Moon Cursed (37 page)

Kris wasn’t there; he knew that, too. But they had to follow every clue, even if those clues eventually led to her body.

Fury coursed through him. He would kill whoever hurt her. He would enjoy it the way that he used to. And if that turned him back into a creature unable to value human life, one the
Jäger-Suchers
would certainly destroy, then so be it.

A piece of paper lay on the ground. At first Liam thought it had drifted from Jamaica’s overburdened desk. He picked it up, nearly put it back without reading it. But the large block letters caught his attention.

DUNWAR.

He shoved the sheet at Marty and ran.

The Interpol agent was fast. He caught Liam as he reached the water. “What does this mean?” Marty demanded.

“ ’Tis a point on the loch. Remote. The quickest way is by water.”

Marty looked around helplessly. “We need a boat.”

Liam’s gaze went to the sky. “I don’t,” he said just as the sun burst free.

*   *   *

Kris had to do something. Dougal planned to kill her, blame it on Nessie, then go about merrily murdering hither and yon once Marty and Edward believed they’d taken care of the problem.

He’d screw up again, no doubt, and have them both back on his trail. But in the meantime, she’d be dead and so would Liam. Kris wanted to avoid that.

Reasoning with him was out. Dougal had lost all reason long ago.

So … She’d just have to kill him before he killed her.

He’d need to get her in the water somehow. Maybe she could drag him in, too. Hold his head below the water with …

Kris yanked again at the bonds on her hands. With what? Her teeth?

“Time for a swim.” Dougal motioned to the loch with his gun. “Get in.”

“I’m not going to be able to swim with my hands tied.”

“No,” he said with a smirk, “you won’t.”

“Won’t that be suspicious?”

“A serial-killing kelpie bound your hands? What a wicked, wicked creature.” He flicked the barrel at the water. “Go.”

“I … uh … No.” She stood. “You want me to drown. You’re not going to shoot me.”

“No?” He lowered the weapon and fired. Dirt flew up a few inches in front of her. Kris couldn’t help but scoot back.

Dougal followed. “Get in.”

Kris lifted her chin. “I won’t.”

Bam!

Earth exploded centimeters from her right toe. She stumbled into water just past her ankles. Kris tried to inch forward.

Bam!

Water sprayed to her left. This time she held her ground, gritted her teeth, refused to move, though she did flinch.
Bam,
right.
Bam,
left. Right. Right. Left. Left.

He reloaded so fast and fluidly, she only managed a single step forward before he shot again. Three in succession—to her right and left and right. Dizzy, ears ringing, she swayed.

And the water erupted as Nessie broke the surface.

The creature brushed past Kris, heading for Dougal, teeth bared. Dougal’s eyes bulged, the whites flaring in the bright morning sun. He fired, emptying his clip into the gray seal-like skin.

Nessie flopped into the shallows like a beached fish and lay still.

Kris’s mind froze as solidly as her feet already had in the icy waters of the loch. She stared at the massive bleeding dead lump that was Nessie.

“Huh.” Dougal looked at his gun.

“Th-th-that’s—” Kris’s teeth began to chatter.

“Unfortunate,” Dougal finished.

Kris had meant to say
impossible,
but obviously not. From what she could see, Nessie had already stopped breathing. Perhaps a descendant of the witch who created the monster was the only one who could end the monster. Who knew?

Kris’s whole world shifted, and everything became clear—an instant too late.

Seduction was one thing, love completely another. Great sex could not make you feel something you didn’t truly feel.

Like the love she felt for Liam Grant.

“Well.” Dougal slapped in a third clip. How many did he have? “I can work with this. Drown you, say she did it and I had to shoot her. Too bad about the video. I would have enjoyed it later, but sometimes you have to improvise.” He tossed the gun aside, grabbed Kris’s arm, and began to drag her into the loch.

Kris struggled. Not that she cared about drowning. Not anymore. Liam had died saving her. He’d died believing she hated him. She’d wondered if she would ever feel again the way she felt about Liam. Now she knew that she wouldn’t, and the luster of life dimmed.

However, she wasn’t going to let Dougal get away with blaming her death on Nessie. And the only way to ensure that was to live.

So Kris fought. She dug in her heels; she struggled and screamed. Dougal yanked and scratched and cursed.

Then he slapped her.

Behind him, the eyes of the Loch Ness Monster opened.

*   *   *

On land Liam was slow and ponderous. But in the water he was king. So he played dead, and he waited for that murdering bastard Dougal Scott to get but a little closer.

Crack!

The distinct sound of flesh meeting flesh caused Liam’s eyes to snap open just as Dougal hit her again.

Liam’s neck snaked out, his body already rolling into the water as his jaws closed on Dougal’s thigh, biting deep, tasting blood. Together they thrashed, but the man was no match for the monster. Dougal’s scream cut off as he was pulled beneath the surface.

“Liam, no!” Kris cried, but it was too late. The instant Dougal had marked her for dead, he had marked himself as well.

Together Liam and Dougal sank into the frigid depths of Loch Ness.

CHAPTER 27

“Kris!”

Her brother ran out of the woods. His gaze went to the water. But only a few swirls, a few bubbles, remained. Still, one look at his face and Kris knew he’d seen the whole thing.

“I won’t let you hurt her,” she said.

“Kris—”

“I’ve never asked anything of you in my life, Marty, but I’m asking this. Don’t call Edward. Just let Nessie stay Nessie. Let Dougal stay dead. Make up whatever the hell you have to. Forge whatever you have to forge; I don’t care.”

He lifted his hand to her face. “Dougal hit you.”

Kris shrugged. She was getting used to black-and-blue.

“I’d have killed him, too,” Marty muttered. She looked at him suspiciously. “You really think I’d turn Liam in to Edward?”

Ah hell. He knew.

“How do you—?”

“Dougal left a note telling us where he was. I’m not sure why.…” He looked around, saw the camera in the shadows of the trees. “Hmm,” he said, brain obviously percolating. “Anyway, Liam became Nessie and got here a lot quicker than me.”

“Not that much quicker,” Kris muttered. “Did you break the land speed record?”

“Nearly.”

“Will you leave Liam alone, even though he just killed a man?”

“Dougal was more of a monster than I’ve seen in a long time. Creepy, sneaky bastard. I’d have had to hire the ‘fix it’ guy to kill him anyway. Way I see it, Grant just saved me the trouble.”

“What about Edward?”

“I’ll tell him I took care of the problem.”

“And if he finds out you’re lying?”

Marty winced. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t.”

Kris felt terrible asking her brother to lie, and to Edward Mandenauer. But what choice did she have?

“We could tell him the truth,” Marty ventured.

“Which is?”

“Benign lake monster. No reason to kill it. Like you said: Let Nessie stay Nessie.”

“You think Mandenauer will go for that?”

Marty sighed. “Probably not.”

“Then keep this to yourself.”

“All right. But Kris—”

Kris stared at the water, waiting for the familiar dark humps to appear, but they didn’t.

“You can’t have any kind of life with him.”

Kris forced herself to look at Marty. “Why not?”

“He’s a monster.”

“You just said yourself—Dougal Scott was the monster. Liam’s just…” She glanced back at the loch. “Liam.”

“Hell!” Marty muttered.

“What?” Kris’s gaze flicked around the clearing; she peered into the trees, half-afraid she’d see Mandenauer coming out of them.

“You’re crazy about him,” Marty said. “No going back now.”

“No.” Kris watched the water again. “There isn’t.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Love him,” she said. “It’s all I
can
do.”

*   *   *

Marty cleaned up the scene. He seemed pretty good at it. Really, there wasn’t all that much to take care of. He retrieved a few shell casings, along with Dougal’s camera and tripod.

“I doubt anyone’s going to come along anytime soon. If they do…” He shrugged. “It’s not like we have a body to dispose of.”

“What about Dougal’s disappearance?”

“He’s a serial killer. No one’s going to care.”

“No one knows that.”

Marty’s face hardened into one she didn’t recognize. No longer the brother she remembered or even the man she was coming to know, but the Interpol agent who dealt with crap like this every day. “They will when I get done. I’ll say I pieced the truth together, then confronted him. He flipped, tried to kill me; I shot him, and he fell into the loch.”

Kris had thought to keep everything quiet, but loose ends were better tied up. It wasn’t as if they’d be blaming an innocent man for crimes he hadn’t committed, and the victims deserved justice; their families deserved to know what had happened to them.

Together Marty and Kris made their way to his rental car. It wasn’t an easy trip. Through the trees, down a nasty slope, across a craggy hill, Kris was leaning on her brother heavily by the time they reached what constituted a road in this part of the loch.

He helped her into the passenger seat and she must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew, Marty had rounded the bend near the cottage. Alan Mac sat on the porch. Kris groaned. All she wanted was to go back to sleep.

“Don’t worry,” Marty said. “The constable will be so inundated with the work this mess is going to cause, he won’t have time to bother you.”

“He’ll need a statement.”

“I already took it.” Marty stopped the car. “All you have to do is sign. Once I type it up.”

Kris put her hand on her brother’s. “Thanks.”

“I’m not going to disappear on you, Kris.” His eyes, so like her own, were earnest, and for the first time in a long time she believed every word that he said. “I promise.”

“What the hell?” Alan Mac pounded a huge fist on Marty’s window.

Marty winked, and they got out of the car.

As Alan Mac was a guardian and would no doubt hear the truth from Liam anyway, Marty told it. Together they got their stories straight while Kris continued to stare at the loch. She couldn’t help herself; she needed to see Liam. But he didn’t appear.

The constable assured Kris that Jamaica would be okay. She’d come out of her coma and named Dougal Scott as her attacker. He’d have been in big trouble even if he hadn’t kidnapped Kris.

“Why would he leave her alive?” Kris wondered. “She’d seen him.”

“She should have died.” Fury suffused Alan Mac’s pale face. “Anyone other than her would have.”

“Magic?” Kris guessed, and he nodded.

“Idiot had no idea the power he was messing with. He’s lucky she didn’t incinerate him.”

“That would have required a sacrifice.”

“Something she would never do again.” Alan Mac looked away. “I wouldnae have been so generous.”

Kris heard admiration in his voice. She tilted her head, narrowed her eyes, then smiled. Maybe something more.

“Without a sacrifice, how did she have the power to save herself?” Kris asked.

“Blood magic,” Alan Mac said. “Less powerful, but effective enough to keep her breathing until someone else could.”

“Blood?” Kris began, then understood. Jamaica had used her own. There’d no doubt been plenty of it. “Ass,” she spat.

“Aye,” Alan Mac agreed. “If he wasnae dead, I might have killed him myself.”

“I don’t understand why he hurt her,” Kris continued. “Dougal knew Liam was Nessie. He didn’t need Jamaica to tell him.”

Alan Mac snorted. “As if she ever would.”

“Then why?”

“She suspected Dougal was up t’ no good, and she confronted him. But crazy folk are wily, and he—” Alan Mac’s voice broke. He remained silent a moment, cleared his throat, and continued. “She should have come t’ me. But the woman takes her guardian duties seriously.”