~

“So, Ross,” Gran said, as I sat down in the rocking chair by the fire feeling all of my twenty-few years after doing the dishes and getting the stink eye from my mother for the last half hour, but it had felt good to get some payback for my dinner table troubles. “Eat anyone lately?”

It wasn’t just Ross that choked on his tongue, I did too, and Malachi snorted his Scotch and choked on it. That was worth it alone.

“I don’t think so,” Ross offered back, and from the look on his face, I think the man didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Me either.

Malachi looked at me and let his jaw drop open. I had to chuckle. Gran certainly wasn’t one for subtle.

“No waking up out in the open – covered in blood…?” She pushed.

“Yes…” Ross said, and my head snapped around so fast that I heard the vertebra snap into place – ouch.

“Which, or both?” Gran asked, and it was my turn for my jaw to sag.

“I woke up down by the Loch in the early hours of this morning,” Ross admitted, and he didn’t look too happy doing it. I wasn’t so happy hearing it either.

“Blood?” Gran asked.

“Aye,” Ross said.

“I can help with that,” Gran offered, and I swallowed hard at the thought that our Ross could be a murderer, or his wolf could, there was a difference, no?

“Me too,” Malachi said, and I snapped a look at him. He eyed me back with a challenge.

“Not one hair on his head,” I whispered my warning, and he grimaced.

“Rushing to judgment about me again, Maggie McFae,” he sighed. “Shame on you. I was just going to say that I could look into his mind for answers…”

“Vampire voodoo,” I muttered.

“As opposed to that voodoo that you do so well?” He grinned, and I sneered.

“Ross is fine. Gran can help him,” I snapped back.

“I never said I would help him overcome his beast – I said; I could help him recall if he killed two people or not, one a hapless tourist. Even you must have some sympathy for that man?”

“Don’t be telling me what I must and must not be doing, vampire.” I folded my arms and eyed him with contempt.

He pulled his head back on his neck and mouthed the word; vampire back at me before offering me a look of amusement. I was about to snap at that bait when I was distracted.

“It’s okay, Maggie,” Ross said. “You can stand down. I’d like his help. I think I should know.”

“Why, Ross, you can’t take back what’s done, and if Gran can help you with your wolf…”

“A man needs to know,” Malachi said, and when I turned my steely gaze back on him, he looked almost remorseful, as if the man remembered something, but then it was gone like a flash of magic.

“It stops you forever wondering,” Bat-boy said from somewhere over my right shoulder and I hadn’t even heard that stealthy eejit come to stand in the doorway behind me.

“Fine, do your voodoo,” I berated Malachi. “But if anything bad happens…” I left that hanging. He knew what I meant, and I didn’t need to spell it out for him.

“Ah, if only I had someone so loyal,” Malachi said, turning a dark gaze to Duncan, and I had to wonder what that was all about.

 

~

 

“Can you concentrate and move on from the scratching and the sniffing, and the licking of things that I don’t want to know about,” Malachi said, as he stood behind Ross; who was sitting in one of the straight back chairs from the dinner table. His hands were at Ross’ temples on either side, and he was looking into the man’s mind with his vampire voodoo.

I have to say that he was a braver man than I, not that I was a man, but…meh. I couldn’t imagine how the thought processes of Ross’ mind worked, but I definitely wouldn’t want to poke around in it.

“I have no control on…” Ross grumbled back.

“Then let me help you…” Malachi said.

“Whoa,” Ross bit out.

He jumped in his seat, and I jumped in mine. I wasn’t sure if Ross had reacted to pain or something else because he’d already been wearing a grimace, but as I went to push up from my chair to call a halt to the farce, Duncan put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me.

“A little trust goes a long way,” Bat-boy whispered.

“But, it’s Malachi,” I hissed back, bringing a smirk to his lips, and that seemed to be the default mode because when I turned back to watch what was happening to my friend, Malachi was smirking as well.

“It’s okay, Maggie,” Ross assured me as one side of his mouth lifted upwards in a crooked smile. “It’s just like watching a movie in fast forward, is all.”

That was kind of how my life felt to me at any given moment since things had started happening on the island once more. The only problem was, I wasn’t in possession of the remote control. If I had been, then I might just have pressed pause while I figured things out and got a little sleep.

I mean the first mutilated sheep had appeared before everyone’s supernatural family members started to appear out of the woodwork like someone had shouted lottery win. I remembered Jack getting the call the first time I’d seen him back on Skye.

So, Jack was definitely here, but what did that mean? Did I think Jack was the sheep killer? That he’d become a deranged psycho that had progressed to murdering people?

No, just that Jack had really stupid bad timing. Then the werewolves showed up, and Malachi.

I highly doubted that the vampire went around mutilating sheep; he didn’t seem the kind of man that wanted to climb over hills and through Glen’s in the pursuit of a tasty snack. Not when he could so easily have picked up a human in any pub or on any given street corner.

Hmm, maybe the loitering gossip squad had better beware of that one.

So, who killed sheep? Werewolves. Ross and Fraser, and Lachlan, but as I said before, I don’t think the man despaired enough at his own personality to do away with himself.

Fraser was Lachlan’s son, and he’d looked pretty cut up, no pun intended, about his father getting murdered, no, his alpha. He’d said his alpha instead of his father, which sounded kind of weird, but maybe that meant more in werewolf circles than it did to me.

Then there was Ross and that whole argument outside the bistro that I’d overheard. Lachlan had threatened Moira; he certainly didn’t make any bones about not liking her – could our Ross have killed the man to protect her?

But, it was Ross. Lovable, kilt wearing, playful Ross … who was still trying to get a grip on his wild side.

Was I missing something? I was no Miss Marple, but I didn’t think that my friend could have done such a thing. Mind you, seeing him fight Fraser today had shown a different side to the man.

“My God, man!” Malachi exclaimed, and all eyes turned towards him as Ross was startled once more. My heart was certainly pounding. “How do you live such a boring life and where do you put all that food?”

I felt deflated but in a good way. Eejit vampire had made my mind take off to visions of Ross standing over Lachlan’s dead body, all claws, and fangs, and I let out the breath I’d dragged in at the thought of it.

“So, not him?” I grumbled a growl of my own at Malachi.

“Not unless I zoned out from boredom at the good part,” Malachi said, and I breathed again.

“Eejit,” I muttered, looking anywhere but at his smug face.

“That’s good to know,” Ross said, and he did look like a weight had been lifted from his broad shoulders. “I wonder if there’s any more pie?”

“If you can’t find anything in the kitchen, there’s a rubbish bin outside you could trawl through,” Malachi said Ross only grunted in return as headed towards the kitchen.

“Well, that leaves Malachi and Fraser, and my money is on Malachi,” I announced with a sneer for the man.

“Me?” He looked somewhat surprised as well as amused.

“You turned up like a bad penny right at the time of the tourist dying,” I tossed back.

“So did Jack, and the werewolves…” he added on a half-thought.

“Jack?” I snorted a chuckle. “And Lachlan didn’t kill himself.”

“No, but Fraser could have done it to be the alpha of his doggie pack,” he shot back. I heard another grunt come from the kitchen and assumed Ross had overheard the slur.

“Then he would have claimed the kill,” Duncan reminded him.

“Then, Sherlock, we appear to be out of suspects, except…” he left that hanging and my heart raced once more.

“Who?” I demanded, unable to take the suspense of who I’d missed off my list a moment longer.

“Perhaps…it was Fiona,” he said.

“Gran!” I bit out, relieved that I hadn’t missed a clued, annoyed that he was winding me up like a spinning top, and surprised that he had the backbone to say it within earshot of my grandmother.

“Aye, I confess,” Gran said from the other side of the doorway. “It was me with the pinking shears protecting my own.”

“What are pinking shears?” Malachi asked, and I rolled my eyes.

“Jazzy bladed scissors for making clothes,” Duncan offered, and surprised didn’t quite cover what I felt about the man knowing that.  

“Moving on, and stop deflecting.” I turned a frown from bat-boy to Malachi.

“Deflect – me?” He put a hand on his muscled chest and tried for innocent, but the amusement danced in his eyes.

“You had motive, means, and you’re nasty.” I shrugged.

“I …” he offered me a curious look. “I thought I was being quite charming.”

“About as charming as oozing pus,” Gran shot back, and I grimaced at the thought, but give Gran her dues, she did have to get her shots in where she could.

“She has a soft spot for me.” Malachi grinned at Gran, and she snorted like she was hunting down truffles. “Well, then it’s Fraser,” Malachi said with a shrug.

“Or someone we haven’t seen, or might be missing,” Duncan offered, rather unhelpfully, because I was back to wondering who I’d missed once again.

“But why did he not claim the kill and become alpha?” I asked, and if I hadn’t of been sitting down, I might even have stomped my foot in frustration. I was confused by the whole werewolf pack protocol thing.

I made a mental note to read one of Eileen’s stupid books on the subject – not the muscle man beats his chest, rescues the babe, and has a happily ever after – but the ones written in a time before the villagers rose up with pitchforks and run them off or killed them.

“Perhaps he’s planning a slow takeover of the family business,” Malachi shrugged again. “Who knows what’s in the mind of a werewolf?”

“Apparently, you – now,” I offered back.

“That man is freakishly hungry all the time,” Malachi snorted.

“Don’t knock it. He keeps my business ticking over in the winter months,” I said, resting back against the chair and rocking a little.

I was glad to know that Ross was in the clear. As long as Malachi wasn’t lying about anything.

How much could I trust that vampire?

I’d been warned by Gran and his own cousin about him – that had to stand for something, right? Just because the man was as sexy as hell and made me chuckle that didn’t mean that he wasn’t a lying, cheating, bloodsucking fiend of epic proportions.

I suppose as, with everything in life, I could listen to the opinions of others, but ultimately, it would be down to me to come to a decision. I didn’t hold with that train of thought that said because your best friend didn’t like someone you couldn’t like them either.

Not that I liked Malachi – yet – but he was growing on me like a rampant fungus, which was a little disturbing.