She knew her movements were as rigid as she felt. She could almost feel the coolness of her gaze when she looked at him, but she managed to keep her voice low and quiet. “Come in then…won’t you?” She stepped aside and waved him inside with her hand.
He took a step back. “No…no…it is clear that I intrude.”
She was furious with him. He had been investigating her, and she meant to find out why. He wasn’t escaping her now. “Oh, but I insist,” Shawna said and reached for his hand. She clasped it firmly and then not too gently, controlling her vamp strength, pulled him into the narrow hallway.
Chad’s lips had already formed a smirk as he moved out of Shawna’s way. Her eyes looked into his and told him that this was her show, and she felt a wave of pleasure to find that he meant to allow her control. She knew that wasn’t easy for the man that he was, always used to having the wheel in his capable hands.
Shawna could see that Kenneth was hesitant and wary. Good—that was just what she wanted. “Sit…we’ll chat,” she offered as she continued to hold his hand and draw him into the living room. She let go of his fingers there and motioned him to be seated.
He remained standing, and it was obvious that he was ill at ease and ready to bolt. “I…I don’t think…”
“No, you didn’t think…I know, so we’ll discuss what
I think,
” Shawna stuck in quickly, softly. “Yes…that’s right.” She sucked in her lips, licked them slowly, and glanced over him from his mussed, thick locks to his leather boots. “What I think is that a person who has offered a friendship…does not win that friendship by investigating the very person he wishes to befriend.” She turned to Chad. “Do you agree?”
“I do,” Chad said, offering the squire a cold smile.
“I…I don’t know what you mean?”
She made a clucking sound. “No…? Well of course, you never dreamt it would get back to me that you were…er…what shall we call it? Ah—I know,
investigating me
.”
She smiled sweetly as she pushed him backwards and into the winged leather chair. She watched him sink into its dark fold. “What I want to know now is—
why
?”
“I don’t know who you have been speaking to or what they told you, but it was nothing like that. Honestly…I may have mentioned that you were leasing my cottage…and perhaps asked a casual question or two of one of your countrymen…”
Shawna had watched his face turn various shades of red. She watched as the temper he was trying to suppress gathered and blew a storm into his brain.
And then, all at once Shawna felt something suddenly in the atmosphere, as though it was seeking out elements within itself and revving up.
Something was wrong.
She glanced at Chad and realized that he was also aware of the sudden change in the airwaves and something else—a certain drop in temperature.
She tried to concentrate on the squire’s answer.
Her countrymen
?
What the hell was that about? “What does that mean, Kenneth?”
“Nothing—it was all so casual. I met some individuals from New York and simply inquired if they knew you…nothing sinister, I assure you.”
“Really, and did they know me?”
“I think one of them did.” The squire did not meet her gaze. “In fact, he told me that you had a loft in New York…but under another name. I, of course, had to wonder—why?”
This was not good! This was in fact, very bad. Someone had investigated her and had reported to him. He was putting a casual paintbrush to it, but she knew the truth. Someone had managed to trace her back to New York and her previous identity. It wouldn’t be long now before Pentim would find her…
“Cut the crap. Why were you asking about Shawna? What do you need to know that you don’t already?” Chad had taken a menacing step forward. The consequences of the squire’s investigation were not lost on him.
The squire jumped back. “This is between Shawna and me. She leases my cottage, and I have every right to look into…her past…”
Shawna couldn’t stifle the small intake of air. “Why? Did you expect me to steal the furniture? You have already been paid six months in advance whether I stay or not.”
He moved towards her. “Shawna, you are allowing this fellow to influence you…steer you off the right path…”
“The right path? What is the right path, Kenneth?”
“She did the same thing. She started picking fights with me…just before…just before she took to doing cocaine, and…and men…” the squire’s hazel eyes glazed over. A strange look came over him as he clenched his fists at his sides and saliva gathered and spilled over his lips.
Shawna looked at Chad. While Kenneth MacDunn appeared to be in the heat of madness, something outside—something blue and electric—was rising up, and the temperature continued dropping…
* * *
Shawna heard Chad make a low angry sound in his throat. He looked grim, and he looked dangerous. He had her wrist before she realized what was happening, and he shoved her behind him, reached an arm backwards, and held her tightly against his broad back. “
Stand and stay behind me, lass.
”
And then she felt it—what he felt, knew what he knew…
Apparently Kenneth MacDunn knew it as well and welcomed it, because he was grinning wickedly.
She was coming, charging through mortar and wood, howling against the pain the wards were inflicting on her, determined to reach inside.
“Now you’ll see…you’ll see what happens to people who betray me!” Kenneth shouted. A maniacal ferociousness twisted his features.
“It is connected to him, isn’t it, Chad?”
“Aye, hadn’t you guessed that already, lass?”
It dawned on Shawna in one blinding moment. Kenneth MacDunn had called his mother from the grave when she died. He had used black magic, and in place of the controlling woman she had been, he got the fury and madness she had taken with her into hell…
“She thinks we have attacked him…” Chad said on a wary note. “Stay behind me—don’t let her make you a target.” As he spoke he reached behind and under his jacket and unsheathed the sword hidden at his back. He began the familiar chant Shawna had heard before, and the Dragar sword of death appeared in his firm grip.
The entity arrived in a bolt of fury. She was different this time: her rage was tenfold, which heightened her power. She loomed enormous and seemed to fill the small room. The electricity pulsing from within her mass shot about the room in lightning streaks, leaving furniture and rug singed in its wake. Her eyes were dark black sockets, but Shawna could see the expression of hate in the deep holes.
Without warning it stopped short and made a mewing sound. It was looking at Kenneth, who was breathing in spurts and holding a hand over his heart. He was no longer burning with rage but deathly white, and he appeared to Shawna to be in physical trouble. His lips moved, and Shawna heard his voice, weak and frightened “I…I can’t breathe…”
Suddenly the beating mass of electrically charged energy spluttered and the entity’s unclear form took shape, softened, became womanly. She moved towards Kenneth. Her mass seemed to withdraw into herself, and although sparks still flew all about her, she cooed pathetically and enveloped him with a gentleness Shawna had not thought possible of the creature.
Kenneth MacDunn whimpered and said on a hushed tone, “Mother. Mother, help me…this one has hurt me—just like the other one hurt me.
She is a whore
…”
The entity turned to stare at Chad and tried to look past him to Shawna. The sound that came from the entity’s depths was a roar of rage out of control. Looking like a force from hell, it charged.
Chad stood his ground. Shawna dug in her pocket and withdrew her charmed mirror. It fit into the palm of her hand, and she lifted it up and out towards the entity and past the shield Chad had enacted around them.
In the midst of his rage it saw itself, felt the ray of white magic assault it from the mirror. It was thrown off for a fraction of a moment, but only a fraction of a moment. It lashed out with its razor-sharp tentacle and caught Shawna’s hand and wrist—tearing her open.
Blood spurted out of her, and Chad cursed under his breath. “No—oh lass…”
The entity slashed at him but was bounced back. It was as though she had hit an invisible wall, and she had—Chad’s shield.
Confused, it took a moment to stare, consider; it seemed mesmerized by what it had encountered.
“Kill him! Kill him!” Kenneth screeched behind the entity.
She roared and charged, and Chad plunged his death weapon into one eye socket.
She screamed in agony and recoiled. Chad went after her immediately and plunged the death weapon once more—this time into the other dark eye socket.
“Nooo,” Kenneth screamed in outrage.
The entity collapsed in a heap of blue. It spluttered, sparked, and disintegrated as though it had never been.
“What have you done?” Kenneth turned on them. “I will see you in hell for this!” And so saying he started to run, tripped, caught himself up, and ran blabbering incoherently from the house.
Shawna gripped Chad’s arm as they watched him get into his vehicle and squeal off into the looming dusky afternoon. She heard the rain before she saw the drops splash on the stone steps, turned to Chad, and collapsed into his arms.
~ Twenty ~
ON THE BANKS of the River Inverness resided a Tudor-styled pub that was both dimly lit and vibrating with the sounds of a very good rock ’n’ roll band. The pub had been leased that night for a private party of very exclusive clientele.
They were the young and fashionable set of Inverness. They were affluent, had too much time and too much money and were, therefore, traditionally bored and bent on having a good time, no matter the cost.
Most of them were seeking a thrill, something different to liven the evening, and tonight a select few would discover an experience that would take them to the edge, because they were knowingly mingling with vampires.
Pentim was dressed in dark gray Armani silk with a black tie. His raven locks were slicked back and tied into a knot at the nape of his neck. His amber eyes glittered as his gaze skittered around the room and came to rest on a newcomer.
There was something in the manner of the man that caught his attention. There was something in the man’s disheveled appearance, a wild look in the irises, that spoke of madness. Pentim watched as the man threw down a shot of Bushmills and then another.
He could see that this man had suffered a trauma. As the man got very swiftly intoxicated, he seemed to glaze over. Pentim knew from the man’s clothing and the manner in which he held himself (in spite of the wildness) that this was someone that traveled in the upper circles.
Pentim watched a group of pretty, beautifully clothed debutantes wiggle up to him—obviously he was known to them—but he brushed them off and downed yet another shot.
And then Clara was beside Pentim, taking away his attention from the newcomer. She touched his hand, licked her lips—teased him for attention. Pentim noticed the blood still on her bottom lip and glanced around hurriedly, feeling the hunger tickle him. He had already fed earlier. They didn’t want to draw attention to themselves at this private club. He had told her to take without killing.
“What have you done, Clara?”
“A taste of junior. over there…” She indicated with her chin a dazed young man standing quietly, listlessly in a corner.
Pentim breathed a relieved sigh. At least she hadn’t killed him. He looked her over. Her hair this evening was a shade of blue-black. Her makeup was thick and yet suited her small, pixie-shaped face. She wore a strapless black satin cocktail dress that hugged her slim curves. Clara excited him. She had from the very first. She even amused him, and she had proved one of his most useful tools in his clan. She had brought him to this point in his hunt.
She surprised him by clutching his wrist and saying on a hushed tone, “Pentim…
her scent
…
it is here
…” She sniffed the air and then looked at the young man Pentim had been studying a moment ago.
“There
…it is coming from him!”
Pentim’s eyebrow arched before he whispered, “Ah—shall we introduce ourselves to him, then?”
* * *
Shawna was bleeding profusely.
Chad suffered a moment of indecision before he knew what he had to do. He laid her on the sofa and then rushed to the medicine cabinet. He returned with the first aid kit, as he had the other day when the now disintegrated entity had wounded her.
“Shawna love…lass…I think it hit an artery…”
She opened her eyes and smiled at him but said nothing as he worked at wrapping her arm and palm, but the blood quickly soaked through. She was swiftly going into shock, and he could see that she was about to pass out. She was losing too much blood.
There wasn’t time to think, let alone do anything at the cottage. He knew he had to stop the bleeding, and to do that, he had to transfer her to the Darby Gray hothouse.
He had her cradled in his arms, and a moment later he had shifted them to his manor home’s functioning hothouse, full with many varieties of blooms and one in particular in amazing numbers.