"Jeanie London - Retrieval" - читать интересную книгу автора (London Jeanie)

RETRIEVAL 41

working beside Nina for centuries, risking their eternities with every shift.
Nobility-a quality he demanded of his operatives.
Nina had taken her special ability and channeled it into a crusade.
Resourcefulness and initiative were two more qualities Roman considered essential in a good operative.
And the woman who would help him win this battle.
"How does Ms. de Lacy use her skill to steer these souls to the threshold?" His companions exchanged a glance, and Roman noted how Damian deferred to Gray again-as if rational explanations were Lord Westbury's exclusive domain.
"She shifts into the living world to deliver messages, resolve unfinished business, chase off temptation demons. Those sorts of things." The woman chased off demons? Roman couldn't help but smile. How could he not be impressed? She sounded like a superhero from a thriller. "I understand she can see between the reallllS. When I look around me, I see you in this realm and the living in theirs. I've been told Ms. de Lacy can see both interact." "She can, but it's m()re than that." Gray turned to face him. "Nina sees souls. She possessed the ability even when she was alive. She sees the things the rest of us don't." "Sees what specifically?" "We possess free will, Mr. Barrymore. Nina has always called that humanity's blessing and curse. We make choices over our lifetimes that can lead us closer to our salvation or farther away. It's in constant motion, an ebb and flow." "Until death."


42 JEANIE LONDON

Gray shook his head. "If we go on to our eternities. But those of us who linger are still making those choices--"
''And Ms. de Lacy can still see how those choices impact us." Roman digested this new piece of information, amazed by the implications. A superhero, indeed.
"So she can not only see between the realms, but-" "Whether a soul is good or evil," Gray confirmed.
A very formidable weapon wielded by a woman who struck Roman as equally formidable. "And you both assist her work?"
"Yes." Then Gray added, "Every situation is different, of course. But we help how we can. Sometimes things even work out."
"Meaning sometimes they don't?" Roman asked.
"Not always, unfortunately."
"How do souls know Ms. de Lacy can help them?"
Damian sat up, propped his elbows on his knees and looked interested. "Souls hear about her. She's been at this a long time."
With these men beside her for the duration, risking their lives to help Nina help others. Roman could barely comprehend that sort of devotion. What would keep these men with her for so long? Belief in the work she did? Belief in the woman herself?
''Why does she do this?" he asked.
Judging by their continued silence, the question didn't appear to have an easy answer.
Roman tried again. "Steering souls to the threshold.
That's an interesting vocation for someone who might have moved on a long time ago. She obviously believes in what she's doing. You and Mr. Hart, too."
"Nina is using her gift, Mr. Barrymore," Gray finally said. "In a way she didn't in life."

RETRIEVAL

"Didn't or couldn't?"
Gray's gaze cut sharp, a physical trick that had power even in this dead realm. "You must understand that Nina wasn't like other women."
A feint, interesting. "How was she different? I can only speculate what might motivate a woman with her unique ability. How did seeing souls impact her life while she was alive?"
Gray nodded. "When Nina touched a person, she could feel the choices they made during their lifetimes and see how they would die. It wasn't pleasant."
"Everyone she touched?" Roman was intrigued.
''Except me and Damian."
"Why not you two?"
"We died with her, Mr. Barrymore. To touch our deaths would have meant touching her own."
Damian gave a wry laugh. "Of course, we had to die to figure that out." The ability to touch death.
Roman tried to imagine the effects of such an ability on a woman who lived in the early seventeen hundreds--a time of religious fanaticism and superstition. The most obvious effect would be accusations of witchcraft, social ostracism, maybe even fear of discovery.
The most discreet would be that his target was a woman who hadn't known much physical intimacy during her life, a woman who, by default, remained distanced from all but these two men.
Suddenly, Roman remembered the paintings he'd seen in the antique gallery on the day he'd died. The men flanking Nina like bodyguards. The yearning on her beautiful face.
His target was a woman who'd never really lived


44 JEANIE LONDON

when she'd been alive, which cast three centuries of lingering in the passage in an entirely new light.