by Amira Rain
The second after I'd helped her out of her booster seat, Kenna went tearing off for her parents, shrieking about how "Aunt Jayme" had "made a duck fly up in the air," and also had "made the pond bubble up like pop!" Apparently she hadn't forgotten about my new supernatural powers after all.
When I reached Ashley and Brian, I shrugged, sighing. "It's true. I just discovered I'm a Gifted. It's already been reported, too."
Their faces both registered shock. I sat down in a white wicker chair beside them and briefly explained how it happened. Afterward, Brian said he was sure Ashley and I had some things to talk about, so he was going to play a game of catch with Kenna in the yard. Ashley suggested the two of us head inside, into the air conditioning, and I helped her in, offering her an arm to give her support on her left side while she used her hot pink cane on her right. She'd started using a cane for balance a few years earlier, but she'd said she was damned if she was going to use a plain gray one like an elderly person. She was only thirty, making her my older sister by four years.
Once we were seated at the kitchen table with glasses of lemonade, she spoke right away. "Do not worry about leaving me, Jayme. I can see in your eyes you already are. I'm going to miss you like crazy, yes, but I'll be just fine."
"But what about-"
"I'll get a maid or something...finally live out my fantasy as a 'wealthy woman with a maid.'"
Ashley was smiling but I wasn't. Just looking and listening to her, with her speech just slightly slurred as a result of her illness, my heart was aching. She needed me. At the park, I'd felt like leaving Hastings would be okay, as long as I could visit often, but now I felt like the government agents might have to drag me away kicking and screaming.
Still smiling, making her honey-brown eyes sparkle, Ashley reached across the table and gave my hand a squeeze.
"Come on. I'm just as surprised by all this as I bet you are, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad that you're going to have to move...and I'm sure even more sadness will hit me later, once all this sinks in...but I really have a feeling this could be something amazing for you. I really have the feeling that this is the start of a big life adventure for you."
Neither of us had any clue just how big that "life adventure" was going to be. And it was all going to start the very next day.
*
Eventually, after further talking, Ashley convinced me that she would really be fine without me. However, I told her that my post had better not be too awfully far from Hastings.
"And if it is, I'm just going to refuse to go. They can either imprison me, and waste my Gifted powers, or they can agree to post me somewhere at least within a hundred-mile radius. I want to be able to drive to see you guys at least a few times a month."
Ashley said she was sure the government would be willing to work with me.
"I've heard that they're actually pretty accommodating when it comes to family situations and Gifteds not wanting to move far. Keep in mind, too, there's that new shifter defense post or whatever it is just twenty miles or so from here. It's supposed to be some kind of a border guard patrol to keep Angels in southern Michigan out of Indiana. Maybe you'll be posted there, with any luck."
I hoped she was right. Moving to the new nearby post would be perfect. Surprisingly, I'd kind of forgotten about it, I supposed just because I really hadn't heard enough about it to have it on my mind in the first place. All I knew was that it was some kind of a village-type settlement called Haverwood, which had been the name of a village that had formerly stood there but had been abandoned and razed to the ground decades earlier. So, maybe Haverwood Two would have been a more accurate name.
I also knew that like the name implied, the settlement was in the midst of a wooded area, which they were clearing and building dwellings on for habitation. But that was about the extent of what I knew. Honestly, I hadn't even heard of anyone even living there yet, so of course, I also had no idea how many shifters and Gifteds were there, and if the group had a leader, and all those types of things. Not knowing that I'd ever develop Gifted powers, I just really hadn't concerned myself too much with town chatter about new defense posts in the area.
After talking a while longer, I asked Ashley if she thought it was strange that my Gifted powers has only now become manifest, a full four years and a few months post-Takeover.
She shrugged. "That depends. You pregnant?"
I gave her a look, because we'd always been pretty open in discussing our love lives, and she knew full well that for the past year, I hadn't had one to speak of. No "purely sex" life, either.
After I hadn't dignified her question with a verbal response, Ashley laughed, clearly still as amused to tease her little sister as she'd ever been.
"Okay, okay. You're not pregnant, so you can't be a latent Gifted. I know. But I have heard of other regular Gifteds finding out that they're Gifteds even this many years on, like you. I think it just happens sometimes. Rarely, but it does. A few months ago, there was something on the news about a non-latent Gifted being discovered in Indianapolis. So, I guess it does happen...though I've never heard of a Gifted having both gifts...levitation and zapping. Honestly, the government agents will probably already be sitting on your doorstep by the time you get home."
I snorted. "They'd better not be. I want at least a couple hours to pack. Also, I've gotta give Mr. Weathers a call...tell him I won't be coming in Monday. I'm 'calling in Gifted.'"
Ashley laughed for the second time in as many minutes. "Lame. So, so lame. 'Calling in Gifted.' I love it, though. Funny. Hope Mr. Weathers will find it as humorous."
Mr. Weathers was my supervisor at the Hastings County health department, where I'd been doing data entry for four years. I couldn't say I was going to miss him much. Despite the fact that he was in his late fifties, he was always angling for a date with one of us twenty-somethings in the office, which might not have been as irritating if he'd been a pleasant sort of man, but he definitely wasn't. He was the type of man who frowned and criticized even when we all got our work for the day done ahead of time. Every so often, I'd get thoughts about searching for greener data entry pastures but I'd gotten comfortable at the health department, and the pay was decent, for office work, anyway. Though now, just from what I'd heard around town, my salary as a Gifted would be about five times as much. Beyond having enough for the basics of life, I'd never been extremely preoccupied with money, but I had to admit the thought of a big bank account was kind of exciting.
Leaving Ashley and Brian's house that afternoon was a little less exciting. I got a bit misty. Ashley got a bit misty. Kenna threw herself on the floor, wailing, doing what I felt like doing.
While hugging me for the third time, Ashley spoke in a low voice near my ear. "We might not get another chance to visit before the agents come to take you to your assignment, so I'll just say all this now. We love you. We're going to miss you. And Dad...Dad would be so proud. He's be just bursting with pride just to think of you fighting the Angels."
That did it. My misty eyes now overflowed and I sniffled into Ashley's shoulder. Our dad died four years earlier after joining a group of men who tried to fight the Angels in an attempt to keep some of them from overtaking parts of Indiana. This had been right after The Takeover, before it was known that only shifters could kill Angels, by decapitating them. The guns and crossbows my dad and his fellow fighters used had no effect. Bullets and arrows literally just bounced off the Angels, as if the Angels were surrounded by some special force field that deflected man-made weapons, which they were. Even the tanks that the national guardsmen tried to crush them with had just rolled right over them, leaving them unscathed.
Ashley and I had lost all our grandparents in early childhood, and we'd also lost our mom to cancer long before The Takeover, when we'd been just teenagers. I'd been fourteen, and Ashley had been eighteen, and she'd kind of assumed mothering duties of me, which was why I'd been all too glad to help her in recent years. Aside from the fact that she was my best frie
nd and I loved her dearly, I was glad to repay her a bit for the years she'd went above and beyond the duty of a sister to look after me.
I soon left her house after giving her and Kenna a final hug each, promising that no matter where I moved, I'd be back to visit soon. No matter what happened to me on my "big adventure," this was a promise I intended to keep.
Despite sipping a large glass of wine, in an attempt to calm my nerves while I packed, I couldn't settle down enough to sleep until about midnight. And even then, I tossed and turned for a few hours, not really falling into any kind of a real sleep until probably about three in the morning. As a result, I slept in until ten-thirty – kind of late for me even for a Sunday. But once I was up, I was up, flying into the shower before I even had any coffee. I was pretty sure that having psychic powers wasn't part of being a Gifted, but I just had a feeling that the government agents would be knocking on my door soon, and I wanted to be ready.
It turned out my little hunch was correct. I showered and dressed, and was just brewing a pot of coffee when a loud knock sounded at the front door of my small, one-bedroom rental house. And somehow, even though it could have been someone else, could have been a friend, or could have been the neighbor lady returning a mixer she'd borrowed from me, I just knew it wasn't.
Strangely and suddenly a little excited, I opened the front door and saw three people, a woman and two men, standing on my front porch, flanked by two large pots of red petunias I'd just planted a week earlier. Their vivid, deep, almost burgundy red blooms matched the shade of the female agent's lipstick perfectly. As did the garnet stud earrings she was wearing, which stood out not only because of their eye-catching color, but because the agent had her platinum blonde hair pulled back in a tight twist, putting her small, delicate ears on prominent display.
She was dressed in a black suit, as were her two male companions, despite the warmth of the summer day, even at just a quarter past eleven in the morning. I didn't even need to ask for any identification; their clothing and serious expressions were identification enough, not to mention that the shiny black sedan they'd parked out in my driveway looked like a government car if I'd ever seen one. The windows were even tinted, as if it was necessary to prevent the public from seeing any secret government business that might take place in the car, whatever that might be. With a wry little inward laugh, I imagined one of the agents furtively shuffling through papers in a folder marked CLASSIFIED with a bright red stamp, while glancing out the window periodically just to make sure no fellow motorists were stealing peeks at the documents through the window tint.
The female agent was the first to speak, introducing herself as Special Agent Cynthia Nash, from Washington, D.C. "These two gentlemen with me are S.A. Ulstad, to my left, and S.A. Watterson to my right. May we come in and talk with you, Miss Adler?"
I briefly wondered how she was so immediately sure I was the Gifted they were seeking, because after all, I could have a female roommate or something, but then I realized that surely the agents had seen a driver's license picture of me. Actually, they'd probably learned all about me, including that I lived alone, being I was sure they had access to whatever information they wanted about a particular citizen.
Stepping aside to let them pass, I gestured to the interior of the house. "Please, come in, all of you."
A few minutes later, the three agents and I were sitting at the table in my tiny kitchen with mugs of coffee. I was glad four of them hadn't come, or else there wouldn't have been enough chairs for us all. As it was, I was just slightly embarrassed about the small space, not to mention that it was in a bit of disarray. While doing some packing the night before, I'd emptied a few kitchen drawers and hadn't bothered to put things back, thinking it would probably be pointless since I'd be moving soon. It hadn't crossed my mind that the agents would be spending any time in my kitchen when they came. For some reason, I kind of thought they'd just knock, wait outside for me to grab a few things, and off we'd go. I hadn't anticipated a formal sit-down.
Once I passed around a plate of cookies to go with our coffee, S.A. Watterson, who was a tall, slender man with wire-rimmed glasses, got right into things, asking me how I felt about being a Gifted.
Realizing I wasn't a hundred percent sure exactly how I felt, I shrugged. "I guess it's all still so new. I'm happy to help defend the country against the Angels, though. I'm happy to defend Indiana. My father actually died defending this state from the Angels, and I'm proud to pick up where he left off."
Picking up his mug, S.A. Watterson dipped his head in a small nod, seemingly satisfied. "Good."
"Although that's not to say that I'm exactly excited about the possibility of having to move far from my sister and her family. I'm actually hoping you agents are going to tell me that my assignment is somewhere not too awfully far away...maybe in Haverwood, even."
While I'd been tossing and turning the night before, it occurred to me that the agents posting me in Haverwood actually made the most sense. Most of the other defense posts in Indiana were already fully 'staffed' by Gifteds, having been established a few years earlier, some of them even very shortly after The Takeover. But, being brand new, it stood to reason that Haverwood would be in need of shifters and Gifteds to fill it. This thought made my hopes rise a bit, even though I tried not to let that happen because I didn't want to be disappointed if I were posted somewhere else.
However, to my extreme happiness, I quickly saw that this probably wouldn't be the case. A little smile S.A. Watterson gave his fellow agents gave me a pretty good hint before he even spoke to me again.
"We are indeed assigning you to use your gifts in Haverwood."
I bit back a gasp of relief and joy. "Oh, good. That's wonderful. Thank you."
Pushing up his wire-rimmed glasses a bit higher on his long nose, S.A. Watterson gave me a small smile before continuing. "As you might already know, it's a new defense post, established just a few months ago to try to stop several groups of Angels from southern Michigan from entering Indiana. Many other posts have also been established along the border, requiring a great number of shifters and Gifteds, so you can imagine, everyone's stretched pretty thin.
"We've been able to pull about two hundred shifters from various places around the Midwest and post them in Haverwood, but being that there aren't as many Gifteds as shifters in the entire nation, we're kind of lacking in that department. As of now, there are only about fifty Gifteds in Haverwood, which is why we immediately thought you'd be a great addition, especially considering that you're doubly gifted.
"I think I speak for all three of us agents when I say we're very pleased that you're so pleased to be posted to Haverwood. Sometimes we meet Gifteds that are actually upset to be posted close to their hometowns because they want to travel a bit farther afield...maybe have an adventure in a whole new part of the country."
Cracking a little smile, I shook my head. "No, not me. I was really intent on staying close to my sister and her family, and besides...." I shrugged, not knowing exactly what besides and feeling a little sheepish that I'd said it.
S.A. Watterson was just the kind of person that made another person feel like talking, even if they didn't know quite what they were trying to say. Setting his coffee mug down, he gave me a small smile. "You're the kind of person who likes to play it a little safe, aren't you?"
I felt like I should protest, but I couldn't, because what he'd said was true. Besides, he hadn't said it like "playing it a little safe" was a bad thing, he'd said what he had almost in a sympathetic, understanding way.
For the third or fourth time since he and the other agents arrived, I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. "I guess I do like to play it a little safe. Maybe. Depends on the circumstances, I guess."
That sounded about right, though honestly, now that I was thinking about it, I couldn't think of a single time in my life when I hadn't played it safe. Whether it was a relationship, a job, a rental house, or whatever else. I tended to get comfortable and not take r
isks. I supposed that was why I'd stayed with Dave for so long, even though I'd seen troubling signs long before I'd actually gotten proof he was cheating. I supposed that was why I was still working in data entry after four years, even though I didn't find the work fulfilling in any meaningful way. I'd also stayed in my rental house for longer than I'd thought I would, putting off searching for a little house to actually buy, just because I'd gotten comfortable.
I'd also gotten comfortable speaking to S.A. Watterson, with his easygoing manner and little understanding smiles, so when S.A. Nash spoke in a tone that was maybe just a few degrees less understanding, it was kind of jarring.
"It's definitely time for you to start taking a few risks in your life, Miss Adler. Your country needs you, and there are a few details about your assignment in Haverwood that we haven't yet told you."
CHAPTER TWO
Something about S.A. Nash's words and the tone she'd taken while speaking them caused my stomach to do an unpleasant sort of flip. I looked at her with what I was sure was a frown.
"What do you mean? What haven't you told me about my assignment?"
Instead of responding, she gave a little look to S.A. Watterson, who in turn, gave a little look to S.A. Ulstad, who hadn't yet spoken, but now he did. "We'll leave you two ladies to finish your coffee while we go start the car."
He rose from the table, immediately followed by S.A. Watterson, and the two of them quickly left, leaving me mystified and a bit unsettled.
Again, I asked S.A. Nash what I hadn't been told about my assignment. "Whatever it is, please just tell me."
Seeming to be thinking, she busied herself stirring a little extra sugar in her coffee, but didn't respond.
"Special Agent Nash? Please don't leave me in suspense."
She looked up with a little smile. "Please call me Cynthia. My formal title is...well, so formal, and I hope we can speak more as friends for a little while."