Garden of Sorrow (Book 4 of Psychic Visions, a paranormal romantic suspense) (39 page)

On her new path, she opened her heart and sent out warm, loving energy, just as she would for an ailing plant. Thinking it might help, she transmitted a thick broadband of power toward Kevin. Even as the love flowed from her psyche, thick, fat droplets of water dripped down the icy prison walls. She turned up the heat, firing warm colors and powerful energy outward at the ice that already was cracking under the curing power of her love.

Long seconds later, she was free.

And back in her body.

An almost soundless groan escaped as she assimilated her mind into her physical world.

No one noticed, so locked were they in the frozen tableau playing out in her hospital room.

Alexis opened her eyes a faint crack, trying to decipher the strange feel to the atmosphere.

Relief swelled in her heart as she recognized that the heavy weight over her waist was Kevin's arm. Her relief quickly turned to horror. His arm was limp and lifeless. What was wrong? She cracked her eyes open a little more.

Only to slam them closed.

Shit!

Carefully, she peeked again. Sandra, wearing a hospital gown, held a handgun in her weak fingers. It looked like Kevin's gun.

Stefan stood mere steps from the smoking firearm. "Easy, Sandra, take it easy. Please, we need to get help for Kevin."

Quiet, Alex!
Alexis started at Lissa's caution.
Kevin's hurt. Help him, but don't let anyone know that you're back. Stefan will take care of Glen.

What?
She was still groggy and disoriented. Her mind struggled to adapt. Something about Kevin being in danger? Right. That's what had snapped her back.

Then she sensed what was wrong. Alexis plunged into Kevin's mind and into his body. Dear God, he'd been shot! His searing pain stabbed through her.

Alexis ceased to be in that moment.

She gave of herself, and liberated the loving energy of her own body and transmitted it to him. With that, she opened the door between them. Not just the door between their minds, but the door between their souls.

Waves of her loving energy poured through him, becoming one with him. Blood seeped through the wound in his side, dripping relentlessly down onto her hospital bed. Her energy received the pain, even as she transmitted her healthy energy into him. Mending. Rebuilding. Healing.

Hot energy flashed and sparked as it encompassed the injury, warming and communicating with the damaged cells. She understood something momentous was happening. A bonding that could only be broken by death…and maybe not even by that.

She transmitted every healing thing she could pull from her energy, his energy and that from those around her.
Heal. Be strong. Help is on its way. Be one and be whole – join with me. Together we can finish this. Together we are stronger. Undefeatable.

The lights in the room flickered as she pulled in even more power to transmit to Kevin.

She shifted slightly, snuggling back against his unconscious body.

Groggy whispers echoed through her mind.
Alexis, in case I don't make it…

Shh! None of that. You're going to be fine. Feel the healing, it's unmistakable.

You're in my mind! And my body?
Amazement poured off him.
See, I told you. You're phenomenal
.

Her warm energy radiated, laughing in triumph – even ringed as it was with fatigue.
And I will celebrate, when this is over.
She widened the energy pathways, pulling healing energy from the world around her into her space and transmitting the life force for his body to use. She poured all that she was into him. Why the sheets weren't burning with the heat, she didn't know. She turned it up a notch, feeling the drain on her resources at the new demands.

Stop! You're exhausting yourself. I'm fine now. Stop it
, he added sharply.

Instinctively, she toned down her actions and checked her own energy levels.
I'm okay. I'm trying to read Sandra's energy at the same time.

What?

Check out what's going on in the room.
Her voice wavered. She wasn't strong enough to do this for long.

***

Stefan watched the continuing tussle on both levels as it played out in front of him.

It appeared that the ultimate act of firing the gun had brought Sandra back to the forefront, and she was now caught in the horrifying battle for life…with Glen trying to control her every move.

Sandra, who'd hidden from most of the unpleasant issues of her life, couldn't seem to bring herself to fire the weapon a second time. The war in her head seemed to be more than she could deal with. She no longer knew who she was…only who she wasn't.

The struggle was mirrored in the wild expression in her eyes and her tortuous, snarling features as the fight continued for control of her physical body.

Stefan and Lissa could only watch, helpless to do anything.

***

Sandra
, whispered Alexis, urgently, inside the older woman's confused mind.
Fight, Sandra. You can't let him win. He's taken everything from you that you love. Fight, Sandra.

I can't,
whimpered the tired woman.
I loved him once. He's too strong and he knows me too well.

Yes, you can. If you let him win, you will be no more. Fight!
Alexis ordered harshly. Sandra had curled up, defenseless, in a tiny corner of her own mind, helpless to continue the unfair battle. Glen was winning.

Forget about her, she's weak.
He said and then his harsh laughter amplified ten times over in the small space.

Alexis's fury knew no bounds. This man couldn't be allowed to continue.
Sandra, he killed John. He killed Charles. Don't let him continue
.

What would get the woman's attention? She didn't know the truth, and knowing that Sandra wouldn't know at this point either, Alexis pulled out all the stops.
He killed Marie. And he made you carry the guilt for that because you chose John over him.

That caught Sandra's attention. The quavering voice asked,
Do you really think he killed my baby girl?

Pity welled in Alexis's heart. This poor woman.
Yes, Sandra, I really do. Worse, Sandra he abused Marie before she died by controlling you. He hurt her through you. Over and over again. He enjoyed it. Making her suffer. Making many other children suffer… Making you suffer. Don't let him live to hurt more children. Sandra fight! Please!
she pleaded anxiously. Sandra had to stand up for her right to her own life.

But in her mind, Sandra squeezed into the tightest ball that she could be. It was a feeble attempt to protect herself against the villain living in her soul.

Glen mocked her.
What the hell are you going to do, Sandra? I am in control, not you. Stupid bitch!

Sandra was flung back against the wall by an unseen power that came out of nowhere, dominating and controlling her as he would a cringing pet.

But everyone has a breaking point, and Sandra finally reached hers. Alexis watched the painful video of horrid thoughts pouring though Sandra's damaged mind. How many times had this man controlled her like this, making her do things she didn't remember? Would anyone ever know the extent of the damage inflicted by this madman?

Alexis held her breath and watched anxiously as Sandra gathered her failing strength for one last battle.

Dismissing Sandra as already lost, Glen redirected his energy toward Alexis, casually flicking her out of Sandra's mind and slamming her back into her own.

There was no time to adjust. Alexis opened her eyes to watch the scene unfold in slow motion.

Sandra lifted the handgun, pointing it first at the couple entwined on the bed, zeroing in on Glen's choice of target, before lifting it in an agonizingly stilted motion to her own head. She held it there, fighting for supremacy, for what seemed like an infinity.

No!
came the eerie echo reverberating inside Alexis's mind. At the same time noises filled the room as Glen fought desperately in his losing battle for dominance against Sandra's will.

In breathless horror, the audience could only watch.

Sandra pulled the trigger.

Blood and brain splattered across the room.

Sandra had won…and lost.

Traumatized silence reigned.

Then the air was filled with sounds of yelling and running footsteps rushing toward them.

Alexis closed her eyes. What a waste…

Relief, sadness and thankfulness filled her. It was over.

Exhaustion washed over her, pulling her under. And she let it, happy to sink back into the sea of semi-consciousness, connected as one with Kevin, barely aware and wholly uncaring of the chaos going on around her.

Three weeks later.

"A
lexis, are you sure you're ready for this?"

The group gathered comfortably in a circle on Stefan's living room floor. The ritual of drinks had already been observed and they were now ready for the evening's work.

Alexis smiled at Stefan. "I'm definitely ready. Besides, I'm not the one who got shot," she teased the quiet man sitting close to her.

Kevin smiled at her, reaching out to tousle her hair. "I'm fine. I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of my injury, aren't I?"

"Maybe," she agreed cheekily. "At least until the next time."

He snorted. "As it's not going to happen; don't hold your breath. Besides, I'm not the one who tangled with a serial killer's twisted mind."

A sobering reminder. "True. That's why it's important we finish tonight's work. Only then will this be over. For what Glen did to Daisy and all those other children he deserved to have lain in bed all those years. But those children need to be freed."

"The children have been there for a long time. If they have to wait a little longer, it won't make that much difference. He can't hurt them now."

They still didn't know how many early victims of Glen's were caught in-between. Alexis hoped they would eventually, but…

"No," Alexis was resolute. "Tonight, we rescue them and show them the way home."

Some of the victims' bodies might never be found, but at least this way, she could rest easy, knowing that their souls were free to go on. She hadn't seen the little boy, Eric, since the first time, but knew he still wandered, lost.

Kevin was following up on several of the other leads, if only to find closure for his sake and the sake of the children's families. Maybe more victims would surface and maybe not. This was enough for now. She smiled at the two friends who had shown her so much. Lissa sat with them, her form just visible enough for Alexis to see.

She didn't want sadness to destroy their efforts tonight, but she couldn't resist asking,
Lissa, you do know that I'll be okay now…if it's time for you to leave? I'll understand and be happy for you.

Alexis dreaded her sister's answer. But after seeing those children locked in-between life and death and beyond, she knew that no matter how much she missed her sister's presence, she wouldn't wish that on any soul.

Lissa's tinkling laughter whispered through the room with the softness of a warm wind.
I'll be here for a little while longer. I'm sure there are other people that could use my loving assistance with their lives.
She looked pointedly at Stefan.

Alexis grinned. Was it her imagination or did Stefan look decidedly uncomfortable at Lissa's suggested inference?

"Then let's begin." Closing her eyes, she opened the door in her mind, then released loving energy waves to create a path forward.

She opened her eyes to see Daisy laughing, running down the path, a string of children following her.

Death had touched anthropologist Jade Hansen in Haiti once before, costing her an unborn child and perhaps her very sanity.

A year later, determined to face her own issues, she returns to Haiti with a mortuary team to recover the bodies of an American family from a mass grave. Visiting his brother after the quake, independent contractor Dane Carter puts his life on hold to help the sleepy town of Jacmel rebuild. But he finds it hard to like his brother's pregnant wife or her family. He wants to go home, until he meets Jade – and realizes what's missing in his own life. When the mortuary team begins work, it's as if malevolence has been released from the earth. Instead of laying her ghosts to rest, Jade finds herself confronting death and terror again.

And the man who unexpectedly awakens her heart – is right in the middle of it all.

It's the first day of Ninna's job in the local animal shelter...and a dog is talking to her. Not just any dog...a fat, old, smart-alecky Basset Hound who says his name is Mosey.

She can't quit, she needs this job. And then there's the yummy vet. Who turns out to live across the street from her in a much bigger house than her tiny house. Big enough to hold a few animals – including the mouthy Mosey. With all this going on, she doesn't have time to worry about the rash of break-ins and the sense of being watched. She's too busy worrying that she's nuts.

When Ninna agrees to dog sit for the cute vet from work, she sees it as a trial at being a pet owner and a way to build on her budding relationship with the vet. For Mosey, this weekend means time to get to know each other.

For the stalker who's tracking Ninna's movements, it means…opportunity.

Dale Mayer is a prolific multi-published writer. She's best known for her Psychic Visions series. Besides her romantic suspense/thrillers, Dale also writes paranormal romance and crossover young adult books in several different genres. To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in digital and print formats.

Vampire in Denial