Midnight's Captive (Dark Warriors) (42 page)

Then they would turn to the Warriors.

Charon got Phelan over to Quinn and Galen, who had set up around Aiden. The Druid was using his magic against the creatures. Phelan dropped to his knees, his hands braced on his thighs as his head hung forward.

“I really hate these shits,” Phelan said over the rain.

As if in answer, the storm strengthened. The rain came down at a punishing intensity while the wind howled and tried to knock them off their feet. The thunder rumbled constantly. Charon didn’t know when one round of thunder ended and another began.

“Here they come!” Quinn yelled.

Charon looked up to see a cloud of ash approaching them. The selmyr abruptly appeared in front of them, their teeth bared as they went in for a bite.

Lightning forked viciously over the sky, lashing down upon them. The selmyr standing in front of Charon was fried to a crisp when a bolt zigzagged out of the sky and zapped him.

There was only one Warrior who could control lightning. Charon looked around and spotted Malcolm and Camdyn racing toward them.

“I’ll be damned,” Galen said with a grin when he spotted them.

Charon had never been so happy to see Malcolm or Camdyn. There wasn’t time to welcome them since the selmyr had almost busted through Jason’s magic.

“It’s all about to end,” Arran said, his white Warrior eyes trained on Wallace.

Charon wasn’t ready to celebrate just yet. Deirdre and Declan had always managed to get out of tight spots. Even Jason had proved resourceful. It wouldn’t be over until Charon was standing over Wallace’s dead body.

The three MacLeod brothers lined up together as more selmyr appeared around them. Charon never got tired of watching Fallon, Lucan, and Quinn fight side by side. They were unstoppable.

But even they were soon overwhelmed by the sheer number of selmyr.

“Where are they coming from?” Ian asked.

Charon lunged forward the same time he dodged a creature’s arm. He used his speed to get behind the selmyr and behead him. “Hell,” he answered as the head fell to the ground.

There was no more time for talk as they fought to stay alive and struggled to keep the selmyr off them. There wasn’t a one of them who hadn’t been bitten at least a dozen times, and it was taking its toll.

Charon’s usual speed wasn’t there. It felt as if he didn’t quite have control of his body. And he hurt. Everywhere, but especially the spots he’d been bitten.

He couldn’t give up. He wouldn’t give up. For Laura, for the Druids, for the innocents the world over who had no idea what was going on.

Or the costs it would have on the ones who fought the silent, unknown war.

Charon’s knee buckled as he turned away from a selmyr. Phelan caught him before he hit the ground. He tried to smile at his friend, but it was Phelan’s waxy complexion that made him anxious.

“I’m all right,” Phelan said.

But Charon knew it for the lie it was, because he knew he looked just as bad as or worse than his friend.

Over the rumble of the torrential rain, Charon heard the roars of the dragons. He took a deep breath and got back on his feet. He managed to kill two more selmyr before he caught sight of Jason.

He wasn’t the only one. The creatures around the Warriors had turned toward Wallace, their long strides eating up the ground as they hurried to him.

“Help!” Wallace cried to Charon.

Lucan walked up beside Charon and said, “This is going to be nice to watch.”

“We should leave,” Quinn cautioned.

Galen rotated his shoulders as his wounds healed. “I agree. Once the selmyr kill Wallace, they’ll turn on us again.”

“I’m no’ leaving,” Charon announced.

His words were accented by a fork of lightning that landed close to them. He turned to Malcolm, thinking the Warrior had used his power.

“That wasna me,” Malcolm said when everyone looked at him.

Phelan glanced up. “The storm. It’s the storm.”

“That recently strengthened,” Aiden said.

Camdyn stepped forward. “Saffron had a vision on how Jason would escape. It’s why I’m here. The Druids were going to use their magic to try and hold Wallace here, but somehow in Saffron’s vision he turned it around and used their magic to his advantage.”

“So they’ve strengthened the storm,” Hayden said.

Charon could no longer see Jason, there were so many selmyr. After all the bastard had done to him and Laura, Charon was eager for Wallace’s death. The only thing that could make it better was if Charon took his life himself.

Wallace’s magic was fading quickly. No longer did the sticky feel of
drough
magic fill the area.

“He didna last as long as I thought he would,” Phelan said.

Charon was about to agree with him when the sky opened and lightning hit Jason’s magic bubble the same time a selmyr did. The
boom
was deafening as it spread, knocking everyone off their feet and onto their backs.

When Charon opened his eyes he blinked past the onslaught of rain, his ears ringing. He jerked as a face filled his vision. It was Phelan, and he was saying something, but Charon couldn’t hear him.

The quick healing of his god made Charon’s ears pop as Phelan pulled him on his feet. He looked to where Wallace had been, but found the spot empty.

All around it, in a huge circle, were the selmyr laid out unconscious. But they were beginning to stir.

“Shit,” Charon said, and turned to the other Warriors.

“Larena!” Fallon shouted over and over for his wife.

Charon’s gut clenched for Fallon. Larena’s ability to turn invisible was a boon, but it came at a steep price when Fallon couldn’t find her.

“Here!” came a shout farther up the mountain.

Charon turned back to the place Jason had almost been defeated. “He couldna have gotten away. No’ when he was so close to dying.”

“I guess there isna a chance the lightning got him, is there?” Arran asked.

Phelan snorted. “If only. We willna know for sure until we go looking for him.”

“Until then, let’s get out of here,” Ramsey said.

Charon hung back with Phelan, Arran, and Ian as Fallon teleported the others to the mansion.

“We can no’ leave these selmyr to live,” he said.

Ian’s lips flattened. “I want them dead as much as you do, but we’re no’ in fit shape to take them on again.”

“We need to give ourselves at least a day to recover,” Arran said.

Phelan caught Charon’s gaze. “Then have a plan to take these buggers out in one fell swoop.”

Charon nodded as the selmyr stood up one by one. He grinned at them, but before they could take another step, dragons dived from the sky, scattering the selmyr to the four winds.

“Until next time,” Charon murmured.

He looked up to see a gold dragon. Somehow Charon knew it was Con. Charon lifted his hand to the King of Kings just as Fallon laid a hand on Charon’s shoulder.

In a blink, Charon found himself in the foyer of Con’s mansion. All around him, the Druids were fussing over their Warriors.

Charon, Phelan, and Malcolm stood alone, watching it all. The sea of bodies parted enough so that Charon spotted Laura at the base of the stairs staring at him.

“What are you waiting for?” Phelan leaned over and whispered. “She’s meant to be yours, my friend.”

Charon put one foot in front of the other as he walked to the one woman in the world who held his heart in her hands. He dodged people and ignored comments directed at him.

All he cared about, all he wanted was to get to Laura. Yet the closer he came, the more he doubted himself. She had been thrust into a world she wasn’t prepared for.

He had questioned her and kept her separated from the other Druids. It had been done to protect the others, but in the process, he had hurt her.

By the time he reached Laura, he knew he wasn’t good enough for her. But that didn’t stop his love for her. It was love. He knew that now.

Laura’s smile was bright as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. Charon held her as tight as he dared. The aches of his bite wounds fading with her nearness.

“I was so worried,” she whispered.

Charon ran a hand down her hair and closed his eyes as he squeezed her. “I’m here, just where I told you I would be.”

“It was close, wasn’t it?”

He almost didn’t answer her, but she deserved to know. “Aye.”

“It killed me not knowing what was going on.” She leaned back to look at him.

He gazed into her moss green eyes. Once more, he was drowning, sinking. Tumbling.

Into all that was Laura.

He’d never spoken words of love to a woman, and he wasn’t even sure how to begin. Or what to say. Laura had been a coworker, and then a friend. She was now his lover, and the woman he loved above anything else.

“What is it?” she asked, a frown marking her forehead.

Charon cleared his throat.

Laura’s gaze lowered and she saw all the bite marks that were healing, but gradually. “Oh, my God!”

“I’m all right,” he assured her.

Her hands hovered over several of the bites, her eyes wide and her lips parted in horror. “You aren’t healing.”

“I am. Just slowly.”

“Is that what’s wrong?” she asked as her gaze jerked back to his. “Do you need to rest?”

Charon couldn’t stop touching her, couldn’t think of another minute without her beside him. “I’ll be fine, Laura. I promise.”

“Then what is it?” she asked hesitantly.

He saw the dread enter her eyes, and a knot of uncertainty coiled in his gut. “Laura … it’s asking a lot, I know, but is there any way you could ever love a man like me?”

Laura’s breath locked in her lungs. Of all the things she expected Charon to say, that hadn’t been it. Her heart began to pound so loudly, she thought it might leap from her chest.

The uncertainty in his gaze and his disheveled, wet hair made her want to wrap her arms around him and hold him forever.

“No,” she said.

Charon’s dark gaze clouded as he visibly began to close himself off. He looked away. “I see.”

“Because I already love you,” she said as a tear fell from her eyes.

His gaze flew back up to hers, filled with hope and love. “You love me?”

“Yes, Charon Bruce. I love you.”

He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly before he whispered, “I love you, Laura.”

Her eyes closed as she smiled. They were words she had feared never to hear. But Charon had given them to her, and in doing so, she had given him her heart and her soul.

“I love you,” he whispered again.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Aiden scanned the foyer twice, but still he couldn’t find Britt. His gazed paused when he caught sight of Charon and Laura kissing. There was no doubt that another Warrior had found his mate.

Unable to stop himself, Aiden’s eyes went to Malcolm, who stood silent and still beside Larena and Fallon while Aiden’s parents were talking.

Malcolm’s intense azure gaze met his for a moment before shifting away. There had been a flash of something—regret maybe—before the dead stare Aiden was used to returned.

Aiden was never sure what to say to the Warrior, but it would have to wait. He had to find Britt.

When he turned his head, he found Elena motioning him to come to her. Aiden hurried to her side, relief pouring through him at her kind smile.

“She’s safe,” Elena said before Aiden could ask.

Aiden let out a deep breath. “Thank you. Where is she?”

“Upstairs. We figured that would be the best place for her. She’s been working there ever since she arrived. Third floor,” she said as she gave him a push toward the stairs.

Aiden skirted around Charon and Laura, who were busy smiling at each other before he took the steps three at a time. His heart was hammering wildly in his chest by the time he reached the third-floor landing.

He paused at the lone door that stood cracked open a few inches. There was a light coming from inside and a soft hum of music. A smile pulled up his lips when he heard Linkin Park.

With his hand upon the door, Aiden pushed it open and silently walked inside. His knees went weak when he finally laid eyes on Britt. She was slumped over, her head pillowed on her arm with her wealth of blond hair pulled back into a ponytail with several pencils sticking out near the holder.

Aiden hadn’t realized just how tightly wound he’d been until he laid eyes on her again. Only then did the viselike clamps around his heart loosen.

He barely spared the pages of scribble on the table a glance as he smoothed a lock of hair away from her face. Unable to hold back, he ran the backs of his fingers down the silken skin of her cheek to her jaw.

Her eyes fluttered open. When her gaze caught sight of him, she slowly sat up. “You’re alive.”

“I am.”

“Are you injured?”

“Nothing that can no’ be healed,” he said, and took a step closer to her. “Can you ever forgive me for dragging you into this world of mine?”

She raised a blond brow, a small smile playing about her lips. “As dangerous as it’s been, I’d be more pissed had you not.”

“My life is … complicated.”

“Everyone’s life is complicated. Are you going to try for another excuse, or are you finally going to kiss me?”

Aiden laughed as he moved between her legs as she sat on the stool. “My God, woman. You’re a handful.”

“But you like it.”

“Oh, aye. I like it verra much,” he whispered before he kissed her long and slow.

He was just deepening the kiss when she pulled back. “Wait,” Britt said breathlessly, her lips already swollen.

“Doona tease me,” he said before he nipped at her earlobe.

Her hands flattened on his chest before she gave a little push. “I’ve found something, Aiden. Something that could turn the tide of this war you’re fighting.”

All thoughts of kissing and laying her out on the table to strip her bare vanished. “Show me.”

*   *   *

Con stood in the rain outside the mountain as he stared at the mansion that had been his home for centuries. It had felt so good to take to the skies and battle evil once more. But the battle was over. It was time to resume his role.