Chapter Thirty-Four

Delilah’s footsteps were quiet on the floor, but Kaid sensed her nearing. Her sharp gasp told him she’d seen him.

“Have you killed him?” she asked in a hollow tone.

Kaid tried to speak, but only a low groan sounded in his throat.

“Kaid.” Her voice caught.

He strained to look up. She stood over Claire with her sword held in her left hand. Her right arm shone with fresh blood.

She was injured.

Kaid tried to rise, but his body was still frozen with the stunning agony of MacKenzie’s kick to his wound.

“Save…Claire.” He croaked out the two words with all the concentration he could muster.

The difficult struggle had been worthwhile. A look of determination settled over Delilah’s face, and she lowered into a tensed fighting position.

Move, damn it.

Sweat prickled at his brow with the attempt to rise. His body trembled. To no avail.

Kaid watched helplessly as MacKenzie swung his sword toward Delilah and she blocked it.

If Kaid could move, just several feet, he could attack MacKenzie from behind. He could kill the bastard.

Delilah blocked the next blow and struck out with her own, her left attack not as powerful or fluid as her right.

MacKenzie easily evaded her.

She would need all the power she could get, or she wouldn’t survive.

His beautiful, incredible Delilah. She would do anything to protect Claire. Sacrifice anything.

Even her life.

The idea of losing her made the ache of his wound seem nothing in comparison to the powerful hurt in his chest.

Move, damn it.

• • •

Delilah kept her gaze fixed on MacKenzie’s cold, handsome face. His eyes were dark and empty. The eyes of a predator, completely oblivious to the blood soaking the room and the bodies strewn about.

Rhona with her chest glistening, Elizabeth bent over like a discarded doll thrown in a corner, Kaid…

Delilah’s throat drew tight while Kaid struggled with injured movements to rise.

She wanted to tell him to be still, that she would be there soon.

But she looked into the dead, predator eyes fixed on her and knew this could very well be the last day she lived.

Seumas moved to her right, but she did not relinquish her position in front of Claire. He shifted left, and still she did not move.

In a smooth lunge, he jabbed his sword toward her. Delilah brought her blade down hard and swiped the dangerous tip of his weapon from where it’d been aimed at her heart. The muscles of her left arm burned with exertion.

She would be able to keep up the energy only so long. A shiver of anticipation squeezed down her spine.

She knew what would happen when she could hold it no longer.

A moan sounded behind Delilah. Claire was coming to.

“Close your eyes, Claire,” Delilah said in as soothing a voice as she could.

After all the girl had been through, Delilah could not bear her to witness the carnage of the room.

MacKenzie smirked and swiped his blade in an arc toward Delilah’s torso. It whistled in the air with its powerful speed, but she leapt back in time to avoid the strike.

She had to mind her feet when she landed to avoid stepping on Claire. Still, the girl flinched on the ground.

Delilah chanced a glance at the nearby open doorway. If Delilah could get Claire to leave, perhaps the girl could still live even if Delilah fell.

“Keep your eyes closed and crawl forward, Claire,” Delilah said.

The girl started to cry. MacKenzie growled and swept his sword to the right.

Block.

He attacked from the left.

Block.

Delilah’s left arm screamed in agony.

“Keep crawling.” Delilah’s throat ached with the threat of tears, but she kept her voice strong. For Claire’s sake.

MacKenzie snarled his frustration and redoubled his energy, his slashing attacks so vicious, Delilah had no choice but to step backward with each strike. Her arm trembled, and she knew her strikes were lacking the power they’d possessed only moments before.

The rustle of fabric was the only indication she had that Claire obeyed. Surely she was close enough to the door now.

Delilah’s blade drooped. It was only for a moment, but MacKenzie saw it and thrust his sword at her. She jerked her own weapon upward to defend herself and made it by only a hair of a second. Even as his knocked blade passed over her body, the tip raked against her waist and left a narrow line of red blooming beneath the torn fabric.

She would not be able to last much longer.

“Stand up and look only forward,” Delilah said to Claire.

“But—”

“Do it,” Delilah hissed. “And run!”

She lunged forward, throwing her body into MacKenzie and attacking with every last bit of energy she had. Her sword thrust until it was knocked from her limp grasp and clattered away, out of her reach.

She clawed and spat and bit, all in a blind fury of sheer desperation, lashing out like an animal caught in a trap.

Like a lioness protecting her cub.

Something cold and sharp bit into her hip. She shoved aside the discomfort and raked her nails over MacKenzie’s face.

He howled in agony. His bleeding face went purple with rage. He grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her to the ground with such force, she could not catch herself.

She lay on the floor, exhausted and bleeding, thinking how very much like Elizabeth she must look.

Poor Elizabeth, whom she had not been able to save. The girl whose father had loved her only so far as to send someone in her stead to ensure the safety of his investment.

Had the girl ever known a good life?

MacKenzie loomed over Delilah.

She kicked hard at his shins with all her might and sent him crashing to the floor at her side. He sat up with a groan and rolled over onto her.

His hair stood up in all directions, and his eyes were wild and dark. “Ye stupid bitch. I’ll kill ye for that.”

He jerked something from his waist and a dagger glinted in the moonlight streaming in through the open shutters. Delilah wanted to put her arm up to block him, but her left one was too weak, and her right completely immobile.

She tried to turn away, but there was nowhere to go.

Nowhere but death.

MacKenzie’s eyes widened and near bulged from his head. The breath hissed from him in a low groan and his body sagged forward on top of her.

Delilah blinked, her brain rattling with confusion for a split second before a heavy body collapsed beside her and a hand slid into hers.

Warm and tender, and wet with the blood of her attacker.

Her heart swelled into her throat. She could only lie there and cry while holding tight to Kaid’s hand until they were both inevitably claimed by death.