Eyes to the Soul (32 page)

He seemed so assured. Everyone who she had met treated him with respect, affection, or in the case of the children, sheer idolatry. That had shown her such a different side to him. She wondered at his art. Would it be beautiful landscapes or something more like the work of the artist she’d spoken with at the gallery?

She couldn’t imagine Stefan creating anything less than something completely stunning.

Footsteps sound on her left. Tilting her head slightly she sniffed the air. “Tea?” She smiled. “Thank you, it smells wonderful.”

“Dragon pearls. A delicate-tasting green tea.”

Of course he’d be a connoisseur of tea as well. “Is there anything you don’t know or do well?”

The tray landed heavily. “Lots. Why would you think that?”

That startled a laugh out of her. “Everyone treats you with deference. I barely understand what you do with this energy work, but you are a consultant for the police and apparently a consultant with Dr. Maddy. You work at the children’s hospital in some form where the staff treat you with respect and the children love you. That much was obvious.”

She listened to his long-drawn exhale. “Well?” she asked.

*

Stefan sat back
down slowly, unsure of what to say. He was admittedly learning much about himself. He preferred to give silent answers with facial and hand gestures over talking. He couldn’t do that with Celina. He couldn’t show her his paintings and have her understand that side of him that so few saw. In many ways he was the one that felt incapable of shining in this relationship. Partly because it mattered so much. He was the one out of his depth. Unsure of how to proceed. And for him that was unsettling. Usually he knew the step in front of him. He didn’t need to know what was down the road as long as he kept his focus on the next step.

Now as he stared at the woman who’d come to mean so much and yet sat so damn far away, he had no idea how or what that next step was going to be.

He turned to gaze to his home, wondering if she’d like it. Without being able to actually see the floor-to-vaulted-ceiling river rock fireplace, the stained-glass windows that went up twenty feet. Without the visual it was hard to see how this place would suit her. She’d settled comfortably into the corner of the couch just fine, but other visitors would have wandered the place and made comments. She’d stayed in place. Even now she was still. Almost too still. Economy of movement was one thing. This…was something else altogether.

“Are you all right?”

He started. “Me? I’m fine. Just enjoying my tea.”

Her lips twitched.

“Okay, and thinking about you. How you are the one that amazes
me
. You sit with such grace, perfectly at home, not making small talk out of nerves or running on with endless conversation. You are content in the now, and that’s very special.”

Her brows shot up. She shook her head and said in a dry tone, “What if I’m awestruck to be in your presence?”

He spluttered the tea he’d been about to drink, then laughed and laughed. With a huge grin he said, “That’s priceless. I know there’s spirit in there, and I’d hate to think anything I do would ever dim it.”

“Spirit?” She shook her head. “You haven’t seen anything but weak, wimpy behavior. Since I met you I’m either recovering, sleeping, or in shock.”

“And you’ve been almost killed in an accident, lost close friends, been threatened by a home invasion, shared some of your deepest secrets, learned more than you’d ever wanted to learn about the predator stalking you… and yet still you sit here calm and poised in the face of it.” He knew she couldn’t see, but he felt compelled to lift his cup of tea in a salute to her.

And damn if she didn’t lift hers in response.

He lowered his cup and stared at her.

“How did you know to do that?”

“Do what?”

“Lift your cup in a toast type of response?”

She frowned. “I don’t know. It just seemed the thing to do.”

He let it go, but it was hard. There had to be something going on in there, but she didn’t appear to understand herself. And neither did he. It was puzzling.

“And no, before you ask, I can’t see anything.” She took a sip of tea then lowered her arm, her face pensive. “Sometimes I can. A little, anyways.”

“When and how much?” He sat forward and replaced his cup on the table. This might be the answer.

“Sometimes when I focus really hard I see shapes, like the world has a gray look to it. Not the real world, but a half-real world.”

Interesting. And a clue to what was really happening. He said, “Does it hurt to do that?”

She nodded. “Sometimes. I get headaches. I thought it might be from straining too much.”

“Have you tried to do it without straining?”

She shrugged. “I guess. If I could see like that more often it would be easier on me but because of the headaches I save it for emergencies.”

“Understandable.” He leaned back. “Try right now. Look around my place and tell me what you see.”

Her brows furrowed. “I’m not sure I want to. The headache part, remember?”

“I can take care of the headache.” He waited, watching the indecision whisper across her features. “It’s an energy thing. I’m trying to see whether it’s energy you are using to see that way or if you are actually seeing with limited visibility.”

She frowned and worried away on her bottom lip.

“Not if the idea scares you.”

“Of course it scares me,” she said. She considered it for another long moment and took a deep breath. “Fine. But you promise you will deal with the headache.”

“I will.”

He sat back and watched. She closed her eyes for a long moment.

Stefan studied her energy and waited. She opened her eyes and…he grinned. …she stood up and out of her body in a faint reflection of her normal energetic form.

She stood – looking at him from her etheric body.

That’s why the gray world. That’s why the headache. She was doing it consciously but separate from the rest of her. He didn’t think she had any idea that she could get up and look around. As her eyes were a wonderful silvery blue now – not the silvery gray of the blind state – the look out of her eyes when she tried to see like this was almost the same, but her energy had shifted, making it something else altogether. He slipped his own energetic form free mentally and stood in front of her. She gasped and reared back. He held out his hand to her. And waited.

She lifted her arm and confirmed what he already knew. She’d lifted her etheric arm, not her physical arm. He quickly reached out and grasped her etheric hand. He laughed, a rumble of joy whispering through him, whispering through her and rolling back toward him again.

“Stefan?”

He controlled his mirth, realizing how odd this must be for her. How scary. “It’s all right.”

“How is this all right?” she snapped. “I can see you. Almost clearly.” She sounded dazed. “I don’t understand.”

He pulled her close, letting his energy blend with hers in a quick hug, then with his arms still around her he said, “Look behind you.”

She gave him a quick confused look, turned around and glanced back – at her body.

She shrieked and slammed back into her body.

Just as she shifted on the etheric plane Stefan thought he heard a voice say,
You will pay for this.

*

Sam walked through
to the back of the vet’s office, loving to see such welcoming animals. Sure, there were a couple not happy to be here, but as she’d learned so much from Stefan and the others she could send a little calming energy to help the poor things adapt. It wasn’t easy on animals or humans to have surgery, or to deal with the trauma of being in a vet office. She rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck, letting a bit of that same healing energy slip down her spine. She needed more sleep, and that was the one thing she could not seem to get. Every couple of days, narrowing to every day, there was at least one incident waking her up.

It made no sense. There were too many incidents and it was all happening too fast. Her developing senses allowed her to leave the visions before the victim died, and she worried that this was hindering her ability to learn anything useful. If she were forced to stay until the end there was a chance of gaining more information about the killer. But staying longer hurt her in many other ways, and so far she’d worked hard at getting out as fast as she could.

She had a journal full of notes on these connected cases. And as Stefan didn’t need more on his plate, he was likely the one she needed to make this all stop.

Hearing a whimper behind her, she turned to watch a small pug press his flat face up against the wire mesh. His eyes were hopeful.

She grinned. “Hey, Pogo, how are you?” She reached for the latch on his door when the burning started.

She groaned.
Please, not here.

Then she collapsed to her knees as her lower legs gave out. Her head hit the cage, then the cage no longer existed. In front of her was a kitchen counter, old-fashioned and worn though the years. Sam cried out in her vision. Her legs were burning from the inside out. She stared down at thick ankles and thicker calves encased in tight hose – support hose. There were no injuries to them. No outside flames affected her, but the woman cried out in agony as fire licked up her legs to her hips and higher.

Sam struggled against her instinctive reaction to run and the need to solve this mystery.

She closed her eyes inside the woman’s energy and forced her senses to take stock. She writhed in pain as her legs kicked out in agony. The woman fell sideways to the floor, crying out for help.

Sam realized another sad truth as she heard the woman’s cries. There was no one to hear her cries. And the phone on the wall was too far away. Too high to reach, and the woman too damaged to cross the short distance.

Trying to see into the woman’s mind, which had been completely consumed in fear as the pain rolled upward to the woman’s heart, Sam knew what was happening but she couldn’t hold back that tsunami of events that would overwhelm this poor woman. For some reason Sam felt she had to stay this time. There was no rushing desire to race away. The pain was horrific, but slightly distanced from her so that she understood and suffered along with the woman.

But she couldn’t leave. Only as she heard the last few whimpers of the woman’s prayers to be delivered into her Savior’s hands did Sam understand.

There was no one for this woman to call for help because she lived alone. And as she lived alone…Sam hadn’t been able to let her die alone.

Sending her as much loving energy as she could, Sam pleaded with her to let go.

She watched as the pain receded and the old woman slumped into death. Sam lay inside the poor woman for a long moment, wondering why she wasn’t being instantly snapped back to her body when she felt something odd – she felt the energy of the body lift. The release was a physical sensation. Sam stared out through the glazed eyes and recognized the woman’s soul rising above her, glorious light and peace in her aura and the whispered words, “Thank you.”

And she was gone.

Tears in her eyes, Sam came back to her own body, now stiff and chilled on the cold floor in the vet’s office and wondered. She didn’t feel the same pain and horror she so often felt after a vision. Nor the agonizing understanding of what one human had done to another. Instead, there was a sense of peace. A sense of rightness.

Did that mean the old woman had died a natural death? Sam really didn’t want to start connecting with just anyone whose time had come – that would be too many visions for her to deal with.

Or was it that Sam’s presence had made a difference, and she had been given a gift by seeing for the first time the aftermath of this woman’s death and the rebirth of her soul to the next step?

At the end the woman had been grateful for death – then again, who wouldn’t want that horror to stop? But this time it was as if she knew Sam had been keeping a watchful vigil at her side.

Keeping her company so her final moments weren’t as lonely as the rest of her life.

Sam wiped away a tear and reached for her phone. Brandt needed to hear this one.