“Listen, I haven’t seen it all, Charlotte. But yes, I knew Fin had to come here. He had work to do.”
“All that time I spent persuading you. And you had already made up your mind?” Charlotte said testily.
“I couldn’t make it too easy, or else you would have got suspicious.”
“Enough!” shouted the superior man.
“Dòmhnall.” Tara turned to him, trying to appease him. “This is important.”
“Then tell us where the gargoyles came from and why they are hunting this woman.”
Sybil looked at Tara, firstly because she wanted to know the answers, but also because it seemed this woman was a seer too. Who also held secrets. It made Sybil feel more normal than she ever had in her entire life. She was not the only one who could see the future; she was not the only freak.
“The gargoyles are from the vampires in Hollowton.”
Sybil felt the room spin. Vampires. The vampires were after her. Her blood ran cold and seemed to still in her body. She didn’t know anything about vampires, other than what she knew from movies, and that was made up. But if they were even half as bad as the movie vampires were, she was in trouble.
“Why?” Sybil asked in a voice so quiet it might almost have been a whisper of the wind.
All eyes on her again; she wanted to hide away from their eyes, from their enquiring looks. She had spent so long being a nobody. This was not the way she wanted to become a somebody.
“Tara?” Dòmhnall asked once more.
“They want something you have,” Tara answered.
“Which is?” Dòmhnall pressed, his voice filling with agitation.
Sighing, Tara revealed the secret Sybil had kept to herself all these years. “She sees things.”
“So she is a seer. Like you.”
“No. Not like me,” Tara said shortly.
“Explain.”
“I don’t know. I can’t see what she sees. But a certain vampire wants her because he thinks she can tell him something he really needs the answer to.”
“You mean, like attacking us?”
Tara stood still for a moment and her eyes became misty. She obviously had some control of her gift, whereas Sybil’s gift controlled her. For Sybil, there was nothing quite as disorienting as standing in a queue with your groceries and then finding you had zoned out for five minutes. There were many reasons why she hid away from the world.
“No, this isn’t to do with that. The vampire who wants Sybil wants something else.”
“What?” asked the man who had rescued her.
“I don’t know, Fin. It’s not clear. The vampires are so much harder to read. I’ve been trying, but I think it’s because they aren’t actually alive.”
Sybil shuddered at that thought. Did they suck blood: if the gargoyles had caught her and taken her to this vampire, would he have turned her? Her face paled at the thought. She wanted to get out of here, return to her little cottage, and pretend none of this was happening. When she searched the room for her nearest escape route, her eyes met the man who had rescued her, but he quickly turned away. Why was he afraid of her?
“So, what exactly do you see?” Dòmhnall asked, his strong gaze boring into her.
Sybil shrank away. She wasn’t used to being talked to, no, commanded, like this. “Nothing.”
“Don’t lie, child,” he said, coming closer. Her rescuer moved too, he would protect her if he needed to, she could tell by his face. But she didn’t want them fighting over her.
“I just see images. I try to ignore them, hoping they will stop.”
“They won’t stop,” said Tara, more gently this time. “They never stop. You have to find a way of using them to your advantage.”
“There is no advantage,” Sybil said, her eyes misting up as thoughts of past repercussions over her gift came back to her.
“Yes. There is. I can help you,” Tara said, touching her shoulder.
Sybil lowered her gaze. “You don’t know me. Why would you help me?”
“Because this is becoming the home for waifs and strays,” said Dòmhnall sarcastically.
“Behave,” Tara spat at him.
“It’s not a lie. Before you came here, there were five dragons living in peace. Now we have a witch, two mortals and a…” He looked at the man who had rescued her but did not finish his sentence. They didn’t want her to know what he really was, and she would go along with that. For his sake. She did, after all, owe him her life.
“Your life was too dull before,” Tara said, and Sybil wondered how she had the nerve. This Dòmhnall was so intimidating.
“So what are we going to do with this one?” he asked.
Sybil made to stand, wincing at the soreness of her arm, which had been bandaged up. “I can make my own way home. The gargoyles are no danger now.”
“Fin might have saved you this time, but if these things were sent for you, then someone wants you for a reason. That reason is unlikely to just disappear.”
“Zoah is right,” one of the other women said. “Look, I’m Charlotte. Why don’t you come back to our house, at least for the night?”
“No. I want to go home,” she said firmly.
“I don’t think that is such a good idea,” Charlotte said gently. She looked at the witch. “Do you know what is going to happen next?”
“Fin will look after her.”
Silence filled the room; her rescuer blushed and once again looked away. He didn’t want to look after her, he had done enough and she would not force him. “I’ll be fine.”
“No,” Fin said. “I would gladly take you home and keep watch over you.”
Tara smiled, clapped her hands together and said happily, “Right, that’s settled. Fin will take Sybil home and watch over her like a guardian angel.”
Sybil simply stared at Tara. How did she know her name? She decided it didn’t matter; she wanted to get out of here before they all decided that the best thing for her was to be their captive. She didn’t need to be kept safe if that meant her freedom of choice was taken away.
Getting to her feet, albeit a little wobbly, she made her way to what she thought was the door.
Fin immediately was at her side and guided her, without laying a finger on her, to the other side of the hall.
Despite his distance, she could still feel the heat of his body. His presence nearly overwhelmed her; she had never been close to a man like this before. It was one more thing she’d avoided. But it looked as if she would have to find a way to put up with him being so close. She soon found he planned to take his task very seriously.
Chapter Five - Fin
She almost overwhelmed his senses. From the moment, he had seen her, with those foul beasts trying to attack her; he had known that it was his duty to protect her. As they walked out of the Stronghold, he felt more relaxed: the dragons that lived there were not friendly towards him. They had used him on occasion when they wanted to get rid of someone; his mind balked at those memories. It was how he had originally met Serena. The dragons had brought her to him because they thought he would eat her. But he had seen in Serena the same kindness he could see in Sybil. And he wanted to protect that. She was an innocent in this world, whereas he was the most disgusting, corrupt creature to have walked the Earth. Maybe by protecting her, he might in some ways appease the Gods, or the Spirits, or whoever it was that you met when you died. Or else he knew he would go to the underworld, what humans called hell.
Fin wanted to speak, to say something to break the silence between them. But the more he tried to think of something to say, the more his mind went blank, until he found himself in a blind panic. She would think him rude, or dumb. Yes, she would think he was a fool, an imbecile. So what should he say? He had no idea how to make small talk.
“Thank you for saving me,” she said, making him start. He looked at her, seeing her clear eyes, the colour of the newly sprouting leaves on the trees: so green, so vibrant.
“It was no trouble.”
“I thought you were very brave. Have you dealt with those gargoyle things before?”
He shook his head, a little awkwardly; he still hadn’t got used to the change in his centre of gravity that had come with losing a foot off the front of his head. “No. I didn’t even know what they were.”
“That makes you even braver. They could have killed you.”
“I couldn’t let them hurt you.”
She lowered her head and looked at the ground. “I am very grateful. I don’t know what this vampire wants. I would think that they would be more interested in Tara than me.”
“But Tara belongs to the dragons, so they would have to break the truce to take her.”
“Belongs to them? Like a slave?”
“No.” He laughed and then said, “It would take more than a dragon to enslave Tara.”
“She is very strong-willed. Whereas I am weak.”
“There is nothing wrong with you.” He faltered, that had not come out right at all. “Tara is very abrasive.”
“You are very polite. So, Fin, where do you live?”
“I am staying with Charlotte and Zoah for a few weeks.”
“So you don’t live in Spellholm? Are you on vacation?”
“I suppose so,” he said, thinking of how many people filled his home island of Crete in the summer months. “Yes. A vacation. Although I haven’t made up my mind as to how long I’ll stay.”
“Where is your home?”
The labyrinth. He wanted to be honest with her, to tell her who he really was, because to be untruthful to her was the hardest thing he had ever done. The innocence in her eyes made him want to kneel before her and bare his soul. Thankfully, they reached her cottage before he’d told her every awful detail about himself.
Chapter Six - Sybil
She hesitated, her hand trembling as she reached to open the cottage door. This, the place that had become her sanctuary for the last couple of years, no longer felt safe. What if there was someone waiting for her inside? A vampire? Did they even come out in the daytime? She needed more knowledge than she actually had.
“Tomorrow, can we go back to speak to Tara?”
He huffed, obviously not wanting to spend any more time than he had to in the Dragon Stronghold. “I will escort you.”
“Thank you. It’s only, I don’t know much about the creatures of the forest. Not really. I know some of them can change from men to beasts, but apart from that and the witches, I don’t know anything. I should have known that there were vampires in Hollowton.”
“I see. Then, in that case, it would be my pleasure to escort you.”
“Thank you, Fin. Now, can I get you something to eat?”
“No. I won’t bother you; I will sit outside and keep watch.”
“But you must be hungry.”
“I can go without food for days.”
She frowned, her eyes raking over his incredibly masculine, well-muscled body. It didn’t have an inch of fat on it. Yet surely, he had to eat a lot of food to maintain all of those muscles. Sybil tried a different tack. “Fin, I don’t get company very often. I would really like you to share a meal with me. My way of saying thank you.”
He frowned, and she could tell he was thinking of how he could extricate himself from her invitation without offending her. Maybe she should just accept that he didn’t like her, that he was watching her from some sense of duty, rather than because he liked her. She scoffed at that thought. Of course he didn’t like her, at least not in the way she would have liked him to like her. There was nothing appealing about a green-eyed woman who saw bad things happen in her head.
“Please,” she said, knowing she sounded desperate. “It is the only way I can repay your kindness.”
Still he was silent, looking past her into the little cottage and then back to the small veranda outside the back door. “I will be fine. You go inside and forget I am here.”
“Fin, if I can’t at least feed you, I feel that I don’t deserve your protection. I don’t know you; you don’t know me. I would really like you to eat dinner with me at my table.”
He understood what she was hinting at. She was glad she didn’t have to spell it out, or carry out her threat. Because she really did want him to be there when darkness fell.
“I will eat with you,” he said, not sounding too happy about it.
“Perfect,” she said, going inside and leaving the door open in case she needed him. Or in case he wanted to follow her inside, but of course, he didn’t. Instead, she heard the creaking of the bench on her veranda, as it threatened to collapse under his weight.
Feeling more confident, she went from room to room, checking that everything was as it should be. Nothing was out of place in the small cottage. Satisfied, she went back to the kitchen and looked rather forlornly at the contents of her cupboards. She didn’t eat meat, so there was no way she could cook him the big slab of meat she could imagine he would feast on by choice. Instead, she settled for a vegetable lasagne, freshly baked bread and a lovely treacly sponge for desert; she would make custard to go with it. That way, he would at least be filled up. It would make her feel better because she was sure he would insist on sleeping outside, and she didn’t want him to be hungry and cold.
While the meal cooked, she went to her bedroom and gathered all the spare bedding she could find. They could make him a makeshift bed on the veranda. How many nights he would be staying here, she had no idea. This thought strengthened her resolve to go to Tara the next day and find out everything she could about these vampires. There was no way she could allow Fin to live indefinitely on her veranda, so the sooner this was all cleared up the better.
Sybil felt braver, now she was at home with Fin outside. Yet she knew that no matter what vampires were like in real life, they were not going to be friendly. Friendly people did not send gargoyles to kidnap defenceless women.
That led her to another thought. She had to learn how to stop being defenceless.
Taking the blankets outside, she found Fin staring out into the forest that surrounded her cottage. She had always liked the way she was ensconced in the trees; now she worried about what could be lurking behind the trees and bushes.
“Fin,” she said. “I have one more favour to ask you.”
He turned and looked at her. For a moment she saw something flicker across his face that she had never seen in any other human being before. At least not when they looked at her.
“If I can oblige, then I will,” he said, briefly capturing her gaze before lowering it.
“Can you teach me how to fight?”
He sat still, not saying a word, but now his eyes did meet hers, as though trying to read her mind. She held his gaze, making sure he knew she was strong enough to do what was necessary to protect herself. He wasn’t convinced.
“If I teach you, there is a chance you will end up being hurt even more.”
“I don’t think that is possible.”
“I am worried that if I teach you to fight, you will take on your foe when the safest thing would be for you to run.”
“Tell me, Fin. If you had not been there this morning, then those gargoyles would have carried me off. Am I right?”
“Yes. Most probably.”
“So my only defence would to stand up for myself and fight. I am not expecting you to be here for me all the time. We have no idea when the next attack might be.”
“I will stay here for as long as you need me.”
That made her feel happy, but she did not want that to deter her. She needed to be able to look after herself. “Just some simple moves. To defend myself from an attack.”
“Defensive moves. Very well,” he agreed grudgingly.
She smiled, and he almost smiled too, but then remembered himself and was serious again. Knowing she had made him do something he thought he would regret, she did the one thing that she perhaps shouldn’t have, to thank him. Kissed his cheek.
He didn’t pull away. Instead, he froze to the spot.
Sybil dropped back down from her tiptoes and took a step back. His eyes flittered across her face. And she was drawn to him once more. Moving close to him, she reached out and stroked his cheek; he closed his eyes as if absorbing every sensation and transferring it to memory.
“Please don’t be shy around me, Fin.”
“I’m afraid I will scare you.”
“Why?”
“Because I am different.”
She laughed. “Do I scare you?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s good, because I am different too. I am probably scarier to most people than you will ever be. When you can predict a plane falling out of the sky, that tends to terrify people. When I was growing up the other kids used to think I didn’t so much predict things as make them happen. It’s not easy keeping friends when they are convinced that if they upset you, you will make their car explode.”
“That really happened?”
“Yes. It’s why I keep it a secret.”
“But someone knows your secret now.”
“Yes. It seems I can no longer live here hidden away, whether I want to or not.”
“I have hidden away my whole life,” he blurted out. “It is a lonely thing to do.”
She smiled. “I knew we would understand each other. We are so alike, Fin. Now, will you come in for dinner?”
He got up and followed her inside the cottage. At first he was nervous and only managed to shuffle inside the door, which he left open. Then, gradually, she hoped it was because he smelt her cooking and wanted to eat, he came and sat down at the kitchen table.
Sybil busied herself in the little kitchen, hoping he didn’t mind when she brushed past him in the confined space. Within half an hour, they were sitting eating, and she realised that Fin was the first person she had ever entertained in the cottage. And it already felt so natural to have him here.
Chapter Seven - Fin
His eyes kept drifting up to her gentle face; the more he looked at her, the more he swore he would protect her whatever the cost. It almost felt as if he was on a crusade. To save Sybil from the vampire who hunted her. Yet, he had no idea how to fight a vampire; it would be best if they both went to the Dragon Stronghold tomorrow and found out how they were going to survive this.
Fate Of The Minotaur: BBW Paranormal Romance (Her Dragon's Bane Series Book 5) Page 2
