Eye of the Falcon (Psychic Visions #12)(70)

“Did you see the same thing when she was on the couch as when she was in the bed?”

“Sort of. Her face was almost trancelike but with a sense of animation or life that set it apart from her being unconscious. Something was going on—but I couldn’t understand what. There was also a kind of buzz in the air. The first time I wondered if it was from the electrical lines outside. Sometimes in cold weather you can hear a buzz off them.” Eagle shook his head. “I’m just not sure how to describe it. When she was on the couch, there were a lot of noises outside, and I couldn’t really hear any buzz that time.”

“The noise makes sense too,” Stefan said. “That’s the energy crackling. She’s connecting on a feral level to something else. The thing is, what else is she connecting to?”

“Hey, I’m here too, you guys—remember?”

It was Eagle’s turn to snort. “Oh, and here I just thought you were struck dumb,” he said.

She glared at him and stared at the phone. “Stefan, what does any of that mean?”

“It goes back to the same issue. What you did as a child was normal and natural. But it was taken away from you when you were so young, and you grew up with all that distrust, disbelief, and told yourself everything was not true, that it was just a childish memory. If that makes any sense,” he said humorously. “A lot of this work is trust-based. You have to have faith. And, as we grow older, we’re sucked into mainstream thinking. Which is why it makes sense that this is happening when you’re in a deep subconscious state. Because, inside your soul, your subconscious knows what is true, and it’s probably been doing this all along. Or something has triggered this reaction, and it’s happening now, whereas it wasn’t before.”

Eagle frowned. “She’s had nothing but traumatic events. First off her mother died unexpectedly. Less than a week later she was kidnapped and systematically tortured for weeks. I found her outside my inner yard, broken and bleeding and sporting a bullet hole.”

They both heard Stefan suck in his breath, something changing in the atmosphere. Eagle looked as Issa, who sat staring at the phone oddly.

As Stefan spoke, his voice changed, becoming deeper, almost disembodied. “Yes. This is your childhood once again. You need to think about what happened when you connected with Hadrid,” he said. “I don’t know if it has anything to do with Ireland and the trip somebody is taking on your behalf. You need to understand why the kidnappers were putting you under the stressors they were.”

His voice returned to normal, and he said, “I have to leave now. Keep calling for Humbug.” And he hung up.

It took a long moment to break the trance from his call. Issa settled back on the couch and said, “Stressors?”

“Meaning some form of stress applied to get a result or a desired outcome,” Eagle said quietly. He walked around the couch, filled his cup with more warm brew, and returned to her side. He studied her for a long moment. “I’m afraid I might have an idea what he was talking about.”

She frowned. “Glad you do, because I sure as hell don’t.”

“Think back to when you were a child and you first met Hadrid. The relief that something, someone appeared to care.”

She started to shake her head. “I can’t remember that long ago.”

Eagle stared in shock as she moved from a wakefulness to a trancelike state, as her eyes once again glowed with an otherworldly light. He grabbed his phone and took a picture, though he didn’t think there was anything large enough for anyone to see. He took several and then realized he was wasting his time trying to get proof of this happening.

He spoke quietly. “Look back into your history. Remember when you were a child stuck in a crevice, and Hadrid came to rescue you. See what the stressors were at that time. See what the outcome was at that time. Bring back all those memories to the present day.”

He kept repeating the same thing over and over again. He had no idea if she heard him, would respond to his positive suggestions or not, but, if Stefan had said something in her childhood related to her kidnapping, then they needed to find out more. That Stefan had even called and understood the conversations or knew that somebody had gone to Ireland on her behalf was all just a little too much to take in. But Eagle was nothing if not adaptable. As he’d proven since she’d arrived.

Suddenly she grasped his hand. “Call them. They’re in trouble. Now.”

He stared at her. She blinked and suddenly it was her again.

She leaned forward urgently and said, “Call Panther and Tiger. They are walking into trouble. You have to warn them.”

He stood back up, pulled up Tiger’s number, and called him. Tiger answered after several rings. “What’s up, man? We just arrived.”

“Yeah. I don’t know that there is any point in me calling you, but, according to Issa, you’re walking into some kind of trouble. She insisted I call and warn you.”

“What? Did you just tell her that we left?” He chuckled.

“No. That was hours ago. She just went into a weird trancelike state, snapped out of it, saying I had to warn you and fast.”

He heard Tiger take a long deep breath. “Jesus, she’s weird.”

“Yes, but no doubt something is going on. So watch your back.”

“I’m watching my back and my front.”