The Capture of Highland Desire (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (13 page)

***

              Allia stood in the circle of stones, glancing around once more to make sure no one was watching.  Her heart was pounding, her mind racing… was she really going to do this?  Uncle Leon was going to be furious when he found out she was gone.  She would probably have to go into hiding for a while on the other side… but he didn’t own her, damn it!  She had rights!  Well, maybe not here, but she hadn’t asked to come back here, and well, it just wasn’t working out, was it?  She was going home.  And she would get her kitten back, too.  Or if not, she would get a new one.  Maybe even a puppy.  Who knew? 

Before she lost her nerve,
Allia said the last words that would complete the spell she had memorized long ago under Mairi’s careful tutelage. The ancient words called upon the powers of the earth and of the circle of time, and she could feel them reaching out to answer her.  Allia held her breath and waited, but just before the world around her disappeared in a swirling mist of light, she saw an older man in sorcerer’s robes running towards her.  He was waving his hands and shouting at her, but there was nothing he could do to stop her now, she was already gone.

              When the unearthly mist cleared, Allia sat up from the awkward position she had landed in and stepped once more out of the ring of stones.  Things looked much the same, except that there were more, smaller, trees again, and of course they were in different places.  And of course the strange man in the robes was gone.  She would have to walk a few miles to reach the edge of the nearest town where she had hidden her things.  She hadn’t known if she would ever need them again, but now she was glad she had planned ahead anyway. 

             
She put one foot in front of the other, started walking purposefully through the woods, but with each step, she could almost feel something tearing inside of her.  It was Eian, she realized all too quickly, because his face was all she could see in her mind’s eye.  He had gotten into her heart despite her best efforts to keep him out, damn him.  She had an almost physical urge to turn and run back to the stones.  Return to where he was, fall into his arms.  Tear off his clothes.  Kiss his warm golden skin and run her fingers through his thick, soft hair, and damn the consequences.  She drew in a sharp breath as heat flooded her body and her heart felt as if someone was squeezing it tight within her chest. 

No.  No!  You know how it would end… you could never keep him.  He would leave you,
Allia.  One woman could never hold onto a man like him, you know it’s true!   

             
It was only the heart-wrenching thought of Eian leaving her for his next conquest that kept her going forward.  With all the will she possessed, Allia held onto that thought and walked on, reaching the village in less than an hour.  She retrieved her belongings from a small box she had hidden deep inside a hollow tree and made her way to a small inn she knew of in town, feeling exhausted and all but ready to burst into tears.

***

True to his word, Dirc was waiting for him by the gates at dawn, although one look at Eian’s darkly brooding expression kept the sorcerer’s usual wry humor relatively subdued. 

When Dirc had realized the lad was too stubborn, or too stupid, to go after his woman, he had gone to stop her himself, but he’d been too late.  Too late to stop her and too late to spare her what would happen next.  Och, well.  No one ever said love was easy.  Maybe this was just the way it had to be
, as some things were.

They travelled in silence for some time, until the sun had risen above the hills in the distance.  By then
, Eian had come to a soul-shattering conclusion. 

He knew
that:

a. The
clenching, tearing feeling in his chest that he had felt since Allia had left was not normal.  b. The terrible ache had lessened last night when he dreamt of her in his arms, only to be replaced by a more familiar kind of ache, yet stronger than he had ever felt before, and  c.  He wanted to be with her, looked for her everywhere he went, and even now, the farther they rode away from the castle, the more Eian thought he just might lose his mind. 

Aye, he had finally gone and done it: he had fallen for a wom
an.  He had all of the symptoms… had watched all of the same things happen to his brother. 

She is my mate
.

Eian drew in a sharp breath as he finally let the realization come crashing down on him, erasing every last shred of doubt and filling him with a certainty the likes of which he had never known.
  She is my mate.  I have a mate. 

But she didn’t want him
. 

What happened to a man when his destined mate wouldn’t have him?  Did he eventually wither and die of wanting her?  It certainly seemed to him the most likely outcome
, based on the last several hours.

Dirc looked at Eian cautiously out of the corner of his eye
, watching his thoughts cross his face, relieved the lad had finally come to his senses.  “Do ye want to talk about it, lad?”

Eian shook his head. 
“No.  I canna have her, and she’s run away, besides.”

“What makes ye think ye canna have the lass?  I mean… well… ye’ve never seemed to have a problem…”

“Have ye met her uncle, the
laird
?  Who is marrying her off to
another man
?  Besides, she doesna like me much.  And,
she ran away
.”

“I think she likes ye fine, lad.  She’s had her defenses up, is all.  I would too, were I swept back through time to live among near strangers.”
              “What?”

“Strangers.  She hadn’t seen her uncle in…”

“No! What did ye say about time?”

Dirc looked surprised.  “
Och, I thought ye kenned already.  Surely ye must have sensed something different about her, unless ye’ve been chasing after skirts or too far in yer cups all this time.”  He gave Eian what was meant to be a stern look.

“Dirc!  Tell me now or I swear I will kill ye with my bare hands and leave yer body here for the crows!”

“Keep ahold on that temper, lad.  I was getting to it.  Ye see, the lass has just come back from a stay in the 21
st
century, where she was sent years ago for safekeeping.  As ye ken, dark sorcerers have a limit on how far they can travel in time.  Has something to do with not being able to harness all of the power of the stars, which are light…”

“Aye, I ken all that”, Eian said impatiently.  “So… if Allia had to be hidden from dark sorcerers, there really is something special about her.”
 
He knew it, she was different…

Dirc nodded, watching expectantly as understanding dawned on Eian’s face.  “She didna run
away
, she ran
forward
.”

“Aye, lad.  I believe she did.
  Saw her go, as a matter of fact.”

As if stuck by a sudden thought,
Eian reached quickly into his sporran and pulled out the charm he had found in the cave.  “Dirc?”  He pulled his horse to a stop.

“Aye, lad.  What is it?”

He handed him the small metal object.  “That’s what I was hoping ye could tell me.”  

Dirc held the amulet up to the light, inspecting it closely before giving a decisive nod.

              “Aye”.

             
Eian frowned.  “Aye, what?”

             
“Aye, yer correct.”

             
Eian’s heart leapt in his chest.  Never mind that he hadn’t even told Dirc what he thought it was.  The sorcerer could read minds, when he wanted to.  “That thing shifts time?  It can take me to her?”

             
Dirc pulled a ratty old book out of his pocket and proceeded to leaf through the pages, mumbling something under his breath until he found what he was looking for.  He cleared his throat.  “Ah, here it is!”

             
He read silently for a moment, tracing the page with his finger while Eian waited with growing impatience.  Finally Dirc snapped the book shut and looked up.

             
“It says that time shifting spells will let you follow another soul through time and place, but only cross-temporally, not cross-temporally and then uni-temporally.   For that, you will have to walk.”

             
Eian frowned at him, shoving a hand through his hair.  “What in hell are ye saying?”

             
Dirc sighed and gave him an impatient look.  “Was I no’ speaking English, lad?  I said it will only take ye to the last place the person of interest went through time, not to where they went after that.”

             
Eian slid from his horse, shoved his hands through his hair again and paced a few steps.  That wasn’t so bad.  He’d likely arrive at the other end of the portal and then have to search for her from there.  But he could do that.  How hard could it be?

             
He paced a short section of the dirt road, fists clenched at his sides, not seeing anything around him.  She had rejected him again and again, yet he couldn’t seem to get her out of his heart.  It was as if though she had already become a part of him, and without her, he would never be complete again.  He was empty, aching.  Could he swallow his pride and go after her? 
Yes
.  There was really no other choice for him… he had to fight for her.  The rest of the world be damned!  He would win her even if he had to sell his soul to do it.  Everything else he had ever wanted, ever dreamed of, fell away in that moment.  It was only Allia.  It had only ever been her.  Everything else had just been a game, something to take up the time while he waited for his mate.  He was already deeply in love with her; that was the unfamiliar ache he’d been feeling.  And he had been a fool for far too long.

             
He stopped and faced the old sorcerer.  “I need to go to her, but there’s one thing I must do first.  Though it will be just a formality.  The lass is already mine.”

              Eian made his way to the Laird's private chamber, where Leon had agreed to speak with him.  He was nervous, but not for the reason he would have thought.  A short time ago, even the threat of settling down with one woman would have sent him running for the hills.  Now... well now there was Allia, and hell if he could even imagine the rest of his life without her by his side.  In a frighteningly short amount of time, she had become his entire world, and he would have her, one way or another.  He would ask Leon for her hand, but if the laird refused, he would just have to steal her away.  Either way, he was going after her and she was going to be his.  Of this he was certain.

             
He knocked on the door, and at the muffled response, opened it.  Leon was seated at a large desk made of oak and with several books and pieces of parchment lying about.  He put the feather quill he had been writing with down and gestured absently to a large, carved wooden chair.  Eian sat down, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest.

             
The laird did the same, fixing his gaze on Eian, his eyes narrowing slightly.  "Ye wished to speak with me Mac Coinnach?  Speak.  I am a verra busy man."

             
Eian did not hesitate.  "I wish to wed yer niece, Allia.  I would bring her to Creagmor with me, and she would be verra well provided for."  There, might as well get straight to the point.

             
"No."

             
"No?"  Eian leaned forward in his seat, not entirely surprised at the answer, but not willing to give up.  He would rather do this the proper way for the good of everyone involved, especially his brother who would have to deal with any political fall-out.  But improper would work too.  It had never held him back before, and Bren always forgave him… eventually.  "I beg ye to reconsider.  It would be a good match."

             
Leon snorted at that.  "A good match?  To a third son?  My niece can do much better than that.  Have ye no’ seen her?  She’s a beautiful creature… and charming too.  There is no shortage of offers for her hand, in fact I already have negotiations well underway."

             
Eian pressed his lips together for a moment, trying to control his anger before he spoke.  "I have money and power in my own right, third son or no'.  I am a Mac Coinnach, brother to the chief!"

             
"Aye, I ken who ye are, lad.  But as I have just told ye, I have other plans for my niece."

             
Eian stood, clenching his fists at his sides.  Over his dead body would Allia ever marry another.  She was his, damn it!  Fate had made it so. 

He was careful to keep his voice even when he spoke. 
"I understand.  Thank ye for yer time."  He turned toward the door, but Leon called after him.

             
"I will be watching ye, Eian Mac Coinnach.  Ken this well:  I dinna want war with the Mac Coinnachs, but I will do whatever is necessary to protect what is mine."

             
Eian turned to look at him, his face carefully expressionless.  "Aye, as would I."

             
When the door closed, Leon folded his hands behind his head and smiled.

***

              It had been a week.  She had given it a week.  Okay, only five days, but close enough.  Evidently, she didn’t belong
here
anymore, either, because for five days she had felt as if she were absolutely about to crawl out of her skin.  Great,
just great!
  Now she belonged nowhere.  She had everything back that she thought she had been missing, and still she wasn’t happy.  In fact she was completely miserable.  She was still staying at the inn, unable to even bring herself to travel back to her apartment.  Now she understood why: she would have had to turn around and come right back here again.  After what had to have been the worst five days of her life, Allia was ready to step back through those stones and take her chances on the other side. 

Only when she was asleep was she at peace here, because she dreamt each night of Eian Mac Coinnach.  In her dreams she kissed him, made love to him.  He held her in his arms.
It was almost as if… she were being physically compelled to return to him, and try as she might, she just couldn’t hold out any longer.  Had he cast some sort of spell on her?  The thought had definitely crossed her mind, not that there was much she could do about it from here.  If she went back, maybe she could find a sorcerer or someone to remove it.  Love spells weren’t unheard of, were they?

             
Allia tossed a meager bag of necessities over her shoulder and heaved a big, heart wrenching sigh.  “I can’t believe I’m doing this.  I
cannot believe
I’m actually going to be this stupid.”

             
She looked around, but there was no one there to talk her out of going back.  There was also no guarantee that she would be able to escape again, if things went wrong.  But she couldn’t stay here, either.  Not when she was completely and utterly infatuated with a gorgeous… womanizer.

She groaned and slapped her free hand to her forehead.  “God, I’m going to regret this, I know I am.”
  At least in the end she would know, once and for all, that there could be nothing lasting between them.  At least she would no longer wonder at what might have been.  Even if she ended up hurt, at least she wouldn’t regret never having taken the chance.

She arrived at the stones just as the sun was setting.  In the near-dark, it wasn’t likely anyone would be out hikin
g in the woods and see her.  Not that they could do anything about it, if they saw her disappear, but it was always better to avoid drawing attention to things that weren’t supposed to exist.  At least in
this
time.  In the other, people were still much more accustomed to things they could not understand.

Allia
waited a few more minutes until the sun had sunk below the horizon, then stepped into the portal and spoke the words that would carry her back to a man that she strongly suspected would break her heart. Into a million tiny pieces.  Perhaps she should have packed a broom.

She would quickly find out that a weapon might have been the more prudent choice.

Chapter
9

They were waiting for her.  She had barely stepped out from between the two tallest stones when she felt the darkness all around her, bone deep.  Allia froze and instinctively crouched down in a defensive stance, her eyes scanning the edge of the trees.  Night had fallen, and she couldn’t see much of anything, but the chills on the back of her neck told her they were there.  Two large and menacing shadows moved out from behind the massive oaks surrounding the stones, and adrenaline pumped into her veins as she prepared to run for her life.
Damn, she was in a world of trouble
,
and no one even knew she was here. 
Except, apparently, whoever or whatever had been waiting for her.
 

She sprang to her feet and turned to the right, running for all she was worth
, hoping she didn’t run headlong into a tree.  But it was not to be.  Two more dark shadows appeared in front of her and as she swerved in a blind panic to avoid running right to them, strong hands grabbed her from behind.  She struggled, her head flying around to try to see her captor.  Then she stilled.  They were all around her, closing in, faster now.  In the darkness, she couldn’t see their faces, but she didn’t need to see to know she was not going to a tea party.  And she knew that to continue struggling against them would only get her hurt, or maybe even killed.  One, she would stand a chance against… but this many?  No way.

Finally, she found her voice.  “Who are you?” she asked in a hoarse whisper,
barely squeezed out of her fear constricted throat.

She heard a
rumble of laughter that could only be called sinister, but no one answered her.

“Where are you taking me?  What do you want?”
 
Right Allia, like the bad guys answer those questions… ever.

She thought she heard a low
mumble of voices in the darkness, but, as she suspected, no answers were forthcoming.  As she was dragged along, stumbling over the occasional rock, Allia forced herself to calm down.  She needed a clear head so that she could think.  No one knew she was here… but her uncle would be searching for her by now.  Her heart leapt with hope.  Then sank just as quickly.  She had been gone nearly a week.  The stones would have been one of the first place he looked, and if he suspected she had gone through the portal… either he would have found someone who could follow her and drag her back, or he would have simply given up. 

No one had shown up in the 21
st
century to drag her back.

But just in case… on the off-chance someone was still looking for her, she should leave a trail of some sort. 
The thought gave her a shot of much needed courage.  The man on her left held her tightly by her upper arm, but her hand was free.  Moving her fingers slowly, she felt the hard, cold edge of a blade tucked into his belt.  If she could grasp the handle and somehow wrench her arm free at the same time…  No.  She looked around at the dark figures.  She could only see moving shadows in the darkness, but there had to be eight or ten of them, at least.  Nope, she wouldn’t stand a chance. 

Then an idea came to her.  A desperate, last-ditch idea, but
once they locked her away somewhere, she might just be completely out of second chances.  Moving carefully, she pressed the palm of her hand against the edge of the blade.  Luckily it was sharp, and it cut easily into her flesh.  Now as she stumbled along, she could feel the slow but steady drip of blood from her palm onto the forest floor.

***

              Eian stood in the middle of the standing stones, not far from where he’d just been when Dirc had used the charm to send him through time to Allia.  Strange, but everything looked exactly the same, except that Dirc wasn’t there anymore.  He had expected that in another time, things would look a little different.  Or at least
feel
different.  He turned in a slow circle, wondering where to start.  He closed his eyes and reached out with all of his most primal senses and a touch of magic, letting them lead him.  It was not long before he knew exactly which way to go.  Allia had been here, and not long ago. 

As
he moved into the forest, he quickly saw that someone had gone this way very recently.  The signs were subtle, but like all lads raised in the highlands, Eian had learned to track at an early age.  A bent stem here, a broken twig there, a drop of blood…  His breath caught in his throat. Blood? Several hours old, at least.  He reached out and swiped at it with a finger, holding his hand up and rubbing finger and thumb together, watching the blood smear red across his skin.  He knew then, just whose blood it was.  Allia. 
And she was hurt
.  A panic the likes of which he had never felt rose swiftly in his chest. 
Oh, god, please don’t let me be too late!

Allia woke in a room with walls of stone, and realized that she must have passed out at some point.  Her ribs were sore, and she vaguely remembered being thrown over someone’s shoulder, bouncing along as he walked over the uneven ground.  They must have drugged her somehow, or maybe even hit her over the head… Damn it!  Now she had
no
idea where she was.  She stood on still-shaky legs and looked at her surroundings.  There was one window, high up on the wall, where the pink light of dawn was just beginning to show.  She ran to it and grabbed onto the metal bars that covered it to pull herself up.  She winced at the pain from the partly healed cut on her palm, but managed to peer over the edge.  She could see the ground just above her head, which told her she was in a cellar of some sort.  Dropping back down to the floor, she looked to the door on the opposite wall.  When she tried the latch, it wouldn’t open, which was no big surprise.  There was nothing else in the room except the single cot she had been lying on, with a woolen blanket laid across it.  She went back to the window and reached up to test the bars, on at a time.  None of them were the least bit loose, nor were any of the stones that held them in place.

All right, what now?  She had to think… had to keep from panicking
, because she was
not
going down easy.  She began to pace the narrow room from window to door, again and again, back and forth.  Who had taken her?  It had to be some enemy of her uncle’s, who else could it be?  Unfortunately, she didn’t even know enough about the man to guess who his enemies might be, let alone which one was likely to have kidnapped her.  A faint hope pierced her chest when she realized she could very well be ransomed back to him.  She knew that kidnapping for ransom was exceedingly common in the highlands.  But would Uncle Leon pay?  Was she worth enough to him if the price was high?  Allia realized that she really didn’t know the answer to that. Besides, he might be so angry at her for running away that he could care less what happened to her.

S
he gave up pacing after what could have been either minutes or hours, and collapsed onto the cot, staring up at the ceiling as if her salvation might be written there.  Lying there, it wasn’t long before her thoughts drifted to Eian Mac Coinnach, and she wondered where she would be right now had she given in to what was between them.  To distract herself from falling into further despair, she let herself think about him.  What would it be like, to have a man like that?  All of him…  She imagined peeling off his shirt, to reveal all of that firm, golden skin.  She wondered how it would feel, to touch him and kiss him.  And feel him moving inside of her.  She was suddenly annoyed that she was still a virgin, and wished that she hadn’t followed that particular rule, after all. How archaic was it, anyway, that a woman should remain a virgin while a man could be with as many partners as he wanted?  She really felt like she should have more experience before being with a man like Eian.  Too late for that now.  If she ever got out of here and ended up sleeping with him, he would be her first, whether she liked it or not.  She felt a shiver of anticipation at the prospect.