Not haunted, she thought, occupied. There was a difference.
“Yes, so I’d heard,” she responded, doing her best to nudge him back outside. But he seemed happy right where he was, and didn’t move. “That’s part of the reason I wanted to visit.”
“Have you noticed anything, then? Anything…out of the ordinary?” he asked, his eyes moving all the time, scanning the surroundings.
Not unless he considered a man cursed to bear the traits of a mythical beast out of the ordinary.
“No, nothing. It’s a great place, but I haven’t seen or heard any signs of otherworldly inhabitation yet.” She gave a light chuckle, trying to lighten the mood and emphasize again that there was nothing going on here that he needed to be concerned about…on her behalf, or his own.
“Well…” He scratched his chin through the thick hair of his beard. “I guess I’ll be letting you get back to your work, then. If you need anything, just let us know.”
“I will,” she said, happy that he was finally leaving. “Thank you.”
Abernethy started to turn, but before he was all the way around, he stopped, his head swinging back to stare over her right shoulder with a keen, sharp gaze.
“What was that?” he asked, his voice going cautious and alert.
“What?” she repeated, turning in the direction of his gaze, even though she was pretty sure she knew exactly what he’d seen. “I don’t see anything.”
And she didn’t. But it was possible Dougal had peered around the corner just long enough for Abernethy to spot him. Dammit.
“There’s someone back there.” Abernethy took a single, dogged step forward, his boot crunching on the dirt of the floor.
“Mr. Abernethy, there’s no one there,” she told him firmly, moving directly into his path. “I’ve been here all day, exploring, taking pictures. If anyone else had come into the castle, I would know it. I knew you were here, didn’t I?”
But her assurances didn’t sway him one bit. His gaze never faltered from the dark doorway to the underground room.
“There’s someone there,” he said, lower this time, and with a distinct edge to his tone.
Bringing the barrel of his shotgun up and positioning it for easy firing, he stalked forward.
“No.” She threw herself in front of him, shuffling back as he advanced. “Mr. Abernethy, no one’s here, and I’d appreciate it if you would leave.”
He didn’t even acknowledge that she’d spoken, but continued as though he was hunting an elusive prey.
“Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Abernethy, please.”
She pushed at his chest, pressed up against him, and used her body weight to try to halt his advance. Finally, he stopped, but it was only to raise the shotgun to his shoulder and aim it at the darkness that concealed Dougal’s presence.
“Somebody’s back there.”
Her heart was racing, her stomach twisted in knots. But before she could deny his assertions again, Dougal stepped out from the doorway to tower at her back.
She stopped breathing, waiting to see what would happen, and she knew the exact moment Abernethy saw Dougal’s reptilian gaze and the colored scales marring his face and neck.
Abernethy’s eyes widened, his mouth going slack with fear. The barrel of the gun lifted slightly so that it bypassed her and pointed straight at Dougal’s heart.
“Get out of the way,” Abernethy ordered, both his voice and his hands shaking.
“No. Mr. Abernethy, it’s not what you think. Dougal belongs here. This is his castle.”
But her words were falling on deaf ears. She could see it on his face and in the twitch of his finger on the gun’s trigger.
The rest happened so fast, her brain could barely register it all.
Dougal took a step toward her, his hands brushing her arms.
Abernethy took his actions as a threat, raised the shotgun a fraction higher, and fired.
Laura screamed, a high, drawn-out, frantic “Noooooooooo!” and tried to throw herself in front of Dougal at the same time his hold on her arms tightened and he pushed her to the side, away from danger even as he walked directly into it.
It all happened in slow motion, only speeding up again after the boom of the shotgun blast finished echoing in her ears and through the stone walls of the keep.
Pushing herself up from the ground, she immediately turned to see what had happened to Dougal. She let out another shout when she saw him—lying on the ground, motionless, a splotch of bright red spreading sickeningly across his chest.
CHAPTER 5
“NO, NO, NO,” SHE CHANTED OVER AND OVER, tears streaming down her cheeks as she huddled over Dougal’s prone body. She tore her t-shirt off and used it to staunch the flow of blood seeping from the wound in his chest. With her free hand, she brushed the hair back from his face, trying not to panic at the cool and clammy feel of his skin.
“Don’t just stand there,” she snapped at Abernethy, who had gone as pale as his beard, “go for help. Call 9-1-1 and get an ambulance up here. Hurry.”
Apparently realizing what he’d done, and as worried as she was that Dougal would die, he spun on his heel and raced from the castle.
Turning back to Dougal, she leaned even harder on his wound.
“Please don’t die,” she begged, throat clogging with emotion. “Please, Dougal, don’t die. I don’t want to live without you. I think I’m in love with you, and now that I’ve found you, I can’t lose you. I’ll stay here with you, I don’t care, just please don’t die.”
His chest heaved with a ragged breath and he stirred, lashes fluttering as he fought to open his eyes. Lines of pain bracketed his mouth, his lips white with it.
“Oh, God.” She didn’t know if his regaining consciousness was good or bad, but his blood had already soaked through the material of her shirt, covering her hand in a warm, sticky layer of red.
“Hang on, Dougal. Help is coming, just hang on.”
Though it cost him, he raised a hand to clutch her arm. “I love you, too. I waited…a hundred years for human contact…but don’t regret…a single moment…because in the end, it brought you to me.”
His voice was little more than a hitching rasp, but she heard every word as clear as day. She sucked in a breath, struggling not to break down even as her vision clouded and her heart took an unsteady dip.
Before she could respond, tell him again that she loved him desperately and didn’t want him to die, his head rolled to the side and his body went slack.
“No. No, no, no.” Pressing on his chest, she scrambled to feel for a pulse, for any indication that he was still alive, growing more and more terrified as the seconds ticked by and she couldn’t find any signs of life. She slumped forward, her head resting on his unmoving chest as she sobbed out her overwhelming grief.
He couldn’t be gone. He just couldn’t.
Only moments ago, he’d been so vital and hot to the touch with his amazing life force. Now he was still and cool.
Shuddering with misery, she took a deep, stuttering breath only to let it out again in a wave of fresh tears.
She was ready to lie down beside him and die, too, when his lips suddenly parted to suck in great gulps of air. His eyes popped open and his chest heaved, bowing his body up and off the ground.
Laura jerked back, watching him writhe in agony, gasping for breath. Her eyes widened and her own heart nearly stopped beating as the scales on his face and neck began to lighten, the colors becoming paler, the bumpy texture becoming smoother. His pupils slowly rounded from slits to a more natural, human shape.
She was too stunned to say anything, too shocked to even move. She simply sat there, legs folded beneath her, arms hanging limply at her side, mesmerized by the transformation taking place in front of her.