Maddy's Floor (27 page)

"What?" Maddy struggled to understand his expression.

"If a doctor can't help him, and you're a doctor, how are you planning to do what others can't?"

"Well put." She grimaced. What should she tell him and how? He had very little understanding of energy work. He didn't even believe in psychics. She decided to take a chance. "I'm also a medical intuitive. I've told you a little bit about my healing, and you've seen some weird stuff, like in the car this morning. This is just a little more. I do energy work that's similar to what Stefan does."

"So you've said before. I don't know what that means."

"It means a lot of things. I don't have time to explain now." She motioned toward the comatose Stefan. "Not if I'm going to save him."

"Right. Later you are going to have a long talk." He stared at Stefan. "How do we help him?" Drew stood and studied the tasteful but minimalist style of the room. "Should we lay him down somewhere?"

"No, he can't be touched right now. Even the slightest disturbance of his energy can kill him."

"Shit. Are you serious?"

"Yes. His energy has dissipated. It's too fragile for much right now."

He shook his head. "Then what can you do?"

"Everything and nothing." She stepped back slightly and chose a spot directly beside Stefan.

"Can I help?"

"Pick a spot, sit down and don't talk." She waited until he sat. "I'm going in after him and bring him back. While I'm out, you can't touch either of us." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you understand? You can't touch me or him."

He grabbed her arm. "Whoa. And what am I to do if you end up looking like him?"

She frowned. "Then it's too late for both of us, but it won't happen. I'm not going to do the same thing he's doing. I'm not going to leave my body."

"What?" Drew turned his attention back to study Stefan. "What the hell does that mean? And is that what you did this morning?"

"It means he's walking around the planet consciously, in spirit form – without his body. He's very good at it. Many people are doing the same, you know. They just don't know they are doing it. And yes, that's similar to what I did…only not quite."

"Really," he murmured, disbelief caging his voice.

"Really."

"And you're not going to do that? So you won't end up looking dead like he does, right?"

"Right. Don't panic. I'll be back."

She closed her eyes and dropped her head forward. It took several precious minutes to calm her breathing and open her chakras to build the energy she needed for this. She was good, but Stefan was better. She could infuse his chakras with energy, both in physical form and etheric, but this was faster, safer.

Maddy sensed the lightness within her mind. She stretched toward it. She wasn't going to astral travel, she would astral project –  follow his silver cord in her mind. Find him and figure out what was happening to him because he should have been able to get home by thought alone.

Lightness entered her heart, her spirit, her very soul. Maddy tilted her face skyward and smiled as her very blood sang with joy. Only by becoming one with the energy, to the emotion attached, could she free her mind to travel the etheric plane.

A heavy sigh worked up from deep inside. She slipped out on the warm breath and opened her eyes. The sensation gave everything a muted appearance, making the experience easier on her senses than if she'd truly left her body. This was like a foggy day in England. A bit eerie, a bit slower, but she could still get to where she needed to go.

Picking up Stefan's silver cord in a white haze was a little difficult. It wasn't possible to change the color of his cord, but she could change the color of the fog. All thoughts manifested immediately here. The hazy fog instantly changed to a lavender overtone, showing the silver cord as a glowing streak across the room. Maddy followed it out onto the etheric plane. The path twisted and turned, dipped and swerved, and through it all Maddy kept the silvery cord in sight.

Her focus stayed on Stefan, calling to him, sending him loving energy and a message that she was coming – to hold on until she arrived. The cord strengthened slightly. It brightened and pulsed. He had to be close.

She rounded several more corners and fell, literally, into a vast chamber of space. Stefan's cord lay crumpled, as did his astral body. Maddy saw her surroundings clearly, although they appeared as if on the other side of thick glass. She blinked once, and then blinked again as she recognized the location. Stefan had traveled here to her floor at The Haven – and here he'd fallen.

Moving around his prone astral body, Maddy studied his position. He was exhausted. With luck, that was the only problem. Maddy moved closer. His cord pulsed. The thinness and fragile look of it, said he'd just gone too far, done too much. That was typical of him. Still, he shouldn't have run his system down to this level so fast.

She frowned.

He was lying within ten yards of John's bed.

Giving John a quick study, Maddy saw his silver cord, not as strong as she'd like to see it, but pulsing happily along. He appeared to be much better off than Stefan at the moment. Beneath the bed, the faded black patch now consisted of even smaller gobs of energy, as she'd come to think of them. They were softer looking, swollen, and they pulsed in an obscene gloating manner.

They gave her the creeps.

And she knew instinctively they were very dangerous – for everyone that came into contact with them.

Like Stefan had.

Glancing down, Maddy realized she needed to help him – now.

She leaned over Stefan. Being only energy, she stretched over him completely. Slowly, ever so slowly, soft as a feather, she let herself sink into him.

"Maddy?"
 Stefan's voice was as frail as that of someone over a hundred and twenty years old.

"Yes,"
she whispered into his mind. 
"Stay calm. You need to absorb enough of my energy to get yourself back home where you belong."

"Knew you'd come. Love you, kiddo."

Maddy smiled, her warmth and joy spreading deep into his astral body, blending and morphing into something else. She felt he'd revived sufficiently. 
"Let's go."

Instantly, they were flung back into their bodies like arrows from a bow.

Stefan's body jerked, collapsing him backward. For Maddy, who had only been energy on the outside, the homecoming wasn't so harsh. Still, she groaned as she fell backwards onto the hardwood floor and opened her eyes. Stefan's stained glass window stared down at her. Beautiful mermaids flaunted their bodies on the sunny rocks, as rain poured in a torrential downpour from above, making the window a more realistic portrait than she'd have thought possible.

"Maddy?"

Stefan's faint whisper galvanized her into action. She sat up and shuffled closer. "Stefan, how do you feel?"

"Like butter spread too thin on a slice of day-old bread."

Maddy related to his imagery. How many times had she felt the same way? "I still think you look good enough to eat."

The color slowly seeped into Stefan's face, chasing out the gray pallor. He smirked, bringing a rosy blush of color to his cheeks. "You're biased. You love me."

"True." Maddy reached out a gentle hand and pushed a fallen lock of hair back across his forehead. "What the hell happened?"

"That's something I'd sure as hell like to know, too."

Maddy spun around, surprised at the harshness of Drew's voice. Given the weird events he'd been thrown into, his reaction shouldn't have been unexpected.

He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "You scared the crap out of me, you know that?"

Tossing him an intimate smile that eased the lines on his forehead, she nodded. For anyone who didn't know how this stuff worked, it would have been incredibly difficult to sit still and wait, not knowing if there'd be two gray bodies or none. "Thank you – for keeping your head and not panicking."

"And that was damn close, I'm telling you." Drew got up and paced the small room as Stefan and Maddy watched. "Don't ever leave me to watch over you two like that again."

After a couple of moments, Stefan pushed up from the chair to stand. He stretched and wiggled slightly, as if adjusting his body suit. Maddy grinned. He was the only person she knew who did that. Drew raised his eyebrow and shook his head in disbelief.

Stefan held out his hand. "I'm Stefan, by the way. Sorry for the initial introduction. It's not my usual style. You're Maddy's cop, I presume. Drew McNeil?"

Drew stepped forward and held out his hand. "Maddy's cop. I kinda like that. Yes, I'm Drew. She was worried after you disappeared during your phone conversation this morning. Although, if you two can do all of this…" He wafted his hand toward the papasan chair. "Then I don't understand why you'd bother with a phone. Can someone please explain what the hell just happened? And what's this you said earlier, about my murder cases?"

Maddy studied Drew's face, pale and drawn as he struggled to understand. He'd obviously had a difficult time when she'd left him alone, but he was handling it well. Secretly, she admitted liking Stefan's name for him, too. She wanted to see if Drew and her had a chance at a relationship. A real one, not a hot-affair-and-be-done-with-it sort of thing.

She'd done those; not anymore. They left a bad taste in her mouth. Although she wasn't exactly looking, she wasn't opposed to accepting what was before her. There was no denying the attraction between them. More than the heat they generated whenever their eyes met, was the energy that melded when they were together. Drew wouldn't be aware of it, yet his energy slid close to hers and snuggled at every opportune moment. She had to admit, she really liked that. She knew hers reached out and touched his energy often too.

They'd burn the sheets to hell and back when they finally got there.

And she, for one, couldn't wait.

***

Stefan watched the two people now seated comfortably in his solarium. So this was the new man he'd seen in her life. Interesting. Close, yet not touching, their bodies had yet to match their minds. Their energies were way ahead of both. Snuggled up tight as they were, their auras blended naturally. He smiled. It wouldn't take them much longer. Danger and drama had a way of pushing people together and making them get over their differences faster. He was happy for them.

The best sound in the world had been Maddy's words when he'd been caught in no man's land.

"Stefan, are you all right?"

Startled, Stefan realized he'd been staring off for several minutes. "That black energy under John's bed drained my energy faster than I've ever experienced before."

"I wondered about that when I found you. I've been watching those energy strands and clumps for a couple of days now. Today they were different."

"Different how?" Those fuller globules scared the hell out of him.

"Swollen, as if they'd just eaten."

"Nice." Stefan winced. "Thanks for that imagery, seeing as how I was probably the last meal."

"Today the globs were softer, almost happy, content. I don't know how to explain it."

"You're doing fine, and I think you're right. That energy is feeding on other, healthier, energy."

"For what purpose though?" Maddy stood up and wandered over to the front window. "Healing?"

Stefan studied Drew's face. He hadn't added much to the conversation, but he seemed to be trying to take everything in. "Has to be."

Drew interrupted. "Are you saying someone is stealing another person's energy from the new wing on Maddy's floor?"

The disbelief in his voice reminded Stefan how odd this business would be to an onlooker. In Drew's case, he'd seen more than most. "Potentially, yes."

"And why are they still doing this? Wouldn't they have taken what they needed and stopped by now?" Drew stared hard at Stefan.

Stefan shook his head. "They can only access sick energy so they need so much more of it to be viable. That may be why this black energy is located where it is. I can't say for sure that it originated there. However, it's currently sitting under the bed of one of the patients on Maddy's floor."

"There's only one patient in there now – John McNeil." Drew glanced over at Maddy.

Stefan could only guess at the discomfort sliding across her face.

Nodding slowly, she said, "That's correct."

"So, you're saying this is his energy. That's he's the one doing this?"

Stefan said, "It's possible, although that's the least likely scenario. It's more likely to be someone close to him, like a family member." A fine tremor slipped over Stefan's body. He needed recovery time. He glanced over, catching Maddy's grimace. He turned his attention to Drew, watching as his brows came together and his gaze narrowed on Maddy's face.

Drew asked, "A family member, like a stepsister? Or better yet, a blood relative, like a nephew?"

Stefan shrugged. "If they were close."

"Well, he has a nephew and they are close, but it's sure as hell is not him doing this."