Legacy (5 page)

I gave Rachel’s shoulders what I hoped was a reassuring squeeze.
Let’s go have one of the healers check you out, okay?

She walked with me to the infirmary with slow, careful steps.

Trevor gave me a questioning look.
Should I be a part of this?

I’ll come find you later
.

He was relieved not to be included.

Matilda looked up from her desk in the infirmary. She moved quickly when she saw Rachel’s expression. Rachel’s whole body shook and she couldn’t get the words out.

Rachel, do you want me to tell her?

She paused for a moment then nodded.

Pregnant, probably about three months or so. She just took the test a few minutes ago.

Matilda’s large eyes filled with sympathy and she enveloped Rachel in a silent hug. My sense of Ganzfield as a large family intensified. I felt a sudden wave of protectiveness for this place, for our people.

Matilda had Rachel lie back on the exam table and pull up her shirt. She placed her hands on Rachel’s still-flat belly. I followed along in Matilda’s mind while she concentrated. She found the fetus and yellow flashes of anxiety colored her thoughts.
What will dodecamine do to a developing embryo?

Rachel lay still, trying to make sense out of her life. It seemed wrong that the person most involved was out of the loop on this.

Rachel, do you want to see it?

She considered that for a few seconds, and then nodded to me.

I relayed the image from Matilda’s head. The little thing was only about three inches long. Through Matilda’s ability, we could see the tiny fingers.

Rachel gasped, overwhelmed yet again—but this time it wasn’t by pain.

The little head looked overly large for the fairy-sized body. Matilda worked her way across the facial features—the tiny, sealed eyes, the low-set ears, the nub of a nose.

Tears streamed down from Rachel’s eyes and streaked the hair by her ears. Her feelings seemed to crystallize as she looked at this tiny person—this last piece of Sean.

The baby began to glow with golden light.

Matilda gasped as she felt the strange surge of energy.
What—

It’s okay,
I reassured her.
It’s just Rachel’s ability.

I guess Rachel didn’t need the feed from my head anymore. A sense of wonder filled her, peppering her feelings of loss with little white shards of hope.
Sean isn’t completely gone.

“Can you tell if it’s a boy or a girl?” Her voice sounded thin and shaky.

“Let me…” Matilda trailed off, distracted. She felt the baby’s developing brain, moving her ability lightly through the miniature structures. I recognized them from my neurology studies, but they were still so tiny, nebulous, and half-formed. I couldn’t tell if they were normal or not. Matilda had the same problem
. I’m going to need to read up on fetal neural development.

CHAPTER 4

Rachel went back to her room. She wanted time to think and she didn’t need an audience for that. I left Blake House, squinting as I stepped back into the bright day.

A shiny, expensive-looking red convertible blocked the driveway, surrounded by a small crowd—all male. Waves of intense, testosterone-laden lust permeated their thoughts—and it wasn’t for the car. Someone with platinum hair and a glowing tan leaned seductively against the front fender. She looked to be in her mid- to late twenties. Strategic pieces of her toned physique threatened to liberate themselves at any moment from her too-tight clothing. In the minds of her assembled throng, they were already out.

Another new arrival. Must be a charm. And she likes to make an entrance.

I rolled my eyes. If this unacceptable reaction wasn’t the result of charm influence, she’d need to put something else on. Where could we get a nun’s habit? I’d never enjoyed the voyeuristic aspect of telepathy—having a front-row seat to other people’s sex fantasies made my stomach clench. Most of the time, it was just…
gross.
Not to mention poorly lit, with bad acting and stilted dialogue.

I felt every muscle in my body stiffen—like a cat’s fur standing on end—when I saw Trevor. I hadn’t recognized his mind because the scarlet-tinged images within it were…
obscene
…and of
someone else?
A wave of orange fire flooded through me as my jaw tightened. I wanted to blast this blonde woman’s brain. Not just hurt her—
kill
her.
How dare she!
Furious energy filled me. I could almost feel it spark from my fingertips.

If looks could kill
… Oh, wait. Mine actually could. I needed to keep myself under control. I tried to take a steadying breath but tight bands seemed to constrict my chest. Trevor didn’t seem to notice my approach; his eyes still followed the newcomer. My blood-red fury at this trampy, bottle-blonde charm increased.

She turned her cool gaze at me and I suddenly felt short, mousy, and plain.

“Is there a problem, sweetie?” Her voice dripped with overly-honeyed condescension. A smile twitched at the corners of her candy-apple pout—she got a kick out of using her power over men. The guys had come to ogle both her and the car when they’d rolled in. She’d simply said, “You all want me, don’t you?” Based on her appearance, she might not’ve had to use charm resonance with a lot of them.

She watched me like a cat playing with an injured bird—the twists of anger and pain in my face amused her. I started to shake with the effort of holding myself back. My vision seemed narrow and red, as though I’d locked on target.

Don’t kill her.

I couldn’t fry her just for making these guys lust after her, right? I needed to hold it together. Part of me knew my reaction was off-the-charts like this because Trevor was involved. This intense jealousy was just part of the whole soulmate package deal. I needed to calm down before I hurt someone.
Don’t kill her.
I repeated my new mantra.
Don’t kill her. She isn’t making anyone DO anything.

Stop it,
I said into her head. My mental voice sounded weak and pathetic, mostly because I had to hold so much back.

She gave me a bad-girl, cutesy pout and looked at Trevor with new interest. He was still lusting after her and I felt the sudden urge to slap—everybody.

“This one your boyfriend, minder-girl?”

My hand came up and gripped Trevor’s arm in a protective, proprietary gesture—MINE.
I looked up and met her eyes with an icy stare.
Back. Off. Now.

“Or you’ll do what? Think at me?” She laughed and gave Trevor another long, appraising look.
Ah, hell
. My reaction had drawn her attention to him, setting off some sort of competitive game in her mind. “Tell me, handsome, what’s your ability?” Her words resonated with charm.

Lethal energy nearly shot from my forehead. I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting to control it, even though a part of me didn’t want to stop it. That part kept growing stronger.

What’s up with her voice?

Trevor hadn’t answered her question. My eyes flew open. I could breathe again. I had a hand on Trevor now. He’d heard the charm resonance in her words because he now shared my minder-immunity to mind-control.

She’s trying to charm you.

The worst of his raunchy thoughts about this woman melted away, replaced with the guarded distrust he usually felt for charms. My fingers tightened around him.

“Belinda, you might want to step back. You’re about to get your brain fried.” Williamson hurried down the steps of the main building. The killing energy in my mind finally simmered back. I took a shuddering breath, feeling my shoulders drop as I exhaled.

“Fried?” She gave Trevor another appraisal.
He doesn’t look like a McFee
.

“He’s not a McFee, nor is he the one who’s about to fry you.”

Take the charm command off all of them
, I thought at her.
Now!

“Make me, little girl.” Her lips curled into a shiny, red sneer.

I blasted her Broca’s area with a quick, rapier burst of energy, sending the language center of her brain into a seizure. She didn’t even notice.

I looked around the circle. Were any of the surrounding people charms? I recognized a head of wavy black hair.
Zack? Can you tell everyone to stop doing what Belinda said?

“Huh?” Zack seemed to shake himself awake. His unshielded thoughts remained full of explicit images of Belinda and he was rather enjoying them. Normally, Zack shielded his thoughts—making him a one-of-a-kind charm. My voice in his head had surprised him. I’d only “spoken” to him once since we’d all returned to Ganzfield, when he’d sought me out in the dining hall. The memory flashed through me.

What’s HE doing here?
Trevor’s dismay had wrapped around my thoughts and squeezed.

“Maddie. I just—just wanted to say how sorry I am…you know…again.” Remorse had flavored each word. “Thanks for not insisting that I be kicked out or anything.”

I’d only nodded in acknowledgement. I knew we’d both been at fault. I’d wounded his pride and overreacted when he’d tried to salvage it. His efforts to charm me had been wrong, but I knew he wasn’t as bad as some of the other charms.

This Belinda woman was a case in point.

Stop doing what Belinda said
, Zack thought to himself. The images in his head disappeared.

Whoa. Did you just un-charm yourself?

He didn’t need to find another charm to take off Belinda’s command? None of the other charms could do that! Zack’s bright blue eyes met mine. His shield snapped back into place, as though he’d suddenly realized his mental fly was open. He didn’t answer my question.

“Stop doing what Belinda said,” Zack charmed the crowd.

The intensity of dirty thoughts dropped dramatically. Of course, Belinda still looked slutty in her too-tight clothes, so most of the guys still had mental images in a similar vein. Whatever. That was normal. But this pied-piper-of-sex thing needed to stop.

Now.

Apparently, Williamson agreed. “Belinda, things have changed around here.”

Belinda intended to say,
Yeah, now that I’m here, they’ll get fun again
. Instead, “Mup too dahb…” came from her mouth.
What the hell? What’s wrong with my voice?
She turned narrowed viper-eyes at me.
Did she—?

I risked a quick look at Zack and he met my gaze. A strange play of emotions passed over his face. Even with his shield up, I knew we both remembered the first time I’d done this—because I’d done it to him.

Williamson pressed his lips together, forcing himself not to smile. “I did warn you, Belinda.”

What did that little bitch do to my voice?
Apparently, this wasn’t Belinda’s first time framing thoughts to Williamson. She laced her unspoken words with venom.

Oh, great. Another one who hated me. What was it with me and charms? A sad, dark-purple pang passed through me as I remembered Grace. She’d been one of the few charms who’d been a friend. But she’d died—nearly all of the charms at Ganzfield had.

And now we had Belinda
here.

Oh, goody.

“You remember the rules, Belinda? No killing, no maiming, no permanent damage, no charming people into sex—”

…
and no charming instructors. Yeah, I needlepointed them into a pillow back when I was here.
Belinda dripped sarcasm.

Williamson again suppressed a laugh. “Just take it easy while you’re here.” He seemed fond of Belinda—too fond of her.

Williamson’s head snapped up at the direction of my thoughts and his smile vanished.
No! She’s young enough to be my daughter!

Then what is it?

Come back to my office. We can talk about that—and a few other things.

Williamson looked around at the guys still milling around Belinda. “Don’t we still have classes here? Get going, everyone!”

Classes. Thank heavens Trevor and I’d stopped attending when we’d started training with the team.

“Belinda, we had several new trailers delivered this morning. Why don’t you pick one of them out for yourself and get settled in?” Williamson gestured in their general direction. “I’m sure your voice will return to normal in a few minutes. Right, Maddie?”

I gave her a mean smile.
Yeah. The first time is temporary.

Belinda blanched, and then scowled at me.

“And perhaps you might consider leaving Trevor alone,” Williamson suggested.

Trevor? Isn’t he the telekinetic? I heard about him
. She looked at Trevor appraisingly. My hackles rose again, sensing her intrigue with the sexual possibilities of an extra set of hands. I itched with an annoying, twitchy desire to slap Belinda repeatedly.

Hard.

I tightened my grip on Trevor’s arm. He’d caught her thoughts secondhand and pink embarrassment stained both his cheeks and his mind. I focused in, knowing I might not want to see too closely but unable to stop myself.

A few lustful thoughts about Belinda still flitted across Trevor’s thoughts.
Sorry
. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to think of something else when he realized I was in his head.