Page 19 of Devil Bound

“Don’t say that.”

“Sorry.”

The muscles in her jaw worked, but she went silent as she pulled up to the curb, parking behind another police unit.

“This shouldn’t take too long, assuming she did just fall.”

I unbuckled my seat belt.“How old did you say she was?”

“Eighty-five.I’m hoping it’s just a quick chat.”

The officers already at the scene directed us toward the dead grandma.Two of them were talking to a mailman in the kitchen, presumably the person who had found her.

I didn’t know how typical the interior design of this little house was for a grandma, but the old family photos on a chest of drawers hit that spot in my chest.A sensation that wasn’t quite jealousy but not exactly pain either ran through me.

One of the fantasies I’d lost myself in, especially during my years at the Collegium, was that I had a family; a mom and dad and an older sister.I’d laid out so much history for that fictional life that never existed that I could have turned it into a soap opera with a dozen seasons.

At any rate, seeing family photos arranged with obvious care always reminded me of that fantasy.A cuckoo clock on the wall in the room up ahead marked the hour.

When Christine and I walked into the living room, we were greeted by the sight of an older lady spread out on the floor, and sitting next to her, a white poodle with beady eyes who was busy drooling on the floor.

“What’s that?”Christine pointed at the little dog.

The officer who’d been standing guard over the potential scene of a crime flinched.

“Well, ma’am, she’s been growling whenever I got too close to her.I didn’t want to get bit, and she wasn’t doing anything, so I left her alone.”

Christine frowned.“Did you call animal rescue?”

“N-not yet,” he said, then left the room to make that call.

The white dog’s eyes followed me as I pulled a set of gloves out of my pants pocket and put them on.

I crouched down next to the old lady.She’d not been here long, and she was in much better condition than a lot of the bodies I usually got to talk to.This was going to be a breeze.

“Let’s get started.”

Before I could, Christine’s phone rang.“Shit.I have to take this.Can you do your thing?This shouldn’t take too long.”

I nodded.“Sure.”

Christine left.I looked at the poodle.“Your mom’s going to talk, but it doesn’t mean she can still take care of you, okay?”

The dog looked at me with beady eyes, and a glob of drool fell to the floor as I watched.

I sighed.“Here goes.”

I reached for the old lady’s essence, and it answered right away, none of the sluggishness there that came with very violent deaths and bodies in poor condition.My power flowed freely, the ease of this raising like the simple joy of flipping a pancake in the air and catching it perfectly.

Her eyes opened, and she blinked out of sync.Her arms and legs moved too, nothing big, more like small adjustments that always reminded me of how people moved into place under the covers just before they went to sleep.

“No!”she said.

“It’s okay.What’s your name?”I knew she was Elizabeth Lee, but going with the routine would read well in my report.

“Liza Lee.”

Good enough for me.