Embrace the Highland Warrior

by Anita Clenney

  He was going after Malek alone.

  ***

  “Shay, darling, how are you?”

  Shay stepped inside the adjoining rooms that her aunt and Matilda shared. “Good. How’s Matilda?”

  “The most somber I’ve seen her. The vampire thing really shocked her.”

  “She believes it was a vampire?”

  “We tried to convince her otherwise, but I think she knows.”

  “I have something to say to you, Nina. I should’ve said it years ago, but I was so focused on my pain, I didn’t stop to think about how much it hurt you when I left. I’m sorry. I know you were trying to protect me. You always wanted what was best for me.” Although attempting to kidnap Jamie was a little extreme. “You gave up your way of life to help me, and I never considered that. Please forgive me.” Shay wrapped her arms around her aunt. “I’ve been so selfish.”

  “No, you haven’t.” Nina stroked Shay’s hair. “We took your life from you. We just didn’t have a choice. Or maybe we did. I’ve wondered so many times over the years whether I should’ve told you.” Nina’s eyes moistened. “When you came into my life, I thought my world had collapsed. My husband had died a few months before, and I had nothing to live for. Until you. You became my life.” Nina hugged Shay and kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry about everything. Not telling you, trying to kidnap Jamie so you could be with Cody.”

  “Nina,” Matilda called.

  “She just found out about Nick’s death. I feel so terrible.”

  “About Nick?”

  “It’s our fault he’s dead.”

  “How is it your fault?” Shay asked with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

  “We hired him to stalk you.”

  As it turned out, it had been Nick’s idea. On Nina and Matilda’s last visit, Nick had overheard them at the pub discussing the dilemma of Cody and Shay. Nina was certain they belonged together. Being a romantic at heart, Nick hatched the scheme to frighten Shay into coming home. He said that was the only way Cody and Shay would know they belonged together, and he offered to do the job. Of course they insisted on paying him for his stalking time.

  After consoling Nina, Shay took a long look at her aunt’s face, committing the soft brown eyes, the short gray hair, and kind face to memory. She wished she could tell her about the past, all about it. If she survived, she would, but there wasn’t time now for the questions it would bring. She said good-bye and made her way to Cody’s room. She lay on his bed and closed her eyes, letting his scent roll over her as a lifetime of memories flashed by, from toddlers to teens, laughing and bandaging each other’s wounds. From making love in the hayloft to the time spent at the cabin, and here, when she told him she loved him. All the moments that comprised their lives. Cody was her world. He always had been. She wouldn’t let him make this sacrifice.

  Shay rose from Cody’s bed and went to her room. She tugged on a dark coat and put a flashlight, a bottle of water, and her cell phone in the pockets. Shay tucked a butcher knife into her boot. She hoped Coira wouldn’t miss it.

  In the sitting room attached to Shay’s bedroom, she pushed the catch that opened the door to the secret passage. The air was musty inside. She moved as quietly as she could, knowing that some hidden doors opened to rooms throughout the castle, and the warriors had hearing like bats. It was like a tomb, save for the soft scuffing of her shoes. The light flickered with her movements, throwing shadows on the wall. Shay shivered, hoping she remembered the way. She came to the winding steps that led to the first floor. A din of voices sounded close by. She recognized the entrance to the library. The warriors must be gathered there. She couldn’t believe they brought a vampire to the castle.

  She stopped at the section of stones where she had met Declan. She pushed the catch, and it opened to the tunnel. He said the far end was old and dangerous, but the vampire had used it, as well as Angus, the warrior who was killed. Shay hoped it held up for her, although what she planned was probably far more dangerous than a decrepit tunnel.

  The passage narrowed after she passed the door where she and Declan had gone outside. She could feel the dampness and hear water trickling. She stumbled several times over fallen stones, but she concentrated on Cody, his face, the determination she saw there. If she didn’t stop him, he would die. Malek must be watching the castle, so Cody would be nearby too. Shay had caused him untold pain by severing a friendship because he tried to protect her, by hating him for something he hadn’t done. She wouldn’t let him die for her too. If Michael said it was her duty to destroy Malek, then by God, she would destroy Malek.

  The darkness lightened, and she knew she was close to the end, finally. She stumbled outside and grabbed a breath of fresh air. She saw two warriors lying on the ground. Her heart sank as something sharp scraped her chest. “Nearly a thousand years in this dimension, and I thought humans incapable of surprising me. I guess I’m wrong.”

  Chapter 20

  The man was tall, the silver streak in his hair glinting in the moonlight. He traced a fingernail along the whitish lines of Shay’s scar. “I don’t know how you did it. You were as good as dead when I left you, just like your mother.” He raised his gaze to her face, showing a touch of awe. “You look like her, not your father. He was dark, like your sister. They couldn’t protect you. No one can protect you.” He moved closer, his eyes growing angry. “I won’t allow you to spawn my enemy.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.” This must be Malek. He had the silver streak in his hair.

  He smiled an almost serene smile. “You don’t know, do you? How sad. This god you serve doesn’t even bother to give you the basic information. A child born to you and Cody was destined to destroy me.” Malek’s smile faded into a sneer. “Alexander MacBain. But he won’t succeed. He won’t exist, not from a dead mother. I failed to destroy you the first time. I won’t fail the second.”

  Shay fell back as if she had been hit. Alexander. It couldn’t be. What about her dream of Michael?

  “Here I am, nearly a thousand years old… duped by humans. Now, tell me where you’ve hidden my book, and I’ll consider killing only you, not your entire clan.”

  Shay looked at his immaculate disguise and wanted to rip his face off. He’d killed her mother and father and stolen her life. He would not get Cody or the clan. “If I give you the book, you will kill the whole clan,” she spat out.

  He looked surprised, then spun at the screeching sounds coming from the woods. Men burst from the trees, moving so fast she couldn’t see their feet. Vampires. Shay backed away while Malek and his demons were distracted, and she bumped into something hard.

  “The party’s just starting,” the vampire hissed behind her. Shay turned and drove her butcher knife into his heart before he could close his mouth.

  He fell to dust, and another vampire cried out, “Rod!”

  ***

  Bree hurried along the passage where she had seen Shay in the vision. She had to stop her. Damn these visions. This one had come too late. Faelan and several of the others had gone to the dungeon to question the vampire. There hadn’t been time to warn them. She had to stop Shay before she got outside the walls. He was waiting. She opened the door for the tunnel and heard a sound behind her. She turned, and her flashlight illuminated two garish figures. Bree yelped, and the figures screamed.

  “Oh my God.” Matilda clutched her chest. She wore a lime green jogging suit that almost glowed in the dark. Her red hair stuck up like porcupine quills. Nina had on gray, her hair in pink foam curlers.

  “What are you doing here?” Bree asked frantically. She had to hurry.

  “We followed Shay,” Nina said. “She came to my room. I think she was saying good-bye. I don’t know what she’s up to, but I’m scared. We heard the door to the secret passage shut when we got to her room. Matilda couldn’t remember how to open it. By the time we got inside, Shay was already gone.”

  “I know where she’s going,” Bree said, “but you need to go back, get t
he men. I’ll go after her.”

  “I’m not going back until I have Shay,” Nina said, puffing out her chest.

  “And I’m not going back alone,” Matilda said, stepping closer to her cousin, waving her flashlight at the floors and walls, her eyes wide.

  “Well, come on then. We have to catch her before she gets outside.”

  They hurried through the narrow tunnel and finally reached the end. “She’s already out.” Bree’s head pounded with fear.

  Matilda poked her head outside. “I think I see something.”

  “Wait.” Bree grabbed Matilda’s arm. “You can’t go out there. It’s too dangerous.”

  Matilda went anyway. “There are two men here. I think they’re dead,” she said.

  Bree and Nina hurried over to Matilda. Bree didn’t recognize the warriors. They must be new ones who arrived from Ireland or France. “Does anyone have a phone? We have to call Faelan.” They needed help, but she couldn’t risk calling out to the guards.

  “I do,” Matilda said.

  They heard a scream, and Bree shot ahead, not waiting to see if Nina and Matilda followed.

  ***

  Faelan’s cell phone rang. The number was unknown. He stepped back from the warriors surrounding the vampire’s cell. He was chained to the wall by hands, neck, and feet. Only his eyes moved, red, angry, flashing fire, and occasionally when they fell on Faelan, confusion. He’d refused to answer any questions.

  “Hello?”

  “Faelan, this is Matilda. Come quick. We’re on the demon’s trail.”

  “What demon?”

  “What’s his name, Bree?” Matilda asked, and Faelan could hear his bride’s frantic reply. “Malek.”

  “Holy—quiet,” he bellowed at the warriors, and everyone, even the vampire, gaped at him. Faelan clutched the phone against his ear. “Where are you, Matilda?”

  “Outside the secret tunnel. Malek has Shay. There are vampires and demons, too, and they’re all fighting. I have to go now. We’re going to try to rescue Shay.”

  “Oh God,” he said, locking eyes with Ronan. “Malek has Shay. Bree, Nina, and Matilda are trying to rescue her. If that’s not bad enough, a bunch of vampires and demons are fighting.”

  If Coira had been in the dungeon, she would have washed all their mouths out with soap. The warriors left two guards to watch the vampire, and the rest hurried upstairs. They grabbed weapons and yelled out instructions, deciding that ten warriors would follow the tunnel and ten would go through the woods. “Be careful. You can’t use your talisman, or we’re all likely to die,” Faelan said. His heart was in his throat. All he had lost, and now this. How could he live if he lost Bree?

  ***

  Shay looked at the vampires circling her. At least twenty, fangs extended, eyes red. They were angry. The others were fighting with the demons in a nightmare of howls and screams.

  “She just killed Rod,” the one with spiked hair said. “I say we drain her and tell the master we couldn’t find her.”

  A brown-haired vampire shook his head. “You want to be the one to tell him she’s dead?”

  What could she do against twenty vampires? She killed one at the cabin and one here, but she was only human. She had to do it. If she died, Cody would face Malek alone. She gripped her butcher knife and focused, allowing her senses to sharpen, calm to descend, and then she leaped, catching the spike-haired vampire off guard. From the corner of her eye she saw Bree rushing at them, moving as fast as the vampires. Nina and Matilda stopped, staring in shock at the scene.

  “Kill her,” one of the vampires said, charging Bree.

  No! Not her sister. Shay ran at the closest vampire and drove her knife into its heart. It crumbled into dust. Several feet away, Bree was doing the same. The sisters shared a glance, turned, and continued to fight. The vampires were at a disadvantage. They couldn’t kill her, for fear of their master, but they needed to keep her from killing them.

  “Capture her,” the brown-haired one said.

  Shay and Bree stood back to back as the vampires circled.

  “Wait until they get closer,” Shay told Bree. “Then attack.”

  ***

  After leaving Beauly Priory, Cody drove back to the castle and parked in the trees where the cameras wouldn’t see him. He slipped through the woods to the fence. He sent four young warriors guarding the most secluded boundary of the fence deeper in the woods to stand guard. They didn’t question him. Cody’s sword and gun were hidden in his boot, making him look weaponless. He knew Malek would come. Cody sat down to wait. He had to do it for Shay.

  Cody’s talisman warmed against his chest. The mark on his neck tingled as the sounds of fighting drifted to him. He jumped up and ran toward the hisses and yells. His nose registered the odors a second before he saw the chaos. Vampires and demons fighting, gnashing with their claws and teeth. In the middle of the fray, Shay and Bree stood back to back. A group of vampires circled Shay and Bree. Cold tentacles moved like fingers along Cody’s spine. Bree held a dagger that Cody recognized as one of Faelan’s, and Shay gripped a butcher knife. Cody raised his sword and crept forward. If he could take out the ones on the fringes and work inward, he would have a better chance of saving Shay and Bree.

  “Now,” Shay said. She and Bree launched themselves at the vampires, moving in high speed the way Shay had done at the cabin. Several times he wondered if he imagined it. He hadn’t. The women plowed through the vampires, plunging dagger and knife into their hearts. He supposed they aimed for the heart. He couldn’t see the vampires’ bodies, they moved so fast, but it appeared Shay and Bree could.

  Cody ran for the closest vampire, swung at it as it streaked past, and saw the form turn solid for a second. He hit it, but the blow wasn’t lethal. Damn it! How were Shay and Bree doing it? He struck again, slightly higher, and caught the creature’s neck. It dissolved into dust, and he turned to the next enemy, this one a demon. It disappeared the minute he took its head.

  Amid the hissing and screeching that battered his ears, Cody heard a human cry. Whirling, he saw Malek at the edge of the fight, holding Shay. Cody’s blood chilled at the sight of the ancient demon looming over the other combatants. His skin was thick, the bones in his face prominent, and his hair coarse but streaked with silver. His sharp claws were poised at Shay’s throat.

  “Let her go,” Cody said, trying to slow his heartbeat, “and I’ll take you to the book.”

  “No,” Shay said, standing tall. “He doesn’t know where I’ve hidden it. Let him go, and I’ll give it to you.” Fury blazed alongside the fear in her eyes. She was up to something.

  “Ah, sweet, human love. How thoroughly sickening.” Malek threw back his head and laughed, his voice harsh. Catching him off guard, Shay whirled and drove her butcher knife into Malek’s side, extracted it, and plowed through the demons surrounding him. Malek grabbed for her and screamed, rubbing his hand. Edward’s talisman fell to the ground. A demon tackled Shay, hauling her roughly to her feet, but not before she slipped her knife into her boot. “Don’t hurt her,” Malek bellowed. “She’s mine to kill.”

  Cody knew he was powerless. If he tried to use his talisman, he would kill them all, including Shay and Bree. The vampires were gone, dead or retreated.

  “Kill them,” Malek roared and ran off, dragging Shay with him.

  Cody looked from Shay to Bree, who was bending to pick up Edward’s talisman. He couldn’t save them both. Shay was his mate. Bree was Faelan’s, and she was pregnant.

  “Go,” Bree screamed, aiming Edward’s talisman.

  “No!” Cody shouted. “You can’t!”

  “I can,” Bree yelled over her shoulder. “Go after her! Nina, Matilda, close your eyes!”

  The demons screeched and rushed toward Bree. Cody felt the air shift and the ground tremble. It was too late. It couldn’t be stopped. What would be, would be. Cody sprinted after Malek and Shay.

  ***

  “This way,” Faelan called to Ronan. “Hurry.”
They moved through the thickest part of the woods, slapping branches out of their way, taking the hit when they missed. His pulse thudded in his ears. Ronan, Declan, and Duncan were on his heels. Niall and Shane were a few yards away. He heard the collective gasp behind him, as others saw what he did. Bree stood facing a wall of demons. Nina and Matilda were turned away, hands shielding their eyes. The air shuddered and the ground shook.

  “What the hell?” Ronan said, as the white flash blazed out from Bree’s hand. He and the others threw their arms over their faces, but Faelan kept running, as screams split the air. He opened his eyes and saw Bree on the ground. A roar sounded in his ears as he sped toward her. He didn’t know if it came from him or Ronan.

  “Bree!” Faelan dropped down beside her.

  “Oh my God. Did you see that?” Bree said, sitting up, eyes wide.

  Faelan pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her. “What are you?” he muttered, pulling her into his arms. The other warriors skidded to a stop behind him, faces slack with shock.

  “We just killed a bunch of vampires,” Bree said. “It was incredible. I’ve never moved like that, but we’ve got to go after Shay. Malek took off with her.”

  “I’m going after her,” Nina yelled.

  “Get her, Ronan,” Faelan said. “We’ll go after Shay.”

  Ronan started after Nina, as hisses sounded behind them.

  Ronan threw Nina over his shoulder and dumped her behind a bush beside Matilda, as a dozen vampires rushed at them from the trees.

  ***

  After the talisman light disappeared, Cody glanced back and saw Faelan and the other warriors with Bree. She was alive. There was no time to question how she used a talisman or survived, but thanks to her, he had only Malek to face. He saw a group of vampires rush at the warriors from the trees. Cody kept going. He hurtled a fallen log and shoved a tree limb out of his path so hard the tree cracked. Shay and Malek were fifty feet ahead. He poured on a burst of speed, lungs burning, legs aching. He had to catch them, but Malek was fast for a demon. Cody needed to slow him down. He stopped, pulled a knife from his boot, drew back his arm and threw. The knife sank between Malek’s shoulders. He stumbled, and Shay yanked free.