Chapter 35

Willow breathed in the night, an air of finality to it as she walked down the stairs toward the parking lot. Aaron met her at the foot of the stairs, bags still in hand and guided her to the car. Raine and Liam walked behind them, the two talking so low that Raine could not hear what Aaron was saying to Willow. Something had connected the two of them, and Raine wasn’t the only one to notice it. Liam looked at her and arched an eyebrow, causing them to share a shy smile.

As Willow spoke with Aaron, she felt those barbed wires that had bound her since finding Betha’s body slowly unwind themselves. Aaron had this way about him. When he spoke it made her believe that everything was going to be alright.

She smiled up at Aaron as he said. “I can’t stop what is happening to you, and against every fiber of my being, I can’t bring myself to understand it, but I have come to accept it as a miracle.” His gaze dropped before he continued, “Willow, I hate that it feels like I am using you. I’m not, but… ” His chest was on fire from the guilt.

Willow pulled a face, her big green eyes sad and in pain. “I don’t think that about you.”

Aaron touched her shoulder. “Without you, without any of this, good and bad, we would have no idea about Valmer, and his secret partner.”

“I feel,” Willow cleared her throat. “There is more to this story.”

Taking a deep breath he looked up to the stars. “There is more, we don’t have him just yet.” He stared back down at her. “But right now I have to save my partner. I will make sure nothing happens to you. You are safe with Liam. You need to go with him. Go to that doctor; it might be the next unexplained miracle to help you, to help us.”

She nodded, fully understanding.

Liam and Raine walked toward the black Camaro when Liam caught sight of the strange look in his brother’s eyes and called out to him. “Are you driving, or?”

Aaron backed away from the black Camaro and threw the keys at his brother.

“We both are.”

Liam caught then. “What?”

Aaron moved even farther away from the Camaro and stood by the red car parked next to it.

“What is this?” Liam asked, confused.

Aaron opened the doors to the Red Mustang. “I’m heading toward my missing partner, and you and the girls will take my car to the Doctor’s in Colorado.”

Willow swallowed hard, looking down at her fingers smudged with charcoal she said ever so softly. “Please be careful.” At the same time as Liam said, “If you think splitting up is the right thing to do right now.”

Aaron threw his gear into the backseat of the ‘borrowed’ mustang. “My instructions are clear.” He held his phone up. “Bryce has organized me a helicopter,” Aaron rubbed the back of his neck, before adding “If I can crack the audio he sent over, we should have some indication as to where Makayla is.”

Aaron nodded and said, “All you need to find that therapist guy, is in a bag on the backseat. Just type the number in that tracking software.”

Liam shot him a look.

“I’ll call you before take-off. I will fine. If you can promise me the same.”

Liam gave a silent promise with the wave of his hand.

“Now go catch us a killer,” Aaron said getting into the red shiny car.

“You too,” Liam mumbled back.

Raine tore her gaze away from Aaron, then stared at her sister as she got into the backseat of the Camaro without a word. Blame, guilt and regret buckled the space between sisters, as if driving an invisible force between them. There was nothing left to say. What was done, was done.

Turning to get into the car Liam touched Raine’s arm. “Are you sure about this? You really want to go see this doctor who might, or might not have a device that could, what exactly?”

Swallowing Raine answered, “I don’t know what this device is, by the sounds of it Doctor Vermaak said it is ultimately used on those with split personalities. So perhaps it will draw Valmer out.”

“Are you really sure.” He cocked an eyebrow.

Shrugging she countered, “We have to try. We have to stop Valmer from taking over my sister completely. I have to attempt to atone for what I’ve done, even if it’s just a little.”

Liam sighed. “And Willow,” he said, nodding in the direction of the back seat. “Do you think she’ll be okay with this? I mean, he’s taken her over before. What if something goes wrong and we lose her entirely. I’ve watched many movies...”

She gave a nostril flare before she answered him. “This is not a movie.”

“No,” he replied feeling silly.

Raine saw the look on his face and wanted to make him feel better, so she added. “I overheard that this doctor has a noble prize or two behind his methods. I guess perhaps we can find some truth in Science Fiction flicks.”

Liam’s glare flickered to Willow in the backseat before he got into the car.

“She’ll be alright,” Raine said, smiling tightly. “She’s stronger than she looks.

Inside the Camaro Raine and Liam looked over to where Willow was sat, chewing the side of her nail nervously.

“You alright, Willow?” he asked, noting how she was watching intently as his brother’s car sped off.

“Sure. I will be.”

“How are you feeling now?” he asked, causing Raine to shoot him a look of warning from the passenger seat.

Willow’s throat pulled tight. “I can’t explain it Liam, but his urges are becoming mine.” Then she smiled at him. “But I promise I won’t lose control,” she voiced, obviously having overheard her sister and him talking.

Liam nodded and threw the car into gear. “Right, well, let’s go find us that doctor and hope that he can help us work out what the hell is really going on.”

“Raine,” Liam looked to Raine who was rummaging through her purse. She looked up at him, a packet of wet wipes in her hand.

He continued. “Aaron left us a laptop in the bag behind your seat.”

Willow handed her sister the laptop. Their eyes meeting uncomfortably as Raine exchanged it for the wet wipes.

“To clean your hands and face with” Raine told her sister on noticing the confused look on Willow’s face.

Raine pulled the laptop open on her lap, caught her sister rolling her eyes in the side mirror, probably at the wet-wipes suggestion, and felt the pang furl inside of her.

Liam exited the covered parking area, taking the corner out of the structure he said to Raine, “Open the third icon on the desktop and put in the number, it will give us the doctor’s exact address.”

“How do we know he will be there?” Willow asked.

Raine’s stomach knotted as she spoke. “Doctor Vermaak assured me he will be, and he sounded keen to help you.”

Willow stared out the window. The night painted in colors of neon signs and tall street pole lights. Shadow and light playing tricks on her mind as they sped through the city. Closing her eyes she pushed back Valmer’s face trying to come through. She couldn’t let him get to her while she was still awake. She had some measure of control over her reality—she persuaded herself. The smell of wet-wipes and the cold feel of then clutched in her hand irked Willow for some unknown reason. She gasped as Valmer’s voice came through, speaking to her mind. “The Devil’s breath has been released.”

Raine’s voice pulled Willow from the edge of insanity as she was about to ask the man in her head something out loud.

“What?” Willows eyes shot open staring at her sister’s concerned features.

“Are you okay?”

She signed. “I wish you would stop asking me that.” She swallowed, regretting her agitated outburst. “I will be as soon as it’s all done.”

Raine turned in her seat, staring as the laptop before her while it did the software searched on the number she had typed in. - ‘As soon as it’s all done.’ Her sister’s words twisted inside of her. That phrase could mean so many things right now, but she hoped it meant that Valmer’s ghost would go away once they found the missing agent and discovered the copy-cat killer. But she also knew when it was all done—her life as a free woman would come to that exact same fate.