This might not be the place of my heart, but it was the land of my ancestors. Standing here in the night and the cold, feeling the grass and the soil under the worn heels of my Nikes, hearing the lap of wind-stirred water against unseen shores, sent a huge wave of rightness and belonging through me.
I might not have been raised here, but sea dragons had used this area as a refuge long before humans had come to claim the lands for their own. We were a part of the very foundation of this place, and it a part of us. And no matter how much I loved my home in West Lubec, there was no escaping the power of this place.
No escaping the simple joy of merely standing here.
Lights swept across the night, twin points of brightness that pinned me where I stood. Trae climbed out of the car and walked around to stand beside me, wrapping one arm across my shoulders and pulling me close to him. The warmth of his body battered away the chill of the night.
I raised a hand to protect my eyes from the lights, and watched the car approach. It pulled to a halt a few yards from where I stood, and an older-looking lady climbed out.
“Oh dear, you’d be Trae and Des Jones, then?” she said, looking us up and down. “I wasn’t expecting a couple.”
Trae had obviously given her a false surname, meaning he was a whole lot smarter than I’d been when I’d first come here. “Is that a problem, Mrs. Molloy?”
“Oh, no. It’s just that I’ve given you the bigger cottage, the one with several bedrooms. It’s a bit more expensive, though.”
Trae gave her a smile that brought heat to her cheeks, and said, “That’ll actually work out well, because we’ve some friends who were thinking of coming over from England to join us.”
“Ah, good then. And it’s nice and quiet out in these parts. Except when the trucks go past on the A82.”She fetched a silver key from her pocket and bustled toward the door. “You two here for a bit of monster-spotting, then?”
“Not really,” Trae answered, his glance at me full of amusement. “But we’re told we can’t tour Scotland without at least having a look at Nessie’s loch.”
“Well, there haven’t been many sightings of her since those damn scientists moved in up there.” She waved a straightened finger toward the hills of my mother’s lands.
I raised an eyebrow, feigning surprise. “Scientists?”
“They’ve been here for years. Don’t know why—they debunk the monster myth every chance they get.” She sniffed and pushed open the door. “Hasn’t harmed tourism, but I’ll be glad when they leave, all the same.”
My heart just about stopped. “They’re leaving?”
“That’s the talk. Certainly they’ve been a bit more frantic in their activity of late.”
“But why would they be leaving?”
“Maybe they’re finally believing their own words.” She swept on the lights and shrugged. “Most researchers give up after a while. The loch holds her secrets well, and even the most well-financed venture must run out of cash.”
I hesitated, then asked, “So they’ve had no sight of the monster?”
She looked at me. “Oh, that’s one for conjecture.”
“So despite what they’re saying, you think they have?”
“I think they’ve found something, lass. Whether it’s the monster or not is anyone’s guess.”
I smiled. “You don’t believe in her?”
“Oh, I do. But I believe she’s far too clever to be caught by the likes of them. After all, she’s lived in these parts for centuries. She’d have to be a canny one.”
Canny didn’t take into account modern equipment or hunting methods. And it certainly didn’t take into account being betrayed by some greedier members of the dragon community.
Even so, perhaps my mother, like the locals, had been too complacent, too confident the loch would hold her secrets against all comers.
But then, that affliction had also been my downfall. I’d been so damn confident in my skills that I’d waltzed straight into their trap. Well, not again. Not without some planning beforehand, anyway.
But the five hundred-foot range of the tracker in my tooth would make planning my assault a whole lot tougher. The minute I entered that place, they could find me. If they suspected I was there, that was.
The question, of course, was whether they actually had the receivers here, or whether they were all in America with those who were still trying to capture me. I had to hope they were, but I couldn’t actually bank on it. They knew I wanted my mother out of there, after all.
I ducked in front of Trae and stepped into the cottage. The front room was small, but homely, and filled with flowers whose sweet scent warmed the slightly stale air.