Anita Clenney - Embrace the Highland Warrior

She covered her mouth and nose. Cody let his drop and took her arm, pulling her out of the bedroom, tugging at her when she stopped to grab a picture Renee had given her. The living room and kitchen were fully engulfed with flames. Heat blasted Shay’s skin. She and Cody were both coughing as they hurried for the door. Shay turned back for one last look at her sanctuary, in flames.

On the porch, she gulped in fresh air. Cody led her onto the lawn. Tears streamed down his face from the smoke. He set down the laundry basket, and the distant wail of fire engines sounded.

“Damn!”

“What?” Cody yelled over the screaming fire engines.

“My jewelry box—no! Cody, don’t!” She clutched at his arm. “It’s not worth it!”

He pulled free and rushed toward the house. Fire glowed red at the windows. Red eyes. Death. Shay had a vision of Cody fighting the vampires. “Cody!” she cried as he covered the lower half of his face again and ducked inside the monster’s mouth.

She ran toward the house, feet sluggish, heart thumping out each second like a ticking bomb. Between beats she heard shouts as the fire truck rolled to a stop. An explosion rocked the house. “Cody!” she screamed.

A big arm caught her around the waist, holding her back. “You can’t go in there,” a firefighter said.

“Cody’s in there,” Shay shrieked.

“Someone’s inside,” the firefighter yelled over his shoulder.

Shay struggled with him, trying to pull away. She had to find Cody, but each time she was blocked. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She sank to her knees, the grass cool beneath her as waves of heat rolled off the fire. She stared at the flames, unblinking, as the firefighters moved toward the house. A smoky form materialized in the doorway, and Cody burst out, coughing, his face and arms streaked with black, her jewelry box cradled under one arm. He uncovered his mouth, gasping for fresh air, as the firefighters hurried him off the porch. Shay searched his face, sooty, but not burned. With a soft cry, she flung her arms around him.

“It’s okay,” he said, squeezing her tightly.

Someone eased her back and checked Cody for injuries. He refused oxygen, and after a minute, he pulled her close, his arms sheltering her as they watched her house burn.

The firefighters gave it a good effort, spraying her house and the others nearby, but hers was too far gone. Neighbors gathered and watched, the horror of the flames reflected in their eyes. Shay surveyed the somber faces and realized one was missing.

“Lucy isn’t here.”

“Your neighbor? She’s probably running errands.”

“She never goes anywhere,” Shay said. “I do her shopping. There’s a woman from her church who sometimes helps out.”

“She’s probably with her, then.”

“Can we check on her?”

They started around the corner to Lucy’s house, when Shay heard tires screeching and a bang. Voices yelled, “Shay! Oh my God, Shay!”

Shay turned back and saw Nina climbing out of a black BMW parked with one wheel on the curb, the rear sticking out in the road and the front doors open. Nina and Matilda trotted across the grass toward the blazing front porch. A firefighter tried to stop Matilda. While they struggled, Nina darted past. A second firefighter caught her. They were yelling so loudly they couldn’t hear Shay calling them. When Shay reached them, the two women grabbed her in a hug, tears rolling down their cheeks. Matilda’s looked like a raccoon, with her mascara running.

The neighbors slowly drifted back to their unscathed homes, as the last of the fire was extinguished. Nina held Shay’s hand through it all, while Cody stood on the other side, his arm around her. Shay stared at the blackened shell of her house, dazed. Her stuff. Her life. Everything she owned, gone.

Someone mentioned an accelerant, and Shay could see the firefighters poking through the soaked and charred rubble, some spots still smoldering here and there. A flurry of activity caught Shay’s attention. Three men squatted and examined something.

“Come on. We’ve got to go,” Cody said. Something in his face sent a chill up her spine in spite of the heat from the ashes. Scanning the area, he escorted her, Nina, and Matilda into his vehicle. “I’ll be right back.”

Shay watched through the side mirror as he walked close to Nina’s rental, looked around, and quickly drove his dagger into her front tire. It happened so fast, Shay wasn’t sure she saw it.

Cody approached the grim-faced men near the burned house, spoke to them for a moment, and then jogged back, eyes scanning the area. “Let’s go.” He got in and started the engine. “They have your phone number, and mine, if they have any questions.”

“What about my car?” Nina asked.

“It has a flat. I’ll have the rental agency pick it up.”

“What’s wrong?” Shay whispered.

“They found bones in the fire.”

“Bones?” She kept her voice low, although it probably wasn’t necessary, with Nina’s and Matilda’s poor hearing. “Whose?”

“I hope the arsonist’s.”

“They’re sure the fire was set on purpose?”

“They don’t know for sure, but it looks that way. We’ve got to get back to the castle.” His face was strained.

“Why would someone set the fire? As a warning?”

“More likely to draw you out into the open.”

***

“Are we there yet?” Matilda asked from the backseat. “I need to use the little girl’s room.”

“A few more minutes,” Cody told her.

“What a shame about the rental car. I can’t believe the tire went flat,” Nina said.

Shay distracted them with conversation while Cody took a long, awkward route to the castle to make sure they weren’t followed. They had no choice but to bring Nina and Matilda there. Too many people surrounding Shay had already died.

Nina reached over the seat and patted Shay’s shoulder. “I’m sorry about your house, honey, but you know you always have a home in Virginia.”

“I know, Nina. Thank you.” Shay was too brain-dead to contemplate what she would do when she left the castle. In addition to demons and vampires, now she had police, insurance agents, and fire investigators to deal with. Would they think she set the fire? Who did the bones belong to? “Lucy!” Shay blurted out. “Oh my God, Lucy.”

Cody took his eyes off the rearview mirror. “What?”

“Lucy wasn’t watching the fire… the bones…” She pulled out her phone and tried with trembling fingers to reach Lucy, but she didn’t answer. “We have to go back and check on her.”

“We can’t. I’ll call when we get to the castle and have someone go by her house. She’s probably somewhere else.”

Matilda leaned forward, peering over Cody’s shoulder. “Does this castle have a dungeon?”

“God help us,” he muttered under his breath as he turned into the castle gate. “If there’s a dungeon, I’m sure the owner doesn’t want anyone down there.”

“Humph. Oh, look, Nina. He’s a hunk,” she said, waving at Conall, who was guarding the gate.

Nina pursed her lips. “You’d better be on your best behavior, Matilda, or they’ll ask us to leave. We’ve never stayed in a real castle for more than one night.”

“What about towers? I just love tall towers like Rapunzel lived in. Remember that tower in Ireland, Nina, where the tour guide fell down the stairs? The one that had the nose turned up like a pig’s?”

“He didn’t fall; you knocked him down when you tripped in your high-heeled boots. Nobody tours a castle in high heels. Poor man rolled all the way to the bottom. Cracked his tailbone and five ribs.”

“His mother shouldn’t have named him Porky, with a nose like that.”