Chapter 12 #2
“I hate you,” she told him. As he nodded and pulled the bed linens up over them, she wondered how much longer she could hold out against his brutish charm, if there was such a thing. “If I do agree, and you’re planning to gloat about it, you’ve got another thing–”
Tair smothered the rest of what she was about to say with a deep, hungry kiss. When he ended it Lucy drew back and stared at him.
“Aye, I may sway you whenever I wish, with but a kiss,” he told her softly. “Only ’tisnae honorable, to seduce a wench.”
She frowned. “You’re seriously worried about your honor where I’m concerned? Because it didn’t stop you before now.”
“No’ my honor.” He kissed the space between her golden brows. “Yours.”
Lucy would never have believed Tair MacRune capable of that. “You’re going to make me fall in love with you.”
His brows rose. “You’re no’ yet?”
She pretended to smother a yawn. “Good-night, my lord.”
Almost the moment Lucy closed her eyes she fell asleep, but the dreamlessness of the darkness became alive with color, motion and light. She sensed again the incredible softness of the silk shawl wrapped around her, and she was falling endlessly, until she wasn’t.
The window in the void appeared before her just as it had with the two fates she had been shown, but this time she wasn’t looking at Pamela Frazier’s garden. She was suddenly standing inside Justins’s apartment in Miami .
“Why am I here?” she asked, confused.
You must see all you left behind, my child.
Lucy glanced around her. The place looked bare, as most of Justin’s expensive furniture, appliances and artwork had disappeared.
She saw a cheap futon in the living room covered with Chinese takeout boxes and empty beer cans.
Next to it Justin suddenly appeared, kneeling on the tile floor.
He was shaking his folded hands as two men she didn’t recognize came into the room.
When he looked up at them, Lucy realized he was terrified.
“Please, tell Mr. Rossi I’ll get the money for him,” her ex-boyfriend pleaded. “Tomorrow at the very latest, I swear. I just got in a huge deposit from an investor in my next project...”
This is why he called me that morning , Lucy thought. He wanted to get back together because he was desperate to repay a loan shark?
While he went on sobbing and begging, one of the strangers took out a gun, calmly attached a silencer to it. He then shot Justin in the chest. Once her ex toppled over face-down on the floor, the man shot him a second time in the back of the head.
Lucy couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. “Stop it, please. I’ve seen enough.”
You must know everything, child.
“How much did he scam out of Giovanni?” the second man asked as he pulled on a pair of black leather gloves like those the gunman was wearing, and tucked a couple of towels under Justin’s corpse.
“Fifty large, and it’s Mr. Rossi to you, dumbass.” The first thug tucked away his weapon before he crouched down and pressed his fingers to the side of Justin’s neck. “Yeah, he’s done. Check the bedroom.”
Lucy watched the men methodically search Justin’s apartment, helping themselves to his collection of rings and a little cash from his sock drawer. They also took all of his guns and ammunition, loading them into a duffel.
“Not enough to settle the account, so we’ll have to check his office, too,” the gunman said, sounding disgusted. “Boss’ll be happy about the guns.”
“Yeah, maybe Mr. Rossi can pin a few murders on this guy,” the other man said before he left the apartment, and returned a few minutes later with a very large suitcase.
He opened it to reveal a thick layer of plastic glued to the insides.
As he folded Justin’s body in order to fit it into the suitcase, the gunman brought some bleach and a sponge from the laundry room, and cleaned up the blood on the tile.
He then put the bloody towels and sponge in the suitcase, and the two men shut off the lights and departed with the suitcase and duffel.
Lucy didn’t know what to think. If Justin had intended to kill her and her client he deserved to be severely punished. Seeing him murdered like this didn’t seem like justice, however. It made her even angrier with her ex, who should have known better than to borrow money from the mob.
“Can’t you do something about this?” she demanded as the apartment around her faded back into the dark gray void. “Why don’t you contact the police in their dreams and show them what happens to him? They could get to Justin before those gangsters do.”
Showing you is all I may do outside the wish, my child. You have no reason to doubt your choice. Besides, you do not know who made the wish that brought you here.
Another window opened, showing the laird in the lists. He was covered with bits of straw, and went over to splash his face with rainwater from a barrel. As he used an old, stained linen left beside it to mop the sweat from his face, his shoulders sagged.
If I could but find a woman who could truly love me.
Lucy heard his voice, although his lips weren’t moving. Then she realized she was hearing his thoughts.
There must live one with a heart large enough to accept a dark-blooded swine like me. I should wish for naught more in my life but her.
Tair tossed the damp, dirty linen on the side of the barrel, and when he turned away it sparkled with copper-violet light before it disappeared.
“So that’s why you took me from my time?” She swiped at her burning eyes. “You should have brought him someone closer.”
In all of time in the mortal realm, you are the only woman who may fulfill Tair MacRune’s wish. If you desire give him what he longs for, you must choose again, and give him your heart.
Lucy sat up, jerking on her chain as she came fully, instantly awake. “It was Tair?” She looked down at her sleeping lover. “ You wished for me?”
The laird murmured something unintelligible and curled an arm around her, pulling her down to him.
O sgan paddled the skiff the magistrate’s wife had left for him so that it lay partially hidden beneath the dock on the MacRune’s island.
Tying it off there, he waded ashore, and concealed himself in some brush as a group of patrollers marched by.
The darkness had hidden his approach, but from here he could be discovered by the clan if he wasn’t careful.
In his chest something tugged at him, a sensation he hadn’t experienced since crawling into the enchanted hollow after the battle with Rune.
After stealing the cluet from the dark Fae queen and bringing it to the mortal realm he had the same awareness of the treasure, as if some unseen cord tied him to it.
The clan had not yet found the cluet, so it lay concealed somewhere here, likely inside the stronghold.
Before sailing to the island, Osgan had changed into the rough garb of a drover, which he would claim to be if caught by the MacRune.
He had invented an entire story about a ewe running off in this direction, and how he was searching the loch to see if she had fallen into the water and drowned.
Since the clan were halflings he was certain his tàladh would help him convince them.
He might even seduce one of the senior men if he had to.
I must retrieve that facking rag, no matter the cost.
Slowly he made his way toward the gate of the outer curtain wall, taking care to avoid attracting the notice of the watchers.
As a group of patrollers approached the gate he took out a small black crystal from his belt pouch and gripped it tightly.
The crystal cast a dark shadow over him that allowed him to follow the patrollers through the open gate as if he were no more than one of their shadows.
Once he’d trailed after them across the outer bailey and into the inner gate he dropped down in the gardens, waiting until the patrollers went inside the garrison hall before studying the five arches that led into the stronghold.
“Och, there you skulk, lad.” A large man stinking of horse manure came staggering up to Osgan and seized his arm. “Where did you stray tonight?” he demanded, blasting his face with hot, whiskey-laden breath. “Didnae you ken I’d be eager for you?”
The drunken man kept hold of him and dragged him into the stronghold through one of the back arches, rambling on about how much he hated to be kept waiting. The guards they passed only gave them amused looks, as if they were a familiar sight.
Finally the odorous man pushed Osgan into a small chamber, and dropped the bolt bar before he shoved him face-down on the bed.
“Maister, please.” He tried to rise and groaned as the stableman yanked down his trews and kicked his legs apart. “I’m no’ your lad.”
“So you claim every night,” the drunkard panted against his ear, weaving a little as he tried to penetrate him. When he couldn’t he shifted down to tongue his pucker and push two fingers inside.
Aroused by the rough treatment, Osgan lifted his hips and groaned as the man straightened and pressed inside, jerking as he began thrusting.
Osgan closed his eyes as the drunkard facked him, recalling the night the dark Fae queen had summoned her guards to violate him one at a time while she watched and stroked herself.
He’d forgotten how delightful it could be to be made helpless and taken over and over, although this idiot mortal would never last as long as a dark Fae killer.
Just as he’d expected, all too soon the drunkard stiffened, spilled and collapsed facedown beside him on the bed.
Osgan watched him for a few moments before he stood and stroked his throbbing cock, jetting onto the big man’s face before hauling up his trews.
“I shall repay you someday, fool,” he promised the drunkard before he went to the door and opened it to look outside.
A big fist hauled him backward. “I’m no’ done with you yet, laddie.”