Donna Grant: Midnight's Temptation

“Should we tell him our plan about our upcoming search?” Quinn asked quietly.

Lucan frowned. “Nay. We tell no one.”

“Agreed,” Fallon said.

The three ended their talk of searching for Wallace as Aiden came to the top of the stairs. He looked in need of a shave and a good meal, but the smile on his face said everything.

“Britt is close,” Aiden said. “Verra close. It’s still going to take a couple of days before the serum will be ready to test.”

After a round of clapping and shouts of joy, Aiden disappeared from view.

“This is good news,” Quinn said.

Fallon’s gaze was riveted on his wife, Larena. She was the only female Warrior, and she had come close to dying when drough blood had been put into her wounds.

Just one drop of drough blood could kill a Warrior. And somehow Wallace had managed to make the drough blood work more powerfully than before in bringing down a Warrior. Of course, the X90 bullets that were filled with drough blood didn’t help.

In the past, introducing a Warrior’s blood to counteract the drough blood was the way to save one of their own. Charon’s recent injury hadn’t been able to be reversed as before. They’d nearly lost him.

Lucan prayed Britt’s serum worked. It was just a matter of time before one of them fell to drough blood.

“Tonight,” Quinn whispered, as if reading his thoughts.

Lucan and Fallon nodded.

Tonight they would begin their hunt. The other Warriors, Druids, and their wives would be angry, but it was worth their fury to find Wallace.

At least they would know something. If he was dead, they could concentrate on finding the spell that would bind their gods for good and allow them to live normal lives.

If Wallace was alive … it meant another battle.

Lucan stayed where he was as Quinn and Fallon walked away. Lucan looked over the great hall at the men and women who had become his family. They might not be related by blood, but they were family just the same.

They had lost one already. Duncan.

Lucan’s heart was heavy every time he thought of the Warrior. And he couldn’t look at Ian without thinking of Duncan since they had been twins.

Their immortality gave them an advantage, but as it had been proven, they could be killed. Lucan didn’t want to lose anyone else in his family.

They’d come close recently with Charon and Larena. How many more times would luck favor them?

He feared their luck had run out.

It was just after one when Aisley pulled off the road to eat. The croissant and coffee she had hastily downed at the café had been hours ago.

The lack of food, stress of meeting up with Phelan again, and the worry that Jason could be right around the corner had given her the queen of migraines.

Aisley opened the door and blinked against the blinding light of the sun. She slipped her sunglasses back on and hurried to the small restaurant.

With a nod to the man behind the counter, Aisley walked up to the bar and ordered some fish and chips and a soft drink before sitting down at a table in the far back corner.

Her hands shook when she dug into her purse for her migraine medicine after they brought her drink. At any moment, she expected her head to explode from the pain. She popped the pill into her mouth and took a drink to wash it down.

No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t get Phelan out of her mind. He confused her, rattled her, but he excited her as well.

She didn’t like that most of all. He was the enemy. She shouldn’t want his touch. Or more of his kisses.

She closed her eyes and instantly an image of Phelan filled her mind. Rich, dark hair hung past his shoulders thick and straight. His face was hard lines and angles with a jaw that looked as if it had been carved from granite.

Despite the hardness of his face, his wide lips could tilt in a devastating smile that sent her emotions spinning. But when his blue-gray eyes locked with hers, it was as if the world faded to nothing.

She saw only him, felt only him.

Knew only him.

His tall body with his impossibly hard muscles felt so good against hers. The memory of their fleeting kiss, his heat, and the way she wanted to wrap her arms and legs around him and hang on for dear life revisited her every time she closed her eyes.

Even knowing he was most likely there to kill her, she couldn’t resist him or the attraction. He was temptation and danger rolled into one delicious package.

She couldn’t look at his lips without thinking of their kisses, of how she craved more. He was impossible to resist. The fact she didn’t want to resist him is what caused all the problems.

He couldn’t have been more tempting if he were laid out naked on her bed and covered in chocolate. His allure, his seductive eyes, and his damned charm were slowly getting the better of her.

How she wished she could give in to his tantalizing body and inviting arms. His blatant masculine sexuality enticed, tempted, and completely shattered any walls she tried to put up to keep him out.

The food arrived quickly, and she wasted little time in eating. The migraine had begun to let up a tad when she finished.

Aisley leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, her sunglasses still on. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t use magic to stop the migraines. Jason had told her numerous times it was because she was weak.

She didn’t know why her magic didn’t work that way, only that it didn’t. But she couldn’t heal herself of anything, even a small cut.

Maybe it was the evil inside her that prevented such things. A Druid with healing magic was rare, and it took pure magic. Pure had never been something Aisley was.

“Certainly not now,” she murmured to herself.

As much as she wanted to stay and relax, she had to get back on the road. It wasn’t a good idea to stay in one place too long when she was being chased.

Aisley pulled out some money and dropped it on the table next to the ticket before she rose to head back to her car. She blew out a long breath when she was once more behind the wheel.

Sleep was the best thing for her migraine, but there wasn’t time for that. She knew without a doubt that Phelan was tracking her.

“Why didn’t he kill me?” she asked herself.

No matter how many times she had thought about what occurred in Glasgow, she still couldn’t grasp why he hadn’t killed her. He almost made it look as if he were helping her.

And he let her leave.

“Another question I won’t have answered.”

But did she really want answers from the Warrior with the devastating smile and eyes that stripped her bare every time he looked at her?

Yes, God help her, she did.

He was exciting, dangerous, and stirring. Just as he was seduction in a tall, dark package she desperately wanted to rip into.

Aisley shook her head. “He’s a Warrior from MacLeod Castle. He’s supposed to kill me,” she reminded herself.

If only he would wait until she could stop Jason for good. She started the Fiat Bravo and pulled back onto the road. She had a long way to go yet.

* * *

Phelan watched Aisley with barely contained desire from a copse of trees as he sat atop his motorbike. He frowned at how she kept her head away from the sun, as if her sunglasses weren’t enough to shade her eyes.

It was also the way she held her shoulders that alerted him something was wrong. She looked tired, but also unwell. That’s the only thing that stopped him from approaching her again. His seduction was on hold. Again.

Damn, but did the woman know how tempting, how irresistible she was? Could she understand how the driving need to have her in his arms had him in knots?