Return of the Warrior by Kinley MacGregor Read Free Book Online Page B

voice.
    Christian placed himself between them. “She’s no concern of yours.”
    A slow, wicked smile spread across Phantom’s face. “Is she your concern?”
    “Aye.”
    The man inclined his head almost respectfully to them. “Then you’re right. She’s none of mine.” He bent down and hoisted the dead man up onto his back.
    Adara was awed by his strength as he stood up and headed for the door.
    “What are you doing?” she asked him.
    He shrugged even with the weight of the other man on his shoulders. “I figured the goodwife and her daughters wouldn’t want me to leave her place in a mess.”
    He left the hostel, then returned a moment later without the dead man. “So why was he after you, Abbot?”
    Christian glanced at her and Lutian. “It appears someone wants me dead.”
    Phantom passed a curious look from one to the other. “You should be more careful, then, shouldn’t you?”
    Christian didn’t respond. “What brings you here?”
    “I was on my way back to Paris and thought I’d rent a room for the night when I saw Titan in the stable. I was inspecting him as I caught sight of the shadow headed toward the hostel. Good thing I followed.”
    “Indeed.”
    The two men were extremely uncomfortable around each other and Adara wondered why.
    “Thank you, kind sir,” she said, interrupting their rather stilted conversation.
    Phantom scowled at her. “I know that accent. Queen Adara?”
    Her blood ran cold, that he had suddenly recognized her.
    “You know me?” she asked at the same time Christian asked, “You know her?”
    “Aye,” Phantom said with a speculative gleam in his eyes. “I know her. I was even paid to kill her.”
    Adara stepped back and collided with Lutian as Christian went ramrod-stiff. “Paid by whom?” he asked.
    “I didn’t ask his name, but he looked official enough.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You can both relax. I don’t take money to kill women.” There was an odd note in his voice that concerned her much.
    “Do you do it for pleasure?” Lutian asked.
    He laughed darkly. “There are some lines even a damned man won’t cross. Rest assured, I turned the money down, then cut the throat of the man who offered it.”
    Christian gave him an arch look. “What did you do with the coin?”
    He shrugged. “I left it for the beggars.”
    She shivered at his nonchalant frankness about death.
    Phantom cocked his head as if listening for something. “The townspeople are stirring. I’d best go before I have to kill one of them as well.” He started for the door.
    “Wait,” Christian said. “We’re heading toward the Scot’s.”
    “So?”
    Before they could say another word, Phantom stepped out of the hostel and was gone.
    Adara crossed herself at the unholy way he vanished into the evening. There was something about him that didn’t seem quite human and he definitely wasn’t sane. She crossed herself again, just for good measure. “What is that man?”
    Christian sighed as he sheathed his sword. “He claims he’s the son of the devil and a whore. Sometimes I don’t doubt it.”
    Lutian stepped forward. “Why did he call you Abbot?”
    She didn’t expect him to answer, so when he did, it caught her off guard. “We used to live someplace where names weren’t important to us. It was actually easier to pretend we didn’t have names at all. My friends called me Abbot because they knew I was from a monastery and many thought I was a monk.”
    Lutian ahhed. “I take it Phantom was named for the fact that he looks like an ungodly ghost.”
    He nodded. “And he moves like one as well. The only problem was that we were never quite certain whose side he was on.”
    She could well understand that. “It seems to me he’s on his own side.”
    “Aye, but just when you think that, he does something completely altruistic, such as killing the man who was after us, and places himself in great peril to help another.” Christian motionedfor them to join him.