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- Herausgeber: Valley Publishing Ltd.
- Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
- Sprache: Englisch
Remember …
The haunting refrain torments Bethany, almost as much as the horrors of what she’s forgotten. Chased, terrified, and injured, she races away from a gunman into the woods, determined to once again escape those after her.
Hunter’s first meeting with Bethany reveals an injured, exhausted, and possibly dangerous psychic. Plus she was uncooperative, barely civil, keeping everyone at arm’s length. Only she needs help, … and he is the one available. Time for the hunted to turn hunter, and that is his domain. Especially if he gets to champion the underdog, which, in this case, is a prickly and way-too-beautiful woman, whom he doesn’t want to let out of his sight.
Not only is she being tracked but they want her back as a captive. A captive to do their bidding. And they’ve enlisted another of their group, her ex-best friend Lizzy, to hunt down Bethany.
They want, no need, her to remember who she really is …
With Hunter at her side, Bethany fights for survival, racing toward an explosive reveal that leaves them all gasping, as their world turns upside down.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Snap, Crackle…
A Psychic Visions NovelBook #19
Dale Mayer
Books in This Series:
Tuesday’s Child
Hide ’n Go Seek
Maddy’s Floor
Garden of Sorrow
Knock Knock…
Rare Find
Eyes to the Soul
Now You See Her
Shattered
Into the Abyss
Seeds of Malice
Eye of the Falcon
Itsy-Bitsy Spider
Unmasked
Deep Beneath
From the Ashes
Stroke of Death
Ice Maiden
Snap, Crackle…
What If…
Talking Bones
String of Tears
Inked Forever
Psychic Visions Books 1–3
Psychic Visions Books 4–6
Psychic Visions Books 7–9
About This Book
Remember …
The haunting refrain torments Bethany, almost as much as the horrors of what she’s forgotten. Chased, terrified, and injured, she races away from a gunman into the woods, determined to once again escape those after her.
Hunter’s first meeting with Bethany reveals an injured, exhausted, and possibly dangerous psychic. Plus she was uncooperative, barely civil, keeping everyone at arm’s length. Only she needs help, … and he is the one available. Time for the hunted to turn hunter, and that is his domain. Especially if he gets to champion the underdog, which, in this case, is a prickly and way-too-beautiful woman, whom he doesn’t want to let out of his sight.
Not only is she being tracked but they want her back as a captive. A captive to do their bidding. And they’ve enlisted another of their group, her ex-best friend Lizzy, to hunt down Bethany.
They want, no need, her to remember who she really is …
With Hunter at her side, Bethany fights for survival, racing toward an explosive reveal that leaves them all gasping, as their world turns upside down.
Sign up to be notified of all Dale’s releaseshere!
Your Free Book Awaits!
KILL OR BE KILLED
Part of an elite SEAL team, Mason takes on the dangerous jobs no one else wants to do – or can do. When he’s on a mission, he’s focused and dedicated. When he’s not, he plays as hard as he fights.
Until he meets a woman he can’t have but can’t forget. Software developer, Tesla lost her brother in combat and has no intention of getting close to someone else in the military. Determined to save other US soldiers from a similar fate, she’s created a program that could save lives. But other countries know about the program, and they won’t stop until they get it – and get her.
Time is running out … For her … For him … For them …
DOWNLOADfree military romance? Just tell me where to send it!
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About This Book
Complimentary Download
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
About What If…
Sneak Peek from What If…
About Simon Says…
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Beth Metlomar was dying, and the window to reverse that was quickly closing.
“They were close, too close.” She shook her head, the rain and wind pelting her from every angle. “No, she was too close,” Beth murmured, meaning Lizzy, her ex-best friend, now her nemesis. Fear and panic snuck through Beth’s body, exasperating her already fragmented energy problem. She tried hard to pull herself together, but slices of her were dissecting, disappearing into the ethers. It was all she could do to keep herself together.
“No,” she cried out to the vanishing energy bite, “get back here.”
The pieces refused to obey, were harder to control these last few days, directly related to her waning energy. Finding out she was being hunted did that to her. Being on the run wiped out the rest.
She shifted her weight off her sore, wet feet, as she huddled underneath a tree. Hell, there was no reason for them to follow her at all, but they had.
How had they known where she was?
Her survival instincts had pushed her here. One step in front of the other—her only possible direction. Following the one thread that she’d kept close all these years. He was the only one who could help. But would he?
She had traced his energy to this location. He was home. But he wasn’t alone. That was a consideration. Would he remember her? He’d helped her a long time ago, and she’d never forgotten his compassion or his truth. Few were like him. Had he changed? She had. So why not him?
Everything was at stake. But she had no choice. Not if she wanted to survive. She’d been running for weeks—or months maybe—after hiding in plain sight for years, while appearing to be normal.
Cold from her wet clothes, her wet hair dripping down her back, Beth shuddered, her slight frame trembling harder than before, as she fought to pull herself together again. She needed a source of warmth and soon. The blood seeped down her side, a steady drip from a bullet wound two days ago, right out of the blue. A shot fired from behind, while she had been enjoying the morning sun. She’d managed to escape capture, but it had been a hard-won effort. Even now she looked down gratefully at the cat at her feet. The huge jet-black Maine coon mix wouldn’t leave her side, even though she’d tried to get him safely away. He refused.
He was stubborn like that. Nocturne would survive, if Beth didn’t make it. She wasn’t sure she would do the same though, should their roles be reversed.
The rain and wind continued to whisper around her, even under cover of the huge tree, and she searched the darkness enveloping her world. Other energies were out there, hunting for her, reaching through the darkness, searching the ethers to find her scent. Even a faint remnant of Beth left behind was enough for them to grab on to.
She focused on her goal, on the house she sought. Besides the man who had helped her long ago, there was him. Someone she saw—or rather felt. Someone she thought should have seen her. Should have felt her, yet he didn’t.
Was he an innocent? Someone who had no idea of this insane shadow world? Or maybe she was sending signals that weren’t strong enough to be picked up. She was certainly fading quickly. She slumped against the tree trunk, wishing she didn’t need yet another rest. The night wouldn’t last forever, and she needed to make headway while she could.
Just the thought of getting back on her feet defeated her. Still, she was so damn close.
Just not close enough.
A few vehicles were on the road below, with traffic moving smoothly, zipping along in the darkness. Normal sounds of civilization. Except everything felt and sounded off.
Her senses strained for signs of the danger she knew surrounded her, but her ears couldn’t be trusted right now. None of her senses could. Everything was too fragmented for that, impossible to pull them back. She could handle one sense—maybe—but she couldn’t use up her dwindling energy reserves, or she wouldn’t make it to the house.
She struggled to her feet, wincing as her spiritual energy plus her life force drained from her into the puddle of blood at her feet. She’d been forced to use so much energy to keep her spirit from completely fragmenting outward that her body would just have to wait, eventually no longer having any protection for it.
With another bitter laugh, she pulled her hand free from the oozing bloody wound on her side, desperate to keep her soul conscious but also she didn’t want to lose this physical existence, if she didn’t have to. Forcing herself to move, she trudged forward one more step and then another, leaving a heavy blood trail behind.
At her side, Nocturne moved quietly, his ears up, his tail twitching, as he searched the surrounding area. Nobody would see him. Nocturne was the darkness of night, but then so was she.
She tossed her jet-black waist-length hair over her shoulder, wishing she had a moment to braid it. But lacking food, water, and even a bandage to hold in her blood’s life force, a braid was the least of her worries.
“Nocturne,” she murmured. “You go to him if I don’t make it.”
A tiny meow came from beside her. She felt it more than heard it. They’d always communicated like they were soul mates. So here they were, a broken-down fugitive and this precious soul that stayed at her side, no matter what.
*
Sitting comfortably in Stefan’s living room, a surge of electricity shot through the room, shocking Hunter Brill. “Whoa,” he exclaimed, jumping to his feet.
Another electric influx had the power surging inside the home, then sparking. Hunter turned to Stefan and Celina. “Will that storm cause a power outage?” He’d only stopped by for a quick visit, not even sure of the impulse that brought him here, but he had been long used to listening to it. Yet the power surges going off and on over the last hour were something different. Something he’d never seen before.
Celina shook her head. “What is going on?”
Stefan walked to the massive wall of windows at the back of the living room and whispered, “It’s not an electricity issue. Something, someone, is out there.”
Another spark lit up the room.
“Did you see that?” Hunter walked closer to the wall of windows, certain he saw an image out there. He narrowed his gaze, studying the energy, but it acted like live electricity, still sparking in place. Bizarre. And that said a lot, coming from him, a man who lived bizarre.
“I did,” Stefan murmured thoughtfully, “but I’m not sure what.”
Another flash lit the room.
In the fading light, Hunter caught sight of a woman.
“Is she … a ghost?” Celina asked, stepping closer to Stefan. “If she is, she’s not like any I’ve seen before.”
“No.”
Stefan’s words synced with Hunter’s. “It’s like a holographic image.”
“She’s young.”
“Midtwenties, hungry, afraid, … and injured.” Hunter wished the image had stayed long enough to learn something else. Something helpful, outside of the massive dark pain in her gaze from her white face. He turned to look at Stefan. “I have no idea what’s going on. I’ve never seen anything like this. Have you?”
“Yes, and no.”
“A little more detail would help,” Hunter said, with a note of humor, even as the light flashed again at a different location, showing the same woman, only slightly different. “Can we tell if this is in real time? Are these slices of her past? Is she close? Is she headed here? Lord, she’s not teleporting, is she?”
Hunter seriously hoped not. It looked like something out of a horror show, and the end result couldn’t be good. The next flash came faster, then another and another, completely surrounding them in the living room, as the three stood in wonder and, yeah, on Hunter’s part at least, … in horror.
The images and flashes were constant now.
“Is she in danger?” Celina murmured. “Or dangerous?”
Stefan wrapped an arm around her and held her close. “We are all dangerous in different circumstances,” he said, but his voice was barely audible over the crackling electricity.
Then suddenly it all stopped.
And silence reigned.
Until a knock sounded on the door.
*
Beth leaned against the wall adjacent to the doorway—well, more like sagged against it. But she was vertical. The trip had been horrific, yet she’d done it. But what waited for her? Other energies were here. She hadn’t expected that. She hadn’t allowed herself to consider it. She’d been solely focused on her friend of old.
Nocturne meowed at her feet.
“Sorry, buddy. I just need a moment.”
What if she was wrong? What if this person wasn’t who she thought he was? What if he didn’t care? What if he didn’t remember her? She leaned heavily against the wall, loath to reach for the door. She felt another piece of her soul splinter outward. Only this one moved into the house. She smiled upon seeing the beautiful open, airy space with the huge wall of windows. A beacon in the darkness—the ever-encroaching darkness—as her own vision narrowed down to a small pinpoint of light, then to almost nothing. And now the effort to stay upright was too much, and she did a slow slide to the ground outside the door.
Of course, outside. She was always outside.
In the far recesses of her consciousness, she heard a hard knock on the door. She wanted to run, to cry out a warning, but too late.
The darkness choked her before she could say a word.
Splintered as she was, multiple sensations poured through her soul, overwhelming her in sights, sounds, emotions.
A slurry of light shone down on her. Strong arms reached for her. She was lifted, carried inside. Light warred with the darkness. Softness warred with the extreme hardness of her world. Compassion and caring opened up old wounds that leaked with pain and sorrow.
She wanted to cry out a warning, but somehow they already knew.
She wanted to let them know why she was here, but somehow it didn’t matter.
She wanted to tell them who she was, but somehow they didn’t seem to care.
With the last of her strength, she opened her eyes, checking if she were safe or if she’d bet on the wrong door.
Fear struck her heart as she struggled to free herself from the stranger who carried her. “No,” she cried out. “No, it can’t be.”
“Shhh, you’re hurt,” he said gently. “Let me help.”
“No, it’s you. You’re a hunter.” There. She’d said it. The reality of losing it all crashed into her, tears leaking from her eyes. Over. The war was won. She’d lost.
“I am Hunter, yes,” he said, staring down at her in his arms. “That’s my name. I’m not, however, hunting you.”
“No,” she whispered. “Not yet.”
With the last of her energy, she whispered, “But you will.”
Chapter 2
Beth opened her eyes, her sight blurry, her heart slamming against her chest, as fear immediately gripped her soul. A voice whispered close to her, “You’re fine. Just relax.”
But relaxing was something he could suggest but she could not do. She’d been on edge, too alert and wily for too long. She didn’t say another word, letting her eyes drift closed, hoping that whoever was beside her would see her as sleeping.
“Good,” he said calmly. “You need rest.”
She shifted in the bed, loving the absolute softness against her skin. And then remembered Nocturne. Her eyes opened wide, she bolted upright. Immediately hands grabbed her shoulders and gently pressed her back down. She stared up with a wild gaze. “Where’s Nocturne?” she demanded.
Stefan—and there was no way not to recognize him—stared down at her in surprise. “You arrived at my door alone,” he said.
She shook her head frantically, only to wince, as the inside of her brains pounded against the bone. “No,” she whispered, “I was not.”
At his startled exclamation, he said, “I will check,” and he disappeared.
She sagged back onto the bed and sent out a message. Where are you? Where are you?
Nocturne’s calming voice whispered right back, I’m here.
She sighed with relief. Don’t do that to me, she said.
I’m here. Just rest.
And she drifted back under again. When she woke the next time, Stefan and the hunter stared at her. She frowned. “It’s very odd to be stared at like that. You make me nervous.”
“Good,” said the man who had carried her in.
She knew him. Or knew his type. She couldn’t be sure which. She felt his energy wafting her way, the anger and the worry. She studied him closely, but she didn’t recognize him. “Why do you want me to be afraid?”
He shook his head. “You are already afraid. I just want to know why.”
“You want to know many things,” she murmured. “That doesn’t mean you get the answers.”
His eyebrows shot up. “You came here for help.”
“You are not the one to help me.” She shifted her gaze to a woman, leaning against the doorjamb. Beth studied her carefully, as she didn’t know who this person was, whether friend or foe. She looked around for Stefan, but he wasn’t here. “Where is Stefan?”
The woman answered, “In the kitchen, making you tea.”
“Tea?” she asked hazily.
“Yes, tea.”
“What if I don’t want tea?” she asked in confusion.
“It’s medicinal, for your head, and he is very good at what he does.”
Beth already knew he was very good at what he did, but nobody ever understood just what that was. She didn’t know either.
Just then Stefan’s voice called out and said, “I’m here. I’m here.”
She looked at him, feeling the same sense of relief as when she had first laid eyes on him. “It really is you, isn’t it?”
“It is,” he said, looking at her. “But I’m afraid I don’t know who you are.”
She slowly closed her eyes, sinking deeper into the bed, hot tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. Of course he didn’t know who she was. Why would she have thought that he could even think such a thing? But the betrayal, that sense of indignity that he didn’t know her just ate at her. Finally she opened her eyes to see everybody still standing here, waiting for her to speak. “You do know me,” she said, “but it’s been a long time.”
He studied her closely. “I’m poor with names,” he said, “but I’m good with energy.”
She gave him a twisted smile. “How about altered energy?”
His gaze widened and then sharpened. “How altered?”
“One-hundred-steps-forward altered.”
“What do you mean?”
She didn’t say anything. Wasn’t a whole lot she could say. She waited to see if Stefan would be who she thought he was or not. And, if not, she needed to get out of here and fast. She waited as Stefan studied her. Or rather searched … but for what? “What are you doing?” she asked curiously.
He shook his head. “I’m searching for someone I recognize.”
She nodded. “Maybe not someone but maybe something?”
He frowned.
“Meaning, you don’t recognize me because everything has changed,” she said. “They did that to me. But maybe you’ll recognize this.” She lifted her hand and slowly rolled her palm outward.
He stepped forward to study her offered hand. “What am I looking at?”
Despair washed through her. Had it changed so much? She looked down at her palm, spreading her fingers wide, and the same spiderweb network of scars remained.
He looked at it, and recognition slammed into him with a powerful jolt. He sucked in his breath and reached a hand to the wall for support.
Immediately the woman rushed to his side. “Stefan, are you okay?”
He didn’t answer but turned to face the bed.
Beth stared back at him. She knew her soul was in her eyes, desperate for recognition. Desperate for somebody to say that she was who she was. Maybe that was her fear the whole time, maybe that was her horror—that she wasn’t who she thought she was. How could she even explain such a panic? And so little that she could even do with it. She stared at him.
“Beth?” he asked, his voice raw and hoarse.
Tears came to her eyes, and she whispered, “Thank you.”
“Why thank me?” he cried out. “What are you thanking me for?”
“For recognizing me,” she said, “even though it took a bit.”
“My God,” he whispered. “What happened to you?”
She just gave him that flat stare.
“I went back, you know?” he said, walking forward. “I went back to get you.”
Her eyes widened. “Did you?”
“You weren’t there.”
“Wasn’t I?” She sent her mind back in history to that horrible place, where they were part of those terrible experiments. “I don’t know where I was,” she said sadly. “I don’t remember much at all.”
“And yet you remember Stefan?” Hunter asked, a note of doubt in his voice.
Him again. Hunter. She stared at him. “Yes,” she said, “some people are unforgettable.” As Beth looked at Stefan, she saw the shock and the pain in his gaze. “It’s okay.”
He stared at her. “It’s not okay,” he whispered. “No way I would have left you, if I could have found you.”
“But you couldn’t,” she said sadly.
He stared at her. “My God,” he said, walking forward to sit down at the side of the bed. He gently picked up one of Beth’s hands to cradle in his. “How did you find me?”
“They didn’t break everything,” she whispered, with a bitter laugh. “And some of the things they tried to break had different results.”
He winced. “Okay, that’s enough for now,” he said. “I want you to rest.”
“By keeping me here, you’re in danger,” she warned.
“I’m always in danger,” he said, almost absentmindedly, as if it weren’t an issue.
She studied him. “Have you become so powerful?” He gave her a lopsided look, so apparently he had. She studied the woman at her side. “And you?”
“I am Stefan’s wife,” she said, “but I am nothing like him.”
“Don’t let her lie to you,” Stefan said affectionately. “She’s the other half of my soul.”
“The woman of the stone.”
His eyebrows shot up. “You remember that?”
“How could I forget?” she said gently. “It’s the only time you would talk about her. Plus, you were so devastated to not see her.”
He nodded slowly. “I remember that,” he said, “but I’m surprised that you do.”
“Not much about you that I’ve forgotten,” she said. “My life experiences were narrow. And painful. I kept hold of the good memories.”
The other man, Hunter, stepped forward. “You were tortured?”
She looked at him and asked, “Why are you here?”
“Instinct,” he said, in the same flat tone, crossing his arms over his chest, as if unwilling to give any information. But then, she was no different. She took a long slow deep breath, willing the pain to subside. Her hand inched around her body to the bullet hole. “Were you able to get the bullet out?”
“Hunter did,” Stefan said. “I was busy stopping the bleeding.”
“I lost a lot of blood,” she noted. “Thank you for not turning me away.”
Hunter said, “Yet all you asked about was somebody else who was with you.”
“That’s all right,” she said. “I heard from him. He’s fine.”
At that, all three of them stiffened, but she didn’t offer anything else. Her gaze went from one to the other, like they were on one side of this room, she on the other. Not the welcome she had expected.
Hunter stepped forward. “Why are you here?”
She gave a bitter laugh. “I was dying. I needed help.”
“Do you need other help?” Stefan asked quietly.
“Yes. But I don’t want to hurt you or to put you in danger.” That’s the last thing she wanted. If she could heal, revitalize her energy, then that was enough.
“And why would you think that would happen?” Hunter asked.
She rolled her eyes to the side. “I don’t like you.”
“Doesn’t matter if you like me or not,” he said, his tone hard. “I’m here for an unknown reason, and I suspect it’s you,” he murmured. “But what I don’t know is why.”
“None of us know the whys anymore,” she said, as she studied him. He was a couple inches over six feet, maybe more, and filled out, yet he had a panther-like grace as he moved. “You’re a hunter,” she whispered, “but why are you here?”
“I wasn’t hunting,” he said, “but now that I’m here …” And he let his voice hang.
She turned to look at Stefan. “I’ll leave now,” she said and slowly sat up, pushing the blankets to the side.
“Whoa,” Stefan said, “you can’t go anywhere.”
“Yes,” she said, “I have to.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re coming,” she whispered. “Thank you for healing me.” She didn’t even look at her wound to confirm. She didn’t have any doubt that Stefan had done what he said he’d do. She might not be 100 percent, but she’d take it. “I’m much better now.”
“Yes, you’re better,” Stefan said quietly, “but you’re not good enough.”
She stopped, looked at him, and said, “It has to be.”
“You weren’t this stubborn before.”
“Times have changed,” she said quietly. “Things got a whole lot worse.”
He winced at that, as he stared out over her head. “My God, it would have, yes,” he said. “I swear you weren’t there when I checked.”
“I was there,” she said, “being held somewhere else.”
“I’m so sorry.”
She nodded slowly. “I forgave you a long time ago.”
He seemed relieved but then doubt took over. “What can I do to help?”
“You’ve done it,” she said. “I’ll survive now that you’ve closed the wound.”
“Survival? Is that enough?” Hunter asked in a harsh tone.
She glanced at him and said, “Sometimes it’s all we have.” He seemed frustrated by her answer, frustrated by everything going on around him. She understood, but clearly he hadn’t come to the point in time where he accepted that some things in life one couldn’t change. She had come to that conclusion a long time ago.
“I want to help,” Stefan said.
She shook her head ever-so-slowly. “Nothing you can do.”
“That’s not true,” he said. “There has to be something. Otherwise why did you come? Besides to heal, tell us who shot you. Let us help.”
“Why?” she asked, not comfortable talking with the others here. “You could do nothing all those years ago. Why would that have changed?” It’s not the answer Stefan wanted, but the only answer she could give him. She slowly stood, happy that at least her body didn’t scream in agony, though she worried at the weakness, the lassitude that filled her. She staggered, taking one step and then another.
Stefan immediately stepped in front of her and said, “Beth, you’re not healthy enough to leave.”
Her gaze dark, so deep, she whispered to him, “And yet I’m too healthy to stay.” And, with that, she took another step forward. Stefan placed a hand on her shoulder. She immediately felt energy draining from her. She gazed at him, her eyes wide. “Why?” she whispered, her energy quickly withdrawn from her.
“You aren’t strong enough,” Stefan said.
“I have to.”
She collapsed, only to be gently positioned right back in bed where she had been. As Stefan tucked her under the covers, she stared up at him, some of the paralysis easing that he had instilled.
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” Stefan said. “For tonight, just get some rest.”
She closed her eyes. “You’ll be sorry.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “We too have skills.”
She nodded. “They’ve been looking for you since you left. I didn’t want to lead them here,” she said, “but I may already have.”
And then the darkness claimed her once again.
*
Hunter stormed around the living room. “Jesus Christ, Stefan! What the hell is going on here?”
Stefan sat calmly in his chair, a cup of tea in his hand, as he studied the massive windows. “Events from my childhood,” he said. “I managed to escape before she did. I tried to find her, but no sign of her was anywhere. I was tormented for a long time because I couldn’t get her out, but I didn’t dare go back either. It never occurred to me that she would have taken the punishment for my escape. Then they all would have, I suppose.”
“Why would she have?” Hunter asked.
“Standard torture techniques there,” Celina said to Hunter, then gently turned to Stefan. “And you did what you had to do.”
“Of course I did,” he said, “but it cost somebody else I cared about a great deal. Did you see the condition she’s in?”
“She’s lost.” Hunter shoved his hands into his pockets, as he crossed the room once again. “She’s a lost soul, but that doesn’t mean that she’s your responsibility.”
“No,” Stefan said sadly. “I wish she were. Then I would force her to stay where she is, until she could heal. As it is, she has a certain amount of …” He stopped, shrugged, and said, “I don’t want to say bitterness, but maybe bitterness is the correct word.”
“Well,” Hunter said, “just think about what may have happened to her.”
“I don’t want to,” he said quietly, “because I have a pretty good idea. My escape would have just made it that much harder on her.”
“Of course,” Celina said. “If they thought she had anything to do with it or thought that you were coming back for her …” And she let her thought hang there.
“Exactly,” Stefan said.
She nodded slowly. “So, what do we do? Just wait until she wakes up the next time?”
“She’ll wake up guarded,” Hunter said. “She knows you put her under.”
Stefan nodded his head. “I know. She is bound to wake up, kicking and fighting.” He smiled at the thought. “That would make me feel better than this fragmented soul she has become.”
“How much do you remember about her?” Hunter asked. “And do we even trust her?”
Stefan shook his head. “Absolutely not,” he said. “I trust the person I used to know, but I don’t know this one at all.”
“Is she so different?” Celina asked.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “She’s very different.”
“In what way?”
“Her energy for one. I’ve never seen anything like it. She is in pieces, and she’s holding herself together with a very thin spiderweb of energy.”
“Why though? What exactly is she doing?” Hunter asked, as he studied Stefan. The man had experience in this like nobody else. But even Stefan hadn’t seen everything. Hunter had done all he could in the last decade to help gifted people—like himself, Stefan, and, yes, even Beth. Something was so odd with her. Something affected him so strongly about her; maybe that she understood what he was.
Maybe she understood who he was on the inside, but her assertion that he would be hunting her shook him. He did spend a lot of time hunting people, not to cause injury but to help. She didn’t seem to get that part of it, and that bothered him too. He could only hope that, when she woke up, they could talk a little bit. Hopefully she would be less cryptic and more open. But somehow he doubted it.
“I think she’s been alone a long time,” Celina said. “I think she’s been alone since Stefan left.”
“Not possible,” Stefan said, “but she probably felt alone. I know how rough it was for me back then, and to think of that as just a fragment of what she faced seems terrifying.”
“She seems to think that she has brought trouble here,” Celina said quietly. “Do we need to worry?”
“I’m scanning for anything out there,” Stefan said, “and, so far, the answer is no.”
“But we don’t know what that means, do we?” she said, slowly wringing her hands together.
He walked over, placed a hand on top of hers, and said, “No, we don’t.” He asked Hunter, “Do you sense anything?”
“I’ll go out and take a walk,” Hunter said. “I’m definitely sensing something, but I’m not getting a negative threat from it.”
Stefan nodded. “No, I’m not either,” he said, “but I don’t know what it is, and I’m also not sure what she meant about not being alone. And having already communicated with them. But her energy is a mess, making it almost impossible to read.”
Hunter nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.” He walked to the front door, shoved his feet into his boots there, grabbed his jacket, and said, “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Stepping out into the night, he didn’t go far. He just went enough away from the house itself and the strong energy beacon that Stefan ran high and loud and large for those who needed it, plus the silencing shield that Stefan had put out for the other energies of those looking for him. Hunter had to get far enough so that he wasn’t distracted by those energies. As he took several steps forward, he felt something. He looked everywhere and couldn’t see anything. Unnerved, he took several more steps farther out, hoping for answers and looking for something wrong. He didn’t have to go far to find it.
A black cloud was up in the hills behind Stefan’s house. Hunter suspected it’s where she had come from. He studied the energy, finding hers, and then slipped through the trees, taking the long way around to see where this came from and what they wanted. Because one thing he knew for sure, when he hunted, he didn’t leave any of the prey behind, if he could help it. As he’d learned from Stefan, the prey and predators came in all different forms.
Never a day passed that Hunter didn’t get a chance to find something new and completely different out there. It was shocking really, and the rest of the world had no idea what went on. And, in this case, Hunter wasn’t sure he understood himself. Did Stefan? Hunter had no explanation for the crazy energy-field flickers they had witnessed. No explanation for so much of what they had just seen happen, and yet the woman who had answers didn’t seem prepared to cooperate at all. She appeared ready to run, but from what?
She was right in the sense that Stefan had healed her enough to survive. And knowing him meant knowing that he would help her. So that explained why she came. But now, rather than stay and give any explanations, she was prepared to leave in the middle of the night, if need be. Hunter shifted, climbing up the hill. Behind the house he sensed Stefan’s curiosity, that probe on his part, asking if Hunter had found anything. He answered calmly enough. Energy, black energy on the hill behind the house.
Recent?
Yes, recent. They were looking for her.
Well, they found her, Stefan murmured in Hunter’s mind. Neither had any expectation about the world around them. Hunter didn’t think Stefan would want to let Beth go, not in any way, shape, or form, no matter what she had to say. Hunter wasn’t so sure she could be trusted, but then he had trust issues himself.
Just as he walked forward, a crackle sounded beside him. He looked down, thinking he saw something, but it shifted in the wind. He called out a Hello on an energy level and got one in return. He froze, looked down, and whispered, “Who are you?”
No answer.
But he could sense the energy. Small, but a powerhouse. Like the woman crashed in Stefan’s spare bedroom. He stepped back and slipped against the trees, until he blended in with the silence around him, waiting to see just what was going on. But found nothing related to the crackling energy. He did find another energy, a black energy, old but stale. Left by somebody who didn’t care if his presence was found or not. A predator who didn’t give a damn. A predator who was dangerous, indeed. Hunter searched the area and sent a message to Stefan. Whoever was here is gone now.
Hunter turned to look around and sidestepped a sudden shift in energy. He pivoted to stare at the darkness around him. “What do you want?” he cried out. No voice, no answer. Nothing was more perturbed than he expected it to be. He studied the silence around him in the darkness, looking for an answer.
“Who are you?” he called out. And again nothing. Frowning, he slipped off to the side and waited and watched, and, when there was nothing, he waited longer. Determined to win this waiting game, he waited more and then another ten minutes beyond that. Then he noted a gentleness of an energy separation, and something small and black moved toward him. An animal. A voice reached into his mind.
Is she okay?
He couldn’t see what he was looking at or what was talking to him, but he answered readily enough. Yes.
Good. Keep her that way.
And it disappeared. Was that the stale black energy that he’d sensed? No, this was loving energy. The other was not.
What the hell had that been? Still Hunter had a sense of danger, of old energy dispersing, as if a hunter had moved on. Much out there was unexplainable. Change was happening. And he didn’t understand at all what was going on here. It unnerved him, but it also pissed him off.
“You shouldn’t hunt for an innocent woman like that,” he yelled into the darkness. The response was almost like a mindless laughter or a sound of mockery, and then another voice, a different voice, crept to him through the darkness.
“Whatever you think of her,” came that voice, “an innocent young woman, she is not.”
Just like that, the dark cloud cleared up, and a bright star shone in the sky above, lighting Hunter’s way. Absolutely nothing was around him, nothing to see or to feel. Whatever had been here was now gone. Only the remnants of the voice remained and a sense of warning that, whoever Beth was, she wasn’t what she appeared to be.
*
Hours later Hunter and Stefan stepped back from the sickbed, as Hunter looked down at the sleeping woman. “Do you think it’s safe to leave her alone?”
“No,” Stefan said. “We’ll need to set up a camouflage.”
The room had big windows, only one interior door in and out, yet the en suite bathroom had another window.
“I’ll work on the security,” Hunter murmured. He shifted, so he could set up an energy field all around the outside.
At that, Stefan placed a hand on Hunter’s arm. “Dr. Maddy needs access in and out.”
He gasped and said, “Right. Shit. So how will we do that?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
Hunter nodded and continued with the work, knowing Dr. Maddy and Stefan would tweak the field as needed, and then Hunter stepped outside, searching the darkness all around them. He’d already sent out feelers and alerts to see just what was following Beth. Something weird pulsed in the woods, but he couldn’t figure it out. Energy, yes, but then everything was energy. If somebody could harness the actual soul of the trees, that energy field would be so vast that nobody could get through it. Thankfully, so far in life, that hadn’t come to pass.
As Hunter stepped back inside, he looked at Celina’s worried face. “I didn’t see anything out there.”
She relaxed slightly and nodded. “I want to go to sleep, but I’m worried about her,” she said. “We need to clean the wound, and I know Stefan is working on it, but she’s a mess,” she said frankly.
“In what way?”
“Her stress level, her muscles.” She tilted her head. “Even though she wore boots, her feet are injured. She’s badly bruised and scratched all over. It’s like she has been on the run forever.”
“My understanding was just for a couple days, just since she got shot,” he asked cautiously.
Celina shrugged. “I can only tell you what I see, and I think she’s been on the run for years. Stopping to heal, then maybe getting 70 percent back and moving on.”
He nodded, then eyed the bedroom doorway with a different viewpoint. Stefan was in there even now, and Hunter saw a blue glow coming from the room. “It’s amazing what he can do.”
“Maddy is helping. Besides, it’s also amazing what you can do,” Celina added.
He laughed. “I’m utilizing a lot of energy to source what’s out there. I need to drop and recharge.”
She nodded and said, “Go ahead to your room. We’ve got this.”
He smiled, gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek, and said, “It’ll be fine.” He turned and headed off to bed. If he could catch a few hours of rest himself, he would be in a whole different state tomorrow. As he drifted off to sleep, he couldn’t help but wonder about a woman who had been on the run for as long as she had. The big question loomed: What was she running from?
Chapter 3
Beth woke up with a start, her gaze darting around the room, struggling to understand where she was and what woke her. She was in a small room, a nice room, except for the weird energies floating around her. She shifted to see better, sending shards of pain down her body. She lay here, trembling for a long moment, hearing a female voice in her head say, Be still.
A sense of admonishment was in the tone, as well as care. Beth did as she was asked, but she didn’t know who had spoken or where Beth was. She thought she was at Stefan’s, but … panic stepped in. She threw back her covers and stood. The motion itself forced her to lean against the wall, as the pain once again shafted through her. She had to leave. The inner sense was overwhelming. She must go.
Beth raced toward the window and looked out. The darkness was outside. Mindless black energy. No feel to it, nothing positive or negative, just there, staring at her, always hunting her. She shuddered and looked for her clothes, only now realizing she was nude. Nothing here to wear, except for the old bloodstained things she had had on before. She struggled to get into them, even as she heard somebody moving on the other side of the door. She froze, afraid they would come in. She waited in the darkness, studying the latch on the window to see if she could open it. She knew she could.
She used the bathroom, got herself a drink of water. When she stepped back into the bedroom, she looked around with a sense of sadness that she had to leave, but, if she didn’t, it would get that much worse. She headed to the window and unlatched it. Even as she pushed it open, it slammed shut with a hard force that she hadn’t expected. She cried out, and suddenly her bedroom door opened.
Hunter stood there, glaring at her.
She held her hand to her mouth, backing away. “Am I a prisoner?” she cried out. This was the worst possible outcome. She’d been a prisoner before—never again.
Immediately the look on his face changed, as he came forward, his hands out, palms up. “No, you’re not.”
“But I can’t leave.”
“You can leave,” he said, “when you’re better.”
“But that’s a when,” she murmured, staring at him, her heart still slamming against her ribs. “Which means I am a prisoner.”
“You’re safe here,” he said, motioning at the bed. “You need to lie down and to keep healing.”
“I want to leave,” she said. “You can’t keep me against my will.”
He hesitated and then gave a firm shake to his head. “No, not tonight.”
“So, I am a prisoner,” she cried out, her worst fears coming true.
“No,” he said.
“How can it not be?” she asked, daring him to argue.
“This is best for you, for now,” he said. “Please get back into bed and heal.”
She shook her head slowly. “And if I refuse?”
He said, “Look at you. You’re dripping blood everywhere again.”
Surprised, she looked down at her wounded side and winced to see that blood running down her leg and even now dripping onto the floor. “Damn,” she said, wavering on her feet.
He raced toward her to hold her upright.
She looked up at him. “I don’t want to be a prisoner ever again.”
“You won’t be,” he said. “I promise.” He picked her up, swung her off her feet, and carried her to the bathroom to sit on the counter.
Once back there, she felt rather than sensed him standing beside her, as he checked her wound, applying pressure to slow the bleeding. He quickly changed out her dressing, before sitting back to stare at her.
“I’m staying,” she said. “For a while.”
“You are, indeed,” he said.
She studied him in the darkness. “Why do you care?”
“You came here for help. Stefan is helping you. I won’t have you run off on him.”
She winced at that. “So, you’re doing it for Stefan’s sake.”
“Maybe,” he said, scooping her up and walking her to the bed where he gently laid her back down. “is there any other reason I should?”
Her back stiffened, and she shrugged. “No.” She rolled over, shifting uneasily with her wound. Finally she got comfortable, and, even as she closed her eyes and lay here, she sensed him still in the room. “You can leave now.”
“No, I can’t,” he said. “You’ve already shown you can’t be trusted.”
She hated that, hated that somebody could judge her for fighting for survival. Then he didn’t know what she’d been through. “It’s for the best.”
“It’s not for the best,” he said in exasperation. “Now go to sleep.”
She wanted to; she really did. But having him here was unnerving. “I can’t sleep while you’re sitting there, staring at me.”
“Fine,” he said. “I will leave, but, if you try that stunt again, you won’t like the result.” He turned and walked out, shutting the door hard behind him.
Still, she was alone, and, with that, she closed her eyes and slipped off into dreamland.
*
Hunter waited outside the bedroom door, not exactly sure what he saw, but definitely something was going on. He opened the door quietly and stepped back inside the room. A woosh of energy. No rhyme or reason to it. It flared and sparked. Hunter whispered, “What the hell?”
He didn’t understand it, but this huge energy ball moved toward the window. Instinctively he knew that it was part of Beth. Was it her, assessing the window to see if she could get out, and would then go back and wake up the body? He knew it sounded like something from a freak show, but he didn’t quite understand how and why her energy was everywhere. Like somebody had taken a high-voltage line and had plugged her in, exposing her to it, just shattering everything. But a part of Beth remained calm and contained in this outlying mess.
He couldn’t imagine it would be very nice for her to live this way, but somehow she had managed. That’s the thing that always got him, when he saw these gifted people with abilities. The things that they survived and managed to live with just blew him away. No real reason for her to have survived something so like a high voltage of energy.
But she had, and that brought them back to what Stefan had said about the childhood torture, the “training” that had occurred, and that she would have been a test subject. Stefan didn’t explain too much about it, but enough grimness was in his tone that Hunter knew any further discussion would hurt Stefan to relive that time as much as anybody else. And Hunter didn’t want to do that.
Stefan had done more for everyone in their psychic world than anyone Hunter knew. And Stefan was still fighting the good fight, but just so many bad guys were out there that sometimes Hunter wondered if it was worth fighting at all. And Hunter had to admit that, given what he’d seen of her, Beth probably felt the same way. And that had to be hard too. What were you supposed to do when everything broke down and became this constant torture? It’s not what anybody would want for themselves.
Hunter watched as a huge ball of energy shimmered in place at the window. Neutralizing his own energy, Hunter stepped forward and made sure the window was locked. The energy flashed around him, and, whether pissed off or frustrated, he didn’t know, but he quickly stepped out of the way. It reached forward and back, over and over, until Hunter had backed up against the door.
“Go back and lie down,” he ordered. The energy shimmered in place and then headed toward the window. This time as Hunter went forward, he saw the window unlock. Swearing, he stepped forward but came up against the energy and immediately bounced back, as heat seared through his soul.
He shook his head. “That’s not allowed,” he snapped.
The energy shifted toward Hunter in a threatening move, but he stood his ground. “No, you’re not leaving. You might get through that window, but you can’t get through the energy shield.”
It shimmered again in frustration. He was used to seeing energy; he was an energy hunter. He followed energy, hunted it down, based on its individual energy pathway. Just like a dog could scent a certain smell six feet under and miles away, Hunter saw it, and he could follow it, but he needed something specific to follow. He must have a signature, and this energy didn’t seem to have that.
He studied it carefully. How would he possibly recognize it in the future? The best way would be to understand that it didn’t have a signature at all. It just flared in a multitude of colors and energy patterns, and he shook his head. “That makes no sense,” he cried out. “What the hell is going on?”
The energy stepped back, as if not liking his questioning. And he nodded. “You need to go back and lie down.”
The energy shifted a little bit closer to the bed. He nodded. “Go … now!”
At that, maybe the tone of Hunter’s voice, maybe something completely different, but the energy turned and lunged toward him. Almost immediately, another energy stepped in place, blocking the space between them. It slammed up against him like a wall, flattening like a cloud of smoke hitting a pane of glass and spreading along the edges. Then another energy—and he didn’t even understand what that energy was—touched the same energy, like a lightning bolt. It immediately shrunk down to almost nothing, then slowly drifted back to the form sleeping on the bed, where it laid down on top and slowly dissipated. Soon gone, the shield in front of him immediately dispersed too. Taking a long slow breath, he stared down at the woman, who even now twisted on the bed in obvious pain.
He whispered, “Dear God, what the hell was that?” He slipped from the bedroom and locked the door. Then he turned, finding Stefan standing in front of him, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Are you okay?” Stefan asked urgently.
