too." The bitter words hid her happiness that the other woman had come at all. Another mist rose from the soil, Kiri sobbed and embraced it. "Shh ... it's alright. We're together now." her mother whispered as she held her daughter for the first time in five years.

Book Eight of The Undertaker's Brides

© 1998 by The Brides of Darkness

**This story cannot be used in any way without written permission