Angel's Touch

by Caldwell, Siri

  Wasn’t she even just a tiny bit superstitious? Megan looked around, wondering where, exactly, the bodies had been found. The hotel wasn’t far, and neither was the road. You’d think someone would have heard them. “No one wants to be next.”

  “No wonder I got such a good deal.”

  “People have talked about building something on this lot for a long time, but nobody local would buy it.”

  “Lucky for me, then.”

  “You don’t care about the creepy vibe?”

  “You think there’s a creepy vibe? If you’d never heard that story, would you honestly think this place was scary?” Kira gestured toward the trees. “I like this place. It’s sad about that woman, but I don’t think her ghost is hanging around. Not that I believe in ghosts. It feels good here. It feels like…” She rolled her eyes. “Like clean air and ocean breezes and all that wonderful clichéd stuff I’m going to put in my ads. Not like rapists are hiding behind the brush.”

  She was right, actually. From the outside, it did feel creepy, but here it felt completely different. In all the times she’d walked by on the street, she’d never suspected there was such peaceful, undisturbed wilderness hidden back here.

  And Kira was going to clear-cut these beautiful old trees and destroy their magic. So she could build a spa. What a waste. If she wanted to create a healing environment, all she needed to do was preserve what was already here. Get rid of the invasive vines and clear a nature trail.

  Kira stared into space with her hands in her back pockets and her elbows out to the sides, lost in her vision for the site. “The minute I saw this, I knew it would be perfect for my spa. It was the same way with the hotel. I walked in the front door and I knew I had to buy it.”

  Megan knew what she was talking about. Despite its current state of disrepair, the hotel did feel surprisingly welcoming.

  “Don’t you think it’ll be great?” Kira said.

  Megan tried to picture herself inside Kira’s future building looking out at what was left of the scenery, but all she could think was that she didn’t want to be here the day the bulldozers crashed through and knocked down the trees.

  Why was this bothering her so much? She had to admit it was a beautiful setting for a spa. And better a small spa than a multistory hotel that would raze the whole site and smother it with a sprawling parking lot. This was one of the last big tracts of undeveloped land in the area. It was inevitable that someone would build here eventually. Yet sticking any new building here, even a small one, felt all wrong. She wandered around, spotting several more of the yellow markers and an ancient solitary boulder that was no doubt destined to be one of the displaced residents.

  Sad.

  “You’ve already had a surveyor measure this out?” Megan said.

  “Yup.”

  “But you don’t have a blueprint yet.”

  “It won’t be long. The size of the building’s not going to change, so why wait?”

  A lump formed in her throat at Kira’s callousness. Did she not care at all that she was destroying these trees? As she continued to walk, pressure built in her chest, and the sense of doom she’d always associated with this neglected lot increased.

  She stopped. Doom was taking it a little far, wasn’t it? Maybe the feeling was more like someone’s hands pushing her, resisting her. Cautiously, she took a step forward, and the pressure increased again. Weird. Mentally, she scanned her body. Where was the pressure coming from? She couldn’t possibly be having a heart attack. She chased a tendril of fear around her lungs, then found the fear hovering over her shoulders like a sweaty linebacker looming behind her. This was ridiculous. Her imagination didn’t usually come up with crap like this. So maybe it wasn’t her imagination. Could it actually be a spirit? Something left over from the woman who was murdered here? Megan leaned back and relaxed into Mr. Creepy to figure out what he was.

  Mr. Creepy and the sense of foreboding abruptly vanished. The pressure was still there, but now she realized it wasn’t coming from inside her at all. It was the air, resisting her. Or…it wasn’t the air. She was standing in some sort of energy field. And she hadn’t even noticed?

  Megan turned to face the direction the field was pushing her. That weathered, lichen-covered boulder—that’s where it wanted her to go. She moved toward it and immediately the energy lightened. Instead of pushing her, now it drew her, compelled her.

  Her hands were on the boulder before she was even conscious of reaching for it. It was taller than she was, an irregular oblong monolith balanced on its small end, yet so solidly planted that there must be several feet of its length buried in the ground. Tingling energy poured into her hands and filled her whole body, charging up her aura with a buzz that made her collapse against the boulder and slide to the ground with her knees bending and her back against the stone and her tailbone smacking into the dirt.

  She had a feeling she knew what this was. It was hard to believe it was here, in an abandoned lot where no one knew about it, but here it was.

  Kira strode over. “Are you all right?”

  “Give me a minute.” Megan struggled to her feet and put several yards between her and the stone. As hard as it was to tear herself away, she needed to know if her suspicions were correct. She circled the boulder, opening her senses and sinking her awareness into the ground, tuning in to what lay beneath the surface to see if she could detect other channels of energy. Some people used dowsing rods to do what she was doing. She’d never needed to. She didn’t need to hold a pointing stick to help her read the signals her subconscious sent to her gut.

  Kira watched her with a bemused look. “You look like you’re listening for something.”

  “Do you feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  Megan shook her head impatiently. She didn’t need a dowsing rod, but she did need quiet. It would be better to come back later—alone—to get a better read on this, but she was too excited to wait.

  There it was. Another current heading for the boulder.

  Unbelievable. A ley line in Piper Beach, channeling energy from deep within the earth, zapping it around the globe. She could use this to heal her clients. If Kira hadn’t invited her back here she’d never have known. And now…

  Kira wasn’t going to be happy about this.

  “You can’t build here,” Megan said.

  Kira’s posture stiffened abruptly. “Excuse me?”

  Yeah, that went well. What did she think Kira was going to say?

  Megan stood up straighter. If she hadn’t already agreed to help Kira design her spa, she would definitely have done so now. Because she had to convince her not to build here. She might not be able to change her mind and get her to change her plans today, but if she worked with her and gained her trust, she’d have a chance.

  “I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but you have two powerful ley lines running through here.”

  Kira’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “And ley lines are…?”

  “Focused channels of earth energy. They’re like the earth’s arteries.” Megan held her breath, but Kira’s face did not cloud over with the usual get-me-away-from-the-crazy-person reaction—which was a relief, because that reaction always hurt, no matter how many times it happened—so she pressed on. “The boulder was positioned on top of the intersection of two ley lines, where the energy is strongest, to magnify the energy.”

  “You’re telling me someone placed that rock there deliberately?”

  “Yes.”

  “Like Stonehenge?”

  Megan nodded.

  “How can you tell? It doesn’t look anything like Stonehenge. It just looks like a random rock.”

  “It’s not.”

  Kira folded her arms across her chest and glared at the boulder, then at Megan, then back. “I’ve never heard of Native Americans building stone circles.”

  “They did believe certain rocks were sacred. And as you can see, this is not a stone circle, it’s a single megalith.”<
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  “Exactly. It’s one rock. The glaciers pushed it around and it ended up here by accident. Nothing sacred about it.”

  “There’s no way it ended up in that particular spot by accident.”

  Kira coughed. “Because of the energy, right?”

  “The ley lines.”

  “I don’t do energy.”

  “Yeah.” Megan crossed her arms, mirroring Kira, and wished she didn’t feel so depressed. “I didn’t think you did.”

  Kira gave her a pained look. She did not look particularly happy to have won the argument. Instead, she went over to the boulder, circled it suspiciously, and gave it the kind of solid pat you’d give a dog.

  Megan watched her, perplexed.

  “Not that I believe any of this, but wouldn’t other people already know about this? Why aren’t there New Age witches making pilgrimages to my back lot?”

  “I don’t know.” Better not to tell her there would be soon. First Megan would come back on her own, at night, when Kira wasn’t around, and get a better sense of what exactly she’d found; then she’d tell the local energy workers. Once they experienced this energy, Kira was going to have a crowd. “Maybe the murder story was started as a way to keep people away from here.”

  “Why would someone do that?”

  “Who knows? In any case, the site must have been forgotten a long time ago. And it’s small. The ley lines are strong, but I don’t think they extend very far. I’ve never sensed them anywhere else in the neighborhood. Even if they do extend out, people have built on top of them and destroyed any access. This is an amazing find.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Kira grumbled.

  “You can’t build here. Please. Moving that stone would be…”

  “Sacrilege?” Kira supplied the word she was looking for, as if she understood. She seemed to be familiar with the concept of standing stones, not that that meant anything. She was a developer. She was going to destroy this magical site before anyone even had a chance to see what it could do. That was what developers did.

  But not if Megan had anything to say about it.

  “Moving that stone is not a good idea.”

  Kira ran her hands through her hair. “You’re right, I do think you’re nuts. I realize you totally believe what you’re saying, but it’s nuts. I don’t care if there’s a vortex of energy or what-have-you here or not. I bought this land so I could build here. And it’s going to be an awesome spa.”

  Chapter Four

  “I’ll leave the room now so you can get undressed,” Megan said hurriedly, backing out of her massage room before Barbara Fenhurst, her new client, finished stripping.

  She shut the door to the converted bedroom on the second floor of her townhouse and checked her watch. Usually she went downstairs for a few minutes to wait, but this client wasn’t going to need long to change, so instead Megan waited in the hallway outside the room and clasped her hands behind her back to stretch as she estimated how many minutes—seconds?—she should wait before she knocked.

  “I’m ready,” Barbara called out from behind the door.

  Megan went in and there was Barbara Fenhurst lying on the table, buck naked. She was sure she had asked her to lie under the sheet. It was part of her standard instructions: on the table with your head at this end, faceup, under the sheet. Guess she shouldn’t have bothered with her line about it being okay to leave your underwear on if you’re not comfortable getting completely undressed.

  “Let me get another sheet to cover you.” Megan headed for the closet. This was not the first time a client had failed to understand the turned-down sheet as an invitation to climb in under it. Most people were nervous the first time they got a massage, and that made it easy to get confused.

  “You don’t need to cover me,” Barbara protested. “My old masseuse never used a sheet.”

  There weren’t many professionals who still did that, now that the industry was regulated and trying to gain mainstream respect, but there would probably always be a few old-school massage therapists who believed healing occurred by transcending societal norms and hang-ups. It was wonderful that they felt so comfortable, but nudity was a lawsuit waiting to happen. You couldn’t date a lawyer and not worry about things like that. Oddly enough, it was the one thing Amelia hadn’t accused her of being unreasonable about. In fact, Amelia had always been on her case, begging her to be careful. The drape protected against misunderstandings.

  Megan pulled a fresh sheet from the top of the stack and unfolded it. “You might get cold.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’d rather have you draped.”

  “Really, it doesn’t bother me.”

  Barbara wasn’t making this easy. “It’s as much for me as it is for you. I’m going to have to insist.”

  “Oh, all right.”

  Megan laid the sheet over her and folded down the edge at her shoulders. Barbara immediately moved her arms out from underneath and kicked at the sheet until one foot was exposed. Whether she was too warm or she was trying to make a point, Megan didn’t care. The main thing was she was covered. If Amelia ever found out she’d been busted by an undercover cop for alleged prostitution, or sued for sexual harassment… Well, actually, Amelia wouldn’t care anymore.

  “I’ve never heard of an uptight masseuse,” Barbara said suspiciously. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

  “Positive.”

  “I still think the sheet is silly,” Barbara muttered.

  Megan sat on her stool at the head of the massage table and began milking the tension out of the tight bands of muscle on the sides of Barbara’s neck, automatically avoiding the vulnerable soft spots. If only women were this eager to flash her in a social setting. That might be fun. But no, she got the dubious honor of arguing with a naked client whose body she had zero personal interest in.

  “So other than the sheet, how are you feeling today?” Megan asked.

  “Oh…my back hurts. My neck hurts. My feet. Everything. The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with me. My acupuncturist said she wants to see me twice a week.” Barbara kicked the sheet off her other foot. “I like what you’re doing to my neck.”

  An angel materialized behind them and leaned over Megan’s shoulder to see what she was doing. Megan stilled her hands, cradling Barbara’s head. As often as she invited the angels to help her in her healing work, she never got used to their otherworldly radiance.

  Thank you, she said silently. It was so inadequate for what she felt. Gratitude that they were willing to help her, gratitude that she was one of the rare few who could see them, gratitude that angels existed at all.

  The angel extended her arms forward, one on either side of Megan’s body, and placed her shining hands on top of Megan’s solid ones. They appeared to touch for a moment before the angel’s hands passed through her, merging with her, until all that was visible was a faint glow emanating from Megan’s form. Her hands grew hot, and her body buzzed with the incredible energy. She channeled that energy into Barbara, moving her fingers in a light circular motion on the back of her neck, feeling the bones and tendons beneath the skin. She could easily get lost in there, drawn in by her fascination for discovering the imbalances she could feel lurking. If she could get at them, the whole structure would self-correct. She sank her fingers around the vertebrae and felt Barbara’s arteries pulse, felt her cells breathe, felt the pull of microscopic muscle fibers and connective tissue. Moving her fingers imperceptibly, she ferreted out the wayward tendon at the root of the problem, allowing it to return to its natural relaxed state. Barbara sighed with relief.

  When it was time for Barbara to turn over onto her stomach, the angel vanished. Megan stood and held up the edge of the sheet so Barbara wouldn’t drag the whole sheet with her and expose herself. She got her settled into the face cradle, folded the sheet down to her sacrum, and tucked her in. She rubbed fresh massage cream between her palms to warm it, then deftly transferred it to her client’s skin wit
h broad strokes. She loved feeling the muscles, loved using her hands to ease someone’s pain. She positioned her hands on either side of Barbara’s spine and pushed down the length of her back.

  Something pinched in Megan’s sternum—her breastbone—shooting pain through her chest and into her shoulder. Yikes. This was not good. She lifted her hands off Barbara’s body and stretched.

  Cautiously repositioning herself, she pressed her thumbs into Barbara’s upper back, near the shoulder blades. She shifted her weight to push with better leverage, but each time she bent a certain way, something caught in her chest as if a rib were out of place, making it hard to breathe. As much as she tried not to hunch over or move the wrong way, it was almost impossible not to put pressure on whatever it was. This wasn’t the first time she’d experienced this type of problem, but it had never been this bad before.

  “Right there,” Barbara encouraged her. “You found a great spot.”

  Megan barely registered the compliment. Right now she was more concerned with making sure she could get through the next twenty minutes without hurting herself. And not think about what it would mean if she needed to take a week off. Or more.

  It couldn’t be too serious if she was able to keep going with Barbara’s massage. If she ever got injured so badly that she had to quit massage… She was not going to worry about that now. What she needed to focus on was ignoring the pain and keeping her back as straight as possible to avoid pinching that nerve.

  With just a few minutes left in the session, Megan dug her fingers in one more time.

  Agony stabbed the front of her right shoulder.

  Oh, shit.

  She eased her hand away from Barbara’s body, wondering which direction was safe to move. Muscles spasmed and pain radiated from the pectoralis minor across her chest and down her arm. She stifled a gasp. “All done,” she whispered. Thank God this was her last session of the day. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Barbara groaned. “Do I have to get up? Can’t I just lie here all night?”