Forgiven (was Forgotten)

Well, I've had a new guy bugging me for a while and I decided to give in to his demands. Saxxon wants a strong woman and he wants her to save him from the demons who own his soul. So here you go Saxxon, a woman strong enough to take you on and take them out.

Chapter One

Kelly Roberts shook her head to clear it of the confusing images that seemed to make no sense. Focus, a child’s life depended on it.

She put the car back in gear and pulled back into traffic. She’d circle the block again. There were always limits and she always pushed them. The police dropped her from the case officially when she wasn’t able to give any more specifics. That wasn’t good enough. She had tracked this child for the past twenty-four hours and she wasn’t giving up now.

While she kept her eyes on the road and the light traffic she let her other senses relax and accept the path that was formed with the child.

She was tired and hungry and very scared. Everything was blurry and confusing through the toddler’s mind. There was no way to fix on any information the child could give.

There was only one other way to find them. Through the mind of the kidnaper.

She pulled the car out of traffic once again. Why, oh why could it never be easy? There was no other choice. This case had a bad feeling to it from the beginning. Some perception of natural and unnatural. Whatever was happening was not natural.

Ridiculous. What was natural about anything she did? Not one thing. Her own abilities had been called unnatural more than once. It changed nothing. She still had a chance, admittedly a slim chance, to save this child and she was damn sure going to try. If it was her son, she wouldn’t give up. It was Sally’s daughter and she wasn’t going to give up.

And that left getting into a sick mind. Each one was different but ever kidnaper was sick, some part of them perverse beyond saving.

She rolled her head trying to loosen her knotted neck muscles and ease the pounding headache that using her abilities always caused. Nothing would help but a long sleep that she liked to call her reboot time. That wouldn’t happen until she had little Sarah back in her mother’s arms.

She reached out for Sarah’s immature mind and strengthened the link between them. Sorting through her mind revealed a single new detail, he call her baby, nice baby. That was all the connection she needed to grasp at the presence nearby little Sarah.

There. A man. Scared, no he was terrified. He hated and he hurt. A burning, ripping agony of hurt. Images of needles. Chains. Bars. Pills. Weapons. Fighting.

None of it made sense. The images were fragmented and had little connection to thoughts or memories. A kaleidoscope with no way to focus the direction. She pulled back to her own mind.

His pain. She could follow his pain. She pulled back into traffic cutting off an sedan and taking the first right to swing into an empty lot behind an industrial building. Abandoned of course. She dug through the clutter on her passenger seat the grab her cell phone. Capt. Rook was on speed dial. He would back her up even when he doubted her.

He answered on the first ring. "Hello?"

"Rook, it’s Kelly. Listen, I’m at 32nd and Long, the empty red brick building. Get here as fast as you can."

"You found her?"

"Yes. Just get here." She snapped the phone shut, dropping it in favor of the 38 cal. pistol which she put under her denim jacket in its should holster. Good thing she wasn’t a size two. Her natural curves hid any bulge that might be seen otherwise.

She grabbed up a picture of Sarah cradled lovingly by Sally’s ample arms. She would use anything she could to get the child to safety. Playing on a kidnaper’s conscious worked sometimes. The 38 worked in others. Either way, that child was leaving here with her.

She closed the door quietly and moved toward the source of wild emotions. Though a broken door and into the empty lobby...