Now Justine realized what Claudia had been so excited and mysterious about. She reached over placing her hand on Claudia's leg and smiling excitedly.
"Thank you, that was a very, well interesting surprise."
In a swift move, Claudia reached over to hug Justine,
"There is so much more to you than you realize, find it, and once you do, never let it slip away."
Her words were both flattering and mysterious. Justine felt Patrick's warm hands on her shoulders and turned to smile at him. She loved them, Team Spectrum, they had so many secrets and delights, so many things that Justine still had to learn.
*****
Later that night, Justine lay beside Patrick who snored quietly, yet steadily. She sat up in pure frustration. It had taken her forever to fall asleep and now she had to pee. Her bladder was full and demanding relief. It was futile to ignore the persistent call of Mother Nature. However, that meant a trek in the dark to the bathrooms which were located about three hundred feet away. Normally that wouldn't have bothered Justine, however the night was pitch black and the restrooms were directly across from Abraham's oak tree.
Justine reached over to locate the flashlight exactly where she had placed it next to her before lying down for the night. She looked at Patrick and momentarily considered waking him up, but decided that he would think she was nuts for being frightened to walk to a nearby bathroom by herself. She pulled her night shirt down as far as it would go, and slowly, quietly unzipped the tent door. She popped her head out, staring both ways and after seeing nothing malicious waiting to attack, she crawled out of the tent. With her flash light in hand, she slowly walked to the restroom surprised to hear giggling from some of the tents she passed on her way. The night was other wise quiet and peaceful. The oak tree looked lovely while it slowly swayed in the breeze and was completely bereft of any presence of Abraham.
Once Justine was done seeing to the call of nature, she cautiously exited the restroom and started to stomp tiredly back to her tent and Patrick.
Strong arms quickly came around her, pulling her against a sturdy male frame, covering her mouth and stifling the scream that wanted to fly along with her accelerated heart. She turned to stare at her assailant, but before she could see him, he laughed in her ear mischievously. It was Patrick.
Justine wanted to hit him for frightening her so, but instead began to giggle as she noticed the way his blue eyes seemed to glow.
"I am a rogue gentleman, come to steal the beautiful Princess Justine and ravish her repeatedly." He whispered between quiet giggles, instantly intriguing her.
Justine couldn't help but laugh as her heart attempted to return to a normal beat. Patrick released her mouth and grabbed one of her hands in his own before taking off at a run towards the trees lining the shimmering river. He was all action and no words. He quickly, almost rudely pushed her night shirt up to her waist and feverishly pulled her panties down. Her back was crushed into the tree, her weight easily supported by his hips as he took himself out of his shorts and plunged into her without any preamble. She loved every minute of it, letting herself succumb to the passion that exploded in her tummy as she clung to him and bit into her lip to keep their pleasure silent and secret.
The two of them giggled all the way back to their tent trying to be quiet, but not coming anywhere near close to succeeding. Once they were back in their tent, Justine contentedly curled onto his chest and into his arms and finally fell into a quiet, blissful sleep.
Patrick's arms tightened protectively around Justine. Someone was screaming. Shrilly,
hysterically. Patrick sat straight up. He crawled to the door of the tent, his head whipping around quickly to Justine who sat up and stared at him in fear.
"Justine stay here, I'm going to go and see what's wrong, do not leave this tent until I come back."
She watched him squirm out of the small opening the tent door allowed and attempted to not be miffed after being spoken to, as she considered, like a child.
The screaming continued for a moment longer. Justine's heart rate picked up as her brow began to grow sticky with sweat. She tried to remain calm, tried not to worry about Patrick.
The screaming ended, suddenly. The sudden silence of the night seemed unnatural and unnerving. Justine sat up straight and clicked on the flashlight for solace. A few distant, mostly male voices could be heard speaking in the distance. Justine was sure one of them was Patrick's.
Justine was surprised to hear Patrick laughing as he struggled with the zipper outside of their tent. He wasn't just quietly giggling, he was full out laughing. She unzipped the door for him, giving him an odd almost concerned look.
"What's so funny?"
"She..she.." He couldn't stop laughing long enough to speak coherently, his eyes were wet with his laughter.
"What? Is she okay?" Justine's heart was still pounding with the fear of the girl's scream and Patrick was all but falling over himself with convulsive laughter.
"Yeah, yeah, she's fine." His breathing was finally starting to even out.
"So what happened, is she okay? Do we know her?" Justine's voice bordered between a plea and a miffed command.
"Well she had an invader in her tent alright." That Patrick was still slightly laughing, brought an instant anger to Justine's cheeks.
"Oh my god! Is she okay?"
"It was a palmetto bug. But man, you heard her, you'd have thought she was being murdered or something. All that shrieking over a stupid bug." He lied on his back and burst out laughing again.
Finally Justine understood his laughter, a little.
"Well, I would have been screaming too, if one got into our tent, I hate those things. Huge, mutant, aggressive, armored flying roaches." She shook off an invisible chill just thinking of the ugly creepy crawlies. Although she had been a Florida girl all of her life, she was still devastatingly afraid of Palmetto bugs, which many native Floridian's joked, should have been chosen as the state bird instead of the mocking bird. Palmetto bugs could get up to an inch wide and three inches long.
Patrick stared at her simply for a moment considering freaking her out by telling her that one was in her hair, but decided he'd rather live to see the next day. Instead he pulled her into his arms. Chapter Twenty Eight
After such a sleepless night, the sun rose entirely too early for Justine. She sat up, instantly noticing that Patrick's spot next to her was empty. The morning was a bit cool, and finally the humidity was starting to diminish a bit, at least in the mornings. Justine pulled on a pair of comfortable sweat pants and brushed out her hair before leaving the tent. She felt ragged and hoped that she didn't look as bad as she felt. Her nose however, wonder of wonders, lead her to a pot of freshly brewed coffee. After a few sips of strong coffee, the morning no longer seemed so bad.
Most of the members of team Spectrum mingled quietly with members of the other Parapsychologist teams. Parapsychology is a very competitive field of work and it was pleasant to see all the teams standing on friendly, neutral ground. Justine hadn't spotted Patrick yet when she spotted Claudia. Claudia waved over to her in an inviting gesture, but when Justine realized Liz was sitting next to her, she waved back stiffly and headed back to her tent for her personal hygiene gear thinking to head into the showers before the rush hit.
It was amazing how human a shower could make you feel, Justine thought happily to herself. When she was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, she left the bathroom and stopped to put her over night bag into her tent.
Having no idea of what to do at that point, Justine approached Conroy and the rest of the present team Spectrum. She finally saw Patrick, whose hair was still wet from his apparently recent shower. He smiled at her and drew her casually to his side just barely stopping short from kissing her.
Conroy was talking to a woman garbed in all black, with the blackest hair possible. She had dark brown eyes and the palest of skin. She was attractive in a vampirish sort of way, Justine couldn't help but think to herself.
<
br /> When Conroy noticed that Justine had joined them, he leaned towards her.
"Justine, this is Sheria Golidian, she's a psychic from Savannah, and very interested in interviewing with you."
Feeling put on the spot, Justine put on her friendliest smile and extended her hand in greeting,
"Hello, I'm Justine Ramsey."
"It's lovely to meet you Justine, I've read your file. You sure are something else."
Justine was not sure exactly how to interpret Sheria's words, so she smiled at her, hoping not to appear as stupid and baffled as she felt.
"After breakfast, I'd like to have a couple of minutes with you," Sheria seemed polite and for reasons unbeknown to her, sincerely interested in Justine.
"Okay, that would be fine," she found herself replying before even thinking about it.
Breakfast was catered by the International House of Pancakes and delighting. The food and coffee woke Justine up instantly. She sat with her Spectrum co-workers, a bit nervous of Liz's close
approximation, but did her best to avoid any unnecessary eye contact with her.
Conroy was in high spirits, and bragged about his team every chance he got. There were so many different sides to her boss, that Justine couldn't seem to keep up with them. He would have made a great politician, she thought to herself, biting back a private laugh.
With breakfast finished, an overly enthusiastic Sheria approached Justine. Her eyes seem to belie an ancient wisdom but her actions seemed very young and even brash.
Justine stood up from the picnic table and had to stop herself from kissing Patrick on the cheek before she walked away with Sheria.
She couldn't believe how nervous she was in the presence of the psychic. What does she want with me? Can she read my thoughts?
"Yes."
The words quickly charged into Justine's mind. She turned to stare at Sheria in speculation knowing that her eyes must be huge with surprise.
"Yes, I can read your thoughts, and you don't have to be nervous."
Justine didn’t know whether to feel violated or impressed. The only word that she could seem to form with any intelligence was,
"Wow." Sheria laughed easily, "I read your file, well I read many people's files, but I just had to meet you. And then when I did, I was quickly able to confirm a few things." She turned, her stare
penetrating and direct into Justine's eyes.
"You do know you're psychic, right?"
"Me? No. I'm not psychic, empathic maybe, but not psychic."
Sheria shrugged and simply laughed,
"Well you could be if you wanted to be Justine, but then again in your line of work, that may be inadvisable." She paused, then proceeded,
"Being psychic is hard. So many people think I'm a freak, and the bad thing is that I know they think it. Vampirish, huh? That ones new."
Justine didn't know whether to apologize or become offensive.
"I didn't mean it like that, not exactly."
"Oh I know, I'm used to being judged, we are all instantly judged by every new person we meet, just most people don’t have to be privy to what that judgment is. Like I said, I've gotten used to it. What I wanted to talk to you about was your experience at Yorktown." Her voice was warm and even humorous. Justine felt herself starting to relax a bit in Sheria's company.
"Ah, okay."
"Conroy, asked me to share a few shielding techniques with you, if that is alright with you. But even if he hadn't, as I said, I've read your file, and well I think that you're pretty extraordinary."
Forcing her thoughts to remain neutral, Justine replied, "Thank you. And yes, I would love to learn a few shielding techniques. Sometimes, I feel as if I have absolutely no control of my psyche."
Sheria laughed warmly, "That's normal when the sight comes in full, it can be very overwhelming."
Sheria continued walking until they were near the river surrounded by large blooming, oak and cypress trees.
"Is this spot good for you?"
"It's as good as any."
"Good. I just need for you to have a quiet space without having an audience."
Sheria turned to face Justine, the two women stared at each other one on one. Justine was surprised to feel an instant kinship with Sheria, and wondered for the first time if maybe Patrick had been right in saying her father was a Witch.
"The first thing I want to show you is the full impact of the gift. Now I need to be honest with you and let you know beforehand that it might be a little overwhelming. The purpose of this is to let you know that I'm not a fake, as many in my field are, and to let you know that at some time in your life, you might be as strong of a psychic as I am. Be prepared Justine. Some people never reach the point I have, but others, well they unexpectantly find themselves where I am and have absolutely no idea how to handle it."
Justine really wanted to break the connection, she wasn't sure she was ready for it. For this kind of knowledge. But then she remembered the
encouraging words of Grace Sherwood and held on tightly.
Sheria had her eyes closed and grasped Justine's hand so tightly that it was nearly painful. Justine watched her face, surprised to notice that when the wind instantly kicked up, Sheria gave it no obvious reaction. Justine felt dizzy and tired. She felt as if the ground at her feet was sinking into the large St. John's River. She finally realized that she felt like she was falling. The falling sensation passed just as quickly as she had experienced it and she realized that she was in fact floating. Flying vertically, almost. There was no land at her feet, no sky above. Just a vortex of constant movement.
There was blackness which bloomed into a beautiful starry sky. The blackness dissipated until there was a small child, barely a toddler at most, with light hair and bright green eyes. The child seemed happy, and was happy as she crawled to her father. The male reaching down and pulling the child up lovingly was an unmistakably, younger version of Ethan. The child crawled onto his lap and adoringly poked at the bubbles of energy just barely floating above her head. Justine had been born into this magick; finally this memory had confirmed it. Then Justine saw herself as a small child, dressed sweetly in a pink cotton dress and running in front of a white house that was an exact replica of Lila's. She fell and scraped her knee when a woman, with the bluest of eyes scooped her up and cooed at her gently, lovingly.
The images began moving so fast that they were blurring, but Justine was able to capture small glimpses of her childhood. The day she had received her first violin, a family vacation, her first car when she was sixteen. Happy times, she smiled as she continued to float. The images began to slow down again. There was a bride and groom, a couple being married in a field of bright yellow flowers. She couldn't see there faces, but she wanted to, tried to, but was unable to capture their personal images. Then the image was gone.
Justine's legs solidly hit the ground; she was rocked back so hard, she would have fallen if Sheria hadn't been holding her hands so tightly. Her vision was blurry and slow to come into full focus. Sheria loosened her grip on Justine and slowly let her slide to the ground where she ended up sitting crossed legged and disoriented. She was surprised to realize that she was still tightly grasping onto Sheria's hands.
"You're okay Justine, I know it's a bit
overwhelming, just close your eyes for a moment and take, deep slow breaths."
Justine did as she was told and started to feel better.
"Well, you're certainly no fake."
Sheria laughed and replied,
"Neither are you, dear."
Justine slowly opened her eyes,
"I can't believe how tired I feel now."
"Well that's normal, but Justine, you were there with me the whole time! I mean, it's very rare that someone is able to pick up that much information from a psychic extension, especially a first timer!" Sheria's voice rushed out in excitement.
Justine stood up, fighting off the stubborn tiredness that seemed to cling to her. Sheria smiled, watc
hing to make sure that Justine was steady.
"Let's take five and get something to drink before we continue with the shielding lessons."
The two of them walked to a large cooler and helped themselves to canned sodas. Looking around at the rest of the crowd, Justine noticed that there was a harmonious ambiance very akin to a pagan culture with respect to the workshops and the primitive sleeping quarters. It surprised her to realize how right it seemed to feel. Groups of people sharing meals, learning from one another, and strangers comfortably talking together. Tonight they were even going to enjoy a bonfire which Justine was excitedly anticipating and was sure would be quite entertaining.
While sipping their sodas, the women looked at the main plantation house marked as the Planters residence, which happened to be the only plantation house left still standing in the entire state of Florida. It was not anything mystical or even charming. Just an average sized, two story white house, which had been the home first of Zephaniah Kingsley and then many others down the line. As a slave owner arriving in the United States in 1814 on the Fort George Island, Zephaniah Kingsley was married to one of his previous slaves, Anna Madgigine Jai, who was originally from Senegal, West Africa. Once she and Zephaniah were married, Anna then went on to manage her own employ of slaves.
In addition to the Planters Residence, there was a Kitchen House, Barn, the Slave Quarters and the gardens where Sea Island cotton, citrus, sugar cane and corn were still grown. The slave quarters were the most striking and mysterious of all the buildings not only in appearance but that they seemed to carry an oppressive mood as well.
Sheria's voice snapped Justine out of her thoughts.
"Are you ready to learn shielding now?"
"Yep," Justine replied cheerfully.
They walked back to the spot where they had shared the psychic connection. Justine followed suit, when Sheria sat on the ground in a comfortable relaxed position.
"Alright Justine, this may take a few tries to get it right, but there is no rush. Just relax. First I want you to completely open your mind. There at the slave quarters you can see a young woman hanging out laundry. Try to find her with your minds eye. Pull all of your energy from your gut and project it towards the slave quarters."
Journey of Souls (The Mortality Series) Page 24