After scrubbing his face with both hands, Taggart nodded. “Hannah McPherson, meet Gearlach. The Draecna for which Gearlach’s Pass was named.”
Now shaking uncontrollably, she moved toward the edge of the pool. She pointed at her clothes. “Both of you turn around. I am about to freeze to death. You can explain this once I’m out of this water.”
“Ah, yes. Icy spring water.” Gearlach displayed the rest of his razor-sharp teeth in a toothy grin. “Could that be why ye screamed?”
“Just turn around!” At least her frustration helped warm her a little. “Both of you. Now!”
“Is she always this surly?” Gearlach asked, lumbering his substantial girth in a half circle as she had ordered.
“Always,” Taggart said, stepping over Gearlach’s great, ridged tail.
“Why is she having us turn around?” Gearlach bent his horned head downward and nudged Taggart with one of his leathery wings. “Does she not know the spring water is clear? We’ve both already seen her scaleless body?”
Slinging the water off her arms, she swallowed a growl. Thanks to these two, embarrassment and fury surged through her like a liquid bonfire. She stumbled and cursed, fighting to yank on her jeans. Wet skin did not help the process. “Taggart!” she said through gritted teeth. “You can turn around now and start with the explanations.”
Taggart clasped his hands behind his back as though he were a schoolboy facing detention. “Where exactly would ye like me to start?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” She gave an exaggerated shrug. Was he insane? Did he think she wanted to talk about the weather instead of the eighteen-foot creature that was standing right in front of them? She jerked her chin in Gearlach’s direction. “Why don’t you start with that?”
“Hmmpff!” Gearlach snorted out two great puffs of smoke as he combed his fore claws through his beard and arranged it in a neat pile on top of his rounded belly. “I will have ye know, I am not athat.I am a sacred Draecna of Taroc Na Mor, the protected race of the portal keepers. Without us, there would be no time travel or jumpingbetween an endless choice of worlds. As a matter of fact, the continuum itself would cease to exist or remain in balance.”
“Draecna? Portal keepers? What are you talking about? And you look like a dragon to me.” She edged closer, wrinkling her nose at the distinct odor of sulfur coming from the beast’s breath.
“Have ye told her nothing?” The creature nudged Taggart again, tapping him with the hooked tip of one of his wings. “Septamus is going to incinerate ye. Ye know he is not nearly as civilized and patient as he would have everyone believe.”
“I have not had the time to explain everything to her.” Taggart smacked the Draecna’s wing away from his shoulder and fixed him with a silencing glare. He took a step closer and locked eyes with her. “Hannah, Gearlach is a Draecna. They are sacred beasts who have lived at Taroc Na Mor for longer than yer world has recorded time. I meant to introduce ye to them a bit later. Once ye had rested and fallen in love with yer newly gained land.”
She studied Gearlach, circling him as though he were a new patient. She had never run across anything like this in any of her veterinary textbooks or training. This…beast…was absolutely amazing. He rivaled the size of a bull elephant, possibly even larger. He reminded her of the pictures of dragons she had seen in a Celtic mythology class she’d once taken. “Can you breathe fire?” With the distinct aroma of sulfur on his breath, there had to be some combustible gas stored in that scaly body somewhere.
“Aye! Would ye like to see?” He inhaled a deep, rumbling breath and prepared to exhale, only to be slapped on the chest by Taggart.
“No, Gearlach. The last time ye did that we lost fifty acres of trees. How many times do I have to tell ye to think before ye act?” Taggart turned to her with an apologetic shake of his head. “Forgive him. He is only five hundred years old. Very immature and yet to learn the restraint and reasoning of an adult Draecna. He has been in my charge since he was just a wee hatchling, but his training has gone verra slow, I’m afraid. His heart is pure. He’s just a tad on the impulsive side. ”
“Five hundred years old?” she repeated, struggling to grasp theconcept. “And you say he has been in your charge since he hatched out five hundred years ago?” She clenched her fists, trying to catch her breath between pounding heartbeats. She couldn’t have possibly heard him right. Her heart drummed so wild and loud it roared in her ears, and then everything went dark.
“But they are alreadyon Taroc Na Mor land, Sloan. It is sacred ground where we cannot follow. The Guild will sentence me to a very unpleasant death if I am discovered anywhere inside those borders. It is one of the sacred tenets we agreed to in the last treaty.” The cloaked woman stood before an obelisk of crystal, her gaze fixed on a vision of Taggart and Gearlach as they bent over Hannah’s unconscious body.
Sloan smoothed his hand beneath the frayed hood of her cloak and caressed the silk of her slender, fragile neck. Her body tensed under his touch, and he enjoyed the sensation beyond measure. His favorite scent above all others was Mia’s fear. He curled his fingers into the hair at the base of her skull and forced her face close to his. “Mia, my dearest, my most precious love—” He raked his fangs along the edge of her jaw and yanked her trembling body closer. “If you do not do as I command, after I have killed them, I will kill you, and I promise—it will be much more unpleasant than any form of execution the Guild of Barac’Nairn ever dreamed in their worst nightmares.”
She closed her eyes; her hands shaking as she passed them in front of the visionary crystal. “I would never disobey you, my love. Your happiness is the only desire of my existence.”
He shoved her away and returned to strolling across the marble-floored room. With an impatient twitch, he pulled a lace-trimmed silk cloth from his sleeve and wiped the soil of her from his hands. He tired of reminding Mia of her tenuous position in this life. Perhaps her usefulness had ended. “Has he bedded her yet?” He teased thehandkerchief between his fingers as he scowled into the mesmerizing flames of the hearth.
“Not yet, m’lord. Taggart holds his resolve. He is the Protector and knows he must not touch her.” She kept her eyes lowered and shuffled toward the door as she spoke, pulling her tattered hood back over her bowed head.
“You will not leave my presence until I dismiss you. You know better.” He didn’t bother turning from the hearth, just waved the dancing orange flames higher with a single pass of his hand. The grating roared and popped with the white-hot blaze. “There are still a few members of your family who live in the outer regions. Do not think I cannot find them and bring them to the killing cells. Corter grows bored with the few prisoners he has left to toy with. He shall soon run out of victims to disembowel.”
“Forgive me, my love. But again, I beg you, if there is to be punishment meted out, I ask that you punish me.” She dropped to her knees, closing her eyes as she clasped her hands in front of her.
Sloan laughed, walked across the room, and jerked her face upward so he could drag his tongue across her cheek. “Why, my dearest Mia. You know my greatest pleasure is when I make you watch.” He threw her to the floor, stepped over her cowering form, and returned to his place by the fire. “Taggart must seduce her. The Sullivan witch must believe herself smitten. It will weaken them for our attack.”
“They are drawn to one another, but both fight it. Taggart prides himself on his word and his honor.” Mia cowered on the floor, hands shaking as she pushed her hood back to her shoulders.
Sloan turned from the fire and rolled his eyes. The trials he must endure on the path to his dream. This one had become such a sniveling little beast. “Oh, do get up!” He yanked her up and threw her toward the crystal on the other side of the room. “Get over there and see what form you can assume to win the woman’s trust.” Disgust filled him. Mia had become a complete idiot, incapable of thinking on her own. What had happened to the cunning vixen he had stolen from Taggart’s side?The seductive minx who had caused his brother so much delightful pain? He still reveled in the agony and humiliation she had put Taggart through when she spurned him in front of their people. Now the female vexed him beyond reason. It was definitely time to replace her.
Shoulders hunched, her bowed head shaking, she shuffled closer to the crystal obelisk and nodded once at the iridescent shaft. The visions shifted and flickered across the ancient mirrored surface, searching for the inhabitants of Taroc Na Mor.
10
