He shook his head and laughed. “It’s not easy.”
“Then why? Before our bond, we shared everything. Now it seems as if we are strangers in the same mind.”
Gavin moved into her personal space again. “Believe me. I want nothing more than to return to your bed. But the pull to be with you, in every way, is stronger than I’ve ever felt.”
“Then why stay away?”
He ran a thumb along her lower lip, licked his own. “Are you inviting me into your bed, Amber?” She pictured the two of them in an intimate embrace and realized the thought came from him.
Oh! How naive of her. Where she was looking for acceptance and security, he was looking for complete intimacy.
Gavin laid his lips to hers for a brief kiss and pulled away. “I’ll come to your bed when you don’t flinch at my thoughts.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t. Don’t be sorry for what you don’t know. When you’re ready, we’ll both know and neither of us will flinch or question.”
She tilted her head. “You’re a patient man, Gavin Kincaid.”
He draped his arm around her shoulders and walked her toward the manor. “Do you see that stream in my head?” he asked.
“Aye.”
“It’s there so you don’t realize just how impatient I am to have you.”
She stumbled, but he kept her upright. “Why tell me that?”
“So you never doubt how much I desire you.”
Oh!
For such a cool night, she certainly felt as if she had a fever.
****
“Kincaid, can I have a word with you?” Giles asked the question from the Library door the next morning.
The previous night with Amber had left him strangely comfortable and confident in his decision to bond with her. It might take some time to get used to the fact he had a life mate, but for the first time since he woke from their bonding, he was ready for the next step.
The dark circles under his friend’s eyes shadowed Kincaid’s good mood. “You really should try and sleep, Giles.”
He hid a yawn behind the book in his hand and nodded toward the empty room. “I can sleep later.”
“I’m not sure why you’re avoiding sleep now. Amber and I are bonded, and she’s out of danger.”
Giles closed the door behind them, something he seldom did, and didn’t make eye contact as he strode in front of Kincaid.
“She is out of danger, right?”
“What? Yes. I mean, I think so.” Giles rubbed his eyes under his glasses. “I think so.”
Not the answer Kincaid was looking for. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Explain.”
“I’m not sure I can.”
“Try.”
Giles lifted his arms to the walls of books surrounding them. “In all these books, the ones handwritten or those that have writing added to them, is the most significant source of knowledge of our past. In the past few days, I felt it was my duty to record what has occurred between you and Amber.”
So far, Kincaid wasn’t alarmed by his friend’s actions. “Librarians have always added their input to these tomes.”
As if to emphasize his point, Giles moved to the ladder, pushed it along the wall, and stepped to a higher shelf. He removed a dusty book, stepped down, and laid it on the table in the center of the room. He opened up to a spot that must have been familiar to him and noted writing in the margins. “Some notes are connected to occurrences of the day. Others are there to help future keepers of the books cross reference the information to provide clarity.”
“You’re not telling me anything new.”
Giles nodded repeatedly. “I know. Bear with me.”
Kincaid leaned against a shelf and watched Giles pace.
“I considered writing in a book I’ve seen many times in our future so we would know what you were sent here to accomplish. Then thought better of it. Although it might have been a painful bonding for the both of you, you both did so of your own free will. Better to not alter what has happened thus far.”
Kincaid nodded in agreement. Time travel and the affect it has on one’s future suggested they tread carefully always.
“I removed this book,” Giles waved the book in the air when he called Kincaid in the room. “I’ve never opened it, but I know it sits on these shelves in our time. I wrote your and Amber’s names in the back of the book, with the date and time of your bonding.”
“Seems reasonable.” Those things were written in many books. “You chose this book because you know you’ve never opened it.”
“Yes. Imagine if I’d told you I had once read you moved forward in time and bonded with Amber MacCoinnich.”
Kincaid couldn’t imagine taking each journey in time wondering if that was the one where he’d meet his bonded mate. Distraction might have killed him.
Giles thrust the book into Kincaid’s chest. He uncrossed his hands and took it.
“The last page is where I placed the note.”
“Okay.”
“Open it,” Giles told him.
Kincaid flipped to the last page and found it blank. He flipped a few pages more, found nothing written in Giles’s hand.
“Are you sure this is the book you used?”
“Positive.”
The room grew cooler. “What does this mean?” Kincaid tossed the book on the table and looked at the others gathered.
“Don’t you find it strange there is no mention of Amber coming to this time? Of her surviving?”
“There are hundreds of books here. I’m sure the information is somewhere.”
“Perhaps. Or there is some reason why her history…or future as it is, isn’t recorded for a purpose. Like my writing your bonding date on the page of that book, it is not meant to be recorded.”
“Why? Why keep that information only to us?”
“With that question in mind I found this book. There’s a passage in here I’ve never heard of. In fact, I don’t think any of us have heard of it.”
“Which is?”
Giles hesitated, and then said, “Grainna had a child.”
Kincaid blinked once. “Go on.”
“She bore one child, a product of a ritual that gave her the immortality that kept her alive for centuries. She discarded the child shortly after birth.”
Kincaid understood that all too well. “I don’t think she was a maternal woman.”
Giles offered a half smile. “This book tells of that child and the others that followed. They all bore one child. Man or woman, they abandoned the infant to others to raise. Some of these decedents knew of their power, but none knew where it originated. Their family tree had missing limbs and no clear path back to identify who their family was.”
Kincaid huffed out a laugh. “There are many of us who share similar stories.”
Giles caught Kincaid’s eyes and stared. “Yes. But those who are most powerful know their kin.”
“I’m powerful and have no knowledge of the mother who gave it to me. Or any of her family.”
“I know.” Giles stared directly at him and didn’t let his gaze stray.
A chill, so powerful it shook Kincaid’s entire body, rolled over him. “You don’t think… No! I’m not.”
Giles pushed another book across the table. “Read this.”
Kincaid clenched his fist to keep it from shaking. With his back rod-straight, he pulled to look closer and read the passage.
Only when the powerful one bonds and complete their union with one of equal gift, will the cycle be broken…and then the gifts of the forefathers and mothers will come together. This bond will come from two opposing families…enemies.
A crossroad will follow where the path of good or evil will be chosen. Power, in this time, will mean everything, and the path of right will have been nearly forgotten.
From this day forward, the path will not be recorded to protect and preserve the future.
The passage was an omen. That was obvious.
> “This could be anyone.”
“It could be the two of you.”
“I’m not a descendent of Grainna.”
“Are you sure?”
No. “Of course.”
“Your shield makes you nearly immortal.”
“I assure you, I can bleed.” Yet when was the last time he had?
“Explain why when I do this…” Giles placed his pen to the book and wrote Amber’s name in the margin. As he wrote, the words swiftly disappeared before their eyes. “It won’t keep.”
“I don’t know.”
“From this day forward, the path will not be recorded to protect and preserve the future. I have written other passages, that of Helen and Simon, those have all preserved. But not one word of you and Amber. Not one, Kincaid.”
“There must be some protection her family put upon her.”
Giles shook his head. “Or this passage is speaking of the two of you.”
Kincaid slammed the book closed and the fireplace behind him sprang to life. “It isn’t me. I am not the son of Grainna!”
Behind him, he heard a gasp and felt the presence of his wife before he turned around.
She’d gone sheet-white as she stumbled backward toward the door. “God’s teeth.”
“Amber?” He moved toward her and she flinched and backed farther away.
You’re her family?
“No.”
The words in his head dried up as she successfully shut him out.
He took another step in her direction, and she pushed the shield up between them. “Don’t.”
Before he could say one word, she fled the room.
“Wait,” Giles called him.
Kincaid twisted toward his friend. “Quickly, Giles.”
“I-if you’re her descendent—”
The sound of Amber fleeing couldn’t be ignored.
Giles backed away, clearly uncomfortable. “Never mind.”
“I’m not a son of Grainna!”
“I hope you’re right.”
He pursued his wife up the stairs and found her door closed and locked. “Amber?” How had she shut him out so completely? He barely felt her. He lowered his voice in an attempt to coax her out. “Giles doesn’t know anything for certain. We can figure this out.”
He waited.
Nothing.
“Amber?”
Amber?
He swallowed a wave of nausea and pushed his shoulder into the door, forcing it open. The room was empty. In the middle of the room stood a circle of candles still flickering.
Amber was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Three
One moment Selma was drinking coffee on the back porch of her temporary home and the next the cup fell from her hand, hitting the wood and spilling the dark brew everywhere. The charm around her neck grew cold and spread over her body. The image of the twins swam in her head, their tiny voices screamed with fright. “Kelsey, Sophie,” she murmured. “Oh, God.”
She jumped from her chair and ran in the back door. “Simon? Helen?” Where are my keys? My purse? Something was wrong. She tore up the stairs, colliding with Kincaid as he moved franticly in the opposite direction.
“Where’s Amber?”
The question got stuck in a loop in Selma’s brain. “What? I don’t… something’s wrong with the girls. We have to get to them.”
Kincaid offered the same confused looks she most likely gave him.
From opposite directions Helen and Simon appeared both above and below them in the stairwell.
“Amber’s gone!” Kincaid told them.
“Gone?” Selma froze.
“Gone. Moved in time, I think.”
“She wouldn’t. Not without you…without one of us,” Simon told them.
“Go look for yourself.”
Simon passed Selma on the stairs while the charm on her neck felt as if a brick of ice surrounded it and burned her skin. “I’ve got to check on the girls. Something awful is happening.”
Helen swung in Selma’s direction. “What are you talking about?”
“I gave the girls charms. I linked them to this.” She moved up a few steps and extended the necklace to Helen’s hands. As soon as Helen touched it, her face grew white and her eyes closed. “Oh, no.”
“You see something?”
Helen nodded, her eyes pinched together. “They’re scared…in a closet. There’s blood.”
“Where? Where are they?”
“The closet is painted green… lots of toys and clothes.”
“Their mom’s house.”
Helen dropped the necklace. “You need to call Jake.”
“Helen?” Simon called from above.
Both of them ran toward his voice.
The room was empty.
Candles that sat in a circle flickered.
Giles ran in behind them and stopped short at the door. “Damn.”
Kincaid glared at his friend, pointed a finger in his direction. “Keep searching for other answers, Giles. I need to find my wife.”
“What happened to make her run?” Simon asked.
For an uncomfortable moment, Kincaid stared at the floor. He then stared at Giles. “I’ll let him explain.” Kincaid swiveled his head toward Simon. “Trust what you’ve seen and not what you hear.”
He took a giant step back and the blue aura of his shield swam around him. Though he mumbled under his breath, Selma knew he was about to move time. Unwilling to get caught up in the vortex, she moved away and watched as Amber’s husband disappeared into thin air.
They stood there, stunned, and all eyes turned to Giles.
Before anyone could question the man, Selma felt her stomach cramp, and she doubled over with a pain so intense she felt her coffee erupt.
“Selma?” Helen knelt beside her. “You’re cold.”
All she could see were the twins. Their anguish and pain. “I have to get to them.”
“What is it, lass?” Simon asked.
“The twins…they’re in trouble. I have to go.”
Helen helped her upright. “Should we follow Amber?”
Simon frowned. “Amber will go home. She has protection there.”
“The twins are children,” Selma reminded them all. “Innocent.”
“Then we go there first.”
Selma turned from the room and darted around Giles.
“Stay here with Mrs. Dawson,” she heard Simon order Giles “We’ll discuss Amber and Kincaid when we return. Call Jake. Tell him we’re en route.”
****
A vortex of color surrounded Kincaid as his mind reached for the energy of his other half. Find her, he chanted. Amber. Find my Amber.
His stomach pitched, his head felt heavy enough to explode. All the while he grew closer, knew she was near. His hands stood at his side, his weapons at the ready. When the world shuddered to a grinding halt the gasps of women drew his attention first.
Stone walls. Large hearth with a fire blazing. MacCoinnich Keep.
Farther in the past than he’d ever seen.
Four witnesses. Two men, formidable foes…allies? Two women, one younger than the other, dressed as mistresses, not common servants. His assessment clicked off in rapid fire.
The older man tensed first as he dropped the object in his hand and unsheathed his sword.
Amber was there…somewhere. He felt her.
Kincaid removed his weapon by instinct, pointed at the man with the weapon.
From the other younger warrior, a knife flew. With a flick of his hand, his shield stopped the weapon a foot away and it fell to the floor.
“Where is she?” he yelled.
“Who?” the older man questioned, his eyes never wavering. The dim light in the room left the man in shadow.
Kincaid met the other man’s stare. “Where is Amber? Where is my wife?”
The only emotion on the older man’s face was the flare of his nostrils. Inside the man steamed.
The women were harder at guarding t
heir reaction to his words.
The younger man shielded the women as he came to rest in front of them, shoulder to shoulder with the older man.
Before Kincaid could ask who these men were, he felt her.
Who they were could wait. He needed to find Amber before she ran again.
Kincaid bolted from the room, the beat of his own heart moving faster as he rounded the halls and ran up the familiar steps of the Scottish fortress. The room was cooler, the tapestries different, but it was the same space. He knew the others followed, but he had one goal. Find her. Keep her in one place long enough to talk to her. Explain.
He twisted a corridor, rounded another, found stairs, and moved up and up. Away from the warmth of the main floors. Away from the nagging emotions of everyone in the Keep.
The door he sensed her presence behind was massive, its hinges made of thick iron and not easily breached.
Inside Kincaid’s head, he felt Amber’s confusion, her worry. But he didn’t sense she knew he was near. Instead of giving her warning, he aimed his weapon at the door and quickly dissolved the iron with two blasts before kicking her door in.
She stood in the center of the room with a gown in her arms.
He drew in a relieved breath and lowered his weapon.
“You found me.”
He heard the others behind him, ignored their presence.
“We’re bonded, Amber. You can’t escape me.”
“God’s Blood,” someone said behind him.
Amber looked past him and the harsh expression on her face softened. She opened her arms. “Mother.”
Kincaid grew cold.
The older woman moved past him and into his wife’s arms.
Of course.
Where else would a scared newly married woman flee but home?
Which meant he, Gavin Kincaid, had actually drawn his weapon on his father-in-law. More than that, he drew his weapon on the man he’d sworn to protect through time.
Could it get any worse?
Then Kincaid remembered the information Giles delivered before he’d left the twenty-first century.
Yes. It can get worse.
****
They piled into two cars. Helen and Simon followed in the R8 while Selma sped through traffic in her beater en route to the address on the portable navigation. “I’m coming, girls. Hang tight.”
The phone on the seat beside her rang. Unlike any other time, she didn’t think twice about answering it. “Hello?”
Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels Book Five) Page 20