Invasion of Justice (Shadows of Justice) (27 page)

Petra promised, smothering a smile at his ever protective nature. He'd been her only saving anchor years ago when she'd nearly lost her mind and her life during a case.

He still insisted on being close by whenever he perceived any risk to her. As close as they were, even Gideon couldn't truly grasp the working of her empathic talents, only that it could exhaust her energy or trap her mind in an abyss if she wasn't

careful
. She offered several more assurances, grateful to be so well-loved, before he agreed to go.

When the kettle whistled, she carried the tea tray in to

Katie.

"Hi." The girl was sitting up, trying to get her bearings.

"Hi back. How was your nap?"

"A lot less interrupted than the earlier ones."

"Wonderful."

"I'm fine.
Really. Dad shouldn't have wasted your time."

Petra urged a cup into Katie's hands,
then stirred a generous drop of honey into her own tea. "Why would you be a waste of my time?"

"I'm just having some nightmares. It'll pass."

"Did you tell him that?"

The look she leveled at Petra was nearly comical. She obviously didn't believe Petra knew anything about dads and daughters.

"So who are you protecting? Your dad or yourself?"

Katie stared at her cup as if the secret of life was

swirling inside. "Both maybe. It's still a waste of time. My grades are fine." She told her about English class.

"That was well done." Petra tipped more tea into Katie's cup. "But parents tend to freak out over behavior changes."

"It'll change back."

"So you have complete control of whatever's disturbing your sleep pattern."

"Yup."

"
Mmm." Katie wisely stayed quiet. "Then what's her name?"

"Who's name?"

"The girl in your nightmares." Petra waited, studying every nuance in Katie's wavering expression. After a full minute of silence she changed tactics. "What would you like me to do about your situation?"

Katie scowled. "I don't have a situation."

"You father disagrees."

Katie jumped off the couch and paced to the door, turning back with a pounding stride. "What can anyone do about it? I've read the dream books. The girl could be me–just older. Or she could represent my fear of something I don't even know I'm afraid of. Or, it could be a random short circuit my brain thinks is fun."

"Is this girl fun in your dreams?"

"No."

Petra smothered the urge to embrace Katie. The girl was still too prickly. "I can go inside your head, learn what you feel about her."

"Would it help?"

"Probably a little."

"Then I'll just tell Dad we're done here."

"Mmm."

"That really is annoying, Petra."

She winked at the exasperated girl. "That's why I do it. What I find interesting is that you heard your father's complaint when you were in deep sleep. That's quite unusual."

"Well. Can I be any more freakish?" she muttered.

Petra laughed. "Of course. Look at any one of Cleveland's friends." The observation had Katie laughing too.

Cleveland was a unique individual, a fact that had never escaped Katie or Quinn. It was one of the prime selling points when he'd asked them about becoming a family in all the legal as well as personal ways.

"I don't want to hurt him."

"He wants to help you."

"What if helping me hurts him?"

Petra felt her patience dwindling, if only because she related well to Cleveland's parental anxiety. "Tell me before I crawl in your head and pull it out for myself."

Katie's eyes went wide and her chin dropped, then she laughed, though there were plenty of nerves in the sound. "You wouldn't? Could you even do that?"

"Probably not," she admitted. "But I'm not above trying. Cleveland's my friend and the Code of Parents requires us to stick together." She leaned back, sipped her tea. "Besides, the sooner we clear up whatever this is, the sooner you feel better."

Katie looked appropriately chastised. "I think the girl is my mother," she confessed. "In my dreams I see her and she's begging for help."

"
Mmm." Petra had suspected it was someone significant.

"How do you know it's your mother?"

Katie glared. "If you don't believe me–"

"Don't put words in my mouth, young lady. There's little we know of you before you landed in Cleveland's care."

Katie returned to the couch, her head flopped back, eyes on the ceiling. "Quinn doesn't remember much and we don't have any holographs, but I remember her eyes."

Petra urged Katie to continue.

"Whenever I sleep, I see her face. But in the middle of the night she starts begging for help. It's like she's trapped and can't come to us. I can see her, feel her anxiety, but I

can't
respond."

Petra waited until Katie looked at her again. "That would be enough to keep me awake."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Well, grammar's boring no matter how much sleep you get."

Petra chuckled in agreement, feeling a bit more tension fade from Katie. "So what do you want to do about it?"

Katie wasn't sure. She had to think about the answer.

She sipped her tea, wondering if Petra had added anything that was making her want to open up like this. She immediately dismissed the paranoid notion. She was just too tired. "The nightmare pulls at me, like I should try to find her.
But how? I feel guilty that we left her. Especially if something happened so she couldn't come back to us."

As the words ran out Katie had never been so grateful for silence. Gathering her courage, she tried to explain. "See, Quinn doesn't remember as much, but Mom and Dad went out one evening and…and they just never came back. They told us to stay in the apartment."

"But you had to leave to provide for Quinn." Petra's eyes were full of sympathy Katie didn't feel she deserved.

"No…eventually we had to leave because I couldn't pay rent."

"What? The landlord threw you out?" Petra ranted on with more rhetorical questions and the furious outburst surprised Katie. Petra was always quiet, composed. She had her intense moments, but she excelled at observation and calm deduction.

"I was little, maybe I didn't get it." That only incensed Petra more. She was surely swearing, though the language was foreign to Katie. She fumbled to explain. "If we hadn't left, we'd never have met Cleveland. And it's not like our parents ever searched for us."

Petra was making a clear effort to regain her normal composure. Katie watched her regulate her breathing and felt herself matching the pace.

"But now you feel guilty because you assumed the worst of your parents."

"Guess that fits as well as anything else. I couldn't figure out what I'd done to make them leave. But that was years ago. What's causing me to dream about her now?"

"We'll get to that. So…going back…what do you want to do about how this is affecting you?"

"You think it's a message, not just a dream?"

"Either way, I think it symbolizes something you need to face." Petra took a deep breath, exhaled for so long Katie wondered how big her lungs were. "I can probably determine

if it's a nightmare or a message if you'll let me wander in your dreams." That sounded creepy. And a little bit cool. "Is that dangerous?"

"There's no real risk to either of us in something like this."

"But–"

"Forget all the horror flick dream nonsense you've heard. I'm the best, I'm real, and I promise you'll be safe."

It certainly couldn't be much worse than the trouble she'd gotten into for sleeping through school. "What if you find it's a message? Would that mean my mom's alive?"

She'd heard stories about a mother's connection to her children over long distances and through hard circumstances.

"Let's build that bridge when we get there, okay?"

Katie nodded. It wasn't as if there were lots of options.

* * *

Over dinner Katie wondered again when Petra would do her thing. She'd thought they'd start right away on this dream reading, and to be honest, the delays were making her twitchy. "Are you just
gonna dive in while I'm sleeping tonight or whatever?"

"No, honey."

Petra didn't elaborate. They were eating pizza with the best sauce Katie had ever tasted, but it was hard to enjoy it when she had to pretend everything was okay. "Hey, ah, what happens when you touch people?" Petra's eyes locked on hers and Katie felt more exposed than ever. How stupid! "The freak blunders again," she muttered by way of an apology.

"Who calls you a freak?"

"Besides Quinn?"

"Brothers don't count. I have one too, remember?"

All Katie knew of Petra's brother was that he'd disappeared during an undercover assignment. While she might fantasize about being an only child on some days, she

didn't
really want Quinn listed in the 'unaccounted for' column of her life.

She shrugged. "Classmates look at me like I'm insane because I read every assignment and I like to learn," she said, getting back to a better topic.

"How dare you," Petra mocked.

"Exactly."
But she was starting to feel a smile warm her face. "I've begged for virtual school, but Dad–Cleveland–insists on the personal interface thing."

"It's not betraying your first parents to love your current father."

"I know that. Knew that." Katie shook her head, trying to shake her thoughts into order. "Whatever. It was easier to do this when I thought they didn't want us."

"Katie," Petra soothed. "Would you let me take a look at your past, from your view?"

"Won't that hurt you?"

Petra shook her head. "I've prepared myself. Just relax and let me hold your hand."

She couldn't blame the girl for hesitating, but Katie eventually moved so Petra could sit beside her on the couch where she'd napped earlier. "This step will make traveling in your dreams easier for me," Petra said.

"Okay."

Doubt was pouring off the girl in waves, but Petra gripped Katie's hand with utter confidence and was instantly enmeshed in Katie's memories. It took a bit to sift through the newest, down to the layer she wanted: those days in the Murphy's apartment, looking after Quinn.

Through innocent eyes she took it all in, cataloguing the things Katie probably didn't know she knew. Releasing Katie's hand, she said, "I'd like you to take something to help

you sleep and then we'll finish this."

Katie
nodded, her eyes wide with questions she was clearly afraid to have answered.

It was no surprise to Petra that Katie fought off the effects of the herbal tea she'd blended to help her sleep. She watched, waiting patiently for the dream to kick in.

Petra agreed it was odd for Katie to suffer now, when things were so very settled in her life. It wasn't close to the anniversary dates of the Murphy children being abandoned or

their
first shocks of living on the street. However, it was quite possible Katie was developing a mental gift for dream communication. She was certainly the right age. The myriad effects of so many unknowns made this a particularly delicate challenge for Petra, but she looked forward to helping Katie.

Finally, the girl's eyes started twitching beneath her closed lids and a small frown puckered her brows. Bracing herself for the usual chaos of another person's dreamscape, Petra touched Katie's forehead.