Bitten by Cupid(71)

“I…saw something.” She rubbed her mouth, stunned by the image now seared into her brain. She couldn’t hear Adrian’s thoughts…but she’d just seen them. That was the only explanation. With wide eyes she backed away from him. “You’re him. Kiss and Kill Cupid. I saw…I have to go.”

He pulled her back, pinning her against the glass door. “What did you see, Kristy? You have to tell me, because I saw something, too, when we were kissing.”

The fear in his eyes was nearly as intense as what she was feeling. “I saw myself dead. The lipstick message on my body.”

He nodded. “That’s what I saw. I’m not the killer, Kristy. But you’re his next victim.” He released her and took a step back. “This is going to sound crazy. Bear with me. Sometimes I see things. Images, visions. The first time it knocked me sideways. I was fifteen. I shook hands with this man, a friend of my parents, and saw him in a hospital with tubes and wires coming out of him. He looked healthy in person. I thought, Man, did someone slip something into my drink at that party last night?

“A couple of days later I heard my parents talking about the man, saying he was in the hospital, and my mom was upset after they’d gone to visit him. You guessed it: he was hooked up to machines. He suffered another heart attack a day later and died. I was freaked out. And I couldn’t tell anyone about it. My parents, they’re open-minded, but not that open-minded. It’s happened a few times in the last eight years. Sometimes I see the person dead, no clue as to how it happened. That’s the most frustrating.” He saw the shocked expression on her face. “I know, you think I’m nuts, and you want to hightail it out of here. But for the sake of your life, you have to take me seriously.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. No, she could believe it. He’d started getting these visions at around the same age as she started hearing thoughts. That was way more coincidental than their wearing the same fragrance. “I don’t want to hightail it out of here.”

That seemed to surprise him. “Really?”

“Really. I’m just trying to get my head around it. You saw my death when we met at the coffee shop?”

“No, that was the weirdest part. I saw it after I read your article. One second I was thinking I liked your writing and maybe your style would work for the magazine, then I saw your picture and thought, Damn, and she’s beautiful, too, and then I saw you…dead.” His face paled at that. “I saw the lipstick kiss and, with all the publicity recently, I remembered how Kiss and Kill Cupid leaves that and his signature on his victims’ bodies. I had to do something. I had intended to contact you anyway, but this made it urgent. I figured I’d either send you out on assignment on Valentine’s Day or ask you out so I could protect you.”

What he’d told her hit her in several ways. He’d liked her writing before he’d seen her picture. That was good. His wanting to protect her was nice, too. “So the kiss…that was all part of your plan?”

He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “That wasn’t planned at all. I never dreamed the moment I laid eyes on you I’d be knocked flat. I’ve never felt like this with anyone. And now you think I’m nuts, and I don’t blame you if you never want to see me again, but you’ve got to let me be your bodyguard on Valentine’s Day.”

She tilted her head, still taking in everything he’d said. “I believe you. And I don’t think you’re crazy.” Something bright and shiny was growing inside her. He possessed the same kind of ability she did. She had met the only person whom she could tell the truth and not risk being called crazy. The only person who could understand.

He stared at her, dumbstruck. “Seriously? Just like that?”

She smiled. “Seriously. I know Kiss and Kill Cupid has targeted me.” And she told him about her own strange ability and what had happened at the coffee shop.

“No shi—sorry. This is incredible that we both have some kind of psychic ability. Maybe that’s why I feel so connected to you.”

She smiled. “I feel that, too.”

Now it looked as though he were trying to wrap his mind around it all. “So you can…read my thoughts?”

“Not yours. For some reason, you’re exempt.”

A car horn honked. Adrian looked over at the black Lincoln parked at the curb. “That’s the car I called for you. I want to talk more about this. I want to see you tonight.”

I want you. His earlier words still tingled through her.