“Excuse me?” Jim had no idea what the hell Julian was talking about.
“Guess you don’t play video games.” Julian chuckled.
If only Julian knew. Video games were one of Jim’s guilty pleasures.
“Look. We’re…amped up. We’ve got healing powers far beyond those of normal Bears. So when Chloe was hurt, I felt the pull of someone who was close to death and arrived to find the paramedics getting ready to code her.”
Jim glanced into the living room. He couldn’t help himself. Part of him needed to see her, whole and talking and laughing, to prove to himself that she was right there, safe and sound.
“I healed her enough to get her on the ambulance alive, and once in the hospital I did…more. But she was in a coma and they didn’t think she’d wake up.” Julian’s expression turned apologetic. “The price a Spirit Bear pays for having our ability to heal is that we’re compelled to heal. Being in a hospital is sheer hell for any of my kind, so trying to take care of Chloe was difficult.”
“But you did it anyway.” And for that, Jim owed him big time. “Spirit bear. I’ve heard that phrase before. You’re a Kermode.”
Julian grinned, looking tickled pink that Jim knew exactly what kind of Bear he was. “Yup.”
“I thought they were all in Canada.” The Kermode, or spirit bear, was a species of black bear whose fur was creamy to white instead of black. They were an endangered species that roamed from Princess Royal Island to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, on the coast, and inland toward Hazelton, British Columbia.
“The rest of them are. I’m currently the only one living in the US.” Julian took a sip of juice. “Anyway, Chloe wasn’t waking from her coma, and her family asked if there was anything more I could do.” He shrugged sheepishly. “I would have done it anyway, but I had to warn them that she’d be a little bit different when she woke.”
“The white fur?” Jim sat back, the juice bottle sweating cold water between his palms.
“That, I admit, was an unexpected side effect, and not one I’ve seen before.”
“So you’ve never heard of a shifter’s fur suddenly turning white?” Jim was confused. He’d thought it was a side effect of what Julian had done to save her.
“Nope. Not once has a Spirit Bear saved someone only to have them turn white.”
“Huh.” Jim rubbed his chin. “Are you sure about that?”
Julian opened his mouth, then closed it with a frown. “You know what? I’m not. It seems there’s more going on here than any of us thought, so I can’t say for sure. All I know is I’ve never heard of it.”
“Yet something else we need to look into.”
Julian nodded thoughtfully. “I agree. Add in the link Chloe and I share and you’ve got one hell of an unusual situation. Also, she can contact the spirit world in a way other shifters can’t, enabling her to talk to Fox the way I talk to Bear.”
“So I can’t talk to, say, Wolf?” And didn’t he feel odd even thinking about contacting some sort of shifter guardian spirit?
“Nope. Only Kermode can, or those who attempt to become Kermode through a changing or mating bite. Even then, the Bear doesn’t get the ability to speak to the spirits forever.”
“Wait.” Jim held up his hand, confused. “So when you turned Cyn, she was able to talk to Bear, but she can’t now.”
“Correct.”
“But Chloe can talk to Fox.” He wasn’t sure this made sense to him.
“Yes. One of the things she can do is spirit walk, so we’ve been working on making sure that she’s safe when she does so.”
“And that doesn’t seem odd to you at all?”
“I thought it was our link that allows it. Now, I’m not so sure.”
“What else does your link allow?”
“She can also talk to me in my head.” Julian stared him right in the eye. “She saved my life when Cyn was hurt. If Chloe hadn’t snapped me out of the healing spiral I would have died healing my mate.”
“Then explain to me the white fur.” Jim leaned his elbows on the table, his juice forgotten. “She was a red Fox before the accident. You healed her, and suddenly she’s a white Fox with the ability to contact the spirits.”
Julian blinked. “Yes,” he drawled.
“And you have a mind link, why?”
“To wake her from her coma, I had to travel into the spirit world and pull her back from death.”
Jim shivered. “Okay. So that’s how she got her link to the spirit world, but…why did her fur change color?”
Julian shook his head, frowning. “I have no idea.”
“Has this sort of thing happened before?” Because the mystery of Chloe’s fur might be why the Senate was so interested in his mate.
“I’m not certain. I don’t think it has. I know my leader, Tai Buchere, hasn’t heard anything about it. If anyone would know it would be him, but when I asked about it he was as mystified as we are.”
“Could the Senate know something we don’t?” Jim found himself staring at Chloe again, surrounded by Hunters and family. “If they’re after her because of the unusual fur change that at least gives us a half-assed reason they might want to study her.”
Julian cursed softly. “That does make a twisted sort of sense. But Francois’s orders were to bring her in dead or alive. How can they study her ability to access Fox if she’s dead?”
“Good question.” Jim picked up his juice and downed half of it in one gulp. “Maybe I’m on the wrong track, then. Maybe it has something to do with someone else in her family. Didn’t Francois say that he has orders to bring in Tabby as well?”
“So why not Glory or Cyn? If they’re after those two, why wouldn’t they want them as well? What’s different about both Tabby and Chloe?”
Julian eyed the people in the other room before leaning forward, speaking softly. “Gabe told Alex that there have been mysterious deaths among shifters who happen to be crossbreeds.”
“Like Chloe?”
Julian nodded. “And Tabby’s child.”
“Then there has to be a reason why.” Jim tapped his fingers on the bottle. “We need answers before one of the girls is seriously hurt.”