by Donna Grant
“It might take me a few days to get it, but once I do, we need the information as soon as possible.”
All night they had talked of mundane things like the city and her childhood. Not once had the conversation turned to her research on the blood or why he needed it. As soon as they had begun to speak of it, Aiden’s attitude shifted.
Gone was the smile and relaxed man who had sat across from her in the crowded restaurant. He was tense, his voice low and urgent, sending off warning bells in her head.
“What’s happened?” she asked quietly as she let her eyes wander slowly around the restaurant.
“My enemy is closing in. He’s also begun to target those close to us. I fear you may be next, Britt. Already he’s tried to kidnap someone in an effort to hurt one of my friends.”
“Who is this asshole anyway?”
Aiden gave her a wicked grin of approval. “Jason Wallace.”
She recited that name to memory. “I’ll be on guard. I’m not without skills, you know. I lived in San Francisco, London, and Berlin. I can take care of myself.”
“He has magic.”
That deflated her somewhat, but she didn’t let it show. “Will he leave me alone once you’re gone with your information?”
Aiden’s head moved side to side. “I doona believe he will.”
“So what? You stay with me the rest of my life for protection?” It had been said as a joke, but after the words passed her lips, the idea of him being there appealed to her entirely too much.
Britt looked away and put her napkin on the table as silence stretched between them. So he might not feel the same. It wouldn’t be the first time. It seemed she was into guys who didn’t feel the same or vice versa.
For once she’d thought she might have gotten it right with Aiden.
Finally he said, “If I thought that would work, aye, I would. It willna be enough. Until Wallace is gone, I’d like you to come with me.”
“And where is that?” She drank more wine to calm her nerves and the excitement his offer brought, but nothing seemed to help. The thought of going with Aiden wasn’t what frightened her, it was how much she wanted to go that did.
She had missed countless classes and deadlines for papers while helping him, but she didn’t care. For so long, she had strived for degrees and doctorates, anything to fill her life with some kind of meaning.
One cause, one man had changed her way of thinking in the blink of an eye. She’d found that meaning with Aiden, but she didn’t want to tell him that, since she was unsure how he would take it.
“Aiden? Where would I be going?” she asked again.
He sat forward and placed his forearms on the table. “A castle.”
There was more to it. That she knew instantly by the way his eyes watched her. “That sounds nice. I’ve toured a few castles while here, but I’ve never stayed in one.”
“I doona believe you know how serious this all is.”
“I do. You’ve made it clear from the beginning how dangerous this was.”
“But you didna believe me,” he said, daring her to lie.
Britt speared another piece of cheesecake. “No, I didn’t believe you until I studied the samples you gave me. This might not make sense to you, but the idea of studying something so unbelievable is too good to pass up.”
“Even if it costs you your life?”
She hid a smile as his eyes darkened while he watched her slowly put the fork in her mouth and wrap her lips around it. Then, slowly pull the utensil out. She swallowed the dessert, her blood heating with his gaze.
Maybe he wasn’t as immune to her as he would have her believe.
“Didn’t you tell me you’d keep me safe?”
He cleared his throat and looked away. “Aye. I did. I am,” he hastily corrected.
So he was drawn to her. Britt wondered why Aiden hadn’t made a move on her. She’d begun to think he wasn’t interested, but that had been blown out of the water.
What held him back? And did she want to wait on him?
The answer to that was a definite “hell no.” She wanted Aiden. Even when she knew she should be running the other way and putting as much distance between them as she could because of the danger surrounding him, she couldn’t.
She was drawn to him, pulled toward him regardless of the consequences.
Britt smiled and sat back. His gaze lowered to her lips before dropping to her breasts. It was the first time she’d worn the deep purple dress she bought a year ago, and she was so glad she had.
“You deserved a night out on the town after all your hard work,” Aiden said.
“We need to get back though.”
He nodded and pulled out his wallet. After tossing down several pound notes, he stood. “Wallace’s attention is on my friend, but I doona know how long that’ll be the case.”
“Then home it is.”
Britt enjoyed how he pulled out her chair and offered her his arm as they left the restaurant. She preened inwardly when she observed how women watched Aiden with lust in their eyes.
He was a fine cut of a man in his slacks, shirt, and jacket. Added with his long hair, the confident way he walked, and his sly smile, he was irresistible.
He didn’t notice he was being watched, which made her want him even more. As soon as they stepped out of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk, Britt turned and kissed him.
For a full second, Aiden stood there, his body soaking in the feel of Britt’s soft curves against him. Then he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.
He groaned at the sweet taste of her. Many nights he’d dreamed of kissing her, and now that she was in his arms, he feared he might never let her go.
Aiden’s cock swelled when he heard her soft moan. He deepened the kiss, wanting more, needing more.
Someone bumped into Aiden from behind. He tore his mouth from Britt’s and turned to give a piece of his mind to whoever had dared to interrupt them. But one look at the hulky, bald man with the goatee, and all Aiden could think about was getting Britt away.
“You’re wanted,” the man said.
Aiden pushed Britt behind him as he let his magic fill him. “No’ going to happen. Tell Wallace to go bugger himself.”
The man smiled. “So you know who I am.”
“I know a Warrior when I see one.”
“You would with your father and uncles being Warriors. Let’s no’ make a scene, lad. You and the girl need to come with me now.”
Galen stepped out of the shadows behind the man and leaned against the side of the building. “Ah, Dale. You think you’d learn you’re serving the wrong side.”
Dale shifted so he could look at Galen as well as Aiden. “One Warrior willna stop us. I’m no’ alone.”
“Neither are we,” Aiden said and smiled coldly.
In an instant, Dale called up his god, his skin turning a pale green. He swiped at Galen with his claws the same time Aiden caught movement across the street.
He turned to shield Britt as his father barreled into Dale and sent them tumbling down an alley.
“Get her away!” Galen shouted.
Aiden glanced at Britt to see her eyes wide and her face pale. “If we run, Wallace will catch us.”
“Then we stay.” Her voice was unsteady and she trembled in his arms, but she didn’t faint or run away screaming.
He nodded. “No matter what, stay with me. If you can no’, find Galen or Quinn.”
Aiden didn’t wait for her agreement as they slid into the alley to find his father fighting Dale. Quinn’s skin had turned the black of his god, and it was hard to keep track of him in the shadows.
Dale’s growls of rage brought a smile to Aiden’s lips. Galen was standing nearby watching. Suddenly he swung around.
“Droughs,” he said between clenched teeth, his fangs showing when he pulled back his lips in a growl. His skin turned the green of his god, and he bent his legs, his claws out and ready. “Wallace comes.”
; Aiden pushed Britt down so that she squatted against the wall. Then shrugged off his blazer and stood beside Galen and called up his magic.
“Your father is going to skin me alive if anything happens to you. You know Quinn wouldna want you here,” Galen said.
Aiden knew it all too well, but everyone needed to understand he was a man, not a child. And it was time he let them see it.
Two droughs turned the corner into the alley. Aiden sent a blast of magic at one. Galen used his speed to reach the other and kill him before any magic could be used against him.
As soon as Aiden’s opponent went down, Galen sliced the neck of the drough with his claws.
That was just the first wave. Aiden knew Wallace wouldn’t give up that easily.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Charon stalked down to the great hall with Laura’s words ringing in his head, but came to an abrupt halt when he saw everyone looking at him. The inhabitants of MacLeod Castle were scattered throughout the hall, some at the long table, some in chairs around the hearth.
“How is Laura?” Ronnie asked.
Charon didn’t look at Arran’s woman. Instead he pinned his gaze on Fallon. “Laura is no’ to be questioned until I’m done with her.”
“You think Wallace is using her?” Fallon asked, his brow furrowed in worry.
“I doona know what to think,” Charon admitted. He needed some time to collect his thoughts before he told the others too much. “I know it was her who used the magic, but she has none now. Unless she knows how to conceal it.”
Reaghan said, “If she can hide her magic, that would make her a very powerful Druid indeed.”
“Has any Druid ever been able to do that?” Camdyn asked.
Isla turned her bright blue eyes to Camdyn. “I’ve never known one who could. Not even Deirdre managed that, though I don’t know if it’s because she didn’t want to hide it or couldn’t.”
“How did Laura escape Wallace?” Phelan asked into the silence.
Charon scrubbed a hand down his face. “He said droughs were the good Druids and that Warriors were evil. I told Laura of the Druids, but nothing more. So she doesna know what to believe. It was Jason’s story, along with some of his magic that convinced her to go with him. But she didna tell me how she got away.”
“Why are you no’ still questioning her, then?” Lucan asked.
Charon glanced at his hands. He still felt her smooth skin against him, still remembered what it was like to thrust into her tight body and make her scream with pleasure.
There was more to Laura than what met the eye. He needed to earn her trust if he was going to learn anything. After working so closely with her, he’d thought he knew Laura. Apparently her secrets were as great as his own.
“I had to clear my head.”
“The night Laura was almost taken. I felt mie magic. It was brief, but I felt it,” Phelan said.
Charon looked at his friend. “I, as well. I’ve known Laura for years. I’d know if she was a Druid.”
“Would you?” Tara asked as she sat on the arm of Ramsey’s chair.
“I worked with her every day,” Charon said, holding back the anger, not at Tara, but because Tara was voicing doubts that he had already asked himself. “I’d know.”
Ramsey laid his hand atop Tara’s arm. “It’s true, love. Charon would’ve picked up on it.”
“Then how is it one minute she has magic and the next she doesn’t?” Cara asked.
Charon didn’t have an answer for Lucan’s wife. “She admitted to having magic, but she said it’s gone again.”
Ian gave a snort. “That doesna make sense.”
“It does,” Tara said defensively. “I could never count on my magic. Maybe hers is the same.”
Marcail walked to him. “Tara has a point. You said yourself you couldn’t always feel Tara’s magic, Ramsey.”
“Aye,” Charon murmured. If he could only get Laura to trust him again, she might tell him everything.
“I can help you.”
Charon looked at Marcail and the hand she hovered over his arm. Her gift was the ability to take away emotions, but in doing so she made herself ill.
“Nay. No’ only would Quinn take my head for making you sick, but it wouldna help.” He needed to work through all the emotions—as difficult as they were to piece together. All because it involved Laura.
Marcail rolled her turquoise eyes. “Quinn would understand that I did it for a friend. Besides, I think it would help. You’ve too much in that head of yours. You want to believe Laura isn’t working with Jason, but you can’t be sure.”
“I can clear that up with just a few minutes with Laura,” Reaghan said.
Charon didn’t turn away the glass of whisky placed in his hand by Hayden. He drained it in one swallow. It was filled again immediately.
The Dreagan whisky slid smoothly down his throat and spread warmth as it landed in his stomach. It dulled the ache that had gripped his chest like iron manacles since the moment he knew Jason had Laura.
But the unanswered questions, and the tormented look in Laura’s pale green eyes kept him on edge. It wasn’t just the anguish he read on her face, it was a bone-deep betrayal that distressed her. Who, exactly, had betrayed her?
He wanted to hand Laura over to the Druids so his mind wouldn’t be jumbled anymore. Let them sort out the answers in just a few brief moments. But before Laura was his lover, she had been his friend. She deserved more. Especially from him.
“Magic was used in her flat,” Ramsey said. “I noticed it when we found Laura unconscious, but I assumed she’d been the one to use it. Perhaps it was no’ her.”
Lucan crossed his arms over his chest. “You might be right, Ramsey.”
“Sonya said she had a bump on her head. Maybe she was knocked out, and that’s when she lost her magic,” Dani suggested.
Charon squeezed his eyes tightly shut as he recalled Laura’s words during their conversation. When he opened them, he looked at the amber liquid in his glass. “Laura said it was seeing Wallace pour his drough blood in me that caused her magic to rise. There was something in her voice, something that said she hadna known what it was.”
“Until Wallace told her,” Broc said with a growl.
Charon drained his glass again and set it down on the table with a thud. “If only we had gotten to her first.”
“What’s done is done,” Larena said. “We deal with what we have.”
Fallon looked at Charon. “Larena is right. I’ll honor your request to question Laura on your own. Until such time as it begins to put everyone else in danger.”
“Agreed,” Charon said.
He started to turn away when Isla called for him to wait as she rushed into the kitchen. A moment later, she returned with a tray of food.
“I’m sure she’s hungry,” Isla said.
Charon took the tray. “Thank you.”
“Trust your heart. It won’t lead you astray.”
He remembered Isla’s words as he walked the stairs back to Laura’s chamber. Charon would rather have taken Laura back to his house, but that option was lost to him now. Thanks to Wallace.
Charon paused outside Laura’s door and swallowed as he shoved thoughts of Jason Wallace aside. He shifted the tray and raised his hand to knock when he heard the shower.
He opened the door before quietly walking inside. Steam billowed from the tiny bathroom and the half-closed door. Charon set the tray down on the bed and closed the door, where he stood waiting for her while doing his damnedest not to stalk into the bathroom and join her in the shower.
After finally giving in to his desire for her, Charon found it difficult to deny his cravings. Laura was like a drug. He’d had a taste—and needed more.
A few minutes later, the water shut off. Charon thought remaining where he was would make it easier on him.
It only made it worse.
He imagined the water coating her body, a drop hanging on the edge of a nipple, waiting for
him to capture it in his mouth. His eyes slid shut when all the blood rushed to his cock as he remembered lovely rose-tipped breasts.
With a groan, he clenched his teeth. He heard her moving around and could picture Laura drying off, the towel moving over her silky skin just as his hands had a day before.
His eyes snapped open when she walked out of the bathroom in tight leggings and a shirt and halted as she caught sight of him. He met her gaze before he nodded to the bed. “I brought you food.”
She said not a word as she combed out her wet hair and hurried to the tray.
“Jason told you his story of the Druids and Warriors, but let me tell you mine,” Charon said.
When she looked at him, silently waiting, he figured that was as close to a yes as he was going to get.
He inhaled deeply and began. “In the history books, it describes the Celts as tribes who were always at war with each other. They’re described as savages, wild as the land they inhabited.
“But that wasna the case. Aye, the Celts were savage fighters. They held off the Romans for years. Their ability to use the land as an advantage over the Romans is one reason Hadrian’s Wall was built. Rome never conquered Scotland or her people, but they wouldna give up.”
Charon leaned back against the door, thinking to an earlier time in history when the clans had ruled as his gaze shifted to the window. “The Druids had roamed the land for generations. They were the teachers, the healers, and sometimes even the judges. Clan leaders turned to the mies for guidance and advice on everything from where to hunt to when to go to battle.”
He found Laura intently listening while she continued to devour the food on the tray.
“The Druids, like anyone else in this world, have a good side and an evil side. The good are the mies. They use the pure magic given to them by nature. They can make plants grow, heal, speak to the trees, and many other amazing abilities.
“The droughs, on the other hand, are evil. They perform a ceremony where they give their blood and soul to the Devil in order to use black magic. You can tell the evil Druids by the cuts on their wrists from the ceremony, as well as the Demon’s Kiss.”
He paused as he tried to find the words to describe it. “A Demon’s Kiss is a silver vial worn around a drough’s neck. It holds the first drops of their blood after becoming drough, and it can be used to heal them.