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)
Hmm…
Finishing up his coffee, he went to the sink and thoroughly washed the cup. As he did so, he considered the twenty-year-old girl in the bed upstairs. College student home for a short vacation. Petite frame. Irritating voice. Smart. He could make it to her room as soundlessly as he had the nursery.
But then he’d have to rush, waste the opportunity.
“Another time,” he promised the whispers and put his clean but wet coffee cup on the kitchen table.
There, all done. He was a conscientious guest.
He closed the back door silently behind him.
Wouldn’t want to scare his unknowing hosts.
Chapter 23
Eleri, I’m two minutes away. Answer Saffy in the interim—she’s blowing up my phone. I think she’s in one of her manic phases.
—Bram Priest to Eleri Dias (now)
Eleri’s phone buzzed on the bedside table two hours after Naia had stabilized her. Frowning, Adam remembered what she’d said about the printouts being collected today and picked up the phone.
It proved fully secured, not allowing him to answer the call.
Putting it back down, he used his own phone to ring the inn. Mi-ja, phone always in her pocket, answered at once. “The Raintree Inn!” she chirped.
“Mi-ja, it’s Adam. Is there someone at Eleri’s door?”
“Why, yes! How did you know?” Her voice becoming breathless as she no doubt quick-walked over. “Dae just mentioned the new car to me. I was going over to say hello.”
A minute later and Adam was talking to a deep-voiced man who confirmed he was there to see Eleri. Wanting to check out the other man’s credentials, Adam told him to wait, that he’d be down soon.
The man’s response was, “Why can’t I reach Eleri on the PsyNet?” and it wasn’t a professional query, for all its coldness.
Adam’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll talk when I arrive.” Hanging up, he made sure Eleri was resting peacefully before he looked in on Jacques.
His friend remained in a coma.
“That’s for the best,” a much more ebullient Naia had said after she was satisfied both her patients were stable. “He has a number of major injuries that didn’t begin to heal until he fully shifted. It’ll go much faster if he’s motionless.”
“Chance he’ll remain comatose?” Because they weren’t out of the woods yet.
“Unknown, but since Sascha can sense him with her empathy, it means the specialist Es can nudge him awake if he doesn’t come through on his own.” Naia had exhaled. “I have a feeling Jacques will choose his own time.”
As for Eleri, Sascha had warned him not to permit any Psy he didn’t trust near her until her shields regenerated.
“PsyNet?” Adam had asked.
“That shield is holding—I asked Sophia to check. Figured she’d be able to find Eleri in the Net. She also told me that a lot of Js have Net shields like Eleri’s—they’re pretty much independent, they’re so deeply embedded into their psyches. A protection against accidental exposure during Silence that’s become second nature.”
Adam thought of that girl with the innocent hazel eyes who’d felt things that had put her in danger. Now, in the bright morning sunshine, he left her in the care of his clan and drove her vehicle not down to the inn, but to a quiet lay-by a short distance away, where he’d told the courier to meet him.
The last thing they needed was Mi-ja’s avid attention.
The black SUV that waited for him was identical to Eleri’s, but it was a man of about Adam’s height who stood outside it. Built wide across the shoulders, he wore a dark gray suit with a white shirt, and his prematurely gray hair was buzzed close to his skull, his skin paler than was common in this area, his eyes an icy blue.
He held out his ID the instant Adam walked over.
“Bram Priest,” he said. “J Corps. Where is Eleri?”
Adam wasn’t the kind of wing leader who went about posturing and preening, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a massive level of dominance. If the J was attempting to intimidate him, he’d chosen the wrong target. “I need to verify your ID before I tell you anything,” he said, and messaged an image of the ID as well as Bram’s face to Damon, who he’d alerted ahead of time.
The response came after a tense twenty seconds: Senior J attached to the Sandman Task Force as a consultant on an ad hoc basis. Also, the computer cross-references automatically and your guy shows up on the files of three other Js, including that of the J you asked about before—Eleri Dias. The four of them seem to be each other’s next of kin.
Adam’s falcon looked at the man in a whole new light.
After thanking Damon, he put away his phone. “Eleri flamed out after doing an emergency psychic assist. She’s being looked after by my clan’s healer, and by a cardinal empath.”
“You expect me to take your words at face value?” was the grim response.