by Amy Vansant
What was that?
A grinding noise crunched somewhere behind the waterslide on which she perched.
Oh no.
Rune hit the pump.
She heard the water before she could see it.
“Catriona!” screamed Broch.
Catriona stared at him, helpless. She scanned the area around her looking for anything to which she could brace, but there was nothing. She looked behind her at the pool below.
How far is that? Thirty feet? Forty?
“Stupid, stupid—”
She’d never dreamed Rune would know how to turn on the waterfall. It never occurred to her he’d even know about it. Why would he? The studio must have had the button clearly labeled on the catwalk panel.
Damn OSHA work safety standards.
Above her, she saw dribbles of water cresting the edge, the whole tank readying to spill, and she knew she only had two choices.
Wait until the water knocked her from her tenuous perch, or jump.
The pool below was too narrow to risk being swept off the angled ramp. She’d have to jump to clear the wall and have some control over where she splashed down.
Catriona took a deep breath and pushed off from the wall.
Now she just had to pray the pool was deep enough.
She fell, arms flailing and legs slightly parted to keep from hitting the water like a spear and plunging too deep to the uncertain bottom. She smacked the water’s surface, wincing, praying her spine wasn’t about to be slammed through her shoulders.
Her feet hit the bottom and her knees bent, absorbing the landing easily.
Deep enough.
She would have heaved a sigh of relief if it didn’t mean drowning. She launched herself upward.
That wasn’t too bad—
The waterfall crashed on her head as soon as she broke the surface.
Catriona went spinning to the bottom again. Disoriented and dizzy from the blow of the water she struggled to find up. When she thought her lungs would explode, she felt her hand touch air and gave one last hard stroke to reach oxygen, praying water wouldn’t tumble from the sky and into her lungs.
She gasped and felt her lungs inflate with air.
“Catriona!”
She heard her name as she swam for the side of the pool, Broch’s scream muffled by the roar of the waterfall continuously flowing from the top of the artificial mountain.
She waved her arm above her head to let him know she’d survived the drop and dragged herself, sputtering, onto the gravelly bank surrounding the pool. After taking a moment to cough and catch her breath, she stood and scrambled toward the stairs.
Stairs that would have been the better choice the first time.
Catriona began to climb. Above her, Broch had reached the top. She couldn’t see Rune. She doubled her efforts to speed her ascent, wishing she’d spent less time at the gym kickboxing and more time on the Stairmaster.
By the time she’d reached the top, winded and spent, Rune and Broch were nowhere to be seen.
“Broch?”
She called, but could barely hear herself over the roar of the water and the pump. Starting across the catwalk, she stopped to slap the waterfall’s clearly labeled red emergency stop button. The thunder of the water ceased and she heard voices echoing from somewhere on the opposite side.
She sprinted towards them.
Rounding the corner of a crumbling ruin, Catriona saw Broch had Rune cornered against a stucco wall. The metal ladder mounted to it seemed to lead to the outside world. Rune stood crouched like a wrestler, his hands curled into claws.
“Stop!” Rune screamed at Catriona as she approached. “I’ll drain you both in seconds if you touch me.”
Broch looked at her. “Ah kin tak’ him afore he gets far.”
Catriona grimaced. “You probably can, but I don’t know if the damage will be permanent.” She’d been meaning to ask Anne about that but didn’t get the chance. She put it on her mental to-do list.
“Let me handle this,” she said reaching for her gun.
She found her holster empty and tilted back her head, groaning.
Arg.
The gun had to be in the pool. She’d never thought to check if she still had it after her tumble.
She huffed and stared at Rune, feeling stuck.
“We’re at a stalemate.”
Rune placed his good hand on the nearest ladder rung. “No. I’m going to climb this ladder and you’re going to stay there.”
“We cannae let ye gang,” said Broch.
“You can and you will.”
Rune’s blazing gaze shot from Catriona to Broch and back again as he began to ascend the ladder. Broch took a step forward and Rune swiped at him, demonstrating how he’d be able to touch him should the Highlander come after him.
Broch looked at Catriona. “It tak’s awhile,” he argued.
She knew he meant he thought Rune wouldn’t have the time to drain him before he was able to tie the monster into a knot. “It took Joseph time. Who knows with Rune?”
Broch clenched his jaw and looked up at Rune.
As she watched her father climb, an image flashed through Catriona’s mind of a pile of rubble she’d passed on the way to find Broch. Bolting back down the path she’d traveled, she found the bricks around the corner, just a few steps away. She grabbed one and hefted it, feeling the rough surface beneath her fingertips.
It felt like real stone, and not Styrofoam, as she’d feared.
Perfect.
Broch had once before demonstrated his uncanny throwing accuracy. Collecting five, she ran them back to Broch and dropped them at his feet.
“Remember that crazed kid you hit with a rock right after you arrived?” she asked, grabbing one shaped most like a baseball.
Broch took the rock and tossed it in the air to catch it again. “Aye.”
He smiled and looked up at Rune. The skinny goon was a good twenty feet above them now. He stared down, sneering, clearly feeling cocky now, daring them to chase him up the ladder.
Then he spotted the stone in Broch’s paw.
Catriona saw panic flood Rune’s expression. He looked away and started climbing faster, glancing back, again and again, waiting for Broch to throw.
Broch cocked back his arm and tossed the first brick. It shot from his hand like a cannonball. Rune dodged to the right as it crashed against the wall beside him. He raised his arm to block the exploding fragments, but remained firm on the ladder.
A moment later he was climbing again.
Catriona raised her own arms over her head as bits of brick peppered down.
She stooped to gather Broch another missile and he joined in to grab a second chunk from the pile. His choice proved more grapefruit-sized. Catriona couldn’t imagine throwing such a large brick so far in the air, let alone with any accuracy, but then, she wasn’t an enormous Highlander.
Brock cocked back and tossed the larger of the two and Catriona frowned. She could see right away it would end up left of Rune, much like the last attempt. Sure enough, Rune released with his left hand again and swung to the right.
By then, Broch already had the other rock launching. When Rune looked down at them, smirking that he had so easily dodged the giant chunk of brick, the last smaller rock hit him squarely in the forehead.
Catriona whooped. “You hit him!”
Rune’s body went limp, his feet slipped from their rung, but he didn’t fall. Instead, he hung from his metal arm like a limp flag.
Catriona’s cheer died on her lips. She slapped her hands to her hips and watched as her father slowly rocked back and forth above them.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Broch took a step forward to mount the ladder, but before he could take a step, Rune’s body detached from his artificial arm, the fabric of his shirt tearing from his body. The Highlander scrambled out of the way as Rune bounced once against the ladder and then hit the ground with a cracking noise Catriona worri
ed would haunt her the rest of her life.
She covered her mouth with her hand, horrified.
“That had to hurt.”
Rune was unaware what bones he might have broken. He remained unconscious.
She moved forward to see if he was alive and saw his chest rising and falling. Gingerly, she touched his neck to feel for a pulse.
“He’s alive.”
“Dinnae titch him,” warned Broch.
She looked back at him. “I have to. I want to try to syphon him.”
Catriona closed her eyes and endeavored with all her concentration to pull energy from her father. Nothing happened. No rush of power entered her body. She felt deflated.
“It isn’t working.” Her shoulders slumped. “What if he comes around?”
“Ah’ll bind him,” suggested Broch.
Catriona nodded and jerked a fake vine from the underbrush around them. It felt very much like a rope.
“Use this.”
Broch took the vine and stood there, staring at Rune, seemingly puzzled.
“What are you waiting for?” she asked.
“Hae am ah supposed tae tie him up with yin haund?”
She scowled.
Good point.
It was like a Buddist koan. What is the sound of one hand being tied?”
Broch perked. “Och, ah’ll tie his hand to his foot.”
Catriona watched him bind Rune’s remaining arm to his legs. The crazy position he assumed made her shake her head with the oddity of it all.
“This is crazy.”
When Broch was done tying each of Rune’s feet to his one remaining hand, he lifted the boney man over his shoulder like a shearing sheep, careful to keep Rune’s bare flesh from touching him, just in case.
“Let’s get him tae Anne afore he wakes up.”
Catriona pulled her phone from her pocket, pleased to find it still worked after her plunge. She dialed the number Anne had given her in case of emergency and the Sentinel answered.
“Catriona?”
“We have Rune.”
“Really?”
“He was lurking on a movie set. We have him tied up.”
“That’s great. Did you try—”
Catriona sighed. “I did. My darndest. Couldn’t drain him. Not even a little.”
“Okay. Shoot. Michael just left or I would have had him pop over there and take him.”
“We would’ve had to get Michael a pass to get him on the lot anyway. It’s a pain. We’ll just bring him to you.”
Anne chuckled. “He could have gotten on the lot just fine, but, okay. Bring him here and I’ll call Michael back from New York.”
“He’s on his way home?”
“He’s already home.”
“But it’s only been two hours—”
“Let’s just say he doesn’t fly commercial.”
“But even—” Catriona let it drop, suspecting Michael didn’t fly in planes at all. “Okay. We’ll be there in a bit.”
“Great. Be careful. We don’t know what he’s capable of.”
Catriona glanced at Rune, flopping against Broch’s back as he headed back towards the catwalk.
“I think we’ve got things pretty well wrapped up.”
She glanced up at the ladder and saw Rune’s arm swinging there.
It would be hard to explain to the movie set staff how a bionic arm ended up dangling from their ladder.
I guess I better get that.
Chapter Forty
By the time Catriona and Broch had arrived at Anne’s house, Michael was, once again, already standing in the drive like an impatient gargoyle.
Broch had ridden in the back hatch area with the back seats down, Rune bundled at his feet. He crouched poised, ready to smack Catriona’s father back into unconsciousness should he awaken.
The gangly man never moved a muscle.
As the Jeep rolled to a stop, Broch opened the hatch and hopped out. Michael strode up to him as he moved to pull Rune from the back.
“I have him,” said Michael. He eyed Broch’s hairline and straightened to bring his own parallel. Broch had seen men do it before.
He guessed Michael came up a wee bit short.
Broch glanced at Rune and then turned back to Michael.
“Are ye sure? He’s heavier than he looks.”
Michael reached into the back of the Jeep, his arm shifting into a network of thin blue lightning. When he came in contact with their captive, Rune disappeared, his form disappearing into the same sapphire web.
Michael smiled. “I’ve got him.”
A moment later, Michael had disappeared completely, along with Rune.
Broch grunted.
Ah may be taller, bit ah cannae dae that.
Catriona came around the back, Rune’s metal arm in her hand. She looked into the Jeep.
“Where’d he go?”
“Michael took him.”
She looked around. “Where?”
Broch tapped his fingertips together and then exploded them outward. “He flew away, ah ken.”
Catriona held up the arm. “He forgot this.”
Anne arrived and winced at the arm.
“What the hell is that?”
“Rune’s arm. Michael took him but he forgot this.”
Anne rapped on it with her knuckle. “Some kind of bionics? I don’t think it’s important, but I’ll have one of the other Angeli take it to him.”
Catriona handed the limb to Anne. “Where did Rune go? I thought we were going to fix Rune together. You and me.”
Broch noticed Catriona looked a little disappointed. It was cute.
She might lik’ that power rush a wee tae much.
“Michael took him to a holding facility,” said Anne. “He wants to understand what happened to him so maybe they can stop it from happening to others.”
“He’s going to keep him like a laboratory rat?”
“Something like that, I guess. He won’t torture him, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Not sure if I was worried or not.”
Anne chuckled. “Have you eaten? It’s just me and Jeffrey here. Might be nice to have some company for dinner.”
Aye. Please. Sounds wonderful.
He loved many things about Catriona, but her cooking wasn’t one of them. And the snacks Jeffrey had made them during their last visit...he was still thinking about them.
Catriona looked at Broch and he shrugged. “Ah’m always hungry.”
Catriona offered him a lopsided smile. “Sure. I guess we have plenty of time to get back to what we were doing.”
“A lifetime,” said Broch, putting an arm around her. He kissed the top of her head.
Anne started walking back to the house and Catriona and Broch followed.
“Maybe you could tell us a little more about you,” suggested Catriona. “If this keeps up, we might be spending a lot more time together.”
Anne turned and grinned. “Sure. I’ll make sure Jeffrey has some dessert.”
Broch made a little fist pump with the arm not draped around Catriona.
Anne opened the door and ushered them inside. “I warn you. It’s a long story.”
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy has been writing and finding other creative ways to make no money since high school.
She specializes in fun, comedic reads about accident prone, easily distracted women with questiona
ble taste in men.
So, autobiographies, mostly.
Amy is the former East Coast Editor of SURFER Magazine but the urge to drive up and down the coast interviewing surfers has long since left her. She works at home with her goofy husband.
Other Books by Amy Vansant
Pineapple Port Mysteries
Funny, clean mysteries full of unforgettable characters. Plenty of thrills without anything TOO rough.
View the Series (Nine Books)
Kilty Romantic Comedy/Thrillers
Funny, suspenseful romances with a touch of time-travel.
See the whole series (Four Books)
Slightly Romantic Comedies
New Adult/Adult zany romantic romps
Slightly Stalky (I) Slightly Sweaty (II)
OTHER BOOKS
Moms are Nuts (editor: humor anthology)
The Surfer’s Guide to Florida (non-fiction: out of print)
