Hesitation stalled my muscles as I opened the door to a brightly lit hallway. Quiet permeated the floor but I could hear soft voices in the distance. I just wasn’t sure which way they were coming from. I ducked my head out, looking both ways for a sign of where she would have gone. Given the choice of two non-distinct directions, I turned to my right, studying the symbols on the doors and the brightly colored lines on the floor. Artwork spackled the walls, most drawings by young hands and I smiled as I passed a collection that reminded me of Grace’s art.
The voice grew as I got closer to where the hall opened up to a bright area. A collection of nurses stood behind a desk on the left side of the atrium watching as a candy striper read to a group of children. I leaned on the entryway, listening to the story as the girl read. Halfway through the next page, she glanced up and her voice faltered as her gaze fell on me.
Some of the children looked over their shoulder at me, their heads in varying states of hair loss or covered with hats. Those that saw me turned back when the girl continued the story. To the right of the entrance was a large object that I couldn’t find the right word for and in front of it sat a small bench. I crossed and took a seat, still able to see the girl, but my gaze dropped to the black and white ivory keys in front of me.
One of the children in the back got up and crossed to where I sat. She leaned on the edge or the instrument and asked, “Do you play?”
“I d...don...t know.” My speech was still a crap shoot and I offered a half hearted shrug. “Wha...at is i...it?”
“It’s a piano,” she said and shooed me aside.
I moved, giving her space on the bench and watched her place her thin fingers on the keys. “This is middle C,” she said and pressed the note. I grinned at the melody of that one note and then she enthralled me more by playing a progression up and down the scale for me.
“My mom used to make me practice all the time,” she said and ran through the scales and then pulled her fingers away and stared at me. “What’s wrong with you?”
I shrugged and tapped my head. “No mem...m...or...y.” Instead of trying to articulate the same question, I pointed at her and raised my eyebrows.
“Cancer,” she said. “They think the chemo will help this time.”
“I ho...pe so.”
“Thank you, I gotta get back,” she said and slid off the bench just as the girl closed the book.
My gaze dropped to the piano keys and I placed my fingers on them, closing my eyes. My fingers moved of their own accord, filling the atrium with the slow cadence of music. I played the tune and then repeated it. Words flowed in time with the melody, softly at first and then drifting over the children. When I got to the chorus, more voices than my own joined me, singing Hallelujah and I opened my eyes.
I didn’t know where the words or the music were coming from, but I had no stutter and the rapt attention of everyone in the vicinity made me smile. I slid my gaze to the entryway that I had come from and Valerie stood in the center with cups in her hands and her mouth open in surprise.
The children and some adults came closer. I continued, even as a rash of gooseflesh crawled up my arms and before long, everyone was singing with me. The rush of it created a heat in my cheeks and when I finished, silence blanketed the room for a minute before the clapping started.
I stared at my hands and then the people prompting me to play something else. Even the little girl who had told me this was a piano was egging me on. I glanced at Valerie and her paralysis broke. She crossed the distance.
“Okay, kids, Chris needs to go back to his room now,” she said and eyes turned to her.
“But Dr. Denongalis,” one of the children whined and she raised an eyebrow. The group collectively whined “aww” and disbursed.
“I didn’t know you played,” she said, staring at me before she handed me one of the cups.
I shrugged. “I di...dn’t know, eith...ther.”
Her eyebrow cocked. “That’s my favorite song,” she said.
“Oh.”
“And you sang it flawlessly,” she added and took my elbow, leading me back toward my room. “Come on. You need to have some tests today to make sure everything is okay.”
“Okay.” I followed her back to the room, studying the walls again as I passed. “Why here?” I asked, pleased when the simple words came out without a stutter.
She glanced over her shoulder. “I wanted you where my rotation was. So you’re at Dana Farber in the children’s section.”
I thought about our escapades last night and heat filled my face. If I had known we were in the children’s ward... ah hell, I still would have indulged. When we stepped into the room, the man who looked similar to Tom turned from his station at the window. My smile faded.
“You never told me Chris could play the piano,” she said to him.
He let out a small laugh. “He doesn’t.”
With that, I was now the focal point of both sets of eyes.
“How did you do that,” she asked in just a small whisper.
I raised a shoulder. “I heard it in my head.”
With a couple of blinks, she turned toward the man. “Chris, this is Steve. He’s your father.”
“I adopted you after your parents died,” he added, clarifying his role further. “You and Tom have called me Uncle Steve ever since.”
I gave him a nod and my gaze dropped to the floor. “I don’t remember you,” I said, but the words didn’t flow as smooth from my mouth as they did in my head. At least now the single syllable words didn’t pause and restart like a stuck recording like the rest. I hated the fact that I was still struggling.
“It’s okay,” he said, his voice soft and low and I looked up into his blue irises. “Valerie asked me to come because, if the tests show nothing to be alarmed about, she said I can take you home.”
I stepped back and my gaze slid to Valerie.
“If everything checks out, you can’t stay,” she said, the conflict in her eyes, hammered against my chest.
“But?”
“I will see you at home when this rotation ends.” Her stern eyes met mine in the same way she scolded the children a few minutes ago, but I knew under the sternness was hesitation.
It should have made me feel better that she didn’t want me to go, but it didn’t. As a matter of fact, I didn’t like this at all. This was familiar and calm and the only normal I knew. Being with her was home. “How long?”
“I have another six weeks here.”
“How man...ny hours?” I said because six weeks didn’t mean squat to me.
“There are twenty-four hours in a day and seven days in a week.” She crossed her arms.
The calculation in my head took the same amount of time as it took her to cross her arms. “A thousand hours?” I gawked.
“One thousand and eight to be exact,” she said. “You can visit on weekends if you want,” she said and I nodded while the center of my body slowly twisted into a knot. “And we’ll have to get you a piano.”
The heat rose in my cheeks. I still didn’t understand how I did that, but the way she looked watching me was worth going out and buying a hundred pianos. “When you come home,” I said.
She sent a smile my way and handed me the shirt that hung over the end of the bed. “Time for us to take a look at your magnificent brain,” she said and I didn’t meet Steve’s gaze, but he did chuckle and took a seat in the chair, opening a tablet and settled in.
The machine was loud and I had to stay still while it rattled around me. Valerie’s voice kept telling me I was doing well, appeasing my unease with soft assurances every time the anxiety ratcheted up. The whispers of thought tickled my mind and while I didn’t understand the terminology being used, I did get the awe and excitement at what they saw.
I stared at the white plastic and the more I thought about leaving, the more the knot in my stomach clenched. The machine finally silenced and Valerie came in, pulling me out of the scanner. Her gaze told me I wa
s more than fine and I closed my eyes. Sighing.
As we walked back to the room, I asked. “Before. How long did we...”
She slowed to a stop and met my gaze. “How long were we together before you got hurt?”
“Yes.”
She sighed. “Three days.”
“Three days?” The declaration sent a wave of chills through me. “What the fuck?”
She pulled me into an empty room. “Neither of us expected it at all. And in case you hadn’t noticed, neither of us is what you would call normal. Normal people can’t heal with a kiss or read minds or lock doors with a thought.”
I crossed my arms and stared down at her, unconvinced. Even without much of a memory, I knew three days didn’t make this kind of connection. It had to have been more.
“We shared memories,” she finally said. “When we first touched, we got a download of each other’s lives. It was a real mind fuck because, in a matter of seconds, it was like we were lifetime friends with a hell of a physical connection.”
“How...” I didn’t know how to articulate the question and stepped back clenching my fists in frustration. “Three days?” I asked instead.
She nodded. “You were my first,” she said and I looked at her, blinking, trying to catch up. “Last night was my second time, ever.” Her voice softened. “You aren’t imagining the connection. I was lost for the last two years, walking around like half my soul was gone.”
“But three days to be this...” I paused and swallowed, targeting the right word. “De...pen...dant?”
“It’s not logical. But then again, you playing a song, that I played at least a dozen times a week when you were in a coma, like you performed it a thousand times isn’t logical. You nearly dying...” she pressed her lips together and her mind closed with a slam.
“What happened to me?”
“You saved our lives,” she said and stepped around me to the door.
I grabbed her arm and she met my gaze.
“Seeing you so broken...” Tears filled her eyes and she shook her head, unable to speak for a minute as her locked down memories overtook the conversation. She took a deep breath and continued, “I’m in love with you, Chris. I have been since you first kissed me. For me it wasn’t the memory download, it was that kiss. Time stopped and nothing existed but you and as much as I didn’t want to, you stole my heart by believing in me like no one else ever had. I waited for you, not knowing if you’d ever wake up.”
Tears painted her face. “You became home to me.”
“You’re my home.” I leaned in and kissed her gently and accepted our bizarre attachment. I really had no choice, the thought of navigating life without her left me terrified.
Chapter 26
Steve navigated the car out of the parking lot and wound his way around the city until we pulled onto a wider road. Signs with symbols hung on the overpasses and we eventually turned off the two lane highway in favor of a wider stretch. I still couldn’t read and I wondered just how long it would be until that ironed itself out. Instead of trying to study the roadways and signs that were as foreign to me as anything else, I studied the scenery for a while.
“Piano?” he said after a while.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Huh,” he huffed shaking his head like that was the damnedest thing.
“What happened?” I asked, pushing the stilted words out.
Steve sighed and continued staring out at the road. “A lot,” he finally said and glanced at me before focusing on driving.
I waited for more but it was obvious nothing was coming. All I heard was a low level static from him. “Are you really my uncle?”
He smiled and shook his head. “No. I met your father while I was on a case and we kind of grew on each other. Unfortunately, he was killed in the crossfire and your mother died later that same year. Murdered by the same wacko who nearly killed your brother.”
“What do you do?” I stuttered, now more nervous to be around someone associated with so much death.
“I used to be a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigations. A cop,” he added when I raised an eyebrow.
“Cop?”
He bit his lip and the space between his eyebrows creased. “A cop keeps the peace and goes after the bad guys. Their job is to keep people safe,” he said trying to boil it down into simplistic terms.
“Valerie said I saved everyone’s life. Does that make me a cop?”
“No. You aren’t a cop.” He glanced at me. “You’re just a kid who stepped into something far worse than you could handle alone, and we nearly lost you.”
“Why is everyone being so cryptic?”
He started to laugh. “It’s our turn to keep you safe,” he said and met my gaze. “Valerie doesn’t think you’re ready yet, and I have to trust the doctor’s instincts.”
I crossed my arms and sank farther into the seat, opting to watch the other cars on the road instead of engaging in any further conversation.
“Give it time,” he said, pulling my gaze back to him. “It’s been a rough road for all of us and we’d just like the chance for you to get to know us before we walk you through what happened. Okay?”
I caught the sheen of tears in his eyes and he blinked them away without shedding any.
“Okay,” I agreed.
He glanced at me. “You’re doing a little better talking than you were yesterday,” he said.
“Yes.” I continued watching the scenery. “Small words work, the rest, not so much.”
“Val said you still had an issue reading. Do you recognize any letters on the road signs?”
I glanced at the green signs with white symbols and shook my head. “No.”
“Well, we’ll have to work on that.”
His matter-of-fact statement made me shift in the seat. “I don’t understand how the words are in my head but I can’t remember what they look like.”
“The brain is a funny thing.” He glanced at me. “I assume you can still do some of the things you did before?”
I stared at him, hesitating for a moment before nodding. If Valerie trusted him enough to let him take me out of the hospital, then perhaps I should put some trust in the man.
He gave me a soft smile. “I used to have some of that magic mojo,” he said and sighed. “The illusion of invincibility was a comfort most of the time and reading Jen’s mind was always an adventure.” He laughed. “It’s been an adjustment not having it anymore.”
“What happened?”
Steve sighed. “Valerie. She was sick and in order for Damian and me to get her out of danger, I had to heal her.” He was quiet for a bit. “It was kind of the same thing that happened to me when I first...” he trailed off searching for the right word. “Absorbed your older brother’s powers. It was as much of a shock to him as it had been for me.”
“Tom?” I asked, focusing in on the word brother.
“No, Eric. He died the same year as your parents.”
“You sure seem to be around a lot of dead people,” I said and he laughed.
“True and some stick with you longer than others,” he said. His laughter wound down and there was an emptiness about him that etched into the lines of his face. “Silence is another thing I’ve had to get used to.”
“Huh?”
“The constant undercurrent of thoughts of those around you?” He sent a knowing glance at me. “It’s white noise until you focus and then it’s like being invisible in the middle of a private conversation. But now that I’m back to normal, I don’t have that and I never thought I’d say this, but between you and me... I miss it.”
“I thought it was normal,” I muttered and he chuckled.
“No. It took some getting used to for someone who has never had any ability to speak of. I remember the first night. I was at Quantico with a training class and the noise drove me bat shit. Your brother hadn’t given me any instructions on how to lower the thought assault from an overwhelming roar to white noise. In
stead, he found my struggle amusing, but I can’t blame him. I wasn’t all that happy when everything I had transferred to Valerie.”
“I bet.” I wouldn’t be very comfortable with someone depleting my powers, either. Although, I wasn’t sure of the realm of gifts I possessed. I just knew it felt like a ball of pure energy at the center of my body that snaked through every last membrane of my form, creating a constant hum in my skin.
We both got quiet and I watched the green scenery pass.
“Why me?” I asked as I turned the conversation over in my head.
“Why what?” he asked as we approached a scenic bridge overlooking a water way.
“Why do I have these... powers?”
He shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I think your mother was naturally blessed, along with your older brother, but their powers didn’t really trigger until your mom met your father.” Steve navigated from the high speed lane to the right hand lane, slowing down a little. “You were born out of that union of love and power and because of that, you’re unique in ways a lot of us can’t comprehend.” He glanced at me and then set the blinker, taking the exit ramp. “In some ways your uniqueness reminds me of Grace.”
I lost focus on the conversation, studying the quaint town we drove through and the glimpses I had of the water on a few of the curves. Steve pulled down a side road and approached a large home surrounded by a black iron fence and immaculately manicured lawn. The fence looped around both sides of the house blockading the residence from the bordering properties until it met up with a low stone wall and the water beyond. It was an impressive piece of ocean front property.
Steve pressed the remote attached to the visor and the gates slowly opened, leading to a short driveway and a three car garage. “This is your home,” he said and something about the way he accentuated the word your pulled my gaze to him. He stopped and turned off the car, before meeting my gaze. “Your parents left it to you. We’ve been living here with you since you were eight-years-old.”
Paranormal Magic (Shades of Prey Book 1) Page 223
