That was when Michelle woke up.
Lydia heard her before she saw her. The soft growl sounded from the corner where Michelle was slumped against the wall and Lydia tensed up, her breath catching as Eric worked away at the ropes around her feet.
Lydia did not have time to so much as warn Eric. Her throat was still scratchy and dry from being gagged and when she opened her mouth, no sound immediately came out before Michelle was in human form and on her feet.
But, Michelle wasn’t standing so much as hovering in the air. Lydia could feel the magic energy surrounding her. Michelle threw her arms out, spreading her fingers, and it was like feeling all the air getting sucked out of the room. She was drawing on every bit of magic she could grab onto around her and that included Lydia. All shifters possessed some amount of magic potential even if most never learned to utilize it.
Some dimly sardonic part of Lydia watching the whole thing as if looking down from outside her body thought, I have to hand it to her. She’s pretty damn powerful.
Michelle was regaining control of Eric, who suddenly shifted back into human form seemingly against his will. He dropped to his knees, his eyes wide and confused. He gripped his head and cried out in a tormented wail that made Lydia’s heart clench in her chest. She whimpered, scrambling to untie the binds on her ankles. But she felt her strength leaving her bit by bit as Michelle drew her magic from her.
“Kill her,” Michelle hissed. Her eyes were black again as they stared down at Eric, and Lydia saw them spark and flash. Tears of blood oozed down her poreless cheeks. She was pushing herself beyond her own limits.
But if she managed to kill them all, it hardly mattered what she ended up doing to herself.
“Don’t!” Lydia was breathless and her hands shook as she hurried to untie her feet. She was going to pass out, she thought. Eric wouldn’t even need to kill her if Michelle stole much more of her strength. “Eric…”
Eric was on his knees and slumped over on all fours, his mouth wide open in a silent scream as he struggled with the warring forces in his mind. Lydia’s voice in his head seemed to have helped him fight Michelle off before, but now Michelle was too powerful and Lydia was too weak. She couldn’t concentrate enough to so much as try it again. Tears poured down her cheeks as she tore at the tight knots of the ropes until they eventually came undone.
“Eric, fight it,” Lydia said shakily. “Eric, please!”
“Eric, kill her!” Michelle said. She was levitating higher off the floor, her head nearly hitting the ceiling of the spacious suite. A deep red halo of light engulfed her and the power she gathered made the walls shake, the furniture quivering.
Lydia stumbled out of her chair, but she was so weakened that she fell to her knees, facing Eric. She clutched his shoulder, trying to look him in the eye. He was pale and gaunt, his eyes wide, his pupils turning unnaturally pale.
“Eric,” Lydia whispered. She had to lean on him or she’d fall down to the floor. Her eyelids were heavy. Going to sleep felt like a fantastic idea. “Eric, stay with me! Stay with me and remember us. Remember when you had to go to the cotillion but you came and found me afterwards and I wore-”
“Blue…” Eric shook his head as if trying to ward off flies. “Blue dress….”
“Yes!” Lydia cried. “I wore a blue dress and you told me I looked pretty! You even gave me a corsage you stole from the cotillion! That was us, you and me. You’re my mate!”
“Michelle,” Eric mumbled. “Says… In..my head she’s...my mate…”
“Eric…” Michelle’s voice sounded as if there were two other voices under her own, a demonic choir that hissed and sang just over Eric’s shoulder. “You’re my mate and she is tearing us apart!”
“Ah!” Eric cried out as his hands grasped Lydia’s neck. She gasped, clutching at him, but his grip was tight. “I-I...can’t…” He was crying even as he choked the life from her and Lydia felt herself slipping away. It was too much, between Michelle draining her of her strength and Eric choking her of her breath.
Lydia shut her eyes and felt herself go deathly weak, limp under Eric’s terrible hold.
Please don’t blame yourself, she thought. She used the last of her strength to speak into his mind. A last attempt at sending him her love. I’ll always be yours. Because I always have been. Your soulmate. Since we found each other in the woods, two little bears…
He could hear her. She felt it. Somewhere under the iron fist of Michelle’s magic, Eric was hearing her. Even if he couldn’t listen and believe her now, perhaps he would someday. And far off when he passed to whatever afterlife there was for bear shifters, they’d find each other.
She suddenly felt very peaceful and content, her soul beginning to slip from her body just as she felt Eric’s grip on her throat loosen and she heard his voice ring out. Michelle was screaming, power pouring from her as she fought to keep control. It was making the furniture tumble around the room. Someone was pounding on the door of the suite, having heard the ruckus.
Yet Eric’s voice was a thunder in Lydia’s ears over all the chaos. “Lydia? What have I done…”
It will all be over soon, Lydia thought.
“You wore a blue dress,” Eric cried. His fingers caressed her cheeks and his words were full of love. “I remember… We met at the river. We fought over a fish… Lydia!” His voice quaked and she slumped over just as he moved to cradle her in his arms. “Lydia, don’t die. My love, please! I’m here! I know you! I love you, Liddy, please, please…”
The door burst open and the Strauss brothers ran into the suite, quickly shifting into bears and running straight for Michelle who howled as the force of her magic shifted away from Eric and Lydia to the enemies rocketing toward her - three large and very angry bears on the attack.
It was all a blur to Lydia as she lay cradled in Eric’s arms. She was dimly aware of it all, but the suite was still shaking around her from the magic that had been tossed around. A table had stuck to the ceiling and two chairs crashed through a window.
But it was all fading around Lydia as everything encompassed itself in a peaceful white light.
“Liddy,” Eric said tearfully, shaking her a little as if trying to wake her from a deep sleep. “Liddy, it’s almost over. Liddy!”
Behind them, the brothers attacked the witch as she threw spell after spell, having completely lost her hold on Eric.
I hope she doesn’t kill them, Lydia thought idly.
“I don’t know how this works,” Eric said, his voice cracking. “Okay…”
He held her more tightly and Lydia heard him in her mind. His arms were warm and strong around her.
Draw on my strength, he said in her head. If Michelle can do it to you, you can do it to me. I know you can. Our connection is so strong, I know it…
I don’t want to hurt you, Lydia thought.
“You won’t!” Eric cried, sounding as desperate as she’d ever heard him. “I promise, you won’t. Just feel my strength. We’re mates.”
“We’re mates,” Lydia whispered.
She wasn’t quite aware of what she was doing either way, but with what embers of life she had left in her, she held onto Eric as he held her.
21
Eric
Eric wanted to kill Michelle so badly, his entire body shook with the need to do it. Her control of him was severed. Behind him and Lydia, she was still putting up a fight against Eric’s brothers. There were already burned holes in the walls of the suite from powerful spells she’d thrown and they’d dodged. There was no sign of Michelle’s apparent partner in crime, James. He assumed his brothers had dispatched him quickly enough and that was something anyway.
It was taking all his concentration to send his strength into Lydia’s body. It was all a hunch really. Telepathic links between mates were rare; a fluke of genetic matching among shifters. But he’d heard enough about it. Such links could enable other kinds of connections...like regeneration or the exchange of one’s life force. He couldn’t
even remember where he’d heard it, but he liked to read up on shifter lore. He had studied it when he was younger.
“She’s still breathing,” Eric said softly as he rocked Lydia in his arms. He was crying and not quite aware of it. It was as if he were feeling every emotion that existed all at once.
Something crashed and Cody, in human form, collapsed next to him, having been struck down by Michelle. He was breathless and bleeding from the mouth and he stared up at Eric from where he lay askew on the floor.
“Cody,” Eric said. He reached out and took his brother’s hand.
He had assumed they were winning.
It started to occur to him, they might not be.
“She’s...she’s powerful,” Cody murmured, his throat gurgling as he spoke. “She’s… uh…”
He was barely holding on and Eric’s eyes went wide.
It had not occurred to him that he could possibly lose more than his mate and he suddenly realized just how much he had to lose in the world. And, all of it was right here in this room.
Eric turned around, unwilling to let go of Lydia and yet wanting to get a handle on the fight.
Michelle had her back turned to him. She was levitating off the floor again, her arms outstretched as magic poured through the tips of her fingers in a brilliant white light that had Eric’s brothers, Connor, and Nathan pinned against the wall. They had shifted back into human form again, although not, Eric suspected, according to their own wills.
Connor was putting up an admirable fight. Blood gushed from his nose as he fought to push himself off the wall, but the force keeping him there was strong. Nathan’s teeth were clenched, his eyes wide and blood shot. He seemed to be completely paralyzed.
Cody was barely breathing…
A vase had shattered at some point and its shards littered the carpet. Eric’s heart was pounding so hard, he could hardly breathe. His head pulsed, not so much with thoughts as with a fierce rage and sense of protectiveness. He grabbed one of the shards in his hand, hardly noticing as it sliced his palm. His hand shook as he held it, his other arm holding Lydia whose breath was thready and weak.
He couldn’t do both. He couldn’t sit here and keep his connection to Lydia and kill Michelle at the same time. He had to keep holding his mate. He was afraid, if he stopped holding on he would lose the thread between them allowing Lydia to hang onto life.
It was an impossible choice and he felt as if the entire world was ending around him. He shut his eyes, torn apart inside.
“I can’t,” he breathed.
Next to him, Cody stirred. His gaze slid over to Eric’s. He looked like he could barely keep his eyes open.
“I can’t move,” he whispered. “Cody, I can’t move or I’ll lose her. It’s Liddy, I can’t…”
“I got you,” Cody whispered back. “I’ll...bring her...to you…”
Eric didn’t know quite how his brother did it, but suddenly there was Cody, rolling over and getting up on his hands and knees. His arms quivered with effort and he kept stumbling, his arms nearly collapsing under his weight as he crawled forward in Michelle’s direction.
He’s going to die, Eric thought.
It didn’t seem like something that could ever really happen but Eric had seen bears in the woods, attempting to protect their young and strike down an enemy while on their last legs. This looked just like that.
Eric gripped Lydia’s hand and kissed her knuckles one by one. The light seemed to be going out of her eyes. Eric wondered just how many people he would lose today. Even one seemed impossible.
Cody lunged forward just behind Michelle and grabbed her ankle, just hard enough to bring her falling back and tumbling to the ground beside Eric. It was enough to break her spell on Connor and Nathan who slid down the wall, falling into a heap on the floor, looking dazed and weak themselves.
But all Cody could hear was the sound of his own breathing and the too slow thud of Lydia’s heartbeat next to him. All he could see was his own bloody hand that clutched the shard of porcelain as Michelle cursed under her breath. She was starting to get to her feet.
Eric had only seconds to act.
He could feel the connection between him and Lydia as strong as ever. He would not let her go, no matter what happened. Even if she did die. He would not let her go this time, not after she had left before and he had failed to follow.
So Eric kept one arm around Lydia as he rolled and raised his arm, the shard tight in his grip. The sharp-edged porcelain dug deep into Eric’s flesh and he grimaced at the pain, but he focused on Michelle. He could hear her heart beating beneath the knit of her sweater. Eric brought the shard down right on the spot where her heart lay.
That twisted, evil heart, Eric thought.
Eric didn’t exactly have much experience with killing people. He didn’t have a chance to think about it now either. There was no time for that. There was only the shard in his hand, the sharp end of which was now plunging through Michelle’s designer sweater and sinking between her ribs into her beating heart. He wasn’t precious about it and he didn’t hold back. He simply stabbed her as hard as he could and when the shard would go no further, he let go and fell back, Lydia still in his trembling arms.
Michelle did not take long to die. That was something at least.
He saw the light leave her and suddenly everything stopped.
The walls stopped shaking and the furniture stopped flying around as Michelle went completely still. Her eyes were wide, still black with the magic remaining in her body, but they looked at nothing. She was unnaturally silent. She was gone.
Eric fell on his back, exhausted, his mind mercifully clear.
“Cody?” Eric said, his voice raspy and weak. “You still with me, bro?”
“Yeh...um...yes.” Cody sounded out of it.
“Okay,” Eric whispered.
His eyes were closing by themselves as utter exhaustion overwhelmed him. It had taken all his strength to fight off Michelle and keep Lydia alive and now he felt so tired he would not have been surprised if he fell into a coma.
“Okay,” he murmured again. “We’re okay.”
22
Eric
Eric had fallen asleep.
He didn’t remember doing so and it felt like a dangerous thing to be doing when your brother and your mate might be dying in your arms.
Still, he was definitely dreaming. Because the lodge had disappeared around him.
Lydia wasn’t in his arms and Cody wasn’t half-conscious next to him in Michelle’s suite.
He was wearing a tux and standing next to all three of his brothers in the ballroom of The Elkswood Hotel, one of a couple luxury hotels in Elkswood, Oregon. There was enough of an upper class clientele in the small city and a small financial district that a market existed for a place like the Elkswood Hotel.
The ballroom was lit by crystal chandeliers. It was full of other young and rich shifter boys in tuxedos and equally young and rich shifter girls in designer gowns.
It was the 63rd Annual Elkswood Cotillion and Eric was impatient. He didn’t want to be at the cotillion at all. He’d promised to take Liddy to the movies. The weird part was, he hung out with Liddy all the time. They went to the movies, and fished in the woods, and shifted to wrestle in mud puddles before going out for ice cream. They avoided their parents because Eric’s parents didn’t really approve of Liddy and Liddy was downright afraid of her own parents. Instead, they had each other. And Eric’s brothers were always nice to Liddy because if they so much as innocently teased her they were likely to get tackled by their youngest brother.
Eric tugged on his collar and Connor nudged him and whispered, “You’re squirming. Calm down. All we have to do is dance and hang out with the girls. It’s easy.”
“Wanted to hang out with Liddy,” Eric mumbled.
“Yeah, well…”
That was as much of an answer as he was likely to get.
Everything was exactly as Eric remembered it, down to the plast
ic cup of wine he’d swiped from a fox shifter named Mr. Geller. By eight-thirty, he’d been a little buzzed, and that was good. It gave him the nerve to ditch the cotillion without telling a soul, except that Cody saw him going. He caught Eric’s eye just as Eric was swiping one of the orchid corsages from a side table where one of the girls had left it.
He would ditch and go find Liddy and take her this corsage.
He’d be a hero.
He caught Cody’s eye as he swung out the door and they exchanged a knowing look. His brother wouldn’t rat him out. Eventually, Connor would notice his absence. But by then, Eric would be outside town, running up into the woods to the sad little shack that Liddy lived in with her parents who always give Eric the stink eye - he tried to avoid them - and who Liddy was afraid of.
In the world of dream logic, there was no passage of time or real distance between locations. Cody ran out of the hotel, his tuxedo jacket and his corsage in hand, and headed toward the woods and suddenly there was Liddy’s sad little house, a dim light glowing from her bedroom window.
He wasn’t a kid anymore. His dream self knew that. But as he jogged through the mud, headed towards that window, he felt fifteen again.
“Hey.” Liddy opened the window and grinned at him and he knew right then.
That’s my mate and I love her.
“I ditched as soon as I could. We missed the movie, but we can hang out. If you want?”
Again, the scene changed and it all felt so real that Eric thought he had traveled back in time to his adolescence. Liddy and he were free, out on the town, and feeling invincible. Nothing could stop them because he loved her...even if he didn’t have the nerve to tell her yet. Because it was already perfect. Why screw things up when there was always the chance she wouldn’t agree?
Eric (Strauss Bear Shifter Brothers 0f Colorado Book 2) Page 12
