as just one person. So, I set out learning how to do that, to just be myself.” He smiled ruefully. “Hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
Barrie was moved by that; it took a lot of guts and commitment not to abuse the power that shifting offered. It was a brave thing to do...and a lonely one, too. She felt herself melting, and that was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Well, you haven’t lost the talent. That was a pretty damn good imitation of an Elven,” she said grudgingly.
He smiled slightly. “What gave me away?”
“Looking at me the way you did,” she answered automatically, and then blushed, suddenly remembering their moment on the dance floor, remembering how very thoroughly he had looked at her, how his look had stopped her dead with a feeling of desire so strong it had taken her breath away. It did it again now.
“I couldn’t read your thoughts,” she managed to say. “That’s how I knew.”
“You couldn’t read my thoughts?”
Barrie couldn’t speak. The truth was, she had been able to read his thoughts at that moment—all too well. Just not in an Elven way.
Mick looked down at her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, Elven or not, and his voice was suddenly husky. “I’m glad that much came through, anyway.”
She moved away from him, trying to keep her head. “You have been following me, haven’t you?”
“Well, maybe a little.”
“A little? How do you follow someone a little?”
“Barrie,” he said, and again she felt that thrill at the sound of his voice speaking her name. “I’ve been up front with you, haven’t I? I’ve said that I want to work together, that I think we should team up.”
“Why are you so keen to work together?”
He looked at her steadily. “Because no one cares as much as you do about that kid who died. And no one will work harder to do right by him.”
She felt a little shaky, as if somehow he’d looked directly into her heart, and she had to turn away. “How do you know that?”
“I’m a shifter, aren’t I? Even if I’m not living as one, I keep my hand in. You’re the newest shifter Keeper. I watch these things.”
She nodded distractedly; it made sense.
“And knowing you a little now...” He touched her face briefly, but the touch shivered through her. “I’d have to be blind or an idiot not to see that you care.”
All kinds of unwanted feelings were welling up inside her, and she found herself dangerously close to tears. She stepped back from him abruptly to break the connection.
“So, if we were going to work together,” she said, making sure not to indicate any kind of commitment or anything, “where were you thinking of starting?”
“Johnny Love,” he said instantly.
“What about him?” she asked, maybe a little too quickly herself.
“He’s the center of all of this.” He paced in the alley, as if unable to contain his urgency. “There’s a fifteen-year-old mystery about his death.... A talented young shifter is killed while playing Johnny for the sexual pleasure of the producer of the original movie who is planning to remake that movie. And both the shifter and the producer are killed with the same exotic drug cocktail that killed Johnny.... It’s the obvious center of the investigation.” He stopped his manic circling and turned to face her. “If we want to know what’s happening now, we have to start with the past. So, we have to find out what really happened to Johnny Love.”
Barrie felt a different kind of thrill now, because of course it was exactly what she had been thinking.
“And how would you want to proceed on that?” she asked coolly.
“Johnny didn’t die in L.A.”
Barrie felt dazed with shock. He knows. How does he know? Aloud she blustered, “And I suppose you know where he did die.”
“Catalina,” Mick said with absolute certainty, and Barrie stared at him, stupefied. He’d already tracked down the real place of death. Catalina was an island just off the coast, a resort oasis and the setting of the final scenes of Otherworld. Even as he said it, it had the ring of truth. She tried to focus through her excitement and gather the facts.
“How...how do you know that?”
“Sources,” Mick said. “And I think we should go out there and find out what really happened to him. Now. Tonight.”
Barrie knew she had no choice but to go with him if she wanted to be in on this case.
“All right,” she said, forgetting all