Ghost Clan

by Heather Walker

  All of a sudden, on some unseen signal, all the wraiths swept in on the party at once. They let out a deafening shriek and swooped in on the men. The shortest one, Brody, bellowed at the top of his lungs. The sound sent a shock wave though the party, and they all attacked the wraiths in feral madness.

  Sabers whistled through the air. The things screeched louder than ever when a sword cut them in two, but they whirled and flew so fast the men couldn’t get a good shot at any of them. Only when one of the wraiths tried to catch the men could they get a good cut to destroy one of them.

  Carmen stabbed her pitiful dagger any way she could, but her combat training never prepared her for an enemy like this. She was used to fighting slow-moving drunks and tattooed drug addicts, not faceless ghosts from the forest.

  Angus fought like a lion at her side. Three of the wraiths came at him from every side. He whirled and slashed with his sword. He succeeded in slicing one of them and driving another back, but the third came up behind him. It draped over his shoulders and around his ribs from behind. It cut off his breath, and he couldn’t reach it.

  Carmen stabbed a wraith moving on her when she heard him squeak his last breath through gritted teeth. She glanced over her shoulder and saw him waving his arms in wild confusion. She spun around and slashed her dagger across his back. She cut into his shirt and drew blood from the skin underneath, but the wraith dropped off and dissipated into the night.

  She didn’t have time to help him again before another two wraiths headed her way across the circle. The harder anybody fought them, the more dangerous anybody became to them, the more they concentrated on that person. Seven of them ganged up on Brody at once, while Callum fought another five across the fire.

  Carmen wheeled to confront her adversaries. Angus never got a chance to thank her before another three came at him. This time, she couldn’t help him. He would have to handle them himself.

  Carmen stabbed one wraith with her dagger, but stabbing did nothing. Her hand vanished into a cloud of smoke, and the wraith continued creeping up her arm to strangle her. She grabbed it with her free hand and ripped it off. It came apart in shreds, and the pieces floated away on the fire’s rising sparks.

  The other wraith took that opportunity to wrap itself around her chest. The moment it touched her clothes, icy fear infected her blood. She wanted to curl up on the ground and close her eyes in defeat, but some forgotten part of her wouldn’t let her.

  She turned her dagger on herself and cut the thing off her. She pitched the pieces on the ground in disgust before she rounded on the next bunch of those things coming at her.

  The men fought for their lives all around her. They yelled and screamed and slashed and bled. They helped each other where and when they could, but too many of the wraiths sailed out of the trees. No one could fight so many.

  Carmen turned all her fury on those things. She hated them with a passion for turning her into this mindless animal caught in a trap. What did she ever do to deserve this? She got stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. She didn’t deserve to die for that, and she wouldn’t lie down and let anybody suck the life out of her.

  All at once, a ragged scream touched her ear. She cast a quick glance toward the sound and saw Callum sprawled on the ground. Two wraiths wrapped around his legs so he couldn’t move while another pinned his chest to the ground. He fought another three wraiths in the air with his sword.

  Carmen leapt toward him when a wraith struck her from behind. She pitched forward. She would have landed face first in the glowing embers if she hadn’t dropped her dagger to break her fall with her hands. A second later, the wraith pounced on her from behind. It knocked her the rest of the way down. She barely managed to twist herself sideways so she rolled onto the cold ground next to the fire.

  The wraith twisted around her neck. She couldn’t breathe. She stared all around for help, but the wraiths pressed all the men to their limit. None of them could break free to save her.

  All the time, Callum flailed both arms to fight off the wraiths hovering over him while the others crept higher, closer to his neck and face. Another few seconds, and they would smother him. His desperate eyes met Carmen’s, but they couldn’t help each other.

  Carmen looked everywhere, but she couldn’t spot the dagger she dropped. She clawed the wraith at her neck, but it wound itself so tight it embedded itself in her skin. She couldn’t get a purchase to tear it off. Spots appeared before her eyes. She had to do something before she passed out.

  She had to act, and fast. She scuttled across the circle, between legs on all sides, to the place where Callum lay. She yanked a dagger from his sock and sliced the wraith off her own neck. She cut her own skin in the process, but she didn’t feel the pain or the warm blood running into her shirt. The air rushed into her lungs, and she gasped that sweet breath of life.

  She didn’t hesitate. She jumped on top of Callum and went to work on the wraiths already wound tight around his neck. She cut them off and threw them away, but the others crowded around his head waiting to take their place.

  She jumped to her feet and snatched the sword out of his hand. In a few wild slashes, she dispensed with them. A furious animal roar boiled out of her soul. Woe to anything that came against her now.

  She spun around and embedded the saber point between Callum’s legs to cut off the wraiths binding him. The blade cut into his knee, but he was free.

  Chapter 6

  Angus turned around. His friends and brothers drove the last wraiths away, and he beheld Carmen on her knees next to Callum. Callum screamed in pain and writhed on the ground.

  “I’m really sorry,” Carmen exclaimed. “I don’t know what came over me.”

  “Don’t ye dare say yer sorry. Aaarrghh!” he screamed. “Stop it!”

  “We have to stop the bleeding,” Carmen insisted. “Do you want to bleed to death instead?”

  He pushed her off. “Leave me alone, woman!”

  She got to her feet. “Fine. Be that way. I’m just trying to help you. I won’t do it again.”

  Angus came to her side. “Just let him alone. He’s a bear.”

  Carmen crossed her arms and glared down at the fallen Highlander. “He certainly is.”

  “What happened?” Angus asked.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt him,” Carmen told him. “It was an accident. I guess I got a little carried away.”

  “Don’ listen to her, mon,” Callum snarled. “She saved me life, and her own asweel. It’s naught but a wee nick. It’s naught.”

  Angus bent over the wound. “If it’s naught, then get on yer feet an’ clean it up. Day’ll be ‘ere before ye know it, and none o’ us has had a wink o’ sleep, an’ we won’t ha’e it wi’ ye yollerin’ to the hills. Bind up yer wound, mon.”

  He walked away and found Carmen staring into the fire. “Are ye all richt?”

  “I’m fine. Just a little shaken. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I really didn’t. I didn’t mean to hurt you, either.”

  Angus frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Your shoulder. I cut your shoulder. I didn’t mean to.”

  Angus shrugged. He hadn’t felt the sting until she mentioned it. “Ne’er ye mind about that, and pay no attention to that ox o’er there, either. He’ll get over his scrape. Ye did weel, mighty weel.”

  She looked up. “Yeah!”

  He had to smile. She wasn’t half the problem he thought she would be if she fought like that. She survived her first encounter with the wraiths and saved Callum to boot. He turned away. “I dinnae think anyone’ll get any sleep tonicht. We might as weel move along an’ put some miles behind us.”

  Callum limped around the trees and wrapped some leaves around his knee. Angus put out the fire, and the rest of the group got ready to move out. Callum hobbled behind the others, but when Carmen tried to walk at his side, he glared at her.

  She bit back a smile and left him alone. Angus watched her from a distance. Now that she knew their story, sh
e relaxed into her place in the group. She didn’t have to prove herself to them anymore. She understood these fighting men. She was one of them, as sure as she was standing there.

  Angus didn’t understand what she meant when she said she was a cop. Whatever it was, she had some training. He could see that when she fought those wraiths. She didn’t handle the knife as well as these men did, but she didn’t cringe in terror, either. She would make a good warrior one of these days.

  What was he thinking? She was a woman. She couldn’t be a warrior. She didn’t belong out here. She should be home, minding the bairns.

  They walked the rest of the night. When the sun rose, Angus called a halt. They camped in an open field. Angus kept watch while the others dropped on their backs. In seconds, half of them snored while the others dozed.

  He paced around their perimeter. The wraiths wouldn’t attack in daylight, but he couldn’t calm down. When he came back, he found Carmen sitting up waiting for him. “Ye should sleep while ye ken, lass.”

  She burst into a brilliant smile. When had he seen anybody smile like that? Not since long before this whole thing started. “You don’t have to keep calling me a lass. I’m your age, if not older.”

  He scratched his head and sat down next to her. He couldn’t bring himself to smile back at her. He’d forgotten how. “Weel, ye may be. Anyway, ye should sleep. We’ll come to the witch’s castle on the morrow. Ye’ll need yer rest, alang wi’ the others.”

  “What about you? When do you rest?”

  “Well, never, as it happens.”

  “That’s what I thought. You look like you need it more than I do. That’s why I offered to watch for you, but you seem hellbent on torturing yourself.”

  He watched the golden sunlight spread over the field. Even now, he resented the beauty of the world all around him. He could almost believe it was some cruel trick designed to get him to lower his guard. “I cinnae rest. I never ken. I ha’e to watch every second. All these men depend on me to mak’ the richt decision at every turn. One mistake, an’ it’s another mon’s life gone.”

  “That must be hard, but it sounds like they died from something other than you making mistakes. They would have died no matter what you did. No one could fight those wraiths.”

  He stole a glance at her face. She sat so close. Her fine skin spread around her mouth and over her cheeks. He would give anything to spare her from this. “You fought ‘em.”

  “You fought them, too. You all did. You’re all doing everything you can under the circumstances. You shouldn’t blame yourself for those men dying. You didn’t kill them, and you did everything a leader could do to save them.”

  He nodded. “I kens it, but I still carry the weight…here.” He punched his fist into his chest. He wanted her to see the pain. He wanted her to see it in ways he never wanted his own brothers to see it.

  “I know how it is. I have a friend back home. He had to quit the service after his partner got killed in the line of duty. My friend was nowhere near him, but he keeps beating himself up because he wasn’t there to save his partner. He had to leave the Force and train for another job. It happens all the time.”

  Angus looked up at her. “Did anything like that ever happen to you?”

  “No, but it’s only a matter of time. When you put yourself in the line of fire, someone’s going to get hit. That’s the nature of the beast.”

  He sighed and looked away. “I shouldnae ask ye tae talk about yer hame. That must sting something fierce.”

  “I don’t mind. It feels good to remember it.”

  “Aye. I remember me auld hame—the way it used tae be, ye understand. I want tae keep it that way in me mind.”

  “You did the right thing leaving. You and your brothers took the fall for the sake of everybody else. That took courage. I admire you for what you’re trying to do.”

  His heat shot up. “Ye do?”

  “Sure. You’re a hero. You all are. I see that now.”

  He tore his eyes away from her face. “I ainly wish Ross would come back. I wish he’d tell us what we’re supposed tae do when we come tae the witch’s castle.”

  “Do you know anything about her? Do you know why she holds this vendetta against your father?”

  He shook his head. “No idea. Everything I ken about her, I ken from Ross. He kens about the witch.”

  “That’s strange. I wonder how he found out.”

  “He kens things, does Ross.”

  “You told me he’s some kind of diviner. He must have power if he detected me coming through from the other side. I suppose we’ll have to fight more of those wraiths to get inside the castle.”

  “We wouldnae fight any wraiths. It’ll be something much, much worse. I almost I’da raither fell on the road wi’ the others than face it.”

  Her hand shot out to grab his. “Don’t wish that! You’re keeping all the other’s going. Don’t you see that? Maybe you don’t see it because you’re in command, but I see it. They all look to you. They couldn’t keep going if they didn’t have you holding them up. I’ve seen it myself.”

  He stared down at her hand clasped around his knuckles. How did that happen? How did her touch change him in a split second? “They dinnae need me. Any o’ them is stronger than me. Look at Rob, or Brody. Either o’ them would make a spankin’ leader o’er me.”

  “You’re wrong, Angus. You’re the best leader this group could hope for. Even Rob and Brody look up to you. I’ve seen the way they look at you. They’re all counting on you to bring them through this.”

  He sighed. “I dinnae know if I can do that. I dinnae mind tellin’ ye this, lass, but for pity’s sake, dinnae tell any o’ ‘em I said this. I get a feeling sometimes, lik’ we dinnae stand a chance out there. The witch’ll just keep pickin’ us off, one by one, until not a mon remains to fight her. I only hope I’m not the last man standing when it happens.”

  She squeezed his hand. Did she have any idea what she was doing to him? Her warm breath breezed his face. Her sweet mouth hovered there just inches away from him. “That won’t happen. You’ll confront her, and you’ll defeat her. I know you will.”

  “If I do,” he murmured, “it’ll be because I found ye. I understand that now. I understand what Ross meant. I cinnae win wi’out you, lass.”

  A sudden awareness lit up her face, and she started. Her eyes cleared, and she realized what she was doing. She was holding his hand and gazing into his eyes at close range. She jumped in her seat, but she didn’t pull away and she didn’t let go of his hand.

  A charge of desire sprang across the space between them. He never wanted any woman the way he wanted her. He wanted to lean in and kiss that mouth. He wanted to taste her and hold her and see how far he could take her before she exploded in his hands.

  He couldn’t do that, though. He had to keep his distance from her. She didn’t belong here. If she didn’t get killed first, Ross would send her back where she belonged when this business with the witch ended. Angus would never see her again. He would go back to his home castle and take a wife from his own district. That’s the way it worked.

  Still, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He never met a woman like her before, with her short hair and her close-fitting trousers. He never met a woman warrior who fought alongside the men and defeated her enemies with her weapons in her hand.

  He shouldn’t want her, but he did. He glanced down at her mouth. Her lips twitched in anticipation of kissing him, and saliva shot into his mouth. A burning jet of desire scalded through his insides. He wanted her right now, on the grass in front of all his brothers and friends.

  He couldn’t touch her, though. He couldn’t touch her hand if she hadn’t touched him first. Even now, he couldn’t stroke her delicate fingers the way he wanted to. He couldn’t treat her like any other maid from the village or even like one of his lady cousins from the other lands belonging to his Clan. She belonged to Ross. She belonged to a world of magic beyond this one. In some ways, she be
longed to the witch.

  That thought wiped the desire out of his mind. As long as he kept thinking about her that way, he wouldn’t fall prey to temptation. He would keep his distance until he knew for certain who and what she was and what would happen to her.

  Maybe, just maybe, she would wind up staying here. Maybe then, after he put the witch in the ground and got his land back, he could start thinking about who and what he wanted.

  The moment passed. Even she felt it. She squeezed his hand and smiled, and she leaned back a little way. They were no longer in any danger of kissing. She let go of his hand. “I guess I better get some sleep after all. How long do you plan to camp here?”

  “Til’ nicht. We’ll mak’ one last press fer the castle. Heaven only kens what we’ll find when we get closer. I suppose we’ll just ha’e tae find out.”

  She walked away and stretched out on the grass with the others. She curled up on her side, folded her arm under her head, and closed her eyes.

  Angus made another circuit of the perimeter so he wouldn’t have to stand there and watch her go to sleep.

  What was wrong with him? Why had Ross gone and saddled him with this strange creature—as if he didn’t have troubles enough trying to stay alive?

  Chapter 7

  A powerful hand shook Carmen out of a sound sleep. Someone hissed in her ear. “Mak not a sound. Get up and follow me.”

  She bolted upright. A pale moon hovered over the land. The men slept all around her. Their peaceful breathing breezed with the wind over the grass. She caught sight of Angus asleep nearby. So he fell over on his watch.

  Then she noticed the figure at her side. A dark brown robe covered the person from head to foot. A heavy hood concealed the face except for a long beard covering the man’s chest. Bony fingers clamped down on Carmen’s shoulder.