Falling for Angels: A Scottish Time Travel Romance

by Hazel Hunter

  For the first time since the crash I wanted to laugh. I’d spent weeks watching these twenty-first century cheerleaders developing super powers while learning to live in a medieval castle with a clan of immortal Scottish warriors. No one knew I was there, of course. As for me, when I wasn’t in the dark place I could see, hear, and walk (well, float) through anything solid, but that was all.

  Being a ghost haunting Dun Dorchas wasn’t bad. Even if I hadn’t taken that standby seat on their plane, I’d be dead by now anyway.

  I learned how to be a ghost pretty fast: don’t wander into the clan’s chambers after dark (the girls and their guys loved having sex), stay away from the druids (going anywhere near the one the girls called K-pop kicked me right back to the dark place) and avoid the stables (I actually spooked animals.) The worst thing were these water shape-shifter things called calpa that had been attacking their island; they not only saw me but chased me. The only place I seemed to be safe was inside the castle or the ring of stones in the oak grove where I rested.

  I felt tired, so I floated off to the grove to take a nap. As I drew closer I saw that one of the guards, Pherson, had beaten me to it. He came here often to stare at the ground while he muttered to himself. I’d always figured he’d been praying to one of the god figures carved on the stones. This time he’d brought K-pop with him, which made me hover at a safe distance.

  “I dinnae sense any presence here, lad,” Kendric was saying to the guard. “Mayhap the sound, ’twas made by the wind.”

  “’Twasnae,” Pherson told him. “I’ve druid blood. ’Tis a spirit.”

  As they talked I admired my afterlife crush, his tall, lanky body and the sun-streaked brown hair he wore braided back. He had different color eyes—green on the left, gray on the right—and on his handsome face a tat of a circle intersected by two parallel lines. I haunted Pherson the most; when he wasn’t on duty he’d walk through the woods gathering herbs for the cook. He sang when he was alone, too, in a beautiful voice that made me shiver.

  Okay, I’d completely fallen for him. What else did I have to do?

  When the men left I finally slipped inside the stone circle, and stretched out in the center. My afterlife might be boring, but that had been the story of my life, too—until I’d lost my job and came home to find out my husband had run off with my best friend after emptying our accounts and selling our house. I’d pawned my wedding ring to pay for the plane ticket and give me a week in Scotland, which I’d always wanted to see before I died. Once my money ran out, I’d planned to find a nice high bridge to jump off and put an end to my ridiculous life.

  For the first time since I’d died I realized how stupid I’d been, wanting to kill myself when I might have met someone like Pherson.

  A rustling sound made me turn my head, and I saw three very wet horses circling the grove. I hated the calpa, and the way they looked at me like I was a big cheeseburger, but they couldn’t touch me here. They weren’t looking at me, though, and when I followed the direction of their gazes I saw Pherson walking back across the glen toward me, alone this time.

  “Get out of here,” I shouted at him as I floated to my feet.

  “He cannae hear you, slut,” an oily voice said from the trees. “We shall feed well tonight, brothers.”

  I’d tried to stop the calpa from killing other people on the island, but I had no effect on them. Pherson couldn’t fight off three of them; in a few minutes I’d watch him die, too. My vision started to dim—a sure sign I was going back to the dark place—and the ground under me shook as if a minor earthquake had started.

  “Pherson,” I screamed. “Calpa.”

  My love stopped in his tracks, but instead of running away or drawing his sword he held up his hands. At the same time the carvings around me lit up, and surrounded me with a curtain of light. I heard horses screaming and then running, and then I sank down into the dark place. There I felt so weak I couldn’t do anything, but for the first time since the crash I felt something move. Leaves thrashed around me, and light poured down from above. I looked up to see a strong hand reaching down to me.

  If I took it, would I stop being a ghost? Was this the end of my afterlife? Suddenly I didn’t care. Maybe if I got to the next place I could convince Pherson’s Gods to save him.

  I grabbed the hand, and it pulled me out of the dark place and into a pair of strong arms. Leaves fell away from me as I stared at Pherson. The ground beside us closed, and then suddenly I understood. The crash had left me stuck in the portal, caught between life and death. Or maybe the Gods had kept me there, to teach me a lesson.

  This time I was choosing life—and love.

  “My thanks,” he murmured, and brushed the tangled hair out of my face before he kissed my brow. “You saved me, lass.”

  “My name is Jane.” I smiled. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  Chapter 18

  Unwanted

  I’ve never gotten anything easy. My teenaged mom abandoned me after I was born. No one adopted me, so I grew up in a group home where the other rejects disliked me. Our lazy house “parents” made us do all the work. I knew I’d have nothing when I aged out, so I studied my ass off in school. After landing enough scholarships for college I still had to work to cover my expenses. I tried out for the Angels after a cheerleader broke her ankle. I was only average—height, weight, looks, plain brown hair and eyes—but the team’s scholarship and stipend would pay all my expenses, which was better than two part-time jobs.

  “I can offer you the sub spot, Penelope,” Coach Jennings told me at our first meeting. “But you’ll have to learn every position.” She watched me nod and said, “This isn’t about funding for the other girls. The Angels are a family.”

  I said what she wanted to hear. “I won’t let you down, Coach.”

  She smiled. “We’ll try to do the same.”

  When the girls saw how hard I worked at learning everything, they accepted me, and even gave me a nickname. I noticed Hannah didn’t socialize, either.

  “I have a brain injury,” she said one day when we were alone. “What’s your trauma, Lola?”

  I shrugged. “Foster care kid.”

  “We should try being friends,” she said. “It can’t be harder than that wolf wall stunt.”

  Hannah’s friendship was why I came along when the squad decided to time-travel back to fourteenth century Scotland and join the McGillean clan. None of the guys fell for me, and I didn’t get a super power, but it was better than being alone. I worked around the castle with Hannah most days. Then she hooked up with Morven.

  “I’d rather be with him,” she told me when I asked if we were still going to be friends.

  These days I took a lot of walks by the loch to keep watch for calpa. The shape-shifting water demons that had been attacking the island ate humans, but first they changed into someone their victim loved. I figured as a loner I’d be a good lookout.

  Ualan, an archer who was probably the handsomest guy on the island, had started walking the loch, too. I found him waiting on my trail one morning, his bow slung over his shoulder.

  “Mistress.” He bowed. “Might I accompany you?”

  I’d been there when he’d told Gayla that Stephanie’s blindness revolted him. Since then the squad and the clan had been treating him like a disease. I should do the same, but instead I fell into step beside him.

  Ualan didn’t say anything, but he shortened his stride so I didn’t have to trot to keep up. Now and then he’d glance at me.

  I might as well fill in the blanks. “I’m Lola Jones, the substitute on the squad.”

  “Ualan McGillean,” he said. “Why do you walk alone?”

  “No friends.” I wasn’t telling him my life story. “You’ll get used to it.”

  He uttered a short, bitter laugh. “I’ve no choice.”

  We came to a heap of rocks that rain had washed down from a cliff, so I tried to climb over them. I lost my footing, but Ualan caught my arm.


  Suddenly my mind emptied of everything but a skinny black-haired boy kneeling in front of an old man. The kid had Ualan’s beautiful steel-blue eyes, but he didn’t make a sound as the old guy whacked his arms, legs and back with a wooden cane.

  I ken the demon in ye, bastart. My suffering, ’tis yer doing.

  I blinked, and the image vanished. “Some old man thought you were possessed by a demon, and beat you?”

  Ualan took his hand away from me, his face going so white I thought he’d faint. “My grandfather. He blamed me for the blaze that ended my ma.”

  “He abused you for years, but not even the laird suspected.” He didn’t have to tell me more; I could feel the rest of his secret pouring into my head. “You couldn’t tell your grandfather that your mother started the fire that killed her, and blinded him.”

  He turned away from me. “’Twould’ve driven him mad.”

  No wonder he’d been repelled by his ex’s condition. I touched his arm. “Why didn’t you tell Gayla about him?”

  “I didnae intend to ever speak thus. Yet I couldnae silence myself, as now I cannae.” Ualan peered down at me. “’Tis you. You’re a touch diviner.”

  I took my hand away, but I couldn’t deny it. Just before he’d told his feelings to Gayla I’d handed him a plate of oatcakes, and our fingers had touched. I’d been combing out Hannah’s hair when she’d ended our friendship. “I’m sorry.”

  Ualan stepped back and put an arrow to his bow. It was too late for me to run, so I closed my eyes. I felt the arrow whiz past my cheek and heard a horse scream.

  I spun around to see a calpa on the ground just behind me. It was already starting to turn into goo when I crouched down and grabbed it.

  I saw thousands of calpa underwater circling around a pile of human bones. They belonged to Ruith, a dark druidess who had slaughtered thousands. She’d died giving birth to Velvet, the half-calpa stallion captured by the clan…

  Darkness drowned me.

  I woke up in a strange bed, with Ualan sitting beside it. “I need to talk to the laird.”

  “’Twill keep. You nearly died, lass.” He took my hand. “That I couldnae bear.”

  “You don’t hate me.” That seemed like a miracle, but so did what I sensed next. “You’re falling for me?”

  He kissed my fingers. “Aye.”

  “I won’t be a substitute for Stephanie,” I warned him. “I’ll never be as pretty or as popular as she is.”

  “You see the truth of me.” Ualan smiled. “’Tis naught I want more.”

  Chapter 19

  Bonfire Night

  I survived college, cancer, a plane crash, and two trips through time to live in medieval Scotland with my cheerleading squad and the immortal McGillean clan. Then I fell for Velvet, a half-druid, half-calpa shape shifter that I helped turn into a man for the first time. I was all kinds of glo up. But teaching the boyfriend to be human after spending his life as a horse?

  Girls, the struggle is real.

  By the time I got to the stables that morning my guy had already changed into a tall, beautiful man. He also scowled when he saw the trousers I’d brought.

  “Hay pans, Lessy,” Vel said.

  I tried not to stare at his gorgeous naked body as I corrected him. “‘I hate pants, Lacey.’”

  Suspicion narrowed his pale blue eyes. “Why I war pans?”

  “‘Wear pants.’ Humans don’t run around naked.” I pointed at the castle. “You’re moving in with me, Vel.”

  “Holly sheet. Laird say yas?” When I nodded, he jerked on the trousers and then eyed the herd watching us. “Sisters?”

  He regarded his harem as siblings, which seemed a little weird, but maybe it was a horse thing. “Conor and Jamie will look after them.”

  Staying in human form had been difficult at first for Vel, but practice had improved his control. As we walked he lurched a little (two legs requiring more balance than four) but didn’t try to shift back. At the castle’s threshold he stopped to sniff the air.

  “It’s okay.” I took hold of his hand. “You can do this.”

  “So many here.” Vel frowned. “No shame you, Less.”

  That he was worried made me love him a little more. “You always make me proud, Vel.”

  I guided him through the great hall, where of course everyone gawked. I smiled at the girls with teeth, and they went back to prepping breakfast. The clansmen kept watching us as I took Vel to my room.

  “Okay, this is where you and I will sleep.” Inside my room I started pointing and naming things. “Hearth, trunk, wash stand, bed, and window. The laird said he’d find more clothes for you.”

  He walked around and then stopped at the bed. “We sleep now?”

  “Later tonight.” And do some other things, I hoped. “Today we’ll have breakfast together, and then do some work, and go to the bonfire tonight. It’s called, ah, Tine-Aye-Gan, I think.”

  “Tein'-éigin,” a deep voice said. “’Tis what we call the Need Fire.”

  As the McGillean stepped inside, Vel darted in front of me. I saw his back muscles shift, as if he meant to change form, but then he went still.

  “My lord.” He bowed the way I’d taught him, but he stayed between me and the laird. “Lessy say I stay in castle.”

  “Aye, ’twas time you lived as a man.” Gill smiled a little. “You guard the lady well, lad.”

  Vel drew me against his side. “My lady.”

  At dusk every hearth on the island was extinguished. The Need Fire, Coach told us, was something Scottish people did during times of bad luck. Everyone would restart their fires with torches they lit from one new, big blaze. The bonfire also had to be earned, not just lit up, and as the newcomers to the island the Angels had to be the ones to start it.

  “We’re not Girl Scouts,” I heard Deb telling Gayla as Vel and I went to join the rest of the clan and the Angels around the huge pile of wood in the glen. “Using a rope and stick will take forever. I’ll do it.”

  “Or we could just smack Reggie in the head,” Gayla told her.

  “Hey, I heard that,” our tumbler protested before her guy wisely led her away.

  I chuckled and went to help, only to walk into Vel. “It’s okay. I was a Girl Scout.”

  He picked me up and nuzzled my neck. Against my ear he said, “Wood smell evil. Smell demon magic.”

  Everyone had gathered around the huge wood pile and started cheering. Deb strode up as if she meant to use her power to light it.

  I jumped on Vel’s back. “Shift and run.”

  His body swelled under me as his clothes exploded and he took on stallion form. Clansmen drew their swords and shouted as Vel galloped through them. I jumped from his back and landed on Deb. We both fell in a tangle, and Vel shifted back into human form to drag us both away from the wood pile.

  “They must burn,” Deb screamed in an entirely new voice.

  I punched her in the jaw, and she went limp.

  “Don’t light the fire,” I shouted as I scrambled up. “There’s something wrong with it.”

  The laird ordered everyone back, and then approached the pile. Vel followed, and yanked some of the wood away to reveal a huge, seething orb of yellow light hidden inside.

  “Fire evil,” he told Gill. “Burn clan, Angels.”

  Vel picked up a rock and threw it at the orb, shattering it. An awful stench spread, and the light turned to sludge as it sank into the ground.

  “My thanks, lad.” The laird took off his tartan and draped it over Vel’s shoulders before he ordered everyone back inside. That was when I went to get Deb, only to find she’d vanished.

  “Where is she?” I asked Vel.

  He pointed at the loch. “Go demons.”

  In the end Reggie used her power to light one of the hearths in the castle, and runners were sent with torches across the island. Coach and Gill said they wouldn’t give up on Deb as long as there was a chance we could get her back. I promised to work on teaching Vel more English
so he could explain more about what had happened, and why.

  Much later I showed Vel why it was okay not to wear pants in bed with me. Now I don’t think he’ll ever put them on again.

  Chapter 20

  The Trouble with Druids

  I opened my eyes to see Griogair, the McGillean Clan’s Captain of the Guard, watching me with his stunning violet eyes. I also felt the ropes biting into my wrists and ankles, and my head pounding from the clubbing I’d taken. I couldn’t break free of the bonds, which burned my skin when I tried. Obviously I’d been abducted by calpa, the demon shape shifters trying to kill everyone on our island.

  “Hey, babe,” I told the one pretending to be my husband, and batted my eyelashes. “Come here and give me a kiss.”

  Not-Griogair must have heard about my power, because he backed away.

  “Don’t give me spurn notice, honey,” I crooned. “I survived a plane crash and two time-travel trips to be with you, remember?”

  The monster hissed something before he left the cave. From the salty smell of the air it had to be near the beach. I shook the hair out of my face and saw a druid boy chained to a big rock. He had a blindfold that covered most of his face, but long garnet-colored hair. It had to be Teague.

  “You okay, kid?” I called.

  “Aye.” He ducked his head. “You’re the captain’s lady?”

  “Coco, yeah.” Since my best friend Deb had been snatched by the calpa, the laird had only allowed those with the strongest powers to leave the castle after dark. “What were you doing out at night? You’re like twelve.”

  “’Twas necessary.” He sighed. “Cannae you break your bonds?”

  “The ropes burn me when I try.” I watched him scoot toward me. “What are you doing?”

  “If you’ll roll closer, my lady.” He turned around, reaching out his bound hands, and when I bumped into them he muttered under his breath.