Chapter 9

Cole was still thinking about the conversation he’d had with Jonas Roberts three days earlier when he pulled up in front of Scout’s house late in the evening. He’d told Jonas what had happened while he and Scout were out in the wilderness. Well, not all of it. He’d omitted the part where Scout joined with the lion, and they had wild sex in the cave.

But Jonas had seemed to sense that he was holding back. He’d asked twice if there was anything Cole had left out, anything he wanted to add. Cole had said no. But the lie had gnawed at him ever since.

Only how could he tell the CBI captain that Scout claimed to have taken the spirit of a lion into herself and that they’d gone at it like two sex-starved teenagers with a dead lion lying in the cave with them?

He wanted to talk to Scout about it. Now that he’d had time to step back from it, it seemed impossible. Things like animals communicating with animals might be real. Hell, he had proof of that from his two sisters-in-law, both of them witches who possessed the ability to communicate with animals. But things like the spirit of an animal living inside you or joining with them, those things just weren’t possible. It might be part of mythology and fantasy, but it just wasn’t real.

He wanted, no needed to hear Scout say that it was all just a mistake, that the trauma or fear or whatever had made her a little crazy and she’d imagined it. That she’d been pulling his leg. Anything. He just didn’t want to believe it.

Her truck was home which meant he wouldn’t have to wait. That was a relief. He went to the front door. It was locked. He knocked and waited. No answer. He called out and knocked again. Still no answer.

Thinking maybe she was indulging herself in that elaborate bathroom, he walked around back and tried the door. It was locked, so he used the key. It was right where she said it would be.

“Scout?” he called out as he entered and closed the door behind him. “You here?”

There was no reply. He went through the house. She wasn’t there. He tried her cell phone and when he heard it ring in the kitchen realized that she didn’t have it with her.

All he could do was wait. He went back to his SUV and grabbed his duffle bag. Once inside, he showered, dressed, and rummaged through the refrigerator for something to eat.

Then he settled down on the couch in the den and channel surfed for a while, settling on a nature program. Fifteen minutes into the show his eyes started to get heavy. His last thought was that he’d close his eyes for just a little while, and if she wasn’t back in an hour, he’d go look for her.

A low growl had him sitting up, wide awake and heart pounding. The television was still on. He laughed at himself. That had to be what woke him. He got up to head for the bathroom and when he did alarms went off in his head.

“Scout!” he rushed to her, where she stood in the kitchen doorway. Naked. Her hair was tangled and dirty, as was the rest of her. Her skin was scratched, and bloody footprints tracked the clean kitchen floor. She stared at him like someone in a daze.

He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Scout! Christ! What happened? Are you okay? I’ll call an ambulance—the police. Honey, speak to me.”

She did not move or react in any way. Cole swept her up in his arms and ran to the bathroom, sitting her on the edge of the tub while he turned on the water and grabbed a washcloth.

“Scout? Can you hear me?” he asked, climbing fully clothed into the tub so he could kneel in front of her. “Scout? Scout!”

She blinked once. Then again. And suddenly her eyes focused. “What the hell happened?” Cole asked.

She shook her head and slid into the tub, wincing. “I’m tired,” she said, lying back into the water. “So tired.”

“I’m calling an ambulance,” he announced and started to get out of the tub.

“No!” She bolted upright, grabbing the wet leg of his jeans. “No, don’t. Please.”

“Then tell me what happened,” he said, taking a seat on the edge of the tub.

“I…I can’t. Not yet. Just…just let me get clean. Please?”

“Fine.” He stood and stripped off his wet clothes, gathered them up and left.

Scout sank back into the water, her mind in a whirl. How the hell was she going to explain this to Cole when she could barely believe it herself? If only Jed were here. He’d know what to do, tell her where to go for answers if he didn’t have them.

She felt more alone and vulnerable than she’d ever been. If she told Cole the truth, he’d think she was crazy. Unless…

No. She couldn’t even entertain the idea. There had to be another way. Come on, get it together, she told herself. Get clean, get calm.

She kept those four words in her head, reciting them over and over as she washed, dried, and went into the dressing area to find antiseptic and bandages for her feet. Once that was taken care of, she went into her bedroom to slip into a loose shift.

Cole was sitting on the couch wearing a pair of loose cotton pants, with his elbows propped on his knees when she entered. She sat down beside him, and he turned to face her. “Are you all right, Scout?”

“I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“Okay, then tell me. What the hell happened?”

She blew out her breath and leaned back into the softness of the couch. “I need you to promise me something,”

“What?”

“That you’ll hear me out. Listen to what I have to say before you say anything. And keep an open mind.”

“I’m already not liking the sound of this.”

“Then forget it.” She started to get up. “Go home. I’m fine.”

“Hey, hold on!” he pulled her back down. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t listen.”

“There’s no point in my talking if you’ve made your mind up that you’re against whatever I have to say.”

“I’m not!” he insisted then added when she cocked an eyebrow at him, “Please.”

“Okay.” She settled back against the couch. “When I was a child, my grandfather, Jed, would tell me stories—myths. One of his favorites was of the skin-walkers. Have you ever heard that term?”

“Wasn’t that a bad werewolf movie?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it was. But the tales Jed told me were about the yee naaldlooshii, which translates as ‘with it, he goes on all fours.’ The yee naaldlooshii were people with the ability to transform into an animal. They were also witches.”

A sardonic smile appeared on her face. “Yeah, witches. Something I think you’ve had a bit of experience with?”

He gave her a sheepish grin. “A little.”

“Enough. Remember that connection we had? It’s been steadily coming to me.”

“What do you mean?” His voice was tight, and she knew it was unsettling for him, but now that she’d decided to lay it all on the table, she wasn’t going to sugar coat it. If he walked away, then they weren’t meant to be. That’s how she had to look at it.

“I mean Ana and Rusty. Your sisters-in-law? They’re in your head. What happened with Ana and her husband when he tracked her to Arizona, and what happened to Rusty after Clay went to live there. The Stikeleathers and what they tried to do to Rusty and Cole. What happened to Clara when she and Ana were kidnapped?”

Cole slumped back and regarded her with lowered brows for a long time. “Did you run some kind of background check on me?”

“Oh yeah, while I was out running around the woods naked, I whipped out my handy dandy, little super-spy gadget and hacked into all your secret files.”

A corner of his mouth moved up in a smirk. “Point taken. So, you got this from that…thing we had that happened.”

“Yeah. So, I know you’re familiar with witches, therefore you have to be somewhat open minded to things beyond the ordinary.”

“Like yee…skin-walkers.”

“Yeah, like that.”

“I think I need to hear more.”

“Okay. Let me think…” She leaned back and closed her eyes, thinking back to the stories of her childhood. “A yee naaldloshii is one of several types of witch in the Navaho beliefs, which is the majority of the stories Jed told me. See, his mother was Navaho and father Sioux. His father died when Jed was young, so he was raised with his mother’s people. It wasn’t until he was a teenager and the Elders discovered that he was a true scout that he left his mother’s people and struck out on his own. But anyway, a yee naaldlooshii is a witch, specifically an ánt’įįhnii or practitioner of the Witchery Way. Now this isn’t the same as a adagash who is a user of curse objects.

“The ánt’įįhnii are people who’ve been given supernatural power. It’s commonly believed that there are far more male ánt’įįhnii than female and that only childless females can become ánt’įįhnii. From what I remember, ánt’įįhnii and yee naaldlooshii are used pretty interchangeably, although not all Navaho witches are skin-walkers.”

“So essentially, skin-walkers are what? Werewolves?”

“Something like that,” she replied. “But remember all I know of it until now has been from stories told to me as a child.”

“Until now?”

She nodded. “After you left, I went out to visit the cub. I was planning on doing some scouting. But something happened. Visions of Jed being killed flooded my mind, along with memories of the dying lioness. It was…horrifying. I felt like my skin was being electrified and my vision kept shrinking. I thought I was dying. So, I gave in to it. And everything went black.

“When I woke, the first thing I noticed was that all the colors seemed so sharp and clear. And that seemed wrong. It was night. I have good night vision, but not that good. I thought maybe it was a passing symptom. I shook my head and went to get up. But my arms and legs weren’t working right. Then I realized.”

She paused and looked away, feeling all at once terribly uncertain.

“What?” Cole prompted her. “You realized what?”

“That I wasn’t…human.”

“What?” he exploded both verbally and physically, jumping off the couch.

“Not human,” she repeated.

“Oh no!” He waved his hand at her as if warding off something he didn’t want to hear. “Do not tell me that you were an animal.”

“Fine, I won’t.” His tone resulted in an immediate rise of anger. She got off the couch and walked out of the room.

“Hold on!” Cole followed her into the kitchen. “Don’t just walk away. You have something to say, then spit it out.”

“Forget it,” she snapped at him, opening the refrigerator and looking inside.

“Hell no. You started this, now finish it. Or you want me to do it for you? You realized you were a cat, right? That you’d magically been transformed into a damn lion.”

“Stop it!” she yelled at him. “This isn’t a joke.”

“Fucking A it isn’t a joke,” he yelled back. “It’s fucking insanity.”

Scout froze. The word insanity seemed to echo in her head and with each repeating reverberation her anger grew. “Insane?” she hissed. “Did you call me insane?”

“I said this…whatever the hell it is you’ve got in your head is insane. Okay, fine, I know some witches. But they don’t turn into animals or—Holy fucking shit!”

Scout saw his eyes grow wide at the same moment pain lanced through her body. A split second later she was looking at him from a much lower angle. “Oh shit,” she mumbled. But the words did not match the thoughts. Instead, what emerged from her lips was a growl.

She almost hated to look but couldn’t stop herself. She looked down at her feet. And saw paws. Big, strong, furry paws, with long sharp nails. She looked back up at Cole, who was slowly backing away from her, shock clear on his face.

“Don’t be afraid,” she tried to say. But this time the sound emerging from her mouth was a cross between a roar and a scream.

Oh shit! she thought. This is NOT good. The very last thing she wanted was the man she loved looking at her like she was a monster. She had to show him that he was not in danger.

She stepped over the discarded shift lying on the floor and slowly approached him. He continued to back away from her until he bumped into the stone hearth. “Don’t.” He held up his hand as if warding her off. “I mean it. Just stay back.”

She stopped and lay down, purring. Maybe that would calm him until she figured out how to change back into human form. She was really new to this and didn’t quite have the hang of it.

Cole watched her for a long time, and then slowly sat down on the hearth. “Okay, either I’ve completely lost touch with reality, or you just turned into a lion.” He paused for a moment. “If that’s really you then…nod your head.”

Scout nodded.

“Shit on a stick!” Cole groused. “This can’t be happening! Can you change back? Please?”

She cocked her head to one side, trying to indicate that she wasn’t sure. He didn’t get it. “Scout, I mean it. I really want you to change back.”

She inched closer. He did not move, so she rose and padded closer until she was close enough to lay her head on his leg.

For a few moments he was as rigid as stone, just the vibration of fear running through him and rising in the air. She remained still, purring. Finally, he lowered his hand to her head. She did not move but purred louder.

Cole started to stroke her. “Scout, god as my witness, I feel like I just fell down the rabbit hole. This is just too unbelievable. But I saw it with my own eyes, and I’m sitting here rubbing a lion so if it isn’t real then I’m too far gone for help. If you could just turn back into you, then maybe I could get a bead on all this.”

She smelled his fear and felt his uncertainty. Suddenly nothing mattered but comforting him, putting her arms around him, and assuring him that he was fine, and everything would be fine.

With that wish came a sudden stab of pain that had her body stretching out in tension, eyes clenched tight. When she opened them, she saw human skin. She looked up and found Cole watching her with an amazed expression.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly, wanting to touch him but afraid he would push her away. “I so sorry, Cole. I…I don’t know how or why this happened and I know it’s too much to take in. I’m having a hard time of it myself. I don’t want you to leave, but if you need to, I’ll understand.”

His eyes locked with hers and for the second time she connected with him. She saw his eyes roll back and his body arch. She caught him as he fell forward, both of them toppling to the floor, the connection between them blinding them both to everything except sensation and emotion.

Only this time it was different. This time she knew he could sense her, feel her emotions, and touch her memories. And she did nothing to prohibit him. She let him see it all. The loss of her parents, her childhood, her failed marriage, and her grief at losing Jed. He witnessed her joining with the lioness and her fear at the first transformation that took her.

And he felt her love. She hid nothing but laid her soul bare for him.

When the connection faded and he opened his eyes, the look within them was one of astonishment. “What was that?” he whispered.

“Same as before,” she replied. “Only this time it was you who got to look inside.”

He pushed himself up into a sitting position. “It’s all jumbled, bits and pieces, flashes. Doesn’t all make sense.”

“It will. In time,” she assured him.

“I’m sorry, Scout,” he said, taking her hand. “I reacted badly. This has to be hard on you—traumatic even.”

“It was,” she admitted. “Until now.”

“What makes it easier now?”

“You.”

He opened his mouth as if to speak, then changed his mind and pulled her to him, enveloping her in his arms. “I promise you, I’ll never reveal your secret. You’re safe with me, Scout. I give you my word. As long as I live no harm will ever come to you.”

She pulled back to search his eyes. “I know you’re sincere—now, at this moment. But please, don’t make promises that you may not be able to keep.”

“I never do,” he said firmly. “Ever.”

“Then thank you,” she said gratefully. “And I promise never to…” A smile of mischief broke out on her face “Bite you—while I’m a lion, I mean. While I’m a woman…well, no promises there.”

Her jest broke the tension and he chuckled. The chuckle turned into a laugh and before they knew it, they were rolling around on the floor laughing, for the moment forgetting all but the joy of being together.