Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels #5)(38)
Author: Catherine Bybee

She rolled over onto her back, putting space between them but not letting him go.

Gavin didn’t stir.

At the foot of the bed lay the cloak she’d worn nonstop before Gavin appeared in her life. With her foot, she removed the garment and caught it with her free hand.

Sleep, my love. Sleep.

He did.

She inched farther away from his warm frame and her pulse shot higher. The painful memory of the moment he let her go swam in her head, made her stomach turn.

Amber knew what was coming, and prayed to anyone listening that some of the impact would dissipate so she could leave him long enough…long enough to make her own choice for once in her God-forsaken life.

She’d only ever been a burden to those she cared for and wouldn’t let Gavin take her on for eternity because of his sworn oath.

With the bulk of the cloak wrapped around her, she moved to the edge of the small bed, all the while encouraging Gavin to sleep through their temporary link.

Only their fingers touched as she stared down at his sleeping form. He was the most beautiful man she’d ever met, and she would be eternally thankful for him. She hoped, prayed rather, he’d know she appreciated all he’d given her. I can’t ask any more of you.

Amber placed her arm at her mouth to stifle the pain she knew was coming…

Then she let Gavin go.

****

The image in his dream was so beautiful, majestic to the point his eyes hurt when he looked at her. She floated like an angel, with open arms as she coaxed him from sleep with the voice of a choir. Wake, Gavin…wake.

Only an equally calming voice told him to sleep. Amber. She told him to sleep and her drug was so much more potent. He needed to listen.

His dream switched, and the angel was bound, unable to speak. Only her eyes spoke, and they told him he had to act…act now.

His limbs ached as he rolled in his sleep. The bed squeaked, reminding him he wasn’t in the century of his birth. No, he was tucked next to Amber…

He reached for her.

Gavin’s eyes shot open while he sprang from the bed.

“Amber?” he said her name under his breath, at first…didn’t see her…couldn’t feel her.

“Amber?” This time he yelled. Every cell in his body woke, and every light in the room turned on. “Amber?”

He jumped from the bed, rushed to the bathroom.

She wasn’t there.

The door to the room burst open. Simon stood there, much in the same state Kincaid was…naked and on alert.

“She’s not here.” Gavin’s words filled the small room.

Simon spun in a circle and in a blink, shifted into a wolf.

He sniffed the air and bounded from the room.

Gavin ran after the wolf, up the stairs leading toward the attic. Behind him he heard others coming and only hesitated long enough to kick in the locked door to the attic and follow Simon through.

Amber was there, under a cloak, unmoving.

No. No…

Gavin grasped his head and fell on her. “No, dammit…this is not how we die.”

She didn’t move, her frame was cold and part of him bled.

“No!” He shoved the cloak from her head and stared on her pale face, her blue lips. “No.”

“No!” The scream came from behind him. Helen he thought, followed by the sound of a struggle. “Do something. Someone do something!”

Gavin stroked Amber’s still face and closed his eyes.

This isn’t right. This can’t be…

A tear fell.

He couldn’t feel her breathing and knew he was too late.

His destiny was lying in a cold heap on the floor in a dirty attic, and he could do nothing.

Amber was his destiny…

This isn’t going to happen!

Gavin grasped the bottom of the cloak covering his woman and bit at the edges until he managed to rip a strip of fabric away. With it, he grasped her cold hand, forced back desperation, and bound them together.

“From the North, to the South, in the East or in the West. Where you go I’ll follow, your light will shine my way…”

Behind him, he heard those who gathered talking, but didn’t comprehend what they said.

“It’s my love I give you, past my dying day.” The air charged with a current swirling around him, he felt the power of his bond even if the woman he was bonding himself to wasn’t aware. “Where two hearts beat, there is now but one.” He pulled the tie over their hands tighter. “This tie that binds us together shall never…ever…be undone.”

His world exploded and pain swallowed him into a vortex that stole his breath and everything went dark.

****

Blinding light emitted from the couple right before Kincaid crumbled over Amber’s still form. Simon fell on them first, his fingers moving to Amber’s neck, and then to Kincaid’s.

“Are they…”

“Nay. Their hearts still beat,” Simon told them.

Giles released a deep sigh of relief. Maybe his friend wasn’t too late. He’d heard the shout from the kitchen and scrambled up the stairs two at a time, only to see a wolf bound from Amber’s room and up the final flight to the attic of Dawson’s manor. When he witnessed his friend bending over Amber, he thought to pull him back, let him know there was nothing he could do, but then Kincaid started to chant. Giles attempted to move forward to stop his friend, but couldn’t move his feet.

Simon nudged Kincaid, but he didn’t wake. It was clear his shield wasn’t elevated in his current state, but who knew how long that would last. “We should move them,” Giles suggested, surprised he could step toward the couple now, when he couldn’t a moment before.

Giles nearly buckled under his friend’s weight as Simon followed behind him with Amber.

They placed their still bodies on the bed, Kincaid’s hand in Amber’s, and covered them.

“Why aren’t they waking up?” Helen asked between sniffles.

Simon grabbed a throw from the end of the bed and wrapped it around his waist.

“Maybe we should call a doctor,” she suggested.

“And tell them what, exactly?” Giles asked. “Drugs aren’t going to fix them.”

“Well, we have to do something. Standing here watching them breathe isn’t doing anything!” Helen voiced all of their frustrations.

Simon moved to her side and laid a hand on her shoulder.

She moved into him, buried her head in his shoulder. “We have to do something.”

Mrs. Dawson, who’d been silent, moved into the room as old women do…slowly and intently, in a way that had everyone parting the way. “Giles, m’dear, will you kindly gather the candles in the library. Helen, if you can help him, I’m sure we’ll have enough.”