Touched by Darkness (7 page)

was indeed a matched conductor, and a very

powerful one at that, no matter how much she

might deny it.

Even now, thinking about her sent a sexually

charged rush through him. Startled, he mentally

clamped down, focusing his thoughts with ruthless

precision on the matter at hand. Kara Cantrell

might have a surprising effect on him, but he had

years of experience and discipline to fall back on.

He would not—could not—ever allow himself to

be affected by the conductors with whom he

worked. Painful experience had taught him that,

and it was his iron clad, unbreakable rule.

He would handle Kara's resistance to helping him,

and his unprecedented response to her—although

he needed to rethink his approach. He wasn't

known for subtlety, and he realized his aggressive

approach on Saturday had shaken her up and hadn't

been conducive to gaining her cooperation. But

he'd deal with that later.

His immediate goal was to talk with the boy, to

determine the extent of the boy's powers, so he

could report back to the Sanctioned, and a decision

could be made regarding the boy's future.

Damien didn't know whether or not Kara normally

picked up the boy from school, but he assumed that

if she did, she would have alternate arrangements

for the days she was tied up with patients. He'd

called the elementary school earlier, and knew

classes let out at two thirty, so he drove to the small

red-brick building and parked half a block from the

main entrance.

A battered school bus was already in front of the

building, and several cars were parked behind it,

although they appeared unoccupied. Most likely the

small groups of women standing near by, chatting

among themselves, were the owners of those cars,

and were visiting together while they waited for

their children.

Damien settled back to observe and wait, his senses

automatically flaring out to check for unusual

psychic traces, but he found nothing out of the

ordinary. The tinny sound of the school bell

signaled the release of classes, and students began

emerging from the building, dispersing to the bus

and the cars, with a few trudging off on foot. There

weren't a large number of students; the Zorro

population was around three thousand, and had

only one elementary school. Damien readily

spotted Alex.

Not only did he recognize the boy, with his mop of

sandy hair and serious brown eyes, but Damien

picked up the thread of power the child was

subconsciously broadcasting. Although it was

unlikely anyone or anything else could pick up on

the faint broadcast, it still was not a good thing, and

something that must be remedied quickly.

The boy got on the bus, and Damien waited until

the bus pulled away from the school before

following at a discreet distance, wondering if Alex

would go to his mother's office or a daycare of

some sort. After quite a few drop-offs, the bus

eventually turned on the road leading to Kara's

house, then stopped in front of her home.

The blue truck was not outside, and Damien was

surprised that Kara would allow the boy to go to an

empty house. But a young, Hispanic-looking

woman came to the door. Alex greeted her with

familiarity, and she smiled and ruffled his hair as

they went inside.

Damien was undeterred by the presence of a

strange woman, as he could usually manipulate

human minds, unless the subject was especially

strong willed. He waited a few moments for the bus

to lumber out of sight, then pulled up in front of the

house. He walked up to the door, knocked.

The boy opened the door, his eyes going very round

when he saw Damien. Behind him, the dog went

into a frenzy of barking. Damien quieted the animal

with a mental command, turned his attention to the

boy. "Hello, Alex. I'm sure you remember me."

Still silent, the boy began backing away. He

radiated a blend of fear and power, his Sentinel

force even stronger because of that fear. Damien

glanced into the house, didn't see the Hispanic

woman. He squatted down, grabbed Alex's arm, felt

his alarm spike wildly. "I'm not going to hurt you,"

he said quickly, sending a burst of calming energy

to the child. "I just want to talk to you. We can do

that right here. Okay?"

Alex stared at him with wide, distrustful eyes. "My

mother doesn't like you. She wouldn't want me to

talk to you. I don't like you, either."

"You don't have to like me, Alex. But it's important

that you talk to me, about your power. Do you

know what I mean?"

The boy stood frozen, like a terrified rabbit trapped

in a snare. "You know what I'm talking about, don't

you?" Damien persisted. "Can you make things

happen with your thoughts, Alex? Or by pointing at

something?"

The boy stared at him mutely.

"Answer me, Alex. Can you?"

"M-my mother doesn't like me to make things

happen. I don't do anything!"

"But you can, Alex, if you want to."

The boy continued to stare at Damien, his dark eyes

looking far older than his physical age. "You can do

stuff, too," Alex said finally. "That's why you felt

funny when you were here before."

Damien grasped Alex's other arm and leaned closer,

his gaze boring into the child's eyes. "Yes, I do. I'm

a Sentinel. So are you."

"What's going on here?" came a shrill voice.

Damien looked up to find the Hispanic woman he'd

seen earlier bearing down on them. He rose as she

grabbed Alex and pulled him to her.

"Who are you?" she demanded, glaring at Damien.

"What are you doing here?"

#

Kara studied the file on Belle Williams, who was

battling breast cancer. She tried to imagine the

middle-aged Belle, who harbored a generous heart

beneath her no-nonsense, businesslike exterior,

murdering David Thornton. The chemotherapy

treatments that Belle was undergoing in Austin had

definitely weakened her, leaving her open to the

possibility of possession by a Belian.

But quite a few of Zorro's residents had life-

threatening conditions, and any one of them could

be susceptible. Kara added Belle's name to the list

of possibilities and rubbed her aching temples.

Closing Belle's file, she reached for Sal's chart just

as the door tone chimed, indicating she had a

visitor. Since she was the only one in the office, she

put the chart back on the stack and went out to the

reception area.

She felt a momentary flash of pleasure when she

saw her visitor was Doris Burgess, and her smile

was genuine. "Hello, Doris. What brings you

here?"

Doris, a spry lady of seventy-five years of age, was

Kara's closest neighbor, as well as one of her

favorite patients. She insisted on being addressed

by her first name, refusing to surrender to

encroaching age, or to the diabetes that had been

diagnosed when she was sixty. She dressed very

stylishly, drove a sporty car, and was computer

savvy, with a lot of e-mail contacts. She was also a

wonderful baker, and Alex loved to help her in her

kitchen.

Doris glanced around the empty waiting area.

"Where is everyone? Are you closed?"

"It was a light day, and I didn't have any

appointments this afternoon, so I let Bonnie and

Susan go home."

"I hope I'm not intruding. I know I don't have an

appointment, but I saw your truck outside and

thought it might be all right to come by without

one. I need medical advice."

In the six years that Kara had been practicing

medicine in Zorro, Doris had never dropped in

without first making an appointment. A frisson of

suspicion ran through Kara, knotting her body.

Surely it wasn't Doris who might be possessed. She

and Kara crossed paths almost every day. Surely

Kara would have sensed something. But even as

she tried to rationalize her fear away, Kara knew

better. A Belian could often shield itself from a

Sentinel, who had far more powerful psychic

abilities than any human.

"Dr. Kara, are you all right? Should I come back

another time?"

Kara pushed her suspicions away—for now. She

still had no real proof of Damien Morgan's

supposition. She needed to act as if everything was

normal, for both herself and Alex.

"I'm fine. You know you don't need an appointment

to see me." She put her arm around Doris, giving

her an affectionate squeeze, yet at the same time

she found herself reaching out mentally for any

sign of a dark energy. She hated this. "You know

I'm always available for you, Doris, day or night."

"Well, thank you. Even though I'm watching my

diet, I've had some trouble regulating my blood

sugar, and I thought I'd better check with you about

adjusting my insulin dosage."

"Absolutely. You need to be careful when you're

dealing with insulin." Kara gestured toward her

office. "Come on in here. I don't think we need an

examining room for this."

Doris pulled a small notebook from her purse as

she walked into the office. "I've got all my glucose

readings and my medication log with me." She

always kept exacting records that made Kara's job

of controlling her diabetes much easier.

"I wish all my patients were like you." Kara settled

Doris in a chair facing her desk then went to get her

glucose meter and Doris's chart.

"Now then," she said when she returned. "When

did you last eat?" She held the pen over the open

chart, and found herself searching Doris's lively

green eyes for any glimmer of evil. Again, she had

to shake away her suspicions. "I'm sorry. What time

did you say?"

She notated the time, pricked Doris's finger, put the

strip in the meter, and studied the readout. "One

hundred sixty-five, and it's been three hours since

you ate lunch. That
is
too high. You're right, as

usual. We need to adjust your insulin."

Doris nodded. "I thought so, and the information I

found on the Internet backed up my theory."

"You and that computer. Have you signed up for an

online dating service yet?" Kara teased, trying to

convince herself that Doris was normal, that

everything
was normal.

Doris laughed, her eyes dancing with her usual zest

for life. "Certainly not. I don't want some old man

desperate for someone to pick up after him." She

leaned across the desk. "Now you, young lady,

should be surrounding yourself with handsome

young bucks, although I think they call them

'hunks' nowadays. You're too young and pretty to

be devoting all your time to your son and your

patients."

Kara sighed mentally. She was perfectly happy in

her roles as mother and doctor, despite the attempts

of well-meaning family and friends to steer her

back to the dating world. "Doris, you know the

only man for me right now is Alex," she said

lightly, despite the tension still stringing her nerves.

"I'm very content with my life just the way it is."

"You always say that," Doris replied. Her

unwavering gaze made Kara uncomfortable.

The older woman always managed to see more

deeply into Kara than others did. And if she was

now possessed by a Belian—
Stop!
Kara ordered

herself fiercely.
You are not going to let Morgan's

unverified claims turn you against your patients

and your friends.

"Being content may be all right for awhile, but you

can't stay in a safe little bubble forever, my dear,"

Doris continued. "You need to get out and live. The

years go by way too fast."

"I know what you mean," Kara said. "I can

remember when Alex was just a baby, and he'll be

seven on his next birthday. I can't believe it."

"How is that young man doing?"

A new concern nagged at Kara, but she firmly told

herself she and Alex would deal with the issue of