Legend 4 - Free Falling (13 page)

I managed to break away from that thought and answered him. “I have discovered something unbelievable, Danté, and I am not an animal to be caged. Safe is not how I want to live.”

He grumbled and then frowned at me. “What unbelievable thing have you found?”

“The MacClennys must be witches—they have a coven … I saw them, and they are using Gypsy magic to open a portal. They brought through this huge, two-headed, grayish monster … and they were going to feed a young woman to him—and, Danté, she was beaten, and I think raped. These are despicable people.” I paused to watch his face, as he seemed deep in thought.

Finally he asked softly, “How did you happen to come across this?”

“The red glow … I saw it and had to investigate.”

“Well of course you did,” he answered on a resigned note.

“And even though she was unconscious, I thought it out, and you would have been very proud of me because I used patience and the Féth Fiada … and waited till the last possible moment, listening for the monster thing to shift, and then as he came after me, I shifted into the coven’s den, scooped her up, shifted us to my car, and drove her straight to the hospital.”

“And of course you stayed with her.” Again that resigned tone in his voice, but there was something alight in his gold-lit eyes, something that looked like pride, but then he ruined the moment by saying, “And of course you had to rush in headlong without thought to your own—”

I cut him off. “Should I have allowed the beast to eat her?
H
e said he was hungry
!
” I snapped at him.

“
You should have called me
.”

“Yeah—right, like we have phone service between us.”

He shook his head. “Haven’t you felt it yet, Z … the channel between us? I put it there in your head while you slept and have been waiting for you to discover it. You need to be more aware of your Faeness and the fact that you are a powerful Daoine. You need to be able to tap into that might, and you can’t if you don’t even know what is in your own head.” He waved his hand, dismissing this impatiently. “Never mind … at least tell me you left her with the medical people and did not give your name.”

I had known when I didn’t just leave her and run that I was making a huge mistake. I had known I shouldn’t stick around, but my emotions have always gotten the better of my smarter self. I wanted to make certain she would be okay, so I had hung around and of course came under scrutiny. I knew it wasn’t smart, so now although I needed to keep my eyes on the dark road, I lowered my lashes, and of course the car swerved …

Danté took the wheel and glared at me as he pulled the car to the side of the road. I hurried to put my foot to the brake.

He said my name softly and then took my chin and repeated my name, “Radzia MacDaun—my own dear
enfant
 … I know who and what you are. I understand that being who and what you are, you couldn’t just leave her and take off, but now … you have brought attention to yourself in the worst possible circumstances. Now, this coven who is obviously in league with Gaiscioch will know
who
you are, and
what
you are.”

“Yes, I know all that—I know, and of course you are right. I know that it makes it much more difficult and even awkward, since I live only a short distance from them, but they—the coven, can’t give me away, because they would be giving themselves away.”

“I am not concerned about them giving you away to the neighborhood,
enfant
. Don’t you see, that isn’t your problem? Your problem now more than ever is Gais. Now Gais knows, or will think he knows, just what you are capable of. He can make it very dangerous for you anytime you choose to leave your grounds, and apparently you choose to do so all the time,” he said with an exasperated sigh.

“Yes, I know, I have made a supreme error, but we will handle it … I even thought I could do a memory spell on anyone I spoke to and delete my name from the records.”

“You know you can’t do that en masse without severe consequences from both the queen and the elements. Memory spells are shady things that often go awry when done collectively, and besides, as I have said, your surrounding neighbors in general are of no consequence—it is the coven you have given yourself away to. And it is the coven that concerns me because of their link to Gais. This is something we will have to handle together. By now, this coven already knows who took the poor girl and where she is. She might even be in danger.”

“Oh no … Danté, we have to keep her safe.”

“Leave it to me. I will handle it a bit later. Now, you and I have something else to attend to.”

“What?”

“Tell me more about this MacClenny pair,” he demanded none too gently while he ignored my question.

“Danté, I can’t believe this about the MacClennys … and how is it I never noticed anything before … Mom and Dad never noticed anything before. Why would they be part of a coven on their own land?”

“What do you really know about them? Did your parents know them well?”

“Well, not exactly … they were neighbors … and, still … I just can’t believe this. What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t have the answers, but I can only suppose that some humans, some Gypsies—the ones in this coven in particular—might see a new order on the horizon. If they think they might get in on its inception—that if they join at the start, they will be a part of its glory—I can imagine they would be capable of throwing in with the devil.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I have some sleuthing to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think I’ll go over to their coven’s den and scout about, that is after I see you safely home.”

“No—oh no, not going home.
Going with you.
”

After regarding me for a long moment, he finally pulled a face and said, “Fine. At least I will be able to keep an eye on you if you are near.”

“Let’s go right now.”

“No, I don’t want our vehicle noticed. We’ll take it home first.”

“Yes, but … timing … now is the time,” I objected.

“No, we will take the car back to MacDaun Castle and shift from there,” Danté said on a frown and added, “And if you are going to hound and fret at me, I will leave you home.”

I promised him to be good, and a few moments later I parked my Jeep in the courtyard and found his hand around my waist. I shivered and wondered if he noticed. And then the next thing I knew we had shifted to the MacClennys’ outbuilding.

Of course, there was no one there. The coven had all scurried to their homes in fear of being discovered. I wondered what the MacClennys would do if indeed they knew I was the one that broke up their party. If they didn’t know yet, they soon would.

We were cloaked in the Féth Fiada of invisibility when we shifted inside, just as a precaution, but all we found was a tremendously cluttered room, full with odd pieces of old furniture and garden tools.

“Huh? This is weird. What happened to the stone table and the dark pit?”

Danté smiled secretively at me and whispered in Gaelic, “Show me.” The magical shield around the room’s inner depths was lifted, and its inner sanctum revealed. There it was, the stone slab of a table where they had meant to feed the woman to the two-headed thing. And a huge pit in the center of that inner chamber …

Danté didn’t have to pull me along, but he did, keeping me close for a quick getaway as we went over to the pit and looked inside. It appeared to be just another dark, open well until Danté slowly spread his fingers and waved them over the black abyss. We felt it come alive with a pulse all its own. Serious mojo going on.

“It is their source of power,” Danté explained. “There is a portal at the other end … but it needs this end to be activated to allow any of the Dark Seelie through.” He spoke as though to himself.

“How many can come through at one time … how many?”

“I have no way of knowing at this moment, but I do believe only one at a time. It is not what Gaiscioch needs to release his army. He will need a much larger portal. He is just playing his games … releasing those abominations to terrify humans and distract us.”

“What are we going to do now?’

“We are not going to rush into this willy-nilly
, enfant
. We are going to find out as much as we can first, and to do what we need to discover who the members of the coven are. We will have to dismantle this sadist pack of hellions, one by one.” He frowned, put up his hand to silence me, and moved off a few steps. He wasn’t speaking but seemed to be in conversation all the same.

When he returned his attention to me it was to frown and say irritably, “The queen believes against my better judgment that we must not destroy this particular portal now. She believes if we do so, the coven will simply erect another …” He shook his head. “I don’t like this. I don’t believe in keeping any portal open … and this one gives me a bad feeling in my gut.”

“Huh—I didn’t think Fae paid attention to things like ‘gut feelings’.”

He smiled broadly. “My friend Daremont taught me all about ‘gut feelings’ back in the seventeenth century. It is not so different from Fae instinct, is it?”

“No … not so different.”

“Come,
enfant
 … we are for Tir.”

This said, and while I was still wide-eyed and objecting, he shifted us not only to Faery, but to the queen’s private chambers, and, oh my gosh. I saw her at once, and my eyes opened even wider. She was stunning and regal, and I immediately opened my arms as was the custom and bowed my head low.

A moment later I felt her delicate fingers as they touched my chin. Her voice was angelic as she said my name. “Radzia, my Daoine child … you have no need to bow so very low to me—we are family.”

I lifted my eyes to her glorious face, looked into those brilliant, iridescent eyes of hers, and felt overwhelming devotion. I suppose I am all Fae at heart. “My Queen.”

She smiled. “Your mother is still in Daoine?”

I lowered my eyes. “Yes.”

“It shall not always be so. She needs time.”

“Yes.”

“My Queen … Aaibhe.” Danté interrupted. “I have a problem I need to present to you, and this problem needs immediate action of the most potent kind.”

“Sit, and we three shall discuss this problem …”

~ Twelve ~

PLANS—I USED TO love plans, but recently I had decided that you couldn’t expect them to work in the situations we had been handed. We left the queen’s chambers, my mind busy going over everything we three had discussed. Imagine that, Queen Aaibhe had included me in strategy machinations! Wow, but never mind that. I was of course, excited and turned to Danté. In my excitement I grabbed his two hands and put them to my lips …

Sparks, no, what am I saying, rockets exploded right before my eyes. A sweeping bolt of electricity both uncomfortable and yet strangely stimulating spun through my veins, and his gold-dust eyes locked with mine.

He bent towards me, and I knew.
Here it comes … he is going to kiss me …

“Darling …”

What? Who? Where?
I saw him turn his head. I couldn’t see his expression, but I saw the Fae that went with that beautiful, musical, tantalizing voice that had called him
darling.

“Atha …” Danté said her name, and to my ears, I heard a sound of warm welcome. He gave her a flirtatious look, and I felt as though he had grabbed my heart and pinched it without mercy.

Stupid me—jealous me, reacting like a schoolgirl—so I bucked myself up and waited for the inevitable, which I thought was going to be an introduction. I looked her over, and she was a magnificent redhead. What would Danté want with me when he had that? Oh, not to sound immodest, but I am not saying that any number of guys hadn’t told me how beautiful or pretty I was. However, looking at Atha (as he called her), I suddenly knew what stunning beyond words really meant.

I considered shifting off to avoid being introduced to this looker who called him (and probably with good reason) ‘darling’. However, like an idiot I decided to be an adult—I stayed.
Adults are often fools
.

No introduction … in fact, I was basically ignored. She put her arms around Danté and her lips on his lips, and I didn’t see him resist …

Now I shifted
. I could have spared myself that, but no … I had to be an adult and stand my ground and be polite.

I stood in my room and for obvious reasons burst into tears. I have a temper, and it reared its red-eyed self and said,
That fiend kissed you and touched you and took off your top right in your bed and vanished … now you know why, but how dare he when he obviously has a lover!

However, saying this to myself didn’t help. I sniffed my way to the shower, noting that I had lost an entire evening in Faery, for it was a new morning back in ‘real’ time home.

During my shower, I made up my mind to go out and call on Aaron Dunbar and give him that tour he had wanted the other day …

I put on a pretty summer dress, brushed my black hair until it looked like midnight velvet, put on a bit of black mascara around my green eyes, and slipped on a pair of pretty sandals. Then I took up my keys, and off I went!

You see, the stupid me thought (hoped) Danté would follow me and leave his redhead beauty behind. The stupid part of me had actually believed that Danté had ‘feelings’ for me.

The angry part of me wanted to leave him in the dust, even though he hadn’t showed up to be left there …

Dunbar Grange was a pretty spot. The old squire used to keep horses … just to look at, as he no longer rode. I frowned to see the pastures empty and wondered where the horses could be as I drove slowly up the tree-lined, winding drive to the house. I had never noticed before how Gothic in style the house appeared.

I shrugged this off but then frowned to see the flowerbeds had gone to weed. It appeared Aaron no longer maintained a gardener. I was sorry for this, as the place used to be beautifully maintained, and had to wonder why Aaron would not have kept on the help.

He must have heard or seen me coming up the drive, for he was at the front door smiling and waving as I slowed to a stop and parked my trusty Jeep. Aaron was wearing a dark gray T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, and he looked hot!

“Well, Z … this is wonderfully unexpected,” he called jovially as he came to open my car door. “What brings you here?”

“Thought if you weren’t busy I’d take you for a spin around the countryside.”

“Great—and could we swing by Tringle village?”

“Sure, it isn’t far … why?”

“I have been told they have a wonderful little inn that serves lovely lunches.”

“Sounds great … come on … if you don’t mind being chauffeured by a woman?” I eyed him flirtatiously, but my heart wasn’t in it. This was ridiculous. The guy was a serious hunk. My heart should be in it … or at least my body.

He got comfortable, and for the next thirty minutes I showed him the various points of interest in and around our quiet county. It wasn’t easy making conversation though, and that wasn’t because he wasn’t good company—quite the opposite. He said all the right things, he flirted beautifully with his hazel eyes … he … he just wasn’t the one. However, diversion was what I needed, I told myself, and continued to flirt right back because diversion was what I meant to get.

We were chatting over lunch when the subject of his gardens became a topic. He was the one that brought it up by saying, “I suppose you noticed the state of my flowerbeds?”

“What flowerbeds?” I teased.

“Precisely. You know, when I first arrived at Dunbar Grange, I found some of the maintenance crew sorely lacking—”

“Really?” I interrupted, couldn’t help it. “But they always had the Grange looking spiffy in the past.”

“Perhaps when my uncle was alive, but I suppose they let it go after his death … I had to let them go, and apparently in doing so have offended my neighbors. I can’t get anyone else to take on the job of groundskeeper.”

“Hmmm, people around here—we are such a small village, and everyone knows each other or knows someone who knows someone … and they probably don’t want to offend your previous groundskeeper. They tend to get their backs up against a stranger. Why not see if you can meet with old Jeffries and straighten things out?”

“Oh … you know him?”

I smiled. “As I said … small village. I don’t know him more than to say hello, how are you, but I never took him to be a bad sort.”

“Thank you, Z … I think I will do that.”

Something in my brain started to buzz. It was like a separate being—perhaps it was the Fae in me, which I was beginning to realize was a major part of who I was, was kicking in. As Aaron paid the check, I looked around and saw a strangely dressed young woman. She had auburn hair and dark glasses covering her eyes, and even so, I felt she was staring a hole through me.

Something else about her … I guess it was her clothing. She wore an odd black dress with a strange design … almost like runes, but not quite, and the design looked familiar?

I brushed it off as Aaron had returned to the table to leave the tip and reach for my elbow to lead me out. However, I felt her stare at my back as we left the dining area and did a quick look back. She hastily turned away. Odd, but then Aaron was reciting a funny anecdote …

He turned to me and said as he got out of my car, “Come on … you have to walk me to the door. It is the least you can do.”

It was cute, so I laughed because his expression was comical and charming. Aaron was so very charming, sometimes just a shade too charming. “Sure … why not?” I said and jumped out of the Jeep.

He came to me and put an arm around my waist.
Nothing
—I got nothing out of it, no tingles, no sparkle. However he was so damn good looking …

At the door, he drew me up close and whispered, “It looks like rain—would you like to come inside and while away the afternoon with me?” I had no doubt what he meant by ‘while away the afternoon.’

No whiling with him—no, no. Knew I didn’t want to do that. I smiled apologetically, “Can’t … have something of a schedule to keep.”

“And you won’t cancel … and keep this lonely lad company?”

I laughed. “Tempting, but sorry. Don’t be fooled by my youth—being an only child made me a relatively responsible one.”

He crushed me into his embrace. His mouth was rough and bruising as he parted my lips and jammed his tongue down my throat. I didn’t like it, and I pulled away. I put my open palms on his chest and stalled him. I wasn’t worried … Fae strength here; I could have overpowered him if I found the need.

I did, in fact, easily escape his arms, although his hand tried to hold onto my arm. I lightly shrugged off his fingers, and as I hurried down the steps I called out, “Thanks for the lunch …” A moment later I was in my Jeep and, for some reason, speeding down Dunbar Grange as fast as I could go without looking like an idiot.

“Whew!” I breathed out loud.

“Damn foolish thing to do,” Danté roared at the top of his beautiful lungs beside me in the Jeep.

I nearly went into the ditch. Wasn’t expecting him to pop in like that, and I know my mouth dropped. I turned on him and slowed the car to a stop. “Me … foolish? How?”

“Going off with that blackguard.”

That surprised me. “Him? Blackguard? What makes you say that?”

“I watched you two while you had lunch … from another dimension.”

“Oh right … you are my guardian. I am your mission, but how did you tear yourself away from the redhead?”

“Her name is Atha.”

“So? What do I care? Go back to your Atha and do whatever you should be doing with her. You don’t have to baby-sit me.”

“Atha is my mission—not my lover.”

“Oh … right,
another mission—aren’t you the busy boy
?” I rounded on him, and I was furious beyond caution. Who did he think he was kidding?

“Yes,” he answered simply.

“That’s it? Just
yes
? Explain. Was it the queen who asked you to … what, guard this Atha?”

“No.” He inclined that oh-so-handsome head of his, and his gold-dust eyes stared into mine as he added, “Guarding isn’t what I had in mind when I asked the queen for the mission.”

“You … you asked the queen?” My hands were on my hips, which wasn’t easy with the steering wheel in my way. I was beyond reason, and the reason didn’t matter. It was a fact. He had me nuts at this point. “Come on, big boy, give over—now.”

“I was trying to do just that.”

“Well then, do it.”

“It isn’t required of me to explain anything to an
enfant of a woman,
but I shall. Atha is Gaiscioch’s lover and spy. She sits on our Council, and I thought I would be able to trap her and find out how she is communicating with Gaiscioch.”

This brought me down ten pegs. I was momentarily flabbergasted and bereft of speech. He grunted, obviously well pleased with my condition, and continued. “As it turns out, once again our queen had everything under control. She asked me to keep Atha occupied because she meant to send my younger brother, Trevor, to Atha’s home.”

“You have a younger brother named Trevor?” This had captured my interest. I hadn’t thought of Danté in that light—the light of having a family and siblings. “Do you have more?”

“Have I not told you?” He frowned. “I have two younger brothers … and thank goodness no sisters. Breslyn’s sister is quite a handful.”

I smirked. “Hmmm, all females are handfuls!”

He pulled a face at me and asked, “
Do
you or do you not wish to hear more?”

I nodded. “Yes, yes. Go on … Trevor going to investigate Atha’s home—the queen wanted you to keep the redhead occupied …”

“Because Trevor has a gift. Most of us cannot find our own Seelie artifacts—but if Trevor is in the same room with one, Seelie or Unseelie, he immediately connects with it. The queen was sending him in to see if Atha was using such an artifact, against our law, to contact the traitor Gais.”

“Kewl,” I answered and then waved at him to continue.

He frowned but after leveling a glare at me continued. “While I kept Atha occupied for a bit … walking and flirting, nothing more—”

“I saw more,” I interjected with one brow up.

“You saw a kiss. That meant nothing,” he answered softly and touched my face. “Shall I continue,
enfant?”

I nodded vigorously, but I leveled a dark look at him.

“Trevor went in and found a secret room, but it was spelled. The queen joined him, and together they were able to negate the spell, and there it was—an ancient orb that had always belonged in the queen’s family. Aaibhe asked the orb to show its last session, and it displayed Gais giving Atha specific instructions, and it displayed Atha giving Gais the false information Aaibhe had purposely confided to her.”

“Her goose is cooked. So then what happened?”

“Our Council is convening with Atha even as we speak. It is very bad, Z … she has committed treason and will not be given a pardon.”

I was stunned. My Danté was in every manner magnificent. It occurred to me that he could have seduced the beautiful Atha—she was sure willing—but he had not, if he were to be believed, and somehow, I believed everything Danté said. He could never dissimilate; it wasn’t in his nature. However, Atha’s fate bothered me. “What are you saying? Will they put her to death?”