And Lisette was not one of them.
Roland and Sarah eyed Lisette curiously.
Lisette looked increasingly uneasy. “All right. What I say does not leave this room.”
Both immortals nodded, then looked at him.
“You trust my word?” he asked with some surprise.
“If you repeat whatever Lisette tells us, next time we won’t drug you while you aren’t paying attention, we’ll decapitate you,” Roland warned.
Zach shrugged. “All right.” He didn’t mention that there wouldn’t be a next time. They wouldn’t be able to sneak up on him again. He was shocked that they had done it this time.
Lisette shifted. Clearly she didn’t want to talk about whatever it was that had driven her to follow Ami. “Ever since we found out that Ami was the primary target of Emrys’s mercenaries, Richart, Étienne, and I have been spending more time at David’s place. As have you two.”
Roland nodded. “Bastien breeched my home and took Sarah. I learned from that mistake and, despite my solitary nature, wanted to be there in case the mercenaries breeched David’s defenses and tried to take Ami.”
Lisette nodded. “Exactly. And often I would spend the day there, as would you two.”
They nodded expectantly.
She sighed. “My gift isn’t like Seth’s and David’s. Or rather it is, but I don’t have the control over it they do. Seth and David only hear other people’s thoughts when they wish to. Étienne and I, on the other hand, always hear other people’s thoughts unless we consciously block them.”
“That sucks,” Roland said.
“Yes, it does. And, when I sleep, I lose the ability to block others’ thoughts. So, their dreams often become mine.”
Zach began to dread where this was going.
“In all these years, I’ve come to understand that there are three kinds of dreams. The first kind is a whimsical collection or rehashing of things that happened to us or things we thought about during recent days. If you watch the movie The Birds, for instance, you might dream about birds. If you’re a student, you might dream about school. The second kind is like yours, Sarah. The dreams foretell the future or tell us something about the present that we may not know. And the third kind . . . In those dreams, we revisit the past.”
That’s what he had been afraid of. And what Seth probably hadn’t realized or he would’ve found a way to convince the telepaths they didn’t need to sleep at David’s.
“Dreams that revisit the past usually don’t reflect it precisely. There will be elements of the past there, but whatever the event was won’t just replay itself exactly as it happened. Ami’s . . .” She looked away. “Ami’s reflect her past exactly. They don’t deviate at all.”
Roland frowned. “How do you know? I thought you didn’t meet Ami until Seth brought her to North Carolina.”
“She has the same dreams over and over again and they are more detailed than any dreams I have ever been in. Only pure memory could spawn those.”
Sarah frowned. “What did you see?”
Lisette swallowed hard. Moisture welled in her eyes. “They tortured her,” she choked out. “I mean they really tortured her. They . . . dissected her . . . and experimented on her over and over again while she was conscious. She felt every incision. Every burn. Every electrical shock. And, because she heals even more swiftly than Roland, she didn’t die.”
Sarah touched a hand to her mouth, horror filling her features.
Roland’s face tightened with fury.
“Why?” Sarah whispered. “Why would they do that?”
Zach held his breath.
Lisette shook her head. “They must have found out she was a gifted one.”
Relief rushed through him.
“Seth was right to protect us all this time,” she continued. “If you saw the things they did to her . . .” She wiped her tears away impatiently. “After only two or three days, I began to fear falling asleep.”
Zach had the oddest urge to comfort her.
“I had to start sleeping at home every few days just so I could get some rest without being locked into those nightmares.” She turned her attention to Zach. “There was no way in hell I was going to let mercenaries get their hands on her again. I guess I became a little obsessed with her safety. And, even though Emrys is dead and rotting in hell, his colleagues Donald and Nelson are not. I know they should pose no further threat because Seth and David wiped their memories, but”—she shrugged and offered them all a sad smile—“I can’t seem to shake my fear for her. So I followed Ami when she would go out alone at night and saw you with her.”#p#分页标题#e#