Midnight's Captive (Dark Warriors) (38 page)

Aiden shook his head at his father and Galen and faced front again. Their eagerness for battle had grown the closer they got to the meeting spot to drop off Britt.

Now that Britt was gone, Aiden was surprised the two Warriors hadn’t jumped out of the vehicle to ambush Wallace. But it was always this way with Warriors before a battle. They didn’t see it. It was part of who they were, part of the god inside them.

But Aiden saw it. It used to frighten him, but now he knew it was their way of preparing. He started the car and put it in drive before he pulled out onto the road, the wipers going as fast as they could and still not clearing the windshield of rain.

“How far until we’re on Dreagan land?” he asked.

Galen laughed. “Lad, we’ve been on it for over an hour.”

“One of these days I want to stop being treated as a child,” he stated, and drove over the narrow bridge.

Quinn leaned forward and put his hand on Aiden’s shoulder. “We thought it best no’ to scare Britt more than we had to.”

“You’re right.” Aiden slowed to take a narrow curve. “Where do I go now?”

“You need to drive slow. Verra slow.”

Galen shifted in his seat, his gaze riveted on the side mirror on the car. “We need to give Wallace time to catch us.”

*   *   *

“I’m going to kill them. Slowly. Painfully.”

Aisley listened as Jason repeated his litany for the hundredth time since finding Mindy with her heart yanked from her chest.

There was only one creature who could have done such a thing. A Warrior. Aisley hated to admit she was overjoyed that Mindy was no longer around. Still, Aisley wouldn’t wish that kind of death on anyone.

Aisley licked her lips and looked out the car window while trying to ignore the fact her cousin had the body of his dead lover in the backseat with him.

How close had Aisley come to dying? Why had it been Mindy and not her? Was it just by chance that the Warrior hadn’t chosen her?

Those thoughts had gone round and round in her mind for the last hour as they drove north, following whatever kind of trail Jason had found of Aiden and Britt.

The Warrior who had killed Mindy could’ve slain the rest of them. Why didn’t he? Was he just toying with them?

“It had to have been Larena,” Jason said. “She used her power to turn invisible and sneak up on Mindy. That’s the only way Mindy would’ve been taken unawares.”

“Mindy was always overconfident,” Aisley said. “You don’t know what happened.”

Jason’s hand slammed down on Aisley’s seat from behind. “I know it was a Warrior. That’s all I need to know.”

Dale glanced at her before he took a sharp corner and stopped the car as they waited for another vehicle to cross the narrow bridge. Once the other car was clear, Dale put his foot on the accelerator.

“They’re leading us into a trap,” Dale said into the silence.

Jason snorted. “As if any kind of trap could stop me.”

“And what about us?” Aisley asked as she turned in her seat to look at him.

Jason merely smirked. “You willna be harmed, cousin. As long as you prove beneficial.”

“You wish you hadn’t sent Mindy with me to scout the cottage, don’t you?”

“You’re bloody well right!” Jason took a deep breath, his face relaxing as he did. “Mindy had a great future ahead of her,” he said calmly.

“And I don’t?”

“Aisley,” Dale muttered in warning.

Aisley glanced at Dale before turning her gaze back to Jason. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“You had potential, but you seem to have … lost it. You never could stay the course for anything. No’ even your ba—”

“Enough!” Aisley shouted. Her magic rolled viciously within her, urging her to use it on Jason. The impulse to harm him as he had done her was overwhelming.

And he knew it by the way he smiled at her.

He always did know how to strike to have the greatest impact. Aisley’s chest heaved as she struggled to get ahold of herself while Jason’s leer grew the longer he watched her.

“Did I hit a nerve, cousin?” he asked innocently.

“God, how I loathe you.”

Jason laughed and reached over to run his hand down the side of Mindy’s hair while her head lolled against the back of the seat. “If you ever grow the balls to take me on, let me know. I’d enjoy the brief entertainment.”

Aisley turned back in her seat, her eyes dead ahead as she looked through the rain-drenched windshield. There was only one way she could take Jason on. That meant she would have to contact the Devil in order to get the power she needed.

But did she have the guts?

Then the words that had whispered so maliciously in her head after she performed the
drough
ceremony came again.

“Your soul is mine, Aisley. All mine.”

She was going to Hell anyway. Why not go on her own terms? But she couldn’t exactly call up Satan right then. She needed to be alone, which was going to be difficult, since they were trailing after Aiden and Britt into a trap.

There would be a battle. She had known it the instant Jason released his magic upon the unsuspecting people of Edinburgh.

He had taken the war to a new level, one that none of the Warriors or Druids of MacLeod Castle would stand by and allow to happen without some kind of retribution.

Aiden and Britt had been given no choice when Jason had then used more magic to prevent Fallon from teleporting them to safety. Their only option was to run.

Yet Aisley knew the Warriors of MacLeod Castle to be intelligent and crafty. They had given them too much time to formulate a plan. And once again, Jason was too confident in his abilities.

There would be death. So very much death.

Dale reached over and put his large, callused hand atop hers, which rested on her thigh, for a brief moment. She didn’t dare look at him. If Jason suspected Dale’s loyalties lay with her instead of with him, Jason would kill Dale immediately.

Aisley couldn’t let that happen. She didn’t want to feel responsible for him, but she did.

No other person would die because of her. No one.

“They’re trying to hide in the glens,” Jason said suddenly.

Almost instantly, the rain slamming against the car increased tenfold. Thunder boomed around them as lightning zigzagged through the sky.

Aisley leaned toward the window of her door and looked at the gray sky. Thick clouds, heavy with rain, blocked any light from the sun.

“Which Warrior is causing this storm?” Jason asked, curiosity in his voice.

A tremor raced down Aisley’s spine. Jason enjoyed this cat and mouse game with those from MacLeod Castle entirely too much. It was lucky for them there was no other kind of magical creature that could choose sides, because she knew they would come up on the losing end.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Laura stood alone in the parlor and stared out the window of the mansion, hoping to catch a glimpse of Charon through the dense rain.

“You won’t see him,” Dani said as she walked up to stand beside her. “They’ll make sure to stay far away.”

“I know.”

Dani crossed her arms over her chest. “In the past, we Druids were in the thick of things. But not this time.”

“Do you miss it?” Laura asked as she looked at Dani.

“Yes. And no,” she answered. “It’s scary being in the midst of battle, but I love to watch Ian. He’s magnificent.”

“Ramsey is ruthless,” Tara said from behind them.

Laura and Dani turned to find her leaning against the doorway, a sad smile upon her lips.

“I nearly lost him once. I need to be with him.”

Dani dropped her arms and quickly walked to Tara to put an arm around her in comfort. “Ramsey was most explicit in his instructions. Hell, all of them were. We’re to stay here.”

“Our magic can help,” Tara raged.

Laura ran her hand along the back of the bridle-colored leather Chesterfield couch, her finger pausing at each tufted section. “Neither of you have seen what a selmyr can do.”

Ronnie walked into the room and stopped, her face lined with anxiety. “No, but I have. They move so fast.”

“As quick as the wind,” Laura added.

Ronnie nodded. “And vicious. They were on Arran before he knew what happened. I could only stand there helpless as they bit him and drank his blood like a damned vampire.”

“Charon wouldn’t let me see my mother and what they did to her.” Laura sank onto the rounded arm of the couch and wrapped her arms about herself. “By the way he and the Dragon Kings acted, I suspect the scene would’ve been a grisly one.”

“It’s good you didn’t see it, then,” Ronnie said. “Trust me, Laura, it’s something I’ll never get out of my head. Nor how they then turned to me. It was only Arran’s quick thinking that got me out of there alive.”

Dani blew out a harsh breath. “There has to be something we can do. It’s not right that we’re not beside our men.”

“No,” Laura said with a shake of her head. “The Kings made it clear. The selmyr feed on magic. If we go out there and try to use our magic, they’ll come straight to us. The more magic we use, the more they’ll feed. The Kings have been able to keep them at bay, but the Warriors are putting themselves in danger just to get a chance at killing Jason.”

Tara looked down at her nails and scraped a bit of peeling gunmetal blue polish off. “Ramsey would have my ass if I were to leave the mansion.”

There was something in her voice that caught Laura’s attention. The way the other women looked at her with grins pulling at their lips told Laura something was definitely going on.

“Is Larena guarding us?” Ronnie asked.

Laura frowned as she recalled briefly meeting the beautiful female Warrior an hour before. “She left with the others. I heard something about them needing her invisibility.”

“That’s right,” Tara said as she dropped her hands. “They couldn’t get ahold of either Phelan or Malcolm, so they took Larena.”

“Which means no one is guarding us,” Dani said.

Laura looked over her shoulder as she heard a roar of a dragon. Charon was out there, waiting to ambush Jason while trying to keep away from the selmyr.

It was an impossible task the Warriors had given themselves. Charon wouldn’t have put the plan in to motion if he wasn’t sure they could gain the advantage, but it was a dangerous chance they took.

“I can’t sit here waiting to know if Ramsey is coming back to me,” Tara said.

Dani caught Laura’s eye. “Ian is my world. If he’s in trouble, I want to be there for him.

“And if seeing you puts him in harm’s way because you’ve taken his mind off the battle?” Laura asked.

Ronnie smiled sadly. “It’s obvious you care for Charon, Laura, but maybe it’s because you haven’t seen how very close to death he’s come.”

“But I have,” she argued. “He faced Jason and his group alone for me. I watched as magic was used against him and Jason put the
drough
blood in Charon’s wounds. I watched Charon die. Don’t tell me I don’t know what it feels like.”

Dani took Laura’s hands and turned her to look into her eyes. “We know all of that. It’s just … loving a Warrior is maddening, frustrating, and frightening. They’re protective of the ones they care about, and sometimes that doesn’t allow them to see we can help.”

Laura knew they meant that in order to feel as they did, she had to love Charon, and because she didn’t feel as they did, she obviously didn’t love him.

How very wrong they were.

She loved him so much, it hurt. To know he was out there putting his life on the line once more made her want to scream. But she also knew he needed to be focused to carry out his intricate plan.

He couldn’t do that with her there. Regardless of how much she thought she could help or wanted to be by his side.

Instead of arguing with the Druids, Laura pulled her hands out of Dani’s grasp and faced the window once more. The silence that followed was drowned out only by the storm.

“You must love him very much indeed,” Tara said.

Laura’s chest tightened as she thought of Charon’s teasing grin, of his beautiful dark eyes, of his amazing kisses. If she were honest with herself, she’d loved him from the moment she walked into his pub and he smiled at her.

“This battle isn’t just about killing Jason,” Laura said. “For Charon, it’s about redeeming himself in his own eyes. If I go out there, I’ll distract him. I can’t chance ruining all of this just because I want to see him.”

Laura turned around to see the rest of the Druids in the doorway. She wasn’t sure how much they had heard, and it didn’t matter. For too long, she had hidden her feelings from everyone, even herself.

“I’ve an idea,” Isla said as she stepped forward, her ice blue eyes intelligent and kind as they focused on her. “It’s going to take all of us.”

Reaghan’s amber eyes were alight with excitement. “We are going to help our men and the Dragon Kings. No one said we had to be near the battle in order to use our magic.”

“I don’t really know how to use my magic,” Laura said when Isla pulled her into the large circle the Druids made. Laura wanted to help, but feared she’d be more of a hindrance than anything.

Isla tucked her long black hair behind her ear and winked. “We’ll guide you to the ancients. From there, you’ll learn quickly.”

“The ancients?” Laura whispered as she sank onto the ground and crossed her legs as the others did.

Gwynn squeezed her other hand. “Close your eyes, Laura, and think of your magic.”

Laura glanced up and caught sight of Jane, who stood off the side. Jane gave her an encouraging smile before Laura closed her eyes and her magic welled up inside her.

*   *   *

“Oh, shit,” Elena said as the car slid on a patch of wet earth.

She glanced in the rearview mirror to see Britt go skidding in the backseat before Elena could straighten the car.

“Maybe I should’ve driven,” Cassie said from beside her.

Elena rolled her eyes. “I remember all too well the story of your first day in Scotland. It’s better for all if I drive.”

“I’ve gotten better,” Cassie said defensively, and then ruined it with a smile. “Well. A little.”

“Wee bit,” Elena said, mimicking the Highland brogue.