The only place he really thought would be justice wasn’t a good choice, so he went with somewhere else.
He went with his gut.
There was another attorney who deserved to suffer for all the years of letting the people down.
So, it was decided.
He would make sure that before dawn, when it was safe to do the deed, that he placed Dale where he would be forever memorialized.
Then he laughed, checking one more off his list. This was perfect. They were dropping like flies.
He couldn’t wait to finish the list.
Once he did, he’d have his revenge.
He’d make it all right.
Then he could be at peace. Their eternal torment was his only way past this, and it was coming.
One way, or another.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
Graymoor Manor
When the screaming had final stopped, the team was relieved. As hard as Avalon tried to help the man, she wasn’t able to stop the pain.
It looked wicked.
They’d been forced to watch as Lucian appeared to be living out each and every blow that the victim was feeling. Avalon, clutching his hand, was suffering too.
Beads of perspiration were on her brow.
Her pale eyes went even less blue.
They were both in a shitload of duress, and the team felt helpless as they were forced to watch.
Then...
It all stopped.
There was a collective gasp in relief, and they were finally okay.
“What happened?” Nate asked, helping Avalon up from the floor. She was limp, weak, and looked like she’d done battle for the man’s soul.
He hated seeing her suffer.
If he could take her place, he’d do it in a heartbeat. He’d carry this burden for the woman he loved.
As if she knew what he was thinking, she placed her palm over his cheek.
It calmed him.
Maura helped Lucian up. “What can I get for you?” she asked.
“I need something to settle my nerves before we talk about it.”
He glanced at the liquor cabinet.
Avalon stopped him, as if reading his mind. “We’ll have tea.”
“I hate tea.”
“When you have a gift like ours, alcohol is the last thing you need to consume. It makes it harder to control. We’ll have tea.”
He sighed. “I’ll have tea.”
Lucian headed toward the doorway. “I don’t have staff, so I have to make it myself.”
They followed, allowing him to lead them through his massive house.
“This place is crazy,” Luke said. “There’s more wood in here than in the trees around it.”
“Graymoor was my mother’s a few generations back. I think it was my great, great grandfather who built it. It’s always been in our family. I don’t know any other place but this.”
It was his Heaven and his Hell.
His solace and his prison.
They entered a kitchen. It looked like it had been redone, but it was chilly and cold.
The man didn’t like color.
He didn’t like people.
He really hated himself.
The things he surrounded himself with proved it. The team was having a hard time believing that Avalon could save him. She’d said it was possible, but still…
“I only have plain tea,” he offered.
Avalon sat. “That’s fine. I can make it if you’d like,” she offered.
He stared at her. “Is that a good idea?” he asked. “You might get burned.”
She laughed. “Point me at the stove.”
Nate loved that she was getting autonomous, but he also hated it. Seeing Avalon blossom was a blessing and a curse. Watching her move around this man’s home made him want to be sick.
He couldn’t wait to get the hell out of here. They would bunk down in a B&B or a local hotel. He needed to get Avalon alone so they could talk.
He missed touching her.
Nate missed the feel of her hair caressing his flesh. Watching her hold another man’s hand made him want to be sick. It was childish, but he couldn’t help how he felt.
He wanted to weep.
Lucian placed her in front of the stove and waited for her to do her thing. Amazingly enough, she was able to turn everything on and make the tea.
“How?” he asked.
Yeah, that was a damn good question that the team would like answered. Avalon had done it without any help, much like before when she navigated his living space.
Were her eyes getting better?
“I’m using you,” she said. “I can see what you can see.”
They all stared at Lucian.
“Really?”
“Maura is wearing black and camo, Jagger the same—but way too many guns. Luke is in a red polo, and Nathaniel…he’s wearing a blue shirt the color of his beautiful eyes.”
Nate’s heart hitched.
He loved when she saw him.
Their meeting in dreams was always his blessing. It was his favorite thing to do with Avalon, next to rolling around and getting sweaty.
“You’re right,” Lucian stated.
Avalon’s laughter filtered through the room. “My gift has connected with yours. I can see while I’m here. I’m using my mind, but I can see as clearly as you can. By the way, you need glasses,” she said. “It’s blurry.”
He didn’t know what to say.
“Glasses for one eye?”
“Okay, a contact. Your vision is likely jacked up from the explosion.”
“Uh, Avalon, my face is jacked up. My eye is the least of my issues.”
“Before you say it, you’re still very handsome, Lucian. It’s perception. I think you look like a pirate,” she said, as he looked at his reflection on the stainless steel refrigerator.
“A pirate?”
He didn’t know what the hell to say to that.
Nate wanted to punch something.
How much more was he supposed to take? His fiancée was complimenting another man. Was that her way of flirting?
Really?
He was right there in the room.
What the bloody hell was going on?
He should have stayed in bed. This was the worst day of his life, and he didn’t even know why.
“How about we talk about what you saw?” Luke asked, changing the subject before his partner blew. “Can we talk about the killer?”
Avalon made two cups of tea and handed one to the man beside her. When he went to sit, she stayed nearby. This little gift was astounding to her.
How she was doing it, she didn’t know, but she loved it. Her gifts were getting stronger and stronger, and she could even see Nate.
And he was scowling.
Crap!
“He was mutilating him.”
“Who’s him?”
Lucian sipped the tea. When Avalon patted his arm, he took a deep breath. “His face was nearly cut off, but it’s Dale Plunkett.”
Nate pointed at Maura, and she began doing the research. They needed to move fast on this. In the morning, there’d be another body, and he wanted to cut off the local law before they could interfere.
“How do you know?” Avalon asked.
“I went head to head against him in court more times than I could count. Normally, I beat him.”
Luke was making notes on his tablet. “What did he do?”
“He’s a criminal defense attorney. He used to get the scumbags free. I’d put them in, he’d find a loophole and get the case tossed for lack of evidence or for some lame excuse, and they’d be out on the street causing mayhem again.”
Well, that would make anyone mad enough to kill.
Even them.
“He liked money, and he spent most of his time in the mob’s pocket.”
“Could this be a mob hit?” asked Jagger. He didn’t often ask questions, but this hit close to home. His father had been a scumbag Irish
mob boss.
Now he was dead.
The world was a better place.
“I don’t think so,” Avalon offered. “It felt personal. As I was in Lucian’s mind, I could feel this killer’s rage. He wanted the person to suffer, and he was doing his best to make that happen.”
“What was done to him?”
Lucian told them everything.
“Jesus,” Maura muttered. “We have one hell of a sicko.”
Nate began pacing.
“What’s wrong, Nathaniel?” Avalon asked.
“We’re going to have to head to the Sheriff’s office first thing in the morning. We need to get in on this, and fast. This has the potential of blowing up on us. If we want to keep this low key, we have to get in control.”
Luke agreed.
“What are you going to tell them?” Lucian asked. “You can’t say my name. God! You can’t point them at me. I’m finally forgotten, and I don’t need to have this back on me again.”
Avalon patted his arm.
She saw what was coming.
He was going to be good. This killer was a blessing to him, only he didn’t see it yet.
He would.
It would be a difficult road, but he’d survive.
Lucian would get it eventually. Fate had a plan, and she could see it unfolding around them. If everything remained the same, there would be an out for him in the end.
“I’m going to tell them that the FBI had been alerted to a possible serial killer, and we’re going to offer our assistance. The person in charge can call my bosses, and they’ll verify.”
Thank God for Elizabeth and Ethan Blackhawk.
He seemed to relax.
“Who’s in charge in this town?”
He hesitated. There was something in his voice, which hitched, when he prepared to talk about her.
“Lucian?”
“Her name is Sheriff Bishop Killion. She’s the law.”
Luke began running the woman they’d be working with on this case.
“Bishop?” Avalon asked.
“Yes, why?”
She smiled. “No reason. It’s an odd name. There can’t be that many of them around.”
Lucian shrugged, trying to play it cool as he pretended he wasn’t too familiar with her. “I don’t know much about her. Her father was the sheriff ten years ago. He was shot about two years ago. She ran for sheriff, and she won. No one thought she would, since she’s young, but they loved her father a great deal.”
Avalon heard the fondness in his voice.
She also heard the lie, and she knew why. It had all been in his head.
“You liked him.”
He nodded. “I did. Sheriff Miles Killion was a damn good man. I worked closely with him. He’d arrest the perpetrators, and I’d put them away.”
He tried to forget Bishop.
It made his heart ache.
“So Miles Killion was murdered?” Nate asked.
“He was killed in his own home. It’s still unsolved. He was a good person who helped this community.”
As had he.
Once upon a time…
Avalon noticed he sat taller, spoke clearer, and was proud of his past. While he didn’t realize it, he was.
His mannerisms spoke volumes.
Then she saw it in his mind.
“You were feeding him details.”
He started laughing. “Yeah, I was. No one knew that. He’d arrest a suspect, I’d come here, sit down with the reports, and I’d get flashes of what had happened. I’d tell him where to find the weapon, drugs, or other people involved.”
They all watched him.
“Really?” Luke asked.
“Yes. Then he’d get me the evidence, and I’d lock them away. It was how I became who I was. It’s also how I lost everything. I cheated, and I guess fate wanted me to pay.”
Avalon patted his arm. “That’s not why everything happened, Lucian. You were meant to be on this path.” That was where Bishop came into play.
It was also where his denial was strongest.
“This path sucks.”
Nate kept them focused on the job. He didn’t want to think that this man’s path was connecting with Avalon’s.
She was his.
“And no one knew you two did this?”
He shook his head. “Not to my knowledge. There was no paper trail. He’d head to my office at the courthouse, and I’d slip him a paper with a couple words on it. No one suspected anything. Who questions a sheriff and DA having coffee?”
That was pretty ingenious.
“That’s crazy smart,” Maura stated. “You were playing the criminals and winning. That’s pretty awesome.”
“It was. Then it wasn’t.”
He pointed at his scarred face. When he ran his fingers over it, it was as if he was reliving a memory. There was sadness in his one blue eye.
There was pain.
Heartbreak.
Loss.
“No one suspected a thing and I was called ‘lucky’. They thought I was just really good at being handed the easy cases. No one realized that behind the scenes, I was using my gift.”
“It was your legacy,” Avalon offered. “Your mother…she had a gift too.”
“This house holds lots of secrets. My great, great grandmother was said to be psychic. They locked her away for being crazy. She died in an asylum. My great grandmother was her only child. She also had the gift.”
“What happened to her?” Nate asked.
“She went crazy after giving birth to my grandmother and committed suicide.”
“I’m sorry,” Luke said. He was researching everything the man was saying, and everything was checking out.
He shrugged.
“My grandmother had the gift. She gave birth to her daughter, my mother, and she died in childbirth. At least she didn’t go crazy. Graymoor has a way of doing that to you.”
They listened.
“My mother and father lived here before me. My father loved her so much, and they had their fairytale.”
“Until?” Avalon asked, getting him to relive it. In order to heal, he had to see his fairytale was still out there.
He focused on her.
“She went crazy and killed herself. My father remarried. It didn’t last long. He couldn’t bear to live without my mother. The only reason he tried to find someone else was a bid at political office. He made that crystal clear that it was a marriage of convenience. His new wife was a wicked witch too.”
“What happened?” Avalon asked.
“He wanted to be governor of the state. He lost, and he took his life to be with my mother.”
“And your stepmother?”
He shrugged. “I was eighteen at the time, and I took over Graymoor. She wasn’t happy when she was escorted off the premises. She really thought that when she married my father, she’d get this place. She was mistaken. She didn’t read the prenup. It’s all mine. This monstrosity is my burden in life. Since I won’t be getting married, or having kids, I’ll donate it to some historical society. Maybe they can contain the curse.”
“You will get married.”
He laughed at the mere thought. “At one time, I was engaged. I thought she was the path, but she wasn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to pick a date.”
Nate looked at Avalon.
Shit!
She couldn’t do that either.
“My heart was never hers. Then when I was finally able to come to grips with it, this happened. The woman who was so interested in marrying me took one look at the monster I’d become, and she bolted. This, this, isn’t an easy thing to deal with.”
“It wouldn’t bother me,” Avalon offered. “Maybe it bothers you so much that you’re giving off that ‘keep away’ vibe. You should chill. Girls dig pirates, right, Maura?”
She laughed. “Oddly, yes, yes, we do. If they have a parrot, even better,” she teased.
Even Luke stared at her.
He
might be joining his partner in losing his mind. It was all fun and games when Avalon was checking out the guy, but when Maura did it, he was going to shit a brick.
“I think I’ve met people crazier than my ancestors. I didn’t think it was possible, but here we are…”
“Let’s focus,” growled Nate.
The man got the hint.
They let him continue.
“My mother had the gift. She didn’t use it. She refused. It still took her out. It still drove her mad.”
“It won’t drive you mad,” Avalon offered. “They didn’t know how to control it. I can help you. Once you can keep it in check, you can keep it separate from your life.”
“What life? I’ll never have one. This is a curse, and I’m destroyed. I scare children when I leave the manor. I’m a prisoner here.”
Avalon felt the darkness.
It was creeping up in him.
“Close your eyes and focus on your aura. I want you to force it to go from red and orange to cool blue.”
He did what she said.
Why?
He didn’t know.
Maybe she could help him. What did he have to lose at this point? His sanity and Graymoor were the only two things he had left.
As soon as he did what she said, the calm came.
The voices got quieter.
“It’s like tuning a radio,” she offered. “If you let the crappy stations in, they’ll mess with your mind and you’re stuck singing the same song over and over. You have to find the easy listening music and that quiets the demons.”
He smiled at her analogy. “Thank you, Avalon. You’re amazing.”
Yeah, Nate was aware.
As in she was his amazing…
“It’s my pleasure. I’m so glad I can help you out. This is what I’ve always wanted to do.”
“You said you worked for the government. What did you do?”
Maura cut in. “Classified.”
He laughed. “Yeah, because I’ll be running out and telling the world.”
Avalon trusted him.
He was a good person.
“I helped the last few Presidents of the United States navigate a few tricky situations.”
They all stared at her.
He laughed. “This has to be your biggest challenge.”
“Getting Nate to stop scowling at me is my biggest challenge. The rest is cake.”
Oracle Seeing (The Phoenix Files Book 2) Page 7