The Vampire and the Highland Empath (a Highland Sorcery novel)

by Clover Autrey

  Some of Rogue’s weight was taken from her and the water pulsed against her legs as Alex treaded water for Roque. Several moments passed while they both dragged in air.

  Roque’s head lifted fractionally. Wet hair swiped across her cheek. Thank the gods, he was coming to.

  “We need to get out of the water,” Alex said. Before the cold numbed their hearts. A tremor rolled through her. So cold.

  “There’s a ledge.” Her voice echoed around the cave walls. Water dripped on stone. “We can climb out. My brothers left torches and flint.”

  As long as she’d known this land, the water levels inside the cavern remained constant so even though the sea outside had risen, the ledge should be in the same place.

  She tugged Roque toward where she judged the ledge to be.

  Alex swam with her, taking the majority of Roque’s weight.

  “To your right,” Roque rasped.

  “Ah. You’ve rejoined us, then.” Relief tempered the teasing tone of Alex’s voice.

  “Umn,” Roque grunted. “Where in the blazes are we?”

  Edeen’s palm hit the ledge just where Roque had said it would be. How had he known?

  “I’ll hold him while you climb out, ma’am,” Alex offered.

  ‘Twas more difficult than expected to release Roque to another. What if Alex didn’t have a good enough grip and they lost him to the darkness?

  Which was a ridiculous thought. Alex was his friend. He’d not let him come to harm. He had already proven that.

  She was glad the darkness hid her expression. She did not understand where this fervent protectiveness came from, or so quickly.

  Pulling herself up onto the slippery shelf was harder than she remembered. Her arms shook and the gown kept getting in the way.

  A sudden shove on her bottom propelled her onto her stomach on the ledge. A shocked gasp escaped her, again thankful for the concealing darkness. She did not ask which of the men had assisted her.

  Scrambling the rest of the way out, she quickly turned on her knees to help Alex with Roque.

  Reaching down, she accidentally struck a nose. Roque’s, she thought. Dripping hands latched onto her wrists, guiding her hands down to slide onto soggy shoulders. By touch, she found his chest and slipped her arms beneath his armpits and around his back.

  This close, his breath washed against her neck, warm on her wet skin. The muscles in his arms and back tighten as he pushed down on the ledge.

  “Dammit, mate, go easy on the apple crumbles.” With all the splashing, Alex must be helping from behind.

  Edeen felt, more than heard, Roque’s low chuckle. Alex grunted loud and Roque strained onto the ledge, or more precisely onto Edeen, though he quickly rolled off her with a muttered “sorry”.

  More splashing and grunting and the round part of a broad shoulder landed on her thigh, causing Edeen to hiss out in unexpected pain.

  That shoulder also quickly rolled away.

  “Ma’am. Sorry,” Alex strained. “Many pardons. I’m so sorry.”

  “’Tis all right.” She smothered a chuckle and stretched out her arms, half-sprawling on the slimy rock ledge, searching for the flint and torches Shaw and Col kept just out of the water’s reach.

  “What are you doing?” Roque asked. His voice sounded winded.

  “Looking for the flint.”

  “Don’t bother, Treasure.”

  Treasure? “Do not call me that. I’m no man’s treasure.”

  “In that, you’re sorely mistaken.” A hint of laughter coated his voice.

  There was a soft metallic ripping sound, the rustle of stiff material and a beam of light snicked on.

  Edeen squinted at it. Strange magic.

  Shivers ran through her. She stared at the small cylinder sprouting light that Alex had taken out of the now open bag he had brought from the boat. The bag’s interior was shiny as though coated in oil to keep everything inside dry. And the objects within—an odd assortment of shiny objects similar to the longer sticks the men on top of the cliff had held. Some sort of club.

  Alex poured the light over Roque. “Blimey, Roque, you look like shite.”

  Roque’s lips tugged into a thin grin. Supporting himself with one arm, small tremors rolled through him. His face was pale, cheeks flushed with redness. Blood diluted pink with sea water soaked the side of his shirt.

  Alex rummaged through the bag. “The bullet should have worked itself out by now. What’s going on?” He pulled a small square box from the bag and clicked open a hinged lid.

  “I don’t know.” A slow drop of water hovered at the top of a wet lock of hair before falling onto his cheek. “It feels different.”

  Alex’s hand stilled in the process of lifting a square fold of linen from the box. His head snapped up, brows drawn tighter. “Different how?”

  “Cold.” Roque’s arm gave out. He slipped before catching himself.

  Alex caught him by the shoulders at the same time Edeen got there.

  Roque’s head hung down. “I’m okay.”

  “Nay. Ye are not. Lie still against me.” There wasn’t much room on the ledge, but Edeen managed to get behind Roque and ease his shoulders and head back against her. It was a testament to how much pain he was in that she maneuvered him so complacently.

  Bunching the wet shirt up, Alex pressed the cloth to the wound.

  Roque hissed, stiffening. “Hey. Ow.”

  “Sorry, princess.” Alex dabbed at the blood flow, trying to get a clear look at the round little wound. “So cold. And?”

  The Adam’s apple in Roque’s throat column bounced. “I can feel it, but I can’t push it out.”

  The men stared hard at each other, an unspoken conversation passing between them.

  “Geschopf?” Alex growled. “New kind of weapon?”

  “Designed especially for me.”

  “Dammit.”

  Edeen didn’t understand everything they were talking about, but she had come to several conclusions on her own. First being, with Roque’s ability to leap so far off that cliff, inhuman agility and enhanced vision in the dark, he was something beyond mortal.

  Something, that in normal circumstances, could perform self-healing, except this Wulf Geschopf had pierced Roque with some sort of blade that his natural ability to mend was not able to repair.

  Her hand strayed to her neck. ‘Twas no longer bleeding, yet it stung a bit from the salt water. Vampire? Yet he’d been out in daylight. Nor did he seem like a vampire, even if she had ever met one, which she had not, but she just thought they would be…she didn’t know. Different?

  “Very well then.” Alex unfolded a long thin length of linen from the box and began wrapping that around Roque’s torso to keep the other now-bloodied square of cloth tight against Roque’s side. “We need to get you some place where I can dig the bullet out.”

  “He needs a Healer Sorceress,” Edeen insisted.

  Alex yanked the knot tight on the linen. “I wouldn’t let a healer within a foot of him.” His tone bellowed like a hound protecting its master.

  “Alex…” Roque warned. “It’s all right.”

  Head lowered, the strain left Alex’s shoulder. He shook his head and water drops fell from his close-cropped hair. His gaze sought Edeen’s. “Ma’am, would you kindly show us the way out of here.” He held the short staff of light out to her.

  “Of course.” She took it, smoothing her thumb along the strange and wonderful device. Surely a powerful sorcerer must have conjured it, trapping an eternal flame behind the round piece of glass. She pointed the end around the wet cavern, amazed at how the light beam cut so precisely through the darkness.

  She set the beam back onto the men, brows rising at the amused expressions and quickly angled the light toward the way out.

  There were three holes. The center one looked as though ‘twas the most reliable to take as the hole was as tall and wide as a large man and on the same level as the ledge. Yet she knew from childhood exploration that �
�twas the most treacherous path with unforeseen drop-offs with no end. Or at least too deep to hear any of the stones they’d dropped into it hit bottom.

  The tunnel to the left came to a dead stop several twists in, yet there was a small unassuming slant of a hole higher up on the right, that once one climbed into, opened to a sloping tunnel that led to the sheep-grazing meadow at the top of the sea cliffs.

  She set the light device down inside the hole just above her shoulder and went back to Alex and Roque.

  “We need to get him up inside there. Do ye think he can manage?”

  “You realize I’m right here and can speak for myself,” Roque muttered. “I can get in there.”

  He pulled himself straight and immediately sagged back.

  Soft shivers rolled through Edeen, her skin puckering from the cold air and dampness of her wet dress. Glancing at each other, she and Alex each took one of Roque’s arms and hauled him to his feet.

  “You all right?” Alex asked.

  Roque nodded, mouth tight, and held a tight palm against his side.

  Edeen remained quiet, recognizing the frustration for what it was. She had three brothers, and not one handled being laid low by illness or injury well.

  The overgrown infants.

  And if Roque was accustomed to healing quickly, facing any weakness ‘twould be new and doubly frustrating for him.

  Alex squinted up into the tight hole. “This is good. Even if Geschopf or any of his men found the underwater entrance I doubt they’d pick this slash as the tunnel to follow.”

  Roque stepped up onto a boulder and braced his arms to pull himself up. “Don’t underestimate the man. Has the nose of a damned bloodhound.”

  “But surely the water—” Alex started.

  Roque turned back, his face stern. “Do not underestimate him.”

  Alex swallowed…and nodded before locking his hands together to give Roque a higher boost up.

  Setting his foot in Alex’s hands, he braced shaking arms on the lip of the hole, and Roque scrambled up inside and disappeared from view.

  There were some scraping noises and the light source lifted to the ceiling, withdrew, then angled outward so Edeen and Alex could better see.

  “All right, luv, come on up.”

  Before she could even respond, Alex took her around the waist and lifted. Damn skirts got in the way again, the wet fabric pooling under her knees as she landed. She had to release the folds to crawl out of the way, moving just as Alex tossed the bag up, took a running leap and scrambled up.

  Bunching up the filthy sagging skirts around her thighs, Edeen crawled to the point where the tunnel opened up in height, though there was room only to walk two men abreast.

  Roque was on his feet, though barely. Leaning against the wall, head hanging so low his chin touched the top of his chest.

  Standing and dropping her skirts, Edeen went to him, tucking herself beneath his arm. She didn’t like the low tremors that ran through him or the terrible heat emanating off his skin, which was strange since she herself was freezing. She pushed in closer against him, reveling in his warmth, even as she hoped to cool his fever down with the coldness of her body. His chest was firm and wide, stomach tight, and his heavy arm felt nice around her. ‘Twas pragmatism, she told herself. He needed cooling and she needed warmth. And if she happened to enjoy being so close to him, what harm was there in that?

  “Come away, ‘tis not far.” Squeezed beneath his arm, their shoulders both bumped into the earthen walls on each side, even as Roque leaned farther in against her.

  Alex walked closely behind them, bringing the bag. “Let me take him.” He was practically on top of her, ready to catch Roque up should he suddenly give out.

  “In a moment.” The aid would be appreciated, even though she was loathe to give up his warmth. Each faltered step, Roque leaned more heavily into her. She was barely managing beneath his weight as ‘twas. “A few more steps and the tunnel widens. The way out is not far beyond that.”

  She stepped on the bottom of her dragging gown and stumbled, jarring her shoulder into the wall.

  Alex caught her from behind, while Roque shifted his weight away from her.

  “Ma’am?” Alex kept her steady.

  “I’m fine. The water’s dragging these skirts down.”

  “You need use of your hands to hold up your dress,” Roque said. “I’ve got if from here.”

  Pushing off the wall, he began walking.

  Edeen frowned at his retreating back. “He’s a bit of stubbornness to him, has he not?”

  A grin coated Alex’s voice. “You have no idea.”

  They followed Roque, the beam from Alex’s curious little light bounced along the uneven walls as he walked.

  The tunnel widened enough for the three of them to walk apace. Without asking, Edeen and Alex immediately flanked Roque, each slinging one of his arms over their own shoulders.

  Apparently none too soon as he sank against them, his steps more dragging than supporting his own weight.

  Heat poured off him. When the light passed across him from Alex’s gait, Edeen could see fissures of steam lifting off Roque’s wet clothes. The wet ends of his dark hair curled at the nape of his neck.

  Once again, she sifted through her essence, trying to find the missing source of her empathic abilities and get a hint of what Roque truly was, yet there was nothing there. The absence of her gift frightened her. She’d rather have lost the ability to walk.

  “Please tell me that’s not your way out,” Alex said.

  Edeen lifted her head and the world nipped out of her grasp. Alex played the light over the space where their exit hole should be, but ‘twas no longer there.

  The space where the opening should be was obvious, but it had been sealed off by stone and mortar.

  They were trapped.

  Chapter Five

  This wasn’t right. Why would anyone build a wall across the entrance?

  And so quickly.

  Shaw had stashed a bunch of supplies here, in case things went bad with the witch, only two days ago when their small group left on the foray to search out Aldreth’s castle for weaknesses and rescue Toren.

  The supplies that were now gone.

  “I do not understand. How is a wall here?” She demanded as though Roque and Alex had anything to do with it.

  Propping Roque against the earthen tunnel wall, Alex squinted at her. Roque looked done in. His slight glance toward her revealed glassy eyes as Alex helped him slide down the wall to sit.

  Edeen sank down beside them, worry knotting her insides. She had led them here to this trap when Roque desperately needed a Healer Sorceress.

  Could this be Aldreth’s doing? If the witch knew about their clan’s hidden stashes, she would be keen to cut them off from it.

  Yet this had been such a small cache, hardly worth the effort. Also, Edeen felt no trace of magic humming across it, like the magical barrier that surrounded Aldreth’s castle.

  Of course, Edeen could not rely on her senses to ferret out magic at the moment.

  But…her empathic ability aside, her instincts were wailing.

  Everything was too strange, somehow off. The noisy magical boat, the men’s strange manner of dress and speech. Both Englishmen, yet she couldn’t make sense of some of their words.

  Her heart clenched in her chest.

  The last memory before waking in the smugglers cave was of Aldreth hurting Toren while she heedlessly ran to stop the witch. Everything after that was gone.

  Oh, Toren, what have ye done? As a sorcerer, he could send her through a rift in time. But why? If indeed ‘twas what happened. Why would they not have taken her to Reolin Skene and the Shadowrood?

  They would have if they had been able.

  Her heart wrung tighter.

  Sweet peace, what happened to her brothers?

  “We have two choices,” Alex said, opening the bag.

  Roque’s lashes lifted, the only indication he was st
ill with them and listening.

  “Go back the way we came to the sea. Of course, we no longer have a boat and Geschopf is most probably still skulking about.”

  Roque grunted.

  “Or get that bloody bullet out of you right here.”

  Roque lifted his hand weakly. “That I’m in favor of.”

  Alex smiled.

  The situation couldn’t be much worse. They had enemies behind them, a wall to the front and a man spilling his life’s blood that he could not afford to lose.

  She should not have brought them here. “Forgive me.”

  Roque took her hand within his warm grasp and squeezed. Emotions rolled through her, vague and indescript, yet there like a forgotten dream lying just at the edge of remembering. Her gift. Edeen gasped and her essence wavered. She tried to clasp onto it, yet the feeling floated away as wispy as mist through her fingers.

  Roque stared uncertainly at her.

  “This is going to hurt.” Alex produced a short blade that folded out from a smooth iron hilt of the same size. A small hidden folding blade. Ingenious.

  They needed to get Roque out of here. Get him help, but that wasn’t possible. Alex seemed to know what he was doing.

  Edeen shifted on her knees. “How can I help?”

  “Hold this.” Alex slapped the light rod into her hands. “I need to get the bullet out.”

  “Bullet?” She tried the foreign word. Had the tip of a blade broken inside of Roque? The term was unfamiliar. This was definitely not her time. Toren must have sent her through time.

  Wild panic began swelling in her chest, the truth daggered and brutally sharp.

  Roque’s soft grunt wrenched her back to him. He curled over his wound, his hand pawing the loose soil beneath him.

  Alex had one palm flat on Roque’s stomach, the other held the small knife, rooting around in the wound. “Hold still.”

  Edeen held the light steady, choking down the nausea welling up along with Roque’s blood. She grasped Roque’s hand, stopping him from digging. He latched on to her with an intensity that was jarring and ground his head back against the wall. The tendons in his neck bulged. His eyes squeezed shut.

  “Breathe through it,” she coaxed.