Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels Book Five) (11 page)

“Exactly. It appears after the
millennium more Druid connections occurred. Maybe because of the time travel
brought on by your family…or awareness on a more secret level. Who knows, maybe
Kincaid and I being in this time as we are, was predetermined to set the course
for the future. It’s hard to say.”

 “The books led you to learn about
the strong gene pool between Druids. How does that help us?” Kincaid’s voice
was all business and no smile met his lips.

Giles dropped his gaze to their
joined hands sitting on the table. “Amber, tell me, were your parents bonded?
Had they exchanged Druid wedding vows?”

“Aye. As are Tara and Duncan.”

“I’m assuming, only by what I’ve seen
of course, that Helen and Simon are not bonded.” Giles refused to meet
Kincaid’s stare, knowing the man would probably follow his line of questions.

“No. Nor are Lizzy and Fin.”

Kincaid turned to Amber. “Why not?”

Amber shrugged. “When we were
battling Grainna, there was too much uncertainty about the outcome. I don’t
believe my brother, Fin, wanted to risk Lizzy’s life. Then there was always the
question about how time travel would affect the couple if they were separated
for any amount of time since bounded couples share part of their souls.”

Giles pinched his eyes together. “You
mean to say your family believed the other partner would perish if they
traveled separately in time?”

“Is that not true?” Amber asked, her
eyes wide with question.

Kincaid released breath. “No, Amber.
It’s not true. It’s only when the soul has left this world, this plain, that the
surviving mate yearns for the other. Yes, most die within a short time when
that happens, but not when one travels in time.”

Amber brought a hand to her neck and
played with the necklace she wore.

“The bound couples in the books I’ve
read about often outlived their unbound cousins. Which is why in our time,”
Giles waved a hand between him and Kincaid, “when couples are married, Druid
wedding vows are
always
exchanged. It has made us, as a race, and the
couples stronger. You know each Druid has a unique power, some more than one.
Bound couples, with enough practice, can use their mate’s power as well.”

“I’ve never seen my mother create
lightning as my father can.”

“She probably hasn’t been encouraged
to try. The power is never as strong, but it does happen. The more powerful the
couple, the more powerful the bond.”

Giles sat back and let the
information soak into the two Druids in front of him.

“Your mother had the gift of
premonition, is that right?”

“Aye.”

“She told you to live here.”

“Aye. If I were to survive I had to
come with Simon to this time to live my life.”

“Did she say anything else?”

Amber’s eyes fluttered several time,
her face lost all color, not that it held much.

“She did.”

Giles held his breath and Kincaid
started to squirm. The man never squirmed.

Amber stared directly at Kincaid.
“She said a Druid awaited me in the future, and that this warrior would be the
balm that saves me.”

Chapter Twelve

It’s not me. I’m no one’s balm.

Yet as Kincaid stared at his hand
already bound to Amber’s, he knew how wrong he was. No one in his time had the
ability to shield others. Some had the ability to shield themselves, but only
for short periods of time and not beyond their own life force.

It’s what made him valuable to the
team.

It’s what made him valuable to Amber.

It’s what was keeping her alive.

A massive wave of sorrow vibrated
between the two of them as Giles’s words soaked in.

Bonding with anyone wasn’t his plan.
If this was the only solution Giles was going to find in his books… “Keep
searching for answers,” he told him.

“Of course.” Giles wouldn’t look at
him.

Kincaid stood and Amber followed.

“Before you leave.” Giles stopped
them. “Kincaid, were your parents bonded?”

“My father raised me. My mother was
not Druid.”

Giles scratched his head. “That’s
right. I seem to remember that. And your grandparents?”

“My father spoke of a mother. I
didn’t know my grandparents.”

“It’s safe to say they weren’t bonded
either?”

“One can assume.”

“Yet your powers are stronger than
most.” Seemed Giles was thinking aloud.

“Your point?”

“No point. An observation. Perhaps
another answer is in your lineage.”

Was he suggesting another man for
Amber?

Kincaid swallowed hard, not liking
the taste of that on his tongue. “I’m an only child.”

Giles turned pages in his book,
already moving to the next option. “Right. A cousin perhaps…”

“What are you suggesting, Giles?”
Amber asked. “That I bond with just anyone because of their gift?”

“If that’s the answer—”

Amber pushed her chin into the air.
“My father didn’t arrange a marriage for me, and I’m not about to let a man I
hardly know make that decision on my behalf.”

“Of course not. I’m not suggesting…
But if the answer lies in bonding—”

“Keep looking,” Kincaid said again.

Giles offered a single nod and
returned to his books.

Half way down the hall to the
kitchen, Amber pulled him to a stop. “Let’s keep the information Giles gave us
to ourselves for now. The others will worry.”

“I agree. We need to weigh our
options before bringing anyone else into the discussion.”

Amber shook her head. “I’m not sure
any discussion needs to occur. This is neither their problem nor their choice.”

No, it’s ours.

“Nay, Gavin. The problem is not yours
either. ’Tis mine and mine alone.”

“Did you read my mind?”

She hesitated. “I-I suppose I must
have. It wasn’t intentional.”

Unsure of how he felt about her being
inside his head, he offered, “You don’t need to make any decision tonight.”

She studied the floor below her feet.
“No, I don’t. But we both know this…” she squeezed her tied hand in his… “cannot
last too long.”

His jaw set and his back teeth
started to pulse with the unintended pressure. His need to see her smile made
him repeat her words. “Is holding my hand such a hardship, m’lady?”

There it was...a slight lift of her
lips. “There are times you annoy me, Gavin Kincaid, but nay, holding your hand
is no hardship.”

“It was my kiss then?”

His heart lifted when she smiled full
on and her cheeks turned an adorable shade of rose. “Is it polite to talk about
kissing?”

“I suppose it depends on what time
you’re from.”

“In my time, women would talk to each
other about such things…but never a woman to a man.”

“You know this from experience?”

Her dark eyes sparked when they
finally met his. “I have not held another man’s hand in years…not even my
father’s. I have no
experience,
as you say.”

Kincaid lifted their joined hands, kissed
the edge of her fingers.

She tugged but he wouldn’t let her
go. Not again. “Tsk, tsk…I’m teasing.”

Her spark simmered into a quaint
smile. Anyone else and he would swear the look was practiced and devious. But
Amber had no way of honing the sort of womanly wiles that could sway a man with
a look.

“We have time, Amber. Plenty of time
to consider what needs to happen.”

“I want to believe you.”

“Then do.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, the
mirth on her face slid away. “When I was a child, before Grainna, I could
sometime sense things before they happened. A small portion of my mother’s gift
lived inside of me.”

Kincaid held perfectly still, too
wired into her next words to move.

“I’ve not felt her gift for years. Until
you took hold of my hand.”

“W-what did you see?”
Do I really
want to know?

“The picture wasn’t, still isn’t
clear.” Her eyes squeezed shut tight as if that would bring her visions into
focus. “There’s pain, uncertainty…and darkness. Something is coming. I don’t
know if I’ll be here for it, but it’s coming.”

“Darkness?”

With her eyes still closed, she
tilted her head; her long hair drifted to the side of her body and made him
want to push it back.

“Encircling the darkness there’s a
blinding light that sparks around it. The light beyond sings, calling to me.”
She opened her eyes suddenly and stared directly at him. “That is what I see. What
I feel is urgency. This time you speak of that we have, may be in theory only.
In reality…I think not.”

Kincaid blew out a long breath. “Do
we have tonight?”

“My feeling and visions have no timeline.”

Is that better?

“We should dine, Gavin. Think on what
Giles has learned and make no assumptions.”

The need to act…to do something,
itched on the surface of his skin like ants crawling over ones’ feet with the
need to be brushed off. “We need to plan.”

“Plan for what? Darkness?” Her
shoulders folded in with a small laugh. “No need for that. Darkness will come
regardless. We need to remember our convictions, what we stand for, and move
from there.” She nodded toward the kitchen. “Let’s sup. Fuel the body, and the
soul and mind will follow.”

“Are you repeating your mother’s
words?”

Amber shook her head. “Nay…my
father’s.”

Later that night, with Giles’s words
running through his head and Amber’s small frame lying perfectly still next to
his, Gavin held her hand and stared at the familiar ceiling above his head.
Neither of them spoke, both of them lost in their own thoughts.

Every few minutes, he’d hear her
voice in his head. Amber’s thoughts, her worry, skidded across his mind like a
fly buzzing by.

Her desire for her mother’s council
was most apparent. When she shifted her weight on the bed, he felt her unease over
sharing the space with a man.

On a completely caveman level,
Kincaid enjoyed the fact she’d never shared her bed with anyone. In his time,
he avoided virgins like the red plague. Not hard to do when most women were rid
of their virginity before they were allowed to drive. He could say he avoided
innocents…women who didn’t guard their heart and didn’t understand the
underlying risk of being with him.

Amber might be innocent, in a
virginal sense, but she wasn’t naive to the dangers of life.

If the truth were told, she could
probably teach him a thing or two about the risk of living.

Who would willingly move through
time, some five to six hundred years in the future, to live? Who could say they
had come against the greatest evil ever known and survived…and she had been
what, a teenager?

“I was twelve…nearly thirteen,”
Amber’s soft voice said beside him.

Content with the fact he could feel
her inside his head, he released a sigh. “Was it awful?”

“I was little more than a child. I’d
been told all my life that my brothers, Duncan and Fin, needed to travel beyond
our time to prevent Grainna from regaining her power. I was told of her threat,
but didn’t truly understand it until I saw it myself.”

He turned on his side and watched her
as the light of the moon shone in from the windows. Her gaze was fixed on
something above her.

“She followed Fin and Lizzy back to
our time as an old woman. It wasn’t long before her curse was broken and every
day was a fight for survival. I’d been told all my life to use my gifts only when
necessary. To hide them.” She smiled, taking Kincaid by surprise. “Then Lizzy
confronted all of us. Told us to work together, pull our energy together to
fight Grainna. Can you imagine my excitement when I, a mere child, was
encouraged to help battle evil?”

“It made you feel worthy.”

“Aye. Worthy and needed. I worked
harder…searching other’s thoughts, the intentions of the animals around us.
Anything. I’d sit in my room at night and spark fire from my fingers so often
my fingertips were black.” She laughed. The memory fresh in her mind filled him
with warmth. “I realized the thought of Grainna coming back into her power
truly terrified my father.” She twisted in the bed and looked at him. “My
father is never frightened. Worried, maybe…but frightened? Nay. Never.”

“He understood the risk.”

“He did. More than any of us. The
evil she spread before we defeated her was a black soupy fog that darkened so
many families, so many lives.”

“Yours most of all.”

“Cian lost a young woman caught in
the fist of Grainna. He never did recover completely. His pain gripped me more
than anyone’s. It was his pain I felt knife through me once we destroyed
Grainna. It was as if I couldn’t breathe. Everyone else celebrated her demise
and I slowly started to feel all the pain she left in her wake.”

Kincaid swallowed.

“Before she died, when I saw her for
the first time, I thought, my God, she’s beautiful. How could someone so lovely
be so evil? Then she looked at me as if she read every thought and I closed my
eyes to the beauty I saw and focused only on the evil I felt. The evil the
others around me witnessed. She scratched inside my head, trying to sway me. I
felt her crawling in my mind like a worm in mud.”

He scooted closer.

“I suppose one could say that was the
moment I grew up. That was when I put my childhood behind me.”

“You were too young.”

“We had no choice. It took all of us
to defeat her. How old were you when you first went into battle?”

“That’s different?”

“Why? Because you’re a man?”

“That…and I was raised as a warrior.”

She tucked her free hand under her
cheek and rolled onto her side. “You’re not unlike the men in my time. Eager
for blood and battle at a young age.”

“I’ve never been bloodthirsty.”

“I would hope not. Avoid battle, but
if you can’t…come out the victor.”

“Your father’s words again?”

“Aye.”

Amber seemed to forget she was in bed
with a man and curled beside him with a smile on her face as they talked. When
was the last time he chatted with a woman in his bed?

“He’s a legend you know.”

“My father?”

He nodded. “Ian…your brothers.”

She grinned. “My father would scoff
at that. Duncan, too. Fin, however, would love the title.”

“Vain?”

She gave her head a small shake. “Proud.”

“What about Cian?”

Her smile fell. “He would say the
cost was too dear for the title.” She paused, lost in her thoughts he couldn’t
read. “What does history tell of the women?”

“Your mother is considered the
matriarch. Your sister, Myra…she’s talked about often, and Tara and Lizzy are
as well, but not like the men. My guess is men edited the books in time and
didn’t give the women their due.”

“I would say not. Lizzy led all of us
many times. She had little faith in her own abilities, but knew together we’d
be stronger. My father and Fin wanted nothing to do with involving the women in
battle.”

Kincaid couldn’t completely relate.
Women had always been a part of the team in his time. He knew of some men
wanting to keep their women safe, which was probably why Kincaid opted to avoid
involving his heart in his affairs. However, the women were often stronger in
their Druid abilities and sometimes more levelheaded. Their usefulness on the
team was unprecedented. Yet the women didn’t accompany them on many missions
located in Amber’s time for obvious reasons. They did try to go undetected. If
a woman were brandishing a sword, she’d be a target or very memorable.