by M. L. Briers
I’d already drawn on my magic, and I wasn’t entirely sure why Gran hadn’t even turned to look at him. She had inclined her head though, and there was a twitch of sorts under her right eye.
“Who invited you?” Gran’s steely tone certainly made my blood go a little colder in my veins, which might have been a good thing because seeing Count Sex-on-a-stick again had certainly heated it up a little.
“You did…”
“Not this side of drop off a cliff…” she shot back.
“In a roundabout way.” He’d ignored her remark and kept going, shooting me a smirk at the same time. A man that could multitask. “When you called Duncan, he called me.”
My detective's brain absorbed that information, Gran knew him, bat-boy knew him, so why had I never been told about him?
“A little late to the party, cousin,” Duncan’s voice startled me, coming from just behind my left shoulder as he stalked into the room.
Ooo, family.
“We’re not obliged to adopt this one, right?” I asked Gran, and she grunted again.
“I was on the other side of the world,” he offered, and I was sensing a lot of tension in the room.
“Should have stayed there,” Gran grumbled. Yep, I couldn’t cut the air with a chainsaw.
“I didn’t know what we were facing when you called me, Fiona,” Duncan explained. “I thought two…”
“Dead guys,” I offered and got a smile from both vampires, now I could see the family resemblance.
“We’re better than one.” Duncan finished, turning his attention back towards his cousin, whose name I still hadn’t gotten. Why was I always the last to know?
“Malachi,” bat-boy offered, and I shot him a death glare for reading my mind.
“She wants to know my name?” Malachi said as if I had a crush or something, and I offered him one raised eyebrow.
“It’s needed for the gravestone – no, wait … you already have one of those somewhere,” I said with a sweet smile.
“Right here on Skye,” he offered back with a raised eyebrow of his own, and that looked good on him. Too good. I need to drag my mind out of the gutter before bat-boy reads those thoughts.
Duncan chuckled – too late.
“Maybe you should crawl back into it,” I rushed out.
“Seconded,” Gran said, and I had to wonder why she didn’t fawn over this corpse the way she did with the other dead guy.
“Prickly pear,” he tossed back, and I sneered at him.
“If you start singing Jungle book, I’ll flamethrower you into a crispy critter myself,” I tossed back.
“You can leave now,” Gran announced and I had to wonder which one of us she was speaking too. I was hoping it wasn’t the plant. “Crisis averted, there’s nothing here for you.” She shot a death glare in his direction.
“I came to realize something today,” he started, and I couldn’t help myself.
“You’re dead?”
“Not quite…”
“Very,” I offered him a small smirk.
“Coming home, seeing the … sights,” he turned his gaze on me, and I prickled a little more – did he just refer to me as a sight or was I being touchy? I know I wasn’t at my best when I was working, but still. “I like the view.” His gaze never left mine.
“No,” Duncan said it so forcibly that it snatched my attention towards him. He altered his stance and didn’t look best pleased.
What was I missing?
“That’s up for debate, but not by you,” Malachi looked pleased with himself, I wasn’t sure if it was because he’d riled bat-boy, or because of something else, but it was there.
“You still need my permission to be on the Isle,” Gran said.
“I stopped needing that the moment that the vampire and the were-mutts returned to the Isle,” he said, and then like it deserved to be accompanied by a puff of smoke, he was gone.
“Nice … kin,” I said, and Duncan chewed that one over like I’d just accused him of eating babies.
“You need to stay away from him,” Duncan informed me with an air of annoyance that couldn’t be mistaken.
“I thought I’d invite him to dinner. We seem to be adopting strange creatures lately,” I shot back.
I didn’t need telling. I certainly didn’t need to be told by him.
“I’m serious…” he pushed the point, and I pushed back.
“I wouldn’t be this close to you if you weren’t Gran’s … pet project.” I turned on my heels but didn’t get far before Gran decided to put her oar in.
“Duncan’s right, Malachi can’t be trusted…”
“Not to steal the family silver, or take a bite?” I shot back over my shoulder and didn’t expect an answer to my sarcasm.
“Both,” Duncan called after me, and I noted it and moved on.
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
“So, Malachi is Duncan’s cousin,” Moira said, reaching for Ross’ bottle of lager from the table in between us.
“Don’t mind me,” Ross said, eyeing his drink disappearing into my sister’s clutches. He wasn’t getting that back anytime soon.
“Well, I’m all out of mine,” Moira offered back.
“Fetch, good boy,” I teased him and got a sigh back in return.
“You drink like a fish,” Ross grumbled, pushing to his feet and sidestepping the table to head to the bar.
“You might want to get yourself another,” she offered him a wickedly teasing smile before turning her attention back to me. “Back to Malachi,” she wiggled her eyebrows at me.
“The vampire?” I reminded her, and she shrugged before sinking a few unladylike mouthful of the lager. “Yes, he’s bat-boy’s cousin, but bat-boy doesn’t seem to like him much, and Gran was basically the ice maiden towards him.”
“Oh, that’s not good for your future dating prospects,” Moira offered me an over exaggerated grimace, and I offered her one raised eyebrow back.
“Dating prospects?”
“Well, we’ve both seen Malachi…”
“There are no dating prospects.”
“I wouldn’t be too hasty in your judgment…”
“And, obviously, you wouldn’t be too fussy in your choice of prospective dates for me, either.” I challenged her with a look that conveyed how I really felt — bite me.
“You think one vampire around the dinner table is enough?”
“Don’t test my patience — you should know by now that I don’t have any.”
“Are you still hung up on Jack?” Moira was walking a tightrope, and she wasn’t doing it very well. She was in danger of falling off, especially, when I push her hard enough.
“What are we talking about?” Ross asked. He carried three fresh drinks in his large hands and placed one down on the table in front of me.
“I’m stopping at one, but I’m sure my lush of a sister will happily drink it,” I offered her a smirk.
“I hear that,” Ross said. I couldn’t help but chuckle, Moira’s head practically snapped around on her neck like a crocodile going for the bite, and Ross groaned, knowing that he’d done wrong. “Should I just bend over and kiss my backside goodbye?”
“It depends how fond of it you are,” I chuckled.
“Let’s talk about your night-time excursions.” Moira offered him a hard glare.
“That again?” Ross sighed once more, as he sidestepped the table and sat down next to Moira as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“It’s gone one step beyond baa-baa dead sheep…”
“As far as I’m aware, I sleep at night,” Ross said, still not looking happy with what he felt was an accusation.
“Don’t wake up in the morning and have an urgent need to pick bloody meat from your teeth?” Moira asked. I rolled my eyes and slapped the palm of my hand against my forehead. “What? It’s a perfectly legitimate question.”
“But not very subtle,” I chuckled.
“This is no time to
think about how to best phrase a question,” Moira said. Okay, she might have been right there.
“What about Lachlan and Fraser?” I offered two substitutes to one theory. “If it is an animal attack then maybe we should be looking in the right place…”
“Well, I don’t think you’re theory of a wind whistling up and taking the animals into the windmill blades is going to hold much water.”
“That wasn’t theory — that was an up yours to Detective screwball.”
Wouldn’t you know it, soon as I spoke of the devil by name, it arrives. Jack walked into the bar, and the first thing that caught his attention was me. I groaned, and Moira turned to take a look at why.
“Why don’t you just call a truce?” Moira asked.
“Because I didn’t start this war.”
“It’s hardly a war…” Ross said, and both Moira and I glared at him. “It’s more of a how many times can Jack trip over his own tongue while putting his foot in his mouth, and Maggie forcing that foot down his throat to choke him to death.” Ross shrugged.
“You know, I kind of like that analogy,” I chuckled. I noted out of the corner of my eye that Jack, the biggest thing in the room, had moved, and in my direction.
I turned my steely gaze on him, the look that I had learned from Gran, and he stopped in place.
The man wasn’t a total eejit after all.
“Now what?” Moira asked as I pushed up to my feet.
“Now I go home, go to bed, get up in the morning and do it all over again.” I could truly have sighed at that remark, but I didn’t.
“Prepare yourself, the detective seems to be guarding the front door,” Moira chuckled.
“And that’s why I’m going out the side door.”
I was as good as good as my word. I didn’t need another confrontation with Jack. I think the man and I had said everything that we needed to ever say to each other.
“Maggie McFae,” Jack called from behind me just as I reached my car.
Yes, it made me stop in place, and yes, I rolled my eyes at the sound of my full name. I’m sure he was doing it now just a miff me off.
“I’m going home, Jack,” I tossed back over my shoulder as I used the key fob to unlock my car.
“Look, I just wanted to find out if you knew of any kind of magic that would involve animal mutilation…”
“You’re like a dog with a bone.” I turned back toward him and tossed up my hands in frustration.
“It doesn’t matter now — preliminary tests say that it was probably an animal attack.”
That was the last thing I wanted to hear. Vengeful eco-blades getting their own back on farting sheep, would have been good. Psycho satanic worshippers doing a little slice and dice would have been good. Ross, Fraser, or Lachlan roaming around the countryside with their claws and fangs out, not so good. Especially, if Ross didn’t even know he was doing it.
I had sympathy for Ross if that was the case, and then I had to wonder — in which surreal world did someone have sympathy for a werewolf?
“Great. Good. Fine.” I think I might have been overdoing it.
“We just need to figure out what kind of an animal could be attacking sheep, we don’t think it’s a Highland cat,” Jack said. My heart hit my ribs.
“Have you met my cat?” I shrugged. Sarcasm as a distraction had always worked well for me.
“Is there a problem here?” To be honest, I hadn’t noticed Malachi approaching us.
“If there wasn’t — I’m guessing there is now you’re here,” I muttered, loud enough only for the vampire to hear.
Malachi tossed me a smirk, and I couldn’t say that filled me with a warm fuzzy feeling. How many times was I going to have to defend Jack against the supernatural? It was getting tiring.
The man had a habit of putting himself in the danger zone. Saying that the whole of the island had become a danger zone. It used to be so peaceful around here with only the ninja sheep to worry about. Now, even the ninja sheep were dying.
“I’m detective Jack Mackie.” It wasn’t necessarily what he said but the way that he said it. Like his was bigger, which I highly doubted.
“Would you like to take a bow with that?” Malachi offered back, and I didn’t just roll my eyes, I practically begged for a brick wall to head-butt.
“And you are?” Jack asked. Course he did, he wanted to note his name in his little black book for future reference. Heaven help the vampire should he be pulled over for speeding.
“Taking my girlfriend home,” Malachi announced. Forget the brick wall; I needed a cliff to jump off.
I must admit, Jack’s face was a picture of shock and something I couldn’t identify, and I sort of wished that I had my mobile phone out so that I could keep that memory. His eyes practically rolled back in his head before he fixed them on me.
I shrugged, what else could I do? I’d been trying to distract Jack from the awkward animal slaughter questions, and Malachi had basically done it for me. I wasn’t going to give him bonus points for the way that he’d done it.
“I’ll leave you to your evening,” Jack said, and he promptly turned on his heels and stalked back toward the pub.
“You’re welcome,” Malachi leaned in, and I felt his breath against my cheek like a caress. I shivered.
“Go away.” I suppose I could have said thank you, but that would set a whole new precedent between us, and I can’t have that.
“Funny, I seem to remember the people of Skye being friendlier,” he offered me a look that was a challenge.
“Was that before you became a blood-sucking monster and killed as many as possible?” I started, but I wasn’t finished. “Back in the days when my ancestors were still fighting dinosaurs?”
“Ouch,” he grimaced. “Was there suddenly an ice storm? It feels a bit frosty out here.”
“You’d know all about the ice age, wouldn’t you?” I was reluctant to turn my back on him, and it wasn’t just due to Duncan and Gran’s warning. The man might have looked like a superhero God, but far from being Thor, I suspect this one was more like Loki.
“Guilty as charged — those brontosaurus burgers were tasty — ah, the good old days.” He slapped his hands together and rubbed them as if he could actually get cold.
I yanked open the car door, dropped my backside onto the seat, and slammed it shut behind me. I also have to admit that he did make me chuckle. Satan Claws was more fun than bat-boy.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
“You can try to get a handle on it yourself, Ross, or worse; you can let the elder witch school you in your heritage. Or you could do the smart thing and come take your place in the pack with us.”
I stood with my magic offering me a protective bubble so that Mr – what big ears you have – Lachlan MacNabbie, couldn’t pick up on the sound of my racing heart as I eavesdropped … hmm, inadvertently overheard, and not in a nosy, gossipy kind of way. Well, they were out the back of the bistro, if they’d wanted complete privacy, then they should have been talking behind closed doors.
“What’s Fiona got to do with…?” Ross asked, and from the sound of his tone, he was getting a little angrier as time went on.
“See sense, man,” Fraser said, and my nose twitched like it had an itch that needed scratching. It tended to do that when someone rubbed me up the wrong way, those two did.
“My life is here,” Ross protested.
“You’d have a better life with us. With your own kind where you’ll be accepted for what you are.”
Chasing rabbits and howling at the moon. There was a reason you didn’t go into some highland areas of a night, and now I knew why.
Lachlan really was trying to sell it to Ross, and I had to wonder why. As Gran had said, Fraser was his son, why was he trying to rope Ross into joining his merry bunch of howlers?
“Look, Uncle, I’m grateful for the offer, but…”
“T’is the witch then?” Fraser said and my ears pricked up. As kids, Ross had al
ways pulled Moira’s pigtail, but he’d done it in a playful way, Fraser had done it out of spite. “I can scent her on you.”
That sooo didn’t sound right. Not to mention that I didn’t like the tone of voice that either of the men had.
“Maybe you should shove your nose elsewhere if it offends you,” Ross said, and my inner cheerleader waved her pompoms. Aye, Ross told him where to shove it.
“Come now, lad, be charitable,” Lachlan said. “Moira has her charms, and they could turn any man’s head.”
It wasn’t necessarily what he said because that could have been taken as a compliment. Men were men, after all, and they couldn’t be expected to wax lyrical, no, not what he said, but the way that he said it that made me want to go outside and dump him on his backside.
“I’ll ask you to watch your tongue, Uncle,” Ross’ tone had a depth of warning to it that made me want to hug him – in a purely brotherly way.
“You’re fond of the lass, I get that, but getting tangled up with witches is dangerous,” Fraser warned, and I almost snorted in contempt for the sneering tone of his voice.
It was laughable. It was no more dangerous to be around us than be tangled up with a hungry pack of wolves – literally.
“Perhaps someone should take the temptation away,” Lachlan said, and just as I heard Ross growl, so that same urge took over me as well. I might not have had physical fangs and claws, but I was sure I could come up with some magic to rip that man’s head from his body.
“Take one step too close to Moira, and I’ll tear out your heart and hand it to you,” Ross growled, and when I say growled, I mean exactly that.
“Ross,” Fraser’s tone held a warning. “You don’t challenge the alpha, man.”
“If you want to take me on, lad, you’re welcome to try, but I warn ye, T’is a fight to the death and the last you’ll have,” Lachlan growled, and his tone was chilling. I felt it down to my bones.
Two sets of feet thumped against the outside decking, and I could breathe again. Family could be a pain in the backside at times, but Ross’ was on another level. There was a low, deep hearty growl that I had to assume came from Ross, and then his footsteps faded away as well, and I started to relax. I still wanted to kick Lachlan’s furry butt back where he came from, but at least I could loosen the magic that I held tightly around me.