One True Mate: Shifter's Solace (Kindle Worlds Novella)(9)

“Just one question,” Ivy said in a small voice. She didn’t think she was going to like the answer. “What does ‘moonstruck’ mean?”

“Moonstruck?” Rory frowned. “It’s a kind of madness that can strike shiften, or the One True Mates if they aren’t found in time.”

“Oh,” said Ivy. She swallowed. “In that case, I think it might be too late.”

Rory rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, sending little shivers of arousal over her skin. A trickle of moisture dampened her panties, and she silently cursed herself for allowing him to get under her skin.

“What do you mean, it’s too late?” he said gently. “You called for me, and I came. I found you.”

“I called for you?” she murmured. His pupils were blossoming pools of blackness in the vivid blue of his irises as he gazed at her.

“In your head,” he explained. “We call it ruhi. You called for help, and I heard you, and I came.” I’ll always come for you, Ivy.

He hadn’t spoken that last sentence. Not out loud. Had she really heard it inside her head? Or was it just another symptom of her mind slipping away?

Her heart was like a panicky bird in her chest, and her voice shook as she replied. “You were too late, Rory. I think I’ve already gone mad.”

She saw the firefighters exchanging concerned glances. Well, if she was right and she’d inherited her mother’s mental illness, she’d better get used to that.

“You seem pretty sane to me,” Ben told her. “Kept your shit together – more or less – when you found out about shiften. Clearly revolted by Rory taking his pants off. Not noticeably foaming at the mouth.” She could hear the concern under the banter, though.

“I’ve been having hallucinations,” she told them. “Before the fire started, I saw… Well, I saw spiders. Thousands of them, running over the piles of paper and trailing flames behind them. I…”

She trailed off as she saw the looks of pure horror on the guys’ faces.

“Okay, it’s not that weird. Why are you all looking at me like I’ve got two heads?”

“Khain,” said the Chief. “Jake, Jasper, lock this place down. I want it airtight. Rory, Ben – watch the girl. Brady, with me. We’re gonna notify Wade Lombard.”

Ivy disentangled her hand from Rory’s as the men scrambled to their feet and bolted into action.

“What’s happening?” she demanded. “What does he mean, lock the place down? You said I could go once you’d explained everything.”

Ben shook his head. “Sorry, doll, not happening. Not today.”

“That was before,” Rory explained. “Before we knew for sure that Khain’s after you.”





Chapter Eight


“So this demon, Khain, controls spiders.” Ivy shook her head. “This is completely crazy, you know.”

“But you’re not,” Rory said. He was sitting beside her on the couch, so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body. “And yeah, controls them, or manifests as them…either or both. And he likes to play with fire.” The expression on his face was grim. A little muscle twitched in his square jaw, and Ivy wondered if he was remembering the fire he’d pulled her from.

But of course he was a fireman. A hero. Burning buildings were just part of the working day to him, so that couldn’t be what was upsetting him.

Ben put a big scrapbook on the table and opened it, displaying headlines and stories cut from newspapers and pasted in. “The wolven have a much bigger collection,” he said. “This is just a handful of the crimes and disasters we’re sure Khain had a hand in. Shiften law forbids us to write down our history, but it doesn’t say anything about scrapbooking.” He grinned, and she couldn’t help smiling back.

Growing up in group homes, she’d developed a knack for spotting “types”. The leader, the follower, the peacemaker, the shit-stirrer. It was a quick way to get a read on group dynamics, and that was a survival skill. She’d pegged Ben right away as the trickster – the class clown who had a smart mouth and an attitude that belied his loyalty and generosity of spirit. She thought that she could trust him…insofar as she trusted any of them. Her vision kept rising in her mind. The animal scent and the feeling of fear, of evil.

She leaned forward and examined the headlines displayed on the page.

FIRE KILLS 12

FREAK EXPLOSION LEVELS CITY BLOCK, 20 MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD

NEW, PLAGUE-LIKE DISEASE EMERGING

SARS EPIDEMIC FEARED

SWINE FLU PANDEMIC SPREADING

EXPLOSIVES FOUND IN TOY, PROMPTING MASSIVE RECALL

BATTERY PLANT EXPLODES, ENTIRE CITY EVACUATED

TERRORIST BLAMED FOR EXPLOSION THAT BROUGHT DOWN CHICAGO SKYSCRAPER

POISONED CITY: FLINT WATER CRISIS GROWS DEADLY

“And he burned the shop specifically to kill me?”

“Maybe,” Rory said. He pressed a little closer to her, and she thought she felt him shiver. “Or maybe he would have snatched you at the last moment and…done something worse.”

She didn’t have to ask what that meant. Growing up in group homes also meant she had a sound working knowledge of all the horrible things people did to each other. Did especially to the vulnerable and isolated.