“Have ye ever considered shifting into the form of a storm kelpie?”Seonaidhsplashed down on the bench beside Torin, crossed his shimmering legs, and lifted his pale blue face to the incessant rain. “Ye seem to spend a great deal of time soaked to the skin. Ye would be much more at home if ye became a kelpie.”
Torin swiped a hand across his face and shoved the dripping hair out of his eyes. “Are ye here for a specific reason,Seonaidh, or did ye just stop by to nettle me with your useless words of wisdom?”
Stretching his long thin arms across the rain-slicked back of the slatted wooden bench,Seonaidhclosed his eyes and smiled as beads of water rolled down his face. “I am here to help ye since ye’ve allowed your emotions to addle your senses. While ye sit on here on your arse soaking up all this blissful water, your fine lady borrowed the groundskeeper’s truck and left from the other side of the building.”
Torin glared across the street at the white block building. The watered down sides of the rainswept structure almost glowed through the gray sheets of the torrential downpour. “Ye lie. Isee one of the torches shining in the main window. She must still be inside.” A sense of uneasiness gnawed his gut into a cold knot, much worse than the chill of the vicious spray of the water stinging against his skin.
“They leave that torch lit every night, ye hard-headed fool. I heard one of them call it anaut-o-ma-tic sensoror something like that.”Seonaidhdidn’t lift his dripping head from the back of the bench, just settled more comfortably against the slats and basked in the glory of the storm.
Betrayed.The emotion choked him like a cruel demon, refusing to unclench its soul-sucking fangs from around his windpipe. She must’ve sensed him waiting between the dimensions, known he was there and refused to acknowledge his existence. Damn, the woman.He’d abided by her wishes. He’d backed away and given her a bit of time to herself even though every fiber of his being screamed that they were quickly running out of time. Every moment spent out of her presence in this chaotic world chipped away at his weary soul.
The old woman of the moors had outdone herself this time. How hadCailleach na Mointeachcursed him with such an undeniable need for Emma? Why had the old goddess been so cruel? He suffered with longing; his heart ached with loneliness when he wasna sparring with Emma’s exasperating temperament.
A heavy sigh deflated him even more as he rose from the bench. Weariness bore down like a yoke of iron across his shoulders as he shook like a dog to settle his sticking clothes better against his drenched body. An impossible-to-ignore chill settled over his being. Something bad was about to happen. He felt it in his bones.
“Since ye seem to be so all knowing,Seonaidh,did ye happen to see if she took the road home or did she head in another direction?” The relaxed water spirit lounging on the benchstirred a petty sense of envy through him. Wouldn’t it be grand if he didn’t have a care in the world other than blessing the folk of Lewis with a bountiful harvest from the sea?
Seonaidhopened one eye and extended a long dripping finger toward a narrow lane to the south. “She took the path running alongside the sea. Verra unwise, if ye ask me, during this strong a storm. ’Tis a treacherous route that’s known to wash away when the water comes down this fast.”
“Why did ye not tell me sooner?” Alarm shot through Torin, tensing his muscles as though battle drums had just sounded. Storm kelpies lurked in such dangerous passes, and they would delight in tormenting Emma. It would be a fine coup for their lot if they succeeded in stealing her away.
“Ye didna ask,”Seonaidhyawned as Torin shifted deeper into the in-between.
He had to find her. A sense of dread coursed through his veins as Torin raced across the dimensions. Damn that lazy water spirit.The fool had no sense of urgency. Torin’s guardian amulet burned hot against his skin as he skimmed along the planes. Good. The hotter it burned, the closer he was to Emma. And if it burned, she also still lived.
Folding the dimensions, Torin launched his essence around the last bend; the amulet nearly sizzled against the skin at the base of his throat. His gut lurched as he shimmered to a stop and scanned the storm swept landscape. The sight up ahead stole the very wind from his lungs. A darkened truck sat stalled out and wedged in between the banks of a washed out gully. Debris-filled water foamed and swirled almost to the top of the tightly closed windows.
Chapter
Thirty
The growl of angry water roared all around her, paralyzing her with fear. Emma hugged the steering wheel, pressing her forehead against the cold rubber tubing clenched against her chest. She couldn’t bear to open her eyes. If she did, she would see the taunting onslaught of the foaming torrent battering against the glass.
Voices.She heard the unmistakable beasts chanting she would soon be theirs. The water echoed with cruel, laughing taunts that soon they would chase the air from her lungs and fill it with the burning brine of the sea. Death hissed at her through the darkness of the cab.
The vehicle slid sideways and shifted against the muddy banks with a rough jolt. The grate of metal scraping against jagged rocks closed her throat with more knotting terror. Coughing for air, Emma grappled the steering wheel harder against her body. Her hands cramped around the bit of rubber-covered metal as she curled her legs up into the seat to escape the level of water quickly rising inside the truck. Why had she come this way? With a hiccupped sob, she eased her eyes open the barest crack, just to squeeze them shut again to block the sight of the collapsing banks of mud washing away with therushing water. A sense of irony snorted through her fogged, hysterical mind. This time her stubbornness would be her death. She would finally lose her battle with the water demons just because she had wanted to avoid Torin.
Torin. When they had made love, he had promised her he would never let the water take her. “Where are you now, Torin?” Emma whimpered against the cold steering wheel without opening her eyes.
“I am right beside ye, lass,” his deep voice echoed through the murky darkness. “I promised I would always keep ye safe and here I am.”
Strong hands gripped her by the upper arms and sloshed her across the seat. Emma kept her chin tucked and her eyes squeezed shut. Surely, this salvation wasn’t imagined.Please let it really be him. Please don’t be a hallucination.
“I am here, little Emma. Open your eyes and look at me. Ye are going to be safe verra soon.”
Emma kept her eyes shut and shook her head. “No. I don’t want to see the water. If I see the water, I’ll see them.” He didn’t understand. The gurgling water rang out with the cries of her drowning parents. Their pleading voices grew louder with every lurch of the truck. The swooshing current hissed and taunted her with suffocating memories waiting to be unleashed.
A hard, wet chest pressed against her skin; a soaked tee shirt rubbed rough and clammy against her face. Arms of iron curled around her body, cradling her close against a solid heartbeat drumming beneath her cheek.Safe.The beating heart chanted beneath her jaw.You are safe.It repeated with a steady rhythm.
Curling tighter inside his embrace, Emma nuzzled her face against the warmth of his throat. With a shuddering breath, she inhaled his familiar scent.Security. Trust.The strength of his touch and his tantalizing male spice stroked and calmed her. Her terror abated and the paralysis ebbed as she anchoredher senses to Torin’s presence and wrenched herself out of the hysteria.
She sank her fingers into the drenched cloth stuck to his body and yanked herself closer to him. She’d crawl inside his skin if she could. He offered refuge from the demons. “Don’t let me go,” she whimpered against his salty-sweet neck. “Please don’t let me go.”
Scooping her out of the truck, Torin pressed his lips against her squinched-shut eyelids. “I’ll never let ye go, Emma. Never again. I promise.”
Chapter
Thirty-One
