Finding Sky (20 page)

‘Step into the light so we can see you.’

I forced myself to move.

‘And I said ‘‘hands up’’!’

I raised my hands shakily.

‘Trace, it’s Sky!’ Zed burst from the house only to be pulled back by his arm. His oldest brother, Trace, the policeman from Denver, wasn’t letting him go.

‘It might be a trap,’ Trace warned.

Victor stepped out of the darkness behind me. He’d circled round to cut me off, gun trained on my back.

‘Let go of me!’ Zed struggled, but Saul joined the blockade.

‘Why aren’t you using telepathy, Sky?’ Saul spoke calmly, for all the world as if it were natural to have a girl turn up in her dressing gown at three in the morning.

I swallowed. There were too many voices in my head already. ‘Can I come in? You said I could come.’

‘Is she alone?’ Trace asked Victor.

‘Seems so.’

‘You ask her, just to make sure.’ Trace lowered the gun. ‘We can’t risk a mistake.’

‘Don’t you touch her, Vick! Leave her alone!’ Zed burst from his brother’s grasp and jumped the steps.

‘Zed!’ shouted Saul.

But too late. Zed reached me and folded me in his arms. ‘Oh baby, you’re freezing!’

‘I … I’m sorry to come like this,’ I murmured.

‘Stop being so damn British about it—you don’t need to apologize. Ssh, it’s fine.’

Saul reached us but didn’t have the heart to separate me from his son. ‘It’s not fine, not until we know why she’s here. She walked right through our security perimeter. She can’t have done that without help. Her powers aren’t that strong.’

Victor eased me away from Zed’s chest and held my eyes with his steely gaze.
‘Tell us why you’re here. Did someone send
you?’
He was using his gift, layering his words with a compulsion to answer. I could hear it like a harmony running under the melody. It hurt.
‘Sky, you must tell me.’

‘Stop it, stop it!’ I sobbed, pulling away from them, stumbling backwards. ‘Get out of my brain, all of you!’ I tripped over, ending up sitting in the snow, head squeezed between my hands.

Zed shoved Victor out of the way and scooped me up in his arms. He was furious. ‘I’m taking her inside and I don’t care what you say. She’s mine—my soulfinder—and you’d better not try and stop me.’

This announcement was met with shock from his brothers, resignation from Saul.

‘Look at her—she’s blue with cold.’ Zed shouldered his way past his family and took me into the kitchen. Xav was there, along with Will, one of the brothers I was yet to meet properly; they were checking a monitor that had been set up on the kitchen counter.

‘She walked in,’ Will said. He was running some CCTV coverage of the gate to the cable car compound. ‘No sign of anyone else.’

‘Sky, what are you playing at?’ Xav moved towards me, then spotted my feet. ‘Sheesh, Zed, didn’t you notice she’s bleeding? Put her on the counter.’

Zed held me to him as Xav eased off what was left of my shoes. He closed his eyes and placed his palms on the soles of my feet. I immediately felt a tingling sensation like pins-and-needles and then pain as sensation flowed back into my toes.

Victor dropped his gun on the counter and took out the magazine. ‘Will, Xav, there’s something little brother’s forgotten to mention.’

Trace shook his head. ‘Yeah, meet his soulfinder.’

Xav’s touch pinched for a second, a jolt in the flow of energy, then he went back to healing.

Will whistled. ‘No kidding?’

‘That’s what he says.’ Trace glanced at his father, seeking confirmation. Saul nodded.

‘Well, wha’d’ya know.’ Will grinned at me, his happiness genuine. ‘Got any older sisters, Sky?’

Zed smiled at him gratefully. ‘Not that she knows—but we’ll try and find out for you.’

‘Don’t forget the rest of us,’ said Trace, his smile a little forced. ‘Some of us are running out of time.’

Saul clasped his son’s shoulder briefly. ‘Patience, son. You’ll find her.’

‘You walked here all on your own?’ Zed asked gently while the healing was progressing. ‘Why?’

‘I need help,’ I whispered, wishing I could burrow into his chest and disappear. He was so warm and I was so cold. ‘I needed you.’

Trace and Victor were still suspicious about my strange arrival. I could feel the waves of emotion flowing off them. Oh God, my gift had switched on again. I’d read the emotions in the warehouse but deadened myself to them ever since; here, in this house of savants, the ability to see people from their feelings came rushing back.

‘I want your brothers to know I’m telling the truth.’ I didn’t need to open my eyes to be aware where everyone was. The two older Benedicts hovered protectively by the door into the rest of the house. Their father’s emotions were mixed—fear, concern for me, and puzzlement. Will leaned on the counter, glowing with a cheerful spring green. Xav was concentrating on healing my feet, his presence a cool blue of concentration. And Zed, he was glowing with golden love and a purple edge of desperation to do something to help me.

‘You don’t think I’m here because someone sent me to hurt you, do you?’ I murmured, rubbing my cheek against his sweatshirt.

‘No, baby,’ he replied, nuzzling my hair.

‘Your dad said I could come.’

‘I know.’

Saul picked up the phone lying on the table. ‘What’s her number?’ he asked.

I’d forgotten all about my parents. ‘They don’t know I’m gone.’

‘Better to wake them up to tell them you’re safe than to let them discover your empty bed and worry.’

Zed reeled off the number and Saul had a quick conversation with Simon. I knew they would want to jump in the car and fetch me, but I didn’t want that after having come all this way.

‘I want to stay,’ I whispered. Then I found a stronger voice. ‘I want to stay.’

Saul glanced at me and nodded. ‘Yes, Simon, she’s OK, a little cold but we’re looking after her. She’s sure she wants to stay. Why not come and collect her after breakfast? No point turning out in the middle of the night when there’s no need. Yep, will do.’ He put the phone down. ‘He’ll drive over in the morning. He says that you were to get some rest and not worry.’

‘Am I grounded again?’

Zed ruffled the hair at the back of my neck.

‘He didn’t mention that.’ Saul smiled.

‘I bet I am.’

‘Until you’re fifty,’ said Zed.

‘I thought as much.’

Xav let go of my feet. ‘I’ve done what I can for your soulfinder.’ He used the term with relish. ‘She needs to keep warm and sleep it off now. The cuts are pretty much healed.’

‘Thanks.’ Zed lifted me up. ‘I’ll put her in my bed for tonight. Mom’s going to lend her some dry nightclothes.’

Snug and warm under Zed’s duvet, I didn’t feel sleepy. He was sitting on the window seat, guitar in hand, running through some soothing tunes. Karla had clucked a little about me being in Zed’s room but when it was clear he was not going to let me out of his sight, gave in, saying she trusted us to behave.

Zed leant his forehead against his mother’s, a gesture I found oddly touching seeing how much taller he was than her. ‘Tell me what you see, Mom. I’ve dropped my shields.’

Karla sighed. ‘I see you standing guard over her and behaving like a perfect gentleman.’

‘That’s right.’ He winked at me. ‘Sometimes having a mom who sees the future is a blessing.’

Now gazing at him framed by the night sky, I thought I’d never seen anything more perfect.

‘I love you, Zed,’ I said softly. ‘I don’t need to wait to sort out my memories; I know I do.’

He stopped playing. ‘Well, now.’ He cleared his throat. ‘That’s the first time you’ve said it to me face to face like this.’

‘I’ve told you before; I’m sure I have.’

‘No, you’ve hinted but you’ve never just come out with it.’

‘I do, you know—love you, I mean. I’m a little shy so I don’t say it easily.’

‘A little shy? Sky, you’re possibly the shyest person I’ve ever met.’

‘I’m sorry.’

He came and sat on the edge of the bed. ‘Don’t be. It’s part of what I love about you. You never think anyone’s going to like you and have this vaguely surprised expression when we all fall for you. It’s cute.’ He tapped the end of my nose.

‘I don’t want to be cute.’

‘I know, you want to be taken seriously.’ His expression was solemn but his eyes were laughing. ‘And I do—I swear it.’

‘You don’t—not about this.’

‘You don’t believe me?’

I shook my head. ‘I can read emotion you know.’

He brushed the hair off my forehead. ‘I may not have a poker face but I can’t believe I’m that transparent.’

‘You don’t understand. It’s my gift—I really can read what you’re feeling. My gift—it unlocked.’

He sat back, his colours shifting into the mauve of bewilderment. I could see him processing what I said, the emotions moving to the warm colours of his love for me as he came to terms with it. ‘That’s OK then, so you know that when I say I love you, I really mean it. You know you’re my soulfinder.’

‘Yes. But I can tell if you lie to me too about other things. People have a shifty yellow cloud to them when they tell a fib.’

‘Oh, well now, that isn’t fair.’

‘You can see the future.’

‘Not all the time—and not so much with you now.’

I smiled sleepily. ‘Then you’d better watch your step with me.’

He trailed the back of his hand over my cheek. ‘You’re enjoying having the advantage for once.’

‘Yeah, I’m ahead of the curve, or whatever you say here.’

‘God help us all.’ He nudged me over and stretched out beside me. ‘When did you discover this?’

‘In the warehouse. It was how I knew that you hadn’t hurt me even though my brain was telling me you had.’ I paused, the images were still so vivid. ‘Are you sure I never shot you—not even in make-believe like that fake knife?’

He groaned. ‘Don’t remind me of that. And yeah, I’m sure. It’s not something I’m likely to forget now, is it?’

‘I’m crazy, Zed.’ There, I’d admitted it.

‘Uh-huh. And I’m crazy too—about you.’

 

I came down to the kitchen wearing clothes much too big for me, jeans and shirt sleeves rolled up, a pair of Zed’s woolly socks on my feet instead of slippers. I was getting used to seeing my parents regard me with that shocked, disappointed expression, the one where I knew I’d let them down but they were too scared to tell me off in case I collapsed on them.

‘Hi, love, ready to come home?’ asked Simon, a touch impatiently, jingling the car keys in his palm.

Zed came up behind, giving me the silent encouragement of his presence.

‘I’d like to stay a while, please. I think they can help me.’ I reached for Zed’s hand at my back.

Sally touched the base of her throat. ‘For how long?’

I shrugged. I hated hurting them. ‘Until I know if this is going to work.’

Karla closed her eyes for a moment, feeling out to the future. She smiled when she looked at me. ‘I honestly think we can help Sky, Sally. Please trust us. We’re just a short drive away. You’ll be able to reach her in a few minutes if you’re worried about her.’

‘Love, are you sure?’ asked Simon.

‘I’m sure.’

Sally hadn’t reconciled herself yet to this separation. ‘But, darling, what can they do for you that we can’t?’

‘I don’t know. It just feels right.’

She hugged me tight. ‘OK, we’ll try it. You’ve got your boy to take care of you then?’

‘Yes, I have.’

Sally nodded. ‘I can see that. If it doesn’t work, don’t worry. We’ll just try something else and keep on going until we solve this.’

‘Thanks.’

My parents reluctantly headed back home leaving me with all nine Benedicts in their kitchen.

‘I like your parents,’ Zed said in a low voice, putting an arm around me. ‘They keep on fighting your corner, don’t they?’

‘Yes. I’m lucky to have them.’ I was very aware of our audience. I was still to meet Uriel—he was the slim dark one standing next to Will, both were eyeing me as if I was an exotic creature. Zed’s soulfinder. The least physically imposing of the Benedicts, Uriel was the one I most feared—the one who could read the past.

Karla clapped her hands. ‘Right, my little ones—’

Little ones? She was the smallest of the family by a long chalk.

‘Breakfast! Trace and Uriel—plates. Xav—knives and forks. Yves and Victor—you make the pancakes. Will—get the maple syrup.’

‘What about Zed?’ grumbled Yves, getting out a mixing bowl.

Karla smiled at us. ‘He’s got his hands full, comforting his girl, and is just where he should be. Sit down, you two.’

Zed pulled me into his lap in the breakfast nook and I sat back to enjoy the show. The most dangerous boys in Wrickenridge were completely different at home. Though Trace and Victor were grown men, they did not dare sass their mother and buckled down to the tasks with everyone else. Not having to hide their powers in front of me, I soon got used to seeing the Benedicts summon things they needed, floating it to hand. It was fascinating. I realized I could see them doing it. The power showed up to me as a white light, very faint, like a thread. I had to concentrate or I missed it. I wondered if I could do the same thing. I watched as Trace levitated an egg from the box and then, giving in to impulse, I imagined lassoing it with my own power. To my utter shock, the egg veered from his control and zoomed towards us. Zed made me duck just in time. The egg hit the wall behind us and slid to the floor.

‘Who did that?’ shrieked Karla in outrage. ‘Xav? I will not have you throwing eggs at our guest!’

Xav looked most offended. ‘It wasn’t me. Why do you always think it’s my fault?’

‘Because it usually is,’ said Will drily, as he nudged Xav from behind, making him drop the cutlery on the table.

‘Who did it?’ Karla repeated, determined to get an answer.

‘Whoever it is will have the rest of the eggs shoved down their neck,’ growled Zed, putting an arm protectively around my waist.

‘Who?’ repeated Karla, revealing that height was not needed to look scary.

‘Um … I think it was me,’ I confessed.

Zed’s jaw dropped. I discovered that astonishment was coloured glittering silver.

‘I was seeing you do stuff—and wondered if I could do it too. I lassoed the egg.’

Will guffawed, making the cutlery dance into place with a wave of his hand. They bowed to me before arranging themselves neatly.

Saul took a seat at the table. ‘You saw? What does that mean?’

I could feel my cheeks go pink. I wished I could find a button to switch off my propensity to blush. ‘Um … well, moving things—that’s like a white line. I suppose I’m sensing energy or something.’

‘She sees emotions too, Dad,’ Zed added. ‘She can tell if you’re lying.’

‘Very useful.’ Victor looked at me with a calculation I wasn’t sure I liked. He was very low emotion compared to the others, or maybe he was just better at shielding.

I turned my eyes from him. ‘Healing is blue. When Mrs Benedict dipped into the future, she sort of faded a little. I’m not sure about the rest, but I think each power has its own identity.’

What about telepathy?
asked Saul.

I flinched, still not liking the feeling that someone else was in my head. ‘I can’t see that—at least, I don’t know what to look for.’

‘It takes the lowest energy of all the gifts when done close to the person you are communicating with. The signs might be too subtle to pick up.’

I rubbed my temples, remembering the pain of talking to Zed at a great distance. Where had I been when I’d done that? The warehouse?

Zed tugged me back against him. ‘Don’t think about it right now, Sky. I can tell it’s hurting you.’

‘Why can’t I remember?’

‘That’s what we’re going to find out,’ Saul said firmly. ‘But after breakfast.’

‘What about school?’ I knew Zed and Yves should have left already.

‘Family powwow—we get to skip classes.’ Yves grinned, putting the first pancake in front of me. His boffin image slipped somewhat when I saw how happy he was to cut school.

‘Like that day, back in September?’ I turned to Zed. ‘You missed a Friday.’

‘Oh that. Yeah. We were helping Trace hunt down the people who shot that family in the drugs deal.’

I remembered now how drained he’d been that Saturday when I’d met him at the ghost town on the hillside.

‘And these family powwows—you get to see what happened?’

‘Yeah, but we get results,’ said Trace, sitting down with his own plate. ‘We got the bas—’ he glanced at his mother’s frown, ‘son of a gun. He’s up for trial early next year.’

‘You mustn’t worry about us, Sky,’ Zed added, knowing my thoughts even though he didn’t have my gift for reading emotions. ‘It’s what we do.’

‘The family business,’ agreed Xav, tipping the maple syrup on to his pancake. ‘The Savant Net working as it should.’

‘And we’re proud of it,’ concluded Victor, tapping the empty space in front of him. ‘Where’s mine?’

A plate containing a freshly cooked pancake hovered in the air towards him. Zed clapped his hands over my eyes. ‘No lassoes.’

I laughed. ‘I promise—no more experiments with food.’

The mood turned sober after breakfast. Saul went out briefly to check his assistants had everything under control on the ski lift, then returned, shaking the snow off his boots.

‘We’re all set,’ he announced. ‘Let’s do this in the family room.’

Zed led me into a space at the far end of the house which doubled as a games room. Trace and Victor moved the table tennis table back while Uriel and Yves gathered floor cushions in a ring.

‘We just want you to sit with Zed,’ Saul said, taking his place opposite me.

‘What are you going to do?’ I was already feeling nervous. What had I let myself in for?

‘We’re treating this like an investigation.’ Trace sat down at my right hand. ‘Which is appropriate because we believe something’s happened to you as a result of a crime.’

‘I do feel like I’ve been brain-mugged,’ I admitted.

‘Each of us is going to use our gift to read you—nothing invasive, just a touch to sense which is the strongest lead.’ Trace flicked his eyes to Zed. ‘I’m gonna need to hold your hand if Zed will let go—I have to be in contact with my subject to allow my gift to work. I should be able to tell where you’ve been recently—before the warehouse. You don’t have to remember; if you were physically there I should be able to track you. Wonder boy here, as the seventh son, he gets to channel it all as he’s the most powerful of us.’

I swivelled to look up at Zed. ‘Is that true?’

‘Yeah, I’m like the screen to display the information. Compare the results. I can see what everyone else is seeing.’

‘And he doesn’t even need batteries,’ quipped Will, slumping down on my other side.

They were making fun of it but I could now understand some of the darkness I’d seen in Zed, the strain of the evil he had been forced to witness. It wasn’t just his own insight but everyone’s that channelled through him, meaning he saw it in all ways and in greater depth than the rest. Little wonder he had felt he was slipping in that ugliness until he found an anchor.

The second son, Uriel, the post-grad student, nudged Will aside.

‘Hi, Sky, we’ve not met properly yet. I’m the only sensible one in the family.’

‘I can see that.’

‘My gift is to read memories, anything to do with the past. I know you’re afraid I might blurt out your secrets, but you mustn’t worry: I can’t force you to show me the past, I can only open doors which you unlock.’

‘I understand.’ I drew strength from feeling the warmth of Zed’s chest against my back as I sat between his legs. ‘And if I want to keep the door closed?’

‘Then you do. But we think that you need to start building up a complete picture of everything that’s happened to you to understand what’s real and what you’ve imagined.’

I frowned. I didn’t like the sound of that.

‘It’s like music, Sky,’ Zed said. ‘Orchestrating the score one instrument at a time. You’ve been running on the melody for a while now and we think you’ve been leaving out the bass, or the foundation notes.’

‘You mean, about what happened when I was little?’

‘Yeah. It’s there.’

Dark spaces.
Wonderful seams of pain and abandonment.
Who had described me like that?

‘We think that when you’ve seen what’s behind all your doors, you’ll find it easier to close them on others, stop people reading you so easily. In turn, it should give you control over the more recent memories, like discovering the key pieces in a puzzle.’

That was definitely something I wanted, no matter how scared I was of the process. ‘OK, let’s sort me out.’

Mrs Benedict drew the curtains while Yves lit candles around the room with a click of his fingers—this was the guy who could make things explode, I recalled. I was relieved to see the evidence that he had his gift well under control. The candles smelt of vanilla and cinnamon. The house was very quiet. We could hear the distant sounds of people enjoying the slopes, the rumble of the cable car going over the points, the sound of the trees rustling, but in this room, this haven, all was peace. I could feel the different gifts of each Benedict brush me—just a gentle caress, nothing to alarm. Zed kept his arms looped around me, relaxed, unworried.

Xav the healer was the first to speak. ‘Sky, there’s nothing medically wrong with you—I can see no sign of mental illness, though I could feel your distress.’

Zed rubbed the nape of my neck. ‘Not crazy after all.’

‘I can’t read the future clearly,’ admitted Karla. ‘There are many possible paths leading out of this moment.’

‘But I know where she’s been recently,’ Trace said. ‘She’s been in a room in a first class hotel—satin sheets, lots of glass, you touched something made from white leather and a deep pile carpet. It is safe to say you were held somewhere before you ended up in the warehouse. If we got hold of the clothes you were wearing, I could probably tell you more.’

‘The threat’s not gone,’ said Saul, using his gift to sense the predators after us.

Will nodded. ‘I sense more than one person looking for you, Sky.’

I turned to Zed. ‘Did you get all that too?’

‘Uh-huh. I also got that the two in the warehouse were the two who shot at us in the woods that day. O’Halloran was a savant, extraordinarily good at shielding. I wondered if that was why I could feel a layer in your mind—something alien. Did you see that, Uriel?’

Uriel touched my knee comfortingly. ‘Yes, and I think I know what it is even if I don’t know how it got there. Sky, your parents are artists, aren’t they?’

I nodded.

‘You know what sometimes happens to Old Masters? Someone takes them and paints over the surface and you have to strip off a layer to get back to the original? Well, someone has done something similar to your memories.’

That felt right. ‘So what’s the original and what’s the forgery?’

‘That’s where we need to take it back to the base.’

‘Will everyone see?’ It was bad enough bringing out my past for my own eyes; I didn’t want an audience for it.

‘No, just Zed, me, and you,’ Uriel said, his colours pulsing with the gentle pink of compassion. ‘And we won’t tell anyone unless you want us to.’