Lucas cursed softly. “This is Baylor’s doing. He conveniently got both of us out of the way.” Then his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Why didn’t your friend arrange for someone to be with you?”
She narrowed her eyes in response. “What are you getting at?”
He paused. “How well do you know McCain?”
Every sense alerted. “We’ve been friends for nearly ten years. I’ve already told you, he runs the temp agency for me.”
“Is that all?”
Somehow she didn’t get the feeling he was asking out of jealousy. “Why?”
He walked over to the desk and sat on the edge, arms folded across his chest. “I know that he’s a warlock.”
She felt her face pale. “What makes you think—“
His jaw set. “Don’t lie to me. Ever. I know that you have a Sisterhood Circle that worships the Goddess. That’s fine with me. I told you the Highlands still honor Brighid too.”
Her mouth gaped and she snapped it shut. “How did you find out?”
“Doesn’t matter. I should have suspected earlier. What does matter, though, is do you know what else your friend might be?”
“Now what are you talking about?”
“Know anything about shape-shifting?”
She gave him a cool look. “Just because I practice white witchcraft—harnessing nature’s forces and channeling energies—doesn’t mean I’m loony enough to believe in men turning into werewolves or vampires or something.”
Lucas looked pained. “A shape-shifter is a bit different. He—or she—can turn into whatever animal they want. And the strong ones can even create the illusion of being a differentperson. They are very vulnerable when shifting and someone like Baylor could grab control of the shifter’s mind.”
Sara knew that any person who raised her own awareness through attunement to the elements ran the risk of negative forces wanting to draw on that power. It was why it was so important to keep invisible shields in place. A kind of psychic ward.
She tried to laugh but it didn’t really work. “So what are you saying? That Michael might be hanging out as the neighborhood mutt?”
Lucas shook his head. “If you follow the Goddess path, then you must believe there are other life forms—elementals, faeries—co-habiting this universe. Why not shape-shifters? Or even werewolves?”
His voice was oddly intent. She wondered if he’d ever sensed Nim. “Yes, I work with nature’s beings. But this is too much. Michael isn’t responsible for what happened last night.”
Lucas trained his eyes seriously on her face. “I’m saying that Baylor could be controlling him. I was gone, and if McCain came up with an excuse to be gone too, it left you wide open for an intruder. Does Michael have a key to your place?”
Now there’s a loaded question. Maybe Lucas was prying a bit after all.“No.” When he looked relieved, she added, “He thought you might have.”
His eyes lit with interest and a corner of his mouth turned up in pure alpha male satisfaction. “Why would he think that?”
Her traitorous hormones reacted to the slightly husky hint of lust in his tone, imagining him letting himself into her apartment and stripping off his clothes as he came to her bed… She pushed the image away. She had to clear the air on this other thing.
“Michael thinks maybe it wasyouwho let yourself in.”
She sensed, rather than saw, Lucas tense. His amber eyes seemed to glow suddenly and the desk lamp from behind him was doing tricks with the angles of his face.
“You think I broke into your place to steal a copy of something I’ve already read? Why would I do that?”
Sara hesitated, not wanting to say the rest. But she had to put her mind at ease. “He said… He said maybe you wanted to be theonly one who knew what was in the manuscript. That Professor MacDonald was dead and if I were silenced—”
His face paled beneath his tan as he sprang from the desk’s edge and cupped her face in his hands. “Silenced? What are you saying? I thought someone rifled the place. You were there? What in hell happened?”
She stared into his eyes, trying to ignore the desire that was building in her as the heat from his hands spread downward, swelling her breasts and searing through her belly.
“Someone shot me last night.”
