by AE Jones
“Kyle, what’s going on?”
I shook my head to clear the fog and took a deep breath. “I just had a flash of something. I think it’s related to the dream I’ve been having.”
Dalton held my elbow firmly. “Do you want me to take you home?”
“No, but will you go with me somewhere else?”
“Does it have to do with your premonitions?”
“That’s the thing. I don’t think it’s a premonition anymore, but I have to find out for sure.”
I directed Dalton to the burbs, and within twenty-five minutes we parked in the Connors’ driveway. I hadn’t planned anything, since I wasn’t sure I even knew what to ask. I convinced Dalton to wait in the car, so we didn’t freak the Connors out any more than necessary. When I rang the doorbell, Stephanie answered.
She smiled. “Kyle! It’s great to see you. What brings you here?”
“Sorry to disturb you, I just need a minute of your time. I have to ask you a couple of questions to close out the case. Do you mind?”
“No, come in. Trina’s at a play date today, so we can talk inside if you’d like.”
“I’m sorry to bring this up again, but I want to make sure all the loose ends are tied up. Some of the questions might appear strange, but please bear with me.”
Stephanie motioned me to the couch. “What do you need to know?”
“The day Trina was abducted, do you know exactly how the man grabbed her?”
Stephanie closed her eyes for a second before answering, “When we first brought her home, she was filthy. After the doctor’s exam, I tried to wash her up a bit. When I put the washcloth up to Trina’s face she started screaming. Once I was finally able to calm her down, she told me the man had put a cloth over her face and then everything went black.”
“What was Trina wearing—clothes, shoes, jewelry?”
“I’ll never forget it. She had on a pair of pink shorts, a flower top and yellow sandals. And her new bracelet.”
“What type of bracelet?” I tried to ask calmly, even though my nerves were rioting.
“We had gotten her a silver heart charm bracelet for her birthday. She was so excited about it.” She frowned. “She wasn’t wearing it when they found her.”
I stood. “Thank you. I’m sorry I had to bring it all up again. The last thing I need to know is the address where the pack found Trina.”
Stephanie walked me to the door, giving me the address.
“How’s Trina doing?” I asked.
Stephanie smiled. “She’s great. Back to her old self again. Thank you!”
“You know, if you want me to help you forget what happened, I could try.”
“No, I don’t want to forget. I will never take anything for granted again. I’m blessed, and I know that now more than ever.” She hugged me and I promised to come visit Trina again soon.
I climbed into the car and Dalton stared at me for a second before speaking. “Where to next?”
I gave him the address I’d gotten from Stephanie, then closed by eyes and leaned my head against the headrest. I was almost certain what I would find, but I had to confirm it for my own sanity.
To Dalton’s credit, he didn’t press me, so we traveled in silence. After a few minutes he stopped the car. I opened my eyes and studied the house. It didn’t look sinister from the front, just your normal-looking suburban home. Of course, evil didn’t have to stand out, did it?
Dalton interrupted my thoughts. “Do you want me to come with you?”
I nodded and got out, walking slowly around the back, with Dalton right behind me.
I saw the dead tree first. Empty branches waved slightly in the breeze. A jingling sound caught my attention. It was a homemade wind chime, its music made by metal and sea glass.
The metal shed loomed in front of me, and I walked toward it, my chest tightening with each step. It wasn’t my own fear I was experiencing, but that didn’t make it less powerful. The door hung on its hinges, claw marks scored down the length of it. I imagined Tim trying to get to his daughter. I stepped into the room and the smell of dry grass and earth almost brought me to my knees. Dalton braced me again. He had been keeping me from hitting the ground a lot lately.
“Kyle, tell me what’s going on, right now!”
“This is where Trina was held. I haven’t been having premonitions of the future. I’ve been seeing memories of the past. Trina’s past.”
Dalton brows furrowed in confusion. “Wouldn’t you know about some of this from what the Connors’ described to you?”
“No, we didn’t talk about the specifics of the shed. Only Trina knew about them. When I erased her memories, somehow I absorbed the events, and now they’re part of my memories.”
“That has never happened before?”
“Never. I don’t see inside someone’s mind, I place new thoughts there to replace others.”
“So your power is evolving?”
“I guess so.” I scanned the ground, and after a couple of seconds, found a small mound of dirt sitting just a bit higher than the rest of the earth floor. Kneeling, I dug with my fingers until I touched cool metal. I pulled out the bracelet, brushing the dirt away from the small hearts. I hadn’t realized until this moment that each heart had a letter engraved on it. Holding the bracelet so each charm lined up, I read the letters spelling out one word: TRINA.
Dalton helped me up, pulling me into his embrace. I took deep breaths and inhaled his musky scent, allowing his strong arms to hold me steady. After a couple of seconds, he led me out of the shed into the sunshine.
Chapter 37
What a mess. At least I knew I wasn’t going crazy, but it didn’t alleviate the anxiety over what my power might have in store for me in the future. I had finally calmed down just about the time Dalton parked fairly close to my apartment and walked me to my building. I unlocked the door and he leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“I’ll see you later, then.”
I held up my hand. “Whoa. Where are you going?”
“I was going to go back to work.”
I shook my head. “No you’re not. Come upstairs, Galahad.”
“Okay, if you’re up to talking, let’s get everything out in the open.”
It wasn’t my plan, but I nodded to get him moving.
We jogged up the stairs. I opened my door and threw my keys and phone on the table. Before he could get a word out, I was in his arms. His eyes widened, but when I stood on tiptoes and initiated the first kiss, he didn’t protest. A couple more kisses, and we stumbled toward the couch. After a few seconds, Dalton broke the kiss and glanced around.
“What are you looking for?” I asked, exasperated.
“Do I need to worry about Booger attacking me?”
I laughed. “No, Booger and I have parted ways.”
“What happened?”
“It’s a long story, and I can think of better uses for my mouth right now.”
He grinned. “Are we going to have makeup sex?”
“Yep. You’ve got a lot to make up for.”
He grimaced. “You are not a freak show to me, Kyle. I’m sorry about before. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“I know, but next time? Just tell me the truth.”
“You mean the next time I talk to angels or dead relatives?”
“If you talk to them, or Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, just tell me. Now start kissing me again.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He followed directions well and began kissing me in earnest. Our tongues started a wonderful game of tag-you’re-it. He ran his hands down my back and picked me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist and we both moaned at the contact.
God almighty, I was in heaven. We progressed to the couch, where I straddled his lap so I could unbutton his shirt and run my hands under the fabric, playing with his nipples. When I followed the same path with my lips, he jerked, almost knock
ing me off the couch. I laughed and he grabbed me around the middle. His eyes danced as he carried me into my bedroom and flung me on the bed before crawling over me.
He pulled the shirt over my head and unhooked my bra, settling on top of me. And the world faded. Dead vampires and torture and mysterious keys were replaced by kisses and tongue, and bare skin sliding over bare skin. Warning bells sounded in my head, just as they had the first time we were together. But this time I realized what they meant. It wasn’t because we were wrong for each other. It was because I was scared to let him get close to me. He could be THE one.
I wasn’t so cynical that I didn’t believe in love. Hell, I loved Jean Luc and Misha. But I wasn’t in love with them. And, while this strait-laced, ridiculously noble cop, of all people, crawled down my body and ran his tongue around the rim of my belly button, I knew it was too late. I had fallen hard.
My ridiculous reverie was interrupted when he unbuttoned my pants and pulled the rest of my clothes off. As his exploration headed further south, I heard Barry White’s Biggest Hits playing in my head. When the Hallelujah Chorus chimed in a short time later, I pulled on his hair and he moved back up my body.
He sat up and yanked off his clothes while I reached into the drawer by the bed to get a condom. I might be in love with him, but I wasn’t stupid. I opened the packet and knelt in front of him, helping him roll it on. He growled at me, an honest-to-goodness growl, and I gaped in surprise.
He smirked. “Are you going to call me a brute again?”
“Shut up. No time for talk,” I mumbled as I pushed him onto his back and crawled on top. My turn to be in charge for a while. I sank down onto him and his turquoise eyes ran over my body as he reached up and caressed my breasts. After a couple of seconds, a rhythm started and my eyeballs crossed. He pulled me down to him and we kissed again. My chest burned like it was going to explode right before I fell over the cliff into one of the best orgasms of my life. Dalton shouted and followed me over soon afterward.
For a few seconds, I gasped for air and was unable to speak…or form a coherent thought, for that matter. I flopped down on his chest like a wet noodle, my bones having disintegrated. He rubbed his hands in circles over my back.
“You okay, McKinley?”
“Yeah. You?”
“More than.”
I lay in Dalton’s arms, my face resting against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. I could easily get used to this.
When he spoke, the low rumble of his voice vibrated through his chest. “Are you ready to talk more about what happened earlier in the shed?”
“Not much to talk about. All of those visions were really memories from a scared little girl.”
“But when you’re experiencing them, it feels like it’s happening to you?”
“Yeah. It’s a bit of a pain. I’m not separated from the emotions, it’s like they are actually mine.”
“What do you think it means for your powers?”
“I don’t know. I’ll just have to play it by ear. This has never happened before. Maybe it’s because I had to erase so much with her, versus a quick memory erase. I’ll just have to see if it happens again.”
“Is your mother still alive?”
Where had that question come from? “Yes, she’s alive, but I haven’t seen her in years. Why?”
“Hear me out before you shut my idea down. Does your mother know about your powers?”
I hesitated before answering, my chest tightening. “No.”
“I’ve been thinking about your power and what’s been happening to you. I think you should tell your mother. Maybe she knows something about it. Maybe she has some type of power herself.”
I clenched the fist resting on Dalton’s chest. “She doesn’t have a power. She would have told me.”
Dalton lifted my chin so he could see my face. “Kyle, you’re not making any sense. You said your mother doesn’t know about your power, so why do you assume she would have told you if she has one?”
I expelled a hard breath. “She doesn’t know about my power now. I erased her memory.”
His eyes widened. “Why?”
“When I first realized I had powers, I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t tell anyone. But after several months I felt like the secret was burning a hole in my chest, so I finally told her.”
I stopped for a moment and he nodded.
“I thought for sure she would tell me I was crazy, but she actually believed me. I was so excited that someone knew my secret and hadn’t thrown me out. Two nights later, she came home with Doug, her boyfriend at the time, and they were arguing. Apparently Mom had been flirting with another guy at a bar and Doug had caught her. When Doug went to bed, Mom ordered me to erase his memory of the evening. She didn’t want him to leave her.
“I told her no and she slapped me. Said after all she had done for me, I owed her and if she had to have a freak for a daughter, at least she could get something out of it.”
Dalton ran his thumbs across my cheeks to wipe away my tears. I wasn’t even sure when I had started crying. I cleared my throat and continued. “I erased Doug’s memory, and that evening, when my mother went to bed, I erased hers as well. No way was I going to let her use me again.”
I laid my head on his chest and Dalton pulled me tighter to him. “I’m so sorry, babe. No wonder you don’t tell a lot of people about your gift.”
I nodded, his chest hair tickling my cheek. “That’s why I don’t have human friends. When I tell them the truth, they either try to use me or run away.”
He kissed the top of my head. “If you stopped using your power today, I’d be fine with it, and I’m not going anywhere.”
I turned on my side and Dalton spooned against my back, wrapping his arms around me in a protective cocoon. I drifted to sleep. After a while, my grumbling stomach woke me up. Dalton chuckled behind me. “Somebody’s hungry.”
I flipped on my back and smiled. “Yep.”
He caressed my face with his fingers, running them along my lips. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, much.” And I was. Telling him about my past was the catharsis I needed. No wonder people paid shrinks so much money.
“I have a question for you.”
I sighed. “Another one? I think I’ve had enough emotional breakthroughs for one evening, don’t you?”
“Sorry, but I have to ask you one more.”
“Fine. Shoot.”
“Do you forgive me for lying about talking to my dead grandmother?”
“Maybe.”
He stared at me. “Maybe?”
I rubbed my hand on his stomach. “I think you have some more work to do before you are totally forgiven.”
“Work, huh?”
“Yep. You need to persuade me.”
He grinned and rolled us over so he was on top. Oh goody. We started kissing, and it wasn’t long before we were getting quite frisky. That’s when my phone rang out in the living room. Before we could untangle ourselves, it stopped. We kissed again, but this time Dalton’s cell phone interrupted us.
Dalton pulled his pants off the floor and fumbled for his phone in his pocket.
“Dalton, here…yeah, Jean Luc, hold on.” He held up the phone to me. “It’s for you.”
I groaned in frustration before responding. “Hello?”
“I am sorry to interrupt you two.”
“Interrupt? Jesus, Jean Luc, are you sensing my emotions right now?”
“Yes. Nothing specific, but it does not require a rocket scientist to figure it out.”
I shook my head. “What’s up?”
“I have been watching the warehouse for several hours, and it is finally empty. The last vampire left fifteen minutes ago, and no one else has arrived. I think this would be a good time to go in.”
“We’ll be there in twenty.” I handed Dalton the phone. “Remember where we were when we were so rudely interrupted, because right now we need to meet Jean Luc at the ware
house for a little B&E.”
He kissed me on the nose and sat up. “Don’t forget you’re talking to a cop right now.”
“You can arrest me later. I like role-playing with handcuffs.”
It was his turn to groan in frustration.
Chapter 38
Call me crazy, but it occurred to me breaking into a vamp warehouse was probably not a good idea.
Dalton and I parked a block away and walked through a back alley to the set of scarred bay doors where Jean Luc waited for us. It didn’t take long for him to get the door unlocked, and we slipped inside. The inside was spacious, but relatively empty, with the exception of packing peanuts scattered all over the floor. Up toward the front of the building was a set of offices. We headed there and split up, each through separate doors.
I ended up in the main office area. In the middle of the room sat a chair with arm and leg manacles. Where did you even find a chair like that? Dungeons R’ Us? I stepped closer. Rust-colored stains spotted the seat and arms. Even without Jean Luc’s nose, I knew it was blood.
The sight made me sick. Had Father Cowell died here? I skirted around the chair through a door on the right that opened into a storage space with shelves and a half dozen boxes. I opened the first box and found newspaper and some metal statues. They didn’t look valuable, just stuff you would sell in a tourist trap. The second and third boxes held much the same junk.
There were two boxes on a separate shelf. I picked up the first and opened it. Nothing important. The next box was heavier. I picked it up carefully. As I pulled back the flaps, Jean Luc walked into the room and said “no,” but it was too late.
I stared down into the face of one Charles Hampton, vampire.
I dropped the box—who wouldn’t have?—and it landed on its side. The head fell out and rolled until his nose touched the floor. Hampton’s head rolled back the way it came and settled, continuing to rock slightly back and forth as if he was shaking his head.
What. The. Hell.
I held my breath to keep from gagging. “Why would they keep his head in the closet?” I asked. It was a ridiculous question, but it fit the ridiculous situation.
