Watcher: A raven paranormal romance (Crookshollow ravens Book 1) (18 page)

I inched closer to the window, flattening my body against the ground as much as possible, trying to stay in the shadows. The pain flared through my wing, pulling at me, trying to drag me back to my master. It was getting worse, the pull so intense at times that I inched backward toward the castle, before catching myself. I only had a day or so left before it overran me completely.

Don’t think about the pain
, I admonished myself.
Concentrate.
The vault walls were thick, but I had the hearing of a predator. Even so, I could only catch snatches of the conversation.

“Cole, be careful!” Byron hissed, jumping back from the window. “You’re getting too close.”

“... the Bran’s alive … Mikael helping … take care of …”

Mikael.

I don’t know how they knew, but they’d found out I was still alive. And if they were talking about Mikael, they must have known he had helped me hide from Morchard. They might assume Mikael knew more about my disappearance then he really did. They would try to get information about me out of him, and their methods would not be pleasant.

My chest tightened with fear. I had to warn Mikael as soon as possible. Not even his master would be able to protect him from Gillespie’s wrath.

“... did you see something move … window …”

Shit.
I peered through the grimy glass. Rudolpho got to his feet, grabbing the pistol and ascending. A moment later he emerged around the edge of the church, his head darting from side to side as he searched among the graves for trespassers.

“Cole, get out of there. Fuck!” Byron screamed. He took off, soaring across the cemetery, heading for the thick cover of the forest that bordered the churchyard.

Byron, you idiot.

Rudolpho turned toward the noise, and saw the crow flying toward the trees. “Fuck!” He cried. “Leonard, come quick. One of the fuckers has been spying on us.”

I heard footsteps as Leonard raced up the stone steps of the tomb and joined his brother in the grass. They darted between the stones, heading toward the edge of the forest. Rudolpho gestured to the tops of the trees, pointing out where he’d seen Byron enter the trees.

I crouched low, hiding as close to the shadowy church as I could, waiting for my chance. They were too busy looking in the trees to think about the window. As soon as the two men ran past my hiding spot, I unfurled my wings and took off, my heart pounding. I headed for the trees as fast as I could.

“There’s another one. Get it!”

A shot rang out behind me. I squawked in terror, certain at any moment I’d feel the bullet biting into my skin. But I kept on flying, my injured leg twinging as I wrenched my body sideways. They had missed. Wind rushed through my feathers. I’d never flown this fast in my life. I cleared the treeline just as a second shot rang out.

The darkness closed around me, and I had to weave and dodge to avoid the branches crisscrossing in front of my path. Beady eyes regarded me from the gloom – the nocturnal birds watching me delve deeper into their territory. Anything to get away from Gillespie’s servants and their gun.

Byron, where are you?

I heard wings flapping to my right. I looked down, and was relieved to see Byron flying along beneath me, his black body swooping gracefully, completely unscathed.

“That was close,” he said.

“Too close.” I replied, narrowly missing a large branch. This was the longest I’d flown on my injured leg, and it was really starting to give me trouble. “You’re an idiot. If you hadn’t have flown up when you did, they wouldn’t have seen us. They will guess it was me spying on them.

Probably. But it’s too late, Cole. You heard those two idiots talking; they know you’re alive. What are we going to do now?”

We exited the forest and flew toward Crookshollow. There was no one, or no thing, following us. As we flew through the town centre, I glanced down at the clock on the top of the Halt Institute building. It read 3:06am.
“I have to get back to the house,” I said. “Belinda’s going to be getting up and opening the bakery soon. I need to be there when she wakes up. As soon as they’ve left the house, I’ll go and warn Mikael.”

“It’s too dangerous. They’ll be expecting one of us to go to Mikael. They’ll ambush us. I’ll go.”

“No, Byron. You need to go back to Morchard before he misses you. Right now they don’t know you’re involved, and we need to keep it that was as long as possible. This is my mess, and I won’t get you killed for it.”

“You know, for an annoying brat of a brother, you’re actually alright.”

“Thank you for that heartfelt compliment.” I swooped in low as we turned on to Holly Avenue. The iron gates of Raynard Hall towered over the street, and I knew that behind them was Belinda, tucked up safe in bed, certain I was sleeping beside her. “Now get out of here.”

“I have nowhere to go, remember?”
Byron growled.
“Thanks to you.”

“Fine. Wait here. Just give me twenty minutes to say goodbye to Belinda and make sure everything’s organised with Ryan, and then I’ll be back.”

“Don’t worry,” Byron called after me. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I sighed. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

I
woke
up to the sound of my alarm ringing. I reached across to the stack of books to shut it up, but my hand grazed only rich silk sheets. I fumbled around in the dark, searching for the edge of the bed, but instead of my makeshift bedside cabinet, there was a
real
cabinet, made of some kind of hardwood, holding a designer lamp and an iPod speaker.

I rubbed my eyes, and realisation dawned on me. I remembered now. I wasn’t in my dingy flat at all. I was in a guest room at Raynard Hall that was more opulent than any hotel I’d ever stayed in, and I’d spent the night with Cole.

Cole …

I rolled over, but his side of the bed was empty. The sheets felt cold, and on the edge of the bed I found two small, black feathers. I crawled across the sheets and pushed on the window above his side of the bed. It swung open easily.
Odd.
I distinctly remembered locking all the windows last night, while Cole was in the shower. I didn’t want anything unsavoury to fly in.

Cole hadn’t been in bed for some time, and wherever he’d gone, he’d done so in his raven form. But what had happened? Why had he left?

I squeezed my eyes shut. Was it me? Did last night not mean to him what it did to me?

I heard a knock at the door. I pulled the blankets up over my body. “You can come in,” I called out. “But in the interests of full disclosure, I’m not wearing pants.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

My heart pounded with joy at the sound of Cole’s husky voice. He wasn’t gone after all. He entered the room backwards, the bottom half of his body wrapped in a towel. I could just make out the wing of one of his raven tats swooping down his lower back. In his hands he carried a tray.

“Simon left this outside the door,” he said, as he set it down over my lap. I peered over the tray. It contained toast and eggs, sausages, bacon, mushrooms, a glass of orange juice, and a plate containing two of the lemon tarts from last night. There was a folded note next to them. I opened it up – it was the recipe.

“I want a butler so bad,” I grinned, as I pulled the tray toward me.

I usually wasn’t that hungry when I first woke up, but the smell of bacon and eggs overwhelmed me. I scarfed down the whole plate like I hadn’t eaten in years.

“We’d better hurry if you want to get to the bakery in time.” Cole glanced at my phone, then started to pull on his pants.

“Cole, did you go somewhere last night?” I asked.

“No, why?”

“There are some black feathers on your side of the bed.”

“Really?” Cole glanced down at where I pointed. He picked up the two feathers and tossed them into a nearby rubbish bin. “Sometimes I shift during my sleep. It can be a bit hard to control, especially when you’re unconscious. I bet that’s what happened here.”

“Oh, OK.” That made sense. I let out a breath I didn’t realise I was holding. It was fine. Cole wasn’t lying to me. I set the tray aside and started to pull on some clothes. “I won’t see you at the bakery today?”

He shook his head. “It’s not safe. I’ll hide out here, do some research into rogue Bran, see if I can find something useful in Ryan’s enormous library, in case his plan doesn’t work. Ryan and Alex are going to help you. They’ll be watching out for you if anything happens or anyone shows up who shouldn’t. Remember, don’t wander away, and don’t speak about Morchard or Gillespie to anyone. Can you do that?”

I nodded vigorously. “Of course.”

“Good girl.” He kissed me, his tongue running over mine. “Mmmm, much as I’d like this to continue, you really have to go.”

I let the kiss linger for a few more moments, then pulled some clothes on dashed downstairs. I wished we could stay in bed all day, having more of that incredible sex, but it was more important to keep Cole safe. Alex and Ryan were already waiting in the cavernous entrance hall. Alex had a giant coffee thermos and a look of utter despair. “I hate you,” she grumbled as I swung down the stairs. “There is no logical reason to get up this early.”

“There is if you have loaves to raise,” I grinned. Miss Havisham strutted into the entrance hall, greeting us with a wide yawn and a stretch of her lithe body.

“I’ve left instructions with Simon to contact Gillespie and set up the meeting,” Ryan told Cole. “You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

Cole looked over at me, his eyes intense. “I have many things to worry about right now.” He said.

“I won’t take my eyes off her.”

“Thank you.” Cole shook Ryan’s hand warmly.

Cole swept me into his arms and gave me one last, lingering kiss. Then he helped me into Alex’s car, shutting the door behind me. We turned in the drive and I watched from the back window as Cole’s figure grew smaller and smaller, until he was invisible against the dark sky.

Stay safe, my raven boy.

It was only when we were speeding along the high street toward the bakery that I realised I’d forgotten to ask Cole about the window.

* * *

“
A
re
you sure Cole’s going to be OK by himself?” I asked Ryan as I unlocked the store.

Ryan nodded, a strand of his red hair falling over one eye. Now that I knew he was a shifter, I was noticing him a lot more. He was beautiful, his face strong, his lips full and kissable, his eyes penetrating. A line of stubble ran along the edge of his jaw, and with his red hair all tousled, he channelled the spirit of his cunning fox alter ago. I wondered if it was part of the appeal of shifters, the way they looked a little wild, a little dangerous. “He can look after himself, I’m sure. Cole is a smart guy, if a little headstrong.”

“A little?” I laughed, as I managed to twist the door open. “Here we are. Cole and I did a lot of the prep last night, so there’s not really too much to do. We’ve got to get the loaves in the oven and ice the Chelsea buns and—”

The door slammed against the wall with a heavy thud. I stood in gape-mouthed horror as I surveyed the scene in front of me. Tears sprung to my eyes when I saw what had been done.

The store had been completely trashed. The tables and chairs were overturned, many of them had been broken in two, the legs in splinters, utterly irreparable. The glass display counter had been smashed, all the shelves broken, and the cakes inside thrown against the walls. They’d pushed the coffee machine from the counter, and it lay in a mangled heap on top of a pile of smashed crockery. I could see that every item on the kitchen shelves had been swept on to the floor, and the doors of the oven torn off and bent in the middle. And in a final act of vicious hatred, someone had opened all the milk and cream cartons from the fridge and overturned them, so the whole place was covered in a sticky, milky film that was already beginning to smell.

No.

Chairman Meow sat on the counter, licking up a puddle of milk as it leaked from one of the overturned cartons. He looked up and gave me a pitiful meow, as if to say, “I didn’t do this! I’m just making hay while the sun shines.”

“Belinda …” Alex’s voice caught in her throat.

Oh, no.

I blinked once, twice. I hoped dimly that I was dreaming, that this was some horrible nightmare, and soon I would wake up in the big, soft bed in Raynard Hall, with Cole’s strong arms around me, the scent of him still clinging to my skin. But when I opened my eyes again, there was no Cole, no soft bed, no lovely modern bedroom. There was only the ruins of my beautiful bakery.

The nightmare was real.

I took a step into the room, my heart plunging down to my feet as I kicked aside splinters of tables and chairs. They were only good for firewood now. I could make a bonfire of my hopes and dreams. And as I picked up Chairman Meow off the counter and held him to my chest, I realised with a hard feeling in my heart that I knew who had done this.

“Ethan,” I whispered, the tears spilling down my cheeks. He’d done this, I knew he had. There wasn’t anyone else who could possibly have hated me this much. I thought back to the other day when I thought I’d seen him on the street. I’d chalked it up to my mind playing tricks on me, but I was wrong. It had been real. Ethan had returned to take the last piece of my life from me.

“I don’t think it was your ex.” Ryan stepped forward, and from the debris he picked out a large, black feather. “This belongs to a Bran.”

“But who? And why?” I sniffed, burying my cheek into Alex’s shoulder. Staring at that long black feather made me feel sick. If it wasn’t Ethan, than what had happened here?

“My guess is it’s one of Morchard’s servants. They must have found Cole here, and decided to pay him a visit. You’re lucky you weren’t here last night.” Ryan held up the feather, turning it around in the light. “This was left here deliberately. It’s a message.”

“What does it mean?” Alex asked.

“It means, ‘Stay away from Cole, or else.’”