The Vampire Laird (A Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mystery/Romance) (5 page)

John was eying Meg’s breasts and she folded her arms defensively across her chest, which made him smile in a really irritating way. “Kin Ah buy ye anither pint?” he asked with a wide grin..

“I’m not entirely sure what you just said, but whatever it was, I don’t think so,” Meg told him with a frosty smile.

The sisters exchanged glances just as Vic said, “You don’t really seem too surprised to see us?”

“We’re not at all surprised. We saw someone go out and get you right after we came in,” Charlie told him around a sip of dark foaming ale.

“Now that’s too bad. I like to surprise a woman…keeps her off balance just enough to be interesting,” he told her, narrowing his pale blue eyes.

“Other than amusing yourself surprising women, what else do you do around here?” she asked.

“I work for the Laird. Most of the village does in one way or another.”

“And ‘one way or another’ would be doing what exactly?” she asked as sweetly as she could stomach.

“Oh…stuff. He has his own airfield and flies in what we need here and flies out what needs going,” he told her leaning closer and brushing a strand of silvery hair off her forehead. “Just what makes you so interested, sweet thing?”

Sweet thing
? She was itching to show him just how sweet she could be, but she said, “Just making conversation. A big man like you would have a pretty good idea about everything that goes on around here, wouldn’t you?”

“Pretty much. I know you and your sis over there are looking for your brother, who’s up at the manor, hanging around with…never mind all that. You wouldn’t be trying to pump me for information now, would you? If that’s where you’re anglin’, I could help you find the handle. Why don’t you and me ditch these two and and I’ll show you where to look,” he drawled, letting his eyes slide over her.

Charlie had reached the end of what she could endure. “That would be a waste of time since I don’t have a magnifying glass or a pair of tweezers with me,” she said, evenly, then waited for his next move.

His chair slammed back as he rose quickly. Clearly, she had just pushed his ‘wrong’ buttons, too, which made her smile…which made him all the madder. “That may have been the biggest mistake of your life, honey. You’re going to need a friend before you get out of here.” And with that he grabbed John’s arm and stormed out.

“Well, I don’t think that helped much. In fact, we probably made another enemy in a place where we have more than enough of those already,” Charlie told Meg dryly.

“We don’t need those kind of friends, Charlie. Let’s get out of here and take a walk along the cliffs. We both need a bit of fresh sea air.”

“First a quick trip to the lavey, then we’ll go. That will also give them time to clear out before we leave in case they’re hanging around outside.”

Moments later they stepped out into the last of the light. Following a path that led west to the cliffs, they looked around at the sweep of moors then up to the purple mountain peaks that were catching the last of the sun’s rays. The castle was awash with gold as it stood sentinel on its high rise, as it had for centuries, against invaders of one kind or another. The manor was ablaze with its own lights and Charlie said thoughtfully, “Mr. Marley is an interesting adversary, Meg, powerful and cunning. You heard what Tex said? He has an airfield and pretty much controls what comes in and out of this area.”

“I wonder if Allyn’s there now?”

“He said that Allyn and Orianna wouldn’t be back till very late.
Unusual hours
was how he described it.”

“If she is a vampire…I’m only saying
if…
she would have to sleep during the day, wouldn’t she?” Meg asked.

“In her dirt filled coffin from somewhere in Transylvania? That is the legend novels and Hollywood has conjured up. If there is such a thing as vampires, I would imagine there would be all types just like there are all types of people,” Charlie told her.

“You killed my vampire with a stake through its heart, remember?”

“Meg…I never wanted to have to tell you this, but your ‘vampire’ was a black yard bag full of lawn clippings. I wanted you to sleep at night without the garlic thing. It was making me sick. In fact, you quite ruined me for Italian food in case you haven’t noticed that by now.”

“Oh!” Meg replied wistfully. “All this time you let me believe….”

“It was for your own good and then I just didn’t have the heart to tell you. Anyway…whatever we’re up against here, it’s not likely to be a yard bag.”

“All this time…..”

“Let it go, Meg. Listen…you can hear the sea hammering against the cliff.”

They walked to the edge and looked out over the open expanse of water that was still lit by the sun’s afterglow. The sky along the horizon was saffron and orange while deep purple and indigo clouds pushed across from the east. Below them, the darkening water crashed on granite boulders and broke across the base of the cliff in a frothy white tumult. It was simply magnificent! The wind was cool as it washed over them tugging at their hair and flattening their jeans against their legs. A full moon was rising from behind a bank of dark clouds and silvering the landscape in all directions. Suddenly, they heard a howl.

“That almost sounded like one of your ‘howls’,” Charlie said with a laugh.

“I’ve been known to give into that impulse from time to time during a full moon and just for the fun of it, but that was the worst imitation of a wolf I ever heard! Not that I ever really heard a wolf before except, you know, on television and the movies and…”

“I think I read somewhere that wolves have been extinct in Scotland for more than two hundred years. So…maybe we have company. Perhaps the pub stud who likes to surprise women?”

“What do we do now?”

“Walk back to the manse and go to bed as planned.”

“And if he tries any funny business?”

Charlie gave her a dark smile. “He won’t think it’s so funny, believe me.”

“But you don’t have your gun?”

“There are a whole lot of ways you can hurt a man without a gun, Meg.”

“I only know one. A good kick in his…you know.”

“Have you ever had to use that?”

“Only once,” Meg said pensively.

“Once?”

“I ended up taking care of him till he recovered, but luckily by then he had lost the urge.”

Meg was so…well Meg…and Charlie found herself smiling. “I hope you know how much I love you,” she told her, putting her arm around her shoulder.

“I know and ditto!” she replied, returning her hug.

They were quiet after that, as they continued on their way back to the manse. There were several howls…a few rustles…but they kept going. The graveyard was really eerie in the moonlight and they hurried through, only too aware of all the hiding places behind the tombstones that jutted out of the tall, thick grass. Stepping into the entry hall of the manse, they both sighed in relief. “I was more afraid of what I felt stirring about in the graveyard than I was of whoever was following us,” Meg said. “There was a man sitting on the gravestone just left of the path. I could see right through him. And there was a little girl wandering among the yew trees, looking for her mother. It was so sad…awful…and really scary.”

Charlie sighed and took her hand, pulling her up the stairs. “Meg…you get first dibs on the lavey. You’re safe with me, you know. I won’t let anyone ever hurt you.”

Meg nodded but didn’t reply. Collecting her night things, she was thoughtful, as she headed to the bathroom, remembering how close she had come to dying despite Charlie’s best efforts. There were things out there no one could protect you from no matter how much they loved you.

Later that night they lay in bed listening to the night sounds. “Charlie?”

“Yes, Meg?”

“I don’t want you to feel like I’m your responsibility all the time. I’m not. Someday you may not be there at the precise moment I need you and that will be okay. I don’t ever want you to think you failed me in some way…feel guilty for not saving me from something. I have my own destiny that nothing can save me from…even you.”

There was quiet on the other side of the room. Meg never dreamt her big sister was crying into her pillow. Never imagined how often her sister had dreaded that very thing…not being there…not being strong enough or quick enough. Like before when Devon and his demonic father had almost destroyed her.

“Charlie? Didn’t you hear a word I just said?”

“Sorry…I must have been asleep,” Charlie managed to say, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.

“Humph! I should have known.”

“Was it important?”

“Yes…but I’ll save it for another time. Good night, Charlie.”

“Good night, Meg,” she whispered into the dark.

They were both sound asleep when the slim figure in filmy white emerged from the mausoleum and drifted to a spot below their window. Eyes wide with entreaty, she opened her mouth and uttered a soft long drawn out wail. Her long white fingers beckoned beseechingly and then she simply vanished.

***

The next morning Meg asked Charlie for a plastic bag. “The only thing I have is the one I have my makeup in.”

“And what is this bag for, may I ask?” her sister said, digging about in her suitcase till she found a zip-lock she had emptied.

“You’ll see,” Meg told her cryptically, as she opened the door and headed down the hall to breakfast.

Just as Meg had feared the haggis made a second appearance that morning. Tilda grunted as she shoved the plate under her nose. “Tis guid fer breakfast tay,” she told her with one of her snorts.

“Looks yummy,” Meg said with a sunny smile that Charlie knew she couldn’t possibly mean. Sure enough, as soon as Tilda left for the kitchen and Angus was busy pushing his eggs around his plate, Meg scooped the haggis into her zip-lock and shoved it into her jeans pocket.

Returning from the kitchen, Tilda’s eyes narrowed to mere slits as she looked from Meg’s plate to Meg, who was daintily wiping the corner of her mouth with her napkin. “That was delicious, Tilda, but if we have it too often it won’t be so special,” she told her, as she hungrily tackled what was left on her plate.

After breakfast they went for a walk along the sea, where the water was as flat as a cobalt blue plate. The tide was out below the cliffs, exposing a wide stretch of sandy beach. Sea birds flew overhead and spiraled down to the boulders below or tracked along the water’s edge, scavenging for anything that the receding water had left behind.

“I wonder how they’d like some haggis?” Meg mused. “Only one way to find out!” With that she unzipped the bag and squeezed its contents over the side of the cliff, then shoved it back in her pocket. A seagull circled and landed on the rock next to the haggis ..then another…and another.

“Seems the haggis is a hit,” Charlie said as they watched the seagulls wrangle over every last bite. “It’s really quite good, you know, once you get past the idea of it. In my travels I’ve had to eat a lot of things I really didn’t want to know too much about!”

“Humph!” was all Meg had to say.

The morning sun was clearing the mountains and the day was warming up quickly, as they continued up the narrow path that edged the cliffs. A shaggy highland cow watched them briefly, then went back to grazing amid the gorse and heather that covered the sweeping uplands. Ahead, they saw a white house set in a patch of darker green fenced in by a stacked stone wall. A few sheep and another cow grazed there, eying them curiously as they approached.

As they got closer, they saw an old man sitting on the stoop peeling something…potatoes?..and throwing the peelings to the chickens that flocked around him with beady eyed expectancy. A small white terrier-mix dog sat next to him. “He looks like Freddie,” Meg said, tugging at Charlie’s arm and pointing. “Do you think he’ll let me pet him?”

“We can ask. Maybe he’ll be the second friendly soul we’ve seen so far!”

As it turned out, he was! “Guid mornin’, lasses. Hou ar ye? Come sit daun wi’ an auld mon!” he told them with a wide grin.

Opening the gate, they walked up the short path to the house and sat down on the stone steps. “Good morning to you. I’m Meg and this is my sister Charlie. Do you mind awfully if I pet your dog? I have one that looks enough like him to be a close cousin if not a twin!”

The old man chuckled deeply, his blue eyes lively in his weathered face. “Looks loch he has taen ah lochin’ tae ye! His name is Mac…mine is Andy Dougal. Most call ma Dougal.”

Meg knew he had taken a liking to the empty haggis bag she had in her pocket, but she scratched behind his shaggy ears and was rewarded with a quick lick on her nose.

“Yer the ones the village is blethering on aboot. The sisters of the one up at the manor,” he said, watching Meg and Mac with a smile.

“Yes, we’re the sisters. We haven’t exactly had much of a welcome here and wonder why?” Charlie asked, watching their host closely.

“Thare ar some ‘at dinnae want strangers hare. Ah stay tae myself an’ Ahm left alone.”

“I see. And that’s all you care to tell me?” Charlie asked, trying to hide her disappointment.

“Aye! Ye’d best git oot of hare and tak’ yer brither wi’ ye. Ah mean it kindly, lass. Ah really do.”