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

by Merabeth James

  Please don’t let him say ‘gillyflower’, she thought, but he did. It was like a splash of cold water on her hot flesh. Why hadn’t she seen it before? He was still in love with his wife. “I’m not Gilly, Grey. I could never be her.”

  He lifted his head and looked at her, his eyes both fierce and infinitely sad. “Ah lied to ye before, when Ah said my Gilly died in childbed. She took her own life and the bairn’s not yet born, because she could not bear to see anither sech as me brought into the world to suffer as Ah did. She said she had to choose between leaving me, who she loved wi’ all her heart, or keeping close to our bairn who needed her even more. She had already drunk the witch’s brew before Ah found her and Ah held her in mah arms as she died. Ah never wanted to hurt like that again so Ah keep to mahself in the castle, except for a visit nau and then to the manor, which is whare Ah first saw ye. Ye do have the look of her in yer eyes. A sweetness...a kindness....a goodness. Could Ah have been looking for her in ye?”

  She sighed. “I think so. She’s waiting for you, you know. You can find her if you let go of your castle and your life...or whatever it is...here. I’ve seen it happen before. A rejoining in the white light sent from what lies beyond. Go to her, Grey and you will never be lonely again.”

  “But Ah hurt her...not physically...but otherwise by being wat Ah am. Twas because of that she took her own life...a grievous sin. The priest would not have blessed her had Ah not told him the same lie Ah told ye.”

  “None of that matters. She’s there in the light with your baby. Now say good-bye to me. I will miss you.”

  “And Ah will miss ye, lass. Mah sweet Meg! Perhaps tis wicked of me to still crave ye like a starving man craves meat, but mah sins are blacker than that. Perhaps Ah will come to ye in anither dream some nicht...or maybe in person.”

  She wasn’t sure she liked his metaphor, which sent a shiver rippling through her. “I’ll be a far, far away by then. But I have my memories....”

  He laughed then, “Och! Ye may have more than that. Ah have seen that cat of yers come frae yer home. If he can make the journey so can Ah! ‘Look for me by moonlight. Watch for me by moonlight. I’ll come to thee by moonlight though hell should bar the way.’ Alfred Noyes. A Sassenach poet to be sure, but Ah think ye get the idea.”

  He was still laughing, as he vaulted into the saddle. He sat there for a long time just looking down at her and then extended his hand. For a moment, she wanted more than anything to grab that hand and ride into whatever fate awaited her, but she shook her head. He nodded and then leaned forward, snatching her up till she reached his mouth, where he branded her with a scorching kiss that sent shock waves to every part of her body. Then he dropped her, lightly, to the ground and smiled. "Somethin' to remember me by, lass." and with that he rode off just as the first colors of dawn washed the sky above the mountains.

  She watched until he disappeared up the slope to his castle....Blood Castle. Would he find his Gilly? She truly hoped he would and his soul would be at peace. But she had meant what she had told him. She would miss him. Tears slid down her face as she touched her mouth, where the imprint of his hot mouth still lingered. He had been her first dream love and she would always remember.

  EPILOGUE

  “Where’s Allyn?” Meg asked her sister, as she looked out her window at the dark sweep of water below the wing of the jet carrying them home.

  “Up ahead somewhere. He’s been making the rounds since the ‘fasten seatbelt’ sign went off. It seems having two sisters hanging around cramped his style,” Charlie told her wryly. “You would have thought he would have given it a rest since Orianna worked him over, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I, on the other hand, feel like I’ve been run over by a bulldozer.”

  “I thought it was a ‘rogue elephant’...or was that just the last time we had this conversation?”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you, Meg, what’s going on? You seem different somehow and I don’t want to have to guess why.”

  Meg smiled cryptically. “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.”

  “Or a someone.”

  “I might as well tell you or you’ll be poking and prodding till you get it out of me anyway. My someone is a ghost...a vampire...a man who said he loved me and even asked me to marry him. Me. Margaret Ravynne. He was so very handsome and so very sexy and even funny at times. He made me laugh...and he made me cry.”

  Charlie’s arm went around Meg’s shoulders and she pulled her closer. “You fell for the Highlander, didn’t you? Grey MacMorley...the one you were ga-ga over from the moment you first laid eyes on his portrait. The one Allyn told me scooped you up and carried you off to who knows where. Just what went on between you two?”

  “Allyn always was the biggest blabber mouth in pants,” Meg told her with a rueful smile. “I didn’t ask about what went on between you and Zack, when you disappeared for hours. But I’m here...and you’re here... and I guess that’s all that matters now.”

  “So, I’m guessing that means you don’t plan on telling me anything more. As far as Zack goes, he plans on coming back to Hensley Hall for Christmas after he clears up some unfinished business.”

  “And then?”

  “I don’t know and I suspect neither does he. Now...about you?”

  “Okay...you know I’m not good at keeping a secret. The day I hurt my ankle he found me on the moor and carried me to Blood Castle...or his horse did...I was in his arms...and we.... Let’s just say things got rather interesting.”

  Charlie was more than a little shocked. “Tell me you didn’t do...you know what...with a vampire?”

  “I didn’t, but I really...really wanted to! In all the years I was married to Mitch, I never dreamed what it could feel like...what I could feel like. It was as though I had filled up with pure pleasure until I burst into a million zillion points of light.”

  Charlie couldn’t help but smile. “Sounds kind of messy when you put it like that.”

  Meg laughed. “It was wonderful, but we never reached that last part...I chickened out and made a run for the bathroom or in this case the garderobe, which was an experience all by itself. But then...later...he came to me in a dream so real I could ...well, let’s say we finished lighting the fire we’d started earlier and we burned in its flames.”

  “That had to be the morning I woke you up and you had that goofy look on your face, as you rushed to the bathroom and slammed the door in my face.”

  Meg grimaced. “It wasn’t goofy! But...after that…I understood better what is possible between a man and a woman. Magic and fireworks. Something I will probably never experience again, but at least I had it once. Thanks to a ghost. Now I just want to get home and see the family...hold my Freddie, who I’ve missed every day we’ve been gone, though I made myself stop whining about him.”

  Charlie wrinkled her nose thoughtfully. “Thankfully. Do you think Cloud will find his way back to Hensley Hall?”

  “He’s one smart cat. He made it all the way to Scotland and saved my life again. He’ll make it back home. I’m sure of it!”

  “You know we never did find out where Allyn’s white stag came from?”

  Meg smiled at her sister. “And probably never will. Maybe the Otherworld is keeping tabs on us and saw that something needed to be done for the uneasy spirits at Blackcreag, then chose Allyn as the unlikely catalyst.”

  “Unlikely indeed, but I’m not sure I would have called him a ‘catalyst’. A catalyst is unchanged in a given reaction, but Allyn really is different since all this happened. He actually believes what Shakespeare wrote so well, ”There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'....“

  Meg laughed lightly. “In other words, our Allyn now believes in ghosts.”

  “And vampires.”

  Their hands found each other. “Do you know what’s great about having a sister?” Meg asked.

  “Lots of things, but what are you thinking about in particular?”

&nbs
p; “I can tell you anything. Like I had dream sex with a vampire/ghost and you didn’t laugh or want to throw a net over me.”

  Charlie laughed loud enough to attract a few cold stares. “There are plenty of times I could do both, but that wasn’t one of them.”

  “That goes both ways, you know. What do you think is going to happen to Allyn when we get back?”

  “Sage will baby him to death and Dad will, figuratively, kick him in the seat of his designer jeans.”

  Meg was quiet for a long moment. “What’s next for us, do you think?”

  “Well, I need to get back to my writing, while we both settle down to running our haunted B&B and let Sage and Dad off the hook, though from what I heard when we called them, they seem to be enjoying it immensely. That looks like the drink cart headed our way, how about a glass of white wine?”

  “Sounds perfect. Charlie?”

  “Yes?”

  “Do you think there will be other adventures ahead of us? I’m beginning to like all the excitement.”

  Charlie laughed again. “I’m sure there will always be something going on with the Ravynne family. It’s who we are.”

  Meg smiled. “You know...I think you’re right. For once.”

  ***

  Meanwhile, off the coast, a thick blanket of fog rolled in from the sea as the warning horn echoed mournfully over the fast darkening water. A solitary figure stood watch in the ruined lighthouse as the familiar became the unfamiliar...the real became the surreal... and then nothing at all. His eyes were troubled as he shook his head. Change was coming...he could feel it in the air...in his very soul...or what was left of it. He smiled self-mockingly. There was nothing he could do about it....yet. But soon that would change…

  ###

  This book if for all the 'sisters' out there who laugh together, cry together, stand by and support each other no matter what life tosses their way and sometimes just get silly together for no other special reason at all. You know who you are!