Highlander's Kiss (Clan Matheson #1)

“We’ve sorted out the details regarding the search. You’ll all be leaving with the warriors who’ll be riding out to the encampment tomorrow, around midmorning.” Finlay lobbed his quill to him. “I need a pen, a real pen, with the ink contained within. Tell me you remembered to get me one on your trip home this morning.”


“Ugh, so sorry.” Kirk tossed the quill back to him. “I’ll get it the next time I’m home.”

“That’s what you always say.”

“I do get a little distracted by Cherub at times, and honestly, those are very interesting distractions.” Kirk dropped onto the seat next to the fire. “Before we leave on the search, Cherub and I also need to see to one more issue. Nessa requested my mate and I take Julia to the MacKenzie’s keep, for her to have the chance to listen and see if she can hear the gentle hum of her parents’ auras.”

“I’m coming on that trip.” Tavish halted mid-stroke with the whetstone. “Where Julia goes, I go.”

“Understood.” Kirk nodded. “Let me just reach Cherub and find out where she’s at so we can get that trip underway.” He tapped his head then frowned. “That’s strange. I can’t reach her along our merged link. Sometimes it cuts out when she flitters about, but she never said she was going anywhere.”

“Is it possible she’d take Julia to the MacKenzie’s keep on her own?” Cold fear chased down Tavish’s spine. He set the whetstone back and sheathed his sword. “I left the two of them upstairs together.”

“There’s every chance.” Kirk shoved to his feet with a low growl. “Unfortunately my mate has been on her own for over a thousand years and is still getting used to having me around and not acting on her own. If she’s gone to the MacKenzie’s lair though, then she’s going to be in a world of trouble with me.”

“We need to check.” Tavish raced out the door and bounded upstairs with Kirk at his side. He flung Julia’s chamber door open and stepped inside. Neither women were there, not even a trace of their scent.

Kirk gritted his teeth as he eyed the open window. “That is not a good sign. Change into your battle attire now and arm yourself well. We’re about to sail across the loch.”



On top of the enemy’s battlements with Cherub, Julia focused on her parents. If they were anywhere in this keep then she’d hear them, only not one soft hum echoed back toward her. Hot tears burned behind her eyes and she squeezed Cherub’s hand. “I hear naught.”

“Then we continue to search farther afield, but ’tis good you came.” Cherub hugged her. “Keep the faith that if they live, we’ll find them.”

“I shall.” She wouldn’t fail her parents a second time, not as she’d done in misreading Colin and Jeremiah MacKenzie’s auras. “Thank you for bringing me, even though ’twas a—”

“Who goes there?”

“Shh.” Cherub dragged her into the closest recessed archer’s resting spot. Even though they couldn’t be seen, the battlements weren’t all that wide.

“I said who goes there?” A warrior strode through the swirling fog in dark battle leathers, one gauntleted hand firm on his sword hilt and his fiery red hair brushing his wide shoulders. His aura, a dirty blood-red, saturated him and the thunderous rumble that accompanied his aura surrounded and smothered her. ’Twas Jeremiah, his aura so very different to what she’d first seen during their meeting. This was his true aura, and one that would have warned her to steer well clear of him had she been aware of it.

Jeremiah marched past their hidden spot then stopped, sniffed the air and backed up with a thumping step. He gripped the stone ledge above them, bent and peered into their darkened nook. “I smell vanilla and white roses, a woman’s scent, and there is only one woman who can remain unseen to a man’s eye. It appears we have a visitor. Come out and stand afore me, Cherub.”

Cherub squeezed Julia’s hand in a silent entreaty that she remain quiet, then she pushed her farther back into the nook and rose and uncloaked before their enemy. With her hands planted on her hips, she arched a brow. “You called, Jeremiah?”

“You’re on MacKenzie land, have trespassed and will pay dearly for doing so.”

“I also received your father’s missive and you’ve no doubt been expecting me. Where is he keeping Aleck and Adair, that’s if they’re truly alive?”

“They’re alive and far from here. When they first arrived, I was the one to personally escort them to their new accommodations, and they’ve remained there the length of their imprisonment. You can be certain though that when the deadline expires and Julia hasn’t been brought to me, then their death will be assured. I’ll see to it myself.” He spat on the ground.

Julia searched his aura but the inherent deceit that already swarmed through the dirty blood-red was so thick she couldn’t tell if his words were the truth and her parents truly lived.