by Claudy Conn
“Wow,” I said. “That is so not good for us.”
“Right, so she called for his execution, but Tomin banished him from Elfin instead. She was displeased, but could do nothing, as his jury agreed with Tomin. I am nae sure what we should expect from her. She hates the witches…and would go to war with them if she could convince her father to do so. Tomin is too wise to risk his people’s lives with a war, especially with the Draoidheil. They may be a small community, but they are a potent one. He strictly adheres to the Treaty. So to begin with, Rana has a grievance with witches, and add the fact that she never really liked me, it puts the matter into another perspective. Ye might conclude, lass, that as far as clearing ourselves, we dinnae stand a chance with her,” Devin said.
“Oh, great. Here go our heads.” I was only half-teasing and was beginning to feel some serious concern when we heard the click of her heels as she returned.
“Well, Devin, here you are, where you have always belonged…here, or with the beastly supernaturals in their territory. Never with us. You are an atrocity and the only thing you ever did that I approved of was rejecting my silly sister,” Rana addressed him, but scarcely looked at me.
“And when have I ever broken yer law, Rana? Ye dinnae like me, true, and as to where I live—as it happens, I live on neutral ground, approved of by yer father and brother, built by the hard working hands of yer Elfin community.”
“And how did you repay us? You brought this thing…this witch, into our community!” she snapped.
I cleared my throat, and her eyes flashed as she regarded me.
“Not a Draoidheil Witch,” I said.
“You sparkle!” she shouted.
“Er…in the Human Realm, supernaturals call it ‘a glow’ or ‘white light’. I am a Witch of the Light. I have nothing to do with the witches here. Never even met one. I am simply trying to find a way to bring Devin home.”
“Liar! You have bewitched this vampire fool, but you won’t be able to bewitch anyone else while you are in the netting. Your magic can’t get past the netting,” she said in a superior tone.
I wanted to show her a thing or two about that. I didn’t like her. I didn’t like her at all. I stared at her and saw very clearly that she was burdened with meanness. I wondered if it had always been there.
“Well, not sure how we can prove the truth if you have a closed mind,” I answered.
“My father will be discussing this problem in the morning with his council. He wants to gather as much information as he can before he brings you two to court for a hearing.” She eyed us both with a gleam that made me very irritated. I wanted to tell her what I thought of her, so I bit my tongue.
“Nothing to say to that?” she said tauntingly.
“What I have to say to that is, you are a closed-minded bitch who I will take great pleasure in defeating with the truth when it comes out, and the truth always comes out!” I guess I released my tongue too fast.
She took hold of the bars. “Oh, witch, I will take great pleasure in seeing you executed and do not doubt my ability to get that done sooner rather than later. I will watch you both burn...and soon, very soon.”
So saying, she turned and marched back down the hall.
“Right then, lass, here we go,” Devin said, and grinned. “Ye got her to declare her intentions, so we know now what to expect, as she has put her cards on the table. Well done, m’brilliant lass.”
“I wasn’t being brilliant, though.” I grimaced. “She got me angry.”
He laughed. “Well, we will have to time our escape just right. She wouldna have more than two or three Elfin males to help her, and I’m thinking they won’t be military. Nae, she will use the very dregs of her society and pay them, so escaping should be easy, as we will stay in the netting ‘til then.”
“So, you think she will have us squirreled out of here before morning and burn us alive?” I was incredulous.
“I am sure Tomin, who is a good man, has nae idea what Rana Tomin is planning. I believe he simply thinks leaving us here like this is probably the safest thing to do for us and for his position. He cannae show favoritism.”
“Not liking your guy Tommy! Favoritism is one thing, basic decency is another,” I snapped. “He left us in a net, without food, without water, and without bathroom facilities. That is no way to treat any prisoners.”
“Aye, to some extent ye are in the right of it, but consider the fact that they believe if they remove our netting, we both would perhaps retaliate, especially ye, as ye are a witch.”
“Yeah, well, still not liking him or his daughters. Seems to have failed in raising them,” I grumbled.
“Aye, he did the best he could when he lost his wife and they were young when they lost their mother.” Devin sighed.
“So losing your mother makes it okay to burn people you don’t like, alive?” I said, not even a bit sympathetic.
“Shh…” he whispered.
We heard hard steps…boots on the ground, then the cell door was flung open.
“You know what to do and where to go. I will meet you there,” Rana said in a hard voice.
“Rana,” Devin said. “Ye dinnae want to do this…what will yer father think?”
“He will never know. He will think the witch helped you escape and that you went back to your world. He will declare war on Draoidheil, and I will finally get what I want—their destruction!”
“Or yers,” Devin said.
“Take them,” she snapped.
We were picked up, and I noticed they used another route to a side exit where, of course, a truck waited. We were dumped in the bed of the truck and I looked at Devin and said, “Well, I guess it is time to leave.”
“Aye, lass…‘tis time!”
“Want the honors?” I asked, and grinned at Devin.
“Och aye, it will feel good to break the binds that hold!” He laughed out loud and did precisely that.
We quietly scrambled out of the net and I poofed us away in a cloud of purple. We came out of my purple cloud and I looked around. “Do you know where we are?”
“Aye, ye did good, lass, we are near the cottage,” he said, and picked me up. “Off we go.”
Vampire speed and we were at the cottage woods in less than five minutes. We stopped and looked around to make certain they had not left guards at the place.
It had never occurred to them that we would be able to escape. No one about. A moment later, we flashed into the cottage, where Devin put me on my feet and rushed into his bedroom and picked up a floorboard and produced the notebooks.
“Do you think they noticed we are gone yet?”
“If not, they will soon,” he said gravely, and picked me up once again.
He took me to the barrier. “Hurry, lass…into the portal…go!” he said.
With a thought, my silver skinny portal opened and I turned to him. “Get to your cave and stay away from the barrier. This is where they will look for you.”
“Aye, go now!”
I stepped through and immediately turned to watch Devin race off in a flash of color, and sighed. When would I be able to see him again?
~ Seventeen ~
IT WOULD SOON BE MORNING! I wondered what would happen with Tomin and the Elfin community when Rana told them whatever story she might concoct.
I was worried about Devin. Would he be safe? Did they have ways to find him? Would he be able to elude them ‘til I set him free? How would I get to him? Would they be watching the border between our worlds? They couldn’t see the border, but Loli knew where Devin spent a great deal of time, especially lately.
Would this entire incident cause war with the Witches in Trinity? That would be horrible…to be the cause of so much unrest. We would have to fix things.
With all these questions making me feel haggard, I went to Jeremy’s door and pounded on it.
He didn’t respond.
I peeked inside. His bed had not been slept in.
I bit my lip. What the hell
? Was he okay? Where was he?
I went to my room and on my door there was a note penned from him.
Bobbie,
You remember Tina Lind? She waited on us recently. Well, she and I…well, we struck up a friendship, and I’m going to take her to the movies tonight and then off to her place for a late er…dessert. Don’t snicker. I mean cake and coffee. It is only our first date, but…you never know, so don’t worry if I don’t get home tonight, and yes, I am wiggling my eyebrows.
I laughed out loud. I adored Jeremy.
Tina was a lovely young woman. Yes, I was very happy he had someone new in his life, especially with all the danger and tension we were constantly facing. Normalcy—a movie and dessert. I wiggled my eyebrows as though he were there to see, and moved towards the bathroom, stripping on my way.
I slipped under the covers after I was cleaned and my red hair was shiny clean. Damn, but I was sure achy-breaky and tired.
I didn’t think I would get any sleep, so it is amazing to me now, as the light shines in my window, whose drapes I forgot to close, that I actually fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillows.
I reached over and touched the notebooks just under the other untouched set of pillows in my queen-sized bed. I had not let them out of my sight. I rushed into the bathroom, mentally reciting an incantation as I took the notebooks with me. My spell would keep them from getting wet. I showered, dressed, and brushed my messy hair into order, picked up the notebooks and headed for the front door. It was already late into the morning!
I stood at the Blood Ward and called, “Beyland, Beyland, Beyland…I have what you want!”
He was there in an instant and smiled when his eyes lit on the collection of books in my arms.
“You have done well, Bobbie Skye,” he said.
“Will you honor your part of our bargain?” I asked, just a bit worried about him keeping his word.
“I will. No one you care about will be harmed by me,” he said.
“And..?” I pursued.
“Ah, you wish to free your day-walker, the vampire, MacLeod. I agreed because that will cause Allora pain. Yes, I will give you what you need to accomplish that!”
“Okay…we are agreed. We have both kept our promises and when the deal is completed, the Blood Oath will be at an end,” I said.
“Indeed, let it be so,” he said. “But, Bobbie, because I loved your grandmother, I will tell you this. In the future, never trust a Dark Warlock…not even me. Now, stay on your side of the Blood Ward and put the books on the ground and send them across with your magic.”
In that moment, I saw the Light my grandmother must have always seen in him, the Light that had allowed her to believe he had given up the Dark Arts.
I smiled and said, “Sure, but first, tell me how to rescue MacLeod.”
“Ah, very wise, though in this instance, I do mean for you to do just that. It is simple really, so simple you will find it difficult to believe you did not find it in your Shama immediately,” he said.
“Blame it on my youth,” I quipped, and grinned at him. I found it difficult to dislike Beyland, at least for today.
“Oh, I do like you, Bobbie Skye. My Lisa would have been so pleased with who you are. Indeed, we, she and I, were robbed, but then, so, my dear, were you. So, yes, do as you have been doing. Open the portal your Shama gave you and enter his realm…”
“How did you know I have been going into his realm…how did you know that?” I was surprised.
“Ah, I am, as I have tried to make you understand, extremely skilled and knowing,” he said softly.
“Okay, I go to Trinity, it is called Trinity…did you know that?” I teased, beginning to enjoy this Dark Warlock, and really understanding why my grandmother fell in love with him.
“Do you doubt it?” He chuckled.
I grinned. “Okay, then what?”
“You close that portal immediately. You don’t leave it to close on its own, as you have been doing.”
“Why?”
“Just listen, Bobbie Skye, and learn,” he answered.
I eyed him ruefully. “Okay, okay…go on.”
“Lisa imprisoned your vampire in a realm—Trinity, where he could survive comfortably. She knew he did not live on human blood. Thus, she created a simple portal to go in…and one other thing, you don’t have to be at the border to return here to the Human Realm, once...”
“What? What are you saying? I don’t…”
He put up a finger. “Do not interrupt me, child.”
I lowered my gaze. It occurred to me that had my grandmother lived, he would have been my step-grandfather. “Right,” I said.
“MacLeod cannot return via the same portal that he stepped through to Trinity. That portal was made to send him there, but not return him. That is the simplicity of the spell. So, yes, you hit on the very spell Lisa used to open a portal and send him to Trinity, however, any other portal would have allowed you to enter and take him home.”
I gasped. “Are you kidding me? So what do I do? How do I do this? What other portal would be best?”
He laughed and said, “Bobbie Skye, you are an amusing child. I find I like you...more than I should. However, you must understand how skilled your grandmother was. She used one portal to send him to Trinity and that meant any portal, any at all, except that single portal, could be used to bring him home, as long as it was opened by herself or someone of her bloodline.”
I was absolutely stunned. The answer had been there all along. Another portal…any portal!
I put the books on the ground and pushed them to his side of the Blood Ward. “Thank you, Beyland. You know what I think…I think my grandmother would have taken you back in the end, just as you are. I see what she saw when she fell in love with you and as wicked as you may be, or have been, there is a Light in you…I see it.”
He looked away, so I continued, “I think she would have come to realize that she fell in love with who you are, Dark and Light.”
“Go now and save your vampire, Bobbie Skye,” he said softly.
“What are you going to do with those notes?” I asked, and looked up at the sky, which had become overcast. The clouds were thickening and turning black, and I felt a brush of drizzle. I was pretty certain it was about to rain—hard.
“Ramon can’t use this serum as it is. He has lived on human blood too long, but he thinks he can alter the formula to accommodate that aspect. I mean to taunt him with these notebooks. I mean to get him to renege on his Blood Oath so that I will be free of mine, and then I will take him and his beloved Allora and torture them for years…years of pain and a minimal amount of animal blood—just enough to keep them alive until the day I open the curtains and let in the sun to wash over them and burn them to a crisp.” He eyed me defiantly. “Does that answer your question?”
“Yeah and though I’d open that curtain sooner than you mean to, sure, do it your way…sounds good to me,” I said. When had I become so bloodthirsty, I wondered.
~ Eighteen ~
I WATCHED HIM STEP INTO his ice cold, dark portal to his special room in another realm, where I was sure he would store the day-walker notebooks while he played his games.
I started back down the driveway towards the house when all at once I felt a hand on my shoulder before I went flying through the air!
I landed hard on my back, on the gravel driveway. Ouch!
Allora stood over me, a gleam of hatred in her eyes, and my first thought was, Well, that answered that. She is immune to the Blood Ward.
“Well, what is your business with Beyland?” she screamed. “I saw him here. I saw him go into his portal. You were there…talking to him!”
“Oh, we are old friends. He stopped by to say hello,” I said casually.
“Liar!” she screamed, and her eyes were flame red.
Lightning and then pounding thunder made for dramatics.
She looked up and laughed.
A torrential downpour opened up and covered us. I was
already up and steady on my feet. I took a step towards her instead of away.
She took a wide stance in the pouring rain. She was soaking wet and laughing. “I love the rain. It gives me more time to do more things, things like ripping the hearts out of witches like yourself. You stupid girl. Did you think I would not come back to settle my grievances with you?”
The rain had drenched her long blonde hair and the water made rivulets down the black leather pants outfit she wore.
She looked, in the tight leathers, like she was dressed to kill—she had come to kill me. Oddly enough, standing there with her, just the two of us, no help on the way, I was totally calm and composed. A plan had already formulated in my head.
Although a healthy smart part of me said, Run…you are a stupid girl and she is an ancient vampire, but the other part, my Shama, made me stand my ground.
I had skills, skills my dear Aunt Elle had insisted I learn. Aunt Elle, I had to call her soon or I was going to definitely find her on my doorstep, and I sure didn’t want her walking into this mess.
One of the skills Aunt Elle had insisted I learn was good old fashioned self-defense. “Karate,” she said. “Even a witch needs to know how to take down a beast and hurry off.”
I learned early on just how to throw a kick, jump, and how to land. I know how to surprise my opponent using different parts of my body. I never went for the belt thing, but I know my stuff.
I let her reach and grab hold of my arm. I stared into her blood burning eyes before I used leverage and twisted her so that her arm was at her back.
I kicked her in the rump and waited for her to land on her knees. She did. But holy good God she was fast, she was up and facing me, with her fangs distended and ready.
However, as I said, I had a plan and knew what I had to do to kill the ancient vampire. I knew what I needed, but before I could put my hand up and call for my sword, she was on me with that damned vampire speed and strength. That is what happens when you get too cocky. Oh, I have a plan, I jeered at myself.
She barreled into me, sending me onto my back once again and onto the other side of the Blood Ward, where, if she had any vampires with her, I would be in a great deal of trouble.
