The Peacekeeper Read online

  He tore his transfixed gaze from the beauty in the lake to the commander standing nearby.

  “You are wanted in the Holy court for treason, Elspeth McLellan. I’m here by order of the king to bring you in alive!” The commander sneered. “And I will, after I’m done with you.” His black eyes glared in a way that made the woman cringe and Ian noticed the disgusted look cross her face. Ian wanted him dead for his words alone. He tensed with anger, almost giving himself away.

  “It’s a lie!” she screamed “I caught the king assaulting and killing a lady! He wants me dead because of it!”

  “Silence!”

  He could see her lips quiver. Treason? That was a serious charge. Death for that, but did he believe this beauty? Yes, he did. With his gift, he knew she was telling the truth. Who was this king?

  “Och, shite,” he said again. He was going to save her. He gave the MacGregor war cry and jumped through the bushes at lightning speed. Before anyone knew what happened, he swung his sword. The soldier went down with his first swing. One jumped in and tore open his arm before he turned and took the next soldiers head clean from his shoulders. He fought two at a time and dropped them both with little effort. The commander and the last two tried to surround him.

  He laughed. “You think you have the baws for this wee game of yours?” He danced about. “You are folly tae me, you lame brain wallopers, you willna live throughout the day. Bring what you got, and I’ll be flitting with you, but you willna live much longer.”

  He laughed and threw his sword back and forth between his hands. Strong legs and large thighs spread wide, muscles bunched and relaxed up and down his arms, muscles twitched at his shoulders, and his chest pumped one side at a time. He might have laughed at these men outright, but he was a no-nonsense guy.

  His eyes sharp, his tongue sharper. The men looked at the commander with trepidation and fear. Elspeth stared at him, and he laughed again. “Weel, my merry maids, what have you? Cat got your tongue or is it your baws? Maybe you are wee girls and your baws are caught in your skirts! Ha!”

  He got his results. The commander yelled and lunged, and the two men flanked him on either side. He threw his sword to his left hand and without looking at the one who was just to his left, coming up behind him, took the man’s head clean from his shoulders. Without losing momentum, he tossed his sword, and it flew from there up in the air. He put his right hand behind his back and caught it, slashing through the side of the other. He accomplished this without ever taking his eyes from the commander.

  Ducking low and missing losing his head from the commander’s blade, he twirled and pivoted, bringing up his blade through the commander’s neck and piercing to the back of his skull. The last man fell. He turned to look at the one they called Elspeth McLellan. She stood in the water with a shocked look on her face.

  “Wha…wha…how’d you do that?” She spit out. Ian watched as she stared at him. He pulled his hand through his black hair, pulling the locks that caught on the shadowed beard adorning his strong square jaw. He wiped blood from a wound across his bicep, and he almost smiled. Her perusal traveled from first his face and slowly down his chest, and across his sculpted stomach, then stopped on his green and black kilt.

  He immediately felt naked in front of her. His chest was bare, his tartan lying beside the river. But he still had his kilt on, and it was there her eyes stopped. Feeling the heat of her gaze only made him grow and the front of his tartan began to bulge. She must have realized she was staring, for her face immediately turned scarlet. She quickly looked away, then she shuddered, and he knew it wasn’t from the cold. “Oh, my,” she said, making him smile.

  “Close your mouth dearling and get dressed. We need tae leave here afore more come.” The instant he looked in Elspeth’s eyes a flash of what his parents had been telling him his whole life went through his head and stopped him dead.

  He stared into her eyes and recognized her as his mate. An unseen force so strong drew them together with an explosion of instant understanding. Fleeting, instantaneous images flited through him. Elspeth as his wife in another life, Elspeth growing large with his children, Elspeth and him growing old together, dying young together, having children, not having children, over many lives.

  Lives spent together over and over. He knew this woman like the back of his hand, and he knew without a doubt the love they shared was unquestionable. He felt it now, like the force of gale winds on an ocean tide.

  He heard the voice of his mother. “You are like two sparks joining together in a flame. It’s in our family, you will see, you will ken. Your souls will ken each other, even if your heads aren’t ready to accept it, sometimes a McGregor may ignore it for a while, especially a stubborn one. The souls doona lie, and eventually your heart will tell your head, it’s unavoidable. You will ken. She will ken.

  “Your souls join like the finest weaving of a spider web, and the love will blossom. If you’ve kenned her before, you will remember her now. Us McGregors can be stubborn and at times we do not recognize this at first, but eventually we do, and will. We can throw up that stubborn wall, but the kind of love we McGregors have, will break down that wall until it crumbles to dust and blows in the wind, dissipating like an invisible ghost.”

  Those words had always confused him, and he always thought them nothing more than the rambling of his mother so in love with his father. Until in just a flash of a second, he not only understood but felt her words. He’d lived with this woman in other lives. He somehow knew she saw and felt it too. “It happens to all the McGregors.” His mother had said. He had had many women and never believed it would happen, until now. He was staring at his mate and the love traveled through him and bloomed.

  For that one second, time stood still, but years and lives of information and feelings settled in his gut, changing everything he thought he understood about his life. He could see the wonder in her eyes. It felt like time stood still and days, months, years, memories had traveled through his soul, and it was just him and her, the only ones alive on the planet.

  Then the entire thing dissipated like a cloud on a windy day, and just left them with the knowledge that they were mates. All images gone, forgotten, but the purpose of it and the residual effects lingered in them, leaving wonder and awe. It left them feeling as if they had known each other their entire lives, so familiar to each other. Her look reached inside his chest and grabbed his heart, he was lost to her and he knew it would be forever. He gulped. Shaking his head, he said, “Are you feeling weel?” he asked, concerned, not sure what to say.

  She shook her head yes about five times, blushed, and turned to walk out of the water. He didn’t know if her nervousness was from the soldiers and the fight, or what she had just felt for him. He hoped it was for him.

  The moment was broken, and neither knew what to say or do. Reality cloaked them once again, and the world around them came back in focus. Was everything they just shared a dream? “God’s,” she said. “I only wanted a bath!” She dressed quickly in her torn skirts and blouse and turned toward the open valley. “Are you coming? There are sure to be more and you’re no longer safe.”

  He laughed. “Aye, I’m coming,” and he took up behind her.

  She lifted her arms and shouted “Saphira!” Moments later the sun clouded over and Ian heard the flap of wings and a loud roar. He looked up at the largest dragon he’d ever seen. He had never been this close to a dragon before and his mouth gaped in wonder. “Close your mouth,” she said smiling. “She’s our ride out of here.”

  He didn’t fear much, after all he was a man of war, but he did have a lifelong fear of dragons. It was simple, don’t get close to a dragon and live, get close and die. When he was a child, nightmares would plague him of monster dragons burning and eating him. It did not help that his younger brothers played on this and instilled more fears whenever they could and laugh about it. As everyone got older no one dared to mention dragons around him.

  “A horse I’d ride,” he
replied. “A donkey I’d ride. Maybe even a worogild, but I’m not riding on that, and weel now you should ken it!”

  Elspeth laughed, and it sounded as beautiful as her singing. He smiled, deep dimples showing in his cheeks. He followed her out toward the dragon, as she was tucking her wings beneath her. The dragon leaned her head down and Elspeth rubbed the side of her face, planting a kiss to her forehead. “Yes,” answered Elspeth, “they found me.”

  “You can talk tae the beast?” exclaimed Ian. They both turned to look at him.

  “She’s not a beast! She’s my friend! Now come, I’ve explained you saved my life and you’re coming with me, unless you want an army after you as weeeel,” she drawled then smiled.

  “You’re making fun of my speech, you are.” He scowled, then walked toward them. “A dragon,” he mumbled.

  Elspeth laughed again as she stepped on the wing that gently brought her to the back of the dragon’s neck. “You are next.” She laughed again. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re just so cute when you scowl.”

  “Puppies are cute, ducklings are cute, baby horses are cute,” he mumbled. “I’m a mon!” He said. “I’m nae cute!”

  She laughed again. “No, I suppose not. Now get up here.”

  With a bow, he snarled, “yes, my lady!” He climbed on the wing and Saphira brought him up behind Elspeth. “This weel be taking the death of me yet. Ian McGregor dead from falling off a big scaly lizard bird with fire from her mouth. Scales cleavin’ my baws from beneath me kilt tae sink tae the fish in a grand loch where they throw up green scales and my eyeballs.

  “My toenails black from fire, and hair straight tae its ends as if struck from a stormy lightning. My lips will be gone for sure and my teeth sticken oot my nose. My ears will be ripped off my head from giant turtles, and my brains sucked oot through the holes by the Lochness, who probably breathes fire as weel. I’ll sorely be laughed at, at me funeral.”

  “What in the devil you mumbling about? Grab the spike in front of you,” Elspeth explained, “and hold tight!”

  Just then the giant wings began to fan out, up and down, and the wind from them blew his hair across his face. “Bloody hell, this is the biggest bunch of blarney. Riding the devil himself. Wait ’til my brothers hear aboot this.” He groaned. “I’ll just never tell them.” He closed his eyes then they were airborne, and it was quite smooth. He relaxed somewhat, then wondered where exactly they were going. It didn’t take him long to figure out. They were headed to a cliff, smack dab toward a waterfall.

  In an instant, they went through the falls and landed inside a cave. In the quiet he heard scratching. “What is that?” he asked.

  “The babies,” Elspeth said simply. She said to Saphira. “The babies! Oh, isn’t it wonderful! Go ahead, we’ll be here.” Saphira moved toward the back of the cave after picking up some meat from a pile near the entrance.

  “Come,” said Elspeth, “I know a place we can go and give them time to be together. Follow me,” she said, and took his hand. They went to the cliff face where he followed Elspeth onto a ledge.

  It was a short distance and perfect for them both to sit comfortably. After a minute of silence, and their shared enjoyment of the view of the valley below, Ian turned to her and looked into her bright emerald eyes.

  He felt a warmth pass between them and he thought of her beauty standing naked in the river. The knowledge of knowing her rushed again through his blood. He felt as if she were, and had been, his for eternity.

  His thoughts gave him a randy hard on, heat shot through his veins, he was so hard in fact he couldn’t ever remember feeling this strongly before. Clearing his throat, he said. “Is this where I kiss the damsel in distress?”

  “Damsel in distress? I just saved your hide!” she laughed.

  “After saving yours!” Before she could respond he leaned over and gently touched his lips to hers. Even though he knew her by soul, this felt like a first kiss, and the excitement overwhelmed him. A bolt of heat shot through him and he felt her shudder as if she felt it too.

  Her face became flush, the light shining off her hair where it flowed like liquid copper glistened. Ian had never seen such raw and innocent beauty and it humbled him. He could smell her unique perfume of arousal and his manhood jerked beneath his kilt. His mouth went instantly dry and he trembled slightly. Trying to be a gentleman, he pulled back and put his forehead to hers. “Want tae try that again?”

  “I uh…you were…mayb…we should just.”

  She suddenly went silent.

  “What?” asked Ian noticing the glazed look on Elspeth face.

  “The babies are here. Come on she wants us to see them.” Elspeth grabbed his hand.

  “Els’ you really can talk tae the dragon, can’t you?” Amazement lit his face.

  Elspeth turned to him, opened the hole in her blouse, and showed him her dragon mark. “Tell you about it later. Come let’s see the babies!”

  Little squawks and squeals reached their ears as Ian, hand in hand with Elspeth, entered the cave. Saphira was feeding strips of meat into their little mouths. “Aren’t they adorable!” said Elspeth.

  Ian noticed all the jewels. “You could buy Mystic Mountain with all this.”

  Elspeth frowned and gave Ian a stern look. “The babies!”

  They were kind of cute in a reptilian way. “Squawk!” One pecked Ian’s arm and they all laughed. Ian reached over and touched the lil one’s head. “Squawk!”

  “A boy and a girl!” said the proud mamma. “Kalon, my son. Sorrilth, my daughter.”

  “What did she say?” Recognizing Elspeth’s look when she communicated with the dragon.

  “Oh, Ian we have to protect Saphira and her babies! She’s named them. Sorrilth her daughter, Kalon her son.” Then she explained to him what happened. “He’ll kill her son and probably her and Sorrilth too. We have to stop him.”

  He thought about his mission. “I…ah…I’m supposed tae…there’s things I have tae…” Seeing the terrified look on Elspeth’s face he said. “It can wait. Aye, I’ll help you.”

  Elspeth threw her arms around him and kissed him hard on the lips.

  “Wow, anythin’ else I can do for you? Kill a man? Empty the ocean? What can I have if I save the world?” He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned like a cat who ate a pet bird. Elspeth slugged his shoulder and laughed.

  Saphira stepped toward them and she had a worried dragon look on her face. At least that’s what Ian thought a worried dragon look would look like. “What’s she sayin’?”

  “Shush,” said Elspeth. Ian watched in wonder as the dragon stared at Elspeth. “She says, Darlath, bringer of death as he’s called, will come tonight to kill them all. He is the father. He’s mated with all the females of their hoard whether they have wanted to or not.”

  A groan came from Saphira. When they turned to look, a tear bigger than his fist dropped from her eye and splattered to the floor. In that instant, without explanation, the fear left him, and he fell in love with dragons. Clearing his throat, he said, “I weel champion you dear lady of dragons. I will not fail you.”

  Elspeth turned and relayed the message to Saphira. Saphira turned, lowered her head in submission, and placed her face directly on Ian’s chest. Two more monstrous tears fell from her eyes and landed on Ian’s feet.

  To keep from tearing up himself, said the only thing he could think of. “You wet my feet!”

  They laughed and Saphira snorted. “Was that a dragon’s laugh?” he asked Elspeth.

  “She picked up what you said from my mind when I understood it.” The dragon snorted again, and they all laughed. Until it got serious again.

  Chapter 5

  Dusk was coming, with Sorrilth and Kalon fed and sleeping, Saphira paced the cave snorting puffs of smoke and grunting. Tears came from the big dragon.

  “She’s afraid,” said Elspeth.

  Ian couldn’t handle a woman crying much less a dragon. He never knew what to say. He tried to think of some
thing to get her mind off her troubles, “Now Saphira if you continue tae do that you’ll drown us. How can I champion you, if we’re dead?”

  This didn’t fool Saphira, and they both turned to look at him and he shrugged. Elspeth giggled. “Saphira said vampires can’t drown.” That was enough to lighten the fear a bit, he thought. “I didn’t know vampires existed,” she said. “I thought it was a myth, can you…?”

  “There’s no time now, Elspeth, I will answer all your questions later, right now we have more pressing matters. We will stay strong and I have Dragon Slayer my sword.” Ian touched his sword. “No dragon is gonna kill you, or your bairns, I promise.”

  Elspeth related to Saphira what Ian had said. Saphira nodded her head and blinked away the tears.

  “That’s the spirit,” said Elspeth. “We will win.” Then came the first dragon roar of the night. Feeding time. Darlath was on his way.

  He prepared them for battle. “Stay in here. Doona go oot Saphira. Stand by the dragon bairns, and you doona get in the middle. Elspeth, beside Saphira, doona interfere, I doona want you fried. Positions.”

  “Och.” Smiled Elspeth. He caught her intense study of his body as he gave his orders, stopping him midsentence. He noticed the intense blush that rose on her cheeks and he smiled as she quickly looked away clearing her throat. For a minute, he felt almost naked again, but before he could think any more about it, a roar blasted outside the entrance.

  He pulled his sword, spread his legs, and put the blade above his shoulder. As soon as the huge black head came through the opening Ian struck. The dragon shook his head and the strike didn’t even cut his face, but it did enrage him. He roared.

  The cave shook, and the large dragon entered. The beast reared back and he struck it again and again. The dragon simply looked bored. He reached out a claw, grabbed him and threw him to the wall where he promptly slid down to the floor. The dragon was getting closer to the babies. Saphira blew fire toward Darlath and he blew back.