Schulte knocked softly on Dr Kauffman’s door, then waited. Several moments passed, and I began to hope that either she wasn’t in or she was with a patient and was ignoring us. I was about to suggest that we move on when the door opened.
I know my heart didn’t stop. That’s not possible, right? But that’s what it felt like when I saw Dr Kauffman open her office door and step out into the hall.
She was tall and thin, with straight blond hair that fell to her shoulders. Glasses highlighted her startlingly green eyes, and her makeup was so subtle, you couldn’t tell she was wearing any unless you looked closely. She wore a white lab coat over a light green blouse and a dark green skirt. A pair of black flats completed her outfit, and strangely enough, it was those shoes that I remembered most. Maybe because I’d spent so much time with my eyes trained on the floor whenever I’d been in her presence. Like the other employees we’d seen, she wore the company logo pinned to her coat.
The more I saw these miniature company logos, the stranger they seemed to me. What was their purpose? They were too small and generic to serve as ID badges, and they were too cumbersome to swipe through electronic locks like key cards. I supposed it was some sort of rah-rah corporate team-building thing. Working for the Shadow Watch – and babysitting Jinx – can be frustrating at times, but at least I don’t have to slave away in a cube farm day after day.
She looked at Jinx and me. A shudder went through me as we locked gazes, and I was sure she was going to recognize me. But then she turned to face Schulte, and I knew she hadn’t.
“Yes, Parker?”
Her tone was reserved and professional, but there was a cold undercurrent that said she hoped Schulte had a good reason for disturbing her. A
very
good reason.
Schulte’s PR smile didn’t falter. “This is Mr Kelly and Ms Hawthorne. They’re freelance writers doing an article on the Dream Factory.” He looked at us. “My little nickname for the place,” he explained. He faced Kauffman once more. “And you might well recognize one of them.”
Kauffman frowned and turned to scrutinize our faces. After a couple seconds, her eyes widened. “My God! You’re Audra, aren’t you?”
She gave me a smile which had the effect of making her seem less intimidating and more human. A bit, anyway. It was that smile more than anything that helped calm me. I began to feel my fear draining away. I took a deep breath – just as Dr Kauffman had taught me so long ago – and stuck out my hand for her to shake.
“It’s good to see you again,” I said, hoping I sounded like I meant it.
Instead of taking my hand, she stepped forward and enfolded me in a hug. I stiffened at first, surprised and unsure how to react. But then my body relaxed, and I was able to hug her back, although with less enthusiasm. When she stepped back, she kept her hands on my shoulders and looked me up and down.
“You’ve grown into quite a lovely woman, Audra,” she said. “And you’re a writer, too. That’s wonderful! I remember how much you enjoyed keeping a journal.”
She looked at Jinx then and released her hold on me to reach out and shake his hand.
“Nice to you meet you, Mr Kelly.”
Jinx gave her a bland smile as he shook her hand. It might’ve been my imagination, but I thought he seemed jealous. Kauffman gave him a long look, as if she was trying to see into his mind with her psychiatrist ESP, and then she turned back to me.
“It’s been how long, Audra? Fifteen years, maybe? I remember it so well, but you were young. You probably don’t recall much about that time.”
I saw my opportunity – thank the First Dreamer – and I decided to go for it.
“Actually, I remember a lot,” I said. “I remember when my parents first brought me to see you, I remember having sessions alone with you, and I remember group sessions, too. Especially with this one boy, Russell…”
“Pelfrey,” Dr Kauffman said. “Yes, you and he had a special connection, as I recall.”
Pelfrey! That was it!
I gave Jinx a quick look, and he smiled and gave me a slight nod, as if to say,
Well done.
“Well, this has been a
wonderful
surprise, Audra! But I wish the timing was better. I have a patient coming in shortly, and I really need to prepare for our session. I’d love to talk with you, though – to catch up and to help you with your article. Let me get you one of my cards.”
She went back into her office. I stepped forward and glanced inside. It looked basically the same as the office she’d had when I was a kid. Antique desk and chair, brown leather couch, neutral color walls and carpet, file cabinet, paintings of landscapes… In fact, it could’ve been the
exact
same office, down to the smallest detail. It was more than a little creepy.
Kauffman took a business card from a plastic holder on her desk and brought it to me. It was a Perchance to Dream card, one I assumed all the employees got. It had a bluish-black background with stars sprinkled across it. The silver closed-eye logo was in the upper left corner, and Dr Kauffman’s contact information was spelled out in white letters and numbers on the lower right-hand side.
“Call me,” she said. “Maybe we can get together for lunch sometime and talk.” She gave Jinx a sideways glance. “Your writing partner is welcome too, of course.”
Jinx acknowledged her invitation with a less-than-enthusiastic nod.
“I’ll call,” I said.
She gave me a last smile, told Schulte that she’d be busy for the next couple hours – a clear message that she didn’t want him bothering her anymore today. Then she went back into her office and closed the door.
I turned to Schulte. “Thanks for taking the time to show us around, Mr Schulte – especially so late in the day.”
He smiled. “It was very much my pleasure. I hope you got enough material for your article.”
I assured him we did, and he offered to show us out. I almost told him he didn’t have to bother – like Jinx and I couldn’t find the front door on our own? – but I didn’t want to blow our cover. So instead, I smiled sweetly and thanked him.
He continued yakking as we made our way back to the lobby, further extolling the virtues of the company, as if it were a favored child he loved more than life itself – instead of just a place he worked. The man was an inexhaustible source of words, and I decided he’d been born to work in public relations.
When we reached the lobby, I saw the receptionist was still behind her desk, facing her monitor and typing on her keyboard, even though it was after five by now. Schulte had said they kept odd hours around here. I wondered if they had someone working the desk around the clock. Since they had patients come in for sleep studies and stay overnight, they probably needed someone in the lobby all the time, I decided.
Schulte escorted us all the way to the lobby doors, thanked us for our interest in Perchance to Dream, and asked us to let him know when the article was published so he could buy a copy. He handed me one of his cards in case we had any more questions, and I tucked it into my jacket pocket with Dr Kauffman’s. Then he said goodbye – finally! – and headed for the elevator.
Jinx and I went outside before Schulte could think of some last vital piece of information he’d forgotten to tell us and turned to catch us before we left. Dusk was approaching, but a couple hours remained before full nightfall, and I was confident we’d be able to get downtown before Jinx changed. The attention he draws in the city is nothing compared to the reaction he gets in the suburbs. So, the sooner we were back in the heart of the city, the better.
During the time Jinx and I had been inside the building, the parking lot had emptied by two thirds. I didn’t want to use my wisper to call for a ride, not so close to the building, so Jinx and I started walking toward the street.
“Can we get a regular cab this time?” he asked. “Please?”
I was about to say sure, even opened my mouth to speak the word, but nothing came out. My vision blurred and my body went numb. I felt my knees buckle, and I started falling to the ground. Jinx caught me before I could hit, though, and he helped me stay on my feet. Whatever hit me passed as quickly as it came, and a few seconds later, I could stand on my own again, although I still felt shaky and weak.
“I…” I didn’t have any explanation for what had happened, so I finished by saying, “Sorry.”
“I’m sure it was hard for you to see Dr Kauffman after so long,” Jinx said. “I imagine it brought forth all kinds of unpleasant memories and emotions. And after experiencing two backsteps today – not to mention not getting the rest you need – something like this was only to be expected.”
I knew he was trying to be sympathetic, but it sounded as if he was nagging me again, and I became angry. Partially to spite him, but mostly because I really needed it, I pulled my rev inhaler out of my jacket pocket, and started to take a hit of it. But just as I started to depress the button to deliver the drug into my lungs, Jinx grabbed my wrist and yanked my hand away from my mouth. I pushed the inhaler’s button out of reflex, and rev misted the air, the dose wasted.
My anger blossomed into full-fledged fury, and the adrenaline surge wiped away my weakness. I felt energized and beyond pissed.
“Let go!” I said, voice low, jaw muscles tight.
Jinx’s expression was stern, and his eyes glittered with an anger that matched mine.
“You can’t keep doing this to yourself, Audra. It’s not only damaging your health, it’s damaging your effectiveness as an officer.”
The blaze of fury within me went arctic-cold. “Are you saying that it’s
my
fault Quietus escaped?”
Jinx blinked a couple times, and his expression faltered.
“No. I only meant to make a general comment about your overreliance on stimulants.” He paused then, and his mouth formed a cruel smile. “But now that you mention it…”
He still had hold of my wrist. I tried to pull free of his grip, but even though he’s not as strong during the day as he is during the night, he’s strong enough, and I couldn’t free myself. As the time draws closer for Jinx to change Aspects, he starts to display traits of his other self, and I was definitely seeing signs of Night Jinx now.
My left hand remained free, so I hit Jinx in the jaw as hard as I could. It hurt like hell, but it was worth it to see that goddamned smile of his vanish. He still maintained his grip on my wrist, and now it tightened, and I thought I could hear as well as feel the bones grinding. If he kept this up, he was going to break my wrist.
My anger started to give way to panic. Ever since I’d learned that my nightmare clown had become real, I’d been afraid that he would hurt me one day. But after working alongside Jinx for the last few years, I’d thought that I’d gotten over my fear that he would turn on me one day. But now I knew I hadn’t. I still had the rev inhaler, and I was able to turn my hand far enough to aim it at Jinx’s face. Then I gave him a shot of the drug, right in the face.
Although rev is made for humans, it won’t harm Incubi. But getting blasted in the eyes with it hurts, no matter what species you are. Jinx let out a cry that was as much surprise as pain, and released my wrist. Tears flooded from his eyes, and he squeezed them shut and began rubbing them.
“Damn it, Audra! That
hurts!
”
Guilt hit me then, but I fought to keep from showing it. “So does my wrist!” I shot back.
Jinx and I had gotten into fights before, but always when he was in his Night Aspect. He has a completely different view on physical violence then, and never holds anything I do to him against me. In fact, he usually thinks it’s hysterical.
But I’d never done anything to hurt Day Jinx before. Hell, not that long ago, I was patching up his wound in the restroom at Wet Dreams. I felt as if I should say something, but I couldn’t bring myself to apologize. I was still too angry – and too afraid.
A black van came roaring down the street then. Tires squealed as the driver made a sharp turn into the parking lot and then gunned the engine. The vehicle headed straight for us, and I dropped my inhaler, drew my trancer, and stepped in front of Jinx, who was still rubbing his red and swollen eyes. I had no reason to think the occupants of the van were targeting us, but I’d been a Shadow Watch officer too long to assume otherwise. Mentally kicking myself for disabling my partner – not the brightest move I’d ever made – I shoved aside the emotions roiling inside me and focused on getting ready for whatever was coming next.
I flicked the selector switch on my trancer to its lowest setting. I’d used a lot of power fighting the stone-faced creature earlier, and I wanted to make the weapon’s remaining energy last as long as possible.
“What’s happening?” Jinx said, frantically trying to blink away tears. He drew his trancer, and that frightened me more than the oncoming van. Until his vision cleared, he was just as likely to hit me with trancer fire as he was any bad guys.
“Don’t know,” I said. “Stay sharp.”
We were only a dozen yards from the building’s entrance, and as the van came roaring toward us, I debated telling Jinx to try to get inside the building until his vision cleared. But I knew there was no point. He’d never leave me to face a potential threat alone, just as I would never leave him.
The van didn’t slow as it barreled down on us, and I feared the driver intended to run us down. If I fired a low burst of M-energy, it would put the driver to sleep, but that wouldn’t stop the van. It might veer off and miss us, but then again, it might not. I could flip the selector switch to high and blast the van with a force beam, but there was still no guarantee the vehicle wouldn’t slam into us as it crashed. Of course, we could just jump out of the way, but I wasn’t sure Jinx would make it in time. Besides, after the kind of day I’d had, I wanted to cause some damage.
But before I could reset my trancer to high, the driver hit the brakes and the van screeched to a stop less than ten feet away from us. The side door slid open, and men and women began exiting the vehicle, all of them armed with nine-millimeters. There were twelve of them – and my first thought was to wonder how they’d all managed to fit into the van.