"Maybe. But when you add the fact that Gabriel shares your pain when you've been injured, I think it's pretty conclusive." O'Hearn hesitated, her gray gaze eagle-sharp.
"You might be interested to know that now that we've noted your fading, you've become solid."
"Subconscious reaction rather than conscious," Finley murmured. "Interesting."
She glanced down. Not that the lower half of her body looked any different now than it had a few minutes ago, when she'd apparently become one with the darkness. She met O'Hearn's gaze again. "If I do have walker genes that are beginning to assert themselves, then there's another possibility.
Base wise, I mean."
O'Hearn frowned. "Who?"
She glanced at Gabriel. There was sudden stillness about him that spoke of…not shock, not anger, but a weird mix that was both, and yet not. Suddenly she wished she'd never spoken.
Hell, she didn't even know who Joe was. He could be a mortal enemy of everyone in this room. She could be, for all she knew.
She swallowed to ease the sudden dryness in her throat.
"I mean that I'm in telepathic contact with another man.
Have been for months." Years. "He seems to know an awful lot about me, and he's said more than once that we're two halves of a whole."
Gabriel didn't move, didn't physically react. But his gaze burned into hers, and his tension washed through her mind.
Tension, and something else, something she couldn't define.
"Who is this man?" His voice was soft, as devoid of emotion as his face.
It was a shame she couldn't say the same about the link they seemed to have developed. She rubbed her arms. "I don't know. He tells me his name is Joe Black, but it's an alias.
There's no information on record for a Joe Black matching his description."
"Then you've met him?"
She hesitated. "Had coffee with him, in fact. He's a shapechanger. His other form is a crow."
"I see."
She had a horrible feeling crows had just made his hit list, which made no sense. Surely he should be happy that there was the possibility he wasn't her base. That there was someone else who might fill that roll. He didn't want ties of any kind.
Not with his twin and certainly not with her.
O'Hearn cleared her throat softly. "You've never mentioned this before."
She shrugged. "Never thought it was important before."
The doctor glanced at Karl. "This puts an interesting spin on things. Did the journals mention anything else about the pairings?"
Karl shook his head. "Regretfully, no. As I said, the mention of the pairing was little more than a side note."
"Well, we certainly need to find out more about Mr. Black."
"Leave that to me," Gabriel said, his voice a monotone.
O'Hearn raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. "I'd also like to perform some tests with you both. See just how strong the connection is between you."
"We also need to perform tests," Finley added, "to define your psychic talents and strengths."
She frowned as his words bought back memories of the dream. Memories of being chained to a chair while the flames licked her face and the trauma and anger it had caused. The deaths she'd caused as a result.