Highland Hunger Read Online Free

enriched with blood. She almost tossed it aside, her fear of revealing her dark hunger to anyone deep and old. Her body demanded the sustenance, however. She drank deeply, her injured body welcoming the needed nourishment, and then handed the wineskin back to him.
    “And now tell me your tale so that we may ken the best way to free ye of the trouble dogging your heels,” he said.
    “I escaped in the hope of helping the others who are still held prisoner at Dunmorton,” she said. “My plan was to find someone to help me free the others, but something went wrong, for I was not gone from the place for very long before the laird’s men were fast on my heels.”
    “Mayhap one of the other prisoners told them.”
    “Nay. They all ken that they are trapped until they die unless someone helps them. And they all ken that nothing they do will gain them any ease from their torment or mercy.”
    “Why?”
    “The laird began merely hunting ones like us for sport, killing us, or sending us to another who undoubtedly killed us. He caught poor Allana and decided he would rape her first. They fought, for Allana is no meek lass, but she lost that battle. In the fight, however, the laird swallowed some of her blood. It healed the wounds she had given him and made him feel stronger, younger even than his fifty years.”
    She frowned. “Considering how he looked when I first set eyes on him, he must have had a hard life or lives hard and unwisely, for he looked far older than that.” She shrugged. “I think Allana was saved from execution at first simply because he wished to abuse her a few more times, but he quickly saw that she might have more use than as a reluctant leman. He did not need much time to discover that he was right, that Allana’s blood healed him, made him stronger, and he began to make potions of it to share with the five men closest to him.” She nodded toward his wineskin. “Much like ye have in there. Then he sent his men out to find more of us. He now has eight, aside from myself, and he keeps us caged, attempting to abuse the women and bleeding all of us for his potions so often that we are all weakened by it.”
    “He raped all of the women? He raped you?” Raibeart had a fierce need to get his hands around the man’s neck.
    “Nay, only Allana, Nan, and Mora, and, although he still attempts it from time to time, he no longer can do it. Allana told us not to fight him, that he needs a woman to show fear, to fight, before he can become man enough to take her. Nan and Mora still fought but quickly learned not to. Madeleine is able to swoon at will so was ne’er even taken away.”
    “And you?”
    “I dinnae ken why, but he fears me. I am but beaten now and then. And he may share his potion with his men but nay the women.”
    The man needed to die, Raibeart thought as he fought against a surge of mind-searing rage. “That makes five. You said there were eight aside from yourself. The other four?”
    “Two youths, Bartram and Colla, and two children. Two wee lasses. Joan who is six and Alma who is five.”
    “He takes the blood of children?”
    “Aye. Do ye see why I must find an ally?”
    “Ye have found one.”
    Una’s relief was so fierce it made her head spin. “Thank ye. We can leave for Dunmorton as soon as the sun sets.”
    “Nay.”

Chapter Three
    Una wondered if one’s heart could stop when assaulted by such a rapid, fierce change in emotion. She had been so relieved, almost elated, when he had declared himself her ally only to be struck by a crushing grief and disappointment when he said nay to going after the others. Her mind, filled with plans to save her fellow prisoners, was now empty. She was unable to gather the thread of a single thought.
    Raibeart watched all color leave the woman’s face and cursed himself for not softening that nay. “You misunderstand me. I am your ally, lass, but we cannae save the others on our own. Two people cannae storm the laird’s wee castle and