Chapter Twelve
It was time and Veronica was ready.
Thankfully her ship’s AI had known how to dock itself because if it
hadn’t then figuring out how to do so would have been its own
nightmare. Wearing one of her Matrix suits again, she took
the time to check all her weapons before leaving the ship. She
could see the abandoned boat Victor had left behind several yards
away. Judging by how a medium-sized dent puckered from where the
ship’s galley was, the thing looked to have been ransacked for food
and drink. Otherwise it appeared to be intact.
She hesitated. Should she leave the key to
the boat inside the vessel just in case someone needed the ship to
flee? What if she ended up being that person though?
Thinking quickly, Veronica decided to leave the key inside the
cabin, but not in plain sight. That would give her the time she
needed to make her way to the castle and see if Victor’s science
experiment worked twice. If it didn’t, she’d be taking a voyage to
who knew where in this boat; if it did work then it didn’t matter
who found the key because she wouldn’t be needing it.
Disembarking, the thick mist from the sea
created a dense fog for as far as the eye could perceive. Victor
had told her she’d be able to visually locate Castle Cumhacht from
the dock, but she couldn’t. The visibility was pure haze, matching
her current ambivalent mood. Basically, she would be going ashore
with a major handicap. She hoped and prayed the fog relented when
she got in deeper.
The laptop was closed and in her satchel,
but she spoke to her brother nonetheless. After all, he could still
hear and see her. “This is it,” she whispered. “In case I don’t
make it, just know I love you, Victor. I did all this just to be
with you.” She decided to throw the big guy a bone too.
Semi-smiling, she said, “And tell Laird Kong he wouldn’t have been
a bad choice in a husband. It’s not exactly how we do it in our
time, but still.”
She didn’t know why those words had come out
of her mouth, but there it was. For some damn reason or another,
the giant’s feelings mattered to her. Just a little, she told
herself. Only a little.
Deciding that she’d made her peace with
whatever lay ahead, Veronica palmed a gun in each hand and exited
the dock. It was, as the old-timers liked to say, showtime.
*****
Lachlan’s heart squeezed a bit at her words.
His clan name was Gunn, not Kong, but that was a speech for another
time and place. Filled with nervous energy, and uncertain what to
do with it, he began pacing behind Victor as they both watched
Veronica go ashore.
“Did we miss anything?” Finn asked as he and
Ramsay made their way into Victor’s bedchamber. He closed its heavy
doors. “Is she here?”
“She’s here,” Lachlan confirmed, absently
running a hand over the stubble on his jaw. “But still in the
future.”
Finn and Ramsay stood off to the side
watching as Lachlan continued to pace. He hated the helplessness he
was experiencing. ‘Twas driving him daft, this.
“I never told her I loved her,” Victor said
softly, his back to him. “She said it to me, but I didn’t think to
say it to her when she could see and hear me.” He sounded tired,
tortured. Lachlan came to a standstill.
“What if she doesn’t make it?” Victor asked
everyone and no one. “What if—”
“Cease this talk,” Lachlan ordered him. He
cleared his throat and attempted to sound less harsh. “She kens you
love her. Look at all you have done to save her.”
His words seemed to calm him a wee bit. “You
think so?”
“Aye. I do.”
Lachlan resumed his pacing. He was grateful
Victor’s expression was one of relief. Now if only someone could
calm his own fears. ‘Twould be a boon, that.
*****
Veronica moved in silence, the castle at
last in view. It was a good mile away, but definitely visible. The
structure was dilapidated and ancient, but it gave her the bearings
she needed. She continued to move slowly and soundlessly, her goal
to avoid as many eaters as possible. She hoped the six-pack had
retreated from the old Gunn grounds, but was prepared if they
hadn’t.
Castle Cumhacht had likely been an
impenetrable fortress during its heyday. The sea to its back and
hilly terrain to its front, she could envision warriors lining the
battlements, archers prepared at the arrowslits, the portcullis
lowered against would-be invaders. Hopefully she’d soon see it in
all its glory.
She moved through the mist, her visibility
much better to her front, but still far from ideal at her back.
Methodically snaking her way toward the castle grounds, a gun still
palmed in each hand, her heartbeat picked up a little as adrenaline
kicked in. All of her senses were on high alert. They had to
be.
The wristband her brother had insisted she
wear began to beep, likely alerting her that she was close to the
precise spot where she needed to be. She cursed under her breath,
praying the sound wouldn’t draw attention to her. What were you
thinking, Victor? His one misstep in what had otherwise been a
perfect plan so far.
A guttural growl pierced the quiet. Veronica
whirled around, a bit disoriented by the fog and unable to locate
the precise direction the echo had come from. More growls and
hisses. Her nostrils flared as her gaze scanned the mist as quickly
and thoroughly as humanly possible. The eaters might be able to see
in this haze, just like they could see at night. The thought
chilled her to the bone.
One of the dead appeared out of nowhere,
bloody fangs visibly ready to penetrate its next victim. Fangs?!
What the fuck? The infected’s eyes were cloudy blue, the whites
reddened. Veronica’s heartbeat soared as one arm rose and she aimed
a gun at the eater’s head. She pulled the trigger as she leapt from
its path. It fell to the ground, dead, as five more eaters
surrounded her on all sides.
She began shooting in all directions,
turning in a circle to down them all. As the fourth one fell, the
final eater jumped on her, catapulting her body to the ground. She
landed with a hard thud next to her satchel, her head hitting the
rigid if grassy ground. Quasi-dizzy and trying to shake it off, the
undead creature kept snapping at her. She strained to keep its face
at arm’s length. Its teeth were gnashing, the fangs giving it an
advantage. The thought of dying this close to Victor was
unacceptable.
Warbling out a battle cry, she pushed the
eater off her body with all her might, one leg raising to kick it
further away from her. Just then another low growl sounded from
behind her, alarming her with its proximity. Her green eyes wide,
she was taken aback when a large dog jumped over her and took the
eater to the ground. The dog barked and snapped as her heart beat
out of her chest. She scurried to her feet, still a bit dizzy, and
saw the dog and the eater rolling around on the ground.
That dog saved her life. She couldn’t let
the poor thing sacrifice its own.
Veronica raised her right arm and trained it
on the infected, trying to get a clean shot. The dog and the eater
were in bitter battle, snapping and growling at each other. She
wanted to kill the eater without injuring the dog. Her dizziness
wasn’t helping matters. The eater threw the dog off it, preparing
to lunge at the animal. Veronica took advantage of the moment. She
fired the shot, her breathing heavy, praying she hit her mark.
The infected human fell to the ground, dead.
She blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding in as
the dog seemingly inspected the downed eater before turning to her,
panting and wagging its tail. Her eyes still wide, she called the
dog over to her, noting as he walked he was male. Her breathing
still ragged, she took to her knees and petted him, the emaciated
animal licking her other hand. She checked him for bites and any
puncture wounds, but found none. Only humans could be turned, but
bites could cause an animal to die from infection.
“You’re skinny and hungry, but otherwise
okay, boy,” Veronica told him in a soothing tone. “You’re coming
with me.” Victor had said anything she was still touching when she
injected the serum would travel back in time with her. He better be
right. “Come on, boy!” she instructed, getting up and fixing her
satchel. She quickly walked toward the exact latitude and longitude
coordinates she’d been given. They were so close now. The damned
beeping grew faster and louder in its tempo. “It’s time to get out
of here.”
Veronica heard the growls of eaters in the
distance. Her head at last clearing, this time she could make out
the direction they were coming from. She put the gun from her left
hand inside the holster on her hip and took a grenade from her
waistband. “I am so done fucking around with these things,” she
gritted out. She prepared to pull the pin and throw the detonated
device as soon as she spotted the next hoard. When she espied the
pack in the distance, rapidly heading toward her from the west, she
waited until they were within throwing distance. The dog barking
and her heart pounding, the pack of eaters neared. Throwing the
grenade as fast and far as she could in their direction, she
warbled out another battle cry as it whizzed through the air.
A boom, loud and piercing, sounded. She
leapt for the ground simultaneously, taking the dog with her, and
sprawled out upon it as body parts rained down on them both. Her
breathing ragged, she closed her eyes during the macabre shower.
She knew without looking she’d managed a perfect hit. The low
growls were gone and silence once again reigned supreme. All she
could hear was the beating of her heart and the dog’s panting.
Veronica laid there with the dog for a long
pause, her breathing coming under control. Her adrenaline level
still high, she pulled herself up and told the dog to follow her.
“Let’s go, boy!” she commanded, taking off in a sprint. “There
could be more!”
The dog followed, keeping up with her pace.
The beeps on the wristband drew even closer together, the sounds
extremely rapid, telling her she was where she needed to be. This
had to be the spot. The wristband, thank God, went silent. “Come
for me, Victor,” she managed, falling to her knees to dig through
her satchel. She found the serum and a clean syringe then sat on
her bottom. She slapped herself on the leg to beckon the dog
closer. “Come here, boy,” she said as cheerfully and encouragingly
as she could. “Come here.”
The dog obeyed as if he understood her
words. Maybe he did. Perhaps his former owners had trained him well
before meeting their presumed demise. The animal, once a large mix
of breeds she couldn’t name, was too malnourished to belong to
anyone now. Even if he did belong to a survivor, she reasoned
they’d want her to take the dog with her. Fate must have been on
her side for the dog settled into her lap, happily panting. She
managed a small smile as she got the serum into the syringe.
Another hoard of eaters growled in the far
distance. She hoped the transfer back through time would be fairly
instantaneous. And work.
Placing her weapons in the satchel and
slinging the satchel over one shoulder, she took the syringe,
rolled up one sleeve, and located a plump vein in her right arm.
“Here goes nothing and everything.” She injected the serum, a
burning sensation running down her arm, eliciting a hiss. Grabbing
onto the dog for whatever came next, she clutched him tightly as
her entire world began to spin. Nausea stole over her as the
dizziness reached its apex, forcing her eyes closed and her teeth
to grit. Her last coherent thought was that Victor had better know
what he was doing because this entire experience well and truly
sucked.
*****
Lachlan rode his mount as though the devil
was chasing him, Finn and Ramsay trying their best to keep up. He
rode hard toward the spot where he’d found Victor those months ago,
praying to the saints the time travel had worked. His breathing
growing heavy, his pulse pounding, his dark gaze squinted into the
distance.
She was there. Likely unconscious, but she
was there.
Lachlan flew o’er the clearing, towards his
intended, elation flooding his senses. His steed kicked up dirt as
Lachlan brought him to a sudden halt near to where she lay. The
bone-thin dog she’d brought with her still lay with her arms
wrapped aboot him, the animal as unconscious as she was. Both of
their breathing was normal. “Finn! Ramsay!” he shouted,
dismounting, “Get the dog and her bag. Bring everrathing to my
bedchamber!”
The laird scooped Veronica’s body up into
his arms. Golden curls came tumbling out of their place holder at
the back of her head, cascading down one of his muscled arms. She
was here. She was well and truly here. He was so relieved and
elated he damn near smiled.
“You did it, lass,” he murmured. “You gave
me a fright in the doing, but you did it.”
He handed the sleeping Veronica to Finn then
mounted his horse. Holding out his hands to let his best warrior
know he was ready for her, he expelled a breath of air as she was
placed back into his arms. Lachlan situated her just right on the
horse, her unconscious body falling limply back onto him. Holding
her tightly, Lachlan ordered his steed into a full gallop, the wind
at his back.
‘Twas difficult to believe, yet the woman
had traveled back through time. The proof was in his embrace. She
had persevered and endured unbitten. Veronica was alive and she was
his. This victory was a better feeling than any won battle prize
from his past.
He prayed to the saints she would accept her
fate for he would never give her up. Never.