Highland Son (Highland Sorcery: A New Dawn)

by Clover Autrey

  “Hank…” Sheppard snapped in warning. “Do you feel that? She’s—“

  “No, she’s not. Not if I have any say about it.” Spinning, Hank smacked her in the face with the back of his hand. She flew back, hitting the ground hard. Her head slapped the cement and her sight blacked out for a second. Her limbs went loose. Before she could register what happened, Hank was on her again, pulling her up beneath her arms. His warm breath flowed behind her ear. “Pull your magic on me again and I’ll snap your neck.”

  Her vision stole back, blurry and hazy with red. It was hard to hold on to a thought.

  Gunfire barked around her, ripping into the trees, slow, like the whining of fireworks as they claw their way into the sky before exploding. She shook her head, trying to right her vision, speed things back up to normal time.

  There was shouting, a commotion, men shuffling, scrabbling on the weedy asphalt. Was Dez in that scrapping of bodies? Ethan? What was happening? Her head was ringing, sound swirled around her, muted, not quite reaching her ears. Her scalp was splitting apart.

  Sheppard’s face swam in front of her, slippery and sliding around, distorted. “I thought you’d slip up but I didn’t want to believe it.” His voice rippled across her like an echo.

  The creases in his forehead seemed to ooze over his eyebrows. Jewel blinked, trying to center her slippery vision. Hank’s fists holding her upright dug into her sternum.

  Sheppard shook his head. “You’re as pathetic as your mother…as tainted by magic. Search her…”

  Jewel trembled, knowing they’d find the note. They’d know…”

  The ache throbbing against her skull pulled her under.

  ~~~

  “Hey…hey…Jewel. You okay?”

  Jewel surfaced to consciousness behind the rumbling wake of a sledgehammer slamming into the back of her head. Her eyes fluttered open to the glassy vision of her feet. She was hanging a few inches above the hard-packed ground. The side of her face felt swollen and tight.

  She tried to lift her head to see where she was. Her movements were slow and uncoordinated. Her wrists hurt, holding all her weight against the back of…

  Panic tore into her chest. Her arms were tied above her head to the chain link backstop of the baseball diamond. Shivers raced through her, tightening her skin in gooseflesh.

  “Hey,” the voice growled beside her. She turned her face toward the sound. Alexander’s friend, Dez, was strung up next to her, his features tight with anger. Worry too. “Are you okay?”

  That would be a big fat pile of no. Did she look okay? Her own father had set her out as a snack item. Her breathing hitched. The chain links rattled along her back as she pulled against her bonds. Across the overgrown field near the area second base should be, Sheppard stood talking with Hank and Richards. Trevor stood a little ways off, watching the overgrown park area behind what used to be the outfield, rifle in the crook of his arm.

  “Jewel, honey,” Dez spoke calmly. How could he be so calm? Sheppard was at a distance, which meant the monsters had to be close, could already be here, prowling through the tree line behind them. She tried to look behind her for the Sifts that would be coming to tear them apart.

  She hadn’t gotten to leave her message in their spot in the cracked curb for Lance. They wouldn’t know to come save them, wouldn’t know she wasn’t still inside the motel searching for Dez and Ethan.

  Dez lowered his voice further. “Jewel, you’ve got to calm down. It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.”

  “No,” she whimpered, not very proud of it. “No, it’s not. How-how can you think that?” The fear in her tone shocked her. She took a steadying breath. No, she wouldn’t go out like this. Afraid, she stopped struggling and pulled in another breath. Nope, who was she kidding? She was terrified. The frantic beating of her heart against her sternum wasn’t about to slow down anytime soon. Until the monsters tore the beating organ out of her chest…oh crap, she was going to throw up.

  “Jewel!”

  “Okay,” she managed on a squeak. She drew in a shaky breath. “I’m-I’m okay. Just freaking out here.”

  Dez smiled. “I think you’re allowed.” His smile vanished. “I need to know…Alexander…is he?”

  Oh gods, Alexander…

  “He’s…” She looked over at Dez. The fear and worry in his face nearly pulled her under, but it also pushed away part of her panic. Alexander was safe. He wasn’t here to witness this or anywhere near where Sheppard could hurt him again. She drew in a much more steadier breath. In the face of his own death, Dez was worried about his friend. She could at least give him that. “Safe. Alexander’s safe.”

  The rigidity flowed from his features. “Thank gods.”

  “We got to him before…’

  “Shhhh,” Dez warned her.

  Sheppard was looking at them askance. He started striding their way.

  “What about Ethan?” she whispered. “Is he okay?”

  “He’s…” Dez’s lips thinned. He cleared his throat. Jewel realized he didn’t know if his friend was okay or not.

  “What happened?”

  The muscles in Dez’s arms flexed, pulling at his ropes. “They fired into the brush.”

  Where Ethan was. The unspoken worry hovered along the chain links between them, frigid as a layer of ice. She studied the tightness of his jaw. “That’s how they caught you, isn’t it? You attacked them to draw them off of your friend.”

  The glare he focused toward Hank coming toward them with Sheppard was acknowledgement enough. Hank hadn’t been doing the shooting. He’d been holding her, but he’d done something to Ethan, something that garnered Dez’s rage. She thought of the blood she’d found in the unused bathroom. Dez’s eyes followed the bald man like an eagle marking his target.

  “I’m sure he got away.”

  His gaze snapped to her. “He did. Otherwise they would have dragged his dead corpse out for the fun of showing me. I just…”

  “Worry about what condition he’s in?” she added helpfully. Talking was keeping her panic from overtaking her again.

  Dez grinned. “Worried that he’ll attempt something stupid.”

  “Oh.” Yeah, she could see him doing that.

  A shadow fell across her.

  Sheppard shoved a torn label from a tomato soup can in her face. Her note for Lance. They must have gone through her pockets after Hank had knocked her out. She grimaced, feeling dirty, thinking of Hank patting her down and her own father allowing it.

  “Who was this for, Jewel?” Her name was a harsh syllable on her father’s tongue.

  The message was ambiguous. A simple N-mt as in no, she hadn’t found them yet and needed more time.

  “Who do you think? Him, of course.” She canted her head toward Dez.

  She had to get out of here.

  She could try illusion, but even if her vision wasn’t wavering and would make any illusion she conjured blurry and opaque, what good would it do when Sheppard was this close and merely had to reach out to feel her still there? Plus, she was bound to the stupid backstop. What good would any illusion do if she couldn’t get herself free?

  She turned her face away from her father, but Sheppard grabbed her chin in his wide hand, forcing her to look at him. “I don’t believe you.” He was one to talk. “It’s for your brother, isn’t it? Lance. He’s not dead…all this time…I mourned for him you know…how could you betray me?”

  Betrayed him? “You mourned for Lance? You gave him to the beasts.”

  Sheppard heaved out a sigh. “This is hard on me, Jewel. You have no idea how difficult.”

  “You’re right. I have no idea. No idea how you could do this…to your own children. Your own son—“

  His hands flew to her arms where he shook her against the fence. Gray splattered across the edges of her quickly narrowing sight. She was going to be sick, hoped if she did upchuck, that it would splatter all over Sheppard’s crazy-insane face. She heard Dez shouting as though fro
m inside a barrel.

  Sheppard stopped shaking her and the world seemed to slant at an odd angle. Guh. He cupped her cheeks between his thick calloused palms, his eyes wide and pleading. “Don’t you see? I have to. There’s an evil inside of you. Magic. It’s dark and loathsome. If I could rip it out and leave you unscathed, don’t you think I’d do it? But it’s magic. It’s part of you, inside so deep it can never be scrubbed clean. Magic created those beasts. Magic did this to our world. It has to be gotten rid of. All of it. After your mother…”

  Her eyes widened. Her mother? Did Sheppard have anything to do with her disappearance? He’d brought back her bloodied and torn shirt… Jewel’s pulse picked up in speed. It was worse than she ever thought. Her father was gone, had been for much longer than she knew. His insanity was too entrenched, twisting his mind from the man he once was.

  His head shook. He was rambling. She couldn’t be sure he even knew he was talking to her anymore. His eyes were distant and lost. “I thought it was just Lance that carried the taint, but it wasn’t…you also…” His voice choked. “It’s not your fault. I know it’s not your fault…you can’t help it. But I’m going to help you…”

  “Then, Dad…” she plead. Maybe she could still reach him. “Don’t do this. Don’t you get it? It was Lance shielding our group from the Sifts. He made them pass us by. And then after…” After he tried to kill him. “Then it was me. Magic. Magic isn’t evil like you think. It’s been magic all along keeping us safe. The only reason we’ve survived as long as we have is due to our magic cloaking us. If you kill me, if you go after Lance again, you won’t make it to the next day. Everyone, the children… Can’t you see that?”

  He shook his head. “No. You’re wrong.”

  “I’m not. You fight fire with fire. You taught me that. The beasts have magic? You fight them with magic. Not destroy the only defense you have.”

  Something flickered in his eyes. He drew back. Her heart crashed heavily against her ribs. Maybe he wasn’t completely gone. She was getting to him.

  Behind Sheppard, Richard’s face scrunched in thought, hopefully what she was saying making sense to him.

  “No.” Sheppard’s eyes tracked away and he scrubbed a hand down his tired features. “You can’t fight evil with evil. It doesn’t work like that. It never will. How do we know it wasn’t your magic, yours and your brother’s, even your mother’s that first drew the monsters here?”

  Her pulse slowed to a dull beat. “Dad, you can’t believe that. We didn’t bring them here. They just are. The monsters are everywhere. You know that. Please, let us go.”

  Tears shimmered in his eyes. “I can’t.”

  “Please,” she begged again. “Let us go. We’ll leave. You’ll never see us again.”

  “Oh sweetheart, I’ve tried to keep you safe you entire life. This is tearing me apart.”

  “Then don’t do this. Don’t you still love me?”

  “I do love you. More than my life.”

  “Then don’t do this. Please don’t do this.”

  He pressed his forehead to hers. “Don’t you understand? That’s what sacrifice is. Giving up something you love.”

  “No,” Jewel cried. “No. It’s not.”

  “I know I can’t make you understand. I couldn’t make her understand either. She cried. She cried so very hard…” He pulled back, shaking his head, a sheen of tears swimming in his eyes. “I can’t do this. Not like this.”

  Jewel’s throat constricted as he reached up and unbound her wrists. Her arms dropped painfully after being up for so long. Her feet hit the ground and she almost crumpled but Sheppard caught her up and held her against him. She’d gotten through to him. It was going to be okay now. A low shudder rolled through her body. It was going to be okay.

  “Sheppard?” Hank’s forehead furrowed.

  “I just…can’t do it. Not like this. She’s my daughter.”

  “But?”

  “Not like this, not left for the beasts. I’ll-I’ll do it myself. I owe her that. I owe her mother at least that.” Sheppard kissed her forehead before spinning her in his grip so that her back was held against his chest.

  Jewel stiffened. Fear coursed through her, coated her mouth with a stale coppery taste. He hadn’t heard her at all. He was going to kill her now, her own father. He planted the muzzle of his handgun beneath her chin. She trembled against the cool metal on her heated flesh, terrified. This was it. He was going to pull the trigger.

  Her breath hitched on a painful sob.

  But instead of firing, he and called out to the field, his voice hard and rough so close to her temple. “Lance, son. I know you’re out there. Show yourself.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Fury rolled through Alexander, igniting his magical core into an inferno burning through him. If he didn’t contain it within his essence, he’d likely torch the overgrown wooded area down around him.

  Jewel and Dez had been brought to the baseball field and strung up against the backstop, the same as had been done to him. He couldn’t tell if they’d also been given a sedative or not. And there was no sign of Ethan, which punched a sharp hole in his tightening stomach.

  Beside him, the vampire, Deverell, rested a restraining hand on his arm. His keen senses obviously felt the angry rush of his blood, the rapid beat of his heart. If Sheppard wasn’t holding Jewel in front of his chest, he’d already be out there ripping the man’s intestines out through his throat.

  Held against her father, Jewel tried to lift her head at something he said. Heat flared through Alexander’s core at the bruise shadowing her temple. His jaw clenched hard. It took everything that was in him to stay still, keep hidden in the brush…

  From the shrill inhale, Lance, on his other side, saw it too. His body vibrated with anger.

  Alexander slipped into his essence and drew his magic forth, holding it to him by the thinnest of threads. His gaze tracked to Hank, knowing exactly whose hand had struck her.

  He was ready to get down there right this frigging second. The moment Sheppard let go of Jewel…

  “Lance, son,” Sheppard called. “I know you’re out there. Show yourself.”

  Deverell reached across Lance and clenched down on the kid’s arm. He shook his head, dark hair swaying across his shoulders and whispered to Lance. “He’ll shoot you where you stand.”

  “It’s my sister,” Lance hissed.

  “Illusion?” Alexander suggested, his tone hard, unrecognizable as his own. He sounded like Dez.

  “He has his gun pressed beneath my sister’s chin. My sister. If he suspects any illusion…”

  “I’m going.” Alexander was itching to get up close and personal with Sheppard. He owed him for even daring to threaten Jewel at all. What kind of man did that to his children? More animal, than man. Didn’t lions sometimes kill their cubs?

  “How will that change anything?” Lance’s whisper came out like a ragged breath.

  “They won’t expect me. Nor do they know what I am capable of.”

  “That just gives them one more hostage to use against you. They’ll shoot your friend and still use Jewel to make you do what they want. Just like before. As far as they know, that guy means nothing to me. Don’t give them any extra leverage to use against us. It’s stupid.” Lance glared at the field.

  The creak of Sheppard’s gun cocking carried upon the hushed air.

  Every muscle in Lance’s lean form went tight. “I’m going.”

  The time for arguing was past. Alexander gave him a curt nod. “Draw them away from the backstop if you can. Give him a reason to come after you so he’ll have to let go of Jewel.” Alexander backed away, knowing once Lance stepped out of the foliage, their position would be compromised.

  Lance nodded, his expression ruthless, when he abruptly looked back at Alexander. “You know, whichever way this goes, it still doesn’t give you the right to mess with my sister.”

  Alexander’s eyes narrowed on him, and once again was taken aback
by how young Lance was, couldn’t be much more than out of his teens, yet had taken so much responsibility upon himself. “I would never mess with Jewel.” What he felt for her, where his thoughts went concerning her held far much more weight and importance than a casual dalliance. “Once we survive this, you and I, are going to have a little chat.”

  Lance’s gaze only hardened and Alexander got that. They’d been looking out for each other in an impossible situation. In his place, Alexander wouldn’t lie down and let anyone get near his sibling either.

  “Merde,” Deverell expelled behind sharp teeth. “Things just got malpropre.”

  Alexander followed the vampire’s line of sight past the backstop across the rotting, broken bleachers and beyond the overgrown parking lot and woods. He couldn’t see what the vampire’s senses detected.

  “Sifts?”

  Deverell nodded and edged from view so swiftly and quietly that not so much as a leaf fluttered in his passing. It was not yet full dusk so the vampire would keep to the shadows as much as possible, avoiding direct sunlight and its slow-acting poisonous effects on his kind where possible. He was just glad he was on their side and willing to take the risk of exposure.

  Alexander shared a look with Lance. He would so much rather be stepping out in his place.

  Lance’s Adam’s apple bounced and he stood, moving out into the open field, palms up, the handgun dull and useless tucked in at the back of the waistband of his pants.

  “I’m here.”

  All eyes jerked toward him.

  “Lance, no,” Jewel cried, wincing as Sheppard pressed the muzzle harder against the soft under part of her chin.

  “Go easy,” Sheppard said. “No tricks, son.”

  “So what now, Dad?” He spoke the word with venom. “Now you kill me? Again. You’re still going to kill Jewel too.” Bitterness crackled along the charged atmosphere.

  “It’s not what I wanted.” Sheppard lifted his gun hand and rubbed at his eyes. The gun rose up and down with his movement. “You’re my children.”