Dark Premonitions: Second Sight Book Three, page 1
Dark Premonitions: Second Sight Book Three
A Novel by Heather Topham Wood
DARK PREMONITIONS: SECOND SIGHT BOOK THREE
Copyright: Heather Topham Wood
Published: March 7, 2013
The right of Heather Topham Wood to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Dedication
To my boys
Prologue
Kate Edwards lay dying on the floor in her home, her body and her mind pulling her in two different directions. Her body begged for release from the pain, asking Kate to just let go. But her mind rejected the idea, insisting that she hold on to her mortality for as long as possible. Letting go meant saying goodbye permanently — to him.
Kate found herself in the mysterious inbetween, stuck in neither the land of the living nor the dead. And the more seconds passed, the more things turned fuzzier. She wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. She was losing too much blood — her organs wouldn’t be able to function, would start shutting down. She was already experiencing the first stages of shock. She was taking greedy breaths, short and shallow, that didn’t offer much relief. Her body felt cold, as if it would never be warm again.
With her life seeping out of her body, Kate felt powerless. Being psychic hadn’t been enough to protect her from a knife-wielding maniac. Someone had wanted her dead, and now his wish was being fulfilled. She would die without knowing who was behind her murder and why he had targeted her.
Kate closed her eyes for possibly the last time, and two distinct voices called to her, both giving her directives that her confused brain couldn’t completely understand. The male voice called to her heart, urging her to fight with everything she had. To not give in, no matter how bad everything seemed at the moment. He would always be there, waiting for her.
The feminine voice was softer but equally persistent. She assured Kate that she didn’t have to hurt anymore. This wasn’t going to be the end for her. There was so much more out there. Her spirit was too strong to simply disappear.
Kate didn’t want to make that choice. She simply wanted to travel back in time and get a do-over before she died. Dying with regrets was the worst thing, and knowing that she would never be able to go back and fix the wrongs she had done against those she loved hurt the most. Her flaws had been her undoing. She had been arrogant, thinking that supernatural powers made her untouchable. The pain she had felt as the knife tore through her delicate skin had been very real.
Her grounding in the mortal world slipped even more. She was moving on and wouldn’t have a chance to say goodbye. She brought up his beautiful face in her mind once more and held onto the image. Her love for him was what she planned to hold onto as she floated away from her former life. She was leaving him behind, but somehow took comfort in the knowledge that maybe their love would still survive.
Chapter One
Kate Edwards eyed her ex-boyfriend, Jared Corbett, warily as he packed a suitcase. For the past hour, she had been working up the nerve to ask him if she could tag along on his Thanksgiving getaway to Maine. Being an ex-girlfriend had this whole set of rules that she was learning to navigate. She had messed up big time with him, and she had to be careful not to make the situation worse. Approaching him the wrong way could wind up ruining their shaky friendship.
“Hey Jared,” she called out, deliberately casual, from her spot on his overstuffed microfiber couch. Although the beige living room set was an improvement over the gaudy white leather furniture he formerly owned, it pained her each time she saw it. It served as a reminder of happier times, when she had helped him pick out the pieces, imagining all the time they would be spending pawing at each other on the couch.
Jared left the bedroom. “What’s up? Are you bored yet? I warned you I had to pack for Aunt Lizzie’s,” he reminded her.
Kate could never be bored with Jared. He could be flossing, and she would still find him utterly fascinating. She shook her head. “No, I was just wondering…” she trailed off.
Jared loomed over her. Kate was not petite, but Jared’s height was distinctive. “Kate, you’ve been acting strange since you got here. What’s going on?”
“Well, I’ve wanted to ask you if maybe I could tag along to Maine with you.”
Jared frowned. “Don’t you have plans with your mom for Thanksgiving?”
“She’s going on a cruise with her boyfriend. My Aunt Lucy and her latest squeeze are also going with them,” she explained in a rush.
“Your mom left you to fend for yourself on Thanksgiving? That’s surprising,” Jared replied with disbelief. Instead of replying, Kate bobbed her head up and down enthusiastically. She deliberately concealed the part where she told her mother that she had plans with Jared and that she wasn’t bothered at all by her being whisked away on a weeklong cruise.
A month had passed since Jared had broken up with Kate. During this time, Kate’s charms had yet to win him back. For two weeks after their explosive argument, she hadn’t heard a word from him. It was two weeks of Kate living in her pajamas and crying into her Cheerios every morning. The pattern continued until one morning she awoke with a text from Jared, inviting her to coffee.
Although the meeting didn’t involve Jared forgiving her for everything and asking her to bear his children, he did say he missed her and wanted them to be friends. She nodded dumbly the whole time. Kate probably would’ve agreed to organ donation if he had asked.
It wasn’t a complete shock to Kate that Jared had dangled the promise of friendship in front of her. The reason she had fallen for him in the first place was that he was one of the kindest men she had ever met. Even though she had hurt him, he didn’t have it in him to hold a grudge and shut her out of his life for good. One of the causes of contention in their relationship had been his congeniality to people who didn’t deserve it — namely his ex-girlfriend, Nikki Preston.
“You must realize that Thanksgiving is my all-time favorite holiday. Gorging until you’re about to burst is definitely my idea of a good time,” she said, nervously pulling on a strand of her light brown hair. But Jared didn’t look enthusiastic about the idea of her accompanying him. In fact, his handsome features were twisted into a grimace and he refused to make eye contact.
“What about Declan?” he said. “Aren’t you dating? I would imagine he would mind you going away with me.”
“Kissing someone one night and brushing your teeth ten times afterwards doesn’t exactly constitute dating.”
Kate should’ve expected him to bring up her psychic co-worker. Declan Brayden was the toxic drink she had sampled while still dating Jared. A moment of weakness, leading to a brief, hot and heavy kissing session culminating in Declan spending the night in her hotel room, had poisoned her relationship with Jared. After she had returned home from one of the worst abduction cases she’d ever worked, Kate admitted the indiscretion to Jared. She could still see skid marks on her carpet from how quickly he had left her after the admission.
Since developing psychic powers, she had found herself assisting on investigations to locate the missing. Her abilities allowed her to view people’s memories. Her psychic flashes provided clues to where the lost could be located, and she shared this information with the police. Jared was a detective in their hometown of Franklin and had sought her help on an abduction case. Although they initially fought their attraction to one another, they ended up dating. Things had been wonderful, until she started spending time with Declan.
“Kate.” Jared sighed and ran his hand through his black hair. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I think taking you to my family’s for a major holiday would give everyone the wrong idea.” She knew what he really meant: It would give her the wrong idea. It took Kate a second too long to hide her disappointment. “Kate, I’m sorry. It would just be too awkward to spend the weekend away together.”
“It’s fine,” she managed to croak out.
“But I feel horrible if you’re going to be alone…”
No way did she want a guilt invite. Her wish was to have Jared want her because of her, not because he had some sort of ridiculous sense of duty toward her. This was why she had yet to tell him about the premonition she had after he had left her.
The day Jared broke up with her, Kate experienced her first psychic vision of the future. In the two and a half years since she’d woken up from a coma with psychic powers, her flashes were always of events that had already transpired. She would slip into someone else’s head and see a memory of something in the past.
Until she met Declan, Kate had little control over these visions. They would come to her randomly, typically while she slept. But it was Declan who helped her gain more power over whose head she would see into. Instead of waiting until she slept, she could now bring about a vision by coaxing herself into a meditative state.
Then Fate decided to give her the finger and sent her a vision o
She plastered on a bright smile. “No worries, Jared. Julie invited me over for dinner, so I’ll just head there.” She was a terrible liar and she assumed the evidence was clear on her face. Her best friend was spending the holiday with her boyfriend Gage at a bed and breakfast in upstate New York.
She rose from the couch and walked over to where he stood. “Well … have a nice trip,” she said, and she gave him an awkward pat on the back.
Jared caught her arm and pulled her close to him. She relaxed into his embrace and pressed her ear against the hard planes of his chest. His voice sounded muffled as he spoke. “Have a good holiday. I promise I’ll call you when I get back.”
“Okay … bye,” she said quickly, and she grabbed her purse and bolted for the door.
She sighed as she climbed down the stairs of the apartment building and made her way to her ancient Toyota, lamenting the fact that she was probably going to die alone. Jared had been hers. Things couldn’t have been going better. Then, she went and screwed it all up by kissing one of the biggest players she’d ever met. If the future she’d seen for herself was really predestined, she’d wanted to at least spend her last days alive with the guy she was head over heels for. Instead, now she would be in her own personal hell, trying to make it through each day with only her regrets for company.
As if her thoughts had sent out a beacon, her phone rang, and Declan’s name on the caller ID. She picked up the phone and said, “Don’t you ever leave me alone?”
“Babe, did you have a vision of me naked again?” he joked. “I told you we could make arrangements for you to see the live version.”
“Don’t start, Dec,” she growled. “I’m not having the best day.”
“What’s going on?”
“Jared’s not going to forgive me.” Kate sighed. “It’s been weeks and he keeps putting up this wall.”
“Do you want me to talk to him? It’s not like we went too far. I didn’t even get into your pants.”
Oh god, she thought. “Promise me that under no circumstances will you ever call Jared,” she demanded.
“Fine, but you’ve got to calm down. How are you ever going to be able to work again if you’re this strung out all the time?”
It was true. She hadn’t worked a case since Melanie Pirola. Melanie was a missing fitness instructor who had disappeared months ago in Pennsylvania. Kate had been too late to save her from being tortured and killed by Melanie’s deranged ex-boyfriend. Guilt gnawed at her each time she thought about the case and how she had failed Melanie.
Declan had gone to Maryland a few days ago to help the police find a child abductor, but he’d been silent on too many of the details and refused her assistance, saying her head was too messed up from Melanie’s case for her to work yet. She had tried to argue, but honestly, she knew her heart wasn’t in it. She was afraid that the same outcome would happen again and she’d be forced to again relive someone’s worst nightmare.
When she was in college, a bout of meningitis had caused her to be comatose for a week. After waking up, she had received her first vision: A boy named Matt Spencer had been taken by his father and hidden in a trailer deep within the woods. Kate had been treated like a sideshow act and had retreated from the spotlight, hiding her gift. Her fears were threatening to take over again as she shied away from getting involved in any new missing-person cases.
“I’m not just freaking out over Jared,” she admitted. “It’s also about the visions.”
She didn’t have to tell him what visions she was referring to. Declan was the only person she had confided in about the premonition that showed her untimely death. Her rationale had been that spooking her friends and family would be meaningless. They would only worry, and she was still trying to figure out ways she could prevent the vision from coming to pass. She couldn’t see her assailant in the vision and had no idea when the attack was supposed to take place. Since Declan had past premonitions himself, she’d gone to him for advice on how to handle it. However, since he was unable to stop any of his own future visions, his best advice thus far was to find a bunker somewhere and not emerge until her killer was found.
“Have you told Jared about it?” he asked.
“No,” she answered shortly, waving on a pedestrian who was waiting at a crosswalk. “I know Jared. If he thought I was in danger, I would never leave his sight. If we get back together, I have to be sure it’s for the right reasons.”
“Well then, have you thought about any suspects? Or have you had any more visions?”
“The only other time was the one I had a week after the original. All I can get from that is that someone comes to the house after my attack.” She paused and mentally pulled up a list of suspects. “The Starbucks barista was giving me the stank eye the other day when I sent back my drink because the foam didn’t taste non-fat. I doubt that warrants slaughter in one’s kitchen, though. I’m fairly likable, I don’t have any enemies.”
Declan snorted. “Likable is pushing it.” He added thoughtfully, “Maybe it’s someone from one of the cases you’ve worked. You foiled their plans and now they’re out for blood.”
She was chilled by the thought. “They’re in jail now. But I guess it’s possible for them to hire someone…”
“If not them, maybe it’s someone you know.” He paused, seeming to mull over potential murder suspects. Then he said, “How mad was Jared after you told him you kissed me? Maybe he’s the one who wants to off you.”
She was annoyed that he could be so flippant about her murder. “With that same sentiment, it could be you that wants me dead. Your thinking may be that if you can’t have me, nobody can.”
He laughed a little too hard for her liking. “Kate, I liked hooking up with you, but it was barely a blip on my radar. I’m way too good-looking to be pining over some girl.”
Stopping at a red light, she drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “Well, if it isn’t you and I’m one hundred percent certain Jared would never hurt me, who else?”
“You know what we need? A detective. Do we know anyone like that?” he asked sarcastically. “Oh right, you were dating one. It wouldn’t make any sense at all to ask him to help figure out who wants you dead.”
“Why did I even bother telling you? This isn’t helping,” she said as she pulled into her driveway. It’s not that she didn’t see Declan’s point, but she had her own skewed logic to contend with. Even though she knew it wouldn’t hurt to have Franklin’s youngest detective looking into her vision, she wanted to cement a romantic relationship with him before dragging him into it.
“Hey,” Declan said, softening his tone, “we’re going to figure this out. No one is going to kill you on my watch, I promise.”
She imagined his striking features softening. His dark brown eyes were likely apprehensive and his sensuous mouth would be set in a grim line. Declan had a hardness about him. After his mother had thrown him out on the streets, he made his own way by using his psychic powers to solve cases and collect any offered reward money. True, his shrewdness made him come off as a selfish jerk, but once in a while, a caring and gentler Declan would emerge and she would be reminded of why she continued to be friends with him.
“Thanks for the sentiment,” she told him. “Have a good holiday, and call me when you get back in town.”
When she disconnected the call, her hazel eyes did a thorough sweep of the area surrounding her house. The thought of staying alone for the next few days filled her with dread. It had been foolish to assume Jared would want her to spend time alone with him in Maine. She was putting too much pressure on him, but her desperation came from the fact that she suspected her life expectancy was growing shorter by the minute.
Clutching the mace Jared had given her, she darted to the front door. After keying in the alarm code, she breathed out a sigh of relief. Although her parents had divorced, she had convinced her father to help pay for an alarm system. Reminding him of how she was attacked in front of the home she shared with her mother was all it took for him to take care of it. Her mom was a little annoyed that Kate hadn’t consulted her about the purchase, but she understood if Kate was worried about her personal safety since the attack. Kate wished it was just paranoia and she’d never had the premonition of her death. At least her mom was used to her antics and didn’t even flinch when Kate told her that she must never again make red velvet cupcakes. She couldn’t even look at the dessert in a store without being reminded of how she’s going to be munching on one when someone breaks into her house and brutally stabs her in the kitchen.
