Vision (12 page)

I looked down, and Liz sipped her coffee.
“Shall I start with my personal story Layla? And my decision to
become a neuroscience researcher?”

“I don’t really care at this point.” The
undertones of sarcasm in my voice drew a nudge in the ribs from
Stuart, sitting next to me. Be nice, he sent.

Liz continued. “You and I had the same night
visions. The woman – Sarah. The burning. Witchcraft. All of it. I
think she worked hard to deliver the truth, and used us both as
conduits. But the person she really needed to reach was you. And
her memories are somewhere in you, so that’s why it all seemed real
and familiar.”

Hot tears were forming and that made me
frustrated she had power to elicit emotions from me. “Thanks for
helping me cope.”

Her eyes pinned me. “You think I’m cold, but
I’m not. Obsessed perhaps. I couldn’t tell you because we decided
to let everything unfold in order to get answers to the visions –
what they meant. I saw you coming here. My only goal in life has
been to protect you.”

“It’s true, “Dad interjected, nodding.

“Then why did you not want me to come here?”
I threw eye daggers at her, pretending I was incapable of
forgiveness in any capacity.

“I did want you to come, and I knew you had
to come. My resistance spawned from a basic maternal instinct to
protect you at all costs. Hard to believe, I know.”

Stuart shot a quick glance my direction.
Don’t say anything. Just listen.

“Did you know about the letter?” I asked.

“No, but I knew about our family history on
Colonsay and knew Abbey lived there, so when your Dad told me about
the letter it was no surprise.”

“She mentioned your gift in the letter –
Sarah. She knew about you too.”

“Did she now?” Mom contemplated from a
scientific point of view. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re learning your
history.

“History?”

Everyone nodded in concurrence with Mom. They
all seemed so buddy, buddy it made my stomach flip over.

Natasha interjected. “You and Stuart are
special.”

I couldn’t look at Liz any longer, so my head
whipped to face Stuart’s current mom. “How do you know? Are you a
Clear, Natasha?”

Her warm smile caused a pang of guilt for
behaving like a contentious child. “No. But – I’ll explain later.
Nothing about me is important at this point.” She continued
smiling, revealing perfect straight white teeth against bronze
skin. “Stuart and you are destined for great things. You are the
hope for mankind as we fight against evil – the Bane.”

“Okay, stop! Time freaking out! Do you know
how ridiculous you all sound? Destiny? Fighting evil? Just stop! My
head can’t take anymore truth, if that’s what you call it.” There
was loud buzzing in my head.

As I stood up so did everyone else. “I need
air.”

“I’ll go with you, love.”

“No! Alone!” I pivoted on my heel, marching
toward the door, Stuart following behind me.

I said alone.

No can do. Jasper…

Oh, whatever.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

After a stroll around the block, he convinced
me to go back inside and hear everyone out. The second his arm was
around me in the frigid air, the first snow crunching under our
shoes, my body responded to him with warmth and calm – engulfed in
the bubble of Stuart.

You are super good at this Guardian stuff,
Fairchild. I forget why I was angry every time you touch me. Not
fair.

In kind he kissed me before opening the door
to the house, where we were met with raucous laughter. To my
delight Patrice and Henry and Sienna magically appeared. Patrice
playfully shook her finger at us. “I knew there was something
special about you two! They told us everything.”

“Gee thanks, Mum.” Sienna poked her lip out
but Henry was quick to embrace his daughter, planting a kiss on top
of her head. I walked to Sienna, and gave her a hug.

“We’ve always know you were special, young
lady,” Henry said to Sienna.

Liz broke up the party. “Would anyone mind
terribly if I had a few minutes with my daughter?”

Uh oh, I thought, rolling my eyes.

She read my expression, not a difficult feat.
“Honestly, Layla. We’re just talking.”

We retreated upstairs closing the door to the
guest bedroom. “So, should we do this verbally or non-verbally?”
For some reason I just couldn’t corral my mouth.

“First, can you for once cut the sarcasm? And
I can’t read you well – not yet anyway. You’ve been blocked to me
most of your life.”

“You mean we should be able to talk silently
but I won’t let you in?” I could barely contain a grin.

“Yes. That seems to be correct,” she said,
“and not being able to read you well in general has caused me all
kinds of problems I was not expecting to have.” She seemed
exasperated thinking about the shortcomings between us. “I thought
I could track what was going on by reading you during the course of
your life, but you’ve been totally shut off to me. You are very
talented my dear.”

“I’ve always been able to block at will,” I
replied with some smugness, winning a battle with her I didn’t
realize we were engaged in. I had intentionally locked her out of
my head without knowing. “But if you couldn’t read me, how did you
know so much? And why didn’t I know you were…like me? A Clear. Why
in the hell didn’t you tell me?” I was beyond pissed; the anger
rose again and flushed heat to my skins’ surface.

She spent more than an hour trying to fill in
blanks, pouring out everything she could think of while fielding my
questions.

She worked with Colin incognito for a private
non-profit company, owned and funded by Clears like herself who
probed the inner-workings of the Bane-Clear-Guardian world. She had
lied to me about where she worked, saying her employment was with a
local research institute in Portland. Conducting experiments on
brain function was just a small part of what happened behind the
walls of StoneWall, LLC – named after the two primary partners Liz
Stone and Jerry Wall. The play on their two adjoined names was pure
coincidence but seemed to signify something impermeable.

Most days were spent tracking Bane activity,
which ended up explaining Jasper Branson. Branson is like a head
Bane in the UK. She knew about our date because a conversation was
‘overheard’ via wiretaps with his son Andre about taking me to The
Promenade – Jasper helping with arrangements. When Andre relayed to
Jasper he thought I was reading him after the ‘incident,’ Jasper
got paranoid and searched everywhere, locating the mics StoneWall
had spent large amounts of time and money infiltrating the Branson
mansion. Jasper realized I was a Clear, and while Andre was too
inexperienced to recognize the attraction, Jasper was not and
started pursuing me. He tied my last name to Mom. My one date with
Andre threatened the entire espionage ring leading to discovery of
the taps, and Jasper was beyond enraged.

I told her about the incident in the parked
car and Stuart’s rescue. She was very grateful for Stuart’s
intervention, but realized my lack of experience and knowledge
about this strange underworld exposed me to the Bane. I told her
about my responses to Andre’s thoughts, the notes, and the sedan
which she absorbed with analytic silence. “Yep, that did it,” she
had said.

She knew Stuart and I would meet, but was
worried we may not connect, in part due to my stubbornness, and in
part due to her own experience not totally connecting with Colin.
She worried the changes in my life would be too much too fast, and
our inexperience would put us in danger.

“Who sent the Celtic knot charm?” I had
asked.

“Colin. It was symbolic, a sign. In
retrospect our clues to you were shoddy, disorganized. Anyway, now
you know about yours and Stuart’s…immortality.”

“Know about in theory. Still not believing,”
I mused.

“You will,” she smirked, “In time.”

“How did you know my headaches would end?” I
asked.

She smiled. “I didn’t for sure, but it stood
to reason you were under extreme stress and once you knew the truth
they would subside.”

I laughed. “So not necessarily a Clear
issue.”

She returned a smile. “Not everything is.
Just spoken from experience of a life-long headache sufferer.”

We talked about why she was distant, how I
felt rejected by her growing up, unlovable.

I know. I’m sorry. Take all the time you need
to forgive me. It was for the greater good. Please try to
understand.

I cried, she cried. It was pathetic, but
necessary. When my tears stopped, I asked her if Bane were
immortal.

She explained Bane were not immortal, but are
growing in numbers as more join the force. Brutal dictators like
Stalin and Saddam made it to the top while others are stopped,
sometimes-through acts of violence and war. But now there is a
movement of Bane Radicals whose goal is to kill Clears and
overthrow governments. They will torture, maim and murder to
achieve their goals.

“There must be others like us,” I
reasoned.

“Some, not many, and not as powerful. We are
trying to find everyone. Hopefully, you’ll meet them
eventually.”

I let that one go for now. “So – why do they
want to kill Clears?”

“Because Layla…Clears are here to prevent
Bane from executing their agenda.”

“Which is?”

“The destruction of goodness.” Her response
was matter-of-fact.

Mine was panic. “So Jasper wants me dead. I’m
a threat?”

Her voice lowered to haunting. “Oh, you are
more than that. And it’s not just him who desires your blood. There
are many, many others.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Somehow I saw beyond the danger, and Liz
became a person to me. She became Mom, not in a traditional sense,
but she was my unique version.

Not that she ditched her ‘business’ demeanor
often, but her dedication and passion to the cause was unwavering,
inspiring even, and I finally understood Dad’s comment on the way
to the airport about our shared drive in life. Of course, we also
shared gifts of vision, something I was beginning to view as more
of a burden.

And then there was Dad. My heart pounded with
hurt thinking he was second pick. But according to Liz – Mom, he
was never a runner-up to Colin, as they met years later at
Stanford. Mom had met Colin when her father was stationed in London
on a military assignment when she was eighteen. Colin had already
attached himself hopelessly to Natasha, who was no competition for
any woman. As Mom said, “Looking at her now you can only imagine
her as a young girl. Hell, I would have fallen for her!”

Colin managed the European division of
StoneWall, and responsible for the Branson project. That totally
explained Stuart’s passionate plea to not go out with Andre, since
he probably had first hand information from the taps. Most
StoneWall employees, including Jerry Wall, had no Clear abilities,
just passion for the cause.

“So tell me again. You always knew about
Stuart?” I asked.

Her eyes locked on mine. “Yes. The Clears are
a small community. Stuart needed a family here to appear normal,
and to be accessible when you arrived. I helped him connect with
Colin and Natasha, who by coincidence is related to Stuart. Well,
maybe not a coincidence, who knows.”

“So, you knew we would likely meet someday?”
I was trying to catch on, but it wasn’t easy.

She nodded. “Yes, and when you were compelled
to come here I thought it might be too soon but couldn’t stop you.
It was fate, and planted in your mind that it was time to leave
home.”

“Andre was attracted, possessive of me, but
didn’t know why.”

“Yes. Unfortunately, Bane are extremely
attracted – physically and otherwise – to Clears. We’re not sure
why yet and are experimenting with evolutionary and genetic
theories but no concrete conclusions yet. Were you attracted to
Andre, Layla?”

I remembered the email talking about the Bane
attraction, and Mom admitted to sending it. Satisfied, I answered
her question. “Well, sure, you know, he was cute, charming,
confident, rich. But something about him seemed, forbidden,” I
laughed, adding “Especially with everyone telling me to walk
away.”

Mom nodded, remembering the strange call she
placed forbidding me to date Andre. “That must have been confusing
for you. Layla…are we starting to be – okay?” The lines around her
eyes softened.

We’re getting there – Mom. By the way Abbey
is a bean sidhe.

Nonsense. They don’t exist. She winked, her
wry smile telling me she believed otherwise.

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Downstairs there was a giant food spread and
lively conversation. Stuart asked me how our talk went, how I was
doing. “Talk was fine. Not sure how I’m doing. Definitely numb.”
There were many unanswered questions I couldn’t cultivate into
words. Instead, I contemplated everyone in the room.

Maybe I was luckier than I realized.

After the meal coffee was poured and candles
lit as we settled into contentment. Dad harbored a serious
expression of concern, his brows tugged together as he stared at
the table. Mom told me upstairs that Guardians could only read
Clears, no one else. It was part of the protective component they
were studying, the ability to sense when Clears were in danger, to
exchange words in situations where speaking was not possible. She
was frothing at the mouth to run tests on Stuart and me.

I answered her about hell freezing over.

Dad was clearly worried, thinking …she’s too
young for all this…

I gave him a reassuring smile then shifted in
my seat, deciding there was no longer motivation to hold back.
“Everyone, I have an announcement. No. More. Damn. Secrets. We talk
about everything openly. Now. Always. Do not keep anything from me
ever again.” In turn my eyes rested for a moment on everyone at the
table, except Sienna who I simply acknowledged by saying, “You’re
excluded. You hold nothing in.” She giggled. With everyone else I
was firm. “Understand?”