Into a Dangerous Mind (39 page)

She tensed under his hands at the blatant lie.

Dr. King nodded once.
 
“Cassidy…are you also here for Miss Martin?
 
She’s been asking for a Cassidy.”

She nodded, relief sweeping through her in a flood.
 
“Yes.
 
Is she okay?”

“She has a minor concussion and some bruises, but other than that she’s no worse for the wear physically.
 
She may need some counseling though.
 
For now, we’ve given her something to help her sleep.
 
We’d like to keep her overnight for observation, just to be safe.”

“Cassidy,” Anderson broke in.
 
“Why don’t you go freshen up and change into some real clothes, and then we can go see Kathy and Zach together.”

Cassidy squeezed his hand, grabbed the duffel bag and headed off toward the restroom.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, she dumped everything out of the duffel bag onto the counter.
 
Her purse fell out last landing on top of a pair of blue jeans.
 
She picked it up and immediately, the familiar psychic signature from within poured through her.
 
Unzipping the top, she found just what she thought she would—the ring Zach’s grandmother had given him.
 
The same one he hadn’t given to his fiancée before she died.

 
She shrugged and reached for her clothes.

Slipping on her own familiar clothes seemed like a sinful luxury after spending the last few hours naked and then in a scratchy hospital gown.
 
After she fully dressed, she turned toward the mirror and gasped.

Her auburn hair tumbled around her face.
 
Her eyes wide with shock, her pupils so big, the black ate away most of the hazel, which only served to highlight the paleness of her face.
 
Dark smudges under her eyes attested to the strain of the past few hours…along with the entire Reaper ordeal.

She sighed and settled for brushing out her hair before she pulled it into a ponytail.
 
She wouldn’t bother with makeup—even her normal eye shadow, eyeliner and blush seemed like too much of an indulgence with Zach lying in a hospital bed in a coma.

“If only I could touch his mind,” she told her reflection.
 
“Make sure he’s all right.”

The ring suddenly burned hot against her finger and gave out waves of psychic vibrations.

A small wave of familiar comfort reached her, and she immediately recognized the source.
 
“Zach?” she whispered to the empty room.

Closing her eyes, a tendril of her power reached out to Zach.
 
At first, she found nothing—the same nothing she’d found since she woke in bed alone.
 
But then, almost fleetingly, a small spark of consciousness feathered against her tendril of power.
 
She grasped it like a lifeline and anchored the connection firmly inside her mind.

?”

Silence greeted her.
 
But she held tight to the connection.
 
He was still in there, and on some level aware.
 
Which meant he could fight—fight to live and fight to come back to her.

She looked down at the ring.
 
“Thank you, Grammy.”

She stuffed everything back inside the duffel bag and ran to find Anderson.

Zach floated on a cloud, bobbing softly in the serene blue sky.
 
Not a bad sensation, but he knew he shouldn’t be relaxing right now.
 
He needed to remember something important.
 
It nibbled and nagged at the edges of his mind, but refused to step into the light where he could examine it.
 
He could almost sense it out of his peripheral vision, but when he turned his head, it vanished.

He tried to focus his thoughts, tried to remember, but throbbing pain erupted inside his right temple.
 
He screwed his eyes shut and continued to fight through the pain to remember anything about how he arrived to this point.

But in the end, the pain won, and he relaxed back against the cloud, exhausted and remembering nothing.

Slowly, the pain receded, and he floated comfortably once more.
 
He gingerly opened his eyes to see wispy curls of white against the cerulean blue sky.
 
A momentary thought reminded him he couldn’t be hovering in the sky, but the beauty and serenity of this place lulled the thought away.

If he reached out to touch the white tendrils, he knew they would be as soft as brushed silk against his palm.
 
But not quite as soft as Cassidy’s skin.

“Cassidy?”
 
He jolted.

Memories trickled back to him in jumbled pieces.
 
Cassidy’s beautiful face swam in front of him. Her auburn hair a silky waterfall framing her face—a face dotted with a lovely smattering of freckles over her nose and a saucy dimple next to her full, inviting mouth.
 
Hazel eyes glinted down at him with amusement and love.

Another memory intruded.
 
He saw her naked, lying on a stage at the mercy of the Reaper.
 
His smile turned to a scowl as he remembered falling, and then nothing.
 
Fear gripped him in its icy grasp, and he began to struggle to escape the serenity he floated in.

Cassidy stood to stretch.
 
A week of sitting in the hospital chair beside Zach’s bed had knotted her muscles into painful ropes.
 
Long ago, the nurses and doctors gave up trying to make her leave his side.
 
Anderson and Kathy came and went several times each day, checking on Zach and reporting his progress to Mrs. Hatcher, but Cassidy refused to leave.

She held tightly to the sliver of Zach’s consciousness she’d linked with, no matter how much exhaustion tried to drag her under its dark grip.
 
There had been no further incident with the ring, and the hospital staff seemed to take it as her pass to stay in the room.

She rubbed at her aching shoulders and glanced over in time to see the door swing open.
 
Kathy peeked inside, and then stepped into the room.

A genuine smile tugged at her lips.
 
Kathy’s bruises were fading, and color rode high in her beautiful cheeks once more.
 
Her piercing green eyes still seemed haunted, but the waves of sadness flowing off her had diminished over the last week.
 
“Hi.”

Kathy crossed to Zach’s bedside and looked down at his still form.
 
She glanced over her shoulder at Cassidy.
 
“Any change?”

Cassidy shook her head.
 
“None yet.”
 
Her voice sounded weary.
 
The steady beep of Zach’s heart monitor and the buzz of the IV pump sounded too loud in her ears, but she was unwilling to break the silence.
 
She automatically checked her connection to Zach.
 
It still sat in the corner of her mind just as she’d left it—a small spark of life force she’d pinned all her hopes on.

“You look like hell.
 
But I thought you could use some food.
 
I’ve brought burgers, fries, and apple pies.”

Cassidy’s stomach grumbled loudly as the smell of the French fries permeated the room.
 
“You’re a saint!”
 
Cassidy grabbed the bag Kathy offered and sat down to begin devouring.

Kathy nibbled delicately on a French fry.
 
“How much sleep have you gotten?”

Cassidy swallowed a large bite of double cheeseburger and shrugged.
 
“Not much.
 
But I can’t give up on him, and I’m not sure I can maintain the link if I fall asleep.
 
Besides, it won’t be the first time I’ve been up for a few days straight.”
 
She pulled the paper off a straw and stuck it through the hole in the top of the soda lid.

“Yeah, but it’s definitely been a while.
 
Something’s gotta give and soon.
 
The nurses are starting to talk about slipping you some drugs.
 
If you don’t get some sleep you’re going to endanger your health.”

Cassidy squeezed Kathy’s hand.
 
“I appreciate the concern.
 
I need a break, but I can’t afford to take one until Zach’s awake.
 
But…maybe with your help, I can reach him.”

Kathy stopped eating mid-motion and stared at her friend.

Cassidy continued undaunted.
 
“I know, you don’t think there is anything to be done but wait.
 
But we have to try to reach him. The small spark of life I’m holding inside my mind means part of Zach is still alive.
 
I think he doesn’t know exactly where he is and how he’s going to get out.”

Kathy frowned.
 
“You two really have a deep connection if you’re picking up signals from him while he’s in a coma.”
 
She sipped thoughtfully at her soda and glanced over at Zach’s still form. “What did you have in mind?
 
I’ll do anything I can to help, but if this is about your psychic powers, I don’t see what I can do.”

Cassidy set down her cup and grabbed Kathy’s hand, excitement flowing through her.
 
“This ring is the key to reaching Zach.”
 
She held up her left hand.
 
“It’s chock full of psychic energy which Zach is familiar with.
 
If he held it in his hand, he’d recognize his grandmother’s psychic signature—it’s very strong.”

Kathy broke in.
 
“So, if you connect it somehow with Zach, then between your signature and his grandmother’s, it might be strong enough for him to follow.
 
Right?”

“Exactly.”

Kathy leaned forward.
 
“But if he’s in a coma, doesn’t that by definition mean he’s unreachable?”

“True, but the conscious mind is a very malleable thing.
 
I’ve been talking to some of the nurses and doctors about comas.
 
Even right now while Zach lies there, he can hear everything we’re saying and everything that goes on around him.
 
His mind registers everything and catalogues it.”
 
She took a sip of soda before continuing.
 
“My theory is that most people don’t have the mind-strength to access the pathways where those sensory images are held, so they can’t recall any of those memories during their waking moments.”