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Chapter 17
Tanith blinked up at him slowly, then turned away from the lake, shrugging out of Blake’s reach. Behind them was the trail, situated between a variety of trees, all green and beautiful before the summer heat truly took hold. Tanith had never bothered to learn the names of these trees. She should have. They really were something.
“Blake…” She bit her lower lip for a moment, considering things. “I don’t know if I can take much more today. I mean, I appreciate that you want to talk.” Open communication had always been paramount to her; it was the sort of thing that could make or break a couple. “But I…I feel like I’ve had a death in the family. I need to get to the bottom of it, and when I see Alani—”
“That’s why I have to tell you what’s going on,” he argued as he darted in front of her and took her by the forearms. “Sweetheart, I can’t let you go on thinking that Alani did something wrong. I know she didn’t. I know for a fact that she wasn’t involved.”
“And how can you know that?” she demanded, trying to wrench her arms away, but Blake held her firmer. She contemplated kicking him, needing the space, the distance from his beautiful, steely, almost penetrating stare—it was the stare that she first noticed at Ivo and Alani’s wedding all those months ago. It caught her eye and her heart in one fell swoop. Now, something in his tone almost frightened her. She swallowed hard. “Do…do you have something to do with what happened to the gallery? Were you involved?”
“No!” The sound he made, the scoff, was so disgusted that it sold his response. “Never. Tanith, I love you. I would never do that to you, no matter how you might think I perceive your chosen career. Never. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I get it…” His grip loosened, allowing her to step back and gulp down another deep breath. “I’m sorry, Blake, but my head’s all over the place right now. Surely you can understand that.”
“Of course I do,” he said, his tone softening, “and that’s why I don’t want you to get wrapped up in this theory that Alani is behind everything. You’re dealing with a lot. It’d be easy to go for the simplest explanation, and I’m so sorry that it isn’t.”
She told herself to be patient, to not totally flip her lid on him, but he wasn’t making this easy. “Again,” Tanith said slowly, a slight tremor in her words, “how do you know with certainty that it wasn’t Alani? Short of being there—”
“I wasn’t there. I’ve been with you since I got off work last night.”
“Exactly. So, how do you know who was behind this?” She threw her hands up and finally allowed herself to start pacing. Although her mind still raced, at least her footing had stabilized somewhat. “You’re not making any sense, Blake.”
“I know, I know, sweetheart,” Blake said, sighing. He slid his hands into his pockets, his eyes lacking their usual charming glint, the kind that always set her at ease. “I can’t promise it’s going to make much more sense the longer I talk, but I can’t… It’s not Alani’s fault. I don’t want you hating her. I know you two are friends.”
She bit the insides of her cheeks and continued to pace. Of course she and Alani were friends. But she was forgetful, especially with the kiln. Tanith knew that in her heart. “We’re friends, sure, but—”
“And Alani didn’t do it.” Blake drew in a deep breath, as though steadying himself. She had never known Blake to be a nervous man. A bit boring in the beginning, but she had come to learn his little ticks, the tone of his voice that suggested frustration or annoyance. Tanith had studied him as she would any other beloved work of art. Blake might be perceived as calm by others, but Tanith knew better—she didn’t really know this Blake. Nerves didn’t lend themselves to ER doctors.
“Okay.” Tanith forced herself to stand still, directly in front of him, and ignored the thrumming of her racing heartbeat in her ears. “Okay. Tell me, then. Just…say it.”
“Alani wasn’t involved,” Blake told her, his cheeks suddenly flush with color, “but cougars were. I…I smelled them at the scene.”
“You… smelled the cougars?” Tanith blinked, trying to force her brain to process what had just come out of Blake’s mouth. Because she knew that the cougars last winter had been shifters. She knew, despite not being told, that Willard Vesper had been their ringleader. But how could anyone other than a shifter, or someone else who knew about the shifters, even have a clue about the cougars? How could anyone except a shifter pick up on their smell?
After a brief space out, during which she heard a high-pitched whine ringing between her ears she cleared her throat and planted her hands on her hips. “You mean like…you smelled, um, wet cat smell, or…?”
He could have stepped up to help a little here. Instead, Blake stood there staring at her, hands still shoved deep in his pocket, as if he were just giving her time to come to terms with everything. Noble, but that didn’t help in a situation like this.
“Blake. I need you to say something.” Tanith started to pace again, hoping that the movement would get her mind turning like it always did. She had always had the ability to see different perspectives. In the art world, there were all kinds of people, eccentric and meek—and all those in between. She could understand each one, truly understand them, so long as they opened themselves up to her. “Are you saying cougars destroyed my gallery?”
“It’s not… I don’t mean that literal cougars came down to the gallery, set it on fire, and sat back cackling as the flames spread,” he remarked, lips twitching into a small grin. She failed to see the joke in that moment, but she let him have it.
“Okay, so—”
“I’m saying cougar shifters, humans who can turn into cats, were responsible for setting your gallery on fire. Their scents were all over the scene, though it’s undetectable to humans.”
For a brief few seconds, that kind that seemed to drag on for eternity, Tanith contemplated stomping back to the trail and heading for home. If he was a shifter, but had neglected to tell her, that was almost the same thing as lying. But, even though she wasn’t in the mood for his jokes, or his revelations about his nature, the look on Blake’s face was quite serious. Like he’d just issued a diagnosis for a terminal case.
Tanith ceased pacing. “Shifters? And just exactly would you know about those?”
“Foxly High is a bit of an exaggeration of them, compared to the reality, but yeah,” Blake stated with a few nods. “If that show would help you to picture them better, then that might help. It’s all real, Tanith. There really are people who seem human, but are also hiding another nature.”
“Jesus, Blake, I’m not stupid,” she snarled. “I know all about the Ruiz family, how the parents are not shifters but managed to pass the genes on. Espie has been my friend forever; do you really think we could have known each other so long without me finding out that she’s also a bear?”
“Then you must know that the cougar shifters are every bit as real,” he pointed out. “You must know that there wasn’t a damn thing wrong with the water around here last winter. I don’t know if these cougars are Vesper goons, or just some random pack acting out for fun, but I do know there’s a target on you, and I’m desperately worried that it’s all my fault.”
She blinked again, then again, each time hoping it might trigger a reset and everything would be different. She’d open her eyes and be back at the gallery, unburned and intact, and this whole day would have just been some awful nightmare. But that didn’t happen. She was still in the forest, at the edge of the lake she had taken Hayley swimming in one summer years ago. And Blake was still there. And shifters were still real. And, if he could smell those cougars, then he was a shifter as well.
Her brain was about ten seconds away from imploding.
“How…how did I not realize?” She swallowed hard, fighting back the quivers, willing herself to be strong. “There’s only one way you could possibly know about the shifters and smell the damned cougars, Blake. Why didn’t you tell me before now?”
The color darkened across his face, his blush going from a normal red to downright crimson. She stood there, waiting for a response, and when she finally got one, Tanith considered making a run for the trail again rather than face the truth.
Because rather than saying something, rather than offering the explanation she so desperately needed, Blake began to take his clothes off.
