Heat (The Grizzly Brothers Chronicles Book 2)

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  “He’s the most wanted Pteron anywhere. We’ve been searching for him. Maybe together we can bring him in.” Casey became animated. “This may be the chance we’ve been waiting for.”

  “The great and almighty Society can’t find their own man?” I usually let Tyler deal out the sarcasm, but he wasn’t around, and I was having a very bad day.

  “He’s not our man.” Toby said pointedly. “And you will speak to my wife with respect.”

  “My disrespect is not to your wife.”

  “Then speak to her as if that’s true.”

  I nodded. My issue wasn’t with Casey, and I needed to watch myself. “I need to find Mara.”

  “And I understand that. I’ve been where you are. Desperate to find the woman you love. You’ll find her once we figure out Bryant’s motivation to take her. Why would he want the mate of a bear?” Toby asked.

  Noah and I exchanged looks. I nodded and let out a deep breath. “Because she comes from a line of Séancers.”

  “Comes from a line?” Toby’s brow furrowed. “Can she perform the gifts?”

  “We don’t know,” I admitted. “That wasn’t my concern. Protecting her was.”

  “Connor thinks she’ll be able to. We should let them talk to him.” Noah nodded toward my front door.

  “Connor?” Casey asked. “Who’s that?”

  “The bear who dragged her out here—put her in danger. He was going to give her to another pack to pay her father’s debt.” And I would get her father back for what he did. What kind of man gambled with his own daughter? Not one that deserved a long life.

  “Man, you have a messed up situation here.” Toby shook his head.

  “So do you. Since you are the ones who lost Bryant.” Noah crossed his arms. “Let us remember that.”

  “Technically it is partially my fault. I was there the night he escaped.” Casey’s expression darkened. “But that’s the past.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.” Toby gently touched her arm. “You know that.”

  “I know it wasn’t my fault, but I was there. That puts some of this blood on my hands. But that doesn’t matter. We need to find him and Mara. Where is this Connor?” She looked around.

  “He’s inside.” Noah gestured to my door.

  “Bring him out.” I didn’t need to have anything go down inside my house. Then I remembered how easily Bryant had swooped in. “On second thought, let’s go inside.” I opened the door. It was my house, and no one else was going in first.

  “Jasper, we have company.” I called out to my brother who was keeping watch over our prisoner.

  “I know.” Jasper appeared in the doorway of the back room. “I figured you didn’t want me leaving Connor alone to come out to meet them.”

  “You thought right.” I could count on Jasper to follow orders and make smart split second decisions.

  Jasper walked out, towing Connor whose hands and feet were once again bound with rope. A cotton rag over his mouth meant one thing: He’d said something stupid to Jasper.

  “This is the bear who brought Mara here?” Casey pointed to Connor.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “Told her it was for a job opportunity.” All the men in Mara’s life had let her down. I wouldn’t be another one of them.

  “May I remove the gag?” Casey gestured to the cloth covering his mouth.

  “Sure.”

  Toby removed the cloth.

  Connor took in a deep breath. “Who are your new friends?”

  “Why did you bring Mara here?” Casey didn’t waste a second before beginning her interrogation.

  “So she could stop hiding.” Connor’s face was serious. “She had no abilities. They skipped her. Once Willem found out he’d toss her aside, and she could move on. I did this for her own good.” He was talking to me, trying to convince me so I’d let him go. He had another thing coming. I didn’t believe him for one second.

  “Bull shit.” I called him out on it. “You brought her here for your own gain.”

  “Turns out you’re the one who wants to gain.” Connor’s eyes darkened.

  I slammed him into the wall. “You going to say that again?”

  “Going to fight a man when he’s tied up? Real classy. I’m sure Mara would—”

  I released him “Don’t even say her name. She’s in danger because of you. The Pteron wouldn’t have known she existed if you hadn’t agreed to bring her to Willem.”

  “Willem had known she existed for years. And if it wasn’t him it would have been someone else. You know that as well as I do.”

  “But not now.”

  “You mean not until you’d made her your mate so no one else could work with her?”

  “What do you mean ‘work with her’?” Casey asked. “I don’t know all the details about how this thing works.”

  “Once a bear mates with a Séancer, the ability of others to work with her or him is limited,” Noah explained.

  “Which is why you didn’t mate with her yourself.” Toby turned to Connor. “You would have been punished. But you planned to later.”

  Connor bristled. “No. I would have left her future and choices in her hands.”

  “Because you didn’t think she had any power.” Casey appeared to believe him about as much as I did.

  “Stop pretending you understand my motivations.” Connor growled.

  “Bryant took her because he thought she could help him, so what would he do first? Make sure she could help.” Casey apparently was ignoring Connor’s growl.

  I could play along with that. “How would he do that? A Pteron wouldn’t know the first thing about getting the abilities of a Séancer to work.”

  “But another Séancer would. I guarantee that’s what he did.” Toby nodded. “It’s what my grandfather would have done.” Toby looked down.

  “Your grandfather?” I asked. “What does your grandfather have to do with this?”

  “He was evil incarnated. I know a thing or two about men who do bad things.”

  “I’ll repeat what you said to me. None of that was your fault.” Casey patted his arm.

  This couple had some serious baggage, but who was I to talk? I had a hell of a lot of my own. But that didn’t mean I was going to sit around and listen to it. “Therapy hour is over. You think he’d have searched for another Séancer. Who would he have turned to in order to find one?”

  “He has no friends left in The Society. They’ve all been pushed out.” Casey sounded completely confident in that, so for the time being I’d assume she was right.

  “He’d look for someone desperate. Someone who needed a favor and would do anything in return.”

  “I know someone who fits the bill.” Connor’s expression darkened.

  “Anyone you tell us is probably going to send us on a wild goose chase.” I didn’t trust him.

  “I care about her. I know you can’t get your bull head around that, but I do.”

  “Do you have any other ideas?” Toby asked.

  “No, not at all,” I admitted.

  “Then we try whatever name he gives first.” Toby pointed to Connor. “If he’s lying we’ll deal with that later.”

  “I do have other leads on finding Willem since Connor is useless on that front.” I glared at him.

  “We should have Jared interrogate him,” Casey mumbled under her breath.

  “Jared? As in Vera’s mate?” I knew that name.

  “Yes.” Casey nodded.

  “Before you interrogate me, give me a chance.” Connor looked panicked. “We need to find Lochlan. If he’s not the one, he’ll know who is. He knows everything about his people.”

  “And you know where to find this Lochlan?” Casey raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes. Well, I know a place to start.”

  “Then let’s go.” Toby said exactly what I was thinking.

  15

  Mara

  I suddenly felt something tug at the corner of my mind. It was dark and strong, and I knew I needed to sta
y away from it. I tried breaking out of the trance like state I was in to get help, but that seemed to be getting me nowhere. Now I felt a darkness, and I was even more determined to get Lochlan involved.

  I tried to break the image of the floating, but the image was stuck in my mind, like a backdrop glued to my brain. I was stuck, and there was nothing I could do. The darkness grew stronger, until it seemed to surround me completely.

  "Yes. Run away, little girl. Run away and never come back." The voice was raspy and had a temperature to it, searing heat I could feel all the way through my body.

  The waves I was floating in intensified, rocking me back and forth.

  "Go. You aren't wanted here. She doesn't need you."

  She. Netta. The thought kept me from letting go of the floating. "Who are you?"

  "That of your most frightening nightmares."

  I shivered.

  "Run. I'll give you a head start. I’ve been sleeping so long you may make it out—this time."

  I wanted to listen. I wanted to run away and never come back, but I couldn't. Not yet. Instead I went with a hunch that was gnawing at me.

  "Bobby?"

  He chuckled. It was a sound nearly as frightening as most people's screams would be. "I haven't heard that name in years."

  "What are you?" He wasn't human, I was sure of that. Nothing human could cause fear in me the way he could. My terror was making my entire body hurt.

  "I told you that of your nightmares." The searing heat was now combined with a coldness that seeped deep inside me.

  I fought off the discomfort and forced myself to reply. "There are many things in my nightmares." I held onto courage I hadn't realized I had.

  "Should I reveal myself? Is that what you want, little girl?" I felt something sharp moving down my arm—like a knife cutting me, but I saw nothing. Everything was black.

  "I am not a little girl." And no one, not even a terrifying presence was going to call me that.

  "Yes you are,” He railed on. "You are small and powerless in my wake. I can do and take anything from you.”

  "Why are you speaking with me?" If I was so powerless why would he waste his time?

  "Because you are where you shouldn't be. I warned you to run. But I should also thank you. You’ve awoken me. I’ve been sleeping for far too long. You should run—unless." He sent another chill through me.

  "Unless what?” I asked in as strong a voice as I could muster. Nothing he could say would be a good thing for me. I was sure of that.

  "Unless you can be useful to me."

  Being useful to this guy—or thing—wasn’t a good thing. “I don’t see how I can be. I’m just a little girl after all.”

  He laughed again, eliciting more chills from me. “Funny girl. So different from the others. You are here. You shouldn’t be. You are also speaking to me. You should have blacked out. That means you are strong. I like strong. You were strong enough to wake me up, so you are strong enough to help me.”

  “You sound just like someone else I know.” Eerily like him, even though I knew this being was far worse than Bryant.

  “So which will it be?”

  “Did I miss a question?”

  “I’m giving you a choice.”

  “What choice?” Either I was only hearing half his words, or he was making an awfully big assumption about how well I could read someone’s mind.

  “Work with me, or run.”

  “What if I do neither?” I stilled the shivering as best I could.

  “I will give you a death worse than any you can imagine.”

  “Like you did to Netta?” I thought about her loneliness, her desperation.

  “Netta?” He answered blankly. “Who is that?”

  “The girl you killed.”

  “I’ve killed many.” He laughed. “So many that easily fell for my words. I always go for the strong ones, yet they are so weak when I use the right form. But you must mean the one you were speaking with when I arrived. She was a fun one. So easy to play with.”

  “Why are you killing them? Why hurt someone who’s done nothing to hurt you?” Anger flowed through me, offsetting some of the fear that was pulsing through my veins like never before.

  “Work with me, and you’ll understand. You could give me what I need. I can give you a chance at greatness.”

  “No.” He’d be worse to work for than Bryant. That was for sure. “I’m not working with you.”

  “Then leave. I will find you again when I decide I need you. Next time saying no will no longer be an option.”

  I didn’t want to leave Netta, but getting myself stuck, or worse, wasn’t going to help her. I pushed with my mind, trying to scream out for help.

  Finally I felt something. Then a bright light. Then I was opening my eyes to find myself in Bryant’s arms.

  I struggled to sit up and get away from him.

  “You’re alive.” Bryant looked down at me with surprise.

  “Was that a question?”

  “Your heart stopped. You had no pulse.” He picked up my wrist and looked at it. “Amazing.”

  “I was dead?” I shivered. That’s when I noticed the red marks that ran down my arms. “What are these?”

  “You tell me.” Bryant ran a finger over one of them. I winced. It felt as if someone was burning me.

  “You might look like your great-grandmother, but you are exactly like your grandfather.” Lochlan watched me from outside the car. “Unbelievable.”

  “My grandfather died and came back?”

  “It’s not really dying. It’s slipping into a death state, but yes. He is the only Séancer I have ever known of with that ability.”

  “And this keeps getting better.” I was still in a daze about what I’d experienced, and it had been real. The lines on my arms proved it.

  “It is better.” Bryant grinned. “This is incredible. Do you realize how powerful you are? What we could do?’

  “Don’t talk to me about working with you, I already had one scary creature ask me to do that.” I shivered remembering the voice. He hadn’t been asking. He’d been giving me a choice of when to start. If I went back to find Netta, he’d be there.

  ‘Scary creature?” Bryant looked closely at the marks on my arm. “Did he do this to you?”

  “What was it?” Lochlan pushed his way into the car so he could get a better look at me. “What do you speak of?”

  “I have no idea what it was, but it was horrible.” I hadn’t seen it, but my other senses had experienced enough to more than make up for the sight. I couldn’t imagine how horrible it would have been to look at.

  “I need details,” Lochlan demanded “Tell me everything.”

  “I didn’t see it; I never see anything when I do that floating thing. I just hear and feel. It’s all blackness like an endless night.”

  “What did you hear?” Bryant still held me, and I didn’t have the energy to keep fighting his hold. I felt like I’d been running for hours. Whatever I’d experienced had drained me.

  “A dark, deep, terrifying voice.” I couldn’t describe the sound in words. It sounded like terror, like fear in a voice.

  “And you felt what?” Lochlan asked gentler this time.

  “Heat, coldness, terror. It did something to me.” I rubbed my arms.

  “You mean those marks?” He leaned in but thankfully didn’t press down on them.

  “More than that. I felt him everywhere. It sounds crazy, but it was almost like he was in my heart.”

  “This whole things sounds crazy. I don’t think feeling something in your heart changes that.” Bryant patted my head. “But more importantly, Lochlan,

  did it kill her? Was that part of what happened?” Bryant rubbed his cheek.

  “I need more details.” Lochlan’s eyes were wide and dazed. “Anything. Tell me more.”

  “I don’t have anything more to describe aside from him being the one who killed the girl I found. I’m sure of it. She’d called him Bobby but that
was a fake name.”

  “Did he say anything else?” Lochlan paled.

  “He said he’d killed many girls, asked me to work with him, and told me if I didn’t he’d give me the worst kind of death. Oh, and he also said he was the things from my nightmares. Are any of these things helping?”

  “I’m not sure that helping is the right word.” He ducked out of the car and disappeared from my sight.

  “He’s coming back, right?” I asked Bryant.

  “Yes. I’ve never seen the man shaken, but you managed it.” Bryant eyed the lines on my arms again. “Not to be sappy, but I’m glad you came back to life.”

  “Gee, thanks. Maybe put me down?” I was getting more and more weirded out by him holding me, especially since we were sitting in the car.

  “Not until Lochlan comes back and assures me you’re not going to die again.”

  “How does holding me prevent me from dying?”

  “I’m not sure, but it seems like it might help.”

  “Why do you care? I mean if I live or die?”

  “You’re worth a lot.” He patted my head again. “A whole lot.”

  Lochlan reappeared. “I’m not sure how much I should tell you.”

  “You should tell me everything considering I’m the one who experienced it.” I was being pushy again, but I didn’t care. I’d survived the most horrifying experience of my life; there wasn’t much worse that Lochlan and Bryant could do to me. Besides send me back to that thing. I shivered again.

  “Fine, if you are ready.”

  “I’m ready.” I sighed. “Even if I don’t want to be.”

  “A Morte Demon. That’s what I think it was.” Lochlan rocked back on his heels. “You said you felt him? Describe that.”

  “Searing heat followed by a coldness that seeped all through me.” Replaying the sensations brought the fear back. As little as I wanted to be near Bryant and Lochlan, I was grateful to not be alone.

  Lochlan cleared his throat. “It was a Morte Demon. You are lucky to be alive.”

  “Um?” I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “What the hell is a Morte Demon?” Bryant adjusted me in his arms.

  “There have only been a few who have met one and survived to tell of it.”