Page 123 of Highland Ruse

As soon as the sword was in him, it pulled free. Kaid stared down at the gash, disbelief churning in his head before his legs failed to support him. He staggered to the floor, and the wash of his own blood spread hot and wet beneath his body.

A scream filled Kaid’s ears and raked over his brain until his nerves were raw from it.

MacKenzie stepped over him, and the screaming pitched to a wild frenzy, something no longer human, but an animalistic, primal fear.

He grabbed Elizabeth by the throat.

Kaid pushed with all his might and lifted himself onto one arm. Despite his efforts, his hand slipped in the blood, and he crashed to the floor in another spray of agony so powerful it left spots of white pulsing in his vision.

Claire grasped MacKenzie’s arm, but he knocked her out of his way. She flew across the room and landed with a hard smack of her head against the edge of a table.

She fell still.

Kaid gave a wounded groan and tried to rise once more. Daggers of pain shot through him, and his chest felt as though a boulder sat atop it.

The scream cut short.

Kaid jerked his attention to where MacKenzie had held Elizabeth, where she now lay crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood large enough to rival Kaid’s.

MacKenzie turned from Elizabeth and strode to the other side of the room.

Toward Claire.

Kaid’s heart pumped harder. He gritted his teeth against the ache and rose a foot, two feet. The pressure on the wound eased. “No,” he ground out.

MacKenzie stopped midstride and turned to Kaid. “Still alive?” Two short steps brought him in front of Kaid. “Then I’ll let ye watch, and kill ye later after I’ve caught yer woman.”

He pulled his leg back and slammed it into Kaid’s back.

The impact was indescribably excruciating, a ball of white-hot blistering pain curling in on itself until it robbed him of breath and thought. Kaid collapsed onto the floor, helpless as a babe.

MacKenzie turned back to where Claire lay still on the ground.

“You will die a thousand deaths before you touch that girl.” The threat was spoken with the vehemence of a mother protecting her child.

Kaid’s heart rose in his throat in a mix of relief and indescribable fear.

Delilah had arrived.

And he could not help.

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.