Wild-born (22 page)

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

“Mind if I speak with you a bit, Adrian?”

“Did Cindy ask you to talk some sense into me?”

Mark grinned. “I’ll try not to preach.”

“I’d appreciate it,” I said as I sipped my drink.

“You may not want to believe this,” Mark began gently, “but I do know what you’re going through.”

“How’s that?” I asked in a slightly harsher tone than I intended.

“I lost my twin brother when I was about your age,” said Mark. “I think he was kidnapped, but I don’t know because I never saw him again.” Mark paused for a moment before adding, “We had a fight during school that day, and went home by different roads. But he never came home.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, staring down into my mug.

“I spent a lot of time feeling guilty about that,” Mark continued quietly. “I blamed myself for starting the argument. I wished I could trade places with my brother. I often thought of running away from home so that I could go look for him. Please don’t think I don’t know how heavy that stone around your neck is.”

I looked down at the pendant I had been unconsciously fingering, and quickly pulled my hand away, feeling embarrassed. Watching me, Mark smiled slightly and said, “In the end, Adrian, family is everything. Everything that matters, anyway.”

“What about God?” I asked.

“God is family too,” Mark answered simply. “But God can take care of himself. It’s you that I’m worried about right now. Cindy really cares about you, and while I understand how very frustrating it can be, I hope you’ll try to smooth things out with her.”

“I just wish she could understand how important this is for me.”

“Believe me, she does. But you have to accept that she knows a lot more about the Angels than you do. She knows how much danger you would be in if you went looking for them.”

I turned my face away from Mark. I didn’t want to hear this, but when I felt Mark’s hand on my shoulder, I forced myself to look at him again.

“Cindy understands your pain perfectly, Adrian, because it’s exactly how she would feel if she lost Alia,” said Mark, looking into my eyes, “or you. You, like Alia, are her family now, and she could no more risk you than you could your sister.”

“I care about Cindy too, Mark,” I said. “She saved my life. She gave me a home. But she can’t ask me to give up Cat. It’s not fair.”

“I know it’s not,” said Mark, shaking his head slowly. “I’m sorry if I’m not being much of a help here.”

“It’s okay,” I muttered, sipping some more hot chocolate.

“Will you at least have dinner with us?”

“Sure, Mark.”

As Mark stood up, I asked, “What was your brother’s name?”

He turned around and smiled at me. “Is, Adrian,” he corrected. “My brother’s name
is
Jacob. I never really gave up on him.”

I actually did feel slightly better after talking with Mark, even if nothing was resolved. I went back into the house and mumbled an apology to Cindy, whose eyes, I noticed with a twinge of guilt, were red from crying.

Mark did his best to cheer us up over dinner, but as I lay on the couch later that night, my frustration crept back upon me. It wasn’t like I didn’t appreciate the dangers involved in fighting the Angels, even if I didn’t understand them as well as Cindy. As much as I didn’t want to hurt Cindy, I decided that if ever I had a chance to corner an Angel, I would take it even without Cindy’s help. After all, Cindy wasn’t the only one who could sense power.

A week later, just past mid-February, what I was hoping for finally happened.

I hadn’t had any more serious rows with Cindy since my talk with Mark, but nor had I given up trying to convince her to help me find an Angel. It was the day after Cat’s eleventh birthday, and I was meditating with Cindy in the living room after lunch. Alia was upstairs taking her nap, and Mark was at his church.

Sitting on the floor across from Cindy, I wasn’t concentrating at all on my meditation, still upset after yet another failed attempt during the morning to convince Cindy to help me. My eyes were not even completely closed, so I saw it when Cindy’s shoulders suddenly became tense. What had she noticed? If it was imminent danger, she would have stopped meditating.

I calmed myself, closed my eyes, and felt my way through the orchestra of senses until I found the subtle new note. It was a telekinetic. I couldn’t tell the direction, but he was probably right in the town below! I could walk there in a couple of hours. And as far as I could tell, he was alone.

I opened my eyes again, and found that Cindy had already opened hers too, looking at me worriedly.

“You felt it, Adrian?” she asked.

“I did,” I answered quietly. “Is he alone?”

Cindy started to open her mouth, but then closed it for a second before saying, “No, he’s with some others. They’re not destroyers, so you can’t sense them, but they’re powerful.”

“You’re lying, Cindy!” I said angrily as I stood up. She gave me a pained look, and I knew I was right.

Stretching my right arm out, I telekinetically snatched my jacket off of the coat rack standing by the door.

“Please, Adrian,” said Cindy as she watched me donning my jacket. “I’m sorry I lied. But that doesn’t mean no one else is out there. They could be hidden. And this psionic isn’t just a telekinetic. He’s also a graviton. Telekinesis is his second power, not nearly as strong as yours, but as a graviton he’s dangerous.”

“You just lied to me! How do I know this isn’t a lie, too?” I demanded, but even as I did, I saw in her eyes that she was telling the truth.

I had never met a graviton before. Cindy had told me they could weight things down. Since the graviton was also a telekinetic, he’d sense me as soon as I left Cindy’s hiding bubble over the hill, and I’d lose any element of surprise. I hesitated for just one moment, but all the frustration and anger I had been feeling since Ralph told me about my sister and the Angels could not be suppressed.

I opened the front door with much more force than was needed, and strode out. Cindy came running after me.

“I don’t need your help to find him,” I said defiantly as I walked down the driveway toward the dirt road, not looking back at her. “I can’t tell the direction, but I’ll know if I’m getting closer.”

“Adrian, why?!” Cindy asked frantically. “Why go after him? There’s no guarantee that he’s an Angel at all!”

“But he could be. And you said he’s not a controller.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous!”

“I’ll be careful.”

“Adrian, please!”

“What?!” I shouted, rounding on her. “Stay at home? Be a good boy? Maybe you haven’t noticed, Cindy, but I am not Alia!”

“Well, you’re certainly acting like a seven-year-old!” Cindy shouted back with equal ferocity. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but you’re the only person your sister has left! How do you think she’d feel if you threw your life away?!”

“Don’t talk like you know her!”

“If you get killed, who’s going to save her?!”

I turned my back to her and started walking again.

“Please, Adrian,” Cindy pleaded tearfully. “This is a mistake, and mistakes have consequences. Please don’t do this.”

“I’m not asking for your help, Cindy. I’ll handle this one myself.”

“He’ll be able to sense you as soon as you leave this hill. Please, just wait, and let me give you some hiding protection.”

I stopped. Cindy came up close behind me, and for a moment, I thought she was going to grab me and pull me back toward the house. Instead, she placed her right hand lightly on my chest, and then her left hand on my back. For five minutes or so, we stood together as Cindy worked her power into me. Physically, I didn’t feel at all different, but deep down, I was really sorry for making her do this.

Cindy took her hands off of me and said quietly, “The bubble will move with you. You’ll be able to get pretty close before he senses you, up to ten yards or less, but only if you can reach him in the next eight hours. It’s the best I can do. Please be careful. Even I won’t be able to sense you until the protection wears off. Remember, he may not be an Angel.”

I turned around and hugged her, trying to keep my voice steady as I said, “I’m sorry if I don’t come back.”

Cindy held me tightly. “If you’re alive, I’ll find you again.”

Pulling myself away, I turned around and started walking to the road, but Cindy said, “Hold on, Adrian. Wait there for a minute.”

“I’m not going to say goodbye to Alia, Cindy,” I called to her as she walked back toward the house.

“It’s not that.”

Cindy returned with a small wad of bills and told me to take Mark’s bicycle. Like his pickup truck, it was old and rusted, but nevertheless a sturdy mountain bike that would get me down the dirt road and into town quickly.

“I’ll explain to him,” she said, and hugged me again.

Thanking Cindy awkwardly for the money, I adjusted the bicycle seat and rode away. I felt as guilty as I could possibly feel, but I didn’t look back.

I made my way down the winding forest road, pondering what I was about to do. When I had first felt the psionic’s presence, my mounting frustration and annoyance with Cindy had hardened my resolve, but now that I was actually on my way, I was already having second thoughts. Capturing an unknown psionic... I knew that was much easier said than done. And I wasn’t in disguise either, which meant I’d be chancing it with the police as well. I regretted my angry words to Cindy, and even thought about going back and telling her that I changed my mind. But then I decided that as long as I was here, I owed it to myself as much as to Cat to see this through.

A short ride from the foot of the hill, the university town looked sleepy and nearly deserted at this time of day. I saw some small schoolchildren walking down the street, laughing and chattering together as they made their way home. For a few minutes, I watched them enviously, realizing that I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be a child.

After Ralph, I really wasn’t looking forward to another battle with a psionic. This time, however, I was the hunter. Concealed by the hiding protection that Cindy had given me, surprise was on my side. Even so, I still needed a strategy.

I found a hardware store and bought a pair of leather gloves, a length of thin but sturdy rope, and some copper wire like the one I used to wear back at home. I also bought a cheap radio from which, after I left the store, I removed the extendable antenna. I threw the radio away, pocketing the antenna, which would serve as my drain sword. My plan was to try to blast the graviton from a distance before he could sense me, fly at him, drain him and tie him up. Then I could question him. If he was an Angel (and I sincerely hoped he was), he just might have what I wanted. If he wasn’t an Angel, I would have made another enemy, but then, what was one more enemy in a world full of Angels and Guardians, Slayers and Wolves?

As properly armed as I could hope to be, I pedaled toward the downtown area, assuming that this psionic was merely passing through and would probably be staying at a hotel. Once I got within the general area where I could sense his power fairly close, I realized that getting an exact fix on his location was something only a true finder could do. Or, at least, I wasn’t ready for it. I cycled one block at a time, stopping to calm myself enough to feel the telekinetic’s song and gauge my distance to it. I often doubled back, thinking I had made a mistake, only to change my mind again. It was painstaking work, and soon it started to get dark. But I knew I was getting closer.

I was standing near a busy intersection, once again calming myself to locate the telekinetic when...

“Adrian?” Mark’s sudden voice behind me nearly stopped my heart. I spun around, my concentration broken.

“Mark! What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to steady my breathing. I could no longer sense the psionic anywhere, though I knew he must be very close now.

Mark laughed and said, “No, Adrian, what are
you
doing here?” Then his tone became much more serious as he asked, “Does Cindy know you’re in town?”

“Yes,” I said uneasily, “she does.”

“Won’t you be found off the hill?”

“Cindy gave me some protection for the road.”

“I see,” said Mark, carefully studying my expression. “So she really does know you’re out here on my bike?”

“Yeah... I’m sorry I took it without asking.”

“No, no, it’s quite alright,” said Mark. “But what are you doing here?”

Suddenly I felt the telekinetic’s presence again. It was much closer.

And getting closer.

I nervously looked around at the street. There were cars, and people on bicycles, and people walking along the sidewalk. Mark was saying something to me, but I was no longer listening. How could I tell which out of all these people the psionic one was, even if he passed right next to me? And that seemed all the more likely as I felt him getting even closer. He must be coming along this road, but from which direction? Cindy had said that ten yards was the limit of my cloak. I started to panic.

“Did you hear what I just said?” asked Mark. “Adrian, are you alright?”

“I’m sorry, Mark. I have to go!”

I jumped back onto Mark’s mountain bike, hoping to pedal to the intersection and escape into another street, but suddenly I felt something crash into my side. I was knocked off the bike and onto the sidewalk.

I looked up and saw a young woman, probably in her early twenties, hastily getting off of her single-speed bicycle. She was wearing a navy blue tracksuit and a very surprised expression. Still dazed, I couldn’t stand up. And I had lost track of the psionic again.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking!” squealed the woman as she extended her arm down to me.

I took her hand, and suddenly I felt heavier, as if all of my muscles and internal organs had turned to stone. I couldn’t even lift my own weight. I stared up at the woman. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were severe, focused on me.

She was the graviton!

My body became light again, and the woman pulled me to my feet. She patted the dust off my clothes, apologizing again and again, but then I discovered that she had another psionic power as I heard her voice inside my head say harshly,
“Ask me for trouble, kid, and I’ll give you more than you can handle.”