Dangerous Calling (The Shadowminds) Read Free Page A

before I gave up. She was too far away after the first fifty.
    Her taillights faded into darkness, and I stopped in the middle of the road, bent double and gasping for breath. It was almost perfectly black again, and I startled when a bobcat padded out of the underbrush choking the roadside ditch and stole across the asphalt, eyes glinting green in the faint moonlight. The crickets were as loud as radio static. I turned and made my way back to Shane’s car.
    The only way I had to reach her was a pay phone number and a first name. Unless she decided to call me back, I’d just screwed up my first rescue mission. I got in the car, banged the steering wheel once, and pulled onto the road.
    As I drove past the cracked parking lot, I saw a pair of sunglasses and a stray hair tie lying in the middle of the road. I was positive they hadn’t been there before. I rolled down the window and levitated them into the car, turning them over in the air in front of me, careful not to make physical contact. The hair tie was tangled with straight black hair. Maybe I hadn’t failed yet, after all.
    * * *
    The condo was dark when I parked outside on the street, but I could tell Shane was awake. Before I even got to the entry door, his mental presence surrounded me, a wordless greeting. He’d been worried, I could tell. I sent back a mental squeeze as I unlocked the door and dragged myself up the stairs.
    Shane and I had been living together for months, but I still got a happy glow when I came home to our shared bedroom. He was sitting awake in our bed, pretending to read a car magazine. The novel I was reading sat on the table on my side of the bed, and the clean clothes I hadn’t bothered to put away were stacked on a chair in the corner. Shane’s work boots stood by the door.
    Shane set his magazine aside as I walked in. “How did it go?” In the glow of the antique brass lamp, the bare skin of his broad chest was warm brown against the cream-colored sheets. I wanted nothing more than to curl up next to him, so I climbed into bed with my clothes on and did it.
    “That bad, huh?” He snugged me against him.
    “Mmph,” I said to his side, telekinetically tugging my shoes off. Even with our window unit failing to battle the Louisiana heat, the warmth of him was welcome. He curled one arm around me and stroked my hair with work-roughened hands, his biceps firm against my shoulder.
    “Wanna talk about it?”
    “Not really.” But I told him anyway, bringing up the memory of what had happened and opening it to him. He listened while I described lifting the car, running after Diana. His presence in my mind was soothing and familiar, a well-worn river stone in my hand. I knew every crack and rough spot, every way his shadowmind spoke to mine.
    “You lifted the whole car?”
    I shrugged, remembering the way the ice had crept up the rusted gas pump. Shane watched the memory.
    “You’re getting stronger.” There was nothing but admiration in his voice. Another man—hell, any other man—might have felt threatened or defensive being with a woman like me, but not Shane. He shifted and pulled me on top of him, twining his legs around mine and settling my head on his chest. “It’s getting easier for you to control it.”
    “Fat lot of good it did me. And it obviously wasn’t enough.”
    “What would you have done if you’d caught her? Kidnapped her?”
    I levered myself up and glared at him. He was smiling, the expression making his dark eyes twinkle. “She was really scared. And she said something weird.” I called up the memory and gave it to him. I’ve put you both in danger.
    His eyes went black while he watched. “What do you think she meant?”
    “Hard to know. I couldn’t get into her head.”
    Shane watched my memory of the walls I’d found in her mind, and his eyes went wide. “That’s serious skill.”
    “Yeah. Like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
    “Where did she come from? Someone must know who she is.”
    “We