Clawed, Pounced, Mauled the Complete Trilogy

by Kym Dillon

  "Strength for what?" she managed. "One of the villagers I treated this morning was almost your size, looked like he could move a tank on his own, and he died in a matter of hours. How in the world can you think I am going to fight this off?"

  When Jax had no answer, she gave in to her intense grief and collapsed in his arms. Even as her body was burning up, she still wanted to be close to him.

  "It's not fair," she whispered, aware of how childish she sounded. "It's just not. I came here to help others, not to... not to..."

  Her voice broke, and hot tears ran down her face. They felt strange on her face, and Jax wiped them away carefully with his fingers. She wanted to tell him to be careful again, but she couldn't find the strength.

  "Not to die," Jax said quietly. "You're not going to."

  "Are you a doctor now?" she asked, trying to sound tough, but she knew she had not succeeded in the least.

  "No, I'm a tiger who loves you. I am not going to let you die, I swear to you. I’ve just found you, I sure as hell am not going to let you go."

  "You’ve just found me...?"

  She looked up at him, and there was a ghost of a smile on his handsome face.

  "Of course. I didn't expect to meet a woman like you, not in all my life, and believe me, sunshine, I'm older than I look. Shifters age differently than humans, and some of us go our entire lives without finding our other half. The fact that I found mine, here, defies logic, rhyme or reason, but now that I have found you, I am not going to lose you."

  "What are you talking about?"

  He sighed a little, his breath rustling her hair.

  "I know you felt it too when we first met," he murmured. "You were drawn to me, as I was drawn to you. I was gravely injured. I might have died that night if someone else was working on me. All I knew was that I saw you for that brief moment, and then there was no other option. I need you in a way that cannot be explained. We've bonded. I'm yours, forever."

  She felt tears slip down her cheeks again, but this time there was a tremulous happiness behind them.

  "Is that... the truth? Not just something you are telling a poor dying woman?"

  "Marnie, believe me when I say that I would never lie about something as certain and as sacred as this," he retorted. "Sunshine, I love you. I am not going to let you die. This is my mission now, and my kind take nothing more seriously."

  Marnie felt warmed by the desire that flowed between them, and for a moment she wondered if there was truth to it. She did feel slightly stronger, but then reason reasserted itself. Jax himself might have been an immoveable force, but the truth was that there were limits here, ones that her scientific mind couldn't overcome.

  She started to say something comforting to him, but then there was a terrible noise. It sounded as if someone had told a joke in hell, and now all the demons were laughing.

  "Oh God," Marnie murmured, and Jax laid her back on the bed.

  "They've come," Jax said starkly. "I need to join Marcus to fight them. Stay. Remember my words. You are my bonded mate now, and I would die before I let you go."

  He laid a soft kiss on her forehead, and then he was gone. Marnie could feel her heart longing for him the second he stepped out of the door opening. For a mad moment, she wanted to call him back. She didn't believe that he was going to fix her, not really. Everyone she had seen with these symptoms in the last twenty-four hours had died a horrendous death. She was going to die here, far from home and miserable, and she did not want to die alone.

  She knew that it would be better to spare him that, but perhaps there was some truth to his words. There was a bond between them, one that was so powerful that it shook her to the bones.

  Mustering all her strength, she rose from the cot. From the instant stabs of pain, she knew that there were boils on her feet now. If she took her boots off, she would never be able to walk, so she ignored them. She made it to the tent flap before she finally had to admit she could go no farther. Marnie sat down hard on the ground, panting and feeling her sweat soaking her clothes. From some cool and distant place in her mind, she knew that she was running a high fever as her body waged a hopeless war against the foreign invader.

  Still, Marnie found the strength to pull the tent flap aside and to peer out over the camp. She couldn't stand the idea of not knowing what was coming. The uncertainty would be inching towards dying long before the main event.

  The first thing she saw when she looked out of the tent was Jax. He was stripping to the skin, dropping his clothes carelessly on the ground. The setting sun gilded his body, and once again, she thought of how perfect he was in every way. The idea of never being able to touch his perfect body again sent a pang of grief straight through her, and she pushed it away. There would be time to mourn when she was dead.

  Between one moment and the next, his shape flowed, and where there had been a man, now there was a tiger, enormous and powerful, his vivid orange and black stripes fluorescing in the darkness. Jax looked beautiful in that moment, calm and fierce, ready to defend what was his. Marcus came up to stand shoulder to shoulder with him, a dark shadow next to Jax's own glory.

  For a moment, Marnie wondered where Jessica was, but then the laughter of the hyenas started up again. This time there was a menace to it that had not been there before, and she knew that they were closing in.

  Marnie remembered from an middle school science report she had written that while both tigers and panthers were lone hunters, hyenas traveled in troupes, some more than forty strong. She prayed that the troupe that was attacking them now did not have those numbers, and then the ones in the lead entered the open area where Jax and Marcus waited for them.

  Marnie gasped, the air rasping hard at her throat.

  The hyenas were smaller than Jax and Marcus, but they were powerfully built. With their broad shoulders and thick necks, they looked like tanks built for war, and when they lunged, they seemed as quick as lighting.

  If the hyenas were fast, though, Jax and Marcus were far faster. The moment they saw the hyenas commit to their lunges, both cats struck out in tandem. With single blows, they laid out their opponents, dropping them to the ground before whirling on the ones that came after.

  The sounds of animal roars filled the twilight, and Marnie would have covered her ears with her hands if she had had the strength to do so. The hyenas kept up their dark cackling, and now she could hear Marcus and Jax as well, twin tornadoes of death, using tooth and claw to stem the tide of the enemy.

  The bodies were piled up in the clearing, and a part of her was struck by the fact that when shifters were killed, they returned to their human forms. One man fell down dead, his skull crushed by Jax's blow, and for a moment, Marnie thought she would be sick. He looked a great deal like a man she had treated earlier, and it felt wrong, it all felt so wrong.

  Jax roared as a hyena latched powerful jaws into his foreleg. Marnie knew that hyena jaws could crack bone, but before she could cry out, Marcus was there, slashing at the hyena with razor sharp claws and drawing the enemy shifter off.

  If he dies, at least I will have a human body to mourn, she thought. That is if I'm still alive myself.

  The battle felt as if it were happening in slow motion. She saw everything as if through a thick pane of glass. It was getting harder and harder to focus, to think.

  However, she noticed right away when there was an orange glow to the right, and when she turned to see what it was, she gasped.

  Jessica should have been with the medical team and the villagers, with everyone else who needed to get out of harm's way. She might have started to help with the evacuation, but apparently, she had come back, and she had come back with fire.

  There was a torch in her hands, an enormous length of wood with the top half wrapped with rags. From the concentrated fierce burn, it looked as if she had dipped the rag end into some sort of fuel.

  Jessica never hesitated. Marnie watched in awe as her scholarly best friend swung into the battle. She must have been
aware that she was far smaller and far frailer than anything else on that battleground, but that never even gave her pause.

  Instead, she swung her torch while screaming like a banshee, thrusting the fire into one slavering face and then another. When two hyenas tried ganging up on Marcus, she struck out blindly at the one closest to her. It gave Marcus enough time to finish off the other, and then he turned to the one that was approaching his bonded mate, screaming the harsh and fierce scream of a big cat as he dealt with the interloper.

  For a moment, Marcus paused, staring into the eyes of the woman who was meant to be his. Feverishly, Marnie wondered what was going through his mind, and then he roared. The sound echoed, and in it, Marnie thought that she could hear pride and love, intermingled. Jessica grinned by the light of her torch, vicious and victorious, and her blood raised by the battle, she cried out in return.

  This primal exchange woke a fierce envy in Marnie and a longing that was not quelled in the least by the fever rushing through her body. This was what bonded pairs did. It was love, but it was far more than that. It was a bond forged of tooth and claw, of fire and courage. They belonged with one another, and in that moment, she longed for Jax.

  She did not need him there to comfort her. Instead, she wanted to protect him as fiercely as Jessica had protected Marcus. She was part of him, and he was part of her. This separation was unnatural, and it pained her.

  She could feel herself sliding towards unconsciousness. She fought it as best she could. Even if she couldn't fight by Jax's side the way that Jessica could with Marcus, at least she wanted to witness it. She wanted to cheer his victory or mourn his fall. However, the disease that had found itself such a welcome home in her overly warm body had no more mercy than the hyenas did, and while Marnie was still struggling, still fighting to remain conscious, darkness swirled around her and carried her off.

  9

  The next time Marnie opened her eyes, her entire body ached. She felt as if she had been beaten with sticks, and she couldn't help groaning.

  "You're up..."

  She started a little at hearing Jax's voice, started to speak, but then there was a cup pressed to her lips, something warm and foul tasting lapping at her lips.

  "Drink it all," Jax said when she started to pull away. "Please."

  His voice was so broken that she did as he said out of surprise.

  "What is it?" she croaked, and when she looked up at him, she could see him wince.

  "It's water, but there's a painkiller in it. It will help."

  She immediately felt a little better, the aches pulled back, but she also knew what that meant. For something to take effect as quickly as the foul drink had, it was made to be very strong.

  "You're alive," she said, too weak to be very tactful. All she could do was say exactly what she meant, and she reckoned that that wasn't such a terrible thing.

  Jax smiled at her, sitting on a low stool by her cot.

  "I am, unexpectedly. We drove off the hyenas, and I think that they will stay gone. We thinned out their numbers enough that they will think twice before attempting such a bold attack again."

  "I saw Jessica," Marnie murmured. "She was fighting alongside you and Marcus."

  "What a woman," Jax said, shaking his head. Somehow there was no jealousy in her heart when she heard him speaking about another woman like that. The bond between them vibrated with strength, and she knew it was only admiration. "I can understand what Marcus sees in her, now that all her rage isn't directed at him for once."

  "Do you think they'll be all right?" Marnie asked. "That is... will you watch Jessica for me?"

  Jax frowned at her, but she could see that he knew what she meant, even if he didn't want to admit it.

  "Marnie..."

  "I mean it," Marnie said, and to her frustration, tears were beginning to prick at her eyes again. She was at a strange point where she was past grieving for herself or even anger at what fate had inflicted. Now she was merely angry that this illness was even stealing the last scraps of vitality from her, preventing her from saying what she needed to say.

  "Jessica is strong and capable, but there are parts of her that are soft. She... she needs to be protected, and I know that Marcus will do it, but maybe there are some things that he can't see because he loves her the way he does. I think she might need a friend, someone who stands a little apart. Jax, will you be that friend for her?"

  "Of course I will," Jax said slowly, "but you're her friend as well..."

  "I'm not staying," Marnie responded bluntly. "We both know I'm not."

  She saw something pass over his face. Perhaps it was anger at the situation or even at her because she was speaking this way. It gave way quickly, however to pure grief, and she saw his broad shoulders hitch in a sob that went through him.

  His strong arms went around her, pulling her close to his strong chest. The sudden motion hurt, but it hurt less than not being able to touch him, to feel his strong healthy body against hers. She knew that there were many boils growing over her now, under her clothes, turning her skin into a wasteland. They ached when the least pressure was put on them, and she knew the time was coming soon when all would be over.

  "I can't lose you now," he said. "Not now, Marnie, I have just found you..."

  No one would have said that Jax smelled good, exactly. He smelled of sweat and burning grass, of blood and fur and exhaustion. However, it was a smell that was indisputably his, and Marnie buried her face in his shoulder. If she was going to drop down into the darkness forever, she wanted to be able to feel him, to experience this moment as best she could.

  "You're bleeding," she said, when she tilted her head back to look at him.

  "I'll heal," he said, and she knew that it was true. At some point, someone had gotten close enough to smash at his face. His lower lip was split, she could see that it was already beginning to heal, even if the blood was still fresh. "Am I too ugly for you now?"

  She knew that he was joking, and she mustered her strength and wrapped her arms around him tightly.

  "You're not too ugly for me," she whispered fiercely. "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, completely perfect..."

  "And all yours," he whispered, and Marnie realized that she still had some grief left despite it all.

  She had thought that the illness and the pain would empty her of even the ability to be grief-stricken that she was dying, but here it came again, a fresh swelling of sadness and regret. The regret, however, had changed at some point, Marnie realized.

  "I'm not sorry I came to Tanzania," Marnie said softly. "I'm not, not at all..."

  "Because this is such an enjoyable evening we are having," Jax tried to joke, but she shook her head.

  "No. If I had never come here... I would never have met you."

  Her words broke something in Jax then, something that a distant part of Marnie realized had never been broken before. It seemed as a rough shiver broke over him, and then he gathered her tight in his arms again. It hurt—everything hurt—but in that moment, Marnie didn't care at all. She hugged him back with everything she had, and when he kissed her again, deeply, she gave herself up to it entirely.

  "I don't want to leave you, I don't want to leave you," she could hear herself chanting, but there was something far away about it. She felt as if she were watching the scene from a long distance away, her vision filmed over with something misty and strange.

  "Then don't," Jax sobbed. "Don't go. Don't go, please, Marnie, stay with me, fight for us, fight, please..."

  She wanted to tell him that she was fighting as hard as she could. It just didn't matter at all. She was like a little child rushing out into the ocean, beating on the rolling waves with tiny fists. There was no way she was going to be able to stem this tide, and when it rolled over her, stronger and higher with every pass, she knew that it was only a matter of time before it simply carried her away.

  "I love you, I love you so much," she tried to say, but Marnie was dreadfully
afraid that it was going to be lost in the roar that filled her ears. It was a roaring that was so loud she wanted to bury her poor head in a pillow. Even with his enhanced hearing, Jax didn't seem bothered. That’s how she knew that it was only something she could hear.

  But I'm so far from the ocean, she thought, and then it ceased to matter. The black water that had been lapping at the edge of her consciousness decided that it no longer wanted to wait for her. It rose up with a decisive rush, swallowing her whole, and then she knew no more.

  Marnie felt no pain, and somehow, she could see without opening her eyes. She felt as if she were traveling in a flightless, soundless void, and there was a part of her that found a peace that she had never considered before.

  There was still a part of her, however, that refused to follow that peace. It was restless, and like a swimmer fighting against the tide, it rallied. Peace was all very well and good, she supposed, but she wasn't ready for it, not yet.

  If she had had a mouth, she would have screamed and shouted. Instead, she simply thrashed and fought, resisting the tide that dragged her ever downward. It was remorseless, but then again, so was Marnie. She thought of Jessica, who she had known for years, and Marcus, who she was just beginning to get to know. She thought of the mystery of Dr. Carter, and then she thought of Jax.

  The moment Marnie thought about Jax, it felt as if someone had tossed her a lifeline. Now she could focus on the warmth of his skin, the brilliance of his bright green eyes, the strength of his male physique and the sweetness of his kiss. Every detail came to life in her mind, made her feel more solid and more real. In some elemental way, she was anchoring herself with his memory, and that peaceful shore pulled farther away.

  Suddenly there was light, and Marnie flinched a little. How long had she been traveling in the dark?

  It took several long moments for her vision to adjust, and then with a start, she realized that she was on the edge of camp, the sun just beginning to rise. She could see the devastation to the outer buildings done by the hyenas, some rising smoke from a hastily doused fire, but then her attention was pulled towards a small and fragile form standing on the grasslands, gazing out at the sunrise.