Page 46 of Darkness

Leary swatted his hand away. “There’s no need to check. You won’t find a pulse.”

Morrisey jumped back. “What the fuck?”

“Just call it alternative interrogation.” Leary kept his eyes trained on Farren. “We’re here to keep people out while Austen works. We only intervene if he’s not back in two minutes.”

Back?

Farren’s chest swelled a split second later. He gasped, eyes popping open. Morrisey could nearly hear his heart racing even from a few feet away.

Leary clutched Farren’s hand, either not noticing or simply not acknowledging the flinch. “Find what we need?” he asked, far more calmly than the situation called for, in Morrisey’s opinion.

Farren wiped a tear from the corner of his eye with a shaky hand. “Yes.” His voice emerged hoarse. “I told you alternative interrogation would work.”

Alternative interrogation. Holy fuck! Had Farren actually been in someone else’s mind? Could he get into Morrisey’s? Chilling tendrils of fear swept down his spine. The last thing he needed was someone snooping around in the disgusting dumpster fire serving as his brain.

Could Morrisey perform such a procedure with someone else? He’d never tried with a living person.

The entire process took five minutes, start to finish, allowing Farren time to get his bearings from whatever the fuck just happened. They restored the bed. Morrisey offered a hand. If he didn’t get this over with, allowed himself time to dwell and let his imagination run wild, he might never be able to touch Farren again.

Farren’s skin was cold, but his firm grip reassuring. His thoughts remained guarded.

“That was freaky as fuck!” Morrisey blurted, unable to apply a filter. His fingers weren’t too steady. Nor was the rest of his body.

“I’d say you adjust to the weird but don’t want to lie.” Leary took a quick peek out the door. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

Morrisey remained semi-professional until they reached the SUV, mostly by not talking and simply placing one foot before the other. I will not freak out. I will not freak out. The moment the vehicle’s doors closed, he blurted, "What in God's name happened?"

Farren slumped against the window in the front passenger seat. Morrisey sat squarely in the middle of the back seat.

Leary started the SUV and pulled out into traffic; eyes trained on the road. “Remember us telling you about possessing bodies?”

“Yes.”

“Farren temporarily occupied the patient’s body in order to see his memories.”

“He temporarily what?” Morrisey leaned to the farthest limit his seat belt allowed, taking in Leary’s stern expression and the scrunched pallor of Farren’s face. Even with Leary’s warning… No. No fucking way.

Farren spoke, voice a pained whisper, but kept his eyes closed. “It was hard because I felt his pain, his horror. He watched his wife and sister die. But I now know what happened to him. Who did this.”

“Any evidence Austen finds this way isn’t admissible in court, but with the positive ID, we can usually piece together enough to get a conviction.” Leary gave a bitter laugh. “Nothing like confronting a suspect, describing every blow, every word, to get a confession. Or at least trip them up.”

“There were three of them,” Farren murmured. “All travelers. Only one was injured to the point where a new body was necessary. We can play them off each other if we have to or follow one to see where they go.”

“What do you mean?” The lyrics to Golden Earring’s Twilight Zone started playing in Morrisey’s head.

Farren opened his mouth, but Leary answered instead. “With enough detail, we can convince the suspects the others turned on them. Messy business for a while, quite painful for Austen, but we get results.”

Farren added, “They were criminals, even in their own realm, so don’t expect too much. Our priority is to make sure they don’t escape to a new host before we can take them into custody.”

Damn. What if all murder victims could give testimony? “Some old cases come to mind. I’m pretty sure of the murderer but couldn’t prove guilt. Could Farren have helped?” Morrisey would find out later how Farren managed. His skills must resemble Morrisey’s, yet far stronger.

Leary briefly stopped for a red light and glanced back at Morrisey. “Possibly. But the victim has to still be alive or recently deceased. Once the body shuts down, there’s nothing we can do.”

"And it's pretty fucking horrible trying, trust me." Farren finally peered into the back seat with bloodshot eyes. For a beautiful man like him to look like hell, the experience must have been bad. “I can’t see everything, but I can see a lot, experience their fear and many negative emotions.”

What if Farren had reached any of the remaining victims in time? Morrisey cringed at the thought. How could Farren go through this, case after case, without losing his mind—or taking Will’s way out? “So, those demon things caused this.”

"Travelers, or Viators in Latin," Farren corrected, then shrugged. “But yes.”

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