Earth (14 page)

“Could you elaborate?”

“I don’t feed on people’s emotions. I can
feel them, very acutely, and yes, they can and do affect me and, if
someone lets me, I can affect them.”

“How much?”

“How much, what?”

“How much do they affect you?”

“It depends on the person and the
emotion.”

“Would you be willing to give me an example
of when someone’s affected you?” He seemed eager suddenly, making
me nervous. My shields flared suddenly, growing stronger and wider
around me. “Sorry… I was just curious how it worked,” Jensen said,
glancing away from me.

“Pain is the hardest to block out,” I said.
“If someone I know or feel a connection to is in pain, physical or
emotional, I suffer through it with them.”

“Tracy.” It was a statement and I didn’t see
any use in denying it. I nodded.

“Nick had been bruising her stomach and back
and for weeks I thought I had broken ribs.”

“She probably did.” His face darkened. It had
a very interesting effect on his eye color, making them dark like a
sea in a storm.

“Yeah, probably.” I traced designs on the
table with my finger in the droplets of water from my glass.
“Anyway, since I had been so attuned to her for so long I knew
immediately something was wrong that day that Ian stopped Nick,” I
shrugged, not much more to explain. I saw his jaw tighten briefly
at the end of my explanation; it seemed an odd reaction to a happy
ending.

“And you can affect how others feel?”

“Maybe.” I had given up a lot in this
conversation and I wasn’t sure how much more I wanted to give.

“Fair enough.” I wanted to press him about
his knowing about shields and everything else, but his demeanor and
tone of voice had changed and I had the feeling he wasn’t in the
mood for another battle. “Listen, can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure,” I agreed, thinking of my pepper spray
in my purse.

“Ian was my ride and, well, you saw him storm
out. Think you could give me a ride home?” Alone in a car with
Jensen, was that a good idea? Maybe not, but it was tempting.

“Sure.”

“Thanks.” I was lucky enough to see that
true, genuine smile again and suffered through the swarm of
butterflies again. He pulled out his wallet and started taking out
money. I could tell it was enough for us both.

“No, you don’t have –”

“Hey, you’re giving me a ride home, it’s the
least I could do.” He had already put the money down and weighted
it down with the Parmesan shaker and stood up, pulling his jacket
on. I considered arguing but figured it was probably useless. I
slid out of the booth and reached for my jacket. He caught it as it
swung out and held it up for me to help me into it. I hesitated,
but let him help me.

We made our way through the crowded
restaurant; he reached the door first and held it open for me,
standing back. As I stepped past him, he touched the small of my
back with his free hand, ushering me out. I felt the warmth of his
fingertips through the thick wool of my jacket.

It was a relatively silent drive to his
house, but at least it was blessedly short. It turned out he lived
in my neighborhood, just a few blocks over. Not that it was all
that surprising; if he lived too far away he’d be enrolled at our
rival high school. I pulled up to the curb outside his house,
letting the engine idle loudly, purring like a contented tiger. He
reached for the handle, turning his body towards the door,
hesitating for a second, not really staring out the window.

I had the sudden horrible thought that he
might try to kiss me goodnight like this was a date or something. I
kept both hands securely on the steering wheel and my eyes forward
and tried to keep my breathing normal.

“You know,” he said quietly, turning his face
slightly towards me but not his body, “It’s ok not to hate me.” It
was probably the saddest voice I had ever heard; my stomach ached
with the urge to comfort such a pitiful sound.

“I don’t, I don’t…” It was like someone had
hit me in the back of the head with a baseball bat. I was so
confused by such a blunt statement that I was fumbling for the
words. “I mean, that’s not… you shouldn’t…” He pulled on the door
handle and pushed at the door to step out. The icy wind rushed
inside behind him, swirling with the heat from the car vents. He
leaned down, one hand still on the door and the other on the roof
of the car.

“Just in case you did, I wanted you to know
it’s not too late to change your mind.” He smiled then, softly and
not showing any teeth, not even crinkling the corners of his eyes,
eyes that seemed to be searching my face for reassurance. I knew,
horribly, that my face was slack jawed and stunned. He stepped back
and shut the door, suddenly cutting off the cold air with one last
gust.

I watched him walk to his front door and go
inside, never looking back at me. He must have turned off the porch
light, leaving the house completely in shadow, but I didn’t
remember seeing the light go out. I had lost myself watching him
walk away while his words echoed in my mind. I shivered, realizing
my fingers ached with the effort of holding on to the steering
wheel. I came back to myself and drove away.

Chapter 8

For the first time in weeks I went to bed not
thinking about my repeated nightmare and for the first time in
weeks I woke up naturally as my room brightened in the morning
light. I was confused at first, so used to waking up covered in
sweat and injured somehow. I stretched luxuriously in the warm,
untangled sheets. I could smell the coffee all the way to the back
of the house and realized it must not be all that late yet, another
nice surprise.

I wandered down the hall after slipping on my
Jack Skellington and Sally slippers, making a beeline for the
coffee pot. My mom was curled up on the couch under a flannel
blanket reading a book, bi-focals perched on her nose, and my dad
reclined in his Lazy-Boy with the paper open and the morning news
on the T.V.

“Morning, honey,” my mom called lightly as I
passed the living room. I waved in her general direction, my sights
still set on the coffee pot.

“New reports this morning are coming out of
Ojai as Ventura County Sheriffs are still baffled by the findings
of another apparent animal sacrifice.” I heard the anchorwoman say
loud and clear all the way in the kitchen. Luckily, I hadn’t picked
up my coffee cup yet; I probably would have dropped it in the shock
that surged through my body.

“Not this again,” I heard my dad’s rough
grumble.

“A quiet Saturday night was marred by the
findings in the woods of a park and this morning. Four hikers
stumbled upon the remains of blood and feathers. Concerned for the
local wildlife, they called park rangers who then informed the
local police.” The composed anchorwoman continued. “A spokesperson
for the parks department has said that the animal blood appears to
be from chickens, which they are certain do not live in this area.
A deputy sheriff stated that the findings of a possible ritual from
Friday night were not found this time.”

“They appear to have taken the time to clean
up after themselves this time and we believe were possibly
interrupted during the cleanup, which would explain why the blood
and feathers were left behind.” The cool, monotone voice of the
officer said.

“What makes you think they were interrupted?”
an on-scene reporter asked, thrusting the microphone in the
officer’s face.

“The area was trampled down and there were
signs of a struggle.”

“Do you think this is a serious group of
individuals or possibly just some wayward kids doing this?” The
reporter asked.

“Whether or not it’s a group of adults or
kids it doesn’t really matter, this is serious. They have killed
animals twice that we know of and we are asking for any information
from anyone who may be able to lead us to these individuals before
they progress to more serious acts of violence.” The officer’s face
looked almost gray.

“Are you saying, sir, that you believe these
individuals would possibly move on to murdering people?” You could
hear the saliva building in the reporter’s voice.

“We wouldn’t want to speculate or accuse
anyone of that, but the fact is that they are slaughtering animals
and that is enough to raise concern.” The officer was backpedaling;
his monotone voice suddenly had a different quality to it, almost
fear. “Thank you, I think that’ll be all.” The officer stepped
quickly away from the reporter before she could stop him with
another question.

“Well, there you have it, adults or children,
the local police department is at a loss and obviously concerned.
If you have any information leading to the detainment of these
individuals please call your local police department.” They cut
back to the newsroom and the local weather report detailing another
week of clouds, wind, rain and below average temperatures. I went
back into the kitchen and made myself a cup of coffee. I snatched
up my cell phone once back in my room and hit the speed dial.

“Hello?” A groggy voice picked up.

“Steven! How can you still be sleeping! Have
you seen the news?” My voice was an octave higher than normal.

“If I’m still sleeping, how could I have seen
the news?” his voice was muffled. I had the mental image of him
talking into his pillow.

“There was another ritual last night!”

“What?” He’d come out of the pillows.

“Yeah, well, they could only find some animal
blood and chicken feathers this time, but it was really close to
the same place as Friday night.”

“A second ritual so quickly?” he sounded as
confused as I felt.

“Well, they think they only got interrupted
when they were cleaning up this time, so maybe they got interrupted
the first time before they could finish, so they did it again last
night and got through the whole thing.” I speculated. It did sound
plausible; risky, but plausible.

“What ritual is so important that they’d risk
doing it two nights in a row?”

“I don’t know, but that can’t be a good
thing…” my voice was distant to me, like a fading echo. “Hey, is
Jodi feeling any better?”

“What?”

“Oh, she cancelled last night, too, because
she was sick from the game. I figured you’d know.”

“Oh, well if Jay was there she wouldn’t be
calling me, distracted yanno.” I could hear his grin in his
voice.

“Yeah, well, listen, I’m gonna jump in the
shower. Call her and see if she’s better, we need to go see Deb and
talk about this.”

“Yeah, see ya in an hour or so?” Steven asked
through a yawn.

“Yeah, or so.” We both hung up and I hurried
to the bathroom, calling out to my parents that I was getting into
the shower to keep them from running the water while I was in
there.

I rushed through blow drying my hair, not
wanting to go out in the cold with wet hair, but i didn’t bother
with make-up. I threw on a pair of jeans, a sweater, a pair of
boots and my coat and scarf before rushing out of the house. I
called out to my parents again that I was going shopping at the
mall for the day, slamming my door on the way out, cutting off my
parents’ goodbyes.

We walked into a very crowded Oak, Ash and
Thorn. Jodi had made it out with us after hearing the news reports
herself. She was mainly suffering from the sniffles now, but we
stowed her away in the backseat to keep her from breathing on
either one of us. I wasn’t entirely surprised to see so many people
crammed into the tiny store after the coverage the animal
slaughtering and supposed Satanic cult was getting on the news;
superstitious people come out in droves when something like that
happens.

We waded through the press of hot bodies,
looking blindly for the counter. I saw the usually full basket of
sage bundles was empty except for a few stray leaves and broken
thread. The amulets that hung from the necklace display were picked
over and only a few still hung there. The crystal display was
depleted, with fragments and dust from broken stones littering the
carpet at the shelves. It was like a hospital waiting room when a
meat recall hit the news. People went freaking nuts.

I felt Steven grab my left hand and I knew
that Jodi was holding on to his right, making a chain out of the
three of us as we pushed through the crowd.
Ugh! There are so
many people touching me!
Steven’s bright red thoughts hissed in
our minds. I didn’t blame him though. I, too, had a problem with
this many people popping my personal bubble, but what could we
do?

This has got to be a fire code violation.
How the hell can this many people fit in here and not break
something?
Even Jodi’s thoughts sounded a little congested.

I don’t know…
I gave a mental sigh
with my response.
How are we gonna talk to Deb privately about
this with all these people around?

Seriously.
Steven responded, sounding
as annoyed as I was. I didn’t blame the people for being scared.
After hearing the stupid police officer allude to the possible
attack on people, there was bound to be chaos. I was sure that the
Christian bookstores in the county were being ravaged just the
same.

Hey, I see her!
I told the other two.
Really, in a store this small the front counter was only about ten
feet from the door, but, with twice the capacity of people inside,
it felt like miles.

“Hey! Deb!” I called out to her, standing on
my toes and waving my free arm over the heads of the people in my
way. Deb was trying to explain the differences between two amulets
to a bitty old lady who didn’t seem like she could hear all that
well, even in the quietest of rooms. Deb obviously hadn’t heard me.
“Deb!” I called to no avail. I gripped Steven’s hand a little
tighter,
Ok, one, two, three!