The Vampire Laird (A Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mystery/Romance) (19 page)

It seemed like hours later, when he rubbed his eyes, wearily, and leaned against the wall. He would rest…a few moments no more, he thought. He was amazed that no one from the manor had spotted him yet and then he heard a noise below. Someone had opened the tower door. He looked around desperately, but there was no place to hide. Whoever was coming up the stairs had him cornered like a rat.

The footfall on the stone steps was stealthily moving upward. The only way out of the tower was down those same steps or the bell rope that looked ancient and frayed. He shot a quick glance down into the darkness far below him and shuddered. “It’s okay, Allyn. It’s just like the rope climb in gym class,” he lied to himself in a hoarse whisper. Grabbing the rope, he began a hasty descent, praying fervently all the way. The bell rang raucously but there was no help for that. A dark figure on the steps made a grab for him, as he passed and then a shot rang out, the muzzle flash lighting the tower briefly. Startled, he almost lost his grip, but, gritting his teeth, he kept going until he reached the end of the rope and dropped the short distance to the stone floor. Someone shouted and he could hear the clatter of feet racing to intercept him, but an adrenaline rush carried him through the church unscathed. Once outside, he scrambled for cover behind the closest headstone.

Peering around its side, he saw a figure appear in the doorway. It was Angus…no mistake. The same Angus who had betrayed Charlie and delivered her into Seth’s evil hands. He breathed a sigh of relief as he turned and vanished back inside the church, where he could well spend precious moments looking for him. Hunkering down in the thick grass behind the tall granite tombstone, he considered his options. He would need a place to hide and quickly. Where wouldn’t Angus look for him? And then it came to him…his old room in the manse under their very noses! Of course, there was still Tilda to consider, but he would have to take his chances.

Crouching low, he zigzagged through the cemetery till he reached the low hedges in front of the manse. The kitchen was well lit but the front of the house was dark. Taking a deep breath, he darted across the open space and up the front steps. The door opened at his touch and he smiled at his good luck.

He stepped inside and eased the door quietly shut behind him, then listened intently. All was quiet except for the tick of the long case clock in the hall and the clatter of pans in the kitchen. At least now he knew where Tilda was. Running into her in the dark had not been an enticing proposition!

Moving as quickly as he could, he crossed the dark entry hall to the stairs and made his way up, hugging the wall for support as his adrenalin rush deserted him. The upper hall was as deserted as he expected. Everything was going just fine, he thought. Angus was looking for him outside, Tilda was in the kitchen, and safety was just a few steps ahead. Then he heard the front door open and Angus bellow angrily, “It was him messing with the light. I almost had the little bugger, but he got away.” Tilda’s voice joined his and then both were muffled, as they pushed their way through the swing door into the kitchen.

His heartbeat was as rapid as a gerbil’s by the time he opened the door to his old room and closed it behind him. He crossed to the window and looked up the hill, where lights seemed to be on all over the manor. Meg should be up there by now, he thought grimly. Had she found Charlie? And just what could Meg do if she had? If only he could be sure his signal had reached someone on the right side of this mess. But Meg had been right for once. Who dicked around with Morse Code these days? But who was being the negative one now? Someone had seen it and help was on the way…it had to be. Holding that thought dear, he crawled under the bed to wait out the rest of the night.

Meg sat for a moment in the road where she’d fallen, then laboriously hauled herself to her feet. The flashlight she’d stuck in the waistband of her jeans had fallen out and rolled a few feet away. She scrambled to recover it and sighed in relief when her fingers closed around its cold surface. Pointing it towards the ground, she held her breath and flipped the switch. So far so good…it wasn’t broken and neither was she, she thought, which would make what she had to do a whole lot easier.

Brushing off her jeans, she retucked the flashlight and looked up at the manor that was still some distance up the moors. It seemed like light streamed from every window, which wouldn’t be helpful for what she had in mind…or almost had in mind. The final bits were yet to be worked out!

She planned on sneaking back in the way they’d sneaked out, but beyond that her plan fizzled. How was she ever going to find her sister in that monstrous stone pile riddled with secret passages and rooms that Seth probably knew well, since Orianna certainly knew her way about. Maybe Meaghan could be persuaded to come back and help, she thought. At least it was worth a try.

As fast as she could, she climbed the steep slope, keeping to whatever cover she could find along the way. Chanting Meaghan’s name as she trudged, she hoped to see her appear in usual Meaghan fashion, though a bright glowing ball might be a little obvious to anyone looking their way. Nothing happened, so she tried begging. That didn’t work either. She must be busy elsewhere else, she decided, and hoped she wasn’t
busy
with Allyn who was too weak to resist a seduction that could well leave him sucked dry as a raisin or a ……. She gave up on her metaphor and shook her head. It was stupid to worry about what
might
happen, when there was so very much ‘happening’ right now.

Her thoughts carried her as far as the outer wall that fronted the manor. Keeping low, she stayed out of sight of the main gate and circled the wall towards the stable. Hiding in the trees behind it, she looked around. The tack room light was on, but no one seemed to be about. Taking a deep breath, she darted towards the paddock fence and moved along its edge, hoping its scant cover would conceal her from the relentless moon.

The big bay was in the paddock and nickered a greeting. She held her breath, waiting to see if anyone would investigate the noise. Moving forward, she was dismayed to see the bay following along side, clearly curious about her strange behavior. “Scoot,” she whispered, pushing on the nose he shoved over the fence just above where she crouched. He nickered again and her heart stopped. “Please be a good horse and go some place else. Any place else,” she begged. His tongue flicked out and he lipped a lock of her hair. “Ouch! Stop that,” she cried, pulling a curl out of his mouth and backing out of his reach. He snorted and tossed his head and she took off at a run, heading for the next available cover…a cluster of ornamental trees near the stable doors.

Deep in the safety of their shadows, one hand, absently, explored the spit soaked curl on top of her head, while she tried to remember the route they had all taken earlier. A howl drifted over the moors. Orianna was out there with Cerberus looking for them. There was something predatory and savagely evil about the woman who looked so much like the playful Meaghan. But then she remembered, Meaghan…
playful
Meaghan with her childlike smile… was a real Baobhan Sith…a vampire who killed people. Again her thoughts drifted to Allyn. Hopefully, Meaghan wasn’t
smiling
at him just now.

Voices sent her crawling deeper into the bushes. Two men passed her in silence so close she could have touched them. Peering through the leaves, she watched until they disappeared around the corner, where Seth’s Land Rover was parked. He had brought her to the house just as she’d thought. Now to get inside and find her!

She had just started to make her move, when two more men cut across the lawn and headed towards the house. As she ducked back inside the shrubs, a twig snapped. “You hear something?” one man asked.

Meg stopped breathing, as she waited for the answer. “Probably a fox or somethin’. You’re not thinking it’s one of them Ravynnes, are you? Why would they come back here?”

“Well, we have their sister,” the first man replied.

“You mean the boss has her, we just wish,” was the laughing response, as they moved on.

“Please be okay, Charlie, she whispered. “You are the strongest person I know and maybe the stubbornest, though you may think otherwise and have often…” She sighed. She had almost reached full babble without Charlie to stop her. Time to get moving again, though the idea of retracing her steps through the manor’s nether regions filled her with horror.

The moon had slipped behind a scattering of dark silver rimmed clouds and she said a prayer of thanks. A long stretch of open lawn lay between her and the bushes that grew along the manor’s stone foundation. Even with the moon’s cooperation, she would still be a target if anyone happened to look in her direction. Crouching low, she sped across the grass then slid into the bushes and thick growth of ivy. Now to find the cellar doors, she thought. Too bad she hadn’t paid closer attention on their exit, but she hadn’t believed she would ever be’ deja vuing’ her way back here.

It seemed like she’d gone miles, dodging into the prickly vegetation at every sound, crawling beneath lighted windows, waiting to pass French doors until all seemed clear, but by luck more than anything, she found the cellar doors.

Opening the right one, she looked down into utter blackness. It was worse than she remembered…far worse. Pulling her flashlight out, she shone it down the stairs. . Fleetingly, she remembered her brother calling her a ‘wuss’ and her chin rose defiantly. She was not a
wuss
and, even if she was, nothing was going to stop her from going down those steps. “Watch out rats, spiders, slithery things, evil entities or anything else that wants a piece of this girl. Meg Ravynne is on her way!” she whispered as loudly as she dared, then began the descent into her own special brand of hell.

***

Grey was restless. Something was teasing his awareness…stirring him up…making him anxious and he didn’t know what it was. He took another turn around the battlements bathed in moonlight and looked down again upon the scene below. A boat was anchored close to shore and small boats were being ferried back and forth into the cove. The manor was ablaze with lights even long after it was usually dark in sleep. A blinking light shone from the ruined church tower. It looked like a signal of some kind, but for whom or for what purpose he couldn’t begin to know.

The scenario below had become almost routine, since he had arrived…the one who called himself Seth Marley…though the time differed. A cargo was dropped off, containing? He wasn’t sure, but it was rumored through the others who remained in the manor long after their deaths, that women were involved in some illicit trade. He was truly evil, this man, and there was something else….something important that he should know but didn’t. But as evil as he was, the dark haired one who looked like Meaghan was worse. She was both evil and mad…and dangerous! More than one lad lay in the churchyard below after she was done with him. Not that his own hands were free of blood…nor Meaghan’s. But that was in the past…at least for him.

The sea wind stirred the kilt that hung from his narrow hips and brushed his muscled thighs. The night was growing cold, but he could not feel the chill. There was little that he could feel any more. Not hunger…not thirst…not even lust, though he had never thought to see that day, and then she came. He brushed back a strand of black hair the wind had teased over his forehead and let his thoughts turn to Meg.

She was beautiful without knowing it. Curvy and warm with curls the color of honey that a man could twine around his heart. Her eyes were clear and guileless…honest and kind. She would not hurt a living thing. But there, he sighed, was the rub. He was not a living thing. He was a ghost? A ‘betwixt and between’ thing forced to wander these parapets alone for all eternity. His bitter laugh was answered by a raucous cry as a pair of dark wings circled overhead. With a rush, the huge raven descended and took the perch Grey offered on his forearm. “I still have you, my friend,” he said, stroking along his sleek back Nevermore’s eyes locked with his and he uttered an almost human sound that mingled with Grey’s sigh.

He settled his back against the stone wall and eased Nevermore off his arm, letting him perch on top the wall. Then another wave of unease hit him and he fled down the stone steps to the rooms below. Flinging open the door to his own chamber, he strode across to a cupboard tucked in the wall and pulled out a silver cup and a bottle of red wine he’d pilfered from the manor earlier that week. Throwing himself on his bed, he filled the cup and drained it quickly, then filled it again. Finishing that, he lay back and let his thoughts wander.

She had lain on this very bed next to him like a feast before a starving man, he remembered, and he had wanted her fiercely. Even now he could feel his groin tighten in remembrance. He had needed her then and she knew it…had opened herself to him until fear of the unknown had given her pause and she had found a way to flee. But he had taken her in her dreams, where there had been no escape, and she had felt no guilt for lying with one such as he. A man that was not a man. He groaned in frustration and he felt the pulse of desire…the swelling of his flesh reach the point of pain, as his need crawled through his veins and set him on fire.

Throwing back his head, he howled in anguish like a mad beast. He must have her again. Not in a dream, but here in his bed….her hair spilling across his pillow….her body burning with her own desire to be taken with exquisite slowness…savored and tasted like the finest wine until they were both sated and beyond….

His thoughts were interrupted as a wave of unease slammed him again. Something was wrong and it involved Meg and her sister. Where was she now, he wondered, searching for her in his mind. She was not asleep as she should be at this hour or he could enter her dreams. She was awake and terrified. She needed him and he must go to her…there was nothing on heaven or earth that could stop him.

***

She flashed the light the length of the steps and started down, lowering the overhead door as she went. Her light reflected off a pair of bright eyes and she heard the scrabble of tiny claws fleeing into the shadows. Good, she thought, let them be afraid of me for a change.

At the bottom, she flashed the light around in a circle, trying to get her bearings. Everything looked so different coming from the opposite direction, she thought with a flash of panic and then she saw a strange looking piece of machinery she’d noticed before. Okay…they had come past that and…. she looked down at the floor and saw the path they had left through the rubble and smiled. What had appalled her the first time they’d come through now proved a real blessing.

She began to follow the sketchy trail as it twisted through the crates, boxes and broken castoff furniture. A rat stood on its haunches on top of a barrel and watched her, curiously, twitching its whiskers before it fled. She smiled grimly and kept going. “Show no fear,” became the mantra she muttered, as she worked her way deeper and deeper into the heart of the myriad rooms that divided the cellars.

It seemed like forever, before she reached the blank stone wall they had come through. Slowly, she flashed the light over its surface, but could see no way of opening it. She ran her hands over each stone, but, again, found nothing. Just for a moment, she feared she had the wrong wall, but a quick look at their footprints in the dust reassured her. “Now what do I do?” she asked out loud.

A small cold hand slipped into hers and she heard a little girl giggle. A young boy’s voice whispered, “Hush yer gob, ye silly goose!”

Meg wasn’t exactly sure what a ‘gob’ was, but she hoped he hadn’t meant her. “If you can help me, I would be grateful.” she said, looking around. No one was visible, but she continued to hear whispers and giggles. “Okay, if you won’t help me, I’ll just have to manage without you,” and she began pushing and prodding the wall again.

“Nae thare! Hare!” a small boy said, impatiently, as she felt small hands guide hers to the corner of a stone near the middle of the wall. “Nou push!” he ordered. Someone clapped and another laughed, as the door pivoted inward almost silently.

“Thank you so much,” she told them with a smile. Were they the children from the schoolroom who had helped them when they got lost? She tried asking, “Lucy?” Another giggle answered her. “My name’s Meg and I could use….” But they were gone. She could feel it. Except for the rats and spiders she was quite alone again.

Suddenly, something brushed against her leg and she couldn’t prevent the scream she hoped no one could hear. Taking a deep breath and swallowing hard, she flashed the light on whatever it was that now rested on her foot. Cloud blinked up at her. Laughing and crying at the same time, she stroked along his silky back. “With you for protection, puss, the rats should leave me alone, but how are you with spiders? Let’s go find your Charlie, Cloud, she needs us.”

He seemed to understand every word, as he bolted through the open door and headed down the passage inside the wall at a fast clip. She shone her light after him and stepped into the narrow space. Their previous footprints lent credence to Cloud’s sense of direction, so she followed him down the passage to the wall at the end, where he sat waiting for her patiently. Shining her light on its surface, she pushed the middle stone and the door pivoted open.

“Okay, that part was easy now up we go,” she told Cloud and began to climb the steep stone steps. At the top, she paused to consider her options. “Now where?” she asked, but Cloud sat on his haunches and waited for her to make the next move. Did she go right or left? She tried looking for their previous trail, but footprints led in both directions.