Vicki Stewart

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about Tori is the evolution of her character. When we first meet her, she’s so completely wrapped up in her little cocoon of familiarity she only allows a small number of people into her inner circle. And she likes it that way. In book two, she fully embraces her newly discovered spiritual gift and along with her training at the FBI Academy, ends up making friends with some unique individuals. When we next see her in book three, Agent Hunter’s influence and training are evident, and she’s becoming a strong agent and a very fierce interrogator. Even to a dead man.

Guardians of the Chosen, Chapter 31 “…Removing a stack of pictures from the folder, Tori carefully lined them all up in rows facing Talman until the surface of the table was covered. “What about all of these people that you murdered,” she demanded. She rose from her chair, now eye level with him and placed a final photo of Rogan’s face on top of the others. “Would that have made your parents proud?”

Talman’s eyes flicked down to the table and then back up at Tori, unwavering.

Changing her tactic, Tori broke eye contact with Talman and began casually walking around the room. When she reached the corner where his body lay draped on the gurney, she ran her hand along the fabric lightly and turned to face him.

“I understand we have a common acquaintance,” she provoked, watching his eyes carefully as they wandered from his body back to her face. “Did he happen to tell you who he was? Tell you his name?” Tori laughed lightly and added, “Well, he has many names, so that’s not really a fair question, is it?”

Very slowly, Tori began walking towards Talman, taunting him into breaking his silence. “Did you ever see him – face to face? Have a conversation with him like we are now?”

Talman’s eyes wandered away from hers, and she smiled inwardly as he began to react to what she was saying.

“You’re trying to remember, aren’t you?” she prodded quietly, still approaching him slowly. “All of those nights when you heard a voice speaking to you in the darkness, keeping you up at night? The times when the sound of his voice was like sandpaper grinding away in your head, and no matter what you did, he just wouldn’t stop talking?”

Now face to face with him, Tori waited until Talman regained eye contact with her. When he did, she tilted her head slightly, noticing the confused look on his face. “You’re wondering how I know all of this, aren’t you, Talman? How could I possibly know what the past several months have been like for you with that sound constantly buzzing around in your head?” Pausing for dramatic effect, she asked, “Tell me, does he still talk to you, Talman? Have you heard him speak with you since your spirit left your body?”

Again, Talman’s eyes flickered uncertainly as she seemed to read his mind.

“Do you know why he stopped talking to you, Talman?” she continued to provoke him. “I do. He doesn’t need you anymore. You’ve become expendable. What did you say about Rogan earlier? Oh yes, you said he was a means to an end and when you didn’t need him anymore, you ended him. Well, guess what, Talman? You were a means to an end to the devil himself, and he doesn’t need you anymore!”

Talman clenched his jaw and glared at Tori menacingly, “You don’t know anything about me so just shut your mouth!”

“Or you’ll do what to me, Talman? You can’t hurt me anymore; you’re dead. Besides, I know a lot more than you think I do,” Tori explained. “You see, at first, when he began talking to me, I’ll admit, I was a little scared of him. All of those stories I heard growing up about the fires of Hell and how Satan was this fallen angel with red skin and bad hair, walking around with a pitchfork. Stories you probably didn’t hear where you were growing up, right?”

Again, Talman just stared at her, seething.

Ignoring him, Tori continued, “Anyway, like I said, at first I was scared of him but then after a while, I realized, there really wasn’t anything scary about him, he was nothing more than a big bully. He was a big bully who loved to prey on the weak so he could look and feel stronger to everyone else. Once I realized that, I was no longer afraid of him, and when I started to hear that buzzing in my head, I simply ignored it. I showed him that I was stronger than he was and that he couldn’t control me.”

Tori paused again, giving Talman time to think about what she was saying before she threw the final punch. If she was right, this would be what she needed to break him.

Bracing herself, she very quietly said, “So do you know what that makes you, Talman? That makes you the little kid in the school yard getting his lunch money taken from him and pushed down in the mud by the school bully. That makes you the last one to get picked in gym class, the one that everyone laughs at and the one the devil zeroed in on when he was looking for a puppet to control. That makes you a means to an end, and it means you’re weak.”

The dam now broken, Talman cried out in outrage and lunged at Tori with his hands outstretched, attempting to grab her by the throat. Making a concerted effort not to flinch, Tori stood motionless as Talman’s spirit passed through her. She turned around slowly and regarded him calmly as he stared at his hands, realizing that he couldn’t touch her.

“Is that the first time you’ve tried to make contact with the living, Talman?” she asked him quietly.

He looked up at her with his eyes filled with an expression Tori could only interpret as total confusion. The pain, anger, and fear that she saw tormenting him, almost made her feel sorry for him. She hesitated, wondering how much further she should push him and decided he had enough for now.

“I can help you if you want all of that pain and anger to stop,” Tori offered. “But first, you’re going to have to talk to me about what you did to all those people and why.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” he snarled.

Exhaling a deep breath, she said, “Fine. You will eventually. Just remember, I’m the only one who can help you, and my offer won’t last forever.”

Leaving the file and the pictures lying on the table to remind him of his sins, she walked out of the room, down the hallway and never looked back….”