Darkening Dawn (The Lockman Chronicles Book 5) (36 page)

Jessie took that breath that broke the fragile damn inside of her. She cried and her vision got all blurry and she sniffled and snorted like a pig and she didn’t care.

Craig was here. Her dad was here.

Alive.

She leapt off her bed and sprinted into his arms.

He wrapped them around her and they held each other as if they might fall off the face of the planet if either of them let go.

She cried into his chest, soaking a spot on his flannel shirt. She could smell the detergent he’d washed it in. Same detergent he had washed all his clothes in when they’d lived at the cabin.

She stopped feeling like a wuss for blubbering all over him when she heard him sobbing along with her.

They held each other for five minutes at least.

Then a thought occurred to Jessie that made her pull back. “Where’s Mom?”

The lines in his face deepened. It made him look older. She had the feeling he’d aged a lot since she saw him last, more than just those three years.

“She isn’t here,” he said and closed his wet, red-rimmed eyes. “She doesn’t belong here.”

“What the hell are you talking about? This is our cabin. This is where we lived like a family. She damn well does belong here.”

He cupped her face in one hand, thumbed away a streak of tears.

“This isn’t the cabin. Not for real.”

She swatted his hand away. “Quit screwing with me.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“What diff—”

“Think. What’s the very last thing.”

Her chest hurt again. Hurt bad. And it felt…open…as if…

She looked down and saw a hole in her chest, bloody around the edges, but no longer bleeding. She gingerly touched the hole’s edge and the pain sparked anew. She winced, then looked up at Craig.

“I’m supposed to be dead.”

Craig sighed.

From outside came the chatter of birds and the ratchet sound of cicadas among the trees. The breeze through the window turned chilly against the back of her neck.

“Jessie,” Craig said. “You
are
dead.”

Chapter Sixty-Four

T
HEY SAT AT THE KITCHEN
table. A bay window looked out to the back porch. Beyond the porch’s wood columns that held up the awning, Jessie saw nothing but trees, all a thick green blur of leaves and tightly spaced brown trunks. As usual, she couldn’t name any of them, but watching them sway in the wind soothed her.

That whispery sound they made that came through the open window. That soothed her too.

The hole in her chest had closed.

But a knot in her belly refused to untie. Not because of the news of her death. Strangely, that didn’t bother her so much. The fact that she was reunited with her dad had a lot to do with that.

No, what bothered her was that her mom wasn’t here with them.

A purple mug of steaming tea that smelled like jasmine sat on the circular oak table in front of her. She didn’t remember how it got there. Part of her wanted a sip. It smelled good and the warm liquid would feel nice going down.

She worried she couldn’t keep it down, though.

Craig sat beside her. He had a can of Budweiser, of all things. Condensation on the can ran down its sides like tears. It was cracked open, but Craig wasn’t even looking at it. He stared out the bay window. Actually, it seemed like he was looking beyond the forest, seeing something Jessie couldn’t.

“Why?” she asked. “Why isn’t she here? You’re not telling me she’s in hell or some shit, ’cause I don’t believe it.”

He absently shook his head. His gaze remained on the thing beyond the trees.

“I don’t know if there’s such thing as hell. Or heaven. As far as I can tell there’s just life, and then something on the other side.”

“Then why isn’t she here, on the other side?”

Finally, he drew his gaze away from the window and looked at Jessie. “Because this isn’t the other side.”

Jessie slapped the table. Her mug jumped and some of the tea sloshed out. Now her drink had tears too. “Cryptic doesn’t suit you, Dad. Stop fucking with me.”

One corner of his mouth turned up. He let out a short, breathy laugh. “Still got that mouth on you.”

“Hey, this mouth of mine helped save the world.”

He nodded. “I saw that.”

“You saw…” Jessie covered her face with her hands, then dragged them down and gave Craig the below the eyebrow stare. “Seriously, you need to start explaining shit.”

“There’s time for that. Lots of time.”

“Maybe for you. But I’ve got shit to do. I need to find Mom.”

“I already told you,” he growled. “She’s not here. I looked.” He let go a long exhale, and in a softer voice, said, “I looked.”

“Where are we, Dad?”

“The Inbetween.”

She drew back. “The same place Gabriel came from?” She blinked. “Why are we in a place like this? Did we do something…wrong?”

He rubbed his chin and went back to staring out the window. “I’ve spent a long time thinking about it, because I didn’t understand why
I
ended up here. But as Gabriel’s plan unfolded, and things with that unicorn escalated, I started to get some ideas. Now, with you here, I think I know exactly why.”

Jessie waited, but he didn’t go any further. “And that is?”

“The prophecy.”

Jessie laughed, although nothing felt very funny. “That’s weird coming from you.”

“Weird.” His gaze still focused on some distant sight. “That’s one word for it.” Then he returned his attention to Jessie. “I’ve found, if you work at it, you can have some influence on the physical world from here. Do you remember those dreams you had about me?”

“It’s going to happen again,” she said with a bitter taste in her mouth. “Yeah, only I didn’t understand what you were talking about until it was too late.”

“It’s not too late. Everything happened for a reason.”

Jessie huffed. “Who are you and where is Craig Lockman?”

He stood up and gently took her arm. “Come here.”

She let him guide her over to the window.

The breeze here felt warm again. Apparently, the Inbetween had bipolar weather patterns.

“Look out there,” Craig said. “Tell me what you see.”

“Um, trees. Duh.”

“Look harder. Look past the trees. It’s…it’s pretty amazing. I only started seeing it when you arrived. So it’s you that…I don’t know what you’d call it. Opened it?”

She wrinkled her brow and gave him the stink face. “Opened what?”

“Just look.”

So she faced the window and tried to look
beyond
the trees, whatever that meant. Was it like X-ray vision or something?

She got the sarcasm slapped out of her when she finally saw, all at once, what he meant.

The trees faded. Just evaporated. The view from the window changed completely. It looked like the cabin sat on a cloud above Earth, and Jessie could see houses and cars and even tiny little people.

She found she could manipulate the view as well. Zoom in and out. Turn from side to side and even in a full circle. She could also spin the planet like a giant globe to navigate to any location she wanted.

And when she really looked hard.

Holy shitski.

She could swoop down and settle right into a person’s head. Which she did with a woman in a shopping mall in Arizona, pushing one of those double-seated strollers that carried a pair of twin baby boys.

Jessie could feel the woman’s emotions.

Tired. Frustrated with her mother-in-law who walked beside her, nattering on and on about the proper way to feed a baby, and it sure as heck wasn’t breastfeeding. Oh, no. A proper woman used formula and kept her boobs in her shirt.

Oh, shut up, the mom thought. They’re my kids and I’ll swing out a boob anytime, anywhere if my kids are hungry. That’s what a proper mom does.

Jessie laughed and flew out of the mom’s head.

While she was at the mall, Jessie dipped in and out of a number of heads, getting to live a few seconds of a dozen different lives.

Then an idea struck her.

She zoomed out and flew across the country to Indiana. She returned to the scene of the crash where Earl and his crew had kidnapped her. Most evidence of the attack had already been cleaned up, except for the damage to the concrete and storefronts. A red stain on the sidewalk marked the spot where she had last seen Ree.

She soared away from the scene and to Agency Headquarters. Like a ghost, she sank down through the roof and several stories. She found her way to the Agency’s own personal hospital that took up a full floor. That’s when she felt him. A faint hint of his life force that she followed until she found Ree on a hospital bed.

The heart monitor attached to him bleeped steadily. His chest rose and fell evenly with each breath. Much of the color had drained from his face, but he was still alive.

Jessie dared slip into his mind.

She caught him in the middle of a nightmare. He was reliving the attack. One moment in particular. Laying helpless on the sidewalk while he watched Earl drive away the van with Jessie inside. The anger in Ree exploded like a cluster bomb—some of the blast directed at Earl, but a good amount blew back on Ree.

Guilt.

He felt like he had failed Jessie.

Don’t worry. I’m all right now.

His dream broke apart. He gasped as he came suddenly awake. The pain through his chest and his knee hit him as if he was getting shot all over again. He gritted his teeth and looked around, expecting to see Jessie by his bedside.

I’m in your head, Ree. But it’s really me.

“Where are you?” His voice crackled like an old record. “We’ll send agents.”

It’s too late for that.

“No. We can…” He broke into a coughing fit that caused the pain from his wounds to flare. The edges of his vision closed in. But he fought to stay conscious, for Jessie’s sake.

It hurt to have to tell him the truth. She knew he would blame himself. But letting him have false hope would be worse.

I’m dead, Ree. But I didn’t go down without a fight. We stopped the bad guys.

She could feel his disappointment, but part of him refused to believe her, trying to pass it off as a dream or drug-induced hallucination.

“If you’re…dead, how are you talking to me?”

It’s a new trick I learned. Look, I’m glad you’re alive. Sorry I gave you such a hard time.

“Jessie…where…are you?”

Wish I knew. Some underground tunnel system that Gabriel Dolan used to haunt. Check all the files you have on Dolan. There might be something there to lead you to the place. At least then you can find my…well, you know.

I have to go now.

“No, wait.”

You need to sleep, Ree. Get better soon.

She sensed him about to protest, so she helped him along and pushed him back into a deep—and dreamless—sleep.

“Do you see it?” Craig asked from a distant somewhere.

Jessie drew all the way back until the vantage point from the cabin’s bay window looked like the view from an orbiting spacecraft.

“See it? Dude, I can live it.”

Craig furled his brow. “What do you mean?”

“You can’t do it?”

“All I see is the world. Like we’re floating above it. Like it’s a giant board game.”

Jessie nodded. “I can move around anywhere I want. And I can…go into people, live inside of them. Hear their thoughts. Feel everything they feel.”

His lips parted and his eyes widened. “I knew it.”

“Knew what?”

He pointed out the window. “That’s all yours, Jessie. I said I had some small influence from the Inbetween, but I have a feeling you can have a
huge
influence.”

Jessie started to tell him he was
loco
in the
cabeza
. She stopped short when she grasped what the hell he meant. A lightness filled her chest. The air flowed more easily in and out of her lungs. And it tasted fresh, like citrus.

“The prophecy,” she whispered.

“Brought full circle.” He took her by the shoulders and stooped over so his eyes came down to her level. “Give it a try.”

She was anxious to, but her visit with Ree had reminded her of something she needed to clear up if she was going to stick around Craig in their new Inbetween home.

“I have to ask you something,” she said. “And I want you to be completely honest.”

“It’s a lie,” he said before she could go any further. “Jessie, I know I’ve done some harsh things in life. But that shit the woman from the Agency told you?” He shook his head. “It’s a damn lie. She was using me to manipulate you.”

She released a breath she hadn’t noticed she’d been holding. “You saw all that, huh?”

“Do you believe me?”

She barely paused for a second. She didn’t need to think about it. Pretty easy to figure out whose word was worth more—Kinga-Roo’s or Craig’s.

“Yes,” she said. “One hundred percent.”

“Good.” He exhaled as if he’d been holding his breath too. He gestured toward the window. “Now… Let’s see what you can do.

Jessie nodded, turned to the window, and steeled herself.

Chapter Sixty-Five

F
ROM SOMEWHERE BELOW ON THE
mortal plane, Jessie felt a tug. It was like the moment she opened herself up to the possibilities, her purpose took hold. She knew just where to go.

The world spun beneath her. It stopped above the United Kingdom. Jessie recognized the island from all those world maps she’d seen in her history and geography classes.

The tug drew her down to a London evening. She recognized the city, sadly enough, from watching
Doctor Who
. The tower of London stood proud over the city, its windows lit in the thickening dusk.

Jessie followed the tug to a residential part of the city, down into an alley between two apartment buildings decorated with gang tags and rust stains on the brick.

A man in a blue sport coat, shiny from too many uses, stood against a rusty fence that closed off one end of the alley. The fence rattled as he backed against it as if he could pass through the chain links if he just pushed hard enough.

The frightened man faced a pair of werewolves in full, furry shift. They growled through their foamy grins, lips pulled back from their gums to show their pointed teeth.