Mated By The Demon Collections: Paranormal Romance

by Riley Moreno

  ‘I came here to talk to you,’ Lachlan said, still breathless.

  ‘What about?’ Ilisa asked, adjusting her clothes.

  ‘Come inside,’ Lachlan said, taking her hand.

  They went into the castle and into the room in which Lachlan had first suggested to Ilisa that she marry him. Now he looked thoughtfully at her.

  ‘What is it?’ Ilisa asked.

  ‘The Jacobites are rallying soon.’

  ‘And you are joining them?’ Ilisa looked surprised.

  ‘Yes,’ Lachlan said.

  ‘Why? Clan Campbell wasn’t one of the clans who pledged allegiance to Bonnie Prince Charlie.’

  ‘I know. But Clan MacDougall was and so, since we are married, I owe it to your family who died for the cause, to do what they were unable to.’

  Ilisa jumped up from her chair. ‘Lachlan, you are doing this for my family?’

  ‘Aye, and for you my dear.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you are my wife…and I …I love you.’

  Ilisa gasped. There, the words were out – hesitantly said, but out nonetheless. ‘Lachlan, you love me?’

  ‘Yes… and what is so surprising about that?’

  ‘You never told me before.’

  Lachlan stood in front of her. ‘And you? Do you love me?’ He asked.

  Ilisa felt her pulse racing and put a hand to her chest to still the hammering of her heart.

  ‘Oh Lachlan, of course I do. Even more at this moment when you tell me that you are joining the cause of the Jacobites because you love me.’

  He pulled her closer and buried his lips in the side of her neck. ‘I may be away a while but I will leave some of our clansmen behind to keep you safe. Promise me you will not stray far from the castle and that you will wait for me to return.’

  ‘I promise, Lachlan.’

  The next day Ilisa watched Lachlan ride away with his clansmen. She waited till the horses disappeared over the heather clad moors, intoning a prayer for her husband’s safety. After he had gone the void he left was like an enormous shadow that hung heavy over her heart. She ran into the kitchen, gripped with a nameless fear. ‘Aggie!’ Ilisa called.

  ‘What is it my child?’ Aggie asked, looking concerned.

  ‘Lachlan has gone off to battle and I am afraid. Will they indeed be able to prevail against the strength of the redcoats?’

  ‘It’s natural to be worried about your husband, child, but have no fear. Lachlan is a big strong man and he will make short work of those redcoats. Besides he is fighting in the ranks of the Bonnie Prince so what could possibly go wrong? They will do just fine - you wait and see.’

  Ilisa, however, was inconsolable, wandering from room to room in the castle, wishing she had not so easily bid Lachlan goodbye. She chided herself for being so carried away by the fact that he had joined the ranks of the Jacobites out of deference to her family that she had not paused to consider what the consequences could be. In her eyes the victory was already won by her people.

  Aggie tried to keep Ilisa busy, without too much success. Every day the young girl would burst into the kitchen begging for news, but none had filtered down so far. Then word spread that the redcoats were going wild, riding through the highlands setting the land on fire, and the womenfolk at Campbell Castle began to prepare for the worst. If they had to leave the castle in the event of an attack, they had nowhere to run, but leave they must. The prospect was a frightening one and Ilisa was petrified at the thought of Lachlan returning to find her gone. But Aggie was afraid for their safety and so were the clansmen who were left to take care of them.

  ‘How can you even think of abandoning the castle?’ Ilisa cried, as Aggie and the maids began to pack bags and have them loaded onto wagons.

  ‘It is better than staying here and leaving ourselves open to rape and death,’ Aggie shot back. ‘Come on child, be strong. We have the blood of the brave running through our veins!’

  Ilisa ran to the room that held so many memories for her – when Lachlan diffidently suggested they marry, and then when he told her he was off to war. She rapidly dipped a pen into an inkwell and wrote on a sheet of paper. ‘We have run to safety. Please find us.’ She took a book down from one of the shelves and slipped the note into the pages. Then she left it on the chair where she had sat across from Lachlan not so long ago. The doves were cooing in the eaves as she left her room, and the sound seemed to mock her as she turned back to look longingly at the bed she had shared with her husband.

  The wagons and horses were ready when she went down to the courtyard. Aggie was weeping, loath to leave the numerous pet animals that they couldn’t take with them. Two stable hands were staying behind to tend them, with instructions to run the moment they got wind of an attack. Ilisa swallowed her grief; her expression wooden as she mounted a horse.

  ‘We can’t all travel together,’ Aggie said, ‘Or we will attract too much attention.’ She dared not meet Ilisa’s eyes as the wagons were sent in different directions with Aggie going one way and Ilisa going another.

  ‘Let me go with you!’ Ilisa begged.

  ‘No, child,’ Aggie said sadly. ‘I have decided that you should seek protection from your clansmen at Innis Castle and I am sending you there. It is what the laird would have wanted.’

  ‘Innis Castle? I have never been there! I have only ever heard it being spoken of, but have never in all my life set foot in that place. How could you think of banishing me to an alien place? Besides, would my clansmen even accept me? Have you not heard of how they treated me when I went back with Lachlan to my own home?’

  ‘It will be different now. Lachlan fights for the cause of the Jacobites. Your clansmen will have no cause to reject you.’

  ‘I am afraid, Aggie,’ Ilisa said, but Aggie’s face was hard as she shouted out to the horsemen and the wagon pulled away. Ilisa looked about her at the two horsemen left to accompany her and the wagon with her belongings.

  ‘Come mistress, we must be off before the redcoats arrive,’ one of the horsemen said.

  Ilisa followed them without a word, for now there was nothing she could think of to say. Her only friend in the world had also abandoned her, choosing to take another route to safety, and leaving her in the hands of two strange horsemen who, though Campbell clansmen, were nevertheless unknown to her. They galloped across the moors - the wagon bumping over the uneven terrain; not pausing to rest until hidden by the darkness. Then they stopped by a loch for the horses to drink, and to eat a meal from the baskets of food that Aggie had packed in the wagon. There were bannocks, pies and fruit, but Ilisa could eat nothing.

  ‘You’d best keep your strength up mistress,’ one of the men gently suggested.

  ‘I will eat when I am hungry,’ Ilisa said, and dropped her head into her hands.

  ‘What is your name?’ she asked the man.

  ‘Duncan. And that is Craig.’

  ‘I see,’ Ilisa said.

  The men lay down to rest awhile and Ilisa sat by the loch, contemplating her fate. She wondered if she would ever see Lachlan again or if she would even emerge alive from the situation.

  It would seem that there were redcoats everywhere across her beloved moors, Ilisa thought as she heard the snap of a twig and the lightest of footfalls. The men snored gently but Ilisa was alert and on her guard. When she heard a heavier footfall she ran to Duncan and Craig and shook them awake. They sprang up and drew their swords and Ilisa pulled a sword from the wagon and stood ready.

  ‘Where did you get that, mistress?’ Craig asked.

  ‘I took it from the armory,’ Ilisa replied, her voice hard.

  ‘Do you know how to use it?’

  ‘I think I can manage,’ she answered.

  Just then a horse bounded out from a copse with two men following. Duncan and Craig were upon them in an instant, pinning them down with their swords to their throats.

  ‘Please don’t kill us,’ one of the men said, ‘We’re on your side.’


  ‘And which side is that?’ Craig asked.

  ‘The side of Bonnie Prince Charlie.’

  ‘And how do you know that’s the side we’re on?’ Ilisa asked curiously.

  ‘Because you have a wagon and horses and therefore appear to be on the move.’

  ‘Is it that obvious?’ Ilisa responded, worried.

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ the man answered.

  ‘If you are fighting alongside the Jacobites, why are you here?’ Duncan asked.

  ‘Haven’t you heard?’

  ‘What about?’

  ‘The bloodshed on Culloden moor?’

  Ilisa felt faint. ‘What? Why?’

  ‘The redcoats were too much for us to take on. Our men were fewer and wearier and not as well armed. We are on the run. Like you.’

  ‘We merely heard that the redcoats were laying waste to our land without warning, so we fled our castle,’ Ilisa said, ‘but we didn’t know that the Jacobites had suffered defeat.’ Her voice quivered with barely suppressed emotion as she spoke.

  ‘Duncan…Craig…what do we do?’ She looked from one to the other in despair. ‘I must find out about the laird.’

  ‘You had best keep moving,’ the Jacobite solider advised, ‘Or you will be caught and…’

  ‘Yes of course!’ Duncan cut in, rapidly saddling his horse and signing to Craig to follow suit. Craig saddled Ilisa’s horse and helped her into the saddle. Then he reached into the wagon and took out a bag of Ilisa’s clothes and another with some food.

  ‘Take the rest,’ Craig said to the two men. ‘We will have to abandon the wagon or else our flight will be impeded.’

  ‘Sensible choice,’ Duncan said, leaping onto his horse. They rode away on either side of Ilisa and sped across the moors in the velvety darkness.

  ‘How far to Innis Castle?’ Ilisa asked, ‘And what if the redcoats have taken it over or burned it to the ground?’

  ‘It’s your only hope at the moment,’ Craig replied.

  ‘Maybe we should just turn back and return to Campbell Castle.’

  ‘That would be risking certain death,’ Duncan shot back.

  Ilisa was silent after that, occupied with her thoughts. When they approached Innis Castle it was close to daybreak and Duncan and Craig began to argue over who would go up to determine the Castle’s safety and how they could keep Ilisa secure through the process. As they were conferring, however, they saw redcoats around the castle and froze in their tracks.

  ‘I thought you said this was my only hope at the moment,’ Ilisa said in an angry whisper.

  ‘How were we to know? We did what we thought was best.’

  ‘I should have just gone with Aggie to wherever she was headed.’

  ‘There’s no time to argue, mistress, we have to turn back and get away as quickly and silently as possible.’

  Ilisa was trembling, overcome by fear, and Craig and Duncan urged her forward, both acutely aware that their lives were now truly in danger.

  ‘Oy!’ someone shouted and they heard the sound of hooves behind them. Ilisa’s heart pounded in her chest as Duncan turned around to see a redcoat pursuing them with more behind. A bullet whizzed past Ilisa and she urged her horse forward, her spirits already flagging within her. This was the end, she thought.

  ‘Faster, mistress!’ Duncan shouted, racing ahead and urging her to follow. Ilisa tried to keep up but the soldier was upon her.

  ‘Duncan! Craig! Go! Fetch Lachlan!’ Ilisa shouted to her two escorts, not knowing why. Then she turned her horse about and flew at the redcoats. They had her off her horse and pinned down in moments and she was dragged into Innis Castle.

  ‘Who are you and why are you here?’ a soldier asked her.

  ‘I was coming to seek the help of my clansmen.’

  ‘The MacDougall clan?’

  ‘Yes,’ Ilisa answered.

  ‘So you were coming to find help…from what?’

  Ilisa said nothing.

  ‘Are you a Jacobite? Did your husband go off to fight in the war and leave you alone? Tell us woman, what’s your story?’

  ‘I was driven from one home, had to run from another and then come in search of a third. I am weary of this war and just want to live in peace.’

  One of the men was looking at the ring on her left hand. ‘You are obviously married,’ he observed. ‘Now tell us where your husband is.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Ilisa answered truthfully.

  ‘Is he a Jacobite?’ The question was posed in a harsher tone.

  ‘He is a good man,’ Ilisa answered.

  ‘You are evading the question. Is he a Jacobite?’

  ‘I don’t know what that means,’ Ilisa lied.

  ‘You do realise that we will not hesitate to beat the truth out of you,’ the soldier said.

  ‘You can do what you like, but that is all the truth I know,’ Ilisa answered, her voice even.

  The soldier came at her menacingly, but another dissuaded him gently. ‘The woman obviously knows nothing that will be of any help to us,’ he said.

  ‘These people have to be punished for revolting against the King!’ the redcoat snarled.

  ‘True, but she seems quite innocent.’

  ‘Quite taken with her, aren’t you?’

  ‘No. I’m just saying it doesn’t make sense to punish her for something that is not her fault.’

  ‘Lock her up!’ the redcoat ordered, and Ilisa was taken away. ‘One of the marvelous things about this castle is its dungeons!’ he shouted after her.

  CHAPTER V

  On Culloden Moor the bodies of brave Scotsmen lay everywhere, their blood staining the heather. Lachlan lay very still - too afraid to move lest the King’s soldiers see that he was alive, and dispatch him instantly. When he was sure it was safe, he raised his head but slightly, to look for a way of escape. The moor was vast with little to shelter him from the enemy’s cruel eyes. Around him men still in the throes of death groaned in pain, unconscious and maimed beyond repair. Lachlan lay back as a pain shot through his side. He had fought to the end, but a bullet had pierced his side and the wound was painful and bleeding. As he lay in a pool of blood, his mind went to Ilisa and their brief time together. He had never really come close to loving a woman, but with Ilisa, it was as if he knew he had to protect her with his life from the first moment that he set eyes on her. He tried to raise himself up again, eager to try and find his way back to his wife, but weariness and loss of blood threw him back on the heather once more. The pain in this side was unbearable, and in order to endure it he had to keep his mind on those last few days and nights with Ilisa before he left to join the war.

  ‘Lachlan, oh Lachlan!’ He heard her gasp in his ear; a hoarse, breathless expression of having reached that point that made his own senses explode in a burst of burning passion. He had made love to her over and over the night before he left, hoping that would give her enough to hold on to until he returned. For his cause had an uncertain outcome, and now as he lay in a pool of blood, he knew just how uncertain it was.

  ‘Come back to me Lachlan,’ Ilisa had whispered against his lips, her breath hot and her body inviting. Each time their coupling grew more intense – evolving from a duty that had to be done to a pleasure that was theirs to enjoy.

  ‘Ilisa,’ Lachlan whispered into the bleak air, ‘I’m sorry, my darling. I did want to return, but…’

  Duncan and Craig galloped away from Innis Castle, and in their eagerness to escape the redcoats they little realized that Ilisa was not riding with them. They had heard her shout out to them to find Lachlan and that was what had spurred them forward.

  ‘Where is she?’ Duncan asked, wheeling around.

  ‘The redcoats must have got her,’ Craig said. ‘Keep going and don’t stop.’ They pressed on until they saw a group of bloodied men in kilts weaving up the path.

  ‘Which clan are you from?’ Duncan asked, relieved to see that they were not being pursued by the King’s soldiers.

  ‘Who kn
ows? Who cares? We have all fought for one cause and now the Bonnie Prince has flown and left us to our defeat.’

  ‘Where was the battle being fought?’

  ‘Culloden Moor – now covered with blood and dead clansmen.’

  ‘To Culloden Moor!’ Duncan shouted to Craig and the two men galloped away.

  Lachlan fought to stay conscious, making feeble but repeated attempts to raise himself up and look for help. He fell back again, trying to put as much pressure as he could on his wound, but aware that his efforts were not enough to keep from bleeding out. He felt light headed, and imagined Ilisa walking towards him in an emerald green glen, her white skirts billowing out on the breeze; her dark hair falling about her shoulders and down to her tiny waist. She knelt down beside him and placed her lips on his.

  ‘Goodbye Lachlan,’ she whispered, and he could smell the sweet fragrance of her body.

  ‘Let me love you one more time Ilisa,’ Lachlan murmured, but Ilisa was drifting away from him, or maybe he was drifting away from her.

  Lachlan’s eyes fluttered open and he tried to lift his body up again. At the periphery of the moor two figures approached. Through the waves of weakness that threatened to submerge him, Lachlan saw that they wore kilts and were on horses. They were inching slowly forward, picking their way over the sea of dead bodies.

  ‘I’m here!’ Lachlan cried out with all the strength he could muster before he fell back.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ Craig asked Duncan, and the two men moved further forward, peering intently at the bodies on the moor. All the bodies looked alike – men in kilts, bloodied and broken, and there seemed to be nothing to distinguish one from the other. By the time the two men reached the center of the battlefield their emotions were in knots and tears spilled freely down their faces.