Which meant he had only one option. But he would do anything to keep her safe.
He walked to Laura and pulled her against him as he took her mouth in a sensual kiss that convey his need, his longing for her.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I waited so long to kiss you. I’m sorry you’re in this mess. But mostly I’m sorry for what you’re about to see.”
He turned and walked to the door. He placed his hand on the doorknob when she called his name.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
Charon looked over his shoulder at her and forced a smile. “I’m saving you. When I go out there, they’ll be distracted. Leave through the hidden door beneath your feet. Run. Doona stop, Laura, and doona look back. Phelan and the others will find you.”
“Charon, wait.”
“Be ready,” he warned. “As soon as I go out, you have to run.”
He waited until she moved aside the rug and found the handle to the hidden door. Charon had built the cabin on the side of the mountain for any kind of emergency.
Now all he had to do was keep Jason focused on him, and pray Phelan found Laura.
With one last look at Laura, Charon opened the door.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Laura’s hand wrapped around the handle, but she couldn’t pull up the hidden access in the floor, because her gaze was locked on the place Charon had been.
The look he had given her before he walked from the cabin left her cold, hollow. Empty. There had been sadness and resignation in his dark eyes, a misery that yanked at her heart.
Charon, the man she’d wanted for years, had finally been hers for a few splendid hours. He hadn’t told her how he was involved in a world of magic, but she knew him well enough to know he was worried.
That in itself gave her pause. Charon had never shown fear for anyone or anything. Whoever this Jason Wallace was had Charon troubled. Laura knew she needed to run away, but she couldn’t make herself leave Charon.
She released the handle and straightened. The cabin had numerous windows to gaze at the beauty of the forest, which gave her a good view of Charon and the people who had surrounded him.
These were the Druids he’d been running from? The ones who had followed her instead of him?
Evil Druids.
Laura fisted her hands at her sides in an effort to keep them from shaking. Magic wasn’t supposed to be real. People weren’t supposed to use magic, but there was no doubt looking at the people who appeared, they were definitely evil.
She wanted to help Charon. He was one man against many. Yet how could she? What few self-defense moves she had picked up hadn’t helped her with Ben. That left her little option in how to get both her and Charon away.
A glance around the cabin showed no weapons of any kind. She had never fired a gun, but for Charon she was willing to give it a try. If only he had one in the cabin.
“Bloody hell,” she said, wishing he could have been there to hear her cuss.
Her attention was snagged when a man with blond hair and five vicious gashes across his face stepped out of the group. He held his hands in his pockets of his dress pants, a knowing smirk on his hawkish face while his frigid blue eyes looked Charon up and down with revulsion.
“You’ve foiled my plans, mate,” the man said.
Charon shrugged. “You can see how much I’m torn up about that, Wallace. I think the scars on your face improve your appearance somewhat.”
So this is Jason Wallace. God, how Laura wished she could see Charon’s face. His voice was filled with sarcasm. And anger. His stillness told her of the rage he barely contained.
A muscle in Jason’s jaw jumped as he glared at Charon. “You know you doona stand a chance against us.”
“Care to find out?” Charon said and held out his arms.
Laura took in the sight of Charon with his shirt straining against his thick muscles, a sheen of sweat covering him. With the sun alighting upon him through the tree limbs, it looked as if he were offering himself to some ancient god.
Her thoughts halted while she watched, transfixed, as Charon’s tanned skin changed to a beautiful copper right before her eyes. She took a step back in alarm when long, gleaming copper claws extended from his fingers.
But it was the deep, resonating growl coming from him that made her heart skip a beat.
This was what he hadn’t wanted her to see. This was what the villagers had been whispering about for months. This was his secret he hadn’t wanted to share.
Laura hurried back a few steps, knowing she should run, but she couldn’t. What Charon had become scared her more than she could put into words, but he had never harmed her.
He had protected her, watched over her. And made love to her.