Focusing on the monitors in front of me, I knew the bear coming so close to the house had rattled Henry on top of everything else. It couldn’t have been any other bear but Sheryl, the head of the local bear clan. She’d always been pleasant when she’d come around before. We didn’t chat or have lunch or anything. She would just stroll by sometimes and wave hello, then go on her way. She’d changed the first time she came by to explain that she and her clan lived on the mountain and welcomed me to the neighborhood.
For her to show any kind of aggression was deeply troubling. Surely, she wouldn’t try to take the baby. Would she?
This situation needed my immediate attention. I checked all my hidden field cameras and saw bears in the woods around the house. I had to blink several times to focus on the screen before I could tell it was almost the whole clan out there, all looking directly at my cabin. This was not good.
I had left any wards down on purpose, to make it seem like everything was normal as usual. I had never kept wildlife, real or shifter, from my home. If I had increased security around the cabin now for no apparent reason, that would have raised red flags in the community. As it was now, it was too late. Sheryl had seen the baby and Henry. I just didn’t know what she’d do about it. I had been recharging with my walks in the forest every day, but I was far from fully recovered right now. Even still, I needed to take care of security before anything happened.
Reaching out with my energy, I tapped into the roots and branches of the trees I used as sentinels along my property lines. I sent out a blast of power to them all at once, forcing any being with the urge to harm me or mine out of the boundary. I watched on the screen as, one after another, the shifters in the woods were removed like they were being dragged by an unseen force.
That would piss them off for sure, but it had to be done.
Finishing up, I felt even more drained and exhausted. My legs felt like weights were tied to them. Every step was a struggle and used more energy than it should have. I had wanted to talk to Henry about my reaction to him this afternoon and explain, but just getting down the stairs would take everything I had left at this point. Why was I so tired? Usually, doing this amount of magic would have made me a little sleepy, but not this bad. The scratch on my leg was burning now with a terrible heat that was radiating up the leg. My whole body felt hot, but I was starting to shiver. That didn’t make sense.
Convincing myself that I was overreacting, I decided a shower and food was what I needed. I was just cold and weak because I was hungry. I stood up, holding the top of the desk for support, then shook my head to bring the room into focus before weaving a crooked path to the door.
I was closing the office door just as Henry was leaving the baby’s temporary nursery. Leaning back on the door for support, I blinked my vision back into focus yet again. Why was my vision so blurry?
“Is she already down for the night?”
Henry paused before answering, then seemed to make a decision and nodded his head with a tired smile and a look of concern. “Yeah, she had a big day. She ate and had the bottle you’d made for her earlier, so she should sleep through the night.”
Answering seemed like so much work. Everything seemed to be so hard right now, even words, so I just nodded in response and trudged heavily toward the stairs, holding onto the railing to keep myself from slumping. What was wrong with me?
“Thas good. I’m ex…exhau…really tired. Shower and sleep.”
The room began to spin. Blinking my eyes wasn’t bringing anything into focus anymore. I stumbled down the steps. I would have fallen if Henry hadn’t hurried down and caught me.
“Whoa, big guy. Hold on to me, and I’ll help you down.” He was holding all my weight easily, helping me to stumble and walk to my bed. He tried to help lay me down softly, but I wound up falling onto the soft mattress with a thump.
“Feels’good. S’tired. Don’t know why.”
“Finn, what’s wrong? Is there anything you need? You want something to eat or drink?”
I could hear the worry in Henry’s voice, but sleep was pulling me under faster than I liked. I wanted to tell him I was okay, not to worry, but I only had time for one sentence before I was gone, and I knew what I needed. Some instinct was yelling what would solve everything.
“Stay. Need you. Scratch.”
Everything faded to black, but the darkness quickly made way for dreams. I was familiar with this. It had happened before, but never so vivid and terrible. These were the kind of dreams that told me things I never wanted to know, things that might happen…but not always the way I was shown. They were tricksy visions that lied with a hint of truth. They were never good.
Tonight, they were filled with a baby held by a gorgeous man with light and love in his
