Eyes to the Soul (27 page)

Her injury also exhausted her. She probably had no idea how badly she’d been burning through her life force with her constant rejection of her blindness. Plus, this predator had become a parasite on her system. By using her abilities without protecting herself, Celina had left herself open to being taken advantage of on an energetic level, and as a result she’d become a host to many parasites.

She could change that, but as she’d given her permission for this to happen, she was the one required to make the changes. He stayed silent at her side, watching the kaleidoscope of energies filter in and out. The parasite wasn’t here.

He waited, his mind slipping back in and out of his consciousness. It expanded outward, softening, accepting and open to anything. He’d learned this trick from another incredibly talented friend, Shay Lassiter, who had the ability to spread her energy so thin as to no longer exist – or rather exist – everywhere… at the DNA level. Following her lessons he spread outward and outward and outward. He had no purpose behind this exercise other than as a practice session. He was in the living room, the bathroom, the bedroom, out in the hallway, down the elevator, out in the lobby, and into the night.

His consciousness filtered down even smaller as he let himself mingle with the night.

He floated in peaceful contentment, leaving his senses wide open but relaxed as he lay there. After a few minutes he raised the level of awareness, looking for something out of the ordinary in Celina’s world. Her energy pathway from her day’s travels floated in faint wispy color around him. It was easy to follow her trail to Dr. Maddy’s office and backwards along the pathway that she’d taken throughout the day. He could see the taxi carrying a little of Celina’s energy moving throughout the rest of the afternoon, picking up other people’s energy and adding it to the pile. By the time the cab itself parked that night it was a seething mass of pulsating energy.

Interesting that the cab continued to stand out as he walked through Celina’s movements. Stefan studied the cab and where it had parked. It wasn’t in a garage with many other cabs; it had gone to a house and parked there. It wasn’t that the cab still held traces of Celina’s energy, which it did, but it was so finite as to not be visible anymore. That the vehicle continue to stand out could only mean one thing – the cabby had been affected by Celina.

Stefan smiled. That would make total sense.

With something tugging at him, he turned to one of his favorite projects. The children’s hospital and the wing he and Maddy had set up, similar to her other project on Maddy’s Floor. He dove forward, zipping to the children’s ward, pulling the tiny bits and pieces of errant energy back into alignment.

Inside the special ward, a wobble had formed on the edge at the back end. Where Eric was lying. Eric, who had been with them for only a couple of days but had managed to affect the energy field. The doctors were concerned about his mental health. He’d had surgery and had taken a violent dislike to the bone the doctors had used. What should have been an easy surgery had turned into a nightmare with the child’s reaction. His medication had been changed several times and his mental state watched closely, but there’d been no improvement. Stefan zoomed in to the child’s bed.

His heart hurt. Everywhere else the children slept in peaceful healing sleep. Like they were supposed to. Yet, this little boy twisted with terrible nightmares. His body couldn’t heal because it couldn’t rest. It couldn’t rest because the boy’s mind had filled with terrors.

He drifted over Eric’s bed, laying a delicate blanket of healing energy over the child’s body.

The small boy stiffened, his eyes flying open to stare right at Stefan. And damn if he didn’t whisper, “Are you an angel?”

*

Sam opened her
eyes, pain in her leg exploding through her dreams. She kept the scream back to a whimper. She’d felt this pain before. This person’s pain before. Going on instinct and dropping her training lessons, she settled deeper into the person.

And realized something else. He wasn’t dead or dying – at least not yet. She dropped lower into his psyche and heard him speak. And realized it was a child. A little boy. Her heart throbbed with the pain of what was to come in his life. Yet it wasn’t happening right now, and that made no sense to her.

She opened her eyes and gasped. He was talking to a spirit in energetic form.

The little boy’s question echoed in the room. He’d asked the spirit if he was an angel. She took another look and smiled. The little boy was talking to Stefan.

She watched Stefan start, then lean closer, his gaze intent. He smiled and said, “No, I’m not an angel, but you have an angel watching over you.”

Sam grinned. How absolutely bizarre to have her inside the boy’s psyche and Stefan on the outside watching. They’d been here like this once before, but this was so different. The boy wasn’t dying. He wasn’t an old friend of Stefan’s needing help to leave the earthly plane like last time.

And if that was the case, why was she here?

She’d never been called unless to a scene of violence.

She puzzled on it, then closed her psychic eyes and sank deeper into the boy’s system. The boy was at a hospital. What had happened to the poor thing? Her heart always melted whenever she was drawn to a child. The nasty, cruel things people did to each other were amplified when they did it to a child. This child had been or was a victim of violence, she knew that for sure. As much as she wished her abilities would allow her to connect to other people for other reasons, it wasn’t to be.

What she didn’t know is if this boy was connected to the other weird things she’d been seeing lately. If so, the killer had either failed in his attempt, the act was going to happen immediately, or it was happening now but no one knew. Still the boy was alive, and that meant there might be a way to save him. If only she could find something that would connect this boy to the others so that she could find the killer.

She heard Stefan, understanding and comprehension in his voice, say, “What’s wrong, Eric?”

Sam turned her attention back to the child. The boy had had surgery, recent surgery, but there was no air of healing. More a black wall of energy, as if a war going on in his body. The little boy whispered, “You won’t believe me.” He scrunched lower into his bed. “Adults never believe kids.”

“But I’m not an adult,” Stefan whispered. “Now tell me – what’s the matter?”

And the words, so faint, so full of terror and fear broke Sam’s heart. “There’s a bad man inside me.”

*

He stretched and
groaned. If he had to be here, he’d be damned if he’d do this half-existence any other way than his way. If that meant knocking off a few people, then who gave a shit?

If he could have put a stop to this a long time ago he would have. But no, it wasn’t to be. So he’d taken this life and he’d owned it. Bit by bit. He wouldn’t be here for too much longer – he knew that, and it was amazing how living such a good life had turned him into a man so bent on revenge and regaining his freedom that he’d toss those scruples away and become someone even he no longer recognized.

Still, it was all good. He’d have his freedom and she’d get her just end.

If he could just pull this off. He needed more power. He needed to stop the splintering process from happening even further. Better to have all those pieces blown up at once.

He froze.

Could he do that? It would make this so much easier. So much faster. And bring about a lot of chaos.

He used to hate strife and discord.

Now he’d do anything to create such hell.

C
elina woke with
a booming headache again. They’d been getting worse for weeks, but since the accident at the bar she had to wonder if she had hit her head and hadn’t known. The chaos there had been seriously crazy, and it was quite possible she’d been banged up more than she thought.

She fleetingly considered contacting the doctor, then realized she’d already seen the eye surgeon and had two visits with Dr. Maddy. If there had been anything wrong surely either of those specialists would have seen it.

They had not mentioned it. Neither had Stefan. At the reminder she reached across the bed and found it empty.

An unexpected sense of loss filled her. He’d left. Then again, what had she expected? He had a life. He’d stayed with her out of compassion. There was little to keep him here.

“Feeling better?”

That deep, sensuous voice reached her from the doorway. Her insides danced. She gasped in joy. “You’re still here?”

“Of course. This place isn’t as comfortable as mine, but you needed looking after and as much as I want to shift you to my place, I decided this was home for you so I stayed here.”

It took her a moment to digest all of that, and she realized he’d actually wanted to take her to his place. That thought filled her with an odd sense of excitement, yet also discomfort. A new place to learn to navigate.

She didn’t want to be confined to her apartment, and she wasn’t in the sense that she went out on a regular basis, but those trips were stressful. She’d like to avoid them altogether if she could. And that wasn’t good for her. It would be too easy to become a hermit and hide away. She could even do her groceries by ordering online. She’d never have to leave again. That the suggestion was oddly appealing scared her. She didn’t want to be so narrow in her focus, her world that she became that person, too scared to leave.

“I think your place must be beautiful,” she said with a smile. “I’d love to see it.”

“Then that answers my next question.” He walked closer and placed a cup of tea on the night table beside her. “I was hoping to take you there this afternoon. It would be good for you to get out and enjoy a day’s outing.”

He sat down on the bed, long fingers reaching out to stroke her hair back off her forehead. “In fact, I wouldn’t mind going soon.”

She tilted her head, hearing an odd note in his voice. “Why the rush?”

“I have information at home that I need.” He paused then confessed, “And I need to stop at the children’s hospital and visit a little boy.”

At the mention of the hospital she realized she’d hoped to go see Jacob. “I actually wanted to go and see Jacob at the hospital. He was injured at Chico’s and has been in a coma ever since.”

“Perfect. We’ll do both visits then head to my place for the afternoon.”

It was a great idea. And it saved her from going to the hospital alone. She gave a small laugh. “Then away with you so I can dress.”

He leaned over and brushed her lips with his, startling her. Then he was gone. She heard the door whisper closed behind him. It didn’t matter that she was still awestruck by that kiss. So gentle and light, but like an electric jolt. Her hormones had shot into awareness and her body had woken up big time. Even now it felt like little electric currents raced across her lips. She shook her head, determined to clear the clouds and remember the reality of her existence. She needed to enjoy having him in her life but not to get used to it. She didn’t expect him to die like her parents or her fiancé had, but she did expect him to get tired of the limitations her blindness would put on them and soon pull out.