He nodded. “I’m a necromancer. But I’m
not going to return you to where you came from. I’m here because Mel, your
queen, thought you might help in finding out who murdered you.”
“He is a vampire. His name is Zachariah,
but I didn’t catch his last name.” She pulled up her sleeve and pointed to the
marks there. “He grabbed me when I came out of the bathroom. It wasn’t until I
was nearly out of the building that I felt a small jab in my arm. He tried to
drug me.”
He couldn’t see the marks she was
referring to. He couldn’t really see her well. She was fuzzy and a little
blurred. Her eyes were bright in the darkened room and her skin pale. In a few
days she’d be faded to nearly nothing and then only a few necromancers, such as
he was, would be able to see her at all.
“Close your eyes, Kilia, and think of
what he looked like. I can capture that image in my mind.” He watched her do as
he asked then, before he could touch her mind, she looked at him again.
“My parents, can you take them a message
for me? I promise to you that it will not harm them. I wish to give them
peace.”
Mac nodded.
“I wish you would tell them that I am
sorry. That I should have come home when they asked. I should have done a great
many things that they asked of me. Tell them…tell them that I have never loved
them more than in that moment when they let me explore the world beyond. Tell
them that I was coming home soon. I was wrong in thinking that I knew what was
best for me.”
“I’ll tell them.” He looked away. “I’ll
make sure they know that your last thoughts were of them.”
She closed her eyes and then frowned. The
image she produced was clear, as though he was standing next to the man. Nothing
much about him really, other than he had a scar on his right cheek. Kilia
didn’t know what it was from, but said that he seemed to be proud of it. “He
kept referring to it as his battle scar. And when he bit me…when he drank from
me, I don’t think he knew what I was.”
Mac thought she was right. Had he known
what he’d done and to whom, he would have left the area right away, if not the
realm, and never returned. Not that Mel and her resources couldn’t find him; they
could, but the man was too stupid to realize that he’d signed his own death
warrant.
Mac walked back up to the chamber a few minutes
later. He had all he would be able to get from Kilia and let her slip away to
her ring. She smiled at him when she turned back and wished him the best of
luck with his new bride. He didn’t comment, only waved back at her.
Chapter 6
The room she was taken to was beautiful.
As were the other two women that sat there on the large sofas. Andi knew that
they were related, each of them looking just enough like the other to see that
they were. She nodded to both of them and tried to ignore the fact that
something was feeling quite off. Mel said she’d return shortly, she was needed
elsewhere.
“You’ll feel that for a while, I’m
afraid. I still do sometimes,” the woman on the couch said with a gentle smile.
“Why don’t you come here and sit with me? Shamus, do stop pacing. It will all
work out in the end.”
“I’d like for you to call me a cab,
please. I simply want to leave here and go. I’ve plans, and staying here is
mucking them up.” She looked at the other woman when she laughed.
“Darling, no cab will come for you here.
This place isn’t in the human world where you were. You’re in the Castle of
Molavonta. Have you heard of it?”
“No.” She felt dizzy again and reached
for the couch. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’ve been doing this for a
few hours now.” Andi sat down. It was either that or she’d fall. When there
suddenly appeared a bowl of fruit in front of her she closed her eyes and
counted to ten. When the bowl was still there, she thought she’d missed it and
it had been there all along.
“It’s magic, dear. There’s a great deal
of it here. Here, you need to eat more fruit. Living with a vampire can be a
bit of a strain on one’s body.”
Andi took the banana and held it. Magic?
Vampires?
“Yes, that’s it. Magic and vampires. Though
Aaron believes that the two of them don’t go together, they do. By the way, I’m
Elizabeth. And this is my daughter Savannah. Mel is my granddaughter and
Savannah is her mother. Oh, and that lovely Sara is my granddaughter too.”
Andi put the fruit down and looked
around the room. She tried to stay focused on the conversations, but her head
was spinning. She looked up as soon as Mac came into the room. Suddenly, she
was better.
“She’s having a reaction to you. Well,
not a reaction, but a sense of loss. You’ll need to bond soon or she’ll only
get worse, I think.” Savannah said this and nodded at Mac. “You don’t believe
me, but it happens at times with mates.”
“She’s not my mate. Morrigan said she
had children. This woman hasn’t any. Why does everyone insist on thinking she’s
my mate?”
Savannah laughed.
“I know what I’m supposed to do. Morrigan
was very clear.”
Andi got up and left the room. Or she
tried to. As soon as she was to the door five armed men stopped her. At each
doorway she encountered the same thing. She moved to the door to the outside
and stepped into the most beautiful garden she’d ever seen.
There was Mel talking to another woman. This
one was earthier, darker. Not just what she wore, though that was beautiful too,
but dark as in she ruled the night skies and would ride a broom to survey her
domain. Andi was waved over by Mel.
“This is Morrigan. She is helping solve
the murder of a young woman. She knows Mac as well.” Mel nodded over Andi’s
shoulder. “He doesn’t know yet. Morrigan is here to explain.”
“I don’t know why you keep walking away
from me. How do you expect me to keep you safe if you won’t stay where I put
you?”
Andi didn’t know if she wanted to knock
the shit out of him or throw him to the ground and have her way with him. She
turned her back to him instead.
Mel was grinning as if she knew what
she’d been thinking. With a short nod, Andi knew somehow that she knew exactly
what she’d been thinking. Andi smiled at Morrigan. “Do you know if there is a
way to get these people to listen to you? I’ve been trying to go home for…well,
all day, and I keep letting them sidetrack me. I’ve had enough of this bedlam.”
Morrigan laughed.
“I’m serious.”
“I’m sure you are, but unfortunately,
you’re in for the long haul.” She looked at Mac as she continued. “Why do you
believe she’s not your mate?”
“She has no chil—”
“You say that again and I will brain
you. I don’t have children. What the hell does that have to do with anything? And
if mate is what I think it is, then hell no. I wouldn’t be saddled with you for
thirty years for any amount of money.”
Morrigan laughed again, as did Mel.
“What the hell is wrong with you
people?” She was confused when they laughed harder. Mac only glared at her and,
before she could walk away again, Mel finally regained enough control to speak
to Mac.
“You do know I never said she had
children now, right? The children she has later, the ones you’re to save, are
your own.” She laughed again and patted him on the back. “You’ve found your
mate, Mac dear. If she has children now, they will be yours. If she dies, as it
is planned, then you are alone.”
Andi looked at the three of them. If she
dies. They knew when she was going to die. If she dies. That thought, along
with children of Mac’s, mate, magic, and vampire kept circling around in her
head. While the women laughed and Mac glared she turned and went back into the
castle. The other women were there and the man who’d brought her here.
“They said I’m his mate. That if he
didn’t save me I was going to die. Is this true?” The man, Shamus, nodded, his
face grim. “Magic. She said something about magic and vampires. You know these
to exist as well, don’t you?”
Again, he nodded and stood up. “You’re
overwhelmed. I can see that. Would you like to go home?”
She nodded and was suddenly sitting in
the MacManus kitchen. Aaron was sitting there as if he expected her. Sara too. Duncan
set a cup of tea in front of her and she looked at it without seeing it. She
didn’t look up when she heard the door to the rest of the house open and close.
“What can you do?” She looked up at
Aaron when he spoke. “What can you do? I know you’re not a vampire. And I’m
reasonably sure that you’re not wolf. But you threw off my compulsion as if it
were nothing. Something leads me to believe that you have a strong mind. So I
ask again, what can you do?”
She didn’t answer him. Andi looked over
at the counter and put out her hand. The toaster was suddenly in it. As she put
it on the table, she brought the mixer, as well as the dish rack filled with
plates to her. Then put them back. “I can move bigger things too. Not really
big things, but things bigger than a breadbox. It drains me something awful,
but after some sleep, I’m okay.” She reached out for a glass and filled it with
water and ice without looking at it. When it was set down on the counter, she
asked him for aspirin.
“The small cabinet over the
refrigerator. And be careful of the glass items there. Sara collects them and
gets testy when they’re broken.” The cabinet opened and the drugs were sitting
next to the glass. “Who else knows that you’re adept in psychokinesis?”
“You. I’m pretty sure that guy who let
me come back here, the king. And this guy I dated for a while. He tried to sell
me to a lab somewhere so they could cut me open. He doesn’t bother me anymore.”
She opened the bottle and took out five aspirin and swallowed them with a large
drink of water. “Why? Do you have some lab that’ll make you rich too?”
He smiled gently at her. “No. I have
enough money and I’ve no use for doctors. What did you do to the young man?”
She shrugged. “I lifted him against the
ceiling for a few days. Of course, he might have been okay if I hadn’t spun him
around most of that time. I’m also glad it was his apartment. The puke probably
never cleaned out of his leather sofa.” It was a surreal conversation, but the
only one she’d had since she got here that she felt in control of. “That lady,
Elizabeth I think her name was, she said you didn’t believe magic and vampires
went together. Is that what you are?”
“Yes. So is Mac. He’s not happy about it,
I just found out, and wants to die.” She watched the hurt come over his eyes.
“I guess I’m not happy with him either.”
“I tried to kill myself once. After Paul,
I didn’t want to go on…there are days when I still find it hard to wake up
every day and get moving. I don’t think being a vampire would be all that fun.”
She shivered. “Are you going to bite me?”
“No. You belong to Mac now.”
She shook her head.
“But you do. You may not like it, but
it’s true.”
“He doesn’t want me either. Something
about being forced to watch over me so that those ladies will give him what he
wants. Death, I’m assuming.” Aaron nodded. “I heard Shamus telling that lady
that your son made the queen promise before she knew what he wanted. Is that
why you are pissed at her? That queen lady?”
“She should have told me.”
Andi didn’t want to get involved, and as
soon as she could manage it, she was leaving. She’d have to go with less money,
but she was leaving.
“Seems to me that he’s more to blame
than her. And if he really wanted to die, why did he make her promise not to
tell and not just go do it? I mean, I just pulled my beater into the garage and
let it run with the door down. I didn’t expect to have it die on me. When I
woke up I was very disappointed. I didn’t try again, but it doesn’t mean I
won’t.”
“Are you saying that some divine
intervention stepped in and you’re alive only because of that?” Aaron snorted.
“This isn’t the same thing. She knew that he was contemplating it and didn’t
tell me. She broke my trust.”
“No, she didn’t. She kept it.” Andi
stood up. “How much respect would you have for someone like her if she broke
promises like people use tissues? Not so much, I’m thinking. But she did help
you. She made him do something in exchange for him being able to die. What have
you done for him since you found out?” She walked to the door and out. No one
tried to stop her and she wasn’t surprised to find the gate open when she got
to it. As she walked down the street toward the hotel she’d been staying in she
thought about the family. Vampires.
Did she believe in them? She didn’t
know. Magic? Not that either, but she did believe in Mr. MacManus. He’d been
straight up with her and she right back at him. When she reached the hotel her
truck was still sitting where she’d left it and the room she’d been in had a
new door. She went to the desk to see if they had been able to salvage her
things.
“The owner came and picked them up about
an hour ago. He said to tell you that he put them in your truck along with the
other stuff you left at his office.”
She was confused, trying to think what
she might have left.