Winter's Storm: Retribution (Winter's Saga #2)

by Karen Luellen

  “Meg! What’s wrong?” Margo was on her feet and quickly snatched the dart away from her daughter’s hands worried she had somehow been hurt by it, again.

  Meg couldn’t respond right away. She was gulping for air as though she had sprinted fifty-yards.

  “I’m calling the others,” Margo turned around and grabbed the phone off the jack. “Theo, get everyone and come quickly. Meg’s awake, but something—something’s wrong. Hurry!”

  Meg was quieting down, though she was obviously still upset.

  “Meg, can you tell me what just happened?” Margo’s brows were deeply etched with worry.

  “I’m not sure—I don’t know why, but when I touched the dart I could feel what the person was feeling each time they touched it. Images too. Oh, my God, mom. Williams sent a meta to deliver this to me. He called it his ‘gift’ to me.” Meg looked at the dart still in her mother’s hand like it was a viper.

  “You mean you could feel what Williams was feeling just by touching something he touched?” Margo looked awestruck and terrified at the same time. Meg couldn’t have agreed more.

  “Yes, but Williams wasn’t the only one who touched it. A female meta—yes, a soldier—she was the shooter. But even before that, there were several scientists at—Williams’ hospital who created it.” Meg reached out to take another sip of water as though she were trying to wash a bad taste from her mouth.

  “Meg, has that ever happened before?”

  “What?” she said after swallowing a large gulp of water.

  “Have you ever been able to touch something and know its history—who touched it before and what they were feeling when they did?”

  “Nope. It’s all new to me.” Meg looked around as though she was just realizing where she was and sat up.

  “Meg, slow down! You’ve been in a coma for days! You can’t just…” Margo was trying to push her daughter back onto the bed, but her daughter easily resisted her.

  “Mom, I think I have an idea, but my head’s still too foggy. Give me a few minutes to think this through. I’ve gotta get out of this,” she motioned to the tubes and wires still connected to her. Then she hopped down off her hospital bed wearing only her gown and began detach herself from everything.

  Margo stood, jaw agape, and watched as Meg yanked out her own I.V., flung the pulse-ox monitor off her finger and peeled off the heart monitor electrodes from her chest.

  Immediately, the warning system Alik had set up to alert the entire house of a Code Red began screaming.

  Meg turned to walk herself to the bathroom. “You can turn that off now, and when everyone gets here, tell them I have to have a family meeting. There’s a lot going on and we don’t have much time.” Meg closed the bathroom door behind her.

  Margo hadn’t moved, so shocked at her daughter’s words and actions. She was standing and staring at the bathroom door seconds later when the rest of the family came running into the lab expecting the worst.

  “Where is Meg?” Evan called from across the room after seeing the bed empty.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” she began.

  The bathroom door opened and out walked Meg.

  “Meg? Oh, my God! What are you doing out of bed?” Theo called from behind Evan.

  “Well, I have to get some clothes, for one thing. My tushy is getting far too much exposure in this,” Meg blushed and motioned down at her hospital gown. “And I’m dying to brush my teeth. Everyone meet in the living room in fifteen minutes, please.” She called over her shoulder as she hurried past the growing crowd of stunned observers.

  She stopped dead in her tracks the moment she saw Creed. He had heard the alarms like everyone else in the house and came running. “You,” she said coolly.

  As an unplanned experiment, she reached out to touch his hand and received an immediate jolt. Her eyes widened with an instantaneous understanding of the young man standing in front of her. “You have come a long way, Creed Young,” she surmised.

  Just as surprised as anyone to see Meg up and around, Creed stood with his jaw slack and his eyes wide. All he could think to say was, “Meg?”

  Her knowing fingers released his hand and reached to touch one of the holes in his shirt from the bullets he took for her. His eyes followed her hand. “Thank you for helping my family, and for helping me.”

  Alik who was standing right beside Creed asked, “Meg? How are you feeling?”

  Meg smiled beautifully at her brother, “I feel stronger than ever.” And before she turned to hurry down the corridor to her bedroom, she demurely grabbed the gown at her back to keep it from exposing any more skin to the eyes she knew were following her.

  Margo, Theo, Paulie, Alik, Evan, Creed and Cole stood exchanging confused looks for a moment before Cole blurted out, “Okay, it could just be the pain killers talking here, but dang, did she look amazing or what?”

  “Remarkable,” Paulie smiled at his fellow doctors.

  “That was the fastest recovery I have ever seen. Meta, or not!” Theo’s eyebrows were still raised in the surprised position.

  “I don’t think it was just the medicine working here,” Evan said thoughtfully.

  “Boy, you don’t know how right you are,” Margo said breathlessly.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Creed asked.

  Too steeped in thought to answer Creed directly, Evan walked to his computer and began working. “I have a theory, but—mom, did Meg seem different to you? And I don’t mean different from her comatose state. I mean changed from the way she behaved prior to her illness?” Evan asked without looking up from what he was typing.

  “Evan, Meg’s gift seems to have—changed,” Margo was still staring down the hallway where her daughter was moments before.

  “Changed?” Evan asked. He stopped typing and turned to look at his mom. His honey eyes were crisp with excitement. “Could you mean evolved?”

  Margo exchanged a look with her youngest son that spoke louder than words.

  “I need to work for a few minutes. I’ll meet everyone in the living room; please don’t start the family meeting without me.” His back was turned to everyone while his fingers flew across the keyboard as if possessed.

  The group began walking back toward the other side of the house—most of them lost in their own thoughts until Theo broke the silence. “Margo, can you tell us what’s going on?”

  “Let Evan and Meg explain it. I just have a hunch right now, but what I can tell you is that Meg is even more vibrant than she was before. She’s stronger, more capable.”

  “Meg’s awake.” Creed whispered to his still tingling hand where she had just touched him. He felt a surge of joy and fear all at once as he quietly brought his hand to his lips.

  True to her word, Meg walked into the living room fifteen minutes later with Maze nudging against her bare feet. She gently rubbed his ears and was careful to avoid his still-tender and healing wounds from just a couple nights before. Maze stared adoringly up at her and whimpered happily at her touch.

  Fresh from the shower, she was wearing blue jeans and a simple pink T-shirt. In her hands was a towel she was using to squeeze the excess water from her long wet hair. Defiantly, her dark curls bounced right back out of place after being tugged on.

  She looked radiant. The whole household sat expectantly. There was an air about her and everyone in the room could feel it. Meg had changed.

  58 I Have Evolved

  “Thank you all for meeting me in here,” I began, but noticed my youngest brother wasn’t present. “Where is Evan?”

  “I’m right here, Meg,” a voice came from the hallway with the sound of a few quickened steps. Evan was grinning as he sat next to me with papers in his hands.

  Everyone was staring at me expectantly so I began. “I need to ask for your patience while I try something. I’ve been out of it for the last week, and I can only imagine at this point all that you have gone through in your efforts to help me get better. Rather than you explain
from the beginning what part each of you played in the events as they unfolded, I would like to try something, so please bear with me.” I stood and carefully draped my wet towel over the back of my chair.

  “May I start with you, mom?” I asked.

  “Of course, but what do you need me…”

  “Nothing. You don’t have to do anything. Just let me hold your hand.” I smiled reassuringly and reached to take my mother’s hand in mine. I closed my eyes and felt the same rush of images as I did when I touched the dart, and again when I held Creed’s hand just a while before. But it was different with my mother. I already have such a strong bond with her, that instead of flashing images and corresponding emotions witnessed in my mind, I actually felt her fear and anger. When I opened my eyes and looked up at my mother, finished reading her, I was crying her tears. “Oh mom! I love you so much! Thank you for doing everything you could to take care of me and the family.” Without hesitation, I pulled my mom into a tight hug. She was smiling at me as though we had a secret we were about to share with the rest of the room.

  I knew she would already understand what I was doing. Our connection was so tight she probably received some of my own emotions and didn’t just feed me hers. She knew me and she loved me.

  With a reassuring nod, she handed me a tissue and let me proceed. And so it went for the next thirty minutes. I held the hands of each of my family one by one and let their memories become part of me. When it came time to hold my youngest brother’s hand, he smiled at me widely.

  “Meg, we all knew you were going to be able to focus your empath abilities with practice, but that isn’t your newest gift, is it?” Evan kept smiling smugly at me.

  “What do you mean, Evan? This is amazing! I’ve never been able to read people like this; to just touch their hand and know what they have felt. Not like this. The memory images are so crisp and precise. The emotions attached to the images are exact!” I was feeling frustrated with my brother, but I forced myself to swallow it down and give him a chance.

  Instead of reaching his hand out to me he folded his arms across his chest.

  “Why won’t you let her ‘read’ you, Evan?” Margo began.

  “I will, mom; just not the way she ‘read’ you,” Evan winked at his mother and returned his gaze to me. “I know she can do this, but she needs to know it.”

  “Here,” he said and handed me the thin stack of papers he was holding face-down. I went to flip the papers over to read them, but he stopped me. “No, Meg. Don’t read the words on the paper. Hold the paper and ‘read’ it like you ‘read’ their hands.”

  “Evan, what are you talking about?” I asked feeling what little patience I had waning.

  “Meg, think about it. When you first woke this evening, mom was trying to explain what happened to you; why you were so sick for the last week. But did she tell you everything you wanted to know?”

  “She didn’t have to.” I said stubbornly. I was starting to feel tired. The excitement of being with my family again was wearing off and now, the fatigue this body felt still from the effects of the illness was undeniable.

  “Why not?” Evan asked.

  “Because, I already knew.”

  “When?”

  “When I held the dart,” I said exasperated.

  “So you were able to ‘read’ the dart? That doesn’t make sense, Meg.” Evan was egging me on, and I was not happy about it. I was just sleepy.

  He didn’t let up. “A dart is just a thing. It’s an object. It doesn’t have feelings for you to read. How is it that you already knew what happened to you after only touching the dart?”

  “I don’t know how, Evan,” I said raising my voice a little. “All I know is that when I touched it, I felt everything—everything the others who had touched it felt—at least the way they felt right when they were holding it.”

  Evan nodded his approval.

  “Now, ‘read’ those papers and tell me what I have been feeling,” he encouraged.

  I sighed deeply and squeezed my eyes shut concentrating on the papers in my hands and feeling a little stupid about it.

  After a moment of blackness, there it was…my brother Evan feeling pride and excitement as he held the papers and hurried to meet us in the living room. Several images flashed including snapshot-like images of the words on the pages. These images were obviously captured by Evan’s memory. The emotions and the snippets of phrases I caught from my mental image of the document made me gasp happily.

  “Evan! Oh my goodness! Is it true?” I beamed.

  “I think you’re living proof of it!” He smiled back at his sister and finally allowed her to give him a big hug.

  All the other faces in the room were looking confused.

  “You two wanna tell us the good news?” Cole asked.

  Evan grinned at me and said, “Why don’t you tell them, Meggie.”

  “It’s not a countdown to our death. The calculations made you all think it was a deterioration of our human cells at an advanced rate which you initially believed meant that we were headed toward a fatal end.” I paused, not for dramatic effect, but because I felt so choked up—so happy to have been given the chance to do all the things I knew I was still meant to do.

  “It is a countdown, but not to death. It’s a countdown to an evolution; a metamorphosis, of sorts.” I watched the faces of my mother and brother change from confused to excited and relieved.

  “Ev, you explain the rest,” I said, so happy and tired, I was afraid I was going to pass out from it all.

  “Well, first of all. Meg, you did it! You ‘read’ using only the papers—objects that themselves have no emotional abilities. I’m so proud of you!” He gently slugged me on my shoulder in his affectionate atta-girl kind of way.

  “Wait, you all told us we had some time before anything was going to happen.” Alik was sitting at the edge of his seat, literally.

  “I believe Meg’s illness triggered an early onset of her evolution. It’s not unheard of in human physiology for such a thing to happen. For example, a severe trauma such as cancer has been known to compel early onset menopause in women,” Evan concluded logically.

  “So, you’re saying that Meg’s empath ability evolved sooner than it would have because of the malaria and now she’s…?” Cole stopped, looking for the right word.

  “Evolved,” Evan answered simply.

  “How do you do it Meg?” Paulie asked trying to understand. “I mean, I can understand you all having a heightened intelligence and strength. Alik’s memory and Evan’s problem solving skills are all explainable. Even your ability to be ‘in tune’ with people’s emotions, Meg, isn’t beyond belief even from a scientific standpoint. But this ‘evolved’ ability—” the doctor waved his hand toward me, “I don’t understand.”

  Even through the fog of exhaustion hovering around my mind, I felt a surge of frustration and even a little defensiveness. “I don’t understand it either, Paulie. It’s all new to me, too.”

  “Can you show us, again?” Creed’s steady voice asked. He was sitting farthest away from the group in a chair against the wall to my right. He nodded reassuringly.

  I breathed deeply, closed my eyes. “Okay, but please be patient with me. I’m awfully sleepy and this is a little overwhelming,” I began with a disclaimer.

  “Maybe we should start with something entirely different.” I glanced around the room and stopped to look intently at Dr. Andrews.

  “Are those new glasses, Dr. Andrews?” I asked him. I had noticed he was wearing a pair of glasses with very thick, black rims. At the time, I just giggled to myself thinking how similar my mother and this man were in their taste in eyewear and thought how perfectly matched they were for each other.

  Theo looked a little surprised and answered, “Well, yes, actually. I’ve misplaced my old pair, so I had to order these.”

  “May I hold them?” I asked simply.

  “Sure.” Theo removed his glasses and handed them to me.

&
nbsp; I closed my eyes and forced myself to concentrate on the plastic in my hands.

  “These were made in a factory where the Asian worker who assembled them was worried about her bothersome mother-in-law,” I said.

  The room let out a nervous chuckle.

  “You put them on for the first time when you were heading toward Paulie’s lab. Mom was there. She looked excited about something, but you were thinking about…,” I paused not wanting to embarrass the doctor by elaborating too much on his thoughts of marriage. “…how pretty mom looked. She waved you over to a microscope and had you look at…what is that? A blood sample? Mom is talking fast and holding paper in front of you as if she’s trying to explain something.” I stopped relaying my mental images because I felt Dr. Andrew’s surprise at what he just learned.

  My eyes flew open, and I stood abruptly, nearly dropping the doctor’s new glasses. I looked back and forth between my mother and Theo—then to Alik and Creed.

  “Go ahead, honey. You can say it. Theo and I haven’t been able to find the right time to bring it up, so you may as well put it out there for everyone,” Margo shrugged.

  I reached down and pulled Alik to a standing position. “What’s going on?” he asked worried.

  Then I walked us over to Creed and took his hand encouraging him to stand.

  “Put what out there?” Creed asked, completely confused with the turn of events that brought him into the spotlight.

  I couldn’t help but smile—this was so amazing. “While Mom was studying your blood samples she stumbled across something. She determined through your Y-chromosomes—that you are brothers.”

  “What?”

  “Brothers?”

  The boys looked at each other as though they had never seen one another before.

  “Of all the—you’re kidding, right?” Cole blurted.

  “Are you sure?” Alik’s crisp, light blue eyes flashed with emotion.

  “Is this a trick?” Creed looked around the room as though waiting for the punch line.

  “How in the heck are we brothers?” Alik looked over to his mom, pointedly.