Into a Dangerous Mind (38 page)

Pain lanced through her head as the Reaper yanked her away from the side by the back of her hair.
 
“We’re not finished!”

A deadly calm settled over Cassidy.
 
The last of her fear slid away to be replaced by determination, with a slow simmer of anger.

“You’re right.
 
We’re not finished.”

Her power gathered of its own accord—psychic energy filling her like charge into a battery.
 
Her skin prickled, every hair standing on end, and small zaps of energy arcing between her fingers and the metal of the handcuffs.
 
Reaching out mentally, her tendril of psychic energy honed in on the door to the Reaper’s power.

Fear flickered through his eyes and he scurried back away from her, tripping over a music stand and falling onto his back.
 
She stood, her hands still cuffed behind her back and let her power surge toward him.

The white-hot pain flashed briefly inside her mind, but the strength of her power batted his aside like a gnat.
 
He cringed away from her and curled his arms over his head protectively.
 
“No, please don’t.
 
Don’t hurt me.”

Cassidy ignored him.
 
“Killing you is too lenient.”

Finding the door to his power, she began to push it mentally closed.
 
It resisted, but she let the force of her power flow against the back of the door.
 
“You’ll never hurt anyone else again.”

High, keening shrieks of pain filled the air, echoing around her as the Reaper fought like an animal clinging to its life.
 
Since she inhabited his mind, she saw the pain coursing through him like thick honey.
 
Nothing like he’d caused her and Tia and Dix and the others, but still potent.

finish it.

The door to the Reaper’s power slammed ominously closed and she concentrated her power against it to meld the edges with the brain tissue around it.
 
This portal would never be opened again.

The Reaper’s shrieks cut off in mid-breath and he crumpled to the stage in a heap.
 
Cassidy relaxed, her power retreating back within herself.
 
Strong arms caught her as her legs buckled beneath her.
 
Her arms tingled painfully as the cuffs were unlocked and blood rushed back into her wrists and hands.
 
She was gently lowered to the stage and a man’s suit jacket laid over her to cover her nakedness.

“Zach,” she said through a throat gone scratchy and dry.

Anderson’s worried face swam in front of her.
 
“He’s alive.”

Relief flowed through Cassidy and she tried to reach out her mind to Zach but met with…nothing.
 
Anderson’s hand closed around hers and she gripped it tightly.

“He’s hurt badly.
 
Besides the gunshot wound, severe trauma to his head.
 
They’ve called the ambulance.”

Cassidy nodded.
 
“Kathy?”

“She’s okay, but still disoriented.”

Anderson knelt next to the Reaper and touched his first two fingers to the Reaper’s neck.
 
“He’s alive.”
 
He turned his attention to the agents around him.
 
“Get a second ambulance and make sure he’s secure.
 
I don’t want him anywhere near Agent Hatcher or the two women.”

Cassidy’s throat hurt too much to speak again.
 
She squeezed his hand.

“I know.
 
But he’s a tough bastard.
 
He’s come out of worse than this.”
 
Anderson leaned over her to whisper into her ear.
 
“What did you do to him?”
 
He indicated the Reaper with a nod of his head.

Cassidy swallowed several times before her voice worked.
 
“I pulled the door to his powers shut.
 
I can’t explain how I know, but that’s one door that won’t be opening again.”
 
Her head pounded from the after effects of using her powers, and a deep cold seeped into her bare skin from the wooden floor.
 
She huddled closer under Anderson’s suit jacket, seeking warmth.

The EMTs shooed Anderson away from her.
 
She kept her head turned to try and catch a glimpse of Zach.
 
As they paramedics lifted her onto a stretcher, she caught sight of him.
 
A painful gasp spilled from her raw throat.

Strapped to a stretcher, his face was deathly pale except for a dark splash of blood covering the entire right side.
 
A bandage had been applied to his temple and bruises had begun to purple his forehead and eyes.

“Zach…” she whispered.
 
She closed her eyes and let a tendril of her power reach out toward him.
 
Still exhausted from her struggle with the Reaper, only a weak wisp touched Zach’s mind.
 
She held on, hoping to find some spark, some sign he could sense her.
 
Still nothing.

.”

Cassidy’s hot tears flowed against the silent answer.

Cassidy stared down into her half empty cup of stale hospital coffee.
 
She’d been checked over and released an hour ago, but still no word on Zach.
 
And she still couldn’t touch his mind.
 
To make matters worse, they wouldn’t let her see Kathy, either.

“I’d offer you some more coffee, but you’d think I was being cruel.”

Cassidy looked up to see Anderson standing over her with a duffel bag clutched in his hand.
 
Cassidy noticed lines of strain around his mouth.
 
Under his eyes, dark circles marred his normally pale complexion.

“It’s pretty bad.”
 
She raised her cup in a mock salute.

He sat next to her and placed the duffel bag on the floor between them.
 
“So, are you tired of wearing a hospital gown?”

Cassidy cringed.
 
The FBI had taken her clothes into evidence, so she’d worn Anderson’s suit jacket, which was now thrown over a trendy hospital gown.

“Definitely.
 
I think you just want your suit jacket back.”
 
Cassidy smiled as she pulled open the duffel bag and saw a change of clothes, some toiletries and her purse.
 
“I wondered where you’d gone.”

She pulled Anderson into a hug.
 
“Thank you so much.”

Anderson awkwardly patted her on the back and cleared his throat.
 
“He’s going to be okay.
 
And so is Kathy.”
 
He tipped up Cassidy’s chin and pierced her with a steely gaze.
 
“But you have to believe and have some hope.”

Numbly, Cassidy nodded.
 
“It just doesn’t feel like it’s over with the Reaper.
 
I mean, I know I shut his powers down for good, but I keep looking over my shoulder.
 
Ya know?”

“Why?”

“She’s a well-known teacher and psychic.
 
The media would swarm over this place even worse than they already are.
 
And the only way to keep her away was to promise to call her hourly and threaten her with house arrest.”
 
Anderson shook his head.
 
“But I don’t envy the director.
 
Mrs. Hatcher is plenty pissed, and he’ll end up paying for it one way or another.
 
And I don’t blame her a bit.”

Cassidy clenched her jaw.
 
“What an ass.
 
He won’t even let her come visit her son while he’s in the hospital?”

“Agent Anderson?”

Cassidy looked up to see a petite redhead in a doctor’s white lab coat, a solemn expression on her otherwise friendly face.
 
Both Cassidy and Anderson quickly stood.

Cassidy stepped forward, clasping Anderson’s hand like a lifeline.
 
His sweaty palm proved he was more scared than he let on.

“I’m Dr. King.
 
We’ve patched him up, but he took a severe blow to the head.
 
And we found a hefty dose of Ecstasy in his system.
 
The EMTs advised he’d been drugged earlier in the evening.
 
I’d say it’s a safe bet that’s what was used.”

Cassidy and Anderson exchanged a meaningful glance.

Dr. King looked at both of them in turn, sizing them up.
 
She nodded as if deciding they could take the rest of the news so she plowed on.
 
“He’s in a coma.”

Cassidy gasped.
 
“How long…”

“We don’t know.”
 
Dr. King ran her hands through already tousled red hair.
 
The gesture reminded Cassidy briefly of Dix.
 
“Comas can last a few hours, a few months, or for the lifetime of the patient.”

“So what do we do now?” Cassidy asked quietly.

Dr. King sighed, her gaze sad and resigned.
 
She’d probably given this same message to thousands of families and loved ones before them.
 
“We wait.”

“I need to see him,” Cassidy blurted.
 
“I can’t even sense him anymore.”

Dr. King’s eyes narrowed at the wording and she studied Cassidy suspiciously.
 
“Are you family?”

Anderson placed his hands on Cassidy’s shoulders and broke in smoothly before she could answer.
 
“Cassidy is Zach’s fiancée.”