Renounced: The Shelean Moon, Book Two Page 9

  “Explain we,” she said—or hoped she said. Her tongue felt thick, and her voice seemed rusty.

  He just chuckled and ignored her. “Nearly there. Now, what’s this about snake-face? Who’s that? Leira…Leira, don’t go to sleep. C’mon now, talk to me, babe.”

  Right, that’s it.

  “Not if you keep calling me babe. I’m not a babe, and if I were, I wouldn’t be yours—I’m Donn…Oh, shit.” That was something she needed to think seriously about.

  She thought Troy might pick up on her stuttering and question her. Mercifully, he didn’t. He merely pushed open a door and commented briefly. “Bet your mum would tell you to wash your mouth out now.”

  Leira felt a jerk as he shut the door behind them.

  “I can walk, you know,” she said with dignity. “I’m fine. I guess you caught me before I hit the floor.” He ignored that.

  She could see something like cobbles on the ground. As far as she knew, any cobbles that had been there in this village were long gone. Even their old school—which everyone had said was archaic—was long gone and now there was a brand new building a couple of miles away.

  “Oy.” She poked Troy in the ribs. “Where are we?”

  “Hey, don’t do that,” he protested. “I’m ticklish, and I might drop you.”

  “If you don’t tell me where we are…where we’re going, and what the he… heck is going on, I’ll more than tickle you,” Leira warned and felt his chuckle as it rumbled through his chest. “Look, please Troy.” Gah, I’ve resorted to pleading. “What’s going on?”

  “Two minutes—then you’ll know.”

  Ahh, duh. A light bulb went on in her mind. If she had her hands free, she’d hit her forehead. Of course—Shalean—he has to be. Why didn’t I guess that before? All the signs were there if only I’d bothered to look. I guess I didn’t do much of a job of keeping all things Shalea out. Dad may well have a hand in all this, and if he didn’t, luckily I’ve got my get out of jail free card.

  She decided there was no need to project to her dad yet. In all honesty, she didn’t think she was in any danger from Troy. Well not danger-danger anyway.

  Maybe melt-into-a-puddle-of-drool type danger. He’s fit. He’s not Donny, but then…Oh shit.

  Leira was disgusted with herself. She vowed to stop thinking about Donny. He was the past, and she wanted to look to the future. Somehow she wasn’t going to pay any attention to the niggle that told her she might just regret that she’d pushed him away.

  The fit man certainly moved. She felt speed and changes in temperature. Then…

  Oh, my goodness…are we flying?

  Hold on now, yeah we’re having a little flight—not for long. Lie back and enjoy.

  Yup…flying. This is screwy. What is Dad thinking of—If it is down to dad.

  All down to your dad, babe. Doesn’t it look beaut? Such lovely scenery.

  She risked a quick glance and gulped. Trees, water, mountains. Leira hoped he knew what he was doing.

  Sure do, babe. Have faith, okay? Nearly there.

  She felt them slow down. The wind decreased as they dropped lower and then a small bump as presumably Troy’s feet hit the floor. The next question on her ever-growing list was—which floor?

  “Mine.” His voice was welcome now. It was nice to have words around her and not in her. Sometimes—like now—she guessed it was a good thing he was a mind reader. She wondered what else he was. A Shalean who could read minds surely didn’t account for everything.

  Her feet touched solid ground, and she shook her head to clear it.

  “Right, take a pew, and I’ll get the lamps lit.”

  Leira got her first good look at her surroundings as the room brightened. With a start, she noticed Troy really was lighting them, not turning them on. There were oil lights, lots of them, dotted around the room.

  The room seemed cozy as the lamps flickered their mellow light over deep red walls and a thick, oatmeal-colored carpet. Long dark-green curtains covered the windows. The settee she’d been set down next to was a pale rose-colored velvet. It didn’t look like a man’s room. It reminded her of her mum’s hidey-hole, the room she went to for peace and quiet—admittance by invitation only.

  “Where are we?” She was grateful she sounded confident and in control. “Why am I here?”

  Troy looked up as he put a match to the sticks in the fireplace.

  “Your dad asked for it. Darn it, these sticks are wet. Don’t freak, okay? I need to get the fire lit.” He stretched out his hands, and Leira watched his eyes go dark.

  The flames leaped up, and she shrieked.

  Sheesh. She bit back a squeak of surprise as Troy looked up impatiently.

  “Dammit, Leira, I warned you not to freak. The sticks wouldn’t light any other way. What was I supposed to do? I’m no boy scout.”

  Really…I’d never have guessed. What you are though is scary. If you are what I think you are.

  “What do you think I am, babe?” His eyes crinkled and his mouth curved upwards. “Tell me while I make us a cuppa.”

  “I think,” she said slowly through gritted teeth, “you’re an idiot—calling me babe, showing off, teleporting or transporting me, or whatever you call it—to some unknown place, lighting a fire like that. What next, call up thunder?”

  “I will if you like,” he replied equably. “Want lightning as well, or just thunder? And do you take milk and sugar?”

  Darn it, I just know he’s laughing at me.

  “Neither, thank you—to both questions.” She aimed for dignity and maturity in her voice and was reasonably happy when she achieved it. “What I want is not to be called babe, to find out why I’m here, and for you to tell me who the hell you are. Not necessarily in that order.”

  Don’t trust him, Leira. He’s not to be trusted—trust me. You’re mine and no one else’s. Trust only me.

  Oh, for…now there’s someone else in la la land.

  “Sod off,” she said fiercely. “Oh sorry…not you,” she added hastily as Troy looked at her with a startled expression on his face. He handed her a mug. Steam rose from the contents. “Blood—er…blooming Struan snuck into my mind while I wasn’t looking. Well, you know what I mean. How can he do that? Well, how can you for that matter? I’m not supposed to have any gifts, and the pair of you are in and out of my mind like yoyos. To say nothing of some mysterious person asking—no telling—me to join them—whoever they are. He keeps putting his bit in. What’s it all about?”

  Leira, are you okay?

  “Oh, for goodness sake,” she said impatiently. “Now my dad is pushing into my mind. Hey, all of you. My mind is a no-go zone. Get it? My mind—mine. So, butt out until you’re invited.”

  She waited for the inevitable. She didn’t have to wait for long.

  Sorry, love, no can do. That was her dad. Trust Troy, he needs to be with you…

  Well, okay, maybe Dad can be allowed in here. He is my dad and more.

  He speaks the truth, babe. I need to be here. Troy was still using that revolting expression. She readied herself for Struan’s offering.

  Mine.

  Is that really the best he can do? What a wally, repetition central there. And the join us people? You’re not adding something?

  It seemed not.

  Just remember—I’m ready. Struan again.

  Well, bully for him, she thought as she turned back to Troy.

  “Okay, my dad says to trust you, so I will for now—on two conditions. Tell me what the hell is going on, and…”

  “Yeah, I know,” he finished for her in a rueful tone. “Stop calling you babe.”

  “Finally.” She knew she sounded satisfied, so she wasn’t surprised to hear Troy laugh.

  “It’s what we say at home,” he said. “We call the girls babe.”

  “Okay, but you’re not at home. You’re here, and babe so reminds me of a flipping film I watched years ago with my mum. All about a pig called Babe. Every time you say it, I have
a vision of me as a pig, and it’s so not good.” Leira grinned. “I get all guilty over the last bar of chocolate I ate.”

  “Honey…Angel…Doll?” He grinned as he offered his alternatives. “Sweetie?”

  “Shoot, no, no and…er…no, Leira will do fine—or Lei.”

  “Okay, I hear you—Lei it is. Right, I guess it’s time for explanations. Well…”

  “Hold it, stop—oh shit.”

  Lei…

  It was Donny. She felt despair, darkness and then…nothing.

  “Troy, get dad quick—there’s something wrong. I got Donny—just my name. Something bad…dark…cold…wet…oh, help.” She began to cry and shake. “Get Dad…or Bri…or someone.”

  Troy stopped speaking and took her mug from her before she spilled tea everywhere.

  “Tell me, did you get anything else?” His voice was urgent. “C’mon, Lei…tell me…we need to let your dad know. Think…please?”

  “No…nothing else. That was enough cos it felt bad…very bad.” She prayed to all their gods that her dad received Donny’s projection.

  He did—the answer was instantaneous.

  Got it. I’ll sort them. You stay there. Even more so now, I need you safe. Meeting Troy at the river was designed to help you, but evil got in the way.

  Leira tried her best but sensed nothing else. She needed to know what was going on. Why hadn’t her dad told her about Troy? For that matter, why hadn’t Brios sensed anything about it? Could she persuade Troy to take her to see what had happened? To explain things? One look at his face dissuaded her of that idea.

  “You got that as well, didn’t you? Please, who the f…er…on earth… are you?”

  Gah, I’m pleading now. Great. All I’ve done is…whinge and whine…what next—roll onto the floor and drum my heels?

  “Sorry, but I really do need to know what you’re about.”

  “Fair enough. Troy Conlan. Age nineteen. Born Melbourne, Australia. Likes swimming, surfing and traveling.”

  “And…” She knew darned well there was more.

  “Shalean. Wiccan. Witch.”

  13

  Think Shalea. Pray to Shalea. Close up, close off. Marok’s voice calmed, yet resonated power as it reached out to Donny and gave him the reassurance he needed as he felt himself rush towards the murky water. He heard Brios’s harsh breathing beside him.

  We’ve gotta have faith in Dad here—you ready for this? Think of it as the next stage of your training.

  He wished he’d known that drowning was on the agenda before he’d agreed to the position. He’d never liked having his head underwater since he’d fallen face down into a muddy puddle at six years old. He could still remember that horrible feeling as mud went up his nose.

  Too late to worry now…

  Ready—I hope.

  The car finished its last cartwheel, and the water rose closer.

  Think Shalea, close up, and close off. You’ll be within Her care. Our gods and us.

  He heard Brios echo Marok’s words to repeat their oath at the same time he did. He felt himself panic. The thought of the water covering him and not being able to get out. He felt himself…

  Floating…The car was floating? And the right way up not roof down as he’d thought. Beside him, he heard Brios try a shaky laugh.

  “Way to go, Dad. Thank our gods.”

  “Agreed,” Donny’s reply was somber. “Thank our gods. Apart from that—that was…shit…Struan?”

  “I guess…I wish we knew who he works with. It can’t be the Rogues. Hell, they think they have you.”

  The car shook.

  I need no employer. I will win—I will rule. I need no one else. Wait. You wait—my time is coming.

  “Struan,” they agreed together. The fact that he’d picked this up was a sign that their guards were down. They would have to be more careful in the future.

  Donny waited until the car stopped rocking.

  “This must be the only ditch in the area wide enough to take a car,” he remarked. “Bloody lucky, in more ways than one. If we’d been a hundred yards farther on, we’d have been stuck upside down. That doesn’t bear thinking of.”

  Brios sighed. “Nasty doings. Dad will need to do a lot of searching, I think. Right, let’s get out. I think we can even open the doors. Be ready to rush if we need to. Okay, on three— One …two…” On three, they un-clicked seatbelts, opened doors, and clambered out one to each side.

  To Donny’s amazement, the water only lapped gently under the sills of the car. He knew the ditch was deep here. There’d been a fatality a few years earlier when a drunk driver had overshot the turn and landed upside down in four feet of water, rather as Donny had anticipated they would.

  “Shalea was with us tonight,” he remarked once they had maneuvered themselves up onto opposite banks. They looked at each other across the roof of the car. It still bobbed up and down but didn’t sink. Shalea definitely was protecting them.

  Brios nodded.

  “Coming over…” He jumped nimbly onto the roof, and off again to join Donny on the bank nearest the road.

  “What now?” Donny asked as they squelched across the mud and grass to the tarmac. “No car and a fair walk home?’

  “Nah, Mum’s coming for us, and Dad will meet us at home. Just as well…you’re stopping at ours. I’ll be ready for a sleep by the time we’ve talked this over.”

  “What about my car?”

  Before Brios could answer, his mum drew up and waved impatiently. “Come on, you two, we need to get a move on” She barely waited for them to get in and belt up before she drove off again.

  “Donny, are you okay to come with us?” She changed gear, and the car sped up. “Marok will pick your dad up and bring him over as well. We think it’s needed. Simeon and Alec from the garage are on their way to retrieve the car.”

  “Leira?” He couldn’t help himself. He had to ask.

  “Safe,” Shala said briefly. “Away and safe. We need to keep her like that. I have to ask you both not to try and project or seek her. It’s to keep her safe. Your oaths?”

  “Mine to give,” Donny replied the only way he could.

  He heard Brios follow his answer with the same words.

  Shala added a heartfelt, “Thank you.”

  “She’s all right though?” he asked urgently. “Okay, you can’t tell me what happened or where she is, I get that, but I have to know. Is she all right? We got that she’d been attacked, and then the next thing I knew Bri was telling me we had to turn back.”

  “Oh, hell.” Brios sounded really remorseful. “I never had a chance to tell you anything else before we headed for the ditch, did I?”

  “She’s fine.” Shala hastened to reassure him. “We’ve got her somewhere safe while we try and sort out Struan Scott and whoever his cronies are.”

  Her tone told him more than any words. That was all she was going to say.

  He had to accept it. Shala was his elder—his Matriarch—her word only second to that of Marok. It would go against all he knew—all he believed in—to question her. Luckily, Brios didn’t have the same issues.

  “Mum, come on, give the guy a break. Leira might have blown off Shalea and Donny, but that can’t make him stop caring. What’s happening?”

  Shala turned the car into the drive.

  “Truly…I’m not sure. We think Struan has targeted Leira now that he can’t get to Rach. As she’s renounced, it makes her an easy target. What we don’t know is who he’s working for, and why they want her. We know the Rogues have also harassed her, but we think this is separate. Dad has an inkling this is more than them. It doesn’t have their feel to it at all. They don’t have the imagination or the flair for what’s happening here. He’s calling in favors, and hopefully, we’ll see what’s happening soon.”

  “Who’s got Lei?” Brios asked all the questions Donny would have if he could.

  Shala shook her head as she unlocked the front door. “C’mon, Bri, you know better th
an that. Good try though.” She laughed. “Just accept that she’s safe.”

  Donny thought Brios was ready to argue as he opened his mouth and shut it with a snap. He must have seen the determination on his mum’s face because he just sighed and shrugged as they automatically headed to the kitchen to wait for both of their fathers. Shala took a proper look at them and wrinkled her nose.

  “Showers,” she ordered. “Now, before anything else. Bri, sort clothes out for Donny. The two of you look and smell like you’ve been in a ditch. Even if the water missed you, the pong didn’t. I reckon you’ve got five minutes. Scoot.”

  When Shala spoke in that tone, no one even thought about not doing as she asked. Donny found himself in the guest bedroom’s en-suite bathroom before he realized it. He enjoyed the play of hot water on his achy body and noticed some bruises he hadn’t realized he’d collected. Judging by where they were on his body, he reckoned they came from the seatbelt. No doubt Brios would look the same.

  Reluctantly, he turned the water off and grabbed a towel to dry himself. Brios had sorted out some trackies and a sweatshirt for him, so he managed to get dressed and be downstairs just as his dad and Marok came through the front door. To his surprise, Andy was with them.

  “Hi, Dad. We’re fine, honest,” he greeted his dad, pre-empting his questions. “Sore and I’ll have some lovely bruises, but fine. Hungry, thirsty, and bloody angry…but fine.”

  “Fine?” his dad parroted. “Oh, good. Fine is not the word I’d use for either of you.” Brios had joined them, his hair still wet, and his feet bare.

  “Well, we are,” Brios added to the conversation. “Someone included their intervention for us, and saved us from a lot more than a few bruises.”

  “Food,” Shala shouted from the kitchen. “Come and get it while it’s hot.”

  There was a big pot of chili and rice on the table. The smell made Donny’s stomach rumble. He remembered just how long it had been since he’d had anything to eat. He’d been too worried to have anything before his meeting with the Rogues. Now he was more than ready.