AN: Thanks to all who reviewed, chapters will start coming quicker as I have my own computer now :-D
Jeremiah woke slowly. His head was throbbing and every muscle in his body seemed to be responding incredibly slowly. He sat up in bed, and held his head in his hands.
"You gave us quite a scare, Mr. Pope!" A deep male voice said enthusiastically. Jeremiah opened his eyes. A tall man with salt and pepper colored hair and a three-piece suit was zipping a medical bag. Jeremiah barely recognized him as Dr. Hamilton, the only physician in the world who still made house calls outside of normal business hours. He had been looking after the Pope family for years. He couldn't remember how many times he had heard the story about how Dr. Hamilton had helped his uncle and aunt deliver their first baby. They had both passed away very shortly after that.
"What happened?" Jeremiah asked groggily, rubbing his temples.
"We were hoping you knew," Dr. Hamilton said, handing Jeremiah a t-shirt. "Your parents found you laying on the ground outside. Your father called me and said you were jittering around like you had been struck by lightning." Dr. Hamilton cleaned his glasses slowly on his shirt. "So I told him not to move you, and when I had arrived and was sure you didn't have a concussion or any brain damage, I moved you in here." Jeremiah gasped as the memories came flooding back to him. He remembered being drawn out into the rain, and the swirling mist. That mist had told him to find the covenant. It was probably just a dream. But that's an awful funny coincidence, how do you have a dream like that right after getting struck by lightning?
"Jeremy?" Dr. Hamilton's voice sliced through his thoughts.
"What, I'm sorry, come again?" Jeremiah said, bringing himself back to reality.
"I had simply asked if you were feeling alright, I have another patient in Salem in about half an hour."
"Oh yeah, you can go, I'll be fine," Jeremiah said, rubbing his temples in an attempt to thwart the headache that was surging into his skull. The door to Jeremiah's bedroom swung open all by itself, slamming hard against the jamb. Dr. Hamilton grabbed his bag, puzzling at the door for a moment then advising Jeremiah to take it easy today. He nodded, his attempt to head off his headache proved futile as it attacked his forehead like an elephant with a jackhammer in a china shop. Dr. Hamilton left the room and the door, again acting as though possessed, slammed shut behind him. Jeremiah lay back in bed, moaning in pain. Before long, the headache became too much and sleep took him.
Sarah sat in the passenger seat as Caleb downshifted his mustang to negotiate a corner. They were on a back road, traveling toward Salem, and for once, the weather was beautiful. Sarah giggled animatedly as a couple of blossoms fell from a passing apple tree and landed in her lap. She stuck one in her hair, the other in Calebs shirt pocket. Leaning over, she brushed her lips against his cheek, happy just to be spending time with him. She was probably the only one outside of the four boys and their families, other than Pogue's girlfriend, Kate, who knew about the power. Although she had been unconscious, she had been present for Caleb's ascension and the fight against Chase. In fact, Chase had used her as bait to lure Caleb to the barn. He loved Sarah because she respected his power, and his wealth and she understood what using could do to him and how addicting it was. Caleb had told Sarah everything about the previous night and she had insisted on coming with him to hunt for the fifth.
The four had split up, figuring they would cover more ground, although they had all headed toward Salem, where they had determined that the lightning had struck just before they had gone into the cave. A hollow feeling struck Caleb in the pit of his stomach as he felt someone use, it wasn't much, and he doubted Tyler or Reid could feel it as they weren't ascended yet. His cell phone rang just as the feeling passed. He picked it up and flipped it opened.
"Hello?"
"Caleb?" It was Pogue, he sounded a little frantic.
"Yeah, what's up, Pogue?" Caleb said, hugging the phone between his ear and shoulder so he could shift.
"Did you feel that?" Pogue said, "Someone just used!" Pogue was riding with Kate who was driving her Toyota. Pogue was still having a hard time getting behind the wheel.
"Call Reid, ask him if it was him. It didn't feel like him, but call and ask just the same. I'll call Tyler. Call me back when you're done talking with Reid." Caleb closed his phone and opened it again. He called up Tyler's phone number and pushed the dial button.
"What's up Caleb?" Tyler answered. The hollow feeling returned, but it only lasted another second and it was gone.
"How's the drive? Have you had to use at all?" Caleb asked. Sarah looked at him with a grin and strained her ears to hear Tyler's answer.
"Good, it's a great day for a drive. But no, I haven't used all day, why?" Tyler replied.
"Don't worry about why. Call me if you find anything." Caleb said, closing his phone. He shifted up, blazing by a small farmhouse set just off the road. A man carrying a medical bag was opening the door on a small black car. Caleb's phone rang again.
"Pogue?" He said, putting the handset to his ear.
"Yeah, Reid says that he didn't use at all, but there is some asshole that just pulled out in front of him and he's ready to blow all four of his tires." Pogue chuckled uneasily.
The rest of the morning and into late afternoon was mostly uneventful, marked only by the clock and the gradual diminishing of the fuel in everyone's gas tanks. It was just after two thirty when the six of them had decided to stop at a local diner for a late lunch. The girls sat giggling at the table nibbling at their food while the boys sat staring at theirs. An uneasy feeling had settled upon the sons. Pogue wasn't sure if anyone had actually realized the gravity of the situation until just now. There was a newly appointed son who is definitely under 18, more than likely scared out of his mind, and not in any position to begin to understand the powers. End result: They were either looking for a crazed maniacal kid who has just found out he has amazing powers or a scared lonely kid who's world is crumbling around him because he can't control said powers. Either way, they might be looking at a fight. Pogue sighed loudly and popped a piece of steak in his mouth.
"Did you hear about the Pope boy?" One of the ladies behind the serving island whispered to the other.
"The one who delivers newspapers?" Pogue struggled to eavesdrop as soon as the word "pope" caught his ear. The conversation came through in broken bits. Pogue's eyes flashed with fire and then turned black as night and the conversation came to his ears as though he was sitting right next to them.
"Yes, the one who lives outside of town, he comes in here to ask for a glass of water every now and again while he is delivering papers." The woman with gray hair said. She fussed for a second with her apron.
"Yeah, what about him?" The dark haired woman replied, her accent was thick, straight from Boston.
"Doctor Hamilton said that he got struck by lightning last night. He's okay, but it threw him for a loop." Gray said. "I think it was his dad who delivered the papers this morning."
"Wow, he didn't go to the hospital or anything did he?" Dark said, the wiped her clean hands on a towel.
"No, Marcus said that he was going to be laid up in bed at least today, maybe tomorrow. I was going to drop off some clam chowder to him after I get off, did you want to send him something too?" Gray said, snapping a cap onto a plastic container. She turned it upside down just once to see if it was airtight and set it back on the counter. Dark twirled a lock of hair around her finger.
Pogue looked up to cut a piece of meat off his steak, which was cooked to perfection, and noticed Caleb and the other three glaring at him. They had noticed him using, the magic was undetectable accept to those who knew to look for it. The two girls stopped chattering for a moment and watched Pogue intently, both Kate and Sarah knowing the secret of his black eyes. Gray dropped the container into a plastic bag and looked at her co-worker.
"No," she replied "I'll stop by later, I'll pick him up a card or something…" she trailed off.
"Follow her." Pogue said quietly, gesturing toward the Gray haired lady. His eyes changed back to their normal pale blue and he watched Gray grab her plastic bag and head out the door, shouting a heart felt goodbye to the cook. Caleb stood and left the restaurant, heading for his car.
"Check please!" Pogue exclaimed, looking towards Dark. She smiled and walked the thin sheet of paper over to the table.