This made him blink. He didn’t know what to say about that, so he went back to what was really on his mind.
“Okay.” He had to keep talking to her. He had to continue hearing her voice. “Tell me about your parents?” She kept going there with him, so it was the least he could do.
She grew somewhat uncomfortable. “I told you that my parents died when I was young. I never knew them.”
He remembered. He now felt bad. “I’m sorry.”
She didn’t agree with him, obviously. “It’s okay. I keep asking you about your parents, so I guess you’re justified in asking me about them.” She pulled herself out of his arms. “We should go.” She smiled, and turned.
Seeing how abruptly she did this, he felt even worse.
“I am sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
She reached back to him with her left hand.
He saw it, and didn’t need to see anything else—he took it, and together they started back across the field.
“I told you that it’s okay.” She squeezed his hand in to hers.
He did believe her, so he changed the subject some—well, maybe not much.
“It must have been hard growing up without your parents.” He saw his. He may have been mad at them for doing what they did, keeping him out of the world, but he did still love them. He sort of did understand why they did it.
They made it to the small parking lot by the fields, and immediately began across it towards the front of the school.
“As I said, I was very young when they died, so I don’t remember them enough to miss them. The older couple I’m living with is nice. They’ve been taking care of me for a while now.”
She firmly moved.
Even for him, it took some effort to keep up with her. She moved pretty fast.
“I thought you told me that you lived with your grandparents?” He felt somewhat shocked with this. He also felt confused.
She shrugged again. “Isn’t that what I said?”
He stayed confused.
“I guess I’m just tired.” She laughed, cutting him off before he could answer her.
He didn’t know what to think.
They were now on the sidewalk and headed back to her neighborhood. They had already crossed one street and were now on to another one.
He feared seeing this. She was hurrying, and he didn’t like it. He thought it was because of what he asked her. It felt like she was trying to end their night faster. He shouldn’t have asked. He should have kept their time light.
Again, she squeezed his hand to hers.
“Is everything okay?” he had to ask her. A heavy weight was now inside his stomach, and it felt like it was moving. He didn’t like it. He hated this.
“I’m fine.” She came onto her street.
They were almost to her place.
In fact, he could see the number 434 Pleasant now up on the left.
“I had a great time.” He had to change this. He had to get back to them. He had to get back to what they were doing before she left him for the night.
“I did too, and we will do it again.” She glanced at him with nothing but a heartfelt smile all over her plump lips.
She did mean it; he could feel it, and it made him relax.
They stopped in front of her home.
He looked at the empty driveway, and that led him to look at the front of the house. The single floor looked dark. No lights were on. He felt this odd, but then again, he didn’t.
“They’re not home yet.” He motioned to the house with a slight nod. “I thought they were home now?” She said this earlier when he asked her. He could have sworn she did.
She laughed. “They go to bed early.”
He laughed too, but didn’t know why. He just did. “I see.” He looked back to her beautiful eyes. Within the moonlight, they glistened like gems. They shined almost from within. He had never seen anything like it before. He had never seen anyone like her before at that.
Before he could say anything, she reached in and kissed his lips.
The heat flashed his face, and with it, every thought he had vanished right along with the feeling. It erased his mind.
Just as fast as she kissed him, and their lips locked, she released him and turned.
“Have a great night Casey. I’ll see you tomorrow night at our tree.”
He fought his mind to say something, found nothing there, so he just smiled instead.
She laughed again. “Goodnight.” And she turned. She walked up the driveway and headed to the side door.
She was gone so fast.
What just happened? He didn’t know. He just shook his head, and turned. Inside him, deep inside his belly, he felt an odd sensation. He felt distrust. He felt downright strange. He truly didn’t know what it meant, but it did mean something. I feel like she lied to me, but why would she do that? It just didn’t make sense. She didn’t have a reason to do it. This stood out to him too. Ah Casey, I think you are just overreacting. She said she was tired. She did. She told him. Just go home. Go home and relax. Thinking this, it did make him feel better, so he grasped the feeling and held it tightly to his heart. He was right. He did have to go home. His mom let him go as long as he didn’t stay out late. She trusted him, so he had to keep to it.
So, he moved. He walked.
He headed home and thought about nothing else.
31
Rachel cooked herself dinner. She ate very little of it. She just sat there and stared at her plate. When she finished, she cleaned up. She washed the dishes. She even put all of them away. She did everything without thinking much. She just went through the motions. She just moved through time.
I shouldn’t have let him go. He should have stayed here. At first, she wasn’t sure whom she was thinking about, Jimmy or Casey. Since Jimmy left, she hasn’t felt right, but that feeling became worse when Casey left her too. She worried about both of them. She worried about the trouble she now knew was coming over the horizon. She worried about the pain that usually followed it. She worried about them both.
She left the kitchen, walked out to the living room and sat down on the sofa with a heavy weight.
What is wrong with me? She thought, truly trying to think, but in the end, she already knew the answer, didn’t she.
Jimmy? He was there, deep inside her mind the entire time since he left her—left them, but she didn’t see him. He just was always inside her. He was a part of her. She was a part of him.
I can hear you Rachel. His voice flared inside her head. It quite frankly shocked her. If she hadn’t been sitting when she heard it, she might have fallen over—it was that bad.
She recovered from it, realized that she did in fact hear him, and straightened back up inside her mind.
“Jimmy? Is that really you?” She had to make sure that it was not just her own wishful thinking that was hearing him. With everything, it didn’t hurt to ask.
I am here Rachel. I can hear you. His voice sounded soft yet as strong as ever. He also sounded rushed.
“Where are you?” she asked, looking around her empty home, feeling it even more inside her heart. Hearing his voice again, well it did make a lot of that feeling to go away, but without him standing with her, it never truly would.
I am heading into Seattle. I’ve found a scent that I am following.
She didn’t understand this. “What about Kenny? Have you found out anything about him?”
He was taken. I am following the smell of those that did it.
She nodded to him—to herself.
I’ve been at it for a while now. I’ve had to leave the car and head out on foot. I’ve been out all night and day.
She didn’t understand this. “Jimmy, what’s going on?” She stood up. Hearing his voice so clearly, she couldn’t fathom that he was ever gone. Realizing this, realizing that she could now hear him, completely normally, unlike over the past month or so, she had to bring this up. She had to tell him, only for his help in understandin
g this. “I can hear your voice for the first time in days. I can hear your every thought.”
She heard his mind pause. Isn’t that a good thing? She understood the pause.
“It is, but I just keep getting the feeling that something is wrong. My gifts at times feel completely disjointed, almost like they are lost in a fog. And then there are times like this when I can hear and feel everything like normal. My mind is completely clear. I don’t understand any of this.”
She felt him nod. She could also see through his eyes somewhat, and what she saw was a tree that he must have just walked around, and the sounds of traffic just to his right side. She saw a little light still over him. The three hours difference between Pennsylvania and the Pacific coast was hard to grasp when she was inside someone else’s thoughts that she had to confide in this before she continued with him.
Maybe it has something to do with Kenny going missing. His powers can block people. Maybe he is somehow doing this to all of us.
She heard the last part of this, while agreeing with the first. The last, this was important. Her feelings told her this, so she had to concentrate on it.
“Are you still having difficulties too?”
Again, she felt his mind agree. I have been before coming here. She heard his thoughts thinking hard. I felt jumbled—if that’s a good word to use to describe it—when I was back home. But now, I feel normal. I can see the eyes clearly at the back part of my mind. It’s almost like they were never gone in the first place, just blocked from me being able to see them. I can’t explain it any better than this.
She hugged herself tightly with in her own arms. Again, she wished he was there with her doing this to her. He was so much better at it than she would ever be.
“I hope you’re right about Kenny. Maybe he could help us figure this out.” She felt hope for this, but at the same time, she felt something else there too. It worried her some because of it. When this happened to her before, it meant that she was wrong about the thought. She was wrong this time again too. Casey came up in her thoughts.
Jimmy saw them too. How is Casey?
She sighed before answering him. “He went out.”
He wasn’t sure if he liked that. Are you sure that is a good idea…with everything going on?
She shuddered some. “He’s out with the girl again. This is the third time already.” She felt uneasy now too. She felt nearly ill. It was all inside her. It was strong too.
Jimmy felt this inside her. You don’t like her and you haven’t even met her yet.
She felt him laugh. She shook her head.
You know, all mothers feel that way about the girl coming into their son’s life. You’re not alone.
She nodded some with this, even though she didn’t agree with him fully. There was more there. She just couldn’t understand it.
She felt him turning his mind back to the smell he was tracking. He was so focused on it that it made her focused on it too.
“What is that smell and why do you fear it?” she had to ask him.
He did feel strongly about it. The night in the park roared back in to his mind.
She saw all of it. She saw the attack. She saw the two young people walking towards him, falling under him, and dying with in his jaws. The feeling of an overpowering sadness then burst inside him so strongly that it nearly knocked her over.
This time, she was standing, and had to catch herself before she did do it. Luckily she did, so she straightened back up again.
“It’s the same smell you followed that night. It’s the smell of Gary and his wife before you killed her.”
It was as clear as day.
She heard him sigh. She also saw that he stopped wherever he currently was.
He pushed the feeling out from his mind. When he did, they both calmed down instantly because of it.
I’m sorry that you saw that, but you’re right. I have smelled it before, but I don’t know what it means. The woman and her child died. Gary did too. But I smell it. It’s the same scent. It’s causing me the same emotions too. It gives me the hunger. It makes me want to hunt it down.
She heard the pain this caused him in his voice.
“How can it be possible to have the same smell coming to you from people who are dead? That doesn’t make sense.”
He agreed. That’s why I have to find it. I have to find out what it means.
She did too, but there was more about this. There was more about Gary. She saw some of it, just before he closed the memory.
“You’re not telling me everything. What is it about Gary that you just thought?”
She felt his mind turn sad again.
He didn’t want to answer her.
“Jimmy, what is it?”
He held his breaths. It was the flames. Kenny was at the flames and told me this had something to do with a choice I made. He said that it had something to do with Gary. He told me that he had killed him before and might do it again—something like that.
She felt his coldness. She felt the pain explode again too. “You don’t think he is still alive do you Jimmy?” She thought this was what he meant.
He didn’t. I killed him. You know that. His mind paused but only briefly before it came again. I killed her too. I slaughtered her and her child. I know that, but there is something else. The smell will tell me what that is.
His mind turned again.
She had forgotten how quickly he could do it. He could change subjects and control himself so well that it nearly always blew her mind away when he did it. He was too good at it sometimes. It made it hard for her to read his thoughts. She didn’t mind it. It was why he was hard to read by all mind readers, and that was good enough for her.
Have you contacted Robert yet?
She shook her head. “Not yet.” She felt inside her, looked to the void out into the darkness of the world, and saw his mind within the blackness. Again, like Jimmy, he was there as bright as he always was before. “I can feel him.”
He started moving again. I need you to tell him what has happened and ask him if he could help me with this. Can you do this before you lose the ability again?
She shook her head. “I will right now.” She looked to the kitchen door and then turned back to the living room. She looked at the front door and heard nothing. She didn’t know why she did this, but just after she had, she lost the reason for it anyway, so she looked back.
He saw this, didn’t understand it either, so he dropped it. He had more pressing concerns. I’m going to get back to the hunt. I love you Rachel.
She felt the warmth of his feelings flash through her at the same time he said it. It only added to her own feelings of warmth for him too.
“I love you too. Be careful.”
He was gone right after this.
With her head empty again, she looked back to the void. She found her brother’s thoughts and locked on to them with everything she had.
32
“Rachel?” Robert heard her voice flare inside his head like a loud thunder crash wakes you up from a dead sleep. He was sitting next to Sharlia on her private plane somewhere over the central part of the United States. He wasn’t expecting to hear her voice, which was why he stood straight up while hearing it.
He even startled Sharlia, who was trying to rest after everything that just happened. She looked at him as he stood up, and instantly fought to listen.
“Where are you?” He asked aloud, trying to fight the thousand questions that were now erupting inside him. He did fight them. He only asked this one first to balance all of them out.
I am in my home Robert.
He felt that she was rushed some, so he tried to concentrate. He didn’t like hearing her like this. It told him that something was wrong with her. It told him that she was in danger. He had to know why.
She felt his worry.
I know this is shocking you, but you must listen to me. I have something to tell you and I have to do it before I lose the ability again.
She paused some before continuing again. Kenny…Kenar…has gone missing.
He swallowed hard with this, and turned around in the aisle back to Sharlia.
She saw the look on his face, and grew afraid with all of this too. Is it too late? Have they already found him? Have they already gotten to him too? She too had a thousand questions now racing through her mind. She didn’t like any of them, this much was certain.
He nodded to her, almost seeing this in her.
She didn’t like this either.
“What do you mean, he is missing?”
Sharlia swallowed hard now too. Her worst fears were just realized.
We received a phone call from his grandson telling us that some group took him. They’re called…
He cut her off. “The gathering storm.”
Sharlia bowed her head. She didn’t think it was possible that they could have brought down Kalima, but now, here she was, hearing that it happened. She swallowed hard again.
How do you know about them? Rachel gasped.
The sound bounced around inside his head.
“They have come after the Walkers. They are using a drug to make them human. They then kill them.” He watched Sharlia’s face, turned back to the aisle and now saw Sasha and Brandon all watching him.
They had terror written all over their respective faces.
He just nodded to all of them that he would explain it to them later.
Rachel gasped again. Jimmy? If that is true, if what you are telling me is real, than they will have Jimmy heading right to them. She suddenly felt her heart skip several beats. She knew what she had to do. She had to end this with her brother, and reach out to Jimmy again. She had to do it before it was too late. She had to warn him. Bobby, I have to go. She nearly screamed this to him.
His ears did ring.
“Wait Rachel…” he couldn’t let her go yet. “Where is he? Where are you?”
He went to find Kenny in Washington…Seattle. I am home in Darlington Pennsylvania. It’s a small town not far outside of Philadelphia. She rushed with this. Her mind was running faster than that, but then suddenly, it began to fade. It felt like a vale was slowly lowering over it and it was starting to block out all of the light in the world. She knew what it meant. I am starting to lose my abilities again. I can’t…
The Puppets and the Strings (A Werewolf's Saga Book 7) Page 20