Read Online A Shift in the Air by Patricia D. Eddy - Free Book Online

to kill me—especially not
with two werewolves in the room.”
    Settling next to Liam took her back to
another time, a plush booth, a dark corner, an Irish reel played by
a live band. Nothing made sense. Her mind jumbled; sights, sounds,
and smells colliding together in a tornado she couldn’t escape. She
knew the man beside her, had cared deeply for him. She’d run.
Katerina’s voice. A white-hot pain in her palm. Staring down,
opening her hand in her lap, she rubbed at the scar—and kicked
herself for never noticing that the thickened, reddish skin held
the same shape as her crystal.
    “ So you’re not Bella?” Cade
leaned forward, his hands clenched on his thighs. The knife-edge to
his voice sliced through her, and she risked a glance at Liam. Hope
lifted his brows, and his breath stuttered.
    “ I am…now. Or…I was.
Katerina called me Bella. I didn’t remember the name Caitlin until
yesterday. Or maybe even today.” She reached for her throat, the
tender, flushed skin where her crystal used to be burning at her
touch.
    “ Why then?” Mara slid her
fingers through Cade’s and rested her head on his shoulder. “What
happened to trigger your memories?”
    Liam cleared his throat. “Let me.” He
explained their first meeting, though thankfully glossed over the
details. “She asked about my tattoo.”
    Icy fear spread across her chest, and
she shrank into the cushions. “I found a newspaper article.” She
pulled out her phone and tapped the screen a few times, then handed
it to Liam. “Did I really die that day?”
    “ I don’t know, luv.” He
passed the phone to Cade and then took her hands. The warmth from
his touch quelled the worst of the fear. “Ya sent me a letter. I
can show ya, if ya need. Ya said ya weren’t strong enough to escape
him. That ya lo—that ya didn’t want to leave me, but he’d never
stop, and ya couldn’t risk him findin’ me.”
    “ Who?” Cade asked. He
straightened. “Is Liam in any danger?”
    Tears burned her eyes. Liam’s arms
around her had felt so good the previous night, and she wanted to
ask for comfort now, but she’d had a hand in hurting his pack and
the old woman, Maggie. Instead, she curled her arms around herself
and forced the lump in her throat away. “I can’t remember much. But
his name was Fergus.”
    “ Can we back up a bit?”
Liam draped his hand over hers once more. A calloused thumb stroked
back and forth over her wrist, and the soothing motion quieted the
storm in her mind. If she could think, she’d be okay. Maybe. “Why
can’t ya remember? What happened to ya, Cait—Bella? I don’t even
know what to call ya.”
    “ I don’t know!” The tears
spilled over, full of shame and regret, though for what, she
couldn’t say. “I woke up in a hospital in Mexico. Katerina called
me Bella. I can tell you everything that happened after that, but
almost nothing before.”
    “ Shh, easy, luv. Calm
yourself.” He tried to pull her closer, but she jerked her hand
away.
    “ You try to be calm when
your world turns upside down! I had a good life in Phoenix.
Katerina was like a sister to me. I lived with her; she gave me a
job. Now I’m guilty of trying to kill everyone in this room, even
though I don’t know why I’d ever agree to such a thing, and there’s
a man in my dreams who hurt me, and I just found his picture
online. You’re someone I used to know—used to care about—and
I died by jumping
off some cliffs I didn’t think I’d ever been to before this
morning. And I’m supposed to be calm?”
    A swirling breeze lifted Liam’s hair,
and Cade growled, “Drop the charm. Now. Before I kick you out of
this house.”
    “ Wait.” Mara sidestepped
the coffee table between them and dropped to her knees. “Take my
hand.”
    The invisible thread that connected
the two elementals pulled tighter, and Caitlin reached out,
clutching Mara’s fingers tightly. Turbulent emotions coursed
through her: fear, horror, regret.
    “ Breathe.