Rare Find by Dale Mayer Page A

back as she could go. It was hard to tell.
     
    She could sense the panic rising inside. Not her panic. Yet it was her panic. She was terrified. Only she didn't know of what. And that made it worse.
     
    "There you are. How are you doing now, my beauty?"
     
    Tabitha frowned. Was he talking about her? Damn. She wished she could see. Was she blind? That would certainly add to the horror.
     
    "Still won't eat or drink, huh? Well, we can't have that. You're worth far too much money for me to have you be stubborn to the point of hurting yourself."
     
    She wanted to hide away from the silky insidious evilness in his voice. She wanted to. But nothing she did made the muscles react. Not to her commands. Or to her fears. She really was living inside someone else's body.
     
    His words finally penetrated her beleaguered mind. Just what did money have to with this?
     
    Then the possibilities pummelled her brain. White slave trader. Sex trader. Kidnapping. Extortion. Blackmail.
     
    Her mind spun with the horrible possibilities. This poor person. The emotions ripped through her in waves of pain and loss and revulsion.
     
    "So are you going to have a better day today?" The voice that spoke was really close. A horrible voice. And that was when she realized there was a solid dark blanket or some kind of covering over her prison.
     
    "Yah need to. We have some more traveling to do. Just a short trip from here. And you need to be in good shape when we arrive." There was a metal click. "Then you're his problem."
     
    The voice got closer, encroaching on her space, pushing against her boundaries. She backed up to the corner of her cage. The cover over her prison was pulled to one side and she heard a small pop. She fell back and there was a stinging sensation in her shoulder.
     
    She bounded to her feet, opened her mouth to scream...but...instead...out of her mouth came a horrific...roar.
     
    ***
     
    Stefan couldn't explain the compulsion to come to Tabitha's house. Tabitha herself was in the hospital in critical care. Dr. Marsden, who'd seen so much, had been shocked at her condition, telling Stefan over the phone, "I have no idea what is keeping her alive."
     
    And that's why he was here.
     
    To find answers.
     
    Stefan, Tabitha’s friend and mentor, exited his car and climbed the stairs to Tabitha's front door. She'd invested no money in outward appearances and had put everything into the animals and their protection. She'd had a decent security system, but Roman was boosting it for her. Then yesterday Stefan had beefed it up yet again. Apparently that hadn't been enough either. The contents of her house were precious in more ways than one. The energies of its inhabitants were special.
     
    He closed his eyes and waited for the energy of the house to calm. It automatically picked up the pace of its movements with the arrival of any stranger – person, animal, or thing. As Stefan stood there, the energy would eventually recognize him and his attachment to the house's energy.
     
    He let his energy soften, soothe and expand. Using an adaptation of a technique he'd learned from Shay, he thinned one layer of his aura to spread like a blanket of comfort over the interior energy of the house. Within seconds, the house energy calmed and the two energies did a dance of recognition before assimilating into one.
     
    He smiled as the door in front of him opened on its own.
     
    He stepped through to the front hall.
     
    Tripod waited a good ten feet in, his long tail sweeping a wide arc on the floor, a full throated whine wailing from his throat. Hearing Tango in the background, his voice just starting to pick up full strength, Stefan sent out a wave of comforting soothing energy to the tiger. And a greeting. He'd met the big cat many times on an energy level. It was inevitable when he spoke with Tabitha telepathically. Tango's energy was all over her. This would be the first time he met the huge cat on a physical plane.
     
    Stefan