Craving-First Thirst

by Claudy Conn

  “Right, of course. You go…I’ll stay here, right at the spot…and do what I can to keep it open if it looks like it might close.” I waved him off as I tried to forget about his kiss still making my body tighten for more.

  He nodded and vanished into the lush growth.

  I paced as the minutes ticked by and turned into twenty, then thirty, and then one hour. Suddenly, I felt a wave of relief as he returned, grinning like a boy. He took my hands into his and whispered, “Bobbie, did ye miss me?”

  That was all he said, but it swept through me like a caress.

  I looked away from him to the silver sliver of a portal still shimmering with life and said, “Ready?”

  He nodded. I took a step to the narrow portal, squeezed his hand, and started through. As I entered however, I felt our connection break. I was no longer holding his hand as I fell with a loud thump into the library.

  Devin—where was Devin? I looked back and saw him standing up against the divider between our worlds. He stood with his fists pounding the invisible wall that was still somehow keeping us apart. His forehead was bent onto the wall.

  Why was he still on the other side?

  * * * * *

  Needless to say, I told him I wouldn’t give up and I marched on down to the library.

  I was at a loss to understand, so I did the only thing I could—I started ravaging the ancient manuscripts I found there. I was frustrated and feeling damned inadequate when Jeremy stormed into the library, rubbing his hands and asking if we could take some lunch before we headed outside to do the wards.

  “Mrs. Tunny left us something. I’ll go heat it up in a minute,” I said, and watched him stride across to the bar and pour himself a vodka on the rocks.

  “Would you like me to pour you one?”

  I pointed to my white wine. “Ahead of you.”

  He sat and sipped and when I returned with two chicken pot pies, I dove into what had occurred earlier with Devin. He rubbed his forehead and said, “Poor bastard. He must have had his hopes up…?” He stared at the shield. “Where is he now?”

  “Not sure. I haven’t seen him all morning,” I said, looking out the window wistfully, wishing he was here on this side. “Jeremy, have you heard any more on Allora?”

  “No, nothing. I haven’t heard from my men, but I don’t expect to until tomorrow morning. Which is a good sign. It means Allora has stayed put for the moment.”

  “I think we need to…” I started and his phone rang.

  He picked it up and nodded, grunted, and said he understood before he clicked off and looked at me. “Allora has called for a meeting with her old vampire clan in London. My men aren’t sure what this means. They are trying to find someone who will talk for money.”

  “Will a vampire do that?” I was surprised.

  “One of the vampire underlings would,” he said.

  I was surprised and frowned over this new development. “This clan wouldn’t have an interest in Devin—why would they?” I asked, worried.

  “No, I wouldn’t think so. It must be something larger than our problem here at MacLeod. All the ancients have humans working for them during daylight hours. My men were able to tap into one of them and get hold of an invitation. At any rate, the invitations were for her clan yes, of which there are only four left. However, the invites also went out to six of the ancients who are not part of her clan.”

  “Oh, that doesn’t sound good,” I said, really concerned.

  “My men will keep us posted,” he said.

  We downed our lunch in silence when his phone rang again. When he was done listening, he turned to me and said, “I am sorry. I have to go. I can’t leave this client in the lurch. She is elderly and is having trouble with her nephew, who is trying to move her into a senior’s home. She wants to remain in her own home and has a nurse in attendance, so I see no reason why she shouldn’t. It can only mean her nephew is trying to get hold of her money. I can’t put this off.”

  “Of course you must go,” I said with feeling.

  “Right…” He got up and looked around, as though he was forgetting something.

  “Jeremy…I am often direct—to the point of being nosy, so let me ask. You seem to be devoted to your work and to Devin. Do you not have anyone—anything else in your life?” I was curious about him.

  “Ah, it is complicated,” he answered, and smiled. “And I prefer simple and easy.”

  “Meaning no commitments and you have the immortal thing going on. Complicated,” I said, nodding. “I get it.”

  He chuckled. “That and the fact that…well, I haven’t been lucky enough to be swept away by any one woman.”

  “So, you are laying low. I know the feeling.” I sighed and pushed back from the table, got up and started to take the dishes to the kitchen.

  He jumped up before me and said, “Here, let me.”

  A twirl of his finger and magically they were gone. I raised a brow.

  “All in the dishwasher,” he said, and laughed, then touched my shoulder. “Bobbie, I’ll be back as soon as I can…and we’ll install the wards.”

  I was nodding when I felt Devin’s presence before I saw him and turned away from Jeremy.

  Devin stood, his fists clasped at his back, as he regarded us with a frown and asked, “Having fun, are ye?”

  Jeremy laughed and answered promptly, “More fun than you are, I’d wager. Have a good sulk, did you?”

  “I wasnae sulking, lad. I was working off m’frustration. I went in and helped m’friends with the dam. I told ye, they have trouble cooming from the other side of the realm, and need to shore up their defenses,” Devin said sharply.

  His deep Scottish accent always seemed to become pronounced when he was distressed. It occurred to me that there were people he cared about in the place he had called home for so very long.

  I felt for him. He had almost made it back to his castle. How heartbreaking for him. He had watched me come and go and had been unable to follow.

  No wonder he was in the throes of his angst. I couldn’t blame him. I had raised his hopes and then dashed them to the ground. I had to make it right. At all costs, I had to find a way to free him!

  I walked up to the shield and looked into his blue eyes, blue and tinted with amber in their recesses, and something else was there—humanity. I told him quietly, earnestly, “I have been reading all afternoon, Devin. I will find a way to achieve your freedom.”

  He ran his hand through his mass of black silky hair, even as his gaze never broke with mine. He put his hand on the invisible wall, and I felt a tentacle of who he was reaching through the border between us. It was as though he touched my face in a caress. What the hell? Was I imagining this?

  No, I wasn’t. He felt it, too. I saw the expression flit across his face and then he said, “Did ye feel that?”

  “Yes…yes, what is happening?” I answered.

  “I dinnae know, we have a bond. I felt it from the start—when I first looked at yer face, I felt it. Mayhap because of yer blood…yer grandmother’s blood, and connection to her original spell.”

  That was a slap across the brow.

  That was a knife to my belief that we were connected by attraction. No, it was only because I was the one who could free him.

  I was filled with a disappointment that stunned me in its intensity. He didn’t feel what I felt. He thought, and perhaps rightly so, that our connection was through my grandmother’s spell.

  After a moment I managed, “I see…yes, of course.”

  He said, “The answer won’t be in the old manuscripts, lass. It will be…” his finger touched his head, “in yer very fine head. The answer is there, in what ye call yer Shama. I know it, ye know it.”

  He looked away from me and turned to Jeremy. “Any news on Allora?”

  I turned to Jeremy as well and noted that he was studying us intensely. At Devin’s question, he threw his hands up in the air and said, “As I told Bobbie, she has called for a meeting of the
ancients. I have nothing else.” He started to collect his things as he made ready to leave.

  “The ancients despise her,” Devin sneered. “I remember how they treated her, gossiped about her. Why would they allow her to call a meeting?”

  “Apparently, what I know from my operatives is only a rumor that she has become Ramon’s lover. He was the one that actually called the meeting at her instigation, and requested his other ancient clan leaders hear her out. It is scheduled for this evening, so at least, for now, she is in London for yet another day.”

  “Ramon? Allora and Ramon?” Devin seemed stunned.

  “They were seen in Paris together…often,” Jeremy answered. “My men didn’t think anything of it at the time…but now that a meeting of this magnitude has been called, they and I think it is of great concern.”

  Devin paced and when he came back to face us he said, “Allora was always going on and on about vampires being superior to Lycans and humans. She used to tell me to think about a world where we could rule and use humans as food. Keep them alive and working for us and compelled to do our bidding, as well as willing blood donors.”

  “Impossible,” I said.

  “Agreed. The vampire clan leaders were content with matters the way they stood. They like their anonymity. Most of them have over-coom their instinct to kill when they feed and manage quite well in the human world. They have developed a complex system of clubs where humans worship them…similar to a cult.”

  “You mean humans willingly offer their necks?” I was shocked.

  “Nae, the ancients and some select vampire members have to use compulsion, which can be time consuming and a drain on their energy,” Devin answered quietly.

  “Nightclubs? Yes, it all makes sense,” Jeremy said.

  “But Allora was always interested in how I became a day-walker…I wonder if she means to hold this out as a promise to the Ancient Clan she can deliver on?” Devin said.

  “Walking in daylight. Ramon of Vystruc, the head of the ancients, would be interested in that, I believe…if he thinks it’s possible.”

  I waved my hand in some agitation. Jeremy took it and held it tight. “It will be okay.” I smiled at him, but all my thoughts were on this new development. Jeremy continued to hold my hand and as I didn’t want to pull it away and offend, I left it there for the moment.

  “You are a day-walker, Devin,” I said. “She would believe you have notes about your experiments…here at MacLeod.”

  However, Devin was looking at us strangely and said, “Jeremy…”

  “Yes?” Jeremy said as he looked Devin’s way.

  “Ye can release Bobbie’s hand now.” Devin’s voice was low and hard.

  Jeremy looked confused for a moment, but dropped my hand and said, “Right.” He then rubbed his hands together with some excitement and hurriedly added, “Upstairs…I’ll get the notes and take them to a secure place…I know, the safe at my office.”

  “Nae, lad, that won’t work. Allora must never be underestimated. That was m’mistake…it put me here. Once Allora arrives in town, she will find out everything she needs to know by compelling locals for information. She’ll find out about ye, about yer last name. Lord love ye, but dinnae ye see? She’ll find out ye are Sarah’s warlock brother and that ye and I have been, are still working together. She’ll go into a rage and then she’ll center all her efforts in destroying ye—but nae before she tortures ye for information. Two things we need to do, one, ye need to stay out of her reach by any means ye have, and second, get those notes to me now.”

  “Yes, I’ll get them right now,” Jeremy said. “But…how can I get them to you?”

  “Bobbie can,” Devin said softly.

  “Holy shit, yeah!” I realized. “Of course, I may not be able to get you out, but I can bring you whatever you need, and Allora the bloodsucker won’t be able to do anything about it!”

  He laughed out loud. “Ye do realize, I, too, am a bloodsucker,” he said with a rueful grin.

  “Yes, but of a different sort. You don’t kill and you don’t drink human blood,” I reminded him.

  “Brilliant, lass,” Devin whispered. “Ye reminded me that even if she got m’notes, it probably wouldna help the ancients…they have killed and been living on human blood too long for m’formula to work on them.”

  “Still, formulas can be adjusted. Let’s get this one out of their sights,” Jeremy said, and excitedly rushed out of the room.

  I turned back to Devin. “You know Allora. She does what she wants, but…why go to all this trouble? Why do this—why entice the other ancients with something she might not be able to deliver?”

  “She has always wanted the freedom to travel during daylight. She has always wanted feeding to be more than the hunt, something she could have at will,” Devin said. “Behind it all, the truth is, she enjoys stirring up trouble more than she cares about these issues. She likes chaos. It is who she is,” Devin said irritably.

  I wished I could touch him. No, not just touch him. I wanted to fall the hell into his big, strong bear arms!

  I had been putting on a brave face, but deep inside I was worried sick. No one wants an ancient and fully charged female vamp on their tail. I sure didn’t, and I wanted to free Devin. I said softly, “I am so sorry I haven’t found my grandmother’s portal spell to free you yet. You should have been able to use that portal with me…I thought I could pull you out with me.”

  “Nae yer fault, lass, and what ye have accomplished gives me hope, nae dashes it. Ye found a way to create a portal and ye did it with ease. Ye’ll find what ye need to free me. I know it. I have given the matter a great deal of thought in the last few hours. It isn’t a spell keeping me here. Nae. Yer grandmother used a portal, aye, a specific portal that Allora would nae be able to duplicate. She dinnae spell it to keep me here on this side. Nae. She believed once Allora was gone from Scotland, she would return and open the portal to free me. Work on that premise. Go into yer head and find yer grandmother’s style. Find her way of thinking. What I think ye need is to figure out yer grandmother’s way of it…something peculiar to her nature.”

  Here was the problem. I had never known my grandmother. I didn’t know her quirks, her likes and dislikes. I wanted to cry.

  He must have seen the tears forming in my eyes even before they started to spill because his voice caressed me. “Bobbie.” He put his large palm up to the transparent shield and I put mine up as well. “Before ye do anything else, ye and Jeremy must do the Druid Blood Ward around the outside and inside perimeter of the castle. Perhaps it will slow her down at least.”

  “I will, Devin. I will do that with Jeremy as soon as he returns from his appointment. Then I will find my grandmother’s spell and free you. I promise.”

  “I know ye will, Bobbie lass, I know ye will.”

  ~ Fourteen ~

  JEREMY FOUND AND CARRIED piles upon piles of notebooks in his arms as he stampeded into the library, calling out that he found them. He dumped them into my waiting arms and said, “Take them to him. Go, go now, Bobbie. I am late and have to run, and will be back as soon as I can.”

  I hesitated for only a moment as I looked at Devin waiting on the other side.

  Danger! my brain shouted.

  You are crossing over into an ocean of uncertainties, but I knew just what I was doing and knew I had to.

  The anticipation of being with Devin MacLeod filled me. I have been thinking about him, about his kiss, about his touch, and here I was going to him.

  I chastised myself. I was only crossing over to give him his notes. I wouldn’t be there long enough for a kiss.

  I wanted him to kiss me again and wondered if he wanted to.

  Damn, hot damn, I wanted more than kissing. Why was my libido so out of control?

  Jeremy broke into my thoughts, “Bobbie…what is it? Why aren’t you going through?”

  “I…” What could I say? I had to create the portal. I had to go through, and yet I couldn’t move.


  I reasoned with myself. I had a mission. Get the notebooks to him, get back and work on a spell that would open my grandmother’s portal. But I couldn’t move, and then Devin’s voice caressed me.

  “Coom to me, lass…”

  His voice was low and hungry. His voice stroked and feathered over my nerve-endings. His words, those simple deeply accented words made my knees weak. At that moment, looking at him, into him, it was as though no one else in the world existed.

  I whispered the word that would allow me to go to him. “Ramabien.”

  At my back, Jeremy exclaimed excitedly, “Egad! I have never been able to create a portal to another realm. Once, I created one between my office and my home…but this?”

  The silver sliver was wider this time when it appeared and as it grew wider still, I put my hand inside. I hugged the notebooks to me and stepped through.

  I, however, hadn’t gotten any better at portal landings. I tripped as I tried to find firm ground. Notebooks flew and flopped out of my hold, scattering around us. I was about to go on my face and tried to recover my balance, but teetered precariously.

  Devin caught and steadied me with speed and ease.

  Our eyes met and held. All I could think was ‘blue’, his eyes were so blue, but in their recesses, reminding me what he was—red flames danced.

  That should have dissipated any desire I had for him. It didn’t. Instead, it drew me to him.

  I looked at my black boots.

  He said, “As fascinatingly in fashion they must be, I would prefer ye look at me.”

  My head flew up and I met his intense gaze, but immediately moved away as I bent and began picking up the notebooks.

  He scooped them up with his vampire speed and settled them under one arm.

  Jeremy said worriedly, “Right…come back now, Bobbie, before the portal closes.”

  “Nae,” Devin answered for me. “She cannae go back just yet. I want to show her something on this side.”

  “What?” Jeremy asked curiously. “Something that might help her figure out how to open the correct portal?”

  “Perhaps,” Devin answered with ever a slight smile, and I wondered at it, but said nothing.