Blood Sins

amount of energy during the dying processespecially a terrifying or agonizing traumatic death. Believe me, I know.'

'Are you saying he's killing in order to feed?'

'I'm saying it's possible. It could explain those inexplicable deaths. And it's that possibility, that suspicion, that brought us here.'

'Doesn't the FBI have to wait to be invited?'

'In a conventional homicide investigation, sure. We're very careful to respect state and local jurisdictions. But for some crimes, FBI involvement is automaticand that includes a serial killer who's crossed state lines in his rampage.'

'But didn't that part of the official investigation end in Venture? I thought there was no solid proof linking Reverend Samuel with that killer.'

'The evidence was tentative,' Hollis admitted.

'Meaning it was gained through psychic abilities?'

'Let's just say we have more than one reason to keep a low profile here in Grace.'

'I see. And we have no hard evidence linking the reverend to the bodies pulled out of that river either.'

'Tessa'

'Do we?'

After a long moment, Hollis said, 'No. We don't. We have no hard evidence against him at all.'

Chapter Eight

'UP EARLY?' Bailey asked as she walked into the room. 'Or up late?'

Bishop looked at her, frowned for an instant, then replied, 'I'll catch a nap later.'

'Up late, then.' She shook her head. 'You'll be no good to us if you don't get some rest. This thing could go on for weeks, even months.'

'No. It couldn't. It won't.'

Rather than take a chair, Bailey perched on the conference table, crossing her ankles and swinging her feet idly. She was, by nature, a very serene woman, not easily rattled and very patient. As the SCU's strongest guardian, she tended to take a less active role than most of the other agents in ongoing investigations, spending much of her time on the clock sitting at bedsides or otherwise sticking close to someone under threat of attack. And not an attack using conventional weapons.

Looking at her, Bishop thought, as he so often had, that she didn't wear her toughness on the outside where ordinary eyes could see it. She was unexpectedly fragile-looking, a tall, slender brunette with large dark eyes so calm and deep they were almost hypnotic. Perhaps her serenity came from a thorough understanding of human nature; like most of the guardians in the unit, she was a trained counselor and, in fact, held a doctorate in psychology.

She didn't look tough.

She was.

Her particular psychic talents hadn't been something he expected to need, back in the beginning. But it wasn't long before he realized how valuable a psychic able to shield others could be. It wasn't long before he saw the need for one.

'Penny,' Bailey offered.

'For my thoughts?' Bishop shook his head. 'Don't waste your money.'

'So you're still grappling, then? Still trying to figure out how Samuel is doing it?'

'That isn't the question that worries me.'

'What his limits are.'

Bishop nodded. 'Do you know what the lead in today's Grace Gazette is going to be? It's already posted online. The town council met and considered a minute raise in property taxes.' He paused, then added, 'The corpse found in the river yesterday barely rated a mention on the back page.'

'Well, with the owner and editor being church members, to say nothing of at least one reporter'

'I honestly wish I believed that's all it is,' Bishop said.

'That Samuel's influence extends outside the Compound only through his followers. But it's more than that. The whole town feels wrong, and virtually every one of us has been aware of it and has commented on it. The place is off somehow. Placid. Incurious. Hollis asked me, rather jokingly, if we'd tested the water.'

'Which we did. And found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.' It was Bailey's turn to frown. 'Whatever it is, however Samuel is doing it, not everybody seems to be affected. Chief Cavenaugh is about as far from incurious as you can get. And there are a few others I encountered during a stroll through the town. I haven't met Cavenaugh yet, but I can tell you that the others who seemed more alert or anxious all had one thing in common.'

'Which is?'

'Their own kind of energy. Not psychic, unless they're latents; I wouldn't necessarily pick up on that. But I could definitely sense shields of one kind or another.'

Brooding, Bishop said, 'Nonpsychics build shields all the time. To protect themselves. Mentally, emotionally, even physically. It's more common than not.'

Bailey nodded. 'Especially in small towns, where your business tends to be everybody else's.'

'Were the shielded ones church members?'

She pursed her lips. 'Don't think so, but I didn't exactly have a list to go by. Just from appearances no. They didn't have that scrubbed and placid look about them.'

'So the shielded ones tend to not be church members. And seemingly aren't affected, or aren't much affected, by whatever it is affecting everybody else.'

'That could be why,' Bailey offered. 'Samuel can't get to them, can't influence them, not by psychic means and not by more conventional cultish means. But, if my casual walk through town is any indication, you're looking at only a small percentage of the town being__immune to Samuel.'

'Which,' Bishop said grimly, 'argues an enormous amount of sheer energy expended. That has to be taking a toll.'

'Worth the price, maybe, to him. It allows him to operate without worry. No stories in the newspaper or other media attention. Nobody questioning his people. Nobody bothering them.' She paused, then added, 'On the other hand, it might not be so deliberate. Those sensors we have in place now are showing an awful lot of random energy we can't really explain, and not just inside the Compound. If he's expending enough of it, leaving enough residue in the very air, it could be acting as a sort of dampening field over the whole area, including outside the Compound. Affecting anyone who's susceptible to electrical or magnetic energy.'

'Affecting us,' Bishop said. 'In unpredictable ways.'

She tilted her head slightly as she studied him. 'Adding Tessa's experience to Sarah's, plus other reports, means this isn't exactly new information.'

Answering the unspoken question, Bishop said slowly, 'I've always believed an absolute psychic would be born. Eventually. Someday. A psychic born able to control his or her abilities completely.'

'A good thing. Unless he or she is on the other team.'

'That possibility dawned as we discovered, over time, more and more psychics on the other team,' he admitted.

'Okay. Do you believe Samuel is an absolute psychic?'

'I'm afraid he might be.'

Bailey waited a moment, then probed, 'And?'

'And everything I know about profiling, all my experience, tells me that he might have been made, not born. Shaped by events in his life. Created.'

'And?' Bailey repeated.

'We're born with limitations, Bailey. All of us. Our abilities evolve and change, but they have ultimate limits,