Maddy's Floor (25 page)

Maddy watched as John opened his eyes and frowned.

"What's everyone doing here? Am I dying?"

Dr. Cunningham snorted. "Not today. The nurses overreacted, as usual."

Gerona's face thinned at the criticism. She stayed silent. Maddy frowned. Dr. Cunningham had never been anything other than respectful in her presence. Then again, he probably wasn't himself because he'd been working so hard, been buried under at the ER because of the accident. He also hated being bothered with trivial things.

However, Gerona was an experienced nurse. If she said there was something off, then Maddy would believe her. Amber had been the one who'd called her, but on Gerona's urging.

Maddy took another long assessing glance at John. The white energy would hold for a few hours, maybe a day or two. Somehow, they had to deal with this dark energy, fast and permanently. In the distance, she could hear Drew calling to her. She disconnected from John.

"Maddy? Maddy, we're here at the hospital. Come back, please."

After a heavy pause while she struggled to shift through realities, she sensed him lean over her. Maddy opened her eyes.

***

Drew reared back in surprise. "Jesus." He closed his eyes in relief before reaching over and kissing her hard. "I don't know what you did. Just don't do it again
ever
, please. That's bloody scary." The cop in him had wanted to call 911; he'd been unsure enough to wait it out. Thank heavens she'd woken up when she had, if waking up was the right term for this.

She sat up slowly, and then closed her eyes as color washed over her face before quickly receding. "I'm fine," she whispered. "Thanks."

"Good," he retorted. "I'm not. How's my uncle?"

"Dying."

"What? Now?"
Jesus.
He looked up at the imposing structure outside the car window.

"No." She chuckled lightly. "That's not what I meant. There's something weird going on with him that I can't figure out."

"Will he make it through the night?" Drew studied her face closely, as if the answers to the universe rested there.

Maybe they did. He knew his own beliefs in life and death, evidence and cold facts, were slowly eroding. Maddy had him questioning everything he thought he knew. He didn't know what the result would be – he hoped Maddy would be there at the end.

"As far as I can tell, yes. However, there are no guarantees here, remember that."

He tugged her into his arms. "Got it. You're not God. You're one of His angels."

Her snort was muffled by his shirt. She nestled in closer. Drew squeezed her gently, enjoying the rare comfort of holding her tight. Chances were good she didn't let this happen very often. He'd like nothing more than to take her home and hold her close for the rest of the night. "Do we need to go inside still?"

"No." She yawned and lifted her head. "I think he's fine now. Besides, his doctor is there with him, so I'm no longer needed."

He stroked a large hand over her face, smoothing the tousled locks back behind her ears. "And what do you need?" Leaning closer, he peered into her eyes. "This has obviously taken a toll on you."

"It has. It doesn't always, though. Tonight, I have to admit, I am tired."

"Let's get you home."

Tucking her up against his side, Drew started his truck. Maddy mumbled a slight protest as he removed his arm from around her shoulders. "It's all right. I'm not going anywhere. However you, my dear, are going to bed."

Maddy smiled up at him. "Sounds good to me," she whispered sleepily.

Sounded good to him too, only she was beyond anything more than crashing. True to his word, Drew had her back to her apartment within minutes. This time though, there was no suggestion of letting her walk up on her own. Drew came around and opened the passenger door and helped her to her feet.

Attempting to get out of the vehicle and walk up the sidewalk, Maddy stumbled. Drew held her close, clasped her around the waist with one arm and guided her through the front door to the elevator. At her apartment, she fumbled for her keys. Pulling them out, she handed them over to Drew.

Once inside, he shut the door behind them and gave her a gentle push toward her bedroom. "Bedtime."

"I'm going. I'm going," she muttered, stumbling through the doorway. "Good night."

"I'm not going anywhere. I want to make sure you're all right."

Holding onto the doorframe, she twisted around enough to face him. Surprise lit her features. "I'm fine, honest. I did do some energy work tonight, but it wasn't bad. The long night has just caught up with me."

"If you say so." Like hell. He'd seen how she'd looked in his car. A day-old corpse had more life.

"Honest. It's safe to leave me. I'll be in bed in like five minutes."

"Good, get going. I'm not leaving."

Exasperated, she turned around and kicked off her heels. "Then you might as well sleep in the spare room for the night. It's so late now, you're not going to get any sleep otherwise."

Not a bad idea. Drew swallowed hard as Maddy stripped off the red sweater as she went into her bedroom, leaving him with a stunning view of her slim back, ribs encased in a black and red bra, gentle curves heading down to the top of black pants.

So close and yet so far.

Resolutely, he walked toward the spare room and considered. Should he stay or go home? Home wasn't that far away, except leaving her might take more energy than he had. This way, he'd see her in the morning, even if only for an hour.

It would also give him a chance to take the relationship one step further.

Anything was worth that opportunity. He'd made a few discreet inquiries and everyone said the same thing. Maddy was known to be very selective when it came to male friends. Not a prude from what he'd learned – just careful.

He liked that. He didn't consider himself in the tomcat category, and it was nice to see she felt the same. Now if only he had some idea how she felt about him.

***

Gerard walked into the office very early, worn out from yet another sleepless night. For the first time since he'd been a young boy, he'd been plagued with nightmares. Endless hours remembering stuff he'd spent most of his lifetime forgetting. Just a horrible night.

These last few days had been hard. He hadn't realized how hard or how badly the stress had affected him. Jesus. What was he going to do down the road? But that wasn't fair. He was coming out of a long year of tight budget constraints, nonexistent wiggle room and staff shortages. Then there was John and that mess.

He wanted this stage of his life to be over and to move on to smoother times. He frowned. Since when had he ever had smoother times?

That brought him back to last night and his childhood nightmare. Demons had chased him. Blackness took over his mind and body. It controlled his hospital and the people in it. Sweat formed on his brow, even thinking about it.

Why were all those childhood memories he'd fought so long and so hard to forget coming back now? He'd walked away from his mother years ago. Begged to be taken away actually, and family services had honored his request. He'd had little contact in the intervening years. Good thing, too. The woman was nuts.

Gerard's secret fear was that it was genetic – that he'd end up as crazy as his mother.

He looked around. Sandra wasn't at her desk. Good. He didn't think he was up to speaking with her this morning. He shut and locked his door, hard pressed to not look around the darkened room. He hit the light switch, heaving a sigh of relief as the light washed away the darkness.

Maybe he needed to take a break. Take a holiday, if he still remembered what that was.

THURSDAY MORNING

I
t was morning. And that had to be wrong. There was no reason in the world that Maddy could think of to explain why she was awake. After last night's dancing, followed by the panicked visit to The Haven, she should be sound asleep. Only she wasn't and that sucked.

Her cell phone rang as she slipped on her Egyptian cotton dress with the beautiful flowers winding down the left side and back.

It was Stefan. "Maddy, update on The Haven, please."

"John had an attack of some kind last night." Maddy walked out to the living room to slump down on the couch. "His symptoms mimicked a stroke. He's stable, and will need to be closely monitored." She sighed heavily. "I haven't contacted The Haven so I don't have an update yet." She went on to explain what she'd found.

Silence.

Maddy rubbed her temples. "These are psychic attacks, right?" This would be her first experience with something like this –  but not for Stefan or other energy workers she knew. "I can't think of what else they could be. I know people are people. They always want something they don't have. And many are prepared to do some pretty horrible things to get it."

Stefan hesitated. "We have to assume this dangerous energy is anchored to John." His voice deepened. "It might have started with Jansen. We don't know enough at this point."

"True enough. From what I've seen, the energy slid around the base of the bed, moving and shifting. It always stayed close. Contained. Anchored." Closing her eyes, Maddy winced at the question even before she'd managed to ask it. "Stefan, is there any chance that John is doing this himself?"

"Unlikely, although with the little we know, we can't discount that."

"There has to be something more going on than what's related to John. The attack on Jansen happened prior to John's arrival." This was all so bizarre. "John's very pragmatic. He has no patience with any of this stuff. It's hard to imagine he has a hand in it."

Maddy didn't see it. She walked into her kitchen and pulled out the coffee grinder. She chose the setting she wanted before filling it with dark Costa Rican beans. She turned on the grinder, stepping away from the noise to continue talking. "We've both seen black energy causing problems in a person's energy system. It's the basis for all health problems, only the bigger blockages can cause personality changes, mental problems, diseases and, eventually…death."

"True, however, all we have to go on for the moment is the attack on John, regardless of whether he brought it or the energy latched onto him for some reason when he arrived."

"Right. I did a full session on him yesterday. I didn't read him. I put the markers in place and ran some healing energy up and down his spine." The coffee grinder shut down. She walked back, filled the coffee carafe for two cups and poured the water into the back of the coffee maker.

"Did you notice anything wrong?"

She paused before placing the carafe on the maker. "Not at the time. This session went deeper and longer than I'd ever gone before. One of the nurses actually brought me out." Maddy measured the coffee and hit the start button. "It hit me afterwards that he didn't feel the same as my sick patients usually do. There wasn't the same sense of disease eating away at him or even the same sense of finality I get from terminal patients."

"This is new territory here. We don't know what might happen."

"Great." Maddy leaned against the counter, waiting for enough coffee to drip for her to steal a cup. "We've done so much work already in the main part that it could take months for the energy in the new section to match the level of the rest of the floor."

"Search for someone connected to him. In order to do this when they are not physically in the same room, they would have to be incredibly skilled and strong. Or desperate."

She said, "It has to be someone he knows and trusts. A lover, best friend or family member, most likely."

"Remember, this person might have been in John's life decades ago. Few people understand how much energy we get on a day-to-day basis from other people, much less how long we carry it once we do." Stefan paused, then added, "They could have placed hooks into his system years ago, an insignificant amount, initially, and then slowly increased it over time. And it's quite possible they didn't realize what they were doing."

"Then they've learned quickly," she retorted. "I've seen cords stretching from person to person, but these black clusters are new on me." And Maddy'd be fine if she never saw them again.

"Energy work is one of the greatest unknowns in our lifetime." Stefan sighed, as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. "Keep an eye on it. Anchor a field of your own to keep watch. Set it to trigger with any movement."

"How do we protect the other patients?"

"Set a stronger border. Strengthen the healing energy inside. You might want to set up a Kirlian camera too."

Maddy frowned. Kirlian photography took pictures of a person's energy. It would be interesting to see the images captured on her floor at night, but the cost would be horrific. "That's expensive. How can we minimize the cost?"

"Get a digital one?" He suggested. "I can lend you mine, only it's an older film model."

"Hmmm." The film would be used up an hour. It would have to be changed often and that cost would be prohibitive. "Digital would be better." She sighed. "There's no budget money for toys like this." Another thought occurred. "What if John dies? Would this clump of dark energy be able to transfer to a new host?"