To Love a Highland Dragon (15 page)

“What do ye think happened?” His voice was soft, soothing. She could almost feel him infuse a calming spell into his words.

“Rhukon attacked us and tried to trap us. Damn near succeeded from what I could tell.”

“’Twasn’t just Rhukon.”

The short sentence settled in her stomach like a lead weight. For a moment, she fought nausea, but then her head cleared and her gut quieted, likely a result of Lachlan’s spell. “So it was those other ones you told me about? The battle crow, uh, Morrigan, and the other bad dragon?” Maggie held her breath, not really wanting him to answer, but needing to hear the truth.

“Aye, but Connor would laugh himself sick to be called a bad dragon, right afore he ripped the eyes from your skull. ’Tisn’t a game we play, Maggie. This is deadly serious.”

Anger raced through her, bright, brittle, and hot as dragon’s fire. She signaled, pulled to the side of the expressway, brought the car to a stop in a flurry of squealing brakes, and then turned to Lachlan. “Don’t you dare patronize me. As if I need reminding. I lost my parents to magic. I know how quickly—and irrevocably—it can destroy everything.” To her horror, a great, choking sob escaped, followed by another. She shook her head hard and tears flew from her eyes.

“Lass. ’Tis sorry I am. I had no mind to be upsetting you.”

“Never mind. It’s me. I’m on edge and kicking myself for not learning about magic when the coven offered me the chance. Tell me what happened in the cave. I’ll try not to take your head off.” With a glance in both mirrors, she ferried the car back onto the highway and brought it up to cruising speed.

“I doona know for certain, lass, but my best guess is Rhukon, Connor, and the Morrigan presumed I’d brought you to Kheladin’s lair to consummate our relationship. The first thing they did was try to convince me, and with such a degree of subtlety I dinna recognize it for sorcery, that we needed to be married afore we bedded one another.”

“Yes. I got that part. Kheladin and I disabused you of that notion.”

“Aye, and I must admit I’m anxious for a repeat performance, but that is off the topic to hand.”

Her left hand snaked across the console. He tucked it between one of his and the warmth of his body. “Thanks. Making love with you was so unlike anything else I’ve done, it should have a different name. I’m up for a repeat just as soon as we find a wall I can lean up against and—”

“Och, lass, we’ve barely begun in that department, but I get your drift.” He chuckled. “Doona say aught more. When I get hard in these breeks, it pains me something fierce.”

“The airport has lots of shops. I’m sure we can find you a pair of sweatpants.” Reassured by the warmth of him and his solid energy radiating confidence, she prodded. “Is there more I need to know about the attack?”

“Ye’ve figured out they were trying to kill us. I am immortal, but they can spin webs to immobilize me for long years. Rather like the net I just escaped from.”

Maggie’s hand tightened on the steering wheel. What he hadn’t said was she was far from immortal. A major cave-in, with its concomitant loss of oxygen, would have killed her. “Since they couldn’t stop us from fucking, is doing away with me the next thing they’ll try?”

“Smart lass. I have been thinking along much the same lines. Ye need a crash course in controlling your magic. I am hoping your kin will help with that. I am not as familiar with witch magic as I am with my own.”

“I can help,”
Kheladin said.
“We must teach her to ride me. An aerial position is a defensible one.”

“I heard that,”
Maggie murmured.
“Thank you for the offer.”

“Och aye,” Lachlan cut in. “’Tis much more than an offer. ’Tis a concession. No one has ever ridden Kheladin. Of course, I am within him when he takes to the skies, but I am not astride his back.” He squeezed her hand. “The dragon likes you.”

“How could I not? She is ours.”
Kheladin reiterated his earlier statement.

Warmth simmered in her heart and created a comforting shroud. In its layers, she found acceptance and approval. Maggie tried to send reciprocating energy back to Kheladin. It was hard to tell if she succeeded at first, but then she was certain the dragon recognized her offering. “He has ways to talk that transcend words,” she murmured.

“That he does,” Lachlan concurred. “How much farther to Glasgow?”

Maggie glanced at a passing road sign. “Maybe another hour. Despite how late it is, we’ll run into traffic when we get closer to the metropolitan area. Fortunately, the airport is a few miles out of town. I’ve only driven in the downtown area once, and it was hideous. I got caught in a traffic jam that lasted so long, I was afraid I’d run out of fuel.”

“A traffic jam being many cars stuck together somehow?”

“You have the general idea. There’s usually an accident, where one car’s run into another. Sometimes there are even multi-car pileups. Anyway, they block lanes so the other cars can’t move.”

“I feel as if I should be talking with you of love and a bright future together, not metal tubes with no life in them that run into one another.”

Something deep inside her got warm and fluttery. It felt right and good, but she pushed it aside. “If we make it through this in one piece, you can sing me all the love songs you want.”

“A practical lass.”

“No. One who’s scared half to death. I’m afraid if I let my guard down for even a moment or two, I’ll miss something and end up dead.”

“A wise lass.”

“I don’t know what I am. Would you mind if I turned on the radio for a few minutes? It’s closing on four-thirty a.m., and I’d like to hear the news.”

“I doona mind, though I have no idea what ye’re talking about.”

Maggie fiddled with the dial until she got a news station. She listened to the weather forecast. The broadcast crackled. “This just in,” the DJ said, his voice shifting from jovial to worried. “An inbound flight from Chicago to Glasgow disappeared off air traffic control’s radar half an hour ago. All inquiries should be routed to the carrier, Air Blue Sky. I repeat. Call the airlines at,” he rattled off a number, “if you had friends or family arriving on Flight 427. They will have up-to-the-minute information.” A breathy sigh came through the car’s speakers. “May God protect those three hundred passengers. I hope to hell He and all His saints take good care of them.”

Maggie felt as if she was about to pass out. She didn’t remember pulling the car off the highway to the shoulder. She didn’t hear Lachlan until his anxious voice finally penetrated the fog around her brain.

“Lass, lass.” He shook her arm. “Whatever is the matter? Was that your grandmother’s airplane the fellow was nattering on about?”

She dropped her forehead onto her hands clutching the top of the steering wheel. “Yes,” she managed, just before anger so violent she wanted to kill whatever crossed her path ripped through her. “That was Mary Elma’s plane.”

“Can you do anything?” Her voice held anguish. Lachlan gathered her as close as he could, given the small shelf sitting between them.

“I doona know, lass. Ye know your grandmother. Ye have an imprint of her energy. If it’s one of us who might reach her, ’twould be you. I will lend my magic to whatever ye wish to try.”

“All those years I spent moldering away in college, medical school, and residency were nothing but a colossal waste.” She raised her head and banged a fist down on a ridge that ran across the front of the car behind its steering wheel.

Lachlan chose his words with care. Since the Celts knew about Mary Elma, it was a good bet Rhukon and the Morrigan did as well. “Gwydion and Arawn were aware of your grandmother—”

Maggie jumped on his line of thought before he finished getting the words out. “Of course they did. My grannie is one of the most powerful witches alive today. Whatever happened to her plane was no accident.” She pounded her fist into the car’s steering wheel, winced in pain, and flexed her knuckles. “When Rhukon and them couldn’t kill us, they switched gears to easier prey.”

“Explain radar to me, lass?”

She exhaled raggedly. The sound broke his heart. The lass was in pain, suffering terribly, and there was nothing he could do to ease her anguish. “Radar is an invisible electronic beam that tracks airplanes—and other things. If the plane had crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, radar would have followed its trajectory down.”

“But the fellow said the plane disappeared, which means it dinna crash.”

“Exactly.” Maggie bit off the word. “Those bastards did something.” She shook her head; he heard her teeth grind against one another. “I wish I knew more about magic.”

“Are we anywhere near to Loch Lomond?”

“Not far. Maybe fifteen minutes. Why?”

“Do ye know Castle Balloch?”

“I’ve seen it. Never took the tour, though.”

He blew out a breath.
Tour? Whatever did she mean by that?
“Thank the gods the castle still stands. There does not appear to be any sense in going to Glasgow. Take us to Castle Balloch.”

“Why?” she asked again.

“Magic is strong there. Once upon a time, there were a series of magical nodes strung betwixt the castle and the far side of the loch. ’Tis a strong possibility I can secure help from there.”

“How?”

“I canna explain the whole of it. But the location will intensify my abilities. Yours, too.” He paused, wondering whether to give voice to his next thought. In the end, he did, to underscore the urgency of their predicament. “Even with Kheladin’s strength at my disposal, I couldna have freed us from the cave without your help.”

“And you’re hoping for a much stronger infusion of power from these nodes?”

“Aye, lass.”

“All right. I don’t have any better suggestions. To tell you the truth, I feel woefully out of my league.” Her phone trilled. Maggie made a grab for it, peered at its illuminated display, and said, “Aunt Chloe.”

Lachlan watched Maggie as she spoke with her kinswoman. Her features were carved into bas relief by pale moonlight. Mayhap it was a trick of Artemis’ moon, but Maggie had an ethereal beauty that glowed, illuminating her from within.

Mostly escaped from her braid, thick, golden curls fell around facial bone structure that would have done a goddess proud. His groin stirred. He wanted her, plain and simple, but now wasn’t the time. The small taste of her hot, damp core, when he’d been crazed with lust and hadn’t lasted five minutes, had been the merest of appetizers. He shifted in his seat and tried to move his more-than-hard cock to a comfortable position. He caught himself gazing longingly at the full curves of her breasts and the enticing swell of her rump where it rested against the seat. His heart beat faster. Lachlan forced himself to look out the window before he threw prudence to the four winds and simply ravished her in the dirt next to the car.

While he heard her side of the conversation, he couldn’t make out the rest, despite using Kheladin’s acute senses.
Aye, and the aunt must be shielding things with magic.

“Here.” Maggie thrust the phone at him. “She wants to talk with you. I’ll get us moving toward Castle Balloch and the loch.”

Lachlan took the phone. Feeling odd, like he was trespassing on someone else’s magic, he held it to his ear as he’d seen Maggie do and said, “Aye?”

“My name is Chloe,” a strident female voice said without preamble. “Margaret is my niece. You will help her find out what has happened to my mother.”

“Aye. She is my mate. Of course I will help.” Because Chloe seemed overwrought, Lachlan experimented with a calming spell.

“Don’t waste your magic on me, dragon shifter. Save it for what’s important.”

“Certainly. Of course.” Apparently, the witch knew far more about him than he did about her. Lachlan stilled his racing mind and focused on what he saw as paramount. “’Tis as I told Maggie, I am not familiar with your mother’s energy. ’Twould be best if one or more of you could travel here.”

“Not likely any of us would trust the airlines after tonight.” A hesitation, then a sly note crept into Chloe’s voice. “You’re connected to the Celtic deities.”

“Ye dinna ask a question, but aye, that I am.”

“Could you rustle one of them up to help?”

Lachlan hesitated. “’Is it possible for someone to overhear our conversation?”

“Not from my end, dragon shifter. I have no idea what magics you’re conjuring on yours.”

“Lass.” He aimed for a placating tone since his magic appeared to upset her. “I have been ensorcelled—asleep, if ye will—for hundreds of years. The world I woke to is still passing strange to me.”

“Excuses!” she snapped. “They’re an indulgence. Get over it.”

Lachlan couldn’t help himself. A laugh rumbled up from his belly. “’Tis a feisty one ye are. In my day, a woman wouldna speak so to a man.”

“What a good thing customs have changed,” she said dryly. “Now, what are you going to do to retrieve my mother?”

“Do ye ken where she is?”

“Not exactly, but she’s still alive. I’d know if she were dead.”

“Excellent news. ’Tis what I meant by her kin having a feel for Mary Elma’s energy. I am not hedging, but I am reluctant to disclose my thoughts since I have no idea how to shield this type of conversation from those who seek to harm us.”

“But you will do something. The state the world is in, we need Mary Elma. Her loss would be a grievous blow.”

“Aye. I willna desert Maggie. She needs my help.” Lachlan considered trying to talk around the ancient prophecy regarding himself and Maggie.

He’d just opened his mouth when Chloe said, “I already know about it. Our entire coven does, so I assume our enemies do as well. Margaret tried to escape her destiny, but that never works.” A brittle laugh. “In any event, you aren’t the only one with foes who’d just as soon see you out of the way. Give the phone back to my niece.”

Lachlan complied. Apparently niceties such as greetings and farewells had gone the way of prehistoric beasts. Moments later, after a flurry of
I know
and
I understand
and
Yes, Auntie
, Maggie slid the phone back into her bag. “Sorry about that,” she murmured. “My aunts can be intense, even when things are going well.”