Chapter Thirty-One
“With a snarl, death comes on big cat feet.”
~adapted from Colin Nickerson
Brian had lost track of time. Everything seemed to move too slowly even though they sped up the hill faster than he could have done on his fastest horse. Every nerve in his body exploded with foreboding.
“Could you please calm down,” Char complained, “you’re distracting me and making me nervous. It’s difficult enough to maneuver over this rutted road without deflecting your waves of tension.”
“Ye don’t appear all that calm yourself, lass. If ye grip that wheel any harder your skin will split over your knuckles.”
“That’s because you’re driving me nuts with all that restless shifting around on the seat. We won’t get there any faster by you slamming the dashboard every couple of minutes.”
He hadn’t even realized he’d been doing that. “Sorry, lass.”
“Aren’t you a tough Highland warrior, unfazed by weather or worry?” Char teased, but she too sounded strained.
“Yer right, but I can’t shake this feeling that something is terribly wrong.”
Brian had always been particularly good at reaching a calm, steady focus before he entered every battle. His father and brothers had guided him with their skill and courage all his life. He rolled his shoulders, took a deep calming breath, and called on the spirits of his ancestors.
They found the turn-off and started a steep muddy climb. Shortly, they came upon Angel’s car dipped into the ditch beside the road. Char slammed on the breaks, and jumped out of the car. Brian did the same closing a frantically barking Simon inside the vehicle.
“Angel.” They shouted simultaneously. Brian’s focus followed indents in the road’s muddy surface that crossed to the other side. Farther along, he found an area where someone had slid down the hill a short way, and beyond there, tracks resumed a forward climb. They must be her tracks.
“She went on foot from here. Can you get the jeep up this muddy grade?
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’ll have no trouble.” Char had already returned to the Jeep and slid into the driver’s seat struggling to restrain the dog while Brian slid in beside her.
When they rounded the next bend, the scene that met them defied imagination. Angel was charging a cougar with nothing but a stick in her hand, and the animal stood over a bloodied body.
Char screamed. When she increased their speed, she lost control and the car spun sideways in the mud. Brian jumped from the vehicle before it came to a full stop. When he looked back up the road, the cougar had attacked Angel.
“Stay in the car, Char,” he yelled over his shoulder. He unsheathed the dagger strapped at his hip racing toward Angel and the big, tawny cat. A snarling gray-matted mass hurled past him as he scrambled through the soupy mud sucking at his boots.
When the cougar saw him and the dog it hissed and snarled, then leapt over the bodies, and disappeared into the thick scrub brush blanketing the hill behind. Simon pursued the animal, and they both disappeared.
Brian felt the wind of Char passing him as he knelt beside Angel. He gently turned her body over. His mind flashed to the scene of his father dying in his arms.
“Angel, mo chridhe, my heart. My braw, wild Angel.” He brushed mud and blood from her face. She had no scratches on her face or head, but blood covered her hands. Where had it come from? He ran his hands down her side and found a rent in the fabric of her jacket on her left side where blood flowed through.
Her eyes flew open. “Daniel, please check on Daniel,” she croaked. She twisted in his arms; the movement released a cry of agony.
“Be still, I need to check your wounds. Does it hurt badly?” What a stupid question, a lion had just plunged his dagger canines into her delicate flesh.
“Don’t…worry…” Movement hitched her breath as she cursed. “Oh, goddamn. Please…please…check on Daniel.”
“Shush, dinnae trouble yourself. Char is with Daniel. I’m going to carry you into the cabin first, and then I’ll come back for your brother.”
* * *
Charlotte couldn’t control the violent shaking in her hands. “Daniel. Daniel please, speak to me.” She carefully rolled his body over and lifted his head and shoulders to rest on her lap. A deep gash poured blood over his shoulder until her hands turned scarlet. She tried to staunch the wounds with her bunched up scarf. Other wounds issued blood that trailed along his arm where his jacket and shirt fell away in tattered shreds. Two puncture wounds had ripped holes in his jeans where a pool of blood spilled onto the ground beneath them. She didn’t know where to press first.
Daniel blinked his eyes. At first, he seemed unable to see. Then his clear blue eyes locked on hers. “Char, is it really you? Am I hallucinating?” He tried to lift his wounded hand and yelped in agony.
“Hush, darling, don’t move. Brian will be here to help in a moment.”
“The beast finally came to claim his due.” He coughed, panting hard and then drifted away from her, his eyes unfocused, lost.
“Angel?” he gurgled.
“Brian has taken her into the cabin. He’ll return to help me get you inside in a minute.”
“Brian?”
“Yes, Brian. It seems your sister has found herself a brawny, brave Highlander.” She lovingly soothed her fingers over his brow and pushed away a clump of muddied blood.
He grunted. “Good. I wish…I could…know him. Is he…a good man, Char?”
“Yes, my love, he’s a very good man. You’ll meet him in a minute. He’ll take very good care of your little sister.” She tried to swallow back that last sentence. Once uttered, the words seemed to confirm her fear of Daniel’s imminent death. This could not be happening. He could not leave her this way. Not before they had a chance to fix things between them.
She lifted her head and yelled for Brian to hurry.
“Ss…sorry I didn’t take better care of you.” He coughed and grabbed her hand with surprising strength. “Please…forgive…” He took a stuttering breath. “I never stopped loving you. I never will.”
“I know, my love. I love you too, always.” She bent and kissed his lips, his closed eyelids, his forehead, and whispered in his ear. “There’s never been anyone but you, Daniel. Do you hear me? No matter how badly I behaved. I’m sorry, ever so sorry. Please try to relax, don’t strain.”
Tears poured down her cheeks, melded with blood streaked along her jaw where his hand had grazed, and fell onto his shirt in garish pink blots.
“Char. Find…journal…in pack.” His breathing faltered, and she screamed for Brian again. That caused Daniel to open his eyes.
“Don’t fret, my beautiful girl. It’s…okay. I owed the beast.” It seemed he referred to a beast other than the cougar. “Remember me, Char. Remember. Find…happiness.” Every breath gurgled in his throat. He started coughing again, this time expelling copious amounts of blood.
With both extraordinary strength and extreme gentleness under the circumstance, he pulled her to him and pressed his lips to hers. “I’ll carry you in my heart…through…eternity.” His words rasped the brittle air.
Then his hand fell away as a final breath rattled from lips cold and damp with rain and the pink stain of watery blood. The copper tang hit Char’s tongue. Pain ripped through her heart and mind so violently it split her soul in two. She lifted her face to the leaden clouds above and wailed her grief to a deaf sky.