Page 45 of Evil Hearts

Chapter Four:

Missing Brother so much more intense! It’s… different. I was so ashamed for feeling more for you than him, especially with how interested he’s seemed… but I can’t feel for him what I do for you!”

“It’s different…” Lachlan repeated. “Then ye want me; only me?”

“I do!” she smiled.

“ Och , what I wouldn’t do to take ye right now,” he drew in a heavy breath and looked away with a frown. “But Munro…” he sighed, “I’m worried about him, lass. He’s never disappeared like this, even after a fight.”

“Then let’s find him together!” she smiled, throwing on a pair of jeans and a sweater.

“Thank ye,” he smiled. “And ye best be ready for after we find him. The things I’ll do to ye…”

She blushed and paused, staring into his heated gaze before turning her face away. If he continued to stare at her that way, there was NO way they were going to get past the bed. Lachlan took her hand and all-but dragged her out the door, hurrying with her out of the inn.

After searching the village and the outskirts, Katarina was beginning to worry just as much for Lachlan as she was for Munro. His gaze had grown desperate, wild with desperation, and his body had begun to tremble with a violent rage. She knew, even after such a brief time with them, how much they meant to one another. Lachlan loved his brother, and the worry was beginning to take its toll.

“He must be out here!” Lachlan growled.

“Lachlan, you have to calm down!” she whispered, running her hand along his shaking forearm. “We won’t find him if we—”

The therion’s head whipped around and faced off into the distance then, his nostrils flaring.

“What?” Katarina looked in the direction he was facing, “What is…”

Then she heard it too.

It would’ve been too faint for human ears—the softest rustling, but a heavy force driving it—but there was no denying that there was something moving in the distance.

Both of them were moving without a word, Katarina fighting to keep pace beside Lachlan. Every step that drove them nearer was rewarded with more heavy rustling, then labored breathing, then mumbling…

Munro’s voice!

“It’s him!” Lachlan bellowed, beginning to call out his brother’s name as they neared the site.

Then…

“Y-ye sound worried about me, brother?” Munro’s voice sounded so weak as he staggered and fell in front of them.

“Munro!” Katarina cried out, rushing to his side.

Blood. So much blood! His body was covered in it, and more kept seeping from deep lashes and punctures that littered his body. His face was bruised—his left eye swollen shut and his right lazily swam about from exhaustion. Lachlan cursed in words Katarina couldn’t understand as he fought to wipe the blood out of his brother’s face, only to have it replaced moments after by several gashes in his forehead.

“Brother!” Lachlan cried out, kneeling down. “The vampires… they did this?”

“I… I got away,” Munro gave a crooked smiled. “K-Kat? Kitty-Kat? A-are… are ye crying for me, lass? Ye… ye look like shite when ye cry,” he coughed on his own laughter.

“Of course I’m crying, you idiot!” Katarina sniffed as the tears continued. “You could’ve been killed!”

“I’ll be alright,” he grinned and then began to cough out more blood. “Just be sore for a day or two. Nuthin’ a pint of ale won’t cure.”

“She’s right, ye are an idiot!” Lachlan growled, carefully lifting Munro in his arms. “Lass, would ye be okay with accompanying me to our cave tonight?”

“Of course!” she bit her lip, following after him.

As the two settled beside Munro, Katarina began to grab all the linen she could find and went to cleaning his wounds. She could feel both brothers’ gazes on her as she continued to clean Munro’s wounds.

“Lachlan, I need more water,” she turned, biting her lip as she saw his warm eyes watching her work.

He nodded, struggling to tear his gaze from the two of them. “I’ll go get some. Thank you so much for this, lass.”

She watched for a moment as he left and turned back to Munro, who had begun to relax under her care.

“I can’t believe they did this to you,” she whispered, continuing to clean his wounds.

“It’s no’ so terrible,” he grinned at her. “Worth it t’see you again.”

Katarina scoffed and shook her head, “You’ve lost it!”

“No! Really! Ye are the most beautiful lass I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

“Well, you only got the one good eye, and even that one looks like shite ,” she smiled as he smirked at that. “I may be pretty, but beautiful ? No way.”

“Ye remind me of our mother,” he chuckled, only to stop suddenly and groan in pain.

“Stop that,” she glared. “You are hurting yourself more!”

“It’s worth it,” he smiled at her. “So… have ye an’ Lachlan shagged yet?”

Katarina’s eyes widened and she paused to look up at him. “What?”

“Ye love ‘im, doon’cha?”

“What? H-how… how can you tell?” she frowned.

“I can see it in the way ye look at him,” he sighed. “He deserves it, though. Mos’ women look away from him; scared of ‘im, I think.”

“What do you mean?” she frowned.

“His scars, I suppose… an’ his eyes; I guess just how intense he is,” Munro shrugged and winced as he did. “Most women are afraid of him, so they come to me. I could see it from the start, but—I won’t lie—I wanted that one taste,” he winked and chuckled, groaning again.

“I said stop that!” she scolded him. Then, satisfied that he would hold still, she added “I’m not at all afraid of him. I can’t believe anyone would be!”

“ Och , yer not a typical lass, are ye?” he smiled, “I can’t say I’m not jealous, but I am happy for him,” Munro smiled. “He deserves real happiness.”

Not long after Lachlan stepped back in, and Katarina noticed that the faint curl of a smile tugging at his lips. He looked into her eyes for a moment and smiled, handing her a bucket of fresh water.

“Take good care of the lass while I’m out, Lach,” Munro grinned up at him.

“I will,” Lachlan smirked. “Just get up soon, will ye? I doona want extra chores for too long.”

Munro let out a soft laugh before closing her eyes. Katarina smiled, using the fresh water to rinse the last of his wounds before bandaging them. Then, certain that he’d be able to rest, she stood and turned to Lachlan. He didn’t need to say anything; he only gazed at her, his intense eyes taking her in with the fierceness she was falling in love with.

Love…

There was really no denying it now; no twisting or wondering or fighting the reality of it.

But maybe she wouldn’t have to…

“Come back to New York with me,” she whispered.

He looked up, as surprised by her words as she was. He frowned, looking down and she watched as he shook his head.

“Lass, I doona know if my brother would be alright with that,” he sighed. “An’ I canna go without him.”

“I would never ask that! I’d want you both to come back to New York with me! I have enough money for us to live comfortably,” she bit her lip, thinking that he was worried about funds.

“Is that what ye think? That we would just live off yer charity?” he narrowed his eyes.

“I didn’t mean… I mean, I wasn’t trying to imply anything by it,” she looked up.

“We doona need yer fancy life or yer charity, Katarina! We aren’t dogs living in the gutter,” he growled, looking away from her. “Go back to New York,” he snarled. “Leave me an’ my brother out of yer messed-up, worthless life! Nothin’ in yer world is real—‘sall jus’ paint and fantasy and money!—and I won’t be lettin’ ye poison our lives with that high-priced, plastic shite!”

“Wh-what? What are you—”

“Ye got what ye came here for, right? Got yer rest in a new place, then scored a wee bit of fun with some Scotsmen, and ye even found the right inspiration, aye ? Then what? Ye felt bad fer what ‘appened t’Munro? Thought ye owed us a bit more than this, aye ? So now ye want to carry us about like fancy little dogs in a handbag, is that it? Show the world yer such a bleedin’ heart for taking the dumb animals out of their cave?” He spat at her feet, “Well we won’t be yer new marketing scheme!”

“Is that what you think?” she glared. “I invited you both because I care for you, but if you can’t see that then maybe you are just a dumb animal, you prideful dick!”

“Better a prideful dick than a loose whore!” he snarled.

She froze at that and bit her lip, turning away from the cave and rushing out into the night.

She didn’t need this!

She didn’t need his pride and the blind cruelty it drove him to!

She didn’t… need… him!

Again and again she told herself this; cycling it through her head like a heart-shattering mantra until everything else she’d told herself for the past twenty-four hours turned brittle and broken. Blinded by tears and rage, she ran through the void; streaks of silvery moonlight cutting through the spectral knifepoints her vision had become. Tripping over every dip in her path—crashing into every obstacle in her way—she pushed forward, eager to put every possible inch she could between her and…

“L-Lachlan?” she whimpered, trembling as the realization that she wasn’t alone dawned upon her.

Hopeful as she was that he’d pursued her, however, she didn’t need her eyesight to know that it wasn’t him.