The Becoming Trilogy Box Set (Books 1-3) (89 page)

‘And that’s the only reason
you’re still alive.’ Doyle wouldn’t have spared any of them if he’d stuck
around. ‘Now, please. Move.’ Her voice broke around a growl. She could finally
hear Connal’s heart beating and that was the only thing that kept her human.
She needed to touch him. Maura hesitated, her eyes locked on Ash’s face. Then
she stepped to the side.

‘Connal ...’ Dragging herself
over, there was no hesitation when Ash pushed her hands into the thick fur of
his snowy pelt. Patches were missing, bloody and torn but they were already
starting to heal. ‘Big Bad ...’ She scooped his huge head into her lap, thumbs
stroking the silky soft fur on his muzzle. His crimson eyes were dark with
panic and pain and she lowered her head to nuzzle him with her nose. ‘Can you
move at all?’ The impressions he sent to her said no. Ash raised her head to
find Maura watching her. She couldn’t gauge the expression on her face.

‘You only hit him with one,
right? How much damage will it do?’

‘I tagged him in the
shoulder, he didn’t take all of the shot. The paralysis lasts a few hours, but
if we can remove the pellets, he should recover.’

‘Should? I’m going to pretend
you didn’t say that.’ Taking a deep breath, Ash savoured the waft of fear
coming off the other woman. ‘Well what are you waiting for?’ she snapped, ‘how
do we get the shot out of him?’

‘I ...’ Maura blanched. ‘How
should I know? I’m not a veterinarian.’

‘Go get Madden,’ she
demanded, ‘he’s a doctor.’

‘The
thegn
?’ she
balked at the idea.

‘Yes,’ Ash snarled, ‘the
goddamn motherfucking monk. Now! We need to get Connal out of here before that
naked mole-rat from Hell decides your shotgun isn’t so scary after all.’

Chastened, Maura stumbled to
her feet and set off across the field at a dead run.

Ash brushed a kiss to
Connal’s nose. ‘Big Bad, stay with me. Help is coming.’ The wolf in her arms
chuffed and muscles flickered under his bloodied white coat, straining. His
back leg kicked and Ash smiled, playing with the soft fur on his ears. Connal
thrummed at her, and the air hazed, a crackle of joints popping as his wolf
receded inside and he lay human in her lap.

‘Welcome back ...’ She leaned
to press a kiss to his lips, relishing the warmth of his mouth. He was alive.
He’d come back to her. No way in hell was she letting him leave again.

Connal jolted upright and Ash
startled, the change from deathly-still to moving so sudden her brain flinched.
She squeezed his hand as he looked about wildly, teeth bared, until his eyes
locked on her. Ash smiled at him tentatively.

‘You’re back!’ she said.

Her voice seemed to ground
him. The red seeped from his eyes, his fangs receded and his fingers curled
tightly around hers. It was progress, but his body was still in fight mode,
having been so unnaturally shut down mid-battle, his disorientation was clear.
Tension kept him rigid, on edge, and Ash drew him into her arms, nuzzling the
top of his head when he leaned into her.

He spoke something into her
chest, but the words were muffled against the hideous quilted house-coat Maura
had loaned her. She pulled back to look at him, confused, and his words were
quiet. ‘Are you alright?’ he asked, ‘you were hurt.’ His eyes skipped over her
covered curves, seeking injury, his nostrils flaring. She’d cleaned most of the
blood from her skin, but his pained expression told her she hadn’t found all of
it.

Ash smoothed gentle fingers
across his brow, pushing the hair from his face. ‘I’m fine. Seems I got your
mad healing skills,’ she joked with a gentle smile. Her leg injury was only a
mild ache now.

He returned her smile
crookedly and exhaled, slumping back against the pillows she’d propped under
his head. ‘What the fuck was that thing?’

‘That was Doyle.’ she said
simply, ignoring the shivers of revulsion that crawled up her spine.

‘Doyle?’

Ash nodded. ‘Yup. Doyle with
an
eitr
hangover from Hell. It’s a long story. The Doc turned him into
some kind of monster. He can explain.’

Connal’s frown was so deep
his brows met in the middle. ‘I’ve never fought anything so strong.’ His grey
eyes glittered up at her, darkening with the storm of his emotions. His thumb
rhythmically stroked the crescent mark on her palm and Ash’s breath caught. ‘He
could have killed you,’ he said, his voice heavy.

Her free hand brushed through
the short strands of his hair. ‘He would have killed you too, only for Maura
and her friends Smith and Wesson.’

‘Did she get it?’

Ash laughed but a growl betrayed
lingering anger. ‘No. She got you.’ She rattled the jar of shotgun pellets
Madden had teased from Connal’s shoulder. ‘The gunshots scared him off though,
for now.’

‘Shit.’

That about summed it up. Ash
set the jar of pellets on the side table and knelt beside the sofa he lay on.
Madden was in the next room with Liath and Josh and she didn’t much care where
Maura was. Connal was here, that was all she needed. ‘How did you know where to
find me?’ she asked.

He chuckled, tapping his
temple. ‘Your uncle Knutr found his inner Mystic Meg and gave me a tip-off.
Said something was lying in wait for you at the Temple of the Ancients.’

Temple?
Ash frowned. ‘Huh?’

‘Newgrange,’ he clarified,
‘the Stone Age tomb is just down the road from here.’ Ah, yes, they’d passed it
the first time they’d come here. She nodded.

Connal rearranged himself on
the couch, stretching out his legs. ‘The lake spat me up, stark bollock naked,
where I’d left you. Once I got my legs back, I ran all the way.’

‘You ran naked?’ Ash’s mind
brought up startlingly graphic images that got her caught between laughter and
arousal.

He eyed her like he knew just
what she was thinking. ‘The wolf is faster, and a lot less likely to cause a
sensation than a streaker windmilling his cock through the streets of Dublin.’
Connal winked and Ash choked on a laugh. ‘Though …’ he paused and his eyes
raked her with unrestrained heat. ‘Wolf-fur isn’t half as sexy as your
bow-chicka-wow house-coat here.’ His fingers crept along the hem, brushing her
knee. Mortification crawled a flush up her cheeks. ‘And pink suits you.’

She looked down at the
monstrosity she was wearing and tugged at the thick fabric. ‘It's not pink,
it's lavender.’

‘I was talking about your
cheeks ...’

She swatted at him, hair
falling forward to hide the blush.

‘I’m just glad to have you
back,’ she said, sobering. ‘Did they hurt you?’

His head shook. ‘No, and
before you ask, no, I didn’t kill MacTire.’

The knot in her stomach
unwound, but she couldn’t linger on the relief for long.

‘Did he give you the
Skil
?’
she asked.

His face gave her the answer
before he spoke.

‘I’m going to fight him for
it.’

No. He didn’t just say
that.
Fear turned the blood in her
veins to ice water.

Her nails dug into his hand.
‘What? No.’ Hair whipped her face with the ferocity of her head shake. ‘You
can’t.’

Connal was all calm
acceptance. ‘He’s pretty insistent.’

No, dammit.
She was far from calm and trepidation bit at her
nerves. ‘What if he kills you?’

‘Thanks for the vote of
confidence,’ he laughed, ‘but really, what have I got to lose? I’m already
dying.’

His words cut her to the
quick, nausea roiling in her gut as she peeled her hand from his and sat back
on her heels. Her voice came out oddly hollow. ‘Me. You have me to lose.’ Was
he so eager for death to part them?

‘I’m afraid I’ve already lost
you.’

Her head shot up, her eyes
finding his, horrified and angry. ‘How can you say that? I’m
right here
.’
Ash strained the words to the brink of tears. ‘We’re alive. You might be
throwing in the towel, but I’m still fighting for us. I refuse to just lay down
and die.’ Her hands balled into fists. She was dripping fresh blood on Maura’s
hardwood floors.

Connal gently unfurled her
fingers, releasing her claws from her palms. ‘I don’t want that for you, Ash.’
No more than a whisper, yet his words were sandpaper to an open wound. ‘When
the time comes, you have to go back to Fomor. MacTire will take care of you.’

Her slap left a bloody streak
on the side of his face. ‘Screw you. And screw MacTire. I’m staying right here,
with you.’ Ash cradled the cheek she’d smacked, his stubble bristling her palm.
‘If you die, I die. This is some straight up Titanic shit, Connal, but I am not
letting go.’

He kissed her already healing
palm.

Exhaling, her emotions were
fried, but his touch comforted her. She just couldn’t understand. ‘Why do you
have to fight him for the
Skil
? I don’t understand.’

‘He thinks he has something
to prove.’

‘That’s ridiculous. How does
beating the crap of each other prove anything?’

‘He’s the one with the knife,’
Connal shrugged. ‘He calls the shots.’

‘When?’ she murmured.

‘Paddy’s Day. He’s got a
spectacle planned for the full moon, and we’re the headline act.’

Her response was cut off as
the door shot open and Madden tripped into the room. His suit jacket was gone,
his shirt sleeves unbuttoned. He looked rumpled and stressed. It was a far cry
from his usual professional polish.

‘Good. You’re awake. Where is
it? The
Skil.
You did get it, didn’t you?’ he demanded, planting his
hands on the arm of the couch.

‘I’m still working on it,’
Connal replied.

‘No.’ The doctor scraped his
hair back with both hands, pacing. ‘You must have it. What the hell were you
doing down there all this time?’

Ash bristled at his tone but
Connal just cocked a brow. ‘I was about to ask the same of you, Dr
Frankenstein. Your new pet, Doyle, almost killed Ash.’

The growled reprimand took
the wind from Madden’s sails. He visibly shrunk in front of them, his shoulders
curling forwards. ‘I’m sorry,’ he breathed.

Connal grunted his apology away.
‘MacTire has agreed to give us the
Skil
at full moon.’

‘Yeah, over his battered
body. I knew you should have let me go to him,’ Ash chimed in sourly. The fight
was going to be a very sore spot for a while.

‘But that’s weeks away,’
Madden paled, ‘I used the last of the
eitr
this morning. The effects are
already wearing off.’

‘Can’t you get more?’ Connal
toyed with the ring on Ash’s finger, watching the doctor’s agitated face.

‘There is no more.’ Madden
scrubbed the nape of his neck. ‘When I heard you were back, I took it you’d
brought the
Skil.
I thought we were home free.’

‘Home free?’ Ash snorted her
derision. ‘Even if we had the knife, it’s not like you know how to use it. Or
if it even works.’

Connal’s surprised look kept
her talking.

‘We have to go visit some
Master guy to find out what to do with it,’ she explained, ‘but so far, we’ve
been too busy shoring-up against the Doc’s mutant creation.’

The doctor had the decency to
look shamefaced, but his shoulders straightened. ‘Liath needs more
eitr
,’
he said, ‘or she’s going to die.’