A Shift in the Air

by Patricia D. Eddy

  A vein at his temple throbbed as he nodded slowly. “I’ll try. I can’t help protectin’ ya. Ye’re my mate, and I won’t survive losin’ ya.”

  “You won’t lose me. I have something I didn’t have eleven years ago, Liam.” Caitlin threaded her fingers into his hair and brushed a tender kiss to his lips. “I have hope now.”

  ***

  Two cars bounced along unpaved roads on the way to Knockaskeheen. Fergus’s pull intensified with every mile. Liam drove Cade’s rental car, and Abagail and Ewan followed behind them.

  The humidity in Ireland worked to Mara’s advantage, and she spun droplets of water from palm to palm, relying on her dominant element to suppress the fire that threatened her. Cade stared out the window, occasionally cracking his knuckles or reaching over to rest his hand on Mara’s thigh.

  No one spoke until Liam pulled the car off to the side of the road. “That old castle is the first thing Colin remembered seein’ when he ran.” Stones crumbled along one side of the four-story ruins, and glassless windows stared out over lonely green pastures dotted only with the occasional oblivious goat.

  Caitlin lowered the window and hugged Farren’s journal to her chest. Location charms worked best when she had something of the person to aid her. Though heavily scented with leather and dye, a hint of Farren’s unique scent lingered. She smelled like strawberries, with a hint of sea air and fresh rain. I call upon the air that breathes life into the world; return with the answers I seek. Strictly speaking, no elemental needed words to draw their strength, but the additional focus helped calm her turbulent emotions. The charm flowed forth in a rush of air and tugged her back towards Doolin. What the hell? Steeling herself against the impending pain, she sent a second charm wide, trying to locate her missing element, the part Fergus stole from her so long ago. That pull steered her closer to Lahinch, a fair bit south of Doolin.

  “She’s not here.”

  “What?” Cade leaned forward. “Where is she?”

  “Turn around. We have to go to Doolin.” Caitlin shook her head, baffled that Fergus hadn’t reached out for her yet when he had to know their proximity. “Send Abagail and Ewan east if you want, but Farren’s in Doolin.”

  “And Fergus?” Liam touched her arm, and the fear in his eyes nearly broke her.

  “South. When I knew him before, he had a home in Lahinch. If I had to guess, that’s where he is. He’ll know I’m close now, so I don’t expect him to stay there, but if you hurry, we can get to Farren before he does.”

  Liam threw the car into gear and took off with tires squealing as Cade called Ewan and relayed instructions. He and Abagail would shift into wolf form and scour the area for any sign of Farren and Brian while the four of them headed to Doolin.

  The tiny town spread out over a few hundred acres. One main street housed the only stoplight and four hotels, two pubs, a bookstore, a bank, and a petrol station. Though the sun shone brightly today, the tourist season hadn’t started yet, and two of the hotels offered only darkened windows and shuttered doors, signs proclaiming their opening days still weeks away.

  “Try again, luv?”

  She released her charm, seeking the female alpha, and confirmed her belief. Farren Denair couldn’t be far. “Park up by O’Connor’s Pub. If she’s not there, she’s close by.”

  Only three patrons lingered at scattered tables in the dimly lit pub. Half a dozen taps and bottles of liquor in every shape, size, and color gleamed behind the bar. A white-haired man with beefy arms and a round, bald head eyed the four of them. “Kitchen opens in an hour. Session band starts not long after that.”

  Caitlin scanned the two rooms while Liam leaned an elbow on the counter. “We’re lookin’ for Farren Denair. Ya know her, mate?”

  “Nope. If ya want a pint, ya order at the bar.”

  An elderly man, frail, with the look of one who’d lost most of his teeth to age or poor care, fixed his pale blue eyes on Caitlin, touched his cheek, and nodded. Pulled by a force she didn’t understand, she approached as he withdrew a pair of spoons from his pocket and slapped them on his thigh in time with the upbeat reel on the pub’s sound system.

  “Paddy knows ya,” he said, his voice as frail as his body. “He’s been waitin’.”

  “For me?” She glanced around at the other three patrons, but none of them met her gaze.

  “Aye. Ya need answers, yeah? Ye’re tryin’ to save them.”

  “What the hell? How did you…?”

  Paddy grinned and confirmed his lack of teeth before he touched his cheek again. “Knew it, I did.” The spoons rapped on the table. Four knocks, a pause, three more, and then Paddy stared over Caitlin’s shoulder at the bartender. She turned in time to see the man gesture to one of the male patrons. He rose, locked the door, and went back to his pint without a word.

  “What the hell’s goin’ on here?” Liam reached over the counter for the bartender’s shirt and pulled him closer.

  “Calm the fuck down,” the hooded drinker said and tossed back the gray fabric of her sweatshirt. Her silver-blond hair hung in an angled bob along sharp cheekbones, one of which had a distinctly purple hue of a day old bruise. Plump bow-lips curved into a half smile under deep blue, bloodshot eyes. “Good to see ya again, Liam.”

  “Shite. Farren.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Where’ve ya been?” Liam pulled the slight woman up by her arms and crushed her against him. Caitlin watched, both touched and a little jealous at another woman locked in an intimate embrace with the man she loved, but Paddy patted her hand, drawing her gaze.

  “Sit,” he said. “Old Paddy has lots to say.”

  Caitlin shook her head and stepped closer to Liam as Farren winced and patted Liam’s back. “Put me down, ya oaf. Ye’re crushing me and we’ve little time.”

  “Farren, meet Caitlin. My mate.”

  The female wolf’s hand trembled slightly as she grasped Caitlin’s, and when she nodded her greeting, the scent of dank earth and dried blood wafted from her wrinkled cloak. “I knew of ya, lass. Came back to set Liam to rights, have ya?”

  The subtle sting of shame bit her, and she looked away. “I guess I have.”

  “Ya have some explaining to do, Farren. Disappearing for days? Colin swore ya ended up Fergus’s prisoner. And given what the poor man went through, I’m shocked to see ya alive. Happy, but shocked.” Liam linked his fingers with Caitlin’s, and they took seats next to Paddy. Cade and Mara slid into the booth across from them, and Farren twisted a chair around and threw a leg over the seat, resting her folded arms along the back.

  “Paddy saved my life. Fergus snatched both of us from the Hen and Boar in Lahinch. The bastard turned the whole place to rubble. I woke in the trunk of a car, legs shattered. Couldn’t see a damn thing for all the blood. I shifted and started diggin’ my way through the rear seats. Shocked the hell out of him, and he crashed the car when I broke through, snarling.” She chuckled weakly. “I didn’t know what had happened to Colin. But I got away from Fergus and ran. When I came across Paddy’s old shack, he was waitin’ for me.”

  “Hid her well, Paddy did.” The old man smiled a toothless grin. “No more, though. The end comes. Can’t protect ya any more, lass.”

  Farren rubbed the back of her neck and patted the old man’s hand. Sadness bowed her lips. “Paddy let me sleep off my injuries and make some calls to try to figure out who told Fergus about my friendship with Liam.”

  “What do ya mean?”

  Farren’s bloodshot eyes darkened. “Before he brought down the buildin’, he taunted me. Told me my death would lead you to him. ‘I want the wolf,’ he said. ‘He’ll pay for taking my Catie away.’”

  “How does he even know about us?” Liam asked.

  “There’s a photo.” Caitlin dropped her head into her hands. “When I looked up my name after Mara destroyed the crystal, I only found three photos of me. All surrounding my death. But then I looked up your name, Liam, and I found a picture of us from the rug
by tournament. You had your arm around me, and you’d given a quote to the paper. ‘My Caitlin’s first match. She might be the team’s lucky charm’ or something cheesy…I don’t remember the exact phrase. After he found me in Belfast, so much of what he did is a blur. He tried to get me to tell him all about you. Whatever I said…he knows you.”

  Caitlin filled Mara, Cade, and Farren in on Fergus’s invasion of her dreams, his threat against Liam, and their plan to drug him and try to take her element back. “We have to get the book and stop him before he finds more ways to hurt Liam. Farren’s whole pack is in danger. How much longer before he figures out a way to hurt the pack in Seattle too?”

  A breeze rattled the saltshaker on the table, and Liam rubbed Caitlin’s thigh. “Easy, luv. We’re goin’ to find the bastard.”

  “Damn right.” Farren signaled to the bartender. He brought over a shot of whiskey, and she downed it in a single swallow.

  “Anyone else?” When no one took him up on his offer, he shuffled off. “We open in twenty minutes.”

  “Paddy can’t be seen with ya,” the old man said. “Ya have to move on soon.”

  “Why did you go to the Hen and Boar?” Cade asked.

  “A job. One of the young practitioners in the county, a wee lass living in Lahinch all of a year, came to me last week. She’s no more than twenty, but has the wisdom of the ancients—ya can see deep into her soul when she looks at ya. All of history laid out in her eyes. Claimed she had a vision. All fire and earthquakes and floods. End times. Fuckin’ loon, I thought, but then we had the shite at the cliffs. Knocked me on my arse—literally and figuratively. The shakin’ tore up roads twenty kilometers away. I saw that daft bastard on the news footage, and I don’t like coincidences.”

  “Fergus? You knew him before he kidnapped you?” Caitlin leaned forward. She still had no idea what had happened to Fergus during the eleven years she’d been “dead.” Other than the article on her suicide, he’d stayed out of the papers. Perhaps his meds had kept him sane.

  “I’ve worked among the supernatural community for six years now, but they still consider me an outsider.” Farren lifted her pint and took a deep swig. “Ya’d think we’d stick together, but werewolves don’t trust practitioners, practitioners don’t trust elementals, and elementals don’t trust anyone. So when an elemental knocked on my office door ten days ago, well, ya can imagine my shock. Carried on about two recent deaths—suffocation. Claimed Fergus had a hand in them.”

  “Shit. What date?” Caitlin’s stomach turned. She’d done this. All of this. Somehow, her coming “back to life” set him off again.

  “April twenty-fourth. The deaths took place the day before.”

  “Oh God.”

  Mara’s brows knit for a breath. “I destroyed Katerina’s crystal that night, didn’t I?”

  Caitlin reached for Liam’s hand under the table. “Before…two weeks ago…he’d been quiet, hadn’t he?”

  Farren nodded. “Yes. No one’d heard much of anything from him in years. He’d spent some time in the hospital, but the meds kept him on an even keel. Went on a tear once in a while, rantin’ and ravin’ about some ancient book he needed, but he’d disappear for a few weeks, come back, and then fade into the background again.”

  “And then I came back to life.” Caitlin shuddered. “I should have stayed dead.”

  Liam tried, and failed, to stifle a curse. “No, Caitlin.”

  “I made him crazier. The closer we are, the more violent he gets. Always. He did his worst when he compelled me to help him.”

  After another sip of beer, Farren met Caitlin’s gaze. “One of the elementals I talked to remembered ya. Said ya were a sweet thing who didn’t deserve his brand of crazy. She knew the book he needs. Poor thing packed up and ran as soon as I left her. But she says an elder around here has the feckin’ thing. Wouldn’t give me her name or any other hints.”

  “Diedre?” Caitlin asked.

  Paddy tapped the side of his nose and chuckled. “Smart one. Keeps her wits about her, she does.” As Caitlin watched Paddy smile along to a joke only he knew, a shrewd gleam crept into his eyes. “Paddy knows lots o’ things,” he said and touched his index finger to his ear “Listens. No one pays Paddy any mind.”

  Farren patted his spotted hand and smiled with an affection borne of more than simply business. “Paddy—“

  “I hear things, I do. Whispers from all around. Ghosts.” He turned to Caitlin and drew a complex pattern in the air with two fingers—a rune. Not one she knew.

  “Paddy?” When he dropped his hand, his eyes paled, and his voice lowered, the haunting, raspy tone sending chills down Caitlin’s spine. “Promise lives on this soft auld day. Legends warn, but they can’t know yer heart. Strength finds the silver wolf when most needed, and a forbearer holds the key to all.”

  A shudder shook the spoons from his hand, and Liam bent down to retrieve them.

  Paddy’s eyes darkened again, and he touched Caitlin’s cheek with a withered, wrinkled finger. “Beautiful,” he said and slumped back against the bench seat. “Go now. Mickey’s openin’ soon. Paddy can’t stay with ya. He hopes to see ya again when this is over.”

  Farren leaned in and kissed Paddy’s wrinkled cheek. “I can’t repay ya for saving my life.”

  “Don’t give up. The earthen storm knows only pain. Yer wolves won’t survive him. None of you can. Only her.” Paddy narrowed his eyes at Caitlin. “Do not fail.” He rose and shuffled off towards the back corner of the bar, slapping his spoons against his thigh with each step.

  “Paddy?” Farren stood, her arms stiff at her sides. “What do you mean?”

  The old man shook his head. “Paddy’s said what he can. Go now.”

  “Daft bastard. My wolves won’t survive? I need to talk to Colin. Tierney. Now.”

  “Call from the car,” Liam said. “I want that book. Now.”

  “Ya know where to go?”

  “We parked out front. And yeah. We’ve an address.”

  Liam recounted his conversation with Colin as he turned off Doolin’s main street and headed up the hill towards Lisdoonvarna, and Farren asked to borrow a phone to call her pack.

  A vague sense of unease crept over Caitlin’s skin, settling at the back of her neck. “Liam—“

  Her body bucked violently, and her head slammed into the seat with a sickening thud. Fergus’s glee—almost child-like—raised goose bumps along her arms and crowded her thoughts, wrestling for dominance. A scream welled in her throat, escaping in a sound she barely recognized as her own.

  Her element tumbled violently, the hiss and rumble of a great flood of emotion stripping her bare. Fergus pulled the air from her lungs. Grasping blindly for the door handle, she fought against him. No. Leave me alone. I’m not yours.

  “Caitlin!” The car swerved, and a horn blared from somewhere to her right; cool hands grasped her shoulders from behind. Mara. Fergus’s pain demanded her surrender, and his bloodlust sickened her.

  Grabbing her head, she concentrated: the silence as the engine cut out, Liam’s touch, his hand on her arm, his breath against her lips as he urged her to say something, his eyes pleading, glowing. A string of Gaelic drowned out the wail of the wind swirling within her.

  The illusion of safety shattered. Her chest heaved against the vise of Fergus’s control, and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to use his own charm against him. “He’s…not far. Angry. Sad.”

  Fergus’s scent tickled her nose. Blood, thick and coppery, tinged the earthen sweetness, and she gagged until Mara pressed the quartz against her heart. The charm faded, and Caitlin collapsed back against the seat.

  “Caitlin, say somethin’.”

  “Fergus. He’s calling to me. I’ve never felt him so crazed. If this plan doesn’t work, we may have no choice but to kill him.”

  ***

  Liam cradled Caitlin against him in the cramped backseat of the sedan. Her gentle curves stirred his wolf. The pull of the moon and his intense nee
d to protect and claim his mate set every nerve ending on edge.

  “He’s in pain,” Caitlin whispered. “We have to get to Diedre. Fergus isn’t far. I could track him, but…I don’t want to. The charm strengthens the bond between us and I can’t risk that again. I fought him this time, but barely. If he finds Diedre before we do, I may not have much hope of doing so again.”

  They’d parked on a narrow dirt road behind a weathered wooden fence that had seen better days. Farren crouched down next to Liam, her hand on the open car door. “Is she all right?”

  “I’m right here.” Caitlin raised her head. “And no. But I’m really sick and tired of him causing me pain. We need to get that book so I can end this.”

  Cade and Mara rejoined them. “I talked to Peter and told him that we’re headed to Diedre’s,” Cade said. “Your pack is driving him up a wall, and all of them need to run. He’ll go with them, and I warned them to stick together. With Fergus knowing about your friendship with Liam, none of them are safe.”

  “Shite. They’re all bitten. I should have sent them to Dublin. Or Scotland. Anywhere but here.”

  “Peter will look out for them. Try not to worry. But…are you sure none of them betrayed you?” Cade leaned against the open door as Mara called on her element. Darkness braced her eyes, but the spinning droplet of water she bounced on her palm spoke to her control and focus.

  “I’m not sure of anything,” Farren said. “Right now, you lot and Paddy are the only people I trust. I don’t think that any of my wolves would hurt Colin or me. But with Brian still missing and Paddy doing nothing but speaking in riddles and cryptic mentions of darkness and forbearers and shite, I don’t know what to believe.”

  “The forbearer probably means Diedre.” Mara sent the drop of water splashing against the window. “Let’s go find out.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Liam pulled onto a long winding path so narrow Caitlin feared they’d taken a wrong turn. This couldn’t be a road. At least not one that led anywhere. Shrubs grew high on each side with creeping vines that threatened to grab the small car and toss it down the belly of a lush, green beast. No one spoke. Caitlin held Mara’s hand in the backseat, trying to bolster her own energy. The memory of Fergus in her head left her shaking, and she hadn’t voiced her true fear: that the glee she’d felt from him meant he’d killed again.