by Regan Black
"So who are you protecting? Your dad or yourself?"
Katie stared at her cup as if the secret of life was
swirling inside. "Both maybe. It's still a waste of time. My grades are fine." She told her about English class.
"That was well done." Petra tipped more tea into Katie's cup. "But parents tend to freak out over behavior changes."
"It'll change back."
"So you have complete control of whatever's disturbing your sleep pattern."
"Yup."
"Mmm." Katie wisely stayed quiet. "Then what's her name?"
"Who's name?"
"The girl in your nightmares." Petra waited, studying every nuance in Katie's wavering expression. After a full minute of silence she changed tactics. "What would you like me to do about your situation?"
Katie scowled. "I don't have a situation."
"You father disagrees."
Katie jumped off the couch and paced to the door, turning back with a pounding stride. "What can anyone do about it? I've read the dream books. The girl could be me–just older. Or she could represent my fear of something I don't even know I'm afraid of. Or, it could be a random short circuit my brain thinks is fun."
"Is this girl fun in your dreams?"
"No."
Petra smothered the urge to embrace Katie. The girl was still too prickly. "I can go inside your head, learn what you feel about her."
"Would it help?"
"Probably a little."
"Then I'll just tell Dad we're done here."
"Mmm."
"That really is annoying, Petra."
She winked at the exasperated girl. "That's why I do it. What I find interesting is that you heard your father's complaint when you were in deep sleep. That's quite unusual."
"Well. Can I be any more freakish?" she muttered.
Petra laughed. "Of course. Look at any one of Cleveland's friends." The observation had Katie laughing too.
Cleveland was a unique individual, a fact that had never escaped Katie or Quinn. It was one of the prime selling points when he'd asked them about becoming a family in all the legal as well as personal ways.
"I don't want to hurt him."
"He wants to help you."
"What if helping me hurts him?"
Petra felt her patience dwindling, if only because she related well to Cleveland's parental anxiety. "Tell me before I crawl in your head and pull it out for myself."
Katie's eyes went wide and her chin dropped, then she laughed, though there were plenty of nerves in the sound. "You wouldn't? Could you even do that?"
"Probably not," she admitted. "But I'm not above trying. Cleveland's my friend and the Code of Parents requires us to stick together." She leaned back, sipped her tea. "Besides, the sooner we clear up whatever this is, the sooner you feel better."
Katie looked appropriately chastised. "I think the girl is my mother," she confessed. "In my dreams I see her and she's begging for help."
"Mmm." Petra had suspected it was someone significant.
"How do you know it's your mother?"
Katie glared. "If you don't believe me–"
"Don't put words in my mouth, young lady. There's little we know of you before you landed in Cleveland's care."
Katie returned to the couch, her head flopped back, eyes on the ceiling. "Quinn doesn't remember much and we don't have any holographs, but I remember her eyes."
Petra urged Katie to continue.
"Whenever I sleep, I see her face. But in the middle of the night she starts begging for help. It's like she's trapped and can't come to us. I can see her, feel her anxiety, but I
can't respond."
Petra waited until Katie looked at her again. "That would be enough to keep me awake."
Katie rolled her eyes. "Well, grammar's boring no matter how much sleep you get."
Petra chuckled in agreement, feeling a bit more tension fade from Katie. "So what do you want to do about it?"
Katie wasn't sure. She had to think about the answer.
She sipped her tea, wondering if Petra had added anything that was making her want to open up like this. She immediately dismissed the paranoid notion. She was just too tired. "The nightmare pulls at me, like I should try to find her. But how? I feel guilty that we left her. Especially if something happened so she couldn't come back to us."
As the words ran out Katie had never been so grateful for silence. Gathering her courage, she tried to explain. "See, Quinn doesn't remember as much, but Mom and Dad went out one evening and…and they just never came back. They told us to stay in the apartment."
"But you had to leave to provide for Quinn." Petra's eyes were full of sympathy Katie didn't feel she deserved.
"No…eventually we had to leave because I couldn't pay rent."
"What? The landlord threw you out?" Petra ranted on with more rhetorical questions and the furious outburst surprised Katie. Petra was always quiet, composed. She had her intense moments, but she excelled at observation and calm deduction.
"I was little, maybe I didn't get it." That only incensed Petra more. She was surely swearing, though the language was foreign to Katie. She fumbled to explain. "If we hadn't left, we'd never have met Cleveland. And it's not like our parents ever searched for us."
Petra was making a clear effort to regain her normal composure. Katie watched her regulate her breathing and felt herself matching the pace.
"But now you feel guilty because you assumed the worst of your parents."
"Guess that fits as well as anything else. I couldn't figure out what I'd done to make them leave. But that was years ago. What's causing me to dream about her now?"
"We'll get to that. So…going back…what do you want to do about how this is affecting you?"
"You think it's a message, not just a dream?"
"Either way, I think it symbolizes something you need to face." Petra took a deep breath, exhaled for so long Katie wondered how big her lungs were. "I can probably determine
if it's a nightmare or a message if you'll let me wander in your dreams." That sounded creepy. And a little bit cool. "Is that dangerous?"
"There's no real risk to either of us in something like this."
"But–"
"Forget all the horror flick dream nonsense you've heard. I'm the best, I'm real, and I promise you'll be safe."
It certainly couldn't be much worse than the trouble she'd gotten into for sleeping through school. "What if you find it's a message? Would that mean my mom's alive?"
She'd heard stories about a mother's connection to her children over long distances and through hard circumstances.
"Let's build that bridge when we get there, okay?"
Katie nodded. It wasn't as if there were lots of options.
* * *
Over dinner Katie wondered again when Petra would do her thing. She'd thought they'd start right away on this dream reading, and to be honest, the delays were making her twitchy. "Are you just gonna dive in while I'm sleeping tonight or whatever?"
"No, honey."
Petra didn't elaborate. They were eating pizza with the best sauce Katie had ever tasted, but it was hard to enjoy it when she had to pretend everything was okay. "Hey, ah, what happens when you touch people?" Petra's eyes locked on hers and Katie felt more exposed than ever. How stupid! "The freak blunders again," she muttered by way of an apology.
"Who calls you a freak?"
"Besides Quinn?"
"Brothers don't count. I have one too, remember?"
All Katie knew of Petra's brother was that he'd disappeared during an undercover assignment. While she might fantasize about being an only child on some days, she
didn't really want Quinn listed in the 'unaccounted for' column of her life.
She shrugged. "Classmates look at me like I'm insane because I read every assignment and I like to learn," she said, getting back to a better topic.
"How dare you," Petra mocked.
"Exactly." But she was star
ting to feel a smile warm her face. "I've begged for virtual school, but Dad–Cleveland–insists on the personal interface thing."
"It's not betraying your first parents to love your current father."
"I know that. Knew that." Katie shook her head, trying to shake her thoughts into order. "Whatever. It was easier to do this when I thought they didn't want us."
"Katie," Petra soothed. "Would you let me take a look at your past, from your view?"
"Won't that hurt you?"
Petra shook her head. "I've prepared myself. Just relax and let me hold your hand."
She couldn't blame the girl for hesitating, but Katie eventually moved so Petra could sit beside her on the couch where she'd napped earlier. "This step will make traveling in your dreams easier for me," Petra said.
"Okay."
Doubt was pouring off the girl in waves, but Petra gripped Katie's hand with utter confidence and was instantly enmeshed in Katie's memories. It took a bit to sift through the newest, down to the layer she wanted: those days in the Murphy's apartment, looking after Quinn.
Through innocent eyes she took it all in, cataloguing the things Katie probably didn't know she knew. Releasing Katie's hand, she said, "I'd like you to take something to help
you sleep and then we'll finish this."
Katie nodded, her eyes wide with questions she was clearly afraid to have answered.
It was no surprise to Petra that Katie fought off the effects of the herbal tea she'd blended to help her sleep. She watched, waiting patiently for the dream to kick in.
Petra agreed it was odd for Katie to suffer now, when things were so very settled in her life. It wasn't close to the anniversary dates of the Murphy children being abandoned or
their first shocks of living on the street. However, it was quite possible Katie was developing a mental gift for dream communication. She was certainly the right age. The myriad effects of so many unknowns made this a particularly delicate challenge for Petra, but she looked forward to helping Katie.
Finally, the girl's eyes started twitching beneath her closed lids and a small frown puckered her brows. Bracing herself for the usual chaos of another person's dreamscape, Petra touched Katie's forehead.
Katie's instincts had been right. It was her mother as a young woman who held the starring role in Katie's subconscious. The earlier tour of the child's memory made
the identification easy for Petra. She slid into the background, watching the dream unfold, ready to intervene if necessary.
Mrs. Murphy started begging Katie to help her, to find her and bring her home, but within moments, Petra sensed something terribly wrong. The woman looked the part, but she didn't emanate love as much as desperation. There was no doubt this was a message, but to what end?
Suddenly realizing Petra's presence in the dream, Mrs. Murphy turned needy and grasping, pulling on her daughter, dragging her toward an unsafe depth of dreams that could land Katie in a coma–or worse–if they weren't careful.
Petra reached, caught Katie, and pulled back. The baffled dream-Katie was caught in the middle. She cried out in her sleep and in the dream, confused and torn.
Mrs. Murphy's eyes changed, glowing with anger. In
Katie's best interests, Petra released her mental hold and exited the dream, choosing to battle for Katie on another front.
Petra hit her knees beside Katie's sleeping form and cradled the girl's head. "Hang on, Katie. Hang on." Using all her ability she did just what Katie had feared and dove into
the girl's earliest memories, looking for the clue to unravel Mrs. Murphy's bizarre behavior.
She found it after what felt like an eternity of searching.
The Murphys hadn't gone out, they'd gone down to the laundry, leaving the children behind for what should have been only a few minutes.
Shifting back to the dream, she ran after the enraged mother, calling out her intention to help. Petra felt a profound relief when Mrs. Murphy stopped dragging Katie away and
turned back.
"I can help," Petra repeated in the dream and in reality. "Let Katie come with me. The two of us will help you."
"I'm her mother. He took me from my children. I want to be with my children."
"You loved them," Petra agreed. "You never left them willingly. Give me Katie and I will prove it to them. They'll know the truth."
The Mrs. Murphy in the dream started to sob. "I've waited so long to tell them." Then she slowly faded into the background of Katie's dream.
Petra woke Katie, and held her while she cried it out.
"Was any of that real?" she asked in a croaking voice when her tears had run dry.
"All of it, honey. All of it." Petra pushed the damp hair
off Katie's forehead. "Only one question: Do you remember your old address?"
Katie rattled it off as Petra reached for the phone.
* * *
Petra and Gideon kept watch with Cleveland, Leigh, Katie and Quinn on the sidewalk outside the renovated apartment building. Two teams of crime scene investigators
were inside going over the Murphy's old apartment and the sub-basement that still housed the laundry machines.
The remains of both Mr. and Mrs. Murphy had been found and extracted from a bricked up janitor's closet just hours ago. A detective was gathering information, already working a theory that these murders were tied to an unresolved string of similar incidents.
There would at last be a funeral and closure for the children.
A few weeks later, the autopsies and memorial services over, Katie hesitantly approached Petra. "Can I give you a hug?"
Petra nodded and Katie rushed into her arms. "Thank you so, so much."
"You're welcome. Your instincts, and probably your mother's spirit, kept you safe all those years ago. Now your gift is developing further. Missing your mother was a catalyst, but you should decide how you want to proceed. You've done a good thing here, but it's up to you if you want to explore your talents."
"Can you help me do that?" Talent exploration sounded good, if she could be cool like Petra instead of freakish like she was now.
"I can certainly get you started," Petra said with a warm smile. "Dreams are a terrible thing to waste. And your talent is unique."
"That must be why Cleveland latched onto us." Katie laughed, the sound light and happy. "He collects unique people. Hey, maybe if I have long term sleep trouble I'll have to do virtual school."
"Not a chance," Cleveland said, his hands landing softly on her shoulders. "If dreams become your virtual classroom, you'll need face time with people more than ever before."
"Sure, Dad. Whatever." When Katie rolled her eyes at Petra she'd never felt more like a normal fifteen-year-old. It was an awesome sensation for a uniquely talented, not-so-freakish teenager.
The End
Enjoy this excerpt of Veil of Justice, book three in the Shadows of Justice series
Chapter One
"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
Winston Churchill
She sighed under the soft assault of his lips against her neck. The reaction set fiery tingles racing down her arm, her side, to her toes. His hands traced her ribs, sending her other side into delighted spasms. It was too much, too overwhelming and she prayed he wouldn't stop this time.
He hovered, deftly evading her touch. She ached for the feel of his firm, hot flesh in her hands. She moaned, her breath mingling with his, her desire shifting into an all new gear. They'd never shared so much. In all his visits, they'd never risked a physical declaration like this.
What had they been waiting for?
"Nathan," she murmured, arching into his touch. Her body ignited under his, hungry for everything he could give, and eager to give him everything she had in return.
Her clothes fell away and she lay bare before him, body and soul. She felt no shame, no hesitation, only need. She could do this, this which she'd never done before. Wit
h him she could, and would, find that blissful union perfected by the joining of two matched hearts.
An alarm sounded. Not anything like the fireworks or musical crescendos she'd expected from song lyrics and steamy books. Harsh and shrill it badgered her dreamy senses into submission.
Regretfully, she shoved away her pleading lover to deal with the alarm.
Dear Reader,
Thanks so much for reading the urban fantasy adventure, Invasion of Justice. Gideon was one of those weary, wounded heroes in a tight spot who does the right thing even when he'd rather not. And Petra… well, it was a treat to reunite Jaden with her long-lost sister, even if it took a few lives to do so.
If you enjoyed this story, please let other readers know by leaving a review where you purchased the book, or at Goodreads, on a blog, facebook, twitter, or wherever you like to share books with friends and fellow readers.
Have you signed up to receive notices of my future book releases and exclusive giveaways? If not, please visit my website at http://www.reganblack.com to enter your name and email address on the form. I won't pester you with emails, and I won't share, barter, sell, or otherwise compromise your email address. Of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.
When you write a review, please go ahead and send me the link by email to [email protected]. I'd like to thank you for your time with a free copy of one of my other titles.
Thanks again for your support!
~Regan
About the Author:
Regan Black is dedicated to providing action-packed stories with a paranormal twist so readers of all ages can savor a fantastic escape from the daily routine. If you’re looking for an author who can deliver stories from the heart, full of unforgettable characters willing to risk it all to reach the goal, you’ve come to the right place!
You can keep up with the latest from Regan at ReganBlack.com
Discover more adventures from Regan Black:
The Shadows of Justice Series:
Justice Incarnate, book 1
Invasion of Justice, book 2
