United Service (34 page)

“They can control them?”

“To a certain degree, yes. They will each explain their gifts when they sit down and play. But before they get here, I want to ask if you’d be willing to practice controlling yours.”

Kate held out her hand in protest. “I don’t have any control over mine. If I’m awake, I have no feeling.”

“But with practice, you might. Most of the players can use their abilities to cheat. So we play on our honor and they do their best to block their abilities. That’s why we chose poker to play each week. The game is an exercise for us, and a way for us to spend time together.”

“Yeah, right,” Kate sneered. “Me sitting like a dead body at this table will not be cheating.”

“But being unreadable can give you an edge over other players. For example, I can’t bluff in front of Ben because he’d see my aura and know.”

Kate began to shake her head, “You think I can learn to control my ability?”

“We’ll never know unless you try. We’ll have to see how it goes.” When she agreed, he added, “Kate, I think it’s important that my family know what your ability is.” As she started to protest he explained. “If for any reason I’m not home, and you need your pins put in, Sulie can help you. But she can’t help you if she doesn’t understand the side effects from your ability.”

“I don’t allow people to see me being so vulnerable. … I look and feel dead,” she said in a scared tone.

“I’ll be here with you and I won’t let you sit here helplessly. Do you trust me and my family enough to let us help you control your ability?”

“Of course I trust you, Sterling.” She gazed into his eyes, “Your family too. I would like to control my abilities.” She shrugged her shoulders. “So what do I need to do?”

“Unpin yourself. And for right now, listen to them as they explain their gifts and then we’ll show them your ability. I’ll play your poker hand with you so we can see how everything goes tonight.”

“Ok. I’ll try. When are they coming to play?”

“Right now. I asked them to wait in the kitchen so I can explain everything to you.”

“Is that why you haven’t touched me a lot today?” She held up her pinned hands. “Why I’ve been pinned?”

“The longer we’ve been in contact the longer it takes for your barrier to come back up.” When she gave him a hurt look, he added, “It was hell for me too. Especially with you wearing such a tiny top and mini shorts,” he said, pointing out her outfit.

Grinning she said, “You’re such a bad boy.” She bit her lip. “I’ll do it. But stay close.”

He unpinned her and told her to spit out her gum.

“I’ll go get them.” He left and then returned before Kate’s extremities went numb.

The other vampires all took their seats at the table, Ben, Sulie, Raymond, Alex, Daniel and Mason. “Kate, this is Daniel.” He introduced the tall bearded vampire to her. Kate nodded to the man and then gave Sterling a look that told him she knew exactly who Daniel was – the man Sterling had murdered all those years ago.

“This gentleman is Mason.”

Kate focused on Mason. His age was more elderly than the rest of the team. He had a thick head of salt–and–pepper hair, a firm jaw, and hazel eyes. It was a face she was familiar with. She whispered back to Sterling, “He resembles the President.”

“I’m the President’s decoy out in public,” Mason said.

“Amazing. They always say somewhere out there in the world you have a twin. I’ve just never seen it before.” Kate stared at Mason while everyone took their seats. Each one had either a bottle of beer or a goblet of wine. As Alex gave her stepson, Sterling, a beer, Sulie handed a goblet of wine to Kate. Sterling saw that Kate’s hands were already balled into fists and she could not take the goblet as it was offered to her, so he took the wine and set the glass down on the table.

“Ok. I want to know. What is your ability, Kate? Because you give off no vital signs. You appear dead to me, and I’m a doctor.” Sulie said sipping her wine.

Sterling interrupted before Kate could even talk because he knew she was nervous about sharing her ability with the others. “What if each of you shares your ability and how playing poker has helped you first.”

They went around the table, starting on Kate’s left side, so Sulie went first. “I can medically diagnose someone by looking at them. Sometimes I have to touch the person to be sure of the diagnosis. I can do this with both humans and vampires, just not with you, Kate. Can I touch your hand?”

Kate hesitated for a moment before agreeing. But since she couldn’t move her hands, Sulie needed to reach down and touch her.

“Nope. Nothing. That is amazing.” She took a sip of her wine and continued, “When we play poker I can cheat by seeing euphoria when you have a good hand, stress if you’re bluffing, and such. So for me, it’s good practice so I can block out seeing people medically. Since I’m a doctor, I like to help people and tell them what’s wrong with them; my ability is a big problem when I walk through a crowd. How do you
not
tell someone that they are borderline diabetic? Or have pre–cancerous cells in their body? I was going crazy trying to save everyone, and it wasn’t helping to keep the secret that vampires exist from humans. Blocking helps me get through my day so I can function as normally as possible.”

“That does sound like a good reason to learn to block your amazing gift. I’m sure your ability helps you treat your patients,” Kate said.

“Oh, it does. I’ve been the President’s private physician for years. I’m talking many Presidents too. We’ve had medical issues with several of them.”

Daniel was next in the line–up. “I can witness and manipulate other people’s dreams.”

“How?” she asked.

“I have to be reasonably close to them as they sleep to enter their dreams. I can be much farther away to detect if someone is asleep. I can enter their dreams and manipulate them.” He looked around the room at the team. “That’s why my bedroom is downstairs here at the house, farthest away from anyone else’s room, and my bedroom walls are lined with thin sheets of lead.” As Kate nodded her understanding, he continued. “Overall, my ability doesn’t affect me on a day–to–day basis, and it doesn’t help me to cheat in poker.” He yielded the floor to Alex by glancing her way.

Sterling’s stepmother chimed in. “I got cheated. I have no abilities. I just like playing with the family.” She patted Raymond’s arm to let him know she was done.

“I can read mental patterns from humans and vampires, without having to be in direct contact with them. Sometimes, if emotions are strong enough, I can read thoughts. If I touch a vampire, I can compel them and even wipe their memories.”

Kate eyes widened as she darted a glance over to Sterling, who only smiled in response. Kate had spent most of her time in the mansion in his room, but Sterling could guess what was on her mind most of the time – especially since he was focused on the same thing usually.

“Kate. Your mind is unreadable to me,” Raymond explained. “It’s like you have no mental capacities at all, like you’re brain–dead. Obviously poker has helped me control my ability not to read people randomly. My ability was a problem whenever I walked through a crowd and had dozens of voices in my head. Now I can tune them out.”

Raymond held out his hand to Kate. “May I touch your hand?”

Quickly looking over her shoulder to Sterling, he nodded that it was okay. He noticed she was tentative as she glanced down at Raymond’s hand. Sterling guessed she wouldn’t be able to move her hand on her own, so he placed her balled up fist into his father’s hand.

After a moment Raymond said, “Nothing. I sense nothing at all.” Sterling helped her move her hand back and the rest of the people around the table took notice.

The President’s doppelganger went next. “I have no abilities. I play to spend time with everyone, that is if I can get out of the White House without the press following me.”

“Girl, you look dead to me. You have no aura.” Ben waived his hands across her body where an aura would be. “Nothing there. Poker helps me block myself from seeing auras. An aura can tell me if a person is happy, like if they have a good poker hand. It can also tell me if they are bluffing because the aura will change if they lie. Whenever I’m in a large group of people, like when I walk down a busy street, the auras are too much color. I am on overload with colors just coming at me and the sensory overload can be distracting.”

“Jeeze, you all have the best abilities.” Kate’s hands were dead numb, same with her legs. She lifted her arms as best as she could. Her fists flailed about. “I have a barrier covering my entire body. The barrier is like a shield that, I guess, blocks you from reading me.”

“The first time I saw you, Kate, I thought you were human because you didn’t register as a predator,” Sterling explained. “Many of us thought you were either human or a half–breed.”

Kate bit her tongue so she could continue. “I can’t sense my body unless my skin is pierced. Believe me, I felt pain when the kidnapers ripped the piercings from my skin. It hurt like heck, but the barrier sealed itself around the wounds and my body went numb.” Kate looked up at all the eyes around the table that were focused on her. “The barrier helps me to not feel pain. The other day I spilled hot coffee on myself and felt nothing. The same is true for silver. So that is nice, but the flip–side is that I don’t feel much of anything.” Again she tried to use her hands and failed. “I put pins in my hands and my feet every day to pierce the barrier and the pain allows me to walk and use my hands. I chew a lot of gum so I can feel my face … and so I don’t drool on myself, and so my eyes won’t look dead.”

There was a moment of silence until Sterling said, “So she feels nothing, and I feel everything. But when I touch her …” He stood directly behind her and reached his hands around her and held her body close to his. The cami she wore allowed his left arm to touch a great deal of skin around her neck and shoulders. He used his right arm to hold her waist, his hand reaching slightly under the cami to touch the bare skin of her belly. Almost instantly feeling returned to her extremities. “Her sense of touch comes back, and my ability amplifies her feelings. Plus, I can feel what she feels just by touching her skin. It’s like I’m under the barrier with her, but also like I melt the barrier away.”

“I can get a general picture of health, but the reading is not specific. At least you don’t appear dead though.” Sulie reached down and touched Kate’s hand. “It’s better with touch, but not great.” Sulie looked at Raymond, “Can you read her?”

“It’s faint.” He reached his hand across the table and waited for Kate to touch his hand. Thanks to Sterling’s touch, feeling came back into her body and her hands unclenched. Once her hands touched Raymond’s hands, he said, “I get a slight mental pattern of overall happiness. But nothing specific.”

“Man, your aura has no blue. I’ve never seen it without blue.” Ben said, looking at Sterling.

“Kate brings peace to my body. It’s great.” Sterling smiled. He then said to Kate, “A blue aura means you are in pain.”

“I can see your aura again, Kate. It’s faint though. You know what? Your aura was more brilliant in color when you fell asleep on the plane ride to Tennessee. I’m betting we can read you when you are asleep.”

“The barrier is gone when I’m sleeping.” Kate agreed.

“Yeah. That makes sense. Right now your aura is a little bit fuzzy, but I can tell the color is glittery gold. Sterling’s is the same color.” Ben chuckled.

As others around the table chuckled, Kate asked, “What does a glittery gold aura mean?”

“It means Sterling’s treating you well, luv,” Daniel said.

Kate looked at Sterling for an explanation. Sterling quietly explained, “A glittery gold aura means you’re sexually satisfied.”

As Kate blushed, Sulie commented, “Oh come on. Don’t embarrass the girl. I think we already knew what color her aura was based on the paper–thin walls we have in this house.”

“What?” Kate’s eyes grew in surprise. She turned and stared at Sulie.

“I was shocked when I found out too,” Alex said. “Now that you know, you can try to keep the noise down.”

“If you can,” Ben joked.

Kate turned to look at Sterling, who didn’t appear embarrassed at all. She whispered, “Sterling, thank God we weren’t here that first time. Your family probably would have thought you were killing me.”

Sterling whispered back, “That’s why I didn’t bring you home right away, sweetheart.” Sterling eyes darted across the table to his father.

Raymond glanced from Sterling to Kate and smiled. “Okay. Let’s play some poker. The game is five card draw.” Simple stakes tonight, just 100 pennies apiece.” He dealt the cards. Throughout the game, Kate practiced controlling her barrier, but had no luck. Sterling encouraged her to keep trying, especially since she won the pot.

Through the terrace door of their bedroom on the top floor of the mansion, Kate watched alone as the late afternoon clouds showered a gentle rain on the deck. Sterling had left earlier that day to watch over the President during a press conference. The news broadcast ended hours ago.

Looking down at her cell phone, she reread Sterling’s last message to her. The message indicated he’d be home shortly and for her to please wait for him in their bedroom. It was followed by a message telling her to be unpinned. She watched as the clouds quickly grew darker and threatened a sizable rainfall. She wondered what was so important that Sterling, who surely had more Colony business to take care of downtown, would suddenly come home to see her.