The Twilight Before Christmas by Christine Feehan Page A

her talent, her gift, to bring him peace, to soothe him, and make him feel that his world was right again.
    After Kate spent twenty minutes sitting on the floor with the boy, Matt reached down and took the child from her arms and set him aside to play happily with his toys. “Danny can take over, Kate. Come eat the soup, then I’ll take you home. You’re exhausted.” He pulled her gently to her feet.
    Kate nodded. “I am tired. I wish I knew what was going on, though. I’ve never seen anything like this. How could all these children have the same dream? At the preschool, at first I thought maybe Haley told her dream to the others, and they all became upset because she was; but the parents said, no, the children had woken up that way. And Davy certainly didn’t have contact with any of them. I don’t like it at all.” She slipped into a booth near the window and peered out. “The fog seems to be rolling in again, Matthew.” She couldn’t keep the apprehension she felt out of her voice.
    “I noticed,” he said grimly. The bright, blinking Christmas lights and cheerful music couldn’t quite dispel the tension in the air. “Tell me more about the diaries.”
    Kate sipped at the hot tea Trudy brought her and stared out the window, avoiding his gaze. “Each generation in our family records our activities in journals, or diaries as we sometimes call them. They’re considered the history of the Drake family. The earlier journals were recorded using a language or code of symbols like the ones we saw in the mill. I could read part of what was written on the seal. Someone in my family sealed that malevolent force in there. If it was that dangerous that they decided to seal it without laying it to rest, it was because they couldn’t give it peace. And that’s very frightening.”
    “And Elle’s the only one who can read the language?”
    “Sarah knows a little, just as I do. The others have some working knowledge as well, but there’s a lot of history to go through when you don’t have a good understanding of the language. We need Elle, but I’m certain Sarah and the others will keep trying to find the proper entry and hopefully decipher it.”
    The wind whirled through the room as the door to the restaurant was thrust open and Jonas strode in, coming directly to them, his face etched with deep lines. Without asking, he slid into the booth beside Kate. “It’s Jackson, Kate. I’ve never seen him like this. I need you to come and talk to him.”
    A chill went down Matt’s spine. “What’s wrong with him?”
    At Matt’s tone, Kate looked up quickly and caught an expression passing between the two men. “What is it? Why are you both so worried?”
    There was a small, uncomfortable silence. “You know how you said Hannah was a private person and wouldn’t want people to find out what happened the other night? Jackson is the same way,” Matt said.
    Jonas sat up straight. “What doesn’t Hannah want talked about?”
    “We’re talking about Jackson,” Kate reminded him. “What’s wrong with him, and why are you both so worried?”
    The two men exchanged another long look. Jonas sighed and shrugged in resignation. “I need your help or I wouldn’t be telling you this, Kate. I expect you to keep it confidential.”
    She nodded because he had actually waited for her answer.
    “Jackson is—was—is a specialist for the Rangers.”
    There was another silence. Kate watched their eyes. They looked grave, more than a little worried. When neither was more forthcoming she took a guess. “He’s trained in things I don’t want to know about, and you don’t want to talk about. Right now he’s in a bad way and both of you are concerned for his mental well-being. And what do you mean by is—was—is?”
    “That about sums it up, Kate. Let’s go,” Jonas said.
    “Once a Ranger always a Ranger,” Matt added. “And she needs to eat her soup. Give her a few minutes.”
    “Do you have any idea what’s