David swallowed hard. Shit! He’d been right.
“So, what was that? Like, a past life or something?” Lanie asked, standing up a little shakily.
David silently exhaled a little sigh of relief, thanking Lanie for changing the topic.
He had no idea what to say to Erin. He didn’t know if he was this Lord Weobley…or if he had been. All he knew was what he’d felt as she’d related her life. He could… He could almost see it as if it were all happening to him. It was almost a feeling of déjà vu, and it gave him the creeps.
He turned toward Ibs, now shaking out his legs, which must have been stiff from sitting on the floor for so long. David gave a shrug. “I’m not entirely sure, but I think so.”
“But it was wild. I mean, more like a dream than something that really happened. Moving things with magic? And the way Erin knew exactly what everyone was feeling? That just doesn’t make sense.” Lanie came over and perched on the edge of the bed.
“No, it doesn’t,” Erin said, keeping her eyes down on her hands clenched in her lap.
Well, that was a blatant lie. David almost laughed at how obvious that was to him. He didn’t even need to read her mind to know it. He could read her body language. He glanced over at Ibs to see if he saw that too, but he wasn’t looking at Erin. Unless…a thought hit David. Unless he could read her so easily because they had been… he stopped that thought right where it was.
“But it was real,” Erin continued. “I can’t explain it, but I know this was real.” Erin looked over at David as if to confirm this, but as their eyes met, hers widened sharply. “You know it, too! Why are you so embarrassed by this?”
David felt his face heat, probably turning bright pink. Damn his blushing, it gave him away every time. You would think that with his powers, he’d be able to control this, but no.
“Oh, my God, he is! Look at him!” Lanie exclaimed, staring at him. She then turned back to Erin. “How did you know he was embarrassed before he started to blush?”
Erin was still staring at him, but she shook her head slowly and gave a little shrug. Lanie was her best friend, but clearly Erin hadn’t shared her special abilities with her. It was clear as daylight to David that Erin was Vallen like him. “I don’t know. It was just there.” She looked at him as if she was about to say something more.
“I guess you’re just really in tune with my feelings,” David said, as she took a breath and was about to say more.
“Uh, yeah,” Ibs laughed. “Or maybe you’re still kind of under the hypnosis. You’re not making any sense, Erin.” He turned to Lanie. “You know, maybe we should leave them alone to work this out.” He began to take Lanie’s arm, but she shrugged him off.
“What’s with this magic you were doing? Moving stuff around?” She clearly wasn’t going to let this go, much to David’s annoyance. He didn’t want to have to put a suggestion into her mind to forget that part, but he would if he had to. “The sex I can understand,” she said. “I mean, that was even a bit embarrassing for me, but all that weird stuff you guys were able to do—”
Erin turned back to Lanie. “Wait, what do you know about the sex? I didn’t… I mean, we didn’t actually….”
“You described it graphically,” Lanie said. “You didn’t actually, physically do anything, but boy could we imagine it.”
Erin’s mouth dropped open. “I described it?”
Lanie nodded.
“Everything?”
She nodded again.
“Ew.” It was Erin’s turn to blush, David noticed with a little relief.
“Yeah,” Lanie agreed wholeheartedly.
“And that is our cue to go,” Ibrahim said again.
“Call me!” Lanie said, as Ibs practically pulled her from the room.
“I will,” Erin called out as her friend disappeared out the door.
And then it was just the two of them. David couldn’t have felt any more awkward than if he were sitting there stark naked. Oh wait, she had seen him naked.
While under hypnosis, she had described him exactly—although, it did seem as if his previous self was a bit more muscular than he currently was, but that was understandable. He didn’t work out nearly as much as he should.
Erin looked at him and then gave a little embarrassed laugh, “So…”
“Yeah,” David agreed.
“Was it real?”
David slowly nodded, ruffling his hand through is hair. “I think it was.”
“It was, like, a past life?”
“I think so.”
“We were together,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that explains why we felt as if we knew each other when we first met,” Erin said, giving a little smile and a shrug of one shoulder.
David laughed, beginning to relax a little. “Yes, it does!”
“It’s a little awkward that I never told Lanie about my magic,” she admitted, getting up and wandering to the other side of the room.
“Ibrahim knows. About mine, I mean.”
She turned toward him. “He does? But he’s not…?”
“No. I mean, not really,” David said. He ran his hand through his hair again. “He… I can read minds and project my thoughts into the minds of other people, so we can communicate that way. He just opens his mind to me and we talk… silently. But aside from that, he can’t… He’s not Vallen.”
“Oh. Wow. I guess that’s a useful skill to have.”
“Yes,” he laughed, still feeling really uncomfortable after the intimacy of the hypnosis.
“And you use it. I mean… You don’t mind using it and even sharing it with Ibrahim?”
David was confused by what she was trying to ask. His face must have shown his confusion because she added, “In my family, if you dared to use your magic in any sort of obvious way, you were punished.”
“What?” David couldn’t stop the word from exploding from him.
“Well, not so much punished, as, um, given a good “talking to”,” she explained with a roll of her eyes and a shrug.
“You weren’t allowed to use your magic? Not even at home?”
“No.” She took a step closer to him. “Were you?”
“Yes! Well, my parents weren’t around all that much to stop us, but even when they were, they didn’t. It’s just…” he shrugged, “who we are. What we are.” He paused and tried to explain further since she was the one looking confused now. “I mean, we didn’t tell anyone outside of our home unless we knew they were Vallen too, but when we were home it was just normal to use magic.”
“Like we did in that past life?”
“Yes.”
“That’s so weird. My mom would have killed any of us if we had done that.” She looked around. “Um, I’m getting a little tired of this room. You didn’t happen to put in that post hypnotic suggestion, did you?”
“What? Oh! No. I didn’t. I was too…”
She gave a little laugh. “Distracted?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then I guess I’m kind of stuck.” She plopped down on the bed, looking more forlorn than David could stand.
He felt awful for forgetting to put in the suggestion.
“There’s got to be another way for you to be able to deal with this apartment.”
She looked up at him expectantly.
“What is it exactly that makes you nervous? The windows?” he asked.
“I feel like I’m going to fall right through them,” she explained.
“Ugh. Are there shades you can pull down to hide them?”
Erin slowly stood up. “Oh, my God! I don’t think anyone even looked!”
David gave her a smile. She made him feel like the most brilliant guy ever to live. “I’ll go check.”
###
Erin listened as David stepped out into the living room. She couldn’t believe neither she nor Lanie had even thought to look for shades.
; She also couldn’t believe everything that she’d just experienced through this hypnosis. A past life? A life with David? It just didn’t make any sense.
If he was Vallen—which he clearly was—could he have planted all those memories into her mind?
No. That just didn’t seem possible.
But how likely was it that he was the one she’d had a relationship with in this past life, and now here he was hypnotizing her? On the other hand, fate was quirky that way—making sure people destined for each other found each other. Two of her siblings, her eldest brother and second eldest sister, had found people who they were sure they were destined to meet and fall in love with.
She could remember Lizzie gushing how she and her boyfriend—now husband—had just known each other from the moment they met. How right it had felt to be with him. Erin had just thought her sister silly in love, but now she understood exactly what she meant. Erin had felt exactly that way about David when they’d met, and then it had been proven to be true through the hypnosis.
“You will not believe this,” David said, interrupting her thoughts.
Erin stood up. “Don’t tell me there are shades.”
He gave a little laugh. “They’re not completely opaque, and they don’t come down all the way, but yes, there are. Can you come and see if this works for you?”
She walked out into the living room. All of the windows had a white semi-transparent film covering them from the ceiling to about four feet off the ground. They hid most of the sky, although she could still see the movement of the clouds behind them and the metal posts of the balcony through the bottom. It was better. “Wow. It’s not perfect, as you said, but at least I can stand to be in this room. The sky isn’t pulling at me like it was.”
“Excellent!” David said with a very self-satisfied smile.
“Why do you think they have semi-transparent shades like that?” Erin wondered out loud.
David shrugged. “I don’t know. In case you want to walk around naked but still want the light to come through?”
She looked at him, cocking her head a little. “You walk around your apartment naked?”
“What? No! I’m just…” he burst out laughing, and his cheeks turned bright red.
“It’s okay if you do,” she said with a laugh.
“No. Honestly, I don’t. It was just a thought as to why they would have shades like this.”
“Uh huh,” she said, still laughing at him.
Chapter Eight
David sat at his desk the following day going through all the paperwork for his various clients. Being a public defender meant he was constantly getting new cases on top of old ones. Keeping up was a monumental task. Most were straightforward and didn’t require a lot of effort, they were just procedure that had to be gotten through.
And then there was Shawn’s case—a kid who had an entire world of opportunities before him—until he borrowed his brother’s jacket and wound up in jail. It was exactly for this reason that David had decided to become a PD. It was Shawn, and kids like him, who David wanted to work with. It was Shawn who he wanted to save.
But it was helping kids like Shawn that had gotten his own brother, Tommy, killed.
David would never forgive himself for that. If he’d been there…
No. He couldn’t think about that now. It was pointless. He’d been over it too many times to count. Going through that pain one more time would neither make it go away, nor bring his brother back.
Now he had Shawn to think of. He was going to get that kid out of jail, and he would do absolutely everything in his power to keep him out of prison.
David shuffled to the next case and started to input the details into his computer, but his thoughts would not stay on the mindless task. This time it was Erin and the absolutely amazing, mind-blowing afternoon they’d had the day before.
He’d hardly been able to do anything the rest of the evening after leaving her, he’d been so wound up. Going over the whole hypnosis again and again in his mind—David had been completely unable to concentrate on the work he’d wanted to get done. And the fact that she was Vallen, like him, was incredible. He’d met so few Vallen who he’d actually liked.
Usually they were either stuck up, egotistical, or so involved in their own abilities-slash-studies-slash-talents that they hardly even acknowledged the existence of someone outside of their own field. But Erin…
Maybe it was because she’d never been allowed to do magic—although the idea of that just blew his mind. A Vallen told not to use their abilities? Who did that to their kids? It just went against what it meant to be Vallen.
Vallen used their powers. They did. He did.
And then it hit him. He very nearly did a face palm right there in the pit with all the other lawyers all around him.
He could use his powers to get Shawn out of jail!
But how? He needed to work within the system.
David sat swinging his chair back and forth. He could just use his ability to put suggestions into people’s minds. Make the police officer reverse the charges, or even delete the whole incident from record, but that wouldn’t be right. And too many people knew about it. No. It wasn’t subtle enough.
What about the brother? The rightful owner of that jacket Shawn had been wearing. The idiot who stuffed his pockets full of drugs to begin with.
Yes! He needed to go see the brother.
If he couldn’t convince… What was his name? David paused to check his notes. Deon, right. If he couldn’t convince Deon to admit to having the drugs, or holding them for someone else—he didn’t care what story the kid made up—in order to save his brother, then David would use his magic to convince him to do so.
Jumping up from his chair, he grabbed his suit jacket and headed out the door. Right now, Deon was Shawn’s only hope.
###
The neighborhood where David found Shawn’s family home didn’t look too bad. He’d certainly seen worse. It looked like a pretty typical neighborhood for South East Washington, D.C.. Made up of row houses, each one was slightly different from its neighbor either by color or upkeep. But for the most part, they were all well cared for, and the neighborhood looked like it was thriving.
And so too should Shawn, David thought defiantly. That kid should not be where he is. He should be in school, hanging out with his friends, participating in after school activities, and maybe playing some basketball in the park David had passed just a few blocks away. It just sickened him that that kid was locked up when he had so many great opportunities right here.
He found the blue house that Shawn had listed as his address. The paint was peeling and the stairs looked as if they’d had a few rough winters, sitting at a slight angle to the rest of the house, but it was clean for the most part.
He knocked on the door then noticed the doorbell and gave that a press. After a few minutes, he heard some shuffling footsteps. The door was pulled open about two inches, just as much as the chain, still attached on the inside, allowed.
“What do you want?” a gruff, male voice asked.
“Are you Deon Spencer?” David asked.
“Who’s askin?”
“I’m David Elder. I’m Shawn’s lawyer.”
“I ain’t got nuthin’ to say.” The door started to close, but David propped his foot up, stopping it.
“I just want to talk to you about your brother. To ask if you would help—” The door was pulled back on its chain and then slammed shut, smashing hard into David’s toes. “Shit!” He lifted his foot back behind him as the pain radiated up his leg.
Okay. So much for that plan. He couldn’t appeal to Deon’s affection for his brother, and he hadn’t even had the opportunity to use his magic on him. He couldn’t put a suggestion into the mind of someone without seeing their eyes.
David limped back to his car. Now what?
###
Erin re-read the sentence in the email she was writing for the third time, but her brain had completely stoppe
d paying any attention to her work at all.
How true had that hypnosis been yesterday? Could it have been real? Could David have somehow manipulated her into having these memories? Was that even possible?
The questions went round and round.
It was ridiculous. She knew that people who had “past life” experiences or “remembered their past lives” were always some sort of nobility, or immensely rich or powerful. It was all bullshit. She’d imagined herself to be some sort of high priestess of the Vallen, or the daughter of one. It had to be fake! She wasn’t a high priestess nor was her mother.
Did the Vallen even have a high priestess? She didn’t know. Her parents had never encouraged any talk of their people.
Erin only knew as much as she did because her eldest sister’s college roommate had been Vallen. Susie had filled in a lot of information her parents hadn’t given them, secretly, to the rest of the kids in the family with strict instructions not to “let Mom know that you know”.
No. This hypnosis had to be a hoax of some sort. Erin wasn’t a high priestess or destined to be one. She went back to her email.
“Congressman Whitmeyer is proud to have served on the House Ways and Means Committee for the past five years. Your input concern for the poor of this nation and the implementation of the SNAP program…”
But how could it be hoax? What would David have to gain from her being the daughter of the high priestess? Why would he even put such an idea into her head? Could he have done so?
There was only one way to find out. She picked up her cell phone and dialed Lanie.
“Hey! What’s up?” her best friend answered.
“Was there any way that David could have manipulated me while I was hypnotized yesterday? I mean, did he do anything to direct my thoughts or what I was experiencing?” Nothing like getting straight to the point, Erin thought with a little laugh.
“What? No! He didn’t say a word from the minute you went under. I think he told you to relax, to listen to his voice, and that you were hypnotized and would remember everything that happened. After that you just started talking. It was really incredible. I’ve never heard of anyone going under that fast.”
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