A Shift in the Air (16 page)

“
Yes.”

Caitlin pressed to Liam’s back,
shaking. “We have to find a phone number for Fergus. Some way to
get in touch with him. Between the flights and the layovers, we
won’t arrive in Ireland for almost twenty-four hours.”

“
None of Farren’s
pack—those left—have any idea how to find him, and they’re too
scared to try,” Peter said. “But Ollie’s calling the local Garda
offices. Maybe they’ll know something.”

When Liam shut the door, Caitlin
pulled away and dropped onto his futon with her head in her hands.
“How many more?”

“
We’re doing all we can,
luv. Fergus has to realize ye’re not in Ireland, yeah? He can’t
keep killin’.”

“
There’s no logic in him
when he’s off on one of his benders. He won’t care that I’m half a
world away. We’ve never been this far apart before, so he might not
even know. I never escaped Ireland before I ‘died.’”

“
Will he know when ya get
closer? We’ve a layover in New York.” Liam linked their fingers as
he took a seat beside her.

Caitlin shrugged and tightened her
grip. “I don’t know.”

The silence stretched between them
like a raging river, drowning out everything but Caitlin’s pounding
heartbeat, her ragged breaths, and the scent of her fear. Liam
ached to comfort her, but he feared nothing he could say would make
a difference. So he rose with a final kiss to her knuckles and
retrieved his suitcase from the closet.

As he packed, Caitlin sat at his
workbench and fiddled with one of the strands of leather strewn
over the surface. “What do you do with this?”

Heat crept up the back of his neck.
He’d intended to give her the cuff the previous day, but he’d never
found the perfect time. Now, headed off into the unknown, he gave
up waiting and snagged his leather jacket off the bedpost. “Come
here, luv.”

He sat on his bed and withdrew the
paper-wrapped pouch from his jacket pocket. In his ears, the rush
of his own heartbeat drowned out coherent thought until he could do
nothing more than thrust the package into her hands.

“
Liam?”

Forcing a deep breath, he rubbed his
hands on his thighs. “When I thought I’d lost ya last week, I
couldn’t think straight. This…eased the pain. I’d have left the
package outside your door, but ya wrote me that daft note about not
lovin’ me, and I had to see ya instead. Open it.”

Caitlin slid her finger under the
tape, careful not to tear the paper, and unfolded the precise
corners and thin layers. “Oh.”

The sweet, rich scents of leather
wafted around them as her element stirred. She lifted the cuff and
dragged a fingertip over the braids, traced the lock engraved on
the interior, and stroked the amber stone winking in the weak
sunlight that filtered into the bedroom.

“
You
remembered.”

“
That ya fancied amber as a
lass? Yeah.”

Caitlin handed him the cuff. “Will
you…?” She offered him her wrist, and he lifted her hand, pressing
a kiss to the soft skin, her heartbeat fluttering under his lips.
With a quick flick of the delicate buttons, he secured the cuff and
then released her.

“
Amber protects the wearer
from pain,” she said and turned her wrist to catch the light. “You
have no idea what this means to me.”

With a quick glance at the clock on
his nightstand, she laid her head against his shoulder. “I wish we
had more time.”

“
We’ll have the rest of our
lives, Caitlin. I’m not givin’ up on us. Not for a
moment.”

***

An hour later, Caitlin finished
packing while Liam texted Cade and paced her small living
room.

How’s Mara?

The phone buzzed almost
immediately.

With Eleanor. No one wants
us here. I’m worried. A group showed up a few minutes ago, and they
look pissed.

Shite
. If Cade and Mara couldn’t figure out how to break the charm
that bound Caitlin and Fergus together or learn how to keep Mara
safe, would their quest fail before it even began?

Be safe. You’re on the
first flight in the morning to Ireland?

Cade confirmed their plans as Caitlin
emerged from the bedroom, showered and dressed in a pair of black
leggings and a purple sweater. Though her shadowed eyes reflected
pain, she smiled when he stilled his restless movements and raked
his gaze over her body.

“
Are ya ready?”

She glanced down at the passport in
her hand. “Bella Pond is.”

“
When ye’re free of him,
we’ll find out who to talk to in Dublin to get papers for ya
again.” Liam slid his arm around her back and let her lean against
him.

“
I’d like that.”

***

Caitlin accepted a second bottle of
whiskey from the flight attendant and poured the amber liquid into
her glass. Her thoughts wandered as Liam dozed beside her, his long
legs cramped in the tight seats. The rumble of the airplane engines
put him to sleep within minutes of boarding the flight from New
York to Dublin—though her charm had helped him along. Peter sipped
his own whiskey across the aisle and occasionally glanced at the
two of them, glaring at their joined hands or the leather cuff
around her wrist.

A boy in the next row laughed at
something on the in-flight entertainment system, and the tenor
sounded so much like Fergus as a child that Caitlin had to peer
around the seat to see the young lad’s face. He’d been kind once.
Growing up together, they’d laughed, and played, and made silly
childhood plans. “We’ll have a castle,” she’d said.

“
With a moat,” he’d
added.

Caitlin leaned against the window and
closed her eyes. She could see him. Thick locks of black hair fell
over his face. A toothy grin, desperate for braces. Lanky, awkward
arms and legs, knobby knees, and hands two sizes too big for the
rest of his body. They’d had such fun together before the darkness
settled within him. An angry father, his mother’s death, and
Caitlin’s element all tangled together to send him plummeting over
the edge of reality and into madness. And he’d taken her with
him.

I can survive
this.

Fergus’s hold on her strengthened with
every passing hour, and the flickering flames crackled against raw
nerves, consuming her happy memories, her hope, leaving nothing but
fear. Not even Liam’s unwavering strength reassured her. Caitlin’s
element flourished in the skies, and unable to calm her racing
mind, she wracked her fractured memories for any clue to breaking
the charm, but every idea that held promise slipped through her
grasp.

Unable to keep still, she eased
herself over Liam, brushing a kiss to his lips when he stirred.
“Just stretching my legs,” she whispered in his ear, then sent a
charm fluttering over his skin, urging him back to sleep. He
settled into the seat with a groan.

On her third trip back up the aisle,
Peter stepped into her path. “Back of the plane. Now,” he hissed
and jerked his thumb towards the galley.

Liam had tried to draw Peter into
conversation during their layover, and he’d done nothing but grunt
one-word answers. Caitlin leaned against the wall of the fuselage,
arms crossed, staring down at her boots and waiting for Peter to
speak.

“
Does he really have a
chance of surviving Fergus?”

She met his dark gaze. “None of us do.
Not unless I can break the charm. I’m defenseless against him—he
has total control of my element when we’re close. He’ll call me,
and I’ll resist for a few hours, perhaps a day, until he tracks me
down and forces me to go with him.”

Every time Fergus had caught her, the
scene played out like a script. Resistance. Capture. Pain. Fear.
Surrender. Then the insanity would pass, and he’d apologize,
disappear for weeks or months, ashamed of his own actions, and the
cycle would start again.

Peter grabbed her arm, his fingers
digging in as he leaned close enough for her to feel his
alcohol-soaked breath across her cheek. “Then find a way to break
the fucking thing.”

“
I’m trying! Do think
I
want
to put Liam
in danger? You? Mara and Cade?”

He shoved her back against the wall,
and his eyes flashed with the gold of his wolf. “I don’t think
Bella gives a shit about anyone but herself. I just don’t know who
you are anymore.”

“
I’m Caitlin,” she spat.
“I’m never going to be able to make up for what happened to you. I
don’t know why I went along with Katerina—other than the damn
crystal she gave me, but I didn’t burn down your apartment
building. I hurt your neighbor, yes, and I’ll never stop trying to
make up for that. I tried to protect Katerina in the park the day
she died. But I didn’t maim you. I didn’t torture Cade or Mara. And
I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you scare me into giving up on
the best man I’ve ever known. If I thought the charm would work,
I’d make Liam forget me and go after Fergus alone.”

“
Why can’t you?”

“
Because he loves me.
Because I think he’s my mate, and that bond can’t be broken. I’ll
die before I’ll let Fergus hurt him. But if I can’t take Fergus
with me, then I’m depending on you to protect Liam.”

Peter released her, and Caitlin rubbed
her arm, trying to ease the throbbing pain. The ire in Peter’s eyes
faded and he shoved his hands in his pockets. “He’s my brother.
I’ll do my part, if you do yours.”

With his words hanging in the air
between them, Peter turned and headed back to his seat. Caitlin
sagged against the galley counter and ran her fingers over the
supple leather around her left wrist, offering up a silent prayer
that she had the strength to escape Fergus and reclaim her element.
If she could do that—if she could save herself—she might be able to
save Liam.

Chapter Thirteen

The moment the plane landed, Liam
pulled out his phone to check his messages. As he listened to his
voicemail while they taxied to the gate, his lips pressed into a
thin line, and his shoulders gathered with tension. His hand
resting on Caitlin’s thigh curled into a fist.

“
What is it?” Caitlin
whispered, panic skittering over her skin. She sensed Fergus now,
stronger than in the States, but he hadn’t called to her yet.
Probably still asleep. Darkness blanketed the country, with only
the city lights casting the sky in a pale ethereal glow.

Liam passed her the phone. “Press
nine.”

Cade’s strained voice
chilled her. “Liam, the elemental elders tried to
kill
Mara. We barely got
out of there with our lives. Shawn’s booked us on a red-eye to New
York tonight. We’re less than eighteen hours behind you. Don’t
trust anyone.”

Before the message ended, Mara moaned.
A car engine revved, and the line went dead.

“
End of
message.”

Peter looked on from across the aisle
while Liam and Caitlin played the second message, this one from
Shawn.

“
Have you heard from Cade
and Mara? They were supposed to call when they got to the airport,
but we haven’t heard anything. Call me as soon as you
land.”

“
Shite,” Liam said. He
texted Cade, then Shawn. No one had heard a damn thing after Cade’s
first, tense messages, and by the time they made their way into the
terminal, Liam’s eyes glowed. Barely hanging onto his wolf, he
ushered the three of them through immigration and out into baggage
claim.

“
Why would anyone try to
kill Mara?” Peter yanked his duffel bag free from a tangle of two
other bags and tossed it onto a luggage cart.

“
Not here.” With a grunt,
Liam wrestled Caitlin’s suitcase from the carousel, followed by his
own. “We’re going to get a room for a few hours, regroup, and try
to piece together what happened. But until we’re in the car, alone,
away from humans, shut the fuck up about killin’.”

Peter nodded, steering the luggage
cart towards the rental car shuttles. Liam draped his arm around
Caitlin’s shoulders. “Are ya all right, luv?”

No, she’d left “all right” back in
Seattle. But she forced a grim smile. “I’m terrified, but he’s not
calling to me yet. Though he’s probably still asleep. I doubt we
have long. I can hide us for a short time once we’re at the hotel.
At least slow him down.”

“
How?”

“
Not here,
remember?”

The scent of Dublin in the
pre-dawn stillness brought memories of college. Late nights
studying, discovering the best coffee shops around the university,
running on rain-slicked streets, unfettered and almost able to
pretend the missing piece of her being didn’t matter. Freedom,
though temporary, allowed her to find Caitlin—the woman who loved
to play fiddle in session bands, read romance novels, and speak for
hours defending an idea on the debate team. Caitlin
lived
here, and dammit,
Fergus couldn’t take her life away from her again.

Peter huddled in the back seat of the
rental car with his eyes closed, and Caitlin dialed the pack,
putting the call on speaker while Liam maneuvered the small sedan
through roundabouts with ease.