The Light Tamer (8 page)

“His name is Caleb. Why are you being all secret spy man, sneaking in the house?” I step away from him to look and see if he is drunk. He doesn’t look like it and I didn’t smell it on him when he grabbed me. “Daddy, you’re acting strange, what is wrong?”

“Jessie, baby, trust me, I’m your dad. I want you to be safe and I’m doing it in the only way I know how.”

“I’m not meeting you anywhere unless you tell me why we have to do it in secret,” I demand.

“I’m a Dark One, when I started drinking, I escaped the fear. The girl that I bonded to was killed in an accident when we were eighteen. The alcohol eased that void, now I’m clean. I went to Greece to a special clinic to get me off the booze and to come to terms with her death. You’re an Original, and as soon as word gets out that you’ve become unprotected, they will hunt you. I have some ideas, come to the library, please,” he begged. My 6’2” dad looks small and scared. His color is back though, he doesn’t have the dark circles under his eyes and he seems okay.

“You’re the reason I’m unprotected,
you
left. Don’t make it sound as if I did this to myself.” I stop suddenly, hearing my mom’s voice coming down the hall.

“Jessie, is that you in there?” My mom whispers as she comes into the kitchen.

“Hide,” I whisper. I push him to the refrigerator and he hides like a child playing hide and seek.

Mom walks in, eyes droopy from lack of sleep. Seeing me, she walks over, and pulls me in for a hug.

“You should be sleeping sweetie. Why are you in the kitchen?” She asked with concern dripping from every word.

“Sorry, I was up thinking about a book I want to get from the library. I came in here for a glass of milk hoping it would help me sleep.”
Don’t go near the fridge. Don’t..please
.

“I have to go in to chart tomorrow, I can drop you off on the way,” mom offers.

“I think I’ll ask Caleb to take me, if you don’t mind. You can’t be super-mom if you’re tired. I’m headed back to bed,” I say, putting my hands on her shoulders and lead her away from the kitchen. At least now he knows that I will be there, now I get to be the grown-up and get my mom back to bed.

________

Caleb had no problem picking me up to go to the library. His hair still wet from showering at the gym. He and his dad started working out together when his mom died, and it obviously was paying off.

“You look really cute today, not that you don’t every day,” Caleb said. “I like it when you wear your hair down, it makes your eyes stand out. I have a soft spot for your eyes.”

I wonder if he’s said that to anyone else
. “Thank you. How was the gym?” I ask, hoping he didn’t hear me thinking.

“I haven’t Jessie. I’ve never told anyone anything about their eyes, and the gym was okay. You should come with me; I can teach you how to fight. I bet Amber would dig it too.”

I shrug, trying to be nonchalant.
Of course I’d go to the gym with him, to watch. Nothing like a girls self esteem being shot down as she sees all the hard bodies of the other girls.

“Jessie, stop. If you honestly think that everyone at the gym is in shape, you’ve obviously not been to the gym lately. Most of the people are overweight and working on getting in shape. You aren’t one of those people. Tomorrow morning, I’ll show you. Deal?”

I close my eyes and shake my head yes. “We better go eat pancakes when we’re done,” I tease.

“Covered in mounds and mounds of whipped cream and syrup, oh yeah, delicious. I accept your challenge and raise you two strips of bacon.” Caleb weaves over to miss a squirrel that was feeling suicidal.

“Bacon is for wimps, sausage is for men,” I counter. It’s the first time in over a week that I’ve thought of something other than being a
Light Tamer
. “Ah, I think that squirrel is depressed, he just ran out in front of the car behind us, they missed him too.”

We drove in silence the rest of the way to the library. Caleb reaches over and takes my hand into his. The waves of warmth send me on a silent journey of happiness throughout my body.

“What if he’s not here? What if it was all a dream and I was sleep walking?” Panic starts to fill me with uncertainty.

“Jessie, it was real. Take a few deep breaths; I won’t let anything happen to you. I know it’s your dad and all, but if he is a Dark One, we have to be careful around him.”

He’s right, I have to be careful. I can’t let my dad show up out of the blue with tales of royalty and accept it as fact. Can I? No, I’m going in there and listening to him, and decipher it all in my head. Interesting that some guy I barely know bops into my life, and I accept his paranormal tale, yet question my own father’s credibility.

Caleb got out of the car and came over and opened my door for me. I’d seen old movies where guys would hold doors open, but you don’t see it much in high school, that’s for sure.

New Bern library is set smack dab in the middle of the historic area of New Bern. The one story brick building, with its white trim, and pillars by the entrance, look like a story book all on its own. Grandma and I spent many Saturdays meeting up with her friends and having story time here. Gayle loves to read to children, she inflects her voice to match each character in a book. Kids would all gather around us as she painted the story with words. I’d smile with pride that she was my grandma, even if I wasn’t allowed to call her that.

Caleb takes my hand and pulls me in for a hug. My knees sure are wobbly these days. “Jess?” He whispers to the top of my head.

“Yeah,” I whisper back looking up at him. From behind, the sun is glowing and it looks as if he has a halo around his head. I tilt my head back and watch as his face lowers to mine. His lips softly kiss mine. My brain screaming for him to kiss me as though it were our last kiss, my logic telling me it isn’t the right time or place. It couldn’t have lasted more than five seconds, but my heart beat a thousand times.

“Ready?” Caleb asks.

“Let’s do this,” I reply. We walk in; I half expected
Dark Ones
to be hidden in every corner. Instead of dark and dreary, it is bright and cheerful. The brightly lit room is much brighter than I remembered. We are energetically greeted by the youngest, hippest librarian that I’ve ever seen. Not a dowdy elderly lady, this librarian is actually pretty and inviting. People are everywhere, stacks of books, mothers with e-readers and children jabbering about books. A few teens are playing MTG, I don’t understand the whole Magic The Gathering game at all. I never understood Pokeman either for that matter.

“I haven’t been in here since middle school,” Caleb said jarring me out of my trance.

“I know right. I don’t remember the place being so, you know, so…perky,” I reply. “I guess we’ll walk around and try to blend in. There’s a room in the back, lets go up there and wait for him.”

I hear someone complaining about their laptop shutting down, possibly doing a system update. Another person is frantically pushing buttons on their Nook. It’s then that I realize a lot of people are messing with their electronics.
Hmmm, that’s interesting.

There in the back room, my dad is sitting with his head in a book. Not any book, the dictionary.
What a dork
, I think to myself with humor. “Daddy?”

“Baby, you made it,” he says as he sets the book down. He walks over and pulls me in for a hug. Letting me go, he looks over at Caleb. “Young man,” he says in the
… I’m sizing you up
voice.

Caleb, not missing a beat, replies to my dad. “I’m Caleb Baldwin.”

“Baldwin, good strong name son. Both of you, sit, I need to tell you some things very quickly, I can’t stay long,” dad said and sits down at the round table.

Dad, please don’t embarrass me. Will Caleb hold my hand in front of my dad? I hope not, my dad will probably freak out. Crap, shhhh stop thinking where he can hear you. Damn.

“It isn’t safe for you to be seen with me. You’re a sovereign tamer, with a hidden ability, you can chazzle,” he leans in and whispers the last part.

“Chazzle, what in the heck is that? The ability to dazzle someone with chatter?” I ask, half kidding.

“Always the witty one, I guess you get it naturally. Caleb, do you know what chazzling is?”

Caleb gave him a quizzical look. “No sir, I can’t say I’ve heard that expression before,” he replies.

“Jessie, you can stop time for thirty seconds, only for you and whomever you are touching.”

Both Caleb and I look at each other with amazement. “What the…holy cow!” I say. “No way.”

“Way, I’ve seen you do it. Not as much as seen, as I’ve been part of it. When you were a baby I noticed it. There’s always been rumors of people in our family having the ability, but I’ve never seen it.” Dad scans the room, as if he expects something to pop out of nowhere.

“Thirty seconds, how?” I ask.

“It is a fifteen back and fifteen forward. That can mean the world to you, especially when it is a life or death situation,” dad says and sets a bottle of water on the table. Look at this bottle of water. I’m going to take the lid off of it and knock it over; I want you to think about the bottle not falling over. As soon as the bottle starts to tilt, concentrate with all your might, reach over and stop me from ever taking off the lid. Got it?”

“No,” I said but not soon enough. In a split second it all began, I reached out and set the bottle up right. My time rewinds and I end up with the bottle in my hand and my dad finishing asking me if I got it.

Caleb and I look each other and then my dad. “That was ridiculous! How did you know and I not know that could happen dad?”

“I figured it out when you were about three. You didn’t want the can of peas, you wanted corn. You flipped out and the next thing I knew, the can of corn was on the counter and the can of peas in the cupboard.”

“Oh my, holy moly, I remember something like that. I thought I was magical when that other kid would come over to play. I’d get the toy from her and trade it out with another toy. She would sit and cry when she came over after that. That’s freakin’ crazy. Why haven’t you told me? Why did you let your art get in the way of telling me something so damn important. Don’t you think I should have known? Is it really fair that I had to wait for a complete stranger to tell me?” I look at Caleb, “No offense Caleb, but my dad should have told me all of this, I don’t know…ten years ago.”

“Yes Jessie, I should have. I didn’t, and now I am. Do not tell anyone else, not your grandma, your friends, no one. This is between us three. Caleb, I’m trusting that you’ll keep this to yourself too.”

“Yes sir. You still haven’t told us how she is royalty and what that means for us,” Caleb said and took my hand in his.

Do you believe everything he is saying? Squeeze once if you do and twice for no.
A light squeeze from his hand let me know that he does believe him
. I don’t get why he hasn’t told me in the past. This is big.

“My family is the original family, the first
Light Tamers
.”

“If your family is the first tamers, that means you’re the first
Dark Ones
too,” Caleb said.

“We had to originate somewhere young man. Yes, we are the first on both ends. It also means that our blood is priceless and our life is worthless in the wrong hands. Yes, our ability to heal is twofold what yours is, as is our ability to lose control of our light. Our last name Lucente, means ‘shining’, like a light. There are very few that remember who the original family is, but their radar will still pick up on her vibe. They won’t really understand why they are attracted to her light, they will only know they are. I’m a Dark One now, and I feel a draw to her. My draw is probably stronger than anyone else’s, and that means danger for her and you Caleb.”

“Daddy, why are you a Dark One? How did this happen to you?” I ask wiping away a tear that slipped from my eye.

“I’ve been one for a long time, and it was okay in the beginning. My draw to your light is unbearable at times though. I want to drain it from you and the only way to keep that at bay is to drink. I don’t want to be the cause of your death my little love. I want you to shine and to heal and to be all the things that you should be. When the girl I was bound to died, it almost killed me. I didn’t expect to ever find peace again. I met your mom and she filled that void. I didn’t know that we’d have a child that would have such a strong light. Most
Light Tamers
leave each other alone, unless we’ve had to drain someone of their light, either on accident or purpose. When Lydia, the girl I was bound to died, her light hovered over her, I had to take it before a Dark One did and used it. I thought it would be safe to have her light, I learned the hard way that it wasn’t. Her light in me is a constant reminder that I couldn’t save her life. I can save yours and that means I’m staying away. As long as I’m away from you, I don’t need to drink to chase the spirits from my mind. I hope you understand, I’ve moved away to save you. I have to go; I need you two to protect each other. Be alert to everything, including the school and the students. Gayle is safe, she will protect you.” He stands up and leans over to kiss my head. “Bye sweetie, be good and take care of your mom.”