Bright Star (40 page)

“You mean like when you left them in the ocean to die?”

Rush brought his finger up to tap himself repeatedly on the temple. He continued, and Jackson waited. Rush said nothing. He just tapped.

Jackson knew he shouldn’t have said it. It was too late to take it back. There was nothing he could say. He had lashed out because his brother did not believe Bright Star could be saved. He didn’t believe she could be reasoned with or passively prevented from her course. But lashing out wouldn’t change anything. It didn’t change the very real fear that Rush was right.

“Jackson, it is what it is,” Rush stated warily and with finality.

“What do you want me to do?” Jackson asked.

Rush measured him with a mental scan. Jackson was serious. Truthfully, Rush replied, “I want you to stay out of the way.”

Jackson smiled with only half of his mouth. “I don’t know how to do that.”

“The other choice is—”

“The other choice,” Jackson interrupted, nodding his head, “is for you to tell me what she’s going to do. You have to tell me what you have been so afraid of for what is it… Years, now?”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not? What will happen if you tell me? Do you think I won’t believe you? Do you think that just by telling me what’s happening that this catastrophic event will be set into motion rather than averted?”

“Nothing so scripted,” Rush replied. “I haven’t told you because, honestly, Jackson, I don’t think you can handle it.”

“Rush, please stop this. I’m an adult. I know how to take care of myself. Don’t you understand that you can’t put everything you are into being my big brother? You can’t protect me for my whole life. Or, hell, even if you can, you shouldn’t. You have to stop interfering.”

Rush considered his next words carefully. “You’re right, Jacks. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell all of the people who live in my house for nearly a year. But I still won’t tell you. Knowing what will happen will only generate more questions. If you can’t read her yourself, then I can’t help but think you still need me.”

“So,” Jackson said, tilting his head to the side, “What you’re saying is that if I can read her, you will trust me enough to talk about this and what you plan to do about it.”

“Jackson, if you can read her, there’s no need for me to tell you anything,” Rush answered.

“Then let’s find her,” Jackson stated with resignation. He looked at his watch. “The dining hall.”

They entered the dining hall. The white room with white tables had stretched, pressed outward until it accommodated table after table after table of Followers. They were all seated in chairs covered in bright yellow satin. Vibrant orange flowers were bundled in the center of each. Heiro’s paintings, all giant blocks of yellow, lined up down the white walls.

Rush led Jackson to the only yellow table in the room. It sat in a far corner. No one acknowledged Rush as he passed but behind his back, each of the Followers bowed his head momentarily then turned back to their tables. Rush knew what they did when he didn’t watch, but had given up on stopping them. Though they did not express outwardly, he still felt their Energy, their devotion. He sighed.

Bright Star wasn’t there yet, so they seated themselves at the table. Rush explained to Jackson, “I hate this place. I still don’t know why they do this. I don’t know why they must break bread together at the same time every night. At first I believed it was a suggestion…”

“You would have known if it was a suggestion.”

“Yes,” Rush acknowledged. “It’s not a suggestion, but it has become a matter of routine which sometimes is stronger. You learned that, didn’t you?”

“
Parameters of Shift 101
,” Jackson stated dryly.

“I thought you had thrown that coursework to the dogs.” Rush showed a trace of a smile.

“Yeah, I have.” Jackson grinned back. “When it suits me, that is.”

“Gentlemen,” Monk greeted, joining them at the table. “It’s a surprise to see you both here.”

“Monk,” Rush and Jackson greeted him simultaneously.

“You guys worked things out?”

The brothers, who now shared a new and striking resemblance that was undeniable to anyone in that dining room, nodded yes.

“Good,” Monk returned, studying them both at length. Then his attention was pulled to the door expectantly.

When Point entered the room the tension seemed to evaporate from Rush’s countenance. He smiled and bounded out of his chair to awkwardly come to her side and grab her arm, helping her as she ambled slowly toward them.

Jackson’s mouth dropped open. He couldn’t have been more surprised to see Rush tripping over himself to assist the lumbering Point. He had even beaten the excited father to her side. He realized quickly that it was the first time he had ever seen his brother in the presence of a pregnant woman.

“Are you sure you’re only eight months, Point? You look like you’re ready to pop any minute now,” Rush teased as Point eased herself into her seat. Monk stood to help but she waved him off.

“I know,” she said and continued blushing. “But, I can’t be any further along.”

“You look amazing!” Rush said, astounding each of the other men at the table. While it was true that Point smiled more every day and her skin, the color of strong tea, shined, they couldn’t figure out why Rush noticed.

Once she was settled in her chair, she looked directly down at her plate. She was still uncomfortable around Rush. She was too awed by him. That led to vulnerability and she was not a person comfortable with vulnerability in anyone, let alone herself. But, Jackson noticed, there was something new.

Then Jackson felt the Energy that signaled Bright Star. He could always feel her. He looked up and there she was. She wore a long white dress that moved seductively around her body. Unbidden, the image of a naked Bright Star slipped into his mind. His mouth went dry. Internally, he cursed himself for the desire he felt, but it didn’t help. Mercifully, he was distracted by the frown that creased her brow and pursed her lips. She seemed to be concentrating. As she neared them, it became obvious that she was looking at Point.

Absently, she greeted the table, sparing a moment to bow her head in Rush’s direction. But her attention went right back to the pregnant woman who had been her right hand for so many months.

Point did not return the regard. But Bright Star couldn’t seem to pry her eyes away from her, or rather her protruding belly. Bright Star’s glowing eyes were narrowed and focused on Point’s tummy. Blue light scanned up and down the belly as if it was x-raying and evaluating the growing life inside. More than once, Jackson had noticed Bright Star’s hands rising, testing the air, preparing to reach out to Point, but each time she managed to still them.

Even Jackson had to admit it was unsettling. Bright Star was still watching the mound like she could see inside it. Her mouth worked subtly, saying a soft incantation or talking to the little one inside but wanted no one else to know. Her eyes were predatory. Jackson had the disturbing image of a female jackal—the most vicious sort—licking her chops. He shook his head to clear it. He still could not read her.

“She’s coming along well, isn’t she?” Bright Star asked Jackson directly as if she knew the direction of his thoughts. Her eyes never lifted to him.

“I don’t know,” Jackson answered truthfully. “I don’t know anything about babies.”

Bright Star dismissed him as easily as she had started speaking to him. “Rush,” she leveled her gaze at his brother. “Don’t you think she’s coming along well?”

“Absolutely,” Rush remarked with a supportive squeeze to Point’s arm. “The baby is strong and beautiful. She will grow to be more special than you can know.”

“Yes,” Bright Star said absently. “Very special. The baby is very special. Very special. Domina.”

“Are you going to eat?” Jackson asked her in hopes of changing the mood of the eerie conversation.

“I’m not hungry,” she responded, though her eyes were still predatory, and clearly, clearly she wanted
something
.

“I think you should eat,” Jackson returned, trying not to be put off. “You haven’t been eating.” She stared at him blankly. “You haven’t,” he insisted. “I’ve watched you. You’re losing weight too quickly and I know I haven’t seen you eat in a week.”

“That’s right,” she agreed, nodding. “I’m not eating.”

“Why?”

“I’m fasting,” she answered with a frail shrug. Jackson was reminded of aged paper, brittle, flaking… losing its important meeting with the unstoppable wave of time.

“Again, I ask why.”

“I have asked a question, and I am awaiting the answer.” Her voice had gone thin and reedy.

“As if that should make sense,” Jackson stated rolling his eyes.

“Don’t make fun of me,” she told him.

Jackson turned away from her and addressed Monk. “Is fasting some new part of your self-made religion we haven’t heard about to this point?”

Monk didn’t respond. Instead, he was studying Bright Star. She watched him closely as well with a near hunger in the set to her jaw. Jackson perceived there was a non-verbal exchange between the two of them, but they barred his mental eavesdropping. Whatever the exchange, neither of them appeared pleased about it.

Jackson then remembered his reason for being there. Rush had challenged him to look inside of her. Rush wanted him to prove he didn’t need to be protected from this truth that everyone else seemed to know. He swallowed. He swallowed again. He slowed his breathing. He started to count. When he was able, he slowed his heart rate. He looked at her.

He was stunned to realize that she was already looking at him. Her blue eyes flickered light at him and the side of her upper lip curled aggressively. Jackson pushed back in his seat. He expected to hear his startled heart to be racing, but he quickly noticed that it wasn’t. Instead, he found that he was still reaching out to her mind. He tried to stop as her eyes continued to heat up and a low groan came from her lips. Jackson started to see himself out of his body and realized he was in her mind, seeing her thoughts. He tried to pull back again, but couldn’t. Someone was holding him anchored there. He couldn’t tell whether it was Rush or Bright Star herself.

He saw himself and he saw Monk and Point. When the vision shifted to Point, her face was blanked out. It was almost as if her face was blurred, just beyond his reach, but he knew that it wasn’t there. Instead, everything about the woman was dim save for a piercing, silvery blue light in her abdomen. Rush’s mouth dropped open. And then, then he saw Rush. All went black.

Prophecy

Bright Star sought Monk out in the temple. He treated the large, ornate room as his home now. He’d explained to any who would listen that he’d only done so because of the space it afforded him in the crowded palace. Bright Star argued each time that he had only accepted his fate as spiritual leader.

When she found him, she let him guide her into an alcove behind the altar. “What is it, Bright Star?”

He sounded exhausted. Bright Star didn’t doubt that he was. Point had been sleepless the last two weeks.

“I’ve come for guidance.”

“What kind of guidance could I possibly provide you?”

“I am at a loss, Monk. I don’t know what more I can do to get Rush to accept his fate. He’s fought me since the beginning. I thought he would stop, but he hasn’t. And now, now he’s cursed me.”

“Cursed you? Come on, Bright Star. There is no such thing as a curse.” But there was. In his world it was called the determinism principle which stated that if one knew to an infinite accuracy the state of a system at one point in time, one could predict the state of that system with infinite accuracy at any other time, past or future. Physics.
Parameters of Shift 101
. He couldn’t, but a better Shifter could pick any time, good or bad, to rattle off to another. Nothing that Bright Star would ever fall for. She knew the present perfectly, as Rush did.