The Skye Trilogy: Isle of Skye, Isle of Night, and Isle of Dawn. * Bonus: Scrumptious Skye Confections Cookbook* (112 page)

Mathias shrugged indifferently, and Winifred continued. “We didn’t know until he opened his eyes that he was more Rau than anything. The first few days were extremely difficult, but there has been a change.”

“What happened?” I asked

“Your mother was visiting him and stood too close to the bars,” Winifred said haltingly. I closed my eyes and held my breath for a moment before releasing it slowly. “He fed off of her and then curiously released her as she was close to death.”

“He stopped himself?” Mathias said

“Yes,” Winifred said. “Not only that but he started screaming for Willa.”

That was my breaking point. I started crying uncontrollably, and Cupcake whined frantically as Mathias gathered me into his arms. I didn’t know how to feel, but hearing that my father yelled out for me and even knew who I was made me happy and sad at the same time.

I calmed down, and Mathias wiped my eyes tenderly. Winifred watched us before speaking again.

“He is trying to remember everyone and who he is, but he has a long way to go before he can have our trust and be let out of his cell,” she said. “I went there, and when he smelled me, he went crazy, I can only imagine what he would do if he took a good whiff of you Willa.”

I nodded. “I have to see him.”

“I just hope that you can make peace with all that has happened,” she said as she drew me in for a hug.

“I don’t have a choice,” I said. “I just hope I can get on the Isle of Skye otherwise this is all going to become a real pain in the ass.”

“Oh you still have plenty of Gypsy blood in you,” she said

“Tell my mom I love her, and I’ll see her tomorrow,” I said. “I need to see him first though and I want to do it by myself.”

I stood back and opened a portal to her office on the Isle. She stepped in and turned around to give me a sad smile before waving goodbye. As the portal disappeared I fell back in Mathias’s arms, and we stood there for a long time before my stomach embarrassingly growled again.

“You’re hungry again?” he asked as his twinkled with amusement

“I’m always hungry,” I answered

“Come on, I’ll feed you and then we’re going back to bed,” he said as he led me inside

“It’s only like noontime,” I observed

“Not a tremendous amount of time left until we leave tomorrow, but I need to make good on my promise.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked confused as I watched him start making a huge sandwich

“I believe I said when you returned that I was going to make love to you so many times that you wouldn’t be able to walk for a week,” he replied. “I intend to keep my end of the bargain.”

“Well, who I am to get in the way of your lofty goals?” I asked laughing

Later that night in bed as I lay in his arms, with Cupcake on one side of me and Oscar by my feet, I let out a sigh.

“Well, I can say with all honesty that tomorrow will definitely be a challenge walking or even getting up out of bed.”

“I’ll have to try harder next time to ensure that you won’t be able to do it for several days,” he said as he placed a long searing kiss on my lips

“I will look forward to your efforts,” I replied sleepily

Chapter Twenty

“You’re bringing all those batteries with you?” I asked Mathias the next morning as we packed our belongings up to leave

“Of course,” he answered. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“No reason,” I said shaking my head. I shoved the last of our clothes into a large suitcase that Mathias had bought and headed downstairs. I was just going through the refrigerator when Mathias came down with our bag from the bathroom.

“Just throw all the food in those heavy duty trash bags and I’ll take it to the garbage station,” he said absently

“I’m not throwing all of this away,” I said. “Over half of it is practically brand new.”

“You want to carry food through the portal?” he asked incredulously

“You want to bring batteries and I want to bring food,” I said

“Fine but at least separate the half used stuff and I’ll get rid of it before we leave,” he said

“Roger dodger,” I said. Twenty minutes later I had three bags of food to take with us and two to go to the dump. Mathias just looked at my pile of food that I was keeping and rolled his eyes before taking off down the road at a sprint.

I did one last check of the house and made sure everything was straightened up in the rooms. I didn’t want Robert and Katya to come back to a messy cabin. I was also hoping that they would be able to come back. It was almost too much to hope that I would return, but I did want them to live. I thought about leaving the dogs here, but I just couldn’t bear to leave them alone for that long and even though it was selfish I had to have them with me for now.

Mathias came back, and I went right into his arms. We both looked around the cabin one last time, and I went outside with Oscar and Cupcake to wait for him to lock everything up and set the alarm. When he came out, I turned towards the meadow and opened a portal on the beach of Mathias’s island. I knew it was early afternoon, and when the smell of the salt air hit me I smiled.

We both stepped thru the portal, and Mathias had a hell of a time holding onto Cupcake but eventually he, the dogs and all our belongings were finally on the beach. I closed the portal and took several cleansing breaths. I could feel the magic enchantments that were around the island but they didn’t bother me too much. My stomach took a giant flip, but that was about all that happened.

We had just started walking down the path to the treehouse when I heard a sound. Mathias and I both stiffened and stopped in our tracks.

“Hello?” a voice called out and I recognized it immediately.

“Hi Patty boy,” I yelled back. Patcoena and
Summer came around the corner and approached us cautiously.

“Willa,”
Summer said kindly. “It’s so good to see you. You look wonderful.”

“Thanks Summer,” I said before turning to Patcoena. We had been through so much together in a short amount of time, and while I couldn’t say that we were close, we were definitely comrades in arms.

“Willa,” Patcoena said and I dropped my bags to walk in front of him. I gave him a short hug and stepped back. I could see the emotions in his eyes and it made me almost sad. I could tell they were both weary of me, but then I remembered something. Patcoena had been watching me my whole life. I may not have known him for that long, but he knew me for twenty six years, and I’m sure watching me lose my mind had to have been hard on him.

“Thank you for watching over me,” I said to him before turning to
Summer, “And thank you both for helping with my father and Rhoswen’s conversion.”

“We tried so hard but…” Summer started to say

“That was more than enough.” I interrupted her. “So what brings you guys here?”

“When Winifred told us you were due to arrive today
Summer, and I thought we would straighten up Mathias’s house and bring over some food. We wanted to make sure you were comfortable, and we also didn’t want you to have to worry about those pesky little details right when you came back.” Patcoena said

“Thank you very much,” Mathias said. “Willa brought an entire grocery store with her from Colorado but I’m sure she might have forgotten a few things.”

“I wasn’t throwing away the rib eye steaks, ok?” I said

Patcoena and
Summer smiled while they petted the dogs. “We’ll leave you to settle in now but I’m sure we’ll see you soon,” Patcoena said

“I hope so,” I muttered. “I’m not sure if I can even make it on the island.”

“I’m confident you will be able to get there just fine,” Patcoena said

“Thanks again,” I said before they teleported away. “That was nice of them.”

Mathias nodded, and we continued our trek down the path. I stopped when we came to a small waterfall and hot springs. I had a few very lovely memories of being in that water.

“What do you say we go for a dip tonight?” Mathias asked mischievously

“I would say hell yea,” I replied. When we finally made it to the treehouse, I looked up and smiled. I was home, I thought to myself. The five different structures that Mathias had lovingly build in and around the trees made my heart sing with happiness until I looked at Cupcake.

“How are the dogs getting up there?” I asked. “It’s going to be a real pain if you’re not around to take them out and bring them back inside again.”

“Robert and Riah built a ramp off of the kitchen for them,” Mathias explained as he took me around to the other side of the trees. A new, long winding ramp now led up to the kitchen structure, and the dogs walked up gingerly to a brand new kitchen glass door that had been put at the top of the ramp recently.

“Wow, it looks great,” I said enthusiastically. Everything looked exactly the same but this time even more homey as I spied some of my things placed here and there. When I stepped into the living room, I went right to the bookcase and saw some of my books and old yearbooks set amongst Mathias’s belongings.

“How did my books get here?” I asked

“Polly and Julia brought your stuff over,” Mathias said as he leaned in the doorway

“So when you say stuff…?

“I figured this is where you would be more comfortable for now,” Mathias explained. “I was worried about how you would react on the Isle of Skye.”

“I guess this means we are truly shacking up together,” I grinned

“We have for some time now,” he answered back, “If you want to go to your house that’s fine.”

“No,” I said as I looked around the room. “This is my home now.”

We went about unpacking, and I familiarized myself with everything. Even though, I had spent time here before I left to go on my quest, Mathias had kept me pretty busy. I suppose I had been in that new relationship sexual haze when I was here so details like where the silverware went, and where the fresh towels in the linen closet were neatly stacked, didn’t stick in my mind. When I had everything unpacked, I stood by the bed and looked out the window.

I was stalling, and I knew that it was time to face the music or this case my fears. I had to see my father and then my mother. I wasn’t sure what I was more nervous about, seeing my father all scary red eye Rau vampire or my mother crying and hugging me so tight that she would cut off my circulation. I felt Mathias next to me, and I leaned into him. He wrapped his arms around me, and we stood together for a few minutes in silence.

“He’s on the other side of the island,” he said

“I know,” I replied softly. “I can feel him.”

“Lucian and Riah are with him now,” Mathias said. “I can have them leave.”

“No, I need to see Riah.”

Mathias nodded and took my hand. I climbed onto his back wordlessly. I probably could’ve gotten us there quicker by teleporting, but I wanted to prolong this for as long as I could. We touched down on the other side of the island which was thick with trees. I saw a metal door hidden between two rocks and followed Mathias wordlessly as he punched in a code and went thru the door.

We walked down two stories on a brightly lit staircase. The air was cold and sterile around me. I shivered involuntarily. I could feel the elements try and nudge their way to me, but I pushed them away. I wanted to feel this on my own. I needed to do this without magic. Mathias paused in front of the second door, and I nodded to him. He punched in another code, and when the door opened I spied Riah right away.

He was standing still in the hallway right in front of me. He must have known we were coming and for a moment I couldn’t move or speak. Riah looked as handsome as ever with his shoulder length blonde hair and deep blue eyes. I saw his jaw clenching, and it made his chiseled cheeks more pronounced. Most women swoon at the sight of Riah, but to me he was just my Guardian and best buddy.

I felt the tears prick my eyes, and I tried to blink them back but I couldn’t stop a few from flowing down my cheeks. I bit my lip and looked up at the ceiling. I wasn’t mad at Riah. I knew he did what he had to do, and I was thankful it was him. I had so many emotions but most of all I just realized how much I missed him.

He didn’t move, and I could see he was holding back for me. I wiped my eyes and looked him right in the face. “You mother fucker.”