“It’s because of the stupid allowance that she conned me into this.”

  “Conned you?”

  “She promised me that she’d never bother me again with her incessant requests for money and would leave me alone forever, if I could get this for her. She wants the half-million dollars.”

  “Because my one-time payout wouldn’t be enough? She didn’t even know how much it was.”

  “She figured you would cheat her on that too, so I would have to give her some of my money, but that was it. This was the last straw, and she even signed a document agreeing to it.”

  “You do know that anything she signs isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, right?”

  “You don’t understand. She hounds me constantly,” he cried out in pain. “If it isn’t a new dress, it’s new bedding, new curtains, new something or other. I can’t keep up with it.”

  “You shouldn’t have to,” Gage agreed, studying him. “She’ll have to deal with this on her own.”

  “But she doesn’t deal with it on her own. You walked away and told her that you were cutting her off, and now she’s making my life miserable.”

  “How do you think life will be for you now?” Gage asked him in astonishment. “Do you really think this is going away?” And he pointed to the gun and the tarot cards in his hands.

  “I just need to give them to Mom,” he explained, “and then I’ll forget all about this.”

  “And you expect me to forget about it?” Gage asked, his voice hardening.

  “Or me?” Skylar added from the sidelines.

  “Hey, don’t forget me,” Hurricane muttered. “I’m here too. You can’t kill us all.”

  And it looked like, for a long moment, Terrence considered it; then his shoulders dropped even more.

  Just then another voice, a strident female one, coming from behind Gage, rang out. “You’re such a fucking loser, Terrence. You can’t even get anything right.”

  Terrence immediately turned defensive. “Look. I tried. I’m not cut out for this kind of stuff.”

  “No, you’re really not,” Gage confirmed, his hands in the air now, as he was prodded forward. He stepped forward, looked over at Skylar, and said, “Sorry, we’re about to have a family meeting that I had hoped to avoid. Family dinners at my house are a bitch.”

  Skylar stared at him in shock. “Don’t tell me that your mother is behind all this?”

  “Why not?” the woman asked, with a sneer. And in stepped a woman who Skylar had seen in her shop the other day.

  “You were in my store,” she noted in surprise.

  “Yeah, and, God, what a nasty piece of shit that is.”

  Immediately Skylar stood straighter and opened her mouth, but Gage calmed her down with his touch. “Forget about it. That’s just who she is.”

  “Wow, nice family. Not. At least I don’t have to worry about doing any family dinners.”

  “Exactly. Remember that part about starting anew?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I understand completely.” Then she remembered the threatening letter that had sent Gage to her store in the first place. She turned on the woman. “You sent Gage that threatening letter, didn’t you? To force him to find Jonesy and to get the damn cards—didn’t you?”

  She glared at the two of them. Gage’s mother sniffed, as if she hadn’t expected anyone to figure that out, and Terrence looked a little ashamed, but not by much.

  Skylar looked over at Hurricane. “See what I mean?”

  “Yep, that’s part of what the cards are all about.”

  She frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “They’re storm cards. A lot of tarot cards have a specialty. This set is storms. Like Mother Nature. Builds up strong negative energy that brews a tempest that usually only cries out through an act of violence.”

  The woman glared at him. “Shut up. Unless you have somebody who’s willing to buy these for big money, I don’t want to hear your voice.”

  “I could buy them,” Gage offered. “Skylar here was offered a lot of money, but we haven’t settled on a price.”

  “She’s not getting them. They’re not hers,” wailed his mother.

  “Actually they are,” Gage corrected her.

  “No, no, no.” Mom’s wails got louder.

  Terrence looked at Gage and shook his head. “Hell no, those cards are part of Uncle’s estate.”

  “Yes, maybe they were intended to be,” Gage acknowledged, “but no way to know that Jonesy actually had them. This deck was found in her shop recently, so the cards belong to her.”

  “No way,” Terrence yelled, “that’s BS.”

  “The other thing to remember, Terrence,” Gage added, “is that you don’t inherit anything from Jonesy’s estate.”

  His brother looked at him in shock. “What do you mean, I’m not inheriting anything? Of course I am. It’s being split evenly between the two of us.”

  “Well, it would have been originally, until you started dissing Jonesy on his collection, and then he cut you out of the collection recently, and he didn’t have much else. By the time the charities are paid out first, there’s not likely to be anything at all—but for the collection,” he added quietly, knowing his brother would think terribly of Jonesy for doing this, but Jonesy’s instruction letter had been clear. “So, if the cards are part of his estate, they become mine, and I give the deck to Skylar.”

  “No fucking way,” his mother roared at Gage. She snatched the tarot cards from Terrence’s hand. “Terrence, kill Gage,” she screamed. “It’s the only way we’ll clean this up, and then we’ll have all his money as well.”

  Terrence stared at her. “Jesus, Mom. Don’t say that shit!”

  She ripped the gun from him and replied, “He has always been a piece of crap, just like his father.”

  Skylar stared at them in shock. “Are you kidding me? You people will seriously commit mass murder?”

  Immediately the gun turned on her. Gage’s mom nodded. “You know something? We’ll start with you.”

  “Well, you could,” Hurricane admitted, “but you could also just take the cards, which are really beautiful, and sell them to me.”

  “Yes, yes,” she readily agreed. “How much will you pay for them?”

  “One-half million, if you take them out and let me see them in your hands.”

  She frowned. “For one-half-million dollars? Jesus, yes.” She juggled the card box ever-so-slightly with the gun, then pulled them out, so they sat in her hand. “See? Take a look at them. Don’t touch them. They’re too expensive for you to touch.”

  “No, of course not,” Hurricane agreed, as he glanced at Skylar. “We can take a look without touching, can’t we?”

  She nodded slowly, not sure what he was up to. Then she watched, as he reached out a gentle finger and wafted some energy toward it. But it wasn’t any nice clean energy; it was dark and stormy. As she stared, Kane’s energy hit the tarot cards, and the explosion came from inside the cards themselves.

  The woman gasped and stepped back. “Oh my, these cards really are powerful, aren’t they?”

  Terrence puffed up and nodded. “I told you, Mom.”

  “Well, in that case, you’ll pay a hell of a lot more,” Gage’s mom demanded of Kane.

  Kane gave her a genial lazy smile. “Not so sure about that. Half a million is about right.”

  She hesitated and then decided, “Fine, half a million, but I want it now.”

  “I don’t have it on me obviously,” Kane noted, and he kept feeding a little bit of energy into the cards.

  By now, Mom had to put the cards in her other hand, as they were getting hot and crackly.

  Skylar watched, fascinated, as Kane fed more and more energy into the deck. She shook her head. “That’s amazing.”

  Kane smiled at her. “They’re pretty cool, aren’t they?”

  She nodded. “Can they do positive things?”

  Kane shrugged. “It depends. Sometimes, if you’ve got a lot of anger, it can help dissipate it. Sometimes, depending on how you plan to use them,” Kane added, with a little bit of emphasis, “you can up the charge.”

  And Skylar realized what he meant. “Ah.” And she immediately sent a stream of energy into the cards.

  Gage’s mother shrieked, tossing them in the air. “Good God, they’re hot.” They dropped to the floor with a heavy thud. She snatched them back up, only to drop them again. She tried to put them in the pocket of her jacket, then into her purse, but they were getting hotter and hotter.

  Skylar saw sparks on them now. “It would be interesting to try this with someone else.” She looked up and then smiled. “Like definitely someone else.”

  “What do you mean?” Hurricane asked, curious.

  She tilted her head toward the door. “Do you see somebody beside Gage?”

  Everybody turned to look at Gage, and even he looked at her in surprise.

  She nodded. “Yeah, your angry friend is here.”

  Gage frowned. “Right now?”

  “Yes, because that kind of energy pulls in that kind of sympathetic energy,” Skylar explained. “Rage begets rage.”

  “What are you talking about?” his mother cried out.

  Gage replied, “Linden is here.”

  She stared at him. “You’ve lost your senses. He’s dead.”

  But then, just like that, the tarot cards were picked up into the air and then dropped again.

  She stared at Gage and asked, “Did you do that? What the hell? Did you do that?” And she stepped back, freaked out.

  “I wouldn’t go any farther than that,” Gage suggested, studying her intently. “That railing doesn’t look like it’s very secure.’

  “Did you do that?” she shrieked.

  Gage shook his head. “No, I’ve been trying to contact Linden because I know he’s really upset.”

  “Oh, good God,” Gage’s mom replied, “that’s the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard.” But then a form began to take shape before her. She stared at it in horror. “Is that him? Is that him?”

  “Yes, I would imagine it is,” Gage stated. “I’m hoping he has calmed down somewhat.”

  Skylar shook her head. “He’s still angry. And I think the energy of the cards is making him angrier.”

  Gage looked at her and winced. “Anything we can do to help Linden? An awful lot of energy is flying around here.”

  Skylar checked his brother, who stared at Gage in shock. “Is Linden really here?” he whispered.

  “Yes, he’s really here,” Gage confirmed.

  “Not that you’ll be able to see him of course,” Skylar murmured.

  “I don’t get it. I mean, how much of this stuff is real?” Terrence kept shaking his head in denial.

  “It’s all real,” Skylar admitted. “By the way, why did you contact Stefan and Dr. Maddy over your brother’s condition, when you actually wanted him dead?”

  “I didn’t,” he whined. “I never wanted him dead. I just wanted her to stop,” he cried out in frustration, pointing at his mother. “It just seemed like every time Gage did something, she would turn on me and make my life so miserable. And I was also trying to save my brother because he is an incredible businessman. He creates things out of nothing, and I don’t know how he does it. I’ve never been able to reproduce it, so I’ve always been kind of linked with him for my income.”

  “And yet you have more than enough coming to you out of this company sale.”

  “Maybe, if I knew what to do with it,” he whined.

  “Well, you don’t,” his mother snapped. “You’re useless when it comes to making money. Only Gage makes money, and that just pisses me off because he won’t share.”

  “Won’t share?” Gage stared at her. “I’ve given you millions.”

  “And you have hundreds of millions,” she complained, with a wave of her hand in disgust. “And I’m damn tired of it.”

  “Damn tired of what?” Skylar asked, as she studied the woman, seeing her energy was fragmented between anger and envy, as it came off her in little nasty spits. Just then she realized that the tarot cards were almost beelining a triangle of energy toward her. “Uh-oh,” she said and instinctively took a step back.

  Hurricane reached out a hand and held her fast. “We’ll need to protect the others.”

  She stared up at him and then saw Gage’s friend standing there, glaring at her. She shrugged. “All that hatred and energy is right there,” she said, pointing toward the mother. “If you want a target, use her. She’s the one who created Gage.”

  Linden immediately turned his energy on Gage’s mother. His mom couldn’t see Linden, but Linden could see Gage’s mom. And this combustion was about to converge.

  Skylar looked at Hurricane. “Please tell me that we won’t level the building.”

  “No, we shouldn’t,” he admitted, “but we’ll have to do some damage control.”

  And just like that, the tarot cards started to hiss and sizzle. She heard Hurricane whisper, “Three, two, one.”

  At one, he threw a massive energy blanket out and around, but he was using Skylar’s energy at the same time. Realizing what he was doing, she quickly poured energy into this blanket that went around the mother and around Linden, keeping Gage and Terrence outside. Then came the implosion.

  As they watched, the mother shrieked and collapsed, while the supposed friend blew up. The blanket sank back down, covering the tarot cards.

  Terrence raced to his mother, who lay on the ground, completely unconscious. He put a hand to her neck, stared at Gage, and whispered, “She’s dead. She’s almost cold, she’s so dead.” And he stared at the three of them in horror. “Good God,” he said, backing up. “Good God.”

  “Yeah,” Skylar directed at Terrence. “You might want to mind your Ps and Qs from this moment on.”

  He stared at her in shock, and then he ran, as far and as fast as he could. She saw the fear rocking him. “Go after him, Gage,” she urged. “He’s liable to run into the street like that and get hit.”

  He hesitated, looked at his mother, and asked, “What about Linden?”

  “His energy, his rage, seems to have burned itself out,” she shared, studying the pale collapsed spirit, now a small shimmering ball, low at Gage’s feet.

  He looked in the same direction she pointed to. “I can’t see him.”

  “I’m not surprised,” she noted quietly. “And it’s fine that you can’t. He doesn’t appear to be anything like what he was before.”

  Gage looked at her with hope. “Do you think he’ll be okay?”

  “Why don’t we give Linden a little time to adjust?” she suggested, “and then we’ll see if we can get him to cross over.”

  He smiled and gave her a warm glance. “I’d like that.” He looked down at the tarot cards that appeared to be completely untouched and whispered, “Do you think that’s what killed Jonesy?”

  “Quite possibly,” Hurricane agreed. “Whether because of monetary greed or the evil power associated with this deck, there’s absolutely no joy for anybody who’ll use the tarot cards for purposes other than good. It’ll return and kill whoever it is who’s trying to use them for evil.”

  Hurricane walked forward, carefully scooped up the cards, and put them in the steel box in his hand, then immediately closed the lid. He turned and looked at Skylar, grinned, and waved. “It’s been a slice. If you don’t mind, I’ll get these back to safety.”

  She watched as he disappeared in the opposite direction of Terrence. She stepped closer to Gage. “We need to call the police this time.”

  “Yeah.” He nodded, as he stared down at his mother. “I should feel grief, … shouldn’t I? I should feel something.”

  “Not right now you shouldn’t. Too much happening, too much to sort out, too much to get your mind wrapped around,” she murmured. “So I wouldn’t worry about it. All that emotional part will come later.”

  He wrapped his arms around Skylar, pulled her close, and whispered, “Good God, I still don’t understand all that happened. How worthless and evil can my family get?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she reassured him. “Later, much later, we can sort it all out.” He held her tighter, and she whispered, “I burned a lot of energy again.”

  He tilted his head, so he could look down at her face. “Meaning?”

  She gave him a quick frown. “Meaning, I’m hungry.”

  He shook his head and then started to laugh. He scooped her up into his arms, swung her around in a big circle, then put her down, whispering, “And that’s fine. I have absolutely no problem getting more food.”

  “Well, I’m going down to my store,” she shared. “You left it open.”

  “I did,” he admitted, “but I left Thomas in charge.”

  She rolled her eyes at that. “You can stay here and deal with the cops.”

  And, with that, she raced downstairs and stepped into her store, not at all surprised to find it completely full of people. She smiled as she noted the loving energy Thomas had used on her customers, linking them to the objects they had chosen to purchase. They seemed frozen to their spots, until she stepped behind the counter. Afterward they all came up to make purchases. By the time she’d finished ringing them all up, she looked over at Thomas. “Thanks, buddy.”

  He laughed. “Hey, no problem. That’s what family is all about.”

  And she had to admit the family that she had created for herself was the best damn family she could ever have hoped for. As Gage popped into her mind, she smiled and added, “Definitely, that’s what family is for.”

  This concludes Book 21 of Psychic Visions: Talking Bones.

  Read an excerpt from String of Tears: Psychic Visions, Book 22

  String of Tears: Psychic Visions (Book #22)

  Hurricane stepped out onto the deck of his Maine coastal home and watched as the Atlantic Ocean crashed over the beach. He loved it here; something about the storms electrified him. But then it was his specialty; it’s what he did. That he was a climatologist was something else again. He hadn’t fully utilized his education very much in the last ten years. He needed to help put out too many other electrical storms or energetic storms instead. And this last one had been a prime example—tarot cards that could kill. “What the hell?” he muttered. He shook his head.