Highland Son (Highland Sorcery: A New Dawn) Read Online Free Page A

been a little more forthcoming with the girl and she would have stayed longer. After all, their purpose in allowing themselves to be escorted here was to find out about this group of hold outs and bring as many survivors as they could back with them to the lighthouse.
    Right now, what was left of the human race was stronger and safer together.
    Once they determined they weren’t some part of a larger radical marauder group, they’d tell them everything anyway. They didn’t appear as such, not with the women and children being in the majority. Most militant crazies didn’t keep children around as they were little more than useless mouths to provide for.
    No, that wasn’t who these people were, yet something didn’t feel right.
    He frowned at the electrical outlet plate still screwed into the wall, forgotten when the room had been stripped of anything that could be turned into a weapon. There was no electrical current anymore, but any soldier worth his salt could rip the wiring out and make himself a garrote to choke someone.
    Dez came up beside him. “What do you think?”
    “About the girl?”
    “No Romeo.” Dez flashed a rare grin. “About this situation.”
    “But since you asked…” Ethan pounced, pulling Alexander’s neck into a headlock between the vee of his bent elbow. “What do you think about the girl?”
    “She was holding something back.” Alexander shoved at Ethan until he let his hold up. “I don’t trust her. Them.”
    Ethan grinned. “I think you made her nervous, is all.”
    “Me? You’re daft. She barely looked at me.”
    “Exactly.” Ethan slapped a hand over Alexander’s shoulder. “She likes you.”
    Alexander shrugged Ethan’s hand off. “What? How would you know anything about it? Did she pass you a note after school?”
    “Testy.” Ethan held his hands up in surrender. “I’m just saying that could be useful.”
    Annoyed, Alexander looked to Dez for help, but Dez merely shrugged.
    “You too?” Alexander was incredulous. “No.”
    Ethan’s grin expanded. “Suit yourself.”
    “Ladies, ladies, put the nail polish away already so we can get back to the matter at hand?” Dez tapped the handle of the empty pistol in his shoulder holster. “How do you want to play this?”
    “We give them the truth.” Alexander made the decision.
    Dez nodded, considering. “About everything except yourself.” He cupped his calloused palm along the back of Alexander’s neck. “We can’t let on how important you are.”
    Right. Alexander frowned. The so-called savior of what was left of humanity. His men would swaddle him in cotton and hide him away in the basement of the lighthouse if they had their way.
    “I’m serious, Alexander.”
    “No one would ever think otherwise about you,” he sniped.
    “Alexander…” Dez snarled.
    “Yes. Fine. Good idea.” He might be the leader of the largest gathering of human survivors, but there was no mistaking who was in charge while they were out in the field. It was smart, it really was, except for the fact both Ethan and Dez would throw themselves in the line of fire, or daggered teeth—had done so on countless occasions—to save him.
    Considering he not only could hold his own but was a bluidy sorcerer to boot, their self-sacrificing pish angered him to no end.
    He loved these guys like brothers.
    Dez folded his arms, staring him down.
    “I said aye.” Annoyed, his father’s ancient dialect surfaced in his voice. “We play it loose and by the hip as usual.”
    Ethan draped an arm around his shoulders. “He’s so precious when he gets mad.”
    Alexander shook his head. “You’re both morons, you know that?”
     
    ~~~
     
    “Jewel!”
    She banged her head on the lowest shelf, dropping a box of bullets. She was taking inventory. They were running low.
    Sheppard stormed toward her and planted his fists at his hips. “I heard you took stew into the strangers.”
    Rubbing her temple, she winced up at his towering figure. “No