Black Heart (45 page)

Finn placed his hand over the stone, ripping it out of the King’s hand. “And ye as well,

ye dumb bastard!”

Quinn quickly reached down and placed his hand around the blade, separating it from

Macha’s neck and taking the slice that would have ended her life too quickly. As it was,

she’d only had a few precious moments left. He was about to lose her and their child, he

realized. Raw agony ripped through him, tearing an unholy roar from his throat as he

picked up his sword and swung, slicing the King’s neck open from ear from ear.

“Macha,” he whispered, his heart breaking as he released the sword and dropped to his

knees before her.

“It hurts,” she cried softly as she fell to her side.

He reached for her when his strength finally left him and he couldn’t do more than to fall

to the ground. He reached for her, but couldn’t quite reach her. The inches that separated

them felt like miles.

“I know, mo shonuachar,” he said softly, welcoming the cold numbness that spread

through his body.

“Hold on, lad,” Shayne said, pulling him into his arms and further away from Macha. He

tried to fight, but he didn’t have any fight left in him.

“Do something!” Shayne demanded.

“I’m s-scared,” Macha admitted as Finn dropped to his knees beside her, tears rolling

down his blood spattered face, he reached out with trembling hands and did what Tadgh

couldn’t. He took her into his arms and held her.

“There’s nothing ta be scared of, mo shonuachar,” he told her, wishing that those were

his arms wrapped around her. “I’m gonna be coming for ye.”

“Ye promise?” she sobbed softly as her breathing became labored.

“Aye, I do,” he said, smiling as his vision dimmed out.

Chapter
39

“Everything will be fine,” Beth said softly to herself, to her or the men looking like the

rug had been pulled out from beneath them, she didn’t know.

She also couldn’t hold it together for a minute longer if she had to sit here. She needed

space away from the oppressive grief that threatened to overwhelm and destroy her. There

was a way out of this and she needed to figure it out quickly and she wouldn’t be able to do

that if she stayed here a minute longer.

“Where are you going?” Denny asked, looking worse than the last time they’d all

gathered in this room while they’d waited for the surgeon to tell them that everything would

be fine.

“I need to use the bathroom,” she mumbled, trying to give him a smile and failing

miserably.

Denny nodded as he stood. “I’ll go with you.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, grabbing her purse.

Quinn, Finn, and Aidan shifted their circle of protection, widening it as they prepared to

move with her. She was glad that they were here and that they’d refused to let her out of

their sight. It made getting them alone so that she could question them about this curse

easier. She needed to know exactly what was said, who said it and what they were doing

when they said it. She needed-

“Oh, fuck no,” Finn groaned softly, drawing her attention to him.

Frowning, she looked past him to see a very large and handsome man with short, slightly

wavy jet-black hair, and beautiful green eyes walk down the wide hallway towards them.

She was about to ask what was wrong when she realized something.

Those were Tristan’s eyes.

“No, no, no,” she said, shaking her head as she stepped back away from the truth and

heartache that was heading straight for her.

“Marty?” Her father reached for her, but she shoved his hands away, desperate to get

away.

“Macha,” the man coming for her said with an Irish brogue that confirmed her fears.

“No! No! No!” she cried, stumbling back as her father, Tom and Denny tried to grab

her, but she shoved them away. “Please, God, no!”

“Shhhh, mo shonuachar,” he said soothingly as he reached for her.

“Calm down, Marty!” her father pleaded, his voice breaking as he wrapped his arms

around her. She fought him, needing to get away from the man watching her with kind

eyes. If she could put some space between them and keep him from touching her then this

wasn’t really happening.

Tristan wouldn’t be dead.

“Shit!” her father snapped when she kicked and struggled to get away from him.

“Can we get some goddamn help here?” Denny snapped as he grabbed Marty by her legs

and helped take her to the ground.

“Relax, sweetheart,” the man with Tristan’s eyes said softly as he reached out and

cupped her face.

She closed her eyes as she shook her head, tears ran down her face as the first sob broke

free. “Please!” she begged softly.

“Yer okay, mo shonuachar,” he said as she felt his lips brush against hers. “It’s not yer

time yet.”

“Please don’t leave me, Tristan,” she sobbed softly. “Please don’t leave me.”

“Never.”

-
-
-

“What the fuck is that beeping?” Fergus demanded even though they all knew what that

meant.

Not even a minute earlier they’d all watched as their brother left his body. Those kind,

too goddamn forgiving eyes had locked with his. With a sad smile and a small flicker of his

hand, Tadgh had covered his naked form with clothes and walked out of the operating

room in search of his young bride.

“He’s dead,” Liam said flatly as they watched doctors and nurses race around the room,

shooting drugs into Tristan’s IVs in between shocking him and pushing air into his lungs in

the hopes that they could restart his heart.

No one said anything else as they watched the men and women work in vain to save

Tristan’s life. There was no point really, the curse had him and would soon have his wife.

They’d be forced to watch her die once again and at that moment he wanted to hate Tadgh,

but he just couldn’t.

This wasn’t his fault. It was the fault of the murderous bastard who had gotten off too

easily so long ago. They should have made his death last for days before they allowed him

any release. They should have-

“They’re keeping his body alive?” Declean asked, sounding curious and cutting into his

thoughts.

“Aye,” He nodded, having watched enough television and movies to know that was

exactly what they were doing. It wouldn’t help, not in Tristan’s case, but he appreciated the

effort nonetheless.

“Tadgh died, right?” Declean asked, sounding thoughtful.

“Aye,” Liam said with a slight nod.

“Then……then the curse claimed him?” Declean asked, starting to irritate him.

“Aye, lad! Do ye really need to have this explained after all this time?”

Declean simply shook his head. “I don’t, but a thought just occurred to me that’s all,” he

said with a shrug.

“What’s that?” Liam asked, his eyes never leaving Tristan’s face.

“It’s just that he died and the curse claimed its due for this life. They’re keeping his body

alive, so what’s to stop us from putting Tadgh back inside? I don’t think the curse can claim

him twice in one lifetime, can it?”

Shayne looked up and met Liam’s gaze. “Is it possible, do ye think?” he asked, trying not

to hope for the impossible.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Liam said with a determined glint in his eyes before

he disappeared.

“Guard him,” he told Fergus as he followed after his brother, damn near feeling giddy at

the prospect of finally getting one over on this curse.

-
-
-

“How are you still here?” she asked, remembering what they were told last night. He

wasn’t supposed to be here. Once he died he was supposed to be ripped away from her.

“I’m not sure, mo shonuachar,” he said with a kind smile, his hand continued to caress

her stomach. “But it might be best not to speak to me, lass, or they’ll think yer crazy,” he

said with a wink, trying to tease her into smiling, but it didn’t work and she didn’t care.

She wanted Tristan back. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him, to live even a single

minute without him. They still had time left, she could feel it down in her soul.

“There has to be a way,” she said, ignoring the concerned looks of everyone around her.

“There’s not, lass. Believe me, we’ve tried everything,” he gently explained. “The only

thing left to do is let ye go now, Macha.”

“No! Please!” she said, trying to reach for him, but she couldn’t move, not with her

father’s arms wrapped tightly around her.

“It’s the only way,” Tadgh said with a sad smile. “I can’t keep putting ye and our child

through this, mo shonuachar. This has to end now.”

“No! Just one more time! Please! We can do this!” she cried as she felt her heart start to

shatter and break.

“I need ye to be strong, lass. I need ye to go on without me for this child,” he said, giving

her stomach a gentle caress.

She tried to speak, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t go on without him, didn’t want to and

she knew at that moment that the curse had its grips on her. She wouldn’t last long without

him and there was nothing that she could do about it.

As her father held her in his arms, rocking her gently as he swore to her that everything

would be okay, she numbly watched as Liam and Shayne appeared on either side of

Tristan’s soul and with a firm nod, grabbed him by the arms and disappeared, leaving her

with the grief that was swallowing her whole.

-
-
-

“Let me go!” Tadgh shouted as they materialized in the operating room.

“Sure thing,” Shayne murmured, praying that this worked. With a nod, they picked

Tadgh up and slammed him down into his body.

They watched him for several minutes, praying that something, anything would happen.

This had to work, needed to work. Hell, he didn’t know what he would do if it didn’t work.

A tiny beep was the only warning that any of them received before one of the most

terrifying things that he’d ever witnessed occurred.

Tristan’s body arched off the table, startling everyone working on him, but the unholy

roar that he released as he slammed back down on the table terrified them. Seconds passed

as everyone stared at the body in shock, the solid beep quickly becoming separate sounds as

Tristan’s heart started to work on its own.

Shayne watched with amusement as a nurse’s eyes rolled back into her head seconds

before she swayed and dropped to the ground. The other humans barely spared her a

glance, their gazes remained locked on Tristan’s still body.

“What the hell was that?” his surgeon asked, looking stunned as he stood over Tristan’s

body, the paddles he’d been about to place on Tristan’s chest still clutched tightly in his

hands.

“That was us kicking this fucking curse’s ass,” Shayne said smugly, butting fists with a

grinning Declean as he made his way out of the operating room.

He needed to tell Marty that everything was going to be okay and he meant to do just

that, but he couldn’t. He needed a moment to….

He just needed a moment.

He wanted to go home, throw on the television and blast it to help clear his head, but he

couldn’t leave the hospital. Tristan and Marty were too vulnerable right now and his

brothers were going to need help keeping them safe. He needed noise, lots of it and

preferably cries of pain or pleasure, it didn’t matter. Both would work, always had.

“Aye, that’s much better,” he sighed as the screams of the drunk arguing with the triage

nurse reached his ears. The rest of the background noise was like music to his ears.

It wasn’t as loud as he preferred, but he’d take what he could get at the moment. They

weren’t as good as porn movies, but they would have to do. The fake groans, moans,

screams of pleasure and horrible music were the perfect substitutes for the sounds of the old

war camps.

The noises of fighting, arguing men getting into drunken shouting matches and the

sounds of the camp whores screaming in pleasure once served as a sort of lullaby for him.

While some men lost themselves in their drink or between the legs of a woman, he’d lost

himself in sounds, loud, unpredictable sounds.

He’d always done his best thinking in loud places. They comforted him, probably

because pure silence scared the living shit out of him. It always reminded him of-

“Oh, fuck,” he groaned, grabbing his side as a cramp shot through his lung.

Another cramp, and then another more powerful cramp shot through his lungs, dropping

him on his ass as he struggled with some unknown need. His lungs were on fire and felt like

they were going to explode. Something wasn’t right. Something was really fucking wrong.

The curse.

Shit!

He needed to get to Tristan. He needed to figure out a way to spare his brother anymore

pain. He needed to-