What the hell?
“Where is she? Where did she go?”
Julianne’s head snapped up, her eyes going wide as her pale, pale face jerked in the direction he was certain the woman had stood a moment ago.
He pressed his palm lightly to the top of her head as he visually searched every corner of the room. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
He left her to yank open the closet doors, then bent to look under the bed, but there was no one there.
Shivers ran down his spine. Impossible. No creature still existed that could disappear at will.
“Julianne.” He returned to her, fighting against the need to sweep her into his arms until he understood what he was up against. What they were up against. “Is she gone?”
He felt Julianne freeze, felt the breath catch in her throat. “Who?”
Hell.
“I heard her, Sunshine.” His voice turned hard with warning. He’d had all the subterfuge he could take. “I heard her clearly. Don’t lie to me.” He knelt in front of her, his hands gentle on her shoulders despite the hardness of his tone.
She looked up and met his gaze, her eyes swimming with hopelessness.
“Sweetheart.” He stroked her head and cupped her cheek. “Are you injured?” Therians healed almost any injury within minutes, but there was more going on here than he understood.
To his relief, Julianne shook her head, but her chin began to quiver.
He reached for her, needing to comfort her, then stilled, remembering how badly he’d scared her the last time he was in this room.
“Julianne, I’m going to pick you up. I’m going to hold you. Just hold you.”
Her nod, though small, was enough. He swept her into his arms and strode to the large, over-stuffed chair by the window and sat with her on his lap, tucking her head against his shoulder.
“No more lies, Juli. You’re in trouble, and I’m going to help you. But first you’re going to tell me what’s going on. All of it. Most importantly, you’re going to tell me what you need me to do to help you.”
Zeeland stroked her head, waiting for her to talk to him, but she said nothing.
“Julianne?”
“Just hold me, Zee. Please? I just need you to hold me.”
“No, angel. We’ve been doing this two-step since I got home. You’re going to tell me what’s going on. Now, love.”
“I can’t.” The bleakness in those two words tore at his heart. And drove his frustration. But instead of demanding, yet again, he tried a different tack.
“Why not?”
“Because if I tell you, you’ll die.”
Something deep and tight loosened inside his chest. She wasn’t pushing him away because she was angry with him, or because she no longer wanted him. She’d been pushing him away because she was mistakenly trying to protect him.
He pressed his lips against the soft crown of her head as tenderness flowed through his heart like a swift-moving stream, stealing the last of his doubts. She still cared.
“She’s not going to kill me, Juli. And she’s not going to touch you again. I won’t allow it.” He was a skilled fighter, one of the elite Therian Guard.
But he needed to understand what he was up against. “What is she? She was here, then she was gone.”
“I can’t tell you.”
The misery in her voice made him ache. He kissed her hair. “Then tell me this, at least. What happened when I tried to make love to you? Did I horrify you by my roughness? I need to know that, Juli. I dreamed you told me it wasn’t me you were afraid of. I need to know if that’s true.”
Her soft hand lifted to stroke his cheek. “I’m not afraid of you, Zee. Even when you were a cat, I wasn’t afraid of you.” She stiffened, her hand freezing on his cheek.
Zeeland jerked back and stared down at her, but Julianne kept her face averted.
“You were in my dream. You remember.”
He could feel her heart speed up, beating too fast. Tension turned her stiff and unyielding in his arms. Her muscles bunched, and she tried to push off his lap. He held her fast, turning her until she sat sideways on his lap, but she wouldn’t be contained.
She jabbed him hard in the arm with her elbow. “Let me go.”
The moment he released her, she jumped off his lap and paced away from him, putting distance between them. The little she’d told him teased his mind. Memories of old stories rose like a horrible specter to the surface of his brain. Tales of a race, long gone, who could appear and disappear at will. Who could enter a man’s dreams and drive him mad. Goose bumps raced along the surface of his arms.
He growled low in his throat, his body going tense as a wire. “The Ilinas.” He stared at her, but she avoided his gaze. “They’re gone. They’ve been extinct for more than a thousand years!”