Free Dream Shadow by Mary Wine Page B

following her and her C.O. was trying to decide what to make of her actions.
    She didn’t understand it herself.
    The mystery of it was hounding her. She could understand being drawn toward Paige. The community of Benton was tight. The entire area had been flooded with the anxiety of the little girl’s plight. The second Grace hit the asphalt outside town she’d been awash in the emotional tide.
    “That blanket you found is locked in an evidence locker in Benton.”
    “Yet I walked here…again.” She couldn’t think of a single reason why, but the cabin beckoned.
    Beginning a slow circle around the structure, Grace let her mind wander. It wasn’t a skill she was comfortable with. Focus was more to her liking. When there was a target she could apply discipline and that produced a tight case.
    But maybe the problem was that this case was still open. If there had been a second child, Grace would have felt her.
    That might just be guilt speaking. Considering the cabin’s kitchen door, Grace reached a hand forward to pull it open. The second child’s face sprang up in full color a second before it faded. Grace froze on the threshold as frustration boiled straight through her until it erupted into anger.
    The heat of that anger hit her memory as familiar. In fact, it was exactly the same as the day she’d found that blanket. Grace flung her body back from the structure and felt her temper rip away with the distance.
    Extreme events could imprint themselves onto places or buildings. But Grace found herself staring at the cabin and its anger. She simply didn’t understand the intensity of it. Children didn’t hold such anger inside them. Her mystery-blanket child couldn’t have left such a level of hate behind.
    But the blanket was in Benton and no other child was missing. Those were facts and emotions were trouble. There were psychics whose true gift was understanding human emotions, but that wasn’t her talent.
    “There’s nothing here,” she said to make sure she couldn’t change her mind.
    “Didn’t look like nothing to me.” Jacobs sent his eyes over the cabin before aiming them at her again.
    “Emotional static, nothing more.” Grace turned her back on him but Jacobs reached out and caught her shoulder.
    “I can’t explain what I do not understand, Jacobs.” She kept her voice low to keep her words from drifting to the men nearby. “Once we leave Benton, it won’t matter.”
    “You in some kind of hurry to return to base? That’s a first. You never request to return to base, Grace. Why now?”
    She started walking to avoid the question.
    Some emotion surfaced as she considered leaving Benton behind. Brice Campbell wouldn’t have the means to find her. Regret stabbed straight through her. Grace tried to toss it aside, but that left a yearning in her body that refused to be banished.
    It had been two days and her breasts still tingled. His mouth had been so hot on her nipple. Thinking about it made her nipples bead. She had one of the most disciplined minds on the planet, but she couldn’t evict Brice from it.
     
    Her ears picked up the clues that informed her the rest of the unit had fallen into pace with them. Grace didn’t really give them much notice. Half of the unit ignored her out of fear that she’d curse them or read their minds like some cheap science-fiction movie. The rest of the men were only interested in interaction if it involved sex. Jacobs was the only exception. Grace actually enjoyed conversing with the man from time to time.
    But she had enjoyed kissing Brice Campbell.
    She increased her pace, trying to force herself to focus on the physical demands of the hike.
    An hour after the sunset, Jacobs called a halt to their day. Grace slipped from her feet gratefully. The rest of the men settled into pockets that betrayed just where close relationships had formed. Left to herself, Grace sorted among her pack looking for just what would serve as her dinner.
    A set of long legs