Caro gave in. Chloe was making sense, and her desire for action was getting in her way. Didn’t she want to be a detective? Yes. And what did detectives do most of the time? It sure wasn’t cops and robbers. It was research and questioning. Questioning in those neighborhoods would meet a lot of resistance. That meant she needed to skip the action and do the mental legwork.
She sighed. “Can we at least get out of here for a walk?”
Chloe chewed her lip. “Well, if you promise it’s just a walk, and not very far, I’ll admit I could use some sunshine, too. But it’s cold out there.”
“I spend a lot of time on the streets. I don’t mind. Just bundle yourself up. Say just for a walk around the block.”
“This isn’t one of the best parts of town,” Chloe reminded her.
Caro patted her belt holster. “How often do you have an armed escort?”
At that Chloe giggled and bounced off to find something warm to wear.
Not that a gun would do much against the threat they were worried about, Caro thought. But God, she needed some sunshine. Living like a bat might suit vampires, but not her. Checking her pocket, she felt the talisman again and closed her eyes. She could still sense the invisible bubble it seemed to wrap around her, and she wondered if it would extend to Chloe, as well.
While she waited, she reached out, trying to sense even more. Little by little she picked up on things. The vampires and Terri sleeping in the next rooms. The wards Jude had put around this place. In fact, the more she concentrated on the wards, the more they became visible until they nearly glowed.
Oh, wow! She could see those invisible marks of chrism, and some of the things Chloe had spread around, as if they were lit from within. Inevitably, she pulled the talisman out and looked at it. It, too, seemed to glow, though differently. Not bright and white like Jude’s chrism, but more of a lavender. A different kind of power?
Trying to reach out even farther, she found herself blocked by the wards, as if they created an impenetrable shield she couldn’t see beyond. That was interesting, she thought. Now she wondered what might happen out on the streets where there were no wards. What she might see and sense apart from the auras she had for so long tried to ignore. What if she could read those auras? What if she could sense other things about people, as well?
All of a sudden a desire to know her own inherent powers burst to full life within her.
She definitely had to get out for a walk.
“What’s going on?” Chloe asked.
Startled out of her concentration, Caro took a moment to connect. “What do you mean?”
“You looked funny. And I felt something.”
“I was just trying to...” She hesitated, wondering how much she should say. It wasn’t as if she’d talked with Chloe about this much before. On the other hand, she figured that nothing happened in or around Messenger Investigations that Chloe didn’t know something about.
“I was just testing my senses. My grandmother said I had some kind of power, but I’ve never really used it. Damien’s been encouraging me.”
“Oh, girl,” Chloe said cheerfully, “do we have stuff to talk about now. Come on!”
They emerged onto the street to find some snow had fallen since sunrise, just enough to make the world sparkle and look fresh under a blindingly brilliant sky.
“Gawd,” Chloe said, pulling a pair of sunglasses out of her purse, “there really is a daytime world!”
Caro had to laugh. “Come on, you must get out during the day sometimes.”
“I do,” Chloe admitted with a grin. “But when things really heat up, I generally go home at dawn and come back around sunset, and in between I’m usually asleep or trying to wake up. Sometimes I don’t get out of the office at all for days on end.” She shrugged, stuck her hands in her coat pocket and started walking. Caro strode beside her. “Most of the time I don’t mind. It’s exciting. But every so often I snipe a little about it.”
“I can’t imagine never seeing the sun again.”
“Neither can I, honestly, although Terri seems to be adapting pretty well to Jude’s hours. I don’t hear her complaining anyway.” She glanced at Caro. “What about Damien?”
“What about Damien?”
“I can see that vampire has a big case of the hots for you, and you don’t seem exactly unhappy about it. If you really can’t live without the sun, maybe you’d better be careful.”
Caro tried to shrug it off. “It’s just a passing thing.”
“Maybe.” Chloe surprised her by letting the subject drop. “So what’s this about having powers? I’ve been trying to develop some of my own, but I haven’t been having a whole lot of luck. Mostly I can do a few protective spells that seem to work. Are we talking about spells here or something bigger?”
“Something else. I don’t know if you could call it bigger. My grandmother told me I had inherent powers, but I never really wanted to listen to her about it.”
“So you became a hardheaded realist, namely a cop.”
“I guess so.”
They reached a corner and turned to circumnavigate the block. Even though this wasn’t the best part of town, there were plenty of people out and about. Only a few of them made Caro’s hand itch to touch her service pistol.
“So Damien’s helping?” Chloe asked. “Because Jude said he used to be some kind of mage.”
“He’s trying, I guess. Trying to get me to focus on things I sense by other than usual means. It’s working a little bit. For example, today I could actually see all the wards in Jude’s office. Even the chrism seemed to glow.”
“Oh, man, that would be so cool. Anything else?”
“I couldn’t see beyond the wards. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get out here. To see what else I could sense.”
“Then I should shut up and let you sense. Just promise to tell me what you pick up.”
The quiet was welcome and pierced only by the crunch of feet on the fresh snowfall and an occasional voice. With a sigh, Caro let go of some tight restraint within herself, opening a place she usually kept fairly shuttered. The world was suddenly alight with the auras of the people they passed. Beautiful auras for the most part, although the colors in some made her uncomfortable, and others worried her a bit.
That woman might be sick. That man is thinking something ugly. The rainbow colors seemed to speak to her at a level below conscious thought. But how could she be sure her interpretations were correct?
Prodded to find out, she walked over to the woman whose aura dimmed in the region of her heart. “Ma’am, are you feeling all right?”
The woman, who appeared to be about fifty, seemed startled, then said, “Actually, I’m not really feeling well. Do I look sick?”
Caro hesitated only a moment, then took the risk. “You look ill. Can you get to a doctor? Do you need me to help you?”
“I’m awfully tired,” the woman said with a wan smile. “I feel as if I’m walking uphill. I think I’ll just go home and rest.”
But having gone this far, Caro decided to let her view of the woman’s aura guide her. “I think I should call an ambulance.”
At that the woman panicked. “I don’t have insurance. I can’t pay for that! No, don’t call anybody. I’ll just go home and rest.”
She hurried past Caro, but as Caro watched, she could see that after a few steps the woman started lagging again.
“What’s that about?” Chloe asked, keeping her voice down.
“Something in her aura. I don’t know if it’s her heart or what, but something’s not right.”
Chloe looked after the woman. “I wish I could see that. But if she won’t take help, what can you do?”
“Nothing without a reason,” Caro admitted. More than most people, she was aware that even touching another person was battery, and if she called an ambulance and the woman objected, nothing would get done anyway.