“No, we have our own trucks.”
“Then my mother must have!” Truly alarmed, Eve ran up to Robbie. “We have to find her. She could get confused and become lost.”
“She’s probably just gone to Maddy’s house to get something she forgot when she moved back here.”
“No, Maddy’s mother is looking for her, too. Mom would have told her if she was going after something.” Eve started running toward the path leading to the ocean.
Robbie caught up with her and pulled her to a stop. “Where are you going?”
“To find Kenzie. He has to help me find Mom!”
“Okay. You go get him, and I’ll send my crew out on the roads looking for your delivery truck.”
Eve ran down the path, but slid to a stop when she reached the ocean and saw William wading out of the surf, with Kenzie on his back! William spotted her and fell back into the water with a horrified expression, dumping Kenzie into the water with his own shout of surprise.
“Goddammit, Killkenny,” Kenzie growled the moment he gained his footing. He grabbed the retreating dragon’s wing and hauled him back around to face him. “She already saw ye, so quit acting like a shy girl.”
Eve scrambled down the rocks, right into the surf, and grabbed Kenzie’s sleeve, ignoring the fact that a ten-foot-tall dragon was glaring at her. “You have to help me find Mom. She took the truck over an hour ago, without telling anyone where she was going. She might be confused, and could have gone anywhere. I don’t know where to start looking!”
Kenzie led her out of the water and helped her up over the rocks. “We’ll find her,” he promised.
“I’ll help,” William said, coming to stand beside them.
Eve sidled away so that Kenzie was between William and her.
“I can search from the air in far less time than you can in a truck,” the dragon continued, spreading his massive wings. His long neck arched down so he could look Eve in the eye. “Which direction should I go first? If Mabel isn’t confused, is there someplace she might have gone? To the food store? Or your store?”
“You can’t fly in broad daylight,” Kenzie said, leading Eve up the path. “Go to your campsite. We’ll find Mabel.”
“I want to help!” William growled, lifting into the air and landing in front of them.
“If ye want to help, then go see if ye can’t find whoever is coming in with that storm,” Kenzie said, pointing out to sea.
“To hell with them—I need to find Mabel!” William roared, smoke shooting from his nostrils. He snapped his tail, mowing down several large bushes like blades of grass. “I fear she is confused. When she brought me breakfast, she was talking in French again, as if she thought she was a young woman.”
“If you’re spotted, a mob will scour the woods for ye,” Kenzie said, “and they won’t stop until you’re hanging from a tree in the middle of town. Now go to sea.”
“I can’t do nothing, Gregor! What if Mabel is hurt?”
Eve started running for the house. She didn’t care if the entire world saw William; she just wanted her mother back home in one piece.
“We’ll find her, Eve,” Kenzie said, jogging beside her. He pulled her to a stop, put his fingers to his lips, and whistled so loudly that Eve’s ears rang.
“What are you doing?”
“William’s right. We do need to search from the air.”
Eve heard a shrill, piercing screech overhead, and Kenzie raised his arm level with his shoulder. A red-tailed hawk, just like the one on their sign at the end of the driveway, swooped down and landed on his arm.
“Eve, I’d like you to meet Fiona Gregor.”
“Y-your sister’s a hawk?”
“Actually, she’s a Guardian, like Robbie MacBain, but to me she’s still my baby sister.”
“Your sister’s a hawk,” Eve repeated. She took a deep breath, then squared her shoulders. The hawk had cocked its head and was studying her with one sharp, perfectly round eye. “Fiona, my mother is driving an old, black truck with a big boxlike rack on the back. She took off about an hour ago. We don’t know in which direction, but she couldn’t have gotten more than thirty or forty miles.”
Kenzie turned Fiona to the rising wind, and the hawk spread her wings and took to the sky with a shrill call. He then grabbed Eve’s hand and started running down the path to the farm.
“Fiona will find her,” he said, as the first sprinkles of rain started to fall. “In the meantime, try to decide where Mabel might go if she’s thinking like a young woman again. We’ll get in my truck and start by checking the school she taught at.”
“Give me your cell phone,” Eve said, holding out her hand as she ran to keep up. “I’ll call 911, and have them broadcast an APB on the truck.”
William spun around with a start when Fiona landed on a branch over his head. “What do you want, you accursed bird?” He scowled at her.
“Kenzie and the pixie asked me to go look for Mabel.”
William’s scowl deepened. “Then why aren’t you?” he snapped, flapping one of his wings to shoo her away.
“I might ask you the same question.”
William started pacing again. “Kenzie won’t let me go search for her because it’s daylight. We can’t risk my being seen by the moderns.”
The hawk gave a decidedly feminine snort. “And when did Irishmen start taking orders from Scotsmen? What I heard must be true: dragons don’t have stones.”
William’s head shot up and he shot a quick burst of fire at her. Fiona merely laughed as she settled her feathers back into place. “Did I speak an untruth, or are you offended because it is true?”
“If the moderns catch a glimpse of me, they’ll hunt me down like the monster I am and hang my carcass in the town square.”
“Ahhh, we certainly wouldn’t want that, would we?”
“I’m not afraid! And I’d take several of the pansy moderns with me, I can tell you that.” He snapped his tail, striking the tree she was perched in and making it shudder. “Go, you troublesome woman! Mabel might be in trouble!”
“But the soul seeking sanctuary needs me more, Killkenny. I truly hope they find your friend.” She swiftly flew out to sea, heading directly into the storm.
William roared in anger and in fear for Mabel, who had made him bacon with maple syrup for breakfast just this morning, who talked with him for hours on the island, who so patiently taught him to read.
Then he pictured her lying on the seat of that old truck, her forehead bleeding, and cold rain coming in through the broken window and stealing her life heat.
He used his tail to wipe the drops running down his cheeks, then turned into the wind, spread his wings, and lifted into the sky. He rose into the thick ocean fog being pushed ahead of the storm, then circled back toward land, gaining speed with the wind.
“I’m coming, Mabel,” he roared, singeing treetops as he blew his fiery breath to see the ground below him. “They may hang me, but I will save you, my friend!”
Chapter Twenty-three
“Where’s your magic now?” Eve whispered hoarsely, staring at the tow truck pulling their battered old delivery truck out of the bay.
Kenzie had tried three times to wrap his arms around her, but all three times she’d pulled away to stand rigidly, her arms crossed under her breasts and tears streaming down her cheeks. He’d also tried to at least set a jacket over her shoulders, but she’d only shrugged it to the ground. So all he could do was stand behind her in the pouring rain, the blinding strobes of the sheriff’s car and the tow truck lights intensifying the tension humming through the air.
“The magic has nothing to do with life and death, little one, but how we embrace both,” he told her.
He motioned for Maddy to stop her advance, and shook his head when Eve’s friend tried to hand him an umbrella. He inched closer until his chest barely touched Eve’s back, and fought the pain squeezing his heart when a shudder wracked her body. “I have lived and died hundreds of times,
Eve, and I give ye my word, Mabel is right now on a journey you would envy. She’s where she needs to be, little one,” he offered, his hands hovering over her trembling shoulders.
“Yeah, well, I prefer she was here with me.”
He finally clasped his hands behind his back, his own gaze locked on the truck as it emerged from the water. Several men rushed to the hole where the door used to be and looked inside, then looked at the sheriff and shook their heads.
The retreating tide had revealed the truck a little over an hour ago, when one of MacBain’s crew had driven down to this desolate boat launch—that was over thirty miles from home—in his search for Mabel. The man had waded out and dove in the water, but had found the door opened like it was now and the cab empty. He’d called Robbie first, then 911.
The sheriff’s department had deputies suiting up to dive, while others checked the surrounding woods and shoreline for any sign that Mabel might have made it to shore on her own.
So far, they’d found nothing to indicate that she had.
“Please let me take you back to the house,” Kenzie pleaded. “There’s really nothing more to be done here, and the search could go on well into the night.”
“No.”
“Then would ye at least change into the dry clothes Maddy brought ye, and stand under an umbrella?”
“I don’t want her to be dead,” she whispered. “She’s all I have left.”
“Nay, ye have me. And you have our son.”
Eve turned, and his knees buckled at the abject sadness in her eyes. Her lower lip quivered as she sucked in another shuddering breath. “I-I didn’t get to tell her about the baby,” she cried, throwing herself at him. “She didn’t know!”
“Aye, but she did,” he said, clutching her to him and kissing her wet hair. “William told me just today that Mabel told him you are expecting.”
She looked up at him. “She knew?”
“She was your mother, little one. She likely knew before you did.”
She buried her face in his chest with a wracking sob, and Kenzie pulled the edges of his jacket around her, trying to warm her up.
Yes, where was the magic now, he wanted to roar. What good was his knowledge of life and death and his understanding of the mystery and magic of both, if he couldn’t console Eve? Because as her heart was breaking, so was his.
If only there was some way he could persuade her, or better yet show her, that Mabel was right now mingling with stardust, floating in those raindrops falling to earth, and whispering in her tiny grandson’s developing ear how much he was loved.
If only he could explain that Mabel wasn’t here because she was everywhere.
Kenzie saw Robbie MacBain brush his foot over the ground near the edge of the boat launch, as if to obscure a track in the mud. He then looked directly at Kenzie with a slight smile, and headed toward him.
“We need to get home,” Robbie said softly as he strode past, gesturing at the sky with his eyes and silently mouthing the word William.
Kenzie swept Eve off her feet and carried her to his truck. “Get the blanket from the back,” he told Maddy. “You can sit with her.”
After Kenzie tucked the blanket around Eve in the backseat, Maddy wrapped her arms around her.
He got behind the wheel, and Robbie MacBain opened the passenger door and got in beside him.
After turning the heater on high, Kenzie headed toward home, Eve quietly sobbing.
He was stopped by a roadblock of police cars and fire trucks when they reached Midnight Bay. Kenzie rolled down his window as a sheriff’s deputy approached.
“You folks might as well turn around and go back the way you came,” the officer said. “I can tell you an alternate route to Ellsworth, if that’s where you’re going.”
“We live here in Midnight Bay,” Kenzie said, looking up the street. Several men leaned over the hoods of trucks, all pointing rifles at something. The hair on the back of his neck rose, and he looked at the officer. “What’s going on?”
“You’ve probably heard rumors about some sort of creature roaming about, and it seems we’ve got it holed up in the library. It came striding down Main Street clear as day, carrying a woman in its arms.” He shook his head. “I swear the thing looked like a damned dragon. It’s got wings and everything. Hey,” he said, ducking lower to look in Kenzie’s window. “Wasn’t there a man in the passenger seat?” He straightened, looking around. “Where the hell did he go? I didn’t see him get out.”
Kenzie opened his door and the officer stepped back, his hand going to his gun.
Kenzie lifted his hands for the officer to see them. “There wasn’t anyone in front. Just two women in the backseat.”
Eve scrambled out just then and immediately started running toward the library.
“Hey!” the officer shouted.
Kenzie caught up with her just as she reached the lawn. The men aiming their guns at the library all shouted, and he raised his hand to them as he wrapped his arm around Eve and lifted her off her feet.
“Mom!” she screamed at the library. “He’s got Mom!”
“Shhh, easy, Eve,” he growled, dragging her out of the line of fire. “Ye can’t go running in there.”
“But she must still be alive! What if he was trying to get her help when they chased him in there? Where’s my pen?” She frantically searched her pockets. “I’ll make them let me go in!”
“Nay,” Kenzie snapped, plucking it out of her hand. “MacBain is in there with them, and if Mabel is alive, he’ll bring her out.”
Someone shouted, “The door’s opening!” and the actions suddenly worked on several rifles.
“Don’t shoot,” Robbie called from the top of the library steps. “We’re coming out. Please lower your weapons.”
Eve gave a shuddering sob when he walked down the steps…without Mabel. MacBain had left the huge double doors open. A shimmering white light suddenly filled the library, shooting out through the doors and the windows on all three floors.
Then a bare-assed naked man walked out, carrying Mabel.
Kenzie grabbed Eve’s hand and started running.
“She’s concussed, but she’s awake and talking,” Robbie said when they reached him. “Let him bring her to you.” He shook his head. “I wish you could have heard those two in there just now.”
“That’s William? He’s a man again?” Eve stared toward the library.
Kenzie squeezed her shoulders. “He must have finally loved someone more than he hated himself, and the ugly shell surrounding his heart finally fell away.”
Robbie touched Eve to make her look at him. “Your mother told Killkenny to dump her on the steps and escape by way of the roof, but he said the only place he was dumping her was in Kenzie’s arms. He cared more about her welfare than he feared the mob out here waiting to kill him.”
He looked over his shoulder at William walking toward them, then at Kenzie. “I don’t know if we’ve just witnessed a miracle, or gotten ourselves cursed.” He slapped Kenzie on the shoulder and grinned. “I fear the man is going to be more trouble for you than the beast.”
“Gregor, take this woman to the doctor!” William demanded.
“Mom?” Eve gently touched her face. “Are you really okay?”
“I’m fine,” Mabel said. “But William is a hardheaded pain in the ass!”
“Mother!”
Mabel blinked, then reached out with a shaking hand and touched Eve’s arm. “I was trying to go to our old home, Evangeline. I thought that if I could just get there in time, Jens would be waiting for me.”
Tears rolled down Mabel’s cheeks. “But I got confused, and then lost. And the road suddenly stopped, and the next thing I knew the truck was filling with water.” She looked over at the naked man standing beside them. “And then William swooped out of the sky, breathing fire to light his way, and plunged right into the water. He tore open my door and dragged me out, and…”
Mabel clutched Eve’s sleeve. “
And then he flew off with me. I flew, Evangeline,” she whispered, her voice filled with wonder. “This great, noble beast carried me to safety. But the closer we got to town the less he was able to fly, because his wings started to shrink. He ended up walking right down Main Street, carrying me.” She looked at William and smiled. “You are my hero, William Killkenny.”
William stepped back when several men rushed up wheeling a gurney, as several other men, rifles in hand, ran toward the library. Kenzie set Mabel on the gurney, then pulled Eve into his arms as the medical people tended to her mother.
“Psst,” Maddy whispered from beside them. “Eve, who is that man?” she asked, nodding toward William. “And why is he naked?”
William strode directly up to her, clasped her face between his large hands, and kissed her full on the mouth, not letting up even as she pounded his naked shoulders. When he finally pulled back, he said, “If I ever see you wearing short bloomers again, Maddy Kimble, I’ll make sure you can’t sit on your pretty little ass for a week. Understand?”
“Who the hell do you think you are? Eve!” she said, trying to turn her head. But Killkenny just held her facing him.
“Maddy?” he said very, very softly.
“What, you lunatic?”
“Boo.”
Chapter Twenty-four
Eve sat on her porch in the early morning sun, her hands folded on her lap, as Kenzie—his hands tucked behind his back—paced back and forth.
“To begin with, ye don’t ever take out your pen when you’re angry. It’s only for when ye feel threatened, or when one of our children or someone else is threatened.”
Eve nodded agreeably.
“Now, about your refusal to marry me.” He stopped and folded his arms over his chest. “Doing things your way isn’t working for me. I find I’m uncomfortable with our sleeping together every night, virtually under the noses of a priest and your mother. Father Daar will marry us this evening, and tonight I am sleeping in my house, in our bed.”
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