Black Heart (Cursed Hearts #1)(72)

“Was that really necessary?” the familiar voice demanded with a put out sigh as he moved to Tristan’s side.

“Aye,” the large man, who’d wrapped her up in a sheet and carried her into the bathroom only moments earlier, replied flatly.

When Marty tried to walk past the man to go to Tristan, she was surprised that he didn’t try to stop her. She learned the reason for that barely a split second later when four of the large men who’d been leaning against the wall suddenly vanished only to reappear by Tristan’s side before she could blink.

“Oh, come on now, lads!” the man who’d been looking Tristan over snapped as two of the men grabbed him by his arms and yanked him to his feet and away from Tristan.

“Bring them downstairs.”

“Wait!” Marty said as she rushed to go to Tristan, desperate to make sure that he was okay. Before she could reach him, two of the men reached down, grabbed him by the arms and disappeared, leaving her stumbling forward as her heart skipped a beat and she forgot how to breathe. The rest of the men quickly followed until she found herself alone.

“When you’re ready, we’ll be downstairs waiting for you, Macha,” the large man who’d helped her to bathroom said softly from behind her, making her realize that she wasn’t as alone as she’d thought.

“That’s not my name,” she found herself saying as her mind struggled to grasp what just happened.

“Everything will be okay, Macha,” he promised softly with a sympathetic smile that struck her as vaguely familiar.

She wanted to point out that everything had been fine before he’d showed up, but at that moment her stomach decided that everything definitely was not okay.

*-*-*-*

“What’s she doing?” Liam asked as Quinn materialized in the kitchen, his glare never leaving Tristan who sat slumped forward in the kitchen chair with his hands cuffed behind his back.

“Still getting sick,” Quinn said with a sneer of disgust. Shayne knew that if they’d still been human that Quinn would have been joining Marty. He’d always had a weak stomach, something they used to taunt and tease him about constantly. It was a pity that he couldn’t use that against Quinn right now, Shayne thought with a sigh.

“Find something to settle her stomach,” Liam ordered as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the counter.

“What were those things that she liked the last time she was pregnant?” Declean asked as he moved into the kitchen.

“Apples?” Finn suggested with a frown as he moved to join his brother in the search for something that would settle Marty’s stomach.

Aidan nodded as he joined them. “Aye, the lass has always been partial to apples.”

Fergus shook his head as he left Shayne’s side to help with the search. “She doesn’t like the green ones, lads, unless they’re the sweet ones.”

Shayne rolled his eyes as he pulled up a chair next to Tristan, who was still unconscious, and said, “She can’t stomach raw apples when she’s pregnant. They have to be cooked.”

The brothers stopped mid-search to look his way.

“Are ye sure?” Fergus asked, frowning.

“Aye. Don’t ye remember the last time that she was pregnant? We had to take turns stealing pastries from the baker after Tadgh was killed,” he reminded them. In retrospect, that was probably a bad idea considering the fact that he’d broken their agreement after that incident and helped Tadgh, again….and again…..and this last time would make three times he’d helped Tadgh since he’d promised not to.

“You mean when we were all forced to watch Macha die from a broken heart……..again?” Liam asked, his glare moving from Tristan to him.

“He tricked me this last time,” Shayne bit out, which was true.

Tadgh had tricked them all into believing that he’d finally had enough and was going to leave Macha alone and give her the peace that she rightly deserved, but he’d lied. He’d led them all to believe that he needed time and space to get through finally letting her go and they’d all foolishly given it to him. Not that they’d quite believed him.

They’d kept a guard on Macha’s soul as best as they could and when they’d felt that she was ready to be born again they’d followed her soul. Once she’d successfully made it into the unborn fetus, they’d searched for Tadgh. They expected him to try and follow after her, but they never found him. For a couple of years they’d watched over Macha until they felt that the likelihood of Tadgh trying anything was slim.

The last time they’d checked on her, she’d been three years old. They all loved her and agreed that the temptation to interfere in her life and protect her was too much. To be honest, none of them had been able to stomach the idea of seeing her with someone else. She belonged with Tadgh. The problem was this goddamn curse that kept them all trapped in this never-ending cycle of bullshit.

Somehow they managed to walk away from Macha, wishing her the best and praying that Tadgh wouldn’t do something stupid like torturing himself by watching over her. Shayne couldn’t imagine being forced to watch over his soul mate and not being able to touch her, take care of her, and having to be forced to watch as another man took his place. Then again, he avoided his soul mate like the plague, so he really didn’t have to worry about torturing himself. Tadgh on the other hand….