So long without food, with her heart racing with horror, she'd lost consciousness.
When she woke, he was roaring with fury, missing an eye. Beneath her claws were chunks of scaly skin. The Cromites had drawn their swords, leveling them at her.
With blood gushing down her thighs, she rolled off the altar into a pile of bodies. Flies erupted from the gore. She breathed them, hacking them from her lungs and mouth.
Somehow she made it to her feet, coughing, tears blinding her as she tried to stagger away through the line of Cromites. Knowing she was trapped, Cruach allowed her to go, snarling with rage at his pain, then laughing because he'd caused her more. "Do you think that was pain, wife? That was a mere hint! I'll teach you what misery is!"
She followed the tunnel to the very end. At the cliff's edge, she gazed out over the horizon, over the ocean. The first clean air she'd breathed in days.
Pure peace awaited her.... He couldn't pass this barrier, could never follow her down. When he yelled for her, she closed her eyes, and she leapt -
Hands snatched her shoulders, jerking her back.
No, no! That's not how it happened! She'd gotten free. Now he had her again!
She swiped out with her claws, desperate to jump... to die.
33
"Lousha! Wake up!" Garreth reached to comfort her, grasping her shoulders. At the contact, electrical energy seared his fingertips just as her claws shot out, raking down his chest.
"What the hell?" He leapt back. "Lousha?"
When she opened her eyes, they were fully silver, glinting with tears.
"Shh, doona be afraid." He put his hands up as he neared her once more. "It's just me."
She collapsed back on the bed once more, staring blankly at the ceiling. When she closed her eyes, tear-drops tracked down her face, making his chest ache.
He could never stand the sight of the lass's tears. "Your dreams are getting worse." She'd only been asleep for an hour, a brief afternoon nap, and yet it'd been enough to affect her like this.
"I... I'm fine. I'll be okay," she assured him, even as lightning still flared outside.
He sat at the foot of the bed. "You must tell me what you dream of."
"We've discussed this already," she said, running her arm over her face. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Is it... me?" When she frowned at him, he said, "You have no' had nightmares like this over the last year, have you? But now, every day we're together, they get worse."
She rose up, drawing her knees to her chest. "No, you're making a big deal out of nothing."
"Nothing?" He pointed out the bloody tracks across his chest. "You attacked me!"
"I'm so sorry." She dropped her head in her hands. "I didn't realize it was you."
"I doona care about that! I just want them to end."
"So do I," she murmured. "They will. Soon, I'm sure."
He swooped up his jeans and yanked them on. "It seems the more pleasure we have, the worse they get."
She gazed up at him. "What are you talking about?"
"Just as I need to claim my mate, I need to make her happy. But now, you give me your body to pleasure, and then you suffer." He raked his fingers through his hair. "Maybe the dreams are getting worse because tonight's the full moon? And deep down you fear me?"
Gods, this male was fierce. Not only when protecting her, but when experiencing anything. MacRieve felt things so intensely. "I don't fear you." He was generous, protective, thoughtful. All the things my husband isn't.
"Then what do you fear? Give me an enemy to fight, Lousha!"
That was exactly what she couldn't do. "Lots of immortals have nightmares. The years build up - "
"Bullshite! Doona lie to me."
Lucia rose to dress, slipping on her underwear. "Just drop it, MacRieve."
"Damn you, Valkyrie, it just should no' be this complicated between us. You want me, and I want you. The end."
"Well, I'm not that easy - "
"Nothing about you is easy."
"My life is complicated, whether I want it to be or not." She hastily donned a halter top and shorts and began braiding her hair over her ears.
"So many secrets, Lousha. Will they keep you warm at night?"
She slowed her plaiting. "What does that mean?" Is he breaking up with me?
"It means you need to tell me what you dreamed."
She glanced away with a shrug. "I don't remember."
"Enough with the lies!" He grabbed her upper arms. "Why will you no' trust me?"
Lightning flashed as her own anger grew. "It's not in my nature to trust!" Some secrets go to the grave.... "Did you never think that the more I like you, the less I want to tell you my secrets? And how do you really know that you want to hear them, MacRieve?"
He drew his head back, wolflike, as though he'd been presented a trap he couldn't determine the mechanics of. "I doona understand you. That's no reason to hide things from me. Own your actions."
She flung herself away from him. "Gods, I hate it when you say that!" Easy to say for someone who's never made a tragic choice in his long life!
"One of these days, woman! You asked me if I'd ever thought about giving up on you. I had no' before, but now..."
"Now?"
"You have to meet me halfway, or I will stop chasing you. And when I do, you'll regret the loss."
I know this!
"Will you tell me?"
She thought he was in deadly earnest. He's giving me a choice... and I don't want to lose him.
Damn it, when had he gone from enemy, to necessary evil, to someone she didn't think she could live without? "MacRieve, I - " She swallowed, imagining how she'd tell him. I have a husband. I married the devil. I'm his wife. Lucia av Cruach. Shame made it nearly impossible to breathe, much less talk. She'd begun to care what he thought of her, and his knowing the truth wouldn't make a difference anyway! Her fate was woven -
"We've got company!" Schecter cried from above. "Another ship."
At once, the engines slowed to idling. They could hear running on the deck above them.
"Oh, bluidy hell," MacRieve muttered.
"Why's everybody running? Couldn't it just be another research vessel?"
"This far out? No' a chance." He yanked on a T-shirt. "Pirates, mercenaries, or worse."
"Worse?"
Seizing her hand, he dragged her out of the cabin into the rain. Over his shoulder he said, "This is no' over, Lousha!"