Chasing Shadows(34)

Jake, apparently intrigued enough by the conversation to speak up, then asked him if he’d ever considered going back. Mark’s answer was much the same as the one he’d given me when I’d asked him why he wanted the job on my farm—that he’d spent enough time as government property and wanted to be his own for a while, though his superiors had said the door was always open for him to return. However, he went on, now that he and I had met and certain mysteries had been explained to him, the chances of that were slim to none, because he had a hard time imagining being away from me for months at a time.

I woke up fully after about two hours of drifting in and out, and about that time, Diarmid and Lochlan decided they would rest until the plane landed at Galway. During the next five hours, the four of us remaining sat together at the table and watched a couple of movies to pass the time. When the second film had about half an hour left, the pilot made his announcement that we would be landing within moments. I moved to wake Lochlan, and when he was roused enough to be coherent, I asked him to make sure that he and Diarmid, when they fed, took Gail into the crew section of the plane so that the shapeshifters would be spared having to see it. He nodded and woke Diarmid, whispering my request in the older man’s ear, at which Diarmid smiled amusedly.

At long last, at around 5:40 p.m. local time, we all filed out of the plane and walked into the airport, where we then had to wait to be cleared through Customs—and I thanked God Juliette, Jake, and Mark all had passports. Due to the amount of passenger traffic, however, it was still another hour before we were out of the airport itself and inside the limo Diarmid had ordered to be waiting for us in the pick-up lane.

The six of us settled as comfortably as possible in the limo for the journey to an address on Glenavon Drive—it would take yet another hour to get there. I began to grow nervous as we traveled down R339 into Briarhill, wondering if this psychic was truly as talented as Lochlan’s contact had proclaimed her to be. I wondered if she would be willing to see us so late in the evening (Diarmid was unwilling to wait until tomorrow), if she would be able to answer our questions about Mark, and if she would see that I was the one who had written Vivian Drake’s books. If so, would she understand that blurting out that information could potentially cost me my life? So many questions, so few answers.

I really hoped some of them, at least, would be answered soon.

My nerves ratcheted up a notch when we arrived at the house where Alana O’Mara lived. Because of the ruse that this was primarily a fact-finding mission to locate Vivian Drake and her source, I was not surprised when Diarmid insisted on accompanying Mark and I into the house. Nor was I all that surprised when Juliette also insisted, as it was clear to everyone that neither she nor Jake trusted Diarmid as far as they could throw him. My father wore a bemused smile that grated even on my nerves as she instructed Jake to stay outside with Lochlan, but that she would give the usual signal if there was trouble of any kind.

“Surely you do not expect the seer to threaten Mark,” Diarmid queried as she came toward us.

“Not the seer, no,” Juliette replied blithely, waiting for Mark and I to take the lead, then following behind us a step or two ahead of Diarmid.

Mark took my hand as we made our way up the sidewalk, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “If she’s genuine, no matter what she says, I want you to know that I love you. We’ll work it out somehow,” he told me in a whisper.

My heart swelled with emotion and I nodded, and then we were on the porch and Mark was ringing the bell. A moment later the door was opened by a man in his fifties, a human, who glanced at us all with one eyebrow raised. To my surprise, he stood back to make way for us.

“My mistress is expecting you,” he said.

I wondered if Lochlan’s contact had called ahead to tell her we were coming, but I didn’t think so, for certainly he would have said he had. It was possible that they had simply been watching us from a window, but I was beginning to hope that this woman was the genuine article, as was the one who’d told me about when I would meet Mark all those years ago.

After the four of us had stepped through the door, the man I assumed was a butler of sorts closed it behind us, then proceeded to lead us down the short entry hall and then into a sitting room. Alana O’Mara sat facing the fireplace, but when she stood and faced us I gasped.

“It can’t be!”

“Saphrona?” Mark asked, his hand coming to rest on my shoulder.

Alana, who looked exactly like the psychic I had seen about a hundred and fifty years ago, smiled lightly and gestured for us to come in further.

“I have been waiting for your return, Saphrona Percy. I knew this day would come. I see you have brought company.”

I stepped tentatively closer. “But it can’t be you!” I protested in a breathless voice. “You should have died at least a hundred years ago!”

She chuckled, and her laugh sounded like the tinkling of little ceramic bells. “One might say I should have died many thousands of years ago, child. Please, do come in and sit down.”

I took a seat at last on the couch she had vacated and she sat next to me, with Mark perched behind me on the arm. Alana took my hand as Juliette stood next to Mark and Diarmid moved to sit on the loveseat opposite from me. “You have many questions,” she said.

“Well of course I do!” I exclaimed. “Ceridwen—Alana—whatever your name is… How are you still alive? I have the ability to sense the presence of supernatural beings and you don’t read as one. I feel nothing but human from you.”

She smiled again. “Ah, Ceridwen… Interesting times we lived in when I was that person. As to how I live when you sense only humanity from me, it is because of my magic—Drake magic.”

“Psychics and their sodding riddles,” Diarmid said with a sneer. “It is no small wonder why I do not employ one, as not one of you can speak clearly.”

“A seer’s words are as clear as water to those who know how to listen, Diarmiud Mac Enna,” Alana countered serenely, pronouncing his name in the original Gaelic. That she knew his name seemed to surprise him a bit, but he recovered almost instantly.

“If you really are the same person my daughter remembers, then she must have told you my name then,” he said.

“I never spoke of you,” I told him, my eyes on the woman seated next to me. “I only wanted to know when my torment would end, when I would meet the man who haunted my dreams so that I would ache for him no more.”

I squeezed the hand she had laid in mine lightly. “But what is Drake magic? I’m so confused right now that I can’t think straight—how is it that you’re alive?”

She reached up and pulled a silver chain from beneath her blouse, on which hung the largest emerald I had ever seen—it was easily the size of a golf ball—held to the chain by a clawed foot with three toes. “This is called the Dragon’s Eye,” she said. “It is placed in the care of the eldest wyvern, or female dragon.” Her eyes met mine. “My people are called the Drake, and we have a powerful magic which allows us to hide our nature from others, as long as the Eye is safe with its keeper.”

“So you’re saying you’re a…a weredragon?” Juliette asked, her doubt evident in her voice.

“As you are a dog, I am a dragon,” Alana replied simply, tucking the pendant back under her shirt. Then she looked at Mark for a moment, before returning her gaze to me.

“You have found him at last,” she said. “And you are happy? No more dreams?”

I glanced over my shoulder at Mark, realizing for the first time that she was right—I hadn’t had one dream about him since he had come into my life. To Alana I said, “No, no more dreams. And I am deliriously happy but… I do have concerns. I mean, I’ve heard conflicting stories about his kind.”

She took both of my hands in hers as she smiled, flicking her eyes toward Diarmid for a moment before she said, “I feel your turmoil, Saphrona; all your long years you have believed that which you were told as a child, that the dhunphyr are humans with unnatural long life and healing properties passed onto them by the vampyr that took the lives of their mothers. Yet now you also know that they were persecuted even in infancy for the power of their blood, which gave more to the drinker than did that of any human.”

She rose and moved to stand in front of Mark, who stood as well, giving her his hands when she reached for them. Alana closed her eyes, and the Dragon’s Eye literally began to glow beneath the cotton blouse she wore, bathing hers and Mark’s faces in a muted green light. I shifted in my seat, mesmerized by what I saw before me, and just a little concerned about what, if anything, she was doing to him.

When about a minute had passed, the light from the stone faded. Alana opened her eyes and looked at Mark, then reached for one of my hands and placed it in his. “Do not worry, child,” she said to me. “He is immortal.”

I sighed with relief and exchanged a smile with Mark, who gave my hand a triumphant little squeeze. But I still felt compelled to ask, “Is he naturally, or did you do that?”