He leaned over his table, adjusted the sidelight and got right to work.
By the time he looked up, sunlight was already streaming through one of the windows. Three hours had passed.
Stretching, Evan tried to get his body and mind to stay sharp so he could keep working. But in the end, he worried his fatigue might cause him to make a careless mistake. His work was too important, too critical for mistakes.
He stood stiffly and walked to a water cooler to fill a little paper cup and take a cooling sip. Then he headed to one of the two unused offices adjacent to the lab where he flopped exhausted onto an uncomfortable black pleather sofa stored there.
Later that day a university student had come into the lab to complete a project for a class when she was startled by the sounds of frantic screams coming from one of the offices. Terrified, she ran out of the lab and called hospital police from the first phone she could find.
By the time they arrived to investigate, all they found was a completely melted water cooler. There was no water on the ground, no burn marks, no damage to anything else. Hospital police agreed it was one of the strangest incidents they’d ever seen. Rumors began to trickle across the campus.
Not knowing where else to go, Evan wandered into the hospital’s chapel. Just as he was about to enter the small, sad room he stopped to wonder if God would strike him dead as an abomination if he set foot on holy ground.
By evening, rumors of the events in the lab spread to his own ears. They were saying the lab was horribly burned and believed haunted.
Evan knew the truth, but said nothing. Besides, they were partially correct.
The lab wasn’t burned at all, but it was haunted by a godforsaken soul—by someone who could no longer separate dreams from reality.
He knew he’d been pushing himself away from his family. He knew why he had so many sleepless nights. Why he found himself walking the dark streets alone. So many nights he tried desperately to find a place to sleep. He didn’t care about his own safety. He was afraid for the safety of others.
If he could throw light in his sleep, he could kill someone accidentally. He knew his scars were hungry for destruction, and he feared hurting the people he loved. In his efforts to do the right thing, he was pushing everyone away, until now.
Now he felt afraid of losing everyone who mattered to him.
Now, Evan realized he also feared himself.
Chapter 62 Images
“Things have changed, Roth.” Arkdone was watching the girl on his monitor as he spoke. She was lounging on her bed flipping through a magazine. The Senator switched his cell phone to his other ear, his black eyes following the outline of the girl on the screen.
“What ‘things’ could possibly make you want to revoke the arrest warrants on the Winter Clan? That all happened a few days ago, sir. The reporters are still on a feeding frenzy speculating the details.” Roth spoke through clenched teeth, trying to control his temper.
“Rein it in,” Arkdone reached out and caressed the image of the girl he had no intention of giving up.
“How do you propose I do that?” Adrian Roth was furious.
Arkdone sat back in his supple chair and gazed at her image, remembering the absolute control he felt vibrate off her as she so completely controlled his mild-mannered, thick through the middle housemaid. He felt the air around him thick with her gift and he was in awe.
To Adrian, the Senator’s silence meant one of two things: He was pissed or he was thinking about being pissed. So the spin doctor kept talking.
“Sir, I have happily helped you do everything you ever wanted. I have reveled in the devious tactics we’ve taken to get you positioned so perfectly to become our party’s leading presidential candidate,” Adrian paused to take a breath, “But sir, this could kill your credibility in the public’s eye.”
“Not if we spin it just right, Roth. Do this. Make it happen. I want your ideas about logistics by nine in the morning.”
“Yes, sir,” Adrian said, defeated.
“Can I depend on you, Roth?” Arkdone looked away from the screen he’d just adjusted so he was as zoomed in on her image as the technology would allow. “Or do I need to find someone else?”
“No, sir. I’ve got this. You can depend on me.” Roth squeezed his tired eyes shut, lifted his spectacles and pinched the bridge of his nose.