by Cyndi Tefft
This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.
This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Copyright © 2013 Cyndi Tefft
All rights reserved.
Author photo by Saskia Kidd
Cover by Gabrielle Prendergast
coveryourdreams.wordpress.com
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Aiden’s Angels because there wouldn’t be a third book (let alone a fourth!) with Aiden and Lindsey if it weren’t for this group of readers who fell in love with this couple and encouraged me to continue their tale. You’ll never know what you mean to me!
Acknowledgments
To every reader who has helped spread the love of Aiden MacRae, I can’t thank you enough. Special thanks to Vicki Trask (moderator of the fan site and Aiden’s Angels Prez Extraordinaire), Nancy Scuri, and Angela Messer for your passion for and support of our hot Scot. Your enthusiasm for this book helped keep me going when I wasn’t sure if it would all come together or not.
Many thanks to Sue Martin, Jamie Canosa, and Molly Ringle for their input and eagle eyes in catching the inevitable typos.
And of course, I have to thank my wonderful husband, Dave Tefft, who has to put up with my unceasing verbal brainstorming of book ideas. When I told him the plot idea for this book, he said “Cool! How are you going to do that?” I replied, “I have no idea!” but he believed in me anyway. SHMILY!
“…but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.”
-Psalm 139:11-12, NLT
Chapter 1
AIDEN
Ian reached to refill my glass but I placed my hand over it. “Are you trying to kill me off, then?” I said to the blurry image of my friend. “I’ve had far too much this evening already. I’ll not remember a word you’ve said come the morn if I dinna stop now.”
“Och, well, we canna have that, as every word from my lips is pure brilliant.” Ian leaned back in his chair, shaking with laughter. I joined with him, my face painted in a daft, drunken grin as I tipped the glass and waited for the last drop of whisky to fall on my tongue. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ian topple over and my muddled instincts sharpened anew.
I leapt to my feet. “Ian!” Sprawled on the floor, he waved me away, giggling like a lad. I could not help but smile at the spectacle the old man posed: hair the color of freshly fallen snow, crinkled face burnt a permanent shade of pink from years of toil under the hot sun, his kilt buckled beneath his rotund belly. I’d known him but a few months and I loved him as dear as my own father, God rest his soul.
He pulled himself to his feet, swaying only slightly. “Off to bed with ye now. Lindsey will be home later, once she and the lasses have had their fun, so it’s no use waiting up. Better to be fresh for her when she comes back, aye?” He gave me a raucous wink and I helped steer him to his room.
“A good night to ye, Ian,” I whispered once we’d reached the door, careful not to wake Sarah.
“And to you, my son.”
I slipped down the hall of the MacKinnons’ castle to the room they’d graciously set aside for me and my bride. Three days had passed since the priest gave his blessing over our union and the warmth inside of me had yet to fade. She’s truly mine, at long last, I thought to myself, unable to absorb the good fortune my Lord had bestowed upon me.
I unbuckled my kilt and let it fall to the ground. Too exhausted to even hang my garments over the chair, I dropped the rest of my clothes into a pile at my feet and crawled into bed. The silken sheets were cool against my warm flesh, one of the modern marvels I’d come to appreciate since coming forward three hundred years into the future. King Louis IV himself didn’t enjoy sheets such as these, I was certain. A cloud made of down feathers cradled my swirling head and guided me into oblivion.
The turning of the door handle brought me to my senses sometime in the night, the room aglow with the light of the full moon. Lindsey crept in and my heart took a breath, as it does every time I lay eyes on her. She’s home safe.
“Did ye enjoy yourself?” I asked, my voice scratchy with sleep. She nodded and padded across the floor to stand in a pool of moonlight. While I watched, she slowly undressed, baring soft curves that Aphrodite herself would have envied. Her gaze never wavered from my own as she disrobed. My body sprang to life, insistent for her touch. She peeled back the blankets, exposing my desire for her. As her skin slid against my own, I spoke to her in my mind.
You’re beautiful.
She kissed my neck, then traced her tongue over the shell of my ear. Shivers tightened my skin.
That was random, but thanks. Her laughter echoed in my head.
Perplexed by her response, I began to straighten, but she pressed me into the mattress. Her fingernails raked my chest as her mouth moved farther down and suddenly, all rational thought escaped me.
Oh, Lindsey. ‘Twas more of a groan than true words, but she ceased her ministrations and fixed me with a serious look.
“No more talking,” she said. Her lips claimed mine as we made silent, frantic love in the moon’s embrace. I tried to slow the pace to prolong her pleasure, but the mixture of sleep, drink, and her writhing figure pushed me over the edge.
The pounding blood in my ears masked the sound of the door opening.
“Aiden?” My beloved’s voice called from the entry, sounding for all the world as though I’d cut the very heart from her chest. On my lap, Lindsey began to laugh. My head swiveled between her and the apparition looking on in horror from the doorway.
“What in the name—” I began and an instant later, my greatest fear was realized.
The woman in my arms flashed blood red eyes at me.
Chapter 2
LINDSEY
Moira and Janette are flippin’ crazy, I concluded. The twins dragged me out to the pub, only three days after my wedding, complaining that I’d been spending all my time in the bedroom with Aiden. It wasn’t even remotely true, as we’d been exploring the countryside every day and falling into bed at night, exhausted. But they didn’t care about that. They’d convinced themselves we were going at it like rabbits and nothing would change their minds. So I agreed to go out dancing and drinking with them, just to get them off my back. No, that’s not entirely true. I knew we’d have a great time and I wasn’t wrong.
Janette was on her fourth or fifth round of drinks and was dirty dancing with a tall, redheaded Scot when I heard Aiden’s voice in my head.
You’re beautiful.
I glanced at my watch. Two o’clock in the morning. He should have been asleep a long time ago. What was he doing up? I’d told him not to wait for me.
That was random, but thanks, I replied, then waited for him to explain, but nothing came. Moira plopped into the seat next to me, her eyes dazed from too much alcohol. A ridiculous smile was plastered on her face.
“What?” I asked her, momentarily distracted from my conversation with Aiden.
“Rory MacIver, that’s what.” She made a production of swooning in her chair, the back of her hand across her forehead. “I’ve wanted to have a shag with that lad for ages. And he was just as good as I th
ought he’d be.”
“A shag?” I whisper-shrieked. “You didn’t!”
She erupted in a fit of giggles that turned into hiccups.
“Where? Here?”
Her eyes flicked down the hallway toward the bathrooms where a smoking hot guy in a black t-shirt was emerging, looking smug and guilty all at once.
Janette’s gaze swung over to her sister’s and then her face broke into a grin so wide, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the two apart. She bobbed her head in a slow Nice-Going-Sis motion of approval before turning her attention back to her dance partner. She slid her hands into his jean pockets and whispered something in his ear. Just as I saw his incredulous eyes turn toward the restrooms, I heard Aiden’s voice in my head again.
Oh, Lindsey. I recognized that groan of pleasure from deep in his throat.
What in the hell?
And all of a sudden, it hit me: he must be dreaming. He’d never sent me messages in his sleep before, but it made sense. The idea made me smile. It also made me so hot, I felt like he’d lit a match on a trail of whisky over my bare skin. I squirmed in my seat and crossed my legs under my skirt, anxious to get home to my warm bed. And my even warmer husband.
I turned to Moira, who was now slumped in her chair. “I think you’ve had enough. And if we don’t get out of here soon, Janette’s going to be—what did you call it?—oh yeah, ‘having a shag’ too.” It felt weird to be the morality police, especially since I was only a couple years older than the twins, but if their father ever found out… The head of the MacKinnon clan didn’t strike me as the type of dad who’d be willing to just laugh off his daughters’ indiscretions. Ian and Sarah had been kind enough to bring us to their family’s estate for the wedding and honeymoon, and there was no way I was going to risk embarrassing them.
Maneuvering through the swaying bodies in the dimly lit pub, I made my way over to Janette. “We need to go. Your sister’s just about passed out over there.”
“Och, just let her have a wee snooze and she’ll be fine.” She started to turn away, but I grabbed her arm.
“No, I mean it. Come on.”
She whined and pouted, but finally followed me off the floor. I tried not to notice the bulge in her dance partner’s pants nor the disappointment on his face.
After the taxi dropped us off, I helped the girls to their room: a huge, girlish expanse filled with two canopied beds covered in pink throw pillows and teddy bears. Yeah, their dad had no idea what little vixens he had under his roof, and it was clear they wanted to keep it that way. Shaking my head, I got them settled, then tiptoed down the hallway to my own room and quietly opened the door.
What I saw left a gaping hole in my chest where my heart used to be.
A naked woman sat on Aiden’s lap, grinding against him, her brown, curly hair bouncing against her back. His hands gripped her hips as he shuddered, then sighed.
Agony ripped through me, squeezing my lungs in a vice.
No, it can’t be. There must be some mistake. He loves me. He would never—Oh, God!
I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to run, but I was cemented to the floor.
“Aiden?” I finally croaked out. His gaze snapped to mine. Horror mirroring my own splashed across his face. The woman in his arms began to laugh, an eerily familiar sound.
All the alcohol I’d drunk earlier surged into my throat and I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep from throwing up.
“What in the name—” I heard him say as I turned to flee. “NO!” Aiden screamed from behind me and I couldn’t help but look. My veins turned to ice.
The woman in his lap was me. With blood red eyes.
A hell transporter.
I gaped in stunned silence as she transformed into a different woman with a waterfall of black hair before she dissolved into an inky cloud of smoke. She twisted out of Aiden’s grasp and slid out the window into the night. He scrambled off the bed after her, trying to grab hold so she couldn’t escape, but the oily tendrils of darkness slipped through his fingers like the wind.
She was gone.
He swiveled back to me and our eyes locked for a heartbeat. He started to speak and I shook my head, one hand held up to ward off whatever he was going to say. I couldn’t look at him. My eyes welled with tears.
“No. Just… no.”
I ran.
Curious about the noise, Moira and Janette were peeking out into the hall, but I didn’t spare them a second glance as I streaked past them, down the stairs, and out the front door into the freezing night. Snow blanketed the ground and the moon hung high in a cloudless sky, casting a surreal glow over the castle perched at the edge of a cliff, overlooking the loch.
This can’t be happening. None of this is real.
A parking lot to the west of the castle had been mostly cleared of snow and I raced through it as far as the outer limits, where a low fence served as a visual reminder of the sheer drop to the water below. Steps carved into the rock began where the fence ended and I made my way toward them, not knowing where I was going. I just had to get away, as far away as possible, so I could think.
He slept with someone else.
Snow crunched under my feet as I trudged toward the steps, great sobs pouring out of my core. I couldn’t feel my legs. I couldn’t feel anything but the serrated knife in my heart. My foot slipped on a patch of ice and I landed hard on my knees. The pain that lanced up my legs was almost welcome—something, anything to occupy my mind other than the vision of that demon grinding against my husband. Giving up the fight, I curled into a ball on the frozen earth and just let the tears come.
The sound of Aiden’s footsteps coming toward me made my head snap up. I glared at him through a jagged haze of pain. “Stay away from me!”
The hurt in his voice did nothing to dispel the ache inside me. “Lindsey, I thought she was you.”
“I know, okay? I know! Oh, my God... Just leave me alone.”
He dropped to one knee at my side and touched my arm. I jerked away from him.
“I would never do anything to hurt you. You know that. I love you. Please, Lindsey.”
Everything inside me wanted to rant and scream, to beat my fists on his chest until he hurt as bad as I did, to make him see what walking in on that did to my soul. But he was right. It wasn’t his fault. This agony, this pain…he didn’t do this to me.
She did.
And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
“You’re bleeding,” he said, motioning to my knees, which were now embedded with gravel. “And you’re freezing as well. Come inside, mo chridhe. Please?” He held out one hand, not touching me, just waiting. Misery was etched into his face. My bottom lip started to quiver and he pulled me into his arms.
“Oh my soul, lass. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He repeated the phrase like a mantra, stroking my hair while I dissolved in his embrace. His grip was a lighthouse in the raging sea as emotions battered me against the rocks. My tears finally subsided and I turned stinging eyes to him, unable to speak. Exhausted, I slumped against him. He stood and lifted me into his arms, cradling my body against his chest as he carried me back to the castle.
Chapter 3
EAGAN
The buxom beauty straddling my hips smiled down at me, her shining blonde hair framing my face as we lay together in the open field. My fingers played through those strands of sunshine, so different from my own. The heavenly transporter regarded me with such tenderness that I almost wanted to be the man she thought I was. I let myself indulge in the fantasy, drawing from the memories of the souls I’d taken over the years. Every joy, every sorrow, every recollection from a soul’s life became known to me at the moment we touched.
Celeste’s warm vanilla scent wrapped around me as I allowed myself to get sucked into her dream of the life she never had: a crackling fire heating the cherry wood study, our babe on her hip, a Labrador at my feet as I read the newspaper. It was so cliché that I couldn’t suffer i
t for long. I let out a laugh.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“You. This. How it always ends this way.” Confusion turned to hurt in her eyes and I almost felt bad.
Almost.
But like a lion that’s finally got the gazelle in his jaws, I was finished with the hunt. Celeste had acquiesced to my pursuit, actually considered herself in love with me, and it was time for the kill.
Gripping her golden locks in my fist, I yanked her neck to one side, exposing a rapid pulse. I ran my tongue over that pulse, feeling her body shiver in response. Bloodlust claimed me and I longed to see her flushed breasts covered in crimson. Drawing upon the darkness that dwelled within me, I transformed into the demonic figure I inherited from my mother. My fingers lengthened into razor tipped talons; my incisors became fangs that ached to pierce her satin skin.
I’d never restricted her ability to cast before. She’d become accustomed to the freedom to change the environment at will and I could feel her attempting to do so again.
Not this time.
The Between Realm and everything in it belonged to me, the Prince.
Her screams lit my blood on fire. Fingernails clawed my face as she strained to free herself from my grasp. The hellfire inside me broke loose from its chains, smashing her lovely picket fence dream to dust.
Her eyes searched mine, wild with fear and pain. It was all an illusion, of course. I had no power to actually destroy her, but she didn’t know that.
“I thought you loved me,” she gurgled as the fight drained out of her.
“They all do, precious.” My voice came out in a hiss. I was nearing the height of ecstasy when I heard my mother’s voice in my head.
Eagan. I need you.