Free What Doesn't Kill You by Cate Dean Page A

have even thought to ask such a question.” She rested her head against the back of the wicker chair, exhaustion in every line of her face. “I took control physically and emotionally, but it was their body, and their mind. This young woman lost her husband, and desperately wanted to talk to him again. It left her vulnerable, and I always looked for the vulnerable, the weak of spirit. They were the easiest to possess.” When he raised his eyebrows she smiled. “They don’t fight back. Much.”
    “You haven’t talked about your past before.”
    “My life began the day I became Claire Wiche, on a cold night at the edge of a river. For me there was nothing before that.” She pushed to her feet, looking as fragile as she had the day he met her. “And as far as Zach is concerned—”
    “You already opened that can, Claire.” She frowned at him, so he elaborated. “You mentioned meeting Houdini, in London. Do you really expect him to forget?”
    “Damn.” She let out a sigh. “He holds onto things like an elephant. Maybe the tarot card and baiting James scenario will distract him—oh, who am I kidding? I’m going to be grilled the second he gets me alone.”
    Laughing, Simon took her hand. “I’ll volunteer to be your buffer.” He ran one hand through his hair, still not used to the length, after years of having it close cut. “But no guarantees that it will work. He’s a slippery one.”
    “Don’t I know it. You should see him try to weasel out of homework. Thank you, Simon, for listening. For getting me out of there. I couldn’t face them, not with my control so shaky.”
    “Any time, Claire. I mean that. You are important to me. It just took traveling halfway around the world to see what was right in front of me.”
    Tugging on his hand, she leaned up and kissed his cheek. “I missed you. Don’t stay away like that again.”
    “No worries. Now,” he led her back into the kitchen. “Want to go trap a nutcase?”
     
    *
     
    C laire looked at her friends, her son, as they stood around the coffee table, studying the tarot card.
    Simon broke the silence. “Zach, can you get me the salt shaker from the kitchen?”
    Claire couldn’t stop herself; she jerked away, one hand closing over her nearly healed wrist. “Why?”
    “I want to test a theory.” Zach ran back in with the salt shaker and handed it to Simon. “Thanks. Now, I want all of you to stand back. I’m not sure how it’s going to react.”
    Claire obeyed, taking Zach’s outstretched hand. Eric moved in front of Annie, stopped her sputtering protests with a single look at her stomach. Marcus moved to Claire’s side, one arm slipping around her waist. Her anxiety eased as soon as he touched her. Stepping closer to the coffee table, Simon opened the shaker and poured the salt on the card.
    An inhuman scream split the air.
    “Wow,” Zach whispered. He spoke for all of them. The card curled around the pile of salt, the gilt edges blackening.
    Claire felt the card’s hold on her snap. She looked at Simon. “How did you know?”
    “I ran across a similar—problem in college. A student in my dorm bought a book that had a spell on it, allowing the owner to use it to draw power, even if they didn’t have any. This James has some inherent power—enough to keep the deck from controlling him completely. I saw it, and it wasn’t happy joy power.”
    Zach let out a laugh, muffling it with one hand. “Sorry.”
    “Comic relief is always welcome.” Simon let out a sigh. “Bottom line—we have to destroy that deck. It’s his source of power, and it’s eating whatever humanity he has left. As an addendum to the bottom line—destroying that book killed the student.”
    “So we go into this knowing it could kill him,” Annie said. “Are we supposed to feel sorry for him now?”
    Shock jerked Claire out of Marcus’ grip. “Annie!”
    She looked at Claire, both hands resting on her stomach. “He messed with me, knowing he could harm