Last Grave (9781101593172) Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyes wide with bewilderment.
    â€œWho are you?” she asked after a moment.
    They showed her their badges.
    â€œRobin Lightfoot?” Lance asked.
    The girl nodded.
    â€œI’m Detective Garris and this is Detective Ryan. May we come in?”
    The girl moved back, her face already turning ashen. They stepped inside the house, which was just as beautifully crafted as the outside. Native American pieces accented the walls and floors. Robin closed the door and led them into the kitchen, where she turned around, leaning against the counter with her arms folded across her chest.
    â€œWhat’s this about?” she asked, voice heavy with dread and suspicion.
    Lance looked at Samantha, and she saw the pain on his face. She swallowed hard. He was a jerk a lot of the time, but no one wanted to break this kind of news to a kid.
    Samantha looked Robin in the eye. “We are sorry, Robin, but something’s happened to your mom.”
    â€œWhat?” Robin said, voice raising in a high squeak. “Is she . . . She’s not—”
    â€œShe’s dead, Robin,” Lance said, his voice quiet.
    The girl crumpled to the floor. Samantha dropped to her knees and reached out, pulling the girl close. Robin leaned her head in to Samantha’s chest and began to sob and scream. And even though she was struggling to shut out her sensory input, trying desperately not to use her powers and praying that Robin wouldn’t inadvertently use hers, she could tell the girl was not surprised.
    Usually there was that moment of shock, followed swiftly by denial, before a victim’s family truly processed what you were saying to them. Robin had understood immediately, and there had to be a reason it hadn’t come as a complete shock to her, even though the news was still devastating her.
    â€œI can’t believe they killed her!” Robin shrieked after a minute.
    â€œWho killed her?” Lance said, and Samantha realized he was on the floor next to them. His eyes were wide with sympathy but, ever the cop, he was quick to try to gather information.
    â€œThose people, the ones who sent her the letters,” Robin wailed.
    â€œWho sent her the letters?” Lance asked.
    But Robin just started crying harder. She was clinging to Samantha so fiercely that the girl’s nails were digging into her. The grief she was radiating washed over Samantha, smothering her, until all she could feel was the grief, fresh and harsh as though it were her own.
    Samantha twisted her head just enough to glimpse Lance’s face, and she could see the tears streaming down his cheeks. She would not have labeled him an empathic individual. Robin was radiating her grief, and it was so all-consuming and her powers were careening so wildly out of control that she was making them feel her emotions whether she intended to or not.
    â€œYou have to calm down,” Samantha said, dropping her voice into its lowest register and willing it to penetrate the haze surrounding Robin’s mind. It didn’t work. If anything, Robin’s grief was becoming wilder, more out of control. Next to her, Samantha heard Lance swear and slam his fist into a kitchen cabinet moments after Robin began pounding Samantha’s back with her fists. Samantha fought back her own urge to hit something.
    The girl was caught in a feedback loop of her own emotions, and she had trapped them with her. Words weren’t breaking through to her no matter how much force and persuasion Samantha put behind them. Samantha took her left hand and focused her energies on it until she had built up an electrical charge. Then she put it on Robin’s back, giving the girl a mild electrical shock.
    Robin jerked and looked up at her, tears ceasing for the moment.
    â€œYou’re going to be okay,” Samantha said, seizing the opportunity to try to reach her. “Do you understand me?”
    Robin nodded slowly. Samantha allowed energy to flow