“You can count on it.” He leaned forward and gave her another kiss, broke it off, turned and walked back to his car.
~~~
The next couple of weeks were hectic. She got her teaching schedule from the university, rearranged her hours at the lab, moved into her new office, and managed to set up a meeting with Cindy for a Thursday evening.
Brenna drove down to the Metro station north of DC and took the train into the city. Walking the three blocks to Cindy’s apartment building, she felt as though someone was watching her. She tried scanning the area but didn’t pick anything up. Probably just jumpy from walking around a strange neighborhood.
“I’m so glad you could come. Let me show you around,” Cindy greeted her. The apartment was as large as Brenna’s row house, but the comparison ended there. It was tastefully but expensively decorated in an understated fashion. Original paintings hung on every wall. Cindy told her she was welcome to use the spare bedroom any time and handed her a key. But the biggest surprise came when she saw the third bedroom.
“You’re the one who painted all that fabulous art work on the walls? My God, they’re wonderful.”
“Not all of them, but a fair number. A few I bought, and a few more are trades with other artists. I show at a gallery in Georgetown and sell a few every year.”
An image, a memory, formed in Brenna’s mind. “The picture in Seamus’ study in Baltimore, that’s yours?”
“The mountain scene? Yes, that’s the view from Gertrude’s window in West Virginia. Have you been there?” Brenna shook her head. “He also has a portrait I painted in his study there. Right after she died, I painted a portrait of her for him from a picture he had.”
“Who is Gertrude?” giving the name the German pronunciation Cindy had used.
Cindy’s looked surprised. “No one has told you about Gertrude? She was Seamus’ wife, your grandmother. I can understand Seamus not saying anything, it’s still a raw memory for him, but I’m surprised Callie never mentioned her. As much as anyone, she’s responsible for shaping the modern O’Donnell Clan, a truly incredible woman, a force of nature.”
“How long has she been dead?”
“She was on that plane with your parents.” She shook her head, “There’s still speculation in some quarters as to who the real target was. Some think Jack as the heir, some Gertrude, but the consensus was they were aiming for Maureen. She was one of our most effective operatives. Whatever. The fact is that taking all of them out at once was a major coup. It disrupted our operations in Europe for years, and we’re only now recovering.”
Brenna stared at her. “What are you talking about? Are you saying someone made that plane crash?”
“Come on, let’s sit down,” Cindy said. “Would you like some tea?” She led Brenna to the living room, then stepped into the kitchen and put the teapot on the stove.
“There was a bomb on the plane. They were flying from Ireland to Romania, and it blew up somewhere over Switzerland. At 35,000 feet, the debris was scattered over all hell and gone, and they never recovered most of the bodies. Of course, that never made the news. The story that went out publicly was much different, but when you have telepaths involved, you can never believe anything that’s said publicly. We try to keep ourselves out of the news.”
Cindy took a deep breath. “Brenna, we don’t have time right now, but let’s take a weekend, just the two of us go off somewhere, and I’ll tell you about your parents. I think I may be the only one to understand how much you need to know about them.”
She walked back into the living room and set a tea tray on the table. “You see, I’m an orphan, also. My parents died when I was fifteen, but what a child, even a teenager, knows about their parents is only a tiny slice of their lives. You only know them as parents, not as people.”
“I would like that,” tears blurred Brenna’s vision. “People talk about them, pieces here and there, but I can’t form a coherent picture of them.”
“Let’s set a regular time and day to meet from now on. What I have to show you won’t take very long, but technique and control and nuance take a bit of practice. And there’s the way your other Gifts, the ones tied to the Kashani Gift, manifest.”
Brenna frowned, “Are you planning on teaching me about sex, too? It seems all the succubus Talents are tied to seduction and sex. I’m not very sexually experienced, and I’m not interested in,” she blushed, “look, I’m not trying to be judgmental, or prudish, but the way people talk about this so-called Gift, the way people look at me, the way some people treat me, I’m not interested in sleeping around and have people think …,” her face felt extremely warm.
“You have a problem thinking of yourself as a slut?” Cindy supplied. “Brenna, I don’t know how you were raised. The way such things are viewed in the telepathic community, and especially in the O’Donnell Clan, are different than middle-American norms.
“The Clans’ histories go back five thousand years. We were pagans with a pantheon of gods and goddesses, most pretty earthy. Sex was considered a natural thing. It felt good, so why not do it? Sex also was used ritually, as an offering to the Mother Goddess. Some of that practice still survives in Europe. With our long generations, values and morals don’t change quickly or just because it’s fashionable.”
Cindy walked to the window and looked out at the sunset.
“I’ll be glad to answer any questions you ever have, but I don’t plan to teach you about sex. Some sexual techniques succubi can employ are unique to our physiology and our mental Talents, but your sexual mores and activities are something you have to define for yourself. I can tell you, though, I’ve never met a succubus who is not extremely, and freely, sexually active.”
She turned away from the window and sat in a large easy chair across from Brenna. “It’s not just the Talents grouped under the Kashani Gift,” she held up her hand, wiggled her fingers, and small lightnings shot between her fingertips. “A number of Gifts are sometimes called the Kashani Cluster. All Kashanis have the same Gifts, though some, such as you, may have more. Do you feel the electricity in the walls?”
“Yes, it’s there all the time. Power lines, electrical equipment, the electrical systems of cars. I can always feel it. Why?”
“Other than me and your mother, no one else you have ever met can feel it. Non-Kashanis with the Gift of Electrokinesis have to search for a source. It isn’t always there for them. It makes our use of the Gift instantaneous.
“The Farooqui Gift, Energy Draining, is another example. A non-Kashani can only drain a single person and hold that energy. A succubus has an almost unlimited ability to store such energy. You could drain a dozen people and hold that power within you.”
“But why would I want to drain someone’s life energy? I can’t see any legitimate use for such a Gift,” Brenna said with an expression of distaste.
“You have the healing Gift. You’ll find that being able to drain some energy from someone who is healthy to feed into someone who is injured might be the difference between them living or dying.”
Reaching out, Cindy took Brenna’s hand. “Consider someone who fell and injured themselves. They’re bleeding inside, and you can repair the damage, but they don’t have the energy to start healing. So you drain ten percent from each of the five people who are gathered around watching, and feed that into the injured person. The best healers all have the Farooqui and Petrescu Gifts, and that’s how they use it.”
Brenna considered what Cindy said. “I hadn’t thought about something like that.”
Cindy picked up her purse. “Are you hungry? Shall we go get some dinner?”
They went to a small bistro in Georgetown and after they ordered, Cindy said, “Do you want me to teach you?”
Brenna sighed and looked around the restaurant, trying to decide what she really wanted.
“Cindy, I’ve always been fascinated by men and sex. The few times I’ve been to bed with someone, I loved it. It just never ended up very satisfyi
ng. I think I now know why. I guess I should know how to use it, and if I decide not to, at least it’ll be an informed decision. Right?”
Cindy smiled softly. “I do have ethics that surround my Gift. I do my damnedest to avoid married men who love their wives. I don’t seduce men who truly have moral objections to having sex outside of their primary relationships. I avoid draining a man who will lose his job if he doesn’t show up to work the next day, or miss his plane, or,” she chuckled, “in my job, leaving someone in their office with their pants around their ankles for their secretaries to find.”
Cindy gave her a mischievous grin. “Ready to play some games?” She glanced at three men in business suits sitting two tables away. “Open your shields to me, down to the fifth level. The Kashani Gifts are located there.” Brenna did as asked, and Cindy entered her mind, then shook her head. “I keep forgetting you’re an O’Neill, seventeen levels instead of the normal nine. Here, look in my mind.” She showed Brenna the place where the Kashani Gifts were triggered.
Oh, okay, uh, ninth level. There.
Now, watch how I trigger the Glam, and how I regulate it. Brenna watched, both in Cindy’s mind and through her eyes. Cindy started to take on a glowing beauty. It was subtle, but it still enhanced her, making her radiant. Okay, that’s what I consider low. Now I’m going to turn it up to medium-low.
Her radiance increased, and Brenna saw one of the men at the table Cindy indicated lock his gaze on her, sitting in profile to him. Now I kick it up to medium. See how I do that? You don’t have to put a lot of effort into it, and you definitely don’t want to overdo it. Always start low, maybe medium-low. If you turn it on full force, you’ll have small children and stray dogs following you around, not to mention every man in sight.
The man who had been watching her before was now leaning across the table. It was obvious he wasn’t paying any attention to the conversation his companions were attempting to have with him. One of the other men turned slightly, caught sight of Cindy, and froze, staring. Cindy laughed quietly. And I’m not even doing anything to Influence them.
Brenna stared at Cindy in wonder. You’re beautiful. You make every other woman in the place look like a mud fence.
Oh, no, Brenna. Even if I kicked it up to overdrive, you’ll never look like a mud fence. In fact, all I’ve done is draw their attention away from you. They’ve been watching you since we came in. If you had been eavesdropping on their conversation, you’d know they’ve been talking about us, and you in particular, the whole time we’ve been sitting here. Now, I’m going to drop back down to low, and I want you to trigger your Glam.
Yes, that’s the way. Oops, not so much, dial it back a bit. Yes, there. That’s what I call low. Now notice the men over there. Jesus, Brenna, use your mind, not your eyes. You shouldn’t be letting them know we know they’re there, or they’ll get ideas and start hitting on us.
Brenna blushed and let her mind read the surface thoughts of the men at the table. Cindy kept up an innocuous conversation about Brenna’s shopping trip with Rebecca the whole time.
The third man had shifted his chair slightly, angling it so he could more easily watch the two women. The first man was still paying most of his attention to Cindy, but the other two were locked on Brenna. Okay, now turn it up to medium-low. Yes, that’s the way. Do it gradually. After you have some experience and more control, you’ll be able to hit the levels automatically, but for now, gradual is better and it’s less noticeable.
All three men had shifted their full attention to Brenna. Now we play with them a little. Cindy kicked her Glam up to a level above Brenna’s. That’s medium. You see? Watch their attention shift. It did, all three had forgotten Brenna even existed. Looking through their eyes, she might as well have been part of the furniture. Now kick up to medium and I’ll drop back to medium-low. Yes, that’s it. Good. The three men all shifted their attentions to Brenna. Aren’t men funny? Cindy raised her glass, and Brenna toasted her.
Their meal came and both dropped their Glam completely. The men seemed to deflate, a haze lifting from their minds, though they continued to watch the two women.
During their meal, Cindy answered questions Brenna had about her family and the Clan conflicts which had claimed her parents. When they finished, Cindy paid the bill. Gathering up their purses, Cindy said, “One last game. Come into my fifth level again. I’m going to show you how to release your pheromones.”
They started walking toward the door, and as they approached the table with the three men, Cindy sent a command to a place in her mind. She directed Brenna’s attention to the parts of her body where the succubi’s special glands resided. Those glands released a fine, invisible aerosol that diffused into a gas in the air. Brenna saw the men’s eyes glaze over, their attention lock on the two women. Indeed, within seconds, every man in the place reacted the same way.
Do you see how I did that? Good. Now you try it.
Brenna triggered her pheromones.
Oh God. Noooo. Ohhh, too, toooo much. Cindy grabbed Brenna’s arm and pulled her out the door.
Cindy was laughing so hard she was stumbling as they emerged from the restaurant. Several men had risen from their tables, two of them men dining with a woman, and looked as though they were going to follow them out. Brenna’s face was on fire.
“Jesus. You could get an erection out of a dead elephant with a blast like that.” Cindy couldn’t stop laughing. Finally, after they rounded the corner, she just stopped and doubled up, tears running down her face, smearing her makeup.
“Oh, God, now I know what Maureen went through. I spent years thinking I was the biggest dunce. She used to laugh at me all the time. She said I was better than a barrel of clowns.” She started to wind down, then with a howl, doubled up again. “Did you see the maître d’s face? Oh, God. We’ve got to get out of here. They may be following us.”
When they got back to Cindy’s apartment, she was still chuckling.
“Cindy? Can you feel that guy down the street? The one standing by the corner watching us.”
“Yes, he’s a telepath. I wonder what he wants.” She sent a spear thread to the head of her protection team. “Come on, let’s get inside.”
When they reached the apartment, Cindy went to the window. She saw two of her Protectors approach the man, but he turned and quickly walked in the other direction.
Cindy gave her some “homework” for the use of her Glam and pheromones before they went to bed.
~~~
Chapter 1-8
Chastity: The most unnatural of the sexual perversions. - Aldous Huxley
Rebecca and Carly, a senior Protector, had gone out for a girls-only dinner together at an out of the way place near Chesapeake Bay. On a back road going home, Carly became irritated with a car that was tailgating them. She attempted to enter the driver’s mind to make him back off, but hit his shields.
“Rebecca, that car behind us has two telepaths in it.”
At that moment, the car behind sped up and crashed into them. Fighting for control, Carly hit the accelerator, but the other car had a larger engine and hit them again.
Rebecca hung on as the car swerved, then ran off the road into a field. Bouncing and careening, Carly fought the wheel, finally bringing the car to a stop. Rebecca unclasped her seat belt and reached for the door handle.
She rolled out of the car and across the ground. Carly turned and saw the two men emerge from their vehicle at the side of the road. She tried to open her door, but it wouldn’t budge. It was blocked by dirt piled against it. She fought with her seatbelt, finally getting it open, and threw herself across the seat to crawl out Rebecca’s side.
Just as she got to the open door, a ball of fire flashed across her vision. The men’s car exploded.
Looking out the back window, she saw one raise a gun and fire. Dirt kicked up near Rebecca, who loosed another ball of fire in the direction of the shooter. It hit him and he turned into a pillar of flame. The other man fired at her. She
jumped up and sprinted for the car, putting it between her and the shooter.
Carly slid out the door to the ground. Stay close to the car, I’m going to cover us with an air shield.
Carly poured power to her shield, making sure Rebecca was covered. Don’t get too far away from me. I don’t know how far I can reach.
Right. Covered with the air shield, Rebecca felt helpless. She reached out and tried to enter the shooter’s mind. His shields blocked her, but she pushed harder, then drew back, gathered her mental energy, and hit his shield with as much force as she could. The shield fell. Panic and chaos flooded from his mind to hers. She didn’t have time to sort through it. She hammered at his next level shield and felt it fall.
She was in his mind when Carly dropped the air shield and sent a fireball that engulfed him. The shock and pain caused her instinctively to pull away from him. Screaming, he fell to the ground.
Carly scrambled up. Looking around, she saw Rebecca rise to stand on the other side of the car. Her face was pale and she was shaking. Carly figured Rebecca was seeing the same thing.
“Shit, what was that about?” Carly breathed.
“I don’t know.” Rebecca slumped against the car. Pulling out her cell phone, her hands were shaking so bad it took her three tries to hit the right key to speed dial the Baltimore compound. She spoke into the phone and then turned to Carly.
“Do you know where we are?”
Carly told her and Rebecca spoke into the phone again.
“Jeremy said for us to get as far away from here as possible,” Rebecca told Carly, “and to take your license plates with us. Do you have a screwdriver?”
Carly got the tool from the trunk and took off the license plates, then took everything from the glove compartment and put it in her purse. Rebecca took a knife from her pocket and pried the VIN number from the dash.
“Lock the car and let’s get out of here,” Rebecca said.
They walked to a copse of trees and hid there in the gathering twilight. No sooner were they out of sight than a car stopped on the other side of the road. Soon, several cars stopped and a small crowd gathered to watch the burning car.
The Telepathic Clans Omnibus Page 9