Eve looked down at her chest to see what appeared to be a gnarled ball of wood dangling from a leather cord.
“As loathe as I am to trust this to ye, I don’t have much choice tonight,” he said, pulling it out of her hand and letting it fall back against her sweater. “The less ye touch it the better. When ye find Kenzie he’ll know what to do with it.”
Eve stood up. “Did William also tell you that Kenzie is hurt?”
“Aye. The beast said he dragged him to the cliffs.” Daar pointed a finger at her chest. “If Kenzie isn’t awake when ye find him, just put that burl around his neck so that it’s touching his skin.”
Wonderful. She was dealing with two delusional people.
Mabel shoved Eve’s rain slicker at her, then started pushing her toward the door. “You be careful on the rocks. They’ll be slippery.”
“I should drive into town and get help,” Eve protested. “I can’t possibly get Kenzie back here all by myself, if he’s hurt.”
“He’ll get himself here, once ye get that burl on him.” Daar grabbed her sleeve. “Give this to him, too,” he instructed, handing her an unusually heavy pen that also appeared to be made of wood.
He was sending her to save Kenzie with a ballpoint pen and a knot of wood?
She had to be dreaming.
Eve zipped the pen into her pocket as Daar gave her sleeve another tug. “Ye might hear and see some frightening things out there tonight, girl, but ye just ignore them. Ye should be safe as long as ye keep that pen on you.”
“And once I give it to Kenzie?” she asked, alarmed by how serious he was, hoping this was only a dream.
“Kenzie will keep ye safe, then.”
If Kenzie was hurt, how was he going to save her from…frightening things?
“I still think I should drive into town and get help.”
“William told me there are trees down all over the place.” Mabel settled the backpack over Eve’s shoulders, then handed her a powerful spotlight. “You can do this, Evangeline. Remember how strong you are.”
Eve stopped with her hand on the doorknob. “Um…where exactly is William right now?” she asked, remembering the creature she and Maddy had seen.
“He went back to guard Kenzie.” Mabel gave Eve a quick kiss on the cheek. “You be careful, Evangeline,” she whispered. “And be brave. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
Eve finally stepped onto the porch, where the wind-driven rain nearly knocked her off her feet. She grabbed the porch post for support and panned the spotlight beam around the yard. Sure enough, one of the large trees at the end of the driveway was down, tangled in a mess of power lines. She turned the beam on the barn. Everything there seemed normal but for all the branches littering the ground.
What in hell was she doing out here?
Oh, right. She was rescuing an idiot who went horseback riding in a raging storm.
Eve made her way down the stairs and ran across the yard, dodging debris and getting battered by the wind as she aimed for the path that led to the ocean. Once she reached the bushes, they gave enough shelter that she could at least walk without feeling like a drunkard.
She froze when she suddenly realized something wasn’t right, and she shut off her spotlight. The lightning was all wrong. It didn’t flash like normal, but slowly throbbed, making the turbulent sky appear as if it were breathing. And there was an eerie brown tinge to it, instead of the clean, brilliant white of normal lightning.
There also wasn’t any thunder. All she could hear was the wind growling like an angry animal as it whipped the bushes around her.
Eve reached into her pocket and touched the pen Daar had given her, which should keep her safe. What kind of storm had lightning but no thunder, and didn’t show up on weather radars?
Eve tilted her head back to let the rain wash over her face. “I promise I’ll never utter another cuss word if you just let me wake up now.”
She was suddenly shoved from behind. She stumbled forward with a scream, then spun around with her spotlight raised, ready to strike back.
Only there was no one there.
She snapped on the light and scanned the bushes. The branches next to where she’d been standing were spread wide, and there was…
Oh shit, what had made that deep gouge in the mud!
She spun around and ran toward the ocean. Too terrified to glance back to see if she was being pursued, Eve finally broke into the open and came to a sliding stop.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. In all of her thirty-one years, she’d never seen the ocean so angry or the waves so high. They were cresting halfway up the trees on the island! The lightning, still strobing in a breathing rhythm, made the frothy spray dingy as the wind whipped it toward her.
“Damn,” she muttered, snapping her gaze west. If Kenzie really was on those cliffs, he was in danger of being swept into the sea.
She started along the grassy lip of the shoreline, but walking soon grew treacherous as the path gained altitude when she neared the cliffs. More than one plume of seawater knocked her to the ground, and she was forced to move slightly inland to avoid getting swept into the sea.
She scaled a protruding ledge and had to climb over several broken trees, then was forced to work her way down to within feet of the turbulent waves when she came to a wide fissure in the granite. She stopped and cupped her hand to her mouth. “Kenzie!” she shouted. “Kenzie!
She listened for an answer, aiming her spotlight along the jagged cliffs. Hadn’t her mother said something about a sheltered ledge?
“Kenzie!”
Only the eerie growl of the wind and the roar of crashing waves answered her. Eve gritted her teeth. What if she found Kenzie floating facedown in the surf, his lifeless body being battered against the rocks? That image was almost as bad as the one she’d had of finding her mother like that, and Eve started shaking uncontrollably.
She lifted her hand to her racing heart. Kenzie’s calm certainty that day, that she would have pulled herself together eventually, was all that kept her from panicking now.
“I can do this. I can do—”
Something crashed down the cliff behind her. Eve spun around with a scream, the beam of her spotlight illuminating several rocks the size of basketballs tumbling into the sea. She pressed into the cliff, aimed her light at the ledge above her, and caught a glimpse of…
Holy shit, that looked like an alligator tail!
She snapped off the light. If someone—or some-thing—was up there, she didn’t need to advertise her location. She started making her way toward where she hoped the ledge was, determined to find Kenzie. Even being with an unconscious body was better than being out here alone.
She felt her way toward the tallest part of the cliff, the pulses of lightning the only thing allowing her to see that she wasn’t stepping into nothingness. But what really sent a chill up her spine was that the closer she got to where she thought the ledge was, the stronger the wind seemed to blow, the louder and angrier it growled, and the higher the waves reached.
A rogue wave slammed her up against the rocks and she was nearly sucked into the sea, the water pulling at her like a hundred grasping hands.
Eve swore as it stole her spotlight, cursing herself for being here, and cursing Kenzie for being an idiot.
Then her hand suddenly touched something soft—and warm!
“Please be Kenzie. Please let it be him,” she prayed.
She touched cloth, then flesh again—definitely warm.
“Yes!” she cried, heaving herself onto the ledge just as another wave reached up and snatched at her legs. She kicked frantically, scrambling over Kenzie’s body to the sound of a shrill, bloodcurdling scream.
Eve flopped back against the ledge and stared out at the ocean, panting to catch her breath, her quivering legs lying over Kenzie’s thighs. The lightning strobed wildly in deep angry reds now, the ocean spray looking like tongues of fire lashing up into the sky.
&nbs
p; But the rain wasn’t pelting her anymore, and Eve realized she was under a rocky outcropping just deep enough to keep out the wind and rain. She undid her hood and pushed it back, then wiggled around to slide off her backpack. She jumped when something cold and sharp pricked the back of her thigh.
“What the…” She reached down beside Kenzie’s body and touched metal, snatching her hand back and sticking her finger in her mouth, tasting blood. “Let’s not do that again, shall we?” she muttered, shrugging out of her slicker more carefully.
Then she scrambled to her knees and knelt beside him, careful not to cut herself on whatever was lying beside him. “Okay, big guy, let’s see if we can’t wake you up.” Eve cupped his face. “Nap time’s over, Kenzie. Come on, open your eyes.”
He appeared dead but for his shallow breathing, and she worriedly gave his cheeks a gentle slap. “Come on, Kenzie—wake up.”
Still nothing.
Eve unzipped the pack and felt around inside it, and touched something she instantly recognized. “Thank you, Mama!” she cried, pulling out a headlamp.
She clicked it on, then settled it on her head and looked down at Kenzie again. “My God,” she whispered on an indrawn breath. “Just look at what you’ve done to yourself.”
He was bruised and battered and a bloody mess. He was also naked but for the length of plaid wool wrapped around his hips, across his chest, and over one shoulder.
He was wearing a kilt?
His legs were bare but for the blood oozing out of multiple scratches and cuts, some of them deep enough to need stitches. The beam of her headlamp flashed off something metal running along his left leg, and she panned up the length of what looked like a sword, which was heavily speckled with dried blood.
His? Or someone else’s?
Or something else’s?
Her hands shook as she held open her pack. She pulled out a blanket, and…a jar of white liquid and a bag of cookies?
Her mother had sent her after Kenzie with milk and cookies?
Eve shone the light in the pack again. “Where in hell is the first-aid stuff? Bandages? Gauze? Something to stop his bleeding?”
She turned back to Kenzie, carefully slid her hand behind his neck, and lifted his face up to her chest while she placed the empty pack under his head.
The cave suddenly filled with blinding green light, and Eve straightened in shock.
The green light just as suddenly disappeared.
She glanced out at the ocean and saw the lightning was now pulsing between angry red and its original dingy brown.
She grabbed her slicker and laid it along Kenzie’s right side, then carefully took hold of his right shoulder and hip and pulled him toward her. Holding one hand on his back to keep him against her, she tucked the slicker under him as far as she could.
The cave filled with brilliant green light again.
She straightened, and the green light disappeared as she carefully rolled him onto the slicker. “There—that’ll keep the ground from stealing your body heat.” She then took hold of the wool plaid and started to spread it over his torso, but suddenly stopped.
The cuts on his right side were gone!
She trailed her fingers over the perfectly healthy skin, blinking in disbelief. She’d swear his ribs had been covered in cuts.
He groaned, and Eve snapped her gaze to his face, the beam of her light obediently following. “Oh my God,” she whispered, touching his cheek. His face didn’t have a scratch on it!
She bent over to cup his head in her hands, and as the wood dangling from her neck touched his chest, the cave filled with blinding green light again.
She bolted upright and the green light disappeared.
“That’s it!” she cried, grasping the burl—and instantly releasing it when she felt it softly vibrating, emitting a heat that made her whole arm tingle. “The light is coming from the wood,” she whispered in bewildered amazement.
Was that why Daar had told her to put the burl around Kenzie’s neck? To heal him?
But it was a piece of wood.
Being careful not to let it touch her face as she lifted it over her head, she held it in the beam of her headlamp, untied the leather cord, then placed it on Kenzie’s chest.
But just as she started to tie it around his neck, another angry, bloodcurdling scream pierced the night, mixing with her own scream of terror as a towering wave rose up and curled toward them.
In a blur of movement, Kenzie’s hand closed over the burl and he rolled toward her, pinning her against the back of the ledge just as the giant wave crashed over them.
“Christ, woman, would ye quit your screaming,” he muttered, his lips brushing her cheek as the wave receded. “You’re making my head pound.”
“You ungrateful jerk,” she cried, trying to wiggle free. “Ow! Your sword is digging into my leg—get off me!”
He rolled onto his back with a groan, still clutching the wooden burl to his chest. “Tie it around my neck,” he said in a pained growl. “And shut off that light. You’re blinding me.”
“You are so bossy,” she grumbled, shutting off her headlamp and reaching around his neck to tie the cord.
“Get off my sword,” he said, rolling toward the ocean. Apparently satisfied that nothing was climbing up the cliff, he sat up and laid his sword across his lap, the pointed end safely pointing away from her.
“How did ye get here?” he asked.
“I ran, crawled, and climbed through this freaky storm.”
“How did ye know where to find me?”
“William came to the house and told Mom that he’d left you on this ledge.”
He stiffened and stared at her.
“You remember William, don’t you? Mom’s imaginary friend? Well, you can quit looking for a vagrant hanging around your farm, because it turns out he’s not a guy at all, but a dragon.”
Kenzie still said nothing.
“Mom said he’s about the size of your horse, and that he has huge gossamer wings and can fly. He can talk, too, because he’s really a ninth-century nobleman that some witch turned into a dragon. And you might be interested to know that Father Daar also talks to him.” Eve suddenly remember the pen. “Oh, Daar gave me something else to give to you,” she said, groping on the floor for her slicker.
She found the pen and handed it to him with a snort. “He sent me after you with a knot of wood and a pen. Mom sent you milk and cookies. Personally, I think a first-aid kit would have been a lot more helpful—because after what I’ve been through tonight, I could really use some aspirin!”
“What have ye been through, exactly?”
Eve finally began to shake with reaction. “You mean beside spending the last hour in a violent storm that has lightning but no thunder and doesn’t show up on radar?” Her laugh was close to hysterical. “Well, I also got chased by Maddy’s bogeyman; then he threw a bunch of huge rocks down at me. And I swear to God the ocean was trying to kill me. First by trying to drown me with several well-aimed waves, then by grabbing my legs and trying to suck me off the cliff.”
Kenzie gently put his hand over hers. “Yet ye kept searching for me.”
She sniffed. “Only so I could tell you in person that I’m not working for you anymore. Dealing with a delusional mother is quite enough.” Then she pulled herself upright and pointed at his pen, which had started glowing softly when he’d closed his fist around it. “So please wave your magical little wand and zap me back home.”
He stiffened again. “Ye know about the magic?”
Eve sighed. “You were on death’s door five minutes ago, and now you don’t have a scratch. That seems pretty darn magical to me.”
He looked down at the pen and pressed the clicker. A beam of intense white light shot out the end, exploding into the ledge floor and sending up a spray of tiny pebbles.
Eve scrambled back with a squeak. “Watch where you point that thing!”
“I’m sorry; I’m still quite groggy.” He wedged the pe
n into a crack so that its beam shone across the lip of the ledge. Then he laid his sword between himself and the beam, unfastened the thick leather belt at his waist, and started unwinding his wool plaid. “Take off your clothes, Eve.”
“In your dreams,” she said, her eyes wide.
“I need to lie down before I pass out, and you’re soaked to the skin,” he explained.
She still didn’t move, and he sighed. “You can either undress yourself, or I will,” he said, his patience obviously waning. “Your choice.”
The pen was giving enough light for Eve to see he was deadly serious. Okay, she was soaking wet and half frozen, so hypothermia was a real risk, but she was damn tired of his bossing her around.
“Is the word please even in your vocabulary?” she muttered, unlacing her boots and taking them off. She pulled the hems of her sweater and shirt out of her pants but then stopped, remembering she hadn’t put on a bra. “Turn around,” she commanded.
“Finish undressing, Eve. I want to see if you’re hurt.”
“I’m not hurt.”
Before she could even scream again, he pulled her sweater and shirt off over her head. And before she could retaliate for that indignity, he spun her around, pinned her arms to her sides, and unzipped her jeans.
“You can rail at me tomorrow, once I’ve gotten you home safe and sound. But tonight ye must do exactly as I tell you, when I tell ye,” he said, pulling her pants off.
Eve closed her eyes and went utterly still as he ran his hand up her legs, over her belly and ribs, then along her arm and shoulder to her face. It wasn’t being naked that bothered her so much as being so helpless to stop him.
He brushed a tear off her cheek. “Don’t cry, Eve. I’m sorry, but I had to assure myself ye weren’t hurt before I pass out. Come on,” he said, turning her to face him. He covered her first with the blanket she’d brought, then with part of his wool plaid, cocooning her against him.
“I want to get dressed,” she muttered into his chest.
“Your clothes are wet, and we need to share our body heat. Try to get some sleep. You’re safe now.”
Moonlight Warrior Page 13