Conquer the Highland Beast: The Vampire Dylan Macgregor (Hearts of Darkness) (13 page)

Avoch

The herbal water steamed up inside Dylan’s room lending an air of mistiness to the candlelight. The relaxing scent rose into the surroundings stealing the tension from Evie’s limbs. She’d removed the dress she wore earlier to greet Dylan and the raiding party. The emerald velvet, a gift from Dylan, was one of her favorites. She hung it from the hook on the back of the door and remained in her thin chemise to help Dylan bathe.

He looked tired...and something more.

“Close your eyes,” Evie dumped the warm water over his head. His long blond hair hung past his shoulders when wet, and after his trip, was badly in need of a good washing.

She soaped her hands, filling them with lather, and rubbed her
fingers into his hair and over his scalp. He groaned and leaned back into her caress.

“Now dunk,” she ordered.

While Dylan dipped into the tub, Evie removed her chemise. Her hands slid over Dylan, starting at the top of his head, massaging, and then moving down his neck to his broad shoulders. He was more tense than usual.

“Does this feel good, then?”

He moaned as she massaged and tried to un-kink his tight neck. “’Tis good.”

“
’Tis more than Benocght bothering you,” Evie said as she admired the breadth of Dylan’s shoulders. The bath wasn’t working its usual magic.

“Aye, ’tis more.” Dylan moved forward to give her better access.

She waited for him to elaborate, but he said nothing. Perhaps this wasn’t the time for talking.

The warm soapy water usually lulled the beast out of him, suppressing the old inner rage. However, tonight, she could feel the berserker lurking under his skin within the iron hard muscles bunched beneath her fingers.

Evie stroked down his back with the washing cloth considering other methods of relaxing him.

“Thank you, Evie for bathing me. Your touch is so relaxing.”

“I have no intention of allowing you to relax, sir.”

Evie couldn’t deny the bright lovely lad Dylan had once been began disappearing the night his family died and more with each battle he fought. Bigger, harder, colder now, the dark was consuming his fae light.

“Come. I had my bath earlier. Allow me to dry you, and then take me to bed. It’s been too long since I enjoyed your touch.”

A spark lit the dark in his eyes. It flared and disappeared, but his lips crooked into a wry smile as he climbed from the tub.

She wrapped him in the drying cloth, but he removed her hands and secured it around his waist. Then he surprised her by scooping her up and carrying her to the bed, kissing her deeply on the way. By the time he climbed into the bed with her, both of them were breathing heavily when she asked, “Shall I dry you, Dylan?”

~~~~

“You are quiet this night.” Evie placed a soft kiss upon his shoulder.

“The battle was hard and the trip back long and tedious. The wounded were many.”

Those who knew him best, his well-paid mercenary warriors, honored his dark secret past, and watched his back out of respect during battle and also on the road. They kept their distance after the battle, and Dylan saw the fear in some of the younger lads’ eyes.

They’d been present when he’d castrated every man who’d violated his sister or the child he’d once been, and as he’d sworn, he left them to bleed
out. He’d used the Macgregor dagger, his father’s dagger—the one he’d cut from his uncle’s hand. And he rounded up Haruld’s men, the ones who’d beheaded his brothers. When they knelt before him, he used his grandfather’s sword to take their heads and fulfilled his promise to his clan.

Did his actions make him no better than his bastard uncle? He thought not, but feared somehow bringing justice to those who murdered his family had turned him into a stone cold killer.

“I’m sorry regaining our family honor has taken such a toll on you, Dylan.”

“It was my duty.” He stared at Evie in wonder. “I am at least alive. The Douglas lads, fighting for
MacMann, died in the first five minutes of the battle. Such a waste.” He ground his teeth and ran his fingers through his hair. “Their father watched and fought like a crazy man. At the end, it took four men to take him down. Now his wife and his son’s wives have no one to care for them ’cept the clan.”

In spite of the death and carnage, how could he explain the one place he felt alive anymore was on the battlefield? Sadly, not even Evie’s sweet embrace was enough to keep his beast’s instinctive need to fight at bay. The only job he was fit to do anymore was kill.

Ten Months later

As a paid mercenary, he could justify the killing. Truth be told, he began to wonder if he was so far gone he would fight without compensation. No sane person would ever understand the way he looked forward to the battles or how much he needed Evie’s healing touch when he returned.

Leif resented w
hat Dylan’s darkness cost her. Each time, he drained her light and weakened her, as he had today, he imagined Leif’s accusing eyes glaring at him.

Earlier, when he’d made love to her, he wondered whether the berserker rage still shone in his eyes. Would the aftermath of battles repulse her if she knew how dark his soul had grown this time?

He gently brushed a stray curl from her forehead while she slept, but his touch roused her. She turned toward him, smiled, and blinked open her pale lashes.

The heart in his chest staggered, and his guts twisted. The last of the light within him screamed in horror. What had he done?

Her innocent eyes were completely black, having absorbed the darkness he’d brought home to her. This was more than he could stand. Nothing like this had ever happened before, and the evidence of how his beast affected her light couldn’t have been more obvious.

Not Evie—he couldn’t risk her.

He kissed her on the forehead and rolled her to her side. “Sleep, Evie. Rest. I’ll see you in the morning.” Dylan made up his mind to leave as soon as possible and take the first offer he received.

H
e needed a plan.

Leif was up on the parapet, a tankard of ale by his side, when Dylan arrived looking to clear his head

“What are you doing up here, Dylan. Shouldn’t you be abed? Tomorrow you will be wed.”

“I’m here to think.” Over the last year, since the hand-fasting ceremony, Dylan had only returned once. “The night air is clear up here. Does a man good to clear his head.”

“You vowed you wouldn’t return after the last time,” Leif lifted the tankard and gulped, “Evie pulled you back from the darkness and her light drained. You are here to wed her and then what? Kill her?”

“I couldn’t leave and not return without an explanation. You were
correct. My darkness is affecting her soul. I can no longer stand by while that happens.”

“I wondered how long it would take to see your selfish ways,” Leif goaded him.

“I was not selfish. She was mine—” Dylan balled up his fists and remembered why he was here. “Nay forget it. She’s beautiful and good—too good for the likes of me is what I’m thinking. What are you thinking?”

“You know what I’m thinking, and it’s the same as you.” Leif offered Dylan his tankard, but when he shook it off, Leif raised a brow at him. “I’m sorry for you, Dylan, but your beast will be the death of her.”

Leif understood too well what was happening to him. His berserker nature was finally overtaking his humanity. Dylan dropped his head in his hands and came to a squat beside his friend.

“I can no longer remain bound to her. The darkness has taken me too far away from my light, and I do believe it’s killing her.”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help loving her, so I won’t apologize for that, but I’m sorry you must give her up. I don’t know if I could if she returned my feelings.”

“She does. She’s always loved you, too.”

“You knew and—why didn’t you say something?”

“I was afraid of losing her to you. I needed her light and
y’er right. I was selfish. But no more. I’m walking away in the morn.”

He must leave her before he destroyed her, especially now.

Dylan slid down the wall next to Leif, who warned him, “If she suspects your reasons, she will never agree to you leaving.”

The lump in his throat was big enough to choke him, but he’d made the decision. “Evie needs a good man—a home and children of her own. Evie needs you.”

“What makes you think she’d have me? There are plenty here who would fight for her honor.”

“Aye, but it’s you she loves. I’m not certain what she and I
are meant to be to one another, but she is devoted to you, Leif.”

He turned and stared at Dylan, skepticism in his expression.

“’Tis true.” Dylan smiled. “Remember that night on Beltane when she kissed you…?”

“You knew?” Leif blushed.

“I watched.”

“And didn’t kill me?” He rubbed a hand over his forehead. “I’m suddenly feeling like a right lucky bastard.”

Dylan laughed. “For a moment, I considered it. However, I decided to let the hand play out, since I held the best cards. She made her own decisions, but I used my advantage unfairly. I wasn’t angry because she cared for you. I was jealous because she was attracted to you. Our past and her feelings for me weighed heavily against her feelings for you. We shared a mental link, memories, anger, and a need for retribution. Moreover, I am the clan chief. Do you know how many lasses offer themselves to me because of that fact alone?”

Dylan chuckled when Leif asked,
“Are you complaining?”

“Nay. Nevertheless, it’s not the same as being loved for who you are.
” Dylan cleared his voice. “Leif, I am going to ask you to take my place on the morrow.”

“You want me to be the substitute in her life for you?”
The sneer on his face told Dylan e man had buried his pride too long.

“No, not the substitute. She will only accept you in my place because she loves you. I see it every time she thinks of you.”

“Most would give their sword arm for her and, after tomorrow, they would get their chance.”

“No. It must be y
ou.” Dylan wasn’t a fool. He heard the men’s thoughts whenever he returned. They wondered why he hadn’t wed her already. “Know and believe me when I say,” he tapped his temple, “she loves you. But I can’t leave her unless you agree to do as I ask.”

“I would do anything for her, or you, but I don’t want to drag the lass to the altar on the morrow screaming and kicking all the way.”

“Leif, don’t argue with me. It must be you. Marry Evie.”

“Fine, say I agree. How will I convince her to have me?”

“I fixed all that.” He held up his hand to keep Leif from objecting. “But I think there’s something else you should know before you agree. She’s with child.”

Leif sat back against the wall and looked like he’d been poleaxed, but Dylan went on as if he hadn’t dropped an anvil on his cousin. “She doesn’t know. I heard the little
bairn’s thoughts. When you take Evie to wife, you must agree to claim my son as your own. Love Evie as you always have and return her light. Save her and my child. I can no longer risk taking them into the darkness with me.”

“Dylan, what have you done to her
?”

“Nothing untoward. You will go to her this night and make love to her. She will be yours in every way. Keep my secret. She sleeps, now, but I planted false memories in her thoughts and took away others. She will be happy to have you.” Dylan shook his head and frowned. “I was a terrible philanderer while I was out raiding.”

“Not this year. The men know otherwise.”

“She won’t believe them. Her memories will tell her I admitted to the affairs the last time I was home.”

“How do you plan to explain me in her luke-warm bed?”

“She believes you’ve been there since we argued and you came to her rescue. She thinks you already proposed.”

“And she agreed? Geez, what if I didn’t want this?”

“You forget I know your mind. And, she did agree.”

“Damn I hate this, Dylan.”

“You know if you don’t want me to know what you think or feel, stop shouting your thoughts at me.”

Leif downed the rest of the ale and asked, “What now?”

“Tell everyone I returned to Benocght. Let everyone think Evie didn’t want to return to the memories, especially since I like my freedom with the lassies. You offered for her hand and I approved.”

“You think there won’t be questions?”

“No. There will be questions, but I am still the clan chieftain, and I am giving you my ward to wed. No one will question that.”

“My father—”

“Your father and mother will be beside themselves with happiness. Now go. I must gather a few things and be off.”

“Dylan, I will take care of both of them—your lass and your son. I thank you for the honor and will not let you down.”

“You’ve been closer than a brother. I’ll miss you, Leif.” Dylan man-hugged his cousin, sent him on his way to his chamber and waited.

Tomorrow would be a year and a day since he and Evie had handfasted. No one would expect him to walk away. Nevertheless, he had to, in order to save her fae soul and the child they’d made together. The son. His promise to his family

He had to put space between himself and the keep before Leif went to Evie’s bed.

No man was that strong.