String of Tears, page 25
“You tell me about its power,” he urged. “Before, you told me that you had been wearing it and that it felt right.”
“Yes, before, when I was working on it. I had tried it on, and it did feel right.”
He canted his head. “Particularly since you were working on the clasp. I think the necklace itself is attracting energy, energy that it can use, that it can feed on. I don’t know what the end game of this is—presumably to have another soul on this string—but, for you, it’s dangerous, very dangerous. Don’t ever put it back on again, no matter how much it calls for you. Do you hear me? You have to resist it.”
She looked up at him, bewildered, and then slowly she nodded.
He carefully placed the pearls back into the box and put it back in the safe, closing and locking it in front of her.
She hesitated and then asked, “Is there any way to secure it better?”
“I’ve put extra energy on it, and Stefan’s putting an energy lock on it as well,” he told her. “We won’t know if it’ll be enough, until somebody attempts to access it, but we’re hoping it will be enough to keep its energy calm and quiet, instead of going Thor on anyone who touches it. To me, it felt like it was hungry.”
“Hungry,” she whispered, staring at him in shock. “Is that why I was so hungry?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured, his gaze intense. “Maybe.”
She swallowed and looked like she was about to upchuck, and he reached for her hand. “Steady. We’ll figure it out.”
“What kind of influence can all this energy have on me?” she whispered.
“A whole lot more than you might think or might even want to consider,” he replied, his voice soft and gentle. “Can it make you hungry? Yes, energy definitely can. Can it make you burn through energy? Partially, hopefully not fully. Maybe you were fighting the energy of the pearls. Or maybe you were trying to become one with the pearls. I don’t know because I wasn’t there. I couldn’t see or read the energy. But right now, an odd energy is around you in your aura, trying desperately hard to make it seem like it was such a good idea to put on that necklace. You didn’t hesitate. You jumped at it, and, the next thing I knew, you were wearing it.”
“And you shouldn’t have let me.” She glared at him.
He gave her a half smile. “Believe me. I’m better warned now, aren’t I?”
She shuddered, got up from the stairs, and asked, “Is that coffee ready? I think I need a gallon right about now. Just the thought of going to sleep and letting something like that kind of boogeyman take over is scary.”
He nodded. “It is scary, but we’re slowly getting an idea of what’s going on,” he stated. “And that helps give us better tools to try and protect you.”
She murmured, “Tools, protection, energy.”
“I know.” He grabbed her hand firmly.
“It sounds like something out of the twilight zone.”
“Unfortunately, in this case, it really is something out of the twilight zone, but you’ll be fine, and we’ll work hard to keep you safe. But no way do we get separated again.”
She squeezed his hand, smiled up at him, and nodded. “Now that I can agree with. I do not want to wake up in the hospital for a third time.”
“No,” he replied, his voice even softer. “But neither do I want to be called out to the highway to find out that this time there’s no way you’ll ever wake up again.”
For Hurricane, he knew getting Jewel relaxed, calmed down, and settled in again would take time. He swapped the coffee for tea, had her relax on the couch, and sat down beside her.
She stared at him. “Why don’t you just ask?”
His eyebrows shot up. “Ask what?”
“You want to do something, but I don’t know what it is,” she murmured.
He hesitated, his gaze going to the safe and then back to her. “I want to go into your mind, into your energy, and try to figure out what it is that I’m seeing.”
She stilled, and then her breath escaped so very softly that he hadn’t realized she had let it out. “What is it that you think is in there?”
“I’m not sure. What I can tell you is that it feels off. It feels …” He hesitated, not sure how to explain it. “It feels like a blockage.”
She slowly sat up, cross-legged on the couch, her gaze never leaving his face. “A blockage?”
He nodded. “Yes, exactly that, a blockage.”
“I see.” Her gaze went to the safe. “Do you think it’s related to the pearls?”
“I don’t know whether it’s related to the pearls, what’s happening to you, or your history and the history of a victim.”
At that, one eyebrow went up, and her gaze zinged back toward him. “What would this process be like?”
“You remember how we spoke in the hospital, before you woke up?”
“Yes,” she replied cautiously.
“It would be similar to that.”
“If similar to that,” she murmured, “then you would have done it at the hospital.”
He winced. “I could have done it then, yes, but I would never do it without your permission.”
Chapter 23
She settled back and took a sip of her tea, while she contemplated his words and the look on his face. Something was direct about that gaze, something clearer.
He said softly, “You’re changing.”
She snorted at that. “Events like this have a way of making that happen. I’ve been found twice on a highway completely nude, and thankfully this last time I wasn’t already dead.”
“No, and that’s the good thing, but it was looking very dicey there for a time,” he noted. “I want to think that we’re getting ahead of this, but, because I’ve caught sight of something in your energy, I need to go in there and take a look at it, and I can’t go alone.”
“Oh, wow,” she whispered. “Who is it that you need to go with you?”
“You, for one, and Dr. Maddy would be the best.”
At that, she straightened. “Dr. Maddy was already in my aura. She already plowed through most of it.”
He nodded. “But she was looking at something very different than what I am looking for. Plus she noted a blockage, but she didn’t delve into it, not wanting to breach your privacy or put you at risk.”
“So you’re saying that some people can see things, and some people can’t see them?”
“That’s one way to look at it,” he replied. “Another way is to also realize that there are different layers, different colors, different vibrations. Dr. Maddy was trying to help you through a very traumatic experience and wouldn’t have intruded beyond that. She did say to Stefan that the blockage was something odd and that she would need to go back at some point to examine it further. Also only with your permission.”
“But there hasn’t been a whole lot of time,” she added.
“Exactly,” he agreed, with half a smile.
“Would it be as painless as when she did her search?” When he didn’t answer right away, her gaze narrowed on him.
“I don’t want to lie to you,” he began. “I don’t know. That we will have to see.”
“I’m really not into any more pain,” she murmured.
“No, and we would do our best to not hurt you.”
“Have you talked to Dr. Maddy about this?”
“No,” he stated. “I mentioned it to Stefan, and I know that he was talking to Dr. Maddy about your case.”
*
Hurricane could tell that she didn’t like that word. “My case, ugh. Don’t think much of that,” she murmured.
“I know, but, when you think about it, a lot of cases are involved, a lot of women involved, a lot of crimes.”
“Do we know that for sure?” she asked, her tone silky, almost deceptive.
“See? Right there. Something’s odd.”
She frowned. “In my question?”
“No, in the energy with which you asked that question.”
“You told me there was no possession.”
“I did, and I stand by that, but something else is there, and I don’t know what it is.”
She let out a deep breath and said, “Fine. When do we have a go at it?”
“I vote for right now.”
She bolted to her feet, spilling tea everywhere. She put down her cup, grabbed a tea towel, and quickly mopped up the spill, without saying another word.
“Sorry. I guess I should have warned you.”
“Yeah, that would have been nice,” she snapped. “Especially considering you’ve just sprung this on me, and I haven’t had a chance to determine what I want to do.”
He smiled. “No, you haven’t had that chance, but I’m not sure we have a whole lot of options.”
At that, she glared at him. “You told me that it was a choice, that I had to give permission.”
“It is a choice, but not doing it would also be a choice.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that, if something’s in there, in your energy, that you’re not willing to have me go in and look for, that is a choice on your part. A choice that says you don’t want to find out the truth.”
At that, she sank onto the couch cushions and stared at him in shock. “That’s not fair,” she cried out softly.
“No, it isn’t,” he agreed, “and I’m sorry. That isn’t how I wanted this to go, but no doubt we need to do something, and we need to do it fast.”
“Before I end up on the highway again.”
“Exactly. You know yourself how quickly that second event went down, and we still don’t even know what happened. I do want to set up cameras here though, but I am afraid it won’t be enough. I’ll need your permission for that too.”
“Cameras?” she repeated, sidelined by the question. She looked around. “In here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” He just waited to let her catch up on the truth, and she frowned, understanding dawning on her. “In case it happens again,” she noted reluctantly.
“Exactly, and I know that’s not something any of us want to consider—”
“But it’s pretty hard not to,” she finished for him.
“Yes. I’m sorry. If there was any other way, I would be quite happy to do that.”
“Yet you’re not sure.”
“No, I’m not sure at all, and that’s also why I would want to bring in a specialist.”
“Dr. Maddy?”
“Yes.”
“Great,” she muttered, hesitating. “Have you tried to contact me the way that we did in the hospital?”
“I have,” he confirmed, “and you don’t appear to be answering.”
She blinked. “Great, it’s like learning another language, and apparently I’ve already missed some of the basics.”
“I think you jumped into something that you probably knew before, but, for whatever reason, you have pushed away your skill set.”
“That doesn’t sound terribly good.” She frowned. “Is that what this is all about? Are you trying to figure out who and what I was before?”
“That’s part of it. I mean, when you think about it, an awful lot is going on here that we don’t understand, but I think you do, somewhere underneath it all.”
She leaned back into the couch and just stared off into the distance.
He studied her energy as closely and as best he could, but this wasn’t his field, not his forte. Now, if she would create a storm of energy, that was a whole different story. He could jump into that and lasso it into something usable, no problem. But this? This was something he didn’t have a clue how to deal with. He was just working with his hunches, hoping to punt it all to Dr. Maddy or Stefan. Hurricane watched and waited.
“How long would it take to set it up?” she asked.
“I would need just Dr. Maddy, and that is dependent on her time frame.”
“She’s one busy lady, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is, and trust me, not just locally but globally.”
Jewel blinked several times, as she tried to decipher what he’d just said. “Right. Because, if she can do whatever it is you want her to do from wherever she is, she can probably do it for people all over the world.”
“Exactly,” he murmured. “So the question is, do I have your permission?”
“Tell me something, Hurricane. If I say no, what will you do?”
He hesitated and then spoke. “I would probably keep trying to convince you and also try to get Stefan in to help persuade you.”
“It’s that important, huh?”
“Yes, but the question you really need to look at is why discovering these answers isn’t important to you.”
Chapter 24
Jewel stared at Hurricane, her thoughts confused, and yet, at the same time, she heard that kernel of truth in his words. Eventually she nodded. “Fine,” she whispered. “If that’s the case, the sooner, the better.”
He got up and pulled out his phone, as she sank back into the couch, drawing the blanket around her. If it was as simple as what Maddy had done before, then it should be over quickly, and she might not have any problem with this. The fact that ending up on the highway naked might repeat again and again in her world was terrifying. If she had some block, as he’d called it, something that was beyond comprehension, she wanted to know about it. And, if it had something to do with her own erratic actions, as he clearly suspected, she needed to know about it. Above all else, she needed to understand the root of this evil.
She was still curled up on the couch when he returned.
“Thankfully, it’s good timing,” he murmured, as he sat down beside her, adjusting the blanket so it covered her better. “Maddy is just getting prepared.”
She nodded. “I can’t imagine what her life is like.”
He flashed her a grin. “All of our lives are different,” he noted, his gaze still intent on her, as if looking for a sign that she was something other than what she really thought she was.
“And Grant is really her partner?”
“Her husband. They got married in a quiet ceremony on an island off the coast, a special island at that. They stayed for almost a week, out in the middle of nowhere, just communing with the animals.”
“Animals or mammals?”
“In this case, both,” he replied, with a chuckle.
“That would have been very special.”
“It was. I can always take you in some day and meet them.”
“That would be lovely,” she said, and then she frowned. “But that would mean that you wanted to stick around and to get to know who I really was, without all this stuff going on.”
“I absolutely do,” he confirmed, looking at her. “Or have you really not figured that out by now?” He laid his hand beside her, palm up.
Instinctively she put hers into it, looking at their joined hands. “It seems half the time that you’re suspicious of me, so that has made me wary of you.”
“Of course, and I don’t know that suspicious of you is quite how I would put it. Suspicious of what’s going on, definitely,” he explained in the gentlest of voices.
“You always talk to me like I’m some injured twelve-year-old,” she said. “I’m really not, and I’m much stronger than you think.”
“That’s good, and I hope so because it looks like we’ll be heading for some kind of a rough finish.”
“Tonight?” she asked, bolting upright.
He squeezed her hand and, with his other hand, gently nudged her back down again. “No, this is more of a fact-finding mission.”
But something in his voice made her feel that there was more to this than she was sensing. “What if you find something?”
“It depends on what we find.”
“Right.” She turned her gaze to look at the safe. Even now she felt the artifacts calling to her. “I hate to say it, but I still want to grab that necklace and put it on.”
He nodded. “That’s one of the things I’m hoping to break you free of.”
“Tonight?” she asked, her gaze going back to him once again.
“Not so much tonight, as throughout this process.”
Not a whole lot she could argue with in that.
“But I have to have your permission.”
“You have it for that,” she said. “I don’t know what this is.” She waited for him to add something more.
When his phone buzzed, he looked over at her.
She swallowed. “I presume that means it’s time.”
He nodded. “It’s time, so I want you to just lie here and relax.”
She stared at him. “If our positions were reversed, would you be able to do that?”
He thought about it for a long moment, shrugged, and admitted, “I believe I would buckle down and give it hell.”
She gave him a feral grin. “Yeah, I am working on that.” She closed her eyes and went through a series of mantras to try to get herself to relax. When he gently unfurled her clenched fists, she realized she was failing terribly.
“It’ll be fine.”
She didn’t open her eyes but squeezed his hand. “If you can keep holding my hand like that, it will make this easier.” He did, and she relaxed slightly, feeling some semblance of calm easing over her. She didn’t know if it was him, Dr. Maddy, both of them, or neither, but regardless it was working.
Jewel took a deep breath and sank farther into the couch. She took another breath and another, and, before she realized it, she was floating in some weird space. She heard Hurricane in her mind, saying, That’s perfect, just stay like that. Relax, float, and think about happier times.
She didn’t respond, unsure if she was supposed to, and just watched as clouds floated overhead and the sun beckoned in the distance. It was peaceful, warm. There was a light breeze, and the air smelled fresh and felt easy, as it glided over her skin, feeling alive under its touch.
She looked down at her hands, noting that she still held Hurricane’s hand, even here. Then she realized an energy flow going from her hand to his. Like a bright light, she was lit up like a Christmas tree, with a million strings running up and down her body. As she looked over at his hand, she realized his arm extended into the distance, as if not an arm so much as … She wasn’t sure, but like a thread—or a cord perhaps.
