“Vance, what happened? What did she say?”
And it took another ten minutes to get the whole story on the promise he didn’t tell Mom or Dad.
Daniel had agreed and regretted it every day of his life since. His mom would have wiped the floor with Jenkins’s scrawny ass, and as much as he tried to stick with Vance, there was just too many years between them to make it easy as if they had the same friends or the same classes. Then he’d left school, and Vance had to cope on his own.
Eli wasn’t his brother.
He was his partner though, at least for now.
Daniel was pretty silent as they rode up in the elevator straight to medical. He liked Doc Natalie, and she saw Eli immediately. She was smart and funny. Took no crap but had helped Gael—even bending the rules when she could—so all the team trusted her. Daniel wasn’t sure whether to stay or not. Gael was the team medic, but when Jake came in as well, he was glad he had. Talon was another few seconds behind them. “Are you okay?”
Eli flushed, visibly squirming with everyone’s attention. Doc Natalie smiled at them all. “Give me an hour, then you can have him back. Daniel, can you explain exactly what happened?”
“You two had better stay as well,” Eli mumbled to both Talon and Gael, who were heading for the door. Talon nodded and closed the door, following Gael back into the room. Daniel calmly described what he saw.
“How long was he unconscious?” Doc Natalie asked.
“Three or four minutes, no more.” Daniel paused. “Then Eli woke up like someone had shocked him.” Talon huffed. Daniel wanted to ask about his eyes, but he decided to wait until they were alone.
The doc took some bloods and other tests. “Did you eat this morning?”
Eli shook his head, but Daniel noticed the longer he was questioned, the quieter he was getting. “Your temperature, which as we’ve said before is high for a human but appears to be your baseline, is elevated even for you.” In the end Doc Natalie frowned at him. “I’d really like you to go home for the rest of the day. I’m sure one of the team can keep an eye on you,” she said and directed a speaking look to Talon.
“I can give you a ride. Sawyer’s transporting a witness,” Daniel said.
“You can all go home,” Talon said. “I’m meeting with the agents from Orlando. Their ASAC is officially giving us the case until Agent Lin is discharged at least.” Doc Natalie smiled and told Eli to wait for thirty minutes while she ran down to check on some reports her assistant Christopher was collating. She wanted to check his temperature one more time before he left. Talon was about two feet away from following her when Eli spoke just as she closed the door.
“Talon?”
Daniel’s head came up immediately at the cautious inflection in Eli’s voice.
“What is it?” Gael had obviously heard it too.
“I need to talk to you. I think I know why I passed out.” Daniel came closer to the bed. “It was the man. The one with the gloves.”
Daniel frowned. “The customer?”
“What customer?” Talon asked.
“The one we saw on the CCTV buying gum,” Eli almost whispered.
“But he’d gone,” Daniel said. “I don’t understand—”
“I felt him.” Eli shuddered.
“You felt him?” Daniel was confused.
“Is this ability new?” Gael cut in, and Daniel shut up immediately. He needed to listen. The second Gael had mentioned ability, he knew something was obviously going on he didn’t understand.
Talon leaned back against the counter, his relaxed demeanor completely different from when he’d challenged Eli earlier, and Daniel picked up on it, pulled out one of the stools from under the counter, and sat down at the side of Eli. Took a breath. Noticed Eli glancing at him and took another longer one.
Gael perched on the edge of the bed Eli was lying on. “How about you start at the beginning, buddy?”
Eli seemed to wrestle with himself for a few seconds. “I could always feel people.”
Daniel didn’t react at all.
“Like their emotions. I knew when somebody hated me, or even when they were thinking about me. Made my skin all weird, like it was tight.”
“Always or since you transformed?”
Eli seemed to consider this. “I honestly don’t know. When…when we were in the home, everything was so fucking screwed up. We were on edge like all the time. I didn’t know normal, so I wouldn’t have known if things were different.”
Daniel’s heart squeezed. Eli was describing reactions very common in abused children, hell, even abused adults. Hypervigilance. Very careful of their surroundings and their own space. Always on guard. Always waiting for a threat. He didn’t doubt Eli had suffered—was probably still suffering—PTSD.
“Then the last year or so it’s gotten a little stronger, so I kept to myself more. It was easier.” Daniel met Talon’s eyes. This was what Talon had felt as well. A “diluted” version as he had said.
Gael nodded. “Do you mean if you weren’t around people, you didn’t feel their emotions as much?”
Eli shrugged. “I guess.”
Daniel took another breath. Eli closing himself off was a protective mechanism. Mix that with his developing new ability, he was surprised the man hadn’t locked himself away in a box. Daniel studied Eli while he was looking at Talon. Was that what all this was? The surliness, being closed off, the don’t-touch-me vibes. It was the equivalent of a hedgehog curling itself into a ball, and he wondered if Eli let anyone get past his defenses. It didn’t look like it.
“And this morning was different?” Talon asked.
“It was totally different.”
“Because the man wasn’t there,” Gael said.
“Yeah, but it hurt. I got this intense pain in my head.” Daniel went over Eli’s reactions. Eli asking if he could buy—
“It was the gum.”
They all looked at him. “What?” Talon said.
“We watched the CCTV. The guy picked up two packets of gum, then put them back. You reacted just as you touched the same place.”
Eli nodded. “I could feel him. Feel what he was thinking. He was—” Eli bit his lip. “I think he’s going to kill someone.”
Chapter Six
Eli didn’t dare look at any of them and rubbed his arms, trying to stop the shiver. He wasn’t cold exactly, but— Daniel stood abruptly and grabbed a blanket from the bottom of the bed and draped it over him.
Eli met Daniel’s eyes in surprise, and for a second Daniel paused as if realizing what he was doing. “It’s cold in here,” he mumbled and then sat back down.
“Can you describe the man? We got nothing from CCTV.” Eli wrenched his gaze from Daniel and focused on Talon with difficulty.
“He doesn’t have a beard.”
“It was a disguise?” Gael asked.
“Yes,” Eli said cautiously. That didn’t feel right either. “And he’s African American.”
“But Mark O’Dare said—”
“I know,” Eli interrupted Talon. “But he’s wrong.”