Wild-born (17 page)

I could tell you about all the fun we had during the holiday season, but I doubt you are all that interested. If you are as fortunate as I hope you are, you will already know what it feels like to enjoy a peaceful and happy time with a family, which is, no doubt, what I had there. I did miss both of my arbitrary deadlines, still having no clue how to keep my body from relying on my telekinetic power, and entirely unable to tune out Alia’s constant name-calling. However, at the time, it didn’t bother me very much. As Cindy had once said, I still had plenty of time to learn.

C
hapter 8: The Windmaster

Near the end of January, we went back to the pond, this time taking ice skates. In addition to the skates, Cindy had bought me a new snowsuit for Christmas, and once again I was appalled at her fashion sense. The matching jacket and pants were a truly horrific combination of pink, violet and yellow, undoubtedly designed for girls. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to complain about a present. At least it was plenty warm and waterproof, and besides, who was going to see me wearing it aside from Cindy and Alia?

The pond was frozen solid, and I spent some time telekinetically moving the snow off a section of the ice to make it skate-able. The result wasn’t nearly as large, smooth or level as a proper ice skating rink, but good enough to have some fun. I had learned to skate when I was six, and I easily glided over the uneven ice, weaving between Cindy and Alia as Cindy tried to teach Alia how to keep from falling over.

“Addy, stop it!”
Alia cried into my head as I zipped past her at top speed.

“Say the words, Ali!” I called back, laughing at her, and the next thing I knew, I was off the ice and painfully sprawled on the pebbles that surrounded the pond.

I quickly checked myself for cuts, but I knew I was okay because I wasn’t being drained. I could hear Cindy and Alia having a nice little laugh at me. Although my steel skate blades weighted me down a lot, I managed to levitate myself a yard up off the ground and flew back toward the two.

I had just touched back down on the ice when I heard the crack of a gunshot off in the distance. Blood spattered on the ice. Alia screamed.

I couldn’t tell at first which of them had been shot, but I grabbed their hands and started to pull. The skates weren’t helping matters at all. I heard another shot, and then a third. I looked down and saw a thin trail of blood on the ice.

Suddenly I was the one being pulled as Cindy grabbed Alia and me and dragged us off the pond. The three of us scrambled into the cover of the trees at the pond’s edge as yet another shot rang out. Alia finally stopped screaming, but her eyes were wide with fright. I could hear some men shouting in the distance.

Cindy was clutching her upper left arm, trying to stop the bleeding. “I’m okay,” she said, breathing rapidly. “It just nicked me. We have to get to the car.”

Cindy’s SUV was parked a little farther away, and we’d have to run in the open, through patches of snow and over uneven ground, to get to it. I wished I could fly us there, but I couldn’t even lift Alia and myself at the same time, to say nothing of Cindy. On foot, we would be too slow even if we had our regular shoes, which had been left on the other side of the pond.

“Someone will have heard the shots,” I panted.

“We can’t wait around to be rescued, though,” said Cindy. “We’ll have to run.”

“Wait! Give me the key. I’ll fly to the car and bring it down here.”

I wasn’t sure why I even said that. I had never driven a car before. Cindy stared at me, looking as uncertain as I felt, but there was no time—the men could be here at any moment.

“Cindy, the key!” I shouted.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Cindy, reaching into her pocket.

“Just give it to me. And stay with Alia.”

I was wearing gloves, which was fortunate because I didn’t bother worrying about being drained as I grabbed Cindy’s key ring. Cindy helped me pull off my skates. I didn’t want to be slowed down by the metal blades.

Kicking hard off the ground, I lifted myself about seven feet into the air before heading full speed toward the car. I heard another shot as I landed, and the door mirror shattered, spraying me with silvery fragments. Fortunately, Cindy had left the door unlocked, and I got in quickly.

Keeping my head down as low as possible, I turned the ignition. The engine immediately roared to life, and I clumsily drove the SUV down toward Cindy and Alia, nearly running them over.

Having been practically thrown onto the back seat by Cindy, Alia started wailing again as Cindy pushed me aside and took the wheel. As we sped away, I was expecting to be shot at again at any moment, but no more rounds were fired.

“Amateurs...” Cindy muttered under her breath, pulling onto the expressway.

“Who were they?” I asked.

Cindy kept her eyes on the road. “Probably Slayers. Otherwise, they would have wanted us alive. I just wish I knew how they found us.”

“Where are we going?”

“First, we’re going home,” said Cindy. “I can’t hide us out here right now. My blood is draining me. We have to get back into my hiding bubble around the house.”

“Can’t Alia heal you?”

“Does it look like she can?!” Cindy snapped back.

Used to the calm and collected Cindy, I was shocked by the harshness of her tone, but she had a point: Alia was still bawling her eyes out on the back seat.

“It’s okay,” Cindy said in a steadier voice. “I think the bleeding has pretty much stopped already. I just need to wipe the blood off.”

I looked at her anxiously. “What if more of them are waiting at home?”

“If they knew where we lived, they would have attacked us at home during the night,” replied Cindy. “We’ll have to be quick, though. We can’t stay there.”

It was nearly dark when we pulled into Cindy’s garage. Inside the house, Cindy told me to start packing my clothes so that I could put them in the car. Then she went to the bathroom to clean up her wounded arm. Alia was still sobbing in the living room, but I left her to it and ran upstairs to do as Cindy asked.

I was about to take my gloves off and change out of my snowsuit, but then an all-too-familiar wind started to swirl through the house.

The windows began to rattle, and I heard a loud crashing noise from downstairs. I crept back to the top of the stairs, and as I looked down into the living room, my worst fears were confirmed.

There was glass all over the floor where the living-room window had shattered. Alia had stopped crying. She was standing amidst the glass fragments, looking up at the face of a man I had hoped to never meet again: a tall and skinny old man with curly white hair. Ralph was pointing his heavy wooden crossbow directly at Alia’s chest.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” Ralph said in his raspy voice. “A little healer! What’s your name, child?”

Alia gazed into his eyes, and a moment later, Ralph said, “Ah, yes. So you’re little Alia. I’ve wanted to meet you. So you’re a healer too, eh? No wonder Cindy wanted to keep you secret.”

The wind had stopped.

“Ali!” I heard Cindy’s voice calling frantically, probably from the bathroom.

Ralph grinned at Alia and said, “You be nice and quiet now, child, okay?”

Alia nodded silently, smiling back up at Ralph. I watched from my hiding place, sickened by what I was seeing. A moment later, Cindy came in, jumped in fright, and suddenly became quiet as Ralph took control of her too.

“Cindy!” said Ralph. “It’s very good to see you again.”

Cindy smiled pleasantly and said, “Hello, Ralph, it’s been too long. How did you find us?”

“Pure, blind luck,” said Ralph, grinning. “I was tracking a team of Slayers and they led me right to you.”

“Oh, so it was you that saved us?”

Ralph nodded. “I knew the Slayers were after somebody, though I didn’t know who, so I followed them to find out. I figured if they were after our enemies, I’d give them a hand before I killed them too. But it was you they were after, and I wasn’t about to let them kill the great Cynthia Gifford, now was I? Bullets don’t fly straight in a wind.”

“Are you still killing everyone who gets in your way?” asked Cindy, her voice as calm as if she was talking about the weather.

“You’re not upset about me saving your life, are you?”

“Of course not, Ralph. I do appreciate what you did. But I don’t like it when we hurt people.”

“Ha! You always were a soft one for humans. But there’s never need to show mercy to people who don’t know the meaning of the word.”

Cindy nodded slowly. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right!” laughed Ralph, and then said so quietly that I could barely hear him from my hiding place, “Don’t think I don’t know what you did to this girl’s parents, Cindy. You’re not so different from me.”

I noticed that as Ralph was talking, Alia was coming out of her trance. She shuddered once and looked up at Ralph, her face rigid with fright.

Cindy smiled down at her. “It’s okay, Ali. This is Ralph. He’s a friend.”

Alia shook her head and ran to Cindy, grabbing her legs and trying to pull her away.

“Hey, what’s the matter, honey?” asked Cindy. “It’s okay. Ralph won’t hurt you. He’s just visiting. Come on, I want you to say hello.”

Cindy tried to push Alia toward Ralph, but Alia started crying again, desperately tugging on Cindy’s legs.

“We’ve already met, though no thanks to you,” Ralph said accusingly. “After all I did for you, hunting down her parents and all, you never even told me she’s a healer.”

Cindy ignored Alia’s crying. “Oh, I’m so sorry about that. I was meaning to introduce you someday.”

“You should never have left us, Cindy. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yes, Ralph. I am sorry.”

Ralph chuckled quietly. “I must admit, I never expected to see you in this town again. It was smart, but your vacation is over now.”

I watched all of this from the stairs, trying to make sense of it. I knew that Cindy was under Ralph’s control, but something was missing from the picture. Alia was still bawling and trying to pull Cindy away from Ralph. Watching her, I wondered why Ralph didn’t use his peacemaking power on Alia again. Was it possible that he could only control one person at a time?

But that didn’t make sense either. Ralph didn’t need to constantly keep his power focused on his target. Why was he still focusing on Cindy when she was already under his control?

Then I remembered how Ralph had done the same with me back at the hotel just before leaving me there alone. Ralph was reinforcing his control on Cindy to make it last longer! Now was my one—and perhaps only—chance to act.

I didn’t want to try blasting Ralph from the top of the stairs, fearing that even if I didn’t miss, I was too far away to hit him hard enough to knock him down. However, if I could sneak up on him while his attention was on Cindy, I might be able to overpower him. All I needed was something to drain him with. Then Ralph would just be an old man with a wheezy voice.

“Addy! Addy, help!”
I heard Alia yell into my head.

I almost shouted back to her, but stopped myself at the last instant. Alia was looking up toward me, and Ralph was bound to notice at any moment.

“You know I was never much of a finder, Cindy,” Ralph said slowly. “Not like you, anyway. Still, when I was following your car, I could have sworn there was one more with you. And now that I’m close enough, I can feel him in the house too, even with you hiding this place good and proper. A telekinetic... Perhaps another child? It’s hard to track a child. Who’s the other guest?”

“Oh, you mean Adrian?” asked Cindy. “I think he’s upstairs. I’ll call him down, okay?”

There was no time to think. Levitating slightly, I kicked off from the top stair and launched myself straight at Ralph, shutting my eyes tightly just before he turned his head toward me. I felt a sharp pain in my left leg as it made contact with the side of Ralph’s crossbow, and also felt a dull thud in my right shoulder and arm as I hit Ralph squarely in the chest, sending us both sprawling.

I had to open my eyes to get my bearings. I was on the floor, for the moment in better shape than Ralph, who I had used to cushion my semi-controlled fall. I struggled to my feet and looked around for something heavy to hit Ralph with, but the furniture here was not as easy to handle as the chair back at the hotel.

“Adrian, no,” said Cindy, though without any urgency in her voice. “What are you doing? Please don’t hurt Ralph.”

Cindy clumsily stepped forward and tried to grab me, but she was clearly very dazed and I easily sidestepped her. A moment later, Ralph had stood up and our eyes met.

“Adrian!” Ralph grinned, picking up his crossbow. “Well, well, well, well! Small world, isn’t it, lad? You did me in good at that hotel. Smart lad you are! I was mighty impressed! You don’t know yet what your power’s worth, but you’ve got spirit, lad. Oh yes, you’ve got spirit.”

Looking into his eyes, I knew I was under his control. I was furious that he had done it to me again. I glared at him, hating that calm old smiling face that took me from my house last year. Ralph, who always knew what was best for me. Ralph, who tied me to a bed and nearly drained me to death with a chain around my neck. Ralph, who refused to help me look for Cat when it still could have made a difference...

“What’s the matter, lad?” he asked, looking deeper into my eyes. “Don’t you remember your old pal Ralph?”

I smiled back at him. As Ralph continued to gaze into my eyes, I could feel a slight touch of calm spreading through my body, but that was it. Ralph had no real control over me! Just like with Alia, it was a battle of willpower, but this time I had won!

“Yes, Ralph, I remember you,” I answered calmly, still smiling as it dawned on me that Ralph didn’t know that he wasn’t controlling my feelings. Ralph was still holding the crossbow, though loosely in his hands. Hopefully, it would only be a matter of minutes before Cindy was back to normal, and then it would be two against one.

But then I sensed Ralph’s calm even deeper in my heart, and I knew I had let my guard down. I focused my anger at him, willing myself not to give in to his influence.