She had never tried to force it before.
It was like wandering around, looking for a door on a long stone wall. She couldn’t find the entrance anywhere but she knew it was there. She felt as if she’d once known the way but had become lost.
C’mon, Eric. Let me find you…
If she couldn’t find Eric Strauss when she was lost, she had to think she would never be found by anyone again.
Lydia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She would reach Eric’s mind simply because she had to. Not just for her own sake, but for his. For them...
But when she shut her eyes, she saw herself in a blue dress. It was an old memory. She was fifteen and as much in love with Eric Strauss as a fifteen-year-old could be, which meant endlessly and madly. Eric had promised they would go to the movies together. It was just another day to hang out as buddies. That’s all it would ever be, she’d told herself. Because Eric had a different life and she didn’t belong in it. It would only make Eric’s life harder and even at fifteen, she felt she was a little wiser about the world than he was. She had to be.
Eric had built up their night out. He wanted to take her to dinner at a fancy seafood restaurant because she’d told him she’d never eaten lobster. It had sounded suspiciously like a date and even though Lydia had promised herself she would not pursue Eric like that, she allowed herself to build it up in her mind. A date with Eric Strauss. She could pretend. She found a pretty blue dress at a thrift store. Even if it wasn’t new, it was new to her. She’d played with her hair for two hours, deciding how to wear it. She’d bought herself a new $0.99 eyeshadow at the drugstore on a rainy day. That was a special treat.
Then the night before, Eric had called her, sheepish and apologetic. His parents had sprung an important social engagement on him and his brothers. He had to go to a cotillion the next day. No movie, no lobster dinner.
“It’s fine!” Even now Lydia could viscerally remember hearing her own voice go up high on the phone. “It was just hanging out. We hang out all the time. No problem. It wasn’t like...important.”
Eric had sounded a little hurt at how she’d dismissed it. At the time, she had not understood why.
It was nine o’clock the next night when Eric had come to find her, tapping on her bedroom window. She lived deep in the woods among the rest of the bear sleuth that Eric’s parents found so troublesome. She’d been in her sweats, reading a horror novel she’d read twice before and trying not to think about Eric Strauss.
“Hey.” She could remember his face so clearly when she opened the window; his shit-eating grin and his hair messed up from running through the windy woods. He was still wearing his tuxedo. “I ditched as soon as I could. We missed the movie, but we can hang out. If you want?”
That was the moment when Lydia had felt like Eric Strauss had her heart forever.
She’d put on her blue dress and fluffed up her hair, and he’d taken her into town. They ate ice cream and Eric told her about the cotillion and how much he’d hated it. He gave her an orchid he’d swiped from the cotillion. No lobster dinner, no movie. Just the two of them and a couple of ice cream cones.
It had been a perfect night.
Eric, Lydia thought, her fingers strained against her binds. Hear me, my love…
She could almost feel herself walking into his mind. But it was a lot harder to do without him right next to her and while being in distress. It was like trudging through mud or walking in water. She could feel him so close and yet so far away.
She heard a thump from outside the closet and it completely broke her concentration. It sounded like someone had thrown a table across the room. She was jerked away from Eric, or at least that’s what it felt like.
“Shit,” Lydia muttered around her gag.
They’re going to kill him.
Tears filled her eyes and frustration overwhelmed her as the ruckus continued outside her dark little prison. Something was going on. It could be Eric, she thought. Her hands shook even tied up. Her heart was beating so fast, she feared she was about to have an attack. What if they were killing him right now and she was stuck here, just feet away? Unable to help him?
Eric…
It was hard not to hope that if they killed him, they would kill her too. At least she could be with him then on the other side. Whatever that was.
Lydia held back her tears, clenched her jaw, and focused every ounce of strength on finding Eric. It was like trying to use a muscle she was barely aware of, or trying to see the true image behind an optical illusion.
Eric, my love…
Lydia?
Lydia’s eyes popped open and she gasped, nearly choking on her gag. She had heard him, faintly, like an echo in the distance.
He was trying to reach her. She felt as if their hands were nearly touching, their souls straining to touch somewhere out there in the ether.
Lydia…
That was all she heard.
Then the voice was gone.
31
Eric
Eric woke up confused.
“Eric?” Cody was sitting in a chair across from him, frowning. He was staring hard at Eric as if waiting for him to do something.
What was he supposed to do?
In fact, where had he been?
“What…?” Eric muttered, blinking as he got his bearings.
He was sitting on a couch by a window in one of the lounging areas around the residential suites. The trouble was, he could not distinctly recall how he had come to be there.
Everything felt fuzzy and confused. His head was throbbing and his entire body felt just a little achy as if he’d run a long way or had just been in a fight. Eric sat up, heaving a breath and clearing his throat. As the youngest, he was always a little touchy about his brothers being overprotective. He didn’t much like the way Cody was looking at him.
“I found you here,” Cody said. “You looked knocked out and it took a while to wake you up. Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Eric muttered, though he was not sure that was true. “I just uh…”
“What?”
“I don’t remember how I got here,” Eric said, scratching his head.
“Well, that doesn’t sound good,” Cody said. “Maybe I should take you to a doctor, dude.”
“No! Jesus…” Eric sniffed, collected himself, and got to his feet.
Everything seemed just fine after all. He was not injured. His head felt funny, as if there was a buzzing noise like a powerline underneath the vague sensation of fuzziness.
He had clearly sat down and fallen into an impromptu nap and afternoon naps could always make a person feel a little disoriented.
“I’m totally fine, Cody,” Eric insisted. “Seriously. I was just going to go get some lunch. I think I was just about to have lunch.”
“Okay,” Cody said, squinting as if still searching for some lost clue. “C’mon. I’ll make you something.”
“Sure.”
Eric dutifully followed Cody all the way back downstairs to the kitchen behind the dining hall.
There was something bothering him and he couldn’t think of what it could be. It was as if a little bug was scratching at the inside of his mind, making a welt that made him want to scratch more. He’d forgotten something, but what was it? Was it important?
He had been looking for someone?
He was starting to feel a little panicked as he smiled tightly and sat down at the kitchen island, watching Cody bustle around to make him a sandwich. He was talking about the good beef they’d just gotten in, how it was the best he’d tasted in months and made for an amazing sandwich with the right aioli…
Eric sat, trying to mentally retrace his steps. What had he been doing? Everything was vague. Even now, he had the feeling of walking in a dream as if everything wasn’t quite real. He stared down at his hands. The last few days in general were fuzzy. He remembered working and…
“Mich...elle…” He just about choked around the word, it almost
seemed to be coming from outside of himself. Something was telling him that was very important. Michelle, who he had dumped… He couldn’t remember why exactly?
You idiot, he thought. Why would you dump her?
He couldn’t remember now.
“What was that?” Cody was frowning at him again. “Michelle? Isn’t that the girl you just broke up with? What about her?”
“I...I have to find her,” Eric said, getting up from his seat. “I fucked up. Why did I dump her? That was an awful mistake.”
“Whoa, whoa!” Cody dashed over and stood between him and the door. “I’m not sure about the details here, but I thought you were with Lydia now? Lydia?” He shook his head, narrowing his eyes at Eric.
Lydia…The word didn’t make sense to him. It was like Cody’s voice turned to nonsense when he said it. Eric couldn’t remember what it was supposed to mean. The only thought that didn’t seem confusing just now was Michelle.
He needed to find her and fix this whole thing.
Because…
Because you’re mates, an insistent voice said in his mind. The voice was screaming to be heard over everything else. He had no choice but to listen to it.
“Who? No, I have to go…” He started to shove Cody aside. His own voice sounded strange to his ears, too low and flat. Why was that? Everything was a little baffling just now. He wondered if he was still asleep. “I have to go find Michelle.”
“Wait, wait!” Cody was grabbing him by the arm, holding him back. He was holding him back from seeing Michelle and that screaming, demanding voice insisted that it was bad. He couldn’t let anyone hold him back from finding her. “Eric, you’re acting weird right now-”
“Not acting weird,” Eric said, in that odd flat tone again. “I just have to find Michelle. Get out of my way.”
There was a threat in his voice that he hadn’t even intended. It felt strange coming out of his mouth.
This must be a dream, he thought. Nothing makes sense. I’ll wake up soon.
“Eric, what’s wrong with you?” Cody wouldn’t let go, the grip on Eric’s arm was a vise.
His head throbbed.
FIND MICHELLE NOW.
“Nothing’s wrong with me!” Eric snapped. He shoved Cody hard, so hard that he stumbled back against the stove and knocked over a pot of simmering soup that mercifully tumbled to the floor away from him with a terrible clatter, but, by sheer luck, it didn’t burn anyone. “Let me go!”
Cody stared at him. “Eric! What the hell? You could have-”
“I have to go find her,” Eric said, shaking his head and stomping out of the room.
“Eric!” Cody was calling after him, but Eric ignored all that.
He had to find Michelle and make things right, and no one could be allowed to get in the way.
He was halfway up the stairs when he heard Lydia’s voice in his head.
Eric…
Eric, my love…
He couldn’t breathe. Nothing made sense at all. Memories he’d somehow forgotten in the space of a few hours, broke through the haze in his mind.
Lydia…
His mind warred with itself. Eric stood on the stairs, clutching the banister as sweat beaded on his forehead. This couldn’t be right. A person wasn’t supposed to exert this much effort to think clearly, but the very notion of reality was swimming around him. Guests passed him on the stairway and looked at him funny, probably because he was paused, frozen as if he had perhaps forgotten how to climb stairs.
Eric forced himself to climb the rest of the stairs to the landing. He had just come from this wing. He had woken up from his nap close to Michelle’s suite. But why had he left?
FIND MICHELLE, that aggressive voice demanded once again.
It drowned every other thought. Memories attempted to surface. He had been walking with Lydia in the woods. It didn’t seem to make sense. Where had she come from? He had not so much as seen her in years, had he? Everything was turned around, distorted, and surreal.
Halfway down the corridor, he let his eyes slip shut. But instead of remembering Lydia holding his hand as they walked, it was Michelle walking next to him in the woods. That made much more sense. He must have been confused before. The voice agreed and his head stopped throbbing.
It was Michelle. It had always been Michelle. Something was direly wrong with him to have pushed her away. He took a deep breath, feeling calmer, and walked with purpose in the direction of her suite, all doubts melting with the calm - if surreal sense - of knowing this was what the voice wanted.
I can smell her…
Lydia’s scent wafted in the air. But that didn’t make sense. She was gone...or was she…?
Ignore that, the demanding voice said. Go to Michelle and this will all make sense.
Eric knocked on the door and it was like watching someone else knock. It felt as if his hand was disconnected from his body.
“Eric,” Michelle answered, looking as beautiful as ever, if a bit harried. Her normally perfect glossy, blonde hair was all askew and her eyes seemed darker than usual. Her mouth was tight and she stepped back, opening the door wider. “Come in, darling. Are you alright?”
“Yeah…” He scratched his head. His chest felt tight. “Yeah…”
“Shit, it worked?” A lanky man with long, dark hair stood in the kitchenette, a highball glass in his hand. He looked familiar to Eric. He must have seen him around the lodge. He was Michelle’s business partner. That was it. That made sense…
“Michelle…” Eric squinted at her, trying to focus.
“You’re fine, Eric,” Michelle said calmly. “Just do what the voice says. Okay?”
“Yeah, I um…” He rubbed his eyes. “I’m not feeling very well. We had a fight. Didn’t we? I apologize, I don’t know why… Why would I leave you ever? I love you…”
His voice, like his hand, seemed disconnected somehow. The inside of his mind screamed, some small part of him watching his actions from a dark little hole where he was trapped, unable to break free.
“Why does he look like that?” the dark-haired man asked. “He looks freaked out.”
“I told you,” Michelle said slowly. “Mind control spells are delicate. He’s at war with himself. But I have a hold on him. I can feel it.”
“What...what are you talking about?” Eric said. Nothing she said made sense.
“Nothing, darling,” Michelle said quickly. She swept up to him and took his hand. Her skin felt icy cold and wrong somehow. It was like touching a snake when you were expecting human skin. But he watched himself lean into her, letting her lead him into the room.
He shouldn’t resist, he thought. If he resisted, he’d feel sick.
“Come here,” Michelle was saying. “Sit down and have a drink. Just stay here with me, my love. We’ll sort it all out.”
“Um, what’s the plan?” The dark-haired man looked worried as Eric dutifully took his seat. “You can’t just keep him here. What about-”
“That will be his final test,” Michelle said, looking at the man sharply. Eric was trying to follow what they were saying, but it was difficult. “I have to make absolutely sure I’ve won him over. He still looks uncertain. When I’ve got him, then I’ll, you know.”
The man drew a line across his throat and nodded in the direction of the coat closet.
What did that mean?
I can smell her…
But who?
“I’m confused,” Eric said. His words sounded slow, even to him.
“You’re losing your grip on him,” the man said. “Um, no offense.”
The man sounded frightened of Michelle.
“Shut up,” Michelle snapped. Eric blinked and in a second Michelle was in his lap, cooing in his ear. She felt good in his arms and it calmed him. “Everything’s fine,” she whispered. “Just do as I say.”
“Yeah,” he said, sighing. “I’m sorry, Lydia.”
Michelle reared back and stared at him. “Don’t ever say that name to me.”
“Lydia,” Eric murmured. It felt right when he said it. It felt like something important falling into place.
“Maybe you were right,” the dark-haired man said. “Mind control is just too hard.”
“I can do it!” Michelle screamed, leaping to her feet. Her eyes turned black and she stretched out a hand toward her partner, a red light springing from her fingers that blasted him back and made the veins of his neck bulge under the skin. He threw his head back and screamed, convulsing as he slumped to the floor. “Don’t you ever doubt me again, James. And you…” She glared down at Eric with wild eyes. “I’ll have to condition you to obey. This is what happens when you so much as utter that name in front of me.”
Eric didn’t know exactly what she did next. Because from that moment on, all he knew was pain. It overtook him from head to toe and it felt like being on fire. He lay back on the couch, his mouth wide open in a silent scream as he shook, white hot agony pulsing through his body.
Michelle and James were talking. He could hear them distantly, beyond the torment. She was telling James to go keep an eye on the other Strauss brothers and make sure they weren’t looking for their brother and to throw them off the scent if they were. James left and Eric was alone with Michelle.
Then she was cuddling up to him again, her icy cold hands cradling his cheeks as her rage-filled eyes stared into his soul. “You’ll learn,” she said calmly. “I can tell. You’ll be so good for me, won’t you?”
Eric nodded dumbly just as the pain began to subside. But he felt like a bared nerve-ending, as if any move in any direction might bring that horror back. “Yes,” he whispered.
Eric!
Lydia’s voice screamed in his head so distinctly he gasped.
“What?” Michelle demanded. “What is it?”
She doesn’t know about this. We can use this. You can use this to break through.
“Uh...I…” Eric shook his head. “I can’t, I…”
“You’re going to marry me,” Michelle hissed. “Say it. Say it now.”
“I’ll...I’ll marry you,” Eric said dully. It was so much easier to just go along with what she said. It made him feel better.
Billionaire Bear Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset Page 22