Born to Darkness Read Free Page A

his brown eyes somber. “Do whatever you have to do. I’ll see you back there.”
    He vanished down the hall, no doubt going to find the former Nathan Hempford’s wife and children, to let them know the ordeal was over and that they were safe, to explain what had happened, and what was likely to happen next.
    He wouldn’t go so far as to tell them that Hempford was guaranteed to die, or that the authorities were already in the process of covering up what had happened here tonight. The official report would no doubt include a home invasion by a fictional meth- or heroin-addled intruder, with the entire family—including Hempford—taken hostage. His obit would read that he’d died trying to save his family from an unidentified man who’d also killed two police officers. And the public would continue to remain blissfully unaware of this new, dangerous drug called Destiny,
and
the existence of Dr. Bach’s psychically powerful team from OI.
    Not that any of them wanted or needed a ticker-tape parade.
    In fact, their very anonymity and lack of recognition helped keep them safe.
    But still …
    Mac blocked her pain and hobbled her way down the stairsand out of the house, catching up to Diaz out on the driveway, where he’d helped the med team load an unconscious Nathan into the ambulance.
    “You okay?” she asked, and Diaz nodded.
    “Someone’s got a secret,” she said, unable to keep her smartass in check, even though he was looking considerably worse for the wear.
    She wasn’t all that clean and shiny herself—her nose was still bleeding a bit and her lip was definitely split, although it was already starting to heal. Another fifteen minutes, and her face would be as good as new. Her ankle, however, was going to require some significant attention and focus.
    Diaz gave her his handkerchief. Who the hell still carried handkerchiefs?
    “It’s not a secret,” he said evenly. “It’s just … irrelevant.” And then he said what he said after every takedown, even though by all rights they should have been rivals, vying to be Bach’s official second-in-command. “Good job tonight, Michelle.”
    So Mac gave him her standard reply. “You, too, D.”
    “See you back there,” he said, and vanished into the night.

TWO
    The police station had seen better days. It was grimy and stale-smelling, poorly lit and barely heated, and definitely understaffed.
    Anna Taylor had had to wait for two long anxiety-filled hours before the desk sergeant called her number, before she could so much as report the reason why she was there.
    “My sister is missing. She didn’t come home from school today,” she said, working hard to keep her frustration from her voice. This had rapidly turned into a nightmare. But she’d sat, waiting, when what she’d wanted to do was keep searching for Nika, returning to all of her little sister’s favorite haunts. Not that there were many of them—they’d only lived in the Boston area for a few months, and were both still feeling their way in terms of making new friends.
    Anna hadn’t even met their neighbors in their apartment building until this afternoon, when she’d knocked on their doors to see if they’d seen Nika.
    No one had.
    The heavyset sergeant didn’t even look up from his computer. “I can’t help you. Until she’s been missing for seventy-two hours—”
    “Seventy-two?” she repeated, unable to hide her disbelief. “I’m sorry. Maybe I wasn’t clear. My sister’s a child. She’s only thirteen years old.”
    He looked up at her then, his faded blue eyes vaguely embarrassed,but mostly dull. Time and this job had sucked the life out of him. “Services had to be cut somewhere. Most missing people—including children—turn up on their own within that seventy-two-hour time period. Or they never turn up. Either way, it’s a waste of resources.”
    Anna was staring at him with her mouth open, but she knew it wasn’t his fault that cutbacks and layoffs had crippled