The Dracove (The Prophecy series) (12 page)

Sighing in defeat, she set the locket down on the table, convinced it would never open again. That was, if it was supposed to open in the first place.

“Fine, you win,” she said and swung her chair around to the computer.

Now he knew exactly where the locket was. Grant was thankful he hadn’t figured it out the other day. He wouldn’t have had the pleasure of meeting Kylie. He felt he’d been waiting all of his life for that moment, of realizing Siobhán was to be only a glimpse of the woman he was intended to meet. The woman Cianán had searched for throughout the ages.

At first, all he wanted was the locket because it belonged to Siobhán, and it should belong to him. But now . . . well, things had a funny way of changing.

The door opened, sounding the bell, and Ana looked up. The lock of hair she’d been twisting sprung back into place.

“Hi! How was dinner?” She bounced in her seat. “Don’t keep me in suspense. What happened? Where did he take you?”

“Time’s Cellar, and you know, I’d love to sit here and tell you all about it, but I have an appointment . . . and a lunch date,” Kylie said.

“A lunch date? With Cianán?”

“No, with Grant.”

“Grant? Wait a minute . . . .” Ana stood and walked around the counter, hands on her hips. “Who’s Grant?”

“That guy I told you about yesterday who bought the bizarre painting. You know, the guy you only saw the
back
of the other day.” Kylie arched a brow.

“You’re having lunch with him? Oh, girl . . . .”

“Yeah, yeah. I need my necklace back. I’d like to wear it today. Are you done with it?”

“Not really, and you shouldn’t wear it too much. It
is
an antique, you know.” She picked it up and walked over to her.

“I know, but I have to today for some reason. I don’t know why.” Kylie leaned over the counter and rested her elbows on the glass. “So, what did you find out about it?”

“You didn’t give me much time, but it’s about four hundred years old, maybe older; I can’t be sure without studying it more and a few of the labs haven’t come back yet. It’s extremely rare, though. I can’t find anything else like it. Here, I want to show you something.” She pointed out the hinges on it. “It’s a locket, right?”

Kylie grinned at her.

“Don’t look at me like that, smartass. I can’t figure out why it won’t open. Lockets are supposed to open. Maybe it’s because the piece is so old, but I don’t think that’s it at all. The damn thing looks brand new.” She handed it to her.

“Four hundred years old, huh? Wow.” Kylie studied it carefully. “Hmm, maybe….” She fiddled with the locket.

“Okay, so the symbol is ancient, though I’m not sure what deity it represents, if one at all. The garnet, I’ve no clue as to why it’s embedded there.”

Kylie frowned. She really wanted to know what her birthmark meant.

“Try searching for it on the net. You can start with Celtic symbols”

Kylie scowled. “You know computers hate me.”

“I just thought you could do some research on your own, but don’t worry your little red head, my computer is searching as we speak.”

“Thank God.” The locket sprung open. “Hey, would you look at that?”

“How’d you do that? I’ve tried everything.”

“I don’t know.” A red drop slipped from the locket and touched her finger. “What’s this?”

“Looks like blood,” Ana said.

Kylie brought the finger with the drop closer and smelled it. “Doesn’t smell like anything.” She stuck her tongue out.

“Eww. You are
not
going to taste that, are you?”

Kylie shrugged. “It’s probably mine anyway. I mean, it couldn’t have been in here for so long and not be dried out by now.” She flicked out her tongue and caught the drop.

“Oh, that’s disgusting.”

Kylie rolled her eyes and studied the locket. “What, you don’t suck on your finger when you get a cut?”

Ana wrinkled her nose. “That’s different.”

“Check out this funky wording.” She handed the necklace over to Ana.

“Let me see.” Ana reached over and grabbed her Jeweler’s Loop. “I don’t recognize it. God, this could be much older than I thought.”

“Really? Let me see that.” She took the locket and eyepiece from her to magnify the words. She shrugged. “It looks a little familiar, but I’m not sure what the language is. Maybe Gaelic.” She handed the loop back to Ana and looked at her watch. “Oh God, I have to go. He’ll be here any minute. Yesterday he was really early and I don’t want to take any chances.”

“Girl, you’d better be prepared to tell me everything.” Ana smiled at Kylie.

“We’ll have a nice girl chat on Monday.” Kylie put the necklace on. “How does it look?”

“It’s definitely you.”

“Gotta go.” She kissed Ana on the cheek and hugged her. “Thanks for checking it out for me. I’ll see you Monday.”

Ana leaned over the counter. “Have fun!”

* * * * *

Kylie walked up to greet a once-again-early Grant. The shining silver locket she wore caught his eye and nearly stole his breath for the piece he hadn’t seen in more than five centuries. He withheld his elation as best he could and met her eyes. He’d wait until they were sitting down to lunch to find out more, like how she came to own the piece.

Once situated at the table, he picked up on a familiar scent about her; one not her own. In fact, it smelled a touch like him. He wasn’t sure how it’d be possible. They hadn’t touched other than the slight brush of hands the day before.

“Is that a family heirloom?” The garnet brightened when he spoke, knowing his voice, which proved to him it was the one he searched for all these years.

“What, the necklace?” She moved her hand over it and picked up the locket. “Yes, it is. I just got it the other day.” She took it off to show it to him, and opened it.

The locket opening for her surprised him at first. It was meant to only open for him. He wondered if it was because she was related to Siobhán somehow, though Siobhán could never open the locket. She’d tried several times, even after his death.

Still didn’t explain the scent of him on her. Until he noticed his blood was missing from the locket. He swallowed his heart in panic.
Where did it go?
He’d placed it there just before Siobhán died—part of a protection spell. Blood made the spell stronger. It was the first and last time he’d performed blood magic.

Kylie pointed out the engraving to him. “I’m not sure what language this is, although it looks familiar.”

He took it from her—already knowing what it was beforehand—and pretended to look at it. “It’s Gaelic.”

“That’s what I thought. I haven’t seen the language since I was a little girl.”

He smiled. “Would you like to know what it says?”

“Yes, please, if you can.”

“Well, I might be a little rusty, but I’ll do my best at the translation.” He fiddled with the chain, squinted—though he didn’t need to—and read the words in silence first. It’d been a long time since he’d last seen the promise.

 
“It says . . . ‘To you,’ and this word, ‘Dia’ is ‘God’. Something about not being separated or the like. It looks like this last part says ‘I love you’. I think it’s part of an old wedding vow. The Scots used one similar.”

He looked up at her, and she stared in awe.

She blinked. “Wow. Where’d you learn Gaelic? It’s not a very common language.”

“My family is from Ireland, the western coast where they still speak the language, but I haven’t heard it in a very long time.”

“Is it pretty there?”

He smiled.
She’s thinking about him
. He caught Cianán’s name drift through her mind.
What does he want with her?
“Yes, the entire island is beautiful. I think you’d like it.”

“I’m sure I would . . . .” She took a bite of her baked potato, but seemed distracted, playing with the food more than anything. “I’d like to go there soon, at least to see where my family is from. I mean, I know where they’re from, but I’d like to see it with my own eyes instead of through pictures. And I’d like to learn more about them. My grandpa arrived here when he was about eighteen or so, and I never really got to learn much from him. He died when I was seven and my mom and dad died thirteen years ago. I just have bits and pieces of what they told me when I was a child.” She gasped and placed her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God, I’m sorry. That was too much information, wasn’t it?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I’m sorry to hear of your loss.” He studied her face. “You do have other family, don’t you?”

“Not unless you count my best friend Ana and her family.” She picked at her sandwich.

“I’m sorry, is this making you uncomfortable?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m the one who started chattering away. Can’t help it sometimes. The question is, am I making
you
uncomfortable?”

“Not at all. If you want to talk about it, it’s perfectly fine with me,” he said. “It helps me get to know you better.”

“Maybe we can continue it some other time. I wouldn’t want to get all teary-eyed on our first date.”

He agreed with a nod. He caught the horror in her eyes with the latter part of that sentence. A nice Freudian slip.
Good to hear
. He wondered when the next ‘date’ would be. His mind drifted back to when she mentioned going to Ireland, and figured the subject change might help her relax.

“So, when do you think you might be going?”

She frowned. “Where?”

He chuckled. “To Ireland?”

“I’m not sure. It was just a thought, why?”

“I have to go back to take care of some business next week. If you decide to go while I’m there, I can show you around.” His face lit up with a smile. “Be your tour guide. There are some wonderful bed and breakfasts near my home.”

“So do you live there?”

“Yes and no. I have a homestead there, but I’ve been here for quite some time.”

“Oh.” The gold flecks in her emerald eyes glinted in the sunlight. “Well, it’d be fun, that’s for sure.”

“Yes, it would.”

“I haven’t really traveled anywhere in a long time.”

Their conversation subsided. Grant’s thoughts remained on her and he picked at his salad. He was fairly certain he could tell her anything she wanted to know about her family. He wondered exactly how she might be related to Siobhán. He’d followed the locket here because he felt it move from its resting-place in the cunning women’s cellar, but he didn’t even think to check if the person it was sent to had the same last name. He just knew where it was heading—the country and state. As far as he knew, the old woman was the last of the bloodline and the locket was to be given to him when she died.

She must have birthed and raised a son while I was in Italy
.
That would be Kylie’s grandfather
. He wondered why she kept it from him. To a vampyre, time passes by faster. He was in Italy long enough for something like that to happen, though it only seemed the equivalence of a few years. He recalled leaving when she was a young woman, but by the time he returned, she’d grown much older.
She must have been close to one hundred years old when she passed.