Page 2 of Stay with Me

A yawn pushed up and escaped before she could smother it. The digital clock on the wall read 1108 hours. Only an hour until kickboxing during her lunch hour. She’d missed too many of her kickboxing classes lately too. But not today. Hopefully, the rigorous training would wake her up.

“Coffee’s fresh.” Isaac cocked his head toward a simple coffee maker on the counter, the carafe filled halfway.

She crossed to it and poured the thick sludge into a ceramic mug that said:Don’t talk to me until this cup is empty. Isaac had always made brew strong enough to wake the dead. She lifted the cup and blew on it while inhaling the aroma. In the mirrorlike glass partition in front of her, her reflection stared back. Straight brown hair smoothed into a perfect ponytail, a heart-shaped face with high cheekbones, wide green eyes framed by naturally long lashes, and her mouth set into a serious line.

Her form-fitting white shirt under her jacket and her black jeans revealed the muscles she’d worked hard to gain. She mightbe petite in size, but she could deadlift 120 kilograms and squat 80.

She’d honed her body just as she had her reputation. If only she could motivate Dawson to do even a fraction of her workout. But her brother refused to budge from the flat he shared with one of his war buddies.

Stifling a sigh, she took a sip of coffee. As she swallowed, a glint in the reflective glass caught her eye. Shelves of medical supplies lined the opposite wall—with syringes, needles, beakers, flasks, and tubes filled with chemicals she couldn’t begin to name. All of it stuff Dr. Lionel had left behind when he’d fled.

She’d been through it all already. Another investigator had cataloged each piece. But the refraction wasn’t coming from the shelves. It was coming from a niche in the wall someone had bricked in to transform the old dungeon into a useable room.

She spun and located the spot again—a place where the caulking between bricks had fallen away. Without taking her gaze from her discovery, she set down her coffee and crossed the room. She probed her fingers into the hole and extracted a slender glass tube.

As she turned it over and examined it, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. From what she could tell, it was another test tube like the others already on the shelf. Same shape. Same size. And empty.

She started to place it into a holder but halted.

Something had to be different about this test tube. Otherwise, why would someone tuck it into the wall?

She twisted it around, studying it more carefully. Unlike the others, the plastic stopper was shoved down tighter. What other reason would anyone have for pushing it in unless they were trying to contain a substance and prevent leakage?

Did that mean something was still inside?

She held it up toward the light. Was there a droplet? Or was the spot just another glint of light?

Her heart landed a sidekick against her ribs. Was this the remains of holy water? The coveted medicine that could cure any disease?

Such water had been bottled and sold in medieval times, particularly to pilgrims who visited shrines, like those at Canterbury Cathedral. Some believed the water was mixed with the blood of saints, which brought about healings. Others attributed the water’s healing to God’s supernatural intervention. Most recently she’d learned of a theory that traced the water back to the Garden of Eden.

Of course, the majority of people considered the stories of healings to be nothing but fables. But not her. If she’d ever doubted the age-old tales about holy water causing miracles, she no longer did. She’d witnessed firsthand the healing properties. And she’d also witnessed the strife, greed, and violence associated with pursuing it.

The powerful drug was exactly what Dr. Lionel had been attempting to get his hands on in order to learn how to replicate and sell it. No doubt if he could figure out how to create it, he’d become one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. And no doubt he intended to keep searching for it, doing whatever he had to—including committing more crimes—until he located it. Which was why she needed to find him... before he hurt someone else.

She plucked at the stopper.

If it had remnants of holy water inside, maybe one of Lionel’s workers was hoping to save it for someone who was sick. Perhaps adding to it until they had enough.

Dr. Lionel wouldn’t have any motivation to hide a stray tube. But maybe his assistant, Jasper, had done so in an effort to collect enough to save his dad suffering from a debilitatingdisease. Jasper was already in prison. He hadn’t made it too far from the castle before a pair of constables had caught up to him in the woods nearby. She could visit him soon and ask him about the test tube.

Or she could test it herself.

With a final tug, the stopper came loose. She peered inside. The amount was less than a teardrop. It wouldn’t go far. But would it be enough to heal someone? Someone like Dawson?

Her heart gave another kick, this time a powerful roundhouse. Could it heal his partial blindness?

Ever since the accident in Afghanistan, he hadn’t been the same. It was almost as if when he lost his sight, he’d also lost his will to live. Getting back his vision would be the miracle he needed. Maybe it would motivate him to do something with his life.

She cast a glance toward Isaac, still focused on the monitor and his complex programming.

No one would have to know she found it. She could sneak it out to Dawson.

But as she studied the miniscule droplet at the bottom again, her mind spun with the implications. And the truth. The droplet wasn’t sufficient to work healing. If so, Jasper—or whoever had hidden it—would have taken it.

She’d learned enough about the holy water to know that approximately a tablespoon was required to initiate a miracle. She also knew there wasn’t a tablespoon of holy water to be found anywhere in the castle. She’d searched every millimeter of the estate for herself and had only discovered one bottle in an ancient cabinet in the great hall. She’d given it to Harrison right away, hadn’t contemplated keeping it.

But this?

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