“The fairy that watches you,” she said carefully. “I’ve seen her before, but I’m not allowed to speak to them until I’m spoken to.”
Kiowa was beginning to wish she treated real people like that.
“I have a fairy?” His lips twitched at the thought.
“She’s very sad,” Cassie whispered. “She says you forgot her quilt.”
He stilled. Shock resounded through him as he stared back at the child.
“What did you say?” He kept his voice calm, fought the emotion surging within him.
“You forgot the quilt she made you, Kiowa,” she said softly. “She whispered her love into each thread and placed powerful protections into its weave. She wanted you to know her mother’s love.”
He bent down, careful not to move too fast or to make the child feel threatened. She was staring back at him with tear-filled eyes, her hands clenched tightly at her side.
“You see her?” he asked then. “She’s here?”
“She says she’s always with you,” Cassie whispered. “When you allow yourself to dream, she comes through the dream catcher and tries to bring you joy and love. Just as she made certain she brought you to Amanda. But you need to return and get the quilt, Kiowa. She made it just for you.”
The quilt. He had left it in the cabin, had never used it when he was there, no matter how cold he got.
“Here, you little bastard. She bought this for you so you wouldn’t get cold. I tried to tell her animals don’t feel the cold…” He had thrown the quilt at Kiowa, the hatred in his voice almost maniacal. Kiowa had left it lying until he left, then carefully folded it, ignoring the warmth that seemed to reach out to him, and hid it in the metal cupboard in the kitchen. He had left it there when he left the mountain. Not that he had ever forgotten it. But he had wanted nothing to do with the woman who cursed him to the life he led.
“She cries because of what he did,” Cassie said then. “Forgive her, Kiowa, she didn’t know.”
Kiowa clenched his teeth as his chest tightened in pain.
“She always knew you had a soul…”
He came to his feet in a rush, stalking across the porch, away from the little girl.
“Kiowa, don’t leave,” Cassie called out then. “You’ve left Amanda alone, and she needs you. But can you help her be strong? Or can you only feed the demons you’ve known for so long?”
He stopped, turning back to her.
She stood, outlined by the rays of the sun and shadows that made no sense. A chill raced up his back as he realized then what Cassie was. The little girl, created from the altered sperm of both wolf and coyote, holding the traits of each, was psychic. She didn’t have fairies; the little girl saw ghosts and they spoke to her.
“Tell her I loved her,” he said hoarsely then, thinking of the dreams that had come to him as a child and the comfort they brought.
Cassie nodded slowly. “And she always loved you, Kiowa. She asked that you know, she was coming for you. They knew about you, and about her, and she was coming for you when she was taken from this life. She cried for you.”
He grimaced, his lips pulling back from his teeth as his head fell back and he fought the grief that ripped a ragged wound into his heart.
“Let yourself dream, Kiowa,” Cassie whispered then. “Let her comfort you again.”
He turned from her. He had to get the hell away from her and he had to do it now. Before he saw ghosts himself in the shifting shadows that moved around the child and in his own ragged soul.
Chapter Twenty-Four
He intended to escape into the forest, to find the time he needed to still the demons that raged inside him. And he would have, if the cell phone at his side hadn’t vibrated insistently. Snarling, her jerked it off his belt and flipped it open.
“What?”
“Get to the house, Kiowa. Now.” Dash’s voice was low, imperative. Kiowa didn’t bother answering, he just turned and shot into a dead run down the mountain. Altered genetics and his own athletic awareness gave him the speed and endurance he needed to make it to the main house where Dash waited at the door.
“Listen to me.” He pushed Kiowa against the entry wall before he could rush down the hall to the Lab entrance. “She’s in pain, Kiowa. And it’s bad. But she has to finish this. What’s going on right now is too important to stop.”
Dash was pale, his blue eyes dark with concern and bleak knowledge.