The Capture of Highland Desire (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (14 page)

Oh how she wished he were the kind of man a woman could
just marry and settle down with, because she wasn’t sure she could settle for anything less than all.  She wanted him to be entirely hers.  She wanted to
own
him, body and soul, and that was just never going to happen.  God, she had it bad.

Footsteps outside the door had her abruptly sitting up and holding her breat
h, jarred suddenly back into a most unwelcome reality.  She heard the slide of a bolt and the
click
of the latch lifting, and the door opened.  Even in the dim light, she knew immediately who it was.

“You!” she hissed, instinctively raising her knees and pushing herself back farther against the wall.  It was
Murdo McDermont, or whoever he really was.  The man who had kissed her in the garden… and tried to put a spell on her.  She should have known he would be back. 
And
that he was as dangerous as her instincts had been trying to tell her.  She made a mental note not to write off her inner voice ever again.

“Aye, lass.  So glad
I am ye remember me.  I was afraid ye wouldna.”  He spoke as if this were just another casual encounter, a chance meeting of two acquaintances. He shut the door, and the two of them were alone in the small room together.  This was
not
the man she had come all this way to be alone with, damn it!

Suddenly more frustrated and annoyed than afraid, she dropped her forehead into her hands and shook her head before looking up at him again.  “What do you want with me?
” She asked, not really expecting him to answer.

The man actually grinned at her
, and he was as handsome as ever.  Probably made it all the easier for him to do bad things to people, she thought.   

He was coming closer, one slow, deliberate step at a time. 
“It’s quite simple, lass.  Ye’re the last piece of the puzzle; the key to it all.  And I canna believe how verra easy it was to take ye.  I was certain he would have been guarding ye more carefully by now, keeping ye with him at all costs.  I certainly would have, if ye were mine.”  He gave a little laugh.  “Och, but ye
are
mine now, and I shall guard ye verra closely indeed.”

Keeping m
e with him at all costs?
  He must mean Uncle Leon.  And he had tried to keep her safe, but she had felt like a prisoner at Lochain.  She had disregarded whatever danger he had warned her about and run away from the turn her life had taken.  Then she had run back again.  Just look where that had gotten her. 

Murdo
came to the side of the cot, reaching down to place his hand flat on her lower stomach.  She froze for an instant, uncertain what he was about to do. She felt a tingling heat where he touched her, and she had just begun to struggle when he took the hand away and stepped back with a satisfied smile.  “Yer womb is still empty.  Good.  I feared Mac Coinnach might have gotten his seed into ye, because I didna want to kill ye.  Now all I have to do is put
my
babe in yer belly first, and the prophecy will be null.  An easy task, aye lass?  And a most pleasant one at that.”

Allia stared at him in horror
for a long moment. 
What?
  Then her brain slowly started working again.  Rape she might have expected, even death, but… Put a babe in her first?  Before… Uncle Leon? Ew… no, he must have been talking about Eian Mac Coinnach then…but wait, what prophecy?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, she told him
with a tilt of her chin that was far more defiant than she felt. 

“That doesna matter, lass
.  Ye’ll ken soon enough.”  He turned back to the door.  “I have to go out now for a bit, but ye will be here waiting for me when I return, and we’ll get down to the business at hand.”

He left
with a self-satisfied smile, and she heard the heavy bolt slide home on the other side of the door.  Trapped.  She slumped back against the cold stone wall.  Prophecy?  Could she be part of a prophecy that involved a child?  And Eian too?  Who the hell
was
Murdo McDermont?  All she knew was that she needed to get the hell out of here before Murdo came back, and that Uncle Leon and perhaps Eian too owed her one damned good explanation.

She w
ent to the window to try the bars again.  Then she tried to loosen the hinges of the door.  No luck.  With nothing else to do, she began checking the walls for loose stones.

***

“Where is she?  Where are they holding her?”  Eian’s heart sank, even as his fist tightened around the man’s throat as he held him suspended inches above the ground.  The stone fortress not far in the distance was a known Dark stronghold.  Or at least it had been?  He was still confused as to where and
when
exactly he was. He was starting to think he had travelled through space, but not through time, which would mean Allia had come back on her own.  A small part dared hope she had come back for
him
. She was close, and he was going to find her, and for now that was all that mattered.

The guard
that was dangling from Eian’s fist managed to draw a knife from his belt, despite the lack of air to his lungs, and Eian was forced to pull his own dagger and slit the man’s throat.  Dropping the dead guard to the ground with disgust, he went to find a hiding place for the remainder of the daylight hours. When nightfall came, come hell or high water, he was going to get his woman back.  And then all he had to do was convince her that she wanted him above all others, which could very well be the most difficult part of all this.  That was all right, because he wasn’t giving up.

The waiting was horrible, the worst hours he had ever end
ured, by far.  The instinct to protect his mate had come on full force the moment he realized she was in danger, and it was taking all of his willpower not to charge into that fortress and kill anyone who tried to stop him from reaching her.  But if he failed, if he died, her fate would be sealed.  And so he forced himself to wait.

  He could not imagine why she had been taken by a follower of dark magic, except that perhaps Leon had made the wrong kind of enemies somewhere along the line. 
He hoped she was only being held for ransom, because any alternatives were too horrible to think of.  No matter, he was going to get her back, and then she would belong to him alone.  He would keep her safe for the rest of his life.  He would wed her, and they would have children together, just like in his dream.  The thought just felt so… right.  He regretted now that he had fought so hard against what his body and his heart had been telling him. 
Fool…

Finally,
finally
, the sun sank below the horizon, giving him enough cover to cloak his form in a deeper darkness and slip unseen into the fortress.  Letting his instincts lead him, he found his lass in no time.  He leaned down and peered into a cellar window.  He couldn’t see her, but he knew she must be in the room below.

“Allia?” he called softly, holding his breath
in terror until an answer came.

“Eian!
” came the exuberant reply.  He heard the shifting of fabric as she stood and ran to the window.  “Oh thank god it’s you.”

He
grinned at her through the bars, wishing for all the world that he could sweep her up in his arms.  Her beautiful face was limned in moonlight, and she had smudges of dirt on her cheeks.  “Those are words I thought I’d never hear from ye, lass.  Are ye hurt?”

“No, but there’s a man coming back for me soon…
he said…”

“Dinna worry.  I’ll have ye out of there in just a moment.” 
He spoke lightly, but even now, even here where they were both in grave danger, he wanted her.  Not just for one night, or a week, and not just her body.  He wanted all of her, body, heart and soul.  And forever.  He just had to convince her that he was good enough for her.  Hell, he had to
be
good enough for her.

“Eian Mac Coinnach
”, she whispered urgently, “if you get me out of this mess with both of us alive I’ll… I’ll kiss you.”

A slow grin spread across
his face and damned if his knees didn’t feel a little weak.  Strange… he’d kissed women from time to time, and taken each kiss for granted.  Not one could he remember in particular.  Not one stood out as special, or as better than all the others.  And now, the promise of just one kiss from this woman felt like the greatest gift he had ever been given.  And he knew for certain, that should he receive a kiss from Allia, it would be the first and the last that he remembered every detail of.

“Aye, I will hold ye to that, lass.  A kiss for yer freedom.  A fair trade, I think.”

Voices rose and fell from somewhere out in the darkness as a group of men walked by, and Allia panicked.  Oh hell!  What was she thinking?  She couldn’t let Eian risk his life to save her!  If he was killed… if she had to see his body lying still without the spark of life that lit him from within… she would never be the same.  She had the sinking feeling that her own spark would die as well.  She reached up and grabbed the metal bars on the window, desperate that he listen to her.

“Eian, you have to leave.  They’ll see you.  Go to my uncle for help…”

              “No lass”, he said firmly. “I’ll no’ be leaving ye.  And no one will see me, I’ve cloaked myself well.”  A trick he had perfected upon years of hiding from angry fathers and the occasional irate husband.  Not that he bedded married women on purpose, but they weren’t always forthcoming about being wed, either.

             
“Oh.”  Her head turned at the sound of footsteps in the hall.  Someone had come into the hall.  She held her breath for a moment to listen.  “Someone’s coming.”  She moved away from the window, turning to glance back at where Eian had been just a moment before.  He was gone, thank god. 
Be safe, Eian.

             
She knew who it would be before the door even opened.  Murdo shut it firmly behind him and came towards her with a look of anticipation on his face that made her want to vomit.  He was about to rape her, and he was going to enjoy every moment of it.  Apparently, he wasn’t going to be wasting time with formalities, either.  As he reached for the buckle of the belt around the short pants he wore, Allia began to mentally prepare herself, trying to recall everything she had ever learned about self-defense, even though it wouldn’t do much good against someone who could wield magic as well as she suspected Murdo could.  At least she knew he wasn’t planning to kill her, not if she was supposed to be bearing a child. 

He came closer,
and she backed away.  He followed, lunging to catch her by the arms and push her down onto the cot.  She landed hard, but even though her heart was racing and shivers of fear ran down her spine, Allia felt remarkably calm.   Maybe her most primitive survival instincts had kicked in or something, because the whole world seemed to slow down around her as she watched Murdo reach for the hem of her skirt.

“Don’t do this”, she said, stalling for time
, trying to think, looking for an opening...

Murdo
slowly shook his head as his hand slid up the length of her leg.  “Too late now, lass.  Ye came back.  That was a mistake.”  A dark smile twisted his lips.  “The pull was too strong, was it no’?  Ye couldna stay away.  Fate can be like that sometimes, or so I’ve heard.”

Allia tried desperately to keep him talking… anything to buy her
self a few more moments.  “Who are you?  At least tell me that much… who do you work for?”

He laughed, and the sound grated on her every nerve. 
Whatever she had just said, he seemed to find it genuinely amusing.  He flipped her skirts up, exposing her bare legs to the tops of her thighs.  He loomed over her, looking down at her with an ironic smile.  “I work for yer own father, lass.  And pleasant work it is, I should say.  At least tonight.”

“My father?” she scoffed. 
How dare he tell such lies?  “My father is dead.  He died before I was even born.” 
Didn’t he?

“
Och, poor lass, what stories have they told ye, then?  Yer father is verra much alive and well, and he’s ready to welcome ye back into the fold.  Ye and our son, of course.  Mored chose me to be the father of his grandson, because he kens my line is a powerful one.  Our son will be the strongest Dark sorcerer ever to walk this earth.”

Allia shrank back,
confused, her mind refusing to accept what he had just told her, even though for all she knew it
could
be true.  Her family had sent her away… to protect her from her own father?  And then despite their best efforts, she had stupidly walked right into his trap.  But damn, they could have told her!  Of course, this man could be lying to her, just to be cruel.  Yes, that was much more likely.  She had absolutely no reason to believe a man who had just had her kidnapped and was now intent on raping her.  He fumbled with the laces of his fly, and she could see the erection straining there, ready to violate her in the worst possible way.

She was quickly running out of time, and options. 
“No”, she said weakly, glancing around for a weapon,
any
weapon.  But he paid no attention.