Blood Memories

I thought about that for a minute. Maybe Wade and I couldn't help getting tangled up in each other's thought patterns. Maybe there was some mental magnet between us that we hadn't learned how to control.

"But how did you know to come here?" I asked. "Why would you come to Seattle? I didn't leave a trace."

"How did we…? Oh, that. Yes, you did. The next morning we checked back on the Mazda's registration, along with a few other cars, and decided to check out some addresses. When we got to twenty-seventeen Freemont Drive, Dominick… he got agitated. We went up to the house, but no one answered the door, so he picked the lock-I told him not to-and we found a lot of British antiques inside. He touched a hairbrush in the bathroom and went into convulsions."

That was almost too much for me. The thought of Dominick breaking into our house and digging through our things made me tense up. "Nothing in that house would have clued you in to looking for us in Seattle."

When I said «us» again he glanced over curiously but didn't push it.

"No." He shook his head. "I dragged Dom back outside… By then he seemed to be having waking nightmares. We hadn't slept in two nights, and I was getting dizzy. We went back to the precinct, and I ran a check on all the airlines out of Portland. I caught two tickets to Seattle charged on a MasterCard registered to a Shelby Drake at twenty-seventeen Freemont Drive…" He faltered, looking up at me.

My stomach lurched. How could I have been that stupid? I led them right to Maggie. It was my fault.

He went on. "Dom was never the same after we left your house. He told Captain McNickel and our sergeant everything… They put him on suspension pending psychiatric investigation."

"McNickel did that? To Dominick?"

At the time, neither Wade nor I found it strange that I spoke of Captain McNickel as if I knew him. The visions from Wade's past were as real to me as they were to him.

"Dom just sounded crazy, even to me, and I believed him. The next day he quit and told me he was driving up to Seattle to look for you."

"And you quit, too?"

"What else could I do? He's my friend, and he was right. They're all too blind to look for the truth."

"That's Dom talking, not you."

He winced, and I sat there watching the streetlights from outside reflect off his cheekbone. I didn't hate him anymore. Maybe I couldn't feel like Maggie. Maybe I couldn't understand his nature or comfort him, but I felt that I knew him, and I wouldn't hurt someone I knew.

"You have to stop tracking me, Wade. If Dominick finds me, he'll kill me."

"But what are you? Tell me what you are."

"I can't."

His fingers dug into the carpet. I watched the blue swirl of veins under the flesh on his hands. "You're so perfect… The images I pick up from you don't match. I can't even follow some of your thoughts. So cold. They aren't human."

Did he even know how close he was to the truth?

I stood up. "Wade, please. If you care about Dom, you'll get him to stop tracking me, or I'll kill him. Don't let him know about this. Just pretend you can't find me. I'll find a way to disappear, and you'll never see me again."

"Is that what you think I want?" he asked harshly, sounding frustrated. When I didn't answer, his voice lowered. "So none of this, none of the trip down my memory lane, means anything to you?"

What did he want?

I walked to the door. "Just keep him away from me. I didn't ask you to quit your job and come here. I didn't ask to see your life. Remember that."

Before he could answer I slipped out the door. But his narrow, intelligent face lingered in my mind, his troubled expression.

What did he expect me to do?

In the back of my mind, a very small part of me wanted to know.

Chapter 11

The next night, I sat in a chair by the fire at Maggie's, watching William dodder around the room. Reflections from orange flames flickered off dark mahogany end tables and danced down the wall beside me.

"I can't help it, William. We have to find someplace else."

"No, no, no. Just got here. Maggie will be home soon."

"Maggie isn't coming home."

"Call Julian. Time to call Julian."

"We can't."

His attitude concerned me. What if I couldn't get him to leave with me? Not that I blamed any of this on him. He'd lived ninety-six years in the same house. I'd dragged him out on a moment's notice and taken him to a strange place, only to tell him we had to move again. It was too much.

And I'd told Wade I would disappear… but now I wasn't sure where to go, even if I could get William out the door.

Would we have to fight it out here?

Maybe not. Could Wade be trusted? Thinking about Maggie, a part of me almost hoped Dominick would come hunting us again.

I got up and walked down the hall into Maggie's bedroom. Her cream lace bed draping smelled softly of floral perfume. Something white lay on her cherrywood nightstand. I picked it up and read a list of things-to-do, written in her perfect script.

1. Have dry cleaning dropped off.

2. Get William a new bedspread.

3. French-braid Eleisha's hair.

"Maggie."