‘Simple telepathy. Allow me to tell you what you have been thinking.’
He repeated back all my thoughts about things getting out of hand, reconsidering how I’d work with vampire wannabes, that he was being delusional, and my wanting him to leave. Word for word.
My body rode a rollercoaster of emotion.
How could he possibly know that?
I immediately felt embarrassed that he’d somehow known what I really thought about him, which was then made even worse by the humiliating possibility that he’d been aware of my earlier appreciation of his physical attributes. But then I got angry. The buzzing in my ears had morphed into a headache and I was rapidly approaching some inner line in the sand. I hadn’t given him permission to read my energy or to inconvenience me with his unexpected presence or his sideshow antics. Since I had no intention of taking him on as a client, I felt justified in letting myself have a reaction.
I held on to the arms of the chair so tightly that my fingers blanched whiter than normal.
‘That’s quite a clever parlour trick. Are you a mind reader? A psychic?’ There was more heat in my voice than I’d intended.
Something is very wrong here. I’ve never had this reaction to any client, ever. I’ve never got angry at a client before. I’ve never been so attracted to a client before. This is unnatural. What’s happening?
‘You are angry. Once again, I apologise for upsetting you. It is my nature to be able to read the thoughts and sense the emotions of others. It has always been that way for me, even before I was born into darkness. I cannot be other than I am. All old vampires have the potential to be telepathic, but not many are as skilled as I am. It is one of my gifts. As you might imagine, being bombarded by constant mental chatter can be tedious, so I’ve taught myself to pick up an individual’s thoughts only if I choose to. I now receive specifically what I focus on and nothing more. I can teach you to shield your thoughts, if you wish.’
‘Can’t you just stop whatever it is you’re doing?’ I demanded, much louder than I’d meant to. I couldn’t honestly say I believed he’d read my mind, because how could that be possible? I’d never met anyone with keen enough psychic abilities to actually know another’s thoughts, word for word. This was new territory. Not being able to explain it made me nervous.
His lips curved, and he gave another bow of his head.
‘With most humans, there is little pull to their thoughts. Their minds are filled with ordinary, meaningless details and I can easily turn my attention elsewhere. But your mind is very powerful and you have your own abilities, which you have not yet acknowledged. That is a very strong attraction for me. But I will do my best not to intrude.’
‘Thank you,’ I said, and stood up, struggling to hold myself together. What abilities? What’s he talking about? ‘We need to stop now.’
‘Yes.’ He stood as well and smiled at me. ‘Of course. I am grateful for your indulgence. Midnight holds you in high regard and I am pleased that she will be spending time with you. She has most likely told you that she is involved with another vampire she met at my club. This . . . individual . . . is dangerous, and I wish to discourage their relationship. She is most upset with me, but I must be firm on this. I hope that as you learn more about him, you will agree with me. Perhaps she will listen to one of us.’
He has such interesting, old-fashioned speech patterns. I feel as if I’ve fallen into a time warp. Or into one of my old roommate’s taped episodes of Dark Shadows.
There were many questions I wanted to ask him since he’d started talking about Midnight, but I didn’t want to encourage him or breach her privacy, so I kept my face pleasantly blank and said nothing.
‘May I have your permission to come and visit you again?’
Ah, the vampire wannabe is tapping at my window, wanting in.
‘Is there something you wish to talk to a therapist about? Because I believe I’ve made it clear that I can’t discuss Midnight with you, so it might be best if I refer you to another clinician.’
‘There are many topics I wish to explore, but only with you. Would you come to my club sometime, as my guest?’ he said, his voice smooth velvet again. ‘It would give you an opportunity to see the world in which Midnight lives.’
What was it about that voice? Why was it causing me to have very un-therapist-like thoughts? It seemed to generate actual heat in my body. I gathered my professional aura around me like a protective cloak. ‘I don’t think that would be appropriate, but I appreciate the kind offer. If you decide you want to start seeing a therapist, I’d be pleased to refer you.’
I guided him into the waiting area and he turned to me, lifted my hand and kissed it, his mouth lingering just a bit longer than necessary.
His aqua gaze locked on to mine. ‘Please allow me to give you a parting gift.’
Before I could answer, he placed his index finger gently on the skin between my eyes and made a circular motion. I jumped as if he’d burned me. The touch had tingled like a mini-lightning bolt.
I gasped. ‘What did you do to me?’
‘I provided a layer of protection over your third eye – your sixth chakra – so you will no longer be overwhelmed by what I am. Your symptoms should already be subsiding.’
My symptoms? Third eye? I’ve got to get this handsome madman out of my office.
‘Until next time.’ He turned and left as quietly as he came in.
I rubbed my forehead, half-expecting to find a gaping wound, and was pleasantly surprised to feel nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, I was almost clear-headed again. I suspected I was right about him being a hypnotist, because he certainly understood the power of suggestion. Regardless of why the fuzziness, buzzing and pain had gone away, I was relieved they had.
I closed and locked both the doors, noticing that my legs were shaking and my knees were dangerously close to bailing on me. I shuffled over to the couch, flopped down, and stretched out along it, then kicked my shoes into the air as I surrendered into the soft cushions. I could still feel his kiss on my hand and I was very aware that my hormones were threatening to run amok.
That was, without a doubt, the weirdest experience I’d ever had. A good-looking man expressed interest in me and I handled it poorly. Gee. What a surprise.
After lying there for a few minutes, trying to figure out what had just happened, I sat up and reached for the information sheet he’d filled out, noticing that he hadn’t answered many of the questions. He listed the club downtown as his address and phone number, and under date of birth he’d written August 8, 1172 and October 31, 1201.
Oh, I get it. In keeping with his story, he’d given me both a human birth date and a vampire birth date. Very clever. According to this, he was twenty-nine years old when he was ‘brought over’. So something must have happened to him when he was twenty-nine that caused him to retreat into this masquerade. Since he didn’t appear to be much older than that, it couldn’t have been very long ago.
I suddenly felt sad. What a shame that this obviously intelligent and unquestionably gorgeous man was caught up in such a bizarre pretence. Or, even sadder, that he was mentally ill enough to actually believe he was a vampire. But there was still that business about him guessing what I’d been thinking. How could he possibly have such an extraordinary level of skill? I remembered reading an article about mental illness and enhanced psychic abilities – the intuitive equivalent of a savant. I’d have to do some more research on that topic.
Why had I let him get to me? I was thoroughly ashamed of myself for behaving so unprofessionally – so irrationally. I treated him more like an appealing male than someone in a clinical situation. I’d never had that kind of reaction to someone in my office. I owed Devereux an apology. First I’d let myself be attracted to him, and then I’d lost my temper. Both those choices were completely unacceptable and very unlike me. It was undoubtedly time for me to schedule weekly appointments with Nancy rather than monthly. I mean, how unnatural was it for a thirty-year-old woman to be a celibate hermit?