Page 117 of By the Pint

He thought about it. “No, I like Casey.” He was quiet for a few moments. “I can move stuff with my mind. Is that normal?”

I looked around his room, still in near pitch-darkness, but all the loose objects and furniture had been removed. No clock on the wall, no bedside table, no trolley bearing his charts and meds and whatnot.

“It’s not common,” I said, stabbing at diplomacy.

“I can hear people’s thoughts, too. Is that not normal either?”

I choked on thin air. “It’s, um …” I shot a glance towards the open door. Nina said nothing, thought nothing, didn’t respond in any way. “I’m sure that’s actually not the case,” I added louder than necessary.

Casey watched me for a few moments, his expression so impassive, robotic. “So … I’m special?”

I swallowed the fresh swell of emotion. “Yes. You're very special.”

A smile, lasting approximately half a second ticked the corners of his mouth before disappearing entirely. “I want to go to sleep now. I’m tired.”

“Okay,” I said, once again wiping the tears from my cheeks.

“You will be here when I wake up?”

My heart expanded like a balloon in my chest. “Of course.”

Casey nodded as though he was pleased by my response, despite his expression not giving any clues. Then he led his head down on the pillow and shut his eyes.

I waited a few minutes, watching him, before I made my way out of the bedroom to find Nina standing. She was smiling from ear to ear, her face also red and wet with tears. She grabbed both of my hands and dragged me to the little porch between the suite and the hallway.

“Oh. My. Gods!” she squealed once the door to Casey’s rooms had closed. “That was … I’ve never … Excuse my unprofessionalism, but holy shit! That’s never happened before. It’s been two months. Two months! He was talking, and everything!”

“I thought you said he spoke before? He asked for me?”

She grabbed the lapels of my cloak. “All he said was,‘Man behind glass’,a few times. This … This is incredible.”

“He uh …” I wanted to bring up the mind-reading bit, wanted to ask if she’d heard him say that. “What will happen to him now? Now that we know a little more about him?”

Nina glanced at the doorway. “You’re wondering about the telepathy comment?”

I half nodded, couldn’t manage words.

“We keep that little nugget to ourselves. I don’t need to tell you that much.” She gave me a pointed wink. “We protect each other.”

We protect each other.

Nina’s words tumbled about in my head.

“Is that …” I began tentatively. “Is that why, uh …” Shit, how could I phrase the question without dropping everybody in it? “Is that what happened with Killian and the hacker?”

She smiled, then erased her smile with her fingers. “Let’s just say there are more of us than you might believe. And there are many benefits to sticking around in the City of the Undead, not running off to the other side of the country.”

What was that supposed to mean? SoKillian did know Tyler? Is that why he didn’t seem bothered while I was a nervous wreck? And was it simply a coincidence that Tyler was the hacker on shift? That Nina was the doctor in charge of Casey’s turning?

“Mr Black, nothing is a coincidence,” Nina said, having obviously heard my thoughts.

What the hell? My barriers had been pulled up. I double checked them to make sure. Nina must be a seriously powerful mind-reader if she could break my defences without me even realising.

She gave me a small, modest shrug-nod.

Holy shit, another unregistered telepath. And so high up in the Assembly hierarchy. “It … what? How?” I very eloquently said.

“Another time perhaps. Now though, I need you to go back to your hotel, get some sleep. Casey will be out for a few hours now. He tends to sleep for about eight, nine. So, come back in seven? You must have been very special to him. You should feel blessed.”

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