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I put it in a plastic bag at my feet and bit into a pastry. The coffee was strong and so good and as I sipped it, I thought about Beyland and his powers. Mine were growing, but I didn’t have the years he had…how could I fight such a warlock? I couldn’t. That was the problem in the proverbial nutshell. This knowledge hit me and was not welcome, but I have always believed in sizing it up and dealing with it. This was going to be one of those times.
Face it, I told myself, I had no choice. I had to face an ancient vampire bent on destroying anything Devin cared about. In her corner were two on her side. The ancient, Ramon, and an immortal warlock, so what the hell were we going to do? Even if we kept her out of MacLeod, we still had to deal with destroying her somehow, because she would never give up.
This was so not good. I eat when I get frazzled, so I consumed toast, heated up and ate a sausage, and downed another pastry.
Jeremy arrived rubbing his hands together as he headed for the coffeepot and poured himself a mug. Within moments he had whipped up eggs, toast, and sausage, and brought me a plate stacked high.
I ate it and finished before he did. He laughed.
We have become such good friends and I am comfortable with him. I couldn’t believe I was still so hungry, but I was, and I reached back for a muffin.
Jeremy stood up from the table and said, “Drop it. Not the time. I need your full attention.”
I sighed and left without the sweet-cake and heard Devin, who had just arrived at the divider, chuckling at my back. I turned and gave him the evil eye over my shoulder.
He grinned and said, “Go on, lass, take the muffin with ye. Ye’ll have it swallowed before ye even start yer chanting. Ye are very good at swallowing things whole.”
I choked on that, and laughed out loud at his naughty side. I did, however, scoop up the largest of the blueberry muffins as I followed Jeremy out of the kitchen. Devin was right, I had it nearly downed before I reached the front door Jeremy held open for me.
Jeremy gave me a quirky grin and shook his head. Devin stood apart, in another world, and I wanted to slap him, hug him, and kiss him as he watched me er…swallow the treat almost whole.
Jeremy handed me my jacket from the coatrack, as he had already donned his. I shrugged into mine on the way out.
The early Highland spring morning was chilly, slap you on your face chilly, which cast aside any sleep fog still hanging on.
We started at the courtyard parking lot, where we decided we would park the vehicles from now on. In case we needed to run, we would have a clear shot to the front entrance of the Keep.
The chanting was easy, doing it over and over was boring. Once my prepared container of blood was used up, cutting and collecting blood was not so much fun. I may be immortal, so yeah, I heal, but the continual cutting was causing some considerable pain.
Jeremy stopped me from cutting myself and took over, giving my arm a rest as we used his blood. We had so much perimeter still left to do.
We splattered blood in a circle around the estate, along the immediate grounds surrounding the east part of the castle. We had finished the entire west side the afternoon before.
It took more than an hour to install the Druid Blood Ward around the stables and pastures, which I insisted we had to do. I was worried about the horses. I could just picture vampires hurting the horses to get to us.
We then walked down to the gatehouse, as I wanted Tom, the gatekeeper, safe in his gatehouse at night.
Tom came outside and asked us what we were doing. I told him honestly, “We are warding your home against vampires.”
He eyed me for a long moment before he answered, “Aye then, carry on.”
I nearly burst out laughing but controlled myself. I am not sure whether or not he thought I was joking or dead serious.
This done, we returned to the castle and it took another hour to Blood Ward the perimeter of the actual structure of the castle, including all the entrances and lower windows. We were being very thorough.
Mrs. Tunny and Davis pulled up in one car just as we completed the Blood Ward at the front door.
We stood like two guilty teenagers, and I know I didn’t have any ready explanation for dripping blood on the flagstone porch.
They got out of the car and stopped to stare at us.
I swear, I thought Mrs. Tunny knew exactly what we were doing. She had a ‘look’ on her face that absolutely said, ‘Aha’.
She walked towards me, nodding her head with approval, and said, “Aye, and the Children of the Light had a way of keeping evil out, dinnae they? I see ye are aware of one of the gifts they gave the Druids.”
I leaned into Jeremy, who had opened the door for them to enter, and asked, “Children of the Light?”
He chuckled. “She is talking about the Fae. The Tuatha Dé Dannan. It is believed that Druid Wards were derived from the union between the Fae and the Druids who performed and still to this day, I believe, perform four ceremonies a year to maintain the wall of the Dark Realm to keep it in place and to keep the Dark Fae from escaping their prison.”
