The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) (45 page)

“Your parents would be very proud of you,” he says. “I know I am.”

He’s startled when I reach out and wrap my arms around him. It has been a hard journey for all of us. My grandma used to tell me that before the greyskins, most people tried to make the world a better place before they left it. I suppose life hasn’t changed that much in sixty years. I still feel like that is my purpose. It’s just harder than it used to be. If I’ve been fitted with the abilities to make this life any easier, then it’s my duty to do so. 

Jeremiah has to be stopped. The world deserves justice. I know I’m one of the only people who even knows that he is responsible for the world going to the crapper, but that doesn’t absolve him of his guilt. He needs to be faced with it. He needs to know his reign of terror will soon be over. 

I release Austin from my hug when I hear the sound of a vehicle driving into the front entrance of the village. My heart skips when I see Connor driving with Heather in the passenger’s seat. Danny must have torn the roof of the vehicle off to fit the satellite dish into it. He’s holding it down with one arm, smiling as they drive through. 

Connor sees me and stops the SUV only a few feet away. When he gets out, I can’t help but throw my arms around him. He doesn’t know that I saw everything going on at the compound, but I can’t help but show my relief at his safe return. 

“Was it hard to get?” I ask, pretending to be oblivious to what happened there. 

Connor waves his hand in the air. “It was nothing,” he says with a smile. 

“Yeah right it was nothing,” Heather says, getting out of the SUV. “We saved this guy’s rear. If it weren’t for me and Danny, Connor would be greyskin meat.”

Connor rolls his eyes. “It wasn’t that bad,” he says. 

Yeah it was,
I think to myself. He almost gave up is life. 

To my left I see Evelyn and Aaron walking toward us. Aaron seems more interested in the satellite than how the others are doing. 

“There it is,” he says. “Looks a little banged up.”

“Yeah, sorry about the greyskin blood,” Danny says. “This thing hits them real good.”

“Well, I’ve got the equipment set up on the Tower roof,” Aaron says. “I’m not entirely sure it will work either.”

“Guess there’s only one way to find out,” Heather says. 

I follow them up to the Tower. We’re met in the control room by the three elders who wanted to get a good look at what this satellite is supposed to do. By this point, Aaron and Connor have everything up and running, but we all stand in front of a blank screen, waiting, hoping something will show up. I’m not sure how any of it works, but Aaron said it’s supposed to give us a view of up to a fifty mile radius. 

As we all stand in anticipation, we hear a noise behind us that makes us all quiet for a moment. At the entrance of the Tower control room is Christopher and his sister, Sadie. Christopher walks with a limp and occasionally holds his side, but he seems much better than he did yesterday. 

Evelyn gives me a sharp look almost as if to say that they shouldn’t be in here. I disagree. 

“Come on in,” I tell them. “Grab a chair if you can find one.”

“What’s happening in here?” Christopher asks, motioning for Sadie to sit next to him near the back of the room.

“We’re trying to get the satellite to work,” Aaron answers without looking atut looki him. “I don’t understand. I’m doing everything Heinrich told me to do.”

Connor turns to Christopher and Sadie and extends a hand. “I’m Connor,” he says. The others introduce themselves as well. 

“It’s nice to meet all of you,” he says, “though I already know most of your names.” 

“So, where did you come from?” Heather asks. 

“Salem,” he answers. “Same as you.”

Heather shakes her head. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“Sadie and I usually keep a low profile. We don’t like to get out much.”

Heather lifts an eyebrow and turns away from him to look back at the screen. 

Evelyn steps forward. “It’s very nice to meet you, Christopher and Sadie.”

She extends a hand to shake. It’s an innocent move to anyone else, but I don’t like it. I know it only takes seconds for Evelyn to get too much information when she touches someone. 

I don’t move. I don’t even flinch. But with my mind, I swat her hand away just before Christopher reaches out. Evelyn looks confused at first and tries to shake his hand again, but again I slap her hand away with a thought. This time she looks at me, but my jaws are clenched and my eyes are narrow. I shake my head slightly and Evelyn looks as though she could burst in anger with the stare she gives me. But I don’t care. Christopher is new to the group. He shouldn’t be assaulted by Evelyn’s curiosity the moment he sits down. 

“How are you feeling?” I ask Christopher, finally taking my eyes away from Evelyn’s stare. 

He can obviously tell that something just happened between us, but he’s not sure how to respond so he just looks straight ahead. “Much better, thanks. This wound will hurt for a while, but I’m alive.”

“I have some healing ointment that can speed the process,” Evelyn says. 

Christopher nods his thanks. 

“So, you’re a Starborn?” Danny asks. 

“If that’s what you call it, yes,” he says. “I’ve never really had a name for it.”

“What can you do?” Heather asks. 

Christopher looks at me, then at Heather as if he’s not sure he’s supposed to tell. 

“I think it’s something we should all discuss later,” I blurt out. 

Christopher holds up a hand. “No, it’s alright,” he says. “That’s why I came up here. I didn’t want anyone to think there was some secretive guy and his sister creeping around your village who refuses to tell you what they can do.”

He takes a deep breath. “I’m a healer.”

Everyone in the room turns their heads to Christopher. 

“Seriously?” Connor asks. 

“Yes.”

“This is terrific news,” Austin says. Linda and Bill nod their agreement. 

“I knew you would think so,” Christopher says. 

“Now,” I interrupt, “it’s not without limitations. We can’t just have everyone coming up to him every time they are sick or injured.”

“Why not?” Bill says. “Isn’t that why all of you are here? To help other people?”

Christopher holds up a hand. “Mora, it’s okay.” He shakes his head at me. “I would be happy to help people in any way. I just ask that you let me get a little better before I start. I do need some strength for this ability.”

Bill nods. “You just might be the answer to all our problems.”

Evelyn loom">Evelyks at me again, and I know exactly what she is thinking. He might soon be the
cause
of all our problems. 

 Aaron lets out an exasperated groan from the other side of the room and stands. “Right now it’s just a waiting game,” he says, walking toward me. “I don’t know if the satellite will work.”

“Well,” Austin says, “we’ve gone this long without one.”

Aaron looks at him with a stern face. “Seems to me like you could have used one a long time ago too.”

No one says anything in reply. Aaron looks at Christopher. “I for one am glad to have you with us. But as far as I’m concerned, you should be using your gift only when truly needed. We can’t have people coming up to you just because they’ve got the sniffles.”

“What about greyskin bites or scratches?” Linda asks. 

Christopher shakes his head. “If you want, I can share my story with all of you.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I tell him.

“I don’t mind,” he says. “I understand that for some of you it is a very personal subject, but for me it’s important to remember. I think it’s important to tell.” He nods to the blank screen on the other side of the room. “We’re just going to sit here and wait anyway aren’t we?”

I smile at him. Looking around the room, Christopher has made me realize that I didn’t know anyone’s story except for Aaron. I realize, as I look around the room, I don’t know what event helped Danny gain his strength. I know nothing about Heather. I don’t even know anything about Evelyn’s story either. But they all know mine. Sure, it was a scary moment in my life, but I’ve never been afraid to tell it. 

Aaron’s is personal because it involved killing his parents. Well, his adopted parents. The only other person that knows about him is Evelyn. At least, that’s what he told me. 

“It happened a couple of years ago, before my sister and I came to Salem. She had already gained her ability and I was bewildered by it.”

“Wait a second,” Heather interrupts. “She’s got a power too?”

“Yes.”

“What is it?” she asks.

Sadie shifts in her seat slightly, but sets her jaw firm and stares at the others with confidence. “I can read people’s thoughts.”

The room is completely silent. I imagine the others are as taken aback as I am, and are throwing a guard up around their minds. 

“Is this something you choose to do?” Heather asks. “Can you turn it on and off?”

Christopher speaks for her. “At first, no,” he says. “But we worked on it.”

“It used to be like whispers in my mind,” Sadie says. “Constantly talking. But now I don’t have to listen to it.”

“I don’t think I like this,” Heather says. 

“Don’t worry,” Sadie says. “I’ve heard enough people’s thoughts to know that most of what people think isn’t worth listening to. It isn’t a temptation for me.”

“Doesn’t help,” Heather mutters to herself. 

“Please continue, Christopher,” I say.

“A friend and I,” Christopher says, “were walking through the forests, scouting out a good location to start a new village.”

“How original,” Heather says. 

Christopher smiles at her. “My village was worse off than Springhill. We had started with more than five thousand people and had dwindled down to less than a hundred. All in just two separate attacks.”

I shake my head at the thought. Every time you think you have it the worst, there worst, is always someone else who has suffered more. 

“We had no choice. We finally spotted a perfect location from the top of a nearby mountain. It is about a hundred miles north of here. We called it New Haven. Though it may have been the perfect place for a group of people to make a village, getting there was almost impossible. New Haven itself seemed safe from the greyskins, but the number of greyskins we passed on the way was beyond anything I had seen before. Couple that with difficult terrain…needless to say we never made it there.”

He takes a deep breath and stares into us, though not at any one person in particular. He seems as though he’s telling himself this story and he’s told it a hundred times before, but it never gets easier.

“Unlike many of you, I’m sure, my power to heal didn’t come out of any attack from greyskins, but from bandits. We must have stumbled too close to one of their loot sites. We didn’t want to fight them. We didn’t want to kill, but they weren’t going to let us go. We did what we had to do. My friend was shot several times, and beaten so badly I didn’t think there was any way he would make it. But he knew the area better than I. If he was going to die, more than likely, I would be lost until I ran into another group of bandits or a herd of greyskins.”

To my left, Connor sits up a little straighter, intently listening to what Christopher says. Aaron glances back at the screen every now and again, but can’t help but be sucked into Christopher’s story. 

“My friend was missing most of his arm. Both of his legs were broken. His eyes had been punched so badly, I didn’t think he would be able to see again. But when I rested my hand on his shoulder, I could feel his pain. Not only did I feel it, I absorbed it. It was the strangest thing ever. I knew that somehow, I was healing him. His sight returned. His arm healed as though it had been cut off years before. His legs were no longer broken. He had been beaten within an inch of his life, but I healed him within an inch of mine.”

“What do you mean?” Austin asks. 

“I mean that I bore his pain. I received his injuries, though you couldn’t see them physically on me.”

“So that’s why you can’t help everyone all the time,” Connor says. “That’s why you kept a low profile.”

Christopher nods. “I am willing to do it, but there is a breaking point. I can only do so much. If a person’s injuries are life threatening, then they are life threatening to me if I try to heal it.”

“But your sister’s injuries were life threatening to her yesterday,” I say. “And you seem so much better today.”

“It was a risk I was willing to take,” he says. “She is my sister after all.” He points to his torso where a bullet had passed through the day before. “This will take longer to heal. I can absorb another’s symptoms and recover more quickly than they, but when I’m hurt, my own body doesn’t heal me faster than anyone else’s would. I might be able to heal a broken leg, but I don’t necessarily get a broken leg too. Just the pain from it.”

“And the greyskin virus?” Evelyn asks. “You can’t heal that?”

Christopher shrugs and shakes his head. “I’ve never tried, but I imagine it would kill me. I hope I never have to try.” He looks at Sadie when he says this, then up at the screen across the room. He smiles. “I believe your satellite is working now.”

Everyone spins around and Aaron rushes to the screen. He can’t help but laugh loudly as the crisp picture of forest and dirt spreads across the screen. The others clap at the sight, and I can’t help but feel happy too. This will go a long way in the protection of Springhill. 

Aaron stands, aron stastill laughing. “I can’t believe it,” he says. “I knew it was possible, but to actually see this in person! Common people haven’t seen a view of Earth like this in decades, and we did it!”

He reaches out and hugs Evelyn who seems startled by his reaction, but happy nonetheless. I, too, am glad to see it working, and I’m pleased to see Aaron like this. That is until he comes up to me and plants his lips firmly on mine. Before I can even react, he pulls away and moves back toward the screen as if nothing even happened. 

I’m sure a look of shock is etched on my face as the others look at me with wide eyes. A couple of them chuckle at me, while Heather looks straight at Connor. My eyes follow her trail and I see that he stands in the middle of the room stone-faced.