A Shift in the Air (23 page)

The subtle sting of shame bit her, and
she looked away. “I guess I have.”

“
Ya have some explaining to
do, Farren. Disappearing for days? Colin swore ya ended up Fergus’s
prisoner. And given what the poor man went through, I’m shocked to
see ya alive. Happy, but shocked.” Liam linked his fingers with
Caitlin’s, and they took seats next to Paddy. Cade and Mara slid
into the booth across from them, and Farren twisted a chair around
and threw a leg over the seat, resting her folded arms along the
back.

“
Paddy saved my life.
Fergus snatched both of us from the Hen and Boar in Lahinch. The
bastard turned the whole place to rubble. I woke in the trunk of a
car, legs shattered. Couldn’t see a damn thing for all the blood. I
shifted and started diggin’ my way through the rear seats. Shocked
the hell out of him, and he crashed the car when I broke through,
snarling.” She chuckled weakly. “I didn’t know what had happened to
Colin. But I got away from Fergus and ran. When I came across
Paddy’s old shack, he was waitin’ for me.”

“
Hid her well, Paddy did.”
The old man smiled a toothless grin. “No more, though. The end
comes. Can’t protect ya any more, lass.”

Farren rubbed the back of her neck and
patted the old man’s hand. Sadness bowed her lips. “Paddy let me
sleep off my injuries and make some calls to try to figure out who
told Fergus about my friendship with Liam.”

“
What do ya
mean?”

Farren’s bloodshot eyes darkened.
“Before he brought down the buildin’, he taunted me. Told me my
death would lead you to him. ‘I want the wolf,’ he said. ‘He’ll pay
for taking my Catie away.’”

“
How does he even know
about us?” Liam asked.

“
There’s a photo.” Caitlin
dropped her head into her hands. “When I looked up my name after
Mara destroyed the crystal, I only found three photos of me. All
surrounding my death. But then I looked up your name, Liam, and I
found a picture of us from the rugby tournament. You had your arm
around me, and you’d given a quote to the paper. ‘My Caitlin’s
first match. She might be the team’s lucky charm’ or something
cheesy…I don’t remember the exact phrase. After he found me in
Belfast, so much of what he did is a blur. He tried to get me to
tell him all about you. Whatever I said…he knows you.”

Caitlin filled Mara, Cade, and Farren
in on Fergus’s invasion of her dreams, his threat against Liam, and
their plan to drug him and try to take her element back. “We have
to get the book and stop him before he finds more ways to hurt
Liam. Farren’s whole pack is in danger. How much longer before he
figures out a way to hurt the pack in Seattle too?”

A breeze rattled the saltshaker on the
table, and Liam rubbed Caitlin’s thigh. “Easy, luv. We’re goin’ to
find the bastard.”

“
Damn right.” Farren
signaled to the bartender. He brought over a shot of whiskey, and
she downed it in a single swallow.

“
Anyone else?” When no one
took him up on his offer, he shuffled off. “We open in twenty
minutes.”

“
Paddy can’t be seen with
ya,” the old man said. “Ya have to move on soon.”

“
Why did you go to the Hen
and Boar?” Cade asked.

“
A job. One of the young
practitioners in the county, a wee lass living in Lahinch all of a
year, came to me last week. She’s no more than twenty, but has the
wisdom of the ancients—ya can see deep into her soul when she looks
at ya. All of history laid out in her eyes. Claimed she had a
vision. All fire and earthquakes and floods. End times. Fuckin’
loon, I thought, but then we had the shite at the cliffs. Knocked
me on my arse—literally and figuratively. The shakin’ tore up roads
twenty kilometers away. I saw that daft bastard on the news
footage, and I don’t like coincidences.”

“
Fergus? You knew him
before he kidnapped you?” Caitlin leaned forward. She still had no
idea what had happened to Fergus during the eleven years she’d been
“dead.” Other than the article on her suicide, he’d stayed out of
the papers. Perhaps his meds had kept him sane.

“
I’ve worked among the
supernatural community for six years now, but they still consider
me an outsider.” Farren lifted her pint and took a deep swig. “Ya’d
think we’d stick together, but werewolves don’t trust
practitioners, practitioners don’t trust elementals, and elementals
don’t trust anyone. So when an elemental knocked on my office door
ten days ago, well, ya can imagine my shock. Carried on about two
recent deaths—suffocation. Claimed Fergus had a hand in
them.”

“
Shit. What date?”
Caitlin’s stomach turned. She’d done this. All of this. Somehow,
her coming “back to life” set him off again.

“
April twenty-fourth. The
deaths took place the day before.”

“
Oh God.”

Mara’s brows knit for a breath. “I
destroyed Katerina’s crystal that night, didn’t I?”

Caitlin reached for Liam’s hand under
the table. “Before…two weeks ago…he’d been quiet, hadn’t
he?”

Farren nodded. “Yes. No one’d heard
much of anything from him in years. He’d spent some time in the
hospital, but the meds kept him on an even keel. Went on a tear
once in a while, rantin’ and ravin’ about some ancient book he
needed, but he’d disappear for a few weeks, come back, and then
fade into the background again.”

“
And then I came back to
life.” Caitlin shuddered. “I should have stayed dead.”

Liam tried, and failed, to stifle a
curse. “No, Caitlin.”

“
I made him crazier. The
closer we are, the more violent he gets. Always. He did his worst
when he compelled me to help him.”

After another sip of beer, Farren met
Caitlin’s gaze. “One of the elementals I talked to remembered ya.
Said ya were a sweet thing who didn’t deserve his brand of crazy.
She knew the book he needs. Poor thing packed up and ran as soon as
I left her. But she says an elder around here has the feckin’
thing. Wouldn’t give me her name or any other hints.”

“
Diedre?” Caitlin
asked.

Paddy tapped the side of his nose and
chuckled. “Smart one. Keeps her wits about her, she does.” As
Caitlin watched Paddy smile along to a joke only he knew, a shrewd
gleam crept into his eyes. “Paddy knows lots o’ things,” he said
and touched his index finger to his ear “Listens. No one pays Paddy
any mind.”

Farren patted his spotted hand and
smiled with an affection borne of more than simply business.
“Paddy—“

“
I hear things, I do.
Whispers from all around. Ghosts.” He turned to Caitlin and drew a
complex pattern in the air with two fingers—a rune. Not one she
knew.

“
Paddy?” When he dropped
his hand, his eyes paled, and his voice lowered, the haunting,
raspy tone sending chills down Caitlin’s spine. “Promise lives on
this soft auld day. Legends warn, but they can’t know yer heart.
Strength finds the silver wolf when most needed, and a forbearer
holds the key to all.”

A shudder shook the spoons from his
hand, and Liam bent down to retrieve them.

Paddy’s eyes darkened again, and he
touched Caitlin’s cheek with a withered, wrinkled finger.
“Beautiful,” he said and slumped back against the bench seat. “Go
now. Mickey’s openin’ soon. Paddy can’t stay with ya. He hopes to
see ya again when this is over.”

Farren leaned in and kissed Paddy’s
wrinkled cheek. “I can’t repay ya for saving my life.”

“
Don’t give up. The earthen
storm knows only pain. Yer wolves won’t survive him. None of you
can. Only her.” Paddy narrowed his eyes at Caitlin. “Do not fail.”
He rose and shuffled off towards the back corner of the bar,
slapping his spoons against his thigh with each step.

“
Paddy?” Farren stood, her
arms stiff at her sides. “What do you mean?”

The old man shook his head. “Paddy’s
said what he can. Go now.”

“
Daft bastard. My wolves
won’t survive? I need to talk to Colin. Tierney. Now.”

“
Call from the car,” Liam
said. “I want that book. Now.”

“
Ya know where to
go?”

“
We parked out front. And
yeah. We’ve an address.”

Liam recounted his conversation with
Colin as he turned off Doolin’s main street and headed up the hill
towards Lisdoonvarna, and Farren asked to borrow a phone to call
her pack.

A vague sense of unease crept over
Caitlin’s skin, settling at the back of her neck.
“Liam—“

Her body bucked violently, and her
head slammed into the seat with a sickening thud. Fergus’s
glee—almost child-like—raised goose bumps along her arms and
crowded her thoughts, wrestling for dominance. A scream welled in
her throat, escaping in a sound she barely recognized as her
own.

Her element tumbled
violently, the hiss and rumble of a great flood of emotion
stripping her bare. Fergus pulled the air from her lungs. Grasping
blindly for the door handle, she fought against him.
No. Leave me alone. I’m not yours.

“
Caitlin!” The car swerved,
and a horn blared from somewhere to her right; cool hands grasped
her shoulders from behind. Mara. Fergus’s pain demanded her
surrender, and his bloodlust sickened her.

Grabbing her head, she concentrated:
the silence as the engine cut out, Liam’s touch, his hand on her
arm, his breath against her lips as he urged her to say something,
his eyes pleading, glowing. A string of Gaelic drowned out the wail
of the wind swirling within her.

The illusion of safety shattered. Her
chest heaved against the vise of Fergus’s control, and she squeezed
her eyes shut, trying to use his own charm against him. “He’s…not
far. Angry. Sad.”

Fergus’s scent tickled her nose.
Blood, thick and coppery, tinged the earthen sweetness, and she
gagged until Mara pressed the quartz against her heart. The charm
faded, and Caitlin collapsed back against the seat.

“
Caitlin, say
somethin’.”

“
Fergus. He’s calling to
me. I’ve never felt him so crazed. If this plan doesn’t work, we
may have no choice but to kill him.”

***

Liam cradled Caitlin against him in
the cramped backseat of the sedan. Her gentle curves stirred his
wolf. The pull of the moon and his intense need to protect and
claim his mate set every nerve ending on edge.

“
He’s in pain,” Caitlin
whispered. “We have to get to Diedre. Fergus isn’t far. I could
track him, but…I don’t want to. The charm strengthens the bond
between us and I can’t risk that again. I fought him this time, but
barely. If he finds Diedre before we do, I may not have much hope
of doing so again.”

They’d parked on a narrow dirt road
behind a weathered wooden fence that had seen better days. Farren
crouched down next to Liam, her hand on the open car door. “Is she
all right?”

“
I’m right here.” Caitlin
raised her head. “And no. But I’m really sick and tired of him
causing me pain. We need to get that book so I can end
this.”

Cade and Mara rejoined them. “I talked
to Peter and told him that we’re headed to Diedre’s,” Cade said.
“Your pack is driving him up a wall, and all of them need to run.
He’ll go with them, and I warned them to stick together. With
Fergus knowing about your friendship with Liam, none of them are
safe.”

“
Shite. They’re all bitten.
I should have sent them to Dublin. Or Scotland. Anywhere but
here.”

“
Peter will look out for
them. Try not to worry. But…are you sure none of them betrayed
you?” Cade leaned against the open door as Mara called on her
element. Darkness braced her eyes, but the spinning droplet of
water she bounced on her palm spoke to her control and
focus.

“
I’m not sure of anything,”
Farren said. “Right now, you lot and Paddy are the only people I
trust. I don’t think that any of my wolves would hurt Colin or me.
But with Brian still missing and Paddy doing nothing but speaking
in riddles and cryptic mentions of darkness and forbearers and
shite, I don’t know what to believe.”

“
The forbearer probably
means Diedre.” Mara sent the drop of water splashing against the
window. “Let’s go find out.”

Chapter Nineteen

Liam pulled onto a long winding path
so narrow Caitlin feared they’d taken a wrong turn. This couldn’t
be a road. At least not one that led anywhere. Shrubs grew high on
each side with creeping vines that threatened to grab the small car
and toss it down the belly of a lush, green beast. No one spoke.
Caitlin held Mara’s hand in the backseat, trying to bolster her own
energy. The memory of Fergus in her head left her shaking, and she
hadn’t voiced her true fear: that the glee she’d felt from him
meant he’d killed again.

“
We’re here,” Liam said. A
single-story farmhouse hid behind a stone wall that had seen better
days. Paint peeled from the eaves and moss covered the northern
side of the building. Caitlin couldn’t see a car, or any means of
transportation. A small garden languished to the west with
half-rotted cabbages and winter squash drawing a crow’s attention.
The bird screeched and took off when Liam opened his door, fleeing
to the home’s roof to keep watch.