The Legend Mackinnon (13 page)

“Yer right, lass. He will kill you.”

Maggie let out a small scream as she clutched at the covers. Duncan was standing on the other side of the bed, looking out the small window above the headboard. His face was devoid of expression.

Then he turned to look at her and whatever words had been on her lips slid down her throat in a solid mass. His gaze was so pointed it all but pinned her to the bed. “And ye will suffer.”

She struggled to breathe, to get her bearings.
“Shouldn’t—” The word came out on a gargle of air. She had to pause to clear her throat. “Shouldn’t you be wearing a black robe and be carrying a scythe or something?” Her attempt at humor didn’t help either one of them.

“I am no’ the angel o’ death.”

She tucked the covers more firmly under her arms and scooted back. “You’re not exactly the life of the party either.”

Duncan moved closer, towering over her. “Maggie, you will die.”

She could hear the finality in his voice. He knew. But she knew it on a deeper level than that, had known before he’d spoken, before she’d dreamed her own imminent death, before she’d made that phone call. She could stay here in Madden County, North Carolina or run to the ends of the earth.

“I can’t live my life running.” She looked up at him. “Maybe I can avoid him for a while. But he’ll catch me, won’t he?”

Duncan merely nodded, watching her.

Maggie began to shake. Terror and tears fought violently for the upper hand. “I don’t want to die like that, Duncan,” she whispered roughly. Tears burned past her eyes, terror took over her body, rattling it hard. “I don’t want to die.” She held the edge of the duvet in two fists beneath her chin and fell apart. “There should be a way for me to do this, but there isn’t, is there? Oh God, there isn’t, is there?”

Duncan moved around the bed and sat next to her. He took her chin in a firm grip and forced her to look at him. “There is a way.”

“How? Find him first? I can’t kill someone. Not even Judd. I don’t think I could. Duncan—”

He stopped her with a kiss.

He’d humbled himself far more than he’d ever thought possible by going to Them in the first place. They’d called
his appearance before them proof of his strength of soul. He knew it had only proved his ultimate weakness. A Claren woman would send him to hell. It was his fate.

Yet he had gone forward, had asked for help and guidance. They had given it.

But he had not planned on touching her.

He took her mouth, swallowed her plea, tasted her tears, hoping to drown his own anger, to find an end to this need he had of her. It wasn’t a soft claiming, but a fierce declaration that he could take and not give in to her. He was already prepared to sacrifice for her. But it was a sacrifice of the mind, a saving of his choosing. He would not surrender his will. And he would certainly not surrender his heart.

And yet simply by bending to his need to taste her, to have her, he knew the destruction of his will had begun. Telling himself it was a selfish act he committed for his own pleasure was a lie even he could not dwell on for as long as it took to think it. This was not about pleasure.

This was about need. Basic, fundamental need.

Even knowing that, feeling his will begin to erode, to crumble as Stonelachen had against the battering rams of the Claren warriors, he continued to feed his needs, plundering her mouth for the spoils of war. But where it had taken centuries of time and thousands of Clarens to defeat the MacKinnons, it would take only one week and this one Claren woman to destroy him.

He made to pull away then, but she lifted her hand to his cheek and opened her mouth under his. He stiffened further, experiencing something close to terror at the feelings a simple touch of her fingers could wring from him. She slid her hand to the back of his neck and with needy, urgent fingertips, held him close.

He told himself there was resistance in him still, that the battle might be compromised, but the victory of wills was still his to claim. But she chose that moment to release him, and will it or not, there was no denying the instant
and absolute abandonment he felt at that sudden disconnection. He could not devise a lie clever enough to make himself believe that his will would ever again be solely his to control.

She stared at him, her skin flushed, her lips wet, her soft eyes filled with emotion. The confusion was understandable. It was the rekindling of hope that tore at him. “You said there was a way,” she said finally.

“Aye, there is.” He stood. His long discussion with Them had yielded many disturbing things, but only two solutions. “I can give you two choices. Only one is certain tae keep ye safe from the death Judd has planned.”

“And that is?”

“I have less than three weeks left on this mountain. When that time is up I return to purgatory.” He shifted his weight, still disturbed by this next bit. “They will allow you to ascend with me.”

Her mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”

Duncan straightened further. Trust a Claren to make a difficult situation even more so. “I said, ye can join me in the afterlife. Ye’ll be safe there.”

Maggie tucked the sheet under her arms and scooted into a cross-legged position, a look of disbelief on her face. “Let me get this straight,” she said. “In order to keep Judd from killing me, I’m to kill myself now.”

He scowled. He should have known better. Why had he felt compelled to intervene on her behalf? Her lips were indescribably sweet, but her tongue certainly wasn’t. “Ye would be wise tae heed this offer.”

He watched her struggle to regain her composure, but there was very real fear behind those blue eyes. Still, she would not give into it. His irritation lessened somewhat. A MacKinnon recognized and admired bravery when he saw it. Even, he supposed, in a Claren.

“There is another way.”

She brightened immediately.

He silently cursed the responsive chord that struck in him. He tried to tell himself that he was only doing this as a means to hopefully be reunited with his clan. With his brothers. They had presented him with an opportunity and he had been wise enough to avail himself of it. He had not offered to save her life to make her happy, nor to settle any debt he had to Mairi or the Clarens.

Liar
.

He swallowed the truth and it went down hard. “I could try and see to yer safety here on earth before I go. Because I’ve offered tae do that for ye, They are willin’ tae allow me to have my leave o’ this place to see it done.”

She took a moment to assimilate his words. “You mean, they’ll let you leave the mountain?”

“Aye. I can go where I wish, do wha’ I wish.”

Her eyes all but sparkled with the possibilities. “And you get to keep your … ghostly powers?”

Duncan frowned at her description. “Nothing else changes.”

Maggie clapped her hands together, then made a wild grab for the slipping covers. “That’s wonderful, that’s—” She broke off as suddenly as she’d started, a frown creasing her forehead. “Wait a minute. Why?”

“I told you why, so I could help ye—”

“I know that part. Why would you do this? I can understand dragging me along to the afterlife when your three weeks are up. All you’d have to do is sit here until we’re called. But this … This way you’ll have to physically do something. You’ll actively have to help me.”

“And I warned you there were no guarantees this way. I’ll do wha’ I can, but it may no’ be enough.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question. Why would you do this for me? Just to get off the mountain?” Her eyes widened. “If I don’t agree to just go with you and ask you to help me instead, what happens if you—if we—fail?”

“I am free to spend my time here where I wish no matter. When my time is done, I return to purgatory.”

“So why do it? Why put yourself out for me if offering alone was enough?”

Duncan stared at her sitting there in her downy nest, hair tangled, skin glowing in the firelight from below. There were a hundred answers to her question and not one had anything to do with being reunited with his brothers. “Does it matter as long as I’m willing?” he asked quietly.

She assessed him in silence, her gaze so intent it was as if she thought she could intuit his thoughts, ferret out his secrets, if she but looked long enough and deep enough.

“Yes. Yes, it does,” she said, just as quietly. “If you succeed, do you get out of purgatory?”

“I have no way of knowing that.” He stilled her question with a raised hand. “If I’ve passed some test with Them by doing this, so be it. It was not why I offered.”

She straightened, her gaze turning more challenger than inquisitor. “I swore when I left Judd I’d never let myself get into a situation where I had to rely on someone else ever again. I’d have to be sure I was in control, at least of my own share. Well, I’m still not in control, of anything. I’m still having to rely on someone else to help me. That’s hard enough to deal with. Maybe I should just be grateful for your offer and not care about the motivation behind it. But I’m already trapped by one person’s agenda. I can’t risk getting trapped by yours, too.” She commanded his full attention and a great deal of his respect with nothing more than a look. “Tell me the truth, Duncan MacKinnon. Why do you really want to help me?”

M
aggie watched him intently, yet his eyes betrayed nothing of what he felt. A part of her was still reeling from his kiss.

“There is nothing sinister in my motives, Maggie.”

She reluctantly drew her gaze away from his mouth. “But you’re not going to tell me,” she stated.

His expression was as closed as it had ever been since she’d first met him. “I have the days to fill no matter what.” He didn’t shrug, but his words were the equivalent.

“So I’m supposed to put my trust—not to mention my life—in your hands because you have nothing better to do then help me hunt down a killer?”

“Have you got a better offer, Maggie?”

He hadn’t said it unkindly, but it didn’t matter. Her cheeks stung, but she didn’t look away. “If I refuse both of your generous offers, then what?”

His stony façade began to crumble, frustration and strain began to tighten the skin around his eyes and mouth. “I didna question Them at length about it, lass.” His voice was rising and his hands were clenched at his sides. “If I’d have known how stubborn ye’d be about acceptin’
my help, I’d have reconsidered. Now, will ye take my help or no’?”

Maggie’s first instinct was to tell him exactly what he could do with his offer, but it was one thing to be self-reliant and quite another to throw away what very well might be her only chance to save her life.

“Well, I suppose you are the perfect man for the job.” She’d said it less than graciously, but his anger seemed to curb a bit at her admission.

His hands relaxed and his expression smoothed. “And why would that be, lass?”

She tried on a smile, surprised when it fit more easily than she’d expected. “You’re already dead. Judd isn’t exactly a threat to you, now is he?”

When Duncan returned the smile, she was more relieved than she’d thought possible. A warning if there ever was one. She hadn’t realized how badly she’d wanted to take the solution he was offering her. She determined right then and there not to let him have any more control over the situation than was absolutely necessary.

“True.” His expression grew serious once again. “But remember, I canna promise you I’ll be able to stop yer fate from claiming you this way.”

A cold chill snaked down her spine. She knew that, had understood it before she’d accepted his offer, but hearing him say it now stilled something inside her. “I know.” She looked up at him. “I haven’t been very gracious. I’ve been suspicious and difficult and, while that probably won’t change, I’m sorry for seeming so unappreciative. Thank you for doing this, Duncan. Whatever your reasons might be.”

He didn’t respond, but merely studied her in silence, a silence that grew steadily more uncomfortable. His gaze roamed over her in the lazy manner of someone in no rush to move on to other things. Maggie grew almost excruciatingly aware of her nakedness, could feel every inch of the fabric that touched her skin, his gaze making the linen feel
as intimate as the touch of his hand. And yet she had no idea what was going on behind those gray eyes of his. There was heat there to be sure, but he seemed to keep it easily under his command … while merely being the object of his considered attention was slowly unraveling every last thread of her control.

Her pulse thrummed, hot and heavy beneath skin growing flushed with awareness, damp with excitement. “Maybe you’d better leave,” she managed. “So I can get dressed.” Had the heat in his eyes flared? Her body certainly reacted as if it had. “I’ll … uh … meet you downstairs.” As long as he kept staring at her like that, she would be incapable of regaining a toehold on her composure. “Please.”

Duncan held her gaze for another moment, then walked slowly, purposefully, toward her side of the bed. Her breathing grew shallow, her pulse raced wildly. Thoughts of what he’d done the last time he’d gotten close invaded her mind, diminishing any further resistance she might have. Resistance? Yeah, right.