Кей Хупер - Blood Ties

“I think you’re holding her soul too. Her spirit.”

“She isn’t here,” he said.

“I mean you’re holding something of her anchored here. So she can find her way back.”

“Will she?”

“Yes. Because she has to.”

He nodded slowly. “Yes. I’m not letting go. No matter how long it takes, I’m not letting go. Even though…”

“Even though?”

“This was her nightmare, you know. As a little girl, she saw her mother like this. Maybe like this. A body with a beating heart, breathing because of a machine. A body without a soul.”

“She’ll come back, Quentin.”

He nodded again. “Because she has to.”

“Yes. Because she has to.”

Hollis had thought she might persuade him to leave Diana for at least a few minutes, but now she didn’t even try. Instead, she said, “Why don’t you put your head down and try to rest.”

“I might hurt her,” he said.

“You won’t.” Hollis found a small pillow in her hands and didn’t even question where it had come from. She leaned across the bed and placed the pillow so that all he had to do was turn a bit sideways and put his head down. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable position, but at least he might be able to relax.

“Rest,” she told him. “You won’t be any good to Diana or anyone else if you don’t.”

“I don’t want to stop looking at her,” he murmured.

“It’s okay. Just close your eyes for a while.”

Almost as soon as his head touched the pillow, Quentin was out. But his grip on Diana’s hand didn’t weaken in the slightest.

“So now what?” DeMarco asked.

Hollis turned her head and looked at him. “Did it amuse you to watch me trying to sneak out of the room?”

“It did, yes.” He didn’t crack a smile.

Damn telepaths.

“Now what?” he repeated.

They were both keeping their voices quiet.

Hollis didn’t bother to dissemble. “I want to try something. It probably won’t work, but I have to try.”

“Not a visit to the gray time, I hope.”

“No, something else. But…” She hesitated.

“But what?”

“Nothing. I’ll—” She broke off when DeMarco grasped her arm and half-turned her to face him.

“But what?” he asked. “I heard what Quentin said. Things happen fast, and we can run out of time. So tell me what’s worrying you now. Don’t make me wonder about it later.”

“I figured you’d just read my mind.”

“No. Tell me, Hollis.”

She drew a breath and let it out slowly, trying not to be so conscious of time ticking away. “It’s… the spirits. The place is full of them.”

“I gathered that from your conversation with Miranda before she left. What’s changed?”

Hollis hesitated again, then said, “Ever since I came out of the waiting room, since I stepped through that doorway, they’re the only things that look real.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everything else is… sort of gray.”

He glanced around them, then said, “It’s a sort of gray place, really.”

“No, that’s not it. Quentin and Diana… you. You’ve all got a gray tint. Washed out. Like a TV picture with the color turned down. And the only auras I see are around the spirits.”

DeMarco considered that for a moment, a slight frown between his brows. “So you think you may have opened a door to the gray time.”

“If I have, it’s my own screwy version, because this isn’t like Diana’s gray time. At all. Her gray time is empty of people and spirits—except her guides—and it’s desolate, like I told you. Cold and empty. But this… I’m seeing the living and the dead, and the dead have more color, more—hell, more life. So I don’t know exactly what I’ve done, Reese. Or how I can undo it.”

Or if I can undo it .

He nodded toward Diana. “What were you planning to do here?”

“I can heal myself. Miranda’s sister is a medium, and she can heal others. I figured it was worth a shot.”

“That takes energy, right? Strength?”

“Yeah. If healing others is anything like healing myself… yeah. A lot of energy, especially for injuries this serious.”

“I doubt you have much to spare,” he noted coolly.

“I’m hoping I’ll have enough. At least to help, if only a little. It might take only a little to make all the difference.”

“You’re going to do this no matter what I say.”

Hollis nodded.

“Okay. Then we’ll worry about this almost gray time later. Give it a shot.”

Something about his voice made her look at him questioningly, not even sure what she was asking. But DeMarco was sure.

“Something I noticed back in Serenade,” he told her. “In all the commotion, you probably missed it. The thing is, when Diana’s heart stopped, it wasn’t the CPR that got it going. You put your hand on her and called her name. That’s when her heart started beating again.”

Diana said, “Is there a point to this? Walking down this endless corridor as if we expect to find something?”

“You tell me.”

“Jesus, Brooke, I thought we were done with the cryptic guide routine.”

“Somebody’s getting cranky.”

“No, somebody’s getting pissed. I’ve been following you guides for most of my life, doing my damnedest to help you even when I couldn’t help myself, and now when I could use a little quid pro quo, all I get is more of the same old bullshit.”

“Whether you believe it or not, Diana, I am helping you.”

“Helping me burn off energy so I’ll die faster?” Diana knew her voice was harsh, but she couldn’t help it.

“No. Helping you search for the truth. Look at these doors as we pass them. Think about what may lie behind them.”

“Another fake Quentin, probably.”

Brooke paused in the corridor to look at her, then continued on. “All right. Then think about this place. The fact of it.”

“The fact is, it doesn’t exist. Not anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because it was an evil place and it was destroyed.”

“Why was it evil?”

“Because it held an evil creature. Because evil things were done there. Horrible things.”

“So why do you suppose we’re in that evil place now?”

“We aren’t. It’s gone.”

“In a… replica of it, then. A reasonable facsimile of it.”

“Because you want to mess with my head, most likely.”

“Diana.”

She sighed. And tried to think, if only because she didn’t want Brooke to get pissed and vanish, leaving Diana alone here. Not that she’d ever known a guide to get pissed, but still. Always a chance.

“Why are we here? Quentin said…” She steadied her voice with an effort. “Quentin said there has to be some connection. Between this place and the investigation. Or else why does this place keep coming up? Why do I keep visiting it in the gray time?”

“Everything is connected, Diana.”

She frowned. “So this place is tied to the investigation in Serenade? How?”

“That’s your truth to uncover.”

“Dammit.”

Quite abruptly, one of the doors opened as they came abreast of it, and the fake Quentin smiled at her. “You really want to quit listening to that child. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

Diana had stopped instinctively, and a glance showed her Brooke had stopped as well. But the guide remained silent, and it was left to Diana to respond.

“What do you want?”

“I want to help you, Diana. You know that. I only want what’s best for you. I know what’s best for you.”

“You’ve said that before. But you’re fake. You’re a phony wearing Quentin’s face, and I want to know why.”

“You know why.”

Do I? Or is this… thing… lying?