A Touch of the Beast. Linda Winstead Jones

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СКАЧАТЬ dreams, but something unexpected was happening with these seizures.

      She was seeing a few minutes into the future immediately after each convulsion. It was hard to swallow, impossible to explain. But over the years they’d learned to accept that some things were just that way.

      Impossible.

      Cassie sighed, apparently resigned to the fact that he was going to North Carolina. “If you insist on making this trip, you could fly instead of driving,” she said as she followed him down the long hallway. “It would be much quicker. Fly over, visit this address, fly home.”

      “I don’t know how long I’ll need to be there, and besides, flying would only save a day or two.” He glanced down at the dog who walked beside him. “Baby hates to fly, and I can’t leave her here. Last time I went on a two-day trip, she didn’t eat the whole time I was gone.”

      “You love that dog more than you love me,” Cassie said, sounding very much the way she had at the age of twelve.

      Hawk hid a smile. “You know that’s not true.”

      “What if I tell you that I won’t eat until you get home?”

      He laughed. “The way you’ve been eating lately, I know that’s a hollow threat.”

      Cassie hit him lightly on the arm as she danced around him. “That’s not very nice.”

      “But it is true.”

      Again she seemed to pout.

      Hawk dropped the suitcase and took his sister’s face in his hands. His tough, tanned hands only emphasized her paleness. There were dark circles under her eyes, and while she’d been eating plenty lately she wasn’t gaining weight. The thinness of her face told him that she’d lost a few pounds. She might not like it, but he had to do something.

      He couldn’t possibly sit around here and twiddle his thumbs and just wait for something to happen. If he could find an explanation for what was happening to Cassie, maybe even a cure, then he could rest easy. Maybe.

      Protests about unrealistic expectations aside, he had to admit that the woman’s final comment had been haunting him for the past two days. You look so very much like your mother.

      “What if our biological mother gave us up because she knew we were different?”

      “We were infants,” Cassie argued. “How could she possibly have known?”

      Hawk brushed one thumb over his sister’s ashen cheek. “That’s what I’m going to find out.”

      Chapter 2

      “Hey, there’s someone here to see you.”

      Sheryl looked up from her chore as Cory stuck his head into the room. She never knew what color her young part-time helper’s hair would be. This week it was black. And spiked. Odd appearance aside, the teenager was wonderful with animals. Sheryl’s patients didn’t seem to mind what his hairstyle was like. They also didn’t mind that his pants usually hung so loose on his narrow hips they looked like they were about to fall to the floor.

      “A drop-in?” she asked.

      “Not exactly. He’s an inspector or something. He has a clipboard and a business card. I told him he could wait in your office.”

      Sheryl’s heart sank. Just what she needed! There was bound to be something in this old building that wasn’t up to code. “I’ll be right there.”

      “He’s kinda nice lookin’, for an old guy,” Cory added with a grin. “Maybe you shouldn’t leave him waiting too long.” He wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

      “Not you, too!”

      “Not me, too, what?” Cory asked, almost pulling off the innocent expression. “I’m just trying to, you know, fix you up. You’re hot, for an older woman. If you weren’t too old for me, I’d definitely ask you out.”

      She’d never imagined that she’d be “too old” at twenty-six. “Cory, do you like your job?”

      “Sure!”

      “Then I suggest you shut up.”

      Cory locked his lips with nimble fingers and watched her work. Silently.

      Sheryl finished with the small dog on the table, then handed it over to Cory for grooming.

      Her offices were located in an old building. True, the place needed some work, but the rooms were spacious and the hallway was wide, and some of the interior walls were red brick, giving the place a solid and homey feel. In addition to the equipment necessary for her practice, she’d livened the place up with plants and hung framed pictures—photographs and drawings of animals—down the long hallway. The clinic wasn’t home yet, but it was certainly beginning to feel that way.

      The man who waited in her office was indeed “kinda nice lookin’.” But he didn’t look at all like a building inspector. Did men who worked for the state of North Carolina dress in black, wear their hair in a short ponytail and sport a gold earring in one ear? She didn’t think so.

      “Dr. Eldanis.” The man, who hadn’t been waiting in a chair but was perusing her bookshelves, offered his hand for a quick shake. “Tony Carpenter, North Carolina Department of Structural Safety. I need to ask a few questions and take a look around the building, and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

      “Sure,” she said, seeing this intrusion as an annoyance that came with owning an old building.

      “You’ve been here how long?” he asked.

      “Three months.”

      He nodded curtly. “And the building was empty for several years before you bought it, correct?”

      Sheryl cocked her head and studied the man’s face for a moment through narrowed eyes. “Yes. The building was empty for quite some time. Don’t you have this information in your files?”

      He gave her a practiced and disarming smile. “The database is woefully out of date, I’m afraid. I always find it best to cover everything pertinent when I conduct an inspection.”

      Sheryl no longer trusted disarming smiles. In fact, they put her on edge.

      Over the next several minutes, Mr. Carpenter asked a few questions about the condition of the building. He made a couple of quickly scribbled notations on the paper on his clipboard, and while he certainly wasn’t nervous, he was definitely wound a bit too tight.

      There was something about the way he glanced around her office that made Sheryl suspect that he was a little bit too interested.

      “Did the previous residents leave any materials behind?” he asked, finally laying his eyes on her again. “I understand that several years ago there was a fertility clinic at this location.”

      “Yes.” Sheryl crossed her arms across her chest. “That was quite a long time ago, Mr. Carpenter.”

      There was that smile again. “Call me СКАЧАТЬ