Page 8 of Saint

“I’m glad you did. He’s a nice man. Did you know he can run more than fifty miles per hour? I don’t know how his body doesn’t break apart from it.”

“It does seem like it would be stressful on the joints,” he smirked. “Either way, I’m grateful he got to you in time.”

“Me too,” she said, nuzzling into his neck, kissing up toward his ear.

“Mmm, babe, that might move things much faster than either of us wants.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he said, kissing her again. “It was beautiful and perfect and showed me exactly what you were feeling.”

They heard the loud clang of the old dinner bell and smiled at one another. In the summer, with evenings spent out in the grove, Mama Irene always wanted everyone to have dinner together.

Tonight would be special. Not just for Marilisa and Saint, but for their new members.

Tonight would be strange and beautiful.

CHAPTER SIX

“There were more of us,” said Kane. “We lost Mary and Ben. Kelly’s parents, Uri Bellum and his wife. We lost Gable. He was able to speak with animals.”

“That would have come in handy around here,” said Ghost. “You’ve done a fine job with keeping everyone safe, Kane. I always knew there was something special about you.”

“We tried,” he said, looking around at the rag-tag group. “We knew that the agency and the military were in on the pink dust.”

“Pink dust?” frowned Riley.

“Yes. We were all at The Depot at one time or another until it closed. Thirty years apart or more, yet we were all exposed to that damn dust and ended up with whatever it is we have.”

“Dust,” repeated Gabi.

“Did I say something wrong?” asked Kane.

“No. No, not at all. When the kids all came here, we did multiple workups on them. X-rays, blood work, CT scans, you name it. We finally thought we’d do brain biopsies, just small needle biopsies, because we knew they’d been injected in their brains.”

“You were injected in your brain?” asked Aislinn.

“I’m afraid so,” said Katelyn. “Each of us was injected in different parts.”

“Maybe they learned something different after all of us. We heard stories of those who didn’t respond well to whatever they were using, and some didn’t make it. We ended up with these really odd abilities, most of us with genius level IQs, but all of you have more than genius level IQs and don’t have the odd side effects.”

“We did hear all of you,” said Marilisa. “We couldn’t make it out at first. It was just sort of a weird vibration.”

“That’s the way it starts,” said Spook. “It was one of the ways I found all of you. The other was picking up the electromagnetic fields that you use to shield the property.”

“You can see that? Feel that?” frowned Ghost.

“No, sir. I can hear it. It’s pretty terrible sometimes, but for whatever reason, this doesn’t make me want to pull my hair out. In fact, on the property, I don’t hear the cell phones, planes, computers, all the other shit that makes me nuts. Whatever your technology is, it’s helping me to cope.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Wilson. “If you all don’t mind, we’d love to get some tests run on you to make sure you’re all okay.”

“We don’t mind,” said Adam. “I’m the doctor of the group and happy to help.”

“Well, we can damn sure use more medical around here,” said Nine.

“If you’re certain that this pink crystal was injected in their brains, I might be able to tell you where in their brains,” said Fiona. Nine looked at her, then back at Gaspar and the others. “I’m not crazy. I promise.”

“I’m sorry, Fiona. I didn’t mean to imply that you were. We’ve got some pretty spectacular things that happen around.”

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