Chapter 7
BRETT TUCKED HAZEL’S back against his chest and let out a long breath. He remembered every detail of their night together thirteen years ago. It had been the one sexual experience all other passion-filled nights had been measured against. His mother had always accused him of being a closet-case romantic. Of course she’d been the only person he’d ever confided in as to how he’d felt about the night a young woman came into his life, and with a snap of his fingers, disappeared. Even after his last girlfriend had found the pendant, he’d kept the romanticized idea that someday he’d meet Hazel again to himself.
Now that she was in his arms? An overwhelming feeling as though he’d come home mixed with the confusion of the reality of their connection, made him question his very existence.
He let his mind and body relax and drift off into a blissful sleep, which lasted until sunrise when Hazel’s body jerked as her fingers dug into his thigh.
“What is it?” he asked, but no sooner did the words leave his lips, did his mind travel quickly into her murky vision. He couldn’t make out much, other than a swirling of colors, mostly burnt orange and red…
Can you hear me? A female voice echoed in his brain.
I need to get a message to Hazel.
What the fuck? Every time he tried to respond, he knew whoever had entered his head couldn’t hear him.
He pulled Hazel as close as he could, seeing Savanah being dragged up a mountainside, the morning sun beating down on her face. She smiled, as if she knew someone was looking out for her as she led everyone through a maze of twists and turns that he hadn’t been able to put together in any coherent message.
Is this Brett? It is. I know you can hear me. Well, I think you can hear me. This is Willow. Tell Hazel that our client’s son has been found.
Dead.
And he wasn’t a son, but an operative for the North Korean government.
Fucking wonderful.
They only wanted to use Savanah…
His body shivered as the connection to Willow dissipated.
He could handle Hazel being in every part of his mind and soul.
But her sisters being in his space?
Too damn fucking weird. He could only hope that Willow couldn’t hear his thoughts.
“Brett?” Hazel said softly. “You saw that, didn’t you?”
He kissed her temple. “I did and I can only assume you heard Willow.”
Hazel rolled, facing him. “How’s all this happening?”
“I don’t know, but we need to be careful because I can feel it sucking both our energies and if we don’t find a way to balance it, our gifts will be rendered useless.”
“We need to go,” she said, slipping from the bed, her naked body shimmering in the dim light filtering through the window with daylight less than an hour away.
He went through the motions of showering and getting dressed, trying to ignore the pull Hazel had over him. It wasn’t that she’d been his first. He knew deep down that had he not met her in his youth, she’d still have the same effect on him that she did now.
What scared him was the connection to her sisters and what that implied.
They spent the next few hours barely speaking as they drove to the spot where her vision told them her sister was being held.
He pulled the vehicle into the parking lot across the street from a Ranger office in Vermont. Specifically, an entrance to the Long Trail, or in these parts, The Green Mountain Trail.
“What is it with these people and remote areas?” he asked, though more to himself then expecting an answer from Hazel.
“Don’t you prefer a remote location when viewing?”
“Nah. I can do it anywhere. The only reason for being in a private, secluded area would be the idea that the further away you are from other psychics, the less likely you could be blocked or manipulated.”
Hazel grabbed his arm. Her face turned a shade of white he’d never seen before, except maybe on a dead person.
His mind connected to hers with the brute force of a blunt object hitting the back of someone’s head. A swirl of colors followed by a flash of light, which nearly blinded him and smacked his brain. He held Hazel by her arms, trying to stay focused on the here and now and not allowing himself to follow her into her vision.
It was a fine line he walked between his ability and hers. Everything he’d read on psychics sharing talents or merging them sounded a little to hokey to be true. Then again, so did remote viewing the first time he’d heard about it, but after some training with a special group in the Marines, Brett learned to embrace his ability. With Phoenix, they encouraged him to push boundaries and one thing they’d been working on was him bringing back objects from a view, something everyone considered impossible, even the experts.
But Brett had done it twice.
Each time, the act caused him to become ill and physically weak, but it was possible.
Savanah came into his minds-eye. She sat at the top of the mountain, earbuds in her ears, and a cell phone in hand.
Brett took a look around, but he didn’t see anyone else, even though he felt the presence of other beating hearts.
And by the way Hazel’s body shook in his physical embrace, she was obviously seeing something different in her vision, which left him wondering who was controlling his view, because he certainly wasn’t.
His physical body held Hazel as tight as he could, while he let his spirit side engage in the psychic realm. He felt the cool mountaintop air across his face. He took two long strides toward Savanah, but she held up a hand then pointed toward the sky. At first, all he saw was the blue sky lined with big white puffy clouds, but off in the distance, he saw a tunnel.
His tunnel.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
If he followed his view through Savanah’s, he could lose the physical connection to Hazel. However, he realized he was no longer in Hazel’s vision. He had to wonder if he ever had been, as he considered she could have just been a catalyst into her sister’s view...which honestly made no sense.
“Talk to me, Savanah,” he whispered, as he ran toward the opening in the sky. Before he entered the tunnel, he glanced over his shoulder. He saw himself, holding Hazel tight in his arms, kissing her forehead, his body keeping her safe from whatever she saw in her premonition.
Sucking in a deep breath, he ran through the tunnel, letting himself become engaged with the view. A mirage of lush greenery graced his vision until his feet hit solid ground.
“North Korea,” he said as he slowed his pace, getting his bearings. The view was cloudier than normal, but he suspected that had to do with the concept that he’d been pulled from his plane to Savanah’s, while still connected to Hazel.
Talk about cosmically fucked up.
Voices… American voices echoed from the right. He followed the sound through thick trees until he came into a clearing where he saw the SEAL team he’d viewed a few weeks ago.
All the team members had been blindfolded and were being held in three different cells, two in each one.
Brett did his best to get a lock on his exact location. He could feel Savanah’s presence, guiding him. The longer they stayed connected, the more intense the pain in his head became. He’d read about the phenomenon of intertwined abilities and they all said there were negative consequences, but no one mentioned the sensation of a bullet ripping through his brain.
He did a quick scan of the area, painfully aware his tunnel had begun to fade, and if he didn’t enter it soon, he could be lost in the space between, forever.
He turned and raced toward the opening in the scenery, which was getting smaller and smaller. The moment his feet entered the space, a vortex sucked him in, spinning and twisting his body until it spit him out on the top of the mountain.
His stomach rolled with intense nausea, as if his belly had turned into a category five hurricane. Savanah knelt near a rock. Three men surrounded her, all pointing guns at her head.
What the fuck? Why had she pushed him out to a different place when she needed his help right now?
The mountaintop was at least five miles high. It would take hours before he could physically get to her.
Savanah titled her head, making eye contact, which should be impossible.
A vision of her hugging her sister filled the blue sky. The throbbing in his head subsided as he felt his body float into what he had to assume was Hazel’s premonition. He didn’t understand why or how, but he knew Savanah was holding her own, and that she would do what she needed to stay alive.
Savanah gave him a quick nod and in a flash, his body was sucked back into another tunnel, spinning his body like one of those rides at an amusement park where the only purpose was to see how many people the metal spinning object would make toss their cookies.
“Brett,” Hazel’s voice lulled him back to the present.
He gripped her arms, digging his fingers into her flesh. He knew he had to be hurting her, but if he let go, he’d collapse.
A thick wave of nausea filled his senses and he dropped to his knees, heaving what little he’d eaten that day, hoping it didn’t land on Hazel’s feet, not to mention he really hoped no one happened to be passing by.
“Brett,” Hazel said softly, lowering herself to his level. “Breathe. Just breathe.”
He focused on the smooth timber of her voice as she helped him to his feet.
“What the fuck was that?” she asked.
“I have no clue, but we can add medium to your list of talents because you acted as a direct line to your sister.”
“I saw her at the top of the mountain but then I had different visions. One was where she took a bullet, the other one was where you did, but both ending with me hugging Savanah.”
“I reject both shootings, but that hug I’ll accept. Before we do anything, I need to contact Phoenix and give them the location of the missing SEAL team, and also see if I can get us some backup in the sky because you and are going to take a hike to save your sister.”