The Third Fate (2 page)

Harry ran ahead yelling for Jael, and Charity smiled, thinking of her own game a moment before giving her attention fully to the upcoming festivities. She, her brother Harry, and sister Jael had loved games as long as she could remember, since Father Time set the hands of his wondrous clock in motion. Now time marched on, but Charity and her siblings remained the same, children ever indulging in their beloved games.

*

Paige blinked her eyes once, twice, peering about her entryway in hazy confusion.

I really need to get some sleep…

Throwing her woolen wrap over the bench she slumped down, prying the chic heels from her tired feet with a sigh of relief. Twelve hour days plus her commute wreaked havoc on her fashionable tastes. Weariness swept over her, and for once she omitted her regular habit of sitting with a mug of hot tea and magazine to unwind and headed straight for the shower.

Half-an-hour later, cozy in flannel pajamas, Paige sank into her favorite overstuffed chair, pulling the yellow chenille blanket around her shoulders. She was alone; she’d checked the doors and windows twice. But the nagging sensation of a watchful presence lingered eerily. Reaching for her neck, Paige again felt the strange tingling ache surge beneath her fingers.

What is going on with me tonight?

Shaking her head and snuggling into the chair she stretched her legs on the ottoman and sank into deep sleep. Her phone chirped much later, and she uttered apologies in her dreamlike stupor, returning to sleep like the dead. As her body rested, her mind came alive. Erotic images filled her dreams - images of a man. Tall, well over six feet in height with hair the color of blackest midnight and piercing blue eyes, he looked upon her, whispered her name, touched her. She was in paradise! The presence surrounded, occupying all senses at once. Earthy and masculine, his scent filled her with every breath. His voice, low and husky, rumbled through her body with every utterance. His form, hovering over and around her, awakened every nerve in her flesh, leaving her trembling under his gaze and aching for his caress. Yet she could not really see him for the haze in her mind. The images were jumbled, distorted, frustrating. Suddenly, he was solid before her again. But his eyes were now blood red, his gaze hungry and sexual in a way that frightened her.

And aroused her.

In predatory manner he smelled her, a terrifying and wildly sensual groan emanating from him as he gripped her head, tilting it to expose her neck to his mouth. His eyes raked over her, and terror welled inside Paige at the sight of his incisors elongating.

He was vampire.

She made to scream, but no sound escaped her. In helplessness she felt the blood being drawn from her body, feared that she would die like this, alone and afraid. A startling and disturbing truth dawned. The vampire was
with
her, she was not alone. Then the pleasure came. The sweet, sweet pleasure…

Chest heaving, Paige Kinnell started up from her chair.

It was a dream, Paige. Only a dream.

It took her body much longer to accept that fact. Combing her fingers through her long, blond hair, tangled after sleeping, Paige climbed from the chair and plodded to the kitchen. She wanted coffee. The rich aroma of dark roast filled her nostrils before she plucked the canister down, and she chuckled at the power of subliminal suggestion. Merely thinking of coffee produced some chemical or another in her brain that had her believing she could smell it, through an airtight container no less!

No one’s olfactory senses are that developed.

The cell phone chimed her alarm, and after starting her brew station Paige shuffled to the living room to silence the cheery wake-up call, too fatigued to muster her pace. The phone blared anew, and Paige answered it testily.

“
What is it, Brooke?”

The cheery voice on the other end ignored her rude beginning.

“
You have something to tell us?” her cousin, Brooke, teased wickedly.

Brooke and Lara were more like sisters than cousins. Their mother, her Aunt Anna, raised her alongside them. Their being twins – and she only 5 months younger – made them more like triplets. Anna had formally adopted her and named her as her own child after her mother had died giving birth to her. It was something her Aunt refused to discuss, and Paige assumed it was too painful a memory for her to relive. The few times they talked about her mother had been brief, and Sissy – as all three girls called her, doing so since they could speak – explained that she and Paige’s mother had been closer than any sisters there ever were, and that losing her own twin, Agnes, had been the most painful event of her life. After that, Paige hesitated to dredge up so awful a sorrow for her beloved Sissy.

“
What would I have to tell?” Paige questioned, having no idea of what her cousin was talking about.

“
Don’t you dare play the shy little virgin this morning, Paige Kinnell! We want details, woman!”

Brooke’s voice carried overly well through the line, and Paige held the phone away from her ear, protecting her eardrum.

“
What in all of Hades are you about, calling me in the morning and asking me silly questions? Details? Of what?”

Brooke screamed in exasperation, and had Paige been at the library she would have hung up on her already. Half of Glasgow could surely hear her big mouth.

“
Of that beautiful man you went on about last night on the phone! You know, the one with the black hair? The icy blue eyes? The body built to make a saint sin? That’s who! Are you daft? Do you remember talking to me last night?”

Oddly, Paige did not remember that; however, she did remember the man. The man from her dreams.

Oh bother! How can I explain this?

“
I must have been dreaming or something. Sorry, but there’s really nothing to tell, girls.”

“
Paige, honey… if those are your dreams, I need to know what you were drinking before you went to sleep!”

Brooke laughed again, relating the conversation to Lara, who guffawed in the background. Paige smiled, her first of the morning. They made her crazy, but she couldn’t imagine life without them. The ‘Terrible Trio’, that’s what Sissy had named them in their elementary years. A strong bond glued them to one another; Sissy had seen to that.

All ye really ha’ is each other. Never forget that, lassies. Never. Let no soul ever come between ye.

“
All right, you two. I’ve got to get ready for work. Call me later. Maybe I’ll get out of there on time for once.”

“
You should come out with us tonight,” Brooke invited. “We’re going to Jinty McGinty’s…It’ll be fun.”

“
I don’t know,” Paige hesitated. “You know I don’t drink much, and sitting around while everyone else does is not all that fun.”

“
Oh, come on! It’s been an age since you let your hair down. All work and no play make Paige a dull girl. You’re too timid, Paige. How are you ever going to land a man if you…” Someone or something interrupted Brooke’s sage-like lecture, saving Paige the trouble of begging off the line. “Sorry, Paige! Gotta run! I’ll call you at seven sharp. And for the love of Henry wear something more risque than a turtleneck.”

The line went dead, and Paige heaved a sigh of relief, muttering as she readied for work.

“
What’s the matter with my turtleneck sweaters anyway?”

Cael fingered the Celtic cross taken from around the female’s neck, a link to her in the days of separation since he’d indulged. Her blood song enchanted him even now in the safety of Fife Manor, his coven’s safe house, and he hardened painfully in recollection of the potent elixir that coursed through her veins. Cursing, he raked his hands through his dark, wavy hair, mustering every ounce of self-control he possessed to stop himself from going to her. It was against everything he knew to desire a mortal this way. Yet her blood told another tale, a tale of the undead, of Druid lines.

Go to her. Drink and fuck…

Back and forth he paced like a caged animal, hanging onto his sanity by a thread. He needed help. Conjuring the image of Raven House, Cael faded until nothing remained but the faint hint of shadow where he had just stood. Then even that was gone. The wood plank floor creaked as Cael solidified in shape at his destination. He hoped to discover The Raven willing to accommodate him. Many years had passed since he last partook of her services. He’d been desperate then, too.

Overwhelmed with grief and burning with blood lust, Cael had been deposited by his worried coven mates in this reception room after Rose MacAllister had been taken from his bed and left to burn in the dawn. He never discovered whose hand had been responsible. Fevered with thirst, thirst he had denied rather than betray the memory of young, carefree Rose and his failure to protect her, Cael had writhed on the floor – the very same where he now stood willingly - then helpless to refuse the attentions paid to him in Raven’s care. He hoped she would have the cure for him now as she had then.

“
You have need, Cael Maccinnis?” the sultry voice purred.

The curtains parted revealing Raven, her sensuous beauty unchanged over time.

“
I do,” he ground through clenched teeth.

“
And you wish to find relief from your torments within the walls of Raven House?”

Her sexy tone left nothing to the imagination. Cael remained silent before her.

“
Have you had another incident? That would be a shame. I cannot imagine why else an ancient would have need of the soothing I offer. If you needed to feed only, well, the human chattel would suffice.”

Her smile never touched her eyes. She was bargaining, he realized.

Or fishing…

“
What is it you ask of me?”

Circling, Raven drank in his scent, her laugh soft and throaty.

“
Her scent is strong on you, Maccinnis. No scent of death surrounds you this visit. Has she refused you?”

Cael offered no answer, which The Raven took as affirmation of her suspicions.

“
Ah, I see,” she whispered. “Rest easy, Highlander. Your desire shall soon be slaked. First, there is the question of payment – but,” her feline purr admitted, “you were such a pleasure to ease before, Cael Maccinnis, that I ask only a trifle, really. I desire the company of your coven-mate, Alden, for one night. It is not too much to ask, is it?” Running her hand over the bulge in his pants, Raven cooed, “You know I cannot take but what is offered freely, Maccinnis. Open yourself to me.”

“
Raven,” his voice stilled her hand, “I will accompany Alden here, but I make no promise that he will welcome your attentions.”

“
It is enough, Highlander,” she allowed. “He will not refuse my offering.”

Betraying every instinct he possessed Cael opened his thoughts to the she-vamp. He had to put an end to his lust for the mortal. Otherwise, he would bond himself to the human woman before Samhain. Wiping his mind blank, Cael focused only on the relief he would gain mentally and physically under Raven’s expert hands. Stroking him as her fangs scraped across his neck, Raven encouraged his lust.

Unbidden, images of the beautiful mortal flooded his consciousness. He raged with lust, eyes reddening once again, the memory of her taste awakening the beast within him. Raven hissed, shrinking away from him as if burned.

“
What is this?” she shrieked. “You lie, Highlander! The female has not refused you; your mind cries out to her even now!” Backing away from him she continued, “I can do nothing for you, Cael Maccinnis. Your desire is unwilling, bound to another. Another who yet walks among the living…”

“
I did not bond her!” he rasped in denial, immediately closing himself off from the psychic link all vampires shared.

As an ancient he could do this, but it was difficult to accomplish without alerting other vampires. They grew suspicious of anyone choosing to close the link between them.

“
Your thoughts claim otherwise,” she laughed in a knowing way. “Seek your ease with the mysterious human consuming your thoughts and be at peace.”

Raven faded, turning to mist before his eyes, ending the matter. Cael was on his own.

*

Anna Kinnell, Sissy to her girls, sat across the kitchen table from her niece, a worried look creeping over her features.

“
Did ye sleep well last night? Ye look tired, lass.”

Rising from the cushioned chair she reached for a mug from the top shelf.

“
Here, let me get that, Sissy,” Paige offered. “Where’s your stool?”

“
Stool!” Sissy snorted. “It’s a wee lass that needs a stool. I’m no helpless girl, mind ye. I’ve lived longer ‘an ye – and get on just fine, too.”

“
I’m just trying to help,” Paige laughed. “Independence is fine, Sissy, but letting someone help you once in awhile is good, too.”

“
I’ll not be a pamperin’ myself like some old natty!” Sissy huffed, pouring a steaming cup of tea and setting it before Paige on the worn, gold-flecked Formica table top. “Now let’s hear why ye be sportin’ those dark circles under yer jade eyes.”

“
Stop worrying over me. I had long days at work this week, and when I finally collapsed at night these crazy dreams kept me from resting proper. I’ll be right as rain once I catch a cat nap or two.”