Highland Shift (Highland Destiny: 1) (38 page)

Although it was nigh on gloaming, Earnan could not rest until he walked with Faolan to the standing stones. Only the most powerful of Druids had e’er been shown the truth about traversing dimensions. Earnan had never before trained an apprentice with such power.

He knew he was pushing Faolan hard and fast, trying to cover in two weeks what took years to learn through a normal apprenticeship. Faolan was not a normal apprentice, though. Although Faolan’s skills had been dormant over the course of three hundred years while he’d been trapped within the curse, it seemed his innate Druid power had matured.

With the time of the Druid prophecy nearly upon them, there was no time to waste. Faolan’s barely suppressed power sizzled just under his skin, electric, and alive. Faolan was about to learn the truth about the standing stones.

****

Red
was becoming increasingly uneasy, caught halfway between the mainland and the island. He was unable to go further until the weather and seas settled. He’d not liked the idea of leaving Elena and Lilly alone at the farm, but he also knew it was important that the trunks full of books, plus a few artifacts reach the island well before the ceremony at Beltane. The women had agreed to stay at a hotel in Edinburgh, rather than at the farm. Red was sure no one had been watching the farm for quite some time, but he’d felt better about leaving the women behind knowing they would be in a big city and not isolated in the countryside.

He looked down at the ‘no signal’ message on the display screen of the satellite phone. “Faolan is going to kill me,” he said to the empty cabin.

Elena entered the doctor’s office and filled out the masses of paperwork necessary to be examined and treated. She sensed no Druid powers emanating from within the building. The office seemed perfectly normal, not fortified with wards and there weren’t any suspicious pictures showing human sacrifices hanging from the walls. On the other hand,
she was surrounded by women, children, and babies. She snorted to herself.
I’m getting more fanciful by the minute.

An hour later, she was walking back out the door, not much wiser. She had provided blood and urine samples, been weighed and charted, and after a brief meeting with the doctor, been invited to return the following week for her results.

She’d worked at maintaining her cover as an anxious, possibly pregnant young woman and tried to schedule something sooner, like tomorrow, but the appointment clerk held firm. “Doctor said not until next Tuesday.” Taking what she could get, Elena wondered where she would be, come the next week.

When she’d entered the small examination room, the nurse told her to hop up on the table, “Doctor will be with you shortly.”

The bright blue tape that held the white gauze to her arm where the nurse had drawn blood felt tight and she was just picking at the ends of it when the door swung open and the doctor rushed in.

“How do you do? Mrs. Thomas, is it?” he asked holding his hand out to shake. She’d used Lilly’s last name as a precaution.

Wow!
When he’d entered the room, it was with the same force of being hit by a train. There was nothing subtle about this man.

His face was chiseled, with strong, aquiline features, cleft chin, and his jaw was brushed with a blue-black shadow of a beard. He had wavy black hair that fell silkily to his shoulders and gorgeous blue-gray eyes the color of steel.

She’d had to look way up to see those eyes; he was nearly as tall as her husband’s, which probably accounted for that feeling of déjà vu. His body types were similar, too; the build of a professional athlete, tall, broad shouldered, narrow waist, and thick, powerful legs.

He took up every ounce of space in the room not already occupied. What he didn’t fill with size, he filled with magnetism.
Phew!
Elena was willing to bet that more than a few women had transferred to his practice to just to look at this gorgeous man.

“Please, call me Elena,” she invited, taking his proffered hand.

Smiling, but not deeply, he’d replied easily, “Then you must call me Gabhran.”

Puzzled, Elena looked at the spelling on his diploma hanging from the wall, but repeated the name as she’d heard him pronounce it, “GAV-run?”

“Aye, and ‘tis pronounced G-A-V-R-U-N.” He spelled out each letter. “And don’t worry about the spelling until it comes time to pay for my services! Then I’ll want you to get it right. Are you American?”

“That obvious, huh?”

“Don’t fash yourself about the spellings over here, or you’ll make yourself crazy. Where else but a Gaelic country would you pronounce D-U-B-H as Doo?” He laughed.

This exchange took place while they were shaking hands and as he pulled up his leather stool near the table. Elena had known from the moment he’d entered the room there was a barely suppressed
energy within him. Elena kept her own power carefully shielded, and tried just listening to him and his intentions.

As the exam began, what she sensed was a man absorbed with his job, listening to her health history, asking questions, making small talk. However, the whole time they spoke,
she was aware of something else, something coiled within him, a beast not quite tame.

Despite a sense of something a little bit dangerous, she did like him and was a little disappointed that he wouldn’t be her doctor for long. Elena knew her time with him was short. She expected the nurse would return with the results from her lab work any minute, and then the conversation would shift. She decided to go out on a limb and see if he knew of any special powers. “Doctor,” she said, instantly correcting herself, “Gabhran, I wonder if I might talk to you about an unrelated issue?” She let a bit of her power out, not enough to project or shield, just enough to nudge him if he was able to sense power. His quick intake of breath was sufficient to let her know he’d felt it.

“Who are you?” he demanded, his previously pleasant demeanor vanishing instantly, edges suddenly sharp.

“I’m a woman who believes she is pregnant and came to you to find out for sure. I’m also a woman who recently found out about certain powers in this world, powers I’d never even suspected existed. It seems I have some of those powers, and you might too. I can sense it in you. I know you can sense it in me.”

Fighting her increasing unease at the waves of suspicion rolling off him, Elena continued. “I’m preparing to learn more about myself and my power, and thought maybe you should be learning about power too. It seems it might be dangerous out there for people like us. Some might wish to use our power in a way that’s against our true nature.”

He looked at Elena a very long time. She could sense his inner power uncoiling, but in an unexpected fashion. It was as though there were two sources of power in front of her, or maybe not two sources, but two sides of the same coin. Like the Greek god,
Janus, he was perched in a doorway, facing both inward and outward, presenting both darkness and light. Elena shivered.

“I doona’ know what you mean,” Gabhran finally said, his brogue much thicker than it had been previously. “I will think about what you have said. Come back next week, and I will have the results of your pregnancy test. Perhaps I will hear more of which you speak then, as well.”

Although she had tried to further engage him in conversation, he’d been firm in his dismissal, opening the exam room door and calling for the nurse to escort Elena to the appointment desk. She got in one final warning before the nurse joined them, “Guard yourself this Beltane, Gabhran.”

Elena hoped it was enough. She sensed something coming toward this man, something dark, predatory, and powerful.
Something that was going to force him to choose.

****

Gabhran’s heart was pounding when the woman left his office. His hands shaking, he swallowed a couple of aspirin, and told the nurse he was taking a short break. He stepped out the back door of the clinic just in time to see her head down the street, walking in the direction of the Saucy Sorcerer. Had she come from there? Was she a test sent by his new
friends
? Somehow, he didn’t think so.

She was
right, he could sense the power within her. A lightness that was strong and true. He could have told her she was pregnant, even without the results from the urine specimen. However, he’d needed time to think about what she’d said, time to think about the others who were seeking his power.

For years, he’d thought he was a freak, perhaps bordering on some form of mental illness or depression. There were times when he thought he could hear people’s intentions; times when he was positive he could heal with more than his medical skills. He’d thought he was going mad.

Recently he had felt a darkness descending, threatening to overwhelm him. He thought he might have felt that way before, and then…nothing. After the darkness, the memories just seemed to be lost. He wished he knew what he meant by that, what he’d meant about being lost.

When he’d met with the two men who had sought him out, they seemed to understand his darkness. They’d found him, they’d told him he was someone special, and they were ready to guide him along the way as he learned about himself. They promised he could learn to control his power.

Gabhran had tasted their intentions. They wanted him. They wanted him badly for their Order, as they’d called it. It was really quite simple, they’d explained. He could come to the feast at Beltane, meet others like himself, ask all the questions he wanted. Those questions that could be answered, would be. Once everything was explained, he and the other invitees would be given the chance to join the Order, and all who were not interested could leave. Simple, really, the older man had insisted
.

If he chose to stay, he would be sworn into the order and then the ceremony of the Beltane would begin. It was a time of new beginnings for their Order, and the men felt Gabhran was a perfect fit.

As they’d prepared to take their leave, and Gabhran had agreed to come, they’d casually mentioned that if there were any family heirlooms, special artifacts he thought might be related to power or magick, he should bring them along. They planned to have an appraiser at this particular meeting who specialized in such things, merely as a courtesy to their members.

It was well done, he’d realized. The men had played well off each other and off
his own need to belong, his need for answers. They’d also managed to make the invitation to bring any artifacts sound like a complete afterthought. Completely casual. Except later when he’d thought back over the exchange, he realized he’d sensed an increase in the heart rates of both men. They thought he had something they needed, and they wanted it badly. Interesting. Well, he would find out soon enough, he supposed.

****

“Goddammit, man, you must get back to them now,” Faolan roared.

Belying his own inner tension, Red said calmly, “Aye, young pup. ‘Tis on my way I am, as soon as we empty these trunks. Your woman would not be too happy with me if I returned without them.
‘Twas the reason behind her ordering me away in the first place.

“Besides, I just spoke with Lilly, and Elena is at the doctor’s office as we speak. They will stay the night in Edinburgh, leave early on the morrow to stop by the farm to pick up the supplies. They should be at the marina when we arrive.

“The storm put us a few days behind, so I’ll not have time to drive to the farm myself to have this set of trunks repacked until after Beltane. ‘Twill mean one more trip to mainland, unless you’d like for us to return to the farm to wait out Beltane, since the time draws nigh.”

After consulting with Earnan, it was decided it would be best for Red, Lilly, and Elena to all return to the island for Beltane and then they could travel back together afterwards to retrieve the rest of the books from the farm.

The boat would head back out as soon as the empty trunks were reloaded. The weather would be clear, and they would make shore midday on the morrow and return to the island the morning after. They would return in time for the evening feast and for the ceremonies held at midnight.

Lilly and Elena decided to go to dinner at a restaurant Elena had noticed earlier near the doctor’s office. The name was catchy and the ambiance was elegant old Scotland. Large burgundy leather booths lined the walls and the tables were spaced far apart. Everything was designed for maximum privacy, with high sides on the booths, walls that were covered with heavy gold fabric, and sound dampening carpeted floors. When they’d first come inside and Lilly had gotten a good look at the place, she suggested they go somewhere else. She was afraid it might be too pricey, but something about the place made Elena want to try it, so they stayed.

Their charming server appeared to be nearly a centurion and flirted with both women shamelessly. He clearly felt it was his special mission to make their evening memorable. Although he recommended a bottle of wine, both women declined and ordered sparkling water, which arrived in elegant stemware. He asked if they had any questions about the menu, reviewed the evening’s special, and offered to return in a moment.

As Elena watched him speak,
her eye was caught by someone across the room. She thought the back looked familiar, but before she could think any more about it, her eyes were drawn to the menu. She must have been hungrier than she thought; she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off the delicious assortment of meals from which to choose. She’d figure out the mystery man later, after she made her dinner selection.