Trefoil (15 page)

“Yes ma’am.  I don’t understand something though.  I thought this was just an extension of my abilities to communicate with people telepathically.  Is it a totally different power all together?”

“Yes it is.  How did you discover that you could do this?”  Isabel asked.

“I was sitting in class and just thought I bet I can read people’s thoughts.  So I started trying to push my way into people’s minds and find out what they were thinking.  It was all jumbled at first, but then I started to be able to make better sense as to what they were thinking.  Some people are easier to read.  Jeff wasn’t easy at all.  I mainly just got words, no clear thoughts.” 

Meckenzie suddenly realized she had questions about Jeff.  She didn’t know if she should ask them now while he was here or wait to have the conversation with Isabel.  She was still feeling the power that her day had given her so she just went for it.

“Jeff doesn’t seem like a very Fairy-like name?” 

Jeff laughed, “It’s not my real name.  It’s the name I use when I’m in the human world.  My real name is Ardan.”

“Ardan, it seems to suit you more than Jeff.  Should I continue to call you Jeff?”

“Yes, it is part of my cover.  We all have to stay as invisible as possible.” 

“Do you have gifts?”  Meckenzie still had many questions she wanted to ask and she didn’t know how long Isabel would let her head down this path.

“I do.  I was one of the first of the Fae to receive my gifts.”

“Oh, what can you do?”  Meckenzie was very excited about the idea of someone else having powers such as their own.

“I’m quite good at combat.  I am what you might call bullet proof.”

“What does that mean?”  Meckenzie’s curiosity was peeked.  She wanted to know everything she could about Jeff.  She was hypnotized by his voice.  There was something about him that made her feel all warm and tingly inside.  She still wondered if he felt anything for her.  It occurred to Meckenzie that he might not be as old as she thought he was. 

“Well, my body is very hard, so when someone fires a bullet at me, it just bounces off.  The same works for other objects such as knives or swords.  I can be hurt by magic and fire, but most everything else is not a problem.”

“How old are you?”  Meckenzie was pushing the envelope a little with that question.  She knew that it was way more personal than she should have really been asking.  The need to know if he was too old for her was just out weighing her judgment at this point.

“I’m actually just twenty-three.  I have a cover story that puts me at twenty-eight, but I have been traveling back and forth to this world since I was sixteen and it was necessary for me to be older than I actually was.  So they started me out at twenty-one.”

Meckenzie almost did a backflip of joy.  He was only five years older than her.  There was a sliver of hope that she might be able to date him, if Jeff actually wanted to date her.  Meckenzie knew she was putting the cart before the horse, but she had never really liked a guy before.  She just couldn’t help but feel a little elated over the possibility that she might be able to date him.

“I think it is time that Meckenzie and I began training.  Not to mention the fact that there are two other teenagers unaccounted for.”  Isabel had reached the limit to which she would allow Meckenzie to investigate.  She stood up from the mat and began preparing some kind of mixture that Meckenzie hadn’t noticed.

Jeff left the two of them alone and went off to find Taggart and Kellan.  Meckenzie couldn’t seem to quit thinking about him, she was obsessed.  Maybe she should talk to Isabel about it.  Meckenzie had never really had a female figure to discuss these things with and Isabel was her great aunt.  She decided it could wait till another time.  Meckenzie needed to focus on her training now and she did still have the date with Ty tonight.

“I know that you like him, but you need to put it out of your mind for awhile.  He will have a hard time doing his job if he is only worried about you and not your siblings as well.  I will send Jeff away if it becomes a problem.”  Isabel may have not been able to read Meckenzie’s mind, but she sure knew what Meckenzie was thinking.

“So what’s on the agenda for this afternoon?”

“I am going to teach you a defensive spell that will allow you to confuse someone long enough to get away if necessary.  It is really simple.  I need you to drink this tea first.  It is a mix that will amplify your powers and allow you to keep a better mental block up while on your date.”  Isabel handed her a cup of what looked like tea.  It smelt of bad eggs and pumpkin spice.  Meckenzie almost spit it out when she took her first sip.  It tasted worse than it smelled.

“I know it tastes horrible.  You should just toss it back like you’re taking medicine. It’ll probably be less painful that way.”

Meckenzie opened her mouth and took a deep breath, which was the wrong thing to do because the smell hit her right before the taste hit her tongue.  Meckenzie had to use all her will power not to throw up.  After a minute the taste still lingered in her mouth so Isabel offered her a slice of orange to help with the bitterness that was hanging around the back of her tongue. 

“Okay.  You only need to learn two words on this one.
Mearhball sáraigh.
  It basically means ‘confusion violate’.”

“Mearhball sáraigh.”
  Meckenzie spoke the words.  The language was
difficult,
it felt funny on her tongue.  “How will I direct it?”  She asked Isabel.

“Direct what?”  Isabel asked throwing Meckenzie into a state of panic.  Had her spell casting been so accurate that she had befuddled Isabel simply by speaking the
phrase.
 

“The spell.”
  Meckenzie replied.  Isabel just looked at her confused,
then
she cracked a grin and began to laugh.  Meckenzie couldn’t understand what was going on. 

“I’m just messing with you.  It takes a little more concentration than that.  First you look at the person in the eyes.  Then you say the words.  Let’s not practice on me though.  If it does work, I will need to reverse it.” 

Meckenzie smiled at Isabel, she was tempted to try and cast the spell on Isabel just to get her back for tricking her.  Meckenzie might have done it if Taggart hadn’t barreled down the stairs at that moment.

“Shouldn’t someone be getting ready for her big date tonight?”  Taggart said teasingly.

“Isabel is there a spell that would make Taggart look like me so he could go on the date?”  Meckenzie laughed with him.  She knew that she was about to get to cast the confusion spell on him, so she would get the last laugh.

“Nope no spell for that, but there is a gift known as trans-configuration that allows someone to project the idea of being someone else into a person’s brain.
  You would believe with all your being what you thought you were seeing.”

“Cool. So what are we learning today?”  Taggart said.

“You are going to be my guinea pig.”  Meckenzie laughed knowing what was about to happen.  She walked right up to him and looked him deep in the eyes.  She smiled as she said, “Mearhball sáraigh.”

Within seconds Taggart looked completely lost.  He looked around like he had never seen the gym before.  He looked at Meckenzie as he had no idea who she was.

“Do you think it worked?”  Meckenzie asked.

Chapter
18…

After Meckenzie cast the spell on Taggart, Isabel kicked her out of the gym.  The spell had worked, which had pleased Isabel, but not warning Taggart that it was coming had gotten Meckenzie in hot water.  Isabel was frustrated enough that she sent her away without teaching Meckenzie the reversal spell.  So now she was getting ready for her date.

Meckenzie decided a long shower and some female primping was in order.  She did her nails, which hadn’t had any attention in weeks.  They sparkled now with a light pink polish that had hints of glitter in it.  She took extra care in applying lotion to her whole body.  Meckenzie had determined that if she were going to get anything out of this date, it would be that she looked and felt good. 

Taking extra special care with hair, Meckenzie curled it into large ringlets.  It fell like golden waves around her face, causing her blue eyes to stand out even more.  Meckenzie had picked out a summer dress, even though it was spring, and had paired it with a sweater to guard against the cool nights of the city. 

When Meckenzie was finished getting ready it was almost seven.  So she slipped her phone, some lip gloss, and the can of pepper spray her father had gotten for her, into a clutch purse that matched her dress and headed downstairs.  Kellan hadn’t made an appearance all afternoon, so Meckenzie was surprised to see her sitting at the bar in the kitchen.

“You look nice.”  Kellan seemed surprised that Meckenzie would go to this much trouble for her date.

“Well thank you.  What are your plans for the evening?”

“Taggart and I have decided to stalk you.  He activated the GPS locator on your iPhone so that we can be close, but not so close as to get caught.”

“Jeff will be with us, do you really think that is necessary?”

“Taggart thinks so, even if you did use a little magic on him this afternoon.”  Kellan laughingly replied.

“You should have seen him.  He was completely lost.  I don’t think I have ever seen Taggart so confused in his life.  Isabel was way ticked off.”  Even Meckenzie couldn’t help but laugh at her brother’s state this afternoon.

Meckenzie heard her father talking as he was descending the stairs.  To her surprise, Jeff was getting a last minute debriefing from him.  Jeff had a look of patience on his face as their father instructed him not to let Meckenzie out of his sight.  Knowing what she knew about Jeff, she was pretty sure that he had done this before and she suspected he was pretty good at it. 

When Jeff looked up and saw Meckenzie, he stopped dead in his tracks.  It took him a moment to regain his composure, and no one seemed to notice he had even stopped except Meckenzie.  She melted when he smiled at her.  As tempting as it was, Meckenzie tried not to read his mind.  She was pretty sure that all her work primping had paid off.  Even though Jeff wasn’t her date, she sure enjoyed his reaction.

Her father was not as appreciative of all her hard work getting ready.  He immediately shook his head.

“Aren’t you going to get cold in that dress?”  He had attempted to take the logical route to get her to cover up, but it wasn’t going to work.  Meckenzie felt too good about herself to go changing into something more reasonable.

“I’ve got a sweater.  Plus we are going to a restaurant, it’s not like we are going to be dinning outside.”

“You don’t know that, he may have picked a place with a patio.”  Her father’s objections were not going to work.

“Dad, I’ll be fine.  Do I look nice?”  Meckenzie did a quick spin around so that the full effect of the outfit was visible.  When she returned to face her father and Jeff, she noticed
a
unfamiliar look flash across Jeff’s face.

“You look wonderful darling.”  Her father realized he was not going to win this battle and leaned in to kiss Meckenzie’s forehead. 

Just as he was pulling away, the doorbell rang.  Kellan volunteered to get the door and her father followed closely behind.  Meckenzie and Jeff were left alone in the kitchen for a moment.  He looked as if he wanted to say something.  The emotions were flying across his face and didn’t take Meckenzie’s mind reading ability to realize that he didn’t want her to go out with Ty tonight. 

“Are you sure about doing this?  You can back out you know.  We can try other means to find out who this guy is.” 

“It’ll be fine.  It’s just one date and I don’t really like him so if something goes wrong, we can just get out of there.”

Jeff smiled. “You really look amazing.  I wonder how great you would look if you really liked the guy?”

Meckenzie blushed, she couldn’t help it.  She knew that Isabel had said that she should put Jeff out of her mind, but with him so close by, it was nearly impossible.

“We should go.”  Jeff reached out and touched her arm.  Meckenzie felt a million tiny fires ignite all over her body.  It was the most magical and wonderful feeling she had ever experienced.  She let Jeff lead her to the front door where Ty was getting twenty questions from her father about their plans for the evening. 

“Dad,” Meckenzie interjected, “I think we should go.”

Ty was looking rather dashing in a suit jacket and t-shirt combo that was very city chic.  He had gotten a haircut so that his jet black hair was now falling haphazardly around his face. 

“You look amazing tonight.”  Ty said as he took Meckenzie’s hand.  “Shall we go?”

“Sure.  This is Jeff, my bodyguard.  He’ll be with us this evening.”

Ty didn’t even acknowledge Jeff’s existence; he simply pulled Meckenzie out the door.  Ty laced his fingers into hers, which sent electricity through Meckenzie’s body, but it was nothing like the wonderful feeling she had received from Jeff’s touch in the kitchen.  It was like her body was trying to tell her in every way possible to get away from this guy. 

Meckenzie distracted herself from the unpleasantness she felt in Ty’s presence with pleasantries.  “So where are we going tonight?”

Ty smiled at Meckenzie, “I thought we could go to this Thai restaurant that is a couple of blocks over.  I hope you like Thai food.”

Meckenzie had remembered telling him that Thai food was one of her
favorties
,
she thought she was going to be sick.  Ty really revolted her.  She couldn’t imagine having dinner with him, but here she was, going to dinner.  Meckenzie knew she needed to say something to keep the date moving.

“I’d love to have Thai food with Ty.”  She said in her wittiest voice.  “So tell me about yourself.  Tell me about your family.”

“Well, I have a brother and a sister.  I told you about my parents when I met your dad.  There really isn’t much more to tell.”

“Do your brother and sister go to school with us?”  Meckenzie tried to sneak a peek at Jeff who was following closely behind them.

“No, they are both out of school.”

“So they are older than you?”  Getting information out of Ty was difficult; he seemed reluctant to answer questions with any personal detail.

“Yeah.
  So tell me about you.  Are your parents still together?  I would love to meet your mom.”  Ty smiled innocently at Meckenzie.

“My parents are separated.”  Meckenzie was trying to think of way to explain her mom’s absence.  “She is in France.  I think we are going there to visit her this summer.”

Meckenzie thought that was a good cover story.  She had been to Paris when she was fifteen.  It was a trip her father had planned, taking them all away for two weeks in the summer.  It had been a great trip and Meckenzie had fallen in love with Paris.

“France is beautiful.  I love Paris, especially in the evenings with all the lights and people.  So how long have they been separated?”

Meckenzie knew that this piece of information was public knowledge.  There had to have been some record of it.  She knew the school had records stating that their mother was not allowed to pick them up anymore.  Meckenzie remembered her father going down to the school and talking to the head master.

“They have been separated for eight years.” 

“Do you get to see her much?”  Ty seemed generally concerned.

“Not as often as I’d like.  So let’s talk about something a little lighter.  What do you like to do in your free time?”

“I like to read.  I read a lot actually and I listen to music.”

“Do you play sports?”

“No.  I’m not the athletic type.  I have done some fencing, but I’m only adequate at it.  What about you?”

“I don’t play competitive sports at all.  I like to run.  I read too, but not as much as I should.  I love music.  I like to try and see live music whenever I get the chance.  It’s nice when they have concerts in the park; I can usually go up to the roof and hear the music.”

Meckenzie thought she may have made a mistake telling him there was roof access.  She knew that if Ty was truly trying to get in the house, he would have figured it out on his own.  She didn’t need to make his job any easier though. 

Meckenzie was relieved when they finally had reached their destination.  Jeff took position outside the door of the restaurant as Meckenzie and Ty stepped inside.  Ty spoke to the hostess while Meckenzie ran through possible topics of conversation that would get Ty to open up.  Meckenzie thought that it might be important to let Jeff know that she could communicate with him if she needed to, so she sent him a telepathic message.

Jeff, it’s Meckenzie, I know this is probably pretty freaky.  I just wanted you to know that I can communicate with you through my mind.  If I need you, I’ll let you know.

Jeff responded, seeming to take all of Meckenzie’s freakiness in stride. 
Thank you for letting me
know
.  This guy is freaky.  I’m pretty sure he is Fae.

Meckenzie thought about that for a moment, Isabel had said the same thing.  Meckenzie knew what she had to do.  At some point tonight, she was going to have to try and read Ty’s mind.  She hoped that he didn’t have some kind of powers.  If Ty did, he might be able to detect her probing.  It would almost be worth it to just tell him she thought he was a fairy.  Then at least Meckenzie could gage his reaction.  If Ty did harbor all the hatred Meckenzie had felt in her vision when he had kissed her, she was sure that it would show in his face when she surprised him with the knowledge that she knew what he was.  Meckenzie’s logic got the better of her and she decided against doing a big reveal over dinner.

The hostess showed them to their seat and gave them menus.  Meckenzie took a quick look at the menu, but she knew she would more than likely have Pad Thai.  It was her favorite Thai dish. 

“What sounds good?”  Ty asked.  “Should we start with some chicken satay?”

“Oh that sounds good.  I think I’ll have the Pad Thai.  What about you?”

“I think I’ll have the Kang Dang.”

“That is so good.  I love curry too.  I often get the yellow curry.”

The waitress came by and took their orders.  While Ty was distracted with the waitress, Meckenzie thought she might try and sneak a peek at his thoughts.  As soon as she thought about doing it, Ty turned to her and asked her what she would like to drink.  The smile on his face was scary.  It could have been her imagination but Meckenzie felt like he knew she was prodding at the edge of his thoughts trying to find a way in. 

“I’ll just have water.”  Meckenzie knew she was going to have to get into Ty’s mind at some point; maybe just push past her trepidations and dive in.  It was a pointless date if she didn’t find something out.  Ty might realize Meckenzie was in there, but she knew he probably wouldn’t cause a scene in the restaurant.  Then again if Ty really could feel her in there, then Meckenzie wanted an escape route.  She took a moment to scope out the restaurant. 
Meckenziee
located the bathroom so if she needed a break, she could always excuse herself.  There was probably an exit through the kitchen.  Jeff was by the front door, so that was the safest way to flee.  Meckenzie realized that nothing had actually happened; she could just be making herself crazy, but better safe than sorry.

Meckenzie decided to let Jeff know that she might try to read Ty’s thoughts. 
Jeff, I’m going to try and read Ty’s mind.
She waited for the telepathic response from Jeff, but she got no response. 
Jeff
are
you there?  Jeff? 
Meckenzie began to panic, she couldn’t see Jeff by the front door and she wasn’t able to reach him mentally.

“You have the weirdest look on your face.  What are you thinking about?”  Ty was staring at her with that devilish grin of his.  Meckenzie had gotten so caught up in her escape route and trying to communicate with Jeff that she had forgotten to put on her happy face. 

“I was just thinking about the paper we have to write for our humanities class.  I was reading the book I’ve chosen earlier and something just popped into my head about it.  Sorry, I do that sometimes.  Get lost in my own thoughts.” 

Meckenzie decided to just go for it.  She cleared her mind and looked directly at Ty.  She pushed her mind out to his and tried to push herself in.  There was a feeling of dense fog surrounding his thoughts.  Nothing was visible, just the feeling that something was there.

Ty had begun talking, but Meckenzie was still pushing at the edge of his brain trying to find her way in.  She was tugging, pushing and trying to slash her way into his mind.  The harder she worked to see, the foggier the thoughts became.  Then like a sock to the stomach she clearly got one word.  “NO”.