Shifter Bound

by Leisl Leighton

  ‘Bron, no!’ He tried to reach out for the healer, but she’d already raced back into the cavern and over to the bodies lying unnaturally still on the ground.

  ‘I want to go, too,’ Eloise said as he placed her gently down near the panel that opened the door. She took a step forward, winced and fell back against the wall.

  ‘No.’ Iain pointed his finger at Gabbie. ‘Stay here with her. If they as much as move, close this door.’

  ‘But what about you and Bron?’

  ‘We can take care of ourselves. Besides, they weren’t after us.’

  Eloise winced at his words, but her eyes were blazing as she glared at him. ‘I want to help.’

  She was so fucking brave. And strong. His wolf growled its agreement. But he couldn’t let her know he thought that—it would just egg her on. ‘Your presence might make them worse. Stay here.’

  Her shocked breath followed him as he ran across to where Bron was kneeling on the grass. He was sorry he’d caused Eloise pain, but couldn’t take those words back, not when he needed her to stay put.

  He was at Bron’s side in a flash, swinging her away from the body she was examining, putting him between her and danger.

  ‘Iain!’ She tried to push him out of the way. ‘They’re unconscious. They can’t hurt me. Besides, I don’t think that was ever their intent.’

  His gaze darted back to where he could see Eloise using Gabbie to help balance and support her as she hopped through the door. ‘Damn it. Why can’t women ever do as they’re told?’

  Bron made a choking sound. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Misogynist. What century are you living in?’

  He rolled his eyes at her. ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘I’m afraid you’re going to have to explain it to me.’

  She was tapping her fingers against her arm, looking at his hands that were still holding her in place.

  ‘I meant witches, not women.’

  ‘And that makes it better, does it?’

  ‘I’d do the same if you were a Pack Warlock and you were putting yourself in danger. It would be my duty to pull you out of it and put myself between you and said danger.’

  ‘Right. So this was equal opportunity man-handling?’

  ‘You betcha.’

  She snorted. ‘Well, I’m a healer and it’s my job to look after people, so suck it up and deal with it, because I’m going to check on my patients.’

  He looked down at the half dozen people on the floor. They still hadn’t moved. ‘Are they dead?’

  Bron’s lips pressed in a grim line. ‘No. But they’re not in a good state. They certainly won’t be attacking again anytime soon.’ She edged towards the nearest body. ‘Whatever energy they used is long gone, and even if they came back to consciousness, they wouldn’t be able to use any powers again for a while. Especially seeing they’ve not eaten or drunk anything for a few days.’

  ‘So how did they manage to do that? According to Eloise they don’t have that power.’

  ‘Yes. Siobhan, the McClunes’ healer, told me that too when she came to see if she could help. She couldn’t feel any significant power in any of them.’

  ‘Eloise said that bloke is a librarian.’

  ‘Patrick’s like a librarian and he’s as dangerous as they come.’

  ‘That’s not my point.’

  ‘What is your point?’ Eloise asked as she joined them.

  He glared at Gabbie. ‘I thought I told you to keep her away.’

  Gabbie let out a short bark of laughter. ‘Good luck with that. She’s a soldier, Iain. Not a dog. She’s hardly going to stay away from the danger just because you tell her to.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Eloise said, smiling at the Were-woman supporting her. ‘Besides, you heard Bron. They can’t be a danger now.’

  ‘How do you know? You just told us none of them had any powers of significance and yet your buddy over there managed to summon witch-lightning. How do either of you know they’re not a danger now?’

  ‘I don’t know how they did this or how they hid this kind of power from Siobhan,’ Bron said, worry and confusion playing on her face. ‘But I do know my own art and what I’m seeing in their auras now tells me they are out for the count and their power is completely exhausted.’

  ‘Will they recover?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before. Have you?’

  Eloise’s mouth twisted, eyes stark with pain as she looked at her felled friends. ‘No. But I knew deep inside,’ her hand clenched against her chest, ‘that I shouldn’t have come here.’ She looked up at Iain. ‘You were right before. This is my fault. I did this to them. I shouldn’t have come.’

  ‘I didn’t mean—’

  ‘Yes you did.’

  ‘Iain, what did you say?’ Bron was looking between the two of them, but Iain didn’t answer. He couldn’t. He was so afraid he’d ruined something special growing between him and Eloise, and he had no idea how to fix it, or why he wanted to. He should let the rift widen. It was best for Eloise. Best for him.

  Eloise took a stumbling step back from him and winced, her lips a thin line as pain whitened her face.

  ‘You shouldn’t be walking.’ Iain reached out to help, but she shoved away his hands.

  ‘I’m not helpless.’

  ‘Nobody ever said you were. But you are injured, so don’t act like a stubborn idiot.’

  Her face hardened and she opened her mouth to retort when a groan stopped her. Turning in a wobbly spin, she glanced down at the woman to her left and stopped with a gasp.

  The woman’s eyes were open and she was staring at Eloise.

  ‘Marcy? Oh, my Goddess, Marcy. Are you okay?’

  The woman screamed.

  Chapter 14

  ‘Marcy!’ Eloise cried, pushing away from Gabbie, past Iain. He grabbed her arm before she could get any closer. ‘Let me go.’

  Marcy screamed again, but the cry petered out on a sob. ‘He’s in my mind,’ she whimpered. ‘Get him out. Get him out.’ She began to scrabble at her head, nails raking at her skin. After a stunned moment, Eloise pulled on her arm again. Iain didn’t let go, but gave in to her urge to go to her friend, supporting her as she limped forward. When they got there, she dropped to her knees, grabbing Marcy’s hands.

  ‘Marcy, stop it. You’re hurting yourself.’

  ‘I… can’t… stop… him.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Him. He’s in my head. He’s in my head. It hurts. I can’t… fight him.’

  ‘Who are you talking about?’

  ‘Cain. He’s in my head. He’s making me—’ The words choked off on a strangled cry.

  ‘Gabbie. Go call for help. We’ll need Cordy and her coven.’

  The Were nodded, turned and sped back to the corridor.

  Marcy screamed—a piercing sound that made all of them wince.

  ‘Marcy. Marcy.’ Eloise held on tighter as Marcy began to struggle against her hold, but Marcy got loose. Fingers arced like talons, slicing across Eloise’s forearm.

  Iain grabbed the woman’s arms and slammed them to the ground. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘It’s only a scratch.’ Her voice hitched and she refused to look at him. ‘You have to help her,’ she said to Bron.

  Marcy bucked, her mouth twisted as she groaned.

  ‘Fuck. She’s strong.’ Iain grimaced as Marcy almost escaped his grip.

  ‘Iain, try to keep her still.’ Bron knelt on Marcy’s other side. ‘I can’t use my power on her while she’s moving so violently.’

  He nodded, shifting to hold the woman’s hands in one of his, using his other arm as a bar across her chest. He tried to hold her as firmly as possible without hurting her—which was difficult as she thrashed and jerked beneath him. And every moment he was aware of how close Eloise was as she knelt beside him, her focus on her friend.

  Too close. Too close to danger. His wolf growled.

  Her long, tawny hair brushed against his arm as she shifted to lean ag
ainst her friend’s legs. He had to fight the urge to push her back, pick her up, carry her away. His wolf growled louder, scratching at his skin, pushing to get out, to protect, to save.

  Stop. She doesn’t want to go and we can’t force her. We’re not her mate. His wolf growled a denial in his mind—a denial Iain couldn’t delve into now. He couldn’t let it through. To protect Eloise, the wolf just might kill all her coven mates. Pushing down on his wolf like he’d never done before, he forced it back. It howled, lunging against the cage of his mind again and again, causing a pain like a bruise to bloom in Iain’s head. Please, Iain said to the wolf, trying to make it understand before it damaged them both in some permanent way. He’d never been so at odds with his wolf. It hurt. I promise, I’ll let you out later. I’ll ask her to change to her wolf. You can play and cover yourself in her scent then, but for now, this human form will help her more than the wolf. I know you see that. I know you understand.

  The wolf growled, and he thought it was going to ignore him and burst through his skin. Please. For Eloise. The wolf whimpered and then backed away. Thank you. The wolf snarled and Iain almost smiled—he understood the trust his wolf half was giving to his human half in this moment and it was a huge thing. A gift. He wouldn’t let either of them down. He would see to Eloise’s safety if it killed him. The wolf hummed its approval of this thought and contented itself with prowling in the corner of his mind.

  In his mind he felt the golden warmth of Bron’s presence, steadying him and his wolf with her mental caress.

  He relaxed against that caress, needing it more than he could express.

  Bron nodded, then turned back to her patient and closed her eyes.

  He glanced at Eloise to see if she had seen or sensed any of what had just happened. Thankfully her attention was centred on her friend who had ceased her struggling but was muttering under her breath, her face a mask of pain and fear.

  ‘Is she okay? What’s going on?’

  Marcy’s eyes slipped closed, her face relaxing with sleep. Bron blew out a heavy breath and leaned back on her haunches. ‘Right. I’ve put her to sleep. That should stop her from hurting herself at least.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Eloise said.

  ‘What about the rest of them?’ Iain asked. Every single one of the coven were facing Eloise, their eyes open, staring hatred and accusation and… longing? It was a look so cold it burned. His wolf growled and its hackles rose, a ridge he felt all the way down his spine. He sprang into a crouch. ‘Why are they doing that?’

  ‘It’s Cain.’

  ‘You can’t believe what Marcy said. She’s out of her mind.’

  Eloise’s eyes pinned him to the spot, fear and horror trembling in their depths. ‘The black lightning. The eyes… It’s Cain.’ Her nostrils flared as if scenting something. ‘It even smells like him; like his magic. It’s him. Oh Goddess. He’s here, isn’t he? You lied before when you said he wasn’t here, but he is.’

  ‘No!’ Iain shot Bron a look. ‘He was moved to McClune lands when you woke. He’s not here.’

  ‘But he is. He is.’ She stood, trembling, took a stumbling step. ‘I have to get out of here. He’ll leave them alone if I go.’ She began to hobble towards the door.

  With a growl, Iain picked her up. ‘I’ll get you out of here.’ He turned to Bron. ‘We’re going. Now.’

  ‘I can’t leave them alone like this.’ She looked down at the bodies on the ground. Their eyes were glowing red with hatred. Blood red. As he watched, blood started dripping from their noses, mouths, ears, creating vivid trails on pale skin as it ran across their faces to pool on the green grass.

  ‘Get me out of here or he’ll kill them,’ Eloise whispered, her voice pained, haunted.

  ‘You can watch them from the monitors. If there’s no change, you can call River and some of the others and come back down here.’

  Bron nodded. ‘Okay.’ She took off in front of them. Iain followed.

  Bron broke off and went up the stairs when they got to the main entrance, but he didn’t follow. She knew what she was doing. And so did he. He pushed open the front doors, desperate to give Eloise sunshine and light after the darkness of what they’d just witnessed.

  He placed her down gently on a seat that had been carved out of the stump of a fallen tree at the edge of the clearing just outside the house.

  She dropped her head into her hands. ‘Shit. Shit. This is all my fault.’ She looked up at him, gaze bleak. ‘They’re going to die, aren’t they?’

  ‘Not if we can help it.’ He sat down next to her, took her hand. She gripped him tight. ‘Bron will contact Jason and keep an eye on your friends through the monitors. I’m sure River will be down soon and then she can go back in. And Gabbie is contacting Cordy. They’ll do everything they can to help your friends.’

  She rubbed her hand across her eyes. ‘Why would Cain do that to them? It’s not like him. Not the boy I grew up with.’

  ‘He tried to kill you, Eloise. He’s changed. Been completely taken over by Morrigan.’

  ‘I—’ She sucked in a breath. ‘You’re right. He’s been getting closer and closer to her and pulling further and further away from me for a couple of years now. It got worse last year after Alfrere died. She began to teach him things she’d never taught the rest of us. Things Alfrere had known. Dark things.’ She swallowed hard, her expression bleak. ‘The Cain I grew up with would never have tried to kill me. He wouldn’t have done that,’ she said, pointing towards the caves, hand shaking, ‘in there, to those who were once friends. But I know it was him. I know that magic; could taste the flavour of it. The darkness in it might have made it bitter, but it was still familiar.’ She swallowed hard. ‘It was like Cain, but with a hint of Morrigan.’

  ‘Do you know her magic that well?’

  Her expression became bleak. ‘More than anyone else in the coven, I know the bitter tang, the whipping feel of it. This was that and yet more—’ She frowned. ‘More familial. Like my own magic but with a stinging caress.’ She shuddered. ‘And to be able to do that from wherever he is. He’s so powerful. I never knew he was so powerful.’

  ‘It makes sense. You’re powerful too.’

  ‘Not like that.’

  He took her hand again, brushing his thumb over the back of it. ‘No. Never like that. You would never use your powers to hurt and maim. To kill.’

  She closed her eyes, lashes trembling against her cheeks. ‘He hates me.’ Her breath hitched. ‘I never let myself believe it before, but he truly hates me. He wants me dead.’

  A tear traced an aching path down her cheek. He wiped it with his thumb. ‘I won’t let that happen. You won’t let that happen.’

  ‘How can you be so certain of me?’ she whispered, her beautiful eyes full of tears.

  He cupped her face, stroked his thumbs across her cheekbones. ‘Because I look into your eyes and see beauty and strength and truth.’

  ‘Truth? After I spied on you all for so long? How do you know it’s truth?’

  ‘Your eyes are so expressive—I don’t think you could lie even if you tried. Although, I suspect, it isn’t even in you to try.’

  She laughed, a breathy, trembling sound that stroked over his skin. ‘Are you calling me a bad liar?’

  ‘Yes. But in a good way.’

  Her hiccough of laughter brushed over him. His wolf hummed in pleasure. His fingers firmed on her face and he leaned forward, kissed her brow. ‘I think it hurt you to be deceitful.’

  ‘How can you know me so well when I don’t even know myself?’

  He kissed her nose. ‘I see you.’ Her eyelids fluttered closed. He kissed one. ‘I see you more clearly than I’ve ever seen anyone else.’ He kissed her other eyelid. ‘I think in the same way you seem to see me.’ His lips hovered over hers.

  ‘Iain?’ Her eyes opened—drenched pools of golden-green fire.

  ‘Shh,’ he said and pressed his lips to hers. Fire sprang to immediate life, blasting away the soft kiss he’d inten
ded, as her lips moved hungrily against his, clinging, nipping, sucking. For a blissful moment he gave in to it, meeting her tongue as she thrust it into his mouth, sucking her lip, never wanting to let go. A burning pain started to grow in his chest and he realised he needed to breathe. So did she. Her breaths were coming in little gasps as she clung to his shoulders, meeting his hunger with one just as insatiable.

  His wolf surged to the fore, mingling with the man. They wanted to take, to ravage, to make her theirs. Forever.

  Fuck!

  He pulled back with a gasp. Forever? Where had that come from? Not to mention he shouldn’t be doing this. Not now, after what happened. Not until he knew the source of this hunger—was it their own or was it fuelled by the past-life presence?

  She swayed towards him, lips searching for just one more kiss, fingers digging into his shoulders, pulling him back to her. He couldn’t let her take what she wanted.

  Gripping her hands, he pulled them from his shoulders and he moved back as gently as he could. She blinked up at him, confusion and lust sparking in her eyes. ‘We can’t do this now,’ he said, voice shaky.

  ‘You’re right.’ She shifted away from him. ‘I don’t deserve joy given what I’ve caused.’

  He sucked in a breath. ‘You can’t blame yourself for that?’

  She glanced back towards the house. ‘In part. If I hadn’t been so blinded by my need to be loved, I would have seen Morrigan for who and what she is. I wouldn’t have done what she asked and caused so much pain.’ Her voice faltered, but she lifted her chin, hands clasped steadily in her lap. ‘But there’s little point wasting time with what ifs, is there?’

  ‘No. We need to focus on the now.’

  ‘And the future.’ She faced him, her eyes fierce. ‘I can’t allow Cain and Morrigan to do what they will. There has to be a way to stop them.’

  ‘And we’ll find it. I promise.’

  She breathed in deeply, and nodded. Such a simple thing but her trust filled him with such heat, he thought he might burn up from the force of it. They sat there for a moment, gazes linked, an unspoken promise in the air. He would not fail her. ‘You think Cain could be linked to Morrigan?’