by Donna Grant
When Lucan reached the top of the tower, he looked down to find Cara on the back of a Warrior while Fallon tried to stop him.
“My God,” Quinn breathed.
Lucan couldn’t believe Fallon had transformed. “I never thought he would turn again.”
Galen whistled softly from Lucan’s other side. “Fallon surprised us all.”
“We need to help,” Lucan said.
Quinn nodded. “What do you want us to do?”
Just then Cara screamed as the Warrior lost his hold and fell. Lucan’s chest tightened until the Warrior was able to catch hold and stop himself, but the impact made Cara’s hold slip.
A heartbeat before she caught the Warrior’s leg, halting her fall, Lucan screamed her name. He closed his eyes, his heart in his throat. “I’ve got to get to her.”
“We’ll help,” Quinn said.
“We cannot let him reach the bottom with Cara.”
Ramsey walked up beside him, his skin a dark bronze. He leaned over the tower, his claws scraping the stones. “I’ll get down there just in case he does.”
“I’ll go with him,” Hayden said.
Logan stepped forward. “I can stay up here if he decides to come back up.”
“And I’ll go this way,” Galen said, and pointed to the left where the cliffs met the castle. “In case he decides to try running across Scotland.”
Lucan gave a quick nod, then turned to Quinn.
Quinn smiled. “You aren’t going without me.”
Lucan wasted no time in climbing over the tower. He started descending toward Cara, praying with each beat of his heart that she survived. If she didn’t, he would storm Deirdre’s mountain himself and destroy the evil bitch.
He climbed quickly, and despite Fallon’s valiant try, the Warrior was able to still move down the cliff because of Cara. Whenever Fallon reached for Cara, the Warrior would kick his leg, sending Cara careening in the wind.
Lucan crawled to the other side of the Warrior while Quinn stayed above him. “Give me my woman,” Lucan demanded.
The Warrior laughed. “She was never yours, MacLeod. She’s a Druid and therefore belongs to Deirdre.”
“I’ll see Deirdre in Hell first.”
“No doubt.”
Lucan stretched his hand toward Cara. “Grab it.”
She reached for him, but the Warrior gave a vicious jerk of his leg, making Cara cling to him instead of taking Lucan’s hand.
Fury erupted in Lucan. He wanted to rip the Warrior’s heart out and toss it into the sea below. Anything to get him away from Lucan’s woman.
Her fingers slipped, but she caught herself on the Warrior’s boot. Her mahogany eyes held Lucan’s. They both knew she wouldn’t be able to take his hand. The Warrior wouldn’t let Lucan or his brothers close enough to get her.
She tried to grab hold of the rocks herself so she could let go of the Warrior, but he growled and moved down the cliff. Lucan glanced at his brothers. Fallon’s eyes held such gloom that it made Lucan want to rail at the heavens.
“Lucan!” Cara shouted.
He moved down as close to her as he could. His blood pounded in his ears, his chest tight as if someone squeezed the air from his lungs.
“Remember the day we first met?” she asked.
He nodded, confused. And then he realized what she planned. Lucan looked down at the sea that crashed into the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. He gave her a small nod and jumped to the bottom where he saw Ramsey and Hayden. There was no time to tell Fallon and Quinn, but by Quinn’s smile he had heard Cara.
Lucan had just planted his feet on the rocks, the water ebbing and flowing over his boots, when he looked up to see Cara let go of the Warrior’s leg.
The Warrior bellowed, and Fallon and Quinn leapt atop him, eager to kill him. Lucan focused his attention on Cara, waiting for her to fall into his arms just as she had the day they first met.
“By the saints,” Hayden whispered from behind Lucan.
That’s when Lucan heard the flap of wings. “Nay!” he yelled when the flying creature tried to grab Cara as she fell. Cara slapped at its hands, preventing the creature from taking her.
Lucan caught Cara in his arms and hugged her against him. Her hands gripped his tunic, her body trembling as fiercely as his heart.
“Duck,” Ramsey warned.
Lucan went down on his haunches with Cara still in his arms. He glanced up to see the creature was a Warrior. A Warrior with wings.
Instead of flying off as they expected, it turned and went after Fallon and Quinn. Lucan shouted a warning a moment before the flying Warrior latched onto Quinn and tossed him away from the cliff.
As Quinn fell into the water Lucan heard a splash behind him, but his gaze was on the flying Warrior who managed to free the other from Fallon’s grasp.
The two Warriors flew off into the night, leaving silence behind them. Lucan looked down into Cara’s face and gave her a quick, heated kiss.
“I thought I had lost you.” He had never known such fear and never wanted to again.
She nodded. “You nearly did.”
Water splashed on them as Quinn was helped from the sea by Ramsey and Hayden. “What in holy hell was that thing?” Quinn asked.
Lucan sighed and rose to his feet. “A Warrior.”
“With wings,” Hayden added. “I’ve never seen the like.”
Quinn snorted. “Well, I’d never seen one with horns before you.”
Lucan ignored the talk behind him and watched while Fallon climbed down to them.
“Are they gone?” Cara asked.
Lucan shrugged. “I don’t know. We need to get to the castle to find out.”
Fallon jumped the last part of the cliff and landed beside Lucan. “Is she hurt?”
“Nay,” Lucan answered. “Fallon—”
“Don’t. I did what had to be done. I doona regret it.”
Cara reached out and touched Fallon’s arm. “Thank you.”
There was much more Lucan wanted—and needed—to say, but it could wait until he and Fallon were alone. “We need to get back to the castle.”
Cara groaned as she looked at the cliff. Lucan kissed her forehead. “It will be easier going up.”
Since she had been unconscious the last time she had fallen in his arms, she didn’t know just how easy. Lucan navigated the jagged rocks and boulders until they moved to the right side of the castle.
“Hold on,” he whispered just before he jumped.
Cara latched onto his neck and gave a shriek as he jumped to the top of the cliff and onto the grass. He smiled down at her as the others joined him.
“Thank the saints I wasn’t awake the first time you did that,” she whispered.
Lucan lowered her feet to the ground. “Let’s go see the castle.”
“Did the Warriors leave?” she asked.
“I think so.”
“Why did they go?”
He wished he knew.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Cara stared at the bodies of the wyrran that littered the great hall floor. She gripped the back of a chair since her legs still shook. Her idea of Lucan catching her had been hasty, and the fall . . . She shuddered at the memory. The fall had been horrendous, and the terror had sucked the breath from her body.
She hadn’t been able to see below her. She had trusted Lucan to catch her. And he had. Though the flying Warrior had nearly gotten her instead.
When she had felt its hands clasp on her arms, she had fought it with everything she had. She hadn’t escaped one Warrior to be taken by another. Not when Lucan was waiting to catch her.
If the darkness had scared her before, it terrified her now that she knew exactly what hid in it. Yet with Lucan by her side, she would face those terrors and vanquish them. After all, he could control the darkness and shadows.
Everyone but Quinn had reverted back to their human forms as they began to clear away the dead. She was still amazed that Fallon had let out his god
to help save her. There was nothing she could ever do to repay him, especially when she knew how much it frightened him to let out the god.
Quinn’s jerky movements caught her eye. The glances he threw her and Lucan worried her. Quinn was acting stranger than normal, almost as if he couldn’t decide on something that weighed heavily in his mind. She started toward him to ask when Lucan stopped her.
“You’re wounded. You need to rest,” he said. “We’ll get rid of the bodies.”
She swallowed and looked at Quinn around Lucan’s shoulder. “I can help.”
“You’re bleeding, Cara. Please. For me?”
There was no way she could deny Lucan. He turned the chair so that it faced the great hall and she could watch them. She sank into the chair and let him clean the wounds on her back and leg. When he finished she leaned her head against the back of the chair. It was her intention to keep an eye on Quinn and maybe call him over to her, but he left the castle before she could.
The longer she sat, the more difficult it became to focus her eyes. Now that the ordeal was over and she realized that Deirdre had failed, Cara’s body felt drained and lifeless. She closed her eyes intending only to rest.
* * *
Quinn dumped the four wyrran he had into the pile started away from the castle. Just as with the first attack, they would burn the bodies. He turned and looked at the castle. His home.
He was glad Deirdre had failed to capture Cara, but if he was honest with himself, he couldn’t stand to watch her and Lucan together for another moment. It brought home the fact that Quinn didn’t know what love was and likely never would. It also reminded him of his failure as a husband and father.
Time away was what he needed. Fallon had unleashed his god, something he hadn’t done since Deirdre had first awoken the monsters inside them. Fallon had set aside the wine and faced his greatest fears.
Quinn clenched his hands into fists. His rage was out of control and growing by the day. He knew he needed to control it, but he didn’t want to. It consumed him, sustained him.
He knew what he had to do. If he told Lucan and Fallon, they would only try to talk him out of it. He was the one who knew what was best for him. It was time the others realized that as well.
With one last look at his home, the only thing that remained of his clan and a life before he became a monster, Quinn turned and ran into the darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Cara woke to the delicious feel of Lucan’s mouth on her breasts. His hand massaged one nub, rolling a nipple between two fingers as his mouth suckled the other.
“About time you woke,” he mumbled against her skin.
She smiled and plunged her hands into his hair, not surprised to find herself naked. Lucan’s hot, hard body touched her skin to skin, his arousal pressed into her stomach. She opened her eyes to see they were in her chamber on the bed. Desire pulsed through her body, heating her blood and moistening her sex that throbbed with need. As much as she loved his hands and mouth on her, she needed him deep inside her.
“I want you inside me.”
He gave her a wicked grin that made her heart skip a beat. His eyes held a promise of pleasure that her body knew all too well.
Her eyes slid closed when he grasped his cock and rubbed the head against the swollen flesh of her sex. When he slid inside her, she sucked in a breath and wrapped her arms around him. Her back pulled, reminding her of her injuries, but the pleasure pouring through her dulled the pain.
“My Cara,” he whispered into her ear just before he sucked the lobe into his mouth.
His warm breath fanned her neck. She shivered. Lucan knew just where to touch her, just what to say, to bring her the most pleasure.
She tilted her hips until her legs wrapped around his waist. He groaned deep in his chest and pulled out until just the tip of him was inside her. She arched her back and tried to pull him down atop her. She needed to feel him—all of him.
And then he plunged deep inside her. His buttocks flexed with each thrust, fueling her desire. She ran her hands over the hard planes of his back and shoulders, loving the feel of the immortal Highland Warrior who was hers.
She moaned and cried out when he ground his hips against her, rubbing against her clitoris and sending pleasure like lightning through her.
“Open your eyes, love,” he said. “I want to see you when you peak.”
Cara’s body shook with the desire that wound tighter with each thrust of his hips. She was close, oh so close, to climaxing. She opened her eyes to see him staring at her with love in his sea green gaze for anyone to see.
The orgasm swept over her in a sudden blinding explosion. Lucan continued to rock against her, prolonging her pleasure. She clung to him, needing to hold on to him with the intensity of her climax.
He refused to break eye contact with her as he gave a final thrust that buried him to the root. His body stiffened as his warm seed filled her.
Cara held him tightly as he fell atop her. She loved the weight of him against her, the feel of his body along hers. It was erotic and arousing, even though she had just peaked. But it was always that way with Lucan.
He kissed the side of her neck before shifting and taking her lips in a searing kiss that told her of his deep passion. She touched his torc and the griffin head. She and Lucan were one, their souls melding together something that nothing could ever destroy.
Not even time.
“Good morn,” he whispered.
She looked at the window behind her but could see nothing with the tartan hanging over it. “Is it morning already?”
“Aye. I brought you up here once we finished removing the filth in the hall. You didn’t stir when I removed your clothes,” he added with a grin.
“I didn’t realize how tired I was.”
“You went through a lot. But it’s over now.”
She frowned. “I don’t know that it is. I think Deirdre will be back.”
He grunted and rolled to the side. He leaned up on his elbow to look down at Cara. “Or find some way to get us to do what she wants.”
“We need to find the scroll of names. Maybe then we can talk to the Warriors before she finds them.”
He traced a finger around one of Cara’s nipples, his smile spreading as the peak hardened. She squeezed her legs together as desire spiked from her breasts to her sex.
“Have you spoken with Quinn?” she asked to distract herself.
“Quinn? Nay. Should I have?”
She licked her lips and groaned when Lucan’s finger moved back and forth over her pert nipple. “Aye. He looked like he needed to talk last night.”
“I’ll find him this morning,” Lucan promised, and leaned down to close his mouth over the tiny nub.
A loud banging on the door jerked his head up. Cara rose up on her elbows as Lucan asked who it was.
“It’s Fallon. You need to come to the hall. Now.”
She exchanged a look with Lucan before they jumped out of bed and began to dress. He was ready before her but waited. Once she had her shoes on, she followed him out of the chamber to the great hall.
Her steps slowed when she saw Hayden, Ramsey, Logan, and Galen at the table, their expressions bleak.
“What is it?” Lucan demanded of Fallon.
Cara found Fallon standing before the hearth staring into the ashes, and she stopped on the last stair. His hands were on his hips, his head bowed with a frown that made her stomach clench.
“Fallon,” Lucan said.
Fallon ran a hand down his face and turned to his brother. “Quinn is gone.”
“Gone?”
Cara lowered herself to the stairs and wrapped her arms around her middle.
Fallon nodded. “He’s gone.”
“How do you know?” Lucan asked.
Cara’s throat closed when she heard the desolation and fear in Lucan’s voice. They had all thought Deirdre had lost, but now Cara wasn’t so sure.
Galen held out a rolled-up parc
hment. “This is how. I found it near the gate house.”
Lucan stared at the parchment. He didn’t want to know what was on it because he knew, somehow, that Deirdre had something to do with Quinn’s disappearance. Lucan glanced at Cara to see her dark eyes wide with sorrow.
He took the missive from Galen’s hand and unrolled it. Lucan’s stomach pitched and rolled as he read the words. He let the parchment drop to the floor. “Deirdre captured Quinn. Apparently, he left while we were cleaning. She set a trap for him. Quinn never saw it coming.”
Cara was on her feet and hurrying toward him. He opened his arms as she neared. The feel of her soft curves helped to steady him. He leaned his face against the top of her head.
“This canna be happening.”
“We’ll get him back, Lucan,” she promised.
Hayden stood. “Cara’s right. We need to get Quinn back.”
“Deirdre isn’t stupid,” Fallon said as he walked to the table. “She knows Quinn may be strong, but without me and Lucan, he isn’t as valuable.”
Lucan sighed. “She knows we’ll come for him.”
“Aye. She will want us trapped with Quinn,” Fallon said.
“We need a plan,” Logan said. “But first, we need to find Cara a Druid.”
Cara pulled out of Lucan’s arms and nodded. “Logan is right. I can use my magic to help.”
“Against Deirdre?” Lucan shook his head. “She’s much too powerful.”
“But she won’t expect me to use any magic.”
“Or maybe she will,” Lucan argued. “I don’t want you near her.”
“Nor do I want you near her, but Quinn needs us.”
Ramsey shook his head. “A war is brewing. Deirdre knows we’ve banded together now. We surprised her, but it won’t happen again.”
“What do you suggest?” Fallon asked.
“We find the scroll of names. Galen can contact other Warriors he knows and bring them here. Everyone is going to have to take sides.”
Lucan glanced at Fallon. “Deirdre has black magic, an infinitesimal amount of wyrran, as well as God only knows how many Warriors. We don’t stand a chance.”
