Midnight's Captive (Dark Warriors)

by Donna Grant

“Nay,” Quinn said. “Wallace has been watching Charon for months. He tried to kidnap a woman who works for Charon.”

  “A Druid?”

  “She isna a Druid.”

  Aiden frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Then why does he want her?”

  “To make Charon suffer. Apparently Charon cares for this woman.”

  “Oh, shite,” Aiden said as realization dawned.

  “It gets worse.”

  Aiden was tired of it always being worse. He braced himself for any possibility then. “You said Wallace tried to kidnap this woman. That means he failed.”

  “He did, but he went after Charon and Laura himself. Wallace jammed mobile phone communications and had the phones disabled in Charon’s building.”

  “Did he … did Wallace kill Charon?” Aiden liked Charon, even though the Warrior didn’t spend much time at the castle. Charon had always been there when they needed him.

  “I’ve no’ heard yet,” Quinn said, and rubbed the back of his neck. “Phelan was in Ferness. He’s the one who called the castle while Charon and Laura went into the forest.”

  Aiden digested that bit of news, not liking how it unsettled him. But he also knew his father hadn’t come to tell him just that. “You think since Wallace was watching Charon that he has someone watching the castle?”

  “I’m nigh certain of it, son,” Quinn said, and hooked a thumb in the front pocket of his jeans. “I’ve done a search around the university, and I doona detect any Druids.”

  “Wallace would be smart and hire others, no’ Druids.”

  Quinn nodded. “That was your mother’s guess as well. I know you wanted to come here by yourself—”

  “It’s all right,” Aiden interrupted him. “I understand. I’m your only son. You worry.”

  “You have magic of your own. Be prepared to use it, especially for Britt.”

  “You think they’d harm her?”

  “Without a doubt.”

  Aiden looked at her through the glass doors as she stood staring at the night sky. “I willna let that happen. Keep me posted. I’m going to walk Britt to her car.”

  “I’ve sent Galen to her flat to have a look around. He’ll take watch tonight.”

  Aiden gave a nod to his father. “Thanks.”

  “You like her,” Quinn said, a half smile on his lips.

  Aiden rolled his eyes. “That talk is for another time.” Quinn’s laughter followed him out of the building to Britt. “Sorry about that.”

  “Is everything okay? Quinn seemed a tad upset.”

  Aiden was trying to figure out a response when she started walking.

  “Let me guess,” she said with a meaningful look. “I can’t know.”

  “Unfortunately, aye. Trust me, you doona want to know.”

  “Maybe I do,” she argued. “It might help me with my understanding the different blood you’ve given me.”

  Aiden wanted to tell her, and perhaps he should. Her life was in danger from simply walking with him. He looked around, peering deep into shadows and stepping in front of her anytime someone drew near.

  “You’re freaking me out, Aiden,” she whispered. “What the hell is going on?”

  “I wasna kidding when I said your life was in danger.”

  “Yeah,” she replied sarcastically. “I get that. I think you owe me more than the standard ‘you doona need to know’ bit.”

  He found himself fighting a smile as he glanced at her. “There are things in this world you wouldna believe.”

  “Try me. I have an open mind.”

  “Magic.”

  She rolled her eyes as they halted beside her car. “Magic? That’s all you’ve got?”

  “Magic is in this land. It’s in the verra air we breathe, in the water we drink. It’s in the soil even. If you’ve magic, you can feel it all around you.”

  “Are you telling me you have magic?” she asked carefully.

  Aiden looked into her blue eyes and knew he was taking a huge chance. But he wanted to tell her, wanted her to know the real him. “Aye.”

  “So, one of the blood samples has … magic in it?”

  “It does.”

  She leaned back against her car and made a sound at the back of her throat. “Well. That’s not something I expected to hear. But not every sample has magic in it?”

  Aiden gave a single nod of his head.

  “Are you making this up just to shut me up?”

  He looked at the lamppost behind him, then glanced back at Britt to make sure she was watching. It took just a small thought to shatter the lightbulb.

  “Oh, hell,” Britt said as she ducked.

  Aiden hoped that satisfied her curiosity for the night, since he knew his father was watching and wouldn’t approve.

  “You weren’t kidding.”

  “Nay, I was no’,” Aiden said as he opened her car door for her. “Be safe tonight, Britt.”

  He began to turn away when her hand touched his arm. Aiden looked back at her.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Doona trust any new people you might meet. There are those out to harm me and my family. You helping me could verra well put you on that list, too.”

  “All right. Until tomorrow.”

  Aiden walked into the shadows, but stopped to watch her drive away. Even if Britt gave him all the answers he wanted tomorrow, he still couldn’t leave her.

  Not just because he liked her, but because he knew Jason Wallace would find her. If Wallace was now harming those the Warriors and Druids cared about, then it was imperative Britt be safe.

  How he was going to do that, he didn’t know. Aiden was sure she wouldn’t enjoy being shut away in a castle. But how else to keep her away from Wallace?

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Ramsey skidded to a halt beside Broc as they took in the destruction of what used to be a cabin. “Shite.”

  “Charon!” Phelan yelled as he rushed past them.

  The group hurried to Phelan, who knelt beside an unmoving Charon.

  “Let me,” Isla said, and crouched on the other side of Charon.

  Ramsey may not have healing magic, but his magic was potent, and he would eagerly lend it to the other Druids if they needed him.

  By the look of blood coating Charon, he had fought Wallace. It just hadn’t been enough. Why couldn’t Charon have waited for them? There hadn’t been a need to sacrifice himself, not when he was a necessity for the battle to come.

  Because Ramsey knew there would be a battle. And it would be one that could very well end them all.

  Fallon squeezed his eyes shut a second before he asked, “Isla, is he—?”

  Before Isla could answer, Phelan gave Charon a hard shake, his jaw clenched. “Wake up, damn you.”

  It was odd to see Phelan so emotional. Ramsey knew he and Charon had formed a friendship, but since Phelan was a wanderer, no one realized just how deep that friendship went until that moment.

  Ramsey looked at Hayden, each of them understanding the pain cutting through Phelan. They had felt such an ache with the loss of Duncan. Their anguish was nothing compared to Ian’s, however, since he hadn’t just lost a friend in Duncan, he’d lost his twin.

  They had all sacrificed so much. Ramsey never wanted to lose another Warrior. After surviving the unbinding of their gods, the horrors of Deirdre’s mountain, and then gaining control over their gods, the bonds binding the Warriors were strong.

  And when one of those bonds was severed …

  Ramsey’s thought ceased when Charon’s eyes suddenly opened.

  “Laura,” he whispered before he sat up.

  Charon looked around, not understanding why his cabin was in shreds all around him. He barely took notice of his friends as he gained his feet and called for Laura again.

  “What the hell happened?” Fallon asked.

  Charon didn’t want to take the precious few moments to tell him. “Jason Wallace.”

  “Phelan told us that much,” Ian
said.

  Charon went to body after body on the ground, but none of them was Laura. Panic began to set in. “Laura!”

  “She’s no’ here,” Phelan said as he moved debris. “She’s gone.”

  “I told her to leave. I told her to run.” Charon looked in the direction she would have gone. He had to find her before Wallace did.

  Jason’s threats, his taunts of hurting Laura sent his blood to boiling.

  “Charon!” Ramsey shouted near him.

  He spun around to find the others staring at him. Charon’s gaze ran over each of them, noting the concern and worry clouding their eyes.

  “I have to find Laura. Jason is after her. He wants to hurt her.”

  Broc immediately closed his eyes. Charon waited tensely for Broc to find her, but minutes went by with nothing.

  Finally, Broc opened his eyes, his lips pressed tight. “I can no’ find her. There’s something blocking my power.”

  “We need to know what happened,” Larena said calmly.

  Gwynn gave a solemn nod and smoothed back her hair behind her ears. “To find Laura, Charon. Please.”

  He blew out a harsh breath. “I tried to lead them away from her, but somehow Jason knew she was at the cabin. As soon as I discovered that, I came here. When I built the cabin, I built a trapdoor in the floor that led out to a ladder down the mountain. It’s hidden. I told her to use it and run. I promised I’d find her.”

  “That explains why Laura isna here,” Phelan said. “It doesna explain why there are dead droughs and your cabin is in splinters.”

  Charon looked down at his chest and slowly ran his hand where Wallace had poured his drough blood into his wounds. “I came out to distract Jason so Laura could get away. I knew she’d see me, and I knew I didna stand a chance with the droughs.”

  “But you wanted to give her a chance,” Isla whispered.

  Charon nodded, silently searching for any hint of drough magic so he could find out which way Jason and his group went. But there was nothing.

  “Jason admitted he wanted to torture Laura to make me suffer. He plans that for all of us. It isna enough to kill us. He wants us to suffer.”

  Lucan kicked a board at his feet and mumbled, “Shite.”

  “Why did Wallace no’ kill you?” Logan asked.

  Charon gave a slight shake of his head. “That’s just it, Logan. He did, or he was. That big brute of a Warrior, Dale, and I fought. Jason didna allow that for long before he used his magic and pinned me as Dale sliced me open. Then Jason cut himself to use his blood to kill me.”

  He could still feel the agony of the drough blood touching his wounds. It had been like a nightmare, the pain unending. The sheer agony of it growing until only one thought remained—Laura.

  “I don’t understand,” Gwynn said. “Shouldn’t you be dead?”

  Charon snorted. “And my cabin should still be standing.”

  “You doona remember anything?” Ian asked.

  He started to say no when he paused. “There was an explosion of some sort. Then … nothing.”

  “Jason didna have a need to blow up the cabin,” Lucan said.

  Fallon nodded grimly. “Who would?”

  Logan bent to place his hand on the ground. “Despite the magic Jason used here, as well as the dead droughs, I feel no magic present. No’ even from Gwynn or Isla.”

  “And I can no’ seem to use my power,” Broc added.

  Charon had heard enough. “I have to find Laura before Jason does. She shouldna be a part of this war. She’s no’ a Druid. He only wants to hurt her to get to me. I willna allow that to happen.”

  “Let’s find her,” Phelan said as he moved to stand behind him.

  Fallon looked at one of the dead droughs. “I need to get Isla and Gwynn back to the castle, and then contact Quinn immediately so he can get Aiden out of Edinburgh. Since I’ve been trying to jump back to the castle for a few minutes now, I think whatever happened is affecting all of our powers.”

  “And my magic,” Isla said.

  Gwynn glanced at Logan. “Mine as well.”

  “I need to get the girls away from this area in order to use my power,” Fallon said. “At least I hope it’s the area. Who knows what that explosion really did.”

  “Or who did it,” Phelan said. “If Wallace had that kind of power, he’d have used it before.”

  Ramsey looked around before meeting Charon’s gaze. “Was the explosion aimed at you or Wallace?”

  “Why do you ask that?” Charon demanded.

  Ramsey pointed to the cabin. “It came from within the cabin.”

  “The only thing in that cabin was Laura before she climbed through the trapdoor. I wouldna have left her inside if there was anything that could’ve harmed her.”

  “Nay, you wouldna have,” Phelan said.

  Logan cut his hand through the air. “We can figure out what was inside the cabin later, after we’re able to use our power and the Druids can use their magic.”

  “Aye. Everyone needs to be at the castle,” Charon agreed. “Get anyone who might be acquainted with any of you safe. Jason will strike at anyone to draw us out.”

  Ramsey said, “I’m staying to help search for Laura.”

  “Me as well,” Broc said. “Whatever is preventing my power willna last forever.”

  Lucan grinned. “Count me in.”

  Ian met Charon’s gaze in an unspoken agreement.

  “The rest of us will set up patrols at the castle,” Logan stated.

  Fallon glanced at Larena. “That’s after we get Galen, Quinn, and Aiden back to the castle.”

  With a nod to Fallon, Charon started off in the direction Laura should have gone. It didn’t take long to find the broken twigs and bent stalks of plants from someone who had fallen upon them.

  “It’s Laura,” Phelan said from a short way ahead.

  Charon went to Phelan and spotted the print of Laura’s hiking boot. “Aye. She did get away. She shouldna be that far ahead of us.”

  “Nay, but others are following her as well,” Ramsey said as he knelt beside another print.

  Lucan examined the track. “It’s big and deep. I’m guessing they sent Dale after her.”

  “No’ just Dale,” Ian said. “I’ve found at least six different tracks. I think they’re all hunting her.”

  Charon was grateful the others were with him. He still didn’t understand why he wasn’t dead. He’d felt his organs begin to shut down from the drough blood. Yet, somehow he’d been healed in a mere moment.

  How when Phelan’s blood hadn’t been able to heal him from the previous attack? There was a different kind of magic at work, one they had never experienced before.

  They followed Laura’s tracks as long as they could until the trail disappeared. They were about a mile from the cabin, and Broc’s power still didn’t work.

  The Warrior wasn’t at all happy, and neither was Charon. If Broc could use his power, they could find Laura in a matter of minutes and get her away from Jason.

  It felt almost as if something were standing in their way, preventing him from finding Laura.

  And for once Charon didn’t think it was Wallace.

  * * *

  The stitch in Laura’s side brought her to a halt. She struggled to breathe past the pain, all the while her mind was urging her to run.

  She grabbed her side and bent over, gulping in air to try to calm her racing heart as she rested. The sun was nearly above her, but it was difficult to see with all the trees and cloud cover, so she had no idea which way she was going.

  But she had to keep moving. That was her only choice as she waited for Phelan to find her. Somehow.

  The image of Charon lying on the ground flashed in her mind. Laura couldn’t believe he was dead. She should’ve listened to him instead of fighting him when he wanted to send her away.

  He might still be alive if she hadn’t let her pride get in her way. So what if he had been repeating the actions of her family, he had
been doing it to save her life, not trying to run it.

  How could she have been so stupid, so foolish? Her actions had cost a good man his life.

  Or was he a man? Charon appeared to be a man, but whatever he had turned into was certainly more than just a man. He’d moved with supernatural speed, and he’d been able to heal.

  That gave her pause. She had seen his wounds heal. There might be a chance he wasn’t dead. But then she remembered the explosion, the way she had somehow obliterated everything.

  No, she was alone now while some psycho with magic chased her. Even if she knew how to blow something up again, she wouldn’t chance it since she could harm innocents in the process.

  The stitch eased enough that Laura began to run again. She wasn’t moving as quick as before, but she was moving. She kept as quiet as she could, though it sounded to her like her breathing could be heard all over Scotland.

  She was sure that at any moment Jason Wallace and his group would jump out at her, but somehow they didn’t. Laura didn’t question her fortune, just kept running.

  When she came to a stream, she rested again and drank deeply. Her stomach growled with hunger. She hadn’t eaten anything since the awful date with Ben.

  Had that really happened only the night before? It seemed years ago. Perhaps because her life had changed so much in the hours afterward.

  The shade from the oaks and pine cast shadows over the water, the sound of the gurgling stream easing some of her weariness.

  It was so beautiful in the forest, so peaceful and wild that it almost felt as if she were in another world. Is that why Charon always sought the solace of the woods?

  She took another drink of water, and once more started running. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t stop thinking of Charon.

  Maybe she should have stayed and seen to him. She could have hidden so Jason and the others couldn’t find her. If only she’d been brave enough to stand her ground instead of hurrying away.

  Each time she began to think about the explosion and the feeling that had coursed through her body, she immediately turned her thoughts to something else.

  Laura wasn’t ready to think about what she had done or how. It was too scary for her mind to comprehend all of it. She wanted to deny she caused the blast, but she knew the blame lay squarely on her shoulders.