Muse (Descended From Myth) (4 page)

I allowed myself to relax a little, even to turn my back on Anna while I waited for someone to answer at the Sanctum, the Guardian's headquarters. At this point, my biggest fear was that they might decide to send someone else to be Anna's Watcher and re-assign me. I couldn't let that happen. I was already committed. Just
thinking
about handing her protection over to someone else made me feel queasy. I lightly traced my palm where her hand had touched mine and glanced over at her profile, her nose scrunched and eyebrows drawn together while she read through the stack of documents on her lap. She didn't seem to have the bias that most of the other Talents did. She didn't act as if she was superior to me because of her abilities. At least, not yet. Maybe we
could
have a chance to work together as equals, maybe even be more. I shouldn't even be thinking that way, especially not this soon. My mom's warning ran through the back of mind, but Kaitlyn was right. I needed to keep an open mind about Anna. My gut told me that she was different.

The sharp click from the speaker of my cell snapped me out of my daydreams. “Identity please?” The head Guardian's personal secretary always seemed to think of herself as a real life ve
rsion of 007's Miss Moneypenny.

“I know you have caller ID, Jenny,” I sighed. “This is Daniel Lyoncourt. I need to speak to him. It's urgent.” With a slightly miffed snort, she put me on hold, but not for very long. I barely had time to steal another glance at Anna before the old man himself picked up the line. Gabriel Rexworth has been Grand Master of the Guardians for the last 30 years, and though he's in his late sixties, his strength of character and will is still impressive. His family has been involved with the brotherhood for as long as my own, and that might be why he's taken such an interest in my advancement. It used to be unheard of for someone as young as I am to become a Watcher, but since we're spread so thin I'm sure
it will eventually be the norm.

“Hello. What has happened, Daniel?” Gabriel's calm v
oice interrupted my thoughts.

“I have some bad news. There's been an accident. Henry has been badly injured, possibly even fatally. He stepped into the path of an oncoming truck. They transported him by ambulance about thirty minutes ago.”

“And the girl?”

I ran my hand through my hair, pacing a little and darting glances at Anna. “She's safe and with me. I have to see what's in Henry's report, but from what I can tell it seems to have been an accident. I don't believe she's a target.”

“That's the sort of thing that you must be certain about. Shall we relocate you both?”

“No. Not yet. I don't know if I could even get her to come with me. She didn't know.”

“Didn't know what?”

“She didn't know anything! I had to do a reveal, Gabriel. I haven't even gone over everything yet. What the hell was Henry doing all this time?”

There was a long pause, an intake of breath. It was highly unusual for me to be anything but respectful with Gabriel. The fact that I'd just sworn at him wouldn't go unnoticed. “I see. I will have to look into his past reports. That's very unexpected from Henry. How did she take the revelation?” he responded cautiously.

I sat down on the window ledge, watching Anna as she read through everything Henry had on file about her. She seemed completely absorbed, a little taken aback maybe, but at least she wasn't running away screaming. “She's taken it relatively well, actually. I may need to request some additional documentation to convince her that we're the good guys, though.”

“Hmmm. I'll tell Jenny to send whatever you think she needs to see, as long as it's not restricted. Do you think she has strong enough Influence to warrant keeping you on as a Watcher?”

I hesitated, my split loyalties warring against each other. I suspected that Anna's abilities were actually far stronger than the Guardians knew, but if I admitted that, then I ran the risk of having a more experienced Watcher sent to evaluate her. I could lose her. On the other hand, if she was truly powerful, then she would be at a greater risk and if I failed to protect her just because I hadn't wanted to ask for help…I didn't even want to think about the consequences if that happened. I decided to try to buy some more time, to give myself a bit more of a chance to evaluate Anna's strengths. “She's definitely worthy of protection. I felt her Influence today, and she's as strong as Henry indicated in his reports.” I cringed, hoping Gabriel would forgive me later if he ever found out that I was hedging the truth a bit. Henry's reports made it seem as if Anna's
abilities were modest at best.

“All right. We will see to Henry. You remain and protect Miss Saint-James. I'll be in touch soon and will expect a
full
update. Good luck.” The old man hung up, but I could tell that he thought I was holding out on him. I simply couldn't bring myself to share Anna with anyone else right now. I had too many conflicting emotions and ideas swirling around. I shook my head, amazed that I was so rattled, so unsure of myself simply because of a girl. I worked very hard to make it to this point. I trained hard and kept myself as disciplined as possible so that I wouldn't repeat my father's mistakes and yet, here I am. I stalked back to the window, trying to come up with a plan of action. My eyes kept wandering back to Anna, and I caught myself staring at her yet again, transfixed by the way her head tilted to the side while she concentrated. I was fascinated by a lock of strawberry blonde hair that had slipped from her ponytail and brushed against her cheek. I wanted to pull her into my arms and hold on forever, but the rational part of my brain urged me to get as far away from her as possible, to run before I was in too deep. Just as I was considering calling Gabriel back and demanding that I be replaced as Anna's Watcher, she looked up from the stack of papers in her lap. Her perfect green eyes met mine and held for just a moment, before a shy smile lit up her face. There are some battles that just aren't meant to be won. I surrendered right then and there to the fact that my life now revolved entirely around Anna, and I realized that all my training had been woefully inadequate. All of the things I once used to fear—injury, death, sickness, old age—they paled in comparison to the new fears racing through my mind. Seeing Anna suffer in any way, or never seeing her again, losing her entirely, how could I survive something like that? Never. If I had to, I would lie to my mentor. And when the time came for her to make her choice? I wasn't even going to think about that yet. Anna's voice interrupted my obsessive planning, “Daniel? What's going on? I need you to explain some of this to me.” She sounded completely bewildered, but not as suspicious as she had earlier. That much was good. That she needed me for
anything
was even better.

I crossed the room quickly, far too eag
er to be close to her again.

I was barely holding myself together, barely keeping myself calm. The pages in front of me kept jumping around, but that seemed to be because my hands were shaking like I had just pounded six shots of espresso. I don't know if you've ever read surveillance reports about your own life. I'd guess that most people haven't, but it's a surreal experience. Especially since most of the things that this guy recorded were little interactions I had with everyday people. I barely even remembered most of them, but each one was supposed to be “evidence” of this ability to push people into doing what I want them to do.

There were a few pages about my family, but the forms had a lot of blank spaces. Much like my own family records, a jumble of blank spots. There was a grainy copy of a family photograph attached with the family records, though, showing a toothy baby with wispy hair being cuddled by a beaming man and woman. The baby looked a lot like me in my younger years; the mother looked a bit like me now. Everything else freaked me out, but t
hat picture kept pulling me in.

Once Daniel finished his phone call, I gave him a few minutes to explain. He still wasn't talking and I was done being patient. I called him over, trying to keep myself from sounding like I was about to burst into tears. But I was terrified that I was about to break out into gushing, snot bubble, melt-down tears again. That would
make a great impression on him.

“Okay, so I'm looking through all this and there
is
some stuff here that I didn't know about my parents. You've got my attention there.” I tapped the photo with my fingertip. “Is this me? Are these my parents? I've never seen a picture of them before.” I knew I was almost whispering, but it was hard to talk about this without getting choked up so it was the best I could manage.

Daniel crouched next to the chair and looked at the trembling paper in my hand. “Yup, that's you and your Mom and Dad. I should be able to get more of the files sent over soon and we can go over their records together. Maybe I can even track down a Watcher who knew one of them.”  He kept his voice gentle, soothing, like I was a scared lit
tle kid. I guess I was, really.

I've never found anyone who knew my parents. I didn't even have anything of theirs. My adoptive parents said the only items I arrived with were a baby blanket, a book of fairy tales, and a pink stuffed bunny. I still have all three in a chest in my bedroom at home. I'd looked at them thousands of times, looking for some clue about where I'd come from. These people, these Guardians, had the information all along. I hadn't decided just how angr
y I was going to be about that.

“So, this group you work for, the Guardians, they had someone watching me and he recorded all the times he thought I did something to make another person do what I wanted them to?”

Daniel rocked back on his heels and shook his head. “Not exactly. I mean, yes, the Guardians started watching you more closely about a year ago. But that's kind of a flawed description of what it is that you can do. Or at least an overly simplified one.”

“Well, I'm glad to hear that, because I don't feel like I've spent my life bullying people into doing whatever I want. I certainly haven't ever done it intentionally anyway.” I pushed a loose piece of hair away from my face as I spoke. I really needed to go back to my room and change my clothes, maybe scrub myself clean of the last few hours, but I wanted answers even more than I wanted a shower.

“It's called Influence, because that's what it really is. You don't force people to do things. You just give them an extra nudge to help them to overcome their inhibitions, to tap into their creativity or motivation. You aren't always planting the ideas, just helping people to reach their potential,” he explained.

“What about the hotel clerk? You can't tell me it was her idea to give us
someone's room key!” I argued.

“It was her idea to satisfy the customers in front of her and move on with what she was doing with the least amount of effort and conflict possible. You just made it easier for her to overcome her reluctance and fear of getting in trouble.” Daniel shrugged, a misch
ievous smile crossing his face.

I tried to think back, to find anything that I could remember that would prove any of this to me. Sure, my friends and family members have all told me that I'm a good listener and that talking to me helps them figure out problems. I always assumed that was because I
am
a good listener. Daniel listened to all of my doubts and arguments without interrupting, but he kept that smile on his face and didn't seem to be at all deterred.

“I know what you are and what you can do because I can
feel
it when you use it. It's not just what's in the paperwork,” he said, nodding towards the stack of papers. “I can feel when Talents use their Influence. It's not an ability that many people have, but it runs in my family the same way that being a Talent runs in yours.”

“You can
feel
it?” I asked with extreme skepticism. “What does it feel like?”

He held out his arms, as if he was about to demonstrate something. “It depends on how strong the Talent is and how much force they put into it. When it's just a little nudge then it feels like pins and needles running across my body, just kind of tingly. When it's really strong, I get the tingles and a heavy warm sensation. It feels kind of like the heaters they have at the entrance to big supermarkets? My whole body tingles like it's gone to sleep and then I get a blast of heat
that rolls over me.”

I thought about that for a moment before asking, “Does it hurt?” If the experience was as unpleasant as it sounded, then it didn't seem like Daniel would want to spend much
time in close proximity to me.

Daniel just shrugged it off. “No, it's not painful. I know what it is so I can deal with it. It can be distracting, but I've been working on that for a few years now.”

Daniel and I sat and discussed what our next steps would be. There was no way I could just leave this job on the first day, even if I didn't really feel qualified for it. Now I had to worry about this whole “influence” thing and figure out how to deal with it at the same time. Maybe that was how I'd gotten the spot in the first place? Had I “pushed” my way through the interview? Obviously, if this stuff was true, then I was going to have to deal with a lot of moral issues.

We agreed that I should continue on as planned, but that I would try to get him a spot on the production crew so that he could be close enough to do his whole Guardian thing. I thought it was ludicrous that I might ever need a bodyguard, but he was pretty adamant that he wasn't going anywhere so I let it go. We could a
lways go over that again later.

I did win the argument about where I would be staying. Daniel was insistent that we should get a room with two beds so that he could stay closer to me, but the idea of sharing a room with him made me break out in a cold sweat. I would be a nervous wreck with him lying a few feet away from me while I was supposed to be asleep. Maybe it was bizarre, but it didn't even have anything to do with him being a stranger or even that I was worried he might try something. What if I talked in my sleep? What about morning breath and bedhead? There was just no way. I would be too mortified. Not to mention how I could even attempt to explain that to my Mom and Dad when they called, and they would soon. I know, I'm almost twenty years old and I don't
have
to check  in with my parents, but they also don't have to pay for my college education or give me an allowance to live off of. Plus, my parents are perpetual worriers and cling to the belief that if they haven't heard from their offspring (biological or adopted) for more than 48 hours, then they must be either dead in a ditch somewhere or the victims of some nefarious form of foul play. I've learned the hard way that it is easier to just answer the phone. Anyway, with all of this running through my head, I was adamant that I needed to be in my own room.

Daniel's room then developed a “plumbing” issue, perhaps caused by the fact that he went into the bathroom and disconnected some pipes that looked important. He used his own powers of persuasion on the desk clerk to get a room on my floor. It wasn't quite as close as he wanted, but I was relieved. The sharp stabs of jealousy I felt the whole time he chatted up the girl at the front desk I c
ould have done without, though.

As we loaded all of the luggage from Henry's room into the elevator, (okay, really Daniel moved it all, he refused to let me do anything but hold the elevator door open), I decided to go ahead and ask some more personal questions.

“So, that was pretty smooth with the girl at the front desk. Do you have some kind of influence yourself?” I asked awkwardly. This was such a surreal situation, and being in close confines with Daniel just threw me off even more.

             
Daniel grinned and said, “Nope, not a bit. Sometimes being polite and friendly is all you need.”

“Yeah, and being hot doesn't hurt either,” I muttered to myself, and then immediately flushed when I realized that in such a small space he obvio
usly heard me. Dumb. I am dumb.

Daniel just laughed, but he looked kind of embarrassed, too. I tried to recover by asking something else. “I thought you told her your room was under the name Daniel Thorn, though. Why is that?” I was sure that I hadn't misheard him, but he had also told me that Henry was registered under his name. So either he had given me a false last name, or they had given the hotel
one. But why?

“Lyoncourt is my real last name. Thorn is one of my aliases. All of the ID I have with me says my name is Daniel S. Thorn and I'm from Michigan. If you can get me in with the production company, that's the name we'll need to use.” He leaned against the side of the elevator, giving me some space but still stayin
g closer than a stranger would.

“But why the fake name? Are you on the America's Most Wanted list or something?” I meant that to sound like a joke, but it came out slightly strangled sounding.

Daniel turned to look me straight in the eyes and lowered his voice, sounding very serious. “I give you my word that I'm who and what I say I am. I know it's asking a lot for you to believe me, let alone to trust me, but I will do everything in my power to prove myself to you. You don't need to be afraid of me.” He sounded so sincere that it sent chills up my spine. Maybe sincere isn't the word I'm looking for, but I'm sticking with it. Regardless, his grand declaration distracted me enough that I let him slip out of the elevator before I realized that he never actually answered my question.