Midnight's Captive (Dark Warriors)

by Donna Grant

  “And me?”

  Con shrugged and motioned to the mountains with his hand. “You seem a part of this. I can no’ explain it. I know you are no’ one of us. Yet I feel that you belong to us as much as you belong to the Warriors.”

  “I belong to no one.”

  A grin pulled at Con’s lips. “There is one who would beg to differ.”

  Laura. Charon looked to the west, where he knew the mansion was.

  “Aye,” Con murmured. “A verra fine woman you have. Have you told her how you feel?”

  “Everyone seems to think they know what I feel when I do no’,” Charon ground out.

  “There’s no time to think of that now. Wallace will be here soon. The selmyr continue to test us, but we’re holding them back.”

  “And Quinn’s group? How will we get them here if Fallon can no’ teleport them?”

  Con grinned then. “Cassie and Elena have gone to get Britt. Quinn phoned Fallon’s mobile about thirty minutes ago. They’ll get Britt as close to the selmyr as they’re able for the girls to bring her in.”

  “What about Aiden, Quinn, and Galen?”

  Con’s smile faded. “It’s all up to my Kings to get them past the selmyr.”

  “I’ll help.”

  “You’re needed here,” Con said as Charon began to turn away. “Wait. Tell me of Ian Kerr.”

  “Ian?” Charon repeated as he faced Con once more. “What do you want to know that you doona already?”

  “We may know some Warriors better than others. For instance, we knew what Broc’s power was. That doesna mean we know all of you personally. Now, tell me of Ian.”

  “He and his twin were taken by Deirdre. They were in Cairn Toul the same time as me. Deirdre then had Duncan killed.”

  “Duncan,” Con mumbled. “So the twin is dead?”

  “Aye. Ian now holds the full power of the god he and Duncan shared.”

  Con bowed his head. “That’s all I need.”

  The rumble of thunder sounded around them. When the thunder died, the roar of several dragons drowned out the rain. The massive, majestic bodies of the dragons glistened with water. They cut a path through the downpour before disappearing over a mountain.

  Con had said Charon belonged to them. Everyone—Kings, Warriors, Druids, and mortals—were counting on him and his plan. He had to stay the course.

  “Phelan, you better make it here,” he whispered.

  Con began unbuttoned his shirt. He jerked it off and wadded up the wet material before tossing it aside. “He’ll be here.”

  Charon caught sight of the tat on Con’s back. It was the same mix of black and red ink, but this time the dragon was lying down, its wings opened to take up the entire span of Con’s back while the dragon’s tail wrapped around Con’s hips.

  “Where are you going?” Charon called out as Constantine began to walk off.

  Con looked over his shoulder, a predatory look on his face. “To the skies, Charon. To the skies.”

  Charon watched Con until he disappeared over the top of the mountain. Then he turned to the Warriors who stood waiting for him.

  He held out his hand and watched his skin turn copper while dark copper claws extended from his fingers. Ranmond bellowed inside him, impatient for blood and death.

  Wallace had done enough damage. It was time for him to die, just as Deirdre and Declan had been killed. No longer would they fear droughs.

  Then Charon would help the MacLeods in their search to find the spell that would bind the gods inside them once more. Though Charon hadn’t decided if he would bind his god or not. That was a decision for another time.

  Now … now it was time for battle.

  The dark shape of a Warrior took to the skies. Broc spread his indigo wings and soared over Charon as he went to take his place for the battle.

  Each Warrior knew what he had to do. Each was prepared to give their lives if it meant the end of Wallace.

  Charon rubbed the spot on his chest where the blade had entered. It was a warning, of sorts, not that he needed it. He could detect the cloying feel of drough magic making its way toward them.

  “Come on, Wallace. It’s time to die,” Charon said with a grin.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  “Slow down,” Quinn directed from the backseat. “Pull over before you get to the river.”

  Aiden gripped the steering wheel tightly. He hadn’t liked the plan. Actually, it wasn’t the plan that was the problem. It was the fact that Britt would be going without him.

  “Here, son,” Quinn said.

  Aiden put his foot on the brake and pulled the stolen car over before the bridge. Britt looked at him, fear in her soft blue eyes.

  “You’ll be fine,” he promised her. He wasn’t sure of all the details, but his father had told him everything would work out. His father had never lied to him before.

  Britt leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. “I’ll see you soon?”

  “Aye.” He forced a lightness into his voice he didn’t feel as a car pulled up behind them.

  Galen was out of the car before the other vehicle had been put in park. Aiden watched from the rearview mirror as Galen spoke to someone on the passenger side of the car.

  A moment later, Galen looked up and nodded to Aiden. Aiden pulled Britt against him for another kiss. “It’s time.”

  “Come, lass,” Quinn said. “I’ll walk you.”

  “No need,” said a woman after she opened Britt’s door and ducked her head inside.

  She had the hood of her raincoat pulled up, but strands of her black hair poked out and stuck to her face. The woman looked to the backseat and Quinn before her gaze moved to Aiden, and then finally to Britt.

  “I’m Elena. Constantine and Charon sent me to bring you to Dreagan, Britt.”

  Aiden leaned forward before Britt could get out and asked, “Are you sure you can get her to the mansion?”

  Elena’s deep green eyes softened. “We were able to get out. And my husband isn’t far. He’s watching as we speak. If there’s trouble, he’ll help. Britt will be in good hands. I promise.”

  “Be careful,” Britt told him before she got out of the car and rushed to the SUV behind them.

  Elena was quick to follow Britt, and Galen slid into the front seat.

  “She’s in good hands,” Quinn said.

  Aiden sighed, uncertainty weighing heavily upon him. “Really? Who are these people?”

  “Dragons,” Galen said.

  Aiden’s head jerked toward Galen before he turned in his seat to look at his father. “What?”

  Quinn nodded. “They’re dragons. I doona know the whole story. I’m sure we’ll find out once we’re there.”

  “If we can get past the selmyr, you mean,” Aiden said.

  Galen grinned. “Doona forget Jason is trailing us. It should be interesting.”

  That’s when it occurred to Aiden. “We’re bait. We’re fucking bait!”

  “Aye,” Quinn said with a wry smile. “Someone has to lead Wallace to Dreagan. Who better than the people he’s chasing?”

  “And the selmyr?”

  Galen rubbed his hands together. “I’m ready for those bastards. After what they did to Arran, I want some payback.”

  Aiden shook his head at his father and Galen and faced front again. Their eagerness for battle had grown the closer they got to the meeting spot to drop off Britt.

  Now that Britt was gone, Aiden was surprised the two Warriors hadn’t jumped out of the vehicle to ambush Wallace. But it was always this way with Warriors before a battle. They didn’t see it. It was part of who they were, part of the god inside them.

  But Aiden saw it. It used to frighten him, but now he knew it was their way of preparing. He started the car and put it in drive before he pulled out onto the road, the wipers going as fast as they could and still not clearing the windshield of rain.

  “How far until we’re on Dreagan land?” he asked.

  Galen laughed. “Lad, we’ve been o
n it for over an hour.”

  “One of these days I want to stop being treated as a child,” he stated, and drove over the narrow bridge.

  Quinn leaned forward and put his hand on Aiden’s shoulder. “We thought it best no’ to scare Britt more than we had to.”

  “You’re right.” Aiden slowed to take a narrow curve. “Where do I go now?”

  “You need to drive slow. Verra slow.”

  Galen shifted in his seat, his gaze riveted on the side mirror on the car. “We need to give Wallace time to catch us.”

  * * *

  “I’m going to kill them. Slowly. Painfully.”

  Aisley listened as Jason repeated his litany for the hundredth time since finding Mindy with her heart yanked from her chest.

  There was only one creature who could have done such a thing. A Warrior. Aisley hated to admit she was overjoyed that Mindy was no longer around. Still, Aisley wouldn’t wish that kind of death on anyone.

  Aisley licked her lips and looked out the car window while trying to ignore the fact her cousin had the body of his dead lover in the backseat with him.

  How close had Aisley come to dying? Why had it been Mindy and not her? Was it just by chance that the Warrior hadn’t chosen her?

  Those thoughts had gone round and round in her mind for the last hour as they drove north, following whatever kind of trail Jason had found of Aiden and Britt.

  The Warrior who had killed Mindy could’ve slain the rest of them. Why didn’t he? Was he just toying with them?

  “It had to have been Larena,” Jason said. “She used her power to turn invisible and sneak up on Mindy. That’s the only way Mindy would’ve been taken unawares.”

  “Mindy was always overconfident,” Aisley said. “You don’t know what happened.”

  Jason’s hand slammed down on Aisley’s seat from behind. “I know it was a Warrior. That’s all I need to know.”

  Dale glanced at her before he took a sharp corner and stopped the car as they waited for another vehicle to cross the narrow bridge. Once the other car was clear, Dale put his foot on the accelerator.

  “They’re leading us into a trap,” Dale said into the silence.

  Jason snorted. “As if any kind of trap could stop me.”

  “And what about us?” Aisley asked as she turned in her seat to look at him.

  Jason merely smirked. “You willna be harmed, cousin. As long as you prove beneficial.”

  “You wish you hadn’t sent Mindy with me to scout the cottage, don’t you?”

  “You’re bloody well right!” Jason took a deep breath, his face relaxing as he did. “Mindy had a great future ahead of her,” he said calmly.

  “And I don’t?”

  “Aisley,” Dale muttered in warning.

  Aisley glanced at Dale before turning her gaze back to Jason. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “You had potential, but you seem to have … lost it. You never could stay the course for anything. No’ even your ba—”

  “Enough!” Aisley shouted. Her magic rolled viciously within her, urging her to use it on Jason. The impulse to harm him as he had done her was overwhelming.

  And he knew it by the way he smiled at her.

  He always did know how to strike to have the greatest impact. Aisley’s chest heaved as she struggled to get ahold of herself while Jason’s leer grew the longer he watched her.

  “Did I hit a nerve, cousin?” he asked innocently.

  “God, how I loathe you.”

  Jason laughed and reached over to run his hand down the side of Mindy’s hair while her head lolled against the back of the seat. “If you ever grow the balls to take me on, let me know. I’d enjoy the brief entertainment.”

  Aisley turned back in her seat, her eyes dead ahead as she looked through the rain-drenched windshield. There was only one way she could take Jason on. That meant she would have to contact the Devil in order to get the power she needed.

  But did she have the guts?

  Then the words that had whispered so maliciously in her head after she performed the drough ceremony came again.

  “Your soul is mine, Aisley. All mine.”

  She was going to Hell anyway. Why not go on her own terms? But she couldn’t exactly call up Satan right then. She needed to be alone, which was going to be difficult, since they were trailing after Aiden and Britt into a trap.

  There would be a battle. She had known it the instant Jason released his magic upon the unsuspecting people of Edinburgh.

  He had taken the war to a new level, one that none of the Warriors or Druids of MacLeod Castle would stand by and allow to happen without some kind of retribution.

  Aiden and Britt had been given no choice when Jason had then used more magic to prevent Fallon from teleporting them to safety. Their only option was to run.

  Yet Aisley knew the Warriors of MacLeod Castle to be intelligent and crafty. They had given them too much time to formulate a plan. And once again, Jason was too confident in his abilities.

  There would be death. So very much death.

  Dale reached over and put his large, callused hand atop hers, which rested on her thigh, for a brief moment. She didn’t dare look at him. If Jason suspected Dale’s loyalties lay with her instead of with him, Jason would kill Dale immediately.

  Aisley couldn’t let that happen. She didn’t want to feel responsible for him, but she did.

  No other person would die because of her. No one.

  “They’re trying to hide in the glens,” Jason said suddenly.

  Almost instantly, the rain slamming against the car increased tenfold. Thunder boomed around them as lightning zigzagged through the sky.

  Aisley leaned toward the window of her door and looked at the gray sky. Thick clouds, heavy with rain, blocked any light from the sun.

  “Which Warrior is causing this storm?” Jason asked, curiosity in his voice.

  A tremor raced down Aisley’s spine. Jason enjoyed this cat and mouse game with those from MacLeod Castle entirely too much. It was lucky for them there was no other kind of magical creature that could choose sides, because she knew they would come up on the losing end.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Laura stood alone in the parlor and stared out the window of the mansion, hoping to catch a glimpse of Charon through the dense rain.

  “You won’t see him,” Dani said as she walked up to stand beside her. “They’ll make sure to stay far away.”

  “I know.”

  Dani crossed her arms over her chest. “In the past, we Druids were in the thick of things. But not this time.”

  “Do you miss it?” Laura asked as she looked at Dani.

  “Yes. And no,” she answered. “It’s scary being in the midst of battle, but I love to watch Ian. He’s magnificent.”

  “Ramsey is ruthless,” Tara said from behind them.

  Laura and Dani turned to find her leaning against the doorway, a sad smile upon her lips.

  “I nearly lost him once. I need to be with him.”

  Dani dropped her arms and quickly walked to Tara to put an arm around her in comfort. “Ramsey was most explicit in his instructions. Hell, all of them were. We’re to stay here.”

  “Our magic can help,” Tara raged.

  Laura ran her hand along the back of the bridle-colored leather Chesterfield couch, her finger pausing at each tufted section. “Neither of you have seen what a selmyr can do.”

  Ronnie walked into the room and stopped, her face lined with anxiety. “No, but I have. They move so fast.”

  “As quick as the wind,” Laura added.

  Ronnie nodded. “And vicious. They were on Arran before he knew what happened. I could only stand there helpless as they bit him and drank his blood like a damned vampire.”

  “Charon wouldn’t let me see my mother and what they did to her.” Laura sank onto the rounded arm of the couch and wrapped her arms about herself. “By the way he and the Dragon Kings acted, I suspect the scene would’ve been a gri
sly one.”

  “It’s good you didn’t see it, then,” Ronnie said. “Trust me, Laura, it’s something I’ll never get out of my head. Nor how they then turned to me. It was only Arran’s quick thinking that got me out of there alive.”

  Dani blew out a harsh breath. “There has to be something we can do. It’s not right that we’re not beside our men.”

  “No,” Laura said with a shake of her head. “The Kings made it clear. The selmyr feed on magic. If we go out there and try to use our magic, they’ll come straight to us. The more magic we use, the more they’ll feed. The Kings have been able to keep them at bay, but the Warriors are putting themselves in danger just to get a chance at killing Jason.”

  Tara looked down at her nails and scraped a bit of peeling gunmetal blue polish off. “Ramsey would have my ass if I were to leave the mansion.”

  There was something in her voice that caught Laura’s attention. The way the other women looked at her with grins pulling at their lips told Laura something was definitely going on.

  “Is Larena guarding us?” Ronnie asked.

  Laura frowned as she recalled briefly meeting the beautiful female Warrior an hour before. “She left with the others. I heard something about them needing her invisibility.”

  “That’s right,” Tara said as she dropped her hands. “They couldn’t get ahold of either Phelan or Malcolm, so they took Larena.”

  “Which means no one is guarding us,” Dani said.

  Laura looked over her shoulder as she heard a roar of a dragon. Charon was out there, waiting to ambush Jason while trying to keep away from the selmyr.

  It was an impossible task the Warriors had given themselves. Charon wouldn’t have put the plan in to motion if he wasn’t sure they could gain the advantage, but it was a dangerous chance they took.

  “I can’t sit here waiting to know if Ramsey is coming back to me,” Tara said.

  Dani caught Laura’s eye. “Ian is my world. If he’s in trouble, I want to be there for him.

  “And if seeing you puts him in harm’s way because you’ve taken his mind off the battle?” Laura asked.