by Elle Thorne
He closed his eyes and succumbed to the vision while blood seeped from the wound hidden by his thick fur. He hoped it would give him some guidance about Dunn and his whereabouts. And especially, Dunn’s wellbeing. Let that bastard brother of mine be alive. Please.
The fuzzy vision grew focus as Dunn came to the forefront. Dunn was staring right at him. How could that be? Could Dunn tell he could see him in a vision? Dunn was talking. Saying something. Something. But what? There was no sound in the vision. Just Dunn saying…
Slate tried to concentrate, attempting to read his brother’s lips and decipher his words. It looked like he was saying I’m fine. Take care of her.
Over and over, the same thing.
I’m fine. Take care of her. I’m fine. Take care of her.
Take care of whom? In his mind, he tried to talk to Dunn, though he knew it was a vision. It couldn’t be conversation. There was no way Dunn was telling him something. Telling him to take care of…?
He studied Dunn in the vision. Come on, brother, Slate implored. Don’t leave me hanging. What’s going on with you?
Suddenly, his brother disappeared from the vision and Lana’s face replaced his. She looked haggard. She—
Holy shit! Lana’s features changed suddenly. Her face became a malicious evil visage. Her nose grew wider, her eyes were no longer a vivid green, they were a dark, dark brown. Dark as the night of a moonless Montana sky. And they’d grown longer, no longer as round. Her hair changed from a wavy blonde hue to a straight cascade of ebony.
What the hell? What was happening to Lana?
Slate’s bear growled. Again and again, he growled while Slate stared at the vision of Lana. What was happening? What was she doing? Where was she? He studied the area behind this new, twisted version of Lana. A desert landscape? What would she be doing there? She was in the Bear Canyon Mountain Range. This was wrong. Very wrong. But how so? And why was he seeing this vision?
The growling was incessant, infiltrating his thoughts.
Quit it, he told his bear in his mind.
Wait a damned minute. That wasn’t—
In the dimness, a pair of eyes glowed, staring right at him. The eyes were in the head of the largest grizzly he had ever seen. And he was a large grizzly himself.
The vision of the new Lana vanished immediately as he became more aware of his surroundings.
Another grizzly, so much large than him, stared at him. A massive head with a scar that ran from just the top of the bear’s head down to his jaw. The bear was growling softly, the sound nonthreatening.
From the safety of his own bear’s body, he studied the newcomer. There was something vaguely familiar about this bear. Then it struck him. This was no average bear in the woods.
Shifter!
Still guarded, not sure if this new bear shifter was a danger or not—he didn’t exactly seem like he was ready to attack—Slate tensed, ready. Just in case.
Pressure on his mind signaled the other bear attempting to establish a sync—a mental link between two shifters in their animal form that allowed the human side of them to communicate. He allowed the line of communication to be opened.
“Slate.” Griz del Cruz’s voice. “How bad are you hurt? The cops said they got you.”
“Twice. Abdomen.”
“Lana needs you.”
In Slate’s gut, a tightening that had nothing to do with the rounds that had penetrated his body made his breath catch. “What’s wrong?”
“You know how you took her skills and she took your bear?” Griz continued without waiting for a response, “Well, her skills somehow were keeping a being at bay. When you took them, it released a being. That’s how she managed to get your bear. That being—her name is Nephraline—is an ancient entity which— Well, shit, there’s no other way to say it. There’s no telling what it will do to her, but Nephraline’s going to be destroying shifters.”
And just like that, it hit Slate. He understood what the vision meant. He knew why Dunn had told him to take care of her. And he realized what this Nephraline creature was going to do to Lana. It all came together for him.
“She’ll take her body. She’ll destroy Lana to get a corporeal form.”
“What? How do you know this?”
“Lana’s visions showed me. Dunn told me. He’s alive, by the way.” Of this, he was 100 percent sure. No doubt about it. His brother was alive. Somewhere. The question was, where? And now, Slate had a hell of a difficult decision to make. His brother or the woman he loved.
Fuck.
That struck home. He did love her. He wasn’t sure how he could already love this woman, but there was something about her. Something that told him he wanted to spend eternity with her.
Griz’s bear was watching him, waiting, as though he knew Slate had to work through some things in his own mind.
“So, what’s the plan?” Slate asked. “Because if what I know of you is true, you’ve already got a game plan.”
“You give Lana her skills back so it pushes Nephraline into a dark hole she can’t come out of until we get her to Leandra, who will exorcise that demon spawn. Hopefully, once and for all.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“One step at a time. First things first. You. Can you make a trip back to her? She’s about an hour from here. After you get her skills back to her, you can shift to hibernate heal while we take her to Leandra and—”
“No.”
Griz’s bear growled. “What do you mean no?”
“I’m not going to let you take her anywhere. I go where she goes. She’s not leaving my sight.”
A flame of amber crossed through Griz’s bear eyes. “I get it. So, you can go with us. Heal on the plane. I’ll call them to make sure they’ve got a setup for a bear.”
“Fuck, I’ll heal on the floor. I don’t need anything fancy.” As long as he could be with her. He hadn’t realized how much he’d needed her until that damned vision of her being lost to another being.
“What are we waiting for?” Griz’s bear loped in the direction he’d come from.
Slate’s bear followed at a slower pace, blood still seeping, leaving a trail on the fallen leaves beneath his massive bear paws.
Chapter Nineteen
“I see something.” Allegra broke the silence in the SUV.
Lana leapt in her seat, eyes on the windshield. “Where?”
Allegra pointed. “There, movement.”
She squinted. “I don’t see anything.”
“Shifter sight,” Allegra explained. “Trust me. It’s them. I’d know Griz’s bear anywhere. And that’s got to be Slate’s bear following him.”
She stared in the direction Allegra had pointed, and finally, she saw two bears, one slightly larger leading the second one down the mountainside.
Allegra started the SUV. “I’m pulling up closer. If he’s wounded like the sheriff said, then the less he has to walk, the better.”
A lump the size of a log was stuck in Lana’s throat at the idea of Slate being injured. Though she was just thankful he wasn’t hurt so much he couldn’t make the walk back to them.
As the bears came closer, it was clear Slate was wounded. He favored one side, and the fur there was matted and much darker. Definitely had to be blood.
Lana reached for the door handle. She had to see him. Had to talk to him.
“Hold on.” Allegra put her hand on Lana’s. “Give them a second to shift.”
The bears reached the SUV then walked to the back, no longer in view. She swiveled in her seat but couldn’t get a good view. The vehicle’s seats blocked her vision. Finally, after what sounded like faint creaking and crunching, Griz and Slate appeared.
Slate’s face was drained of color, his eyes sunken in, he leaned against the SUV’s back door. “Hey.” His voice was weak. He put an arm out.
“My god.” Lana slipped into his half-embrace, careful to avoid the bloody side. “You need a doctor.”
“No, I—”
“It’s done.” Slate’s voice sounded like he was in a vacuum. Or far, far away.
Then she realized she was the one in the vacuum. Her vision became tunneled then it was spinning. She felt her skills as they entered her body. Except it didn’t feel like something was entering. It felt more like something was being buried. Was Nephraline being tamped down?
Wave after wave of the oh-so-familiar dizziness hit her. No. No! This was not a good time for a vision. She had to help Slate. He was injured.
There was no pushing the vision away. It pressed against the forefront of her mind. Dunn was there, up close, in her face. As much as she’d thought he and Slate looked alike, now that she knew Slate—now that she loved Slate—she saw the differences so clearly.
Dunn was saying something. Who was he talking to? His eyes almost seemed to focus on her. As if he was talking to her.
Wait. No. What?
The visions didn’t work like this. She didn’t communicate with the visions. Ever. She was an observer from far away. And yet, she couldn’t escape Dunn’s dark, piercing gaze. His lips moved. She couldn’t understand what he was saying. Behind him a woman appeared. One with dark-auburn hair pulled into a messy bun. The woman was pulling on Dunn’s hand, tugging him away. Finally, he turned and walked away, leaving Lana more confused than before.
And just like that, the vision was over, and she was sitting in the back seat of the SUV. Behind her, a large bear was in the hatch, sleeping, it seemed, the bloody fur drying up.
The SUV was moving.
“Hey,” Allegra said from the front seat.
Still groggy, Lana turned in her seat to face Allegra. “How long? How long did that last?”
“Forty-five minutes. We had to get on the road. We needed as much distance as possible between us and Cinco Ridge.”
“Where are we going?” Though she was still unfocused and groggy, she couldn’t help but notice for the first time since Slate borrowed her skills, she felt herself. Or normal. Whatever normal was.
“Bear Canyon Valley,” Griz said. “Tito’s bringing his plane. We’re taking you down to Leandra. We thought of having her and Sidonie come up, but she can’t. Seems Sidonie’s sister’s expecting a baby and there’s been an issue with the baby—a witch-type issue, it appears—so Sidonie and Leandra don’t want to leave her. So, we’re going down.”
“I can’t leave Slate like this. He’s hurt.”
“Fuck,” Griz said under his breath. “What is it with you two? He wouldn’t let you go to her without accompanying you, and you won’t leave him behind.”
“Griz,” Allegra said, a touch of mirth in her tone. “Please, tell me the man I love isn’t so—”
“I get it. Sorry,” he uttered. “Tito’s plane has a compartment where Slate’s bear can go and finish his hibernation healing.” He paused. “You do know what that is, right? Injured shifters can go into hibernation to heal. Not for a winter or anything, but long enough to get better.”
“Yes.” Lana reached between the seats and put her hand on the bear’s muzzle. The bear seemed to lean into her hand, though she was sure that had to be instinct or reflex or something, because he was in hibernation, after all. Surely, he didn’t know it was her.
Chapter Twenty
Lana sidestepped out of the way as Tanner, Teague, and three of Griz’s nephews raised the pallet with Slate’s hibernating bear into Tito’s plane.
“There’s an area in the hold that has been set up,” Tito advised them, then he turned to Lana. “You, cara, seem destined to find yourself in one sort of drama or another.” His expression softened as he put his arm around her.
She laid her head against the white tiger shifter’s chest. “I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate this.”
“Anything for you. I do hope your amante will settle you down some.”
“Lover? He’s not my lover!” She found herself blushing. Not so much because she was embarrassed at Tito’s accusation but because she wished she and Slate were exactly that. And more. Much, much more.
Allegra stepped up, holding a duffel bag. She swatted Tito on the arm. “Look what you’ve done. She’s several shades of crimson.” She handed the bag to Lana. “A change of clothes for Slate. One for you, too. Some personal hygiene items.”
“You’re not going with?” Lana had to admit, she’d hoped Allegra and Griz would join them.
Allegra gave a tiny mystical smile. “I can’t. I’m already in trouble with Griz for having gone on this adventure.”
She cocked her head. “What? Why?”
Allegra leaned in. “I’m six weeks along.” Her hand traveled to her abdomen.
“Oh my god!” Lana whispered back. “I had no idea!”
“Yep. Mae said Doc wants to check me out. You know, the whole shifters-witches procreating thing.”
“No. What?”
Allegra shrugged. “Complications. But I’m not worried. I have a feeling this little one will be just fine. And I trust my intuition on that.”
She nodded. “Congratulations.”
“But…” Allegra put her lips close to Lana’s ear. “If you should have a vision about my baby” —she pursed her lips— “I’d not mind hearing some good news.”
“Oh, of course!” But Lana wondered if she really wanted to know. Visions didn’t only deliver good news. Sometimes, they were bad. She placed the bag on the runway and gave Allegra a hug. “Don’t know what I’ve done without you and Griz.”
“There’d be no me and Griz if it hadn’t been for what you did not so very long ago. You’re family. We’re family. Like Griz has said many times. We take care of family, whether they’re family by blood or family by choice.”
Tears glistened on Allegra’s cheeks, drawing forth a burning in Lana’s nose that heralded her own set of tears.
Lana pinched the bridge of her nose to keep from bursting out crying. “I’ll see you when we get back?”
Allegra nodded. “We’ll be right here. And hopefully,” she said with a wink, “we’ll have a wedding to plan?”
She made a half-sincere moue. “Don’t put the cart before the horse.”
“What?” Allegra stuck her tongue out. “It’s obvious you two have caught feelings.”
“Mm,” was all she would give her by way of consent. “We’ll see.”
She shoved the duffel into a compartment and took a seat across from Mae, next to Tito. Griz sat next to Mae. The three of them were immersed in a conversation, and she couldn’t have said what they were discussing to save her life. Her mind was focused on one thing, and one thing alone.
Slate. In the hold they’d set up for him on the other side of the door. Slate. Sleeping deeply in his bear form, slowly recuperating from a gunshot—two actually—in his side. Doc had met them at the airport, and while Slate was still slumbering deeply, he’d extricated the two rounds and flushed the wounds, then said he “just needed time to heal.” She’d slumped in relief at that proclamation and leaned against Mae. Mae’d put a comforting arm around her, assuring her all would be fine.
And now, sitting in this seat, tuning the trio out, Lana’s thoughts were on the other side of the door, with Slate.
Mae squeezed her hand. “Why don’t you go?”
Lana jerked. “What? I’m sorry. What was that?”
“Go in there. Stay with him until he awakens. It shouldn’t last more than a couple of hours. That’s what Doc said.”
“Don’t I need to be sitting down when we take off?”
“Just go,” Mae urged her. “We’ll land in six hours. And really, you do look like you’ve had a hell of a few days. Get some sleep.”
Griz leaned forward. “Mae’s right. You’ll want to be at full strength when Leandra and Sidonie do their thing.”
/> They didn’t have to tell her twice. Or thrice, as it were. Lana leapt from her seat, grabbed the duffel—Slate might need to change out of bloody clothes when he shifted back—and hightailed it for the door leading to the hold. She closed the door behind her with a soft click and turned around to study the large brown bear on a pallet of mattresses and blankets. She almost hated to disturb him, but she had to check on him.
She set the bag down quietly then kneeled next to him, putting her hand in his chest. It rose with a slow deep rhythm that eased her concerns.
“Gave me a fright,” she confessed in a whisper. Then she laid next to the bear, letting his warmth envelop her. The bear’s head dropped, and his snout buried itself in her hair, softly blowing strands across her face. “Glad you’re going to be okay. I know you can’t hear me, but I think Dunn’s okay. He’s not alone. He’s somewhere out there. We can look for him after we take care of this little matter.”
Little matter. Huh. Lana wasn’t so sure the spawn of a demoness would be an easy matter to take care of. Nope. She wasn’t sure at all when it came to that. Not at all.
Chapter Twenty-One
In his bear’s body still, Slate stretched, flexing his limbs, paws, and thick bear neck to get circulation going properly again. He felt the slightest of twinges in his side and realized he was almost completely healed.
He could shift into his human now. He’d survived the—
Shit! He’d been shot. He’d gone to Lana, Griz and Allegra. Wait. Lana? He opened his eyes. Where the hell was he? The humming caught his attention. Aircraft. He was in a plane. Then he noticed the warm body next to his bear’s chest.
He inhaled deeply. Lana. Glancing down, he studied her sleeping profile. She still had dark circles bespeaking the ordeal they’d been through.
Time to let me have my body back, he told his bear.
The bear grumbled on the inside—to keep Lana from awakening. Slate got that. Totally.
Nope. It’s my turn. She’s… You know what she means to me.
More grumbling.
