The Telepathic Clans Omnibus

by B R Kingsolver

  What I do want you to know is the family restricts the scope of such protection, trying to strike a balance between safety and privacy. The men and women assigned to safeguard you do not report to Collin, nor me and Seamus. Reporting is strictly on an exception basis, i.e., if there is an incident. Your movements, what you do, and who you do it with is not reported. This practice was put in place when I was a teenager, and Seamus went a bit overboard with the protective father thing.

  I do hope you believe me. As I said, it was wrong for us not to tell you or consult you and answer any concerns you might have before we assigned people to protect you, but we didn’t. We made a mistake, and I’m profoundly sorry. I don’t blame you for being angry. I do hope you will consider letting us make it right.

  Father said to tell you we shot Collin, so you’d have one less boyfriend to worry about, but of course that was a joke. Collin has taken this very hard and blames himself. It isn’t his fault. He isn’t family, and he just did what we told him to do. The blame is mine primarily. You trusted me, and I let you down.

  We still need to transfer your assets to you. At the very least, engage a lawyer to discuss that with me.

  I apologize for the lack of respect I have shown you.

  Callie

  P.S. No matter how you feel about me or the Clan, I hope you don’t take it out on Rebecca. I know you love each other, and she had no part in causing this screw up.

  The next day she found Rebecca sitting on her front steps when she came home.

  “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

  “Okay, then I’ll do the talking. That’s what I came here to do anyway.”

  “I got a letter from Callie yesterday, and now they send you today.”

  “No, no one sent me. As a matter of fact, I’m under strict orders to stay away from you. But I’ve never been very good at obeying orders I don’t like. I just came to say I’m not going away. You can throw your snit, and feel sorry for how badly you’ve been treated. Fine. But when you decide you want to be reasonable, I’ll be around, just call me. I’m never going away. Get used to it.” She started to walk away.

  “Why?”

  Rebecca turned back. “I don’t know. Stupid maybe? Or maybe I love you. Or maybe the Goddess has destined we’ll always be together. Or because with our birthdays, absurdity decrees we were born to be together.

  “I just know that no one reported on you to Collin. No one has told anyone about your love life, and no one will. They’d be fired. The family’s privacy is to be respected at all costs excepting their safety. And I’m not that good an actress. If I didn’t like you, you’d know it. You weren’t my assignment until we became friends, and then I asked to be assigned to you so we could be together more. Shoot me. I get lonely for someone to talk to who isn’t trying to get in my pants.”

  She walked off down the street with the loose stride of a large cat, her boot heels clicking on the sidewalk, long, tall, and graceful.

  Damn, you sure look good in blue jeans.

  Why do you think I wear them so much? She turned the corner and was gone.

  Brenna unlocked her door, and went into her house. She wondered when Rebecca’s birthday was.

  ~~~

  Brenna came home from work early on Friday, put her backpack on the kitchen table and went to the refrigerator to get some juice. The front door shook with a loud bang and she whirled around. Another loud bang and she saw the door frame bulge. She could feel two men outside, the ones who had followed Jared last summer. She glanced at the back door, but with a third bang the door frame gave way and the door fell off one hinge into the living room.

  She threw up her strongest shields, becoming essentially invisible, and froze, hoping that with no movement they might miss her. The two men rushed into the house holding guns. One came through the living room into the kitchen. Turning and shaking his head, he motioned the other man up the stairs. She heard him go from room to room and open the bedroom closet.

  He came back down, and the man in the kitchen motioned toward the basement door. The second man cautiously opened the door and turned on the light, then descended the stairs. Frantically, Brenna looked around for a weapon. It was all fine to have a black belt, but these guys were a lot bigger than she was and they had guns.

  The only thing she could see was a twelve-inch cast iron frying pan sitting on the stove. The man had his back to her, and she moved as quietly as she could to the stove and picked it up. Moving slowly, she walked up behind him, and raising it over her head with both hands swung it down on his head. It made a sound like a gong. He fell to his knees and toppled forward to the floor.

  She entered his mind, and heard the spear thread from the man downstairs. What was that sound? Getting no response, he tried verbally. “Helmut, what was that sound?” in German, the only language Brenna knew other than English.

  Moving to the side of the basement door, she heard him coming up the stairs. His gun was the first thing through the doorway. She stepped forward and swung the frying pan like a baseball bat, catching him square in the face. He toppled backward down the stairs.

  Looking through the door, she saw him lying at the bottom of the stairs. He didn’t move.

  Hearing movement behind her, she turned and saw the first man raise himself to his hands and knees. She took two steps toward him, grabbed him by the hair with one hand and pulled his head up, then hammered her knee into his face. Bones crunched and blood sprayed on her pants and across the floor. She let go of him and he fell face first to the floor.

  More footsteps pounded through her front door, and she whirled, raising the frying pan then slumping with relief when she recognized Jared and Robbie, guns drawn. Jared raced into the kitchen, sparing a glance at the man on the floor, “Are you all right?” She nodded.

  Robbie started up the stairs but she said, “He’s in the basement.” He turned, and cautiously approached the basement door, looking through it then clattering down the steps.

  Jared lifted the first man’s head by his hair, nodded once and dropped him, then straddled him, pulling his hands behind his back and handcuffing him. A second set of handcuffs locked his feet together. He looked at the frying pan. “I need to get me one of those.”

  Robbie came back into the kitchen. Jared gave him a look and Robbie just shook his head.

  “What?” Brenna asked, alarmed. The look on Robbie’s face and his silence told her what he didn’t say. “He’s dead? Oh, no, please tell me he’s not dead.”

  “I think he broke his neck when he fell.”

  She turned and walked to the kitchen table, set the frying pan down, pulled out a chair and fell into it, her face in her hands. Jared went to her, putting his arm around her shoulders.

  “Will they put me in jail for a long time?” she asked in a small, quiet voice. “I don’t want to go to jail.”

  “You’re not going to jail Brenna,” Jared told her. “This is Clan business, no one is going to call the human authorities. Besides, you were just defending yourself.”

  “I didn’t mean to.” She looked so pitiful that Jared folded her in his arms. He sent a spear thread to Robbie, who went in the other room and pulled out his cell phone.

  Ten minutes later, Collin walked through the door and her house filled with Protectors.

  “Someone prop up that door so the house doesn’t look so open. Get someone over here to fix it. I want it done tonight,” Collin said, briskly in charge.

  He knelt down in front of her. “Are you all right? Did they hurt you?” She shook her head.

  “I hurt them. I killed him, Collin. I killed him.” She was expressionless, her eyes blank.

  He had a quick mental conversation with Jared, then said, “Brenna, will a car, a van, fit in the alley in back?”

  She nodded, “But there’s no place to park.”

  “Jared, wait until dark then take them out. For now, I’m taking her out the back and I’ll meet you back at the compound later.”r />
  Brenna raised her head. “There’s a door out the basement.” Collin looked at Jared and he nodded.

  “We’re going to take you someplace safe, Brenna. You can’t stay here.” She nodded. “I want you to get the things that are the most important to you, things you don’t want to leave in a house that can’t be locked, okay?” She nodded again. “I’ll have Rebecca come and pack up everything else.”

  He helped her to her feet. She shuffled to the stairs and climbed them to the second floor. She acted as though she was in shock, but the breakdown he was dreading didn’t come. In the closet in her bedroom, she knelt down and removed a cleverly hidden panel. She reached in and pulled out an ornately-carved wooden box. Moving to the dresser, she picked up several framed pictures, then to the wall where she pulled down her diploma hanging in its frame.

  “That’s it, and my backpack downstairs.” She looked around the room, then walked to the bed and picked up a bedraggled teddy bear with one eye. “I’m ready.”

  He picked up her pack from the kitchen table, adjusted the straps, and slung it over his back. “Computer?” She motioned to the pack.

  He picked her up in his arms, Jared opened the back door, and he carried her down the steps, out the gate and into the van that waited in the alley.

  ~~~

  Chapter 1-12

  Women are afraid of mice and of murder, and of very little in between. - Mignon McLaughlin

  On the way to the compound, he received a spear thread from Rebecca. What do you want me to pack? Everything?

  All her personal possessions, clothes, kitchen, bedding, pictures, everything. She’s not going back there. Stuff she might need short term pack separately, household stuff, box up.

  What does she have with her?

  Her pack, computer, a fancy wooden box, some pictures, her diploma and a teddy bear.

  Good, I won’t waste time looking for the box. Furniture?

  “Brenna, is the furniture yours?”

  “Yes, the place came unfurnished, but the washer and dryer stay with the house.” She turned a lost look at him, “I was happy there.” He had her wrapped in his arms and gave her a squeeze.

  Tell Jeremy to have someone rent a truck and storage unit for the furniture. The washer and dryer stay. You just take care of her personal things. She’s already been violated enough, keep the men out of her stuff.

  I will.

  When they got to the compound, he carried her into the house through a back door where Callie met them.

  “Take her up to her room. I’ll have Dorothy come up and take a look at her.”

  “No. I don’t want to go upstairs, I want to see Seamus. Put me down.”

  Collin set her down. She wavered and leaned against him, then steadied. “He’s here?” she asked Callie.

  “Yes, he’s here.” She led them down the hall toward his study.

  “Is he here because I’ve been such a brat?”

  Callie’s breath caught. She turned and looked at the disheveled dark haired woman, her arms full of boxes and pictures. “He came down because he was concerned about you.”

  “Brat.”

  Callie opened the door to his study and let Brenna walk in. He was standing, watching her.

  “Grandfather? Do you still love me?”

  “I will always love you, Brenna.”

  She walked into his arms and he enfolded her, drawing her tight against him.

  The tears came, great racking sobs. “I don’t know why. I’m not a good person,” she wailed, “I kill people. I’m a murderer, how can you love a murderer?” She cried as though her heart was broken, and he stood holding her, stroking her head. He looked up. Callie still stood in the doorway hugging herself, tears streaming down her cheeks.

  Brenna’s words came out through the sobs. “I didn’t mean to. Jared said they won’t put me in jail, but they put murderers in jail, and I’m a murderer.”

  “You’re not going to jail, Brenna, you were just protecting yourself, and we know you didn’t mean to hurt him that badly.”

  She finally wound down, and he set her in a chair. She looked so miserable he wanted to cry. “Can I get you anything?” She shook her head, then a moment later shot a glance at his sideboard. He got up and poured her a glass of Midleton’s. She let the backpack slip from her shoulder to the side of the chair. The box and pictures she set down carefully between her feet, but she tucked the teddy bear under her arm as she took the glass with both hands.

  “You know I gave you that bear for your third birthday.” She nodded. “Do you remember that?” She shook her head. “I’m surprised you still have him after all these years.”

  She raised her head and the look she gave him sent a knife through his heart. “He’s the only one who never abandoned me,” she whispered. She took a sip of the whiskey. “What’s going to become of me now? What am I going to do?”

  “What do you want? You know I’ll do anything I can for you.”

  She stared down into her glass. “I want to be safe.” Raising her head, she said, “I’m tired, Grandfather. I’m so tired. I feel as though I never had a childhood, that I became an adult when I was eight years old. I thought I had it all under control, my life turned out exactly as I wanted it to, and now this.” She took a drink. “I want someone to take care of me. Is that a terrible thing? I want someone else to make the decisions for a while.”

  She started to shake, and sobbing, bowed her head.

  Callie came forward, bent down, and wrapped her arms around Brenna’s shoulders. “We’ll take care of you.” She looked up at Seamus, “It’s not the time to talk about such things. Brenna, we’ll take care of you, and when you’re feeling better, when you’ve had time to think about what you want to do, we’ll help you do whatever you want, okay? But you never have to be alone again.”

  Brenna turned into her arms, spilling whiskey over them both, and cried.

  They took her upstairs to the room she’d had before, and Callie helped her undress.

  “Callie, could you ask Rebecca to come see me?”

  “I’ll tell her.”

  “No, ask her. I said terrible things to her. I was such a bitch. I’m so used to thinking only about myself. I’m so damned self-centered. I’m not sure I know how to love, Callie, I’m not a good person.” Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled over. “I’m not a good person and I don’t know why you want me. I wouldn’t want me.” She rolled over in the bed, buried her face in the pillow, and cried.

  Callie sat down on the bed, and stroked her back.

  Outside her door, Callie spoke to the female Protector standing there. “I don’t think she would try and harm herself, but she’s very upset. Monitor her closely, Carly, she’s precious to me.”

  It was dark in the room when the door opened. A tall figure crossed the room and sat on the bed. “Brenna, are you awake?”

  “Rebecca.” Brenna exploded from the covers, launching herself at the other woman, and smothering her in a hug. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for all those things I said. Forgive me, please forgive me.” She was crying again.

  “I never thought you meant them. You were just upset and angry. I told you I wasn’t going away.”

  “Can you stay with me? Can you hold me? It’s been a really bad day.”

  Rebecca undressed, crawled under the covers and pulled her friend close, settling Brenna’s head on her shoulder. After a while, Brenna relaxed and fell asleep.

  When Brenna woke in the morning the room was bright, her head was on Rebecca’s shoulder and their arms and legs were tangled together. Rebecca was holding her right breast. She started to move and Rebecca, still asleep, tightened her arms, pulling her closer. So she lay there, studying Rebecca’s face.

  Her thick mane of brown hair was disheveled, and she hadn’t washed her face last night so her makeup was smeared a bit. Her long face was relaxed, and her mouth was soft and full, not the thin-lipped expression she so often wore when awake. One breast was exposed
outside the covers, smaller than Brenna’s, but round and perfectly formed, the nipple small, soft and puffy. She reached out and touched it. The woman had legs forever, and they were wrapped around Brenna’s. She was warm and soft, and Brenna felt safe.

  But after a bit, she had to move. “Rebecca? Rebecca, I have to get up. Rebecca, I have to pee.”

  “Huh? Oh, okay.” She relaxed her arms and let Brenna pull away.

  When Brenna returned from the bathroom, Rebecca was sitting up in bed, the covers fallen to her lap. She was attempting to comb her hair with her fingers.

  “You hungry? What did you have for supper?” Rebecca asked.

  “Some whiskey.”

  Rebecca chuckled. “Dinner of warriors. What do you want? Anything. Anything in the world. If you had the complete world breakfast menu in front of you, what would you order?”

  Brenna thought about it. “Fresh, hot bran muffins, with lots of butter, link sausages, orange juice, and coffee.”

  “Done.” She didn’t move, so Brenna knew she’d sent the order by mental thread.

  A while later, a knock came at the door. “Who is it?” Rebecca called, suddenly aware of their state of undress.

  “Your breakfast, your highness,” came Callie’s voice through the door.

  “Oh, come on in.”

  “My hands are rather full, do you think you might deign to open it for me?”

  “Oh, shit, sorry.” Rebecca leaped to the door, and opened it, standing so she couldn’t be seen from the hall.

  Callie came in and set the tray on the table. “How are you doing this morning?” she asked Brenna.

  “Better. Thanks.”

  Callie motioned at the tray, full of plates and a coffee pot with three cups. “I took the liberty of inviting myself to breakfast.”

  They moved the tray to the middle of the bed and ate their breakfast while Callie told them what had happened overnight.

  “Rebecca packed up your personal belongings, including linens and the kitchen and your office. That’s all here. You can go down and sort through it and figure out what you need now, and the rest we’ll put in a closet in the basement.”