“Stronger, yes. And we have the ability to manipulate our fields. You, Jenna, appear to have the ability to manipulate others’ fields. That is how you dumped the coffee into the Prince’s lap.”
She realized she was still massaging her temple, trying to rid herself of the tension there.
She dropped her hand and sat back in her chair.
“If you…
we
…are born to this—” She grimaced, then made herself say the word as evenly as possible, “destiny, then why did it take you so long to figure out who I am? Surely, you recognize another…what? Talent? What do you call yourselves?”
“There’s no name for us, but sometimes we use
watchers
.”
She considered the name.
It seemed a simple enough word. At least they didn’t have some unpronounceable title without vowels. It was a word she could use without blushing. “You must recognize another watcher, then. Quite early.”
“The onset of puberty, usually.”
“Rhys, I’m nearly thirty years old. Why have you only figured out about me now?”
“Because of Kevin.”
She stared at him.
He reached for the insulated coffee pot and poured himself another cupful. “The magnetic analogy won’t do for this one. So think about nuclear radiation instead. You understand basic radiation theory, right?”
“I did physics at school.”
“When two pieces of radioactive material come together, the radiation they give off more than doubles. It’s a synergistic relationship.”
“Sure. If there’s enough material there they can spiral into thermonuclear reactions.”
“But if you enclose one of those pieces of radioactive material in lead, then nothing can get out. No leaks.” He took a mouthful of coffee. “Kevin was a blocker. We’ve known them to exist throughout history, here and there. He was that lead casing.”
The analogy was startlingly clear. But not quite perfect. “He didn’t live around me, though.”
“You were bonded to him emotionally. That’s all it takes. He subsumed your field.”
“Blocked it.” She realized she was rubbing her temple again.
“I’ve been thinking it over since I realized what Kevin was. You must have met him when you were very young.”
“High school.”
“You were lovers in high school?”
She felt herself blushing. “He was the only lover I have ever had.” She didn’t finish the rest of the thought:
U
ntil now
.
But she didn’t need to finish it, for by Rhys’ startled expression, she knew he had finished it for himself. He recovered his poise swiftly.
But he didn’t speak at once and Jenna wondered why he hesitated.
He considered her for a few seconds, then he said, “Those of us who bond together are like two pieces of radioactive material. The bonding forms a stronger, more powerful united field.”
“Makes sense.” Wariness flooded her, created by his careful selection of words. He was leading up to something. Something big.
“I have known my fate since I was a child,” he continued.
“It has been my journey to find you. You and I are twined together. It is our fate.
To battle the coming dark days we must bond and then be bound together by the solstice. We will work together to overcome the enemy. We have been forever destined to be mates.”
Even though she had suspected the shape of what he would say the actual speaking of the words shook her. “How can you know that? How can you possibly know something like that?”
You know it, too, Jenny.
She shook her head, refusing to use her mental abilities, for that would be supporting his theory and helping admit he was right. “So, regardless of how I feel about it, I’m supposed to just do what someone else tells me for the rest of my life?”
“You were made for this.”
“Bullshit. I make my own future—no one else gets to tell me how it goes.”
“Like Kevin tried to?”
She shut her jaw together with an audible snap. Shock filtered through her like a cold chemical racing through the marrow of her bones.
All she could do was stare at Rhys.
“Kevin died three months ago.” He said it calmly, without malice or anger.
“Yet the touch of your field and the surges you have been giving off have been felt and monitored for nearly a year now. They were weak at first. Mere hints, but they have been growing stronger all the time.”
Rhys’ voice was still neutral, still kind. “You may have been technically his lover when he died, but you had already dissolved the emotional bond between you, long before then.”
“But how did you know…?” Her voice emerged pathetically weak. It terrified her to have someone speak aloud the horrible thoughts and feelings she had assumed had been buried along with Kevin.
“You quote Kevin’s cynical attitudes about anything magical or extra-sensory, yet you’ve had no qualms using those talents for the last twelve hours, so the attitudes were just borrowed from him. They’re not really yours at all. But now and whenever I have spoken about fate or destiny, your resistance is immediate and your fury hot enough to scrape paint off buildings.”
Her breath was hurried. Jenna got to her feet and turned away from him. Didn’t he know she didn’t like to speak of such things? Never with Kevin and she hadn’t been the sort to have women friends to share intimacies with, either.
Rhys’ mental touch came like a brief hug, but she didn’t acknowledge it, so he continued with audible words.
“Your whole life, you have struggled to find your own identity and to learn your place in the world. Kevin would have prevented that and would have smothered you as surely as he blocked your field. He was a strong man.
Strong in character and temperament. He was master of his own life.”
“Yes, he was.” A single tear rolled down her cheek but she didn’t bother wiping it away.
“It’s little wonder that you eventually pulled away, Jenna. You’re strong, too. I suspect that in the end you’ll prove to be stronger than I and far stronger than Kevin ever suspected you to be.”
She took a long time to absorb it and to get her mind around it. She struggled with it. “I still don’t buy this ‘fate’ thing, Rhys. I never have.”
“It doesn’t matter if you believe or not.”
“It’ll come up and tap me on the shoulder anyway?” She felt her lip curl. “We’ll see.”
“All right.”
She turned to face him. He still sat at the table, holding his coffee cup. They might have been discussing the latest movie over a leisurely Sunday breakfast. His casual pose contrasted weirdly with the subject matter. “Just like that? No argument?”
“Unlike you, Jenna, I accepted my fate a long time ago. I know it doesn’t matter how much you try to dodge it. Sooner or later, the universe will arrange to have you in exactly the right spot to get hit by it.”
“Is that why you have been so patient? Let yourself be so….”
Lonely
. She found it easier to speak the word mentally, rather than use the audible, unadorned, negative version.
“In part, yes. Mostly, I wasn’t interested in a half-life with a…a normal human.”
“And now that I’m theoretically here within reach, you’re prepared to let me go until
my
fate slaps me in the face?”
“I’m not going to push anything, Jenna. I don’t have to. But I won’t let you out of my sight until the solstice.”
Twice now he had mentioned the solstice. “Why? What happens at the solstice? When
is
the solstice?”
He smiled. “If you think about it, if you reach out and sample the surges, you could probably tell me down to the minute when the solstice is due.”
“Sure. December twenty-first. Everyone knows that.” She frowned. “Wow, that’s
tomorrow
.”
“Try it. What time tomorrow?”
“Sorry, I’m not wearing a watch.”
“You don’t need one. You can feel the solstice coming. I’ll give you a hint, Jenna. At the moment of solstice, everyone’s powers are at their zenith. Just like the seasons, our powers grow and fade over the year’s cycle and we’re now on the build up to the solstice. You can feel the moment coming, just like you can feel an orgasm building. It’s inside you. Growing.”
She shook her head. “There’s a term they use for
Star Trek
double talk. Technobabble. That’s all this is. Technobabble.”
“Tell me. You know the answer.”
“No.”
“Tell me.”
She shook her head again.
Tell me!
The answer spilled out of her obediently. “Ten p.m. No, just after.” She looked up at him. “Goddamn you. That was unfair.”
“Just proving a point. You are almost down to the minute, as it happens.” He got to his feet.
“Why. When is it?”
“Four minutes past ten p.m., mountain standard time. I’ll let you verify it for yourself.”
“And what happens at solstice? We all caper about in a circle and chant?”
He gave a low chuckle and leaned over and kissed her temple. “You’re very sexy when you’re angry, you know.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“I’m not. But you’re cutting into a whole new ball of wax here and you’re still digesting the last one. Are you completely sure you want to start this now?”
She was saved from an answer by the room telephone ringing. The sudden noise made her jump.
Rhys picked it up and gave his name and listened, then glanced at Jenna and held out the handset.
“It’s for you.”
“No one knows I’m in this room.”
“I had them forward any calls to your room to here.”
She took the phone reluctantly.
“Hello.”
“Jenna, thank god! I’ve been looking high and low for you the last twelve hours.”
“Hi, Dean.” She scrambled to orient her mind back into a professional frame. Her supervisor was the only person on earth who knew she was in Banff and the only reason she had given him the information was because operational protocol demanded it. “I’ve been busy.”
“So I gathered.” His voice sounded dry. “He sounds ruggedly handsome. Are you all right?”
“Couldn’t be better.” She realized that physically, at least, she spoke plain truth. “Is something up? Why the call, Dean? You assured me that only in the case of direst emergency would you use this number.”
“True, true. And while there’s not an emergency here, I rather thought there might be there.”
“
Here
? Dean, what on earth…?”
“Jenna, honey, listen to me. I’m not your boss right now, okay? I’m just a concerned friend. I know how you feel about my…well, my psychic abilities. You and I both know the department would freak if I ever used them for an operation—”
Jenna glanced at Rhys, recalling that the department had hired him at least twice. She was damned sure it wasn’t for Rhys’ analytical skills they’d hired him. “Don’t be so sure about that, Dean. I’ve had one or two eye openers about the department lately.”
“Well, anyway, I know you’ve never believed psychic stuff and that you think it’s all a magnificent jest.
You’ve always made that very clear. So I want you to remember that while I say what I’ve got to say. I’m risking your ridicule and more trouble than I can predict with the department if this ever came out.”