That same low tug in my gut threatened to send me searching for the source of that haunting voice.
“I wish I could.” Expression strained, he waited several seconds before shaking his head. “I don’t hear a thing.”
“Does this mean I’m going crazy?” I thumped the back of my head against the frame. “Crazier?”
“Not necessarily.” The skin of his forehead gathered into rows of fine lines. “There’s one way to find out.”
“Are you crazy?” I edged inside the room, the openness of the hall suddenly too vast for me to navigate. “Following the breadcrumbs is what got me into this mess.”
“I’ll be right beside you.” He took my hand, threading our fingers. “We can turn back at any time.”
Casting my nice, safe room one last glance, I tugged on the point where our fingers joined and hauled him after me. “Let’s go make classic horror movie mistakes.”
Carter laughed like I had said something funny.
Pursuing the eerie ballad proved simple. Once I started walking, just as before, it all but guided my feet for me. Lost in the tracking, I almost popped my shoulder joint when Carter stopped behind me, his weight an anchor I couldn’t budge. The bubble of my concentration burst, and I whipped my head around, noting our surroundings.
A small station built into the wall, little more than a desk really, was manned by one harried nurse. Her position marked the line where the medical ward dissolved into the men’s dorm, if the blue lines streaking ahead of us were any indication. Glancing up from the papers scattering her desk, she parted her lips but then clicked her jaw shut.
I looked at Carter and found him standing with his chin dipped, allowing him to peer over the rims of his glasses. What he did next left the woman with a mushy smile on her face and a rosy glow in her cheeks. He lifted his head, lenses covering those sterling eyes, and pulled on our joined hands to get my attention.
Playing the role of obedient patient, I kept my mouth shut until we got out of hearing range. “What did you do to her?”
His stride hitched, but he kept walking. “What makes you think I did anything?”
“You showed her your eyes, the eyes I’m not allowed to see? Those eyes? Remember them?” I scowled at his evasion. “One look at you, and she shut down. Lights on, no one home.”
“We all have our talents.” He rubbed a finger aside his nose, nudging his shades higher. “I didn’t hurt her. I don’t hurt anyone. All I did was warp what she saw into what she expected to see.”
The defensive note in his voice sent alarm bells clanging in my head. “Have you ever done that to me?”
“No.” The finality of the word, of his tone, left his jaw clenched. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“I’ll have to trust you mean that.” A chill rippled through me at the power he wielded with such casual ease. “I wouldn’t know if you had, would I?”
“No.” He pushed out a breath. “You wouldn’t.”
Yet he had shown me what he could do. No matter how much I liked him, and he was growing on me, I would always be on guard now. Had that been the point? Awareness was its own sort of protection. It was harder to trap someone aware of the snare.
The possibility he might have felt compelled to warn me of his nature lifted the hairs down my arms.
The gesture spoke of trust, and it had been a long time since I trusted anyone.
Waffling over his intentions, I was almost relieved when a strident chord yanked my attention taut. “Come on.” The matter of his loyalty wouldn’t be decided in this hallway. “The song is fading.”
I hoped that was a good thing.
Together we crept down the hallway, the volume increasing until it vibrated in my bones. A quick check of Carter’s pensive expression proved he remained deaf to the enticement. I cut through one hall, the hum spurring me forward until I broke into a jog. I slid to a stop when a shaft of light bisected the path in front of us.
“This is not good,” I stated the obvious.
“Stay put.” Carter rested a hand on my shoulder then activated his radio. “I need backup in east wing M dorm, room forty-three.”
“Do we wait for them?” I wiped my damp palms on my pants, choking down my fear as I took a hesitant step. “What if…?”
“I’ll check.” He gave me a squeeze before letting go. “You keep an eye out.”
Guilt at surrendering the hard job to him beat at me, but I had no desire to add fresh slides to the reel of my nightmares. Some might call that cowardice, but I chose to view it for what it was. Survival.
Spine flush against the opposite wall, I kept watch while Carter strode off to investigate. He reached the room and pushed the door until the knob tapped against the wall. The tense lines of his shoulders melted, and he glanced at me. “It’s empty.”
A profound sense of relief turned my legs to jelly. “Thank the mother.”
“We should get you back to medical before you’re missed.” He took my elbow, and we started walking. “It would be better for us both if you weren’t flagged as missing too.”
I couldn’t argue with him there. Something told me Edelweiss didn’t reward its would-be adventurers, particularly second-time offenders.
The shortcut Carter used meant we bypassed the nurses’ station, for which I was grateful. Warping someone’s mind couldn’t be good for them, and the poor nurse hadn’t done anything to deserve him shaping her perception. Back at my room, he nudged me toward the bed while he bent to inspect the mechanism on the door. Using a toothpick and a dime, he convinced the lock to cooperate. One firm push from him and the strike latch engaged, locking us in.
“Well, that was enough adventure for one night.” He checked to see that I was seated on the mattress then reclaimed his chair, adjusting the volume on his radio in order to keep up with developments. “Edelweiss hasn’t seen this much activity since that pixie infestation a few years back. The little beasts hid in an elf’s hair—like lice—and spread through the entire west wing before we got them contained.”
“That was enough adventure for forever,” I corrected him, not sure I believed the words as I spoke them. I hadn’t ended up consulting for the conclave for nothing. I climbed dead center in the bed and pulled the covers up to my chin. “I figured a parking ticket would be the most excitement I had after…everything.”
“You’re a magnet for the inexplicable.” He ruffled his hair. “I’ll give you that.”
“Gee,” I eked out on a yawn. “Thanks.”
“Sleep.” He crossed the room and flipped off the lights. “I get the feeling you’ll have visitors bright and early.” He palmed his phone from his back pocket and raised his eyebrows. “Will the light bother you?”
“I’ll turn over.” No restraints meant I could sleep on my preferred side this time. “Night, Carter.”
“Night, Pinks.”
With the door locked and a guard at my back, I settled into the thin mattress without a twinge and fell asleep to the faint clicking of his fingers on the digital keyboard.
Chapter 4
I jackknifed in bed, ejected from turbulent dreams and half-remembered whispers. Maybe the doctors had returned to chatter over me. This time I had been too tired to listen if they had. Jaw cracking on a yawn, I squinted at the morning light streaming through the curtained window to my right. The warm rays spilled over a chair whose occupant was noticeably absent.
Tuck in your bottom lip before you trip over it. That’s how Mom called me out when I pouted. The guy had put in going on twenty-four hours. He deserved to go home, grab a shower, eat and then sleep.
On the upside, I checked my wrists and found them still unbound. That was progress, right? I couldn’t be in too much trouble if they hadn’t tied me down again. I checked all the usual spots to make sure I wasn’t sporting tubes or needles in hard-to-remove places, relieved when I didn’t find so much as a saline drip. Pops rang out down my spine when I scooted out of bed and crossed to the bathroom. A basi
c toiletry kit waited for me at the sink, and I brushed my teeth then washed my face.
Feeling like a new woman, I was pondering the logistics of building a house of cards on my mattress to entertain myself when Carter strolled in with a Styrofoam container balanced on his forearm and a paper cup in his hand. The scent of fried sausage hit me, and my stomach rumbled loud enough to embarrass. Whatever was on the menu for me today wouldn’t taste half as good as his breakfast smelled.
“I thought you could use the fortification.” He thrust the items at me. “Hope you like salsa on your breakfast burritos. I asked for mild just in case.”
“Am I allowed to have this?” What I meant was would he get in trouble for acting as my supplier?
“I got it from the kitchen. It’s staff breakfast. Hurry up, and no one will be the wiser.”
A slave to temptation, I popped open the lid and inhaled. “Are you sure you don’t want it?”
“Nah.” He sank into his chair. “I don’t have to feed today.”
Feed? The reminder of his lure—what he had done to that nurse—tempted me to press for more details, but it wasn’t my place. Either he told me what he was, or he didn’t. Right now, my stomach couldn’t care less. He had bought its loyalty with a single word. Salsa.
Willing to avoid the topic of dietary restrictions with him, I did have one harmless question. “Why haven’t you been relieved?”
His fingers tapped on the armrest of his seat. “Are you that eager to get rid of me?”
“No,” I said around a mouthful of scrambled eggs and bliss, “but you’ve been on the clock for what—twenty-four hours?”
“The job is what it is,” he said cryptically. “Besides, I don’t need much sleep.”
The catnap he had taken earlier begged to differ. He was clearly burning the candle at both ends to have passed out so hard when given the opportunity.
While I fell on his offerings like a rabid wolverine, he leaned back and linked his fingers at his navel.
“I’ve been thinking about what you’re experiencing,” he began. “You’re not crazy. Crazy doesn’t unlock doors. No hallucination can do that.”
Popping the plastic tab on the lid, I sipped the drink, which turned out to be hot cocoa so rich the flavor coated my tongue. Either they made it from scratch around here, or I had been deprived of chocolate for far too long.
“There are some fae only women can perceive.” He jiggled his knee as if stimulating his thoughts. “It’s also telling that both victims have been male with histories of committing acts of violence against women.”
“Victims?” I set the cup aside. “I thought… Last night, we didn’t see…”
“The body was discovered this morning in laundry.” An area with a card-swipe lock similar to the ones on the patients’ rooms, meaning only orderlies and staff had access. “Dione Marbury. Classified as a kitsunetsuki, a human possessed by a fox spirit. The sticking point was most kitsunetsuki are witches bonded to fox familiars. Meaning the fox might have made him kill the young women he encountered on the hiking trail, but he would have invited the spirit in, making him culpable.”
“But there are exceptions?” I guessed.
“Always.” His grimace told me what he thought of that. “That’s how he ended up here for an observation period. He was scheduled to be released to the local marshal’s office next week. Looks like they’ll be collecting early.” He paused before adding, “Dr. Pradesh estimates Dione had been dead four or five hours before he was found by the dayshift workers.”
“That puts the death along the same timeline as the fight in the chow hall. He was dead before we knew he was missing.” I smoothed the covers over toes gone cold. “He died the same way?”
Deep brackets formed on either side of his mouth. “Yes.”
“If we assume the killer is nocturnal, we cut the suspect pool in half.” That made the most sense considering the deaths occurred late at night to early in the morning. “If we assume the killer is a woman based on the voice I heard, we cut the suspect pool in half again, leaving the prime suspects the occupants of east wing W dorm.”
“Or the killer might be hoping to deflect suspicion by planting the body in an area accessible to both diurnal and nocturnal fae and male and female orderlies.” Seeing I had finished my meal, he leaned forward to gather the trash. “We can’t afford to eliminate anyone yet.”
Knowing he was right, I still grumbled about having my gut feeling shot down.
“You’re good at this, you know.” He tilted his head. “Will you go back to work for the conclave once you’re released?”
“No.” I had managed to botch that career without his help. There was no going back there. The conclave had washed its hands of me, and rightly so. “I’m going home.”
A surge of old grief swelled, a building pressure behind my breastbone, but I wasn’t quite ready to share the whys of my decision with him.
“Home?” He mimed a passable doggy paddle. “As in the ocean?”
“Yes.” I told him a version of the truth. “I miss my family, my friends, my world.” I flicked one of the restraints on the bed to make my point. “Topside made for a grand adventure, but the Mother, the ocean, is home.”
A frown plucked at his lips, but he nodded. “I get that. Going home means being given permission to be yourself. You don’t have to hide or act like you’re something you aren’t.”
“Exactly,” I agreed, surprised by his commiseration. How could someone with his looks and skill set not fit in everywhere he went? “You know, I thought you were a creeper at first, but you’re a pretty decent guy.”
“Thanks?”
A laugh bubbled out of me at the same time as a stern-faced Dr. Cruse entered the room.
“Something amusing, Ms. Bevans?” His hawklike eyes missed nothing. “I heard you laughing.”
His gaze panned the room, right past Carter, who spared him a silver glance over the rims of his glasses.
“No.” I cleared my throat. “Nothing.”
“It seems you and I are due for a chat.” His gaze dipped to the open restraints hanging from the bed to my bare wrists. “There was another incident last night. Another patient lost his life. Do you have anything of interest to add?”
“I…” I slid my focus past his shoulder to Carter, who appeared grim. “No?”
“Security reviewed the surveillance discs and discovered you left your room—again—and wandered into the east wing M dorm.”
I weighed the gravity of my possible responses, choosing and discarding answers that might get me into deeper trouble.
“How are you manipulating the locks on the doors?” He lifted the restraint to make his point. “Do you have any undeclared powers?”
“What powers?” I demanded. “I’m human, a changeling. Magic works for me, yes, but I have none of my own.”
Not a total lie. A girl had to keep a few secrets.
“Walk me through the events of last night.” He withdrew a small recording device from his pocket, the type doctors used to make notes on their patients. “Begin with your arrival in the medical ward.”
Staring contests were so third grade, but I had learned early in life never to break eye contact with predators. I had no choice but to hold his gaze and recite my story. He interrupted from time to time with a quick question, but he let me get the whole thing out before he clicked off the recorder. When I was finished, he offered me a cup of water and let me drink.
Maybe the shrinks knew what they were doing after all. Talking, as much as I had resisted it, was turning out to be a vital part of the healing process. The more I expressed my concerns, the less they weighed on me. I had Carter to thank for reminding me that peace was often found in sharing a burden.
“The information security has provided corroborates your story.” Dr. Cruse forced his hands into his pockets. “There is one more thing I must ask you to clarify. Would you mind explaining that last part to me again?”
Forcing
my hands to unclench on the sheets, I began again. “Officer Lam and I—”
“That’s the problem, Ms. Bevans.” The intensity of his voice left me cold. “There is no Officer Carter Lam working at Edelweiss.”
“What?” I barked out an outraged laugh. “Of course there is.” I bent to see around Dr. Cruse, but he caught me by the shoulders, blocking my view. “He’s sitting right behind you.”
“You and I are the only two people in this room,” he informed me.
Budding panic crept through my middle, but maybe Carter had stepped out to give us privacy.
“Look. I have proof.” I reached for my cup of hot chocolate, but it was gone. I must have passed it to Carter along with the empty food container. “He brought me a plate from the kitchen this morning.” I fought against his iron grip to glimpse the floor. “Where’s the trash can?”
Dr. Cruse bent and lifted a small plastic can and tilted it toward me, showing me it was empty. I shoved him aside before he could straighten and got an eyeful of the vacant chair angled beside my bed.
Carter was gone.
But had he ever been there in the first place?
Chapter 5
Dr. Cruse’s interview was the first of many that morning. A marshal from the conclave outpost in nearby Wink, Texas, dropped in to ask a few questions. I recognized him. We had worked a case together. And I’m pretty sure he recognized me too. Ice frosted his words, and he couldn’t get out of the room—and away from me—fast enough. No doubt expecting me to be raw from that encounter, Dr. Davis took the next turn to soothe those jagged wounds. The procession continued from there, my morning a revolving door of curiosity, suspicion and wisps of concern until at last the well ran dry.
The highlight of my day was being released to return to my room.
Alone at last, I spun a slow circle. Nothing had changed. The view wasn’t much different from the one in medical, minus the whir and flash of machines. But that was the purpose of this place, to comfort through sameness. Fae were dangerous. Even the fluffiest and sparkliest were predators. By stripping down their environments, Edelweiss offered blank slates primed for fragile minds. The lack of external foci was meant to turn patients introspective, force us to be alone with our thoughts and face the demons that had driven us to this point.
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