by H. R. Moore
When Alexander felt Anita’s energy dip even further, he decided it was time to call it a day. ‘I think we’re done here for the moment,’ he said, taking one last look out to sea from the cliff that was so familiar to him. Anita nodded, feeling very much like she wanted to go to sleep and followed Alexander’s instructions to lift herself out of the meditation and back to the Temple. When she woke up, her vision was filled with Alexander’s concerned features and she smiled to see a softness there that he had hidden before.
‘That was interesting,’ she said, ‘and very educational. Who knew there was all that stuff in my head.’
‘Well if I were you, I wouldn’t go into too much detail about it with Marcus when he takes you home,’ Alexander said in a low voice, helping Anita to her feet, feeling a slight tingle as their fingers touched. He would have asked her if she could feel it too, but seeing Alexander actually touch Anita was too much for Marcus, so he broke cover and hurried over to them, slipping his arm around her and pulling her towards him.
Anita leaned in to him; all she wanted to do now was go to sleep. Alexander turned to leave, saying, ‘same time tomorrow,’ nonchalantly as he strode away.
‘Hey,’ Marcus whispered into Anita’s ear as he gently pulled her into a hug, kissing her hair as she wrapped her arms around him.
‘Hi,’ she said weakly, feeling as though she might fall asleep right then and there.
Marcus pushed Anita away a little as he bent slightly to put one arm behind her knees and scooped her up into his arms, carrying her out of the Temple to his waiting car. Anita couldn’t have been happier to let him and she fell asleep in his lap as soon as they were in.
They reached Cordelia’s and Marcus lifted Anita out of the car without her so much as stirring. He carried her to the back door and straight up the stairs, pausing for a moment to work out which was Anita’s bedroom. He went for the smaller of the two as it had the dress Anita had worn to the ball hanging on the outside of the wardrobe and gently placed her on the bed. Anita woke up as he put her down and she smiled a groggy half smile up at him. He crouched down beside the small double bed and lightly pushed a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. Anita reached out and fumbled for his neck, pulling his lips towards hers and kissing him sleepily.
‘Thank you for bringing me home,’ she mumbled into his mouth.
‘My pleasure,’ he smiled before leaning in to kiss her on her forehead and getting up to leave.
‘Don’t go yet,’ Anita murmured. She rolled to the other side of the bed, indicating he should lie down too. Marcus hesitated for only a split second before slowly lowering himself down next to Anita’s warm, toned form. They lay there face to face, Anita struggling to keep her eyes open, each feeling the warm breath of the other landing on their lips. When Anita couldn’t fight sleep any longer her eyelids fluttered closed and Marcus kissed her lightly. He placed his masculine hand over the feminine one on his neck and gently played with each finger in turn, mesmerised by the rise and fall of Anita’s sleeping body, before carefully turning his head and lifting her palm to his mouth. He kissed it softly twice before placing it delicately next to Anita’s head on the pillow, then used every ounce of his resolve to tear himself away.
CHAPTER 9
As usual, Anita woke up early the following morning, but whereas she normally felt energised and refreshed, this morning she felt drained and groggy. She hadn’t felt like this for years, not since she had first started training with Helena when she was thirteen years old. Well at least it shows I’m doing something, even if I’m not yet doing quite the right thing, she thought as she prised herself out of bed and went downstairs to do some yoga.
After her workout, she showered, ate breakfast and headed to the Observatory. She felt a bit better, but yoga had been harder work than usual. She wasn’t having a Mind session with Marcus today as she was supposed to practice what she’d learned yesterday instead. She was going to try and plant an idea in Bas’ head, but she still hadn’t quite decided what it should be. She pondered as she strolled along, walking at a much more sedate pace than her usual march as she considered her options. She could plant the idea that Bas should invite Anita to sing in his band, but if he took her up on the offer, he might try and make her sing a love song with him and that would be horrible. She could try to make him suggest they play a game of chess together, but that was probably a bit advanced for her current level of skill; Bas hated chess with a passion and it wasn’t exactly like Anita was keen on it anyway. Eventually she settled on trying to get Bas to suggest they go for a swim in the river. It was getting cold now as they were heading for the end of the year, which meant this wouldn’t be something he would suggest naturally, so if he did suggest it, she could claim the plant a triumph.
Anita climbed the Observatory’s spiral staircase and entered the room at the top. Bas and Patrick were having what seemed to be quite a heated debate, presumably about the current energy predicament.
‘Hi,’ she said loudly, so they would notice she was there. ‘Just came from the river, it’s lovely down there at the moment.’
They looked up, bewildered, to check it was Anita, and when they confirmed it was, looked at her like she must have had a nasty fall and hit her head. Anita wasn’t exactly a fan of volunteering information, especially when there was an energy conversation to get involved with. ‘If you say so,’ said Patrick, looking at her suspiciously. ‘We’re just discussing that we’re already seeing adverse effects on crop yields as a result of the energy drop.’
‘Really?’ she said, ‘are we seeing any effect anywhere else, for example in the river?’
‘Um, no, not yet,’ Bas said slowly, giving Anita an ‘are you alright’ kind of look. ‘Just the autumn crop yields are down a bit on last year. Austin is harping on about it being a coincidence and is convinced that it’s all down to the weather. Total idiot.’
‘There’s a surprise,’ said Anita sitting down at one of the dashboards. ‘How can someone so well educated, who has access to so much information indicating that the energy balance is crucial to our survival, be such a total prat?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Patrick, ‘but he will have to pay attention eventually, unless he has a way of producing food out of thin air. I’d like to see how he deals with the situation when people don’t have enough to eat.’
‘Mmm, that wouldn’t be pretty.’ They got to work and there was silence for a few minutes, until Anita chirped, ‘Thorn jumped in the water this morning. It looked so refreshing.’
Bas and Patrick looked at each other, perplexed, before Bas ventured, ‘is everything alright Anita?’
‘Of course. Why do you ask?’
‘Because for the entire time I have known you, which is quite a long time, you’ve never once volunteered any information that you felt you didn’t have to, and you’ve done it twice now in one morning.’
Anita went red, damn, she thought. She really was hideous at this Mind stuff. ‘Sorry for being chatty,’ she retorted defensively, furious at herself for failing to plant the idea, ‘I’ll keep my thoughts to myself in future.’
‘And she’s back,’ said Patrick, giving Anita an infuriating wink.
Anita sat in silence for the remainder of the day, angry at herself and plotting who to try next. After work Anita tried first Cleo over drinks at The Island, then Alistair who she bumped into on her way home and then Cordelia when she got there and everyone just thought she was being weird. Cleo was the only one who’d seen right through what she was doing, she’d come straight out with it saying, ‘Anita, are you trying to plant an idea in my head?’
You idiot, she chastised herself, Cleo wasn’t exactly the best person to try and plant an idea on. Cleo was after all a Mind and manipulation was one of her strongest suits, so of course she would be able to see through what Anita was doing. ‘Yeah, sorry. I’m getting Marcus to give me Mind lessons and he told me to practice planting ideas. But as you can see, I’m rubbish at it.’
‘Well my advice, for what it’s worth, is that you’ve got to play to your strengths. When you try to plant an idea, don’t try and simply impersonate what a Mind would do, use your Body and Spirit skills to help you. You can’t be someone you’re not, so put to use the skills you have.’
Anita nodded and quickly changed the subject. She had no idea how to implement what Cleo was saying, but was both embarrassed and cross with herself for being so easily caught out, so she didn’t want to dwell.
*****
The following weeks entailed classes with both Marcus at the castle and Alexander at the Temple (with Marcus always managing to find some reason to be in the Spirit Temple at the same time).
The lessons couldn’t have been more different. Marcus was prescriptive and controlling, trying to force Anita to imitate the way he did things, whereas Alexander let Anita find her own way, there only to guide her if she needed him. Anita left Marcus’ lessons feeling frustrated and like she wasn’t getting anywhere, she usually left feeling exhausted and wanting to hit him. On the other hand, she left Alexander’s lessons feeling drained, but somehow liberated and content. They found several more places in her mind during their lessons, including the boat she had visited with Cleo, which Alexander said was a place that contained a good mix of Mind, Body and Spirit, so it made sense that Cleo and Anita would have ended up there. They also found a waterfall that Alexander said was full of Spirit as well as a stable with a beautiful chestnut mare in it that was a mixture of Body and Spirit, but Alexander was convinced Anita had a Mind dominated place somewhere in her head and it was only a matter of time before they found it. There had been no sign of the cylinder in any of the places they had found so far and secretly Alexander suspected the cylinder was hiding in a Mind place, it would be the most difficult place to banish it from. He thought again how skilled the person who planted it must have been.
Off course Anita didn’t tell Marcus about her success in the Spirit sessions; her Mind sessions were going so badly and Marcus was always very glad to hear that Alexander’s lessons had not gone well either. ‘Maybe there is a reason only the Descendants are taught all the skills to such a level after all,’ he said pompously, after another Mind lesson had gone disastrously.
‘Yes maybe,’ Anita had agreed sincerely, inwardly smirking.
As the weeks went on, two things became clear. Firstly, that Marcus and Anita were not going to get anywhere with the Mind lessons, and if they wanted to continue their relationship it was a good idea to stop trying, and secondly that the Mind place in Anita’s head was exceedingly elusive, so Alexander decided to stop trying to find it for a while and move on to work on other skills, specifically how to hide energy.
The conversation with Marcus had not gone well. At first he took it as an affront to his teaching skills, then switched tack to blame her lack of progress on all the time Anita was spending with Alexander. She eventually managed to bring Marcus round, by reassuring him it was nothing to do with his teaching skills. She had said she was naturally pre-disposed towards Spirit and Body skills, and was useless at Mind, and it was always good to know when to stop flogging a dead horse. Anita had sealed the deal though when she had said that the main reason she wanted to stop lessons with Marcus, was so that they could spend more time together as a couple and not as teacher and pupil. Maybe she was better at Mind skills than she let on, she’d thought as he had softened.
Marcus had liked this very much and as he was getting bored of teaching Anita anyway, especially as she never seemed to get any better, he finally relented. However it was a much harder sell to convince Marcus that he should not be present for her future meditations with Alexander. It’d shocked Anita a bit to see him act so much like a spoilt child as she’d told him. She hadn’t quite believed the warnings about Marcus’ possessiveness, but when she saw it with her own eyes, she began to wonder what she had got herself into. She had again managed to avoid a serious argument with a bit of flattery and a good measure of flirting.
‘It’s not that I don’t want you there,’ she had said, sitting on his lap and wrapping her arms round his neck, ‘it’s that we’re working on hiding energy next and when I know you are around my energy soars. It’s impossible to control,’ she’d said, before playfully biting his ear lobe. It may not have placated Marcus entirely, but it had certainly distracted him, he had thrown her back onto the bed in retaliation, climbed on top of her and pinned her arms above her head.
‘Fine,’ he’d said sulkily, ‘I won’t come to your lessons.’
‘You promise?’ she matched his tone, looking up at him through her lashes.
‘I suppose so,’ he had said before leaning down, running the tip of his nose down the length of hers and roguishly kissing her lips.
*****
Anita was very happy with where she and Marcus were now and even more happy that she had managed to use a bit of seduction and manipulation in the process. She soothed her conscience by thinking that some of what Marcus had tried to teach her must have rubbed off and was very much looking forward to the Spirit lesson she was heading to, away from Marcus’ prying eyes. Today they were meditating down by the river. Alexander thought they could do with a change of scenery and wanted to teach her about controlling her energy somewhere more private than the Temple; it could be an emotional skill to learn.
‘Hey,’ Anita said when she got to the large flat rock that Alexander was already sitting on, cross legged, above the angry water below.
‘Hi. No chaperone today?’ Alexander mocked.
‘No,’ she smiled triumphantly. ‘Marcus has agreed to give me some space during these lessons.’
‘I see,’ said Alexander, a little surprised. He had no idea how she had got Marcus to agree to that, but he felt his energy rise a bit at the thought. He quickly supressed it and motioned for Anita to sit down. ‘Learning to supress your energy is a bit different to finding places inside your mind,’ he started. ‘It requires you to appreciate how you react to situations and to others around you; you need to anticipate your reaction and divert the energy. You can’t get rid of it, but you can channel it elsewhere.’
‘And how do I do that?’
Alexander smiled, ‘you push it through your feet.’
‘Right. What the bloody hell does that mean?’
‘It means exactly that. You push all the energy towards your feet, so it’s utilised elsewhere and nobody can read your reaction.’
‘How does the energy get used up?’
‘By propelling your body upwards.’
Anita laughed. ‘What?’ this was ridiculous.
Alexander had hoped for something along the lines of wonderment at this revelation, not humour. ‘It’s the same principle as energy cars and trains,’ he said looking a little put out. ‘You pushing your energy downwards propels you upwards. Most people aren’t powerful enough to actually walk on air but it can make you look weightless, almost like you are floating as you walk. But of course you learn to hide that too, so only those who really know what to look for can tell what you’re doing.’
Anita wasn’t sure if he was joking or not; it sounded totally ridiculous, but then she supposed it made sense when you thought about how energy cars worked. ‘Alright, so how do I do this...pushing downwards?’
‘First we need to make your energy rise,’ he said coyly, cocking an eyebrow.
Anita blushed, ‘and how are we going to do that?’ Anita thought about how her energy used to react at the mere sight of either Marcus or Alexander, but that had subsided now she spent so much time with both of them.
Alexander took a meaningful step towards her, ‘I can either challenge you or seduce you,’ he said recklessly, the atmosphere shifting wildly as his piercing eyes seduced hers.
Anita’s energy reacted immediately, full of shock and delightful anticipation at the prospect of either. Feeling smug at her instant reaction, Alexander reached out and took her hands. She felt like she might burst, tingles shooting all over h
er body as their skin touched for the first time in weeks. ‘Good,’ he said gently. ‘Now, think the energy downwards and imagine yourself being propelled upwards.’ Anita did as she was told and surprisingly felt some weight leave her body. ‘Good,’ said Alexander again as he felt it, doing nothing to try and hide his own energy’s rapidly rising tide. ‘Now push down on my hands and imagine someone is tugging on your hair and pulling you upwards.’ Again, Anita did as she was told and felt her weight completely leave the ground. As she felt it, she panicked and the weight immediately returned, her feet reconnecting unsteadily with the ground, Alexander catching her as she stumbled into him, preventing her from tumbling to the ground.
‘By the Gods, Anita. I’ve never seen anyone levitate on their first attempt,’ he was full of adoration. ‘How did it feel?’
‘Great,’ she beamed at him, possibly more because he had not taken his hands off her than as a result of the levitation. This is so much more fun than Mind lessons, she thought, her energy once more rising as she looked up at Alexander, her hands enjoying the muscular contours of his chest. ‘Let’s try again,’ she said eagerly, looking like an overexcited small child on her birthday.
‘Ok,’ he breathed indulgently, his energy still singing as he stepped back and held her hands, relishing the tingle of energy he too felt when they touched. Surprisingly, the tingles were more intense with Alexander than with Marcus, but Anita was more interested in levitating at the moment, so ignored it.