It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop on the grass twenty feet below. I was sure of it. This type of silence was abnormal and concerned me. I’d been locked in my room since Rufus discovered me at the cave, with only the information Elizabeth was able to share with me to tell me what was happening in the outside world. She’d yet to come to my room, so I waited impatiently.
She was late.
It was near noon before a strange serving woman brought my food to me. Since I was ravenous from not eating since the night before, combined with being pregnant with vampire child, I dove into my fare with very little thought as to why Elizabeth still hadn’t come to my room or why this strange serving woman was bringing me food.
I failed to monitor my food intake and was soon feeling ill from gorging myself with a trencher made of fresh, crusty bread that was filled with perfectly seasoned mutton stew. I’d left nothing behi
I held tight while her dragon carried us swiftly back to her encampment. During the flight, she filled me in on what happened during my absence.Duncan went into a rage, declaring his regrets about allowing us to convince him to let me go into the cave in his stead. This information was of no surprise to me. Even so, I was sorry to hear it.Lady Margaret was brought before the coven and her powers were bound. She was then handed over to the Earl of Winter Spring to do with as he will. The fact that she’d tried to kill his only heir and caused him to become vampire didn’t sit well with the earl. Although it was a crime punishable by death, he sent her to the dungeon instead. A kind man by nature, he couldn’t bring himself to hang the girl he’d accepted as his ward and helped raise.I’d lost track of the time and learned they’d been looking for me for the better part of a month. Rosalie actually complemen
Isabelle stood next to me while we watched Lady Helen enter the tent and then flee back out of it shouting for help. Duncan cradled my limp body in his arms and rocked me back and forth. He was clearly at a loss of what to do.Rosalie rushed into the tent with Lady Helen close at her heels. She inspected my eyes and my breathing and announced I was still alive, but just barely. She rambled in outraged Spanish and Isabelle translated it to me. Apparently she was repremanding my almost dead body for being foolish enough to donate blood when the miscarriage took more than it should to begin with. She claimed I had barely enough blood flowing in my veins to support me after such an ordeal, let alone revive a vampire. I’m pretty sure she called me stupid, although Isabelle woundn’t own up to it if she did.I listened while they debated what to do. I was so close to death that if Duncan revived me with his blood the
It was a week since I’d convinced Duncan to speed up my recovery by giving me some of his blood. He’d hesitated for fear of Rosalie’s concern of my turning vampire would occur, but he eventually gave in. I really didn’t need his blood to heal. I was healing well without it, but I didn’t tell him that. When I had Duncan’s blood flowing through my veins all of my senses were heightened and my powers more acute. I needed all the advantage I could get for what I was about to do.I’d managed to connect with Elizabeth’s spirit. She wasn’t as easy to summon as Isabelle’s, but I eventually managed. My heart ached as she told me how Lady Margaret learned of her association with me and arranged to have her killed. She laughed at the irony of how she’d feared losing her life to her vampire brother instead of her human mistress. The danger of being in Rufus’ company was so blatantl
“Jane Wells! Where are you?”I covered my ears with my hands. The old crone's screeching was enough to make me want to rip them from my head. Mildred Elliot's squalling voice grated on my nerves like nails against a blackboard. I’d told her so on more than one frustrated occasion. It had little impact on the old woman, other than reinforcing her viewpoint that I was a bit “odd in the head”. Mildred hadn't a clue what a blackboard was. They weren't invented yet. That came years later, around the turn of the nineteenth century, when a headmaster in Scotland named James Pilans got it into his head to frame a piece of slate for the school's use. The screeching old crone I was fervently dodging happened to be located in England in the year seventeen-forty-five.I didn’t belong in that time or place. I was a covert transient from the twenty-first century. I’d traveled back in time
I came to my senses by evening and called Duncan’s cell phone. No answer. So, I tried his house phone. Again, no answer. This went on for days. Thinking me disgusted and frightened by his true identity, he’d gone into hiding. It took almost two weeks for him to resurface.I used this time of separation from my lover to study and research as much as I could about vampires. I ran across a statement that stuck in my head and just kept playing over and over. God makes and loves all things and all creatures. It’s man who decides what’s evil and what’s not. It was so true. Sure, the vampires that attacked me and my group of muggers were bad, but so were the muggers. There are good and bad in all species. I knew in my heart of hearts that Duncan was good. If the truth was to be known; even if he was bad, it was too late. I’d already fallen in love with him.I felt Dunca
Isabelle's warnings were significant, but not enough to change my mind; even if Duncan was able to change hers. It took some time before Duncan managed to convince Isabelle that our plan was a bad idea. By the time he did, I'd already learned enough to do it on my own, if need be.Once my mind was made up, I took the time to study enough on the sly until I was able to work a spell to teleport myself through time without risking Isabelle by using her as my anchor. When no one suspected what I was up to, I did just that.I'd cast a spell to travel back in time far enough in advance of the attack on Duncan to allow time to find him, meet him, gain his trust, and then return to the future with him before the fateful attack could take place. I was to return no later than the day before the attack. I hadn't the skills to elongate my visit. If we missed the opening of the portal of time, I wasn't sure I'd be able to work a new spell w
I thought of Duncan. I was actually going to meet him... or the him he was... is... The situation was complicated, even for me.Duncan. I wondered what he was doing in the future. Was he searching for me? Had he even noticed I was gone? One of the things I learned from Isabelle was that there is no such thing as linear time. Man fabricated it to support the reality he chose to experience when he was placed on the planet. Many creatures other than men -such as vampires- are aware of this to some extent and can in many ways bend time. This meant that, if a person knew the way to break the barriers that split the illusion of time into linear sectors, it was possible to go back and forth with only a matter of seconds being realized by those you left behind. Therefore, even though my reality was experiencing weeks of my absence from the twenty first century, those I left behind only experienced a few minutes of time; a da
The arrival of the earl’s groom brought his request back to the forefront. I had no choice but to comply with the summons. I smoothed my hair under my cap as best I could and wiped my hands in the folds of my apron. It may seem silly, but I was meeting Duncan’s father and my natural desire was to make a good impression. Why? I couldn’t say. It just was.My mind whirled as I followed the young man up the wooden stairs of the tavern to the Earl’s room at the end of the hall. I’d never been on this floor of the inn and couldn’t help feeding my curiosity a bit. The walls were covered with flocked paper and appeared smooth and well kept. As we progressed down the hall with its well tread-upon floorboards, I noticed the doors grew further and further apart; indicating that the rooms they led to were slightly larger and intended for their more important guests. This made sense since the n