“Anymore?” I eyed her suspiciously.
Melissa glanced back at me and there was sadness in her eyes. “I left them. It’s a long story.” Something passed through her expression that I couldn’t read, but Sky squeezed her hand and she looked back up at me.
I frowned. “Then why do you still wear the symbol?”
Melissa gripped Sky’s hand tighter and touched the cross with her other hand. “It’s a symbol of my faith. And I still believe in, well, not what they stand for now, but… what they’re supposed to stand for.”
I eased a little, but when I glanced at Raelya, I noticed she was still tense, and she would not look up at the woman in the front seat. I frowned and clasped her hand, hoping to reassure her. “Which is… hopefully nothing to do with killing innocent people just because they happen to be a werewolf or whatever?”
Melissa nodded. “I believe in protecting people, in doing God’s work. But I don’t believe in murdering supernaturals who have done nothing wrong.”
“Okay… That doesn’t sound so bad.” I glanced at Raelya but she was still looking down.
Sky interjected, “Melissa is on our side. She’s acting as a liaison between the Templar and SII in Canada. It’s very important that we keep peaceful relations here, and thanks to her, we’ve been able to work together more often than not.”
Melissa smiled at him. “It’s not like I could have done that alone.”
Sky shook his head. “It’s been pretty fortunate that we happened to end up together. I think it’s done a lot of good for more than just us.”
“Heh. Well, sorry for the reaction. Just, a guy with that cross on his gloves tried to kill us a few hours ago.” I said.
Melissa frowned solemnly. “I am so very sorry that you had to go through that. I’m glad you were able to defeat him.”
Sky nodded. “Adrien told me you were attacked in Dallas. If we’d known you had been redirected there, we could have prevented this whole affair.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Well, most of America belongs to SII.” Sky began. “The Templar more or less own Europe, but they have no foothold in the Americas. Until recently. They have won an equal footing with SII in Canada so far, and now they are trying to seed a movement in Texas as well.”
I huffed. “So we ended up in the one place in the States where they could bother us?” I considered that for a beat and frowned deeply. “That doesn’t sound suspicious at all.”
“Exactly.” Sky frowned too. “But at least now that you’re here, you won’t have to worry about that. And when you go home, we’ll make sure that your flights go where they’re supposed to.”
I leaned back in the seat and thought about that as Sky drove us through downtown Calgary. Raelya remained quiet and I could tell something was bothering her. I squeezed her hand reassuringly and she bumped my shoulder with her head. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it seemed like she appreciated my attempt to comfort her at least. After a few minutes of silence, I glanced up again. “So, what are we doing today then?”
“For now, I’m taking you to the hotel.” Sky said.
“That’s right. Adrien said accommodations were being provided.” I said.
“There’s a hotel next door to our office here. Every SII headquarters has some form of housing for when it’s needed,” Sky said. Melissa glanced up at Sky again in that same, off-beat manner I’d noticed before.
“So, why do you keep looking at him like that?” I asked.
Melissa glanced at me with a puzzled expression that quickly melted into realization. “Oh…”
Sky patted her hand. “It’s okay.” He told her, then he glanced back at me briefly. “As you know, I’m a Mentalist. That means I can check into your memories and see what has happened to cause the issues you’ve had. It also means I can speak with others mentally, hear their thoughts, apply force with my mind, and more.”
“Cool! I should have realized all of that. So I guess you’re pretty used to talking to each other that way then. That makes sense.” I said.
Sky nodded. “I’m afraid it’s habit. I do my best to avoid imposing my means of speech upon others, but those who are close to me are rather used to it.”
“That sounds like it’d be really cool. I wish I had super mental powers.” I grinned. “I mean, I interrupted a ritual and all I got was this green hand-fire.”
Sky seemed amused. “There are many who would trade you for such a power. I am not one of them.” He stiffened ever so slightly. “I have seen what those of the Circles are capable of, and I would not desire to have one of them tied to me in such a manner.”
I frowned. “Eech. Sounds like you’ve had a bad experience.”
Sky shrugged. “I was Awakened when I was thirteen. My sister and I survived an event in which a Greater Devil of the Circles inadvertently crushed half our house in an unrelated conflict, killing our parents. So I suppose you could say that.”
I cringed. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s all right.” Sky assured me calmly. “It was a long time ago. I explained to illustrate my point. You should take great care with the Circle members, Miss Shepherd. Believe me, they are supremely dangerous. Tossing a train through a house was nothing to one of them, and he was one of the lower among their ranks. Fortunately, so is the one who gave you the talent you now possess. But even so, they are deadly beyond human reckoning. You would do well to remember that, always.”
I chewed that over quietly as Sky drove us the rest of the way to the hotel. We parked and retrieved our luggage from the trunk, and Sky helped us carry it up. At first I tried to refuse his help, feeling bad about him trying to take our heavy bags as he was a rather smaller guy, but he assured me it was no trouble and lifted them with ease. I noticed he walked as if he had not lifted an ounce, and made a few guesses as to how he managed such a thing. “That’s a neat trick.”
“It beats the alternative.” He smiled at me with good humor. As we stepped into the hotel, I felt the unmistakable pressure of a ward settling over me. I glanced at Sky uncomfortably and he gestured forward. “Dakota, Raelya, please come in.” The pressure eased, parting around me like a membrane had broken and allowed me to pass through it. I sighed in relief.
Sky and Melissa walked us to our room and helped us settle our things onto the two double beds. Raelya moved to the bed farthest from the door and sat down on the end of it.
I turned to Sky when we’d finished. “So what now?”
Melissa stepped out into the hall, sharing a nod with Sky before she went. I imagined she was going to keep watch, being that she’d obviously been covering us with a sniper rifle at the airport. Nice teamwork if you asked me. Sky glanced up at me. “I thought you might be too tired from your trip to begin right away.”
“I’d be happier getting it out of the way, to be honest.” I had no idea what “it” would entail, but I wanted to know what I’d come here to find out.
Sky shrugged and nodded. “Very well, if you’d prefer it that way, I suppose we can at least take a look then.” He gestured to a pair of chairs at a little table. “Take a seat and make yourself comfortable.” I moved over to the chair and sat down, flexing my shoulders once then relaxing. I let out a long breath to calm my nerves. Sky approached me and stood before me, folding his hands politely. “Before I begin, I want you to understand what will happen here, so I will explain my process.”
I nodded attentively.
Sky nodded and continued. “I understand that you had a series of blackouts when you were a teenager, all occurring over a period of forty-three months between your sixteenth and twentieth years, and that the individual events were typically brief events, lasting between one and four hours, most of which resulted in your waking up alone in the woods, commonly without clothing. Was all of that reported correctly?”
I blinked. “Wow, you must have really studied my case. How did you keep it all straight?”
Sky pressed his lips i
n a flat, bare smile. “It’s a rare gift that I possess: a perfect memory. I remember absolutely everything that I ever perceive in flawless detail, no matter how long it has been.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you serious? Everything? Like, forever?”
Sky nodded. “Everything. No matter how great or terrible.”
I winced at that. “Wow. That… sounds like it could be more of a curse than a blessing.”
Sky smiled thinly. “Very astute of you, Miss Shepherd.”
“Dakota is cool.” I tried to imagine what it would be like to recall everything you ever knew, and frankly, I didn’t even want to remember everything I’d perceived last night, less every day of my life. I shook my head, clearing my thoughts as I glanced back up at Sky. “If I was like that, I’d stay the hell away from the internet.”
Sky smirked at me mildly. “Indeed, I am rather selective with my sites.”
I grinned. “Can’t unsee.”
Sky sighed. “Exactly.”
“So. What do I do then?”
“Just relax and don’t fight me. I will enter your mind with mine and I will have a look around. In order to find the periods of your blackouts I will have to do a bit of exploring to find the right part of your memories. When I encounter those portions, I will look them over and see what I think about the cause of them. In the process, I will have to sift through your memories. I will see and hear many things, and I can not control what content I will witness. And, because of my gift, I will never be capable of forgetting what I absorb from your mind. As we begin, I must have your complete understanding and your absolute consent, or we can not proceed.” The incredibly serious expression and tone felt out of place on his young face.
I absorbed what he’d said and nodded. “I understand, and I give you my consent to do as you’ve said. Do what you have to do. I… I have to know the truth.”
Sky nodded to me again, then fixed his gaze on my eyes for maybe a minute. I guess I was expecting something flashier like closing his eyes and putting his hands on my head or something like that. I was really surprised when he nodded to himself again and said, “I see. What you have there is a series of mental blocks.” He frowned. “And they were definitely fabricated by a third party.”
I blinked. “That’s it? You just…”
“That’s it.” He smiled. “I suppose you were expecting something more? Mentalism is not typically very flashy, I’m afraid.”
“I mean it was just so quick and I didn’t feel anything at all.” I rubbed at my head idly.
“Well, I’m pretty skilled with it, so I should hope you wouldn’t feel anything. As for the speed, you have to remember that this work occurs at the speed of thought.” He shrugged. “Regardless, I understand what caused the blocks in your memory, and I’m afraid they are also responsible for your inability to shift into your other forms.”
I don’t know what I had been expecting. I mean, I was sent here to meet someone who could fix my problem and tell me what caused it, but now it all felt so sudden. “So… You can fix it? Just like that?”
Sky frowned and shook his head. “I’m afraid not. The blocks that I encountered were placed by a rather skilled Mentalist. More importantly, they were placed very long ago, and if I were to disturb them in the wrong way, I fear it would do you harm, and it’s not something I’d be willing to attempt alone.”
I frowned. “You mean… you can’t fix it? I… I can never regain my memories and learn to shift?” The wolf felt uneasy and miserable inside of me. The idea that I’d never come any closer to her than this…
“Oh, no. I can fix it. But I’m going to need to call in some backup.” He smiled confidently.
I perked up. “Oh? Who?”
“My sister, River. She’s very powerful, and we’ve always worked very well together. I’m confident that together we can remove those blocks safely.”
“Yay!” I grinned. “So, when can we do it?”
“I’ll have to check with her and see how long it will take her to get here.” He sighed and paced across the room toward the door. “She keeps herself busy, and there’s no telling where she is right now.”
I stood up and stretched. “Travels a lot?”
Sky shrugged. “Her… boyfriend… tends to take her on trips fairly often.”
I detected that Sky was not overly fond of his sister’s boyfriend. The protectiveness in his tone was kinda adorable. “Sounds like you don’t appreciate that?”
Sky seemed to consider briefly, taking a deep breath and puffing it out. “Her boyfriend is… a vampire. We don’t get along excellently.”
I blinked. “Oh. Huh. Yeah. Well. I can see why you might have a problem with that.” Not like I hadn’t heard it enough from people who cared about me, after all.
Sky shrugged. “It is what it is. Anyway, I’m going to go for now and see if I can get in touch with her. I will call your cell and let you know when I have an answer from her on when she can make it here. It may be a couple of days. In the mean time, I recommend you enjoy your visit. Calgary is a nice area. Hopefully, it won’t be too long of a wait, but you may as well enjoy the opportunity to see the sights, if you like.”
I smiled, excited. “That’s a great idea. Thanks. And… thanks for…” I gestured at my head.
“Not a problem.” Sky smiled honestly. “I’m happy to be able to help.” He glanced between us, seeming to consider. “Is there anything else I could help with before I go?” He turned his eyes toward Raelya. “I don’t mean to pry, but I’m getting a sense of pain.”
Raelya shook her head. “It is nothing. Just the Templar used silver handcuffs.” She indicated the bandages on her wrists.
Sky frowned. “That can’t be pleasant. If you would like, I could heal them for you.”
I blinked. “You can heal people?”
Sky nodded. “Not excellently, mind you, but I can close a wound at least.”
Raelya shrugged and started peeling off her bandages. “I will not say no.”
I glanced at Raelya. “I didn’t know psychics could heal people.”
Sky stepped over to Raelya and waited for her to finish removing the bloodied cloth. “It’s not really anything to do with my being psychic. Or rather, it’s not my Mentalism that I use for healing. It is possible to do some healing with Mentalism, but it’s much harder than with other schools of magic. So I chose to study curative Necromancy as a tertiary discipline to my Mentalism and Alteration back when I was a field agent. I felt it’d be useful to my team.”
I blinked. “Wait, Necromancy? Like raising the dead?”
Sky shook his head, smiling patiently. “No, I’ve never studied that side of it. I’m not sure how much you know about the schools of magic, but each school is broken into a few sub-schools that cover various aspects of the art. Necromancy, overall, is the magic of manipulating the powers of life and death, mostly life force and living energies. Raising the dead involves pushing living energy back into an unliving thing, you see. But the most potent form of healing is curative Necromancy which involves restoring living tissues, aiding a body’s natural healing capacity, and helping cells to regrow.”
“Wow. That’s really cool. I just had no idea that it was possible to learn healing magic like that. I guess, I figured if it were, more people would be healthy or there’d be some magicians working in each hospital healing the injured and dying, or saving babies and victims of drunk driving accidents.” I watched as Sky reached for Raelya’s hands and she offered them up to him.
“It’s no different than learning any other magic. You can do it by sorcery or wizardry, but either way, it’s just a matter of study and practice. As for healers in hospitals, I don’t doubt that there are many Awakened medical professionals in the world who use their magic subtly to save lives where they can. But using magic blatantly in front of Unawakened people would be an excellent way to drive several other people insane. Thus, it’s not as simple as you might think.”
I frowned but nodded
. “I see your point.”
Sky laid a hand over each of Raelya’s wrists and closed his eyes, seeming to focus for a moment. I watched carefully, expecting to see some nifty special effects, but I was disappointed; no flashy lights or nifty sound-effects, but I did feel something as Sky’s aura surged and shifted about, almost dancing. When Sky lifted his hands, Raelya’s wrists were simply better. The bloody welts had become a matched pair of light scars.
“There.” Sky said simply. “How is that?”
Raelya smiled appreciatively. “Thank you. They feel much better.”
“I’m sorry for the scars. I could have avoided that if I were more skilled, or if I’d gotten to them sooner.”
Raelya shook her head. “It is not important. They would have scarred regardless. Worse, even. At least now they do not hurt anymore.” She bowed her head to him a little. “Thank you.”
“It’s no trouble. I take it there are no other injuries that need seeing to?” He glanced between us and we both shook our heads so he turned and stepped over to the door. “Then if you’ll excuse me, I will go and arrange things with River so we can see to your problem sooner rather than later.”
“All right, thanks. And it was a pleasure to meet you and your wife.”
Sky smiled at me. “It was a pleasure to meet both of you as well.” He nodded to us, then stepped out, closing the door behind him.
I went over and locked the bolt behind him, then moved over to Raelya and sat down beside her. “Hey. Are you all right?”
Raelya nodded. “I am fine.”
I frowned and put an arm around her gently. “You don’t seem all right.”
Raelya leaned against me. “I am. I was just not so comfortable with that woman around.”
“She didn’t seem so bad. I mean, she said she left the Supernatural Nazis.”
Raelya tilted her head. “Supernatural… I… what?”
I shrugged. “From what I’ve read, it seems like they want a Supernatural Holocaust.”
Raelya shook her head. “Ah. Yes, I suppose that makes sense.” She seemed moodier than I’d seen her before and it was worrying me.
Awakened (Auralight Codex: Dakota Shepherd Book 1) Page 21
