Midnight's Temptation

CHAPTER FOUR

MacLeod Castle

“How much longer?” Arran asked the room at large.

Lucan glanced at his elder brother, Fallon, to find him staring into the cold, empty hearth in the great hall. “Aiden and Britt will tell us when it’s done.”

“It” was the serum Britt had synthesized from their blood. Lucan wasn’t the only one uneasy about bringing a mortal with no magic into their battle, but Britt wasn’t just an amazing doctor. She had managed to gain Aiden’s love.

As uncle to Aiden, Lucan couldn’t be happier. He knew his nephew had been floundering about in their world of magic. Not that he blamed Quinn and Marcail for protecting their son. Lucan would do the same thing if he and Cara dared to have children.

Children. He let out a long sigh and shifted his gaze to his wife. Cara sat with some of the other Druids. Her chestnut curls were pulled away from her face in a ponytail. She smiled at something Danielle said, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.

That’s when Lucan saw Cara glance up the stairs. She was as worried as the others. Most of last night they had sat in bed talking about Britt’s serum and how it could help the Warriors in their upcoming battle.

“What has you frowning?” Quinn asked as he came to stand beside him.

Lucan shrugged before he turned to his younger brother. “I lied to Cara last night.”

Quinn’s dark brows rose high in his forehead, surprise in his pale green eyes. “That’s a first. What was the lie?”

“She asked if the fighting would be over when we kill Wallace. I told her it would.”

Quinn crossed his arms over his chest, his small grin vanishing instantly. “I told Marcail that same lie several nights ago.”

“Were we wrong to bring them into this, Quinn?”

“Most assuredly. I’m a selfish bastard though, and couldna let Marcail out of my life. She would’ve been better had she never met me.”

“Ah, but would you have been better?”

Quinn had been on the verge of self-destruction. It had only been Marcail’s gentle touch and love that gave Quinn a reason to keep living.

“Nay,” Quinn answered without hesitation. “I look at all the Warriors in the castle and the women who stand with them, and I know each Warrior is better because of their women.”

“You’ve the right of it, brother. Can we honestly say the same for the Druids?”

Quinn was silent a long time before he shook his head. “Nay.”

Lucan tried to imagine life without Cara by his side the last four centuries. He had barely held it together for three hundred years before her, and only because he had to keep himself and his brothers united.

He tugged at the end of one long braid running from his temple. Cara was the only light in the darkness that was his life. The constant battles with droughs had taken a toll on him.

Cara was his reason to live through each battle. Without her … there would be nothing.

But, like Quinn, he’d been selfish. Even discovering Cara was a Druid and being hunted by Deirdre shouldn’t have been enough to tie her to him.

It had been sheer luck that they found Isla. Thanks to her potent magic there was the shield covering MacLeod Castle that didn’t just kept it hidden from the world, but prevented mortals inside it from aging.

Every time Cara left the castle she put her life in jeopardy. But it took all of them—Warriors and Druids alike—to battle the droughs.

“I hear everyone struck down by Wallace’s magic in Edinburgh is healing,” Lucan said.

Quinn said, “Aye. We’re all glad of that. Marcail was ready to go to Edinburgh with Sonya and try to heal them.”

Wallace. Why was it everything they spoke about at the castle was the bastard? He controlled their lives as well as ruined them.

“Will Aiden and Britt remain here once her work is complete?” Lucan asked to change the subject.

Quinn’s lips quirked downward at the corners. “I wanted to ask, but Marcail begged me no’ to. She’s afraid of what the answer will be.”

“Britt will be a target when she leaves.”

“Which is why Aiden will go with her.”

“So you think they’ll go?”

“I doona know,” he said after he blew out a breath. “I’d feel better if they remained, but Britt had a life before we entered it.”

Lucan gave a nod to Fallon as he joined them. “Aiden explained to Britt what she was getting into. She chose this.”

“Did she?” Quinn asked angrily. “Aiden could’ve gone to someone else. Perhaps we shouldna have allowed him on this course.”

Fallon grinned at Quinn. “Ah, but he is his father’s son. I’ve never met such a stubborn man as you.”

Quinn reached over and hit Fallon in the shoulder, the first real smile in days. “Stubborn? Shall we talk about you?”

Lucan watched the exchange, chuckling as he did. There had been a time when he never thought his brothers would be able to talk to each other again. Look at them now.

Their women had done that.

“What are you smirking about?” Fallon asked. “You’re just as stubborn, Lucan. It’s a MacLeod trait.”

Lucan grunted. “Oh, I know I’m obstinate. I’m the only one who dares to admit it though.”

After the laughter died, so did the smiles.

Fallon put his back to the great hall and the Warriors and Druids scattered throughout to face his brothers. “Any word from Phelan or Malcolm regarding Wallace?”

“Charon called and said Phelan had yet to find anything,” Quinn answered.

Lucan threw up his hands. “The only one who is able to get ahold of Malcolm is Larena. Ask your wife about him.”

“I did,” Fallon ground out in a low voice. “She said she’s left him a half-dozen messages, but he’s yet to return her calls.”

“We willna hear from him until he finds Wallace,” Quinn pointed out.

Lucan nodded. “True. I’m no’ happy with just the two of them looking.”

“None of us are,” Fallon said.

Quinn ran a hand down his face, showing his frustration. “What do you expect when you tell the women they can no’ go looking for him?”

“Me?” Fallon said in surprise. “I seem to recall you ordering Marcail to her chamber. Right before she told you what for.”

Lucan grinned as Quinn looked away sheepishly. “We all made that decision.”

“Aye,” Quinn said.

Fallon gave a shake of his head. “We didna imagine they would in turn tell us we couldna go.”

“We could sneak out during the night,” Lucan said.

The three brothers exchanged looks as plans began to form.

“Do you think we could get away with it?” Quinn asked.

Fallon said, “Nay, but my being able to teleport us in and out will help.”

“There’ll be hell to pay when we return,” Lucan added.

Quinn glanced around the hall. “It has to be just us three.”

“As I said, hell to pay.”

Fallon absently scratched his chin. “Quinn’s right. Just us three. We’ll be gone and back before they know it. We can do small searches in places Malcolm and Phelan have no’ gone.”

“We go tonight,” Quinn said.

Lucan leaned a shoulder against the wall. “Half past midnight. Meet on the north tower.”

“This could be for nothing,” Fallon cautioned. “Wallace may well truly be dead.”

“I want to see his body,” Quinn stated.

Lucan glanced at Cara again. “I concur. I need to see his body to believe he’s gone from our lives for good. Only then will I be able to breathe.”

“It’s been two months and nothing. If Wallace was alive, he’d have made himself known by now,” Fallon said.

“There was a time we thought Deirdre was dead as well,” Lucan said. “That didna turn out so well for us since she was able to use her magic to regenerate her body.”

Quinn rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Doona remind me. Wallace was smart. Smarter than Deirdre or Declan. He might’ve been a little too cocky, but he’ll have made plans for his untimely demise.”

“Ah, but he wasna counting on having to battle the selmyr,” Fallon said, his eyes flashing satisfaction at the memory.

Lucan growled as he thought of the selmyr—ancient monsters who thrived off of consuming magical beings. Druids and Warriors being their choice of meals.

“We’ve made some powerful friends,” Fallon continued. “Without the aid of the Dragon Kings, there’s no way we could’ve fought both the selmyr and Wallace.”

Quinn shifted from one foot to the other as Marcail rose from the table and walked up the stairs. “All of that was thanks to Charon. For some reason the Dragon Kings favor him.”

“Irks you, does it?” Lucan teased.

Quinn rolled his eyes. “I almost killed Charon while we were in Deirdre’s Pit. Now I’m glad I listened to Marcail and stayed my hand.”

“Charon has proven a valuable Warrior long before his connection to the Dragon Kings,” Lucan pointed out.

Fallon was quick to toss in his agreement. “That he has. No’ once has he let us down.”

“Should we tell him our plan about our upcoming search?” Quinn asked quietly.

Lucan frowned. “Nay. We tell no one.”

“Agreed,” Fallon said.

The three ended their talk of searching for Wallace as Aiden came to the top of the stairs. He looked in need of a shave and a good meal, but the smile on his face said everything.

“Britt is close,” Aiden said. “Verra close. It’s still going to take a couple of days before the serum will be ready to test.”

After a round of clapping and shouts of joy, Aiden disappeared from view.

“This is good news,” Quinn said.

Fallon’s gaze was riveted on his wife, Larena. She was the only female Warrior, and she had come close to dying when drough blood had been put into her wounds.

Just one drop of drough blood could kill a Warrior. And somehow Wallace had managed to make the drough blood work more powerfully than before in bringing down a Warrior. Of course, the X90 bullets that were filled with drough blood didn’t help.

In the past, introducing a Warrior’s blood to counteract the drough blood was the way to save one of their own. Charon’s recent injury hadn’t been able to be reversed as before. They’d nearly lost him.

Lucan prayed Britt’s serum worked. It was just a matter of time before one of them fell to drough blood.

“Tonight,” Quinn whispered, as if reading his thoughts.

Lucan and Fallon nodded.

Tonight they would begin their hunt. The other Warriors, Druids, and their wives would be angry, but it was worth their fury to find Wallace.

At least they would know something. If he was dead, they could concentrate on finding the spell that would bind their gods for good and allow them to live normal lives.

If Wallace was alive … it meant another battle.

Lucan stayed where he was as Quinn and Fallon walked away. Lucan looked over the great hall at the men and women who had become his family. They might not be related by blood, but they were family just the same.

They had lost one already. Duncan.

Lucan’s heart was heavy every time he thought of the Warrior. And he couldn’t look at Ian without thinking of Duncan since they had been twins.

Their immortality gave them an advantage, but as it had been proven, they could be killed. Lucan didn’t want to lose anyone else in his family.

They’d come close recently with Charon and Larena. How many more times would luck favor them?

He feared their luck had run out.