The Empath (The Above and Beyond Series Book 1) (13 page)

Chapter 69

AS WE WALKED down the corridor of the sheriff’s department, it took every bit of will power I had not to turn around and run out of the building. All I could think of was how I’d have to see the girls’ dead bodies. My biggest fear was Natalia. The other girls, well, I’d seen their spirits, they’d spent time with me and Renee but Natalia—I shuddered—I really didn’t want to get anywhere near her. The closer we got to the coroner’s office, the more I thought about why we were there. It was my dumb idea to try and touch the victims, not my father’s not Renee’s, mine. What the hell had I been thinking? What if I couldn’t do this? What would I say to my father then? He needed me to find my sisters, he was counting on me.

We stopped outside a door. A sign next to it read Coroner’s Office.

“The girls are in here,” my father said. His hands trembled as he reached for the handle and I wanted to ease his pain, his worry. Those girls meant everything to him.

“We can do this, we can get them back,” I said, touching his hand and wondering how I was going to make good on it.

A flash of me fixing Mrs. Squirrels’ box made me stop and stare at him as he opened the door. A rippling wave of pride flowed from him to me. His eyes met mine and he smiled.

He walked into the office to the counter where a man in a white coat was sitting at a desk.

“Jeff, Aeron’s gonna take a look at the girls,” my father said.

Jeff raised his eyebrows. “You what?”

My father set his jaw. “You want to argue with me right now?”

Jeff shook his head, shooting a furtive glance at me as he got to his feet. “No. They’re over here.”

He let us behind the counter to a door, which he opened. I braced myself and walked past him into the cold room. I stared at the metal tables where the five victims lay. I glanced back at Renee. She seemed to understand what I wanted and gently kept my father from entering any further.

“I need space.” I hoped my father couldn’t see the mess Jenny was in.

“Why don’t we go and get some coffee?” Renee said to Jeff and my father. “Let her work.”

Jeff gave me an uncertain look.

Eli grabbed his arm. “Just do it.”

I waited until the door was closed behind them and looked around the morgue. The stench of chemical disinfectant mingled with what I guessed was the smell of corpses. The stark, fluorescent light glinted off the metal tables. The victims were each covered over with a sheet.

I kept getting flashes of the women sitting up and screaming at me. Alone in the silence, my hands trembled, the fear dribbling sweat down my neck.

It was quiet. These bodies were empty shells now, the spirits long gone.

“They ain’t here no more,” I told myself. “Just walk on over and touch them.”

I went to Mari first and pulled back the sheet. She was gray, neatly sewn up by Jeff. He’d taken great care of her, tending the wounds that had been inflicted on her. The gentleness he’d shown after all Mari had been through welled up in my heart. For every creep there was a caring soul. 

I didn’t really know what to do, so I touched Mari’s arm. She was like ice. Nothing happened. There was nothing but a shell. I touched her hair, but the result was still the same. Maybe she’d been gone too long. I hoped that she’d made it to where she needed to go, that she was at peace. I covered her back up and walked over to Natalia. I stood staring at the sheet, terrified that she would spring up and strangle me. Her fury still haunted my dreams, her rage-filled cries still rattled through every inch of me. My heart pounding in my ears, I reached out for the sheet but dropped my hand away. I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t get near her.

“Come on. You can do this. You gotta do this.” I danced about on the balls of my feet, my hands in my hair. I had to touch her, somehow I had to.

I glanced at the door. There wasn’t time to waste on freaking out. My sisters needed me. Baby steps.

“You can do this.”

I took a deep breath and edged forward.

“Please don’t get mad, Natalia, please. I’m tryin’ to help.”

My hand trembled as I grabbed the sheet and yanked it back. I dodged backward. Slammed my eyes shut. Ready to run. My heart pounding like it wanted to get out. Ready for her to start wailing.

Nothing.

I peeked one eye open and saw her body. She was gray like Mari had been, sewn up. Still, my heart hammered away and my hands dripped with sweat.

“I just gotta touch you,” I whispered to her. Flashes of her jolting upright and leaping at me pulsed through my mind. “Please, just quick. I can save other folks.” I shoved my hands in my back pockets, my stomach clenching up. “My sisters, I gotta help them, please.”

Before I bottled out, I put my hands on her face and arm. Expecting her to scream, howl, thrash about, I could hear my own breath shuddering in my ears.

Nothing.

No trace of anything. No way to read her.

“No, I need to read you. I need to know what happened.” 

Panic pouring off me, I went to Darcy, nothing. Chelsea, nothing. Finally Jenny but nothing. There was no energy to tap into, they were gone. What the hell did I do now?

“Any luck?” Renee asked from the doorway as I placed the sheet back over Jenny.

“Nothing,” I answered. “I can’t get a thing.”

What the hell kind of use were my burdens if I couldn’t save nobody?

Renee walked to me, nestled under my arm, and patted my back as she smiled. “The grandmother, Mari’s grandmother, is back at city hall in Oppidum. She’s got an idea.”

I went to the sink to wash my hands and tried not to panic. How could I not see anything, now, when I really needed to? I could feel the churning sickness in my stomach, the worry that I couldn’t help after all. What if I had to watch my own sisters suffer too? It was too much.

My knees wobbled but Renee was right there beside me. “They’re in the meeting room.”

“They?” I asked.

Renee smiled. “Bill did some rounding up after he left us. Went to Mari’s family for help but when he got there, her grandmother had him pick up the cavalry.”

“Bill?” I remembered him at the campsite. Mary’s husband was helping?

Renee beamed at me, her eyes intense. “Yes.”

I shook my head, not sure what to make of it but I didn’t have the time to ask questions.
 

I STOPPED AT the double door of the meeting room, not sure if I should enter.

Renee smiled at me. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

I glanced at my father. “I’m here too. You can do this.”

Buoyed, I opened the door. The families were seated in the rows of chairs and the grandmother was seated behind the council table. I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t face them—

“Take a seat, I’m going to teach you something.” The grandmother nodded to the chair next to her.

I wanted to turn around and run but Renee nudged me forward. The Borlands were there, the Toughtons, and so was my father. What if I couldn’t see, what if it didn’t work.

Renee steered me around the rows of chairs and the watching eyes to the seat and made me sit, then sat next to me. What if I couldn’t get anything off the victims? How was I going to help them? They needed me to help them. They needed me to do this.

“We believe in you,” she whispered.

The grandmother laid out jewelry on the table. “Skin loses its memory when there is no life in it but metal or objects that are precious to someone’s heart, keep them for longer.”

“Okay,” I said, looking down at the table. Was that why I’d got nothing? Maybe it was the skin?

Her lined face wrinkled up in a smile. “First we need to see if you can read it properly.” Her smile faded. “Mistakes aren’t an option.”

Great confidence booster. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Can’t you do it?”

“Most of us only see glimpses of what’s to come, child. You are a special case.”

“Center of the storm,” I muttered.

“Your mother is right.” She held up a watch. “Now, try this, tell me what you see.”

I took the watch from the grandmother and held it. Nothing happened. “I can’t see nothing.” It was no good. When I needed my burdens they were gone. What kind of mean trick was that?

The grandmother handed me a second watch. “And this?”

I held it and closed my eyes. I could do this. I could do this.

The warmth pulsed off it and the smell of thick smoke surrounded me, men yelling and running, the heat of the flames, there wasn’t time, there wasn’t—

I opened my eyes and looked at Jim Borland. “It’s yours . . . you wore it in your accident.”

Everyone stared at me like I’d struck gold. My stomach lurched with the pang of hope and tension. A pain shot up my spine and I rubbed at my neck. “You saved that family but your neck?”

Jim nodded. “They can’t see what’s wrong with it . . . keep losing my eyesight.”

“It’s not your neck. It’s your nerve, your ulna nerve.” I had no idea about names and medical stuff so I sure as shoots didn’t know how I knew it. “It’s trapped.” I walked to him and pressed the spot. “Here.”

Jim flinched and yelped.

“A doctor in the city will help.”

He looked at his wife who held his hand. “Thank you.”

“It’s just returning the favor.” I sounded pretty darn confident about it, so confident that I pretty much convinced myself. Go figure.

I smiled at Chief Borland and returned to my seat. I looked at the pieces, stopping myself from asking Renee if there really was such a thing as an ulna nerve.

“This one,” the grandmother said.

I picked it up—

Air whooshed past me. The fall was in slow motion, the ground hard, the crack severe, breathing was painful, but there was no money to fix it, not now, no insurance—

I looked at Frank Toughton. “Yours, your back, it’s broken?”

He nodded.

“They can fix it but you don’t have the money, right?”

He nodded again.

“I’ll pay for you.” I didn’t know how the hell I was going to do that. What was I saying? “I have money.” My mouth worked like someone else was in charge.

My father smiled and turned to Frank. “I’ll get on it.”

He would? How? What? I didn’t get it? Did I have money?

The grandmother pointed at one of the remaining objects, a bracelet. “Now this.”

The second I touched it, fire erupted in my head.
 

PERFECT, THIS IS just so perfect. The two sweet little girls. Ruth and Louise, you’re such precious little angels. There’s no point in struggling, you have to be brave, that’s the least you could do for me.

Such sorrow from the little one, why are you crying? Didn’t I make it perfect? Make your mother a worthy target? I could have let her know what I’d do but that will be our secret won’t it? We won’t tell anyone what I have planned for Aeron.

No, you see, sweet children, Aeron thinks she’s special, she’s so clever, that it makes her better than us . . . we’ll show her though. We’ll show her.