Dream Tracker - Starseeds Two

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Callie, sweetheart, I thought we were going to bring Rizel into the light together. Where’d you disappear to?”

“Rizel?”

“The young man.”

“Oh. Was that his name? I was calling him Aladdin in my head.”

My grandfather chuckled.

“Yes, Rizel was quite nice, and most ready to go into the light after a century in that fear-loop he had created. Now, don’t change the subject – what happened to you?”

“Oh, Ethan woke me, I didn’t mean to leave but you know-”

“Yes, when the body is disturbed, the soul returns. What did he want?”

“Not much. Just to check in. I think he forgot about the time difference,” I hedged. It wasn’t too far-fetched: California was three hours behind the East Coast.

“I see,” my grandfather said with a knowing drawl. He knew something was up between me and Ethan, pretty much everybody did, but I hadn’t spilled the beans about our trysts. I wasn’t ready for that conversation, not with Ethan, or anyone else. I didn’t say anything, and Joe filled the silence for me.

“So, no sight of that boy, Meehan?”

“Oh, they’ve got eyes on him. But I guess they still don’t know what he’s up to, or the people he’s hanging out with. They haven’t hurt anyone, though, so that’s a plus.”

Toby’s friends, the warpers he was hanging with, they were seriously bad news. I had watched the trio force the blood out of Kipner using the collective brutality of their mutated DNA, telekinesis times three. The one thing we did know was their names: Cy, Roger, and Marco. The three Navy Seals weren’t true starseeds. They were willing volunteers, humans who had been experimented on, made into warpers. Stronger and meaner than any warper had a right to be.

The good news? They’d lost their powers when I’d put an end to the research program at China Lake. Without regular injections, they couldn’t access their powers. Our DNA wasn’t compatible with humans, not without some serious hand-holding. To even conceive a starseed child with powers, both parents had to have at least a quarter starseed DNA. Making warpers out of humans? It just wasn’t that easy. Modern science still had leaps and bounds to go before it could really understand the mysteries of how our bodies really worked.

Take me for instance. I was a traveler, a girl who could journey in my dreams or on the beat of a song. I could read minds, sometimes, too. My powers had awakened shortly after my twenty-eighth birthday during a lunar eclipse. Every starseed carried genes for at least one lunar or solar power, sometimes two abilities. Lunar powers were more passive, related to the dreamtime – astral travel, reading minds. Solar powers were more active, and potentially more dangerous – telekinesis, mind control, creating glamours. It was almost unheard of for any starseed these days to possess three powers, or powers linked to both celestial energies. I fell into both categories with a third, solar power. Like Toby, I was a speaker, a singer, a bard. However, that didn’t mean I had a great voice (though I do). No, I had the ability to make people do whatever I said, a power that tended to lure more people to the dark side than the benign abilities of reading minds or astral traveling. We still weren’t sure how I’d gained the power, though I had my own ideas. I fingered the pendant hanging from my necklace, the large man’s ring a reassuring weight I’d carried since my parents had left me at a fire station as a baby.

“Well, that’s good news, at least,” my grandfather said. “Henry says you’ve been doing really well with your training. How are you feeling about it?”

“A little better, I guess. I’m not crazy about being a speaker, you know, but I’m getting better at controlling it.”

The first few weeks had been scary. Off-the-cuff comments had the potential to become dangerous, unintentional commands. It was simple to see how such power could warp the user. Amusing yourself at the expense of others could easily become addictive. If a person lacked compassion or harbored a lot of anger, well…

I was training with another bard, Dolores, who worked with the local chapter of Gregors. The woman had unbending morals and a strict practice regimen, things I appreciated while she helped me learn to reign in my power. Something else she was helping me with, something I’d asked about specifically, was how to protect my own will from other bards. I’d been a victim twice, once of Toby’s and then again as an unwilling test-subject at China Lake, and I didn’t want to ever experience that feeling again. The upside, I guess, was that my experiences had given me something all bards should have: empathy. Still, I didn’t want to rely on beating another bard to the punch, giving commands before they did – I wanted to be able to resist them, even if I came in second.

“That’s great news, Callie. I know you’ll get there. Well, I’m going to let you go, I think I’m going to hit the hay again.

I laughed. “Yeah, it’s a little before my usual rise-and-shine, too.”

That was an understatement. Being in a band, I pretty much never got up before 10 am. Six? Way too early. Like, even-coffee-can’t-fix-this early.

Freaking Ethan.

Looking at Keeta, who’d just padded back into the room with her leash between her teeth, I knew the only thing I’d be hitting would be the pavement for a walk.