A Diamond in My Pocket (25 page)

“I recognized her immediately the
first time I saw her, but it was all wrong and nothing like my vision. She was
a Healer not a Runner. Of course once her multiple powers emerged, Healer being
one of them, I breathed a big sigh of relief. But now … now she is powerless,
in fact never had any powers to begin with.”

“Are you going to ask another Seer
about your future?”

“Why would I even want another Seer
messing with my head like that? Maetha tricked me with my vision of Calli. She
used me, and she used her. We were simply little players in her game.” He ran
his fingers through his hair again. “It got me thinking, wiping out the Death Clan
was a good thing, but who monitors Maetha and her manipulations?”

“No one that I spoke with knew much
about her. We all agreed her intentions were for the betterment of mankind, but
I do wonder the same as you; who does she answer to? You are aware Calli is
leaving tomorrow, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, are you going to say
goodbye?”

“No. We were never meant to be and
she knew it. She even tried to tell me before … anyway, I need to fix my own
situation. I’m going to my father and resigning.”

“What will you do afterward?”

“Disappear for a while and get my
head back on straight.”

I stepped away from the side of the
building feeling admittedly dejected. Maetha had warned me about looking into
my own future, but I only wanted to find out when I’d see Chris again. I looked
into his mind for the answer. His future opened up to me, revealing a room of
some kind, similar to a hospital room, and Chris lying in the bed with two
broken legs. He looked to the door and a beautiful woman entered. She walked to
him and placed her hands on his legs healing them and then she hugged him. “I
knew you’d come, Calli,” Chris whispered.

I pulled out of his future in
shock. The woman was me. In the cabin, Chris scratched the top of his head with
a confused look on his face. I turned and began my slow walk back to the
compound.

***

Two weeks have gone by since I
arrived home. After saying goodbye to everyone except Chris, Mrs. Winter drove
me to the airport and put me on an airplane.

Everything is back to normal around
here. I take out the trash, scrub toilets and go to school. The school year is
almost over and summer break is just around the corner, and I can still do
almost everything I could when I carried the whole stone. I’ve kept my
abilities very hush- hush though. The last thing I want is for anyone to
realize what I can do. Suz and I have been hanging out a lot, at the mall of
course, people-watching. For my part though, I see everyone through different
eyes now.

I got to use my healing ability for
the first time yesterday. My next door neighbor who is eighty years old fell
down his front step and broke his hip. I called 911 and hurried over to him. I
searched his body, found the broken bones and determined they were not life
threatening, so I mended him. He could tell I’d done something, but when the
paramedics arrived at his house his ramblings about miracles went unheard under
the oxygen mask they placed over his face. I smiled on my way back to my house.

I received an email from Beth
telling me all the latest gossip. Justin had not taken so kindly to Beth
dumping him. Soon after I’d left, so did Justin. Chris resigned from the lead
position and left the compound and a new time test was held revealing Beth to
be the fastest.

Beth told me Maetha made amulets
out of the gathered diamond shards and gave one to each clan. They looked like
a chandelier light bulb on a leather cord. The diamond shard magically floated
inside the bulb to prevent accidental contact, and when worn, the amulet gave
small doses of each power to the one wearing it. Currently, Mrs. Winter wore
the clan’s amulet.

I wrote her back and told her about
my neighbor and how everyone here had forgotten I’d set a world record in
track. Everything was back to normal, just as I preferred. In fact, I suspect
Maetha played a hand in everyone forgetting my supernatural moment of fame. No
matter. I used to be an ordinary girl who liked to fly under the radar, but
then I was pushed out in front and forced to take on the hero/leadership role. Honestly,
grandeur wasn’t everything I thought it would be. Being back to normal is good.

Today I’m going alone to go to the
mall to feel people. As perverse as it sounds, it’s actually a way to exercise
my powers of healing and detecting problems in people.

As I sat on the bench in the busy
mall, I entered the bodies of passersby and searched out small illnesses and
disorders. Some of them I fixed while others I didn’t. I didn’t make
instantaneous decisions selfishly, but more with nature in mind. I glimpsed
each person’s future along with the defect in their body to determine the
natural order of their ailment. I can’t even begin to describe how
disheartening it was to observe so many future deaths walking the halls of the
mall.

At one point, a mother and teenage
daughter squabbled over clothing or something trivial. In the mother’s body, I
found leukemia. This was a prime example of an individual who would die and one
I shouldn’t help. A quick mind read told me no one was aware of the disease,
yet. I was compelled to act. Not to heal, but to begin the healing process
between mother and daughter before the hour glass dropped the last few precious
grains of life.

I walked over to the two bickering
females and pushed myself between them and turned to the girl who wasn’t any
older than me. “You shouldn’t be so quick to battle everything to the death
with your mother. One never knows when death will come knocking on the door and
take away the most important people in our lives.”

The girl’s response to me had
several four lettered expletives, but basically said: mind your own business.

I turned to the exasperated mother
and said very quietly and walked away, “Go to your doctor soon, and treasure
your remaining days.”

Into my mind came the words of
Chris from in the bathroom of the motel room, “Wise Healers know when not to
heal, when not to help, and when to walk away.  Someday you’ll be a wise
healer.”

I’ve accepted the fact I won’t be
hearing from Chris. By understanding and coming to terms with this, I can move
on. He helped me understand all the different aspects of abilities, taught me
the importance of respecting nature’s wishes and taught me what it means to
truly love someone and how it has nothing to do with attractiveness or lust.

It means being willing to die for
the other.

He was willing to die for me and I
was willing to die for him. I did die for him. I’m still saddened when I think
of the last time I saw him in the cabin. So much had transpired between us in
such a short amount of time, and yet when push came to shove, he decided to
protect his heart from further pain. Ironically, because of everything that had
happened, my heart hurts in a different way. Down the road, we will meet again
and that gets me through the hard times. I only wish I could give him the same
sanguine outlook I have.

The day I sat on the motel roof and
read his mind, I envisioned a particular moment in his future soon to come, not
years down the road. In fact, the exact date this event will take place was on
the desktop calendar in the vision. If I wanted to I could show up outside the
five-sided building and meet Chris again due to my insider intelligence, but I
don’t think I will. After all, Chris went to such great lengths to block that
particular bit of information from Mind Readers and from me. It would simply be
too embarrassing for him to discover I figured out his secret; Chris is a
government spy implemented by his father.

I am consoled he is resigning from
his position. However, this will forever be the skeleton in his closet.

When I think about the vision of
him with broken legs, I’m always confused as to why he’s in a hospital and why
he hasn’t had a Healer fix his legs. I guess I’ll just have to wait to find out
the answer. I know it ties to the vision I had on the stone table. Someday I’ll
discuss this with Maetha. Until then, I will live my life as an ordinary
teenaged girl who’s been given a second chance and a gift above all gifts; a
diamond in my heart.

####

Read
the first chapter of

A Diamond in my Heart

Book
2 in the Unaltered Series

Chapter 1 - Freedom

I used to scoff at magical powers
and abilities, used to have this amazing focused direction in life and didn’t
allow my time to be wasted on frivolous conspiracy theories or speculations. I
certainly didn’t believe in any existence of superpowers or unnatural
abilities; that is, until I became the first person on earth to display all the
known powers and abilities.

A few months ago I learned
first-hand that cosmic energy rays exist and have always existed, and that
nearly everyone on the planet has been affected by them in one way or another.

My mother, Dr. Charlotte Courtnae,
and I belong to a bloodline of purity wherein something about our DNA protected
us while in the womb and we were never altered. We are unchanged, unaffected,
unaltered. Yet, we are different from one another because she doesn’t
know
she’s an unaltered human.

Living on a planet where I’m a
member of the minority isn’t so bad, really. Those with the powers and
abilities who think they can rule the world have no control over me. My mind
cannot be read, my future remains unseen by Seers, Healers cannot manipulate my
body, and I’m untraceable to a Hunter for I have no scent. Runners would
technically have the advantage over me if I was a regular unaltered like my
mother. But I’m not regular. I’m not ordinary.

I’m an Unaltered Diamond Bearer.

I carry a piece of the Sanguine
Diamond within my heart which gives me every known power and ability plus a
couple more. Maetha, my mentor and the person responsible for the jewel in my
heart, hasn’t admitted yet, but I suspect she bears a diamond shard in her
heart as well. She said there were other regular unaltered humans out there,
like my mother, but she
didn’t
tell me there were other Diamond Bearers
like me.

I met one just the other day.

I’d been helping at my mother’s
counseling clinic while her regular receptionist was on vacation and was sent
on an errand to take a couple of files over to the Behavioral Health Center. I
could have easily walked, but figured I’d hit the Coffee Shack on the way back,
plus it would give me an excuse to drive my new cherry-red Mini Cooper. My
parents bought me the car when I came home from my ‘Olympic’ training camp due
to a ‘non-descript’ injury. I guess they thought it would cheer me up … they were
right. I know I’m lucky to be the only child of two doctors and that most kids
my age would be lucky to get a rusted-out, dented twenty year old car, so I try
not to brag, but needless to say any opportunity to get behind the wheel
excited me to no end.

I backed up carefully making sure
not to hit any other vehicle and when I turned forward to put the car in drive
I saw a man leaning against the building I’d just exited; strange that I hadn’t
noticed him before.

He stood around six feet tall with
well trimmed black hair and I guessed his age to be mid forties. He had a
square jaw line, a straight nose and mysterious eyes hidden behind black
sunglasses. A long, black, leather trench coat was parted open down the front
revealing his lanky frame dressed in a tee-shirt and faded blue jeans.
Square-toed motorcycle boots peeked out below his pants hemline hinting toward
the possibility that he owned a Harley… or a horse, because his trench coat
reminded me more of what a cowboy would wear on the old western movies my
father loved to watch.

I didn’t realize at that moment he
was someone of interest, but when I arrived at the Coffee Shack following the
delivery of the files, I saw him again. This time he was leaning up against a
pick-up truck with his thumbs hooked on the front pockets of his jeans.

There were two cars in front of me
in the pick-up window line and I realized I’d be here for a few minutes, so I
decided I’d try to probe his mind, and exercise my ability to do so. He
immediately blocked me with a force so strong it knocked the wind out of me. I
heard his low, smooth voice in my head as I sat with a death grip on the
steering wheel trying to regain my breath.

“Now, why would a young girl
like you be able to read minds?”

I tried to fill my lungs with much
needed air as my mind swam around the realization that this man was a telepath.
Maetha told me telepathic powers died out over the years and the power only
exists inside the whole Sanguine diamond. I only have a piece of the diamond
now and I cannot communicate telepathically anymore, so I put my thoughts at
the front of my mind figuring if he had this power, he must have others; he
must possess a diamond.

“Did Maetha send you?”
I
asked with my mind.

“Maetha? So, she’s behind this?”

Bingo! He knows about Maetha, he
must have a diamond as well.
“Behind what?”
My lungs finally relaxed and
I was able to inflate them properly.

He readjusted his stance and took
off his sunglasses. His eyes were near slits with heavy eyebrows hovering
above. He looked better with his shades on and must have read my mind because
he replaced them on his face.
“Who died for you?”

“I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”
The car behind me
honked to alert me to pull forward
one spot.

“Maetha still operates with the
same deception, I see. You should take my advice, little girl, get as far away
from her as you can.”