Ultimate Warriors by Joy Nash, Jaide Fox, Michelle Pillow

to talk to her," Nariko snapped
angrily. "If she’s still there after all this time, what mind could she
possibly have? I mean, they medicate them, right? Between her insanity and the
drugs, she wouldn’t be able to answer questions even if they let you in to see
her."
          His lips
thinned. "I have to try. She might be the only one with the answers we
need."
           
    * * * *
           
          Depression
settled over Nariko like a thick black cloud as they left the sanitarium where
her mother had spent the last years of her life.
          Her
mother was dead! As vacillating as her feelings were about seeing her mother,
and in such a state, she had felt a terrible sense of loss the moment she was
told that her mother had died, that she’d lost the chance to get to know her
even a little.
          Despite
everything, she’d been hopeful when they’d left her apartment to drive to the
asylum. She’d allowed herself to believe that Savage was right. Her mother
wasn’t really and truly insane … certainly not to the extent that she’d
envisioned.
          After a
few moments, she shook her dark thoughts off. It was absurd, really, to grieve
over a woman she’d never even known.
          She
glanced at Dr. Savage as they reached the car. "Was that weird, or
what?"
          He
stopped, turning to look at the building they’d just left speculatively.
          Nariko
didn’t particularly like the look in his eyes.
          "If
I didn’t know better, I’d think someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make
sure you, nor anyone else, ever found out anything about yourself."
          "I
thought I was just being paranoid … I mean, I can’t actually prove that I’m her
next of kin."
          Shrugging
slightly, he got into the car. "Maybe," he said when Nariko had
settled beside him. "And maybe not."
          Nariko
frowned. "You think all of my problems are somehow connected to my
father?"
          Savage
glanced at her sharply. "It would explain a lot of things," he said
after a moment.
          Nariko
waited for him to continue. He didn’t. "What things?"
          "The
possibilities are too endless to speculate on without more information."
          Nariko
fell silent as he started the car and negotiated his way off the grounds of the
sanitarium. Instead of asking him to elaborate, since she knew he wouldn’t, she
considered what he’d said, speculating on what he’d left unsaid.
          She
supposed it was possible that things had happened to her that she just didn’t
remember and that that might be the underlying problem that was causing the
dreams. The ‘demon’ thing was just absurd, but maybe her mother had only meant
he’d seemed demonic? Or maybe he had been crazy and thought he was one?
          But she
hadn’t even been a year old when they’d put her mother away and put her in the
orphanage. Even supposing there was something to the ‘father was nuts’ theory,
how could he have made any sort of impression on her while she was so young?
And why would it come back to haunt her now?
          And,
more importantly, how could the dreams be so vivid that they affected her
physically?
          She
discovered when she emerged from her abstraction that they’d arrived at her
apartment once more. This time Savage made no attempt to get out of the car,
however.
          "You’re
going in after the records, aren’t you?"
          "Yes."
          "I’m
really starting to get uneasy about all this."
          "All what?"
          She
turned to study his profile. "I just didn’t expect you to get so deeply
involved in my situation as to risk … the things you’re risking."
          To her
surprise, he smiled, albeit somewhat grimly. "As much as I’d like you to
think I’m going way beyond the call, the truth is the risks are minimal … and,
in your case, even if they weren’t, I’d still consider it worth