“Is that a promise? ”
“Yes.”
“Okay. He’s good-looking.” He ought to know when he was an inch from Gray’s face. “He could be interesting to sculpt. What does he look like with his clothes off?”
“Good night, Sykes.”
“Night. See you soon.”
“The only other thing I brought is this,” Nat said and produced Pearl Brite’s cycling helmet.
“I don’t want to do that,” Marley said. She stood abruptly. “No, I don’t want to touch it.”
“Why not?”
“There’s violence there. I…I don’t want to.”
“Then the helmet is exactly what you need to hold, Marley,” Nat said. “You’ve got strong feelings about it. That’s good.”
“Quit pushing her,” Gray snapped. “Not tonight. Let her think about it tonight.”
“Pearl Brite may not have long enough for anyone to take their time thinking about whether they want to help her or not.”
“That’s rotten,” Marley said sharply. “You know I want to help. You don’t know what I feel, but it’s not good. I don’t understand what’s going on and I have to think. Please put the helmet away. I’ll deal with it first thing in the morning.”
Visibly reluctant, Nat returned the helmet to its paper bag.
“Why don’t we all go back to town and do whatever we feel we have to do,” Nat said. “I’m glad I came out. It’s peaceful here. And it helps for us to spend time together off the record.”
Gray said, “Yes,” but Marley heard him as though through a closed window.
Her palms sweated and the still-visible welts there burned.
“Pipes has marks like these on her neck,” Marley said quietly, holding out her hands.
“What?” Nat spun around. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Gray said. “But we didn’t want to tell you too soon. She’s already the skittish type and we thought it best not to frighten her off altogether just in case she’s got useful information. Chances are that if we leave her alone, she’ll come to us eventually—if she’s got something to share.”
“Damn it,” Nat said. “You keep throwing these direct connections at me then telling me I can’t use them. I need to get to that woman and talk to her on her own.”
“The only way you can do that is by telling her about Marley’s experiences,” Gray said. “Do that and you could blow everything wide-open. We’d probably end up no closer to a solution if Pipes clams up.”
“You have gone too far, bitch.”
Marley jumped so hard her neck hurt. She looked from Nat to Gray, who showed no sign of having heard a grating male voice speak to her.
“Now I have seen you clearly. You are imprinted on my senses and I will find you. And you will tell me who betrayed me by telling you what you have no right to know. Anyone in my way will be removed.
“You’re going to tell me who and what you are. I will find out everything about you. I have never failed to get what I want. When I am finished, you will never get in my way again.”
Chapter 35
“Gray?”
Nat sounded uneasy.
“What?” Gray said.
“Something’s wrong,” Nat said under his breath.
Then Gray realized what the other man was talking about. Marley’s hands hung at her sides and she stared toward the house. Her face wasn’t so much rigid, as lifeless—except for her staring eyes.
Gray took a step toward her and felt an invisible force pushing him back.
“Do you think you should touch her?” Nat said. “What’s the matter with her?”
“I don’t know,” Gray said. “Marley?” he added quietly. He wanted to get her away from what he felt stirring around them.
Something deeply evil.
“She can’t hear us,” Nat said. “They don’t have a handbook on this one. Not that I’ve seen. Did you ever see her do this before?”
Gray was past his usual level of caution. “Not exactly.” A current buffeted him and he was surprised he didn’t stagger.
“Something like it, though?”
Gray ran a hand over his hair. “She’s seeing something we can’t see. Let her go.” It would be better for him to be alone with her.
Marley walked directly toward a door that opened on a room barely visible through large windows. She paused, then took another step.
“She’ll walk right into the glass,” Nat said, talking about the panes in the upper half of the door. Gray broke from the restraint and shot forward to grab her.
The door swung open of its own volition and Marley walked inside.
“Holy shit!” Nat said. “I didn’t see what I just saw.”
“We both did,” Gray said, following Marley.
“You can’t just walk into other people’s houses,” Nat said.
“We’re being let in. Invited in, if you like. But you can stay here if you feel better about it.”
He went after Marley with light, rapid steps and realized he was behaving as if he were dealing with a sleepwalker.
Lamps on bentwood tables glowed, beads swinging gently from the shades. They hadn’t been turned on a moment ago. The room was typical of its period and purpose. Widely spaced rattan furniture covered with cool-colored cotton fabrics grouped for conversation beneath wooden fans on heated days. Large, faded floral rugs on gleaming old wood floors.
Gray felt Nat enter the house behind him and signaled for him to stay put. For himself, Gray allowed Marley to get farther ahead. He could reach her fast enough, but he didn’t want to risk intruding into whatever she was involved with in that other world of hers. Instinct warned him of the danger he could cause by breaking her concentration.
He wished he could hear her speaking to him in his mind as he had before and narrowed his eyes, willing her to talk to him.
Nothing.
Soft and muddled, a familiar sound came to him, a sound with a beat at its center, a cadence. He stood still and waited, straining to hear any discernable words that might separate themselves from the whispery jabber.
Marley entered a hallway leading toward the front of the house and Gray went after her. He glanced back at Nat and shook his head once. Nat raised his hands to indicate he would wait where he was.
“Dangerous, very dangerous.” The words snapped clearly from the otherwise meaningless vibrations. Many sibilant voices seemed to argue, and he felt he was supposed to be included. “This one is a neophyte. Whatever happened to him as a child stunted his paranormal development.”
A slow, heavy beat started in Gray’s head. He knew they were talking about him. What he didn’t know was how much truth there was in the suggestion they made that he had started life as a paranormal talent, but that his progress had been arrested.
Or perhaps he did know and chose not to look too closely at a past no human should have endured—particularly as a child.
“He’s all we’ve got if the Embran attacks her.” There was a bustling quality about the voices, a determination to press ahead with whatever they decided was best.
He had never heard them use the word Embran before.
“He could separate Marley’s consciousness from her body forever.”
“Or give her a chance to return just when all seems lost. He has power if he can learn to use it.”
He wanted to yell for someone to teach him—quickly.
“You follow her,” a voice said sharply. This time a different voice and a familiar one.
“It is not my way to interfere directly. That is not in our rules. But this Embran threatens her life. He threatens many lives.”
Gray felt shadows move. A man, tall, with long, graying hair but a young and vibrant face materialized, but without substance. His image was clear for a moment, then foggy. His dark clothing was from another era and Gray wasn’t sure when it might have been.