by Donna Grant
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she grimaced. She was to be a nun. A nun shouldn’t have those kinds of thoughts, even if they were her deepest desires.
“Don’t leave,” Lucan said.
Cara saw Fallon’s gaze narrow out of the corner of her eye, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t. Lucan’s gaze wouldn’t release her, and she was caught in his hypnotic eyes as they pulled her toward him.
Lucan set the platter on the table. “No one should be out in such weather.”
As if on cue, lightning lit the sky before hitting its mark with an earth-shattering crash. The boom resounded around them a heartbeat before thunder rumbled threateningly.
“You’re not a prisoner here. I give you my word,” Lucan continued. “You’ll be safer here until the storm blows over.”
Cara glanced at Fallon to see him watching her, his face unreadable. What should she do? From the conversation she had heard coming down the stairs, they wanted her gone.
Not everyone. Lucan wants you to stay.
Every fiber of her being told her if she stayed, her life would be forever changed. But how could she leave in this weather? In the dark?
She could hear the wind, knew the gusts could push her off the cliff if she wasn’t careful. She had managed to survive death once that day. Did she want to test it again so soon?
With a sigh, Cara dropped her hand from the latch and walked to the table. “Until the storm stops then.” She was ravenous. She’d had little in the way of food for her noon meal because she had wanted to get to the mushrooms.
She sat and reached for the platter. The meat was cold but delicious. She quickly ate it and the few bites of cheese and bread. When she looked up, Lucan had taken the seat across from her and next to Fallon.
It was disconcerting to have both men staring. Now that she was closer to them she could see that while Fallon’s hair was dark, it wasn’t black like Lucan’s. Fallon’s eyes were a dark green while Lucan’s were a vibrant green, making his black lashes more prominent.
She looked at Lucan’s lips again. They were so . . . sensual. She blinked, surprised at her thoughts. Her stomach fluttered and the vial warmed against her skin. She jerked her gaze to his eyes to find him watching her, his stare intense, hot. Her blood heated. No longer did she have the chill that she hadn’t been able to shake since waking in the strange chamber.
“I never thanked you,” she blurted out, needing to fill the silence.
Lucan shrugged away her words.
Fallon drummed his fingers on the table. “Might we have the name of the woman we saved?”
Cara closed her eyes in embarrassment. When she opened her gaze, she focused on Fallon. He didn’t make her feel . . . off balance as his brother did. “My apologies. I’m Cara.”
“Cara.”
She shivered at the sound of her name on Lucan’s lips. Despite her internal warning, she found herself staring into his eyes. “Aye.”
“Do you live in the village, Cara?” Fallon asked.
Without taking her gaze from Lucan, she answered, “Aye.”
“Are you married?” Lucan asked.
Cara clasped her hands in her lap beneath the table. “Nay.”
Fallon pushed the bottle between one hand and the other. “Parents?”
She frowned, unsure why they needed to know about her parents. She understood that as the eldest, Fallon wanted to discover all he could about her, but why? She didn’t talk about her parents. To anyone, not even the nuns. Why then? It wasn’t like she could harm the brothers.
Then she realized that she could. No one was supposed to be in the castle.
“Does it matter?” she asked.
Fallon snorted. “It does to me.”
“Enough,” Lucan said in a voice as hard as steel.
Cara licked her lips, unused to having someone take up for her. She lifted her gaze from the table and looked around the hall. There had been work done to it that wasn’t visible from the outside. It wasn’t as extravagant as she assumed the hall was in its prime, but it was enough to shelter them from the elements.
“You three live here?” she asked.
Fallon threw Lucan a glance. “When the need arises.”
Another crash sounded behind her. She jumped and glanced at the door behind her. Something was certainly going on in MacLeod Castle, but what? Her curiosity had always gotten her into trouble. And though a part of her told her to run and never look back, another part—a dangerous part—told her to find out.
Lightning lit the hall, and when it faded, Cara found black eyes staring at her from behind Lucan and Fallon. She opened her mouth to scream, for she had never seen eyes completely black, without a trace of color.
“Quinn,” Lucan barked as he jumped to his feet.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” Cara demanded as fear laced through her. She had been mistaken to think she was safe. She stood and backed away from the table. “You were the one who watched me from the window.”
All three men jerked their gazes to her, their brows furrowed.
Quinn snorted. “I’ve never seen you before today.”
“I know.” She took another step back, suddenly terrified. “It was once I was here. You were in the window, your eyes glowing yellow as you watched me.”
Instead of the refusal, or even an explanation, as she had expected, Fallon’s face paled and Lucan placed his hands on the table as he leaned toward her and searched her face.
“What happened?” Lucan asked. “I need every detail, Cara.”
She was unable to stop the wave of alarm and anger she felt from the three men. She took another step back and looked at Lucan. His gaze was steady, strong, and nonthreatening. It dampened some of her fear. “I . . . I opened my eyes to see,” she said with a shrug, “. . . something in the window. Its eyes were yellow in the darkness.”
“Shite,” Quinn grumbled, and turned away.
Fallon stood and tossed the bottle of wine in the fire, causing the flames to hiss as the liquid fell on them. “Quinn.”
“I’m on it,” Quinn said as he bounded up the stairs.
Cara’s heart raced, her breathing difficult. What were they doing? Surely what she had seen had been her imagination. Right?
Then why did you say something?
Because, deep down, she knew what she saw was real.
No one’s eyes can glow yellow.
And no one’s eyes can turn black, either.
She turned toward the castle door to find Lucan standing before her. Her hands fisted in her skirts as she tried to control the panic that ate at her every night. The dark. The monsters. They never went away.
“Come with me.” He held out his hand. His sea green eyes promised safety, but they couldn’t mask the desire she saw there as well. “I will protect you, Cara. I give you my word.”
There was anther boom. Thunder again? Or something else? She couldn’t go out in the storm and the darkness. There was only one choice. She swallowed past the lump of dread in her throat and placed her hand in Lucan’s big, warm one.
He pulled her after him as he raced from the great hall through a doorway and down a set of stairs. Her feet, numb from the stones, faltered on the steps. His arm wrapped around her, steadying her.
Her heart slammed into her chest at the feel of his hard muscles against her. She inhaled the smell of sandalwood, lightning, and power. A heady mix that left her breathless and all too aware of the big male who held her against his hard body.
Even when she had her balance, he didn’t remove his arm, and God help her, Cara found she liked having his warmth, his strength.
She should be wary of him, but the current that ran through the castle was one of battle. Battle from something that was evil and . . . wrong, and she wanted no part of it.
“Where are we going?” she asked as they traveled deeper under the castle.
“Somewhere safe.”
There was no light, and she stumbled in the darkness again. This
time, Lucan lifted her in his arms. She gripped his thick shoulders, the muscles beneath her hands moving and bunching as he carried her.
“I canna see,” she whispered.
“Don’t worry. I can.”
“How?” she wanted to ask, but instead held on tighter as he increased his speed. The stairs ended and he ran on what sounded like dirt. She thought she heard the squeal of a rat, but it could have come from her.
She had never liked being frightened. Late at night when the wind would move over the land, she would huddle in her blankets, squeezing her eyes shut for fear of what she might see if she opened them.
Suddenly Lucan slowed, then stopped. He set her down beside him and rattled a chain. His fingers closed around her wrist as a door squeaked open.
“Stay here,” Lucan murmured.
Cara wrapped her arms around herself. She was used to the Highland weather, but the damp down here was seeping into her bones. It didn’t help that she didn’t have her shoes or stockings to help warm her legs.
Light flared and she glanced inside the room to see Lucan setting a torch in its holder on the wall. He motioned her forward.
Her gaze fell on the door and the lock he had opened. “Am I to be locked away now?”
Lucan shook his head. “I’ve no time for explanations, only time to get you safe.”
“From what? The storm?”
“The creature you saw.”
She stilled. The hairs on her arms stood on end as a fear raked down her back. “Creature?”
“I don’t know why it’s here. But we will find out.”
He pulled her inside the room and turned to leave. The thought of staying by herself made her blood turn to ice even as sweat covered her skin.
“Where are you going?” She tried to hide the panic in her voice but failed.
Lucan cupped her face with one hand, his green gaze startling in its fierce intensity. It was the look of a Highlander, a warrior willing to fight to the end.
“I’m going to protect you. And find my answers.” He said the last in a voice laced with steel.
Cara watched as he closed the door behind him before she touched her cheek where his hand had been. No man had willingly made contact with her as Lucan had. Her skin was still warm from his touch, and the smell of sandalwood lingered in the small chamber. She didn’t know Lucan, but for some unexplained reason she trusted him. Her life was in his hands against . . . creatures.
When she had seen the yellow eyes, she’d promptly shut her own, afraid she hadn’t been dreaming. It left her body shaking to know she had been awake.
She pulled her mother’s necklace from beneath her gown and wrapped her fingers around the vial. It was warm to the touch and pulsed with energy. Normally, she held the vial when she needed comfort, but this time it did nothing to calm her.
Cara’s legs gave out and she slid down the wall to the dirt floor. She drew her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs, and lowered her forehead to her knees.
She should have listened to old Angus and stayed away from the castle. He’d known there were monsters.
Cara’s head snapped up, realization dawning. Angus had known.
CHAPTER FOUR
Lucan raced back to the great hall, his blood pumping in his veins. It had been a few months since he had fought, and he found himself looking forward to it. Apodatoo, the god within him, clawed to be free, to mete out his vengeance on those who would dare to attack the castle.
And Lucan freed him.
Lucan’s teeth elongated, and his nails grew to sharp, black claws that could behead a man with one swipe. His skin tingled as it changed to ebony. He had learned after being turned in Deirdre’s mountain that each god had distinct powers and when a Warrior let his god out the Warrior changed to the color of the god.
Lucan, Fallon, and Quinn changed to black.
By the time Lucan reached the great hall, Quinn and Fallon had their hands full. The brothers had witnessed for themselves the varied monsters men turned into when a god was inside them.
A small pale yellow creature launched itself at Lucan. He jerked his hand up to impale the thing on his claws and cut off its head with his other hand. With a jerk, he flung off the dead monster and readied for the next attack. He grimaced. A wyrran. Creatures made by Deirdre’s black magic.
Again and again the wyrran came at them, smaller than Lucan remembered. They were completely hairless, their mouths so full of teeth that their thin lips couldn’t close over them. The wyrran hissed and screeched and yelled, but they didn’t roar as Quinn did, as a Warrior did.
“You. Will. Die!” Fallon bellowed as the blade of his sword severed a wyrran’s head from its body.
Lucan glanced at his brother, amazed that even now Fallon hadn’t given in to the god and changed. He didn’t have long to think about it, though, as four wyrran jumped from the walls onto him.
They clawed and bit at his flesh. Lucan threw one off him after it gnawed on his shoulder. Another he beheaded with a slash of his hand. The one on his leg he kicked toward Quinn, who ripped it in two.
Lucan reached behind him to the wyrran that hung on his back. Its claws dug into his waist and shoulders. He could feel his blood dripping from him, the pain dulled by the fury inside him.
He grabbed the creature by the back of the neck and flung it over his head. The wyrran landed on its back with a howl, its teeth bared. Lucan knelt beside it and plunged his claws into the creature’s abdomen and ripped out its heart.
“I hate these damned things,” Fallon said as he made his way toward Lucan.
Lucan tossed aside the heart. He rose and noticed the blood on his brother. “Me as well.”
“It seems Deirdre wants a battle.”
Lucan blew out a breath as he looked at all the dead bodies of the wyrran. They were Deirdre’s pets, used by her to track whomever she wanted. “Are they all dead?”
“I think,” Fallon answered. “Where is Quinn?”
Lucan shrugged. “He was just here.”
Then they heard the howl, Quinn’s howl of rage. Lucan pointed to Fallon with his claw. “Stay here in case more come.”
Fallon nodded, and Lucan leapt onto the stairs and raced to find Quinn. Lucan followed the growls and bellows to the top of a tower where Quinn battled a tall, slim monster. Lucan climbed closer to them, the wind and rain making it difficult to see. Until lightning streaked across the sky and he saw the royal blue skin of the Warrior.
“Shite,” Lucan murmured as he recognized that Quinn battled one like them.
Quinn was strong, but his adversary moved so quickly Quinn couldn’t keep up. In a heartbeat, the beast had Quinn on his back, his head hanging over the side of the tower. One long royal blue arm lifted, its claws aimed at Quinn’s throat.
They might be immortal, but they could be killed if their heads were removed. Lucan had failed his brothers once already by bringing Cara into the castle. He wouldn’t let them down again.
He jumped and landed beside the Warrior. Lucan backhanded him and followed the Warrior as he fell over the side of the tower. He heard Quinn bellow his name, but Lucan couldn’t stop. Not now.
The Warrior landed on his feet next to the cliff moments before Lucan dropped down beside him.
“You just won’t die, will you?” Lucan taunted the Warrior.
Blue lips peeled back in a laugh. “My mistress is tired of your games. She wants you back at her mountain.”
Lucan’s blood went cold. “Deirdre can want all she wants, but we’re not going anywhere.”
The Warrior shrugged. “Though she wants you, MacLeod, do you think you three are the only ones she’s after?”
They circled each other, waiting for a time to strike. “Isn’t that why you came?” Lucan couldn’t imagine another reason why Deirdre had sent part of her army to the castle.
The Warrior threw back his head and laughed. “You have no idea, do you?”
“Tell me.”
“A
h, Lucan,” he said. “We are all just men who are fortunate enough to have powers unlike any other. Why deny what is in your blood? Give the god inside you what he wants.”
“Become like you, you mean? Bowing to Deirdre and her need to dominate? Despite the evil inside me, I fight on the side of good.”
“Do you really think you have a choice? The Druids set in motion things that cannot be undone. Hide in your castle for as long as you can, but be forewarned. This isn’t the last you’ve seen of us.”
Lucan lunged at him, but the Warrior disappeared into the night. Lucan started after him, but Quinn’s shout from the battlements brought him up short.
“Hurry,” Quinn said before he jumped to the ground and rushed to the castle.
Lucan ran under the gate house, through the bailey, and into the castle. To find the great hall empty except for Quinn. Where was Fallon?
“What is it?”
Quinn’s chest rose and fell rapidly, the rain dripping from his black skin. “I heard Fallon.”
Lucan opened his hearing. It took him a moment, but he finally heard Fallon’s voice. “Shite. He’s below the castle. Where I hid Cara.”
* * *
Cara covered her ears with her hands, but nothing drowned out the sounds coming from above. The inhuman screeches, the eerie screams. It reminded her too much of the night her parents died, a night she fought every day to forget.
She tried to hum, anything to mask the sounds. At least there was light from the torch. She wouldn’t be so calm if it were dark. How she loathed the dark.
Her fingers began to tingle, and this time she gave in to the urge to touch something. She placed her hands on the dirt floor as another boom shook the castle.
As suddenly as the battle in the castle began, it ended. She leaned her head against the wall behind her and fixed her gaze on the door, silently waiting for Lucan to come for her.
