“Most people think it takes more muscles to frown than to smile,” Jewel piped in. “But that’s not actually true. There are forty-three muscles in the face, and most are controlled by the seventh cranial nerve. But since everyone has a different facial structure, many of us use different combinations of muscles to smile or frown. So it could take more muscles to smile than frown, depending upon the person. How many muscles is she using, Rachel?”

  Kara blinked as she looked at the phone and then at Jewel. “Or as us non-geniuses with normal synapsis would say, does she look concerned or chill?”

  “Chill?” Rachel sounded very much like she was talking to children instead of grown women. “She’s not shivering if that’s what you mean”

  “Y’all are seriously making my brain hurt, and I have Jen as a best friend and a genius for a son, so that’s saying something.” Sally huffed. “My look was because I was considering the fact that our men will not like us invading each other’s minds. I’m not terribly keen on the idea myself. I’ve had someone invade my mind when they weren’t welcome. You guys would be welcome, of course, but still. Let’s just be careful. And understand that our mates are a tad—”

  “Freakishly proprietorial,” Jewel interjected.

  “Dumb it down.” Kara sighed, though she smiled at Jewel.

  “Possessive,” she offered. “They’re freakishly possessive.”

  “Yes, that,” Sally said. “So, just prepare yourselves for a bit of snarling and a healthy dose of growling.”

  “Nick and Dalton know we’re going to try to contact this chick mentally,” Kara said.

  Rachel sighed. “Knowing something and then experiencing it are two very different things.”

  Kara couldn’t disagree. “Okay, so we’ll be prepared for the males to be the psycho-stress-adding-element to the activity. Got it. Let’s do this before Rachel gets any older.”

  Sally cackled through the phone, and Kara grinned as Jewel held up her hand for a high five.

  “I’ll give you a pass on that one, Kara,” Rachel said. “But don’t come crying to me when your mate or one of the males in your pack dyes your baby blue.”

  “Good grief, this is as bad as when Jacque, Jen, and I hang out. We go off on tangents and then can’t even remember what in the world we were going to talk about in the first place.”

  “Healer-mind connections,” Jewel reminded. “How do we try?”

  “Okay, so think about how we’re able to push our power into a person to heal them,” Sally explained. “We visualize what we want to do. Let’s do the same. Let’s visualize being in each other’s minds.”

  “Maybe we should focus on one person,” Rachel suggested.

  “Good idea.” Sally nodded. “Okay, I’ll put myself out there since this part was my idea. I’m going to imagine opening a door into my mind with the three of you coming inside of it.”

  “So we should imagine knocking on the door?” Kara asked.

  “Is the door a certain color?” Jewel added.

  Kara lifted a brow at her friend.

  Jewel shrugged. “What? I’m just clarifying how specific our thoughts need to be.”

  Sally and Rachel both laughed on the other end of the phone.

  “I don’t think it needs to be that detailed,” Sally said. “Just think about reaching out to me, my mind, and knocking to get in. That seems more polite than sort of showing up, if this is indeed possible.”

  “Wouldn’t it be nice if our mates knocked first?” Jewel muttered.

  “They don’t even knock on actual doors,” Rachel replied. “They’re definitely not going to knock on metaphorical doors in our minds.”

  “Your door would probably be like a stone rolled in front of a cave opening or something like that.” Sally teased. “You know … cause you’re so old you’ve been around since the Stone Age.”

  Kara heard a sigh, and she could almost see Rachel rolling her eyes. “Hilarious, Sally. You just remember who keeps your son and has an enormous influence on him.”

  “Low blow, Rach,” Sally grumbled. “Just promise me you won’t let Jen help in any caretaking role whatsoever. Anything else you do is reversible, but overexposure to Jen has permanent effects.”

  Kara smiled as she stared at the phone. It felt good to be around the girls that she’d come to care for. She’d been sequestered—her own choice, and a little of Nick’s—but it was definitely time to rejoin the rest of the world.

  “Did you know that children who have multiple mentors in their life outside of their home are less likely to have external behavior problems such as bullying, as well as internal problems like depression?” Jewel also stared at the phone.

  “Are you trying to say that Jen is actually a good influence on my kid?” Sally’s voice was full of skepticism.

  Jewel lifted one shoulder. “If nothing else, she will be an example of how he shouldn’t behave. So, I guess, yes, I’m saying she will be a good influence … with your guidance, of course.”

  Sally was quiet for a moment. “You’ve given me something to think about, but that’s not what’s important at the moment. Y’all get to knocking on my door.”

  Kara pressed her lips together and closed her eyes. She concentrated on Sally—what she looked like, her voice, her mannerisms, anything she could think of that made Sally who she was. Then Kara searched out the healer magic that flowed in her body like her own blood. She saw a white strand of light ebbing and flowing. It was coming from her, moving past the mate bond and the pack bond and connecting onto a golden cord that contained distinct threads wrapped around one another, forming a thick rope. She counted the strands. There were eight. She continued to follow the white light as it moved over the thick, golden rope, all the while keeping Sally at the forefront of her mind. After what couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, the white light stopped at a door that seemed to float in midair.

  On either side of her own white light were two others, though one was silver and the other more of an opal color. They hovered at the door. Kara visualized knocking on the door, and it opened. The three lights flowed in.

  Once inside the door, Kara no longer saw the lights. Instead, the figures of Rachel, Jewel, and Sally had taken their places. She glanced down and saw that her own body had manifested, as well. She looked at the others and a smile stretched across her face. “We did it.”

  “Because we’re awesome.” Sally grinned back.

  “And smart,” Jewel added.

  Kara looked at the three women. “Okay, what now?”

  Sally pursed her lips and glanced at Rachel, whose brow rose as she looked at Jewel.

  “Nothing?” Kara asked. “You three awesome, smart chicks have nothing to give me?”

  “We don’t know this new healer. We can’t really guess what her power feels like, can we?”

  “Wait.” Kara held up a hand. “Did you guys see the cord that we followed to get to Sally’s door?”

  Rachel and Jewel both nodded.

  “It was made up of eight strands.”

  Rachel smiled. “And there are eight healers.”

  “Exactly,” Kara snapped. “So maybe we can follow each strand of the cord until we find the right chick.”

  “Process of elimination,” Jewel offered. “We might want to warn Anna, Stella, and Heather that we will be psychically knocking on their allegorical doors.”

  Sally shook her head. “You and your big words. And where would the fun in that be? Life is short. We need to get our kicks where we can.”

  Rachel smirked. “And you’re worried about Jen being a bad influence on Titus?”

  Sally shook her finger at the older healer. “Titus still has a chance to survive his childhood without acquiring an inner Jen. I have been fully exposed for a very long time. I’ve already caught the IJS. There’s no hope for me.”

  “IJS?” Jewel mouthed as she looked at Kara.

  Kara grinned. “Inner-Jen-Syndrome.”

  Jewel frowned. “Sounds serious.”

  Sally’s head whipped around. “Oh, it is. As a freaking heart attack. Or stroke, or any other sort of serious medical condition you can think of. Jewel, you’re a genius. Help a girl out.”

  “As serious as sarcoidosis,” Jewel added, then quickly shook her head. “Nope, no. Bad example. That one isn’t really that bad, considering only one to eight percent of cases are fatal. Let’s go with as serious as … The Black Death.” She nodded her head vigorously. “AKA the bubonic plague. It’s the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history.”

  “Okay, so we’ll go with that,” Sally said. “It’s sort of fitting. IJS is like The Black Death.”

  “You do realize that as a concerned healer I will need to address this Black Death with Jen, right?” Rachel’s voice was completely serious, though Kara could’ve sworn she saw mischief in her eyes.

  “How long do you think it will take Titus to learn not to pee on things? Or people that he feels like he needs to mark?” Sally asked sweetly, as she blinked in what Kara thought was an attempt to look innocent.

  Rachel held up her hands. “I call a truce.”

  “I second.” Sally gave her a thumbs-up. “Any nays?” She looked at Jewel and then at Kara.

  Kara looked from Rachel to Sally. “I’m just here to invade people’s minds. What you two do with your kids and inner-Jen-Black-Deaths is your business.”

  “All right.” Jewel turned back to the door. “Let’s go follow that cord.”

  “I feel like that should have sounded much more exciting,” Sally said as she, Rachel, and Kara followed after Jewel.

  “Did you want her to put a fist in the air and add a rallying cry?” Kara asked.

  Sally tilted her head and puckered her lips. “It wouldn’t have hurt.”

  “Jen always gives some grand exhortation at the conclusion of meetings,” Rachel explained. “I think Sally’s just gotten used to them.”

  Kara raised her fist in the air and started pumping it up and down. “Who let the healers out? Wooo, Wooo, Wooo.” She sang as they walked through the door and stood beside Jewel, who was staring at the large golden cord. “How was that?” Kara looked at Sally.

  “Not great from a motivation perspective but hilarious. I wish I could have recorded that.” Sally laughed. “Although I can play it back for Costin, and the other healers, and Jen and Jacque because we have this weird bond mojo going on, too. Okay, so I guess I didn’t need to record it.”

  As they stepped out onto the cord, Kara watched as their bodies, which had manifested in the same image as their physical forms, once again turned into streams of light. They moved over the golden cord. Kara wondered if it had always been there, or had it developed over the time since they’d met? Had it started forming when Rachel and Sally were introduced? It was something she’d have to remember to ask Rachel.

  As they traveled down the cord, Kara noticed the strands begin to change. She saw one was white, which she recognized as her own. She knew Rachel’s was opal. She’d seen it as they tried to enter Sally’s mind, and the silver one was Jewel. Sally’s cord was also there. Hers was iridescent and shimmered as it flowed. The others were deep blue, sea green, a vibrant red, and dark purple. Eight different colors for eight healers.

  Sally took the lead in the group, and they followed her as the golden cord, now intertwined with the different colors, led them to another door. The deep blue chord flowed underneath the door into whoever’s mind they were about to intrude upon. They stopped in front of it, and Sally’s light gave it a gentle nudge. The door swung open without resistance. Kara and the others couldn’t exactly look at one another. But she felt the others were as confused by this as she was. They had expected a little more resistance. Sally’s light went straight through the open door. Kara and the others quickly followed.

  Once again, their bodies materialized, and their lights dissolved. They stood in a space illuminated by pulsing strands of light that flowed over and around them.

  “Synapses.” Jewel pointed, looking as excited as a child on Christmas morning. “Why didn’t we see these in your mind, Sally?”

  “I like to keep my synapsis private,” Sally deadpanned.

  Kara snorted.

  Jewel stared at the firing brain waves. “So whose mind are we in?”

  “That would be mine.” Stella suddenly appeared in front of them. “And I’d like you to explain quickly because Ciro is having a little bit of a stroke over sharing this incredible place of knowledge.”

  Kara didn’t think about whether she’d actually be able to hug her friend. She just launched herself at the woman and was thankful when her body hit Stella’s, just as if they’d been together in the physical world. “Holy crap, it is good to see you.” Kara squeezed Stella tightly.

  Stella held onto Kara just as tightly. “You too, Kara Bear. You, too.”

  “The synapses that fire in the brain when a person is experiencing joy actually help shut down other synapses that cause negative emotions,” Jewel said. Kara felt Jewel join them in a group hug.

  “Still spouting off random bits of knowledge.” Stella chuckled. “All is right in the world if Jewel can still sound so much smarter than everyone else around her.”

  “Knowledge is power.” Jewel pointed out. She stepped back, releasing Stella and Kara.

  “Can it kill all the vampires at one time with a snap of your fingers? Because that’s the kind of knowledge I can get behind.”

  Jewel scrunched up her face as if she was thinking about how to answer Sally’s question.

  Kara laughed. “No, Jewel. The answer is no. No matter how much you want knowledge to actually be power. It is not. At least not that kind of power.” Jewel opened her mouth, but Kara continued. “However, knowledge can definitely give us an advantage over our opponent. And that is a type of power.”

  Jewel pointed at Kara but looked at Sally. “What she said.”

  “Good grief, I have been bored without you girls.” Stella sighed. “Where are the other two troublemakers?”

  “We haven’t visited them yet,” Kara answered.

  Stella rested her hands on her hips and tilted her head. “Why do I get the feeling this isn’t a social call? And since when can we even do this?” She lifted one hand and made a circular motion, indicating their group.

  Sally shrugged. “Since now, I guess. And like most things we learn about our power, it’s out of necessity.”

  “And that necessity would be?” Stella drew the last word out as her brow rose.

  “We’ve learned there’s another healer, and she’s working with the vampire king,” Kara explained. “Though we don’t really know if she’s working with him or if she doesn’t have a choice.”

  Stella pressed lips together. “So the cavalry, as in us, are charging in to get her?”

  Sally shook her head. “Not exactly.”

  “Absolutely not,” Kara’s added. “Nick is having a hard enough time being away from me right now.”

  “I’m lucky if Dalton lets me walk in another room where he can’t see me.” Jewel rolled her eyes. “I mean, he’s not that bad.”

  “Don’t lie,” Stella said dryly.

  Jewel shrugged. “Okay, he’s that bad.”

  Stella looked between the two of them. “If we’re not going on a rescue mission, then what’s the point of this reunion?”

  “We needed to see if it was possible to use the gypsy healer bond to contact one another,” Rachel answered.

  Stella’s mouth opened in an O shape. “You all are going to get in her head.”

  “Ding, ding, ding,” Sally sang. “You’ve won absolutely nothing, except the joy of guessing correctly.”

  Stella pursed her lips as she looked Sally up and down. “Are pregnancy hormones making you weird?”

  “Yep.” Sally nodded quickly. “They are jacking me up so bad. And it’s getting hard to act normally.”

  “Glad to know you feel safe in our little healer pack to get your weird on.” Kara turned back to Stella. “We love you, Stells, but we’ve got to go through three more threads to see if we can find Alice.”

  Stella’s eyes widened. “The new healer is named Alice?” She chuckled. “How ironic is that? The same name as a character who fell down a hole into another world and then met lots of crazy people.”

  Sally laughed. “Jen’s going to give her hell about her name.”

  Kara snapped her fingers. “Focus, people.”

  “Why don’t you just touch the strands?” Stella asked. “I would think you’d be able to recognize our magical signature.”

  “Why didn’t we think of that?” Kara’s chin dropped.

  “Blame it on the bump.” Sally pointed to her stomach. “We be pregnant, so we get to be dumb.”

  Kara walked back through the door, and she felt the others follow. She looked down and saw her form dissolving, starting from her feet and moving upward until she was a strand of light again. Kara moved forward to the golden strand and began to weave around it, flowing along its length, letting her light touch it. She flowed along the sea green chord and immediately recognized it as Heather’s magic. If feisty was a feeling, then that is what Kara felt when she touched the green cord.

  She moved on to the vibrant red chord. As soon as her magic came into contact with it, Kara felt Anna. The magic was calm and steady, just like the healer. That meant the purple one had to belong to Alice.

  Kara turned back toward the door into Stella’s mind so she could regain her form. When the others joined her, she blew out a breath. “It’s the purple strand.”

  “Thank you, Stella.” Jewel smiled at their friend. “You’ve saved us some time, though we’ll need to do this again so we can see Anna and Heather.”

  “They’re going to be ticked when they find out you came and saw me.” Stella grinned.

  “You could just not mention it,” Sally pointed out.

  Stella tapped her lip, then shook her head. “Nah, we healers don’t keep secrets from each other.”

  “When did that rule go into effect?” Jewel asked. “Nobody told me about that one.”

  Rachel looked at Stella. “Are there other rules?”