Krimson Mind: The Krimson Cycle Vol. 1

Chapter Twenty

James found himself floating in a gray miasma of blissful unconsciousness.

"Jimmy!"

Nothing could hurt him. He, for once, was totally not connected to the world. No more shields no more having to worry if the world's thoughts were going to crush his mind. He was simply floating.

"James! I need you! Jimmy!"

It took James a second to remember who he was. He was James Stockton. Another second passed. He was a psychic. He was bonded to a thousand-year-old vampire. He had just...

"Help us!"

I was drying my hair and walking out of our bathroom. I stole a glance at James, who was still lying on the bed. He was still unconscious. Just as I was bringing the towel up to dry my hair again, I saw him twitch violently. I stood statue-still. I wasn't entire certain of what I had seen. Then he did it again. The twitching reminded me strongly of an infant's startle reflex. Something was going on, and I had to know what it was.

Without a second thought, I opened our bond and was instantly assaulted by a jumble of images and sounds. The only thing I could determine was that somebody was eyeball deep in very bad trouble and they were sinking faster than a rock in a lake.

"James, what's going on?" I mentally asked him.

"Mom and Amy are in trouble!" He whispered urgently.

"Can you stand?" I asked aloud.

"Barely, but yeah I think so." He replied as he got out of bed.

"Good. I'll get dressed and go let Max know what's going on." I told him rushing to the dresser.

James sat up slowly and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He bent over and put his head in his hands. He was still trying to communicate with his family.

"Amy! What the Hell is going on?" James asked aloud.

Because I had left my door open, I could hear what was going on inside his hands.

"They captured us! There is one man and at least two women. But I know that isn't right. I can feel the emotions of at least two others, but I haven't seen them. They are close!" Amy reported. "I'm scared Jimmy!"

"How are you and Mom?" He asked quickly. He was fighting to keep as much emotion out of his psychic voice as he could.

"Scared, but that's obvious. They haven't hurt us at all, yet." There was a long pause. Then Amy's psychic voice began to shriek "Holy shit! The man knows that we are in contact!"

"Shut it down! Shut it down now!" James ordered his sister.

Just like that, Amy was gone. There was a sudden hollow sensation like something very important was gone and not likely to return.

James stood up and looked at me. A fire, the likes of which I've once before, burned in his liquid silver eyes.

"Hurry Krimson." He urged.

Eighteen minutes passed before James's Neon pulled up in front of his mother's house. Thanks to some quick spell work, Max and I were invisible in the back seat. It was part of half-thought through plan to get James's family away from Alexioff and his whores. As soon as I told Max what I'd heard Amy report, he decided to make us invisible.

Basically, James was to distract Alexioff, while Max and I rushed in and grab his mother and his sister and run like hell. We would worry about how any witnesses would deal with seeing two women floating down the street later. Considering that Alexioff had a habit of making sure that witnesses didn't happen, we weren't so worried about it.