Flicker (21 page)

              That she had augmented her own physical strength had been impressive, but not unexpected. More interesting to him was the fact that, more than once, she had managed to move  the boy-- Alexander knew him from the files to be William Bates-- without so much as touching him. Alexander doubted Elise would be able to repeat the skill of utilizing the very air around her as a weapon any time soon-- not without a motivation he had every intention of never giving her again. But the preview of her potential had been awe-inspiring in the least: she had shoved the worthless boy into the wall of the alley so hard she had cracked the bricks behind him. Alexander wondered what excuse William would concoct to explain his several broken ribs and bruised skull. He almost hoped the fool would be stupid enough to go to the police and tell them Elise had assaulted him-- Alexander relished, for a moment, the prospect of having a reason to go back and kill the useless worm. But of course, that line of thinking was what had brought him here.

              A tinny voice came over the plane's intercom, announcing that they had reached cruising altitude, and could move about the cabin. Alexander wouldn't have moved from Elise's side if his life depended on it. He glanced down at her, wondering at the effect this little field trip would have on her continued growth. His hope was that it would be cathartic, that venting her rage would aid her healing process, but he doubted they would be so lucky. He knew she wouldn't forget that he had pried into her past, and although he still felt guilty for doing so, and knew that it had been wrong and foolish in the extreme, he planned to do his best to convince her not to walk away from him because of it. It wasn't even that he felt she still needed him-- he was beginning to understand that he needed her as well.

              She really was magnificent. He wasn't even thinking of her considerable power-- in and of herself, she was everything he wanted. Her poise and charm were second to none. Her personality, intelligence, and wit were engaging. During their conversations, she had displayed hard-won wisdom far beyond her meager years-- the sort that one only gained from harsh life lessons. And of course, she'd had those in spades, but the fact that, at only fourteen years old, she had survived both the vicious attack and the aftermath of blame and lies was a testament to her willpower and rare strength.

              Alexander gazed down at her face, smiling at the innocence of her sleeping form. She was worth any price he might have to pay.

              Elise was startled to wake in Alex's car as he pulled up in front of her house. She vaguely recalled leaving their rental and boarding the flight in Pittsburgh, but no matter how she focused, she couldn't remember getting back to Philadelphia. She bit her lip, wondering if Alex had anything to do with her lapse in memory, but couldn't summon the energy to care about it just now. She felt like she was coming home after running a marathon-- her entire body ached, and she could barely keep her eyes open. In fact, she was just grateful for Alex's quick mind and charm when she climbed out of the car to see her mother opening the front door. He seemed to have spent part of the trip concocting a detailed account of their day hiking in Fairmount Park, which he fed to her parents as she stumbled up the steps to the front porch, rubbing her heavy eyes.

              “You've got to stop bringing her home so exhausted, you know,” Elise heard her mother joke with Alex as she and Elise's dad stood back to give them room to enter.

              “I promise, she won't sleep for two days this time,” Alex laughed from behind her. Elise didn't shy away when he rested a hand on the small of her back, steadying her as she crossed the threshold into the foyer. 'Drained' didn't even begin to cover the way she felt; a slightly hysterical giggle escaped her as she thought that she might very well prove Alex wrong and sleep for the rest of the weekend.

              Alex's hand was still on her back, and as her parents went into the kitchen he guided her toward the stairs. Pausing at the bottom, he put his hands on her shoulders, turning her to face him; despite her exhaustion, the tenderness in his eyes made her catch her breath. “Can you make it?” He asked, only partly joking.

              Elise smiled up at him drowsily. “I think I'll be all right from here.” She paused, reaching out tentatively to grip his hand with both of hers, and met his eyes. “Thank you, you know,” she said, her gaze level and her voice somber, for the moment entirely awake. “You were an ass and all that, digging up the past, but you redeemed yourself. So I want to make sure you know I'm grateful-- you gave me the tools to do what I did today, and I haven't forgotten that.”

              Alex bent down slowly, carefully, to kiss her forehead. “Good night, little girl,” he whispered. She could feel his eyes on her as she trudged up the stairs, and knew he didn't leave until she had fallen into bed.

              “I got your email,” Alexander opened neutrally, not bothering with pleasantries.

              “That bad, huh?” Gregory's voice was amused. Alexander sighed; he'd thought he sounded neutral, anyway.

              “She's incredibly strong,” he said by way of explanation. “What have you found out? I could really use anything you've got right about now.” Alexander counted it a certainty that Gregory had been able to research omnivores-- information, even of that rarity, was his lifeblood. He was rather surprised, therefore, at Gregory's response.

              “To be honest, there isn't much.”

              Alexander's eyebrows climbed. “Oh?” He asked politely, knowing perfectly well he hadn't misunderstood but hoping for a moment that he had.

              “Really, Alexander, there's nothing. I mean, when you think about it, it makes sense-- statistically speaking, omnivores seem to be anomalies of the rarest kind; the likelihood of one being born is astronomical. And with the Court practicing for so long... well, it's not like they keep training manuals lying around.” Alexander had never heard Gregory sound so defeated.

              “So there isn't much, or there's nothing at all?” Alexander pressed, stunned. He was clinging to a residual hope that Gregory had found something to give him direction, because as much as he knew about training latent members of their kind, despite-- or perhaps because of-- Elise's natural proclivity, he felt rather out of his depth. Due, he suspected, t0 the herbivore side of her energy, much of her power was alien to him. Alexander had been hoping that Gregory would turn up something that could educate him on how to help her blend what he could teach her with what she might have to discover for herself.

              “I mean,” Gregory said slowly. “There were some legends... oral traditions, really, I wouldn't put much stock in them. But they are of Russian origin... the only transcripts are a good two or three centuries removed from the incidents they describe, so really, they're probably worse than useless.”

              “I want them,” Alexander replied without hesitation. He heard Gregory sigh.

              “Of course you do.”

              Elise wasn't sure she hid her relief very well when Alex suggested, on Wednesday evening nearly two weeks later, that they take a break from her training and go to dinner like a normal couple. Things had been hit or miss for her lately-- her initial learning curve had given way to a frustrating struggle as she worked to master more difficult techniques. The problem, she suspected, was less in Alex's ability to teach her-- he had been infinitely patient, after all, and had come up with all sorts of gentle suggestions that had frequently helped-- but with her lack of focus. More often than not now, she would harness her energy, begin to bend it to her will, and then find her mind suddenly pulled in an entirely different direction. As someone who had become accustomed to complete control over herself, the change was disconcerting in the extreme.

              So it was with a huge sigh of gratitude that Elise greeted Alex's idea of a normal date. It did occur to her, however, as they walked up to the main street, that she thought of herself and Alex very readily as a couple. She was a little surprised, but pleasantly so-- she had anticipated at least a few emotional breakdowns before she'd be able to get used to the idea of having a boyfriend, but they had eased into the concept, never actually talking about it, and Elise was glad that her mind just jumped to the conclusion. Subconscious acceptance was so much easier than conscious decision. She laughed a little at the thought process and, when Alex looked at her curiously, just shook her head.

              “So did you have a place in mind, or are you just counting on my knowledge of the town to guide you?” Elise asked, gently teasing, as they walked.

              “Oh, I was thinking of taking you to the Yoko sushi bar-- it is your favorite, right?” Alex smirked at her as she took a second to try to recall if she'd actually told him that.

              “You cheater!” She cried, whacking him lightly on the arm. “You're supposed to find stuff like that out the hard way!”

              “Oh, it was hard, believe me,” he replied in a tone of great wounded dignity. “Your shield is getting very impressive-- it took some careful timing on my part to find out anything.”

              Elise stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed at her.

              Once they were seated and the smiling waitress had taken their order, Elise turned to Alex, preparing to voice a question that had taken longer to sink in than most of her other queries, but was one that had been burning at the back of her mind almost since the first day he'd told her the truth about himself.

              “Alex,” she began. “Why don't you let yourself age? I mean, in nine hundred years, you haven't gotten tired of... being here? Or at least, tired of being a teenager?” She asked, cocking her head to look up at him.

              “Why don't you wear pants?” He countered. “In three years, you haven't gotten tired of wearing skirts? Or at least, tired of wearing floor-length ones?” Elise snorted.

              “Answer for answer?” She proposed, and at his nod, continued. “The whole outfit,” she gestured to encompass her attire. “Started, like I told you, as a way to keep everyone away from me. Once they got used to me being weird, no one wanted anything to do with me. But it was always sort of more than that, too-- I changed how I looked because I didn't want to be... that girl anymore. I wanted to be someone else.”

              “This is what you came up with?” Alex asked, raising his eyebrows.

              Elise shrugged again, resting her elbows on the white linen tablecloth. “When I started thinking about who I wanted to be, it occurred to me that when I was a little girl, I always loved looking at the drawings in my books about princesses. Don't you dare laugh at me,” she injected fiercely, but his expression was kind. Elise sighed longingly. “They all just looked so elegant and unreachable, above everyone else. So I started sort of modeling my wardrobe after those images, and this is what happened. I guess... I mean, it took me a while to figure it out, but I feel more comfortable, more like myself, than I ever did dressing like normal people.”

              Alex was smiling at her. “Have I mentioned lately that you're amazing?” He asked.

              She reached across the table to shove him gently. “Yeah, yeah, enough with the flattery,” she said firmly, doggedly keeping him on topic. “You owe me an answer. And it'd better be a good one.”

              He sighed, too, his amusement draining away. "Humans, latents, live every day with the knowledge of your own inescapable mortality,” he said. “You accept death because you have no choice. I have to allow my own death- I have to choose a slow suicide in order to be... natural. I'm a coward, Elise, because in all my long years I haven't made the choice. I have maintained because I can't- you can't- ever go back. I'm a coward because I wasn’t ready to lose my youth, to choose to die." He turned away, his face suddenly twisted with an alien sorrow that Elise struggled to comprehend. She could understand, in theory, but in this moment he seemed so far removed from her. She hated the distance that years put between them, the seemingly unbridgeable gap of more time and experience than she could wrap her mind around. Instinctively, she reached out, laying her hand over his where it rested on the table.

              “I'm sorry,” she said softly, not sure if she was apologizing for asking or for not being there with him centuries ago. Perhaps a little of both.

              Alex smiled at her, traces of the sadness still in his eyes, and slid his hand out from beneath hers. She couldn't stop a slight frown from creasing her brow at his rejection, then she realized that he'd only moved because the waitress was approaching with their food. He must have sensed her coming from behind him; Elise felt a flush spread across her cheeks at the thought that she must have been so wrapped up in him that she didn't even see the woman walking toward them. Elise glanced at Alex's face as she quickly leaned back with a murmured, “Thank you,” allowing the waitress to put their plates on the table. At least her embarrassment had served a purpose-- Alex looked like he was carefully suppressing a smile.

              He watched the laughing couple exit the restaurant from his parked car across the street. With all the traffic out enjoying the autumn evening, they wouldn't see him, but he was careful to keep his presence masked so Alexander wouldn't sense him, either.