I reached for the only thing I was sure of—the picture of Dani that I kept on my nightstand. I stared back at those eyes that always kept me grounded. Maybe I was going crazy, but there was one thing I was sure of, the only thing I knew was real—I loved her and she loved me.
Unless, of course, I did something to screw us up.
His trust is imperative to our relationship… and to my ultimate goal. But he does not trust me. I cannot imagine why.
~Maksim
Chapter 8
Overcast skies allowed only a little sunlight to break through and splash across the top of the table. Dani, Justin, and I sat at our usual spot near the back door of Dub’s, a favorite fast-food hangout of Sandpoint teenagers. During the summer, the burger place was usually packed with tourists, but during the winter and spring it was mostly locals who came in.
The snow was melting fast, in a hurry to evaporate into the already too-wet air or disappear into the saturated ground. This winter had been like one continuous wet spring.
Dani sat with the window on one side of her and me on the other. We sat in silence while Justin and I powered down burgers and fries. Dani drank coffee, reading the Sandpoint Newsline.
I stopped mid-chew and pushed the basket of fries in front of her.
“Here.” I said. “Eat.”
She stopped reading for a second to look at the fries, then smiled and shook her head.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Thanks,” she said.
Cold air filtered in as the back door pushed opened and three girls stumbled in. Their laughter turned into smothered giggles as soon as they saw me, and, as if on cue, they stopped in a huddle next to our table. I recognized only one of them. As for the others, well, sometimes you can go through an entire year and run into students you’ve never seen before.
“Hi, you guys,” the redhead said to me, a little too breathlessly.
And with that breathlessness came an unexpected wave of energy soaked with lust. It rolled up and over my shoulder, snaked around my back, across my chest, and tightened itself like a noose around my neck. There was no mistaking what the redhead wanted, and my body burned with her thoughts.
Before I could begin to wrap my mind around what was happening, I was struck by a frigid energy that clashed against the redhead’s heat. I snapped my head around to look at Dani, half expecting to see her fingernails turning into claws. Dani was smiling, her expression bland, but she was shooting off a mix of anger and possessiveness.
She is jealous.
Jealous? Why?
Dani nudged me with her foot. “She asked you a question, Seth. Why don’t you answer her?” Her voice dripped sugar.
I turned to the redhead.
“Your next match, Seth. Where is it?” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and smiled.
She wasn’t interested in the wrestling match. She wanted me. I swallowed hard. How could I tell what she was feeling? How was it that I knew what all of them were feeling?
Maksim? What’s going on?
If he answered I didn’t hear it through the rush of warped white noise that poured into my ears. The vibes of the redhead and Dani collided and crushed me. My head swiveled from one girl to the other. Then I felt another emotion… and it came from Justin.
Your woman. He wants her.
My jaw went slack. Really? No! He wouldn’t…
“Justin? Post Falls, right?” I managed to say. “On Thursday?”
“Yeah. I think so.” Justin’s gaze broke away from Dani and landed on the redhead. “Last match of the season.”
“Hey, Justin.” This girl was the one I recognized, the blonde from practice. Her lust—not quite as strong as the redhead’s—slid behind my neck, circling my shoulder before it anchored onto Justin.
“How’s it going?” Justin looked down at his plate, but not before sneaking a look at Dani.
The redhead tapped her painted fingernails on the table. “Maybe we’ll show up. You know, it being the last match and all,” she said. “See you around, Seth.”
They left, taking their emotions with them, leaving me sitting next to the full force of Arctic cold from Dani. I felt my cheek to make sure that side of my face hadn’t turned to ice. Wow. So she was jealous! I’d never given her a reason to be. But then, I’d never had girls hitting on me this way before. Everyone knew I was with Dani. So why all of a sudden was it happening now?
The frigid energy cut back, thawed out by a small, but palpable pulse of heat coming from the space between Justin and Dani.
You feel it, don’t you?
“Yeah, I feel it,” I muttered.
“What?” Justin said, looking at me, the muscles in his shoulders suddenly tense.
I shook my head. “Nothing.” I reached my arm around Dani’s shoulders and pulled her close to me. It had never really bothered me that Justin didn’t have a steady girlfriend… until now. “So who are you taking to the dance?” I asked him.
Justin stabbed a fry into the ketchup that had pooled next to his burger. “Haven’t decided yet.”
Dani looked over his shoulder at the girls, then smiled at Justin. “Are you going to ask the blonde?”
“Probably not.”
“Why?” Dani asked. “She was practically begging you to ask her out!”
“Yeah, she was,” I agreed.
Dani placed her elbows on the table and leaned toward Justin. “Couldn’t you tell? Didn’t you see the way her body was angled towards you, her smile...” Dani took a sip of her coffee, peering at Justin over the top of her cup. “You’ve got a lot to learn about a girl’s body language, Justin.”
Ha! I wanted to point out to her that body language didn’t always reflect what someone was thinking. I wanted to tell her that her body language was hiding the jealousy I hadn’t known she felt.
“He has plenty of girls to choose from, don’t you, Justin?” I said.
“Yeah, right,” he said, pushing away his plate. “So, who’s up for lit class?”
Dani laughed. “Changing the subject?”
“Yes, I’m changing the subject,” he said. “Come on.”
# # #
Stepping out of my truck into the school parking lot was like stepping out of a cigarette smoke-filled room, then walking through the Grand Canyon. The air smelled cleaner, felt cleaner, and whatever toxic emotional fumes that had been clinging to my clothes disappeared into the space around me. I filled my lungs with the purity of it. I wasn’t sure I liked being poked and prodded by everyone’s emotions. I really could have gone through the day without knowing what that redhead was thinking about me. Now, whenever I saw her, I’d know.
Once inside the building, though, the clarity disappeared. Without warning, I was pelted by a jumble of thoughts and emotions that pressed all around me. It was like some floodgate had opened up and I happened to be downstream when the water was let loose.
I feel her.
Pressing against my eyes didn’t stop the feelings. I felt it all. Katie was mad at Mark. Shane was afraid he’d failed his test. Ms. Anderson had just had a fight with her husband.
“Are you okay?” Dani tugged on my sleeve.
Keep searching. Do not stop.
Like I had a choice! A wave that felt like a two-by-four across the back of my head stopped me in my tracks and I spun around in its direction.
Yes.
The girl could have been mistaken for a shadow, the way she pressed herself flat against the wall. If it weren’t for the pulsing darts of energy shooting off her, I probably wouldn’t have noticed—her irises were like tropical pools contained only by the thin line of black encircling her eyes. Her black lipstick and nail polish were like extensions of her intensity. She didn’t even blink when I nailed her with my own piercing stare.
That is her. That one… she is a problem.
“Who’s that?” I whispered to Dani, pulling her closer.
Dani followed my stare. “That’s Alyx, from my math clas
s.”
“She’s staring at me.”
“Yeah, like all the other girls in the school,” Dani said under her breath.
I peered down at her and then back at the girl. “Jealous?”
“No, I’m used to it. Besides, you’re too smart to let me go.” She took hold of my hand and pulled me down the hall.
I didn’t look back. Whatever was up with that girl, I didn’t want any part of it.
# # #
After my last class I walked the halls, still unable to turn off the battering assault of energy from everyone around me, especially the girls. The air around me felt slightly musky and just this side of raw. Girls had never looked at me that way. Some were daring; others sneaked glances out of the corner of their eyes, but the vibes were definitely there, strong and almost overwhelming. And Maksim was being too quiet. I needed his help and I needed it now. I didn’t understand any of this. The closeness of the people in the hallway and the overpowering emotions and sensations were suffocating. It was like listening to everyone’s problems day in and day out, and there were more depressing thoughts than happy ones. If only I could just tell everyone to stop thinking until I could get out of the building!
Today Dani had a meeting after school, which, for the first and only time I could remember, was okay with me. I wasn’t feeling so good again. The headache that had started out as a small pulse in my temple was gaining strength and was now a throbbing band around my head.
I went down Senior Hall to the drinking fountain and gripped its cool porcelain edges. “I can do this,” I muttered.
Of course you can. I will teach you how to control it.
Teach me. Yeah. That would be nice. Why don’t you just take it away? I thought back to him.
“Hey, you okay?” Justin appeared beside me with his books tucked under his arm.
I sucked in one more breath to steady myself and straightened up to face him.
“Yeah. Why?”
Justin shrugged. “It just looked like something was wrong.”
“Headache,” I said.
“Oh, that sucks. Are you going to make it to practice?”
I dug a Tylenol out of my backpack, swallowed it down with a gulp of water, and nodded. “Let’s go.”
# # #
That night I headed down one of the main aisles of the big box store, between the women’s clothes and the kitchen appliances, feeling the stares of the female shoppers. My skin flashed hot and tingled all over as I soaked up their energy. I couldn’t help it. I drank it in.
I stopped in the electronics section. “Okay, teach me to control this,” I whispered, cringing at the constant pressure in my head.
A couple of guys stared at me, looked at each other and laughed, then walked away.
Do not resist. Be ready.
I relaxed my mind as much as I could. That was the easy part. The hard part was not falling over when I did relax my mind. If I thought it was bad before, this new onslaught of everyone’s energy was a punch to the stomach—it stole my air, and I had to force myself from buckling. The emotions surrounding me were jumbled up in one big murky fog. It was impossible to tell where one began and the other ended. Kind of like what my watercolor tray used to look like when I was a kid. I rubbed my throbbing forehead.
Focus.
Focus? Focus on what? It would be easier to focus on a single raindrop falling out of the sky!
Find your center, the core of you! Feel me. Use me!
Okay, okay. You don’t need to get so uptight. I closed my eyes and pressed my hands against my ears. My core. Where do I find my core? What exactly was my core?
Silence yourself. Feel, rather than think. Focus on one strong emotion.
I tried for a couple minutes. I really did. In fact, my focus was so intense that I felt like I developed a permanent crease between my brows. The battering kept up, pelting me with shots of emotion. But finally, walls began building up around my mind, blocking out one emotion after another, until there was only one feeling left: elation. I dropped my hands to my sides and my eyes slowly opened, waiting. Then my gaze tore through the crowd like a predator sensing its prey. The source was close. Very close.
Ah, there it was, behind me. At a cash register stood a boy, twelve years old maybe, his face dominated by a toothy smile. On the other side of the counter, a clerk slapped a receipt onto a brand new Xbox.
The boy’s scrawny arms wrapped around the box and pulled it off the counter. He sprinted, the box crowding his arms, and headed straight towards me, his mother trailing behind. I ignored the woman and instead focused on the boy.
My energy tapped into his and sucked it in like a vacuum. To me it felt wondrous, exciting; he didn’t feel the same way. He looked as though he’d smacked into a wall. He froze, his eyes latched onto mine, his mouth dropped open, and in a moment his head cocked to one side as if he were looking at something he didn’t quite understand.
I smiled.
He forced his eyes shut, for a minute covering them with his arm as if the darkness wasn’t enough. Then, grabbing his mother’s sleeve, still struggling with the box, he ran in the opposite direction.
Ha! That was freakin’ awesome.
~ ~ ~
The onslaught of thoughts and emotions from the people in the marketplace pressed hard across his back. It radiated down his legs and caused his knees to buckle beneath him. Like fire, the energy spread to envelop his shoulders and chest before creeping up his neck and face.
Emotions from every direction throbbed in his temples. He raised his arms to encircle his head, trying to create a barrier between the emotions and his mind. But it was a futile gesture. Once his mind had been opened, the rush of energy prevented him from closing the door again.
“Focus, Maksim. Focus.”
Silura placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and squeezed the muscles that had coiled with tension.
“Pick a feeling,” she encouraged, “and follow its trail.”
Maksim’s face contorted with discomfort. An easier task to say than to do, he thought. But he was determined to succeed.
Tight with tension, his neck muscles protested as he lowered his arms and raised his chin, exposing his face to the pelting energy around him.
He flinched as if struck. There were so many emotions! How could he possibly choose one?
Wait—there it was, the one with the strongest pull. It tugged against his mind and he latched on, focusing solely on strengthening the bond.
Anger. Yes. Such a strong emotion.
“Trust your instincts only and do not believe all that you see,” Silura murmured.
Maksim’s eyes opened to narrowed slits, and tracked the source of the venom that was now swirling through his own veins. It became him, empowered him, and heightened his senses.
The man was leaning against a tree, partially hidden in the shade provided by the leaves and branches. A husband, no doubt, of one of the village women Maksim had bedded. The man’s face was a mask of serenity, his fingers pulling gently on his beard, as if lost in thought. But there was no doubt that the anger came from him. Maksim frowned. The man’s face held no animosity, yet his feelings shouted otherwise. In confusion, Maksim looked to Silura.
“Yes,” Silura said, looking pleased. “You have discovered him. Well done.”
Maksim followed her gaze back to the man. Maksim gave a slight nod, then Maksim dismissed the man from his mind.
~ ~ ~
He toys with the possibility of power and so my presence within him expands. He does not yet realize what is really happening. Or perhaps he does not care.
~ Maksim
Chapter 9
“Eight ball. Corner pocket.”
The Dive wasn’t much of a hangout, but with two pool tables, a dozen or so video games, and a mechanical bull, we were able to kill time between now and the time we graduated from high school. Justin, Dani, and I came here when we needed a change up from the food at Dub’s.
This was about as exc
iting as Sandpoint got. Pathetic, but it was a tourist town, with visitors coming from all over for skiing in the winter and playing in the lake during the summer. Sandpoint wasn’t geared for high-paced action. It was a place where people escaped the cities to live the simple life alongside moose, elk and other wildlife.
I leaned over the pool table with the pool stick threaded through my fingers splayed over the felt. With four striped balls scattered across the table and the eight ball tucked snugly in the corner, it was a sure thing. This was the best game I had ever played. The pool stick felt solid in my hand and one by one the balls had dropped into the pockets. There was no way I could miss this shot.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” said Justin.
Heat flooded my arms and hands as I pulled the stick back.
Shall I assist you once again?
Sure, I answered. Why not? I could always use a little help.
I drew the stick back in perfect alignment with my shot—the eight ball practically begging to be put away—but the stick was pushed from behind and it hit the cue ball at an awkward angle, sending the ball careening against the wrong side of the table.
“Oops! Looks like your pool game is as bad as your bowling.”
I straightened and slowly turned.
Dirk slapped me on the shoulder before walking to the mechanical bull, Jessica hanging on his arm. “Better watch your back next time, hot shot.”
You allow him to behave that way?
I don’t allow him to do anything, I answered. What am I supposed to do? Start a fight?
Get his attention. Focus. Just as I taught you with the keys.
And if I don’t want to? I argued.
Trust me. Let me show you.
Okay, I figured it couldn’t hurt to play along. So I focused, just like I did the other night with the keys, imaging a silver thread beginning in my chest, slowly stretching the distance between us like a ghostly finger.
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