by Jane Godman
Lidi frowned. “Will they give us any information about one of their clients?”
He shook his head. “Probably not, but at least we’ll have a starting point.”
They walked around the town square and made the discovery that there wasn’t a bank. The closest thing was a post office counter inside the general store. There was a handful of businesses dotted around the square, including a bar. Ged gestured in that direction.
“Time to find out if I can make myself understood in German.”
The interior of the bar was deliciously warm in contrast to the icy temperature outside. A roaring log fire and the scent of hot chocolate contributed to the comforting atmosphere, and Lidi experienced an overwhelming desire to sink into one of the cozy-looking chairs and stay there for the rest of the day. The place was quiet, and the bartender nodded in response to Ged’s inquiry about whether Bruno was welcome.
Having ordered two mugs of hot chocolate, Ged did his best to strike up a conversation. Since his German was limited and Lidi’s was nonexistent, it was a relief to find that the bartender spoke English.
“We are close to the French border here. Most people speak French and English as well as German.”
Ged got straight to the point. “We’re looking for the person who painted this.” He held out Andrei’s painting. “We were told he lives in Branheim.”
They had already discussed the possibility that Andrei might not actually reside in Branheim. He had his money sent there, but that wasn’t conclusive. They had no idea what his life had been like since he had come to the mortal realm. All they knew for sure was that he was a werebear trying to make his way in Germany. Like all shifters, he would be attempting to fit in and protect his anonymity.
The guy behind the bar studied the painting. “Good picture. Like a setting for a film.” He looked closely at the signature. “But I don’t recognize the name. Sorry.”
He moved away from them along the bar, and Ged carried their drinks to a nearby table.
“This is a very small town,” Lidi said. “If Andrei was a regular here, I’d expect the bartender to know his name.”
Ged nodded in agreement. “Perhaps he goes into the general store to collect the payments for his artwork. We’ll try there next.”
When they’d finished their drinks, they retraced their footsteps across the square. Tying Bruno’s leash to the dog hooks provided outside the store, they stepped inside. Typical of a small-town convenience store, every inch of space had been used to display goods. Ged, always at a disadvantage in a cramped space because of his size, was forced to turn sideways and squeeze between shelves to reach the counter at the rear of the shop.
He went through the same routine, holding the painting up to the glass security screen of the counter. “We are looking for the man who painted this. His name is Andrei Tavisha.”
The clerk looked over the top of her glasses. “Nein.” Although her understanding was good, her spoken English wasn’t as good as the bartender’s. “I do not know this person.”
“What now?” Lidi asked as they headed toward the exit.
“I guess we keep asking around—” Ged broke off as they stepped outside, his gaze fixed on the point where they had left Bruno.
Although the collar and leash were still attached to the metal hook, the dog was gone.
* * *
“The little...” Ged choked back an expletive as he registered the look of concern on Lidi’s face.
She bit her lip as she unfastened the dog’s collar from the post. “It’s so cold and he doesn’t know this place.”
He placed an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close as he resigned himself to the inevitable. “We were only inside the store for a few minutes. He can’t have gone far.”
Even so, he was unsure where they should start looking. Fortunately, the matter was taken out of his hands. As he looked across the square toward the church, he glimpsed Bruno heading in the direction of the forest.
“There!”
Ged grabbed Lidi’s hand and broke into a run. Seeing them approaching, Bruno stopped. He waited until they got almost near enough to grab him and then dashed into the trees.
Although Lidi called out his name, the little dog pranced in and out of the tall trunks. Now and then he stopped, as though he was prepared to let them catch him, but every time they got close, he darted away again.
“We don’t have time for these games,” Ged growled, his breath pluming in the icy air.
“I don’t think he’s playing,” Lidi said.
“You don’t?” He spared a glance in her direction as they ran deeper into the forest.
“No.” She was breathing hard, a combination of exertion and cold turning her cheeks an alluring rose pink color. “I think he’s leading us.”
And—damn it—once she’d said it, it was obvious. Bruno was waiting for them to catch up with him so they didn’t lose sight of him, then he was moving on again. He was taking them somewhere. But where? And how the hell did a stray dog they had found in Genoa know his way around a German forest? The answer was obvious, and Ged didn’t bother to fight it this time.
Magic.
Bruno really was their supernatural guide. The thought almost rocked him off balance. As the realization of what was happening hit him, the dog led them to an area where the trees thinned.
After a minute or two, they reached a clearing and a small cottage came into view. It looked like the sort of place where a witch might be holding small children captive. Or Ged could be letting the fact that he was following an enchanted dog affect his imagination. With a glance to check they were still behind him, Bruno ran right up and sat on the doorstep.
“What do you think?” Ged asked Lidi.
“I think Bruno brought us here for a reason.”
“That’s what I thought.” His instinct was to shield Lidi with his body, but he had already learned that she didn’t appreciate being kept in the background. Taking her hand, he approached the cottage.
Before he could raise his fist to knock on the scarred wooden panels, the door opened. A young woman faced them with her arms folded across her chest and a frown on her face. His shifter senses told him everything he needed to know about her. She was nervous, uncomfortable...and she too was a bear shifter.
“Das ist Privateigentum.”
Glad of something to focus on other than his feelings of unease, Ged concentrated on what she was saying. During his years of traveling with Beast, he had picked up a smattering of a few languages, including German.
Privateigentum. “Private property.”
He dredged through his limited vocabulary, trying to come up with a reply. “Es tut mir Leid.” He knew that was an apology. “Mein Hund—” What was the word for run? He pointed to Bruno before miming a fast walking motion with his fingers. Helplessly, he lapsed in and out of English. “He escaped through the trees. Die Bäume. We got lost...verloren.”
Her expression remained blank, and he couldn’t tell if she had understood him. Hugging her arms tighter around herself, she glanced down at Bruno. Her expression changed, becoming one of distaste.
To his relief, she replied in English. “You should go.”
Before she could close the door, Lidi darted forward. “Please wait.” The woman paused. “We are looking for someone. A local artist. His name is Andrei Tavisha.”
There was a flicker on the other woman’s face. It was so slight it was almost imperceptible. If Ged’s senses hadn’t been on high alert, he would have missed it. But it was enough.
She knows something about my brother!
Before he could react, a man’s voice called out from behind the woman. “Sasha, wer ist da?”
At the same time, Bruno gave an excited bark before dashing across the doorstep and into the house.
Chapter 12
&nbs
p; Lidi made a wild grab for Bruno as he darted past her, but it was too late. He had already entered the cottage.
“I’m so sorry.” She hesitated, trying to decide what to do next. This was someone’s home, but she was sure Bruno was trying to get her to follow him inside. Before she was forced into a choice between trespass and canine abandonment, a noise drew her attention toward the shadowy depths behind the woman. It sounded like wheels scratching over floorboards.
The man who came into view was large. That much was obvious, even though Lidi could only see his upper body. From the waist down, he was obscured from view because he was seated in a wheelchair with a blanket covering his legs.
Lidi had time to take in that information before her gaze fixed on his face. Then everything else faded away. Because she knew she was looking at Andrei Tavisha. There could be no mistake. Not only was he a bear shifter, the likeness between him and Ged was remarkable.
“Wer sind diese Leute?” He looked at Ged and Lidi before turning to the woman, who he had called Sasha.
Although Lidi didn’t understand German, she could tell what he was asking. Who are these people? Bear shifters were a rarity in the human world. Luckily, they had a unique ability to recognize each other. Yet Andrei and Sasha were regarding her and Ged with suspicion. It made her wonder if they’d had a bad experience with other werebears.
She cast a sidelong glance in Ged’s direction, attempting to gauge his reaction. He appeared frozen to the spot, staring at Andrei as though he was too emotionally overwhelmed to deal with what was happening.
Andrei, on the other hand, did not appear to have noticed anything about Ged that struck him as unusual. Was it possible Andrei could look at his brother and not recognize him? She didn’t see how. It must be like looking in a mirror.
“We wanted to find you.” She spoke directly to Andrei, using their home language of Callistoyan.
He looked up at Sasha with a bemused expression. She shrugged, before responding to Lidi in English. “We don’t understand what you are saying.”
Confusion had a devastating effect on Lidi’s brain cells, frying the connection between them and leaving her feeling disconnected from reality. Could she be totally wrong about who this man was? Could everything that had happened be a coincidence? The painting, his name, his likeness to Ged...she shook the thoughts aside. Even if she could dismiss the startling similarities between the two men, she couldn’t ignore the fact that he was a bear shifter who painted pictures of her homeland, or that Bruno had led them to his doorstep.
She switched to English. “We wanted to ask about one of your paintings.”
Ged roused himself with difficulty from his trance. Withdrawing the picture from inside his jacket, he held it out to Andrei. The other man looked at it without touching it. “Ja, this is one of mine.” He spoke English with a heavy German accent.
“So you are Andrei Tavisha?” Ged scanned his brother’s face as though he was still struggling to believe the evidence of his own eyes.
“Why should I answer your questions when I don’t know why you are here?” Andrei looked over his shoulder. “And please get that animal out of my house. I have no idea where the superstition comes from, but I have always believed dogs bring bad luck.”
Ged stared down at him for a moment or two. Then, uttering a harsh laugh, he scrubbed a hand over his face. “I can’t do this.” Lidi caught a glimpse of the despair in his eyes as he turned away.
“Give me a moment,” she said to Andrei. “Believe me, it will be worth it.” Catching up to Ged, she grabbed hold of his arm. For an instant, she thought he was going to pull away from her, but he stopped and swung around to face her.
“That’s it?” His head was bent and she had to duck low to look at his face. “Thirteen years of searching and this is how you’re going to leave it?” She saw the anguish in his face and stepped in close, sliding her arms around his waist. “You’ve finally found your brother.”
He held on to her, as if he was drawing strength from her nearness. “He doesn’t know me.”
“But it is him?”
“There’s no question about that. He was in his midteens last time I saw him, but I’d recognize him anywhere.” Even though his voice was shaky, there was no mistaking the conviction in his words.
“Then we have to find out what happened to him,” Lidi said. “And why he doesn’t remember you.”
He sucked in an endless breath. “Okay.” His grin was slightly lopsided. “Although I’m not sure how we’ll even begin to explain.”
“We have the picture. That will be our starting point.”
She could see a mix of confusion, impatience and annoyance on Andrei’s and Sasha’s faces. All the things she would expect if a couple of oddly behaved strangers turned up and launched an annoying dog into their house without warning. Was she imagining something more? Could she also see a hint of nervousness?
“This would be easier if we could come inside.” She did her best to sound reassuring.
Sasha was immediately defensive. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Lidi looked directly at Andrei. “Let us have ten minutes of your time. Please?”
His gaze shifted from her face to Ged’s. She saw his eyes widen slightly, possibly in acknowledgment of the resemblance between them, then he nodded. As Sasha started to protest, he held up a hand. “Kein Problem. Let us hear what they have to say.” He smiled, the sudden lightening of his expression making him look even more like Ged. “Who knows? Maybe they are here to make my fortune as a famous painter?”
* * *
The interior of the cottage was open plan and wheelchair friendly. Bruno gave a delighted bark, as though welcoming them into his own home. Ged shook his head. Although he was no longer questioning the dog’s psychic abilities, Bruno’s exuberance wasn’t helping to relieve the tension.
Ged and Lidi took a seat on the sofa Andrei indicated. Andrei nodded at the picture that was still in Ged’s hand. “Why is it so important?”
Lidi didn’t say anything, and Ged could sense her holding back, allowing him to take the lead. He should probably do just that, but his mind was a jumble and his nerves were shattered. Determined to make a start, he held the painting up. “Where is this?”
Andrei hunched a shoulder. “It’s not real. Just a place I see in my imagination.”
Ged exchanged a fleeting look with Lidi. “It looks a lot like a region we know.”
Sasha moved forward to crouch beside the wheelchair and take Andrei’s hand. “My brother already told you—”
“Brother?” The word burst from Ged before he could stop it.
“Of course,” Sasha said. “Oh. You thought?” She pointed to Andrei and then back to herself. “They thought...mein Freund. Boyfriend.”
“An easy mistake,” Andrei laughed. “Tell me about the mountain range that looks like the one in my paintings.” His face became serious again. “Then tell me why I should care.”
How was Ged going to do that? No matter what he did—whether he blurted out the truth or tried to find a way of easing into the subject gradually—it was going to sound like a fairy story. Luckily, because Andrei and Sasha were bear shifters, they would already understand about magic, so that part of his explanation would be easy. As he searched for the words, Lidi leaned toward him. “Just say it.”
It was what he needed to hear. Straightening his shoulders, he looked directly at Andrei. “We come from a mystical land called Callistoya. Those mountains you have painted surround the royal Callistoyan palace.”
The silence that followed could not have been matched if Ged had thrown a grenade and run out of the room. After a few moments, Andrei cleared his throat. “Um, I really do think you should go.”
“No.” Lidi leaned forward. “Please listen. We are bear shifters, just like you.”
Sasha gave
a little cry and covered her mouth with her hand. Placing a hand on her shoulder, Andrei glared at Lidi. “If this is some kind of joke...”
Lidi’s brow furrowed. “I don’t understand. You are bear shifters. What’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong with that?” The words burst from Andrei in frustration. “Mein Gott. Where do you want me to start? You talk as though it’s easy, but our whole lives are about hiding who we are, living a lie, watching everything we say and do in case someone catches a glimpse of our real selves.”
“And it is worse for you.” Sasha gripped his hand tighter as she spoke. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at Ged and Lidi. “Although he can still shift, my brother cannot join me when I run in the forest.”
Ged bent his head, taking a moment to appreciate the pain of being a bear but not being able to run free. What had happened to his brother? Sasha called herself his sister; that meant a family in the mortal realm must have taken him in and cared for him. It was one of the many things he was determined to find out about.
The atmosphere had changed slightly, some of the barriers breaking down since Lidi had shared the information that they were shifters. He didn’t know why Andrei and Sasha hadn’t instinctively recognized that. So many things about this situation were off-key, he hardly knew where to start.
“Will you let us tell you our story?” Ged asked. “No matter how strange it seems, just listen to what we have to say. If at the end you still think we’re crazy, we’ll leave and not bother you again.”
He could feel Lidi’s gaze scanning his face. Not bother you again? He knew what she was thinking. This was his brother. He had spent thirteen years searching for Andrei. Could he walk away and not look back? If he made that promise, he would keep it. But he was going to rely on the powers of persuasion that had made Beast the greatest rock band in the world to make sure he didn’t have to.
And he was also going to count on something else. Something he’d lost sight of along the way and only regained since he’d met Lidi. It was a little thing called hope. Ged was going to have faith that deep down inside Andrei retained a memory of their shared past.