Callie reached out and took Rebecca’s hand. “It’s not that I’m afraid you’ll teach her something incorrectly, I’m afraid she might try something that causes a disaster, hurting herself, you, innocent bystanders. Collin and Seamus have both pulled down buildings with their Telekinesis. I’m afraid she might level a city block. She’s potentially the most powerful telepath ever born, and she’s a wild card.” Callie hunched her shoulders, then shuddered. “She’s a walking time bomb, and always has been. What’s changed is now we know it.”
“I’m supposed to go shopping with her tomorrow.”
“Yes, she told me.”
“What do I tell her? If you told her tonight after I left her house, she’s going to have a lot of questions.”
“You’re right.” Callie stood and paced. “Answer her questions, as honestly and thoroughly as you can. If you don’t know, tell her that. But emphasize the potential dangers of trying things on her own, of trying things without proper training. There are some gifts that aren’t safe in almost any environment, the Rivera Gift you have being one. Are we clear?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Rebecca, being a wilder is no sin, and none of us looks down on you because of it. But like Brenna, your potential is flat scary, girl. Your combination of Gifts, if you think about it, is geared to starting a war, or ending one. You didn’t get any soft Gifts. If I was building a soldier from scratch, she’d look a whole lot like you genetically. You and Brenna together are a really scary thought. You’re a bit older, and you’ve had a year with us. Please be careful, and make sure she’s careful, okay?”
“I will. Oh, Callie, before I forget, I picked up another telepath, not someone I recognize, on the walk home this evening. He just didn’t feel right.” Rebecca frowned.
“Tell Collin, and you probably shouldn’t be out alone. I know it’s a hassle, but ask one of the other Protectors to go with you when you go out. Be careful, Rebecca.”
“Okay. Good night, Callie.”
~~~
Brenna pulled onto what she was beginning to think of as Telepath Street and parked in front of the house, Rebecca trotted to the car and got in.
Driving to the mall, Brenna told her about the call from Callie. “She seemed a bit hesitant to talk to me about it. Actually, she seemed a bit shook up.”
Rebecca sighed. “She pulled me into her office last night when I got home and gave me my marching orders as far as you’re concerned.” Brenna shot her an alarmed look. “Brenna, she’s scared. Scared of what you might do by mistake, of what you might try to do without understanding the consequences. Remember me telling you last night that I’m forbidden to even test my Rivera gift?” Brenna nodded. “I’ve been told I could potentially burn out the minds of everyone in reach if I were to try to use it, and no one knows what my reach is.”
“Yeah, if that’s what I did, it’s scary,” Brenna said.
“What they’re afraid of is that now that you know what your Gifts are, you’ll experiment without understanding what you’re doing. For each Gift, each Talent, there is a specific place in your mind you touch to invoke that Talent. If you go wandering around going ‘ooh, let’s see what this does’, bad things might happen. Do you understand? You could teleport inside a solid object, or try to light a candle and set the house on fire.”
Brenna shuddered. It seemed she was getting a lot of warnings lately.
“I wasn’t being entirely honest when I told you they kept me out in the boondocks for the past year because my shields were so bad. That was part of it, but the other part was that I’ve been training, learning to use my Talents, learning how to control them.
“Brenna, be careful, okay? You really need training, and I’m not the one to do it. I’ve been expressly forbidden to show you anything, and after thinking about it, I’ve decided they’re right.”
“Why are you telling me all this? Why hasn’t Callie or Seamus told me?”
“I’m telling you what I think you need to know, what I would want to know if I was in your shoes. They’re all wrapped up in the fact that their little girl has come home. I know if I was in your place, I would want to know the pragmatic details, how the world actually works and how I fit into it.”
Brenna was silent for a while. “Thanks. I feel like my whole life has been turned upside down. They seem to want to take over and tell me what to do and manage my priorities. Callie is always trying to explain things, but she leaves some things out, and glosses over others. They make assumptions, and most of the time I’m not operating under those same assumptions. I don’t have the information to form the basis of what they’re trying to explain to me.”
She parked the car at the mall. “Rebecca, you said the Clan has been paying you. What do you do? What’s your job?”
“I’m training to be a Protector, like Kallen, or Robbie, or Jared. We’re the Clan’s soldiers. Soldier, security guard, cop, spy. Most of the young men you’ve met are Protectors, and some of the women, like Carly. You see so many of them because you interact with Callie and Seamus, and there’s always a large guard contingent anywhere they go.”
Rebecca stopped and turned to her. “Have you met Kallen? Tall, brooding guy who looks like a gorgeous thug from some cheap movie?”
Brenna laughed. “Yeah, I know who you mean.”
“Kallen is considered to be one of the most dangerous men on the planet, loads of power. He’s Callie’s shadow. That means if the choice is destroy the world or let Callie get hurt, the world better watch out.” Brenna shot her an alarmed look. “Believe it, the man is intense, and his focus never wavers.
“Kallen is my mentor, my trainer. We have almost the same Gifts, but he only has twelve while I have fifteen. But the hard gifts, the ones you could use to destroy things or kill people, are almost the same ones. I’ve scared the shit out of him a couple of times.”
Brenna was silent as they went to a café for lunch. After they were seated she brought up the topic that really bothered her. “What do you know about the Succubus Gift? I guess if I have all of them, I have that one, too.”
“I know it’s pretty rare. Jared told me your mother had it. There are two women with the Gift in the Clan now, one in New York and one in Washington. I’ve met both of them.” She looked sideways at Brenna. “Based on the three succubi I’ve met, including you, drop-dead gorgeous and a body to die for are part of the package. They walk in a room and everyone stops and stares.”
“I don’t like it when people stare at me, I always wonder if I have a big zit or something.”
Rebecca’s head whipped around and she studied Brenna’s face. “Are you serious? Oh, shit, you are. They stare because they think you’re a movie star or something. Scan the room and see how many people noticed you walk in.”
Skeptically, Brenna did as her friend suggested.
“Holy shit.” Her eyes grew big.
“Get used to it, unless you join a convent, it’s never going to change.”
Brenna turned bright red. “But what do you know about it? Callie gave me a brief synopsis of all the Gifts to read, and it said a succubus is physically different and she drains men of their life energy during sex and she’s able to lure men and turn herself into someone completely irresistible, and a bunch of other things. I’m just not clear about it, but it seems so weird. It’s been bothering me for weeks.”
“I’m afraid I really don’t know that much, not any more than you do. It’s never really been a focus of my attention. There’s no male equivalent. If there was, I’d probably be more interested.”
Brenna laughed. “Rebecca, I’ve only been to bed with three men. I never wanted to be one of those girls that sleeps around and no one respects.” She wished she hadn’t said that when she saw Rebecca blush and duck her head.
~~~
They went shopping, and laden down with bags and boxes drove back to Baltimore later that afternoon. Brenna helped Rebecca carry her packages into the house. They were sitting in Rebecca�
��s room at the compound when there was a knock on the door.
Rebecca answered it. A redheaded young woman who appeared to be in her late twenties walked in. Elegantly dressed, she moved with a dancer’s grace.
“Brenna? I’m Cindy Nelson. Can I steal you away for a bit? I’d like to talk to you. I think you probably have a lot of questions I can answer.” When Brenna hesitated and looked at Rebecca, who nodded, Cindy said, “Yes, I’m the one she probably told you about. I have the Kashani Gift. I’m a succubus.”
She led Brenna down the hall to another bedroom and took the chair opposite her.
“Your mother was my mentor, my teacher, my friend for the eight years between when I came to the Clan at fifteen until her death. I think that, aside from you, her dying affected me more than anyone. I still miss her fiercely, as I’m sure you do. I owed her more than I could possibly ever repay, so anything I can do to help you, you have only to ask.”
“I’m so full of questions I hardly know where to start. Callie tried to explain, but the description of what a succubus is, it’s almost too much to swallow. I don’t understand it. I’m supposed to be physically different than other women? My doctors never found anything like that. The whole thing is just too fantastic to believe.”
“No one understands how we evolved,” Cindy said. “The physical differences are slight, and unless a doctor specifically went looking for them, he wouldn’t find them. If you’ll allow me into your mind, I can show them to you. ”
Stomach churning, Brenna wasn’t sure if she wanted Cindy to do that. She jumped to her feet and paced across the room.
“Okay,” she stopped and took a deep breath. “Come in and show me.” She dropped her shields and closed her eyes, standing stiffly in the middle of the room.
Cindy entered her mind and began showing her the physiological differences, the bands of muscle in her vagina, the pheromone glands in her throat, breasts and groin. Brenna had an intimate understanding of anatomy due to her university studies. Seeing the evidence in her own body was unmistakable.
Suddenly Brenna bolted toward the bathroom. Cindy jumped up and followed her, reaching her in time to pull her long hair out of the way while the younger woman vomited. When she finished, Cindy knelt and held her while Brenna sobbed uncontrollably.
“Oh, God, I don’t want this,” Brenna said. “No wonder no one ever loved me.”
“I know, honey. People see us as these glamorous creatures. Men all want us, women are all envious. We can have anything we want, go anywhere we want, and men fall all over us. But every time I hear it, the word Gift is bitter. Brenna, it’s an affliction, a curse. We can have anything we want except a normal relationship.
“Siobhan, the succubus who lives in New York City, told me once she looks back on the day she learned of her Gift the same way a person with AIDS looks back on the day of her diagnosis.”
Brenna sagged in Cindy’s arms. “I wish I’d never found my family.” Pushing away from Cindy, she stood, “Why would I want to drain someone’s life energy? It’s like being some kind of fucking vampire.”
Tears ran down her cheeks. “I feel like you’re trying to turn me into some kind of monster. I was happy before I knew about all these so-called Gifts.” She lowered her face into her hands and sobbed, then abruptly turned and threw up again.
Cindy watched her, let her cry. When she started to wind down and raised her face, Cindy handed her a damp washcloth. “Why did you choose the field of study you’re in? Why do you study how the brain works? Randolph gave me a copy of the paper you’re having published, and I went over to Hopkins’ library and read your dissertation.”
Brenna stared at her. “You read all that? Why?” She took a deep breath, sat looking at Cindy for what seemed like a long time. Then Cindy did something that completely took her breath away. She dropped her shields. All of them.
“Come in. Please.”
Tentatively, unsure of what she was doing, she entered Cindy’s mind. She felt the other woman’s pain, her joys, her wonderful enthusiasm for life. She saw Cindy’s soul, blindingly white and glowing, streaked with gold and glittering with green sparkles, and the immense amount of love that Cindy held within her, her need to love, her joy at sharing her love, the many people that she had shared that love with. She also saw how desperately alone Cindy was, the isolation a succubus felt.
She dropped her own shields, and shared herself with the other woman. She felt Cindy gaze upon her own soul, and then a soft, warm touch as Cindy touched her soul, stroking it with love.
And in that sharing, Brenna was confronted with the understanding that denial couldn’t change reality.
“Oh God,” Brenna said after they backed out of each other’s minds. She took a deep breath. “I guess it’s time to grow up, huh? It’s kind of like when Mom and Dad died. For years, I kept expecting them to walk through the door. I just didn’t want them to be dead. And as much as I think I’d like to be normal, I’m not, am I?”
“Brenna, you asked about draining life energy. Yes, what a succubus does during sex is so very like the mythical vampire. I can’t help it, it just happens. But I like sex, and I’m not willing to do without it. I came to grips with the morality of it a long time ago. It makes me happy, and your mother taught me I have the right to be happy.”
“I think we’re being called for supper. I know Seamus wants to talk to you afterward, and you should do that before I put him down. I want to set up a time we can meet regularly, either here or in DC, or even somewhere between. Evenings or weekends. I have to go to work during the day.”
“What kind of work do you do?”
Cindy’s smile was both mischievous and lecherous. “I work for the Senate Majority Leader in Washington. I keep his calendar and act as liaison with the committee chairmen, helping them to coordinate their agendas. I also act as the primary liaison with the Speaker of the House. And before you ask, yes, I’m fucking both of them. In their case, the less active they are the less damage they can do.”
Brenna was starting to lose her balance. This woman was unreal. “What did you mean that I need to see Seamus ‘before you put him down’?”
“Oh, didn’t you know? He’s my boyfriend. I haven’t found my Jack O’Donnell, but I’ve got the next best thing.”
After supper, Brenna followed Seamus to his study. She sat while he poured them both a glass of Midleton’s, and then he sat behind his desk.
“Seamus, why didn’t anyone tell me before? You’ve all known I’m a succubus. You can’t tell me that Callie didn’t take a genetic sample when I was a kid.”
“Callie never ran the sample she took when you were a baby, and they couldn’t find it when we rediscovered you. But you’re right, we knew you’re a succubus. Your mother was, and your father was a carrier.”
“I’m not a kid, dammit, I’m a grown woman. I deserve the truth, and I deserve explanations that make sense.”
Seamus nodded. “Understood. I apologize. But I’m going to leave questions on that Gift to Cindy, if you don’t mind. I’m not the expert.
“Brenna, what I wanted to talk to you about was your other Gifts. Those that might have a lot more impact on the people around you and the world at large. You have combinations of Gifts we haven’t seen before. We’ve never seen anyone with all four of the rare Gifts. We’ve never seen a succubus who was also a Dominant, let alone with both a Dominant and an O’Neill.
“And make no mistake, there’s a lot more to the Kashani Gift than sex. Your aunt’s friend from Italy almost won a war by herself in the late fifties, and she didn’t do it on her back. Be careful, Brenna. And please consider moving to West Virginia, at least for a year so we can train you.”
“No can do. I’m sorry, but I’ve signed a contract and given a commitment to teach at Hopkins this fall. I have my fellowship. Give me a year, and let me finish what I’ve started. You understand that, don’t you?”
Seamus gave her a sour look, but nodded. “Yes, I don’t like
it, but I understand it. Normally I’d be reaming one of my brood if they tried to back out of a commitment they’d made, so you’ve got me there.”
He took a sip of his whiskey, “I received word from your mother’s parents, the O’Byrnes. They’re coming to the states, and will be at the West Virginia estate for Labor Day. They’re coming specifically to meet you.”
Brenna nodded. “Yes, I’ll come. I want to meet them.” She downed the last of her whiskey.
As she left, she met Cindy in the hall. Cindy walked into Seamus’ study and before the door closed Brenna heard her say in a loud voice, “Seamus, you and Callie have got to stop treating her like a child. She’s a grown woman, for God’s sake.”
Brenna smiled.
~~~
Chapter 1-6
… from the middle of the thirteenth century the Church was on the defensive. The battle against sex became, as it always must, the battle against heresy. - Gordon Rattray Taylor
Cindy called Collin. “A man came to the office today, and something wasn’t right with him. He’s from the German embassy, a low-level functionary, and he got access to the Leader through a Congressman from Indiana. He’s a telepath, and he had a tale to tell about trade and such, but he left me very uneasy.
“I’d like to check him out, but he saw me there so that’s not going to work. Do you suppose you could bring Siobhan in for a couple of days?”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Collin said, “except she’s in London and won’t be back for a couple of weeks.”
“Maybe it can wait, but like I said, his agenda was not what he stated. I was afraid to delve too deeply, but I’m wondering if he had a construct. He was obviously operating on someone’s orders, and he was just too damn dumb to be real. He’s hiding something.”
“Let me think about it. Maybe we can figure out a way to get into his mind and figure out what he’s up to.” Collin hung up the phone and looked at the two Protectors sitting in his office.
The Telepathic Clans Omnibus Page 7
