Midnight's Captive (Dark Warriors)

by Donna Grant

  Fallon’s dark green gaze turned to her then. “Thank you for helping us, Britt. We’ll keep you safe from Wallace, that I vow.”

  Then he laid a hand upon Sonya and they disappeared.

  “What the hell was that?” Britt asked, too shocked to move.

  Quinn licked his lips before he sank onto a stool beside Aiden. “You saw us tonight, Britt. You saw my skin change, the claws and fangs.”

  “And the eyes,” she added.

  Galen nodded. “And the eyes. We’re called Warriors. We have primeval gods inside us that grant us immortality.”

  “Aiden is my son.” Quinn took a deep breath and slowly released it. “My wife, Marcail, is a Druid, which makes Aiden a Druid as well.”

  Britt frowned. “But not a Warrior?”

  “No’ as long as Quinn is alive,” Galen answered.

  “How is this possible?”

  For the next fifteen minutes, she listened to the story of Rome and the Warriors’ creation. She learned of mies and droughs, and MacLeod Castle. She found out it was a shield of magic surrounding the castle that allowed Aiden to grow up, and then stop aging while he was within the shield.

  “So he’ll age if he’s not in the shield,” Britt said.

  Quinn nodded. “His mother and I have been verra protective of him. It was his idea to find out why the drough blood reacted the way it does to Warriors, and why another Warrior’s blood can combat the drough blood.”

  Britt pulled out the slide of blood she had been testing. “This is Warrior blood, then? One touch of the drough blood, and it destroyed the red and white blood cells.”

  “Aye, that’s my blood,” Quinn answered.

  Britt set aside the slide and motioned for Galen. He went to her without question, and didn’t so much as flinch when she pricked his finger. Several drops of his blood landed to mix with Quinn’s.

  She then hurried to put the slide under the microscope. “Oh, shit,” she mumbled.

  Britt looked up from the microscope at Galen and Quinn. “Now that I know what’s really going on, I know what I need to do.”

  “We can no’ stay here,” Galen said. “It’ll be only a matter of time before Wallace finds us.”

  A ghost of a grin showed on Quinn’s face as he grabbed his phone. “I’ve got an idea.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Charon watched Laura carefully as he paused in his telling of the story. He had waited for her to turn from him, or tell him to stop. But she just returned his look.

  “How long were you in Deirdre’s dungeons?”

  “Too damn long,” he said, and turned his head to the side. “Time no longer seemed to matter as I had to fight every second of every day from letting Ranmond take over. Hearing him demand blood and death in my head constantly. It would’ve been so easy to give in.”

  He expected her to be repulsed by his words. When she met his gaze, he continued. “Deirdre liked to use the threat of harming a Warrior’s family to get him to align with her. When I refused, she tortured me until I forgot the man I was. I let Ranmond take over for just a moment, but it was during that small space in time that she put my father in the dungeon with me.”

  “Oh, God,” Laura murmured.

  Charon sighed, but even after so many centuries, the pain of what he had done was still with him. “When I once more got control from Ranmond, I opened my eyes to discover I had killed my father. Deirdre threatened to toss in other members of my family if I didna spy for her.”

  “Did you?”

  “Aye. The thought of killing another member of my family, whether they were my immediate family or, years later, extended family, I couldna imagine it. So, I spied on Quinn, Ian, Duncan, and Arran for her. But I didna tell her everything.”

  “You would’ve been strong enough not to kill anyone she put with you.”

  “Was I?” he asked softly. “I’m no’ so sure. I have control of Ranmond now, but the droughs always seem to know what to do so that I lose that control.”

  “You’re here with the MacLeods now. They’ve forgiven you.”

  Charon shrugged. “Perhaps. I have no’ forgiven myself though.”

  “Is that why you didn’t tell me who you really were?”

  “I kept all of this from you no’ because you’re a woman, but because I didna believe you a Druid.”

  “Others in Ferness know what you are.”

  He wished it otherwise, but the situation had been out of his control. “Aye. When Deirdre sent her wyrran, I had no choice but to defend the village.”

  “Where is Deirdre now?”

  “Dead. As is Declan Wallace, the man responsible for bringing Deidre forward in time.”

  Laura tucked her feet beneath her. “If Deirdre was such a powerful drough, how was she defeated?”

  “She underestimated us. Declan did the same, but we assumed Jason would be like Declan. He’s no’. Jason has a different strategy altogether.”

  “Can Jason be defeated?”

  Charon wanted to say yes, but he didn’t want to lie to Laura. She deserved the truth. “We’ll keep fighting him until he is dead.”

  “What happens to me now?”

  He’d spent too much time locked in a dungeon to ever want to place anyone he cared about in such a situation. But he wasn’t convinced Laura wasn’t working with Jason.

  “Tell me what happened to your magic,” he urged.

  Laura was on her feet in one smooth motion. The tight leggings hugged her trim legs, and the shirt she wore hung just to her hips, giving him a glimpse of her firm ass.

  “For two years I worked for you, and you never told me what you were.”

  “What good would it have done?”

  She began to pace. “I want to believe you. Too much has happened. I can’t wrap my head around any of it.”

  Charon followed her with his eyes. She was agitated, but it had to do with more than just discovering the truth. It also had to do with her magic, he was sure of it.

  “I told you my story. Tell me yours.”

  “Not yet. I need…” She trailed off as she came to a halt in front of him. “I need a mobile.”

  “Nay.”

  “Please, Charon. Just let me have a mobile.”

  He grabbed her shoulders and gave her a shake. “There is an infant here! These people have saved my life, they’ve befriended me. I willna put them in jeopardy.”

  It was a mistake to touch her. He knew it the instant his hands made contact with her. Instantly his body roared to life, demanding, yearning to have another taste of her.

  Ranmond shouted inside him, urging him to pull Laura against him and claim her lips. Claim her body. It would be so easy, so simple to mold her curves to his body.

  To caress her warm skin.

  To kiss her soft lips.

  To sink into her tight, wet body.

  His gaze focused on her mouth. Such sweet cries of pleasure had fallen from those amazing lips. He wanted to hear them again. Nay. He needed to hear them again.

  For so long, he had kept himself apart from everyone, but Laura hadn’t let him. She’d brought him into her world, whether he wanted it or not.

  Then he had made love to her. It shouldn’t have felt so damn good. He had been upset she wasn’t a Druid, now he wished she weren’t.

  Somehow their bodies leaned toward each other. Charon saw the erratic beat of the pulse at her throat. He could take her. With one kiss, she would melt against him.

  But she wouldn’t be the only one affected. The overwhelming, irresistible longing told Charon he was already in too deep with her. If he guessed wrong and she was helping Jason, he put everyone’s lives in danger.

  Charon made the mistake of looking into her pale green eyes. He lost himself in her gaze. He was falling, sinking into a vast ocean of green as deep and clear as the forests.

  He gripped her shoulders firmly while he summoned the strength to push her away. Then he saw the desire, stark and blatant, in Laura’s eyes.
>
  Inwardly cursing himself for ten kinds of fool, Charon found his arms pulling her to him instead of pushing her away. His balls tightened when her hands came to rest on his waist.

  It could all be an act, a tactic for her to worm her way farther into his psyche. Yet it didn’t matter when she was so near. He wanted her, craved her like no other before. His hands itched to peel the clothes from her body.

  And his cock ached to be buried inside her.

  Her lips parted, inviting him to taste her. Her breathing grew harsh, rapid as she pushed her breasts against him.

  With a growl, Charon spun them so she had her back against the wall and he was pressed against her. Her breath hitched and her fingers dug into his waist, letting him know her need was as great as his.

  She rocked her hips against him, making his cock jump. No longer could he hold back. He had to have her, all of her.

  Charon captured her mouth in a rough kiss. He laid claim, took, seized—and she gave it all to him with a soft moan.

  Her hands clawed at his shirt until her palm touched skin. He had no qualms about ripping the shirt down the middle and tugging it off her. He deepened the kiss and reached between them to cup her breast. Charon growled as the weight settled in his palm. God, he loved her breasts.

  Need, strong and powerful, rushed through him, but Charon was determined to ignore it. He stroked a thumb over her nipple and smiled at her gasp of pleasure. His hand slid down her side and into the waist of her leggings. It took one jerk to slip the material down her hips, along with her panties.

  Charon caressed her ass and trim legs. Then he palmed her sex, putting pressure with the heel of his hand against her clitoris.

  She tore her mouth from his and whimpered as she clung to his shoulders. He wanted her screaming, yearned to hear his name upon her lips as he brought her to orgasm.

  He slid his finger into her curls and found her wet. She bucked against his hand, and it nearly shredded his control.

  Charon held on by a thin thread as he pushed a finger inside her. She moaned, her eyes closed while her hips rocked against him.

  Laura’s body was no longer her own. It belonged to Charon. He knew where to touch her, how to touch her to make her burn. She was on fire, scorched with the intensity of her need.

  And he continued to take her higher.

  Each stroke of his finger inside her, slow and sure, made her tremble, made her shiver in anticipation of what was to come.

  He was a master at kissing, touching … teasing. The pleasure was too much to take when he swirled his thumb around her swollen clitoris.

  Then a second finger was added to the first as he increased the tempo of his hand. She cried out from the desire turning her blood to molten heat.

  Charon took her mouth in another fiery kiss. He couldn’t help himself. He had to have her, all of her. Her legs buckled, and he wrapped an arm around her to keep her up.

  If he could stop time, he would linger in this moment, in the beautiful woman in his arms.

  He pumped his fingers deeper all the while her nails sank into his shoulders. Charon didn’t feel the gouges, though. All his attention was on her moist heat, the walls of her sex clamping down on his fingers.

  Even when her body began to tighten, he didn’t relent. He continued to stroke her, arouse her.

  His breath quickened when she screamed her release. But even then he didn’t stop. He took her clitoris between two fingers and gave it a soft tug.

  She screamed again, this time his name falling from her lips as she peaked. Charon rested his forehead against hers while he fought not to yank his jeans down and slide into her.

  The need to be inside her was crushing. He knew if he gave in, he’d find peace. The same peace that had been his for a short time after he made love to her.

  Laura’s head moved to his shoulder. With a soft curse, Charon lifted her in his arms and laid her on the bed. When he went to pull away, her arms constricted around him.

  “Don’t go,” she whispered.

  Charon had never been able to refuse Laura anything. Even with his doubts about her, he couldn’t stop wanting her. It frightened him, the depth of his longing.

  “Charon, please,” she begged.

  He looked into her moss green eyes and kicked off his shoes. She lifted the covers so he could crawl in beside her. The bed was tiny, which allowed little room for one person, much less two. But he enjoyed having her in his arms, her back against his chest.

  “I’m not working for—or with—Jason,” she said into the silence.

  “He has magic you couldna comprehend, Laura. He’s gotten into people’s heads before without them even knowing it.”

  “You said the Druids here could tell if he’d used magic on me, or if I was colluding with him.”

  “Aye.”

  “Then why not let them? You’d have your answers and be able to trust me.”

  Charon looked at the painting on the wall of the sun setting over the Highlands. “I might have my answers, but will you? You say I could trust you then, yet I know you wouldna trust me.”

  “Let’s find out.”

  “I betrayed those below before. I willna do it again. I’m protecting them as much as you by keeping you separated.”

  “Yet you brought me here,” she whispered.

  He swallowed and ran his thumb over her arm while he held her. “Aye. I wanted you safe from Wallace. I couldna bear it if he harmed you in any way.”

  “But you worry now if I’m worth protecting.”

  “I know you are,” he said more harshly than he intended. Charon let out a breath. “Tell me what happened to your magic.”

  “My family. They syphoned my magic.”

  He waited for her to continue, but when she didn’t, he asked, “What do you mean?”

  “I left my family because they controlled me. I don’t mean rules or curfews. I mean they told me who I could talk to, what I could eat, where I could go. At all times they dictated my life.”

  Charon was speechless. As stubborn as Laura was, he couldn’t imagine anyone trying to rule her. Now he understood why she had balked when he told her what to do. “Why did they do it?”

  “I never knew. My mother didn’t do it to my older sister. My father was always away on business, so it was just my mother, Lacy, and me. I had no friends, except for the ones Mother told me I could have. I found out later those supposed friends spied on me for her. They told her when I went against her wishes.”

  “And you were punished,” he guessed.

  She nodded. “I tried to run. Both times I was locked in my room for two weeks with only bread and water. I wasn’t allowed electricity or to bathe.”

  He wished he could see her face. Charon heard the pain in her words, but he knew her eyes would hold so much more. As furious as he was at her family, it just might send him over the edge to look into Laura’s eyes. “How did you get away?”

  “I waited until my father came home. He took me to lunch, and I told him I had to leave. He’d always known I was unhappy, but he didn’t believe me when I told him what had been done. The lunch was interrupted by a business call, and while he was taking it, I left. I got on a train and never looked back. I’d been preparing for that day for years, so when the opportunity came, I had enough money to get me wherever I wanted to go.”

  Now he understood why she’d looked so lost when she walked into his pub.

  “I spent several years in England until I feared they would find me.”

  “That’s when you came to Ferness?”

  “Yes. That’s when I met you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Britt stood with her eyes closed as Fallon teleported them from one place to another in quick succession. Her stomach turned and pitched each time Fallon used his power.

  Power. Immortal Warriors. Druids.

  Her life had taken a drastic spin, and as frightened as she was, there was also a steady build of excitement. She was a risk taker, always
had been. Why else would she have traveled Europe alone or gotten her degrees in universities others would never dream of looking at?

  She kept her hands locked with Aiden’s, who still lay unconscious, and Quinn’s. How many more times would Fallon jump them? Britt wasn’t sure she could keep down the wonderful dinner she and Aiden had shared earlier.

  “Britt,” Quinn whispered.

  She turned her head to him. “Yes?”

  “You can look now.”

  The smile in his voice calmed her racing heart enough so that she opened her eyes. And found herself standing in a fully outfitted lab. “Where are we?”

  “Outside of London in a facility owned by a friend,” Fallon said. “I doona know how long you’ll be safe.”

  Britt kicked off her heels and walked to the microscope. “Give me three hours.”

  “Three hours,” Fallon said with a nod. Then he looked to Quinn. “Do you want me to take Aiden back to the castle.”

  “Nay,” Aiden said hoarsely.

  Britt rushed to him as he sat up. “You stupid fool of a man. Don’t you ever get injured like that again. Do you understand me? You scared the hell out of all of us.”

  His wicked grin made her stomach flip. “It wasna that bad.”

  “Actually, son, it was,” Quinn said solemnly.

  Britt watched Aiden’s beautiful green eyes flicker with concern. “Are you really all right?” she asked.

  He squeezed her hand. “Aye. Where are we?”

  “One of Saffron’s businesses she bought over the last year,” Galen said as he walked into the room. “I sense no Druids yet.”

  Fallon nodded and looked to Quinn. “I’ll return in three hours. Hopefully by then Charon will have some answers from Laura.”

  Britt turned back to Aiden when Fallon teleported away. Aiden’s skin was still pale, but the wound was gone, as if it had never been.

  “Here,” Quinn said, and tossed a clean shirt at Aiden, who caught it easily. “Thought you might want that.”

  Britt moved from the table where they had laid him so Aiden could stand. She began to turn away when he stopped her with a hand on her arm.

  “Britt,” he whispered, and drew her close. “I didna want you a part of this.”