Rangers: Silver-Star Seductions: A Two-Book Box Set (10 page)

A howl of agony woke her. The feel of something cold and foul in the air had her bolting out of the bed, searching the nightstand for her sidearm.

What met her eyes would not be stopped with a firearm. A young woman stood at the foot of the bed, her arms outstretched, bloody lips moving as her empty eye sockets wept tears of blood.

He’s coming back. You have to stop him. He’s coming. Please.

Cia didn’t have to be told. Nor was she surprised when the girl’s spirit suddenly whirled and vanished in a swirling mist. The demon she feared and hated was here. The one who had nearly killed her, nearly broken her spirit. The one she had failed to destroy was here.

And he was laughing at her.

You think you can destroy me, you stupid cunt? There are plenty of willing hosts, a multitude of minds eager to know the ecstasy I offer. You’ll never stop me. You’re not strong enough.

You’re not good enough.

Hell waits for you, bitch. I’ll be there to greet you.

“Joe.” It was all she could think, all she could force from her lips. She had to have something good and pure to latch onto or her mind would spin off in the direction of that evil, searching for it, becoming it in order to hunt it.

“Joe!”

“Gracie.”

She whirled and threw herself at him, taking comfort in the feel of his arms around her. “It’s him, Joe. He’s behind all this.”

“I know, Gracie, I know.”

She pushed away, suddenly angry. “Then why didn’t you tell me? Why did you let me walk into this without knowing it was him? I thought you cared about me, Joe. How could you do this?”

“Gracie, you know I can’t choose your way for you. Goodness knows if I could neither one of us would be where we are. This is your fight, girl, and it’s not just against that evil. You’re fighting more than him and you know it.”

“Don’t start with me. Not now. You know—”

“Yeah, I know. I know you won’t admit the truth, not even to yourself. I know you’ll keep hiding behind the stamp on that file that says what you did was justified—that it was a righteous kill—as if there really could be such a thing. I know that until you face the truth and seek redemption you’ll never be whole and you’ll never beat that thing. I know—”

“Stop it!” She put her hands over her ears, unwilling to hear more. “Go away. If you won’t help, then leave.”

“So you can run down the hall to that cowboy ranger and find comfort in his body? Is that gonna chase away the demons, Gracie? Or are you just gonna drag him down into the muck with you? You can do that, you know. He’s ripe to fall. You sure you want to do that to him? He’s a decent man. A scared one, but still decent.”

“What do you know about him?” She latched onto the diversion his words provided. “What’s so special about him that you want to protect him, Joe?”

“I think you need to go back to sleep, Gracie. You’ve got a job to do and morning will be here soon.”

“What is it you don’t want to tell me?”

“Good night, Gracie.”

There was no point asking him to stay. When Joe was ready to leave, there was no stopping him. But he’d opened her mind to new questions that allowed her to push her own demons back into the dark recesses.

She snatched up her room card and, wearing only a long t-shirt, headed into the hallway. Kade’s room was one floor down so she took the stairs. Since there was no one in the hallway, she made it to his door without being seen.

She tapped lightly. “Kade?”

There was no response. She tapped again, a little louder. “Kade?”

Again no response. She raised her hand to knock again and the door opened. There stood Kade, unzipped jeans slinking low on his hips, looking like a man who’d just been wakened in the wee hours of the morning.

“What?” His tone was none too friendly.

She ignored the tone. He’d been cool to her ever since they’d had sex. She hadn’t pressed the issue or tried to engage him in a conversation about it. He wasn’t interested in a repeat performance. She could accept that. It stung a little but she’d been on the other side of the coin too many times not to understand.

Besides, truth be told, she was a little relieved. Her night with Kade had replayed itself too many times in her mind for comfort. She didn’t hang onto things like that. She was a “love ’em and leave ’em” kind of woman. That was safe. Letting emotions come into play made this thing dangerous. And she suspected he would be purely lethal.

However, she had questions and catching him off-guard was the best chance she had of getting answers. The fact that he was annoyed might be another advantage. Sometimes anger made people’s lips loose.

“I need to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“Well, let me in and I’ll tell you.”

“It’s three o’clock in the morning, Cia. We can talk at the station.”

“No, this won’t wait.”

He blew out his breath and stepped aside. She entered and took a seat in the chair at the desk. Kade walked over to the bed and flopped down on it, propping against the headboard in a semi-reclined position. “Okay, what?”

“Why can you see Joe?”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

“I think we need to, Kade.”

“Oh you do? Well, I think we need to talk about why Joe hangs around you and what he’s trying to save you from.”

“What makes you think he’s trying to save me from anything?” She hated the defensive tone that crept into her voice and reminded herself that she was there to wrest information out of him and for that, she needed to keep her cool.

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. You see dead people. I don’t. But I can see him. So he’s not a ghost. Yet no one I’ve questioned in the hotel has seen him. So, he’s not a ghost or a figment of your imagination.”

“Okay. So what is he?”

He studied her face for a long time before answering. “An angel.”

Something cold then hot then suffocating swept over her, something that had her bolting to her feet with the same kind of sick feeling you get as a child when you were sure the monster in the closet had escaped and was about to pounce.

“That’s ridiculous!”

“No, I don’t think it is.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Says the woman who talks to dead people.”

“He’s not an angel.”

“Then what is he?”

“I don’t know. Ask him.”

“I did.”

“You…what?”

“I asked him.”

“And?”

“And I want to know how you met Joe.”

Somehow, the tables had been turned on her. She was there to find out about him, not delve into the demons of her past. “It’s none of your business.”

Kade was off the bed and in her face before she could react. “I think it is my business, Cia. You shared my bed, and shared yourself with me. You might be the poster girl for today’s woman—Miss Fuck ’Em then Tell ’Em to Fuck Off—but I don’t play that game. When I make love to a woman, it means something. I thought it did to you.”

“Look, we had a good time and yeah, it was great and I’d do it again in a New York minute but we just met and it’s not like—”

“Like we care?” He grabbed her around the upper arms. “Are you really that much of a bitch, Cia, or do you use that act to keep people at a distance? How did you meet Joe?”

She did not intend to tell him. That was her business. Not his. Then his eyes softened, along with his voice. “I know there’s more to you than that, Cia. I can see it in your eyes. The pain and fear are right there. I know you’re fighting something but you don’t have to fight it alone. Let me help you.”

His words undid her, broke through her defenses, and made her do something she hadn’t done in years. She cried. Tears streamed down her face as she looked up at him. “You don’t want to know me, Kade, or what I’ve done. Joe said you’re a good man. I believe that. And a good man has no business hooking up with the likes of me. If you’re smart, you’ll toss me out and do your best to stay as far away from me as possible. I’m no good, Kade.”

“How can you say that?”

“I’m a murderer.” The words were out before she knew it and no one was more shocked than she. Once spoken they seemed to hang in the air, echoing over and again.

Kade’s hands tightened on her arms. “I see angels.”

They stared at one another for a long time. Finally, Kade spoke again. “I think it’s time we really talk, don’t you?”

Cia nodded. It was probably a monumental mistake, but something in his eyes made her want to unload the secrets she’d been carrying. In all likelihood once he knew the truth he’d run as fast and far from her as he could. But at least, just this once, she could be honest.

Cia looked around the table at the people gathered. She’d spoken with her boss, Brett Wade, early that morning and filled him in on her suspicions about the murders. She believed that the murders were being committed by different people, but that in every case, the murderer was possessed by the same spirit.

Brett had not questioned her assessment. He’d simply told her that he was sending additional members of the unit to assist her. Now Delilah Deveraux and Travis Walker sat at the table with Kade, the sheriff, Robert Chapman, and two of his detectives.  She opened the meeting.

“After a thorough examination of the crime scene and the report from the medical examiner on the victim, we believe that this murder is part of an ongoing investigation the Bureau has been pursuing for the last five years.

“With the cooperation of the Texas Rangers and your department, Sheriff Chapman, we have been authorized to establish a task force, for the purpose of apprehending the Unsub, unidentified subject, labeled The Carver. I have prepared a brief.” She paused and slid copies of the brief to each person at the table.

“Before you review the brief, I need to make you aware of a few things.” She looked across the table at Delilah, who gave her a slight nod, and then turned her attention to the non-members of the SACU.

“Agents Deveraux, Walker and I work for the SACU, The Specialized Anomalous Crime Unit of the Department of Justice. We and all agents of this unit are, for want of a better word, psychics.”

She paused, noticing the reactions of the sheriff and his detectives. Kade didn’t bat an eye, a fact she noticed drew the attention of her fellow agents. She knew she’d have to explain his lack of reaction to them, and hoped she could do that without revealing that she’d had anything other than professional interaction with him. Considering who she worked with, her chances of that were slim.

Delilah was clairvoyant, as well as a mid-level telepath. Travis was an anomaly even to the unit. His abilities seemed to fluctuate, running the gambit. Sometimes his precognitive abilities were heightened. Other times his psychometric skills would be magnified. But always, his ability for remote viewing excelled over the others, as did his telekinetic abilities.

And right now, both of them were probably clueing in to the fact that she had something to hide about Kade. Shoving those thoughts aside, she quickly explained to the non-psychic members present the abilities of the unit.

“Now, as you’ll note in the brief, it is our belief that the murders are being physically committed by different people. And each of these persons are being controlled, or inhabited by the spirit of this man.”

She pulled a printed image from her folder and slid it to the center of the table.

“Looks like something from a history book,” one of the detectives commented.

“The man in this image is Joseph Vacher. He was born in France in 1869 and died in 1898. Over the course of three years, beginning in 1893, Vacher mutilated and murdered at least eleven people. His victims were stabbed repeatedly, disemboweled, raped, and sodomized. He was executed by guillotine on the last day of December in 1898.”

“And you think this…” The sheriff paused and looked around at everyone, disbelief clear on his face. “You think the spirit of some long dead mass murderer has somehow come back and is making people kill? I’m sorry, but that’s just crazy.”

“I can understand why you’d feel that way,” Zeb spoke up, his voice calm and even. “You’re not the first and won’t be the last to doubt that such things are possible.”

“Because they’re not,” the sheriff responded.

Cia looked at Kade as the two detectives agreed with the sheriff. Kade’s eyes narrowed for a moment as the sheriff posed a question for him. “And the Texas Rangers buy in to this—this fairytale?”

“The Rangers have extended their full cooperation to the SACU for the duration of this case.  As an aside, let me say that I spent the better part of the morning checking out the SACU. Not only are they legit, but have a closed-case success rate of ninety-seven percent.”

Cia felt like hugging him. He could have argued in their defense for hours. Citing their record said more to the men at the table than anything else could. Their home had been invaded by a monster and until that monster was caught, they and none of their citizens would rest easy. If they thought the SACU could solve the case and put their town at ease, they would cooperate, regardless of how crazy it seemed.

The sheriff affirmed her thoughts a moment later. “Well, I don’t know about all this mumbo-jumbo, hoodoo stuff, but if you find the son of a bitch that did this I’m behind you. What do you want from us?”

“It’s all been outlined in the brief,” Cia replied. “My team has some things to look into this afternoon. Why don’t we reconvene at…say, five?”

“We’ll be here,” He pushed away from the table to stand.

“Thank you.” Cia stood as well.

She waited until the sheriff and his detectives had left then sat back down. Delilah looked from her to Kade and then back to her. “Okay, Cia, spill.”

“He sees angels.”

She felt Kade stiffen in his seat beside her. She probably shouldn’t have blurted it out that way, or at least should have warned him. But if he was going to work with them on this case, he had to get used to people knowing more than you wanted them to know about you.

“Yeah, we got that.” Travis smiled and then looked at Kade. “No offense, man, but you were broadcasting pretty strong.”

“Broadcasting?”

Delilah chucked. “It was in your mind. You were thinking about us and the rest of the SACU team, and wondering if any of us saw angels like you.”

“You can read minds?”

Delilah’s smile was genuine and Cia could tell that whatever she was projecting with that smile was hitting the mark. Kade’s tension was diminishing.

“We all have our strong suits. Like Cia. Primarily she’s a medium, the strongest among us. If the dead have something to say, they’ll say it to her. But she also has other latent talents, some that have already manifested and she’s learning to develop, and others that have only demonstrated once and she hasn’t been able to harness.

“You’re probably like that, too. Cia says that you have unique insight at crime scenes. You pick up on things others miss and see beneath the surface. Chances are, you have some degree of psychometric ability, and you’re vibing in on the energy in your surroundings.”

“And the angels?”

Delilah shrugged and looked at Travis who raised his hands in a “who knows?” gesture. “Man, just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not there.”

“Kind of like Joseph Vacher,” Cia added.

“Yeah, let’s talk about that,” Kade said. “What makes you think all this is Vacher?”

Cia could feel the sudden stillness that fell on the room. Delilah and Travis went stone-cold still, their eyes wary and postures tense. They knew better than anyone that Cia didn’t like to talk about her past, particularly the part that had led her to the SACU.

Cia angled to face Kade. “Remember the case I told you about? The man I killed?”

“Yeah, the one mutilating and raping the teenaged girl.”

“I believe that was Vacher.”

“Why?”

“When Vacher was in the military conscription, he fell in love with a young woman, Louise, a maidservant. She didn’t share his feelings and when his time in service ended and he tried to woo her, she rebuked him. He flew into a rage and shot her four times, then shot himself twice in the head. Unfortunately, all that did was paralyze one side of his face. He was incarcerated in a mental institution and a year later deemed ‘cured’ and released. It was right after that he began his murder spree.

“But what’s relevant for us is that the man I shot, Dwayne Jones, had the same condition when I encountered him. The left side of his face appeared paralyzed.”

“That could be explained by a number of medical conditions,” Kade offered.

“Yes, it could. But Jones had no medical conditions according to his records and the ME’s report.”

“Which led you to think he was possessed?”

“No. I didn’t think that until I came to the SACU. I met Delilah and she asked me who the man in the white rabbit hat was that kept popping up when I was around. We started searching, using white rabbit hats and facial paralysis in our search parameters and hit on Vacher.”

Kade made no comment and after a few moments, she looked across the table at Delilah and Travis. “So, you guys want to visit the scene and see if you pick up on something I missed?”

“Yeah,” Travis replied. “Come on, Dee.”

“Don’t you want to know where it is?” Kade asked as they headed for the door.

“Extrasensory GPS.” Travis smiled and tapped the side of his head. “Catch you back at the hotel later, Cia.”

“Yeah,” Cia said and turned back toward Kade as the door closed behind them. “Okay, I know there’s something you’re not saying.”

“Not here.” Kade stood, snatching up the brief from the table in front of him.

“Where?”

“Hotel, my room, twenty minutes.”

“Okay.” Cia watched him leave then leaned back in her chair, blew out her breath and closed her eyes.

“He’s not comfortable with all this psychic stuff, Gracie.” Joe’s voice came from Kade’s empty seat.

She opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him. “Are you an angel, Joe?”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. But you don’t have wings.”

Joe shrugged. “Well, maybe not all angels have wings. Or maybe I’m not an angel. Or maybe angels aren’t what you think. Or—”

“Okay, I get it,” she cut in. “You’re not going to tell me. But you told him.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. Kade said he asked you if you’re an angel.”

“Did he say that I said I was?”

“Well…well he came away thinking that you are. And there has to be a reason for that.”

“Gracie, he’s just like you. Well, in some ways. Kade wants a label and an answer for what he sees and feels and knows. Just like you. Is it a devil, a ghost, a spirit, a vampire, werewolf, witch or angel? You want to put everything in a safe little file system to make you feel comfortable. As long as you can label or define it, however right or wrong that label is, you can then accept it. What you can’t define you fear and mistrust.”

She thought about what he said. It was more than he’d ever revealed to her on the subject. “You’re right. So maybe the label is wrong. Maybe the word angel is something people cooked up to explain a person or entity they didn’t understand. So maybe my question was phrased wrong. Maybe what I should be asking is what side do you play for, Joe? Good or evil.”

A look of complete disappointment came on his face, such sadness that tears sprang to her eyes. “You have to ask, Gracie? Really?”

She sure wished she hadn’t.