Faelan: A Highland Warrior Brief (11 page)

It took some doing to find the castle. Tavis, Ian, and the other warriors went by it several times and finally decided that Quinn, or Nigel, had gotten the location wrong. Then Ian stopped to piss. Ian could out-piss any of them. Standing in the middle of nowhere, a remarkable thing happened. Ian’s stream disappeared in mid air. “Bollocks!”

Tavis stuck out his hand and it disappeared. Cautiously, he eased his head through and echoed Ian’s curse. “It’s a castle. Our castle. Nigel duplicated it. Do you think he cloaked it? I didn’
t know Watchers could do that.”

The Seeker closed his eyes. “This isn’t the work of a human. It’s been cloaked by a spell.”

“By a demon?” Tavis asked.

The Seeker frowned and moved his hands through the air as if touching something. “I’m not sure it’s demon.”

“If it’s not human, what else can it be?” Ian asked.

As soon as they entered the cloak, they saw dozens of demons and halflings, and a few minions, lying dead over the castle grounds. “They’ve been slaughtered.” The warriors walked through the mess with swords drawn
, but everything here was dead.

The inside was the same, bodies everywhere. “But who did the slaughtering?” Ian asked. “Warriors didn’t do this or the bodies would have disappeared.”

It took the Seeker a long while to find the book. It was hidden inside one of the secret passages, in a compartment in the wall. The compartment had been
cloaked, just like the castle.

They weren’t sure what to do with it. No one wanted to touch it since the Keeper was the only
one allowed to touch the book.

“There’s something here,” the Seeker said, leaving the room. He moved through the castle with his hands extended in front of him, as if sensing messages in the air. He walked up the stairs leading to one of the towers and paused outside the d
oor. “Something evil was here.”

“The demons, you mean?” Ian asked.

“No. Not the demons.” The Seeker ope
ned the door. “Something else.”

There had been a fire in the tower and everything was burnt black. “Why a fire here and nowhere else?” Ian asked. A lone body lay in the corner of the room. Ian knelt beside him. “Look at this.”

“Looks human. Must be a mi
nion,” Tavis said, joining Ian.

“Look at his n
eck. What do you make of that?”

The minion’s neck had two gaping, bloody holes. “Claws?” Tavis said.

“Looks like a bite mark.”

Demons had been known to drink the blood of their victims and eat the flesh. “Who do you suppose took a bite out of him?”

***

Earlier that night

Tristol left the scene of Selwyn’s death in a fury. The demons on the other side of the cloak which veiled his castle never saw Tristol coming. He destroyed them and moved on, decimating everything in his path. When he was finished, all of Druan’s demons who’d been ordered to guard the castle lay dead. Tristol turned to smoke and streaked through the castle toward the tower where Druan had been staying. One minion stood outside the door. He was one of Druan’s trusted
minions. His eyes widened when he saw Tristol.

Tristol turned from smoke into his vampire form and grabbed the minion by the throat. “Where is it?” he roa
red.

“What?”

Tristol lifted the minion until they were at eye level. He could feel his eyes burning hot inside him. “Where is Druan’s virus?”

The minion’s eyes darted tow
ard the door to the tower room.

Dragging the pathetic human by the throat, Tristol burst through the locked door and surveyed the room. “Where?

“There.” The minion pointed to a small trunk in the corner. Druan had
owned the trunk for centuries.

Still holding the minion, Tristol broke the lock and opened the trunk. It appeared empty inside, but Tristol could smell the spell disguising the interior. He reached inside and found a smaller metal box. “Is this it?”

The minion was shaking so hard
his nod was hardly noticeable.

Tristol opened the box and looked at the bottles inside. There were several of them, all filled with liquid. He left the bottles and dragged the minion from the room. Outside the door, he called forth a spell and a ball of fire rolled out from his fingertips. He shut the door before the flames reached the bottles. Still enraged, his blood surged, filling him with an uncontrollable thirst. He sank his teeth into the minion’s throat. Warm blood flowed over his tongue, calming his rage. He drank until the minion stopped twitching, and then drank more. A roar behind him startled his feeding. He turned and saw Druan behind him, his ugly face filled with horror.

His gaze moved past the minion to the tower room door. He ran toward it and opened the door. The room was blazing inside. “What have you done?” Druan screeched.

“I’ve destroyed your virus. How dare you bring this into my castle?” And then Tristol realized that Dru
an was staring at him in shock.

Tristol looked at the minion dangling from his hand. He dropped him and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Blood.

“What ar
e you?” Druan asked.

Tristol
experienced
the first rush of fear that he’d felt in centuries. He’d protected his secret for over two thousand years. He shifted from his vampire form to his demon form, and Druan’s expression went from shock to speculation, followed by satisfaction. “You’re part vampire. Does the Dark One know?”

Tristol considered killing Druan, but it would draw unwanted attention. “No more than he knows about your virus.”

“Half vampire, half demon.” A smile touched Druan’s lips. “An abomination. I believe we are at an impasse. We can kill each other or keep our secrets.”

It wasn’t an impasse. Tristol could kill Druan before he had time to blink, but if he did, the Dark One would investigate, and Tristol couldn’t risk close scrutiny. He needed more time to build his army. “An impasse then. I keep your secret. You keep mine.”

There was further speculation in Druan’s eyes. He looked around him. “I’ve always been partial to this castle. I believe I would be even more inclined to protect your secret, if this were a gift.”

Tristol knew why Druan wanted the castle. Because his warrior was buried nearby. But he merely smiled. “Accept it then as my gift, a token to seal our pact.”

***

“What are we going to do with it now that Quinn’s dead?” Ian asked, staring at the book sitting on top of the burial vault. Neither of them had ever seen the Book of Battles. It was closely guarded by the Keeper of the Book. Tavis didn’t know any warrior who had ever seen it, much less touched it. It was thicker than he had expected. Leather, with bindings on the front. They hadn’t known what to do with it s
o they brought it to the crypt.

“What do y
ou think is inside?” Ian asked.

“I don’t know, and we’re not going to find out, so wipe that look off your face.”

“You sound like D
a,” Ian said.

Tavis stared at the book some more. “We’ll have to take it back to the Council.”

“What about Nigel’s letter? He believed there was a traitor in the clan. What if it wasn’t only Quinn’s father? I don’t know why the clan wasn’t already destroyed, since a demon had the book, but we can’t risk losing it again.”

Tavis shook his head. “Nigel wrote that letter before we were born. Quinn’s father is dead, and so is Quinn. If there’s another tr
aitor, he’s probably dead too.”

“How did Quinn get that letter? It was meant for the chief elder dozens of years ago? How did no one find out the book was missing? Someone else must be involved. Maybe one of the elders. I don’t trust them. I think we should hide the bo
ok until we’re sure it’s safe.”

Tavis frowned. “The new Keeper will find out and send Seekers to search for it.”

“It will take a while to appoint someone to replace Quinn. We may know by then if there’s still a traitor. If we still don’t know, we’ll tell the Keeper but no one else.”

“If we’re going to hide the book, we shouldn’t tell them about the castle or Faelan either. The fewer who know he’s here, the safer he’ll be.”

“We can tell them he died. We’ll have to tell Ma the truth. And we’ll have to find a good place to hide the book.”

“You’re better at hiding things than anyone I know,” Tavis said. “Simon and the others will have to be sworn to secrecy. We can’t have them
telling anyone when
we get back.”

Ian looked at the time vault. “I don’t think I can go home and leave Faelan here alone, with no one to protect him. What if Druan comes looking for him? Onca said he wanted revenge. What if Druan knows the time vault’s secrets?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. We have to tell Frederick and Isabel.”

“Are ye daft? We can’t tell anyone outside the clan. You know that.”

“How can we not? You’re right. We can’t leave him unprotected. Someone has to watch over him. If we stay and Druan spots us, he’ll become suspicious. Isabel and Frederick won’t draw suspicion. And I trust Isabel. There’s something different about her. I can’t explain it but I know she’s honest.”

“Honest or not, she won’t live forever,” Ian said. “What happens after she dies?”

He had an idea, but Ian wouldn’t like it.

That night, Tavis had a visitor. Michael came to him with an order, and for the third time in a decade, an ancient demon wa
s assigned to a Connor warrior.

***

Tavis and Ian had a long talk with Frederick and Isabel, which was received surprisingly well. Ian had been reluctant to tell anyone, after all, it was forbidden, but Faelan had to be protected. And Ian trusted Isabel too. As Tavis had said, there was something unusual about her. It was
strange, but she felt familiar.

“I sensed something was wrong,” Isabel said. She looked so young. She was only eighteen. A beauty with all that dark hair and lovely green eyes. Frederick was a bit older, and he watched her as if she were a piece of glass that might break. It was obvious that he adored her, and it made Ian think of Bessie, back home in Scotland. He hadn’t told anyone that he’d already gotten his mate mark for her. It was early. Too early. But no one had noticed the mark so far. It was small, and he kept it covered with his hair.

“Your mother, how she’ll suffer.” Isabel put a protective hand over her stomach. Frederick had told them she was carrying a child.

“Aye,
” Ian said. “But she’s strong.”

“This is a heavy burden,” Tavis said. “Are you sure you’re willing to take it on?”

Isabel’s green eyes clouded, and for a moment she seemed far away. She blinked and stared at them. “I am.” She looked at Frederick, who was nodding. “We are.
We’ll guard it with our lives.”

“I don’t mean to be indelicate,” Ian said, “but when the time comes for you to…” He cleared his t
hroat. “Eventually, when you’re...
”

Frederick raised a dark brow. He was a pleasant looking man, serious, but with a kind fac
e. “When we’re dead, you mean?”

Ian nodded.

“We’ll tell someone else.” Isabel touched her stomach again. “We’ll make sure someone in the family will look out for him. Then they can appoint someone else.” Her eyes grew misty. “If he were my family, I would want someone to help me.”

Ian was hesitant to tell them about the time vault key. They were outsiders, and too much had already been shared, but finding the key was crucial. The halfling had lost it near here, and who best to look for it without suspicion? “There’s another matter,” Ian said. “There’s a key to the time vault. It won’t open without it.”

“A key? What does it look like?” Frederick asked.

When Ian described what the key looked like, Isabel frowned and left the room. Ian thought perhaps she wasn’t feeling well. He remembered how Ma had gotten sick when she was carrying Alana. But
Isabel returned a moment later.

“Do you mean this?” s
he asked, holding out her hand.

“Shite!” Tavis said. “Uh, forgive
me, but where did you get it?”

“I found it in the dirt near the extra room Frederick is building. I thought it would make a good luck charm.”

“It’s good luck for us,” Ian said. “We’ve been searching everywhere for this. We can’t free Faelan witho
ut it.”

They decided it best to leave the key here. With possible traitors and an ancient demon to worry about, the key was better off hidden in plain sight. Hopefully, Druan wouldn’t be looking for it. He would think Onca had it. And Ian and Tavis didn’t want to have it on their persons as they traveled in case it got lost, or God forbid, the ship wrecked. Frederick and Isabel agreed to keep the key safe until one of the brothers returned for it
. Tavis and Ian told them to keep crosses in the house and to have the house blessed, which might help keep Druan away if he figured out that the time vault was missing and came looking for it.