“Ms. Sinclair, I’m certain you’re here to help,” she said tensely. “But you’re not someone I can deal with right now. If I wanted to talk to any ghosts that followed me, then I have six tribal chiefs that would be more than willing to talk to me.”
“Oh yeah, right, like they’re going to give her any answers.” The young blonde beside her rolled her eyes sarcastically. “Those old geezers won’t even take her phone calls when she gets up the nerve to call them.”
“Are you certain they’re that willing to help?” Cassie asked as she withdrew her hands from her back pockets and moved to a nearby chair. “Have they been answering the calls you’ve made to them?”
Liza smiled faintly. “Jonas probably told you he compromised my phone the second he had the chance. He’s known all along I was trying to reach the chiefs.”
Cassie nodded at that as Liza sat slowly on the couch across from her.
“He didn’t mention it actually,” she said, her smile commiserating. “But knowing Jonas, I have no doubt he did just that. He’s very worried about Amber.”
“You could draw that damned Breed a road map and he’d still ignore the obvious,” the dark-haired vision cursed Jonas, as most fully living creatures did as well. “He wouldn’t listen if he could see and hear us, as well. He’s like one of those junkyard dogs that just refuse to let something go.”
“Amber’s his little girl.” The other vision sighed as she berated the darker one. “He can’t let this go, and you know it.”
“Just as you know that he’s refusing to see the truth,” Honor’s spirit stated irritably.
It was all Cassie could do to keep her expression from revealing her complete amazement at these two. It was no wonder the woman they knew as Liza Johnson couldn’t navigate her way through the drifting nightmares and fragmented memories to find the place she needed to be.
To remember.
“There is a time and a place, Cassie.” Honor’s spirit suddenly turned to her, the wavy, hazy figure all but glaring at her as though she had read her thoughts. “The time has not yet arrived.”
But the place was here? Was that what she meant?
“Ms. Sinclair, did you hear me?” the woman known as Liza questioned her, a hint of her irritation showing in her tone.
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.