With the little cottage having no telly, Evie pulled out her laptop. She went through the back door of her server and checked e-mails. As usual there were several from coworkers and the handful of friends wondering where she was.
As much as she wanted to talk to them, she couldn’t chance it. She’d probably done too much by telling them she was traveling when she first left.
No one believed her.
Was she that awful of a liar? Or just a person who was too predictable?
Evie exited her e-mail and checked her Web site. The hits to her site had been growing for the past three years, but there had been a spike over the last few months.
It was that spike that had her checking to see just who was visiting. The fact she had been hacked and had difficulty discovering who had done it was what kept her on the run.
The necklace was supposed to remain hidden, never to be seen in case someone sought to use it. Despite her knowing that, she needed to know if there were other Druids. What was a picture of a necklace anyway?
She made the choice to put it onto the Web site because she instinctively knew that if there were other Druids out there they would recognize it as a magical item.
It hadn’t taken long for e-mails to show up asking about the necklace. She easily put them off, but then came the hacking.
That’s when the fear settled in her gut and grew with every hour. There were no e-mails demanding to know more about the necklace, but when the hacker managed to somehow go through dozens of firewalls and traps to discover her name, Evie knew real terror.
The hacker seemed to be a professional one minute with the ease and simplicity of how they got into her site, but then in the next instant, some of their keystrokes looked amateurish. As if they wanted her to catch them.
It had been enough to scare her into removing the page talking about her necklace weeks ago. Yet they continued to come back and get past every trick she knew to keep them out.
“Who are you, and what do you want with me?” she asked the computer.
She drummed her fingers lightly on the keys and tried to think of another way to find out who her hacker was.
“If only I knew magic that would help.”
As if on cue, an instant message window popped up. Evie’s heart began a slow, hard pound as she read the message aloud.
“Would like to talk to you.”
She swallowed hard and squirmed on the sofa. “Just what do you want to talk about?”
Evie quickly typed in the words and hit enter. In a matter of seconds the reply read: “You mentioned a necklace on your site before you removed the page. Would like to discover what you know of it.”
She snorted. “As if I’d tell you everything.” She took a second to think of a reply and then started typing as she said, “I only know what I had on the site after finding the picture of the necklace.”
The cursor blinked, waiting for a response. Minutes ticked by with nothing. Could she have gotten them off her trail? She wanted to know why they looked for information on the necklace, but it would be a huge chance if she began asking.
Evie waited, and as she did, she realized the connection was still in place. She quickly switched screens and began to trace it to the source. If the person wouldn’t tell her who they were, she’d find out on her own.
Every time she figuratively hit a wall, she tried a different route. And yet, blocks repeatedly came up to stop her. It took another five minutes before she was able to pull up the location of the server.
When she saw it was routed through about a dozen countries, Evie knew she was in big trouble. She immediately disconnected the instant messenger and put in several more rounds of firewalls on her site.
Whoever this was wasn’t playing. They knew she had information. And they wanted it.
Just how badly they wanted it and to what means they were willing to go to get it was what had her on edge. No longer could she afford to wait for the remainder of her two days at the rental. She had to leave that night.
Hours later Evie rubbed her tired eyes as she sat on the bed. It felt as if the entire Sahara desert had taken up residence in her eyes. Lack of sleep and ages on the computer had only made things worse.
The rain began in the middle of the night. She watched it roll down the window in the hopes it would slack off enough for her to get on the road.
She was a horrible driver. In all actuality, she should never have gotten a license to drive. She’d bought her Renault because she loved the older cars, but the dings and scrapes on her beloved car were all her doing.
Evie glanced through the bedroom door at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall. It read 3:52. She jumped up, grabbed her purse, locked up, and ran to her car.
Earlier, she’d loaded her two suitcases into the trunk so she could leave at a moment’s notice. Every vehicle light that came into view was sure to be the unknown hacker she feared would locate her.
Evie sat behind the wheel and thought of her life as it stood. She had done exactly what her grandmother had cautioned her not to do—show the world the necklace.
It had been a stupid decision, all because she wanted to find other Druids. Now she couldn’t shake the feeling she was being tracked. Because the necklace had to stay hidden, Evie was on the run.
It wouldn’t do any good to hide the necklace, not if the hacker found her. Evie imagined she could withstand torture, but it wasn’t as if she knew for certain. She could design amazing computer software, but surviving torture hadn’t been part of her courses at university.
Running wasn’t her only choice. She could return to her flat and her job and wait for the hackers to find her. It was a choice she contemplated every damn day.
But the promise to her grandmother kept her from taking the easy road and handing the necklace over.
Evie started the car and put it in reverse. She pressed the accelerator, but in her haste, she turned the wheel too soon and backed into the picket fence surrounding the yard.
“Damn, damn, damn,” she muttered as she put the car in drive and pulled forward.
Normally, she would have gotten out and seen to the damage, but there was an urgency she couldn’t shake to get as far from the small cottage and Aviemore as she could.
On her second try, she backed out of the drive and only heard the screech as the wood of the fence scraped against the car.
Then she was on the road. At this hour, few people were about, which made driving a little easier. The rain, however, added a different, unpredictable complication.
She had great eyesight. Except at night. At night in the rain it was almost like she was blind. What Evie could see was so blurry and distorted she couldn’t pick out a tree from a sheep if her life depended on it.
Evie gripped the steering wheel with both hands, sitting forward so that she looked like one of those little old ladies peering through the steering wheel as they drove ten miles per hour.
She choked on a laugh when she looked down to find she was driving ten miles an hour.
“I’m a ninety-year-old woman in a twenty-eight-year-old body. It’s no wonder I’m perpetually single.”
She sent up a hasty prayer that she was able to keep the car on the road and not hit anyone. With no idea of where she was going, Evie found herself following the road that led her deeper into the Cairngorms.
The thick tree limbs that hung over the road blocked some of the rain, but not enough. She took the sharp left and drove over a bridge.
At the next right, she was going slowly enough to miss a fox that ran across the road by mere inches.
Evie felt the adrenaline pump through her at the near miss. With her entire body shaking, she started driving again. She’d gone less than three miles when the trees thinned out in a section and the rain came down harder.
She squinted through the deluge and windshield wipers that were going as fast as they could and still didn’t clear the window enough for her to see.
So she never glimpsed the deer walking across the road.
CHAPTER
THREE
Malcolm once more squatted near a tree downwind as he watched the herd of red deer. The rain cloaked his position as the deer looked around for what hunted them. He might not need to eat as a Warrior, but his form was still human and did weaken if he skipped too many meals.
But it wasn’t hunger that had him tracking the animals through the night. It was the chase, the hunt.
The kill.
He called to his god. In the next heartbeat fangs filled his mouth and long, maroon claws extended from his fingers. Lightning singed along his fingers as he welcomed Daal. His enhanced senses picked up an approaching car. And a wisp of magic he wished he didn’t recognize.
The deer’s ears twitched in the direction of the vehicle. Malcolm shifted so he could see the advancing headlights through the rain and trees.
He looked at the deer to find them hurrying across the road. Malcolm summoned his power, making lightning fork from the sky and land behind the last of the deer. It startled them enough to get them running.
Everything would have worked had the car not sped up. Malcolm pulled back his lips in a grimace when the vehicle turned the curve and headed straight for three deer that were still crossing the road.
He stood at the feel of the same stunning magic from earlier, startling the deer and sending them scattering through the forest. Malcolm sent another bolt of lightning behind the remaining deer, but their gazes were trapped in the car’s headlights.
With a curse he rushed onto the road, but too late the woman spotted the animals and jerked the wheel of the car.
Tires screeched on the wet pavement and slid on a patch of water. Malcolm could only watch as the car careened off the road and flipped repeatedly, the crunch of metal loud and ominous in the rain as it rolled down the hill.
For a moment, he simply stared at the car, which had landed upside down. He was unsure of the need pounding through him to check on the Druid. It wasn’t her beauty that called to him, though she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
It wasn’t her magic either. It was something else entirely and he wasn’t sure he liked it. It put him on edge, uncertain and hesitant to get near her.
Her pain exploded through her magic for the barest of an instant before it diminished. If the Druid died, it would be his fault. He had enough death to shoulder. He didn’t want an innocent added to his load.
He used his supernatural speed to get to the car. Malcolm didn’t pause as he rushed to the driver’s side and peered through the shattered window inside.
The windshield was smashed with a spiderweb of breaks across the breadth and width of the window. Shards of glass from all four windows were everywhere.
The woman wasn’t moving as she hung suspended by her seat belt. Malcolm moved aside her long curls to see her face. Blood dripped from a busted lip and she was unconscious, but other than that seemed to be all right.
He unbuckled her seat belt and caught her in his arms before she could fall. He remained still for just a heartbeat and took in the feel of the Druid against him, her soft body cradled in his arms.
Then he carried her into a small grove of trees out of the rain and gently laid her down. Next, he felt along her limbs for any breaks and found nothing.
“Lucky,” he said with a shake of his head.
To his horror, he ran the pads of his fingers down her cheek. Her skin was warm and soft as silk. That small touch wasn’t enough though. He was about to repeat the movement when she moaned and moved her head.
Malcolm smoothed a hand down his thick growth of beard as he stood to study her. He wanted to walk away and not look back, but he couldn’t take his eyes from her. The drop of humanity left in him told him he had to make sure she was all right.
He glanced at his fingers that had touched her to feel them tingling with magic. How could one stroke of her affect him so? His gaze slid back to the Druid and how she was lying so helpless upon the ground.
Her lips were slightly parted as if in sleep, but the blood trailing from the corner reminded him of what had happened. For several seconds, he did nothing but watch her, hoping she might wake.
And praying she wouldn’t.
He stepped into the shadows to watch and wait. Her scent of jasmine clung to him. He might like the feel of the Druid’s magic, but that didn’t mean he wanted any part of her.
Or was he lying to himself? His arms could still feel the weight of her, his fingers still feel the smoothness of her skin.
Want? He didn’t want her, he craved her, hungered for her. Ached for her.
He flattened a hand on the tree as he struggled to get a hold of the rapid, swirling emotions within him. He was on fire. And all because of a stunning temptress who couldn’t drive.
He watched as her eyes fluttered open. She winced and grabbed her head of wet hair as she slowly sat up.
“Oh, no,” she cried when she spotted her car.
The soft lilt of her voice was pleasant. More than pleasant if he were honest.
“I knew I shouldn’t have driven in this blasted rain.”
A Scot. Malcolm leaned a shoulder against a tree. Her voice was sweet and flowing, with just the right amount of a brogue that told him she’d spent significant time in the Highlands.
He could help her. All he had to do was walk out of the shadows. Except he didn’t, he couldn’t. He wasn’t sure he could hold himself back from touching her if he let himself be known. It was better for him—and especially her—if she didn’t realize he was there.
The fact he remained left him ill at ease. The only people he helped were from MacLeod Castle, and then only because he owed them a debt that could never be repaid. If they had any inkling that he contemplated killing all Druids so there would be no need of Warriors they would probably take his head in an instant.
The Druid got to her feet by using the tree beside her. She swayed and wiped the blood off her lip with the back of her sleeve.
“Stop it, damn you. I’m tired of you calling to me!”
Malcolm looked around but saw no one. Just who was the woman talking to? It couldn’t be the wind since not a leaf stirred. The rain, perhaps?