Conquer the Highland Beast: The Vampire Dylan Macgregor (Hearts of Darkness) (10 page)

Evie knew the fairy vine was rumored to have aphrodisiac properties and could bespell even fae royalty. “Aye, but they have a different meaning for me. I love these flowers. The scent reminds me of my mother, although I never knew her. Da said she always wrapped my cradle in them and had them all throughout our cottage.”

“Oh, that’s a nice memory, then.” He smiled and tweaked her nose. “Was this really your first real kiss?”

“Of course—”

“Oh, right,
then just don’t wear the fairy vine around anyone else. Ye ne’r know what fae blood lingers within a lad.” With a quick kiss to her lips, he issued another warning. “And do not let me hear of you practicing with anyone else while I’m gone.” He moved to her ear and whispered, “You’re already too good.”

~~~~

Evie’s heart nearly burst in her chest with pride. Her first kiss, and someone with Dylan’s experience thought she was
too
good. The smile on her face pulled so tight her face hurt.

“You distracted me, Dylan. I want to taste you the way you tasted me.”

He groaned. “I would love nothing more than to have you taste me, darlin’. However, I am fresh from the hunt. I changed my clothes, but I had no time for a proper bath.”

“I can please you with my hands then.” She put her hand under his kilt and cupped him. He groaned and moved closer. Her tentative touch was almost enough to cause him to release. No one had ever touched him. He’d never allowed anyone’s touch but hers.

“Will you tell what you like?”

“You’re doing just fine, lass. A lit
tle firmer, a little faster— aye, just that way! Aye!”

No one had ever brought him to completion like that. Her tiny hands stroking him, gripping him, set him off quicker than he’d ever completed. In the future, he’d have to come up with more control around the little minx.

He cleaned them both up and rearranged their clothing.

“Now, rise so I might brush the moss off you. I want to dance
with my beauty with the fairy vine braided in her hair this Beltane night, so all the men will see I’ve set my heart on you. And then, you must be safely abed before the orgies begin true, my young lass.”

One year later, Before Beltane

Dylan, Gareth, and Leif returned after a small band of men reported they’d heard of Haruld while on a raiding trip in the north. Searching for Haruld, following rumors, and paying for information all these years, allowed hatred to fester within Dylan. The hatred had taken a toll.

“In ten years, many a man could lose sight of his goal.” Gareth mentioned as they rode towards home.

“Other men might want to forget or become complacent,” Dylan countered. He rode between his cousins, the father and son. “Not me,” he assured them.

“Love might replace revenge.” Leif said, “Love might be a reason for staying put.”

“No, not for me or Evie.” Dylan knew what the other man was getting at. Commit to Evie or allow him to do so.

“Perhaps you are mistaken about her feelings. I would offer for her if you won’t.” Leif still waited for her to return his feelings—feelings Dylan knew she had for him but suppressed.

“I will. I-I will but not until after—”

“She should be married or handfasted, Dylan,” Gareth said. “Aedithe is giving me fits over the lass.”

Dylan pulled his horse up sharply, and dust kicked up in the air. Anger boiled in his gut. “I have not dishonored the lass. I would never—”

“Calm yourself.” His cousin raised a hand and waved off his words. “No one is saying ye have. Besides, you are the Macgregor. It
would be your prerogative to do so, and yet you have never claimed first night rights with any maid. But Evie grows restless. I’m worried about her. Her light seems to fade with each raid you go on.”

“Her light?” Had he missed something? Evie wanted and needed revenge as much as
he. She had supported him while he trained, waited when he raided, and always bided time planning for their future. He himself had wondered how long she’d wait for him. Gareth was right. He should have claimed her by now, her and his family’s keep.

However, his uncle had evaded him. Everywhere the bastard went, he claimed to be the Macgregor chieftain, and he had recently taken another rival chieftain’s keep the same way he’d taken Benocght—through lies and deception. The fifteen year old and youngest son of the chieftain escaped death the same way Dylan had. Now Dylan planned to take his revenge and return this keep to its rightful owner, Jamie
MacMann.

When Jamie heard Haruld was a hunted man, the boy escaped and made his way to Gareth’s keep to reveal where Haruld Macgregor was hidden.

When Dylan finally confronted his uncle, they all would be ready. He had earned his men’s respect, and they his. When the time came, they would stand behind and beside him. They had pledged their allegiance to the true Macgregor. Dylan was the rightful leader. He had the strength, the sword, and the ring to prove it.

What about heart?
Aye, that he had in spades.

Dylan looked out over the sea and knew his quest through the Celtic Isles in search of the murderer was almost over and he and Evie could move on with their lives together.

~~~~

“Dylan, are you ready to be off again?” Evie’s eyes sparkled, and her hair flew wildly as the sea wind whipped it about. Her hands were fisted on her hips in frustration as she stood in the field looking out high over the western sea. “Will you never rest?”

“Nay. Not ’til I fulfill my promises and bring my lands back to their former glory. I’ve had a message. There’s a rumor that after Haruld left Benocght Castle he moved on, and now we have news he’s taken the MacMann keep.” The “he” would be understood.

“You risk your light, Dylan.” Evie shook her head, and her
shoulders drooped. “Will the searching never end?”

He lifted her chin so his gaze locked on hers. “Surely you, of all people, understand why I must go.”

“It’s not worth your fae light or your life.”

She turned away, but not
before he noted the sorrow in the depths of her eyes. He hated being the reason for her unhappiness. “Leaving you is like leaving a part of myself behind. Your light brings peace to my soul.” He turned her to him and kissed her.

He wanted to believe Evie was the other half of his soul, the light to his dark.
But while he waited to settle the debt with Haruld, he sometimes wondered if the dark side would seep into him as she claimed. Without her, he thought he might lose his humanity to the berserker within him and let the darkness overtake him.

“I can’t be whole until I’ve conquered this beast inside me. And I need to face Haruld to do it.”

“Then ’tis time we face the devil torturing you. Together.” Evie turned to Dylan, her chest rising and falling, readying for battle.

“Nay, ye cannot come with me, this time,
luv.” The delicate woman was as fierce as any warrior in his service. Fiercer, he thought as he watched emotions dance across her sweet face.

“But I’ve my own vengeance to seek for my father.”

“Aye, lass.” He brushed his thumb across her lips. “I do understand. More than you realize.”

There’d been numerous times when he’d been inside her mind and seen the terror of that night. He felt the emotions she’d repressed. It was said her mother died shortly after her birth therefore her father was all the family besides Dylan’s she’d known. Having seen his death through Dylan’s mind was a constant reminder
of how alone she was.

“You have me, Evie. What’s mine is yours. And Gareth’s clan is mine.”

Her forehead furrowed, and she’d already looked defeated when he interrupted. “You of all people understand my need for reprisal. Nevertheless, I’d give it all up for a family. I want something of my own to give my life meaning.”

“Am I not enough?” He puffed out his chest, crossing his arms, and stood over her, wanting her to see he was too large a man to fight, but too gentle a man to bully her.

“Are you mine then, Dylan? Because we’ve made no promises...” She looked him squarely in the eye and watched him cringe. “Aye. I know about the other lassies.”

“My heart is yours, Evie.”

“And your body?” One hand grazed his hip gently.

He took her hand and moved it into his grasp. “Not ’til we’re handfasted.”

She turned aside. “Leif has offered for me.”

Dylan was blindsided by her announcement. He tried to probe her mind but couldn’t get past her blocks. She’d learned well. He clasped her hands in his and brought them to his lips. Damn his cousin. Why couldn’t he have waited until they returned?

She tugged her hand from his and moved away from him. “So is it all right for you to gratify your urges, while I wait and suffer with this aching need? Perhaps I’ll ask Leif ta please me—”

“You will not, not if you value his life,” Dylan growled the warning and approached her. “Do not think to set cousin against cousin. We are as brothers.” He gripped her by her arms and forcibly pulled her against his body. The proximity left no doubt about how she made him feel. His hard need was a living, throbbing thing between them. “How do you truly feel for Leif?”

In a brief flash, she let down her guard, and he felt her love and desire for Leif right before he saw her devotion to him.

“The truth, lass and do not tempt me to warm your backside.”

She threw up her mental shields and laughed. “I was hoping you’d be warmin’ me in some other pleasant manner, Dylan.” She stood on her toes and nuzzled his neck making Dylan forget his concern over her feelings for Leif.

She was his.

“How can I resist you?” He rested his cheek on her head and sniffed her flower-scented hair. “I’ll return with your honor and mine. Then I promise to give meaning to your life. But Evie, I’ll not risk you or your gift t’ the likes of Haruld and his men. Please don’t ask me.”

“We gave up our childhoods, relinquished our claim to our heritage in order to survive, and managed that feat together. Not alone. Think on that, Dylan.”

“Evie, I could not have survived without you then—or now. Think on that, lass.”

His nightmares had been horrific until she learned how to enter them. She alone saw what he’d suffered and the cost he paid each time he closed his eyes in sleep. Once she appeared, the nightmare would wither. What
was left behind, was Evie and her light, gentle soul. She’d saved him in more ways than he could count. He couldn’t have survived this long without her light.

He softened his voice and dropped her arms. He cupped her face with both hands and, leaning into her, he whispered, “You cannot come. Don’t ask me.”

“I’ve trained with you for this, all these years.”

“Not for this. Things have changed.”

“What? What’s changed?”

Each time he returned from the raids, he grew more aware of her as a woman and more aware of his dark side. Since that night on Beltane, when he’d given the little minx her first kiss and satisfied her desire, things had changed between them. When the other men noticed her, he’d made it clear she was not to be touched. Not that the warning had stopped them from flirting, especially Leif. She was a free woman with a right to choose a man of her liking.
And although he couldn’t risk losing her, that wasn’t the problem.

Killing took his light, and Evie’s light had to remain intact. The clan depended on it for healing.

“This isn’t a child’s game.”

“When has anything we’ve done been a child’s game, Dylan? After the cave, when we hid at night, stole by day, and ran for days on end, we did what was necessary to survive. From that day forward, and until we reached this place of safety here in your cousin’s keep, I’ve fought beside you. Even since on the raids.”

She walked away from him to the edge of the cliff and released an exasperated sigh. He let her go. They both needed the distance.

They’d been forced to grow up too soon, and when they’d found a home within Gareth’s clan he and his wife, Aedithe cared for them like they were their own. Until they reached Gareth Macgregor’s keep in the north, Evie was right. They had done everything together. During the time it took them to reach his cousin’s lands near Avoch, they’d done whatever it took to keep them alive. Dangerous as it’d been, little Evie braved through it all trudging along beside him, trusting him with her life.

“This is not like the raids I’ve taken you on, Evie. Battles are different and the circumstances have changed. I am the Macgregor in name only. Even though the men pledged their loyalty to me on my thirteenth birthing day, Gareth still leads them and will until I’ve proven myself in battle. Only then will I become chieftain to all. With the title comes responsibility for their care.”

“I must be with you when you face Haruld.” Her eyes shone with unshed tears. “
He will taunt you. He is devious and evil.”

Since they’d arrived, they’d refrained from using mind talk. It was only during their most intimate moments either reverted to it. He couldn’t deny he missed her personal touch inside his head. The pull from her emotions forced him to move. He strode to where she stood like an angel in the sunlight, with fear in her eyes for his well-being, and pulled her into an embrace. The way she cared for him humbled him. He could not allow her to worry.

“I am not that child anymore. Haruld cannot do anything else to me that he hasn’t already done.”

“Aye, mayhap. But he could take you from me, and Dylan Macgregor, I cannot bear to lose you.”

“Dinna fash yourself, lassie,” he said. “
I will return, I promise, luv.”

Evie released a resigned sigh and poked his ribs. “Do not be reckless with your back.”

“Gareth and Leif watch my back almost as well as you,” Dylan reminded her and chucked her under the chin.

“Nay, I’m sure they do not watch your back the way I do.” The frown disappeared and a broad grin made her eyes sparkle. She cocked an eyebrow and surveyed his body. “Or the way the other lassies do.”

Heat rose in his neck and blood pooled low in his groin. Dylan recognized she was going to give him a great deal of trouble when she started to walk toward him with a tempting sway in her hips.

“They admire your broad shoulders, and want to touch you all over.” She ran a hand over one shoulder and down his arm. “And they enjoy the way your muscles flex when you swing a sword.”

“They think on all the lads the same way.”

“No, Dylan, not all the lads…” He tensed at her touch, lightning zipping through him.

Did she know? Had any of the lusty lassies he’d been with share his darkest secret? That he never wanted or allowed anyone’s touch. He insisted on maintaining control at all times—in everything—never trusting, never giving an inch. He couldn’t admit his depravity. He couldn’t allow Evie to discover she was the only woman whose touch he allowed or trusted.

She circled him, running her hands across his shoulders and down his back until she reached his waist...and stopped. “Then, there’s your bum,” she whispered, stepping closer and allowed her hands to drift over the curve of his
arse.

Dylan whirled around and grasped her hands. “No more, you saucy lass,” he grumbled.

Turning her to him, he released her hands and pulled her against him, letting her feel the effect of her words on him.