The Secrets of the Panther

Chapter 73

IZZY

I know I have been sleeping for a while. But I don't know how long exactly. My mind is full of dreams, dark dreams. Everything came like a flash of memories, but they were not mine. Some were memories, but I could feel every emotion she had; I could feel them all.

They were Helga's.

I saw the potions she made, the ones that were making people jump into bodies. There were loads of different people, including Blake and Kacey. I could feel her pain every time she had to take a life, the sacrifices she had to make.

I felt it all.

But one memory stood out more-my mother's death.

It's not the conversation, but her fears of the Elder and Linda surprised me more than anything. But she looked at my mother as she was chanting the words that sealed my mother's fate. She didn't want to do it. Everything made no sense.

I just tossed and turned slightly in bed; I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling. Tears fill my eyes because of the memories.

I feel Puna stir inside my head. Her green eyes glisten as she looks at me. "You felt everything too," she breathes.

I nodded without saying a word, as I knew my voice would give me away to her.

I move slightly and sit up in bed to look around. I noticed I was back in the same hospital bed as before but saw two sleeping people on the chair near the bed as I looked around the room.

Blake was sleeping in the chair with his head leaning back on it, but it was the little sleeping beauty, my daughter, who was snuggled into him again.

I couldn't help but smile at the sight before me.

Puna looks at them with a smile. "They look so cute together," she says, but she sighs. "Izzy, we need to figure out how to feel everything Helga did."

"I know what you mean," I said. "Do you have any ideas about how we can feel them?"

Puna stares at me for a moment while I slowly get into a sitting position.

"I think when we held onto Helga, our power made a connection for the dark magic to sweep in. But I think we got her feelings about what she was doing," Puna says. "Our power is based on our emotions. It might have reacted to them, somehow."

Thinking about it, it's the only way it could have happened.

"I think you're right," I said, looking at my hands in front of me. "Do you think it will affect us?"

Puna shakes her head. "I don't, Izzy," she says and purrs in my head.

I look back over at Allie and Blake. I don't want them to be around me if my power flares up, but I also know I have to kill whoever is after Puna and me.

"We will kill them, Izzy," blurts Puna. I sometimes forget that she can feel everything I feel.

Puna laughs. "You know, there is one thing we will have to discuss," she says. "Are you ready to mate, our mate?"

I sigh. "I think I might be," I say; I turn to look at Blake. His eyes were still closed. He is the most handsome man I have ever met. Why would he ever want to be with me? Is it because I'm powerful?

Puna growls loudly in my head. "Stop thinking like that, Izzy," she says. "Mate is not like that. He wants us and has even taken to looking after Allie as his own."

I stare at him for a little while.

I know Puna is right. I know he wants me, and he has shown me he will protect Allie time and time again. Allie is so fond of him; she never went near a man. She would only go to Todd and also Alpha Dawson.