I nodded. “But don’t worry. They’re not after us.”
Danica’s eyes were wide. “How do you know? Maybe they’re ready for breakfast.” Danica was looking all around the boat trying to make herself smaller.
This was the moment of truth. Since Danica trusted me enough to come out into this foreign land in this rickety boat, I needed to trust her enough with my truth. I needed to trust her. “I know because…because I’m not like everybody else, Dani. That’s why I’m here. I didn’t come here by accident. I was brought here to learn how to handle my…special abilities.”
“Abilities?” She stopped looking for alligators and stared intently into my eyes. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
I went for it. “Let me get this out first, okay? It’s not easy to understand, and I know you’ll have a bunch of questions, but—”
“Just say it.”
“I’m an empath. There.” The word hung in the air like a helium balloon waiting to be popped.
“Is that what it sounds like?”
I nodded. “I have the ability to feel people’s emotions. I read them like someone might read minds. That’s what happened with Todd. I read his emotions. I read his intent. I knew what he wanted. It was the first time I had ever felt my—”
“Wait.” Danica held her hands up again, her face working to understand. “You feel people’s emotions? Do you feel them feel them or just see them?”
“Both. All. If there’s an emotion near me, I pick up on it like some weird magnet drawing it to me. Then I feel it.”
“Wow. Like a superpower. How cool is that?”
I shrugged. “Not so cool, sometimes. That’s why I’m here; to learn how to use it, hide it, defend against all incoming emotions from people around me.”
Danica looked around. “Are we on Candid Camera or something?”
“Dani this is serious. I have these—”
“Superpowers. I got that. You’re sitting here telling me you can feel other people’s emotions…that you knew what Todd wanted so you bashed his head in. Sorry if it doesn’t sound a little like a Lifetime movie.”
“I’ve rehearsed this over and over, and still, when it came out of my mouth just now, it sounds so—”
“Twilight Zonish?”
I nodded and looked away. “It’s true nonetheless. It’s what I do and what I am.”
She blinked several times before nodding slowly. “Okay. Okay. So you knew what Todd wanted, you beat his head in, and now you’re here.”
“Yes. Melika teaches us out here so we can focus on learning what we need to without going insane.”
“Us. So you go to school with that Zack kid to learn how to be a superhero? What’s the big Indian? Super Amazon Woman?”
I didn’t want to say. It was outside our code of conduct to reveal someone else’s power. “She’s not an empath, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I don’t really know what I’m asking, Jane. You bring me out into the middle of a fucking swamp and…” She stopped in mid-sentence and started looking frantically around. “Who the hell? What the fuck was that?”
I realized at once what was happening. “Stop that!” I ordered. “You’re scaring her!”
“She’ll never believe your words, kiddo, and unless you want Zack to kick her ass, there may be only one way to get her to believe.”
I thought for a moment. “Can I tell her?”
“You’re probably going to have to. If she’s that important to you, out me. I trust your judgment.”
I don’t know what amazed me more: that she was going to let me out her or that she actually trusted me. “Thank you. And stop calling me kiddo.” Reaching out, I held Danica’s hand. “That voice in your head is Tip, the big Indian.”
Danica’s mouth dropped open. “No way.” She glanced quickly around. “That is so fucking creepy.”
I told Tip to stop. She responded by telling me to call if I needed more help.
“She should be gone now.”
Dani cocked her head and listened for a moment and then nodded. “Fucking A, Jane, what the fuck?”
“You ready to hear this, now?”
She nodded. “That was so fucking weird.”
“It gets weirder, believe me. Me, Zack and another kid named Jacob are all here to learn how to handle our powers. No, they’re not superpowers like in a comic book.” I quoted Melika. “These are real powers genetically woven into who we are. My power allows me to pick up the emotions of others. It would have driven me insane because I didn’t know how to block all of the emotions coming at me. The first time it happened was with Todd. The crisis I felt coming triggered the recessive nature of it.”
Danica simply shook her head. “And this is no joke.”
“I know this is a lot to take in, but I wanted you to know why I am here and why I hadn’t been able to call you. I wanted to, but what could I say? Hi, I know you’re my best friend and all, and you saved me from going crazy, but I’m not the girl you think I am?”
“So…you really can feel people’s emotions?”
I nodded. “And apparently a few animals as well, which is why I knew that alligator had no interest in us.”
“Holy shit, Jane…er…Echo. This is weird, but pretty fucking cool at the same time.”
“I’m here trying to get my life together…to be normal.”
“Oh, this is rich. You have some sort of superpowers and now you want to be normal? Are you insane?”
We both looked at each other and laughed.
“This is serious, Dani.”
“Oh, right. I’m sitting on a holey boat with the Boatman from hell, and my best friend has just told me she knows what alligators are thinking, and I’m supposed to be serious? Come on, Jane! Give me a break.”
“I just need you to know how serious this is, because telling other people would put our lives at stake. I trusted you with my life once, and now I’m trusting you with my future.”
She looked over at me, her eyes locking onto mine. I would not lower my shield to read her. Rule number one in Melika’s universe: don’t invade the private emotions of the ones you love.
“If you can do what you say you can, then do it now. You’ll know how much you can trust me.”
I looked at her a long time before asking, “Are you sure?”
“Have I ever lied to you?”
“No.”
“Ever let you down?”
“Never.”
“Then do it.”
So I did. I read her and knew that she would never tell, never betray me, never let me down.
She never did.
Not once.
We spent a wonderful couple of days together, and after Danica left the Bayou, it was back to work. I spent the next six months learning more blocking and shielding techniques. Melika wanted me to be able to block naturals as well as other supers.
After Tip’s intrusion into my mind, I decided blocking was a necessary evil. I didn’t like her rooting around in my brain. I was incredibly uncomfortable with the whole notion of telepathy. It was one thing to feel what people were feeling, but to hear their thoughts and then be able to project myself into their minds? That was on a whole other level.
So, I asked Melika about it on our daily walk through the swamp. The morning rays streamed in through the trees and moss. “Tip must be a more powerful telepath than I realized, huh?”
“Oh yes. She’s quite strong, perhaps one of the strongest telepaths I have ever met. I must apologize for what happened in town. I never intended for you to find out she was watching over you. I apologize for that. I just can’t risk the young ones doing what Zachary did. I’ve seen it happen too often. I’m sorry.”
“It was a good thing, I guess. I mean, I’m glad she was skulking around…” I stopped talking. I didn’t wish to give away anything.
“Don’t worry, my girl, I am well aware of Zack’s little indiscretion in the shop and have already spoken to him about it.
”
“Oh.” I heard Jacob’s voice in the back of my head about Melika knowing everything.
“It happens to the boys…especially TKs.”
“Tip calls them movers.”
“Tip is a snob. She doesn’t believe anyone’s powers are as strong as hers. She might be right. Anyway, she was charged, as she always is, with watching over you both and she did her job. If you want to be angry with anyone, be angry with me.”
“I wasn’t angry. I was taken by surprise. Her voice in my head felt very…”
“Disquieting? Invasive? It takes some getting used to, I know.”
“It might not have been so weird if it was someone else. Tip is so intense. Sometimes she looks at me and I feel like a bug under a microscope.”
“Tip never does anything without reason. Every move she makes is thought out or planned. If you find her staring at you, she is working something out in her own mind. Don’t let it get to you.”
“She gets to me. Like under my skin gets to me.”
“It comes with her telepathic abilities. That’s one of the pieces you’ll learn while you’re here—other sorts of psionic powers.”
I nodded.
Melika stopped and looked hard into my eyes. “You are no longer responsible just for yourself, Echo. We are a family, a community of beings who need each other; who need to be understood. Who need to protect each other. Someday, you might be called upon to help someone much in the same way you’ve been helped. You can’t do that if you know nothing.”
“Useful? Melika, I can barely erect a shield.”
“Now, yes, but believe me, there will come a time when you can do that and so much more. We must always look beyond the moment, beyond our own distorted sense of self. Someday, you will need to give back.”
And so, my next set of lessons began. I came to understand how Zack could do what he did. Well, no one really knew the exact way it was done, but I got the general idea. He was able to manipulate energy to the point of making it react like a solid. Both Melika and Tip had tried giving me the scientific explanation, but I’d never gotten higher than a C in science.
Melika really had to work closely with him to keep his powers in check. Because he could use energy to move things about, he thought nothing about pulling something to him that was just out of reach. She had to reteach him how to think about his way in the world. It was fascinating, really, because TKs were more of an anomaly than telepaths or empaths, and therefore, more at risk. We were all at risk, but Melika felt the younger male TKs more so because they had a tendency to act out in public just as Zack had done. A TK in the presence of the wrong people could be a disaster.
Melika had warned us that our government had several departments looking into the possibility of paranormal activity. They wanted one of us in a big way, and it was rumored they were “interviewing” everyone from tarot readers to magicians trying to get a bead on one of us, preferably a mover or a reader, like Tip. They hadn’t seen any use for a necromancer, and couldn’t prove their powers truly existed.
I did not quite understand necromancy, and wasn’t at all sure I ever really wanted to. Most of the time, Jacob Marley seemed like he was in a daze, but then maybe he was listening to somebody’s dead grandpa. I could never tell.
“You must remember, my dear, that much of what we all do is a matter of manipulating energy. It’s all about energy. Understand that and you have half the puzzle. The other half is understanding that no two supers are alike. Each of us comes to the table with a different set of abilities and limitations.There are quite a few wiccans with the same ability to do so.”
“But if people found out…if they saw us doing what Zack did…” I shook my head. “I never considered that we could be in danger.”
“Only in recent history have witches decided to hide in plain sight. Now, they write books, hold open meetings, and even advertise in the Yellow Pages. They can do so because the Christian segment of our country has led people to believe they no longer exist, that they are powerless. Isn’t it ironic that the very people who burned them at the stake have made it possible for them to live in the open?” Melika chuckled, a rare event.
“No longer…then you mean…”
Melika nodded. “They went underground. Now, hundreds of years later, they have been able to resurface because of the very faith that forced them underground in the first place. Irony at its finest.”
I whistled and shook my head. “Hiding in plain sight. It’s brilliant.”
“It’s what we all do. The Bishops of this world are able to do what they do because no one believes the truth—well, no one except those who pay for her readings.”
“How come she doesn’t get in trouble for it?”
Melika chuckled. “Bishop isn’t out there making money. She is on the lookout for others. As you can imagine, New Orleans is a gathering place for many supernatural types. She uses her vantage point to find those who need to be found.”
“You think that someday people will believe?”
“Oh yes, but believing is not the same as understanding. It is incumbent upon you to understand because there is a component to your powers we have yet to discuss.”
Melika’s countenance was heavy. I swallowed hard. “There is?”
“Yes, my dear. You have the unique ability to read the truth about people, and once I show you how, you will be able to know the moment you meet another one of us. You will be able to look at someone and know whether they are telling the truth. You are a truth seeker, Echo, as surely as if you were born to it. In your life, you will find a career that will allow that part of you full play, and you will be prepared.” Melika stopped and took my hand. “Echo, it is incredibly important to be able to do what you can do. I don’t want to frighten you with this, but you are far more than empathic. Your powers are like layers of an onion and we’ve only removed a couple layers.”
“I can do more than read emotions and seek the truth?”
Melika nodded. “Oh yes. Much, much more. You, my girl, are the most powerful empath I have ever met.”
I had been in the Bayou a year when it happened. I had successfully learned how to shield and block, which delighted everyone. I had learned how to read some animals in the surrounding vicinity, and I read up and studied everything Melika handed me about telepaths and telekinetics. There were other paranormal powers, of course, but my immediate concern was to learn about the powers of those I was learning with. Finally, Tip and Mel could relax; I had found my comfort zone where my powers were concerned, and it felt great.
“I couldn’t be more proud of you, my girl, but now, we must step up a little.”
“Step up? Melika, we’ve been going 24-7 for a year.” I smiled as I said this. I wasn’t just learning about my powers. Every day for three hours, the three of us were tutored in every subject from algebra to Latin. We were drilled, tested and put through the educational wringer. Our tutor was an old Cajun professor who had taught at Xavier forever. Every day, Bones delivered Professor Mathias to our dock, and every day he rigorously demanded excellence from us.
I might have preferred his lessons over some of those Melika threw at us. One day, she decided it was time to see if I had really bought into the process, if I was really ready to expand my knowledge.
“What would you do if that alligator over there decided to make a run at us?”
I glanced at the ten-foot beast, remembering Jacob Marley’s instructions in the event one ever came at me. “Climb that tree?”
“Perhaps. But you have a power, and you’re not here just to understand your powers, but to make the most of them.” Melika waded into the water, her dress floating all around her.
“What are you doing?” Fear gripped my throat as I watched her get closer to the alligator.
“Hand me that bag.”
I handed her a bag that felt like it had a bowling ball in it. When she reached into it, she pulled out a whole chicken. “Let’s get his attention.”
<
br /> To say I was scared to death would have been an understatement. There was my mentor, waist deep in the water, about fifty feet from an alligator, waving a chicken at him.
“Mel—”
“Like martial arts, there are two main styles that can be used to defend one’s self. There are hard and soft shields. You erect a hard one when you need a more solid barrier.”
I gasped when the alligator slid off the bank and into the water. I stepped back, knowing that if it went under the water, it would eat more than the chicken.
“Hard shielding is done by extending the energy of the psychic forces into a sort of barrier around you. In an ideal situation, the barrier width would be equal strength at all points around your body, thereby protecting you from harm.” Melika put the chicken back in the bag and backed away from the alligator now gliding across the water. I gasped even louder when the alligator came to such an abrupt halt it looked as if someone had yanked his tail.
“She doesn’t know what hit her nose, but she doesn’t want to hit it again because it’s not really solid. It’s an energy that acts like a solid. Animals have an aversion to unfamiliar energies, which is why so many act so strange just before a natural disaster. They sense the change in the earth’s energy and it throws them off a little bit.”
I watched in amazement as the alligator retreated back to her bank, without either the chicken or a piece of Melika. “That was…incredible.”
Melika waded back to the bank and I helped her out from the water. Water dripping from her clothes, she addressed me intently. “That was necessary. Oftentimes, when we are faced with a threat, we don’t have time to do anything more than erect hard shields. The more powerful you are, the farther out you can cast a hard shield. It might take you years to cast your energy as far as I did, but you will learn how to create one that does more than protect you emotionally and mentally.”
It was at that moment I realized I did not understand a damn thing about my abilities or the energy necessary to perform them. Energy, like that used when you turn on the light, will always remain a mystery to me. I don’t know how it works. I just know that touching a switch makes a light come on.
More Than an Echo (Echo Branson Series) Page 9
