Redeeming Vows (2 page)

In order to return to her century, they needed the sacred stones. Grainna had three of them in her possession. The MacCoinnichs held the other three.

“I know.”

“Think of Simon. If Grainna caught you alone, killed you…” Tara’s voice dropped away. “What would he do without you?”

5

Catherine Bybee

Closing her eyes, Liz turned. Tara was right.

They all were right.

****

Fin supervised the cleanup of the dead birds, all the while dodging the questions posed by the Knights and servants of the keep. Keeping their ancestry concealed was becoming increasingly difficult with every passing day. Todd, his brother-in-law, stood beside him and nodded toward the yard.

“Have you ever heard of Alfred Hitchcock?”

“Sounds like a name of a person.”

“It is. I wonder if Grainna watched a lot of movies during the twentieth century.”

Fin moved from the shadows and into the sun.

“Did she get this from your movies?”

Todd, a police officer from the century of which they spoke, would know if she did.

“I think so.” Todd picked up a dead bird between his thumb and his index finger before tossing it into a pile with the rest. “God I hope she didn’t like Freddy Kruger or Michael Myers.”

“Who are they?” Fin asked.

“You don’t want to know.”

Before he could question Todd, Gregor approached them.

“’Tis all there is. Do ye want us to burn them?”

Drawing his shoulders back, Fin answered. “To ashes, Gregor. Let no feather go un-touched.”

“Aye, ’tis best to have no evidence.”

Fin’s eyes narrowed. He nodded and left the yard.

“I think it’s time for a drink,” Todd said by his side. “Agreed.”

Together they walked into the main hall, past the dogs sitting at the base of the stairs, and through the door to Ian’s private study. Duncan and 6

Redeeming Vows

Ian already held glasses in their hands, enjoying what little Scotch remained.

“’Tis done?” Ian asked from behind his desk.

“Aye, Father. The carcasses are being destroyed, and there are no others in the sky.” Fin poured two goblets, handed one to Todd and took a seat.

“Where the hell is she hiding?”

“I wish I knew.” Ian, laird of the Coinnich land, ran a hand through his graying hair. “I’m not sure how much longer we will keep the village together if this continues.”

Duncan cleared his throat. “I’ve heard of several families fleeing to Lancaster in the past month.

Rumors of evil are driving them away.”

Ian dropped his drink to the desk. Amber liquid splashed against the side of the cup. “I expected loyalty from my people.”

“And ’tis why so many stay. If you were anyone else, your lands would be empty by now,” Fin reminded his father.

Ian stared at the men in the room. “If I could raise an army to fight this evil I’d do it. But how do you fight evil magic?”

Fin watched as they all sat, staring into their goblets, each of them large warring men, capable of their share of death and destruction. Each of them powerless against one evil woman. Grainna.

7

Catherine Bybee

Chapter Two

Leafing through the pages of the book Liz aptly named her Bible of Druids, she jotted down a note within the margin.

We are peaceful people who mean harm to no
one. Our maker judges all evil that dwells amongst
us. Never should our gifts be used for injury upon
another soul.

“Ha!” Liz turned the book over and glanced at the year the book was published. 1998. Selma Mayfair, the author, thought she was a witch. In truth, she was most likely a Druid who didn’t know it. She’d capitalized on her heritage and gift of premonitions to help the local police when a child vanished in rural Ohio. After the child was located exactly where Ms. Mayfair said she’d be, the media caught hold of her story and posted it all over the national news. Before long, Ms. Mayfair had every publisher and his brother asking for a book deal.

The first one,
Sixth Sense
, hit the New York Times Bestseller list, which made her an overnight sensation. But that book wasn’t the one Liz looked at now. This book was labeled
Seventh Sense
. The book lacked the drama of a child’s abduction and consequently didn’t do nearly as well in the bookstores as the first. Liz remembered the hype and the syndicated talk shows all blasting Ms.

Mayfair’s “abilities” when
Seventh Sense
came out.

Because the book teetered on a religious fence, most of the spiritual community ostracized the author and called her a fraud.

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Redeeming Vows

By the time
Seventh Sense
was in paperback, the only people picking it up were those self proclaimed witches who went around smoking pot and saying “Blessed be.”

Before Liz’s desired trip back in time, she’d bought the book for her sister. She meant it as a joke. However, it wasn’t an accident she’d remembered Ms. Mayfair’s plight long after her fifteen minutes of fame were over. It wasn’t an accident that while Christmas shopping for how-to books, she came across
Seventh Sense
in the closeout counter. And it wasn’t an accident when Liz first touched the
tome of paranormal
that a current of electricity jolted her down to her toes. No, the Ancients knew what the hell they were doing.

“Mom?” Simon’s voice bellowed down the hall as he approached her sanctuary.

“In here.”

Her son sauntered in the room with newfound confidence. He had grown in the short time they had been in the sixteenth century. At thirteen, he started to look more like a man. His features lost the baby fat of his childhood and his limbs started to fill out.

Already his height threatened Liz’s.

She couldn’t help the proud feeling every time she saw him. He was her life.

He plopped down beside her and nodded to the book. “Still at it?”

“We’re not home yet, are we?” She repeated the words daily. Liz wouldn’t stop reading and trying new things to rid the MacCoinnichs of Grainna and find the stones that would take them home.

Simon looked around the room built of stone.

“No, we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Rolling her eyes, Liz laughed. “We never lived in Kansas.”

“Yeah well, we’re not in California anymore doesn’t have the same ring.”

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Catherine Bybee

Liz reached out and ruffled his long hair. “No, it doesn’t.”

Simon cast his eyes to his hands that plucked at the wool fiber of the bedding.

“What’s on your mind?” Liz set the book aside.

“I ah, I need to tell you something.”

Oh, geeze. Nothing good ever came of that statement. “You can talk to me about anything.” And Liz hoped he always would. Realistically, she knew he would hold some secrets.

“I don’t want you to freak out.”

She swallowed. Hard. “I won’t freak out.”
Oh
please don’t let me freak out.

“I’ve noticed my powers increasing.”

“Okay.”

“I mean really increasing.” Simon bit his bottom lip, but didn’t meet her eyes.

“How, Simon? I know you talk to animals, can feel their desires and needs. What’s changing?” Her and Simon’s powers changing, morphing as they became aware of them was apparently normal.

When she’d first lit a candle without a match, it took tremendous effort. The ease of it now was laughable.

Simon scrambled off the bed. His posture slightly hunched. He stopped in front of the mirror on her vanity table. There he stood taller and met her gaze through the reflective glass. “I think my ability to talk to animals, and make them move the way I want them to, is the beginning of something big. Real big.”

I’m not freaking out.
But her heart started to speed up, despite her internal chant. “How big, Simon. What’s happened?”

Simon’s eyes drifted shut, his hands clenched at his sides. “I think of the animal I want to talk to.

Think of the way their body moves, the way they breathe.” Simon stretched his neck. “I feel their hearts beat. Birds have this—fluttering rate that 10

Redeeming Vows

moves so fast I feel like I need to run to keep up with it. When they take flight, I look down and see the world as they do. The freedom of flight.” He sighed.

“There’s nothing like it. If I try hard enough, and stretch my arms…” Simon lifted his limbs wide, a smile expanded over his face. “I feel myself start to change. If I can focus just a little more, I’ll be able to taste it. Be it.”

Liz held her breath and stared. The back of Simon’s neck moved in a way that wasn’t normal.

Wasn’t human.

I’m not freaking out, I’m not freaking out.

Simon sighed, dropped his arms in frustration, and opened his eyes. The narrow iris of his beautiful eyes stretched vertically and blinked. They opened again and his eyes remained, elongated. Not the eyes of her son, but the eyes of the bird he imagined himself to be.

Liz’s lip trembled.

Simon watched her reaction. When he turned to face her, he blinked again. His eyes rolled back and finally returned to normal.

The only thing keeping her on her feet was the uncertainty on Simon’s face. He wanted her approval.

“Wow,” she said while dragging in one long and deep breath.

“Yeah, wow.”

“We knew your powers were going to get stronger.” She didn’t think they would actually change his physical appearance.

“I know. I’ve been working on them.” He let a smile creep higher. He was proud. Excited. But they weren’t talking about an A on his report card. They were talking about her son changing form, species.

Liz turned away, hiding the fear deep in her heart and her mind. His ability to read her thoughts would tell him just how much she
was
freaking out.

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Catherine Bybee

“Do you feel like you’re in control?”

“Yes…and no. I mean, I know I’m making myself, change. But I can’t make it happen. Not completely anyway.”

“When you stop trying, you feel normal again?”

“Kind of. Sometimes it takes a little time to feel completely normal.”

Liz forced her lips up. “Okay. Well then, is that it? Nothing else going on?”

Simon’s brows came together. “What?”

“You don’t have a girlfriend you’ve met in the village? No siege from Ireland pending?” If she didn’t laugh, she was going to break down.

“No, Mom.” He rolled his eyes.

Hiding the shake in her hand, she picked up
Seventh Sense
and opened it.

Simon headed for the door.

“Simon?”

He turned.

“When you practice, make sure someone is with you. We wouldn’t want you changing into…

something, and none of us knowing it’s you.”

He nodded, smiled, and left the room.

Liz let her eyes fill with tears as soon as she was alone.

****

After drawing energy to the tips of her fingers and using it to charge the iPod, Liz wiggled the earplugs snug in her ears. She turned the volume as high as she could stand it and went through her workout routine in the far tower of the keep, the one she’d been reduced to using for privacy. The snug T-shirt clung to her frame. Sweat formed on her brow from the physical workout. She’d enjoyed kickboxing classes in LA, the one she forced herself to go to after Simon was born. The one she’d do anything to be in right now.

She closed her eyes and pictured a long length of 12

Redeeming Vows

mirror in front of her, other scantily clad women wearing tight leggings and sports bras at her side.

Thank God she’d had the sense to bring extra modern clothes for Tara when she’d come here to visit. Otherwise, she’d have to wear some poor excuse for workout clothes instead of the cool cotton she had on now.

Listening to the electric guitar of Nickelback, Liz bobbed back and forth on her feet before lifting her leg in a vertical kick, shoulder height. Her muscles grew warm, free. Her breath came quickly without the tight binding dresses she was forced to wear in this time. God, it felt good.

She pivoted, bobbed, and punched at her invisible enemy.

****

Fin ascended the stairs, expecting to find Elizabeth sitting in front of an open window with one of her famous books in her hand. When he approached the door, he heard a scuffling of feet and a small grunt.

He went on alert and placed a hand to his sword at his side.

Slowly, he opened the door. Ready.

Liz had her back to him, oblivious of his presence. The clothing she wore clung to her every curve, sweat beading down her back, her legs bare for him to see in what she and her sister called

“shorts.”

He stood tall, no longer fearing for her safety, or his own. Her tiny butt swayed back and forth, causing him to swallow hard. The fabric of the shorts held so closely to her skin he could see every line of her feminine body.

Liz started singing along to the music she listened to.

God it was awful. She couldn’t carry a tune to save her life, but it was the most beautiful sound 13

Catherine Bybee

he’d heard all week.

Liz turned and shot her foot in his direction. Fin snapped out of the trance she’d put him in by simply existing.

She straightened. Obvious surprise marred her face to see him standing there watching. Instead of removing the ear pieces where the music flowed, she bent her knees and put her hands in front of her face, asking to spar.

Fin laughed. “Come on, lass. You can’t be serious.”

Her chin lifted. “What’s a matter, Finlay? Afraid I’ll kick your ass?”

He shook his head, closed the door behind him, and removed his sword from his hip. No use nicking anyone by accident. Rolling around on the floor with Elizabeth sweating beneath him was a recurring fantasy of his since they’d met. Of course, this wasn’t exactly how he pictured it. But he’d take what he could get.

A pearl of sweat fell down her neck, over her collarbone and disappeared between the alabaster crease of her breasts. He licked his dry lips.

Liz circled, confident. Fin waited for her to make the first move.

He didn’t have to wait long.