Discovery (15 page)

Grace was silent. The hum of the clock radio beside the bed provided the soundtrack to her thoughts.

“Gracie, are you okay?” Ben's voice took over the clock radio's hum.

Grace's pain crawled through the darkness. “Can … can you hold me?”

“Uh … sure.” Ben freed himself from the binding chair and used his night vision to make his way through the dark room to the other side of the bed. He stretched out on top of the bedcovers beside Grace, trying not to get too close, but not wanting to be too far away. He reached behind her shoulders and her head naturally fell into the crook of his arm. She turned toward him and curled up into a tight ball right next to him, burying her face into his chest. The sudden dampness on Ben's shirt prompted him to wrap his arm tighter around Grace's shaking shoulders.

“Ben,” Grace cried. “Gregory has green eyes.”

“I know.” Ben stared at the ceiling, his heart aching with Grace's tears. “I know.”

When Grace woke the next morning, for a fleeting few seconds she felt normal. Back to the way she was. The stereotypical struggling waitress. But then she remembered. Gregory. Her birthday party. The black sedan. The twins. The bloody arm. Being the last living person of her entire family line. She looked up to see Ben staring down at her, his arm still cradling her.

“Hey,” he said with a hesitant smile.

“Hey.” She slowly sat up. “Did you sleep?”

“Not too much. I'm not really a big sleeper.” Ben stood up and gently tossed the bag of clothes from the thrift store to Grace. “Here, Sleeping Beauty. Get dressed. We need to get some food in you before we hit the road again.”

Grace carried the bag into the bathroom and closed the door. Crumpled in the corner, behind the bathroom door, lay her red satin dress. The red satin dress that had made her feel pretty. The red satin dress she wore with Gregory. The red satin dress stained with the Anti-Power's blood. For a few minutes she just stood there staring at the dress, her mind reliving the new reality that had invaded her safe normal world. Last night she couldn't wait to get away from that dress. This morning she couldn't take her eyes off it. When she felt the tears welling up again, she closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath.

Shake it off, Grace. Get it together.

She turned her back to the dress and faced the mirror. For the first time in two days, Grace looked at herself. Really looked at herself. Her smudged mascara and bedhead hair were going to have to go. After taking a long, hot shower and putting on her new–but–used thrift store jeans, fitted tee shirt, and tennis shoes, she threw her long, brown hair back in a ponytail using a rubber band she found in the trash. Of course her flyaway strands fell around her face like they always did and she instinctively started to pull them back again.

But then it hit her.

She was not at the club. Julian was not going to assess her hair today or tomorrow or even the next day. Her flyaway hair, her job, her hopes for college, none of that mattered anymore and Grace briefly wondered if anything from her past life would ever matter again. It was as if the only thing she had left was Ben.

She purposefully pulled the misbehaving strands of hair out of her ponytail and allowed them to wildly fly all over her face. She took one last look at the red satin dress crumpled on the floor before she exited the bathroom.

“Feel better?” Ben asked when Grace emerged from the bathroom.

“A little,” she said softly.

“Hop on.” Ben bent over and pointed to his back. “I saw an all-night diner across the street from the thrift store last night and everybody knows all-night diners have the best breakfasts. So let's go.”

“What do you mean hop on?”

“Grace, we have no car, remember? I'm now your only transportation to breakfast. I've already checked out of this swanky joint so come on. I'm starving.”

Grace's brow knitted together but she did as she was told. She hopped onto Ben's back and before she knew it, they were out the door speeding toward the middle of town. She held on tightly to Ben, wrapping her arms around his neck and chest and her legs around his waist. He ran so nimbly, her ride was as smooth as floating on a sailboat. They glided through the air, unseen by all they passed on the road. Grace liked being invisible and was glad that speed was one of Ben's powers.

They arrived at the diner with a swoosh of air at the front door. Ben entered first and paused in the doorway. Grace had never seen him in Guardian mode, or if she had, she had not known it at the time. His face was serious as he quickly scanned the restaurant before allowing Grace to enter. He then chose a booth in the left back corner and sat against the wall, eyes glued to the front door. “How's this?” he asked.

“Fine.” Grace finally smiled.

Ben smiled back. “You look better this morning.”

“Thanks.” She was somewhat energized by the ride and the cool morning air made her cheeks feel flushed as if she had just had a facial.

A young waitress popping a large piece of bubble gum dropped off two waters and their menus and Grace noted she had blue eyes. “Our waitress is not an Anti-Power,” she whispered confidently to Ben after the young woman had walked away.

“How do you know she's not wearing contacts?” Ben smarted, repeating back Grace's comment from the day before.

Grace shook her head and sighed, “For Pete's sake, Ben. Why don't you just tell me exactly how this all works?”

Ben hesitated, and then said, “First, you're right, she isn't an Anti-Power. She has blue eyes and isn't wearing contacts.”

“See. Told you. But how can you tell who's who?”

Before Ben could answer, the waitress reappeared to take their order. “I'll take the Hearty Farmer's Breakfast with scrambled eggs and a large Coke,” said Ben.

“The same but with a Diet Coke,” said Grace handing her menu to the waitress.

The young waitress smiled at Grace and blew a huge bubble with her gum. “You sure you can eat all that, honey?”

“I'll try.”

“Suit yourself.” The waitress shook her head and headed back to the kitchen with their order.

“Okay, go on. Explain,” said Grace.

“Well, like I said last night, when a Power and someone in your family,
the
Family, have a child, that child is born with certain superhuman powers. Most of the time, we don't know the extent of the child's powers until they complete training, but at a minimum, we know they're a Power. All Powers are born with blue eyes. The Council says it shows the natural innocence and goodness inside Powers' children. Anyway, once they reach around four or five years old, they're sent away to training camp to develop their powers.”

“Wait,” interrupted Grace. “They leave their parents at four or five years old? How cruel is that?” Having lost her parents when she was four, Grace spoke from experience.

“Well, it's more of a necessity,” replied Ben. “You see, the human parent, the parent from your family, doesn't know anything about the Powers or Anti-Powers or anything like that. They think they've married a normal human and have normal human kids. When the child starts exhibiting powers around age four or five, the Powers parent sends the child to training camp. Unfortunately the human parent has to think the child has disappeared, been abducted, or something like that.”

“Ben! That's terrible!”

“I know and I'm sorry. But it's done to protect the child and their human parent. If the child started using their powers without the proper training, the Anti-Powers might find them and try to convert the child, or even worse, kill the child and the parents.”

“I'm not sure I want to know anymore. This sounds like a horrible way to live.”

“No, Gracie. It's really not. Even though they aren't with their parents, the child is really loved at training camp. There are some really special Powers working there.”

“But what about the human parent? The parent from my side of the family?”

“Well, I assume they never really get over it. I mean losing a child is a pretty big deal. But the Council has chosen their Powers mate very carefully so they end up living a pretty good life with someone who eventually grows to love them very much.”

“Eventually grows to love them?” Grace was incredulous. “What about true love and all that? What about fate and happiness? Does any of that matter for my family?”

Ben shrugged his shoulders. “It's not a perfect system, Grace. But it's the best we have in place right now. And most of your family has …
had
normal lives. The Council was very selective when picking which members of the Family would be with the Powers. Not all your relatives made the cut.”

“Do the parents ever get to see their child again?”

“Yeah. The Powers parent can see their child anytime they want. They can visit training camp, see them when they graduate from camp, there are all kinds of ways to stay in contact with each other. It's part of their training. Tom and I were lucky. We actually got to live with our parents since Dad had essentially the same assignment we did.”

“Me? Was I his assignment?”

“Yes, you. Dad was your Guardian until I was old enough to take over,” Ben paused, wistful. “Anyway, the human parent normally only sees the child one more time. Right before that parent dies. The Council allows the child, who is usually grown by that time, to visit the human parent on his or her deathbed and the child explains everything. It kind of gives the human parent some peace before going on to the next world.”

Grace just sat there, speechless.

The waitress, still popping her bubble gum, brought their breakfasts and drinks. “Need anything else right now?”

Grace looked down at her plate but couldn't really see her food.

Ben glanced at Grace and then at the waitress. “No, we're good. Thanks.”

The waitress eyed Grace and then walked off. Grace just continued to stare at her plate but her eyes were still not able to focus.

“Grace,” Ben leaned over and pushed her plate closer to her. “Come on. Eat up.”

Grace took a small bite of eggs but pushed more food around on her plate than into her mouth.

“Grace, you haven't eaten in two days,” Ben prodded. “Eat.”

Grace looked up at Ben and put her fork down. “Tell me more,” she softly said. “I … I need to know more.”

“What do you want to know?” Ben shoved a forkful of scrambled eggs in his mouth.

Grace rubbed her temples and closed her eyes as she spoke. “If all the children are born Powers, how does a Power become an Anti-Power?” She opened her eyes and looked up at Ben. “None of this makes any sense.”

“When a Power graduates from training camp, they're assigned to safeguard different parts of the world. They live normal lives among the humans but are always there to protect them, especially from the Anti-Powers. Unfortunately, there are times when a Power doesn't like their designated location or assigned duty. That's when the Anti-Powers come in and, in some instances, have successfully converted the Power.”

“How?”

“We don't know. That's one of the problems we have. We haven't been able to really gather enough information on the Anti-Powers to know how they work exactly. We just know we've had some Powers defect to the Anti-Powers and when they did, their eyes changed from blue to green.”

“All you know is that they have green eyes? Tons of people have green eyes. Are you trying to tell me they're all Anti-Powers?” Grace turned around in their booth and started scanning the diner's patrons.

“Turn around here!” whispered Ben as he reached over and quickly pulled Grace back down into their booth. “Of course they're not all Anti-Powers. And no, that's not all we know. But the Anti-Powers are a slippery bunch. They've stayed hidden pretty well so they've been difficult to study. Most of what we know came from the Council members who knew the original Anti-Power, that rogue Council member I told you about who wanted to use his powers out in the open.” Ben paused and leaned toward Grace. “But the Council and other Powers have stayed hidden just as well. The Anti-Powers now don't know any more about us than we do about them,” he whispered.

“So it's possible that Gregory isn't an Anti-Power? I mean just because he has green eyes doesn't mean … ” Grace trailed off, hopeful.

“Gracie. Based on what we've seen, I think we would be stupid to assume he isn't an Anti-Power,” Ben stated abruptly.

Grace started picking at the food on her plate again, her eyes pretending to concentrate on her eggs while her heart questioned the absolute certainty of Ben's last statement.

“Is anyone else I know a Power? Is Tom?”

“Tom is a Power. But his powers are mental, more intellectually oriented.”

“If you are my Guardian, who does Tom guard?”

“Tom is not a Guardian. He … has another job.”

“What?”

“Look, we can get into that later. Now, eat up. We need to get going.” Ben took his last bite of eggs and motioned to the waitress to bring their check.

Grace ate a few more bites but her mind was processing too much to concentrate on food. “Are there any Powers near here? Why do we have to drive all the way to the Appalachian Mountains?”

“Grace, there are Powers and Anti-Powers everywhere but we're all in hiding so I don't know who's who. It's not like we have a club directory or anything like that! The Council makes our laws and we live by them and one of the laws is that we cannot reveal we're a Power to anyone without the Council's permission. That's just one of the many laws I've broken by being with you!” Ben finally snapped, obviously exasperated with Grace's questions.

“I'm sorry.”

“For what?”

“For putting you in this situation.”