The Highlander’s Witch Read online

  It was Skye who pulled away from her sister’s touch when her strength came rushing back.

  At that point, they both realized Skye had depleted Sarah’s strength through simple contact to replenish her own.

  It took three days before her mother’s gentle coaxing brought Skye from the seclusion of her bedroom. Even still, she wrapped her hands around her waist instead of taking her mother’s proffered hand as they went to the breakfast nook where her father and sister sat waiting.

  Her father calmly explained how various powers came with side effects. Some learned of those discoveries the hard way.

  He had assured her no harm was done and Sarah smiled as she agreed, telling her she was perfectly fine.

  Brushing tears from her face, Skye pushed those memories back and sighed. She preferred thinking of her aunt and sister’s interference much more than those last memories of her parents.

  Glancing at her father’s wedding ring that she wore around her thumb, she smiled wistfully. “I miss you, Daddy.”

  Heaving reluctantly from the recliner, Skye headed for the shower, lit the candles sitting on the counter with her fingertips, and wished she had a bathtub to climb into to take away the frustration that simmered just below the surface.

  Stepping into the hot stream, she let her head fall back and enjoyed the heated water splashing over her skin and down her back.

  For years, she’d been waiting for someone to sweep her off her feet and bring about her darkest fantasies.

  What she couldn’t understand was how the average male thought about sex every minute and she had the hardest time getting them to do it.

  Shivering under the hot water, Skye flashed back to her last date.

  When asked to go to the movies, she’d thought it was the perfect opportunity to enjoy the evening without having her sister interfere. It was also the first time she discovered she had a dark side to her powers.

  Skye ignored Sarah’s warnings about her date’s anger issues a friend had shared, dismissing them as being frivolous.

  Refusing to hear anything else her sister had to say, Skye stormed out yelling that she wasn’t going to be back until Sarah let her live her own life without interference.

  When her date had nearly raped her after dinner because she refused to “do it” in his truck, her fear had turned to rage as he forced himself on her.

  Pressing her hands pressed against his chest, she tried to shove him off.

  When her hands began to tingle and his face went white as her anger grew, she became confused. Never having used her healing powers to inflict damage before, the heart attack she caused shook her worse than the attempted rape.

  She vaguely remembered calling her sister in a state of panic as she drove his truck to the hospital and being overwhelmingly relieved when Sarah and Aunt Gladys were waiting in the emergency room when she arrived.

  Refusing to touch or be touched, Skye had no idea what they told the doctor or how they managed to get her out of the hospital, all too grateful when she climbed into the back seat of her sister’s car.

  Heading home, she curled up into a ball on the seat and ignored any attempts made to get her to talk, crawling into bed when they got home.

  When Skye finally came out of her room on the third day and entered the kitchen, there was silence as Sarah and Aunt Gladys sat around the counter, watching her.

  Calmly explaining what happened as she made toast, she finished by saying she didn’t ever wish to discuss that night again.

  That was eight months ago and Skye hadn’t gone out again.

  At least, not until her family began their recent crusade to set her up with someone.

  Gritting her teeth, she stepped out of the shower not feeling a whole lot better.

  All she wanted was incredible sex with someone who wouldn’t make her feel cheap afterwards.

  Snorting, Skye admitting it didn’t even have to be incredible. All she wanted was one time.

  One time to be able have sex before learning something that would turn her off.

  Because of her family’s meddling, Skye had remained a virgin.

  A very knowledgeable virgin because of all the books she read, but a virgin nevertheless.

  At twenty-three, it had become embarrassing.

  Pulling on flannel pajamas, Skye sighed as she wondered what to do.

  * * *

  Gladys peeked around the corner after Skye left, chuckling as she slipped into the vacated seat.

  “Well, that didn’t work out as planned.”

  Sarah looked at her aunt with a raised eyebrow.

  “Ya think?” She arranged the brownies onto a plate. “I’ve never seen her so pissed.”

  “Who?”

  Gladys and Sarah looked up guiltily as Doug sauntered in.

  He stopped and looked from one to the other. “Uh oh.”

  “Nothing.” Gladys said, not looking at him.

  “Then why do you both look like you’ve just been caught doing something illegal?” He asked as he went behind the counter and grabbed one of the sweets, placing an arm around his wife’s swollen belly.

  Sarah laughed as she leaned into her husband’s embrace and kissed him. “Not illegal.”

  Doug gave her that look that said he wasn’t buying it before he took a bite of the brownie.

  “Aunt Gladys set Skye up—”

  “With your wife’s knowledge.” Gladys chimed in.

  “On a speed dating . . . thing.” Sarah finished.

  Doug stopped the sweet in midflight of his next bite.

  “Speed dating?” He stared between the two of them. “Speed dating?”

  “Now Doug—”

  He looked at his wife incredulously.

  “You knowingly let your sister go to one of those? And didn’t try to stop this plan of hers?” He said as he pointed to her aunt.

  “Hey.” Gladys said in affront.

  “I just thought that if she had choices . . .” Sarah blushed and let the sentence die.

  Popping the rest of the brownie into his mouth, he wiped his hands.

  “Bet she loves the two of you lots now, huh?” He threw over his shoulder as he made his exit.

  “Pffft.” Gladys made a face. “What does he know?”

  “Enough. More than us.” Sarah pushed the list towards her aunt. “The kind of men she met caused her to write this.”

  “‘Speak English’. ‘Be financially secure.’” Gladys muttered through the rest of them. “What is this?”

  “That is her list of common sense things she looks for in a man.”

  Gladys looked from the list to Sarah and back again, getting that look in her eyes.

  Sarah shook her head and protected her belly. “No. Whatever it is that you are thinking, I say no.”

  “You say Skye wrote this, right?”

  Not even waiting for a reply, Gladys held the paper in her hand and walked away, talking to herself.

  Sarah rushed around the counter and stepped in front of her aunt, blocking her exit.

  “No.” she repeated to her aunt.

  The older woman looked up, confused. “No what, m’dear?”

  Sarah tried to grab the list from her hand, but Gladys was faster.

  “I don’t know, but I do know that look in your eyes and you can’t do whatever it is. Give Skye a chance to get over this latest disaster before trying something else. Please.” Sarah begged.

  Gladys’ look of determination melted under her niece’s pleading look.

  Shoulders drooping, she sighed. “Alright, we’ll give her some time.”

  “Thank you.” Sarah sighed in relief.

  Gladys’ determined look resurfaced. “But this piece of paper is going to give me a clue as to what to do next. When I come up with something, I will let you know and this time we’ll work out all the kinks.”

  Sarah reluctantly agreed. “As long as we both agree on when the time is right.”

  “I will let you know.” Gladys rep
lied with a thoughtful expression on her face.

  Sarah watched her aunt nod emphatically then huff and walk off, not seeing the gleam in the woman’s eye.

  Shaking her head, she sighed, knowing the knot in her stomach wasn’t from the child lying sleepily inside.

  * * *

  Skye looked up from the erotic novel she was reading when she heard a meowing from outside and groaned.

  Getting up, she muttered the same litany she always did when this happened.

  “I don’t understand why Miss Kitty has to howl at my door so she can come in instead of going upstairs.”

  Opening the sliding glass door, she waited for the cat to race in from the cold.

  When Miss Kitty didn’t do as expected, she looked outside and saw her sitting a couple yards away in the snow.

  Skye slid the door closed and muttered louder. “Stupid cat.”

  Stomping away only to sit down just as the meowing resumed, she growled in annoyance. “Damn pest.”

  Trying to ignore the cat was impossible with the beast’s persistent meowing, so she went back to the door and slid it open, once again without the appearance of Miss Kitty.

  She looked outside and saw her in the same spot.

  “Come on, Miss Kitty. It’s a damn basement, yanno? Heated, but still a basement.” She growled. “Get in here before I freeze to death.”

  The cat meowed.

  “Don’t just sit out there—move it!”

  The cat stood and took a hesitant step forward, glanced towards the second story, looked back at Skye, then sat down to continue to howl.

  “What the hell?”

  When Skye stepped outside, the cat turned, took a few more steps, peeked over its shoulder, and waited.

  “You have got to be kidding me.”

  Thankful for thick wool socks, she wiggled her feet into her slippers as she tucked her still damp hair into the ugly knit hat her aunt had made from the peg next to the door then went after Miss Kitty.

  Tightening her robe and swearing in Gaelic so it didn’t sound as bad, Skye cautiously approached the cat, following the path she’d dug out early to get from her room to the hot house her herbs were stored in.

  Half way there, she stumbled as her vision suddenly went blurry.

  “Faigh muin, it’s cold out here. Too cold to even see!”

  Snatching Miss Kitty up, Skye stumbled, her ears ringing.

  Shaking her head to clear it, she hurried back to the house.

  Before she got to the opened door there was a strange sound in the distance, like something crashing through the brush. Miss Kitty jumped out of her arms and into her room as Skye swung around, but her peripheral vision blackened and the noise mixed with the ringing.

  Her eyes wouldn’t stay focused and her stomach heaved as she started falling, reality hitting her.

  Chapter Two

  “Aunt Gladys!” Skye gasped as she fell to her hands and knees, the wind knocked out of her.

  Remaining still until the nausea and ringing in her ears faded away, Skye began devising ways on how she was going to get even with her aunt for utilizing whatever spell she’d cast.

  Carefully glancing up after the queasiness eased, she abruptly sat up in shock as she looked at the surrounding trees and brush lightly covered with frost.

  This looked more like a forest than her backyard.

  Skye slowly eased onto her haunches to stand, biting back the bile the motion caused as she turned slowly, taking in the tree as well as the circle of flowers and mushrooms that surrounded her. Easing her back against the trunk, she waited for her equilibrium to return fully and took stock of her surroundings, as difficult as that was in the dim lighting.

  “I k-know you have some-something to do with this Aunt Glad-d-dys.” She stuttered through her chattering teeth as the cold seeped into her bones.

  Clenching her teeth, Skye focused on a familiar sound of something running through the forest, only this time it sounded closer.

  Too close.

  Trying to see through the dimness in front of her as she clutched the robe tighter, she tried to breathe through her growing fear. She furtively glanced around and up, trying to find a place to hide.

  The sound grew increasingly louder. Something was running through the forest and heading rapidly towards her.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  Racking her brain for a spell, even though that was just as terrifying, but not nearly as much as whatever it was that headed her way—and fast.

  Too late.

  Crashing through the brush in front of her was a large cat with foam dripping from its mouth.

  A cougar!

  Not Miss Kitty, not Miss Kitty!

  “Leave, leave, leave!” She screamed as it ran right for her.

  Leaves tumbled from above and Skye whimpered. “Leave, not leafs!”

  She did what she scorned every girl for doing in a horror movie; she froze.

  Eyes wide with horror, Skye watched it gather momentum, its gaze fixed on her.

  A scream lodged in her throat as it jumped in the air, claws extended.

  Stumbling back, Skye fell against the tree, fear clogging her throat and denying her room for thought.

  A blur came from her right, slamming into the cougar.

  The cold forgotten, Skye looked as the two animals rolled, snarls and sickening crunching sounds filling her ears.

  “Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.” She whispered repeatedly as she watched in horrified fascination.

  It was over almost as fast as it began. The cat lay lifeless on its back, the jaws of a massive dog clamped around its bloodied throat.

  Disgusted by the sight, Skye still couldn’t tear her eyes away. She gasped for air as soon as she realized she had been holding her breath, one hand clutching the tree she was leaning against, the other at her throat.

  Another growl had her head snapping around and pressing back against the trunk.

  There, crouched to spring, was another huge dog with a man on horseback behind it.

  Then her peripheral vision caught more movement to her right and she slowly looked, terrified to take her eyes off the beast and man in front of her.

  Skye whimpered as another man on horseback stood where the animal that saved her from death had come from.

  Her mind was trying hard to sort through her fear and comprehend what she was seeing.

  They looked like they had come from a medieval movie about berserkers as hair streamed in tangles past their shoulders, matted beards covered their faces, and grime coated their clothes and skin.

  “Co thusa?”

  Swinging her head around when she heard the first man speak, Skye was too afraid to comprehend what was going on so she just stared; her eyes riveted on the dog as it growled menacingly.

  Facts rapidly fired through her brain.

  Big men.

  Big dirty men in leather pants with long gross hair.

  Big dirty men on large horses with huge hairy dogs that killed a cougar.

  She did what she should have done as soon as she heard the noises from the forest; she ran.

  Twisting, she took off around the tree opposite from the man on her right and away from the beasts to her left, running as fast as the darkness and her slippered feet would allow.

  She ducked branches and skirted bushes too large to leap over as the pounding of hooves grew closer.

  Too afraid to look, she kept running, her chest heaving with adrenaline and fear.

  Skye could feel the horse’s breath as it came alongside her, its smell invading her nostrils and she darted to the left.

  Oh, shit. She thought, just before a monstrous weight slammed her into a frozen puddle, her breath forced from her lungs by the figure on top of her.

  She struggled, but it didn’t take her long to figure out she wasn’t doing much of anything but getting a mouthful of icy mud as she labored to breathe, so she stopped.

  “I can’t breathe.” She rasped when he didn’t move.r />
  He lifted himself off her, grabbed a hold of her robe by the neck and hauled her up.

  He stared at her hard. “Ye be English.”

  Even though it wasn’t a question, she nodded, spitting out the mud caking her chattering teeth as she wiped the grime from her eyes, wondering where the hell she was and how she was going to get out of this.

  “What be yer name?”

  “S-s-Skye. My n-n-name is-s-s Skye.” She rasped, hacking until she could spit out the mud in her throat.

  He eyed her with distaste before hauling her bruised body over to his horse and started pulling rope from a sack.

  When she saw his intent, she forgot about the fact that her left foot was missing a slipper and tried to break free, causing him to raise an eyebrow at the futility of her attempt.

  Gritting her teeth, she watched in silence as he bound her hands together, wincing when they cut into her skin, but refusing to make a sound.

  Stiffening to control the shivers racking her body, she took in the long black hair braided on each side of his temple falling in matted waves past his broad shoulders. The heavy beard covered most of his shadowed face but she could sense the anger simmering in him. Not used to having to look up so much to a man because of her height and the heels she normally wore, she was shocked at his build. Even his loose sleeves didn’t hide his massive arms.

  She watched as he climbed onto his horse taking in the way his leg muscles bunched under his pants.

  Steroids. Had to be. No way could a man have such a body without them.

  She looked away just before he reached down and hauled her up and over his lap as if she were nothing but a grain of sand. Before she could voice her distress, he pushed down on her back to keep her in place as he turned the horse and headed back.

  Moments later, Skye found herself stewing in silence as she stood next to the huge horse testing the rope that went from her wrists to the beast’s saddle.

  Thankful the leaves had stopped falling, she concentrated hard on stopping the tremors that racked her body as the men made a pyre around the cougar. When it began to burn on its own, they constructed a litter for the injured dog, attaching it to the other man’s horse when done.

  Amazed at the size of the two men as they worked in silence, she wondering at their appearance, trying to figure out who they were and where she was.