Startled, I woke up, swearing I heard it echoing through the forest around the coop. All the emotions from that strange dream had exhausted me. My eyes closed quickly, and I passed right out.
Chapter Three
Rose
Curiosity.
Annoyance.
And curiosity again.
I woke up thinking of those strange feelings that were stirring inside my brain and feeling like I’d been invaded. I wasn’t curious about anything; I was trying to sleep.
Then I realized those feelings weren’t my own. My eyes flew open, and I looked back toward the now-opened door of the coop. A man was crouched down, staring at me.
“Good morning,” he said dryly. Obviously he was not very happy to have found someone sleeping with his chickens, but he wasn’t angry about it.
“Sorry, I got lost in the woods, and decided this was the safer bet to crash in during the storm.” The words just flew out of my mouth in defense.
He tilted his head to the side in amusement. I wasn’t finding this whole situation very funny. My neck was starting to ache from the weird position I’d slept in, and I really wanted to get out and stretch my legs. But he was still there in the doorway, watching me.
Curious.
Right. Well, I was over his curiosity. Time to get out of here.
“Excuse me.” I crawled out of the coop, scooching past him. He didn’t grab me, and I hadn’t felt anything malevolent from him, even when my foot lightly bumped into his as I passed.
My muscles weren’t very happy with me as I stood up and stretched. I moaned at the soreness then realized I was in the presence of a stranger.
“Okay, you can quit staring at me now. I’m sorry I camped in your chicken coop. I’m leaving now.” I glared at him, his curiosity really annoying me. Couldn’t he feel anything else? Usually when people saw me, the first thing they felt was pity, or some emotion like that. I had a tough hide, so I could handle that much easier than his stupid nosiness. Was he wondering about my looks? About why I was there? I wish I knew the difference, but instead I turned and started toward what looked like his driveway. Hopefully I could follow it down to where I’d get a cell signal.
“Hungry?” His voice held no curiosity in it this time. I turned back around and stared at the stranger. He had asked me if I was hungry.
This time it was I who stared at him. He was looking at me with deep blue eyes, and while he appeared to be in his early thirties, something in those depths said he had been through much beyond his years. His long, wavy brown hair hung slightly past his collarbone. Little wisps of it were dancing across the short beard on his sharp jaw line. He was quite tall, as when he began to stand to his full height, he towered over my five-foot-seven frame. He was a full head taller than me, actually, and quite muscular, if I was being honest with my inspection of him.
Attractive indeed, but did I want to stay, and maybe let him feed me? Something kept me rooted there in his yard, with his chickens and cows making noise to get his attention. They definitely wanted him to make breakfast for them. I couldn’t understand the look in his eyes. It wasn’t anything like I’d seen before.
I needed to know what he was feeling.
I needed to touch him.
“I’m Rose.” I held out my hand for a shake, and he gazed at me with that stupid, curious look, and then reached out with his hand to touch mine.
“Draco.”
My eyes closed briefly as I took in all his emotions.
The curiosity he had been feeling was something even he couldn’t explain; something about me had stumped him.
Welcome to the club, Draco.
There was loneliness, and the desire to talk with me for a few more minutes. Not out of desperation, but mostly because I was here, and he thought I would be amusing for a brief bit of time.
When tiny tingles of desire started to wiggle into his emotions, I realized I had been holding onto his hand much longer than appropriate for a handshake.
Pulling my hand back, I brought it up to my face to tuck a piece of hair, that really wasn’t bothering me, back behind my ear.
“I am hungry,” I replied. I had found my voice, but just stood there afterward, feeling awkward. Truthfully, this whole situation was weird. He should have called the cops on me for trespassing. Instead he wanted me to stay, and not to be a creep with me. I would have run fast and hard if I felt anything violent from him. He just wanted to be around me for a short period of time.
“Go inside the cabin and freshen up. I gotta feed the heathens.” He nodded toward the animals, and turned to get started with his morning duties, ending our very short conversation. Okay then.
Walking over to his house, I spared him one glance as he stabbed a pile of hay with his pitch fork then lifted the large collection, tossing it over for the cows to graze on. My feet stopped moving to watch those muscles of his flex and then relax as he did his farm work. Fascinating.
Before he could catch me observing him again, I opened the door to his cabin, and attempted to find the bathroom. His cabin was fairly bare. There were some pictures of scenery from around the world hanging here and there, but that was where any personal touches in his home ended. It seemed very disconnected on the inside. Maybe much like the man who lived in it.
I peeked down the little hallway and saw a bathroom at the end. My bladder made its full presence known, like it saw salvation and knew it was close.
After taking care of business, and splashing some water on my face to get the chicken dust off me, I stood there, and looked at the hot mess in front of me.
My short, blonde hair was pointing in all different southern directions, and was frizzy from the rain last night. My mascara had run slightly, making me look more like a raccoon than a woman.
My clothes were, well my clothes looked dirty.
I groaned at my appearance, how Draco had felt even a sliver of desire for me like this is unimaginable. When my sight met my own blueish-hazel eyes, they drifted down to the one attribute on my face that I would never see as anything other than beautiful.
My pink birthmark stretched from underneath my right eye, alongside my nose and almost touched the corner of my lips. It was like dark permanent blush on my cheek. I smiled looking at it, and no matter how the rest of me looked right now, I knew I was beautiful.
I’d been picked on, and called many names because of that birthmark. It was rough for a while, but I had confidence in myself and stood tall. Phillip was always very helpful. After we came into our powers, he would start telling me all the bullies’ futures. Jared Wilson, who constantly joked about how I looked like I got punched in the eye, was going to wind up losing a testicle in an accident with a moose while hunting.
So, whenever he would try to upset me, I would just think about how he was going to be one nut down in life, which would make me smile.
Sometimes I wondered if Phillip was making some of the futures up, but I decided to overlook it. They really helped me to not let what they would say get to me.
Occasionally, they would touch me and I would feel the sad soul behind the bully.
My stomach grumbled, and I knew it was time to eat. Both Phillip and I were known to get angry if we weren’t fed quickly.
Draco was standing in the kitchen, his long-sleeved shirt rolled up to his elbows, cooking eggs. It was a strange scene. Honestly, I didn’t know what to make of all of this.
He turned and stared me down with those blue eyes. “So, Rose. Tell me your story.”
Chapter Four
Draco
Rose pulled out the only seat that was at my small kitchen table.
Now I’m kind of wishing I had made more than one chair, so I could sit across from her and have a conversation. She jumped up like something bit her when she realized there was only one seat.
“I’m sorry; this is your home.” She was seemingly very jumpy.
“Please, sit. I prefer to stand for now, anyway.” I gave her a warm smile, or at least I hoped I did.
Smiles on my face were few and far between.
Believing my words, she sat back down and looked around my cabin, not answering my demand for her story. It would be interesting to see what version she gave me, the half-truth story, or the real one. Or none at all. She didn’t owe me anything.
“Thanks for not calling the cops on me. I was lost in the state park, and chose the coop instead of the storm.” She looked at me and gave me honesty. I appreciated that.
“It’s no problem. Here.” I handed her a plate of eggs and bacon. Hopefully she wasn’t a vegetarian.
Her stomach grumbled at the sight of the food and her plate, and as soon as I handed her a fork, she started digging into the steaming plate.
I watched her with complete fascination. I had stopped looking for others with special gifts around fifty years ago, and no one had ever simply landed right in front of me. There was just something about her that made me take a second look, when normally I just moved on with complete indifference to the human race.
“So, your story.” I stood against the counter and took a bite of bacon.
She looked up at me, swallowing the large bite of food she’d just shoveled in.
“Um, name is Rose, and I am a graduate from Hill University. I like cats, cold weather, and I’m not the biggest nature girl in Seahill.” She gave me a snarky grin, which sort of made my lips quirk up at the sides.
“What was your major?”
“I feel weird right now; you are a total stranger.” She looked at me straight in the eyes, and I could feel her confusion with this whole situation. I was out of practice when it came to dealing with people for more than five minutes, or if they weren’t in front of the camera. Somehow I needed to make her feel more comfortable, or take her to her car.
“I apologize. It’s been quite some time since I’ve had company in my home, and you seem like a very interesting person. I can take you to your car right now if you’d prefer.” Giving her the option was my best bet. I wasn’t going to force her to chat with me. As interesting as this woman was, time would pass, and she would grow old, becoming yet another distant memory in my vast collection.
“Here.” I held my hand out for her to touch. She probably thought I was offering a hand to help her up, but really I was letting her use her gift to read my emotions, to confirm I wasn’t dangerous.
She eyed my hand and then eyed me, trying to get a read on me without touching me. Her own curiosity got the better of her, and she placed her hand in mine.
I watched her long lashes fluttering as she went through all my emotions at the current moment. I had learned to shield myself from empaths like her centuries ago, so she only could see what I was feeling right now and not my past emotions.
“Well, it’s obvious you somehow know a little about me, which is crazy, but okay. We both know you aren’t going to chop me up into pieces and feed me to your chickens.” She pulled her hand away from mine and sat there, looking flustered.
“I have known many people like you, Rose. It’s been a long time, though.” She still looked at me with worry in her features.
“As you can tell, I have no interest in hurting you in any way. That includes telling your secret. I would just like to hear your story before you leave, and then we will never see each other again.” I felt nothing when I said those words; all feelings of true attachment had fled me after Cassandra died.
“It started when I was sixteen. Before that I had a normal childhood. I’ve had my ups and downs. Knowing what people are feeling is sometimes a blessing and a curse. I decided to go for a degree in psychology, because I thought I could use my power for good. Help people. Emotional knowledge literally runs through my veins, so who better to help people with their emotions than me?” She took a breath and continued on.
“It’s been evolving a lot in the past year; I don’t always need to touch someone to feel what’s going on in their head. Now as long as I am in the same vicinity of them, I can sort of get a read on the emotions. As a result, being in the city can be a challenge. I thought the great outdoors would give me break from that. You know the rest.”
I could tell she was leaving out something, but what she’d given me was enough.
“Thank you, Rose. I can imagine things must have been rough for you at times.” I stood and set my plate in the sink.
“Yeah, well, I made it through. I’ll keep kicking as long as I can.” She stood and gathered her dishes and cutlery, passing them to me to put in the sink with my own.
Leaning against the counter, with her arms crossed against her chest, her hazel eyes stared at me expectantly, as if waiting to hear my story now.
“Let’s get you back to your car. I’m sure you have people who are worried about you back in the city.”
She stood there, still waiting. She would be waiting for a while. My story was not given easily, and it was something I had let go of. My past was just that, in the past. I had no dreams of the future, I simply existed.
I turned and gestured for her to walk toward the door.
She gave me one last minute to change my mind. Her eyes were warm, and willing me to let her inside. The psychologist in her saw a broken man underneath and wanted to figure out how to fix me. When my eyes gave her nothing, and my lips didn’t move, she gave up and decided to let it go. Wise choice.
She said goodbye to the animals as we passed them and climbed into my truck.
In the time it took to get to her little silver car, there had been no words spoken between us. She knew our time was over, and there was no use trying to extend it.
I watched as she walked to her car and even stayed parked as she drove off toward her life.
Hopefully a happy one. With her family showering her with love, and comfort.
A boyfriend that would tell her every day how beautiful she was, and kissed her birthmark every chance he got.
Rose was the type of person who was truly good, inside and out. Her power was not for the faint of heart, yet she chose to use it to help people instead of her own personal gain.
As I drove back up to my cabin, images of her blonde hair, hazel eyes, and sweet spirit stayed with me.
Somehow I knew, no matter how long I lived, I would never forget her.
Chapter Five
Rose
“Seriously, did you see a small chance that I was going to murder you when I finally got home? Because you should have bumped it up to eighty percent on the scale of which future to follow.” I stomped into my apartment, knowing Phillip was there waiting for me.
“I like to live on the edge. What can I say?” He stayed relaxed on my couch, bare feet propped on my coffee table, as I bypassed him and walked straight to my bathroom.
Score one for the seer of the future: he had already drawn a bath for me, and the shower was nice and hot for a pre-bath scrubbing.
Okay, so maybe his chances of being murdered by my hand had gone down slightly. I discarded my clothes in the hamper and jumped in the shower to wash the state park and chickens off myself. Once I knew I was clean and wouldn’t be sitting in a tub full of dirt, I turned off the water, and jumped into the bath. My muscles were aching, and this was exactly what I needed.
I closed my eyes and tried to meditate, but dark blue eyes kept creeping into my head.
“Nope, not going to think about him,” I told myself and went to my happy place. Those blue eyes were replaced with an image of me, dressed in a big comfy sweater and yoga pants. I was sitting on a porch, with a steaming cup of tea sitting next to me, and a book in my lap. The soft chill of a breeze would wrap around me, and I’d smile, knowing that after a few more chapters of reading I would go inside and warm my cheeks with a fire that was burning in the hearth.
I stayed in the tub for twenty minutes before feeling calm in both body and mind.
Once I was dressed in the most comfortable clothing I could find in my closet, I went out to the kitchen to make myself some tea, except Phillip had already made me one.
&
nbsp; “You’d think that after all this time, I would stop trying to do things myself.” I stuck my tongue out at him in sibling jest.
“You’d think.” He winked and waited patiently for me to sit and take my first sip of tea.
“Thank you,” I said, as I took another sip and set the cup in my lap. I looked at him, brows raised, and waited for whatever he was about to tell me. Obviously he was here for a reason, and a big one, if I was feeling his emotions correctly.
“So how was your little hike?” He was playing innocent, which was annoying at the best of times. I just stared at his brownish-hazel eyes, letting him know I was unwilling to play this game.
“Well, alrighty then. Someone must have slept in the wrong pile in the coop.” He lifted his hands up in surrender.
“Phillip—”
“Fine, but before I start giving all the juicy details, how much do you wanna know?” This was always a tricky question.
Would him telling me everything change anything? A question I was never truly brave enough to answer honestly.
“Tell me what you think is necessary for me to know right now.”
He nodded, taking in my answer, which was usually the same, and parsed his next words carefully.
“The dawn of superheroes is upon us, Rose.” He smiled and leaned a little closer toward me.
I choked on a sip of tea. Did he say superheroes?
“There are other people like us. People with powers. And now is the time to bring them all together.” He was very excited about this, like he’s known all along this moment was coming, but now it was officially happening. The future had become the present to him.
“Superheroes.” I churned the word over in my mouth.
“Well, I think I might change it to Hero Society since there will be humans without gifts helping as well, and you just met the man who is going to make it happen.” His eyes lit up mischievously.
That little statement made my nose scrunch up in confusion.
Did he mean Draco?
“Bingo.”
Dawn (Hero Society Book 1) Page 2