Midnight's Captive (Dark Warriors) (21 page)

Yet, several times during their dinner she had seen him glancing around the restaurant, his gaze intent and probing. He wasn’t ignoring her. Not once did he fail to respond to something she said or asked.

Aiden nodded to the waiter who removed their plates. Then Aiden turned those amazing eyes to her. He smiled, his wide, full lips snagging her attention.

He had a mouth she’d dreamed of kissing since the moment she looked up from the microscope to see him standing in the lab. It wasn’t just his mouth either. It was all of him.

She came across many good-looking Scots during her time in Edinburgh, but there was something about Aiden the others lacked. He had confidence, but it was some unnamable thing that gave him an edge other men would never have.

“You’ve been different since Quinn showed up,” she said as she set aside her wine.

“I doona know what you mean,” Aiden answered, and ran a hand casually through his wavy, light brown hair.

Britt leaned forward and moved aside a lock of his hair that had fallen onto his forehead. She itched to run her own fingers through the strands that fell haphazardly around his face and brushed the rim of his jaw.

He caught her hand, his eyes darkening as he captured her gaze and held it while he placed a kiss atop her knuckles.

Britt’s heart raced from the feel of his lips on her skin. They had shared many dinners and lunches before this, but always while working. This night was different, special.

If she let it, she knew something could develop between them. And how she wanted it to. Even with his secrets, she wanted him.

“You know exactly what I mean,” Britt said, and reluctantly pulled her hand away. “You look so much like Quinn. I know he’s related to you. Why won’t you tell me how?”

Aiden shrugged and leaned back as the dessert was placed on the table. “Because it doesna matter.”

“Doesn’t matter, huh?” she asked, and reached for the fork. She slid the utensil into the cheesecake and placed it in her mouth as she considered the man across from her. “You tell me you have magic, prove it to me even, and yet tell me it doesn’t matter who Quinn is.”

“Britt, please,” he whispered, his face closed off.

“What is it about you that’s so different from everyone else? You dress the same, but that’s where the similarities end. Some of the words you use are from another century. The way you stand and watch people. It’s as if you’re waiting for something to attack.”

He looked down at the plate of mousse. “I’m just a man.”

“A man with magic and secrets. It makes you different, but without it, you’d still stand out in a crowd. I’ve seen the way people clear a path around you, almost as if they sense something that marks you as someone they need to stay away from.”

“You doona stay away from me.”

“Because I don’t want to. I’m not sure I could even if I tried. Who are you really, Aiden MacLeod?”

Aiden’s green eyes lifted and caught hers. “You wouldna believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“How close are you to discovering the differences in the blood?”

She shrugged and took another bite. “I feel as if there’s a key piece missing.”

“There is. What if I can get it to you?”

Though she wanted to know about Aiden, she had realized weeks ago that to learn who he truly was, she had to find out the differences in the blood. “If I had that, then I think two, three days at the most.”

“It might take me a few days to get it, but once I do, we need the information as soon as possible.”

All night they had talked of mundane things like the city and her childhood. Not once had the conversation turned to her research on the blood or why he needed it. As soon as they had begun to speak of it, Aiden’s attitude shifted.

Gone was the smile and relaxed man who had sat across from her in the crowded restaurant. He was tense, his voice low and urgent, sending off warning bells in her head.

“What’s happened?” she asked quietly as she let her eyes wander slowly around the restaurant.

“My enemy is closing in. He’s also begun to target those close to us. I fear you may be next, Britt. Already he’s tried to kidnap someone in an effort to hurt one of my friends.”

“Who is this asshole anyway?”

Aiden gave her a wicked grin of approval. “Jason Wallace.”

She recited that name to memory. “I’ll be on guard. I’m not without skills, you know. I lived in San Francisco, London, and Berlin. I can take care of myself.”

“He has magic.”

That deflated her somewhat, but she didn’t let it show. “Will he leave me alone once you’re gone with your information?”

Aiden’s head moved side to side. “I doona believe he will.”

“So what? You stay with me the rest of my life for protection?” It had been said as a joke, but after the words passed her lips, the idea of him being there appealed to her entirely too much.

Britt looked away and put her napkin on the table as silence stretched between them. So he might not feel the same. It wouldn’t be the first time. It seemed she was into guys who didn’t feel the same or vice versa.

For once she’d thought she might have gotten it right with Aiden.

Finally he said, “If I thought that would work, aye, I would. It willna be enough. Until Wallace is gone, I’d like you to come with me.”

“And where is that?” She drank more wine to calm her nerves and the excitement his offer brought, but nothing seemed to help. The thought of going with Aiden wasn’t what frightened her, it was how much she wanted to go that did.

She had missed countless classes and deadlines for papers while helping him, but she didn’t care. For so long, she had strived for degrees and doctorates, anything to fill her life with some kind of meaning.

One cause, one man had changed her way of thinking in the blink of an eye. She’d found that meaning with Aiden, but she didn’t want to tell him that, since she was unsure how he would take it.

“Aiden? Where would I be going?” she asked again.

He sat forward and placed his forearms on the table. “A castle.”

There was more to it. That she knew instantly by the way his eyes watched her. “That sounds nice. I’ve toured a few castles while here, but I’ve never stayed in one.”

“I doona believe you know how serious this all is.”

“I do. You’ve made it clear from the beginning how dangerous this was.”

“But you didna believe me,” he said, daring her to lie.

Britt speared another piece of cheesecake. “No, I didn’t believe you until I studied the samples you gave me. This might not make sense to you, but the idea of studying something so unbelievable is too good to pass up.”

“Even if it costs you your life?”

She hid a smile as his eyes darkened while he watched her slowly put the fork in her mouth and wrap her lips around it. Then, slowly pull the utensil out. She swallowed the dessert, her blood heating with his gaze.

Maybe he wasn’t as immune to her as he would have her believe.

“Didn’t you tell me you’d keep me safe?”

He cleared his throat and looked away. “Aye. I did. I am,” he hastily corrected.

So he was drawn to her. Britt wondered why Aiden hadn’t made a move on her. She’d begun to think he wasn’t interested, but that had been blown out of the water.

What held him back? And did she want to wait on him?

The answer to that was a definite “hell no.” She wanted Aiden. Even when she knew she should be running the other way and putting as much distance between them as she could because of the danger surrounding him, she couldn’t.

She was drawn to him, pulled toward him regardless of the consequences.

Britt smiled and sat back. His gaze lowered to her lips before dropping to her breasts. It was the first time she’d worn the deep purple dress she bought a year ago, and she was so glad she had.

“You deserved a night out on the town after all your hard work,” Aiden said.

“We need to get back though.”

He nodded and pulled out his wallet. After tossing down several pound notes, he stood. “Wallace’s attention is on my friend, but I doona know how long that’ll be the case.”

“Then home it is.”

Britt enjoyed how he pulled out her chair and offered her his arm as they left the restaurant. She preened inwardly when she observed how women watched Aiden with lust in their eyes.

He was a fine cut of a man in his slacks, shirt, and jacket. Added with his long hair, the confident way he walked, and his sly smile, he was irresistible.

He didn’t notice he was being watched, which made her want him even more. As soon as they stepped out of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk, Britt turned and kissed him.

For a full second, Aiden stood there, his body soaking in the feel of Britt’s soft curves against him. Then he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

He groaned at the sweet taste of her. Many nights he’d dreamed of kissing her, and now that she was in his arms, he feared he might never let her go.

Aiden’s cock swelled when he heard her soft moan. He deepened the kiss, wanting more, needing more.

Someone bumped into Aiden from behind. He tore his mouth from Britt’s and turned to give a piece of his mind to whoever had dared to interrupt them. But one look at the hulky, bald man with the goatee, and all Aiden could think about was getting Britt away.

“You’re wanted,” the man said.

Aiden pushed Britt behind him as he let his magic fill him. “No’ going to happen. Tell Wallace to go bugger himself.”

The man smiled. “So you know who I am.”

“I know a Warrior when I see one.”

“You would with your father and uncles being Warriors. Let’s no’ make a scene, lad. You and the girl need to come with me now.”

Galen stepped out of the shadows behind the man and leaned against the side of the building. “Ah, Dale. You think you’d learn you’re serving the wrong side.”

Dale shifted so he could look at Galen as well as Aiden. “One Warrior willna stop us. I’m no’ alone.”

“Neither are we,” Aiden said and smiled coldly.

In an instant, Dale called up his god, his skin turning a pale green. He swiped at Galen with his claws the same time Aiden caught movement across the street.

He turned to shield Britt as his father barreled into Dale and sent them tumbling down an alley.

“Get her away!” Galen shouted.

Aiden glanced at Britt to see her eyes wide and her face pale. “If we run, Wallace will catch us.”

“Then we stay.” Her voice was unsteady and she trembled in his arms, but she didn’t faint or run away screaming.

He nodded. “No matter what, stay with me. If you can no’, find Galen or Quinn.”

Aiden didn’t wait for her agreement as they slid into the alley to find his father fighting Dale. Quinn’s skin had turned the black of his god, and it was hard to keep track of him in the shadows.

Dale’s growls of rage brought a smile to Aiden’s lips. Galen was standing nearby watching. Suddenly he swung around.

“Droughs,”
he said between clenched teeth, his fangs showing when he pulled back his lips in a growl. His skin turned the green of his god, and he bent his legs, his claws out and ready. “Wallace comes.”

Aiden pushed Britt down so that she squatted against the wall. Then shrugged off his blazer and stood beside Galen and called up his magic.

“Your father is going to skin me alive if anything happens to you. You know Quinn wouldna want you here,” Galen said.

Aiden knew it all too well, but everyone needed to understand he was a man, not a child. And it was time he let them see it.

Two
droughs
turned the corner into the alley. Aiden sent a blast of magic at one. Galen used his speed to reach the other and kill him before any magic could be used against him.

As soon as Aiden’s opponent went down, Galen sliced the neck of the
drough
with his claws.

That was just the first wave. Aiden knew Wallace wouldn’t give up that easily.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Charon stalked down to the great hall with Laura’s words ringing in his head, but came to an abrupt halt when he saw everyone looking at him. The inhabitants of MacLeod Castle were scattered throughout the hall, some at the long table, some in chairs around the hearth.

“How is Laura?” Ronnie asked.

Charon didn’t look at Arran’s woman. Instead he pinned his gaze on Fallon. “Laura is no’ to be questioned until I’m done with her.”

“You think Wallace is using her?” Fallon asked, his brow furrowed in worry.

“I doona know what to think,” Charon admitted. He needed some time to collect his thoughts before he told the others too much. “I know it was her who used the magic, but she has none now. Unless she knows how to conceal it.”

Reaghan said, “If she can hide her magic, that would make her a very powerful Druid indeed.”

“Has any Druid ever been able to do that?” Camdyn asked.

Isla turned her bright blue eyes to Camdyn. “I’ve never known one who could. Not even Deirdre managed that, though I don’t know if it’s because she didn’t want to hide it or couldn’t.”

“How did Laura escape Wallace?” Phelan asked into the silence.

Charon scrubbed a hand down his face. “He said
droughs
were the good Druids and that Warriors were evil. I told Laura of the Druids, but nothing more. So she doesna know what to believe. It was Jason’s story, along with some of his magic that convinced her to go with him. But she didna tell me how she got away.”

“Why are you no’ still questioning her, then?” Lucan asked.

Charon glanced at his hands. He still felt her smooth skin against him, still remembered what it was like to thrust into her tight body and make her scream with pleasure.

There was more to Laura than what met the eye. He needed to earn her trust if he was going to learn anything. After working so closely with her, he’d thought he knew Laura. Apparently her secrets were as great as his own.

“I had to clear my head.”

“The night Laura was almost taken. I felt
mie
magic. It was brief, but I felt it,” Phelan said.

Charon looked at his friend. “I, as well. I’ve known Laura for years. I’d know if she was a Druid.”