Animal Instincts (Kindred Souls Book 1) Page 3

  He rang her bell. No answer. Shade checked his watch. Already half past eleven. He sat on the front steps to wait for her and flicked through the video he’d taken on his cell phone. The fight haunted him, and he hoped it would haunt the Reyes woman enough to make her talk this time. The panther had died, but in the morning, the woman’s body would be found, as had happened before.

  Another case to add to the growing pile he and Ethan were investigating. Shade didn’t know how to tell his partner about the shifter fights. Practical, black-and-white cop Ethan wouldn’t believe it. People who turned into predators. Even Shade had a hard time believing it. Now he knew it was true. Straight-arrow Ethan might force a psych evaluation on Shade if he tried to explain.

  A dark sedan pulled into the side drive and Shade got to his feet. Elizabeth Reyes alighted, her expression darkening as she took the walkway to the steps where he waited.

  “What are you doing here, Detective Cross?” She walked up the steps past him, then paused to fumble with her keys. “I’ve told you everything I know.”

  “You’ve told me fairy tales, Ms. Reyes. Now I have one to show you.”

  She turned to him. “What?”

  He clicked on the cell screen to show her digital footage of the black panther before she was sent out to be killed. “This is a friend of your son’s.”

  “Excuse me? A zoo animal?”

  He could see the lie on her face, could hear it in her voice. He couldn’t hear her. Not her thoughts. Not anymore. Not after what he’d done to break this case. He’d lost his psychic edge, maybe permanently. He’d lost more than that, enough that he shouldn’t care about the case anymore, but to his own surprise, he had no desire to give up.

  “I think you know differently.”

  “It’s late, Detective Cross.”

  “One more look.” He clicked to the footage where the wild dog tore open the panther’s side and practically shoved the phone in her face. “This is how she ended the night.”

  Her eyes widened and a strangled sound escaped her.

  About to press her for information, Shade caught movement from the corner of his eye. One glance behind him, and he tossed away the cell to shove the Reyes woman out of harm’s way. The night exploded with sound, and her arm jerked as she took the bullet.

  Before Shade could get to his Glock, something hot and sharp crashed through his skull.

  Then all went dark.

  Then all went dark.

  Chapter Five

  The doorbell’s shrill buzz nearly tossed Skye out of bed. A quick glance at the clock confirmed it was 4:13, well before dawn.

  Had she dreamed the sound?

  Another blare, more insistent this time, confirmed someone was, indeed, at her door. One of the cats flew off the bed. Shade, no doubt, had misplaced his keys. Again.

  Grumbling, she climbed over a second cat that couldn’t be bothered to move and she stumbled out of bed and into the hall to the intercom. The video screen revealed not Shade, but his partner and best friend, Ethan Grainger.

  “Isn’t Shade answering his door?” she asked over the intercom.

  She heard Shade’s dog, Boomer, barking downstairs. They lived in a Chicago two-flat they’d inherited from their grandmother, Shade in the first-floor apartment, her in the second.

  “I need to talk to you.”

  At four in the morning? He sounded so serious. Of course, he wouldn’t wake her in the middle of the night unless something was wrong.

  “Okay.”

  She pressed the buzzer that let him up. Spotting a long-sleeved shirt she’d left on a dining room chair, she grabbed it and pulled it on before unlocking the door. Ethan’s short, light-brown hair accentuated his broad cheeks. His soft brown eyes had gone all eerie, filled with something that went beyond simple grief.

  Her heart thundered.

  “What is it?” She was fully awake now and filled with unease. She’d heard too often about official visits to relatives of cops when something bad had to be reported. “What’s happened to Dad?”

  “Not your father.” Ethan shook his head. “It’s Shade.”

  Her world suddenly got smaller. Tighter. Her eyes began to sting. She knew. But she wouldn’t believe it.

  “Where is he?” she demanded, her heart thudding against her ribs. “What hospital?”

  “I’m so sorry.” Ethan pulled her to him and held her so tightly she couldn’t move.

  “No!” Tears flooded her eyes and she awkwardly struck him in the chest. “No.”

  “You know I loved him like a brother.”

  She was in the midst of a nightmare, but she was truly awake.

  Shade, her twin, her other half, was gone.

  Ethan let her cry until there were no more tears. Until her eyelids were so swollen she could hardly see. Then he led her to the living room where he sat her down in a chair and found a box of tissues so she could get herself together.

  He waited for her to ask, “Wh-what happened?”

  “Shade was a hero again tonight. He was shot saving a woman’s life.”

  “Who?”

  “Her name is Elizabeth Reyes.” Ethan shook his head. “I don’t know why, just that he was on her porch waiting to talk to her when she came home around midnight. She took the first bullet before Shade pushed her out of harm’s way.”

  Skye tried to take it all in. “He was on the job, then. Alone.” Shade never worked without backup that she knew.

  “Apparently. He didn’t confide in me. Not in a while.”

  Shade had been acting odd lately. Secretive. Argumentative.

  “And he was shot saving her?”

  “Right. She said they’d hardly spoken for a minute before the first shot rang out. She was winged as he pushed her out of the way and took a bullet himself.”

  “One bullet? That’s all it took to kill him?”

  He nodded. “I’m sorry to have to tell you he was shot in the head.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  The last thing she had done was to turn her back on her brother.

  To never see him alive again.

  She had to live with that.

  Forever.

  Chapter Six

  Her brother was buried on a day with no sun. Appropriate, for she felt the sun had been snuffed out of her life.

  The mournful sound of bagpipes made her chest squeeze tighter.

  Literally more than a thousand people had shown up at the cemetery, as they always did when one of their own was murdered on the job. In addition to the Chicago Police Department chiefs, the mayor, and other local and state politicians, there were the uniforms, mostly from Chicago, but many from the suburbs and neighboring cities and states, some from as far away as Minneapolis and Florida and New York.

  Facing tragedy, they were all so stoic.

  She remained outwardly stoic, too.

  His graying red hair perfectly groomed around his florid face, Dad was surrounded by men in uniform at the other end of the coffin, including Shade’s partner, Ethan, and his lieutenant, Ryan Connelly. Dad kept looking at her. Any weakness on her part would reflect badly on him, so she choked back her tears.

  She wanted to pull Shade’s body from the coffin and somehow breathe life back into him. Then she could tell him she was sorry she’d told him to leave her alone.

  But there was no going back. No do-over. No chance for forgiveness.

  The rustle and chirps of live things around her reflected her anguish. Always drawn to her, animals commiserated. A squirrel within yards of her sat up, bushy tail twitching, staring at her with beady dark eyes. It chattered, sorrow evident in the pitch of its gunfire clicks and clacks. Its little heart thumping double time, a frog croaked its way toward her from the nearby pond. A flock of sparrows flew over her head, ruffling her hair before ascending on the gravesite in formation as precise as an honor guard.

  She somehow held it together. The wind soughed along the headstones and drizzle splattered the graveyard.

>   “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.” Though his skin was leathery, his white hair thinning, Father Costa had a strong, vibrant voice that carried across the cemetery. “And let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.”

  A weird sensation suddenly buzzed her. She started. It felt as if someone or some thing was trying to get inside her mind. Not an animal. Animals were open. This felt furtive. She shook off the creepy feeling and scanned the graveyard around her. All eyes were glued to the scene at the coffin.

  Except...

  She felt more than saw him. Like a dark wraith, he hovered in the distance, near-hidden in a stand of trees at one corner of the cemetery. He wore no uniform. No suit. His shirt and pants were as black as the hair that whipped along his shoulders, his face pale in contrast.

  Her knees bobbled as she recognized him, and she had to catch herself from collapsing.

  The man who’d controlled the predators at the fight the other night was here.

  Her pulse thrummed.

  Who was he, and why had he shown up at Shade’s funeral?

  Remembering the mutual dislike so evident between the stranger and her brother, she wondered if he’d had something to do with Shade’s death.

  She blinked, and as suddenly as she’d become aware of him, he was gone. Exactly the same way he’d disappeared outside the fight arena.

  A lone bugler played “Taps”. She tore her gaze back to the burial. Seven officers stepped forward, each firing three rounds. A twenty-one-gun salute to honor a fallen hero. Twenty-one wounds cut through her, and it took all the strength she had left not to fall to her knees in surrender.

  Connected in a way that most people wouldn’t understand, Shade and she had been two parts of a whole. Dad didn’t understand. Shade had been able to read people, the reason he’d become a cop, rescuing people. She’d always been connected to animals, the reason she worked as an animal rescuer. Even with their differences, Shade and she had always been in psychic sync. Although something had been off between them for a few days before his death.

  And then a single shot to the head had ended her brother’s life.

  Had ended her.

  She wanted to weep again, but her eyes burned and remained dry as the flag that had draped the coffin was folded precisely into a triangle and handed to her father.

  Her best friend and business partner Phoebe Hunt stepped up to hug her. Today her blue-black hair was braided in cornrows and cut with streaks the same purple as her summer sweater and slacks.

  “Anything you need.”

  “I know. Thanks.”

  Phoebe’s deep brown eyes were watery and the tip of her broad nose was wet. She’d always crushed on Shade.

  “Don’t worry about the shop,” Phoebe said. “I’ll take care of everything,” she promised. “Take as long as you need.”

  She nodded.

  The mourners dispersed. Lieutenant Connelly led many of the uniforms to their vehicles. They would head for a local bar.

  “We should get going,” Dad said, a whiff of whiskey on his breath.

  “I can’t face all those people. You go on.” She thought he looked commanding in his dress blues, no emotions apparent except his gloved hands clenching and unclenching the folded flag. She brushed nonexistent lint from his jacket, her futile attempt at getting closer. “I want to stay to say good-bye.”

  “I can wait for you,” a deep voice came from behind her. “Shade wouldn’t want you to be alone today.”

  She turned to Ethan, who’d been far more than Shade’s partner. They’d been best friends, as close as brothers. He appeared nearly as devastated as she felt.

  “Thanks, but I’m fine.”

  “I don’t mind waiting.”

  His voice was as pinched as his ruggedly handsome face. His pale brown eyes had darkened with grief. She felt his pain.

  Scaring up a smile, she said, “Please, take Dad to the bar.”

  Unwillingly he did as she asked and the men walked off together, trailing the crowd.

  She realized the cemetery crew was waiting for her to leave, too, so they could lower the coffin into the ground. One of the guys seemed to get that she needed a little privacy. He moved toward the backhoe, signaling the rest to follow him.

  The drizzle turned to a light rain, and finally tears pooled in her eyes. Her heart felt broken. Somehow, on shaky legs, she stepped forward, and with an outpouring of grief, at last allowed herself to touch the coffin, which had remained closed through the wake and the funeral.

  If only she could see Shade one last time.

  “Skye.”

  For a moment, she wanted to think she was hearing her brother. She whipped around and came face-to-face with her mystery man. His face wasn’t as pale as it had appeared in the moonlight, but lightly bronzed, making him look rugged. Her pulse surged as she wondered if he had anything to do with her brother’s murder.

  “Who are you? What business do you have here?”

  “I want you to know how grateful I am to your brother.”

  “Grateful?” she said. “You and Shade didn’t like each other.”

  “Maybe we didn’t. But Elizabeth Reyes is my mother.”

  The breath caught in her throat, and her heart missed a beat. Elizabeth Reyes—the reason her brother was dead. “They told me he took a bullet for her.”

  He nodded. “Your brother saved her life by giving up his own. I can’t soften the pain of your loss, but know that I am in your debt.”

  “Why was someone trying to shoot your mother?” Unreasonable anger filled her. It didn’t matter that Shade had been dedicated, that he’d put his life on the line most days. Why did her brother have to die for his mother, whatever her deal? “Why was Shade with her in the first place?”

  “I couldn’t say.”

  “Can’t or won’t? The fight the other night—why did you and Shade dislike each other?” She turned to the grave. “And then you disappeared.”

  She glanced back, and once again, the nameless stranger had vanished into thin air.

  How dare he do this to her? Anger churned through her, tightening her chest. How dare he fill her with questions and then disappear before she could ask them?

  If she hadn’t imagined him.

  Had her churning emotions, her need for answers, her soul-searing grief for the brother who had been her other half tricked her into seeing something—someone—who hadn’t even been there?

  What was wrong with her?

  The mystery man didn’t deserve a second thought. Not today. Today was about her brother.

  She couldn’t help but feel totally alone as she said her good-bye.

  “It’s always been you and me. When I said to leave me alone, I didn’t mean forever. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice breaking.

  She tried tuning into his wavelength as if he would answer as usual, but as had happened the night they’d fought, she couldn’t sense him.

  Nothing.

  Feeling a crushing weight on her chest, she let the tears fall as they would.

  She would never see her brother again.

  Never.

  ~

  It was dusk by the time Skye arrived home. Shade and she had separate apartments, separate lives, but they’d always been close when it had mattered.

  Now the building felt barren and gray, like a place she didn’t want to be.

  Nevertheless, she entered the foyer, all original, all wood but for the mosaic ceramic tile floor. Standing in front of the door to his first-floor apartment, she picked up the mail—hers and Shade’s—and as she stood there, frozen from simply seeing his name on the envelope, she swore she sensed him. Not that she heard or saw anything tangible. Just a feeling that made her pulse skitter and her hand shake as she unlocked the downstairs door to the stairwell.

  Heavyhearted, she started up the stairs toward a framed print of a black panther. The big cat’s eyes pierced her, reminded her of her responsibilities—rescued animals all wai
ting for her. The cats were whining, Peach throwing herself at the door. Boomer whistled through his nose. The three cats were hers, the dog Shade’s. And they all needed to be taken care of. The thing about having animals was that she would never be completely alone.

  Once their needs were met, the cats settled down, but Boomer followed her around her apartment, toenails clacking against the oak wood floors. She’d tried making the dog understand that Shade wasn’t here anymore, yet Boomer kept looking at her through his melting dark-brown eyes as if he didn’t believe her.

  “He’s gone, boy, gone forever,” Skye murmured, sitting on the floor with him.

  Boomer was a sweet dog with fierce protective instincts, some kind of terrier mix with tufts of wiry fur. He yawned and placed his head in her lap. She leaned back against her bed, her heart wrenching with pain. Peach hopped up on the mattress. Phantom followed. She crawled into bed as Dreamer joined them. She settled down with cats wrapped around her. The dog settled down at her feet.

  Surrounded by unconditional love, she let her mind drift.

  She was in the cemetery again, distracted by the man who didn’t belong. The son of the woman whose life her brother had saved by giving up his own.

  She stared at him. His power called to her, confused her. Her pulse threaded unevenly, and her mouth went dry, and she felt an inexplicable pull that she couldn’t deny.

  Not exactly a pleasant feeling. It tore through her, leaving her breathless and surrounded by a darkness that had a ragged, frightening pulse.

  Who was he? What was their connection? She needed to know.

  Her mind was rushing toward him to better see his face when exhaustion won and darkness claimed her.

  Chapter Seven

  When Skye awoke, Boomer made yawning sounds he normally reserved for Shade, and tore out of the kitchen to the enclosed back porch.

  Sighing, she followed him and opened her back door. “All right, see for yourself.”

  The dog shot down the stairs to the first-floor apartment and pranced as he waited for her to catch up. The second she opened Shade’s door, the weird sense that Boomer and she weren’t alone returned. Had someone broken into Shade’s apartment? The mysterious man from the cemetery immediately came to mind. Pulse hammering, she tried to catch the dog by the collar, but he was too fast for her. A sharp noise from the bedroom stopped the dog outside the door. He began barking hysterically.