Binding Vows (30 page)

“I’m no use to you, now.”

“That is debatable.” Grainna moved away.

The foot still held her.
Lancaster!

Tara struggled to see Grainna, but caught only a bit of her image between the slits in the fabric.

Grainna glared down at her, cocked her head to one side, as if in debate. “You ran from me, after everything I did for you.”

“You were plumping me up for the kill. No better than a turkey on Thanksgiving.”

“True. Still, your ungrateful behavior has led to this.”

“You’re twisted.”

Grainna laughed. “You’re stupid if you think I’ll put up with your insults for long.”

Tara realized how vulnerable she was. No one 260

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knew she was here. Duncan wasn’t due back for two more days. She couldn’t use their telepathic link to plead for his help. “What do you want from me?”

“It pains you. Not knowing.”

Tara heard her shuffling and saw the hem of a filthy skirt under the cloth covering her eyes. She heard the sound of old bones popping when Grainna knelt closer. “Where is she?”

“Who?” Tara asked. The foot holding her lifted and came down hard, pain raced up her spine.

“The virgin? What have you done with her?”

Grainna said, spit coming out with each word.

“I don’t know who you mean.” Tara cloaked her thoughts as Lora had taught her.

Grainna pulled her up by the hair. “The sister?”

she hissed. “Where is the sister?”

Tara screamed. The cloth covering her eyes was yanked off. Grainna stood over her. Hate and fury burned in her eyes. Red blazed from them, intense as the flames within the hearth. She somehow looked different—younger.

“Duncan took her to the convent.”

Grainna raised her hand and brought it down hard.
Tara tasted blood. Pain burst in her cheek.

“Try again.”

Tara glared and kept silent.

Grainna flicked a finger.

Lancaster kicked her side.

She screamed.
My baby!
Tara huddled away from the pain of his boot. Fear for her child clenched her gut.

Grainna’s grin widened. “Well now. Isn’t that interesting?” She reached out and pinched at Tara’s stomach.

Tara pushed herself back and away from Grainna until the wall stopped her.

Grainna pushed forward, reached and twisted her grip on Tara’s waist.

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A wrenching sob escaped her throat. Tara pleaded, “Please, no.”

“New life has such power, even now. Yes, I feel the heart.” Grainna loosened her grip, leveled her blood shot eyes upon her. “Your lover will try hard to find you.”

The stench of her breath was nauseating. Tara turned her head away.

“Where is she, Tara?” Her hand gripped her stomach, nails bit into her flesh.

“Gone! Out of your reach, out of this time!”

Please leave me alone. Leave my baby alone.
I’m
telling the truth.

Reading her thoughts, Grainna shrieked in rage.

Tara curled into a ball as objects around the room flew, hitting anything in their path.

Grainna vented her magical wrath.

****

Megan met Ian and Fin at the door, frantic. She had difficulty putting her words together. “Please, Lord Ian, I dinna know what to do. Amber won’t come out of her room, she locked herself in. She keeps calling for Lady Tara.”

Ian looked at Fin in alarm. “How come Tara isn’t with her?”

Megan’s eyes grew large. “She is with ye, is she not?”

“Why do you think that?” Fin shouted.

“Sir Lancaster came to fetch her for ye. She left with him hours ago.”

Father and son took the stairs two at a time.

Ian’s foot knocked Amber’s door off its lock.

Amber rocked and cowered in the corner of her room.

He ran to his youngest child, took her into his arms.

“Tara... Tara... The mean woman has her, Da.”

She hit her hand to her head. “They keep kicking her and hitting her. Tara is so scared.”

“Who has her, Amber?” He wiped away the 262

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fallen tears. “Who is the mean woman?”

“Grainna.”

Amber held her hand in front of her, as if she could stop Tara’s pain from afar. “No!”

Ian signaled to Fin to ready the men. It took a half hour, but Ian coaxed what information he could out of Amber. He calmed her enough to leave her with Megan and Cian, so he could direct the men.

“Why does Lancaster do her biding? He is not Druid,” Ian asked his son.

“Grainna had many men who followed her. She had power over their minds.” Fin sheathed his sword and prepared to mount his horse. “Alyssa’s parents told me Lancaster was last seen with their daughter.”

“We’ve no way of knowing if there are others who Grainna controls. If Lancaster did what we saw earlier, then there is nothing he would not do for her.” A search party formed and before the sun set they, along with Fin, moved out in the direction Jacob saw Lady Tara depart.

Ian had the daunting task of waiting. Cian slumbered in the chair beside him. Amber finally fell to sleep in her room.

With every hour, he felt his wife’s presence draw nearer. He sensed her fatigue at the long hard ride and kept their internal conversation minimal, knowing there was very little good to say.

As his son and wife rode closer, Ian called off the guard. Completely unconcerned at the questions which would arise about why his wife was with Duncan, he ordered the gate lowered. He would fix those problems later. For now, he thought only of how he would explain to Duncan how he failed in keeping his wife safe.

A fate he never foresaw, and as God as his witness, would never allow to happen again.

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****

Like the pot above the fire, Grainna’s anger simmered. She should kill Tara now, and use her blood like she had the other.

Grainna killed the village girl to vent her rage when she realized she was not innocent. She would have killed her anyway, but that was no matter. The power, which surged while the girl slid slowly into the abyss, was enough to try one of her old rituals, a ritual which had brought some amount of power to her in the past.

It worked, to a small degree. Her face lost ten years of age, and her body felt a bit of strength returning. Very little of the girl’s powers transmitted to her, but a part of her youth did.

Perhaps her luck was returning.

Lancaster’s weak mind was easy to control.

Even now the fool stared off into space. His mind only saw birds, stupid ugly birds. With a simple motion or thought, Grainna could have him snap Tara’s neck.

Tara’s sanity had started to waver, she thought.

When Grainna reached into Tara’s mind, all she heard were nursery songs. Fear for her unborn child kept her singing. There was no sign she reached out for help from her husband, or his family. Grainna had plenty of time before Duncan would find her.

And she knew, without any doubt, he would come.

For now, she weighed her options carefully. The virgin was gone. But Scotland was littered with virgins and Druids. If killing one weak Druid gave her back ten years, than killing others could do the same. Slowly, she would gain back what she had lost. The Ancients left a loophole in their curse, one she would exploit.

She would wait to kill the sniveling woman in the corner. Wait until her mate could watch.

Destroying love and life was her sweetest revenge.

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****

Tara never took her eyes off of her. Her hours of clinical work in the psychiatric ward at the hospital were coming in handy. She rocked back and forth sometimes singing quietly, always singing in her head.

Grainna’s probing into her mind wasn’t gentle.

She slammed inside bringing pain and leaving anguish in her wake.

Why she hadn’t made a move on her in hours, Tara couldn’t fathom. She sure as hell wasn’t going to ask.

As much as she wanted to peek into Grainna’s head, she didn’t dare. To do so would invite her into hers, and Tara didn’t want that.

So, she rocked and sang. All the while her hands struggled, pulling at the bindings on her wrists.

Strength wasn’t working, so she used little sparks of fire like Duncan had taught her when lighting a candle. She winced when the fire singed her skin and missed the rope. Despite burning her flesh, she kept at it. What choice did she have? Her unborn child’s life depended on her escape.

She couldn’t feel Duncan, couldn’t hear him. For a short time Tara thought she had, but then realized it was Amber in her thoughts. Afraid to speak outright to Amber with her thoughts, Tara sang her hints and clues.

Hush little Amber don’t say a word, Tara is
hidden in the woods. I can hear a stream nearby. I
need to sing this lullaby.
****

The sun on the new day was cresting the horizon when Duncan and Lora rode into the yard.

Silently, Lora went straight to Amber.

Duncan cornered his father. “Tell me.”

Duncan listened to his father relay the day’s events, starting with Alyssa’s death and ending with 265

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Lancaster taking Tara. Duncan kept his fear in check, even when it threatened to take him over.

“She must be far away. I can only sense her.”

“Amber acts as though she can hear her.”

“How?”

“She mumbled something about a secret spell her and Tara had shared. Do you know what she speaks of?”

“Nay.” But his clever wife wasn’t afraid of anything, so he wasn’t surprised to hear his father talk of spells.

They went to Amber’s room. Lora was in bed beside her and stroking her long hair, soothing her as mothers do.

Amber’s eyes fluttered open. Seeing her brother at the end of her bed, she crawled over the covers and circled her arms around him. “She’s waiting for you, Duncan. She’s in the woods by the falls.”

“Can you hear her?”

She nodded. “She sings to keep the other one out. She doesn’t want me to talk with her for fear Grainna will hear. But she’s frightened.”

That he knew, but to hear his youngest sister’s tearful report made him restless to be on his way.

“The falls? Do you know which ones?”

Amber closed her eyes and repeated what Tara was singing.

“
The woods are deep and thick by me. Lots of
great big tall, tall trees. The cottage has an old
thatched roof. The smoke will give off big black soot.

I can hear the stream nearby. I need to sing this
lullaby. Keep my baby safe in me, bring me help oh
please, please, please.”

Amber held her brother’s hand. “She keeps repeating it over and over. Can I tell her you’re coming?”

“Nay. Don’t.” He smiled at his sister. “You’ve done all you can, go to sleep. I’ll have her home 266

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before dinner.”

He nodded to his mother and left the room.

Outside, his father stopped him. “Take more men with you.”

“I do this alone.”

Ian grabbed his arm. “I’m not asking.”

Duncan, who could count on one hand the times he defied his father, did so now, with no regret. “I will not be witnessed in what has to be done. I will use every power at my disposal to bring my wife home. I do it alone.”

Ian relented. “God’s speed.”

Duncan gathered his weapons and pack up his father’s horse which was readied and waiting.

He kicked the horse into a full run in the route he believed his wife to be.

The farther away from the Keep he rode, the stronger her pull became. He headed in the direction of the falls, the opposite way Fin had set out.

****

Her wrists burned and blistered, she finally managed to loosen the bindings.

Lancaster stared off in a catatonic trance.

Grainna gazed into a glass sphere and chanted.

This is so surreal.
Hansel and Gretel came to mind. She felt like the little girl who was going to be eaten by the mean ugly witch.

She closed her eyes, attempting to rest. Her body was so tired. Even the pain of all the kicks and hits faded in her crushing need for sleep. She planned, all the while singing lullabies, but the multitasking proved too difficult.

She drifted into uneasy slumber. Her breathing slowed and evened out. It was then she felt him. Her eyes darted open, certain Grainna felt him too. But she remained unmoving, hunched over an old crystal ball. A glimmer of hope filled Tara’s mind. She 267

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couldn’t stop the reaction no matter how hard she tried. She let out one thought,
I love you!

It came back.
I love you, too
.

Her heart sang! She looked up and knew her mistake.

Grainna’s sneer pierced her soul. “Let him come.”

Trembling with horror, Tara asked, “Why? You can’t overpower him.” She tossed her head at Matthew. “Not even with your gnome here.”

“You wouldn’t be so arrogant if you knew what I could do.” Grainna moved from the chair to where Tara sat on the dirt floor. “I wonder what they told you of me.”

With the bindings gone from her wrists, Tara felt more confident in her ability to get away. “They told me you were a vengeful witch who took pleasure in other people’s pain.”

“True. So true. You see, however, the key word there is
witch
. The Ancients took away my Druid powers, but they couldn’t touch those of my black magic.”

She walked to Matthew, put her palm to his face, and drew his blood with the tip of her nail.

Lancaster didn’t flinch.

“I’m a very powerful black witch. I should thank you for leading me back here. With the small taste of Druid blood, I have regained more strength than in our future. Before this day is done, yours and Duncan’s will be added to the mix.”

“So you see yourself as a vampire?” Tara kept her talking. She knew Duncan was getting closer.

“I’ve been called worse.”

“Why? Do you want to rule the world?”

“That, and rid it of every Druid. The whole lot of you.”

“Why?”

Grainna stood close. “Because I can.”

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