How to Disappear Completely by Melody Ann Ross

Author:Melody Ann Ross
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780578667010
Published: 2020-03-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Vital Energy

The summer was approaching, bathing the city in long, dreamy twilights. School was out, kids were free, grownups were more relaxed, and California was showing off why she was called the golden state. Golden sunlight bathed the mountains in warmth, drawing people out to play and explore. Golden grass waved in the gentle inland hills, golden sands buffeted the coasts, golden lights shone upon the Hollywood studios welcoming summer blockbusters. It was a time of golden opportunity, and Cyrus had an event scheduled nearly every evening with Anthea.

He was watching her now with approval from behind a curtain as she welcomed the seance attendees, answering their questions and offering information of her own, all in a warm, matter-of-fact voice. He could almost believe her himself and wondered again why he didn’t tap her to invigorate his particular life force. But he quickly banished the thought at the softness of her smile, and the mischievous glitter in her eyes.

He wasn’t entirely sure what long-term effects his power had on other people, and he tried very hard never to extract so much that it caused any visible changes to them. He’d been alive for more than a century and was beginning to recognize other people in the world with his particular gift, even befriending one in Europe during the second Great War, the next war that was supposed to end all wars.

The man had recognized him, actually, and had approached him in a small town somewhere in France to chat with him. Cyrus hadn’t truly known much at that time, and was grateful to hear another person talk with assurance about immortality. The man was charismatic and warm, and Cyrus had believed every word he said, much to both of their amusement.

All around them, the countryside was ravaged and burned, but this town remained under Allied control, for now, and life moved on in its steady rhythm. Shopkeepers bartered for imported goods, bakers grumbled about the price of flour and baked their breads, innkeepers grumbled about the price of bread and rented their rooms, and everyone in the town attended Mass to pray for the end of the war. It was a strange time and a strange place to enjoy a meal and a glass of wine at a candlelit cafe, but this was still France. There was still time for good wine, good bread, and good conversation, war or no war.

“You, my friend, are burning steady and true like a candle,” the man had said to Cyrus after seating himself unannounced and unceremoniously on the cafe patio, “You are no longer in danger of destroying yourself in your own flames.”

Cyrus had been taken aback by the man’s echoing of Trickster’s words concerning candles and flames, but he’d begun to sense something emanating from the man, like the warm, quiet glow of a candle in the darkness. He had learned a great deal from the mysterious man about the consequences of their power on their own lives, but not very much about the consequences for others.

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