It all replayed again in my head. The screech of the mouse I’d come to love making me sob in hysterics. Edwin’s evil laughter as he snapped its neck. The neutral expression of Dr. Warwick who did nothing but make notes of my activity. All playing out like it had done on the day.
Dr. Warwick had been determined to discover how my gift worked. He’d coveted it, knowing it not to stem from madness, as my own family believed, but from a natural gift. He’d often heard the words spurted from my mouth about the visions I’d experienced. And he’d seen them come true.
I was his obsession. His secret. And to Edwin, I was payment to touch and fondle as he saw fit in return for helping Dr. Warwick.
The memory of those hands pressed against my skin caused the fear and revulsion to return. But I’d been lucky. I was lucky it had only been a touch and feel in the heat of the moment. For Edwin and Dr. Warwick always had to work around the other staff members.
I was never allowed to be left alone for too long in the daytime, and that had been my blessing. From the hours of midnight until three a.m. most nights, however, that had been my curse. Edwin only had a short window of time with me when he transported me back and forth to Dr Warwick to have his play. And he’d taken advantage of it with his sickening touches and whispers of twisted promises. But Dr. Warwick, in my eyes, was my abuser. Edwin had merely become a bad stain in the blurred days of my life.
The image of me screaming to be let loose from the pain and anguish of Pipsqueak’s death suddenly swirled into one of a young girl wearing a blue dress. The girl was licking honey from her finger, happily taking what wasn’t hers. Emotions tugged at me so hard that I didn’t quite know what it was at first. But when the bees flew into my sight, crisp and clear, I knew I was experiencing a psychic vision.
The vision gave me comfort from old feelings, old memories that had found their way into my dream. But then the girl started screaming as the bees stung her to a point where she could barely see. A monster appeared in front of her, and a river wept from its eyes. The girl screamed once more as she trembled with fear. Then the monster opened its mouth and swallowed her whole.
Colored flags transformed into chains as a purple haze descended. I felt myself being lifted up, higher and higher toward the sky. Whispers rained down in words from the clouds. “Drop the shields. Be gone for a time. Drop the shields. Be gone for a time. Drop the shields…”
The whispers quieted and a ringing in my ears penetrated through the mash-up of visions and old memories. My eyes fluttered open to see daylight peering through a crack in the drapes. My heart was pounding in my chest, forcing me to jolt up. It took me a moment to adjust to my surroundings, realizing I was okay. I was at Chris’s place. I was fine.
Drenched in sweat, the old feeling of wanting to curl up in the safest, darkest place I could find threatened to send me back under the covers. But I wasn’t that weak person anymore. And I certainly wasn’t about to behave like one as I forced the old feelings aside.
Dr. Warwick was disbarred. The hospital had been taken over. Dan had rescued me from my own personal hell and made it his mission to ensure Edwin and Dr. Warwick suffered severely for their actions. That part of my life was finished.
The ringing continued, and I realized it was my wrist comms buzzing from the side table where I’d placed it last night.
“It’s Kaleb,” a voice said when I activated it. “Morning.”
“Hey,” I replied, falling back on the bed with the comms in my hand. It was so good to hear his voice.
“Cole said he’s cleared you for duty. You can come in for a briefing with Dan on everything that’s happened so far. He’ll be due in from Earthside in one hour.”
“Okay, that’s great.” I inhaled deeply in an attempt to force back the threat of tears. “Look, Kaleb … about what I said last night.”
“Hey, forget it. You were bloody and tired. That’s bound to make a girl pissy, right?”
“Wow. You have such a way with words.”
“Yeah, you know me. Always the charmer.”
“Any news?” I asked as I pushed the covers back.
“They’ll update you at the briefing. I only know the highlights.”
“So, give me the highlights.”
He sighed in reservation. But I knew if there was any chance for Kaleb to talk he would snatch at it with both hands.
“Cole’s contact has done some digging for him, and he said something is going down at the prison. A high alert has been put out and they’re turning everything upside down to find out what. When Cole asked him if they were missing any rogue shifters besides the wendigo from the Shifter Hold, his contact confirmed it.”
“That’s all?”
“No,” he replied haughtily. “Rudolf has connections. And we think he’s used those connections to get hold of the drug that makes the rogues compliant. Cole can’t ignore the fact that those who hijacked the solar cabs had Earthside weapons and he wants to dig deeper. But we all agree that Rudolf must be using the rogues to hunt down his targets, like you suggested with Emera Divan. Only her real name wasn’t Emera. It was Divinia Chase.”
“So that’s why we couldn’t find anything on her?”
“I’d say so. Cole and Dan have done some digging on the cheetah shifters who confessed they knew her from when she dated Rudolf a while back. He knocked her around apparently, and then one day she disappeared. It seems she changed her appearance, her name and eventually made a quiet career for herself in the Victorian Quarter, a place Rudolf wouldn’t have been caught dead in,” he said, annoyed. “It looks like she found a way to get hold of some forged documents regarding her citizen badge and enrollment at the Schoolhouse. But Rudolf found her regardless. It appears he wanted her eliminated. That’s why we believe Rudolf told the SQR officers to make themselves scarce when the rogue was let loose to go after her.”
“Asshole.”
“Yep. Sounds about right. But that’s all I’ve got. Get down here soon so we can work out the rest.” He hesitated and I waited, not sure what he was about to say. “Know that you did good out there, with Gaines. We would never have found them so quickly without your help. We found wolfsbane on the edge of the road …” His anger was evident, even through the comms. “I may not have found you in the woods if you hadn’t been able to direct me. They wanted to ensure the casualties bled out before anyone found them.”
“Yeah, well,” I replied quietly as I remembered the fear painted across Gaines’ face, “they still did.”
“But you found Gaines. He was well liked here. He didn’t die alone. And it looks like your rep has improved because of it. All the other agents know about what happened, and it seems they’ve managed to scrape up some respect for you.”
“Pretty shitty way to gain respect,” I muttered and Kaleb chuckled.
“Yeah, I know. But you now have the upper hand. Do with it what you will. Be here in one hour. No later.”
He signed off before I could reply. Typical Kaleb. But at least he’d called. No matter how nastily I’d snapped at him last night, I knew we were okay.
Relief hit me, and I knew there and then that the memories that had haunted my dreams no longer had a hold on me. I had a new life now. One I wouldn’t hesitate in embracing.
The past could just go screw itself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
After leaving Chris a note, I headed back to my place to change into a more suitable pair of clothes. Rosie wasn’t at home, so I assumed she was still at work with Chris. I wrote her a note too, just in case she returned before I did.
While on The Rail, I allowed my mind to drift back to the vision that had blended with my memories only a few hours before. None of it had made any sense, but sometimes that’s how they worked. My visions very rarely came with specific instructions and an arrow pointing to an exact location saying, ‘look here’. But there were times when I could see things clearly, like I had with the wendigo.
I understood why the visions oft
en came through symbolically though. The human brain largely relied on facts it had gathered during previous learning. That meant it restricted us by what we’d learned and experienced through both our environments and exposure to the world in which we lived. Our perceptions and judgments condition us from an early age, with our brains using the data like a filing system to categorize what we know. But it also limits what the eyes can see, or what the heart can feel.
When things appear in the form of images and metaphors, it forces the brain to respond in a different way. It’s still based on the same perception but from a slightly different angle. That’s how I saw it anyway. The symbolic visions forced my mind in a different direction, and sometimes I was thankful for that. Not right now though. Right now, I would have appreciated the arrow with the big flashing lights pointing at the destination.
The girl from the vision was relative. I could feel it. She had been stealing the honey, and then the bees had attacked her. It all seemed to link back to the warehouse, Homewell Honey. There was a connection. She had been stealing honey from the hive, and then the bees had attacked. Had the SQR officers been stealing from Rudolf? Was that what it all meant?
Then there was the monster who’d cried a river from his eyes. It was another connection that could only be Rudolf River. He owned the SQR firm. They had been holding the rogues somewhere, if my vision had been correct, and the rogues were connected to Rudolf. The vision had come from direct contact with him. And then there was Jimmy. If the SQRs had made an arrangement to circulate the drugs back onto the street, Rudolf may have intended to have Jimmy killed beforehand. So where did that leave Dathan, the leader of the SQR firm? He hadn’t been at the warehouse when the task force had hit. So where the hell did he end up in all this?
As the thoughts spiraled through my mind, the monorail plundered forth on its elevated rails. We were riding over Market Square, above the Victorian Quarter, when the flashes of colour from the flapping flags and brightly painted stalls caught my eye. This month’s Moon Fair was about to begin. It was a tradition in this part of the city, where people from all backgrounds would come out before a full moon and celebrate the world in which we lived. Many witches, wizards and shamans worshipped the moon and its phases, and the festival was rumored to have started with them many hundreds of years ago. But it was a tradition that many favored, and one where even non-devouts used it as an excuse to come together and have some fun. The kids loved it, and I leaned my head against the window to watch them all congregate as we passed over. Many of the children stopped what they were doing when they heard the monorail, and they looked up and waved. I waved back, knowing they couldn’t see me, but, somehow, it felt wrong not to do so. Mayra would be there with her stall, no doubt, and my smile widened. If I managed to spare some time this afternoon, I would have to swing by.
As soon as the monorail pulled to a stop. I dismounted onto the platform and was suddenly swept along, bustled by the swarm of bodies of my fellow commuters. It was busier than usual, probably due to the fair. It wasn’t only the residents of the Victorian Quarter who liked to join in with the celebrations.
Edging my way through the crowd, I was jostled by someone from the side. I felt a sharp pain in my left arm and looked down to see what it was. At first, I thought it must have been an insect bite, or someone with a unique fashion scraping me while passing by. But suddenly, my eyes began to blur. I shook my head in an attempt to clear the fog that was creeping into my brain, but to no avail. Taking a step forward, I stumbled. It felt as though I was walking on air. I reached out, trying to find something solid to lean on as my head started to whirl with a pressure that made me nauseous, but I found nothing. What was wrong with me?
Fear started to fester inside my stomach, rising up into my chest. My skin felt feverish; tingles erupted all over my body. Part of my head tried to determine if I was experiencing a vision, or if I’d walked through some extremely strong energy that had torn through my shields. Rational thought attempted to anchor me like a life saver, but it didn’t stick. My movements felt wrong, clunky, as if I was about to drop off the edge of cliff. Then someone grabbed me from the side.
“Let’s go,” the voice murmured, low and determined, in my ear. “He’s waiting for you.”
Who was that? Who the hell was that? My head wouldn’t think straight. My body wouldn’t move. Nothing would cooperate as I had no choice but to let the owner of the voice lead me away. I was under threat. My instincts knew it. My heart knew it. But nothing could function enough to stop it.
Darkness assailed my vision and panic forced my eyes wide open in a flutter. But I saw nothing. Nothing but a blurred set of images that wrenched away the last part of my salvation. Someone was taking me somewhere. Somewhere against my will. And all I could keep thinking was that today, would be the last day I would live.
CHAPTER THIRTY
I felt sick. That was the first thing I recalled. And my head hurt.
What time was it? And where the hell was I?
I tried to roll out of what I thought was my bed, but a searing pain in my wrists caused me to yank my eyes open.
As I was abruptly pulled from the dark pit of a deep sleep, memories slowly returned from when I was at the station. I closed my eyes momentarily as the fear took hold. I didn’t want to open my eyes. I didn’t want to face what was waiting for me. But from the tight pressure around my wrists I figured I had no choice.
It was dark where I was, but I didn’t need the light to tell me I was tied up and hanging from a wall. I also didn’t need it to tell me that the shit had royally hit the fan.
Taking a deep breath to calm my thoughts I gagged at the smell that consumed my nostrils. Urine. Excrement. Fear. They all intermingled into a stench that spoke of death.
“Sleeping beauty wakes,” a voice echoed from the darkness. I snatched my head around to see where it was coming from. At the same time, a man stepped out from the shadows created by the candle he held in his hand.
“Agent Raken,” I spoke with a croaky voice as I recognized those handsome features, twisted with evil. He was as tall as Kaleb, but not quite as muscular, but that didn’t stop him from trying to flex his muscles.
A tilt of his lips lay way to a smugness that teamed with a knowing confidence that caused his eyes to glow. He stepped closer until he was about a foot away from me and reached out to touch my cheek. I snatched my face away.
“My, my, Terra Vane. You are touchy. But I like it when you’re feisty.”
The huskiness in his voice raised my fear to top level. I yanked against my restraints before I could stop myself. Barely being able to move but for a few inches, I looked up to see I’d been locked in a set of manacles chained to the wall above me. My feet dangled above the ground, and I could see no escape as my eyes wildly continued to assess my surroundings. I could see nothing. All that hovered before me was darkness and death. That’s all I could think about. Darkness and death. And there was Agent Raken, standing in the only light present in the room.
“What the hell do you want with me?” I snapped in a vain attempt to cling onto bravado that would keep him from getting off on my fear.
“It’s not what I want with you,” he said on a sigh. “It’s what I was paid to do. I failed the first time round when you decided not to join the others in escorting the prisoners back to the agency. Arguing with Cole would have raised suspicion when he kept you at the crime scene. But I haven’t failed this time. All I needed to do was follow you around until I found you isolated and vulnerable, out of the clutches of Kaleb the Idiot. Now I have you. You were easy pickings once you stepped outside of your beloved Crystal Quarter.” He chuckled and it echoed eerily around my prison. “You’d be surprised how much the residents look out for you in that part of the city. It would have been too dangerous to snatch you there. And far too dangerous to attempt it back at the agency. But today? Today, I finally saw my shot, so I took it.”
“By drugging me and chaining me up,” I sneere
d. “What a hero.”
The smug expression disappeared from his face as his eyes flared with venom. “You need to be careful what you say to me. I’m holding you here until the boss arrives, and if you play nice, you won’t get hurt. Your choice.” He hesitated then touched my face again. When I tried to move it out of the way, he held it firm. He leaned in and licked my cheek, taking advantage of me in my chained up state. “I’ll have my fun, Vane,” he said, his breathing becoming heavier as he got off on the touch. “But for now, you’re safe.” He stepped back abruptly as if trying to control himself. Then I was in the dark once more as he snuffed out the candle. I heard him walk away, his steps echoing against the hard concrete of the floor as he retreated into the darkness.
Pulling at the manacles, I tried kicking away from the wall. But my hopes disappeared when I realized my feet were chained too, albeit not as tightly. That meant I was down another weapon I could have used to kick with if someone had managed to get too close.
Taking a long, deep breath, I knew exactly who Raken’s boss was. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. I’d pissed off the cheetah shifter who liked to kill when he didn’t get his own way.
Rudolf may use the rogue shifters or his employees to do his dirty work, but he was still a murdering son of a bitch. I could only guess what tool of destruction he would use for my demise. And it looked like Mayra’s prediction of doom about a target being on my back had come true.
Leaning my head back against the wall behind me, a tear slowly grazed my cheek. This was so not how I wanted to go out. Not that I wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. I’d come to enjoy and appreciate life for what it was after the solitary upbringing I’d had among the same four walls every day. But being an EFA you appreciate that doing the job is worth the risk if your life needs to become forfeit. You understand that it might end because you decide to jump in the way of danger to save someone, or by taking a dangerous criminal off the streets. But not in this way. Never would anyone want it to be in this way, chained up and waiting for death. I’d been captured and left hanging in my worst nightmare. And it sucked.
Death Be Blue (The Terra Vane Series Book 1) Page 23
