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Liliana followed so closely behind the broad back of the officer, she had to be careful not to tread on the heels of his shiny black shoes. She took advantage of the shelter to open her third and fourth eyes. He was a good man, but he was fated to be murdered on the same day as the Sidhe prince.
The spider seer flinched. Why was it that every person she looked at lately was destined to die horribly and suddenly in less than a year? A frightening trend. A storm was brewing in Fayetteville, and it would hit with far more effect than the wind and thunder outside.
“I don’t know if you’d say Detective Jackson and I were friends, ma’am.” He ducked his head and shuffled some of the papers in his hand. “We just work together.”
Liliana had seen a teenage girl with long dark hair, pale skin, and blue eyes just like the big officer’s. Detective Jackson held the girl’s hand while she walked into a drug rehab clinic. Liliana decided not to dispute with the man about his relationship with the detective but helping his little sister with a drug addiction problem seemed well beyond the shallow social bonds of a co-worker.
Across a wide room filled with desks and people and shouting, was the detective’s desk. Detective Jackson was speaking to Pete and Sergeant Giovanni. Pete was just grabbing his jacket off the back of a chair. That was not good. Time was running out.
“Hey, Jackson!” Officer West shouted across the crowded room. “This lady needs to talk to you.”
Everyone in the room turned to stare at Liliana. She wanted desperately to crawl under a desk, or better yet, into the roof rafters behind the suspended ceiling. She hugged herself tightly, stared at her toes, and fiddled with her soggy sleeves. She wondered if this was how her eyes made Siobhan feel, like an amoeba under one of Doctor Nudd’s microscopes.
I must not shut down. I must not shut down.
But it was too much.
“Lilly, what’s going on? What are you doing here?” Pete’s voice spoke right beside her. He was on the other side of the room a moment ago. She had lost some time. Probably not very much. Hopefully, not too much.
Officer West had one of his heavy arms around her shoulders. She shivered away from him. She didn’t know him. People shouldn’t touch people they don’t know without permission.
She looked up and around quickly with just her human eyes, but it was still overwhelming. Too many people. A lot of them were still staring at her. Only Detective Jackson, Sergeant Giovanni, and Pete were familiar faces. The rest were strangers.
So many strangers.
“Hey, if it isn’t Anna Sees All,” Sergeant Giovanni said. “Seen anything interesting in your crystal ball lately?”
Liliana hid her face in Pete’s chest. “Get me out of here, Pete,” she whispered.
“Sure, Lilly.” His wiry arm replaced Officer West’s meaty arm. It helped. “I’ve got you.” Pete nodded thanks to the big man, and the officer stepped back. “I was just heading out anyway. We’re about done talking to Detective Jackson about the two missing corporals.”
“Not fast enough,” Liliana muttered into his chest, inhaling the familiar scent of canine and chemicals.
“Is she a friend of yours?” Officer West asked. His hands were surprisingly long fingered and slender with neatly trimmed nails. Liliana realized she had unintentionally opened her second eyes that she reflexively opened in combat situations to see enemies coming from any direction. She quickly shut them before they were spotted, making herself blind again.
Pete said, “Yeah, she’s a friend.”
“She said she had important life or death information for a case.” Officer West’s deep voice came from just above Pete’s shoulder. He must have moved around to the other side. “Is she all right?”
“She’s just a little lost, I think,” Pete said.
“Well, that seems like life or death information,” Sergeant Giovanni commented.
“Life or death,” Liliana mumbled into Pete’s chest. Her helplessness frustrated her. Doctor Nudd and Siobhan might die because she couldn’t handle crowds well or drive a car. She took a deep breath. “Life or death. Seconds count. We have to go now.” She pushed Pete, not sure if it was in the right direction, but at least it would get him moving.
Sergeant Giovanni chuckled. “You heard your new girlfriend, Pete. What are you waiting for?”
“We can swing by Lilly’s place on the way back to base and drop her off.”
“Hold on a second there, Mr. Teague.” Detective Jackson gently touched the back of Liliana’s hand, where it worried the edge of her sleeve. Her dark face at the same height as Liliana’s blocked most of the staring eyes in the room. “Was there something you needed to tell me?”
Liliana turned away from Pete’s chest for a moment. “My friends, Doctor Nudd and Siobhan, are going to die. On base. Very soon.”
Pete squeezed her tighter. “That’s what you were trying to tell us. Zoe and I will take care of it, Lilly.”
Liliana shook her head. “Pete won’t get there fast enough to save them. We need your help, Detective Jackson.”
The detective’s eyes narrowed. “Can you tell me where exactly? Fort Liberty is damn near as big as Fayetteville.”
