The Vampire Laird (A Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mystery/Romance)

by Merabeth James

  Meg nudged her sister. “Charlie! Wake up! Company again.”

  “Not Orianna,” Charlie muttered drowsily, sliding to a sitting position and half opening one eye.

  “No. This one is real, but the resemblance to Orianna is uncanny.”

  The figure in white now had Charlie’s full attention, but it was Meg who spoke first, “You must be Meaghan.”

  She nodded and giggled rather girlishly. “I am who ye say I am. And ye are Allyn’s sisters,” she told them with just the hint of a soft burr.

  “Are you the Baobhan Sith...the legendary Lady in White... we’ve been hearing about?” Meg asked for Charlie’s benefit, since she already knew the answer.

  She sighed deeply. “So I am called, though the other, the imposter, seeks to steal my name as well as the other things that belong to me alone. ”

  Charlie broke in. “You mean Orianna?”

  “Aye, the she-devil who has taken yer brither. I am the true Baobhan Sith. Long ago I danced in the moonlight with the bonnie lads who would join me there, but I killed cleanly, when I killed. And pleasured them in the doin’. She toys with her prey first like a cat with a wee mouse. Wicked she is and evil."

  She took another turn around the room, before she spoke again, “I awoke and returned here when I felt her stirrin’ aboot doin her deeds. I had been down in the mausoleum, where my faither entombed me and left me to sleep all alone 'midst the gray twilight dreams that come after dying. I dinnae want to come out ever again...it was safe there and verra peaceful…I no longer felt the pain of loneliness and loss, but then she came and I could not rest quiet. So, I came from my tomb to seek vengeance.. She will pay for taking what is mine. We will see to it.”

  Meg found herself shuddering. This beautiful girl really was what? A vampire? And a vengeful one to boot! But, whatever else she was, she was being honest with them, though her honesty was making her rather ill. “You said ‘we’. Who do you mean, Meaghan? Are there others here?”

  “Aye. There is Millicent, a tweenie who tumbled down the stairs. Mac, Lucy and Charles in the schoolroom and....well, let me see, we number about a dozen if ye count those on the grounds like the one in the well. We call him Wee Willie. He was pushed into it by his wicked brother, Rob. Spoiled the water till thay pulled him oot, he did, but the well was covered up lang ago and no one alive kens where it be.” And with that said, Meaghan began to dance again.

  Charlie turned her attention to Meg. “How in the world did you know her name?”

  Meg flushed guiltily. “Good guess? Does it matter? Whoever she is, or was, she doesn’t like what’s going on here any more than we do.”

  Charlie studied the dancing figure as she said, “Finding the secret door would be very helpful if we are going to rescue Allyn without being seen. You can bet someone is watching outside our rooms. Maybe she knows where it is.”

  She stopped in mid-spin and drifted to them. “But of course I ken where ‘tis. Follow me.” Leading them into the far corner, her long white fingers explored the carved moulding. “My faither built this manor and I learned all its secrets. This wee roun’ rose slides to the side...there...see?”

  Three feet of the paneled wall pivoted inward. “I wish we had a flashlight,” Meg muttered to Charlie. “As long as we stick close to Meaghan, we can see where we’re going, but otherwise it’s completely dark in there.”

  Charlie looked inside the narrow passage and grimaced. “So it would seem. But we don’t have a flashlight or even a candle. Meaghan, we need to save Allyn from Orianna. Can you guide us to him and light the way?”

  She glowed brighter and then smiled. “Aye. I saw the dark one leave wi’ her beastie so we can go to him now if ye want. But as ye said, the passage is dark, narrow and verra treacherous in places. Be canny and stay close to my light and I will get ye to Allyn’s room safely.”

  Meg actually almost understood every word, wondering if Meaghan’s brogue had been polished off by some long ago governess? “I didn’t quite catch the last part. I think she said that Orianna is out with Cerberus and we can safely go to Allyn?”

  “Yes...that’s the jist of it. And she says to stay close to her light because the passageway is very treacherous.”

  “She can count on that,” Meg said with a worried frown creasing her brow.

  Charlie caught her sister’s expression and smiled largely for her benefit. “Keep Meaghan here for a minute. I want to get my pick lock and we’re going to need shoes. How’s your ankle?”

  “Fine. I haven’t got time for it to be anything else,” Meg replied, as she crossed to the armoire and rummaged in the bottom for a pair of comfortable shoes.

  In less than two minutes, they were following the brightly glowing figure down the narrow passage that was squeezed between the stone walls. It was dusty...the air stale and heavy...which made Meg sneeze violently three times. “I hope no one heard that,” she muttered. There was another giggle up ahead. “The walls are two feet thick. Nae one could even hear ye scream.”

  “Then let’s hope we don’t run into Orianna or her pet,” Meg whispered.

  The passage meandered and then climbed steeply upward. Finally, Meaghan stopped and looked over her shoulder. “The hall that leads to yer brither is just on the other side of this hidden door. My faither had yer room, Meg, and he built this passage to the maids’ quarters, where he favored two with his nightly visits. Now she has converted their rooms to her own private chambers, where she keeps yer brither locked up.”

  Meg and Charlie looked at each other, then Meg remembered Grey telling her that Meaghan’s father was a direct descendent from the 'wrong side of the blanket' and wondered if he was ‘cursed’, too. “About your father...he wasn’t really a you know what, was he?”

  Meaghan giggled again. “Do ye mean, was he a vampire? Of course, but the maids were happy to accommodate him. He paid well for his pleasures and gave much pleasure in return. Vampires make wonderful lovers.”

  Meg groaned. She ought to know. But now, there were other things to worry about. “Do you think Orianna is still gone?”

  Meaghan shrugged and said. “Stay here and I will check.” And with that she disappeared through the door, leaving the sisters in complete darkness. “I don’t like this,” Meg muttered.

  “Nor me, but she seems willing to help. I think the ghosts...spirits...whatever inhabit this place want the Marley family and their minions gone.”

  Meg was about to answer her when Meaghan reappeared. “She’s still oot with her dog. Allyn is sleeping. He looks so sweet...like a wee bairn, but I dinnae think ye have much time left if ye would save him.”

  She opened the door in the wall and they followed her out into a dark hall. “Yer brither’s room is this way. She has locked the door and kept the key.”

  Charlie smiled. “With any luck, that won’t matter. But, Meg, even if we get our hands on a car, we’d never get anywhere in this fog.”

  “Maybe we can hide him somewhere for a while. This is an opportunity we can’t afford to miss. She’s completely insane and capable of murdering him whenever she gets the urge. This may be our only chance to get him out of her clutches.”

  Charlie’s mouth tightened into a thin line. Meg was right. This could well be their only chance to save Allyn. “The only place I can think of is in our rooms. She doesn’t know we ever left there and will think Allyn is on his own. He’s going to need a lot of attention, Meg. I’ll bet she’s been stringing him out on drugs of some kind for a long time.”

  They slipped down the hall to Allyn’s room and Charlie set to work on the lock. Moments later, they entered quietly. Just as Meaghan had told them, their brother was sound asleep. “Wake up!” Charlie ordered shaking him by the shoulder. He moaned and stirred, but didn’t move, then Meaghan leaned down and brushed his cheek with a kiss. “I first saw him in the churchyard, standing in the moonlight staring up at me and I threw him a white rose. He is so verra handsome I loved him even then and now I love him even more.�
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  Meg and Charlie both sighed at once. Their all too charming brother had captured the heart of two Baobhan Siths. Just another chapter in the cursed love life of all the Ravynne siblings. “Allyn, you will wake up now! We have to get you out of here before Orianna and Cerberus get back,” Charlie said, shaking him harder.

  He rolled on his back and blinked up at them owlishly. “What are you two...no...three...” he began and then his eyes widened in terror. “Orianna!”

  Charlie gritted her teeth and swore under her breath. “No, she is not Orianna. She just looks enough like her to be her twin. Her name is Meaghan and she’s trying to help us get you out of here before Orianna gets back. Now get up and get moving. We’re leaving and you, little brother, are coming with us if we have to drag you every inch.”

  He moved like a zombie as they helped him dress. Finally, they pulled him into the hall and Charlie relocked the door. “That will give her something to think about when she gets back. She’s likely to send Cerberus after him when she finds him gone. This hall won’t matter. He’s been up and down it dozens of times, but we need to make sure he can’t track Allyn down that last little bit to the secret door. We’ll have to carry him, Meg. Can you manage it with your ankle?”

  “No problem,” Meg said with a grim smile. “She’ll no doubt check on us, too, so we better be back in bed when she comes calling.”

  Meanwhile, Meaghan was staring at Allyn with luminous eyes. Her hand trembled as she reached out and stroked his blond hair, then sighed. “I will get ye back to yer room before I leave ye, but we must hurry. I am afeart she is back already and on her way upstairs.”

  As it was, they barely managed to hide Allyn in Charlie’s room and crawl back into the Tudor bed, when they heard the faint click of the hidden panel opening. Feigning sleep, they waited till they heard the secret door swing back into place. “That was too close. What next?” Meg asked shakily.

  “I’ll check on Allyn and spend the night in there with him. I’ve hidden him under the bed. Try to get some sleep, Meg. We will need it. If the fog is gone tomorrow night...or should I say tonight...we will have to try and get out of here somehow.”

  “Say good night to Allyn for me. He must have gone through hell from the looks of him.”

  "And I'm very afraid there's a lot more hell to come...." Charlie told her over her shoulder, as she slipped back into her room.

  ***

  Allyn was still asleep under the bed and Charlie slid a pillow beneath his head, drew a blanket over him, then sat back on her heels. She brushed away the tears that trickled down her cheeks. “Blast you, Allyn, you’d better be okay I don’t know what she has done to you, but she’ll pay for it. You have my promise.” She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the cheek. He was her baby brother. The one she’d taught to ride a bike and fly a kite. The one she helped work on his first car...a 1975 Camaro...an old relic he had paid for with what was probably the first and only hard work he had ever done.

  Another tear rolled down her cheek and she sighed, then rose and climbed up in the high antique bed. She crossed her hands behind her head and stared up at the ceiling. How was she ever going to get them out of this mess? Orianna was as looney as a bedlamite. Her father was into something illegal and owned the entire village...well almost...there was Angus and the old man they’d spent the morning with who “dinnae want tae ken” what was going on around him. Just what was going on? Daryna was afraid of something and she was their biggest threat, because she had access to their rooms...did the cleaning...brought up trays. How could they keep Allyn hidden from her if only for one day?

  She swung her legs off the bed and padded quietly to the open French doors. The fog had thinned and she could see lights moving about the grounds and down the road towards the village. They were looking for Allyn. A howl echoed eerily and she shivered reflexively. She’d been right. They were using Cerberus to pick up Allyn’s trail...only there wasn’t a trail. He was safely tucked under her bed...at least for now.

  She crawled back under the covers and turned on her side. A weight settled against the curve of her body and she smiled. Cloud was back. Stoking his long fur and listening to his rumbling purr, she found herself drifting off to the sanctuary of sleep.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Seth poured himself a brandy from the cut glass decanter and studied Orianna as she stood in the doorway. She looked wild and dangerous and every bit as mad as her mother had ever been. Her Baobhan Sith imitation had been convincing enough to scare the villagers and allowed her to play the vampire with who ever struck her fancy. Usually she didn’t keep them long. There were two or three...he lost track...in the cemetery already. He had expected this Allyn to have joined them long ago. But he hadn’t and now he was a problem...a loose end that knew too much.

  “I take it you haven’t found Allyn yet?” he murmured with deceptive calm.

  She slid into the next chair with the boneless grace she had inherited from her mother. “No. How he got out of a locked room remains a mystery. If I hadn’t posted a guard outside their rooms, I might have believed his sisters helped him.”

  “And they are still tucked in their rooms I trust?”

  She snorted derisively. “They’re both asleep in the short one’s bed. Afraid no doubt to spend their nights alone after my first visit.”

  “The ‘short one’, as you persist in calling her, is Meg. Please refer to her as such in the future. She is a guest after all and is due some courtesy, even by you. So you visited them...playing the Baobhan Sith no doubt. Were you trying to scare them, too?” he asked evenly, refilling his glass.

  She laughed without amusement. “Yes...I appeared seemingly from out of thin air, but the one you lust after was not as frightened as she should have been. In fact, I barely made it out of there without being caught. Fortunately, there is no way they will ever find the secret door. It will remain a ‘locked room mystery’ for the Ravynne sisters with the only possible explanation being that I am exactly who I claim to be.

  She took a sip from his glass before she continued. “Just what are your plans for them? I thought you were going to sell them off...had a buyer lined up, if I remember correctly, but they are still here. Do you plan on keeping this Charlie for your personal use? I think that might be a big mistake on your part. She scarcely seems the compliant bed partner you’ve grown accustomed to.”

  He smiled ruefully. “She has proven much more of a challenge than I would have thought possible. But a man needs a challenge now and then, Orianna. All this, while profitable, has become rather boring. She, on the other hand, is definitely not that, though she can be rather irritating. I will take my time with her initiation.”

  “Initiation? Is that what you’re calling it now?” she asked maliciously.

  His smile turned icy as his hand snaked out and delivered a hard slap. “We have learned to allow ourselves such little indulgences without pettiness, Orianna, or have you forgotten?”

  Her eyes flashed as her hand cradled her burning cheek. "Don't forget who I am and who you are. You will be sorry you did that...very sorry" and with that she fled the room.

  ***

  Despite her exhaustion, it took Meg a long time to fall asleep. Allyn and how they would escape occupied most of her thoughts, but there was still room enough to worry about Grey’s promise. He had said he would come for her in her dreams and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. True...being with him had been sexually very arousing, but making love with a vampire was a very unsettling notion. Of course, if it was just a dream, she wouldn’t be responsible for her actions no matter what they were, would she? Still mulling that over, she dozed fitfully, then dropped into a deep well of sleep.

  The dream began just as she had feared. She was walking somewhere in a darkness so intense, so thick, she could see nothing at all, but she could feel the ground vibrate beneath her bare feet and hear the rhythmic pound of galloping hoofs coming closer and closer. Up ahead, a light glimmered then
grew stronger and she saw a rider coming fast. He was limned with fire as though he rode straight from hell. Closer and closer he galloped. She tried to scream, but only a squeak escaped her trembling lips. She tried to run, but her feet wouldn’t move. She was stuck like a mouse in a glue trap. Closer and closer he came.

  She looked back over her shoulder and he was almost upon her and then he was there. He reined in and looked down at her, as his horse moved restively between his powerful thighs. “Come, Meg!” he ordered, then bent and scooped her up onto the saddle in front of him, pinning her tightly against his chest. She should burn from his fiery touch, she thought, but the flames were cold...almost icy. She shivered and he pulled his black cloak around them both and loosened his hold. He was breathing hard and she could feel his heart pounding against her back as rapidly as her own.

  The flames flickered then died and the darkness closed in once again, as he urged his horse forward at a fast gallop. They sliced through the night in silence. All she could hear was the rapid thud of their galloping horse as he ate up the distance and then the clatter of his hooves on the wooden drawbridge. They had returned to Blood Castle...his lair. It’s just a dream, Meg, she told herself firmly. You will wake up any moment and find yourself back at the manor in your own bed.

  He laughed as though he read her thoughts, then carried her swiftly inside and up to his chamber, where he tossed her lightly into the middle of his bed. Candles burned low, offering just enough light for her to see her captor as he stalked about the room. He tossed his cloak over a trunk, then returned to her. He was wearing the same Highland garb he’d worn in his portrait. Slowly, he unwound his plaid and tossed it after the cloak, then began untying his shirt, as he watched her intently. She swallowed convulsively, as she let her eyes explore his heavily muscled shoulders and broad chest covered with silky black hair that tapered down over six pack abs and disappeared below his kilt. He was magnificent! And he seemed to know it...was clearly enjoying her admiration. He smiled crookedly and settled his weight on the bed next to her, then raised her hand to his lips. “Now where were we before we were so rudely interrupted earlier today,” he murmured. Fleetingly, she remembered Nevermore’s timely interruption. There seemed little chance he would save her now. And did she want to be saved? It’s just a dream, Meg, she reminded herself again and found herself saying, “You were about to explore every inch of my satiny skin.”