Blood Colony (12 page)

“He still doesn’t know where the blood comes from,” Nita said softly. “Not really.”

“Keep it that way,” Jessica said. “Ignorance is his protection.”

“Not in my experience,” Lucas said. “Go on. You say they’re telepaths…”

Jessica spoke rapidly, still in a hush. “They can hear what you’re thinking, if they want to. They can send thoughts into your head, especially the stronger ones, like Teka.”

Lucas remembered the eerie sensation of hearing Teka’s voice in his sleep when he’d woken up that morning. His skin suddenly felt frigid, as thin as paper. Teka had roused him from sleep without making a sound!

“Dawit too? He can read your mind?” Nita said, taking her seat beside Jessica. When Jessica sighed and nodded, Nita gave her a sympathetic, disbelieving look.

“What are Fana’s capabilities?” Lucas said.

Jessica didn’t blink. “Teka says she’s the strongest of them, in that way. But Fana’s never done anything like what happened last night. Not since…” She stopped talking, as if she’d forgotten what she wanted to say.

Lucas’s heart bounded. “Since when?”

“Since she was three. She hurt people.” When Jessica gazed at Lucas, her arms fell flat at her sides, as if she were awaiting judgment. “People died, Lucas.”

The entire morning had felt like a dream, but now he was getting lost inside it.

Jessica gulped at her coffee, as if for strength. “When she was three, unexplained things started happening. We lived in Botswana then, and a neighbor boy had an argument with Fana. That boy fell into a state very similar to Alex’s now. Alex told me she thought Fana had something to do with it, and she was right. Fana admitted she’d put the boy to sleep. When we confronted her, Fana woke him up. That was how it started.”

Fana woke him up.

Lucas’s brain struggled to keep pace with Jessica’s story. Could blood create an actual link to the nervous systems of others, or was it a conduit for some other unknown human functions? He had always assumed that telepathic claims were bullshit.

“Dawit and I weren’t together during that time…” Jessica’s voice became more strained. “I didn’t know what to do with Fana, so I took her to the original colony to find Dawit. I can’t say where it is, but the visit was a mistake for Fana. Going there scared her, and we weren’t welcome. They resented Dawit for changing my blood and for creating a child they considered a mutation. But we learned more about the immortals. There are fifty-eight of them left. Only a few of them came here, following Fana. I was warned that Fana is powerful.”

“Warned by whom?” Lucas said.

“The leader of that colony. You haven’t met him. He gave all of them the blood. That’s all I can say about him. I’m sorry.”

Khaldun was his name, meaning “eternal” in Arabic. Alex had mentioned that much, at least. Khaldun claimed to be two thousand years old, according to Alex. But apparently Jessica had decided to keep that part of the story to herself; that was the way of life here. Lucas knew better than to say some things to Cal or Nita, but he hadn’t realized how ignorant he was too.

Jessica went on. “Our only allies there were a small number of Life Brothers who were most loyal to their leader. Teka was one of them. He’s been a friend for a long time, and I believe he cares for us. I don’t think we have any reason to be afraid of him.”

“Duly noted,” Cal said, impatient. “Go on.”

“Most of the others only ignored us, but a few were hostile. One of them attacked me. I was hurt, and it was a horrible thing for Fana to see. I lost my left hand.”

“Lord have mercy…,” Nita whispered, rubbing Jessica’s knee. She stared at Jessica’s hand, now restored and folded with her other hand across her knees.

“Fana saw the attack, and she was hysterical. I really don’t believe she ever had conscious control, but…she killed the man who attacked me, without touching him. He bled to death.”

Lucas’s mouth went dry. “Fana killed who? An immortal?”

“They’re not immortals. We’re not. It’s possible to die, it’s just much harder. Fana drained the blood from the body of the man who attacked us. She wasn’t even in the room with him, but I believe to my soul that she did it. The colony’s leader said she had killed others, too. I don’t have evidence to support it…but I believe him.”

“Why the hell would you believe that about your own kid?” Cal said.

Jessica rubbed her cheeks with her palms, then went on. “Hear me out, Cal. This was when Fana’s catatonia began setting in—the way she was when you first met her, Lucas.”

Lucas nodded. In the beginning, he had thought Fana was autistic, since she’d been withdrawn almost beyond reach. He and Alex had tried every therapy technique they’d been able to research, but she’d rarely responded. Only Teka had made headway with her, and now Lucas knew why:
Teka could communicate with her using his mind!

“Dawit and I realized we had to leave the colony for Fana’s protection. After we got back to the clinic in Botswana, we found it in shambles. Alex was gone, and there was blood everywhere. I thought Alex was dead…and Fana probably knew everything in my mind. She began having episodes…like epilepsy. She made objects move from across the room.”

Jessica sighed. “The bed jumped. The television screen blew out. Violent things happened when she was scared or mad.” Jessica swallowed hard, flicking away a tear. Lucas felt the nagging sense, again, that Jessica had left out part of the story.

After a pause, Jessica went on. “Fana doesn’t remember any of it, and we kept quiet for her sake. It would have influenced Fana’s feelings and beliefs about herself if the people closest to her were afraid of her. It
does
.” Jessica lowered her eyes, almost wincing. Then Jessica looked up and smiled. Her smile looked sincere but misplaced, like Teka’s. “But whatever happened behind the school, I know Fana didn’t mean to hurt Alex. It was an accident. And if Teka says Fana can heal her, she can. I’ve seen what Fana can do.”

Spoken like a true convert,
Lucas thought. Other than that, he didn’t know what to think.

“What’s Teka teaching Fana, Jess?” Lucas said. “I’ve never understood that.”

“I don’t know all of it, I admit,” Jessica said. “Teka gives me generalities: Focus. Thought literacy. Stillness. Fana has trouble expressing her lessons in words. She’s helped me with my meditation—when we meditate together, she guides me. She tries to show me some things, but…mostly she’s too far beyond me. Her mind is different. Except for the telepathy, Fana says she doesn’t have any power. But I know that’s not true, and so does Teka. She’s just buried her access to it. Teka says she has to learn conscious control or she might hurt someone.”

Amen, brother,
Lucas thought. He took a deep breath, and his lungs cinched. Mist cleared from his mind, a realization. “Whatever happened with Caitlin must have been pretty drastic,” Lucas said. “Otherwise, why would Fana run? She had to be desperate, to hurt Alex that way.”

Jessica looked at him with sad, grateful eyes. “Yes, Lucas. She had to be.”

“What scared them off?” Cal said.

Jessica looked at the floor again and told them the story Alex had told Lucas last night; Caitlin O’Neal’s Glow and Justin’s theft in Ghana. Suddenly the whole tragedy made sense: Fana had run away because the O’Neals were in jeopardy, maybe the whole family. Cal cast a long glance Lucas’s way, as if to say
Are you hearing this?

“Was Caitlin right to fear for her life?” Nita said.

Jessica paused so long that Lucas’s heartbeat sped. Her silence sounded like a
yes.

“Lord have mercy,” Nita said.

“I know they wouldn’t have killed Caitlin,” Jessica said. “She’s Fana’s friend. But…they might have been planning to take other action against the O’Neals. Dawit says there was evidence that Caitlin was being followed, that someone looking for the blood got too close to her. She’s considered a danger now. She
is
a danger now. To all of us.”

“What does…‘
take other action’
mean?” Cal said in a long drawl.

“What will they do when they catch her?” Nita said.

“And her father?” Lucas said. Justin O’Neal’s future suddenly seemed highly pertinent.

“I don’t know,” Jessica said. “I’m trying to see to it that we’ll all have a say in that.”

If we don’t have a say, Justin O’Neal is the least of our problems,
Lucas thought.

Nita wrapped her arms around herself suddenly, gazing at her husband, and Lucas knew what she was thinking: Nita was content at the colony because she was writing successful mystery novels under a pseudonym, but Cal was restless. He’d amused himself with his building projects, especially the plank-by-plank re-creation of Lucas’s old Frank Lloyd Wright house in Tallahassee, but he complained he felt useless at the colony.

Jessica had lobbied the Brothers to allow Cal and Nita to build a house in Antigua, and every winter their family spent eight weeks there. But for Cal, that wasn’t enough. Hank either. Hank was older than the other children, except for Fana, and he wanted more friends. Jared had made the same complaint before he’d gone to Oxford, moving as far as he could from the woods where he had been raised.

“What if me and Nita want to take the kids and leave for good?” Cal said. “What then?”

Jessica sagged where she sat. The question wearied her. “Cal…we’ve talked about this…”

“That’s right, Jess, we’ve talked about it,” Cal said. “And every time we do, you talk me out of it. But what if we made up our minds to pack up and go? What would they do?”

“You agreed to stay,” Jessica said. “It was the primary condition when you—”

Cal gritted his teeth. “Let’s make believe we changed our goddamned minds.”

“You’re part of our mission,” Jessica said. “You’re helping to change the world.”

“Cut the company line horseshit, Jess,” Cal said. “Just tell us straight.”

In the long silence, they heard muffled arguing from the playroom. Maya let out a shriek.

“They would never risk letting you go with what you know,” Jessica said. “They can send someone with you to Antigua once a year, or shadow Jared in England, but they can’t spare lifelong minders for you.”

“And who the hell wants a minder?” Cal said. “What are you saying, Jess?”

“They would expect guarantees,” Jessica said delicately.

“Meaning what?” Nita said, although Lucas thought the meaning was plain.

“A case of amnesia,” Lucas said. “Don’t you get it? They’d make us forget, folks.”

Cal’s face went ashen, and Nita jumped as if he’d fired a gun in the room.

Jessica nodded. “Yes, Lucas. I think they would.”

Jessica watched from behind the fountain as Dawit and Teferi emerged from the Council House carrying small black leather suitcases. They didn’t see her, walking instead toward the parked Orbit at the end of the driveway. They wore bland jeans and T-shirts, the clothes of the outside world. Dawit was still hidden behind his white beard.

Jessica wished Dawit didn’t have to go.

Four of the Brothers had left when Lucas had brought Alex to the Big House, as soon as Jessica had knocked on her daughter’s door and realized Fana was gone. Jessica had recognized Alex’s stare—the same stare she had seen from Fana’s friend in Botswana after she put him to sleep.

They had to find her. Soon. But finding Fana wouldn’t be easy.

Teka said Fana had left behind a false marker so he wouldn’t know she was gone. The impression was like a mental scent, Teka explained. To him, Fana’s presence still filled her bedroom, calm and sleeping, even when his eyes said differently. Jessica didn’t understand, but she wondered if it was anything like the way she had stuffed pillows under her covers as a young girl, when she hadn’t wanted her mother to know she’d been out of bed.

Jessica’s worry about Fana had boiled over to the point of numbness. What if something went badly wrong? With Fana, badly wrong might mean very, very bad. Jessica was so worried about Fana that she hardly had room in her heart to fret over Alex.

Alex wasn’t gone. Jessica didn’t believe it, not after everything she had seen.

But Bea was in bad shape, and she needed someone to look her in the eye and tell her everything was all right. Otherwise, this day might kill her. After Daddy Gaines had died in the ditch, with all the second-guessing about how the blood might have saved him, her mother had made Jessica swear on her King James Bible that she would not give Bea any blood, no matter what.

Lord, please give us all the strength to make it through this day
.

Jessica watched from behind the fountain as Dawit and Teferi loaded their bags into the trunk of the car. Clothes, surveillance equipment and weapons, no doubt. They never traveled without weapons. Maybe they were Soldiers of the Cross after all, or striving to be.

Dawit looked around suddenly, spotting her. Had he heard her thinking about him?

Dawit slammed the trunk shut, said something into Teka’s ear, and walked toward her.

Jessica couldn’t catch hold of last night’s rage and hurt. In the late-morning light, she saw Dawit Wolde as the only person in the world who shared her heart. There was no accusation in his eyes. No fear. No mistrust. Only worry for the child who would bond them for eternity.