Page 26 of Soul Sucker

He nodded. “So you’re afraid of commitment.”

“My life will probably end at twenty-seven.” She looked up at him. “Would you subject someone you loved tothat?”

Ella regretted the words the moment she said them.

She didn’t want him feeling sorry for her.

He let out his breath. “Probably not.” He reached out and took her hand. “I apologize.”

She flinched as his magic shot through her. “I knew you weren’t quite human.”

He shrugged and released her hand. “I’m many things.”

She gave intoherinstincts, and began walking again, turning left along the Embarcadero. She started to puff. To her annoyance, he easily kept up with her.

“I think the question you should be asking yourself, Ms. Walsh, is why you feel so threatened by me.”

She screeched to a halt again. “Threatened, by you?”

“Yes. I think you’ve got used to getting your own way in that office, and you don’t like anyone else coming in and questioning anything you say.”

“And I think you’re talking out of your ass.”

“I don’t like incompetence, Ms. Walsh, and I don’t like working with empaths on the brink of a breakdown. I’ll work with you because I have no choice, but I’ll be questioning everything that comes out of your mouth, double and triple checking it and, if necessary, taking my concerns to the very top to make sure I’m heard so I don’t get left holding the can when everything goes to shit.”

She stared into his eyes and for the first time in her life seriously contemplated drawing her weapon and shooting a fellow professional. But he’d probably like it if she did that, and she still had no way of knowing if he could actually be killed.

Instead, she gave him her best professional smile. “I’m glad you shared your concerns with me, Morosov. I appreciate your input and will consider each and every one of your points very carefully.”

He continued to stare at her and she continued to smile. His shields really were good. She had no idea what he was thinking, although she might hazard a guess that his thoughts weren’t currently full of love for her.

He nodded. “I’m glad we understand each other then. Good night, Ms. Walsh.”

“Good night, Mr. Morosov.” Ella walked away and this time he didn’t follow her. She wanted to look back, but she had a horrible sense that he would still be standing there watching her, and she didn’t want to encounter his death glare again. She headed toward Pier 41 and the reassuring sight of the Tiburon ferry. He was wrong about her. Totally wrong about everything. How dare he suggest she was some kind of workplace bully? He’d only been there half a day. He knew nothing!

Ella stomped up the gangplank and found a seat on the upper deck. Why was he so paranoid anyway? She thought about the SBLE serial killer files she’d downloaded to her laptop. What had gone wrong to screw up an investigation and cause a suspect to flee the country? She smiled out at the choppy waters of the bay. She just knew it had to have something to do with Vadim Morosov and she was damn well going to find out what he’d done and exactly why he hated empaths so much. Andthenthey’d see who was really paranoid.

6

Ella slumpeddown into her seat behind the conference table and tried to conceal her yawns as Vadim Morosov wrote on the whiteboard. He turned to look at her, pen in his hand, a pained expression on his face.

“Am I boring you, Ms. Walsh?”

He underlined Christa Morehouse’s name with a ferocious screech of the pen that made her cringe.

“Nope, carry on.” She smiled at him. “It’s fascinating.” While Vadim outlined the cases he and Alexei had dealt with in Russia, Ella worried about Laney and the files from the SBLE database about the serial killer. Guiltily, she brought her full attention back to Vadim who was just summing up the evidence for the third murder.

“At that point we deduced that the victims were all female, and obviously, all empaths.”

She sat up. “And how did your empath feel about that?”

He turned toward her, his expression neutral. “She felt much as you did. Shocked that nothing seemed to remain in the victim’s head, and puzzled as to why any murderer would want to do that to his prey.”

“Was she worried about her own safety?”

“I can’t say that I noticed.” Vadim shrugged. “She seemed okay about it.”

“So at that point you would say she was still behaving in a professional manner?”

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