Empath (Book 1 of the Empath Trilogy) (6 page)

We got to the street and the lights shone on a small red car parked on the curb.  I looked over at Stephen and he had the key fob in his hand.  Pushing the button, I saw the lights flash as he nodded, “Yep, our chariot for the evening.”

We got closer and I saw that it was a newer Toyota coupe, one he could put the top down on in warmer months.  “Nice car, is it yours?”  I didn’t know if Stephen came from money or what but Augsburg was a private college and I had never heard him mention a job or anything and this car was pretty decent for our age group. 

“Yeah, it’s been in the family for a while.”  Why did he always smile like he had some secret I wasn’t in on?  It sort of irked me while at the same time drew me in.

We rode the short distance in relative silence.  I spent some time looking at his cd’s.  “What no ipod?  Aren’t these a bit old fashioned these days?”  I joked shaking a Depeche Mode cd at him.

He laughed again, that nice easy chuckle that immediately put me at ease, “I like the feel of them.  They are supposed to be this whole packaged experience the artist has planned out for you.  The MP3’s are so sterile and machine like.  Where is the connection to the artist through the cover art and the bonus hidden tracks?” 

My return grin was genuine as I realized how much I really liked him.  We had an easy time teasing each other and had so much in common.  That and, his control over himself allowed me to let down my guard just a little bit and not fear being lost to his emotions.  It was a relief to have that for the first time in my life and the realization took me aback.  Tears sprang to my eyes.

“Are you all right, Claire?”  He was concerned.  Uh oh, he was observant too. 

“Yeah, just thinking.”  I blinked the tears back in before any could spill over.

“Are you sad about the rise of the evil MP3’s?  I certainly didn’t mean to upset you with my lament over technology,” he kidded.

“No, I think I can handle the decline of my cd’s.”  Here they came again, prickling the backs of my eyelids.  I blinked hard for a minute.  It was while my eyes were closed that the word
safe
just popped into my head and calm washed over me.  When I opened my eyes, they were dry and I was back to feeling contented as I often did while I was with him.  My mind was so peculiar lately, it must be all of this messing with my ability I was doing.  It was shifting things around.  I intended to ask him about it later when I knew I wouldn’t be a mess doing it.

Ch. 9

Within about fifteen minutes of leaving campus, we arrived at Tara’s house.  It was a small Cape Cod common to that area.  The houses here were all pretty similar, most of them having been built in the 1920’s with two bedrooms on the main floor and an attic upstairs.  Small but homey, I had always liked them.  We’d lived in one in South Carolina.  They were not so large and sterile as a lot of the big houses being built out in the suburbs.  The lights were on inside giving it a warm and welcoming glow. 

The lighting also made it easier to see that the color was light blue or grey with darker shutters and a red door behind a full length glass front storm door.  The yard was landscaped with overgrown lilacs and hostas with some mulched wildflowers thrown into a kidney shaped garden just to the left of the sidewalk.  A cottage getaway was not what I was expecting from Tara.  Maybe I had misjudged the girl I’d only met once. 

With Stephen leading, we walked right in without knocking.  The décor took me by surprise, it was not what one would expect for a college student, nor was the house for that matter.  The front room was bright with a floor lamp and two matched table lamps illuminating the light hardwood floor and fluffy pale cream area rug.  Two small, camel-colored corduroy love seats were on opposing walls with a large window taking up the majority of the front wall next to the door.

The queen of the castle, Tara was sitting on the one loveseat to the left of a tall, thin man sitting next to her with his arms crossed loosely in front of him.  He had hair the same color as Tara and Stephen, only his was a little longer, pulled back into a short ponytail.  He was dressed in khakis and a blue Henley with a peek of tawny chest hair showing through the opening.  When he looked up at me, I saw the same eye and face shape as Stephen and Tara.  The resemblance was uncanny.  He had to be an older brother, maybe in his early twenties.

Continuing with my scan, I saw another woman lounging on the other loveseat who could have been the tall man’s twin.  She had long, honey colored hair, and dressed in hip hugging jeans that covered legs that went on forever and a jewel green satin top that ended just above her belly button.  I had to admit that if I could make it look like that, I would wear that kind of thing to the grocery store.  She lay on the loveseat with her head resting on one hand, elbow on the arm of the couch and legs casually thrown over the other arm.  She had to be about six feet, not much shorter than her brother.

All of the Andrews looked up at us when we walked in.  The conversation stopped, but didn’t feel hostile.  The group appeared to be politely waiting for an introduction.

“Tara, you’ve already met Claire.”  Tara nodded, not entirely unpleasant, her lips were tight as she dipped her head.  “Claire, let me introduce my older brother and sister, Troy and Tonya.”  They were both reserved but kind as they nodded and Troy said, “Pleased to meet you finally.  Stephen has spoken highly of you.”

My stomach fluttered nervously and I looked over at Stephen who shrugged.  “We’re a close family.  We talk about everything.”  He saw my shoulders tighten as I realized what he must have shared with them.

He smiled gently.  “Yes, they know about your gift, but don’t worry.  You are safe here.”  In my head, I thought
calm and safe
, though I would normally be freaking out with complete strangers learning all about my secret, even if they did call it a gift.

It was also then that I noticed I couldn’t feel any of them.  I guess I got used to my minor shielding working to reduce the “buzz” of people near me to just background, but this was even less, nonexistent.  What I could feel was different than anything I had ever felt around people.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.  “Are you doing this?”  I whispered to Stephen thinking maybe he was helping me out.

He met my hesitant gaze serenely, “We all are.”

“What?”  I looked at them and they were all so relaxed, like a pride of lions lounging in their den.  It was hard to imagine they were putting forth the kind of effort it took me to shield the little bit I had managed so far.  I was getting better, but still I had to concentrate so that I always looked like I was deep in thought, sometimes in pain.

“You aren’t the only one around here with a gift, you know,”  Stephen said with no small amount of pride and raised his chin, grinning smugly.  I had figured as much, but I didn’t understand the feeling I was getting from all of them.  There had always been something different about Stephen, only it was more pronounced when he was here with his family.

Troy spoke up without changing his position next to Tara or looking at me, “Why you have invited her, Stephen?  You know that tonight we have a meeting.”

“I have asked Claire to come here because of her gift.  I’ve advised her that we can help her to develop it.  That, and I know we have a meeting which is why I’ve chosen tonight to invite her.”

“I’m not certain about her ability to control herself,” the lioness purred from her perch across the room.  Tonya swung her legs down and, smooth as a cat, stood in one fluid motion.  She was the tallest woman I had ever seen in person.  “She feels wild and out of control, yet you say she has been working by herself for weeks.  I have to wonder if she is worth the training if this is any indication of her potential.”

This was getting trippy.  I couldn’t follow what they were talking about.  I thought of the tea party in
Alice in Wonderland
and wondered if Stephen was the Mad Hatter or if it was Troy who was running things.  That, combined with the formality, it was not indicative of what I knew of Stephen at all.  Wait, what did I know about this family
or
Stephen?  Maybe his family had gone to boarding school somewhere in Europe or something.  I had seen that sort of thing in the movies, those people always seemed so much more elegant and formal.  Real people didn’t talk like this though.  And I was getting very nervous of them talking about me as though I was not really human or here. 

“Stephen, maybe you should just bring me home if I’m unwelcome.”  This situation had crossed over from strange to downright bizarre.  Oddly enough, though, I wasn’t panicking at all. 

“Claire, I told you that we could help you to develop your talent, but in order to do so, there are some things you need to know.  Things about how the world really looks, not how we’re taught to see it.  Do you remember the first time we met?  Have you wondered how I knew that you were special?”  Hazel eyes burned into mine with such intensity, I found myself leaning in and I nodded assent, not even thinking to snort at his use of the word “special.”

He sighed, “I need you to hear me out.  As strange as some of this is going to sound, I want you to remember that I am your friend and I won’t lie to you.”

Taking a deep breath, I tried to sound calm, “Okay, I’ll try.”  I felt some anxiety leaking through.  Were my newfound shielding abilities keeping me from feeling the full range of my own emotions?  Were their abilities lulling me into a false sense of security?  I should be running away. 

“Let’s sit down.  Tonya, do you mind?”  He asked her breaking his gaze from mine only briefly.

She gave up her claim on the seat, spun and glided into the kitchen without a word.

Stephen and I sat down next to each other, our knees mere inches away from each other.  Years of practice made me cautious not to touch and I automatically scooted backward.  “My family and I are gifted, like you.  We all have special abilities and use these abilities to train others like you to better handle their gifts.  However, your talent is stronger than any I have worked with before.”  At this, there was an odd rumbling from the kitchen.  “I’m pretty sure it’s stronger than any of us have worked with, which is why I’ve called you here tonight.” 

“I don’t understand, Stephen, you said that you could help me.  I’m sure you can work with mine, even if it is different.”  Hearing how I was different, even among others like me, only served to solidify for me how freakish I really was.   

Stephen ran his hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up in some funny ways.  It gave me something else to look at other than his eyes and I was grateful.  “It isn’t that simple.  You see we are able through a special talent that we share as a family, to absorb most of the outside influences and essentially block you from outside stimuli as you learn to manage your own shields in a sort of safety bubble.  But yours work differently, they go back and forth instead of just one direction.  I haven’t seen their equal before.  We might need to call in a favor from another family more capable, but that would put us in debt to them.”  Something definitely growled in the kitchen.  Not a dog, though.  It sounded like a pissed off cat.  I hoped it was locked up; cats hated me.

“Who is this family?  Are they cousins or something?”  I was definitely missing part of the puzzle; I didn’t understand why owing a favor was such a big deal.  Stephen wasn’t telling me something.  “I can repay them, I’m sure.  You don’t need to owe anyone anything on my behalf.”

Tara stood up and was surprisingly graceful for her farm girl build.  “I told you she wouldn’t understand.  This is beyond the understanding of her kind.”

“Oh?  My kind?  What kind would that be?”  First impressions definitely served here.  Tara
was
a jerk and she was an easy target for the anxious flare up I felt coming on.

Troy put his hand on Tara’s wrist to stop her, and she turned to face him.  “Let’s put it out there and see what she does.”  That kind of control meant he had to be the leader here.  It was good to have him stop Tara’s attitude, except I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going.  It was getting a bit too intense here for me.  I started to think about how I could get Stephen to take me home.

A sigh from the couch next to me brought me back.  “Claire, what do you believe about the paranormal?” 

If he didn’t look so serious, I would have laughed right in his face.  Paranormal?  My life seemed to be constantly going round this theme, but I was the daughter of a man who did not give a lot of time to fairy tales and ghost stories.  I was raised to see things as they were and nothing more.  My curse was the only hiccup in Dad’s rational theories on life but that didn’t mean
everything
was real.  Out of respect though, I tried to make my point in a non-offensive way.  “Books and movies are my only exposure and I’m not certain that those are based in reality.  After all, look at what the books say about things like ESP.  They aren’t all in agreement.  Not even close.  I think if there was any truth to them, they would be more in sync with each other.”