Talented (5 page)

Every night, alone in my room, I cried myself to sleep.  I had succeeded in almost entirely blocking out the violence that had cost my parents their lives, but that didn’t mean I missed them any less.  I loved having a real friend in Donavon, and Mac and Gretchen were going out of their way to make me feel like part of the family, but they weren’t my family.  They would never be my family.  I forced myself to repeat the name of the man who I’d learned ordered the death of my family, over and over: Ian Crane.  Then, I would promise myself that one day I would return the favor.

Chapter Seven

I was in a foul mood when I met Donavon in a small café for dinner.  He was sitting at a table in the corner, waiting for me, when I walked in.

Living at Elite Hea
dquarters had a lot of advantages; the biggest, in my opinion, was the abundance of food options.  At School, the only place to eat was the cafeteria.  They served three meals a day that consisted of a strictly regimented diet to ensure all of us growing kids got all of the nutrients we needed.  Donavon and I had the unique advantage that Mac and Gretchen lived in a house on school grounds, and we often went up there for dinner.

But here?
  That was a whole different story.  The Hunters weren’t the only division of the Agency housed at Elite Headquarters, so it was more like a small town.  There cafes and snack shops spread throughout the compound that boasted a variety of foods from around the world.  There were also a number of stores that sold just about anything anybody here needed.

“Hey,” I said
, taking the empty seat across from him.

“Want
to tell me about it?” he asked, immediately sensing my dark mood.

“No,” I replied a little too forcefully.  “I don’t.  Can we just eat?”

“Course.”  Donavon took a menu out of the holder in the center of the table, and began touching the screen to make selections for both of us.  When he was done, he pushed the enter button at the bottom of the screen and replaced the menu.

“Want to tell me how your practice session went?” he asked.

“I’d rather you tell me about your day.  I don’t feel much like talking.”  Just then a woman showed up with two bottles of water.  Donavon thanked her.

“I will gladly tell you ab
out my day,” he said, once she’d left.  He launched in to the events of his day, embellishing a somewhat amusing story to make it hilariously funny.  I smiled in spite of myself, not so much because the story was actually that funny, but because I thought it was so sweet of him to go out of his way to try and make me feel better.  By the time our dinner arrived I was in a much better mood.  Donavon always had that effect on me.  I felt safe when I was with him.

“
Arden and Harris went into the city, and won’t be back until curfew
,” Donavon said, mentally, after we had made an entire loop of the compound.  Arden and Harris were Donavon’s teammates, and therefore also his cabinmates.  If the food options were the greatest advantage of living at Elite Headquarters, then lack of privacy was the greatest disadvantage.  At school, every student had his or her own room, making it easy to spend strongly-frowned-upon time with members of the opposite sex.  I not only had my own dorm room, but I also had my own suite of rooms at Mac and Gretchen’s house, and they didn’t mind me and Donavon being alone together.

“
Lead the way,
” I answered.

By the time we got back to Donavon’s cabin
, we only had an hour until curfew.  I took off my shoes and curled up on his bed.  Donavon lay down next to me and covered us with a quilt that I recognized from his house; Gretchen had made it for him. I laid my head on his chest.  He snaked one arm around my waist and slid his hand up under the back of my shirt, resting it on the small of my back.  He lightly ran his fingertips back and forth, sending chills up my spine.  I raised my head and stretched up until our lips met.  I kissed him softly.  He moved both of his hands to my waist, and pulled me down on top of him.  I kissed him harder.  He lifted me up and flipped me over on to my back.  I let out a small giggle of surprise.  He leaned over me and bent his head, careful to keep his weight off me by holding himself in a push up position.  I lifted my head up to meet him halfway.  He pulled back, teasing me.  I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to pull him back down.  He was strong, and instead of allowing himself to be pulled back down, he reared his head and shoulders back, lifting me slightly off the bed.  I let go and fell on my back.  Thinking I was clever, I gave him a quick jab with the side of my hand in the crook of his right elbow.  He wasn’t expecting it, and his arm gave out.  He fell on top of me, just as I had anticipated.  I wrapped my legs around his waist at the same time that he tried to roll himself to one side, afraid that his weight would crush me.  When he rolled, I’d already managed to entwine my limbs with his waist.  Our combined weight – mingled with the fact we were tangled in his quilt – caused us to roll right off the bed.

I landed flat on my back
; Donavon landed square on top of me.  The initial jolt of hitting the wood floor jarred my bones.  The shock in Donavon’s eyes must have mirrored my own.  Before either of us could say anything, I burst out laughing at the absurdity of the situation.  I was laughing so hard that I didn’t hear the door open.

“
Opps!”  Didn’t mean to interrupt,” Arden’s voice called.

“You’
re not interrupting anything,” Donavon grumbled, clearly annoyed.

“Hi
, Talia,” Harris waved.  I peered around Donavon’s considerably larger body and returned his wave.  The slightly older boy was standing in the doorway, smirking.  It wasn’t the first time that Harris had walked in on me and Donavon in a somewhat compromising situation.

Harris had been a year ahead of Don
avon at School, and the two had been good friends since childhood.  He’d always been my favorite of Donavon’s friends.

“Could you two wait outside for a mi
nute?” Donavon asked, agitated.

“No, no, no.  You don’t need to do that,” I said quickly.  “I need to get back for curfew.”
  Arden strolled awkwardly to his bed, trying not to look at us.  Donavon untangled himself, and carefully stood up.  He reached his hand down to help me up.  I quickly pulled my shirt back down to cover my stomach, and tried in vain to smooth my dark curls; I could only imagine that they were sticking out in every direction.

Harris could barely stifle the laughter escaping his throat.  “Don’t bother Tal.  It’s a lost cause at this point.”

Donavon grabbed my hand and practically dragged me out of the cabin.  I gave both boys a wave as I passed.

“
Are you mad at me?”
I asked as soon as we were out the door.  He stopped short, causing me to run into his back.  I could feel the waves of tension rolling off of him.

“
It’s not you.  I just get frustrated at how little alone time we have together.”

“
I know.  Me too.  It’ll get better,”
I promised, even though I knew that wasn’t really true.  Usually, younger Hunters and Pledges lived in the cabins for years before being moved to the individual, private suites in the apartments that housed the rest of the Operatives at Elite Headquarters.

He started walking again.  My cabin was only a
short way from his so it didn’t take us long to get there.  He kissed me on the cheek before saying goodnight.  He started walking away, but I grabbed his hand and pulled him back to me.

“
You aren’t getting off that easy,”
I proclaimed.  I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.  At first, he merely complied but soon he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him harder.  I kissed him deeper.  I heard catcalls.  Donavon placed me back on my feet.

“
Goodnight, Talia.” 
He turned and started walking away.  “
I love you.”

“I know,”
I replied.

I looked around, seeking out the catcallers.  I spotted them sitting outside
of a cabin a couple down from mine.  I gave them a rude hand gesture before walking into my own.

Neither Erik nor Henri was inside. 
Weird.  It was so close to curfew.  Sitting on my bed was a bouquet of flowers made up of vibrant blues, purples and pinks.  Attached to the flowers’ paper wrapping was a note with one word.  “Sorry”.  They were from Erik.  I rolled my eyes, and dropped the beautiful flowers on to my bedside table before climbing into bed.  I was so tired that I didn’t hear either of the boys come in shortly thereafter.

Chapter Eight

The morning sun streamed in through the window of the cabin, waking me early
. I needed to remember to close the curtains before bed.  I blinked several times, trying to clear the sleep from my eyes.  I stretched, turning my head left, then right.  When I looked right, I noticed that somebody had put my flowers in a glass vase with water on the table next to my bed. I smiled to myself.  I was about to sit up when a pillow came sailing across the room, hitting me in the face.  I groaned.

“Get up. We’re
all having breakfast together,” Henri’s voice sounded muffled from where I lay underneath the pillow.  I sat up and looked around the room.

“Where’s Erik?” I asked, noticing immediately that he wasn’t in his bed.

“Shower.  He was afraid he would be resigned to taking cold showers from now on if he didn’t start beating you in there,” Henri replied dryly.  “Get up and get ready.  We have a lot to do today.”

I groaned
again, grudgingly rolled myself out of bed, and got ready.  The three of us headed to Henri’s favorite café for a bread heavy breakfast.  Erik didn’t mention our fight from the day before, so I didn’t bring it up either.

Over breakfast Henri outlined
different strategies that he thought we should try and reinforced how important it was that we – and by “we” I knew he meant me – nail the three-way mental connection.

After breakfast, I
worked tirelessly trying to connect all three of our minds while we ran through combat drills, pushing myself harder than I had been in the previous two weeks.  A couple of times I was able to make the connection, but I was unable to hold on.  By lunch I was mentally exhausted; I wasn’t sure if I could go another round in the afternoon.  Thankfully, Henri that decided we would switch to the mental relaying of messages, which came easier, for our afternoon session.  By the end of practice, I was nearly shaking from fatigue.  The mental exertion combined with the extreme physical activity just about sent me over the edge.

At School, students were put through rigorous training schedules but nothing like what I’d experienced in my short time here.

“Let’s go back and shower and then we can head to dinner,” Henri announced, after I had tripped over my own feet for what seemed like the hundredth time that afternoon.  I nodded gratefully; the only thing I wanted to do was lay down in my bed.  I trailed several paces behind the boys on the way back to the cabin, and followed Henri’s orders.

The boys
, thankfully, let me shower first.  My shaky legs didn’t allow me to stay in the hot spray for as long as I would have liked.  Lifting my arms over my head to wash my hair seemed like too much work; instead, I just stood under the water until I was at least somewhat confident that the water had washed out most of the sweat and grime. I dressed in the most comfortable cotton pants and sweater I could find in my bathroom cubby, wound my dark, wet curls into a tight bun, getting ready in record time. I stumbled out of the bathroom, and curled up on top of my bed to wait for the boys to shower and dress.

“Let her sleep.”

“The more time we spend together the faster she will be able to form the connection, and the easier it will be for her to hold,” Henri responded, a note of desperation underlying his otherwise calm voice.

“She’s
exhausted, Henri.  You have no idea how tiring using that kind of mental energy can be.”  Erik said in a firm, low voice.

“She needs to get this.  I need her to get this
.”  Henri urged, the desperation in his voice becoming thicker.

“I understand that
, but you cannot push her so hard so fast – she’ll break under the pressure,” Erik replied.

I was shocked that Erik was the voice of caution
.  I wanted to interrupt them, after all they were talking about me, but I couldn’t muster the energy to speak.

“Let he
r sleep now,” Erik’s tone was final.  “She’s getting stronger by the day.  I don’t think you should push her.”

Hen
ri took a deep breath.  “You’re right.  I’m getting ahead of myself.”

“Besides, now we can go into the city for dinner.”
Ah, that was the Erik I knew.  I could almost feel Henri rolling his eyes.

Somebody, Erik by the feel of it, took the quilt from the end of my bed and covered me gently.  I murmured something
that I meant to be thanks, but sounded more like grunts and moans.  I fell back to sleep before they made it out the door.

The next time I w
oke up I felt strong arms encircle my waist, and smelled the familiar sandalwood scent of the soaps Gretchen ordered from somewhere out West. I snuggled closer.

“
What’re you doing here?”
My mental voice was sleepy and a little slurred.

“
I saw Erik and Henri on their way to dinner.  Erik said you weren’t feeling well so I figured I would come check on you.”

“I’m
okay.  Just really tired.  Long day.”

“Go back to sleep.”
Donovan said, smoothing back the wet pieces of hair that had escaped my bun.

“Are you going to stay?”

“For a little while.”

“Good.” 
I knew this wasn’t really Donavon’s idea of quality alone time, but also knew that I would sleep better if he was there.  Donavon’s arms tightened around me, and he nuzzled his face in my neck.  I fell back asleep, smiling.

Donavon coming into my cabin brought back the memory of the first night he ever snuck into my room to sleep with me.

On the eve of my first day as a student, my nerves had refused to let me sleep.  I tossed and turned in my too-big bed, hoping that all of the movement would wear me out.  It was well past the time where one day ends and the next begins, when I opened my mind and reached out to Donavon. We had worked all summer seeing how far I could stretch my mental reach; the distance between our bedrooms was nothing compared to what I’d achieved.

“
Are you awake?”
I asked.

“
Yup.  Are you having trouble sleeping too?”

“I‘
m nervous about tomorrow,”
I admitted.

“
Hold on.”

Not even a minute later
, I heard Donavon’s light footsteps in my sitting room.  I mentally unlocked the door to my bedroom, prodding it open just a crack for him.  He silently pushed it the rest of the way and crept towards my bed, barely making any noise.  The bed springs depressed under his weight, as stretched out on the empty half.

“
Why are you so nervous?”
he asked.

“
I’ve never been to school before.”

“This is
n’t like normal school. Everybody there is like you.  You’ll be fine.”

“Mac said nobody would be like me,”
I said accusingly.

“Well not exactly like you, no,”
he amended.
“Nobody that does Mind Manipulation.   But there will be other kids that can move stuff with their minds, like you, and even one or two that can read minds probably.”

“Really?
”
  I dared to hope that I was finally going to be normal.

“Really
.”

“I won’t know anybody.”

“You know me, and I know everybody.  My friends will be your friends.”

I grinned in the dark.  I couldn’t
make out his features from where I lay, yet I knew that he could make out mine.  He reached out and took one of my hands in his.

“
Open your mind and close your eyes.”

“
Why?”
I asked, suspiciously.

“Don’t you trust me?”
He sounded a little wounded.

“Of course I trust you,”
I answered quickly, afraid that I’d hurt his feelings.

“Okay, then open your mind and close your eyes.”

Hesitantly, I closed my eyes – I knew that he would be able to tell if I didn’t – and removed the remaining barriers to my mind.  He began mentally humming an old bedtime song – one my mother used to sing to me.  I didn’t know the words but the melody was soft and comforting; before I knew it I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.