by P. Jameson
“What is it, Josie? Talk to me.”
She shook her head, her eyes wide in disbelief. “No. No… this isn’t right.”
Again, the blinking started, a repetitive motion that took her away from him in that moment. He fucking hated it.
“Josie.”
He reached for her, but when his hand brushed the skin of her arm, she gasped like the dead rising. Tears sprung from her eyes. “Don’t. Don’t touch me. Not now.”
Magic jerked back. What was happening? Did she think him a monster simply because he was different? Was Josie that shallow? He couldn’t see it.
“I would never hurt you,” he said quietly.
She stared at him, her expression aching. “You already did.” Squeezing her eyes closed, she shook her head. “No, not me. Someone… I can’t… do this. Just go, okay?”
Her hands gripped her skull as she hunched over at the waist.
“Josie, please. You’re safe here. None of us would harm—”
She dropped to the floor before he could reach her, twitching and jerking, her body twisting in impossible ways.
“Josie!” Magic fell to his knees beside her, but he was no help.
All that was visible was the whites of her eyes. Her jaw was clenched tight, and gurgling sounds came from her throat.
A seizure.
His heart locked up his chest, refusing to beat properly. His cat pawed at him to do something, to save her.
Mine. Mine.
Magic jerked at the animal’s declaration, shocked. It was impossible for him to bond with another female, but his heart refused to deny it. With her like this, hurting and helpless, it was everything he could do not to fall apart.
The panther roared, demanding him to accept it. Miiiiine.
Had he caused this somehow? Had he hurt her by telling her the truth? Her words haunted him.
I won’t hurt you.
You already did.
There would be time to figure it out later. Figure out why his chest felt like it was being ripped apart from the inside. Right now he had to get help for her.
Carefully, he turned Josie onto her side, and ran for the door, throwing it open to yell down the hall.
“Gash!” His tone echoed off the walls, a command. He didn’t care if he woke up the entire place.
The door to the security room flew open and the cat stepped into the corridor. One look at Magic’s face, and he was instantly on high alert, his entire countenance changing into something fierce.
“Boss?”
“It’s Josie. Something’s wrong. Get Doc Davis. Now,” Magic barked. “And Bethany.” Spinning, he ran back to Josie’s side, kneeling over her and cradling her head to keep it from banging against the hardwood floor.
“Shit. Hang on, baby. Doc’s coming.” Tears pricked his eyes, and he realized it was the first time he’d felt this much since Mandi died.
He let his big hand brush over Josie’s hair as she continued to twitch. He was helpless to do anything but wait, and feel the cat trying to shred him from the inside.
“I’m right here,” he murmured. “Hold on.”
Chapter Six
Things were clicking into place faster than Josie’s mind could comprehend them. With every thought, she was three seconds behind. The information kept slamming into her and piling up until she was buried under it and suffocating.
It all started with her accident. The night she’d had her first seizure. The one that sent her driving into a lane of oncoming traffic. The one that almost killed her. Did kill her. For a life-changing thirty seconds.
Her near death experience wasn’t how so many people described. There was no tunnel with a white light. There was no door for her to knock on. No floating sensation, like a wispy cloud would sweep her away to heaven. No angels. No demons.
There was only a storm.
A dark night. A swirling vortex, like her life was being flushed down a toilet, but she never quite made it to the dank sewers. She hadn’t fought it though. They say don’t go into the light, but no one ever warns you about the storm. Maybe they figure it’s ominous enough to leave off the warning. Even with the lightning and thunder, even with the ferocious winds and the spattering of warm rain, she wasn’t scared.
She’d spun until all her memories were wrung from her. Her childhood, and parents who’d spoiled her too much. Christmases she’d long forgotten. Thanksgiving dinners with burnt Turkey, she’d choked down to spare her mother’s feelings. Her friendship with Beth. That time they’d pranked Mr. Solomon senior year and damn near gotten expelled for it. Her one-time crush on Ryan… that lasted an hour tops. Because once he got to talking, she realized he was friend material. Someone she could depend on.
When all her life lay before her, twisting in the same furious tornado, angling for the center, the drain that would take her to the end… that was when she’d heard it.
The weeping.
The saddest sound the world had ever heard. Heartbreak like she’d never experienced. Tragedy and regret that had no way of making restitution. A soul lost and wandering, unable to settle into death. One that ached so deeply to right a wrong, it could never escape the storm.
It wasn’t her. But it would be.
Josie was young, but had lived well. Her time had been good, full of memories that left her smiling, blushing, happy, and full. She was done. It was her time, and she was ready.
She’d closed her eyes, waiting for the storm to sweep her away.
Except it didn’t.
A desperate roar split the air. So powerful that somehow, the storm gave way, the vortex splitting like the Red Sea had for Moses. Josie felt a massive paw at her back and was swatted from the turmoil of death as easily as if she were a fly.
That was when she fought.
Blindly, because everything had gone black. Furiously, she wrestled a beast with fur. A snarling beast with teeth and claws. The vortex was where she belonged. She needed to get back there. With her memories and experiences and everything that was her.
Viciously, she fought, managing to pull pieces of herself back inside her, fitting them together like a jigsaw puzzle, all while the beast struggled to push her farther and farther from the storm.
The thunder faded. The wind slowed.
Josie screamed and kicked, but the beast wouldn’t give. She could feel its desperation. The now or never, give my life for this cause, feeling. There’d be no winning for Josie. The beast was stronger. Had more to lose.
In a flash, the fur was gone but the darkness remained, and Josie had found herself face down in the dirt, a strong body atop her.
The weeping. It wouldn’t cease. The sound was broken and sad. A small crack in the air, seeping with ravaged emotions.
A hand, smaller than hers but a hundred times stronger, held her neck in a vice.
“I’m sorry. Do you understand that?” A woman’s voice spoke at Josie’s ear. “I’m so sorry, and he needs to know. I’ve seen what’s coming, and I’m responsible. This is the only way I can think to help him.”
Who?
Josie hadn’t spoken, but it didn’t seem to matter. The woman heard.
“You’ll know when he finds the bond. The bond will reveal much if you let it. But you must tell him for me, please.” Her voice strained with the plea, desperation ringing in Josie’s ear like an insistent bell. “Tell him how sorry I am. You can feel that, can’t you? How much I wish I hadn’t hurt him?”
Yes.
She could feel everything the woman described. As if she was somehow pushing her feelings into Josie. But she also felt something the woman hadn’t mentioned.
Love. So much love. The kind like Renner and Beth had. The kind that was so intense it made you ache.
The woman held her grip on Josie’s neck while she sobbed. Her hot tears fell onto Josie’s shoulder as she drew in a shaking breath.
“You’re a fighter. Exactly what he needs. A fighter, yes. I’m giving you everything you need to help him. My anim
al. Someday you’ll understand what that means. Until then… you get a second chance at life, hear me? Don’t waste it.” Another sob blasted past her throat. “Do not waste it. The cat will guide you, listen to it. And…” The woman shifted her weight to one side, her voice no longer at Josie’s ear. “I’m sorry, but this is going to hurt.”
There was a quick move, and a feeling of wetness on Josie’s shoulder blade. Then came the pain. She drew in a breath to scream but got a mouthful of dirt instead. All she could do was choke and sputter as agony blistered through her. Her head throbbed from it, her ears roaring with her heartbeat. It seemed like it would never end, the black agony of death.
Then she’d awakened, face down on the side of the road. Sirens blared and colored lights flashed. A paramedic worked on her back where the pain, though duller, was still excruciating. He cautioned her not to move. As though she could even try.
Thirty seconds, they’d said, with no breath. No pulse. And they’d been unable to administer CPR due to the shrapnel stuck in her shoulder.
A couple scars. That’s all she had left of the accident. But she’d never forgotten what happened during that thirty seconds. She’d been given the gift of a second chance, and even though sometimes her friends and family didn’t understand it, she had to live this life to the fullest.
The beast from the storm, the woman who’d attacked her, Josie never believed it to be anything more than her mind playing tricks on her while it struggled to stay alive.
But now…
Now everything was changing. She was changing. She knew things she shouldn’t know. A history that wasn’t hers, and at the center of it all was Magic.
The man she’d felt a connection to since that day she’d first traveled to the lodge with Ryan. The man that intrigued her with his talent for appearing boring when he was actually not. The man who’d lost so much that he’d lost himself.
Somehow, it was her job to help him find what he’d lost. It was her… responsibility. She owed it to the universe for giving her that second chance. But even if she wasn’t indebted, she’d help Magic anyway. Because he trusted her. And maybe he was the only one ever, to really do that.
Josie’s mind continued assaulting her with information while she jerked helplessly on the cold floor. Too much. There was too damn much.
Buried. Slowly, she was being buried. Memory by memory… by memory.
And then one final piece was her undoing.
The moment they’d met. Three Christmases ago. But she didn’t see it through her eyes as a memory should be. Instead, she relived it through his:
Who is she? She needs to leave. I won’t be distracted. I won’t give in to my desires. My mate deserves better.
“This is Magic,” Beth said. “He runs the lodge. Magic, this is my brother Ryan, and that’s… Josie.”
Josie. Mmm.
I know her. She’s… she’s…
Beautiful. Familiar. Need her. Want her. Min—
No.
“Do I know you?”
Josie blinked rapidly. Again and again. “I don’t think so.”
I know her. She’s… important.
Important. Josie was important to Magic.
With that one last piece of knowledge firmly at the forefront of her mind, she was buried.
Information overload. Everything went black.
Chapter Seven
“Talk to me. What do we know?”
Doc Davis shoved Magic out of the way to kneel next to Josie’s limp body.
Before he could answer, several sets of footsteps pounded down the hall, and Beth and Ryan skidded around the doorway.
“Josie,” she croaked, her eyes filling with tears.
“Shit,” Ryan hissed, both hands going to his head as he shuffled from foot to foot.
“She, she… she has seizures. She’s on medicine for it. But it hasn’t happened like this in a long time.” Bethany’s words were rushed with panic.
“How long?” Doc asked, digging in her bag.
“I don’t know for sure. Years, maybe? I don’t know.”
Josie’s head lay still as the lake in winter, cradled in Magic’s hands. He’d made room for Doc, but that was as far as he was going. He was confused as fuck, and his animal wasn’t helping clear things up at all. But he was going to take care of Josie. He was going to make sure she was all right.
“She’s lost consciousness,” Doc murmured, pulling her eyelids back and shining a light in them. “Pupils look good. What happened right before?”
Magic glanced at Bethany, and then back to Doc. “I told her about us.”
Doc frowned. “Us?”
“The clan. That we’re shifters.”
“Shit,” Ryan muttered, pacing in front of the door.
“You did what?” Bethany roared.
Magic glared at her. Now was not the time to throw a fit because he’d let Josie in on their secret.
“Clara let it slip. She thought Josie already knew. I just cleared it up for her, okay.”
Doc adjusted her stethoscope to listen to Josie’s chest.
“We need to get her to a hospital,” Ryan snapped.
Doc frowned, moving the flat part of the stethoscope over the thin fabric of Josie’s shirt. Her expression was pinched and she let out a growl of frustration. Pulling back, she grabbed the t-shirt by the collar, ripping it open to expose Josie’s chest.
Magic drew in a sharp breath. Some territorial instinct pulled at him, with her breasts out for all to see. He knew Doc only cared about helping her, but he wanted to preserve Josie’s dignity as much as possible. His gaze flew to Ryan.
“Turn away,” he growled.
The human’s brow furled. “What the fuck? You turn away.”
A threatening sound ripped from Magic’s throat, and Ryan’s eyes widened. “Stop looking at her.”
“Magic, your eyes,” Bethany said carefully.
His panther was close, and if that bastard Ryan didn’t look away soon, Magic was going to let it out.
“Look,” Doc snapped. “This isn’t helping. I need to be able to hear, so both of you, just shut the fuck up.”
“Ryan,” Bethany urged, and finally he turned.
Magic looked back to Josie. She was so still, but her chest rose and fell with breaths. She was just… sleeping. She’d be fine.
“I’m calling an ambulance,” Ryan murmured, stalking toward the phone on the night stand.
“Don’t.” Doc’s voice was sharp, as she pushed the earpieces farther into her ears to listen. It didn’t make sense. Doc had shifter abilities, she shouldn’t even need the stethoscope to hear Josie’s human heart.
Magic listened himself, tuning out everything else in the room. He heard the rush of air in and out of her lungs. The soft pant of her breath. But her heartbeat…
“Look. No offense, Doc, but she needs a hospital. Like, an actual fucking hospital. For humans.”
Doc shook her head, removing the stethoscope from her ears and bending over to put her nose against Josie’s neck. She took in a deep breath while the phone receiver hung in Ryan’s grip.
“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary,” Doc said, pulling back and using the scraps of Josie’s shirt to cover her chest.
Her gaze skipped to Magic and he could see she was struggling with her words.
“Doc, what is it? Tell me.” His breath, he could only get short bursts into his lungs. His stomach clenched at his friend’s expression, her wide eyes, the way her lips moved wordlessly.
“She’s…”
“Doc?” he snapped. If she didn’t tell him what was happening to his female, he was going to shake it out of her.
“She’s not… human.”
Magic’s breath stalled completely, causing his entire body to register numb. Josie wasn’t human?
No, Doc had it wrong. The woman Magic had known for years was a human. No way would he have missed a detail like that.
“Bullshit,” Ryan snapped.
“You’re wrong, Doc,” Magic managed.
She tilted her head, her brow creasing with worry. “Smell her,” she whispered. “Magic, smell her. Do it.”
He looked down at the female he held in his hands. Josie. The one he knew without knowing. Now Doc was telling him she was something else.
He brushed the hair away from her neck, and bent his head to imprint her scent. Pressing his nose to her jaw, he inhaled deep. His eyes fluttered closed at her scent. Fresh apples and faint perfume, just as he’d expected. It whipped through his body while his panther went wild inside. She smelled like… like… his. She was his.
Magic inhaled once more, needing every molecule of her specific essence deep in his lungs. And that’s when he caught it. Faintly, what Doc smelled. Delicate. Barely there, yet undeniable.
Cat.
And not just any cat. Magic’s cat. Mixed with another. As if he’d claimed and marked her.
He jerked back, his gaze locking on Doc.
“Have you ever…?” she asked.
Claimed her, was what she didn’t say.
“No. Never. I… can’t. You know how it works.” Technically he could have as many women as he wanted, but he could never mark another as his own. That alone belonged to Mandi.
“What is it?” Bethany asked. “What’s going on? Is she okay?”
Magic ignored her. “Why is her scent so faint?”
Doc shook her head. “I have no idea. I just… don’t know. But her scent doesn’t lie, and her heart beats like a shifter’s.”
“A shade.” Owyn’s quiet voice came from the doorway. He leaned against the side, hands jammed in his pockets. “Maybe she’s a shade. Like Tana’s mate.”
Tana had been part of their clan until she ran off to mate a wolf. But shades, shifters raised as humans, weren’t all too common. Shifters didn’t give up their young without a fight. And not many shades made it past their early twenties without learning what they were the hard way. Often their animals forced their way out, needing to finally shift after so many years lying dormant.
