by Claudy Conn
Shawna pulled her Glock out of the hall table’s drawer, undid the safety, and stealthily moved towards the steel door. She planted herself against the stucco wall, and with two hands on her gun she waited.
He stepped into her loft but immediately turned to face her—and the gun she had pointed at his head. “You!” She sucked in air as the word tumbled from her lips.
He didn’t look concerned as he regarded her and noted that her finger was on the trigger of the Glock, though his chin moved up slightly.
“Aye, me.” His voice was quiet, and his Scottish accent took his words and made them tantalizingly effective.
For a moment Shawna was thrown off balance. Who was this big, beautiful, and obviously dangerous man? More importantly, what the hell did he want with her?
“Sit,” she commanded. “I want some answers.”
He put up his hands and backed away from her, found a nearby red leather winged chair, and sat as he was told. There was a strange smile playing around his lips, and Shawna frowned, irritated by his devil-may-care attitude.
“What the hell do you think you are doing breaking into my apartment, and how the hell did you know my code?”
“I needed to talk to you. You were busy earlier. I thought you might have the time now.” He shrugged, “As to your code…I have my ways.”
His alluring accent seeped through her consciousness, and her silver eyes blinked slowly as she looked him over. What did he mean, he had his ways?
“I want answers.” She shook her gun at him for emphasis.
He laughed, and she frowned. He shrugged again. “Then go ahead and ask me, lass. We’ll see if I have the answers you are looking for.”
Oh that accent was killer-smooth, and coming out of his luscious lips…she thought a girl could easily—Come on, Shawna girl, get it together. This guy has broken into your apartment, and if he did, others might be able to as well. Time to move on…
“Why?” she managed to just barely utter, as her thoughts had collided and left her uncertain.
“Why what, lass?”
“Why do you want to talk to me?”
“Because we have a common enemy, but you—not I, you—are in immediate danger from that enemy.”
“How do you know?”
“I have my ways.”
“Stop saying that. What ways?” She eyed him suspiciously.
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that if you don’t leave New York, they will find you, but even leaving New York—won’t be enough.”
“And what will?”
“You will have to kill Pentim Rawley, and you can’t do it alone.”
She put up her chin, and her silver eyes narrowed. He knew about Pentim Rawley. Was this a ruse? “Who the hell are you?”
“My name is Chadwick MacFare.”
She saw his lips tighten. He knew what she was going to ask next, and she didn’t disappoint him. “What are you?”
“That isn’t important. What is important…” he said as he got up and moved towards her—she kept her gun focused, but he didn’t seem to care. He put up his large hand and grabbed it away in one motion as he put it aside and pulled her in close. She was struck motionless as he sniffed her with a show of great appreciation and pressed her body sensually against his hard chest. He whispered in her ear, “…is that you find out who you really are, what you really can do. And, Shawna, it is time to leave New York.”
She didn’t know what was wrong with her. She had allowed him to take the gun away. She had allowed him (although stiffly) to pull her into his arms and whisper in her ear. She not only had allowed him, her mutinous body had melted against him. She discovered that she was tilting her face up to his. Oh damn—those deep green eyes… She caught herself, silently demanding, What the hell are you doing, Shawna?
She shoved him hard. He didn’t budge, but she had managed to put a small space between them. He was like a stock as he stood his ground and grinned at her.
His attitude infuriated her. “Get out. I don’t know you. I don’t trust you, and you have no idea who I really am. I am not your concern, and if you want Pentim Rawley dead, you won’t find me in your way. I want you out of here because I don’t want or need your help. I work alone.”
He sighed and put a caressing finger to her cheek, but she pulled away roughly and her silver eyes glinted daggers at him. “OUT!”
His grin vanished. He had not anticipated this kind of resistance from her. His eyebrow arched, and he said softly, “Am I wrong about you then, lass? I thought ye didn’t want to fall in with your…father.”
She gasped, and then fury took over as she jumped away from him. No one knew that Pentim Rawley was her father. How could he know that? Was he in league with the hated vampire? Was this all a ploy to get her to go with him?
She took a fighting stance, her face grim. “How dare you. I don’t know how you know what you think you know, and I don’t care. I want you out of my place. I want you out of my life. I have been taking care of myself for a long time, and I know what I am doing.”
He stepped closer to her, and his voice was low as he bent his head to whisper, “Och, lass, ye haven’t a clue what ye be up against.”
She stepped away from his intoxicating scent. What was it? Pine and something musky she thought. “How do I know you aren’t one of his clan?”
“You know I’m not one of them.” His eyes raked over her.
“I don’t know anything. Why should you help me?”
He ran his hand through his tawny mass of hair, and his green eyes took on a steely expression. “Because I want Pentim dead, and I think you are my way to get what I want. He won’t stop until he finds you, lass. He won’t give up. You are running helter-skelter. You think you know what you are doing. You don’t have a clue what you are up against. He has the advantage, he has numbers, and some of those numbers have developed special talents over the years. When they find you, they will surround you. Some will come up quickly from behind, others right up into your face. They won’t give you a moment to think. Then what, lass? All your magic won’t help against their combined power. What then?”
She stared at him in disbelief for a moment. How did he know about her magic? Who the hell was he?
She had to think. She turned away from him and stared out the window. “They won’t find me. Pentim doesn’t even know my name.”
“I found you.”
She grimaced and folded her arms. “What really is in it for you to help me?”
“I told you I need you to draw him to me. When the time is right—after I’ve trained you—we will let him find you. We’ll let him come to us, and we will have the advantage.”
“Ah—now I get it. You want to set me up as bait. You have some beef with Pentim and think you can use me. No. You’re crazy. You are the one that will get me caught. I’ve been doing okay on my own, so just please…get out. Leave me alone.”
He reached out for her, and she struggled against his hold as he pulled her into his arms. “You’re wrong, but I’m no getting through to ye, lass, so I’ll be going. When you need me—find me.” He bent and pressed his lips gently to hers.
She fought him and wiggled, but for no good reason she found her lips parting beneath the pressure of his. Everything vanished as the air sizzled all around her. She felt a vibration fluctuate throughout her body as his tongue dipped and caressed hers. He molded her suddenly, she realized in mortification, pliable body to his. She heard a low, throttled sound escape his lips when she felt him withdraw. She had to steady herself as she watched him take a slight step away from her.
They looked at one another, both wary, both surprised, taken aback and at a loss for words. Neither wanted an entanglement, but both had felt something pulse with exuberant life between them.
Shawna was on edge. Never mind that she had not been kissed in a long time; his kiss had taken her breath away and awakened her desires. Her body had relaxed against him in spite of the fact that her brain was
telling her to slap his handsome face. His kiss had aroused her in a way she had never known before, and then suddenly he was standing apart from her and she felt off balance and confused.
He reached out and steadied her, which was a good thing as she had felt her knees about to cave.
He whispered something incoherent to her, and all she heard was the enticing huskiness of his voice. What was he saying? He was still whispering, and she was desperately trying to focus on his words, and then all at once they got through to her brain and shocked the hell out of her.
He repeated, “You do need me, Shawna, and one day you will realize that. Don’t wait too long—don’t wait till it is too late.” He turned and walked towards the steel door, punched in the code, and was gone without looking back.
Shawna stood in stunned silence. She didn’t know if she was still breathing. She rather thought she was holding her breath. She let it go with a gasp. What the hell just happened?
He said his name was Chadwick MacFare. He had managed to get past her very efficient doorman. He knew her door code. He knew things about her. Who was he—and even more importantly, what was he?
More to the point, she told herself, he wants to use me as bait!
She gathered her wits and hurriedly changed the code at her steel door. There was no question of her staying in New York now. Tomorrow was the day she would start over once again.
Was he right? She was running—but one day she would make a mistake, slow down, and forget to look over her shoulder, and then what?
She would have to leave the rest of her possessions behind. She no longer had the time to pack and have the rest of her things forwarded. She had another six months on her lease. She would see the manager in the morning and give him a check.
She couldn’t leave any hint of where she was going. Her airline ticket would be purchased in her new name and on the spot.
How had this Chad MacFare found her? Did it mean that Pentim would find her as well? It meant that Pentim might be closer to finding her, and the thought terrified her. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—let that happen. She didn’t want to be one of them…
No slip-ups! She just couldn’t take chances—or make a mistake. What were the odds that she wouldn’t? Everyone slipped up sometime.
However, she couldn’t think of that. She breathed a sigh of relief that she had already leased a cottage in the Highlands of Scotland months ago. That caused a momentary pause. Was it a coincidence that Chad MacFare was Scottish? Should that worry her? She chewed her bottom lip as she contemplated this and then shoved it aside. Scotland was a great span of glens and lochs, mountains and ravines, villages and towns. New York was a melting pot. Perhaps, even though he still had the accent, he was a New Yorker?
At any rate, she had to make a list in her mind of what she had to do, like calling a car dealership immediately to lease a car and have it delivered to the airport. Something not too conspicuous—something that would work in the Highlands, perhaps a Jeep. Yes, a Jeep—good, she was good, she told herself.
She moved over to her fire escape. Each of the four floors had a small balcony that opened up onto stairs to a dark and narrow alley below. She had decorated her balcony with potted plants and a tight sitting area. Night had already descended and the mist had turned into a drizzling rain, so she sighed and was just about to turn away when she saw him.
The alley beneath her terraced fire escape was narrow at the street-side and widened to its dead-end. He stood at the street entrance of the alley, and there he had a young woman planted against the brick of the building. He hadn’t bothered to put her in a trance, and she was ineffectually pushing against him in an effort to escape. He had his hand over her mouth.
Shawna didn’t wait for more. She had one disadvantage—her high-heeled boots! Off they went before she stealthily moved down to the next landing. She took the rail and jumped, nimbly landing in a crouched position in her stocking feet. Then in one fluid movement she spanned the distance between herself and the newbie vamp.
Arcane words rolled off her tongue in Gaelic—a spell that shot a ray of sunlight all over the vamp and elicited a growl as he turned and shielded his face with his arms.
“Run!” Shawna yelled at the young woman. “Move…now…run…”
She watched the girl take off in the direction of the street and then gave her full attention to the newbie vamp. He was trying to duck the ray of light Shawna had created all around him, when all at once she saw the expression on his face and knew the insanity had overcome the pain.
He snarled at her and lashed at the light as he stepped towards her. Shawna charged at him unwaveringly. She had trained most of her life for this moment. She knew what she had to do. She couldn’t think about it—she had to just act. Had she stopped to think about it, she would have realized how frightened she really was.
He lunged for her and handed her an opportunity. She easily and with a speed he had not anticipated sidestepped his desperate and clumsy onslaught. She had her switchblade out of her pocket. It was no ordinary switchblade. Its bronze sheath housed a thin but deadly blade of locust hardwood. Before he could regroup, she sank that wood into the nape of the vampire’s neck.
He gurgled and turned to stare at her with blood-soaked eyes. He was clawing at the back of his neck and exposing his chest to her as though inviting her to finish the job.
In a fraction of a second, any dread she might have felt flew away. She had never killed before, but she couldn’t allow this creature to live and repeat this night’s work. She had the advantage. He was a newbie vampire, just recently turned. He did not have the skill or the discipline to fend her off. She plunged the sharp wooden blade into his dead heart and felt a tear well up in her eyes. She wasn’t grieving for him, but for herself—this was not how she wanted to live her life.
He would not disintegrate like the older ones tended to do when destroyed. He dropped to the cement in a heap. Shawna was a skilled white witch, and she immediately called on her spell of fire.
When she was done, there were only ashes left of the vampire that had once been a human being. This time, Shawna grieved for the human in the ashes.
As she made her way back to her loft, she wondered how much of a coincidence this could be. What would a vampire be doing in this part of town? They usually did their hunting where there was more hustle and bustle and people to be found.
Still, she thought, this couldn’t be one of Pentim’s vamps. He was killing newbies, not creating them. No answers, just more questions.
All in all, she decided, it was a good thing she was leaving town.
~ Four ~
SHAWNA LOOKED OVER her shoulder as she maneuvered the Jeep out of the Inverness airport parking lot. A shy young man had met her with the keys, and he’d had someone waiting for him to take him back into town. Quick, easy, and ready to go—just what she needed.
She kept her eye on the road and watched for her turnoff as she familiarized herself with the controls of the car. The wheel wasn’t where it belonged, and neither were the other cars! Whew! Something to get used to.
A movement out of the corner of her eye brought her head round. She did not at first see anything to cause her alarm, but the short hairs at the nape of her neck were electrified. Her body felt tense—and had been feeling that way for some moments. She was sure she was being watched. She had scanned her surroundings before she got into the white Wrangler Jeep, but she hadn’t seen anything, or anyone, out of the ordinary.
And then as she turned the Jeep off the terminal road, she saw Damon.
He was tall, dark and moved with the air of a man who enjoys superior standing—at the very least in his own eyes. His profile, even in the shadow of the hanger, was more than familiar. She knew him. They had known one another for a few years, but they had rarely spoken.
The sky was overcast, but even so, she could see he had taken no chances. He lingered in the shadowed part of the hanger.
Their gazes locked, and he w
as the first to turn away.
Shawna slowed to a stop and watched him. What the hell was he doing in Inverness—and at the same time she had arrived? This had to be more than a coincidence. Why was he traveling at such an early hour? He usually only traveled at night because he was a vampire—but no ordinary one.
He had always been a bit of a loner and usually kept to himself. He was a traveler, and she had come across him on many occasions in New York. She had even seen him once in a small town in upstate New York when she was just a young teen. Why was he here—now? Had one of Pentim’s clan members gotten to him? Was he following her?
She felt sick to the pit of her stomach. Two reasons for that: One, did that mean they were already near? The other—she liked Damon Drummond and had, even though they rarely spoke, counted him a friend…sort of.
Shawna did a mental scan, taking in the entire geography all around him. She sniffed the cool air to make certain there were no other vamps in the vicinity.
This done, she turned to the subject at hand. What the hell was he doing here? This had to be one of those times when it was just a rare coincidence—he and she being in Inverness at the same day, same time—didn’t it?
Shawna had never felt threatened by him before. However, things change, and she knew that. People—vamps—do things for all sorts of reasons, sometimes even almost noble reasons. She couldn’t trust anyone.
He watched her with a quirky smile as she slowed to a stop. They nodded at one another before she picked up her speed and drove off. That they both were in Scotland—arrived on the same day, same airport… Well, that was something she had to wonder about.
Was he running from the Pentim clan? They would want him. He was a singularly powerful vampire…
Possibly. At any rate, she would have to be careful.
Damon was tall, athletically built, powerful, and sexy. Before she had driven off, he had stared hard right into her eyes. As usual, she never got anything off of him. He was totally unreadable.
