Page 17 of City of Love

He slowly let his arms drop then, yet the rain stayed outside the sphere of their table as if there were a huge umbrella over them. She stared at him wide-eyed as he reached for his napkin and gingerly fluffed it onto his lap, smiling that Cheshire Cat grin of his.

“Not everyone can be a weather master. You’re lucky to be hanging out with Vikkras Knight,” he said with a chuckle.

When she finally stopped staring again at the sky directly above her, she looked back at him. “When Gideon said you were a weatherman, I assumed he meant you studied atmospheric patterns and made forecasts, not that you could part the rain.”

He nodded. “I do a bit of both actually. My degree is in atmospheric sciences. I make forecasts, and then if a little tweaking is needed, I can sometimes take care of that as well.”

“Why didn’t the other diners do the same? Can’t all of your people do that?”

He shook his head. “Just as some people are naturally fast runners and others have a great singing voice, people here each have different abilities, and they have different levels of strength with those abilities too. Weather is rather my thing.”

She found herself wondering what Gideon’s thing was, but before she could ask, a woman came racing through the rain to grab a seat at their table, ducking into their dry little world with relief. Drenched, she gave Vik a quick kiss and then attempted to brush the drops from her face and wring the water from her long hair.

Her long red hair.

“Lexi, this sopping wet beauty is my wife, Alana. Alana, this is Lexi Cross. She’s visiting tonight from the other side, and I’ve invited her to join us for the evening.”

Lexi wanted to respond, say hello, shake her hand. She really did. But the sound of the pouring rain was so loud now it drowned out everything else.

Except that it had ceased to rain. Anywhere. The storm had died. The sound she heard was the blood rushing to her head, the pounding of her heart.

Alana was the calming redheaded woman she’d seen so many times before in her waking dreams.

The visions were fast on her heels now.

Alana looked as shocked as Lexi felt, but pulled herself together first. She reached out a graceful hand and Lexi somehow mobilized herself to shake it.

“Hi.” Alana tipped her head. “I think… we’ve met before, in a way.”

“Yes.” It was all Lexi could utter until the buzzing slowly faded from her head. “Wait, you mean you’ve seen me too?”

“I’m an empath.” Alana smiled. “You’re… an oracle… I believe? A powerful one, too. You pulled me into your visions. I never saw your face, until now, but I witnessed your visions whenever they included me. I didn’t understand what I was seeing until just now—I realized who you were the moment I sat down at the table.”

Lexi shook her head, trying to sort it all out. “I’m sorry, you said I was an oracle?”

This was way out of her league, and she suddenly wondered what Margot was doing at that moment. Margot would know what to say, what to do, what to think.

“That’s what we call the stronger precognitives here,” Alana said. “They’re very important people, you know. The ability of foresight is considered quite a gift to us.”

“A gift? But you all have amazing abilities. Hell, Vik just parted the rain for chrissakes!” She realized her voice had gotten shrill and she put her fingers to her mouth.

Alana reached across the table and covered Lexi’s other hand with her own. When Alana spoke this time, Lexi felt calmer, and her heart rate slowed. There was something about Alana’s voice…

“Psychics who are naturally strong, without benefit of training, are fairly rare in our world, believe it or not,” Alana said, gently releasing Lexi’s hand. “Most of us learn to use our abilities from a very young age. The traits are passed through bloodlines, but we must be taught to bring them out, and later to control them, not unlike how one would learn a language or math. An innate ability as strong as yours, occurring spontaneously, is highly valued.”

Lexi coughed. “Not in my world. My foresight is causing me a lot of problems at home. Believe me, at the moment I’m really wishing I was a part of your world.”

Alana nodded, the look of understanding on her face one of comfort rather than pity. “My empathic senses are telling me, in fact, that you may have even more gifts than your precognition. Telepathy, perhaps? Possibly clairvoyance, or as some might call it, remote viewing?”

“Not that I know of.” Good lord, she had all the “gifts” she wanted right now, thank you very much. Though, there was that odd experience of seeing what must have been Gideon’s memories earlier in the evening. What was that?

“Has she met Gideon yet?” Alana asked her husband, changing the subject.

“Oh, yes.” He erupted with laughter, and Lexi giggled too, her built up tension losing a little of its hold.

Though she blushed as Vik filled Alana in on the parts of their evening she’d missed, including his opinion on Gideon’s behavior around Lexi, she found she wasn’t really that embarrassed, feeling safe and comfortable with the couple.

Her temporarily heightened senses to the environment helped too. The complexity of scents on the air, the night-blooming jasmine flowers and the fresh baked bread in the restaurant, encircled her, hugged her. She was highly aware of a breeze on her cheek, a gentle caress that was almost erotic. Even the sound of laughter had a tinkling, musical quality to it.

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