Silent Vows (10 page)
“It’s just a dream.” A damn scary one from what he could tell.
“No, it’s more than that. She’s coming back. I’m sure of it.”
“Who’s coming, Myra? Who are you so afraid of?”
“Grainna.”
He couldn’t get any more out of her. She stopped talking and rocked.
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****
She tried, unsuccessfully, to reassure him she was fine, but he could tell her nerves were on edge.
As were his.
He tapped his pencil while watching the videos for the third time. “What do you think that is?” He pointed to the flash on the screen just before dawn.
“Lightning?”
Jake spit out a sunflower seed shell and hit rewind. They watched the clip again. “Might be.
Although I don’t remember any rain last week. I’ll look up the weather pattern online, see if I come up with anything.”
He watched the video of Myra walking around the island, appearing lost. The static on the screen annoyed them both. Then they saw her riding the raft over to main park. “Aren’t those on tracks?”
Jake pointed to the raft in question.
“Everything in the water is on tracks, except the canoes. Do they still have them?”
“Don’t think so.”
Jake pulled himself out of his chair and flipped on the lights. “We’re wasting our time. We can’t tell when she went to the island, and there’s no other way but by that raft. Unless she swam.”
Todd remembered their conversation the day they spent on the beach. She vowed she had no idea how to swim. “Someone would have noticed a woman in the water.”
“Well, she couldn’t have gone unnoticed for two days. What does that leave? She appeared out of thin air?”
A head poked around the corner and told Todd he had a call. He flopped down at his desk and grabbed the phone, “Blakely.”
“Mr. Blakely, this is Mr. Harrison over at 80
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Graystones.”
Todd shifted in his chair, moved the receiver from one ear to the next. “Hello, Mr. Harrison.”
“I am so glad to have gotten a hold of you. I have stunning news for you and your companion.”
“And what might that be?”
“First, I want to apologize to Miss MacCoinnich.
She was right about the year these pieces were made. In my defense, I have never seen antiques so well taken care of from that time-period outside of a museum. Why even our people didn’t believe it until it was dated by our expert in Renaissance.” He took a breath and continued to ramble on about how rare and exciting it was to have such marvelous examples of early twelfth century art, and how the pieces would likely bring a bidding war amongst the many galleries in Los Angeles, New York and London.
“Mr. Harrison,” he interrupted. “What’s the bottom line?”
“Oh, my, I guess I do go on, don’t I? Well, you will be happy to know that my earlier estimate was entirely wrong. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pieces sold for three times what I quoted you.” Harrison was almost giddy. “That is if you are still willing to sell them?”
Todd cleared his throat, and only managed to choke out his reply. “How soon do you need to know?”
“Take your time, Mr. Blakely. We don’t want to rush anything. Of course it is a great deal of money we are talking about, not something one would have sitting around on a coffee table, if you know what I mean.”
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“This is crazy!” Liz closed the book in her lap and tossed it aside.
Her hours of research and reading on Druidism and medieval times made her head ache, but the real kicker was she believed it. Believing it either made her crazy or stupid. She laughed when she closed her current study material.
Crazy! Definitely crazy.
The digital clock blinked out nine-thirty PM. It was late, but that didn’t stop her from picking up the phone and dialing.
****
After she hung up the phone, Myra smiled for the first time in several days before resting her head against the doorframe where she stood.
“Is everything all right?”
“Better than all right, I think.” She placed the receiver on the charger. “I’ll meet with Lizzy tomorrow to fill in some of the details she wants.”
He swung his feet off the coffee table and turned off the television. “And what about me? When will you trust me enough to fill in some of those details?”
Except for the feeling of being watched, which they both felt and talked about often, everything else they discussed was superficial. They had both 82
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avoided the important subjects over the last few days. Todd hadn’t asked or demanded any details, and Myra hadn’t offered them.
“I do trust you. Yet, I’m afraid.”
“Of what?”
He had taken care of her every need since she arrived. He had pulled her into his arms, kissed her senseless, then demanded no more when he learned she was a virgin. His concern for her well-being was evident in every phone call he made. Every risk he took keeping her under his care.
She knew they had no future together, but she still worried he would walk away when he learned who she was. Learned what she was.
Most people ran from things they couldn’t explain. Would he? Was she willing to risk him rejecting her when she told him the truth? Every day she grew closer to him. Even now, the possibility Lizzy would consent to her moving in, had Myra concerned. She couldn’t imagine not seeing Todd daily.
“I’m afraid you won’t believe me,” she finally said. “I’ve learned from my years on the force that life is often stranger than fiction. I haven’t pushed you for the answers I know you have, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want them.”
“If I ask you to believe something I cannot completely prove, will you believe?”
He walked up to her, took her hands in his. “You told me you’re a virgin. I believe that without proof.”
She laughed, despite herself. Closing her eyes, she offered a silent prayer. “We should sit down.”
Rigid, with her hands in her lap, she sat and tried to find the words to tell him her story. Her fingers fidgeted together, nails against nails, continually making clicking noises and filling the silent room with sound.
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“My parents are Laird Ian and Lady Lora MacCoinnich. I reside in MacCoinnich Keep in Scotland, with my brothers and sister.”
“That is where Tara McAllister is?”
“Aye, but she is Tara MacCoinnich now, wife to my brother, Duncan.”
“Duncan is the man from the pictures? The man at the Renaissance Faire she was last seen with?”
“Aye, and the other man, Fin, is my older brother.”
“So if Miss McAllister... I mean Mrs.
MacCoinnich is safe in Scotland, why hasn’t she contacted her sister?”
She closed here eyes and took a leap. “Before last week, when I traveled here, I lived my life in the sixteenth century. The century in which I was born.
The century in which Tara now lives.”
Whatever he thought she was going to say flew out of his mind. By the look on her face, he knew it showed. He started to say something only to be silenced by her hand.
“That part I cannot prove. Not yet anyway.” She stood and started pacing. “I come from a family of Druids that date back from the 800’s. We are often misunderstood and keep our heritage secret to avoid persecution.”
He couldn’t sit. She was so serious in her delusion. He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face him. “Myra, there are people who can help you.”
Her smile placated him. She knew he didn’t believe her. “Just listen, before you condemn me as mad. I know how all of this sounds.”
“But...”
“You wanted the truth, Todd, and I am giving it to you now.”
He nodded and watched her as she continued.
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“All Druids have some power. Gifts. Abilities beyond what you are used to. I am no different.”
She took a step back and opened her hands to his fireplace. “Our powers stem from nature. The elements of life. Fire is the easiest.” She pushed her hands to the hearth and flames leapt and caught on the logs. A small blast of hot air shot out. She didn’t turn to see if he watched.
“Jesus.” His jaw dropped, his breath caught in his throat.
“My greatest gift isn’t fire however, ’tis air. Or wind really. Moving the air gives me the ability to move things. Objects both small.” She lifted the remote control off the table from several feet away and gently set it back down. “And large.” She waved her hand, and the coffee table moved across the room.
Todd jumped back a foot, his eyes wide. He blinked several times, then mumbled a curse when she put the table back with nothing more than a flick of her wrist. If he thought his pulse couldn’t beat faster when he saw the logs catch fire, it was nothing compared to the rapid tattoo beating in his chest now. “How the hell did you do that?”
“With my mind.” She took a step toward him, he stepped back. She grounded her feet and stood poised and waiting. For what, he didn’t know.
He put a distance of several feet between them.
What the hell was she? Every word she spoke repeated in his mind, every strange comment about food, clothing or objects. Every bit of slang he’d explained, he’d checked off to her being from a different country, not a different time. “Why are you here?” Not that he believed in the time travel thing.
The jury was still out on that.
She stepped back, her expression guarded. “You refer to her as Gwen Adams. Her real name is Grainna. She is centuries old, condemned to live her 85
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life in an old and virtually powerless body. She too is Druid. But evil. Evil beyond even your worst criminal in this time.” Myra moved to the window and refused to look at him. “I believe she followed Duncan and Tara back to my time and is there now trying to break her curse.”
“How does that involve you?”
“I am a virgin and Druid. The combination is what she needs to break her condemnation. ’Tis easy to assume Grainna is there. My mother had a vision that I would die if I stayed in my time.”
“You want me to believe you were sent here from the sixteenth century to avoid being a sacrificial virgin to some cursed old lady?”
She winced. “Believe what you like, I am simply telling you the truth. Tara was at risk from Grainna when she was here. Duncan and Fin were sent to keep Grainna from finding Druid virgins in this time.”
“So, what? All the missing women on the books have been sent back in time?”
“No, only Tara. There are few Druids left in this world.”
Todd went to his liquor cart and poured two fingers of the nearest open bottle. He downed it in one swallow then poured another. “Tara’s a Druid?”
“Aye.”
“That would mean that Lizzy is...”
“And her son Simon.”
“And does Lizzy know this?”
Myra shook her head. “I told her the day at the park.”
“Did she believe you? No questions asked?”
She trembled. “No, she has questions, but she is now open to hearing the answers.”
He had questions, but knew himself well enough not ask them, yet. If Myra was sucking him into her delusions, asking her for more crazy answers would 86
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only feed her madness.
Slowly Myra turned. “I told you I would reveal everything and I have.”
“Hummph.”
****
He searched for every conceivable loophole in her story, struggled with her explanations and her examples. If he only believed half of what he witnessed, he had to believe she had some telekinetic ability. Mind over matter.
The fireplace could have been rigged, but the table? The remote?
Dammit! He couldn’t wrap his mind around what he saw, or how easy her explanations fit with the facts as he knew them.
Why did it matter? Why did she matter? Had she put some type of hex on him? Some Druid spell that left him dangling? Is that why she had burrowed under his skin to the point where he dreamed of her every night?
Todd prided himself on keeping women at arms’
length. He refused to allow anyone to get close as long as he worked the streets. It wasn’t fair to a woman to stay up all night worrying about his well-being. He remembered the long nights as a child when his mother waited anxious by the phone, waiting for his father to call. He promised himself he wouldn’t do that to another person. Ever. Yet here he was, all but living with Myra. She made him dinner every night, albeit mainly sandwiches, but he didn’t really care. She answered the phone when he called, wistful and happy to hear his voice. Now this.
He had a boatload of shit piled high on his doorstep.
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Todd didn’t know what to believe.
He downed the Scotch, looked at the glass, and then let out a miserable laugh at the irony of his choice of drink.
****
If it wasn’t for the sinking pit Myra felt in her stomach, she might have enjoyed all the sights and sounds. But with every passing child wailing in protest at being dragged into yet another store, Myra felt their agony as if it were her own.
Todd left early in the morning even though he wasn’t due to go to work. He didn’t leave a note or any word of what was going on in his head. She thought the worst.
Myra sat at the far end of the overstuffed mall, completely out of place, with no idea what her future would hold. Maybe Lizzy had decided against their meeting, against believing her story, maybe she’d avoid her just as Todd was doing.
With her head in her hands, she tried to block out the noise around her and concentrated on what to do next.
