Hang out and chat. I could do that. I had to. This was really happening, my wish coming true, and I had to find out more. I couldn’t let them just leave me in my normal life again after this. My parents weren’t expecting me home now and I doubted I’d be missed at the shelter. I could spend all night with them if I wanted. And I wanted.
I knew I should be thinking about this more seriously, but I was having trouble focusing on anything other than Jake’s smile, and the desire to jump in the car with them proved overwhelming. “Sure. Let’s go.”
Jake and Emma beamed. Jamie’s smirk remained in place.
Donny didn’t show much expression on his face. It remained still like the carving of a god. He checked his watch, also expensive. “We’re meant to be flying back tonight.”
Jake shrugged. “Come with us to the airport. We can chat in a café there before we fly out.”
Looking past their attractive forms was hard, but in their emotions all I read was excitement and pleasure. At finding me. They wanted me. I was special. Like them? Maybe not quite, but they wanted me anyway. Jake and his friends didn’t feel like strangers at all. They already felt like family, as if I knew them. I trusted them.
Somehow we went from chatting in the rental car, to chatting in the airport, to chatting on the plane.
Okay, so I’m not perfect. It wasn’t the first time I told my parents I’d be in one place but went somewhere else. But it was the first time that going somewhere else involved a first class flight.
***
When we arrived at their home, I spontaneously learned how to speak another language. “Ung, thas, wha?”
The flight back seemed decadent enough. First class was wow. Everyone treated them, us, like royalty. They squeezed me onto the flight at late notice. Even with strict new flight security we breezed through with the team’s excess baggage, no questions asked. Jake reassured me we weren’t going far, and they would fly or drive me back home any time I wanted. They only flew up to get to the quake site fast, and were only a few hours’ drive away from home.
If the flight was decadent, their home was something from a fairy tale. Not a home. An abso-frikkin-lutely amazing mansion. Not too old fashioned, not too modern. Perfectly classy. I wondered which one of them had the trust fund. Probably all of them.
“Does anyone else live here?” I asked, when English returned to me.
“Just us. Service staff come and go, of course. A cleaner and a gardener. Oh, and a cook.” Jake pulled his car up at the front steps and we all unloaded. His gorgeous wheels looked right at home parked out the front of this place.
“Of course,” I whispered. “How?”
“Keep saying that and I’m going to have to make a really inappropriate Native American joke.” Jake threw a duffle bag over his shoulder from the boot of the car and made an “after you” gesture with his other hand.
I took a tentative step toward the wide doors that Jamie had already opened and passed through. Emma grabbed my hand and dragged me at a run. “You’re going to have the room next to mine. Come on, I’ll show you around.”
Emma’s tour was informal at best. She dragged me fast-paced down wide halls that mostly looked the same, with walls painted stark white and full height windows showing a view of the coast.
“Garage is downstairs that way. Lounges and all the general stuff through there, but there’s a second lounge area back that way. Kitchen is this way, it’s near my room, so that means it will be near your room! The boys’ rooms are all off down that hall there in the other wing.” She pointed in vague directions. Even if she’d stopped and showed me each one I’m sure I’d get lost in here anyway.
“Whose place is this?”
“Oh, it’s a serviced rental. We kind of move around a lot. I think Jake’s planning another move soon, or was before we picked you up. I hope we get to stay here a bit longer now. This is our best place yet.”
“How did you all get together?”
“Jake and Jamie are brothers of course. I guess the ‘path thing runs in families sometimes, or whatever causes it can hit siblings or people growing up closely together. We don’t really know what it’s all about. We just know we have it and it’s cool.” Emma grinned. “So anyway, Jake and Jamie found Donny first. None of us knows much about Donny, he keeps pretty quiet. I do know they were all surprised to find each other. That’s when they realized there really were other people like them out there, and made more of an effort to look. Wasn’t long after that they found me. At a funeral, would you believe it?”
I wasn’t sure what to say, wondering who might have died, but Emma kept smiling, not a hint of sadness on her.
“Then it’s been, like, forever, with just us. I’ve been wishing for another girl on the team. And here we are, ta-da!”
Emma swung a door open and gave me a nudge into the room with her hip. “Nice?”
Not nice. Incredible. King sized modern four-poster bed. Wide screen wall mounted television. Doors to what I hoped were a walk-in-robe and ensuite. Wide bay windows. Ocean view.
Balcony
. I panted a little.
“I know, right? I told you you’d love it here. I called ahead and got Ms. Penny to set the room up for you while she was cleaning. You probably want a shower after being up all night. I know I do. There’ll be towels in the bathroom, you can borrow shampoo and stuff from my bathroom next door, whatever you like.”
Emma opened the door and showed me the ensuite. The other door was a walk-in-robe, empty except for a bathrobe and slippers. I was suddenly conscious that I only had one set of clothes. I compared my average, straight up and down figure to Emma, who was tall and impossibly curvy for her slim frame. I doubted she’d have much that would fit me, let alone suit me.
“I didn’t pack,” I muttered, dazed. I didn’t do anything other than get on a plane without planning. I sat down hard on the bed. What was I doing? I didn’t think things through very well. My skin turned clammy.
“Honey, we’ll buy you whatever you need. You’re special, like us, you can have whatever you want. And I get a girl to go shopping with! We are going to buy you so much stuff.” Emma came and sat next to me. She put her arm over my shoulder and squeezed. “You okay? Oh, you’re probably coming down from the buzz. That would have been your first major use of the powers, right?”
“Is that what happens? I feel like I don’t know anything yet. Do I need training or something?” I flopped back onto the bed, my feet still dangling over the edge.
“We don’t really do the training thing. More learn on the job. It’s mostly natural anyway, we figure.”
“So it just happens? Or do I need to make it happen?”
Emma lay back on the bed as well, propped up on one elbow. Her hair fell around her like a curtain and smelled of a sweet berry shampoo. “A bit of both. Some of the power kicks in naturally, but you can focus to absorb even more. It’s like when someone is feeling a strong emotion, it sort of floods out of them. Like the human mind - or heart, I don’t know - can’t hold that much feeling inside. Ever felt like that? It’s this excess we can tap into. I mean, emotions are powerful, right?”
“When those looters came at me, I managed to protect myself, sort of. They were so angry and revved up, and I moved faster than I thought I could. And I should have bruises, but I don’t.”
Emma smiled. “Bad ass, I know. So, hate sets up our bodies to defense and healing, excitement gives us energy. Fear speeds us up. There’s obviously a lot of overlap with emotions so it all gets a bit fuzzy.”
“What about other emotions? Sadness?”
“Ick. Avoid sad people, despair is just useless.”
“Love?”
“Aw, you’re cute! I wouldn’t go holding out to experience tapping into true love if I were you. Lust is where the power’s at.” She winked at me and I blushed.
Emma’s pocket started pinging and she tugged out her phone from the skin-tight denim. “It’s Jake. Ooh, another job already?”
This place was so big they texted each other inside.
“Come on, let’s go get the info.”
She grabbed me by the hand and we were off again. I was caught up in a red-headed whirlwind and her enthusiasm was contagious. I found myself giggling at how lost I was when we reached a room where the guys waited.
Everyone except Emma and me had showered and changed. It made me self-conscious of the scent of overnight-flight I wore. Jake had changed into a tight black tee under a leather motorbike jacket. I barely noticed the other two guys who stood either side of him. It was as though their hotness just enhanced Jake’s. Back-up singers to the lead vocal talent.
He smiled at me and I felt like I was in the right place again.
“What is it?” Emma bent at the knees and sprang up again like an excited child.
“I’ll tell you on the way. We have to leave right now if we’re going to get anything done. Livvy, I’m sorry to do this to you but we really can’t miss this one. I’d bring you along, but it’s too dangerous for someone so fresh.”
“Oh. Yeah, I can understand that. Umm…”
“Get settled in, cleaned up. Ms. Penny left after her morning rounds but Sophie, our cook, is in so feel free to call the kitchen for whatever you need and she’ll help you out.” Jake pointed at an intercom near the door. There was one like it in my room too, but I hadn’t known what it was out of context.
“Take a car into town if you like, or just hang here. We’ve got all the channels,” Jamie added, and they headed to the door and down the hall.
Emma popped her head back in. “I’ll take you shopping tomorrow, I promise!”
I nodded and remained planted in the room as I heard their footsteps fade out. My first move was to inspect the intercom, and press the button that said Kitchen.
A husky woman’s voice buzzed out of the box. “Kitchen.”
I paused, embarrassed.
“Is this Livvy? Hi, love, what can I do for you?”
“Umm, I think I’m lost.”
***
Sophie managed to find me from my description of the room I had been left in, and gave me a slightly more formal tour than Emma’s. The house layout was actually well structured and not nearly as daunting as I first believed. She made me a range of snacks and left me to explore. I felt like an intruder here without the team. It was so good spending last night with them all. I had this feeling I really belonged. Now I was on my own, hours from home, I kept getting confused, concerned about how I’d gotten here and what I’d left behind. Like my phone charger. My phone sat lifeless in my bed.
The day was getting on and I worried I’d been discovered missing by now. Even if Trevor assumed I went home, or my parents assumed I stayed longer at the shelter, sooner or later one would contact the other and there would be trouble. I attempted to turn my phone on, hoping for a last scrap of power, but it didn’t respond. The palace seemed to be designed only for room-to-room communication, and the landline out didn’t work. And with Jake off who knows where, getting home again was off the cards as well, for now.
I had a shower, filled my stomach and grouchily put my old clothes back on dirty. Then I went to find the garage.
I never found it. Instead I stumbled across the prestige car show room. When Jamie said to take a car, I didn’t realize what sort of selection he meant. They had six cars between them, each of which probably cost as much as six ordinary cars, or, you know, a house. I barely recognized the badges, except ones like Maserati that I only knew from TV shows.
I buzzed Sophie in the kitchen again and told her I’d be going for a walk. I didn’t have a driver’s license yet - thanks again to my family’s no-car policy - and even if I did, the stress of even scratching up one of these cars could turn me prematurely gray. But I did want to get out of this place. The big building left me at a loss without the others around, and I was never very keen on watching TV. Everyone was so blank, unnatural, disturbing. I could see changes in their faces, but didn’t understand their emotions.
I figured I’d head into town and kill time at a cinema. While TV left me cold, I always loved going to the movies. I guess I understood why now. My Empath abilities couldn’t pick things up across a screen, but they could pick up the vibe of a room of people sitting in the dark, all feeling the same thing.
Sophie asked if I’d be needing dinner. I still had twenty bucks cash on me, so I said I’d find something while I was out. I hoped I’d also find a pay phone. She gave me the visitor’s security code for the keypad entry to get back in and I headed off.
The mansion was on a hill up a main road from the town, so the walk in was easy. The movie theatre was close to empty which cut down my enjoyment. By dark I found myself wandering aimlessly through the unfamiliar town, trying to get my thoughts in order.
Unable to check the time, I questioned how long I’d been wandering. All shops were closed and barely anyone was on the streets. I’d passed some other mansion-like estates on my walk down the hill, but down in town the vibe wasn’t even as rich as my home town with the posh little shops like Mom’s.
Mom.
I swallowed hard. Mom and Dad must be freaking out by now. I hadn’t found a pay phone that still worked, and dreaded making the call if I did. I had no idea what I’d tell them.