He nodded. “You not believing me isn’t helping. You should at least entertain the possibility.”

  “Ah, well, sorry about that, but it’s a little hard to believe you right now. You are driving me a little crazy,” she muttered.

  He chuckled. “You and me both.”

  She wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Look. I’ll go up and have a nap.”

  “You do that.” He walked over to the safe, opened it, double-checked that everything was there, and nodded.

  “Is it fine?” she asked.

  “It is.”

  “I still have to give it back.”

  “Yeah, I know that. I’m just wondering if he’ll be the one who comes to collect it.”

  She stopped, slowly looked at him, and moaned. “Somebody was here that day. I remember him now.”

  “Good.” Hurricane walked over, urging her to sit down on the single couch. “What is it you remember?”

  “I’m not …” She frowned, stopped. “If I say, I don’t know, you’ll get mad at me.”

  “I won’t get mad at you,” he stated immediately, “but anything that you can start to remember is huge.”

  “It is. I’m just not sure what it is I’m remembering.”

  “Okay, so why don’t you start by telling me what you’ve got. Don’t try to understand it or have it make sense, just tell me.”

  “I remember somebody at the door that day.”

  “That’s a good start.”

  “I think he mentioned something about his necklace.” She frowned at that. “But I’m not … I’m not getting anything after that. Why am I not getting anything afterward? I mean, if I saw him at my door, I should remember him.”

  “Maybe. Did he ask for the necklace back? Did he want to see it? Did he want to see the work you were doing? Maybe he wanted confirmation that you were legit and that he hadn’t sent the necklace off into cyberspace.”

  “I don’t know.” She frowned.

  “Why don’t you go lie down and get some rest. Maybe, when you wake up from a nap, you’ll remember.”

  Obviously she didn’t like that answer, but it was also a decent idea, given that she couldn’t seem to draw anything else from her memory banks. Slowly she nodded. “Okay, but I don’t like this.”

  “No, I know you don’t,” he agreed. “And it’s okay. We will get to the bottom of it.”

  “Yeah, and then you say shit like you did at the restaurant,” she noted bitterly, “and I realize you’re not here on my side at all. You’re here to sort out whatever’s going on for whatever reason, and I don’t know what that is. You say it’s the necklace, but I don’t know that you have any right to it. You can’t just take something like that, when it’s been entrusted to me.”

  “Wasn’t planning on it,” he stated cautiously, looking at her carefully. “Maybe you should go have that nap now.”

  At that, her gaze turned almost mutinous, and then, like a curtain came over her, she nodded. “Good idea.” She turned and walked back upstairs to her room, almost in a trance.

  Suspicions immediately aroused, Hurricane watched as she headed upstairs and heard as she collapsed onto her bed. He sat in the living room and immediately contacted Stefan by text.

  Do you want me to call? Stefan texted back.

  I don’t want her to hear.

  Almost immediately Stefan knocked on the inside door to Hurricane’s mind. He smiled and let Stefan in.

  Hey, Stefan greeted him, as he stepped in. Sounds like this one’s a little bit weird.

  Getting weirder. Hurricane explained what he’d seen, as she walked up the stairs.

  Interesting, Stefan noted. Do you have any idea what’s going on?

  Not for sure yet, no, but I do think somebody else is heavily involved, and I’m not sure that she’s even aware of it.

  It would make sense that she wasn’t aware, Stefan stated. It’s not exactly something she would easily believe or disbelieve.

  Maybe, Hurricane replied. Yet all of this is starting to rattle her pretty good. Just a few minutes ago, she got a memory and thinks she remembers somebody coming to her door, earlier the day of her abduction. She was just starting to describe it to me, but then shut down, as if—

  She shut them down? Stefan supplied.

  Maybe, but if that’s the case, why? What is it that she is hiding so well?

  I’m not sure that she’s hiding it as much as she’s in a survival mode. She’s keeping the memory blocked to protect herself. Something has terrified her, and it’s quite possible that’s what this is.

  What? You think she’s just shutting down in order to not have to deal with it?

  Possibly. Could be the energy-worker version of sticking her head in the sand. I mean, we don’t know that for sure, but, if you think about it, all kinds of issues going on in her world could be dredging up this response.

  Hurricane contemplated that and then nodded. I guess that’s possible too, isn’t it? Just because we have experience at this doesn’t mean she does, but I keep coming back to the fact that she reached out to you.

  She not only contacted me, she was confident, quite assured, and a very different person than what I’m seeing right now.

  So, is she playing games? Was the person who contacted you playing games?

  At that, Stefan sighed. Have patience with her, have tolerance, and we’ll get to the bottom of it, he stated. But you really need to watch your back. And, with that, Stefan was gone.

  Chapter 16

  Jewel woke from her nap, rolled over to realize that she was in her bed, tucked up under the blankets, but still fully dressed. That was one of the most comforting signs she’d had all day. She sat up and looked around. Everything appeared to be normal, calm, and contained. Normal was a good thing. She got up and slowly walked downstairs to find Hurricane stretched out on the couch. Trying not to wake him, she walked into the kitchen and put on the teakettle.

  She was tempted to go visit Charles and Lucas, to just have some normality in her life, but she also knew she should visit the gallery, to check in on the show and to see what was going on, just to ensure everything was ready for her display. Particularly after not having her phone available, especially for those days that she was unaccounted for. Just the fact that she had lost those days was something she was really struggling with, but more so was the fact that she now remembered somebody had come to her door, and she had let them in. She didn’t know why; it wasn’t like her to do that, but she had. And now there were consequences, whether that person had been involved in all this or not.

  It went against the grain to think that his visit here wasn’t connected, but again something was different. She couldn’t put her finger on it. If those memories were to come back, it would all make sense, but, until then, she was in this dark maze that she couldn’t find her way out of. With the teakettle happily buzzing away, she made herself a cup of tea and then walked over to her workbench.

  Her little studio was pretty small and not more than ten feet separated the living room and her studio, but, hey, it was her home. At that, she stopped, looked up and around, and realized that was how she felt about this place. Her house was just a house; yet this loft was her home. For better or for worse, this is where her creations came to life. As she looked down at the drawings she’d done of the women, she picked up a pen, filled in a few of the details, and then turned one of them into a cameo on a pendant and kept on working.

  By the time she was done; she had a couple new designs that put a smile on her face. She looked back over to see if Hurricane was awake, but she still saw no sign of him stirring at all. Matter of fact, something was weird, otherworldly about it. As she got up and walked closer, she also realized that his skin was pale, the color off, too much different than before.

  She reached a hand down and then drew back, wondering if she should even touch him. She’d heard all kinds of weird things about psychics, when they were off doing things. Obviously he wasn’t just sleeping anymore, but also just as obvious was that whatever he was doing wasn’t normal. And was that on his own, or was it something else entirely?

  She hesitated and then determinedly gave him a hard shake. His shoulders and chest rolled with the movements, but she got absolutely no reaction from him. She nudged him again, harder. “Hey, wake up,” she cried out. “Wake up, wake up.”

  No answer. Nothing. Just that same vacant look on his face, everything lax.

  She immediately pulled out her phone and called Stefan. When he answered, she said, “Something is wrong with Hurricane.”

  He hesitated. “When you say, something wrong, what do you mean specifically?”

  “I just got up from a nap. I thought he was napping on the couch, but he’s really pale and doesn’t look right. I tried to wake him, but he won’t. I can shake him and move his body around, but it’s as if he’s not even there. His face is … His skin’s pale. It’s … It’s very strange. It’s damn freaky.”

  “Hang on a minute,” he snapped, “and don’t hang up. Just wait right there.”

  And, with that, he was gone. Even as she held her phone, she stared down at Hurricane, watching. Something seemed to reach out to slap him hard. When no reaction came, she felt fear choking her. She glanced around, wondering what she was supposed to do, but there just didn’t seem to be any answers.

  Stefan hadn’t returned to the phone either. Not knowing what else to do, she hung up then called out, “Dr. Maddy. Dr. Maddy, I need you. Something’s wrong with Hurricane, and I don’t know what to do.” Almost immediately this calm, serenity-infused energy swept through her.

  Take it easy, said a voice in Jewel’s head. We’re working on him. Sit down, and let us take care of him.

  Not sure what that meant, she dropped obediently into the chair beside him, wondering why she should listen to a voice in her head and not have a problem with it.

  You don’t have a problem with it, Maddy stated, because you’ve done this before. You just have to remember.

  Jewel frowned. Absolutely nothing inside her confirmed that she’d done this before. Nothing inside her said any of this made sense. But, as she watched, Hurricane gave a sudden jolt and slowly opened his eyes to stare at her. She bent down to kneel in front of him. “Hey, are you okay?”

  He blinked several times. “I will be. Give me a minute.” She waited cautiously for him, and then finally he opened his eyes, smiled, and said, “Yeah, I’m okay. Thanks for calling the troops.” When he seemed able to focus and more coherent, he stared at her and asked, “How did you know?”

  She shrugged. “How did I know what?”

  “To call Stefan.”

  She snorted. “Is there really anybody else?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted, with a smile. “Yet, once again, you called the right person for the job.”

  “I don’t know about that,” she muttered. “This is all very freaky, and I’m not sure anybody should be called. I really don’t think you should stay here. It’s obviously too dangerous.”

  “Really, and in what way is it dangerous?” he asked, his gaze boring through her.

  She stopped and stared at him. “I don’t know. What happened to you? Maybe that would help me, … if I could understand.”

  “Let’s just say I went for a trip and got caught in a maze.”

  “A trip? A maze?”

  “Yeah,” he replied. “A space that wasn’t really a space, yet it looked like a space.”

  She blinked. “Space?”

  He nodded. “That’s about how I felt. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and, if anybody had told me that a space like that was out there, one where I could get lost in, I would have laughed. But I was there, and now I’m not sure what it was or if it was a trap set for me.”

  “For you? You specifically?”

  He nodded. “And now that I have some idea of what that was,” he declared, with a feral smile taking over his features, “I can tell you that I quite possibly have found an avenue to go forward.”

  At that, his phone rang. He answered it and then said, “Thanks, Stefan. Yeah, I’m back in the land of the living. I can explain some of what happened.” And he gave him the cryptic version of what he had just told her. “I know. Things like that aren’t supposed to be there, so I presume I walked into a void of somebody’s making, but it was strange because a lot of energy surrounded it, as in energy being constantly fed and sustained,” he clarified. “I’m not sure how or by whom though.”

  Hurricane and Stefan talked some more, while she sat here, chewing on her fingernails, and finally she looked at him and burst out, “It’s all related, isn’t it?”

  “It is, indeed,” he confirmed, sagging onto the couch. “It is, indeed.”

  *

  Hurricane stayed on the couch for a long moment, until he was ready to stand, hoping the energies had calmed down enough that it wouldn’t make him so dizzy or wipe him out. He used the wall to support himself and made his way slowly and carefully to the bathroom, as he was not at his full strength. Jewel watched him with quiet concern. He gave her a reassuring smile, before closing the door to the bathroom. He used the facilities and then stared at himself in the mirror. “Dear God,” he murmured.

  He’d seen things in his life as an energy worker, but that torrential cyclone of faces was something he’d never expected to see and surely didn’t want to see again. He had been met with this darkness and a blackness that he figured was just energy, and he’d walked toward it and got sucked into this vortex of its swirling energies. Just as he was about to open the bathroom door, Stefan stepped into his mind.

  Are you all right?

  “I am,” he murmured, out loud, too drained to speak telepathically.

  You don’t look like it.

  “Thanks for that,” he replied, with a hard laugh. “I’ll be fine.”

  What the hell was that?

  “I’m not sure, but I think it was a trap, set by the souls.”

  Silence came first. Souls? Stefan asked in a calm voice.

  “Yes, as in the souls of the necklace and the bracelet.”

  And yet why you?

  “That’s the question. I don’t know why me. I’m also not sure what I did that took me to that spot.”

  I’m thinking that’s because of her.

  “That makes sense. Of course it is about Jewel, but what does that mean?”

  Did you sense danger?

  “Absolutely, more than that, a panic, a franticness, an urgency, maybe coming from these souls.”

  Urgency, Stefan repeated, his voice flat.

  “Yeah, I don’t know how else to describe it.”

  Well, that’s describing it pretty well, he muttered.

  “And yet, in a way, it isn’t. It doesn’t describe what I’m trying to get at or what that vortex was trying to convey. I do know that Jewel is connected in a big way, and that something is trying to get to her.”

  Of course, but what is it? We’ve been assuming that, whatever it is, it is trying to get her to be part of the necklace.

  “Yes. Did Grant get ahold of you about any of those names?”

  I was about to contact him because I know he’s got some information. But, when I found out you got sucked into this new issue, I had to table that conversation.

  “Yeah, well, thanks for coming to the rescue.” Hurricane laughed. “I am fine.”

  Are you though?

  “Yes, I think so. It’s certainly not what I expected, and I’ll certainly be better prepared the next time.”

  She won’t want to see a next time.

  “She doesn’t know what she wants at this point, except she wants answers. I’m trying to get the answers, but, more than that, I’m also trying to stop anyone else from getting caught up in this. The question at this point really comes down to who is doing this and how do we stop them?”

  I got no arguments there, Stefan murmured. Let me contact Grant, and I’ll get back to you.

  Hurricane opened the bathroom door to find Jewel standing right in front of him. She raised an eyebrow. “You look like hell.”

  That brought a laugh and a shrug. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to move out of his way.

  He reached down, his hands wrapping around her tiny waist, then he picked her up and set her off to the side, even as she let out a shriek. “Sorry, but it looked like you were trying to stop me.”

  “And if I was?”

  “You’re at least one hundred pounds too light to do that,” he noted, with a smile. “But, as it is, I do need food and soon. I burned through a lot of energy.”

  “Doing what exactly?”

  “It felt like I was getting sucked into a vortex, by all these other souls.”

  “You think they were the ones sucking you in?”

  “No, not necessarily,” he replied cautiously. “Motivation in something like this is highly suspect. I … I would imagine whoever put these souls into the pearls in the first place was intent on trapping me.”

  She shook her head. “That’s beyond creepy,” she announced.

  “It’s terrifying, and it’s something that we have to stop.”

  She looked back at the safe on the wall. “What if we destroyed the necklace?”

  He stared at her. “It may or may not work.”

  “But why not? If they’re captured within a pearl, surely we can shatter the pearls and release them.”

  “They’ve been held captive via energy, so I don’t think it’s as simple as physically smashing the pearl.”

  She frowned at that, her fingers thrumming against her forearm. “So, do you know anybody who can talk to the dead, so that we can get them over to the light?” She wandered into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and started pulling out sandwich fixings. “Hopefully a ham and cheese will work, while you answer me.”

  “Sandwiches are good, and the answer to your question is … maybe.”

  He joined her and saw she had pulled out two slices of bread. He grabbed six more, lined them up, and pointed. “These three sandwiches are for me.”