"If I can."

"Once you're in, don't let go of the lifeline. No matter what Vasek says or does, no matter what he shows you, do not let go of me."

"All right. I'll do my best."

"So will I," Bishop said grimly.

Silence fell, broken only by the crackle of the fire and the creak of Danny's shoes as he shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. Cassie sat in the chair and stared into the fire, and Bishop watched her. Danny watched them both. And he was the one who nearly jumped out of his skin when the phone in his hand rang.

He answered, listened intently, then said, "Yes, sir," and without turning off the phone said to Bishop, "I'm to leave the line open. Sheriff says they're as close as he dares get, and they'll move in in exactly five minutes."

Cassie got up and went to sit on the sofa so she could get the boots, hardly noticing when Bishop came to sit beside her.

"Don't let go of the lifeline," Bishop repeated.

She picked up the boots, held them against her with both hands, and closed her eyes. Bishop watched her, speaking the instant he saw the telltale flicker of her eyelids.

"Talk to me, Cassie. Are you in?"

"I'm in." Her voice was hollow, distant, and Bishop frowned.

"Does he know you're there?"

"Yes. Yes, he knows."

"What was the deal with the music box?" Ben asked, watching his captor pick up yet another sharp implement from the cart and study it. "Cassie thought Mike was using it to block her. But it was you, wasn't it?"

"Of course it was me. Michael has no more telepathic ability than you do. I was using it to distract Cassie – and to keep Michael focused on rituals. It was necessary."

"In order to maintain your control over him?"

"Why are you stalling?" Bob asked curiously. "Is another hour of life so important?"

"Did you ask that of your other victims?" Ben countered.

"A few. Most were incoherent, however, so I've never received a satisfactory answer."

Despite the chill of the room, Ben could feel sweat trickling down the side of his neck. It hadn't been difficult to keep the monster talking, but he had the uneasy idea that it was still very much a question of who was toying with whom.

He wished he could reach out to Cassie. Touch her. But even if he had known how to do that, there was no way Ben wanted her there in the room.

What he was afraid of was the very real possibility that Cassie would find her way there anyway. If she knew he was missing, she would reach out, and thanks to his walls, it wouldn't be his mind she touched. If this insane monster was even half right about the connection between him and Cassie, she would inevitably touch that dark evil.

Ben knew how much of herself she had risked for the relative strangers of Ryan's Bluff; what would she risk to save the life of a lover?

It terrified him.

All he could think to do was keep the monster talking, keep looking for a chink in that armor of self-satisfaction. And hope he could find some way to free himself before Cassie came looking for him.

"I can give you a coherent answer," he told his captor. "Another hour of life is important. Another minute. Even another second. Because as long as there's still some time, there might be enough time."

"Enough time for what?"

"Enough time for me to kill you."

Bob stared at him in astonishment for a moment, then began to laugh. But the laugh cut off abruptly, and he rose to his feet, the knife in his hand seemingly forgotten, that earlier look of distraction gripping his features. His eyes had a distant, unfocused look. And his voice dropped to that caressing note that made Ben's skin crawl and his blood run cold when Bob murmured, "Well. Hello, my love."

"He knows you're there?" Bishop demanded.

"He's… surprised," Cassie murmured. "He didn't think I'd noticed the boots." She was silent a moment, her features twisting in revulsion. "Oh, God. The things he thinks. His mind is so dark, so… evil. He has no soul."

Bishop glanced at his watch. "Can you see through his eyes, Cassie?"

"No." She sounded unsettled. "He's… he's holding me too deep."

"Holding you?"

Her voice was hardly a breath of sound. "He wants me to see… his secret places."

"Cassie, listen to me. Try to back away. Try to see through his eyes."

"I want to. I want to see Ben."

"Try. Very carefully."

There was a full minute of silence, and then she flinched. Her eyes opened, the pupils enormous and blind.

Ben knew the connection had been made, that Cassie or some part of her was there. He didn't know if she could see him, but it was obvious to him that his captor was in a kind of trance, eyes blank, all his concentration turned inward.

He wouldn't get another chance.

"Cassie?"

"He won't let me see. He… likes this. Likes having my voice in his mind. He wants me there… always. The door. He's going to shut the door – "

Bishop reached over and grasped her wrist strongly.

"Cassie? Hold on to me, Cassie. He can't close the door if you don't let him."

Her breathing slowed and grew shallow, and the pallor of her skin deepened until even her lips were drained of color. "I'm… trying," she whispered. "He's so strong… so strong. He's getting angry, furious that I would… defy him--"

"Hold on to me, Cassie. Don't let go."

You came to me. I knew you would. I had to come. Yes. We belong together. No.

Vasek felt an instant of shock at her calm denial, then a hot and satisfying rush of rage. Yes. We belong together. I belong with Ben. Utter certainty. You're confused, my love. But it's all right. I'll show you the truth. He used his abilities to surround her presence with himself, to hold on to her and begin pulling her deeper, and to try to cut off the way behind her. Cut off her escape.

I'm not your love. Of course you are.

No. Somehow she managed to defy him, to prevent him from capturing her. And you're no part of me. No matter what you think. No matter how many times you believe you've slipped into my mind without me knowing.

Vasek was more disconcerted than he wanted to admit. yom never knew. Never! Oh, no?

Her laughter in his mind, like quicksilver. yom never knew, he declared, but the assertion was hollow and he heard the emptiness of it. His sense of superiority was rocked, unsteady for the first time.

Of course I knew.

I don't believe you! He tried to penetrate her certainty, probe her claims, but her presence was smooth and cool and peculiarly detached. He felt her presence but not her spirit. And only those thoughts she allowed him to see.

Rage rose higher in him, hotter, wilder. No. He wouldn't. He had never -

You lose.

Ben didn't know how he managed to loosen the ropes enough to free his wrists. Perhaps it was because this particular monster had little experience in binding his victims since he tended to kill them quickly. Perhaps he had been distracted by the anomaly of a male captive, and it made him careless. Or perhaps it was simply that Ben's desperation gave him a strength he had not known he possessed.

He bloodied his wrists doing it, but his hands were still functional when he wrenched free of the ropes and bent to untie the ones binding his ankles. He kept his eyes on the unmoving, unblinking monster, praying he'd have time to act, to cross the few feet of space between them and get his fingers around that pasty throat and choke the evil life out of the bastard.

Cassie.

He had asked her what would happen if she went too deep, and she had replied with a faint smile that she would not come back. How deep was she now? And what would happen if the monster in whose mind she was trapped died before she was able to escape?

Ben hesitated for only a second, and in that second something heavy crashed through the windows, and two of Matt's deputies lay on the floor, guns drawn and pointed at the monster. And the monster was turning toward them, face twisting, a terrible triumph in the glance he threw Ben as his arm rose, the knife he held gleaming in a threat any cop would recognize and instinctively act to counter.