Wruin (Brothers Of The Dark Places Book 1)

by Miranda Bailey

  I followed his finger down the beach and gasped. The rocks of the cliff face had eroded until, well, it really did look like a dragon leaning over to take a drink of water! I used my brand new camera phone to take pictures of the rock to send to all of the ladies back home, that I knew wanted news from us both.

  “Wow, now that was worth coming all this way to see!” Holly moved closer to the edge of the parking lot, car park as I saw the sign read, and took some pictures of her own. “It’s beautiful, really.”

  We promised each other we’d come back to see it again, just as soon as we’d hired a car, and the driver got us back on the road, happy that we’d appreciated this bit of local scenery so much.

  Before long we pulled into a long, gravel lined lane that ran up a hill. When we reached the top Holly and I both gasped again. We stared out at a beautiful cove, the waters of the English Channel stretched out before us.

  “This is Wyvern House.” The driver drew our attention to away from the cove and I grabbed at Holly’s hand.

  “Uh, I think you’ve brought us to the wrong Wyvern House. It’s just supposed to be a cottage or something. Something small,” I all but stuttered out.

  This was a two story stone-built country home of some former gentry. Or current by the looks of it. For a country girl from West Virginia it just looked expensive, far too expensive for somebody like me to own.

  “Nope, that’s it love. Shall I grab your bags?” He stopped at the front door and went to the back of the car to take our bags out.

  “That’s just...it’s too much! We can’t stay in that Holly, we’ll get lost!” I stared up at the house covered in windows and the great big giant door. I felt like such a...hillbilly standing there gaping at it.

  “You’re sure this is it?” I asked the gentleman, and he shook his head in confirmation. “That’ll be it, my dear. Now, that agent fellow of yours sent this key along and this note. If that’s all, I’ll be off ladies. I got another airport run to see to. Welcome to England!”

  I guess the accents gave us away, I thought as I moved the keys around in my hand. The envelope had my name on it so this must be it.

  I moved up to the door and stuck the key in. It turned and after two months of complete and utter shock, I walked into an even bigger shock.

  “This, God Holly, look at it. They’ve paid some decorator to come in and spend millions haven’t they?” Wood and stone, natural colors, and plush carpeting gave the house a very tasteful, very homey, but also a very expensive feel. The smell of new paint permeated the air and I knew the house had been redecorated just for me.

  “I just...” Holly stopped speaking and I looked over to see her unbelievably long eyelashes fluttering as she tried to take it all in. “Do you think those chandeliers are real crystal?”

  We left our bags in the entryway, Holly shut the door, and we started to walk. I found myself at a large bay window, three windows really, that looked out over the cove, and a large window seat that tempted me to sit for a while. I promised myself I’d come back to it later and we began to explore. We soon found a huge kitchen, two small bathrooms, two living rooms, an office, a laundry room and a game room downstairs.

  On the second floor we found what amounted to a small cinema, and five bedrooms. There were six bathrooms on this floor, one for each bedroom suite and an extra.

  “It’s going to cost a fortune just to keep toilet paper in all of these bathrooms, Abigail!” Holly burst out laughing and we started to walk again.

  “Back down to the kitchen?” I asked as we started down the hallway away from the extra bathroom that just seemed to be overkill. It was as we came to the stairs to second floor that the landing opened up and we looked down at the staircase of the first floor again.

  It opened up to a wide staircase covered in white carpet. Intricately carved ebony wood made up the banisters and finials on each side. This was a staircase for presenting a debutante at a ball. Which reminded me.

  “There’s no ballroom. Aren’t all of these country estates supposed to have ballrooms for country dances or something?” I said to Holly as we started down.

  “I bet it was one of the other living rooms. Or something. Geez, Abigail, what are you going to do with all of this?” She looked around, and I saw my own thoughts reflected in her dark brown eyes. Even if I got married and started having kids now, it was still too much house.

  “I have no idea. I’d donate it to charity; I bet they could run a school for girls and still have room in those bedrooms! They’re more dormitories than bedrooms they’re so big! It seems I can’t give it away, though, that’s part of the rules I was telling you about. I have to keep it in the family. No selling it, no giving it away. There’s a separate trust just for the upkeep, you remember?” We’d found the kitchen, at last, and I started pulling at doors until I found one that opened something resembling a fridge.

  Holly came up behind me and started taking out the items she’d need to make a sandwich. I pulled out a jar of mustard and some of the turkey she’d rejected and followed her to the island in the large, farmhouse style kitchen. It was open planned with counters and shelves along each side, with plenty of light from the four large windows. Decorated with white walls, terra cotta colored floor tiles, and cherry wood colored cabinets, it was a dream kitchen with a large gas cook top, three ovens, and plenty of workspace. Every convenience imaginable lined the shelves, brand new and shiny, and I knew I could cater for an entire bridal party with this kitchen.

  “I still can’t believe we’re here.” Holly said later, as we settled into the window seat with our sandwiches and a couple of packs of chips we’d found in one of the massive drawers in the kitchen. She kicked her boots off with a sigh.

  “I can’t either. It’s just so surreal. My mother grew up in this house? My mother? The woman that lived all of my life in a holler, with one fancy dress, and no real jewelry to her name? She grew up here? She left me all of...this?” I swept my hand around my head, my eyes still trying to take it all in.

  It had been a month of phone calls, internet calls, emails, tears, and quite a few letters to get to this place. My ancestral home, apparently. I’d found out so much about my mother since her death, things I had never dreamed were possible.

  She’d told me my father had died, that her parents were both dead, and that she’d left England to escape painful memories of a man she’d loved deeply. She’d taken the money from a small insurance policy and wandered around America until she found West Virginia and settled in. After three years, and my birth, she’d found the home she would eventually buy. A shack compared to this palace on the coast.

  “I’m just dumbfounded. I still can’t believe any of it’s true.” I leaned back against the wall, and stared out of the window.

  “Have you thought any more about your father? If he’s still around, then he might find you here.” Holly put her plate down, her sandwich now gone, and pulled her knees up to her chest.

  “I don’t think I’m in danger. I don’t even know his name. You’d think she’d have at least told me his name. How do I know who to protect myself from otherwise? He’ll be too old to worry about me by now, I would hope.” I pulled my knees up too, following Holly’s lead after I pushed my own shoes off my feet.

  “Let’s hope so. There’s too many questions to answer, but, I guess, tomorrow we should start trying to find out who this Wruin Hayder is.” She looked out at the now dark coastline, the moon shining out on the water. “He will probably know something.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” I had to fight off a yawn that beat me, so I stood up, put my shoes back on and grabbed my plate. “I think I’ll put this in the kitchen, get a shower, and go to bed. What about you?”

  “I think that sounds perfect. May I have the room with the frilly lacy bed stuff? I don’t know why, but I really like all of that. I’ve never had a room like that.” I saw her cheeks had turned pink, and I decided not to tease her.

  “You can have
whatever room you want, Holly. Make this your home. You get to stay for six months so live it up, honey.” We couldn’t get her a different visa in time to make the trip so she’d decided to stay her six months allowed by the Visa Waiver Program and then we’d get her something different after she went home for the required time. Or whatever we had to do. We had a lawyer working on it anyway.

  We hugged as we parted ways and I made my way to the end of the house, nearest to the cove. There was a large bedroom on that end with a spectacular view of the cove from a massive picture window. I stood in the window for the longest time, staring out at the coastline and the water.

  Wyvern House, house of the dragons, I had read on one of the plaques on the walls. There were many dotted around the place, as if to remind future inhabitants of who they were. Landed gentry and all that. Hey, I read historical romances a lot in high school, sue me!

  My mother grew up here, I thought for the millionth time since we’d arrived. Incredible.

  I went to the large bed, done up in my favorite kind of bedding, fine white linen sheets, a white duvet, and thick fluffy pillows. I kicked my shoes off and, in an exhausted trance, slid between the cool inviting sheets. I forgot that I hadn’t taken a shower yet, and fell into a deep sleep. Exhaustion took over.

  Only moments ago I was sliding into my bed, but now I was in a dark cavern, a drippy place full of water and the damp smell of the sea. Sand crunched under my feet as I walked deeper into the limestone cavern. There was a light at the end, a very dim light that grew bright and then dimmed again that drew my attention.

  I tripped over rocks and puddles of water, but I kept walking, that light drawing me like a homing beacon. As I drew closer I noticed that the light would fade in and go out, as if the fire was blinking. I’d suspected it was fire and my suspicions were confirmed as I drew closer. Jets of fire came pulsing out of the wall of the cave at a steady pace, as though the wall was breathing fire.

  I stared, fascinated as the flames came over and over again. I jumped when a splash of cold water dripped onto my nose and startled me. I yelped slightly as I jumped and and that’s when the flames moved and a sound like a giant snort filled the air. I stepped back, unsure of what had just happened, and soon the flames settled back down again.

  I moved closer, but not too close, and touched the wall of the cave. It felt...odd. Leathery and warm. I moved my hand along the wall, following it down, away from the twin jets of flame. I’m not sure what covered the wall but I soon found there was a pattern. It was like the wall had scales.

  I didn’t feel any fear, in fact, I hadn’t felt afraid at all since I’d entered the cavern. Instead, I felt at peace, happy and safe from the world. There was something familiar about the place, a lingering smell that pricked at my brain, but I couldn’t place it. I started to move back towards the jetting flames when the world tilted and I fell to the ground, a puddle of water in a sand filled hole breaking the impact of my fall.

  “Abigail. You’ve arrived. At last.” A deep, rasping voice came out of the darkness, booming as it echoed against the walls.

  My heart started to race then, as the sound of creaking and popping filled the air, and I was certain the cavern was collapsing because the wall started to move. The earth must be falling away as well, because the jets of flame started to move up into the air, higher, and then even higher. I didn’t feel like I was falling, but I must be. I wanted to scream, but my throat was too tight to allow the sound out.

  And then a pair of glowing golden eyes opened and the flames illuminated a face. The face of a dragon!

  At last my throat let go and my scream pierced the silence.

  6

  Wruin

  Her scream woke me up at last and I moved in my cave. I’d left her to settle in, to have some peace, yet somehow she’d found me in my land of slumber. Moving around the caves restlessly, the connection broken when she’d screamed, I smelled something I should not smell.

  Wolves.

  Her father was nearby.

  I shifted into my human form, a process no deeper, no more painful, than a thought. I swam out of the cave quickly, and shot out of the water onto the land. Quickly, I shifted back to my dragon shape, and sought out the wolves.

  They were at her window, watching for her.

  “She is ours, dragon.” Said a voice from the darkness.

  A white wolf appeared out of the darkness, a powerful animal with eyes far too sharp for a mere animal.

  “Leave this place, wolf. She is not meant for you.”

  “I’ll leave, but I’ll be back, don’t you doubt it. Her mother isn’t around to keep her safe anymore and I will have what is mine.

  “You will not. Now leave, or I will send you to your deathland.” I let a ball of fire form in one of my claws and tossed it up and down as their eyes tracked the flames. Wolves did not like the smell of their own singed fur.

  The wolves slinked into the darkness, but something told me they would be back. Abigail’s father was a persistent dick, after all.

  7

  Abigail

  I woke up screaming, my hands out to fend off the dragon, but there was nothing there. I looked around, brushing silky strands of hair away from my face. It had been a dream! Relief flooded me, but I couldn’t settle back down, so I pushed the covers away and paced to the large picture window.

  Still in yesterday’s clothes, I hugged my arms across my chest, a chill going down my spine as I remembered the massive face that had risen before me. I knew it must have been all this talk of dragons, the house, and that rock formation, what else could it be? I’ve never dreamed of dragons before.

  Bears had plagued my childhood nightmares, and snakes, oh how snakes had plagued my nightmares, but dragons? Not even once.

  I gazed out over the plain between the house and the cliff face that went down to the cove. Movement caught my eyes and I peered into the darkness until I could make out six shapes, heading straight for the house. Wolves!

  They moved to the edge of the lights that dotted the outer walls of the house and I could make out the colors of wolves that were far too familiar. Three reddish brown, two black wolves, and a gray, all doing their bowing routine. My heart started to pound in my chest once more as I looked at from the safety of my bedroom.

  How was that even possible? I’d flown here, how could the same wolves I’d seen in West Virginia now be on my lawn in England? I backed away from the window, fear clutching at my heart. It simply wasn’t possible.

  I was still dreaming, that was it! I was just dreaming still! With a laugh at my own silliness, I went back to bed and climbed in. I’d just go back to sleep, in my dream of course, and I’d wake up in the normal world again.

  But, I didn’t go to sleep.

  I tossed and turned instead, trying to talk myself into believing that those were not the same wolves outside. I almost got out of bed at one point to check if they were still there but the fear of seeing the exact same wolves would not let me move.

  I’d grown up in the wild forests of Appalachia, I’d learned how to use a gun properly, I’d taken the required hunter’s safety course that all children had to take when they reached a certain age in the state, I’d learned the legends alongside Holly before her grandfather passed away and took the stories with him.

  I’d learned not to be afraid of wildlife, but to respect it, to give it the same understanding that I gave to human beings. They also had a right to life, but when they threatened mine I had a right to protect myself.

  These animals, though. They weren’t the normal kind of animals. There was something off about them, and it was more than just their bowing at me that had me freaked out. It was more than their appearance an ocean away. It was that they somehow knew not only who I was, but where I was and when. It was uncanny, unnatural, and most of all, highly disturbing. I clenched the covers tightly in my hands as I stared at the window. They couldn’t get in through that could they?

  I finally came to the c
onclusion that the house was more than secure and that I couldn’t stay in bed, so I went downstairs as the sun began to rise and waited for Holly to get up. I’d left my suitcase downstairs so I took a shower and changed into the first sweater and pair of jeans I pulled out, before I headed into one of the living rooms and turned the television on. British television was much like American in that most of the morning programs were things I wouldn’t normally watch anyway.

  I fell asleep on the long, dark brown couch without realizing I’d even closed my eyes against the dim glow of morning. This time I didn’t dream.

  “Abigail, why are you asleep on the couch? Come on, I’ve made breakfast. What I could of it anyway. There is some really weird shit in that kitchen.” Holly left me scrubbing at my face with my shirt sleeves as she walked out of the room. “I don’t know what’s got into you, but you sure were snoring to beat the band. I heard you all the way in the kitchen, girl!”

  Her voice trailed off and I looked over at the bay window. Wolves and dragons, that’s what had gotten into me. Mythical creatures messing with my sleep. I shook it all off and went into the kitchen.

  “I swear, if you laugh at my biscuits I’ll scream. I don’t know what kind of flour that was, but something wasn’t right!” Holly normally made the most mouthwatering biscuits in the world, but the flat little things she put in front of me looked like door stoppers, not biscuits.

  Breakfast didn’t improve when I bit into a sausage. I chewed, grimacing.

  “There’s no seasoning.” I said, puzzled. “And, what is that texture? Is that some kind of flour?”

  Holly looked at the package, still on the counter. “The ingredients say there’s some kind of cereal in them.”

  “Cereal? In sausages? Why? Why would they desecrate a perfectly good sausage like that?” I paused as a shiver went through me. “This might take some getting used to. Is there any, well, cereal in the drawers? Or oatmeal even?”