Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Seeing my first decapitation up close did not agree with my tummy. Mostly bile emerged, splattering the floor, leaving a sour taste in my mouth and a look of disgust on Alistair’s face.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, my cheeks heating with embarrassment.
“Understandable reaction. The stench of a Red Cap is enough to curdle even my stomach.” Alistair glanced at the headless corpse and grimaced. “Nasty, smelly bastards.”
He leaned down and grabbed the body, and I wondered why until he headed for the window, which I’d left open for fresh air, and heaved it out. The head followed soon after.
I almost threw up again. He unfortunately noticed. To my surprise, he didn’t say anything cruel.
“I think you need a glass of something to settle your belly,” he stated, leading me down to the kitchen.
Turned out he didn’t mean water but eye-watering whiskey. I choked as fire raced down my throat, but to my relief, it didn’t come spewing back out. And what do you know, it did somewhat steady my nerves, enough that I finally remembered my manners.
“Thank you for saving me from that monster.”
“Don’t thank me when I should be apologizing. You should have been safe. That Red Cap should have never dared to enter my home.”
“Did I hear it right? It planned to abduct me?”
“Aye.” I watched as Alistair lay his sword on the counter and reached into a cupboard for a cloth to wipe the blade.
“Why would Nessie ask a monster to bring me to her?”
“I don’t know, and to my annoyance, I want to find out.”
I almost laughed at his disgruntled tone. “How would Nessie even know about me?”
“I’m surprised you’d even ask since Astaria mentioned her sister relocating to Nessie’s loch.”
“Actually, that doesn’t explain anything.
Why would Astaria or her sister have visions of me in the first place?
I’m not a person of any import, just a history professor hoping to become a novelist,” I exclaimed, only to have a sudden exciting thought.
“Do you think Nessie wants me to pen her biography?”
Alistair blinked long dark lashes before saying, “Doubtful.”
“You never know. She might want to set the record straight. Get her true story out there.”
“And bring even more annoying visitors to her loch? Highly unlikely.”
“Perhaps she wishes to aid me with my research into the lost treasure.”
“Now you’re really grasping. The Nessie I last visited with was neither kind nor benevolent.”
“You said it’s been years. Maybe she’s changed.”
“By all accounts, she hasn’t. If she wishes to see you, then it likely won’t be for anything pleasant.”
“According to you. I’m sure people would say the same about meeting you. You’re not exactly a ray of sunshine,” I pointed out.
“And they would be right. I am not a nice person, but Nessie is worse. Apparently, I still have a conscience, hence why you live. Nessie, however, no longer seems to care about anyone but herself.”
“You’re just trying to convince me to not go.”
“Hardly. If you want to throw away your life, go ahead, but don’t expect any help from me.”
“Aren’t you peeved a Red Cap sent by Nessie invaded your castle?”
He shrugged. “It’s dead now, and technically it wasn’t targeting me.”
So much for his speech to the monster when he’d confronted it. I’d been raptly listening and watching as he came to my defense. Apparently, he didn’t mean what he’d said.
“You should try to get some rest. Dawn is still a few hours away, and while the ferry docks around eleven thirty, it doesn’t depart until after four.”
“What about you? What are you going to do?”
“The Red Cap needs to be burned, lest it heal from its wounds.”
“It has no head.”
“And?” With that unsatisfying reply, he exited through the busted kitchen door, and I hugged myself.
When that didn’t warm my insides, I poured another glass of whiskey and took an eye-watering gulp before wandering towards the window, where I could see an orange flicker.
A peek outside showed a fire burning, the flames sickly, the orange stained green and putrid yellow.
Illuminated by the pyre stood Alistair, who made it clear he wanted nothing to do with me. Once I got on that ferry, I’d likely never see him again. Pity. I could have learned so much from a man who’d lived through the history I’d studied.
Despite his suggestion, forget going back to sleep.
Blame the adrenaline that still coursed through me from the encounter with the Red Cap.
I still couldn’t have said why I’d suddenly woke or even knew to move.
A good thing I had, or the blade that came smashing down would have cut deep, a reminder that, despite the monster’s claim it came to abduct, initially it tried to kill.
Before I knew it, I headed outside. Hearing me, Alistair turned his head. “I thought you were going back to bed.”
“No point since I’m wide awake now. Something occurred to me. The Red Cap claimed it was to bring me to Nessie but—”
“The tear in the mattress where it tried to strike you while you slept says otherwise,” he interrupted.
“Was it lying about the kidnapping?”
“I’ve been thinking about it and can only surmise the Red Cap initially tried to disobey, and when it failed, the compulsion to serve became stronger than its own will.”
“Are you saying Nessie is mind-controlling them?”
“How else would she get them to follow her orders? These are monsters whose sole purpose is violence and death. They get nothing from serving Nessie.”
My lips pursed. “Maybe she gives them a safe place to call home.”
He snorted. “I highly doubt that.”
“If she’s controlling them, then she’s kind of like you, I guess, only better at it.” Snippy, but even my usual sunny outlook tired of his attitude.
“Simple-minded creatures aren’t hard to command.”
“Wait, was that a backwards compliment?”
The flicking light from the fire illuminated the tilt of his lips. “Guess it was. While you might be misguided and too eager for your own good, you are not stupid.”
“Be still, my heart.” I clasped a hand to my chest.
“Definitely a smartass,” he added, deadpan.
I giggled before throwing my next question at him. “More seriously, though, what else can Nessie do, other than mind-control living things?”
“Swim.”
“Duh.” I rolled my eyes at the obvious.
He sighed. “Guess you’ll keep pestering until I answer.”
“Is it pestering or expanding my knowledge with truths only you can impart?”
“Nessie is often called a sea monster or sea serpent.”
“I’ve also heard the term dinosaur bandied about.”
“Definitely not the latter. There was a time she didn’t even live in water, although she always had an affinity for it. See, before her wings got sheared, Nessie could fly because she was a dragon like me.”
“No way,” I breathed.
“It’s true, although I wouldn’t recommend asking her about it. It’s a touchy subject.”
“How did she lose her wings?”
“Jealous rival.”
“A dragon fight?”
“Dragon fight but also sibling. Her twin sister, to be exact, tore them off.”
“That’s horrible. How could her own sister do that to her?”
“Rivalry. Domination.” He shrugged. “It was never quite clear, but I imagine some kind of jealousy might have been at play. You have to remember dragons aren’t like humans. We don’t perceive family like you do, or form emotional attachments.”
“You like Astaria.”
“Barely,” his dry reply.
“You try to pretend you don’t care, but I think that’s a lie.”
“I never claimed we didn’t feel. We often envy what others have. We covet. We steal with no compunction. Annoyance is another emotion I’m well acquainted with.” The latter he aimed at me with a scowl.
“What about love and affection?”
“A human thing.”
“You were in love once with that dragon who, uh”—I paused before I said betrayed and flipped to—“before things didn’t work out.”
“Was it love? Or a desire to fertilize a clutch that might leave a lasting legacy?”
“Er, what?” I blinked. “Is fertilize really the word you should be using for sex?”
“Dragons don’t have sex the way humans do. While we have a phallus, and the females a vulva, the two never meet.”
“Then how on earth do you make babies?”
“The female will eject eggs from her body and invite a suitable male to—”
“Oh my god, you jizz on the eggs?”
He winced.
And I laughed. “Damn, that’s a cold way of making kids.”
“Is it? Seems to me it’s more civilized than the grunting and humping common among humans and other species. Not to mention less messy,” he groused.
“Also no fun. Where’s the intimacy? The love?”
“Unnecessary. The fertilizing of a clutch is a transactional matter conducted between two consenting dragons.”
“Sounds so clinical and boring.” I almost slapped a hand over my mouth, but he actually smiled.
“Having experienced the human method, I’d have to agree.”
“Wait, you’ve had sex?” I blurted out and then blushed so hard I thought my face would melt.
“Yes, I’ve had sex. More than once, before you ask. In this man shape, I can feel arousal and achieve orgasm.”
He said it matter-of-factly, not sexy at all, and yet I shivered—and quivered in places I shouldn’t. Since I didn’t know what to reply, I stared at the fire that no longer burned as bright. “Do you think we need to worry about more Red Caps coming for me?”
“I would like to say no, but considering this one should have never been present on the Isle of Rum to begin with…” He shrugged.
“Think I’ll run into any on my journey to Loch Ness?”
He didn’t reply for a moment. “Again, I’d like to say no, since you would be essentially doing what Nessie wants, bringing yourself into her domain. However, her aggressive use of the Red Caps, rather than sending you a message, indicates she might not be thinking clearly.”
“So you’re saying I might wake up to another of those things trying to kill me before it remembers it’s supposed to kidnap me.” I grimaced. “Great.”
“If you’re done with the questions—”
“Not quite. You say Nessie can’t fly, and everyone knows she lives in the loch, but does she ever leave it?”
“She rarely waddles ashore.”
“So she can’t change into a person like you can?”