Kat pushed her face up from her knees and Lisa gasped. That’s right, no magic. “Kat, what’s happened to you?” Lisa knelt down and tenderly pushed back wet, tangled hair. “Your face,” she said and looked over Kat’s shoulder. “Oh my God, Kat, your back. It’s all burnt.” Kat saw Robert from the bank staring wide-eyed down the hall. “Someone call nine-one-one,” Lisa yelled with authority. She looked into Kat’s watery eyes. “What happened?”
Kat just shook her head and let the tears fall. She didn’t care how she looked, didn’t care that she cried on the floor of a mansion, scarred and burnt in a nearly see through dress before a group of decked out socially elite onlookers. No doubt she’d make the newspaper the next day.
“Someone find Mr. MacCallum,” Lisa called again.
“He’s not here, Lisa,” Kat choked out with a new batch of tears. She felt like the stream would never end. “Take me home,” she said on a sob even though home wasn’t really home anymore.
Chapter 13
“I just don’t understand, Kat,” Lisa said next to Kat’s shiny metallic hospital bed. Flowers sat on the sliding side table and a multitude of handmade cards lay amongst the balled up snotty tissues all over Kat’s bed. “You were supposed to be sick at the orphanage last night. Then you show up at the charity ball, take a new job from a man I thought you’d never met before, and then got burnt from lightning in that ancient looking…” Lisa moved her hands around as if searching for words.
“Smock,” Kat provided, her cheek pressed into the overly white hospital pillowcase that smelled like diluted bleach. She lay on her stomach with nonstick Telfa dressing covering her shoulder blades.
“Yes, smock. Where the hell did you get it? You were wearing a gold cocktail dress. A gorgeous one that hadn’t been in your closet earlier because I checked. And somehow it changed into a smock.” Lisa didn’t pause long enough for Kat to attempt an answer. “And then big fearsome Toren MacCallum disappears from his own charity ball along with that ugly, ancient necklace he put on you.”
Tears welled in Kat’s eyes and she blinked them shut. She had cried most of the previous night after Lisa had left to check on the orphanage and get some sleep. Cried and pleaded with God to bring Toren to her. She’d even cried out to Drakkina during the night, hoping she’d come so Kat could convince her to bring Toren through time. Convince her to steal him again, rip him from his family, destroy his clan. Kat had cried all the more when she realized she couldn’t ask it. Thus the mountain of scratchy, hospital-grade tissues grew.
The burn specialists at Raleigh Memorial Hospital were keeping her for a couple of nights, treating Kat’s second degree burns with ointments and antibiotics. The pain of her back was minimized by the pain killers they administered through the IV. Even though she could go home the next day, she would need to watch the burns for infection. Kat sighed and sniffed back the tears. At least these burns should heal away, unlike her face.
“And then the doctors say you have an old burn on your face from when you were a kid,” Lisa continued and stood, pacing across the narrow room. “I remember your burn then, terrible. But it healed.” She stopped and touched Kat’s hair lightly. “It went away, little by little until it was gone. I remember.”
Lisa stooped down and swept the hair back from Kat’s face, her hand brushing softly along Kat’s old scars. “I don’t understand, Kat.”
Kat blinked hard but couldn’t stop the tears from rolling out and down her nose. “It’s confusing. I hid them. For so long.” And then Kat couldn’t stop the tears. It was as if a dam had broken inside. Her chest contracted and she let out a sob.
Lisa put her face close to Kat’s. “Shhh…now,” she soothed. “Whatever…doesn’t matter. You’ve always had secrets. I can live not knowing them. I’m just glad you’re going to be okay.” Lisa leaned forward and touched her forehead to Kat’s.
Inside Lisa’s pocket her cell phone rang and she straightened. Kat rubbed a hand over her stinging eyes and pinched her nose with a tissue. She rammed her face back into the thin pillow. No more hiding the scars. Until Drakkina showed up Kat didn’t even dare try to use magic if it could call the demons back. So hiding wasn’t even an option, not that she wanted to any longer. She didn’t care what people thought. She didn’t care about anything anymore, at least not at the moment. Eventually she’d have to get back on two feet, plaster a smile on a scarred face and head back to her kids. They needed her and she would find solace in their love. Another sob rattled through her.
“What did he look like?” Lisa asked someone who was speaking very loudly and fast on the phone. “Big, fierce, huh…by chance did he have a Scottish accent?”
Kat turned her head out of the pillow to stare at Lisa. “Who is it?”
Lisa held up a finger as she listened and mouthed the word Edith. “Had a sword, did he. I’m sure he’s not going to hurt Kat.”
Kat pushed up from the pillow, ignoring the tight burning sensation across her shoulders despite the drugs. “Did who have a sword?” she asked, unable to suck in a full breath. Hope, like painful heat on frost bitten skin crept into Kat’s heart. “Lisa! Who had a sword?”
“Her name is Katell MacCallum! She’s my wife and ye will tell me where she is, now!”
A nurse’s voice met the brutal growl. “I’m sorry sir, but there is no MacCallum listed and you’re not allowed to carry a sword into a hospital. I’m calling security!”
“Toren?” Kat choked, her heart thumping into a wild race. Kat grabbed Lisa’s arm. “Toren!” she croaked past the raspy pain still in her throat. Kat swung her legs over the side of the bed.
“Kat, you’re not supposed to get up.” Lisa’s words were a hazy buzz in the background as Kat ran out of her room, clutching the IV pole.
Toren stood in the sterile hallway, garbed in some sort of sheet wrapped like a kilt around his hips. A University of Virginia T-shirt stretched near to breaking across his broad chest. He held his sword in one hand and papers in his other. He frowned at the list as he scanned down it, his breaths coming in and out like that of a rampaging animal.
“Toren!” Kat yelled out and he spun, the papers forgotten and floating to the ground. Two security guards ran onto the scene, but Lisa jumped in between with her engaging smile that smoothed most feathers. Thank God for Lisa.
It took only two strides for Toren to meet Kat. They stood face to face, tears brimming in Kat’s eyes, a stupid grin full of amazement and joy on her numb lips. Toren sheathed his sword and gently took Kat’s face in his large hands.
“Where have you been?” Kat asked, as she stared into his storm blue eyes.
“Olc witch sent me back to yer college, the one in Virginia. And she sent me back naked. Took some explaining and…creativity to get here.”
Kat’s hand twisted in the tight UVA shirt as she pulled him closer. They breathed in each other, foreheads touching. “I’m so sorry, Toren.”
He looked confused.
“For her tearing you away from your family again. I…I…” Toren ran his thumb over Kat’s lips, feathering his fingers through her hair.
“Ye are my family, love. I chose to come. I love ye, Kat.”
Kat’s eyes welled with tears and she half bit back a sob. “I love you too,” she breathed. “I thought I lost you.”
“Together, remember?”
Kat nodded.
Toren’s smile melted the crazed tension in his features. He touched his nose to hers half a second before his lips claimed Kat’s in a slow, deep kiss.
Toren pulled back just enough to allow breath. “I bind ye to me for all time,” he said and closed his eyes for a moment. “Forever.” A sizzle of magic tingled from Toren’s hands into her own, making Kat suck in a quick breath. He picked her up, careful not to touch her shoulder blades, one hand on the IV pole, and carried her back to the room.
“That was it? All you had to do was say those words and we’re bound forever?” she asked. “Don’t I have to agree or something?�
�
He kissed her and set her gingerly back on the hospital bed. “Ye did yer part back in the hidden glade when ye gave me yer maidenhead,” he said low. “I but needed to complete the binding.”
Kat’s mind whirled. “You could have bound me at any time, keeping me with you?”
“I thought I should ask ye first, but I’m not losing ye again.”
“So not only do you know Toren MacCallum but you’re married to him,” Lisa quipped from the doorway.
Toren’s eyes remained fixed on Kat’s. “We are bound through eternity,” he said and a thrill of happiness and passion sizzled through Kat.
“I…I was just kidding,” Lisa murmured. “You mean, you’re really married, like he wasn’t just saying that to get in to see you? When did that happen? Sweet Jesus, he’s only been in town for a week.” Lisa fluttered her hands about and Kat looked back at Toren.
“Just let her talk, she likes to talk.” Kat smiled. “She doesn’t usually expect a reply.”
“And where was I when you were binding yourselves for eternity? Was it a church wedding?” Lisa actually paused.
“Ah…no, not in a church,” Kat answered and smiled.
“’Twas done under God’s stars,” Toren said, a seductive glint in his eyes.
Kat blushed and nearly giggled.
“Well that’s not good enough,” Lisa pouted. “I wasn’t there to hold your bouquet or straighten your dress or cry. The kids didn’t see it. That’s it!” Lisa clapped her hands together, which dragged Toren’s look from Kat. “We’re having a wedding! I’ll plan the whole thing. We’ll do a Scottish theme,” she said flapping her hand toward Toren’s makeshift kilt.
“Where did you get that thing?” Kat whispered. Toren looked down at the fabric tied about his waist.
“‘I cut up some linens from a bed I saw at a house with odd Greek letters on it. The inhabitants were into their cups. They won’t miss them.”
The nurses and security guards retreated as the evening wore on. Lisa left to swing by a bookstore to grab some wedding magazines. Toren lay on the bed alongside Kat, cradling her up against him so that her shoulders did not rest on anything. His public relations manager had brought over a change of clothes. He wore soft faded Levis and a light blue cambric shirt over his hard chest. Kat laid her cheek against his strong beating heart. He watched the TV mounted on the far wall. A preseason football game ran muted across the screen. Kat laughed softly.
“What has ye chuckling?” he mumbled and pulled her a bit closer.
“You seem to fit right into my century.” She snuggled closer.
Toren snorted and mumbled something about hot showers making men weak. “The new orphanage we plan will be adjacent to a lake. I will swim in the winter,” he grumbled.
“Ah…okay,” Kat said and ran her hand down his chest. Just the light touch of her fingers brought Toren’s sharp gaze to her. “And then I’ll warm you up with a hot shower,” she purred.
Toren rolled Kat on top of him, his hand splayed against her panty clad backside showing through the slit opening of the hospital gown. His other hand tangled in her hair, bringing her mouth down toward his own.
“One touch by ye and I’m hot through and through, lass,” he said. “Although a hot shower together will be interesting.” He pulled her into a kiss. Heat jolted along Kat’s spine, racing through her veins, pooling in her core. She leaned into the kiss, deepening, tilting her face to fit against Toren’s mouth, their tongues mating in an overflow of want.
The mark on Kat’s arm tingled two brief seconds before Drakkina’s voice penetrated Kat’s consumed mind.
“See now, soul mates.”
Kat felt Toren’s body tense beneath her but he continued the kiss as if they had all the time in the world.
“Katell,” Drakkina called. “I know you and your mate hear me.”
Kat smiled against Toren’s lips at the sound of Drakkina’s annoyance. She pulled back reluctantly.
“There now,” Drakkina said. “You have visitors.”
Visitors? Kat rolled gingerly to the side, turning her head without twisting her wrapped shoulders. She inhaled quickly and stared at the two images hovering near Drakkina’s. Toren rolled off the bed, standing in front of Kat in one swift protective move.
“Stand down, Highlander,” Drakkina said but smiled. “These are Katell’s older sisters.” Drakkina floated around Toren and looked at Kat. “I promised I would bring Merewin to heal you and I thought you would like to meet Serena, the eldest of Gilla’s daughters.”
Kat reached out and caught Toren’s strong arm, edging to the side of the bed. The two women smiled at Kat.
“He’s quite protective,” the woman with lush red hair said. “But I promise, Toren MacCallum, we will not take her anywhere.” She frowned slightly. “And we don’t trust Drakkina either. You should hear how she interfered with us.”
“She dumped me naked in the square of a college campus,” Toren growled.
“I left your clothes, and Katell’s, back in your century so Elizabeth would think you were sucked out of them by the tornado and not just turning traitor to Spain.”
Toren snorted in reply. “No gratitude,” Drakkina murmured.
The sister’s lavender eyes moved back to Kat, ignoring Drakkina’s huff, and she smiled. “I am Serena.”
“Hi,” Kat said a bit in shock. “And…where do you live or when do you live?”
“Eighteenth-century, with the Macleans of Kylkern on the west coast of Scotland.”
“Are you close to the circle of stones then?” Kat asked.
“Yes,” Serena answered. “It was our home once, when we were little.”
Kat remembered the happy scene she’d watched for mere minutes during her trip back to this century. “There were four of us girls?” Serena nodded. “Was there a fifth?” Serena’s eyes glazed over a bit as if she searched her memory. Brow furrowed, Serena looked at Drakkina.
“And this is your second sister,” Drakkina said, her arm out toward the other apparition. She was tall and lovely with deep brown eyes and honey brown hair.
“I am Merewin and I live in tenth-century Denmark with the barbaric Vikings.” She laughed lightly. “Fierce and passionate,” she added with a twinkle in her eye. It was then that Kat realized Merewin stood naked with a fur wrapped around her body. “Aye, the crone has terrible timing.” Merewin glared at Drakkina.
“You and your warrior are constantly mating, Merewin. It is hard to find a time when you are fully dressed,” Drakkina retorted and turned back to Kat, ignoring Merewin’s little growl. “I promised to bring Merewin to heal you. Now that the demons are lost along our trails and tired of hunting for a while I was able to bring her.”
“So I can use my magic again?” Kat asked, looking at the ethereal version of the dragonfly necklace that hung around Drakkina’s neck. Drakkina nodded and fingered the piece.
“I keep the real amulet far away, saved for the final battle. It would be…inappropriate to use its magic now.”
Toren looked down at Kat. “But ye have no need for your magic now,” he said with a frown. “My investments and artifacts will keep the children clothed, fed, and well cared for. Ye will not steal to survive.”
“And Merewin will heal your scars,” Drakkina added.
Kat watched Toren’s eyes. “The doctors say my back will heal without scars, that the burns are second degree. They hurt but they will heal.”
“But your face,” Drakkina said. “Smooth skin, isn’t that what you’ve craved since you were a child.”
Strong acceptance, respect, and love sat heavy in the lines and planes of Toren’s face.
“There is a child in the room next to me,” Kat said and looked at Merewin. “She’s burnt terribly, a house fire. They brought her in yesterday. Could you heal her?”
“How old is the child?”
“Perhaps ten, maybe older.”
Merewin nodded. “I can heal her, but I won’t have eno
ugh energy to heal you,” she said, her image wavering. “Not on this trip. It is difficult to heal across temporal planes.”
Kat bit down on her bottom lip. “That’s okay.”
“But the point of me bringing her here was to heal your face, child,” Drakkina said. “Don’t you want to be free of the scars?” Her face moved between young and old continually so it was difficult to tell her age. Her confusion seemed to scatter the dragonflies that zipped around the ceiling of the crowded room.
No one said anything. Kat turned to the mirror that stood against the bathroom door. The scars she’d hidden since childhood puckered along her cheek and jaw, feathering out and smoothing into her neck. She touched them lightly. Years of crying over them, smoothing them by pulling them tight over her face, and then ignoring and hiding them with glamour magic. So much energy and pain. Then Kat’s eyes focused on Toren’s face standing behind her image. So full of love.
Ye are a survivor. Kat heard the words he’d spoken in the past. They remained in his eyes.
Kat turned around. Drakkina tapped her foot silently in the mist at her feet. “Merewin, heal her.”
“She is already healed,” Serena said, a soft smile touching her lips. Kat’s eldest sister tilted her head as if studying Kat. “The scars inside are healed. The ones on the outside are no matter.”
Serena came forward and hugged Kat. Even though Kat couldn’t quite feel a warm body, she felt a shift of air, a tingle of magic, the essence of sisterly love in the embrace. Merewin was right on Serena’s heels and hugged her, too.
“We will visit again,” Merewin said. “My time grows short so I will find the child in the next room.”
“Aye, I will come again,” Serena said. “To the wedding.” She smiled at Kat and Toren. No one had mentioned the wedding. Merewin could heal. What exactly were Serena’s powers?
Merewin moved through the walls connecting the rooms and Serena began to fade.
Masquerade (The Dragonfly Chronicles Book 3) Page 29