My pulse frolics gaily at the contact, his hold folding his presence right around my heart and blasting me through with a buoyant thrill. Looking at our hands locked together, I take it as a sign. He likes me.
Savoring the long legs and powerful arms traversing in front of me, he's like a shield between me and an alien environment. I know as long as I'm with him I'm going to love it here.
Glancing up I spy another robin peering down at me from the branches we slink beneath. He must be my guardian angel, he led me straight to Doug. As if in answer he twits once, then takes off back the way we came.
He's red too. He could even be a fairy in disguise. A red breast marks his lineage.
Smiling, I walk looking everywhere, amazed by this sacrosanct corner of the world where I am lucky enough to wander with a Highlander holding my hand. He makes me strangely safe and happy.
Chapter 2
Ellindt:
Once we're settled on a large flat rock overlooking the steep incline down the valley, Doug gestures to the right. “Down there, that's Loch Achtriochtan.”
His smile is wide as a Frisbee, his tone laced with pride, “If you ever go down there in the winter ye'll see whooper swans. It's been a slow process but their numbers are finally increasin' each year.”
Nodding at my tour guide, I say, “I've never heard of a whooper swan.”
He chuckles, saying through his laugh, “In the old days they called 'em elk. That one really confuses the tourists. They're just white swans and look regular. You can tell them by the color of the beak, it's yella with a black tip. But they grow huge, some weighing as much as thirty-one pounds.”
“Wow, that is big,” I nod, not nearly as excited by swans as he is.
“I dinnae suppose talk of wild duck and swan are yer thing.”
What's he, a mind reader?
I shrug, offering a bashful smile.
“So why are yer dressed like you walked out of the wrong century?” he says.
“I wasn't planning on bumping into anyone because our home is remote, and because I'm stuck here without my twin I had to keep myself entertained.” Smiling wider now, almost embarrassed to be caught, I confess, “I found a bunch of old clothes in a bedroom and decided to get dressed up and just be girly.”
“You have a twin?” he says, looking delighted.
“A brother,” I say, nodding as if it's no big deal to smash his hopes of two of me.
“So you have a brother?”
“Yup. Three of them. One older, one younger, and my twin who's my age.”
“Any sisters?” he asks, lifting my hand and turning it over as if he's going to read mysteries from my palm print. He's a real tracker, what was he hoping for, a hoof and spoor?
“No sisters,” I say, waiting for my hand back.
“You've been eatin' blaeberries,” he smiles, examining the purple splodge left on my finger from holding blueberries. Looking back up at me, releasing my hand, he says with his dimples deepening, “Must be tough being the only girl.”
Shaking my head, catching my long hair to stop the wind from whipping him with it, I say, “Not really, I get preferential treatment because of it. My uncle is tougher on them than on me. Especially Seithe. For some reason he expects Seithe to be a saint.”
“Who's Seithe?” he asks.
“He's my twin. I get the impression uncle Venix is training him to take over the family responsibilities one day.” Tired of talking about me, I say, “What about you? Any brothers or sisters?”
“A younger brother.”
I take the opening, “So how old are you?”
“Twenty-one. You?”
“Almost eighteen.”
“How almost?” he asks.
“Next week,” I smile.
“Oh! So it's nearly yer birthday.” He looks excited when he says, “Are ye busy tonight? Dae ye fancy coming to a ceilidh?”
“What's a kaylee?”
“A ceilidh is just a bunch of friends getting together and having a bit of a party. The boys will be there jammin', and och everyone just has a good time ye know? It'll give ye a chance tae meet some of the locals. Then we'll have a proper excuse tae have one on yer birthday and ye won't be a stranger.”
“I don't know, Doug. I'm not sure I'm allowed to go out. I'll have to ask my aunt.” Worried that I'm probably underage, I pry, “Where will it be? Is there an age restriction?”
“It's a house party so there's nae age restriction.” He gives me a goofy smile, as if finding my ignorance of how his world ticks amusing.
“I'll ask Selene,” I nod. “Do you have a cell phone? Then I can just text you about tonight.”
“Sure,” he nods, scrounging inside his jean pocket and yanking out his phone. “What's yer number? I'll send a missed call tae yer phone so you have mine.”
I rattle off the digits, suddenly aware that Selene is calling for me. She sounds worried.
Ellindt! Don't hide from me when I call you! If you think I can't find you, think again!
Standing abruptly, I'm panicked at the thought of Selene finding me sitting in isolation with Doug. Fraternizing with boys is how I ended up in trouble in the first place.
“I have to go. I'll call you later,” I say, rushing up the slope and onto the path. Snapping back to face him I offer a quick smile, “It was very nice to meet you. Sorry I have to dash but my aunt is calling for me.”
Without looking back I gather up my skirt in tight fists and sprint a good distance into the trees, think of Selene's garden, and instantly appear on the lawn.
She swivels to face me, anger making her eyes glow molten silver. “Where were you?”
“I was exploring. What do you expect me to do, sit around and mope all day?”
“You were far away missy because I was calling you for an age.”
She has an uncanny knack of knowing my thoughts so I decide to just come clean straight away. “I was following a bird down at the bottom of the garden when I bumped into a boy fishing in the stream. I caught my first trout!”
“And you sound so proud to be fishing while I stress that you've been attacked, or kidnapped, or hurt!”
“Selene, you freak out over nothing. I'm a vampyre, I doubt anyone could hurt me.”
“And that's exactly the kind of attitude that will get you murdered. These people aren't ignorant savages, Ellindt. They are one of the few cultures still walking this earth who remember us. They remember what we look like.”
“Seriously? Selene, all he did was talk about smoking fish and the population growth of wild swans. He took me to see the deer in the forest. He may as well be called Ray Mear because he's into survival and nature, and that's all he talked about!”
“Well thank god one boy has his head screwed on the right way. Is he simple? It's not often the opposite sex doesn't react to a vampress.”
“He didn't seem simple. I just think he'd rather be catching fish than entertaining girls.”
This seems to relax her and she smiles, her eyes dulling back to brilliant blue, “Good.” Linking her arm in mine, she starts to march me back up to the house, “Why are you wearing my old clothes?”
“This is yours?” I ask, fingering the coarse linen of my skirt.
“Of course it is. This is my house isn't it? We live forever, and well, sometimes I don't have the heart to burn the old just because the world lost good taste in feminine clothing. We don't all like to wear jeans and sweaters constantly. I'm a lady, not a wench.”
As we reach the top step to the manor, I swallow my nerves and broach the subject. “Do you think you'd let me go to a house party with Doug?”
“Who's Doug?”
“The boy I met fishing.”
“How old is Doug?” she says, staring down her nose at me with her hand propped on her hip.
This is where she explodes.
“Twenty-one.”
Steeling myself for a parental tantrum, I wait it out, holding her gaze without flinching, without betraying my anxiety.
“And he didn't react to you?”
“Did he kiss me or ask me on a date, alone? Did he think the sun shines from my rack and try to get fresh? ... no. He did say I might like to meet some of the locals so I'm not a stranger, which is why he invited me to a kaylee at a friend's house tonight. I see no harm in meeting the locals. I may as well get a bit of exposure to this place and the people before I'm shipped off back to my warden.”
I stress the word
alone
, making sure she gets the point that we'll be a crowd, not some romantic moonlit stroll down on the banks of Loch Achtriochtan.
She stares vacantly for a second, pursing her lips in deep thought before snapping her full focus back on me. “I will allow it, but I want you back here the second you think they suspect you're different. Blend in, dress down...” She steps closer, dropping her voice, “And do not tell your uncle I allowed you to have some fun.”
Yay! She's actually on my side!
Bouncing, I squeal, “Really? I can go?”
“Yes. But don't be home late or I'll get worried.”
“Yay! Okay!” I go running for the stairs, “I'm going to phone Doug!”
I miss her smile because I'm so busy torpedoing up to the second floor to unearth my phone from my bag.
*
Douglas:
Standing up at the top of the ridge, looking down at me, again her beauty strikes me as extraordinary. Her long wavy hair is the color of sun kissed moonlight. It's so pale it's almost white, but it holds the warmth of blonde in it.
“It was very nice to meet you. Sorry I have to dash but my aunt is calling for me.”
Her voice is a melody, it's soothing and hypnotic, as pretty as her face.
Before I can find my own voice, she's gone.
The guys will be merciless if she shows up looking like that! I'd better get efter her and tell her tae wear sumthin' a bit more casual. Normal I would say, but dinnae want tae offend her.
Bolting off the boulder, I vault tae the top, but cannae see her. Running down the path for a good five minutes, scarin' all the wee creatures and inhaling a cloud of midges which ends in a brutal coughing fit, it finally dawns on me that either she can run like the wind, or she can make herself just as invisible.
“Ellindt!” I call, hands cupped around my mouth.
Birds take flight and the forest stills with caution.
The lass has vanished.
Cold needles my skin, prickling each pore.
My gut is yelling I'm right. No human can just disappear like that. She's sidhe. She looks and speaks like the fey. She's tall, slender, drop dead delicious, and her eyes are the clearest azure I've ever seen. They're the shade of single malt woad, filtered through Hebridian crystal ice-water and turned into a living Saltire.
What is wrong with me? I'm no druid. She's makin' me behave like an old drunk with rheumy eyes and dreamin' nonsense. I'm getting soft.
Oh well, them fish aren't gonnae smoke on their own, best I head home. Dae faeries have cell phones?
Och why not, everyone does these days.
I laff, thinking about the woodland spirits spending their evenin's watching Youtube videos on their cell phones.
My maw's lilting voice haunts through my thoughts, reminding me of a warning she gave me a long time ago before she died, when I was just a wee boy.
The faeries are beautiful but they can kill you. Good men go missing in there. Promise me you'll stay out of the woods Douglas. Promise me.
Chapter 3
Douglas:
Walking intae the house with ma fish, the phone in ma pocket buzzes.
The house is silent as a graveyard, all I'm hearin' is the sad echoing tick of the grandfather clock in the lounge. It's like a pacemaker struggling to force blood through an ancient body which is old and weary from living too long. The chime wheezes in creaking agony, an objectionable complaint rather than a joyous ring of hitting the half hour.
Checking ma phone I note either the grandfather clock is slow, or my phone is fast, because it reads 3:33.
What's botherin' me rather badly is how Ellindt could hear her auntie. We were miles away from her home and there was no humanly possible way she could hear her auntie calling from so far.
I walked all the way back to the juniper hedge and never saw her, didnae find her, and didnae find any house either.
I'm beginning tae think she lives in the woods. But she isnae some homeless lass, she was clean and smelled fabulous like bottled starlight caught on a sabbat night.
Closing ma eyes, I recall it. It's a strong fragrance and it's a wee bit intoxicating. It makes her smell warm and comforting with a heap of forbidden delight.
Sighing, I shake ma head, laffing at mysel' fer being such a Jessie. I dinnae usually go all soft fer a girl. But her eyes, they're like endless pools of warm tropical sea in a cove somewhere private and secret. They're happy, naughty, sparkly eyes. They're also innocent eyes and I hav'nae seen innocent eyes on a lass fer a very long time. It makes me a wee bit daft, like I want tae protect her.
“Da!?” I call intae the empty house, dumping the fish next tae the sink fer cleanin' and guttin'. “Da! Are yer home, Da?!”
The silence tells me my father is out. I ha'e no idea where Jamie is either. He's probably out skatin' with his mates. Or mebbe he's got his bike out and they're doin' the macho thing seeing who can ramp the highest off some insane slope.
That lad is gonnae give me gray hair before I'm thirty.
Popping the kettle on for a cup o' tea, I sit down at the old melamine table that's faded to baby green with longevity. It's from the early eighties when Maw and Da got hitched. This table is older than me.
Checkin the phone ma mouth goes dry at the text.
Selene says I can go. What time? Any dress code? Must I meet you somewhere?
Oh heck.
Scratching ma ear, I wonder how exactly I'm going tae get the car up there. I took the bike because it navigates the terrain better, but I cannae take that wee lass out fer her first time in Glencoe on the back of the bike.
I took special note of the wind and clouds gathering before I came home, there's probably gonnae be a spot of rain tonight. The bike is out of the question, but how else do I get tae that juniper hedge?