Bannockburn Binding (Beloved Bloody Time) (4 page)

Chapter Three

“Charbonneau wants
what
?” Ursella breathed.

“He’s vampire. He qualifies. There’s no reason he can’t be a time travel courier if he wants to be one.” Nayara nearly smiled and Ryan knew she enjoyed revealing that fact to Ursella.

“He…is?” Ursella licked her lips and sat back again. “If that is all he wants, then why bring this to us?” She was trying to look pissed at the interruption, but she was shaken by Charbonneau’s vampirism and couldn’t quite pull it off.

Nayara looked surprised. “Because I don’t know why,” she said simply.

Ryan nodded agreement. “Humans want the Chronometric Conservation Agency to exist to make sure a time tsunami never happens again. I’ve never hidden the reasons why Nayara and I agreed to operate under that oversight.”

“
’Jobs for vampires
’,” Ursella quoted. “You don’t have to lecture me.”

“No, not jobs,” Ryan shot back. “Acceptance.
Lives
. A reason to continue to exist. And yes, a legitimate source of income. You have no idea how many vampires out there are living in the cracks and borders of humanity, feeding off scum, with barely any idea of how to live a life as themselves and not just by passing as human.”

Nayara touched his wrist. It was rare for Nayara to reach out and the light sensation was enough to make Ryan sit himself back and swallow the rest of his lecture. He threw the stylus back on the desk and grimaced at Ursella. “A landed, rich vampire, who has been passing for centuries, suddenly fronts up and wants to become a traveller, for what would amount to pocket change in his world? I want to know why, too.”

“Maybe he’s bored and wants to do something different,” Ursella suggested.

“We don’t have anyone who goes that far back, from France. Eastern Europe, and into Scandinavia, but not France.” Nayara licked her lips. “It’s tempting, regardless of why he wants to do it.” She blinked and her gaze turned inward as she accessed her personal communications.

“Better to keep him near where we can watch him,” Ryan said.

Nayara held up her hand for silence. Something important, then.

He waited and even Ursella remained politely quiet.

“An early warning. One of our travellers hasn’t returned on schedule,” Nayara murmured. Her eyes refocused on Ryan. “It’s Natália,” she said.

Ursella stood up and brushed down her dress. She always wore white and it always looked pristine. Most Agency personnel had got sick of making jokes about it. “This is operational,” she said briskly. “We can pick up again another time, Ryan.”

“Yes,” he murmured, watching Nayara as she continued to scan the alert. “Thank you, Ursella,” he told the woman, as she stepped out of his office.

Nayara turned to face him. “It isn’t urgent yet. Natália was rested, freshly fed, and it was supposed to be a simple day jaunt. Her companion wanted to see Stirling Castle under siege. That was the siege that triggered the Battle of Bannockburn, in ancient Scotland. No, sorry, medieval Scotland. 1314, old calendar.”

“She has a long while before stasis poisoning could start to kick in.”

“And she’s experienced, highly trained and smart, too,” Nayara said. “Even security aren’t worried yet. There’s all sorts of potential problems she might need time to unravel. Rushing in there will spoil the location and could set off a time tremor.”

Ryan drummed the desk. He knew all this as well as Nayara did. “Have you told Christian yet?”

Nayara hesitated. “He’s seeing Ursella over to Halfway Station.”

“You’re waiting until he gets back?”

“I thought it best. There isn’t anything he can do, anyway.” She looked around the office, glancing out the broad bank of windows at the star field and cleared her throat self-consciously.

“Is there something else?” Ryan asked, puzzled.

Nayara shook her head. “I was just wondering—” She shook her head again. “I wondered why Christian and Tally don’t…It’s clear they….” Nayara drew in a breath and let it out. She grimaced and looked away.

“It’s clear they love each other?” Ryan finished. He realized his heart was working. Working hard. He let his gaze travel over Nayara slowly, taking in the waist-length tumble of red curls, the kelly green eyes and white, white skin. For all that Nayara had emerged from the Mesopotamian basin centuries before Ryan’s ancestors had settled in Eire, to Ryan’s eyes, she often looked as sweet as any Irish colleen.

It didn’t matter to Ryan that Nayara was so powerful and skilled a fighter she could probably best him and two others besides. Her fighting prowess was a bonus. The knowledge sat in the back of his mind like an invisible aphrodisiac, even as he was admiring her feminine curves and softness.

Nayara turned back to face him again, squaring her shoulders. “Yes,” she said firmly. “They love each other. Yet they do nothing about it. Why?” Her gaze pinned Ryan to his chair. Challenging him.

Ryan focused on the medallion at Nayara’s throat, nestled between the open neck of the leather jacket she wore. The ancient medallion with its elaborate Celtic scrollwork. All his warm feelings evaporated. His heart silenced, even as a hundred painful old memories rifled through his mind, too fast for his conscious to linger over, but enough for all the warmth in his body to congeal.

“Perhaps their history gets in the way,” Ryan said, using the explanation that made the most sense to him right then. History for vampires was everything.

Nayara’s challenging gaze faltered. Pain flickered in her eyes and expression. He’d reminded her. Again. Ryan silently cursed himself.

Nayara waved toward the door. “I must see Brenden in Security, about Natália. And I’ll wait for Christian and let him know as soon as he gets back.” She slipped out the door as she spoke and was gone.

Ryan rubbed his temples as he studied the closed door, feeling a weariness he knew he could not possibly be feeling. “
Dia
sé
diabhal
go hIfreann
,” he muttered. He didn’t believe in a god or hell, but the curse did help relieve his feelings. A little.

* * * * *

Still mostly asleep, Natália rolled onto her side to relieve the ache in her spine from sleeping on the ground. She found herself up against the solid heat of Rob’s back. She blinked for a few seconds, staring at the white of his shirt, bringing things back into focus. Sleeping was still a novelty and the gathering of thoughts upon waking took extra effort.

Was this a moment she could take advantage of to escape and find Leuwis? Were Rob’s shoulders really that wide?

But she had jostled him and as she lay considering her options, Rob contrived to roll and face her without tangling them both up in the rope that bound them together. It had taken little time for them to become painfully experienced with the arrangement.

Rob’s very blue eyes stared into hers and while she recognized that the moment to escape had passed, there was not much regret attached to it. There would be other moments.

“I woke you. I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“I was thinking, not sleeping.” His bound hand came to rest over her waist. It seemed like a natural movement, but Tally’s body came to instant alert. She could feel the heat of his hand through her clothing.

Mentally, she fought and argued with herself, as she had been for the two days she had been Rob’s prisoner and realized the predicament she was in. Leuwis was safe enough for as long as Rob thought he was her manservant and a ransom could be raised for her. For a highlander of his time, Rob was smart, kind and principled, but if he learned that no one would ever come to pay for her, Tally couldn’t predict what he would do with them both.

But in the meantime, she had to deal with Rob himself…and her own betraying body.

The blessing—and curse—of travelling back into history was this two-edged bonus. A vampire’s symbiot went into stasis with a jump back in time. That meant the vampire became essentially human again. The flood of
real
human sensations and emotions were wonderful…and terrifying if one wasn’t used to it. Tally had become accustomed to the rush of sensations and emotions long ago. Seasoned travellers grew to enjoy the side benefits of becoming human for a short while; eating and drinking, sleeping…and sex. Sex was a thousand times better when all the senses were fully engaged and you could
feel
with all your body and nerve endings.

The agency didn’t advertise the fact and it wasn’t talked about openly, but most of the travellers freely enjoyed themselves when they were back in history. The agency made no move to prevent it. There was no disease or infection the travellers could catch that could be brought back to their personal timeline and all the travellers were trained to avoid historical anomalies and prevent time waves.

Tally couldn’t simply indulge herself with Rob, though, despite the way her body was tugging her toward him. He thought her a maiden from a good English family and was expecting they would hot foot it to the encampment to pay for her release once word wended its way to them. If she revealed her less-than-maidenly state, he would know something was awry and everything would unravel from there. Rob was not stupid. She had learned that much already.

The idea of a smart man brought the thought/image of Lee into her mind, as she had last seen him. They had been arguing. Everyone who knew Lee, especially women, always spoke of him as being so polite and quiet-spoken. If only, Tally thought wryly, they saw him just once with his dander up! But Lee only showed Tally his true nature, as if he didn’t care what she thought of him. With her, he thrust aside his Southern chivalry and bared his hot temper and fiery demands. Lately, it was a rare day if they didn’t tear shreds from each other.

And always, it came back to travelling.

Lee, despite being made nearly two centuries later than her, was convinced he was a better traveller than her. Or, his campaign to have her quit the medieval tours and travel in tandem with him, the more safety-conscious one, made it seem like he believed he was better than her.

It was true that his fury over her timing of tours
had
made her more conscientious about resting properly between tours and letting her symbiot recover. Perhaps that was a good thing. As a result, she had started this tour completely fresh and fully recovered. What would Lee say if he knew of her dilemma now?

“Where does ye mind wander, m’lady?” Rob asked. “Ye gaze travels far away.”

Tally returned her focus to Rob’s face. His jaw was dark with stubble, but he would shave in the morning, using his dirk. It was a strong jaw.

“I was thinking about…a friend,” Tally told him truthfully.

His hand, which had been moving in little restless circles on her waist, grew still.

“A man friend,” he said flatly.

“Yes.” Tally felt her heart quicken as she saw the way ahead open up for her.

“Ye are betrothed?” Rob asked.

“It isn’t like that,” she said, unwilling to lie completely. “There has been no formal understanding.”

Rob licked his lips. “What has there been, informally?”

Tally flickered her eyes and looked away.

“D’ye love him, Natalie?” Rob asked softly.

Her heart thudded. “I know not for certain,” she replied. “He’s a hard man to understand.”

“Hard to understand, but easy to be informal with, hmm?” There was a hard note in Rob’s voice that brought Tally’s gaze back to his face. His eyes were cold.

“You think I am a loose woman,” she guessed.

“No,” he said softly. “I think ye a passionate woman, Natalie. Warm and ardent and caring. Ye just give of yerself too easy.”

“Then why are you angry?”

“I?” he asked, sounding startled.

She drew in a breath as the truth occurred to her. Rob was jealous. Jealous of a man he didn’t know.

“I shouldn’t have told you about him,” Tally murmured.

“Nay. Truth can never truly do harm,” Rob replied. He stroked her cheek. “Your man. What is his name?”

“Everyone else calls him Christian,” Tally replied. “But I call him by his second name, Lee.”

“He gave you alone his second name to use?”

Tally blinked. “Why yes, I don’t believe anyone else uses it.”

Rob grinned. “Yet you call him a hard man to understand,” he chided her.

Tally could feel her cheeks heating. “It is complicated, Rob. More complicated than I have explained.”

Rob shook his head. “I don’t believe so, lass. I’m guessing it won’t be your family that comes looking for you. It’ll be your man, this Christian. Informal understanding or not—he will be the one that searches for you. I would wager coin on it.”

Tally licked her lips. “You cannot be so sure. That’s just silly.”

Rob smiled. “I know what drives men. And I know how a man’s mind works. You’ve told me enough. He will come.” His voice was flat with certainty.

Her heart squeezed and her chest tightened and for one ridiculously childish moment, Tally wished that it might be so. “And what will you do when he does, Robert MacKenzie?”

“Why, I will abide by my word. I will hand you over for the ransom.” But his face darkened with some emotion she didn’t have a chance to identify, for it cleared just as quickly.