Embrace the Highland Warrior (20 page)

“You’re bleeding.” Stooping, he grabbed his shirt from the hay and wiped away the blood. He helped her slip into her panties and jeans and pulled her to her feet.

“Shay? Are you there?” Nina called again.

“You’d better answer her,” he whispered.

“Be right there,” Shay called out hoarsely.

She
pulled
her
bra
down
as
Cody
slipped
her
shirt
over
her
head. She finished dressing and felt a touch on her shoulder. “Shay? Are you all right?” His face held a mixture of shame and tenderness.

“I don’t know.” She was torn, one part still lying on the floor beneath him, feeling passion and love like she’d never known, the other part filled with humiliation. He was her best friend. He’d been like a brother to her. Everyone would find out. Their lives would be ruined.

She
had
to
get
down
before
Nina
suspected
something. Shay blinked back tears as Cody knelt and slipped shoes onto her feet. He stood, hand clasping the shirt smeared with her blood, his eyes searching her face.

He
squeezed
her
arm, but quickly let go. “Go on, before she comes looking for you. Wait.” He brushed a tear from her cheek. His hand lingered for a second and then dropped away. “I’ll come by later tonight, then we can talk.”

Shay
moved
to
the
ladder, her body numb. When she reached the bottom, she glanced up and saw him standing motionless, his jeans still unzipped, the blood-stained shirt in his hands, bewilderment and passion on his face.

The sound of a door closing pulled her from the dream. Shay opened her eyes, but her head throbbed. She started to touch it, but couldn’t move. Her hands were tied to the headboard, and she was naked. What had he done while she was unconscious?

She tugged at the ropes, panic starting to build. They were too tight. Her chest hurt, her arm was on fire, and the gag was choking her. She tried to slow her breathing. She looked around the room. Where was she? A cabin. Not the one where she and Cody had stayed. Cody. Vampires. Had more come? Was he alive?

She heard a plank squeak and lightly closed her eyes, pretending she was asleep. Through the seam of her lashes, she saw Mr. Ellis enter the tiny bedroom wearing the neatly pressed dark slacks he usually wore. He was smiling at her, his face polite, cordial. He held a red rose in one hand, a scalpel in the other.

***

An owl’s hoot woke Cody. He sat up, head spinning, covered in dust. He was in the woods, a stick buried in the earth beside him. The vampires! Shay. He jumped up, searching the trees. What the hell had she done? He’d never seen anything move so fast. Except vampires. Were there more? A sweet scent lingered in his nose, different from the vampire scent. He checked his watch. One a.m. He’d been out for an hour. Where was she? His talisman was warm against his chest. His battle marks tingled. She was in danger. He knew it in his heart. He had to find her.

Tracks covered the ground where he’d fought the vampires. Shay’s footprints were there too, and another set, off to the side. Larger, a boot, square-toed, probably size eleven. Someone had followed her. She said the intruder in Scotland wore square-toed boots. Cody found his gun lying on the ground where Shay had dropped it before running after the vampire. He followed the sweet scent and saw the square-toed footprints leading away from the fight. The impression was deeper there. The man who followed Shay had gained more than a hundred pounds, or he was carrying something. Behind the tree where Cody had fallen, he found a white handkerchief. He picked it up and sniffed. Chloroform.

***

It took all Shay’s willpower not to move or cry out. She let her eyes shut. She heard him move closer, heard something drop onto the table near her head. His hand brushed over her breast, and panic bubbled inside her.
Keep
your
head. Panic will get you killed
. Calm. Calm. Maybe he would think she was unconscious. An unconscious victim wouldn’t be as much fun. She blanked her mind, focusing only on her heartbeat, hard and fast, like a drum. When it slowed, she let her mind go, let the smells of the cabin and Mr. Ellis’s breath fade, released the brush of his hand on her body and the memory of the shiny scalpel in his hand. The lake shimmered before her. It was smooth. Tranquil. No wind today. She dug deeper into her mind. A boy and a girl stood on the shore, looking out across the water. They were skipping stones.

“Mine went farther than yours,” Shay said, planting her hands on her hips.

“Did not.” Cody grinned at her, tossing a flat, smooth rock into the air and catching it with the other hand.

“Did too.” Shay chose another one and flicked her wrist, skipping it across the lake, sending out a wave with each plink. “There. Six skips. Top that.”

He
grinned
again
and
tossed
his
rock. It made eight skips before the water swallowed it. He laughed and stuck out his tongue. Because he’d already turned thirteen, he thought he was better at everything.

“I quit.” Shay flung the rest of her rocks at him, harder than she meant. She had been emotional lately. Nina said it had to do with becoming a woman. Puberty, she said. Shay didn’t want anything to do with puberty. She didn’t want to bleed and grow boobs. She wanted to ride her bike and play in the woods with Cody.

He
covered
his
mouth, and when he removed his hand, blood trickled down his lips.

“I’m sorry, Cody. I didn’t mean to hit you.”

He
wiped
the
blood
on
his
shirt—his mom would clobber him for that—and the anger left his eyes. He brushed a tear from her cheek and gave her a bloody smile, revealing a chipped bottom tooth and split lip. “Aye. I know you didn’t, pip-squeak.” He dumped the rest of the rocks from his pocket and ran his knuckles over her head. “Come on, let’s get home and clean it up before Mom and Nina get back. Maybe they won’t notice it.”

The other voice crept back in, and something sharp pricked her chest. It was all she could do not to scream. “Sleep now, my pretty,” Ellis said above her lips, his breath reeking of onions and evil. “But not too long. I’ve waited too long for this game to begin.”

She waited until the door closed and his steps faded, and then she waited a few seconds more. She opened one eye, then the other, letting out her breath in a soft sob. He wouldn’t believe she was sleeping for much longer, and then he would come back and kill her. The cut on her chest was proof of that.

She pulled again, working at the ropes until her wrists burned. She’d always been good with ropes. The MacBains spent hours teaching her all about knots, how to tie them, how to get out of them. She felt one give. Turning her head, she saw the scalpel on the table. If she could reach it. She worked at the ropes again, her wrist raw, and gritted her teeth when blood trickled down her arm. The minutes passed like hours before she loosened one rope enough to get her arm free. She strained to reach the scalpel. Her fingers touched the tip. Not enough. A little farther. She stretched until her bones felt like they would pop. She had it.

She attacked the ropes on her other wrist, cutting herself in her haste, sat up, and freed her feet.

She removed the gag and stood. Her body ached, her head throbbed, and blood ran from both wrists. Stumbling with numbness, she grabbed her clothes from the chair, dressed, and picked up the scalpel. She eased to the window and peeked out. It was night, but the moon was brilliant. From its position in the sky, Shay thought it must be around midnight. She couldn’t be more than a couple of hours from the cabin. Was she on Skyline Drive? Was Cody looking for her? Was he even alive? She turned the lock and tried to open the window. It was old, painted shut. Using the scalpel, she cut at the sealed joint and tried again. It creaked opened an inch. She laid the scalpel on the windowsill and pushed harder. It opened more, squeaking noisily. She heard footsteps in the next room and gave the window a final desperate shove. It opened, and she stuck her head out.

The door banged open. “What are you doing!” Ellis screamed.

Shay shimmied her upper body through. Ellis grabbed her feet, cursing, and tried to drag her back in. His nails dug into her ankles. She kicked and twisted. He grunted, and his grip slipped. She scraped through and dropped onto the ground. She grabbed the scalpel that had fallen and looked around. They were in the woods. A car was parked in front of the cabin. Shay ran toward the vehicle and she heard a door slam behind her. Ellis jumped off the cabin porch and charged, pointing a gun at her head.

***

Marcas’s helicopter passed overhead as the warriors regrouped in the parking lot near the cabin. The tracks had led there, and the old man at the lodge remembered hearing a car speed away at about the same time Cody had been knocked out. It was unlikely that Shay was still in the area; the kidnapper had probably gotten as far away as possible, but there was a possibility that it wasn’t a kidnapping. Cody swallowed. Whoever had her may have wanted her dead. They’d reported both Shay and Renee missing, so the cops were on the lookout as well. Sam’s crew was concentrating on the area around Luray Caverns, where the warriors hadn’t found any sign of Renee, but they’d been attacked by vampires. Sam didn’t know that.

Buffers were helping out here and in Leesburg. Shay could be anywhere. No one had any idea where to look. If the vampires had her, she could be in another country by now.

“According to what that vampire said, we know they had been looking for her,” Cody said, accepting the drink Bree handed him. Faelan had tried to keep her away, but she insisted on coming. “But I just don’t see vampires driving and using chloroform. This feels human.” He hadn’t told them what he saw Shay do. He still wasn’t sure what he had seen, but he hoped he hadn’t been dreaming. It was of some comfort to know that she had skills to protect herself, although not enough to keep her from being kidnapped.

“Those things we fought at Luray Caverns didn’t feel human. They felt like freight trains going at warp speed,” Brodie said, rubbing his back.

“Shay was lured away from the house by a man claiming to have Renee,” Lach said. “If he was a vampire, then the vampires have Renee too. What the hell do they want? They already have our book.”

Duncan slid a dirk into his boot. “Maybe one of them didn’t get the message to call off the search.”

Bree frowned. “How did they know where she was and where she was going?”

“If vampires use chloroform, maybe they use bugs too,” Brodie said. “We know they were in Nina’s house. Could’ve been eavesdropping on us the whole time. Or maybe they can read minds.”

“I wish I’d known those SOBs who attacked me were vampires,” Jamie said, his face drawn with worry. “We would’ve had a different battle plan.”

“It’s not your fault. I’m the one who didn’t protect her,” Cody said.

“The fault’s mine,” Ronan said. “The female vampire outside Renee’s shop said something about watching
him
. They’ve probably been tracking me all this time. That blond vampire wasn’t surprised to see me. He knew who I was.”

“But he got here before you did,” Lach said.

“Probably figured out where I was going. Who knows what they’re capable of? From what little I’ve learned, I suspect they’re not only strong, but well funded.”