The Fae Series: The Complete Trilogy

by Lynn Landes

  Chapter 1

  Illuminated by the light of the full moon, Katie breathes, deep inhaling the scents of the night into her lungs. A layer of dew covers the lush, forest leaves and the heavy taste of pine fills her mouth. Fireflies float on the evening breeze, frogs sing, and crickets play their moonlight melody. An owl hoots and Katie smiles, the forest is happy.

  A twig snaps behind her and silence fills the night. Terror blooms and her heartbeat accelerates. Her hands tremble as she pushes her long blonde curls over her shoulder. Unseen eyes pierce her soul and when he reaches for her, she explodes into action. Plunging through the underbrush she runs, ignoring the twigs and branches that pull and tear at her clothes and skin as if trying to slow her down. The forest observes the timeless tale of hunter and prey.

  “Don’t fall, don’t fall,” she chants while she darts around trees and leaps over bushes. Her legs burn with the effort and she wonders if she will escape him this time. Behind her, his wicked laughter echoes through the silent night.

  “Run, run as fast as you can, Pretty Katie. You won’t escape me this time! You will be mine!” he roars.

  “Not again,” she whimpers. He is close enough for Katie to feel the heat of his hand on her shoulder before his claw sinks deep, piercing her flesh, muscle and tendons, and Katie screams in agony!

  “Katie! Wake up, Katie!” Anya shakes her best friend. Katie jerks awake, eyes wide open and full of fear she stares at her best friend. “Are you okay? We’re getting ready to land.”

  Katie nods and forces her heart to slow down. Anya waves the stewardess away as she tends to her.

  “Just more bad dreams,” Katie murmurs, looking around embarrassed that she screamed. Other passengers are whispering and looking at them.

  “It was just so real, Anya. I swear I could feel his breath on me, and my shoulder...” She winces in pain when she rubs it and glances out the window.

  The green fields below remind Katie why she agreed to this trip. “Remember the three R’s. Rest, relaxation, and recuperation.” The doctor said it is normal to have memory loss, after a traumatic accident. Though she tried, she could not remember any of the car crash, only pain when she tries too hard. Katie woke up in the hospital and while her physical recovery was quick, “When will the nightmares leave me be,” she mumbles.

  At her last checkup, her doctor prescribed sleeping pills, assuring her that the nightmares were simply a result of her brain trying to remember, but she didn’t think the side effects were worth it. They left her feeling slow and hung over.

  “Was it the same dream, again?” Anya asks, grabbing a stewardess, she offers Katie a drink of water.

  “No, they are never the same, but sometimes it feels so real.” Looking out the window she watches the clouds go by and shakes her head before looking back at her friend, “Anya they feel like memories, not nightmares!”

  Anya looks into the eyes of her best friend since childhood and feels her pain. She hasn’t told her of her own nightmares that mirror her friends. “We will figure it out, Katie. In the meantime, we’re going to make some memories of our own. Hopefully, the kind we can blush over when we are old biddies,” she pronounces with a grin.

  Katie laughs, “Sounds like a plan to me.” Sipping her drink, she rubs her shoulder and shakes the memories off as the seatbelt light comes on.

  “Look out Scotland, here we come!” Anya sings.

  Chapter 2

  “Oh, thank God,” Anya murmurs and points to the coffee shop in the airport. Katie laughs and loops her arm through her best friends.

  “I’ll buy, you grab a table, and we will talk about what to do first. I can’t believe our flight was so quick. Only an hour and fifteen minutes to heaven! Why haven’t we done this sooner?”

  “Crazy isn’t it. I knew I shouldn’t have stayed out so late last night. Just grab me a Venti… something.” Anya pulls out her cell to check for service as she drops into a chair in the cafe.

  Katie inhales the scent of coffee and pastries and smiles before she orders. While waiting for her coffees she glances at the table and sees Anya talking on the phone. All the color has left her face and she is listening to the person intently. Katie hurries to the table and sits down. Anya’s hands are shaking so hard she can barely hold the phone as she hangs up.

  “What’s wrong?” Katie grabs her hand to comfort her.

  “It’s my Da. He was attacked at St. Michans, during a tour, and nobody saw anything! Christian is with him at the hospital.”

  “Ring the hospital!” Katie urges.

  A few minutes later Anya is laughing and crying at the same time. “No, DA! I’m coming home. You stay at the damn hospital!” Anya shakes her head and whispers, “Yes, Sir. I know. Da, I love you.”

  “He wants me to stay with you.” Anya glances up and Katie sees the fear in her eyes.

  “No. We can be at his side in less than two hours.” Katie urges. Anya reaches for a napkin and blows her nose. She tosses her black hair over her shoulder.

  “Katie, I know you mean well, but there is no reason for both of us to miss out on this trip. Da would kill us both if we did. He is the reason we’re here.”

  “I still can’t believe he entered us in a drawing and we actually won,” Katie laughs. “How seriously is he hurt, Anya?”

  “Christian said he was roughed up pretty good. The doctor is keeping him for three days to watch his blood pressure and he has a fractured rib and a broken foot. Mostly scrapes and bruises, I feel sorry for whoever messed with him. He can be a brutal fighter when he feels threatened.”

  “I’m going back with you. This is crazy. We should go book our flight.” Anya stops Katie from standing with a firm grip on her hands.

  “No. Katie, you’re still healing from your accident, and the last thing you need to do is go home! I know you, and you will go straight to your bakery. The doctor told you to rest, and that is just what you are going to do. This week is all planned, you will see some amazing sights and you can tell me all about it when you return. Please, just do this for me. I can’t worry over both of you.”

  Katie sighs, “I will stay, but only if you promise to text me the moment you see him, and to call me if he has any changes in his condition.”

  “I promise.”

  Chapter 3

  “St. James Hospital, straight away, please,” Anya tells the cab driver in front of the airport. She takes a deep breath to try to ease her anxiety and sits on her hands to stop trembling. Christian promised her that he was okay, but until she sees him with her own eyes, she won’t be able to relax.

  Anya rushes into the hospital, dragging her suitcase with her and heads straight to the admissions desk. “Mr. Keane Callahan’s room please!”

  The clerk clicks a few keys on her keyboard and smiles up at her. “He is on the fourth floor, room 412.” Anya rushes to the elevator and waits impatiently for the next one. Inside the elevator, every beep the panel makes causes her heart to flutter. When they finally open, Anya hurries down the brightly lit hall and follows the arrows pointing on the wall.

  The scent of sanitizer is almost overpowering, as she walks past the busy curved nursing station where they monitor the patients. A multitude of computer screens blinks with green lights and pulsing lines. She wonders if her Da is on one of those screens and her feet pick up speed.

  At the end of the hall, she finds his door. It is cracked and she knocks, pushing it open. The T.V. screen is on, tuned to some obscure game show, the hospital bed is ruffled and empty. “Da?” She whispers and drops her suitcase on the floor.

  “What’s a man got to do, to get some peace around here?” The sound of his rough voice causes Anya’s green eyes to fill with tears and she spins to greet him. A nurse rolls him in a wheelchair and laughs.

  “You will back in your bed in no time, Mr. Callahan. The doctor ordered the x-rays.” The blonde nurse smiles at Anya and stops the chair, locking the wheels in place.

  “Da?” She asks louder this
time. Anya drinks in the sight of her father, from his long silver wavy hair to his beautiful blue wrinkled eyes. His left arm is in a sling and his face is bruised a bit. On one foot, he is wearing a black boot like contraption. His tan skin is a bit pale for her liking.

  “Come on and give us a hug then,” he says, rising slowly with the nurse’s help. Anya rushes into his arms and lets her tears flow. She drinks in the feel of his barrel chest and whispers a prayer of thanks for his safety. Keane stares down at his daughter and groans when she squeezes a bit too hard.

  Anya leaps back, “I’m sorry, Da. Did I hurt you?” The nurse smiles and asks Anya to move the wheelchair back.

  “A waif like you, hurt me? You wound me, daughter.” Keane settles back into his bed and the two women cover him while adjusting his pillows. Anya holds onto his hand, finding she is unable to stop touching him.

  “What are the x-rays for? Is your arm broken? What about your ribs and your leg?” Anya’s questions pour out, the nurse looks at Keane and back at her.

  “Easy now love, I’m okay. Let the pretty nurse finish up and I will tell you everything. Now sit down before you fall over.” Keane watches Anya collapse into a chair.

  “My name is Blake. I’m on duty until midnight. The doctor will make his rounds in the next hour, hopefully. He will be able to answer all of your questions then. For now, I’m going to administer his pain medication, and take his blood pressure.”

  Anya smiles at the two of them as he teases Blake and she captures the readings she needs and types them into her rolling computer. She promises some tea for Keane and coffee for Anya, then leaves rolling her cart from the small room.

  “I told you not to come back, Anya. I’m fine.” Keane grumbles.

  “What happened, Da? Who did this to you, and why?” Anya asks, sitting on the edge of his bed. She thought seeing him would alleviate her anxiety, but all it did was shift her terror to rage. For a moment her hands grow warm and the sound in the room dims. Anya stands on quaky legs and pours a glass of water from the pitcher on his stand. She sips it and breathes, deep, and slow, to calm her heart down. The sound of her father’s voice helps soothe her and jerks her back to the present.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see them. I was giving a tour of St. Michans and while the group was taking a break, I went outside for a smoke. They hit me from behind. I held my own, I did, but the bastards got away with my wallet.” Keane leans back and closes his wrinkled eyes as his medicine begins to work. His yawn is mighty and Anya sighs, knowing her questions will have to wait.

  “Alright, you sleep, Da. I will be here when you wake up. I want to talk to the doctor myself.” He nods and she watches him sleep and sips on her coffee that the nurse gives her.

  Anya sends Katie a quick text to let her know she has arrived and moves her suitcase over to the small recliner. After freshening up in the small bathroom, she sits to wait. Anya stares at the bruised and swollen hands that she loves and has to fight back tears. She is standing next to the window when the doctor enters an hour later. He is tall, blonde and handsome. He seems surprised to find Anya in the room.

  “Dr. Goodall at your service, Miss?” He asks softly, staring at the beautiful young woman.

  “Anya Callahan, his daughter.” He looks the chart over and smiles as he approaches his patient.

  “Excellent. I need to examine your father, if you’d like to stay, feel free, or you can step outside.”

  “I will be right outside, but I do have some questions,” Anya replies.

  “Oh, she’ll have more than a few questions,” Keane sits up coughing. He grasps his ribs and the doctor walks over to listen with his stethoscope.

  Anya ducks outside the door and paces while she waits. Ten minutes, later the doctor joins her as he writes in a chart. “Miss Callahan, from what I understand, your father was assaulted by four assailants and took a pretty severe beating. He suffers a fractured rib and a bruised collar bone. His foot is broken, we will be setting that later tonight. Thankfully, it will not require surgery, but with his age and smoking, we thought it best to keep him for a few days to monitor his recovery.”

  “I see, did the rib puncture his lung? What about his blood pressure and what kind of pain meds will he need?” She demands tossing her dark hair over her shoulder. He answers her questions and moves away to put his chart back on the door.

  “No, his rib did not puncture the lung. Your father will need time for his collarbone to heal. His leg could take a little longer. He is a sixty-seven-year-old smoker, which needs to stop. I expect him to make a full recovery, but it will take some time and possibly physical therapy.”

  “Thank you. I’ve tried for years to get him to stop smoking, but he’s a stubborn ole ox,” her laugh sounds strained even to her ears.

  “He was lucky. From what the police told me, he fought hard. Four against one isn’t good odds for anyone.” He pulls a business card out and writes his personal number on it. “Call me if you have any more questions…or if you’d like to grab a drink sometime.”

  Anya’s green eyes snap to his and she looks at him closer this time. A tall, handsome, doctor? She could do worse. “Do you give your personal number to all your patient’s family members?” Anya asks with a saucy grin.

  “Only the beautiful ones,” he replies and walks away. Anya’s sexy laughter follows him down the hallway.

  When she walks back inside the room she stares at her father. He is grumbling and trying to adjust his covers. “Let me help.” Keane sits forward while she adjusts the pillows behind him.

  “I’ve surely been a blessed man to have you for a daughter,” Keane says with emotion in his voice.

  “Oh, Da. We were both blessed the day you adopted me.” Anya was adopted as a child and unlike some, she never once looked for her “family” because she was content to be loved by him. He never told her about her family and she never asked.

  His hand grasps hers tightly, “Anya soon we have to talk about your Mother. Things are changing and it’s time,” his blue eyes are serious and her stomach drops.

  “Okay, what’s changing? What do you know about my Mother?” She asks him softly.

  “She was… special. I met her once, on the day you were born.” They both jump when the nurse knocks and brings in his dinner tray.

  “Time for dinner, Mr. Callahan. Pot roast, carrots, and potatoes with tea.”

  “Music to my ears darlin,” he helps adjust his tray. Anya leaves to get fresh ice and water in the pitcher and when she returns the nurse is gone. She has so many questions about her mother, but she is afraid to push him. They gave him more pain medicine with his dinner and now he is struggling to stay awake.

  Anya yawns while he eats, her stomach grumbles reminding her that she hasn’t eaten anything but coffee, since breakfast. “Anya, tomorrow morning we will talk more, but tonight I want you to stay at Kathleen’s,” he puts a hand up before she can argue. “The two men that got away took my wallet, and they will be looking for retribution.”

  “Okay, Da. Do the police know?”

  “Christian is handling it, they’re watching our place, and the Shamrock office. For now, I’d feel better knowing you were safely tucked away. Do it for me.”

  “Yes, sir.” Anya is too tired to argue. “I will do as you ask, for now.”

  “Good. Now go get some sleep and food. You won’t get any rest here. They keep me up all night checking on me.”

  Chapter 4

  By the time the cab driver drops her at Katie’s doorstep, all she can think of is a hot shower and bed. When she walks up the front porch, she feels like she’s been gone for weeks. Digging for her keys, Anya finds it hard to fathom that it was only just this morning that she left.

  The minute she steps through the front door into the cottage, the silence envelops her. The cottage is clean and quiet, a little too quiet. Katie’s cottage is a small, fifteen hundred square foot house with a combo living room and kitchen. It has three small bedrooms and
one bath. Anya has always felt safe here, but without Katie’s peaceful presence the house doesn’t have the same atmosphere. Anya flips on the lights, heading straight to the cabinet where the wine is kept and pours a glass.

  “Time for a shower,” she mutters and walks slowly to the bathroom, sipping her wine. She tosses her suitcase on the bed and walks into the bathroom, unaware of the eyes watching her. Anya wraps her black hair in a towel to keep it dry and turns on the shower to steam the room up. Casting off her clothes on the floor, she sighs.

  Stepping into the shower, she thinks about the conversation with her dad. He knew her mother. That was news to her. All of this is not making sense and she can’t help but worry about what else she doesn’t know. Anya scrubs quickly and dries off before wrapping her body in a towel. Walking to the sink, she reaches up to wipe the steam off the mirror and screams at the reflection.

  The crimson eyes of a demon glare at her and before she can move, he seizes her in a grip of steel and sinks his teeth deeply into the side of her throat. Anya struggles against him, but she is impotent against such strength. In her mind, she hears his wicked laughter. ‘Fight pretty, Katie! I love it when they fight!’

  The moment his teeth sink into her veins, fire rushes through her body and pain, unlike anything she has ever experienced before. With every mouthful of blood, he takes, her knees grow weaker. Anya can’t believe that this is really happening. Vampires aren’t real! She can see his reflection in the mirror, and she didn’t invite him in. All those myths were lies! What is happening? Rage flows once more through her body and her hands begin to heat up. Another fit of anger and she fights, the towel falls from her hair and her long black hair drops around her shoulders.

  Caius jerks as though realizing something is wrong. Katie has wavy blonde hair. “I’m not Katie!” She groans. When he tries to release her, Anya reaches back and grabs his black hair, holding him tightly in place. Shock flickers in his mind, and this time, it is her laughter echoing in his mind.