Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
As he hadn’t cared about Vivian’s spoiled pet dogs who’d refused to eat for days after she vanished, their eyes trained on the door as they waited for her to return. It was Vivian’s father who’d told Eleri that, his own face hollowed out.
“Why are you handling this instead of Enforcement?” Adam asked, even as he hunkered down beside her.
“I work with them,” she said. “Specialist attached to the serial crimes unit, and presently specifically to the Sandman Task Force.”
“Full-time?” A question with an edge. “I figured you’d be needed in the court system.”
“I’m a worn-out J.” Just a simple fact. “No longer any good for the basic work of the Corps, but it turns out many of us old Js are excellent at hunting serial killers.”
When Adam tapped the side of his head, she shook her own. “No, nothing psychic. It’s due to our years of experience walking in depraved minds. We’re each profilers in specific subsets of criminals, depending on which crimes we worked on most during our tenure.”
Eleri had never compared their workloads, but one thing she knew: all senior Js had scars. Losing her ability to react and respond, to feel, was nothing in comparison to the price demanded of the others. Saffron eaten up by her fury until she overloaded in seizures, Yúzé so calm and precise and insane in ways that would show up on no PsyMed test, Bram with a brain that couldn’t shut down to sleep without heavy chemical inducement that left him locked in night terrors.
“There are a lot of serial killers on the loose at the current time,” she added because this was a brutal truth that should be widely disseminated, should be exposed to the light. “The Psy Council protected a large number because the killers were useful to them in some capacity. At least half that group managed to slither away in the aftermath of the Council’s fall without anyone being the wiser of their proclivities.”
She could feel Adam staring at the side of her face, the intensity of his attention a near-scald that should’ve made her afraid…only she’d lost the ability to feel fear first of all, her mind burning out on the overload of it as she walked in minds so horrific that she wished she could go back in time and end their genetic lines where they began.
“This is where I discovered the body of the third victim, Sarah Wells.”
“You, personally?”
Eleri gave a curt nod. “I had a tip-off.”
• • •
Adam’s gut tensed as he stared at the primitive map she’d laid out in front of him. Unless she was fucking with him—and no reason for her to do that, not when she had to know that as the head of WindHaven, he’d have access to the kind of people who could verify her claims—she was right.
Raintree sat at the direct center of the body dumps, the sun with all its horrific satellites. “Chance you’ve missed abductions that don’t fit into your pattern?”
“Low.” A firm answer, no hesitation.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Rising, she said, “The answer’s in my vehicle.”
Adam followed her without a word, and because he was behind her, he caught the slight sway of her body. It was instinct to reach out—but he stopped himself with conscious force.
He couldn’t touch her.
Not her.
“Careful.”
“I’m fine.” A response that was neither defensive nor explicatory.
It just…was.
Going around to the back of her SUV while he was still scowling at her beyond-robotic affect, she opened the trunk, then lifted out the trunk liner to prop it up against the side of the car. Below, where in most vehicles would be tools for the car or an emergency battery, were three locked cases.
Including one that he knew must hold a weapon.
Eleri reached for the one next to it.
After pulling it out, she placed it atop the one that held the weapon, then unlocked it using an iris print combined with a numerical code. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting when she lifted the black metal lid, but it wasn’t a thin pile of what looked to be paper letters that had been removed from their envelopes. Said envelopes lay neatly bound in a stack below.
Pulling out the letter at the bottom, Eleri handed it to Adam.
The handwriting was fluid and stylish, the words altogether sickening.
My dearest Eleri,
You don’t mind if I call you that, do you? I feel like we know each other so well…though I suppose you won’t even remember our meeting. In fairness, it wasn’t a real meeting. I wanted it to be, but they’re so strict in the places you most often go, aren’t they? Courts, jails…and, well, where else do you go?
As far as I can figure out, you don’t have a home.
I’ve seen you though, lots of times, and I’ve tried to imagine what it would be like to have your mind inside mine. I’m shuddering now as I imagine the pleasure of it, of having you invade me like I invade my chosen ones. But to experience your psychic touch, I’d have to give up my freedom and I’m having so much fun out here.