Shifters’ Captive(47)

Sherrie was too wired to sit. She paced and gestured as she talked. “How did you find out about your ability? I mean, you lived with the shifters all this time. What changed?” Evan set down the flashlight and folded his arms. “It was the afternoon I had an argument with Phil Pendergast about my car. He charged me for working on it when he hadn’t fixed the problem. I was pissed off, and something inside me just…shifted, like a piece of ice breaking off an iceberg and floating away. I could see him and myself from outside my body, and I could see how weak he really was. I reached inside his mind and found him—the real him, his essence beyond man or wolf. I took hold of it and started squeezing like I could choke the breath out of something that has no breath.

“But then a strange thing happened. I felt his energy flowing into me, all that strong, powerful energy shapeshifters use to change from one form to another. It was like shooting heroin. I wanted to suck it all up, drain him dry, but I stopped myself. Instead, I walked away from Pendergast’s shop, leaving him sprawled on the floor. No one had seen me stop by and no one connected his sudden mysterious coma to me.” Sherrie nodded. “No one even suspected you, so you could pick another one any time you wanted.”

“Not everyone. I found it depended on how strong they were mentally. Some were like trying to blast through a brick wall. And, of course, I had to have an opportunity to come across them alone, somewhere isolated where I wouldn’t be seen. After a while, I thought I’d spend part of my time up here on the mountain and try to tap some of the other shifters—see what panther power tasted like.” He smiled. “I learned each individual had a different potency, a different flavor, if you will. The panthers were stronger and even more of a challenge, but my ability was growing.”

“And now there’s you and me together to take ’em all down.” Sherrie stopped pacing and moved close to him. Drawing a deep breath, she took his hands. “Together, but not like brother and sister.” She rubbed her thumbs over the backs of his hands. “To share power, we need a connection that’s stronger than a mere touch. We need to get closer.” She met his gaze with half-lidded eyes, leaving him no doubt about her meaning.

Evan’s eyes widened and his lips parted. She guessed he’d wanted this but hadn’t imagined it would come so easily. The quickest way to put him off balance and steal inside his mind was to distract him with sex. Not that she intended to go all the way. She hoped to have her mission accomplished with only a kiss.

Sliding her hands up his arms, she hooked them over his shoulders and peered deep into his eyes. The striations of his irises were a dark navy against pale green. His pupils dilated and his breathing quickened.

“Like this,” she whispered and leaned in to cover his mouth with hers.

She cast her mind like a fishing line, sending filaments of her consciousness into his mind and exploring the unfamiliar space. Evan was in there, but seemed unaware of her presence in his head. He was too intent on the physical stimulation of her kiss.

She “saw” the dark and scary corners of his attic, the memories of every past slight and hurt he’d ever suffered. They haunted him like ghosts he refused to banish. She saw him as a child, teased, beaten up or ignored by the other kids in the pack he could never be a part of. Fear and jealousy warred within him all the time. He wanted to be a full-blooded member of the pack with every particle of his being, and since they didn’t welcome him in, he wanted them all to suffer.

Scanning his mind was like walking across rotting carcasses—disgusting and heart-wrenching at the same time. But Sherrie wasn’t here for a tour of his psyche. Her mission was to find and sever his connections to the comatose shifters.

Physically, she felt Evan’s hands steal around her back as he pressed his body against hers. His erection grew between them, nudging against her belly. Mentally, she saw the glowing lifelines to the shifters like radioactive tentacles spreading out from him in many directions. That was how her mind decoded the images, but it was much more indefinable than that. She saw the people to whom the lifelines belonged. They slept far away in beds in many places while energy pumped out of them like blood from a severed artery.

Could she cut the connections without hurting the sleepers? Would they regain consciousness once their energy was restored? Sherrie didn’t have time to ponder those questions. Any second Blake would realize she was rattling around inside his mind. A kiss couldn’t distract him forever.

In the physical world, he pulled away from her to draw a breath. Sherrie opened her eyes and looked into his flushed face. “And that was just a kiss. Now for a little power exchange. If you show me yours, I’ll show you mine.”