Alexis stared down at the hand she used to touch the thing. Thick blood stained her palm. She went down on her knees next to the animal. Its whole coat was wet with blood. Blood drained from its ears and nose.
She stroked its neck and whispered nonsense words to it. She had no idea what she said. She had to say something to comfort it in its dying hour. How on Earth did it get like this? How long had it suffered to get to this point? How many miles had it wandered to crawl off into this deserted wood, only to die alone?
The creature turned up its eyes to her face. Instead of suspicion and threat, its expression registered pleading, desperate anguish, and the blank terror of the grave. She had to do something to help this thing. She passed her hand over its fur. It must have been a magnificent animal when it was healthy.
She glanced around the woods. Were there other wolves in this forest? Would they come stalking her when this one died?
All of a sudden, the creature changed under her hand. She looked back down at it and couldn’t believe her eyes. The black fur receded under a layer of pink skin. Only a long thatch of it remained on top of the head, along with a few scraggly whiskers around the face. Its snout shrank into its skull, and its body twisted. It turned into a man.
Alexis gasped. The man rolled over on his back. His eyes rolled around his sockets the same way the wolf’s did. Blood ran out of his mouth and disappeared into his whiskers, and gaping chunks of skin hung off him all over.
Alexis would never have recognized his tartan. Blood and filth caked it, and dirt and mud blackened his white shirt. He carried no weapons, and one foot was bare. He made it over onto his back and convulsed in pain. He heaved over on his side and twisted into a ball. He groaned through clenched teeth.
Alexis wanted to run, but she could only kneel at his side and stare at him. “Christie! What happened?”
He moved his head up to steal a peek at her, but he couldn’t lift his head off the ground. His hair trailed in the dirt, and the moist soil darkened his cheek. “Lassie…” he rasped.
She couldn’t resist that voice. She laid her hand on his shoulder. “We have to help you. We have to…to do something.”
He turned his head up to face her. “Lassie… kill me.”
Alexis started back. “What? No, I can’t.”
“I’m dying,” he croaked. “For the love of God, put me out of me misery. Kill me now. Please.”
“I can’t, Christie,” she cried. “We’re gonna help you. Come on. I’ll help you stand up. I’ll… take you somewhere. We have to save you.”
He sank down on the ground and closed his eyes. “I wouldnae trouble ye. Please, lassie. I’m begging ye. It’s been going on for months, and I cannae stand it any longer. Just end it. Please. I’ll never ask ye for naught again. Dinnae let me die like this. Kill me. Please.”
Alexis swallowed down tears. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be dying right in front of her like this. Her eyes darted over his wrecked body. What could she do? She didn’t have so much as a pocket knife. How could she kill a grown man? She’d never killed more than a mosquito in her life.
His body relaxed, and his eyes rolled back into his head. He gave another spasm and lay still. She pushed her hair off his forehead. His skin shone with damp sweat, and his lips went pale.
She couldn’t do anything to save him, and she couldn’t grant that one last request. She knew he needed it, and she couldn’t even do that for the sake of the one night they spent together.
What in God’s name was she thinking, letting their night end the way it did? Why in the name of Heaven did she ever tell him she hated him—and for what? Because he asked her to help him save his family?
She wanted to kill herself for that. She remembered every word in stark detail. Her callous remarks echoed in her head. Why didn’t she at least speak kindly to him when she had the chance?
If she knew then that he would be dying in front of her eyes, she would have spoken differently. Maybe she would even have stayed with him one more day, maybe another night.
She surveyed his broken body now, and she shuddered. She would never see him alive and whole again. She would never feel his warmth and his tender skin the way she did that night. She would never run her fingers through his hair or kiss his lips.
Her soul cried out for the man he used to be. She slept with a few men back home, but none of them ever electrified her the way he did. She never really wanted them—not really. She had it with him for one night, and now he was gone.
Chapter 13
Christie woke up under a stone ceiling somewhere outside. He picked up his head, and his damp hair stuck to his cheek. His mouth tasted foul and his clothes and skin reeked, but at least he didn’t feel any pain anywhere.
He took a closer look around. The forest throbbed and clicked all around him, the way he remembered from his fevered hallucinations yesterday.
He lay under an overhang of rock. It connected with the mountain above him to form a small alcove open at both ends. A rock arch protected him from the open sky with a sandy floor beneath. It wasn’t much for shelter, but it was better than nothing.
Alexis lay on top of him, sound asleep. She rested her head on his chest with one of his arms draped around her shoulders. How she got there, he couldn’t remember. She must have brought him here and lain down with him.
He craned his head around to catch a glimpse of her. She really was beautiful, even if she did have the devil’s own tongue. She didn’t kill him the way he’d asked, but at least she tried to help him. She must have cared somewhat if she brought him here and fell asleep with him like this.
He looked around one more time. It was broad daylight, and he had no earthly notion where in the world he was. He remembered staggering off into the forest to die. He remembered looking up at Alexis and begging her to end it for him.
While he lay there thinking about everything, a sudden tension shot through Alexis’s body. He squeezed his arm around her shoulder, and she exploded off him with a scream that shattered the forest.
She flew across the alcove and hit the opposite wall. She cowered there with her hands over her ears and screamed. Christie got to his feet. For the first time in months, he could move without pain. Blood and grime still clung to every part of him, but he didn’t see any bloody flaps of skin hanging off him, either.
Alexis’s head shot up. She panted in terror, and her eyes darted around the alcove. The instant she looked at him, she looked off somewhere else. She started at invisible threats.
Christie took a step closer and put out his hand. “Lassie! It’s all right.”
She didn’t hear. She loosened her hands off her ears to listen. Then she threw both arms over her head and cowered, shrieking, to the floor.
Christie stared at her. What was wrong with her? He took a slow creeping step toward her. “Alexis!”
She jerked upright one more time. Her head snapped back and forth. She stared all around her with sudden, flinching movements.
Christie whispered under his breath. “It’s all right, lassie. You’re safe. Nothing’s gonna harm ye here. I’m here. I willnae let anything harm ye.”
He eased across the floor. He could tell from her eyes that she saw him and recognized him, but she wouldn’t let him near her. If his fingers glided too close, she yanked away before he could touch her.
He couldn’t understand her actions at all. One minute, she lay asleep in his arms, as sweet and calm as the night they spent together. Now she jerked around the alcove like a mad woman.
The next time she scuttled away from him, he didn’t try to follow her. He watched her from a distance. She scooted closer to the edge of the rock where the sky opened above the forest. While he stood there watching, it started to rain. The droplets wet her hair, but she paid no attention.
She migrated out of the overhang into the undergrowth. She kept snapping her head from side to side and up and down. She glared at shadows behind the trees. Much as Christie wanted
to let her go, he couldn’t ignore her distress.
She’d showed him kindness in his hour of need. She got him to shelter, and she must have done something to heal him from the sickness. He couldn’t think what that might be, but she was the only factor that changed in the last several months. It must have been her magic.
He draped his plaid around his shoulders and trailed her out into the forest. Every so often, she ducked low and cowered under her arms. She shrieked in agonized terror, but there was nothing there to threaten her.
The rain got heavier. It drenched her clothes and hair. Now she really did look mad. She crouched next to trees. Then she crawled through piles of leaves. She scaled rocks, all the while staring over her shoulder in blank horror at some invisible force pursuing her.
How could she crack up so fast? He looked into her eyes yesterday, and she wasn’t mad then. She spoke to him in her queer accent. She touched his shoulder and offered to help him.
He couldn’t leave her out here to freeze to death. Those flimsy clothes of hers did nothing to protect her from the elements. She didn’t even realize she was wet.
One more time, he sidled closer to her. He unwound his plaid to cover her. He had to get her back to the alcove, but when he glanced over his shoulder, he didn’t see it anymore.
One part of him cursed her for getting him into this. The other part acknowledged she was probably the one thing that saved his life. He had to pay her back. He would get her safe and dry and back in the comforts of civilization. Then he would leave her to her own devices. That’s what he told himself, at least.
He walked closer to her until she noticed him and shied away. She kept screaming. She launched herself to her feet and batted her hands at the empty air. She rubbed her hands all over her body. Then she broke off and ran.
She collided with another rock and bounced off. She landed flat on her back and writhed there on the ground. She kicked her legs and slapped her hands around her head, all the time whimpering in desperate terror. He had to stop this.
He strode up to her and bent down to touch her. “Alexis! Stop this now. There’s naught to harm ye, lass. Come with me, and we’ll get ye dry under cover.”
Before he could touch her, she got her hands and feet under her. She crab-crawled backward faster than he could react. She slithered out of his reach and huddled against a tree trunk.
He studied her from a distance. This had to stop. She was obviously out of her mind. Something devastating must have happened between now and when she lay down on top of him and put his arm around her shoulders. She certainly wasn’t out of her mind then.
He walked up to her. He took his plaid off his shoulders while he walked. He draped it over his hands, all ready to put around her. Maybe that would help him restrain her when she started to struggle.
He talked to her while he made his approach. “You’re going to be all right, my wee lassie. I’m going to take ye back to the rock and warm ye up. I’ll get a fire going, and ye can wrap yourself up in my plaid while your clothes dry. Then, after this rain stops, we’ll make our way to the nearest inn and get ye something nice and hot to eat and a nice warm bed. How does that sound?”
It sounded pretty good to Christie right now. He didn’t want to spend another minute out in this rain. She showed no sign of hearing a word he said. She covered her ears with her hands and panted in quick gasps while she stared at nothing.
He pitied her like this. She might have been a harpy from Hell when she stormed out on him at the inn, but she wasn’t one now. Now she was just a hurt little girl who needed help. No one would give it to her but him, and he couldn’t turn his back on her like this.
If he remembered all the hateful things she said to him back at the inn, he also remembered her sleeping face this morning. That alone made him help her.
He got close, but she didn’t run. He readied his plaid, but she didn’t look at him. She just crouched there in wide-eyed staring terror. Christie saw animals look like that when he hunted them down and killed them. He knew that look, and he didn’t like to see it on her.
He came to stand in front of her. She offered no resistance when he wrapped the plaid around her. She kept giving those short breaths. She shrank from the plaid touching her, but she didn’t pull away. That was a step in the right direction.
Christie sighed. He covered her with the plaid. He took a deep breath before he picked her up and carried her back to the alcove. Just for a moment, he studied her face. She looked nothing like the vibrant woman he spent the night with. The gentle glow of her skin in the lamp light, the silken sweep of her hair across his face, her lips brushing his belly—those things survived only in his memory.
He ran his finger across her forehead to move a stray wisp of hair aside. The instant his skin made contact with hers, the world flashed before his eyes. He looked at Alexis, but it was a different Alexis. She looked completely different.
For that brief fleeting moment, he saw square, brick-shaped sections of her body and face and limbs missing. He yanked his hand back, and the image vanished as fast as it appeared.
He blinked at her. There she was, dripping wet and staring and insane. His plaid circled her shoulders. Her skin shone pearly and intact in the rain.
He put out his hand to touch her again, but he hesitated. Would he see it again? What did it mean? His hand trembled within microns of her skin. An electric charge crackled up his arm, and he hadn’t even touched her.
He braced himself and made contact with her face. The image of her in pieces flashed before his eyes, and this time, he didn’t take his hand away. In front of his face, a cube broke away from her shoulder and flew off somewhere into the woods.
Alexis screeched out loud and jolted away from the pain. Christie lost contact with her skin for an instant, and the image disappeared. He looked down on her perfect white skin again.
Now he knew something weird was going on, but he couldn’t stand around out here to figure it out. He hoisted her off the ground and carried her in his arms back to the alcove. He made certain not to touch any of her skin.
He wrapped her up under cover and went out into the woods. He shivered without his plaid, but he already felt his vital energy returning. Whatever she did to him, she healed him from the sickness. Whatever was wrong with her, he owed her his help and protection.
He couldn’t understand what he’d seen, but that didn’t matter. He gathered sticks and built a fire under the overhang. When the flames licked up and he got warm enough, he turned his attention on her.
He carried her over next to the blaze and unwrapped the plaid. He paused only long enough to satisfy himself she couldn’t get undressed on her own. Then he set to work peeling off her sodden clothes. He got her naked and put his plaid around her one more time.
She submitted to everything in stupid incomprehension. He couldn’t even admire the body that excited him so much at the inn. She was a broken derelict of the glorious woman he’d enjoyed so much.
He draped her clothes by the fire to dry. When he sat down again, he noticed her staring into the flames. She didn’t jerk and dart around anymore. She just sat there in a stupefied trance.
He studied her for a long time before he got up the courage to try again. He put out his hand and took hold of hers. Instantly, he found himself gazing at a beautiful little village. He stood in a grassy field outside the ring of houses. Alexis stood at his side, and he held her hand.
The sun went down behind the forest behind the crude mud cottages. A few people wandered around between the houses. A dog barked in the distance. When he looked at Alexis, she smiled at him the way she did the night they spent at the inn. He would never have known she was insane.
The scene startled him so much he dropped her hand, and the vision vaporized. He regarded her with his head on one side. What was that strange world he saw when he touched her? How could she go from flying into pieces one instant to calm and radiant the next? None of it made sense.
One thi
ng he knew for certain. He had to help her. Those two brief glimpses of her falling to pieces twisted in his guts. He of all people knew exactly how that felt. He had to do something to stop this before it went any further.
Chapter 14
Alexis stumbled through the woods. She kept glancing over her shoulder, but she couldn’t run fast enough to get away from them. She tripped and went down on one knee. Her skin tore on a rock and blood stained her pant leg, but she staggered to her feet and ran on.
Every breath tore out of her lungs. Her legs ached from running, but she couldn’t slow down for an instant. They would be on top of her any second now. She bounced off trees and rocks. She didn’t feel the pain. She only knew the stark terror of fleeing her pursuers.
She spotted a towering wall of rock in front of her. She bolted for it and started climbing. Her fingers tore in the jagged clefts. She scrambled upward as fast as she could, but all the time, she kept glancing over her shoulder in search of anything coming at her from behind.
She heard a distant screech, and her heart nearly stopped. She paused to listen. Then she pushed herself up that wall faster than ever. She had to get away from them. She couldn’t let them take her again, or she was lost.
She got halfway up before she heard it again, closer this time. She made a grab for another handhold. Her fingers popped off, and the sharp edge cut her finger to the bone. She went spinning into space holding on by three fingers on her other hand.
She swung back and clawed the rock for any purchase. She got hold of the wall and hauled herself up when she heard it. It wasn’t the screech this time, but the low flutter of countless wings.
She didn’t bother to look back. She whined in terror. She couldn’t get her hands and feet to obey her to climb. She kicked at a foothold and her foot stuck. She pushed herself up and made a dive for another handhold when it happened.
Curse Breaker (Phoenix Throne Book 7): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 9
