Stygian's Honor (47 page)

“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.

“Are you going to tell him something you didn’t tell me?” Liza stopped her with the question.

Turning back, Cassie couldn’t help but smile. “If I did, Liza, he’s your mate, and I know Stygian well enough to know that he would tell you anything I might tell him.”

Relief scented the air as Liza nodded, some of the tension easing out of her as Cassie left the room.

Now what? she thought as her father met her outside the door. Why the hell did it seem so important that she be here?

As the elevator stopped on the fifth floor and the doors slid open smoothly, Stygian was immediately aware of the additional security forces along the floor.

Dash had been slowly amassing his own pack to ensure the protection of his family. Cassie was one of the most valuable members of the Breed community, simply because of their love for her.

As a child, she had managed to pull Sanctuary as well as Haven together and created bonds that had become unbreakable as she matured.

She had been the only hybrid Wolf Breed child for many years, and was accepted as the Feline Prides’ adopted child due to the months Dash and Elizabeth Sinclair had been forced to leave her in their care.

As a young adult and the only Breed who seemed to have the ability to effectively argue Breed law without revealing the secrets it hid and protected, she had become even more important.

Nodding to the additional Wolf Breeds who lined the hall leading to Jonas’s suite, Stygian made his way to the entrance, stepping inside as the probationary enforcer opened the door for him.

“Stygian!” The happy cry sang from Cassie’s voice as she jumped from her chair, her long black hair flying around her too delicate form as she raced across the room.

Dressed in jeans, white sneakers, and a white T-shirt claiming
BREEDS RULE,
in black, she looked more like a kid than a young woman rapidly approaching her twenty-first birthday.

She stopped inches from him, her blue eyes twinkling teasingly as she stared up him.

“You dog,” she accused him with a grin. “You went and mated and now I can’t even give you a hug. Tell me you’re totally happy and I’ll forgive you.”

Stygian couldn’t help but laugh. Cassie had a way about her that simply invited laughter.

“Come here, imp.” Despite the vague irritation that came with holding a woman other than his mate after mating, he still gathered Cassie’s slight form into his arms as she threw hers around his neck. “Trust me, I’m totally happy in my mate. Now, how have you been, sweetheart?”

No one who knew the fragile young woman could dislike her. She was filled with charm and compassion, and despite the ever-present shadows in her eyes, she spread happiness wherever she went.

“I’ve been completely bored now that Styx has mated,” she told him as she stepped back with a little pout. “Who am I supposed to cause trouble with now?”

Stygian grinned back at her. Styx Mackenzie, the red-haired Scot Breed, had been her partner in crime for all her hijinks until he had mated the year before.

“I’m sure Breeds are standing in line to help you cause trouble.” He chuckled before turning to her father and clasping the hand held out to him. “Dash, good to see you.”

The man was black-haired, blue-eyed, standing over six feet tall and still in his prime despite the fact that he was now in his forties.

Mating, as with all Breeds, seemed to have frozen him into the age he had been when he mated the human Elizabeth Colder.

Just as it had delayed her aging as well.

“Elizabeth, you’re as beautiful as ever,” Stygian swore as he passed the back of his hand over the silk of her hair where it flowed to her right shoulder.

The greeting seemed to come about naturally over the years. Female mates were incredibly sensitive to any male’s touch other than their mate’s. The mere act of shaking hands was mildly painful if a female was in mating heat, and something no Breed would inflict on any other’s mate.

After the first phase of mating, the heat came in cycles rather like a female’s menstrual cycle. There were times, though, that the heat itself wasn’t detectable after mates had been together six months or longer.

But friends and family had developed a habit of, rather
than touching, the males passing the backs of their fingers along the right side of the female’s head in a gesture of affection, just in case mating heat had flared again.

“You’re as handsome as ever, Stygian.” She grinned before stepping back to her mate’s side. “It’s good to see you again.”

“And I’ve already met your mate,” Cassie told him as he turned his attention back to her. “I’m surprised you asked me to come, though. I think even you sense that there are no answers to be found right now. And once they are revealed, I don’t think it’s something you—or Liza—are ready to know.”

That knowledge was out there now.

Stygian stared back at her, silent, wondering why she had made the statement and why she would put that between himself and Jonas.

“I wanted her to have the chance to come to that knowledge herself,” he told her, reminding himself that he should have remembered that Cassie rarely practiced tact when she was around those she loved. And she did dearly love Jonas Wyatt—poor kid. “Those memories won’t be easy for her to accept. But I’m smart enough to know the danger she’s facing, Cassie. I won’t risk her because I might not be ready to know whatever the truth may be.”

Cassie didn’t say anything; she just stared beyond him, her blue eyes glowing neon now.

How she did what she did, no one knew for certain. What she actually saw, heard or felt, no one could detect. Unlike most Breeds and humans, there wasn’t a Breed yet that could sense anything Cassie was feeling.

Cassie saw the form that wavered into her view. She almost flinched. Every part of her soul filled with pain, filled with an agony she couldn’t understand.

Chills raced over her flesh—hot and then cold, as Cassie felt herself weakened at the sight of the spirit that slowly materialized beside Stygian.

This wasn’t Honor. It wasn’t Liza.

Who was she? What did she want and who did she belong to?

The spirit was slowly shaking her head, her hands clasped in front of her, her caramel-colored hair flowing over her face as her brown eyes stared back at Cassie pleadingly.

Who was she?

“Please. He’ll hear, no matter where you are, no matter where you speak, he’ll know. Please don’t betray me, Cassie. Please don’t let him kill me.”

Oh God, who was she?

Why was this woman’s pain driving inside her skull like steel spikes? Why was her fear like a blanket, heavy and hot, making it hard to breathe, to focus on the information she could have sensed from the spirit facing her.

“Cassie?” She was silent for so long, the tension in the room growing so heavy, he couldn’t resist the need to remind her they all needed answers.

Her lips quirked with an edge of bitter amusement. “I don’t always have the answers,” she stated softly, turning to him as if focusing her attention had become a task.

He barely restrained his surprise, knowing from the quiet near whisper of her voice that the message was meant for him alone.

What the hell was going on? What was the message in her neon eyes, the plea he could sense there? Raking her fingers through her hair restlessly, she turned away from him, the shadows in her eyes seemed to darken.

“I think I need to rest for a while,” she stated then, her voice quiet as she turned to her parents. “I’d like to go to my room now.”

“You can walk down with your mother and me,” Dash stated before turning to Jonas. “We’ll talk later.”

“Just let me know when,” Jonas agreed as the Wolf Breeds accompanying them led the way from the suite.

Stygian watched Cassie with narrowed eyes, knowing—just as he was certain the rest of them did—that she was escaping. Whatever she had sensed, or even seen, she wasn’t ready to reveal yet.

“There are days I have a tendency to forget how exasperating that child can be,” Jonas stated as the door closed behind Cassie and her parents.

They all had that tendency, though Stygian had rarely sensed her pain, or that feeling of a silent message, as he did now.

Stygian knew who Liza was. At least, he was pretty certain she was Honor Roberts rather than Fawn Corrigan. He knew for a fact she had not been born Liza Johnson. Honor Roberts for all intents and purposes was dead. She had died in the desert twelve years before, the night Liza Johnson and Claire Martinez had gone over that canyon in a sports car that didn’t belong to them.