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

by Mayer, Dale

  There was a fraction of a second of silence before both men exploded. "What? When? What did she say?"

  "Damn it, Alexis. You should have contacted us immediately."

  "I tried," she mumbled. "Your phone was busy. It was only a few minutes ago, and she didn't say anything else."

  "But she did confirm that it was the same asshole?" That was the detective in him speaking again, needing to nail down the facts.

  "Yes."

  "Shit."

  There was a soul-weariness to Stefan's voice that worried Alexis. "Can you find her Stefan?"

  "I've been looking, but so far…nothing."

  "Is he blocking you?"

  "Yes, I'd say so – or if not blocking, at least putting up a different energy to hide behind."

  "Same thing," cut in Kevin.

  "Maybe and maybe not. Can Daisy help with that?"

  "She might be able to," Stefan said. "Can you connect to her again?"

  Alexis didn't know half the time if she was speaking aloud or thinking in her mind, the conversations had become so complex, so strange, yet so intimate on these different levels. Their thoughts and hers blended to become one. Weird. And she held the phone in her hand to complicate matters even further.

  "I can try."

  Kevin broke in hurriedly. Not alone. Go to Stefan's house and let him help. I have to continue with the search. Let me know if you learn anything.

  Alexis's mind instantly lightened, becoming empty and feeling lonely in a way. To know that someone was with you so intimately was something she was starting to enjoy. It gave her a sense of belonging that she had never experienced before.

  Do you want to come here, or shall I come to you? Stefan's words were neutral, but Alexis could sense the fatigue flowing off him in waves.

  "No, don't come here. I'll be at your place in a few minutes. Put on the coffee."

  With that, she grabbed her keys and headed back to her car.

  ***

  Stefan's door was wide open when Alexis arrived. There was nothing to suggest foul play but she found herself approaching cautiously. She couldn't resist a sigh of relief that Kevin was at work. She couldn't deal with her own confusion over him at the moment, much less explain it to him. And he'd want an explanation sooner or later.

  "Hello? Stefan?" She took a couple steps inside, even though there was no answer. The room looked, as always, sparse and clean, everything in its place. Where could he be?

  "Stefan!" she called out louder. "Are you home?"

  "Back here," his voice called from the back of his house.

  She walked through to find him comfortably seated on the bench in the center of his back garden. "Stefan? Are you okay?"

  He grimaced. The early evening light cast long shadows in his face. It was hard to see details, but his face glowed in the weird light, solemn and intense. "I will be."

  "That doesn't make it any easier though, does it?" Alexis sat down beside him concerned at the melancholy look to him. "You think she's dead, don't you?"

  He looked at her in surprise. "Not at all. It's just that I've seen this so many times before, and they usually end badly."

  "It's not like you to be so negative."

  "I call it realistic." Stefan suddenly stood and motioned her back to the house. "Let's go see if we can make a difference."

  They settled into the living room. Stefan immediately started to follow what Alexis now recognized as his work ritual. Once tea was poured, they each relaxed for a few minutes.

  "Where do we start?"

  Stefan looked at her, his head tilted in consideration. "Why don't you tell me?"

  She looked at him questioningly. Where should they start? With Daisy? Or with this asshole to see if they could find out something on their own? She closed her eyes to turn inward.

  And found Lissa standing inside her mind.

  "Aacck!" Startled, she opened her eyes. Lissa sat cross-legged beside Stefan. How did one get used to that?

  "Maybe we should ask my sister?" Alexis suggested dryly. "She might know what we can do."

  Stefan grinned at Lissa. "Her? Now what could she know that we don't?"

  Ghostly laughter lit up the room. Alexis's heart lightened proportionally. It was so good to see her sister again.

  Lissa looked over at her knowingly. Alexis grinned. She couldn't help being delighted at these meetings. Lissa had stayed for her. It couldn't last forever, but for now…their time together was a joy. And of course, being on the other side of the veil meant Alexis could go visit Lissa. "Let's get down to business?"

  She's alive. But that's all I know. Lissa's voice was faint and reedy.

  "Is it the same man?" Stefan asked.

  Lissa's faint form nodded weakly. Yes.

  "Why this child?" Alexis asked.

  There is a connection. I just can't tell what kind.

  That made sense, but it wasn't enough to go on.

  "Anything more specific?" Stefan asked, "Can you see her? Can you see where she's being held?"

  Only that he's stashed her in a dark place and she's scared. I can't see her. I get the odd spike as her overwhelming fear bleeds onto my plane.

  Stefan nodded. "Good enough to start. Do you want to begin, Alex? I'll watch your back."

  Alexis agreed. Getting comfortable, she followed the rituals Stefan had drilled into her. Within moments, she'd escaped the physical world to walk through her favorite meadows. Lissa, now walked beside her.

  The meadow slowly changed, moving into a stark, desolate landscape. Alexis consciously worked on her thoughts to manipulate the scenery back to something more pleasant, but nothing would shift.

  It took a moment to understand. This wasn't her world. It was his. Had he noticed her presence already? How could he not?

  I don't think he has seen you. I think you've picked up on him intuitively. Lissa looked around as if it all made sense now. That's why we're here. This is his place.

  Alexis froze as the first tendrils of remembered fear snaked up her spine. From a long distance away, Alexis could hear Stefan's calm, steady voice talking to her. Focus, Alexis. This is a good sign.

  Says you, she muttered. The air around them deepened, thickened, and filled with a rank odor. Her nose wrinkled against the smell. He must know they were there.

  No, I don't think so. Just as affected, Lissa had lowered her voice to a whisper.

  Then what's with the scenery? Alexis asked. They continued to move cautiously forward. It was hard to breathe and even harder to see.

  Did you hear what you just thought? You aren't breathing or seeing in any physical sense to begin with. In this dimension, you can clear your surroundings with your mind. That's his projection, but that doesn't have to be your perception. Stefan's voice rang clear and succinct in her head.

  Oh, hell, you're right. Instantly, the air cleared, and began to smell bright and fresh again.

  With her new understanding of her personal control, she formulated a beautiful rock to sit on. Sitting comfortably, Alexis brought up the image of the missing girl she'd seen on television. With Lissa at her side, she focused at a deeper level than she'd ever tried before. Deeper and deeper she went, searching for a connection that would take her to the child.

  She whistled through long tunnels and around corners. She floated, flew and raced through different scenes in a mad search that took on a life of its own. Without warning, she found herself falling into a black hole. The only viable sense left to her was sound.

  What she heard was heart-wrenching sobbing.

  Alexis reached deep for control, detaching as completely as she could in order to bring her other senses back into use, and found a frail child awkwardly crumpled in a corner. Her poor face, half covered in straggly blond hair, lay buried in a moldy blanket. Alexis searched the gloom for details, anything helpful to indicate her location.

  An odd hum echoed from somewhere and the room oozed a stale mustiness. She couldn't tell if it were an actual room, or some other co
ntainment. She needed to find something soon. There was no telling when he'd show up.

  Alexis gently brushed the child's forehead. She didn't want to scare her, but the child needed comforting. Outside of a simple flinch, the girl didn't recognize the motion for what it was. No surprise there. Taking an extra second, Alexis consciously pulled some of the fear from the little girl's energy. Her own heart rate picked up as she absorbed the pain and fear into her own space. Shuddering slightly at the ripples of nastiness, she dumped it from her system as quickly as possible. She ran a light sweep over her own aura and swept out the negative energy as Stefan had explained to her. A simple enough mental process now that she knew about it.

  Pulling back slightly, Alexis shifted to the other side of whatever barrier was hiding the child. The interior space disappeared. She now floated above an unrecognizable highway, looking down on evening traffic. A van drove steadily below her, an ancient white van with smoked windows. Was that it?

  Alexis could feel her draining energy fade. There wasn't much more she could draw on. Desperate to have something concrete to take back, she gathered the last of her energy, zooming in on the back of the speeding van. The distance widened rapidly. She strained to the limits of her abilities. It took every bit of effort, but with one final burst of speed, Alexis surged down, barely catching several letters in the license plate.

  Got it!

  She hit the end of her spiritual rope. A huge vacuum sucked her backward through an endless tunnel. This time her journey was much faster, spinning her helplessly in a rotating tunnel, accompanied by endless, blinding noise for several long, numbing moments.

  Until she was slammed back, once again, into Stefan's living room.

  ***

  "Alex?" Stefan's soft, caring voice called to her over and over. "Take a moment to bring yourself back. Slowly return to this plane." It took several long minutes for her to recognize he was stroking her shoulder gently.

  "I'm back." Her voice cracked, grating against the serenity of the room. Nausea rose then calmed in a big ocean wave. Her vocal cords seemed awkward and rusty. "That was a rough trip."

  "Is there any other kind?" He waited a minute before asking, his voice barely hiding the hint of anxiousness, "Did you learn anything?"

  That brought her quickly around. Sitting up too quickly, she collapsed back down again. "Oh, my head," she groaned.

  "I said take it easy for a bit. It's always worse after a bad trip."

  "You need to contact Kevin." She took a deep breath against the pain battering away inside her head and then quickly related what had happened.

  Even as she winced, she recognized Stefan's inner shift. He'd already opened communication with Kevin. Almost immediately, Kevin was in her head, confirming the parts of the license number that she saw and the type of van that was being driven.

  You're sure you didn't get a description of the driver? Kevin's impatient voice demanded.

  "No, she whispered painfully. Her head was killing her, the tempo beating between the lobes of her brain. Kevin's questions weren't helping. God, she wished he'd disappear, at least until she felt better.

  Stefan pivoted sharply to look at her.

  "What?" she asked, confused by the strange look on his face.

  "Did you do that on purpose?" At her look of incomprehension, he added, "You just shoved Kevin out of your mind and slammed the door." He grinned, winking at her. "You should hear him now."

  Her head did feel better. How odd. She smiled wanly, hoping Kevin wouldn't hold it against her. "Maybe I did, but I didn't know that's what I was doing. My head's been killing me since I came back from that vision. His telepathy was making it worse." She shrugged in bewilderment, adding, "I couldn't stand it." She hadn't meant to shove him out, though. In fact, she didn't even know that was something she could do.

  "So you gave him the boot. Congratulations, you just took your next step. From now on, we'll require your permission to enter. Keep that in mind any time you're in trouble."

  That gave her pause. There'd been several times when she'd welcomed their unexpected presence in her mind, reassuring her that she was never truly alone. Now what would it mean? "Will it be difficult to open the door?"

  "Like now, there's no real way to teach it to you. It will open or it won't."

  "Lovely," she muttered. It had better not refuse to open when she was in trouble. Of course, she could always scream at them. That had worked so far. Stefan's wry look told her he understood her thoughts, regardless. "You can read my mind, but no longer talk to me in my mind until I learn to open that door. How does that work?"

  "It doesn't take a telepath to read your mind right now. There is also a big difference between reading your mind and speaking in your mind. Think receiving, versus transmitting."

  Alexis threw up her hands in disgust. "Whatever. When does this ever get easier?"

  "Never!" He words were succinct and to the point, but with the added implication of 'get used to it.'

  ***

  In another part of town, an old beat-up car pulled into a very popular watering spot. Unfortunately, this town sported several bars that stayed open well into the night. The young man, casually dressed in jeans and t-shirt, quickly walked through each, searching for the asshole before heading back to his car and driving on to the next bar. Grim satisfaction settled on his young features each time he failed to find his suspect. It was possible that he'd missed him, but he didn't think so.

  He didn't know quite what to do about the information when he found it. He needed proof of this man's activities first. If he could find this asshole first, it could give him an edge. Maybe enough to get his life back. Grimly, the young man continued his search.

  He had to find him before anyone else got hurt.

  ***

  Alexis lay quietly on Stefan's couch. She'd recovered only to find herself in an odd melancholy mood, feeling tired and chilled, the remnants of recovery mode. Today had been traumatic, to say the least. A long hot soak in her bath would help, but she couldn't leave Stefan's until she knew if they'd found the little girl.

  Fatigue weighed heavy upon her, and she closed her eyes. Had it only been this afternoon that she'd had such an incredible interlude with Kevin? Unbelievable. It already seemed like days ago. She sighed.

  So far, they'd heard nothing.

  Stefan returned to the living room, this time bearing a platter of fruit and cheese.

  "You don't need to take such good care of me, Stefan. I'm not helpless."

  "I'm enjoying it. Besides, after the day you've had, this should help." He carefully placed the full platter down on his low table – missing the odd look that came across her face.

  "My day? What kind of day have I had?" she asked in confusion.

  He snorted at her forgetfulness. "Don't forget that hiding something from a psychic is difficult at the best of times, and impossible when you're an open book anyway."

  Her face burned.

  He grinned at her.

  "I didn't want to think about it at all," she mumbled sheepishly too embarrassed to look him in the eye.

  "So don't. Deal with it instead. Not to worry, I won't probe for details. That's private."

  He spoke so nonchalantly that it gave her pause. She hurriedly reached for a bunch of grapes, uneasily aware of just how much information he could have accessed, if he'd so chosen. "Thank you for that."

  "Anytime. I might tease Kevin about your wild afternoon, but not you, never you."

  She rolled her eyes at him. Heat still warmed her cheeks. She couldn't imagine how Kevin would react to Stefan's teasing. But then, he'd been dealing with Stefan for much longer.

  "But he hasn't had very many relationships during this time, either."

  "I thought you had to have permission to read my mind now," she asked, irritated.

  "No, just to enter it. A small difference."

  Alexis shook her head at the hairsplitting. She popped a grape into her mouth and tried to sort throug
h the difference Stefan was talking about.

  "The van has been spotted at the mall just on the outskirts of town. What is that place, Cottonwood Mall or some such thing?" Stefan's distant voice interrupted her musings.

  He looked off in the distance as if receiving more information. As she watched him, Alexis could almost see the silent communication going on.

  "Cottonwood Mall?Alexis chewed on her bottom lip, anxiously watching Stefan's face.

  "Kevin's en route and will call later." Stefan blinked several times and returned calmly to the food in front of him. "Eat up. You need to rebuild your strength."

  They enjoyed their simple meal, and chatted quietly.

  "Stefan, what type of side effects do you have after your psychic trips?"

  He didn't answer. She looked up at him. "Stefan?"

  Stefan stood frozen, his hand hanging in midair, a chunk of cheese halfway to his mouth. There was a glassy look in his eyes, giving him a vacant, not-at-home look.

  Jesus, he looked scary. Alexis swallowed hard several times, all the while watching him.

  "Stefan?" she whispered cautiously. "What is it? What do you see?"

  Unexpectedly, he answered her. "They've found the van. And the child."

  "Oh, thank God." Alexis was elated. It was a far better outcome than she'd feared might come of this night. "Is she okay?"

  Stefan continued slowly, almost hypnotically. "The child was drugged, but appears to be unhurt. There's an ambulance on the scene."

  "What about the kidnapper? Did they catch him?" She urged him to provide more.

  Stefan went deeper inward. "No," he whispered dejectedly. "They didn't get him. He wasn't in the van." He paused for a moment, his eyes rolling upward. A moment later, they rolled back down. He slowly continued. "I'm searching for him."

  Alexis held her breath against the pain knifing through her. The bastard was still loose.

  "He's nowhere." Stefan slowly opened his eyes. "For just a moment, I caught a whiff of his energy. Incredible anger, madness even. Then he was gone."

  "But if he's losing control, wouldn't it have been easier to find him?"

  "Theoretically, yes. But in this case, he isn't losing control. He's coldly, terrifyingly and dangerously in control."