Brenna read the list while Callie gazed out the window. When she got to the end of the second page, she let out a short, startled laugh.
“A Succubus Gift? You’ve got to be kidding me.” She read the short description, and said, “Is this what Collin thought I was doing the other night? Dousing him with pheromones?” She chuckled. “The boy just needs to get his libido under control.”
She looked at Callie, “This isn’t real, is it? I mean, a succubus? A demon woman stealing men’s souls?”
Callie sighed. “It’s very real, although rare. We have two women with that Gift in the Clan. Brenna, your mother had that Gift. There’s a possibility you might have it also. As it says there, it’s an X-linked recessive, and you have at least half of what’s required from Maureen. But as far as being a demon, or stealing men’s souls, that of course isn’t true. The church hunted succubi, those with the Kashani Gift, with even more diligence than the rest of the telepaths, and it’s responsible for their demonizing. Although a Kashani does drain a man’s energy during sex, she doesn’t harm his soul, and none of us are in league with the devil.”
Brenna stared at her. “So I might be some kind of genetic femme fatale? God, if you had any idea what kind of sex life I have, you’d know the answer to that one.”
Callie regarded her, “The only way for us to truly know what Gifts you do have is to run your genome. Will you give me a sample?”
“Sure, a cheek swab?” Callie nodded. “I think that’s rather painless,” Brenna grinned.
“Now, back to the list. With you having the O’Neill Gift, and the fact you would have inherited the eight Gifts associated with the Kashani gene complex, the odds are very great that you have at least ten.”
“Why do you say that?”
“OK,” Callie said, holding up her hand and counting fingers, “Telepathy is one. Each of your mother’s X chromosomes carried the Gifts marked on that sheet as part of the Kashani gene complex, so that’s seven more, and Super Shielding, the O’Neill Gift, makes nine. Plus the O’Byrne Gift is part of the O’Neill Gift but we count it separately, so that’s ten.
“Some of them are obvious to a knowledgeable observer. Girl, you ooze Charisma out of your pores, and have you figured out how you could feel Jared, or his hunters, even though they were shielded? Or how you knew that Jared was one of the good guys and the others wanted to hurt him? Empathy, my dear. It takes either the O’Neill or O’Byrne Gifts to block a strong empath.
“I watch you interact with people. You pick up their feelings and react to them without even thinking. Brenna, don’t take this wrong, because I’m not trying to be condescending or judgmental, but you have a need to have people like you. I think you’d concede that’s a fairly normal part of growing up in foster homes.”
Brenna nodded. “No offense taken. I won’t let people walk on me, but life is a lot easier if people like you, and it really doesn’t take much effort to be nice to people, to treat them the way they want to be treated. Does it?”
Callie smiled. “I think that’s an admirable attitude. Catching more flies with honey, and all that. Anyway, you do a very good job of it, and you tend to hit the nail on the head with everyone I’ve seen you interact with.” A sly smile stole across her face. “You know you have Collin completely tied up in knots, don’t you?”
Brenna’s face twisted into a wry expression. “Serves the son of a bitch right. He’s got me confused, too. He’s so damned good looking, and just when I think he’s an arrogant jerk, he turns around and does something so sweet and thoughtful, and gives me a smile that says, ‘you didn’t really think I was like that, did you?’”
“Do I need to tell you the boy has both Charisma and Empathy that are off the charts? I warned you to be careful.”
“You say I’ve got him all twisted up? And he still doesn’t know if I’m a virgin or not? I’d say I’m being somewhat careful.”
Callie laughed. “Got me there. You’re not, are you?”
It was Brenna’s turn to laugh. “Why the worried look? Is there some dread disease virgins get that I’m not aware of?” She took a deep breath. “No, I’m not a virgin, but sometimes I feel like I might as well be. I don’t have a very good track record with men, and not because I choose jerks like some women do. It just never seems to work out. They’re all hot and bothered and chasing my tail all over town, but when it comes down to trying to make a relationship work, they seem to lose interest very quickly.” She looked out the window. “Maybe they were jerks, but they just didn’t feel like it.”
Shifting in her seat, Brenna said, “You said my mother was a succubus, had the Kashani Gift. Did she, well, did she sleep around a lot?”
“For some people, sex is addictive. For all of the succubi I’ve known, it is.” Callie leaned forward, her voice gentle. “Their enjoyment of sex is greater than normal, but their relationships suffer for the same reason. A man can only have sex with a succubus once a week, sometimes only a couple of times a month. It just takes too long for a man’s energy reserves to build back up. Yes, Maureen took other lovers, and I know Jack encouraged her to. A man who can’t live with that probably shouldn’t be with a succubus.”
“I’m sorry I asked,” Brenna said, covering her mouth with her hand, her face very pale. She looked away and was quiet for a couple of minutes. When she looked back at Callie, it was with a change of subject.
“You keep talking about the clan. Are all telepaths Irish? Surely not.”
“Oh no, when we use the term Clan, we’re not talking about the same thing you are. It’s our name for ourselves. There’s a reason the word is the same in all European languages. Ireland was isolated for a long time and that’s where we lasted longest as the rulers. We didn’t do very well elsewhere against the Romans, but they never reached Ireland. It took the English to defeat us there. But there are Clans all over the world, though the African and Asian Clans are somewhat different than the Europeans.
“When we use the term it’s in the same way you’d use the term Irish or Jewish, it’s an identification of a people. When you come out to West Virginia I can recommend some books in our library.”
Callie’s head turned to the door. “There’s our call for dinner, we can continue this afterward, okay?”
Brenna smiled. “Yes, I heard it, too.”
They went down to the dining room and Callie introduced her to those she hadn’t met before. Collin looked like a kid with a new puppy when she walked in, and she felt a jolt when she saw him, her heart beating faster. Damn, he’s so good looking, she thought.
“Brenna, this is Rebecca Healy. She’s a wilder who came to us about a year ago.”
Rebecca was a pretty, slender woman with a thick mop of shoulder length brown hair, and a graceful, casual way of moving that reminded Brenna of a large cat. Brenna had to look up to meet her unusual amber eyes. Rebecca smiled and extended her hand.
“Pleased to meet you. It will be nice to have another wilder around,” Rebecca said with a smile. “I won’t have to feel like the only dumbshit when people talk about things I don’t understand. We’ll have to go out together some evening.”
They had a pleasant dinner. Sitting next to Rebecca, and with her first level shield lowered, she felt included. People talked to her, asked her questions, and made her feel at home.
“So did they find you here in Baltimore?” she asked Rebecca.
“San Francisco. I was just walking down the street and a woman named Lydia McCarthy walked up to me and said hello mentally. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or go blind. I spent about a month with the Clan there, then they shipped me here, West Virginia actually, but now that my shields are getting better they let me out in public.” She laughed. “And you’re the long-lost granddaughter, right?”
“Yes, and still getting used to being around people that do amazing things with their minds. I was only eight when my parents died, and I haven’t been around any telepaths since then.”
Rebe
cca gave her an appraising look. “Do you mind my asking how old you are?”
“No, I’m twenty-two.”
“I’m twenty-four,” Rebecca said. She leaned closer and said under her breath, “Isn’t it weird how all these people look young but they’re old enough to have seen Elvis play in person?”
Brenna giggled.
“I’m serious,” Rebecca continued, “I’d love to go out some night, hit a few clubs with someone my own age. You’ve been going to school here, right? So you know where to go.”
“I’m not much of a party girl,” Brenna said, “so I don’t know that much about the night life.”
“Nonsense,” Rebecca scoffed, “where’s the best Thursday night beer specials?”
“Lou’s, down in Fells Point.”
“And where’s the best trivia night?”
“The Red Dog in Canton.”
Rebecca laughed. “I think we’d have fun, Miss Not-a-party-girl.”
“We just might at that,” Brenna chuckled.
“Yeah, let me know when you feel like going out and doing some damage,” Rebecca said.
Dinner finished with coffee drinks and tiramisu, which had Rebecca sighing like a schoolgirl with a crush. “God, I love this stuff. It’s the perfect dessert.”
After dinner, Brenna and Callie retreated to the third floor bedroom. On the way, they stopped by Callie’s office to take two cheek swabs from Brenna and put them in glass tubes.
When they sat down with their coffee, Callie said, “Where were we?”
“You had just said you were pretty sure I have at least ten Gifts.”
“Oh, yes. Why don’t you look down that list and see if anything else strikes you as familiar.”
She watched Brenna read through the list again. “There’s something, isn’t there? I can see it in your face.”
Brenna took a deep breath. “Yes, there’s something, it’s part of that Kashani complex you were talking about. Callie, something happened to me my freshman year that I’ve never told anyone about. I’m not sure I know how to tell you.”
Callie sat silently, waiting.
“I was going home from the library one night, and this guy grabbed me and pulled me into some bushes and tried to rape me,” Brenna began, her head bowed and staring at her lap. “I tried to fight him, but he was just too big and strong. He hit me, and he had a knife and he told me he would kill me if I didn’t cooperate. He pulled my pants off, and, and put himself inside me. I was a virgin then, and I was terrified.”
Her face colored. “I was afraid I’d get pregnant, get AIDS, that he’d kill me when he was finished. And I did something, I don’t even know what, but he rolled off me and just lay there, shaking and drooling. He pissed and shit all over himself. I pulled my pants on,” her voice grew even softer, “and ran back to the dorm. Somewhere on the way I threw up on my shoes, and I took them off and threw them in a dumpster. I just left him there. I know he was, well, I tried to read his mind, and there wasn’t any mind, not anymore.”
Callie leaned over and looked at the page. “You’re thinking the Rivera Gift, Neural Disruption, sounds like what happened,” she suggested.
Brenna nodded.
“Do you feel guilty about it? About what you did to him?”
“No, not really,” Brenna responded. She looked up at Callie, her eyes fierce, “The bastard was trying to hurt me, and I fought back, why would I feel guilty about that?” She glanced down at her hands, “But it scared me, still scares me, because I didn’t know what I did, and I’m afraid I might do it to someone else unintentionally.”
Callie reached out and laid a hand on hers. “We can teach you how to control your Gifts, how to use them, so that you won’t have to worry about unintended harm to someone. Did you do anything else in response to that? You said you never told anyone, so I assume you didn’t see a counselor.”
“The only thing I did was sign up for karate classes the next day.”
“I think that was a good idea. How long did you study karate?”
“Oh, I still do. I have a black belt,” Brenna said.
Brenna stared at the table, “Callie, what happens to someone who gets burned out like that?”
“Eventually their body dies. Depending on how long they’re kept on life support, eventually without a mind inhabiting the body they die.”
Brenna nodded, slumping a bit, “So I killed him. I’ve always wondered.” She was silent for a while, then straightened her shoulders. “What Gifts did my parents have?”
Callie leaned over and marked the sheet with Ms and Js. “Both of your parents were very strong, with fifteen Gifts each. That’s very unusual. Seamus also has fifteen, as does the young lady you just met, Rebecca. I don’t have any record of someone having more than that. Only about one percent of telepaths have more than five Gifts.”
~~~
After Brenna left, Callie went looking for Collin. “Do you have a courier going to the estate tomorrow?” she asked.
“Yes, every day,” he said.
She handed him an envelope that said “Kelsey” on it.
On Thursday, Callie’s cell phone rang, and pulling it out of her pocket she saw the number was her lab in West Virginia.
“Callie,” she answered.
“Hi, it’s Kelsey. I have the results from that swab you sent me. I just sent them to your computer. Callie, I ran it three times because I thought I must be doing something wrong, but I can’t find a mistake.”
“Hang on,” Callie said as she pulled up the email and opened the attachment. She read through it twice. “Kelsey, you’re as good as I am at this stuff. I don’t think there’s a mistake.”
“Who is she?” Kelsey asked.
“Jack and Maureen’s daughter,” Callie answered.
“You found her?”
“Yes, or rather she found us.” Callie took a deep breath. “Kelsey, I want you to find Seamus and tell him about this, but don’t tell anyone else.”
“Got it,” Kelsey said.
Callie hung up the phone and stared at the screen.
~~~
There was a knock on Seamus’ door. “Come in,” he said.
Kelsey walked in. “Callie wanted me to let you know that I finished running the genetic analysis on your granddaughter.”
“Oh? So what Gifts does the young lady have?”
“All of them.”
~~~
Chapter 1-4
A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity. – Robert A. Heinlein
Brenna hadn’t had a date in over a year when she went out with Collin, but when it rains ...
She met Dr. David Norris at a neurology seminar at the university. He had moved to Baltimore from Los Angeles to take a position as professor of neurosurgery at the medical school. Tanned, fit and handsome, he was also charming, witty and self-effacing. When he asked, Brenna gave him her phone number.
He called the next day and asked her out to lunch. She enjoyed their conversation and the attention he gave to her research. When he called two days later and asked her out for dinner and the theater a week later on Friday, she said yes.
Her relationship with Collin was also becoming closer. He took her to a free concert in the park one evening. Afterward they walked and talked and had gelato at a small shop on O'Donnell Square in Canton, then he walked her home. After opening her door, she turned and hugged him.
Smiling, she said, "I had a wonderful time. Thank you sooooo much," and then kissed him. "Good night, Collin, be safe."
"How does your social calendar look for Saturday?" he asked.
“Let me check," she rolled her eyes to the sky, waited a moment, then with a bright smile said, "gee, I think I have an opening. What did you have in mind?"
"Lunch in Annapolis, a bit of sightseeing and then dinner at a crab joint I know that's completely off the beaten path," he suggested.
"Sounds wonderful
," she said. "Have your girl call my boy and put it on our calendars, okay?" Laughing, she closed the door and danced across the room.
Saturday was fun, and she knew that she was falling for him. The goodnight kiss she gave him glazed his eyes, and hers, too. He called twice during the week and they talked for almost an hour the second time.
The following Friday, she was eating lunch at a small cafe near campus, when she looked up to see Collin standing there.
"Hey, stranger, what brings you to this part of town? Slumming?" she smiled.
"I tried to call, but it kept going to voicemail, so I thought I'd swing by," he answered. “The folks in your lab said you were probably here."
She fished around in her purse, dug out her cell phone, and said, "Shit. I had it on buzz. Sorry. What's up?"
"There's a really good jazz group playing tonight, and I hoped you might be free," he said.
He watched her smile die, looking away from him. "Actually I'm tied up tonight."
"What, washing your hair?" he bantered.
"Did that this morning." She squirmed in her chair, and he was immediately sorry he had pushed it. In a small voice, looking down at her lap, she said, "I have a date. I'm sorry." She looked up. "Another time, okay?"
"Yeah, sure. I guess I shouldn't be asking at the last minute," he said.
"I'm really sorry Collin. I, well, he asked me over a week ago."
"Have fun," he said, smiling. "See you later," and turned and walked out of the cafe.
David Norris picked her up at six and drove them to a small French restaurant. They had a lovely dinner with a bottle of wine, engaging conversation, and he made her feel so special, special in a way no one ever had. After dinner they went to the theater and she enjoyed the play immensely.
After, walking back to his car, she was so comfortable that it felt natural when they stopped and kissed in a small park. Passion flared in her, and the kiss turned into something far more, with her running her hands under his jacket, and him holding her bottom in his hands as they kissed and necked, her breasts pushing against his chest and his leg between hers.
The Telepathic Clans Omnibus Page 4
