Time Everlastin' Book 5 (30 page)

Rap. Rap. Rap rap rap.
Rap.

"He went willingly," Lachlan
said brusquely.

Taryn shivered and drew the
quilt tighter about her. When Roan stepped behind her and wrapped
his good arm snugly around her, she gratefully accepted the warmth
his closeness offered. "I don't understand why he didn't refuse to
go back below."

"Did he say why the craiture
keeps him?"

"Because he killed Karok's
mate, Lachlan, " Taryn said. "Karok's the last of his kind and,
without this key, he's doomed to remain there,
indefinitely."

"Where else can he go?" Roan
asked.

"He wants to die. He's
wanted to since losing his mate. I know he looks and acts scary,
but he really can be very gentle. I-I thought Broc would leave if
given the chance." She sniffed back moisture. "We can't leave him
down there, Lachlan. I won't leave without him."

Lachlan pensively studied
her, the intensity of his scowl causing a chill to claw its way up
her spine.

"You love this mon?" he
asked hesitantly.

She nodded.

"You'll get over
him."

"No, Lachlan, you don't
understand—"

"I do! You were caught at
yer own game!"

"Lannie!" Roan barked. "Mind
yer tone wi' ma sister!"

Lachlan released a
disparaging grunt. The sword slipped through his fingers and
clanged to the fieldstone. He muttered curse, swept it up and
replaced it on the wall rack. When he turned back to Taryn, she was
staring at her bare feet as if spiders scurried across her
toes.

"Wha' is it?" Lachlan
asked.

Roan stepped to Lachlan's
side. "Taryn?" he prodded.

She looked up from one man
to the other, her irises strangely aglow.

"Taryn," Lachlan said
impatiently.

"I'll change and pack my
things."

"Taryn?" Roan said, concern
thickening his tone.

"You're right, Lachlan, Roan
and I need to leave."

"Wha'—" Roan clamped his
mouth shut when she ran from the room, leaving her quilt in a heap
on the floor.

The men exchanged dubious
glances. Roan tossed the quilt on the chair she had occupied, and
scratched the back of his head. "I need a bloody Scotch. And—" he
snapped, facing Lachlan, "wha' has yer testicles in a
tether?"

Lachlan grimaced and turned
to the fireplace, his hands held out to absorb its
warmth.

"Ma sister has been through
hell. She doesn’t need you houndin' her!"

"I know," Lachlan said, and
released a woeful breath. "I canna think beyond the fact tha' Blue
and Reith are bein' held by tha' craiture." He turned his head and
stared into Roan's troubled gaze. "I'll make amends wi' Taryn. Take
her home, Roan. I'll return once I have freed our
friends."

"And if you
can't?"

Lachlan scowled into the
hearth's flames. "No' the devil, himself, will stop me from findin'
them. This I vow."

* * *

Vibrations,
Taryn thought for the hundredth time. She tied up
her black sneakers, finishing her apparel, and rose from the edge
of her bed.
I was sitting on a rock and my
pager went off. I remember feeling it vibrate through my pack and
through the rock. And...and the ground opened right
after.

She paced in a tight
circle.

It was Broc's sword I heard
striking stone before he rode out of the realm. I know I'm right.
Vibrations open the portal!

"I need to talk to Broc
without Roan and Lachlan's testosterone interfering."

Her pacing ceased as images
of Broc and Karok in the gargoyle's chamber, played across her
mindscreen.

Why the cruelty, Broc? Was
your intention to make it easier for me to leave you? But why tell
Karok you couldn't love me, when supposedly...it was what Karok
wanted before separating us?

Pain stabbed at her
temples.

You must have sensed what
was happening above ground. Before that, would you have killed me
to spite Karok?

I have to know if you love
me. If in fact you used me, it will be far less painful than living
with insidious doubts.

"Now...what to use to
activate the opening," she murmured.

Ten minutes later, she
slipped out the kitchen door and into the night, a saucepan in
hand.

* * *

Lachlan's skin twitched as
he scanned the empty, silent room, the broadsword once again
clutched in his right hand.

How long has Roan been gone?
Leave it to a womon to make packin’ a few items a major
production!

He skillfully twirled the
sword above his head in a fluid, graceful motion, and lowered it to
his side. If, and if was a stretch even for his imagination, this
Broc was in fact the original, the gargoyle's domain was probably
more of a home than the outer world. Lachlan's first impression of
him was that he was a savage. An unprincipled, unrestrainable
barbarian, despite the fact he had come to Lachlan and Roan's
rescue.

Or had it just been
fortuitous timin’?

Lachlan wearily massaged the
stiff muscles at his nape. Once Roan and Taryn were away, Lachlan
could better formulate a plan. He had to do something soon. He
couldn't leave the MacLachlans in the basement
indefinitely—although the idea did appeal to him.

The police couldn't be
brought in. Even if they believed his story, Lachlan's conscience
couldn't justify endangering the craiture or the man. Not yet. All
that mattered was getting Reith and Blue back. If they were harmed
in any way during their stay in the underworld, Lachlan's wrath
would exact justice.

"Lannie!" Roan ran into the
room. Panting, he stooped to get his second wind. "She's nowhere in
the house!"

"Taryn?"

Roan straightened, his face
flushed. "I think she went back to the stones."

"Fegs," Lachlan growled, and
stalked from the room, Roan in his wake.

They left the house, greeted
by an icy curtain of rain.

"Wha' if she went below?"
Roan shouted.

"We'll find her."

* * *

Broc languidly entered
Karok’s chamber, weary beyond endurance. The gargoyle was crouched
before the shrine he had engraved for his mate, soothing gurgling
sounds denoting a prayer for his beloved. Broc shook his head, and
dragged his heavy legs across the room to where two figures slept
on beds of leaves and dried water grass. The innocence and stark
beauty of the couple caused his heart to swell. He knelt and
reverently bowed his head.

"Wake in good health," he
whispered, and forced his aching muscles to lift him to his
feet.

He was physically and
mentally drained, a man condemned, as was Karok, to live with
unbearable loneliness. Karok would release the young couple when
they awakened, as he would the other, and more
decades—centuries—would pass, man and beast left to rely on each to
ward off insanity.

At Karok’s side, he bowed
his head to the shrine. Only now did he understand the gargoyle's
loss. The gargoyle's torment.

Sensing his mood, Karok
offered a soft, liquid-sounding chitter.

"I deserve no' yer
sympathy," he said, his voice lifeless. "Ye knew, didna
ye?"

The gargoyle's head
swiveled, and his luminescent eyes locked with Broc's.

"Aye, ye knew," Broc said,
disheartened, and his chest heaved on a sigh. "The first...I did
love her, but it wasna wha' I felt wi' Taryn."

A shudder coursed through
him.

"I went a wee mad when ye
let it known ye wanted her to remain. I couldna ask her to
stay...no' when there is a vast world ou' there able to give her
far mair happiness than I ever could."

Broc lowered his head
shamefully. "I tried no' to love her. As Gawd be ma witness...I did
try. And ye know I canna risk faitherin' a child, no' wi' the curse
wha' be on ma shoulders."

Karok offered a crooning
gurgle.

"No." He looked up and
scanned the gargoyle's harsh-planed features. "She be better off in
her world."

"Where do men get off
thinking they know what is best for a woman?"

At the first sound of the
feminine voice, Broc couldn't move. By the time her chiding ceased,
he whirled to find Taryn poised at the threshold, her chin lifted
in defiance.

"I figured out how to
activate the stone." She wagged the saucepan, tossed it aside, and
strolled toward him. Within arm's reach, she stopped and folded her
arms against her chest. "Are Reith and Blue okay?"

"The young ones?" Broc
managed, glancing at the prone couple.

She nodded.

"Sleepin' off the
drugs."

Taryn nodded
again.

"I didna feel the portal
openin'," he said, rattled.

"Maybe yer mind was
elsewhere," she said airily.

"Why..." Broc drew in a
breath to rally his wits. "...did ye return?"

"You know why."

"Mayhaps I need to hear the
words."

"I love you," she said
simply. Despite her control, tears brimmed her eyes. "I don't love
easily, Broc. It would take a helluva lot more than a slab to keep
me away."

"Taryn...."

"Do you love me?" she asked
boldly.

"There's somethin' ye should
know—"

Her finger to his lips
stopped him. "I know all I need to, Broc. I love you. Nothing else
matters."

Broc pulled her into his
arms and his mouth hungrily captured hers.

Karok watched the passionate
exchanged for a time before he scratched his brow with an isolated
talon and lumbered off into the shadowed recesses across the
room.

"Do I love ye?" Broc laughed
against her lips. "Gawd, womon, wi' ma heart and soul! I dinna want
to take away the life ye deserve!"

"What life, without you?"
she said achingly, and framed his face with trembling
hands.

His kissed her, quaking with
joy.

"Come with me to explain to
my brother—"

"He'll no'
understand."

"He will! Maybe he and
Lachlan can help us figure out what the key is Karok
needs."

"How?"

"Lachlan has a gift...a way
of
knowing
things."

"He has the knowin'?" Broc
asked, his voice inordinately deep.

"Yes. He knew I would find
you here!"

Broc jiggled his head to
clear his mind. "He knew I was here?"

"Yes—well, he knew someone
was here at the stones. Not exactly under them, though. He warned
me not to provoke you."

He laughed unsteadily. "And
ye minded him weel."

She smiled sheepishly. "How
was I to know? Look, Broc, Roan and Lachlan are good men. Let them
help us." When she read wariness in his eyes, she planted a
featherlike kiss on the tip of his nose. "Please?"

Broc moaned in resignation.
"Gawd knows I canna unravel the mystery. But Taryn, yer brither
and...Lachlan...willna willingly let ye remain wi' me."

An impish glow on her face,
Taryn slid her palms down the muscular contours of his chest. "If a
certain barbarian couldn't—"

"Aye!" he laughed, and
wrapped his arms around her, molding her to him. Brushing his cheek
across the top of her head, he added, "I canna imagine anyone
stoppin' ye from havin' yer way."

"C'mon," she said, squirmed
from his embrace and entwined the fingers of a hand through his.
She gave him a tug to follow. "The sooner we unravel the key
business, the sooner...." Her voice trailed off when she noticed
him staring at the couple on the beds.

"Blue and Reith," she said
with a smile. "They're very special to the people at Baird
House."

"Baird House?"

"Lachlan's estate. Well...it
was. He turned it over to my brother. Lachlan and Beth are planning
to move to the States."

"Where?"

"The United States. They
have twins. A boy and a girl."

"How old?" Broc
murmured.

"About seven months now.
Why?"

He shrugged. "Curious." He
glanced at the sleeping couple. "They have a compellin' beauty
abou' them, but wha' makes them so special?"

"Blue is the queen of
Faerie."

"Faerie?"

Taryn nodded. "It's a fairy
kingdom on Lachlan's estate. They're married, but estranged. I
don't know why. I've heard Reith referred to as 'prince' and
'king.'"

"Fairies," Broc murmured,
and it was then Taryn noticed a shadow of anger pass across his
eyes. It left her with an uneasy feeling.

"Broc, what's
wrong?"

"Ye know
these...
fairies,
do
ye?" he asked in a guarded tone.