by Jenny Allen
Her ears started ringing painfully as tears stung at her already sore eyes. “Chance?” She started to raise her hand to touch his cheek but one strong hand caught her wrist and clamped both her hands behind her back. Panic started to swell in her chest making it almost impossible to breathe. “What are you doing?”
Chance just stared sightlessly right through her as his hand on her throat tightened painfully. Lilith gasped and tried to push against him but he had her firmly clamped against his body. “Chance, stop! You’re hurting me.”
“Fight it. It makes it so much more fun!” The familiar lilting, sing-song voice stabbed Lilith with pure dread. Peisinoe’s face hovered over Chance’s shoulder, her red, manicured nails curling possessively over his arm. She grinned at Lilith with the look of a hungry cat staring at the mouse she intended to toy with.
Peisinoe’s blood red lips tickled over Chance’s neck up to his ear, but her eyes stayed firmly locked on Lilith. “Squeeze.” Her voice rose and fell in a melodic tone as Chance’s hand on her throat tightened even more, leaving her gasping and struggling. Her chest was already starting to burn. Tears flooded her eyes as she stared at the blank, vacant look on Chance’s handsome face.
“Chance…please.” Her voice was a bare, raspy whisper. A desperate plea. She had to get through to him. Lilith watched in horror waiting for a spark of recognition that never came.
Peisinoe’s bubbly, Marilyn Monroe-style laughter filled the room. To Lilith it felt like hot pokers stabbing her in the head. “Oh he’s in there. He knows exactly what he’s doing.” She rested her chin on Chance’s shoulder, examining him like some sort of rare specimen. Peisinoe caressed a hand over his cheek and through his hair. “He just has no control. I own him. It’s a pity that when I release him he will be irrevocably broken.” She released a dramatic sigh as her bright blue eyes roamed over his handsome face. “Perhaps I’ll play with him a while longer before I release him. Shame to ruin such a striking specimen so early.”
With a demented glee, Peisinoe cast her deep blue eyes to Lilith’s terrified face. There was a smug satisfaction lingering there but it was quickly replaced by an empty boredom. “Oh, the suspense is just killing me.” Her melodic voice dripped with sarcasm as Lilith struggled for air against Chance’s grip. “Enough games. End it.” Peisinoe whispered the words against Chance’s ear with vindictive delight. Her teeth tugged at his ear lobe as her deep blue eyes pierced right through Lilith.
His hand tightened around Lilith’s throat without a second’s hesitation making her vision blur. Her head was pounding, her lungs burning, desperate for air. She kicked and shoved but Chance’s held her wrists behind her back with ironclad force. He didn’t even flinch at her kicking legs and knees. He just stared blankly into her face like she was less than a stranger. She was nothing, not even a person.
Lilith heard a pop and a crunch as her lungs flared like they were filled with molten lava. With a crashing wave of pain and panic, the world went dark.
“Lily!!!” The voice sounded like it was at the end of a long tunnel. She was distantly aware of someone shaking her but her limbs felt like they were dipped in lead and she felt so very far away.
“Dammit! Lily! You need to wake up!” She recognized the smooth voice with hints of a Cajun accent. Chance. Was she dead? In a coma? Why couldn’t she move?
Slowly Lilith’s eyes fluttered open. The light from the LED alarm clock was like a piercing spotlight that sent waves of fire through her brain. Lilith gasped in pain and squeezed her eyes shut as a coughing fit racked her body. She curled onto her side, gasping for breath as a warm hand caressed along her back.
Everything snapped clearly into focus in an instant. Peisinoe, Chance’s blank face as he choked the life out of her. Lilith scrambled off the bed, falling hard on her knees and scuttled into the closest corner. Her eyes flashed around the semi-dark hotel room searching for the blonde bombshell from hell.
“Lilith, Cherie, what is going on?” Chance was kneeling on the bed in his black t-shirt and matching boxer briefs. It should have been a welcome sight, but all Lilith could see was the blank look on his face as his hand squeezed her throat. That cold stare that looked right through her.
“Where the hell is she?” Lilith screamed the words and pulled herself up to her feet, still wedged into the corner of the room. She didn’t recognize her own voice. Her throat was raw and throbbing with pain. She felt like she’d actually been choked. Even her chest burned and ached like nothing she’d ever felt before. It couldn’t just be a dream, could it?
“Where is who?” Chance looked completely confused. “You were having one hell of a nightmare. You kept screaming but I couldn’t get you to wake up.” He slid off the bed and started over towards her.
“No! Stop right there.” Lilith’s heart was pounding faster and harder than she could ever remember. It couldn’t have been a dream. If Peisinoe left her alive it would make sense that she’d manipulate Chance’s memory. Wouldn’t it? Could she actually do that? Cohen hadn’t mentioned it. Shit. What if Chance was right?
“Lily, Cherie.” His voice definitely sounded wounded. He took another step with his hands outstretched in a sign of peace. “I’m not going to hurt you. Please, you were having a nightmare. You even stopped breathing for a moment. It scared the hell out of me! I had to give you CPR.” There were tears in his hazel eyes and his voice started to waver. It pulled at her heart, but she couldn’t wipe out the memory of his hand around her throat, callously crushing the life out of her.
Lilith slid her hands over her face as tears streamed from her eyes. She felt like she was losing her mind. Nightmares were nothing new, but this one…it had felt so damn real. What if it was real? What if Peisinoe could implant a latent command, turn him into a sleeper agent? She sounded like a paranoid nut job that should be fitted for a shiny new straight jacket.
A hand caressed over her shoulder, shocking her out of her muddled thoughts. Lilith screamed and shoved the hand away as she ducked out of the corner. “Please don’t. I just…I can’t.”
It still felt like his hand was clamped around her neck. Her chest was burning and she quickly gasped for air. A wave of dizziness hit Lilith like a mac truck and she scrambled to latch onto the dresser. Her hands slid uselessly along the top, sending her crashing hard to the ground.
Lilith gasped and wheezed, her hands grabbing for her throat. There was nothing there. It was just a good ole’ fashioned panic attack. A panic attack that felt like it was ripping apart her lungs. Her vision was already spotty and blurring as she hunched over trying to draw in breath.
“God, Lilith. Please. You need to calm down. It was all just a nightmare.” As his voice got closer, it got harder and harder for Lilith to breathe. She clawed along the cheap carpet, trying to escape, but the pain in her chest was overwhelming. With a final desperate attempt to breathe, Lilith collapsed on the floor completely unconscious.
* * *
There were muffled voices arguing somewhere in the background. Lilith moaned softly and shifted as the grogginess began to melt away. Hesitantly, she cracked one eye open. The sunlight streaming through the sheer curtains was absolutely blinding. With a harsh groan, she squeezed her eyes shut again. Her chest and throat still hurt but she seemed to be breathing just fine.
Lilith braved the light to glance at the alarm clock. Ten o’clock. Crap. The cops were supposed to call with the lab results around eight. She pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the bed and wiped at her sleepy eyes. The voices outside were getting louder. Cohen and Chance were arguing. Lilith crept towards the door and leaned against it, listening.
“I don’t know what the fuck happened, Cohen. She wouldn’t tell me. She just acted like I was trying to hurt her. She had a damn panic attack when I tried to help her up.” There was an angry volume to Chance’s voice but beneath that he just seemed heartbroken and lost. Lilith leaned her head against the door and choked back a few tears.
She was pretty certain tha
t it had all just been a nightmare, but it had felt so real. Even now it was painfully clear in her mind. How can you be afraid of someone who has never actually hurt you? How can you be angry at a person for something they never did? It was all in her mind, but it was still so damn vivid.
“Well we don’t have time for her to visit a padded cell so let me just talk to her. Maybe the lab results will help her focus on something else. Take this and go get us some breakfast and don’t stop for flowers or candy or some other romantic nonsense on the way, Romeo.”
“Let it fucking go, Cohen. You want me to grab you some tampons while I’m out?” His smartass come back brought a smile to Lilith’s lips as she leaned against the door.
“Just go.”
Lilith waited until she heard Chance stalk away and opened the door on a surprised Cohen as he reached for the knob. The shock was quickly replaced by his usual cool, collected attitude.
“Good. You’re awake. We have a lot to talk about.” Cohen moved right past her and took a seat at the little table by the window.
“Good morning to you, too.” Lilith retorted as she closed the door, locked it and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.
Cohen shuffled a few papers that he spread over the table, then he turned in his chair to squarely face her and leaned forward on his knees. His pale blue eyes stared intently at her expectantly. “First, tell me what happened last night.”
Lilith shifted under his intent gaze and wrapped her arms around herself. “It was just a nightmare. I don’t really want to talk about it.”
Cohen’s eyes tightened. “I’m sorry. Did that sound like a question? You stopped breathing twice last night. Tell me about the nightmare.” His voice was firm and unrelenting. He wasn’t going to drop this. Still, it felt fundamentally wrong to confide in Cohen. She didn’t like the idea of letting Cohen into the inner workings of her messed up head.
On the other hand, she needed to hear from Cohen that it was in her head, that there was no way Peisinoe could have actually been there. With a heavy sigh, Lilith reluctantly shared her side of last night’s events. He studied her face the entire time with no signs of any surprise, disgust or emotion. He simply sat there, taking in the whole story much to Lilith’s relief. When she was finished, he simply nodded in understanding.
“Peisinoe threatened you didn’t she? That’s what Chance was all pissed about when we arrived at the office building.”
Lilith swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded weakly.
Cohen released a short sigh and leaned back in his chair. His sky blue eyes watched her expectant face with a calculated look. “I can assure you that Peisinoe was not here. She is constantly under heavy guard and she’s only allowed to go where Farren directs her. He must have massive leverage on her because she’s never even contemplated talking back to him much less running off. Also, she cannot alter memories, nor can she implant latent commands. I hope that brings you some comfort.”
Lilith was honestly surprised by his reaction. While she was excessively grateful for the information, she was just as grateful that he wasn’t trying to coddle her injured emotions. He simply stuck to the facts and left the psychological stuff alone. It was precisely what she needed to hear.
“Thanks.” Lilith muttered the word and drew her knees up on the bed. “Can we talk about those lab results now?” Anything to draw the attention off of her and her messed up brain.
“Of course.” Cohen nodded very matter of fact and immediately returned his attention to the papers on the table. “You may want to take a look. I’m not sure I understand most of it.”
Lilith pulled herself off the bed and took the second chair at the table. She was infinitely happy to bury herself in scientific facts and figures.
“Okay. So some of this stuff seemed pretty normal. The trace from the wounds on the back of the head are right here.” He pushed one sheet towards her. It was exactly what she thought. “It seems it was just asphalt, gravel and mud from the alley. Nothing unexpected.”
“What about the trace on the rest of the wounds, especially the teeth? Was there anything biological? Any salvageable DNA?” Lilith leaned forward in her chair, eager to see the report. She wanted to solve this puzzle.
“That’s where it gets weird.” Cohen shoved a couple pages toward her with a completely confused face. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Lilith scanned through the mass spec results and frowned in confusion. “The tissue caught on the teeth is human tissue. Dead human tissue.”
“Well yeah, of course it’s dead. It’s no longer attached. How is that a revelation?”
Lilith couldn’t help but chuckle. “True, but this tissue is already considerably decomposed, which means it’s been dead for quite a while.”
Cohen leaned his elbows on the table, his brow furrowed deep in thought. “So…what? They shoved something dead in his mouth? Or a dead man tore him apart?”
“Unless you know something I don’t about the realistic chances of zombies existing, I’d say that would be a no.” She started it in a joking tone, but it ended up sounding more like a question.
“Uh, no. I’ve never heard of a zombie actually existing unless you count that one guy in Florida who was high on bath salts.”
“Actually his tox results came back clean. Personally, I think he was just freaking bat-shit crazy. Also, he was very much alive when he attacked that poor guy’s face. The tissue must have been planted or have some other reason for being there. What else do we have?”
“Well, there was a lot of dirt found in the wounds. The analysis is on the bottom there.” Cohen pointed at the graph on the bottom of the second page.
“Hmmm, very high carbon monoxide and ammonium and the presence of lipids. Someone is going through a lot of trouble.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well I’m not familiar with the normal chemical composition of the soil around here, but this suggests that it’s soil from a grave. Of course, the missing hearts could be part of some sort of ritual. Perhaps these grave elements are part of that ritual. We definitely aren’t dealing with your average, garden variety assassin.”
“It must be some sort of scare tactic. Psychological warfare. I’m sure our third cat burglar is running scared. Speaking of which, we have ID’s on our two John Does. I think the home addresses will look somewhat familiar.”
Lilith grabbed the last couple pieces of paper and looked them over. “They’re both from New York City? What the hell are the odds of that?”
Cohen shrugged. “It’s not that far away from here. There are plenty of people desperate for money with loose moral values there. Plus you have the major crime syndicates with trained thugs for hire. I don’t know. Doesn’t seem that odd to me. It makes sense not to use locals for a robbery of this sort.”
“Well if our two vics are both from NYC then it’s reasonable to assume that our mystery brain of the operation is also from there. It would make sense to assemble a crew and head up here together. This means we need to head to the Big Apple. I need to see their apartments. Maybe we can find some sort of connection that can help us find the missing mastermind.”
“All right then. As soon as we eat breakfast, I’ll get a new rental car, we can pack up, check out and head there. I will suggest that we do not go anywhere familiar. We can’t go to your apartment, Chance’s place, Gregor’s or any work place. The council will know and they won’t like it.”
“That could still work. I have police connections there, of course, and since I can’t go in to the station, there is an alternative. I have a new partner. I got a few voicemails from her. Since I’ve never met her, the Council shouldn’t know much about her, if anything. She can help us out with research or even lab requests if need be.”
“Well that works out quite nicely.” Cohen cracked a slight smile and leaned back in his chair. There was something else on his mind, but he either didn’t want to voice it or didn’t know how. Lilith was perfectly happy not
to know. She was already feeling better with real facts to work with even if they didn’t all make sense.
There was a knock at the door that rattled Lilith’s nerves. She busily studied the notes in front of her, leaving Cohen to swing the door open. Her eyes caught on one last report that Cohen had failed to mention. “Selaginella lepidophylla.”
Andrew frowned at her as he swung the door open. “I’m sorry, what?”
“The bits of plant that I found on the victim. That’s the scientific name. Common name is Rose of Jericho.” She dropped the paper on the table, her brow furrowed in confusion. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“The resurrection fern.” Chance’s Cajun-flecked voice rumbled from the doorway where he stood with a couple McDonalds bags and two cup carriers full of drinks. His signature black T-shirt hung from his leanly muscled 6’3” frame and his new jeans hung attractively on his hips. Yesterday it would have made her pulse race with desire. Today her pulse quickened in anxiety.
Lilith glanced up at the frustrated look on his face and quickly looked back down at the report. “That doesn’t sound very common.”
Chance placed the food and drinks on the table and Lilith automatically scooted her chair back a fraction. The memory of his crushing strength and that vacant look was still just too fresh even if it hadn’t been real. It had felt extremely real to her.
Chance swallowed hard as his jaw clenched. He pulled out his share of food and claimed an orange juice and a coffee. “It’s not found at all in these parts. It’s a desert fern.” He retreated to the far corner of the bed and he wasn’t exactly reassured to see Lilith slowly relax into her chair. He knew she was scared of him, he just didn’t know why. Of course, Lilith wasn’t sure that knowing why would help him at all. How could he make up for something he’d never done? And how could she erase the memory of something that had seemed so real that she’d actually stopped breathing…twice?