The instant Sam took a seat, she slapped a file on the conference table. “All right, this is what we know about Joel Sanders. He’s a Keja who’s part of a very small nest in Colorado. He’s committed pretty much every computer crime there is; earns his money by hacking into company computers and selling the information to rival businesses.” She took a photo from the file and handed it to Max, who took a look before passing it on.
“Could he be the blogger we’re looking for?” asked David. “I mean, if he’s so good with technology—”
Sam gave a quick shake of the head. “Joel’s gift is simple yet very substantial: he cannot be held captive. The bloke literally can’t be kept any place he does not want to be.”
That was pretty substantial.
A pacing Luther halted. “Would that extend to any kind of restraint? Could he escape from the grip of your whip?”
Sam shrugged. “I’m hoping he won’t try to escape. I have no issue with him; I just have some questions. But I won’t leave until I have my answers.”
The photo of Joel Sanders reached me just as Jared said, “In the meantime, Mona and Cedric will find out just how many preternatural-free zones there are in the world. By the time we’re back from paying Joel a visit, we should have that information. But I’m hoping that Joel will have already given us an exact location.”
Marco had seemed sure that Joel knew—
Stumbling, Luther breathed, “Jared.”
Sam was at his side in a blink. “Luther, what’s wrong?”
He didn’t answer; just stood there, eyes closed. Having watched my squad have a vision through him, I knew exactly what it looked like when someone experienced one. It would seem that Luther was having one now.
Finally, he blinked. He gripped Jared’s arm, his gaze desperate. “We do not have long before they come.”
“Dragons?” asked Sam.
Luther’s eyes moved to her. “Yes. At least forty of them. They will come from the south.”
“Do you know when?”
“A few nights, at most.”
“They’ll come at night?” Jared asked. At Luther’s nod, he added, “I figured they’d come in the day in the hope of taking us off-guard.”
That would have made more sense.
“Your only hope of preventing this is to destroy The Order before they have a chance to hire the mercenaries,” said Luther.
Sam told us, “Go top yourselves up with NSTs and then meet me and Jared outside the mansion in ten minutes. Then we’ll pay Joel a little visit.”
When Butch and I entered the apartment, he went straight to the fridge and pulled out two NSTs. As he drank them, I said, “Luther’s vision wasn’t great, but I noticed he seemed relieved to have finally had one. Maybe now he’ll stop blaming himself for not helping us prevent all the shit that’s happened so far. He’s forgetting how much he’s helped The Hollow over the years. Even allowing people to have their own visions has helped.”
Something suddenly occurred to me. “You never told me about the vision you had through Luther.”
Butch’s eyes were wary. “No, I didn’t.” And he didn’t seem inclined to share it.
“You know about mine.”
His lips pressed together. “You don’t need to hear about it, baby.”
It was a warning. “I don’t like the way you said that.”
“It’s not something you’d want to know.”
“I don’t expect you to tell me every little thing. But I can sense that this isn’t little. Tell me.” Instead, he drank the last of his second NST. “Butch—”
“In my vision, I was in bed with a woman.”
My lungs seemed to constrict with shock and hurt. Despite that my throat was painfully tight, I asked, “Do I know her?”
A muscle in his cheek ticked. “Yes.”
“Who was it?” I was torturing myself, really, but I had to know.
“Marla.”
“Marla?”
He slowly prowled toward me. “Not a lot happened in the vision. I was in bed, she was lying next to me—naked and asleep. And I felt…empty.”
Empty? Well that made me feel a teensy bit better.
“I didn’t understand why I’d have a vision like that. I didn’t understand why the fuck that would be important enough for me to need to foresee it. But when I met her, it all became clear.”
Well at least one of us understood.
He seemed hesitant to continue, but finally he added, “She first came onto me the night you broke up with Dean. And I realised then that my vision was a warning that the decision I made that night would be pivotal. I could take Marla up on her offer and carry on as I was; having meaningless one-night stands, taking no risks. Or I could get my fucking head straight and go after what I really wanted—you, even if that meant a relationship.”
“You’re saying you didn’t sleep with her?”
“I didn’t sleep with her—not that night, not any of the many nights she came onto me.”
The ache in my chest faded. So Marla was right; he had rejected her because of me. Huh. I was bitchy enough to feel satisfied about that. In my defence, she was a heifer who broke my Kindle!
He curled my ponytail around his fist. “Not once, not even when we first started, have I ever felt empty lying next to you.” Tugging me close, he kissed me. “Why are you so stiff? I didn’t touch her, baby.”
“Sorry, it’s just…the image in my head of you guys in bed together isn’t pleasant.” But it was my own fault that it was there.
“That was why I told you that you didn’t need or want to hear about the vision.”
“Still, I’d rather know. For me, no truth can be worse than a lie.” Not wanting him to regret telling me, I made a conscious effort to relax against him as I kissed him. “So I appreciate that you were honest.”
“You’re not gonna stew on this? We aren’t going to end up arguing over something that didn’t even happen?” There was a cautious note to his voice that was often present when we even came close to arguing. Every time we had the smallest dispute, I’d see the worry in his eyes. It was almost as if he was just waiting for the moment when I declared that I’d had enough and I was leaving.