Viking Sensitivity (Night World Series Book 2) (21 page)

"Someone else tried to get her too. That woman with the motorcycle jacket. But she didn't catch her either. The being's really pissed about that.

"That's all I know man. It wasn't exactly always in control you know. Only when it needed something. The rest of the time it left me alone to live my life. I've been looking for some sort of cure I guess you would call it. But I haven’t been able to find anything." The man sat back in his chair, exhausted, waiting for Carter and or Deuce to call him insane.

There was silence for second before Carter pushed off the wall. "How many people do you think this being is in contact with?"

Adam shrugged. "I don't know. Twelve maybe, no more than that. It's like, every time it adds a person it gets a hair weaker. I get the impression that it could control dozens of people. But unless they're all together in one place it wouldn't be able to control all of them at once, you know?

"I saw a guy it controlled when it wasn't in control of either of us. I don't see him in there. I asked him about it and he said he had had that being with him for four months. Can you imagine? Four months. Anyway, he said the hold on him gets weaker in that it can't hold control of him as long as it used to now that it has more people. So in a way, it's getting weaker with each additional person. But it's still able to control everybody."

"Would you be able to tell us who this other guy is? Or write down his name?"

Adam sat forward in his chair, almost excited "yeah, get me some paper. I mean, I don't know his name. But I can give you a description. And he works at this coffee shop about two blocks from where I work."

Carter turned and looked at the window. He was asking if anyone in there had any questions. Without actually saying anything.

Viking turned to Raider. "Go get paper and something for him to write with."

Nodding Raider pushed past everybody and left the room.

Viking turned to Gwen. "Can you feel it? Can you feel any kind of connection to this thing?"

She shook her head before he even finished his sentence. "No, not really. I can feel the connection there. Maybe if I was in a room with all of them I could trace it back to see what's there. But it would take all of them. Or someone with a live connection like this guy who works at the coffee shop. I might be able to track it down to different people. But I'm not sure."

Viking didn't like her answer. But there wasn't a lot he could do about it. He turned to face the two MPs. "Is there a spell or an enchantment or something that you two can do on a necklace or a stone that would protect these people from this being? That way we can cut this thing off one by one. Leaving it with only one host body? Do you think that's doable?"

The two MPs looked at each other. Clearly communicating telepathically. After almost a minute of blank faces Marco turned and looked at Viking.

"We think so. We would need to touch several of them. So that we get a sense of the being's signature. That way we know for sure we're using the right spell. But it will take us a few hours to research it and put it together."

Viking nodded. "Do it. Let me know the cost after you know how much time you have to put in. And if you can create a dozen of these talismans so that we can corner them off one by one and protect all of them from it. That would be great."

Both MPs nodded before leaving the room. Presumably to go check out the group sitting in the small holding area behind the observation room.

Viking turned back to Gwen. "Do you want to listen to the rest of the interviews? Or do you want to get a head start on chasing down whatever this is?"

Viking refrained from asking her about her plan again. But he couldn't keep his tone entirely blank. It wasn't that he didn't trust Gwen. He trusted her implicitly. However if she did come up with some way to defeat this being he wanted to hear it. No matter how bad it was.

Gwen smiled up at him almost indulgently. As if she was trying not to laugh. "If it's all the same to you, I would like to stay and watch the rest of the interviews. That way if there is any sort of clue or direction I catch it right away instead of hearing about it much later." She continued to smile up at him waiting for his response.

It wasn't until Viking heard Craig clear his throat that he remembered the lion was even there. He almost felt embarrassed. Both he and Gwen turned to Craig at the same time.

"With all due respect, I'm missing something. And I am not a huge fan of missing something. If this sort of thing is going to be endangering my lions I feel I should know about it. Not any of this old world, 'you know what we think you need to know' crap. So, care to share?"

Viking sighed. "Hold on a sec." He tapped his earpiece so he could speak to Carter and Deuce. "Unless you guys have anything we don't have any questions. Raider will be in with his paper and pen in a second. Get that information down and then bring the tall guy with the flannel shirt next and unless you hear otherwise, after that the brunette with wavy hair and motorcycle jacket."

When both men inside the observation room nodded to let Viking knew they heard him, he turned back to Craig.

"You already know we're chasing a being that is taking control of Sensitives. We think this might be part of the rebellion. And that the reason they're taking Sensitives it's because there's no way to track them since no one considers Sensitives to be part of the Night World. We've been speaking to some experts and it seems as though the best way to rid ourselves of this being is if we track down every single person it's connected to and cut those ties so there is only one body left. Once it's in that last body we should be able to vanquish it somehow. Though there is no definite answer on how. We're kind of working on this as we go."

Craig eyed both of them warily. "That's all well and good but the two of you are tense with each other. And my gut tells me it's not simply because our Lady of the Dead is now the Warrior queen. That's what I'm worried about getting us all in trouble."

Gwen jumped in before he could. "Viking is upset that I have a backup plan in case this doesn't work. I know he will not like it so I'm not telling him what it is. He is concerned I will implement this plan without telling him." She looked directly at Viking. "Which I will not."

Craig continued to look at them both warily. "I swear if there was a way to detach ourselves from the entire Night World I would simply uproot my pride and go live on an island somewhere."

"Well, unfortunately that is not the case. But at the very least we're all working together on this, most likely bigger than we realize, problem on our hands." Gwen said with a huge smile plastered on her face.

Craig rolled his eyes. "Somehow, that just isn't comforting."

Before they could continue the man in flannel walked into the questioning room. He didn't look as frightened as the first man. It was almost as if he knew what they were going to ask him about. He seemed perfectly at ease. Viking couldn't help but wonder if maybe this man was a stronger psychic and sensed the Warriors meant him no harm.

"I am going to give you a very similar condensed spiel to the one I gave your friend. All we need is your name, and all the information, and interactions that you had with this being that took control of you and the other people in that room." Deuce said succinctly.

The man in flannel moved his arms. But since they were behind his back they didn't go very far. He sighed heavily. "Tori, my name is Tori. I'm a librarian at the university. I guess you could say I'm patient zero. It happened while I returned books to their shelves a little more than four and a half months ago. I had nightmares for weeks about this thing stalking me around the library before I closed each night.

"Then I started to feel as if I was being stalked during the day as well. I knew the thing in my dreams was real. That it was the thing in the library. I have had some experience with things visiting my dreams as well as visiting in the in real life. My mother always told me we shine like a beacon to them. Once they sense us, they will hunt us down. But I was ill-equipped to deal with this particular thing.

"So one night while I closed up, I heard something stomping around on the second floor. So I dragged myself up there and started to look around. I'm not sure how to explain it but it wasn't until I had been up there about five minutes chasing the noise that I realized I was chasing it and not a person.

"Normally I would have just left. I try to avoid those things at all cost. However, this was in my place of work which meant not only would I be returning here, but I felt responsible. I didn't want to leave it there to affect other people.

"So I started talking to it. Challenging it to leave. Doing all of the things that worked in the past. But this thing, I'm not sure how it did it, knocked me over. Knocked the wind out of me. This will sound crazy but I cut my arm on one of the little carts that someone left in the aisle. I assume now it was this thing. As I fell, I could almost feel the thing using that cut to enter into my bloodstream. Then it was in my head.

"It spoke to me. It spoke to me for weeks. After two or three days I realized it was controlling my body while I slept. I naïvely tried the whole not sleeping thing. But didn't last long. I went to other people I know who, I hoped, knew how to get rid of this thing. But I couldn't prove it was there. It was an expert at hiding from everyone.

"Eventually it rooted itself in my subconscious well enough that it was able to take control while I was conscious. It had me recruit three different people. Two of which are in that other room. Before you ask, no, I do not know the other guy's name or how to find him." Tori looked hard worn. As if he had been waiting a long time to tell someone that story. To tell someone and have them believe him.

Viking looked at Gwen. He was pretty sure he didn't know of a being that could basically force itself on a person. Usually they had to be coerced to believe what the being wanted them to. When he looked at Gwen's face the confusion there told him she thought the same thing.

After a moment she realized he was looking at her and she looked back at him. "I don't think I need to hear anything else. I think perhaps it's time for me to see if I can track down the lines of whatever this thing is. Are you going to be sending someone after the man from the coffee shop?"

Nodding Viking tapped the glass to let Deuce and Carter know he wanted to speak to them. Both men looked at the mirror before letting Tori know they were leaving and exited the room. A second later both men stood in the doorway.

"Carter, as long as you're okay with it, I'd like to send you after the coffee shop guy. Since you are the cop you probably will be the best one to find him. Are you okay leaving Deuce alone to do the rest of the interviews?"

A mischievous smile drew up on Deuce's face. It didn't quite reach his eyes though. Which told Viking even though he was being antagonistic, he had no intentions of actually causing problems.

"Wow, the boss is gonna leave me alone with interviewees. This is a novelty."

Viking didn't acknowledge Deuce's words, neither did Carter. Though the other man did roll his eyes.

"Yeah Viking, I'll see if I can find this guy." Then Carter turned and walked down the hall.

Gwen took that moment to make her exit from the room. Deuce watched her leave and presumably watched her walk into the other room. Or at least that's what Viking assumed from his craned neck.

After a beat he looked back at Viking. "So, do you want me to continue with this little pansy interview session? Or shall I move on to the next one?"

Viking thought about it for a moment. He didn't think they were going to gain too much new information but he didn't want to hurry things along, just in case.

"See if he has anything else to tell us. If he doesn't, move on. We'll just make our way through them until we're finished. We will hold them until Gwen assures us she has tried everything to try to track the being down. We will let them leave once the MPs have come up with some sort of barrier for each of the Sensitives"

Craig spoke from over Vikings shoulder, startling him because he hadn't heard the lion approach. "Is this all as unhelpful as I'm thinking it is? Let's say they are able to track this thing and by some magic we trap it somewhere. How are we going to get rid of something this strong? Do you think Gwen is strong enough to be able to get rid of it? Because this being seems much stronger than anything I've ever heard of. And do we know if this is for sure part of this rebellion?"

Viking sighed, and leaned against the wall so he could see both Deuce and Craig before answering. "The entire plan, as it stands, is to attempt to track this thing down, trap it, and see if Gwen can get rid of it. There is no other plan. We don't have an exit strategy. We simply hope for the best. As for if the being is working with the rebellion, I do not know. Perhaps we will be able to question it or perhaps not. Odds are, we will never know. But if it is and we're able to get rid of it, that's one less thing we have to worry about."

Neither Deuce nor Craig looked happy with Viking’s response. But he didn't have another plan to give them. Neither of them had been around for all the early attacks on Gwen. Much of their time was spent just trying to find things. And get rid of them as fast as possible. If not that, then get them as far away from Gwen as possible. They simply did not have the chance to question things.