by Jordan Dane
He forced his legs to work and stumbled like a drunk through a growing darkness, barely able to see as images battered him. In a blind stupor, he found his rucksack and tore through it by feel. He grabbed his sketch pad and charcoal pencil and collapsed to the ground. Without looking down, Gabe stared into a vision only he could see and drew what came to his mind.
But memories of his own dark past flooded his head, too. Pure torture.
Psychic obstacles forced him to sift through his vision and draw what he sensed would be important. He filtered through the hallucinations and struggled to separate Death’s message from his past as his hand raced across the paper. In unfaltering strokes, he filled one blank page and flipped over to add more as he rocked in place. His breathing came in rapid pants and sweat trickled down his spine.
When he sensed that the vision had run its course, he stopped drawing and the pain of his blistering headache left him exhausted. Gabe held up the sketchbook and let the lights of the city shine on the pages. This time he’d done two drawings. One of a girl and another he didn’t understand at all.
“That’s...weird,” he muttered.
As he gazed down at what he’d sketched, a voice made him jump—and Hellboy burst into swirling blue dust that dissolved as it hit the ground.
“What did you see, Gabriel?”
With a shocked expression, Rayne stepped out from the shadows and kept her distance. Her voice sounded shaky and she looked scared...of him. This time, even if he wanted to, there’d be no need to lie to her.
Rayne had seen everything.
Chapter 7
Griffith Park—Overlook
“What the hell was that?” Rayne couldn’t control the shake in her voice or the chill over her body that even deadened her toes and fingertips. “I mean...I don’t even know what to ask. You caught fire, but everything turned...cold.”
She’d seen Gabriel turn into a human torch before, but what remained of her rational brain made her doubt what she’d seen. Maybe Gabe’s ghost dog had more to do with the weirdness than he did. She sort of believed in ghosts. Why couldn’t dogs hang out in the afterlife? But now, after standing close to Gabe when everything went to bizarre town, the magnitude of his transformation scared the hell out of her. It rattled her insides and sent a biting chill racing over her skin.
Gabe wasn’t normal. Not even a little bit.
“I want to ask about wh-what you saw...and look at what you sketched, b-but...” she stammered. “I gotta ask. What...are you?”
The minute those words came out of her mouth, Rayne knew she’d hurt him. She saw it on his face, but she couldn’t help it. She had too many serious questions that his jokes or vague answers wouldn’t satisfy. He’d scared her so badly this time that she thought about running down the hill and never looking back, but Gabe had drawn Lucas’s face.
That kept her standing there, shaking in her boots like a lump of Jell-O. The blue kind.
“I don’t...know exactly.” Gabe didn’t look her in the eye. He said the words so low that she almost didn’t hear him. When he turned toward her, she backed up a step.
“I know you must be scared over what you saw, but...” He took a deep breath. “I won’t hurt you, Rayne. This thing I do, I feel it inside me, but I’ve never hurt anyone or anything by doing it.”
“And the visions? The faces you draw?” she asked.
“Like I told you, I thought they were only harmless dreams, not visions. But this time when I focused on Lucas, it felt different.” He got excited as he tried to figure stuff out. “I wasn’t asleep and the connection I had with him felt stronger, like it wasn’t one-way. He linked back to me too, Rayne. I’ve never had that happen before. I don’t know if it came from him or me, but something weird happened. You were right. I have...visions, I guess.”
She stared at him for a long time, not sure what to believe, until she broke the silence.
“What did you draw?”
When he stepped closer, it took all of Rayne’s courage not to back away. He handed her his sketchbook, flipped to the page of his first drawing. A girl’s face, someone she’d never seen before. She looked asleep, lying on the bare chest of a boy. Only a part of his chin showed, but that glimpse had been enough to trigger Rayne’s memory. She turned back a page to see if she was right.
“What is it?” he asked, looking over her shoulder.
“I think this is Lucas.” She showed him two pages, bent so he saw both. “See how his lip is cut...and that bruise on his chin and the wound on his arm. The marks are identical and his arm is bandaged in the same spot.”
“Oh, wow. You’re right.” He flashed a quick smile. “Guess it worked.”
“What worked?”
Gabe winced. It looked like he would clam up again. Sharing didn’t come naturally, that was for sure.
“I came here...to look for your brother.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, I kept my focus on him and I guess I got a glimpse. I’ve never done that before. So cool.”
“I thought you weren’t gonna help me,” Rayne said. “That you didn’t care about him.”
“Yeah, well. That’s what I needed you to believe.” He jammed his hands into his pockets. “I got...stuff goin’ on, that’s all. But it doesn’t mean I don’t care what happens to your brother...or you.”
“Yeah?” Rayne fought to keep a straight face.
“Yeah.” Gabe did his best shy boy.
“If you were plannin’ on helping me on the fly, does that mean you’re in?”
“Don’t read into this, Rayne. I still got problems. I could be an epic fail for you and Lucas.”
“I think he’s already there, Gabe. I need to find him.” She took a deep breath. “Whoever this girl is? She’s with Lucas and maybe she bandaged his arm. At least he’s got someone. He’s not alone.”
“Yeah, maybe, if my drawings are real, but we don’t know that.”
Rayne looked at his sketch again.
“What’s this? You did another page. This is strange. Did you actually see this?” She held the page up to the city lights to get a closer look. “It looks historical, like you tripped out on a time machine. What’s with the missing chunks?”
She pointed to a detail in the background that looked like an old train engine with people in vintage clothing, but there were blotches cut out of it. Even though the damage seemed deliberate on Gabe’s part, that didn’t make sense.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I get flashes. Impressions. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out. I had to draw it separate. It seemed important, but it could be nothing. When I see stuff, it gets jumbled. I have to make choices on what I draw.”
She could tell Gabriel wanted to help, but he looked frustrated.
“Sorry. I know this sounds crazy,” he said. “You’re trying to find Lucas, and all of this could be nothing but a major waste of time. I don’t even know what I’m seeing exactly.”
“It’s more than what I had.” She touched his arm. “I’ve got to believe you’re seeing my brother. You’re tuned in to him. Whatever’s happening between the two of you, I think you need practice. You’re like a radio on static. All you need is...channel tweaking.”
“I don’t think my problems can be fixed with a tweak.” He shrugged, not looking her in the eye again. “My static runs deep. I came with it. It’s not goin’ away.”
“Please. You’ve gotta help me. I have no one else...no one that understands, anyway.”
Although Gabriel narrowed his eyes, this time he didn’t say no. He nodded and heaved a sigh.
“I don’t know what I can do, but I’ll give it a shot,” he said. When she smiled at him, he shook his head. “I’m not doing you any favors. Believe me. I’ll do what I can do, but if I tell you I’m out, you have to respect that. No questions asked. I’ve got my reasons and it won’t be because I’m being a jerk. At least, not on purpose. Agreed?”
He held out his hand to seal their deal.
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br /> “Oh, hell, yeah. Agreed.”
With a grin, Rayne closed the distance between them and hugged Gabriel. A handshake wouldn’t do. Feeling his arms around her sent a different kind of tingle down her body, from the prickles in her scalp to the tips of her toes. Gabe’s strange power over his ghost dog and his link to the dead had nothing to do with it.
“The other day, when I saw you catch on fire at the tunnels, I felt something,” she said, still in his arms.
“Like what? An urge to run out for marshmallows?”
“I’m bein’ serious.” She fixed her eyes on the glittering horizon. “I got a rush of memories from my past, people who have died. It felt real, like they were with me. Did you have anything to do with that?”
Rayne pulled away and looked up at him. She felt crazy even bringing up the weird connection she had experienced to her family, alive and dead. Memories from her past had collided in her mind as if they’d been real and happening in the present. Given the intensity of the sensation, she couldn’t let it go without asking him, but she didn’t feel like telling him about both her parents being dead, either.
“I don’t know, Rayne. You’re the only one who’s ever been close enough to see me do this.” He stared off toward the city, and the glow of it touched his face. “But with Hellboy being on the wrong side of the dirt, and me linking to him on the Fringe side, who knows?”
“What happens to you when you channel through him?” she asked. “I mean, you look so...angry, like you’re about to explode. Like it hurts.”
He had a hard time looking her in the eye. She wasn’t sure he’d answer her.
“Not sure I can explain how I stir it up exactly. Guess I really don’t want to.” He shrugged. “Physically, I don’t think much happens, but inside it feels like—”
“Like what?”
“Like every molecule of my body is blasted apart and they float. It doesn’t hurt when that part happens, just the opposite. It’s a total rush.”
“I get that way with chocolate.”
Rayne had no clue, not even when he explained how his awareness blasted like a shotgun from creature to creature, alive or dead. He could zone in on one, or feel the essence of all of those experiences at once. A total mindblower. Rayne’s eyes grew wide and she forgot to breathe until he finished.
“That’s...insane,” she said. “I mean, not that you’re crazy. I’m no one to judge. I have trouble bein’ in just my head, but that sounds seriously...awesome.”
“Yeah, it is.” He grinned.
Epic cuteness. Rayne smiled. She felt closer to Gabriel than she ever had before. This time it felt as if he’d trusted her with a fraction of his truth. Could she trust him with more of her story? It might have been a perfect moment to explain her situation and tell him more about Lucas and Haven Hills and Mia, but she was afraid of losing him. Their alliance was still fresh. When she thought about her dysfunctional family, it reminded her that Gabriel had secrets, too. Out of the blue, she blurted out what had been on her mind since she saw where he slept.
“Why are you living at an old zoo? Are you running from something?”
Gabe stopped grinning, and it took him such a long time to answer her that she thought he wouldn’t.
“I promised to help you with Lucas, but there’s stuff about me that’s off-limits,” he said. “How I live and why? That’s my business.” He’d said it plain. No anger.
“Yeah, okay.”
Rayne understood dark corners and secrets and things too personal to share. She wasn’t sure she could let go of the mounting questions she had over Gabriel, but she could definitely give him space.
“And, Rayne?”
“Yeah?”
“If for some reason, I take off and clean out my stuff at the zoo—no explanation, I’m just gone,” he said. “Please don’t hate me.”
In shock this time, Rayne stared into his eyes before she wrapped her arms around him again. She held him tight until she felt the warmth of his skin through his sweatshirt. This time she wasn’t scared for Lucas or herself.
This time she was afraid for Gabriel.
* * *
Mia had run out of luck searching for Lucas on her own. Given the years between them, she hadn’t been as close to Luke as Rayne. Stepping into a parent role and legal guardianship when she was only eighteen had been a lot to handle, but she’d done the best she could. Now she had new worries.
Her last call to O’Dell, she could tell by the cold tone in his voice that he had stopped buying her excuses, and he quit returning her calls when she tried reporting in. He’d lost faith in her, the last thing she wanted or needed. Everything had escalated beyond her control. With Lucas missing, unwanted attention could make things worse for her—and now she knew Rayne would be a wild card.
Mia had only one option left. Balancing her duties at the church, she decided to follow her sister when she could slip away from work, and gamble on Rayne’s devotion to Lucas and her mile-wide stubborn streak.
Rayne had spent the day on her Harley, taking a tour of her past with Lucas and visiting old family haunts while Mia drove her Lexus sedan at a safe distance and tailed her. She didn’t have to read lips to know that Rayne questioned everyone she met about Luke. As the day went on, she got more and more discouraged, judging by her body language.
Mia felt sorry for her. Rayne’s growing desperation showed, and seeing the places she visited had been hard on Mia, too. It reminded her of what they’d all lost and how fractured they were as a family. She could understand Rayne not trusting her. She’d made mistakes when she was too young to know better, but Mia didn’t see how she’d ever make up lost ground.
As night came, Mia almost gave up on tracking her sister’s moves, but when Rayne rode her Harley onto the grounds of the old L.A. zoo before midnight, that got her interest. With headlights off, Mia followed her onto Crystal Springs Drive, a dark, winding road that led to the old zoo entrance. She had to admit that she got off on the adrenaline rush of sneaking around in the dark.
This time it felt as if she’d finally done it.
With such a clandestine location, she felt sure Rayne would meet up with Lucas here. Maybe Rayne’s search had finally turned up something, but when Mia got to the upper parking lot, near the old front gate, Rayne’s taillights had vanished. Her bike wasn’t anywhere to be seen. There had only been one way into the park. Where could she have gone? Her sister had either figured out she had a tail and got cagey or she’d taken her bike off road where Mia couldn’t follow her.
Damn it!
“What the hell are you up to, little sister?” she whispered as she gripped her steering wheel. “Why did you come here?”
Mia stayed parked in the shadows for a long while, waiting for Rayne to show up again. When that didn’t happen, she gave up and drove home. She felt sure she’d stumbled upon an unexpected piece of the puzzle and she wasn’t about to let Rayne’s meddling jack with her plans. She’d be back and better prepared. Whatever or whoever had brought her sister to Griffith Park, Mia was determined to find out Rayne’s secret.
She had a feeling it would matter.
Burbank
2:17 a.m.
O’Dell never kept regular hours. He worked by the job, for the results. If he needed a workout, he took one at a gym down the street from work. If he got hungry, he scarfed whenever he felt like it. Regular hours and punching a clock were for suckers.
When he left Operations, the parking lot had only a few vehicles for the on-duty night crew. His SUV was parked under a security light in executive parking. With his car keys flipping on his finger, O’Dell had his gym bag slung over his shoulder as he approached his SUV and noticed something didn’t look right.
“What the hell?”
He heaved a sigh and tossed his bag down, gripping his keys tight in his fist. Shards of glass on the asphalt caught the light and his vehicle listed to one side from two flats. Someone had broken into his car and trashed it.
&nb
sp; “I can’t believe this!” He cursed as he surveyed the damage.
From what he saw inside, they hadn’t taken much except his stereo, but whoever did this had balls. The lot had a secured cyclone fence with a keycard gate. One way in, one way out. When he gazed up at the closest security camera, he cursed louder. Whoever got to him took out the surveillance, too. Operations had no signs posted on the small lot. They kept a low profile on purpose, like utility companies did for their critical operations stuff. A big show would only draw unwanted attention.
O’Dell stood alone in the parking lot and considered his options as he reached for his cell phone, but when a taxi pulled up to the curb near the entrance to Operations, he stopped everything. He watched the driver get out and head for the door. The idiot acted like it would be business as usual at this hour—like duh, why is the door locked?
“It’s after two in the morning, jerk wad,” O’Dell muttered under his breath and shook his head, but before he messed with his phone again, he yelled at the taxi guy, “Hey, buddy. You’re not getting in there. The place is closed.”
With his gym bag over his shoulder, he walked toward the man as he flicked his keys.
“Someone called for a cab,” the driver told him. “Dispatch sent me here.”
“Maybe they got the wrong address.” O’Dell shrugged. “But you don’t have to go away empty-handed. I could use a lift...and you could use the fare. What do you say?”
“I say...you’re on. Get in.”
O’Dell gave him a cross street close to where he lived. Since cab drivers recorded their fares, he didn’t want his residence to be on any log. He’d walk a few blocks. No big deal. The driver called Dispatch, and O’Dell watched as he turned the cab around.
He let his mind wander—thinking about Boelens and Mia and that Darby freak—as the taxi made its way to a freeway. But when the driver didn’t hit the on-ramp, O’Dell tapped the Plexiglas shield that separated him from the front seat.
“Hey, pal.” He raised his voice. “Why didn’t you get on back there?”