Accused (Ganzfield) (22 page)

Who Wants to Be a Telepathic Millionaire?

Money had a different feel when it was so easy to replace—it lost its power and importance. Like air, it wasn’t a big deal when you had more than enough.

She seemed to read the discomfort in my face. “Well, you
have to be her godmother now. I’m not asking you—I’m telling you.” Her fake fierceness dared me to contradict her. “Plus, she already likes you.” She smiled as her thoughts darted to memories of the yellow energy that little Sienna kept flicking around my face.

I’d be honored.

I fervently hoped Rachel would have a long, healthy life since the thought of taking care of a baby spark/RV/heaven-knows-what-else made me want to hide in a bunker.
But don’t I need to be Catholic?

“For this kid, G-positive trumps denomination, I think. You’re some kind of Christian, right? I’ll ask Cecelia to talk to the priest if there’s an issue.” Cecelia and I didn’t get along, but I knew a few charmed words from her would fix things the way Rachel wanted them. She’d do that for Rachel. I nodded.
Okay, I’m in.
I touched my thoughts to the active little mind within Rachel’s bump.
Hey, little one. I’m your godminder!

A little flash of reaction—a wordless sense of interest and excitement—bounced back to me. Rachel and Harrison startled. They felt that? Was the kid a
projecting telepath
, too?
Geez.
The little feeler of yellow energy found my face again.

“Maddie, was that—?” Rachel already knew what
that
was. She paled as she lay back and tried to remember to breathe.

I sighed.
Yup.
At least Sienna the Superbaby wouldn’t be able to charm until she learned to talk.

Probably.

I found Trevor with Drew in the huge training warehouse. At stations set up around the rest of the structure, groups of sparks took turns crisping circuits. Drew gestured excitedly as he pointed out the new techniques.

“Mrs. Laurence!” Drew threw me a Cheshire-cat smile.

I startled at that—we’d never even thought about the last name issue.

“It’s criminal that I didn’t get to throw Trevor a bachelor party.”

Trevor’s face remained neutral as his thoughts flashed relief.

Drew, what kind of bachelor party do you think you could’ve thrown for a man marrying a telepath? Seriously.

Drew silently considered and rejected several of his favorite options. “Okay, you’ve got a point.”

Besides, with the people at the gate, we’re still in lockdown here.

“Frikkin’ kryptonite darts.” Drew shook his head.

At least it was a non-lethal weapon. We need to practice our own stopping-but-not-killing stuff, too.

“Yeah, that’s what your
husband
was telling me.” Drew nodded. “We’re on it. The sparks are good now, and we’ll be even better with more practice.”

After dinner, Trevor and I walked out to the little guardhouse by the front gate and picked up our bags and my purse. The AAA guy had dropped them off after towing the car from down the road where we’d been ambushed.

We’re actually lucky everything wasn’t impounded by the Feds.

I listened to their thoughts for a few moments and then huffed. One of the agents in the back of the van shared my lackluster opinion of New Hampshire pizza. I closed my eyes and my anxiety deflated as I exhaled—people thinking about pizza probably weren’t planning to round up a bunch of teenage “terrorists” with superpowers tonight.

We walked under the dark trees as we returned to the church.
Trevor, I have a request.
Red energy crackled between us as he sensed the direction of my thoughts.
We may not be officially married when we’re awake, but we’re lucid-dream married and I want a lucid-dream honeymoon with you
. I was a little proud of my logic.

Trevor surprised me—there was no hesitation, no ambivalence in his thoughts. He smiled, pulled me close, and kissed me until I forgot to breathe. “Absolutely.”

Now the hard part was falling asleep—our thoughts danced with giddy anticipation. Trevor drifted off first. I felt his mind disappear and experienced a sudden
wait-for-me!
moment of panic. I didn’t notice when I also dropped off.

Turquoise water, white sand, and palm trees greeted me, and the afternoon sun bathed everything in warmth. Waves washed up and down the smooth, wet surface where the land met water.
Our private paradise.
Trevor’s eyes shone as he drew me down onto an enormous blanket spread across the sand. Beneath the fabric, the granular texture shifted under my back, molding itself to me.

“I love you, Maddie.” His kiss made me dizzy. There was no reluctance, no holding back—just need and want and passion and incredible, overwhelming love. My heart seemed to move up to my ears. I could hear it pounding in my head. Something started to get all warm and dizzy around the place where my heart should’ve been. My hands slid across Trevor’s chest, and then around his back. Our clothing literally melted away in some form of dream-evaporation.

It was so much better than the drugged afternoon. There was no discomfort, no confusion. We clung together and it was amazing. Trevor woke us both at the end so the memory would stick.

I climbed down from my loft and slid into bed with Trevor. Little pings of red energy still zipped across my skin and the warm, jelly-like sensation pooled in my gut as Trevor pulled me close and kissed me. I felt his huge smile against my lips and his head was filled with a profound sense of “wow.” I propped myself across his chest in the dark. We were both still fully dressed—here in the real world. I smoothed Trevor’s hair back from his forehead with my fingertips. As soon as our eyes met in the dim light, we flashed into energy together.

Afterward, we curled around one another until the trembling subsided.
So, soulmating, real world sex, or lucid-dream honeymooning?
I asked him playfully.
Have a favorite?

Not sure yet. I think we need to conduct some long-term research.

Good answer.

You know, I don’t think we should ever go to the real Aruba.

I nodded.
It could never be as wonderful as the one you’ve made for us. But the beaches in Greece are supposed to be fantastic. Ooh, or how about Tahiti?

And we’d be away from the U.S. Feds.

If they’d let us fly. Think we could make it out of the country?

Maybe I need to smuggle you to Canada.

No problem; it’s pretty easy to get into Canada. I think our front gate is more heavily guarded than the border.

After a moderately mortifying conversation with Matilda—in which she clinically imagined why I was asking—she ordered birth control for me. The little pharmacy packet in a white paper bag arrived two days later with our weekly food delivery. Thank heavens Zack had been able to charm the guy to deliver so none of us had to venture out through the federal surveillance.

Red Rover, Red Rover. Let charms come on over!

So I was now on the pill—not that it mattered. We might be able to honeymoon like bunnies on the beaches of dream-Aruba, but in the real-world…

I threw the scarf in disgust. It mocked me with the unsatisfyingly long time it took to flutter to the floor. I still quivered with soulmating aftershocks.

Trevor watched the scarf’s progress and chuckled. “So, blindfolding doesn’t work.”

Should it really be this difficult?

“Maddie, soulmating is incredible. Don’t stress about the other stuff. We have plenty of time to figure this out—the rest of our lives.”

“Not. Stwess… d.” I still had an Elmer Fudd accent.

“You
don’t sound like Elmer Fudd.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Okay, you do a little. But I think it’s adorable.”

I pouted. I’d been going for seductive sex-kitten and I’d ended up as Elmer Fudd. I rolled to my feet with a sigh.

Trevor wrapped his arms around me from behind, shaking us both with his silent laughter. “Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!”

I pressed my lips together and tried not to laugh as I turned in his embrace.
Do you mind? I’m trying to seduce you here!

“Mind?” He grinned. “Nope. Don’t mind.”

Next you’ll be saying I shouldn’t worry about it. “It happens to every telepath.”

Giddy green energy spiraled around him. I let out a little shriek as he dipped me like a dancer and planted a passionate kiss on my lips.

His voice was a husky whisper. “Don’t mind at all.”

“And… FIRE!”

Drew dropped his arm and I braced for the sound of gunshots. The repeated soft clicks were both anticlimactic and reassuring. Wicked-looking guns pointed at the targets—five sparks in Kevlar—at the far end of the building. I felt their concentration reach into the weapons, suppressing the powder ignition within the bullets. Ellen and Jonah each put a hand up to focus their abilities. The others stood still, although Katie had her hands balled into tight fists at her sides.

“STOP!” Drew flashed a huge grin at Trevor and me.
See? Nothing went bang!

I nodded back, but the smile didn’t make it up to my eyes.

“Again! And… FIRE!”

Looked like the varsity bullet-stopping team was ready for the big game. I swallowed hard. The Feds wouldn’t give warnings. They wouldn’t keep the numbers even. If and when they decided to round us up, would we really be able to stop them?

“STOP!” Drew’s voice echoed through the building. “Okay, next group!”

The sparks who’d been on the range shirked off the Kevlar and passed it to the people waiting.
We don’t even have enough Kevlar to protect everyone.
The lump in my gut congealed further. We’d ordered a bunch more vests, but the shipment had been intercepted by the Feds. I was pretty sure that violated a Constitutional right of some kind, but our charm lawyer was still lying low offshore so we hadn’t been able to do anything about it.

“Jonah? You got this?” Drew trotted over to us as Jonah took his place with the next group. His excitement pinged around him. “No one’s gotten off a shot all day. Sparks can TOTALLY play defense!”

Trevor nodded. “You guys have the groups set up?”

“Yeah.” Impotent clicking sounded behind him and Drew turned and watched with pride. He turned back with a raised eyebrow.
See? Cool, huh?
“We’ll have six people in each of the locations. Jonah’s team’s covering the main buildings and Ellen’s going to head the group at the back gate. I’ve got the one at the front.”

I nodded, still clammy-gutted from the mental image of six teenagers facing down a fleet of tanks crashing through our gates.
Yeah, Trevor and I’ll be at the front gate with you. Seth, too.
Williamson planned to join Ann and Zack at the back gate so each group had a minder with a large range for recon and one with incapacitating ability. We had plans, now—but so many things could go so, so wrong.

Things get messed up in war.

I flashed to a memory of bodies strewn in bloody snow.
Maybe we should start sneaking people out.
Some of the people here hadn’t been in Isaiah’s files. They could go back to living normal lives—safe and anonymous. The rest of us, though… would Hunter get a chance to fill his underground cells?

Hey.
Trevor cupped my chin in his hand and tipped my face up to meet his.
We’re all worried. We’ll be okay.

I sighed and tried to nod, but I couldn’t help but feel like everything here might come to a crashing end very, very soon.

“Hey, Trev! Your turn!” Drew threw a Kevlar vest at Trevor. He caught it in midair, where it hung suspended like a birthday balloon.

I couldn’t stand to stay and watch people shooting at him, but as I hurried away, the sound of gunfire found me anyway.

STOP!

The red-haired guy clutched his head and dropped to his knees. I gasped as his pain hit me secondhand.

Ann turned and flashed a self-conscious grin at me.
Sorry!

“You okay, Quinn?” Heather approached and laid a hand on the side of his face.

Quinn groaned. “Yeah, I guess.”

She grinned at her cousin. “You’re an idiot.”

“Shut up.” Quinn got back on his feet, but still hung doubled over for a moment, resting his hands on his knees until his breath returned. He heaved himself upright and trotted past Ann to where my mom and I stood. My mom smiled as she handed Quinn a small package wrapped in wax paper. “Thanks, Dr. Dunn.”
If these are as good as the last batch, it was totally worth it.

I snorted.
You’re bribing them with cookies?

My mom frowned. “Not bribing—rewarding. Ann needed to practice. This way, I can be useful.” She looked across the field, watching the breeze play across the surface of the lake.
This whole thing has gotten way out of hand. I just want to go home—back to my normal life.

My throat closed up. Because of me—because of her connection to me—my mom was on Hunter’s list. If she left now, he could target her. My jaw started to tremble.

My fault.

She turned to me—that last thought must’ve been minder-loud. “No, honey. It’s not.”

I smiled back as though I believed her.

“We’ve stockpiled medical supplies here and at both gates.” Matilda’s accent got stronger as she pulled open the cabinets. “Hopefully, we won’t need to use them, but if we have many injuries, we may need to have some other people stabilize the wounded until we have time to heal them.”

I trailed behind her as she crossed the hall and into the empty classroom.

“We’ll move the desks out of the way in here and the other classrooms if we need more room for patients. Heather and Hannah should be able to handle light wounds on-site out at the gates. They’ll evacuate the more serious cases back here to Morris and me.”
And with a touch, they can knock out any invader who gets too close.