Highland Games Through Time
Page 87
CHAPTER 7
I’m going to drown. When Rory stupidly followed Nessía into the shallows, he forgot that the bottom of the loch sloped dangerously. Barely yards from shore, Rory slipped. His hiking boots quickly filled with water and he held onto his backpack as if it were a life preserver. Unfortunately, the bag full of books sank like a stone.
As Rory contemplated the pros and cons of losing a month’s work or his life, huge bubbles propelled him to the surface. Sputtering, he swam along with the huge waves. An unusual pressure beneath the surface pushed him and his backpack toward shore.
Rory grasped the fishing pier’s support post and winced as something sharp slashed his palm. He tossed the backpack up and onto the pier, then licked the blood from his wound. Turning toward the black depths of the loch, hidden by an eerie mist, the waves lessened. A loose fishing boat, probably pushed off shore by the recent earthquake, tossed in the ripples. A large curved hump rose from behind the vessel then, just as quickly, disappeared.
He brushed aside his wet hair and rubbed his eyes. Filled with grit, they stung. His first inclination was to assume he’d witnessed an apparition. When the water around him filled with bubbles, he froze, with one arm grasping the pier for support.
As the clouds lifted, and moonlight shone across the surface of the loch, a huge, horned head rose from the depths. Water cascaded off its lustrous green scales. Eyes the size of dinner plates and the color of river ice glared. The creature stared right at him as it swam closer.
Rory could not move, could not think. He ought to climb from the water, especially when the monster came within six feet. Had the creature enthralled him under a spell? When its huge mouth opened and a long, pink tongue reached out from between rows of pointed teeth and lapped his bleeding palm, he struggled up and onto the pier.
The animal did not pursue him. Even so, Rory backed away from the pier’s edge and stared as the creature silently sank below the black surface. Rory slumped to the planks and sat in the silence of the night, and listened.
Nothing. Total quiet. What the heck did I see?
He knew. In his heart, he knew he’d witnessed the fabled Loch Ness monster. Seconds later, he jumped to his feet and ran to the edge of the pier. He squinted and searched the surface.
“OmiGod! Nessía jumped into the water right before the monster surfaced!” He ripped off his shirt, kicked off his boots, and searched for a weapon. He prayed for a sign that Nessía was safe. A long, hook-ended pole lay beside a stack of buoys. Rory grabbed it and dove into the loch.
***
Nessía wanted to laugh at the look on Rory’s face. Dragons do not laugh, of course, but she felt better knowing he had landed safe on shore, albeit hanging on to the pier. She had reached out and licked his palm to let him know she meant him no harm in her dragon form, and tasted blood. He had hurt himself in his search for the human Nessía. How heroic.
A loud roar of something hitting the water made her loop into a somersault. She cautiously returned to shore and came face to face in the murky water with a man holding some sort of long pole. A lethal looking pole.
Rory?
As understanding dawned, Nessía turned to swim away. Too late. A sharp pain pierced her shoulder. He had stabbed her with the pointed weapon. She reared back and the weapon slipped from Rory’s fingers. She turned and swam away with the hook imbedded between her scales while her serpentine heart shattered.
***
Rory pulled his weary body up, and sat alone on the pier. He wound a strip of cloth, torn from a floating rag, around his palm. As he tucked the end under, he spied a section of lace.
“God! No!” he cried when he recognized the cloth as the remains of Nessía’s pub gown. Covering his face with his hands, he sobbed.
“Please, do not cry.”
“Who said that?” Rory jumped to his feet and swung around. He stood alone on top of the pier, but long, thin fingers clutched the edge. Female fingers.
He sprawled on the pier, leaned over the edge, and pulled a naked Nessía into his arms. “Thank you, God!”
When she shivered, he wrapped his larger body around hers until she cried out in pain. He smelled the blood before he spied the wound in her back, just above her shoulder blade. The creature had hurt her.
Rory laid her on the dock and grabbed a canvas tarp from a covered bin. It smelled of fish, but was dry and suitable to contain the blood until he could have her wounds tended. The wound looked deep, but not wide, so he hoped he could use his first aid training and take care of it in his room at the inn. From his research of the area, he knew the closest hospital was a long ways away from Na Cearcan Bã Na.
He covered the distance to the inn with newfound strength, then snuck up the stairs. When he reached the safety of his room with his bundled passenger, he laid her on the settee in the corner. Rory gathered towels and pressed them against her back. She barely moved and her eyes were closed. Had she passed out?
“Stay still. I’ll be right back.” She didn’t answer him, so he headed down to the inn’s kitchen. A soft, yellow light burned from the pantry ceiling. He rummaged around and found first aid supplies. He grabbed bandages, antiseptic, and over-the-counter painkillers.
He heard voices from the inn’s front door. Rory tiptoed through the kitchen, then peeked into the dining area. The American women had returned. No longer screaming, now that the earthquake had subsided, each had their arms filled with a muscular Scot.
At least someone is enjoying the night.
Rory waited until their footsteps disappeared up onto the third floor. He returned with his supplies to his own room, and the woman he loved.
I love her?
The fear he’d endured the moment he thought the creature planned to eat her, proved to him that his heart had fallen. Luckily, he had managed to strike the creature before it had the opportunity to hurt Nessía.
Now, Nessía lay hurt. Possibly dying.
He growled when the urge to return to the loch, and to kill the creature, rose up as he shut the door behind him.
“Ye sound like me. Is it so bad?” Nessía looked up at him, sat up, and turned her back to him. The tarp slid to her waist and the wound glistened with fresh blood.
“I told you to keep still, love.” He scooped her up and laid her on her side, away from him, on the bed. He dabbed the wound and laid out the supplies by his hip. “This might hurt.”
“I trust ye,” she whispered.
With his heart in his throat at her whispered praise, he inspected the wound under the brighter light of the bedside table and found a rather small puncture wound. What could have caused it? A quick assessment showed no other wounds on her body, and he sighed with relief.
Rory slathered antiseptic on the wound. As he applied several butterfly bandages and pulled the wound closed, the bleeding stopped. He coated the area with more antiseptic and a large bandage, then forced her to swallow two pain pills.
Rory pulled the sheet over her shoulders, kissed her temple, and turned out the light. He stripped in the bathroom, showered away the blood, and pulled on clean gym shorts and t-shirt. Returning to the darkened bedroom, he settled into an uncomfortable position on the settee. Before sleep overtook his tired limbs, he prayed Nessía survived until morning.
***
Nessía stretched her sleepy body, then shrieked. Two warm arms immediately cradled her, shushing her and ordering her to keep still. She calmed down when the familiar voice speared through the cloud of pain.
“My shoulder hurts.” Nessía turned her face to Rory’s. Sleepy blood-shot eyes gazed down at her. Cradled in his arms, the pain subsided and the fear melted away. She was safe. He did not hate her. He had caused her injury, but did not act as if he understood it was her he had attacked. Should she explain? What if the truth threw him into a rage and he attacked her in this form? She might not survive.
“That’s quite a deep puncture. Did the creature hurt you anywhere else?
“Creature?”
How dare he call me a creature? She shook her head and decided, then and there, that only the truth will set her free. Either the man she loved accepted the truth about her dragon soul, or he would speed her to her death.
“The creature of the loch is not a myth.”
“I know. I saw it. I stabbed it and…” Rory stared down at her. His gaze slid to her wound then back to her face.
“No. Impossible.”
“My name is Nessía of the Loch, and I have lived beneath the surface of Loch Ness for centuries. My search for a human existence brought me to the town of Na Cearcan Bã Na. Forgive me if I frightened ye, but I wanted to ensure ye did not drown.”
Rory stared at her, but did not push her aside.
“Is this some sort of sick joke?”
“Nay. I licked your bloody palm in friendship. I understand if you cannot—”
“No! Forgive me. I attacked you because I feared for …you. I knew Nessía…you…had disappeared beneath the surface where a large creature swam.”
“I forgive ye. Can ye forgive me?”
“What is there to forgive? You are well and in my arms.” Rory drew back and glared down at her. “How long will you stay in this form?”
“I do not know. I am too weak to change back. I prayed that I could stay, but ye hurt me.”
“Me? Hurt you? How?”
“Those American women.”
Rory laughed. “I assume you refer to the two women upstairs. The silly girls with two large men in their beds?”
Relief flooded her body, washing over her and strengthening her resolve to find her heart’s desire. If only she knew how to make the shape shift permanent.
Bright light filled the room, brighter than the dawn peeking from behind the curtains. A swirling mist hovered beside the bed, and turned into the Faerie Queen. Rory shot to his feet, placing his body between the floating figure and Nessía.
“Still acting the hero, I see,” Nessía whispered.
Rory threw her a quick smile then returned to his warrior stance. “Don’t touch her.”
The Faerie Queen smiled slyly, then winked at Nessía. “I see you have found your savior. Has he agreed to the terms?”
Rory turned to Nessía. She glanced from him to the queen. She turned to present her wounded back to the immortal creature. “We had an interruption. But, I love him and he says he loves me.”
“Is this statement true, warrior?”
“Ah, yes.” Rory answered, stumbling on the warrior tag.
“Do you give yourself willingly to this creature, to have as your mate until death?”
“This is sounding like a wedding vow,” Rory said. “We just met.”
“My Queen, this man is a foreigner to our land. He may want to return home.”
“Aye, I see the problem.”
“Wait a minute,” Rory interrupted, “Who says I want to leave?”
“Rory, I cannot leave. I must live near the loch. Though the fae tells me I can stay human, my heart is tied to this area and—”
“Okay. We stay. As long as you agree to marry me, of course. I refuse to live in sin.” The dignity expressed by Rory’s raised chin and firm fists on hips made both Nessía and the fae queen laugh.
“Did ye mean that to be a proposal? Americans!”
Rory fell to one knee. A beautiful ring of pink quartz in a brilliant gold setting materialized in his hand. He glanced at the queen who bowed her head ever so slightly, then he turned his attention back to Nessía. She swallowed hard as emotions turned her body soft and warm in the presence of the man she could imagine spending the rest of her life with, a man she would love until her death.
“Nessía of the loch, will you marry me?”
“What of the curse?”
“You know about the MacDonald curse?” Rory glared up at her, then laughed. “You cursed my ancestor, didn’t you?”
“Aye.”
“Remind me never to make you angry. But, does this mean you are going to say no?”
Nessía knew what he meant. She had conjured the curse centuries ago when she told Monty ‘No man born into your family shall win the heart of their soul mate with ease. Let them all fall in love. Then, when their intended denies them her heart, they shall feel this pain.’
“ ‘Tis a difference between you and your ancestors. I gave them the way to redeem the family, yet no one accomplished the job…until you.”
“Me? What did I do?”
“One simple act of pure selflessness will save your family,” the fae queen said, “and I believe jumping into a monster-filled loch, to save one woman constitutes the cure. Am I correct?”
Nessía nodded.
Rory grabbed her left hand and looked serious. “Nessía, I asked you a question.”
“Aye, I shall marry ye.”
He stood and, instead of gathering her up in his arms, kissed her on the mouth.
“What? No hug?” she pouted.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Her wound is healed, warrior. Have a happy life.” The fae queen turned to Nessía. “And you…no more earthquakes!”
In a puff of sparkles, light, and a vapor as thick as morning mist on the loch, Nessía and Rory were alone. She stood and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth. He pulled away, even though she felt the swell of his arousal against her stomach.
“Earthquakes? I believe we have much to tell our grandchildren.”
She saw their smiles reflected in the bureau’s mirror. She turned slightly and found that the bandages were gone and the wound had healed. She rolled her shoulder, and pulled Rory toward the bed.
“Let me share my new brand of earthquakes.”
THE END
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About the Author
Nancy Lee Badger loves chocolate-chip shortbread, wool plaids wrapped around the trim waist of a Scottish Highlander, the clang of broadswords, and the sound of bagpipes in the air. After growing up in Huntington, New York, and raising two handsome so11ns in New Hampshire, Nancy moved to North Carolina where she writes full-time.
Nancy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, Triangle Association of Freelancers, and the Celtic Heart Romance Writers. Nancy and her family volunteer each fall at the New Hampshire Highland Games, surrounded by…kilts!
Books by Nancy Lee Badger
Clan of Dragons
Spark
Smoke
Smolder
Kilted Athletes Through Time
My Lady Highlander
My Dark Highlander
My Hunted Highlander
White Mountains Thrillers
Shiver
Ignite
Highland Games Through Time
My Honorable Highlander
My Banished Highlander
My Reluctant Highlander
Multi-Author Boxed Sets
When Love Conquers Time
10 Timeless Heroes
Dragons
Dragon Bites
Southern Fried Dragon
Dragon in the Mist
Dragon’s Curse
Military
Unwrapping Chris
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