The Guardian (The Gifted Book 1)

by C. L. McCourt

  "You're catching on surprisingly fast," Randell said. He started to pick up the pace of his strikes, changing the sequence to see if Rhea could adjust. And she did.

  Daen gave her a warning. "I'm going to push you harder now. Randell, let me have her for a moment."

  Randell stepped back and Daen attacked. Daen's attack looked fierce, as if he meant to do her harm.

  Brian jumped from the porch steps, not knowing if he should intervene, but quickly saw that Rhea was holding her own.

  Daen continued his attack, but then something happened. Rhea blocked and followed up with her own attack. Daen blocked and followed with an attack. Back and forth they went, with Rhea continuing to deliver as much as she was taking until she was out of breath and stepped back. "Enough."

  Daen was breathing heavily as he pulled his last strike.

  Rhea leaned over, her hands on her knees, shaking and gasping for air.

  Randell stepped closer. "What just happened? Rhea. What came over you?"

  She shook her head. "I don't know. It was as if the energy had a mind of its own."

  Daen ran into the kitchen, knowing Rhea's sugar level would be low, and returned with a couple snack-size candy bars. "I just remembered that Pam keeps these in the pantry for our workouts. They make great energy boosters." He tossed Rhea and Randell each a bar.

  Rhea wasn't expecting him to throw the candy, so her attempt to catch it was more in line with keeping the candy from striking her in the face. As it turned out, she didn't have anything to worry about; the candy didn't make it that far.

  Rhea, Randell, Daen, and Brian all froze, their attention fixed on the candy bar hanging in midair, a foot from Rhea's face. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. A couple seconds went by and then she heard gasps from the others standing at the screen door leading from the kitchen. She lowered her hands and the bar fell to the ground.

  Daen stepped closer to Rhea. "What did you just do?"

  "I don't know. Your toss caught me by surprise. I tried to catch it, or at the very least, keep it from hitting me in the face and ... it just happened. The candy froze in midair."

  "What were you thinking about when it happened?" Daen was anxious to know what had triggered the gift.

  "I suppose my first thought when I raised my hands was 'don't hit my face.'"

  Randell and Brian were quiet, watching the exchange between Rhea and Daen. Daen didn't say any more. His mind was juggling all the information he knew about Rhea, trying to come up with some logical explanation.

  "What are you thinking?" Rhea picked up the candy bar and looked at it, thinking about what she'd just done.

  "I'm not sure. Remind me what's happening in your dreams when your room ends up in shambles?"

  Rhea thought about her dreams. "I suppose it happens when I'm ... I'm defending myself." She nodded. "That's it. In my dreams, I raise my hands, typically in a futile attempt to keep something from ... killing me."

  "I think we just discovered another gift." Daen tossed her another candy bar without warning, but this time she caught it like a normal person, and the gift didn't engage. "We'll have to work on bringing that gift to your conscious mind. But in the meantime, now that your conscious mind is aware of the gift, maybe it won't engage every time something attacks you in a dream."

  Rhea laughed sardonically. "We can only hope." She turned to Randell. "So, do I have another color, Randell?"

  Randell nodded. "A pinkish-purple color."

  Rhea glanced at her dad. "Dad, are you okay?"

  Brian had a look of defeat on his face, and his shoulders sagged, "Yeah. I'll be okay. It's just a lot to take in. You act as if what's happening to you is nothing. How can you be so ... matter-of-fact?"

  Her father's observation took her a little by surprise. "I admit that some of this is new to me, but I've known about this other world all my life. In a way, it was a relief to finally understand. The gifts, the abilities I'm experiencing, although surprising at times, seem almost natural. I can't explain it."

  Daen added, "It's who you are. You've just never had the chance to know it."

  Brian looked guilty and sad at the same time. "I wish your mother and I had been more ... open to understanding, to believing you. I'm sorry."

  Rhea wrapped her arms around him. "It's okay, Dad. I was lucky to have parents who loved me." Not wanting to linger on the past, she refocused on her fighting lessons. "So, Coach, how am I doing?"

  Daen deftly spun the hilt of his sword in his right hand while shoving the last of the candy into his mouth with his left. "You're like your mo ... like Gaibel. A natural." He glanced at Brian and then back to Rhea.

  Brian asked, "Gaibel, she's your biological mother, right?"

  Rhea cringed slightly and shrugged apologetically.

  "Don't worry, we'll get used to it. It's not like we didn't know she was out there someplace. We just didn't expect her to be really out there." Brian placed his hand on her shoulder for reassurance. "At least now we know why we couldn't find her." He tried to smile.

  Pam stepped out onto the porch. "Are you ready for pie now? If not, I'm going to put it away."

  Rhea announced, "I could eat pie." Before heading for the kitchen, she confirmed with Daen, "If it's okay with you that we continue our break inside."

  Daen bowed his head slightly. "Sure."

  45

  Trouble

  As they sat down to enjoy Pam's apple pie, there was a loud clang as a Pam dropped a spoon in the sink. "We have company." She was staring out the window over the sink, into the backyard.

  Randell and Daen jumped up and looked out the door and window.

  Pam pointed. "There. I saw two men along the tree line."

  Randell's expression grew serious as he clenched his fists. "I see them."

  Daen turned to Rhea. "Hide."

  His command startled her, and his words repeated in her head as she tried to decide where to go. But before she could move, she heard Christine squeal. "Rhea!"

  Daen turned to where Rhea had been standing. "Where ...?" He turned to Christine. "What's wrong? I told her to hide."

  Christine just shook her head, not able to speak.

  Rhea said, "I'm right here."

  Randell took a startled step back. "Damn. You just ... Did you see that?"

  Rhea glanced around at the faces in the room. "What just happened? Why are you looking at me like that?"

  Ander explained, "One minute you were there, and the next you weren't. Now you're back again."

  "Really?" Rhea tried not to grin, given the danger at hand ... but disappearing, that was too cool.

  Daen looked serious. "Enough. We'll figure it out later. Go downstairs and take Pam and Christine with you."

  At first Rhea wanted to argue, but then she thought about the safety of Pam and Christine. And of course the king didn't want her any more identifiable than she already was, so she acquiesced, and the three women went to the basement.

  ~~~

  Pam led Rhea and Christine into a small storage room under the stairs, where they hid in the dark and listened for any disturbance.

  Pam whispered, "I didn't see what happened. Christine, what startled you?"

  Christine jerked her thumb towards Rhea. "She disappeared ... just vanished in front of my eyes."

  Pam raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Interesting. How did you do it?"

  Rhea just shrugged. Once again her act of "magic" was unplanned. She hadn't tried to do it.

  Pam said, "Your abilities are growing fast."

  Christine looked around. "I need to sit down." She appeared a little shaken, and Rhea couldn't blame her. Everything she and Brian had studied, believed, tested, and lived their entire lives had been cast into doubt since they had arrived at the farmhouse.

  Pam was about to pull out the stool she knew to be behind a stack of boxes when the three women heard feet on the steps above their heads. They each froze, barely breathing.

  "Pam! It's safe to come out .
.. for now."

  Their shoulders dropped about two inches in relief at the sound of Ander's voice. He gave them a goofy smile and waved as he opened the door. "How ya doin', ladies?"

  "Not funny." Pam seemed a little miffed as she stepped past him, but he just laughed.

  ~~~

  Randell was keeping watch through the kitchen window.

  Rhea asked, "Do you see them?"

  "They went behind the shed," said Randell.

  Daen ran his fingers through his hair and pulled. "Well, we wanted them here. We got our wish."

  Randell asked, "Will there be an opening tonight?"

  Rhea shook her head. "Not if my calculations are right. Luxatra's darkness won't realign with this world's night until tomorrow night."

  She hoped she was right but years of meeting Grennal ... Lanne in shadows cast by the moonlight had given her an ability to sense the light-dark rhythms of Luxatra.

  Randell nodded. "Friday."

  Ander remained calm as he poured another cup of coffee. "We'll have to set up a watch for tonight. We can work in shifts. Barring any complications with the weather, we'll spend tomorrow getting you packed and devising a way to draw them in."

  Everyone shifted, apparently not crazy about that idea but afraid to say so, because he was probably right.

  Daen looked up from his plate to Rhea. "Can you make yourself invisible again?"

  "Ha! I don't know how I did it to begin with."

  Daen leaned back in his seat, watching Rhea but looking through her, remembering a gift similar to what he'd just seen. "I believe what you did is similar to what Lanne can do. She creates a veil around herself, shapes it, colors it, and basically creates the illusion of being something she's not. You, on the other hand, made yourself appear as nothing."

  Rhea's face expressed her frustration. "But how does that help me figure out how it happened to begin with?"

  Christine laid her hand on Rhea's arm. "We'll figure this out."

  Rhea tipped her head back and looked at the ceiling before settling her gaze on Daen once again. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired."

  Daen smiled at Rhea. He sympathized with her frustration. The changes that she was experiencing were spilling out uncontrolled, surprising everyone. "What were you thinking about when I told you to hide?"

  "Nothing, really. Pam had just announced the trackers' presence and you said I should hide. I was trying to think of where I could go when I heard Mom squeal. That's when I disappeared, I think."

  "What did you think about when you stopped hiding?"

  "I said 'I'm here' and then I was."

  Randell watched Rhea intently.

  Rhea and Daen noticed, and Daen asked, "What are you seeing?"

  Randell leaned forward in his chair. "You have another color, light yellow ... I think. It's hard to tell. They keep sparkling in and out. Try hiding again. Maybe that will make it clearer."

  Rhea closed her eyes and thought about hiding, but nothing happened. She tried several times, each without success.

  Ander picked up some plates from the table and took them to the sink. "What are you imagining when you try to hide?"

  "I'm trying to imagine myself invisible, but obviously that's not the right inspiration."

  Brian stood at the back door and looked out at the shed. "How do you know if they're still behind the shed? They could easily slip away without being seen."

  Although Daen wasn't a tracker, he did have the ability to distinguish between different types of energy sources. Given the close proximity of the trackers, Daen closed his eyes and focused on their energy. "I don't know if I can sense any life forms that far out, but I'll try."

  Rhea saw this as an opportunity to practice distinguishing between energy sources as well. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the area around the house, trying to see if she could sense anything. She imagined walking around the yard, looking behind trees, bushes, cars, and so on. That's when it happened.

  The yard became a picture in her head, as if she was actually outside. Reflexively she whispered, "Now that's cool."

  Daen turned to see what Rhea was seeing. "What are you doing?"

  "I'm outside. I'm walking towards the shed. It's really cool. It's like looking through an infrared camera. You know, the kind that shows hot and cold spots." She continued to scan the area. "Crap. You're right. They're gone." She opened her eyes, not expecting what she saw.

  Daen was staring at her with disbelief on his face. Randell and Ander weren't looking at her, but instead her energy. They looked amazed.

  "What's going on?" Rhea didn't give them a chance to reply before heading toward the mirror. Sure enough, some funky stuff was happening. In addition to blue, gold, green, purple, yellow, and pink ... now she had red in her aura. Every time she focused on one color, it changed to another. The movement of the colors started to make her feel motion sick, so she stepped away from the mirror.

  Randell leaned towards Daen. "She's added another color to her aura. Red."

  Rhea returned to the kitchen to find everyone staring at her. "What? Oh. Yeah. I just did what Daen taught me. I tried to find human energy sources, but I guess I tried too hard. It was like I was walking around the yard in my mind. If only I could actually see the yard instead of a psychedelic scene ... anyway, since I already knew the lay of the backyard, it was easy to figure out."

  Daen ran his hand over his face and shook his head.

  "What?" Rhea scrunched her brows at Daen's reaction.

  "Nothing. Nothing." He turned to Pam. "Do you have enough room for Brian and Christine to stay here until we leave? I'm concerned that if they leave before we detain the trackers, they'll be taken hostage and used as leverage to draw Rhea out."

  Rhea's breath left her lungs. When she’d asked her parents to come talk to her, the trackers were in the past ... or so she assumed. But things had changed, the trackers were here and so were her parents.

  Pam didn't hesitate. "Then they'll stay here. We'll make room."

  Brian looked puzzled. "You can't be serious. Do you really think they're out there waiting to grab us?"

  Daen shrugged. "I don't know anything for sure, but I wonder what they know and where they are now. They could be hiding just outside our vision. Either way, they might not know who you are exactly, but you'll probably be seen as something worth taking, given you're in here."

  "Mom, Dad, I'm so sorry. If I’d thought ... or known ... or ...” She took a shaky breath, trying to calm herself. “I just wanted you to know who I am and where I'm going so you wouldn't worry."

  Christine wrapped her arms around Rhea. "It's okay. We'll stay. Trackers or not, I wouldn't miss any time I have with you before ..." Christine turned her head and took a shuddering breath.

  "Mom?"

  Christine stepped from the kitchen. "Excuse me."

  Brian shook his head at Rhea's concerned look. "She'll be okay." He turned and followed his wife.

  Rhea nodded and forced a smile.

  46

  Night Watch

  Everyone converged in the living room a couple hours later. Rhea had taken a shower and crashed on her bed, thinking she'd just lie there for a few minutes. Over an hour later, Christine was knocking and entering, carrying a pile of clean clothes.

  "How are you feeling?"

  "Sore and tired. Thanks for doing my laundry. I had every intention of coming down after my shower, but ... as you can see ... I didn't get very far."

  Christine smiled at her little girl. "What are moms for?"

  "Ha! Normally you would have been yelling at me to come down and do my own laundry. What's up?"

  Christine sat on the edge of the bed. "I don't want you to go."

  Rhea's heart twinged with guilt. "I know. Part of me wants to stay here and pretend none of this ever happened. But it did happen. I can't think of another way around what's staring us in the face. Can you?"

  Christine shook her head.

  Rhea slowly slid off the bed. "I'm goi
ng to get dressed."

  "Fine. I'll be in the kitchen, helping Pam. I like her."

  "Yeah. She's easy to like."

  Christine joined Pam in the kitchen, where Pam had already started making sandwiches and other finger food for the evening meal. As each dish was prepared, Christine placed it on the dining room table, buffet style.

  ~~~

  Daen knocked on Randell's bedroom door.

  "Come in."

  Daen slipped in and shut the door behind him.

  Randell raised a brow. "What's up?"

  "I wanted to talk to you about Rhea."

  Randell looked concerned. "Okay."

  Daen sat down in Randell's reading chair and stared at Randell for a moment before beginning. "How many colors does Rhea have?"

  Randell held out his hand and counted them off on his fingers: "Her normal light blue, bright blue, gold flecks, green, purple, pinkish-purple, light yellow, and red."

  Daen nodded. "And what happened prior to each new color appearing?"

  Randell's face went blank as he thought back to each new color. "I don't ... Oh. Right. The energy ball, the ... what did she call it ... suck the life from someone, levitation, seeing auras, blocking, turning invisible, and what I'd call mind walking. That makes seven gifts."

  "Remember when I said someone can have more than one gift?"

  Randell nodded.

  "Well, I've never seen anyone with this many. Plus, if you read her journal, I think there are two more that don't have a color yet."

  "What's that?"

  "The electric shock, which apparently had happened before the attack on the street, and there are the dreams. Like you said, I don't think her dreams are just dreams. The things she's seen and heard ... they just don't seem normal. I think you were right, that some might be visions."

  Randell raised a brow. "So, you're wondering if there was a good reason to put her in this world."

  Daen shrugged. "She's got seven, probably nine gifts, so far. She's learning at an incredible, no, unbelievable, rate. Did you see her today when she turned on me? It was no longer a blocking lesson; she struck back ... for real."