by Donna Grant
“Hell … o.”
She jerked her gaze to him and smiled. “So you can talk. I was beginning to worry.”
He frowned as if he were struggling to understand her. Danielle was beginning to wonder if he was a half-wit who had taken to living in the mountains.
Regardless, he had saved her life and she owed him.
The man knelt before the fire in one smooth movement. She was so entranced with the way the firelight danced upon his face and highlighted his light brown hair that she wasn’t aware of what he was doing until he held out a piece of meat to her.
“Thank you,” she said as she accepted it. She bit into the meat and closed her eyes on a groan. “This is most excellent.”
She tried to be polite and take small bites, but she was ravenous. The moment she stuffed the last bite into her mouth, he held another piece out to her.
Danielle ate and ate. And ate. She had missed a meal or two before, but she had never missed a day or more. When he offered yet another piece, Danielle waved it away and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
“I don’t think I could eat another bite for at least an hour.” She chuckled at her own joke.
When he didn’t say anything, Danielle looked at her clothes. She was tired of sitting half naked in front of him. She needed something more than the fur between them.
She rose to her knees, careful to keep the fur against her, and bit her lip to keep from crying out. Her knee must have hit something in her fall down the mountain.
Undaunted, Danielle climbed to her feet, but had to reach for the wall behind her to keep her balance. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the man rise and begin to reach out a hand to her.
She turned her head to him and saw concern in his eyes. Danielle gave him a soft smile.
“I’ll be all right.”
His raised brow said he questioned her statement.
Danielle didn’t blame him. She questioned it herself. Lying and sitting down had been one thing. Standing and walking was something else entirely.
It took her several minutes, but she made it over to her clothes. To her relief, they were dry. She lifted her dress and looked at her savior.
“You might have undressed me, but you won’t watch me dress. Turn around.”
When he only frowned at her words, Danielle sighed and shook her head. She had to release her dress since her other hand held the fur against her. She lifted her arm, her finger down, and twirled it.
Realization dawned, and the man turned his back to her. But not before she saw his grin.
“Men,” Danielle grumbled.
She dropped the fur and slid her arms into her dress. She had to lean against the wall in order to button it, but when she was finished, she felt much better.
“All right. You can turn back now.”
The man glanced over his shoulder, then faced her fully.
“Do you talk at all?”
He cocked his head to the side.
Danielle rolled her eyes and grabbed her socks and boots. She made her way back to the pallet of furs. The heat of the fire warded off most of the chill, and the long sleeves of her dress helped to keep her warm.
She sank down to the furs and began to put on her socks. When she saw him staring at her socks strangely, she held up one.
“Socks. They come in all colors and heights. I like the short ones that barely reach my ankle, myself.” She glanced at his well-worn boots, boots that looked like they were made in medieval times. Boots that looked very authentic.
“Socks,” he repeated.
Danielle laughed as she put on her second sock. “Exactly. I wish I had a few more pair to put on. My feet are still frozen.”
The man pointed to her boots.
Danielle picked up one and put it on her foot. “It’s a boot. Different than yours, however. Mine has a heel,” she said and showed him. “They’re called stilettos. Very fashionable. I love them, but they hurt like Hell.”
She grabbed the zipper and paused. Why the questions? It was obvious he had no idea what the items were, but why? How could anyone living in the twenty-first century not know something so basic?
“This is a zipper,” she said. “They’re used on boots, pants, coats, dresses, and well, just about anything.”
She slowly pulled the zipper up, then down, showing him how it worked. Obviously he had been able to unzip her boots in order to get them off her, but his rapt attention told her he hadn’t known what it was.
After she zipped her second boot, Danielle tucked her legs to the side and regarded him. She touched her dress. “This is a dress. They come in different lengths. Some have long sleeves like this one. Others have short sleeves, and some are sleeveless or even strapless—which are my favorite.”
“Strap-less.”
She pointed to her coat. “That’s a coat. Again, different lengths, different colors, different weights. That’s a pretty thick wool coat.”
He nodded, as if he understood. He then pointed to her arm.
Danielle looked down, amazed to find she had a couple of her bangles still on her wrist. “My bracelets.”
“Bracelets.”
The way he said it, as if the word were foreign, as if he were learning how to move his lips just right, caused Danielle to raise her gaze to him.
“Who are you?”
He lowered his sherry gaze to the flames for a moment. When he looked at her again, his expression had hardened. “Ian Kerr.”
CHAPTER
EIGHT
“Ian,” Danielle repeated. It suited him. A strong Scottish name for a strong Highlander. “I’m Danielle Buchanan.”
“Hello, Danielle.”
The sound of her name on his lips sent a thrill rushing through her. His voice was deep and smooth, and altogether sexy.
“Why did you not speak earlier?”
He shrugged, a small frown marring his face. “I was learning your speech.”
“Learning…? I’m sorry. I’m confused. What do you mean?”
“You speak differently. I had to learn it.”
Danielle could see he spoke the truth. There was intelligence in his gaze. No half-wit would be able to pull that off.
“Where are you from that we speak so differently?”
He stiffened, a look of affront on his face. “Scotland, of course.”
“Of course,” she said, the sarcasm heavy. “Everyone in Scotland speaks as I do. Have you been hiding up here?”
“For some time, aye.”
“That doesn’t explain all of it though,” she said.
Ian scratched his chin. “What year is it?”
There was something in his voice that gave her pause. Something that told her once she answered him everything would change. “It’s 2012.”
“Shite,” he said, and slammed his hand on his knees. “Four hundred years.”
Danielle blinked. “Did you just say four hundred years? As in, four centuries?”
“Aye, lass.”
“What does that mean? Did you time-travel?” she asked with a nervous laugh.
When Ian’s sherry gaze met hers, her stomach dropped to her feet. She’d been joking, but apparently he wasn’t.
“That’s not possible.”
Ian lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “You’re a Druid. You know as well as I that anything is possible.”
She gaped at him. “How did you know I was a Druid?”
“I feel your magic.”
Danielle opened her mouth to tell him that was impossible, but she thought better of it. “What are you? I saw your skin at the loch. It was pale blue. And the claws. I saw those as well.”
“Are you sure you really want to know?” he asked as he ran a hand through his hair.
“I’m sure.”
Ian didn’t want to tell her. He was still too shaken up to learn he had been jerked forward in time. By four centuries!
Instead of walking out as he had intended to do before she woke, he found himself w
anting to talk to her. Her speech hadn’t been difficult to learn. The fact she had continued to talk to herself had helped him grasp it even faster thanks to the powers of his god.
“Ian,” Danielle urged.
“Were you raised as a Druid? Did you learn how to use your magic?”
She nodded. “Yes. By my aunt.”
“Did she tell you anything of the history of the Druids?”
“She told me that magic is in the land, that it makes Britain what it is.”
“Anything else?” Ian prompted.
Danielle shrugged. “She told me that I’m descended from a long line of Druids dating back to the Celts.”
Now they were getting somewhere. “Did she mention anything about the Celts and the Romans?”
“No.”
Ian rubbed a hand over his face. He was uncomfortable sitting across from Danielle as if he were a normal man. He wasn’t. Farmire could rear his head at any moment.
There was no doubt Ian knew he should leave Danielle. He couldn’t bear the thought of being the one to harm a Druid. But she was injured. The weather hampered her from going anywhere herself, especially in those boots she wore.
He looked at Danielle to find her watching him. “Do you know why Rome left our shores?”
“Of course. The Saxons were invading and Rome was tired of holding on to a land on the fringes of their empire. Though Rome conquered England, they never were able to conquer past Hadrian’s Wall.”
Ian chuckled. “Who told you that nonsense?”
“We’re taught that in school,” she said with a lift of her chin. “Why? What were you taught?”
“The truth.”
“Which is?”
Ian liked her spirit. Maybe a little too much. “You were correct in that the Romans never conquered past the wall. The Romans were kept at bay by the Celts. And the Druids.”
Danielle sat up straighter. “Tell me more.”
“Though the Celts won most of their battles, they couldn’t get Rome to leave. So they turned to the Druids.”
“Rome said the Druids were pagans that sacrificed women and children.”
Ian shrugged. “If Rome wrote that part of history, then they controlled it.”
“True enough.”
“The Druids of old had their own way of doing things. Their magic came to them naturally. Those who were content to derive their magic from nature were called mies. Those who craved more power, stronger magic, found another way to get it. They turned to Satan and offered their blood and soul to him. In exchange they were given very powerful magic.”
“And these Druids were called?”
“Droughs. It was the droughs who had an answer for the Celtic problem with Rome. With the strongest warriors of each family present, the droughs called up primeval gods locked away in Hell. These gods inhabited these Warriors, taking over their bodies.”
Danielle swallowed and ran her thumb over one of her bracelets.
“These men were now Warriors. They attacked the Romans. And Rome had no answer. In a matter of weeks Rome was leaving Britain. However, the gods didn’t stop their fighting. They turned against anyone who got in their way. The droughs tried to pull the gods out, but they refused to leave their hosts. It took the combined magic of the mies and the droughs to bind the gods inside the men.”
“Bind? How exactly?”
“The gods were still inside the men, but the men didna know it. The gods passed through the bloodline to the strongest, most powerful warrior each time. The Druids knew they had no’ solved the problem, and so they stayed near these families in case the gods were somehow unbound.”
“What were these … Warriors exactly?” Danielle asked.
Ian took a deep breath and let himself drown in her emerald depths. “They took on the characteristics of their god. Each god had a power and a color they favored. These Warriors’ skin and eyes would change. They would have claws and fangs. And be able to wield a power.”
“You are one of these Warriors?”
Ian had expected her to recoil, to run away. But she asked the question bluntly. He gave a small nod. “I’m no’ one of the original Warriors. When the Druids bound the gods, the spells they had used were burned. Or at least they thought they were. One was kept hidden. A very powerful drough found the scroll. Deirdre is her name, and she wants to rule the world.”
“You make it sound like she’s still alive.”
“Because she is. In the scroll it listed one clan. The MacLeods. Deirdre found the three brothers of the clan who had been mentioned to her by her Seer. Deirdre wiped out the entire MacLeod clan in one day and trapped the brothers. She unbound the god the three brothers shared. Awakening the Warriors once again.”
“MacLeod,” Danielle mumbled. She rose and walked to her coat where she fumbled in the pocket. She took something out and returned to her seat. “None of what you are telling me is in our history.”
“Nay. Deirdre set about finding as many Warriors as she could. The MacLeods escaped and returned to their castle where they hid for three centuries. Others, like me, were found by Deirdre and taken to her mountain.”
Danielle leaned forward. “What mountain?”
“Cairn Toul Mountain. Her magic is to control stone, so the inside of the mountain is her castle. She kept it full of prisoners. Druids who she killed and stole their magic to make herself more powerful. And men she captured in the hopes they were Warriors.”
“Like you.”
“Like me and my twin, Duncan. We shared a god as well. We were inside the mountain for far too long, but we never gave in and sided with her. Many Warriors did.”
“I don’t understand. Why would they do that?”
“The god inside us, Danielle. It’s evil. Its rage is … overwhelming sometimes. Weak men are unable to fight for control of their own bodies.”
Danielle smiled. “That’s obviously not you.”
Ian couldn’t meet her eyes.
“So how did you time-travel?”
“I’m no’ sure,” he answered. “There were nine Warriors who had gathered at MacLeod Castle with the MacLeod brothers to fight Deirdre. We had several Druids who had taken safety within the castle as well. In the process of saving a Druid we learned Deirdre was searching for artifacts that could make her stronger.”
Danielle snorted. “How am I not surprised?”
Ian hid a smile. “One of these artifacts happened to be a Druid who told us the artifacts would awaken Deirdre’s twin, who was the only one who could defeat Deirdre once and for all.”
“Did you find all the artifacts?”
“Logan and my brother, Duncan, had gone to the Isle of Eigg to search for an artifact. That’s when Deirdre had Duncan killed. I knew the moment he was murdered. With Duncan gone, the god we shared was no longer split. It was all mine. I was mired in misery and anguish. One moment I was in the castle, the next I was in the mountains.”
“Oh, God, Ian. I’m so sorry about Duncan.”
Ian tossed another stick onto the fire. “He will be avenged.”
“You don’t know how you came to this time?”
“I assume it was Deirdre. She knew I would be vulnerable with Duncan gone. I would be contending with my god for control. A perfect opportunity for her to capture me.”
Danielle’s emerald eyes narrowed. “Do you have control of your god?”
Ian looked her dead in the eye. “Nay.”
CHAPTER
NINE
Danielle let out the breath she’d been holding. “Why tell me the truth? You could have lied.”
“I could have, but you need to understand what I am. I shouldna be with you now, but I canno’ leave you either.”
“Because of those yellow beasts?”
“They’re wyrran,” he said, and leaned to the side, his weight on his hand. “They are made by Deirdre. Their one goal is to do whatever will make her happy.”
Danielle rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “They’
re hideous, and I sensed the evil in them.”
“As a Druid you probably would. They hunt Druids for Deirdre. If the wyrran are here, then so is she.”
“Why would she come forward in time? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Nothing about Deirdre makes sense,” Ian said with a snort. “You must stay away from her at all costs.”
Danielle looked at Ian’s kilt. “Everything you’ve told me seems so far-fetched. I shouldn’t believe it, and in fact I wouldn’t. Except I was chased by those wyrran. And I saw you.”
“Are you afraid of me?”
His voice was soft, but his gaze pinned her. Danielle slowly shook her head. “You pulled me from the water and saved my life. You had ample opportunity to harm me while I slept. You didn’t.”
“I still could.”
“Possibly. You have no idea how much magic I have.”
“Oh, but I do.” His eyes seemed to darken as he inhaled. “Warriors can feel the magic of Druids. We sense how much magic a Druid has. With yours, it’s … potent. I’ve never felt magic like it before.”
Danielle reached down to the key she had hidden beneath her thigh and wrapped her fingers around it. “You mentioned you had stayed at MacLeod Castle.”
“Aye.”
“Can you take me there?”
For several tense minutes Ian simply stared at her as he slowly sat up straight. She didn’t know what was going through his mind, but she wished she did.
“It’s important,” she said.
“Why?”
She touched the key, wondering if she should tell him. “I must deliver something to the MacLeods.”
“What something? Those people are my family. I willna see them harmed.”
“If they’re your family, why aren’t you with them?”
Ian looked away, his hands fisting at his knees. “I would no’ put them in harm’s way.”
“You mean while you’re battling your god?”
He turned his gaze to her and gave a single nod.
“You’ve done very well with me so far.”
His brow furrowed at her words. “I doona understand why. Before I sensed your magic, my god was taking control often.”
