Donna Grant: Forbidden Highlander

The only one that hadn’t changed was him. Not that Quinn deserved a second chance at anything. He hadn’t been there to save his son and wife, and he had let his brothers down too many times.

Then fight your god!

It was much easier said than done. Yet, Quinn knew his very life rested on this.

The chains that held him were strengthened with magic, which prevented him from pulling loose, unlike the first time Deirdre chained him. Since he couldn’t get free, the only thing he could do was battle his god.

Quinn took a deep breath and fought to manage the anger that ripped through him. With each beat of his heart he concentrated on pushing his god down. After agonizing moments, he felt the god retreat. For the time being.

He blinked in the darkness. Deirdre hadn’t even left a candle for him, but then again he could see well enough in the dark not to need one. He didn’t need light to know his skin was no longer black, his claws and fangs had retreated, and his eyes were once more normal.

He had won against Apodatoo this time, but each time would be more difficult. And in his human form, it left him vulnerable to the attacks he knew were imminent.

Larena held her breath, waiting for Fallon to lean in and place his lips over hers. Her body shivered in anticipation as she gazed into his dark green eyes. She saw loneliness, but she also saw hunger in his depths.

And to her surprise, she felt her own hunger rise up within her. She desperately wanted Fallon to kiss her, wanted to know what his lips felt like.

Already her blood had heated and her heart raced with the feel of Fallon’s body against hers.

She forgot about hiding from Deirdre, she forgot about the Scroll she kept secreted away. All that mattered was the man who held her between his rock-hard body and the door.

Just as she thought she would get her kiss, he spun her away from him and jerked open the door.

Larena blinked at the empty space that Fallon hadjust occupied. She couldn’t believe he had left. She had felt so sure the passion was mutual between them.

Then the screams registered in her ears. She rushed to the doorway and leaned out. Something had panicked the entire castle.

She lifted her skirts in her hand and ran toward the shrieks. Halfway to the great hall she heard it — the unmistakable screech of a wyrran.

“Nay,” she whispered, and ran faster.

Why was a wyrran at the castle? Had Deirdre learned of her? Or was it here because of Fallon? None of it mattered at the moment. The only thing that did matter was killing the ugly creature.

When she reached the corridor that led to the great hall she had to push and shove her way through the crowd running from the hall. She heard someone shout her name and looked over to see Malcolm. His blue eyes held a wealth of worry, telling her without words that her worst fear had come to pass. Deirdre had found her.

Using the strength she usually hid, Larena shoved aside the people blocking her path and pushed into the great hall that was now devoid of people. She skidded to a halt when she found Fallon already there and facing off against the yellow-skinned wyrran as it clung to the upper wall near the ceiling.

She watched Fallon’s claws lengthen, their obsidian color shining in the candlelight. She waited for the rest of him to change. She wanted to know what he looked like as a Warrior, to see all of him as dark as his claws.

Instead, the wyrran raised its gaze to her and let out another ear-piercing screech. It leaped at her, but just when Larena was about to let her goddess out, Fallon caught hold of the creature’s leg.

“Get out!” he bellowed.

She gave a quick nod and hurried from the hall. But Fallon had another thing coming if he thought she wasn’t going to fight.

Fallon couldn’t believe there was a wyrran at the king’s castle. But more worrying than that was the fact Larena had followed him. Most women would have run upon hearing the screams. But not her.

He didn’t know whether he liked her courage, or wanted to shake her for putting her life in danger.

He thought he’d do both.

First, though, he needed to kill the wyrran, and he couldn’t take the chance of changing into his Warrior. The residents of the castle had already seen too much with the wyrran’s appearance. There would be no explaining away his black skin, fangs, and claws.

Fallon unsheathed the dagger he kept in his boot and tracked the small creature, praying that during the few moments Larena had been in the hall she hadn’t seen his claws.

The wyrran were diminutive, but the long claws on their hands and feet could tear a person in half. He hated looking at them with their thin, yellow skin. Their faces were hideous with a mouthful of sharp teeth that their lips could hardly fit over. And their large, round yellow eyes made his skin crawl.

“Did you come for me?” he taunted the creature.

The wyrran opened its mouth and issued a long shriek.

Fallon grimaced as his ears rang from the sound. “I really hate you little shites,” he murmured. “Come on and fight me!”

The wyrran jumped from the wall to the ground. The slight bastards could crawl on anything, in any direction. For the first time since he had let his god out to help save Cara, Fallon wanted to transform. He wanted to toss aside his dagger and use his claws to rip the wyrran in half.

The wyrran’s lips peeled back in what was supposed to be a smile, as if it knew what Fallon wanted.

“Can you read minds now?” Fallon asked as he jumped toward the wyrran. His dagger landed in the creature’s arm. Fallon ripped the blade down, scouring open the thin skin.

The wyrran’s claws raked down Fallon’s chest as it struggled to get free. Fallon ignored the pain and tried to hold on, but the wyrran’s diminutive, lean frame was hard to hold on to. Somehow, it jerked free of Fallon and the dagger and leaped to the wall.

It gave another screech before it bounded out of the great hall and into the castle through the door Larena had left open. Fallon’s only thought was of Larena. She would be defenseless against the wyrran.

Fallon rushed from the hall and into the empty corridor. When he was sure the wyrran and Larena weren’t there, he continued through the castle. The few people he saw quickly ran into chambers and slammed the doors. But he didn’t find the wyrran.

With a curse Fallon slid to a halt and returned to the great hall. The wyrran was fast, but he couldn’t outrun a Warrior.

Larena knew the wyrran would leave the hall. So she sat and waited. She wished she could watch Fallon battle the ugly creature, but she couldn’t chance it. The wyrran had to die.

How many of the vile creatures had she fought and killed over the decades? Too many. And what exactly was it doing in Edinburgh Castle?

That confused her even more. She could only guess it was here because of Fallon, but if she didn’t consider the possibility the wyrran was there because of her, then she would be foolish.

Between the shrieks of rage from the wyrran, she imagined Fallon was doing a good job of wounding the beast. Larena smiled. Had Fallon changed into a Warrior? She didn’t hear a roar, but how she wanted to see him in his Warrior form.

There were too many people in the castle for Fallon to chance it, and it wouldn’t be long before someone got up enough courage to come and check the hall.

Her musings came to an end when the wyrran burst from the great hall into the corridor before leaping out a window down from her. It was a good thing she had already tossed her gown out the window and transformed because a moment later Fallon came out and looked right at her. But he couldn’t see her. No one could.