Page 18 of Dark Flame

“You all look like you could use a hot meal. I’ll go make some breakfast,” said Spook, turning to enter the house. Kane nodded, and Mary mouthed a thank you to the younger man.

“They’re tired, Kane,” she said, taking a tentative step forward. “I’m not sure what your skill is…”

“He’s a reader,” said a small voice in the back. The young man stepped out from behind a bigger man and walked to stand by Mary. “He’s a reader. He touches you and knows whether you are good or evil. He hasn’t refined his skill, but he’s good. He doesn’t know how good he really is. He doesn’t know what all he can do, what he’s capable of.”

Kane eyed the young man and then the woman Mary. He looked at each of the faces as they stared back at him.

“Perhaps introductions would help,” said Flip, calmly stepping forward to stand next to Kane.

“Right, sorry,” said Mary. “As I said, I’m Mary Clark. I believe I was the first if notoneof the first children Moore used. I’m an empath. I can feel when others are happy, sad, troubled, all of it. And I can either emphasize it or take it away.”

“That must be exhausting,” said Adam, cocking an eyebrow at the woman. He couldn’t imagine feeling everyone’s sorrows or pain.

“It is. Adam Thorn, right?” she said. He nodded, staring at the woman. “It can leave me completely debilitated for days if it’s really bad. It’s more difficult to take on the feelings, but to give them is easy. I try to take the evil or sad and give it to those that, well, those that deserve less happiness.” The others nodded, raising an eyebrow at the sweet woman, and she looked away for a moment, turning back to her group.

“These two are the youngest of our troupe. Ashley and Akin are twins, twenty-four years old. They don’t have a power individually, but together they have the ability to cover sound, blocking all noise for a radius of up to five miles. They’ve been able to block out everything from our footsteps to the sounds of a jet engine.”

Adam looked at Kane and raised an eyebrow. This was amazing and disturbing all at the same time.

“David and Griffin are both twenty-nine but not related. They were at Sierra during roughly the same time. They both have the same physical anomaly, which we’ve discovered is pretty rare. No other pair that we’ve discovered anyway has possessed the same abilities. They’re able to run at speeds that would kill most men. We’ve clocked them at fifty-two miles per hour.”

“I’m faster,” said David, smiling.

“Like hell you are,” said Griffin, nudging him.

“Jesus!” exclaimed Adam. “And their bodies didn’t suffer? No broken bones? Dislocated joints?”

“No. Nothing. They’re barely breathing heavily when they return. Garrett is thirty; he’s able tocreate wind at hurricane strengths. He’s created up to a category three. Gable is thirty-one; he speaks to animals. Literally a Doctor Doolittle sort of thing.Griffin, Garrett, and Gableare brothers.” She smiled at the tall handsome young man, and he smiled back.

“That must come in handy,” said Flip speaking to Gable.

“We’ve definitely used it while on the run. On more than a few occasions, he was able to call up a bear or wolf, and they came. Even the best-trained canines aren’t able to refuse him, which allowed us to get food or clothing when we desperately needed it. We made every effort to never steal, but sometimes, well, sometimes, necessity is a bitch.”

Kane nodded, impressed at the team’s abilities. He motioned for Mary to continue but didn’t fail to notice that Ben never took his eyes off of her.

“This is Hawke. He’s thirty-eight. The oldest of my group besides me. Hawke is, well, a hawk.”

“Wait! He can transform…” said Adam, his mouth dropping in astonishment.

“No, not like that. He’s able to place himself basically in the brain of a hawk or an eagle, but hawks work best and then fly overhead and see what the bird sees.” This was getting more and more interesting by the moment.

“Nash is thirty-seven. He, Hawke, and Ivy came to me together. Nash is able tocontrol water. He can create a flood, a drought, make it rain, anything. Ivy is thirty-five. She has the ability to make any plant grow on demand. You want someone lifted into a tree? She canmake the acorn grow and lift the person at the same time. You want an English garden; it’s done.” Mary smiled at the young woman as she beamed proudly.

“Her skills have definitely helped when we’re hungry, but she needs something to start with. A seed, even a dead plant can be revived. But if there’s nothing, if it’s desert, she can’t create what was never there.”

“Regan is thirty. He isable to process vast amounts of information quickly and retain it. He would be classified as a human computer, I suppose.”

“Ah, I see you’ve read my file,” said Kane. The young man nodded and grinned up at him. “Did you read all of the files?”

“Yes, sir. I was able to get into the Copper Canyon home before it burned and read everything on all of us.”

Kane was definitely intrigued with the young man. He could be the clue they needed to find all of them.

“How many more are there? Besides the six of us already here, how many more are there?” Kane asked inquisitively.

“Us thirteen,” said Regan, looking around, “and another eight still alive.”

“That’s all?” said Kane. His mouth opened in shock, and he stared at their merry band of misfits. He hoped there were more. He prayed there were more that could give them answers.

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