Heart Of A Highland Warrior

by Anita Clenney

  “He’s alive. Tavis is alive.” Faelan let out a whoop, picked Tavis up, and then dropped him on his feet.

  “Then who’s in the coffin?” someone asked.

  “Quinn,” Tavis muttered.

  “The Keeper?” Faelan asked.

  “You were right. He does look like you.” A woman stepped next to Faelan. Her eyes were wide and green as emeralds. Her clothing and hair looked different, but the rest was the same.

  “Isabel?” How could she be here? In this time?

  “I’m Bree, Isabel’s great-great-granddaughter. He knew Isabel,” she said, looking at Faelan. She turned back to Tavis, her eyes filled with tears. “How did you get here?” She gave a soft gasp. “The time vault in the chapel. It’s yours.”

  “Aye,” Tavis said.

  “But Ma and Da, Ian and Alana…” Faelan shook his head. “You gave up your whole life.”

  “There was no other way. We heard about Druan’s virus. We killed his sorcerer, but we knew it would only slow him down.”

  “Druan’s dead,” Faelan said.

  “Faelan destroyed him and his virus,” said a man standing beside Faelan. He was tall, with dark eyes that were nearly as intense as Faelan’s. Handsome in the way that made women swoon.

  “We knew he would try to make another,” Tavis said.

  “He didn’t just make it, he released the bloody thing,” a red-haired man said. “But Faelan’s talisman ate it up like snakes swallowing mice.”

  “How did you get out of the vault?” a pale-haired woman asked. She had the same green eyes as Isabel’s great-great-granddaughter.

  “We’ve all got a thousand questions, but he needs to come inside,” Isabel’s great-great-granddaughter said. “He looks like he might faint.”

  “I don’t faint,” he muttered as they helped him inside, where everyone stared at him like something on display in a museum. Faelan sat next to Tavis, his gaze so intent that if they’d been in the right century, Tavis would have knocked him off the chair for invading his space. The green-eyed woman who looked like Isabel made introductions.

  “As I said, I’m Bree, your brother’s wife. You can see he’s a bit overwhelmed.”

  Faelan had found a wife? Here? Tavis guessed he’d had no choice but settle for someone besides his destined mate, if you believed things like that.

  Faelan’s wife—Bree—introduced everyone there: Ronan, the handsome one; Niall, who looked like a blond ox; Cody, an intense-looking man; and Shay, the pale-haired woman with green eyes. Brodie and Sorcha were the ones with red hair. “And this is Duncan. He’s a descendant of Ian’s. Doesn’t he look like Faelan? And you?” Bree asked.

  Remarkably so.

  The red-haired woman stood near Duncan. “He looks more like Tavis than the pictures I’ve seen of Ian,” she said, peering intently at Tavis’s face.

  “He should see a doctor,” someone else said. “He looks like he’s gonna pass out.” He couldn’t see who spoke. He was focused on keeping the room from tilting.

  “Where’s Tomas?”

  “I think he’s at the castle. I’ll call Sean.”

  “Don’t worry,” Bree said. “Faelan went through this when he woke from his time vault. Sleeping and then eating everything in the house. You’ll feel better after a couple days of rest.”

  He started to tell them that he had been out of the time vault for many days, but he suddenly felt too weak to explain. He had to save his words for what was important. “I can’t stay. I have to find Anna.”

  “Anna?” Faelan asked. “How do you know Anna?”

  The faces blurred into one large blob of flesh. “She hid me in the crypt.”

  “Hid you from who?” someone asked.

  “Voltar and Tristol.”

  His consciousness gave way to a ring of curses.

  “How did he run into Anna?”

  “I guess we won’t know until he wakes.”

  “I know you want to talk to him, but he needs sleep. Remember how you were.”

  “Voltar and Tristol. We’re up the creek.”

  The voices woke him, but he didn’t know who was speaking.

  “He’s waking up.”

  He opened his eyes. He was lying in a bed, surrounded by people all still staring at him. “Bloody hell,” he said, trying to sit.

  “Lie down,” Faelan said. He sat next to the bed, and Isabel—Bree—stood beside him. Ronan stood at the foot of the bed. Two of him. Tavis shook his head.

  “How are you feeling?” Bree asked.

  “I’m seeing double.”

  Bree leaned closer, examining him. “Concussion, probably. He’s obviously been beaten. How many fingers am I holding up?” she asked.

  “Three,” Tavis said.

  “Now?” She held up one.

  “One.” Tavis looked back at the foot of the bed. “But there’s two of him.”

  Bree looked around. “That’s Ronan and Declan. Twins.”

  “Good. I’m not barmy.” His chest was bare. Someone had undressed him and bandaged his wounds.

  Declan was introduced, as well as Shane, a long-haired, slender man standing quietly in the back of the room. Tavis vaguely remembered meeting the others.

  “He needs food before we start grilling him, poor man,” Bree said, touching his hand. He felt a tingle run up his arm, reminding him of the shocks he’d gotten from the guard and his bloody toys.

  “Shay’s bringing it,” Ronan said. “Cody’s bringing water and bandages.”

  The pale-haired woman appeared at the door carrying a tray. Ronan took it from her and carried it to the bed.

  Tavis sat up. “I’m not an invalid.” He didn’t need all this fussing over. He needed to get out of here and find Anna. “We need to look for Anna.”

  “You can’t look for Anna without something to give you strength,” Shay said.

  “I’ll eat later,” Tavis said.

  “You might as well give up now, man,” Ronan said, putting the tray on Tavis’s lap. “You’re outmanned by those two.”

  A disrespectful way to speak about lasses, Tavis thought.

  Brodie nodded in agreement. “You’d have a better chance stopping a steamroller.”

  Streamroller? Did they all speak so strange? But he’d slept for generations. Times had changed.

  “But Anna’s injured.”

  “We’re searching for her,” Faelan said. “You need rest. You look like a lion tried to chew a hole in your shoulder.”

  “Tomas is on his way,” Duncan said. The one who looked enough like Faelan and Tavis to be a brother, making Tavis miss Ian all the more. His family. They were all gone. But he’d known going in that this would be the cost. They would have suffered as well. Ian carrying a burden no man should carry. Had he managed to live a good life? Marry his Bessie, have bairns?

  And poor Alana, losing Da and two of her brothers close together. And Ma. He hadn’t even gotten to say good-bye. She must have been sick with grief. Had Ian told her the truth? How had she managed? What would she think to see them together now? Two of her sons, living well beyond their normal years?

  “Tomas is the medic.” Duncan laid a small black box type thing on a table. He’d been holding it to his ear. He must have seen Tavis frowning. “This is a cell phone. You can talk to people on it.”

  And he was the one with the addled brain, Tavis thought, and then decided Duncan must have been jesting. Poor time for frivolity.

  A man entered the room and was introduced as Tomas. He had light hair and a kind smile.

  “That was fast,” Ronan said. “What’d you do? Take the helicopter?”

  “I was already on my way to the castle,” Tomas said. He checked Tavis over, the exposed parts anyway, while everyone watched. But after days on end alone, going out of his mind with loneline
ss, he didn’t mind the company. In fact, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to be alone again. Anna’s face came to mind. She’d saved his life. Where are you?

  Tomas gave him medicine for the pain and declared that he would heal nicely, but he needed rest and food. But he’d slept so much in the dungeon, he didn’t want to waste any more time sleeping. Not with Anna still out there.

  “Do you want to rest?” Faelan asked. “Or are you up to talking? We all have questions.”

  Tavis answered their questions, but his mind kept drifting off, wondering where Anna was, if she was hurt. He realized Faelan was speaking to him.

  “What did you ask?”

  “Why is Quinn buried in a coffin where my time vault was?”

  “Frederick and Isabel offered us the crypt and a grave for Da and Quinn, but we couldn’t tell them you were already in the crypt. So we put Quinn in the hole where your time vault had been buried.”

  “We found your dagger and thought it was your coffin. We were told you were buried at sea.”

  “That was Ian’s idea, so no one would come looking for me and find you. We weren’t sure who to trust.”

  “But the clan already knew about the crypt,” Faelan said. “They just couldn’t find the key. Isabel and Frederick had it.”

  “Ian must have decided the Council could be trusted if he told them where you were.”

  “Da? Where is he buried?” Faelan asked.

  “In the graveyard. I’ll show you.”

  Faelan nodded. “After you’ve rested.”

  “We know how you got inside the time vault,” Brodie said. “But how did you get out?”

  “A man. He said his name was Angus.”

  “Angus.” Faelan’s jaw was tight, and the others looked similarly disturbed.

  “He took me to a house. He said Druan was looking for him. For me. He thought I was you. Where is he?”

  “He’s dead. Druan had him killed.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t think I properly thanked him. He was brave.”

  “He was,” Declan said. “Anna still hasn’t recovered from his death.”

  Anna?

  “She and Angus had a thing,” Brodie said.

  A thing? What was a thing? Like lovers?

  “How did you end up in the fortress?” Cody asked.

  “Tristol must have followed Angus and me. I was still weak from the time vault, and Tristol grabbed me, bloody bastard. I woke up in the fortress.”

  “You must have been there since around the time Angus died,” Declan said.

  “I don’t know. I was unconscious part of the time. Anna arrived two days ago, I think.”

  “How did you escape?” Shane asked.

  “There was another prisoner there. He showed us a way out of the fortress and helped us escape. We were attacked outside by wolves, but the creatures didn’t follow us through the veil.”

  “The stone wolves?” Ronan asked.

  “Stone? These were real,” Tavis said. “But bigger. Fierce things.”

  “I ran into them too,” Ronan said. “They had me up a tree. Who was the other prisoner?”

  “I don’t know. He was strong. He held off Voltar while Anna and I escaped.”

  “Held off an ancient demon?” Brodie said.

  “The guards called him a hybrid.” Tavis didn’t tell them he feared Anna had been forced to mate not just with him, but the hybrid as well.

  “What kind of hybrid?” Faelan asked.

  “They didn’t say, but I’ve never seen anyone move like him. Like a streak of light.”

  “That’s how the vampires move,” Ronan said, his jaw tight.

  “I don’t think we could have gotten out of there without him,” Tavis said. “He gave us our talismans. The guards had taken them.”

  “Where did the vampires come from?” Bree asked.

  “They seemed to belong there,” Tavis said. “Must have been there with Tristol. Voltar’s demons came in and slaughtered them.”

  “So maybe the demons and vampires weren’t working together when we saw them in the Albany castle,” Ronan said. “The vampires must have been there to spy on Druan. But why? For Tristol? What does he want with vampires?”

  “I didn’t even know bloody vampires existed,” Tavis said. They must have hidden well.

  “No one did,” his brother said. “We thought Michael’s vampire hunters destroyed them ages ago. I guess they weren’t all wiped out.”

  Ronan looked troubled. “I should have known.”

  “No way you could have known,” Cody said, nudging Ronan’s shoulder.

  “I should have.”

  “Vampires killed his brother Cam two years ago,” Cody explained to Tavis. “The clan thought he was taken by demons.”

  “Sounds like this hybrid is part vampire,” Sorcha said. “Wonder what the other part is. Maybe they were going to turn you into some kind of hybrid. Did they say what they were doing?”

  Tavis felt his face growing hot with anger and shame. “They were going to use me for…breeding.”

  “Breeding?” Ronan asked. “Breed you to what?”

  “I don’t know. They didn’t get that far.”

  “If Tristol and Voltar thought you were Faelan,” Bree said, “then they really wanted Faelan. Why?”

  “The Mighty Faelan,” Niall said. “The most powerful warrior the clan’s known. Why not?”

  “Oh my God,” Bree said. “I knew Faelan was in danger.”

  “Don’t worry yourself.” Faelan patted Bree’s shoulder.

  “Worry.” Bree’s face was flushed with anger. “I’m going to kill the bastards.”

  Bollocks. She was just like Anna. Were all women like this now?

  “You won’t touch Tristol or Voltar. I forbid it.” Faelan’s scowl was fierce, but it didn’t seem to affect his wife.

  “I don’t think Voltar was involved in the um…breeding plan. He said he’d been waiting for me, and he wanted me dead. Tristol is the one who kept calling me Faelan.”

  “He’s not getting his hands on either of you,” Bree said to her husband.

  “Did he figure out that you’re not Faelan?” Ronan asked.

  “I don’t know. A blond man—a vampire, Anna said—he came in and saw me, said I wasn’t you, and ordered Tristol’s servant not to tell Tristol because he’d make all their lives hell.”

  “A blond vampire.” Ronan’s voice was hard. “I think I know him.”

  “Aye. Anna said she thought he was the one you were after.”

  “He escaped,” Ronan said. “We had him in Scotland.”

  Bree clasped her hand over her mouth. “Do you think Tristol was planning to use Anna too? She’s beautiful and strong. If they’re trying to breed…” She didn’t finish.

  Tavis remembered Anna underneath him on the dungeon floor, her body soft but stiff, her fear as he fought to hold back his own pleasure. “I don’t know, but they took her away once. I think they…” He stopped. Revealing what he feared had happened to Anna felt like betraying her trust. She hadn’t even told him what had happened. She likely wouldn’t appreciate him talking about it.

  “You think they what?” Faelan asked.

  “I think they gave her to the hybrid.”

  “Anna?” Ronan said. “God no.”

  “At least she’s alive,” Sorcha said.

  “She probably wishes she wasn’t,” Ronan said. “Her mother was raped. She kept the baby and then years later she killed herself.”

  “Anna.” Bree made a soft sound of distress. “She was the baby.”

  “She doesn’t talk about it much, but her childhood wasn’t good. I think her mother tried, but she never got past the fact that Anna was the product of rape.”

  “No wonder she’s dead set against marriage and
having a family,” Sorcha said. “I would be too.”

  Ronan ran a finger over the collapsed sword at his side. “It didn’t help that Anna had a few bad experiences herself. Her mentor tried to abuse her.”

  “Her mentor? Poor Anna. I hope someone killed the bastard,” Bree said.

  Ronan shrugged. “Anna did.”

  “She killed her mentor?” Brodie said. “Blimey.”

  “I guess you’ll stop teasing her now,” Tomas said.

  Tavis felt sick. My God, what had he done? Maybe Anna wasn’t coming back because she didn’t want to see him again. He heard Bree speaking over the rushing noise in his head.

  “I think Tavis needs to rest,” Bree said.

  “I need to wash up.” He’d cleaned off as best he could in the dungeon, but he needed a proper washing. And now he needed some privacy so he could decide what to do about the awful thing he’d done.

  “He can use the jetted tub,” Bree said. “I’ll get it started.”

  “You’ll enjoy this,” Faelan said. “We have bathrooms now, fancy things, far better than a privy or a water closet. Smell better too. They have big tubs with hot water coming out holes in the sides. Works wonders on sore muscles.”

  “I used one at the house where Angus took me.” Almost everyone left, and Faelan and Duncan helped Tavis into the bathroom. It was a sight indeed, even better than the one he’d used before. Marble everywhere. A large tub was bubbling as steam rose from the water.

  “Don’t stay in too long,” Bree said. “You don’t want to pass out and drown.” This made her blush, and Tavis thought again how bonny she was. Until Anna, he hadn’t been with a truly beautiful woman. Marna had been pleasant, but no beauty. And there’d only been the one time. Her coaxing had worn him down, and they’d lain together right there in the hay. That had been over a hundred and fifty years ago. No wonder he couldn’t stop thinking about sex.

  “I’ll keep a check on him,” Faelan said.

  Faelan sat on the edge of the big tub as Tavis slipped into the water. “Very nice,” Tavis said.

  Faelan was quiet, and Tavis saw he was looking at his back. “I’ll kill him for this,” Faelan said. The look on his face was fierce, reminding Tavis that Faelan wasn’t just his brother. He was the Mighty Faelan.