Black Aura (17 page)

Was she dead?

Then she rolled over and screamed.

Jay sat there, not two feet away, staring at her, his legs pulled up against his chest. His yellow eyes staring at her, just staring.

She shivered, chills dancing over her skin.

What had happened…?

Images, disjointed and scattered, flitted through her brain.
The coffee shop…Mark…a date with Jonathan… Have to get ready.

The bookshop…Jay and his eyes…Yancey…her book.

She frowned, trying to remember.

Then?

Instead of images, emotions smoked to life. Fear, not just fear, terror slammed into her and her breath froze in her lungs. Desire, rage and…evil.

Evil…

That essence she’d experienced before, following her, stalking her, trapping her. It floated in this room, not dark and black. No, but like the scent of smoke lingering long after the fires have gone out, long after the smoke no longer swirled through the air, the scent would remain, noxious. Here it was the same. A thick layer of the remnants of evil slithered over her spine.

Neither of them moved. She lay on the bed, half rolled over. He sat still, in the same position, just staring at her.

Carefully, she moved, pulled her legs up and sat straight. “Wh—” She had to clear her throat and swallow past the cotton taste of her mouth. “What am I doing here?”

He narrowed his eyes as he stared at her. “You have to help us.”

Us? She didn’t glance around, but tried to feel another person. They were the only ones here.

“Do you mean your brother?”

He tilted his head to the side. “He’s sick.”

Really? Never would have guessed that one.

“Where am I?”

“Between.”

She frowned. “Between what?”

His fingers started to fidget. “Between.”

“Between…”

“The buildings. The worlds. The powers.” He nodded. “The power.”

Fear hissed up her backbone, but she ignored it. Fear was not going to help her here.
Think. Think. Think.

Glancing around the room, she saw the door past him. The lighting caught the darker outline on the wall just right or she might not have seen it. Even the damned hinges and doorknob were white. What the hell was with the white anyway?

“Can’t leave. Have to watch you,” he whispered, jerking her attention back to him.

“But I need to leave, Jay,” she said calmly.

He shook his head back and forth, back and forth, his fingers tapping against his legs. “Have to watch you.”

“Why?”

“He told me to.” Taptaptaptaptap.

His fingers were distracting. “Who told you to?”

“Brother. Have to listen. Have to do what he wants.”

“Why?”

He blinked and frowned at her, his yellow eyes narrowing. “He’s sick.”

And they were back to that. “How sick is he?”

He picked at a spot on his jeans and dropped his eyes to what he was doing. “Told him to go to the doctor. Doctors can help him, but he says no. Hurt in his head, and he needs their power to heal him.”

Power
? “Whose power?”

He kept picking at the spot.

“Whose power, Jay?”

“The special ones. The gifted ones. Like you. The ones who know things, see things, feel things. He needs them. Needs the transfers.”

Transfers? Gifted powers?

The evil pressed in, but again she shoved it back. “Transfers?”

He looked back up at her. “The transfer of power helps him. He should be here. He’ll be back soon. He needs your power to get better.”

They were all fucking nuts.

“But I don’t want to give him my power, Jay.”

He only stared at her. “They never do.”

Her blood iced and she could only stare into those weird eyes, her body starting to tremble.

“H-how does he…does he transfer their power?” She swallowed and focused on him, on her question—and suddenly she saw.

Saw through eyes, so many eyes, so many fears.

She sucked in air or tried to, could all but feel the hands around her neck, squeezing, squeezing.

Oh God.
She tried to shake the images off, but they mercilessly sliced into her. Screams echoed in her mind.

Screams. Gasping breaths. Begging. Pleading
.

So many of them all but roaring against her mind. All wanting…air, power…life!

No! No! No!
She wasn’t going to let these monsters win, wasn’t going to let them take from her what was hers and only hers.

The trembling shook her so that the entire bed trembled but still she stared, saw what had been done, what could be done, what would be done to her if she didn’t get the hell out of here.

***

Max slammed to a stop at the mouth of the alley that led to the bookstore. Even as he was depressing the locks on the doors, the Crown Vic pulled to a stop behind them. Agent Morrow climbed out.

“Can’t have you running out on your own.”

Max’s fear and anger lashed out at the man. “I don’t give a fuck what you think you can or can’t have. I’m going to find my daughter.”

He walked to the door, tried it. Damned thing was locked. Not waiting for the agent, he bent down, and picked up a rock. With all the fury roiling inside him, he hurled it against the old glass panes.

Glass shattered in the oncoming dawn.

“That was great! Want another rock?” Lake asked him.

He knew she was trying to distract him, but he ignored her.

“Sorry,” she said. “Let’s go. I’ve never broken and entered before, at least not that I’ll admit to.”

Without another word to either her or Agent Morrow, he reached in and unlocked the damned door. He paused and looked at the next building. As with many of these old buildings, they were butted up against each other. However, he knew enough about old Taos to know that those were newer additions. Most had had very narrow alleyways between some of the buildings.

Instead of entering, he walked on around the block and down the side of the building. He jogged to where the bookstore ended. Sure enough, on this end of the building there was an alleyway between the two buildings, big enough for maybe him and Lake to fit side by side. The wall was midway down the store. Storage?

Hurrying back around, he calculated where the wall between would be. Once he was back at the entrance, he saw that both Lake and Agent Morrow had already gone inside.

“Wall’s been added,” he told them.

“Yes, we know. There is a connecting hallway between this building and the next.”

He shook his head. “Too big and long for only a hallway.” He realized that the brothers had lived in the building next door. Hallway?

He studied it. He opened all the doors along the hallway. They were all closets.

But something tugged at him as he neared the one next to the end on the left. He closed his eyes and thought about where the wall was in the alley, where it ended. Not here, it was further down, much further down. So what was the extra space?

For the first time in his life, he tried, honestly tried to
know
with that part of him he’d all but ignored for his forty-two years.

Something inside him shimmered, flickered and then went out.

He felt Lake beside him. She didn’t say a word, but he knew
she
knew he was trying.

“You can do this…”

Could he? He looked at her.

“I believe in you. I believe in me. We’ll find her.”

Yes, they would.

***

Alyssa gasped for breath and shook her head, trying to rid herself of the images. All she could see was face after face, most of them young girls, all of them wanting her help.

Help.

She wanted help.

Dad…

And then she felt him. “Dad,” she whispered and then started to yell it, her focus centered within herself.

Hands wrapped around her throat.

“I can help him. Help my brother,” the voice whispered against her cheek.

She blinked, ripped away from the image of her father standing with his eyes closed, and stared into the yellow eyes of Jay.

His hands, those long-fingered hands were so tight, tighter…

She trembled and tried to fight him off. He pressed her back against the bed. With her hands pushing and shoving against him, she didn’t have time to catch herself.

He was on top of her.

No. No. No. She’d be damned if she died like this.

“We need your power,” he said, his voice hoarse.

She shook her head and beat her hands against his shoulders, but it did no good.

Something hit the wall from the other side, thundering through the room, and Jay looked over his shoulder, his attention momentarily turned from her.

This time, she cupped her hands and slammed them against his ears.

He howled.

The wall trembled and she focused on the door, trying to get away from the man trapping her on the bed.

He climbed off her, looked from the wall back to her and then to the corner beside him.

He jumped over the bed and turned to her. She scrambled back and fell off the bed, still trying to get air into her lungs, gray spots dancing in front of her eyes.

“I’ll be back for you.” He walked into the corner. Or around it? Into it? He was just gone.

Gone.

Where the hell did he go?

The door burst open.

“Alyssa!”

She could only stare at the corner. Where did he go? Where?

God, she could still feel his hands, so tight around her throat. No air…trying to breathe…trying to…

Hands gripped her shoulders, her face… She saw her father talking to her, but she couldn’t hear him.

The world faded around her.

Epilogue

Three weeks later

He stopped at the edge of the road, wondering where he was. Where was his brother? The car was warm, but then so was the weather this far south. South. He liked the South. Reminded him of what it was like before. Before, when his brother was with him.

Part of him missed his brother. His brother had always, always taken care of him. Now, he took care of himself. And he liked it.

He liked his life.

He liked his power.

He liked finding power.

He shuddered and wondered where he’d go next. Who he’d find next. What fun they might share.

And he thought of her.

Alyssa.

He would come back for her. One day. One day. One day…

***

Alyssa stared out her bedroom window. Three weeks since the attack. Three weeks since one brother slipped into a coma and one escaped to God knew where. Jay. Jay gave her nightmares. She could still see those strange eyes staring at her in the dead of night when it was too quiet and she thought too long on what could have happened. Thanks to a secret door in the corner of the room from hell, he’d slipped away before her father had broken through the hidden door in a closet.

Three weeks and yet it seemed like last night, or a year had past. The bruises had faded around her neck and she at least sounded normal now. But things were far, far from normal.

Where before she saw a few things, or knew a few things, saw auras… Now? Now she saw too much, felt too much, knew too much. There were the dreams, which sometimes showed her things that ended up happening. That was weird, but nothing new. The intensity of the dreams was, however. Now walking by a building and seeing people who she knew no one else saw was becoming normal, or at least not surprising. There was also the fact she could look at someone and know things about them. Gave a whole new meaning to too-much-info.

Some might call it cool.

She figured she was cursed.

Her father was worried about her, Mark was too nice to her and Thad hadn’t talked to her in weeks. Which was fine with her. The fewer people she had to interact with these days, the better. She’d seen Murbanks just the other day when he came in about the showing next month. But even the excitement that had once been there now dimmed, with all that had happened. He was still nice, but he understood. She respected him for it.

So now she painted. Painted and painted. She rarely thought about what she was working on, or how it would turn out. She just painted.

The images were rarely pleasant, though sometimes they were. Sometimes. For the most part, they were dark, grisly scenes that she showed to no one. Her father had seen them, cocked a brow at her and only said, “Have you mentioned these to your parapsychologist?”

Yes, she had. She’d sensed the doctor was more excited over the increase of power or extra gifts she might have than what her subconscious picked up. One of the scenes had already been proved to be a crime two states away.

Lovely. Freak show, that was her.

She glanced at the long counter running down the side of the studio and saw the giant Murbanks.

And she’d never been on her date. Then again, that just seemed like a hassle. Not that she expected Jonathan to ask her out again, and if he did, she’d turn him down. She was busy discovering Alyssa, who—she was honest enough to admit—was one weird girl.

She cranked the music and kept painting, wondering how her father was faring in Sedona.

***

Sedona, Arizona

Max walked into the building, the bell above the door dinging. Lake, her red hair slipping from her braid, stood behind a counter, boxes stacked everywhere. “I’ll be with you in a sec.”

She was jotting something down on a piece of paper. Plastic wrapping lay over one side of the counter. Tapestries and wraps hung from the ceiling in various styles and colors. Celtic, African, Indian work.

Eclectic to say the least. He absently picked something up and realized it was a deck of tarot cards.

He waited.

Finally, she raised her head, “What can—” A huge smile broke over those sexy lips. Lips he hadn’t kissed in weeks.

She shoved a wayward strand of hair out of her face. The long red curl would be as soft as silk and smell like apples.

“What can I do for you?” she finally asked, leaning up on the counter so that her ample cleavage was framed in her scooped top.

He was so weak.

Slowly, he let his gaze rake back up to meet her eyes. “Oh, I can think of a few things.”

“Promise?” She licked her lips.

He smiled and leaned on the counter as well, meeting her almost halfway across. “Actually I came here for a reason.”

“Uh-huh,” she whispered, her eyes dropping to his lips. “And what would that be?”

“To bring you back to Taos,” he told her, leaning even closer.

That damned smile… “Yeah, well, I was heading out there this weekend. I’ve almost got everything packed up.”

He frowned. She leaned closer and licked his bottom lip. “I sold my shop here. And bought one in Taos.”

“You did?” He started to pull back, but she cupped the back of his head.

“Surprise.”

He laughed. “Ever amazed.”

She met him, the kiss turning wild.

“Did you lock the door?” she asked between nibbles.

“No.”

“Should probably do that.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

“So you were coming to Taos?” he asked, as he broke the kiss to walk to the door. He flipped the closed sign and hit the light switch. Late afternoon light dimmed the shop.

She only grinned. Minx.

“You could have told me.” He’d stayed away, kept his distance.

She crossed to him. “But where’s the fun in that?”

“I’ll show you fun,” he said looking down into her face. He wrapped his arms around her, jerking her close.

“Promises, promises.”