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Alan Mac’s eyes widened as understanding dawned “Ah,” he said.
Liam headed for the road.
“Where are ye going?” Alan Mac hurried to keep up.
“I have to talk to her.”
“What? No!” Alan Mac laid his hand on Liam’s arm, then quickly snatched it back when Liam paused, looked at the man’s hand, then into his face. “If ye just … disappear she’ll leave.”
“I doubt that,” Liam said, though maybe the constable was right. Regardless, he could not let Kris go without at least trying to explain. He owed her that.
“Ye cannae tell her.”
Liam could do anything that he wished. He was the Uilebheist. Once people had treated him like a god. Sometimes, they still did.
“Dinnae worry about Kris,” Liam said. “Worry about whoever is killing women and trying to blame me. If we dinnae stop that, we’ll soon have another visit from Mandenauer or one of his minions. Perhaps this time they might even know how to kill me.”
Liam’s heart lightened. He’d been hoping someone would discover that for centuries.
CHAPTER 25
After yet another long, hot shower, fresh, dry clothes, and a pot of coffee, Kris opened her computer. She spent hours fighting with the Internet, which seemed determined to waver in and out and keep her from uncovering any information about the kelpie of Loch Ness.
In the end she found little more than what her brother had already told her. She had to wonder if someone—a guardian?—had erased all traces of the tale.
To the majority of the world—those who weren’t Jäger-Suchers, “secret” Interpol consultants, or nut jobs—legends were merely that. Tall tales believed by superstitious ancients. Legends weren’t true; the creatures described in them weren’t real. They were the fairy tales her mother had read, kept alive for fun and the occasional Disney movie.
So why the great purge?
Eyes burning, Kris laid her head on the back of the couch. Next thing she knew, the room was dark and someone was knocking on the door.
Figuring the caller was her brother, or Alan Mac with more stupid questions, she hit the lights and stumbled across the floor, rubbing her eyes with one hand, pulling the door open with the other. Then she stood there with her arm frozen in the air next to her face.
Liam’s hair was wet. Now she knew why. She still couldn’t move or speak or think straight.
“Can I come in?”
She should slam the door, scream, shoot him with silver.
No! The thought horrified her—because she didn’t want to kill anyone, anything? Or because silver didn’t appear to have any effect on him at all?
“Please,” he murmured. “I’ll tell ye everything.”
Kris stepped back and let him walk through the door.
A waft of cool air followed; it smelled like rain on green trees, the moon in the middle of the night, and she yearned.
Annoyed with that yearning—he’d lied to her all along; he wasn’t even human, talk about a date from hell—Kris gave in to the urge to slam the door. She expected the sharp clack to make him start, but it didn’t.
Why would it? He had nothing to fear. He was an indestructible lake monster.
Kris laughed, though the sound that came from her mouth was more of a waterlogged sob. Liam glanced at her, concerned, even took one step toward her, and she amazingly took one step toward him before she could stop herself.
What was it about the man that made him so hard to resist?
The thought that had nagged at the edge of her brain earlier tumbled free, and Kris lifted her hands to her temples and pushed. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make the realization go away.
“I didn’t understand why I felt like I did about you,” she murmured. “Why I kissed you the first time I saw you. Why I wanted you so badly, when that’s not like me. I don’t trust anyone that fast.” She laughed and now it was bitter; she was bitter. “You seduced me. It’s what you do, what you are.”
