The Templar's Legacy (Ancient Enemy) Read Free Page B

do know you have a personal white knight complex when it comes to women, right?
    Spring, I don’t want anyone to go through that nightmare.
    But it would be particularly horrendous if it were a little girl or a pretty woman...
    Oh, shut up.
    Being in my brain, Spring knew she’d hit it on the nose. I didn’t want to be someone who only thought little girls were worth saving, but for whatever reasons, the idea of a little girl or woman being touched by one of these things packed a more deeply visceral kick in the gut for me than if it were an old man.
    Anderson spoke into my silence. “Finn, are you still there?”
    “Oh, yeah, sorry. It’s too early for me to be talking without a pot of coffee in me.” True, as far as it went.
    “Can you come in right away?”
    Oh god. I ran my hand over my suddenly sweating forehead. “Uh, yeah, I guess I have to.”
    You’re being an idiot.
    “I know this can’t be easy for you, Finn, but I don’t have anyone else who can do what you can do.”
    I took a shaky breath. “I know, Doc, I know.”
    “Good, I’ll see you in an hour.”
    “Well—” The phone went dead as he hung up. I slammed the phone down. “Sure thing, Dr. Asshole!”
    “Finn!” said my Mom from behind me.
    Oops, didn’t know she was listening. “Sorry, Mom. He’d didn’t hear me—he’d already hung up.”
    My mom’s look of stern disapproval didn’t waver. “Yes, but I heard it.”
    I hung my head—that sometimes worked on my mom. “Sorry, Mom.”
    “You’re forgiven. So, what did Dr. Anderson want?”
    “He needs me to come in this morning.”
    “Oh? Why so early? What’s the rush?”
    Uh oh. A direct question. I was hosed. I couldn’t lie to her, because her Finn-dar would spot it immediately.
    “Well...” I couldn’t think what to say. She didn’t know that I had actually worked directly with the shadows after my encounter with the one infesting Holly. My instinctive defenses had torn Holly’s aura apart and almost killed her. Mom knew about that encounter because she’d been there.
    Like everyone, except my dad and I, Mom hadn’t seen anything during that encounter with her eyes except the aftermath—Holly lying unconscious on a couch and me babbling about ripping her soul in two. It had sucked for everyone involved, and I hadn’t wanted to worry my parents any more. The last couple of months had been horrendous enough for them.
    As far as they knew, I was just trying to teach meditation to these patients. I’d never told them I’d pushed other shadows off their victims, or been ridden and controlled by Wendigota for a time after Gregg’s wake.
    While I searched for a story, I could practically hear the “beep-beep-beep” going off in her head. My mother lowered her brows and voice. “Finn... what’s going on?”
    The door to the garage opened and my dad came through, no doubt having just completed a delicious breakfast of live guinea pig.
    During the fight between Spring and my friends, while trying to save my dad's life, I’d accidentally turned him into a ghoul or something. It’s a long story, and I don’t want to repeat it here, but the short version is that the only thing that would sustain him was living flesh and the magic acorns that had grown when Spring was, uh, sexually harvesting me for her oak tree.
    “Good morning, everyone,” he said.
    Maybe I was saved! “Oh, hi Dad!” I needed a distraction. “How was breakfast?” I was hoping my dad’s dietary requirements would shake Mom off the scent of my deception.
    That’s low, even for you.
    Hush , Spring...
    Dad beamed in unholy and unfathomable early morning cheer. “Excellent, thank you. What got you up so early?”
    Damn.
    My mom, unshaken, folded her arms and with her dangerous voice said, “I was just waiting to hear this myself.”
    My dad looked from my Mom to me. “Is there something I’m missing?”
    “I don’t know, Jack, Finn was just going to tell me all about it. Weren’t you