If Jayne knew, maybe Steve did.
And maybe he knew about Brian, too. She took a deep breath. No, if Steve suspected anything, he would have reported it.
Her thoughts stuttered to a sudden halt. She'd asked Jon for some form of proof, and perhaps this was it. Evan had disappeared, just as he'd predicted. Jon was real. And dying.
She clenched her fingers against the phone and tried to remain calm. "What do you expect me to do that Steve can't?"
"Steve's restricted by the law, though he's looking...but you're the only one who can...who can help Evan. Only you."
There was an odd certainty in Jayne's voice that made Maddie frown. Maybe she wasn't the only gifted member in the family, after all. "Jayne, my gifts are decidedly unreliable and...well, dangerous." Which had to be the biggest understatement she'd ever made. "I'm willing to try, but Steve's a detective. Surely he-"
"No! Maddie, you must look for him. Please, promise me." The desperation in her sister's voice reminded Maddie of Jon. "Okay, okay. But I'll need to see his room, first." She hesitated, then added. "Does Steve know you're asking me to do this?" Jayne's silence was answer enough. Maddie closed her eyes. She'd taken to visiting Jayne and Evan when Steve wasn't home. He'd never bothered to mask his opinion of her, and lately that opinion had been openly hostile.
"Maddie, please..."
She sighed. "I'll be there in an hour."
"Thank you," Jayne whispered, and hung up.
Maddie gulped down the remains of her coffee, then turned and ran towards her bedroom. Grabbing an old canvas carryall out from under a pile of sweaters, she threw in everything she thought she might need for the next week. Maybe Jayne was right. Maybe her hated abilities were the only way to find Evan quickly. Even so, she couldn't do it alone.
Once she'd seen Jayne, she was going on down to Taurin
Bay to find the man who wasn't a ghost.
***
Maddie climbed out of the truck and studied Jayne's large, two-story home. It was barely eight-thirty in the morning, but the winter light was so bad it might as well have been early evening. Though the house was lit up like a Christmas tree, the silence that draped it was so heavy she could almost touch it. Maddie counted the windows along the top floor until she found Evan's room. From the outside at least, it showed no sign of forced entry.
She shoved her hands into her pockets and walked up the newly shovelled driveway, trying to ignore the insidious whisper in her mind telling her she should have stayed home— should have stayed safe.
Jayne opened the front door. Her eyes were puffy and red, her face suddenly old without its usual coating of makeup. Maddie stepped up onto the porch then stopped, unsure of what to do next. Jayne was usually the one in control, the one who believed any sign of emotion should be kept out of the public's curious gaze. Even as children, it had been always been Maddie who had lost her temper, Maddie who had cried, never Jayne.
"We should have taken your dream seriously," Jayne said, her gaze not quite meeting Maddie's. "But we didn't listen. Oh God, we just didn't believe..." Maddie hesitated, then stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her sister. Jayne stiffened for just a moment, then collapsed against her, sobbing softly.
"I'll find him," Maddie promised. "Somehow, I'll find him." Jayne sniffed and pulled away. "He hasn't left a note or anything. He's simply vanished."
Vanished. Just as Jon had warned. Maddie shivered. Something told her that if she was to have any hope of finding Evan, she first had to find Jon.
"I need to see the room, Jayne." If Evan had somehow drawn Jon to her, maybe there was something in the teenager's room that would link her back to Evan.
"Okay..." Jayne hesitated then stepped away from the door. "But hurry. Steve will be back at any moment."
He'd be furious to find her in the house—and would take his anger out on Jayne. Not physically, but emotionally. From what Maddie had observed, it was, in some ways, tougher to handle.
How had the two of them managed to marry men so like their father?
She clomped up the stairs, stripping off her coat as she approached Evan's room. The house was unusually warm— odd, given Steve's belief that it made better sense to put on a sweater than turn up the heat.
Nothing had changed in her nephew's room from the last time she'd seen it, three weeks before. Posters of rock bands and scantily clad woman still vied for space on the walls. His clothes were strewn all over the floor, and the football she'd given him for his last birthday still held pride of place on his overcrowded bookshelves.
And yet there was one difference—the smell. Maddie frowned as she tried to place it. It was burnt ash, mud, and a soft hint of citrus, all rolled into one. An odd and unpleasant scent that made her stomach roll.
She blinked back the sudden sting of tears. She had to find Evan. He couldn't die. He was all that stood between her and the utter loneliness of her life. Biting her lip, she walked across to the windows. White dust covered much of the frame, highlighting the fingerprints. But as Jon had warned, there was no sign at all that the windows had been forced. Both were still key-locked. She turned away. The odd smell grew stronger, became a cloud that encased her in sweetness and decay and darkness. She groped blindly for the nearby dresser. Oh God, she thought, it's happening again.
Her fingers brushed against something cool and metallic— the gold chain Evan had bought with the cash he'd received for his birthday. Maybe, just maybe, she could use it to try to control the direction of the dream. As the room spun around her, she squeezed the chain into her palm and hung on tight. For several heartbeats, darkness encased her mind. Then pinpoints of light danced through the gloom, slivers that gradually lifted the darkness. Around her, she saw the rough wooden walls of a small cabin. Two small forms lay huddled on the dusty floor, wrapped in blankets that hid their faces from sight. One of them was Evan—she could just see the gleam of his red-gold hair. The vision swirled slightly, and the shadows moved. A slender figure walked across the room, features hidden by a large coat and hood. It bent and lovingly touched the form lying beside Evan. A chill ran through Maddie. It was a woman's hand, and yet it had the claws of a panther.
"By the light of the new moon," the woman said, her sultry tones oddly tremulous. "Your youth will become my youth."