Page 31 of Dark Visions (Strange Gifts #1)

Kane crossed paths with a few of the detectives in his business on a regular basis. They were all good people just trying to make it in a job that wasn’t appreciated by anyone, was completely underpaid, and forced them to work miserably long hours. The questioning of him and his friends lasted for hours, but the mess left behind by Michael Krauss would be devastating for his brother.

The most difficult part of being a witness to the act was that the police concluded that their killer was found, and everything would go back to business as usual. What Kane and the others couldn’t tell them was that Deborah was still out there on the loose.

It was nearly four a.m. by the time the police finished and released each of them, allowing them to leave the scene. Only a few blocks from Kane’s house, they all decided to crash at his place for the night. Flip and Adam took opposite ends of the sectional sofa, and Spook slept on an old cot that Kane pulled from the closet.

Aislinn, finally able to breathe normally, was nestled close to Kane’s body, curled around him. He wanted desperately to be inside her, but with his friends only a few yards away and the open space of the loft, he wouldn’t risk embarrassing her. He finally slipped into slumber, his hand clasped with hers.

Oh no, she’s looking. She needs blood. She wants to kill. She’s killing again. Kane, help me.

I’m here, Aislinn. I’m here. Don’t look, baby. Back out now.

I can’t. You know that. She’s killing and she’s angry. She’s angry at Dr. Krauss.

He could feel Aislinn next to him, but he couldn’t see her face. He felt her fear, her trepidation with each step she took. She followed the blonde through the group of people. She was looking for someone. Her lithe young body stopped in front of a couple. The body-hugging black dress clinging to every curve, the shape of her breasts spilling from the deep v-neck.

She’s chosen them. She’s going to take them both. We have to follow her, Kane. We have to see where she takes them.

Aislinn, you don’t have to do this. We’ll find another way.

Aislinn didn’t respond but followed the threesome into a bedroom. It was different. They weren’t in the other place any longer. They were in their home. They were in the couple’s home. Both appeared to be in their fifties but healthy, attractive, and fit.

The woman laughed at something as her husband tore open her blouse and cut her bra from her body. Linking her hands above her head, he secured them with fleece-lined cuffs hanging from the ceiling. Deborah watched, smiling at the couple as she lifted the hem of her dress and tossed it to the side, her long, lean legs encased in black leather boots. Her ass barely covered with a lacy thong, her breasts bared for the man to see.

His face flushed with excitement, and his wife licked her lips, watching as her husband touched the younger woman. She told him to do something, but Aislinn couldn’t hear the wife. Deborah pushed the man to the floor and hiked a leg up over his shoulder, forcing his face into her crotch. She moaned and then slapped his face hard. He looked stunned for a moment. Then smiled up at her, gripping the six-inch spiked heel of her boot. He thrust her legs further apart.

She balanced herself perfectly against him as he continued to work his mouth over her sex. All the while, the wife watched, smiling. When the man finished, Deborah secured him to a table, his rigid cock begging for her touch. She slapped it playfully, then harder, and he moaned in agony and ecstasy. Taking a ball gag, she shoved it in his mouth and secured it in place.

Moving back toward the wife, Aislinn watched as the evil in her eyes glowed like a beacon in her dream. Using a thin silk tie, she gagged the wife as her husband watched. Deborah moved back toward the husband and mounted him like an animal. She rode him hard, slapping his face and chest as she did. She screamed her release, balancing herself on her stiletto heels. Standing slowly, his cock inching out of her body, his semen falling over his own body, she smiled down at him. Lifting her leg, she slammed the stiletto hard into his chest.

Fear and pain filled his eyes as he attempted to scream.

Aislinn, don’t look, baby! Aislinn, come back to me! Aislinn!

I have to see this through. I have to…

She lifted her other leg and jabbed the stiletto into his neck, blood spurting over the table. Deborah laughed a hideous laugh, rubbing her hands through the puddles of blood. She spread it over her body, pinching her own nipples with excitement.

The terror on the wife’s face transformed into anger as she struggled against the restraints. Deborah’s head whipped around, staring at the woman. She said something to her, but Aislinn couldn’t hear her. From her purse, she pulled a large butcher knife and ran the back of the blade along the woman’s stomach, nicking her skin.

Deborah kissed the woman’s face and neck, squeezing her breast as she did. Without warning, she drew back the blade, slid it deep into her stomach, and pulled. There was no sound, no noise at all, only red. Only blood. Deborah turned in the room, looking around as if looking for something. Then she just stared straight at Aislinn, straight into her face. She wasn’t there, but somehow Deborah sensed her in the room.

Aislinn! Wake up now! Aislinn!

She was drowning, gasping for air. She needed to get to the surface. She needed to breathe.

“Holy fuck, what’s happening?” asked Spook, standing over the bed. Flip and Adam were on the other side, closest to Aislinn.

“She was watching her. Deborah. She killed again, or she will kill again.”

“I felt it,” said Flip.

“I did too,” said Adam. “I couldn’t see it, but I felt her fear, her sheer terror. It was suffocating.” Kane looked over at Spook. His face was ashen.

“I don’t know what that was, but it was enough to wake me.”

“Aislinn, baby, are you okay?” he asked, pulling her close.

“It was the worst. She was angry because Dr. Krauss wasn’t there. She wanted to really inflict harm, and she did. Did you see?”

“I saw, baby, and they felt it.”

“You felt it? You felt the anger?” she asked.

“I felt the violence,” said Flip. “It was as if I were having a violent dream but couldn’t see it.”

“I felt your terror,” said Adam. “I wish I could explain it, but I was lying there peacefully on the sofa and suddenly felt your terror. I’ve never…” He stopped and looked at Spook.

“I don’t know what I felt, but you’re all going to explain this to me.”

“We will, but first, let me get Aislinn showered and fed. She’ll sometimes get headaches after these episodes, but it seems less when I’m near her.”

“What do we do about the murders she saw?” asked Adam.

“I don’t know. We don’t know anything right now. They could have happened last night, or they might be yet to happen. Just let me get her showered and dressed.” He lifted Aislinn into his arms. She was limp as a rag doll, falling against his chest.

“I’ll make us some breakfast,” said Flip.

Kane carried Aislinn into the shower, stripping her clothes from her body and holding her securely until she found her legs once more. At first, she shook with shock and fear, and then, as the water heated against her body, she found her balance once more and held tightly to Kane.

“I called for you,” he whispered against her hair. “Why wouldn’t you come to me?”

“I needed to see all of it, to see where she was, what she would do. She felt me. She knew someone else was there,” she said. “It was so awful, so deliberate. The hate was so powerful within her.”

“I know, baby, I know. I felt it too.” He lathered her hair and soaped her body, careful to wash every part of her body. His own body reacted in its traitorous way, stiffening to an uncomfortable stance. She lightly touched her fingers to him, but he stilled her hand.

“We have company, baby,” he said quietly.

“I’ll be quiet,” she said, staring into his eyes. “Please, Kane, I need this. I need to forget the evil and feel the good… feel you.”

He couldn’t refuse her. Taking her mouth, he devoured her next words. Lifting her easily, he wrapped her legs around his waist and drove hard. He felt her tighten around him, the clenching of her sweet walls squeezing him. Kane suppressed the growl that wanted to surface and plunged deeper until he felt her quiver around him. When he knew she was spent, he finished his own release.

Washing the passion from their bodies, they dressed quickly. Aislinn braided her long wet hair and stepped from the bathroom first. Her shaky legs were starting to feel better.

Adam, Flip, and Spook were shocked at the paleness of Aislinn’s skin. Her eyes seemed too large for her face, her skin almost translucent, devoid of color.

“Are you okay?” asked Adam, touching her forearm. He closed his eyes. Heartbeat steady, solid, pulse good, respirations slightly elevated, everything functioning normally.

“I think you know the answer to that,” she said, smiling.

“Sorry, it’s what I do,” he grinned.

“It’s okay. You could be handy to have around,” she grinned.

“What was that, Aislinn?” asked Spook.

“I wish I knew, Van. I’ve been having dreams like that my whole life. They happen when I touch someone. But up until now, it’s only been evil dreams. People who are committing heinous crimes.”

“Up until now?” he questioned.

“When I met Kane, things started to change. I used to get debilitating headaches afterwards. I wouldn’t be able to function, let alone speak to you. Now, I have a slight twinge of a headache, but for the most part, I’m completely fine. I also started having nice dreams, not just those bathed in blood.”

“Jesus, Aislinn! I felt the evil in the room. I literally thought someone or something was in the room with us,” he said.

“I know. It seems somehow, we are all connected. We don’t understand it fully yet, but you all have the ability to somehow feel what I’m feeling but on varying levels. Each of us has our gifts,” she said, looking at Kane, Adam, and Flip. “What is your gift, Van?”

“Pffft, my gift?” he said, dismissing her question. “I don’t have a gift, Aislinn.”

“Yes, you do,” she said quietly. “I can feel it and so can you. It’s why you felt the presence of the evil in my nightmare. You have a gift. It’s okay if you don’t want to share it with us, but it’s there, and sooner or later, we will need to know what it is.”

Kane raised an eyebrow at Adam, who looked at Flip.

“Breakfast is ready,” he said calmly. “Pancakes and sausage.”

They ate quietly at the bar, no one saying anything to the other. They knew that Aislinn was right. Spook possessed a gift, something that no one else knew about, but he would have to admit it to himself and the others if they were going to figure out what was happening.

“I have a tracer on Deborah’s phone. I can let you know where she is at any time, day or night, but that’s all I’m doing,” said Spook, standing.

He couldn’t be here. He couldn’t experience what he felt again last night. He’d never told anyone about the way his brain worked, his body. He trusted Kane, Adam, and Flip, and in some ways, he trusted Aislinn as well. He just wasn’t ready.

“Thanks, brother,” said Kane, reaching for his hand.

“Please don’t leave,” said Aislinn, rising quietly. “I need you to be here.”

He looked down at the pretty woman standing by his friend. She had the biggest eyes he’d ever seen, pleading for him to stay.

“I can’t do this, Aislinn,” he whispered.

“I won’t say anything else about it. I promise. Just please don’t leave right now.”

He looked down at her face again and then back up at his friends.

“Alright. I’ll stay here until we catch the woman.” Without warning, Aislinn hugged his waist, pressing her face against his chest. So shocked by the act he nearly passed out.

“Okay, okay, stop hugging my friends, or I’ll have to kidnap you to a remote location,” said Kane, smiling down at Aislinn.

She tilted her head to the side, staring up at Spook, who shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. He was very handsome, but there was something he was hiding from everyone, and she wanted to know what. Like the others, she was connected to Spook.

“It will be nearly impossible to find her now and catch her in the act,” said Flip.

“No, it won’t,” said Aislinn calmly.

“Honey, I know you think it will be easy, but she’s going to run or at least slow down as soon as she hears about Krauss killing himself.”

“Not if he shows up on her doorstep.”

“What?”

“We need to talk to his brother,” she said, taking the last bite of pancake. “We have to make him understand the situation. If we can get him to help, he can convince her that he is Michael, not Christopher.”

“Damn! She’s a keeper!” said Adam. Kane grinned at his friend.

Yea, don’t I fucking know it!