Page 30 of Draped in Plaid
Chapter Nine
Moira
“Oh, dear God…” The words fell from my lips as they had that morning when the devil came to visit for the first time.
I started to shiver. He’d had another woman with him. She was gone now. I didn’t know where. But what he’d done to her…had not been pleasant. Her screams still echoed off the walls of my mind. The whole time he’d worked on her, he’d leered at me, taunted me, let me know that I was soon to be next. My mind had curled in on itself, shutting them out, and only when my sister had called out my name, pulled me into her arms had the screams stopped.
“We have to get away from him,” I whispered to Shona. “Now. This man is dangerous. His powers… Their swords won’t work…”
Behind the crazy loon, who called himself a scientist, was a line of a dozen guards. The man snapped his fingers, keeping his gaze on us. The guards pulled something from their hip satchels—strange leather masks with metal venting—and placed them over their mouths. Everything was so much more futuristic than this time period allowed. Who was this man? Where had he come from? When we’d been introduced to the time keys and time jumpers, and the evil wretches who manipulated the portals, never had I thought we’d find someone like him.
I closed my eyes and clutched to Rory’s back. His notable scent, the memorable muscles beneath his shirt, the habitual way his hair crept free of the queue he’d tied it in, brought on a rush of familiarity, normalcy that steadied my breath. But at the same time, I knew the truth. “We’re all doomed.”
The scientist laughed cruelly, clapping his hands. “Ah, sweet, sweet, Moira. So, it seems after our discussion this morning, you are now agreeable to my plans. And, you’ve have brought me specimens. What a good lass you are.”
I started to shake. I was not agreeable. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I barely remembered his visit. Had purposefully left my body on the table and let my mind wonder somewhere else. “Rory… I… I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
Reaching behind him, Rory squeezed my fingers where they lay at the base of his spine. “Let us go,” Rory said the loon. “There does not need to be a battle. Fight us and ye and your men will die.”
The man let out a snort. “Oh, you silly, silly, savage. You’ve no idea who you’re dealing with, which is actually sort of endearing. Too bad we cannot tarry. Besides, I paid for your wife fair and square.”
“We will double it,” Logan interrupted. “Let us go and ye shall have more money than ye’ll ever need.”
The man cocked his head, looking Logan over, a smile spreading over his thin lips. “Money is not what I want.”
“Then what is it ye seek?”
“Specimens.” With his arms spread out wide, he tilted forward a little on his heals, as though his excitement was overwhelming.
“Specimens?” Rory asked. “I’ll not allow ye to torture any of us.”
The man snapped his gaze back to Rory. “Ah, but you see, that is where you are wrong. I’ll do whatever I damn well please with the lot of you.” He snapped his fingers and a jar was placed in his hands by one of the masked guards.
“Don’t breathe it in,” I warned, recalling how a similar jar had been opened in front of the woman’s face this man hard tortured earlier. “’Tis poison.”
“Tsk tsk, Moira, ’tis not poison,” the loon said, tugging on his own mask, settling the straps over his ears and tying it tight behind his head. “Only a little hallucinogenic.”
“Don’t breathe it in,” I cautioned, my voice louder this time.
At the same moment, Rory, Ewan and Logan charged the guards, swinging their massive claymores in impressive arcs. The way they fought, with such ferocity was impressive, mind boggling. ’Twas still a mystery to me this day how they were ever defeated by the English at Culloden in 1746. Our passion, strength, sheer force of will, were all superior to the English.
Maybe the English had used this scientist to help them. To poison the brave men of Scotland.
I grabbed onto Shona and Emma and tried to run around the fray toward the exit door, but none of us got very far.
The madman opened his jar and threw the contents into the air, forming a red cloud over our heads that slowly fell like a fine mist at dawn on a summer day.
“Hold your breath!” I called behind the barrier of my hands at my face. But above the fighting, no one could hear me.
One by one, Ewan, Logan and my Rory fell to the floor. Shona and Emma gasped, that quick drawn in breath enough to give them a good dose. Still covering my mouth, not breathing, I tried to hold out. Tried to wait until the red dust disappeared. But, at last, when I could no longer hold the breath in my lungs, I let go. One breath was all it took. My knees weakened and I felt myself going down, watched it really as though I were out of my own body.
The scientist leaned over me, and then knelt beside me on the floor. Long, bony fingers stroked my face, and I tried to move away, visions of him doubling then tripling before my eyes.
He was laughing, but in a slow motion, echoing kind of way. Whatever it was he was saying, I couldn’t understand.
I tried to keep my eyes open, but they kept dipping closed.
And then, the entire world went black.
