Hunting Shadows (Shadow Series #3) (21 page)

“No, all her family is in Florida,” Marcus answered. “I’m her boyfriend.”

“We’re her family here,” Sarah said, her voice thickening with fear. “Is she okay?”

The doctor studied us for a few moments and then finally spoke. “I’m Dr. Phelps. We
tried to revive her but she was without oxygen for t
oo long. She passed
before she got to the hos
pital. We weren’t able to resuscitate
her.”

I stared at the doctor while he continued to speak, barely hearing his explanation
of what had h
appened. I heard wails surround me
but I couldn’t process the grief of those around me. All I could think
about
was that I had failed. I had failed Jenny and because of me she was dead.

“What happened?” Marcus demanded
once the doctor walked away, his voice trembling. His voice suddenly grew louder until
he was shouting. “What the fuck happened?”

He was looking straight at me and I forced myself to spill out the lies I had agreed
upon.

“I–I had a dream,” I started shakily, trying not to let the anguish I saw in Marcus’
eyes break me. “I dreamt that Jenny was in trouble in the student pool. It seemed
so real
that
when I woke up I called her to make sure she was okay. When she didn’t answer her
phone, I got even more worried. I thought I was being irrational but I couldn’t shake
the feeling so I decided to go to the pool to check. Simon and Ryan went with me,
even though they thought I was being crazy.” I took a deep breath, apologizing to
Jenny in my mind.
I’m so sorry, Jenny,
I pleaded.
I’m sorry I didn’t save you and I’m sorry for lying about how you died.

“Then what?” Marcus rasped, his face ashen.

“It was already too late by the time we got there,” Si
mon answered for me. “She was
in the pool and not moving.”

Marcus shook his head in despair and confusion. “I don’t understand! What the hell
would she be doing in the pool in the middle of the night? It’s not even open then!”
He gripped his hands in his hair like he was trying to keep a grip on his sanity.
“And she’s a strong swimmer. How could she drown?”

He sank into a chair in the waiting room, his body wracked with sobs. Sarah had al
ready collapsed into a seat when
the doctor had told us the news and Grant was standing over her, trying to calm her
from her violent crying.

She looked up at me and
I saw the distrust and doubt on her face
. Nothing was said but both Sarah and Grant looked at us w
ith accusing eyes, condemning me along with Ryan and Simon
. But they were wrong. It was solely my fault; my responsibility. I had failed in
destroying Jenny’s vardoger with my first attempt and that had cost Jenny her life.
All the past successes, all the strength I had gained from destroying all the other
shadows seemed meaningless when I couldn’t even save the ones I cared about.

We were silent
,
although Sarah and Marcus continued to cry. I wished I could cry, to find some release,
but the guilt wouldn’t let me.

I jumped, startled
,
when I heard a voice behind me.

“Caitlin Kile?”

I turned around to see a uniformed police officer behind me. Two other police officers
were standing behind him and my heart started thudding against my ribcage.

“Yes, that’s me,” I said, but the words were barely audible. I cleared my throat and
tried again. “I’m Caitlin Kile.”

“I’m Officer Merren. You were the
one that found Jenny McAllister?
”

I nodded, watching him warily. Simon spoke up before the officer could ask another
question.

“I was there too.”

“So was I,” Ryan said.

“Can I get your names?” Officer Merren scribbled
in his notepad when they obliged
, but then he honed in on me again. “Can you tell me exactly what happened?”

“She just found out her friend died,” Simon said, his voice cold. “Do we have to do
this now?”

Officer Merren’s expression turned slightly sympathetic but his voice was still all-business.
“I’m sorry for your loss. We’ll just
quickly
go over what happened
,
but I
’ll
need you to come down to the station in the morning to go over details.” He looked
at Simon and Ryan. “You
two as well
.”

I quickly told him what happened, ignoring how his eyebrows
rose
when I told him about the premonition. He was silent until I was done telling my story.

“And these premonitions
—
do you have them often?”

I shook my head. “No, this was the first one. But it seemed so real that I felt like
I
had to make sure it wasn’t true
. I have no idea how I was able to see in my dream what happened to Jenny.”

This all felt so familiar. I remembered lying to the police about Claudia’s death,
not being able to tell them that she had been overtaken by her vardoger and Simon
had killed her to save me. Once again I was fabricating a story. I was starting to
feel like my whole life was a fabrication.

I was relieved when Officer Merren seemed satisfied with my answers
,
although he once again
reminded me that I needed to come
to the police station in the morning. The officer had pulled us away to a corner
of the waiting room and we walked back over to
Marcus, Sarah and Grant
when we were done
. Marcus was just hanging up his cell phone when we approached.

“I told her parents,” he said wearily. “They’re flying up from Florida. Obviously
they’re devastated. I
think her mother collapsed
from the shock.”

We were all silent for a while as we just stared at each other.

“Let’s go home,” Simon
finally
said. “There’s nothing else to be done here.”

Simon was right. The doctor hadn’t even let us see Jenny one last time since we weren’t
family.
I didn’t speak on the drive home and just stared out the window. I felt bitter as
I watched morning arrive, the sun seeming to mock me with its bright cheerful
ness
.
Failure,
it taunted.
You’re a failure and that’s why Jenny’s dead. Because of you.

Sarah didn’t follow Grant back to his apartment and instead walked up the stairs.
I had a feeling the only reason Grant was
n’t
coming up to our apartment to question me was because he didn’t want to leave Marcus
alone.

I sat on the recliner heavily once we entered, waiting for the questions. Simon’s
presence next to me, as he leaned into me, normally would have been comforting but
nothing could make me feel better today.

Ryan leaned against the wall nearby as Sarah sat down on the couch opposite me.

“Tell me what happened,” she said, staring straight at me. Her voice
turned
steel
y
. “The truth.”

My voice was quiet and steady as I told her everything that had happened. She started
crying again during my explanation but she didn’t interrupt. She took a long shuddering
breath once I was finished.

“What went wrong?” she asked, her voice choked with emotion. “Why didn’t it work?
If you destroyed her vardoger, she should have been saved.”

I felt powerless and just as confused as Sarah.
“I don’t know. Maybe
it was
because I wasn’t able to destroy her vardo
ger on
my first try.”

Ryan spoke up. “Most likely Jenny’s soul was on the cusp of leaving her body. She
was on the edge of death,
the moment
when
normally
the vardoger would slip in and take over. But it was too busy attacking Caitlin so
Jenny just ended up
dying. I knew it was too late by the time we got her out of the pool.”

I remembered how Ryan had given her mouth-to-mouth, not letting up until the ambulance
had
arrived. He had tried so hard to revive her, even when he knew it was too late. It
spoke volumes about his character.

“Another question is, why were we thrown back
when we tried to grab Jenny the first time
?” Simon asked. “I felt like I was electrocuted.”

“I felt the same thing,” Ryan said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before.
I don’t have an explanation.”

No one said anything for a while until Sarah finally spoke again. She shook her head,
her face red and splotchy from crying. “I can’t believe she’s gone. It just doesn’t
seem real.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I should have been able to save her.”

Simon’s hand on my shoulder tightened. “You did everything you could.
This wasn’t a normal situation. Something was different.”

“He’s right,” Ryan said, his face hard. “This was no normal vardoger. There’s no way
an ordinary vardoger would have
been able to survive
your first blast of power. Something else is at play here.”

My mind immediately went to one place. “Do you think my father’s involved somehow?”

Ryan’s expression was grim. “I don’t know, but it
’s not a far leap to think
he had something to do with this.”

“That’s it,” I said fiercely. I welcomed the anger that pushed my guilt aside. “I
can’t
just wai
t around for my father anymore.
I need to find him and put a stop to this.”

I was surprised when Simon agreed with me. “You’re right. We’ve been playing his game
for too long. It’s time for us to take the offensive.”

I looked at Ryan to see what he thought. He nodded grimly. “You’re strong enough for
your father now. It’s time.”

Even though my mind was full of purpose and deter
mination, I knew I had to settle things with the police first. I didn’t need them
chasing after me as a possible suspect.

We went to the police station early in the morning, just a few hours after we had
arrived home
from the hospital
. Simon, Ryan and I were questioned separately and it seemed to take forever. I was
insulte
d by some of the questions they
asked, such as whether Jenny and I had any
conflicts
,
like dating the same g
uy, but I answered all of them. I was
desperate to get it over with. The police officer asked about my premonition a dozen
times, each in a different way, but I stuck to my story. Hours later, we returned
home exhausted but the police seemed satisfied and said we didn’t have to come back
for any further questioning.

“The campus is going crazy,” Sarah said when we got back. “Everyone is shocked about
Jenny’s death.” Her expression turned pained. “Rumors are flying about how it happened.
Some people are saying it was suicide while others are saying it was murder.”

It was all over the news and I was dismayed that I was featured in
all the stories as the one who
found Jenny. Many of the news channels
linked it up with the
incident of me killing Claudia in self-defense and speculation seemed to be running
amok about my involvement in Jenny’s death. Not only did I hold myself responsible
for her de
ath, but it seemed
as if
the media did
as well
,
although in a totally different way.
Fortunately, the police had deemed it an accidental drowning and they kept my premonition
under wraps, but that didn’t
stop the news shows from reporting
the police findings with skepticism.

Simon turned off the TV angrily. “We’ve seen enough of this crap.”

“I need to get out of here,” I said quietly. “I have a feeling that the reporters
are going to descend upon me soon. Either that, or a mob is going to come for my head.”

“It’s because no one knows the truth,” Simon said grimly. “If everyone knew what was
really going on, they’d
lock themselves
in their houses in fear.”

“What are you going to do now?” Sarah asked.

“First
,
I’m going to call
Marie
,” I said. “I just hope she’s found another seer who can help us. At this point, we
can’t afford the luxury of waiting until we can find one that we can trust. I’m willing
to take a risk at this point.”

Simon looked unhappy with my answer
but he didn’t object
. Ryan was expressionless and Sarah lo
oked worried, but I ignored all
of them as I dialed
Marie
’s number.