Silent Vows (30 page)
****
Lora hiccupped, bringing Myra and Liz back into a fit of laughter.
“Tara is right, this is really inappropriate,” Lora said. “I for one am t-tired of always doing what is appropriate,” Myra stuttered.
“Hah!” Liz moved to the wall where she kept the cord. “You’re the poster child for sixteenth century propriety.” She tossed the cord in Myra’s lap. “You won’t need this anymore.”
Myra’s jaw dropped, eyes rounding to her mother.
Lora attempted to hide a laugh behind her hand.
“You knew?”
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Lora laughed harder.
“Ma?”
“I am not brainless.”
“But if you knew then so did father.”
“You were always a bright child.” Lora picked up her glass, finished her wine. “Do you think your father waited to bed me until we had exchanged vows?”
“Why, Lora, you big hussy,” Tara teased.
Myra stared at her mother. Where was the woman who had given her every rule of right and wrong for her twenty-one years? Her confessions liberated everything she had done since she had met Todd. Relieved her of any guilt she had felt for deceiving her parents.
After having Todd confess his love for her, she only had to wait for his safe return so they could begin their lives together. The thought sobered her.
The beat of her heart stuttered at the thought of him not returning safely.
Lora filled her glass, reached around her in support. “Have faith.”
“They’re going to be fine.” Tara reached for her hand, her smile waning.
Liz had stopped laughing, the jovial mood of the room changed, there was no denying why. “So Lora, is Ian as serious in bed as he is out of it?”
A gasp went up, but her shocking question pushed them back to where they were minutes before.
****
Michael’s knock on the door, timid and unsure, brought a smile to her lips. She bid him to enter but kept her back to him when he closed it and turned the key.
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She heard his uneven breathing. If she could, she would slip into his mind. But he kept her out and that angered her. Then again, if he knew her thoughts, he wouldn’t come anywhere near her.
Before long, she would remind him who was the leader here. Who held all control.
“Pour us a drink, Michael.” Grainna used his given name to set him at ease.
He crossed to the serving table in the room. The red wine in the decanter was warm. He poured it into the goblets, handed one to her. She turned and let him watch as she placed it to her lips.
He lifted his own glass, steadying his trembling hand. He wondered how he would sustain an erection to do as she asked.
He took a deep swallow, and watched her do the same. “Relax, Michael.”
As if on command, he felt some of the anxiety leave his head. He held his goblet and wondered if she had put something into the drink.
Grainna moved to him, put the flat of her hand on his chest and let it slide down, brushing over his body. Her face seemed to soften, while his body responded to her touch.
“What preparation do we need for the ritual?”
“Most is already done. Finish your drink.”
He brought the wine to his lips once again, this time finishing its contents. His head instantly swam.
Yes, she had drugged him. He found the back of a chair for balance and closed his eyes. “What was in that?”
“Something to make the transition easier, trust me.” He opened his unfocused eyes. “How do you expect me to screw you if my mind is in a fog?”
“It isn’t your mind that has to work.” She laughed. To prove her point, she reached out, and groped the bulge between his thighs. It instantly 264
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hardened.
“Why is sex part of the change?”
“Joining our bodies, before our blood, gives you the gift.”
“If that’s all there is, why haven’t you given it to me before now?”
She moved away from him, waved her hand around the room, extinguishing half of the candles.
The change in light dilated his eyes and had him squinting to see. “Vanity,” she told him.
He blinked several times. When his eyes focused again, she was naked. Peering closer he noticed the soft peaks of her breasts and firm expanse of her stomach. Grainna appeared no older than twenty-five. Head aching, he knew she slipped into his mind. Knew she placed a young image for him to see, to react. His concern about how he would perform the task of taking her was forgotten.
Michael licked his lips as his eyes swept over her body. His gaze traveled lower drawn by her hand stroking her own thigh. He sucked in a breath and moved toward her.
“How do you want it?” His smoky words vibrated in the room.
“Fast and hard.”
He removed his clothes at her request and backed her onto the bed.
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Lora stood holding Tara’s hand. They both had their eyes closed in deep concentration. All Myra and Lizzy could do was watch and wait.
The men had ridden so far that by themselves, they couldn’t talk to their spouses, but together their power doubled, allowing them the freedom they had both become accustomed to.
“Where are they?” Myra tapped her foot, pressed forward with her questions. “Are they safe?”
“Shhh...” Lora ordered.
Myra silenced her tongue, and watched a smile crest Tara’s features. They were safe, she knew by the unseen calm that entered the room.
Liz slumped in her chair and waited for Tara and Lora to start talking.
“They are camped outside Lancaster. Todd was sent into the village to find out what he could about Grainna and Steel.”
“Alone?” Myra gasped.
“Your father and brothers would have been recognized, their presence would have required an explanation to the Laird of Lancaster.”
“Did he find anything?”
Tara stole a glance at Lora, their smiles turned, concern wrapped over their expressions. “A woman, young, virginal, left the village without the permission of her parents yesterday, aided by a man 266
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matching the description of Steel.”
Glancing out the window, Myra noticed the setting sun.
‘Tis over.
“Then it may already be too late.”
“We need to get into her head, see what’s happening.” Lizzy moved out of the chair in a rather uncharacteristic haste and started gathering candles.
“Lizzy, call Simon and have him bring Amber and Cian,” Myra suggested.
Within minutes, they all gathered and the sisters cast a circle.
“Ma, you should come into the circle with us this time. In case we need to contact the men.”
“Are you sure?”
Hunching her shoulders Myra said, “We’ve not tried it, but I don’t think we have a choice.”
“We won’t know until we try, Lora,” Liz told her.
Myra took her mother’s hand and gave it a squeeze before sitting on the cushions and pillows placed upon the floor.
Liz started the familiar chant, but before the words were out a low hum floated over the room.
The air thinned making all of them breathe faster.
Myra sat in the circle, clutching hands with Tara and her mother and staring at the vision of gold, yellows and white hues hovering between them.
“The Ancients,” Lora mumbled under her breath.
A woman, with features of porcelain and glass hovered before them. Her image softened by the glow of the candles, her voice sang like that of hundreds in a choir. “You are the chosen,” she began. “Chosen to fight this war. It will take all of you.” The woman floated beyond the circle to Simon and Cian who watched. “All of you to defeat the plague that will come over this land and time.”
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“Are you one of the Ancients?” Liz asked, her tone fearless.
“I am.”
“Do you have a name?” Amber asked in a small voice.
The vision wafted her way. Her iridescent hand reached out and stroked Amber’s cheek. Amber sighed and leaned into her touch. “I am but one of the daughters of Calderon. You may call me Elise.”
“Why don’t you take her out?”
Myra sucked in a deep breath, cautious of Lizzy’s tone.
Elise turned toward Lizzy. “Ahh...Elizabeth. Our law is ancient, beyond what you can imagine. To go against it makes us no better than her.”
“If Grainna isn’t playing by the same rules, what does it matter?”
Elise smiled. “If we could aide you more we would. It is forbidden. Our vows are sacred, binding.”
Tara found her voice. “Tell us how to bring her down. Can she be killed?”
“In your time there are rumors of how immortals are defeated.”
“They’re staked or beheaded,” Simon said from the sidelines. “At least the vampires are.”
“But that would require the men to get close to her. How can they and survive?” Lora, who Myra knew had never questioned the Ancients before, did so now.
The daughter of Calderon didn’t seem in a hurry to answer. She waited.
Tara’s voice lifted. “What about fire?”
Elise hovered about the circle meeting the eyes of everyone there. “Tomorrow your battle will begin.
Do not be fooled by what you see.” Elise moved out of the circle and over to Simon. “Do not fear what you do not understand. You are chosen.” She turned back 268
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to the women.
“Will we survive? All of us?” It was the question desperately sought, but all were afraid to ask.
Except for Lizzy who Myra thought would question God himself.
“It isn’t for me to know or to tell if I did. Our race is dying, it is left to you for our survival. Use your gifts, all of them. Your greatest gift is not what you are born with, but what you give.”
The woman began to fade. “What is my gift?”
Lizzy asked the fading image. The candles reached a height of over a foot before the image disappeared altogether. Lizzy’s question went unanswered.
“What now?” Myra asked when no one spoke.
Tara placed her hand, palm up to Lora. “We tell the men what has happened.”
****
He had slept with the devil, and if there was any piece of his soul intact before the act, it was gone now. He had chanted her spells, drank the blood of the dead, and experienced what Grainna called the gut wrenching change.
He felt the warmth of his body replaced with a calming cold, only heated by the memory of Grainna pressed next to him. Even the lithe little form with her legs straddling the horse, her core pressed up against him did nothing to entice. He could think only of giving Grainna the woman as a gift.
He no longer sought to deceive her. He no longer kept her out of his mind. He was possessed with the striking image of who Grainna would be once they sacrificed Margaret.
Michael slowed his horse.
“Are we almost there?” Margaret asked, eyes 269
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wide and searching the darkness for some sign of light.
“Soon.” He lifted his flask and handed it to her to drink. “Here.”
She tilted the tainted wine to her lips, handed it back to him. “Is there truly a priest who can marry us tonight?”
Steel smiled, pretended to drink, and pressed it back into her hands. She drank again. “Well?”
He watched her shake her head, the wine was having its desired effect.
“Tonight you will be mine.” He feathered a kiss over her lips. “Tonight you will be my wife.”
Her body trembled, her thighs pushed together.
And when she offered her lips to him again, he knew the drug worked. She would be panting and naked within the hour, and anything but virginal.
As orchestrated, the yard to the encampment was empty, except for a man in a robe. Steel had to keep Margaret from falling off the horse when he stopped.
“Is he the priest?”
“Yes,” he told her, knowing that even without the lie, she would be no problem in her current state.
The curse specified a willing virgin, so they left no stone unturned.
“Oh, good,” she giggled.
“Do you want to go inside, Sir?”
Steel waved his hand. “No need for that.” He looked down at Margaret. “The girl is anxious, marry us now.”
“Very well.” The voice behind the robe recited his practiced lines.
When the ‘I do’s’ and ‘I will’s’ had been repeated, Margaret threw herself up and into his arms, her body ground against his. The aphrodisiac he had given her was better than any pharmaceutical put out in his century.
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Stumbling into the room, Margaret clung to him. He kissed her with open eyes as he glanced around the room. A shadow moved in the corner. He knew Grainna watched.
“I do this for you,” he said to the silhouette.
Margaret smiled thinking he spoke to her.
He busied his hands and mouth, enticing the virgin to open like a flower and accept all that he would do.
Grainna’s hands itched, her blood purred beneath the surface of her skin. The bed sat atop an altar, waiting only for the virgin blood to be shed upon it. Then and only then, would the blood mix and the spell she would chant bring her back to who she once was. Grainna whispered her chants in the darkness of the room.
A chill settled in, several candles were caught by a draft. Their light extinguished.
The woman Steel disrobed shivered. Grainna looked up, lifted her hands and had them glowing again. The fire blazed.
Steel wasted no time. He stripped Margaret of her dress, tearing his own clothes in his haste. He hovered, poised and ready. The virgin’s legs fell open. He whispered something in a foreign language, and the room instantly iced. Both women’s eyes grew wide, and when he plunged, one woman screamed out in pain, while the other screamed in ecstasy.
All the light in the room extinguished in a flash.