Jim
listened to his cellmate's even breathing.
He had known the moment that Chase drifted off to sleep. He was telling the truth; he was exhausted. However, his mind stubbornly refused to
cooperate with him and shut down. Chase
said that he was a decent man. Why
couldn't the mercenary continue to hate him?
Now, he felt all the more guilt over the direction his earlier thoughts
had taken. Guilt or no, however, he
could not help his feelings. Better
Chase than Blair. He hoped Pete had the
good sense to keep Blair far from here.
Of course, he was once again assuming that Blair would care what
happened to him. Chase said that Blair
missed him, but he did not say Blair forgave him. Huge difference there.
There
was no reason for Blair to come back anyway.
Jim's senses were gone. He did
not need a guide. He had lost even that
to bring Blair back to him. Blair had a
chance to get his doctorate now and go on with his life. Traveling the world, learning everything he
could, that was Blair's real joy in life.
As long as Blair was learning something, he was happy. His second joy was teaching what he had
learned. Jim had nearly destroyed his
chances to do those things. No, Blair
was better off without Jim. There was
just one problem. Jim was not better
off without Blair.
It
was the same result every time he took that round trip in his head. He needed Blair. Blair did not need him.
He wanted Blair to come home, but had no right to expect it or even ask
it.
Georgetown. Blair had a chance to go to Georgetown. No one deserved it more. He should go. He should get his doctorate.
And yet, what would his thesis be?
It could not be the sentinel thesis.
Jim had not been exposed as a sentinel.
The world thought Jim simply had experienced a few isolated instances of
heightened hearing, if he remembered the final version of the story right. He could not publish on Barnes, not with
Baker and Rose out there. If Pete took
them down, maybe then he could. But
that thought made Jim nervous. Even
after all that they had been through, the idea that Blair might make heightened
senses public knowledge made his heart pound in his chest. Once the world knew, how long before his
secret was exposed, regardless of who the dissertation named?
Which
brought him to the old argument. Why
the hell had Blair put his name in the damn paper to begin with? They had talked about it, and argued about
it until both of them were blue in the face.
Blair saying that it was just the rough draft and that the final would
not have named him, pointing out that the introductory chapter had long since
been turned in and properly cleansed of Jim's name. Then Jim arguing that it was still careless of him to have his
name in it at all and for him to leave it sitting around for just anybody to
see. Which had started the argument
about Naomi. Absent and absent-minded
Naomi. Jim was still angry with her. She had taken off pretty quickly after
turning their lives upside down and left Blair wounded by her last words. Yes, she had been all smiles in the bullpen,
pretending to be the supportive mother while everyone was looking, but once she
got Blair alone, it was a whole new ballgame.
She had made it clear that she could not accept her son becoming a
cop. She had even told Blair that if he
went through with the Academy she would not be around for him anymore. As if she ever had been.
Another
argument had ensued between he and Blair as Blair waffled between being Jim's
partner and his mother's son. Jim could
admit now that he had browbeaten Blair into the Academy. Blair would never have been happy as a
cop. He hated acknowledging that,
because, in a way, it made Naomi right.
He frowned. He had to stop
thinking now. Whenever he came to the
conclusion that Naomi was right, it was a bad sign for his sanity. A zone would be nice, he decided. But instead of a zone, he finally succumbed
to sleep.
"If
you try to leave me here, I'll follow you."
Pete
observed the stubborn face of Blair Sandburg, but he had no intention of giving
in. "You can't. You'll just hurt yourself. Alex has traps all over these woods. Don't even try it, because we are not coming
back for you. We don't have the
time. You'll be stuck here and
injured."
"No,
I won't. Kit pointed out all of Alex's
traps. I have them mapped out in my
head. Unless he's changed them in the
last week, I know where each and every one of them is located." Arms crossed over his chest, Blair gave Pete
a smug grin.
Pete
looked to Alex who half-shrugged at him.
"So
then, it's settled. I'll go get my
things." Blair left them standing
in the living room of the cabin.
"Is
he bluffing?" Pete finally asked aloud.
"Don't
know. Maybe, maybe not. Kit does know where my traps are, and I
haven't changed them since we've been here."
"Fuck!"
"Sorry,
Pete."
Pete
sighed. "Fine. Better not take the chance."
"As
much as I know he's not ready, I'd rather him be with us than trailing behind
us, unprotected. He is getting pretty
good with a gun."
"He
did hold his own in El Salvador that time.
Damn it! It's too soon
after—well, you know." He
gestured.
"His
breakdown? I seem to recall I wasn't
long back from my little trip to Looneyville when you hired me."
Pete
turned sharply to look at his friend, thinking that perhaps he had managed to
insult Alex. But he was smiling so Pete
just tried to qualify his doubts.
"That was different."
"Yes,
I suppose so, but to tell you the truth, if anything, Blair is more stable that
I was. He'll be fine."
Pete
grimaced and flung his hands up in surrender.
"I can not believe that Kit showed him all those traps!"
"He
needed to. They were planning to be in
the woods quite a bit, you know."
"Well,
what's done is done. Let's just go get
him."
"So
you can kill him yourself?" Alex
chuckled.
"Thought
did cross my mind. The little—"
"Bastard,"
Alex finished, laughing.
"Why
is my life so complicated?" Pete
whined.
"Karma,"
came the answer from a blue flannelled, curly-headed blur that passed by him on
its way to the door. "Let's
go. Time's wasting." Blair opened the door and gestured for them
to precede him.
"Blair,
where's your gun?" Alex was
surprisingly nonchalant about the question.
"In
my backpack."
"Where
you can't get to it," Alex calmly pointed out.
"Oh,
there is that." The idea was
obviously just striking the anthropologist.
Pete
was not sure if he wanted to laugh or cry.
"Karma," he muttered as he walked out of the door.
"Good
morning, Mr. Chase. If you would,
please, come with me."
Kit
glanced at Ellison. The man was focused
on Rose, however. He regarded the man
with blank eyes, but Kit knew better.
He knew that Ellison would have his own unpleasantness to face once Kit
was gone and that he was trying to be stoic.
"See you later."
Ellison
gave him a half-nod and went back to his breakfast.
Kit
grabbed his crutches and hobbled out the door.
Rose placed one hand on the small of Kit's back as they made their way
down the hall. The hand made Kit's skin
crawl. "Where are we going?"
"To
meet your new sentinel."
"Lovely."
"Yes,
actually, she is. You remember her,
don't you?"
"Of
course."
"Mr.
Chase, do I have to tell you what will happen to you if you don't succeed with
Ms. Barnes?"
"No."
"Good,
good. That's wonderful. Ready?"
"Not
really."
Rose
laughed as he came to a stop outside a door.
"She's
crazy, you know. No one may be able to
help her."
"Mr.
Chase, Kit. May I call you Kit?"
"No,
I would really prefer that you didn't."
Rose
laughed again. "Mr. Chase,
then. You had better help her or you die." He turned to the door behind him. He slid his passkey through the sensor and
the door opened. "After you."
"How
do I know you'll follow me?"
"I
have no intention of following. I'll be
in the observation room." Rose
ever so gently but firmly pulled Kit toward the door then pushed him through
it. The door closed and Kit stood,
balanced on his good leg and the crutches, inside a padded room.
When
he did not immediately see Alex Barnes, the back of his head started tingling.
Slowly, he turned. Before he could face
her, however, she slammed into him, knocking him to the floor. His crutches clattered loudly on the tiled
floor, and she released him and grabbed her head. She whimpered and crawled away.
He lay there for a moment, trying to regain his breath. Pain lanced up his leg, and his head was
suddenly pounding once again. When he
could breath again, he sat up. His
vision was slightly out of focus, but he located her quickly. She was huddled in the far corner of the
room. He opened his mind to her and
gasped at what he saw. There before him
was the spotted jaguar, but that was not the shock. The shock came when he caught sight of the tiny cub she was
curled around. He shifted his sight,
drawing his consciousness out of the spirit plane. Looking now at the blond woman he could see the slight protrusion
of her abdomen. She was pregnant.
Rage
rolled through him, making him hot and nauseated. He cursed Rose not quite under his breath, and she whimpered
again, obviously frightened by his anger.
He glared at the mirror where he knew Rose was watching. He did not expect a response from the man,
and he did not get one. Sighing and
cursing again, he crawled slowly over to her.
Even as he did, the battle raged.
This
woman was a criminal. She had tried to
kill Blair Sandburg and almost succeeded.
She had killed others. She was a
thief. But she was hurting and scared. And carrying another life inside her. That life was innocent of her crimes. He was torn, but her pain called out to him,
and he continued to move toward her, not away.
He could not help himself.
Rose
was a monster. How could a man do such
a horrible thing? Barnes was no angel,
true, but in her present state, she was helpless to defend herself. She had probably been drugged into
submission. Kit felt sick and he fought
down the bile that threatened in the back of his throat. Did she even understand what had happened,
what was happening? His vision showed
her spirit self protecting the cub, but that did not mean that Alex Barnes knew
or understood that she was pregnant.
Why would Rose do this?
Actually, he had not, Kit realized.
White-hot truth set his veins on fire.
Not Rose. Not exactly
anyway. Ellison. Ellison was the father of that child. Portions of the file they had found flashed
through Kit's head like pictures on a screen.
Rose wanted to start a breeding program and he had. The medical report on Ellison had listed a
sperm count, meaning they had taken samples.
Rose had impregnated Alex Barnes with Ellison's sperm. It was the only explanation, as Kit could
not see Ellison willingly having sex with her.
He repressed the urge to curse again as he settled himself in front of
Barnes. He took a deep breath and tried
to calm down. Ever so cautiously, he
lifted one hand to show her that it was empty.
She eyed him warily, but did not move.
Gently, he smoothed her hair away from her face and tried to smile at
her. She reached out to him, her hand
mimicking his, touching his hair softly.
She smiled, almost shyly.
Then
the world shifted out of focus again as she snatched him into her world. The spotted jaguar circled him as he shifted
to his animal shape. The jag stepped
back from the cougar and sniffed the air.
Then she circled again. He only
watched her. Then she nudged him and
seemed to wait for a response. When he
did not respond, she roared at him.
Still, he did not move. She lay
down, confusion showing on the feline face.
Kit
exerted his will once again and regained his human form. He held out a hand to her, hoping that she
would shift as well, but she did not.
Finally, he understood. She was
stuck in this form, thus the feral behavior she exhibited. He pulled them both from the spirit plane,
only to find Rose standing over them.
"What—"
Rose
never got to finish his question as Kit surged up, disregarding the pain in his
leg and punched the man in the face.
Rose stumbled back and hit the floor.
In seconds, Barnes was on him, clawing him mercilessly.
"Shit." Kit tried to pull her off. Then the room was flooded with men. Kit was dragged away and pinned to the wall
as Alex was torn away from her prey. It
took four men to accomplish just that.
"Let
me go!" Kit struggled against his
captors. "I can help, damn
it!" But they did not let go. Instead, Rose pulled himself up as she was
dragged down to the floor. His face and
neck bleeding, he half-stumbled over to her and plunged a needle into her hip.
"You
son of a bitch!" Kit screamed at him.
"You could hurt the baby, you bastard!"
On
the floor, Alex stopped struggling and succumbed to the sedative.
"It
was unavoidable," Rose said blandly.
"Get me something for this," he told one of the men as he
gestured to his face.
"Unavoidable,
my ass. This whole thing is your
fault. You did this to her! Your fault!"
Rose
simply turned and picked up Kit's crutches.
He seemed calm as he walked over to Kit, but when he held out the
crutches, Kit could see his hands trembling.
"Let him go."
When
he was free, Kit grabbed the crutches.
"You are such a fucking snake, Rose. I hope she kills you. I
hope I'm there to see it."
"What
happened in here?" Rose ignored
his statements. "The two of you
seemed to connect. Did you communicate
with her at all?"
"Fuck
you. I'm not telling you anything."
"Do
you have a death wish, Mr. Chase?"
"Yeah,
yours."
Rose
grabbed the gauze pads from the man who rushed to his side and dabbed at his
face with them. "If you don't
cooperate, you will die."
"Oh,
I'm going to help her. I have to. You made sure of that, didn't you? And when she's put back together and that
baby is born, I'm going to help her come after you, you fucker. I swear it.
We will kill you!" Rose
blinked and swallowed hard and Kit smirked at him.
Rose
cleared his throat. "Take him back
to his cell." His voice shook just
a bit.
Kit
tilted his head then and gave Rose a thoughtful look. "Then again, when I tell Ellison what you've done, he may
just kill you before I can get Alex ready for you." Rose's men started pulling him away. "Hey, wanna come by the old cell
later? Jim'll be glad to see you! You are dead, Rose! One way or another, you're a corpse!" He snatched his arms out of his captors'
grasps. He nearly lost his balance, but
he used his crutches to stay upright.
"I don't need your help.
Don't fucking touch me."
They
followed him down the hallway as he tried to slow his breathing. His head felt like an over-ripe melon
now. His heart pounded against his
ribs, the sound of it so loud in his ears that he could barely hear anything
else. Had he lost his mind? Could he really help her? Did he really want to? His words, skirting the edges of a life-long
commitment to a mad woman, pulsed through his mind to the rhythm of his
heart. He could help. That much he knew. But should he? He had
told Ellison that he would not ever make that choice. Nothing less than a bond to a guide would ever be able to save
her, though. He could get her out of
her spirit form without a bond, but repairing her shattered mind and soul would
require a bond, a permanent connection to a guide, if it could be done at
all. But she was still a thief and a
killer. He could not tie himself to
that. But the baby. Two sentinels would produce a sentinel
child. Perhaps he could control her,
direct her abilities to something good.
She would not be the only member of The Devereaux Agency with a criminal
past. No. He could not, would not be a guide. He had his own life to lead; he had a calling. What about the baby, his conscience
demanded. He could not let Baker and
Rose ruin the child's life. Dear God,
he had to tell Jim Ellison, too.
"God,
it's too much. All too much," he
muttered his prayer. His escorts
ignored him. He was breathing hard and
trying to force his eyes to focus by the time one of the men behind him grabbed
his shoulder to stop him. He turned to
face the door to his prison. His chest
was hurting now and his head was tingling as he was pushed through the
door. Ellison sat up on the top bunk
and looked at him.
"Chase? You all right?" Ellison's face looked concerned and Kit
vaguely wondered why.
Then
again, maybe he knew why, he thought as the edges of the world started to get
fuzzy and gray. "Help
me?" Had he said that?
"Oh,
shit." Ellison jumped down and Kit
thought it quite strange that the other man could walk on the wall like
that. Then the world faded to black.