Silent Vows (11 page)
A huge swell of relief exploded when Lizzy sat down next to her, chatting away as if they were in the middle of a conversation. “Sorry I’m late. Traffic is a bear out there. I had to park a mile away.” Liz glanced her way. “Hey, are you okay? What happened?”
“I didn’t think you were coming,” Myra managed.
“I told you I would. Geez, get a grip,” Lizzy teased.
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Myra’s laugh threatened to turn to tears.
“Man, there’s no need to cry. I’m not worth all of this.”
“It isn’t only you.” Myra sat a little taller, drawing courage she didn’t feel. “Todd doesn’t believe me.”
“Doesn’t believe what?” Lizzy hauled her bulging purse to her lap.
“Everything! Anything... Oh, I don’t know. He thinks I’m crazy.”
“Did you tell him everything?”
“Aye. All of it.”
“Did you show him your little...” Liz waved her hand in the air. “Gift?”
She nodded. “Now he won’t even look at me.”
“Oh. Well. It’s a lot to believe. Even for a boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend? What is that?”
“You know. Companion. Lover?”
Eyes wide, Myra shook her head. “It’s not like that. He isn’t a boyfriend.” She lowered her voice to a mere whisper. “We don’t...”
“Right.”
“No, really.”
“Has he kissed you?”
“Yes, but...”
“Are you sleeping with him?”
“No!”
“But you are living with him.” Liz smiled.
“Only because I had no other place to go.”
“But his opinion means something to you?” With a nod, Liz continued. “You told him absolutely everything?”
“Everything.”
“Then give him some time. If he doesn’t haul you off to the funny farm, then he believes you. Or he’s crazy about you. Either way you have nothing to be concerned about.”
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“He isn’t crazy about me.”
“What makes you think that?” Liz opened her purse and took out her cell phone, glanced at it then tossed it back in her purse.
“He hasn’t tried to kiss me since I told him I was a virgin.” Myra moved over slightly to give room for an elderly woman to sit.
Liz’s jaw dropped slightly.
“Don’t look so shocked. ‘Tis expected where I come from.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Grainna needs a Druid virgin. Man, you and my sister. Are you positive Grainna is in your time?”
“’Tis the only thing that makes any sense. If she is in my time then my life would have been in danger if I stayed.”
“I’ve heard about running from your enemies, but this is a bit far, don’t you think?”
“True. But my coming wasn’t our choice. There are other forces that lead our lives.”
“You mean the Ancients.”
“Yes.”
Liz shrugged. “Well, I think life is what you make it. Both good and bad. I would have stayed and kicked some serious ass.”
Myra laughed. “I bet you could. I however, have never kicked anything.”
“So what are you going to do now? Lose your,”
she lowered her voice, “lose your innocence and go home? Or stay here?”
Myra pushed a long strand of hair over her shoulder, grateful the conversation had come back around to the future. “Best I do nothing at this point.
I have to believe I will know what to do when the time comes.”
“But you will go back, eventually?”
“Aye, I will.” Myra’s eyes leveled with hers.
Liz’s jaw clenched. “If I help you, I need you to 90
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promise me something.”
“If it’s in my power.”
“Take us with you. Simon and me.”
Myra felt a rush of air, uncertain of what to say.
“I don’t mean to stay, just a visit. I need to see that Tara is alive and happy with my own eyes.”
“I don’t know—”
“Please. Think about what you would want if you were in my place. I need to see her.”
“We don’t travel for our own personal wishes.”
“And whose rules are those?”
“The Ancients,” she said.
“Have you ever met them? These Ancients?”
“Of course not.”
“Then how do you know they don’t want me to go back with you?” Liz was reaching, and Myra sensed it, but she didn’t blame her. “Maybe it’s all part of some master plan.”
With no one to ask, no family to make the decision for her, Myra searched in her heart for the answers she needed.
She didn’t look far. She knew she would return with Lizzy and her son. There was no reason not to.
“All right. You may both come. But if my family feels you need to return immediately you must.”
“As long as I see Tara.”
“You will see her. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
They both stood and started walking the mall.
“I need to do a little Christmas shopping while we’re here. Simon has been bugging me about some new video game he wants.”
“What is a video game?”
Lizzy squeezed her eyes and gave a very long-winded answer to Myra’s question.
Myra asked about everything she saw. From the teenage boy with spiked purple hair, to the mechanical merry-go-round in the center of the mall.
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They talked as if they had known each other for years instead of days.
“Have you spoken to Simon yet?”
They were walking out of the massive building into a sea of parked cars. “I’m going to sit him down tonight and explain what I can.”
“Do you want me to help?”
“No. I can manage. Simon’s a great kid. I don’t know how much of this he’ll believe. Hell, I’m having a hard time believing it myself.”
“I’ll stay one more night at Todd’s then.” Myra’s skin stood up when she thought of how that night would end. Would he even allow her to stay?
“If he gives you a hard time, call me. I’ll come and get you.”
Liz drove Myra to the antique dealer who needed her to sign a few papers for the sale of the candlesticks. As expected, there was a bidding war, and the antiques were sold for over half a million dollars.
Mr. Harrison was very accommodating, and if he questioned why the check for the sale was to be made out to Elizabeth McAllister, he didn’t let on.
He smiled. “If you have anything else you would like to sell, Miss MacCoinnich, please call on me again.”
“That I will, Mr. Harrison. ‘Tis been a pleasure doing business with you.”
He walked them both to the door where a security guard stood to escort them to their car. “Are you certain we haven’t met before, Miss MacCoinnich?”
“Positive.”
“And you, Miss McAllister? Have you been to us in the past?”
“Sorry. I’m not into antiques.”
“Ah well, my mistake. Thank you again, ladies.
And Merry Christmas.”
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explained exactly how much money half a million was. “So, it’s enough to buy the material I need to bring back with me and all the spices?” Myra fastened her seatbelt and sat back in her seat.
“You could buy out an entire Superstore with that kind of cash.”
“I will spend what I need and leave you the rest.
After I pay back Todd for all he has done.”
Lizzy laid into the horn when another driver cut her off. “I can’t accept that much money.”
“Of course you can. And will. You never know what you might need, family helps family.”
“But—”
“Stop. I won’t hear an argument. Your coin will do me little good in the past. Think of it this way. If any of us need something from you in the future, we will ask for your help without worry that you cannot afford it.”
“Fine. But I’m not spending it.”
“As long as you have it in case of an emergency,”
Myra said smiling. The right decisions were always the easy ones.
****
Waiting.
His back was rigid. He didn’t move when she entered the room.
“You decided to come back?” he said.
Myra circled the sofa, and with great care eased herself into the chair across from him. “For tonight.”
“Then what? You’ll move in with Lizzy?”
“I never intended to impose on you this long. Or at all for that matter. ‘Tis for the best, I think.”
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“That’s it? Hi, let me take over your life for a couple weeks, turn it upside down, and make you take cold showers. Then you give me some far-fetched tale about being from a different time, sent here to save the world from some evil witch, and I’m supposed to believe that? And that’s it?” His tone was cold, bordering on cruel.
“What do you want me to say?” she cried. “I know you don’t believe me, and there is nothing more I can do to convince you that what I say is true.
All I can do now is thank you for helping me.” Myra slowed her breathing. “But it isn’t enough, is it?
“No, it isn’t,” he spat out. He spent the entire day going over the Magicland tapes, searching for any sign that what she said was a hoax. Instead of being able to debunk her story, he found everything lining up.
All of it.
Her story behind her arrival, Tara McAlister’s disappearance, the question behind who Gwen Adams was. He re-studied every piece of evidence so many times his eyes were crossed. He came up with no other plausible explanation, except that what she had vowed to him was the truth. Twisted, crazy, un-deniably insane truth. A truth he had to be nuts to believe.
That wasn’t the worst part.
The worst part, the absolute most horrendous part was the fact that he sat in his home unable to get a hold of her for the last couple of hours, worrying that maybe she’d left. That she’d returned to her time without as much as a goodbye.
He’d never desired a woman as much or with such fierceness as he did Myra. What in the hell was wrong with him?
“I should go to bed.” She moved passed him.
His arm shot out, stopping her.
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“No.” His tone was deadpan. Slowly, he backed her into the wall. She wasn’t going to walk away, not yet. Not when his blood pumped the way it did when she was around.
Unable to form a single coherent sentence, he did what he had wanted to do every night since they met. He took.
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His mouth came down in a searing assault, sending endless shock waves through her limbs. She hadn’t had time to think or process what he was doing. The simple fact that he was holding her, kissing her and branding her as his own was overwhelming. He wanted her. The way his hands roamed over her body, crushing her to him felt desperate, stronger and more fierce than any other time he had touched her.
As his hands thrust through her hair and his mouth probed hers for entry, she felt his hard mass lean into her soft fragile curves.
Then something turned on inside her. Like a switch, her body ignited into flames, burning him and engulfing her.
Her lips opened to his, welcomed his warmth, his moisture. Without thought, her hands traveled to his back, pulling him closer. She hesitated briefly at his waist, not certain how much liberty she should take in his arms. Where were the rules dictating what she should and shouldn’t do? She felt his hands skim down her neck. His thumb traced the outline of her breast.
“Oh, God,” she moaned when his lips left hers.
It was then she realized there were no rules, only passion. Their bodies reacted, guiding them to do what came naturally. God help her, she wanted 96
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what came next.
When she dropped her hands lower and brushed down his thighs, heat punched his stomach, leaving him breathless. When he filled his hand with her breast, she didn’t pull away but molded into his caress. She moaned at his touch.
He pulled her shirt from her pants, desperate to touch her flesh, to feel it against his. He wanted to devour her in one long gulp. His day of pacing and fear powered his adrenaline now. He managed to shed her of her top.
“Beautiful,” he whispered. He trailed his lips down and feasted on her breast.
She didn’t push him away, instead she seemed as anxious as he to shed her clothing.
He started to move toward the sofa, backing her up. They should go to his room, but the thought of walking that far disturbed him. He wanted her there, now.
Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Todd told himself to slow down. This was her first time, and he wanted her to taste heaven, needed her to enjoy every pleasure he knew he could give. But she was tugging his shirt out of his jeans, and he was helpless, lost to her.
A deafening crash outside the front door was like ice-cold water tossed over an open flame. Her nails, clawing at him in passion, suddenly gripped him in fear. Her gasp edged toward a scream.
His head shot up while the rest of him froze. He looked down at Myra and put a finger to her lips demanding silence when the second crash came.
He tugged her to the floor. Staying low, he inched over to her shirt and thrust it into her hands.
Myra hurriedly dressed and wedged herself between the wall and a divan.
Todd crawled on his hands and knees to where he left his gun. Crouching on the balls of his feet, he 97
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clicked off the safety on his nine millimeter and clasped it with both hands. With his weapon in front of him, he edged his way to the side of the massive picture window.
He saw a large shadow and pulled back.
What
the fuck?
“Stay here,” he whispered as he passed her.
“Stay down.” He ducked into the kitchen and headed to the back door.
****
Whoever stood outside was crawling around in her head like a parasite, sucking up information.
Instantly, she shut him out. He was powerful. Druid or witch, she wasn’t sure, but his intent was evil.