Free Kindred by Adrianne Lemke Page B

make his life miserable,” he stumbled over my name, as if he were unsure of it, or hadn’t used it before.
    “Don’t you realize?” Dan asked incredulously.
    “Realize what, officer?” he asked calmly, as if speaking out of another person’s body was an everyday occurrence, instead of a freakish anomaly.
    “You’re already making him miserable. He doesn’t want the attention you’re giving him. He’s a good kid, and he’s been through a lot. Just leave him alone. Stop sending him pictures of dead bodies and notes warning him away. Let him be,” Dan urged. If I’d been capable, I would have thanked him for the thought, but telling a killer something he didn’t want to hear was probably not for the best.
    “Is that right? He doesn’t like my gifts?” Kindred almost seemed…saddened by the thought. As if it had never occurred to him that someone wouldn’t like getting pictures of dead people on a daily basis…or ever.
    Just get out of my head, so I can move on with my day. The feeling was strange, and I didn’t think Kindred realized that I was aware this time. I hadn’t been before, but as I started saying, this time there was something different. This was preferable to not knowing what was happening, but I was just as powerless as before. Or was I?
    I still had my consciousness. Maybe I could access my ability somehow. But should I? Or would me attempting any kind of control allow Kindred the knowledge that I was aware of what was happening?
    He seemed to be pondering what Dan had said, then shook his head…my head, actually. “No. You just don’t understand the connection we share. He doesn’t feel safe. I’m making him safer. For saving my life, I’ll continue to save his.”
    Alice seemed confused. “Then why do you keep threatening him? If you aren’t going to hurt him, why keep threatening?”
    “I won’t hurt him, as long as he doesn’t try to stop my work. I will not allow him to take away my freedom. Keep him out of my way. I don’t want to have to hurt him, Detective Farrow. Keep that in mind. Anything that happens will be on you.”
    I felt another pain in my head and my legs gave out as Kindred withdrew, leaving me on my knees with a massive headache.
    “Jason, are you okay? It is you, right?” Alice had rushed around her desk and hesitantly put her hand on my shoulder, drawing back a little when she questioned my identity.
    “Yeah…I’m good,” I rubbed my neck and winced as I stood unsteadily, Alice hovering nearby. “Just a headache for now.”
    “Kindred…”
    I held my hand up, stopping her as she spoke. “I know. Give me a minute to clear my head.”
    “Here, kid,” Jones handed me a couple of pills. “It's just Ibuprofen. Should help with the headache.”
    “Thanks,” I said as I accepted the tablets and bottle of water from Dan. “This time was different,” I told them after I swallowed the pills.
    Alice nodded. “It started more painfully, and ended that way too.”
    “Yeah, and I was aware the whole time. I don’t know why, but I don’t think he knew I was able to see and hear everything that was going on.”
    Alice, Dan and Mark seemed worried, but Alice spoke first. “So what do you want to do?”

EIGHTEEN
    Hannah
     
    The test had been a disaster. There was no way I could concentrate on it enough to pull through. My friends noticed that I was a bit distracted. Rachel, one of my best friends, joked that there was no way I could concentrate on school as long as I had a super-hot guy living in my home. I think I managed a smile, but it may have come out a bit sickly. She knew almost nothing about Jason or what he’d been through, so I did not really respond. Besides, she was right to a point. It was because of Jason that I couldn’t concentrate, just not for the reasons she thought.
    Jason was sleeping when I got home, but Alice explained what had happened that day so I went down to see him. He looked so innocent as he slept, like he didn’t