Love in the Shadows (3 page)

She pressed the start
button on the coffee machine and wandered back down the hall. As
she walked into the atrium, she found Nurse Eschbach leaning over
her desk.
Why was she up here,
again?
“Can I help you?”

“Oh, there you are, Mrs. Sloane. I
wanted to check if you’ve gotten your flu shot yet? The flu season
is upon us. It’s a good idea to get the shot and forgo lost days at
work.” The nurse flipped her blond hair back off her shoulder. She
wore a standard nurse’s uniform.

“I explained to the doctor that I don’t
believe in taking a flu shot.” Katherine shook her head. Something
wasn’t right here. The nurse was overzealous in her work, always
pushy.

“Yes, well, I brought this pamphlet up
to explain it more thoroughly.”

Katherine took the pamphlet, being
careful not to actually touch the woman. There was something about
the nurse that set Katherine off. Last week the nurse came up here
asking Katherine to fill out forms for her insurance coverage with
the company, when Katherine had already turned in the forms to
human resources.

“Thank you, nurse. I’ll be sure to look
it over. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to prepare
for.”

“Of course. Have a nice day, Mrs.
Sloane.”

Katherine nodded and waited for the
nurse to get on the elevator before sitting at her desk with a
sigh. Even that irritating nurse had a boyfriend, one of the
mechanics in the garage, if rumors in the lunchroom were true.
Belinda from accounting said she caught them in the back seat of
one of the limousines making out. Katherine wouldn’t have thought
the nurse was the type to make out in a car.

Katherine wanted her
chance at a new life. She wanted the one man destined to be hers,
and that man was Derek. She had loved her husband, but that felt
nothing like what she felt for Derek. She needed him. She couldn’t
breathe without him.
Where are you? Come
back to me.

Katherine’s skin felt flushed. Beads of
sweat appeared on her upper lip. The blood rushed from her head,
her eyes started to see black. She cried out as she slumped over
and fell to the floor.

§

“Welcome back Mrs. Sloane,” Dr.
Frederick “Rick” White Fox said. “Mr. Darkwood will be back in a
moment. I’m afraid you fainted. Have you been feeling
ill?”

Katherine blinked. She lay in a bed in
the hospital wing on the lower floor of the Isanti building. She
recognized the room because it was where she had her yearly
checkup.

“No. I was fine one minute, and then
the next I felt sick,” Katherine said as she tried to sit up. The
doctor moved forward and raised the head of the bed so she would be
comfortable.

“I’m going to run some tests, and we’ll
see what we find. I’d like you to change into a gown if you don’t
mind. Lay your clothes on the chair. Here you go. When you’re
finished changing, lie back down on the bed and get comfortable.
I’ll send in a nurse, and we’ll figure this out.”

“Thank you, Dr. Rick.”

Katherine quickly changed into the
hospital gown. What had happened? She had never fainted before. She
climbed back into the bed and covered herself with the sheet. She
didn’t like hospitals. They made her nervous. But Dr. Rick was
always very nice to her. She felt safe in his care. He wore his
dark hair in long braids like a warrior of old. He was both modern
with his lab coat and stethoscope and old-fashioned with his braids
and moccasins, a mix of times.

“Katherine. Are you all right?” Cara
asked, walking into the room.

Katherine stared at the woman who
fulfilled the tribal prophecy. Long dark hair fell down her back,
and she wore jeans and a T-shirt. “Cara, what are you doing
here?”

“Raven told me you collapsed. I came to
see if you were okay and stop Dr. Rick from running all kinds of
tests on you. He won’t find anything.”

Sometimes Cara was scary. She seemed to
know things she shouldn’t. “I don’t understand, Cara. Why won’t he
find anything?”

“Because your reaction wasn’t about
you. It was about Derek.”

Panic gripped Katherine’s
heart. She could hardly breathe.
Derek,
where are you?
“Derek? Cara you’re scaring
me. What’s wrong with Derek? Is he hurt? Where is he?”

“That’s what Raven is trying to find
out right now. Don’t freak out, Kathy. The Shadow Walkers take care
of their own.”

“Don’t freak out! Cara, I can’t lose
him. I’ll never survive my heart breaking a second time.” First
Kevin and now Derek. He wasn’t dead. She would know. She would feel
the tearing of her heart. He must be alive.

“Easy now, Kathy. Breathe. You’re going
to be all right, and so is Derek.” Cara took her hand and held
tight.

Katherine glanced down at
the hand holding hers. She trembled. She was so cold she felt as if
she would never be warm again.
Derek?
Where was he? She needed him
so badly.

“Dammit, Katherine, you
are
not
alone.
You are Derek’s mate, and as such you are a member of the Shadow
Walker tribe. Our tribe. We are going to help you. Derek will be
found and brought home. You need to have faith. Trust me. Derek
needs you to be strong right now. Don’t fall apart.”

Cara’s words hit her like a bucket of
ice water. She needed to get her act together.

“Raven will be here in a moment to tell
us what they’ve found. Go ahead and get dressed. We’ll see what’s
up with your man.”

Her man. Katherine liked the sound of
that. She reached for her clothes. Slipping back into her slacks,
she paused a moment. “How do you know stuff?” Katherine
asked.

“How do you? I know you can sense a
lie,” Cara said.

“It’s the feelings behind the lie I
sense,” Katherine explained, putting her blouse back on.

“So you are empathic. You sense
feelings.”

“I guess so, but I have to focus on the
person for it to work. What do you sense?” Katherine asked, sitting
down to put on her shoes.

“I see things. Like the mating symbol,
or sometimes symbols of danger, like blood.”

“Blood? I think I’m glad I just feel
things.”

“Yeah. Well I’m afraid you may feel a
whole lot more if we don’t get Derek home. Don’t worry. You are
surrounded by friends. And when you marry Derek, we will be family,
sisters-in-law.”

“Derek hasn’t asked me to marry him,”
Katherine said, feeling her face flush.

“Don’t worry. He will. I’ve seen it.
Right now everything is dark and dangerous. He’s in
trouble.”

“Please tell me he’s going to be all
right.”

“I’m sorry Kathy. I can’t see past the
danger. I wish I could.” Cara’s shoulders slumped in
defeat.

“Cara, I appreciate all your help,”
Kathy said tenderly.

Cara looked up and smiled. She often
seemed like someone struggling to understand her new place in life.
Being married to Raven Darkwood wasn’t always the picnic people
imagined. Cara had been kidnapped and almost raped because she was
Raven’s woman.

“Come on. Let’s go find Raven.”
Katherine needed to find out what was going on.

As they walked out of the exam room,
they heard Raven shouting. “What do you mean he’s missing? Well,
somebody needs to find him ASAP. I want to know where my brother
is, and I want to know now! Call me as soon as you learn
something.”

Cara walked over and put
her head on Raven’s shoulder. Katherine crossed her arms and tried
to feel warm, when all she felt was cold inside. Raven smiled at
her, and it helped a little bit. He had been so nice to her when
she came to work for Isanti, Inc., five years ago. He was older
than Derek, but the resemblance between the brothers was
noticeable. They had the same dark eyes and hair, the same dimples
in their chins. Raven wore his hair down to his shoulders, but
Derek wore his hair in the current style, looking as if he had just
stepped off the pages of
GQ
Magazine
. Raven knew Katherine loved his
brother.

When Katherine felt a knife cut her
skin, she looked down in disbelief. No one was cutting her. What
was going on? The pain of the second cut was more intense, and she
gasped, clutching her side as her knees buckled. How was she
feeling a knife cut someone else?

Raven leapt forward and caught
Katherine as she fell. Cara wrapped her arms around Katherine as
she felt a third knife cut across her arm. Katherine cried out and
looked at Raven in horror.

“They’re cutting Derek. Oh, my God,
they’re torturing him.”

For a moment, Katherine was connected
with Derek, sharing his pain. She felt him stiffen and push her out
of his mind. Derek didn’t want her to be hurt. Katherine didn’t
want him to be alone.

Raven grabbed her shoulders and forced
her to focus on him. “Disconnect, Katherine. I’m speaking with him
now. I’m helping him. You have to stay out of his mind. He won’t
let me help him if he feels you. Let me help him. Let me get a fix,
so we can save him.”

Katherine nodded. She would do anything
to help Derek. She pulled herself up and leaned against the
wall.

Raven knelt on the floor. Cara crouched
above him as if to shield him. His long black hair came undone and
swept forward, hiding his face. Black hair like Derek’s. Oh, how
Katherine missed him. Tears trickled down her cheeks. He was hurt,
and she couldn’t help him.

Don’t cry, not over me.
Please don’t cry, Katie.

Derek? Are you okay? What’s
going on? I felt a knife cutting you.

I didn’t want you to feel
any pain. I’m so sorry, honey.

Don’t be ridiculous. I want
to be with you. I need you, Derek.

You don’t know how happy
that makes me. I need to shut our link down now. I love you,
Katherine.

Katherine felt the beginning of what
seemed like someone crushing her hand. She gasped, and then it was
gone and so was Derek. Raven stood looking at her, a worried frown
on his face. Cara stood next to him, one arm wrapped around his
waist.

“I know where he is, and the plane is
leaving within the hour. Unfortunately, Derek is in an area where
we’ve never been. So we can’t shadow-walk in. We’ll get him back.
You can count on it.”

“I want to go. I want to help him. Let
me go with the team.”

“Katherine, you can’t walk into Shadow
by yourself. I’m afraid you would be a liability to the team. I
can’t let you take the risk. Not when we could lose both of
you.”

“Please, Raven. I can’t stay here, safe
and sound, while he’s hurt. Please let me go to him.” Is this what
Derek felt was his duty, this overwhelming need to save
everyone?

“We don’t know what the situation is
down there, or who is holding him prisoner. I know you want to
help, but you have no training. Derek wouldn’t thank me for putting
you in danger.”

“Dammit, I’m not stupid. I can follow
orders, and I’m not made of glass. If you don’t let me go with your
team, then I will go on my own. I will not be left behind, not when
Derek is in trouble.”

Cara reached up and whispered in
Raven’s ear. He didn’t look happy about what she said. He nodded
grudgingly.

“All right, report to Joseph Running
Bear. He’ll be the team lead. But if he tells me that you are
causing problems, I will authorize him to put you on the next plane
home— with or without your permission.”

Katherine couldn’t believe he changed
his mind. Raven wasn’t just the CEO, he was the chief of the tribe.
For him to back down was huge. She gave Raven and Cara a quick hug
and started to hurry down the hallway to the elevator.

“Katherine,” Raven said, causing her to
pause and turn back. “Be careful, we love you, too.”

She waved and continued on her way.
These people were more than her employers and friends. They were
her family. She would help get Derek out of whatever mess he was
in. Bring him home and plan a big wedding. It was time to claim her
life back, and part of that meant saving her man.

Derek struggled to think clearly. There
was too much light. He remembered checking out of his motel and
going to the bar in town for lunch. He had planned to shadow-walk
back to Isanti, Inc. Then, that French woman Colette offered to buy
him a drink.

When he started to feel bad, she
offered to help him to his hotel. Derek tried to tell her he had
checked out. Then everything went dark.

Now, he was trying to come out of the
haze. The emptiness in his stomach told him lunch had long passed.
His vision cleared, and he saw two large lights like those in an
operating room shining down on him. He lay on a table, his hands
and feet manacled with large metal straps.

Derek tugged at them,
testing their strength. They were thick, and he succeeded only in
cutting himself. There were no shadows for him to escape into. For
a moment Derek knew real fear.
What the
hell was going on here?