Genesis Read online

  He cleared his throat. The other two looked at him. “What was that about having my abilities?”

  She stared at him. “Your abilities are there. As if you’ve just found them after a long time and are still disconnected.”

  His throat closed. “What?”

  “Remember in the caves when you were sensing me there, but I was behind you. Remember the bits of black energy that you saw. Not all of it, but the little tufts of it?”

  He frowned. “Yeah, and…?”

  She smiled. He glared at her. He hated feeling like he was missing something. He turned to look at Matt, one eyebrow raised in question. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”

  Matt grinned widely. “I just might.”

  He walked closer to Genesis. “Are you sure?”

  The air whizzed around him. Connor wanted to snap at them to be serious. To explain what the hell was going on. “Genesis?”

  She fisted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You don’t have to believe me. It’s your damn abilities, not mine.”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about. Why would my abilities be disconnected? I don’t feel like they are back; besides, where could they have gone? It’s not like they are a set of keys I’ve lost for a year and just found,” he said in exasperation. He hated this.

  To make a statement like she’d done, she had to have some proof. He’d been in hell. Not just pain, but a living hell, day in and day out. His abilities had been with him since birth. A part of him as comfortable and as familiar as his arms or hands. The loss had crippled him. And it had taken him months to adapt to the loss. Damn it.

  Genesis shook her head. “I can’t see all the layers, but you are using your abilities even though you aren’t aware of it, because you’re just using a little of it so far. As you reconnect, everything feels normal because it’s supposed to be normal. They’ve been here all the time. You just were separated from them, maybe not by choice.”

  “How is that possible?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the fact that you are back here again at the same place where you lost them is the key. Two parts of a whole pulling together.”

  “Wow,” Matt said. “Can you see that happening?”

  “Because his energy is strengthening as it comes together, I can see some bits and pieces.”

  Matt stared at her in surprise. “Are you serious? Are you saying someone did this to him?”

  “Maybe.” She took a deep breath and added, “Maybe not. Maybe he did it to himself.”

  He’d never do something like that to himself. Therefore, someone else had. Connor spun on his heels and strode over to the window. Everything inside had clenched up tight. Locked down. A single word whispered over and over in his head. Betrayed.

  Chapter 14

  Genesis watched Connor grip the windowsill until his fingers turned white. She’d given him a hell of a blow. And it wasn’t over. The only way that energy could have been laid down so heavily and for so long was if he’d allowed it. Meaning he’d known and accepted the other person – so someone close to him. But as she studied his complex energy, and, understanding humanity as she did, she wondered if he hadn’t done this to himself as some sort of punishment.

  Then again, he was a hell of an investigator. Top of his class. Graduated top of the academy. He’d been so good. And made a lot of enemies. Had this been an act of jealousy? Or rage? Or just because someone could?

  Looking around at Matt, she found him assessing Connor, but his gaze had changed. She stepped back and looked from a different angle and realized he was studying Connor’s energy. He was a man of power. She knew he’d had to be to head the Council but hadn’t heard any specifics.

  She walked closer and murmured, “Can you see anything?”

  “Lots.” He glanced at her. “Connor, can I do a full scan?”

  Genesis cringed when Connor stiffened. After a moment, he relaxed. “Go ahead. It’ll be just like in the old days.”

  That didn’t sound so bad, but there were undercurrents she didn’t understand. And she wanted to.

  “It’s all right, Genesis. This is harmless. I once did a scan of him way back when.” Matt’s voice trailed off and his eyes defocused as he studied Connor.

  Connor picked up the story. “I damn near killed him for crossing the line.”

  “You tried. I had the best of intentions though.” But his voice was light, glib.

  She couldn’t imagine, but neither continued. Unable to curb her curiosity, she asked, “And…what happened?”

  “We had a good dust-up, and the girl that he was checking my energy over to see if I really loved her – chose someone completely different. A third man.”

  She giggled. “Really? You couldn’t resist finding out if he loved her?”

  Matt grinned. “Hey, anything for love.”

  “Yeah,” she joked. “Was that for love of a girl or for your best friend?”

  “Both,” said Connor, his shoulders relaxing. “And the irony is, he didn’t give a damn about her after all. He had a new girlfriend within a week.”

  “And you did, too.”

  “We were so young.”

  “Yeah, and how young were you?” Genesis had to know now.

  Both men answered together. “Twelve!”

  She started to laugh. “Oh my God. That’s priceless.”

  Connor turned to face her, a lazy grin on his face, and leaned against the window. “Those were the days.”

  “They can be again.” Matt said quietly, the tone of his voice changing instantly.

  She studied Matt’s face, wondering at the undercurrents in his voice.

  Connor stepped forward. “What are you talking about?”

  “We always worked beautifully together. Remember? All the time we were partners, we were good together.”

  Connor tilted his head. “What exactly are you saying, Matt?”

  “Come work for me. For the Council. I need someone I can trust. And trust is a little hard to find these days.” He spread out his hands. “I mean full time. Not working Grandfather’s contracts. Help me run the Council. It would mean less travelling; you’d get to stay here most of the time.”

  A hell of a good idea on many levels, Genesis thought, her heart jumping at the possibility, but she wasn’t so sure that Connor was ready to deal with upheaval in his life. Then again, his world had completely changed these last few days.

  In a move that startled her, Connor started to laugh. “You weren’t checking out my energy because of the suppression you mentioned. You were checking out my integrity.”

  Matt grinned. “Well, I couldn’t do it without your permission, and as I had a great reason to go in in the first place…” He shrugged. “And now I know. You haven’t changed a bit.”

  “On that level.”

  Matt reached out a hand. They shook while Genesis stood and watched, knowing she’d just witnessed something special.

  “Come work for me.” Matt dropped his hand. “We need you.”

  “It could get sticky.”

  Matt nodded. “It will. But that’s not a bad thing.”

  “And my abilities?”

  Matt grinned. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be happy to help you figure this out.”

  She watched the understanding grow between them. She wasn’t privy to everything, but with Connor’s connection to Grandfather, well, things could – would – undoubtedly get very sticky. If he walked away from Grandfather, his loyalties would be called into question.

  But Matt seemed to be able to handle the shifting strands of power. And there was no doubt that Connor was one of the best to stand at his side. If he could retrieve all his abilities, the pair of them would be unstoppable.

  She couldn’t help but feel like something monumental had just happened.

  A far-reaching change that would impact everyone.

  About damn time.

  *

  Connor needed time to sort through the em
otions and thoughts that dominated his mind. He couldn’t even begin to sort out who or why someone might have done something like this to him. And if someone had, what else had they done? And how had that affected his behavior? Affected who he’d been?

  He wanted to say no. But he looked at Genesis and thought about the conversations they’d had when they’d been together.

  His jaw clenched, and an anger he didn’t recognize rose up in front of him. He could feel his energy shift, power reawakening from sleep. Still a ways to go yet, but at least there was a sense of renewal. For that he was grateful. But to think of all he’d been through this last year… He wanted to make whoever had done this pay. He wanted them dead. No. He actually wanted…he glanced down at his bare hands…he realized he wanted to kill this person himself.

  Waves of newly released energy sprung forward. More bonds broke in an escalating cause and effect. He stood in place, shuddering. He raised tortured eyes to stare at the two most important people in his life.

  He hated the fear in his heart. The suspicion. The doubts. God, that hurt. He’d never wanted to hurt her. But he had. He closed his eyes and bowed his head.

  He’d failed her.

  “No, you didn’t.”

  He opened his eyes to stare at her. “Did you read my mind?”

  She snorted. “No. You said that out loud.”

  He shook his head. “I’m a mess. I can’t tell what’s real and not at the moment.”

  “That’s because the bonds holding your talent back are breaking. As one breaks, it weakens the others’ ability to hold on, so more and more are breaking.”

  “And…when the bonds are all gone?”

  “You tell me.”

  “I’ve never been a strong talent, so maybe the adjustment won’t be that bad.”

  “I’ve got news for you; I suspect you’re a very strong talent. There’s a good chance that you’ve been suppressing your own energy for a long time.”

  “But why?” Bewildered, Connor couldn’t think of a single reason to limit his abilities. “It’s not like I’m a danger to anyone.”

  “No.” Matt tilted his head for a closer look. “But not having been raised in an energy environment, you could have easily suppressed the scope of your power to appear more normal. Also, you’re a protector, with strong intuition and an awesome bullshit meter; maybe someone is protecting himself by keeping your energy repressed.”

  At the bullshit meter comment, Genesis laughed.

  “And,” Matt added, “up until a year ago, you’d been telling me how much stronger that was getting. Said you could practically look at someone and see that they were up to something.”

  “Which,” said Genesis, “means that whoever did this to you might have known that and thought they had something to hide.”

  “It’s not like I know anyone like that,” Connor exploded. “None of the work I’ve been doing had that level of subterfuge with it. Or people with that kind of ability.”

  Both Genesis and Matt simply stared at him. He shook his head. “You have to be wrong.”

  “There’s another question to consider,” Genesis said. “Is there any correlation between the damage to the forest and your energy suppression?”

  Both men stared at her.

  “How likely would that be?” Matt shook his head. “I can’t see it.”

  “But something is going on. And by taking out one of the best bullshit meters, something else was allowed to take place. And the only type of activity that makes sense in a case like this is an illegal one.”

  Chapter 15

  Genesis rubbed the side of her face. And stared at the bloodstain on the cave floor, the only sign of violence left after Matt’s men had removed the bodies.

  At her insistence, they’d flown back to the same spot, then hiked down to the caves from a different entrance, cutting their travel time in half. She hadn’t expected Matt to return with them, but as Connor had refused to stay behind and was still incredibly off-kilter, they’d all agreed to come.

  She averted her gaze and walked past the evidence. They needed to pick up the pace in order to get to the main caverns soon. In silence, they passed where they’d found Charlie, then the tunnel turnoff where Bernie had found them.

  After entering the main tunnel, she lifted her nose experimentally. A heavy mineral essence drifted toward her. The descent started soon after.

  Within minutes, she reached the cut stairs. One of the miracles of this planet, so like earth and so unique in its own way, was the energy system. Caves fed the underground pools that fed the next level of pools that then fed the forest up above, which recharged the atmosphere and the people. Not to mention the animals. Except the animals had a more organic system going on as well. People weren’t natural inhabitants here. They’d only been on the planet for a few hundred centuries. Long enough for them to see it as theirs, and long enough to adapt – although they’d lost many early on.

  Once they understood the energetic system of the planet, people had thrived. But now, with this forest issue, they’d come up against something new.

  And she’d bet the problems were human in nature.

  People just never learned. Their planet Earth was healing, but it would be centuries before she could be inhabited again by the masses. Scientists and students lived there in a roster system, studying the damage and the effects and speed of the healing. They’d all cheered when they realized she was healing, but it had been a sober realization as everyone had looked to their new planets – ten so far – and realized they could damage their new homes if they didn’t change their ways. So far, Glory had done well with her new animal species.

  Behind her, she could hear Matt and Connor quietly discussing matters. She’d tried to give them a bit of privacy. Something she could use herself. She was a little overwhelmed with everything that had happened, too.

  She considered the possibility that someone had affected Connor to the point that he’d changed his core personality. She’d been a mess back then, and now she had to wonder how much of her own life had been affected by this asshole because of what he’d done to Connor.

  Would she be happily married now? Maybe even have started a family? Something they’d always planned. Families were encouraged here on Glory; the population was still too small now.

  The cut stairs ended. She stopped at the bottom to survey the massive cavern and one of many in the long string of healing pools. The opaque blue water rippled with a non-existent breeze, as if alive. Which as they’d come to understand was more true than false. The pools shifted at a higher vibration energy that allowed the people, who had much lower vibration energy, to heal when submerged in the waters.

  She strolled down the side of the first pool and marveled at the clear color. So beautiful. So simple. And so treacherous to the unwary. That was why no one could come down here on their own. It was too dangerous. Most everyone knew that.

  Even getting to the caves was dangerous. The paths were often dark, with uncertain footing, and once down here it was easy to get lost and become disoriented. A fair number of people had been found, curled up in a ball, beside the pools’ hypnotic waves.

  With the men still talking and walking behind her, she strolled toward the next pool. She couldn’t see anything wrong here. It looked the same. It felt the same.

  Each pool was lower than the other. The water came from both an underground spring and from surface water. It was as if the lake system here had a natural recirculating system. A team of scientists constantly monitored the system, watching and trying their damnedest to understand. But so far, the actual “how the system worked” was beyond them.

  What they had learned was that any attempts to change the system actually damaged it. Hence, Genesis’s belief that the problem from their forest originated down here.

  Somewhere.

  She continued down the same direction. The next pool down looked normal. As did the one below that. They said the lower the pool, the stronger the ene
rgy and the better the healing abilities. The ones at the very bottom couldn’t even be approached because they resonated at such a high level.

  As she continued to walk, Connor called out to her, “How much farther, Genesis?”

  “Another seven pools, I believe. After that, I have no idea.”

  “That’s as low as I’ve gone,” said Matt. “I’ve heard there are another dozen at the lower levels.”

  Genesis nodded. “Granny said as much. I know she’d been down another four or five below where I’ve been. She’d never let me go down with her, though.”

  “She’s probably the only one to go that low and survive.”

  “Maybe. She said the energy from the lower pools is partly what kept her alive so long.”

  “And that keeping-her-alive part is what would kill most other people.”

  “Or be something other people would kill for.”

  They were both right. These pools were sacred and inherent to the survival of the people of Glory. It was suicidal to even come down here.

  “Have you ever considered blocking off access to these caverns, Matt?”

  Genesis hated the idea, but if people were going to mess around in here, then something would have to be done. Although she’d vote for an energy seal rather than a real lock-and-bolt-type of one any day.

  “It’s been brought up and dismissed repeatedly over the ages. There’s never been any real need to consider it,” Matt said. “Almost impossible to do with it having so many entrances, most we don’t even know about.”

  “Until now.”

  They passed another pool, and then another. By the time Genesis had reached the lowest pool she’d ever travelled to before, she was energized and ready to kick ass. It was a side effect of the pools. She knew most people’s energetic systems couldn’t handle being here, but for her, that was a different story. Her body thrived on it. The girls had done many overnight vigils down here with Granny, bringing small amounts of food and extra water for an extended stay.

  Genesis hadn’t realized how special her upbringing really was. It wasn’t the easiest at the time, dealing with all the mocking and disparaging remarks regarding Granny, and she’d allowed herself to be influenced by that for a little while until she’d gotten her head on straight. Once there, she’d never made that mistake again.