A Diamond in My Pocket (15 page)

“He’d been seen conversing with the
Death Clan.” I told her.

“Yes. He’s been exceptionally
instrumental.”

“I don’t understand, and why are you
with the Death Clan? Do you work for them?”

“No. I work for no one and
everyone.”

“Why are you being so vague? What
are you not telling me?”

“Plenty. Calli, certain elements
must align to ensure the success of this mission. I cannot tell you what or
when to do anything.”

“But I need to know when to bring
out the diamond.”

“Follow your instincts. Follow your
desires. Follow your heart. You are human after all, you have that right.”

“But
—
”

She smiled at me. “You need to
go back now before you get yourself into trouble.”

“Will I lose my powers?” As I asked
the question, she faded away. I ran toward her and she moved further away. “Wait!”
I ran faster, but it didn’t matter. The sky brightened and without warning a
deluge of ice-cold water covered my face, submerged me, and I began to choke. I
kicked and flailed for my life trying to find the surface, I desperately needed
air, but which way was up? My vision was darkening and my lungs were on fire. Out
of the darkness I saw Chris swimming toward me. He grabbed me under my arms and
paddled toward the light. I closed my eyes and let my body go.

I woke up coughing and choking. My
chest hurt, my head and gut hurt too, why did I hurt so much? I had been rolled
on my side to allow the extra water to escape my mouth. I wiped my lips with
the sleeve of my jacket and realized everyone stood around me. How embarrassing.
I wanted to die—maybe I had. I sat up and rubbed my chest.

“Are you ok?” Chris asked sounding
out of breath as he sat next to me with his knees drawn up to his chest and his
arms wrapped around them. He was dripping wet, but so was I.

“I think so.”

Justin lit into me, “Why in the
hell did you go running into the river?!”

“I didn’t … did I?” I couldn’t
remember.

“You did,” Chris said and then
coughed violently. From his sounds, he almost drowned too.

“Why would I run into the river?”

Beth said, “I think you had a
vision. You stood and started yelling something about losing your powers and
took off across the water. You stopped and sunk like a rock. Good thing Chris
is such an excellent swimmer and knows mouth to mouth or you’d be dead.”

I looked over at Chris, who glanced
at me sideways. “Thanks.” I said quietly.

He nodded.

Kayla reached for my zipper, “Let’s
get you out of your jacket so it can dry.”

My hand quickly felt my pocket to
make sure the diamond was still inside; it was. I grabbed her wrist and made
her let go. “I’ll keep it on, thanks. I’ll dry as I run.”

Justin pointed out the obvious. “Chris
is in no condition to run. He can hardly breathe.”

I placed my hand on Chris’s back
and became aware of the water in his lungs, not good, and his lips had a blue
tinge to them. He was out of the water, but he was still drowning.

With my hand on his back, I warmed
the excessive moisture with my mind pulling and siphoning it, then, I stopped. “Is
this nature’s will?” I asked, not trying to be presumptuous or conceited, and I
certainly wasn’t trying to make a point. I just didn’t want to be going against
nature if this was what nature intended. And to be honest, I felt his ailments
were beyond what I should fix.

“Please, help me,” he gurgled out. “Please!”

His terrified plea touched
something deep inside me. Perhaps it was the fact he’d just saved my life and
that’s why I knew I needed to repay the debt; even if it was against nature. I
did. I continued with my ministrations of easing the water out of his lungs,
helping air get into his blood. I laid him back on the ground and straddled his
waist, being careful not to put my weight on him. With both of my hands, I
instinctively massaged his chest and lungs, sliding my hands up his chest to
his neck. I watched the moisture vapor leaving his body through his mouth.

He reached up and grasped my
wrists, not trying to stop me, but to be a part of what I was doing to him. I
continued to massage his lungs up and out. I thought about what it must have been
like to watch me run out onto the river and sink. I entered his mind and saw
myself convulsing through his memories. I looked absolutely scary even to
myself. His concern for my well-being had such magnitude, unlike anything I’ve
ever experienced for anyone except my parents. He tried to rein my body under
control by firmly pinning me to the ground with his own body so I wouldn’t hurt
myself. I threw him off of me with inhuman strength and jumped up. “Will I lose
my powers?” I yelled, and then I ran out into the middle of the river and sank.

Everything happened so fast that he
didn’t have time to try to stop me. The moment I went under, he ran right out
after me panic-stricken. He dove into the water and swam until he found me,
relieved when he located me, and tried to swim to the surface. He wrapped his
arms under my arms and pulled me to the riverbank where the others waited to
help pull us out. I was unconscious.

He slapped my face in desperation,
checked for a pulse and gave me breaths of life. He slapped me again. Anguish
flooded his entire being; he wouldn’t have felt worse if I’d died. At that
moment, it appeared I had. He used both palms and pressed on my chest. He did
this repeatedly as tears of pain ran down his face. When he gave me more
breaths of air, he did so lovingly. He couldn’t see straight through his tears,
but he persisted with chest compressions.

I started to cough and everyone
standing by gasped with relief. Hope began to build as he rolled me over on my
side and shrank back away from me pulling his knees up to his chest and hugging
them as complete exhaustion consumed him. His adrenaline rush had ended and the
real water in his lungs was now taking his life.

That is, until I touched his back.

I sensed him, at that moment, his
affection for me and my powers. He opened his eyes, still holding my wrists as
I massaged his chest. His lungs were back to normal, but his heart rate
continued to increase.

“Are you alright, Chris?”

“I think you’ve fixed me, so, you
can get off me now.”

“Oh, right,” I quickly moved off
his stomach and he sat up just as fast.

My mind kept replaying the images
from his head, knowing his feelings for me ran far deeper than what I’d seen
last night. “Did we go against nature?”

He didn’t answer nor did he turn to
look at me either.

I wondered why he let me into his
mind? Why were his defenses down? Did he want me to understand his true
feelings? The silence between us was deafening. The group left us alone. They
must have picked up on the tension too.

“I had a vision,” I said.

“I figured as much. I’ve heard of
visionaries doing crazy things, even deadly things, in the course of a vision.
I tried to hold you down but you got away.”

“It wasn’t exactly a vision, but
more like an out-of-body experience. I spoke with a witch.”

His head snapped toward me, “A
witch? You are dealing with a witch? Is this why you have powers?” His emotions
tittered on the side of rage.

Happy feeling gone, I stood and brushed
the grass off my wet suit, “I didn’t say I dealt with a witch, I said I spoke
with one in my vision.”

“Yes, but you yelled to the wind,
‘am I going to lose my powers?’ Were you talking to her?” his accusatory tone
unnerved me.

“I guess. It’s kind of hazy now. I’ll
have to think about it and try to recall the whole conversation.”

He got up and said over his
shoulder as he briskly walked up the hillside, “We should get moving again if
we’re going to make it to a safe place tonight. I’ll get the others.”

I stood utterly flabbergasted. He
left me so abruptly, and with such haste, as if I was infectious or
contaminated. How could the emotions of the moment change so suddenly? I’d
witnessed his innermost veneration, his indescribable affection and love, his
desperation to save me and his gratitude, but it left so easily. I concluded I
read too much into his feelings, like a foolish sixteen year old often does.

My own body still hurt, why? Couldn’t
I heal myself? Apparently not.

The clan came down the hill and I
stood to run with Chris, but he took off without me. Justin stared at me with a
slack jaw for a moment, then he took my hand and we started running following
Chris and the others.  My eyes watered sending tears straight back into my
hair. I thought about Chris putting his mouth on mine to give me life, him
holding my wrists while I healed him, and then looking at me like I carried the
Bubonic plague. Complete revulsion.

When we approached the town we’d be
staying in, we separated again into two groups like the night before, only,
Chris assigned me to Justin. My jaw hit the ground in utter amazement. He was
rejecting me, completely distancing himself from me.

Fine! Fine! All I can say is
Fine!

I’m not myself when I’m around him
anyway. I can’t think straight, I keep having these visions and desires I’d
rather not have, so if staying with Justin, who couldn’t hate me more, would
help my situation, I welcomed it.

My bed would be shared with Beth. Kayla
and Jessica had the other one. They didn’t dare talk to me; they only stared in
awe. At least they weren’t asking me about their futures. Justin sat in the
adjoining room speaking in a low voice to the guys. I picked up on some of the
conversation.

‘Visions, future, minds, hunts,
must be a witch for Chris to turn away from her.’

I lay back in the bed and closed my
eyes. The girls left the room and joined Justin. I placed my hand over the
diamond and felt its pulsating power under my palm. This was my true addiction,
giving me capabilities beyond imagination, attitude, and a new sense of self. Right
or wrong, I didn’t know.

Maetha had told me to follow my
desires, my gut, so I got up and walked out of the motel room, closing the door
behind me. I moved through the Shadow Demons which lurked just outside the edge
of light, and made my way down the block to the other motel occupied by Chris
and the others.

I turned on all my senses and
listened at the windows for him. Why? He’d rejected me. Yet, I wanted to listen
to his voice or look into his mind to find out why, hoping he regretted being
angry and cold with me, wishing to discover I’d misread his reaction on the
river bank. I couldn’t hear or see anything though; I only detected his scent.

Why would he be so repulsed at the
thought of me talking with a witch? Why didn’t he get upset when he found out
Justin was consorting with a witch; the same witch, although neither Chris nor
Justin knew, but still? Why would he leave me over that? More importantly, why
was I so upset about this? It’s not like his vision of me would ever come true
anyway.

I walked back to my hotel room in a
weary state of mind, dragging my feet so much I tripped on the sidewalk. Two
middle-aged men stepped forward from the shadows. They stood about the same
height, both wore ragged clothes and neither had shaved in a several days. One
had ratty blond hair and the other black.

“Careful miss, you’ll hurt
yourself,” an evil grin spread across the blond man’s face. Without delay, I
gained access into his mind, and what I viewed appalled me. Why would anyone
think such thoughts?

The black haired man placed his
hand on my shoulder, “Young lady, are you lost?” He had a cigarette between his
lips as he spoke, and as he inhaled, the orange glow of the tip illuminated his
pockmarked face.

To any passerby, he would have
appeared to be worried for my safety, but to a Mind Reader, I deduced I was the
only one concerned for my safety.

It’s odd really, the point at which
I’d found myself. Sixteen year old Calli of two weeks ago would never wander
the streets of an unknown town alone and after dark. I wouldn’t have spoken to
two strange men, let alone tried to fight them. The oddest thing about this
situation was my companions couldn’t help me now. The Demons were thick and the
light not enough. I was on my own with two scary looking men.

But I wasn’t the same girl anymore.
I had changed. No longer frightened of them but more uneasy because I had never
used my powers to hurt or maim anyone and if they didn’t leave me alone, they
would be my first experiment.

“Thank you for your concern, I’m
not lost. I’m on my way back to my motel,” I pointed to the next building.

“Little late for a pretty young
thing like you to be wanderin’ about,” Blondie said.

“Yes, I suppose so. Good night,” I
started to walk away, knowing I wouldn’t get far. They had plans for me, they
had evil flooding through them, but they didn’t have a clue who they were
dealing with.

They both grabbed me from behind. Mr.
Blonde hair wrapped his arms around my chest holding my arms down and the other
seized my ankles. I knew they were going to abduct me and with my increased
reflexes, yes, I could have avoided being caught, but I was angry. I’d been
unjustly dumped today and holy hell, these men were about to feel the wrath of
a scorned woman; a young woman that is.

I didn’t struggle; instead I
focused on the black haired man who held my feet. Naturally, I didn’t want to
be dropped by attacking the one holding my upper half, so I went after the foot
man first. I scoped his body with my mind and found he had an old knee injury. I
irritated the ligaments and tendons and he immediately started limping and
grunting, yet the cigarette never slipped from between his lips.

“What’s wrong?” his companion
growled as they hauled me down the alley.

“My bad knee! I must have stepped
in a hole,” the man dropped my feet and fell in agony, his cigarette bouncing
on the ground. He now held his other knee which I had just blown out with my
mind and yelled colorful swears, the likes of which I hadn’t heard before.