Spellbound: The Awakening of Aislin Collins (23 page)

I reluctantly agreed and ran to my room and
grabbed all that I would need. I placed all my things in a
pillowcase and clamored down the stairs.

Sneachta was sleeping in a basket and Greer
was waiting for me.

“Where will I go?” I asked in panic.

“You will stay with Greer and come back after
the sun rises. Your father is not to know of this,” she said as she
hugged me.

“Mother, should we stay with you until father
returns? I do not want you being alone.”

“No,” she said turning me toward Greer, “You
must leave right now.” She looked at Greer, “Do not let her fight
you and do not let her out of your sight. I swear on my family, if
you hurt her I will place such a curse on you that you will rue the
day you stepped foot in Burlington,” she said, through squinted
eyes.

Greer held me close to him and within an
instant I was carried off and the world was a blur, but I was safe
in his arms.

********************

Greer took me to a small room that was
sparsely decorated, but clean and safe. There was a bed pushed into
one corner and a small table next to it. On the far end of the
room, there was a place to wash, a small window and a single chair
was placed by it.

“It is not much I'm afraid.” He placed my
pillowcase on the bed.

I sat on the mattress and dumped belongings
upon it.

“It is fine . . . I am just happy to be with
you,” I insisted.

I placed my book under the pillow, and then I
took the herbs I carried and started placing protection barriers
around the room.

“Would you like to change into you night
clothes?” he asked.

I realized how late it was, and my body
seemed to realize how strongly this evening's ordeal had affected
me. I was tired and I felt weak. I nodded and he went to leave the
room.

“Wait,” I said in haste. I did not know how
to ask for his help with such things, but I could not get out of my
stay on my own.

“What is it?”

His hand was on the doorknob and he looked
confused by my stopping him from exiting. I was looking down at my
fingers now and felt color flooding my cheeks.

“It's nothing,” I mumbled.

My hands drifted to my back where I tried to
pull at the lacing of my stay, but it was useless. I needed
help.

He seemed amused by my embarrassment, and I
started to question if he already knew what I needed of him.

“If it was nothing then you would not have
stopped me from leaving,” he smirked.

“You are going to make me ask this aren't
you?” I said is frustration.

A smile spread across his face, “Yes, I
believe I am.”

I dropped my face into my hands. This was too
embarrassing for words. “Would you please help me . . . get my stay
off,” I mumbled under my breath.

My cheeks were crimson now.

“You realize that your gown must come off
first?” he said through a wicked smile.

I looked down at my dress and realized, to my
further embarrassment, that he was right—as though this was some
great mystery that I did not know of.

“Turn around,” I insisted, as I pulled the
gown over my head. Then I held it over the front of me. “You can
help me now,” I said quietly.

Within an instant, he stood behind me and
slowly unlaced the back of my stay.

“In Europe they call this a
corset
,”
he said, as he took his time unlacing it.

We both knew that he could have taken it off
me within seconds, but he was plucking at it lace by lace, letting
his fingers run down my increasingly bare back.

Then, just as the last of the lacing was
almost undone, he kissed the base of my neck. I shivered from his
kiss and spun around to return it but he had left the room, locking
the door behind him.

********************

I could hear the sound of people laughing and
music playing in the tavern below. A fiddler was playing a rapid
jig as people clapped along, and perhaps some were dancing. I could
hear rhythmic stomping of people in revelry. It was an odd thought
that I had probably passed all of them on my way to this room, yet
they had not seen me and I had not seem them. It made me feel like
a ghost. I wondered if that was how Greer always felt.

I went and sat on the bed. I could think of
nothing but Sneachta, and wondered if she was all right. I felt
tears fall upon my face and I quickly wiped them away. I held my
book between my hands as though the magic within it somehow
connected me to my beloved pet. It made no sense, but it made me
feel more secure.

Greer came back into the room carrying a tray
and a pitcher of cider. The tray was overlapping with different
kinds of meats, breads, and roots.

“I thought you might be hungry.” He placed
the tray onto the bed and looked down nervously at the food, as
though the contents of the platter may not be suitable for me.

“Thank you,” I said, as I picked at the
potatoes, but my appetite was not there.

He watched intently as I tried to make myself
eat, and I felt all the more self-conscious as his eyes never
waivered from me.

“Sneachta will be fine . . . I would know if
she was going to die,” he said hesitantly.

“How?” I asked, taken by surprise at his
comment.

Greer looked at me as he placed a piece of
bread to my lips, “I can sense when animals, and people for that
matter, are near the end of their lives.”

“You have the gift of sight?”

“No. I have the instincts of a predator. In
the wild, stronger animals prey of the weaker ones. I am no
different,” he said bitterly.

“You should not be ashamed of what you are,”
I said, while reaching for his hand.

“You do not know what I have become. You have
not seen me hunt . . . or kill.” He stood up and walked toward the
window.

I ate as much as I could, but my appetite was
nonexistent. He took the tray from the bed and placed it outside
the door. “At least tonight it will appear to the maids that I have
eaten,” he smiled. He moved to sit on the bed next to me.

“She could have died trying to save me,” I
said.

“Would you not have done the same to protect
her?”

He stretched out my injured arm and secured
the bandages that my mother had wrapped around it.

“Yes, I would have done anything to save her
. . . but it does not make it any easier,” I sighed, as I watched
him.

“On the brighter side of things, you and I
get to spend time alone together,” he said, as he brushed my cheek
with the back of his hand.

“That is nice,” I replied as we moved in to
kiss each other.

His kisses were gentle upon my skin. He
handled me with great care, as though he never wanted to hurt me.
He ran his hand down my back while he placed the other at the back
of my neck, under my hair.

“I love you,” he whispered in my ear.

I felt everything spinning around me and I
trembled as his lips met mine. He supported my weight as I went
limp in his arms. Nothing could feel more perfect then being close
to him. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around his neck,
letting my hands run through his hair as he kissed me.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and stared into his
as we backed away from our kiss. His hand was still behind my neck
but something had changed. His muscles had tensed, a low growl was
emanating from him and I watched as the black center of his eyes
spread and overtook the beautiful hazel coloration.

At first, I thought of my vision, of when I
had died in his arms. I tried to turn around and look behind me in
fear that Lamont was in the room, but Greer’s grip was so strong
that I could not move. It did not matter though. He was not
growling at anyone but me. His dark gaze was focused upon my lips.
I instinctually touched my tongue to my lower lip and tasted blood.
My lip must have split open form the cold weather as we traveled
through the night.
I thought, as I tried to move back, out of
his grasp, but I could not move at all.

“Greer, please let go,” I said softly, as I
tried to push against his shoulders to put room between us.

His grip did not waver, but I saw his eyes
flicker. “Please, Greer, you must let me go. Please!” I begged.

He leaned into me, holding my head very still
with his hand. He seemed to be moving to kiss me again, but his
lips only touched mine briefly, as he licked the blood off my lower
lip with the tip of his tongue.

I felt his breath on my skin and I heard my
heart pounding. He did too. He stroked at my neck with his nose and
his lips dragged against my skin. I felt dizzy, and it was
difficult to keep my senses. He pulled me closer still, his lips
now resting softly on the side of my neck. I could feel the tips of
his sharp fangs barely grazing my skin as his senses drew him to my
pounding vein. I fought against him once more, but he overpowered
me without even trying.

“Greer, I love you,” I whimpered.

At my words, he lifted his attention from my
neck and my throbbing pulse, as though he was jarred out of a
trance. He stared into my eyes and I saw coloration return to his
for a brief moment.

“Run, Aislin,” he said in a gruff voice. I
felt his grip diminish and I fell to the ground. I went to run for
the door but stopped. I could not. I backed myself into the far
corner of the room near the door and tucked my knees into my
chest.

“Run,” he screamed at me.

His voice boomed in my ears and I slammed my
hands over them.

“I cannot,” I said, while shaking my head,
“You will just chase me . . . I cannot outrun you. You must fight
this Greer.”

“Aislin, you have to leave right now!” he
yelled. He was clinging onto the bed, his knuckles white and his
body shaking.

“Where would I go? I am hunted remember? I
cannot leave.” I wanted my voice to sound strong, to mask the
anxiety that I felt, but it was shaky and high-pitched. In turn, it
frightened me even more.

He pressed himself far into the opposite
corner of the room. He was staring at me with fear in his eyes, and
I could see that he was waging a war against himself. Two parts of
his being were fighting for control.
I have to help him overcome
this… but how?

“Tell me about the day you met me,” I asked
quietly.

“At the port? You know of that,” he growled
at me impatiently.

“No, the day you met me over two hundred
years ago,” I flinched.

He started rubbing his eyes as though
straining to remember. His breath was still accelerated and his
hands still trembling, “I was out hunting in the fields by my home.
My mother's family had come to visit from Spain, and my cousins and
I were hunting for the dinner we would have that night. I came upon
you while you were picking flowers,” a smiled started to come to
his lips although his eyes were still as dark as night. “It was
forbidden for the locals to come onto my family's property, but
there you were . . . your hair blowing behind you in the wind, your
arms filled with purple and yellow flowers. I was supposed to tell
you to get off my property, but I could not. When I gazed upon you,
it was as though I had never seen anything before in my whole life
. . . as though I had been walking around blinded to all that
surrounded me. When our eyes met, you dropped all your flowers. It
was then that I knew you were experiencing the same thing that I
was. We were inseparable from that day on.”

His eyes had regained all their coloration
and his expression was of one who had just awoken from a dream. He
looked at me and gasped.

“Oh, Aislin, what have I done?” he said with
a tone of anguish.

“You did not hurt me,” I reassured him.

I stood slowly and walked over to where he
was, pressed hard against the corner of the room. His face was
hidden in his hands. I sat down beside him and pulled his hands
from his face.

“You should not be so close to me.”

“It is fine. You never would harm me,” I
reassured him.

“I tasted your blood,” he said, in an almost
inaudible tone.

“But you let me go.”

He reached up slowly, as though he did not
trust himself, and touched my lower lip. It was covered in
blood.

“I am so sorry,” he sighed deeply.

I shook my head as I hid my trembling hands
behind me, “It was a mistake Greer…” I was struggling to steady my
voice and mask the shiver that ran through my body.

“You should go,” he whispered, as he looked
down at the floor. “I will get your things and take you home.”

I felt my throat constrict
as I forced myself not to cry, “No,” I whispered, “Don’t do
this…
please
let
me stay with you.”

Greer seemed unmoved by my pleading, “I will
not risk killing you Aislin,” he argued.

I took a shuttering breath
as I covered my face with my hands, “It cannot be like this,” I
wept. “I
need
you
Greer…and you need me too. Do not condemn us to living without each
other.”

“Aislin, do you not understand how close I
came to—” he clenched his hands into fists as he tried to suppress
his temper. “This is not a game…I’m afraid that I cannot control
myself.”

I dabbed the tears from my eyes with the
sleeve of my gown. I could not pretend that I wasn’t frightened by
what had transpired between us tonight, but the thought of losing
him was more horrifying than anything else this world, or the
faerie world, could ever conjure.

“We have been through so much,” I spoke with
great caution, knowing that each word I uttered held the potential
to either keep us together, or separate us for all eternity. “With
all that we have overcome, this is just another challenge we must
face … I will never leave you Greer, you need to accept this.”