Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart (7 page)

“I remember the first time I had lemon
drink. It was in Egypt, 1037AD. The sugar back then tasted much
better, but so did the lemons. I’d been out of the country for
awhile and I guess they’d been making this drink for some time
before I sampled it.” She took another sip of her slush and
squeezed her eyes shut. “The new ability I spoke of is a confusing
one. It seems to have roots in the Seer’s and Reader’s powers,
almost like a mixture of the two.”

“Let me guess, when you look into
their mind all you see is a jumbled mess?”

Maetha had genuine surprise lighting
up her face. “Yes! You know someone with this power?”

“Yes, I think so. He has Demons around
his house, so it’s some kind of cosmic power.” I chugged a large
amount of the awful lemon drink. It tasted like all-purpose lemon
cleaner. “His name is Brand Safferson and he’s a
pervert.”

“A what?”

“Well, he’s always trying to hook up
with new girls; he’s a player, a scammer, a pervert.”

“I hardly think a young man wishing to
mate qualifies him as a degenerate.”

“Mate?” I laughed. “If he was looking
for marriage, that’d be one thing. He’s just after the ‘one thing’,
not a relationship.”

“The all-consuming drive for a male to
‘hook up’ is what keeps the population growing. It’s nature at its
most basic level.”

“Yeah, but last time we spoke, you
talked about the many deaths of the black plague and if they hadn’t
died our population would be overrun in today’s day and age. Now
you’re saying it’s nature’s way to want to procreate?”

“Touché, Calli. When I come back with
Beth, perhaps you can arrange a time I could meet this over-zealous
young man.”

“He’s here today; do you have time to
meet him?”

She stood immediately and threw her
mostly full drink into the nearby garbage can. That was answer
enough. I joined her and we started walking.

“Maetha, I don’t know how long it will
take to find him; this park is huge.”

“Imagine his face in your mind for
me.”

I did as she ordered and felt her
access my mind. She stopped suddenly and stared straight ahead. I
followed her line of vision but couldn’t tell what or who she was
looking at.

“Calli, I’m looking into the minds of
others for his face. Once I locate him I can delve deeper for a
location.”

“Wow, move over Homeland
Security.”

“There, that boy with his breeches
hanging down to his testicles has seen him recently at the
Corkscrew ride. Let’s go.”

We weren’t far away and as we neared
the ride another teen’s mind revealed to Maetha he’d left with a
girl and headed to a grassy area nearby. I found it amusing how
everyone approaching us scratched their heads as they went by. The
sensation of having their minds read must be the same for regular
people.

We walked around a large hedge bush
and found a group of boys who had circled around Brand. He’d
clearly stepped over his bounds with his choice of girls, once
again, and now a gang was about to beat him up; or so they
thought.

“Maetha, have you ever seen one of
these new people of powers in a fight?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Let’s get a better viewing spot
because you’re going to like this.”

We repositioned ourselves behind a
nearby vendor’s shack and watched the scene unfold. Brand had
apparently ticked off a guy who had juvenile delinquent friends and
they were all about to violate their probations. If I was an
opportunist, I’d have gone around and taken bets on Brand, but
Maetha wouldn’t have approved.

The situation escalated and the
offended boy rushed at Brand ready to punch him in the face. Brand
moved slightly and the boy’s hand made contact with a post directly
behind Brand with an audible crunching-crack sound. The wailing was
deafening and the crowd let out a sympathetic ‘ooooh’. The buddies
all jumped forward at the same time and a glimmer of silver caught
my eye. Maetha grabbed my arm and looked at me with
concern.

“Calli I can’t see his future well
enough to know if he’ll be alright. I don’t want him
killed.”

“Look into the future of the knife
bearer to see if he’ll be successful.”

“What? Whose side are you on? Oh,
wait… I see. It will be alright.”

Sure enough, the fight played out just
like the one in the high school parking lot. It was over in a
matter of thirty seconds with each of the hoodlums curled up in
agony on the grass holding their private parts. The six inch blade
poked up out of the grass with the handle still waving back and
forth.

Maetha pulled me out of sight and
said, “Calli, I’ll be out of sight observing, but I want you to
take him somewhere more private and reveal to him that you have the
healing power. He will then reveal his power to you.”

“You’ve seen it? Then why don’t you
just tell me what his power is.”

“Future sight will not reveal a
paradox. If I could see what he will reveal there would be no need
to have him reveal it.”

“Huh?”

“Your future reveals you will learn
his power and help him understand it better. It does not show me
what his power is.”

“Ugh, too confusing, alright what
should I say to him to get him to talk?”

“Whatever you feel you
should.”

I watched as Brand picked up the fancy
knife and closed it. He wagged it in front of the owner and said,
“Thanks.” He pocketed it and walked away. The girl the fight began
because of rushed to one of the downed boys. I used that
opportunity to approach Brand.

“I see you’re busy keeping the peace,
Brand.” I fell in step with him and noted his tired
expression.

“Oh, you saw that?”

“Yeah, I did. You’ve got quite a skill
there. You should go into Ultimate Fighting or
something.”

“I’ve been hit enough times, thank you
very much.” He didn’t look at me; he simply kept walking at a brisk
pace.

“What? You never get hit.”

“That’s what
you
know. Why are you
even talking to me, Calli?” He glanced over at me with that
question.

“I think you and I have a lot in
common.”

“So are you going to change your mind
about me, about us?” His emotion and voice inflection changed on a
dime and I could tell he was weighing his options with me. What is
it with male hormones?

“No, Brand.”

“I don’t know why you won’t
change your mind about me; I don’t know why I can’t
change
your
mind.”

“What makes you think you can change
my mind?”

“I can change everyone else’s minds.
But you aren’t affected.”

“Do you really think it’s appropriate
to control people like that?”

“Who cares? It’s what I do. My time
here lasts so much longer than anyone else, at least I can score
with the girls while I’m at it.”

“Yeah, you’ve succeeded with all the
girls except Suz. Why have you passed her up?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” His
tone had finality and anger in it. He walked up to a beverage
vending machine and fed a couple bills into the slot and made his
selection for water. He struggled to get the bottle out of the
machine and then twisted the cap off. As he lifted it to his lips
he looked at me and paused. “Do you want a drink?” He extended his
clutched bottle toward me.

“No, thank you. Why do you feel your
time lasts longer, Brand? Are you talking about length of
minutes?”

It took him a minute to respond
because he was busy guzzling the water like he’d been traveling
over miles and miles of hot desert. He wiped his mouth and let out
a slight belch. “No, literally. My day lasts so much longer than
anyone else’s, of course it’s my own fault, but I can’t help
myself. I like things to go my way, I like to win the fights, and I
like to get the girl. You just saw me in action.” He paused and
stared at me for a couple of seconds and then answered the question
at the front of my mind that I was about to ask. “Because I’ve had
a lot of practice.”

“How did you…?” My amazement was hard
to hold back. Had he just read my mind? No, it wasn’t possible
because I’m an Unaltered.

“Calli, I can tell you all about
yourself. For instance, you like the color red, you’ve always
wanted to be a doctor, you don’t want to go to college but have to
in order to please your parents, your favorite food is Chinese and
you used to have a cat named Fluffle-up-a-gus.”

I laughed out of pure shock. I wasn’t
even sure Suz could spout that much information about me. “What?
Can you read minds or something?”

“Or something.”

“Brand, can we go somewhere more
private? I have something to tell you.”

“Wow, are you finally going to jump my
bones?”

“Dream on.”

We walked through the crowds until we
found a maintenance shack with a small area behind it protected by
a fence. Once we were safely behind and I was sure no one was
following us, I said, “Brand, I know why you wouldn’t meet me in
the park after dark that time.”

He exhaled and glanced around
nervously. “No, I don’t think you do.”

“I’ve seen them, Brand. They’re called
Shadow Demons and they only attack people with special abilities.
You have a special ability and I have one.”

His shock was evident in his eyes.
Undoubtedly he was wondering how I knew about the Demons and what
my special ability was.

“You can actually see the… whatever
they are? Why can’t I see them? How many times have you been
attacked by them?”

“Never; they’re not interested in my
ability.”

“So, what is your ability?”

“I’m a Healer. I can heal most any
ailment or injury with my mind.”

“Really?” he laughed. “With your
mind?” He pulled the knife out of his pocket and opened the blade.
“So, you’re saying if I stabbed myself, you could heal my injury?
How fast?”

“Fairly fast.”

“Faster than two minutes?”

“Yes.” Before I could even brace
myself, he thrust the blade deep into his thigh.

With blood gushing, he looked at me
and said, “The clock is ticking, Calli, show me what you can
do.”

I focused on his injury and felt the
cold steel inside his flesh. I began repairing the sliced muscle
from the inside out, pushing the blade out in the process. The
knife dropped to the ground and the skin on his thigh was the last
to close. All he was left with was a hole in his blood-covered
jeans, but his leg was perfect. He stared slack-jawed at the knife
on the ground and pushed his fingers inside the slit in his jeans
to feel his leg.

“Calli, what did you do?” His voice
cracked with his amazed discovery.

I smiled at him.

“I’m impressed, but can’t you fix my
jeans also? These are my favorites.”

“Get a needle and thread, Brand. I
only fix humans.”

“Well, what good is your power if you
can’t fix my jeans too?”

I couldn’t believe he wasn’t shocked
out of his mind with my healing ability and that he was throwing
such a fit over worn-out jeans.

“You showed me yours, now I’ll show
you mine.” He winked at me and took my hand. “You want to see
something cool?”

Excited, I nodded.

“Come with me and watch.” He took my
hand and everything around me began spinning by in a blur and
instantly we were back to where he asked, “Faster than two
minutes?”

I instinctually answered yes. I looked
at the knife in his hand and then down at his unharmed pants. He
hadn’t stabbed his leg yet and I kept waiting for him to do
so.

He looked at me and said, “See, I
fixed my pants.”

Sure enough, his jeans were unharmed
and clean because he hadn’t stabbed his leg yet. “Did we time
travel, Brand?”

“No.”

I shook my head trying to pull my
thoughts together. Had I only imagined him stabbing his leg? The
memory of it was etched in my brain, and yet he hasn’t done it yet.
Am I going crazy or is this some sort of déjà vu? Maybe Brand has
the power to make me think an event has happened when in fact it
never did.

Brand hadn’t taken his eyes off me.
“Are you alright, Calli?”

“What did you do, Brand?” Another echo
of a memory etched in my brain was of Brand asking the same
question to me after I healed his self-inflicted stab wound. But he
hadn’t stabbed and I hadn’t healed.

“We repeated the same stretch of time
and I didn’t stab myself this time.”

“So, you remember stabbing
yourself?”

“Yes, and you remember
also?”

“Yes.”

“See, now you know how I was able to
fight that gang.”

“I’m not sure I
understand.”