There was something rough stroking her face. Warm and rough. It dragged her cheek with it as it ran over her skin. It was gentle.

Comforting.

She frowned and moaned as she tried to open her eyes and her head ached. The first thing she saw was the gravel on the ground. She was strangely close to it. The second thing was the black panther standing over her, licking her face.

She was very strangely unafraid of it.

Slowly sitting up, she let the panther continue to lick her face, not wanting to upset it by stopping it, and tried to get her bearings. She was on the ground. The coolness at her back made her look around and she saw the wide pond behind her.

She remembered something happening. It was all a blur and then there had been a lot of pain followed by darkness. The panther purred. She rubbed it behind the ear, still trying to gather herself and waiting for everything to come back to her.

Alistair had been here.

Erik had fought him.

Her hand travelled lower, stroking the panther. She frowned when she found it had a wet chest. Bringing her hand away, she baulked at the sight of the blood on her fingers. She struggled to stand, her head spinning, and looked at the panther. It was licking the wound on its chest, still purring. It wasn't necessarily a good sign. Cats purred when they were hurt too, didn't they?

"Stay here," she said to it, as though it was going to listen to her, and began to run towards the house.

When she reached the main garden, she looked back and saw that the panther was gone. She sprinted

on, running as fast as she could and pressing her hand to her head to stop her brain from falling out. It

pounded with pain as she ran, each footstep making it hurt. She had to see if Erik was all right.

Something must have happened to him or he would've been there when she'd woken up.

Wouldn't he?

She shoved the glass doors open and went to call out to the housekeeper but realised she didn't know

her name.

"Help!" she shouted, running into the hall. "Help!"

There was a commotion up the corridor and the housekeeper was hurrying towards her.

"Whatever is the matter?"

"There was a fight. Alistair. Erik. It's hurt ... the panther is hurt." She panted hard and then winced as skull-splitting pain shot through her.

"You're hurt," the woman said and put her arm about her, supporting her.

"I'll be fine. I just banged my head. I can't find Erik."

"Go to your room and lie down. I'll find Mr. Blackwell. He'll be straight up to see you." The woman

ushered her towards the stairs.

Kim did as she'd asked. A lie down sounded good right now. The woman would probably be able to find Erik quicker than she could. She stopped on the bottom step and looked back at her.

"Don't forget the panther," she said, her voice showing her worry. There had been so much blood.

The woman smiled.

Kim looked at her hand as she walked up the stairs, getting the horrible feeling that something was

wrong, that Erik was hurt.

Reaching her room, she sat down on the bed and then lay back. Her eyes unfocused as she tried to

recall what had happened. Everything was still a mess in her head. She could only remember Erik telling her to run and then she was unconscious. Someone had pushed her. It must have been Alistair.

She couldn't forget the look in Erik's eyes. He'd been petrified. Had he been scared that Alistair was

going to hurt her like he'd hurt all those other girls?

Maybe she was lucky to just come away with a nasty knock to the head and nothing more.

She sat up, unable to keep still for long as her thoughts returned to Erik and his whereabouts. She was

worried. Her stomach was turning over and over again, her heart trembling at the thought that something

terrible might have happened to him.

Getting up, she walked around the room and eventually found herself by the windows. She looked out on the grounds, searching them for a sign of him. It was getting dark now. She hoped that the housekeeper would be able to find him. She couldn't hope that he wasn't hurt. She already knew that he was.

This time she didn't question how she knew. Erik was right when he'd told her not to question it.

Sometimes it was best just to accept things.

Before she could think twice about what she was doing, she was walking back to the door of her room.

There was no way she was going to sit around here while Erik was missing.

Heading down the corridor, her heart jumped into her throat when she heard voices and recognised

Erik's. She ran to the top of the stairs and had made it down the first few before she stopped dead.

He was hurt.

His white shirt was stained with blood.

She ran down the remaining stairs and the look in his eyes when he saw her spoke volumes. He had been hoping she wouldn't see. Rushing over to him, she got a good look at the cuts on his chest before he pulled the shirt closed around him. The long scratches reminded her of the wounds on the panther.

"What happened?" she said, a little out of breath as she struggled with her emotions and tried to stop herself from shaking. There was so much blood on his shirt. She wished he was wearing black now. The dark red on white was too much to bear. It made her stomach turn and her panic worsen. "Was it the panther?"

He shook his head, the look of worry not leaving his eyes. What was he worried about?

"It was my brother. He's gone now." He let go of his shirt and it fell open again.

Her gaze dropped to his chest and her eyes widened as she remembered what had happened. She swallowed, trying to take in the conclusion her mind was racing to make. The scratches were the same as the panther's. Before Erik had made her run, she'd seen the fur on his hands and felt the claws. She wasn't imagining it. She wasn't. This wasn't her fantasies.

She remembered everything.

It was real.

Her chest tightened and her throat constricted with it, making it hard to breathe as the world came

crashing in around her. She felt as though it was going to swallow her whole and she wished it would because she couldn't make sense of this at all.

"What are you?" she whispered, still staring at his chest.

She couldn't believe it until he said it, until he offered some proof and told her she wasn't going insane.

He looked at her, admission in his expression and no trace of denial of the accusation that she was throwing at his feet.

She'd seen him change, just like she had in her dreams.

No, they were their dreams. They were their dreams, and she'd seen through his eyes, and she'd felt him when they'd been outside.

And she'd seen him changing into something.

Into the panther that had been licking her when she'd come around.

Erik had been there; he'd just been the panther and not the man before her now.

Shaking her head and not wanting to believe what she knew was true, she turned and ran up the stairs

without so much as a glance at him. It couldn't be real.

He couldn't be the panther.

Chapter 18.

Kim had made it halfway along the hall before she felt him grab her arm. His grip was tight and unrelenting as she struggled to get free. Her gaze met his as she turned. There was so much pain and fear in his honey eyes, so much that it cut her to the core and she stilled.

She didn't stop him when he led her back down the hall and then into one of the rooms. It was a bedroom.

He let go of her hand and she walked to the other side of the room, and then to the bed. She held onto one of the posts to steady herself, and waited in silence for him to speak and make everything all right again.

He closed the door and sighed. She could sense the uncertainty in him, and wished that she had the courage to say what she knew he wanted to hear. He wanted to hear that whatever had been happening between them over the past few days wasn't over.

She wanted to hear it too.