Kindred (23 page)

FIFTY-EIGHT

Hannah

Dustin stayed with me until Alice returned home that night, distracting me with small talk, and TV. When Alice arrived, she had brought a surprise: Jason had come back with her. “What happened? Why are you home?” Dustin asked before I could.

He shifted one shoulder, reminding me he was still injured, and replied, “I found who I was looking for. At least I had for a moment. It won’t do me any good to be on the streets right now. I’ll spend tomorrow trying to locate him again, but there’s no reason for me to stay out there,” he indicated the outdoors with a wave of his hand. “Is Sam okay with spending time at Dan’s for now?”

“He’s fine,” I answered. “There is something else I need to talk to you guys about.” They looked at me expectantly, and I handed Alice the envelope without a word.

Dustin took over for me. “Kindred, or the Ghost, or whatever he actually wants us to call him, approached us.” Jason visibly paled. As he explained what Kindred wanted, my sister tried to hide her concern behind a professional mask, but I could tell she was upset and worried that this killer had walked right up to us in broad daylight.

“What did he look like?” She asked as she slipped a pair of latex gloves on to open the envelope.

“He was about six feet tall, dark hair and eyes, no visible scarring or birthmarks,” Dustin answered with a slight frown. “He was unremarkable, really.”

“No scarring?” Alice asked with some surprise. “Jason described him with severe scarring on his face.”

“Only once I rattled him enough that his control slipped. He didn’t want me to see that. If he’s appearing to people, I highly doubt he’s doing it as he actually looks. If you were badly scarred, and had the ability to project hallucinations to other people, wouldn’t you hide the scarring too?” He turned away, most likely tired of the conversation, and I barely heard his muttered, “I know I would.”

Alice had a pained look on her face, and I got the feeling that she felt more guilt over what had happened with Mason than she let on. She was a cop. Jason was a civilian. And he got badly scarred on her watch. If I had to be completely honest, I didn’t completely count her as an innocent bystander in Jason’s suffering. He made his own choice, but she pushed him to work with them. He never should have gotten so involved in such a dangerous case that the man under investigation would see him as a threat.

But she was my sister. Any part she played in getting him involved in the case, I would forgive her for. No matter how it turned out, she was in it to save people, not to cause more suffering. She couldn’t have foreseen what he did to Jason, or she never would have gotten him involved. With that in mind, I moved closer to her and smiled gently to show my support.

“He also said the name Kindred was meant only for you, Jason,” Dustin added. “He didn’t seem to like hearing us use it, said we didn’t have anything in common with him, so we had no right to call him Kindred.”

Jason looked like he’d been gut-punched at the thought of having enough in common with a killer to be called kindred spirits. “We are,” he said softly, almost to himself. “In some ways, we are very similar.” The idea didn’t seem to sit well with him, and he began to pace irritably.

“You aren’t, Jason,” I insisted, looking to Alice and Dustin to back me up. “You’re nothing like him. You had a similar experience with Mason, but he’s a killer.”

“But maybe he didn’t used to be,” Jason insisted. I raised my eyebrows at Dustin, urging him to break in.

He winced, but finally asked, “Why do you think you’re similar, Jason?”

“Because I’m a killer too.”

Dustin shook his head, “You aren’t a killer. What happened with Mason and that bodyguard of his was pure self-defense. Even if it was known that you caused the shed collapse, no one would have blamed you for it. What Kindred is doing, that’s not self-defense, that’s murder.”

To my dismay, Jason continued to shake his head. “No. In his mind, it’s no different. Every person we’ve seen that he’s killed is someone who was a perceived threat. To him, every time he’s killed is in defense either of his life or mine.”

“The victims he’s shown you, maybe,” Alice said darkly. “Jason, this guy is a contract killer. We’ve had other killings, normal people who weren’t a threat, that match his MO completely. Whatever he used to be, he’s a killer now. And that is something you are not.”

He didn’t look convinced, but he allowed the subject to drop, ignoring the concerned looks each of us threw his way. “So what’s in the envelope?” he asked. “What is it that Kindred knows about himself?”

Even wearing gloves, Alice held the note gingerly, not wanting to disrupt any fingerprints that could be on the paper. “Not all that much, it turns out,” Alice said after looking at the single sheet of paper in the envelope. Her eyebrows went up in surprise. “He apparently has a source who told him that he at one point tried to fight against Mason, and get enough evidence to get him arrested. It’s possible he was working with law enforcement at some point. I just wish we knew what he looked like so we could do a proper search. If he left fingerprints on this paper, we might get lucky and find him in the system somewhere, but it could take weeks unless he’s on a watch list.”

“So you should start the search as soon as possible. Take it to work with you in the morning,” I suggested.

“I’m going now. I can retrieve any fingerprints and get the search started. It can run while I’m gone, so I’ll just get it started and then come home again. It shouldn’t take long.” Without any further conversation she put the envelope into a plastic baggie and left.

“What I still don’t get is why he keeps threatening you,” Dustin said suddenly. “He’s trying to protect you, yet all of our interactions with him have been threatening in some way.”

“He helped us at Dan’s house,” I said. “He helped Jason clean up the mess and wiped everyone’s memory of Jason using his power.”

“But at our next meeting he threatened Jason if we couldn’t find out more about his life before Mason. With that context, wouldn’t it make more sense for him to threaten the ones who can actually do the searching? Jason isn’t even involved in that.”

Jason threw up his hands in aggravation. “Who knows? He’s not normal to say the least, and a complete psycho to be more honest. How are we supposed to figure out his motives? He probably thinks that I know how he thinks and can figure him out. I can’t!”

“We know, Jase, it’s okay,” I soothed. “It’s getting late, so you should probably try to get some sleep before you go out tomorrow. Take something for your shoulder first,” I added when I noticed him rubbing at it. “All these questions and problems will still be here in the morning. Try not to worry about them for now, okay?”

His body was tensed, ready for action, and I knew he wanted to say no. “I’m going to go home now if you guys are okay,” Dustin said. “I’ll come back tomorrow. Get some rest. We’ll figure everything out eventually.”

We said our goodbyes, and when Dustin left I pointed at the couch. “Lie on your stomach. You’ve been tense for a long time, so I’ll try to work out some of the kinks.”

To my surprise he followed my instruction without argument, and I began to massage him, continuing until I noticed his breaths had evened out. It was one of the few times I’d seen him deeply asleep, and no part of him touching the ground. It probably wouldn’t last long, but it had to be good for him to be able to fall asleep without fear or tension.

Peace was something he’d had too little of in his life.

FIFTY-NINE

Kindred

I was right. Something had changed. Scaring the Tracker’s girlfriend wasn’t as entertaining as it normally was. The hauntingly beautiful woman was trying to change me, and I didn’t even know if she was real. But she had to be. I hadn’t come out of the womb a full-grown contract killer. I had a past—something I needed to find out about before things with the Tracker progressed too far. I still had to figure out how I’d known him before, and why I felt such a strong connection.

Whatever it was, he either knew and wasn’t telling me, or he was completely unaware of our past meeting. The only meeting I was aware of was in the hospital, but there had to be more to it. I had seen many people, kids included, in the hospital, without making a connection.

I sat in a meditative state, trying to remember anything about the Tracker or the woman, and her moments of extreme joy and even more extreme sadness. I finally got the picture of the woman caressing her swollen belly, and felt at once the elation of a new life and the heartbreaking loss. I thought maybe she’d lost the baby. Had it been mine, or was there a more distant connection? I sank deeper into meditation and remembered the hospital where I first saw the Tracker when he was a boy. I saw my hands and clothes covered in blood, but there were no wounds.

The feeling of profound loss permeated my entire being. I was alone. The woman and baby must both be dead. But how? And how did the Tracker fit in?

I tried to find out more, but nothing else would come. In a fit of rage I screamed and threw anything I could find that would break, for once not taking the time to block the noise from others. I ignored shouts from my neighbors to stop or they’d call the police, and continued trashing everything in the apartment. Nothing was mine; the previous owner being one of the members of Mason’s gang who’d taken a suitcase of clothes and ran after Mason had been killed. I felt no guilt in destroying his possessions as Mason had destroyed me.

I’d had a family. Of that I could be fairly certain. What was less certain was how they’d died. Sirens approached the apartment and I finally realized I needed to leave. I had waited too long, and couldn’t simply make them forget. I didn’t even know who had noticed my loss of control. So I hid myself from view and walked out, not bothering to take anything with me.

There was a hotel nearby. I’d stay there for now. The apartment was done. I wouldn’t go back. But now I would tell the lady detective to search for car accidents involving pregnant women or a woman and infant. I hadn’t gotten the feeling the baby had been born, but my memories were spotty. The Tracker would help me relay my message. It had gotten harder to control him; pretty soon I wouldn’t be able to. It was a testament to how strong he was, whether he knew it or not.

My plans to get a room at a hotel would wait. I needed to know. The Tracker and I would meet face to face tonight.

SIXTY

Jason

The door closing woke me from a deep slumber that I hadn’t even realized I’d been in, and I almost fell off the couch as I startled awake. Hannah was still working the kinks out of my back, so I must not have been asleep for long. “Easy, Jason,” she murmured. “It's just Alice.”

I shook my head, feeling disoriented and confused. “You fell asleep. It’s okay, nothing happened. Just relax; you’re going to wreck all my hard work!” A joking lilt entered her voice and I responded by lying motionless on the couch, but I did allow one hand to reach toward the floor. I had no direct connection to the ground beneath the house, but I could still feel echoes of movement outside.

Hannah let out a small sigh, but didn’t comment, allowing me to live with the paranoia that had haunted me for most of my life. I responded by staying still on the couch and allowing her to continue what she was doing, and relaxing once more into a restful doze.

The peace lasted another fifteen or so minutes before I felt the now-familiar sense of intrusion in my mind, causing me to jump off the couch. “Kindred is nearby,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “He’s trying to break in again.”

Hannah called for Alice as I struggled to fortify my mind against the intrusion. “What’s happening?” Alice’s voice was dim, and I poured all my energy into blocking the mental attack.

“Kindred,” Hannah answered simply.

“Not Kindred to you,” I heard my voice reply angrily. “There is more information, and I want to speak to you face-to-face. Do not fight me. You,” he indicated Alice, “and the Tracker will meet me at the park down the street. I will be there waiting. Do not call for backup, or I will leave his mind in shambles and he will never recover.”

“We’ll be there. Now, leave him alone,” Alice responded coldly, her icy eyes glaring and her arms crossed over her chest.

My body shook with laughter. “You can do nothing to me, little one. I could easily use him to destroy you, and he would live with the guilt for the rest of his life. Keep that in mind. Come now.”

The pressure of the intrusion faded and I shook my head to clear it, rubbing my hand over my face wearily. “Jason?”

“I’m fine, give me a minute,” I mumbled. Someone moved away toward the kitchen and when she came back she was holding a few aspirin and a bottle of water.

“Take these,” Hannah said softly. “If you do it now it may help avoid the migraine.” It couldn’t hurt to try, so I accepted the medication and sat back on the couch.

“He wants us at…”

“At the park,” I interrupted Alice. “I was aware. He can’t take over without me knowing what’s happening, not anymore. And it seems to be more of a struggle for him than it used to be.”

“Eventually he shouldn’t be able to do it anymore, your mind won’t accept it,” Hannah said. It was not a new line of thought so I didn’t respond.

“We should get to the park.” I was trying to hide my anxiety behind nonchalance, but it wasn’t a very successful venture. Thankfully, neither of them commented, so I avoided the, ‘no matter what happens it’s not your fault,’ speech. Whatever happened, I couldn’t allow him to use me to hurt my friends. I wouldn’t be able to live with the knowledge that my powers had been used against people I care about. Tonight we’d meet face-to-face for the first time since the jailhouse in Torsten. I had come close to besting him then, and now I was more aware of his trickery.

One way or another, tonight would be the end of our interactions. I only hoped that whatever happened, Alice wouldn’t get in the middle. Kindred would never see the inside of a prison cell, because they wouldn’t be able to keep him there. Normal people wouldn’t be able to deal with his mind-altering and hallucinations. I at least had the potential to trap him somewhere he wouldn’t be able to escape and I’d know he was there. If I had my way, he’d never interact with another person in his life. All I’ve ever seen from him is murder and chaos.

“Jason, let’s go,” Alice said after grabbing her gun and badge. “I called Dan. He won’t be with us, but if he doesn’t hear from me in an hour, he’ll be coming with reinforcements.”

I snorted softly at the idea that normal cops could do anything, and she frowned at me. “They may not know what he can do, but at least we can use that as a threat against him doing anything to us.”

My gaze dropped to the floor as I shook my head and chuckled softly. “Don’t you know by now? He’s not afraid of you or the rest of your department. You could send in every man and woman on the force, and he’d be able to walk away. He doesn’t respect you and he doesn’t fear you.” I raised my eyes to meet hers, trying to communicate confidence. “He fears me. It’s the only reason he’d still be around. He’s afraid I’ll come after him.”

She shook her head and opened her mouth, but I interrupted, “He should be. After everything he’s done, he needs to be imprisoned, and you,” I pointed at Alice, but meant the entire police force, “cannot hold him. I can. He’s right to be afraid, because now he threatened you and everyone I care about. He will not use me to hurt you, and if he tries, he will regret it.”