Eye of the Falcon (Psychic Visions #12)(53)

“You killed someone,” she whispered. But he wasn’t close enough to hear.

Maybe she needed a hot bath. That might take the chill away from her soul. But she doubted it. Her mind was caught up in images from both her past and present. Stefan was there on the edges. He seemed to come from a more advanced belief system than she had.

It was hard to imagine what he was capable of. She couldn’t even remember how her relationship with Hadrid had developed. Or what she’d done to make it so close. She hadn’t been able to duplicate it in all the years since either. What she had with Roash was like water to rich cream. Hadrid had bonded to her in a way she’d never understood and hadn’t even tried to understand. She’d just accepted it.

She froze at that. Was that what Stefan meant? To not try so hard? Just to accept?

At the same time, memories of her mother in bed with another man while Issa stood guard all alone for her father and brothers consumed her. Had her mother loved Angus? Or had it been a way to get back at her husband? Or maybe it was a few warm moments in a cold lifetime. Either way, it added to Issa’s confused feelings. She’d had a civil relationship with her mother, but it certainly hadn’t been a loving relationship—at least not on her mother’s side. How sad was that? They could’ve been so much more. It was almost as if, every time her mother saw Issa, her mother was reminded of her own failures. She’d complained bitterly about the lack of time Issa spent with her, but, when Issa was with her mother, they hadn’t even spent it together. Like her mother had used guilt to keep Issa close just to keep punishing her.

For Issa, every time she saw her mother, she was reminded of everything she’d lost. And at the top of that list, right or wrong, was Hadrid.

*

Eagle made a cup of tea, carried it carefully into her room. He placed it on the night table. He could even hear her teeth chattering. He stood for a long moment and stared down at her. “Do you want a hot bath? Or do you want me to get in bed with you and hold you?”

She tried to answer, but nothing made it past the chattering.

He kicked off his shoes, walked around to the bed, crawled underneath the covers and wrapped her in his arms, pulling her tight against him. With his legs wrapped around hers fully, she was tucked into a fetal position, and he used his body heat to try to warm her. It amazed him to see just how cold she was—the chill seeping through her cheeks and neck.

“We’ll try this for a moment,” he murmured, letting his warm breath soak into her neck and face and icy cheeks. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll try a hot bath again.”

She nodded and took his hand to pull it more fully around her. The chill of her fingers made him wince. What had sent her into shock? Could it have been her trances? He didn’t know who to ask. He suspected Gray wouldn’t have a clue. Neither would Annie. He closed his eyes and relaxed, trying to will her body to absorb his own heat, mentally surrounding her with big thermal blankets, the two of them in a cocoon against the world.

“I’m so sorry you’ve had such a miserable time,” he whispered against her temple. “I’d have given anything for you not to have been through that.”

He could feel her shoulders shaking, and, with so much chattering, he knew she couldn’t talk.

“I can tell you that I tracked the blood back to the highway. I never saw a body. And I think whoever was hurt had a friend helping him.”

She jerked in surprise.

“I doubt my security system killed anyone,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean his cohort didn’t finish the job and bury him somewhere deep.”

He didn’t know if it was his body heat or his words, but she slowly stopped shaking.

Several minutes later, he said, “If you think you can sit up, let’s get some warm tea into you.”

With his help, she leaned against the headboard with the top blanket wrapped around her shoulders, the rest of the covers pulled up to her chest. Now out of the bed, he sat down on the opposite side and pulled the tea closer.

He took a sip and nodded. “It’s perfect. See if you can get a couple sips down.”

Her hands were still blue and, as long as he helped support the cup, it didn’t shake too badly when she grasped it. She took one sip, gave a small smile, and took another big one. As her body slowly eased from her frostbite stage into just plain cold, she said, “I have no idea what just happened. I’ll blame it on Stefan.”

“Stefan? Did he call?”

She snorted. “If that’s what you call it. I don’t know what kind of psychic he is. I swear to God, he filled the room with his conversation. Or maybe it just felt like that. He was talking inside my mind—or something like that.” She shook her head and leaned back, closing her eyes. “How is it possible he could do that?”

“This from the woman who can communicate with falcons.”

Her gaze flew open, and she studied Eagle for a long moment. “That’s normal. It’s natural for me. It’s all I’ve ever known.”

He gave her a lopsided smile. “Sweetie, that’s not normal for anyone else.”

She frowned and dropped her gaze to the cup in her hand. She gently swirled a finger around the rim of the cup. “It took me a long time to realize that. But for me …”

“And maybe for Stefan, whatever it is he does, is normal for him.”