Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance) (61 page)

Shona captured her in a bright green gaze and smiled. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I feel good.”

Tomy drew back. “Say what?” She looked Shona ove
r carefully
noticing for the fi
rst time her relaxed posture, bright eyes and starry expression. “Just how good we
talkin
’ here?”

Shona smiled to no one and glanced at the note in her hand.

“What’s that?” Tomy eyed the parchment suspiciously before noticing what was in Shona’s other hand. “And where’d you get those?”

Kitty giggled again.

Tomy leaned her weight on one foot, crossed her arms and looked from one face to the other. “All right, start
talkin
’. What’s
goin
’ on? Why are you two actin’ so funny?”

Shona and Kitty exchanged a quick look. Shona smiled again, but the expression was… mischievous?
Shona? “We are going to the City
Garden later. Would you like to come along?” Her voice sounded innocent yet teasing.

Tomy
studied Shona more closely then looked to Kitty who stood with a silly smile on her face. Her gaze slowly found its way back to Shona. “All right, I gotcha.
I suppose this ditz fi
nally found you some guy to hook up with.
Come on
,
fess up
. What’s his name, where’s he from and do I know him?”

  
Shona brought the handful of rose petals to her face and studied them absently. “I do not know.”

Tomy looked to Kitty, rolled her eyes at the silly grin she still wore then turned back to Shona. “You don’t know what?”

Shona lazily raised an eyebrow. “I do not know the answer to any of your questions.”

“What?” Tomy’s face became a suspicious frown as she turned on Kitty. “What have you done to this poor child?”

“Nothing!” Kitty blurted out innocently. “
He gave her the note and the fl
owers. I had nothing to do with it!”

“Note?” Tomy’s eyes gravitated to the odd parchment in Shona’s hand. “Shona, girl, can I see that?”

Shona smiled and handed her the note. Tomy quickly read the brief message. “D K M? Who in blazes is this guy? Lordy, he better not be one of yours, Kitty!”

“He’s not one of mine. It’s the guy we s
aw the other day. Th
e good-looking one.”

Tomy threw a hand in the air and rolled her eyes again. “Oh well, that narrows it down. You think they’re
all
good
lookin
’.”

Kitty sighed impatiently. “I mean the one
you
said could make your mouth water.” She crossed her own arms and waited for Tomy’s face to rearrange itself back to normal.

“The big guy.”

Kitty nodded.

“With the long, dark hair.”

Kitty smiled and nodded again.

“The one with the…
eyes?”

Kitty stood proudly, triumphant at last.

“
Lorrrdy
,” Tomy squeaked.

Neither one noticed Shona leaning against a nearby table, eyes far away, softly humming to herself.

“Well, what do you know about this guy? Who is he? Does he live here? Does he attend the university? What?”

Kitty shrugged.

Tomy’s gaze narrowed, “You mean to tell me, you don’t know who he is, where he’s from, what he wants, anything?”

Kitty shrugged again innocently. “He wants to meet Shona up at the gardens.”

Tomy closed her eyes and shook her head. “Heaven help us all.” She turned to Shona and crossed her arms again. “Shona, you’re not
goin
’.”

Shona’s humming abruptly stopped. She came away from the table, brow raised in challenge. “Who says I am not?”

 
Tomy put her hands on her hips. “I, your friend,
says
.”

"
And I
says
I am going.
”
Shona gave her a dare of a grin.

Tomy’s face exploded with bemused shock. “Girl, you can’t go around
meetin
’ up with some strange man just because he gave you a fancy note a
nd what’s left of a few dead fl
owers. For all you know
he got them petals off some guy’s funeral wreath. In fact, he may have been the one to kill the poor fool
needin
’ the funeral!” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go. Trust me I know a lot more about these things than you do.”

Shona sto
od straight, her back now stiff
. “I am going.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Shona, listen to me. I can’t let you…”

“What gives you the right to stop me?”

Tomy stood dumbfounded, her mou
th half-open. “Nothing,” she fi
nally said, caught in Sho
na’s fi
erce gaze, “Except my concern for you.”

Shona smiled and released her. “Come with us.”

Tomy studied the determined look on Shona’s face. “I’ll have to. Lord knows this bubblehead won’t be any protection.”

“Hey!” Kitty whined in protest.

Tomy rolled her eyes and groaned.

“Kitty,” Shona began her voice a soft lilt. “What time is it?”

 
Kitty gla
nced at her watch. “Four thirty
.”

Shona nodded, humming to herself once more. “It is time to meet my father. We had better go.”

“Your father? Does he know about this?” Tomy asked.

“Not yet. He i
s here somewhere. We have to fi
nd him.” Shona started walking.

“And are you going to tell him?” Tomy inquired curiously.

“Of course. I have nothing to hide. Why would I not tell him?”

Tomy stopped short, letting Kitty bump into her back. “How ‘bout
‘cause he’ll tell yo
u the same thing I just did? Th
at you
ain’t
going.”

“He will not.”

“And what makes you say that?”

Shona smiled and looked to the fragmented blossoms in her hand.
“Because these are from the fl
owers in my parent’s bedroom.”

* * *

Shona, Kit
ty and Tomy arrived at the City
Garden at ten minutes before five. Kitty fi
dgeted while Tomy frowned and watched Shona who calmly sat and eyed the envelope her father had handed her as the girls left him at the bottom of the hill. He was to walk home and wait for her. If Kitty and Tomy didn’t return with her within the hour, he would come for her himself. Philip had some evening entertainment planned for the Whittards that night.

Evan wanted to make sure one more guest was in attendance.

“Are we ready?” Kitty asked as she took her k
eys from the ignition and stuff
ed them in her purse.

Tomy turned to look at Shona in the back seat. “Shona, girl, you don’t have to meet this guy, even if your daddy does think he’s okay.”

Shona raised her eyes to Tomy. “Yes I do. I need to meet him.” She lowered her gaze and smiled.

Tomy shook her head and bit her lip. “All right, but I’m telling you right now that if he tries anything I’ll mace him!”

Shona again raised her face, a warm smile still held upon it. “You worry too much. He will not hurt me.” Her smile grew as she looked out the window, face locked in remembrance. “Nay, he could never hurt me.”

“What?” Tomy asked, perplexed. “
Nay
?”

Kitty smiled knowingly and opened her door. “Let’s go.”

* * *

“Well, what happened? Is he with us or not?” Lany asked as he
and Angus
sho
ved a dreamy-eyed Dallan onto a nearby
park
bench
.

“He’s with us. I didn’t tell him everything, and it took awhile to convince him we weren’t with Brennan, but I think he’ll be okay.” John smiled. “He seems to really like Dallan.”

“Really?”

John nodded
. “Clever fellow. He caught
Dallan and Angus down on the first fl
oor of the library and had a, ah, talk with him about his daughter.”

“Are you serious?”

“That man would do anything to keep his daughter safe.”

“Even as far as letting her marry someone she’s just met?”

“I believe so.”

“He doesn’t trust Brennan now anymore than we do, but he’s afraid to aggravate him too much. He might take the Maiden and be gone without a trace.”

Lany thought a moment and shook his head. “He’ll have to rely on a regular means of transportation. Remember what Kwaku told us? Brennan’s wife isn’t here to help him. Did you let Mr. Whittard know that?”

“Not yet. In fact, I’m not sure he knew Brennan had a wife. And if he did know I doubt he knew she was a Muiraran. But, I could be
wrong. At any rate, h
e still thinks Brennan has the power to take his life.”

“Eaton, o
ne bullet and its
all over.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. Evan Whittard had a disease, uh, ‘cancer’ it was called. Brennan had Lissa remove it in exchange for the Maiden’s rearing and training.”

Lany nodded to himself. “Ah, and the deal was struck.”

“But Brennan doesn’t have that power. Lissa is dead.
In fact, from what I know about a Muiraran's makeup, I'm surprised Brennan is even still alive.  I wish I understood better how it all worked.
”

“He has what he stole
from Dallan.” Lany replied. “Maybe th
at’s enough
for him to go on
. He’s
still big trouble. I think we should take the Maiden and go. It might be for the best even with the high risk involved.”

John began to pace. “She’d never survive the doorway, Lany. She’s too unstable, too emotionally fragile right now. If Kwaku can join her
to Dallan tonight, we’ll be fi
ne. We just
have to make sure it happens. 
I’ll go in fi
rst and speak with her. I want to make sure she’s complete
ly ready for this. We can’t aff
ord for anything to go wrong now.”

Lany and An
gus nodded while Dallan sat on the bench staring
at a bed of yellow roses, blinking his eyes occasionally to chase the sleep from them.

John searched their surroundings once. “Where is Kwaku?”

“Zara said he would meet us here once he took ca
re o’ some business.” Angus off
ered hesitantly.

John and Lany exchanged the same sage look.
Brennan…
“I hope he knows what he’s doing. This isn’t some game.” John spoke, more to himself than the others.

Neither Angus
n
or Lany made any comment, both knowing the danger involved if Kwaku were to provoke Brennan.
Th
ey also knew what a risk taker the Time Master could be if given the opportunity. All three men silently prayed no such opportunity presented itself.

“I’ll start looking for the Maiden. Lany, keep your communicator on so you know where I am. Give me enough time to clear a few things up
with her. I want to get one final confi
rmation before we do this. When I give the signal, send him in.”

Lany glanced at Dallan peacefully slumbering away on a bench and gave a light chuckle. “Why does this whole thing remind me of one of my daughter’s favorite ancient fairy tales, only in reverse?” He turned back to John. “Are you sure the Maiden shouldn’t be the one to come kiss him? Might wake him up.”

John laughed, nodded his agreement and started down a nearby path in search of the Maiden.

* * *

She paced.

Shona had never paced, but she did now and found the action disturbing. She stopped and searched her surroundings. No sign of him. In fact, there wasn’t a sign of another soul anywhere to be found. Perhaps she had chosen too secluded
a spot. How would he fi
nd her? She gla
nced at the well-worn path that
led to the private island of yet-to-bloom roses, then at the empty park bench sitting alone among the green bulbs. She stepped to the bench and sat wearily.

What on earth was she doing here? One minute the whole world seemed to be turned upside down, those odd times she found herself in his company. Another minute she questioned her own sanity. What was this man doing to her and, more importantly, why was she letting him do it?