Legacy (8 page)

Maybe next time I’d bring a gun.

I nodded to Trevor.
Just don’t make me live without you, okay? I’m not as strong as Williamson.

Trevor pulled me into his arms, which didn’t work so well in the bucket seats of the rental car. I ended up with the emergency brake handle digging into my hip. The surreal nature of the world we now inhabited struck me again—normal teenagers didn’t contemplate destroying murderous telepaths, even if it meant losing their own lives in the process.

Trevor gave a little chuckle at that.
You want to be normal?

I smiled back, glad to feel the worst of the emotional intensity dissipating.
No. I want to be with you!

We drove east, passing briefly through the press of cacophonous minds in the city, and then skirted along the southern shore of one of the Great Lakes.

What do you mean you don’t know which one it is?
Trevor was astonished at my ignorance.

Well, I’m not from around here, am I?

Obviously.
Trevor humphed
. So? Which one is it?

HOMES
.

There isn’t a Lake Homes.

No. It’s a mnemonic. H. O. M. E. S. Huron Ontario Michigan Something Superior.

Erie,
he supplied.

It’s Lake Erie?
I asked.

No, it’s Lake Michigan. What did you ever study in school?

No clue. I talked to you through all of my classes.

We passed through a little corner of Indiana before we hit Michigan and turned inland. Near Kalamazoo, we stopped for a snack and a bathroom break.

Kalamazoo’s an actual city? I thought it was a cartoon place name.

Trevor rolled his eyes at this further display of the gaps in my education.

The lighter mood dropped away as we closed in on Ann Arbor.

Trevor, I’m going to get them to approve of me even if it kills me. It’s not like I could say anything that would offend them, right?

His brows met in a worried line.
It’s…weird to bring her into this world. Maddie’s…magical, and this is just…normal.

I raised my eyebrows.
So, you think, after a few hours in the Laurence household of Barton Hills, Michigan, I’ll just turn out to be an ordinary girl?

“No, but I might seem like an ordinary guy to you.”

Not a chance
.

“You calling me a freak?”
he asked, trying to recapture our earlier mood.

Takes one to know one, Four Arms.

“Enough! I don’t have to take this from somebody from
New Jersey
! Are you really a G-positive or do your freakish super-powers come from childhood exposure to toxic waste?”

I cracked up.

We pulled into the driveway of a brown house on a quiet, residential street. Battenburg lace curtains filled the windows that faced the street. It was nearly 7 p.m., but long rays from the setting sun still lit the tidy yard. A quick mental scan didn’t turn up anyone who might try to kill us.

…
but the evening’s still young
.

I detached the cell phone from the car charger and pocketed it before I took Trevor’s face in my hands and looked deep into his eyes.
Remember, I think you’re amazing—and I know you better than they do.

That going to be our new thing now?

Pretty sure. I like it.

He pulled my face to his for a quick kiss.

An elderly couple waited for us in the arch of the front door. Trevor’s grandfather was tall and lanky
—
much like Trevor
—
although Archer Laurence looked like he might’ve lost a couple of inches and had a slight old-man paunch that made his khakis ride up too high. Thin flaps of skin on his neck reminded me of a turtle. His brown eyes had a little more loose flesh around them than Trevor’s, but the family resemblance was still evident. He smiled at us in greeting, raising a hand in welcome as we came up the walk. The gesture made something in his side ache and I felt twinges of what might be arthritis from his hand.

Trevor’s grandmother wore her steel-streaked hair pulled back severely, like a dancer. She was also tall, nearly the same height as her husband. Liver spots dotted the skin of her neck and arms, right up to the edges of her crisp-collared white blouse. She studied me with unsmiling, raptor-like intensity.

As we got closer, I suddenly realized why.

Trevor, if you could find a way to slip into conversation how pregnant I’m NOT, you’ll make your grandmother feel better.

Trevor’s eyes closed for a moment of silent realization and mortification before he cracked a smile.
Consider it done
.

I suppressed my laugh, wondering why everyone seemed to have this on the brain, all of a sudden.

We reached the front door. There were no hugs of greeting as Trevor hurried to dredge up the manners he knew his grandmother expected. “Lilith, Archer, this is Maddie Dunn. My…um…girlfriend,” he added, slightly self-consciously. I tried not to let my surprise at Trevor’s use of their first names show. “Maddie, these are my grandparents, Doctor and Doctor Laurence.”

Apparently, I wasn’t on a first-name basis with the Doctors Laurence. I pasted on a polite smile as I shook each of their hands.

Doesn’t she even speak English?
His grandmother was still pretty sure I was pregnant.

Geez, I’m making a heck of a first impression.

“Is Laurie here yet?” Trevor asked as we went into the living room. Decades-old, brown furniture decorated the immaculate room. “I didn’t see her car. Maddie and I have some important things we need to discuss with you.”

The flashes of thought from his grandparents made me cringe even before Lilith said, “She decided not to come. The girls shouldn’t be out late. They both have piano lessons on Saturday mornings and Laurie didn’t want them to miss any so close to their recitals.”

A surge of pain went through Trevor as he processed that his own mother wasn’t willing to drive an hour and a half to see her son for the first time
in two years
because of piano lessons.

I bit my lip.
Do either of your grandparents have heart conditions?

Why?

Because I really want to give them a piece of my mind right now
.

You promised to play nice!

Okay, okay, okay.

At least Archer seemed apologetic. “I know she was sorry to miss you, Trevor. And she was sorry not to have a chance to meet you.” I could tell she’d made no such comment. Behind him, a magazine slid out of the fan-shaped arrangement on the small table by the couch. It landed on the floor with a loud slap.

Was that you?
I asked Trevor. I hadn’t felt him do anything with the magazine.

I think it was Archer. Before I went to Ganzfield, I used to accidentally knock things around all the time.

Once Lilith had returned with the tray of water glasses and made proper-sounding comments about dinner being ready in a few minutes, Trevor cleared his throat, leaned forward…

And suddenly realized he had no idea where to begin.

Just prep them for how I talk, and then let me help
.

“Lilith. Archer. Maddie and I met at Ganzfield—the school back east. What I’m about to tell you…well…it needs to remain a secret. Ganzfield is a training facility for people with unusual abilities, like us. Maddie’s a mi—a telepath.”

It’s not meant to be
, I said into all of their heads.

Lilith reacted with the horrified expression of a 1950’s monster movie character. Her eyes bugged and her mouth formed a perfect O.
Heavens! What would the neighbors think if they found out that we associated with such a strange person?

After a quick shock, Archer stared intensely at me. “What number am I thinking of?”

Pi, of course.
I smiled
. Which means you’re either a math professor or you’re ready for dessert.

Archer cackled. “Trevor, I like her already!”

A little tremor of pleasure rippled through Trevor at this unexpected approval.

Lilith’s lips had disappeared in a thin, pale line that clearly conveyed I was definitely
not
making the Christmas card newsletter. She looked at Archer with narrowed-eyed dis-approval and regarded her husband’s enthusiasm as a form of betrayal.
What kind of strange people has the boy fallen in with? I expected him to make better choices.
She returned to the kitchen and the dishes and pans clattered excessively as she put the finishing touches on dinner. A concern for Archer’s health simmered under the rest of her thoughts, causing a constant, nebulous anxiety that made her even less tolerant than she otherwise might’ve been.

Archer had me guess five more numbers before Trevor told him, “She’s not a toy, Archer.”

I don’t mind,
I told him. But I was glad to stop.

“More like this.” The heavy, glass coffee table rose into the air and hovered halfway to the ceiling. Under us, the couch springs creaked as the weight of the coffee table displaced through Trevor’s body.

Archer gave another cackle of delight. “That’s amazing!”

Trevor IS amazing,
I agreed.

Since October
.
Nearly eight months.

After all we’d been through in the past few days, I thought it was funny.
You can tell your wife to stop worrying. I’m not pregnant
.

Archer laughed, slightly embarrassed.
Oh, I guess she picked that up from our thoughts. Wow, mind-reading. That’s...neat-o!

I hadn’t expected to, but I found that I liked Trevor’s grandfather. I grinned at Trevor.
Hey, he thinks I’m “neat-o!
”

Trevor hid his smile behind his water glass as Archer small-talked me about my family and our flight until Lilith called us into the dining room.

At the table, we obediently folded hands as Archer said grace. The main course was a noodle casserole of some kind, but we didn’t eat much. Trevor explained that Isaiah was hunting people like us, and that he’d killed Jared Davis and his two kids. They had no affection for the man who’d gotten their teenage daughter pregnant, but Jared’s death still caused flashes of yellow shock in both of them.

“I think you both should come back with us to Ganzfield.” Trevor looked from one to the other. “I want Laurie to bring her family, too. Isaiah’s getting even worse now—bolder. And he’s not too far away. You all need to be somewhere safe.”

I’m not going anywhere near the “freak school.”
Lilith’s thoughts stung like acid and I bit my mental tongue. She was important to Trevor. I’d be nice if it killed me.

“What’s it like there?” asked Archer, intrigued.

Parts of it are great.
I projected a memory of one of last winter’s Fireball games
. People at Ganzfield can do some incredible things. It has its good points and bad points, just like everywhere else. But you’d be safe there, and I know Trevor wants you to come.

“Yes, ma’am.” Trevor didn’t move, but the plates flew one after the other into the kitchen behind her, stacking neatly on the counter next to the sink. Her shout of surprise made all three of us shake with silent laughter.

After dinner, we made our excuses fairly quickly.

“You’re not staying the night?” Archer frowned. “We can roll a cot for you into the scrapbooking room, and Maddie can have the couch.”

And that’s how Trevor found out that his grandmother had turned his bedroom into the “scrapbooking room.” I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt him try to push past the stumbling block of emotional pain that caused.