Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance) (45 page)

The man leaped off the stairs a half block away just as a city bus pulled up to the curb directly beside hi
m. He seemed not to notice the bus as he gave
the girls a huge smile of triumph at
having beaten them
. Nor did he see the hands groping for him from the bus’s rear door.

The mysterious man was suddenly hauled from Shona and Kitty’s sight, pulled into
the bus by heaven only knew.

“Oh my gawsh! He’s being kidnapped!”

Shona rolled her eyes.
“He is not being kidnapped, Kitty. But w
e had better follow him.” She
grinned
automatically at the thought
. “Just to make sure he is all right.”

The car jumped forwar
d to follow the bus. For the fi
rst time in a very long time, Shona was having fun.

* * *

“What d’ye think yer doing, man? Trying to get me killed? Ye ken I hate these things!”

“What are we doing? What were you doing running down the hillside like a goat?” John countered his face crimson.

“They’ve left! Can ye no see ye’
ve made me lose her? Let me off
!”

“Dallan, calm down.” Lany grabbed one of the Scot’s arms and shoved him into the nearest seat. “Look behind you.”

   
Dallan, his face now almost as red as John’s, turned to look out the bus’s back window. Th
e little red car was about fi
fty yards behind them.

He breathed a sigh of relief and began to rel
ax a little, but not enough. Th
e
walls of the bus suddenly closed in around him, the familiar nausea rising.

“Dallan,” John began as he sat next to him. “Hold on. We aren’t going far.”

Dallan’s stomach churned uncontrollably. He began to gulp for air and tried to rise.

“No, stay where you are. Don’t panic.” John pulled him back down.

“Don’t worry, Dallan. She’s following right behind us. You won’t lose her.” Lany stated calmly, eyeing him with concern.

Sweat popped out on Dallan’s
brow and he could feel himself turn
pale. He took a deep br
eath and glanced behind him. Th
e little red car still
trailed after them. He let the air slowly out of his lungs and took another deep breath. “Dinna let her out of yer sight, man.”

 
Lany put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and smiled knowingly at him. “I won’t.” He sat down opposite Dallan and John, turning his body to the back of the bus to watch out the window.

The bu
s went a few more blocks and fi
nally came to a screeching stop. The doors opened and Dallan lunged for them, throwing himself from the horrid contraption. He staggered across the sidewalk and leaned against the wall of a tall brick building. John followed to stand beside him while he waited for Lany to pay Dallan’s fare.

“Where are we?” Dallan’s voice shook. “I think… Oh, Saints.”

“Not in the middle of the sidewalk, Dallan. C’mon, it’s not far.
You can be sick all you want
at the shop.” John grabbed his arm and began to lead him away from the building.

Lany joined them and took Dallan’s other arm and helped support him. “You’re getting better each time you ride. You don’t seem to be as sick.”

   
Dallan looked down at him as he thought about giving full bodily dispute to Lany’s statement.
His head still spun, he was finding it diffi
cult
to breathe, and thoughts of the wee lass, who was nowhere in sight, made his whole chest tighten. Where was she? He began to struggle.

“Calm down, Dallan, we’re here.” Lany pushed open the door of the shop, ushered the Scot inside and led him directly to the back through a curtained entry and into a small hallway. He and John deposited him in the bathroom and closed the door.

John winced at the
first sounds of Dallan’s affl
iction and turned to Lany, “No interviewing today, agreed?”

Lany looked sympathetically toward the bathroom door, grimacing at the noise. “I spoke with Julia earlier. We’ll call her again in the morning and set something up for either tomorrow afternoon or evening.
At least she's still willing to see us.  With luck, we'll be able to learn exactly who this Brennan fellow is.
” He took a step toward the door. “Uh, is he going to be okay? I have a strong feeling he’s about to get a visitor.”

John’s mouth dropped open. “By the Creator, I almost forgot about the Maiden.”

“I’ll tell Angus to keep an eye out for her.” Lany cut down the hall through another curtained opening and disappeared from sight.

John turned back to the door. Silence. “Dallan? Are you all right?”

Th
e toilet fl
ushed from the other side. Dallan opened the door, his face pale and sweaty, jaw shaking, breathing ragged. “Dinna make me get on one o’ those things ever again.”

John shook his head at Dallan’s appearance. Not only was he pallid, shaken and drenched in sweat, his hair was plastered to his head and neck, taking off in a variety of odd angles—the obvious aftermath of his run down the hillside and his recent bout in the bathroom. Not an attractive sight for the Maiden’s eyes.

“Inside. I have to make you presentable.” John pushed a tired Dallan back into the bathroom and closed the door behind them. He knew this might take awhile.

* * *

Shona walked cautiously to the front of the building and looked at the sign hanging over the door. “Antiques” was writt
en in large Gothic black letter
ing, followed by,
“
Specializing in all Manner of Weaponry.” She turned to Kitty, who now stood beside her. “Are you sure you saw him go in here?”

“Sure I’m sure. The bus stopped a b
lock away and let them off
. Th
ere
were two other guys with him but I don’t know who they are.”

“I did not see them
. I was too busy looking for a place for you to park.” Shona took a deep breath. “I still cannot believe I am doing this.”

  
She opened the door and a tiny bell rang above them as they entered. It tinkled merrily in sharp contrast to the huge assortment of lethal-looking weapons arranged about the room. There were polished shields and swords, lances and pikes, maces, crossbows, knives, arrows and even suits of armor and chain mail.

“Wow,” Kitty managed as she closed the door with a loud
thunk
.

Shona jumped at the sound and bumped into an assortment of ancient-lookin
g spears, sending one to the fl
oor with a clatter. “Oh my.”

“Careful, Shona! You want to get us in trouble?” Kitty bent to pick up the fallen weapon.

“May I help ye?”

Kitty stood, spear held horizontal in her hands and spun toward the voice.

The spear’s butt end hit Angus
square
in the gut. “
Ummpf
.”

“Oh my
gaaawsh
, I’m so sorry!” Kitty spun the other way to put the weapon back and hit Angus in the arm with the point, slicing through his
shirt and barely missing the fl
esh beneath.

“Oh, sorry, I di
dn’t mean to do that.” Kitty fl
ipped the spear up in a vertical position and hit a hanging display of shields. One fell at her feet, another near Shona and a third onto…

“Oh my gawsh! Sir, are you all right?”

Angus sat up and teetered a bit, his head throbbing where the edge of the shield had struck him. He glared up at her. “Are ye here to buy my weaponry or just to destroy me
wi
’ it?” He slowly got to his feet.

“We are terribly sorry, sir. We did not mean to knock anythin
g over.” Shona spoke for the fi
rst time, her voice making the recent pain in Angus’s head disappear.

Angus stood and stared at her, dumbfounded. He’d never been this close to the Maiden before. “Just, uh, just be more careful. I wouldna want to see ye gets yerself hurt.”

Kitty replaced the spear and looked about. “Oh Shona, look at that!” She spun to her right, her purse swinging around with her, catching the arm of a suit of armor.

“Kitty, watch out!”

Too late.
The entire suit lurched to one side with a loud metal creak. Kitty let go of her purse as she realized what was happening.

Angus leaped for the display, trying to catch it before disaster struck. The suit, now no longer tethered to Kitty, fell back into place with a clank, the impact sending it over in the opposite direction… right on top of Angus. The resulting crash was deafening.

“Oh my gawsh!” Kitty began to jump up and down in panic. “I think I killed him!”

A moan escaped from beneath the armor.

“Help me get it off of him, Kitty.” Shona quickly bent to the fallen mass of metal and tried to lift it, without much luck. She knew they should never have come in. And where was the mysterious man?

* * *

“Eaton, hurry, before the happy student from Kwaku’s School of Destruction moves to the top of her class!”

Another loud crash came from the front of the store, followed by a pain
-
ridden shriek from Angus. John opened the bathroom door, poked his head out and gave Lany a bewildered look. “What’s going on?”

   
The grating of metal on metal followed by the sound of shattering glass answered before Lany could. “Help! Get her away! Get her away!” Angus’s garbled voice screamed from beyond the heavy curtain.

“Quick! Send Dallan out there before the Maiden’s fr
iend kills Angus!” Lany squeaked
.

Dallan pushed his way past John. His hair was freshly combed, his clothes changed to a simple pair of athletic shorts and a long loose tank top, which, Lany noted happily, would be difficult to hide a weapon beneath.

The Scot raised a curious brow and started for the curtain.

* * *

“Pull, Kitty!” Shona strained against the suit of armor that had fallen on the old man.

 
Kitty grabbed one of the me
tal arms and gave it a yank. Th
e arm came
off
, sending Kitty into the nearby spear rack.

Angus’s eyes grew wide as the rack fell over on top of him.

Shona yelped and jumped out of the way of several falling spear blades, one of which managed to take a lock of her loosened hair with it. She sat and stared at the severed piece of hair, then glared at Kitty who, having picked herself up, was heading for the now whimpering pile of armor and spears.

“Okay, Shona. Let’s try again.” She grabbed a leg this time. Unfortunately it was Angus’s.

“
Aaarrgh
! Somebody save me!”

“Oh, gawsh, sorry about that!”

Shona crawled back over to help. She clutched at the suit’s breastplate, pulled hard… and the entire suit lifted easily. She started, stunned at what she’d done, before noticing there was another hand and arm attached to the breastplate as well. Her gaze slowly followed the length of arm up to a broad shoulder and came to rest in the warm embrace of a piercing set of eyes.
His
eyes.

The mysterious man set the mangled armor to one side then bent to pick up the severed arm. Shona, once again trapped by his eyes, barely noticed the shopkeeper cl
imb haphazardly to his feet. Th
e mysterious man stepp
ed away from the mess on the fl
oor, backed to the front glass counter and leaned against it, folding his arms across his chest as he did. He watch
ed her for a time, and then off
ered her a warm smile.
Hello.

“
Aarrrgh
! Stay away from me ye she-de’il! Gets ye gone from my shop before ye kill me!”

“I didn’t mean to knock all that stuff on you, sir. I just wanted to see that pret
ty knife over there.” Kitty off
ered the shopkeeper her best pout.

“What knife?” Angus growled.

Kitty’s arm shot out to point the direction, hitting a still precariously balanced spear in the process. The spear sliced through the air, heading for
Angus, who was trying to ignore the disastrous Kitty and pic
k up some of the mess on the fl
oor.

RRRIIIIIIPPPP.

Kitty let out a scream, then a laugh. Angus, wide-eyed, slowly brought himself to a standing position. Loud, hysterical cackles could be heard coming from behind the heavy curtain as he turned his head to look over his shoulder.