“IF YOU DON’T ANSWER, I’M GONNA HAVE TO TXT THE WHOLE STORY TO YOU WILL TAKE ALL DAY…”
I jabbed the off button hard. Let him text until his thumbs bleed. Didn’t mean I had to read it.
Jinx returned with two Diet Pepsis, set the drinks on top of a stack of mail strewn across the top of the coffee table and dragged a chair up so that she sat across from me, our knees a foot apart.
“Okay…so learning how to block signals takes practice. You might get a bit of a headache at first, but like any other muscle, once you get used to using your mind in this way, it’ll get stronger and it won’t bother you anymore.”
I nodded.
“Now, tell me what you are sensing from me right now.”
I studied the woman in front of me, sitting cross legged. I wasn’t getting much of anything off of her. Dressed in a pair of ancient Levi’s and an apple green t-shirt, her springy hair tangled up into a bun held in place by a couple of wooden pencils, Jinx appeared to be totally at ease.
“I don’t feel much from you. Just a general feeling of contentment,” I said.
She grinned, “Good! I’ve been feeling very even-keel today —not too happy, but not upset or anything either. Now, I’m going to think about something that will change my mood. Let me know what you feel.”
She lowered her gaze to her lap, but her face remained perfectly neutral. I wondered again how old she was. Her oval-shaped face was un-lined, but her eyes held wisdom in their depths, giving her an ageless feel.
After a moment, the atmosphere in the room changed. Low levels of vibration tickled my mind. I tasted them with my sixth sense.
“There’s something…not quite sadness…more like nostalgia. Longing?”
Jinx giggled and the vibrations changed to a warm happiness. “That’s so cool! I was thinking about my mother. She died when I was so young that it’s hard to feel sad about it. I just sort of miss her, you know? I always wondered what it would be like if she had lived. Let’s try another one!”
She steadied her face again and concentrated. This time the buzzing grew with tension. My pulse increased a little.
“Anger?” I asked. “Frustration?”
“Yep,” she said, letting the emotion fade. “My cell phone company completely screwed up my bill this month and I spent half of the morning yesterday on the phone with —” she raised her fingers in air quotes “ —customer service, which was really just a call center in Bangalore or someplace.”
I was pretty pleased with myself. Maybe this empathy thing wouldn’t be so bad when I got used to it. I picked up my soda and took a long swig, letting the effervescence tingle the inside of my mouth before swallowing.
“All right,” Jinx continued, “I’m going to summon that same feeling again, only I want you to try to block me.”
“How?” I asked.
She pursed her lips together and squinted. “I don’t know. That is, I don’t know how to describe it. It’s second nature to me now. Okay…use your mind to feel the signal that I’m broadcasting.” She must have turned her thoughts back on Bangalore because the frustration meter ramped up again. “Can you feel it?”
“Yes,” I replied. My eyes drifted closed. Slowly, I reached the tendrils of my mind out to touch the emotions between us. I felt around them, stroking the edges, letting them lap at me like waves rolling and retreating on the wet sand of a beach.#p#分页标题#e#
“Now,” she whispered, trying not to break my concentration. “Block me.”
I flexed my mind, squeezing my fists tightly. The sand on my inner beach began to rise, holding the waves back. I could still feel the vibrations out there, but they couldn’t quite reach me. The muscles in my abdomen and shoulders flexed to lend my mind additional strength, but after about thirty seconds, I lost my grip and Jinx’s frustration came pouring through.
“Stop!” I shouted a little louder than I’d meant to.
Jinx let her thoughts fade back to neutral. “That’s good…really good! You actually had me blocked there for a while. How do you feel?”
The “little headache” that she’d warned me about was actually an ice pick being pounded into my frontal lobe. I rubbed my temples in slow circles.
“Ah, your head hurts. Told you that would happen. Want me to get you an Ibuprophen?”
I shook my head. “No, I’ll be okay. Let’s do it again.”
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic