Mary Wine by Dream Surrender

but she forced herself to stand. pointing her eyes at her son, she raised a single finger at him.
    “what exactly are you trying to discover now?”
    “but, mom… i might never get another chance to meet one of the psychic units. they’re way exclusive and totally classified. besides, it wasn’t really hacking. dr. jasper said i could look at classified stuff now
    ‘cause i work for him.” toby shuffled his feet and shrugged his shoulders in response to his mother’s narrow look. loren knew that look all too well.
    there was a definite knack to raising a child with toby’s intelligence level. while a normal kid would experiment with simple rule testing, toby had to challenge the very boundaries of his nation.
    “tobias, i swear, i’m going to send you to an amish family for a year!
    there won’t
    be so much as a single volt of electricity for you to get your paws on, much less a computer!” loren watched as a kaleidoscope of color began swirling around her head. the more she looked at the colors the less her body hurt.
    “but, mom, these guys are really cool. you should see the file on their mother. her psychic rating is off the scale.”
    “put a cork in it, kid.” jared snarled his order and beat at the dirt that decorated his pants from their fall. loren held her hand up toward the man.
    this was a parent’s job and she’d do it.
    “toby, there’s this idea known as privacy. digging around in peoples’ personal information makes them cranky. when it’s classified information, it makes them mad.”
    “i’m not mad. but i’m going to rip your memory apart.” loren turned on her heel and faced rourke’s brother. “my son has clearance for classified information but that doesn’t mean he has a bit of sense. judgment is something that only maturity can develop. you must not be a parent or you’d understand how kids can be sometimes.”
    “i have a son.”
    36

    jared campbell issued that with pure pride. loren watched him before looking at her son. “maybe you should find out how he did it first.”
    “meaning what?” jared campbell crossed his arms over his chest exactly like
    rourke did most of the time.
    “well, if a fourteen year old can find those files, sort of makes sense to find out how
    he did it. unless you want to take the chance of someone else doing the same thing.”
    “excellent idea.”
    relief flooded her because loren wasn’t exactly sure just how she was planning on dealing with the man if he made another try for toby.
    desperation had a way of keeping a person running on adrenaline. once the threat was gone, so was that amazing little chemical.
    loren just didn’t understand it. for some reason she was completely bone-tired. her eyelids were trying to fall closed and she couldn’t let that happen. toby was all she had and she couldn’t let anything happen to him.
    where her mind might have been determined, her body wasn’t able to keep up. loren couldn’t stop the shrilling colors of that kaleidoscope as it surrounded her and turned her entire world brilliant shades of color.
    she forgot about keeping her eyelids open. they slipped closed just as her body collapsed onto the forest floor with a boneless grace that only unconsciousness could produce.
    * * * * *
    “toby.” her last thought had been of her son, and it was the first word that sprang out of her mouth when she woke up. loren flung her body upwards and tried to kick the blankets away from her legs. but they were tucked into the mattress of the bed and held against her struggles. that slight delay was plenty of time for her brain to snap to attention.
    los angeles county ran twenty-four hour shifts for its firefighters. loren had learned to jump out of her bed and leave sleep behind just like every other member of the department.
    besides, the sight that greeted her eyes was definitely worth her full attention. the wall in front of her was a huge window seat. just now, a brilliant half moon was hung
    in the