“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.
Eric, my love, please fight it…
“But Ly… Um…” He shook his head. He wouldn’t say the name. But he could say something else. “My mate. My mate needs me.”
“She’s hurting you, darling,” Michelle said, suddenly as calm as he’d ever seen her. Her eyes cleared and looked at him kindly. Even her hands were warmer. He relaxed somewhat, wondering what he had been afraid of. It seemed like his mind kept jerking him one way and then another. It made him so tired… “That’s why I need you to kill her. You will, won’t you? For me, my love. I need you to listen to me. Lydia has been trying to seduce you away from me. Then she was going to kill you. But we won’t let her. Will we?”
Eric… Lydia was there in his mind again. He tried to push her away. She was poison, just like Michelle said.
“No,” he said, not intending to say it aloud. “I can’t listen to you, I can’t do what you say…”
Michelle was staring at him and she had been nice and calm, but now her eyes flashed. “You will listen to me!”
He was about to say he wasn’t talking to her, he was talking to Lydia.
But he never got the chance.
Michelle had taken him to mean he was resisting her and that had pushed her right over the edge, causing her to lose her grip.
Michelle reared back and her jaw clenched as she reached her hand out to him. She was about to throw a spell in his direction, Eric thought. Just like she had with that man, James. In that tiny moment of clarity, her hold on him was broken. Or, that’s what it felt like. Suddenly, Eric was lucid.
He heard Lydia in his head, as clear as a bell.
Eric, I can hear you! I’m in the closet! Help me! Eric!
Eric didn’t think, he just shifted immediately, his bear breaking through the morass of confusion and tackling Michelle to the ground before she could throw anymore unwanted magic at him.
He felt much stronger as his bear. He was blind with rage, as the realization hit him that Michelle had been controlling his mind, forcing him into being with her.
She had asked him to kill Lydia…
One massive claw took a swipe at Michelle’s neck. He missed, but she screamed, her eyes blazing as she muttered some spell under her breath. The same red light that had taken down James engulfed Eric and that pain he’d felt before returned one-hundred fold. He felt as if his soul was leaving his body, it hurt so badly.
Yet, his bear fought through it.
He was bleeding from his gums, his eyes blurring with pink tears as he struggled to maintain control, wrestling Michelle and trying to stop her from cursing him any further. She grunted, crushed beneath the great weight of his bear and all at once she shifted.
That was good, Eric thought. He could easily take her if she was in her bear form. She likely couldn’t do magic that way.
All his memories were rushing back at once as if he were waking up from a deep sleep. Lydia was his mate and his true love.
Michelle was apparently trying to kill him.
They charged each other right there in the middle of the suite’s spacious living room. Eric didn’t wait for Michelle to reach him. He leapt, slamming her into a wall with every bit of strength in him. He heard the thunk of her head hitting the wall and her body went limp under his. Eric growled under his breath, stumbling back and watching Michelle’s bear slump to the floor. She was alive, but unconscious.
That was good enough.
Michelle was down.
The suite was quiet and Eric’s mind was clear again.
All at once Lydia’s distinctive scent hit his nose, made more sensitive in his bear form. It was akin to a punch in the face, and as good as se
eing her right next to him. He charged at the coat closet and took the locked door off its hinges with one swipe of his giant claws.
There was Lydia. She was tied to a chair, bound and gagged, her eyes red from crying. She blinked blearily at him and he heard her in his head again.
I knew you’d find me, my love.
20
Lydia
It felt odd to walk around in Eric’s mind once she got there, and odder still to be able to feel that he was under Michelle’s control. She heard them fighting outside the closet and all at once she felt the walls of Eric’s mind drop and there he was. Lydia let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and a moment later Eric ripped off the door and found her there.
It was awkward to get her freed with Eric in his bear form. He grabbed the leg of her chair carefully to avoid biting her leg and dragged it forward, out of the closet, before working at her binding with his claws. He was impatient as a bear. Stronger, but less agile and delicate. He kept nicking her hands and she bit her lip, trying not to cry out.
She wanted to warn him not to shift back, but she was gagged.
Lydia didn’t know a ton about magic, but she’d heard enough here and there to know that Eric was potentially more resistant to a mind control spell in his bear form and also that as soon as Michelle woke up, that spell would be intact again. It was already impressive that Eric had been able to fight it off at all. Michelle would need to break it herself (unlikely) or die for that hold to truly be broken for good. Until then, he was always at risk of falling under her thrall.
They had to either kill Michelle while she was knocked out or get away and decide how to somehow convince her to break the curse.
Lydia was in favor of killing her.
She trembled in the chair, still gagged, as Eric worked at her binding. As a bear, it was not much different than if he were trying to thread a delicate needle with his big paws. But eventually her hands were free and she sighed in relief around her gag. Her fingers were bloodied from repeatedly straining against her bindings and her hands ached. She shook them and reached up to take out her gag.
Eric (Strauss Bear Shifter Brothers 0f Colorado Book 2) Page 11
