Chapter 6
Iris stood in the doorway of the office. She placed a hairnet over her long, dark braided hair, her apron already secured about her waist. “What dream should you tell me about?”
“I remembered something about how I escaped from the lab,” Jamie said. He proceeded to tell Iris about the teleporting cat shifter.
She scrunched her nose. “We need to tell Leah. From your description, it could be Quinn, but I’ve only seen him a few times. He’s not exactly a people person. We could ask her to bring a picture of Quinn so you can see for yourself,” Iris said excitedly. “She must have loads of pictures of him on her phone. I’ll text her in a bit. It’s still too early.”
He loved Iris and her enthusiasm, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up for a dead end. “There’s no rush,” Jamie mumbled.
Aiden nearly shouted, “What? Why would we wait? If it was him, then Leah can speak to him about what they did to you. And why he just left you alone.” Heat roiled through his body. He rubbed the center of his chest, then rested his hands on the counter, closed his eyes, and inhaled a few deep, slow breaths.
“Not your mate? You are fooling no one,” his phoenix hissed.
Jamie said, “Here, drink this.”
Aiden blinked several times. Jamie was holding a glass of water filled with ice cubes out to him.
He stared into Jamie’s blue eyes, unable to move. He felt so hot it was hard to concentrate. His mind was hazy. It was hard to breathe.
Jamie lifted the glass to his mouth and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Drink. All of it.”
Aiden drank the cool, refreshing liquid. Slowly, the heat left his body.
“Good,” Jamie said.
Aiden groaned. “Whoa, that was weird.”
“What the heck was that?” Iris asked, her eyes wide.
“What do you mean?” Aiden asked.
“It got real hot in here all of a sudden. Like someone jacked the heat up to ninety degrees. Your eyes were glowing orange, too. It was as if you were heating up,” she said. “Are you OK?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He walked over to the sink and washed and dried his hands.
“It’s happened a couple of times now. I think his phoenix is making his thoughts known,” Jamie said.
“If so, that’s great. Wow, I can’t believe the kitchen got so hot so quickly,” Iris said. She fanned her face with her hand.
“Did I hurt you?” Aiden asked. He spun to Jamie. “Or you?” He’d have to leave if he was putting them in danger. It’d kill him to leave them, but he’d do it kept them safe.
“No, no,” Iris said, waving a hand at him. “I was just caught off guard.”
“I’m fine,” Jamie said. “I liked it.”
“What? What do you mean, you liked it?” Aiden asked. How could he like it? Wasn’t he afraid? “And why do you keep bringing me water?”
Jamie’s cheeks pinked. “I don’t know. It just seems like something cool might help. It also distracts you a little from what’s upsetting you, I think. I can stop if it bothers you.”
“No, no. It’s nice. I like it. Thank you,” Aiden said.
Jamie grinned and lowered his eyes. “Besides, it feels nice when you start to light up. Like a comforting heat. I feel like your phoenix keeps peeking out to say hello.”
“Yeah, no harm done,” Iris said. “It’s already starting to cool down.” She pushed off the wall she’d been leaning against. “Well, I’ll get a start on the cakes this morning. Jamie, do you mind working the front for a bit? Just until I finish those?”
“I’ll be happy to,” Jamie said.
A little over four hours later, Aiden finally had a chance to catch his breath. Iris had moved out front to help Jamie about an hour earlier, leaving him alone with just the sounds of the kitchen. He surveyed his workspace. The final batch of his souffles were in the oven. He’d have a bit of a break until they started serving lunch at eleven. He washed his hands, untied, and removed his apron, and threw a flannel over his T-shirt. He pushed the door open and saw Iris and Jamie huddled together next to the espresso machine.
“What’s going on?” he asked them, striding closer.
They turned, faces grim.
“Leah just popped by with a picture of Quinn earlier,” Iris said. “We waited until the crowd thinned before looking at it. She had a photo professionally taken of her and her brother when the two of them graduated from college. It’s a few years old.”
An ashen-faced Jamie held the photo in his hand.
“So, what do you think? Was it him?” Aiden asked.
Jamie nodded. “My memory is still spotty, but I think so.”