by Anise Eden
“Okay, everybody take a seat. I hate to rush you, but we are under some time pressure.”
Kai and I took our mugs of tea and joined Pete on one of the couches. Pete slung his arm around Kai’s shoulders and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Once we had all settled in, Ben moved to the front of the room and addressed the group.
“You all know that Eve and I went to visit a sick colleague last week.” Ben rubbed the lines on his forehead. “Well, he’s worse. In fact, they’re giving him about a fifty percent chance of making it.”
“Oh no,” Eve moaned. “I thought—”
“I know,” Ben said, “we all thought. But as it turns out, it’s more than a bad case of food poisoning. Someone tried to kill him.”
There were several gasps. My hand flew up to cover my mouth.
“And the murder attempt may still succeed,” he continued. “The doctors are doing everything they can for him, but they’re hoping that with our combination of skills, we can help maximize his chances.”
Everyone nodded their assent—everyone except for me, that was. The others all had skills that could be useful in such circumstances. Pete was a paramedic, Eve an acupuncturist, and Asa a Reiki master. Vani’s aura-healing skills would no doubt prove helpful. Even Kai could talk to the dead; maybe the spirits could give him some pointers on how to cure the patient. But as an emotional empath, what could I possibly do? Tell them how their colleague felt about the fact that someone had tried to kill him? Crappy, I imagined. What if Ben was only inviting me to come because he didn’t want me to feel left out? I didn’t want to be excess baggage, or worse, a burden. I raised my hand.
Ben pointed to me. “Cate?”
“I’m so sorry, Ben. That’s horrible news, and of course I’ll do whatever I can to help. But I’m just wondering what that might be. I don’t want to come along just to get in the way.”
“You’re a part of our team. You could never be in the way.” A muscle in Ben’s jaw twitched. “To be honest, though, you are plan B.”
My confidence dipped even lower. “What’s plan B?”
“I’m very sorry, Cate—everyone—but I have to wait until we get there to explain further.” He ran a hand quickly through his hair. “Due to security clearances, I can’t say anything more until we arrive. After they figured out that it was an attempted murder, our colleague’s protection became a military operation. Once we get where we’re going, we’ll all be staying in a locked facility for the duration. No one leaves—not until we’ve cured him, or he dies.”
So Pete hadn’t been kidding, after all; it was a secret mission, and a man’s life hung in the balance. A shudder passed through my body.
“Oooh!” Kai exclaimed, pressing his hands together as though in prayer. “Are you saying it’s going to be dangerous?”
“Not for us.” Ben turned and gave me a look freighted with meaning. “There will be no risk to anyone here—as long as we follow any and all instructions we’re given to the letter.”
If my stomach hadn’t begun to flip-flop, I would have rolled my eyes at him. So I’d disregarded some of his instructions in the past. Did that make me an outlaw for life? The suspicious part of me began to wonder if “plan B” was just an excuse for Ben to keep me under his watchful eye.
“If I thought there’d be any danger, I wouldn’t even have considered asking you to come.” Ben walked slowly around the room, impressing his words on each of us individually. “Having said that, no one here is under any obligation. This is on a strictly volunteer basis. I know it’s a lot to take on faith; Eve is the only one here who even knows who the patient is. If it helps, I have called our usual backup team. They will be on standby to handle any of our clients who need help while we’re gone.”
“Oh, please. Do you really need to ask?” Kai looked expectantly around the room. “Of course we’re going! That’s what we do, after all—help people, whether we know them or not. Right, everyone?”
Asa’s face was alight with excitement as he turned to Eve. “How cool will it be to give our professors notes excusing us from class because we have to go on a top secret mission?”
Eve grinned back. “Totally. I’m so in.”
“My bags are already in the Land Rover,” Vani said, tossing her ponytail to one side.
Since Pete went everywhere Ben went, his participation was a given. Apparently, I was the only question mark.
Kai patted my arm, presumably because he was sitting close enough to hear my heart pounding. If there was anything I could do to help save someone’s life, of course I wanted to do it. But attempted murder? A military operation? A locked facility? All of those things were far outside of my experience—and Ben had taken pains to make sure that I didn’t feel pressured to go.
On the other hand, a mere day had passed since I’d agreed to leave my old job and come to work for the MacGregor Group. I didn’t want to start things off by rejecting my first chance to demonstrate solidarity. I also didn’t want to look like a chicken. After all, Eve was just a college student, Asa was in grad school, and Vani was a marketing executive. Kai might have had some experience dealing with dicey situations, but I was pretty sure that none of us civilians were used to playing cloak and dagger. But if the others were scared, they weren’t letting on. And there’s no reason to be scared, anyway, I reassured myself. Ben said we wouldn’t be in any danger, and security was one of his areas of expertise.
Besides, when I thought about staying behind, every cell in my body cried out in protest. Although Ben and I had just started dating, I was already loath to be away from him, even for a few days.
Well, that settled that. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. “I’m in, too,” I said. Kai squeezed my hand.
“You’re sure?” The question was for the group, but Ben was looking at me.
There was a chorus of affirmations from the others. I gave Ben a sideways smile. “Plan B, reporting for duty.”
His posture visibly relaxed. “All right, then. Thanks, everyone. I hate to rush you, but we’d better load up. Time is not on our side.”
Pete and Kai climbed into the pickup while the rest of us loaded ourselves into the Land Rover. And that was how we ended up traveling south on I-95, careening into the mouth of the unknown.
Chapter Two
Ben drove the Land Rover and invited me to ride shotgun. Complaining about how early she’d had to get up, Vani stretched out in the backseat, put on noise-canceling headphones, and announced that she’d be catching up on her sleep. Eve and Asa took the third-row seats and began to play a zombie apocalypse game on their tablets.
The trip started out quietly. The only sounds were the whoosh of the tires, the low hum of the engine, and occasional exclamations of victory of defeat from Asa or Eve. Since the rest of the team seemed content to wait until we reached our destination to ask any more questions about the mission, I figured I should follow their lead.
I tried to distract myself by examining Ben. He had a quiet but powerful presence—one of the first things I’d noticed about him. His strong jawline set off what I’d discovered were very skilled lips, while the dark ridge of his eyebrows contrasted with the bright gold flecks that flickered in his eyes whenever he was energized about something.
In the business suits he usually wore, Ben looked to be of average build, but I knew from experience how strong he was. After all, he had carried me up a staircase without breaking a sweat, and I’d witnessed Ben and Pete handily taking down a group of armed men. I did find it endearing that, as put-together and in control as he liked to appear, Ben’s short, wavy hair was always slightly unruly, no matter how hard he tried to tame it.
His right hand rested on his thigh as his left kept a loose grip on the bottom of the steering wheel. One minute his movements were firm and decisive; the next, impossibly gentle. I wondered if he’d learned that range of touch from restoring classic cars—a hobby that I imagined would require working with everything from hard metal to soft leather.
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br /> Overall, Ben appeared alert but relaxed behind the wheel. He seemed to be in his element. I made a mental note to suggest we go for a ride the next time he looked like he needed a break. I marveled at the fact that Ben and I were actually dating, and that I was learning the little things that made him happy. Just like two people in a normal relationship.
“That’s not fair, you know.”
I started at the sound of Ben’s voice. “What?”
The corners of his mouth turned upwards. “I have to keep my eyes on the road, so I can’t stare back.”
Oh hell, I thought as my cheeks prickled with heat. I’d been caught. I quickly turned my eyes to the windshield. “Well you have to admit, there’s not much else for me to do.”
“You’re right.” He released a measured sigh. “I haven’t been very good company.”
Of course he’d hadn’t. He was probably preoccupied with top secret life-and-death issues. My blush deepened. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have distracted you.”
“Of course you should’ve,” he said emphatically. “I’m the one who should apologize. This is a tense situation, and driving in silence can’t be helping.” He gave me an incisive glance. “How are you doing with everything?”
“Okay, I guess.” I twisted my fingers together in my lap. “A little nervous, maybe.”
“I’d be surprised if you weren’t. You’ve been through a lot of changes over the past week, and now I’m throwing you another curveball.” He cast a sideways glance my way. “Why did you decide to come?”
He was right; since I’d started their training program, nearly every aspect of my life had been upended and rearranged. “Well, I’ll admit that the idea of staying at home on my couch, eating ice cream, and playing online poker was pretty tempting. But you said it yourself—I’m plan B. What’ll you do if plan A doesn’t work?”
“You have a point there.” His features grew soft with affection. “You never stop surprising me, Cate.”
I felt my cheeks redden again. It was time to change the subject. “Let’s talk about something nonserious for a change. It sounds like it’s going to be all serious all the time once we get where we’re going.”
“Good point. Let’s shorten the road. What would you like to talk about?”
Suddenly, I couldn’t think of anything but the mission, which I knew we couldn’t discuss further until we arrived. I racked my brain. “Twenty Questions is kind of a road-trip game, isn’t it?”
“Hmm.” For the first time that morning, he appeared upbeat. “I should warn you, I’m really good at that game.”
At the prospect of playing a normal, lighthearted game with Ben, happiness flitted through me like a tiny fish. Still, I shook my head at his overconfidence. “Is there anything you aren’t good at?”
“Plenty of things,” he said, “but absolutely no advantage will accrue to me if I tell you what they are.” A smile played across his lips. “Ladies first.”
We played a few rounds. It was obvious that we were trying to make it easy for one another. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ben took the same approach to games that I did—that their purpose was fun, not serious competition. Still, after I guessed his Jaguar in eight questions and he guessed Vani in six, it was starting to get a bit ridiculous.
I glanced around for inspiration. It wasn’t hard to find. “Okay, I have something. Go ahead.”
“Animal, vegetable, or mineral?”
“Mineral.”
“Is it your ring?”
My mouth fell open. “You know, being telepathic is the kind of thing you’re supposed to disclose to the person you’re dating!”
“Not telepathic, just observant.” He nodded at my hand. “You looked down at your ring right before you said you had something.”
I gave him a lengthy glare. Then I put some real thought into my next answer. “Okay, ready.”
“Animal, vegetable, or mineral?”
“Animal.”
“Is it bigger than a breadbox?”
“Yes.”
Ben glanced in the rear view mirror, presumably to make sure that Vani was asleep and Asa and Eve still had their headsets on. Then he asked, “Is it the incredibly distracting woman who’s wearing your ring?”
I pressed my lips together. “You know, for someone who’s so fond of following rules, you’re certainly playing fast and loose with Twenty Questions.”
“You’re right, I apologize,” he said, with no sincerity whatsoever. “Give me one more chance. How many questions do I have left?”
As much as I was enjoying Ben’s playful side, I tried to look stern. “Seventeen.”
“All right.” He frowned in exaggerated concentration. “Is it a mammal?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.” He rubbed his jaw and murmured, “Is it the woman I kissed last night—the one I can’t stop thinking about kissing?”
A fresh blush splashed across my face as I recalled our prolonged session on my couch. “You can’t stop thinking about that either?” I whispered.
His smile was triumphant. “So I guessed right?”
“No, you did not guess right!”
“Oh, too bad.” He arched an amused eyebrow. “And no, I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m thinking about it right now, in fact.”
My breath caught in my throat as Ben’s eyes flashed up and down my body like a sultry searchlight. “You’re not even playing the game at this point.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. In my defense, though, it’s hard to concentrate on Twenty Questions when you’re sitting this close to me.”
I tried to disguise my stirring arousal with an eye roll. “Says the master of self-control.”
“Only when I’m able to concentrate fully on that task,” he admitted with a crooked grin. “Right now, at least half of my brain is occupied with driving.”
“I see.” It occurred to me that this information might come in handy sometime. “I’ll have to remember that.”
He shot me an inquisitive look. “Tell me what the answer was, at least?”
I only kept him in suspense for a minute. “It was Tank, the dog from your old Marine Corps unit.”
“Tank!” He leaned back, stretched, and tucked his free hand behind his head. “Well, I was in the right neighborhood, anyway.”
I was in the same neighborhood as a Rottweiler? “Meaning what, exactly?”
“Well, Tank used to kiss me all of the time,” Ben said. “Of course, his kisses were more slobbery….”
Choking back a laugh, I warned, “I’d stop talking right now if I were you.”
Ben held his hand up in a gesture of surrender. “Fine, but that means you have to come up with something else for us to talk about.”
“No problem.” I tried to think of a subject that would bring the heat between us down a notch. After all, Vani could wake up at any moment, and as an aura reader, she didn’t miss much. Fortunately, the perfect topic occurred to me. “Oh, I know!” There was something I’d been meaning to ask Ben, even though I knew it might be a touchy subject. “Okay, truth time. You never really told me what you think about all of that Bronze Age origins stuff.”
Learning about the origins of paranormal abilities had been one of the weirder experiences in my first week of training. According to those who studied the history of sensitives—a term for people with paranormal gifts—the oldest mentions of those gifts dated back to the Bronze Age. Since that time, the gifts appeared to have been passed down via heredity. As to how and why paranormal abilities appeared in the first place, however, there were opposing theories. Some thought that our abilities had evolved naturally, Darwin-style, while others believed that they were spiritual gifts bestowed by a higher power upon certain ancient civilizations.
I’d gathered that when it came to the “spiritual gift” theory, Ben was a skeptic like me. However, his mother seemed quite open to the possibility, and Vani and Kai were true believers. But Ben had never come right out and told me
what he thought, and the question had nagged at me—especially after he admitted that one reason his mother had taken an interest in me in the first place was that by bringing me on board, she completed the MacGregor Group’s collection of paranormal gifts, which she believed would have spiritual as well as practical consequences.
“I believe I did tell you.” Ben put both hands on the wheel. “I’m focused on running the clinic, not settling historical questions. And since I don’t believe that how or when paranormal gifts developed is relevant to our work, I don’t give it much thought.”
“Okay, yes, you did tell me that much,” I acquiesced, “but you’re still not answering my question. Surely you have an opinion on the subject.”
Somehow, Ben managed to erase his face of all expression. His tone, too, was perfectly neutral as he said, “I think it’s important that you make up your own mind about it, Cate.”
I gave him a look that I hoped was scalding. “I fully intend to make up my own mind, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know what you think. You’re a psychologist, and you’ve been around this paranormal stuff a lot longer than I have. What if Vani or Kai asks me to help them replicate some ancient animal sacrifice or something? While I’m making up my own mind, it would be helpful for me to know whether you think it’s all hokum!”
There was a pause, followed by, “I don’t want to unduly influence you.”
“Oh my God, you have got to be kidding me!” I threw my hands up. “You spent all last week trying to influence me. Now, all of a sudden, you’re Switzerland?”
Ben’s shoulders tightened. “It doesn’t matter what I think, because I’m not a sensitive. Whether the spiritual theory is true or false doesn’t affect me, at least not directly. However, if it turns out that there’s something to it, then it may very well affect you. I don’t want to poison the well.”
And I was a sensitive, so if he was afraid of poisoning the well for me, that could only mean one thing. “So you don’t believe it.”
Frustration flashed across Ben’s face, but he quickly regained his composure. He paused to rub his forehead. “All right, look. At first, I thought the spiritual origins theory sounded like, as you put it, hokum. However, it’s only practical to keep an open mind in our line of work. My mother, Vani, and Kai are people for whom I have a great deal of respect, so when they embrace something, I’m inclined to remain flexible on the subject until all of the evidence has been gathered. As of now, it hasn’t, so as far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out.”