Читать книгу Bright Star - Grayson Reyes-Cole - Страница 7

Chapter 4

I Know You

When the couple came through the door, Jacob Rush raised his head from the kitchen table where he’d been waiting for his brother. Before Rush had heard the call, Jackson had been overdue by at least half an hour. His brother, the consummate good boy, rarely got home late unless he was going out with friends on the weekends. This was a Wednesday, and even if it hadn’t been, Jackson always told Rush where he would be and generally for how long. On those rare occasions Jackson was delayed unexpectedly, he called to let Rush know he wasn’t coming home. Jackson was forever conscientious. Sensitive. Righteous. But he’d been late. Tawny, short-cropped hair, tanned skin, and a giant white smile coupled with an eagerness to please bordering on compulsive made Jackson a star. He was golden.

But he was also Rush’s little brother, and he was late.

Then the call had come like a thin piercing hum. It was a Shift. Nothing more than manipulated waves, frequencies, moving demi-atoms. His brother’s distressed and frantic state contacted him even before Jackson consciously thought to reach out. It had started out as a tickling buzz in his ears then graduated to a grating in his teeth. Then it had traveled, the current, through his body. Rush had felt the urgency, and then… Well then… Well, no one ever had a choice really, did they?

Rush, of course, knew before the door opened that Jackson was not alone. Another first. Rush knew his brother to be quite successful with women. A Serviceman would have to try very hard not to be. They were physically perfect specimens, mysterious by nature and necessity. And then, there was that damned sensitivity.

Boy Scouts without the saccharine and the pre-pubescent bodies—Jackson was the epitome of them, the mould. Still, he never brought women home. Rush discerned long ago that this wasn’t out of deference, not even respect. No. It was that Shifter sensitivity. Jackson didn’t want Rush to feel bad. The sincere and wholly unnecessary discretion never ceased to bring a wry smile to Rush’s lips. Just because he didn’t bring them home, didn’t make Rush any less aware of the number of women by whom his brother had become irrevocably yet temporarily fascinated. With a rising of gooseflesh on his arms, Rush grew painfully aware that this woman would be more than a strong but passing fancy. She was going to be the death of him.

At first, just before he saved her, Rush didn’t know who she was. For a split second—he had to calculate it—his world was safe from her. He could breathe. He could see. He could eat, drink, walk, piss, spit and grin. He could go about his solitary business. But, Rush reasoned, that had been less than a second, and he had never really been safe.

“Bright Star,” he breathed.

She had made herself into a fantasy. His fantasy. When he’d first seen her so long ago, she’d been skinny, bearing no womanly curves. Elizabeth’s chest had been flat. Elizabeth’s lips had been thin and cracked and pale, making her look nothing less than dead. Elizabeth’s dingy white skin had had the same effect. Her smiles had been toothless and unsure. Her hair had been limp, brown and unhealthy, nearly always covering her eyes. Elizabeth had possessed no features worth remarking on, save for those eyes. They were so blue and startling he had seen the end of the earth in them.

Now, as Bright Star walked through his door, her skin was creamy peach all over. Bright Star’s lips were full and a light, earthen red. Silken copper strands of her thick hair fell over her forehead into those amazing eyes. Bright Star’s body was all that was soft, rounded and womanly. She had none of the skinny angles and points of before. Her waist was narrow but her breasts were full as were her hips and bottom. He could tell Bright Star’s legs were long and shapely.

Rush’s first thought was that she looked like everything he had ever imagined he wanted in a woman. His next thought was that there had never been a crueler illusion.

When she saw him, her mouth fell open in a smile so brilliant he had to look away from it. Her bright blue eyes sparkled and beamed. Her joy caused blood to pound behind his eyes. So much pain. Her voice slipped like a slow snake into his ears and into his brain as she uttered his name reverently. He ignored her, but her arms came open as if she waited for him to embrace her. When he did not, she shook her head as if to castigate herself then dropped to her knees in a dejected wilt. She didn’t look at him. She just quietly admitted her surprise. “You know me.” Then, twisting her hands in her lap, she muttered, “Of course you know me.”

Rush remained silent. There was nothing to say. For nearly four years, he had managed to escape her. He had known the situation wouldn’t be permanent when he sent her away. Now he knew he would never be rid of her again. “What happened to Elizabeth?” he asked more to himself than any other.

“I don’t know who you mean. It is Bright Star you saved,” was the damning answer.

“You two have met?” Jackson questioned, then bit his lip.

Silly question.

“You have to go,” Rush told her through clenched teeth.

“You know I won’t.” Bright Star shook her head slowly with a determined set to her jaw. She appeared proud, regal even, as she remained on her knees before him, kneeling and defiant at once. “I’ve spent the last four years looking for you.”

“Where have you been?” Rush breathed automatically. He hadn’t wanted to ask, but couldn’t seem to help it. He’d sent her to the other side of the earth. She’d been on a remote, nearly deserted island that had been occupied by a violent indigenous tribe that believed white flesh to be a sign of evil and women to be the bane of man, constantly trying to hold him from heaven. The nearest occupied land mass was three days away by boat. He’d left her there with nothing, not even clothing. She should have died. Yet here she was.

She offered her hand to him. “See where I’ve been. See how I’ve come to be here.” she dared solemnly. Rush didn’t take it. Instead, he turned his back on her and worked to control a shudder.

“Jackson, we need to talk,” Rush urged his brother.

“But, Rush—”

“Now.”

Jackson knew the shock showed on his face. His quiet, introverted, sallow brother rarely spoke to him let alone commanded him to do something. But that voice, that voice had been forceful and brooked no argument. He turned a tight smile on Bright Star silently begging her forgiveness. She continued to sit broken on the floor. Jackson followed Rush out of the living room and into the small, half-bathroom in the hall. Rush closed the door behind them, locked it, and started to run water in the sink—as if to stop her from listening.

Jackson prepared himself for the lecture from his brother on why the girl couldn’t stay. She hadn’t asked and Jackson hadn’t offered, but anyone who could breathe could sense the path her mind had taken. Jackson knew she had nowhere to go. He also knew there was something compelling about her, something that almost forced him to help her. Something that would make him argue just as strongly to keep her as his brother would argue to make her leave.

To Jackson’s surprise though, Rush did not wage a verbal argument up front. Instead, his brother tilted his head and studied him pensively for a moment. Then, Rush stepped close and laid a cool, wet hand against his forehead. The blow from the power in that hand nearly knocked Jackson off his feet. He stumbled then caught himself against the sink.

Instantaneously, painlessly, without the usual pomp and circumstance that accompanies life-changing events, Jackson had all of his long-suppressed memories back. Everything.

* * * *

Jackson vaulted from his very birth into the future through a tight bundle of memories. He remembered catching Rush holding thunderclouds in his hands when they were boys in the backyard. He remembered Rush touching his own broken leg after a nasty fall from his bike and standing up to ride again. More Shifts came to him, and more. He saw the seven Shifts in the last seven months he’d managed to witness and Rush had taken away from him.

In a matter of seconds, Jackson Rush discovered his brother Jacob Rush.

His throat tightened, his tongue thickened. He knew his brother, and suddenly life made sense. It frightened him, but finally made so much sense. One expects for the day the sun finally shines light on all of life’s mysteries to be a good day.

“You…” Jackson rasped as he searched his brother’s face. He knew this face, had always known it. But now…

Rush didn’t say anything right off. Instead, he started to sit down on the edge of roof. He ran a hand over his face. In seconds, the brothers had been transported. They were standing on the roof of their building. Rush stared out at the night sky still illuminated by a giant moon.

“You do this so effortlessly. How have you managed to keep this a secret for so long?” Jackson intoned astonishment in his voice.

Rush frowned and closed his eyes. It was as if he was concentrating on an answer. Nothing came.

“How did you manage to avoid the Service? No. Forget the Service for now. Mom… Dad?” Rush didn’t answer. “And what is it Rush? Where does it end? How much High Energy do you have? What you’ve done… what I’ve seen you do… Rush, no one can do that. No one. Not even me. No one.”

Rush still seemed unable to find the words to answer. Instead, he looked at his brother and stated plainly, with fatigue, “I gave you back your memories for one reason and one reason only.”

“Why?” Jackson was barely audible. His brother sat on the ledge, the electrified sky behind him.

“So you will believe what I have to tell you about her.”

Jackson didn’t understand, but he certainly knew who “her” was. “Bright Star?”

“That name,” Rush mumbled, shaking his head. He rubbed hard at his eyes.

“I know. Isn’t it a little funny?”

“No, Jackson, it isn’t. She… she…” Rush’s face crumpled. He appeared to struggle for an adequate explanation but ended completely inarticulate. “She’s bad. I mean, not bad. But… bad.”

Jackson chuckled for a moment. Then he sobered. Rush wasn’t kidding. “You mean like the Devil bad?”

“No,” Rush answered.

“You mean like she sleeps around bad?”

“No,” Rush repeated.

“What? I mean, she cheats on her taxes, she steals, she murdered someone? What kind of bad?”

“None of those things. All of those things. Worse.” Rush returned.

“Or did she do something as fucked up as spend her whole life stealing the memories from those closest to her?”

Rush did not respond, but neither did he cower or apologize. He just seemed to wait for Jackson to reign in his anger.

“How could you do this to me?” Jackson’s voice quaked.

“I had to.” Rush told him.

“You didn’t. I know now. I know everything now, and the world hasn’t come to an end. You could have told me. You could have left my head alone. I would never have done this to you.”

“I know,” Rush dipped his chin and spoke quietly, “You are a good person, Jackson. I know you wouldn’t do what I did, but I only wanted to protect you.”

“From what?”

“From me,” Rush responded, his voice so quiet.

“Show me.” Jackson breathed. When Rush only shook his head, he made a new request. “Then show me Bright Star.” If Rush wanted him to know exactly what it was that made Bright Star bad, he could use his power to show him.

“No,” Rush shook his head again. “You don’t need to see what I see.”

“Rush, you’ve done this to me since I was a kid. I’m an adult. I’m a member of the Service. I’m precocial. What could you possibly be protecting me from?”

Rush gave a lopsided smile. It was at once benevolent, sad and condescending. Jackson knew then that his brother would still try to protect him. Rush was stubborn to the end and would never allow Jackson to know what he knew.

Suddenly, another memory burrowed its way back inside his mind. It was of his mother. Jackson paused. He’d thought that none of those were left. She stood in the kitchen carefully cutting through a foam board. Rush was sitting at the kitchen table drawing. Jackson had been standing next to her studiously taking direction but leaning in too close. His full-scale model of the solar system was due the next day. Janie hummed and laughed, telling him stories about the planets, as she worked with the knife until it slipped and nearly sliced Jackson on the arm. At first, he didn’t understand why Rush would have bothered to take away that memory. Then, comprehension dawned on him. Rush hadn’t taken it, only given it back.

That knife would have cut him very badly had he been a regular little boy. But at that point, before he’d started training for the Service, his mother hadn’t understood how far his Talent ran. She hadn’t known that she couldn’t hurt him. No. In the last minute, she had used a Shift to deflect the knife. Rush had never even looked up from what he’d been doing. Rush hadn’t saved him that time. His mother had.

“Did you know?” Jackson demanded.

“Know what?” Rush asked truly bewildered.

“Know about Mom?”

Rush had started to turn away but he slowed his movements. His eyes focused on Jackson’s as he grasped for his brother’s memory. “I had a good idea.”

“You never said anything.”

“No.” Rush leaned back against the wall. There were dark smudges under his eyes. Stubble shadowed his jaw. There were beads of perspiration on his upper lip. He slid down the wall to the floor with his knees bent in front of him.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Please make her leave.”

For an instant, the new memory still fresh, Jackson believed Rush to be talking about their mother. But he wasn’t. Jackson took in the sight of his brother who wore fatigue and frustration like a badge. Rush’s appearance was as he saw it normally, but Jackson remembered what he really looked like. He was again amazed by what he had missed over the years. He couldn’t process it. He couldn’t. Instead, he focused again on the issue at hand.

“Please tell me why.”

The woman of discussion appeared in the doorway to the roof. Her bright blue eyes glowed and she smelled like fresh gardenias as she walked past Jackson. She squatted in front of Rush with her arms around her knees. They were eye to eye. “I’ve searched the world over and now I’ve found you, love,” she sang softly. Rush said nothing but returned her unwavering gaze. “Jacob Rush, I am your servant.”

“Really?” Rush asked dryly. Jackson almost identified a smirk on his lips. “Then tell my brother why you’re here and why I want you gone.”

Bright Star stood and approached Jackson with careful steps. She followed Rush’s direction. “Your brother has been given a very beautiful gift.”

“Yes,” Jackson stated just as dryly in a voice much like his brother’s. “I know. He reminded me of it just moments ago.”

“Yes,” she agreed with a soft nod. “You saw what he has done in this world so far. His Talent is more than just the power you have seen. Silly little Shifts that change a room, light a match, bend a spoon. He has the power of life. But it’s much, much more than that.”

“Again, I say, I’m aware.”

“No, Jackson, I’m afraid you don’t understand.”

“But—”

“Leave it alone, Jackson,” Rush said, standing. “Leave it alone. I thought I wanted her to tell you, but I don’t. I didn’t realize how… Never mind. I’m going to bed. You can sit out here all night if you want, Jacks, but I’m going to bed.” At the doorway, he added, “And, Jackson, I want her gone in the morning.”

He went back into the building. Jackson noticed that his brother did not look the same as he had just moments before: he had reverted to his natural form. Gone were the bags under his eyes, the washed out complexion, and the emaciated physique. They were replaced by a lean yet muscled body with its tall frame, toasted bronze skin, and those entrancing black eyes. Apparently, there was no point in hiding now or ever again.