Messiah

by J. E. Taylor

  André glanced at the bathroom door on the way out of the room. I’m heading out. Dad’s here with the baby, he silently conveyed to Katrina in the shower.

  I’ll see you in a bit. He heard her voice in his head and smiled.

  ANDRÉ DIDN’T BOTHER calling out; he just bound up the stairs and into the bedroom, swinging the door closed behind him. He stripped and tossed his clothes into the corner, before pulling on a fresh set of boxers and jeans. Turning to sit on the edge of the bed, he caught Linda staring at him from the wide open door and he froze in place. His mind had been too preoccupied with what he needed to do for his exam to hear her thoughts, but now they shined through the haze like a lighthouse in a storm. “How long have you been there?”

  Linda grinned. “Long enough,” she said and went to step inside the room.

  André put up his hand in a stop signal and with it, an invisible wall. He recognized the wanting in her eyes and her thoughts. “Cut the shit, Mom,” he snapped, and resumed putting his socks on while keeping the barrier intact.

  Linda walked smack into the barricade, her jaw going slack with surprise.

  André ignored her and slid his sneakers back on. He grabbed a shirt and the keys to the hovercraft and turned toward her. “Mom, you have to move.” When she didn’t, he physically moved her aside with his mind. He shot her a get-a-grip look and disappeared down the hall and out of the house.

  “Jesus, what the hell am I transmitting?” he muttered under his breath and put the hovercraft in gear, heading toward the school.

  André pulled into the parking lot with fifteen minutes to spare and leaned back in the seat, rubbing his face with his hands and trying to focus on the advanced calculus exam. He got his mind set and stepped out of the craft. All motion around him stopped and every female in the parking lot and in front of the school turned to look at him. “Shit.”

  Two of his ex-girlfriends were already making a beeline toward him. He sidestepped them, walking directly into the school. A line of women followed and converged on him before he was able to get to the classroom.

  They steered him into an empty room, groping and pulling at his clothing.

  “Stop!” he yelled, but no one listened. The aggravation brewing shot out of him and the group pushed away as if a giant broom swept a five-foot arch around him. He stood in the center of the open space, glancing around. “What the hell is wrong with y’all?”

  He singled one of the girls out with his eyes. “Hannah, you’re Kat’s best friend.”

  “When the cat’s away, the mice will play,” Hannah purred.

  André glared at them. “You do not want me,” he muttered and pushed the thought on the group.

  Most of the girls blinked, looked at one another and at André in confusion. They dispersed, leaving only a handful who had been out in the hallway. They approached André, stalking him as they circled, blocking his path to the door.

  “Girls, I have an exam right now,” he sighed, exhausted.

  “A physical exam,” Anna said, slipping up to him and running her hands up his chest.

  Her brown eyes sparkled, much more than he remembered, and his mind went back to their fling a year ago. She was one of his more memorable conquests: lithe and athletic, her cheerleading skills translated well into the bedroom. Shaking the thought from his head, he took a step back, right into the big desk in the front of the classroom and said, “Anna, I’m not in the mood.”

  “Seems to me I recall you’re always in the mood.” She rubbed her hands over the front of his pants and the other girls stepped closer.

  André let out a nervous laugh and his body responded to her touch despite his better judgment.

  “Mmmm,” Anna purred. “Five-on-one. I bet you never dreamed you’d ever get this chance.”

  André raised his eyebrow and blinked, pulling his gaze away from Anna and the other cheerleaders caressing his clothing. He squirmed away from the desk, trying to break free of their insistent hands. “I can’t do this,” André whispered without the conviction needed to break the spell. He shook his head to clear it and peeled the girls off him, heading in the direction of the door.

  Anna grabbed his arm and spun him toward her, planting a hot, wet kiss on him.

  André’s resistance was at the limit and he closed his eyes, allowing her to explore his mouth with her tongue. Hands reached and rubbed and it was only when his shirt hiked up his chest that he broke the spell, pushing Anna away and yelling, “No!”

  He stalked into the hallway, heading straight for his calculus exam. The bell rang just as he slid in to his seat and he tensed against the budding frustration itching just under his skin. His frustration increased a notch as all eyes bore into him. “Come on,” he mumbled and rolled his eyes.

  Mr. Samuels, his calculus teacher, stared at him with a slack jaw.

  “What?” André growled at the intense stare.

  “Your eyes.”

  The teacher’s terror filled his head and André bit down on the angry retort to all the rampant thoughts flying around the room, from the hot, seductive thoughts of the girls to the stunned fear in the male population. “I know. Just hand out the fucking test,” André snapped. He closed his eyes and hung his head for a moment, concentrating on calming his emotions. When he looked back up, he scanned the classroom and finally met the professor’s gaze. “Apparently, having a baby makes my eyes freak out,” he added, trying to throw a brief bone of levity into the room.

  “Kat had the baby?” Adam, one of his teammates, asked.

  “Yeah, yesterday.” He glanced back at Adam.

  “And it did that to your eyes?” Adam gasped.

  André smiled. “Yes and no,” he said. He looked back at the professor. “Are we taking an exam today?” He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms.

  The professor fumbled with the papers on his desk.

  “Or do we all get A’s?” André said and pushed the thought into the professor’s head. He watched as the professor blinked, looked down at the blank tests and his grade book and then up at the class.

  “You all have an A average. I don’t think an exam is necessary,” he said and wandered out of the classroom.

  The students stared at the empty doorway with wide eyes and slack jaws, their collective gaze slowly focused back on André.

  André’s smile faded. Oh crap!

  “How the hell did you do that?” Adam asked.

  “Yeah?” The resounding response from thirty students sounded at once.

  André shrugged and took a deep breath. “I dunno,” he mumbled and looked at his hands.

  “I don’t care how you did it.” The girl who was sitting behind him slid out of her seat and knelt on the floor beside him. She ran her hands up his legs.

  André grabbed her wrists and glanced over at Adam. His jaw clenched as he took note that a few of the other girls were heading in his direction. He closed his eyes. You do not want me, he thought and sent targeted pushes to the women heading in his direction. When he opened his eyes, the girl kneeling on the floor stared at him with the same dazed confusion the professor had on his face before he left the room.

  “What are you?” Adam whispered.

  André let out a laugh. “I’m a seventeen-year-old father,” he said and stood to leave.

  “Bullshit,” Adam said.

  André turned back toward Adam and the rest of his class; any hint of amusement vanished with the accusatory stares. “Look, I’ve had a long couple of days. I’m tired and this isn’t a discussion I’m inclined to participate in,” he said with a voice thick with the Texan accent. Thoughts accosted him with words like monster, freak, and alien, the last sending chills up his spine. A warning prickled his neck and he spun back toward his class, raising his hand and caught the apple sailing toward his head.

  Adam leaned back in his seat. “You ain’t one of us,” he said.

  André tossed the apple in the air and caught it. “Maybe not, but we wouldn’t have made
it to the championship this year without me,” he said and shined the apple, taking a bite before heading out into the hall. Kat, I royally screwed up, he thought and took another bite, stepping outside. Royally.

  How so? Her voice resounded in his head, and he faltered, flustered by the clarity in her thought broadcast to the point he wondered if she actually could read his mind at this distance and hoped like hell that wasn’t the case.

  They saw my eyes.

  You screwed around on me? Her voice carried through his head.

  “No. I was ambushed,” he said aloud from the confines of the hovercraft. And then my class saw my eyes and they saw me use the influence on the teacher. “So I think my secret may be out sooner than anyone anticipated,” he said to himself.

  André walked into the hospital room fifteen minutes later.

  Katrina’s eyebrows furrowed. “Since when do you wear lipstick?”

  André headed into the bathroom and took a quick glimpse in the mirror, letting out a laugh at the traces of pink lipstick on the corner of his mouth, cheek, and neck. He grabbed a paper towel and erased the damning evidence. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. All I know is this thing is out of hand.” He tossed the towel into the garbage and stepped back in the room. “It’s like all the females I come in contact with are affected by a weird aphrodisiac and I’m the benefactor.” He met her sour gaze. “I didn’t ask for this, Kat. I didn’t ask for the entire female population of our school to corner me in a classroom either.”

  “You let them close enough to leave lipstick?” She pushed her chin out in irritation, her lips pursing with disbelief.

  André looked at the floor, heat filling his cheeks. “I guess.”

  If she had been standing, her foot would have started tapping the floor with impatience. Instead, she pressed her lips together, leveling a hostile gaze that spoke volumes to the tumult inside her.

  “I sent a wave of influence through the room and everyone inside stopped, but I didn’t think to send that web farther, like through the entire school, so when the masses left, the cheerleading squad cornered me. That’s where I got the lipstick marks.”

  “Anna,” Kat said, her tone laced with disappointment and a dash of jealousy.

  “Yep.” André flopped into the chair, leaning his temple on his fist, closing his eyes as the exhaustion weighed on his muscles, dragging him down toward sleep.

  Katrina let out a small laugh. “I don’t know about your daddy,” she whispered.

  “What don’t you know?” The corner of his mouth twitched into a grin and he opened one eye, focusing on her.

  “I’m the one who should be tired.”

  André’s eyes fluttered open. “Sorry. Did you want some sleep?”

  Katrina nodded. “A little would help.”

  André stood, stretching the sleep from his muscles before he collected his son from her, kissing her gently on the forehead in the process. He slid back in the chair, smiling down into his son’s inquisitive eyes. “How long was my dad here?” he asked with a yawn.

  “About an hour. The doctor came by after he left and said I’m doing well enough to go home tonight after dinner,” she replied. Settling down on her side, she closed her eyes, drifting into a restless sleep within minutes.

  André watched her sleep for a while, catching fragments of her dreams as he eavesdropped on her thoughts. He tore his eyes away from his wife and looked back at his son. Sam stared back at him. “Your mom has dirty dreams,” he whispered, his smile morphing into a grin.

  He climbed into the bed next to her with Sam on his chest and closed his eyes against the headache forming behind them. The word exhausted gained new meaning for him.

  An elbow nudged his chest. “André,” Katrina whispered.

  “Hmm?” He opened his eyes and looked around at the change in the lighting. “How long have I been sleeping?”

  “A couple hours. Take Sam for a second.” She transferred Sam to André’s arms and headed into the bathroom.

  André sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, arching his back for a moment to loosen up the stiffness. “Hey,” he mumbled at his fussy son. “Momma will be right back.” The door swung open and he turned his head in the direction of the intrusion.

  Matthew and Linda walked in, and Linda’s thoughts switched from her grandson to André. Irritation spread over Matthew’s face and André steeled his expression, trying to block her evocative thoughts.

  “Where’s Katrina?” Matthew asked, attempting to ignore his wife’s sudden change.

  “She’s in the bathroom.”

  As if on cue, the bathroom door opened. Katrina looked at the family gathering. “Hi,” she said. Tension hung in the room like a patch of hot, humid air and Katrina stepped toward André.

  “What happened at school today?” Matthew asked, framing the question based on some rumors that made it to his office this afternoon.

  Katrina put her hands out for her son and André transferred the baby to her before burying his hands in his pockets. He wouldn’t meet his father’s gaze; instead, he shifted from one foot to the other, studying the tile pattern on the floor.

  Katrina situated Sam with a bottle and then looked up at her in-laws. “It wasn’t his fault, so back off,” she snapped.

  The sudden onslaught of irritation transmitting from her surprised André, and he raised his eyebrows, meeting his father’s gaze. Matthew had the same look of shock that André imagined showed in his features.

  She looked back at Matthew and Linda, her eyes becoming hard as steel, and her focus landed on Linda. “So help me God, I’m going to smack you if you continue looking at André like that.” She sent a mental shove that actually pushed Linda back a step, gaining her full attention.

  “I, uh...” Linda’s gaze snapped to Katrina. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what’s come over me.” She stumbled over the words and glanced quickly in André’s direction.

  “He’s emitting some sort of vibe that’s making us a little crazy,” Katrina replied and André caught her direct glance. “Neither of us can figure out why.” She looked back at Linda. “But that still doesn’t give you the right to act on it.”

  “I would never...” Linda began to protest but trailed off as she thought about earlier today at the house. “I wouldn’t,” she said, more to convince herself than anyone in the room.

  Matthew sent a glare in André’s direction. “You don’t know how to control this thing?”

  André shook his head. “I was swarmed at school and I screwed up. Everyone in my class saw my eyes, Dad. My teacher freaked a little and I had to give him a little nudge,” he drawled, the nerves getting the best of him. “They know I’m different now.”

  “Shit,” Matthew whispered.

  André shrugged. “I tried to blame it on fatherhood.” His attempt at humor fell flat and he traded a glance with Katrina. “I’ve got another exam in an hour.”

  “You think it’s wise to go back to school today?” Linda asked.

  “He’s got to finish school,” Matthew replied, not giving André the option. “Just keep your...whatever...in check.” He waved his hand at his son.

  “Yeah, I don’t want you coming back with lipstick on your face again,” Katrina added.

  André nodded. “I’ll try.”

  “And no mind control shit,” Matthew said.

  André opened his mouth to speak but thought better of it. It was either mind control or unwanted advances. Both options sucked. He nodded, agreeing to his father’s order. “I’m going to go grab something to eat,” he muttered and retreated out of the room.

  Relieved to be out from under the scrutiny of his parents, he wandered into the hospital cafeteria and stood looking at the menu, feeling the eyes of the female patrons heating up his backside. Ignoring the uneasiness, he walked up to the counter and ordered a cheeseburger, French fries, and two vanilla milkshakes. He paid with cash and carried the tray back to the maternity ward.<
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  André handed the milkshake to Katrina and set the tray on the small table. He slid the chair in and didn’t look at anyone as he wolfed down the meal.

  “God, that smells so good,” Katrina said, eyeing her husband’s meal.

  “Can you have normal food yet?” André said with a mouthful of French fries.

  Katrina shrugged.

  “Well, ask,” André said after swallowing.

  Katrina pressed the call button and a nurse entered a few minutes later.

  “Can I help you?” she asked Katrina, but her eyes drifted to André.

  “Can I have a cheeseburger and fries too?” Katrina asked and took a sip of her milkshake.

  “Hmmm?” the nurse said, pulling her attention back to Katrina.

  “Can I have a cheeseburger and fries?” Katrina said in a measured tone.

  “Certainly. You can call down and place your order and they’ll bring it on up.” She smiled, her glance again wandering back to André. She checked Katrina’s pulse and measured her blood pressure, marking both on her chart before shooting a longing glance in André’s direction.

  “Can’t you shut it off?” Katrina snapped after the nurse left the room.

  “I don’t even know what the fuck it is,” he barked, prompting a smack on the back of his head by Matthew.

  “Watch your language,” Matthew scolded.

  André sighed, biting down another smack-worthy response. A year ago, this kind of attention would have been a glorious ride for him, tagging each and every female who came within his radar. In that respect, Anna was right on the money, but ever since he hooked up with Katrina, she was the only one he wanted. Even so, all the silently transmitted sexual innuendo fueled a building fire within him that he knew couldn’t be released for another six weeks, adding to his frustration. “I have to leave soon for class,” he said. “Practice is at three. I’ll be back around five.”

  “I thought you weren’t going to practice,” Katrina balked and André sent her a warning glare that shut her up.

  “After everything that happened today, I need it,” he said.

  “Don’t you think—” Matthew started.