Кей Хупер - Blood Ties

She wasn’t sure whether DeMarco was awake, until she was able to ease from his loosened embrace and sit on the edge of the narrow bed. Looking at him as she absently finger-combed her hair, she realized she didn’t feel the same uncertainty she’d felt earlier about his state of consciousness; he was asleep, and deeply at that.

His face was relaxed in a way she’d never before seen, his breathing deep and even, and the tension she usually sensed in him was absent.

Hollis frowned a little, though she couldn’t have said why, exactly, she was bothered. DeMarco had as much right to sleep as she did, after all, and even his seemingly ever-vigilant senses had to rest sometime. None of the team had gotten much rest in the last few days and, besides, she had no idea what he might have been doing before joining them in Serenade or how long he had gone without sleep at that point.

She shook off the thoughts, deciding just to be grateful that there would be no more awkward—on her part, at least—conversation while they lay in bed together.

Move. Don’t think, just move .

Given the tininess of the silent, lamplit room, it required only a couple of steps for her to reach the door, and she slipped out without looking back at DeMarco.

They had been offered the use of visitors’ restrooms, complete with lockers for their belongings and private showers; it was a kindness provided for the families of patients who spent long days, even weeks, in the various intensive-care units on this floor. Both Hollis and DeMarco had gotten cleaned up and changed not long after Miranda and the sheriff headed back to Serenade, but Hollis felt the need to shower again now, mostly to clear her fuzzy head.

She found herself in a quiet and unfamiliar hallway, and it took a moment or two for her to remember that she hadn’t exactly been conscious when DeMarco carried her from the IC unit where Diana lay to this room.

Carried me. Jeez .

Hollis pushed that out of her mind and took a few tentative steps to her left down the hallway, wondering if she was headed in the correct direction. Everything still looked unnatural to her, too faded and colorless to be real life and yet not—quite—the desolate emptiness that was Diana’s gray time.

Just creepy enough to make her distinctly uncomfortable.

“Hollis.”

Shit .

Hollis turned slowly to find Andrea standing a few feet away. Like the other spirits Hollis had seen earlier, she looked more real than her surroundings did, and her aura was bright shades of blue and green.

It was, Hollis realized, the first time she’d ever seen Andrea’s aura.

“You have to help Diana,” the spirit said.

“Andrea—”

“You have to help her to heal. If her body isn’t healed, she won’t be able to come back to it.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

Appearing to take the wry comment literally, Andrea said, “She’s in great danger. The longer she’s in the gray time, the less likely it is she’ll be able to get back. Her spirit’s being weakened there, and her body is weak here.”

“I tried to heal her body. Or help her heal, anyway. I don’t think I did her very much good.”

“You have to try again.”

Since she’d planned to do just that, Hollis nodded but said, “Listen, can’t you finally tell me who you are? And why you’re apparently attached to me?”

Andrea took a step back, clearly startled. “I—I’m not—you opened a door.”

“Months ago I opened a door. I mean, when I first saw you. So why do you keep coming back? Or are you—did I leave you on this side? Can you not go back?”

“Not until it’s finished.”

“Until what’s finished?”

Andrea seemed distracted for a moment, looking around as though she was lost, then she said, “He’s trying to protect you, but what he’s doing… It’s keeping you from helping Diana. Can’t you feel it?”

“Feel what?”

“He’s tried to put a veil between you and the spirit world. Energy. To keep you safe, he thinks.”

“Who thinks?”

“Reese.”

“Wait. It’s because of Reese that everything looks weird and only the spirits seem real?”

Andrea nodded. “He wants to help. To protect. But he can’t stand between you and the spirit world. He can’t block your natural energies. That’s why the real world looks faded to you, because his energy comes from there and only works the way he believes it works there. You have to stop him before he pushes you closer to the spirit world. That’s not the way. Especially not now. You have to help heal Diana, and you have to be very much in the living world to do that.”

“Last time I had to help Ruby.” Hollis wasn’t really protesting, just trying to understand what was going on.

“They both have a role to play.”

“Andrea, for God’s sake—”

The spirit began backing away, fading. “There’s a better way to use his energy, his shield. His protection. Tell him that. Help Diana. Everything depends on it, and there’s not much time….”

Hollis found herself alone in the corridor once again. She drew a breath, let it out slowly, and then turned back to the room where DeMarco slept. She went in and sat on the side of the narrow bed, put her hand on his shoulder, and attempted to shake him.

“Hey!”

It occurred to Hollis only afterward that rudely awakening a man with DeMarco’s background, training, and apparent nature probably wasn’t the wisest thing in the world, but at that moment she wasn’t thinking about any possible danger from him.

His eyes snapped open, and in the same heartbeat of time his hand moved in a blur and grabbed her wrist. She felt his fingers tighten for just an instant and then relax.

Interestingly, she was never frightened for a second.

“That,” he said calmly, “was not very smart. I might have taken your head off.”

She pushed that aside with a gesture of her free hand. “Never mind that. You have to stop.”

“Stop what?”

“Your shield. Projecting it—I guess. Something like what you did at the church Compound back in January. You’ve actually got it between me and the real world rather than the spirit world, and you have to stop doing that.” Even as she said it, another thought occurred, and she added absently, “I wonder if that’s why I couldn’t reach the spirit world then. Not the same thing, but maybe your dampening field was doing a lot more than we thought it was.”

Without denying anything, DeMarco merely responded, “Who says that’s what I’m doing?”

“Andrea.”

“Spirit Andrea? The one who warned you about the bomb?”

Hollis nodded. “And she knew what she was talking about then, so I have to listen now. You have to pull it back, Reese; stop trying to stand between me and the spirit world. That’s what I do , and you can’t stop it.”

“According to Andrea.”

“Yeah, according to her. Also according to her, I have to help heal Diana before it’s too late. And I can’t do that effectively with your shield wrapped around me. That might even be the reason I went out like a light when I tried earlier to help her heal. Energy pushing against energy is—well, most of it would rebound, don’t you think?”

After a moment, he released her wrist and pushed himself up on an elbow, continuing to regard her calmly. “Rebound?”

“Rebound. I push and your energy pushes back.” She frowned suddenly. “Why, by the way? I mean, why’re you trying to protect me?”

“I wondered when you’d ask that.” He hooked one hand around the back of her neck and drew her close enough so that he could kiss her. It was hardly a gentle sort of first kiss, more a kind of claiming just this side of forceful, and by the time it was over Hollis had no doubt at all what it was he wanted.