Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels Book Five)

by Bybee, Catherine

  Jake’s hand hesitated as he grabbed the cheese.

  So that’s the problem. Jake’s ex is moving on. That explains her elevation to girlfriend status.

  “Yeah, they just got engaged last week. Kelsey and I get to be in the wedding.”

  “I’ll bet that will be fun.” Selma removed the knife from Jake’s hand and let her hand linger on his.

  He pulled away after a moment and turned to grab a beer from the frig. “Want one?” he asked.

  “No, I’m good.”

  Without too much effort, Selma had the sandwiches on plates, cut up a lone apple from the fruit bowl, and poured them milk that had miraculously appeared in the fridge since the day before. The girls chatted while Jake brooded. They wanted to catch Selma up on their lives in the time it took to eat one meal. Kudos to them, Selma knew a heck of a lot more than before she walked in the door.

  Jake took them to the park every Saturday he had them. Sometimes to play baseball, sometimes to play basketball. Every once in a while, Sophie would convince him to go ice skating. Listening to Jake’s escapades on a bladed boot was worth the drive over.

  Jake smiled. Once the conversations swayed from his ex, Kelsey crawled into his lap and the man lit up like a tree at Christmas. He clearly adored his children…and they doted on him.

  The stick that had been so firmly up his butt wasn’t there when he was with his kids.

  It made Selma sad to know he couldn’t find peace when they weren’t around.

  As the hour grew late, he shooed the kids off to brush their teeth and get ready for bed.

  Selma cleaned up the kitchen…or in this case, tossed the paper plates in the trash and cleaned the one pan. One of the girls ran around the corner, dressed in a nightgown. “Good night, Selma.” Her small arms wrapped around Selma’s waist, and she hugged her back.

  “G’night…” Oh, damn, now that the girls had changed clothes, she couldn’t tell which one she was.

  “Kelsey.”

  “G’night, Kelsey.” The girl let go and disappeared down the hall.

  “They’re adorable,” she told Jake once he made it back to the living room.

  He picked up a forgotten sweater on the floor and parked his butt in his chair.

  “They’re good kids,” he said on a heavy sigh.

  She could read his sigh and the language his body amplified as he took his time folding the small sweater.

  “How often do they stay over?”

  “Every other weekend…I get a mid-week visit and a month in the summer.” From his tone, it wasn’t enough.

  “Doesn’t seem fair…”

  “It’s best for them. Lindsey, my ex, lives in a good school district. The girls need stability. My job doesn’t always offer that.”

  Still not fair. “They need their dad.”

  He stopped fiddling with the sweater and stared at the wall. “Looks like they’re getting another one of those.”

  Wow! This was not the snarky man she’d grown to enjoy tossing barbs with.

  “Back up the boat. This John guy might be the new squeeze, but these girls get one dad. Seems to me even they know that.”

  He shrugged, not agreeing, not disagreeing.

  She changed the subject. “Do you really make ’em play ball all the time?”

  “They like it.”

  The spark in his words made her continue her line of questioning. “Next you’ll take them to target practice.”

  “Nothing wrong with a girl knowing how to aim and shoot.”

  Selma smiled. “I’m a girl and I’ve never been shown how to shoot a gun.”

  He snapped his eyes to hers. “That’s a shame. It’s a sick fucking world out there.”

  She waved a finger in the air. “That’s a buck in the swear jar, buddy.”

  He laughed then… a full laugh Selma wasn’t sure she’d ever heard from him before. The sound filled something inside her and made her want to hear it again.

  “Sophie works that jar better than a Denny’s waitress works tips. I swear her first car is going to be a fu…freaking Ferrari when she’s sixteen.”

  “With the way you cuss, you’re probably right.”

  “Yeah…” He stared at his hands. “I’m relieved she’s getting married again.”

  Selma didn’t remember asking.

  “The alimony was killing me.”

  “I bet.”

  He sighed.

  “Have you met John?”

  He nodded, didn’t meet her gaze. “Yeah. Nice enough guy…for a pencil pusher.”

  “Not a man’s man?”

  Jake smirked. “Desk jockey at some pharmaceutical company. Pitches new drugs or something like that.”

  “Polar opposite of a cop.”

  He shrugged, clearly lost in his own thoughts. “She couldn’t handle being a cop’s wife. Damn, we fought all the time. After the girls were born it was better…for about a year. Then it just sucked all the time. We couldn’t find our rhythm again.”

  Selma felt her heart melt a little for the man who was clearly unhappy.

  “Todd and I would hang. He’d tell me what an ass I was. He was like a brother to me.”

  She studied her hands, picking at the polish on her nails. She knew he and Todd were close. Poor Jake lost his wife and his kids, at least full time, and then his best friend. No wonder he fought everything Druid, everything Selma stood for.

  “Love is more than a rhythm. More than routine,” she told him.

  “Maybe, but when you have kids you’re supposed to suck it up…make it work.”

  Selma had a relatively picture perfect childhood. Her family was close, and her parents were still married. They, however, loved each other. They didn’t have to work to make it work, or if they did, it wasn’t apparent to any of the family.

  “Your ex didn’t want to work on it?”

  He shook his head and didn’t elaborate.

  “I want what’s right for them,” he said nodding toward the hall where his daughters slept.

  “You’re doing the best you can, Jake. Cut yourself some slack.”

  He huffed out a laugh. “So, you’re a witch and a psychologist?”

  “Nope, just a witch.”

  He looked at her now, and something in his eyes shifted, looking deeper. “So what brought you here tonight anyway?”

  She blinked a few times and tried to figure out a way to tell him her concerns without adding a burden to his already busy world..

  “Daddy?” one of the girls called from the other room.”

  Jake offered a half-smile as he pushed off the couch. “Hold that thought.”

  He disappeared and when he didn’t come back, she tiptoed into the room that housed the girls. It looked like they’d all climbed into the same bed and Jake had fallen asleep with a book in his lap…the girls snoozed right along with him.

  Selma let herself out, realizing for the first time that Jake had a huge soft side…one he reserved for his girls.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Amber couldn’t bring herself to be embarrassed. Gavin clearly knew what he was doing, knew her body better than she did.

  He pulled her from the cooling water and carefully dried her with a ready towel.

  Without covering himself with clothing of any kind, he lifted her into the bed in the other room and tucked her into his side. He didn’t reach for her, nor did he take any more liberties with her.

  “You’re a gifted teacher, Gavin.”

  He stroked her damp hair as he spoke. “You’re a beautiful student.”

  “I feel the need to thank you.”

  She heard his soft laugh. “My pleasure.”

  “Oh?” She twisted to see his face. “I don’t believe you took your pleasure at all.”

  “One thing at a time.”

  We’re running out of time.

  “Would bonding with me be so awful?” he asked once she settled again.

  She thought of the stream, hoped he couldn’t re
ad her thoughts. “We don’t know if bonding will make your shield hold me without a physical link.” He was whole and didn’t need her ending his life if their bond wasn’t strong enough. The danger for Gavin was too great for her to risk it.

  “We don’t know it won’t either.”

  “’Tis not something we can try for a short time. If it doesn’t work, we cannot undo it. You know this.”

  “We should try.”

  His hand squeezed around her, holding her tight, and pulled her closer.

  She couldn’t. “Tomorrow will be here soon enough,” she told him. Hoping her delay would pacify him.

  She felt part of him relax with her words. Amber took his unspoken words as acceptance and closed her eyes…pretending to sleep.

  Gavin fought exhaustion for several hours until finally he slept. His breathing became steady, and the stream she’d place in his head drifted to his own dreams. They weren’t clear to her, but she knew they were a sign his conscious self was deaf to the world.

  She closed her eyes and lowered her own barriers to feel him. Like all warriors, he was deeply convicted…and in Gavin’s case, dedicated to seeing her safe, dedicated to a higher purpose than his own life, his own desires. A glimpse of hope touched her heart. Desire for her outside his need to protect her was there, but it wasn’t enough to convince her that they needed to bond. Though she knew before she searched his feelings he couldn’t possibly want to be bound to a woman he hardly knew, she couldn’t help but wish for a different outcome.

  An underlying desire for him to act rose to the surface of his dreams. He slept now from need, not desire. He wanted to stay alert to keep her at his side…to protect her. That thought brought tears to her eyes.

  Sleep, she told him in her head.

  He sighed deeply, and she repeated herself many times until most of his thoughts were a jumbled mess of dreams, none of it making sense, none of it meaning anything.

  She rolled over onto her back, putting space between them but not letting him go.

  Gavin didn’t stir.

  At the foot of the bed lay the cloak she’d worn nonstop before Gavin appeared in her life. With her foot, she removed the garment and caught it with her free hand.

  Sleep, my love. Sleep.

  He did.

  She inched farther away from his warm frame and her pulse shot higher. The painful memory of the moment he let her go swam in her head, made her stomach turn.

  Amber knew what was coming, and prayed to anyone listening that some of the impact would dissipate so she could leave him long enough…long enough to make her own choice for once in her God-forsaken life.

  She’d only ever been a burden to those she cared for and wouldn’t let Gavin take her on for eternity because of his sworn oath.

  With the bulk of the cloak wrapped around her, she moved to the edge of the small bed, all the while encouraging Gavin to sleep through their temporary link.

  Only their fingers touched as she stared down at his sleeping form. He was the most beautiful man she’d ever met, and she would be eternally thankful for him. She hoped, prayed rather, he’d know she appreciated all he’d given her. I can’t ask any more of you.

  Amber placed her arm at her mouth to stifle the pain she knew was coming…

  Then she let Gavin go.

  ****

  The image in his dream was so beautiful, majestic to the point his eyes hurt when he looked at her. She floated like an angel, with open arms as she coaxed him from sleep with the voice of a choir. Wake, Gavin…wake.

  Only an equally calming voice told him to sleep. Amber. She told him to sleep and her drug was so much more potent. He needed to listen.

  His dream switched, and the angel was bound, unable to speak. Only her eyes spoke, and they told him he had to act…act now.

  His limbs ached as he rolled in his sleep. The bed squeaked, reminding him he wasn’t in the century of his birth. No, he was tucked next to Amber…

  He reached for her.

  Gavin’s eyes shot open while he sprang from the bed.

  “Amber?” he said her name under his breath, at first…didn’t see her…couldn’t feel her.

  “Amber?” This time he yelled. Every cell in his body woke, and every light in the room turned on. “Amber?”

  He jumped from the bed, rushed to the bathroom.

  She wasn’t there.

  The door to the room burst open. Simon stood there, much in the same state Kincaid was…naked and on alert.

  “She’s not here.” Gavin’s words filled the small room.

  Simon spun in a circle and in a blink, shifted into a wolf.

  He sniffed the air and bounded from the room.

  Gavin ran after the wolf, up the stairs leading toward the attic. Behind him he heard others coming and only hesitated long enough to kick in the locked door to the attic and follow Simon through.

  Amber was there, under a cloak, unmoving.

  No. No…

  Gavin grasped his head and fell on her. “No, dammit…this is not how we die.”

  She didn’t move, her frame was cold and part of him bled.

  “No!” He shoved the cloak from her head and stared on her pale face, her blue lips. “No.”

  “No!” The scream came from behind him. Helen he thought, followed by the sound of a struggle. “Do something. Someone do something!”

  Gavin stroked Amber’s still face and closed his eyes.

  This isn’t right. This can’t be…

  A tear fell.

  He couldn’t feel her breathing and knew he was too late.

  His destiny was lying in a cold heap on the floor in a dirty attic, and he could do nothing.

  Amber was his destiny…

  This isn’t going to happen!

  Gavin grasped the bottom of the cloak covering his woman and bit at the edges until he managed to rip a strip of fabric away. With it, he grasped her cold hand, forced back desperation, and bound them together.

  “From the North, to the South, in the East or in the West. Where you go I’ll follow, your light will shine my way…”

  Behind him, he heard those who gathered talking, but didn’t comprehend what they said.

  “It’s my love I give you, past my dying day.” The air charged with a current swirling around him, he felt the power of his bond even if the woman he was bonding himself to wasn’t aware. “Where two hearts beat, there is now but one.” He pulled the tie over their hands tighter. “This tie that binds us together shall never…ever…be undone.”

  His world exploded and pain swallowed him into a vortex that stole his breath and everything went dark.

  ****

  Blinding light emitted from the couple right before Kincaid crumbled over Amber’s still form. Simon fell on them first, his fingers moving to Amber’s neck, and then to Kincaid’s.

  “Are they…”

  “Nay. Their hearts still beat,” Simon told them.

  Giles released a deep sigh of relief. Maybe his friend wasn’t too late. He’d heard the shout from the kitchen and scrambled up the stairs two at a time, only to see a wolf bound from Amber’s room and up the final flight to the attic of Dawson’s manor. When he witnessed his friend bending over Amber, he thought to pull him back, let him know there was nothing he could do, but then Kincaid started to chant. Giles attempted to move forward to stop his friend, but couldn’t move his feet.

  Simon nudged Kincaid, but he didn’t wake. It was clear his shield wasn’t elevated in his current state, but who knew how long that would last. “We should move them,” Giles suggested, surprised he could step toward the couple now, when he couldn’t a moment before.

  Giles nearly buckled under his friend’s weight as Simon followed behind him with Amber.

  They placed their still bodies on the bed, Kincaid’s hand in Amber’s, and covered them.

  “Why aren’t they waking up?” Helen asked between sniffles.

  Simon grabbed a throw from the end of the bed and wrapped
it around his waist.

  “Maybe we should call a doctor,” she suggested.

  “And tell them what, exactly?” Giles asked. “Drugs aren’t going to fix them.”

  “Well, we have to do something. Standing here watching them breathe isn’t doing anything!” Helen voiced all of their frustrations.

  Simon moved to her side and laid a hand on her shoulder.

  She moved into him, buried her head in his shoulder. “We have to do something.”

  Mrs. Dawson, who’d been silent, moved into the room as old women do…slowly and intently, in a way that had everyone parting the way. “Giles, m’dear, will you kindly gather the candles in the library. Helen, if you can help him, I’m sure we’ll have enough.”

  “You have an idea?”

  “I can only do what it is we understand. We’ll ask the Ancients for their guidance, for their protection while these two souls fight their way back.”

  “Back from where?”

  Mrs. Dawson narrowed her eyes to Helen. “From death.”

  Her words grounded everyone in the room.

  Giles and Helen gathered handfuls of candles from the library and returned to the third floor room.

  Simon stood beside Amber, his hand on her forehead. Helen placed the candles around the room, and Simon lit them with a wave of his hand.

  “Now what?” Giles had been a part of a few group effort protection spells, but never with anyone as powerful as Simon.

  Simon grasped Amber’s limp hand and offered his other to his wife. Helen lifted a hand to Mrs. Dawson. Giles completed the loop by grasping Mrs. Dawson’s and taking Kincaid’s.

  “Just listen, and believe we can make a difference,” Simon told them.

  Before Simon opened his mouth, the flames rose, bringing heat to the room.

  “In this day and in the hour, we ask the Ancients for their power. Surround these two with each other’s protection. Draw from us for their resurrection.”

  In Giles’s hand, Kincaid’s began to shudder and heat, making holding him nearly impossible.

  “If the Ancients will it so, give us a sign and let us know.”

  The words no sooner left Simon’s lips than Giles’s hand turned red-hot, forcing him to let go. When he moved to grasp his friend again, he found he couldn’t. He opened his mouth to apologize but found Simon in much the same state. The warrior shook his hand and blew on his palm.