CHAPTER ELEVEN #2
Brie looked at Allie, who smiled saucily at her. “He’s very angry with Aidan. I tried to heal him right after his son was murdered and he blew up at me. I know he didn’t mean it, but he went berserk with his powers. If Royce hadn’t appeared, I guess I could have been really hurt.”
Brie started. “Allie, wait a minute. Are you saying that you tried to heal Aidan sixty-six years ago?”
She grinned. “What year did you come from, Brie?”
Brie said slowly, “It’s been a year, almost to the day, since you left us for good. Aidan took me back on September 21, 2008.”
Allie laughed. “Well, you haven’t seen me in a year, but I haven’t seen you in 72 years!”
“You look twenty-five,” Brie whispered, stunned. “You haven’t aged a day!”
“My family tree isn’t what we thought it was,” Allie said. She hugged Brie impulsively again. “My brother is The Black Macleod—a Master.”
Brie felt her brows soar. “Does this mean you’re immortal?”
“I have no idea,” Allie said happily. Then she sobered, and her dark gaze was scrutinizing. “You look really good, actually. You seem to be in one piece, and you finally ditched those horrible eyeglasses. The pince-nez is sort of cute.”
Brie hesitated, thinking about everything that had happened in the past few days. If she looked okay, it was a miracle—or was it?
“Has Aidan hurt you?” Allie demanded, unsmiling. “Because you don’t look hurt or feel hurt, not at all, but you are distressed.”
“No,” Brie said, shaking her head emphatically. “He would never hurt me. His bark is really loud, but he has no bite.”
“Really?” Allie’s eyes were wide.
“And he can deny it, but we’re friends.” Brie smiled grimly at her.
Allie stared. “Brie, he has no friends.”
“He has me. He needs me. Allie, he is in so much pain.”
Brie knew she was giving her feelings away and she blushed. But surely Allie would be supportive of her. They’d always been supportive of each other. Allie seized her hand.
“It’s really easy to fall for these hunks,” she said softly.
“And Aidan is one of the most beautiful men on this planet. He has tons of experience, too. He was the most eligible bachelor of medieval times. I mean, he outdid all the modern playboys I ever knew combined before he fell. Now, of course, he uses enchantment, not seduction. Has he enchanted you?”
“No. Allie, he isn’t evil.”
Allie’s gaze was searching. “Everyone says he takes power pretty much all the time.”
“He leaves his lovers alive.”
“Good. I was hoping so.”
Brie clasped her hands. “I need you on our side,” she whispered. “Desperately.”
“You’ve fallen in love with him.” It wasn’t quite an accusation.
Brie closed her eyes and nodded. “I didn’t mean to. But that day you brought him to Tabby and Sam’s loft, I sort of had an instant crush. And since I came back here, it’s sort of escalated.”
Allie stared. “Are you sleeping with him?”
Brie flushed. “Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
Brie became uncomfortable. “I’m okay. I can handle this.”
“You have no experience with men! You are grist for his mill. The one thing I do know is he uses women all the time. I will kill him if he hurts you. You shouldn’t sleep with him.”
Brie thought of how wild Allie had been in New York and she started to smile. Allie instantly knew, appearing sheepish. “My sex drive has always been out of control. You’re not like that.”
If only she knew, Brie thought. “He hasn’t used me…he respects me.”
Allie choked. “Brie, I beg your pardon?”
“So much has happened,” Brie told her. “Since he rescued me from the gang in New York and brought me back here, we have been through hell. He was so angry at first, so dark, so frightening…but he isn’t frightening now.
Allie, I almost died yesterday. He healed me.
” Allie cried out in surprise. “I believe in him! He has protected me time and again, instead of hurting me. I am going to redeem him.”
Allie took her hand, and they both sat down. “You and Aidan,” she said. “I would never have thought, not in a million years. I would have paired him with Sam.”
“He’s not my soul mate,” Brie said quickly. “He’s just my friend.”
“Aidan hasn’t protected Innocence since his child was murdered,” Allie said. “But he healed you? Are you sure it wasn’t a god?”
Brie blinked. “The power was coming from his hands.”
Allie began to smile. Tears formed and she swatted at them. “He’s my friend, too. He was my knight of swords, remember? I love him. Now, what kind of trouble are you in?”
Brie stiffened. “His father has returned from the vanquished and he has more power than I could have dreamed.”
THE WOLF WANTED TO GET OUT OF his body. Aidan wanted nothing more than to let the Wolf free and hunt his archenemy, but he somehow refused it.
He could not leave Brianna alone. He didn’t dare go too far from her, in case Moray came back to start another battle or even to finish the war. He kept one sense on her always. As he did, he was acutely aware of what his father wanted him to do.
But Ian was dead.
Alone, he sank onto a boulder, cradling his head. His grief warred with the Wolf’s vicious rage.
Papa?
He didn’t know what that plaintive tone had meant.
He reminded himself for the hundredth time that it was a cruel trick in a cruel dream.
Brianna had made an irrefutable point. If Ian were alive, he’d be a grown man.
Besides, he’d never dreamed of Ian, not even once.
Clearly Moray had the power to foist this dream on him, just as he’d had the power to trap him and Brianna in it.
And then he felt the white power emerging on the plain below.
Aidan leapt to his feet and walked warily to the edge of the ridge.
He stared down the snowy slope, instantly identifying the intruders.
He was stunned when he realized it was Black Royce and Lady Allie.
But of course they would come—Allie loved Brianna, and Royce would do as his wife wished in the very end.
He was torn between dismay, anger and relief.
He crossed his arms, refusing to think about the past. It was impossible.
Did ye summon me to yer bath? Do ye wish fer me to help ye bathe?
He’d stood there at the door to her bedchamber, decades ago, grinning, having heard her thinking his name.
She denied it, and he already knew Allie would never do such a thing.
She was madly in love with his best friend, Royce.
Instead, she had flirted with him, just a little, and he had flirted back and agreed to help her so she could tempt Royce into her bed.
He had thought his friend a fool for denying himself such a beautiful woman.
Aidan grimaced. He was not that carefree, lighthearted man now, a man used to laughter and flirtation, a man eager to help a damsel in distress, even if he couldn’t have her.
“I can help you, Aidan. Let me help you!” Lady Allie cried.
Ian was dead, lost in the aeons of time. Malcolm had just unearthed him, and Aidan would never forgive his brother for doing so. Lady Allie and Royce, having heard of his son’s Fate, had leapt from Carrick to Awe to console him. She was weeping for him. He hated her for her tears.
“Get far from me,” he roared.
She shook her head, and showered him with her powerful, healing light.
For one moment, he was incredulous. He would grieve for Ian forever. She had no right!
His grief and rage erupted as one. He roared and roared and threw his power at her, all of it, wanting her gone, wanting her dead, like his small son, and she was blasted from the bridge.
She was small and it was like throwing a ball.
She screamed, spinning away across the field toward a stone wall.
Royce appeared, catching her. He knelt with his wife in his arms and when he looked up, he was enraged.
Aidan couldn’t wait to do battle. He would kill him, too!
“Royce, no,” Lady Allie begged.
Royce blasted him with all of his power.
He was trembling now. Lady Allie was very much like Brianna—kind and good. He should not have tried to hurt her, much less kill her. Regret dared to creep over him.
He hadn’t felt regret in years.
Royce had walked to stand at the bottom of the ridge, and he stared up at Aidan. Aidan tensed, staring back down at him. Even from this distance, he felt Royce’s hostility and wariness. Royce did not trust him. No one trusted him—except for Brianna.
And maybe, considering what Moray wanted, she should not trust him, either.
“Why do ye taunt him? Why do ye act all of twelve years old? He’s yer brother an’ the two of ye need to make peace.”
Aidan did not want to remember how important Black Royce had been to him when he had grown up in a foster home.
Although he had not lacked for food or shelter, Aidan had been a burden on the Maclaine family and he had been treated very differently from the Maclaine sons and daughters.
Royce had been both a father, friend and uncle to him, even without any blood tie.
Royce had visited him as much as possible when he was a very small boy, always bringing a gift.
He had taught Aidan how to wield his sword, and how to fight hand to hand.
And he had never ceased trying to forge a familial and amicable relationship between him and Malcolm, once the truth of Aidan’s parentage had become known to them both.
In the end Royce had succeeded, and Aidan and his brother had eventually come to good terms—until the day of Ian’s murder.
Aidan felt his heart aching oddly. Determined to ignore it, he reached for the restless, hungry Wolf. It clawed through him, determined to get out.
Royce had started up the hill, his strides long and determined.
Aidan told the Wolf to wait and he composed himself.
He would not allow himself any regret, not on any matter.
Royce would be a good ally in this war, but Aidan knew Royce would never forgive him for his attack on Lady Allie.
They would never be true allies—or friends—again.
A Highlander did not forgive and he did not forget. He braced for his onslaught.