Kasey was listening to everyone, but for some reason she was so confused. She kept having flashes of things that weren’t making sense. She felt this intense pull to Elias, but she felt it for Brannon, too. Her head was pounding the more she tried to concentrate on the flashes.

“Artemis?” Kasey whispered softly in confusion.

Everyone stopped talking and turned to face her. “Yes, daughter. What about her?”

Kasey shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t remember.” She looked to Brannon. “Your voice, it’s confusing me.”

“What do you mean, baby? Why is it confusing you?” Brannon asked as he squatted in front of her.

“I don’t know.” She glanced to Elias. “Do you feel it, too?”

Kasey didn’t even know what she was asking, something just felt wrong inside and she didn’t know what it was or how to fix it.

“My head, something’s wrong, but…I feel a pull toward you. You’re my mate it says, but there’s another part of me that I keep trying to ignore that says something is not right with that statement.”

“That’s because it’s not right,” Layla barked. “You two are not mated. I don’t know what that bitch did to you, but you don’t belong together and you both know it. You’re friends. All three of us are. We joked that we were on the way to being great friends, but there was no attraction. We established that at lunch; we even laughed about it.”

“Yeah,” Elias said slowly. “I remember that. Later I was at dinner with my mom and Artemis. We were texting about going out to a bar to see who we could pick up, and then nothing. It’s a blank until this morning at the diner.”

“What about you, Kasey?” Isaac asked. “What do you remember?”

Kasey could feel the memories at the edge of the blackness, but she couldn’t seem to get them to move so she could see clearly. “I have vague memory of a coffee. She gave me a coffee. I think.”

“Who did, honey?” Brannon cajoled. “Who gave you a coffee?”

“She did,” Layla agreed. “Artemis showed up at the apartment Wednesday afternoon, just after Elias left. She brought a coffee for her. Later, I had to practically carry Kasey into the shower, she was almost comatose. Maybe that’s what she’s talking about.”

Isaac sighed. “I don’t know, but something is going on here and there’s only one way to find out what.” He glanced at Roberto and held out his hand for his phone. He quickly dialed a number and paused for a second before he spoke. “It’s me. I need you to get my wife and bring her to the address I text you. Don’t let her say no, either.” Isaac paused and listened to the person on the other line. “In that case, bring her, too, and do me a favor. Dump the security recording files from the interior of the house for the last two days onto a DVD and bring it.”

Kasey frowned as those words sank in. Recordings? Her father had recordings of the house?

“Can I ask you a question?” Elias said as he looked between the shifters in the room. “My jaguar, he’s…I don’t know… something’s wrong. When you call her babe or baby, it roars softly, but it’s like he doesn't care. But earlier, he wanted to claw your eyes out when you said she was your mate. What’s happening?”

“Elias, I’m Kira. Luke’s mate. I was human until I mated him. Now, I too have to share space with my animal. It takes a bit of getting used to, I know. Watch your jaguar. What’s he doing now?”

“It’s like he’s drugged or something. He wants to take over and shift so he can heal, but he’s not strong enough. Something is holding onto him. It’s like he’s tied in restraints and can’t get free.”

“My head feels that way, too. Like something has a lock on my memories, like I’m not in control completely,” Kasey said absently. “I keep getting flashes of something, but it’s too quick to really see or comprehend. I just keep hearing two voices in my head. They were excited about something.”

When it became apparent neither were going to say anything more, Isaac turned to face the room again.

“Can I ask you a question, Uncle?”

“Of course, Layla, always.”

“You asked someone to grab the recordings from your house.”

Isaac smiled sadly. “I learned long ago that people can’t be trusted in my world. Every room in my house has some sort of monitoring. I rarely look at them, but I have them if needed. Why do you ask?”

“Does Artemis know of them?”

“I don’t think so. Only three people know. Me, your father who I told when I brought him in, and my second-in-command. I trust both of them with my life and that of my family. No one else has earned that level.”

“Not even your wife?”

“I married her because I was lonely and missed my wife. I thought Kasey needed a mother figure in her life, but I was wrong. I fear now, though, I made a mistake.”

“No offense, Uncle, but you did. Artemis is hateful and mean. She belittles Kasey every chance she gets. She’s vindictive and manipulative. Have you asked yourself why after being married for the last ten years, she all of a sudden got pregnant?”

Isaac smiled softly. “You, my dear, are just like your father. He asked me the same thing, and you’re right, I was too excited to wonder.” He looked to his daughter and sighed. “I was blind, I never saw it for what it really was. I didn’t want to see it, I guess. Kasey was never one to complain, but I should have known when she begged to go away to school. I was selfish. I wanted her to have a life, a chance at a normal one. So I agreed and I regretted it every day she was gone, but I didn’t know how to tell her.”

“I don’t feel good,” Kasey whispered right before she turned and started throwing up. “Not again,” she cried in between heaves.

When she’d finally gotten her stomach under control, she sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. “What’s happening to me?”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out,” Brannon responded softly as he pulled her off the couch long enough for him to sit and pull her into his arms. “I’ve got you, babe.”

“Daughter,” Isaac called softly, “what did you mean when you said not again. Have you been getting sick?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

“No, Uncle. She hasn’t that I know of.”