There was no light, and she stumbled in the darkness again. This time, Lucan lifted her in his arms. She gripped his thick shoulders, the muscles beneath her hands moving and bunching as he carried her.
“I canna see,” she whispered.
“Don’t worry. I can.”
“How?” she wanted to ask, but instead held on tighter as he increased his speed. The stairs ended and he ran on what sounded like dirt. She thought she heard the squeal of a rat, but it could have come from her.
She had never liked being frightened. Late at night when the wind would move over the land, she would huddle in her blankets, squeezing her eyes shut for fear of what she might see if she opened them.
Suddenly Lucan slowed, then stopped. He set her down beside him and rattled a chain. His fingers closed around her wrist as a door squeaked open.
“Stay here,” Lucan murmured.
Cara wrapped her arms around herself. She was used to the Highland weather, but the damp down here was seeping into her bones. It didn’t help that she didn’t have her shoes or stockings to help warm her legs.
Light flared and she glanced inside the room to see Lucan setting a torch in its holder on the wall. He motioned her forward.
Her gaze fell on the door and the lock he had opened. “Am I to be locked away now?”
Lucan shook his head. “I’ve no time for explanations, only time to get you safe.”
“From what? The storm?”
“The creature you saw.”
She stilled. The hairs on her arms stood on end as a fear raked down her back. “Creature?”
“I don’t know why it’s here. But we will find out.”
He pulled her inside the room and turned to leave. The thought of staying by herself made her blood turn to ice even as sweat covered her skin.
“Where are you going?” She tried to hide the panic in her voice but failed.
Lucan cupped her face with one hand, his green gaze startling in its fierce intensity. It was the look of a Highlander, a warrior willing to fight to the end.
“I’m going to protect you. And find my answers.” He said the last in a voice laced with steel.
Cara watched as he closed the door behind him before she touched her cheek where his hand had been. No man had willingly made contact with her as Lucan had. Her skin was still warm from his touch, and the smell of sandalwood lingered in the small chamber. She didn’t know Lucan, but for some unexplained reason she trusted him. Her life was in his hands against . . . creatures.
When she had seen the yellow eyes, she’d promptly shut her own, afraid she hadn’t been dreaming. It left her body shaking to know she had been awake.
She pulled her mother’s necklace from beneath her gown and wrapped her fingers around the vial. It was warm to the touch and pulsed with energy. Normally, she held the vial when she needed comfort, but this time it did nothing to calm her.
Cara’s legs gave out and she slid down the wall to the dirt floor. She drew her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs, and lowered her forehead to her knees.
She should have listened to old Angus and stayed away from the castle. He’d known there were monsters.
Cara’s head snapped up, realization dawning. Angus had known.
CHAPTER FOUR
Lucan raced back to the great hall, his blood pumping in his veins. It had been a few months since he had fought, and he found himself looking forward to it. Apodatoo, the god within him, clawed to be free, to mete out his vengeance on those who would dare to attack the castle.
And Lucan freed him.
Lucan’s teeth elongated, and his nails grew to sharp, black claws that could behead a man with one swipe. His skin tingled as it changed to ebony. He had learned after being turned in Deirdre’s mountain that each god had distinct powers and when a Warrior let his god out the Warrior changed to the color of the god.
Lucan, Fallon, and Quinn changed to black.
By the time Lucan reached the great hall, Quinn and Fallon had their hands full. The brothers had witnessed for themselves the varied monsters men turned into when a god was inside them.
A small pale yellow creature launched itself at Lucan. He jerked his hand up to impale the thing on his claws and cut off its head with his other hand. With a jerk, he flung off the dead monster and readied for the next attack. He grimaced. A wyrran. Creatures made by Deirdre’s black magic.
Again and again the wyrran came at them, smaller than Lucan remembered. They were completely hairless, their mouths so full of teeth that their thin lips couldn’t close over them. The wyrran hissed and screeched and yelled, but they didn’t roar as Quinn did, as a Warrior did.
“You. Will. Die!” Fallon bellowed as the blade of his sword severed a wyrran’s head from its body.
Lucan glanced at his brother, amazed that even now Fallon hadn’t given in to the god and changed. He didn’t have long to think about it, though, as four wyrran jumped from the walls onto him.
They clawed and bit at his flesh. Lucan threw one off him after it gnawed on his shoulder. Another he beheaded with a slash of his hand. The one on his leg he kicked toward Quinn, who ripped it in two.
Lucan reached behind him to the wyrran that hung on his back. Its claws dug into his waist and shoulders. He could feel his blood dripping from him, the pain dulled by the fury inside him.
He grabbed the creature by the back of the neck and flung it over his head. The wyrran landed on its back with a howl, its teeth bared. Lucan knelt beside it and plunged his claws into the creature’s abdomen and ripped out its heart.
“I hate these damned things,” Fallon said as he made his way toward Lucan.
Lucan tossed aside the heart. He rose and noticed the blood on his brother. “Me as well.”
“It seems Deirdre wants a battle.”
Lucan blew out a breath as he looked at all the dead bodies of the wyrran. They were Deirdre’s pets, used by her to track whomever she wanted. “Are they all dead?”
“I think,” Fallon answered. “Where is Quinn?”
Lucan shrugged. “He was just here.”
Then they heard the howl, Quinn’s howl of rage. Lucan pointed to Fallon with his claw. “Stay here in case more come.”
Fallon nodded, and Lucan leapt onto the stairs and raced to find Quinn. Lucan followed the growls and bellows to the top of a tower where Quinn battled a tall, slim monster. Lucan climbed closer to them, the wind and rain making it difficult to see. Until lightning streaked across the sky and he saw the royal blue skin of the Warrior.
“Shite,” Lucan murmured as he recognized that Quinn battled one like them.
Quinn was strong, but his adversary moved so quickly Quinn couldn’t keep up. In a heartbeat, the beast had Quinn on his back, his head hanging over the side of the tower. One long royal blue arm lifted, its claws aimed at Quinn’s throat.
They might be immortal, but they could be killed if their heads were removed. Lucan had failed his brothers once already by bringing Cara into the castle. He wouldn’t let them down again.
He jumped and landed beside the Warrior. Lucan backhanded him and followed the Warrior as he fell over the side of the tower. He heard Quinn bellow his name, but Lucan couldn’t stop. Not now.
The Warrior landed on his feet next to the cliff moments before Lucan dropped down beside him.
“You just won’t die, will you?” Lucan taunted the Warrior.
Blue lips peeled back in a laugh. “My mistress is tired of your games. She wants you back at her mountain.”
