Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance) (37 page)

Lany turned and glanced back into his own
aisle. Dallan looked at him, fl
ipped his
dirk in the air once
and smiled broadly. Lany gulped as quietly as he could and waved his hands frantically. “No blood, no wounding, no killing!”
He mouthed.

Lany got an ins
piration. “However,” he added,
eyebrows arching mischievously, “you can humiliate them.”

Dallan smiled and reached through the hole in the books. Lany gulped and carefully peered around the corner. Thug Number Two’s head was
turned away from him at the moment. Lany switched his position and looked back to Dallan, who had his left arm in the hole, the dirk in his right hand poised and ready for use
. The Weapons Master’s
eyes
intent
on his prey.

Lany nearly gasped
at the audible
thud
that followed, and prayed no on else heard.

Almost afraid to look, Lany leaned back far enough to see Dallan, dirk still poised in his right hand and what looked like a long piece of hair in his le
ft. The Scot
quickly strode past
and tossed
the se
vered pony
tail at him
.

Lany caught the hair, looked at it, glanced at the unconscious form in the next aisle and sighed
audibly. He then threw the hair
over his shoulder and trotted after Dallan. “Well, that takes care of humiliating that one.”

He continued to mumble under his breath as he sailed around
the corner, only to fi
nd the same thu
g that had landed him on the fl
oor earlier
staring up into Dallan’s face as he blocked the Scot’s path. Or was it the other way around?

“Out of my way, creep!”

Lany casually leaned against the shelves. Not only was it the other way around, but interesting as well.

Dallan didn’t move.

“I said move out of the way.” There was an audible click of some sort
near Thug Number
One’s
right hip.

The Scot still wasn’t moving.

“Fine then, give me an excuse.” The thug held the knife in front of Dallan’s face threateningly. They were only an arm’s length apart.

Lany couldn’t see the look on Dallan’s face, but he did see hi
m shrug
and calmly move out of the other man’s way.

The thug
pass
ed
on Dallan’s left and was just about parallel with
him when he saw Lany
. “You!” he snarle
d just as Dallan’s right arm fl
ew acro
ss his broad chest. One huge fi
st hit the thug squarely in the face to knock him agai
nst the shelves and onto the fl
oor with a thud.

Lany let out a chuckle of triumph, then noticed Dallan had kept moving, continuing the hunt. Once again Lany jogged after him and ar
ound another corner. When he fi
nally caught up, Dallan was on one knee at the end of yet another aisle, his head cocked to one side as he listened intently.

Lany stopped to listen as well, and s
ighed in relief
.

“Shona? Shona are you all right? Geez, I’ve been lookin
g all over this place for you! Juli
a
wants you back at your house by two. That gives us just enough time. C’mon, let’s
get out of here! I’m starved!
” Kitty tugged at Shona’s
shirt-
sleeve
.

Shona looked at her as relief slowly replaced the panic on her face. “Oh, I am glad it is you.” Her voice came out a strangled whisper, barely audible from not having used it practically all day. Instead communicating… no that was impossible.

She pushed
away from the books she’d been
us
ing
for
protection and was amazed
the men chasing her had twice practically walked rig
ht past, not seeing her at all. 
She
sh
ould tell Kitty what happened.  But no, Kitty wouldn’t listen
. Julia said she wouldn’t.
Kitty
was in love with men,
all men
. She would never believe it, just like Julia said…

Or would she?

“Little Bo Peep…”

Shona froze, half-
turned from the wall of books, as
the leader of the three men stepped into the aisle and slowly walked toward them. Kitty looked at him, quickly adjusted her sundress, and smiled warmly.

Shona’s eyes widened at her friend. “Oh, Kitty, n… no.” Her voice was leaving h
er again. She slumped to the fl
oor, fear pulling her down, making her head swim. She thought she might faint. Why did this happen? What could suddenly make her so helpless? It seemed all they had to do was speak and she was at their mercy. And he was coming closer, Kitty the only thing standing between them.

Oh please, please, wherever you are, please help me.

No answer. It was just as she feared; she had imagined the whole thing. The man was gone, if he ever existed at all, and now she was helpless, with Kitty totally unaware of the danger drawing nearer.

Shona clutched her stomach, the thing suddenly awake and hungry.

“Well, you must be Little Bo Peep,” the man said
softly
to Kitty as he stopped several yards away.

Kitty began to smile at him when she s
uddenly noticed Shona on the fl
oor. “Oh my gawsh! Shona, what’s wrong?”

“Tsk, tsk. You’ve got a sick lamb there. I’d better take care of this myself.” He began to slowly walk toward them just as another man came around the far corner into the aisle. Th
e fi
rst man turned to the newcomer. “About
time,” he began to look at him curiously. “What happened to you?”

 
The newcomer rubbed the back of his head gingerly and shrugged.

Another man came round the same corner to join them, the left side o
f his face black, blue and puff
y, his left eye swollen completely shut.

The leader gasped with disbelief. “And you?”

The second newcomer shrugged as well.

The leader ignored them both and turned back to his prey. “Don’t worry,” his voice rasped. “We’ll take care of your friend.”

Kitty looked up at them as she kneeled by Shona. “
Wha
… what do you mean?”

“As a matter of fact,” he said, taking several steps closer, “I think we could take care of you, too.” His face became a leer.

Kitty slowly stood. “I think you ought to leave now. I don’t like your tone of voice.”

He looked to his companions. “Oh, she doesn’t like my tone of voice.”

 
They each chuckled haphazardly as they took in the
sight of the other and grimaced
.

“Shut up!” the leader snapped, then turne
d back to Kitty. “C’mon
let’s get out of here and go have ourselves a good time. My friends can take care of your friend, don’t worry.”

Kitty shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I don’t think so. I think you’d better leave now.”

“No, it’s I that don’t think so,
darlin
’. When I leave, so will you.”

   
Kitty glanced quickly to Shona who seemed frozen to the spot, helpless. She suddenly straightened herself and glared at the three hoodlums. “Leave us alone or I’ll… I’ll call the librarian!”

The men laughed. They knew as well as Kitty they were probably the only ones occupyi
ng this section of the third fl
oor. One where
sound was easily absorbed by the many books
…

“And the librarian will call the police, and I’ll sue you for… fo
r harass
ment.” Kitty swallowed hard, her voice weak as she waited to see what they would do next.

They just kept laughing.

She threw out her next best line of def
ense. “My father is a very infl
uential man in this city. He’ll see you’re locked up and… and they’ll throw away the key.”

The laughing abruptly stop
ped. Each man now stood transfi
xed, staring at her, or rather behind her.

Kitty’s bravery suddenly ignited. “I’ll see you get a life sentence! You’ll never be able to set foot in this place again!”

Lany laughed into one hand as he watched through a space he’d made in a wall of books. The three thugs were just in front of him, beyond
them the Maiden and her friend.
Beyond them was Dallan, casually leaning against
the wall as he picked at his fi
ngernails with his dirk. His eyes, however, conveyed the message he wanted to give: they were narrowed to slits, his stare piercing and very deadly.

The Maiden slowly lifted her head before she threw it back and moaned.

The Call! Now?

Lany saw Dallan’s body jerk slightly in response. He knew he had to be in pain but the Weapons Master stood as solidly as before and continued to glare at the thugs.

Head Thug decided to glare back. Dallan smiled wickedly at him and came away from the wall.

“I swear I’ll tell my father about this and he’ll have you all run out of town!” Kitty blurted, having also caught the thug’s challenge.

Dallan took a step forw
ard and fl
ipped his dirk into the air, catching it by the blad
e. He now held it poised for fl
ight, his eyes clearly marking the leader’s heart as the primary target.

All three thugs backed up a step. Head Thug quickly glanced at his two companions whose faces were both white, then looked back to Dallan and swallowed hard.

“Yeah, you’d better be scared!” Kitty squeaked. “No one fools around with my dad and stays out of jail long enough to tell about it! Get outta here! Leave us alone!”

Dallan raised the dirk, preparing for the throw.

“And if you’re not out of here by the time I count to three, my mother’s cousin is a judge, and I bet you’ll get him and if you do I’ll see to it he throws the book at you!”

The thug’s eyes all widened.

“One…”

Dallan pulled his arm back.

The three thugs began to turn, their eyes still locked on Dallan.

Dallan’s eyes narrowed further.

“Two…”

All three continued to turn and back up as one.

“Yeah, that’s right! You’re not so tough, are you?” Kitty yelped.

Dallan brought his arm forward quickly to begin the throw…

“Three!” Kitty suddenly blurted at the same time, jumping slightly at them for emphasis.

All three squeaked in alarm and practically tripped over each other as they ran from the aisle.

Lany stifl
ed his laughter as he chastised himself for not having any way to record the whole thing. Cari and the kids would have loved this!

Kitty sto
od proudly
.
"Cowards
!” She then turned to Shona and stopped short a
s she noticed Dallan for the fi
rst time. He had just returned the unreleased dirk to its hiding spot and leaned against the wall of books.

“Oh,” Kitty managed to breathe. “It’s you.”

Dallan’s face remained expressionless for a moment before he also looked to Shona and began to move in her direction.

Kitty quickly bent down and pulled Shona into her arms protectively. “S
hona,” she began, eyes still fi
xed on him. “It’s all right, they’re gone. I got rid of them.”

Dallan pressed his lips together tightly as his eyes brightened.

Shona looked up at him as she clutched at Kitty’s arms and both struggled to their feet.
“Thank you,” she mouthed silently, her
voice still gone.

He took an unconscious step forward, every muscle tense as a warning, the same one from the day before, screamed through his head
;
don’t touch
her!
He stopped again, straining against the words, desperately wanting to go to her, yet heed the warning at the same time.

The girls backed up a step as they heard the sound of feet heading straight for them.

Kitty looked frantically about. “Oh, gawsh
, Shona, if my dad fi
nds out what went on,
he’ll
kill me! I bet that
’s the librarian
!”

Shona ignored her,
and
inst
ead stared
longingly up at Dallan.