Midnight's Captive (Dark Warriors)

by Donna Grant

  “Blood?” Charon asked with a frown.

  Phelan lowered himself onto a bench at the long table. “Aye. After the battle at Wallace’s mansion and my blood didna heal you, it was mentioned that Wallace might have done something to the drough blood to make it a stronger weapon against us.”

  “Aye,” Camdyn said as he gently moved his infant daughter out of his arms and into those of his wife, Saffron. “If it can be determined what makes the drough blood react to ours, then we can have something to counter it when Wallace uses the X90s.”

  Charon found his hand lifting to rub his chest, but stopped himself before he could touch the wound. “That’s a good plan.”

  “What is it?” Logan asked when Charon paused.

  “When Wallace used the drough blood on me yesterday, I was healed in an instant by the blast of magic that destroyed my cabin.”

  Hayden grunted. “I’d like to know who is capable of that.”

  Charon glanced down at his hand. “I felt mie magic right before I was knocked unconscious. The only other person near us was Laura.”

  “I didna feel magic from her when you arrived,” Arran said.

  Charon frowned in worry. “Neither did I for two years, but I did today. That’s the crux of the problem.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “What do you mean she’s gone?” Jason demanded.

  Malcolm recognized the Warrior with Jason from his vantage point atop a building in Ferness. Dale merely shrugged, which sent Jason into a rage.

  “She can no’ be gone!”

  The leggy dark-haired woman with Jason picked at her fingernails and said, “She’s gone. Move on to the next plan.”

  The next instant, Jason was in her face. “Aisley, I doona need your comments.”

  Malcolm narrowed his eyes on Aisley as she dared to return Jason’s glare. The drough had gumption, but whether it was from lack of knowledge to what Jason could do, or indifference, Malcolm didn’t know.

  “Why you let your cousin talk to you like that, I doona know,” replied another woman. Her skin was so pale, it looked sickly, and her bright red lipstick and nails did nothing to help.

  So, Aisley was his cousin. Interesting.

  Jason’s voice lowered into a whisper as he bent his head toward Aisley. Malcolm might be several blocks away, but his enhanced hearing allowed him to pick up the slightest of murmurs.

  “Are you testing me?”

  Aisley’s bored look didn’t change, but Malcolm saw a subtle stiffening of her body. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Cousin.”

  “See that you doona.” With one final glare, Jason turned away and opened the door of a white BMW. “I’ll get Laura soon enough. Time to regroup.”

  Malcolm flicked his thumb over one of his maroon claws as Jason and his entourage departed Ferness. He hadn’t planned on coming here, but after Larena’s call, he found himself heading north.

  He stood, the sound of someone approaching putting him on guard. Malcolm turned to watch a tall, barrel-chested man walk out onto the roof of the building.

  His gaze scanned the area until he spotted Malcolm. The man cleared his throat. “I saw you with Charon a bit ago. I need to know if everything is all right with the lass and all.”

  Malcolm frowned until he realized the man was referring to Laura. “I’ve no’ heard. Charon took her somewhere she’ll be safe.”

  “Good, good,” the man said and shifted from one foot to the other.

  “Are you one of the men Charon spoke about who helps guard this village?”

  The man nodded. “Aye. I’m Brian. Phelan told us to keep watch, but we’ve no’ gotten further instructions.”

  “Charon will return soon. Until then, continue to stay on guard. If Jason Wallace or any of the group that was with him returns, call Charon immediately.”

  Malcolm walked past the man to the stairs, since he couldn’t jump off the building without raising suspicions. He wasn’t sure how much Charon’s men knew.

  “Are you staying?” Brian asked.

  Malcolm stopped and looked at the distant mountains. Thick mist obscured the peaks, promising miles of solitude, lochs of crystal-clear water, and plenty of glens to get lost in.

  “Nay,” Malcolm finally answered. “My job is done.”

  * * *

  Laura came awake in an instant. Her eyes flew open the same time she sat up. She quickly examined the narrow room to discover she was alone. In a bed.

  She had no memory of getting there. However, she remembered all too clearly Lacy’s visit.

  The door creaked open, and Laura lifted her eyes to Charon who filled the doorway. Her heart stopped in her chest to see him standing there, hale and hearty. Her lips parted, words locked in her throat.

  How could he be alive? Then she remembered seeing his wounds heal. Had he never been dead? Had she mourned for nothing?

  His dark brown hair was parted to the side and looked as though he had run his fingers through it multiple times. He sported a deep shadow of whiskers on his cheek and jaw, but it was the worry in his beautiful dark eyes that caused her stomach to clench in dread.

  “I thought you were dead,” she whispered when she finally found her voice. It was still such a shock to see him standing there.

  Charon let out a long exhale and softly closed the door. He leaned against it, his hands shoved in the front pockets of his faded jeans. “How much did you see?”

  “I saw…” She swallowed when her voice gave out. “I saw you change.”

  “I dreaded as much. You doona need to fear me, Laura. I’d never harm you.”

  “Where am I?” she asked, not yet ready to talk about what had happened.

  Charon dropped his chin to his chest. “MacLeod Castle. It’s the only place I know of that Wallace can no’ get to easily and hurt you.”

  She assumed as much by the stone walls and floors. Laura gathered the blanket in her fingers. “Are you a Warrior?”

  “Aye,” he answered without hesitation. “I’m immortal with special powers from the primeval god inside me. I suppose Wallace told you that.”

  Laura nodded and looked at Charon through her lashes. “He told me droughs were good.”

  “Of course he would.” Charon’s voice was flat, emotionless. As were his eyes when he lifted them to her. “Is that how he got you to go with him?”

  “How did you know?”

  “We’re excellent trackers.”

  Laura couldn’t hold his gaze. So he had come for her. Why had she doubted him? “Yes, that’s how I went with him. One minute I was scared, and the next, I felt as if I were safe. I suspect he used magic on me.”

  “I’m sure he did.”

  “You tell me droughs are evil, he tells me it’s the mies who are evil. I don’t know what to believe. It’s all so confusing.” She swallowed and looked at him. “I’m scared, Charon.”

  For several long minutes he said nothing. Finally he replied, “There is a group of people downstairs who’ve risked their lives for centuries to protect you and every person in the world. The Druids are mies. Their magic is pure and powerful, and they have helped take down two evil droughs—Deirdre and Declan. They’ll aid us in taking down Jason as well.

  “The Warriors have gone through Hell and back again. We’ve lost brethren and friends, but we keep fighting because if we doona, the evil would win.”

  He paused, a muscle in his jaw jumping. “The MacLeods have opened their home to you. Everyone here would put their lives on the line to protect you. If you doona believe the people in this castle are no’ evil, then do everyone a favor and leave.”

  Laura felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach. She gasped, struggling for a hold in this ever-changing world she was now in. “If you didn’t want me here, then why did you bring me?”

  “A question I’ve been asking myself. For all I know, you’re working with Wallace now, and you’re here to betray me.”

  “I’m not.”

  He laughed wryly. “
They all say that, but we’ve seen how a drough can use magic to get in someone’s mind. I have to know for sure, Laura.”

  She tucked her hair behind her ears and looked at her hands. No longer could she feel the magic inside her, and no matter how much she called to it, it didn’t answer. “You told me of the Druids, and I was hesitant to believe you. Yet I did because you’ve never lied to me. I have magic. Or rather, I did.”

  “What does that mean?” Charon asked as he stared intently at her.

  Laura wasn’t quite ready to tell him everything yet. “Why didn’t you tell me what you were?”

  “The obvious reason is because you were no’ a Druid, or at least I didna think you were.”

  “But you told me of the Druids.”

  “I had no choice,” Charon said between clenched teeth and lowered his gaze to the floor. “I didna want to tell you that much, but Wallace was determined to have you, and you wouldna listen to reason. I was prepared to do anything to ensure you were kept out of his clutches.”

  The old hurts returned with a vengeance, and even though she knew Charon hadn’t had anything to do with her family controlling her, she couldn’t stop the emotions filling her. “So, just because you said so, I’m supposed to do it.”

  His gaze snapped to hers. “You’re damned right. I was trying to save your life.”

  “I swore when I left my family that no one would ever tell me what to do again!” she yelled, hating how her rage was taking her, confusing past hurts with current concerns, especially after Lacy’s visit.

  “People tell you what to do every bloody day, Laura!”

  She dug her fingers into her palms as her body began to shake from her rage. “Is this where you make love to me again to convince me to do what you want?”

  In the blink of an eye, he had her on her back, her arms over her head and his face inches from hers. “You think I brought you to my bed so you’d do my will?”

  His voice was too soft, too mellow. It belied the fire that burned in his deep brown gaze. “You told me to do something, and when I didn’t do it, you tried another approach.”

  “Do you think so little of yourself? What I did was find another plan.” His voice was low, deadly, as he pushed away from her and stood. His body stood still as stone. “Besides, you’re the one who kissed me. I didna call for Fallon and have him take you, kicking and screaming, to MacLeod Castle. I risked everything to keep you safe.”

  His words drew her up short.

  “You don’t understand—”

  “You’re damned right I doona,” he interrupted. “Because you willna tell me. Keep your secrets. God knows I’ve kept mine.”

  She closed her eyes against the pain his words caused, pain because she knew how stupid she had been in not leaving Ferness when he told her to. When she thought he’d died, she blamed herself, knowing it was her pride in not leaving when he asked.

  And now she would argue with him again.

  Laura wanted Charon to tell her all she wanted to know about Druids and Warriors, and she’d foolishly tried to use anger to get him to do it.

  The truth was, she knew the evil was Jason. He had used magic to control her, lied to her, and kidnapped her. Charon and Phelan had done nothing but try to protect her.

  Someone who hadn’t endured her youth wouldn’t understand why she didn’t want to be told what to do. How could she explain to someone that there wasn’t an aspect of her life that her family hadn’t controlled?

  Twice she had dared to rebel, and twice she had been punished. Her father was always gone on business, but neither of her parents had ever laid a hand on her. No, her mother had other ways of exacting punishment.

  Charon rose and walked to the door, but stopped with his hand on the knob. “The others will want to talk to you. Reaghan is a Druid who can tell if a person is lying by looking in their eyes. Dani can search your mind to see if there’s a spell controlling you.”

  “By all means, send them up,” Laura said as she pushed off the covers and swung her legs over the bed. Clean clothes had been set out on a chair, and she was anxious to get out of her dirty ones. “The sooner everyone understands the only one controlling me is me, the sooner I can leave.”

  “You are no’ a prisoner here. It’s one of Fallon’s rules. No one is held against their will.”

  “First bit of good news I’ve heard today.”

  Laura hurt. Not from any wound, but from her heart. The night Charon made love to her had been special. There was a connection, or at least she’d thought there was.

  She wished she could stop lashing out at him because of what happened to her. It was as if her world were in a raging storm and she couldn’t see land in sight.

  Just when she thought she might get on course, something else occurred to send her back out into the storm. At least now Jason’s magic was easing its hold on her and she knew who was evil and who wasn’t.

  She was overjoyed in seeing Charon alive. She wanted to throw her arms around him and hold him close.

  “Where is your magic?”

  Laura slid off the high bed, the stones beneath her bare feet cool as she stood. “I don’t have it.”

  “It was you who used magic at the cabin.”

  It wasn’t a question. Laura couldn’t look at him because it hurt too much. There was too much between them now, and no matter how much her body—and her heart—might want him, they could never be together now.

  “I saw you and Dale fighting. I saw you winning. Until something kept you from moving. I know now it was magic, but all I knew then was that you couldn’t defend yourself. Then I saw Jason pour his blood in you. I heard … I heard you bellow. The next thing I knew, I had something inside me, almost like a presence. It built the longer they held you, until it exploded from my hands.”

  “Your magic saved me. Drough blood is poisonous to Warriors. I was dying.”

  Laura swallowed as tears threatened. She hadn’t been wrong. He had been dying. It was that emotion that had fueled her magic.

  But what had caused her to be able to use it after all those years without even knowing she had it? Could it have been the fact Charon was hurting?

  Or was it something else entirely?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Britt looked at Aiden MacLeod over the rim of her wineglass as she let the deep red liquid slide down her throat. Aiden’s green eyes were warm and smiling as they stared at her.

  Yet, several times during their dinner she had seen him glancing around the restaurant, his gaze intent and probing. He wasn’t ignoring her. Not once did he fail to respond to something she said or asked.

  Aiden nodded to the waiter who removed their plates. Then Aiden turned those amazing eyes to her. He smiled, his wide, full lips snagging her attention.

  He had a mouth she’d dreamed of kissing since the moment she looked up from the microscope to see him standing in the lab. It wasn’t just his mouth either. It was all of him.

  She came across many good-looking Scots during her time in Edinburgh, but there was something about Aiden the others lacked. He had confidence, but it was some unnamable thing that gave him an edge other men would never have.

  “You’ve been different since Quinn showed up,” she said as she set aside her wine.

  “I doona know what you mean,” Aiden answered, and ran a hand casually through his wavy, light brown hair.

  Britt leaned forward and moved aside a lock of his hair that had fallen onto his forehead. She itched to run her own fingers through the strands that fell haphazardly around his face and brushed the rim of his jaw.

  He caught her hand, his eyes darkening as he captured her gaze and held it while he placed a kiss atop her knuckles.

  Britt’s heart raced from the feel of his lips on her skin. They had shared many dinners and lunches before this, but always while working. This night was different, special.

  If she let it, she knew something could develop between them. And how she wanted it to. Even with his s
ecrets, she wanted him.

  “You know exactly what I mean,” Britt said, and reluctantly pulled her hand away. “You look so much like Quinn. I know he’s related to you. Why won’t you tell me how?”

  Aiden shrugged and leaned back as the dessert was placed on the table. “Because it doesna matter.”

  “Doesn’t matter, huh?” she asked, and reached for the fork. She slid the utensil into the cheesecake and placed it in her mouth as she considered the man across from her. “You tell me you have magic, prove it to me even, and yet tell me it doesn’t matter who Quinn is.”

  “Britt, please,” he whispered, his face closed off.

  “What is it about you that’s so different from everyone else? You dress the same, but that’s where the similarities end. Some of the words you use are from another century. The way you stand and watch people. It’s as if you’re waiting for something to attack.”

  He looked down at the plate of mousse. “I’m just a man.”

  “A man with magic and secrets. It makes you different, but without it, you’d still stand out in a crowd. I’ve seen the way people clear a path around you, almost as if they sense something that marks you as someone they need to stay away from.”

  “You doona stay away from me.”

  “Because I don’t want to. I’m not sure I could even if I tried. Who are you really, Aiden MacLeod?”

  Aiden’s green eyes lifted and caught hers. “You wouldna believe me if I told you.”

  “Try me.”

  “How close are you to discovering the differences in the blood?”

  She shrugged and took another bite. “I feel as if there’s a key piece missing.”

  “There is. What if I can get it to you?”

  Though she wanted to know about Aiden, she had realized weeks ago that to learn who he truly was, she had to find out the differences in the blood. “If I had that, then I think two, three days at the most.”