Page 15 of Love Lives
"I know you can take care of yourself." Elle paused. "I was just wondering 'cause there's some things we need to discuss. But maybe it can wait."
"You think I'm going to sleep after that announcement?"
Elle sighed. "It's nothing urgent. Just something I've been wondering about." She nodded at Caspar. "We've been working at figuring out our hidden talents."
"Our hidden talents?"
"Remember what Vlad said?" she asked. "That he could tell just by looking at our birthmarks? I figured, well, why should he be the only one with that knowledge? So Caspar and I have been spending this time in lock-down doing some research."
That right there was why my sister was brilliant. "What did you find?"
"We couldn't find all of the marks, but the occult library had some records on dhampirs who were famous, noting their special talents and marks, so we went from there. We found mine, and Morgan's too. Yours was a little tricky, but I've got some guesses."
"You really found all that?" I swallowed, not sure how to feel about everyone possibly knowing about my talents. I'd already told Jared, and Elle could maybe suspect from a few things I’d said, but… "What can you do?" I looked between her and Morgan, hoping to steer the conversation away from myself.
"Well, I can't really do it, but apparently, I can communicate with the dead."
"More than communicate," Caspar said. "Summon them."
My eyes went wide. "Summon the dead?" That was a pretty big thing to just casually mention like that. "Any of them?"
"It's not that easy," Elle said. "I'd need something of theirs for an anchor, and... the longer they've been deceased, the harder it becomes. That's all theory anyway. I haven't actually succeeded in anything yet."
"It's because of Vlad," Caspar commented.
I nodded, remembering what Aldrich had told me about Vlad's lost memories essentially cutting our powers in half.
"She might be able to do it with the right vessel," Caspar said.
"Vessel?"
"Ordinarily it would be easier to summon the ghost into yourself, let him speak through you, but if it's the right person, it can be easier to summon the ghost into them instead."
"What makes someone the right person?" I asked, intrigued. I didn't want to like Caspar, but it seemed he'd done his homework, which earned him some points in my book.
"Proximity to death." A grim smile appeared on Caspar's lips. "Vampires would be perfect actually, but their souls would exit this plane right along with the summoned ghosts. They'retooclose, so we sadly can't use them as guinea pigs. At least not any vampires we care about," he added in a tone that suggested there were quite a few vampires he wouldn't mind experimenting on.
I leaned back into the couch, studying my nephew, lost in thought. It would be amazing if we could talk to the dead. It would be especially amazing if we could talk to Dad. When I glanced over at my sister, I knew she was having the same thought. Hell, most of my siblings probably were.
"What else would make someone a good candidate?" I asked, even though I suspected I already knew the answer to that. Proximity to death. It didn't take a genius to figure out what that meant.
"Someone who's dying," Caspar said, just as I'd expected, but then his eyes bore into me with unexpected focus. "Or someone who's recently had a close brush with death."
Before I could even respond, Aldrich scoffed. "No," he said. One simple word, that was all.
"Pretty sure that's my decision to make," I reminded him. Not that I wasn't grateful for his care, but I wasn't going to let him baby me.
"It's safe for mortals," Caspar said.
Elle rested a hand on his shoulder. 'I don't even know if I can do it."
"You could," he said with way more confidence than she displayed.
"I've never had a big awakening or whatever."
"Not necessary when you know what you're doing," Caspar insisted. "And when you fulfill the necessary requirements." He actually blushed a little bit at that, which let me know exactly what he was talking about.
Ugh. That’s mysister, dude.
