CHAPTER TEN #3
She shifted softly in her sleep.
He tensed, concerned that she was dreaming, but she was not. She remained asleep, but before he could turn away from her, he felt his father’s dark power behind him.
Aidan whirled, but the night was silent and empty. Or was it?
Years ago, Moray had brought a great chill with him, and a huge, foreboding sense that a terrible hammer of evil was about to fall. Aidan strained through the night and shivered. He thought he detected a new chill, just barely drifting into the tent.
He moved to the tent flap and lifted it.
Most of the camp was asleep, some in their brats and blankets upon the ground, the rest in tents, with their many fires now barely burning.
Even the women’s camp was quiet, most of the fires in ashes and embers.
He glanced south, where the horses and pack animals were tethered and grazing quietly, unbothered by the shadows and the darkness.
The air murmured around him, brushing up against him, a soft caress that chilled him to the bone.
Moray was there.
He could not see him; he could not feel him. He simply knew. “Reveal yourself,” he hissed.
He almost thought he heard his father’s mocking laughter, but he felt certain it was in his mind. And then he felt Brianna’s dream forming.
He rushed to her bedside to wake her up, but before he reached her, he slipped into her sleep to guard her. He faltered in surprise and dismay.
Brianna wore a pretty blue dress, sleeveless and short, revealing half of her slim legs and all of her shapely arms, and she was breathtakingly beautiful. “I knew you would come to me.” She smiled at him, her eyes intent and trained upon him. They were warm with desire, with love.
He knew what she wanted. His entire body stiffened in anticipation.
“We’re dreaming,” she told him. “Please don’t refuse me now.”
He wanted to be there with her. He wanted to make love to her. But something was terribly wrong—he sensed impending doom.
“I can’t,” he said, but he started toward her.
She smiled and stood, holding out her hand.
He faltered. What was he doing in her dream, anyway? He had already realized making love to her in a dream was as dangerous as doing so in the other world.
“Wake up,” he ordered her. He had to end this now, before it went further.
Stubborn as always, Brianna shook her head and reached behind her back for the zipper on her dress. Aidan went still.
And then her eyes widened in abject alarm.
Moray materialized between them.
Aidan became rigid with tension.
His demonic father was not using Robert Frasier now.
He appeared exactly as he had before Malcolm and Claire had vanquished him; a tall, handsome blond man, oddly ageless.
He stood between them, his smile diabolic.
“My power is far greater than yours, my son. Dream, Brianna. Dream of your great love, Aidan.”
Brianna cried out and Aidan felt her fear. He wanted to rush to her, but he didn’t dare. In absolute dread, Aidan stared at his father. “What do ye want of me?”
“What do I want?” Moray asked incredulously. “You want to make love.” His blue eyes glowed red with demonic rage.
Aidan shook his head, but he understood. His desire was not demonic. Somehow, his father knew it and would make one of them pay for it.
“You should lust for the pleasure her life can give you, but you stand there, stricken with desire,” he hissed. “Did you think I would fail to remark it?”
“I take power every day,” Aidan said harshly. His gaze was on Moray, but he was acutely aware of Brianna standing behind his father, as pale as a ghost. “Brianna, wake up,” he ordered.
Brianna seemed near tears.
“She can’t wake up,” Moray said coldly. “You haven’t taken power, not a single time, since you brought her from the future to Awe.”
It took Aidan a moment to realize that his father was right. He was stunned. But he met Brianna’s frightened gaze. I willna let anything happen to ye, he told her silently. Ye need to wake up now.
Brianna just looked at him, and he knew she hadn’t heard him.
“She can’t hear your thoughts. I’ve made sure of it,” Moray laughed.
“Wake up,” Aidan cried to her. “Get out of this dream!”
“I’m trying,” she cried back. “The sleep is too deep. It’s too heavy!”
His alarm escalated as he turned to look at his father. “What have you done to her?”
Ignoring the question, Moray said, “You healed her today. I am so disappointed, Aidan.” His smile was mocking.
His father knew everything, Aidan thought, and rage began. But he felt a terrible moment of helpless despair. “Tell me what I must do now in order fer ye to leave her alone—in order fer her to awaken.”
Moray snarled, “You still protect her, an Innocent. When this day is done, I will own your soul.”
“Fine,” Aidan cried, meaning it.
“Aidan, whatever he wants, no!” Brianna cried, trembling.
Aidan met her gaze. He was beginning to feel that they were both awake but trapped in the dream world anyway. But she had to be dreaming still, didn’t she?
He had to awaken her; he had to get her out of this dream. Moray had come with some terrible, evil intention, and Aidan almost suspected that he had engineered the dream for them.
He was half in and half out of the dream. He started to step completely out of the realm, so he could awaken her, but he was blocked by a great and invisible energy.
Moray laughed.
He met Moray’s wide, cruel smile. “I have the power now,” his father murmured.
Frantic, Aidan tried to step out of the dream world again. He smashed into another invisible wall.
Brianna cried out, clearly aware that they were both trapped now.
Moray snarled, “I have spent over a hundred years on your fall, and now you embrace a white witch with your heart—and your soul!” He shook with rage. “I own your soul. It belongs to me!”
“Ye took my son. I murdered innocent men, women and children. When will ye be pleased?” Aidan cried. “What more can I give ye?”
Moray whirled and seized Brianna. Then, to his surprise, he shoved her into Aidan’s arms. Brianna clung, looking up at him, shivering in fear.
“Is this real?” she whispered.
“Nay,” he said, uncertain if he lied. He put his arm around her and faced his father. “It’s me ye want. Let her awaken and go.”
Moray smiled—and Aidan saw Ian.
He went still. This was not reality. “Ian?”
His son looked the same—small and dark of hair, with vivid blue eyes. The boy smiled in relief. “Papa.”
If Ian was a ghost, he would vanish as he always did. But his son simply stood there.
This was cruel treachery. Aidan reached out and saw his hand trembling.
Moray stepped back, taking Ian with him, out of his reach. “Give me your soul—and I will give you your son.”
Aidan felt Brianna choke on despair.
Ian looked desperately at him. “Papa? Please?”
He could hear his son. Was this a different kind of dream? Was it an enchantment? Or was it real?
“Your soul,” Moray said softly.
Aidan tensed. He knew his father would have him commit an atrocious crime, and a terrible inkling began.
“Yes,” Moray said, lurking. “That is what I want.”
Aidan did not move.
Moray wanted him to take Brianna to bed now—and to take pleasure in her death.
“Aidan?” Brianna whispered, looking up uncertainly at him.
“She can’t die in a dream, my boy,” Moray said. “Go, take her now.”
Aidan had his arm around her. She had died in her dream last night, but somehow had awoken alive anyway. His every instinct told him now that she would die in this dream—and she would never awaken from it.
“Do you want your son?”
“Aidan, what does he want?” Brianna cried.
Aidan breathed hard. He ignored her. “’Tis a lie, a trick.”
“Give me your soul and I will give you your son,” Moray repeated.
Aidan stood there, frozen, aware of Ian staring desperately at him and of Brianna pressed to his side.
Ian was dead. Wasn’t he?
He could not destroy Brianna. Could he?
Wouldn’t he do anything to get his son back?
“Don’t you want to know what your son has been trying to tell you for sixty-six years?” Moray inquired.
“You are disgusting,” Brianna shouted. “And you will be vanquished. No demon lives forever!”
Moray laughed at her.
Aidan, shaking and ill, looked at him. There was nothing he wanted more than to know what Ian had been trying to say to him—unless it was to bring his son back from the dead. And as he stared, Ian suddenly vanished.
“Bring him back,” Aidan shouted in helpless rage. “Ian!”
But there was no answer. Where Ian had just been standing, the air shimmered and sighed.
“Destroy her,” Moray ordered. “Destroy her and the boy will return.”
Brianna gasped and became rigid in his embrace.
He didn’t dare look at her now, but his grasp on her tightened. It was his duty to Ian to do whatever he had to bring him back.
He looked at Brianna and he heard her thoughts. Her faith hadn’t wavered. She didn’t believe he would ever hurt her, not even to spare his son’s death.
She was fighting tooth and nail for his soul, and she had been doing so since the day he’d abducted her from her time.
Her white light was a blessing—and the only light in his life.
He could not do it.
His mind was made up. He turned to leave the dream, and he hit that invisible wall again. Furious, he pushed against it, again and again, to no avail.
“No one will ever leave this dream unless I allow it,” Moray said in quiet fury.
Aidan’s rage knew no bounds and it became savage. He let Brianna go.
“Aidan?” she whispered.
He didn’t really hear her. Every hackle raised, he faced Moray and snarled.
Moray’s eyes widened in alarm.
Brianna screamed.