More Than an Echo (Echo Branson Series) (12 page)

Danica nodded. “Hey, I’m up for an adventure.”

I grinned. “Oh, Danica, you have no idea what you’re in for.”

Turning to me, she grinned. “Oh yeah? Try me.” There was no one braver than Danica Johnson.

Ten minutes later, I did.

“You’ve been living all the fucking way out here?” She asked, looking around. “You have got to be shitting me. No TV?”

“Nope. That’s why I wanted you to come out here. You think I’ve been partying away in New Orleans when the truth is, I’ve been living in a cottage all the way out here. Not quite the party environment you pictured, is it?”

“No. Fucking. Way.” Danica looked around the Bayou all big-eyed. “Here? Out
here
?”

I nodded, noting how six months made Danica look six years older. She was beautiful. “Farther out, actually, but it’s all the same after you get to a certain point.”

“Holy shit. People can’t live out here, can they?”

“Can and do. That’s why I haven’t called. This is the first time I’ve been to the city since I called you shortly after I got here.”

“What in the hell have you been doing all this time? You can’t...” And then she heard that familiar sound. “What in the hell was that?”

“Just a ’gator.”

“A what? Don’t fuck with me, Jane!” Danica scooted toward the center of the boat, her eyes darting about. “Are you telling me there are
alligators
in the water?”

I nodded. “But don’t worry. They’re not after us.”

Danica’s  eyes were wide. “How do you know? Maybe they’re ready for breakfast.” Danica was looking all around the boat trying to make herself smaller.

This was the moment of truth. Since Danica trusted me enough to come out into this foreign land in this rickety boat, I needed to trust her enough with
my
truth. I needed to trust
her
. “I know because...because I’m not like everybody else, Dani. That’s why I’m here. I didn’t come here by accident. I was brought here  to learn how to handle my…special abilities.”

“Abilities?” She stopped looking for alligators and stared intently into my eyes. “What in the hell are you talking about?”

I went for it. “Let me get this out first, okay? It’s not easy to understand, and I know you’ll have a bunch of questions, but—”

“Just say it.”

“I’m an empath. There.” The word hung in the air like a helium balloon waiting to be popped.

“Is that what it sounds like?”

I nodded. “I have the ability to feel people’s emotions. I read them like someone might read minds. That’s what happened with Todd. I read his emotions. I read his intent. I knew what he wanted. It was the first time I had ever felt my—”

“Wait.” Danica held her hands up again, her face working to understand. “You
feel
people’s emotions? Do you feel them feel them or just see them?”

“Both. All. If there’s an emotion near me, I pick up on it like some weird magnet drawing it to me. Then I feel it.”

“Wow. Like a superpower. How cool is that?”

I shrugged. “Not so cool, sometimes. That’s why I’m here; to learn how to use it, hide it, defend against all incoming emotions from people around me.”

Danica looked around. “Are we on
Candid Camera
or something?”

“Dani this is serious. I have these—”

“Superpowers. I got that. You’re sitting here telling me you can feel other people’s emotions…that you knew what Todd wanted so you bashed his head in. Sorry if it doesn’t sound a little like a Lifetime movie.”

“I’ve rehearsed this over and over, and still, when it came out of my mouth just now, it sounds so—”

“Twilight Zonish?”

I nodded and looked away. “It’s true nonetheless. It’s what I do and what I am.”

She blinked several times before nodding slowly. “Okay. Okay. So you knew what Todd wanted, you beat his head in, and now you’re here.”

“Yes. Melika teaches us out here so we can focus on learning what we need to without going insane.”

“Us. So you go to school with that Zack kid  to learn how to be a superhero? What’s the big Indian? Super Amazon Woman?”

I didn’t want to say. It was outside our code of conduct to reveal someone else’s power. “She’s not an empath, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I don’t really know what I’m asking, Jane. You bring me out into the middle of a fucking swamp and...” She stopped in mid-sentence and started looking frantically around. “Who the hell? What the fuck was that?”

I realized at once what was happening.
“Stop that!
” I ordered. “
You’re scaring her!”

“She’ll never believe your words, kiddo, and unless you want Zack to kick her ass, there may be only one way to get her to believe.”

I thought for a moment. “
Can I tell her?
”

“
You’re probably going to have to. If she’s that important to you, out me. I trust your judgment.”

I don’t know what amazed me more: that she was going to let me out her or that she actually trusted me.
“Thank you. And stop calling me kiddo.
” Reaching out, I held Danica’s hand. “That voice in your head is Tip, the big Indian.”

Danica’s mouth dropped open. “No way.” She glanced quickly around. “That is so fucking creepy.”

I told Tip to stop. She responded by telling me to call if I needed more help.

“She should be gone now.”

Dani cocked her head and listened for a moment and then nodded. “Fucking A, Jane, what the fuck?”

“You ready to hear this, now?”

She nodded. “That was so fucking weird.”

“It gets weirder, believe me. Me, Zack and another kid named Jacob are all here to learn how to handle our powers. No, they’re not superpowers like in a comic book.” I quoted Melika. “These are real powers genetically woven into who we are. My power allows me to pick up the emotions of others. It would have driven me insane because I didn’t know how to block all of the emotions coming at me. The first time it happened was with Todd. The crisis I felt coming triggered the recessive nature of it.”

Danica simply shook her head. “And this is no joke.”

“I know this is a lot to take in, but I wanted you to know why I am here and why I hadn’t been able to call you. I wanted to, but what could I say?
Hi, I know you’re my best friend and all, and you saved me from going crazy, but I’m not the girl you think I am
?”

“So...you really
can
feel people’s emotions?”

I nodded. “And apparently a few animals as well, which is why I knew that  alligator had no interest in us.”

“Holy shit, Jane...er...Echo. This is weird, but pretty fucking cool at the same time.”

“I’m here trying to get my life together…to be normal.”

“Oh, this is rich. You have some sort of superpowers and now you want to be normal? Are you insane?”

We both looked at each other and laughed.

“This is serious, Dani.”

“Oh, right. I’m sitting on a holey boat with the Boatman from hell, and my best friend has just told me she knows what alligators are thinking, and I’m supposed to be serious? Come on, Jane! Give me a break.”

“I just need you to know how serious this is, because telling other people would put our lives at stake. I trusted you with my life once, and now I’m trusting you with my future.”

She looked over at me, her eyes locking onto mine. I would not lower my shield to read her. Rule number one in Melika’s universe: don’t invade the private emotions of the ones you love.

“If you can do what you say you can, then do it now. You’ll know how much you can trust me.”

I looked at her a long time before asking, “Are you sure?”

“Have I ever lied to you?”

“No.”

“Ever let you down?”

“Never.”

“Then do it.”

So I did. I read her and knew that she would never tell, never betray me, never let me down.

She never did.

Not once.

We spent a wonderful couple of days together, and after Danica left the Bayou, it was back to work. I spent the next six months learning more blocking and shielding techniques. Melika wanted me to be able to block naturals as well as other supers.

After Tip’s intrusion into my mind, I decided blocking was a necessary evil. I didn’t like her rooting around in my brain. I was incredibly uncomfortable with the whole notion of telepathy. It was one thing to feel what people were feeling, but to hear their thoughts and then be able to project myself into their minds? That was on a whole other level.

So, I asked Melika about it on our daily walk through the swamp. The morning rays streamed in through the trees and moss. “Tip must be a more powerful telepath than I realized, huh?”

“Oh yes. She’s quite strong, perhaps one of the strongest telepaths I have ever met. I must apologize for what happened in town. I never intended for you to find out she was watching over you. I apologize for that. I just can’t risk the young ones doing what Zachary did. I’ve seen it happen too often. I’m sorry.”

“It was a good thing, I guess. I mean, I’m glad she was skulking around...” I stopped talking. I didn’t wish to give away anything.

“Don’t worry, my girl, I am well aware of Zack’s little indiscretion in the shop and have already spoken to him about it.”

“Oh.” I heard Jacob’s voice in the back of my head about Melika knowing everything.

“It happens to the boys...especially TKs.”

“Tip calls them movers.”

“Tip is a snob. She doesn’t believe anyone’s powers are as strong as hers. She might be right. Anyway, she was charged, as she always is, with watching over you both and she did her job. If you want to be angry with anyone, be angry with me.”

“I wasn’t angry. I was taken by surprise. Her voice in my head felt very...”

“Disquieting? Invasive? It takes some getting used to, I know.”

“It might not have been so weird if it was someone else. Tip is so intense. Sometimes she looks at me and I feel like a bug under a microscope.”

“Tip never does anything without reason. Every move she makes is thought out or planned. If you find her staring at you, she is working something out in her own mind. Don’t let it get to you.”

“
She
gets to me. Like under my skin gets to me.”

“It comes with her telepathic abilities. That’s one of the pieces you’ll learn while you’re here—other sorts of psionic powers.”

I nodded.

Melika stopped and looked hard into my eyes. “You are no longer responsible just for yourself, Echo. We are a family, a community of beings who need each other; who need to be understood. Who need to protect each other. Someday, you might be called upon to help someone much in the same way you’ve been helped. You can’t do that if you know nothing.”

“Useful? Melika, I can barely erect a shield.”

“Now, yes, but believe me, there will come a time when you can do that and so much more. We must always look beyond the moment, beyond our own distorted sense of self. Someday, you will need to give back.”

And so, my next set of lessons began. I came to understand how Zack could do what he did. Well, no one really knew the exact way it was done, but I got the general idea. He was able to manipulate energy to the point of making it react like a solid. Both Melika and Tip had tried giving me the scientific explanation, but I’d never gotten higher than a C in science.

Melika really had to work closely with him to keep his powers in check. Because he could use energy to move things about, he thought nothing about pulling something to him that was just out of reach. She had to reteach him how to think about his way in the world. It was fascinating, really, because TKs were more of an anomaly than telepaths or empaths, and therefore, more at risk. We were all at risk, but Melika felt the younger male TKs more so because they had a tendency to act out in public just as Zack had done. A TK in the presence of the wrong people could be a disaster.

Melika had warned us that our government had several departments looking into the possibility of paranormal activity. They wanted one of us in a big way, and it was rumored they were “interviewing” everyone from tarot readers to magicians trying to get a bead on one of us, preferably a mover or a reader, like Tip. They hadn’t seen any use for a necromancer, and couldn’t prove their powers truly existed.

I did not quite understand necromancy, and wasn’t at all sure I ever really wanted to. Most of the time, Jacob Marley seemed like he was in a daze, but then maybe he was listening to somebody’s dead grandpa. I could never tell.

“You must remember, my dear, that much of what we all do is a matter of manipulating energy. It’s all about energy. Understand that and you have half the puzzle. The other half is understanding that no two supers are alike. Each of us comes to the table with a different set of abilities and limitations.There are quite a few wiccans with the same ability to do so.”

“But if people found out…if they saw us doing what Zack did…” I shook my head. “I never considered that we could be in danger.”