“I need a shower,” he said.

“Later.”

“I’ll get your quilt dirty.”

“Is that what’s bothering you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Fine.” She opened a closet and took out a folded white sheet. She flipped it open and spread it across the bed so that it covered the quilt and the pillows. “There. I can wash the sheet later.”

He gave up and sat down on the edge of the bed. So tired. He tried again to fend off the long shadows of the abyss, but somewhere along the line he had lost the will to fight.

Because you trust her? Yes.

“Look at me, North,” Sierra said.

He glanced up and saw that she had opened the locket she wore around her neck. The mirrored crystal inside glinted in the low light. Energy whispered in the atmosphere. The crystal brightened with an eerie paranormal radiance. He did not want to look away.

He sank back onto the pillows.

“You’re going to sleep now,” she said.

The darkness took him before he could decide if he should be worried.

CHAPTER 15

The word on the street was that the rogue doctor in charge of the experimental lab at Riverview was in town and he was looking for her.

Marge was frightened, so terrified that she had not dared to spend the night in one of the shelters. Instead she had hidden in the stairwell of a parking garage. It had been cold but at least she had been out of the rain.

She hadn’t slept. She had stayed awake not just to keep watch for Delbridge Loring but to protect herself from the assholes who prowled the streets at night looking to rob and assault people like her. She had remained awake and alert for another reason, too. She needed to think; she needed a plan. Somewhere during the night she had made her decision.

At five o’clock last night she had huddled in a doorway and watched the line form outside the All Are Welcome shelter. The folks who worked there were very nice but they didn’t know about Riverview. Dr. Loring was real slick. If he came around asking about her they would probably tell him she was a regular. They’d think they were doing her a favor.

During the afternoon she had picked up the rumor that someone was searching for her. A man who claimed to be a doctor was going around to the places that provided services to street people. He told the staff he was looking for his long-lost aunt; said he had heard she was living on the streets of Seattle. He claimed he wanted to find her and take her home where she could be properly cared for. He said she was delusional because she believed she could see human auras.

Most of it was a lie, of course. She had no family. But one bit was true—she could see the energy that radiated around people.

That evening she had wanted to join the line of people waiting for the doors to open. She was hungry and it was tuna fish casserole day. The All Are Welcome staff did the best tuna fish casserole in the city.