Dream Shadow (3 page)

“How in the hell did you find her?”

Thunder cracked across the sky a bare second after Brice all but roared his question. Paige erupted into a screaming bundle of frantic movement. Brice ripped the jacket away but Paige squirmed out of his distracted hold.

The second her feet hit the ground, she raced away from him at top speed. She disappeared behind Grace and clutched at her legs.

“That was brilliant.”

“Maybe you could have warned me before handing her off like that.”

Grace considered the man in front of her. His face was tight with anger as his brown eyes moved over her again. There was a precise way he moved his eyes. The sharp edge didn’t miss a single detail. She might admire it, if she were in the mood to indulge any feelings about him.

Which she wasn’t.

“You asked for action, Sheriff. I delivered.” Grace reached for the two hands that were clamped onto her calves and lifted the child onto her back. The second Grace felt Paige wrap her arms around her collarbone, she set her feet forward. Paige’s laughter drifted up as Grace began to climb out of the ravine.

“Piggyback! Piggyback! Piggyback!”

The little girl bounced up and down with her chant. Paige had begun talking the second she could and had not stopped until she’d dropped off into sleep. The nap seemed to have recharged the child. Her small voice chattered about birds and trees and an infinite amount of other items.

“Let me carry her.” Brice reached for Paige but pulled his hands back as she let out another ear-splitting scream. Grace twisted around to aim a scathing look at him.

“I found her, I’ll carry her.” She made a perfect half turn and resumed her steady pace up the hillside.

Unique
wasn’t really the right word.

Bitch
came to mind but not completely in a negative way.

Her steps were steady and strong. Brice watched her as she continued with Paige on her back without a hint of strain. Brice couldn’t think of a single woman he knew that was that well conditioned. At the moment, Jacobs’s operative wasn’t even breathing hard.

It was a level of endurance Brice expected of every single man in his department. But seeing it encased in a woman half his size was slightly troubling. Shaking his head, Brice closed the distance between them. So the woman was in excellent physical condition. At the present moment, he ought to be thankful for it.

Besides, it was a good three-hundred-yard climb to the top of the ravine. She was leaning forward just a bit to make sure Paige didn’t slip off her back. The posture gave him a clear view of her tight backside. Brice enjoyed the surge of arousal as it hit him again. This time, he felt his staff twitch and rise in appreciation. He was being a pig, but after two weeks of worrying about Paige’s fate, he welcomed the surge of sexual interest that proved life was returning to normal.

Blissful silence was left behind as the last of the search units entered the emergency room. Grace watched the glass doors slide closed behind them and sighed with relief. Raising her face upward, she encouraged the rain to help rid her of some of the cover that clung to her body. She wiped her face and flung the leaves aside.

Although it was cold, she enjoyed the feel of the rain as it worked its way to her skin. Life was contained inside the drops of water, and as they slid across her they seemed to confirm her own link with their never-ending cycle.

The asphalt of the parking lot broke that circle as the water was forced to run off into storm drains. Grace opened her eyes and looked out into the dark forest. Despite the fact that she had recovered Paige, she still felt the call to return, but the summons was not nearly as strong as it had been the night she arrived. The news was getting out into the community, releasing the tension that had held it.

Still, something lingered. It was just as intense but coming from far fewer people, which decreased the volume.

Grace lifted her gaze to consider the forest. Emotions were disruptive to her abilities. Feelings easily cut through the best concentration and always destroyed her mental links.

Tonight was a blatant example of that lesson. She needed to sleep, yet her mind was still tossing the tangle of emotions around. Even the sheriff’s face was flashing around inside her head.

A shiver shook her body. She was far too aware of the man. In fact, she recalled the details of his face. The way he’d used his eyes to touch every inch of her body. Not many men were that intense. Most were slaves to their lust. But this man enjoyed his inner beast. He’d wanted to look at her breasts and been pleased she’d noticed.

Grace hissed softly under her breath as she considered wanting to see him again. The desire mocked her logic. But temptation was cruel. Grace felt her breasts tingle slightly with just the memory of his brown eyes.

Whatever she might want, it was going to have to wait until she appeased her fatigue. Then her discipline could subdue her rash physical responses.

Sitting down on the curb, she continued to enjoy the slide of the rain along her face. Buildings were stale. The walls blocked out every ounce of life. The very air became heavy inside their walls. Right here, there was the sweet sound of rain and the night was crisp and fresh. Pulling in another lungful, Grace sighed. Here, she could relax.

No judgment. No performance rating.

A second shiver shook her, closely followed by a third. Grace paid the evidence of her decreasing body temperature little attention. She was always cold after tracking a vision. Nothing would chase the chill from her body but sleep. Leaning her back against a large potted plant, she absorbed the last moments of clarity her weary mind could take in.

Her ears drank in the sound of the rain as the smell of it filled her lungs.

She did love the night, rainy ones the most.

His third cup of coffee in hand, Brice turned the corner into the nurse’s station. His head dipped in a nod as the night staff sent a murmured bunch of greetings his way. But something about the hospital staff was subdued. Which didn’t make sense. They should all be elated with the outcome of the search-and-rescue mission. He was still having trouble absorbing the fact that his wild-card idea had paid off. Guess that meant he would have to lay off the psychic jokes out of respect. He still didn’t have a clue what Jacobs’s operative was, but normal definitely wasn’t it.

The subdued feeling followed him into the emergency room. Raising the coffee to his lips, he ran accessing eyes around to discover the cause. Two orderlies stood to the side of the double-door entrance. With their heads pressed together, they whispered while staring out at something just beyond his view. Lowering the coffee, he stepped closer to the door to discover just what was causing the apprehension.

Grace.

In all the excitement she had simply escaped everyone’s notice. She sat on the curb with her back set against a large planter, completely oblivious to the downpour that was soaking her. Her crossed arms lay propped on top of her knees that she had drawn up to her chest. She was so still. Brice felt a prickle of worry run over him.

Jacobs and his unit were searching the far north end of the county. They also used different radios so it hadn’t been until after he’d arrived at the medical center that Brice had made contact with them. Two nurses walked by, their heads turned in unison as they cast nervous looks outside.

“For Christ’s sake. Hasn’t anyone even offered her a cup of coffee?”

“That woman ain’t normal,” one of the orderlies remarked before making the sign of the cross over himself.

“Look at her. Sitting out there like a penguin in a Jacuzzi. Don’t look like she wants any coffee to me.” Both orderlies refused to budge from their observation point.

He’d known the local populous would get wind of the details, but somehow he just hadn’t expected such open animosity.

“You know, Scott, there are times I’m ashamed to admit we have the same chromosome count.” Brice slammed his own coffee down before he grabbed his rain jacket and pulled it on. “She brought in our missing person. I’d think that was worth a little common decency.”

Maybe the woman wasn’t normal, but that didn’t mean she was some kind of witch. She was…well…unique.

That was one word for it.

Walking out of the door, Brice gritted his teeth against the chill in the air. Another ten degrees and they’d be plowing the roads come morning. Normal or not, the woman was still human. A chill would kill her as sure as the next person.

He crouched down beside Grace. The rain had washed most of the dirt from her face, but the continued drenching was causing dirt to run out of her hair in muddy rivers along the sides of her face. She held her face angled upward into the rain to keep it out of her eyes. He studied her for any sign of life. He’d seen corpses that looked more alive than she did right now, but there was a slight rise and fall to her chest. So slight he almost missed it.

There was no missing the shiver that shook her frame a moment later. Just why she elected to remain outside in the cold, he didn’t know. But she was going inside right now before she ended up in shock from exposure.

“Grace?”

Not even a flicker of an eyelash. Brice reached for her hand and gave it a shake. She reacted to the touch with the same violence that a pressure-activated land mine did.

Brice was treated to a view of stunning emerald fury before she planted both feet squarely onto his chest and kicked him away from her body. She may have been small, but what there was of her was solid muscle.

Reflex kicked in, causing Brice to brutally retain his grip on her body. Her attack sent him rolling across the asphalt, while his grip on her arm pulled her along with him. His brain reacted instantly to his vulnerable position. He flipped her over to her back before she had the chance to think.

“Get off me!”

“What’s your problem? I’m the one getting soaked now. When you kick first you have to expect violent reactions.”

“Fine. My guard was down and I responded without assessing the situation. Get off me.”

Her emerald stare was searing in its anger. Brice held it for a moment before pushing himself to his feet, pulling her along with him. The hospital parking lot wasn’t exactly the place to explore just what her body triggered in his own. Even if he liked hearing her say she’d responded to him. It wasn’t professional, wasn’t even acceptable in a modern world.

But it was true.

The second she regained her footing, she twisted her arm from his hold. A perfectly executed hold break that reminded him she was as trained as he was.

She retreated several paces before squaring off with him. A slight grin lifted the corner of his mouth as he considered the hard sound of her breathing. Desire was an unruly demon. It struck whenever it pleased. Jacobs’s operative didn’t seem to appreciate the sudden attraction. That made Brice lift both sides of his mouth into a smile.

Changing her mind would be a great deal of fun.

While she appeared to have plenty of mental energy to expend, her body looked to be just one step short of collapse. Spasms were shaking her frame almost continuously now. If she hadn’t had her jaw set so firmly, Brice fully expected he would have heard her teeth chattering.

“Time to come inside, don’t you think?”

“I prefer it right here.”

The challenge she issued made Brice curl his lips back farther.

“Like it or not, you’re not staying out in this chill.”

“The temperature is not life threatening. Find someone else who needs your concern.”

“Let me get a mirror, darling, because if that body of yours shakes any harder you’re going to end up on your tail.”

“It’s my tail. Get lost.”

“Go inside, now.”

“No.”

Her precise pronunciation of that single word was more telling than if she had screamed it. She stepped back into a wider stance that would allow her to defend herself more effectively. He felt his arousal tighten another notch. She wasn’t going to give him the chance to chase her. She intended to stand her ground.

“Fine, if that is the way it’s going to be.” His body tightened as he considered the raw surge of heat she inspired in him. “But you’re going inside, honey.”

“I see the two of you have gotten acquainted.”

Brice turned about to find Jacobs standing exactly four paces behind him.

“Yeah. She does have a wicked kick.”

Jacobs granted him only a ghost of a grin before he aimed his complete attention toward Grace. Something needled Brice and he realized it was a twinge of jealousy. It was misplaced under the circumstances and unprofessional too. Which made it no less true.

Grace refused to endure the hard look that Jacobs pegged her with. The sheriff’s eyes flashed at her and she glared right back at the man. Her body shivered again as fatigue washed over her in a wave.

“You’re exhausted, Grace.”

She shrugged. “I recovered the target.”

“Yeah, you did.”

Jacobs inclined his head in the direction opposite her. The sheriff was watching her with those sharp eyes again, so she forced her back straight.