The Vampire Laird (A Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mystery/Romance) (16 page)

“Their clothes were new…had London labels. One had a small tattoo on her ankle that someone had tried to obliterate, but forensics pulled it up. It was the word ‘Kohanya’…Ukranian for love. They were Ukrainians…a favored commodity in human trafficking in the UK.. We checked the tides and currents and figured they went into the water right about here. So we took a plane and flew along the coast, then spotted this very isolated village, manor and castle, but it was the nice little cove and the airstrip that caught our interest. So I went undercover and turn up here in bed with you, sort of a deja vue thing as I only too well remember. Now I’m going to kiss you and you can resist within reason, but no biting.”

And he did. She thrashed around and tried to avoid his mouth, but, quite honestly, her heart wasn’t in it. Finally, she lay quietly and he moved his lips slowly over hers until she found her body responding…filling…pulsing with a honeyed warmth. She opened her eyes to make sure he wasn’t just a dream and found him looking at her. He raised his head high enough to whisper, ” Your turn. What’s the situation here?”

It took a moment for her to slip back into reality. She had been lost in a kiss and cursed herself silently for being such an idiot. “You’re right about the women and they’re smuggling drugs, too, and other stuff he didn’t name. Allyn is hiding in my room under the bed and Meg is feigning a sprained ankle. We plan on sneaking out of here tonight, though I’m not sure how far we’ll get. Allyn has been drugged for so long he’s a zombie going through withdrawal and not too pleasantly. Kiss me again. Please.”

He laughed and brushed her lips with the tip of his finger. “Not yet. First I want to get those clothes off you.”

“You should have thought of that before you tied me to the posts,” she told him with laughter lighting her eyes.

He sighed and shook his head, but there was laughter in his eyes, too. “Probably. But I can push that…whatever it is… up and pull your jeans off once we remove your shoes, but you’ll have to resist with more enthusiasm than you’ve shown lately.”

She kicked at him as he pulled off her sneakers and dropped them on the floor, then wrestled her jeans and panties down over her squirming hips. Breathing hard, he straddled her and pulled her tank top up over her breasts, then leaned forward and locked his passion darkened eyes with hers. He was no longer smiling. “You’re still wearing that robe and I’m feeling a bit underdressed,” she murmured, fighting the tingle of desire that tightened her breasts and invaded her lower belly.

“I can strip, if you don’t mind being in full view,” he murmured back.

She shuddered with revulsion as she remembered that Seth was watching them and quite possibly Orianna as well. It would fit right in with her other dark proclivities. But rational thought was beginning to desert her, as her pulse pounded harder and her breathing quickened. “Don’t you think you are carrying our little scene a bit too far?”

“No,” was his terse reply as his hot mouth found the curve of her neck.

“What is that pressing into my stomach?” she asked in a choked voice.

His laugh was truly wicked. “Now what do you think it is?”

She gulped and closed her eyes. “Zack.”

He moaned and lifted his head till he was looking into her eyes. “What now?”

What now indeed, she thought with a sigh, finding she no longer cared where they were or who was watching. “I really think I’m ready,” she murmured.

But he surprised her when he told her through tightly clenched teeth. “So it would seem, but it’s not going to be for his entertainment no matter how much I want to drive myself into you right now. But I’m going to spread your legs while you lash about and. from there we’ll have to see just how much self-control I have.”

He did as promised, but he was breathing heavily, his mouth contorted in a grimace as he told her hoarsely, “Okay. let’s fake the hell out of this and get it over with before I really do rape you.”

And somehow they did. Afterwards, as he lay on top of her supposedly sated, he whispered in a voice still thick with passion. “Soon.”

With that, he drew his robe back up over his shoulders and belted the front to hid the evidence of his unspent desire. Moving quickly, he untied her hands and pulled her to a sitting position. As she adjusted her top, he threw her jeans and shoes on the bed next to her. “Get dressed. I need to get you out of here safely before I leave. I will do all I can to help you, but they took my gun and phone when I arrived. There is a boat of ours waiting some distance offshore, a fishing boat full of our people, but they have orders to do nothing until they hear from me, which is going to be difficult…if not impossible. Promise me you’ll be careful tonight. Get to a place of safety and stay there until I can get us some outside help.”

She nodded, still feeling the drug of her own passion, as she fumbled with the zipper of her jeans. He led her to the door, which opened before he had even knocked. Seth stood just outside and he didn’t seem pleased. “So, you tamed the shrew. Well done.”

Zack stared at him coldly. “Consider her my property now, which means no one touches her but me. No one. I’ll walk with her as far as her room just to make sure.”

Seth narrowed his eyes and flashed a smile that was little more than a show of teeth, but that was his only reply.

***

With Zack alongside, the two men walked Charlie back to Meg’s room, where she had insisted they take her. Meg was waiting for her, when she slipped inside, then leaned against its surface for support. “Are you all right? I was so worried I was about to go looking for you. What happened and why are you smiling like that…or whatever that is you’re doing?”

Charlie led her away from the door before she replied. “You’ll never guess who’s here.”

“No…probably not…so tell me before I pinch you silly,” an exasperated Meg replied.

“Zack’s here…undercover as the new client I told you about.”

“The one who got first dibs on… you?”

“Me. Sort of. I was taken to this opium den sadist parlor…whatever it was…and given to Zack while Seth watched through a peephole.”

“Let me get this straight. You had sex with Zack while Seth watched?” Meg squealed in round eyed horror.

“We pretended to have sex…though we may have gotten a wee bit carried away. They took his gun and phone so he can’t call for help even though there is a fishing boat in the area full of his ‘people’ whoever they are. He wants us to get to some place safe and stay there until he can get help.”

“Which we plan on doing as soon as it gets dark enough. I just checked. There are some clouds along the horizon, but the moon is already up and full. There will be plenty of light for us to see where we’re going.”

“And plenty of light for them to see us. The drop is at midnight and we need to be safely hidden by then or there will be too much going on for someone not to notice three people on horseback on a barren moor.”

“Are you ready for me to get started with the seance? I can’t promise I’ll reach Meaghan, but I’ll do my best,” Meg said, as she cleared a small side table and pulled up a chair.

Charlie pulled up a second and sat down. “Too bright in here?”

“I wish I had some candles…they lend a lot of ambience. I’ll turn on the light in the bathroom and crack the door open just a slit. Be right back.”

Returning, Meg took the seat across from her sister and smiled. “Do you think we should invite Allyn? He’s awake and pacing around your room.”

“Let’s try it first without him. We can use him as bait if we have to.”

“Then take my hands…you know the routine.”

And she did. How many of Meg’s seances had she sat through in the attic of their childhood home? She answered her own question. Too many and the last one at Hensley Hall had scared the spit out of her.

Meg moaned largely for effect and said, “Meaghan. If you can hear me please come to us, but if you can’t hear us, then, of course, you won’t be able to come, but maybe…”

“Get to the point,” Charlie hissed.

Meg kicked her shin and ‘shushed’ her before she continued. “We do need your help, Meaghan. Please come,” she intoned, rocking from side to side. Nothing happened. “Meaghan…please. I’m begging you here. Allyn needs you, too.”

The bait…the hook and snap. A radiant blue fog began to spiral down the chimney. On the marble hearth, it began to take shape and, in moments, Meaghan stood before them smiling sweetly. “How do ye need my help?” she asked in her soft burr.

Charlie spoke for both of them. “We’ve got to get to the stables tonight without being seen and we don’t know how to do that.”

“And it needs to be the shortest way possible. Allyn’s coming with us and he’s still not very strong,” Meg added.

Meaghan seemed to be considering all that. “Ye could leave Allyn with me. I will care for him.”

Charlie was afraid of that. “He needs medical attention right now. Can you help us?”

Meaghan danced around the room, pausing on the balcony to look out into the night. The moon lit her and she tilted her face to its bright surface then smiled. “I will take ye. How soon till ye are ready?”

“Thank you, Meaghan. Soon…we have a few things to do and then we’ll leave,” Meg told her gratefully.

Moving quickly, they gathered up the flashlight and armed themselves with the kitchen knives. Allyn was asleep again and responded sluggishly to their insistence he get up and get moving. “Get a sweater on him, Meg. It will be quite cool by morning and who knows where we’ll end up spending the rest of the night.” While Meg dressed their brother, Charlie stuffed pillows under their blankets and hoped, if no one snooped too closely, it would look like they were still abed. If all went well, they should have plenty of time to get away, but the past had taught her that the ‘should haves’ didn’t always happen.

Finally, they all met back in Meg’s room and opened the panel to the secret passage.

“Charlie, why don’t we just hide somewhere in these walls? There must be a hidden room, where no one would find us and it would be a whole lot easier than trying to drag Allyn all over the place,” Meg said, eying their brother doubtfully.

Meaghan answered for her. “Ye will not be safe here. Ye have my word on it.”

“So that settles that,” Meg muttered with a sigh. Nothing was ever simple and, if it ever was something was bound to be wrong.

Meaghan led the way, then Charlie pulled while Meg pushed Allyn through the opening. Charlie passed the flashlight back to Meg, whispering, “In case you need it. Meaghan is bright enough for me to see where we’re going.”

They turned and twisted their way along the passage they had used before, but instead of turning right at the end, they turned left and stopped, then Meaghan showed Charlie a pivot point in what seemed a solid stone wall. With a scrape and a squeak, the door swung open and they were at the top of a narrow stone staircase that dropped almost straight down into a well of total darkness. “Well, that doesn’t look like it’s going to be an easy climb down, especially with Allyn in his condition,” Charlie said worriedly.

“I am perfectly fine. If you two would just let me alone instead of hauling me about like a sack of potatoes,” Allyn said petulantly.

“You are a sack of potatoes,” Meg told him, resisting the impulse to give him a hard shake. “There’s a rope along the wall. Hang on to it and Charlie and I will hang on to you. Now move.”

Dust and bits of debris were stirred up with their passage, while sticky cobwebs caught at their hair and brushed across their faces. No one had been this way in a very long time, Meg thought in disgust.. A rat squeaked and ducked for cover and she stifled her shriek of surprise and horror. She’d hated rats ever since she’d seen the DVD “Willard’ as a child. “I hope we’re almost out of here,” she muttered.

“Almost,” Meaghan told her over her shoulder. “Just through here.”

“Through here” turned out to be another stone door that opened into what could only be the cellars. There was a pervasive odor of damp, mold and rats. Meg shuddered. Cellars were also on her ‘least favored’ list. “Come on, Meg” Charlie called over her shoulder, knowing she would have to offer some encouragement at this point.

“I’m coming…the faster the better…if I see one more pair of beady red eyes I’ll….”

Allyn sniffed disdainfully. “You always were a wuss.”

“I am not a wuss, Allyn. Just prudent and safety conscious. You have heard of rabies, haven’t you? And rat bites…”

Charlie uttered a warning growl that effectively silenced them both. “Get moving you two and save the bickering for later,” she hissed.

Meaghan led the way through room after room piled high with stacks of old furniture, boxes, crates, and derelict equipment from another era. The floor was thick with stuff neither sister wanted to identify. Another rat blinked at them from the top of an old bureau then fled. This must be hell, Meg thought miserably just as Meaghan came to a stop and pointed upward.

A steep set of stone steps led up to a pair of cellar doors. “I’ll go up first and see if they’re locked. Pray our luck holds, Meg,” Charlie told her, then climbed to the top and pushed upward. The door opened with a creak and she was looking up into the night sky dotted with stars. Thankfully, there was no one in sight. Leaning down, she whispered, “All clear.” Pulling and pushing, they got Allyn up the stairs and out into the dark yard, then lowered the door back in place. Ahead of them, Meaghan was dancing in the moonlight with her usual joyous abandon totally wrapped up in the moment, which Meg found rather irritating. “Psst, Meaghan. How do we get to the stables from here?” she asked.