Last time I checked in the mirror I looked like a teenage girl, not Joss stirling. So I don't own her books, no matter how much I wish I did!
"Xander get your arse down the stairs now!" I yelled from the kitchen aiming my voice roughly at his bedroom while flipping the pancake with care using telekinesis as I had tried to do it before without using my powers and it had ended up falling into the flame and filling the room with smoke that didn't smell nice at all.
"I didn't do it." He said as soon as his aura was in view. I wasn't shocked at all that he had done something bad but more shocked at the fact that he had blatantly admitted to it. Not that his secret would have stayed safe for long, his aura was filled with guilt. I hoped he hadn't done anything too bad.
"I wasn't going to say that but thank you for pointing out that you need punishing." I smiled slightly turning my head so that I could see his horrified aura and what would probably have been a terrified face if I could see like normal people. But I didn't. I saw like a Seer. A Seer is a very powerful savant that can see emotions and auras and affect them, either for persuasion or to remove the person's emotions or living force to kill the person. I had only used my power to its full potential when we were under attack and didn't enjoy manipulating people's life force or aura, it felt like I was invading their privacy.
"I'm innocent." He said pouring his manipulation gift into every word. I held up both my hands and stopped it with shields before it even touched me, not wanting to hear a word of his manipulating gift.
"Don't you try that on me Xander Alson." He must have seen my scowl and how annoyed I was so he dropped the act leaning against the kitchen counter waiting until I could face him when I finished placing all the pancakes on two plates. I slid one over in his general direction not really concentrating and heard his annoyed grunt.
"Iris you hit me in the face!" He complained placing the plate on the counter-top with a loud clang to make sure I heard.
"Ups, sorry." I told him not sounding sorry at all and then spinning around to face him wearing a very angry expression that announced an attack was coming. "You will tell me the truth." I said while implanting it into his brain to make sure he went along with it. I thought that was the only good part of my gift, I could not manipulate people but could make them believe that what I wanted them to do was the right thing. It came in handy when punishing Xander. He gulped loudly and I saw the change in his aura that I had implanted, he might have been nodding but I wasn't sure; not that I needed any confirmation, I knew he agreed now that I had made him see what I wanted him to see. "What did you do?" I didn't need to do anything now as he would be telling me the truth now no matter the question.
"I didn't do the dishes last night." He got out really quickly. Sighing I went over to the sink an felt in it until my hand felt all the plates, cups and cutlery we had used to have dinner the night before. At least it wasn't that bad, it could have been much worse knowing him. He could have strapped roller skates on the neighbour's cat like last week or he could have made everybody believe the fire bell had gone off and that there was a fire in the school so that they all seemed stupid when trying to explain to the fire-fighters that they had called because of a non-existent fire. Like two weeks ago.
"You're doing them." I told him not breaking my stride and sitting down at the table to eat my pancakes that had been delivered to their destination safely (unlike Xander's). He agreed quickly and a few seconds later I heard the water running so I left him alone and concentrated on trying to do a smiley on my pancakes not really sure how to. I had seen what they looked like thanks to Xan showing me from his memories of times when he had done them for himself as our parents couldn't attend to that job.
"Here." Came Xan's voice from behind me as he took the syrup bottle from my hands and drew on it, showing me what it looked like through telekinesis. I smiled and thanked him digging into my pancakes, Xan sat down next to me and ate his too not bothering with a drawing with chocolate syrup on his and just pouring some over his breakfast. It was only then that I got a sense of danger and felt auras full of hate and loathing near the house. Swallowing what I had in my mouth with bothering to chew I turned to Xan and spoke to him telepathically following Seer brain-frequency so that nobody would hear us.
We're going.
Why? Came his reply to my sudden outburst, but when he realised what telepathic frequency I was using he got it immediately and dragged me along to the back door that led straight to the forest. Xan would have to guide me but I had already run blind through the forest and Xan knew what he would have to do to keep me from tripping.
Attack. Five of them. I said not bothering to make proper sentences. An image of the forest was pushed into my mind and I was linked with Xan. I heard and saw what he heard and saw what he saw, this would help us escape our attackers no matter what the circumstances as for a short time I wouldn't be blind and would be able to run and take to the hills with Xan.
Go! He didn't bother making sentences out of his words either as we sprinted towards the woods. Him concentrating on keeping what he was seeing in my head and me sensing with my full potential around us, ready to tear apart anybody that came too close to comfort. Noticing an aura running straight for us I ripped the man or woman's life force field from them and felt them crumble to the floor with no emotions to call theirs. Doing this took a lot of energy and as soon as Xan realised what I did he dropped the image from my mind and picked me up, carrying me on his back. It wasn't very hard as I was barely five foot three and weighed less than a hundred pounds while he trained daily in the gym just in case we faced something like this again. Thinking we'd be safe had been wistful thinking but for a minute I had felt at peace thinking we had finally found a sanctuary. Oh how wrong I was.
You Ok back there? He asked still keeping to the Seer telepathic frequency just in case someone was near enough to hear but not near enough for me to sense them, the chances of that happening were virtually impossible but I preferred to keep to the motto better-safe-than-sorry in these circumstances.
Fine. I replied almost straight after I heard him so as to not worry him. I wasn't fine though, I had been ripped from my home again and I was not bloody fine! It had happened so many times before, first in London, then in Germany then in France and then here in the Netherlands after almost ten years of living in relative safety that had me thinking we really had fooled them and could lead normal lives that didn't include psychopaths and murderers. My life was hard enough already, I didn't need that added to the mix.
This reminds me of when you carried me and I blurted out instructions to help us escape. He said casually obviously trying to distract me from the cryptic thoughts that were staining my brain, little by little poisoning every corner in it, destroying every single happy thought I had that lead up to this moment.
The moment that ruined my life yet again.
