A Shift in the Air (22 page)

“
Air purifies. That’s
probably why. But if he’s taking so much, then he’s in bad shape. A
little more might be able to take him down.”

“
What do ya
mean?”

Caitlin took Liam’s hands and smiled.
“I know how to trap Fergus.”

Chapter Seventeen

Cade leaned forward with his elbows on
his knees. “We can’t hesitate. If we do this, we hit him hard and
fast. Drug him, get him to tell us where Farren and Brian are, and
then kill him.”

“
Agreed. Mara, ya said the
elders—“

“
We can’t kill him.”
Caitlin leaned against an imposing fireplace set into the far wall
of Farren’s living room. Two leather sofas gathered around the
cold, darkened hearth. Cade, Mara, and Peter had claimed one sofa,
with Tierney and Liam on the other. Abagail and Ewan clamored about
in the kitchen, preparing some food for the weary group.

“
What?” Cade glared at
her.

“
Fergus didn’t lose his
mind until after he absorbed my element. What if taking my air
broke something inside him? And what if we could reverse the
process? If the boy I once knew is in there somewhere, we have to
try to save him.”

“
Like hell we do.” Cade
looked to Mara. She stared into the cold hearth and fiddled with
the leather pouch around her neck. “Mara, what is it?”

Mara met his gaze. “The elders—Siobhan
at least—said that absorbing Katerina’s fire would kill me one day.
But before she went to get you, Eleanor whispered something to
me.”

“
What?”

“
If I can find my balance,
I can be restored.” Mara shrank back against the leather sofa and
chewed on her lower lip. Something about her vibrated off-key.
Exhaustion or an imbalance in her elements perhaps.

“
So Fergus could be
‘restored’ too.”

“
Maybe? Look, I don’t
really want to risk you—or any of us. But I don’t like the idea of
killing him unless we don’t have a choice,” Mara said.

Liam ran a hand through his hair. He’d
left it loose, and the motion sent locks tumbling over his
shoulders. “This is ridiculous.”

Cade nodded. “Hell, yes.”

“
No. Hear me out.”
Caitlin’s element stirred the air in the room and a burning pain
scorched her heart. Fergus’s pain threatened to overwhelm her, but
she understood now. The rantings, the odd times when a bit of the
boy she’d had a crush on would return, and the violence when the
fits overtook him once more. Everything made sense. “You didn’t
know him. His father…hated him. His mother didn’t let on that she
had elemental powers until after Fergus’s birth, and when his
father found out, he left them both. His mum died, and Fergus
didn’t have a choice. He had to go live with a man who despised
everything about him. I knew him before his father got a hold of
him. I remember the good in him. He only wanted power so he could
escape his family.”

“
He hurt ya, Caitlin. So
much ya had to kill yerself to escape him!” Liam jumped up and
crossed the room in three strides. He grabbed her hands and held on
tight. “I won’t forgive him, and I’m not goin’ to let him live. We
had this discussion last night.”

Jerking her hands away, Caitlin stood
up as straight as she could. She didn’t think she could pull off
imposing—not in front of Liam—but anger had her trying. “We can’t
just go around killing people!”

Liam’s lip curled into a snarl. “What
about all the people Fergus killed?”

Lowering her voice, Caitlin gazed at
the floor. “What about all the people I killed?”

“
That’s not the same thing,
luv.”

She raised her eyes to meet his gaze.
“No. But also yes. I hurt people under Fergus and Katerina’s
compulsions. Fergus is hurting people because he’s sick. The
insanity could be reversible. We have to try.”

Liam raised a brow. “And what
then?”

“
I don’t know. Maybe we’ll
have to kill him in the end anyway. But this is the humane thing to
do, yeah?” Caitlin twined her fingers with Liam’s. “If we can save
him, get him the help he needs,
and
take back my element…”

“
Then we’d know how to save
me too.” Everyone looked to Mara. She drew her knees up to her
chest and balanced her heels on the edge of the sofa. “We need the
book. But if we can break the charm that binds Caitlin and Fergus,
maybe my two elements won’t kill me.”

Cade dropped his gaze to Mara’s hands
clasped around her knees. An emerald ring winked on the third
finger of her left hand.

“
We can try,” Liam said.
“He’ll be our guinea pig. Cade, ya don’t want to lose Mara to some
charm we’ve never tested.”

With a heavy sigh, Cade nodded. “Fine.
We do this.”

***

Caitlin splashed cool water on her
cheeks in one of Farren’s upstairs bathrooms. They’d convinced
Colin to join them downstairs to figure out how to drug Fergus.
Tierney and Peter left to try to buy some Rohypnol in Shannon, and
Cade, Mara, Liam, and Caitlin planned to try to find Farren. Colin
remembered a few landmarks he’d seen after he’d escaped, and he
thought he’d been somewhere close to Knockaskeheen, a tiny parish
fifteen miles away. Caitlin’s element weakened with Fergus’s
proximity, but she thought she could locate Farren if they got
close.

When she emerged, Liam leaned against
the wall across from the door. “Are ya all right, luv? Ya didn’t
say much while we planned.”

“
I feel him under my skin
all the time now. I want him gone.” She tried to brush past him on
her way to the bedroom they’d claimed on the top floor.

He spun her around and pressed her
back against the wall. The heat of his lips seared her neck, and
the scrape of his teeth sent a wave of arousal through her so
strong she feared she’d drown. “I won’t lose ya,” he whispered
against her ear, and then nipped at the tender skin along her
throat. His hand skimmed her side and pressed firmly between her
legs, and she barely held herself together against the onslaught of
need.

“
Liam. God.
We…can’t.”

He pulled back with a half-lidded
stare and traced her jaw with a knuckle. “I know. But the moon
rises tonight. The mating…shite, Caitlin. I can’t think. All I want
to do is lose myself in ya.”

Cupping his neck, she urged
his mouth to hers once more and poured her entire soul into one,
desperate kiss. Her body thrummed with heat, and his arousal
pressed firmly into her hip. “Don’t do anything stupid,” she
managed when they broke apart. “If Fergus is there, you have to
trust me. I can probably shield you for a short time. Long enough
for Cade drug him. Or rip his throat out. Stay behind me. He’ll try
to hurt me, but I don’t think he’ll kill me. He
will
kill you.”

A vein at his temple throbbed as he
nodded slowly. “I’ll try. I can’t help protectin’ ya. Ye’re my
mate, and I won’t survive losin’ ya.”

“
You won’t lose me. I have
something I didn’t have eleven years ago, Liam.” Caitlin threaded
her fingers into his hair and brushed a tender kiss to his lips. “I
have hope now.”

***

Two cars bounced along unpaved roads
on the way to Knockaskeheen. Fergus’s pull intensified with every
mile. Liam drove Cade’s rental car, and Abagail and Ewan followed
behind them.

The humidity in Ireland worked to
Mara’s advantage, and she spun droplets of water from palm to palm,
relying on her dominant element to suppress the fire that
threatened her. Cade stared out the window, occasionally cracking
his knuckles or reaching over to rest his hand on Mara’s
thigh.

No one spoke until Liam pulled the car
off to the side of the road. “That old castle is the first thing
Colin remembered seein’ when he ran.” Stones crumbled along one
side of the four-story ruins, and glassless windows stared out over
lonely green pastures dotted only with the occasional oblivious
goat.

Caitlin lowered the window
and hugged Farren’s journal to her chest. Location charms worked
best when she had something of the person to aid her. Though
heavily scented with leather and dye, a hint of Farren’s unique
scent lingered. She smelled like strawberries, with a hint of sea
air and fresh rain.
I call upon the air
that breathes life into the world; return with the answers I
seek.
Strictly speaking, no elemental
needed words to draw their strength, but the additional focus
helped calm her turbulent emotions. The charm flowed forth in a
rush of air and tugged her back towards Doolin. What the hell?
Steeling herself against the impending pain, she sent a second
charm wide, trying to locate her missing element, the part Fergus
stole from her so long ago. That pull steered her closer to
Lahinch, a fair bit south of Doolin.

“
She’s not
here.”

“
What?” Cade leaned
forward. “Where is she?”

“
Turn around. We have to go
to Doolin.” Caitlin shook her head, baffled that Fergus hadn’t
reached out for her yet when he had to know their proximity. “Send
Abagail and Ewan east if you want, but Farren’s in
Doolin.”

“
And Fergus?” Liam touched
her arm, and the fear in his eyes nearly broke her.

“
South. When I knew him
before, he had a home in Lahinch. If I had to guess, that’s where
he is. He’ll know I’m close now, so I don’t expect him to stay
there, but if you hurry, we can get to Farren before he
does.”

Liam threw the car into gear and took
off with tires squealing as Cade called Ewan and relayed
instructions. He and Abagail would shift into wolf form and scour
the area for any sign of Farren and Brian while the four of them
headed to Doolin.

The tiny town spread out over a few
hundred acres. One main street housed the only stoplight and four
hotels, two pubs, a bookstore, a bank, and a petrol station. Though
the sun shone brightly today, the tourist season hadn’t started
yet, and two of the hotels offered only darkened windows and
shuttered doors, signs proclaiming their opening days still weeks
away.

“
Try again,
luv?”

She released her charm, seeking the
female alpha, and confirmed her belief. Farren Denair couldn’t be
far. “Park up by O’Connor’s Pub. If she’s not there, she’s close
by.”

Only three patrons lingered at
scattered tables in the dimly lit pub. Half a dozen taps and
bottles of liquor in every shape, size, and color gleamed behind
the bar. A white-haired man with beefy arms and a round, bald head
eyed the four of them. “Kitchen opens in an hour. Session band
starts not long after that.”

Caitlin scanned the two rooms while
Liam leaned an elbow on the counter. “We’re lookin’ for Farren
Denair. Ya know her, mate?”

“
Nope. If ya want a pint,
ya order at the bar.”

An elderly man, frail, with the look
of one who’d lost most of his teeth to age or poor care, fixed his
pale blue eyes on Caitlin, touched his cheek, and nodded. Pulled by
a force she didn’t understand, she approached as he withdrew a pair
of spoons from his pocket and slapped them on his thigh in time
with the upbeat reel on the pub’s sound system.

“
Paddy knows ya,” he said,
his voice as frail as his body. “He’s been waitin’.”

“
For me?” She glanced
around at the other three patrons, but none of them met her
gaze.

“
Aye. Ya need answers,
yeah? Ye’re tryin’ to save them.”

“
What the hell? How did
you…?”

Paddy grinned and confirmed his lack
of teeth before he touched his cheek again. “Knew it, I did.” The
spoons rapped on the table. Four knocks, a pause, three more, and
then Paddy stared over Caitlin’s shoulder at the bartender. She
turned in time to see the man gesture to one of the male patrons.
He rose, locked the door, and went back to his pint without a
word.

“
What the hell’s goin’ on
here?” Liam reached over the counter for the bartender’s shirt and
pulled him closer.

“
Calm the fuck down,” the
hooded drinker said and tossed back the gray fabric of her
sweatshirt. Her silver-blond hair hung in an angled bob along sharp
cheekbones, one of which had a distinctly purple hue of a day old
bruise. Plump bow-lips curved into a half smile under deep blue,
bloodshot eyes. “Good to see ya again, Liam.”

“
Shite. Farren.”

Chapter Eighteen

“
Where’ve ya been?” Liam
pulled the slight woman up by her arms and crushed her against him.
Caitlin watched, both touched and a little jealous at another woman
locked in an intimate embrace with the man she loved, but Paddy
patted her hand, drawing her gaze.

“
Sit,” he said. “Old Paddy
has lots to say.”

Caitlin shook her head and stepped
closer to Liam as Farren winced and patted Liam’s back. “Put me
down, ya oaf. Ye’re crushing me and we’ve little time.”

“
Farren, meet Caitlin. My
mate.”

The female wolf’s hand trembled
slightly as she grasped Caitlin’s, and when she nodded her
greeting, the scent of dank earth and dried blood wafted from her
wrinkled cloak. “I knew of ya, lass. Came back to set Liam to
rights, have ya?”