[Ganzfield 2] Adversary (3 page)

Trevor frowned at the little bag that hung high above us. “I could climb up on the shelter roof and reach it.” He gauged the distance with his fifteen-foot telekinetic range in mind.
But then I’d need to let go of these two.

“Don’t bother.” Drew focused and the wood around the arrowhead began to smoke. Flames licked along the arrow as Drew pulled the fire to him. The bag landed in his hand.

“A map.” Drew unfolded the paper sealed in plastic.

Grace groaned.

“X marks the spot.” Rachel sent little golden rays to the location, seeing it in her mind. “The car.”

“Josh. Alex. Stay where you are for the next hour. Don’t say anything.” Grace’s voice filled with charm resonance.

Trevor released his hold on them and Hannah touched each of them briefly, using her ability to make sure Trevor hadn’t caused any damage. My lips twitched slightly—she’d finally agreed to join the team to keep people safe from
me
. But I hadn’t caused a single injury to anyone since we’d started training. She’d gradually relaxed about the whole “killer telepath” thing. Now she only looked at me like I was a dangerous monster a couple of times a week.

“Forget you saw us out here,” Grace added.

Our breath formed little clouds as we followed a single set of tire tracks through the snow. The brick wall to our left formed the barrier between Ganzfield and the rest of the world, while the quiet thoughts of birds and chipmunks filled the trees. I felt like our walled compound was an uncharted island in the middle of a sea of trees and winter.

The silver sedan blocked the narrow trail. Drew frowned. “Hey, where are the keys?”

Rachel threw golden tendrils out from her mind once more. “Greg’s house.”

“Anyone there?” I asked. She widened her view, searching through the house, and then shook her head.

“Let’s go.” Trevor took my hand in his. Rachel followed.

Think he’s set booby-traps again?
I asked silently. It’d taken most of a week to get all of the paint out of my hair from the last time.

Probably, but we’re not going in through the door.

I grinned as I followed his thoughts.

Trevor had been doing his physical instruction with Greg, Dr. Williamson’s driver and a former Navy SEAL, for more than a year. When Dr. Williamson asked him to train our team, Greg threw himself into it with gruff enthusiasm. His brother Kurt had been an archeologist who’d used his remote viewing ability to make some extraordinary finds in his early career. Dr. Williamson had told me about them.

Greg accidentally discovered Kurt’s ability six years ago
.

Why didn’t you send a charm to talk to him?
I’d asked. That was Dr. Williamson’s usual M.O. in cases like this.

Isaiah killed Kurt. Greg witnessed it. We did send a charm to talk to Greg—twice. But he kept looking for answers in his brother’s disappearance. Finally, we simply took off the charm commands, let him remember what he’d seen, and explained the rest to him. He’s not a G-positive, but he wanted to help protect Ganzfield. Felt that he owed it to Kurt.

I scanned for Greg’s mind as we approached the house. If he’d set traps, I could float thoughts into his head and figure out what he’d done. This time, though, he was far enough away that I couldn’t read him.

“Second floor,” said Rachel.

“I’m on it.” Trevor unlatched the upstairs window with his ability and slid both the storm glass and the inner panes open.
Ready?
he thought to me.

I nodded.
Ready.

Trevor’s invisible hands gripped my waist, boosting me through the open window. I used my connection to Rachel’s mind, following the golden thread across the orderly bedroom to the small bathroom.

Rachel’s vision led to a plastic bag sunk in the back of the toilet. The keys weighted it down to the bottom. I flushed and watched the water level drop, grabbing the exposed plastic bag before the tank filled again.

Got them!
I thought to the waiting team below, returning to the window. Trevor lifted me back down, catching me in his arms, and then closed and re-locked the window.

“Let’s go!” Rachel was already headed toward the car.

The others waited for us. I tossed the keys to Drew. The sedan only had five seats, but we needed this car today—we’d practiced with it. Drew and Rachel sat up front; Grace, Hannah, and Trevor got in back. Trevor pulled me into his lap, wrapping me in two sets of long arms: one visible, one invisible. I leaned against his chest, turning my head to fit against his neck, and his heartbeat tapped soothingly against my cheek. He snapped the seatbelt around us both as the car bumped across the frozen trail.

Gravel crunched under the tires as we left the Ganzfield property for the first time in nearly two months. We knew that the real tests still lay ahead of us.

At the New Hampshire DMV.

*   *   *

I did a paranoid mental sweep as we left the safety of Ganzfield. Did anyone recognize us? Was anyone targeting us? As far as I could tell, no one was. I relaxed once we hit the main road and joined the flow of morning traffic. A few months ago, I’d caught a mental whiff of someone surveilling us but hadn’t known enough to understand the danger. Then the people I’d sensed had kidnapped Trevor. They’d wanted to experiment on him. The memory still made my gut twist with sick dread. We’d stopped them and I’d even killed some of them.

We arrived at the Conway Town Hall just as they opened, piling out of the car like clowns out of a circus Volkswagen.

Ready for this, Grace?
I asked.

Absolutely!
It’s my first chance to charm a real person.

I nearly gave her some grief about that. We were “real” people out at Ganzfield—just “gifted,” as Dr. Williamson called it. However, I decided not to rattle her. We found the town clerk’s office and Grace had a few words with her. Soon, we were back in the car with four signed letters of residency.

Grace grinned smugly. “That was too easy.”

Rachel rolled her eyes and Grace’s pleasure evaporated with her smile.

Over the past month, I’d enjoyed training with Grace, but as a minder, I was immune to her “Jedi mind trick.” Grace’s presence reminded Rachel of unpleasant memories and the others still felt uneasy around her. Still, I wished they’d just get over it.

The closest DMV was nearly an hour away in Berlin. The name of Berlin, New Hampshire, was pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable: “BURL-in.” I’d been told this had started with a burst of patriotism during the First World War and they’d never bothered to change it back.

We’d been throwing the idea of this trip around since mid-December. I’d asked my mom to bring my birth certificate and passport when she’d come at Christmas so I’d be prepared for today. My mom’s Christmas visit had been memorable—literally. She had taken the information about G-positives well, which meant Dr. Williamson hadn’t been forced to have someone charm her to forget before she’d gone home. She’d even gotten the healers to test her—she was a G-positive, too.

She’d smiled at the news. “That explains a lot.” She’d become a psychologist, after all. People paid her to have insights into their mental states.

My mom on dodecamine? Yikes. People who first started using the drug as adults usually developed weaker abilities, but Dr. Williamson had been over thirty for his first dose, and he was a very strong telepath. There was no way to tell how strong my mom’s ability would be—if she was a telepath at all. It was a good bet; relatives often had the same abilities. The best example was Drew’s family; the McFees accounted for more than half of the known sparks.

The thought made me a bit uncomfortable. I really didn’t want my mom to hear all of the things I was thinking and feeling—particularly when it came to Trevor. She’d met him at Christmastime and all had gone well for the first few hours. She’s a good judge of character and Trevor had been eager to make a good impression.

Then she’d found out that we were living together in the old church.

I winced at the memory. She’d glared at me, up at Trevor, and around the sanctuary in turns. I’d felt like I had when I was five years old and she’d caught me coloring the dining room wallpaper with crayons. Her fists had balled on her plump hips and her green eyes had flashed with as much anger and dismay as her mind. With her round face and dark-brown hair wisping out around her, she’d looked like a fairy godmother in a tizzy.
I know those separate beds are just a ruse—a rather obvious and pathetic one.

Her feelings about Trevor had shifted in that moment.
The crush Maddie has on this boy is too intense. It’s a distraction that could keep her from getting into a good college.
She still hadn’t accepted that a traditional college experience was no longer a real option for me. She believed that I was giving up on that dream in order to be with my boyfriend.
But if I make an issue of it, she’ll just hold onto him harder.

Ugh. I’d suspected that hearing my mom’s thoughts might be disturbing. At least everything at Ganzfield had looked pretty, all covered in snow. It meant that the frosty attitude my mom now had for Trevor fit right in with the scenery.

Completely unfair.

Trevor was so eager to please, and his relationship with his own family was so strained and complicated. He didn’t want to cause problems between my mom and me. And the main thing she held against Trevor was false—we
weren’t
having sex. Trevor had given Dr. Williamson his word on that and had been adamant about keeping it.

The “no sex” thing was not that big a deal—honestly. We had other things we could do. In fact, I was pretty sure that soulmating was better than sex. We could intertwine our mental energies in a way that was all-encompassing, passionate, and overwhelming. Each time we did it, our mental and emotional connection grew stronger—we became more aware, more attuned to each other. It affected us physically, of course, but our thoughts and emotions also blended together like a single consciousness. And I didn’t have to think about projecting thoughts to Trevor anymore—it just happened.

Right now, Trevor was daydreaming about kissing me. I closed my eyes, focused in, and could almost feel his lips against mine. In his mind, he trailed down and started kissing the hollow of my neck. My heart hammered and a buzzing red energy danced over my skin.
Oh, yes.
I let Trevor feel the effect he was having on me. His breathing quickened—mine did, too. The thoughts of the others in the car faded away and we drifted together in his daydream.

“What on earth are you two doing?” Drew’s voice broke into our little reverie.

Crap.

My eyes flew open. Everyone in the car had stopped talking—they were all staring at us. Hannah’s dismay and embarrassment flowed hot-pink as she inched away on the seat. Trevor and I were both flushed and breathing hard, although we weren’t physically doing anything. Is it a P.D.A. if you’re just
thinking
about kissing each other? I felt the deepening blush creep up both of our faces.

“Oops.” We were usually more discrete. “Sorry.”

“Sorry.” Trevor dipped his head, embarrassed.

“Geez, you two.” A smirk played across Drew’s face. “Get a church.”

Trevor, can you think of something else?

Not at the moment.

Me neither..

He chuckled and kissed the top of my head.

DMV!
I thought at him.
We’re going to the DMV. The DMV is definitely not sexy. Let’s think about that.

Trevor pictured us making out in the DMV.

I rolled my eyes, feeling the red energy begin to trace along my skin again.
That’s not helping!

Can’t stop. I think I’m addicted to you
.

I grinned.
The first step is admitting you have a problem. 

CHAPTER 3

The actual DMV was definitely not sexy. After the four of us successfully completed the eye exams and written tests, only Hannah and I did well enough on the road tests to pass. I finally had a real driver’s license. I pulled it out and looked at it again, still amazed. The picture was mug-shot horrible. I guess that made it all the more real.

Grace said a few charmed words to the tester, a heavyset, middle-aged man who smelled like bacon. He then “forgot” about the mistakes she’d made parallel parking.

Rachel scowled to cover her embarrassment.

Grace can talk to him about—