Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance) (88 page)

“Should we give the Maiden more time?” Lany asked, concerned.

John shook his head. “We’ll be back in a week. Dallan and Shona will have to bring us. We can wrap things up then. Right now we have to get the Maiden home and let Dallan hav
e her to
himself
for awhile. Th
ey’ll
both have trouble adjusting otherwise.”

Lany nodded, glanced at a
now-conscious
and very subdued Julia, and then joined the Whittards with Dallan and John.

Evan and Maggie still held Shona tightly, Kitty and Tomy just feet away crying quietly. Evan looked at Dallan, then Shona. “I think it’s time, honey. I wish it wasn’t.”

Dallan put a hand on Shona’s shoulder. “John says we’re to be back here in a week. Ye can see her again at that time.”

Shona spun to face him. “Really? We can come back that soon?”

“Aye, Flower. Angus needs his things and I ken ye’ll want some o’ yer own. Right now we need to get ye home where we can… feed awhile.”

 
She raised a single brow at him.

Evan took in the blush creeping into his daughter’s cheeks and chuckled. “See, I told you, ‘just wait till you’re married!’ And now it’s quite obvious that you are.” He whispered in her ear. “Go with him, sweetheart. He’ll take good care of you.”

She looked up into his eyes. “Dad, I never wanted to disappoint you. I am sorry I have to go but…”

“But you love him, don’t you? And your place is by his side.”

 
She nodded, new tears in her eyes.

Maggie took Shona into her arms again and hugged her. “I’ll miss you so much. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.” She began to stroke her daughter’s hair. “I’ll have all your music and things ready when you come back.”

Shona swallowed hard as she looked over her mother’s shoulder to Kitty and Tomy. She stepped away from Maggie and made her way to her two best friends. “Thank you for all your help, Tomy. I do not know how I can ever repay you for all you have done.”
 

Tomy’s lower lip trembled. “Ah, don’t go worrying about none of it, Shona, girl. Wasn’t
nothin
’.
Only bad thing is now I’m stuck with this bubble headed…” She pu
t her face in one hand to stifl
e a sob. “And you know how she drives me crazy!”

Shona nodded and hugged her. Tomy’s eyes grew wide at the contact, and her tears immediately stopped. “I will miss you, Tomy. Take care of Kitty for me.”

Tomy glanced at a teary-eyed Kitty. “Lordy, Shona, you don’t ask for much, do you?” She gave a light laugh. “I’ll do my best.”

Shona turned to Kitty who shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Shona, please don’t leave me.”

Shona drew Kitty into her arms and hugged her hard, tears streaming down both faces. “I do not want to leave you! I wish I could take you with me!” She glanced over
her shoulder to Dallan who off
ered her a tender look before shaking his head. She turned back to Kitty. “But I cannot. I do not yet understand why.”

Kitty choked on a sob and held Shona even tighter. “Nothing will be the same without you! What are we going to tell everybody? What about Julia?” She looked to where
Julia now sat stunned on the fl
oor. “She’s…she’s not my real sister, is she? All these years she never was. What am I going to tell my parents?
Gaaawsh
, I never thought about that! Were they in on all of this, too? Can I even go home?”

Shona held her. “
Shhhh
…we will be back in a few days. Dallan and I will think of something for you to tell them. Do not wor
ry. Everything will turn out fine.” She briefl
y looked at Julia, her own mind full of questions, and then turned back to Kitty. “And yo
u will be fi
ne, too. Seems both of us have lived a lie. But everything is all right now.”

Kitty trembled in her arms as new tears fell. “What am I going to do when I get a headache? Who’s going to talk it away? And what about Sinclair? He’s going to miss you, too.”

Shona’s eyes widened slightly at the mention of the cat. “He will be
fi
ne. I will see him when Dallan and I return. But now I have to go. I cannot explain what is inside of me. It feels like something is trying to get out, as if I am lost somehow.”

Kitty sniff
ed back her tears and shrugged. “You’re homesick, silly.”

Shona stared at her stunned.

“The only way to fi
x it, Shona, is to go home.”

“Kitty…”

They hugged each other again as Dallan appr
oached. He
gently pulled her away from her friend. “’Tis time, lass. Yer looking tired. I wilna see ye worn out. I’ll take no chances
wi
’ ye
M’eudain.”

She tu
rned to look up at him, eyes fi
lled with the unaccustomed pain of parting with family and friends. “I do not know if I can do it
again, Dallan.”

He hooked a fi
nger under her chin, tilted her head back and brought his face down to hers. “Aye, ye can, Flower. I’ll help you. I ken how it works now. The heathen’s been telling me all these years and I didna even know it.”

She threw him a confused look.

He chuckled lightly. “Kwaku laughs a lot. I’ve ha’ to learn to listen to what he was saying wi’ my heart.
‘Tis the same when I opened the door earlier.
I had to listen to my heart fi
rst and the
voice inside it.”

She looked deeply into his eyes. “That is how it works?”

“Weel, sort of. I did ha’ to picture what I wanted in my head. Like looking at a book, ye ken.” He bent even closer. “And now I’ll take ye back to my wee cottage, lass. And prove to ye how well I’ve listened to yer own heart.” He kissed her then, long and tenderl
y, his heart searching hers, fi
lling it.

Shona slumped in his arms and moaned softly when he at last broke the kiss. “I love you,” she whispered against his lips.

“Let me take ye home now, Shona.”

She le
t herself be captured by a fi
erce gaze and, unable to speak, nodded to him. Dallan smiled, swept her up into his arms and carried her to the center of the room.

Kitty let go a long sigh as Evan and Maggie joined the two girls.

“What’s the matter with you?” Tomy quipped on a half sob.

“How romantic.
Geez, just look at them.
I wish it were me.”

Maggie put her arm around her. “Don’t worry, Kitty. Someday your prince will come.”

Tomy rolled her eyes and Evan smiled. “I hope he has good credit.” They mumbled softly in unison.

Maggie sent them both a
glare. “Ignore them, Kitty. Th
ey just don’t
want to lose you, too.”

Evan’s
and Tomy’s eyes both bulged at the statement before giving their full attention to what was about to take place in the center of the room.

John and Lany ushered Julia to Dallan while Angus wheeled his mother over as well.

Kwaku and Zara still stood to one side. The huge Azurti smiled at his
wife with satisfaction. “Hungry, beloved?”

“Oh no!” Angus wailed. “Not in my shop! Ye can do
that
once y
e get
yerselves home, if ye dinna mind!”

The rest of the men laughed at the red-faced Angus. Shona, st
ill in Dallan’s arms, looked fi
rst to Kwaku, then to Angus. “Dallan, what is so funny? I do not understand.”

“Aye, ye will, Flower. Once I get
you
home.” He set her on her feet and took in the faces all around them. “’Tis time, lass.”

Shona turned to her parents and friends. “I will be back soon.”

Evan nodded. “We know.”

John looked over at Evan. “We return in seven days.”

Evan nodded again, his eyes welling with tears.

John turned to Dallan. “Ready?”

“Aye.” Dallan sought and found Kwaku. “Are ye no coming, ye blasted good-for-nothi
ng? Or do I leave ye here to fi
nd yer own way home?”

Kwaku’s face locked itself in dead seriousness. “Do not dink I am
droo
wid you, Boyeee. You lack much training.”

“And what is that supposed to mean, ye bloody heathen? D’ye no think I can do it?”

Al
asdair, quiet all this time, fi
nally spoke up. “Do what, Dallan? What are ye going to do?”

Dallan bent to his knee. “I ha’ to take us all back now, lad.”

“Back? Back where?”

Dallan’s eyes softened. “Back to where we came from.”

“We’re going h
ome? But how did I get here? Th
e soldiers may still be
about, Dallan. ‘Tis not safe there!”

Dallan ruffled the boy’s hair with his hand. “Nay, laddie. We’re no going to Glencoe. Nay, we’re no going anywhere in Scotland.”

“But then, where are we going?”

Dallan stood and looked at the re
st of the men, his eyes fi
nally locking with Kwaku’s. “Home, lad. I’m taking us all home.”

Kw
aku burst into loud Azurti guff
aws.

John and Lany smiled and closed their eyes in silent prayers of thanks.

“Shona,” Dallan called as he motioned her to kneel before him. She looked into his eyes, kissed him and then knelt where he bade her.

The
Time Master planted his feet
fi
rmly,
his eyes narrowed in concentration, and spoke to his wife gently in Gaelic. “Take us home, lass.”

Shona opened her mouth as soon as the words were spoken, and began to sing.

* * *

A tall lone fi
gure strolled to a wall adorned with ancient books, a long, crooked
fi
nger cu
rled to the massive volumes. Th
e aged bindings were
cracked, their titles faded, undisturbed for years.
The fi
nger moved along the books, leaving a trail through the thick dust in its search.

“Ahhh.” The word was partner to an evil hiss. “There you are. Come, my old friend. Come to me.” Th
e fi
nger tapped the title of one of the
books, one not so old and worn. The
rest of the hand joined the fi
nger and
to
ok the book from the shelf. The tall, dark
fi
gure blew dust from the volume and, with a wicked laugh, opene
d the book to the ending
page
s
. The fi
gure studied
them
, licking dry, cracked lips as he read the last
few
paragraph
s
then turned to face the center of the room.

Th
e fi
gure didn’t walk to the huge ancient desk so much as glide to it like the wraith he w
as, stirring the dust of the fl
oor with cold. Reaching the desk, the wraith set the open book on its surface and stared intently at the next-to-last page. It was blank.

Stepping away from the desk, yellow cat-like eyes bore into the empty page as the wraith began to sing in a rattling chain of a tenor.

The entire room shook. Th
e wraith’s eyes intensifi
ed as the book lifted itself off the table. The song increased in volume.

A dark,
blood-red
light began to pour from the fi
gure’s chest to the book suspended in the air then began to trace the outline of a man. A cold hiss accompanied the song as the picture began to take on substance. Life.

The person drawn now replaced the book.

With a cold hiss and the
sweep of a hand, the picture peeled away.

The person fell upon the desk in a heap, his hair gray and matted, eyes dull, yellow and full of recognition. He got to his knees and reached for the wraith now approaching the desk. “Master,” he whined. “You have saved me! I knew you would never desert me! Oh thank you!”

The wraith stared down at the man, his
eight foot
frame towering over him, and gave a tiny smile. “Yes, it seems I have, does it not?”

The sad remains of Phi
lip Brennan writhed upon the fl
at wooden surface, his skeleton-like
hands again reaching for the
wraith’s
. Philip grabbed one and began to lick and kiss at it in hunger.

The wraith watched him a moment in satisfaction before slapping the wrinkled form of B
rennan away. “You failed me. Th
e boy still lives.”