Intent on His claim (Beauty and the Beast #3)

Chapter 37

Aunt Lily sauntered back into the kitchen while I sampled her cookies. Perfect, as always.

"Dane gave me a heads up that you want to know more about Kim," she began, settling down next to me, then she dropped her voice to a breath, "but we don't have much time so is he in your head?"

I blinked and she asked again, "Does he have a direct link to your mind right now?"

I shook my head in shock, knowing she meant Warren. My worlds were colliding and I was having difficulty following as she spoke about this so casually. "Um, no."

She nodded. "Good. He won't be gone long so let's really talk. Weird things have been happening to you, right? Stuff even Warren can't explain?"

"Yeah, I've been blacking out a lot and I have weird dreams when I do."

She nodded again and picked up a cookie herself. "There was some kind of prophecy about you before you were born. I don't actually know the prophecy myself, but I know that you were born for something big in that world. Dane was born as the one who goes before you – to protect you I think."

I blinked, then burst out laughing. She raised a brow and calmly watched me laugh. "Okay, what's in the cookies?"

"Sounds crazy, doesn't it?" she grinned then pushed away from the table. "I don't usually put any stock in this kind of mumbo jumbo but when your grandfather spoke, you listened. He was dead set against Kim marrying your father until she fell pregnant with Dane. And suddenly he knew you were coming and Dane would be your protector."

"Are you serious?"

She shrugged. "Your visions will guide you. You need to understand them so that you can follow them, and I think you're running out of time."

I frowned, suddenly remembering all the times that people had pointed out that Dane was more attentive to me than other brothers. Was he instinctively my protector? Didn't all big brothers protect their sisters like he did? Warren did with Ashley...right?  Well, when he wasn't leaving it to Roger.

"So, what do you want to know about Kim? The most obvious thing I guess is that I'm not a shifter, and neither are my kids. Your grandparents had two daughters, Kimber and Grace. Kim was born first and born a shifter but Grace was completely human.

"It devasted your grandparents because first of all it made absolutely no sense – they were pure blood shifters – but like I said your grandfather had this gift –"

"Wait, what am I supposed to do?" I cut in, breaking through her rambling. "What do you mean, I'm running out of time?'

"Sorry, honey. You'll have to figure that out. I think lives are involved though."

Nezumi said the same thing. She told me I would have power over life. When they kidnapped me I thought they would turn me, but how would she have known about my power? Had the Consulate known about these visions? But why wouldn't they tell Warren? Lives hung in the balance...

My head started spinning and I tried to get up. Distantly, I heard a chair crashing and screaming, but I was already floating.

***
It was dark. The darkness around me was ominous, though with my newfound night vision it wasn't terrifying. I took the steps slowly, somehow recognizing them.

I had walked up this staircase once before it, I just couldn't place it. The place looked like it was falling apart around me and I frowned in concentration. When had I walked up here?

I made it up to the landing, all my senses on high alert although there was nothing to hear but the wind, no scent but dust and age. A door loomed before me, an old wooden door that was missing a doorknob.