Ghostwalker 02 - Mind Game by authors_sort Read Free Book Online

alert. Something waited for her, something terrible, and a dark dread was taking hold.

    She approached her home from the north, the only real safe passage through the swamp.
    Twice she had to wade knee-deep through the black water, using the cypress trees to guide her progress. Dahlia was careful to make no sound, blending with the night creatures, tuning to them so the insects continued in harmony and the frogs croaked with annoying repetition. The last thing she wanted was to give her position away by having the animals go abruptly silent. It took stealth and calm to move in their world and not disturb them. Dahlia could do it, but it required all of her concentration when her heart was pounding in alarm.

    The smell of something smoldering choked her as she approached the sanitarium. She could make out the cloud of black smoke rising and orange-red flames pouring from inside the building. The sanitarium was built on solid ground in the center of the small island. A walkway led from the dock over spongy marsh to the higher terrain where the building was located. Dahlia had taken two steps toward her home when the first wave of energy hit her so hard it drove her to her knees.

    Violence—dark, malevolent. It poured from the building and rolled off the walls.
    Something terrible had happened. The energy was living, left behind by the aftermath of what had created it. Death. She smelled it. Knew it waited just inside the building.

    Dahlia fought to breathe her way through the pain. She avoided violent energy whenever possible, but she could force herself to endure it if necessary. She’d done it before. She had to go inside. She had to know what happened, and she had to get to Milly and Bernadette and maybe even Jesse. Resolutely, she drew air into her lungs and stood up.
    Her tongue moistened her suddenly dry lips. It was difficult to concentrate with so much pain, but she’d learned to push it to the back of her head. And she had to see what happened. What was left. It was the only home she could remember. The only people she had contact with lived there with her. Her books. Her music. Her entire world was in that building.

    She kept to the trees, running lightly through the tall grass, moving with the breeze rather than against it. She knew there was someone left behind. Someone waiting for her arrival.
    Energy flowed toward her and it confused her. There was the violence, hot angry waves rolling in to swamp her and a secondary source, completely different. Calm, centered—
    patient. The contrast was shocking. She’d never experienced it before, and it made her all the more wary.

    As she approached her home, she could see several men dragging Jesse Calhoun down the well-worn path to the boat docks. Jesse appeared unconscious and covered in blood.
    His legs dragged uselessly and she could see the damage, raw and ugly even in the night.
    “Jesse.” She whispered his name and switched directions, hurrying toward him, using the natural cover, uncertain how she could help him. She never carried a gun. She had long ago realized she couldn’t survive the deliberate taking of a life.

    There were too many men slipping through the night toward the waterway. A purge. The men had come to kill her, to wipe out her existence. Why? She’d completed her mission.
    She tried to maneuver closer, thinking she might be able to scare them away from Jesse with heat and fire. The sound of gunfire erupted from within the building.

    “Milly. Bernadette.” She’d never felt so helpless or torn in her life.

    Shouts broke out as Jesse woke, struggling and fighting. Dahlia immediately followed the group of men, reaching out to Jesse as she did so. She wasn’t particularly telepathic, but Jesse was, and he would feel her energy and know she was present. Jesse. Tell me what to do .

    A man’s voice answered in a hard, authoritative voice… And it wasn’t Jesse. Don’t do anything. Stay away from here .

    She froze, sinking into the