King Series Box Set

by Kandle, Tawdra

  I took in one deep cleansing breath, remembering Zoe’s advice about keeping my emotions and powers in check. The last thing I wanted to do was to shake everything off the walls in the hospital.

  The air up here was significantly cooler than it had been at school, and I hugged my arms to my ribs as I walked toward the main doors. I fingered the business card Nell’s father had sent to me when he’d had his daughter moved back into Florida. It guaranteed my admittance to her room.

  The stereotypical canned music flowed softly from speakers in the lobby as I approached a small counter in the center. The woman who sat there working at computer screen—her name tag read ‘Betty’--glanced up with a smile as I approached.

  “May I help you?” She tilted her head, and I heard her think, Such a pretty little thing! Here to see a grandparent, maybe?

  “No.” I shook my head and then flushed, realizing too late that I had answered her thought question instead of her spoken one. Nerves always did make me careless about that line. “I mean, yes, thank you.” I fished the card out of my pocket and slid it across the smooth surface of the counter. “I’m here to see Nell Massler. Her dad gave me permission.”

  The receptionist examined the card before punching Nell’s name into the computer. I watched her eyes scan the screen and heard clearly the latest notes on the case.

  No change. Patient remains in a persistent vegetative state. Unresponsive to stimuli.

  I bit my lip as the familiar guilt and regret washed over me. I knew it wasn’t my fault that Nell was lying here in this depressing hospital—unresponsive to stimuli—but the final blow that stole her awareness had saved my life. I couldn’t help feeling a little responsible at least.

  “Here you go.” Betty handed the card back to me and motioned down the hallway. “Room 137, on the left.”

  “Thank you,” I smiled. The hallways were fairly nondescript, but I did notice the absence of the smell I’d come to associate with hospitals. Everything was clean and well-maintained. It didn’t surprise me that Nick Massler would install his daughter in the best facility money could buy. She’d never lacked for material wealth...it was just parental attention that she’d craved and never known.

  Another desk was situated in the middle of the wide hallway. Nurses moved around on their silent shoes, but none of them spared me more than a passing glance. I only picked up what I would expect to hear from their thoughts: patient names, tasks to be completed, paper work to be done.

  Nell’s room was nearly at the end of the corridor. I paused for just a beat to repeat my calming breath routine before going through the open door.

  There was just one bed in the room, against the far wall. A few machines sat in the corner, but only one small monitor was connected. I saw the steady flicker of a small light, but happily the volume had been muted.

  I hadn’t seen Nell in person since the day she’d tried to kill me. My last clear memory before I passed out was of Reverend Pryce holding her arms as she screamed and flailed. Of course, that didn’t count our more recent dream visits.

  But it was still a shock to see her lying so very still. Her long hair still had the same beautiful dark sheen as it spread across the pillow. She had always had almost alabaster skin, but now it was nearly translucent. Her hands were loosely draped around her middle, one palm up, as though she had been asking for something when she fell asleep.

  I moved cautiously closer to the bed, keeping my mind open and alert. Part of me was still afraid that Nell might suddenly leap from the bed and hold a knife to my throat, even while I remembered our last encounter, when she’d risked her own life to save mine from Marica.

  But there was nothing from the bed, not anything like the darkness I’d come to expect from Nell’s mind, not even the static I picked up when someone was blocking me. There was only...blankness. Nothingness.

  I reached out a tentative hand to touch her arm. Her skin was cool to the touch, and I braced myself for the inevitable onslaught of feelings I usually picked up from touching anyone. But again, there was only a blank slate. The monitor on the far of the bed didn’t register anything but the same rhythmic blinking.

  “Hello.” I jumped and caught my breath, my heart pounding. A woman in purple scrubs stood at the door, gazing at me. One eyebrow was raised in question, and I felt her surprise at seeing me next to Nell’s bed.

  “Hi.” I turned but didn’t move away from my spot. “I’m a—a friend of Nell’s, from high school. Her father gave me permission to visit.”

  “Of course.” The nurse came into the room and stood at the other side of the bed. I felt her curiosity more than anything else. She fussed with the blanket for a moment, checked an intravenous tube I hadn’t noticed until that moment and ran an affectionate hand over Nell’s hair.

  “I’m Sandy,” she said, smiling across at me. “I’m usually Nell’s nurse on weekdays, when I’m on duty. It’s wonderful to see you here; she doesn’t get many visitors.”

  That didn’t shock me. Nell didn’t exactly have a huge fan club in high school, and she hadn’t left King on the best of terms with anyone, even the girls who had claimed to be her best friends. And then of course, she had been hospitalized out of state for over a year before her coma.

  “I should have come sooner,” I confessed. “I’m at Perriman College, just a few hours away. But you know—freshman year. It’s hard. And...” I glanced down at Nell’s face, the dark lashes sweeping over the snow white cheeks. “I wasn’t sure I could do it. See her like this.”

  Sandy nodded. “No one finds it easy. Most of our patients here are like Nell. But most have visitors at least in the beginning. If it’s a long term situation, those visits usually taper off as time goes by. But Nell here, she’s young. I wondered why there weren’t family or friends coming by, even once a month.”

  “Her father still comes?” It was a question; I hadn’t spoken with Nick Massler for months, and in the letter that had arrived with Nell’s new address and permission to visit her, he had been short and to the point.

  “Not often.” Sandy shook her head. “I guess people think it doesn’t make any difference. You see you’ve come in, and we’re talking here, and you’ve even touched her. But there’s no reaction, no change. People find it hard to make the effort when it doesn’t seem to make any difference.”

  “That’s sad,” I remarked.

  “Yes, it is. Well, I’ll let you visit with Nell. Go ahead and pull up that chair there. Do you have any questions before I go?”

  I swallowed hard. “Can she hear us, do you think?”

  The nurse tilted her head. “Well, the jury’s still out on that, but most of us who work here think so. There have been people who have come out of comas with some sort of memory of what went on around them. And sometimes we notice responses that can’t necessarily be documented medically. I think, why not assume she can? Talk to her, tell her what’s going on in your life. First year of college—that’s got to be exciting!”

  Sandy patted my shoulder as I sank into the chair. I reached out again and smoothed a hand over Nell’s shoulder, wincing at the boniness.

  “Hi, Nell,” I began. “So...I should probably begin by saying thank you. What you did when Marica—last spring—it saved my life. You bought me time, and you made a difference. I don’t know if anyone told you that. I don’t know if you even knew that I’m okay. And I made the changes we talked about. I ended things with Rafe, and I’m back with Michael. Everything is good again, Nell. Thanks to you.”

  I paused, not sure how to go on from there. With my friends, I’d be chatting about classes and life in the dorm, but I’d never had that kind of relationship with Nell. She’d hated me on sight and most of our conversations consisted of her threatening me, warning me away from Marica or pointing out my shortcomings. In her dream visits, she didn’t waste time on small talk. So I wasn’t really sure what she’d want to hear.

  Then I remembered her letter, the last words she’d sent to me, th
e confirmation that her visits to me had been more than just dreams all along.

  “Marica is gone.” I slid my hand down her arm and squeezed Nell’s fingers. “She was institutionalized for a while here, and then someone came over from Romania and took her back home. I heard she won’t be allowed back in this country.” I closed my eyes, tamping down the small sparks of terror that even the idea of Marica Lacusta still gave me. “So I’m safe, and so are you.”

  If I were hoping for a response, I was disappointed. There was no movement from the bed, no change in the silent monitor.

  “I guess if I were you, Nell, I’d have a spell or a chant...some way to bring you back. If this is a mystical coma--” I dropped my voice; no need to give the nurses any excuse to check me into a padded room. “If this came from magiks, maybe there’s a way to bring you back. But then, I never did have your talent in that area.”

  It was true. Marica never worked with me on spells; she was more interested in developing my natural talents. Which made me think...

  Gripping Nell’s hand a little tighter, holding it palm to palm with my own, I closed my eyes and focused on her mind again. It was still blank. I reached within myself, into the deep well of power that frightened me as much as it intrigued me.

  It was a delicate balance. I couldn’t blast her; I wasn’t sure what that might do. But maybe just a little push, a little infusion of energy...I saw the stream channel into Nell and waited to see if anything changed.

  Nothing. In fact, it almost felt as if I were hitting a wall of some sort. Frowning, I amped up my stream just a bit. This time I was certain—it wasn’t reaching Nell. Something was blocking me.

  I loosed my hold on her hand and stood, stretching. I hadn’t really expected it to work, but it was frustrating to be completely helpless in the face of her comatose state. I curled up in the chair again and spent the next hour updating Nell on her so-called friends from high school, as much as I had heard.

  “...and Liza got into a school in California. I think she was as surprised as the rest of us.” I glanced up at the clock on the wall as I noted the shadows moving across the room. It was getting late, and the idea of driving unfamiliar back roads in the dark didn’t excite me.

  “Nell, I have to go now. I need to get back to school...Michael will be worried.” I swallowed hard. Part of me wanted nothing more than to get away from this room as fast as I could, but the idea of leaving Nell here, alone again, broke my heart.

  “I’ll come back soon. I promise. I’m sorry it took me this long to visit, but now—now I know where you are. I’ll be back.”

  “Tasmyn, are you ready for your first mission?”

  Startled, I looked up from my plate of raviolis, expecting to see Cathryn standing at my shoulder. The dining hall was fairly busy for the lunch hour, but my table was empty, save for my own food and a pile of books from my sociology class. Unless Cathryn had picked up a new trick—invisibility—she wasn’t anywhere near me.

  I glanced around the room one more time, and then I saw her. She moved from the food area toward me with her typical feline grace, and as that thought crossed my mind, I clamped down the purple veil, making sure I was off-limits.

  Pulling out a chair across from me, she smirked. “Nice recovery there. I almost completely missed your usual resentment of me.”

  I laid down my fork and regarded her steadily. “I don’t resent you at all, Cathryn. Might be the other way around, don’t you think?” When she didn’t answer, I took a long pull from my glass of sweet tea before continuing. “So what’s up? Why the mind games?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I was just playing with you. Things get monotonous, and I like to shake them up. You haven’t had one outrageous thought about me—that I’ve heard—in over a month. I wanted to see if I could take you by surprise.”

  I spread out my hands. “Well, it worked. Color me surprised. Now what do you mean by mission?”

  Cathryn smiled and leaned closer, dropping her voice. “We had something come up that we think would be perfect for your first assignment. It’s this afternoon, and the meeting place is only about fifteen minutes away. I’ll pick you up at 3:45 this afternoon outside your dorm. Dress professionally.”

  Anticipation that I hadn’t expected bubbled within me. “Can you tell me about it? What will I be doing?”

  Cathryn shook her head. “Not here. We’ll talk in the car on the way over. For future assignments, you’ll get the details through encrypted email, but this was last minute. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

  I called Michael to tell him what was going on, so he wouldn’t be concerned in case I was late for dinner.

  “Are you nervous?” he asked, apprehension coloring his own voice.

  “I don’t think so,” I said, standing in my closet, trying to decide what constituted a professional outfit. “More excited. I’m not sure I’m as prepared as I thought I would be, but maybe that’s their method—throwing me into the deep end.”

  “Be careful.” I couldn’t hear his mind, but I knew what he would be thinking.

  “I promise, if anything at all feels off, I’m out of there. I’ll call you to get me. And I’ll text you when I’m ready to meet you to eat.”

  Cathryn was punctual as always. I climbed into her car without a word, and she pulled smoothly from the curb.

  As I struggled to connect my seat belt, she tossed a folder onto my lap. “Some information for today.”

  I flipped it open and perused the first page. “So...we’re meeting this guy? Matthew Cummings?”

  “Yes, he’s our client. He owns a large farm not too far away, and one of his family members wants to buy it. Mr. Cummings is older and doesn’t have any children of his own, so he is willing to sell in order to keep the property in the family. However, he’s recently gotten some information that brings the true intent of his nephew into question. That’s why we’re involved.”

  I frowned. “I don’t get it. I’m supposed to find out if his nephew is telling the truth?”

  “Essentially, yes. They both think that the meeting today is to iron out some last minute details before the sale closes in a few weeks. But really, you’ll be listening to the nephew, finding out what he plans to do.”

  “How did the farmer find out about Carruthers? And if he’s our client, why doesn’t he know what the meeting today is really about?”

  Cathryn changed lanes, glancing up at the mirror as she answered me. “Mr. Cummings doesn’t know that he’s our client. Well, that’s not true, strictly speaking. His attorney hired us, knowing what we do, but Mr. Cummings thinks we’re from the title company.”

  “Oh.” I watched the landscape rush by along the highway. One of the few things Cathryn and I had in common was a love for speed. The difference was that she owned a car that could satisfy that need. “So I’m, what, a secretary?”

  “You’re my assistant.” Amused satisfaction filled Cathryn’s voice. “I’m your boss.”

  You wish, I thought, not bothering to keep my shield in place. She rolled her eyes and added, “Try to at least pretend you believe that. If you’re unobtrusive, no one will pay enough attention to you to question it. Fiona is meeting us there, and she’s a stenographer, also working for us.”

  “Fee’s coming?” The idea of having a friendly face there made me feel a little less apprehensive. “But why do you need me, if Fee can tell you what the future outcome will be?”

  “Fiona’s talents work best in conjunction with other gifts. The future is a slippery thing, and it often depends on intent. You can hear the nephew’s intent, and that will help Fiona to determine the most likely future.”

  “But you could do that yourself.”

  “Yes, I can and I will be listening, too. But I’m just there as back up for you. On your first few assignments, we like to have some cushion for you, just in case you miss anything essential.”

  I was silent, mulling it all over. “So what do I do? How does it work?”

>   “Very easy.” Cathryn took the next exit, smoothly merging onto a four-lane road. “We go in, sit down, listen. There will be introductions, so pay attention; you need to know which one is the nephew. Take notes, if you need to. No one will question that. You’ll sit away from the table, somewhat behind me. Stay in character the whole time we’re in the meeting. That’s very important. Don’t share any information until we are alone in the car.”

  I nodded. “Okay, got that. What about Fee? Do I know her?”

  “Sure. Be as natural as possible. Don’t over think this, Tasmyn. I promise if you follow my lead, it will go smoothly. This is an easy case, which is why we decided to bring you in today. Here we are.”

  The attorney’s office was in a sprawling white single story building. Cathryn parked in the front and climbed out briskly, going to the back to retrieve a wheeled case. I followed her, and without a word she piled a stack of folders into my arms. I focused on pretending that I worked for her and trailed her through the wide doors.

  She paused to speak with the receptionist, smiling and handing across a business card. We were directed into a conference room down the hallway.

  “Hi, Tas!” Fiona greeted me as we entered the room. “Good to see you again.” She was quelling her natural exuberance, I could feel, and I shot her a quick smile of understanding.

  There wasn’t time for more than that, as other people came in on our heels. Five men with loud voices crowded around the table, all talking sports.

  Cathryn set up her case and files at the far end of the table, and I moved to stand behind her, surreptitiously watching the others. Fee sat down near us with a small computer that I deduced was her stenographer machine. The men sat down, too, and I finally had time to examine them.

  I immediately recognized Matthew Cummings. He was the oldest man in the room, and he looked uncomfortable in his suit pants and shoes. He was also the only man not wearing a suit jacket and tie. Instead, the long sleeves on his dress shirt were neatly rolled to his elbows.