Then he spotted the stone in Broch’s paw.
Catriona saw panic flood Rune’s expression. He looked away and started climbing faster, glancing back, again and again, waiting for Broch to throw.
Broch cocked back his arm and tossed the first brick. It shot from his hand like a cannonball. Rune dodged to the right as it crashed against the wall beside him. He raised his arm to block the exploding fragments, but remained firm on the ladder.
A moment later he was climbing again.
Catriona raised her own arms over her head as bits of brick peppered down.
She stooped to gather Broch another missile and he joined in to grab a second chunk from the pile. His choice proved more grapefruit-sized. Catriona couldn’t imagine throwing such a large brick so far in the air, let alone with any accuracy, but then, she wasn’t an enormous Highlander.
Brock cocked back and tossed the larger of the two and Catriona frowned. She could see right away it would end up left of Rune, much like the last attempt. Sure enough, Rune released with his left hand again and swung to the right.
By then, Broch already had the other rock launching. When Rune looked down at them, smirking that he had so easily dodged the giant chunk of brick, the last smaller rock hit him squarely in the forehead.
Catriona whooped. “You hit him!”
Rune’s body went limp, his feet slipped from their rung, but he didn’t fall. Instead, he hung from his metal arm like a limp flag.
Catriona’s cheer died on her lips. She slapped her hands to her hips and watched as her father slowly rocked back and forth above them.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Broch took a step forward to mount the ladder, but before he could take a step, Rune’s body detached from his artificial arm, the fabric of his shirt tearing from his body. The Highlander scrambled out of the way as Rune bounced once against the ladder and then hit the ground with a cracking noise Catriona worried would haunt her the rest of her life.
She covered her mouth with her hand, horrified.
“That had to hurt.”
Rune was unaware what bones he might have broken. He remained unconscious.
She moved forward to see if he was alive and saw his chest rising and falling. Gingerly, she touched his neck to feel for a pulse.
“He’s alive.”
“Dinnae titch him,” warned Broch.
She looked back at him. “I have to. I want to try to syphon him.”
Catriona closed her eyes and endeavored with all her concentration to pull energy from her father. Nothing happened. No rush of power entered her body. She felt deflated.
“It isn’t working.” Her shoulders slumped. “What if he comes around?”
“Ah’ll bind him,” suggested Broch.
Catriona nodded and jerked a fake vine from the underbrush around them. It felt very much like a rope.
“Use this.”
Broch took the vine and stood there, staring at Rune, seemingly puzzled.
“What are you waiting for?” she asked.
“Hae am ah supposed tae tie him up with yin haund?”
She scowled.
Good point.
It was like a Buddist koan. What is the sound of one hand being tied?”
Broch perked. “Och, ah’ll tie his hand to his foot.”
Catriona watched him bind Rune’s remaining arm to his legs. The crazy position he assumed made her shake her head with the oddity of it all.
“This is crazy.”
When Broch was done tying each of Rune’s feet to his one remaining hand, he lifted the boney man over his shoulder like a shearing sheep, careful to keep Rune’s bare flesh from touching him, just in case.
“Let’s get him tae Anne afore he wakes up.”
Catriona pulled her phone from her pocket, pleased to find it still worked after her plunge. She dialed the number Anne had given her in case of emergency and the Sentinel answered.
“Catriona?”
“We have Rune.”
“Really?”
“He was lurking on a movie set. We have him tied up.”
“That’s great. Did you try—”
Catriona sighed. “I did. My darndest. Couldn’t drain him. Not even a little.”
“Okay. Shoot. Michael just left or I would have had him pop over there and take him.”
“We would’ve had to get Michael a pass to get him on the lot anyway. It’s a pain. We’ll just bring him to you.”
Anne chuckled. “He could have gotten on the lot just fine, but, okay. Bring him here and I’ll call Michael back from New York.”
“He’s on his way home?”
“He’s already home.”
“But it’s only been two hours—”
“Let’s just say he doesn’t fly commercial.”
“But even—” Catriona let it drop, suspecting Michael didn’t fly in planes at all. “Okay. We’ll be there in a bit.”
“Great. Be careful. We don’t know what he’s capable of.”
Catriona glanced at Rune, flopping against Broch’s back as he headed back towards the catwalk.
“I think we’ve got things pretty well wrapped up.”
She glanced up at the ladder and saw Rune’s arm swinging there.
It would be hard to explain to the movie set staff how a bionic arm ended up dangling from their ladder.
I guess I better get that.
Chapter Forty
By the time Catriona and Broch had arrived at Anne’s house, Michael was, once again, already standing in the drive like an impatient gargoyle.
Broch had ridden in the back hatch area with the back seats down, Rune bundled at his feet. He crouched poised, ready to smack Catriona’s father back into unconsciousness should he awaken.
The gangly man never moved a muscle.
As the Jeep rolled to a stop, Broch opened the hatch and hopped out. Michael strode up to him as he moved to pull Rune from the back.
“I have him,” said Michael. He eyed Broch’s hairline and straightened to bring his own parallel. Broch had seen men do it
