Midnight's Captive (Dark Warriors)

by Donna Grant

  “I guess we’ll never know, will we? You didn’t trust me enough to find out.”

  Charon had had enough. He sliced his hand through the air. “Enough! We can debate this later. Right now I’ve got to save my friends.”

  “And what am I to do?”

  “Will you stay here? Until I return. I willna be gone long.”

  She cocked her head to the side, her wealth of dark hair falling seductively over her shoulder. “You want me to stay here? In a place where you don’t trust me to go outside of this room because I might be working with Jason?”

  “Aye.” He clenched his jaw when she gave a snort of annoyance. “I can no’ take you with me, Laura. Inside this castle you’ll be safe. I need to know you’re safe from Wallace.”

  An expression of genuine disbelief crossed her face. “Why?”

  Before Charon could stop himself, he pulled her into his arms, his lips descending on hers. To his surprise, she didn’t turn away. Instead, she opened for his kiss.

  He groaned when her hands slid up his chest and wrapped around his neck. Charon knew kissing her was wrong, especially when he wasn’t sure of her loyalties.

  But when it came to Laura, he was powerless to deny his body what it craved. He knew there was a chance she wouldn’t stay at the castle when he left. The only way to ensure she did was by locking her in the dungeon, which he refused to do.

  Knowing this might be the last time he held her, Charon deepened the kiss. She tasted of seduction, pure unadulterated female at her finest.

  His blood burned with need, and his cock ached, it was so hard for her. It would be easy to give in to his desire and lay her back on the bed. But his friends needed him.

  Charon reluctantly ended the kiss. He bit back a groan when he saw Laura’s kiss-swollen lips. Her moss green eyes were dazed as she stared up at him.

  “I wish there was more time,” he whispered, and rested his forehead against hers. “Please stay here. If for no other reason than I asked you to.”

  He didn’t expect her to reply, and when the silence stretched between them, Charon knew it was time to leave. He dropped his arms from around her and took a step back.

  She met his gaze, but he was unable to read her emotions. With a nod, Charon turned on his heel and walked out of the chamber. With every step away from her, a little piece of him died.

  By the time he reached the great hall, the spot in his chest where the knife coated with drough blood had entered him ached so that he couldn’t stop rubbing it.

  He paused when he saw the chaos around him. Druids were running in all different directions while the few Warriors still at the castle were looking at a map of Edinburgh.

  Charon knew they were looking at every possible way of getting to the infected area of the city without Jason knowing. He walked past them until he found Ronnie standing alone as she stuffed a backpack full of supplies.

  “Ronnie,” he called as he walked up.

  She lifted her head of wheat-colored hair. “Any news about Laura’s loyalty?”

  “No’ yet. I have to leave for a wee bit.”

  “Leave?” she asked, her forehead furrowed.

  He nodded. “It’s to help us.”

  “I know. I’m just surprised you’d go alone.”

  Charon glanced around him and shrugged. “Everyone is busy, and it’s better if I go alone on this anyway. I’ll be back.”

  “And Laura?” Ronnie asked before he could walk away.

  “Leave her.”

  Ronnie zipped the backpack and flattened her lips. “You know she might try to run away.”

  “She might.”

  “I see,” Ronnie said after a moment. “Godspeed, Charon.”

  He forced a smile. “Stay safe, Druid.”

  Charon walked to the kitchen where the keys to the vehicles were kept. Since his was still in Ferness, he had no choice but to take one of those at the castle.

  He grabbed the keys to the quickest car they had, a Porsche 911 GT2 RS, and hurried out the door. Charon grinned as he spotted the fastest production Porsche ever made in the bailey.

  Once he slid into the seats of the red sports car and started the car, he eyed the open gates at the gatehouse. He put the car in first, gripped the red and black steering wheel, and gunned it. The engine gave a loud, feral roar before the car raced out of the bailey.

  * * *

  Laura hid in the shadows of the second-floor balcony and watched Charon talking to a woman in the great hall. The woman wasn’t happy with whatever Charon said, and then a moment later he walked out of the castle.

  For several minutes, Laura simply stood and watched the activity of the hall. There was something major going on by the way everyone hurried about. Was it Jason?

  Charon had said he needed to save his friends. With the Warriors being immortal and having powers, and the Druids using magic, she wasn’t sure why they would need help. Then she recalled Jason.

  He was as evil as they came. Just thinking of his voice and the way he smiled sent a shiver of dread running through her. He had used his magic so effortlessly on her.

  She felt as violated as she had when Ben tried to kidnap her. Jason had to be stopped. There was no denying that. Ignoring him wouldn’t make him go away.

  Laura glanced back at the hallway that would take her to the room Charon had put her in. She couldn’t simply wait for Charon to return. Not when she knew she could help in this fight by getting her magic back.

  She waited until the hall was all but clear before she quickly sneaked down the stairs. Laura hurried to the doorway she’d seen Charon get the keys from.

  The few people in the hall didn’t even notice her as she ducked through the door and found herself in a kitchen. She spotted the hooks where several sets of keys were kept.

  Laura paused as she went to grab a set. She’d never stolen anything in her life, but it wasn’t as if she had a choice. She could get her magic back and help Charon. Maybe then he would see she was on his side.

  She grabbed the first set of keys nearest the door. Just as she was about to retrace her footsteps, she heard someone approaching. Laura glanced and saw a door leading outside.

  With just seconds to spare, she rushed out the door, closing it quietly behind her. She found herself in a small garden area outside. To her left was the sea, and to her right was the bailey.

  Laura ran into the bailey, punching the unlock button on the key fob to find out which vehicle she was stealing. Elation filled her when she slid into the black Range Rover and started the engine.

  She drove off, looking in the rearview mirror to see if anyone saw her. When no one came running outside to stop her once she was through the gate, she gunned the vehicle.

  Time was of the essence.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Jason stood in the corridor of the hospital and watched with glee as more and more people were brought in with the disease he had created.

  Not even the sight of a little boy covered in the oozing blisters gave him pause. If the MacLeods wanted to play, he was up for it.

  They would be the ones losing sleep at night over the countless deaths they could have saved had they simply given in to his demands.

  “We should’ve done this sooner,” Mindy said as she walked up beside him, holding her recently stitched arm.

  She couldn’t contain her excitement at what they were doing, and it set his blood pounding with need. It had been that way since the first time he saw her, ten months earlier. She understood him as no one else did. And she understood what he was after.

  Aisley walked slowly down the hall, her hands shoved in the back pockets of her jeans. She reached them and rammed her shoulder into Mindy. “Try not to look so pleased with yourself.”

  “And why shouldn’t I?” Mindy retorted angrily.

  Aisley glanced at Jason before she said, “You can’t take credit for this. This was Jason’s handiwork.”

  “I’m not taking credit.” Mindy then turned t
o him. “Jason, baby, you know I’m not taking credit.”

  He wrapped an arm around Mindy and brought her against his side. “Of course no’, darling. However, Aisley does have a point. These are our people dying.”

  “They’d die anyway,” she said with a shrug. “So what if it’s a few years early. Besides, the population needs to be thinned out. The weak have no place with us.”

  Jason raised his gaze to Aisley. His cousin’s hatred of Mindy grew by the day, as did Mindy’s for Aisley. There would come a time he didn’t want to keep them from the showdown that had been brewing since he brought Mindy to the mansion.

  He wasn’t sure who would win, though. Mindy was powerful, but she was reckless. She often used her magic without thinking things through, which caused her to lose.

  Aisley was much better in battle, but he still wasn’t convinced her heart truly lay with his goals. She did everything he asked without fail. Yet, he couldn’t help but think that she had doubts.

  “Do you no’ share Mindy’s view, cousin?” Jason asked, his tone soft and deceptively light.

  Aisley held his stare. “Killing adults is one thing. Killing a child or a baby is another.”

  Mindy began to laugh, and Jason watched as Aisley’s face flushed red with anger.

  “Why do you care about babies?” Mindy asked.

  Jason didn’t stop Aisley when she grabbed his lover and shoved her up against the wall. He smirked when Mindy gave a scream of outrage.

  “Don’t speak of what you don’t know,” Aisley said through clenched teeth as she got in Mindy’s face. “If you do, not even Jason will be able to protect you from me.”

  “Now, now,” Jason said as he gently pulled Aisley from Mindy.

  It took a minute, but eventually Aisley released her. She turned to Jason and poked her finger in his shoulder. “Control your bitch.”

  He watched her walk away with long, angry strides, her high-heeled boots clopping loudly, until she disappeared around a corner.

  “I can’t believe you let her talk to me like that,” Mindy whined.

  “There are things about Aisley’s past you doona know, darling, but if I were you, I’d heed her warning.”

  She frowned up at him. “You wouldn’t protect me?”

  “You’re a Druid. Protect yourself.”

  “But,” she said, and then paused. “I’m your lover.”

  Jason resumed his stance against the wall. “What do you think that affords you?”

  “Besides your attention? It should also afford me your protection.”

  He raised a brow at her petulant tone. “If I wanted to protect a woman, my lover wouldna be a Druid. You share my bed, Mindy, because you’re powerful. You earned the spot in my bed. You’ll earn everything else as well.”

  Just as he expected, Mindy stomped away, her exit much less dramatic than Aisley’s. But then again, his cousin always had a way with flair.

  Jason forgot about Aisley and Mindy as two more people came rushing into the hospital with symptoms of the contagion.

  “A prelude to things to come,” he said with a smile as he watched a man collapse on the floor.

  * * *

  Charon reached Dreagan property faster than he expected. Even with it raining. Then again, that’s what happened when he drove like a madman.

  He didn’t slow as he pulled onto the one road in and out of Dreagan. The only time his foot came off the gas pedal was when he pressed on the brake to stop the car.

  Charon opened his door and stepped out in the rain to find Guy standing before him.

  “That was quite an entrance. Do you often practice sliding your vehicles to a halt on gravel?” Guy asked with a cocky grin.

  “I doona have time for games. I need to speak to Con.”

  Guy’s grin slipped as he motioned Charon to follow him. Charon slammed the Porsche’s door closed and jogged to catch up with Guy.

  He expected to be taken to the front entrance as he was before, but instead Charon found himself entering the conservatory.

  Charon whistled at the sheer size of the room and all the plants held within. He shook his head, sending droplets of water over everything near him.

  “You brought the storm,” Guy said as he, too, shook off the rain. “Follow me.”

  Charon was taken through the conservatory and into the front parlor before they started up the stairs. He paused beside the doorway when Guy gave a single knock before opening Con’s office door.

  Constantine got to his feet when he spotted Charon. “I didna expect you back quite so soon.”

  “A lot has happened since I was here.”

  Con took his seat as he motioned for Charon to sit.

  Guy poured three glasses of whisky before handing one to Charon. “Does this have to do with the epidemic in Edinburgh?”

  Charon tilted back his glass and downed the whisky in one swallow. He normally savored the rich flavor, but all the way to Dreagan, he’d gone over and over in his head his conversation with Laura.

  He knew without a doubt she had left MacLeod Castle. That bothered him, but not so much as wondering if she was with Jason or not.

  “Charon?” Con urged.

  “It is,” Charon answered, pulling his attention to the matter at hand. “I doona know how you know what I am. I’ll tell you anything you want to know as long as you can help us.”

  Constantine leaned back in his chair and regarded Charon silently for several minutes. “I know all there is to know of Warriors.”

  Charon shook his head, somehow not at all surprised by Con’s response. “Why did you no’ tell me that before?”

  “You were no’ ready to hear it,” Guy said as he leaned a shoulder against the wall, his glass of whisky in his hand.

  Charon ran a hand through his hair. “Jason Wallace started the epidemic because he learned we had someone studying how drough blood affects us as well as why other Warrior blood counters it.”

  “A good plan,” Con said.

  Charon shrugged. “It wasna my idea. I think this last battle with Jason where I was injured and nothing helped is what spurred this. Wallace has done something to the drough blood he’s using. It’s more powerful. It was thought that perhaps it was time we did some experimenting of our own.”

  “What have you learned?”

  “Nothing. I know we have someone in Edinburgh—”

  “Aiden MacLeod,” Guy said. “His father, Quinn, and another Warrior, Galen, is also there.”

  Charon leaned his head back to look at the ceiling as he realized just how long Con’s reach was. “Will you tell me how you know all of this?”

  “You didna think you were the only magical creature, did you?” Guy asked with a smile. “Arrogant arse.”

  Con cleared his throat and cut Guy a look. “The truth is, Charon, there’s a lot about Dreagan you doona know. Yet. We’ve made it our business to keep informed of Druids and Warriors.”

  Charon lifted his head and met Con’s dark gaze. “Is there anything that’s happened that you doona know?”

  “What happened at Ferness?”

  “Jason Wallace. Again.” Charon pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “He was after Laura. He wanted to kidnap her to make me suffer. Wallace didna count on Laura fighting back, or for someone to interfere.”

  Guy slammed his crystal glass down on Con’s desk. “Wallace went after Laura?”

  Charon gave a single nod of his head. “I decided to keep watch over her after that. But I didna get her to MacLeod Castle in time. Wallace arrived with his droughs.”

  “Does he have Laura?” Con asked slowly as he sat forward and braced his forearms on the desk.

  “Nay. We took to the forest, but they found her. I went out to fight them so she could get away.” He trailed off as he remembered the feel of her magic.

  It had been so … beautiful and pure. The force of it made his soul shudder and beg for more at the same time. No magic had ever felt so perfect.


  Guy took the seat next to Charon. “She didna run, did she?”

  Charon shook his head. “She stayed. And watched them slowly kill me. I didna know it was her magic that shot from the cabin. One touch of her magic, and it was like the drough blood inside me didn’t exist anymore.”

  “Damn,” Con murmured. “I didna realize she was a Druid, and one obviously powerful.”

  “I’d worked with her for two years and never knew she was a Druid. She says she didna know either, that it was her mother and sister who syphoned her magic from her.”

  Con’s lips twisted in anger. “It’s been done before, so it’s plausible if you’re doubting her.”

  “Deirdre and Declan have both used others to get inside MacLeod Castle and hurt them. I have to be cautious.”

  Guy nodded. “But you believe her, do you no’?”

  “Aye. Is it because I want to, or because I can tell she speaks the truth?”

  “Use the Druids at the castle to find out,” Con said.

  “It may come to that.”

  Guy poured them all more whisky. “Finish the story. We need to know what happened in Ferness.”

  “She ran after the explosion of the cabin,” Charon said as he swirled the amber liquid in the glass. “Wallace found her before I did, and since I didna know she was a Druid, I hadna told her everything. Jason told her lies and used magic, and she believed everything he told her.”

  Guy rubbed the side of his thumbnail against the upholstery of the arm of his chair. “You can no’ fault her for that.”

  “Too many times MacLeod Castle has been besieged by spies. I didna want to be blamed for another.”

  Con nodded. “So what happened?”

  “Laura’s sister was at Ferness waiting for her,” Charon continued. “She took back Laura’s magic. We got Laura to MacLeod Castle, but we doona know if she’s working with Jason or no’. Before I could find out, Aiden called to say Jason had given an ultimatum. He’d stop the plague in Edinburgh if Aiden and Britt turned themselves in to him.”

  “They can no’,” Guy said.

  Charon shrugged one shoulder. “I know. Which is why I’m here. You offered to be allies. I’m asking for your help now.”