Melody stood up to go defend her sister. Christopher grabbed her arm and held her back, nodding for her to sit down. “Believe me; you don’t want to get in the middle of a lover’s quarrel. Let them work it out,” Christopher said, knowing full well that there would be no reconciliation if he’d done his job right.
“I’m an idiot,” Avery ranted. “A complete freaking idiot. What was I thinking? I practically told you it was okay that you cheated on me! Where the hell is my self-respect? I’m outta here.” He grabbed the necklace from around Zellie’s neck and yanked down hard breaking the chain.
“Ouch!” Zellie said, “Avery, why are you acting like this?”
Avery took off out the door, still talking to himself. This time when Melody stood up, Christopher let her go to her sister. Surprisingly, Melody ran past Zellie. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this,” she said, entering the stairwell. Christopher had to admit, that little girl was one hell of a Lookout. She anticipated that her sister would rather have her straighten things out with Avery than comfort her.
Zellie collapsed onto a folding chair, laid her head down on the table and began to cry. He rested a hand on her shoulder as a show of comfort. She flinched from his touch, giving him the strangest look.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “I was just trying to be comforting. Instead I startled you.”
Zellie’s expression softened. “Yes, you did, uh, sorry.”
Melody came back into the basement, followed by several other kids in the Youth Group. “He must have run to his truck, I couldn’t catch up with him,” she whispered to her sister. “Sorry, Zel. Maybe Claire and I can corner him later and talk some sense into him.”
“Don’t worry about it, its okay,” Zellie said, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “Everything will work out eventually.”
Melody shook her head. “If you say so.”
I had Claire tell the front desk person at the Lodge to have Ben call me as soon as he got home Monday evening. His cell had gone to voice mail every time I’d tried it. I was raging pissed by the time he got around to calling me late Tuesday morning.
“It’s about time,” I answered after checking the caller ID. “You were supposed to call me the second you got in!”
“Sor-ry! Geez. We got in late and I fell asleep, okay? Transcontinental travel can be taxing on one’s person.”
“Dude,” I scoffed, “you went to Canada. It’s like seven hours from here.”
“I have delicate Circadian rhythms,” he said and then yawned dramatically.
“And I have a feeling that you’re using words you don’t know the meaning of.”
“Do too; I’ve been studying my ass off just like you.”
I seriously doubted that very much, seeing as I had all the study materials with me. “Fine, we’re getting off the subject anyways. Get over here. I have some things to talk to you about that can’t be done over the phone.”
“Like what?”
“Like Avery freaking out on me when I told him about our weird-ass make out session.”
“Shit. I’ll be right there.”
To his credit, Ben showed up about fifteen minutes later, his hair damp from what must have been a hurried shower. He walked toward my room.
“We can talk in here. Mr. Adams saw everything and told Mom all about it and I’m sure you’ve told Frank, so...” I gestured for him to sit in the recliner.
“Uh, okay, this isn’t gonna be awkward at all.” He nodded at Mr. Adams, who was next to Mom on the couch, where he usually was when he wasn’t in the bathroom taking unnecessary showers or spying on me.
I pulled the two kitchen chairs over for Frank and me. He smiled as he took his seat. “You can communicate with spirits now, can’t you?”
“I can,” I said, sitting down cross legged.
“You can? Nice!” Ben said, leaning over for a high five. I saved us both the embarrassment and put my palm up for him to slap.
“That’s wonderful,” Frank said, “took you less time than it did Ben.”
“Ha!” I uncrossed my legs and kicked Ben in the thigh with the end of my tennis shoe. He was quick, though, and grabbed my ankle, tugging me from my chair.
Mr. Adams cleared his throat. “This is not helping your case, Zellie.”
Ben immediately dropped my foot and I slid back onto my chair. The room fell silent.
“I believe you had a theory you were going to share with us,” Mom said.
“Right.” I sat up straighter and looked at Ben. “Mr. Adams saw us...you know,” Ben nodded his head, “and he said he came to check on me because he felt an odd energy in my room and thought I might be in trouble.”
“Okay,” Ben said, gulping.
“Did you feel weird energy, or not like yourself?”
He looked at the floor. “What I felt...I still felt like myself, but that...what I wanted was intensified?” He glanced up at me. “I mean, I think you’re pretty and cool and we have a very specific thing in common. I wanted to kiss you but--”
“But you knew I was off limits,” I interjected.
“Exactly.” He nodded his head.
“Then why did you kiss her, kid? From where I stood, you weren’t taking no for an answer.” Mr. Adams scooted to the edge of the couch, lasering in on Ben.
To compensate, Ben slouched back into the recliner and rubbed his eyes. “Ugh. Because I was overcome with the idea that I could make her and if I projected that idea then she would comply.”
“Wait, what? You knew you were controlling me?” I asked, rage building in my gut.
“Kind of?” He cringed.
“Kind of!” I hopped up from my chair as Mr. Adams stood, both of us gunning for Ben.
“Wait! Wait!” Ben said, holding his hands out in front of him, attempting to protect his face that I was on the verge of punching in.
“Talk. Now,” I said, my fist poised inches from him. I thought it was telling that Mom and Frank weren’t trying to stop me.
“It was my intentions mixed with another energy or whatever Mr. Adams said. When you pushed me away, I realized that I’d gone way too far and felt totally gross.” He cautiously dropped his hands.
I stepped back. “You didn’t act like you felt gross.”
He sighed. “I panicked and tried to act like it was no big deal, okay? I had just absorbed a power I didn’t know existed, cut me some slack.”
That reminded me of my theory, duh. “It’s Assistant Pastor Morris.”
“What?” everyone said in varying degrees of disbelief, except for Frank who muttered something about not trusting the Church.
“That’s who you absorbed the mind control from. I felt it coming off of him when he was trying to console me after Avery’s strange flip-out. I’d never noticed it before, I didn’t have a reason to, but it was very familiar. He’s one of us.”
“Hmm,” Mom said, “I always wondered why such a good looking young man like him didn’t have a girlfriend.”
“He is pretty cute,” Ben agreed.
“Oh. My. God. Can the two of you stop being ick for five seconds and focus? Pastor hottie controls minds. Hello? We know nothing about this power. Don’t you think if he was using his abilities to help people he would have revealed himself to us?”
“You think he gave us the painful vision?” Ben said.
“Yup. I also think he might be responsible for the fire.” I sat down, suddenly feeling defeated.
“Grace, have you spoken to your mother or Hazel recently?” Frank asked. “I’m not cognizant of any Retroacts that use mind control. Perhaps they would know something about this?”
“In fact, Aunt Hazel left a message on my phone last night telling me that she and my mom had to travel to New York on a case. She instructed me not to contact them, that they would contact me.”
“That seems a little weird, Mom,” I said.
She shrugged her shoulders. “What’s new?”
“So, what are we going to do? Should we confront
Pastor Morris?”
Mr. Adams sat back down on the edge of the couch. “No. Take him by surprise. You’ll have the upper hand if he doesn’t know you’re aware of his power.”
“But he’s a Retro, Ben wouldn’t have absorbed his power otherwise, so he could possibly glimpse this.” We were so screwed.
“So we’ll rewind the conversation,” Ben said. “We all know its occurred and that its been rewound, so we’ll remember. Pastor Morris would have to concentrate on glimpsing this to know we’d found him out, but just to be safe I might as well rewind.” He stood, putting his arm out.
“Of course you would assume you’re the one who should do it,” I huffed.
He wiggled his fingers at me. “Girl, you better watch out and let me rewind this bitch or I just might make you kiss me again.”
Since my pregnant mother was in the room, I held back on the expletives, but made sure I conveyed my meaning in my tone. “Do it, now.”
He moved quickly and rewound prior to our conversation about Assistant Pastor Morris.
“What do you say, Zel, how about a driving lesson?”
I shook my head to clear it. “I’ll be in my room,” I said, ignoring him. Ben was so not off the hook with me.
Chapter Fourteen
Christopher had never met Rachel Loughlin in the flesh, but he could swear she was sitting at his breakfast bar. He pushed himself up from the face down position he’d fallen asleep in on the couch and yawned. Nothing like a nice hallucination to interrupt his Thursday afternoon nap.
“Good. You’re awake. I don’t have much time. I’m Rach--”
He blinked his eyes hard. Not a hallucination after all. “I know who you are,” he said, wondering where Wes had got to; they’d been watching TV on his lunch break together before he’d fallen asleep, “and I want you to get the hell out of my house.” He stood up and focused his gaze on her, willing her to leave.
Rachel sighed and rolled her eyes. “You’re too weak and I’m dead, you idiot. Put your powers away and turn your listening ears on.”
Christopher’s heart sank. The old bitch was dead? He looked at her more clearly. The afternoon light shone through her much as it did the kitchen window. Shit! All that work plotting his revenge and some other lucky bastard had got to her first? “I don’t care what you have to tell me. I said get out of my house.”
She stood up and got right in his face, ignoring his request. “The current leader of The Society is a Retroact named Mildred. She killed me and she’s going to kill you, my granddaughter, and another seer called Benjamin if you don’t stop her.”
“I’m touched you care,” Christopher sneered, “but I think dying messed with your head. How did you die anyway? I do hope it was painful.”
Rachel did not back down. “Listen, you arrogant ass, that lovely boyfriend of yours let me out to warn you. Mildred is keeping a lot of spirits trapped in limbo, including both your and Benjamin’s mothers.”
Christopher scoffed. “Why would Wes be doing anything for The Society?”
“Because Mildred promised to put him back into a body permanently, which I’ve informed him is not within her powers or any other Retroact’s to do. Besides, no spirit lasts long in a body they didn’t originate from. He chose to believe me and I suggest you do too. He can only occupy her for a short amount of time.” She gave him a knowing grin. “I think you’re familiar with his methods?”
Wonderful! Wes had betrayed him and he was a whore. Ugh, and Mildred had to be in her seventies. That’s it. Their attachment was definitely off. “Fine, tell me everything you know,” he said, relenting.
Rachel backed away and gestured for him to sit next to her at the breakfast bar. “Mildred has never been the best Retroact. Her rewinding skills are mediocre. Her glimpses and ability to see dreams are non-existent. What she is good at is mind control and manipulating spirits.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Didn’t know that was possible, did you? Not many seers have the ability to control the thoughts and actions of those that are alive, never mind spirits.
“Actually, Mildred is the only Retroact that The Society is currently aware of that can use mind control.” Christopher opened his mouth to speak, but Rachel shushed him. “I have long suspected that Mildred used her ability to get herself elected as leader and at the time, this was nearly twenty-four years ago, I sought to stay on her good side. Shortly after she appointed me as enforcer of The Society’s policy on children, she shared a vision she had with me.
“In the vision she was old and gray-haired, but very powerful, commanding The Society and minions of spirits as well. I inquired if she was teaching the spirits to be helpful, thinking maybe she was building some sort of guardian angel organization, and she laughed in my face. ‘Our abilities are wasted simply helping worthless people avoid death, we could be so much more’ she said. Then she went on to tell me the rest of the vision.
“She had encountered three seers, two males and a female, all Retroacts who possessed unique abilities. One male could use mind control, the second could take on others’ powers for short periods of time, and the female had the ability to glimpse the future with complete accuracy. These three would band together and attempt to usurp her position in The Society.” Rachel shuddered at the retelling. Christopher continued to listen, his heart beating faster the more she spoke.
“Mildred was adamant that these Retroacts were not going to defeat her. She insisted that I see to it that all members of The Society for the next decade were not allowed to take their pregnancies to term.”
“So, why do I exist then? Why didn’t you force my mother to abort me?” Christopher asked, disgusted.
Rachel shook her head. “I never forced a single seer to have an abortion. At the time Mildred charged me with this undertaking, your mother was in her ninth month. I took you from her and placed you with your adoptive family, explaining to her that it was the safest thing to do for you. Then I told Mildred that I drowned you, and she had no reason to not believe me, so she didn’t press the matter further.
“When your mother caused a big scene at a Society meeting, threatening to get back at Mildred for what she was doing to her fellow seers, Mildred had her killed and trapped her spirit in limbo. After that, I started using the abortion line to keep seers from even thinking about getting pregnant. I managed to place four more babies with adoptive families with their mother’s blessings. Benjamin’s mother, Laura, ran away from The Society after I had spoken with her. I had to tell Mildred that she’d been involved in an airplane crash and no remains were recovered.”
“Man, you’ve had to do a lot of fake killing,” Christopher said, impressed by the old lady’s ingenuity.
“That’s how one cultivates a reputation, dear.” Rachel smiled. “And that reputation has kept me and my family safe for a very long time, but now my house of cards has toppled over.” She looked Christopher directly in the eye, urging him to keep up. “Two years ago Mildred got a tip, from who I don’t know, that Laura was still alive and that Ben depended on her powers to use his. So, she had her drowned. I just recently found out about that or I never would have let Zellie near Benjamin again.
“When Mildred discovered that Zellie existed she was furious with me. I was the one who blew Grace and Zellie’s cover. I mistakenly called my friend Candace after Zellie’s failed rewind trying to suss out if anyone had heard any mention of Benjamin. Mildred overheard Candace talking with another Retro about my granddaughter...I assured her that Zellie’s powers were very weak and that she was unable to glimpse. But she knew I was lying and had been for a very long time. She crushed my skull simply by looking at me. So yes, I was in a tremendous amount of pain, but I didn’t give any information away. I’ve been locked in limbo for the past month. It’s not a nice place, Christopher.” Rachel took a deep breath, regrouping.
“Mildred knew the whereabouts of the Retroact who absorbed others’ powers and assumed Zellie was the one with accurate glimpses, which left you. She asked
around in the spirit world, letting the spirits know there would be a great reward for whoever could lead her to a male Retro with mind control. Wes came forward and she recruited him as her spy. Then you helped her out by arranging for all three of you to be in the same town.” Rachel shook her head, almost laughing. “She is coming after you; she wants to kill you all at the same time to be sure you are no longer a threat to her.”
Christopher snorted. “Claire’s birthday party at the lodge this weekend. That’s where I was going to do it. Kill Zellie and Ben, I mean.”
Rachel narrowed her eyes. “Well, sorry to have ruined your weekend plans, but now you’ve got to work together against Mildred to ensure that The Society doesn’t turn into an evil institution bent on the destruction of mankind.”
“What’s to stop her from forcing us all together sooner?” Christopher asked.
“Three things,” Rachel held up three fingers. “One, your boyfriend has vowed to keep her occupied to the best of his amazing abilities. Two, she doesn’t know that you’ll be expecting her. Three, that bitch has always had a flair for the dramatic. It simply wouldn’t do for her to kill you in your living room.” Rachel looked at the clock on the microwave. “I’ve got to go. Get to Zellie and Ben. Form an alliance. The three of you will defeat her. I know it.” She disappeared, leaving Christopher alone and confused at the breakfast bar.
“One last thing,” Rachel said, popping back into view. “My sister Hazel is alive, but she is on the run. She is trying to gather as many rogue Retroacts and their Lookouts as she can to help you. Tell Melody and Ben’s Lookout to be ready to fight too.” Again, she disappeared.
Christopher rose from his seat and shuffled over to the coffeemaker, pouring himself a lukewarm cup of this morning’s coffee. Thanks to Wes’s diversion tactics and what he presumed was Mildred’s control over his sleeping patterns, his abilities weren’t at full strength. Zellie’s were probably even less than his and Ben...who knew what was going on with him?
Zellie Wells Trilogy Page 28
