Out of the Darkness

by Jaime Rush

  “I didn’t know that. He certainly disappeared from my orbit. When he stopped reporting the results of BLUE EYES, as was agreed, we severed ties, and he was removed from the SPP by a committee decision. I hadn’t heard from him at all until a year ago.”

  Amy’s body stiffened. “You heard from him a year ago?”

  “He called, wanting to speak with me. I only wanted to know what had happened to my three people. When he wouldn’t tell me, I hung up on him. I haven’t heard from him since.”

  Amy turned to the rest of them. “He could be alive. We have to find him.”

  Hobson studied them. “If you—I’m assuming you all have psychic abilities, I’d love to talk to you more.”

  Eric stood, leading the rest to take his cue. “Maybe another time. We’ve got to go. If you ever hear from Darkwell, you never saw us.”

  “I wouldn’t give the man the time of day.”

  Amy turned to them. “He means it. I can see his glow.”

  Lucas paused. “Can we have a printout of our mothers’ files?”

  “I suppose that would be all right. I can’t give you Kee’s file, though. Confidentiality and all.” He clicked the mouse and the printer whirred to life.

  “He’s dead, too?” Lucas asked.

  “Suicide. His wife was the most upset at that, the most confused. She told me he believed that if you took your life, you would be doomed to eternal darkness.”

  Hobson handed each man his mother’s file though Petra snatched hers. “Your mothers were talented, lovely women. I’m sorry for your loss. And mine.”

  Lucas asked Petra, “Still got the feeling?”

  She shook her head, but anxiety still tightened her face.

  Eric checked his phone, making sure he hadn’t missed any calls from Rand. All clear. At least for now.

  CHAPTER 21

  J

  erryl reclined in the chair, his eyes closed. “I can see Petra. Wait, the others are there, too.” Gerard Darkwell, who sat beside him, leaned forward. “All of them?”

  Jerryl’s closed eyelids twitched. “Not Brandenburg. They’re in an office, talking to some skinny old guy. He’s Asian.” He fell silent.

  Gerard wanted to ask him more, but he bit his tongue and waited.

  “They’re talking about someone named Wallace,” Jerryl said after a few minutes.

  “What about him?”

  “Fungus…. missing for twenty years…the old guy is saying that he heard from him a year ago. And Shane is excited about him maybe being alive. They want to find him.”

  Wallace alive? Could the man have hidden so well for that long? I’ll have to find him first.

  “They’re walking out of a building. It says SPP on the door. I can’t read the smaller writing.”

  “The SPP. How did they find out about that?” They were in D.C. Gerard wondered where Steele was. But they were already leaving. They’d be gone by the time anyone could get there. “See if you can follow them to their car.”

  “And when they get there, I’ll get into Eric’s head again. I want that bastard bad. I can’t believe he’s alive. I was sure he hit an artery, and they couldn’t take him to a hospital.” After a minute, “Uh-oh, Petra’s tuned in to me. Damn. I can feel the shield going up.” He grimaced in his effort to stay on-site. His face reddened. With an angry exhale, he opened his eyes. “She ousted me. I’ve got to work on staying there, even with the shield.”

  “That’s all right. We got some valuable information.”

  Jerryl didn’t want pain medication for fear it would dull his senses. Fortunately, even though it was more than a flesh wound, it wasn’t serious. Just the kind of man Gerard wanted on his team. He hadn’t given up on Sayre yet, either. The man just needed time to consider. Darkwell had a feeling he’d be in touch soon.

  The Rogues had planned to find Robbins later in the day, when they had the best chance of catching him. It was a long shot; they knew that.

  Zoe wanted to talk to this man as much as any of the rest of them did. He held the answers.

  They drove into Bethesda, Zoe riding with Rand, and split up to cover more ground. How hard would it be to find a black H2?

  “Got one!” Rand said after they’d been driving around for a half an hour.

  Her heart jumped. Could it be this easy? She called the others and gave their location. “We see a man driving, and he’s by himself.”

  “Sounds good,” Amy told her. “We’ll catch up to you in a few minutes.”

  Zoe disconnected and held on to Rand as he swerved through traffic to keep up with the H2. They only had a vague description of the man, from Lucas’s recollection. They moved closer to the H2, and finally Rand was able to pull up next to him, but the windows were too dark to see inside clearly. The man looked over at them, but even then, they could only make out indistinct features.

  A few minutes later he turned, and Rand had to cut through a parking lot to catch up with him. She breathed out in relief when they caught up to him again.

  “He’s probably going to figure out we’re following him now,” Rand said.

  The H2 took a sharp right turn down a side street.

  “I think you’re right.”

  “He’s not real good at eluding us, though. If he was CIA, you’d think he’d be better.”

  She caught a street sign and called Amy to update them on their location. The H2 couldn’t go very fast because of traffic.

  Rand said, “I’m going to jump ahead and see where he’s going. He won’t be able to pull a move on me again.” At the next light, he stopped two cars behind the H2.

  “Do you know your pupils shrink when you shoot ahead?”

  “No, I didn’t. I’ve never looked in the mirror when I’ve done it.”

  “They get real tiny, like little dots.”

  He glanced back at her for a second and gave her a grin. “Cool.”

  She rolled her eyes. Such a guy! He moved when the light turned green. They followed the H2 for five more blocks, the driver turning several times in obvious and lame attempts to lose them. Which was why they were so surprised when he pulled into a grocery store lot and parked. A man got out and stood next to his vehicle, his legs slightly apart, his gaze on them.

  She and Rand exchanged glances. He didn’t look armed or particularly aggressive, and surely he wouldn’t gun them down in front of everyone. With these guys, though, who knew?

  “Surely it can’t be this easy,” she said.

  “I don’t see any danger, but I’ll keep checking.”

  They pulled up beside him. The man wasn’t quite as old as Lucas had surmised Robbins to be. He wore a suit, though, with neatly combed silvering dark hair. He crossed his arms over his chest. Not the stance of a man who might shoot them.

  Rand cut the engine and got off the bike, Zoe following. Before they could say anything, the man jabbed his finger at them.

  “You’re not going to find anything. Do you understand me? Not a damned thing.”

  Of course he would recognize them. Rand walked a little closer. “We just want answers.”

  “No, you want evidence. I know the game you’re playing.”

  Zoe stepped up next to Rand. “No, I don’t think you do. We only want to know what’s really going on. Our lives depend on it.”

  “Well, here’s your answer. I’m not cheating, so she’s not going get any evidence to use against me in court. She’s wasting my money paying you to follow me around. I don’t give a rat’s ass about your livelihood. I’ve got thousands of dollars racking up in lawyer’s fees, both hers and mine, and now yours. I’ve had it. Do you understand? I’ve had it!”

  She and Rand exchanged glances again, this time with their brows raised. Rand was trying hard to hide his sheepish grin when he said, “Your name isn’t Sam Robbins, is it?”

  Now his brows furrowed. “No.” Relief broke out on his expression. “You’re after someone named Robbins? Not me?”

  Rand lifted his hand. “Sorry to ha
ve bothered you. Wrong cheating bastard with a black H2.” He got on the bike, Zoe quickly following him.

  “That was embarrassing,” she said, once they were heading out of the parking lot.

  He shrugged. “We’ll never see him again.”

  She called Amy. “Not Robbins.” No need to get into the rest of it.

  “Damn. Well, let’s keep looking.”

  But after two more hours of driving around, they found not one more H2.

  “Time to pack it in,” Rand said. “It’s starting to get dark.”

  She made one last call to Amy. “We’re out of here.”

  “Yep, us, too.” Disappointment saturated her voice. “I knew it was a long shot, but damn, I wanted to find him.”

  “I know. Sometimes it feels good just to do something, anything. But we’re going to need help with this. Or else, we’re going to spend a lot of time riding around looking for this guy.”

  She signed off and leaned against Rand, her arms loosely around his waist. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

  Petra curled up in bed with the pages Hobson had printed clutched in her hand. For the first time she had real knowledge of her mother and not just anecdotes. Had her father known anything about Camilla’s abilities? Had he thought her ability to hear extraordinarily well just an extreme physical ability? Had he known about her pyrokinesis?

  Holding the pages made her feel closer to her mother than she ever had. She drifted into sleep feeling warm and fuzzy.

  She woke with a start, a voice whispering in her head. Petra. Come to the garage.

  Cheveyo. God, that was freaky how he could get into her head like that. Freaky and intimate. Her heart thrummed as she pulled on a robe, glanced in the mirror at the silky pajamas she wore, then ditched the robe. She slipped into the Jimmy Choo Molly orange heels that matched her jammies.

  She had to be quiet and not wake anyone. Eric would insist on coming. He’d bully and chase away Cheveyo with his suspicions. No, she wanted Cheveyo all to herself.

  She crept out into the dark hallway. All quiet. She tiptoed into the living area, also dark and deserted. As she made her way down the tunnel, she reminded herself that Cheveyo was probably more of a loner than Rand, and that was saying something.

  Petra knew the bone-deep agony of being in love with someone she couldn’t have. Though she could clearly see that Lucas and Amy were meant to be, watching them together was still painful.

  She climbed up into the shed and opened the door to the night. The cool, moist air snapped on her damp skin. It had rained, and she hadn’t heard a thing. Damn, she hated being shut off from the world. She took a deep breath of the earthy air and listened for any unusual sounds over the traffic in the near distance. Raindrops pattered onto leaves and a dog barked. She looked for Cheveyo. Had he brought another Offspring?

  He stepped out of the shadows, and in his black jeans and leather jacket, a naughty voice in her head—her own this time—whispered, Too bad he didn’t grab me again.

  “You rang?” she said in a singsong way, though her voice quivered.

  “Let’s talk in the garage.”

  They walked side by side, she a bit wobbly on the grass. She lost her balance for a second, and he took her arm to help.

  “Heels on grass,” she muttered.

  “Heels? You’re wearing heels with pajamas?”

  “They were the first thing I grabbed.”

  She unlocked the garage, and he waited until she walked in first. A gentleman, as Zoe had described. Petra had tried to squeeze every bit of information out of Zoe about Cheveyo without seeming obvious.

  “Don’t turn on the light,” he said in his soft, low voice.

  He leaned against the car in a slice of light coming from the neighbors’ house, his hands braced on the hood. His dark hair was loose and wavy, his eyebrows defined in the dimness. He smelled good, fresh air and the faint scent of cologne. For her?

  Petra took the spot next to him, extending her leg so the shoes showed. “Is your father Wayne Blackhawk Kee?”

  For a change she took him off-balance. “How did you know that?”

  “We went to the Society for Psychic Phenomena in D.C. Did you know he was involved in that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know that Lucas is your half brother?”

  “Yes.”

  Okay, her turn to be surprised again. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “No need. Tell Lucas that my father loved his mother. The Booster played with his libido, made him cheat on my mother, but he felt an affinity with Francesca.”

  “How do you know all that? Isn’t he dead?”

  His mouth quirked in a soft smile. “We’ve been communicating since I was a boy.” His smile faded. “I can’t stay long. You felt one of the other Offspring remote-viewing you a few days ago.”

  “Yes. I think it’s the woman.”

  “No, it was Nicholas Braden. What you told him piqued his interest. He wants to talk to you.”

  “We’ve tried that already. We nearly got killed in a trap at his house. Then we tried to talk to another Offspring and found the bastard who got inside Eric’s head and made him shoot himself. Braden works for them, doesn’t he?”

  “He’s doing contract work for Darkwell, but he has some doubts about the program. What you told him made him do a little digging. He doesn’t like what he’s found. He had nothing to do with what happened at his house. In fact, he’s pretty pissed off that his home was violated. I told him I’d arrange a meet.”

  “How do you know all this? Can you get into his head, too?”

  “I sensed his confusion. Checked him out. Then I talked to him psychically, told him a little about the Rogues—”

  “How do you know what we’re called?”

  “Babe, I know a lot.” His ghost of a smile, along with the endearment, sent her heart racing again. “Nicholas is okay. Nothing like the feeling I get when I try to get into Jerryl Evrard’s head.”

  “You know he’s the enemy?” She slapped the side of the car. “I wish we’d talked to you first.”

  “I tried to warn you that he was trouble, but you were too wiped out after you saved Eric’s life.”

  Her eyes widened. “That was you warning me! I convinced myself that it was a dream.”

  “Remember what I said about mortal wounds? You’re tearing yourself down. You did too much too soon.”

  She nodded. “I know, but he’s my brother. And Lucas…”

  “Someone you love, too.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s not fair that you know so much about me, and I know hardly anything about you.”

  He shrugged, a deadpan expression on his face. “Who said life was fair?”

  She planted her fists at her waist but couldn’t really muster much ire. “That suggestion thing you do to me…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Just how far can that go? Like, if you told me to, uh, take off my clothes…” Her finger involuntarily went to the strap on her pajama top.

  His eyes flared with lust for a second. “I couldn’t get you to do something you didn’t want to do.”

  “What if it’s something I want to do?”

  His eyebrow arched. “I wouldn’t have to suggest it.” He banked the fire in his eyes. “I’d better go.”

  “Come down to the shelter, meet everyone. At least meet Lucas.”

  “I’ll help where I can, but I can’t get involved. And I’ll keep an eye on you.” He studied her, her eyes, then her mouth.

  He stroked his thumb over her lower lip and stepped back. “I’ll be in touch to see how you want to proceed with Braden.”

  She let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. “All right.” When he reached the door, she whispered, “Zoe said you changed into an animal. Is that true?”

  He opened the door a few inches, and she thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then, before her eyes, he morphed into a black panther and vanished
into the night.

  She ran to the door and looked outside. He was gone. Zoe had described his transformation as liquid darkness. Petra could see why.

  She stepped out into the night and locked the door behind her. She felt him watching her—watching over her. With a shiver that tingled through her body, she walked to the shed.

  As soon as she entered the tomb, Eric’s harsh voice jarred her out of the magical moment.

  “Petra!”

  She jumped, slapping her hand over her heart. “Eric, stop yelling! You scared me to death.”

  “What are you doing sneaking out?” He looked behind her as the door slid closed, probably expecting another Offspring.

  “I met Cheveyo again.”

  He looked at her face. “Oh, yeah, I can see that now, Miss Dewy Gooey.” He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why didn’t you get me? You shouldn’t be wandering out there alone at night. We don’t even know this guy.”

  “I didn’t want you along, and I trust him.”

  “Didn’t want me along? Why the hell not?”

  “For all I know, you’d shoot him, then ask questions.” She hated to admit it, but Eric was becoming more and more unpredictable.

  “What did he want this time?”

  Lucas and Amy walked out of the hallway, no doubt drawn by Eric’s voice. “What’s going on?” Amy asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

  Petra threw her arms up. “Might as well wake up Zoe and Rand, too. Then I’ll only have to tell it once.”

  She walked down the stairs and knocked on both their doors. With the chemistry sizzling between the two of them, she couldn’t be sure if they were, in fact, in separate rooms. They emerged from their respective rooms, though, and Petra had to admit to a tinge of relief. She had already endured Lucas falling in love with Amy; the last thing she needed was to watch another couple get hot and bothered.

  “What’s wrong?” Rand asked, mirroring Zoe’s concerned expression.

  “Town meeting.” Her gaze dropped down from Rand’s bare chest to the sheet he held in front of him. His eyes were alert, ready for trouble.