WyndStones

by Wyndstone (lit)

  “You’re sure they can’t hear us?” Missy asked. Her face mirrored her fear. She kept turning her head to the door, listening intently.

  “Not a word,” Lorna assured her. “Chrysty will see to it.” She felt his hand glide down her unbound hair and smiled. “Now, back to the Book, ladies.”

  Copies of the Book of Shadows sat on the laps of each of the woman as Lorna went over the tenets of the Craft with her new Sisters. When the initial instructions had been seen to, Chrysty would send two Nightwinds to escort the women home. One would go with Mary Reid and one with the Gilmore women, blood-signed to their families for as long as time spun out.

  Now and again, Lorna would excuse herself to check on her patients otherwise it would look suspicious. As day turned into late afternoon and the final page of the Book had been discussed, Lorna led the other women to the border of Wyndstones. It was there where two extraordinarily handsome young men stood waiting.

  “I am Reardon Dunne,” the taller of the two said. He reached for Mary’s hand. “And I am yours to command, milady.” He brought her hand to his lips and before Mary knew what he was about had escorted her over the wyndstones.

  “Mary!” Tandy gasped. She put out a hand to her friend but Mary vanished from sight.

  “The wyndstones pose no threat for you, dearling,” the other Nightwind told her. He draped a comforting arm around her stooped shoulders. She tried to pull away but he put a hand to her chin, lifted her face so she was forced to look into his eyes. “Let me show you the pleasures awaiting you, Tandy Gilmore.”

  Tandy’s mouth opened and closed for a second or two until she was completely ensnared in his dark gaze. She nodded slowly and lifted her foot to cross the stones.

  “Mama, no!” Missy shouted. She backed away—her eyes wide in her suddenly pale face. She slapped a hand to her mouth as her mother crossed over the white-washed stones and disappeared into the forest.

  “There’s nothing to fear,” Lorna said, reaching out for Missy but the young girl shrieked, dragged her skirts up and ran.

  “Let her go. Dirk will catch her before she goes far,” Chrysty told Lorna.

  Lorna looked up at him. “Dirk?”

  “Dirk MacPhee,” he said. “The Nightwind I chose for the Gilmore women. He’ll take Tandy to their place then go after Missy”

  “She’s afraid,” Lorna said, concern showing in her gaze.

  “He will be gentle with her,” he said. “There is no need for you to worry.” He put his arm around her waist to draw her to him. “This is a road they must travel on their own with their personal demons.”

  She shuddered. If Maggie had fulfilled her instructions to Tippy Kirkpatrick, Ellen Shaw, and Lola Dunlop, that meant there were now eight demons loose and roaming the Hill. In a few days, there would be three more. When all was said and done there would be sixteen Nightwinds in all: one for each of the fifteen families and one for her as the Tabor heir.

  “Nightwinds easily controlled by the women to whom they will be blood-bound,” Chrysty said. “We can do no more than you will allow us to do.”

  Lorna’s forehead was creased with deep worry. “You can do nothing on your own?” she asked.

  “Not without your consent,” he lied smoothly.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Lorna slid her arms around him to press her cheek to his muscular chest.

  Chrysty held her securely within the safety of his arms as he gazed into the forest. With his keen vision he could see Mary Reid as she lay writhing beneath her demon. Tandy sat on a fallen trunk as her demon raced to bring her daughter into the fold before Missy could alert one of the males from the Hill. He could feel the shifting of the Veil as Allyn and Duncan brought three more of their kind into the human world for Tippy Kirkpatrick, Ellen Shaw, and Lola Dunlop. One of the demons he knew; the other two were strangers to him but as the Primemale, he would have their allegiance soon enough else they would be returned to the Abyss—never to set foot from it again.

  Aye, he thought as his cock stirred against Lorna’s belly. He had learned a lesson the first Nightwind had not. That first demon had been trapped for centuries within the slime of the Abyss—as had many others. Soon Syntian Cree would be free but that was of no matter to Chrysty. Where once Cree had been the Primemale, he was nothing now. The bastard demon might fight for the position that was once his in the pecking order of the Nightwind society but that did not mean he would regain it.

  A fierce desire born of many centuries of being forced to wallow in the muck of the Abyss rose up within Chrysty Brell. His amber eyes turned a deep, swirling red for a moment as the need for supremacy shot through him. There was but one way to insure he would be the winner in a contest of power between him and Cree when the time came. The more women whose bodies had known his seed and how much of that seed had been sown within them, the sharper the advantage a Nightwind had.

  “I want you,” he told Lorna. “Now.”

  “I should check on Cail and .…”

  “Now, Lorna!” Chrysty snapped and swept her up into his brawny arms. He stared down at her with such brutal lust, she shivered. “Think of no man save me!”

  It was hard to think of anything as his mouth slanted over hers and he thrust his tongue deep between her lips. She felt air brushing over her and knew her clothing was gone. Her head spun as he took her with him deep into the forest where it was cool and lushly green and the sound of a waterfall drowned out all other noise.

  One moment they were flying through the air and in the next she was beneath him, his cock thrust as far as it would go inside her sheath. She stared up at him with rapt attention as he strained, his powerful strokes filling her. His shaft was so thick, so huge within her the sensation was almost painful but the pleasure it gave her—combined with the weight of his muscular body—pushed everything else from her mind.

  “One must die this night,” he said through clenched teeth as he locked his eyes with hers. “It is your choice which one it is to be but one must die.”

  “Die?” she repeated, not understanding.

  “Your choice,” he said again. “Bring him to me. I need his blood.”

  Horror flooded Lorna’s mind but he rammed into her so hard, so powerfully, giving her such intense pleasure, the repulsion vanished on a long wave of exquisite gratification.

  “Chose,” he said. His thick rod was slamming into her.

  A face drifted over her mind’s eye and before she could banish it, she saw her demon smile.

  “A fitting sacrifice,” he said then lowered his head to swallow her protest as he took her mouth with fierce possessiveness.

  His kiss was so potent, so filled with red hot lust, Lorna could think of nothing else. She gave herself up to the mind-altering climax that felt as though it would tear her body apart. Her scream of release echoed through the forest to mingle with those of two other women who—for the first time in their lives—discovered the nature of hot desire.

  * * * *

  Pain lanced through Euan McGregor so savagely his knees gave way beside the bed. He sucked in an agonized breath as he scrambled to gain purchase on the covers but he hit the wooden floor with a jolt. His bellow of anguish woke his brother from deep sleep.

  “Euan?” Cail asked, sitting up as though he were a marionette whose strings had been jerked. He twisted his head toward his brother who was clawing at the side of the bed. “Euan!”

  Despite the cramping distress of his own ailment, Cail scrambled across the bed, slid off the mattress to hunker beside his twin. “What happened?” he asked, putting a hand to Euan’s shoulder. “How did you fall?”

  “Oh, god, it hurts!” Euan sobbed as tears rolled unchecked down his pale cheeks. “It’s killing me, Cail!”

  Before Cail could help his twin up, Euan jackknifed, flopping back with a scream that made the hair stand up on Cail’s arms. Back arching, mouth open wide, heels slamming against the floor, Euan whipped his head from side to side.

  “Lorna!” Cai
l yelled. He reached for his twin but Euan struck out, batting his hands away.

  “Don’t touch me! Oh, god, please don’t touch me!”

  Writhing like a fish tossed from the water to the bank, Euan McGregor flipped to his side, his body going through horrible spasms and contortions.

  “Lorna!” Cail called again. He had no idea what to do. Each time he tried to touch his twin, Euan bellowed in pain.

  It wasn’t Lorna who appeared in the doorway but Sam who had come to fetch his mother, his betrothed and future mother-in-law home after their day spent with Lorna. He came rushing into the room. He came up short—his eyes wide—as he saw Euan striking the back of his head against the floor.

  “What’s going on?” Sam asked. His face was chalk-white.

  “Help me get him on the bed before he caves in his skull!” Cail said.

  Even though Euan screamed in agony and tried desperately to keep them from laying hands to him, the two men were able to maneuver him onto the bed where he squirmed like a man lying atop hot coals.

  “It hurts! It hurts!” Euan shouted over and over again. He clutched at the covers beneath him, drummed his heels into the mattress and arched his back into such a sharp elevation it seemed impossible that his spine didn’t snap.

  “We need the healer,” Sam said as he struggled with Cail to keep Euan on the bed.

  “Where the hell is that bitch?” Cail demanded. His teeth were skinned back from his teeth.

  “I am right here,” a calm voice said from the doorway.

  Cail swung his head toward her. “Sam needs to go fetch the doc. Come help me hold Euan down.” He looked past her to the three women standing behind Lorna. “All of you. We need to keep him from doing more damage to his back.”

  Lorna moved into the room as slowly as she dared. She had no desire to touch her husband’s twin but she slid in beside Sam then bent over to press her weight on Euan’s shoulder and right arm.

  “Don’t touch me!” Euan shrieked. His eyes were wild, rolling in his head, and sweat was slick on his face.

  “Hurry, Sam!” Cail ordered. He barely glanced at Missy and Tandy Gilmore as they leaned over the bed to imprison Euan’s legs. The moment the women touched him, Euan screamed.

  Sam ran from the room, the sound of his boot heels striking heavily on the plank floor. The screen door banged shut behind him.

  “You got any tenerse?” Mary Reid asked. “I’ve been giving him that when the pain got too much for him to bear.”

  “In the cupboard to the left of the sink,” Lorna said. She gave the other woman a steady look before Mary turned away to leave the room.

  A piercing scream was torn from Euan’s throat and then he went limp. His eyes and mouth were wide open.

  “Euan?” Cail asked. He shook his brother but Euan had stopped moving.

  “He’s not breathing, Elder McGregor,” Missy said softly.

  Cail looked at her as she stood beside his wife but the young woman’s words did not register. His brow creased.

  “I think he’s passed on,” Tandy said with the same quietness with which her daughter had spoken.

  “What?” Cail said, turning his head to look at the woman standing to his left.

  “His heart must have gave out on him,” Tandy said.

  “He’s dead, Cail,” Lorna stated.

  “No,” Cail said, stubbornly shaking his head. He snapped his eyes from Tandy to look down at Euan. “No, he just passed out from the pain.”

  Both Lorna and Missy straightened up, removing their hands from the still body of Euan McGregor. Lorna glanced at Mary who stood framed in the doorway, a cup of tenerse-laced water in her hand. “He’s gone,” she told the older woman.

  “No,” Cail replied in a reasonable voice. He gently shook his brother. “Euan, you snap out of it, now, you hear me?” He shook Euan again. “Come on, stop playacting”

  Tandy had also released her hold on the dead man. She stepped back then moved to join Mary at the door, motioning her daughter to come with her. Missy nodded and slipped quietly to her mother’s side. The three women continued on into the parlor.

  “Euan, you’re starting to piss me off, now,” Cail said, shaking his brother harder. He leaned over, glaring into his twin’s stony face. “Snap out of it!”

  “Cail,” Lorna said quietly. “Your brother’s gone.”

  “No!” Cail shouted, his head coming up. He shot his wife such a furious, deadly look she took a step back from the bed. “He’s passed out!”

  “Look at him,” Lorna said, feeling Chrysty close beside her so therefore unafraid. “His chest isn’t moving, Cail. He’s dead.”

  “Stop saying that!” Cail hissed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  “Come away before he takes it in his mind to hurt you,” the demon whispered in her ear.

  Slipping away as her husband continued in his futile effort to bring his brother around, Lorna put a finger to her lips as Mary started to question her. She motioned the women onto the porch, closing the wooden door behind them.

  “That rapist is as good as worm food,” Tandy said, folding her ample arms over her bosom.

  “Aye, I’ve a feeling Tippy’s first spell was one of vengeance,” Mary said.

  “Sit, ladies,” Lorna said then jumped—as they all did—when the inhuman cry of anguish echoed from inside the cabin.

  “Who’s that coming up the road?” Mary asked, putting up a hand to shield her eyes. The sun had lowered to an angle that made it hard to look in that direction.

  “Could be the healer,” Missy suggested.

  “Ain’t riding fast enough for that,” Tandy said then stepped off the porch. “It’s one of Sadie’s boys. Her youngest, I believe.”

  “He’s dead, too,” Lorna said. “Jubal Regis, I mean.”

  “Aye,” Tandy said. “The boy is down in the mouth so that must be the way of it.” She strolled farther away from the porch. “What’s the news, Carlton?”

  The young man who rode up to the cabin didn’t reply. He gave the women a quick flick of his eyes then his gaze settled on Lorna. “Where’s the Elder?” he asked in a voice that was at the age of breaking when he spoke.

  “Mourning his brother,” Lorna said. “I reckon there’s been a death in your family, as well.”

  Shock flitted over the boy’s face. He started to get down from his mount but obviously thought better of the notion. He put up a finger to his hat as he’d no doubt seen his father do on occasion. “Guess I’ve got another death to be notifying about then.” He ran the sleeve of his shirt under his nose. “What did Euan die from?”

  “We all die from our sins, Carlton,” Tandy said. “We don’t escape this life without it.”

  Carlton MacLeod’s smooth brow furrowed and the corners of his mouth turned down. “I meant what killed him?” His blue eyes narrowed. “Was it the same thing what made all us menfolk sick last eve?”

  “What in tarnation did ya’ll eat that made everybody so sick?” Missy asked from her rocking chair.

  The boy’s gaze wandered to Lorna. “Word is the cobblers was what did it?”

  “Nonsense!” Mary pronounced. “What on earth could be in a cobbler to make it go bad?” She flicked a piece of lint from the skirt of her gown. “If’n you ask me, it was those barbequed ribs Dallas Deal brought with him.” She looked at Lorna. “Dallas loves pork and does all his own spit-cooking. Won’t let Connie touch that pit of his. Always brings some kind of pork dish with him to the weekly dinner.” She aimed a steady stare at the young man. “Doesn’t he, Carlton?”

  “Aye,” the boy admitted in a grudging voice. “Reckon the barbeque could’ve been spoilt.”

  “Most likely was or it was undercooked,” Tandy agreed. “We women know to cook pork ‘til it’s well done else you’ll get the quick steps in record time.”

  “That’s true,” Mary acknowledged.

  “Well, I’d best be going,” Carlton said. “Got other notifying to do a’f
ore night comes.”

  “You don’t want to be on the road at night, young man,” Lorna said softly. “Not when death is lurking in the wind.”

  There was a commotion coming from behind the young man and he whipped his head around. Dust was flying and the thunder of horse hoofs and buggy wheels filled the air. “Looks like Sam’s buggy,” he said. “Got the healer with him.”

  “Just a bit too late,” Lorna mumbled.

  Carlton waited until the buggy reached him so he could give his news to the two men. He must have told them Euan had passed away, as well, for Lorna clearly saw the healer’s shoulders slump. After helping down the older man, Sam followed the healer into the cabin and Sadie’s young son rode off to continue making the rounds with his death notifications.

  “What needs doing when there’s a death up here?” she asked the other women.

  “Well, since he’s your brother-in-law .…” Mary began.

  “Was,” Tandy corrected her.

  “Was,” Mary conceded. “You’ll be expected to bathe him and wrap him in a sheet. The Arch-Elder will come out to anoint him then Cail will dress him in his burial suit and they’ll nail him into his coffin. It’ll sit in your parlor tonight then be carried to the settlement in the morning.”

  “Burial is always the day after the death,” Tandy put in.

  “There’s no embalming?” Lorna asked.

  “The clan don’t hold with that,” Tandy answered. “There will be a service then he’ll be carried to the cemetery at sundown tomorrow.”

  “Burial is by candlelight,” Missy said then looked to her mother. “Does that mean there will be two ceremonies tomorrow, mama?”

  Tandy nodded. “The Elder will be buried first ‘cause of his station in the clan.”

  Mary reached over to place a hand on Lorna’s arm. “You’ll be expected to make the rounds of all the homes with Cail the day after Jubal’s burial. He’ll take a loaf of bread to each so you need to start your batter tonight.”

  Lorna’s eyes widened. “Fifteen loaves?”

  “No need to make one for you and Cail but you’ll still need to make fifteen ‘cause he’ll take one up to Lady Belle. It’s nigh time you met Cail’s auntie, anyways,” Tandy answered.