Shadows 02 Celtic Shadows

by K C West

  Her hand caressed my face and slid to the back of my neck, giving it a gentle scratch. “You know I’m here for you, little one. I’ll always be here for you, no matter where here is.”

  I leaned back against her hand, and she reached across my shoulders, pulling my head down to her chest.

  “Maybe I can say it if I don’t look at you,” I mumbled into the fabric of her crisp cotton shirt. “If I just start out and don’t worry about getting it right, maybe I can manage.”

  Both her arms tightened around me. I could feel the warmth of her body and the strength of her love seeping into my pores, giving me courage. “Just start any place. I’ll keep you safe, and I won’t say a word unless you want me to.”

  “Okay.” I took a steadying breath. “As you know, I’ve always been a confident person, never worrying much about my safety. Maybe I was just supremely naive.”

  She gave me a sympathetic grunt, but otherwise remained quiet.

  “Now I’ve got this weepy, snot-nosed condition going on.” I broke our embrace long enough to fish a tissue from my pocket, and blew my nose before laying my cheek against her breast. “That sucks, big time.”

  I felt her chest rise as she smothered a chuckle.

  “I’m afraid. And I can’t sleep without experiencing at least one scary dream a night, sometimes more.” I rubbed my hands against her back. “I know you’re aware of that because I wake you up whenever I have one.”

  Kim’s heartbeat thrummed beneath my ear, and I took a moment to close my eyes and inhale the familiar scent of her skin. “But then, you hold me and kiss me whenever I have them, so the nightmares might not be such a hardship.” I tried to laugh, but only a strangled snort came out.

  “Hmm.” My partner was doing her best to remain silent and let me express myself.

  “Kimmy, I’m really hesitant to tell you this because I know how you’ll react. I know how you feel about them already, and you know I’m skeptical.” Her body stiffened. “I’ll tell you what happened. I’m going to blurt it all out, and then we can talk about it, okay?”

  “Go ahead.” Her response was soft, restrained.

  “It started when I was in that cottage, and it happened a couple of times.”

  She made a growling noise in her throat. “Is this going to make me angry?”

  “No. Probably not. I… uh, saw an Amazon.”

  “What? ” Kim’s outburst startled me.

  “Wait. Just hear me out, okay? You promised to keep quiet until I finish what I need to talk about.”

  “I know, but that was before I knew what you were going to say.” She stroked my cheek and smoothed a bit of hair behind my ear. “You go ahead, little one. I wasn’t expecting you to mention an Amazon. Can I ask if it was Marna?”

  “No, I don’t think it was. She wore a mask over the upper part of her face. It had feathers and beads and stuff. The rest of her body was - whoa - right out there, though.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Leather bra, short pants with a flap, lots of bare midriff. Sometimes she wore sandals, sometimes boots. Jesus, she must have been a forty double D. Her breasts were spectacular, and her legs went on forever.”

  “Humph! This is fascinating.”

  “I’m just telling you what she wore.”

  “Which wasn’t very much, I take it.”

  I broke free of her embrace and stood up, intending to walk back to the Rover. “This was a bad idea. You’re focusing on all the wrong stuff.”

  She sprang up and reached for my arm. “Me? You can’t fault me for - ”

  “For what? I’m trying to tell you about this Amazon who came to talk to me.” I could barely suppress my anger.

  “Is that all she did?” Kim’s eyes darkened. “Talk?”

  “Yes, damn it.” I pulled away from her. “I thought you’d be pleased.”

  “I am. But I’m also a bit surprised.”

  “This isn’t working. We should probably go back to the inn.”

  Kim looked down at our plates. “But you haven’t eaten your food.”

  “I’m not hungry anymore.” I folded my arms and stared across the silent gravestones. “We should just go on back.”

  Kim knelt to gather the remains of our meal, packing everything neatly into the basket, then folding the blanket and tossing it over her shoulder. “I’d better let Pup visit the bushes for a bit before we leave. You want to take the basket back to the Rover?”

  I sat in the passenger seat with my head in my hands, while Kim finished with Pup. What was wrong with me? Why did the Amazon’s wardrobe become the issue? Why couldn’t I tell her what happened without it turning into a fight?

  “In you go, fella,” Kim said. “In the back and settle down.” Pup bounded between us and flopped into the rear.

  I glanced at Kim as she pulled on her seatbelt. She turned to meet my gaze. “Buckle up.”

  “Wait. I want to apologize for what happened.”

  She bit her lower lip and shoved the key into the ignition. “I’m sorry, too. I guess I wasn’t ready to hear about some scantily clad woman making nocturnal visits to your room.”

  “It wasn’t like that.”

  She paused with her hand on the key. “Then how was it, exactly?”

  I closed my eyes for a couple seconds and took a deep breath, composing myself. As I spoke, I watched Kim carefully. “She told me I was an Amazon, too, just like you and Marna. I thought it would please you. Only, I told her that wasn’t possible because I wasn’t a warrior, not a real one. She wanted me to kill those men with their own guns, and I refused.”

  Kim looked shocked. “Wait. She told you to kill them? I can’t figure out what’s going on.”

  “I don’t have the killer instinct.”

  “That’s the first thing you’ve said that makes sense to me.”

  I caught myself smiling. “I agree, but it happened. She kept telling me that I would be safe, that the Amazons were watching out for me, for both of us. When I asked for more information, she said it would all be made clearer to me later on.”

  “Really?”

  I nodded, and Kim’s expression softened.

  “One time, I wondered what she looked like under the mask, and she read my mind, or seemed to. She said I would find out about that later on, too. It was so spooky.”

  “I can imagine.” Kim stared at a spot beyond my side window, remaining quiet for several seconds. “I think I’d better tell you about a strange visit I had during our search for you. I think your mysterious visitor came to me in our room one day and made me take another look at the travel brochures.”

  “That’s right. She told me she gave you that message.” I shuddered.

  “Yeah, there was a yellow glow right above them and a presence of some kind.”

  “Spooky, right?”

  “Incredibly.”

  “Anyway, I’m glad I told you about it. I’m still not convinced she was there, nor am I truly convinced about any of this Amazon stuff. But everything she said was…”

  Kim waited, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the rest - how my nocturnal visitor swore that the Amazons had altered the trajectory of the bullet away from my heart at that critical moment.

  “Are you okay now?” She gave my knee a squeeze.

  “Yeah, I guess.” I gripped her hand and our fingers interlaced. “I’m sorry, Kimmy, but I’m afraid to let myself believe in them. Because, if I do, it means that they have some sort of control over us, and over our lives, like we’re being manipulated.”

  “Like puppets?”

  I let out a shaky breath. “Something like that. It’s as if they’re hiding in the shadows as we live our lives, deciding what happens to us.”

  “Maybe it’s a good thing to have Amazons in our corner. I won’t say you and I didn’t experience some scary times this past year, but we’ve also had some great things happen to us, too, starting with the fact that we met and fell in love.”

  “You think we were destined
to do that? Did some shadowy Amazons bring us together?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “I guess that could have been a good thing.”

  She patted my stomach. “More than a good thing. A great thing.”

  “Hey.” I caught her fingers just as they approached my ribs. “You tickle me, and I’ll sic my Amazon on you.”

  She laughed and started the Rover. “I bet my Amazon can beat up your Amazon.”

  I shook my head. “You’re crazy, Kimberly Blair.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Uh huh, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  *

  “Before we turn out the lights,” Kim said, as she tucked me into bed in our cozy room at the inn, “I have something for you. Maybe it will ward off the nightmares tonight.”

  I yawned. “You know I have no control over them.”

  She pulled a couple of small boxes out of the dresser drawer. “I know, but humor me. Open this one.”

  “What on earth did you get me?”

  “PJ, please, just open it.”

  I sat up and brushed back my bangs. “Okay, gimme.”

  Kim laughed. “That’s the woman I know and love.”

  I glared at her, but I couldn’t help a delighted yelp when I spied my medallion on a brand new silver chain, nestled on a bed of soft cotton. “Oh, good idea.” I held it up to the light. The medallion twirled and glittered. “And it’s engraved.”

  “Yes, I had the jeweler put something on each of them.”

  I examined the back. I saw the word “Forever.”

  “Oh, Kimmy.”

  Tears blurred my vision.

  “Uh huh. And mine says, ‘Always.’”

  I wiped my eyes and struggled to sit up straighter. “Can you help me with it? I still can’t raise my left arm that high.”

  “Sure thing.” She gripped the medallion in her hand and grimaced. “Damn thing still heats up like it did when we found them up in the Superstitions. Remember that day… with the snakes?”

  I laughed. “I had to pee right in the middle of it.” She laughed, too. “Yes, I remember. All of it was so weird.”

  I felt the metal cool to my body temperature and settle under my nightshirt, midway between my collarbone and the tops of my breasts.

  Kim leaned over and peered down. “Mmm. Wish I could rest right there, too.”

  I pulled back, depriving her of the view. “I just bet you do. Come on, bend your head down and I’ll help you get yours on.” I picked up her medallion and gasped. “Jesus, it’s almost hot. How does it do that?”

  “Beats me.”

  I fastened the chain and kissed the back of her neck. “Now, warrior, we can get some sleep.”

  Kim turned off the light and slipped into bed beside me. Wordlessly, we snuggled together, my back against her chest, her arm draped protectively across my belly. I could feel her heartbeat synchronize itself with mine as we drifted toward sleep.

  Her lips brushed along the back of my neck. “Mmm. You smell so good.”

  I turned in her embrace and breathed in her scent. “I could say the same for you.”

  “Comfortable?” Kim’s warm hand rubbed across my ribcage.

  “Yes. Thank you for getting the medallions fixed and for adding those words.”

  She kissed the top of my head. “You’re welcome.”

  I rotated my body enough to kiss her, leaving my lips parted, granting her tongue access.

  We both sighed after a thoroughly enjoyable kiss.

  “You took your pain pills?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Damn. Enough of this, then. We’ll wait until you feel more alert.”

  I gave her a final peck on the cheek and returned to my original position. “Sorry, love. I’ll soon be sleeping like a drunken slug.”

  Her hand slid up and tousled my hair. “As if we knew how a drunken slug sleeps.” She brought her arm down to my belly again, but not before finding my left breast and giving it a gentle squeeze.

  “Ah.” I sighed. “No fair.” A bit of drool leaked onto my curled up fist. Geez. If I wasn’t blubbering, I was slobbering all over the place.

  Kim’s steady breathing lulled me, and her warm body soothed me far better than any painkiller. I let my mind float along on a feathery current, searching the immediate area surrounding our bed for unwelcome spirit activity.

  If there were Amazons out there controlling our destiny, they were giving us a respite tonight. With unspoken thanks, I focused on my body’s internal rhythm, tuning it to match Kim’s gentle breathing, and reached out for sleep.

  Chapter 30

  On the morning that PJ and I planned to leave Dolgellau and our comfortable room at the inn, we rose early to finish some last minute chores. I wanted to check e-mail on my laptop, and PJ needed to complete her packing.

  I watched as she gathered souvenirs, clothing, and toilet articles, stuffing them into several travel bags. She rummaged through a pair of dirty cargo pants, pulled out what looked like a smooth stone, and slipped it into the right front pocket of the pants she was wearing.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Oh, I just discovered the stone you found for me at the sacred well. You know, the one that was guarded by the hawthorn tree and the fire-breathing dragon?”

  Geez, that seemed so long ago. “You said it might bring us luck. Too bad it didn’t.”

  PJ zipped her bags and lined them up on the bed. “I didn’t have it with me during the kidnapping. Maybe things would have been worse if you hadn’t found it at all.”

  “Perhaps, but it’s hard to imagine that our luck could have been any worse.”

  Despite all that had happened, we had seen much of beauty in this small country, and the people had been extraordinarily hospitable. Maybe PJ’s stone helped with that. We would never forget many of the men and women we had met during our stay. If only we had gotten to know them under different circumstances.

  I turned my attention to the laptop. We had an e-mail from Frederick, who urged us to return immediately to Boston to spend a few days with him. He needed some quality time with his daughter and she with him.

  That would work out well. While they were enjoying each other’s company, I’d have time to catch up on my writing projects.

  DCI Edwards sent an e-mail with an attachment of the forensic report on the remains that Morrison had kept preserved for so long.

  For all intents and purposes, they were gone forever, but testing what little was left dated them to approximately the second or third century B.C.E.

  Damn. What a loss that was to the scientific community. But with careful preservation of the compromised remains, who knew what additional information they might offer to archaeologists of the future?

  PJ came up behind me, wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and kissed me lightly on the cheek. Her hair was still damp from the shower, and she smelled like a dew-sprinkled garden of spring blossoms. I drew her to me and had her sit on my lap while we read the rest of the report together.

  “What a waste,” I said, thinking about the destruction of such valuable remains.

  “Unfortunately, that kind of thing happens more often than we know.”

  “Yeah. And then there’s the issue of your mysterious man in the bog. I really believe you saw something.”

  “I wish I knew. Maybe it was my overactive imagination, or maybe it was some kind of a vision prior to my imminent death.”

  I shifted to support her weight more comfortably. She was lighter after her ordeal, but I was happy to see that she was gaining some of it back. Much as I admired her rippled abdomen, I didn’t want to feel her ribs every time I squeezed her. “If there were remains preserved in the bog, they would have been soft tissue, nothing skeletal. The acidic conditions break down the bones while leaving the soft tissue intact.”

  “Are you thinking of a further search?”

  I couldn’t tell if PJ’s question was encouraging or discouraging
. Probably a little of both. As an archaeologist, she’d be curious, but after all she’d suffered, her heart might not be into it.

  “Not me,” I said, giving her thigh a rub. “I’ve had my fill of this place for a while, and I don’t really have a lot to go on. But it’s a perfect summer vacation project for some first-year archaeological students I know, and their professor.”

  “So you’re going to slough it off on some unsuspecting first-year students?”

  “That’s the general idea.”

  PJ giggled.

  “What?”

  “Whoever he is, if he’s buried in that bog and they find him, they can just roll him up, stick him in a backpack, and transport him to the lab that way.”

  “There are times when your sense of humor flirts with the weird.”

  She played with the top button on my shirt. “I know. I’m a mass of contradictions these days. But if you can’t laugh at ill wind, then you’re going to get lost in the storm.”

  “True.” I tightened my hold on her. “I don’t care how much wind we get, kiddo, I’m not losing you, not ever.”

  We sat silently, holding each other for a few more seconds, then finished reading the report from DCI Edwards.

  I tapped a spot in the text with my finger. “Look at this. There were weapons, too. A sword and an axe. I wonder why those guys didn’t take them when they removed the body. They could have sold them for good money on the black market.”

  PJ leaned her head back against my shoulder. “Except for their leader, they weren’t very bright, you know, the bad guys. Scary, yes. Bright, no.”

  The report went on to say that the design of the weapons and the markings on them were Celtic in origin. I brought up the pictures that accompanied the report.

  “Oh, geez.” PJ’s breath caught. I could see the color drain from her face.

  “What is it? Are you okay?”

  “The Celt in the bog had those weapons with him.”

  “That same design would have been used by many Celts.”

  “Not the design, Kim.” She pointed to the axe. “Magnify this area.”

  I brought it up.

  “There. That irregularity on the handle.” PJ ran her finger over the image. “It looks like it’s been chipped.” She kept her finger poised over a spot in the photo. “I saw this axe before, with the Celtic warrior, chieftain, figment of my imagination, or whatever he was, in the bog.”