Fairytale Come Alive (64 page)

She didn’t ask, she just went back to the handle and opened the door, pushing herself out and, without full use of her lower extremities, falling to a hip. She rolled to her bottom and scooted quickly away from the car, stopped and both the frosty touch as well as her hands went to the bounds at her feet.

“You stupid bitch!” She heard Nigel shout as she kicked her feet free of the ropes, rolled and got to her hands and knees. “
Stupid bitch!
” he shrieked as she lifted up on the fly, already running. “Don’t you run away from me!” he yelled.

Elle ran faster.

No! No’ that way! That’s the cliff! Go to the road!
The voice came back, urgent, scared and Elle switched directions instantly.
Good! The road!

Elle ran and as she did she wondered why she still wore high-heeled boots when she lived in the wilds of the Scottish Highlands with a job as a happy homemaker. Happy homemakers didn’t wear high-heeled boots.

Or, at least, if she made it through this night,
she
was never going to do wear them again.

She heard him pounding after her and she ran faster, as fast as she could but in those heels she couldn’t run fast enough.

He grasped the back of her jacket and she cried out as her limbs kept moving forward but her torso jerked back. He pulled her to him then clamped his arms around her and jerked her around, marching her back where they came.

“No!” she cried, struggling violently, tearing at his hands with her fingernails, dragging her feet, bucking her body, slamming her head backwards in hopes of connecting. “
Help me!
” Elle screamed. “
Somebody help me!
”

“No help out here for you, lass. And when I’m done, I’ll no’ hear Hattie raving about Isabella Austin Evangelista. No more. No more,” Nigel whispered crazily in her ear as he forced her through the darkness and that was all she could see, a vast sea of darkness and she knew where he was taking her. She couldn’t see it but she knew it.

There was nothing beyond that darkness.

Nothing but cliff at the bottom of which was to be Elle’s watery grave of sea.

Knowing that, she kicked back, arched her body and shrieked, “
Somebody help me!
”

And at her words, she and Nigel Fennick came to an abrupt halt and she heard his grunt of surprise.

But Elle didn’t process this.

She was staring in front of her, no longer struggling because floating before them in the darkness was a see-through Fiona Cameron.

* * * * *

Prentice

“Prentice, I hardly think –” Hattie, standing in her front door, began but Prentice leaned into her, getting into her face and she clamped her mouth shut.

“Bring me your boy,” he growled.

“She wasn’t here,” Hattie snapped back. “She
isn’t
here.”

“Her Rover is at your curb, woman,” Prentice returned.

“So? Maybe she’s visiting Mrs. Kilbride. She lives just across the street,” Hattie shot back.

“You think I haven’t already knocked on her door?” Prentice retorted.

“Why on earth would she –?” Hattie started but Prentice interrupted her again.

“Your boy has been home since school,” he stated.

“Of course,” Hattie replied shortly.

“And you told me you just got home but if Elle was here, he’d know and I need to know. She’s disappeared, she’s no’ answering her mobile, no one has seen her, no one has heard from her except Fern who only knows she canceled their appointment at the last minute, no’ why. I need to retrace her steps and her Rover is at your curb, Hattie, so if you haven’t seen her and Nigel isn’t here then I need to speak to Davey to see if he has.”

“I have,” a young boy’s hesitant voice came from behind Hattie and Prentice’s gaze jerked around the woman to see her son standing behind her in their hall.

“Davey, upstairs to your room,” Hattie ordered on a turn and Prentice beat back the desire to wrap his fingers around the silly, bitter cow’s throat.

“You’ve seen her?” Prentice asked and his gut, already tied in a tight knot, clenched even further when he took in the boy’s pale face and frightened eyes.

When Davey didn’t answer, Prentice pushed by Hattie and strode swiftly to the boy who backed up at his advance but slammed to a halt against the banister of the stairs.

“Prentice Cameron! You are no’ welcome in my home!” Hattie shouted from close behind him but Prentice ignored her and bent his face to the boy’s.

“Why are you afraid, Davey?” he asked, his voice low, his meager reserves of control slipping, his focus on trying not to terrify him further because he needed to know, and now, what the boy knew that was making him look so fucking scared.

“Davey, up to your room!” Hattie snapped and only Prentice’s neck twisted so he could lock eyes with the bitch.

“Why won’t you let him speak to me?” he clipped.

Hattie tossed her hair and crossed her arms on her chest. “I already told you, I don’t know why you’re here or Bella’s Rover is in front of my house, Prentice. The never ending drama of your life doesn’t intrude in ours. We have no’ one thing to do with you and jet-set Isabella Evangelista.”

He straightened and turned to her. “You do. You know you do. You live and breathe Elle and me. It’s coiled in you like a rotting vine.”

“Hardly,” she hissed with another toss of her hair but Prentice was done, he didn’t have time for Hattie Fennick, he never did and he turned back to Davey.

“Talk to me, boy,” he demanded.

“Go to your room,” Hattie ordered.

“Talk to me, damn it!” Prentice shouted and Davy got tense but he spoke.

“She came, earlier, Dad let her in then I saw Dad carrying her out to his car.”

Prentice’s body shot straight as he heard Hattie breathe, “
What?
”

“She was bleedin’ from her head,” Davey whispered.

Fear cut through his body leaving nothing but raw in its wake because he suddenly knew, he knew what life was like at the Fennick household when someone as controlling, twisted, bitter and malicious as Hattie lived in it, obsessed with another man and his family.

“Where would he take her?” Prentice bit out quickly, Davey’s mouth opened and shut and then again before he swallowed. Prentice gave up on him, turned to his mother and repeated, “Where would he take her?”

“I don’t –” she started, her face pale, she was shocked, completely unable to comprehend what her warped obsession with another man wrought on her husband.

Prentice didn’t have time for her to think so he turned and advanced, fast, Hattie retreating and then she slammed against the wall by the door and stared up at him with deeper shock as his body pressed close and he got nose to nose with the bitch.

“Where would he
fucking
take her?” Prentice gritted through his teeth.

“I… I…” she stammered.

“
Where?
” Prentice roared.

“The cliffs,” she whispered. “The cliffs at Kenkames.”

Prentice said not a word nor spared a glance.

He sprinted out of the house to his Rover.

* * * * *

Elle

“Bloody hell,” Nigel Fennick breathed and even though Elle was staring at Fiona floating and shimmering in front of her, her beautiful dark hair drifting like it was caught in a stiff but delicate breeze, the ends of the attractive tunic she wore doing the same, Elle knew Nigel was stunned and this was her chance.

And it could be her only one.

So, at the same time, she kicked back with her boot, hitting him sharply in the shin as she scratched at his hand, her nails digging in. He yelped, his leg went back automatically to avoid her foot, his arms loosened; she pulled free, rounded him and ran.

Head for the road!
Fiona shouted, zooming eerily beside her.

“You said that already!” Elle shouted back but did it anyway.

I know! I have super-ghostly sight, you don’t, so you have to listen to me!
Fiona shouted back.

Super-ghostly sight. Insane! Elle thought.

Seriously, you need to rethink your footwear,
Fiona advised and Elle kept running even as she rolled her eyes.

“You don’t think I know that?” she returned.

Faster!
Fiona yelled.
He’s gaining!

Elle tried to run faster, her breath coming in deep pants, her boots and Nigel’s boots hitting the road sounding jarringly in the quiet, dark, deserted night.

“Where are we?” Elle asked through her pants, deciding to zig and zag to see if she could put him off so she did at that same time hoping whatever Fiona’s answer was would give her the information she needed to get out of this bloody mess and back home.

Kenkames. No’ populated and nobody will be up here this late at night,
Fiona answered.

“Marvelous,” Elle muttered right before she heard Fiona’s ghostly scream and Elle was tackled, going down hard, first to her knees then her hand slammed into the asphalt of the road, the pain in her wrist shooting up her arm then she hit the road at her chest, her breath going clean out of her.

Let her go, you fool!
Fiona shouted as Elle sucked in air but still she immediately started struggling, twisting, turning and kicking out.
Let her go!
Fiona repeated.
Let her go! Let her go, go, GO!

Then Nigel’s weight was off Elle, she rolled several times to the side, got to a knee and looked back to see Nigel struggling with the supernatural body of Fiona.

RUN!
Fiona screeched as, with parted lips, Elle watched Fiona lifting Nigel clean in the air and darting away, both of them several feet off the ground.

Now!
Fiona yelled, Elle found her feet, turned away from her surprising attacker and by far and away more surprising rescuer and she
ran.

* * * * *

Prentice

“Prentice –” Dougal started, his voice coming from Prentice’s speakerphone on his mobile.

“Just do it, Dougal. Call the police and head up to Kenkames,” Prentice ordered.

“You should leave this to the cops, Prentice, you should –”

“I’m no’ discussing it, I’m telling you. Call the fucking police, get in your fucking car and head up to fucking
Kenkames,
” Prentice ground out, hit the button on his phone to end the call and tossed it in the passenger seat.

Then he focused on the road. He needed to focus on the road. He was in a 4x4 going twice the speed limit. He needed to get to Elle, get her safe and beat Nigel fucking Fennick bloody and not die in a fiery crash before he could do it.

And that was what he was bloody well going to do.

* * * * *

Fiona

Fiona forced Nigel in his car, locking it and keeping it locked with her newly realized powers. Once she accomplished that, she floated outside it, hands on hips, glaring at Nigel.

It wasn’t anger that brought on her powers.

It also wasn’t effort.

Or concentration.

It was love.

Magic came from love.

Who knew?

All she knew was, faced with the possibility that, if she didn’t do something, there would be no Isabella Austin soon-to-be Cameron in this world, Fiona couldn’t abide that.

Her children needed Bella.

Her husband needed her.

Annie, Fergus, Mikey, they needed her.

And Bella needed her happy ending.

And Fiona loved her enough to make it so.

So she did.

You’re mad, Nigel Fennick, and you need help,
she informed him through the car window as she floated at its side and he struggled with the handle to a door she kept locked.

He stopped struggling and scowled up at her.

“You don’t exist,” he declared.

No, you’re right but then again, I also do,
she replied.
When Prentice finds Bella they’ll send someone up here to get you and then you need to get help.

“Go to hell!” he shouted.

No bloody way,
she shot back, gave him one long, last glare then she dematerialized and materialized at Bella’s side.

A Bella who was walking, holding her side. She was walking quickly, very quickly, but she was still bloody
walking.

Why are you walking?
Fiona snapped, Bella’s body jolted and her head jerked to the side.

“You’re back,” she noted unnecessarily.

Aye, I’m back and there’s a bad man no’ too far away who’s lost his mind and wants you dead so why are you walking?

“I can’t run anymore, I have a stitch in my side,” Bella explained. “And anyway, you
carried
him away. A grown man…” Bella shook her head, disbelief stark on her features. “A grown man.”