Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance) (82 page)

Julia
slowly brought the car alongside t
he curb near the house. Her bat
tered car was the only one in the driveway, and at the moment all appeared quiet. She knew it wouldn’t be for long.

She got out and slowly made her way to the front door. Her breathing labored, s
he reached for the doorknob, fi
ngers already curled in pain.

“Don’t move. Don’t even breathe,” a voice whispered into her ear as a hand locked itself onto one arm.

Julia fl
inched in pain at the man’s tight grasp and slowly turned to face him. “It’s not what you think,” she painfully pushed out.

Lany took in the sight of her bruised throat and the sound of her damaged voice, but kept his grip and ushered her through the door. “Eaton!”

John ran out from the master bedroom to the hall, his face falling into shock. “By the Creator…”

“Please,” Julia began. “Let me explain why I’ve come. He tried to kill me. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He means to kill your friend anytime now.”

Lany, never loosening his grip, pulled her into the living room and down onto the sofa. “Do you know where they are?”

She looked from one man to the other. “Yes.” Her voice was nearly gone now.

John went down on one knee. “Are you here to help us?”

She closed her eyes and nodded.

Lany released his grip and his breat
h then joined his superior. “Th
en tell us where Brennan has taken them. He’s betrayed y
ou too, hasn’t he?”

  Her eyes fi
lled with tears and again she nodded.

“Tell us, Julia. I’ll see to it you are compensated for your help.” John’s voice, though compassionate, was still deadly serious.

She shook her head. “He will kill me. I’ve no one, nowhere to go.”

“Who will kill you?” Lany asked.

Julia swallowed and searched the room. “The big black man. He’s a Time Master. He has that power. Philip explained a little of it to me.”

“Kwaku is with us. He’ll see that your sentence is not as severe in lieu of your help.” John explained as he took one of her hands in his own. “Please, where are they?”

Her head lolled to one side and she moaned in pain just as Maggie came into the room. “You!”

Lany jumped up and grabbed Maggie as she launched herself at Julia. “No! She’s here to help. She knows where Dallan and Shona are!”

Maggie’s face was red with rage, her own e
xhaustion forcing her to the fl
oor. Lany supported and braced her as she landed in a heap. “He almost died, Julia. You did nothing. Nothing! All these years you worked with us. We treated you like family! And what about Shona? Do you even care for her?”

Julia closed her eyes a moment. “I care for what she is.”

Maggie’s eyes softened. “Where is she?”

“If I tell you, do you promise to let me live?”

 
Maggie’s lip twitched with anxiety and indecision. “Yes.”

“He took them to a little antique weapons shop downtown. He wants to kill the Scot there and claim Sho
na as well.”

John sat on the fl
oor. “By the Creator. Right under our noses.”

“He planned it that way.” Julia hoarsely commented, then leaned back into the cushions, too weary to care anymore about being on her guard.

“Julia, were Dallan and Shona both drugged?” Lany asked as he helped Maggie to her feet.

“Yes. But both should be awake by now. The Scotsman, he’s been awake
for
a while, but Philip has been fi
ghting with him. He’s badly wounded. Philip wanted to bleed him to death and make him watch Shona submit and… join.”

Lany groaned and closed his eyes in concentration. All watched as his face twisted with unexplainable silent agony for a moment.

His
eyes suddenly widened in confi
rmation, and he spun to John. “Eaton, I can feel him! I can! Wow, it’s like… he’s… stars, I can’t explain what’s happening, but something is. Dallan is doing something. Something very… Muiraran.”

John stood as well. “He must be using his new heart and ins
tinct. I hope Brennan hasn’t fi
gured it out yet.” He looked to Maggie. “Do you have any sort of weapons in the house?”

“Only Shona’s fencing sabers, but I’m not even sure where they are.”

“No fi
rearms of any kind?” Lany asked.

“None. Evan doesn’t like guns.”

John and Lany both turned toward the bedroom and glanced compassionately back to Maggie, John listening intently. Kwaku and Zara still sang softly, voices locked together as they repaired the damage done to Evan. Their joined heart was acting on
its own,
healing him.

John turned back to Lany. “You and me. That’s all there is. You have
your laser?”

Lany nodded and pulled out his communicator.

“What range do you have programmed into it?”

Lany sighed. “Very short, I’m afraid. Cari caught Vyn playing with it one day and, well…” he shrugged.

“We’ll have to get fairly close to get a clear shot at him. If
Dallan’s new instinct fi
nds
us, he can help in some way. Th
at is, if he’s in any shape to. What did you sense from him?”

Lany’s face became expressionless. “Eaton, I don’t know. I can’t explain it. Such pure power is just sitting there but… it’s like it’s got no place to go. He did seem to be trying to channel it somewhere.”

John smiled. “To heal himself, I hope. If his instinct is guiding hi
m completely, and he doesn’t fi
ght it, he may yet win this for us.”

“Let’s not bet on anything. Let’s go and get this over with.”

John
nodded and left the room briefl
y. When he returned, Angus shuffled along behind him. “Maggie, you stay here with your husband.
He’s going to be fi
ne. You know that, don’t you?”

She nodded.

“Lany, Angus and I will go to the shop and take care of Brennan. We’ll come back as soon as we can. Tomy will have to take us. We’ll leave Angus’s mother with you.”

At his last words, a recently arrived sweaty and tired Tomy pushed Mother MacNab into the room.

“What about her?” Maggie asked as she pointed to Julia.

John pondered a moment, then smiled, took the wheelchair from Tomy and pushed Mother MacNab over to Julia who began to sit up, wary at his approach. “Mother,” he yelled. “This is an English prisoner. Guard
her for us!”

Mother’s eyes grew wide as
she peered over her glasses at Julia who sat with a vague expression on her face. Mother raised her cane, swung it about a few times and screeched a string of Gaelic.

Angus stood by and cringed at
the words. “Let’s go. Th
e she-de’il is no going anywhere.”

Lany motioned to Tomy. “
We'll use Evan's car. 
All you have to do is take us
there
then get yourself back here. How fast can you drive?”

“I don’t understand any of this, except that I can have you there in less than ten minutes and you folks best not keep standing around here
talkin
’ about it!”

“We still have time,” John began. “My guess is Shona’s not fully awake yet. Brennan won’t make a move until she’s coherent enough to respond to him.”

Lany turned to John, eyes still wide, and swallowed hard. “Eaton, we have to go now. She’s awake and I can feel her searching for Dallan. But he doesn’t answer. I don’t understand what he’s doing.”

“And I don’t understand how you’re able to do what you do, Lany. I’m just glad you can. Let’s go.”

Lany stood a brief moment in silence,
his own
heart torn with two horrible emotional pangs. One of them was that he didn’t understand how he was able to do it either. The other was a powerful sense of separation. Dallan and the Maiden needed to feed each other and soon.

And there was something else, somethi
ng he couldn’t quite put his fi
nger on a
nd wasn’t sure how to in the fi
rst place. All he did know was that they had come too far for it to end like this. No matter what, they had to save the young couple. If not, they may well all be doomed to die.

The three men left the house in silence, the fate of the Known Lands now on their shoulders alone.

Th
e wind blew as ‘
twad
blawn
its last;

Th
e rattling showers rose on the blast
;

The speedy gleams the darkness
swallow’d
;

Th
at night, a child might understand,

Th
e De’il had business on his hand.

Robert Burns

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Shona fought her eyes one last time, her ref
usal to let them close again fi
nally winning. She glanced about as best she could in her awkward position, on her stomach with her head turned to the side. Looking at the closed door leading to the hall, she could feel the presence of others.
But who?

Dallan? Dallan, where are you?

Nothing.

She swallowed to wet her dry throat and bit into the gag someone had placed on her.

Ceannsaich
?

She strained toward the door as the Gaelic soared from her heart to search for his. There was something there, she couldn’t pinpoint it, but it had to be Dallan. But what was he doing? It was almost as if he’d drawn deep within himself, his heart nearly unattainable.

Her heart’s call unanswered, Shona twisted on the cot with frustration as an odd sense of power began to build inside her, adding to her confusion. She didn’t know where it came from or wh
at it was doing. It seemed diff
erent from anything she’d felt before.

It was not her heart. No, it was the one she and Dallan shared. And he was doing something with it.

She rolled herself off the cot onto th
e fl
oor with a thud, struggled to a sitting position and again strained toward the door.

Dallan was on the other side. He had to be.

The odd power she’d felt building earlier surged. Shona groaned into the gag and fought the strange manacles hold
ing her, nostrils fl
ared, eyes wild.

She suddenly stopped to listen intently. Footsteps! She quickly scanned the room.
Nothing to use to free herself, nothing that could help.
All she
could do was wait. Her eyes fl
ew to the door.

The knob turned slowly, the click of the handle clear. She scooted herself against the cot, her feet pointed at the door. Even though shackled, they were still her only
weapon
.

The door opened. “Ah, awake I see. Splendid.” Philip entered, assessed her position and alertness then stepped to the side of the room, well out of striking distance. The man was no fool.

Shona glared at him as he dug through a bag by the wall, his back to her, acting as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Could she be mistaken, or was he actually humming? Her eyes narrowed then suddenly widened.

Blood? Shona fought against a wave of dizziness and refocused. Yes, blood. And it was everywhere. Philip’s clothes were splattered with it. And if his were this bad…
Dallan, please answer! What has he done to you? Are you
all right?
Toilich
,
M’Ceannsaich
. Please, my master…
Again her husband’s language burned a path from her heart to somewhere beyond the room.

Philip spun, eyes narrowed to slits of warning. “Stop whatever you’re doing or he dies.”

Shona froze, eyes locked with Philip’s.

He smiled in satisfaction. “That’s better. I know you wouldn’t want me
to get nasty, but rest assured I will if need be.” He returned to the bag. “I have a little surprise for you. I know you’ll like it.” He stood, gun in hand, and exited the room, leaving the door ajar.

Shona was able to hear the struggles of someone out in the hall. She shook her head in helplessness. Kitty…

The sound of a hard slap followed by a muffled cry caused Shona to lunge at the door.
She pushed herself along the fl
oor with her feet, inching toward the sounds, as her heart and the powerful sensation she felt earlier nearly ripped its way from her chest. But
she had no control over it. Th
e
power reached a barrier within
herself
, stopped and died.