The Power: Building the Circle - Book 2 Read online

  "Yes, but your favorite son is me," Adrian said as he kissed the top of her head.

  Darla narrowed her eyes. "I have to think about that. It might depend on the day with the boys."

  "I'm a doctor. I showed up to Sunday dinner with a woman and a small child," Adrian continued lobbying.

  "It's true," Darla said, hugging Lucy. "You probably win today. Let's see how dinner goes."

  "We're just missing Ethan and Sam. They're on their way. Come on, Lucy," Darla took her hand, pulling her toward the hallway.

  Lucy followed along as Darla led her into a giant room. "This is, aptly named, the Big Room," Adrian explained. "It seats all of us with lots of room to spare."

  "Too much room!" Darla groused.

  The older gentleman Lucy vaguely recalled from the day she met Adrian was walking toward her. He walked right by her offered handshake to pull her into a hug. "How are you feeling, sweetheart? You've healed well. Let me see in the light. No, that scar won't stay. I'm so glad."

  "Yeah, OK. Right to 'sweetheart.' Lucy, this is my dad, Hank," Adrian said.

  "Oh," Hank looked sheepish. "I forgot that part. Hi, Lucy."

  "Hi," she laughed. "It's so nice to meet you."

  Henry was running around the room, jumping into laps to get hugs and kisses.

  "You know, kid, you're way too shy," Noah laughed.

  "OK! Speed introductions," Beth yelled. "Let's do this! Oldest to youngest, you got this, Lucy. Ree already knows everyone because we smother little kids with affection. It's fine."

  "You know that one," Beth said, gesturing at William.

  "You really really, ahem, know that one," she continued, gesturing at Adrian.

  "Jake! Matilda! You've heard the stories," Beth laughed as Lucy's cheeks turned pink.

  "Adrian, you're my least favorite Trellis right now," Matty said with no heat. "Why would you share that story?"

  "OH, COME ON! I randomly tell that story to people I meet on the street," Noah yelled.

  "Yes, but I'm not going to meet those people and sit down to Sunday dinner with them, Noah."

  "What story?" Ree asked, all innocence.

  "NOTHING," the entire room yelled.

  "Moving on. Ethan's not here. Sam's not here, and you already know him. He's still struggling, by the by," Beth said to Adrian. "You may need to drug him."

  "Still? Sleep? Food?" Adrian asked, alarmed.

  Jake shook his head. "It's the worst I've ever seen. Ethan's staying with him."

  "He slept by me on Wednesday night and ate like mad on Thursday morning," Will said. "I'm not sure he's eaten or slept since then. I'll take him with me if he doesn't eat tonight."

  "You're ruining my introductions things," Beth bitched at Will, stamping her foot.

  "Sorry, princess," Will said, patting Beth's head.

  "I hate it when you do that," she muttered.

  "I know, it's why I do it," Will laughed.

  "OK, you met Noah, that's Matthew, that's Luke, and, of course, me," Beth said with a curtsey. "The best Trellis, and that Hennessy person over there. We are not on speaking terms."

  "Why?" Adrian asked.

  "Because he's a dumbass, and will not do as he's told," Beth said.

  Hennessy groaned. "Hi, Lou."

  "What's for dinner?" Adrian asked.

  "Lasagna!" the room yelled.

  "Really? This is going to be a thing?" He asked Darla. "It's 900 degrees outside, you made lasagna?"

  "I did," Darla said, pleased with herself. "It's hysteri-"

  The front door banged open as someone yelled, "Roscoe!"

  "Let's eat!" Darla yelled.

  Jake looked hopefully at Adrian as they made their way to the table. "Did you teach him ear-muffs?"

  "Nope, be a functional adult," Adrian answered.

  Jake flipped him off.

  "Jacob," Darla scolded.

  "There was no new vocabulary involved in that. It was a gesture," Jake pointed out sanctimoniously.

  Darla raised her eyebrows.

  "Sorry, Mom," Jake said immediately.

  "Hi, Lucy!" A tall, slim built Trellis called, walking toward her. This had to be Ethan.

  "UNCLE ETHAN!" Henry yelled, running to hug Ethan and then Sam.

  "Let it be known, here and now, I am clearly the favorite uncle!" Ethan declared smugly.

  Much like Hank, Ethan walked right into a hug that made Lucy feel better about life.

  "It's nice to meet you, Ethan," Lucy said, blushing again. "Hi, Sam."

  Sam nodded to her, "Lucy, I'm glad the stitches are out. I told them not to take you."

  "I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU BLOODY IF YOU DON'T STOP THAT," Will yelled.

  "It's true!" Sam yelled back. "I absolutely told them it would be better if you didn't go."

  "Boys, we're not doing this again," Hank said in a stern voice.

  There was some confusion as people went to sit at the table.

  "Jake, go over there. Matty, stay here with me," Sam directed.

  "Really, Sam? I can't sit by Matty?" Jake asked, heavy on the sarcasm. "You're single. You sit on the other side of the table."

  "I don't sit on that side," Sam said.

  "For fuck's sake," Will muttered under his breath. "I'm going over there next to Ethan. Everyone just move down a chair."

  Sam frowned. "I don't like this."

  "Why?" Will asked.

  "Because Ethan, Beth, Hennessy, and Noah belong over there. Luke can change sides as he wants, so long as he stays at that end. You belong here with Adrian. Mathew belongs to the left of Luke. You being over there makes us more lopsided. Come back over here with Adrian. Jake, go. You can be anywhere. Go over there," Sam insisted.

  "This is fascinating," Ethan said. "We've never had assigned seats before. Whatcha doin', Sam?"

  "Huh?" Sam looked up to find everyone staring at him.

  "Whatcha doing?" Ethan asked again. "We move seats all the time. This is a new OCD thing. Last week, you sat with Luke."

  "I'm not supposed to be on the outside like this. I always make it lopsided. But, there's more of us now. We're really lopsided, we have to straighten it out," Sam said like it made sense. "It can't be like this. Jake, go!"

  "Sam-" Jake started.

  "I SAID, GO!" Samuel yelled, voice echoing, rattling the glasses on the table.

  Beth yelped, grabbing her head as her nose spurted blood.

  "What the hell?" She yelled at Samuel as she left the room.

  "Oh, good. Good. That's done." Samuel said, voice still heavy with power.

  Noah turned to Lucy. "Welcome to family dinner! Sorry. We're nuts."

  "Uncle Sam?" Henry asked, concerned.

  "It's OK, Ree. I'm not mad at you. It's fine. See, Uncle Jake is going," Sam said, himself again.

  ✽✽✽

  "Beth!" Will called, banging on the bathroom door.

  "I'm OK," she said, opening the door.

  Will could feel her fear. He took it from her.

  Her head tilted. "Did you… did you just do something? I feel different."

  "What? What do you feel? Energy?" Will asked, panicked.

  He'd never actually been there when one of his siblings blew what he tended to think of as 'the power hymen.' Beth was his princess. He'd called her that teasingly since she was a little girl, but he'd left home and joined the military to keep her safe. He wasn't sure what he'd do if this power was something that was going to hurt her.

  "Energy?" She asked. "I don't know. I just feel weird."

  "Beth, look at me. That weird feeling, think about pushing it toward me and tell me to sit down," Will coached.

  "What the fuck are you talking about, Will?"

  "Please? Please just try it for me?" he asked.

  "Sit down," she said, sounding confused.

  Will didn't have the impulse to sit.

  Everything is going to be OK. Beth is fine. Beth would love Pip. Maybe I could bring Pip home. Maybe it would work out, he thought.

&
nbsp; "Oh! Oh! Thank God! OK! Beth! That's great. Great. OK. Let's go eat lasagna!" Will was yelling.

  "Will, are you OK? Seriously. You're acting weird. I expect it from Sam, but…" Beth was concerned.

  "Beth, I'm great. Absolutely great. I'm sorry I was weird. It's nothing. Nothing at all. Don't worry about it," Will said in his normal voice, turning to go back to the table. "Let's go eat."

  ✽✽✽

  "So, what was with the assigned seat thing?" Lucy asked. Adrian was driving back to his house with Ree asleep in the back seat.

  Rage was clawing at the inside of Adrian's brain again. After Sam lost his temper and rattled the room, Rage slammed at his consciousness so hard he had trouble focusing his eyes. He'd been dizzy. Things were better now. But, his head still felt like it was going to split open. He reached for Lucy's hand, hoping the happy energy would quiet things down. No such luck.

  "I have no idea," Adrian said. "That was new. I swear he's not normally this nuts. He's having a tough time right now. Obsessed with knowing something that Will loves. Won't eat. Won't sleep. I'm really starting to worry that his mind is going."

  "The glasses on the table shook," she observed. "I don't want to contradict your doctorly opinion, but typically mental breakdowns don't make the room shake."

  Adrian nodded. "That's not new. Neither is the echo. He's done that since puberty."

  "Beth's nose?" She asked.

  "Absolutely new. Maybe something like with the glasses. I checked her out, there was nothing wrong. Her nose was fine, no sinus infection or anything. Just weird," Adrian said.

  They were quiet for a few minutes.

  "Thinking that it's time to run screaming?" Adrian asked.

  Lucy shook her head. "Sam makes me uneasy, though. Not like he's going to hurt us or whatever, but… Uneasy."

  Adrian nodded. "Fair. For what its worth, dinner is not usually like that."

  "OK," she said.

  "Really?"

  "The food was good," Lucy said with a smile.

  They were quiet until Ree was safely in bed, zonked out. When Adrian walked into the living room, Lucy charged him, starting an intense makeout session. Her hair blew toward him as the air conditioning turned on, strands tickling his neck as she tugged at his shirt.

  "Lucy, wai-"

  "Now," she demanded.

  "Now," Rage agreed.

  ✽✽✽

  "William, what do you love?" Sam asked again.

  William, Ethan, Samuel, Jake, and Matty were in the big room with Hank and Darla.

  Will sighed. "Sam, I would tell you if I knew what you were after. I really would. Are you coming home with me or going with Ethan?"

  Sam hesitated.

  "What?" Will asked.

  "Can you come home with us?" Sam asked.

  Will paused. "Yes. Of course. I'll go get some clothes and then come over, OK?"

  "Maybe we should come by you?" Sam asked.

  "You can do that, too. You can stay in the bedrooms. I can sleep on the couch. I can sleep anywhere," Will said.

  "No! If I go with you, I sleep on the couch. Like last time. Exactly like last time, OK?" Sam said, still looking lost.

  "Whatever you want to do is fine with me, Sam. Just tell me what you want," William said.

  There was a long pause while Sam considered what to do.

  "I'll go with Ethan," Sam said, sighing in frustration. "He can try to call to me again. That might not work if we're not in my space."

  "Matty-?" Will said.

  "I've tried and tried. I don't know how I did it," Matilda answered before Will could ask the question.

  "You could come home with us, Sam," Jake offered.

  "No, I can't do that," Sam said tersely.

  Matty rolled her eyes. "We'll behave, Sam. No hanky-panky."

  Jake looked at Matty like she lost her mind.

  "No, I really can't do that, Matty. It's lopsided. You and Jake are balanced. I can't unbalance it," Sam said.

  "What's the lopsided thing, Sam?" Hank asked. "You got really upset about that earlier. That's new. What's that about?"

  Sam sighed. "When it was just us, it didn't matter so much. Things flowed, no matter where we were. Noah's girlfriends aren't part of the table. Stephanie-Bella wasn't part of the table. It didn't matter where they were. But when Matty joined, it mattered. She's a corner. She anchors things. I have to stay with her. I just have to, Jake. We can't be opposite each other. It's not right, then. Last week when I sat by Luke, it was wrong. It made my skin crawl. But it was tolerable because we were on the same side.

  "But now Lucy has joined the table, and she's a corner. She anchors it, too. But, her counterpoint is missing. Like, there's a person that should be in that corner, that can be in that corner, and isn't. There should be four corners, but we only have three. And when I have to be outside, it doesn't flow right," Sam tried to explain.

  Everyone was staring at Sam.

  "I don't know!" Sam said. "It just matters. Until someone can hold the last corner, it matters. We're missing a corner. The corner is there. We have someone that can fill it; they're just not here. We don't have the fourth corner yet."

  "Sam, have you seen the girl?" Will asked. "Can you find her now?"

  "No, I've tried, but I can't do it again. I don't know how I did it on Wednesday. Maybe I didn't do it at all, I don't know," Sam said, looking frustrated again.

  "What? What happened Wednesday?" Hank asked.

  "I went to see Will. He made hamburgers, but the cow suffered horribly. Did you find-?"

  "Inspectors visited Friday," Ethan answered.

  Sam nodded. "Then I couldn't eat. We sat down in the living room, and William listed off things he loves. I fell asleep and dreamt about the house with changing views.

  "When Will and I were talking, he asked about eating in other times. I can't do that, but I wondered if I could eat in the dream house. I went into the kitchen, but there was no food. When I went back to the living room, the girl was there."

  Jake's eyebrows shot up. "She was in the house? She's never been there before, right?"

  Sam nodded. "She said she was in the clearing, looking for me and then love called and she was in the house. We talked. We could stay there longer than we can usually stay in the field. Then she kissed me. A storm started outside, rattling the house. The dream still didn't end. My head felt better. Less pressure. My mind was clearer. She said something about the power not working like that normally, then we really kissed. Then the dream ended. I woke up. The sun was up, and I could eat everything. I felt so much better. So, I ate a lot. But, by the afternoon, my head was feeling bad again. I ate some food, but it made me sick."

  "Thursday night, I tried to get to the house again, but I could only be where people are suffocating. I couldn't find her. Friday, I felt worse. Now I'm lost again," Sam sounded utterly defeated.

  "You ate some tonight," Darla said. "Is lasagna easier? Maybe the processed grains?"

  "No, I felt better after yelling at Jake. But it didn't last."

  "Do you want to yell at me some more? It's scary as fuck, but whatever," Jake offered.

  "If you do that, go outside so you don't break anything," Hank said. "I think the roof may have cracked with that one."

  Chapter 15

  When Sam finally nodded off, it was the suffocating dream. Beth was dying next to him in the dream.

  "I don't want to see this!" He yelled into the silence. "I want to go to the clearing!"

  Just like that, he was in the clearing. The girl was startled by his appearance. She reached for his hand.

  "You got here! You got here on your own!" Her smile calmed him. Her touch soothed his head. He was in the clearing.

  "I was in the place with no air, and I got pissed off. I yelled that I wanted to be here, and now I'm here. I had no idea I could do that," he admitted.

  "Can you take us to the house?" She asked, hopefully.

  He wrapped his arms around her. In a clear, resona
nt voice, he said, "We want to go to the house with changing views."

  Sam was in the house, but the girl wasn't with him.

  "I want to go to the clearing," he said again.

  Back in the clearing, the girl was lying on the ground, blood on her face and dripping from her nose.

  "What happened?!" Sam yelled, wiping at the blood as he scooped her into his lap.

  She blinked. Holding his hand, she said, "I hit the ward. I can't go like that."

  "Well, take the ward down! Take it down, tell me where you are, and I will be here quickly. I will be here today. Within hours. Take it down!" He yelled, not for the first time.

  "I am unbound, Sam. We cannot bind while Walking. Maybe at the house, I don't know. If we can get there again, we will try," she paused to think about it.

  "If I am trapped like this, they'll drain me for a thousand years. Some do not need hours to get here. Just minutes. The wards will come down, they will feel me, and they will take me. I cannot stop them; I will not knowingly harm that which is alive. The wards cannot come down. They must stay. Death is better than the wards falling," she said with absolute certainty.

  Sam took deep breaths, trying to calm down. "How do I pass through the ward? How does it work?"

  She smiled a sad smile. "It will let you Walk through because you love me and mean me no harm. I structured it so that you could come through."

  "Can you structure it so you can leave through it the same way? How did you pass through to the house?"

  She sighed. "Love called. I heard through the ward and could go."

  "Maybe if I go there and then call to you?" he asked.

  She shook her head. "Maybe. We will try it. But not now. I hurt."

  Sam could feel her pain, it was everywhere. The clearing was sad because of her pain. The air was still with it.

  Mistress Life was injured by his doing.

  The knowledge made it hard for Sam to breathe.

  "I wish Adrian was here to help," he muttered as he ran his fingers through her hair, comforting her.

  ✽✽✽

  After Rage was quiet and Lucy was asleep, Adrian expected to be awake for hours. He was not in control during that sex. He tried to stop it and couldn't. Lucy could have been hurt. Really hurt. He'd always promised himself that he wouldn't do this. He'd rather die horribly alone than risk hurting someone with the anger.