Chapter 14
Sunday, Noon …
She stared down at her hand and couldn’t see flesh. It was literally covered in small black, almost metallic-looking things. She understood in theory these were all spiders, and her heart still shuddered at the thought, but she was overcome by her fascination that they had worked together to accomplish this.
“How?” she whispered. “How did you find me? And what is it you want from me now?” She tried to shift upward, only to cry out in surprise, as if the spiders had tightened their net around her. Not a spiderweb in the normal sense but as if she were bound and wrapped. She was covered all the way to her toes. The casing stopped at her neck, for which she was grateful. But, when she tried to move, the spider blanket tightened around her.
She fell back on the couch, stunned. “What do you want from me?” she cried out. Of course they didn’t answer her.
But, in the background, she heard Stefan say, Ask them directly.
You mean, I didn’t?
Of course not. You just cried out to the universe, as if looking for somebody to give you the details of what you’re missing. The spiders found you. They are the ones with the answers.
She sank back into the couch, understanding—in theory—what he had said. She closed her eyes and whispered in her mind, What do you want?
There weren’t any words, but there was a rumble, as if an answer of some kind. An answer she didn’t understand because she didn’t understand the language.
You found me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.
Another rumble, slightly louder. As if more spiders were responding.
Do you have a spokesperson? she asked, feeling foolish.
Don’t look for words, Stefan said. Look for emotions, look for images. Whatever is your usual methodology for getting answers. Just think how not only are they there for you but you’re touching them. What is it you’re getting visions of?
With her eyes closed, she reached out and wiggled a finger, letting her mind acknowledge she was, indeed, touching a spider and could pick up its visions. All she saw was a dirt pathway as the spiders had moved a long distance.
Show me where you’ve come from, she ordered.
The vision sped up, the pathway racing ahead faster and faster. She followed it, not quite understanding, like she was in some tunnel. She followed the spiders’ path, seeing more and more spiders converging, coming in from different avenues. All headed for the same place.
It’s never been like this before, she whispered.
Nothing will ever be the same again either, Stefan said with certainty.
The assurance in his voice made her realize just how much he had seen in his life and how much he knew about this.
Don’t get distracted, he warned. Stay with the spiders. Follow them to the source. See if you can find a location where this boy is.
Eagerly she dove deeper, faster, flying through the air as she fast-tracked back through the spiders’ route. She slammed to a stop on a street. Several dilapidated houses were on the left of her, and another one looked more like a junkyard on the right. Vehicles were all over the property of the one on the right. The other two houses on the left had busted toys and an old junkyard-type car—but only the one—whereas the one on the right had dozens.
Not knowing which way to go, she closed her eyes and whispered, Show me.
Instantly she was sucked into that same vortex at the spiders’ level, racing backward until she squeezed through a crack in the cement and inside a dark and dank basement. She followed it closer and closer until she came to a bedroom. The spider slipped underneath the doorframe.
She could see the little boy tucked on the bed, blankets up to his chin. He slept. But tear tracks marked his cheeks. Her heart broke as she studied his face; she knew he could be none other than her son. She reached out a hand, knowing it was only an ethereal energy but so full of love that she hoped she could touch him. She stroked his cheek gently.
He opened his eyes and stared at her. Ever-so-slowly he sat up. She didn’t know what he could see, but obviously he saw something. He wasn’t shocked. He wasn’t afraid. He reached out a hand and whispered, Mommy?
She could feel her energy splinter in shock, in pain, and yet slam back together again in joy. She knew he was her son but had no proof. And regardless if he was or not, he was someone’s son, and he needed hope. She whispered, Yes.
He didn’t appear to hear her. He leaned forward, his gaze narrowed. Mommy, is that you?
She reached out with both arms and wrapped them around him. Yet, she was nothing but a wispy cloud and had to be very faint at that. She mentally sent him a message of love and whispered, Yes, it’s me.
He frowned and looked around, shrugging, and curled back up on the bed.
Her heart breaking with disappointment, she lay down beside him, wrapped her arms around him, so scared to leave and to not find him again. At least this way she was with him, which made everything else in her life worthwhile.
But the pull to return to her body was so strong that she could feel something dragging her back. As if her energy waned and her own physical form was in danger.
She’d heard about things like that but had never experienced them. Still, she was desperate to stay with her son. She studied the room around her, but there was nothing to say where he was. Then she was dragged outside of his house.
She was desperate to catch a glimpse of something to identify this location, but the speed which jerked her back blurred her vision and had her head spinning. She thought she saw the color blue with black trim, but that was all before she was pulled back through the tunnel, twisting and turning her like some drill boring in reverse.
When she slammed into her body, she jerked physically, and then the net of spiders tightened down once again. She opened her eyes, gasping.
Kirk bounded to her side. “Are you okay?”
“I saw him. I saw Reese.”
He shook his head. “What do you mean?”
She told Kirk what she saw, what had happened. “He’s out there, and he’s alive.”
“My son, you mean?” he said, his voice hard. “My son is alive?”
He sounded more incredulous than ever, but there was also a faint note of hope. Of course it was completely wrapped up in disbelief, but that was normal. She’d certainly dealt with that from many nonbelievers over the years.
She nodded slowly. That was something else to consider. The little boy looked like Kirk. Had he produced another son? Another one he didn’t know about? “Maybe he is. The other thing is, the spiders won’t let me go.”
His eyebrows shot up toward his hairline, and he stared at her body, at the spiders obviously meshed around her. “Why not?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Stefan wanted me to communicate with them. But, when I tried to do that, I saw the boy.”
“Well, try to move again,” he said promptly. “You can’t lie here completely surrounded by spiders forever.”
She glared his way. “I know that.”
He shrugged, looked toward the kitchen and said, “I’ll put on coffee. I’d like a hell of a lot more than that, but it’s too damn early in the day.”
She watched him until he moved out of her sight. She closed her eyes and whispered to the spiders. I saw him. I don’t know how to find him though.
Again that weird murmuring mumbled in her head. She tried to ask other questions in different ways, but the responses never came back any different. Always this weird mumble. But she was touching them, and they were touching her. She reached out a hand and placed the pad of her finger against a spider’s back. The energy was different, humming, connected. The spider was coming from a whole different place. She watched the pathway which existed between her and the spiders and realized that, as one spider had gotten the message, he’d passed on the message to the others. So, although a lot of the spiders knew about the little boy in the basement, not every spider did. So not all of them drank the boy’s blood, but somehow they communicated with each other, and they were all here helping in the same mission.
What is it you want from me?
Again that weird mumble but also a weird sensation of connection.
I want to find him too, she whispered. Why won’t you let me go?
Instead of answering her, they tightened down.
She tried to struggle, but it seemed even worse.
Stefan whispered in her mind, Don’t struggle. They can only respond to one thing.
Love, she said, understanding the pinkish energy around them. She slammed her eyes closed. Instead of fighting the spiders, she blended with them. She let her energy soften, let the spiders sink deeper and deeper into her soul. They were just more of God’s creatures, not ones she’d ever been particularly interested in meeting on this level, but there was no reason not to. They were coded in love, and that was something she could respect.
She reached out mentally and touched every spider on her body in a wave of a loving pink blanket, washing it over herself from head to toe and slowly encompassing every spider here. She didn’t want them staying out of fear because surely she would be strong enough to break their grip, or at least Kirk would be, but she didn’t want them hurt either.
I got the message, she whispered over and over again. I’m going to help him. I’m going to find him. If you can show me where he is, that would help.
She had to wonder at her son, who had connected with these spiders at such a level that the spiders were willing to do what he asked of them. And she was here with all the spiders. How did she get them to send her back to her son? It seemed like a one-way street at the moment. Maybe her son hadn’t figured how to get the message out any clearer.
As she lay here, the spider blanket stirred and trembled and relaxed its grip on her. She slowly sat up, and the spiders broke and reformed, covering the back of the couch in another blanket. She watched as they all clung together in this long vertical metallic-looking beadwork.
Kirk stepped forward. “How did you get them to let go?”
“I covered them with love,” she said softly.
He stared at her. “You sent the spiders love?”
She shrugged. “What can I say? They were covered in pink, and they were coming from a little boy. I desperately want to confirm that he’s my son, but I just don’t know.” She was so confused. She needed Stefan’s help to sort this out.
“Our son,” Kirk said, his voice curt.
She knew they would have a heavy discussion about it at some point. But she was willing to tell him now. “You need to find the answers,” she said abruptly. “If he’s Reese, how could this have come about? If he’s your son by another woman—which woman is that? And, again, how did this come about?”
“I have no children,” he said. “At least as far as I know.”
Moving slowly so as not to disturb the spiders, that remained on the back of her couch but showed no sign of leaving her apartment, she stood and stretched. “If that is our son, we need to know how he disappeared from that hospital. And if he’s not ours, he’s still a lost little boy, and we need to help him.”
He looked at her hesitantly. “You said you found him.”
Frozen, she looked at him. What could she say that wouldn’t make her sound crazy? She opted for the truth. “When I reawakened to my abilities, I found him. This faint lavender-hued energy and with laughter identical to my son’s laughter. And yesterday I’d have sworn it was Reese. Today I can’t explain any of it. Are these two different boys? I don’t know. I do know if I can’t handle it, if I lose my son all over again …”
The look in his eyes had her turning away. “I know I sound crazy.” Then she turned and poked his chest. “Finding the truth is your domain. If that is your son out there, somebody in that hospital lied. Somebody forged the death certificate and the cremation certificate, then walked out of that hospital with Reese in their arms. That’s not only criminal, it was vindictive and mean. But did they kidnap him to hurt me or because they wanted my beautiful son as their own?”
“I don’t know,” he said cautiously. “I will find out though.”
She nodded. “It takes a lot of hate to do something like that to someone.”
“If it’s Reese, and if he was stolen, there are a lot of reasons for it. You’re assuming you were targeted,” he said. “There is still me. What if somebody knew I was the father?”
Startled, she stared at him. “I hadn’t considered that.”
“So you admit it?”
“Admit what? You’re Reese’s father? Yes, you’re his father. I can’t believe you would suspect I’d had a relationship so soon after you walked away.” She shook her head. “I was so incapable of having another relationship after you left. No way you did not know.”
“I think I knew when I found out what happened at the hospital, but what could I say? I hid my grief under a blanket of denial.” His voice hardened. “I would have very much liked to have known about Reese before he was born. I only left because you pushed me away.”
“Except you stayed away,” she snapped. At the uncomfortable silence that followed, she added in a softer tone, “Well, that time has come and gone, but, if we find Reese, we can both have him back.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. “I’ll start delving into that.”
“Don’t start,” she said. “Get that damn investigation ended. That little boy is in danger. Whether he’s ours or someone else’s doesn’t matter. He needs our help.”
“I could use some assistance,” he said, holding out his hand.
Something much more significant than just asking for her help was in that extended hand. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but she’d do anything to get her son back, and, if Kirk needed her hand, then she was all his.
She reached out and clasped his hand. “Just find him,” she urged. “And find the asshole who did this to us.”
He nodded. “As long as you remember it might not be Reese. I don’t want to raise too many alarms at this point. Not only does everybody think I’m much better off without you beside me, I don’t want them thinking I’ve gone down the same mental path you traveled all those years ago.”
“You mean, the one where I thought my son was alive, and yet all the rest of you were busy telling me how he was dead, and I needed to stop being so unbalanced about it?” she asked drily.
He had the grace to flush. But he gave a quick nod and said, “I still trust you. But I can’t guarantee, at the end of the day, that the little boy you’re talking about is our blood. Neither can I guarantee that whoever it is you were talking to was not a ghost.”
She smiled. “Haven’t you realized there are no guarantees in anything?”
*
“Spiders making a blanket,” David said to himself in wonder as he studied her world.
He really enjoyed this opening into her life. It had become a huge source of amusement for him. It had also helped develop his hobby further. It was almost too boring now. It was pretty easy to make anyone do what he wanted them to do. It used to be exciting and thrilling but not any longer. There was just something freeing about it all.
But watching her, seeing those spiders, that amazed him. It was like she’d gone into some sort of psychic trance. He’d watched her body jerk as she did something. Then he saw energy around her, but he couldn’t see what had happened.
“I’ll do some research on that spider thing,” he said, “because that’s beyond cool.”
It also amazed him that it was something she was involved in. Didn’t all women hate spiders?
“Obviously she’s different,” he said.
He sat back and thought about what her weird jerking meant.
“Was she getting visions from them? Were they healing her? What the hell’s going on there?”
The longer he thought about it, the more it bothered him. He wasn’t the kind of person to leave any rock unturned. And, as far as this woman—Queenie—was concerned, she was the first person he could actually communicate with. The first one he could talk to and brag to. His work was very stressful, but he was very good at it. But the reason he was good was because this hobby of his allowed him to connect to other people on a very different level. It put him back in control. And that was something so many people didn’t have anymore.
He returned to studying Queenie, but the curtains into her life were closed. He stared and tried to rip the curtains wide open. But instead they snapped shut again. Getting angry, he tried harder, but there was no help for it. She had erected some wall between them. And all it did was make him madder. He closed his eyes, reached out with his mind and firmly pulled the curtains back. And this time it gave. He crowed. “See? I’m a hell of a lot stronger than you are.”
And then he stared. Because, although his curtains had opened, she had closed curtains on her side. And he knew, even as he tried over and over again, that somehow she had found a way to block him out of her life.
Well, she might have won this one. But no way in hell would she win the next one. He’d make damn sure of that.
*
Stefan, did you find anything more about the poisoner? Maddy asked.
Isn’t that a question for you? he said humorously.
You were going to talk to Kirk about it.
Things have blown up in Kirk’s world. I haven’t had a chance to mention the poison to him, Stefan admitted. And I should have, but I didn’t even think of it.
Tell me, she demanded.
He quickly updated Dr. Maddy.
Maddy gave a soft cluck of sympathy. I don’t think there could be any nightmare more horrifying for a mother.
I did try to reinforce her umbrella. She’s letting me add energy to it. But I haven’t been able to get through. And that’s why I’m trying to figure out just what this guy does to see into her world, whether she likes it or not.
It’s got to be somebody close to her, Maddy insisted. You know as well as I do that somebody with that ability is generally a close friend or lover.
Unless it’s one of the people she’s helped, remember? Stefan said. She’s dealt with hundreds and hundreds of people in the last few years alone. And that’s saying something. But any one of them could have used that as an entranceway into her space. As she’s getting flashes of insight into their world, they could have opened a door into hers.
But to keep something like that open, to keep the connection so strong, Maddy said, takes more than just a passing touch.
Stefan nodded. We haven’t figured it all out yet, but we will.
Of course you will, Dr. Maddy said, chuckling. But how about we get to it before all hell breaks loose, and people end up dead or dying?
Stefan’s voice was light, but an undercurrent of worry was beneath it. I think it’s already too late. I think this guy is not only a killer but has been doing this for a very long time.
Then we need to catch him, don’t we? Maddy said lightly. After all, it’s what we do.
At that, Stefan could only nod. As much as it wasn’t what he had planned to do with his life, it was what he’d ended up doing. And when the world gave you a job to do, you stepped up, and you did the best you could. In this case, he was scared it wouldn’t be enough.