Midnight's Temptation

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

“We need to call Fallon,” Charon said.

Phelan knew he would eventually have to go to the castle, but he wasn’t ready. Looking at Isla would only make him think of Aisley.

For all of them, it was better if he stayed away for the time being.

“I need to do something other than sit around a damned hall talking. I need to find Wallace.”

Laura began to pick up Aisley’s clothes and neatly fold them before putting them in her duffle. “You don’t even know where to find Wallace. You’ve been looking for months.”

“Have I?” he asked sarcastically. “I’m no’ so sure I was. I was more concerned with Aisley. She led me on a merry chase while Wallace did whatever he did.”

Charon leaned his hands back on the bed. “Broc has been trying to locate Wallace since the battle. Wallace hasna been anywhere to be found. You and Malcolm searched for months. Even Fallon, Lucan, and Quinn snuck out of the castle at night to search. No one has found anything. I doona believe Wallace was here.”

“Where has he been then?”

“That I doona know. You and I left Cairn Toul and never looked back. I snapped Deirdre’s neck with my own hands. She was dead. Her body was destroyed, but no’ her essence. She was able to come back. I think Wallace has done the same thing.”

Laura walked out of the bathroom with Aisley’s toiletry bag. “I really don’t like hearing that. Will Jason be the same or different if he comes back?”

“That’s a big if,” Phelan said. “We doona know if Wallace died.”

“On Skye, tell me what happened when Aisley was attacked,” Charon urged.

Phelan hated the way his friend was watching him as if he were looking for any cracks in his armor. “It was similar to what happened when I was following her. I felt a wave of drough magic. It was unmistakably Wallace’s.”

“Wait,” Laura said. “Back up and tell us about the first time you felt Wallace.”

“I did.” Phelan raked a hand through his hair and briefly squeezed his eyes shut. “I’d been following Aisley for weeks. It’s true what she said. I kissed her at a club. I knew she was a Druid, but I didna sense black magic about her. I kissed her, she asked me what I was doing, and then ran off. I trailed her after that hoping to get close to her.”

He paused, hating himself for being duped. Again. And by another drough. “She was on her way out of Scotland when I felt Wallace. I was several cars behind her. Her car swerved and she was hit by the car behind her.”

“She swerved?” Laura asked.

Phelan struggled to find any measure of patience. “Aye.”

“Why did she swerve? Was there a car in front of her?”

“Nay.”

Charon sat up and turned his head to his wife. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking Jason may have been trying to get to Aisley. She maybe felt him and it surprised her enough that she jerked the wheel of her car.”

Phelan bit back a smirk. He wasn’t sure why Laura was trying to find the good in Aisley. There was no good. A drough was evil to the core of its black soul. They could wield magic with barely a thought and make people do anything they wanted.

Charon rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “What happened after the wreck?”

“I knew it was Wallace, and I feared he might come for her because of me,” Phelan explained. “So I put her on my motorbike and got the hell out of there.”

“Did anything like that happen again?” Laura asked, some emotion Charon couldn’t name shining in her eyes.

He leaned back against the wall. “On Skye. We were hiking to look for the Druids when Wallace’s magic slammed into me. It was stronger than before. I expected an attack. Instead, I heard Aisley scream.”

“What happened?” Charon asked.

Phelan closed his eyes and remembered seeing the blood run down her arm, the panic that had gripped him. “She was cut deeply on her left arm, and then it was as if something knocked her over the side of the cliff. I caught her and pulled her up, and she had more injuries than I realized.”

“You healed her,” Laura stated into the silence that followed.

He opened his eyes and nodded. “Aye. I healed her.”

“Was she frightened?” Charon shrugged at Phelan’s look. “It’s a valid question.”

“She was. I thought it was because Wallace was trying to get to me through her. Now I think it was because she went over the side of the cliff.”

Laura crossed her arms over her chest. “No. Aisley wanted to die. It wasn’t her near death that frightened her.”

“And you would know how?” Phelan demanded. “Do you know something about her I doona?”

Charon got to his feet and stood between them. “Laura thinks when Wallace captured her that Aisley looked … well, lost.”

“Dale protected her,” Laura added.

Phelan frowned. “The Warrior Wallace had? He protected Aisley?”

“Yes. I think he cared for her.”

He didn’t like hearing that someone else had watched over her. Despite his hatred, he couldn’t stop what he felt for her, convincing liar or not. “It doesna matter now. None of it does. She knows who we need to stop the selmyr. Or more importantly, she knows how to stop us from wiping out the selmyr.”

Charon blew out a deep breath. “Shite. It’s time to call Fallon.”

In two strides Phelan stood in front of his friend, his hand covering Charon’s mobile. “Nay.”

“Why? It’s going to take all of us. You know that, my friend.”

“I need to know what Aisley has done before anyone else gets involved. Wallace already tried to get Laura. I’ll not be responsible for other Druids hurt or dead because my cock led me to Aisley.”

Several tense minutes ticked by before Charon gave a nod and pocketed his mobile. “All right. Where do we begin?”

“The Internet café we were at earlier. I thought we were both searching for the same thing. I doona think so now.”

Charon took Laura’s hand in his. “I’m no’ a computer genius. If you willna bring in Gwynn to do a search, I can only think of one other place we could go.”

“Dreagan.” Phelan wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but then again, the Dragon Kings were incredibly powerful. Without them, he was sure they’d all be dead in the last battle.

Charon raised a brow in question. Phelan glanced at Laura before he gave a nod. Charon got his mobile and pressed a button.

Somehow Phelan wasn’t surprised to know his friend had Dreagan on speed dial, and he was sure it had nothing to do with the business of stocking their exceptional scotch in Charon’s bar.

“Con, I need a favor,” Charon spoke into the phone. There was a moment of silence as he listened to whatever Con said. “I need someone who can hack into a computer.”

Phelan looked down at his small bag. His life was in that bag. He could go anywhere at any time and have all he needed. Aisley had been the same way. It had felt so good to have someone who understood his lifestyle and hadn’t tried to change him.

Now he knew why she hadn’t demanded anything or altered his life. She was content to string him along until she had her claws in him so deep he wouldn’t know up from down.

“Let’s go,” Charon said, jerking Phelan out of his musing.

Phelan grabbed his bag and reached for the door when Laura called his name.

“Do we bring Aisley’s stuff?” she asked.

He opened the door and started walking out as he said, “Burn it for all I care.”

In no time at all they were on the road headed to Dreagan Distillery. Phelan followed behind Charon’s sleek charcoal-gray Mercedes CL AMG Coupe.

The rain fell in a steady stream while lightning lit up the sky in a dramatic and beautiful display of artistry. Any other time he’d be watching the storm.

But as the tempest raged around him, it was nothing compared to what he was feeling inside.

All the women he’d bedded, all the women he’d charmed, not a single one of them touched him as deeply as Aisley. And many had tried.

How foolish he felt acting the besotted lover doing anything for her. How utterly ridiculous he was to believe the story she told him of her parents throwing her out, being pregnant, and then the baby dying.

He accepted every word she spoke.

She was a consummate deceiver. Not once had he questioned her. As for her secret, he knew it had all been a ploy. Every action, every emotion, every touch had all been to get him to fall for her.

It was a good thing he hadn’t or he really would be in trouble. He cared for her. Or rather, he had cared for her.

He should have killed her as she asked. Now he would have to hunt her down. The only good thing about that is he was sure he’d find Wallace when he found her.

Taking both their lives would go a long way to soothing his hurt pride. Never again would he trust a woman. Now he remembered why he charmed them, seduced them, and left them.

It was something he’d never forget again no matter how long he lived.

By the time they turned off the road onto the long, winding drive between mountains that led to Dreagan, Phelan was so angry he had to fight to keep Zelfor under control.

When they came to the rock-lined parking area of Dreagan there were two men waiting for them beneath the large overhang of the distillery. Phelan got off his bike and walked to Rhys.

Rhys’s long, dark hair was wet from standing in the rain. His unusual aqua eyes ringed with dark blue were crinkled at the corners as he smiled. “Good to see you.”

“Likewise.”

Rhys cocked his head. “Why do I no’ believe you, Warrior?”

“Because you’re a pain in my arse, Dragon.”

Rhys threw back his head and laughed. “We didna know you were tagging along with Charon.”

“He’s no’ tagging,” Charon said from beside Banan. “We’re here so hopefully one of you can help him.”

Rhys’s gaze jerked back to him, all laughter gone. “What’s happened?”

“I’ll explain everything as we make our way inside. Time is of the essence.”

Banan opened the door and waved them in. “I think you all know your way to the manor.”

Phelan nodded to Banan as he passed him. The manor was hidden from view of visitors that came to see the famous distillery. But it was more than privacy those at Dreagan wanted.

It was the fact they were dragons who could shape-shift that had to be kept a strict secret.

Phelan relayed the story, leaving out key points that were no one’s business, by the time they reached the manor. Laura hadn’t said a word, but he saw the way she frowned at a few choice words he used for Aisley.

“That’s quite a story,” Banan said. He turned gray eyes to Rhys. “Want to give the hacking a try?”

Rhys strode up the stairs and into a small office where he sat behind a desk with five computer monitors surrounding him. Phelan shared a surprised glance with Charon.

“I didna realize you were a computer guru,” Phelan said.

Rhys snorted. “This room is for anyone at the manor. We’ve a lot of time on our hands, Phelan. We like to … mess … sometimes.”

Banan chuckled from the doorway. “That’s a good way of saying we’ve accidentally taken down sites because we were … messing.”

“That’s how you learn,” Rhys said and began to pound on the keyboard. “Where were you at?”

Phelan gave him the location of the Internet café in Inverness and shifted around the desk so he could see what Rhys was doing. Surprisingly it didn’t take long for Rhys to gain access.

“Where was she sitting?” Rhys asked.

Phelan leaned forward to look at a picture of the café that Rhys pulled up on another monitor and pointed to where Aisley had sat. “There.”

Rhys keyed in more information, his eyes moving from one monitor to another before his fingers moved over the keyboard again.

“What time did the both of you log onto the computers?”

Phelan gave him the information and watched him enter more information.

The process was repeated a couple of times before the other four monitors flashed Web sites about Saxony on their screens. Phelan glanced at each of them, not understanding what he was seeing.

“Did you get the wrong terminal?”

Rhys slowly shook his head. “Nay. If that’s where she was sitting, then this is the information she looked up.”

“This has nothing to do with the name Hunter.”

Laura, Charon, and Banan moved around the desk to see what they were looking at.

Banan pointed to one of the screens. “It mentions here that the Saxony royal family had special blood that could heal others.”

Phelan felt the room spinning around him. “What? What did you say?”

Banan began to repeat it when Phelan slashed a hand through the air. “I heard you. Why would she do a search on that?”

“She didn’t,” Rhys said. “She searched for a lost prince. These sites are the last ones she looked at.” He turned his head to look at Phelan. “She was searching your history.”

Phelan rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. The day kept getting crazier and crazier. “I doona understand why.”

“You’re a damned prince?” Charon asked, his voice pitched high in surprise.

Phelan shook his head. “Nay.”

“You might want to rethink that,” Banan said and lifted his head from the screen he was reading. “It looks like Aisley found information about your family.”

“That’s no’ possible. I doona even have that information or know what to look for. How would she?”

Rhys rolled his chair back so Phelan could get a closer look at the monitors. “I think you’ll have to ask her. Regardless, if you didna know of your family before, she found it for you. You might want to thank her.”

“Over my fucking dead body,” Phelan said as he stalked from the room.