She followed that saber to the hand holding it, up an arm, to a face gazing into her eyes. The face smiled.
“Ned!” she gasped.
“Aye, lassie. What do ye think ye’re doing, killing one of me men?”
“One of your men?” she stammered.
“Aye, lass. We staged this fight to break ye out, but I can see we neednae bothered. Are ye ready to go?”
She swallowed hard.
The man she had almost killed glared at her from the ground near her feet.
“Go?” she whispered, looking up at Ned.
Ned pried the saber out of her hands and steered her away from her would-be victim. He guided her down the street to the park where the smoke and noise didn’t confound her so much, then turned her to face him. “Are ye all right, lass?”
She stared down at her shaking hands. Now that she was separated from the melee, the awful truth hit her hard. She had been about to kill that man. She would have cut his head clean off, and she would have enjoyed it. “What did you do, Ned?”
“They’re watching all the ports for the Prometheus,” he told her. “So we stashed her up the coast and came overland.”
“Those men,” she began. “The Redcoats said they were McDonalds.”
“They’re Lewis,” he replied. “We borrowed a few kilts from our friends, just to throw the British off our trail.”
“Lewis!” she exclaimed. “All of them?”
“Aye. Do ye no’ recognize them from the camp where ye first came ashore?”
She blinked, unable to recognize anybody. She didn’t even recognize Ned. Everyone blended into everyone else.
“Never ye mind, lass,” he murmured. “Ye’re coming with me. We’ll take ye back to the ship, and ye dinnae have to worry about any of this anymore.”
He took her hand, and they walked out of the city. The trip took the better part of the day, but Ree didn’t argue. She couldn’t think. She wanted someone else to take charge and tell her what to do so she didn’t have to take responsibility for her own actions. She was a killer. That was the horrible reality. Underneath her successful veneer, she was a bloodthirsty animal who craved killing and battle and blood as much as any of these wild Highland men.
On that long, treacherous journey out of Aberdeen, her whole identity crumbled. She wasn’t the person she’d thought she was. She was lustful enough to seduce her worst enemy to get what she wanted. She was cruel and heartless enough to sever a man’s head when he was trying to help her. What else was she capable of? What depths would she sink to in order to get what she wanted? She didn’t even know what she wanted. That was the worst part. She only knew she wanted Ned. She wanted to help him, but even that motive was suspect now. What possible reason could she have for helping the Lewises against the Gunns? Why should she side with the immortal Angui against their Falisa enemies?
Malcolm was right. She owed no allegiance to anybody here—except Ned. Her loyalty to him had nothing to do with Angui or Falisa or the Cipher’s Kiss or anything else. She’d fallen for him like she fell off a log. It just happened to her, and now she found herself up to her neck in it. Some force she didn’t understand bound her to him across the centuries. She felt it back home by that pond. She felt the same thing on board the Prometheus when he first saw her prosthesis and said it was wonderful.
Even that didn’t explain it. That force would tie her to him even if she had two good legs and had never been in that car accident. This force moved through their very blood. It tied them together against all odds. It would still be working a thousand years from now. She was part of this immortal race. She wasn’t immortal—not yet, anyways. Still, she sensed the deep truth pouring into her through Ned’s hand. They would be together forever. Nothing could part them. They would find the Cipher’s Kiss. She would take the potion, and she would become immortal just like him.
The same thing could have happened between her and Malcolm, but it didn’t. Whatever cosmic pattern brought her to Ned ordained that she should belong to him alone. That and that alone prevented her from giving her heart to any other man.
Maybe that’s what she sensed in the cottage on the Isle of Lewis. Maybe Malcolm hadn’t been lying to her at all, and this unstoppable wall prevented her from connecting with him in the same way. She’d already met Ned. Malcolm could be the nicest guy in the world, and she would never be able to feel the same way about him.
Ned marched all day until the sun went down. He and Ree left Aberdeen behind following a country road into the farm country. He stopped at a roadside inn and showed Ree into the main room ablaze with firelight.
“Sit ye down here while I go talk to the landlord,” he murmured. “Ye’re frozen through.”
She clasped his hand. “Don’t leave me alone, Ned. I…”
“Ye’ll be just fine, lass. After the way ye fought in town, I’ve no doubt of that, but just in case, I’ll leave yer old friend here to guard ye.” He laid her saber on the floor at her feet. “If anyone comes, just chop them to pieces and make a pasty of the remains. I ken ye’ll make a fine one at that.” He walked away chuckling.
Ree slumped into an armchair by the fire. Her shoulders collapsed, and she stared into the fire. She hadn’t realized until that moment how cold she was. Her skin tingled, and the heat made her eyelids droop. She couldn’t keep her eyes open a second longer.
Chapter 19
Ned found the landlord in the bar and paid for a night’s lodging for himself and Ree, then bought himself a glass of whiskey and ordered supper for them both. He took a sip from his glass and headed down the hall to the room where he’d left Ree.
A side door opened near the kitchen, and Gilias stole a glance right and left before he joined Ned in the hall.
“Is all well with the ship?” Ned asked.
“All’s well for the moment,” Gilias replied. “Our scouts picked up a pursuit trailing ye out of Aberdeen. They bypassed ye on their way up the coast. They’ll overtake the ship by morning.”
“Pull out,” Ned told him. “Weigh anchor and move the ship. Get out of sight. When they come to the anchorage, they’ll find ye gone and have no notion where ye are.”
“What about ye and the lassie?” Gilias asked. “Ye’ll have no notion where we are, and we’ll have no notion where to pick ye up.”
“No, ye winnae,” Ned agreed. “That’s as well. It’ll only throw the pursuers off further. Any indication who they are?”
“None,” Gilias replied. “They could belong to anybody. We’ve enough enemies in this poxed wee country.”
Ned laughed. “Get along with ye and move the ship. I’ll meet up with ye one of these days. Scotland’s not so very big for all that.”
Gilias took the book out of his sporran. “Now ye’ve got the lassie back, ye best take this. It’s no good to me, and she may be able to make sense of it. Take care of yerself, brother.”
“Aye, man,” Ned replied. “Take care of the lads. Ye’re in charge now.”
Gilias nodded, but he didn’t leave. He scowled.
“What’s amiss now?” Ned asked.
“I dinnae want to be in charge,” Gilias blurted out. “I never wanted to be. Ye’ve always been me captain as far back as I can remember. I dinnae ken what I’ll do without ye.”
Ned’s throat tightened. “Then mind me orders, brother. Take care of me crew for me until I return. I winnae be long, and with luck, the lassie will be able to decipher this recipe.”
Gilias jerked his chin toward the front room. “Is she…is she all right?”
“She’s grand. She nearly killed Awariku getting out of Aberdeen.”
Gilias stroked his beard in thought. “Aye. It seems she keeps getting more deadly the longer she travels with us. Pretty soon, she’ll be handling her own.”
“Aye,” Ned murmured. “She’s one of them.”
“It seems ye were right about her,” Gilias remarked. “I didnae want to believe it when ye first decided to keep her, but now I see ye
were right. Do ye think we can find more like her?”
“Aye, in her own time,” Ned replied. “When we come to the time when she was born, I’ll wager there’ll be plenty around like her. It’s a different culture. The women will stand up for themselves. They’ll fight when the time comes, just like the women we lost.”
Gilias clapped him on the shoulder. “Very well. I’ll guard yer ship and yer crew for ye until ye return.”
“Good lad,” Ned replied.
Gilias slipped away unseen.
Ned wandered back to the main room where he found Ree sound asleep in the chair by the fire. He stood aside and watched her for a long time. She was indeed the warrior he’d been searching for. He’d recognized that animal madness in her face when she almost killed his friend in Aberdeen. He’d searched so long for a woman like her. Now he found her, and he prized her above any treasure. Finding her had spurred him to uncover the secret of the Cipher’s Kiss. He couldn’t let Ree die. He had to make her immortal so they could be together.
The landlord brought two supper dishes and set them down on the table. Ned sat down on the bench closest to Ree. He studied her sleeping face while he ate. He didn’t want to wake her, but he couldn’t leave her asleep in a chair. Other guests would come in and disturb her if he didn’t do it himself.
He finished eating and sipped his whiskey for another hour before he made up his mind. He carried her supper and her saber upstairs to their room and set them on the table, turned down the coverlet, and then went back downstairs and gathered her limp body in his arms.
She stirred and whimpered in her sleep. He hefted her against his chest and carried her upstairs. She snuggled her head under his chin and clung to him until he laid her down in the bed. She settled down, and he covered her up.
He shut the door and poked up the fire before he returned and sat down on the other side of the bed. He kicked off his shoes and socks and unbuckled his saber and his sporran. He took off his shirt and got under the covers in only his kilt. He scooted over next to Ree and took her in his arms.
Ree stirred again, and this time, she cuddled down in bed against his chest.
Ned kissed her hair and closed his eyes. How good it felt to lie down in bed next to a woman after all these years. Sure, he’d had women in his bed since those long-ago days when he was married, but never one he cared for as much as Ree.
She breathed against him in silence for a while, but she wasn’t asleep. He knew that now. Her delicate arms encircled his chest, and their delicious heat filled the space under the covers.
She just couldn’t leave a moment like this alone. “Ned?”
“Aye?”
“Isn’t it…you know…isn’t it kind of unacceptable for us to share a room together?” she asked. “Won’t the landlord think it’s inappropriate or something?”
“He might have thought that,” Ned replied. “That’s why I told him we were married.”
Her head shot up, and her eyes flew open. “You what?”
“I didnae think ye wanted to stay in a room alone, and this was the only way,” he replied.
Her eyes darted back and forth.
He saw the wheels turning in her mind. He gave her a perfectly sensible explanation for how they could share a room, yet here they were, sharing a bed too. He was half-naked with his arms around her like they really were married. He didn’t give her any further explanation. Why should he? They both knew where this was going. Why fight the inevitable?
She stared down at his face.
He raised his hand and stroked her cheek. He smoothed her hair back and looped it behind her ear, then closed both hands around her head and pulled her in and kissed her. He felt the first hint of resistance before she succumbed to the pressure. She sank into him, and her body relaxed. This was meant to be. They both knew it.
He swam in her intoxicating perfume as long as he could. He tasted her sweetness and her soft release. It couldn’t last, though. She broke away and hid her face against his chest. He’d already known it wouldn’t last. He had to take this in easy bites as she accepted what was happening. He might want every inch of her right now, but he wouldn’t get it, not for a while, at least.
She murmured against his skin, and her lips brushed his ribs. “Ned?”
“Aye, lass,” he breathed.
“Do you have a lot of women? Do you…I guess what I’m asking is…”
“I have had as many women as was necessary for a man to survive seven thousand years,” he interrupted. “Does that answer yer question? None of them meant anything to me. They were just something my body needed at the time. I hope ye understand that.”
She raised her head to study him again. “None of them meant anything to you? Not one of them?”
“Not for a long, long time, lass,” he replied. “Not since I was married.”
“You were married?”
“Aye,” he replied. “We all were. Ye remember what I told ye. We had a civilization full of men and women and children. We couldnae build that power without women.”
She lay back on the pillow with her arm under her head and stared up at the ceiling. “I never really thought about you being married.”
“Aye, I was married to a wonderful woman. Her name was Zita, and we had four beautiful children, two girls and two boys. The girls died in the plague, along with their mother.”
Ree’s head whipped around to stare at him. “You mean the disease the Falisa released into the water?”
“Aye.” He turned away, unable to look at her while he said it, but he had to get the words out.
He hadn’t talked to anybody about this in thousands of years. The other Angui men already knew. They’d lost their own wives and daughters. No one ever talked about it. It was too painful. Ree was the first person Ned had ever told.
“The plague made these terrible boils break out all over the women’s skin,” he told her. “They swelled and disfigured them beyond recognition. Then they burst and bled and wept all over the place. Then more boils would erupt under the broken skin. It kept getting worse and worse until they tore their skin apart.”
Ree stared at him with her mouth open.
He read the horror in her face, but that was nothing compared to the horror of actually seeing it with his own eyes. “It hit the girls first,” he went on. “Zita was distraught. The girls screamed and cried all night, but there was nothing we could do. Zita and I and the boys just stood in their room and watched. My younger daughter kept screaming, ‘Help me, Abi! Help me, Ami!’ again and again, but there was nothing we could do to stop it. The boils kept coming, one on top of the other. They ripped her skin off and erupted out of the muscle underneath until they left it in shreds. Ye could see her intestines and ribs underneath, and ye could see her heart beating under the viscera.”
Ree rolled over and hid her face against his side.
He put his arm around her, but she offered him no comfort from that memory.
“Jesus Christ!” she breathed.
“They took over a week in agony to die, and by that time, Zita had it too,” he said. “My boys left the house. They didnae want to see anymore, but I had to stay and watch until the end. I stayed beside Zita until she died. I hadnae eaten in over a week, and when she finally stopped breathing and I came outside the house, the whole city lay in ruins. Men walked around the streets in shock. They didnae see what was right in front of them.”
“What happened to your sons?” she asked.
“I hooked back up with them later,” he replied. “Our leaders organized us to evacuate the city. All the slaves left to return to their own countries. We had no further use for them or anything else. We became wanderers with no home nor country, and no women.”
“But your sons aren’t alive now,” she remarked.
“No, they’re not alive. The Gunns hunted them down, along with all the rest. My older son lies somewhere in eastern Mongolia, and my younger one fell into a river and drowned in Senegal. The Gunns a
ttacked a transport of camels. They severed the ropes securing the bridge, and the whole train plunged to their deaths.”
She snuggled into his arms and held him tight. “I am so sorry. I never realized it was as bad as that.”
Now that he’d gotten the story off his chest, he took refuge in her arms. She was his future, his last, best hope. He could appreciate her now for what she was and what she could be. He pulled her in close.
This time, she kissed him. She started it, and she let herself go in passion as never before. Her body tensed with buried desire. Under her defensive armor, she harbored volcanic passionate energy just waiting to be released.
He hauled her up on top of him and slipped his knee between her legs. Her hard prosthesis bumped against his leg. Her hips melted aside, and she straddled his thigh. He rubbed his knee into her soft tissues, and she sighed against his mouth.
All of a sudden, Ned pushed her up and forced her over onto her back as he sat up. He flung back the coverlet to expose her body and hitched up her skirts to her hips.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m taking this thing off.” He grabbed the Velcro straps holding her prosthesis to her leg. He ripped them open, and the whole apparatus dropped away.
“What are you doing that for?” she asked.
“Did ye really plan to keep it on while we lie with each other?” he asked. “Did ye really plan to touch me with yer iron hook there?” He took it off and dropped it to the floor next to the bed, then lay back and tossed the covers over both of them again.
He put out his arms to draw her in again, but she resisted and eyed him with suspicion. What was wrong with her? He knew about her false leg. She couldn’t balk, now that they’d come so far to this point.
“What’s wrong now, lass?” he asked.
Pirates of the Angui (Cipher's Kiss Book 1): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 15