Silent Vows (9 page)

He didn’t even want to think of the candlesticks, which were at this very moment undergoing an appraisal. They may well be stolen, and then what would happen to his career?

How had Myra come into the country? She had no passport, no identification. Her name didn’t come up on any database in the States or Scotland.

He added harboring an illegal alien to his list of 70

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crimes.

With his head in his hands, Todd closed his blurry eyes.

The sound of a video hitting his desk brought his attention to his partner. “What’s this?”

“This.” Jake added five more to the pile. “Is our evening’s entertainment. The executives from Magicland sent them over. They’re surveillance tapes of the night and morning our Jane Doe washed up on Atlantis Island.” Jake laughed at his own joke.

“Why so many of them?”

“They show the entire day before she showed up.

Their security couldn’t find her on any of the tapes, except right before she was found.”

“So, they want us to see if we can spot her?”

“And anyone she might have come in with. Very few people go to Magicland by themselves.”

“Why are they pursuing this? She isn’t trying to sue them.”

“A lawsuit is always possible. Nobody wants to miss anything in case Jane Doe comes back to haunt them.”

With his finger on the fast forward button, Todd and Jake watched the first two tapes, both pointed toward the island from different angles. Once the sun went down, it was increasingly difficult to see who left the island. They stopped allowing people on the island at dusk, and neither Todd nor Jake saw even a glimpse of Myra.

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Later that night, from the window in Todd’s living room, Myra enjoyed the twinkling lights people hung on their houses to celebrate Christmas.

The effect was magical, and something she’d never forget.

The lights of Todd’s car shined through the window when he turned into the drive. She stood there in the dark, waiting.

She heard him come in, and knew he hovered watching her.

“Why are you standing in the dark?”

She almost flicked her wrist to light a fire in his hearth, but stopped.
Probably not the best way to
show him about my abilities
. Not the right time.

“The lights outside are so beautiful. It seemed a shame to dilute them.”

He came to her, cautious. “Would you like to see the rest of the lights? There are more up the street.”

“I would enjoy that.”

He helped her into one of his coats and locked the door behind them.

The night was brisk, but not bone chilling. Such a contrast from her home at this time of year.

The lights sparkled from almost every home, filling her with joy, making her forget her problems.

It was Christmas time. The first she would spend away from her family, and she hoped it would be the 72

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last. “Why don’t you put up lights?”

“Christmas isn’t my time of year.”

“How is that possible? Isn’t Christmas for everyone? Even in this day?”

Todd sent her a puzzled look. “Not everyone has the same feeling about this time of year.”

“But it is a time for hope, love.”

Todd gazed at the waving Santa sitting in front of a pile of cotton designed to look like snow. “My Dad...” He sighed. “My Dad was killed in the line of duty three days before Christmas. I was seventeen at the time. Shortly after, my Mom got sick. I didn’t know a broken heart could kill, but she was gone within three months of his funeral.”

“I’m so sorry.” She stopped. “It must have been awful.”

He pushed them forward by placing an arm around her waist, and kept it there even after she kept walking. “It sucked. Without a brother or sister to help absorb some of the impact, it made it even worse. Growing up an only child, I thought I had it made. Never needing to share even the simplest of things. TV, bathroom, toys, even the front seat of the station wagon.” They turned the corner to a street that took lighting for Christmas to a whole new level. “I never knew how much I needed a sibling until the day my parents were gone and I was alone.”

“I can’t imagine life without my family.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

“There are five of us. Duncan is the oldest, Fin, myself, Cian and Amber. My parents made sure we had each other, so when the time comes, we can bind together.”

“You’re lucky to have such a large family.”

“I am.” Myra leaned her head against his shoulder. They walked in silence for awhile. Todd’s 73

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fingers held her waist, sending a shiver down her spine. The touch wasn’t meant to be intimate, yet it was. A group of children stood out in front of one of the homes singing carols. They stopped and watched.

“Todd Blakely? Is that you, lad?” A voice from one of the homes called.

They both turned at the mention of Todd’s name. An elderly man stood in the doorway where the carolers had just been.

Todd smiled and pushed Myra up to meet his neighbor. “Hello, Mr. McGregor. You’ve outdone yourself this year. Has Abby kept you buying lights all year?”

“It gives me something to do, with the kids off and gone. Who do you have here?”

“Max McGregor, this is Myra MacCoinnich, a friend of mine.” He stumbled on his introduction.

Myra smiled, greeted him first in Gaelic then in English. “Happy Christmas,” she said in both languages, as was her custom.

His smile went beyond his eyes and up into the receding hairline. “Ah, lass, I’ve not heard that since my own grandmamma was alive. Happy Christmas to you.”

“Max! Have you lost your manners? Ask them in, it’s cold out there.” Abby called from the hall, “We have warm cider if you like.”

“We’re enjoying the lights, Mrs. McGregor,”

Todd told the aging woman.

Myra warmed into the smile of the older man, thinking how the elderly moved like honey, thick and slow, on a cold winter’s night.

There was no getting out of a few minutes with the McGregor’s. They sipped apple cider on the front porch and enjoyed the crowd gathering around the neighborhood to look at the lights. Myra and Todd 74

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listened to the couple banter.

“So, you’re from Scotland are you?”

“Aye, I am.” Myra said without worry. Abby’s smile was sincere and welcoming.

“She spoke in Gaelic, Abby. I didn’t know anyone spoke that anymore.”

Myra smiled and moved closer to Todd on the bench they shared. “If no one speaks it, then how do you recognize it, Mr. McGregor?”

“Good point, lass.”

“Still, it is nice to hear,” Abby added.

“And ‘tis nice to speak,” Myra said in Gaelic, then translated in English for Todd’s benefit.

Todd smiled down at her, taking her hand in his. Mr. McGregor talked about his grandchildren, and how they were going to travel to Texas to visit them over the holiday. Myra heard little of it. She concentrated instead on the way Todd held her hand, how his fingers stroked the inside of her palm.

Small shock waves traveled up her arm, making her whole body tingle. How could so innocent a touch make her body yearn? Make her want? What?

****

She actually flinched when he first took her hand, but now she relaxed beside him, and spread her fingers so he could weave their fingers together.

He envisioned her opening up to him like a rose did for light. He pictured her beneath him in his bed, and then his physical reaction forced him to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

After promising to come back to visit, Todd and Myra left their hosts and continued their walk.

Lights were strung across the street from one 75

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house to another. Some twinkled, others stayed lit.

Several neighbors had small camp stove fires lit in their driveways and greeted the passers-by who came to enjoy the decorations.

They walked in silence, with only the occasional comment on a display or the people they saw.

Todd looked ahead and noticed a couple stealing a kiss under some mistletoe hung beneath a mass of lights. Purposely he stopped when they reached that point and turned to Myra. “Do they have mistletoe in Scotland?”

“Aye, we have mistletoe.”

“Do you kiss under the mistletoe?”

Myra’s ears grew red again, answering his question. “Only if the lad can pluck a berry can he receive a kiss. Once the berries are gone...well, no more kisses for him.”

Todd slipped one hand around her waist. “Well, here in the States our traditions are a little different.” He looked up. “It seems all the berries are gone, but one kiss is still allotted to the lad that catches the lass.”

He liked the wave of color spreading up her neck.

“I suppose since we are in America we should abide by your customs.”

“I think we need to oblige or face the consequences of bad luck.”

She stumbled over her words. “W-well, I wouldn’t want to cause you any bad luck.”

Her eyes were open when he lowered his mouth to hers. Tenderly, he captured her lips, thankful to finally be there. When her lids fluttered closed he moved closer, bringing the whole of her frame up against his. Every curve, hard and soft, molded to him in a perfect fit.

Molten lava rushed into his belly and slid lower.

Her hands crept up into his hair, holding him 76

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hostage.

They stood in the middle of the sidewalk, surrounded by houses and people, oblivious to it all.

Todd came out of the fog first, gasping for air as if he’d been sucker-punched. “I want you,” he whispered in her hair, not willing to break their contact.

She stiffened when his words registered. “I don’t—”

“You want the same thing, Myra. Don’t try and deny it.”

“I don’t know what I want. I’ve not ever...” She didn’t finish her sentence.

“Not ever what?”

“No one has ever kissed me the way you do. Let alone anything more.”

A virgin? Was that even possible?
“You mean you’ve never...?”

“Never.” She lowered her head and removed her hands from his shoulders.

“Hey.” He caught her gaze. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” He kissed her again, briefly, then placed a protective arm over her shoulders and walked her home. “So are the men in Scotland blind?”

She laughed. “Nay.”

“What then?”

“My father is very protective.”

“Does your father know you’re here?”

“Much to his dismay, but we had no choice.”

Interesting, a protective father who sent his daughter away to a different country without any money. Something wasn’t lining up.

Both kept silent, stuck in their own thoughts.

They were within a block of his home when Myra stiffened, and all color washed from her face. She stopped and spun in a slow circle.

“What is it?”

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“Someone is watching us.”

“Some of the neighbors are busybodies.”

“No, Todd. The one that watches wants more than to gossip.”

Now the hair on his neck stood on end. It wasn’t so much what she said, but the complete certainty in her tone that alarmed him. He moved his hand to where his gun normally was. He’d left it on his nightstand in his room. “Let’s get you inside.”

She needed little encouragement and within a minute was safely tucked behind his locked door, while he and his gun checked-out his yard.

He didn’t like the fear he saw in her eyes. The uneasy feeling they were being watched was hard to shake off. With his gun in front of him, he circled the house twice, poking around his garden tools in his shed and behind the fences to neighboring properties.

If someone had been there, they were gone now.

He found her, curled up, clenching a butcher knife in her hand. “He’s gone,” she whispered.

“I didn’t find anyone out there.”

“But you felt him, didn’t you?”

A denial was on his lips. “Maybe. Who do you think might be watching us?”

She started to shake.

“Hey, hey. Stop that.” Todd pried the knife out of her fingers and gathered her in his arms. “It’s okay.

Nothing is going to happen to you. Shhh...”

He held her until he felt her body heat up and the shaking stopped. It took him some time to calm her down, but once he did, he tucked her into her bed. He left her bedroom door open and slept on the sofa.

****

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sister had paid off at last. She’d finally lead him to the young Druid virgin. When Grainna returned, and although he didn’t know when, he knew his mistress would, she would be pleased with what he had discovered.

He considered taking the young Druid woman and holding her until the solstice, but the cop she was staying with was a problem and he decided to wait a bit longer.

Grainna would know what to do, and she would have him do it when she returned.

He placed a cigarette to his lips, covered the tip with his hand, and lit the end without a match or a lighter.

****

Vines reached their spiny fingers around her ankles
tripping her, causing her to fall to the forest floor.

She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound
came. His hands crawled over her body, pinching,
probing. Female laughter crackled from the shadows,
damning her body, laying claim to her virginity. ‘You
will break my curse, and in return I will end your life
quickly. The others will suffer.’

“Noooo!”

“Wake up.” Todd shook her torso, avoiding her hands when they clawed at him. “Myra, wake up.”

She woke to her own screams. Todd’s grip held her firmly in place. Her breath came in small gasps.

Her heart raced. “She is coming for me.”