Eyes to the Soul (20 page)

She waited. And waited. Then unable to help herself, she turned in Dr. Maddy’s direction and realized the other woman’s breathing had changed. Become deep. Slow. Too slow.

Celina bolted to her feet and raced over. She reached out her hand when the door opened and Stefan raced in. “Don’t touch her,” he cried.

Her arm froze in midair. She stared in his direction, hearing him drop to the floor. Then nothing. No movement. No sound. What was he doing? “I don’t know what happened to her,” she cried.

“It’s all right. I can help her. Just sit back and let me work.”

Confused but grateful, Celina fumbled her way back to her chair. “Is she going to be okay?”

“Yes, but I have to bring her back. Please sit down in your chair and don’t move. I’ll talk to you in a few moments.”

And he went quiet.

Deadly quiet.

Celina waited nervously. She didn’t know what was going on, but Stefan seemed to have it in control. But he wasn’t calling for help. In fact, he’d gone so quiet himself she had to wonder if
he
was okay.

A weird hum filled the office. She searched the room for the source. And found nothing. Just a weird noise to go with her weird visit at the weird specialist. The noise grew louder and louder.

Then it stopped, just like that. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and prayed that both people were going to be okay. She opened her eyes and froze. Two figures stood before her. Two bright, glowing figures. Not ghosts. Or at least if they were ghosts, they were like none she’d seen before.

One male and the other female.

And damned if she didn’t suddenly get it. “It’s you two, isn’t it?” she cried. “I can see both of you. But you look…so different.”

A light musical laughter filled the room… or was it her mind? Celina didn’t know. She didn’t care. She couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing. “Really, it’s you?”

“It’s us. What do you see?”

“Two figures. Both of you more like glow sticks with shapes, and as you move there are bits and pieces of your colors floating off behind you.”

Stefan laughed. “That’s very good. What colors do you see?”

“Dr. Maddy is a luminescent green and you are all gold,” she whispered, both entranced and horrified.

“Are you…” and she stopped, having trouble getting the rest of the sentence out of her mouth. She gulped. In a rush the words poured out. “Are you both dead?”

And damned if they didn’t laugh again.

Stefan shook his head, wisps of energy drifting off in all directions. She was fascinated. “If you aren’t dead, why can I see you?”

“That’s a very good question. What you are seeing is our energetic forms. Do you recognize that your eyes are closed? You opened your inner eyes.”

Her hands reached up, gently touching her eyelids.

Her eyes shot open. They were right. Now she couldn’t see them. She spun around and searched the small office in case they’d moved on her. Slowly she turned back and deliberately closed her eyes…and she saw them inside her mind. Or against the back of her eyelids. She didn’t know how that worked.

“How is that possible?” she asked in wonder. “This is how I see ghosts, true, but you look different.” She struggled for the right words, knowing they were looking for more of an explanation. In the end she could only say, “You look… alive.”

Dr. Maddy laughed and said, “Good. That’s the way we should look. We’ll come back now, and then I can go over what I saw in your head.”

Her words had Celina freezing in place. Dr. Maddy had been inside her head. God. How could any of this be possible?

She reached out for her chair, stilling when a male hand reached out and directed her hand toward the left. She followed his lead and sank into her chair with a sigh of relief. She whispered, “Thank you.”

His fingers stroked down hers and lingered for a long moment before finally drifting away, his touch as soft as a summer’s breeze but as caring as a lover’s kiss. She was deeply touched. Who was this man who could walk in energetic form and be a consultant for both the police and Dr. Maddy? How his role here worked she had no idea.

But she wanted to know.

She wanted to get to know him better, except he already seemed to know her – a little too well. Yet that in itself was intriguing. Disturbing but… intriguing at the same time. Like a fly drawn to the shiny web in front of her, she was taking steps that in her heart she knew she probably shouldn’t but couldn’t stop herself from doing so regardless.

She sighed and turned her head to the muted conversation going on at her side. Coffee – they were discussing coffee. Hesitantly she asked, “If coffee is an option then yes, please.”

Dr. Maddy said, “It definitely is. I’m going to make myself a latte – will you join me?”

Celina brightened. She’d expected a simple drip system. “That would be lovely, thank you.”

“I’ll make them,” Stefan said. “You two can discuss the recent events.”

“Yes, what happened to you?” Celina asked curiously. “I thought you’d had a heart attack or something equally horrible. Then Stefan came racing inside and next thing I know you’re in that weird energetic form that I could see.” Celina tilted her head and waited to hear the answer.

“I was trying to observe the blackness in your head and was able to determine that it wasn’t organic like a tumor, but energetic, as in a non-energy mass.” There was wry humor in her voice as she added, “That’s the good news.”

“How is that good news?” She couldn’t stop herself from reaching up to brush her fingers over her temple and eyes. “It sounds horrible.”

“It’s interesting. The next thing, and something I wasn’t able to determine, is whether you have put this blockage in place or if you have allowed someone else to.”

“Allowed?” she cried in outrage. “I’d never allow someone to do that.”

“Actually,” Stefan interrupted, the sounds of a milk steamer going on behind Dr. Maddy, “in order for someone to have done this they had to have your acceptance at some point in time. It could potentially have been a long time ago. But somewhere along the line you agreed.”

She shook her head. “I’d never have agreed.”

“That’s the thing,” Dr. Maddy said. “You might not have agreed to this, but you agreed to whatever this started as.”

“That’s horrible,” Celina whispered. “I’d never have agreed if I’d known.”

“Don’t be too upset, as we don’t know what this is yet,” Stefan said.

She couldn’t help but stare toward him. “That’s hardly reassuring. Whether I know or understand any of this, to know that I have something going on inside my head is horrifying.”

Stefan silently finished making the coffees and delivered the drinks.

Lifting the cup to her mouth Celina took a tiny sip, trying to marshal her thoughts. She couldn’t get her mind wrapped around what they were trying to tell her. How real was this blockage? She really didn’t know anything about this type of work. And that was something she had to rectify. She’d never blindly believed anyone. Still, she couldn’t doubt that there had been a horrific pain that she also couldn’t explain. She’d had no physical reason for that pain. The eye surgeon had said everything looked good. She’d been through a ton of tests originally and they’d found nothing. No one had ever found a physical, tangible reason for her blindness. Now she was faced with the intangible reasons.

And if all else doesn’t make sense, then what’s left must be true.

She sighed. “Okay. Tell me more.”

*

Stefan hated to
hear the overwhelmed tone in her voice. He knew this was tough for most people. He felt for her but knew he was limited in what he could do at the moment.

“What do you want to know?” he asked.

She turned toward him, narrowed her gaze – as if she could see him – and said, “What does any of this have to do with you?”

He grinned. “I should have realized. I’m sorry. I left you my card but as it’s not in Braille…” He kicked himself for not having made it clear before. “I work with energy. In all forms. I also work on the energy dome surrounding Maddy’s project here. She’s a specialist in healing energy. I don’t have her skills in that way, but I can see and do a lot in other things.”

Her silvery eyes locked on him. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she mulled his words over.

“I’ll leave that for the moment.” She turned to face Dr. Maddy. “You said this blockage could be something I did to myself. I can’t understand how or for what reason I would do this. Can you?”

Dr. Maddy shifted closer in her chair. Stefan leaned back against the coffee counter and watched her move smoothly into her healer mode. She was so good. Such natural, warm instincts. Waves of soothing blue and healing green and light pink for joy wafted toward Celina. He watched as the energy ribbons stroked over Celina’s ruffled aura, easing back her stress and lightening up her depression. It was so subtle that for some it would be the same effect as a warm, caring hug. In Maddy’s case, that hug could do so much more. She was truly gifted.

He watched Celina shift back in her chair and relax as her own energy eased up and let some of Maddy’s into its space. Together the energy warmed and worked on soothing the frayed edges of her emotions. She had to be feeling better.

He tuned back in to the conversation. Dr. Maddy was going into a light variation of how people we cared about could stay behind.

“Meaning that someone I care about could be doing this?”

Dr. Maddy hesitated. “That’s possible. It’s also possible that the person you care about is not who they are on the inside. Time and conditions can twist anyone.”

Celina’s lower lip trembled. Oh shit. Stefan cast around for something to add to the conversation when Maddy said, “It could also be someone that you cared about and is long gone.”

The lip firmed and Celina’s gaze sharpened. She leaned forward and asked, caution in her voice, “Are you saying the person doing this could be dead? As in a ghost?”

At the affirmative answer Celina sank back and closed her eyes for a long moment. “You know this sounds really crazy, don’t you?”

“It can’t sound any crazier than some cases I’ve been involved with,” Stefan said. “Cases that involved the dead or disassociated, and yes, ghosts.”

Startled, she turned that stunning gaze on him. “I find this all so strange.”

Yet her energy wasn’t showing shock. In fact, there was acceptance and some understanding filtering through her aura.

“But not really.” Dr. Maddy smiled. “You already see ghosts. You have contact with the recently deceased and with the not-so-recently deceased. This is just one further step.”

Celina took a deep, shaky breath. “Given that this is all a tremendous amount of information to absorb and I can’t possibly get a handle on it all right now, maybe we could just continue and you could tell me what happens next. What are we going to do?”

This was where it got tricky. Stefan knew she wouldn’t like the answer.

“There is no clear-cut answer that we can give you. You are the one that needs to do some research into why this might be happening.” Dr. Maddy frowned. “I can tell you that the couple of times I’ve come close to this blockage it has slashed out in an incredibly strong reaction and caused both you and I a great deal of pain.”

Celina winced. “I remember. But I can’t just go on with this in my head.” Her voice rose at the end, alternately shocked and pleading, but ending with a tinge of anger.

“There are some things we can do,” Stefan interrupted. That gaze pivoted his way. He asked her, “At the time that Dr. Maddy came close to the blockage, did you feel anything other than pain? Did you hear anyone talking to you? Did you notice anything different?”

Oh wow. He straightened up and watched in amazement as her aura immediately locked down, kicking Dr. Maddy’s and his energy out and away from hers. Not just out, but pushed away. He could see both of their energies now drifting a good foot outside the edge of her aura.

“I guess the answer is yes,” he murmured.

“Pardon?” The frown on her face deepened. “What do you mean?”

Stefan looked at Maddy to find her staring back at him.

Did she just do that and have no idea?
she asked.

I think so. I think her defenses are so ingrained this is a natural response to any questioning that makes her uncomfortable.

Dr. Maddy turned to study Celina’s energy. She was doing this but was almost disassociated from it. As if she set it up a long time ago and had forgotten about it.

“Are you two whispering?” Celina frowned. “What’s happened?” she said in a sharp voice. “What’s different?”

With a raised eyebrow at Maddy and her nod, Stefan said, “Remember I can see and work energy? And remember that a few moments ago you could see both Dr. Maddy and I in energetic form? Well, a few minutes ago our energy, which was soothing yours and helping to ease the tension in the back of your neck, was immediately kicked out of your aura – after I asked you that question.”

Confusion rippled across her features. “Kicked out? Soothing the tension in my neck? I don’t understand.”

Dr. Maddy said in a gentle voice, “Maybe you don’t consciously understand, but you have a strong defensive mechanism. It was totally fine for me to work on removing the knots along your neck and muscles, but Stefan’s question triggered this defense, and in order to distance and detach yourself from the answer, your system locked down.”