Midnight's Seduction (23 page)

He called to his god to help him. It was a risky thing. The gods inside them wanted control, and if a Warrior was weak minded or gave too much to the god, the god would rule them.

It was a gamble Camdyn was willing to take. For Saffron. She had suffered as no Druid ever should have, and she was suffering again.

He’d kept in contact with other Warriors like Galen who he’d seen through the centuries. But Camdyn had retreated into himself after Allison’s death.

It wasn’t until he’d met Saffron that he’d felt such a riot of emotions. She made him angry, made him want to throttle her. But she made him want to smile and laugh. And she made him yearn for her with a hunger that consumed him.

Although he knew he needed to put distance between them before he got too close to her, he did the unthinkable and shifted part of his control to his god, Sculel.

Camdyn felt the increase in his strength immediately. He roared when he heard Saffron scream again. He tore through the wall that was several feet thick and found himself in another tunnel that ran alongside the chamber Saffron was in.

The magic surrounding the chamber was enough to stop even a Warrior from entering.

“Nay,” he bellowed and slammed a fist into the stones.

The fact that the stones didn’t even shake against his onslaught told him how powerful the magic was. He was cursing his luck when he spotted a door.

Camdyn ran to the door and put his hand on it. He could feel the magic in it, could feel the potent power. He laid his hands upon the door and dropped his forehead against the thick wood when he heard Saffron scream again.

If anything happened to her …

Nay. He wouldn’t let himself think it. He couldn’t. He had to stay focused and find a way to reach her. He was all she had to save her from whatever was inside, and by the sounds of her screams, she was terrified.

“Saffron!”

Her screams fell silent, and Camdyn lost what little hold he had on his rage. He pounded on the door, slashing it with his claws as he bellowed her name over and over again.

He didn’t know how long he stayed like that before the door suddenly opened. Camdyn was instantly wary. His claws were ready and eager for blood, his god hungry for death. If anything was in there besides Saffron, it was dead.

Camdyn spotted a faint light through the crack in the door. He nudged the heavy door with his toe and peeked around it. What he saw stopped him in his tracks.

Saffron hung suspended in the middle of the chamber with her arms held out to the side. A faint, pale light emanated from her hands and feet. Her eyes were closed, her face serene.

And then the force of her magic slammed into him.

Camdyn doubled over, not from pain, but from the intense pleasure of her magic. He went instantly hard, his need so strong, his yearning so powerful, he wanted to take Saffron right then.

To lay her down on the stone altar he saw behind her and cut away her clothes with his claws. He wanted her body bared to him so he could look his fill at her breasts.

He wanted to spread her legs wide and slowly enter her. To hear her moans of pleasure, her cries of passion as he thrust in and out of her sex.

Camdyn cupped his aching cock and shifted it to help ease his need, but nothing was going to help him until he was inside Saffron. Claiming her.

He straightened with a grimace and looked around the chamber for whatever had harmed her. But all he saw was the altar behind her, and a door beyond that.

“Camdyn.”

His gaze jerked to Saffron, whose eyes were open and looking at him. He took a slow, measured step toward her. Camdyn wasn’t sure if she had done this to herself, or if someone else had. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.

“You came for me,” she whispered.

“I told you I would. I doona make promises I doona intend to keep.”

A single tear fell down her cheek, and it was his undoing. He tamped down his god, briefly noticing the ease with which he did it, and strode to her until he had to look up at her to see into her face.

The light emitted from her hands and feet began to fade as she lowered to the floor. And with it, her magic diminished as well.

Camdyn ached at the loss of it, but at the same time, he was able to gain a measure of control over the yearning he felt for her. It was a small amount, but more than he had had a moment before.

Her feet touched the floor and she walked over to him. Camdyn stood silently as she wrapped her arms around him and laid her head upon his chest. Hesitantly, he folded her in his arms and simply held her.

“What happened?” he asked.

“The spiders. They were everywhere. All over me, the walls, the floor, the ceiling. I couldn’t get away. Couldn’t move because of my fear.”

Camdyn ran a hand up and down her back as she began to shake.

“I heard a voice, but I was too scared to listen. And then a spider bit me.” Her head lifted so that he looked down into her face. “I don’t know what happened, Camdyn. It’s like something flipped inside me. My magic took over.”

He cupped one of her cheeks and smoothed away the remnant of the tear. “Whatever happened, it’s over now. There are no spiders.”

She frowned and glanced at the floor. “The voice. It asked me about my fear. The spiders. I killed them. Thousands of them. Where are the bodies?”

“I see none.”

“Exactly. The voice then told me I was a Druid, that I had magic. After that is when I snapped.”

“So you think this was a test?”

She sniffed and gave a half shrug. “If it was, who ever came up with this idea needs to suffer their own fear a hundred times over.”

He had to agree, because the terror that had taken him at not being able to reach Saffron had been the worst thing he had ever experienced in his very long life. And he didn’t care to ever repeat it.

A test for her? Or had it been a test for him? Maybe for both. He had managed to give a measure of control to his god, and somehow he’d gotten it back. He’d never attempted that before, but he hadn’t hesitated. Because it had been Saffron who needed him.

“A test or no’, you defeated whatever was in this room so that I could get to you. There was magic blocking me from getting in.”

“Me? I defeated what was in the room?”

“Aye. You.”

She shook her head and tried to step out of his arms, but he held her tight. “I don’t have that kind of power in my magic.”

“I think you do.”

They stood locked in each other’s gazes for several moments before Camdyn looked away. He had to or take her lips again. Need rode him, and he wanted nothing more than to taste her, but now was not the time to give in to his desires.

“There is a door behind the altar,” he said.

Saffron turned to look at it. She walked toward it, and as she passed the altar she let her hand run over the stone.

Camdyn followed her, never more than a step behind. He wasn’t going to let them be separated again. Next time he might not be able to reach her.

She turned to look at him, excitement making her tawny eyes dance. “There’s a lock on the door.”

“Perfect, since we have only the key left.”

She nodded. “You do it.”

“We do it together,” he said.

Camdyn pulled out the key. When she had taken it he wrapped his fingers around hers, and together they inserted the ancient key and turned. The click as it unlocked seemed overly loud in the quiet of the room.

They paused as the walls began to shake around them. Camdyn strained his ears to listen. “It sounds like doors opening. Or closing. I can no’ tell which.”

“Let’s finish,” Saffron said.

“We have.”

“Nay, we haven’t.”

Camdyn turned the key once more with her, and to his surprise there was another click before the key was yanked out of their grasp and disappeared into the lock.

He moved so that he was in front of Saffron as the door creaked open.

*   *   *

Fallon and the others jumped up as a gust of wind poured into the cavern from one of the doorways, as if inviting them in.

“Saffron and Camdyn must have done it,” Logan said.

Dani paused beside the door and smiled. “This is the way we need to go.”

“Then let’s hurry,” Fallon said as he took Larena’s hand in his own.

Finally, Deirdre was about to be ended.

Finally, they could have their family and the future they’d craved.

*   *   *

Saffron didn’t mind that Camdyn was walking ahead of her into the room, but when she heard his sharp intake of breath she hurried to stand beside him.

Then gasped herself.

In the middle of the large chamber was another altar, and upon it lay a woman with long golden-blond hair wearing a medieval dress of dark green.

“We did it,” Saffron whispered.

Camdyn turned his dark eyes to her. “You did it.”

Saffron briefly forgot all about the woman as Camdyn’s fingers wrapped around hers. Never in her life had she thought she could have survived all those spiders, but she had. It wasn’t on her own though. Camdyn had given her that strength, he had given her the courage.

Because she hadn’t wanted to give up as she had so many times in Declan’s prison. No, she had wanted a life, and she was willing to do whatever it took to have it.

To have Camdyn, even if just for a little while.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

Camdyn lost himself in Saffron’s tawny gaze. He was adrift, floating. Swept away. And he never wanted it to end.

The mix of excitement and passion in her gaze was too much for him. As one, they faced each other. He rested his hand on the small of her back and pulled her closer as her hands lay atop his arms.

She had dirt smudged on her cheek, her hair was disheveled, and her clothes dirty. But in his eyes she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

“Camdyn,” she whispered as she leaned toward him.

He desperately wanted to kiss her, to drink in the exquisite taste of her. How he ached to drown in her scent of midnight and snow.

His fingers curled, pulling her toward him. Her lips parted and it sent a jolt of longing through him straight to his cock. A longing so profound that Camdyn knew if he kissed her, if he gave in to the desire pulsing for her, he would be lost in her.

Her lids slowly closed as his face drew near hers. A soft exhale reached his ears. Her face tilted up to his, as eager for his kiss as he was for hers.

But just before his lips touched hers, his enhanced hearing heard the unmistakable sound of feet running toward them.

Camdyn’s eyes memorized Saffron’s face for the long years ahead of him before he released her and took a step back. It was the last thing he wanted to do, but he knew he had saved himself by doing so.

Saffron’s eyes fluttered open. The passion melted from her face to be replaced by confusion and a thread of anger. She had every right to be cross. Camdyn couldn’t keep his hands off her. Couldn’t stop looking at her.

Couldn’t stop hungering for the one thing he couldn’t have.

But he also couldn’t give her what she wanted.

She took a deep breath, her eyes brimming with fury. But before she could let loose with the scolding he knew he had coming, Arran and Logan came to a halt at the doorway.

Camdyn turned to them as the others filed in behind the Warriors. He wasn’t sure what to say or do. He felt like the worst kind of arse for continually kissing Saffron yet pushing her away at the same time.

There were words he needed to say to her, but they caught in his throat. He wasn’t a charmer, wasn’t one who always knew what to say. And in this instance, it was better to keep his words to himself, to keep Saffron from knowing how much he wanted her.

Because if he told her, if she knew, things would only get worse for him.

He had to get control of himself. For a hundred years he had lived as a recluse in the forests after Allison’s death. He’d been content with his life. While other men wanted to find a woman to share their life with, Camdyn had been happy being alone.

Well, not exactly happy, but at peace with his lot.

What was it about Saffron that drew him like a dying man to water? What was it about her magic that sent his desires to a state that he’d never felt before?

What was it about her that made him want to be with her always?

“I knew y’all would do it,” Gwynn said as she walked to them with a huge smile.

Fallon pounded Camdyn on the back. “Good job. Both of you.”

Camdyn and Saffron accepted the gratitude of the others. He didn’t need to look at her to know her every move or reaction.

She was hurting, and it was his fault. He drew in a deep breath and turned to the others, who all stared at Laria as she lay sleeping peacefully.

Camdyn fisted his hands as Dani wrapped an arm around Saffron’s shoulders and drew her into the large circle they had formed around Laria.

“She looks like she just lay down,” Cara said.

Camdyn found his gaze traveling to Saffron. He could tell by the way her lips were pinched and her shoulders tight that she was holding in her anger.

Just moments before he’d pulled away from her he’d seen her eyes alight with happiness. He’d seen her withdrawn, angry, frightened, furious, and even filled with passion. But he’d never seen her so joyful.

And he’d ruined it.

Now that he knew what Declan had done to her, he of all people knew she deserved to be happy. It just proved to him that he wasn’t the person to give her that.

“Camdyn?”

He started and jerked his head to Quinn who stood beside him. “Aye?”

“I asked if you or Saffron touched anything when you came in?”

Camdyn shook his head. He’d just touched Saffron. A touch that was likely to be his last. “Nay. We unlocked the door and then stepped inside. A few moments later the rest of you arrived.”

“As much as I’d love to find out what you and Saffron had to go through to get here, I want to awaken Laria and get this battle over with,” Galen said.

Fallon nodded. “Agreed. Ramsey, it’s your turn.”

Camdyn licked his lips as he too was eager for Laria to awaken. He’d waited for the moment of Deirdre’s death for too long. It was made even worse when they’d thought they had killed her when they had freed Quinn.