Season of Strangers by Kat Martin

liked the way it mingled with Julie’s own special scent, giving her a softly feminine fragrance all her own.
    The small car hummed along. Val settled back in the seat, stretching his long legs out as best he could. Outside the window, the landscape of Beverly Hills slid past in a blur of sound and color. Automobiles of every design and hue crammed the streets to overflowing. People crowded along the sidewalks, hurrying to destinations he couldn’t begin to guess. Buildings rose up from the pavement, their storefronts shaded by bright canvas awnings, the windows glowing with vibrant signs made of… neon …yes, that was the word.
    â€œWe’re almost there,” Julie said, turning the car off Wilshire onto Oakhurst Drive. Just past Burton Way, she slowed the engine, turned, and pulled off the road, stopping in front of the heavy metal fence that enclosed the parking garage. “I found this with your clothes.”
    She held up a small square box Patrick’s memory said opened the door to the underground parking. “One of your lady friends must have come by and picked it up along with the rest of your things.”
    The woman called Anna, he recalled. A tall, slenderly built blond female who had come to see him several times in the hospital. She had kissed him, he recalled, not an unpleasant sensation, but when she had reached beneath the covers to stroke his sex, he’d nearly had a second heart attack.
    Patrick’s memory had kicked in, enlightening him on their recent acquaintance—and the fact the woman was a great deal of the reason that, aside from the part of Patrick that Val had absorbed, the living, reasoning essence of Patrick Donovan was gone.
    Still, the transformation was not as he’d expected. With each passing hour, he felt a subtle shifting, a reaching out, a melding of consciousness as new information, more of Patrick’s being was fully absorbed. He had expected to be solidly in control, less vulnerable to the thoughts Patrick once had, the emotions he had experienced.
    Instead it was if he and Patrick had merged, begun to form a third, distinctly different being. It frightened him. Made him worry what residue those changes might leave inside him.
    Fear . Val could taste it in his mouth.
    It was an emotion unknown to the people of Toril.

Six
    â€œB ut I don’t want to come out for the weekend, Julie. I’d rather stay here.”
    â€œCome on, honey,” Julie coaxed her sister over the phone, “it’s my birthday. Babs is coming for dinner on Saturday night. Owen’s in town. He’s promised he’ll stop by. We’ll have ourselves a party.”
    â€œI-I don’t know….”
    Julie rubbed her temple, trying to ignore the headache that had built behind her eyes. “Come on, Laura, please? The weather’s going to be clear. We can lie out in the cove and no one will bother us. You can tell me how your sessions with Dr. Heraldson are going.”
    â€œHe wants to hypnotize me.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œI don’t want him to, Julie.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI-I don’t know. I just don’t like the idea.”
    Julie took a steadying breath and slowly released it. “We’ll talk about it when you get here.”
    â€œIt’ll be too late by then. Tomorrow’s my appointment.”
    â€œWell…if Dr. Heraldson thinks it’s a good idea, maybe you should do it.”
    â€œI suppose so. I guess it couldn’t hurt.” A pause on the phone. “I’d forgotten it was your birthday.”
    â€œDoes that mean you’ll come?”
    â€œOf course I will.”
    â€œGreat. Can I count on seeing you Friday night? We could go out for a bite of dinner.”
    â€œI can’t, I’ve got a date. I’ll drive out Saturday afternoon.”
    A date, Julie thought, praying it wasn’t with that no-good Jimmy Osborn. Her head throbbed even harder. “I