The smoking ruin that was Curran raised his bloody head.
“Curran,” I whispered. “Look at me.”
The burns blotching his monstrous face melted. Fur sprouted, running along his frame, hiding the wounds. His eyes were still pure white.
He strode to me, swiped at the axe, and plucked it out of me like a toothpick. Clawed hands picked me up.
“Talk to me.” I peered into his eyes and saw nothing. “Talk to me, Curran.”
A low growl reverberated in his throat.
No. No, no, no.
Emaciated twisted shapes dashed by the ward—the first vampiric scouts. They’d watched the battle until they figured out the winner. Curran saw the vampires. A horrible sound broke from his mouth, halfway between a roar and a scream. He lunged at the ward. In the split second before we hit the scarlet flames, I thrust my bloody hand into Erra’s defensive spell. Magic shot from me. The red collapsed, and everything went black.
CHAPTER 27
EVERYTHING HURT.
“Don’t move.” Urgency filled Jim’s quiet voice.
I lay absolutely still, my eyes closed. The magic was down. The air smelled of blood.
Something fanned my face. I opened my eyes just enough to glimpse a clawed foot passing out of my field of vision.
“You’re on the floor,” Jim said. “I’m at the door directly in front of you. When I say, run to me.”
My eyes snapped open.
Jim crouched in the doorway, Doolittle next to him. Derek stood to the left, his face white. Beyond them I saw Mahon looming like a mountain.
Jim’s eyes shone with green.
“She doesn’t understand,” Doolittle murmured.
Jim leaned an inch forward. “You’re in the Keep. Curran brought you here three hours ago. He’s pacing back and forth around you. He attacks anyone who tries to enter. He isn’t talking. He doesn’t recognize me or anyone else.” He paused, waiting for it sink in. “Kate, he may have gone loup. You must get out of here, before he kills you. If you run, we’ll shut the door as soon as you make it out. We’ve got enough people to hold it.”
Three hours. He hasn’t spoken in three hours.
I sat up. A dark bloody stain slicked the floor under me. I must’ve bled. I turned and saw a furry gray back at the far wall and above it a tangled, bloodstained mane. Curran.
“Kate!” Jim hissed.
The beast that used to be Curran whipped around. White eyes glared at me.
I stood up.
He leaped across the room, covering the distance between us in a single bound. His hands clamped my ribs. He jerked me up to a mouth full of teeth.
“Hey, baby,” I said into his maw, breathing out to let him inhale my scent.
White eyes peered into mine. A deep growl rolled from him.
“Very scary,” I told him softly. “I’m terribly impressed.”
He snarled. Teeth clicked a hair from my throat.
“Curran,” I whispered. “Remember me.”
He inhaled my scent. His ears twitched. He was listening to the shapeshifters at the door.
“Close the door, Jim.”
Jim hesitated.
“I’m his mate. Close the door.”
A moment later the door clicked shut.
I put my arms around his neck. “You’re mine. You can’t let her win. She can’t have you.”
He was listening but not hearing.
“I love you,” I told him. “You said you would always come for me. I need you now. Come back to me. Please, come back to me.”
I put my head against Curran’s mane.
“Come back to me. I know you’re in there. You brought me here. You didn’t kill me. You must know who I am.”
Fur slid under my fingers. He stood rigid.
“If you come back to me, I’ll never leave you,” I whispered into the furry ear. “I’ll make you all the pies you could ever eat.”
All of the magic I had, all of the power of my blood, all of it was useless with the magic down. He was slipping away, farther and farther, with each passing second. “Come back to me. Please. Remember you wanted me to say please. I’m saying it now. Please come back to me.”
Nothing.
“Who’ll protect me from myself if you’re gone? Who’ll fight with me? I will be all by myself. You can’t abandon me, Curran. You can’t orphan the Pack. You just can’t.”
He clenched me to him. Pain exploded and I cried out.
Curran snarled and gripped me tighter.
He didn’t remember me. Curran was lost. She took him from me. She ripped him right out of my life with her dying breath. The world broke to pieces and caved in on me. I couldn’t even breathe.
My eyes grew hot. Something inside me broke and I cried. I hugged his thick neck and cried and cried, because he was dying second by second and I could do nothing.
“Come back to me. Don’t leave me all alone. Don’t die on me, you stupid sonovabitch. You goddamn fucking idiot. I told you to stay out of the damn fight! Why the hell don’t you ever listen? I fucking hate you. I hate you, you hear me? Don’t you dare die on me, because I need to kill you with my bare hands.”
The fur boiled under my hands and my fingers grazed human skin. Curran’s gray eyes looked at me from a human face.
“Talk to me, baby,” I whispered. “Please talk to me.”
His lips moved. He struggled for a long moment and forced it out.
“Not dead yet.”
His eyes rolled back in his head. He swayed and we crashed to the floor.
DOOLITTLE WIPED HIS HANDS WITH A TOWEL. “HE’S comatose. His body is human, but whether his mind returns is the question. However, he spoke. We heard him through the door and it was clear and coherent. That gives us hope.”
“When will he wake up?”
Doolittle looked at me, his eyes troubled. “I don’t know.”
“Can you do anything? Can’t you fix him?”
He shook his head again and pulled back from me. “I’m out of cures. It’s up to his body and time now.”
Jim thrust himself into my view. “You need to let him fix you.”
I stared at him.
“Let the doctor fix you,” Jim said, as if to a small child. “You’re hurt. It’s not good for you to be hurt.”
I wanted them to leave me the hell alone. “Since when did you turn into my nursemaid?”
Jim crouched by me. “By now the whole Keep knows the Beast Lord is in a coma. They’re scared and pissed off and they want blood. What they need right now is the Beast Lord’s mate standing on her own two feet. You need to be up and running, so I can walk you through the Keep to keep people from panicking.”