“Our patrols are checking out every highway rest stop,” Ginny said. “Most of them two or three times a day.”
“Maybe we’ve spooked him,” Mallory suggested. “He could be killing and leaving the bodies in places we aren’t keeping under observation.”
Hollis glanced toward the closed door of the conference room. “Maybe it’s time we discussed that possibility.”
Mallory didn’t move. “Rafe had a sort of determined look on his face when he closed the door. I’m not so sure I want to be the one to disturb them.”
Hollis continued to look at the door intently, focusing, tentatively trying out the spider sense. After a long moment, she said, “Um… let’s give them a few more minutes.”
“You’re serious?” Rafe leaned forward and touched her hand, not even reacting now to the spark.
Isabel looked down at their hands for a moment, then back at his face. “Entirely serious. For the first time in more than fourteen years, there’s silence in my head.”
“That’s what’s been wrong all day.”
“That’s it,” she said, unsurprised that he had noticed. “The question is: why?”
They both looked down at their touching hands, and Rafe said, “Frontier territory, huh?”
“Yeah. Scary, isn’t it?”
“Today, looking at the wrong end of a gun being waved around by a paranoid drunk, was scary. This? This is just a very interesting turn my life has taken.”
“You’re a very unusual man,” she said.
“Which is probably a good thing,” he said, “considering that you’re a very unusual woman.”
There was a part of Isabel that wanted to shy away, to pretend he hadn’t said that or that she hadn’t understood what he meant. But Isabel didn’t let herself shy away, or draw away, or back away. Whatever this was, it was something she had to deal with.
“Rafe, do you realize what this could mean?”
“Static electricity is more important than I thought it was?”
“Electromagnetic energy. And, no, not that.”
“Then I don’t have a clue what this could mean. Or even what this is.”
“Hollis and I have a theory.”
“Which is?”
“The theory is, my abilities are still with me, it’s just that now there’s something standing between me and the great wide world out there.”
“You’re not saying-”
“We think it might be you.”
“You are saying.” He frowned at her. “Isabel, how could it be me? I’m not psychic. I wouldn’t even know how to be psychic.”
“We think that might be the problem.”
Rafe waited, brows raised.
“When a latent first becomes a functional psychic, there’s an adjustment period. The psychic isn’t in control of his or her abilities from the get-go. I mean-look at Hollis. She’s been a medium for months and still can’t open and close that door at will. It takes concentration, and focus, and practice. A lot of practice.”
“I’m not psychic.” He said it with more wariness than uncertainty.
“Your grandmother was.”
“So?”
“So sometimes it runs in families. Your chances of being a latent psychic are much higher than average.”
“I still don’t-”
“Look. There was a connection between us from the beginning. Call it an attraction, a sense of understanding, simpatico, whatever. It was there. We both felt it.”
“I felt that, yes.”
“We feel it now,” she said, admitting it.
Rafe nodded immediately. “We feel it now.”
“And there’s the sparking thing. I told you that was something new for me.”
“Electromagnetic energy fields. Basic science.”
“Yeah, but the way those fields were reacting to each other and the strength of that reaction was something different. Something that might have affected my abilities.”
“Okay. But-”
“Rafe. There was this connection, this… conduit between you and me. Maybe the energy opened it, or maybe… Maybe the energy opened it. And then when I told you about what had happened to me, you reached out. Through the conduit. You wanted the pain to go away. And it did.”
Rafe spoke very carefully. “How could I have done anything to… put your abilities in a box?”
“Actually, that’s a very good description,” she noted.
“Isabel.”
“Okay. One of the things we’ve discovered is that the subconscious is often more in control of our abilities than the conscious mind is, especially in a newly functional psychic. One theory is that it’s because these are very old abilities-not new ones. They were born out of instinct, when primitive humans needed every possible edge just to survive.”
“Makes sense,” Rafe said.
“Yes, it does. And if you subscribe to that theory, it also makes sense that our subconscious minds-the deeply buried, primitive id-would not only be able to master psychic abilities but would do so immediately and skillfully. To that part of us, being psychic would be perfectly natural.”
“My id put your abilities in a box?”
Thoughtfully, Isabel said, “Has it occurred to you that we have very strange conversations?”
“Constantly. Answer my question.”
“Yes. More or less. Rafe, your nature is very protective, and even though you like and respect strong women and are perfectly able to work alongside us on equal terms, deep down inside, you will always want to protect anyone you… care about. That is your instinctive response.”
“Anyone I care about.”
“Yes. And, obviously, the more you care, the more… passionate… your feelings are, the stronger your protective instincts will be.”
His mouth twisted slightly. “Want to stop tiptoeing around that part of it and just say it?”
“Do I have to?”
“We might as well get it out into the open. This is happening because I’m falling in love with you.”
Isabel had to clear her throat before she could say, “With or without my extra senses, you keep surprising me. That is very disconcerting.”
“What would you have said? That I had a crush on you?”
“Well…”
Dryly, he said, “We’re talking about my feelings here, Isabel, not yours. I am not trying to corner you, not even asking how you feel about me. So you can stop backpedaling.”
“I was not-”
“But I’m guessing honesty on my part is important right now, since I may be-unconsciously-affecting your abilities. Yes or no?”
She cleared her throat again. “Yes. We think so.”
“Okay. So despite the reasonable and logical certainty of my conscious mind that you can take care of yourself, and today’s ample demonstration that you can also take care of me if the occasion demands, my subconscious thinks you need a shield.”
“Apparently.”
“And gave you one.”
“That’s the theory.”
“How?”
“That part’s a little fuzzy.”
“Meaning?”
“We haven’t got a clue.”
“Shit.”
Isabel had to laugh at his expression, even if the sound held virtually no humor. “Frontier territory, remember? We don’t know how it happened, I don’t know how it happened, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. I’ll tell you now, if we both survive this, Bishop is going to want to study us. Because as far as I know, this has never happened before.”
“Never mind Bishop. What do we do about this? You need your abilities, Isabel. Hell, I need your abilities. If we don’t stop this bastard, he’ll murder at least three more women. And you’re on his list.”
“A fact that makes me far more uneasy today than it did yesterday.”
“Because yesterday you had an edge none of the other women did. You believed you’d see him coming,” Rafe said.
It’s time.
He tried to ignore the voice this time, because there were people around. People who’d hear.
Wimp. You really aren’t a man, are you? You’re worse than a neutered dog, following them around, sniffing at them, unable to do anything else. That’s it, isn’t it? No balls.