by Nhys Glover
“How did Fred end up with me?” I asked, interrupting.
“He wound himself around the kidnapper’s feet, trying to trip him over, but it didn’t work. So he followed you down the stairs and slipped into the van. Went under the seats, so they couldn’t get him out in a hurry.”
“He probably snuck out the same way. If they saw him they didn’t much care.”
I finished Fred’s story as I assumed it had happened, reaching to stroke my pet’s long sleek body. He really had tried to save me. My very own TV animal hero.
“Then what happened?” I asked the group as a whole.
“My turn,” Bryce spoke up without raising his hand. “Danielle and me ‘ad argued to get a chance at watch-doggin’. They wouldn’t let us at first because we were too young. But there was a gap of a few hours when nobody else was available, and Gran said we could fill it. Danielle had her Vespa and we’d be inside the old gatekeeper’s place, after all. When we saw the fire start up in the shed out back, we knew summat was up. I called Jason, who called the fire brigade. He told us not to move.
“But then the van flew down the drive and the front door of the house swung open and summat was carried out. We didn’t know what, o’ course, because we were too far away. Anyway, I tried to called Jason back. But the mobile signal went out. So when the van took off again we followed on Danielle’s scooter.”
The scooter was news to me. I’d seen a black Vespa with L plates parked at Booths, but I hadn’t known it belonged to her.
“We kept the headlight off so they didn’t know they were being followed. It was scary as ‘ell. Danielle’s not the greatest rider yet, and she was going way over the speed limit tryin’ to keep up with ‘em.”
I turned to Danielle and scowled. “You could have both been killed. That was reckless.”
Danielle huffed and rolled her black kohled eyes. “Bryce is exaggeratin’ as usual. It wasn’t near as bad as all that. An’ we got there in one piece, didn’t we?”
I laughed and nodded. “You did. Go on.”
“We got to the bottom of Logan Fell, where you were, and the scooter ran out of petrol. But we could see the headlights going up the moor and then come to a stop up there. We tried to ring Jason again, but there was no signal, so we started running back towards town. Every time we ran out of puff I’d check for reception. We were almost back to the edge of town before we got enough signal to place the call. It took us hours!”
For the first time I properly looked at the two teenagers. They were filthy dirty and exhausted, though the excitement of having found me had kept the exhaustion at bay until now.
“I... I can’t find words. You were amazing!” I declared, overwhelmed by how much the pair had done for me.
If it had been anywhere else, they would have found a farmhouse on the way and could have called from there, but Logan Fell was remote, with no houses on the main road. There were some set back from the road, up long tracks, but I could understand why the two would have stuck to the main road.
“While they were involved in the car chase and saving the day,” Jake went on, “Jason turned up with the fire brigade. I was fighting the fire with the garden hose, trying to keep it from claiming the garage. I didn’t even have time to move my bike out. Luckily, the fire brigade arrived in time to save the garage and my bike.”
He paused and took a few deep breaths as if this next part was hard.
Daphne stepped in. “I was going crazy in here not able to tell anyone what had happened. When Jake finally came in about half an hour later he was exhausted. When I screamed at him that you’d been taken, he lost it. That man has feelings for you, Alfie, never doubt it. The cool calm fighting machine was gone and in its place was...”
“Panic. I panicked,” Jake admitted through gritted teeth. “I rushed out the open front door, but there was nothing to see. I dashed down the side to find Jason and tell him what had happened. I’d wondered why you hadn’t come out to check on the fire’s progress, but I was too busy to worry.”
“That’s when Jason tried to get in touch with Bryce and Danielle. And couldn’t reach them. We drove up to the back room in the gatekeeper’s lodge. They weren’t there. We put two and two together and thought they’d gone after whoever had taken you.
“The police were notified and thanks to Daphne having seen the van, we knew what we were looking for.”
Daphne smiled with a mix of pride and sadness. I could see she was still feeling bad for having not reached me in time.
“I might not have been able to get away, even if you’d been able to alert me in time,” I told her. “And you helped a lot. Jake wouldn’t have known what had happened, if not for you.”
She nodded, smiling a little more confidently. “I did my best. I wish I could have tried tackling him like Squib.”
“And disappeared for ‘ours, so you couldn’t tell nobody what happened?” Squib pointed out before I could.
“I supppooose. But if I could have thrown something at him.” Her expression changed to one of determination. “We have to get better at being poltergeists.” She nodded at Squib to include him.
“Maybe you won’t need to now. The worst is over,” I consoled.
“Never say something like that. It’s a sure-fire way to bring more trouble down on our heads,” she said in horror.
“All right, all right. The worst is over for now. Is that better?”
She grunted acknowledgment.
Jake went on. “The police knew what they were looking for, but it was fully dark by then and the chance of anyone reporting a van on the back roads was remote. We had to cool our heels. Well, they did. I didn’t. I got on my bike and drove miles in every direction looking for... who knows what. I just knew I couldn’t sit around doing nothing. I...”
He stopped talking, overcome by something I could only guess was worry or remorse. When he went on it was with a firmer voice.
“I kept calling in for updates. There were none until just before first light when Jason said these two had called in with the location of the van. I had to get out the map to find where the hell they meant, but then I took off. Jason wanted me to wait for them, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t!”
Now his face was fierce and scary. I would not have liked to be Watkins or his crew if Jake had found them then,
“I passed a van half way there. I clearly saw it in the pre-dawn light. I was caught between following the van and going on to the croft. I didn’t know which was your more likely location. I went for the croft, as you know. I had to hope the plod’d see it when they headed up to the croft.”
“Did they?” I asked.
“It must have turned off not long after I saw it, because there was no sign of it after I passed it. So Jason told me while you were havin’ your moment with the kids. Maybe I should’ve gone after it and left the croft for the Bill. But I’m not much for should’a could’a. I just pick a path and follow it.”
I nodded, thinking this was just what I would expect from Jake, the enforcer. But it seemed that that clear-headed man had been absent a good proportion of the night. His worries for me had overtaken him more than once. The odd, vulnerable feeling that realisation created in my chest was something I didn’t want to look at too closely
“There we have it,” Jake finished with a flourish.
“Tell us your side,” Daphne said, bouncing up and down on the countertop like Danielle had done at the croft.
I grinned at her. Sometimes it was hard to see her as my mother’s older sister. Especially in moments like this.
“All right. This is a version I didn’t tell the police. Although I did tell them about Watkins wanting the place so he could go dragon hunting. I made it sound like he was insane. He is, but not because he believes in dragons. If he were, then we’d all be sectioned.
“I woke up tied to a chair in a one-room croft that was clearly used as a holiday let. Fred was there hiding under the mat and it was such a relief to have someone there wit
h me. My little guardian.” I stroked the dead-to-the-world ferret as his head and shoulders dangled off Bryce’s lap. Only the lad’s hand kept him from falling head-first to the floor.
“My mouth was all woolly and dry, and I had a bad taste on my tongue that only a cuppa could erase.” I took another sip to make my point. “Oh, and my head ached. But that’s gone now too. Anyway, Watkins, Mason and this Kevin fellow came in when I woke up. Watkins did most of the talking.
“There isn’t much new to tell you there. He wanted me to sign over the house so he could gain control of the gateway and therefore the dragon. He believed it didn’t have to be a legally binding contract I signed. The natural laws didn’t need our laws to determine ownership. The fact I signed was all that mattered. When I realised my only chance of survival was to sign, I went with it. My hope was that they’d go after the dragon and get themselves killed.”
“They had copies of the Logos and Book of Shadows?” Jake asked.
“Yes. And they knew how to pronounce them because Bryce and Danielle’s father, Jamie McTaggart, taught them how, years ago. Your dad didn’t know what they planned to do, but when he found out, he threatened to tell his family. They’re Keepers in Scotland, if you didn’t know. They killed him to keep him quiet.”
I looked at the siblings, wishing I hadn’t had to be the one to tell them their father was really dead. When I got no reaction from either of them, I went on.
“He was another hero, when you think about it. He died trying to stop these madmen from opening the gateway. That was what they were trying to do back then, I think. Break the wards. Obviously they didn’t succeed, because it wasn’t until recently that something came through. The wards must have held until the fifty-year mark.”
Bryce looked at Danielle, who smiled uncertainly at him.
“Looks like what I told you was true, after all,” Danielle told him.7
He nodded and laughed. “I knew ‘e was dead. I always knew ‘e was dead. He wouldn’t have just left us. That’s why I wanted Alfie to contact ‘im. I wanted to know what happened to ‘im.”
“You didn’t believe my story about ‘im bein’ killed by Voldemort?” Danielle asked playfully.
Bryce shook his head. “Not even the kid I was back then believed that yarn. But I knew something bad ‘ad ‘appened. And it ate me up that Mam believed ‘e’d left ‘er. That she felt bad because she’d done summat wrong and ‘e’d left ‘er.”
“I’m sure wherever they are now, they’re together,” I assured him, believing every word.
“Thanks, Alfie. Thanks for finding out for us,” Bryce said, tears clogging his throat.
Danielle put an arm around her brother and squeezed him tight.
“Is that all of it then?” I asked.
“What made them leave you behind?” Jake demanded, unwilling to leave the story with loose threads.
“I made them believe I was a scared little rabbit only too happy to hand over the responsibility for capturing the dragon to them. Mason backed me up, although I’m not sure if it was because he believed me or because he didn’t want to see me killed. I want to believe it was the latter.
“I signed the contract. They said I’d stay their prisoner until they’d done what they need to do with the dragon. They left me food, so they said. I didn’t get the chance to check. I heard the bike and thought the dragon had come to toast me. When I realised it was a motorcycle I was... happier than I’ve ever been in my life,” I admitted with a bright smile.
I looked at Jake and tried to convey my gratitude. He had been the first one to find me. More than that, he’d come for me when I wasn’t sure he would.
“I’m glad I get a day off school for this,” Bryce said, yawning loudly.
“Gran called in sick for me, too,” Danielle said, equally as tired.
“Well, I better get you pair home so you can sleep. I’ll ferry you down one at a time on my bike,” Jake offered.
That picked the tired kids up a little.
“Me first, me first!” Bryce cried.
The way he bounced around woke Fred and Percy up. Disgruntled, they slid into the crate to curl up again together, as if they were always the happy couple. I couldn’t help grinning. All was right with my world. At least for the moment.
Chapter Fifteen
While Jake was away I made sure all the doors were locked. I wasn’t going to have a repeat of last night. In fact, I doubted I’d ever leave a door or window unlocked again, even on a hot day. Being kidnapped could do that to a person.
Though I’d been unconscious all night, I found I was still exhausted. Whether it was the chemicals, the terror, or just all that had happened, I felt as worn out as the kids were. So after Danielle left, I headed for the shower and then bed. I still had things to do, like record the spells for the ‘coven’, but that seemed to be on hold until Watkins was found. Everything might change if he tried to take control of the creature. In fact, if he was right and, by signing over the house I lost control of the gateway, maybe I wouldn’t be able to lead the others in recapturing it after all. If that proved the case I’d feel awful if more innocent people died because of my decision.
While my mind circled uselessly from one possible scenario to another, I let the hot water beat down on me. When the shower curtain pulled back and Jake stepped into the bathtub with me, I went naturally into his arms. His hot, naked skin against mine seemed to slow my racing mind and give me the reprieve I needed.
“Hope you don’t mind me joinin’ you,” he growled against my ear, raising delightful goose bumps all over my body.
“We’ll be saving water, as they say,” I murmured into his wet chest.
I licked at the trickles of water and heard his sharp intake of breath. My confidence surged higher. Surely I must attract him if something as simple as my tongue on his skin could elicit such a response.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me. I’ve been kickin’ myself ever since I came into the house to find you gone. I should’ve known summat was up. It was a classic diversionary tactic.”
“Twenty-twenty hindsight. It all happened so fast. And they knew what they were doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t some military tactician in their clan pulling the strings. Someone clever enough to let Watkins be the figurehead.”
Jake was kissing his way down my face to my neck, his hands roaming freely over my slick skin. “Mmm,” was his only response. Clearly his thinking had moved to the brain pressing insistently into my stomach. And wasn’t it a huge brain at that!
I rubbed myself against it, loving the way Jake groaned.
“Do you think we’ll manage to do the deed this time?” Jake muttered into my neck, gently biting me there.
It was my turn to have my breath catch. If Jake hadn’t been holding me up, my legs would have given way under me.
“I thought you were dead,” he murmured. “The idea of livin’ my life without you in it... It drove me barmy.”
That lifted my heart a little higher. That sounded suspiciously like a declaration of love. Yet we’d only known each other a week. It had to be the intensity of the situation that was arousing such heated emotions in him. Once life got back to normal he’d realise how boring and ordinary I really was. For a man like him, who lived for freaky and exciting, vanilla and uneventful would soon stagnate him.
If he stayed long enough to stagnate. He’d told me he’d be going back to Leeds. That he had to go back. And even if he asked me to, I couldn’t go with him. I couldn’t be part of that life.
“Your brain is running a mile a minute, princess. Be here with me now,” he claimed my lips with his own. “Be in my life now.”
We kissed and caressed until my skin began to prune. Jake then carried me, sopping wet to his bed and laid me across the mattress. For a moment he looked down at me, and the expression in his eyes made sure I didn’t attempt to hide myself from his gaze. In his eyes I saw utter idolisation and awe.
Not
that my view was any less awe-inspiring. Jake was like a perfect piece of living sculpture, with his broad shoulders tapering to narrow hips and large, well-defined muscles. The scars and tattoos only added to the masculine beauty of his form. The large appendage sticking proudly out from the thatch of hair between his legs completed the erotic picture.
In Romance novels this was the moment the sweet virgins wondered if something that large would fit inside them. I knew it would. But I also knew the first time would not be easy.
Jake lowered himself to the mattress and began kissing first my lips and then my cheek, neck and shoulder. I kept my hands buried in his wet hair as he paid homage to the curves he seemed to have taken such a liking to.
I wanted to do more, but my lack of anything but theoretical knowledge held me back. Maybe it was best to let Jake take charge, as he did when we rode his motorcycle. Once I knew what I needed to do, I could contribute more. Or that was the plan.
When Jake’s mouth latched onto one of my nipples I nearly levitated off the mattress. God, it felt so amazing. The books didn’t lie about the sensation, especially the one that ran from nipple to core, turning my insides to mush.
I moaned and pressed his head closer. He smiled around the sensitive spot he was favouring with his attention. Smug knowledge that he had me powerless seemed to fill him with masculine pride.
When his mouth left off its suckling, I gave a little moan of disappointment. But as his fingers continued to tweak my other nipple—when had that happened?—I wasn’t too concerned. Writhing under him, I craved his mouth on more and more of my skin.
His wet kisses worked their way down my stomach and into my maidenhair. When his tongue, hot and wet, flicked between my folds, I gasped and tried to pull away, even though the sensation was so very good. But such an intrusion into a private place like that seemed too much. Of course, I knew about the technique. Getting a woman off this way was common. Eating her out, was sometimes what they called it in books.
