Celtic Evil The Fitzgerald Brothers A Celtic Christmas Read online

  Celtic Evil

  The Fitzgerald Brothers

  A Celtic Christmas

  by

  Sierra Rose

  Celtic Evil The Fitzgerald Brothers A Celtic Christmas

  Sierra Rose

  Copyright ? 2009 Sierra Rose

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of either the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, businesses, events, locales or details are completely coincidental.

  A Celtic Christmas

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  Snow blanketed the town of Fitzgaren in the County of Kerry in Ireland as the townsfolk settled inside out of the bitter chill.

  They prepared for the coming holiday as most had done for generations, blissfully unaware of the potential for evil that hung near the town waiting for its next moment to strike.

  Outside of town, in a manor that had been one of the first to be built upon the town's founding, the Fitzgerald house was seeing the first signs of Christmas in fifteen years.

  "Bloody morons, tracking mud, snow and who knows what else all through the foyer." Deirdre O'Connor, the main driving force that ran the house, muttered under her breath as she dry mopped the very mess that she was complaining about.

  "How else was Agnus and his sons expected to get the tree inside without the mess, Deirdre?"

  Kerry Fitzgerald's dry voice spoke from behind her as he walked from his office after deciding Deirdre's temper had calmed down enough that it was safe to show his face.

  The eldest of the five Fitzgerald brothers, Kerry still hated to admit that the smaller woman could still make him remember what it was like when he was younger and she had helped his mother with five unruly boys.

  "Choosing a proper day before it had snowed would have been my choice, boyo," she snorted, slapping the mop down on another wet spot and wincing at the sound of the snowmobiles outside. "The lad will kill himself one of these days, mark my word."

  Knowing she was referring to his youngest brothers' penchant and love for high speed machines, Kerry smiled. "You were the one bitching at Ian for staying out of your cookies, luv," he reminded her, going to the window to glance outside at the snow covered lawn and fields of his family home.

  Kerry recalled the times before his parents were killed when the house and surrounding lands would all be decorated since Christmas was one of his mother's favorite times of the year and Brenna Kerrigan Fitzgerald would always go all out.

  " 'You're not only celebrating His birthday, my darling Kerry,'" he recalled her saying once. " 'But since the Winter Solstice and your brothers' birthday falls on before, it gives me the excuse to expand a little in the decorating.'" Brenna would laugh.

  Thinking of that, Kerry considered recent events. Yes, Sebastian had returned to try to stop the prophecy that could end his long life, but it had also returned all of his brothers to Fitzgaren for the first time in fifteen years.

  "Still brooding that Mac and Ryan left?" Deirdre asked, though she could still read this young man and knew he was.

  Pushing his fingers through his short blond hair, Kerry sighed; wincing as one of the snowmobiles decided to go through a snow pile rather than around it. "No, I accepted that Ryan has a job to tend to and that Mac needed to handle things in Cork before returning in January but it would have been better to have us all here?in case."

  Suspecting that the older woman was gearing up for a lecture that he wasn't in the mood for, Kerry reached for this jacket to go outside.

  Stepping out onto the porch, he just remembered why he hated winter and why Ryan had probably been thrilled to get back to some place sunny and warm.

  "Deirdre says that one of them will break their fool necks before the winter's up." Jessica Hadley spoke from a chair on the porch where she'd been watching the machines race over the snowy lawn and fields.

  The young British woman wasn't any happier with the freezing air than Kerry was but she was happy to hear the easy laughter coming from the snowmobiles. "She still yelling at you for buying them?"

  "Of course," he sighed, shifting to see that her eyes were fixed on Roarke and Ian. "So long as neither one of them gets killed, I think she'll get over it."

  Kerry hoped so at least since it had been his idea to get the new toys for Roarke's birthday which had just passed a few days earlier and he still recalled the wary joy in his brother's eyes the morning Kerry had showed them to him.

  Roarke, he knew, still needed the time to adjust to being back home and also to get over the things in his past that Kerry knew could still hurt him.

  "Is he happy being here, Jess?" he asked her curiously, knowing that out of his brothers, Roarke still had the hardest time being back in Fitzgaren.

  "He misses your parents and he's missing Ryan more than he'll ever admit short of you casting a truth spell on him but otherwise, yes, Roarke's happy." Jessica looked up at Kerry. "It's hard for him to show it."

  Kerry knew that all too well. "A Fitzgerald family tradition, that is." he muttered, frowning as snow was blown all over the porch and walk as a snowmobile skidded to a halt. "Deirdre will be makin' you clear that up, lad," he warned, hearing the boyish laugh.

  "Will that get her off my back for stealing that whole batch of triple chocolate chunk cookies she made earlier?" Ian countered, pulling his helmet off to brush the snow that somehow had gotten inside it off his face.

  "That should have made you too sick to ride that thing." Kerry rolled his eyes, shifting a look as the other machine stopped at a slower pace. "Mac's still vowing to X-ray your stomach when he comes back, Ian."

  The youngest Fitzgerald brother rolled his blue-grey eyes, stepping off the snowmobile. "Just because I have a healthy appetite?"

  "No, he wants to because you eat things that would put any normal person into a sugar coma." Roarke put in after removing his own helmet and trying to push his unruly black hair out of his eyes.

  At eighteen, Ian was as cheerful and happy as Kerry was serious and it was clear that he enjoyed teasing his older brothers. "Mac can't yell at what I eat. Have you seen what he eats for breakfast?" he shuddered just as a snowball hit him in the back of the head. "Hey!"

  "I eat what normally passes for a semi-healthy breakfast, baby brother, which is not what I can say for you."

  Patrick 'Mac' Fitzgerald shook his head, lifting a warning brow as Ian's hand closed on a pile of snow. "Think about it and I promise that I'll bury you in this slush and Kerry won't find you until it thaws."

  Snow had settled on his short dark blond hair as he crossed the driveway with a petite red head following him and lecturing.

  "Not out of the bloody car a minute and already picking on the lad, Doc," Mary Margaret Cavanaugh was complaining, shaking her head and stepping onto the porch to remove the heavy knit cap she was wearing, a mass of red hair falling free. "I'll leave you to Kerry to deal with but I smell cinnamon and that means Deirdre's baking."

  "How come she can have cookies and doesn't get kicked out of the house?" Ian demanded, still trying to get the snow off his neck.

  "Probably because Maggie doesn't swipe the whole tray while it's cooling." Jessica laughed, and then decide
d to go inside out of the cold.

  Kerry stepped down a step, knowing both Roarke and Ian had a bad habit of throwing snowballs. "I thought you weren't coming back until after the first."

  "Yeah well, I finished my business early and Maggie had already decided that she's sticking to me like glue until she gets that story so?" Mac shrugged, lifting a finger to melt the snowball that had been aimed in his general direction. "I decided we may as well spend Christmas here at home."

  The last two words made Kerry look at his brother closely as it was one of the few times that any of them had referred to Fitzgaren as home.

  Noticing that Roarke had been silent and guessing what he was thinking about, Ian slowly shaped a new ball of snow. "Think Ry's on a beach somewhere surrounded with girls in bikinis?"

  "If his luck is holding, then he probably is." Roarke grinned, seeing the boy shaping his snow weapon with obvious intent and deciding he didn't want any part of seeing Mac or Kerry slaughter their youngest brother. "I'm going to go change and?"

  A sudden wind blew in even as he was speaking, blowing snow gently but heavily in swirls until it kicked up and finally knocked Mac backward into a deep pile of snow.

  "The snow decide it doesn't like us or what?" Ian demanded, grabbing his helmet to keep it from blowing away as Roarke's hand grabbed his arm to