She shot him an irritated look. “I’d rather have you think I’m a psychic vampire than know that you’re laughing at me.”
This was not going well.
“Trust me, I’m not laughing at anything right now, least of all you,” he said.
He turned left onto the coast highway. The car’s monitors informed him that there was still no nearby traffic. That was reassuring, but he did not like knowing that for the next thirty miles, the strip of pavement along the top of the rugged cliffs was the fastest, most efficient route away from the hotel on Cape Midnight.
According to the mapping program, there were some old farm roads that led inland, but they were likely to be poorly maintained and unpredictable. It would be all too easy to discover that one was blocked by a small creek because of a washed-out bridge.
He tried to think of a way to reset the conversation. “Let’s go back to the start. How did you meet Travis Poole?”
“Before I answer any of your questions, tell me how Kelbrook and his fixer discovered that I was missing from Serenity Gardens.”
He smiled a little. “You did a very good job of organizing your escape, but of course people noticed that you were gone. Dr. Nathan Webber, for instance.”
“Yes, I know, but I’d hoped he would keep his mouth shut, sit back, and continue to collect the money Kelbrook was paying to keep me drugged and locked away from public view.”
“I think you did more than merely hope that Webber would keep quiet. You used your talent to put the idea of pretending you were still at Serenity Gardens into his dreams, didn’t you? You made him think it was his own cunning plan.”
She stiffened. “You make it sound like I’m a hypnotist. I’m not.”
“Technically, you’re a unique kind of lucid dreamer. You can not only control the scripts of your own dreams, you can use your talent to rewrite the scripts of other people’s dreams.”
“That’s a gross exaggeration,” she said quickly. “I can sometimesnudgesomeone into a slightly different script, that’s all.”
He smiled. “Back on the Old World they had a name for people like you.”
“What?” she asked warily.
“Dream spinner.”
“Oh.” She brightened. “That sounds better thanhypnotistorpsychic vampire.”
He decided this wasn’t the time to let her know that he’d been spinning a few dreams of his own about her during the past two weeks.
“It wasn’t like Webber wouldn’t have figured out eventually that keeping quiet was the only way to ensure that the money continued to flow,” she said. “I was just worried that by the time he came to his senses, it would be too late. There was a risk that, initially, when he discovered I was gone, he would panic and notify Kelbrook immediately. I thought it best to be proactive.”
“Smart move.”
His approval seemed to warm her. He realized it had probably been a long time since she had been able to let down her guard and confide in anyone.
“Webber was the only person who called me a psychic vampire to my face,” she said. “He even put it into my file.”
“I know. I read the file. How do you describe your psychic abilities?” he asked, curious.
“I think of my core talent as a sort of tuning ability. Instead of tuning crystals or amber or musical instruments, I can tune a person’s dreams.” She paused. “At least to some extent. You could say I offer a different storyline.”
“Which the person thinks came from their own dreams.”
“Yes,” she admitted.
“Do you rewrite the story using your voice?”
“In a sense. I can talk a client through a new story, but I usually let them tell me the story they want or need.”
“So they write their own scripts under your guidance.”
“Something like that.”
