Whispers in the Dark (KGI #4)(3)

For one brief moment he knew peace. His mind was empty, and calm had descended, wrapped around him like a warm, fuzzy blanket.

It was absurd to think that there was any peace in hell. It wouldn’t last, but he was grateful for even a moment’s respite.

He eased down onto the rough floor and curled into as tight a ball as he could muster. He was nearly lost in the corner, a mere shadow in darkness.

Fatigue held him in its relentless grasp. But then he felt the faint touch of another. It was as though someone stroked a hand over his hair. Whispers, like a gentle summer breeze, drifted through his ears.

I’m here.

He closed his eyes, determined to rest, to regain his strength. Whatever had happened today, whether he’d finally broken from reality or not, he felt a renewed determination to live. To fight.

He focused on his family. He’d live for them. This would pass. He would survive it.

Yes. You’ll live. I won’t let you give up.

The angel whispered, and he felt some of the horror in his mind recede. If he could, he would grab on and wrap the angel around him.

He felt her smile. It was like a burst of sunshine in his shattered mind. And then he felt her arms surround him and hold him close. Just as he’d imagined her doing.

Sleep now, she gently urged.

“Stay with me,” he said even as he drifted into healing sleep.

CHAPTER 2

SHEA stepped into the crisp morning air and inhaled deeply in an effort to clear her mind. Flashes of her encounter the night before and the weight of emotion still haunted her. She’d tried to go back to sleep after she’d reached out to the man being kept prisoner, but she’d been too on edge to relax.

She pulled her jacket tighter around her body and stared down the street as the sky lightened around her. It was still relatively quiet, but in an hour or so, the hustle and bustle of early-morning rush hour would replace the calm. She only had one house to clean today and it wouldn’t take her long. She had never dared to find a job where she was required to give any personal information. She took what jobs she could find that would pay her cash and she moved on after short periods of time. Staying too long in one spot made her nervous, and she was determined to stay ahead of those who pursued her.

Already her gut was screaming that she’d remained too long here. It was time to go.

She bent as if tying her shoe and casually looked left and right, as if simply preparing for her exercise regimen.

In truth, she hated jogging. She was in shape out of necessity, not out of any love for exercise. She used the routine to carefully scout her surroundings, always looking for any change, anything out of the ordinary. She watched for those who hunted her.

You’re pensive this morning, Shea.

Shea frowned as she rose and began to stretch.

You can’t ignore me. I know you hear me. Talk to me, Grace begged softly.

Shea sighed. You know we shouldn’t communicate, Grace. It isn’t safe. I don’t want to know anything that could be used against you. You don’t need to know anything about me. If I know nothing, I can hardly be forced to tell what I don’t know.

It isn’t your job to protect me, Grace reprimanded.

The hell it isn’t. You have a gift, Grace. I won’t allow those bastards to use it or you. I want you safe. Are you all right? Do you need something?

Shea could feel her sister’s exasperated sigh.

I felt your pain and your fear. I worried for you. I…I miss talking to you.

Shea’s heart twisted and sadness welled in her throat. .I miss you too. Now go away before I see more than I should.

Grace went silent for a moment. You have a gift too, Shea. You sell yourself short. What you give to people is priceless. What you give to me is priceless.

I love you, Shea said fiercely. We’ll be together again. I swear it.

Shea felt Grace’s sadness and she slowed in her run so that she could mentally wrap her arms around her older sister just as she’d done the night before to the soldier who so desperately needed comfort.

The sensation of her sister returning her hug was so warm and powerful that Shea closed her eyes to savor it.

I love you too, Shea. Be careful.

Always.

As always when she communicated with her sister, when they broke contact, Shea was left with an emptiness so keen that it ached. Her sister was her best friend in the world, and she hadn’t seen her for a year.

Tears blurred her vision as she pushed herself on, lengthening her stride until the muscles in her legs began to tremble and protest.

A year ago, she and her family were living a normal life. As normal as any family could live when she and Grace shared remarkable abilities. They lived with their parents mainly because her father and mother had feared for the two women to live out on their own.

Shea and Grace had complied good-naturedly, although they’d always believed their parents too paranoid. Their abilities were secret. No one knew what they could do. Their parents were adamant that they never used them. It was as if they wanted to eliminate them by ignoring them.

And then one night their home had been broken into despite their state-of-the-art security system. Their parents had been gunned down, and the only reason Shea and Grace had escaped capture was because of the safe room their father had meticulously constructed, complete with an escape route that led into the dense woods surrounding their house.

Their father had shoved them into the safe room, set the locks, and the two girls stood there in frozen horror as they listened to their parents being murdered just feet away.