Found (Book One of the Castle Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel (9 page)

“Merit!”

The owl blinked at her, and in the light of the nearly full moon, she was completely alert and aware. The owl looked past her to Kieran and to Hailey’s surprise, made a soft crooning noise.

“This is Merit. She’s never made that noise to anyone who wasn’t me.”

Despite the dire situation, Kieran smiled.

“She’s a beauty, and she’ll be a great deal of help in our search. That likely means that it’s time to introduce you to Cavanaugh.”

Hailey watched with curiosity as Kieran stepped further into the treeline, and then he tilted his head back and howled. It was full-throated and powerful, ringing through the trees and up into the mountains. It made Hailey think less of a human imitating a wolf than what a human would sound like if he howled to communicate with his pack.

The answering howl was immediate, and in just a few minutes, an enormous wolf bounded down the hill towards them. Hailey gasped. She had known Wiccans with wolf familiars before, but few of them had wolves as large as the one that approached Kieran.

On her shoulder, Merit fluttered nervously, but Hailey reached up and calmed her. For his part, Kieran reached down and seized the wolf’s head squarely in his hands. Instead of rubbing and petting the wolf as if he were a dog, he gripped the wolf’s fur firmly, resting his own forehead on the wolf’s broad head.

When he stood, he turned to Hailey with a grin.

“This is Cavanaugh. I met him when I was doing a mission in Canada for the Magus Corps, and I’ve had him with me for two years.”

“He’s handsome,” Hailey murmured, and to her surprise, the wolf came over to examine her. She stood very still. Familiars weren’t pets, not really. Wild familiars especially could be unpredictable with people who were not theirs, and she had heard of more than one unwise encounter in the past.

Cavanaugh approached her with his ears and tail up, and he sniffed at her curiously. She felt as if she was being evaluated by a keen and alien eye, but whatever the wolf was looking for, he found it. He trotted closer, and pressed companionably against her hip with his large head before turning back to Kieran. He looked for all the world like a soldier awaiting orders. Hailey thought that there was some wisdom in the saying that familiars picked their owners, rather than the other way around.

“Nothing in the village could hold Beatrice if she didn’t want to be held,” Hailey said. “She must be somewhere between here and the monastery.”

Kieran nodded.

“We can walk the path slowly, looking for any sign of her, but I bet we can also convince Cavanaugh and Merit to criss-cross to either side of it. They have better eyes than we do.”

It took a little bit of time to explain what was necessary to the two animals, but soon enough, Merit winged silently into the woods, Cavanaugh loped off in the opposite direction, and Hailey and Kieran started up the trail.

They walked in silence, halting every time one of the animals crossed in front of them, but finally, Hailey had to ask what had been on her mind ever since she heard that Beatrice was missing.

“Is it possible that it could be Templars?” she asked quietly, and to her dismay, Kieran didn’t immediately say no.

“There are many things it could be,” he said slowly. “Unfortunately, Templars are not out of the question.”

Hailey shivered.

“I didn’t think that they were active in this part of the world.”

“They usually aren’t. The problem is that we’re seeing more Templar activity all over the world. They’re showing up throughout North and South America, and there have been reports throughout South Asia and the Middle East as well. They’ve always been their strongest in Europe, but they’re growing even worse. Something’s got them stirred up, and well. The last time they got rattled, they lead a secret witch burning crusade that stormed across Northern Europe.”

“Is that why you were sent to find me?”

Kieran didn’t bother hiding it.

“It was. With more Templars on the move, it is becoming even more important that we weaponize whatever resources we have.”

His words clunked like a stone on her chest, but she also remembered how warm his eyes had been when they had spoken before, how gentle he had been with her. There was more to her than a weapon, and she knew he understood that.

They walked in silence for a moment, the moon lighting their way. Just when Hailey was beginning to despair, she heard a loud scream that she recognized as Merit’s.

“Kieran, this way!”

Without thinking about it, she reached for his power. Touching his cheek with her fingers, she found it and took what she needed.

A greenish ball of light formed in her palm, throwing the woods around them into relief. In the starkness of her light, they could see well enough to leave the path. After Kieran uttered a short sharp howl, he turned to follow her, and she knew that Cavanaugh wouldn’t be far behind.

In a clearing less than a quarter mile from the trail, Merit was circling above a cloth that was crumpled on the ground. When she picked it up and examined it, Hailey nodded.

“This is Beatrice’s, there’s no doubt in my mind.”

“Excellent, let me have it.”

Kieran took the scrap of fabric and held it up to Cavanaugh, who had come bounding up behind them. The wolf’s reaction was strange. With his ears up, he took in the scent, and then suddenly, he laid his ears back and the fur on the back of his neck stood up. The growl that he uttered was the stuff of nightmares, and Kieran pulled the cloth away.

“Templars,” he said grimly. “We’ve dealt with them before.”

He looked at Cavanaugh directly, and Hailey wondered at the communion that passed between man and wolf. Merit alighted on her shoulder again, careful of her talons, and absently, Hailey stroked the back of Merit’s head and back.

After a long moment, Cavanaugh put his nose to the ground and started casting around for the scent while Kieran stepped back to rejoin Hailey.

“He’ll search out the scent, and now we can follow him. Make sure that you don’t get between him and a Templar. It won’t be safe for you.”

“There’s no doubt about it, then? This is the work of a Templar?”

Kieran nodded soberly.

“They didn’t kill her out of hand. They took her somewhere. That means that they have an interest in keeping her alive. That works in our favor.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Hailey said, and Kieran shook his head.

“There’s nothing that I’m going to tell you,” he corrected. “I’ve rescued people who were captured by Templars before. Some were fine afterward. Some weren’t.”

There was a world of pain, suffering and torture in that final word, and Hailey almost let the panic overwhelm her before she stuffed it back down. She had to believe that Beatrice was still alive. She had to believe that Beatrice was going to be fine. Afterward, she could collapse if she needed to, but she certainly wasn’t going to do that now.

After a few moments, Cavanaugh howled again and raced off into the woods, Kieran and Hailey hot on his heels. It would have been impossible for Hailey to keep up at all if the way hadn’t been narrow and tangled. More than once, man and wolf got caught up by briars, while she used Merit for guidance.

They were going deeper into the mountains, and every moment they climbed, she was getting colder. She prayed that Beatrice was out of the chill, that no matter what was happening, that she was somewhere warm.

They walked for more than an hour, and then Kieran stopped abruptly. Hailey almost crashed into his back, and then she pulled back. They were in a clear spot in the woods. She dimmed her witch light, wrapping her fingers around the glow. Green light leaked through her fingers, but it quelled the brightness a great deal.

“There’s a cabin up ahead, and Cavanaugh thinks that’s where Beatrice is. Hailey, I need you to stay quiet, and to stay hidden.”

Hailey stared at him.

“Are you crazy? That’s my friend in there.”

Kieran wrapped his hands around her shoulders, and he made her look him in the eye.

 
“And I am a major of the Magus Corps. I’ve performed dozens of extractions, and I need to pull rank.”

Hailey opened her mouth to argue, and he shook his head.

“You’ve helped me get here, and you’re going to help me more later, I know that. Right now, though, you need to understand that there are things that I can’t control in there. I need you to let me do the thing that I know best how to do. Do you understand?”

Biting her lip, she nodded, and in return, he gave her a tender kiss.

“Beatrice is going to be fine. We’ll be going back to the monastery soon.”

With nothing more than that, he slipped away into the shadows. Hailey blinked, startled by how invisible he could make himself, and she leaned back against a tree to wait. From her vantage point, she could see the cabin quite clearly. She could see a brief moment where Cavanaugh was lit up by the moonlight, but she couldn’t see Kieran.

The windows of the cabin were bright. A man’s silhouette paced back and forth in front of the window, and Hailey could see him gesturing wildly. From the distance, she could tell that he was shouting.

It made her stomach flip over in terror to think of Beatrice tied up, hurt or even worse on the floor of that cabin, but she kept herself calm. She trusted Kieran with every fiber of her being, and if he said that he was going to bring Beatrice out, than he would.

She could see some activity near the rear of the cabin. She waited.

Suddenly there was a shout, and one of the windows broke. She could see two men fighting, and she heard Cavanaugh howling like a demon let out of hell.

Hailey forced herself to stand still. She knew that if she charged into a battle with no clue what was going on, she would be just as much of a liability for Kieran as she would be a help.

She managed to maintain that stasis until she saw another figure, one she did not recognize running through the clearing towards the cabin. It was not Kieran, it was no one she recognized, and she realized that Kieran and Cavanaugh were going to have some very unwanted company.

She froze for a moment, and then without thinking about it further, she surged toward the cabin.

KIERAN HAD MANAGED to get a look at the cabin after he made his way to the rear. There was a window that had the blind rolled up just a little bit extra, and what he saw made his blood boil.

The teen who had confronted him in the courtyard less than twenty four hours ago was on the ground. She lay terribly still, and there was a man standing over her. He was nearly as big as Kieran himself, but there was something jerky and uncoordinated about his motions. He looked like he was talking to himself, and from time to time, he would look down on Beatrice and spit.

The man’s fury was rising to what Kieran feared was a crescendo, and there was a large knife beside the man as well. When he reached for that knife, his dark eyes focused on Beatrice’s helpless form, Kieran knew that he couldn’t wait to act. He gestured for Cavanaugh to enter through the other window, and with a flicker of his will, he used his powers over the cold to freeze and then shatter the glass.

In a matter of seconds, he heaved himself over the edge of the window. The man in front of him whirled around to face him. His hands were up, the knife driving straight for Kieran’s face. Kieran fell back enough for Cavanaugh to swarm the man, a whirlwind of fur and teeth. When the man was distracted, Kieran struck him from behind.

The Templar was powerful, but he went down under the onslaught swiftly. He was biting, swearing and trying his best to heave them both off of his body, but it was only a matter of time. He moved at the wrong moment, baring his neck, and with absolutely no hesitation, Cavanaugh ripped his throat out.

Kieran felt no pity for the dying man who had made a teenager’s day into a lifelong nightmare. After he was sure that the man was dead, he moved over to where Beatrice lay. She was frightfully still, but her chest rose and fell. Her hands were tied in front of her, and he winced to see how deeply the cords bit into her tender wrists.

“Okay, honey, we’ve got you.”

She stirred a little at his words, which was promising, and he lifted her gently in his arms.

That was the vulnerable position he was in when the door burst open, and another man stood there. This one bore a sword, and he took the scene in at a glance. He raised his weapon, and all Kieran could think was that he was too slow, too slow by far. He heard Cavanaugh roaring with anger, he tried to reach for his own power, but Beatrice was there, weighing him down.

Suddenly a shock of light filled the cabin. It was so brilliant that it was all he could see, and even after the light died away, everything was a blur for him. Kieran stumbled up to defend himself, somehow putting Beatrice down and behind him, and then he felt a light touch across his cheek, and a soft murmured ‘sorry.’

It was agony not being able to see what was happening, but he heard a single shout from the man who had entered and the clatter of a sword against the ground. Then all was silent except for Cavanaugh’s confused whimper, and Hailey’s shocked cry.

• • • • •

Hailey knew that Kieran considered her a very powerful witch, but now, in the darkness and only with a light that she had fueled with his power, Hailey felt useless. No matter how ineffectual she felt, however, that didn’t change what she had to do. When she saw the mysterious figure approach the cabin, she knew she had to act.

The light was all she had, so that was what she used. She trailed the man into the cabin, and it was child’s play to follow him through the door. She could see a confusion of people in front of her. There was a man on the ground, and Cavanaugh was tearing his flesh. More importantly, however, there was Kieran, and there would be nothing between him and the man that had entered.

That was when she held the light in her hand high and forced the rest of the power she had taken through it. Her eyes were shut tight in anticipation of the blast, but she knew that no one else had that luxury. Instead, she heard shouts of dismay and fright, and when she opened her eyes, everyone else was blinking and blind.