Chapter Fourteen – Pack ya bags!
“Hey, what’s up? You get into more trouble already?” Cadence answered with a giggle as I slammed the door behind me, locking it as if Lyra would come bursting through if I didn’t.
“How soon can you get over here?”
“Um, about an hour. What’s going on?” All humor left her tone. “Are you okay, Shon?”
“My powers. I mean, my ability. Girl, something is off. It’s like I can’t control them,” I explained as I peeked out the curtains to see Lyra disappear around the corner.
“Give me ten minutes,” Cadence said. “I’ll get Tay as well. You just relax until we get there.”
Exactly ten minutes later, Cadence was in my house, opting for magical means of transportation rather than her truck. She was alone, Tayvion still wrapping up some things at her job and needing more time to get there.
“Now, what happened exactly?” Cadence asked as she stepped over the box I’d dropped when I came in.
I braced for the impact of Cadence’s emotions but felt nothing.
She had shielded herself from me. Both of my friends had learned to cloak themselves from my abilities.
Even if I tried, I couldn’t get through it.
It made our friendship work, because who wants to be around someone who constantly knows what you’re feeling even when you’re not sure?
Pretty sure that was another reason my relationships never worked out.
They were too open, even when they didn’t want to be.
I always knew the truth, and I had a hard time keeping it to myself.
It made me distance myself from them until they felt like I’d ghosted.
That was what my most recent ex said to me.
She felt like I vanished even when I was still holding her hand.
“I wish I could tell you. I woke up thinking I had an ordinary hangover, but I was wrong. Cadence, I feel everything. People around me, their emotions are beating my ass. I swear, this is like when I first came into my abilities. I can’t shut it off.”
“Do you feel me now?” she asked.
“No, I mean, but you know how to shield yourself from me,” I pointed out.
“Well, I’m glad it’s working.” She nodded. “I’m all over the place right now. Don’t need you feeling any of this chaos.”
“Are you okay?” I asked. “Do you need to talk?”
“Shon, I love you, but let’s focus on you right now, please?” She led me to the couch to sit down. “Tell me the rest.”
“Girl, I tried to go to work, and Meka basically kicked me out of there. Not only was I receiving everything, but I couldn’t control the atmosphere like I usually do.
You know, when people come in and they're anxious, I could compel them to feel better, but this time, their frustration affected me, and when I tried to push out calming energy, I just made everything so much worse. And when I got home, my neighbor….”
“Your neighbor? You mean the girl who was over here last night?” Her eyes widened. “What happened with her?”
“She saw me when I was leaving the garage and came out to talk.
I was trying to get away from her, but man, I'm telling you, the attraction, the horniness coming off that girl was crazy.
So I'm trying to get away from her, and a delivery guy calls me over. Of course, I thought that would be my way to get away from her, right? No, she followed me up to the front!”
“Thirsty heifer!” Cadence laughed.
“Well, her thirstiness shot into me, and I somehow became a conduit for it. It went right through me, and on the way out, it slammed into the delivery guy. Homeboy got an instant hard-on! I mistakenly reached out to touch him, you know, checking to see if he was okay. He fell to his knees!”
“I know you're lying.” She laughed, and Sire, her copycat, flew in laughing, landing on her lap. Cadence instantly petted her.
“I wish I were Cadence. I'm pretty sure that man came on my doorstep. And I mean came.” I widened my eyes, hoping she got what I meant.
“Okay, I'm trying not to laugh right now, but that's funny as hell.” She snickered. “That poor man!”
“It will only be funny after I figure out what the hell is going on. You know, I don't enjoy taking other people's emotions into myself like that. That shit feels so invasive. It’s one thing to be able to sense what other people feel; it's another thing to completely absorb it.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I remember how bad you said it was last time. That's why you haven't done it. I won't use this as an opportunity to tell you it's probably why you should have learned to control it.”
“Really, Caddy? Please don't tell me you’re about to lecture me now.” I pouted. “Don’t you think I’ve been through enough?”
“No, not now. I'll wait until you get this under control, and then I'll do it.” Her lift of a brow was her way of telling me she meant business.
“I so appreciate it.” I should have known it would eventually come up again. Instead of complaining, I was grateful she let me avoid the topic for over a decade.
“Okay, bitches, I’ve arrived! What’s up?
” Tayvion popped into the room, again using the magical means of transportation.
“I was just in a meeting with this fine man, and baby, when I tell you the things I was imagining doing to him…I’m definitely going to need to review the meeting recording to make sure I didn’t miss anything important. ”
A rush of my friend's thoughts, emotions, and horniness suddenly crashed into me, and I had to steady myself all over again.
“Tay, I love you, but please pull it in,” I groaned.
“What?” She looked at me sideways. “I just got here. What did I do to you?”
“Her powers are out of whack, and all that hotness you got going on is driving her crazy right now,” Cadence explained.
“Really?” Tayvion stepped closer to me, and I groaned.
“Shields up, Tay. Please. Now,” Cadence ordered. “Don’t break our friend.”
It took about 90 seconds, but Tay was able to reinforce her shield. It lit up as a soft red, barely containing her energy, but it was good enough. I could no longer feel her lingering arousal.
“Now, what the hell is going on? For real, what's wrong with her power? Did you eat those candy panties that girl brought over here? Maybe that's what it is. Did she poison you?” Tayvion rattled off, and we both waited for her to finish.
“No, I didn't eat the edible underwear.” I rolled my eyes at her. “Why would I do that?”
“I don't know; maybe you needed a midnight snack. You had crawled into your pod by the time we got up to leave. Who knows what you got into?”
“Yeah, I was in the pod because I was feeling like shit. Candy panties wouldn’t help that,” I fussed. “I thought I was hungover, but whatever this is, it’s not alcohol induced.”
“Okay, so you're out of whack, and we don't know why. Got it.” Tayvion looked at Cadence. “What's the plan?”
Just then, a group of kids walked past the front of the house, laughing and cackling, and I broke down. Despite its goodness, their happiness was so potent, it almost suffocated me. It felt like stone crushed my body, followed by the snake's squeeze, a suffocating path to death.
“Shit, I can’t take this.” I took ragged, gasping breaths. “I need my pod.”
“Something’s telling me that the pod isn’t going to be good enough.” Tayvion was at my side, her hand on my forehead, and it cooled on contact.
“Thank you.” I looked at her, and she nodded, waving icy blue fingers in my face before slipping her hand to the back of my neck.
Tayvion’s fae abilities varied, but the cooling trick was one she’d learned from her mother. It had come in handy plenty of times throughout college after late nights binging or partying.
“Here's the plan.” Cadence stood, letting Sire fly away from her. “I'm going to take her to my hideout. Tay, you know the place.”
Tayvion nodded before Cadence continued. She was in total control mode, and we both knew there was no stopping her.
“You’re going to get all the things we need to take care of our homegirl while she figures this out. I'm talking about all her favorite snacks, food, whatever. Call up there to the job and let them know she's going to be gone for a while and they need to figure out a plan.”
“I already told Meka I would be out for the rest of the week,” I interjected.
“Okay, good. That’s one less thing to worry about.” Cadence nodded. “Tayvion, get the things and meet us there.”
“Yes, ma'am, I'm on it.” Tayvion saluted Cadence then popped out of view.
“Where can you take me where this won't be a problem?” I asked. “What hideout are you talking about?”
“It’s somewhere I’ve never taken you, but trust me, it’s the perfect place. It’s far away from civilization. Actually, we should probably grab you some warmer clothes. It gets pretty chilly where we're going.” Cadence whistled, and Sire flew into the room, landing on her shoulder. “Good girl.”
She gave me exactly fifteen minutes to grab all I could before she wrapped her magic around me. The only problem that came with being so close to her was that I could feel her emotions. It was hard to shield yourself from someone when you were literally using your powers to carry them with you.
I didn’t tell her, but I felt a deep hollowness inside my friend. It wasn’t exactly sorrow. It was just a sense of loss, of something missing.