Adam blinked. “Come again?”
“Come outside, okay?” He followed me out onto the porch. My boots crunched over the layer of snow covering the porch, blown in by the wind. “Before I say anything else, I need to know you’re not going to repeat a single thing to anyone, including Dee.”
“You’re starting to worry me,” he replied, crossing his arms over his PHS sweatshirt. “This is the second time you’re asking me not to talk to Dee.”
“I know, and if you don’t want to keep her in the dark, then the convo between us ends here. Nothing personal,” I told him. “But I don’t want her knowing any of this. Not yet.”
Adam eyed me for a long moment and then exhaled roughly. “Okay. I swear. I won’t say anything, but this better be good.”
Oh, he had no idea. “Kat saw Bethany at the post office.”
His mouth opened and then snapped shut. A moment passed, and he tried again. “What?”
I glanced at the closed door. “She saw her at the post office, and she’s positive it was Bethany. Kat’s seen her picture.”
He shook his head slowly as he unfolded his arms. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“Well, that’s not all.” I kept my voice low as I went on. “You know how I wondered if something had gone down between Dawson and Bethany—if he’d healed her, right?” When he nodded, I continued. “I think he did—no, I’m…I’m positive he did.” Once that was out, the rest was easy. “Dawson healed her and it changed her on a cellular level. It linked them together, bonding them.”
“Bonding them together?” Adam thrust his hand through his hair. “That sounds crazy. You know that, right? It sounds—”
“Matthew confirmed that it was possible.”
His eyes widened.
“Yeah.” I smiled, but it was without humor. “Matthew confirmed that we can heal a human to the point that it changes their DNA. They take on some of our abilities and it links us together. That means if Bethany is alive, then so is Dawson.”
“Holy…” Adam stepped back. “Dawson is alive?”
That spark of hope had turned into a seedling, and damn if it wasn’t growing. “I think so, Adam. I really think so.” I moved to the porch steps, stirring the snow. “Kat saw Bethany with Vaughn. If the DOD has her—”
“Then they have Dawson.” Adam cursed under his breath as he thrust his fingers through his hair again. “I don’t know if I should be happy or scared as hell, because if they have him and Bethany…”
“I know,” I said quietly, staring out over the still yard. “Someone had to have betrayed them. Dawson didn’t tell any of us. I think it might have been someone Bethany knew. So that’s why I want to check out her house. I don’t even know if anyone lives there now or—”
“No one lives there,” Adam said, coming to stand next to me. “We drive past it every so often on the way to school. No one has moved in since her family left.”
That was good news. Still didn’t mean we’d find anything, but it was worth trying.
“And you haven’t told Dee?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to get her hopes up if I’m just chasing a ghost, you know? It would kill her.”
“It will kill you.”
I didn’t respond.
Adam stepped off the porch. “I’m not going to say anything. Not until we have concrete proof, because you’re right, she doesn’t need to go through losing him all over again.” He paused, his eyes meeting mine. “But neither do you, Daemon. You shouldn’t have to experience this again.”
We traveled the several miles to Beth’s old house by foot, which only took us a handful of minutes. We stayed in our human forms so we didn’t freak out the locals. My face stung from the snowy wind as the renovated farmhouse came into view, perched atop a hill.
Snow crunched under our boots as we walked up the sidewalk and hit the front porch. I eyed the front door. It wasn’t just locked, but also had one of those Realtor locks on it. A closed and locked door wasn’t going to deter me. I placed my hand on the center of the door, prepared to blast it into next week.
“Hold on.” Adam stepped back. “We really don’t want to make it that obvious that we’re here.”
We didn’t?
With a quick grin, Adam backed off the porch and disappeared around the side of the house. A few moments later, I heard the click of the front door and then it opened. I arched a brow as Adam held the door open.
“Figured if we had to break something, we shouldn’t make it so obvious,” Adam said as I stepped past him, into the dark and cold house. “Plus the back door didn’t have one of those weird locks on it. Easily broken.”