"Kelly's still here too. She's not good, Adele. She's gone deep into shock. It's like she's disconnected her mind. They have her on a drip to keep her fluids up and they've been using massage to keep her circulation going. I think Clint is hoping you can reach her. If you can't, it's not looking good for her. She'll have to be institutionalized. Poor baby. We're all hoping like hell she snaps out of it. Sophie's been spending as much time with her as she can. She does seem to relax a little when Sophie's there."
Adele flashed back to the basement, to the moment Cole had snapped shut the lock on Kelly's collar. It had been that moment her eyes had glazed over, her tears had stopped falling, her spirit broken and stomped into the ground. Her poor petit fille. As her mind ran over what happened next, she suddenly understood Kit's timid approach to her when she first awoke. She cocked an eyebrow as she stared hard into Kit's face. The water had helped her throat and now she could say all she wanted to, and she wanted some damn answers.
"You knew, didn't you? You weren't shocked when Dominic turned into a...a leopard." She finished in a rush, she was still having trouble processing what she'd seen in that basement.
"Umm, yeah, Adele, I knew. I know you have lots of questions, and I'll answer everything I can. Just please, don't write him off because he didn't tell you. You need to know he wanted to, he'd planned to tell you on your picnic then Kelly stumbled in, and he couldn't find the right time after that."
"How do you know?" Adele had a really good feeling she knew what the answer was going to be, but she needed to hear the words for it to be real.
"I'm pretty sure you've already worked that one out, Adele. I'm a shifter like Dominic."
"Just how many of you are there?" Adele felt like nothing in her life was quite as it seemed on the surface. She wondered what other legends were true. Maybe there were vampires working the mine and faeries running the school.
"There are hundreds, if not thousands of us around the world. Here in Rosebery, it's pretty much the entire fire crew plus a few others and their families of course."
Adele stayed silent as she digested what Kit had told her so far, until a scary thought had her pegging Kit with a hard stare. "How are you created? Dominic wasn't going to...to turn me somehow was he?" She could hear the edge of hysteria in her voice but didn't care. She needed to know this. She watched Kit's eyes as they briefly went wide in surprise before she spoke.
"Calm down. It's nothing like that, Adele. You have to be born with the right DNA to be able to shift. The ability is passed through genetics. I'll leave the story of our original creation for Dominic to tell you. Some other time."
Speaking of Dominic, why wasn't he here? How badly had he been hurt rescuing them?
"Where is Dominic, Kit? He wasn't badly hurt, was he? Why isn't he here?" She was getting worked up again, and her head was pounding. She took a deep breath or two, trying to calm down before her head exploded.
"Dominic's not far, and he was hurt but he's going to be just fine. It's going to take more than a bullet to stop him. He's getting his stitches out, and he should be back any minute now. You should know he hasn't left you since you came in. Clint had to drag his tail out of here so he could take the stitches out." Just as Kit finished speaking, Adele felt a tingle trip up her spine and she looked up at the empty doorway. Moments later, Dominic's large muscular frame filled the space. Just the sight of his beautiful face with his ink black hair all messy and the thick stubble growth over his jaw was enough to make her heart swell and ache. She might not understand how he could be a shifter, might be pissed he hadn't told her about it all earlier, but her heart, it simply didn't care. She loved him.
With a slight limp, Dominic slowly crept into the room. He probably should have a crutch until his wound healed. No doubt he was too macho to accept it. Just like Kit, the look on his face said he wasn't sure what his welcome would be from her. Her mouth opened and the words poured out before she could think to stop them.
"It’s been you all these years, hasn't it? You are my chaton." She held his gaze with hers as she waited for his response. He raised his hand to rub the back of his neck as he began to speak.
"Yeah, it's been me," he said with a wince as if he knew she was going to be pissed.
"How? Why? I dreamt of you for four years before I ever met you!" Her voice rose as her mind tried to wrap around everything that was being loaded on it--and making the pounding pick up intensity again.
Dominic started to creep closer to her bedside, testing how close she'd allow him. She watched him as he slowly, smoothly, grabbed a chair and sat down next to the bed near her head. She watched as he raised his hand to her face then hesitated a moment, hovering over her uninjured cheek. Not quite touching but close enough she could feel his heat. She couldn't help but turn her head into his palm and his comforting warmth. As she did, she heard him release his breath and sigh as he caressed her cheek. His touch soothed and anchored her. As her breathing evened out and the pounding in her head eased off, he began to talk to her in his deep smooth voice that she loved so much.