Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance) (68 page)

Philip jumped to his feet in a rage and grabbed Evan. “You stupid fool!

I’ll kill you for this!
She’s to be mine
,
do you hear me
? Mine!” He let go of Evan’s shirt, shoved him back into his chair and ran from the box.

Too late.
The Maiden and her mother were nowhere to be seen. Philip let out a howl of anger and started after them.

Evan emerged from the box and stared after his retreating form, one comforting thought left with him. “You lose, Philip.”

* * *

“C’mon, Shona, run!” Maggie hurried down another long hall racing for the stairs leading to the lower
lobby several fl
oors below them.

Shona continued to turn back to the box, her Muiraran features still frozen in place. Maggie brought
her to a connecting hall and fl
attened the two of them against a wall, listening. They hadn’t passed anyone in their
escape from the box. The refreshment counters a
nd portable bars were on the fl
oor below them. They were on their own.

Julia’s voice cut its way up the stairs and down the hall to where Maggie and Shona hid. “Hurry up, Kent.
Philip’s waiting.
I’ll be in the car.”

“Oh no, oh no. What now?” Maggie
breathed
as she looked frantically about. Her eyes came to rest on two separate signs.

The
men’s
and women’s lounges.

“Quick.” She pulled Shona through the nearest door.

“Julia!” Philip’s crisp, loud voice coiled around Shona and Maggie, both now pressed against the wall near the entrance to the men’s lounge. Maggie began to search the room for something to be used as a weapon, but saw nothing except her own desperate look in the mirror on the opposite wall.

And the face of Shona.

Shona stared at her refl
ection in stunned silence with an odd knowing look. “Mother,” came out a weakened plea.

Maggie also stared at the mirror before slowly turning her shocked face to her daughter. “Oh.” Her voice was even weaker than Shona’s.

Shona’s eyes found her mother’s. She slowly shook her head. “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Maggie brought a hand to her daughter’s face and cautiously touched her. “We didn’t know,” she whispered, still fearing Philip close enough to hear.

Shona’s face fell into desperate need. “He will k
ill Dallan. I cannot let him fi
nd him.”

“Philip?”

Shona nodded slowly.

“Where is Dallan? Do you know where he is?”

She searched the area instinctively with the thing inside of her. It shot forth and found him in less than a second. She clearly saw him making his way steadily across the lower front lobby, his eyes intent on the stairs she and Maggie had been making for.
Dallan!

M’eudain?

We are upstairs, in the men’s lounge
,
Philip is nearby
.

He did not answer.

No, no, please.
Dallan, can you not hear me? Are you all right? Answer me!

Still nothing. She threw her mother a panicked look and started for the door.

“No!” Maggie whispered urgently as she grabbed Shona’s arm. “Philip may still be out in the hall somewhere.”

The door to the lounge slowly began to open.

Maggie pulled Shona back to the wall behind the door and prepared to push it into whoever entered.

Dallan came around the door so fast Maggie nearly fainted. Shona fell away from the wall and stared up into his
face, helpless with longing. Th
eir
eyes locked, and for s
everal seconds neither could fi
nd the will to move.

“Shona…” Dallan’s voice, laced with relief, reached her as he took her in his arms. “Saints, lass, dinna scare me so.” He pulled away, gripped her arms with his hands and looked at her with barely suppressed wonderment. “Och, lassie, ye change so fast
!” He stared at her again, a fi
erce con
cern in his eyes, his jaw confi
rming his current emotions. “Did he hurt ye, lass? What did he do?”

Shona turned her face from him and looked in the mirror.

A human face
stared back.
Her own.
“I am fi
ne. Just take us out of here.”

“Aye, lass.” He turned to Maggie. “Brennan hasna anything more to threaten ye with, Lady. Get yer husband a
nd go where
that devil canna fi
nd
ye. I’ll take Shona and keep her safe. Dinna worry.”

Maggie glanced between Dallan and Shona. “When can we see her again?”

“Dinna concern yerself with that now. Get Evan.
Ye
need to be with him.”

She nodded slowly then stared at Shona for several long seconds. “I love you. Never forget that. Remember us.”

Shona swallowed the painful lump in her throat and nodded.

“Take her, Dallan. Keep her safe.” Maggie moved for the door but Dallan stopped her
and slipped out fi
rst. After several seconds, he returned and motioned them to follow.
    They
entered the hall cautiously, Maggie
silently heading back to the orchestra box, Dallan and Shona to the stairs.

All three stopped at the same time, and the last few words needing to be spoken, to be heard, took full advantage of the pause.

Shona, her hand now in one of Dallan’s, turned to her mother down the long hall, the sounds of the orchestra drifting over all three. “I love you too.”

Maggie smiled, nodded and motioned them to go, the air around them suddenly tight with warning.

Dallan pulled Shona toward the stairs. Without looking back, they began their descent.

When they disappeared from sight, Maggie Whittard knew she would cry.

And she did.

* * *

Dallan and Shona raced down the stairs, the lobby doors closer with each step, their lives now irrevocably changed.

The Call had been answered.

Dallan hurried to the doors, the Maiden running to keep up with his longer legs. He slowed his pace enough for her to stay alongside him better and continued on, freedom from the building his only thought.

“You!”

Shona let go a gasp of surprise as Dallan’s eyes met those of Kent atop the opposite set of stairs leading into the lobby.
Th
ey then fell to the gun in Kent’s hand, aimed right at them.

Dallan glanced at the doors.
Twenty feet, no more, no less.

Kent started down the stairs. “Don’t move, either of you.”

Dallan hid a smile. The man had fear in his eyes. His hand tightened around Shona’s. He then broke for the doors at full speed.

Kent fi
red.

“You fool!” Philip grabbed Kent’s arm from behind and painfully yanked it down. “You might hit the Maiden. Wait for a clear shot!” Philip ran down the stairs and quickly glanced around to make sure no one saw anything, the gun’s silencer making sure no one heard. He reached the bottom but too late. His quarry had already escaped to the street. He cursed,
then
paused as if listening, his eyes closed in concentration.

Kent looked about nervously and waited.

Philip suddenly grabbed him, a wicked smile on his face. “Come with me.”

* * *

Dallan and Shona raced
up the street and around the fi
rst corner they came to. The Weapons Master’s intended destination was an alley near the concert hall where John, Lany and Angus waited for him.

A sudden screech of tires however
detoured the couple into a diff
erent alley.
And a dead end.

Dallan ran to the end of the alley and quickly scanned the high wall.
Too high.
Shona would never make it, much less himself. He spun around and started back the other way. Perhaps the car was a coincidence and not chasing them. There was, after all, no sign of it now anywhere.

He stopped, breathed a short sigh of relief and turned to Shona. “Are ye all right, lass?”

She nodded to
him and scanned the alley. “Th
ey are following us.”

“Most likely. Quiet now.” He began to creep to the entrance of the alley and turned to look down at her once more. “We havena far to go and then ye’ll be safe.”

“Oh, somehow I doubt that.”

The voice was cold, sinister, mocking. And English.

Brennan.

Dallan quickly shoved Shona behind himself and searched the alley. The voice was close, but how close?

“Well, well, well. You realize, of course, I’d not expected to be running through the streets after you my dear. I hope you haven’t done damage to your dress. I would hate to see it get torn.” Philip stepped into the alley from a doorway in one wall. “And whom might your escort be this evening, Shona? I thought the privilege was mine.”

Dallan realized the building Philip had just emerged from was the back of the concert hall. Fate was not in a good mood tonight. Nor was Philip. He had a huge pistol in his hand, one much d
iff
erent from Kent’s.

The Weapons Master’s eyes narrowed.
Ye may ha’ to run lass. Be ready.

Shona pressed briefl
y against his back.
Please be careful. I sense something from him, Dallan. He is very dangerous.

Aye, Flower. Now get ready. If I can get him away from ye, run to the alley
down the street. My friends are there.

She gently hugged his back then stepped away from him. She knew he would need the room.

“What’s the matter, my dear? Has the company of this brute overwhelmed your sense of speech?” Philip took a few steps closer and looked Dallan over carefully. “
Mmm
. Handsome piece, aren’t you? If not for the fetching morsel behind you, I might be half tempted to try you myself. But alas, I haven’t the time for it this evening.”

Dallan swallowed back his immediate revulsion and skewered him with a piercing glare.

Phillip glared right back. He was familiar, very f
amiliar. Dallan pondered briefl
y where or when he’d seen him before.

“Let us introduce ourselves to each other. I really do hate killing a man with whom I have not been properly introduced.” Philip took another step closer.

“Lord Philip Brennan.” He bowed slightly, never taking his eyes from Dallan’s. “And you are?”

Dallan’s eyes narrowed further. “Yer worst nightmare. Let us pass.”

Philip’s eyes widened in amusement as a slight smile curved his mouth.
“Oh my God, it’s a bloody Scot.”

“Aye, ye
Sassenach
devil. Now out o’ the way.” He took a
threatening step forward to meas
ure Philip’s reaction.

“Ah, ah,
ahhh
. Not too close. I wouldn’t want to harm the Maiden when I shoot you.”

Dallan stopped himself before he took another step. He knew Philip wanted Shona alive and relatively unharmed. He just had to get him away from her long enough to get her out of there.

Too late.

The bright lights of a car suddenly turned into the alley, blinding Dallan.

He grabbed Shona and jumped behind a metal trash bin, his previous experience in a si
milar alley the night before fl
ooding over him. Suddenly he sensed something was wrong, out of place.

Shona whimpered and he quickly turned to her. She sat against the wall behind him biting her lip in pain. Dallan cursed to himself in Gaelic as he realized a sound had been out of place.

The muffled sound of a gun.
Shona had been shot.

“Shona, lass!” He quickly pulled her into his arms. “Where?”

She looked at him
as her eyes glazed over in the
alley's
dim light. “My hip.”

Dallan felt the area w
ith one hand. No blood. Odd. Th
en he found
it. A small, strange cylinder
about the size of his index fi
nger had stabbed her square in the
hip. He searched it with his fi
ngers. “What is this lass, d’ye know?”

“Merely a small tranquilizer.”

Dallan’s head spun to look up at Philip who stood over them, gun still in
his hand. But this one was diff
erent—smaller, black, and from what Dallan remembered from the night before, deadly.