Blood Sins

abilities in some really evil and twisted bad guys who could do some scarily remarkable things psychically. Look, we haven't discovered our own limits yet. But it only makes sense that in the wrong hands, driven by the wrong intentions, at least some psychic abilities could be corrupted. Dark energy channeled in ways more powerful than anything we've experienced so far.'

'And used to kill. But why?'

'The question we desperately need answered, Tessa, especially since we have no direct evidence so far pointing to either Samuel or his church, not evidence that would stand up in court. We know precious little, but what we do know from interviewing the very few defectors we've found tells us that Samuel built himself a church because something very seriously traumatic happened to him more than twenty years ago, something so mysterious or terrifying even the defectors wouldn't or couldn't talk about it, and whatever it was, it changed him forever.'

'Problem is, we don't believe he was all that stable to begin with. It's difficult to know for certain, because the early background info we have on him is sketchy, to say the least. Can't even find a reliable birth certificate on him, though we've found half a dozen phony ones. In any case, he had a few early run-ins with the law, so he's on record as having a troubled childhood. His mother was apparently a prostitute, and not of the high-class variety.'

'I'd call that a troubled childhood,' Tessa said.

'Yeah. We can't find attendance records, so if he even went to school it was rare and sporadic. We haven't been able to find any evidence that he started fires or tortured animals or displayed other signs of a budding sociopath, but there's so little solid information on him that we can't rule anything out.'

'Except that he grew up to become a cult leader.'

'Except that,' Hollis agreed.

Tessa shook her head. 'I read up on cults and cult leaders when I got this assignment, and just the regular, run-of-the-mill leaders without psychic abilities are more than scary. The patterns of behavior they follow, the power trips and growing paranoia, the isolation, the need to dominate and control their followersand the means they use to impose that controlis all so'

'Deadly, in many cases. Certainly in this one. We know women, men, and even a few children have gone missing from that compound in the last year, all vanished without a traceand that none of them was reported missing by the church or any of its members. What we don't know is why. Why his own have been targeted, and why these people in particular.'

Tessa frowned. 'Maybe he's culling. Weeding out those of his people he can't trust.'

'That could very well be. Except that it doesn't really explain the kids, does it?'

'No. We're sure kids have gone missing?'

'We're sure. No reports to the local police, but we're sure.'

'And we're not talking about the kids Sarah got out?'

Hollis shook her head. 'No. Creepy thing is, one or both of the parents of at least two of the missing kids are still church members. Not only did they not report the kids missing, but they don't seem to miss the kids.'

'What?'

'Either they don't remember or don't care. I'm guessing it's the former. And we have no idea how that's even possible. If Samuel can affect people's memories, especially the sort as deeply rooted and emotional as the memory of a child'

She really didn't have to finish that.

Tessa drew a breath and let it out slowly, trying to fight off a chill that was seeping into her very bones. 'The missing people, kids included, weren't all psychics, I assume?'

'We have no way of knowing for certain, but as far as we've been able to determine, among the known missing and murder victims only Sarah was psychic. If he found out who and what she was, then chances are he's even stronger than we believed. Which means he's even more deadly than we believed. '

* * * *

Officially, the children of the Church of the Everlasting Sin were home-schooled. Unofficially, they were often involved in church-supervised activities throughout the day. And like the adults who had chosen this refuge from the world, the children had a unique inner life that outsiders would have found odd.

Some of the adult church members would have found it odd as well. And not a little alarming.

Because not all of the children believed.

And some of them were afraid.

'Do you think Wendy got away?' Brooke kept her voice low, audible only to the small group at the playground's covered picnic table. The group was busily collecting numerous toys left by some of the younger children now being shepherded toward the church.

'I think so.' Ruby's voice was equally low. She held open a cloth bag so that Cody could pile in all the alphabet blocks.

As he did so, he said, 'Yeah, but I don't think Sarah made it.'

Ruby and Brooke exchanged looks, and then both stared at the dark, solemn-eyed boy.

Replying to their silent question, he said simply, 'I don't feel her anymore.'

'Are you sure?' Hunter was the fourth member of the little group and the accepted leader, despite being the youngest at eleven. 'Just because we haven't seen her doesn't mean she's gone. I mean really gone. She has a shell. We've all felt it.'

'I don't even feel that now. Do you?' Cody said.

Hunter frowned, concentrating on collecting all the small plastic pieces of a miniature dairy farm. 'No. But I thought it might just be me. Because I hardly feel anything at all.'

Blinking back tears, Brooke said, 'I was going to ask Sarah if she could get me out next.'

Ruby said, 'We aren't supposed to know she got anybody out, Brooke. We aren't supposed to know she was here to snoop around.'

'I didn't tell anybody. I wouldn't have.'

Cody muttered, 'Just because you don't tell doesn't mean somebody doesn't know.'

'I was careful. I'm always careful. But it's getting harder and harder. I can't stay here anymore, I just can't. My aunt Judy lives in Texas, and she doesn't like the church. I know she'd let me live with her.'

'What about your mom and dad?' Hunter asked.

'What about them?' Brooke fixed her gaze on the crayons she was gathering into a plastic container. 'They believe in the church. They believe in Father. They're never going to leave here.'

After a moment, Cody said, 'My mom isn't so sure anymore. She's beginning to be afraid.'

'Does she know you feel that?' Ruby asked him.

'No. She pretends everything is just the same.'

'Don't tell her,' Hunter warned. 'We can't tell any of our parents. Not what we know, and not what we feel. We have to keep hiding it. Because we all know what'll happen if we don't.'

'Then what do we do?' Cody spoke more quickly, his gaze on the two adult church members coming toward them.

'We keep our mouths shut.'

'Until?'

'Until we figure out something better.'

'Like what?'

'I don't know, Cody. But I do know we're safer doing nothing until we figure out what to do.'

Ruby said, 'That's easy for you. You two aren't girls.'

'No,' Brooke agreed, also aware of the approach of two of their keepers. 'It's different for us. Once the Ceremonies begin. Once Father notices we're growing up.' Her last few words were whispered, 'Once Father starts watching us____________________'