Eye of the Falcon (Psychic Visions #12)(27)

A tired but humorous voice answered him. “I’m Stefan. I’m calling on behalf of Humbug.”

And Eagle knew his world would never be the same.





Chapter 10





Branches banged on her window yet again. Issa listened to the scratching against the glass. Although the sound carried an odd note, she didn’t sense any fear coming from Roash. Ever present, he stayed at her side—sometimes on the headboard, sometimes on the bed, other times on her shoulder. She wondered if he knew what her nightmares were and came to give her comfort. She wondered if he understood how much his presence helped. She hoped so. Just to know he’d survived those assholes filled her heart with light.

Now hopefully she could find Humbug. She knew many men were attached to their dogs. But if there was ever a cuddly stuffed animal—but in a live form—it was Humbug. She adored him. She’d had him for nine months. Nine months where he enriched her life every single day.

She stared dry-eyed at sunlight outside the window. The days were rolling into nights, rolling to days, and she had no idea of the passing time.

A sound at the door had her slowly rolling onto her back so she could see who leaned against the frame. Eagle held a cell phone in his hand. “Who is Stefan?”

She frowned and racked her brain. “No idea.”

“He knows you.”

She stared at Eagle for a long moment. “I don’t know anyone by that name.”

“I know what your last name is now. McGuire. I know you belong to the falcon club, but you don’t have your own falcon. And I know nobody has seen you there for a few months.”

She gasped as images filled her mind. “Oh my,” she said, and she broke out in a big smile. “McGuire is my name, and the man you spoke with is Tom.”

Eagle nodded, took a few steps forward. “He seemed like a nice young man.”

She smiled. “In many ways, yes. He has a very young-sounding voice. He’s in his mid-forties.” She watched a whisper of a smile cross Eagle’s face. “I know. When I first heard him speak, I thought he was a teenager. So tell me about Stefan.”

“I’m not sure what to say. There was a phone call, and I couldn’t hear anyone for the static. It happened three times. On the third time it was like I could hear numbers through the phone or through my mind, or I’m just crazy.” He waved the phone in his hand. “And that’s all too possible. Nothing about this is straightforward or simple.”

“What number?” she said, trying to bring them back on track. He was obviously perturbed over something, but she had no idea what.

“Thinking it was a phone number, I dialed it. And the man who answered was expecting my call. He said his name was Stefan. He was calling on behalf of,” he paused, looked at her, and said, “are you ready for this?”

She frowned. “Just get on with it. He’s calling on behalf of whom?”

He took another step forward, his gaze hard and inflexible, as if he could dredge through the recesses of her mind to get the answers himself. “He was calling on behalf of Humbug.”

She gasped, and her face lit up. “That’s wonderful!”

Eagle looked at her. “And how do you figure that it’s wonderful?”

“He must’ve found him. Humbug has a name tag on his right foot.”

“And how would he know to phone me?”

She blinked. And blinked again. She gave a slight shrug. “I don’t know. Didn’t you say you run a raptor center? Maybe he looked it up. Besides, that’s not the point.” She froze. “He does have Humbug, right?”

Eagle’s voice dry, he responded, “Not quite.”

*

In fact, he wasn’t sure it was safe to tell her at all. Because it was just a little too bizarre.

“What do you mean?” she snapped. “This really isn’t something I care to joke about. Humbug is very close to my heart.”

“Apparently he’s special in many ways,” Eagle said as he still tried to figure this out in his mind. “Stefan didn’t have a ton of information.”

“What information did he have that was so cryptic?”

“He said he had heard from Humbug, and Humbug was in distress and was looking for you.” He leaned forward and glared at her. “You did say Humbug was an owl, right? Or is he your lover, some crotchety old man whose name would actually fit him?”

And damn if she didn’t blink at him again. The slow blink of huge eyes in her face that reminded him of the damn birds outside. Especially the owls.

“What exactly did he say?” she asked slowly. “He said he heard from Humbug?”

“Yeah. I would put him down as being completely crazy, except for the owl’s damn name.” While he watched, she turned her head to stare outside.

“Fascinating.”

“Oh, no, that’s not quite the word I would use,” he said. “Nothing since you arrived has been fascinating. Daunting, perturbing, disruptive, unbelievable, any number of other related terms I could use. Fascinating isn’t one of them.”

She waved a hand in his direction as if dismissing his concern. “That’s because you’re the kind of man who only believes what you can see in front of you. If you can touch a table, and it looks like a table, and it functions like a table, you’ll lock into thinking it’s a table. Whereas, if I see a table, touch a table, and use it as a table, it still has the functional ability of being something completely different. For example, if I throw matches on it, it becomes a source of heat. But if you always let it be a table, the table you might be forced to sleep on for a night, it will never be a bed. You see what you see and nothing more.”