The Caledonian Inheritance (The Athena Effect) (20 page)

There would be plenty of time for telling lies and erasing suspicions later. She needed to focus on the task at hand, and not worry about the rejection that was sure to come. She’d been hoping that she might be able to break the news to him one day, but she was afraid that it was too much all at once. She could temporarily confuse him, but she couldn’t go back and erase what he’d just seen with his own two eyes.

Ramon’s police cruiser finally pulled into a dark clearing. It was a moonless night, and Layla could just barely make out the outline of a house.

“What is this place?” she asked, goose bumps rising on her arm.

“It’s his property. When old Mr. Williams passed, this guy showed up to claim his inheritance. He’s been nothing but trouble ever since he showed up in town.”

“I can imagine,” Layla said, thinking the same thing could be said for her.

Ramon parked, leaving the headlights on. He grabbed a flashlight
from the glove box and they climbed out, walking on the rutted, uneven dirt of the driveway. He led her to a weathered barn that was off to the side of a ramshackle old house, shining the light on a double door, its hardware secured with a chain and padlock.

Ramon tugged at the handle, but the chains kept it from opening more than a few inches.

“Amy?” he called into the dark, pausing to listen for a response. An owl hooted in the black void behind them.

“We have to
look inside,” Layla said urgently.

“This is gonna be breaking and entering,” he muttered under his breath. “Wait here.” He trotted back to the patrol car, returning with a pair of bolt cutters. He cut through the lock and opened the doors wide
, shining the light inside.

“Oh my God,” Layla gasped.

“His father was a cooper,” Ramon explained.

The old barn was crowded full of wooden wine barrels, draped with cobwebs and stacked precariously high with narrow pathways between them. It was an eerie sight, illuminated only by the thin beam of Ramon’s flashlight. He pointed it all around and above them, and they both looked up to see a teetering wooden beam dangling from a hole in the caved-in roof.

“Amy? Amy Knight?” Ramon called out. A few bats roosting in the crumbling rafters spooked, flapping past them and out into the night.

Layla stepped in hesitantly,
her heart pounding in her throat. She started picking her way through a maze of barrels, followed by Ramon shining the beam of light ahead of her.

He took her by the arm, holding her back. “This place is too dangerous… We need to go.”

“Wait!” she cried, scanning every barrel desperately.

Then she saw it, and her heart leapt. A faint aura of color was leaking from a small hole in the side of one of the barrels on the bottom of a pile. Layla raced over to put her hands on it, turning to Ramon in the darkness. “She’s in here!” she cried. “And she’s alive!”

He looked at her in disbelief. “Layla…”

She started pushing at the barrels on top, unable to budge them an inch.

“Stand back,” Ramon handed her the flashlight and came over to move the barrels that were stacked high, pushing them off to send them crashing to the ground with giant clouds of dust. He coughed and waved at the air, starting to think he was crazy to be humoring her.

The
bottom barrel uncovered, Layla clawed at the lid frantically. “It’s nailed shut!” she cried, “We need something to pry it open!”

“Are you sure?” Ramon asked, his yellow skepticism growing stronger.

“YES! Open it now!”

Ramon spoke softly, afraid of her disappointment when their search proved fruitless. “Okay, okay… But Layla… We tried our best.”

A tiny scratching sound came from inside the barrel and Ramon’s eyes flew open wide the exact instant that his aura bloomed a shocked neon orange. “Oh my God!”

He
raced over to retrieve the bolt cutters, handing Layla the flashlight while he struggled to pry the wooden lid up.

“Hurry!” she urged. “Please.”

He finally got the lid off, tossing it aside to reveal a child wedged inside, curled in a fetal position. Her mouth and ears were covered with duct tape, and her swollen eyes started blinking in the flashlight’s beam.

Ramon reached in to gently lift her out, rushing her out of the barn as Layla followed along behind them. He placed her on the hood of his police car, working to untie the ropes that bound her wrists and ankles while Layla gingerly peeled the tape from her face.

“It’s going to be alright now Amy,” Layla told her. “He’s a policeman, and we’re here to help.”

When the tape was pulled from her mouth Amy sucked in a breath. “I want to go home,” she croaked.

Ramon retrieved a bottle of water from his car, watching as Layla helped the child to drink, telling her what a brave girl she was. He rushed back to his car radio, calling for an ambulance and backup while Layla continued her soothing words, topping them off with a calming cloud of tranquility.

By the time Ramon climbed out of the car they were both sitting on the hood. Amy was cradled on Layla’s lap, her small arms wrapped tight around Layla’s neck, her head nestled beneath her chin. Layla’s eyes met Ramon’s, and even in the darkness he could see them glowing with
absolute and total satisfaction.

“We did it,” she said.

He shook his head, in complete awe of her. “No… You did it.”

Before too long the first patrol car screamed up, illuminating the clearing a little more. It was
immediately followed by an ambulance and Sherriff Brown’s truck bearing Amy’s frantic parents. Layla handed the girl over to her sobbing mother, standing back with Ramon to watch their joyous reunion.

Sherriff Brown was overcome with joy as well, clapping Ramon on the back with pride. “Good job, son… But how did you know where to look?”

“I… uhm… George Williams confessed to us.”

“Us?”

Layla stepped forward. “Ramon and I were going out to dinner, but he needed to pick up something from the office.” She looked directly into Sherriff Brown’s eyes, “George told him where to look.”

The
sheriff blinked, “Why?”

“Guilty conscience?” Layla suggested, even though she knew that the kidnapper had no conscience at all.

The sheriff was as relieved as a man could possibly be. “Good work Ramon. The FBI has already been called in, and we expect a field agent in the office first thing tomorrow. We’ll need to file a report for them to look over…”

“I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow,” Layla jumped in. “Ramon hasn’t had anything to eat all day.”

Sherriff Brown looked kind of distant, nodding in complete agreement. “Okay… Sure thing. Sure thing.”

Ramon looked at Layla curiously. He was shocked to see Sherriff Brown break his own rules so casually. The man was normally
strict about following protocol, and here he was, acting completely against character. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but it was pretty clear that it had everything to do with Layla.

“Come on,” Ramon took her by the hand, gesturing to his patrol car. “Let’s go.”

She nodded, running over her explanations as they climbed back in, torn between the impulse to force him to listen to her lies or risk telling him the truth. The euphoria of the successful rescue mission was slowly being replaced by the fearsome reality of having to explain everything to Ramon and risk being rejected once and for all.

When they were alone in the car he turned to face her, “Tell me how you did that.”

She looked at all the activity around them. “Not here.”

“Alright, Let’s go to my place,” he said.

She nodded, “Okay.”

As they drove along, Layla rubbed her temples, racking her aching head to try and figure out the best way to explain it. She’d always been able to rely on her ability to bend minds in order to push away questions, but for some reason she didn’t want to do that to him. Not anymore, and not after everything Ramon had done for her. A tiny thought started worming its way up through her subconscious, and when she looked over at him it began to grow stronger and stronger.

What if she just told him the unvarnished truth?

He looked over at her with the brightest gold curiosity she’d ever seen, and she knew that it was now or never. All of a sudden they were back in town, and he pulled up next to the hardware store and cut the engine.

“What are we doing here?” Layla asked.

Ramon pointed up to some windows above the store. “That’s my place up there.”

She followed him to the back of the store and waited while he unlocked the door, revealing a narrow, steep flight of stairs leading to the second floor. She followed him up, getting more and more anxious with each step.

There was a small landing on top, and Layla watched Ramon fumble with his keys, surprised to see that he was nervous too. “I took this apartment because it was so close to work… It’s probably not as nice as you’re used to…”

She followed him in, taking a look around. It was tidy but barren, with a comfortable looking couch facing a modest sized television. An end table held a lamp and a stack of magazines. The lights of the small town’s main street were visible through the window, and she walked over to look down. She saw a couple leave the diner, walking out into the cool night air arm in arm. Their pink and purple auras blended all around them, telling her they were in love.

“Layla?” Ramon’s voice startled her, and she spun around to find him standing directly behind her. “Well?”

“It’s nice,” she said, looking around. “I like your couch.”

He went over to sit down on it, patting the cushion next to him. She came over and sat, chewing on her lip and twisting the
diamond tennis bracelet that sparkled on her wrist.

“Tell me what’s going on,” he said.

She took a deep breath and looked up to meet his curious gaze. “I will, but you have to promise not to tell anyone.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“
Promise me
,” she said, looking into his eyes intensely.

“I promise,” he said quietly.

She exhaled, satisfied that he meant it. “Do you remember how your grandmother thought I was a witch?”

He nodded, his eyes narrowing.

“Well, that’s what they called my ancestors back in Scotland. Because of what they could do.”

“What could they do?” he whispered, his eyes glued to her face.

“What I just did.”

“Make people do what you want?”

She shook her head no. “I can make people feel things… Change their emotions. I can make them feel scared… relaxed… or sad.” Her eyes scanned his face, looking for a reaction. All she could see was more golden curiosity.

“But
how
?”

“I can see exactly how people are feeling. I can taste and smell their emotions too.”

“Really?”

She nodded yes. “Cali has it too. It’s an
inherited trait… like our eyes. It’s a type of synesthesia.”

“Synes-what?”

“Synesthesia. It’s a neurological condition. It happens when your sensory perception is… Mixed up– cross wired– We have an unusual type that allows us to see emotional states.”

“Okay, so you can see them… But how do you
change
them?”

She grimaced, because this is where the science got sketchy. “I can generate a feeling and project it onto people… more like into them. It’s like painting them a color or something… To make them feel things.”

He ran his fingers across his scalp, letting it sink in for a moment. “So that’s what you did to George Williams… You made him sad.”

“A lot more than sad,” she said seriously. “I made him as
miserable as I possibly could.”

He couldn’t help laughing, “You sure did. I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

His laughter made her feel better. Her heart lightened a little and she smiled tentatively.

“Can you read minds?” he asked.

“No. Only feelings.”

He struggled to understand, turning everything that had happened over in his mind. “And you can change the way people feel. You can consciously
make
people feel things.”

She nodded, “Yes.”

He studied her face. “You certainly make
me
feel things. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you from the first moment I saw you.”

The smile died on her face. “I swear… You have to believe me. I haven’t used it on you.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Well, except for that one time…”

“When I questioned you?”

She turned away, embarrassed. Cali’s words about earning Calvin’s trust never made more sense than they did at that exact moment. She felt his hand on hers and looked up to see him smiling with amusement. “I was wondering why I couldn’t seem to stay focused… I kept getting–”

“Distracted.”

He smiled wryly, “And here I thought it was because I liked you so much.” He reached for the phone, alarming her.