Prologue

“You know, it’s really been an amazing several weeks,” Cate observed to her brother Alex. They lay in bed together, waiting for the alarm to go off, anticipating the activities of the day. Kitty and Chalise were expected to return later, so they appreciated the chance to enjoy a few minutes to relax in relative solitude. “First, we head down to New Orleans on a simple vacation and suddenly our worlds turn upside down as a variety of women seek you out. Now, after you’ve returned home, you’ve managed to accomplish quite a bit all on your own. Quite frankly, I’m proud of you for how you’ve handled your relationship with Kitty and Chalise.”

“Yeah, as shocked as I was by women confronting me in New Orleans, things have been ... interesting since we’ve returned to school,” Alex said as his eyes glazed over in recollected memories. “Actually, it’s been a full month since we first went to New Orleans and this all started,” Alex observed as he cuddled his sister’s head against his chest in the early morning light. To say that Alex and Cate shared an unusual relationship for a brother and sister is a bit of an understatement. Cate had always been fascinated by her brother, and had always been willing to do anything for him. These recent events had finally given her an opportunity to become even closer and more vital in his life as it was now clear that he needed both her and the insights she could present. She had set herself up as his main advisor on his new abilities—but they’d also learned to view that odd fascination with him in a new way, as it too seemed to be tied into his strange abilities.

“Yeah, but as wild as that was, what’s happened since is almost as amazing. You’ve accomplished a lot in a short time, and this time you can’t blame it on your mysterious abilities. This time it was all you,” she said, glancing up at him to gauge his reaction.

“Well, frankly, I’m not so sure about that. After all, a lot of the kid’s response at school was just due to my sudden notoriety.”

“That may be, but while they may have first noticed you because of the rumors of your lifestyle, if that was all it was they’d have quickly forgotten about it. Instead, when they noticed you for the first time, they saw something they liked. You’ve got more than something that only select individuals can feel, you’ve got a certain self-assurance that’s tempered by a self-deprecating style. When you feel it’s necessary, you don’t back down to anyone, yet when you don’t think it’s that important, you don’t push your weight around.”

“I suspect you’re giving our classmates more credit than they’ve earned,” Alex cautioned. “I doubt most of them have given it that much thought.”

““Maybe not, but they can see what they admire and what they’d like to be themselves. That’s why you have so many loyal non-Watcher, non-Seer friends,” Cate observed, referring to the classification system they’d developed to refer to Alex’s many followers. Those who viewed him from afar were labeled ‘Watchers’ or type 2s. They knew there was something special about him but couldn’t quite define it. The ones who sought him out were the ‘Seers’ or type 1s. Once they found him and made eye contact, he triggered a host of new abilities, allowing them to ‘see’ the life energy people give off. Cate tried to convince him to not discount the normal, type 3, people drawn to him. “They’re attracted to you because of who you are, though the women flocking around you certainly help draw their attention,” she added with a smile.

“Maybe so. I still can’t figure out what the attraction is. I mean, no one ever noticed me before. I was invisible. Now suddenly I’m the center of attention.”

“You know, last night was a big event,” Cate said, turning over so she could more easily watch Alex’s responses as she tried to refocus the discussion. Cate noticed that simple remark, issued innocently enough, caused Alex to tense up, so she quickly tried to set his mind at ease.

“Look, just because I finally make love to Kitty and Chalise doesn’t mean that we have to go to the next step in our own relationship,” he cautioned her. “We’ve got a lot to discuss today, and although they seem open to a lot of things, we still have to iron out the details.”

They were, of course, referring to the fact that Alex had finally lost his virginity the night before to not just one girl but two: Kitty Washerstein and Chalise Jones. The two girls didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the women constantly surrounding and utterly devoted to him.

“Don’t worry, I’m not trying to apply pressure,” Cate reassured him. “I understand you’re walking multiple tight ropes at the same time. I’m not about to start shaking this one just to see how you react. But I mean, just think about it. Your followers from New Orleans tell you that you’ve got to find a girlfriend your own age because they don’t want to rob you of your first time experience when they finally decide to ravish you. Instead of simply asking someone you’ve idolized from afar for years, you pick not one but two girls based on their relationship to someone that threatened you.”

“Yeah, it’s been a wild ride, hasn’t it,” Alex agreed, his mind swimming through the many details of the past several weeks. “It started out with you pointing out that various women were noticing me—which was strange since women have never noticed me before. While we were still trying to figure out what was going on, Shaniqua found us and created our first scene by falling at my feet, calling me ‘Master’ and thinking I was an angel.”

“Yeah, that was a trip,” Cate agreed, smiling as she remembered the scene herself.

“Luckily you were quicker on your feet than I was,” Alex admitted. “You started guessing what was involved while I was still trying to deny everything she said.”

“Well, it was clear she was drawn to you by something, and it was equally clear, based on what she said, that there was some kind of attraction that drew her and the others to you.”

“Yeah, and you also figured out what she was seeing,” Alex reflected, referring to what they’d taken to calling people’s ‘auras’, the lights his Seers saw surround people that reflected their overall health, their basic personalities, and their emotional responses at any given moment.

“Well, when she started describing strange colors overlapping her vision without diminishing what she could see, it was pretty clear that you’d done something to her brain, and that you’d affected something besides her vision. Now we just have to figure out what.”

“Still, it was a big help when you initially started identifying what all the visuals they were seeing represented.”

“That wasn’t me, the girls supplied all the details,” Cate reflected. “But I used my analytical skills to make sense of what they were describing, and to conduct some tests to clarify what they meant.”

“Yeah, I remember those tests. You kissing me like that was a shock, as was your slapping me without provocation.”

“That was the only way to get you to experience shock, anger, lust and love. The girls were quick, though, they quickly learned to identify each emotion, and from there, they quickly started to isolate the other emotions they saw surrounding people.”

“Yeah, but the biggest help was in the intensity of the visions, in the ‘aura’ that projected from people.”

“Again, it’s not really an ‘aura’. They see the actual energy that people survive on and that all living things generate. The intensity tells—”

“How healthy they and their various organs are. Yeah, you don’t have to remind me,” Alex assured her, since those details ruled much of his life at that point. From the girl’s constant references to it, Cate’s analyzing it, to the work he’d done at the hospital, he was constantly reminded of it. “We spent enough time working with Ryan Moore, the head of the Carbondale Memorial Hospital on his patients to know what it tells us. If the glow is bright, they’re healthy. If it’s dim, they’re sick because their bodies aren’t generating enough energy to sustain them. Or, in my case, generating so much that the Seers can’t even look at me.”

Chapter 01 »