I held my pendant and said out loud, “I don’t know what you do, but if you can just boost my magic so I can throw him off the car, it would be nice.”
The pendant began glowing and I felt its pulse. It was waiting for me to do or say something. I knew it, so I blocked out everything but my Shama and the pendant.
The next thing I knew, we were in the air. I’m talking high in the air.
I realized I had been wishing we could just fly home and be rid of the vampires, and the next thing I knew, that was what we were doing.
We could see the frustrated vampires below shaking their fists, but impotent to do anything.
Jeremy dissolved into raucous laughter before he rubbed away the smile and said, “Can you get us down?”
“Ah…I don’t know how I got us up,” I said truthfully, and closed my eyes again to wish strongly that we would land safely back down on the main road somewhere where we wouldn’t be seen by humans.
We coasted and bam, down on the main pike we were before Jeremy turned off onto the country road that would take us to MacLeod Castle.
He stopped the car and stared at me. “You didn’t know it was a Wish Hallow?”
“Didn’t know, don’t know. Have no idea what its limits are and how many wishes it will grant me. Complete mystery.”
We hit the MacLeod drive laughing, but Jeremy stopped and said, “You know, Bobbie, this is bad…the vamps chasing us…not really funny!”
We parked the SUV in the courtyard and I saw him at once. Devin!
Devin stood on the other side of the barrier that kept us apart and shouted, “Get inside! Are ye daft, Jeremy? Get her inside now!”
When I look at Devin, I can feel my heart speed up. Something happens to my brain and knees simultaneously. In the midst of the horror we had faced, were still facing, I was overcome with an emotion that was as raw as it was pure. I loved him and I knew this was going to be a problem in the future. He was a vampire and I a witch. How could that ever work?
He stood, his fists clenched, anger throbbing in waves off his body. His face was drawn with concern. I saw it then from his point of view and knew how awful and foolish this escapade had been.
What had we accomplished? Trouble. We had brought down trouble to MacLeod, and we already had so much of it to deal with, we sure didn’t need any more.
All at once, the vampires who had watched us take to the sky, appeared as they raced towards where we stood in the courtyard, as though it wasn’t pouring rain and soaking us through.
They hit the Blood Ward as a group. Sparks flew off their bodies. One of them caught on fire and the others helped put his fire out. They raged at us, but they were done for now. They turned and took off, threatening to return.
“Now what? Will they go to town to feed? Shouldn’t we try and stop them?” I asked with some concern.
“Allora always instructed her…guests to feed far from Brently. She dinnae need anyone searching the manor for what the humans might think of as a serial killer. So nae, they wouldna feed in MacLeod Village. Nae doubt they do their feeding in Inverness,” Devin said quietly.
“What we need on the job are a couple of vampire slayers,” I said on a grunt as Jeremy opened and held the front door open for me. As I went inside, I tweaked his nose. “I keep telling you I can open doors for myself.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Should I have gone through first then and let it slam in your face?”
I laughed and Mrs. Tunny arrived at that moment to say, “What were ye doing standing in the rain? Ye are dripping wet all over m’floor! Don’t move.” She ran off and returned a moment later with towe
ls for both of us and a mop.
She threw the towels at us and made some unintelligible remark as I draped a towel over my shoulder and reached for the mop. “I’ll do that, Mrs. Tunny…”
She waved me away. “Whist with ye now. Go on up and get out of yer wet clothes…go on. Ye can’t stand here freezing and dripping on m’fine wood floor.” She stared at Jeremy, and added, “Tch, tch, here I am looking to ye, Mr. Ascot, to look after m’fine lass, and ye are no smarter than she! Go on…off with ye both.”
“Mrs. Tunny, you and Davis have to spend the night,” Jeremy said. “Call whoever you have to call and tell them you are needed here and it will be too late for you to drive home.”
I stared at Jeremy. He was, of course, quite right. The vamps could hurt them on the road. How could I have been so stupid?
“What are ye saying?” she asked, regarding us doubtfully.
“We are saying it isn’t safe for you and Davis to drive off the property tonight,” Jeremy stuck in, and his tone was grim.