OLIVIA…
The feel of his hand on mine made my pulse jump again. He needed to stop touching me and standing so close. It was getting harder and harder to control what I felt each time.
Blake’s impatience stabbed at me. I tugged my hand free of Jim’s, took Gabby’s phone, which Winifred had let me keep, from my back pocket, and dialed Blake’s number.
“What are you doing?” he barked at me.
“I could feel your impatience, so I called to give you an update.”
“No. What are you doing right now?”
“I’m in my hotel room.”
“Alone?”
“They have me staying with an Elder. He’s kind. He went to get ice to help with the bruising from Frank,” I said, carefully choosing my words and purposely trying to distract him from asking too many questions about the present. He would sense any lie.
“Frank touched you?” Blake growled.
“He grew agitated as we drove to the Compound. When we arrived, he hit me because I refused to go against your wishes and call you.”
Blake remained very quiet. I could feel his confused mix of emotions. He wouldn’t remember giving any orders. But I’d ensured others were in the room when he’d given them. Witnesses who traveled with him while he was possessed. Witnesses who had likely already filled him in on what he’d told me to do.
“The rest of the group are in another room helping care for the one who was injured,” I continued. “The dreamer and her Mate aren’t present. With luck, she’s sleeping somewhere and dreaming the answer we need.”
“I felt something before. What was it?”
“One of them surprised me with a simple act of kindness. I don’t understand why they are so willing to be nice to me.”
“Use it to your advantage. Find out where they plan to go next so we can greet them.”
“I will.”
The line went dead. I hung up the phone and slipped it back into my pocket before turning to face the man who made my stomach go wild with just the sound of his voice. He stood before me, his arms crossed and his head tilted as he studied me. I wished I could see his face.
“Are you really blind?” he asked, startling me.
Was I that easy for him to read?
“To this world, yes. There is another world that touches ours. I see the creatures in that world. They are like wisps of grey smoke. They like to move and swirl around the objects in this world, giving me sight, sort of. Rough outlines of things.”
“What do you see in here?”
I turned my head, looking around at the Others as they played.
“Two beds, a lamp, a desk, a toilet, sink, and shower.”
“You can see in the bathroom?”
His surprise almost made me smile. I needed to keep better control around him.
“Yes. They like to move around the objects we interact with. People don’t really interact with walls.”
“You can see into the next room?”
I turned my head slightly and glanced at the two people who snuggled on the bed not far from us. Across the hall, someone ate on a bed next to someone who slept. Further down, I saw the familiar shape of Winifred slightly bent over another person. Likely still stitching Clay.
“Yes. I can see them all. I’m glad we’re on the first floor. It’s weird to look down and see people below me.”
“I bet it would be. So you can only see some shapes and only in grey?”
“Yes. Except the Lady. She’s different. Her smoke has color.”
“Why is she different?”
“I think she rules the Others. And maybe even us.”
“Why do you think that?”
I laughed, unable to help myself.
“You like the word why,” I said.
“Yeah, I drove my mom and Winifred nuts with all my questioning. I’d like to say it was only while growing up, but I still question everything.”
“It’s a sign of intelligence.”
Jim snorted. “They think I just don’t grasp what they are trying to tell me.”
I liked talking to him. A lot. The sound of his voice soothed me, and I wished I could actually see his face.
“Can I touch you?” The question popped out of my mouth before I thought what it would mean.
“Yes.”
My stomach gave a nervous flip. Touching him probably wasn’t a smart idea. Yet, I couldn’t resist.
I stepped closer to him and lightly set the tips of my fingers to his cheeks, ignoring the burn in my back.
Tiny rough stubble poked my fingers. Whiskers. A tingle started in the pads of my fingers and sparked through my hands and up my arms. I started to pull away, but he caught my hands and took control, sliding my fingers down to his mouth. The first touch of his lips caused my heart to stutter.
“Please let go,” I said, firmly.
He did.
Instead of pulling away, I continued what he’d started. I traced the curve of his lower lip then top. He held still, letting me explore the strong line of his jaw, the smooth ridge of his brow, and the slope of his nose. Once I had an understanding of his features, I dropped my hands to my sides.
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“To see how you’d react.”
“Why?”
“Who’s the one who likes why now?” he asked, humor lacing his words.
I stepped away from him and sat on the bed nearest the window. He sat across from me and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees as he studied me. I was used to scrutiny. His felt different, though. Any hint of resentment, impatience, and calculation—all a Blake specialty—remained absent from his body language and tone of voice. Even their Elder Winifred had displayed a few of those traits. Not this one.
“Your name’s Jim, right?” I asked.
“Did the Lady tell you that?”
“No. I heard Winifred yell it.”
He chuckled, a deep, rich sound that made my heart give another odd thump. I fought to control any emotional reaction that wanted to go with the physical one.
“To answer your question about why I placed your fingers on my mouth…it’s easy to lie to one of us if you know how, which you’ve proven you do. But, reactions are harder to fake. I wanted you to touch me to see how you reacted because I still don’t understand. Why you? Why us? Why now?”
Panic, sorrow, and fear began to unfurl inside me, and suppressing what I wanted to feel became harder with each question he spoke because I knew the answers to all of them.
Now is not the time, the Lady whispered.
“Your turn,” he said. “Why do you think your Lady rules over all of us?”
Relieved he didn’t expect me to answer the prior questions, I readily told him what I suspected.
“It’s the only thing that’s ever made any sense. She’s one of them. The Others. She’s made of the same kind of substance. I know she’s influencing what’s happening here, but I’m not entirely sure why. The Others want to be here, in this world. They’ll do anything for it. It’s why they help me, even though they know we’re trying to make a Judgement to correct the imbalance. They know we’re trying to stop them from coming here, but it’s never really mattered to them. They still help. They still try to possess dead bodies and willingly possess living ones even though it hurts them. Despite their desperation to get here, she’s giving us advice, giving Bethi dreams, created us to help stop them from coming here. Why do that if she isn’t in some way responsible for us, too?”
He nodded slowly then frowned.
“These things only you can see want to possess us? As in control our bodies?”
“Yes. And our minds to a degree. That’s how I was able to leave Blake’s home. When your group announced your existence, I knew it was the perfect time for one of the Others to possess Blake. Erratic behavior wouldn’t seem so out of place in such a chaotic situation. After I told the one possessing Blake what to do, he called Frank and several of his other men back into his office and started giving out orders. He went one way, I went another. Since he controls the movements of the Urbat, it meant the Urbat would be less likely to regroup.”
“It was also how I managed to get a letter out to Isabelle after the Lady gave me her address.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. You say they want to possess us…that they already have possessed Blake even though it hurts them. Why aren’t they just possessing everyone, then?”
“They can’t. There are rules. They have to be invited. Right now, I’m the only person who can do that.”
“Why only you?”
“Because only I can see and hear them to understand their terms.”
“Terms?”
I stood, turned, and lifted the back of my shirt, despite the pain, so he could see the bandages.
“What are you showing me?”
“Lift one of the bandages.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Jim, this goes beyond one person’s pain or another’s discomfort. You need to understand. Lift a bandage.” I didn’t know why it mattered so much for him to see, but something told me he needed to. Maybe because, so far, he was the first one interested in listening to all of it, not just asking questions about Blake.
The first touch of his warm fingers on my cool skin almost sent a shiver through me. I hadn’t even heard him move. He eased the tape from my skin and lifted the strip of gauze with care. He hissed an indrawn breath.
“They did this?” His voice vibrated with anger.
“They did. The Others. It was their payment for helping me. For possessing Blake. Inhabiting a body with a living soul hurts them. Weakens them. But a body without a soul is easy. Or would be if the Others actually were in this world.”
His fingers stroked along the edge of the tape, all the way up to my shoulder. I stepped away, dislodging his touch, and dropped my shirt back into place. When I turned to face him, he already sat on the opposite bed in the same position as before.
“If we don’t complete the Judgement, the veil separating our two worlds will disappear and the Others will come here. They have no form. Not even in their world. When they get here, they will find ways to kill every man, woman, and child so they can inhabit their bodies.”
“How many of the Others are there?” he asked.
“Four times as many as there are humans on earth.”