Catch Me When I Fall (7 page)

Bartholomew stroked his goatee. “No, not really. I don’t know what to tell you. I can look into it for you, see if there are any others receiving multiple Nightmares.”

I got off the table. “Brilliant. Thank you.”

He waved his hand and wandered toward the door, still lost in thought. “I’m here to serve.” He disappeared into the hall.

Following him out the door, a knot formed in my stomach. What was it about Kayla that drew so many Nightmares to her—and what would I do if it happened again?

popped the pain pills as soon as I got to my flat and plopped on the sofa. Covering my eyes with my good arm, I couldn’t help but wonder if Bartholomew would alert Giovanni to something that shouldn’t have been mentioned. If there
was
something about Kayla that attracted the Nightmares, Giovanni would pull her protection, just like he had with Hitler. I couldn’t let that happen.

The drugs hit me, and my eyes drooped like they were attached to hand weights. If I didn’t get to my bed soon, I’d pass out right here. Forcing myself up from the sofa, I stumbled through the apartment until someone knocked on my door. With a groan, I wobbled to the door. Samantha and Seth stood on the other side.

“What are you two doing here?” I asked.

“Giovanni sent us,” Seth replied. “After I told him how many Nightmares there were, he made Kayla a level red.” He handed me a red, rubber bracelet. “He sent Samantha to help you, and me to ‘formulate a report on the frequency of your visits from the Nightmares.’” He mimicked Giovanni’s Italian accent.

“Brilliant.” I grabbed the bracelet and stepped back, leaving the door open and bracing the wall as I made my way toward my bedroom. Samantha said something, but I was almost asleep, which meant she sounded like the teacher from
Charlie Brown
. Before I could ask her to repeat herself, I fell face first on the bed.

Sunlight woke me, and I sat up, groaning at the pain in my shoulder. Bartholomew’s shot had definitely worn off. I let my arm out of the sling and stretched it out, swinging it in a circle. At least the pain was less than when the injury took place—and I still had good mobility.

Glancing at the clock, I jumped out of bed. Just after nine o’clock. Why had no one awakened me while Kayla slept? Still wearing the same, bloodstained clothes as yesterday, I stormed into the living room. Seth was passed out on the sofa. I smacked his feet, and he jumped.

“Jesus, Daniel. What the hell?”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” I asked.

“Because we thought you could use the sleep.”

“Damn it, Seth, you guys could’ve gotten hurt.”

He rolled over and waved his hand at me like I was a pesky fly. “Relax. Tabbi’s temporary replacement showed up, so I helped Sam catch. There were only two Nightmares anyway.”

I still couldn’t believe they would leave me. “I’m coming with you tonight.”

“Fine, fine. But please shower first. You smell worse than Giovanni’s cigars.”

Rolling my eyes, I left him to shower and change. Giovanni better give Seth and Samantha their own places soon. If Seth had to crash on my sofa, Samantha was probably on Tabbi’s. After a while, they were going to want a bed. And if Samantha was as messy as I knew Seth was, Tabbi would kill her the minute she tripped over a dirty shirt on the floor.

I tried making myself lunch, but now that I wasn’t bogged down by anger or pain—or drugs—my thoughts returned to Kayla. What had happened after we left? Had Dr. Malcolm been able to calm her down? The memory of her writhing on the bed filled my mind, and food no longer sounded appealing. Shutting off the stove, I ran my hand down my face and glanced over at Seth who was out cold. He probably would be for hours.

Damn it, Daniel
. I tried to remind myself I couldn’t get attached to my charge, but I knew nothing would stop me from checking in on her. Resolved, I closed my eyes and evaporated to Kayla’s room.

Kayla sat in her chair, her feet propped on the seat and her knees under her chin. She wrapped her arms around her legs as she stared at the garden below. Her eyes were swollen and red, as if she’d cried so hard there were no more tears left to fall.

She’d tied back her dark brown hair at the nape, and her ponytail ran halfway down her spine like a thick, dark brown stripe in her white uniform. She turned when a nurse knocked on her door.

“Time to go to therapy,” the nurse said as she stepped into the room.

Kayla frowned but rose from her chair and followed the nurse out the door. I stayed close behind, not wanting to miss a moment. My boots stomped on the floor, echoing down the corridor.

Wait, why are my boots making noise?

I caught my reflection in the glass of one of the doors—something that only happened if I were corporeal.
Shit!
After glancing down the hall to make sure no one was looking, I stopped walking and focused on making myself invisible again. In a flash, my reflection disappeared from the window. I ran my hands through my blond hair and let out a sigh of irritation.
Snap out of it, Daniel
. If I was still acting like a fool tomorrow, I’d ask to be reassigned. Or benched. I was tired, anyway. Maybe it was time I took a long break.

Kayla was in a large room on the floor below. It was about the size of my living room and covered in brown shag carpet. White folding chairs were arranged in a circle in front of a large whiteboard, but the rest of the room was bare. Kayla took a seat as the others filed into the room. I stood near the whiteboard and watched the others join her.

Kayla’s friend from the lunch room, Marcus, grabbed a chair next to her, and across from Kayla sat a girl with pink hair and braces. Two others sat in the empty chairs—one a very heavy-set man who kind of reminded me of a young Santa Claus, and the other a boy, maybe in his mid-twenties, who had burn marks down the left side of his body.

Dr. Malcolm was the last person to enter. She closed the door behind her and took the chair opposite Santa Claus. She pulled out a notebook and pen and jotted a few notes.

“Glad to see you all came today. Unlike last time, let’s make this meeting one where we all support each other, okay? Now, how is everyone doing?” she asked.

Santa Claus answered first. “There was a rat in my room today. Same one as last time. You promised they’d take care of the rat.”

Dr. Malcolm scribbled a note while answering. “One of the nurses checked, Hunter. They couldn’t find a rat.”

“Well, he was in there.”

“I had a rat in my room once. It was before the fire that tried to
kill me
!” the burn victim yelled.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Donald, if you continue with the outbursts, I will have you returned to your room.”

He sat back in his chair and fidgeted with a loose string on the bottom of his shirt.

“Kayla, you had a bad night last night. How are you feeling today?”

“Fine.” Her voice was strong, but her body gave her away. Her eyes fell to the floor, and she clasped her shaking hands in her lap. I frowned. Her bad night was my fault.

Dr. Malcolm stared at Kayla, her lips also in a frown. She saw right through Kayla, too. She tapped her pen on her notepad. “Would you like to share more about how you’re feeling?”

Kayla shook her head.

“This therapy isn’t going to work if you aren’t willing to talk about how you’re feeling.”

When Kayla shrugged, Dr. Malcolm sighed. She continued with the other patients, but my gaze remained on Kayla. Hers never left the floor, and she quickly wiped a falling tear from her cheek. She tried to remain strong, but I could tell she was breaking on the inside.

For the rest of the hour, Dr. Malcolm asked questions of her patients and jotted notes. When the session was over, she returned her attention to Kayla.

“Kayla, I’d like for you to stay a minute.” When the others had filed out of the room, Dr. Malcolm closed the door and sat across from Kayla. “You were pretty shaken up last night, so I didn’t have a chance to get much information from you. I’d like you to tell me what happened.”

“It was another dream.”

“The same as last time?”

Kayla nodded. “I grabbed the gun and tried to shoot him, but I kept missing. Then he burst into flames, just how I… wanted him to.”

Dr. Malcolm paused, calculating her response. “You mean, just how you remember?”

Kayla’s eyes fell to the floor.

Dr. Malcom sighed. “Kayla, we’ve talked about this. You need to start believing that what you thought you saw was your brain’s way of protecting you during the attack —”

“I know what I saw!” Kayla yelled. She gripped the seat of her chair and fought the tears that pooled in the bottom of her eyes.

Dr. Malcolm spoke calmly. “This is why you’re here, Kayla. What you saw was your mind’s reaction to what that man did to you. As soon as you come to terms with this, the dreams will stop feeling so real and you can move past the pain.”

The word “attack” brought up memories from my past I’d tried to forget. I’d died saving two women from the brutality of savage men. By the way Kayla’s face looked right now, I was positive I knew where this was going, what happened to her. Having heard enough, I balled my hands into fists, closed my eyes and evaporated to Rome.

Tabbi was awake when I arrived, though my sudden appearance startled her. “Jeez, Daniel. You could’ve at least knocked.”

“Sorry.” I sat in the chair next to her bed and tried to appear unfazed. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. Trishna did a good job healing me, but Bartholomew wants to keep me one more night until he’s certain I can return to work.” She squinted at me. “What’s wrong?”

Damn
.
Can’t hide anything from her.
“When you read Kayla’s mind, did you read all of it?”

Tabbi scrunched her small nose. “Well, yeah. It is my job to know my charge.” She spoke like I was stupid to forget. I would’ve smiled if my heart wasn’t already consumed with anger.

“Then you saw what happened to her the night she was attacked.”

Tabbi frowned. “Yeah.”

“Was she raped?”

Tabbi shook her head. “Here. Let me show you what happened.” She held her hand out to me.

Since I was Tabbi’s partner in protecting Kayla, I could see what she saw in Kayla’s mind once I linked hands with her. The connection was part of the supernatural bond we’d created with Kayla when we performed our ritual the first day we were assigned to her. I grabbed Tabbi’s hand and closed my eyes. Within seconds, I was in Kayla’s head, seeing through her eyes and feeling her emotions. I had
become
Kayla.