Lost in the Highlands, Volume 3, page 38
Scuttling backward, Paige wrapped her arms around her stomach, waiting for the door to be opened. She couldn’t see who was outside but was sure it had to be one of the men, since she knew Gavin wouldn’t be coming for her since he was the one that locked her in the pit to begin with. Jerk.
Paige had a whole list of things she would give him Hell about, once she got rid of the bimbo and he remembered. If he remembered, her sick mind put in its two cents.
The door was much stronger than Clarion had anticipated and when he slammed his shoulder against the rough wood, he winced from the pain it caused.
Trying another tactic, he backed up as far as the narrow passageway would allow, and kicked his foot against the wood.
The door groaned in protest.
He kicked again, and the door finally broke open.
Paige rushed forward out into the hall and pulled up short. “Oh.” For a moment, she thought it was Gavin but quickly realized it was not. “It’s you.”
Clarion frowned. “Were ye expecting someone else ta save ye lass?”
“Well, ah, no. Yes. I mean. Or, I thought…” It was hard forming a complete sentence because it was so strange to see a man that looked so much like Gavin standing in front of her.
To make matters worse, Paige felt a very strong pull to this man, so much so, she was hard pressed not to run into his arms. She shook her head, thinking, it was just gratitude that she was feeling—nothing more.
“WH—at are you doing here?”
Clarion gave her a wide-eyed look. “I am freeing ye.”
“Well, I know that, but…”
“Lass,” he interrupted her, not having time to dally with conversation. “We need ta get out of here, now.” He started walking.
Paige followed close behind. “Where are we going?”
Clarion stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “I am taking ye out of this place, if that is all right with ye?” He started walking again.
“Of course, it’s all right,” she said. “But how did you know where to find me?”
“It makes no difference, now. Come on.”
“I am,” she said, nearly running to catch up with his long strides.
After another hour, of walking down endless tunnels, they came to a door.
Clarion stopped and put his ear against the rough surface. Not hearing anything out of the ordinary, he put his hand around the handle and pulled.
The door opened with a creaking groan.
Once outside, Clarion, the darker Gavin lookalike put his hand on my shoulder.
“Stay put until I call for ye.”
Paige nodded and placed her hand over her tingling shoulder where his hand had just been.
Crouching down, Clarion ran to the opposite wall, and pulled a lever. The wall opened up and he slipped outside. A moment later, he stepped back through the opening and signalled for her to follow.
Ducking down, Paige ran over to where he was and slipped out the door.
Clarion looked around the courtyard, and then ducked out on the other side of the wall. With a slight push on a stone, the wall slid shut.
“Lass, come.”
Holding out his hand, he levelled her with his intense gaze, so like Gavin’s, just like Gavin’s, and for a moment, her heart stuttered with uncertainty.
“Lass,” he said, taking her lack of action as something else. “I will no bite ye.”
“I know,” she said finally but still did not reach for his hand. Paige was suddenly afraid that if she did she may never see Gavin again.
“Lass,” he began. “I know ye want ta go back inside, but there are things, or rather, people, working against ye. If ye do no come with me, I am afraid ye will end up back up in the pit.”
That got my feet to move. “Let’s go.” She started walking forward.
Clarion grabbed her hand and steered her towards the tree line. “This way,” he said, pulling her along through the tall grass.
Once they made it far enough inside the tree line to be unnoticed, Clarion stopped.
“What do we do now?”
Clarion took a breath. “I have ta go back inside the keep, but ye stay here, and I will return for ye later.”
“What? You can’t leave me.”
“I do no want ta leave ye, lass, but I have ta get the dagger.”
Paige did a double take. “Dagger?”
“Aye. If I have the dagger, I can end the curse against my family once and for all.”
“Your family?” Of course, if her brain was working correctly she would have already known that they were related. They looked so much like the other, it was damn right disconcerting.
“Aye, lass. Gavin is my brother.”
“I didn’t know he had….” Then she stopped talking because she distinctly remembered Gavin telling her he had a brother. “But you are dead.”
Clarion’s lips quirked upward. “Nay, lass, I am no dead.”
“Well, I know, but you were, I mean, Gavin said that you died.”
“And yet here I am.”
“Well, yeah.” She frowned.
“Lass, it is a long story. One that I do no have time ta explain. The light is wanning and I need ta break the curse.”
The curse?”
“Aye, the curse, lass.” He then gave her a shortened version of what had to be done. And then asked, “Do ye ken what I jes said?”
Paige shook her head, suddenly at a loss for words. She heard the story before obviously from Gavin, however Gavin never told her anything about his brother other than the fact that he died. So how was he here now, if he was dead? Granted, there was an uncanny resemblance to Gavin and the story did make sense but….
Clarion reached out and touched her arm. “I have ta go.” He dropped his hand and turned to leave.
“Wait!” She yelled.
Turning back around, Clarion gave her a questioning look.
“That dagger that you are speaking of…it is not in the castle any longer.”
His brows creased. “Where is it then?”
“It’s someplace safe,” she said.
In a flash he had his hands back on her shoulders, shaking her.
“Where is it?”
Paige felt like her brain was being rattled. “Stop!”
Clarion shook his head and released her shoulders. “I am sorry. I did no mean…”
Suddenly very afraid, Paige I took a deliberate step back away from him.
“Lass,” Clarion repeated. “I did no mean ta hurt ye.”
“That’s the problem,” she said. “Every time I mention that damnable dagger, people immediately try to cause me bodily harm.”
“I did no mean…”
“I know you didn’t…well, at least I think you didn’t, however, I have a feeling that dagger makes people crazy.”
“Aye.” He shook his head, agreeing. “I can see why ye would think that.”
“Then don’t you see why you can’t be trusted with it?”
“I still need it in my possession to end the curse.”
“What exactly are you going to do with it?” Paige was wary of every one’s actions at this point, even her own.
“When the moon is at its highest point and the creature of Loch Morar makes an appearance, I will have to use it ta kill the beast.”
“Have you seen that creature? I don’t think a dinky little dagger is going to have much effect on it.”
“It will,” he was quick to assure her.
Paige still didn’t believe him. “How?”
“I can no explain but if ye take my hand I can show ye.”
CHAPTER 50
LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND
The Past
Paige gave his outstretched hand a doubtful look.
“Take hold,” he repeated. “We need ta go back in time. “
“I already am back in time,” she argued.
“Nay, lass, not in the literal sense. I need ta dream walk with ye.”
“What is that?”
“I no have time ta explain, jes do as I say.”
She would have argued but there was urgency to his voice that demanded her action.
Reaching out, Paige placed her hand in his.
The moment their hands locked together, she was mentally transported back in the hull of the ship. She remembered it immediately. It was the same as the one in her reoccurring dream.
The stateroom was just down the hall. The door was ajar, and Clarion dragged me towards it.
Instead of pushing her away like he had in the previous dreams, he held fast to her hand as they both looked inside the stateroom.
At first, Paige was confused by what she saw. There were several men standing around in various stages of undress or rather, in the process of the act. Standing in a line, one man in particular caught her eye as he reached down and gripped hold of his …
Oh, God. Paige turned her head from the sight and followed the line of men to their destination.
A small woman was there, and although she was much younger and prettier than the gypsy she met at the Highland games, Paige knew it was the same woman.
Her throat filled with bile and she tried to look away but she couldn’t seem to avert her eyes completely from the horror that was ensuing in that room.
Another Highlander was there as well, he was thrusting into her body as the line of other men watched and waited their turn. Their eyes were glazed in what could only be described as lust. But it was more than that. It was so much worse than lust because the woman was not a willing participant.
What astounded her most was that the woman wasn’t crying or screaming but instead, laughing.
It was a high keening sound and made her flesh crawl.
As the men cheered him on, the man they called Nathanial was the first to have taken her. She didn’t know how she knew this but by the lack of men on the opposite side of the room, Paige felt he was the one that initiated this terrible ghastly business to begin with.
His bare buttocks clenched as he thrust inside her body repeatedly. Paige could tell the woman’s laughter unnerved him but he kept right on thrusting harder, and harder... So hard in fact, each time he thrust her head slammed into the back of the table.
It was sickening and horrible and so many other things that she could not bear repeating.
Clarions grip tightened on her own, but she did not pull away. Instead, she tightened her grip on his hand.
The woman kept laughing, although Paige knew she had to be in terrible pain.
The man named Nathanial yelled, “Shut up! Witch!”
And still, she kept laughing.
With one hand on her body to keep her on the table, he used his other hand and smacked her in the face.
The force of that blow made one of her teeth fly out and then another, and another and another to the count of four teeth now gone.
Blood dripped down the sides of her mouth as she cursed his family for all eternity.
Another man bent down, collected the teeth, and dumped them in a pot as flames shot upward from the concoction simmering over a bed of glowing red coals in the corner.
A liquid much like silver was then poured into a mould or cast.
More men stepped up and blocked her view.
A wave crashed against the ship forcing the men to part and Paige saw what they were making.
It was a dagger. She recognized it at once. It was Gavin’s dagger, the one she had hidden in her boot.
Out of her periphery, Paige saw flames start to lick up the sides of drapes from one of the sparks that had shot out from the pot.
She looked up at Clarion but he was so intent on watching the horror that was unfolding, that he did not seem to notice the fire growing.
Paige pulled his hand, knowing somehow, if they both stayed where they were, they would be engulfed in the firebomb that was about to explode.
She kept trying to get his attention but when that didn’t work, Paige turned in front of him, and with all her might, shoved them both backward with the momentum of the boat as another wave crashed into the side.
Clarion was thrown outward against the outside wall, with Paige locked in his arms, and then everything turned black.
CHAPTER 51
LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND
The Past
“Was that…that…man, your father?”
Clarion was silent a moment, too caught up in the horror of what he had just witnessed to speak again just yet.
Finally, he turned haunted eyes on Paige, and nodded.
“Aye, that was my sire.”
“Why did he do that?” She felt sick.
“I can no know his thoughts, but I could see his actions as ye witnessed as well.”
“I feel like I am going to be sick.”
“Aye,” he said. “I feel the same.”
“So, he made the dagger to use it against her?”
“Aye, it would seem so.”
“But why did he do it?”
“I can no say. Greed, lust, something sinful to be sure, but what his true intent was I do no know.”
“That was the gypsy that sent me back in time. Granted, she looks different, older, but I know it was the same woman. But how can that be?”
“I believe she is trying to seek her revenge.”
“Yeah, I get that. But what do I have to do with it?”
“Mayhap ye were no part of her plan and jes got mixed up in it somehow. Mayhap anyone would do. I do no know.”
Paige still felt sick. She couldn’t seem to get the awful vision from her mind. “That poor woman.”
“That thing is no real woman, lass,” Clarion said suddenly. “She, or rather, it, is something else entirely.”
“Well, maybe she is not, but what they did to her was unforgiveable.”
“Aye,” he agreed as a deep sadness settling upon him. “It is unforgiveable.”
Paige felt sick for Clarion, and herself, and that poor woman, or whatever she was; she didn’t deserve what they did to her. “But it wasn’t your fault…”
“I may not have been the one who did the foul deed to her, but I will be the one ta pay for it, I fear.”
“Wait. What?”
“I have ta get the dagger else my kin will all die.”
“And what does this have to do with Gavin?”
Clarion lifted his haunted eyes to hers. “He is my brother.”
Paige also knew that answer before he gave it to her, or rather, she was almost ninety nine percent sure of the answer but it still did not lesson the blow of hearing him say it out loud. “Oh, God.”
“Nay, lass.” He shook his head solemnly back and forth. “God has nothing ta do with this…this… foul business. It is much darker, I fear. It is evil.”
Paige gulped reflexively. “And what do you plan on doing?”
“It is an either-or situation.”
“What does that mean?”
“Either I kill the creature or the creature will kill not only me but my kin till our line is extinguished forever.”
“I see.” Actually, she didn’t see at all. Nothing made sense. Creatures, monsters, horrible things done to that poor woman that no woman should ever have to endure and for what? What? It didn’t make any sense, but neither did her traveling to the past in the first place and why did the gypsy or witch, send her here? Where did she fit in to all this…evil?
“Lass,” he said and then cleared his throat, seemingly finding it hard to talk suddenly. “She sent ye here for a purpose and I can promise ye, her intent was no pure. Do ye ken what I am saying ta ye?”
Oh, she kenned all right, but it still didn’t make a bit of sense to me and she said as much, “It still doesn’t make any sense.”
“I understand yer plight, however, ye are now part of this business whether ye want ta be or not.”
“So, um, what does that mean, for me and Gavin?” she asked, and added, “and you…”
It took a moment for him to answer but when he finally did, she kind of wished he had lied.
“We have ta kill the creature, or we will,” he stressed, the last, “die.”
“Including me?” Paige covered her mouth ashamed of her own selfish question.
“Aye, lass, including ye.”
“Oh.” Paige lowered down to the ground, trying to take a breath. She felt sick, and tired, and too many other things to list.
Clarion lowered to ground at her side and took hold of her cold clammy hand. “Lass, ye will be fine. I promise.”
That didn’t assuage her fears as much as Paige would have thought considering her previous albeit, very selfish, admission a moment ago. “I don’t want you or Gavin to die, either.”
His lips tilted up at the corners into a small sad smile. “I know.”
Her hands were shaking something fierce. She curled her fingers around his and placed her other hand on top as if to hold them in one place.
He put his other hand on top of hers and turned to look out across the field of grass shifting in the breeze.
His profile was so like Gavin’s it was hard discerning the two from one another with the exception of his eyes and that he had a ragged scar on the side of his neck.
“How did that happen? “Disentangling one of my hands from his hold, she reached up and touched the puckered skin with the tips of her fingers.
“Morag tried ta slit my throat.”
Paige gasped in horror. “Why would she do that?”
He shrugged indifferently. “I was no acting the way she wanted.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know it is a lot ta take in but the full blood moon will be rising soon.”
Paige reached out to touch his arm. Underneath she could feel something moving under the tips of her fingers and jerked her hand away. “What is wrong with your arm?”
He turned his head but not before she saw the look of sadness cross his face. She immediately felt horrible all over again.
“I…” He shook his head.
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