Craving-Torment (Book #2)

by Claudy Conn

  “Well, what is it going to be?” Jeremy continued, “Do you each want to burn, one by one?”

  None of them answered, but neither did they attack.

  One of the vamps came forward and said, “What do you propose?”

  Jeremy nodded at him and said, “Right, look, like we said, we didn’t mean to intrude. We have no fight with any of you…unless you want to try and kill us. What we want is for you to stand aside and allow us to conduct our search.”

  One laughed, the others joined in.

  “I take it that means no?” I said.

  The female vampire flew into a rage again. She answered Jeremy by throwing herself across the room and into Jeremy, who immediately, and without hesitation, staked her undead heart and stood back so we could all watch her burst into flames. She screamed out in agony before her body was reduced to ash.

  Jeremy eyed them all very steadily. “Who is next?”

  “Look, this is our…retreat. While we are here, we cannot allow you to search because if that got back to Allora, we would be as good as dead.”

  “Then leave,” I said.

  The vamp hissed at me and he clawed the air. “As much as we would like to tear you apart, we will allow you to leave with your damnable lives.”

  “Not leaving without at least trying…” I told Jeremy.

  He looked irritated. I didn’t blame him.

  The vampires started to circle us, so we went back to back. I raised my hand and with a thought, all the drapes that kept us in the dark hall were down and rays of light blissfully entered through the windows, lighting up our surroundings.

  The vamps hid behind their arms and retreated, screeching vengeance at us.

  “Well done, but you know what, Bobbie—I think we’ll put this search off for another day.”

  He didn’t give me a choice as he shifted us out of the manor and part of the way down the long drive.

  It was still light out, though the sun was on its way down, so I took his hand and poofed us the rest of the way to the road. We ran from there to our waiting vehicle and jumped inside.

  I grinned at him. It was good to feel safely out of that hellhole, but that sense of victory was short-lived as Jeremy decided to add a lecture to his compliment.

  “This was bad, Bobbie. Now they know we wanted something inside of Brently. They will contact Allora and let her know what happened. Devin was right. This was a bad idea. We didn’t think it through.”

  “Yeah, this is on me,” I said, with a hand to my forehead.

  “And me for agreeing,” he answered.

  “Yeah, you could have tried to stop me, but in fairness to you, I would have found a way to go on my own, and I would probably be dead right now,” I said.

  “Exactly. You are far too headstrong. It is one thing to be independent, quite another to be stupid,” he said.

  “Hey,” I objected, but sunk into myself. He was, after all, definitely right. I had been stupid. Stupid and cocky me.

  “I suppose, in a way, you saved my life,” I told him.

  He said, “In a way? I damned well saved your life…a couple of times!”

  I laughed. “Yeah, I guess you did. What do we do now?”

  “We wait on Allora,” he answered grimly.

  “And in the meantime, the Dark Warlock, Beyland, expects me to give him the notes he wants…”

  “First things first, Bobbie,” Jeremy said calmly, though I could see he was concerned. “We were here too long and right now, the sky is overcast. Vampires can travel in dim light and rain, and from the drops on the windshield…we are about to get both.”

  “Oh,” I said as I realized he was right. “Will they follow us, do you think?”

  “They may. We killed quite a few of their friends,” he said, and stepped on the gas and peeled off down the road.

  ~ Seven ~

  WELL DAMN, WE JUST COULDN’T catch a break. The bloodsuckers followed us.

  I was both horrified and angry with myself, not to mention guilt-ridden for having put Jeremy in this situation. However, at that moment, Jeremy laughed as though he were engaged in an adventure in the Harry Potter World, and stuck his arm out of the window to give the four vampires chasing us the finger.

  This so infuriated the already angry vamp in the lead that he lunged and threw himself on the roof of our vehicle.

  I held my pendant and said out loud, “I don’t know what you do, but if you can just boost my magic so I can throw him off the car, it would be nice.”

  The pendant began glowing and I felt its pulse. It was waiting for me to do or say something. I knew it, so I blocked out everything but my Shama and the pendant.

  The next thing I knew, we were in the air. I’m talking high in the air.

  I realized I had been wishing we could just fly home and be rid of the vampires, and the next thing I knew, that was what we were doing.

  We could see the frustrated vampires below shaking their fists, but impotent to do anything.

  Jeremy dissolved into raucous laughter before he rubbed away the smile and said, “Can you get us down?”

  “Ah…I don’t know how I got us up,” I said truthfully, and closed my eyes again to wish strongly that we would land safely back down on the main road somewhere where we wouldn’t be seen by humans.

  We coasted and bam, down on the main pike we were before Jeremy turned off onto the country road that would take us to MacLeod Castle.

  He stopped the car and stared at me. “You didn’t know it was a Wish Hallow?”

  “Didn’t know, don’t know. Have no idea what its limits are and how many wishes it will grant me. Complete mystery.”

  We hit the MacLeod drive laughing, but Jeremy stopped and said, “You know, Bobbie, this is bad…the vamps chasing us…not really funny!”

  We parked the SUV in the courtyard and I saw him at once. Devin!

  Devin stood on the other side of the barrier that kept us apart and shouted, “Get inside! Are ye daft, Jeremy? Get her inside now!”

  When I look at Devin, I can feel my heart speed up. Something happens to my brain and knees simultaneously. In the midst of the horror we had faced, were still facing, I was overcome with an emotion that was as raw as it was pure. I loved him and I knew this was going to be a problem in the future. He was a vampire and I a witch. How could that ever work?

  He stood, his fists clenched, anger throbbing in waves off his body. His face was drawn with concern. I saw it then from his point of view and knew how awful and foolish this escapade had been.

  What had we accomplished? Trouble. We had brought down trouble to MacLeod, and we already had so much of it to deal with, we sure didn’t need any more.

  All at once, the vampires who had watched us take to the sky, appeared as they raced towards where we stood in the courtyard, as though it wasn’t pouring rain and soaking us through.

  They hit the Blood Ward as a group. Sparks flew off their bodies. One of them caught on fire and the others helped put his fire out. They raged at us, but they were done for now. They turned and took off, threatening to return.

  “Now what? Will they go to town to feed? Shouldn’t we try and stop them?” I asked with some concern.

  “Allora always instructed her…guests to feed far from Brently. She dinnae need anyone searching the manor for what the humans might think of as a serial killer. So nae, they wouldna feed in MacLeod Village. Nae doubt they do their feeding in Inverness,” Devin said quietly.

  “What we need on the job are a couple of vampire slayers,” I said on a grunt as Jeremy opened and held the front door open for me. As I went inside, I tweaked his nose. “I keep telling you I can open doors for myself.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Should I have gone through first then and let it slam in your face?”

  I laughed and Mrs. Tunny arrived at that moment to say, “What were ye doing standing in the rain? Ye are dripping wet all over m’floor! Don’t move.” She ran off and returned a moment later with towe
ls for both of us and a mop.

  She threw the towels at us and made some unintelligible remark as I draped a towel over my shoulder and reached for the mop. “I’ll do that, Mrs. Tunny…”

  She waved me away. “Whist with ye now. Go on up and get out of yer wet clothes…go on. Ye can’t stand here freezing and dripping on m’fine wood floor.” She stared at Jeremy, and added, “Tch, tch, here I am looking to ye, Mr. Ascot, to look after m’fine lass, and ye are no smarter than she! Go on…off with ye both.”

  “Mrs. Tunny, you and Davis have to spend the night,” Jeremy said. “Call whoever you have to call and tell them you are needed here and it will be too late for you to drive home.”

  I stared at Jeremy. He was, of course, quite right. The vamps could hurt them on the road. How could I have been so stupid?

  “What are ye saying?” she asked, regarding us doubtfully.

  “We are saying it isn’t safe for you and Davis to drive off the property tonight,” Jeremy stuck in, and his tone was grim.

  She eyed him before she nodded and said, “I see, right then, understood. No sense driving home now, might be a storm brewing. I’ll just go in and make us a fine dinner, that’s what I’ll do. But what of Jeff at the barn and our gatekeeper, will they be safe?”

  “Call them, tell them to stay inside until daylight,” I said quietly.

  “Aye then, I’ll do that right now,” she said, and went off towards the kitchen.

  Devin had evidently approved of this. He grunted and said, “Och aye, that was well done of ye both. Now, take yerself upstairs, lass, and get into a hot shower.”

  “What about me?” Jeremy teased him. “Do you want me to take a hot shower?”

  “Aye, scalding hot, ye blithering idiot, letting a slip of a lass lead ye about by yer nose,” Devin said, but his eyes twinkled.

  Jeremy eyed him and said, “Yeah, yeah.”

  At that moment, all I wanted to do was dive into Devin’s arms. As wet and cold as I was, I just wanted to slice through our barrier and sink into him and forget the horrors of the day.

  Jeremy cut into my thoughts and said, “I’ll meet you in the library, Bobbie, in thirty minutes, and we’ll put a call into my operatives and see what they have to tell us about Allora’s movements.”

  “Yes, good,” I said, and thought about Aunt Elle. I had been avoiding calling her because I didn’t want her to hear anything in my voice that might give her cause for concern. However, I knew that soon, very soon I would have to call her or I would open the front door to find her standing there, and I couldn’t let her anywhere near this place.

  I hurried upstairs, got out of my wet boots and clothes, dropping them onto the marbled floor of the bathroom, and turned on the water in the shower.

  His voice—his groan, made me turn to see him standing there. His arms were folded into each other over his bare, hard muscled chest. Damn, he got all my juices flowing. I looked him over, as he did the same to me.

  Involuntarily, my tongue swept my bottom lip. I wasn’t really annoyed that he had watched me undress, but I said, “Hey! You promised me privacy.”

  “Did I? Well then, forgive me, I cannae give ye privacy anymore,” he said. “I need to keep m’eyes on ye at all times, just to make certain ye are safe, though right now, with ye there and me here, ye be killing me, lass.” His smile was soft and genuine.

  Yeah, my body was naked, as were my raw emotions. I lingered a moment as I returned his gaze. I wished he was with me on this side of the barrier, stepping into the shower with me. I wanted to take his dick out of his jeans and stroke its length. I wanted him to kiss me long and wildly. I wanted him to make me forget all the reasons we shouldn’t be together.

  His voice was ragged and his palms were on the invisible divider between us. “Bloody hell, woman! Do ye know what ye do to me, standing there like that, just out of m’reach?”

  His words, his tone, his needs burned into me. His gaze ravaged me and I wanted nothing more than to open the portal, go to him, and sink into his arms. I wanted to feel his lips against mine…his fangs grazing over my skin, his…but this wasn’t the time.

  If I went to him now, and I wanted to, with every fiber of my being I wanted to, but if I did, I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave. One kiss would turn into another. He would take me and I would never want him to stop. I had to see this through on this side of the wall if I was ever going to find a way to free him.

  “I want to be with you, Devin…in your reach, in your arms,” I told him, and heard the yearning huskiness in my own voice. “But if I am ever going to find a way to free you, I have to give my Shama free rein. I have to expand all my magic, all my powers to find the right spell, and I can’t do that on your side…in Trinity.”

  He moved away from the wall and paced. When he returned, his hand swept through his gorgeous black hair and his voice was that of a tortured man. “Aye then, so it is. But do ye know what I suffered worrying about ye these past hours?”

  “I’m sorry for that. It was a good idea, poorly thought out, poorly executed, but I have another…” I started.

  “Nae more ideas!” he bellowed.

  “No, no, not a dangerous one. This idea has to do with my grandmother.”

  “And what would that be?” he demanded irritably.

  “I’ll tell you later, after I have showered. Now off with you…go bother Jeremy,” I teased, and stepped into the wonderful hot water.

  “Aye then, love, take yer shower, be comfortable. I’ll be waiting on ye with Jeremy in the library.”

  * * * * *

  Dinner was a somber time. Davis and Mrs. Tunny tried to keep up a semblance of normalcy, but we knew that they knew just why we had not allowed them to make the drive home.

  “Tomorrow,” Jeremy said. “Mrs. Tunny…you and Davis have the day off, and from now on, you two will leave well before dusk sets in.”

  “Aye,” Davis agreed.

  Mrs. Tunny played with her dessert, moving the crust of the apple pie slice from side to side on the plate before she said, “We understand, sir, but what of the others that live here at MacLeod?”

  “You will speak to them and get them to understand…” Jeremy started.

  “Oh,” Mrs. Tunny cut in, “they understand already, they do. Locals know a great deal about such things.”

  We eyed her and I said, “Good. In the meantime, Jeremy and I are going to see what we can do about the problems that face us.”

  “I imagine,” Mrs. Tunny said in a quiet voice as she avoided making eye contact, “you two…together, can manage a great deal.”

  Davis pushed his plate forward and stood. “I’m off for m’bed and a good book.” He patted Mrs. Tunny on the shoulder. “Come along, dear, and I’ll help ye in the kitchen with the dishes first.”

  Mrs. Tunny rose and as Jeremy and I were finished, she started to collect all the plates, but I stalled her by putting out my hand for hers and giving it a squeeze. “No, no. I am happy to do the dishes. You two go on.”

  “It is my job and seeing as we won’t be here tom…”

  “Go on, Mrs. Tunny. We can manage,” Jeremy said.

  She sighed and left the dishes as she and Davis made their way out of the dining room. I watched them and it suddenly occurred to me that they were an ‘item’. Why I hadn’t realized that before, I can’t say, but I suddenly saw it all so clearly.

  Devin laughed and said, “Ye cannae hide yer thoughts, lass. Aye, Mrs. Tunny and Davis have an understanding.”

  I eyed him and felt a rush of love that I immediately tried to control. I had to contain what I felt. Things were going to hell in short order and I had to keep my head.

  Jeremy looked from Devin to me and said, “The sooner you can come up with the spell to release him, the better. I have a feeling we are going to need all the help we can get.”

  “Aye, but dinnae push the lass, she is doing all she can,” Devin said with feeling.

  “In the meantime,” Jeremy said, and c
ut himself short as he took out his cellphone and moved away from the table. He must have seen I was going to question him because he put his finger up to stall me.

  “Lass, coom spend the night with me,” Devin whispered.

  “No…I can’t leave Jeremy alone to look after Davis and Mrs. Tunny. I might be needed if Allora…gets through the Blood Ward.”

  “Think about what I need this time, and I need ye here to protect ye,” Devin said in a voice that was anguished.

  I couldn’t help but notice Jeremy’s face. He had gone white.

  I looked at Devin and indicated Jeremy’s position on the phone. We both waited for his phone conversation to be over.

  He put his phone away and turned to us. “We have a problem.”

  Devin’s laugh was haggard. I couldn’t help but snort.

  “Mild way of putting it, lad,” Devin said.

  “No, something new has come up,” he said, ignoring our reactions.

  “New?” I asked.

  “What are ye saying? Spit it out, lad,” Devin said.

  “Lycans,” Jeremy said.

  “Lycans?” I repeated. “What does that mean?”

  “Werewolves,” he explained. “And Shifters.”

  “I know what a Lycan is, I meant…” I started.

  “Jeremy, ye will have to be a bit clearer,” Devin stuck in.

  “Allora isn’t coming yet. She is with the ancients because there has been a Lycan attack against quite a few newbie vamps. The ancients are in a fury and gathering the various clans in London to find out if these attacks are by an isolated few, or if they were planned by the Lycan leadership.”

  “Hell and brimstone!” Devin said.

  I could see this would be upsetting, but I didn’t see why, so I said, “Well, at least she will be busy while I find a way to get Devin out of Trinity.”

  “Aye, lass, but humans will suffer if a war breaks out between the vamps and the weres,” Devin groaned.

  “We don’t know yet that it is a war,” Jeremy said quietly.

  “If ‘tisn’t yet, it will be,” Devin snapped. “Jeremy…the ancients and the Lycan packs have been itching to go at it for a very long time. For whatever reason, and long before I was imprisoned here, Lycan and Shifter packs had merged and quite outnumber vampires. I cannae imagine why the ancient vamps want to pick a fight with them.”