Declan greeted her at the door after Kate rang the doorbell twice. His eyes were tired and his clothing rumpled. She gave him a tight smile. “Did I wake you?”
He stifled a yawn. “I fell back asleep after I got your message. Didn’t sleep well last night. Finally conked out after five.”
“Did you have a vision?”
He waved off her question. “Yeah, but nothing about Max’s case. Do you want to come in?”
The interior put her more at ease. It wasn’t a complete crap hole, but it wasn’t as immaculate as her mom kept their home. Cereal boxes cluttered the kitchen counters, a few dishes were left in the sink, extra blankets on the couch. A pile of clothes were pushed to the side of the living room. It made her visualize it being a collection of castoffs from the girls Declan brought home. She put her purse down on his kitchen table and took a seat.
“Thanks for letting me just barge in on you like this,” Kate started.
“Your text said it’s important. What’s up?”
She sighed and stared out of the window. “They found Max yesterday. Of course, I’m happy about it, but I feel…”
His dark eyes watched her with intensity. As reluctant as she wanted to admit it, she had developed a connection with Declan. No one else could possibly understand what it was like to have no control over the things that ran through your head. Invading people’s thoughts was never a skill she would wish on anyone.
Regaining focus, Kate continued, “I just feel that I should’ve been working harder to find him. I should have been freaking meditating for hours each day until he was found.”
Declan shook his head in disagreement. “Kate, you need to live your life too.”
Kate didn’t deviate from the speech she had planned in the car on the way over to Declan’s house. “The reason I came here was because I want to know everything you do. No more bullshit. Lie all of your cards on the table right now.”
Kate met his eyes and tried to convey how deadly serious she was. If he had some tricks up his sleeve, she wanted to know them. If she was going to be stuck with these powers, she better at least start learning if there was a way to decide whose memories she could access.
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his palms over the scruff on his face. He folded his hands in front of him and then gave a tight nod. He was mentally weighing something in his mind and seemed to come to a decision before answering.
“Maybe we should talk about this another time,” he suggested. “When you’re less emotional.”
“Jesus Declan, just let me know the damn secret psychic handshake already.”
He nodded. “It’s not exactly a secret…and there’s not much else I can tell you about controlling your powers.” Declan stopped talking for a long minute. Finally, he muttered, “But there is something I haven’t told you yet.”
She leaned forward and gave him a piercing stare. “Just give me a straight answer. Why did you want to meet me?”
“It’s nothing bad, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s just…” he stopped and then asked, “Remember how I told you being psychic is my job?”
She nodded. “Yes, I thought it was a joke.”
“Well, it wasn’t. The reason I found you was because I thought maybe we could work together.”
“Work together?” she parroted back. Kate gave him a sardonic smile as she imagined the possibilities. “Like host a joint psychic show and say things like, ‘Someone who passed is in this room with us. His name begins with the letter R and he says he’s sorry he didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.’ Because lucky enough, talking to dead people is not one of my psychic skills.”
Declan’s laugh was forced. He leaned back into the kitchen chair directly across from her. “No, that wouldn’t be it.” He bit his lower lip before continuing. “I don’t think it’s came up, but I don’t have a relationship with my family.”
Yikes, she thought, she was really a terrible friend. In the days they spent together, she never asked any questions about him or his personal life. Kate had no clue if he had any siblings or where he went to school. Between psychic coaching sessions, Declan had made it a point to get to know her. It made her feel like maybe she was just using him because of what he had to psychically offer.
Kate’s rationalization was she’d been afraid of developing too close of a relationship with him. Each moment she spent with Declan and away from Jared made her feel guilty. If he hadn’t made that revelation about his future vision, Kate probably wouldn’t have felt on edge and confused in his presence.
“Anyway,” he continued when she didn’t reply. “A few years back, I found myself at a pretty low point. My family had kicked me out of my house and I had no job experience since the past year had been spent in rehab for my ski accident. Hell, I never even finished high school.
“But I did have one thing that I could do. I was able to have these visions,” he explained. She bobbed her head which prompted him to continue speaking. “Well, at that point, I didn’t have any future premonitions. Without being able to tell the future, it’s harder to find a way to make money using our gift. That was until I realized I could help find the missing.” His brown eyes met hers from across the table and his pitch rose as he asked, “Have you ever seen the reward amounts being offered by families that are looking for someone?”
Kate’s grimace didn’t seem to damper his enthusiasm as he persisted without waiting for her to answer his question. “The figures are astronomical. Some rewards could cover a person’s salary for a year!” He turned around and gestured to his Hummer outside the window. “Guess how I paid for that? I got 40K for bringing home a twelve-year-old boy that was abducted in Texas.”
Her hazel eyes followed his gaze out of the kitchen window. “Sounds like you’re doing fine without me. Why do you need help?”
“Because you know how our gift works. It’s not perfect and there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to see what you need to. I figure two psychics are better than one. We could work more cases plus have a higher success rate. Whatever money we get, we could split fifty-fifty.” Declan finished his explanation with a self-satisfied smirk. It was implicit that he had worked out this set-up in his head before they had even met.
He had rendered her speechless. In all the potential scenarios she ran through her mind, this scenario was something Kate had never suspected. “So, why not just tell me what you wanted in the first place?”
“I wanted to be certain it would work out first. I had to make sure you were legitimate and how talented you were. You don’t have a long history of being involved in police cases, so I didn’t know if you could be of any help. Now I realize you were just a recluse for a few years.” He tried to laugh, but stopped when he met her humorless expression. “Well, I think you do have plenty of potential. With some practice, we’ll be unstoppable. We may end up pulling in well over six figures in no time.”
Kate had reached her limit. “But that’s so wrong,” she forced out.
His body language turned cold. With his arms crossed his chest, he barked, “What’s so wrong?”
“To use people’s misery for your own financial gain,” she retorted.
“I should’ve known you would react like this,” he mumbled. He rose from his chair and flattened his palms against the table.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re so judgmental! Our visions bring us misery; the people around us think we’re full of shit, why shouldn’t we get something from all of this?”
“But shouldn’t we just help people because it’s the right thing to do? Shouldn’t our gifts be used for altruistic purposes?”
He snorted. “You really are living in a fairytale. Who knows the reason we came back from the dead this way? We can’t assume we’re meant to use our visions for good. There’s just as much chance our psychic powers came from something evil.”
Kate swallowed hard as he voiced one of her fears. Her mother believed a divine being gift
ed her with psychic abilities. However, when Kate’s thoughts turned darker, she wondered if something more sinister could be responsible.
“That’s such a jaded way of thinking,” Kate accused. “I don’t want a cash reward for bringing someone back to their family. I do it because it feels good to help others.”
“And what about wanting something more for yourself? You go to a community college and slave away at a minimum wage job.” His biting summary of her life caused her to flinch in response. Declan was working himself into a fervor and didn’t seem to care about the hurtful words he was slinging at her. “What are your hopes for the future? Stay in Franklin for the rest of your life and hope your small town detective marries you? You’re meant for more than that. With the amount of money we can get our hands on, we can live whatever life we want.”
“I’m happy with my life, thank you very much,” Kate snapped. “Maybe if you were happier with yours, you would realize how wrong you are.”
“Then, I guess we’re done here.”
Kate was again taken aback by his tone. He was making her feel like she was the one who was wrong. However, how could she agree to be involved with someone who only wanted to use their gifts for monetary gain? What if they came across a case where a reward wasn’t offered? Would he not help because the people weren’t going to pay them? Her conscious would never allow her to do something like that.
Wordlessly, Kate exited the kitchen. Declan followed close on her heels and opened the front door before she had the chance to reach the knob. Regret set in as she wondered if this could be goodbye forever. She began, “Declan, we could still be friends…”
He cut her off. “Sorry, I’m taking back both the job offer and the offer to help you control your visions. I have enough people in my life who look down on me—I don’t need another one. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”
Any loss she felt over the ending of their friendship dissipated. A cold fury made her want to smack him across the face. “Sorry I’m not completely morally bankrupt.”
His laugh was harsh. “Take a long look in the mirror before you try and judge me. If I remember hearing correctly, didn’t you start sleeping with the detective who was investigating the disappearance of his girlfriend’s sister?”
“Go to hell,” she breathed. Stalking over to her car, she glared at him one last time. Mockingly, she called, “Thought we were supposed to end up together, future boy?”
In reply, he flipped her the bird and slammed the front door.
***
The one upshot of being starved was it cooled her anger quickly. It was kind of hard to be livid when Kate could barely keep her eyes open. After leaving Declan’s house, Kate camped out on the couch and caught up on two weeks worth of shows recorded on her DVR. Watching TV helped distract her from both not eating for the day and the argument with Declan. An hour before her movie date with Jared, she gained enough motivation to take a shower and throw on a pair of jeans and a tank top. Deciding she looked way too boring for a date with her new boyfriend, she dressed up the outfit with a funky gold necklace and matching hoop earrings.
Jared’s arms around her when he arrived to pick her up for their date felt like a welcome balm to her problems. She held on for several minutes while he trailed a finger down her bare arm. She shivered under his touch. He inquired softly, “Are you sure you’re up for a movie?”
“Two hours to turn my brain off sounds heavenly,” she sighed.
She filled him in on Max and her angst over not being able to help him sooner. Throughout the day, Kate had kept seeing Max’s tortured face in her head. She wondered how much of the abuse could’ve been prevented if she had only revealed his abductor sooner. Jared said all the right things and agreed with her mother’s assessment of her putting too much pressure on herself to save everyone. During the exchange, Kate purposely hadn’t brought up Declan.
Jared would agree with her reaction to Declan’s unconventional job offer. Yet, something was holding her back from admitting everything to him. It made Kate consider the idea that a part of her wanted to accept his proposal. Working with another psychic would mean more cases could be solved. Not to mention, he was right about her future prospects. Her part-time job at the doctor’s office didn’t pay much and she was majoring in English at a two-year college. Since a teaching career didn’t feel like a right fit for her, she wouldn’t have many job offers once she did graduate. Although Kate loathed admitting it, maybe some of her father’s past accusations had merit. He had told her to stop floundering and start making some serious decisions about her future. However, collecting reward purses was probably not what Robert Edwards had in mind.
When they arrived at the movie theater, Jared possessed another piece of her heart. Although Kate insisted he get a snack, he skipped the popcorn since she refused to get anything. They grabbed a couple of seats in the rear and she immediately rested her head against his shoulder. “How do people do this?” she moaned. “I would definitely get kicked out of any religion where fasting was involved.”
“How about we get something to eat after here?” Jared suggested and kissed the top of her head. “I think you’re good, it looks like you lost at least ten pounds today.”
She lifted her head and faced him. “Really?” His smirk made her punch him on the arm. “You’re such a bad liar. But I think you’re right, I must have really low blood sugar or something. I better eat,” she said nodding. Hurriedly, she added, “You know, for health reasons, of course.”
“Of course,” he said in a mock serious tone.
Jared gave her a kiss that left her even more lightheaded than she already was. As the previews began, she leaned her head back onto his shoulder. Jared’s muscular arm wrapped around her body and drew her closer to him. Kate let out a content sigh and shut her eyes. As the movie began to play, she felt her eyelids grow heavy. Sleep was calling to her and Kate decided not to resist.
***
“I hate this house!”
It was jarring to be in a vision and be confronted with such strong emotions. It took longer for her to get her bearings as the screaming continued around her. The living room was unfamiliar and so was the woman who stood before her. The woman was barely five foot and couldn’t weigh more than 100 pounds soaking wet. Her pale skin was emphasized by her reddish-brown hair. Her face was careworn which made it hard to determine her exact age. Her Irish accent seemed more pronounced the angrier she became. Her fists were shaking with emotion and she took a few audible breaths to calm herself.
Kate was shocked to see the target of the woman’s rage was a hunched over figure sitting in a wheelchair. The boy’s face was hidden as he sobbed audibly. He had just been yelling moments ago, but the woman’s words had reduced him to a mess of raw emotion. The woman did not look moved by the display of emotion and continued to glower in his direction.
“Be a man! You make me sick with your sniveling,” the woman sneered.
“I’m your son, doesn’t that matter to you?”
“I might have given birth to you, but no mother would want to claim you after what you’ve become. You’re a weak-willed liar who will ruin anything he touches.”
The intensity of the vision made her relieved that she was only an outside observer. Being inside of the brain of Ally Seldon as she dealt with the horror and rage over losing her son was enough emotional conflict for a lifetime. When she didn’t know the thoughts of her psychic targets, it made it easier to remain impartial.
The boy lifted his head. He had a sickly pallor to his skin and his brown hair was not as short as his current style. As he stared disbelieving at his mother, the boy’s face was distorted from a mixture of hate and despair. However, there was no doubt in her mind. This was a younger version of Declan Brayden.
He was much leaner which made her guess that his bulk must have only appeared in recent years. His chocolate eyes lacked any of the vibrancy that she had come to know. Instead, they looked devo
id of life. As much as she tried to study his other features, her attention could not be torn away from the wheelchair. Kate had researched Declan enough to discover he’d been hurt badly enough in the ski accident to be put in a medically induced coma. For some reason, Kate had assumed he’d been fine once he came out of the coma. She didn’t know he had been in a wheelchair afterwards.
“I wish I died that day on the mountain,” Declan declared. She didn’t discern whether he said it as a test for his mother, but Kate felt a hatred for the woman as she said nothing to contradict him. His mother’s eyes remained cold as she regarded him.
“Declan, I’m done listening to you feel sorry for yourself. Everyone has tried to be there for you. But then you start with your crazy talk about prophecies. No one is blind, Declan. The whole damn town knows about your drug problem. Your dad would die of shame if he was still alive,” she spat the words out at him.
He shrank further into his chair. “I never said they were prophesies. And the drugs have nothing to do with the things I see when I go to sleep. I came back from that accident different.”
“Yes, we can all see that. It turned you into a drug addled fool,” she declared.
Her words had a physical effect on him and his pain was visible. “It hurts, Mom. My whole body every night…I can’t stop taking the pills.”
His moans were hard to witness as was his mother’s indifference. “I want you gone by the morning, Declan. I don’t care where you go, but you’re no longer welcome in my house.”
“Mom, please don’t do this. I’m sorry, I’ll try harder…”
She glared at him. “I heard this already and I warned you one more strike and you’re gone. Bad enough you tell that lie about having a dream that your cousin Amy’s husband was cheating on her. Now, I find the pills you had sworn you flushed down the toilet hidden in your room.”
New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two Page 10
