Midnight's Warrior (7 page)

“All right.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Ramsey had expected a fight. The ease with which Tara relented proved just how terrified she was. What had made her run off in the middle of such a storm without a jacket?

“The man you say is chasing you, you think he’s here? At the castle?”

Tara shook her head slowly. “I did, but maybe I was wrong. I don’t know anymore.”

“What made you think he was here?”

Her blue-green eyes turned to him. “You’re going to think I’m daft.”

“Nay,” Ramsey said with a small smile.

She licked her lips and adjusted the blanket around her. “I heard his voice.”

“What did he say?”

“My name. It sounded as if he were right beside me, but I think maybe it was just a dream.”

Ramsey let her lie to herself and him, but he knew Declan was anything but a dream. He might have stopped Declan from reaching the castle, but he hadn’t prevented Declan from using magic to get to Tara.

“Take my bed,” Ramsey said. “I can find you something to wear.”

“The couch will be fine.”

“But the bed is better,” he said as he rose.

Ramsey held out his hand and helped her to her feet. As soon as her skin touched him, magic shot through him like lightning, sizzling his skin until his entire body craved more of her.

He reluctantly released her, and then fisted his hand as the tendrils of magic swarmed over his skin. Ramsey didn’t need to look down to see them anymore. He knew the feel of it, of her glorious, exquisite magic.

It took a great amount of effort to walk ahead of Tara into his room instead of letting his fingers skim down her face to her neck.

Ramsey thought turning away from her was difficult, but once in his room with the bed so near, his body hungered for one thing. Tara.

He pulled out the first shirt in the small bag he had yet to unpack and tossed it on the bed. The longer he stayed near her while her magic swam over his skin, the more his control slipped.

Tara might be beautiful, and he might be attracted to her. But keeping her alive was his only duty. Ramsey hadn’t thought that would be a problem. Then again, he hadn’t felt Tara’s magic at the time.

“The bathroom is there,” Ramsey said, and pointed to the closed door. In two steps he was at his bedroom door. Just before he closed it behind him he said, “If you need anything, let me know.”

“Thank you,” Tara said as he shut the door behind him.

Ramsey took a deep breath, then another before he realized his hand was still on the doorknob. It would be so easy to give it a little twist and be back in the room with Tara.

“Nay,” Ramsey whispered, and released the doorknob.

He stumbled to the couch and plopped down, his gaze on the hand that had touched Tara. As he expected, the white tendrils were thicker, more solid from touching her skin.

As with any Warrior, he had the ability to sense magic. It allowed a Warrior to find and track Druids. But there was a connection that neither the Druids nor the Warriors had realized when the Druids first called up the gods.

There were instances where a certain Druid’s magic would affect a Warrior more deeply. He could feel her emotions in her magic.

The fact a Warrior could do that was magic itself, but what it signified was a strong bond between Warrior and Druid. That bond had formed eight times at MacLeod Castle, and each time the Druid and the Warrior fell in love.

Ramsey had felt the intensity of Tara’s magic miles before he arrived at Dunnoth Tower. Then he had grabbed her arm and watched as her magic swirled around his hand.

But what had him in complete shock was that it was the stark fear he had felt in her magic that had led him outside. There hadn’t been time to analyze why he had sensed her distress. He had simply reacted and gotten her to his cottage as quickly as possible.

Yet, while she had been with him, he’d tried to discern more of her emotion through her magic. Unfortunately, he’d sensed nothing. It was as if she had somehow cut it off.

Ramsey held up his hand. The magic moved with the grace of white smoke while it danced upon his skin. It moved around and over, swirling slowly.

“Well, fuck me.”

Ramsey jerked his head around at the sound of Charon’s voice. He found both Charon and Arran staring at him, so he lowered his hand. “I’d rather no’.”

Arran chuckled and shoved Charon forward so he could shut the door. “Care to explain what’s going on with your hand?”

“No’ really.”

“Too bad,” Charon said. “We want to know.”

Ramsey flexed his fingers and watched the tendrils move with him. “I touched Tara’s hand.”

“Damn,” Arran said, his eyes wide.

Ramsey shook his head and held his finger to his lips. “We’ve a visitor.”

“The lovely Tara,” Charon murmured with a smile.

Ramsey rose and walked over to them so they could talk. “She tried to run away. She said she heard Declan’s voice in her head.”

“Shit,” Charon ground out as he ran a hand through his hair. “We covered the entire estate three times. He’s no’ here.”

Arran frowned. “Wait. She told you about Declan?”

“Nay,” Ramsey admitted with a sigh. “She did tell me there was a man chasing after her, and that same man is the one she thought she heard.”

“Careful you doona slip up then,” Charon warned.

“I know. She said he only spoke her name, but it was enough to send her out into the night without a jacket.”

“In this weather?” Arran said, his face wide with shock.

Ramsey nodded. “She’s verra afraid of him.”

“So was Saffron,” Charon said.

Arran snorted. “She still is, but Camdyn is there to protect her.”

“Tara does no’ know about the two of you yet. I wouldna put it past her to leave if she saw both of you.”

Charon blew out a long breath and braced his hands on the table. “I’ll keep watch on the road. The fact that Tara allowed you to bring her here, and is staying, says you’re making progress. We doona want to muck that up.”

“Promise me you willna engage Declan if you see him,” Ramsey said.

“What is it you are no’ telling us, mate?”

Ramsey looked at Charon then at Arran. “It’s the X90 bullets I’m worried about.”

With a nod, Charon straightened and left the cottage after grabbing a bag of chips from the kitchen counter.

When the door shut behind him, Arran crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Ramsey. “Charon may believe that bullshit you just doled out, but I doona.”

“It’s the truth,” Ramsey replied with a shrug.

“My arse. Have we no’ been through enough that I deserve the truth?”

“You want the truth?” Ramsey asked as he stepped closer to Arran. He rarely let anger control him, but it wasn’t as easy to control at the moment. And he didn’t care. “I’ll give you the truth. The truth is that we doona have Sonya here with her healing magic, nor do we have Phelan and his blood that can heal anything. It’s just us. It’s why I didna want Fallon to bring anyone else here.”

“Then who would look after your ugly arse?”

Ramsey blinked, taken aback by Arran’s calm reply.

“I’m going to have a look around Tara’s room. Maybe we’ll find something useful,” Arran said.

Ramsey watched his friend leave. He had expected Arran to comment on his lack of control or at least his anger. Instead, Arran had said nothing.

Ever since coming to Dunnoth Tower, Ramsey hadn’t been himself. Whether it was because of Tara, or finally admitting to everyone he was half Druid as well as Warrior, and then using his magic, he didn’t know.

Nor did it matter. All he wanted was to return to being the man he was. The man who always kept himself in control. The man who didn’t make rash decisions. The man who thought things through thoroughly at least six times before making a decision.

The man who didn’t let anger rule him.

Ramsey tossed another log on the fire before he leaned his ear against the door to listen for sounds of Tara. When he heard nothing, he feared she might have run away again.

He had the door open before the thought finished in his mind. When he caught sight of Tara asleep beneath covers she had pulled nearly over her head, he quietly closed the door. It wasn’t until he was seated on the couch and caught sight of Tara’s boots that he realized what kind of fool he’d just made of himself.

“What is wrong with me?” he asked.

His gaze shifted to his arm that rested atop his leg to see the magic still there, still as thick as before.

Though he had been a man of twenty-one years when Deirdre unbound his god, he had been raised as a Druid of Torrachilty Forest.

Since their magic ran powerful and deep, it was only the males who could control it. Any female born with magic in Torrachilty was killed, because if she were allowed to live she would go insane from the force of the magic.

Ramsey came from a long line of males from Torrachilty. He had learned spells as soon as he could talk, and they were perfected before he learned any more.

His teachers had been brutal, but effective. The Druids of Torrachilty had been known as the Druid warriors. All Druids, even the
droughs,
feared them.

Like all Druids, Ramsey had been taught how the
droughs
had called up the ancient gods from Hell so they could take the host of a man and rid Britain of Rome. Ramsey had also learned how it had taken both
droughs
and
mies
alike to bind the gods inside the men.

Ramsey had learned how difficult it had been to correct something the
droughs
had done. There were consequences to such decisions, and those consequences had fallen to the
mies
. They were the ones who followed the bloodlines the gods would travel through generation after generation.

But Ramsey’s teachers hadn’t known everything. They hadn’t known about Deirdre or what she would do. They hadn’t realized the gods could be unbound once more.

And they hadn’t known he would be taken by Deirdre and that his god would be released.

Ramsey thought of his father and uncles, and he thought of his family. It wasn’t something he allowed himself to do very often, because he had no idea what had happened to them.

All he did know was that the infamous warrior Druids of Torrachilty Forest were no more.

He jumped up and reached for the laptop Saffron had sent with him. Sleep he would not get that night, but maybe he could learn something about his people.

Maybe he could find some clue as to what happened to them, or where they went.

He would never find his family, that he knew. But if there was another out there, Ramsey wanted to find him. He couldn’t believe he was the last of the Torrachilty Forest Druids.

It seemed too cruel, too brutal.

But Ramsey had a sinking feeling it was all true.

CHAPTER NINE

MacLeod Castle

Galen sat at the end of the long table in the great hall, his finger tapping slowly on the wood.

“You look worried.”

Galen started and turned his head to find Lucan standing beside him. Galen shrugged. “My thoughts are dark today.”

“You’re no’ the only one.” Lucan lowered himself onto the bench and propped his elbows on the table he had made so many centuries ago. “You’re thinking about Ramsey.”

Galen wasn’t surprised at the statement. His power might be to read other’s minds, but Lucan wasn’t a fool. “Aye. I doona like that he wanted to go alone.”

“He’s no’ alone now.”

Galen ran a hand down his face and sighed. “Ramsey was the one Deirdre caught after you and your brothers. He’s the eldest next to you three MacLeods.”

“Your point?”

“He’s cautious for a reason, Lucan. The fact that he wants to face Declan alone doesna sit well with me.”

“Nor did it with Fallon, which is why my brother sent Charon and Arran to Dunnoth Tower.”

“Will it be enough though?”

Lucan’s sea green eyes narrowed. “What are you no’ telling me, Galen?”

“Nothing. It’s just … I’ve a bad feeling. Ramsey might have admitted to being half Druid, but I’m no’ sure that was all of it.”

“How so?”

Galen shook his head. “I’m guessing here, but it was something Reaghan said last night before she fell asleep. She wondered what kind of magic Ramsey had.”

“Verra powerful if we judge by what we saw in the battle with Deirdre and the awakening of Laria.”

“Exactly.” Galen leaned forward so that his arms rested on the table. “I did some research on the Druids of Torrachilty Forest.”

When Galen didn’t immediately continue, Lucan flexed his hands in agitation. “Well?”

“They were considered the warrior Druids, Lucan. They were feared. Greatly. No one messed with them, no’ even the
droughs.
”

“Ballocks.” Lucan blew out a breath. “I doona know whether to be impressed or worried.”

“Me either. Reaghan’s question did make me curious. What with Deirdre’s death, Camdyn and Saffron’s wedding, the search for the missing scroll with the spell to bind our gods, and Declan going after Tara, none of us spoke with Ramsey about his magic.”

Lucan rubbed his forehead. “Nay. We should have. I think we were all so relieved to have Deirdre finally dead that we forgot. But I doona think Ramsey would go after Declan himself if he didna believe he could take him.”

“And that in itself scares me. I would have expected Hayden or even Camdyn to act in such a way, but no’ Ramsey. He’s the one who thinks everything through, the one who listens to everyone before he makes a comment.”

“I’ll go tell Fallon,” Lucan said as he stood. “See if you can find out anything else about the Torrachilty Druids.”

Galen watched Lucan stride away as he continued to worry about Ramsey. It didn’t sit well with any of them that Ramsey had wanted to go alone. They all wanted to fight Declan, but Ramsey and Saffron convinced them of the need to get Tara to the castle first.

Galen just hoped Ramsey’s decision didn’t cost him his life.

*   *   *

Tara stretched her arms over her head and yawned. When she opened her eyes to see the grayness of dawn coming through the shutters she knew she wasn’t in her room.