Page 31 of Morrison (Terk’s Guardians #13)

“And yet then we could teach people how to protect themselves,” she stated, staring at him.

“Just like every other predator out there, we must provide at least some level of protection for people. Clearly not enough,” she muttered, with a nod, acknowledging that unspoken point, “but there are at least some options for those who want to learn.”

“There are opportunities for those who want to learn here too,” Gage noted, looking at her steadily.

“And that is something that Terkel’s team, which I’m part of,…

has done more than many. We are all very aware that we’re extremely special in this world, and we have unique abilities to handle a certain number of problems, and the small minority of the energy workers who are bad people—like the one doing that to you—are at the root of some of the crimes in this world. ”

She winced. “Let’s just refer to him as Darren. I’m certain it was my brother, but I’ve got to tell you. Right about now I’m not very interested in having a relationship with him.”

“Do you—” He hesitated.

“Know for sure? Yes, it’s him,” she snapped. “But do I have any way to explain that to you? Definitely not.”

“You don’t need to,” Morrison stated, a bit taken aback. “Gage and I live in a world where a lot of things go on that are hard to explain,” he shared. “We trust that, if you say it’s Darren, it’s Darren. No evidence required.”

She sagged down to the counter, even as Morrison poured her a cup of coffee and brought it over.

“I’m sorry, and I guess I’ll probably wind up apologizing all day.

” She scrubbed her face. “I thought a shower would help, but not so much. I feel as if all I did last night was wake up again and again, afraid that this guy was after me.”

“This will be a hard question,” Gage began, “but it’s important. At any time in the night did you ever feel as if he was actually here?”

She stared at him. “Meaning they might have been real attacks?”

“That’s what I’m wondering. Did he come back, knowing your defenses were down? Or did you sense that he was coming back and kept waking up because that kept your defenses up?”

Her breath came out in a whoosh . “I have no idea,” she replied, as if her voice was coming from afar. “This is all too new to me. And, because of that, I don’t really understand the ins and outs, which just makes it that much harder to get you the answers you’re looking for.”

“It’s not so much for my benefit, as answers you need just for your own sanity.”

She winced at that. “So, it hasn’t occurred to you guys yet that I might just be insane?”

Gage chuckled. “Absolutely it has,” he quipped, “and we’ve crossed it off, even though we’ve met people who did cross the line into insanity through this world.”

“Of course, and, if you happened to be in a group where nobody ever believes you, I just can’t imagine how it would feel like to know this was all going on, and yet always doubt yourself and wonder whether it was real or not. If you guys weren’t here?… Well, I just don’t know what I would do.”

“I think you would do just fine,” Morrison replied.

“You’re already showing amazing depths of understanding, and, whether you believe it or not,…

that is probably confounding Darren too.

He may not have even known about you, then all of a sudden realizes you’re here and finds himself fighting with you in a way that he hasn’t had to fight before. It’s probably not making him happy.”

“I suspect he knows exactly who I am at this point,” she stated, staring at Morrison. “I’m pretty sure Don would have told him, and, if not, well, I don’t think Darren’s short on skills. So I’m sure he could get that information on his own.”

At that, Gage looked at her. “You want to explain that last bit?”

She shrugged. “I’ve just got a feeling of capability from Darren, I guess.

Still some fury and frustration in his inability to do something, inability to make me do what he wanted me to do, but still, he has a lot of ability there that he probably came by through trial and error.

I think he knows perfectly well who I am, and he didn’t call me.

He didn’t talk to me in that sense, but a familiarity was there.

” She hesitated and then added, “The message I woke up this morning with was this. Either you’re with us or you’re against us ,” she shared coolly.

“I slammed a message right back at him, emphatically saying, Against .” She shrugged and, waving a hand around, continued.

“Whether I should have or not, I don’t know, but he pissed me right off. ”

The men smiled at her.

“That’s good,” Morrison noted, “because, when you get angry, you’re no longer in victim mode.

When you’re angry, you’re capable of doing all kinds of things that you didn’t know you were capable of before.

Unfortunately it’s often things that we hadn’t considered we would be dealing with.

I mean, none of this is what anybody wants to deal with or things that we should even have to. ”

“When you sent that message back to Darren, was it a response to him talking in telepathic mode?” Gage asked.

“No. I just got this impression of words, so I fired right back,” she muttered. “I know that sounds foolish, but I can’t really explain it any better than that.”

“It doesn’t sound foolish at all,” Gage stated.

“I’m glad you were able to tell him that you were against it all.

On the other hand, now you need to be prepared for the fact that he’ll be angry, and more attacks are probably coming.

As in, you’re against them, and that makes you an enemy to be taken down. ”

Her eyes widened as she contemplated his words.

“Makes sense, doesn’t it?” Morrison agreed.

“I definitely get the feeling… and it sounds strange, but Darren has so much anger inside him, so much fury that he’s blended it into everything about making the world pay.

I think that’s what’s driving all this. I don’t know what’s gone on in his life, and, for the first time, I would admit that I’m not sure I care in this instance.

But the fact remains that Darren’s scary,” she declared.

“He’s seriously scary, and, after what he did to me already, I just want to avoid him as much as possible. ”

“Perfectly understandable,” Morrison noted.

“If he is my brother,” she added, wincing at that, “I don’t know that I want a relationship with him. He has an attitude that says society owes him something, and, excuse my language, he has what I would call a fuck-the-world attitude.”

At that, Gage nodded. “That’s good to hear. We definitely have the same sense in this case, and, while we’re not happy about whatever happened in his life, if he is trying to hold the rest of us hostage, that can’t continue.”

She sighed. “I know it probably won’t meet with your approval, but I want to go talk to Don,” she stated in a determined tone.

“I think he is the weakest link, and, if anybody will talk, it’s him.

If anybody will give up Darren, it’s Don.

I don’t know what kind of a grip Darren has on Don, but I can tell you that, when I’m around, the connection gets weaker.

Maybe because we’re twins, maybe because now I’ve met Darren in a sense, so I’m very much against his having anything to do with Don. ”

“That might be a good idea,” Morrison suggested, with a look over to Gage, who nodded.

“I feel very much like a protective older sister right now,” she added, with a wry look, “and even that is ludicrous, considering I’ve only known about Don for a few months, have barely met him. As for meeting Darren,… holy Hannah,” she murmured, “that doesn’t sound like fun at all.”

“Then for now, just focus on protecting yourself from him,” Morrison suggested.

“You two have mentioned that before,” she noted, “and, while I hear you, I don’t know what that looks like.”

Gage nodded. “It’s not as scary as it sounds. It’s more about making sure he can’t access your energy.”

“You mean, like when he shanghaied me last night?”

“Exactly,” he said, with a nod. “We have to keep that from happening again.”

“Yeah, I want that too,” she murmured. “There was nothing about him, or that experience, that made me want to have anything more to do with him. But, with Don, I feel differently.”

“Okay then, let’s go.”

They soon pulled up outside the hospital. Morrison took another look at her and asked, “Are you sure?”

“I have to,” she declared.

He didn’t say anything more but got out, then waited for her to join him. She reached out a hand, and he smiled, instinctively holding hers. The fact that she came to him was always lovely, even if he didn’t necessarily agree with what she wanted to do.

Gage hadn’t argued either way, and of course the two of them fully understood the risks involved, except Morrison wasn’t sure that was really the case for Sadie.

Because, at some point in time, mental health came into this, and he was certain she had never come up against something like this.

Her brother Darren was causing all kinds of chaos in her world, and if speaking to Don helped her to find peace with some of this, or at least to find a way forward, then Morrison would do what he could.

As they approached the room, she looked over at him. “Do you think they’ll argue with my going in?”

He shrugged. “We can certainly request that you go in, and I can pull some strings if it comes to that. Not to mention the fact that you are family, and, as long as he’s allowed visitors, it should be fine.”

She took a deep breath, nodded, then headed down the hallway. A guard was outside Don’s room, but he only nodded as they stepped in.

“That’s one thing going for us, at least.” As she walked in, her brother opened his eyes, and they widened perceptibly when he saw her.

Then a smile broke out. “Hey, I wasn’t sure I would ever see you again.”