Return of the Highlander (Immortal Warriors) by Sara Mackenzie Read Free Book Online Page B

that he was inside the cottage he was bound by things like walls and ceilings and beds. He stretched out on the ocean-blue coverings, enjoying the softness, despite his legs poking off the end a good foot and a half. The now-familiar scent of the woman teased his senses.
    Maclean knew there were things he must do, but his mind was weary and everything was so confusing. Right now he was nothing but a wan ghostie, but maybe through the woman he could become himself again. Aye, even though the idea of the Black Maclean being dependent on a lassie seemed ludicrous and wrong, and went against everything he had ever been taught.
    He closed his eyes and smiled.

Five
     
    The wind was cool and scented with heather and earth. It brought back the elusive memories of better times, before he was plunged into this nightmare. Briefly the past was superimposed upon the present and a single strong memory filled him. Of the land as it had been, alive with families and their animals, crops growing, smoke trickling from cottages and with it the smells of food cooking. He longed, he ached, for those vanished days, but their voices in his head were a distant echo, while all around him was emptiness.
    The image faded, and Maclean knew better than to try and bring it back again. Forcing his mind to his will hurt. Agonizingly.
    The woman was walking in front of him along the side of the loch, and he matched his longer steps to her smaller ones, enjoying the sight of her lush body in loose gray trews and a bright pink jacket over a tight blue vestlike top.
    “Verra nice, lass,” he murmured approvingly, as the wind tossed her long dark hair and her cheeks grew flushed from the exercise. “Verra nice, Bella.”
    That was her name—Bella. He’d seen it written on some of her papers. Bella Ryan. He liked the way it rolled off his tongue, and he found himself using it more and more instead of “woman.”
    At some point during the day Bella always went for a walk, sometimes two. It didn’t matter if it was rain or shine, she set off with a brisk determination that made him smile. Maclean walked, too, slowing for her as she panted her way up the hillsides and slipped and slithered her way down again. He found himself reaching out to help her over the more difficult bits, forgetting his hand would pass through her, and always irritated when it did.
    Today they were walking along the loch, but yesterday she had taken him up to the castle ruins. He still didn’t understand what had happened to bring about his home’s destruction, but he decided that the catastrophe must have occurred long after his time. Maclean drew comfort from the knowledge that on his death his people had been safe and their future secure; he was a good chief and he had prepared for such an event.
    On his death? Aye, there was a question. Just how had he died?
    Only once had he tried to recall his last moments, though it made his head ache and pound like there was a wee man tossing a caber inside his skull. When he persisted he had heard the faint sounds of fighting. Culloden Moor again? But it was not so much the battle that sickened his stomach. It was what he felt . A senseof guilt and betrayal so keen it cut into his flesh like a blade. And the bone-deep pain of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and knowing he was going to die for it.
    But full understanding slipped through his fingers like something dark and foul, and he could not grasp it properly. He could not catch hold of it. Even as he tried, shadows fluttered at the edges of his sight, closing in, threatening him with an unspeakable something.
    Gasping, frightened, Maclean had pulled back at that moment. Maybe it was better not to push, he decided, as the caber-tosser rested and his heart stopped racing. Let the questions bide their time, let the answers come to him when they were ready.
    Things have changed. The Fiosaiche had said that to him when she woke him. He had not understood it then. He did now. She