by Claudy Conn
It started to pound on the windows—all the windows—with fists made of spikes of electricity, and each time it pounded, it released a sound of thunderous anger and desolation. And then it stopped and seemed to slither backwards—hovering in the field adjacent to the cottage grounds.
Shawna stepped back further away from the window and began chanting quietly, digging into her pocket for the small silver-framed mirror she always carried. She held it up to the window, and the entity once again retreated.
It screeched its fury and seemed actually to be considering its options as it once more slithered backwards. And then Shawna was flabbergasted. It actually raised and shook what was obviously its version of a fist!
If Shawna hadn’t had such sensitive hearing, she might have missed the sound of an approaching car, but she didn’t’ miss it. She shot a quick glance towards the living room window, all the while keeping the demon in her sights.
Without any warning, the demon entity went still, and as suddenly as it had attacked, it retreated further backwards and vanished.
Shawna was still catching her breath when the knock sounded at her front door. She ran to it expecting Chad, The surprised look, and the evident disappointment she immediately felt, obviously displayed itself on her face.
“Ah—you were perhaps expecting someone else?” Kenneth MacDunn frowned. A shade of anger lit in his hazel eyes.
Shawna waved off his remark. What was he doing here at such an hour? He knew the phone number of the cottage’s house phone. Shouldn’t he have called before dropping by? Was he going to be a problem? All these questions flitted through Shawna’s mind before she responded coolly, “At this hour? No…I was not.”
She was stunned that he not only was openly annoyed, but that he made no attempt to hide it. His hazel eyes flashed before he got control of himself. “I am sorry, Shawna, for calling on you so late. I was just going into town to the pub, and thought I would stop by and invite you to join me.”
“That is very nice, Kenneth, but I think I will take a rain check on that. I am so tired, I thought I would just fix a snack and veg out by the television.” She relented by giving him an amiable smile.
At that moment the sound of a car coming to a quick stop outside and behind the squire’s Bentley caught their attention. Shawna looked past the squire, who had turned to grimace at the new arrival.
Shawna heard Chad’s car moments before it had arrived. She knew who it was. She sensed who it was. She was thrilled because she wanted it to be him, and she was beginning to find Kenneth’s behavior disturbing.
Kenneth cursed under his breath, which Shawna decided to ignore, but there was something about Kenneth’s behavior lately that tickled her warning signals. It was starting to make her feel uneasy in his company.
Chad was already out of his car and calling out, “Thought I saw your car headed this way, Kenneth…”
“And what then, you decided to join the party uninvited?”
“You mean barge in uninvited—like you?” Chad challenged on a smirk. “Not my style.”
“Not mine either,” Kenneth snapped. “I was on my way to town…thought I would stop by and see if Shawna wished to join me.”
“What—without calling first?” Chad clucked at him sarcastically.
“I was already out the driveway and didn’t remember the number of the cottage phone!” Kenneth’s face was a bright shade of red.
“And what did the lady say to your invitation?”
Shawna’s head had been ping ponging back and forth between the two. She now put up one delicate hand to stall their words. “The lady is saying good night, gentlemen.”
She started to close the door, but Kenneth turned and put his hand on it. “Wait, Shawna…won’t you reconsider?”
“Not tonight.” She continued to close the door. She noticed Chad’s face and his laughing green eyes just before she shut the door on both men.
* * *
Kenneth walked with an edge of frustration as he made his way to his dark vehicle and stood there eyeing him warily.
Chad watched him in turn and gave him a superior expression—hoping to taunt him. He wanted to find out, in fact, just what the squire’s game might be. That he wanted the beauty was a given, but there was more here than met the eye.
With a snarl and a slam of his car door, Kenneth was back in the driver’s seat. However, there the man sat without starting his engine. Chad might have laughed had the situation not been so grave.
He inclined his head and shot the squire a smirk as he got into his Jaguar, started the engine, and peeled into a U-turn to head down the narrow country road. However, he watched in his rearview mirror, waiting for Kenneth to follow suit.
Chad heard the start of the man’s car engine and under his breath said, “Come on, come on…don’t make me go back there and put you in the ground!”
All he could think of was Shawna, and how well she had handled the situation. It really was comical, but for the fact that she was surrounded by danger. He had to get back to her. He believed he didn’t have a moment to lose. He knew that she was capable and that she had managed, he supposed, to get rid of the ‘entity’ for the moment. He wasn’t sure how she had done it, but it had retreated and vanished. However, there was a nagging suspicion in his inner workings that told him something was off and that the squire was someone to watch.
He wasn’t sure why he felt that way, but he damn well wasn’t going to ignore his gut instincts. He needed to get back to Shawna. There wasn’t anything she could do to stop him—he was bloody well staying with her the night!
He reached Darby Gray, fidgeted as he waited for the gate to swing open, drove in, and parked. It wouldn’t take him more than a fraction of a moment to reach Shawna’s cottage—to reach Shawna.
Shifting—a Fae skill—was also a skill his family had inherited. He did not use this mode of locomotion often, although it was theirs to enjoy. There was always the outside chance that the scent of ‘shifting’ could lead to their detection. The power of ‘shift speed’ was left for emergencies—and he was in the middle of one right then.
He had but to part the airwaves…
* * *
Shawna stood in the hallway for a long moment after both men drove off. She was still thinking of Chad and how easily he had given up. Why had he given up? Had he cared enough to come ‘charging to the rescue’, so to speak? Or had that just been the ‘control freak’ in him that wanted to take charge of his unit of bait?
Bait—that was what she was to him, nothing more, and yet, she had felt something fully charged and alive, something more than lust when he had taken her into his arms and kissed her. She had felt a bond she never thought she could ever feel with anyone.
Yes, well, apparently she had been wrong, because off he went. He was gone, and she hadn’t even had the chance to tell him that she had a serious problem.
She had an electrically charged demon stalking her, and she was certain it had only momentarily retreated.
She spun around to look out the kitchen window and realized that she wasn’t just whistling Dixie. Sure enough, there it was—vibrating with blue power. It was quite a sight, a fully charged mass of blue lightning in the distant woods past the open field. It hadn’t left. It had only waited to get her alone. What was up with that? It couldn’t be afraid of humans? No doubt it had waited to get to her while she was alone. It wanted no interference. Perhaps it sensed power in Chad MacFare?
Without warning it emerged from the crouched position it had assumed. It gathered height, energy, and took on form—definitely now she could see a human form within its shafts of electricity, and again she was reminded of a female body.
Shawna’s eyes opened wide. “Oh shit!”
This thing wasn’t just on the move again, it wasn’t just rushing her—this thing had intellect and was capable of assessing and regrouping. This fully motivated monster wasn’t moving towards her windows. It knew that they were warded.
&nb
sp; Shawna looked into its black socket eyes with all that she was, and she knew something else. This entity was definitely female, and it was incensed beyond its ability to think. It wasn’t just rushing the cottage—it was stampeding towards the exterior walls—sure that it would penetrate them.
Shawna hadn’t warded the exterior walls of the house!
* * *
Chad’s grandmother had taught both her son and her grandson the power of ‘shifting’, traveling through space by opening a portal and picking a destination. The closest he could come to explaining it to himself in human terms was a ‘wormhole’. It was an ability to create a wormhole to anywhere they wanted to go.
The only danger to them when they traveled in this manner was the fact that it left a residue behind, which in turn left a scent. A spatial distortion remained in the atmosphere that could be tracked. His grandmother was certain there were others like themselves, and she did not want to be discovered by them. Thus, they only used ‘shifting’ for emergencies.
Chad stepped through the ‘wormhole’ he had created and stood beside Shawna in the hallway just outside her kitchen. He saw at once that she was shocked and full with questions about his sudden arrival on the scene, but there was no time. He had a situation on his hands, and the first thing he instinctively did was to shove her ‘no argument’ style behind his large back.
He heard her objections and ignored her. There wasn’t a moment to lose. This thing was coming at them fast, and it meant business! He sensed that it wasn’t there for him; it had one target—Shawna—and this thing wanted to do catastrophic harm. To the entity, he knew he was only something in the way.
Chad studied it as best he could in the frenzy of the moment and realized that it was drooling electric sparks of rage. It was out for blood. He guessed that it had the power to kill a half human, half vamp…even one as powerful as Shawna.
He could feel the ‘entity’ as it began penetrating the walls. He knew that Shawna felt it too from the way she clutched at his leather jacket. They both saw immediately that its razor-sharp claws were seeping through the plaster walls and reaching out for them.
He stepped back, simultaneously reaching behind him and withdrawing the Dragar sword. He kept Shawna out of the thing’s line of vision. He whispered something low and authoritatively—arcane words—and the moment seemed frozen in time.
He took a stance, legs spread apart and feet firmly planted as he positioned himself between the electric sparks flying through the wall.
And then in a rolling, thunderous fury it was through the wall. Heedless of the sword, it lashed out at him.
Chad’s sword, whose name stood for ‘death’, was pointed at the entity, and the threat of death made the furious creature pause.
The mass of electricity stopped and seemed to draw in on itself as it stood, surveying the situation and the ancient sword. It seemed to recognize the blade’s magic and power.
Chad watched it, sensed its indecision—sensed its merciless brutality. This thing was enraged—and something else Chad recognized at once. This thing—this demon—was totally insane. Its thought process in that moment, and its logic, was centered in one purpose: to kill. And there was one more thing he knew for a certainty.
Chad heard Shawna’s intake of breath, and he knew his smart wee lass had come to the same conclusion. This thing—this electric mass—was female.
And she stood, fully charged and assessing her opponent. She gauged him with calculated interest as she studied his sword.
Perhaps, he thought, it was time to infuriate her so she couldn’t think? “Come on—want to fight, don’t ye? Want to kill…so come on then, doona just stand there like a fool frothing at the mouth.” Chad’s voice was intentionally rough and feral. He wanted to egg her on. He sensed that there was intellect behind the madness. He could see that it possessed, if not ‘fear’, certainly a will to survive, because it restrained itself and had become calculating.
He could see it throb with hatred, and yet, it pulled the rage inside itself—herself. Then for no apparent reason it lost control. Shards of electricity shot out in every direction as it put up its head and bellowed before suddenly lunging forward.
Chad swiped at it with his sword and managed to knick the thing’s arm. It released a guttural cry of outraged pain, and as it stood its ground, it took form, a feminine form that stared at Chad with pure hatred.
“Right you are—that smarted, eh? Don’t know what to make of me and my sword?” Chad’s voice was low and threatening. He knew he had taken it by surprise and used the lull of the moment to lunge forward hard and fast.
In the same second that he struck forward, he began chanting in the way of the ancients, in a language nearly lost, in arcane Gaelic. The words had been taught to him by his father the first time the sword had been placed in his hands; however, he had never before had to use either the chant or the magical family sword in actual battle.
The entity screeched and plastered herself against the wall, ready to escape if need be but not quite ready to give up the fight. She was spitting sparks at him, hissing and making unintelligible sounds.
Chad smiled at it, but that smile offered a deadly warning. “Aye, then, we have established two things, you and I. You don’t like m’sword…and you know enough to get out of harm’s way.” He sliced air with the blade, and as sparks tripped against its metal they ricocheted with a clanging vibration. He grinned now and pursued the taunt. “’Tis black magic—my sword—much like ye are. The spell I chanted is forbidden black magic, to be used only against its own. I think the formula fits. That’s right, snarl all you want. It is what it is, and you and I know the inevitable outcome of tonight’s meeting. My Dragar was meant for sech as ye…and I damn well mean to send ye back to hell where ye belong!”
It leaned forward, screeched as though all the venom in the world was being released from its mass, and then it swiped at Chad with lethally sharp claws of electricity. He was too quick. He knew already what the creature would do before it made its move, and he had Shawna safely behind him as he sidestepped its attack.
It raged at him with all the fury of having been bested. The sounds it made were pure evil and filled the air before it dove into the wall.
Chad and Shawna watched through the kitchen window as it ran howling in outrage across her yard towards the woods where it suddenly vanished.
* * *
Shawna stepped away from Chad MacFare and tried to catch her breath, which was escaping in small spurts. If he hadn’t arrived—that thing would have tried to kill her and might even have succeeded. She had weapons, yes, but a whole lot of good they would have done her in their trunk under the bed. And besides, she wasn’t sure any of them would have been any good against this monster. All her weapons were spelled to work against vampires!
She looked at Chad’s face in stunned silence before she finally said, “Your sword—how did you happen to have it?”
He looked at his sword, said something low, almost under his breath, before he slipped it in its sheath at his back. “I brought it with me when I took up position in my Jag…in the woods to watch the cottage.”
Shawna gasped. “You were watching the cottage…”
“Aye.”
She went through a series of interesting emotions before she said on a quiet note, “Thank goodness for that.”
“Aye—I wasn’t sure it would kill the blasted thing, but now I am.”
“What is it?”
“A demon of some sort, I suppose.” He nodded. “So then, you realized that it is female. Yes. It won’t be easy though…I will have to master the trick of the thrust. I have to get close enough to plunge it into its head, and I’m not certain just yet how I can do that without getting seriously zapped.” He frowned. “It will take some thought.”
“Would it kill you—getting zapped?”
“No…but it might knock me out. Can’t have that, as it would then turn on you.”
She couldn’t stop
staring at him. His presence always struck her as ‘otherworldly’, but having watched him in action, she felt momentarily awestruck. Oh, this is not good, she told herself. He was so damn beautifully virile. He was tall, strong, and capable. He was irresistibly handsome and seemingly unaware of his devastatingly good looks. His tawny head of hair framed his rugged, chiseled features in thick layered waves, and she wanted to take those locks into her hands and pull his face down to…
She shook herself away from that road, and onto another, a safer, clearer path. The question that posed itself was, “Where the hell did you come from so fast?”
He smirked at her and moved towards the kitchen, went to the fridge, and took out a bottle of water. He offered it her way, and she shook her head. “Tell me.” Think, she told herself, what had she sensed just before he arrived on the scene? Something in the atmosphere, something off balance and vibrating as though the airwaves had been parted, and then there he had stood. “Come on…what the hell are you?”
He grinned. “A reasonable question, but shouldn’t you first be thanking me, lass?”
“Thank you—now tell me…” She almost spat the words. “What are you, Chad MacFare? No sense trying to duck the question. The time is now. I want explanations, like how the hell did you get here—and I don’t mean just here…I mean, here—inside the cottage, where you are standing, and there is no point trying to fiddle your way through this. I know damn well you didn’t jog here in…what—less than a few minutes? I can see there is no car out on the road…and I know you didn’t come through the front door!”
He took her hand and pulled her towards the sofa. She resisted, so he said firmly, “Sit.”
She crossed her arms over her middle and eyed him furiously, intentionally daring him to make her do anything at that moment she didn’t want to.
He exploded with a hearty laugh, shook his head, and stroked her cheek. She felt her eyelashes flutter and her mood soften.
