“Don’t leave,” Lucan said.
Cara saw Fallon’s gaze narrow out of the corner of her eye, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t. Lucan’s gaze wouldn’t release her, and she was caught in his hypnotic eyes as they pulled her toward him.
Lucan set the platter on the table. “No one should be out in such weather.”
As if on cue, lightning lit the sky before hitting its mark with an earth-shattering crash. The boom resounded around them a heartbeat before thunder rumbled threateningly.
“You’re not a prisoner here. I give you my word,” Lucan continued. “You’ll be safer here until the storm blows over.”
Cara glanced at Fallon to see him watching her, his face unreadable. What should she do? From the conversation she had heard coming down the stairs, they wanted her gone.
Every fiber of her being told her if she stayed, her life would be forever changed. But how could she leave in this weather? In the dark?
She could hear the wind, knew the gusts could push her off the cliff if she wasn’t careful. She had managed to survive death once that day. Did she want to test it again so soon?
With a sigh, Cara dropped her hand from the latch and walked to the table. “Until the storm stops then.” She was ravenous. She’d had little in the way of food for her noon meal because she had wanted to get to the mushrooms.
She sat and reached for the platter. The meat was cold but delicious. She quickly ate it and the few bites of cheese and bread. When she looked up, Lucan had taken the seat across from her and next to Fallon.
It was disconcerting to have both men staring. Now that she was closer to them she could see that while Fallon’s hair was dark, it wasn’t black like Lucan’s. Fallon’s eyes were a dark green while Lucan’s were a vibrant green, making his black lashes more prominent.
She looked at Lucan’s lips again. They were so . . . sensual. She blinked, surprised at her thoughts. Her stomach fluttered and the vial warmed against her skin. She jerked her gaze to his eyes to find him watching her, his stare intense, hot. Her blood heated. No longer did she have the chill that she hadn’t been able to shake since waking in the strange chamber.
“I never thanked you,” she blurted out, needing to fill the silence.
Lucan shrugged away her words.
Fallon drummed his fingers on the table. “Might we have the name of the woman we saved?”
Cara closed her eyes in embarrassment. When she opened her gaze, she focused on Fallon. He didn’t make her feel . . . off balance as his brother did. “My apologies. I’m Cara.”
“Cara.”
She shivered at the sound of her name on Lucan’s lips. Despite her internal warning, she found herself staring into his eyes. “Aye.”
“Do you live in the village, Cara?” Fallon asked.
Without taking her gaze from Lucan, she answered, “Aye.”
“Are you married?” Lucan asked.
Cara clasped her hands in her lap beneath the table. “Nay.”
Fallon pushed the bottle between one hand and the other. “Parents?”
She frowned, unsure why they needed to know about her parents. She understood that as the eldest, Fallon wanted to discover all he could about her, but why? She didn’t talk about her parents. To anyone, not even the nuns. Why then? It wasn’t like she could harm the brothers.
Then she realized that she could. No one was supposed to be in the castle.
“Does it matter?” she asked.
Fallon snorted. “It does to me.”
“Enough,” Lucan said in a voice as hard as steel.
Cara licked her lips, unused to having someone take up for her. She lifted her gaze from the table and looked around the hall. There had been work done to it that wasn’t visible from the outside. It wasn’t as extravagant as she assumed the hall was in its prime, but it was enough to shelter them from the elements.
“You three live here?” she asked.
Fallon threw Lucan a glance. “When the need arises.”
Another crash sounded behind her. She jumped and glanced at the door behind her. Something was certainly going on in MacLeod Castle, but what? Her curiosity had always gotten her into trouble. And though a part of her told her to run and never look back, another part—a dangerous part—told her to find out.
Lightning lit the hall, and when it faded, Cara found black eyes staring at her from behind Lucan and Fallon. She opened her mouth to scream, for she had never seen eyes completely black, without a trace of color.
“Quinn,” Lucan barked as he jumped to his feet.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” Cara demanded as fear laced through her. She had been mistaken to think she was safe. She stood and backed away from the table. “You were the one who watched me from the window.”
All three men jerked their gazes to her, their brows furrowed.
Quinn snorted. “I’ve never seen you before today.”
“I know.” She took another step back, suddenly terrified. “It was once I was here. You were in the window, your eyes glowing yellow as you watched me.”
Instead of the refusal, or even an explanation, as she had expected, Fallon’s face paled and Lucan placed his hands on the table as he leaned toward her and searched her face.
“What happened?” Lucan asked. “I need every detail, Cara.”
She was unable to stop the wave of alarm and anger she felt from the three men. She took another step back and looked at Lucan. His gaze was steady, strong, and nonthreatening. It dampened some of her fear. “I . . . I opened my eyes to see,” she said with a shrug, “. . . something in the window. Its eyes were yellow in the darkness.”
“Shite,” Quinn grumbled, and turned away.
Fallon stood and tossed the bottle of wine in the fire, causing the flames to hiss as the liquid fell on them. “Quinn.”
“I’m on it,” Quinn said as he bounded up the stairs.
Cara’s heart raced, her breathing difficult. What were they doing? Surely what she had seen had been her imagination. Right?
Because, deep down, she knew what she saw was real.
She turned toward the castle door to find Lucan standing before her. Her hands fisted in her skirts as she tried to control the panic that ate at her every night. The dark. The monsters. They never went away.
“Come with me.” He held out his hand. His sea green eyes promised safety, but they couldn’t mask the desire she saw there as well. “I will protect you, Cara. I give you my word.”
There was anther boom. Thunder again? Or something else? She couldn’t go out in the storm and the darkness. There was only one choice. She swallowed past the lump of dread in her throat and placed her hand in Lucan’s big, warm one.
He pulled her after him as he raced from the great hall through a doorway and down a set of stairs. Her feet, numb from the stones, faltered on the steps. His arm wrapped around her, steadying her.
Her heart slammed into her chest at the feel of his hard muscles against her. She inhaled the smell of sandalwood, lightning, and power. A heady mix that left her breathless and all too aware of the big male who held her against his hard body.
Even when she had her balance, he didn’t remove his arm, and God help her, Cara found she liked having his warmth, his strength.
She should be wary of him, but the current that ran through the castle was one of battle. Battle from something that was evil and . . . wrong, and she wanted no part of it.
“Where are we going?” she asked as they traveled deeper under the castle.
“Somewhere safe.”
