A Dark Guardian

by Donna Grant

  His first shot hit the creature’s wing but did nothing other than anger it. It threw down its current victim and screamed its wrath at Hugh.

  As quick as he could, Hugh began to reload the crossbow. This time however, the bow wouldn’t load into the chamber. He glanced up and found the creature coming at him again. No matter how hard he shoved and pushed, the bow wouldn’t fit into the crossbow and his time was running out.

  Mina had stayed hidden behind a hay wagon while Hugh had fought the creature, but now he needed help. His men were too far away to aid him. Without thinking of the consequences, she grabbed her dagger and ran toward Hugh.

  Even when he dropped to the ground and rolled from the creature’s clutches, she didn’t stop her assault. This was her opportunity to end the terror for good.

  She raised the dagger over her head and launched herself at the creature. The dagger embedded deeply into the creature’s chest. The smile she wore at her victory was soon replaced by fear when the creature simply pulled her and the dagger from its body as he rose to hover in the air above the bailey.

  “So you wish to die,” the creature said, the jubilation evident in his snake-like voice. “I had planned to save you for last, but now is as good a time as any.”

  The fact that the creature spoke brought ice to her veins, but it was nothing compared to the lump of dread residing in her stomach at hearing she was to die.

  However, the creature didn’t carry out its threat. It shrieked and released her.

  Her own scream followed the creature as she plummeted toward the ground. Instead of landing on the hard earth, she found herself cradled in Hugh’s arms.

  “Th…thank you,” she managed to get out past through the panic coating her throat.

  One side of his mouth lifted in a grin. “Anytime.”

  She could have stayed in his embrace forever. Within his strong arms and muscular chest she knew she was safe. From everything but losing her heart.

  He set her on her feet and pushed her toward the castle. “Get inside. It has out-maneuvered us this night.”

  She looked up and saw several arrows in the creature’s back. As she began to follow Hugh toward the castle, she saw the creature turn toward the stable. Here eyes instantly found John who was coaxing a frightened horse back inside the stable. She called out to John, jumping up and down and waving her arms, but he never saw her.

  “Hugh,” she yelled, but he couldn’t hear her over the shrieks and cries of the villagers.

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  Donna Grant

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  She looked anxiously around and found a spear someone had abandoned. With her only thought to save John, she picked up the weapon and raced toward the stable.

  Hugh stood by the doors and hurried people inside the castle. If they could get everyone inside then they would be safe for the night.

  “Mina!”

  Hugh’s gaze jerked to where the yell had come and found Bernard trying to get through the doors, but Gabriel held him back. Hugh followed Bernard’s gaze and found Mina once again racing toward the creature to save John.

  Hugh unsheathed his sword and took off after her. His long strides quickly caught up with her, and he threw himself at her at the same time hurling his sword at the creature.

  He wrapped his arms around Mina and rolled, so that he would take the brunt of the fall as his sword plunged into the creature’s chest. With his eyes still on the creature he rolled over until she was beneath him.

  During all of this, John had managed to get the horse inside the stable without knowing he was in danger. Hugh would have laughed except the creature still hadn’t died. It pulled Hugh’s sword from its body and immediately healed itself before dropping the sword and flying toward the forest.

  Hugh breathed in deeply and looked down at Mina. “Do you have a death wish, lady?”

  “Nay,” she said softly, her eyes large.

  “You wouldn’t know it by your actions tonight.”

  Her tongue peaked out to lick her lips, and it was then that he realized he was on top of a beautiful woman and her soft, warm frame cradled his. His body, already ignited from the battle, flared painfully to life. His gaze found her mouth, and he found it near impossible not to lean down and taste it.

  “I couldn’t let John die.”

  “You should have called me.” He tried to ignore the blood pounding loudly in his ears as his body called for release.

  “I

  did.”

  Her eyes, even in the darkness, were like beacons. He was trapped in her gaze.

  “Mina,” he said as he began to lower his head.

  “You saved her,” Bernard shouted as he raced up.

  Hugh squeezed his eyes closed and jumped to his feet. He should be grateful to Bernard for saving him from making a fool of himself, yet his body cursed the baron for interrupting as his rod throbbed with need.

  He held out his hand to help Mina up, but Bernard pulled her to her feet himself.

  “Thank God for Hugh,” Bernard said. “I just knew you were going to die.”

  Hugh could feel her eyes on him. He didn’t have the courage to return her gaze, afraid that he would find revulsion, or worse, pity in her blue-green depths.

  “We must get inside before the creature returns.” Hugh turned toward the castle to find Gabriel and Cole watching him closely.

  He ignored them and hurried into the castle. He needed some time alone. Now.

  The monster within him begged to be released, and if he didn’t get away from Mina it A DARK GUARDIAN

  Donna Grant

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  would burst from him.

  Thankfully, Mina and Theresa set about making the villagers comfortable. He and his men, along with Bernard, made their way to his chamber.

  “It has never come this early before,” Bernard said.

  Hugh noticed Bernard’s hand shake as he reached for a goblet. He had wondered when the illness would come, and he had been surprised it had taken this long. Suddenly, he caught a whiff of the ale. The odor was barely noticeable, but to anyone that was on the lookout for any type of evil, they would recognize the ale was drugged.

  He tried not to move too much because of the pain in his back as he closed his chamber door. Blood had run down his back into his trousers and boots. He longed to change but knew there was too much yet to do.

  “Bernard, we should get you to your chamber.”

  “I’m fine,” the young baron said. “I will stay and help with the planning.”

  Hugh said no more. “What time does it usually come?”

  “Well after dusk when there is no light in the sky other than the light of the moon.”

  That

  was odd. “I wonder what brought it out early this night?” Hugh thought aloud.

  A loud crash jerked him out of his thoughts. He looked at his feet to see Bernard on the floor. Hugh kneeled beside him and found him covered in sweat.

  “I need ale,” Bernard whispered.

  “That’s the last thing you need, my friend. You’ve been drugged for a while now.”

  “Drugged?” Bernard repeated thickly. “By whom?”

  “I say whoever let out the creature,” Cole said.

  Hugh nodded his agreement. “We need to get you to your chamber so you can get the drug out of your system. ‘Tis going to be a rough night.”

  “I’ll make it,” Bernard vowed as they dragged him to his feet.

  With Bernard guiding them to his chamber, they got him inside. While Cole and Darrick got him in the bed, Gabriel fixed a strange blend of herbs mixed with water, and Hugh gingerly put his back to the door. No one would be allowed inside tonight.

  “Drink,” Gabriel commanded Bernard. “It will help with the shaking.”

  Bernard obeyed without question. Hugh was impressed. If he could shake the addiction to the drugged ale he would be a fine lord for his people. He had been led astray somewhere, but where exactly? And by whom?


  * * * *

  Mina wiped the sweat from her forehead. The villagers wounds had been seen to and they had all found places in the hall to sleep. There were so many bodies lining the hall that she could barely see the floor.

  But they were safe. For now.

  She sighed and scanned the room for her brother or Hugh and his men. They were all conspicuously absent. She hurried from the hall and went first to Hugh’s chamber where she found it empty. There was only one other place they could be.

  With her hand in a fist she knocked on her brother’s door. “Bernard?”

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  It opened so quickly she almost fell forward. “Hugh,” she said when she saw who was before her. “I knew I would find you here.”

  “Now isn’t the time,” he said and tried to shut the door.

  A moan from inside the chamber reached her before Hugh was able to shut the door. She quickly squeezed through the door and past Hugh’s big body. Her gaze found Bernard on the bed moaning and thrashing around.

  She raced to him. “Bernard?” she said as she put her hand to his head. She jerked her hand away. “He’s burning up.”

  “I know,” Hugh said as he came to stand on the opposite side of the bed.

  Anger flared within her. “No one told me he was injured.”

  “He isn’t,” Gabriel said as he brought water to Bernard’s lips.

  She watched as her brother drank greedily and fell back as though exhausted. Her eyes rose to Hugh. “What is going on?”

  He walked around the bed and held out his hand to her. “Come, and I will explain.”

  She took his hand and allowed him to lead her to the two chairs before the hearth.

  He sat her in one and took the other. For long moments, he stared into the ashes of the hearth.

  “Just tell me,” she begged him.

  He closed his eyes for an instant, but when he opened them they flashed eerily in the light of the chamber. “Your brother is fighting off an addiction he has toward the ale he has been drinking. The drugged ale.”

  The breath went right out of her as if she had been punched in the stomach.

  “Drugged? By who?”

  “Did you not think it odd when he said he didn’t realize the color of your eyes?”

  She shook her head, not wanting to hear the words.

  “Last eve, I dunked him in the water trough to shake off the effects. Apparently, he went to bed without any ale and only had a little this day. It was enough to show him what was going on around him.”

  “Who would drug him?”

  “Whoever called forth the creature.”

  Her eyes snapped to his face. There wasn’t gentleness in his handsome face now but truth. “I shouldn’t believe you. I don’t know you, yet I find myself taking your words as certainty.”

  “Bernard asked that no one be allowed in his chamber until he could get through the worst of this.”

  “For the first time in my life my brother saw me, spoke to me. Don’t make me leave,” she pleaded with him.

  Hugh should refuse her, but he found he didn’t have the heart. Besides, he was fast losing what energy he had with his loss of blood.

  Despite all of that, he didn’t think he could stand the look in her eyes if he told her no. She gazed upon him as if he was a savior, and God help him, he needed that from her. He opened his mouth to answer but remembered that Bernard had made him promise no one would be allowed in.

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  Surely, though, Mina wouldn’t have drugged the ale. Or would she?

  Hugh’s instincts, which he relied on so heavily, were failing him now. For a moment, he forgot everything but the swell of Mina’s breasts through the tunic that molded to her perfectly.

  “Please,” she begged and touched his arm.

  His body silently roared its need to have her touch more of him. It was always so after a battle.

  Answer her and get away. Quickly. Before you do something stupid like kiss her full, ripe lips or cup her breasts.

  By the saints, he couldn’t remember a time when a woman had held him captivated so. An answer. He had to give her an answer.

  But what was the question?

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  Chapter Six

  Mina wasn’t used to dealing with men of any sort, that was Theresa’s expertise, but she wasn’t going to give up easily. When Hugh didn’t respond, she pushed away from her chair and fell to her knees before him.

  “You saw for yourself how he treated me last night and the difference today. I will not leave him when he needs family.”

  His eyes shifted slightly as if weighing her words.

  “’Tis not as if I’m asking to be alone with him. Just allow me to stay near him in case he needs me.”

  “It’s not going to be a pretty sight,” he warned, his eyes flickering to her mouth briefly. “Bernard might say things he doesn’t mean and some that he does.”

  She swallowed hard and met his steady gaze. “I’ve listened to many things my brother and sister have said to me. What comes out of his mouth this night will not affect me.”

  “I hope I won’t regret this,” he said slowly. “You can stay.”

  She smiled and grabbed his hands. Without thinking, she brought them to her lips and kissed them. “Thank you. Thank you.”

  After a moment of silence, she looked at the hands within her grasp. They were balled into tightly clenched fists. The triumph she had felt at being able to stay vanished in a wink. How could she have forgotten so easily how repulsive she was?

  “I’m sorry,” she said and began to turn away when he grabbed her shoulders.

  He wouldn’t allow her to look at him, but he brought her ear close to his lips.

  “Roderick did not lie this morn. Do not listen to the foul words your sister spouts. You are neither homely nor ugly.”

  “I—” she began, but he put a calloused finger over her lips. For a moment, she forgot everything but the heat of his body and his finger touching her mouth.

  “You have been told for so long that they think you are homely that you believe it. I have nothing to gain from telling you otherwise.”

  She closed her eyes against his words. He couldn’t know what they did to her.

  She almost cried out when he took his finger from her lips, but he only moved it to her chin so he could turn her face to his.

  “Open your eyes, Mina,” he ordered, his voice husky.

  She opened them to find his face mere inches from hers. She saw the golden flecks in his brown eyes and watched them darken. Her body responded with a shudder of…she couldn’t put a name to it, but whatever it was, it affected her deeply.

  “Know the truth that I speak. Your beauty outshines that of Theresa. She has told you those lies for her benefit. Listen to them no more.”

  Her gaze left his eyes and drifted to his firm mouth. His words were spoken softly but with conviction, as if he believed every syllable.

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  As suddenly as his hands had touched her, they left. She gasped at the loss and raised her head. He had leaned back in his chair. She spotted the muscle in his jaw ticking and what she could have sworn was a flash of pain.

  “Go to your brother,” he said.

  She didn’t know what she had done, but she wanted to take it back. She yearned to hear his words again, to feel his touch, his heat.

  “Now.”

  She jerked and would have fallen when her feet became twisted had he not caught her. Her eyes closed when his hands touched her again.

  He groaned and set her away from him. “Go, Mina. You know not what you tangle with.”

  She gripped the arms of the chair to keep from falling against him. What was wrong with her that his simple touch could affect her so? Had she
been so hungry for kind words that they addled her wits when she heard them?

  Not that she minded hearing them from someone as gorgeous as he, but she had never been one to fool herself. She squared her shoulders as she stood, took a deep breath, and went to Bernard.

  Hugh gripped the chair arms until he heard the wood crack. By God, he had almost taken her right then. Her inviting pink lips had been but a breath away and the tantalizing shadow of her cleavage had beckoned him.