Cassie blinked and turned back to her quickly, only now realizing that her attention had been focused on the two spirits tied to the other woman.
“I’m sorry.” Shaking her head, she smiled, a bit abashed. “My attention drifted.”
“What do you see?” The immediate question was almost a whisper, and one filled with trepidation. “Tell me who you see, Cassie.”
“Not yet, Cassie,” the true spirit belonging to the woman, Honor, turned to her quickly once more, beseeching, her voice pleading though her expression was filled with demand. “Chaos hasn’t arrived yet. You have to wait.”
“It’s not so much what I see, as what I sense.” Cassie focused on the other woman with a sigh.
She had learned long ago not to disobey the spirits that came to her when they made such demands. She had no idea the fate that awaited this woman, nor did she know the part the two spirits were to play.
“Then what do you sense?” There was an edge of fear, but her voice was filled with the need to know, to understand what was happening to the life she had once thought she’d known.
Cassie glanced at the wavering figures, their somber faces, the aching fear and uncertainty that shadowed them.
“Cassie, those who did this, those who hid me and gave her the life Liza was unable to live, knew what they were doing, just as they knew what was coming,” Honor whispered as the two forms began wavering, dissipating slowly. “Let me be safe, Cassie. Please, please let me and Stygian be safe.”
If anything happened to the woman known as Liza Johnson, if she died, then Stygian would follow her, Cassie knew. He was an intense Breed, known as a lone wolf, and he had mated this woman. He had given himself to her body and soul. If he lost her, then the Breeds would lose him.
The two slowly eased away, disappearing slowly as the woman known as Liza watched her with curious uncertainty.
“What do you see?” Liza asked again softly, almost too softly to hear, as though she were frightened of what was coming.
Cassie sighed wearily. “I didn’t come here to see anything, Liza. Stygian is one of my dearest friends, as are Jonas and Rachel. I’ve been worried about all of you and wanted to make certain there was nothing I could do to help.”
Why was she here?
Cassie wanted to rage, to scream. The spirits she had seen today were not the ones that needed her the most. Yet, the moment she had met Stygian, she had felt these two tied to him.
Was there another?
She looked around the room, opening her senses, calling out to any other that could be lurking, frightened to reveal themselves.
But there was nothing there.
There was no other spirit lurking in the room, no areas in the small sitting room that seemed blurred, or wavering. There was no hint of paranormal presence, and yet Cassie could still feel that cry, the one that resonated within her senses the moment Jonas had called with Stygian’s request. “If there was anything you could do to help, then only Stygian is aware of it.” Liza sighed as she pulled her long hair over a bared shoulder and sat back against the couch.
The sleeveless cotton top and jeans the other woman wore looked cool and comfortable, but Liza was anything but comfortable at the moment. She was off balance, and she felt that way because of Cassie’s presence.
“If there’s nothing I can do, then I’ll go see Rachel and Jonas.” Standing to her feet, Cassie looked around the room once more, searching, wondering where the presence that had called out to her was hidden.
Liza rose as well, her expression drawn, the tension that was tearing her apart inside evident in the set of her face and the shadows in her eyes.
“If you need me, Liza, I am really good at keeping secrets,” Cassie promised her sincerely. “I can be a very good friend.”
“I’ve heard that about you as well.” The small smile Liza gave her was one that assured Cassie that the other woman at least believed her, even if she wasn’t willing to take her up on the offer.
“Ask Stygian to call me later then?” Cassie asked as she headed for the door.
“Are you going to tell him something you didn’t tell me?” Liza stopped her with the question.
Turning back, Cassie couldn’t help but smile. “If I did, Liza, he’s your mate, and I know Stygian well enough to know that he would tell you anything I might tell him.”
Relief scented the air as Liza nodded, some of the tension easing out of her as Cassie left the room.
Now what? she thought as her father met her outside the door. Why the hell did it seem so important that she be here?
As the elevator stopped on the fifth floor and the doors slid open smoothly, Stygian was immediately aware of the additional security forces along the floor.
Dash had been slowly amassing his own pack to ensure the protection of his family. Cassie was one of the most valuable members of the Breed community, simply because of their love for her.
As a child, she had managed to pull Sanctuary as well as Haven together and created bonds that had become unbreakable as she matured.
She had been the only hybrid Wolf Breed child for many years, and was accepted as the Feline Prides’ adopted child due to the months Dash and Elizabeth Sinclair had been forced to leave her in their care.
As a young adult and the only Breed who seemed to have the ability to effectively argue Breed law without revealing the secrets it hid and protected, she had become even more important.
Nodding to the additional Wolf Breeds who lined the hall leading to Jonas’s suite, Stygian made his way to the entrance, stepping inside as the probationary enforcer opened the door for him.
“Stygian!” The happy cry sang from Cassie’s voice as she jumped from her chair, her long black hair flying around her too delicate form as she raced across the room.
Dressed in jeans, white sneakers, and a white T-shirt claiming BREEDS RULE, in black, she looked more like a kid than a young woman rapidly approaching her twenty-first birthday.
She stopped inches from him, her blue eyes twinkling teasingly as she stared up him.
“You dog,” she accused him with a grin. “You went and mated and now I can’t even give you a hug. Tell me you’re totally happy and I’ll forgive you.”
Stygian couldn’t help but laugh. Cassie had a way about her that simply invited laughter.
“Come here, imp.” Despite the vague irritation that came with holding a woman other than his mate after mating, he still gathered Cassie’s slight form into his arms as she threw hers around his neck. “Trust me, I’m totally happy in my mate. Now, how have you been, sweetheart?”
No one who knew the fragile young woman could dislike her. She was filled with charm and compassion, and despite the ever-present shadows in her eyes, she spread happiness wherever she went.
“I’ve been completely bored now that Styx has mated,” she told him as she stepped back with a little pout. “Who am I supposed to cause trouble with now?”
Stygian grinned back at her. Styx Mackenzie, the red-haired Scot Breed, had been her partner in crime for all her hijinks until he had mated the year before.
“I’m sure Breeds are standing in line to help you cause trouble.” He chuckled before turning to her father and clasping the hand held out to him. “Dash, good to see you.”
The man was black-haired, blue-eyed, standing over six feet tall and still in his prime despite the fact that he was now in his forties.
Mating, as with all Breeds, seemed to have frozen him into the age he had been when he mated the human Elizabeth Colder.
Just as it had delayed her aging as well.
“Elizabeth, you’re as beautiful as ever,” Stygian swore as he passed the back of his hand over the silk of her hair where it flowed to her right shoulder.