Body Temperature and Rising - Book One of the Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy by K. D. Grace Page B

responsible for all of this, as was her mother before her. She is a witch, deception in the frail flesh of a woman.’ He took a step closer, and Tim stepped back. ‘She’s the one who killed your dear Fiori, though I am sure she blamed it on me, did she not?’
    ‘That’s a lie! You broke her neck. I saw it. I see it in my dreams over and over again. Did you think I didn’t know? Did you think I wouldn’t see?’ Tim’s throat burned from the acrid smoke, but the tightness he felt there had nothing to do with the flames. 
    The man took another step closer, and Tim forced himself to hold his ground even as everything in him burned with the urge to run. 
    ‘She has power over the dream world, Mr Meriwether. Guardian of the North our Tara is. She knows the dark places of the soul, and she knows how to use them to her advantage. Do you really think she couldn’t wheedle her way into your dreams and make you see what she wants you to see?’ He chuckled. ‘Oh, my dear Mr Meriwether, you are naïve.’ He took another step forward.
    This time Tim did step back. ‘You snapped her neck. I saw it. And the next time I saw her she was dead. She thinks I don’t know. They all think I don’t know.’
    Deacon grabbed Tim by the shoulder with an enormous hand and Tim’s whole body felt as though it would explode from the touch. ‘Watch, Mr Meriwether. Watch what really happened.’ 
    With an upward sweep of his hand, the flames erupted around them. In front of him through the haze of smoke, he saw the scene he’d watched a hundred times before, Fiori kneeling naked and Deacon looming over her, a heavy hand on her cheek, another moving over her body. Tim couldn’t hear what he was saying because it was Tara’s voice he now heard. Chanting something about life may flee but the flesh will return at will and the power will be retained. Then with a wave of her hand, for the briefest of seconds, it was she who stood behind Fiori. And it was her hands that closed around the woman’s face giving the sharp quick twist, snapping the connection, that delicate wisp of a connection that animates the flesh to live and move and breathe. Instantly, Fiori’s breath caught and her eyes went dark. Then Deacon erupted in almost the same space Tara occupied and with a powerful backhand sent her flying across the dark expanse of the dreamscape.
    Fear prickled up Tim’s spine and the urge to run was both overwhelming and useless. He couldn’t move. Deacon, once again, stood next to him, so close Tim could feel his hot breath against his cheek. ‘I didn’t want Fiori dead. Fiori was nothing but kind to me. I still dream of how she made love to me, how she took care of me. And that is the very thing our Tara could not tolerate.’ 
    ‘It’s a lie,’ Tim whispered, feeling as though he wanted to vomit, but not even being afforded that luxury in his paralysed state. 
    ‘No, Mr Meriwether. It is the absolute truth. It was Tara, not I who snapped our beloved Fiori’s neck, who took the life from one so lovely, so delightful.’ He stepped forward until his face filled Tim’s field of vision. ‘Your sweet Marie is with Tara Stone and her minions even now, and in who knows how much danger.’
    Tim struggled with all his might, but he couldn’t move even one single muscle. ‘It’s a lie, it’s a filthy lie!’
    Deacon spoke against his ear. ‘Ask her. Ask Tara to tell you the truth.’ His voice trailed off in a hiss of icy wind. 
    Tim shoved his way out from under the duvet. He was halfway to the window before he was fully back in the waking world. He threw open the curtains and the bottom dropped out of his stomach. Marie’s car was gone. Her house was dark. He was still shoving his way into his clothes, as he grabbed the keys to the Land Rover and dashed out the door, heart racing, skin slicked with the sweat of fear.

Chapter 7

    ‘Tell me what I have to do with any of this,’ Marie said. ‘How is this mess my