Blood Ties Read Online Free

unstable at best and out of her mind at worst.
    Until she met Quentin Hayes. And had been both educated and wholeheartedly accepted by him and the members of the SCU.
    For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel like a freak.
    “Diana?”
    She yanked her attention back to the present, saying parenthetically, “I hate it happening while I’m asleep. Very disconcerting.”
    “I can imagine. Very well, in fact.”
    “Yeah, you never really told me after our little experiment what you thought about that visit to the gray time.” It was the name she used for a place or time that seemed to be a sort of limbo between the spirit world and the world of the living.
    “It was creepy as hell. I don’t envy you the ability to go there.” Despite being a medium herself, Hollis had been completely unfamiliar with that gray and lifeless limbo, which was just one more affirmation of Bishop’s belief that every psychic was unique.
    “You never told Bishop or Miranda about it either, did you?”
    Hollis offered her a twisted smile. “I don’t have to be telepathic to know they’re both… concerned about me. Seems I’m a bit of a freak as psychics go, and they aren’t quite sure what’s going to happen to me as time goes on. Neither one has said it in so many words, but I gather the most recent tests showed that the amount of electrical activity in my brain is excessive even for psychics. Whether that turns out to be a good thing or a bad one is apparently very much in question.”
    “I wish you’d told me that before I took you into the gray time.”
    “Don’t you start worrying. I’m fine. Just… exploring my abilities, that’s all. I’d rather have some idea of what I can do before yet another deadly situation opens up, without warning, yet another door in my psychic world. Less disconcerting that way.”
    “If you say so.” Diana didn’t look especially convinced, but another glance down at the remains distracted her. “Do we flip a coin to decide who stays here with her?”
    “No need; I’ll stay. She might pay me another visit if I’m alone. Besides, you seem to have a better feeling for direction in this kind of terrain, so you’re a hell of a lot less likely to get lost. Plus, there’s Quentin. You two are connected and you usually sense him, right?”
    Diana’s expression went a bit guarded, but she said readily enough, “Usually. As a matter of fact, I’m reasonably sure he either heard the shots or felt something, because I think he’s heading this way.”
    “Well, go meet him, then, will you, please? The less time I have to spend here waiting for a spirit or a bear, the better.”
    “I hear that.” Diana turned away, adding, “Sit tight. I’ll be back with the others ASAP.”
    “I’ll be here.” Hollis was left staring down at the remains of a woman who had, assuming that spirit was hers, died far too young.
    There wasn’t a lot left of the body. Hollis knew enough to recognize that both maggots and small scavengers had consumed most of the soft tissue. There was some skin left, and quite a bit of long blond hair clung to a small patch of scalp that was still attached to the skull.
    She had beautiful teeth, straight and gleaming white.
    Must have cost a fortune at the orthodontist .
    Hollis knelt gingerly, telling herself the smell wasn’t at all overpowering as she did her best to look for evidence, for clues to how this woman died. To study the scene as she had been taught.
    The first clue surprised her, both because she had missed it until now and because it struck her as unexpectedly sloppy that the killer had left it behind: A loop of plastic bound fragile wrists together behind the victim’s back. It was the sort of binding that law-enforcement units often used these days in a big operation or when they otherwise ran out of metal handcuffs.
    It was also quite possibly the sort of plastic tie found commonly in boxes of garbage bags and in the gardening and home-improvement