Possessing the Witch

“But not before the woman saw yours.” Balthazar walked to a bookshelf and selected a brown leather journal. “Unfortunately, the victim was able to describe you in sufficient detail for a sketch artist to draw a reasonable likeness of you in your half-shifted state. And equally unfortunate, the news publicized it. Did anyone else see you? Did you pass anyone while you were running?”

Again Gryph hesitated. “No.” The lie came hard to him. But he didn’t want any of the otherkin to seek out Selene or the other woman and consider them threats to the Lair’s existence. The two women had helped him when he might have died of his wounds or from exposure to the potentially toxic river water. The fewer people who knew he’d spent time in Selene’s apartment, the better. He hoped that she wouldn’t tell the police he’d been there. If she did, it might hit the news and the inhabitants of the underworld would once again see it on their televisions, even in the depths of the tunnels.

Yes, cable television was another improvement, along with internet connection, that Balthazar had been adamant about bringing to the people who lived below Chicago. Because of his desire to bring technology to the underworld, Balthazar had opened up an entire world of learning to Gryph and Lucas.

Balthazar checked Gryph’s wound and bandaging. “Since when did you learn about poultices, son?”

Lucas’s pale gray eyes narrowed, watchfully.

“I’ve been studying the internet for holistic cures. It was one of the remedies.”

“Made of what?” Lucas leaned close and sniffed. “Some kind of herb and mud?”

“Something like that.” Gryph strode into his old room and dug a shirt out of the dresser, his gaze lingering on the world map tacked to the wall.

“Traveling among the humans is dangerous. You risk your life and anonymity each time you walk among them.” Balthazar held up a hand. “I know you’ve been doing it for the past five years, but this was exactly what I feared might happen.” Balthazar stood in the entrance to his room. “Last night you thought you had control of your beast, yet you still transformed.”

Gryph stiffened. “What else was I supposed to do? I couldn’t let him kill her.”

“Indeed, but by transforming and showing yourself as such, you’ve made yourself a target.”

“No one in my office knows.”

“But the woman you saved saw you with your face half man and half lion.”

“I saw the drawing on the television. They won’t link it to Gryphon Leone. The features weren’t specific enough. She concentrated on the animal.”

Balthazar nodded. “True enough. In the meantime, you’re better off taking a leave of absence. Tell your office staff you’ll be out of the country.”

Already shaking his head, Gryph stepped forward. “I can’t.”

“What is so important you can’t lay low for a few weeks until the furor dies down?”

“The charity ball for the children.”

Balthazar’s lips formed a thin line. “The charity ball. Why do you have to be there?” Balthazar’s eyes narrowed. “Can’t you just spend the money and let someone else take the reins on planning?”

“My company is sponsoring it. The money raised will go to the homeless children of Chicago. I’ve helped sponsor it for the past three. This year, GL Enterprises is the main sponsor. The Women’s Aid Organization is demanding that the head of GL Enterprises needs to attend the ball to show his support.”

Lucas chuckled. “My brother, a home-grown Chicago celebrity. A wanted man in more ways than one.”

“Believe me, I’d let them handle all of it, but they said our donations have dwindled and the public wants to know the man sponsoring the ball is fully committed. They’re afraid I’m Mafia or something—you know, dirty money.”

“That’s right, father, the philanthropic Gryphon needs to put in an appearance, to set the old biddies’ minds at ease.”

“You can’t risk it,” Balthazar insisted. “If you transform during the ball, you’ll have the entire city on you so fast you won’t have a chance to escape.”

“The children need me.”

“They need you alive. Not dead.”

“I’ll keep my exposure to a minimum. At least until the ball is over. Perhaps, in the meantime, the police will find the animal responsible for Miss Grant’s attack and death.”

If the animal was a shifter, there had to be others in the city. Gryphon would put out feelers among his staff.

All his life he’d held on to the dream of traveling to other countries. After the previous night, he was certain he couldn’t risk getting too far from his haven beneath the city. Where else would he go if his inner beast emerged unbidden? Where would he hide if his secret was unleashed?

“Son,” Balthazar said, “none of this would be an issue if you hadn’t transformed.”

“I had to transform to save the woman,” Gryph said.

“And her attacker came after you.” Balthazar spoke like it was a statement instead of a question.

Gryph nodded, his thoughts processing the information and coming up with what lay at the back of his mind during his escape to the Lair. “It had to be a shifter.”

“Why do you say that?”

“How else could it have entered the hospital without being detected to finish the job it started? A wolf can’t open doors without hands.”

“Are you sure it was the same person or creature who attacked the woman in the first place?”

“Why would anyone come back to smother her unless he wanted to make sure she didn’t expose the true nature of the animal that attacked her?”

Chapter 6 (#ulink_8e38d427-332b-54d9-8304-22ca435bc94b)

“Chicago Police Department and animal control have issued a warning for citizens and guests to be on the lookout for a man fitting the forensic artist’s rendition of the murder victim’s attacker. What more proof do you need?” Brigid drummed her fingers on the bistro table at the local delicatessen, where she’d insisted Selene meet her and Deme.

Selene’s salad remained untouched on the plate in front of her. She hadn’t had much of an appetite since Gryph had disappeared. If only she knew where to look for him, she could set her mind at ease and quit worrying about his wounds and whether he’d healed properly.

Unlike her siblings, she understood why he’d left. The television in her kitchen had been on when she’d gone inside her apartment. He had to have seen the report on the news about the attack on the victim in the hospital.

He’d been there when she and Brigid rode up on the motorcycle. Selene felt his presence and had sensed him in the shadows at the corner of her building. While her sisters figured his absence confirmed his guilt, Selene knew he couldn’t have been the one to attack the woman in the hospital. He’d barely been able to stand when they’d left. When Cal had gone after him, she’d held her breath, praying to the goddess that he would escape. Injured like he was, he might not have been so lucky. Cal was one of Chicago Police Department’s best, was in good shape and hadn’t lost several pints of blood in a vicious attack.

“Cal said he just disappeared. One minute he ran down an alley and the next, he was gone. The doors into the buildings on either side had been locked. Unless he had a key to one of them, he couldn’t have gotten in.”

Yeah, he’d disappeared, after stirring up such intense feelings inside her. How far would they have gone had he not been injured? Could she have stopped herself from making love to the man?

“Selene?” Deme stopped in the middle of her conjecture. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Yes.” Selene blinked, her cheeks burning. “What was it you said?”

“Is it possible that we have more shifters in the city?” Deme asked.

Selene glanced from Deme to Brigid. “Shifters? As in half man, half animal?”

“Yes.” Brigid leaned forward. “If the stranger you had in your apartment could look like a man one moment and a lion the next, who’s to say there aren’t other kinds of shifters roaming the streets?”

“Seems reasonable.” Selene wasn’t sure where the conversation was going.