Blood and Fire (McClouds & Friends #8)(109)

Lily let out a sigh of relief. That was doable. “No problem,” she said. “I’ve had practice lately dealing with dislikeable things. A bad psychic reading, hey, what’s that compared to being shot at?”

“You have a point,” Edie said, but she still looked uncertain.

“Don’t worry,” Lily assured her. “I won’t blame you.”

“OK, then.” Edie rose gracefully to her feet. “I’ll go get my big sketchbook. This one’s too small. Cramps my style.”

“So you, um, need the sketchbook?” Lily asked. “To see things?”

“Not exactly,” Edie said. “Before our adventures, the episodes only occurred when I was drawing. Afterward, it was coming at me all the time.” She smiled a secret smile. “Kev helped me, though. We found ways to tamp it down. But I still find having a pencil helps me focus better.” She gave Lily a wink. “Want to be my latest experiment?”

“I’m game,” Lily said.

Tam looked at her with renewed respect as Edie left the room. “You’re a braver woman than I,” she said.

“You?” Lily let out a crack of laughter. “Who’s braver than you? Get real. You’re an ass-kicking bombshell commando. Please.”

“But I’ve never let Edie draw for me,” Tam said softly. “I don’t want to monsters of my past. I prefer that they stay buried.”

Lily shivered again. The sun had sunk behind the haze of clouds on the horizon and leached the room of color but for the firelight. “Anything,” she said, her voice tight. “I’ll look under any rock I can think of to help me beat this.”

“Don’t scare her,” Sveti chided Tam. “I think it is good thing.”

“Me, too,” Liv said, snuggling her baby closer.

Tam nodded slowly, and a small smile softened her marble perfection. “I didn’t mean to dissuade you. It was a compliment.”

“Oh. Great. Well, thanks,” Lily muttered.

The damage was done, though. She had full-fledged heebiejeebies by the time Edie came back with charcoal and a large sketchbook. She flipped on a lamp and sat down on the floor a few feet in front of Lily, leafing through the pages until she found a blank one. She bent her leg to prop the sketchbook. “Sure about this?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah.” Lily fidgeted. “Do I need to, um, do anything?”

“No,” Edie said absently. “Just relax.”

“Hah,” Lily mouthed. “Right.”

“Look out at the ocean,” Liv suggested. “Think of something else.”

Lily was so nervous, as if bracing for something painful. But the ocean gave her something to focus on. Vast, evocative, and calming.

No one said a word. Edie’s charcoal scribbled, scratched, whirred. At one point, Lily gave in to curiosity and peeked at Edie’s face.

She looked away, unnerved, although Edie had not seen her. The woman’s eyes were lit by an iridescent glow. A trick of the light, shining on her silver-gray eyes. The pencil jerked and scribbled as if it had a life of its own. Lily composed herself with effort, looked back at the ocean.

Time passed. An agonizing amount. And finally, the pencil scratching slowed and stopped.

Lily looked. Edie was gazing at what she’d drawn, looking perplexed. Tam, Sveti, and Liv peered over her shoulder, fascinated.

“So?” Lily’s voice was sharp. “What is it?”

Edie chewed on her lip, frowning for a moment. “I have no idea,” she said. “I don’t know what to make of it. Maybe you will.”

Lily rose to her feet and realized, to her embarrassment, that her knees were too rubbery to bear her weight. She covered the defect by plopping onto her knees and then her butt next to Edie on the floor. Her teeth were chattering. “Let me see.” She held out her hand.

Edie passed her the sketchbook. Lily took a deep breath. Looked.

Throbbing hot-cold darkness rose up and blotted out everything.

She was lying on her side. They were yelling her name from far away. Hands shaking her. Patting her face. Bit by bit, she came back. Edie and the rest were crouching over her, their faces anxious.

“I’m OK,” she croaked, trying to push herself up. “Sorry.”

“Rest,” Tam said sharply. “Lie down. Just rest and breathe.”

“Let me look at it again.” Lily kept struggling.

Tam shoved her down. “No,” she snapped. “I said to rest.”

“And I said to let . . . me . . . look!” Lily sat upright, shoved the woman’s hands away, and grabbed the sketchbook from Sveti’s hands/span>

It set her heart thudding, but she didn’t faint this time. Same image. Still there. She rubbed her eyes, still not trusting them.

A woman’s face, in her sixties. Beautiful in a subtle way. Strong bones, well-cut mouth. Smiling. And her eyes. Oh, God, her eyes. They stared up out of the paper, straight at Lily. Soft with tenderness. With love. Lily covered her mouth with her hand as tears streamed down.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered, rocking. “Oh, my God.”

The other women waited patiently, and finally Tam’s patience snapped. “For the love of God, Lily!” she burst out. “Who is it?”