Eyes to the Soul (14 page)

See, now I’m going to be interested in finding that out too.
She shuddered as the same insidious, poisonous voice crept through her mind.

Go away
, she snapped.
This has nothing to do with you.

Ha. We’ll see about that.

She mentally took that gargoyle image that she always saw in her mind and poured cement on top of him. It always worked – for a moment or two. Then he somehow managed to break through and return. Often though, he became really angry that he couldn’t control her and would take off, looking for new ways to torment her.

She waited a moment longer to make sure she was alone, then reached for the doorknob and walked inside.

“There you are.” The woman’s voice on the left was quietly relieved. “I’m so happy you made it.”

Celina laughed. “I almost didn’t. That downtown traffic is deadly at this time.”

“I know,” the woman commiserated. “Let’s hope it will be worth it. We aren’t used to working weekends, but we’ve had patients in and out all day and they’ve been saying variations of the same thing.”

Celina smiled politely. She stood in the middle of the room, not quite sure what she was supposed to do.

“I’ll take you right into the examining room and let Dr. Jorgensen know you are here.”

Relieved, Celina let herself be led to an examining room. There were sounds in the other room of an animated conversation going on. She smiled, loving the sound of the woman’s voice. And she’d never heard her eye doctor sound quite so alive before. The door opened to tinkling laughter that was so infectious Celina couldn’t help but smile.

“Here she is.” Dr. Jorgensen moved into the room in his usual short, hoppy movements. He was a small man and clipped his shoes on the tile floor as he walked. It made it easier to keep track of his whereabouts as he moved around her.

Celina smiled. “Good afternoon. I’m so sorry for missing my appointment. I completely forgot about it.”

“Not to worry. You made it and that’s what counts.”

He shifted to face someone who stood in the doorway.

Celina opened her eyes, and damn if she didn’t see something greeny gold in the doorway. Interesting. Either one of her ghosts had decided to come and visit her here – which would be odd but not unheard of – or this specialist had something odd going on so Celina could actually see her. She saw ghosts in colors and energy forms all the time but not people. And that would be incredibly unusual as well. But it gave her hope.

She nodded acknowledgement to the now silent woman standing still at the entrance. “You are the specialist Dr. Jorgenson wanted me to meet?” she asked.

“I’m Dr. Maddy.” The woman glided into the room gently, carefully, as if feeling her way. Celina tilted her head, her eyes open as she watched bright yellow and green colors stream and twist with the woman’s movements. She’d never seen anything like it. With or without her sight.

“Hello, Dr. Maddy. Thank you for seeing me.”

Dr. Maddy said, “Hi, Celina. Dr. Jorgensen has told me so much about you.”

She could hear the smile in Dr. Maddy’s voice making her respond in kind. “That’s probably not a good thing.” Celina shrugged. “He can’t figure out why I can’t see.”

“I’ve seen your medical records and the surgical reports. According to what I’ve read the surgery to reduce the pressure on your optic nerve and reattach the optic nerve in your left eye was a complete success.”

“How can it be a success if I can’t see?” Celina countered.

“That’s why I’d like to take a look.” Dr. Maddy approached. “May I?”

Celina nodded. “Go ahead.”

For the next half hour Celina went through every eye test she’d already had done many times over. She waited in silence while the two doctors carried out minimal conversation. Then Dr. Maddy stepped around Dr. Jorgensen to stand in front of her. “May I explore your head?”

Dr. Jorgensen took that moment to step out of the room.

Curiously Celina nodded. “Of course.”

What followed was a systematic search of her head as Dr. Maddy’s long fingers glided and stroked from front to back, from side to side. At one point she said, “Interesting.” But she didn’t elaborate.

Celina had no idea what her skull shape might have to do with anything, but she was willing to be checked over for anything.

After it seemed Dr. Maddy had done everything she could do, Celina asked, “Well, did you find anything?”

“Maybe, but I need to perform a couple more checks. I’m going to leave you here for a few moments.” And she left. The door shut, leaving Celina alone. She wanted to get up and move around but something stopped her. She didn’t feel like she was being watched, but neither did she feel like she was quite alone.

As she sat there, a strange lassitude filled her limbs. A warmth like she’d never experienced before crawled up her legs. She’d have cried out in shock but it felt good – so good she didn’t want it to stop. She whimpered in delight as the heat reached the aching muscles from last night. She probably should have mentioned the accident to the doctor, but he would likely have tut-tutted her to death and not been able to help anyway.

The heat continued to climb up her hips and spine. Celina leaned back and moaned lightly as her body let the stress drain from her neck and shoulders. Heat spread to all corners of her body, making her almost writhe with joy. Peacefulness filled her as she shifted into the heat, to the places that were missed. It continued to climb higher and higher, easing into her neck and whistling through her veins.

She shivered, then shuddered. That felt so good. She had never felt anything like it. She wanted it to last – forever, if possible.

Then it shifted into her skull and heat flashed and danced through her brain. She reached up a hand to her forehead to see if the warmth she was feeling inside was emanating outside. But it wasn’t. Her forehead was cool. So was her neck. Bizarre. Yet there was no fear attached. There was a sense of joy. Release. Peace. Lord, it felt wonderful. She didn’t know if Dr. Maddy was responsible or not. She hoped so, because she’d do a lot for a repeat session.

And then the heat hit her eyes.

She groaned. The warmth turned hot and achy inside her skull. What had been a comforting heat now sent flares of spitting shocks into her skull. She slammed her hands up against her head and she cried out.

Instantly the pain stopped.

The heat stopped.

And the flares inside her head stopped.

The comforting warmth washed over her, sweeping her body gently in long, soothing strokes from the top of her head down. She shuddered as her body eased back again in relief as she realized the pain was not coming back. She didn’t know what had happened, but it had been brutal. So fast and so deep, with such cutting pain. She hadn’t had time to do anything but react.

She’d gone from being in a euphoric daze to being in agony.

Slowly the panic eased back. And peace was again filling her insides. If nothing else she was starting to feel better. She opened her eyes, willing them to see something. At least a little bit. Enough that she could get around to do what needed to be done.

Just not enough…

Not enough for me to see? Is that it?

She stilled, the benefit of the smooth healing instantly evaporating. “What do you want?” she hissed out loud, hating that he could understand when she spoke to him in her mind or out loud.

I want to see. Let me see.

“No.”

You’re here now. Fix it. Let me see.

She slammed her eyes shut and swore softly under her breath.

Her nasty visitor laughed, that same horrible sound that gave her nightmares and woke her up in a cold sweat.

No. I will never let you see.

*

Maddy sat cross-legged
in Dr. Jorgensen’s office. A ripple of aftershock still wracked down her own spine, even as she gently stroked Celina’s spine back to peacefulness again. Shaken but quickly regaining her sense of balance, Maddy left anchors in place for further work. And there was further work required. But not the same type of healing work she was used to.

All the energy issues she saw came from different emotional issues or physical causes. That she hadn’t come up against one like this before didn’t mean much – especially given the millions of different scenarios that people came up with to hide. Nothing was protected more than one’s deepest, darkest secrets. And she had no way to know at this point what Celina might be hiding or was indeed trying to protect.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly eased out of her meditative state and pulled her energy back into her body. She opened her eyes and stared at the plain, simple office, her thoughts churning. She needed to come up with something to say to Celina, and then she needed to connect to Stefan… and fast.

*

Stefan sat outside
on his deck, a pot of healing tea at his side. The late afternoon sun had slipped lower behind the trees, setting up a kaleidoscope of rays peeking through the branches. He loved this time of day.

Stefan.

He smiled.
Hello, beautiful. What’s up?

I just did a session on your Celina.

At the concern in her voice the smile fell away.
What’s wrong with her?
He couldn’t keep the alarm from his voice.

That’s the thing. I couldn’t get to the correct region of her eyes to find out. I came up against some major walls that immediately attacked me.

Attacked you?
he asked incredulously.
Why?

I have no idea. And no, before you ask, I’ve never seen it before.
She took a deep shaky breath
. It was a little unnerving.

Sounds like it,
he muttered.
Are you all right?

Yes.
She rushed to reassure him.
I’m fine. I’m not sure what to say about Celina.

Is she healthy in every other way?

Yes, in remarkably good physical health. Not in energetic health. She’s stressed and bleeding an incredible amount of energy to her injured friends, keeping her ghost communications functioning, and the anger, guilt…she’s feeding that with energy she doesn’t have to spare.

Anger for what?
Stefan asked cautiously.

I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her.

He snorted.
And how do you recommend I do that?

There was a long silence. He shifted in his position like a child caught in a lie.

She smiled, the mirth rippling through his mind. He flushed. Damn it. Was nothing ever secret?

I’ll leave you to answer that question all on your own
, she said, laughing.
I need to do some more research on Celina and that blockage. I left anchors in place to make it easier to track back.

Does she know what you’re doing?

Not clearly. She did agree to see me as a specialist. She was aware subconsciously of my actions as I worked to balance her chakras and smooth the blockages in her meridians. She’s very responsive. But it’s not like we had a discussion on energetic healing.

Excellent.
And it was. It made a person easier to work with, and they healed faster if their energy ran smoothly. It also showed an affinity for energy work. That would also explain her kinship with ghosts. Energy was energy – on both sides of death’s door.

*