Anita Clenney - Heart Of A Highland Warrior

Tavis’s eyes stung with grief and regret, and his head throbbed with too much drink. The cat watched him from the bottom of the bed, but strangely enough, he wasn’t bothered by its presence. Instead, it was comforting, and he fell asleep dreaming of Anna. The dream had turned decidedly erotic when a noise pulled him from sleep. He opened his eyes and saw a creature above him, leaning over his bed. He threw back the covers and grabbed the dagger underneath his pillow as he leapt from the bed. With an ungodly screech, the creature ran for the door. Tavis followed, hurrying after the intruder, who was running for the door. He followed the howls and raced down the hallway, heedless of his nakedness. One door slammed as others opened, and faces peered out at him. Faelan and Bree, Shay, Cody, Ronan, Nina, Duncan, Sorcha—had she come from Duncan’s room?—and, oh God. Anna.

“There’s something in my room,” he said, and then realized everyone was staring at his groin, so he dropped his hands to cover those parts.

“Well now,” Sorcha said, smiling.

Duncan stepped in front of her to obscure her view.

“Who was it?” Faelan asked. “Did you get a look?”

“I couldn’t see well. It was leaning over my bed.”

“Search the castle,” Duncan said.

A loud screech sounded from one of the nearby rooms, followed by a crash.

Nina clasped a hand to her mouth. “That’s Matilda’s room.”

“Stay back,” Faelan said when Bree followed on his heels. Faelan opened the door, and they stared at the awful sight. The red-haired woman, the barmy one, not Sorcha, stood near the door, red hair sticking up and her eyes wide, black smeared underneath like a raccoon’s, and she held the cat in her arms. Held, as in restrained. It was obvious from the extended claws and puffed fur that the cat was trying to get away.

“Did someone come in here?” Faelan asked.

Matilda shook her head and held on to the cat.

“Wait,” Faelan said. “How did you get the cat? It was in Tavis’s room.”

Nina pushed through the others and faced Matilda. “Matilda, did you go to Tavis’s room to get the cat?”

“I needed it,” Matilda said. “I couldn’t sleep. I had dreams.”

“Matilda!” Nina gave her an exasperated look. “That cat can’t protect you against vampires. There aren’t any vampires in here anyway.”

“You don’t know that,” Matilda said. “No one knew the one was in the castle in Scotland either. They might have followed us here.”

“We have guards,” Shay said.

Matilda caught sight of Tavis, still standing naked, with only his hands covering his front. Her eyes widened. “Oh my.”

Tavis starting backing up toward his room and bumped into someone. He turned. It was Anna. Her beautiful eyes ran up and down his body. “Sorry.” He backed away toward his door and opened it, hurrying inside. He shut the door and grimaced. Darn near everyone in the castle had seen his cock now. The door opened behind him. Anna stepped inside. Said cock surged, and his heart pounded. Had seeing his body made her decide to treat him more kindly? He knew that she was attracted to him in the dungeon.

“You’re in my room,” Anna said.

“What?”

“My room. You’re in it.”

Tavis looked at the scattered covers on the bed and saw that in fact he was in the wrong room. “Damn. I thought this was my room.”

Anna flicked a glance over him again. “You can wait a moment until the crowd thins. I think they’re ripping Matilda a new one. That woman needs a babysitter.”

That would explain the raised voice in the hallway. Nina sounded furious. “I swear I thought she was a demon when I saw her over my bed. And the screeching. I guess that was the cat.”

“She’s obsessed with the cat.” Anna glanced down again and grabbed a small blanket from her bed. “Here, cover up.”

Tavis took the blanket and arranged it around him, and then looked awkwardly around the room.

“You can sit if you’d like.” Anna walked to her balcony and looked out.

“I think I’d rather go out in the hallway naked and be scorned.”

She turned back to him. “Why?”

“It’s a sight better than being ignored.”

“I’m not ignoring you.”

“Yes you are.”

“Well, maybe I am. I’m not good with situations like this.”

“Being cordial? Mere hospitality?”

She scowled. “You know what I mean. We…we…you know.”

“Aye, I do.” And he’d been thinking about it far too much. “I’m ashamed that I’ve added to your pain, after what happened to your mother and to you.”

“You know about that?”

“Ronan told me. He was concerned about you. Can’t we start over? Pretend we’ve just met and that I didn’t do what I did?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong. If anything, you saved me. I don’t blame you.”

“Then why the hell are you acting like I’m poxed?” He’d been driving himself barmy with guilt.

“I told you in the dungeon that it wasn’t your fault. If you hadn’t done it, the guard would have.” Anna shuddered. “And he probably would have killed us.”

“But I…I shouldn’t have…”

“You’re upset because you had an orgasm?”

Her words shocked him. Did all women speak so forward? “I have no excuse except that I hadn’t been with a woman in a long time.”

There were questions in her eyes, but she didn’t ask them. “It was just your body’s reaction. Bree said Faelan was insatiable when he came out of the time vault. I guess even though time stops, some emotions and functions build. It doesn’t make sense, but then again, we’re talking about a box that stops time. That shouldn’t exist either by normal standards.”

“I’d better get back to my room and try to rest. I have to meet with the Council tomorrow.” He looked down at his blanket.

“Keep it. I’ll get it later.”

* * *

Tavis’s stomach knotted as he and Faelan walked to the library. He couldn’t put off meeting with the Council any longer, but he didn’t know if he could trust them. Not after what he and Ian had read in Nigel’s letter. One hundred and fifty years had passed since Tavis and Ian had discovered that letter—far longer since Nigel’s accusations—and Tavis knew no more now than he had then. Didn’t know what conclusion Ian had drawn. If the threat had passed. If others were involved. Quinn hadn’t told anyone what his father had done, so at least two had been involved. Quinn’s silence on the matter had been almost as atrocious as his father’s deeds. Selling warriors’ names to demons so they could be destroyed before they grew up. Like Liam. Nothing could be more despicable.

Anna and several of the warriors were already seated in the library. It was supposed to be an informal gathering, but the Council was seated apart, as if they were better than the others. And they had on their ceremonial robes. He’d always felt they were a little holier-than-thou, and this generation of elders looked just the same. Put them on a battlefield facing down a bunch of demons and then see what they thought about their rules.

Tavis took a seat near Faelan, one with a view of Anna, who was sitting next to Lachlan and Ronan, of course, and the Council called the meeting to order. Informal, his bloody arse. He told them everything he knew from the time they had followed Faelan to America to help him battle Druan until he and Anna had broken free from the fortress.

“You support this tale?” the Chief Elder asked Anna.

“Yes. I don’t know about the part before I arrived at Tristol’s fortress, but that’s what happened after I got there.” They asked her a few more questions, which she answered.

“So it is your opinion that Tristol owned the fortress and was operating some sort of breeding program?”

Anna looked at her own hands. “Yes.”

“And Tristol was under the assumption that he had captured Faelan?”

“Yes,” Anna said.

“Was anyone else part of this program?” the Elder asked.

“There was another prisoner there. They called him a hybrid.” Anna stopped, took a breath, and shot Tavis a glance. “I don’t know if he was involved.”

“And what about yourself, Anna? Was anything said about involving you in the program?”

Anna’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

“We understand that you spent some time with the hybrid.”

Anna’s mouth opened. She glanced at Tavis, her eyes glittering with anger. “I saw him.”

“Can you tell us about that?”

“I just glimpsed him,” Anna said, her back stiff. “He had escaped and had gotten into the cell where they were keeping me.”

She wasn’t going to mention the guard taking her to the hybrid. And how the hell had they found out? Had Faelan told? Tavis hadn’t told him not to mention it. Dammit.

They asked her more about the hybrid. When she had answered their questions, the Chief Elder stared at her, his heavy-lidded gaze quite pointed. “Do you have anything else to add?”

Anna kept her chin up, but she wasn’t breathing. Tavis could see that her shoulders weren’t moving. “No. Nothing.”

Tavis wanted to help her, to take the attention off her, and in his enthusiasm he blurted out something he’d spent over a century trying to hide. “I hope to return the Book of Battles to the Keeper within a day or so.” Bloody hell. Why did he say that? He didn’t know if the Council could be trusted yet.

Everyone looked at him much as they had when he’d chased Matilda out into the hallway naked. He glanced down to make sure some of his strange clothing hadn’t come undone, but everything looked in order, similar to the other men’s.

“What do you mean?” the Chief Elder asked.

It was too late to come up with a lie now. “I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t remember where I hid it.”

“You’re the one who hid it?” Faelan asked. “We wondered how it had gotten in the chapel.”

“The chapel?” Had he hidden it in the chapel? “My memory is still cloudy on some things.”

“Well, it was a long time ago,” Bree said.

“You’re doing well if you can remember where you put something over a century ago,” Brodie said. “Sometimes I forget where I put things a few hours before.”

“It was just a fortnight ago, or thereabouts,” Tavis said.

Everyone there looked confused, the Council, the warriors, even Anna. They all looked at him as if he were a simpleton. Faelan frowned. “What are you talking about, Tavis? Bree’s grandmother had the Book of Battles when Bree was a lass.”

Tavis shook his head. “That’s impossible.”

“I don’t understand,” Faelan said.

“I had the Book of Battles with me in the time vault.”

AN UPROAR ENSUED.

“Then what book do we have?” Ronan asked.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Cody said.

The Chief Elder banged on the table to quiet everyone. “Are you telling us that the book we have isn’t real?”

“If you’ve had it that long, it can’t be,” Tavis said. “I took the book with me in the time vault. I promised Quinn that I would protect it. Quinn Douglass, the Keeper.”

“That’s Sorcha’s great-great-grandfather,” Duncan said, looking at the outspoken woman, who looked surprised.

“He said it had been stolen many decades before,” Tavis said.

“Stolen by whom?” the Elder asked. “Did he know?”

“He didn’t say, except that he’d made a terrible mistake and thought he could fix it.”

“You think Quinn Douglass was involved in this theft?” the Elder asked. “If the book had been stolen decades before, he would have been very young.”

“We think he was protecting his father, the Keeper during that time. As he lay dying, Quinn admitted that he came to America with us to steal the book back. We thought he came with us to look into Nigel Ellwood’s disappearance. He was a Watcher who disappeared.”

“Yes,” the Elder said. “We all know of Nigel’s mysterious disappearance.”

“Nigel believed there was a traitor in the clan. After one of our Watchers had had ominous dreams about Nigel, Quinn was appointed by the Council to find out what happened to Nigel and look into his accusations. After Quinn died, we found a letter on him from Nigel to the Council. He believed someone in the clan was selling warriors’ names. Ian and I believed our brother’s name was sold to a demon.”

There was a gasp from the women, and a few of the men, and Faelan’s knuckles whitened as he fisted his hands.

“Nigel suspected that the Keeper was involved. Nigel had been given permission by the Council to go to America and build a place there, a second seat for the clan, so they weren’t all in one place. Nigel believed the book was in danger. He wasn’t sure how deep the treachery went.” Tavis cleared his throat. “Even thought that the Council might have been involved.” The members of the Council looked affronted, as if it was blasphemy to utter such a thing, but Tavis continued. In for a penny. In for a pound. “So he took it with him, believing it was better for the book to be believed missing. Nigel saw ancient demons near his castle, this castle, and he wrote to Scotland asking the Council to send warriors to transport the book back to Scotland.” Tavis glanced at Sorcha, who looked pale. “We believe neither Quinn nor his father told the Council.”