An angry male voice, shouting. And then Lil! Afraid. There, behind the trees.
He scrambled down the slope toward the sounds. The man, caught in the wolf’s hide, held his vow before him like a talisman. Keep Lil safe, keep Lil safe. Make her love you. Make her love you.
But as he burst through the trees and saw the tiny cottage, window glowing brighter as the last of the sunset faded, the wolf’s primitive urges drowned out the pale human voice. Protect. Kill the other. Take mate back to den. She will be your life mate when you possess her again.
In a mass of sinew and synergy with the night, both aims became one as Ian ran through thick growth toward the glowing window.
Some minutes earlier, inside the cottage, Lil had tried to compose herself. If Thomas intended to kill her, he would have done so by now, surely. He merely sat on his haunches, staring at her. Waiting. For what? He was fully a werewolf, had been for quite some time, yet he merely licked his paws, casting her an occasional possessive glance before returning to his ablutions. A few times he glanced out the window, looking at the rising moon, lips curling back in the canine version of a smirk, but then he continued his bath. It was as if he wanted to look his best for the biggest event of his life.
And the last event of Lil’s….she knew it with those instincts that had been as important to her as logic of late. But she wouldn’t go easily.
Pulling harder at her bonds, Lil cried to Preston, who calmly cut himself a hunk of cheese and bread, “Don’t you fear for your immortal soul, to be his…familiar like this? How many people has he killed? At least he has the sickness. Whereas you–”
“Do it for enjoyment.” Preston took a big bite of his sandwich. “And do Cornwall a favor by ridding it of more squalling brats suckling on Mother England’s teat.”
“You sicken me,” Lil whispered, unable to watch him eat with such gusto despite their gruesome conversation.
His only response was to polish off the rest of his sandwich. “Have to fortify myself, you know. If you have any sense, you’ll eat, too. Your night will not be exactly….relaxing.”
The last thing Lil wanted was food, but he’d have to untie her hands for her to eat. She nodded. “A piece of fruit, some cheese, and a glass of wine, please.”
To her immense relief, he untied her when he brought her the food. She ignored the caviar he offered on toast, wondering if this was her last meal, and sipped absently. She watched the moon climb a bit higher. As it rose, Thomas grew more agitated.
He was pacing now, casting ever more frequent glances outside.
Draining the last of her wine, Lil looked outside, too. She’d never seen the moon so fulsome and bright, and so far, at least, no sign of an eclipse.
The sunset passed minutes ago, but she heard no sounds indicating the sheriff, or anyone else, had arrived. So much for his belief in her honesty and passion. He certainly couldn’t deny the existence of werewolves any more, but Thomas Harbaugh, a werewolf? Nonsense.
Nonsense was beginning to quiver, ears pricked forward, listening intently, too. And Lil knew he wanted Ian to arrive almost as much as she did. Wolf or man. It didn’t matter. Thomas wanted to subdue or kill both of them.
But it mattered to Lil. Very much. If Ian came as a wolf, would he be able to pull back from the madness this time? Yet if he came as a man, he’d have little hope against Thomas.
For the third time, Preston looked at his pocket watch. They were uncommonly interested in the eclipse, too.
Lil gave Preston a dismissive glance. “Half brother or not, you’re expendable, too, if you don’t cower well enough. Why not let him make you a werewolf, too? Or are you too afraid?”
“Shut up, you little bitch!” Preston shouted, taking an angry step toward her.
Thomas stopped pacing.
“I’d be surprised if you even knew his plan,” Lil continued in a contemptuous tone. “He doesn’t trust you, that’s apparent. I’m certain he’s never told you what his mother said about the way to cure the Griffith malady.”
Raising a clenched fist as he came, Preston hurried toward her.
Lil gave a little cry of alarm and scrambled off the bed.
Thomas growled a warning, and that’s all it took.
Preston stopped, his fist dropping, and to Lil’s vast relief, he channeled his anger into his retort. “Typical female, you think you’re the answer for everything. As usual, you’re wrong. Dead wrong.”
Thomas gave a louder warning growl, glaring at his brother.
But this time, Preston ignored him, his cheeks red, his words hammering at Lil relentlessly. “You’ll help end this power struggle, indeed, you stupid little ninny, but not as the heroine. You’re the prize.” When Lil paled and shook her head, backing again, he gave a nasty little laugh. “Tonight, when the moon is fully blocked by the eclipse, Ian Griffith, as the only full blood Griffith male, can choose his own fate. Fully a man again, or fully a werewolf, remaining so forever, subject to my brother’s dominance. Or he will die if he resists.”
Lil’s heart pounded so hard she barely heard her own question. “And what is the deciding factor?”
“You. What a disappointment you are, Miss Haskell. Despite all your superior posturing, it’s quite obvious you’re as stupid as the other heiresses, after all. Let me spell it out for you. Ian will feast on your heart during the eclipse and seal his fate, or–” Preston’s head snapped to the side, blood gushing from his cut mouth, as Thomas’s paw slapped him across the room.
His eyes rolling back in his head as he struck the wall, Preston sank, boneless, to the floor.
Lil scarcely noticed, for the last clue fell into place so easily she was shocked she didn’t see how well it fit before. “An eye for an eye, a hate for a hate,” ran the last line.
The only force in the universe strong enough to counteract hatred? Love. Deep love. Selfless love. A depth of feeling Lil had not been able to muster before now. She was the last Haskell heiress; Ian was the last full blood Griffith male. She’d quite logically been afraid to offer him even more control over her.
But logic offered no solace in this situation, for it was a choice quite literally, of the heart. One way or another, from the day she set foot in Cornwall, Ian’s destiny had been to consume her heart. And her destiny was to save them both by offering it to him.
As terrified as she was at the thought of facing Ian as a werewolf again, of trying to prove her love for him even when he took such a fearsome form, for a moment, Lil was saddened at the pain that had led to such a curse. Simple. Grisly. And irrevocable. It must have seemed appropriate to the dying gypsy girl, but Lil had sensed her presence, and wondered if her enmity kept her from finding peace in the next world, too.
Lil glanced outside. The moon was high, and a sliver of it was missing.
The eclipse had begun.
Thomas, too, looked outside. This time, when he glanced at her, his fangs showed. His waiting was over. He intended to drag her outside and toy with her, make her bleed, so the scent of her blood and fear would permeate the stones of his ancestors by the time Ian came.
Praying Preston still had her pistol in his pocket, Lil leaped over the bed as Thomas bunched to spring. As she fumbled in Preston’s jacket, Thomas stopped, nose lifted, to sniff the air. The ruff on his neck bristled. He growled and began to turn.
Too late. Something blocked the moon, something dark, and powerful, and angry, leaping through the window to knock him flat.
Ian! Lil was half relieved, half terrified that this time, he wouldn’t be able to change back into a man, but she wasted no more time. She heard the two werewolves engage with savage growls, but Preston’s left pocket was empty. Please, oh please.
She went limp with relief when she felt the pistol in Preston’s right pocket. By the time she turned, holding it in shooting position, the battle took the huge combatants through the closed door, reducing it to splinters.
Lil ran out, but stopped abruptly, squinting. After the lanternlight
in the cabin, and with the growing darkness of the moon, an eighth of it missing now, she couldn’t adjust to the darkness. But she stumbled over rocks and dead growth to follow the sounds.
Wondering if she’d have to shoot Thomas. Or herself…for if she thought Ian’s lycanthropy was too strong, she’d die by her own hand before she’d let Ian eat her beating heart. Maybe then, at least, he’d survive.
“Is that love deep enough for you, gypsy girl?” Lil whispered, casting a furious glance at the dark moors. Beneath the soft sigh of the wind, she might have heard sobs of someone else caught between life and death, good and evil….
A half mile away, Shelly lashed the carriage horse to a gallop, her sensitive ears picking up on the sounds of a vicious canine battle long before Jeremy heard a thing. She wished now she’d come straight here, but an hour or so ago, she’d been more concerned with Lil’s safety in Harbaugh clutches than for Ian’s tormented soul.
She’d known immediately that the Harbaugh butler lied when he said Lil hadn’t been there. As she and Jeremy had turned to leave, the sheriff had arrived.
When he, too, was told the Harbaughs were not at home, his eyes narrowed. Shelly didn’t take time to debate with him the truth or falsehood of Lil’s warnings about the dire goings-on likely this night, or that the Harbaughs would be intimately involved. Truth to tell, she wanted to get away and make it to the ruins long before the sheriff even thought to follow. He’d only get in the way.
But as she left, she heard Lil’s butler conversing quietly with his Harbaugh counterpart and the sheriff. She smiled. If there was one person local law enforcement trusted to know the truth about the gentry in the area, it was their butlers. Shelly fervently hoped the Haskell retainer would convince the Harbaugh servant that he’d protected his vile masters long enough.
And she and Jeremy had driven off helter-skelter for the track that led to the ruins.
During the drive, it had been increasingly hard to ignore the moon’s lure, but she’d tried to distract herself with worries of Lil. Jeremy was frantic with fear for Lil, unaware of the sweat on her brow, or the fact that her eyes had learned to pierce the veil of night. She knew they must be glowing….
But when she lashed the horse into a gallop, Jeremy clutched the sides of the carriage. “What ails ye, woman? On this rut a cow would gainsay, we’re likely to kill ourselves long afore we can help Lil.”
“If we don’t arrive soon, it will be too late. Possibly for both Lil and Ian.”
“Oh, ye can foretell the future now, too, ducky?”
Shelly hesitated. She hoped she’d find some clue to the cure of her own sickness in a few minutes, but if she didn’t….Did she want Jeremy to know? Shelly, most unusually for her, couldn’t answer that.
On the last straightaway that led to the ruins, Shelly said out of the side of her mouth, “I heard the fight, Jeremy. Two werewolves battle. For Lil.” She felt his shock, but didn’t have more time to explain. Down the slope, the Druid ruins shone white in the waning moonlight.
A shot rang out. And then a scream.
When Lil’s eyes adjusted to the growing darkness, she almost wished they hadn’t. The two dark, writhing figures, fighting in the clearing made by the ruins, were locked in mortal combat. The battle had separated them briefly, and Lil had tried a shot, but she was shaking so much it went wide. And then the two werewolves were locked in fierce combat again. Since Lil couldn’t be sure of hitting Thomas without shooting Ian, the pistol in her hand only weighed her down with its false sense of security.
The huge granite monoliths glowed ghostly white, silent witness.
Lil swallowed, telling herself that Ian was too good and kind to let the madness take him to the point that he’d want to kill her. But this Ian frightened her, even more than the wolf at the ball. Reared up on his hind legs, silhouetted against the waning moon, tail whipping viciously, he snarled and bit at Thomas, who was weakening from blood loss.
Thomas had a piece of flesh missing from his shoulder. Claw marks gouged him in numerous seeping wounds. More torn flesh gaped from his neck and back.
Aside from a gash on his chest from the rake of Thomas’s teeth, the Wolf of Haskell Hall was unmarked. A new alpha male was about to reign supreme.
As Lil watched, the pistol trembling in her hand, Ian slammed into Thomas with both paws, and Thomas tumbled, rolling in the grass, landing on his back. Ian leaped atop him, biting and snapping. Thomas yelped and howled, trying to bite back, but Ian’s teeth were fastened in his neck, holding him still.
On a dim level, Lil heard footsteps run into the clearing. She looked over her shoulder at the familiar outlines of Shelly and Jeremy. They tried to pull her back, away from the fight.
She resisted. “No. One way or another, this ends, tonight. By my hand. Or Ian’s.”
Unable to do anything else to help them, Shelly stood a silent bulwark on one side of Lil, Jeremy on her other. The light was fading rapidly now. Lil glanced up. The moon was three quarters covered, a glowing aura adding a peculiar radiance to the cosmological duel between moon and earth, burnishing good and evil down below.
Thomas weakly tried to throw Ian off, but Ian clamped down harder on Thomas’s neck. Blood spurted into his vicious jaws, and when Thomas swiped at him with a paw, he shook Thomas like dog’s toy.
Thomas howled, clawing at Ian’s back, scoring deep furrows that glistened even in the dim light. Ian bit harder.
Thomas’s black eyes began to lose their glow. More feebly now, he struggled to get away, but blood spurted, and then gushed in a stream as Ian bit through the jugular. Thomas collapsed, his eyes closing.
The pistol sagged in Lil’s hand. Ian had won. What now?
But Ian still wasn’t satisfied. He slapped Thomas with a brutal paw and rolled him over. Then, his magnificent strength limned against the sliver of a moon, he clawed and bit at Thomas’s chest.
Gagging, Lil turned away, unable to watch. The sounds were bad enough. The crunch of bone, a squishy ooze as tissue was ripped open. And then feeding sounds.
Lil pressed her face into Shelly’s strong shoulder, unable to watch Thomas’s heart become the gory prize he’d wished upon Lil.
Even Jeremy turned away. Only Shelly watched.
And then darkness. Total eclipse. Complete. Frightening. Relieved only by those horrid sounds. Finally, they stopped.
Lil sensed movement. She shook with terror exacerbated by Ian’s hunger. This was worse, far worse than the battle in the study. Lil knew it had to be done, that Ian was protecting her. Only when Thomas’s heart was pierced would he die. And who better to kill him than the man he’d tried to dominate?
But it made Lil’s own task no easier. Every logical sense she retained urged her to run. This beast she couldn’t see was so vicious that surely he was lost to any humanity or finer feelings she might once have inspired in him. The thing that remained was roused by blood, and his final prey was close and defenseless. She was a Haskell. He was a Griffith.
But something deep inside Lil, where not even logic or reason could touch, made her pull away from Shelly’s protective clutch. She glanced up at the moon. A faint rim of light already showed a break in one corner. The peak of the eclipse was almost done.
If Preston had spoken true, Lil knew she only had seconds left to act. Lil moved away from Shelly and Jeremy, her pistol lax at her side, and took two steps forward. Toward the dark energy hovering only ten feet away. Toward destiny.
She sensed that Ian, too, waited to see what she’d do. Run? Scream? Beg? Or trust him. Love him. Even when he was in such terrifying form.
In one leap he could knock her down and tear into her chest. Lil quelled the vivid terrors, shutting off her insistent mind and letting her instincts rule. In the ancient way, the best way, the only way God, man, or even gypsy wronged, had ever found to cure hatred and evil.
Letting the pistol drop from her hand, Lil moved forward another step, hearing Jeremy’s bit off curse, and Shelly’s soft c
ommand to him to wait.
Still Ian didn’t move. She only saw him by the twin spots of living amber fire glowing in the darkness. She smelled blood on him, and the acrid scent of dogs after fighting, but she was thankful of the eclipse. At least she didn’t have to see what she was about to embrace.
With a last step, Lil reached out, gambling all she was on what she wanted to become. Just as the curse foretold, this werewolf would have her heart this night. “Ian, please. Hear me out. And then, if you want to kill me, well, perhaps that was my destiny all along.”
She sensed that he stood and padded closer. She felt the warmth of his body now. Those twin glowing amber eyes were so close, on a level with hers because he was so large, that she knew she would touch him if she reached out again. “My fate, is your fate. We can both fulfill the curse this night with my death and your eternal damnation. Or we can end it here. Now. With the one thing your ancestor wanted most and never got.”
Lil’s trembling fingertips touched the ruff on his spine. The fur was warm, but slick, and she knew she touched blood. She bit her lip over the urge to back away, but it was too late. Either she reached Ian’s heart and mind lurking still inside the wolf, or….Lil ran her hand over the strong neck, her voice tight with tears. “I love you, Ian. I have for days, weeks, but I was afraid to tell you and give you more power over me. I’m proud, too. I admit it. But I believe in you. Even after seeing you eat another’s heart, I believe that the man I love, the artist, the lover, the man who risked his life for me, is stronger than the wolf. If you believe it, too, the moon will have no more power over you. Please, darling. Hold me in your arms. Change one last time. For me. For us. Forever.”
Lil continued to stroke him gently. She felt him tremble and fear gripped her about the throat. Was he about to bite her hand? Her touch knew the truth before her eyes. She felt the change. Lush hair began to shorten, the spine to move upright, broad shoulders form.
And then her reward. Warm male flesh touched her, tempted her, instead of fur. Lil’s knees weakened, and she would have fallen if he hadn’t caught her in a passionate embrace. A man’s embrace.
The Wolf of Haskell Hall Page 29
