Chapter 13
Eden stood up and suggested, “I probably need to go back and make it all look normal. I’ll pick up a cup of coffee, tell people we might be late returning from lunch,” she added, with an eyeroll.
“And you know what kind of response that’ll get.
But at least it will stave off anybody coming in this direction. ”
“That’s actually a good idea,” Eric noted.
You two do what you need to do, but you need to do it fast. Stefan replied.
And, with that, she went to step away, only to have Stefan call out, Stop.
She froze, then turned back to look at him, and said, “It would be a hell of a lot easier if you weren’t … hidden,” she muttered.
Maybe for you, but not for me, Stefan explained. I stopped you because whatever is going on here affects you too.
She froze. “What do you mean?”
Once you try to take a step away from this area, you will probably get hit with the exact same bulldozing effect and blockage that Eric did.
Staring in his direction, she headed toward the hotel. And she got smacked right up against an invisible wall. “I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
They don’t care, Stefan noted. Apparently, whatever is going on here is powerful enough that they’re not against utilizing both of you for whatever they want right now.
“Un-freaking-believable,” she muttered, as she turned to look at Eric.
Eric winced and muttered, “I am sorry.”
She raised both hands and asked, “Now what? We have to deal with this now, and, since we apparently can’t go anywhere else, we have to deal with this here.”
Eric nodded. “I agree with you absolutely.”
Come back and sit down, Stefan began. We’ll open the portal, and we’ll do our best to put whoever this is back in the hole.
“And I hate that,” she muttered. “I absolutely hate the thought of putting this one back in again. I mean, if it were me, you know how hard I would be fighting you,” she cried out softly.
We already know this won’t be easy. Sit back down again and get ready. Stefan’s tone was sharp.
She plunked her butt down right beside Eric, who immediately wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. She leaned in, needing the comfort from whatever this nightmare was.
“It’s all right,” Eric muttered. “It’ll be fine.”
Stefan declared, I might need to borrow some energy. I need you both to stay there and to not move, while I try to contact this entity and see if we can figure out what happened and how to free you two.
“So, we just stay put and don’t move?” Eden asked.
Yes, just sit still and look pretty. Then he barked, Do you understand?
“I understand,” she snapped back.
This time humor filled his tone as Stefan spoke. Good, do not leave. And, with that, he disappeared from her mind.
She looked over at Eric. “Did he just disappear from your mind?”
“Yes, he did, and you’re amazingly calm about it.”
“Yeah, well, … that’s because I haven’t really told you everything about Debbie.” When he frowned at her, she shrugged. “I feel as if she’s been talking to me, telling me that I had to come here, telling me that she’d been murdered, telling me that somebody needed to fix it. And that I was it.”
“How long has that been going on?” he asked.
“The whole time.” She blinked. “I didn’t think anybody would believe me,” she explained, “so I didn’t say anything.
I didn’t believe it myself really, but it seems as if she’s been getting—I don’t want to say stronger because I don’t know that stronger is the word.
She slammed a door in my face when I tried to ignore her.
However, with all this?” She waved her hand about.
“I don’t know what the hell’s going on. I just know that, wherever she is, she’s not happy about it.
Whatever happened to her, she’s … pissed off. More so, she’s pissed at me.”
“If she didn’t have any say in what happened to her, then I can understand that she would be pretty irate,” Eric replied, “but that’s still not your problem nor your responsibility. And that’s the thing she needs to understand.”
She stared at him and asked, “Do you trust Stefan?”
“Yes, absolutely,” he stated.
She sighed, relaxing slightly. “That’s good to hear. … I don’t even know who he is, and I don’t understand what all of this is about. It’s so far-fetched. I can’t imagine anything worse than having your very soul imprisoned, without anybody knowing.”
“This is just horrible,” Eric agreed. “No question about that, but we can’t do anything about it now. So, we’ll just sit here, calm and quiet, as we let Stefan do his thing. And then we’ll see what we’re doing after that.”
As she considered that, she added, “I know it’s not as if I have any say here, but it feels wrong. Something is off, and I can’t feel Stefan at all.”
Eric nodded. “I agree with you. I’m just not sure what wrong means in this instance.”
“I don’t know.” Then she bolted to her feet, but he grabbed her immediately and pulled her back down.
“Remember what we were told?” Eric asked.
“I know. I know, but something is wrong. Stefan’s in trouble,” she cried out. She looked all around them. “There has to be somebody who can help.”
“Stefan is the one who can help,” Eric pointed out. “And, if he can’t help, I don’t know that there is anybody else.”
Just then another weird shimmer filled the air, and she gasped. “What’s that?” she cried out.
Eric wrapped his arms around her and just held her tight for a few moments, and then his body relaxed. “Stefan does have somebody with whom he works sometimes. I suspect that we’re seeing somebody he has called to help.”
The shimmer was there, and then suddenly it was gone. Yet the air seemed calmer, quieter.
They sat for a moment, staring at each other.
Finally the knot in her stomach started to ease, and she gasped. “I feel as if a galactic war just happened. Something so far removed from our actual reality that it’s almost impossible to explain.”
Just then Eric’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket, glanced at the screen, and shared, “It’s Stefan.” With an odd look in her direction, Eric put it on Speakerphone. “Stefan?”
“Yes,” he replied, exhaustion in his voice. “We released that one person. A friend of mine will communicate with her. It was a woman, an older woman who died quite a few years ago.”
“What does quite a few years mean?”
“Let’s just say a lot of years ago,” Stefan replied. “My friend will talk to her and will see if we can get any answers from her. Her soul, her energy is—well, I would like to say it’s ready to go back to where it needs to be—but it’s not.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not exactly sure what has happened to her, but we need to get a better idea. So, I’ve got Dr. Maddy on it, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”
“Is it safe to move now?” Eric asked.
After a moment of silence, Stefan replied, “Yes, it is safe for you guys to move. But what is not safe is for you to be separated. I need you two to stay together until we get to the bottom of this.”
“Stay together?” Eden asked. “Like, together-together?”
“That’s up to you but stay together, meaning stay in the same bedroom tonight.
Absolutely do not let each other get out of your sight.
Both of you. Do you hear me?” Stefan snapped.
“It’s important. The Origin, whatever it is, whoever is controlling it, is really pissed because they lost a round today.
Not only were they looking to enhance their numbers with the acquisition of you two, they’ve now lost someone who they desperately needed.
I have no doubt that they will be looking to regain that advantage. ”
Stefan sighed, with a weariness evident in his tone.
“You both need to be very careful. It’s critically important that you stay safe.
” His apparent level of exhaustion was very disconcerting to Eric and Eden.
“I’m done for the moment, and we will help this soul later,” he added.
“Whether we get answers or not remains to be seen. But the bottom line is that you guys are at risk and need to stay safe. A very pissed-off entity is out there. And it’s not only looking to replenish its stock but now it’ll also be looking for payback.
And you guys are the likeliest targets.”
“So we are it, aren’t we?” Eden muttered.
*
Eric stood up and wandered a few feet away.
Shaking out his arms and legs, he looked over at Eden, and she nodded.
“Let’s go,” Eric said. “We need to get sustenance for whatever is coming. And, given that, we don’t want anybody else to know what’s going on,” he pointed out. “Yet we must appear somewhat normal.”
“Great,” she muttered, “as if that’ll work out well for us.”
He smiled. “It will work out. We just have to take it easy.”
With that, they headed to the restaurant adjoining the hotel. Several people from the seminar looked up, some with smiles, some with disapproving frowns.
Eden basically ignored everybody and headed over to the food buffet.
Luckily they were just in time to get themselves a plate of food before the servers took everything away.
When they sat down, Richard walked over and sat down beside them. “Is everything okay?”
“Absolutely,” she said, as she looked at him. “I wasn’t feeling very well earlier, so I ended up going outside and found out Eric wasn’t feeling great either. We just spent some time, you know, relaxing and taking care of each other.”
“Good, good,” he replied, but a wariness filled his gaze. “Did you see anything out there?”
She frowned at him. “See what?” she asked. “I mean, it’s beautiful out there.”
He just nodded and didn’t say anything else right away. He stayed for a few more minutes, gently prying with a few more questions before he appeared to give it up. Then he just sat with them, as if not wanting to leave them alone.
It was a little disconcerting to Eden, yet she needed a chance to see if he had anything to do with this. She really didn’t know who this man was.