Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance) (84 page)

Dallan caught the triumphant gleam in Philip’s e
ye and weakly dropped to the fl
oor. Philip erupted into sadistic laughter. He dragged Kitty the last few feet to where Shona stood and let go a lustful grunt. He didn’t see the look on Dallan’s face. He didn’t catch the Weapons Master climbing to his feet. And he didn’t notice that Dallan’s wounds were gone.

“Now, Shona. Submit! On your knees before me, girl! Do it!” Philip twisted his hand in Kitty’s hair and began to lick and bite at her face.

Shona fought against the manacles binding her and began to scream at him, “Stop it! Leave her alone!”

Philip stopped abruptly, his eyes glazed with the same lust now evident in the rest of his body. “Tell me! Say the words. Now!”

S
hona cried and shu
ddered, her will fi
ghting against the only thing that could save them.
Dallan! Quickly!

Philip struck Kitty in t
he back of the head with his fi
st and shoved the gun into her cheek. “Stop that! Don’t talk to him! You talk only to me! Now submit!”

Her eyes desperately sought Dallan’s. He weaved as he stood, his footing unsure, his eyes as desperate
as her own
.

Philip saw only Shona’s half of the exchange and laughed again. He gripped Kitty harder. “NOW!”

Shona silently cried, her body shaking with suppressed sobs. Dallan fell to his knees.

“Hurry, Maiden. Can’t you see he’s dying? Submit and I will have you heal him!”

She looked desperately between the two. John’s labored breathing could be heard from behind, his life slowly slipping away. Shona closed her eyes, as her heart climbed into her throat. “I… I sub…”

“I said, ON YOUR KNEES!”

Shona’s eyes sought Dallan’s, but they were closed now. She fell to her knees with a despera
te sob. “I s… sub…” Her eyes fl
ew to Dallan. “No, let me say goodbye to him, anything!”

Philip’s eyes fi
lled with pleasure. “Are you begging, girl?”

“Yes!”

He chuckled. “Ah, but you’re going to be sweet. Taking you will be my most cherished moment. And I’ll make you beg even more.” He glanced
briefl
y at Dallan’s helpless form. “Goodbyes are not necessary. Now do it.”

Shona’s eyes locked with Dallan’s now open ones as she whispered, “I submit.”

Philip threw Kitty from him and began to laugh. “Good girl!” He turned and shot Dallan.

“NO!”
Shona fl
ung herself forward, forgetting she knelt, t
he action landing her on the fl
oor. “Dallan! DALLAN!”

 
Philip, quicker than the rest, held Kitty again, the
gun back
at her temple. “Now isn’t this a pleasant picture, gentlemen? I have the Maiden, her mate dying
before me and you about to die with him
! Have you nothing to say?”

Lany suddenly stood
,
about to give Brennan what he had to say when his eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

Dallan was on his feet again.

Philip looked surprised for a split second as he followed Lany’s eyes. “What the bloody…?”

Dal
lan stood, hands balled into fi
sts, eyes a bright green and full of possessive challenge. “Ye’ll no win today, Brennan. Today, ye die.”

Philip took in the words and dryly laughed to himself. “Oh, I see you’ve managed to self-heal. How resourceful. But you forget I hold this girl, and your mate has just submitted to me, and I can always put a few more bullets in you. You can’t self-heal that fast, not without the help of your wife, who is no longer yours.”

Dallan’s eyes narrowed further.

Philip smiled at him. “You don’t even know how to command the Maiden. I know you don’t. I can feel your indecision even now.”

Dallan took a threatening step forward.

Philip shot him a second time.

Shona struggled to her knees, eyes wide, and let out a horrid wail as her heart wrenched in a dozen directions. Her breathing poured out in rapid pants and she bared her teeth at Philip.

“She still reacts to me. Ye canna deny that. She’s mine and no other’s. She’ll obey only me.” Dallan’
s voice was calm, though the fi
rst b
ullet wound in the shoulder, fl
owed freely. The second, to his side, shot pain through his system at will. He fought now to stand and knew he had to do something. He had a gut feeling what it was, yet…

Lany and Angus took turns holding John’s wound, the Lord Counc
ilor’s face pale as his life fl
owed from his body without ceasing. Lany lowered hi
s head. “C’mon Dallan, don’t fi
ght it. Don’t.” John, with what strength he had left, joined him in the whispered chant.

“No!” Philip screamed at the Weapons Master. “She is now mine! And you, Scottish dog, are as good as dead! You don’t know how it works! Kawahnee never told you! He never told you anything!”

Dallan stumbled and righted himself. “Aye, ye devil. But it doesna mean I canna guess.”

Philip stood stunned at the words, his face expressionless. “You won’t get the chance. I can kill you right now. She’s submitted willingly, her instinct held at bay by her own words. I’m safe from her. She won’t attack me.” He raised the gun again. “Want me to prove it?”

Dallan looked briefl
y to Shona, whose entire body trembled uncontrollably. She stared at him in desperation as if held in limbo, her heart’s power building, pushing its way toward release. Waiting for him. He looked Philip in the eye. “I’m afraid ye’ve misjudged the situation again.”

Philip laughed. “Oh? And what are you planning on doing?”

Dallan, the air tight with tension, smiled.
“Justice.”

“Afraid not.”

Philip aimed fo
r the Highlander’s heart and fi
red.

Dallan hit the fl
oor in a heap, the bullet burning into his chest. He was barely aware that Shona had screamed again, that Angus cursed in the background somewhere. He knew he had only seconds to save Shona.
To save them all.

He lifted his face from the fl
oor and glared at Brennan, who had taken Shona by the hair and was twisting her around to bring her face closer to his own. He began to viciously kiss and bite at her throat before using the gun to lift her dress high onto her legs.

Brennan was going to rape her.

Eyes narrowed to slits, Dallan struggled to his knees. “Stop, ye
Sassenach
devil!”

Philip raised his face from Shona’s shocked one and casually turned to him. “You’re bleeding to death, and you want me to stop. Tell me, dog, what do you think you could possibly do at this point?”

Dallan began to fall to the fl
oor but stopped himself with one hand. He rasped with pain and pushed himself up again.

Philip’s eyes widened as the Weapons Master stood. “What I… should ha’… done long
ago.” He captured Shona in a fi
erce gaze, instantly fused them together, and eyes intense upon the Maiden, began to sing.

S
hona threw her head back and fl
ung herself from Philip’s grasp as her heart lurched in her chest.

Dallan was singing in Gaelic.

“No!” Philip screamed.

Too late.
Shona
was on her knees, her voice fi
lling the room with the same song Dallan was singing. The song Zara had sung to him the day before. The song sung by the Maiden during
her fi
nal Call.

The couple sang of S
cotland, of family, of love.
Th
eir
joined heart
raced from within themselves to form in the center of the room, the power eclipsing the lig
hts with a brightness no artifi
cial light could create. It raced about the room in seconds searching, reaching, touching wherever Dallan directed it to go.

He swung the light to John, where it entered his body to sear the wound he bore with raw power, healing him within seconds.

He sent it to Kitty, covering her in peace and calm, banishing the shock that had tried to drain her life away.

He sent it throughout the room, unlocked the cuff s holding Shona prisoner and gave her the strength to stand, her song acting totally at his will.

Dallan stopped singing momen
tarily, turned to a now-horrifi
ed Brennan, gun still in hand, and thrust Shona
’s song at him like a sword. Th
e
force knocked the gun from his ha
nd and landed Brennan on the fl
oor.

The ex-Time Master struggled to his feet in rage. “No! You can’t! Stop!” He lunged at Shona, but Dallan was quicker and lashed at his enemy with his new weapon to knock him across the room
, into the wall and onto the fl
oor. Brennan lay there stunned, his face stricken in disbelief.

Lany let go a whoop of joy and jumped to his feet. “Yes!”

  
Dallan ignored him and raced to Shona’s side.
“M’eudain!”
H
e grabbed
her up into his arms and held
her tightly, his blood still fl
owing. She continued to sing.

Her song was voluntary now. It wrapped around both of them and through Dallan, closing his wounds, giving back to him the life he’d almost lost. She threw her head back and let out a crescendo passage that made the building shake, her heart’s power just warming up. Eyes bright, her body arching in Dallan’s arms, she sang loudly, the sounds of instruments joining her v
oice, as if a mass orchestra fi
lled the room.

John
and Lany exchanged a frantic look.

“Dallan!” John cried as loud as he could above the music, “calm her down! She’ll tear the building apart!”

Dallan’s eyes
widened
as he quickly looked her over. Her eyes were closed, mouth open in song, head thrown back. One of the hanging lights on the ceil
ing shattered, showering the fl
oor with glass and plastering as the wall behind them began to crack.

The whole building began to shake.

He looked desperately back to John who nodded urgently, then grabbed the Maiden by the back of the head, brought her face to his and kissed her passionately to silence her song, sheathing the weapon until he needed it once more.

Lany fell agai
nst the wall and slid to the fl
oor next
to John. “Well, at least he fi
gured out how to start it.” He looked to his superior and smiled. “We can always teach him how to stop it the conventional way later.”

“It seems to me he’s doing fi
ne t
his way.” Angus off
ered weakly, his eyes still wide with awe. He glanced to where Kitty still lay. “Och, the poor wee lassie!” He rushed to Kitty’s side and began to untie her, murmuring words of comfort.

John examined his stomach, wiped away the remaining blood and vainly sought his recent wound. No trace. He looked at Dallan with excitement, wonderment and awe. “Lany,” he began on a whisper. “Dallan healed me. Not the Maiden.”

Lany’s eyes widened at the words, truth sinking in. He stood and looked at Dallan who still held the Maiden in a lover’s kiss. “Creator
help
us all.”

John nodded silently. “Should we tell the Elders?”

La
ny shook his head. “Let them fi
nd out on their own. It could have been the peak emotions that gave him her full abilities. We don’t know anything yet. Let’s not be hasty.”

“What does this mean?” Angus asked as he help
ed a shaken Kitty sit on the fl
oor beside John. “There, now lass. Here ye
needs
to be warm.” He took his sweater off and placed it over her shoulders.

Lany bent to where she sat. “Are you all right?” Kitty looked at him blankly and nodded. Lany smiled back.

John sighed with relief. “There’s never been a Time Master who could
control his wife’s involuntary and voluntary abilities as well as Dallan just did. And I for one thank the Creator for it.”

Lany and Angus nodded at John in agreement as they both glanced at Dallan.

Dallan fi
nally broke the
kiss which
silenced the Maiden, and captured her in a pos
sessive gaze. “Ye’ve a might fi
ne voice, lass. But I think we need a few lessons yet.”

Shona reached to the back of his neck, pulled his face back to her own and kissed him.
For a very long time.

Lany sighed. “Well, I think we still have some loose ends.” He retrieved his laser from the other end of the room, checked it and walked to where a stunned Brennan still lay. Lany studied him and shook his head. “‘He mocks proud mockers, but gives grace to the humble,’” he quoted calmly and poked at the still form with his foot. “Paralyzed. Not bad.”