Torment (Craving 2)

“You would need something of hers…to do that,” Jeremy said, and suddenly grinned.

“Something from Brently Manor,” I suggested. “Are you game?”

“Hell yes!”

“Bloody hell, no!” Devin ranted. “Jeremy…the place might be crawling with vampires. They will tear ye both apart. I wouldna have it. I cannae allow it. No, do ye hear me…lass, dinnae make me feel more helpless than I already feel.”

Those words got to me. I turned back to him and once again put my palm up for his. I looked into his burning blue eyes and said, “Devin, she needs to die. We need to keep her away from MacLeod and the people that work here. I am fairly certain that if we get something of hers, we can prevent her from entering MacLeod, and I have a plan.”

“A plan is it?” Devin growled. “A plan to die and break m’heart?”

“No, a plan to get in and out without one vampire getting near us,” I said.

“And how do we do that?” Jeremy asked.

“Ah, we have to find a blueprint of Brently Manor.” I was so excited and sure that this was something we could accomplish. I went towards the desk and said, “Jeremy…you might want to get some clothes on, and we’ll see what we can come up with.”

Jeremy grinned. “On it.”

I watched him leave the room but looked around and saw Devin, his face drawn in grim lines.

“Nae, lass, ye disrespect me. Ye have nae care for what I suffer when I cannae get to ye and keep ye safe. This is nae independence but foolishness. How can I convince ye to stay away from Brently Manor?”

I got up and went to the wall that divided us. “Don’t think like that, Devin. How can you say I am disrespecting you? It isn’t true. We are both individuals and at times we won’t agree, but I respect all your feelings—all your thoughts…”

“Nae, ye dinnae…cannae know,” he moaned at me.

“I do, I do know, but I have to do what I think is right, and I have taken everything you have told me into consideration. You must see what I am doing now is for you, and well, in a manner, also for us. If we can keep Allora out of the castle, we will have won a major victory. You—we aren’t at all certain that the Blood Ward will keep her out, in fact, you don’t think it will. Only one way to insure that we can keep her out of here and then fight her on our own terms is to go ahead with our plan. We need to obtain something of hers…don’t you agree? If it wasn’t me involved, isn’t that what you would do?”

He wouldn’t answer and I waited for him to compose himself. When he shook his head and growled, I realized I had not changed his mind.

“Dinnae treat me like a fool, or worse, like a child ye must sugar up to get to behave. I wouldna have it, lass. There is a fact ye are refusing to consider…and that is ye are in the direct line of fire. She knows ye to be a witch and now she wants ye dead. Ye took something she considered her own. She will come for ye with a vengeance. She must have a witch—a powerful witch doing her bidding. I can think of only one with the power to project a vampire like that. He is an immortal warlock, and he is Ramon’s man. That means the ancient, Ramon, is nae only her lover, but also working with her. I can only think of one reason a warlock of such power would do a favor for Allora, and that is because of Ramon. That is the long and the short of it. Right then, ye want to go off to her manor house and what…find something of hers? How long will that take, lass? Dinnae ye know a brush or a gown wouldna work? It has to be an artifact she has used in the past, something she claimed as her own.”

That piece of information brought me down from my high. I thought we could get into her bedroom, swipe a brush, and get out. Searching for an artifact that she had used would be time consuming and make the mission far more dangerous. It was something to consider.

“Why would Ramon want to help her?” Jeremy asked as he stepped back into the room, tucking in his blue T-shirt.

“M’guess, lad, is that she told him at some point that I am a day-walker. He might believe I hold the key, and ‘tis possible he covets that ability. ‘Tis hard to say for sure…but I think that might be at the heart of it, as far as Ramon is concerned. Aye, the little I know of him, and about him, I’m thinking ‘tis a good guess,” Devin said, and then appeared to me to be mulling it further, as he went very quiet.

I chewed my lip, anxious to find a solution and offered, “Well then, we’ll have to find a way of keeping Allora out of MacLeod while we try and free you. Also, we have to find a way to convince this Ramon vampire that he will never be a day-walker because he has drank human blood.”

Jeremy eyed me and then Devin before he said, “I don’t know about that. If he thinks we have something he wants…a formula for day-walking, well, he might be more willing to keep us alive?”

I eyed him as I played with this idea. “You make a good point.”

“Nae necessarily. Ramon has his own quirks and we cannae know for sure what his purpose is in this equation,” Devin cut in.

“Well, first things first,” I said on a long sigh and headed for the computer, “we need blueprints of Brently Manor.”

“Nae, nae, ye don’t…” Devin shouted.

Jeremy groaned and offered a compromise. “Better to have them if we can and figure out the rest afterwards, eh, Devin?”

Devin did not think so at all!

~ Two ~

I AWOKE WITH A START and realized someone was banging on my bedroom door. “What…who…” I looked at the clock. It was only six in the morning and Jeremy and I had not parted company until three. It is amazing the amount of information the internet has stored out there in space. I wasn’t tired, immortal here, we recoup our energies very quickly, but even so, I would have liked to slept on…