“There’s no escaping the curse, lass. When we’re like this we have the power to send the spirits where they need to be and the ability to protect each other. We also maintain all of our memories in this form, but when we’re born again we lose all of that,” Liam said, sounding exhausted and making her wonder just how many times he’d been through this.
“The curse follows us each and every time we try to end it. We start attracting attention from spirits the moment that we’re born when we’re at our most vulnerable. We have no way to protect ourselves or any memories to help guide us,” Liam said, sending Tristan what could only be described as a look of regret.
“That’s why when we decide to attempt to break the curse that we make sure that at least one of us can stand in as our protector,” Liam explained softly, looking at Tristan for another moment before he forced himself to look away.
“We do it this way to keep each other safe and so that we’re not completely fucked by this curse,” Declean said while looking at Tristan until he also forced himself to look away.
“It helps to know that we’re not alone and that we’re not crazy,” Quinn quietly added.
As she tried her best to digest everything they were telling her, something occurred to her and made her wonder why Tristan had pushed her away all these years if he knew that she was, supposedly, his soul mate. If the whole point of him being born was to break a curse with her, then why did he-
“He didn’t know what ye were to him, lass,” Shayne said, answering her question before she had a chance to finish thinking of it.
“Why not?”
She watched as Shayne leveled a glare on Tristan. “Because the stubborn bastard broke his promise,” he bit out angrily.
“Oh, and what promise was that?” Tristan asked, sounding every bit as pissed as Shayne.
“The one where ye promised to finally let her go.”
Chapter 33
“Stop!” Marty screamed and she’d probably be on his back trying to drag him off of Shayne if one of his “brothers” hadn’t stopped her.
“Calm down!” one of them demanded as he tried to drag Tristan away from Shayne, but Tristan wasn’t having that. Not after all the bullshit he’d gone through.
“Fuck off,” Tristan bit out, ignoring the agonizing pain shooting up and down his useless arm as he tightened his hold around Shayne’s neck with his good hand and slammed the bastard as hard as he could against the floor. He couldn’t kill the bastard, something that he regretted at the moment, but he could hurt Shayne and for now that would have to be enough.
“Calm the fuck down, lad!” Shayne snapped, moving to grab Tristan by the shoulders and shove him away only to curse and disappear so that he wouldn’t hurt him. It should comfort him that Shayne cared enough about him not to hurt him even when he was bashing his head into the floor, but it didn’t.
Far from it.
“You fucking asshole!” Tristan roared, struggling to get to his feet and nearly falling back on his ass when the pain in his shoulder and head become too much to handle, but he pushed through it.
It didn’t matter that he most likely had a concussion and that his arm was seriously fucked up, the only thing that mattered was that the one person that he’d trusted completely had fucked him over. Shayne had lied to him, kept things from him and had put Marty in danger.
“Lad, if ye’d just calm down I could explain everything,” Shayne said as he materialized across the room.
“You fucking lied to me!” Tristan shouted, going after Shayne.
“I didn’t lie to ye, lad!” Shayne said, suddenly disappearing just as Tristan reached him only to reappear on the other side of the room.
“Bullshit!” he snapped, shifting directions and going after Shayne, shoving anyone dumb enough to get in his way aside.
“That’s kind of harsh, don’t ye think, lad?” Shayne said, once again disappearing from sight just as Tristan was about to reach him. He reappeared across the room, forcing Tristan to chase after him.
“You lied to me, kept shit away from me and kept me away from Marty!” Tristan snapped, ignoring the pain in his arm as he went after his one time best friend. He was too focused on killing the bastard to care that Shayne could keep this up all day or realize that he probably had another five minutes of this before the pain became too much and knocked him on his ass.
“I did what I thought was best,” Shayne said, ducking out of reach before disappearing, this time just as Tristan swung at the bastard. The move sent him stumbling and had him biting back a groan as the pain intensified, but it wasn’t enough to stop him.
Nothing short of murder would be able to stop him this time.
“Tristan?” Marty said, trying to get his attention, but he barely heard or saw her as he continued to go after Shayne. At this point he was barely aware of anything else but Shayne.
“Tristan?” she tried again.
“Not now,” he said absently, zeroing in on the bastard holding up his hands up in surrender.
“Lad, yer hurt. Why don’t we just sit down and talk this through?” Shayne calmly suggested as he disappeared only to reappear near the television and out of Tristan’s reach.
“You mean the talk that we should have had the night that you appeared in my bedroom?” Tristan bit out.
“Ye were a child then, lad. It wasn’t something that I could talk to ye about.”
“Bullshit!”
“It’s not bullshit, lad! Ye had enough problems and ye didn’t need to know that-“
“That I wasn’t a fucking freak? Or that there was a reason why I was given such a fucked up existence?”
“Well,-“
“You could have cleared up everything! Instead you left me wondering what the hell was wrong with me! You made me think that I was doing Marty a favor by shoving her away! You-“
“Ye,” Liam said coldly as he stepped in front of him and cut him off, “did that all on yer own.”
“Fuck you,” Tristan snapped, moving to step around Liam and go after Shayne, but Liam wasn’t having it.
When Tristan shifted to the side, so did Liam, blocking him. “Yer the one that made Shayne promise not to help,” Liam said evenly, taking Tristan by surprise.
“What the hell are you talking-“ he started to demand only to get another surprise when Marty cut him off.
“Would someone mind giving me a hand with this guy?”
Expecting to find one of the men holding Marty back so that she wouldn’t do something foolish like try to get in the middle of this, he looked back only to discover that all of his “brothers” were standing directly behind him and looking just as confused as he felt. He wasn’t sure what he expected to see when Finn and Quinn shifted to the side so that they could look back, but it definitely wasn’t his wife being chased around the couch by a naked elderly man.
*-*-*-*
“Tristan?” she said, trying to remain calm as she gave the very grumpy and very naked elderly man in front of her what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
Apparently he took her smile as an invitation. With his gaze locked on her, he moved towards her. Well, it was more like a shuffle, leaving Marty to wonder if physical limitations followed people into their deaths or if this man was just used to moving like that and didn’t give it a second thought.
She took a step back, fully expecting either Tristan or one of the men that claimed to be his brother to step in and handle the ghost. When the man shuffled closer, Marty took a step back and risked a glance towards the other side of the room. What she saw had her rolling her eyes and making a mental note to kick Tristan’s ass later.
While Tristan chewed Shayne out, and she fully planned on finding out what that was about later, the rest of the men crowded behind him, looking ready to jump in at any second and grab him. As she took yet another step back, she couldn’t help but wonder why they hadn’t just grabbed him and ended the whole thing.
As she moved around the back of the couch
, she watched as Quinn moved to grab Tristan by his shoulders when Tristan got a little too close to decking Shayne, only to watch the man hesitate, shake his head and drop his hands by his sides as he let out what sounded like a curse. It was an odd move, but then again, so was being chased around the couch by a naked elderly man that she didn’t know.
During her second lap around the couch, she watched as Fergus moved to grab Tristan only to have a similar reaction. They didn’t want to hurt him, she realized as she slowed down to watch an obviously frustrated Liam attempt the same thing and fail, which was kind of screwed up since he was the one who’d hurt Tristan in the first place. He made one more attempt before he dropped his hands by his sides and curled them into fists as he let out what she was definitely sure was a curse and disappeared, only to reappear in front of Tristan a second later.
She was so focused on what was going on with Tristan that she didn’t realize that she’d stopped moving until the sound of a shuffle and a grunt had her saying a curse of her own and hauling ass, well, walking away really fast. She was still nauseous after all and all of this walking in circles wasn’t helping. After her fourth time around the couch, she, and her stomach, finally had enough.
“Would someone mind giving me a hand with this guy?”
For a moment, they simply stood there looking adorably confused as they watched the old naked guy chase her around the couch for another lap. Knowing that her stomach wasn’t up for another lap around the couch, she veered off towards them, deciding that she’d had enough of, well, everything tonight.
She walked right passed Finn and Quinn and kept going towards Tristan, who appeared just as confused as the rest of the men. Once she reached him, she grabbed his good hand, gave it a pull and somehow was able to get him to have a seat in the ugly chair that Liam had vacated. Before he could get up and go after Shayne, and she knew him well enough to know that was exactly what he wanted to do, she sat on his lap, careful of his bad shoulder and made it clear that she didn’t plan on getting up anytime soon.
When Tristan tried to shift her off of his lap, she decided that perhaps a little clarification was in order. “If you so much as move me an inch, I will give the term ‘morning sickness’ a whole new meaning,” she swore, wishing that it wasn’t true, but with all the running around, stress and exhaustion, her stomach was less than pleased with her and was at that very moment threatening to turn her promise into reality.
“That threat won’t work forever,” he said, sighing as he wrapped his good arm around her and pressed a kiss against the top of her head all while he probably glared in Shayne’s direction.
“We’ll see,” she said with a shrug as she watched Declean reach out as the naked old man neared their group and pressed his hand against the old man’s chest.
A beautiful white light spread over his chest until it surrounded them. Feelings of love, happiness and calm spread over her, stealing her breath and making her feel safe and cherished. It was a feeling that she wanted to last forever, but all too soon it was gone and so was the elderly man.
“What just happened?” she asked, forcing herself to remain calm when all she wanted to do was to jump off Tristan’s lap and get out of this room, this house, this town and go somewhere where she didn’t have to worry that she was losing her goddamn mind.
“He just needed help finding his way,” Declean said with a shrug as he sat down on the couch.
After a slight hesitation, Finn joined him. When Quinn went to join them, Fergus calmly shoved his brother out of the way and sat down. Flipping his brother off, Quinn moved to stand next to the fireplace, placing him between a probably still glaring Tristan and a remorseful looking Shayne, who’d since taken up his spot against the wall.
“As a rule, we don’t tell each other about the curse until it’s the right time, and we sure as hell wouldn’t tell a child the truth of his existence,” Liam said, taking up where they’d left off and Marty hoped that he managed to finish the story before anything else happened. She really wasn’t sure how much more she could handle tonight.
“Shayne didn’t tell ye everything, because ye made him promise to do everything that he could to keep Macha safe and whether ye like it or not, that included keeping her away from ye until the time was right.”
“Why would he do that?” she asked, noting the way that Tristan tensed beneath her, probably wishing that he could take another swing at Shayne.
“Because out of all of our soul mates, ye have suffered the most, Macha, and we’d all hoped to give ye a little peace, but that’s never been enough for Tadgh. He wanted to give ye yer freedom even if it meant that the two of ye had to go through hell first to get it,” Liam explained softly.
“I don’t understand,” she mumbled, feeling even more confused.
“Years ago, more like centuries ago,” Shayne said, taking over, “when we’d all come to accept that there was no breaking this curse. We also realized that the curse was stronger in yer case. Not only were ye stuck being born over and over again with each life being more trying than the last, but ye were cursed to experience heartbreak each and every time, lass.”
“While Tadgh was willing to keep going, intent on breaking the curse, we weren’t,” Quinn added.
“It seemed that every time was worse than the last time for ye,” Declean said.
“We realized too late that ye carried yer heartache with ye into each new life and that each time that Tadgh was taken away from ye that yer pain was greater than the last time,” Aidan explained before Liam once again took over.
“Tadgh was determined to end yer suffering by destroying the curse, but we just couldn’t allow it any longer. We did everything that we could to get him to see it our way, but the stubborn bastard wouldn’t give up. He lied to all of us and promised to leave ye alone only to break his promise and chase after ye. After the last time, we really thought that he’d finally come to his senses, but he hadn’t.”
“Somehow, and we’re still not sure how he did it, he found out where ye’d be born and he found a way to be born a few years before ye. It made it impossible for us to find him and put an end to this before ye got hurt, Macha and for that we are deeply sorry.”
“I would never hurt her,” Tristan bit out coldly.
Liam nodded in agreement. “Aye, we know that, lad. We know that ye meant well, but that doesn’t change anything. We have to do this before things get worse.”
“How are things going to get worse?” she found herself asking as she reached down and took his good hand in both of hers, desperate for his touch and the comfort of the connection that she was only now beginning to understand.
“It’s part of the curse, lass. Every time he manages to get the babe on ye, things get bad real fast.”
“How bad?” she asked, hoping that they’d say or do something that would give her a clue on how to break this damn curse. She wasn’t going to lose Tristan. There was no way in hell that they were going to take him from her. Not now. Not after everything that they’d been through. It wasn’t happening.
Liam sighed heavily as he rubbed his hands down his face, looking exhausted. “Really bad, lass. He’ll get killed, you’ll either get killed or die of a broken heart and that lad in your womb will never see the light of day.”
“There has to be a way to break this,” she said, knowing that they must have missed something. Well, that was okay because she was good at figuring things out and so was Tristan. It might take some time, but they’d figure out how to break this curse and then they could finally be together.
“There isn’t, lass. I’m sorry,” Liam said, sounding like he truly meant it.
“No,” she said, stubbornly shaking her head as she struggled not to cry or scream out in frustration, “you missed something and for all you know this might be the time that we break it.”
“There is no way to break this curse,” Liam said softly before adding, “at least not for the two of you.”
“Meaning?”
Tristan asked, giving her hands a comforting squeeze and reminding her that she wasn’t alone. He wouldn’t let them do this. He would fight. He was an asshole and he would give them hell and she’d never been happier about that than at this moment.
“The two of ye are stuck in this cycle with the rest of us. There’s no way out, lad. I’m sorry,” Liam explained. “But, that babe should get his chance, even if it’s just for a release.”
“He’s never had a chance to be born, never been held or loved. He’s stuck in a hell all of his own, lad,” Shayne said after a slight hesitation. “If he could be at least born, we think that his soul would be set free.”
For several long tense minutes no one said anything, which was probably for the best as she struggled not to cry as her heart broke for her baby. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for him to never be born, held, or loved and she knew without question that she would love this child more than anything else on this earth, but she also knew that they were wrong. Taking Tristan away wouldn’t guarantee anything. She needed him, hell, they needed him here to protect them, love them and help them break this curse. She needed him to-
“This was my idea, wasn’t it?” Tristan asked, breaking the silence.
Shayne looked right at them as he said, “Aye, lad, this has been yer plan all along.”
Chapter 34
Tristan didn’t have to ask Shayne anything else. He had his answers, finally. Although he had absolutely no doubt that he would chase Marty to the ends of the earth to be with her, he knew that he would never continue putting her through this hell unless there was a good reason. That reason was their baby. He pressed a kiss against Marty’s forehead as he did his best to block out her soft sobs as he released her hands and pressed his hand against her stomach.
“Has this plan ever been tried before?” he asked, wanting to make damn sure that they were making the right decision.
“No,” Liam said, shaking his head. “Since ye came up with the plan, we haven’t had a chance to test it out.”
Black Heart Page 27