Chapter Twenty-three

Ithink we tried to bond.

Morrisey couldn’t avoid Farren forever, yet he ducked out after work, returning right at curfew. Images still invaded his thoughts when he closed his eyes, unable to sleep in a strange bed with no background noises like cars on the street, a neighbor’s TV, a neighbor calling him an asshole, or even the chink of ice falling into the freezer bin.

Farren’s memories lodged in Morrisey’s head: the strange, overwhelming fear when Farren thought Morrisey was dying in an alley. Fear of rejection once Morrisey learned Farren’s true nature.

Many examples of previous rejections flooded Farren”s memories.

Then there was the spark of attraction and the moment when thoughts twisted and turned, leaving Morrisey unable to figure out which belonged to whom. Their two souls tried to bond, according to Farren. What a horrifying, unfamiliar sensation. Yet, those were Farren’s memories and, therefore, special.

But bonded souls? What exactly did that mean?

The sudden insane desire hit Morrisey that he had to be with Farren. Which scared Morrisey more than rampaging killers. But no facing Farren without working some things out first.

Morrisey read through the material Leary provided.

Bonding: When two travelers share a deep, unbreakable connection, able to feel each other’s emotions. While traveler couples can choose to be together, only a small percentage bond through choice, and an even smaller percentage by chance.

Morrisey and Farren’s had been by chance, right? Without a conscious decision on Morrisey’s part, anyway.

His want for Farren grew. Every glance, every touch threatened to send Morrisey over the edge. How could he possibly want someone who lived in a dead man’s body?

But wasn’t one spirit occupying a body the same as another? So confusing. Maybe researching Jessa’s list of dead or missing travelers might distract Morrisey from thoughts he”d rather avoid.

The clock on his phone said 5:30 a.m. He might as well get to work. One good thing about staying on the compound—a two-minute commute to the office.

The reception desk stood empty as he trudged down the eternally gray hallway to his office. So quiet that the hum of a soda machine sounded extremely loud when he stopped by the break room.

He closed his office door and settled behind his desk, energy drink in hand. Captain Gaskins preyed on his mind. It didn’t seem right to simply vanish without a word. But what could he say? After several moments of deliberation, Morrisey began typing.

Captain Gaskins,

I’m sorry I left without consulting you, but I wasn’t really given a chance.

Would Leary even have allowed Morrisey to say goodbye? He’d implied no by saying the FBI would handle Gaskins. Still, didn’t Morrisey owe the guy?

As bad as life was at the precinct, it really went to shit after I left.

Morrisey deleted the words. Under no circumstances could he tell Gaskins. Better for the man to think him a rude, ungrateful sonofabitch.

Morrisey sampled a sip of his drink, a concoction claiming to be grape-flavored. Damn, what he wouldn’t give for a shot of tequila. He called up Jessa’s missing and dead friends list, studying each name.

Fuck. Prickles rose on the back of his neck. The two dead women from his latest crime scene were on Jessa’s missing list. Why had they been missing when he’d found them at home? Was that their home? The report listed a different name as the name on the apartment’s lease. Did they know someone was after them and hid out with a friend?

He studied the wall map. The nurse lived on the opposite end of town in one of the community”s better neighborhoods, the latest victims came—literally—from the other side of the tracks.

Another name on the list caught his eye, matching a Jane Doe found across the state line. Had she tried to run?

The birthday party, his own attack, the nurse. Three travelers at the party. One in the alley. At least one at the nurse’s residence. The kid and the mastermind.

Jessa. He had to talk to Jessa.

Soft footsteps stopped outside his office door. Morrisey’s heart kicked like a mule in his chest. Farren? Excitement warred with fear. He wanted to see Farren and didn’t want to see him in equal measure, and waited for a knock that never came.

The footsteps retreated. Disappointment and relief replaced the other emotions. After wrapping his mind around the almost bonding thing, he needed a clear head to confront Farren.

He grabbed lunch in the cafeteria, hauling who-knew-what back to his office. He’d nodded on autopilot, uncaring what the traveler heaped onto his plate. Now to make it to safety.

“Hey,” he said in passing by Arianna’s desk, because self-preservation skills said not to piss her off.

“Farren’s looking for you,” she replied without taking her gaze off her computer screen.

Morrisey quick-stepped down the hall without answering. If Farren wanted Morrisey, he knew damned well where to find him.

His heart slammed into his ribs. Farren leaned against the wall three paces from Morrisey’s office door. He couldn’t deal with all the weird thoughts careening around his brain right now. His normally alcohol-soaked mind needed more time to process.

”I”ve been trying to find you. Are you all right?” The concern on Farren’s face had Morrisey wanting to tackle the man to the ground and forget about lunch.

“I’ve been busy.” Trying to figure out why I’m so attracted to you. Why I dream of you. Why my subconscious tried to bond with you.

Morrisey and Farren scrutinized each other. ”I can sense you feel it too,” Farren murmured, words nearly too soft to hear. “The pull. The attraction.”

”Not at all.” Morrisey dove into his office and slammed the door. He leaned against the panel, every ounce of his being calling out Farren, Farren, Farren. This couldn’t be real, just a traveler trick.

He waited, but Farren’s knock never came.

Morrisey sank his whole being into tracking the traveler murders. Three perps at the first murder, one at the last. Were they the same travelers involved, or was the problem more widespread?

What about the man at the tracks? Had he been the one watching from a porch across from the birthday party? Fuck!

Heaven help Atlanta.

Finally, finally, the workday ended. Morrisey checked himself out of the premises, waved at the guard he now recognized as a traveler, and rode out into the evening.

At the sixth bar Morrisey tried, a voluptuous woman slithered in front of him, wearing a tight green dress, light hair a shade never before seen in nature. “Hello, handsome,” she cooed, clutching a glass. She smiled seductively and walked the fingers of the other hand up his chest, blood-red fingertip daggers digging into his skin.

A few missteps taught Morrisey to be careful. “Jessa?” Strange to be meeting someone without knowing what she might look like. No extra faces appeared.

The woman laughed. “No. I’m Vivian.” She leaned in and purred, “You can call me Jessa if you want to, but that’ll cost you extra.”

A heavily ringed hand wrapped around Vivian’s wrist, yanking her back from Morrisey. A petite brunette rose on her toes and pecked him on the cheek. “Hello, babe. Sorry I’m late.” Jessa glared at her competition, running disdainful eyes over curves exaggerated by a too-tight dress and body enhancers likely found on infomercials. “You’re not needed here. Buh-bye!”

“Well, I never!”

“Yes, you have. And it’s starting to show, dahling.” Jessa made a kissy face and gave a throaty laugh as Vivian flounced away, several pairs of eyes following her retreat. “Actually, my host suggested a threesome, but I explained the problems of mixing business with pleasure.” The hand recently wrapped around Vivian’s wrist now grasped Morrisey’s upper arm. “Walk with me. It’s too noisy in here to talk, and it would take too much energy for a privacy shield with this many people around.”

Did Morrisey dare go anywhere with Jessa? How well did he trust her? She was a traveler, after all.

Jessa stepped back to let Morrisey take in the little black dress, high heels, and tiny clutch purse. “I’m unarmed, and you can sure as hell outrun me in the torture devices this host insisted on wearing. Humans are so strange. Not to mention, you outweigh this body by about seventy pounds, even with your underfed physique.”

Underfed? “Good point.” Though even a gut-shot traveler had put up one hell of a fight. “How do I know you don’t have friends waiting for me outside?”

Jessa snorted, a sound made even more inelegant coming from the delicate body she wore. “Hasn’t your partner taught you anything? My kind are extremely competitive. We work alone unless forced to gang up on a pimp. It’s also in my best interest to keep you safe. Now. Let’s go talk.”

Did she mean it was in her interest now and maybe not later?

Morrisey paid for his latest drink, slammed back the whiskey, and allowed Jessa to lead him outside and down the street to a shiny Mini Cooper. She got in on the driver’s side. Morrisey origami”d himself into the passenger seat. The smell of a new car assaulted his nose. He’d never liked the smell, which worked out since he’d never owned a new car.

”I understand that you responded to the recent murder of two of my kind,” Jessa began, glittering eyes meeting Morrisey”s in the darkness. Another face swam over the one she wore, gone in an instant.

“Whose body do you currently wear? Did she volunteer?”

“She’s a friend of the dead women and wants to see justice for them. She had no idea that they were demons—”

“Travelers,” Morrisey corrected. What? When had he gotten hung up on what to call the otherworldly immigrants?

Jessa’s lip twitched. “Okay. Travelers. She wasn”t aware they were travelers, and since she met them after they took possession of human bodies, she didn”t recognize them before. I knew them as travelers. They were on my missing list.”

“Do you have any more information for me?” He’d given up a night of sitting on the couch pining for Farren to be here.

“The guy who killed them was a dem… occisor. He was a gentle soul back in my realm, though I wouldn’t have called him a person. I think drone sums it up.”

“Who was the drone serving? Who gave him orders?”

Jessa chewed her host’s bottom lip, not doing any favors to the delicate skin. “I don’t know. I wish I did.” The too-quick response, plus her averted gaze, encouraged doubt. “But I’ve heard whispers of a powerful traveler, using the influence of his past life enhanced by human cunning. He”s been in Terra for quite some time, which gives him a distinct advantage over us new arrivals.”

Morrisey didn’t have time for Jessa’s personal history now. Maybe later. “Any idea what he wants?”

”Most of us just want survival, but there are those in any society who aren’t satisfied with simply getting by,” she said, shaking her head. “They have to be superior and lord their superiority over others.”

Yes, Morrisey knew the sort. Put many of them in prison, too. “Is the same man behind all the recent murders? Are they carried out by the same travelers?”

Jessa shook out her host’s luxurious mane of hair. “No.”

“You know who I work for. Who I am.”

“When I first met you, you were an ordinary Magestra. Or this world’s Magestra. Now you know all about my kind and are a different kind of cop.”

Magestra. Like Farren. “But you trust me.” No one competent should.

Jessa met Morrisey”s hard stare with her own, completely unfazed by his authority or position. “More than I do my own kind or other humans, Tenebris.”

Morrisey struck his hand on the dashboard. “Why the hell do people keep calling me that?”

“Because it sums up the essence of your being. If my kind are considered evil, and humans considered good, you lurk in the shadows. I am clueless about what you are, but you fit in with neither group. Tenebris are unknowns and can go either way.”

Morrisey made a decision. “Let me introduce you to my partner.”

“No.” Jessa pulled her heavily glossed lips into a frown. “He’s a bit too by-the-book and would tell others in his organization about me. Some don’t approve of my inhabiting healthy bodies and would cast me out into nothingness, which hurts not only me, but my hosts. Christine”—Jessa waved a hand toward her current body—“willingly hosts me to avenge her friends.”

“And the other women you possessed?”

The slight smile softened Jessa”s features. “Not only did one get back her family heirlooms, but with my help, she’s taking out a restraining order, suing the abusive asshole for divorce, and requesting half of their marital properties.” She laughed. “And because I know things, I recovered the assets he tried to hide. So, she benefitted from our association. I’ll keep an eye on her. I consider her mine now, but not in a possessive way. More like a valued friend. After all, we know so much about each other, and I… I don’t have many friends. Friends are nice, I’m discovering.”

“How did you find out about the husband’s dealings?” Such knowledge might come in handy.

“A former host works in a brokerage firm.” Jessa showed a mouthful of no-doubt bleached teeth in a brilliant smile. “Like I said, friends are nice.”

“Former host. You keep in touch?”

“Of course. They’re now connected to me, and I am connected to them, a concept most humans and travelers don’t understand. They’re more than friends now. Willing to share what they know. And while I’m sure your partner is trustworthy, I don’t trust those he works for.”

“Why do you trust my partner? You said before you didn’t.”

“I’ve been asking around. He had a solid reputation in the other world and in this one. I wouldn’t trust him with you otherwise.”

“Wait? Trust him with me?” Could this conversation get any stranger?

“Why, yes. You’re special, Tenebris, and will play an important role in the combining of our two societies. I wouldn’t take chances with your well-being.” Jessa stroked Morrisey”s cheek.

Morrisey managed not to flinch and forcibly blocked reading any emotions. Jessa might have permission. Morrisey did not, and she wasn’t a suspect—yet.

“Other than the drinking and smoking,” Jessa mock scolded, “which I have no control over.”

Morrisey hardened his eyes, though unsure how much Jessa could make out in the darkness. ”So, you expect me to go behind my partner”s back and tell you about our cases.”

Jessa tilted her head ever so slightly. It suddenly occurred to Morrisey how much his night vision had improved since the attack.

“Have you given me information? It seems to me I’m telling you things.” Jessa’s flirty laughter tinkled.

True. Not only about the case, but about travelers in general. “I can’t argue the point. Can you force your way into people’s heads?”

Jessa gasped. “What do you take me for? I’d never do that. First, it’s wrong, and second, I’ve never lacked for willing hosts. There’s always someone in need of favors they’re willing to work with me on. Besides, you’re closed off. No one can possess you without your consent.”

“Why, and how do you know?”

Jessa shrugged. “I don”t know why, but you may as well have ”Fuck off!” etched onto your aura. Only a desperate soul would even think of entering you.” She closed the distance, putting them nose to nose, clear-eyed gaze still locked to his. “Banishment might be preferable.”

This time Morrisey did flinch, retreating until the back of his head hit the window.

“I’ll give you a sample of information for free.” Her smirk boded ill for someone.

“What?”

“Remember those blond cops who were killed?”

“Yes?” All blond, all blue-eyed, all in law enforcement.

“Someone is looking for your partner.”

Farren? “Why?”

“Because he’s standing in their way.”