His voice married with hers in a rapid-fire harmony rising to a crescendo. She heard nothing but the surf breaking in her ears—or was that her own pulse pounding? A monstrous wave of climax rushed over her. She screamed into his face, but he didn’t answer. Or did he? Was that his voice she heard? Was that pain she saw in his eyes? He bared his teeth, and something hot burned through her guts.
She couldn’t stop shrieking. He touched forgotten hiding places along her channel, and every time he did so, a new explosion blew her to kingdom come. She whipped from side to side. He held her so tight she couldn’t move. She could only stare and scream at the blinding vision of fulfillment coming true all around her.
By the time he staggered to his feet with her still wrapped around him, she hung limp and lifeless in his arms. Her whole self throbbed with continuous pulses of orgasmic rapture thumping through her. She couldn’t stop it. It filled every inch of her and left no scrap of her old self unchanged.
He staggered to the bed and toppled over on top of her. He came to rest between her legs wrapped around his hips, and when he tried to move, she held him in place. She pulled him in whenever he tried to withdraw. In a few seconds, the next wave reloaded for another blistering attack.
Chapter 30
Jamie knocked on the door. “Callum, mon! Are ye in there?”
“Aye,” Callum rumbled. “Are ye ready?”
“Rob’s downstairs. He asked me tae come and rouse ye.”
“Aye, lad,” Callum replied. “I’m on me way.”
He rolled over and kissed Sadie. Her hair fell over her eyes, and she drew him down into her perfumed halo. “Come alaing. Let’s go.”
She didn’t answer. She tasted his tongue, and her breasts brushed his chest. He couldn’t keep his eyes open against the assault on his senses. He had to go now before she caught him.
He rocketed out of bed. “Come alaing, lassie. There’s more o’ that on the other side.”
She laughed and rolled onto her back. Her breasts flopped aside when she moved. “You promise?”
“Ye’ll regret ye asked that,” he told her. “One o’ these days, ye’ll want me tae leave ye alone so ye can get some sleep fer a change.”
“I’ve got an idea,” she replied. “Let’s take bets on how long that will take. What do you bet? Six weeks? A year? What do you say?”
He shot her a wicked grin. “Now ye’re tryin’ tae bait me. Get yer clothes on. We ha’e business tae attend tae. Ye can make yer jokes all ye like afterwards.”
She got out of bed. Callum watched her get dressed out of the corner of his eye while he buckled on his kilt and sporran. She went to the closet and retrieved the old trousers she made on the march here. She slipped them over her bare legs and pulled a shirt over her head.
She drew out a saber and three different dirks. She buckled the sword around her waist and hid the dirks on her person. She bound up her hair. “I’m ready when you are.”
Callum regarded her with his shirt dangling in his hand. Supreme confidence in the fight ahead shone all around her. Sex became her. It became her almost as much as hardship and battle. No matter what she endured, she rose to the occasion. Her trials made her stronger, more resilient, and more beautiful than he ever thought possible.
She noticed him watching her. Her eyes skated down his frame to his feet and back up to his face. He stood bare-chested in his kilt. His shirt hung from his fingertips. He couldn’t stop staring at her.
She measured him with those sure eyes of hers. She strolled across the room to where he stood, but she didn’t kiss him. She went down on her knees at his feet and put her arms around him. She gazed up at him silent adoration.
He laid his hand against her cheek. He never loved anyone the way he loved her. She stabbed those blazing eyes of hers into his very soul. How could a man survive a love like this? He wanted nothing but to touch her and kiss her and love her like this, so strong and vulnerable and ready for anything.
He never imagined he could ache for a woman this much. Yet here she was, in his arms, at his feet, in his bed. She wanted to come home with him to Urlu. She wanted him and his family and his people, just like her friends. Could such a thing really be possible?
Running footsteps sounded out on the landing, and the spell broke. She laid her face against his stomach and nuzzled into him for a minute before she got to her feet. She gave him one kiss and moved away to the door. She wouldn’t come back until this battle was all over.
He broke out of his trance and threw the shirt over his head. He shoved it into his belt and met her at the door when she opened it. They emerged onto the landing, but only servants moved outside the room. Everyone else waited for them downstairs.
Sadie slipped her hand into his, and they headed down to the dining room. Sadie froze on the threshold. Robbie and Elle, Hazel, Fergus, and Jamie all stood inside. They talked in a heated semi-circle of intense conversation. Right next to them stood Lachlan and his three brothers, along with their cousins and retainers.
Callum cast a sidelong glance at Sadie, but she never took her eyes off Lachlan. Callum kept still and waited to see what she would do. Lachlan spotted them and turned to meet her gaze. For what seemed like hours, the two regarded each other across the room. The bubbling conversation died, and the others fell silent to watch, too.
Sadie’s hand fell out of Callum’s grasp. She marched into the room. She walked right up to Lachlan and stood face to face with him. Lachlan didn’t smile. They stared at each other for another endless moment before she spoke. “I’m glad you’re all right, Lachlan. We all thought you were dead.”
He snorted. “I thought I was dead, too.”
They might have stood there staring at each other all night if Lachlan hadn’t made the first move. He glanced at Callum, but Callum gave him no help. “Callum tells me ye plan tae go home wi’ him tae his own country.”
“That’s right,” Sadie replied. “I’m sorry, Lachlan. I tried to tell you before, but I can’t marry you. It just wouldn’t work out. I care about you and your family, but I just can’t do it. I love Callum. I’m going with him.”
Hazel appeared at Lachlan’s side. “I was just explaining to Lachlan that you can’t be the thistle—or whatever it is—that Koto seems to think you are. He understands now that marrying you wouldn’t lift the curse.”
The whole party burst into their roiling conversation again. Everybody started talking at once.
“Where is this Koto?” Elle asked. “That’s what I want to know.”
“If she’s a witch like the others,” Robbie replied, “perhaps she can tell us what she saw tae make her think there was another thistle.”
“How could there be another thistle?” Elle asked. “That would mean there was some other woman who came through the portal from our world.”
“I dinnae understand it,” Fergus interjected, “but what other possibility can it mean? ’Ere we ha’e another curse like the other, but comin’ from a different source. That would seem tae indicate another portal. Perhaps it’s no women comin’ through. Perhaps it’s sheep. I dinnae ken.”
“Quit joking,” Hazel returned. “It would have to be women, or Koto wouldn’t suggest Lachlan marry one of them and make her the thistle. This must be a parallel situation to the Phoenix Throne. That’s the only explanation. Some other women must have come through and caused this separate curse. That’s the only way my magic wouldn’t work on it.”
“What’s the Phoenix Throne?” Sadie asked.
Callum came to her side. “It’s the Throne of Urlu. That’s our country, the dragon country, and ’Azel lifted that curse months ago.”
“So how do we find these women?” Elle asked.
Hazel turned to Fergus. “Are you sure you can’t see anything?”
“It’s all hidden,” he replied. “I cinnae see naught but what’s right in front o’ me face.”
“Why don’t you ask Koto?” Sadie asked. “She must know.”
The f
riends exchanged glances.
Sadie turned to Lachlan. “Where is she? Can she help us?”
He shrugged and looked away. “I dinnae ken where she is. That’s the truth o’t. I ne’er ken where she is or when she’ll turn up. She comes and she goes. She opens her mouth and disappears.”
Callum snorted. “Just like Ross.”
“This is ridiculous,” Hazel snapped. “She’s the one person who can answer our questions, and we don’t know where she is or when she’ll turn up. Come on, Fergus. Help us. Can you see Koto anywhere?”
He closed his eyes and swept his face around the room like he was looking for something behind his eyelids. “She’s…. she’s in the pigpen.”
Everyone spun around at once. “What?”
He opened his eyes and shrugged. “She’s in the pigpen. That’s all I ken.”
Lachlan burst out laughing. “I allus thought she stunk. She’s in the auld pigsty down the basement. Go fetch her, Carson.”
Carson left the room. Sadie frowned. “Are you sure about this?”
“The auld witch has been hidin’ under our noses the entire time,” Lachlan replied. “I should ha’e kenned’t instead o’ holdin’ her in some kind o’ awe. I should ha’e kenned she was full o’ smoke.”
“Don’t be too hard on her,” Elle replied. “If we’re right, she was telling you the truth. She just got Sadie mixed up with somebody else. Anybody could make a mistake like that.”
“I just can’t believe some other woman came through from our world,” Sadie exclaimed. “It seems impossible.”
Just then, Carson came back. The smell of filth and mold preceded the witch, and her nauseating stench filled the room with noxious gas. She glared at the strangers and migrated straight for Lachlan.
He displayed no sign of annoyance or disgust. “Ye see I ha’e found the thistle.”
Koto jerked around to stare at him. “This? I told ye she cinnae be the thistle so laing as she belaings tae another. Ye ha’e no killed the other, and so she’ll no be free tae marry.”
“Tell me,” Lachlan replied. “Tell me what makes ye believe this is the thistle and no some other as came through the portal from the other side.”
Koto arched her eyebrows to scowl at him. “What other would there be? She came through, did she no? She mun’ be the one.”
“You saw summat come through,” Lachlan pointed, “and this one came through. Perhaps there’s another as came through as weel.”
“Aye. O’er there.” Koto leveled her crooked finger at Elle.
A collective sigh went around the room. Arch turned away. “Hopeless, tha’tis.”
“She can’t see anything else,” Hazel murmured. “She doesn’t know.”
“Stop,” Fergus called out. He approached Koto.
The witch shrank away from him. The closer he came, the more desperate she became to avoid him. She hustled several steps back and bumped into Carson. He caught hold of her and shoved her toward Fergus.
Koto whined in terror. She ducked behind Lachlan and cowered. She dared not peek out for fear of seeing Fergus standing there.
“I’ll no harm ye,” Fergus told her. “Ainly let me see what ye’ve seen. That’s all I ask.”
Koto refused to come out. Lachlan lost patience. He grabbed hold of her and wrestled her around in front of him. When she tried to break away, he pinned her in his arms and held her still. “Do it,” he told Fergus. “Do what ye mun’.”
Fergus took one more step forward. The witch jerked back and forth in Lachlan’s arms. She turned her face one way and then the other to get herself turned as far away from Fergus as she could.
Fergus’s hand shot out. He seized her by the chin and forced her to look directly into his eyes. She shrieked and fought, but between him and Lachlan, she couldn’t get away. Fergus fixed his eyes on her face and stared her down.
Little by little, she stopped struggling, but her expression of abject terror only got worse the longer he made her look at him. Her cries rose to shrieks. Fergus laid his other hand on her shoulder. He went very still. His eyes glazed over, and he stopped blinking. He shifted his gaze to something over her shoulder.
“She’s seen it,” he whispered.
Hazel approached him. “What do you see?”
“Another woman—four o’ ’em. They’re…they’re wearing dresses, but one o’ ’em’s talkin’ intae some kind o’ box. I cinnae hear…. aye, they’re speakin’ yer language. They….” He broke off, and his vision cleared.
Fergus turned away. “Ye can let her go. She saw ’em. She was tellin’ the truth.”
“If she saw them, she must have recognized I wasn’t one of them,” Sadie pointed out.
Lachlan released the witch, who ran screaming from the room. “She’s blind,” he told them, “at least, she’s blind in one eye, and the other doesnae see color. She made a mistake.”
Fergus sank into a chair and cradled his head in his hand. Hazel rubbed his shoulder. “You okay?”
“It aches sometimes,” he murmured.
“If she made a mistake like that,” Elle chimed in, “she probably won’t be able to help us find these women.”
“She doesnae ken where these women are,” Fergus muttered. “She doesnae ken naught. She’s a pigsty witch. She kens naught about naught. Leave her alone.”
“We don’t have time to find them anyway,” Hazel replied. “We have to get ready for the next assault, or we can kiss this castle good-bye.”
“Ye can go home,” Lachlan pointed out. “Ye dinnae need tae stay and throw yer lives away on us.”
“No one’s goin’ anywhere,” Robbie returned. “We’ll stay until it’s done. We all agree on that.”
Lachlan frowned. He stole a glance at Sadie. “Do ye all agree on that?”
“I guess we have to,” she replied. “We can’t leave you to take the brunt of it. You would never survive. You might betray somebody after he saved your silly backside, but not everyone plays it that way. There are a lot of innocent people in this castle. We have to save them. I, for one, want to save this castle for Christie’s sake alone.”
Lachlan cast a hesitant glance around the room until he came face to face with Callum. “And ye, mon? Ye plan tae stay and lend yer fire tae this as weel?”
“Aye,” Callum replied. “It may be we’ll all die, and ye and I could ha’e saved ourselves the trouble o’ fightin’ each other, but we’ll gi’e it our best. The way the creatures keep increasing wi’ e’ery battle, I dinnae like our chances o’ defeatin’ ’em with five dragons workin’. They’ll throw e’erything they ha’e got at us. They’ll o’errun this castle, and any dragon as lands on the ground, they’ll drag down tae destruction. I dinnae like tae agree wi’ Arch, but I believe he’s right. It’s hopeless.”
“There must be a way to defeat them,” Elle insisted. “We defeated them before with magic. We could do the same thing here.”
“I wouldn’t be able to defeat them with magic,” Hazel replied. “I can’t cast a spell that would make them disappear, or whatever else. My magic won’t work on them at all.”
“Then we’re sunk,” Elle returned. “We’ve got nothing, and Callum’s right. If we want to defend the castle from them, you’ll have to stand on the ground. They’ll overrun you with their numbers, and they’ll devour you. They’ll leave nothing but bones.”
“If ainly there was some other way tae cast the spell,” Fergus added. “Perhaps one o’ ye others could cast it. Perhaps Christie could cast it.”
“Me!” Christie cried. “I cinnae use naught fer magic. Dinnae ask me tae do that.”
“Then ye, Sadie,” Fergus went on. “Ye cast it.”
“That won’t work, either,” Hazel told him. “The spell can’t come from any of the three of us.”
“There mun’ be another who can do it,” Lachlan said. “I cinnae accept it’s hopeless.”
“There is someone who can do it,” Sadie murmured.
Everyone rounded on
her. “Who?”
“Koto,” Sadie replied. “She does have some magic, or she wouldn’t have been able to see those other women in the first place. She’s completely unconnected with this curse. You could teach her the spell, Hazel. You could set everything up for her and coach her to say the incantation.”
The others looked at each other.
“It could work,” Fergus remarked.
“It has to work,” Elle exclaimed. “It’s our only chance.”
“Then ye’d better get tae’t,” Robbie replied. “Get tae work assemblin’ the goods. Get e’erything ye need ready tae go when the monsters strike.”
“What about Koto?” Hazel asked. “We don’t know if she’ll go along with this. You all saw the way she reacted to Fergus.”
“She mun’ ha’e some reason tae fear Faery,” Fergus replied.
“Well, I’m Faery, too,” Hazel pointed out. “She won’t want to come near me.”
“She’ll do it,” Lachlan growled. “She’ll do it when the hammer comes down and it’s do it or die. Get yer equipment assembled and ready. Dinnae talk tae her. Dinnae go near her. Leave her tae stop in the pigsty until the last possible moment.”
“How will you convince her?” Sadie asked.
He shot her a wicked grin. “I’ll no convince her. The demons’ll do the job fer me. When they attack, Arch and Carson’ll run down tae the pigsty. They’ll grab her and bring her kickin’ and screamin’ tae the front field. The devils’ll be runnin’ all o’er the place. That’s when ye’ll tell her tae do the spell or die. She’ll do what ye say. Ye can lay yer money on that.”
The friends exchanged another glance. “Well,” Sadie replied, “I guess we’ll give it a shot. We’ve got nothing to lose.”
That summed up the situation better than anything. The friends drifted away one by one. The McLean brothers went off to do whatever they planned to do. Elle, Sadie, and Hazel put their heads together and headed for the kitchen in search of some lavender. Robbie and Lachlan left to hand out weapons to everyone.
Wolf Castle Page 21
