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At the same time, Nate also shifted in his seat, and their arms brushed together.
Immediately, Laura felt it.
The same gray fog that had surrounded Chris was also all around Nate, hanging heavy around him like tendrils of mist, swathing him completely. Laura felt the room swim, feeling as though she’d driven her car right into the middle of a rolling bank of clouds.
She pulled her arm away, looking at Nate, and trying to actually see him, reading his face and body for any sign of anything that might be wrong with him.
“What’s up?” Nate asked, feeling her intense scrutiny and taking on a worried expression himself.
“I don’t know,” Laura said. “Something’s wrong.”
“With the case?”
“With you.” Laura swallowed. “I don’t know what it is – it’s new. I never felt it until this week, but the same thing happened with Chris. There’s some kind of… some kind of aura.”
“Like the aura of death again?” Nate asked, recoiling slightly. She had told him, of course, about the way she’d known she needed to save his life. The way she’d sensed death clinging to him months before it actually tried to strike.
“No,” she said quickly. “No, it’s not that. Something different. Danger, maybe?”
“I’m not sure danger is much better than death!” Nate objected, then paused. “No, actually, death was much worse. Are you seeing anything? Any clues to what I need to look out for?”
“No,” Laura said, shaking her head. “It’s like I’m stuck in fog. Everything’s just vague and cloudy. I wish I knew what it meant, but it’s brand new, and I don’t know how to interpret it yet.”
“So, I’m kind of like a guinea pig right now?” Nate asked. He made a face. “I don’t know if I like this.”
“Well, Chris is a guinea pig too, if that makes you feel any better,” Laura said, snapping a bit more than she meant to. Did Nate think she enjoyed having to give out these vague warnings? She couldn’t even tell the people she cared about what kind of danger was coming for them, or even if she was right about it being danger in the first place. She didn’t want this.
“Not much,” Nate said. “Though I guess if something terrible does happen, it sounds like it’s going to happen to him first.”
Laura stared at him.
Nate held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, I just tried to save myself with a very terrible joke and it didn’t work. I’m sorry. I know you wish you could tell us both what to watch out for. I just feel a little… unsettled, I guess.”
Laura sighed. “I guess I would, too, if someone told me I was in danger but couldn’t actually give any concrete details.”
“Are you?” Nate asked. “I mean, if Chris and I are in danger, doesn’t it follow that you are too?”
Laura bit her lip. “I have no idea,” she admitted. “And no idea how I would tell. I can’t have visions about myself. At least, not auras, anyway.”
“I guess that would be annoying,” Nate said. “Seeing something in the corner of your vision all the time.”
“It’s not even the corner,” Laura said. “It takes over everything. It’s really like the room suddenly fills with fog.”
“Do you think it’s something to do with this case?” Nate asked. “Like, maybe we’re looking into something we shouldn’t?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Laura said. “I saw the aura around Chris before the second vision, so I had no reason to carry on investigating then.”
“Alright, well, if you’re sure,” Nate said. “Look, I found a few people they have in common.”
Laura wasn’t sure about anything – and she’d managed to get wrapped up in the aura so much that she wasn’t even sure what he was talking about for a moment. Then it clicked: their two victims. A few people the victims had in common.
“Are we thinking there’s a connection with someone they both know?” Laura asked, feeling at least a flare of excitement that they might be about to find something.
“I don’t know,” Nate shrugged. “From what I’ve been able to find out, we’re talking about a few casual acquaintances they had in common. It’s not like one of them was best friends with the other’s ex-boyfriend or something close like that. More like – if two people are going out in the nightlife in the same area, sooner or later there will be a bit of overlap in the people they know.”
“Damn,” Laura muttered. “Well, at least we have some vague leads to follow if nothing else comes up.”
“Then what else do you want to look at? Did you find something with the bar?”
