by Elle Thorne
Chapter Twelve
Sean had given the keys to Griz. He was the one who knew what was going on, after all. Sean’s questions had remained unanswered and he hadn’t pushed for responses. He was sure in a short time, he’d have the answers he needed anyway.
Ten minutes down the road, Griz pulled over and nosed the SUV into a gravel clearing. A black Escalade with equally dark windows idled. Even with his superb shifter vision, Sean couldn’t tell who was in the car.
The driver’s door opened, Mae climbed out. He’d thought he recognized her vehicle. The passenger door swung open, and from the vehicle emerged a tall, lithe, white-haired woman—wait, no, not white hair, it was blond, but so blond that it was almost white. Her skin was a dusky shade, and her eyes were so light blue they blended with the whites of her eyes.
She was in a long dress. He could see it under the car door. She had an aura about her. He couldn’t peg what she was, but this woman was no ordinary human, she was supernatural, but he had no idea what type.
He’d no sooner processed her appearance and that thought, when each of the back doors opened, and two men exited. A stark opposite to the woman, they had dark skin the color of dark chestnut, and light-colored eyes with golden amber flecks.
Sean was no expert, but he recognized the men were also supernatural. The power that emanated from them was tangible. Tall, with wide chests, muscular arms, strong jawlines.
Striking, with skin dark and gleaming. Eyes that glowed. High cheekbones, regal bearing. Closely cropped ebony hair crowned heads.
And identical.
Sean glanced at Griz, then indicated the unfamiliar trio. “You know them?”
“The woman is my cousin. Ciara.”
“She’s—” Sean scratched the stubble on his jawline. There was nothing emanating from her to indicate that she was one of his kind. “She’s not a shifter.”
Griz nodded. “She doesn’t have a shifter animal within her, that’s true. She’s descended from a shifter, but she identifies with Intuitives.”
Sean’s jaw dropped. “No shit.” He’d heard of Intuitives. Who hadn’t? But he’d never met one. The Intuitives were a private, closed-off society. “Who are the dudes? They aren’t shifters, either.”
“Wizards.”
“Twin wizards.” Sean stated the obvious, then shook his head at himself.
Griz gave him a half-smile of indulgence, as if he almost knew what he was thinking. “Twin wizards are a rarity. Last time anyone heard of such was during the medieval ages.”
They all closed their doors and started walking toward Sean’s SUV.
Sean indicated the foursome with a nod. “Guess there’s a reason they are all here?”
Griz nodded. “We should talk to them. It’ll be clear shortly.”
Sean, Griz, Cross, Judge exited the vehicle and joined them halfway.
Mae’s face was fraught with worry. “No sign of her?”
Her question made the pit in Sean’s stomach exponentially larger.
“No.” Griz’s tone was matter of fact, but his eyes were equally concerned as Mae’s.
Mae indicated the woman, then nodded to Sean. “This is Ciara. Ciara, Sean.” Then she glanced at the two wizards. “Cedric, Jenner, meet Sean.”
Once the pleasantries were exchanged, they got down to business. At least, Sean did. He jumped right in with, “What’s the deal? It’s clear that this matter is more complicated than I knew.” He paused. “Does Camden know?”
Mae shook her head. “No. We thought it best we try to take care of it before we gave her cause to be even more worried.” She blew out a deep breath, then continued. “It’s a bit of luck that Cedric and Jenner were in the valley, really.”
Sean glanced at the wizards. They nodded solemnly.
One of them said, “We’ll take care of them—once they are located. They’ll have to be brought in. This sort of action on their part is simply not acceptable. The Circle insists they are dealt with.”
The other one added, “Severely.”
Sean was confused. “Because they are attacking elementals?”
“Because the elementals they’re targeting are a powerful group in Europe, and their retaliation could instigate a war of proportions we haven’t seen in ages. The Circle is adamant that this not happen.”
“Understandable. So, what does this have to do with Eden missing?”
“Maybe nothing,” Mae said.
“But we don’t want to take any chances,” Griz finished for her.
“Exactly,” Mae agreed. “I know Camden was going to call Circe about Eden and her issues, but I decided Circe should know about the recent developments. She and Marco are on their way.”
A cold sensation traveled throughout Sean. He knew that feeling. It was dread. The severity of the situation, the direness of it struck home. This was probably more than just a case of Eden spending the night away or getting lost. “So, it sounds like we better find Eden. Now.”
“Agreed.” Griz put a hand on Sean’s shoulder. “And word has it you’re one of the best scent trackers in the area.”
Sean did a double take. “How would you know that?”
Cross’s smile was grim. “Griz has his sources.”
Chapter Thirteen
Sean was in his human form and walking as fast as he could. His senses were completely tuned into one thing, and one thing alone. Eden. And not losing sign of her.
The others—Griz, Cross, Judge, Cedric, and Jenner were far enough behind as to not distract Sean from her scent.
Ciara the Intuitive had gone with Mae to find Camden and… what? Sean wondered what in the world the Intuitive was there for. He’d forgotten to ask when they’d all been together, and now, his focus, and his bear’s focus were channeled to finding Eden.
There came a point in Sean’s tracking of Eden’s scent where the smell of her was overcome by another—smoke. That’s the point he took off at a run. A quick glance behind him verified Griz, Cross, and Judge had picked up the odor of smoke and were following.
Finally, breathless, he reached a cabin in the depths of the woods. He didn’t know the cabin, wasn’t even sure whose property it was on. All that mattered was he was sure Eden was in that building. Or had been.
Griz and the other guys pulled up short next to him. The two wizards were trailing behind on the path but were within sight.
Cross inhaled. “Shit.
“Damn,” Judge echoed the same sentiment.
A scream cut through the forest’s sounds. And it came from inside the cabin.
“I’m going in.” Sean sprinted toward the cabin.
“Right behind you,” one of them said.
Coulda been Cross. Coulda been Judge. Sean didn’t take the time to look back to see.
Sean shouldered the door open and was greeted by smoke and flames. He dropped low and in a split second had surveyed the scene.
A woman was outside the back door, her clothing on fire. It wasn’t Eden. Another woman lay on the ground before him. Also, not Eden.
He pointed to the prone woman, and glanced back. “Cross, one here. Not Eden. I’ll check the rest of the cabin.”
He didn’t have much to check. There, in a cleared-out area, with a horse blanket over it, surrounded by and in the midst of flames, a black panther.
“Jesus,” he hissed under his breath.
The panther’s fur was singed. He leapt over the couch and threw the blanket off the panther’s face and discovered that was the only place that hadn’t been touched by the fire.
He roared, a guttural sound that came from deep within his chest. A sound released by his bear.
Later, if asked, Sean would have been hard-pressed to explain what happened. He’d been unable to keep his bear from shifting. And within seconds, his bear had taken control of his body, sinew stretching, bones realigning, muscles bulking up. He was in his bear, and seen knew exactly why. There was no way his human body could have carried Eden’s panther out of the cab
in without burning.
Swiftly, with more speed than one would imagine a large bear could manage, Sean’s bear hoisted the panther and was carrying her toward the door, heedless of the flames that tasked his fur and seared his paws.
Once outside, he laid her gently in a bed of pine needles and leaves. He watched her body, looking for signs of life and was rewarded when her chest rose then fell. It wasn’t a great reward, nor was it much of a rise, but it was a gift to Sean and his bear, because they’d begun to fall into the depths of despair that she was not alive. His bear nuzzled her face, nudging her carefully to wake her.
Why is she out like this? Smoke inhalation?
Sean wasn’t trained in the medical field. He had no clue. Swiftly, he shifted into his human form, and this time the discomfort of his body’s adjustments to his new size were not hidden by the adrenaline he’d used to run into the building.
His transformation was excruciating, but he sped it up in his haste to tend to Eden’s panther.
In his human form, Sean looked around and spotted Griz. “She’s out. I don’t know. Smoke?”
Griz sprinted toward him and knelt to examine her while Sean ran fingertips over her singed fur, then stripped his shirt off and used it to rub away the soot that had settled against her fur.
“What do you think, Griz?”
“Not sure. I’m calling Mae to get Doc to your place. Let’s get her to your vehicle ASAP.” With that Griz leapt from a kneeling position to a sprint toward a shed nearby.
Within seconds–seconds that lasted forever–Griz was back with a blanket, tarp, and fence posts. “We’ll make a carrier from these.” He tossed the items to Cross and Judge. “Quick, let’s get her to the Sean’s SUV, then to Doc.” He yanked his cell from his pocket and was punching the screen, then raising the phone to his ear.
Chapter Fourteen
Eden woke up with a start. She shivered, and curled up next to the warm fur blanket.
Wait. What?
Her eyes flew open. She was next to a panther. No. Not a panther. Her panther.
How can this be?
She looked around. They were in a cave. A cave? How? What? She felt her panther. Its chest was moving. Its fur smelled burnt.
Things began to come back to her. A horse blanket. Voices. A fire. She was Tranqed. And Piria was angry? Starting a fire?
Eden shook her head, trying to clear it.
Her panther raised her own and looked at Eden with eyes that glittered in the dimness.
“What happened?” she asked her panther.
The panther let out a low snarl that turned into a whimper. Eden rose from leaning against the panther and studied her. Every part of her fur was singed except for her glorious head.
“Piria,” Eden whispered, and wondered where her elemental was.
“Yes.”
Eden snapped her head to the right at the sound of Piria’s voice, not within her head, but out.
In the dimness, seated on a large boulder, a woman watched her. Eden couldn’t see her face, but the voice had already told her was Piria.
Realization came to Eden. She’d heard of this. Of how elementals had their own world, their own space. She’d heard of their hosts and shifter animals being pulled into the elemental’s worlds, too. Yes, that she had. But she’d thought that it took a special hybrid to facilitate this. It took a concerted effort to make it happen.
She’d never heard of an elemental simply pulling its host and shifter animal into their world.
“I’m in your world,” she told the woman sitting in darkness.
“You are.”
Eden shivered again. Outside the wind howled and whistled a menacing harmony.
“You’re cold,” Piria said. “I’m sorry. And you are hardly dressed for the environment here.”
Eden picked up the sound of rustling, of sticks moving. She listened carefully, leaning in to figure out what Piria was doing.
A sudden flare of light, a flame half as tall as she, sprung up suddenly in the middle of a pile of sticks.
Behind the fire, Eden focused her gaze on Piria.
She gasped.
Piria’s face was marred with three parallel jagged scars running down the length of her face on the left side, and where her eye had been, an empty socket stared back at Eden.
Jesus, she kept her comment to herself.
“Not very attractive, is it,” Piria’s tone was self-deprecating.
“A bear?” Eden asked.
Piria nodded. She reached into a pocket and pulled out a piece of fabric. Eden squinted to better see what it was. An eye patch. Piria placed it, covering the gaping emptiness.
“I see why you hate bears.”
Piria’s smile was grim. “Not only that. The bear killed my husband and child.”
Tears pricked Eden’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Piria bristled visibly. “No need to apologize. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but the bear’s.”
The bears.
The reason Eden was in this mess to begin with. Piria’s encounter with a bear.
“That must have been a horrific experience.”
“And you are wondering why I harbor ill feelings toward all bears for the actions of one?”
Eden bit her lip. Yes, she was wondering, but she wasn’t about to tell Piria. They weren’t in the same body now, and she knew Piria had a hell of a way with flames. The last thing Eden wanted was to piss her off enough to spur her into lighting her, or the panther, on fire.
Piria’s eyes narrowed in warning. “Have you ever lost a child?”
Eden fought to keep the testiness from showing in her voice. “You’ve been in my body since I was born. You know everything I’ve done and been through. So, you know I’ve never even given birth.”
Piria’s smile was tight. “Exactly.”
Eden hung her head. She felt ashamed. Of course, she couldn’t relate to Piria’s pain.
Eden’s panther remained silent and unmoving, her lithe, muscular body a cushion for Eden’s.
“Do you plan to keep us here forever?”
Against her back, Eden could feel a rumble building in the panther’s torso. She put her hand out subtly, resting it on the panther’s paw, hoping the panther understood this was the time for calm demeanors, not acts of aggression.
Not to mention, if the panther hurt Piria, Eden and the panther would both be stuck here. Wherever here was. She knew she was in a cave. “What is outside this place?”
“A desolate frozen desert.” Piria stepped closer to Eden.
The scar was even worse up close, breaking Eden’s heart that Piria had suffered the loss of her loved ones, her eye, and had to bear this scar as a living reminder of what she’d gone through.
Eden realized that Piria’s world was indicative of the suffering she lived in. She’d created this world to mirror what was deep within her heart.
“You can go outside and investigate if you wish, but I’d wait until the blizzard subsides somewhat.”
“We’ll wait, but I’d like to go outside later, if you don’t mind. And would you go with me?”
“I can. But there’s no exit to your world outside. That’s not how it works.”
Eden clenched her fists. She knew that wasn’t how it worked, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t keep hoping.
Chapter Fifteen
Sean sat in the back of his SUV with Eden’s panther while Cross drove and Griz updated them; Cedric and Jenner had identified the dead woman in the cabin as a witch. They’d also identified the one that ran screaming out of the cabin as a witch, and they’d captured her.
Sean had no idea how they were dealing with her or where they were. The only notion he had in mind was to kill the witches. They caused this catastrophe. He had an inclination that Piria might have been the one that started the fire, but he felt fairly confident, that one way or another, those witches had pushed her to that.
Yeah, payback was a witch.
And when Eden was out of this mess, he fully intended to inflict damage on the witch that made it through. If one of those wizards hadn’t already killed her by the time he arrived.
Griz took another sharp curve, damned near a switchback. Sean grunted and grabbed the handle, placing one hand on the panther’s side to keep her from moving too much.
Moments later, Griz pulled into Sean and Tyler’s place.
Mae, Camden, and Tyler were outside. The dark circles under Camden’s eyes and her pale color were a testament to her anxiety. Tyler had his arm around her, and she was leaning into him. Sean wondered if his brother wasn’t holding her up, if she would’ve fallen.
Griz slammed into Park and hopped out of the vehicle. Cross and Judge were on his heels. They opened the back door to help Sean get her out of the SUV and into his home.
“We set up a spot for her,” Tyler said. “Back room, your side.”
Sean nodded. “Thanks.”
Tyler peeked in at Eden’s panther, and let out a low whistle. “What the hell—”
Sean laid a blanket over her. Tyler grabbed a stretcher—super-sized, panther-sized—leaning against the porch’s railing.
With all the men’s cooperation, they managed to move the still-unconscious panther to the stretcher and carry her inside.
True to Tyler’s word, they had made a pallet of king-sized mattresses in Sean’s spare room.
“Thanks,” Sean told Tyler.
Tyler tipped his head, as if to say, of course, what else would he have done?
They’d no sooner set Eden up on the makeshift bed than Doc Evans strode into the room, black bag in hand. Doc, the mate of Mae, was more than a doctor, he was a shifter. Grizzly shifter. He shooed everyone away, asking for space and privacy. Everyone but Camden.
“Camden, you stay, please.”
Camden nodded.
Doc looked down at Eden’s panther, then up at Mae. “You too, please.”
“Of course.” Mae put her hand on her mate’s shoulder.
Just like that, everyone else was shuffled out of the room.