Scarlet Vamporium: Vamporium #2 (8 page)

“Where to?”

“Mebbe we can take a walk back tae our rock? The mist is liftin' and by the time we get there we should be able tae see the stars. Ye ha'e tae see the lochs in moonlight, it's magical.”

She nods, grabbing her own beer and putting the remains of the tattie and her plate carefully on the log.

When she looks up again, ready tae stand, her expression freezes, and fer half a second I swear on ma Maw's grave that her eyes brighten.

The meaning fer sidhe is 'the shining'. Right now ma wee lass is shining.

Oh crud, she really is fey! I ha'e tae stop this confrontation before it begins.

*

Ellindt:

Great! Here comes hell in high heels. Some girls just can't take a hint.

Anger flares through my blood as I steel myself for the next bout of foul Celtic clout. Doug gets up, simultaneously so does Roddie, and the two literally stand shoulder to shoulder looking like a muscular yin yang with the fair and the dark locked together.

Doug mumbles something to Roddie who glances briefly over his shoulder at me, and then Rod takes off toward Heather and her cronies.

“Heather, Debbie, Jayne, Morag, get yer bones back inside,” he scoots them, forcing them to retreat.

I can't hear what they're grumbling about but Dougie grabs my hand and starts hauling me forcefully down the dramatic incline, escaping around the side of the house to where he parked the car.

That girl is so inebriated I'm surprised she could navigate the steep path in her plastic stiletto heels.

“Why are we running away?” I demand, listening to his heartbeat jerk in a loud thump.

Is he protecting them, or me?

“Ellie, ye don't need the drama. Heather's had one tae many and she can get outtae hand. This is just best fer everyone.”

Creaking the car door open for me, he waits for me to get in, shoving his fingers though his hair in an irate gesture while he looks down on me, holding the hair back off his face with the movement, “I'm not interested in their issues. Seriously I'll ha'e a way better time alone with ye than ha'e tae worry about the state of the drunk and disorderly. Let's just go, Ah'm sorry I brought ye here.”

“I'm not sorry–”

He doesn't wait for me to finish, forcefully guiding me into my seat and slamming the door closed. In moments he's in his seat, starting the car, and reversing without even buckling up or putting the lights on.

“I also need tae put some space between you and Roddie. He isnae gonnae leave ye alone.”

Braking at the entrance to the property he buckles up, pausing to exhale heavily and stare at me, the dim gloom masking his face with the pallor of grief.

“Ellindt, it won't make any sense tae ye, but long ago the MacLeods built castles here in the Highlands and the MacDonalds have claimed a lot of what was once ours. Roddie may be ma best mate in the world, but I cannae let him ha'e ye. He won't understand how special ye are. He won't respect it.”

As if this explains it all, he flicks the headlights on and guns the car out into the street, taking off down the road as if hell hounds are after us.

“What do you mean?”

I'm watching his face, the tense set of his jaw, the narrowed eyelids he's glaring out of the windscreen through. He's freaking out and it's making me anxious. “Doug, what don't I understand here? What's going on?”

He flicks his focus to the rearview mirror, then slows the car's speed to gradually halt on the shoulder. Turning to look at me, he puts it in neutral and uses the hand that was on the gear lever to press on my leg. “Ellie, I know what ye are. I saw yer eyes light up back there. I promise tae keep yer secret, which is why I ha'e te get ye far away from Roddie. He suspects and he willnae let it slide. I'm concerned he may try tae follow us which is why I just want us tae escape. Ye ken?”

I nod, the world bottoming out on me.

My eyes lit up? He knows what I am?

Oh god above I'm in so much trouble now.

Chapter 8

Ellindt:

My thoughts are swarming like a flock of dunlins flying in murmuration, amassing into coagulated darkness only to widen again, leaving a pocket of emptiness where a second ago dark chaos reigned.

How am I going to explain this? I don't know what to say. And how the heck does he know?

I feel like I have a noose tightening around my neck when his car slows, crawling onto the side of the lane toward the banks of the stream where he collected me.

He looks at me with such intensity it scorches my soul. “Where to?”

I wave my hand, manifesting a road where there was previously none.

“So it's true,” he mumbles, navigating the car onto the path, meandering carefully along my impromptu lane, into the heart of shaded woodland.

It's dark and no moon penetrates. The fog filters ambient light through it like fiber optic cable channeling starlight from one end of the spectral realm to the other, but here we are plunged into a cloak of chilling black.

“What's true?” I mumble, becoming increasingly apprehensive.

I gave him confirmation by opening up this road and now I just want to palm slap my head for being such an idiot. I should have just denied it and told him it's all superstitious nonsense.

“The glamor,” he says in answer, flicking the headlights onto bright and peering with honed focus through the windscreen.

“What glamor?” I demand.

“You shield your realm from us, and ye just let me see what ye see but we're blind tae. The shield, it's the glamor.”

No idiot. It's not a shield that hides this from your kind, it wasn't here, I just manifested it with my will because we needed a road.

But instead of voicing the truth I stay silent, staring glumly at the thick trunks slipping past the car and trailing long wooden fingers across the roof and windows, squealing their disapproval at our invasion.

“Stop the car, we can walk from here,” I snap, already opening my door, unable to handle the grating screech a second longer.

Before he's pulled up the handbrake I'm out of the car, running up the incline, breathing forest incense in with deep desperate gulps.

Selene is going to flog me for this. I'll be sent to the demons for discipline. Oh god! I am in so much trouble I just want to curl into a ball and cry my fears out.

“Ellindt!”

Closing my hands over my ears I look up at the dense canopy, hopelessness swallowing me whole. I can't breathe in here, it's too dark.

The tears are hot when they run down my cheeks, blinding my footfalls. I run with pure instinct, I need to get out, I need air!

“Ellindt!” hollers close behind, which spurs me faster.

Diving and ducking like a dancer prancing to avoid the crossed swords, I leap, crushing mushrooms, snapping brittle twigs underfoot, charging like a pict into the dragon's domain.

Just when I spy a bright gap, a doorway to fresh air and light, a hand hooks my elbow, slamming me around and making me impact against him with such force we repel off each other like static.

With the air knocked out of me, laid flat out on strewn moist leaves, my chest heaving, my lungs burning, my eyesight blurred, the tiny patch of light blacks out into encompassing darkness.

“Say something! God lass, yer scarin' the shite outtae me! Are ye okay?”

Long hair tickles my face when he bends over me, wiping my cheeks with thumb swipes and holding me tight between compressing hands.

He leans so close I can feel his ragged exhalations, belatedly realizing he's just checking to see if I'm breathing.

“No,” I mumble, choking on tears and distress. “I am not okay.”

“Where ye hurt?” he demands, his own panic deepening his voice to husky hoarseness, his hands now examining my arms and legs.

“Stop it!” I scramble backwards, trying to get away from the inspection.

“What is it? What the hell is happening?”

“I'm going to be punished for this,” I gasp, terror squashing the last of the air from my lungs, cracking my brain in half with agony.

“Fer what?”

I wave my hand frantically, indicating 'everything – all of it'.

“I won't tell. Why'd ye think I was tryin' tae get ye the hell away from Roddie? I'm tryin' tae protect ye, Ellie.”

“You don't understand. We're a secret. Selene is going to send me to the dungeons...” terror shuts my voice down, stilling my vocal chords in a tourniquet so tight it hurts.

The demons, down in the underworld, in the darkness, the burning, the flogging, the stench, the cold, the heat, the chains, the torture...

Oh god!

Curling in, holding my knees, rocking, I'm shaking, my bones rattling when my teeth chatter.

I'm restrained, my rocking stilled, a deep shhhh whispering in my ear.

Blinking, it finally dawns on me that he's wrapped himself around me to give me a hug, to offer comfort. No hug in the world is going to save me from this punishment.

We sit tightly together for a long time, until my tears succumb to numb resignation.

His hand strolls up and down my spine in endless caresses, his other arm snuggling me against him, our legs tangled, long hair mingling together into knots of affection.

Inhaling a jagged deep breath, I withdraw, sitting upright, wiping my eyes. “It's not your problem. This is my fault. Sorry I made you freak out, it's just... just...”

“Just what?”

“I'm not supposed to tell, or show, and my punishment–” Terror snags my tone again, gripping my throat and squeezing for death. Coughing, my eyes watering, I choke through it, “I'll be sent away, and it hurts... real... real bad...”

“Why? I dinnae understand what ye did? As far as I can tell yer freakin' out over nothin'.”

“No,
you
don't understand how it feels to be chained naked in the dark and whipped so hard you end up drowning in your own blood!”

He snaps into standing so quickly it almost makes me dizzy.

Holy cow he can move fast.

Staring down at me, leering aggressively, he snarls, “Whit? Who's going tae dae that tae ye? I won't let them!”

“You can't stop them.”

“Watch me,” he growls. It's the grunt of a warrior before he beheads the beast.

And it makes me smile – then laugh – until I'm wriggling on loam with helpless giggles.

“Ellindt, yer messing with my heid lass. Whit is so funny?”

“You, you are so incredibly sweet!”

He doubles over in mock pain, pretending I kicked him in the jewels, “Ouch! Sweet? Hit me where it hurts why don't ye.”

“But it's true. You couldn't save me if you were a legion of angels. No one can save me.”

It's a sobering thought, cutting short my smile, and we end up staring at each other through the dim gloom, intimate tension tightly strung between us.

Falling forward onto his knees, he shimmies to me, sitting back on his haunches and holding my legs, “They, whoever they are, dinnae need tae know. You don't tell them and I won't tell them.”

That's true. No one witnessed it. If I can hide my thoughts from Selene I might just get out of this.

Nodding, agreeing, I hope it will be that simple.

“C'mon, we have our opened drinks in the car, let's go get them. I think I need it efter all that drama.”

“I'll get them,” I say. I've broken the seal so I may as well embrace the fact that he knows what I am and what I can do. No point in having secrets now.

Snapping my fingers, thinking of the beers snugly nestled between our seats, I manifest them, offering his to him and clinking the neck of my bottle to his, “To keeping secrets.”

“Tae keepin' secrets,” he smiles, and it's warm and gentle.

He's not calling me evil, he doesn't want to burn me on a stake in front of the village, he's not running screaming or throwing holy water at me, he hasn't grabbed the closest branch to impale my chest... it gives me fragile hope.

“Em...” He wipes his mouth, looking at me with a shy expression. “Ellie, dae ye think ye can stop yer eyes from shining fer a wee bit? It's beginning tae get tae me.”

Blinking, hard, I am abruptly reminded of how hot my eyes are. I wasn't even aware I was glowing. Looking at him after shutting it down, we're now in a gloom so deep it smacks of doom.

His hand comes up to cradle my cheek, graceful blunt fingers slipping into my hair, and he whispers much too close, “Yer like will-o-the-wisp. Ye move like light across the marsh, gliding with grace and beauty when the rest of the world is a stinky bog.”

It's such a romantic thing to say, as if I tapped deep into his heart with my emotional outburst to unleash the ovate hidden in his DNA by his ancestors, that I smile, stopping myself from calling him sweet, again.

My smile freezes and my throat dehydrates when his long hair slips into my neckline and he tilts over me, carefully pressing a kiss onto my lips.

Closing my eyes when my blood flares with frenzied excitement, I clench my fingers tightly onto his legs, gripping for stability because the world is spinning so fast it leaves me breathless.

Chapter 9

Ellindt:

The distinct sound of heavy weight cracking organic debris snaps us apart, our hearts racing for a completely different reason.

Holding my breath, my grasp clinging to his legs, we watch and wait, discerning a bulky shadow sneaking closer.

Reacting with instinct, I think of our rock and transport us there in a moment. Losing his balance, clutching his head, Doug wobbles before flinging his arms out to grip the ground sloping up behind us, stabilizing himself.

We're in exactly the same position on our knees, just in a different location.

“What the hell?”

“Shh,” I warn, holding his legs tighter to impress he stay silent while I listen for the intruder. When all that greets me is natural woodland activity, I whisper, “Who was that tracking us?”

“Ellindt, how... whit...?” He winces, prying my hands off his legs, “That's one hell of a grip ye ha'e there.”

Sagging back, I dare to breathe, pulling my legs up and slumping against the firmness of rocky ground. “I'm sorry, I didn't have time to warn you. I reacted without thinking.”