"That would be a big fat yes."
"Since when?"
I shrugged. "Not sure, but there's been some weird shit going on since the cruise ship. I think maybe it got activated being on the water." Or more likely, being near Eddie, although I'd been around him for months without a problem. Why now? Maybe it was Eddie being near the water and me being near Eddie… I shook my head. "The ice thing is new. Well, newish." I told him about killing the vampires on the island with icicles.
"I think it's time you took a trip to see Tommy," he said. His tone brooked no argument. I couldn't blame him. He'd just seen his sister frozen solid. I'd probably get all bossy and stuff, too.
"Oh, I plan to," I agreed. "It's just that we have more important things to deal with right now."
"What's more important than you controlling your powers? What's more important than your life?"
"Oh, I don't know," I said testily. "Saving the world maybe?"
"How are you going to save the world if you're dead?"
He had a point. I needed to get these powers under control before they destroyed me and everyone around me. But I also needed to stop Alister. "Fine. But who's going after Alister? He could be anywhere. We must find him."
"We will," he said. "I'll make sure of it. You go get your shit together."
Trust your brother to tell you how it is.
"It's about time you got here."
I grinned as I slammed the trunk of my vintage Mustang shut. Tommy Wahenaka had a way with words.
Tommy was a shaman for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. He'd befriended my father, or rather, my father's ghost. And he'd watched over Trevor while he was growing up. Now he was my Yoda. Only I'm pretty sure Yoda was more talkative and less bossy.
"You've been waiting for me, then?" It was a question I didn't really need to ask.
Tommy snorted. "Trouble follows you like flies follow horse pucky, kiddo," he said, leaning casually on his hand-carved walking stick. He was dressed from top to bottom in faded denim topped with a battered cowboy hat and a pair of scuffed boots badly in need of new soles. A long iron-colored braid hung down his back, and you could have made a road map out of the lines on his face. But his eyes…his eyes were beautiful, ageless, full of the mysteries of the universe. "It was only a matter of time."
"Gee. Your faith in me is overwhelming."
He didn't bother responding. Instead he took my bag and carried it into the cabin. I followed behind more slowly, taking in the view. Things hadn't changed much in Tommy's world. The cabin was still its rickety, rustic self. The land around was still the same juniper- and sagebrush-studded dustbowl. The sky above was still so blue it hurt my eyes, and the wind stirred up little dust devils that danced across the potholed drive. It took a rugged kind of person to make to make it in this desolate landscape. Tommy was just the man for the job.
He put me in the same bedroom I'd had on my last visit. It wasn't much bigger than a closet, and there was just enough room for a single bed and a tiny cupboard to store my suitcase.
The last time I was here had also been to train after a catastrophic power failure. Made me sound like some kind of machine or something, but the truth was, my powers had a tendency to get away from me. Just when I thought I had them licked, they'd do something crazy, like freezing me in the bathtub or burning a house down. Tommy was the only person I knew who could help me control them. Maybe because he was a shaman, or maybe because of his promise to my father.
Tommy followed me into the room and dumped my suitcase in the corner. "Let's get started."
"Right now?" I'd just been running around the Nevada desert. I was exhausted. Bone tired. The last thing I wanted to do was play with my powers.
"No time like the present."
With a sigh I followed him outside. No sense burning down his cabin, I guessed. I didn't think that would go over too well. I followed Tommy across, well, what I guess would be called a lawn, although that was being generous. It was more like a patch of dry earth speckled with dead grass. It was late spring, so the grass should have been green, but the high desert was having a dry spell. We crunched across the gravel drive and onto the open plains of the high desert. Wonderful. The perfect place to start a brush fire. That was all I needed, my face plastered across the six o'clock news.
"Um, Tommy" I said. "I don't think this is a good idea."
"You afraid you gonna light something on fire?" The thought seemed to amuse him.
"Well, yeah, actually. I do have to tendency to burn things down. The last time, I burned down a whole house."
He mulled that over. "Ain't the Fire that's out of control."