So weird, she thought, as she looked now for her first victim.
She found it within seconds. It was a busy sparrow working its way through the neighbor's tree, twittering occasionally, hopping from branch to branch, pausing briefly and cocking its little head this way and that.
Tammy tuned into it.
Or tried to.
She got nothing. Static, if anything. The same kind of static she had just gotten from the homeless guy. She wasn't sure what the static meant. Maybe she wasn't receiving the signal correctly? She focused more, and found herself squinting. A small noise came from somewhere at the back of her throat. Jesus, was that a grunt? She didn't know, and didn't really care. In fact, there was only one thing she cared about, and that was the bird sitting on a nearby branch, presently grooming its wings.
You've really gone off the deep end this time, Tam Tam, she thought. The deep end of what, she didn't know. Just another stupid saying adults had.
Deep end or not, she didn't care. It was fun exploring her gifts. It was fun, quite frankly, being her. In fact, despite all the crazy, gross and illegal things she'd heard in hundreds if not thousands of people's minds, she would still want to be herself over anyone else on the planet. Including Allison!
Her mind was drifting. She knew it. She focused again, squinting more, and, yes, there was another small grunt at the back of her throat. She didn't know why she grunted, but it seemed to clear her mind.
Focus, Tammy. Focus.
She heard... something. No, she felt something. Something powerful. Something nearby. Something, somehow, above her, too. No, around her. But that didn't make sense. She focused some more, and felt it again. Yes, definitely above her, and maybe around her too. But she was sketchy on that last part, as it didn't make sense. More than anything, she sensed patience. An eternal patience. And something else.
Possession. Not like the kind of possession Mother or Kingsley or Fang dealt with, but ownership. Whatever was above and around her felt entitled to something. Whatever that something was. And just as she pondered the sensation, Tammy knew immediately what it was. Something nearby felt entitled to her mother. Felt as if it owned her mother. It felt very strongly about this. But it was so patient. So... damn... patient.
And then she lost it, whatever it was. She tried to capture it again, but it seemed just to elude her. Whatever it was, she suspected it was still nearby.
She knew her mother had made an arrangement with her one-time guardian angel, Ishmael, to watch over the two of them; in particular, Anthony, since, supposedly, Tammy still had her own guardian angel. Tammy wasn't sure what to think about guardian angels. She never heard them or saw them or felt their presence. She probably would never have believed in them, if her own mother didn't have, like, a weirdo relationship with one. Yes, Tammy had seen the angel in her mother's memory. And Ishmael was, well beautiful. Lordy, he was handsome. Heck, if she had an angel just like Ishmael, she would sure as heck choose him over the hairy Kingsley. Then again, Kingsley was sort of hunky in his own way. And, for all she knew, he was just as strong as any angel.
Still, her mother's guardian angel was radiant. And powerful. And devoted. And obsessed. Then again, she'd never personally seen him and had never tried to tune into him, if that was even possible.
That is, until now.
It was him. She was sure of it.
How could something so beautiful and epic and old and powerful be so hung up on her mom?
Her regular old mom?
Tammy didn't know. She also knew that guys were weirdos. Like, big weirdos. Even supernatural guys. Probably even angels, too. She had seen the things guys lusted for, hungered for, and were willing to hurt and to kill for. Most of it centered around women. Or weird sex. Somehow, her mother had gotten under the angel's skin-if they had skin-and he'd been willing to give up his place in heaven for her. As in, his stature as her guardian angel. What he was now, Tammy didn't know. But hadn't she also just felt his darkness, too? His strange obsession? Yes, she had. It was there, brewing, and it didn't feel very different than the kind of darkness she felt from ordinary men she came across every day.
Tammy spent some time clearing her head. As she did so, she couldn't help but feel sorry for her mother, too. Boy, what a hornet's nest her mother had walked into-or jogged into-all those years ago. One night of jogging-and a vicious attack later-had opened up worlds not just to her mother...
But to all of them.
Some good had come from it. But also a lot of strange crap, too. Tammy, admittedly, liked some of the strange crap. No, she liked all of it. Well, maybe not the parts where people got hurt or killed. But she liked the mystery of it all. The excitement of it all. The potential of it all.
She reminded herself to focus again. And again.