This is a story i started and never finished about two years ago; it isn't perfect, and i welcome and appreciate suggestions, but please keep them polite. this is, also, an original work, and it belongs to me. do not copy it, or use characters or pieces of it for any purpose without express permission

Finally, it isn't particularly accurate yet, if you have details that you think might be useful and want to share them; thank you in advanced.


Terry MacBright (title in progress)

Prologue
That job was different from the beginning. December and I were running on nothing but adrenaline and nerves—this was to be the most difficult job of our careers in killing people. Also, it was our last. I’d been in business for almost ten years, and December for even longer; we were tired.
We spent a week of preparation on the job, where everyone in our small team was busy. Morgan Locks, our security expert who came from a long line of locksmiths, had obtained a number of gadgets to bring with us—his part ended after the front door—and Ashtone Gray, our private investigator and digger found several informants on our target. Not that I didn’t love the two boys, but they had browbeat myself— Spring—and December into allowing them to help.
You see, December was a history teacher in my hometown, by the name of Ben Gregors. And one day, two of the juniors in his class found out that every so often, their quiet, mild mannered history teacher became December, a well known and highly skilled assassin. For us, Larsen, our computer expert, and Double, our information keeper and the one who set up the jobs, it was a decision of having the authorities called on us by two sixteen year old boys, or allowing them to use their skills to help us. Despite my conviction that they were far too young to help with our line of work, none of us are idiots. We let them in.
That last job was different than any of us thought it would be. The Magistrate was a hated and feared political figure in a world far past our own. He was also very paranoid, and was supposed to keep a very secure, almost prison like home for himself, his wife, and his three-year-old son. We got to the residence and beyond being a little larger than many of the other homes; it was simple. The security was pathetic—only a single bolt on the door that Morgan tossed in about a half a minute. His wife and their son were on one of the few allowed outings, with almost every guard in the house trailing them. The Magistrate was basically alone, short of one bodyguard. And drawing him down the stairs was easy as well; it took one broken window and one toppled statue. The guard came into the room where we were concealed first, the Magistrate refused to stay on the stairs. December pinned the Magistrate to the floor by the stairs, I shot the guard in the chest twice. He crumpled onto the floor beside me, and I walked to stare over December’s shoulder at the back of the Magistrate’s head.
“Is it him, or a decoy?” he asked me. My restraint was running low; so to find the birthmark that had passed through generations of his family, according to the woman who’d delivered him, I pulled the waistband of his pants down to see the mark. It was a star shaped spot of lavender skin where the tailbone ended.
“I thought you only did that to me.” He teased. December and I had an on-again-off-again relationship that revolved around our sex drives.
“Oh, shut up and shoot him. There’s been enough commotion today.”
The Magistrate tried every trick his politician’s book held, including promises of great riches for us, with titles and power to accompany them. December lost his patience at the end of the first sentence and shot him; one single shot through the back and into the heart. The desperate babbling stopped and December stood. Before we left the house we took two already prepared notes to be left with the body and on the door. It was our last job after all, and the man who’d ordered the hit had contracted with us several times before. I looked at the bodyguard, turned him over with my foot, and saw that despite massive blood loss and two shots to the chest he was still alive. There was a gasping noise that I assumed was a plea, but either way he was a liability. I raised the gun; pointed at his temple and fired while offering a prayer that he would have a comfortable after-life. After all, it wasn’t his fault that his boss pissed off all of the wrong people.
We left the house and found Double, Larsen, Morgan and Ashtone having coffee. I’d developed my fondness for the stuff, and hoped to someday have cause to kick the habit. I took a drink of whatever Double had given me and raised an eyebrow at him. How did he know that I liked Earl Grey tea?
“It’s okay, Lovely, I’m not a stalker. You just blanch at your first sip of coffee; every single time, no less.”
“Don’t call me Lovely. So you picked my favorite how…?”
“Your best friend is a wonderful lady. Of course Diane knew your favorite tea.”
Double really was a nice guy, and he really did care. I just wasn’t interested in sleeping with him.
We wound down and discussed our plans; Double was going into hiding, and didn’t say more than that; December was going back to town, where my mother lived. My brother was the sheriff there, so I wasn’t going home, but to a town about fifty miles away.
“We’re not sure what we’re doing” Morgan started, “We’re thinking about taking a road trip.” Ashtone nodded his agreement.
“Excuse me?” I knew that my tone was a bit chilled.
“We wanna go see some new places.” Morgan explained.
“No you do not. You want to be going back to school at home in three weeks.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Oh yes you do. I will drag your butt back to that high school if I have to, and if you make me do it, I’ll put a shoe so far up your ass that the laces will come out your nose. Not to mention tell your mother.”
“You won’t tell my mom anything. You’d have to start running.”
“So? I have the money for it. You will be finishing high school, kid.”
Morgan sat and sulked for a while, and when he grumbled that he wasn’t going even if I told his mother, December stepped in. “You’re forgetting that I’m going home, too. I might not tell, but you’ll be doing homework from the hospital if that’s going to keep you at home. You won’t miss the use of your legs, will you?”
Neither boy spoke to either of us again, but when it was time, they went home on their own, without an escort.
Double was the last to go, and when he did the layers of cool control that December had been holding shattered. I found myself pinned to the couch that was behind me in the dingy apartment that expired at the end of the month; it was the first time that I knew I didn’t have a choice in the actions that would follow. Not that I wanted to refuse, but knowing that I would go unheard if I did was a touch disconcerting. His eyes were fogged over with lust and temper—probably due to Morgan’s mouth—and I was again reminded exactly how much bigger than me he was. The top of my head came to the bottom of his collarbone, and there were several inches of muscle on either side of my waist before his arms.
The next time I was fully aware of my body and surroundings, we were on the floor of the apartment, and he was balanced on his elbows over me, still inside of me with my legs around his hips. I knew that all of my energy was spent for the moment and responded by pushing his elbows out from under him so I didn’t have to strain to reach his mouth.
“You, I need to tell you, are an asshole.” I told him, half smiling. At the time I wasn’t capable of being concerned by anything.
“Why is that?”
“You refused to let me to get at that condom in your wallet.”
“That’s too bad. Too late now, though.” I felt every muscle in my right half tense and relax as he ran one hand up my side, from hip to shoulder. I hated it when my body went to jelly without my mind’s permission.
“So you aren’t going back with me?” He asked. I almost felt guilty.
“No. It’s not safe, for me or for you. My brother will find out, and I don’t want him to. Every enemy we’ve ever made would come hunting as well, and there are enough who can identify us that it doesn’t make me feel safe anyway. Next town over’s only fifty miles away. Visiting won’t be hard.”
He didn’t say anything, just began teasing every muscle in my body into a melted, almost painful state and making me forget everything all over again.
We stayed where we were for almost two days before we went our separate ways; him to the tiny Louisiana town on the banks of the Mississippi river and myself to another town, on the other side of the river and fifty miles north, where it was actually part of Arkansas and no one knew that my brother was the sheriff in another town or that I had once been the assassin codenamed Spring.

Part One
Ten Years Later

“Mom! Mom! Look what I found!” James came in yelling for me.
I held up one finger to my mouth in the universal shushing gesture and was amazed when my energetic nine-year-old did in fact quiet down.
“So, James, what was it you were saying?”
“Mom wants you home this weekend for an extra day. Saturday shouldn’t be too bad; you’ll be here for Sunday mass anyway.”
“Give me a bit to think on that one. But I meant, what was it you were saying about the history teacher?”
“Oh. Well, Mr. Gregors, our junior history teacher, was found dead in his house at about ten last night, after his neighbor called us saying she saw big men with big guns going in. She was in hysterics, and by the time we got there, we had a still warm body. The only thing we could tell right away was that he put up one hell of a fight.”
“Oh god, I can’t believe that. I hope the investigation goes okay.” I felt the color draining out of my skin.
“Are you going to come on Saturday?”
“I don’t know James; I have a lot going on.”
“Terry, I need to tell you something.”
“What is it?”
“When you didn’t come home for a while I poked into your whereabouts. I want to meet your kid. I’m not sure why you’ve hidden the baby so much, but it needs to see us all, at least once.”
“How did you find out?”
“Mostly a guess; you didn’t turn up for nine months, and when you did you were always more interested in leaving than usual. After a few years, I checked with the only elementary school in town under the last name MacBright, and they were perfectly willing to tell me that you had a child registered there; if not the name or gender.”
I felt myself go a little paler as I stared at a picture of my twin and myself. He was nine inches taller than me, with the same blonde hair and green eyes. But my brother took after our father, an angel, and I took after our mother, a sprite. James exuded goodwill and light energy, and it showed in his peaches and cream complexion. I was the darker half, and it showed in my duskier complexion, my smaller smile.
“I’ll tell you if I don’t have to answer any questions I don’t want to.”
“Fine, but you have to tell mom, on your own, tonight.”
“Alright. Then I’m not telling you anything until I get there. That is, assuming she still wants me to come.”
“Alright, Temperance, I’ll bite and leave you alone. Will you tell me why you didn’t tell?”
“Scared of it, mostly; things were weird when the baby was born, and I didn’t know how to say anything.”
I could hear and feel his nod, even with fifty miles between us. I knew that to be human would be terrible—they didn’t have the close family links that immortals did. We got off the phone, and I sat on the couch for a moment.
“Mama? What’s wrong?” James was standing in front of the couch, his face full of concern.
“I just got some bad news from my brother. I’m gonna take you to meet my family, okay James? I know we didn’t plan this, but I think it’s time to.”
“What was the bad news?”
“An old friend from home was killed yesterday. It really shook me.”
“Was it my dad?”
I stared at my son for a few minutes before answering. “Yes, but you can’t tell anyone that. No one knew, and no one needs to know.”
“Okay, Mama.”
“Can we see what you wanted to show me later? I need to be on the phone for a while.”
James ran out of the apartment, he was very social and loved playing with his friends. While I waited for my mother to pick up I was playing with the phone cord like a child.
“Hello?”
“Hi Mama.”
“Hi Sweetheart. Are you coming this weekend?”
“Yes. But I need to tell you about something first.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve been hiding a big secret for a long time. When I was gone for a while and worried you and James, I was hiding that I was pregnant. The baby’s nine now, and I guess I have to stop hiding.”
My mother was silent for a long time, before asking, “So how long will the two of you be here?”
“Until you tell us to leave. But I was thinking of starting with a week.”
“I’ll have the bed set up for Saturday. I love you Sweetie, I’m sorry you were scared of us.”
“Mama… can we come tomorrow instead?”
“Doesn’t the little one have school?”
“I can pick up some work. We’ll be there by noon. I love you, Mama.”
And I hung up before I could begin to cry on the phone. The tears came for the first time since I was about five, when I’d found my father with his head smashed in out in our back yard. We’d never proved anything, but I suspected my father’s best friend, Greg, because he’d proposed to my mother the very next day. She, somehow, thought that was only a sign of a bloody opportunist, not a killer.
Later, James climbed into my lap and tried to hold me—he secretly believed that he was bigger than me—while I cried. Finally I looked at him, saying, “Honey, I need to put myself together, and I’m taking a shower and going to bed. I love you to death, okay? If you want to have dinner with one of your friends or make yourself a sandwich, that’s okay. We’re going to go to my mama’s house in the morning, after we get some work from the school.”
He nodded, grinned at me, with the same cocky, playful grin that he shared with both my brother and his father before running out the door. I stayed in the shower for almost an hour, and then went and fell into a blissful abyss.
When morning came, we went to the school and picked up work for him before going home, packing and then hitting the road. We got to my mother’s house at noon, and I saw my brother watching for us on the front porch. When I got out of the car and pulled out our bags, my brother began to come down the steps to the front path, and my son hid his face in my hip.
The older James hugged me before stealing my son from the safe haven against me and examining him. He’d gotten my complexion, which was still pale but not peachy, his father’s rich dark chocolate brown hair, my green eyes and his father’s nose, mouth and jaw. He was thin without being skinny and he was already tall for his age. I prayed that my brother didn’t ask me about Ben being his father. I couldn’t lie to my twin; all I could do was not answer.
“What’s your name kid?” I knew that the snake charmer’s grin was working its usual magic, because the younger James returned it with an almost identical one.
“James. You’re James too, right?”
“Yeah. So what are you gonna do when you grow up?”
“I dunno. Maybe a firefighter… or one of those guys who runs from bulls.”
James shifted the child to his hip, and I could see in the look he gave me that he was honored, on top of being proud, that this beautiful child was named after him. We walked up the path past my mother’s flowerbeds to the porch where she was waiting. She was blonde, blue eyed, curvy and short. To get me down to her level she tugged on my ear and kissed me on the forehead when I was low enough to do so.
“Honey, you don’t have to be scared any more. I love you no matter how much you hide.” She whispered to me, before taking my son from her son, and stuffing all of us with fried chicken and all the sides. My brother stayed for an hour longer than he should have, asking me questions.
“So… who’s his father?”
“You don’t need to know that.”
“Can I take a guess?”
“If you want to, but I might not answer.”
“Morgan Locks? Ashtone Gray? Anthony Borailas? Jack Scalia?”
“God no to the first two, no, and no on the others.”
“Then who? Does he live here?”
“Yes, he’s from here. Yes, he knows about the kid. They met once, but I didn’t tell James that he was talking to his father.”
“Then who is it?”
“I’m not going to tell you, especially not now. Don’t you have an investigation to run?”
He grumbled all the way out the door, but he did go.
My mother looked at me and asked, “Will you tell me?”
“No, I won’t. I can’t talk about it.”
“So who knows about your son?”
“Morgan, Diane, Ashtone.”
“All your close friends.”
“All of my close friends have the nasty little habit of showing up at my doorstep. I didn’t tell them, they found out.”
“You’re hurting.”
“Yeah, I am. I really am.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing you don’t already know about. I’m gonna run to the store really quick, if James asks. Spoil him to death, okay? I’ve never had the guts for it.”
I left the house and drove to the general store, simply for the activity away from my family. I bought a few basic things: toothpaste; a hairbrush; a bottle of wine; a backpack to hold toys for my son; and then I went back home, feeling a little better.
For my entire life, my mother had gotten dinner onto the table at six-thirty sharp. It was five forty five when my friends showed up with pleading expressions. “We haven’t missed dinner, have we?” Ashtone asked mildly. He’d been using my mother for meals since his parents had died when he was ten. His uncle had a crush on her, and they were good friends in the first place.
“Of course not.” My mother knew they had showed up because I was in town, but they knew when food would be cooked. If they were on time enough, she’d cook for them too.
Morgan and Ashtone had grown into tall, muscular, and generally good-looking men, but they were still thirteen years younger than me. Diane had been my best friend for years—we were in first grade when we met. After dinner we retreated to the room that was mine in my teenaged years.
“So,” Diane said, “We have a problem.”
“No shit we have a problem. My brother’s a genius and looking for who killed Ben Gregors, so he’s going to find December too. Which means he’ll find the rest of us, as well.”
“At least I was never really involved.” Diane had always kept our secrets, and kept out of them at the same time.
“True. But you knew, which’s enough. Please don’t let you having the hots for my brother cloud you judgment.”
“It never has before. So what are we going to do?”
“We’re going to find out who did this. Whoever hired those guys to kill him, they were mad. And I’ll bet it’s the guy who wanted that last hit done. He never got caught.”
“Probably. What are we going to do about your brother?”
“Distract him, somehow. Any false leads we can give and all that good stuff. In the mean time, there’s one thing I want to say—everyone who knows that my son exists is in this house, with the exception of James. If anything changes that, someone’s head is going on the pretty silver platter my mother has in her china cabinet. I don’t care how much you trust them.”
The three nodded, they were fully aware that I would even kill them to protect my son.
“What are you going to do?” Ashtone asked me.
“I’m getting the rest of the group together. I can’t find Ahab without Larsen, and I can’t find Larsen without Double. So I’m going to find Double, and the other two, and update you three from there. First, I’m finishing off this week with my family, because I promised.”
It was a week from Monday before I got ready to leave. I hadn’t been surprised to hear from the police at home telling me that my apartment had been ransacked. I was just pleased that my son and I weren’t home for the event; I didn’t keep anything from the old days where my son could get it. Everything was in a deposit box far away, in yet another world that I’d been to only a few times. It was also the last place Double had gone to.
I had finished packing everything that I was going to bring with me, so I said goodbye to my son, who wasn’t happy to see me go, but he was appeased with a promise to come home in one piece and soon. When I went to say goodbye to my mother I found her in her garden—she put out more than a ton of produce every year.
“Mama? Can I talk to you?”
“Sure, what about?”
“I need to leave on business for a while. Probably a few weeks. James can stay here right?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t he be able to?”
“I didn’t think you’d say no, I just didn’t want to not ask. Can you do me one more favor?”
“I suppose so. What’s the favor?”
“Don’t let anyone know about my baby. The only people I trust already know, and I’m afraid of someone hurting him. I don’t even want Greg to know.”
“Why him, specifically?”
“Just to prove my point. He’s about as close as a family friend gets, and I don’t even want him to know.”
“Alright sweetheart. Just go, so you can finish and come home okay?”
“Yeah, Mama. I love you.” At that point I stood and walked away from the house. My son was in the front yard, and I gave him one last kiss on the forehead before I left. The sooner Double was found; the sooner I could come back.