Rare Find

by Dale Mayer

  "And what do you want from me?" Stefan asked.

  "I wondered…" Ronin paused and stared moodily at the ceiling of Tabitha's bedroom. "If you can see inside my mind...my history, my energy... Is there anything in there that would explain this?"

  "Interesting problem." Stefan’s voice grew distant, thick in an odd way. Ronin wasn't sure what to make of it.

  "What does that mean?" he joked. Even admitting there was a problem was hard.

  But necessary.

  Whoa. Stefan was in his head again. Ronin stared nonplussed at the phone in his hand. Should he just hang up?

  Give me a moment, murmured the whisper in his ear.

  "Yeah, sure. Take your time." Yet...he couldn't help but hold his breath. It was such a weird feeling. He could sense Stefan's progress through his mind. Like a cat creeping up on a mouse to trap it. A shudder rippled down his spine.

  Thanks. Can't say I've ever been called a cat before.

  Ronin winced. Shit. "Sorry, but having you move around in my head, it's a similar feeling to a spider on my arm. Raises the hairs on the back of my neck too."

  Hmmm. Interesting.

  "What? What's interesting?" he asked cautiously. "As in the stuff about the cats is interesting or something else?" He waited, but no more was forthcoming. "Stefan? Is something wrong?"

  No, there isn't. At least not the way you are suddenly concerned. You don't have a cancer eating away at your physical body, but a kind of fear has been eating away at your psyche. Interesting. You play music, huh?

  Ronin frowned. "Yeah. Both my brother and I do. How did you know that?"

  I can see it in your energy. It's how you soothe your soul. And... He gasped. A gasp so loud that Ronin sat up, accidentally shifting Tabitha's position beside him. "What?"

  Then Stefan chuckled. It started as a simple light laugh and transformed into a full-on belly laugh. The waves of laughter rolled through Ronin's mind. It was contagious. He grinned. "Well, I'm not sure what you're doing in there, but I'm thinking it can't be all bad."

  Oh, it's not bad at all, Stefan gasped when he could finally talk. In fact, it's bloody perfect. And it confirms that just like your brother and regardless of how you feel about it – you are psychic. And the reason you are terrified of cats...is you're being haunted by one!

  ***

  Fez watched the boss walk away. For several moments, it had appeared there were two men standing, his vision had been so blurry. It had been all he could do to speak clearly. He knew he wasn't thinking clearly or he'd have disappeared already.

  Damn. He took several shaky steps to sit down on a nearby crate. If his days were numbered before, now he figured he could count his life in hours if that tiger died. If he could just hold on for a week.

  He shuddered. This was not how he'd planned to get the hell out of here.

  He stared at the cage and its contents. What had seemed like a simple transport job had gone sour. Why? Why couldn't she just be handed off to the buyer? Greed, of course. All because the tiger was pregnant. So a bigger payday. It was one thing to sell her for that price when she was old and ailing, but now... Yeah, the boss had gotten greedy.

  Determined to take a closer look, he stood up slowly, bracing himself on the wall, and made his way to the cage.

  He pulled back the drape and let light into the cage. A growl started, but it came out without any heat.

  "Have you given up, girl?" Fez said painfully. "I don't blame you. I'm almost there myself."

  He tried to study her, but she kept wavering in and out of focus. He swore he saw a woman in the cage with her.

  He leaned closer and blinked several times.

  Chapter 20

  Monday evening

  Tabitha stared into the injured man's eyes. Could Fez see her? No. Not possible. She gave herself a good shake. There was no way. But of course there was a way. So often psychic powers lay dormant for decades until some trauma woke them up. She didn't know what the reason could be in this guy's case, but it sure seemed as if he was seeing her inside Trinity.

  His next words proved it.

  "Hey, lady. Are you all right?"

  What a question. Was she all right? No. But how could she make him understand that?

  And could he hear her? If he could see her...

  "No. I'm not all right, you asshole," she finally said in exasperation. He reared back and slapped a hand over his mouth.

  She wanted to do the same. Holy shit. He could hear her. Stunned, she stared back into his shocked eyes.

  Fez swung his head in a slow bullish manner. "No. No. This can't be so. I musta had a bigger knock on my noggin' than I thought."

  "Oh, you heard me all right. What's the matter, have you never seen a woman trapped inside a tiger before?"

  He backed up in a panic, shaking his head like a crazy man. She could see the whites of his eyes as they darted from side to side, searching for an exit. He swallowed heavily before opening his mouth. No sound came out.

  He shuddered. A visible movement rippled down his body.

  She knew how he felt.

  At the same time, she recognized the gift. If he could see and hear her, he could help them.

  If he didn't run screaming from her, never to return.

  "Hey, what city are we in?"

  His mouth worked. "Portland."

  She brightened. First piece of good news she'd heard in a long time.

  "Where in Portland?"

  "The Olde Riverside Shipyard area."

  "Do you have an address?" she prodded.

  Of course her luck ran out. His phone rang and he fumbled, trying to pull it out. "Yeah." He turned his back on the cage and ran his hand over the back of his head. "Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine. Just a conker of a headache."

  He moved further out of hearing distance. Tabitha watched, her ear tuned in. She realized she was separating mentally from the tiger in an effort to hear better. Feline hearing was incredibly acute. She pulled back inside and mentally spread her energy outward, connecting, blending and becoming one with the tiger, pouring energy into the tiger's hearing. She listened in on Fez's phone call.

  She heard little bits about a buyer, moving, vets.

  And nothing else.

  Suddenly she heard the phone click closed and the sound of Fez muttering, "Shit, shit. Shit."

  "What's the matter? What happened?"

  Fez's spine stiffened at the same time his neck almost disappeared into his hunched shoulders. "I don't need this. I just wanted to get paid and get the hell out of here."

  "And I can help."

  She was taking a chance, but it's not as if she had anything to lose. And from the sound of it, neither did he.

  He walked closer.

  "I have got to be concussed if I'm seeing you. There's no way you're for real."

  She laughed. "Hey, this isn't the way I expected to spend my last couple of days either. But I need help and you need help. Between us, we can do this."

  He looked toward the front door. "Do what? I'm so screwed here..."

  "And I'm what? Do you think being caught inside a tiger is fun?"

  He frowned. "You're inside the tiger. You're not the soul of the tiger?"

  That question surprised her. But then again, for anyone not into the psychic stuff, maybe that was as reasonable an explanation as anything.

  "No. I'm psychic. The tiger, in her panic caused by you assholes, reached out and nabbed me. Now I'm connected to her. She's dying and I need to help her in order to escape." She knew that would sound crazy to him, but there wasn't a better way to say it.

  He just stared. Then laughed, but that turned to a groan quickly. He held his head in his hands. "Don't do that. It hurts."

  That wasn't good. She needed his help. "You should get that injury looked at."

  "Ha. I got no money, and if I leave here and the boss finds out, I'm dead."

  "Let me help. Tell me where we are so I can get someone here to help the tiger. We'll pay you so you can move
away and start over again."

  He stared at her.

  "Hurry. Before someone comes. What can it hurt? You get to live, I get to live, and the tiger… Well, she'll be able to live out the rest of her life in a better place than this."

  "He'll kill me if he finds out. There's no place I could hide without having to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life."

  "My friend is a cop. He'll help us."

  Fez laughed, a grainy coarse sound of despair.

  "No, he won't. He'll get killed just like the rest of us."

  "Why?" Tabitha didn't understand.

  But it was bad. Fez's face twisted with despair. "Because the boss is a cop, too."

  ***

  Ronin couldn't process Stefan's words. He'd had one cat in his lifetime. Mr. Boots, a tuxedo cat he'd lost when he was nine. It had to be the death of Mr. Boots that had brought this on.

  "Haunted?" That was unbelievable.

  Not in the sense many people would interpret that word. Stefan said. But he'd refused to elaborate any further.

  So much for clarity. He'd left with a disturbing final comment. You'll find out the details soon, I'm sure.

  What? And how?

  He wasn't sure he wanted to find out anymore. Not now that the memories were flooding back. Losing his beloved pet had devastated him. His parents had tried to comfort him, Roman had tried to share his beloved dog at the time – and that had helped some. But watching Mr. Boots get squished under the tires of that damn car... Yeah, that was something he hadn’t forgotten – or gotten over apparently. At least according to Stefan.

  Ronin could understand now that it had been pointed out to him.

  Especially now that his chest tightened and his throat constricted just thinking about it. The same reaction he had whenever he saw a cat.

  He’d been having the reaction to the loss of Mr. Boots over and over again.

  God, the mind was a tricky bugger. It was scary to think that Mr. Boots had been sitting in his psyche this entire time. Then he remembered what Stefan had said about the cat haunting him. Did that mean Mr. Boots was still here?

  The death of his pet had been his first experience with death, and he'd learned a harsh lesson that day.

  He'd been learning to play the piano around the same time. It had been his way of dealing with the pain. He still played. A lot. Usually to calm down or to reconnect with the better things in life. His brother had learned to play at the same time. And Roman had also excelled at art.

  Ronin couldn't draw a straight line. And he'd tried, oh how he'd tried.

  Being twins, there'd been a certain competitiveness between them. One that had grown over time. They'd fought like little bastards when they were small, had even grown up with different groups of friends. The loss of their parents had pulled them together.

  He had no idea what to think. Or who to talk to. A ghost cat. And yet why did that sound familiar? Hadn't Shay had a similar experience? It wasn't too late to call, and he needed to know. Moments later, he had Shay on the phone. She listened for a moment then chuckled.

  "No, Ronin, not a similar experience – that experience. Morris is with me still."

  "Explain," he said tersely.

  With a laugh, she said, "Morris was around me but in a free floating energy. During my return to my body through Roman's painting, he painted Morris and through that process pulled Morris back to his original ghost form. As he still is today."

  Silence. He shook his head. "I had no idea. Sure, I'd heard a little about this, but I didn't really understand. "Who could?"

  "I know. I wasn't sure if Roman would have told you about the blue in his paintings or not."

  "So in a way, he was picking up Morris's presence as well."

  "That's because at the time he was painting me, Roman was actually walking in his dreams to visit me. Morris was always around, but spread far and wide. Roman sensed a presence around me and painted blue, representing this presence, into every painting. He didn't realize it was Morris."

  "You do understand how far from normal you're sounding right now?"

  A light tinkling laugh swept through the phone. "You don't sound much better nowadays, do you?" she teased.

  "I know," he grumbled.

  "Maybe you should talk to Mr. Boots the same way you talked to Tripod when Tabitha was hurt. Let Mr. Boots show you the way." And she hung up.

  He snorted. Like hell.

  Chapter 21

  Tuesday, just before dawn

  Tabitha's mind refused to function. The litany of prayer reverberated in her head. Please God, let it not be. Please God, don't let a bad cop be involved.

  How could she save this tiger if those who were supposed to help were the ones doing the hurting?

  And if Ronin tried to investigate, wouldn't that put him in danger? A bad cop would do what was necessary to keep his activities secret. If cornered, he'd have nothing left to lose by killing another cop.

  Her heart pounded inside her chest as the implications grew.

  She had to tell Ronin. Before he walked into something he wasn't prepared for.

  She needed to leave Trinity again to tell Ronin, but she had to get Fez to help her, too. Help them all.

  "You could call my friend."

  He stared at her, a bit of fire starting to come back to his eyes. "Call a cop? Are you kidding? I'd get murdered over something like that."

  "Apparently you're likely to get killed over this anyway," she reminded him. "Or have you forgotten that?"

  He shook his head. "I'm not a snitch."

  She groaned softly. "Remember that part about being dead? How much of it didn't you understand?"

  She knew prodding him wasn't the best idea, but she was out of time. And so was Trinity. She needed antibiotics and maybe surgery. She was fading badly. If it wasn't for the energy Tabitha was pouring into her...she'd look so much worse If she died...

  Well, this whole mess would get really bad for everyone. Her. Fez. Ronin. The reserve. All the animals in her care.

  "No," Fez said. "Big difference getting killed on the job or turning snitch."

  She stared at him. "Really? This is a job to you? A job worth dying over?"

  "I'm good. I ain't gonna die." But he kept glancing nervously at the front door and tugging on the completely destroyed front of his sweatshirt.

  His fear was palpable. But it was his fear, not Trinity's, and not hers. He had some reason to be afraid. Something he knew that made him afraid.

  "Has anyone else died on this job?"

  He jumped back."Whaat?" A shudder swept through his frame, taking the last bit of color from his ruddy complexion.

  Bulls-eye. And she remembered Stefan's sketch of the floater.

  "Did your partner die? Did your boss take him out back and shoot him? Or was it your predecessor? Are you replacing a man they deep-sixed in the river?"

  That did it.

  He bolted for the front door and ran outside. She did not hear a sound from him, but his silent scream of terror echoed on the energy waves around her.

  Shit.

  ***

  Ronin walked back into the bedroom and checked on Tabitha. She was still in a comatose state. He hated to leave her, but he had to find the asshole who was hunting tigers.

  Tabitha's father, Dennis, walked up to him as he stood by the doorway.

  "It's early. What's going on?"

  Ronin didn't have a clue what to say. Did Tabitha's father have any idea what his daughter could do? Or had she gotten her skills from her father?

  Dennis frowned at Ronin, who was still working out what to say. He looked past him toward the still form on the bed.

  If Ronin hadn't shifted to cast yet another glance at Tabitha, he'd have missed it.

  A look of horror and...recognition on Dennis's face.

  Then he turned a bleak look toward Ronin and said, "It's gotten worse, hasn't it?"

  Oh boy. "Worse?" he asked cautiously.

  "Don't play game
s." Dennis snapped. "You couldn't be in her life and not know she goes off into these weird catatonic episodes."