Jillian Spectre and the Dream Weaver. Nic TatanoЧитать онлайн книгу.
"We monitor the activity constantly and last night something happened that we cannot explain."
"Is he waking up?" asks Mom, staring at the man who was once the love of her life before turning into an evil maniac. Her tense face tells me she's still conflicted, still wondering if we shorted out the evil part of his brain and the good man might be inside.
Sebastien shakes his head. "No. But we detected a change in his Delta waves. Jillian, you know the implications of that."
I nod. "Yeah. The brain waves of the subconscious. How he was going to control me with the phone. So, could he simply be dreaming?"
"Our experts don't think so. There was no rapid eye movement detected, and dreams would produce a different kind of brain wave pattern that we've seen before from him. The change in his pattern is not unlike what we saw when you combined yours with Ryan and Roxanne. Our theory is that…well, the simplest way to put it is that we think he's been contacted."
Ryan furrows his brow. "How is that even possible?"
Sebastien shakes his head. "We don't know," he says, then turns to Ryan. "Which is why I asked you to come along. We were hoping…"
"You want me to read his mind?" asks Ryan.
"No!" I yell, throwing out one arm in front of Ryan before Sebastien has the chance to answer. "My father almost killed him twice, and you want to risk his life over some brain wave change? Find another way."
"There is no danger," says Sebastien.
My blood pressure spikes. "How the hell can you be sure of that?"
Mom grabs my arm. "Young lady, watch your tone. Don't yell at Sebastien."
"I'll yell if he's going to risk my boyfriend's life."
"We know there's no danger because we already tried using other mind readers. None of them suffered any after effects," says Sebastien. "But they also got no results."
"Then why do you need me?" asks Ryan. "I just finished my apprenticeship. I'm sure the people you've got here are the best and have a lot more experience."
"You've made contact with him before," says Sebastien.
"There's another part to that equation," I say. "My father also went into his mind, remember?"
Sebastien ignores my comment and keeps looking at Ryan. "We feel you may experience different results because of your previous connection with Jillian and Roxanne. Your powers are slightly different than the average mind reader."
"What are you talking about?" asks Mom.
Sebastien looks at the ground. "I admit, I should have told you this before. But when the three of them connected it took his powers in a slightly different direction. Roxanne's as well. They are both more finely attuned, as if they somehow absorbed some of Jillian's incredible gifts."
"I don't care if he's the best mind reader on the planet," I say, folding my arms. "He's not doing it. End of story."
Ryan rests his hand on my shoulder. "Hang on a minute, Sparks. The two times he attacked me he sent his own thoughts. He can't do that now."
"You don't know that!" I say.
"Yes, we do," says Sebastien. "There is no risk. But it is up to you, Ryan. I certainly understand if you don't want to do this."
Ryan nods, and I can tell he wants to do it.
Damn friggin' testosterone. That rampant Y chromosome needs a leash.
I reach for Ryan's hand and tangle my fingers in his, then give him the most soulful look I can muster. "Please don't. You're not bulletproof."
"I'll be fine, Sparks," he says, smiling. "Besides, you're here to heal me if anything goes wrong. You've done it before. Twice."
Damn friggin' logic. Why am I in love with the only eighteen year old guy on the planet with a forty year old brain?
Ryan turns to Sebastien. "You want me to do this now?"
He nods. "The sooner we find out, the better."
"Okay." Ryan closes his eyes, which is what he does when he's about to read a mind. I squeeze his hand harder and he squeezes back.
My heart slams against my chest and I focus on him, ready to send as much healing energy as I can muster. But thankfully nothing happens.
Finally, after what seems like an eternity but is actually about sixty seconds, he opens his eyes and looks at me. "See, I'm fine."
My heart downshifts as I wrap my arms around his waist and lean my head on his chest.
"Did you get anything?" asks Sebastien.
Ryan nods as he puts an arm around my shoulder and pulls me closer, then kisses the top of my head. "Not much. It's him, but he's like an innocent five year old who has no idea what's going on around him. And I didn't see any of those dark images he sent into my head before. I didn't pick up anything that might be taken as evil."
"Good," says Mom.
"But…" says Ryan.
Sebastien's eyes widen. "Yes?"
"Someone's been in his mind."
My best friend Roxanne furrows her brow as she pulls another slice of pizza from the pan that sits on the red-and-white checkered tablecloth. "Someone powerful contacted your father?"
I swallow a bite of the steaming double supreme and wash it down with a sip of my super-sized-anti-Mayor-Bloomberg Dr. Pepper. It's funny, even though the guy's out of office people still associate him with declaring DEFCON ONE on soda, and the pizza parlor actually named its extra large drink the Bloomberg Special when the law got tossed by the courts. It's the New York carbonated middle finger at the guy. The restaurant is crowded for a Sunday night, the Mom-and-Pop eatery filled with loud conversation, the smell of baking pies and the sounds of Sinatra. "That's what Sebastien said. It has to be someone strong to get through their security."
"No way to identify the person?"
I shake my head. "Nope. Not yet, anyway. All Ryan got from my father was that he'd had a visitor."
"So what was this person of power looking for?"
"The theory is that it's one of my father's minions who wanted to determine if his powers are totally fried. Or maybe try to bring him back to full strength. Which scares the hell out of me."
"Aren't you glad you didn't heal him."
"Yeah, no kidding." My heartbeat is picking up a bit and I realize we need to get off the subject. After saving a life on Friday and spending all day at The Summit yesterday, I need something mindless. "So did you and Jake have a good time last night?"
Roxanne surprises me as she shrugs. "Not really. We went to dinner and after that I wanted to go home."
"What happened? I thought he was taking you dancing at that new club?"
"I wasn't in the mood after hearing about his hot Political Science teacher for an hour."
"Hot teacher?"
She rolls her eyes and pushes her shoulder length black hair behind her ears with her hands. "Oooooh, Ms. Cruise. She's soooo interesting and she makes her lectures come alive with her incredibly expressive face and all the boys have a thing for her and it's amazing that she's forty and never married…I mean, I know college boys have it bad for women who are a little older, but geez, it was like he was talking to another guy. Then he goes on and on about a meeting he had with her after class and how she really takes a personal interest in her students and seems to think he's got a future in politics. Finally I'd had enough so I told him I didn't feel well and he took me home."
"Rox, I wouldn't worry about it. Freshmen boys are like kids in a candy store when they see college women after four years of high school girls. Even Ryan's got his head on a swivel."
"Yeah, but we're college women now."
"Yeah,