Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

each woman. “How flush with milk you are. These babies will never go hungr y , my fertility goddesses .”
    Brigid smiled. T he compliment assured his approval . T hey’d do whatever he desired to make him happy. He was their god and it was their pleasure to serve him.
    “Mr. Deems is no longer with us, and with the media attention and the interference of the police in our business, we will curtail our searches , for now . I know how difficult it is to find the perfect women to expedite our long-term plans, but y ou must stay away from the M ission . Do not see Brother Osiris or any of the women you befriended while working there. Of course, the house on Parkside Avenue is off limits forever . Too bad. It was the perfect location― close to Sunrise M ission and a n excellent intermediary facility. ” He cooed again at the newborns. “ Needless to say, we can’t keep the babies here .”
    “It was such a lovely house,” Brigid said.
    “ Yes, well… I must send you both to the compound to be on the safe side. I can’t risk having either of you recognized and picked up by the police.”
    “Whatever you wish,” Nona said.
    “Will the G oddess Diana be back?” Brigid asked.
    Compton drank in the beauty of the two women. “Oh, yes, she’ll be back. She doesn’t know it yet, but she will. Unfortunately, we couldn’t keep her this time. Too much attention has been focused on our project because of Mr. Deems’ s carelessness. Next time we’ll take the Goddess Diana to a higher level. I’m betting one of her progeny will have the same psychic makeup as the mother. Imagine , having a baby even more special genetically than the ones we have.”
    “More special than yours?” Nona asked.
    “All my babies are special, my loves.”
    * * * * *
    L ater that day while Lucier was still at Diana’s house, Reginald Haley called. “The lab found no trace of semen or of any date rape drug . Doesn’t mean much, Ernie, Th ose chemicals leave the system quickly.”
    “ Thanks, Reggie. I figured as much. I’d appreciate if you’d kept this quiet.”
    “Of course. Call me if anything changes, but I think Ms. Racine will be fine after she gets some rest. Make sure she has plenty of liquids. Ernie, do you mind if I ask what this is all about?”
    “I’m not sure, and neither is Diana. The hallucination could have been a dream, or a memory of what really happened. I have no proof to follow up. The people involved aren’t the kind you make false accusations against. They’d slap me with a harassment suit faster than I could say sorry.”
    Haley left with his question unanswered, because Lucier didn’t have one. He tiptoed into Diana’s bedroom. She appeared to be sleeping, but when he turned to leave, she called his name.
    “Don’t go, Ernie.”
    He claimed the edge of the bed and kissed her cheek. “You’re awake.”
    “I couldn’t sleep with all those thoughts floating around in my head.”
    “Are you willing to go over it again, from the time you got to the M ission?”
    Diana nodded and began, answering his questions as best she could. She recounted the time with Slater without hesitation, but after the drink in Compton’s limo, everything went blank.
    “ The only thing I remember with any surety i s the black night and the red eyes. Or was it the red night and the black eyes? ”
    “In your dream, how many sets of eyes did you see? How many people?”
    “I called it a dream, but there was nothing dreamlike about it. M ore like a nightmare, where the red planets in the sky were staring down at me.” She closed her eyes, as if conjuring up a vision. “I ’m not sure . There could have been a dozen or two dozen . I just don’t know.”
    “I’ll tell you what I think. Your subconscious relived your experience in a dream or a nightmare, whatever, and I think you got sick from a knockout drug, which is a common side effect. Your hand turning black and the black vomit is a sign of evil only you can see because you’re highly sensitized to those things. How does that sound?”
    “Scary as hell because I don’t think you’re far off.” She massaged her closed eyes with her fingertips, then knead ed her temples. “ W here do we go from here?”
    “ S ince you can’t remember anything , I haven’t got probable cause to get a warrant for Compton’s house. Not to mention he’s Silas Compton.”
    “I could follow up on his reading.”
    “No way. You’re out of this.”
    She laughed.