Adam eyed me for a long moment and then exhaled roughly. “Okay. I swear. I won’t say anything, but this better be good.”
Oh, he had no idea. “Kat saw Bethany at the post office.”
His mouth opened and then snapped shut. A moment passed, and he tried again. “What?”
I glanced at the closed door. “She saw her at the post office, and she’s positive it was Bethany. Kat’s seen her picture.”
He shook his head slowly as he unfolded his arms. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“Well, that’s not all.” I kept my voice low as I went on. “You know how I wondered if something had gone down between Dawson and Bethany—if he’d healed her, right?” When he nodded, I continued. “I think he did—no, I’m…I’m positive he did.” Once that was out, the rest was easy. “Dawson healed her and it changed her on a cellular level. It linked them together, bonding them.”
“Bonding them together?” Adam thrust his hand through his hair. “That sounds crazy. You know that, right? It sounds—”
“Matthew confirmed that it was possible.”
His eyes widened.
“Yeah.” I smiled, but it was without humor. “Matthew confirmed that we can heal a human to the point that it changes their DNA. They take on some of our abilities and it links us together. That means if Bethany is alive, then so is Dawson.”
“Holy…” Adam stepped back. “Dawson is alive?”
That spark of hope had turned into a seedling, and damn if it wasn’t growing. “I think so, Adam. I really think so.” I moved to the porch steps, stirring the snow. “Kat saw Bethany with Vaughn. If the DOD has her—”
“Then they have Dawson.” Adam cursed under his breath as he thrust his fingers through his hair again. “I don’t know if I should be happy or scared as hell, because if they have him and Bethany…”
“I know,” I said quietly, staring out over the still yard. “Someone had to have betrayed them. Dawson didn’t tell any of us. I think it might have been someone Bethany knew. So that’s why I want to check out her house. I don’t even know if anyone lives there now or—”
“No one lives there,” Adam said, coming to stand next to me. “We drive past it every so often on the way to school. No one has moved in since her family left.”
That was good news. Still didn’t mean we’d find anything, but it was worth trying.
“And you haven’t told Dee?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to get her hopes up if I’m just chasing a ghost, you know? It would kill her.”
“It will kill you.”
I didn’t respond.
Adam stepped off the porch. “I’m not going to say anything. Not until we have concrete proof, because you’re right, she doesn’t need to go through losing him all over again.” He paused, his eyes meeting mine. “But neither do you, Daemon. You shouldn’t have to experience this again.”
We traveled the several miles to Beth’s old house by foot, which only took us a handful of minutes. We stayed in our human forms so we didn’t freak out the locals. My face stung from the snowy wind as the renovated farmhouse came into view, perched atop a hill.
Snow crunched under our boots as we walked up the sidewalk and hit the front porch. I eyed the front door. It wasn’t just locked, but also had one of those Realtor locks on it. A closed and locked door wasn’t going to deter me. I placed my hand on the center of the door, prepared to blast it into next week.
“Hold on.” Adam stepped back. “We really don’t want to make it that obvious that we’re here.”
We didn’t?
With a quick grin, Adam backed off the porch and disappeared around the side of the house. A few moments later, I heard the click of the front door and then it opened. I arched a brow as Adam held the door open.
“Figured if we had to break something, we shouldn’t make it so obvious,” Adam said as I stepped past him, into the dark and cold house. “Plus the back door didn’t have one of those weird locks on it. Easily broken.”
“Smart,” I murmured, scanning the bare walls as I walked farther into the house.
Adam pulled out his cell phone. A few seconds later, the screen lit up with harsh white light, casting a glow along the floors and walls. We passed what looked like a living room. A couch draped in a light-colored canvas was the only thing remaining in the room. The kitchen was odd, though. A table sat in the corner of the room, covered in a thick layer of dust.
“Is this normal?” Adam asked, gesturing at the counters. Kitchen appliances were still in their designated spaces. A toaster sat next to a coffeemaker, and both had obviously been sitting untouched since the Williamses moved away. “Do people just leave stuff behind?”
I raised a shoulder. “Who knows? Maybe they didn’t need it.”
“Or they were in a hurry,” Adam supplied.
In a hurry for what? To get away from all reminders of their missing, presumed dead daughter? Or something else? God. We would probably never know.
From the kitchen, we headed upstairs. Our footsteps echoed in the otherwise silent house. We found Bethany’s room pretty easily. From what I remembered, she liked to paint, and there was a nice-sized room with an easel by a dirtied window. There were papers on a small desk, mostly assignments from school. An odd pang hit me in the chest when I saw the neat stack of books in a corner. It reminded me of Kat.
This could be her.
One day, someone could be walking through her room, looking for evidence of what happened to her. Shit. That hit me hard, a fist to the lungs and stomach. Made me want to turn around, find Kat, and keep her…keep her safe somewhere, and that had nothing to do with us being connected. And the punch of panic was far too strong for someone who was just physically attracted to another person.
But I already knew that what I was feeling for Kat dug in far deeper than lust.
Adam opened a closet door, revealing that it hadn’t been packed up. Clothing hung from hangers. Jeans were stacked on a shelf. Shoes scattered the inside. “You know,” he said, stepping aside as he looked over his shoulder at me, “I think this is kind of weird.”
“Same here.” I had no idea if her parents had owned this house or rented it. Either way, it didn’t seem normal that this much stuff was left behind.
I riffled through the papers, finding nothing of interest. The same with her closet. What was I really expecting? A list of people Bethany might’ve confided in? Like life was that easy.
Adam roamed out of the room, and a few moments later he returned, his expression unreadable. “I think I found something interesting.”
Following him down the hall, we entered a smaller bedroom. Like the rest of the house, personal items were scattered about, along with dusty furniture. Adam walked over to an open closet and picked up what looked like a shoe box off the floor. He sat it on the stripped-down bed. “If I remember correctly, Beth lived here with her parents and a younger brother. Her dad worked in Virginia somewhere.”
I nodded, knowing this.
“And I’m pretty sure neither of her parents was a doctor. I remember Dawson telling me once what they did, but hell if I can remember exactly now, but I know neither of them was a doctor.” He gestured at the box. “Which is why I find it strange there’s a shoe box with a stethoscope and a blank prescription pad from the hospital.”
Walking over to the box, I picked up the pad. With the light from Adam’s phone, I saw that was indeed a prescription pad from the local hospital. “These cannot be easy to get ahold of nowadays, not if you don’t actually work at the hospital.”
“Exactly.” Adam moved the phone back to the box, shining the light on the stethoscope. He picked it up, running his thumb along the metal part. “Something was either scratched into the metal or engraved, but you can’t make it out.”
I caught it when he tossed it over, and he was right, the markings were ilegible. I dropped it back in the box, frowning. When I walked to the closet, I saw a couple of plain white men’s shirts lying on the floor.