Page 32 of Visions, Paws, and Claws

The guys in the experimentation building had come up with a wholenewtrick for Seth to perform.

“You had me worried, you were gone so long.” Jake stroked Seth’s hair, and the comforting touch brought tears to his eyes. He wiped them away.

“I’m okay. Well, as okay as you can be when they dish out electric shocks to make you comply with instructions.”

Jake let out a low growl. “My tiger wants out.”

Seth managed to sit up. He glanced around the sleeping block. Apart from a couple of guys at the far end, they were the only occupants. Everyone else was outside.

Seth didn’t blame them. Sunlight was infinitely preferable to the dark interior of the cabin where thirty inmates were housed with barely enough room to swing a proverbial cat.

That woke him up a little.At leastmykitty is out of this.The thought that Aric was safe was all that kept him going sometimes.

He took Jake’s hand, noting the lines around his eyes, the dark shadows under them, the perpetual air of fatigue that clung to him.

“Tell your tiger to stay put. I can cope with whatever they throw at me.” He peered at Jake. “Today was a first.” Usually he and Jake were taken to the block at the same time, both of them wired up to some machine or other.

This time Seth had been alone.

Jake huffed, pulling his hand free of Seth’s grasp. “I was there, only in another room. And they hadmedoing a few new tricks too.” He scowled. “Today is brought to you by the word ‘psychometry.’”

He frowned. “What’s that?”

“Another ‘skill’ from the list of extrasensory perception abilities. The dictionary definition would be the ability to obtain information about a person or an object by touch.” He shook his head. “They’re working their way through the goddamn list, and I’m their performing seal, except there’s no fish waiting for me when I do well.”

Seth gazed at him with renewed awe. “And how many of these ‘abilities’ do you have?”

“So far—well, as far as I’m willing to share with them—there’s telepathy, which you already know about because that’s an ability you and I share, and clairvoyance.” Jake snorted.“When I was a much younger man, ESP was frowned upon as being hokum, and telepathy was dismissed as a trick. Take psychometry as an example. Scientists claimed there was no such thing.” He snickered. “Those same scientists would have shit a brick if they’d witnessed my testing today.”

“What happened? And please, sit on the bed. That floor is hard on the knees, and you’re not getting any younger.”

As he hoped, Jake chuckled. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you never to poke the bear?”

“Sure, but they never mentioned not poking the tiger.”

Jake’s eyes gleamed. “Same result, believe me.” He got up and perched on the edge of the thin mattress. “They kept handing me different objects—a book, a robe, a pen, you name it—and asking me what I could tell them about it.”

“And?”

“I played dumb at first, claiming I couldn’t tell them a damn thing.” His scowl was back. “Except youknowwhat happens when they think you’re lying to them.”

Seth knew, all right. “So you played ball.”

“Eventually.”

“How does it work?”

Jake shrugged. “It’s as if each object has an energy of its own, and that energy is what I pick up on. For example, that robe… I knew it had belonged to an older man. Then when I concentrated, I knew more about him. The fact that he was in pain. Not to mention desperately sad.” His brows furrowed. “Yeah, that made themreallyhappy.”

Jake fell silent, but the faraway look in his eyes didn’t fool Seth for an instant.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked quietly.

“I guess I’ve never really questioned why they grabbed me in the first place. I always assumed it had something to do with their fucked-up idea of a breeding program.”

“And now?”

Jake studied his clasped hands. “Remember I told you I was taken during a trip to Italy? Well, it occurs to me that maybe my being locked up has something to do with that. I never thought about it before, but all this testing brought it back. And that worries me.” He blinked, then patted Seth’s hand. “So what new tricks did they haveyouperform?”

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