GPS protocols were required on all vehicles, though they could be disconnected legally in many areas. He didn’t have high hopes of Lenny catching anything, but it was worth taking the chance.
“I got you, Sheriff,” Lenny answered. “I’ll let you know if we catch anything.”
He pulled out of the parking lot, hitting the main street as he headed home. Lance cracked open his window, and for the first time in his life, he deliberately opened his mind to the whispers flowing on the wind.
A world of secrets, of pain, happiness and fears could be heard in the winds, his grandfather had once told him. If he listened close, then the wind would bring him what he needed, but only if he was willing to hear what it had to say.
He had never been willing before. Lance had fought the secrets of the wind, and his place as its chosen child. He had believed he could live without it, and perhaps he could, but he knew that saving Harmony was more important than his reluctance to follow something as unseen as the air around him.
As he drove, he let the wind blow around him, curling around his body, and Harmony’s, before he detected the whisper at his ear. There were no words, there was the whisper of her cry, but he had heard that before. Behind the cry, though, was the secret he searched for, the whisper of deceit. And the warning.
He was being watched. Lenny hadn’t reported on the GPS, which meant control wasn’t picking up the tail, but the winds whispered the knowledge.
He grimaced at the illusive whispers. There were no answers, and that was the part that had driven his reluctance over the years. There were no answers, no proof, nothing to hold on to to give him what he needed to solve the problems he faced.
He was a sheriff. He dealt in facts, in proof. A whisper of danger, or a ragged cry that only he could hear, and a strong intuition weren’t enough to arrest a man. They weren’t enough reason to pull the trigger.
He had learned that years before in Chicago, deployed with the highly advanced SWAT team. His scope centered on a suspect, he had ignored the demand that he pull the trigger. He had fought the winds whispering at his ear, tugging at his trigger finger. Seconds later, a mother and her unborn child had died. A casualty to a bastard terrorist determined to take out as many innocents as possible.
And now the winds were at his ear again, a subtle scream of horror, pain and warning. And in those winds he heard Harmony’s name.
Glancing over at her, he sighed heavily. She was slumped against the door, boneless, nearly unconscious with exhaustion. That depth of weariness wasn’t caused by the heat alone. She had been running on nerves and sheer will alone for too long.
Did she ever sleep?
He heard the answer in the wind. She ran, she fought, and even in sleep she was on guard. Until now.
She was weak, she had whispered. Unable to fight, and she was scared by that weakness.
As he drove to the edge of town and headed for home, Lance knew that protecting Harmony would mean more than just protecting her from whatever danger now followed them. It would mean protecting her from herself. Because Harmony would try to run. Once she awoke, once the heat had settled down, fear would tear her from him, no matter her desire to stay.
Was this the reason Jonas had brought her to him?
Lance frowned at the thought, wondering how the hell the other man could have known there would be a chance of this happening.
He felt the wind curl around his arm then, a whispery stroke that reminded him of the blood and saliva samples the Breed scientist, Elyiana, had taken from him the year before, after Braden had worked on the force. According to her and Jonas, it was required by any law enforcement official working closely with the Breeds.
It was a ruse. He sensed it, heard the whispered affirmation at his ear. Jonas had been planning this for a while, but why?
There were no answers there. There was only the cry, shattered, broken, a wail of soul-deep agony that caused his heart to clench, and his spirit to ache. It was Harmony’s pain.
CHAPTER 6
“She was better off sleeping through it…”
“Exhaustion. She hasn’t slept in two weeks that I know of…”
“Goddammit, no one sleeps twenty-four hours…”
The voices slid through Harmony’s consciousness as she felt a cold burn building in certain parts of her body. Her thighs. Arms. Along her neck. Her tongue. Which was odd as hell.
It felt as though an icy fire were building beneath the flesh in those areas. It was drawing her slowly from the heavy sleep she was encased in, forcing her to reality despite the obvious reluctance of her body to awaken.
But it was becoming irritating. That cold burn. Irritating enough that she frowned and forced her eyes to open.
Her gaze focused on the Breed scientist Elyiana Morrey, and Lance. Lance looked haggard. Ely, curious.
She stared around Lance’s bedroom.
“It’s about damned time you woke up,” Lance snapped. “Don’t you have to use the bathroom or something?”
The incongruous question had her blinking up at him.
“Why am I here?” She turned her gaze to the scientist. “Why are you here?”
Ely’s lips twitched.
“I’m here because Jonas ordered me not to be.” The smug satisfaction in her expression brought a frown to Harmony’s face.
“Why are you here?” she asked again.
“She’s here to begin the hormonal treatments you need to keep from conceiving,” Lance finally answered for the doctor. “She stayed when you hadn’t woken up through her examination.”
Harmony’s fingers curled in the blanket at her side.
“You examined me while I slept?” And she hadn’t known it? Hadn’t sensed it?
She swallowed tightly as she stared up at Lance. He was watching her with tormented eyes, his expression heavy with worry.
“It was easier for you that way,” Ely answered. “The examinations are very painful after the mating heat begins. This way, you didn’t suffer.”
“I would have been fine.” She couldn’t remember any dreams. She looked at Lance again, but she couldn’t tell from his expression if she had spoken in her sleep or not.
“Either way, the tests are completed.” Ely shrugged. “You seem to be in fine shape other than a bit of anemia that you’re still suffering from. You haven’t been taking the vitamins I gave you, have you?”
“Sure I have.” Yeah. Right.
Ely snorted. “I found the bottle in your bag, Harmony. They’ve been untouched. But no worries, the hormonal therapy will set that to rights.”
She moved to the black bag sitting open on the dresser across the room. “One of these a day for this first month. The mating hormones are showing up in high concentrations in your blood and fluids.” She lifted the vial of pills where Harmony could see them before moving back to the bed. “You’ve been on injections for the past twenty-four hours, which probably explains why the heat allowed you to sleep. These will prevent conception and allow you to function through the more debilitating symptoms. Though hiding from another Breed will still be impossible.”
Harmony watched as the doctor set the vial of pills beside the bed.
“What is the mating heat?” she asked then. “Why is it doing this?”
Ely glanced at Lance, as though needing his permission to reply.
“He didn’t ask you.” Harmony tried to insert strength into her voice, but she felt as strong as a wet noodle at the moment.
Ely’s lips twitched. “You remind me of Jonas when you use that tone. And that’s not a compliment.”
“It wasn’t taken as one,” Harmony growled. “Answer me.”
“It’s a bonding.” Ely tucked her hands into the pockets of her white lab jacket as she stared down at her. “Nature’s way of ensuring that you stay with the male she chose for you. From what we’ve been able to figure out, it’s an emotional and pheromone-based reaction. We’re still working on it.” She shrugged again as a regretful smile curved her lips. “There is no cure, and no way to escape it.”