The Kelpie's Curse (book #1 in the Kelpie's Entrapment trilogy)

Day 7 pt. 4

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"You are a lifesaver, thank you." Renestrae said with a smile as Dageus parked his car on the side of the road outside of the de-sanctified church.

"Now Lass, ye did not expect me to let ye walk the entire way on yer own, did ye?"

Renestrae felt her entire body stiffen as her right eye twitched and her eyebrow shot up towards her hairline. She did not like the way he said that, to some the comment might have seemed harmless enough but it had her inner feminist rearing for a fight. "Let?"

Dageus smiled. "It disnae take much to ignite that temper of yers, does it Lass?"

Her anger was momentarily forgotten as a blush warmed her cheeks and forming a coherent thought suddenly seemed impossible. She glanced up at him as he leaned in close and found herself wishing that she hadn't as that possessive look entered his eyes once more. That look caused her hands to become clammy as her pulse pounded in her ears and her heart beat quickened. His lips brushed against hers and her eyes slid closed as she awkwardly kissed him back. It wasn't the first time since meeting Dageus only a week ago that she wished she had Evelyn's experience.

She was just about to give in to the sudden hormone overload she was feeling when Dageus' cellphone rang. He made an angry sound in the back of his throat as he pulled away and answered the call.

"What?"

Renestrae's eyes widened, she felt sorry for whoever was on the other end of that call because while Dageus' voice had been soft his tone was anything but friendly.

"No, don't do anything. I'll be there in a moment." He sighed heavily as he ended the call the placed the expensive looking phone back into his pocket.

"Everything alright?"

He sighed heavily as he gazed intently into her brown eyes. "Everythin' is fine, Lass, naethin' ye need tae worry about, just a minor nuisance."

She laughed lightly, "Considering all of the other things I have to worry about at the moment I'll take your word for it, I'll see you around." She turned and reached for the door handle only to be stopped the second her hand wrapped around it by Dageus' hand on her shoulder.

"Bide, Lass."

"Dageus, I would love to sit here while you attempt to distract me but you have your minor nuisance to contend with and the girls will never believe that I didn't leave the house this morning if they catch us necking in front of the driveway."

This time it was Dageus' turn to arch an eyebrow at her. "I'm certain tha' ye are too young to know tha' phrase."

"Seriously? That's the angle you want to go with? I'm also too young to know about Bela Lugosi, the movie A Night to Remember, victory rolls, how to swing dance...I would go on but then we really would be here all day."

"Ye've made yer point, Ach, a dh 'aithghearr bheir mi air ais na chaidh a ghealltainn agus chan eil dad as urrainn dhut a dhèanamh gus stad a chuir orm, Renestrae-Lass" 

"Now that's just not fair." Renestrae's brow was furrowed with her confusion. She was good with languages and tried to pick out even one word but to no avail. "What did you say?"

Dageus smiled and she had a funny feeling about it. It was one of those cocky smiles that said he knew but wasn't about to tell her. Pure and simple, it was a challenge and it spoke to the part of her that had never been able to resist such things.

"I'd be more than happy to tell ye Lass, but then I'd have to kill ye."

Renestrae laughed lightly while shaking her head and in one fluid motion she opened the car door and stepped out. "You know, Dageus if you talk like that too loudly you'll have Constable Camshron knocking down your door next."

Without giving him the chance to respond, lest he find yet another way to distract her, she shut the car door and walked down the driveway and into the house without looking back. Once inside she closed the front door and leaned against it. That was close, if that phone hadn't gone off she might have...

Oh who was she kidding, if Dageus hadn't gotten that call she would have come very close to having sex for the first time and in the most clichéd setting imaginable, she might add. Damn it, this was going to get her nowhere. Now that she knew more about the town's history, thanks to Sorcha, she should have been trying to piece together a plan of action not thinking with her lady parts. Unfortunately she doubted she had much time to contemplate this before Officer Camshron tried to bust the door down with Marcas MacNaois in tow.

Then again if she was going to go to jail then she might as well-

She cut off the thought with a shake of her head before it could fully form. No, she would not allow herself to travel down that train of thought. She hadn't done anything and as much as Constable Camshron wanted it to be otherwise there was no hard evidence against her at any of the crime scenes. In fact the only evidence the bullheaded officer had was circumstantial at best. She knew they had no case, knew that even the most underpaid, green horn, court appointed attorney would be able to get the case thrown out. Going to jail wasn't what scared her anymore.

This was a place where speaking of their legend was forbidden, a town driven by fear because of a creature that modern science claimed didn't exist. They were all paranoid and if horror and scifi novel taught her anything it was that once a group of people became paranoid it wasn't long until some innocent fool got hurt. If Sorcha was right, if that pattern continued then-

She pushed off of the door and quickly walked down the hall first to her room to take down the sign she'd left for the girls and then to the bathroom. She needed to calm down before she had another panic attack, maybe a cold shower would help her accomplish that.

A/N: If anyone would like to know exactly what Dageus said please let me know in the comments below. There is no need to try looking it up, I know a few words in Gaelic but since I'm nowhere near being fluent I've probably done a superb job butchering the language.