Looking For A Legend (Book 1)

Looking For A Legend Chapter 13 - Elijah & Valentina

            Just as soon as Eli got the message, he and Levi had paid their tab and got their coats.  Levi hailed his brother a cab.  Before his Eli could object, Levi had pushed the younger Coates into the car’s backseat, and paid the cabby.  Eli gave his brother the address, and then Levi in turn, passed it to the driver.  On the drive, Eli thought about what his brother had said.  The idea of sharing his gift with Valentina both scared him and excited him.  It would make communication easier.  And it would bring them closer together.  Maybe then she would leave Billy Duke.  Why wasn’t Billy Duke in a cab, rushing to Valentina’s side at two in the morning?

            Eli climbed out of the cab in front of the estate, and walked to the carriage house.  A light was on inside.  The door opened as he raised his hand to knocked, followed by a pajama clad Valentina, throwing her arms around Eli.  Unsure of what to do, Eli held her to his chest.  After a few moments, she led him inside.  Only a few lamps were lit, and a tea kettle was whistling.

            “Oh, Eli! Thank you, so much for coming. I wasn’t sure you got my text, or that you would come over.  I just… I needed someone here with me.  Someone to talk to.” Valentina told him.  She brought Eli into the sitting room, and then went into the kitchen to pour two cups of tea. “I was asleep, and I saw Tracker.  It wasn’t just a dream, either.  He seemed to know things about me.  Things that I didn’t even know.  I’m a little scared.” Valentina blurted out almost too quickly.  Eli noticed that she was trembling as she brought him a cup of tea.  Unsure if she was shivering or just shaken up, he stood and took off his jacket.  He met her half way to put his jacket around her shoulders.

            “Like James Bond, I take my tea shaken – not stirred.”  Eli joked, attempting to touch Valentina’s mind.  Admittedly a little drunk, he did not think before he started the telepathic link.  The only thing Eli could think of was calming Valentina down.

            “Eli… What… Was that… Did you speak?”  Valentina looked at him, wide eyed.  She didn’t see his lips move, but she was distressed.  Maybe he was just one of those people that spoke without moving his mouth much.

            “Yes…” His deep voice echoed through her mind, slowly.  He was cautious, realizing that he might be adding to her stress, instead of helping to relieve it. “In a way.  I am a telepath, among other gifts.  This is how I speak with my brother, and he suggested that I share this with you as well.  I… I hope I didn’t scare you.”  Eli watched her carefully.  He did not expect the reaction she showed him.  There were no words from her as Valentina slipped her arms around him.  After a moment, he realized she was crying.  Eli held her to his chest, rubbing her back through his jacket.

            “Eli,” her voice was barely above a whisper.  “Tracker said people gave their lives for mine.”

            “It was just a dream, Valentina.” He assured her, “You just had something on your mind.”

            Valentina pulled away, but only to collect their cups of tea, and lead Eli into her bedroom.  While not as big as her room back home in New York, it was decorated as nicely.  An upholstered headboard matched the linens on her bed.  All the wood in the room, her vanity, nightstand, and armoire, were all the same worn white.  Tracker’s diary was still strewn across her bed.

            “It was all so… not dream like.  I didn’t have control.” Valentina told him as she started to clear a spot on the bed.  “And I think Tracker’s abduction happened more recently than I previously assumed.”  She crawled into the center of her bed, and then looked at Eli expectantly.  After an unsure moment, he sat down on the bed beside her.