16 Taking Eve (24 page)

Venable’s face was without expression. “Joe said you have a sketch.”

She opened her pad and thrust the copy at him.

He gazed at the sketch for a moment and handed it back to her. “You’re extraordinarily good, Jane.”

“That’s all you’re going to say?” Her gaze was narrowed on his face. “You recognized him, didn’t you?”

He walked over to the porch rail and stared out at the lake. “I hoped it wouldn’t be him. Everything pointed in his direction, but there was the smallest chance that it could be someone else. Because of her profession, Eve does seem to attract a wide variety of lethal weirdos.”

“Who is he?” Joe asked hoarsely.

Venable didn’t answer immediately. Then he shrugged. “His name is James Doane.”

“More,” Jane said. “Tell us more.”

Venable shook his head. “Later. I’ve got to call Dukes’s wife, and then start trying to issue a few warnings.”

“If you know his name, do you know where we can start on finding him?” Jane asked.

“Right now?” He shook his head. “The last address I have is a house in Goldfork, Colorado, where he lived until last week. There’s no possibility he’d take Eve there. He’d know I’d be having it watched.”

Joe tensed. “He’s aware you knew his address?”

“Of course.” He added simply, “I’ve had him under protective custody for the last five years.”

“What?”

“I told you, later.” He met Joe’s gaze. “You’re going to get what you want from me, but it’s going to make waves like a tsunami. I have to warn people it’s coming, so I can minimize the damage. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can.”

There was no pushing Venable any more at the moment, Joe thought. It would be useless. Venable had already committed, and he had to give him a little more space. “Not long, Venable.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Doane?”

“You’re already trying to work it out for yourself. Before you get on the phone and start checking, you’d better have another name other than the one we gave him.” He took out his phone. “Relling. James Herbert Relling.”

Rio Grande Forest, Colorado

DOANE WAS ASLEEP AT LAST.

Eve could hear the steadiness of his breathing. It had taken him over an hour to settle down on his couch and another twenty minutes before she could take the chance that he was sound enough asleep so that she could start to move. Doane must have been as charged as she had been after he had opened up the floodgates about Kevin this afternoon.

She gazed up at the socket in the ceiling over the bed.

Two more minutes, and she’d start moving. She just hoped there was still gas in that line. She had opened that nozzle four times, and the last time it had not seemed to have a very powerful effect on her. That could mean that she was not getting enough gas or that she was becoming partially immune to it. She hoped it was the latter. Perhaps this time she’d leave it open a little longer and find which was true.

It would be a risk.

Hell, everything she did was a risk. This was a way out, possibly the only way out. She had to know if it was working or if she had to search out another path. Joe would say it was reckless, and she should wait for him to come for her. He had tried to free her to make a move, but she knew he didn’t want her to make that move without him.

Joe.

She closed her eyes and let the thought of him surround her. His tea-colored eyes, the way he moved, the quiet that hid all the leashed fierceness, the intelligence that was both a challenge and source of pride to her. Thinking about him soothed her, and she wanted to cling to it.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t rely on him. He was her friend and her lover, but this was her battle. She had to make her own decisions.

I’m sorry, Joe. Run toward me. I’ll run toward you. One way or another, we’ll come together. That’s the way it’s always been.

She opened her eyes.

Two minutes had passed. Doane’s breathing had stayed even and perhaps had deepened. Time to move.

She slipped from the bed and began to fold it up in the middle.

No sound.

Slowly.

She knew the drill now and it took her less than a minute to climb up on the bed and reach for the nozzle to unscrew it.

She drew a deep breath and opened the line.

Carnations.

She started to close the line.

Wait. A little more. Test it.

Carnations.

Dizziness.

Blackness, closing in.

She frantically turned the screw.

Too much. Too much.

Get down.

No noise.

Hold on.

Don’t black out.

Hurry. Get down. You’ll ruin everything if he finds out what you’ve been doing.

She reached the floor, staggered, and fell to her knees.

Carnations.

Had she left that line open or was the smell just still in her nostrils?

If she’d left it open, she had to go back up and close it.

Not now. She wouldn’t be able to manage yet. Too weak. Much too weak.

She curled up in a ball on the floor.

Dizzy.

Darkness …

*   *   *

STUPID. SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN
sure that gas line was closed. She could vaguely remember hurriedly turning the screw but maybe—

“Stop worrying, Mama. You closed it.”

Bonnie?

She opened her eyes to see Bonnie leaning against the folded bed a few yards away. Her daughter was dressed as always in her Bugs Bunny T-shirt and jeans, and her curly red hair gleamed even in the dimness of the room. So little, so beautiful, so beloved.

Bonnie suddenly chuckled. “Don’t be sappy, Mama. I was never beautiful except to you. Red hair and freckles on my nose?”

“Don’t make fun of me. You were—you are beautiful. It’s spirit that makes beauty.”

“Then I guess I should be beautiful because I’m most certainly a spirit.” Her smile faded. “You shouldn’t have doubled that dose of gas, Mama. You scared me. I was worried about you. I was afraid you were going to fall.”

“I had to make sure that I was—”

“I know why you were doing it,” Bonnie interrupted. “But you shouldn’t have done it. It was working. Your body is becoming accustomed to the gas.”

“You should have come and told me that before the fact,” Eve said tartly. “It would have saved me a lot of trouble.”

“I couldn’t come to you. I’ve been trying. There’s too much darkness holding me away. He doesn’t want me near you. Sometimes it’s easier to use dreams, but that didn’t work either. I wouldn’t have been able to come this time if the gas hadn’t knocked you out. You’re deep enough so that I could slip in.”

So it was a dream. Sometimes she couldn’t tell the difference with Bonnie. “Ben said that he’d dreamed about you.”

“I had to find a way to warn you. I was helpless. He wouldn’t let me near you.”

“Doane?”

“No, the other one.”

“What other one?”

“Kevin.”

Eve felt a chill stiffen every muscle. “Kevin is dead.”

“Not as long as Doane is alive. Kevin won’t let go. There’s some … connection. Just as there is with you and me.”

“Bonnie.”

“I didn’t want to scare you, but you have to know.” She shook her head as she looked at Eve. “Mama, you know there are things that do go bump in the night. Not many that are evil. Occasionally, something slips, or there’s a force that carries over. Those are usually taken care of by the natural order. But there’s something helping from your side. Very strong, very powerful.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t know very much myself. I learn more every day I’m here. It made me afraid when I could see all that darkness heading toward you and couldn’t see any way to help you. I couldn’t even reach Joe. He was too close to you.”

“You might not have reached him, but you managed to make him extremely nervous, didn’t you?”

“Part of that was me, but most of it was Joe’s instincts. He’s lived with darkness for a long time. He can sense it coming.”

“Yes, he can. But neither one of us could see that Jane would be pulled into this nightmare.” She met Bonnie’s eyes. “Did you, baby?”

She shook her head. “Jane closes me out. I can’t connect with her either.”

Eve nodded slowly. Jane knew that Eve believed Bonnie came to her and had never argued or tried to dissuade her. But she had never accepted Bonnie as anything but a comforting dream that gave Eve happiness. “It’s not that she has any ill feelings toward you, baby.”

“Are you trying to keep me from getting my feelings hurt?” Bonnie was smiling again. “You love her, and that makes me love her. I understand Jane. Someday we’ll come together.” Her smile ebbed, then faded. “Though I wish it was going to be different.”

Eve stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure. The darkness…”

“Listen to me; nothing is going to hurt Jane,” she said fiercely. “We have to keep that from happening. She’s already been hurt because of that bastard. She’s not going to be hurt again.”

“Sometimes you can’t stop it from happening.”

Panic surged through her. “Don’t say that. If I try hard enough, I can do anything. Why do you think I’m working on Kevin’s reconstruction? I’ll stall Doane until I can either get away or Joe can find me. And I told him he had to keep Jane safe.”

“Who is going to tell Jane? Do you think she’s not going to try to find you? She loves you. I think she loves you as much as I do, Mama.”

“Then I just have to work faster, harder.”

Bonnie made a face. “Not too much faster. It’s good that I was able to get to you after that last whiff of gas, but I don’t know how dangerous an overdose would be.”

“Some stakes are worth a little risk.”

“You’re willing to risk too much,” Bonnie said soberly. “You’ve been that way since I was taken from you. I have to fight to keep you from coming to me too soon. Thank God, you have Joe and Jane as anchors.”

Beloved anchors, Eve thought, but at moments like this when Bonnie was close, and she was reminded of what she had lost, it was difficult to remember that there was a balance that must be maintained. Bonnie had been her whole life before she had lost her. She swallowed to ease her tight throat. “It’s hard sometimes, baby.”

“For me, too,” Bonnie said softly. “But we can do it, we can wait. They need you, Mama. And you need them.”

“I’m aware of all that.” She smiled with an effort. “Stop lecturing me, young lady. Just because you’ve passed into the great beyond doesn’t guarantee that you know everything.”

“I wish it did.” Bonnie shook her head. “I’m learning, but it’s not fast enough. There should be some way to get to you when I need to do it.” She repeated soberly. “It scared me.”

“Particularly since you want me to cut down on inhaling that gas. By all means, apply yourself.”

“I will, but I can’t be sure—” She suddenly stiffened. “The gas is wearing off. You’re beginning to come up through the layers. I’ll lose you soon.”

“No.”

“I can’t help it. I can feel the darkness sweeping me away from you. He’s pushing, smothering, me. Such hate … I can feel the terrible hate and anger Kevin has for me. He wants to be what he was when he was alive. He wants to feel the power again. Over me … over you. He doesn’t want me near you. And he’s so strong…”

Eve could feel it, too. Bonnie was fading away, in and out of focus. “Bonnie!”

“Hush, I have to tell you … Doane is—it’s hard not to believe him. But you mustn’t do it. It’s what he does. It was his part of that horror. No matter what he tells you, it’s either a lie or twisted so out of shape that it becomes what he wants it to be.”

“What horror?”

“No time. You’ll find out. And don’t take too much of that gas.”

“I heard you the first time.” She could feel Bonnie ebbing away from her, and she was trying desperately to hold on to her. “And I told you that I only wanted to be sure that it was working. It’s not as if I like the stuff. It makes me sick to my stomach.”

“That’s not the gas, Mama.”

“Of course it’s the gas. What else?”

“It’s him, he knows what you’re doing, and he’s trying to stop you.” She was fading away in the distance. “It’s Kevin…”

*   *   *

SHE WAS GONE.

And Eve was once again fully awake.

She drew a shaky breath and slowly opened her eyes.

No Bonnie.

Of course there was no red-haired little girl to lighten this darkness.

Eve felt the familiar sadness and regret and yearning that always came when Bonnie left her. She wanted her back, to see her, to feel the bittersweet joy.

But Bonnie had tried and given her what she could, and Eve was warmer and more hopeful for her attempt.

She got to her feet and started to carefully unfold the bed and rumple the covers.

No sound.

Make sure that Doane was not aware of—

Sick.

She dropped down on the bed and drew her knees up as waves of nausea hit her. She bit down hard on her lower lip.

It’s Kevin.

If it was Doane’s son, then he was attacking at full force and speed. Lord, she was sick.

Things do go bump in the night.

Hold it off. Think of something else.

She took several slow, deep breaths.

That was better …

No, it wasn’t. The nausea was back.

Don’t throw up. Fight it.

Whether it was the gas or some spirit from beyond the grave, it could be fought.

It was more violent than the other bouts she’d experienced, which she’d attributed to the gas. Punishment?