Clawed, Pounced, Mauled the Complete Trilogy

by Kym Dillon

  Jax smiled thinly at her, and it only reminded her that he was something far removed from her experience. He wasn't human, not at all. He was something far more powerful than she was, small, naked, wrapped only in a blanket.

  "I have traveled the world, and I have seen so many things that cannot be explained. Here in Tanzania, there are many things that might choose to walk, wearing the face of a loved one. Ghost, monster, specter, apparition, what does it matter to me?"

  Abruptly, Marnie realized that there was no way for her to convince him that she was real and alive. He knew what death smelled like, he had held her dead body in his arms. Even the most convincing words in the world could not change his mind. It was not words that told him that she was dead, after all.

  So how do I show him that, beyond a doubt, I am alive?

  The idea that came to her was risky. He was far stronger than she was. If she moved in a way that he didn't like, if she even startled him, there was a chance that he would simply snap her neck. Then she really would be dead, and there would be no arising from that, she knew.

  But it's the only way...

  She moved with a speed and strength born of desperation. She had to convince him that she was real, and that she was alive. She lunged for him, and in a moment, her arms were wrapped around him and her mouth had claimed him. The kiss was hard and hot, and though there was a layer of desperation over it, it was also imbued with all the love that she could offer him, all the need and desire she had for him.

  She could feel him stiffen under her embrace. For a moment, she thought that he was going to push her away, possibly kill her, and then his body softened against hers. His arms came up to clutch her to him, and then he was kissing her in return. His mouth was molten hot against hers, and when his tongue speared inside her mouth, she let him in gladly.

  It would occur to Marnie later that even she hadn't been totally sure that she was alive before that moment. It might have all be a cruel trick her mind was playing on her in an afterlife, or perhaps she really was some kind of ghost or apparition, even if she didn’t know it.

  "Oh god," Jax whispered against her lips. "It's you, it's true, you are alive..."

  "Yes," she murmured, and that was all she could say before he tore the blanket from her shoulders, letting it drop to the ground. She moaned a little at her sudden nakedness, but then she was being pushed down on the bunk. Jax rose over her, and she felt his hard hands running over her entire body, down her torso, up her ribs, down her arms and her legs. He was looking for boils, she realized, and after several long moments, he looked up at her, his eyes bright and sane.

  "It's you," he said wonderingly. "You're healed."

  She laughed with joy at the expression of shock and surprise on his face.

  "Are you finally convinced?" she asked, and he laughed.

  "I am now," he admitted. "I wasn't when you kissed me."

  Marnie blinked at him, rolling up on one elbow to raise her eyebrow.

  "No?"

  Jax looked down, and she could see the shadow of her death brush over his face. He had gone to a very dark place then, and she knew instinctively that one did not come back from such a place so easily. One couldn't.

  "I thought... what did it matter if you were a ghost or a monster? Even if it wasn't you... it was close enough. It might be worth having something hollow me out to wear me like a suit, or perhaps eat the tastiest bits of my organs out if I could at least pretend I was kissing you one last time."

  Marnie shuddered.

  "That's... um, really romantic, Jax. I need you to promise me something. No matter what happens to me in the future, I want you never to decide that your life isn't worth saving from monsters, all right?"

  Jax's laugh was deep and relieved.

  "All right, now you promise me that you are never going to come down with an obscure, incurable plague again."

  She started to laugh in agreement, but she noticed that his split lip and bruised jaw from the battle were almost healed. Something about the droplets of dried blood that remained on his chin struck a chord in her.

  "Jax... how long have your people been around?"

  "The... Italians?"

  She gave him a frustrated look.

  "Shifters."

  He shrugged.

  "A long time. Some say we began with humans, some say earlier, some say later...Our population has always been small compared to humans, but we've been there."

  "And you've bred true that whole time. Your shifter blood didn't breed itself out, even when faced with an overwhelmingly growing human population."

  "Well, calling it breeding is a little crude, isn't it?"

  Marnie waved him off, her mind working as fast as it could. There was a solution to this. There was a key to it, and she had it, she was so close. She was living proof that there was a cure to this plague, and she would find it.

  "Dammit, I have to get to my lab."

  Jax started to say something, and instead of listening, she just seized his wrist. She might not have been as strong as he was, but his eyes widened at her grasp, and she started to drag him out of the trailer.

  "Marnie, wait..."

  "I love you, I truly do," she said, "but there’s no time. This can't wait. Every second of delay means people might be dying, this plague might be going farther, spreading faster..."

  "Marnie..."

  God why was he still dragging her back?

  "Jax, I can't wait! This can't wait, and you can't stop me..."

  He sighed, finally coming along, but then he dropped something over her shoulders. She looked down in surprise before she realized that it was Jax's olive-green field jacket.

  "I don't think this is a type of scientific lab work that is performed utterly naked," he said gently, and she blushed, realizing that she had left her blanket on the floor of his trailer.

  "All right, point made. Let's go."

  11

  Jax shouted explanations to the people who stared at the newly resurrected scientist storming through their midst, and Marnie paid no attention at all. She was intent on getting to her lab, where she immediately found a sample kit and pricked her finger, squeezing the drop of blood onto a slide.

  "All right, give me your hand," she said to Jax, and without warning, she pricked him as well.

  "Ow, what the hell..."

  "Oh quiet you big baby, I saw you walk around with literal holes in your chest."

  "That was different. That was a battle wound, not one given to me by the woman who is meant to love me."

  "Well, you love me too, so you should be fine with this."

  "I can see that we need to talk about our different ideas of love," he said, but after that, Jax was mercifully silent.

  Marnie fell into her work. This was what she had been trained to do, and now her analytical mind took over. Under the powerful microscope, her blood looked normal, mostly. It certainly did not look like the blood that had been taken from the dead man who she had tried to treat with Jessica on her first day in camp.

  She bit her lip and looked at Jax's blood under the microscope. Yes, his blood was very similar to that of a human's. However, there were certain key differences present, she soon realized. She took some more blood from a slightly protesting Jax, spinning it in a centrifuge to get to the base components. She ran it through a half-dozen of the quickest tests she could find, and was relieved when the results came up nearly immediately.

  "What's going on?" Jax asked.

  "I think I found it," she said triumphantly. "In fact, I think you're the key to solving this."

  She extracted a miniscule amount of Jax's denatured blood into a syringe, and then set a drop of the infected blood on a slide. Under the microscope, she could see the results when she combined Jax's blood with that of the infected blood.

  "It fights the attacking proteins," she breathed. "It wipes them out. It's ancient enough that it's able to fight them!"

  "In English, please?" Jax asked, and she turne
d to him, her smile wide.

  "There antibodies in your blood that are left over from a very ancient time. Likely, it’s from the same time period that this plague comes from. Humans have forgotten how to fight it, but apparently, shifters have not!"

  Jax blinked.

  "So not only am I immune, I'm the cure?"

  Marnie took a deep breath. There it was.

  "What's your blood type?"

  "O negative," Jax said. "Why does that matter?"

  Marnie started laughing.

  "Oh thank god, and thank you, Jax. Or rather, thank your mother and father I guess. O negative, that's the universal donor. You can give blood to everyone in this camp! You can cure this plague!"

  Jax blinked at her.

  "And how much blood do I give up to this effort?"

  "Oh, stop whining, not much. Now roll up your sleeve."

  In an hour, she had enough of Jax's denatured blood to start treating the residents of the camp. Jessica, Marcus and Dr. Carter had shown up, awed and slightly afraid at her seeming resurrection, but she barely spared them a glance as Jax set about proffering an explanation.

  "Still not convinced that she's not a zombie," Jessica joked. "I mean seriously, do you know this woman? She would absolutely rise from the dead to keep working..."

  Marnie turned to the group when she had the first course of treatments finished. She was in her element now, and Dr. Carter ceded control to her gracefully.

  "I am going to go out and treat the most desperate patients," she said briskly. "Marcus, come with me to help. Jessica, you and Dr. Carter stay here, and keep working with Jax. Keep him hydrated, but get that blood. Marcus, just checking but your blood type...?"

  "A positive."

  "All right, shame, we can't use that for donors, and we don't have the time to test. Let's go, you're with me.”

  Marcus fell into step next to her, and when they were out of earshot of the others, he finally spoke.

  "Do you truly think this will work?"

  Marnie didn't falter at all.

  "It has to," she said, and she didn't know whether it was faith or fear that drove her forward.

  All she knew was that she had been dead and now she was alive. The living blood that ran through her veins was something that animated her, made her feel more vital than she had before she became sick. Perhaps there would be consequences that arose later, but the truth was, in the here and now, she was alive.

  She and Marcus made their way to the first med tent, and she got to work.

  12

  Forty-eight hours later, Marnie, Jax, Marcus and Jessica collapsed around a small fire that the men had built. They were some distance away from the village, and all around them, the savannah twilight arose in a gorgeous display of deep indigo. Some stars were peeking out above, and when Marnie tilted her head back, she dreamily pondered the fact that they were the same stars that the ancient peoples had seen.

  "Dr. Carter came up with the final totals before we left the village," Jessica was saying. "Everyone we reached with the serum from Jax's blood is well on their way to healing. Some of the first ones we got to, the ones whose illness was not too severe yet, are practically healed. Some very powerful blood you have there, my friend."

  Jax nodded with a wry grin.

  "I have to say, that was the first battle I ever won by bleeding profusely, but honestly, the real victor was Marnie."

  Marnie grinned and snuggled a little closer to him. He was as warm as a furnace against the increasingly chilly night.

  "It's not over, though," Jessica said soberly. "Marnie, did you see the report that came in this evening, right before we left camp?"

  Marnie felt the idyll of the night snap like a twig, and she sat up.

  "No, what did it say?"

  "Another village, about a hundred miles north. They seem to be having the same issues. We've managed to synthesize a cure from the blood that Jax already gave, and that means that at least we won't have to keep bleeding him."

  "Bit of a relief," Jax commented, but Marnie ignored him, frowning.

  "Things are pretty set here," she mused, "but that village is going to need some help."

  Jessica nodded.

  "They are. The village is larger, and what’s more terrifying, they're a trade stop to other points in the region. The capitol and the WHO are working together to institute a quarantine, but the antidote needs to get there and fast."

  Jessica hesitated, and for some reason, she clasped hands with Marcus. She glanced up at him before continuing.

  "Marnie, I know that so far, your time in Africa has been unexpected. You didn't expect to get in the middle of a shifter battle, you didn't expect to die, hell, you didn't expect me to turn into a raging queen bitch..."

  "Didn't expect to meet Jax either," Marnie said with a soft smile, and Jessica grinned in return.

  "But the fact remains that this was way more than you signed on to do. It would be well within your rights to say that you were done after all this and that you just wanted to go home..."

  "But, of course, we both know that I'm not going to do that," Marnie said immediately. "You don't even have to ask, Jessica. I’m with you."

  Jessica flashed her a bright and grateful smile.

  "I knew you would say that, but thank you. So much. This is going to make a huge difference to what we can do, how much ground we can cover.

  "Jax and Marcus still need to deliver their artifact to the Council, and their route takes them right where we needed to go. They agreed to escort us along the route, so that's a good thing."

  Jessica's eyes darkened, and her jaw took on a resolute line that Marnie was very familiar with. Some would call her best friend stubborn as a mule, but Marnie had always thought of her simply as determined.

  "I'm... Marcus and I made a mistake being separated for long periods during the last few months. It was a tearing pain every time we were apart, and when we were together, it hurt too, knowing that sooner or later, we were going to need to be separated. I'm not doing that again."

  "Nor I," Marcus said. He raised their joined hands and kissed hers gently. "I was a goddamn ruin when she wasn’t around."

  Marnie stared at him in surprise.

  "I thought it was just Jessica," she began, and Jax laughed.

  "God no. At one point, he got so mad he actually challenged a shifter we know to a wrestling match."

  "That doesn't sound..."

  "Man turns into rhino," Marcus admitted, glowering. "Stop telling that story."

  "It went poorly for Marcus," Jax said, squeezing Marnie a little close to his side. "It goes poorly for any truly bonded pairs when they are separated."

  Marnie laughed with Jessica, but she couldn't let go of a nagging fear for her own sake. Were she and Jax bonded? She remembered those hurried words that he had spoken when she was dying, but in all fairness, she was actually dying at the time. What did it mean now that she wasn't? Had Jax rethought it all and come to a different conclusion? What would this mean for them?

  Almost as if Jessica could read her best friend's mind, she stood up.

  "Marcus and I have a private camp set up about a mile away. Should be a nice walk for us before we turn in. We can leave the fire and the shelter to you two, all right?"

  Before they left, Jax and Marcus exchanged a glance that Marnie didn't understand. When her friends were gone, she looked up at Jax.

  "What was that all about?" she began, but then he stopped her questions with a kiss.

  They had kissed since she had found the cure, but the kisses had all been quick and furtive things, a small amount of pleasure found while she was working as hard as she could to keep the villagers alive. Marnie had only slept when Dr. Carter ordered her to bed, and even then, it was only for five hours. She should have been dead on her feet, but when Jax kissed her like this, all warmth and wonder, she could feel herself start to rally. A moment ago, she would have thought that she lacked the energy to do much more than raise her head
, and now she could feel a thread of heat weave its way through her.

  "I need you," he growled, and she whimpered a soft response. It was true. The only word for what flowed between them was need...

  There was no urgency, however, in the way he took her back to the shelter, where there was a thin pad over the hard ground. He lay her back on it, and when she started to reach for her clothes, he pushed her hands away gently.

  "I want to look at you," he murmured. "All of you."

  She bit her lip as he stripped her. Her body trembled under his touch, and she had to stop herself from reaching for him as well. Instead, she lay in front of him like a sacrifice as he ran his hands over her, touching every part of her. When his hands got intimate, she whimpered again, and Marnie saw a shudder go through his body.

  This man craved her, she realized, but something was holding him back.

  "Are you worried that I'm still sick?" she asked, and he looked up, startled.

  "No," Jax said after a moment. "Not at all. It's just... when I lost you... when they zipped you into that bag, it hurt so deeply. It hurt that I hadn't looked at you more when I had the chance, and that I hadn't memorized every inch of how you looked, how you laughed..."

  She could see then the darkness that had come over him when he thought she was dead, and her heart ached. She couldn't lie still any longer. Instead, she rose to her knees and wrapped her arms around him. She could feel the shudders of fear and remembered loss that ran through him.

  I want to give him something else to think about, she thought, and she started to strip his clothes off.

  "Marnie..."

  "I'm alive," she whispered. "I'm alive, and I'm healthy, and all I want right now is you..."

  He groaned like a demon being released from hell. He wrapped her so tightly in his arms that she gasped, and then his mouth flew to hers. The kiss he gave her was all-encompassing, all devouring, and then he was pushing her back onto the ground. Their naked bodies seemed to hunger for one another, and when he found the tender place at the crook of her neck, he bit.