Darkening Dawn (The Lockman Chronicles Book 5) Read Free Page A

looked like a minion to some evil overlord, but Jessie knew from talking to him that he was a sweet, soft-spoken guy who had a passion for demolitions as deep as Jessie’s love of movies. He rushed to Spike, who now had a real name that Jessie couldn’t bring herself to use, making her death too real, and triggering a wave of guilt she couldn’t deal with now. After all, if Jessie hadn’t insisted on going in with the team, Spike would have stayed with her and never ended up in the path of that unicorn.
    The rest of the squad gathered at the entrance to the closet, every one of them with their rifles trained on the inside. But even from where Jessie stood, the closet’s entire contents were visible. Plenty of suits, dresses, two racks of shoes—one his; one hers—a full-length mirror on the far wall…and nothing else.
    “Cover me,” Ree said and crept into the closet. He moved with a stiff quickness, swiveling at the waist as he looked up and from side-to-side, always with his rifle aimed in the direction he faced. He shoved aside the clothes hanging on the racks and knocked on the walls behind them. He stomped at foot-spaced intervals on the floor. He squinted at the frame around the mirror and pushed against the wall on either side of it.
    Then he lowered his rifle and turned to the team.
    “Nothing.”
    The second woman on the team shrugged. “Intel’s always a guess.”
    Ree shook his head. “Feels wrong.” His gaze looked past his team to Jessie, an intensity in his eyes that made her shiver. “You getting a vibe?”
    Jessie wrinkled her forehead and snorted. “That’s not really my shtick. I don’t get vibes.”
    Ree sighed, clearly agitated. He looked like someone who had misplaced his keys and had looked everywhere for them without success. “Can you come in here and check anyway?”
    She didn’t blame him for completely misunderstanding her abilities. She didn’t fully understand the Return herself. Though it had never given her paranormal radar. Still, she humored him and stepped into the closet.
    Ree shuffled around her and out the door, leaving her in the space alone. The clothing surrounding her acted like sound-proofing, muting sounds in the closet, letting the ringing in her ears well back up. She glanced around. The mix of fabrics filled the space with an animal-like musk. She doubted anything synthetic hung in this closet. Just behind the smell of the clothes, though, she smelled that cotton candy sweetness.
    The skin on the back of her neck rippled. Her scalp tingled.
    Don’t get excited. A unicorn just burst out of here. The smell probably came from it.
    But as Ree had put it, Jessie was getting a vibe. It worked at her like a persistent humming in her head. Her cheeks turned cold.
    “What is it?”
    Jessie turned to the voice. Ree had one eyebrow quirked while he stared at her like she was a total freak.
    “You just went pale.”
    Jessie slowly pivoted away from him and looked into the mirror. She bit back a shriek at the sight of her reflection. She almost looked like a vampire again. For an instant, she thought she heard a voice, a distant whisper.
    It’s going to happen again.
    Then the sensation cut out like a lost signal. The color and warmth returned to her face. She watched it happen in the mirror.
    Like that, the “vibe” was gone.
    Overactive imagination. Wishful thinking. The hope that she really did have more to offer than the Return. Nothing more.
    She rolled her eyes and turned back to Ree and the team, all staring in at her like she was a zoo animal. “Nothing,” she said. “Just a little too much adrenaline. The closet’s clear as far as I can tell.”
    “Okay. Next step.”
    “We go home?”
    Ree shook his head. “Clean up.” He pointed to the dead unicorn on the bedroom floor, its blood still soaking into the carpet. “You need to Return that uni.”
    Jessie scrunched up her face. Her stomach did a triple lindy. “What the fuck you talking about? It’s