Page 74 of Dark Seduction

Moray laughed at them all. “There is so much fear in this room that my power grows.” He wet his lips, looking at Claire, and she felt his arousal and was horrified. “I will enjoy you far more than I did Mairead.”

Malcolm started forward, enraged.

Aidan stepped in front of him, almost skewering himself on Malcolm’s blade in the process. Royce and Ironheart seized him, but Malcolm tried to fling them off. Claire would have screamed at Malcolm but her vocal cords were also frozen. She could only think about the fact that Moray had mortally wounded him once and he could do so again.

“Ye will never touch her,” Malcolm roared.

“And who will stop me?” Moray purred. “A weak Master like you? Your own father spent eleven years hunting me—or so he thought. I led him a merry chase and all the while Mairead mourned her treachery, her disloyalty, her faithlessness.”

Malcolm broke free of Royce and Ironheart. “A Bhrogain!”

Claire screamed.

Aidan turned and seized his sword arm. “’Tis nay the way!” he shouted.

Malcolm threw him off, only to have Royce and Ironheart leap on him, dragging him backward to the other side of the room. He somehow shook them off, too. Moray laughed.

Claire cried out in horror as Malcolm staggered as if struck. But he stood alone, and there had been no physical blow.

“Dinna try,” Royce said fiercely, and she saw Moray pale and grunt as if he had just been struck, too. “There be four o’ us,” he added coolly.

Claire looked around. So much power swirled in the room, male and hot. She realized she was standing in the midst of some kind of kinetic stalemate. Sweat dripped from Royce’s temples and his eyes blazed. And every man in the room had an identical expression, even Moray.

Aidan confronted Moray, legs braced wide and hard. “I grow tired o’ yer visits,” he snapped. “Ye be in my home now. I be lord here an’ I dinna give ye permission to enter my hall. Get out.”

Moray smiled with no mirth. “Three years ago I chose to let Malcolm live when I could have ended his life. He tasted the wonderful pleasure we find in death, as was my wish, and soon, he will taste such pleasure again. He will be mine.”

Moray took Aidan’s face in one hand and stroked his cheek with his long fingernails. He murmured, “And you, my boy, will be mine, too. It is but a matter of time.” He released him and smiled at Claire. Then he vanished.

Claire wanted to run to Malcolm but she couldn’t move. What Moray intended for everyone was worse than death. He was Satan, after all.

She was ready to retch and fell to her knees.

And then Malcolm was kneeling besides her. “’Tis over now,” he said harshly, pulling her into an embrace. He held her hard.

“Over?” Claire gasped, barely able to speak. “It’s not over, nothing is over. It has only begun!”

“I will protect ye,” he tried, his arms tightening, his gaze hard.

She jerked away and her fear became outrage. “How? How will you do that? Did you not hear him? Me, he will rape and get with child. You, he will turn into a master of evil! Aidan? Aidan is marked, too! Unless there is a way to destroy him, we will all suffer fates far worse than death!”

Malcolm was breathing hard. “Ye have every right t’ be afraid, Claire. Ye ha’ just seen the lord o’evil fer the first time. I ken how distressed ye be.”

“Distressed?” That, Claire thought, was the understatement of the ages. She looked at Malcolm. “Are you all right? What just happened?”

Malcolm hesitated. “He struck me with his power. I was braced fer it, an’ he didna knock me down. With all o’ us together, usin’ our powers against his, he canna do great damage.”

Claire shuddered. “Then why didn’t the four of you combine your powers and zap him dead?”

Malcolm’s eyes hardened. “If he could be vanquished in such a way, we would have done it.”

“Great! He has enough power to withstand the four of you!” Claire tried to breathe deeply and evenly. She failed. She hadn’t realized until that moment what evil really was. It was omnipotent, horrible, horrifying, and it intended to wreck total annihilation on everyone. More specifically, evil wanted to use her—and it wanted to use her against Malcolm. It wanted Malcolm’s soul.

Royce’s suspicions had been right.

Malcolm said, “I’ll die before I turn evil. An’ I’ll do ye the same favor afore I let him touch ye.” He stood and held out his hand.

Malcolm was promising to end her life before allowing Moray to use her. She was trying to think rationally now. His words were not helpful—because he meant them. But death was better than ever suffering that man’s touch. She continued to shiver uncontrollably as she stood. “You said so yourself. No Master has been able to vanquish him for centuries.”