Claimed (Book Four of the Castle Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel (12 page)

Then, mercifully and terribly, everything was quiet. Hailey had fallen on the ground, curled up to protect herself from the demon’s cries. Now she could stand up and look around.
 

The wolf was staggering to his feet, shaking his head and whining, but both Piers and Kieran were laid out on their backs. She dashed to Kieran first. He had stood the closest to the demon. To her relief, he still breathed, but his skin was waxen. A dull, dark liquid dripped out of his nose and his ears. When she tried to rouse him, screaming and finally slapping his face, he lay as still as a cast-off doll. Piers was the same, blood coming from his nose and his ears, and the same dead feeling.

Hailey slumped to the floor between them, numbed and afraid. She had lost the ability to think or move.

The wolf approached her, but then he flowed into his man shape. She didn’t protest when he lifted her in his arms as tenderly as he would a child. She closed her eyes and let the darkness take her.

HAILEY WOKE UP feeling as though she had been beaten with a sack of rocks. Every part of her hurt. Everything in her felt broken. Then she remembered the past twenty-four hours. She thought that her head would break apart.
 

When she looked to her left, she saw a stone window beyond which was deep forest. She could see the ruined iron gate that she’d passed through with the wolf. The wall under the window was lined with glass cabinets. To her right was a long row of beds. Directly next to her was Piers. Beyond him was Kieran. To her grief, they lay as the dead, pale and still. She realized that she was in some kind of infirmary. She staggered out of bed to stand between them, resting her hands on their chests. She didn’t know what she was going to do.

The door behind her opened, and the man who had been a wolf came in. He bore a tray with roasted meat on it. The scent of it turned her stomach. He must have seen the look on her face.

“You have to eat,” he said.

Already lightheaded, she knew he was right. But she could hardly take her eyes from Piers and Kieran. It didn’t feel right eating, when they couldn’t, when they–

“You can’t help them by starving,” the man said. He sat on the bed beyond Kieran, and laid the platter on it. “Come.”

Mechanically, she did as he said. She sat, took a drumstick of the roasted rabbit, and ate. As she did, she realized he was watching her intently.

“What is it?” she asked, her voice dull.

“There’s something about you,” he said quietly. “There’s a scent on you. One that I know but I can’t remember.”
 

Something about the way he spoke finally turned a key in her memory. She remembered lying in bed, curled up with Liona. Liona had had two lovers. One, Gaius, had stood beside her when she built up the covens. The other had gone to start the organization that would become the Magus Corps. He had been lost to time. He had disappeared centuries ago.

“Lucius?” she whispered, her eyes wide.

Saying the name wrought an immediate change in the man. His dark eyes went wide. He shuddered as if he was in pain. Suddenly he stood to loom over her, his face dark and confused. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.

“What is that name?” he said, his voice dropped down to a wolfish growl. “What does that name mean?”

“It’s an old name,” she said softly, trying to keep her voice low and level.

This was a man who the Templars had broken, and when he’d escaped, little remained of the man that Liona knew. Hailey knew that there was as much beast in him as man, but the beast had helped her. She had to remember that.
 

 
“What does it mean? Why…why does it hurt?”
 

“It was your name,” she continued. “You are Lucius Magnus, a legatus of Rome.”

He growled at her, lashing out blindly with one arm. The plate of meat clattered to the floor as Hailey stood. Some very ancient and primal part of her wanted to run and hide, to put something between herself and what this man was. But she held her ground. This was what he needed to hear, whether he knew it or not.

“You fell in love with a girl named Liona, and when your family was kidnapped, you both went looking for them.”

“You’re lying,” he snarled.

He put up an arm as if he would fend off the words that she was saying. She was relentless.

 
“You were both banished from Rome, and in Gaul, you met a sorcerer named Gaius. He joined your quest, and then you lost her.”

“Liona…we lost her. She was taken.” His voice was wondering. “We tore that town apart looking for her.”

“But you found her again…”

“Yes, in Alexandria.” A shadow passed over his face. “They hurt her.”

“And she healed. And you found your family.”

“I…I…”
 

He jerked as if he had been struck with a whip. To Hailey’s shock, he fell to his knees with a wolf-like howl. He curled in on himself, trembling on the floor. Hailey knelt beside him even though she knew it was foolish. He was a powerful man, either in his wolf form or as he was. He could have killed her without thinking. But she wrapped her arms around his body just as she had when he was a wolf.

“She healed,” she whispered. “Her and her sister and your friend, all of them did. You stayed with them for a while, but there were other things you wanted. You are Lucius Magnus, and you are remembered. You founded an organization that would protect people for a thousand years and still does. You are Lucius.”
 

He shook until finally he went still. Hailey waited, her mind oddly calm. Minutes may have passed, but when he finally rose, there was a strength in him that hadn’t been there before. He stood up straight, and his eyes were sharper. She could see the legatus now, the officer who had commanded men, Liona’s lover, and the warlock who had helped to create the world she lived in.

“I am Lucius Magnus,” he said, his voice calm and strong. “I owe you a great debt of service, Hailey.”
 

Hailey smiled and stood up from the ground with him.
 

“You smelled Liona on me. She has missed you.”
 

“And I her. I’ll go to her as soon as I can, but first we must deal with your men.”

“What can be done?” she asked. “I lay abed for a long time when I was just wounded by a demon. This is worse.”

“The first and most obvious thing is to kill them.”

Hailey snarled at him before she knew what she was doing. He looked at her with a perfectly serious face.
 

“You need someone who can enter the world the demon cast them in to. You need someone who can bring them back out of it. Do you understand what that world is like?”
 

Hailey shivered, hugging herself tightly. She did. When she had been wounded by a demon herself, she had walked through endless halls in an empty castle. It felt like she had walked there forever, and she might have if Liona hadn’t appeared to bring her out.

“That was a powerful demon,” Lucius said. “It died laying a curse on these two. It would have sent them far deeper than what an average witch could do. It would have taken them to some place that was truly hellish.”

“Will they stay there forever?” she whispered.

“Until they die or until someone comes for them.” There was a subtle shake to Lucius’ voice. He was not as unaffected as he looked. There was something wolf-like about his impassivity, but she wondered if it was from all his long years at war as well.

“Liona could go for them.”
 

“She could. They are dying quickly though. You can see it if you look. They are dying with the demon’s taint on them.”
 

Hailey felt hopelessness yawn underneath her like a chasm. She could feel the weight of Lucius’s words. Then her mind latched on to one brief hope.

“Could I do it?”

Lucius frowned at her.
 

“You are not a dream walker,” he said. “I saw you change forms.”
 

“I’m many things,” she said, confidence reasserting itself in her voice. “All I know is that I will do anything to save them. I need them.”

Lucius nodded slowly, his eyes narrowed.

“It was a skill of Liona’s. Others might have it as well. You must be asleep to follow them. You must be able to find them in your dreams.”
 

“If all it takes is will and dreams to find them, I will.”

Lucius hesitated.

“This is not without risks,” he said finally. “Simply because you fall asleep to enter this world does not mean that you can leave it simply by waking up. If you venture too far into the realm that the demons call their own, you may become stuck there. You may become as trapped as they are.”

Hailey could remember the endless tunnels she had been lost in before Liona had found her. Her mind and spirit had been fading, even as her body died.
 

“I am willing to take that risk,” she said firmly.

Lucius looked at her and nodded.
 

“They have medicine here. I will go and see if there is anything that can help you sleep.”
 

 
As he went to rummage in the cabinets, she came to stand between Piers and Kieran. She touched their faces tenderly. She kissed their hands.

“Hold on,” she whispered. “Please hold on. That’s all you have to do, until I get there. We’ll win free of this. I love you. I love you so much.”

Lucius returned with a vial of clear liquid and a fresh syringe.

“Morphine,” he said. “It will send you off to a deep slumber. Are you sure you want to do this?”

Hailey lay back on her bed. Outside, dawn was breaking, filling the sky with light.

“I am,” she said, her voice thin but strong. “Please, help me.”

He came to stand over her, swabbing her arm with alcohol. She felt the sharp prick of the needle, and then the slow, milky languor that came over her body.

As she was overwhelmed by the drug, she thought of the arrow that Liona had shot for her before she left the Castle.

May I fly straight and true, and may I find what I seek. Piers, Kieran, please wait for me. I need you. I love you.

• • • • •

Hailey’s story continues in IMPRISONED: Castle Coven Book Five, available now.

For a sneak peak, turn the page.

Excerpt:

IMPRISONED

Castle Coven Book Five

Kieran started to say something, but then Piers squeezed him between the legs through his trousers. Kieran gasped, his hips bucking a little.
 

“You were already hard,” Piers commented. “I don’t think it would take that much before I got you to beg.”

Kieran swore helplessly at Piers, who only laughed. Hailey felt a hot blush on her cheeks as Piers deftly unfastened Kieran’s trouser, drawing his erection out fully. He pumped the other man’s cock almost lazily, in absolutely no hurry at all.
 

When Piers stepped back, Kieran was fully hard and panting slightly. To Hailey’s shock, Piers slapped the other man’s hard flesh lightly, making Kieran groan.
 

“That’s good for you right now. I have some other things I want to do.”

Hailey realized that Piers was looking straight at her. She stood her ground as he walked over to her. The idea of being held and aroused helplessly made her want to whimper, but instead he only looked her over.

“Strip for me,” he said finally. “Down to the skin. I’ve never thought that you should wear clothes.”

Hailey gulped and nodded. Her boots and outer garments went quickly enough, but when she got down to her underthings, she paused. The hall was cold, and not only were Piers’s avid eyes on her, but so were Kieran’s. The suits of armor she knew were insensible, but they were a presence as well.

Taking a deep breath, she stripped the last of her clothing off to stand naked in front of Piers. She resisted the instinctive urge to cover herself. He had seen her naked before, but never in this cool and calculated way.
 

Piers examined her much as he had examined Kieran. When he reached for her, she expected a gentle caress or even a passionate one, but instead his hands ran down her shoulders and her arms, along her flanks and down her thighs. When he swept his fingers through the length of her red hair, she shivered at how close he was to her and everything that she could feel.
 

She felt like an object he was examining, perhaps deciding if he wished to purchase her or use her. When he tweaked first one nipple and then the other, she squeaked a little, making him smile.

“You’re perfect for me,” he said casually. “I’ve always thought so, but I love you like this.”

She started to ask what he meant, but instead, she gasped when he lifted her in his arms as if she was as light as a feather. She clung to him for a moment, but they weren’t going far. He was only depositing her on his desk, heedless of the papers that lay on it. She tried to close her legs, but he held them open, letting them dangle over the edge of the desk. She blinked when she realized that she was able to look straight at Kieran, who was still held by the suit of armor.

He looked absolutely starved. His eyes were wide and glassy, and his gaze flickered between her naked body and the way Piers stood to one side, watching her closely.
 

Almost casually, much as he had done with Kieran, his hand closed over the space between her legs. She held her breath as he cupped that tender flesh before running his fingertip along her slit. Her lower lips were full and warm, but when he traced his finger along the seam between, she grew wet.

“Do you like being displayed, Hailey? Do you like me showing Kieran how wet you get for me? Would you like me to show you to an army of men, just like this?”

Hailey shook her head to clear it. She had to try twice before she could find her voice.

“I like being displayed,” she said softly. “But I just want you and Kieran to see me. I…trust your eyes. I love you both.”

She wondered if Piers would be displeased, but he only chuckled.