Adam bit his lip and gave a little nod. Bobby paled, all the fight and disappointment draining away at the same time.
“How is he?” Adam asked. “The cop.”
“Dead, Adam,” Bobby growled. “He shot himself in the head.”
Adam remembered Carl, struggling against the spirit’s control, fighting it long enough to put a bullet in himself before he’d let it force him to kill Adam.
“Not him,” Adam said. “The other one.”
“We don’t know. He won’t wake up, a lot like you wouldn’t wake up. They found him bleeding, babbling about what happened. Then he slipped into a coma. He shouldn’t have been conscious. He should be dead.” Bobby shook his head. “Why isn’t he?”
“I tried to save him,” Adam said. “I wasn’t sure it would work.”
“It must have,” Bobby said, shaking his head, shaking all over. “He’s stable.”
Adam had mixed a strand of his life with Vic’s, a stranger’s, on a whim. He’d saved the guy’s life, and from the sound of it, his own ass, but he didn’t know the cost, what would happen.
The connection between them hummed like a guitar string. Adam might be able to sever it, but he did not know what that would do to either of them. Their link might be the only thing keeping Vic alive. It was the right thing to do. He still felt that, but it added one more damn item on his to-do list of impossible things.
“If you can—” Bobby started. He leaned close, voice almost pleading to ask, “Can you help Annie? Can you keep her from hurting herself?”
“I’m trying,” Adam said. “That’s why I needed those records, why I was in there. But I underestimated it. It’s not stupid. It’s watching me.”
“Did you find anything?” Bobby nibbled his lip, likely wanted to chastise Adam but managed to hold back.
“No,” Adam said. “I didn’t get into the records. So far the only thing I know is that the victims all worked at the hospital. But Annie didn’t, right? So why is it attacking her?”
“Adam,” Bobby said, his face pinching. “I met Annie here. She was a nurse.”
“What?”
“She was a nurse here when I was an intern. She quit when we got married.”
Adam put air through gritted teeth. He should have asked earlier. This crap between them was going to get someone killed. Adam sank. It already had.
“So can you help her or not?” Bobby asked.
Adam chewed his lip. No, he could not. He did not know what he was up against. Ignorance had almost cost him his life. The spirit had killed Carl. It had tried to kill Adam and ended up almost killing Vic. He had to stop messing around.
“Yeah,” Adam said, throwing himself back against his pillow. The spirit had possessed hospital employees. The hospital had a dead zone. He squirmed. “But I have to talk to somebody.”
“You look scared,” Bobby said. “And you don’t scare easy, Adam Lee. Who is this somebody?”
“Do you really want to know?” Adam asked.
His brother sighed and shook his head. “I do not.”
Adam smiled, but he had to admit it hurt. He could always count on his family to withdraw when Adam pressed too hard or tried to show too much of his self to them.
“Whatever it is you did,” Bobby said, “you’ve landed in it this time. A man is dead, Adam. A cop. That’s serious.”
No shit. So is a spirit the size of a house.
“Am I going to be arrested or anything?” Adam asked. He could spirit walk from a jail cell but didn’t relish the thought and his body wouldn’t be safe there.
“I don’t know,” Bobby said. “I’ve called my lawyer, but nobody has said anything to me yet.”
“Thanks,” Adam said. And he meant it.
He didn’t like any of this. It wasn’t hard to see that something had put him on this road, drawing a clear path to Denver and his confrontation with the spirit. Adam shook his head, but the sense of something, some things, watching, lingered like the memory of spider legs on bare flesh. He almost called up his Sight, checked the room for spies, but Bobby was right. He was afraid.
14
Robert
“Let’s get right to it,” Ms. Geen said. She leaned back into one of those modern office chairs with chrome arms and mesh instead of cushions. Behind her, the window framed the Denver skyline, mountains and office buildings.
“To say the least,” Geen said, “this situation is highly unusual.”
“It is,” Robert agreed.
He hadn’t interacted with HR since Mercy had hired him. This new director was very polished, with light lavender nails and a fitted gray suit. She had a symmetrical haircut. Sitting across from her, Adam beside him, Robert felt pretty certain he wouldn’t like what was coming.
After three days in the hospital, Adam had recovered from the complete exhaustion that had knocked him down. Dressed in a blue polo, dark khakis, and a blazer, he looked almost respectable, like he could work at a bank. Robert had sent their mom to buy him clothes. He couldn’t risk Adam screwing this up. Robert had worked so hard. Mercy was his dream job.
“We could fire you, Doctor Binder,” Geen said. “Your brother used your badge to access the records room.”
“He stole it from me,” Robert said.
“I did,” Adam admitted without any sign of guilt.
“There’s no proof you didn’t help him,” Geen said.
“He didn’t get into any records,” Bobby said, holding up a finger for emphasis. “No law was broken.”
“True,” she said.
“And he had nothing to do with it,” Adam said, cutting his eyes sideways at his brother. “It was all me. Really.”
Geen’s head dipped. “I believe you. But there is the matter of the policemen. One dead. One shot.”
“I—I didn’t kill him.” Adam stuttered.
Robert was glad to see Adam’s cockiness waver. He’d approached all of this like nothing could touch him. Maybe magic and spirits were real, but that didn’t mean Adam could do as he wanted.
“We know, Mr. Binder,” Ms. Geen said. “We have the security footage. Did you know that all records access is tracked by federal law?” Pausing, she sighed. “The hospital looks very bad in light of the officer’s actions. Legal asked me to speak with you.”