Page 20 of Crossing Between
A snort left my lips as I shook my head at him. "Neither of us has gotten that in a while."
"It might be time to go to the bar and see if we can change that." Even as he suggested it though, I could see he wasn't serious and not interested in a one-night fling.
"Nah. My hand does a good job for now." I reached my arms above my head in a stretch before bending down to put away the weights we'd used to warm up with. "Do you think Zoey has a boyfriend?" I watched my partner out of the corner of my eye and he froze at the mention of her like he had been since we'd met the curvy Medium. I thought he wasn't interested in women, he'd only ever had male partners so his reactions to her were telling.
"I don't think so. She'd have mentioned it during breakfast, probably. Or her brother would have. He was something, wasn't he? I wanted to punch him in the fucking face at the end." Elias grunted, his tone was tight. "Let's go grab a drink in the kitchen. I'll make us some shots." He hurried out of the room as if something was chasing him.
He liked her. How cute. Also, annoying. I wasn't sure why. I liked Zoey, too. The thought of her with Elias wasn't horrible.
It made my cock harden slightly as my imagination pictured them twisting between the sheets. Then my mind betrayed me. There was a flash and I saw Varon in the bed on Zoey's other side and I was on Elias' side stroking his cock. There was a red string attached to all of our pinkies that twined together. It was invisible to the eye except to someone who had mental abilities like foresight.
These weren't just my mind making up scenarios. They were small glimpses of the future.
Fuck.
I cursed in pain as I dropped a weight directly on top of my foot.
What was I going to do now?
Chapter 15: Zoey
A few weeks into the job, I was finally getting the hang of using my laptop and my duties other than being a Medium. The strange mark on my side was still there, but it hadn't caused any pain or grown, so I'd put it to the back of my mind while trying to do my job.
I'd gone out to multiple crime scenes with other detectives, helped close two cases, and only managed to forget to do paperwork once. Varon made sure I didn't forget again, although when he was glaring at me, I couldn't help but like it a little more than I should have.
Elias and Kenji hadn't made much headway in the serial killer case. The public was also starting to notice something happening. We were up to ten deaths now. I was concerned, as I hadn't been able to summon any of the souls since Lincoln.
They were not just gone from this plane, it was like they never even existed. I couldn't tell that to my boss and partners, though. All I could tell them was the soul was already gone. If I could just call the souls to me, we'd have a better chance of catching the killer, but I couldn't and that made me so angry.
"Oh, lovely girl," Quilith draped themselves over my shoulders from behind. "You've been staring at this body for almost thirty minutes. They won't just spontaneously give you answers."
I sighed, leaning back into their arms. I wasn't used to being so handsy with most people, besides hugs from Ruth and Ryan, but Quilith wasn't just most people. They had quickly become my best friend. I loved them like they were my own family now.
"If I could use my powers, we could help stop these killings." My reply to them was whispered because I didn't want anyone to hear if they suddenly came into the room. "I haven't even gotten enough information for Kenji or Elias to narrow down what the killer is."
"That's not part of your job, sweetie pie." Quilith tugged on my ponytail as they straightened. "You just do what you can legally, dear one." They pulled me away from the latest victim over to their office ,closed the door, and waved their hand along the door frame which activated a silence spell. "Alright. If, and this is a big if, I give you access to the morgue tonight, what would you do?"
"Really?"
They flicked their fingers at me. "Tell me first."
I pulled my hair over my shoulder and ran my hands down the ponytail. "If I could try to summon the soul back from wherever it's gone, I could see if I could get answers. Not just the scared versions of their last moments. In theory, the souls who've gone over to the afterlife, retain all their memories, and I might be able to get more information out of them."
"Define 'whereever it's gone'?" Quilith's eyes narrowed at me. "You sound unsure about something."
I pulled on my hair as my nerves got worse. "There've been some weird instances with other souls that have appeared next to the bodies where the souls have moved on, or are just gone." The last part I winced as Quilith shrieked.
Yeah. I figured they wouldn't like that part.
"A few of them have given me some vague warning that I haven't been able to find anything on when I've tried to research it."
"What do you mean gone?" Their face started to change, revealing more of their reptilian roots. "What warning?" Quilith took a deep breath, grabbed their glass of water, took a drink, and their transformation receded.
"They keep saying the same thing. The 'Essencefeaster is back'." It had been driving me crazy not being able to find any information on it.
The sound of glass shattering made me jump in the chair as Quilith had dropped their water. They'd gone white, which was an impressive feat considering how pale they already were.
"Quilith?" I was halfway out of the chair but they held up their hand to me as they took in several deep breaths.
