by C. D. Hersh
Roc scanned Sylvia’s aura one more time. The green of the ring aura was over taken by the red pulsing in rhythm with the pounding of the blood in his head. Pure lust shone in her eyes, the same lust that drove him. They were in tune. The thought calmed him. Good. He didn’t have to worry with her. No hidden agenda.
Urging him on, she rose to meet him. He tried to concentrate on the woman beneath him, but his dead, blonde, shape-shifter lover refused to leave his mind. Finally, he closed his eyes and gave in to the passion, imagining the only woman he’d ever loved was lying beneath him.
Sylvia’s aura pulsed together with his, bright enough he could see the colors behind his closed eyelids. Overspray from the shower sprinkled their soaped-slicked bodies like a tropical waterfall. Suddenly, the auras pulsing behind his eyelids wavered, dispersing into a thousand brilliant dots. He jerked from the auric disruption.
It’s happening again! Like before. Sylvia’s trying to steal my body!
He willed his body to stiffen, but the pounding rhythm continued. His eyes opened and, once again, he found himself staring up at his own body. The rhythmic pounding stopped. Roc blanked out then awoke in his own body. Rage burning in him, he tried to grab Sylvia’s neck.
Shoving him off, she scrambled to her feet before he could get his hands around her. “You did it!” She backed away until she hit the wall.
He slowly rose and moved toward her, his hands fisting. He was going to have to kill her. She wouldn’t be as easy to dispose of. Damn! Why did all the women he seemed the most attracted to want to inhabit his body?
“You mind shifted with me. Do you know what that means?”
Mind shifted? What the hell was that? “You tried to take over my body,” he said menacingly.
“What?” She frowned. “I don’t know what you mean, but I suppose you could see it that way.” Scooting out of his reach, she grabbed a towel off the hanger behind her and wrapped it around her naked body. “What just happened was The Promised One proof test I told you the other council’s man can do. You are equal to him now.”
Roc stopped advancing. “You weren’t trying to take over my body?”
“I wasn’t doing anything. The whole switch was caused by you.”
“Me?” A wave of nausea crashed down on him. He’d killed the one woman who’d professed her true love for him, for nothing? He sank to the floor and covered his face with his hands. “No!” he yelled. The anguished cry reverberated against the tiled walls.
Sylvia rushed to his side and knelt beside him. “It’s okay, Roc. It’s a good thing. Really.”
“It can never be a good thing.”
She frowned. “I don’t understand. You’ll get used to it. I actually find it exhilarating.”
“I find it scary as hell. What happens if we don’t break the connection? Are we switched forever?” If that was the case he could at least justify killing the woman he’d loved.
“I don’t know. Want to find out?”
She reached for him, and he slapped her hand away.
“No! Why didn’t it happen before?”
She shrugged. “Not a clue.”
“We have to figure out what triggered it. If this is going to happen every time I screw a woman, it’s going to put a serious dent in my sex life.” Not to mention reliving his guilt over his murdered fiancée every time he made love to a woman.
“Whatever it is, the reason rests within you.”
He stood, retrieved a towel and dried off, then went into the bedroom and grabbed his briefs and pants. Sylvia followed, plopped on the bed, and watched him dress, her disappointment obvious. He yanked a shirt off the chair and shoved his arms into the sleeves.
“How did it happen with the other Promised One and you?”
“He thought I was someone else. I was shifted into his girlfriend’s form. I didn’t know it at the time, but they had slept together the previous night for the first time.”
“Was their relationship serious?”
“I think so.”
Roc paced at the foot of the bed. “He was in love with her? Was the passion really high between you and him?” He hated to ask about sex with another man, but if he was going to figure this out he had no other option.
“We-he and I, whom he thought was his girlfriend-just had a huge argument. I was offering sex as a way to prove her love.”
“Anger and love can walk a thin line.”
“True,” Sylvia said. “Both are based in passion.” She tilted her head coquettishly. “Were you mad at me while we were having sex, or falling in love with me?”
“Neither.”
“Ouch, that hurts.” She studied him some more. “But if we’re taking a love or hate approach to why you mind shifted, it would be logical to assume you were consumed by one or the other.”
“I don’t hate you, Sylvia. At least now I know you weren’t trying to take over my body.” He eyed her. “Would you want the love part?”
“Would you?” she asked as she moved to where he stood and dropped her towel on the floor.
He’d like what he’d had with his fiancée again. Someday. Not with a woman who seemed as focused on power as Sylvia.
She walked her fingers over his chest. “Would you?” she repeated.
Her closeness ignited his lust again. “Maybe,” he lied. Then he gently pushed her away.
He needed space to figure things out. If he wasn’t angry at Sylvia, or in love with her, then his dead fiancée had to be the trigger for the mind shift. Even though he tried not to, he’d been thinking about her while they were making love. Thinking about the anger at what he thought was her deceit. Feeling sorrow about losing the one woman he’d loved with all his heart. Wishing it was her lying beneath him. Was thinking about love, or the one you loved, or being in love the key?
Sylvia gathered her clothes, her pursuit of him gone for the moment. Roc left the bedroom. At some point he’d have to make love to her again. Figure out how to control this mind shift thing. But not today. Not when the memory of the woman he loved and killed lay fresh in his mind. What had his father done with her body? Roc wanted to mourn at her grave and ask her forgiveness.
Had she been right all along about his destiny? Their destinies? Should he have renounced it, for real, when she asked him? He clamped his teeth together to stop his jaw from trembling, remembering his father’s admonishments. Men don’t cry and Promised Ones don’t fall in love. He’d failed miserably at both.
Chapter 16
Gladys dropped a CD case on Delaney’s desk and planted her hands on her hips. “I got what you asked for, but I’ve got a question.” She frowned, radiating irritation.
Delaney removed the disk from the case and shoved it into her computer drive. “I may not have the answer.” Especially if it’s about something you saw outside Lila’s apartment.
“Are you investigating Rhys? Because if you are-”
Her head jerked toward Gladys. “Why would you ask that question?”
“Because he’s on the street cams, you’re FBI, you’re in our precinct investigating something, and you’re always hanging around him.”
“There’s no connection between Rhys and why I’m here,” she said, grateful Gladys couldn’t see the flashing colors of her aura that would show her to be a liar. Rhys was at the core of her appearance. If he was on the street cams, and had anything to do with Lila, he was even more cause for her investigation. “You make a lousy detective, Gladys. Quit trying.”
The older lady harrumphed and leaned over the desk. “I’m warning you. Leave Rhys alone.”
Delaney rose from her seat and met Gladys across the desk nearly nose-to-nose, her manner hostile and her gaze unwavering. “And I’m warning you. If you like your job, don’t mess with an FBI investigation.”
Straightening, Gladys regally raised her head and peered down her nose, sniffed, then stomped out of the office.
Taking a deep, calming breath, Delaney sank onto her chair and started the street cam video. A full frontal view of Rhys walking toward the apartment building and entering appeared, not once, but nearly every night Gladys had checked. He also exited with Lila on several occasions. No wonder Gladys’ first thought was about Rhys.
What was he doing at Lila’s apartment? If he’d been there many times the doorman should be able to identify him.
Delaney clicked on Rhys’ image, copied and pasted it into another document, and printed it out on the office printer. She’d show the doorman. Ask him what he knew about the two of them and then she’d do what? Show it to Eli? Accuse Rhys of lying about knowing Lila? Accuse him of her disappearance?
She needed more proof than a street cam video to pin something on him. Lila was missing, but there was no body. Without the body all she had was suspicions. And fears. And she had plenty. She shut her computer down, dropped the disc and printed photo into her purse, and left the office. Maybe Alexi could answer some of her questions.
When Alexi answered the door shifted as Lila, Delaney’s heart leapt. Seeing her daughter was good and bad. She hugged Alexi then entered the house, closing the door behind her.
“Delaney, I didn’t expect to see you today. Is something wrong?”
“I wanted to see how the mask was coming along.” She was wondering about that, and if Alexi scanned her aura saying something even a bit truthful would help keep her real reason hidden.
“You could have called.”
“I know, but I wanted to see you.” That was also the truth.
Alexi smiled at her statement. “That’s nice. Thank you. It’s good to know I have people around me who care.”
“How did the mask making go?”
Alexi rubbed the tip of her nose. “It’s done, and I hope I never have to do that again. Sticking straws in my nose to breathe was an experience I don’t care to repeat. Ever.” She motioned toward the kitchen. “Want something to drink?”
“As long as it’s not Eli’s ever present cup of tea.”
“Coffee,” Alexi said. “Eli’s not here. He’s taken the mask to the funeral home.”
“Good. We should be ready to proceed with the service soon.” Delaney followed Alexi into the kitchen and accepted a cup of coffee. “Ought to make the office dragon Gladys happy.”
Alexi laughed at her description. “Is she giving you trouble?”
“I’d guess no more than she gives Sylvia. She doesn’t like us much.”
“Gladys is very protective of her coworkers, except for me or any of the other women when we show too much attention to Rhys. If she knew how things really were between me and Rhys, she’d probably dig me up to make sure I was gone. I believe she thinks he is hers.”
“Jealous?”
“That’s an understatement. While I’m buried, you’ll have to protect Rhys for me.”
A tiny stab of guilt went through Delaney. If what she suspected of him was true, Alexi would have to protect him from her. Anyone who hurt her daughter was going to pay. She’d have to protect Alexi from him, if he wasn’t who everyone, but her, thought him to be. “Where is Rhys?”
“In the shower.”
She’d have to make her questions quick. “How many people know about you and Rhys?”
“You, Eli, Captain Williams.” Alexi ticked the names off on her fingers. “Oh, and Sylvia. You’ll need to watch her. She’s been after him ever since she mind shifted with him.”
“You two haven’t been together long? As a couple?”
“We’ve been homicide partners for over a year and a half. Lovers less than a month.”
“You’re ready to marry him already?” Sounded like Promised One persuasion to her. “Do you think that’s wise?”
Alexi tipped her head to the side. “Why are you interested?”
“I care about you. There have been some life altering things happening to you recently, and sometimes people make bad decisions in stressful times.”
“There’s nothing bad about my relationship with Rhys. Not now.”
“What do you mean?”
“He wasn’t too crazy about me when he found out I was a shifter. In fact, he wrote me off, personally and professionally.”
A break in the relationship with Alexi could explain why he’d been seen with Lila. Maybe he was cheating on her with Alexi, which wouldn’t make him a good candidate for a husband. “How long ago was the break-up? August? September?”
“No. It was only for a few days at the end of October before I got Baron’s ring back. Once we had an ID on Baron’s killer, Rhys worked with me to catch him. After the panther mauled me, and I woke in the hospital, he’d decided to accept Baron’s ring and become a Turning Stone member.”
Didn’t fit. If he was The Promised One Lila had talked about, he already had a ring. “You saw him accept the ring? Read the incantation?”
“Yep. He thought he was having a heart attack.”
He could have faked a response to the ring. Someone with the kind of life force powers Rhys had would be convincing. “Still, Alexi, less than a month in a relationship and you’re ready to marry? If you were my daughter, I’d be advising you against such reckless behavior.”
“It’s not reckless. You forget I’ve known him a lot longer. We’ve been working together nearly every day for over a year and a half.”
“Work relationships don’t mean you really know a person.”
“It does with Rhys.” Alexi studied Delaney. “Has something happened between you two to make you suspicious? Besides the life force pulling incident?”
Heat flushed Delaney’s cheeks at the memory of the orgasm he’d given her. “He told you?”
“We don’t have any more secrets.”
“Any more?”
“Since we’re both shifters. Before he had a ring, I had to keep my shifter abilities undisclosed. You understand, I’m sure.”
She certainly did. When she told her ex, her marriage had exploded. Now, she had to keep Harry in the dark to keep their relationship from imploding. She nodded solemnly.
Alexi laid her hand over Delaney’s. “What’s wrong?”
“Are you scanning my aura?” Delaney asked defensively.
“I don’t have to in order to see something is bothering you.”
Delaney rose and closed the kitchen curtains, blocking the window. “I know Eli wants you to keep Lila’s form, but would you take another one?”
A petite blonde appeared in Lila’s place. “This isn’t the first time you’ve asked me to change. Why is seeing your daughter disturbing? According to Eli you two have a great relationship.”
“We did, but we had a falling out.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“It was about a man. Someone I thought she didn’t know very well. A lot like you and Rhys. She rushed in.”
Alexi leaned forward, concern written on her features. “And it didn’t work out?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard from her in a while. Every time I see you as her it breaks the wound open again. Makes me miss her. Regret things I said.”
“I should stop mimicking Lila. We’ll tell Eli, and I’ll chose another form.”
“No! We can’t.” The words exploded from Delaney, causing Alexi to jerk against the kitchen chair. “I don’t want him to know anything about this. He’s got enough to worry about with training Rhys and trying to find out who wants to kill you. I can’t add my problems. I only told you because I wanted you to understand why I’m concerned about your relationship with Rhys. Besides, you only have to be Lila for a couple more days. I can deal with it until then.”
Rhys entered the kitchen and stopped mid-stride. “Who are you?” He pointed at the blonde.
“It’s me, Rhys,” Alexi said. “We were practicing shifting. Lessons, you know?”
In that moment, Delaney loved her for covering their conversation. “You can shift back,” she told Alexi.
Alexi’s form melted into Lila.
