Midnight's Warrior Read online

  “Does Ramsey’s name appear in any of the scanned pages?” Larena asked.

  Reaghan shook her head of curly auburn hair. “Unfortunately no. What’s mentioned over and over is the word mac.”

  “Which means son,” Isla said.

  Galen nodded slowly. “There’s also mention in there that they no’ only knew their line had a god through it, but they knew exactly who the god would choose.”

  “Ramsey,” Marcail said.

  Lucan leaned forward and said, “You said these Druids were warrior Druids. That they were greatly feared. How did they lose against Deirdre?”

  Galen shrugged and spread his hands wide. “I’ve no idea. All it says is that they went out to fight. When those warriors didna return, more went. It continued that way until the group went from several hundred to a few dozen. When all that remained was a handful of the Druids, females, and children, Deirdre attacked and wiped them out.”

  “Does Ramsey know all of this?” Cara asked.

  Saffron shook her head, her gaze moving from Camdyn’s to Cara’s. “He doesn’t. When he woke Laria he said he wanted to know what happened to his people.”

  “That’s right. He did,” Camdyn said.

  Sonya tucked a strand of her curly red hair behind her ear. “I think we should continue to find out more. Ramsey deserves to know about his people and his family.”

  “I agree,” Gwynn said softly, her Texas accent thick. “But like Saffron, I’ve had a personal run-in with Declan. Can Ramsey really take him on by himself?”

  “I wouldna chance it,” Fallon answered. “Charon and Arran are there, and they’ll call me if there’s trouble. I can have all of them back here in a blink.”

  Dani cleared her throat to gain everyone’s attention. “That’s all well and good, Fallon, and we all love how you can teleport, but it takes time to make that call. If they’re fighting Declan they won’t have that time.”

  Lucan turned his head to look at Fallon who sat next to him. “When is the last time you spoke with Ramsey or the others?”

  “Arran called early this morn,” Fallon responded. “It appears Declan had somehow spoken in Tara’s mind, so Ramsey had Arran bring on the snow.”

  “I knew it was Arran who did the snow,” Ian said with a chuckle.

  Hayden rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “With the amount of snow coming down, no one is moving around up there. It was a wise choice, but then Ramsey always makes good decisions.”

  “That he does,” Logan agreed.

  Broc laid his hands flat on the table and asked, “So what now? We continue to wait?”

  “I’ve got a good lead on the hidden scroll we’re searching for,” Larena said. “While Galen and Reaghan continue their research, we’re still looking for this scroll.”

  Hayden rose and leaned his hands on the table. “As much as I love spending time with Isla, I doona feel right leaving Ramsey, Charon, and Arran to face whatever is coming at them alone. I’m going after them.”

  “As am I,” Logan said, after kissing Gwynn on the cheek.

  Ian gave a nod. “Include me in that.”

  “And me,” Quinn said.

  Fallon rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger before he looked at each of the men and nodded. “I doona want Charon or Arran to know you’re there, but most especially Ramsey. You four will only be there as backup.”

  “Understood,” Hayden said.

  “But I think it’s an excellent idea,” Fallon said with a smile. “I’d like to be with you.”

  “But you’re needed here, my love,” Larena said as she smiled at him. “Who else would jump us from one location to another?”

  After a quick kiss to Larena, Fallon yelled out, “Be ready in half an hour!”

  * * *

  Tara told Liz she was ill in order to be alone, and it hadn’t been a lie. She was sick. Not just from all she had discovered about Ramsey, but because she couldn’t leave. She was essentially trapped.

  A light tap on her window had her jerking her head up from her pillow to find Charon standing outside looking at her. She knew what Warriors were and how they had come into being. She knew they were immortal and had powers individual to each god.

  She also knew—and had seen—that their skin changed the preferred color of whatever god was inside them. Along with fangs and claws.

  Tara didn’t know what Charon was up to. If he wanted to, he could force his way in. For all she knew his power was the ability to walk through walls.

  But she wasn’t in the mood to listen to anything anyone had to say, especially a Warrior. She laid her head back down and shut her eyes.

  A second later there was a louder, more forceful tap.

  Tara slammed her hands on the bed and growled as she jumped from the bed to stand in front of the window. “What?” she demanded.

  “I would talk with you. Let me in.”

  She shook her head at Charon.

  “Fine,” he said calmly. “We can talk through the window.”

  “Oh, for goodness sake,” Tara muttered as she threw open the window. She leaned her hands on the sill. “I really don’t care to hear anything you have to say.”

  “Actually, I think you do.”

  He didn’t try to sweet-talk his way in, or lie. His simple statement did what it was supposed to do—draw her curiosity.

  “Did Ramsey send you?”

  Charon shook his head, his dark eyes meeting hers. “Nay.”

  With her ability to read people, Tara saw another soul who didn’t trust easily, someone who might not have run as she had, but who had closed himself off to everyone.

  She stepped away from the window, and he promptly climbed through. Once inside he closed the window and leaned against it. He didn’t crowd her, almost as if he were going out of his way to make her feel safe.

  “I know you doona trust us,” he said. “And you have every right no’ to. All that Ramsey told you was the truth. For centuries the Warriors at MacLeod Castle have been fighting Deirdre, and more recently Declan.”

  “Why?”

  He gave her a flat look. “Why do you think, lass? Because Deirdre and Declan are evil, and they must be stopped. The Warriors fight because it is what they believe in, and it won us the day with Deirdre’s death once and for all.”

  “You keep saying ‘they.’ Are you not one of the MacLeod Warriors?”

  She watched how all expression left his face. His eyes became shuttered, and his entire body stiffened slightly. She had hit a nerve without meaning to.

  “Nay, I’m no’.”

  “The fact that you are here with two of those Warriors makes me think that you are one of them.”

  Charon shook his head, his long dark hair damp from the snow moving with him. “You’d be wrong. After getting free of Deirdre, I spent the last four hundred years in my village, protecting my people. I didna help the MacLeods, and if it wasna for an overwhelming urge to go to the Orkney Isles, I doubt I’d have taken a stand against Deirdre this last time.”

  His confession stunned her, almost as much as the knowledge that he was telling her the truth even though it didn’t exactly put him in a good light.

  “Why?” she asked again.

  “Things happened in Cairn Toul, Tara. Things I didna have control over because of my god. I must live with what I did. I didna believe I had the right to find a home or a place with the others at MacLeod Castle. I still doona, but Fallon asked me to help. How could I refuse when I knew what we were up against? Most of the Warriors there are married. I couldna walk away and let one of them take my place.”

  Tara lowered herself onto her bed and rubbed her hands on her thighs. “Why are you telling me all of this?”

  “Because you need to know who we are.”

  Tara slowly let out a breath and ignored the pounding headache that was growing worse by the moment.

  “Ramsey didna lie when he said he was sent here by our Seer, Saffron. She saw Declan find your mother and quest
ion her about you. She also saw Declan coming for you and Ramsey being there to help. You’ve been raised as a Druid, you know the importance of Seers.”

  “How do you know I was raised as a Druid?”

  He shrugged nonchalantly. “Ramsey and a few others paid your family a visit.”

  Tara’s eyes grew wide as she covered her mouth with her hand. She couldn’t believe all she was hearing. It had been ten years since she had seen or spoken with her mother, yet Declan and Ramsey had both seen her.

  “Did my family know Ramsey was a Warrior?”

  Charon gave a single shake of his head. “We try to reserve that information for a select few.”

  She looked down at the carpet, her mind even more confused than before.

  “You can keep running,” Charon said into the silence. “Eventually Declan will find you, but you’re aware of that. Or, you can take a chance and put a small measure of your trust in us. Ramsey will die before he allows Declan to harm a single hair on your head.”

  “He doesn’t even know me,” she said as she raised her eyes to Charon. “Why would Ramsey risk so much?”

  “Because whether you like it or no’, your destiny is tied with Ramsey’s.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Ramsey stared up at the sky. He was doing as Arran had asked and was going to combine his magic with Arran’s power. It was a tricky thing they were about to do, and Ramsey would have preferred not to do it.

  But he needed more time with Tara, and the snow would keep Declan away.

  “Ready?” Arran asked as he walked up.

  Ramsey rubbed the few flakes of snow from his eyelashes. “Nay.”

  “We’re as far from the castle as you’d let us get, my friend, and still be close enough to Tara. Either we get farther away to keep everyone safe in case you go nuclear, or we stay close to Tara.”

  “Nuclear?” Ramsey repeated as he turned his head to Arran.

  Arran smiled and shrugged. “I love the new words I’ve learned since leaping forward to this time. People in this time have such colorful ways of expressing themselves.”

  “You’ve been watching too many movies with Dani and Ian.”

  Arran’s smile broadened. “They’re fascinating. So. Do you think you can contain that mix of magic and power of yours?”

  “It’s no’ like I have much of a choice, do I?”

  Ramsey rubbed his hands together and focused on his magic. It had been so long since he had tried to call forth just his magic.

  He’d spent his immortal years controlling his god and tamping down his magic and power in order to keep those around him alive. He’d known then he should have been learning his limits on just what he could do with such a mix inside him.

  Now, he’d have days, if not hours, to learn what he could. He should have known better than to make such an idiotic mistake. He should have known there was a reason he had survived Deirdre’s torture and her mountain.

  “Ramsey?”

  He blinked and nodded to Arran. “I’m here.”

  “Nay, you’re no’, no’ that I doona blame you for worrying. Tell me, how great was your magic before you became a Warrior?”

  A memory flashed in Ramsey’s mind of standing in the forest surrounded by his family as he passed yet another test with his magic. He’d been lauded as one of the greatest Torrachilty Druids ever, his magic had been so vast.

  But that was in the past.

  “I was as good as any of my people.”

  Arran’s lips flattened as he grunted. “That wasna an answer, but I suspect that’s all I’m going to get.”

  “Come, Arran, before I change my mind.”

  In the next heartbeat Arran released the god within him. His skin turned white and long white claws extended from his fingers. His eyes, now milky white from corner to corner, turned to Ramsey, and he smiled, showing his fangs.

  “I’m ready. Are you?” Arran asked.

  Ramsey wanted to just call forth his magic, but every time his magic answered him, so did his god. There was no way around it. In order to use one, he had to use the other.

  With barely a thought Ramsey called forth his god, Ethexia. He looked down to find his skin had turned the bronze of his god and his claws a shade darker. Ramsey ran his tongue over his fangs as his entire body vibrated with the force of the magic he had called up.

  Normally when he released his god he ignored his magic as best he could, but this time was wholly different. Ramsey could practically feel the magic stretch from fingertip to fingertip and from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.

  It filled him, merging with the power of his god until Ramsey could no longer tell where one ended and the other began. It was a heady feeling, but one that also filled him with trepidation.

  “Bloody hell,” Arran muttered beside him. “I can feel your magic as I would a Druid’s.”

  Ramsey opened his eyes and found himself smiling. When he looked at Arran it was to see how the Warrior blended in with the snow while he stood out like a beacon.

  “How come I never felt your magic before?” Arran asked.

  “Because I tamped it down. No’ to mention there were always other Druids around us, so you assumed what magic you did feel came from them.”

  “No one ever knew?”

  Ramsey remembered the time Larena had questioned him. “Larena suspected.”

  Arran shook his head in bewilderment. His gaze shifted away from Ramsey and focused on the sky. Flurries of snow began to swirl around him. The clouds bulged as if wanting to spill the snow, but they were held back.

  Magic, potent and fierce, flowed down Ramsey’s arm to his hand as he placed it onto Arran’s shoulder.

  “Fuck,” Arran muttered as the magic and power shifted from Ramsey into him.

  The snowflakes increased as they fell from the sky, but it wasn’t enough. Ramsey knew he was going to have to use more of his magic, and if he did, it would put him past the safe limit he knew he could use.

  “I can handle it,” Arran said, as if reading his mind.

  Ramsey was about to refuse, then he thought of Tara, of what he knew Declan to be capable of, and his decision was made. He released more magic.

  His god bellowed with approval, and euphoria filled Ramsey at the feel of his magic rushing through him. It had been so long. He’d forgotten how good it felt, how wonderful it was to have such a potent ability.

  Ramsey closed his eyes as memories assaulted him from his childhood. Memories of his family, of training to be one of the powerful Torrachilty Druids. Of facing his people, knowing his magic exceeded those around him, and that was saying something.

  Suddenly, Ramsey was hit from behind and taken down into the densely packed snow.

  “I said enough, dammit,” Charon bellowed in his ear.

  Ramsey pushed up on his hands and tried to dislodge Charon from his back. “Get off me.”

  “No’ until I know you’ve reined in that magic of yours.”

  “Aye.”

  “I can still feel it, Ramsey.”

  Ramsey paused, and realized it had gotten away from him as he’d feared. He tried to pull his magic back in, and to his fury it took three different tries before he was able to.

  Charon rose off him, and Ramsey jumped to his feet. He noticed two things at once. One, the snow was once more coming down thick and fast, and two, Arran was lying in the snow unmoving.

  “Shite,” Ramsey said as he rushed to his friend. He shook his shoulders. “Arran?”

  “He’s no’ moved since I took you down,” Charon said.

  Ramsey ran a hand down his face, wishing he hadn’t sent more magic into Arran. “This is my fault.”

  “Aye, it is,” Arran said, his eyes still closed as his white skin and claws faded. “I feel like horse shite.”

  Charon leaned his hands on his knees and he bent over Arran. “Are you hurt?”

  “Nothing that can no’ be mended.” Arran’s eyes opened to stare at Ramsey. “You nea
rly went nuclear. You couldna hear.”

  Ramsey gave a quick shake of his head. “Now you both know why I doona like to use my magic.”

  Charon helped Arran to his feet. “You did what had to be done, and as Arran said, he’s immortal. He’ll be fine.”

  Ramsey climbed to his feet and followed them back to his cottage. They were nearly there when something stirred in the air. He halted in his tracks and softly called to the other two.

  Charon and Arran turned, silent questions on their faces.

  “Did you feel that?” Ramsey asked.

  “You mean something besides the snow?” Charon asked, sarcasm dripping from his words.

  Arran shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ramsey, I didna feel anything.”

  When Ramsey didn’t respond, Charon gazed over Ramsey’s shoulder and looked around.

  “Where did you feel it?” Charon asked.

  “Behind me.”

  Arran moved the shoulder where Ramsey had held him and frowned. “Was it Declan?”

  “Nay,” Ramsey said with a slight shake of his head. “It was no’ Druids I felt. It was different. I can no’ put my finger on it.”

  Charon’s hands fisted by his sides. “Do you still feel it?”

  “Slightly. I doona think it’s dangerous.”

  “But you felt it,” Arran stated.

  Charon loosened his hands and snorted. “It looks as though your mix of magic and power is going to be useful. As soon as we all figure out what it is you just felt.”

  * * *

  “I swear he knows we’re here,” Hayden whispered to his friends.

  Fallon shook his head. “There’s no way. Warriors sense Druids, no’ other Warriors.”

  “Aye, but Ramsey isna just a Warrior,” Logan pointed out.

  Ian sighed. “At any rate, we’re going to have to keep hidden. I doona want them to know we’re here.”

  “Good idea,” Quinn said. He turned to Fallon and said, “I thought Charon and Arran were supposed to keep their distance from Ramsey?”

  “Apparently Ramsey had other ideas,” Fallon said. “See if you can determine what they were doing out here so far from the castle.”