Echoes of the Past – Bonus Edition

Zeke thought his new power was a dud. Gifted with psychometry by an ancient and magical djinn, he can see the past just by touching objects. It’s not as flashy as his Special Forces teammates’ more tactile powers, but when Zeke finds clues in seemingly insignificant objects, he realizes his gift might just be the key to solving a brutal double murder - one that shattered the life of the woman he’s been secretly admiring ever since she arrived on base.

Celine Santini is no stranger to danger. As a selkie shapeshifter, she’s fierce and graceful, both on land and in the sea. But the pain of losing her parents to a brutal and unsolved murder still haunts her. Now, working on the Top Secret military base under her grandfather’s watchful eye, she’s tried to get over her grief and move on. But when Zeke uncovers new evidence, the hunt for her parents’ killer reignites with a fiery vengeance.

Their quest for justice becomes a race against time as they confront dark forces, black magic, and a cunning female mage willing to do anything to protect her evil coven’s secrets. As danger looms, Zeke and Celine discover a bond that transcends magic and fear—a love that just might be their ultimate weapon.

But can they overcome the evil that threatens to destroy them both? Or will the shadows of the past claim them before they get a chance at happiness?

“Ready for another one?” Rick asked, eyeing Zeke closely.

“Yeah, no sweat. Ready when you are.” He might as well. He had nothing better to do this morning. Might as well prove to everyone just how stupid his gift really was.

“Okay, how about this one?”

Rick seemed to pick a plastic bag at random and opened it, shaking the contents out onto the table in front of Zeke. It was a guitar pick.

Intrigued, Zeke reached out a finger and jumped back at the blast of sound in his mind. He looked up at Rick and frowned.

“What?” Rick demanded.

“I just heard a wicked guitar solo. This thing was used in a coliseum-sized concert not too long ago,” Zeke explained. Braced for the music, he touched the edge of the small plastic object again. He listened for a moment, enjoying the experience of being at the concert in his mind, then reached for more. “The lead guitarist used it only briefly. He had a row of these taped to his mic stand and was tossing them out to the pretty girls in the crowd in front of him from time to time. Before that, the roadie got them out of a box and stuck them up on the tape. Before that, it was punched out of a plastic sheet that had been printed with the band’s logo and the guitarist’s name.” Zeke put the guitar pick back in the little plastic bag and tossed it back across the table to Rick. “Next.”

Rick pulled a gold locket out of his pocket. “I found this earlier, and though I could’ve asked around to find the owner, I knew we were going to do this today, so I thought…”

“All right.” Zeke almost sighed. This was all his gift was good for, really. They might as well put him in charge of the lost and found.

Rick laid the locket on the table, and Zeke approached cautiously. Such a personal item might have unforeseen emotions imbued into it. He touched the chain and saw immediately how Rick had found it.

“It was on the floor of the cafeteria, under the table by the door to the kitchen. You found it as you were finishing breakfast and heading here. It’s Celine’s,” Zeke said as he saw the image of the pretty blonde who worked in the kitchen of their building.

He had an image of her sitting at that very table, having taken the locket off to look at the tiny photos inside. That had been just a few hours ago. And she’d been crying. Zeke didn’t really want to share the intensely personal images in his mind. The strong shifter woman he’d come to know over the past few weeks since her arrival had a core of steel, but seeing the photos in this locket, that was clearly special to her, had made her vulnerable in a way he hadn’t expected. He delved deeper and realized immediately why.

“The locket contains photos of her parents,” he said in a casual tone. “She usually wears it, but this morning before the cafeteria opened, she took it off to look at their photos. Today is the anniversary of their deaths,” he added in a somber tone.

He wasn’t going to say more. He would not reveal her pain any more than he already had. He respected her too much to do that.

“Oh.” Rick’s mouth tightened. Every member of the unit had lost loved ones. Rick understood. “That’s rough. She seems like a nice girl.”

Zeke picked up the locket and put it in his shirt pocket. “She is. I’ll give it back to her once we’re done here.”

Zeke didn’t go into the fact that he was more than a little attracted to the pretty blonde. Any excuse to talk to her was welcome, but returning her locket was important. He knew she was in a bad place emotionally today, of all days. He’d felt the grief and sorrow that she’d felt as she’d gazed at the little photos. She would be devastated to think she’d lost her locket and that last remaining link to her parents.

He had also gleaned a bit about the tragedy that had struck her folks. They’d been murdered, and Celine had a lot of anger and guilt about it. Anger that those who’d done the deed had never been caught, and guilt about not being there when her parents had needed her. Though she probably would have died right along with them, she had a vague feeling that if only she’d been there, she might’ve been able to stop the heinous crime in some way.

Zeke realized it bothered him that those who had killed Celine’s parents hadn’t been caught and wondered if there was anything he could do to identify them. Maybe his gift might help, if he could get access to something that had been at the crime scene. Or, maybe, he could do some good, old-fashioned investigating to see if he could bring any new information to light.