"Welcome to the family, Dave," Margo greeted her soon-to-be son-in-law.
"Thank you," Dave said kissing Margo's cheek.
"I'm glad you could come," Lamont added it as he shook Dave's hand.
"I wouldn't miss it," Dave promised. "I'm sure Beatrix told you that they're is a secret I need to reveal."
"Why don't we go into the living room?" Lamont said gesturing towards the entrance.
Dave entered the room and Beatrix was immediately in his arms.
"Sit down, we have much to discuss before dinner," Lamont said. "Before you get started would you like something to drink?"
"Scotch would be great," Dave said. "Straight."
Once everybody had a drink in their hands Lamont started. "The secret of my family is now your secret, for if it is ever revealed it could mean the death of my entire family. I know you love my daughter and that you two are going to get married. Secrets in a marriage, especially major ones, are not good for any relationship."
"Tell me Dave do you believe in psychic phenomenon?" Beatrix asked her fiancé.
"I do actually," Dave admitted. "I know most people do not though and that is considered a pseudo science."
"Good that makes this easier," Lamont said pleased. He had expected disbelief, even anger and it looked like they had gotten off lucky.
"I am what is known as a protective telepath," Lamont explained. "And it took four partial awakenings before I finally fully awakened. I had so many things going on inside my head that I had no control over whatsoever."
Lamont made Dave's glass of scotch disappear and when Dave tried to pick it up it was like it wasn't there. "Normally, people with this kind of energy inside their heads can go insane after multiple partial awakenings that reveal more and more of their talents, but never fully awaken. I was lucky in a lot of ways. I had started using opium to smother the the voices in my head. I had absolutely no idea what was happening to me. This was way back in the late twenties and I was in Tibet. I didn't know it at the time, but there is a religious leader over there called the Tulku. The Tulku is right below the Panchen Lama in the religion hierarchy over there."
Lamont told the rest of the story, except for the part where he was the notorious Ying Ko. "I did things I'm not proud of now, but opium is a very seductive drug. It might've smothered the pain in my head, but it also smothered my conscious. I had so many things going on inside my head that it was driving me insane. I likely would've had some kind of cerebral episode eventually as that's what happens to adepts that keep having partial awakenings. Eventually they awaken all the way and their bodies just can't handle it. The Tulku helped me through my full awakening, helped me learn to cloud men's minds, which also helped relieve some of the energy inside my head. Because of my former addiction I've had a learn to recognize the taste of opium in medicine as the doctors don't always tell you what is in the drugs they give you. The last thing I want it to become addicted again. I never wanted to be that numb, ever again."
"So you were the Shadow," Dave said putting the clues together. He had a heard of the sentinel of darkness, but he hadn't been sure if he believed the tales of an invisible man whose laughter mocked you. Being able to cloud almost anyone's minds to make himself seem invisible was a totally different thing altogether. It was totally different to being invisible. Lamont wasn't truly invisible, it was just that other people were clouded to his presence when he was using his powers. On the surface, they might seem the same but really they were not.
"It was my penance, for doing all the evil things I did due to the opium. From what the Tulku could figure my parents and my grandparents and probably farther back then that also had this energy inside their heads, but never fully awakened until they had heart attacks or strokes. Not a single Cranston or Lamont lived past 60. I've lived longer than any of my ancestors, because I'm a fully awaken projective telepath who has learned to use the energy inside his head, so that it doesn't cause the same thing to happen to me. Of course, I can't prevent say me from being run over by a car or shot because I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's life, which is not at all safe."
"I had heard of the Shadow, but I wasn't sure I believed he was anything more than a legend until tonight. I had heard how he terrifies criminals into confessing. I also understand that you're trusting me with a very an enormous secret, so thank you for telling me."
"We kind of have to, if I'm going to marry you," Beatrix told Dave. "You see, one thing dad didn't cover is that all three of his children inherited his powerful projective telepathy."
"While Lamont has retired Wesley has taken on the mantle of the Shadow," Margo explained. "Also, while Lamont told you about his abilities he didn't mention that I'm also a telepath as well, but more the traditional kind. I am what is known as a receptive telepath, so in a lot of ways Lamont and I are like opposite sides of the same coin, or different sides of a scale. We are yin and yang. When we met I was only partially awakened and we connected in a way most people only dream about. I had always been able to feel when a man lusted after me. Every adept always has something that they can sense about a person naturally without it having to be trained. Lamont's is fear, mine is lust, the Tulku's is weakness. My mother died young and now I believe that she was a partially awakened adept just like I was when I first met Lamont. She always seemed to know what my father and I were thinking. They were very close unlike most couples and her death devastated my father. I believe that Eleanor Lane had no idea that she had all this untapped energy in her head that finally spilled over her natural barriers enough that she had a stroke."
"All adepts have natural barriers protecting their minds, but the Catch-22 is that eventually that barrier isn't going to be able to handle the immense energy that is building up inside their heads," Lamont explained.
"You've told me your secret," Dave said. "It is time I tell you mine, though I'm sure it's going to be even harder to believe than psychic phenomenon."
The three Cranstons listened attentively as Dave told them all about Immortals. While they wanted to disbelieve that such people could be real they couldn't, because if psychic phenomenon could be real why not immortals?
"I'll prove it to you if you like?" Dave offered.
"How?" Wesley asked coming into in the room. He had been standing in the doorway silently listening to Dave's tale.
"Well, the way it's usually done is I take a very sharp knife and cut my hand. The cut will of course, heal immediately."
"There is an easier way," Margo objected.
"How do you suggest we do that if you don't want me to cut my hand?" Dave asked curiously.
"I'll simply read your thoughts with your permission. It's not something I normally do, except with my family. It helps relieves the pressure on all our barriers for one thing. Lamont especially needs that on a regular basis as he is the most powerful one of us, though Wesley is not far behind and will likely grow stronger with age."
"Alright then," Dave decided. "That does seem simpler and that way I won't get blood on your expensive carpet, which will then be impossible to get out, so it will have to be replaced."
Margo nodded and stayed sitting, but a powerful energy swept into Dave's mind, reading every thought he had ever had.
When Margo finally withdrew her telepathy, she looked at her husband and nodded. "Everything he's told us is true. He has no barriers whatsoever, so he doesn't have any kind of psychic powers, but that doesn't mean that immortality isn't similar in a lot of ways."
"So if you marry our daughter does that mean as a way to turn her immortal," Lamont asked still reeling from the information he had been given. "I just can't see you marrying someone that's going to die in 40 or 50 years. I would think you've want someone to be with you for the rest of your very long life."
"Yes, there is," Dave agreed calmly. He had felt the powerful force of Margo's mind sweep through his like a tidal wave. "Of course, I won't do so without Beatrix's permission."
"How can such a thing be done?" Beatrix asked. "There is no science I know of that can turn someone immortal."
"No there's not, but I'll tell you later how it's done. Let's hope that people never discover a way to turn humans immortal, because there would be chaos if they did. Technically, I can die, but it's much harder to kill one of my kind then it is for humans."
"So technically it's kind of a limited immortality," Wesley said.
"I suppose so, though I've never thought of it like that," Dave said. "So long as we don't get killed in a specific way we basically live forever. We can recover from a wound that would be fatal to anybody else so long as we don't lose all our blood. There are numerous ways we can die like, losing our heads."
"So where did immortals come from?" Beatrix asked.
"Honestly I don't know," Dave shrugged. "I'm just a babe in the woods compared to some immortals. There are legends and myths about immortals in different countries, that most people just think are stories not based on any facts. Of course, immortal know differently but we aren't about to inform anybody else of it."
"I don't blame you for that," Lamont said. "I know from my own past and from fighting criminals for over 30 years that people can do horrible things. If some mobster got the idea that immortality was possible he would not stop until he found out how it was done. It's definitely information that we don't want the criminal element to get their hands on."
"Which is why we're perfectly normal to most people. We know how to act normal because we are normal, except for that one difference," Dave said. "We do have to move around every few decades, which is an annoyance but it has to be done. The one thing I know is that any immortal has one perfect match, kind of a mate to be with them through their lives. An Immortal always knows when they have met the right person."
"So you were serious when you said that you fell in love with me at first sight?" Beatrix asked and Dave nodded.
"It happens that way for Immortals. It actually sounds very similar to what happened with your parents."
"That's true," Lamont murmured, obviously lost in memories of how he and Margo had met. "We had an instant connection."
"I certainly felt an instant connection to Alice," Wesley admitted. "She is now a fully awakened clairvoyant, with more strength than I've ever seen in a woman. She's stronger than my father, and he was the strongest psychic I'd ever met before her."
"Yes, but my talent and Alice's lay in different directions, but what Wesley means is that Alice has more energy in her head then I do, meaning she's very powerful and that's really saying something. If Wesley hadn't connected with her the way he did, I can see the same thing happening to her that happened to my parents or Margo's mother."
"Enough energy spilling over a psychic barriers to where their heart simply explodes and they are dead before they hit the floor," Margo said.
"When Alice has a vision now it's always true," Wesley said.
"Before I forget this is for you," Beatrix said sliding a fire opal ring onto her fiancé's finger on his right hand. "Never take it off."
"You told me it was a Tibetan luck ring, but obviously it mean something more," Dave said looking at the ring now of the middle finger of his left hand.
"It is the symbol of what binds us together," Wesley explained. "Every single agent of the Shadow has one and this will allow you to identify each other. In Buddhist tradition when somebody saves your life it belongs to them. Now, I know technically, that none of us have saved your life, but you're going to marry into the family, so you also get one."
"I am familiar with different traditions," Dave said. "I've traveled all over the world in my time."
"When I finished my training with the Marpa Tulku he gave it to me. The Tulku believes in the passing of the Dharma. I suppose you would call it the soul. He always has a successor that shows up at the Temple of the Cobras to get training and he always knows when he's met that successor."
"So you're saying that when the Tulku is about to die he passes all his knowledge his soul to his successor," Dave said.
"I suppose you can now see why we didn't have any trouble believing in immortals," Margo noted.
"Yes, I can," Dave agreed smiling. "I know very well how hard it is to believe in someone that basically live forever, barring a certain set of circumstances."
"So when you said you believed in psychics phenomenon..." Lamont started to say.
"I was speaking nothing but the truth," Dave said. "I've met several people in my time who had psychic power that had awakened. Of course, I won't say they were as powerful as you are. I've seen things that most people would never believe were possible, not using the power of the mind anyway. I've been to the Orient though not specifically to Tibet. Really, if immortality is possible, even if that's in a limited sense, then why not psychic phenomenon?"
"He does have a point," Wesley noted, taking a sip of the cognac he had fixed himself before he had entered the room.
"I suppose there is something to be said to have been alive for a few hundred years," Margo said. "Just think of everything you can see or do in that amount of time."
"I've seen many strange things, things most people would never believe," Dave shrugged.
"You sure you want to marry him?" Lamont asked his daughter with a little smile already knowing the answer.
"You already know my answer to that dad," Beatrix said. "I love Dave so much that living for hundreds of years doesn't really frighten me. After all, I have all this power in my head and can do incredible things that most people can only dream about, things that to most people would be impossible. I'll always have Dave to talk to if I get overwhelmed and I'm sure there are other immortals out there."
"Yes, there are quite a few," Dave agreed. "My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents are still around just for example. I have more brothers and sisters then I know what to do with, though eight is what I grew up with so I wasn't telling an untruth when I said that. All of the above will be thrilled I have finally met my match and if they aren't invited to the wedding well you don't want to know what they'll do. They have ways of making their disappointment known."
"It'll be awhile before we know when the wedding will take place," Beatrix said. "There is a lot of planning that goes into such an event, especially considering that my family is rather high society. We won't be able to get away with just family and close friends attending."
"Unfortunately we'll have to invite people that Beatrix only knows vaguely," Margo said looking apologetic. "We'll have to do the same for Wesley's wedding to Alice, which will be a few months from now with yours and Beatrix's probably in the new year."
"I know there are certain expectations when someone is high society," Dave said. "Just because you have to invite those people doesn't mean that we have to talk to them other then the usual thank you for coming, hope you enjoy yourself."
"We can just stay out on the dance floor if they can't leave us alone," Beatrix said.
"I can run interference sis," Wesley promised. "You should be able enjoy your wedding day. I'm sure Jeff will agree to help."
"You do know how to dance, right Dave?" Margo asked. "If not then somebody is going to have to take lessons until they're competent."
"Yes, he can dance. He proved that at the Cobalt Club," Beatrix said, before Dave answered.
"Yes, as Beatrix said I know how to dance and I've certainly gotten a lot of practice lately," said Dave.
"Good," Margo said pleased. "I'm really sorry my father isn't going to be here to see his granddaughter get married or Wesley either."
"Yeah, my grandfather Dr. Reinhart Lane died a few years after Beatrix was born," Wesley supplied.
"He would have loved to have seen his grandchildren tie the knot, see them as happy as he always was with my mother," Margo added.
"Yeah, I think I was ten or so when he passed," Beatrix said.
"Nearly 11, but yes, you were more than halfway grown when he died," Margo said. "He only missed dying on your birthday by couple of months. I miss my father every day just like I'll always miss my mother. You are so lucky to still have your parents Dave."
"I know I am," Dave said. "I know very well if we weren't all immortal they would have died centuries ago."
"I don't miss my parents at all," Lamont said adding in his opinion. "My father was a hard man, cold, dictatorial, cruel. My mother was okay, but firmly under his thumb. Their marriage was arranged, which is a common thing among a certain section of society. I swore I would never do that to my children and let them marry for love, just as I did. While Alice is a very nice young woman, well mannered, she's hardly in our social strata, but neither was Margo when we married," Lamont shrugged. "I've seen what arranged marriages can turn into and I didn't want that for myself not my children. Plus there was my other life, something that I can hardly tell some high society lady about. They'd either faint and be disbelieving or they wouldn't be able to keep their mouths shut and while most people probably wouldn't believe her my identity would've gotten back to the criminal element probably faster than I believe. The response after that would have been swift, overwhelming and ruthless. I'm sure they would've blown up a city block just to get to me and my family if they had to. I can see them setting up explosive all over the Turtle Bay area and if we somehow managed to escape the destruction we'd soon be full of bullet holes. Margo, of course, believed in the Shadow because I saved her life and that of her father and the fact that she was also telepathic was an enormous bonus."
Lamont stopped seeming to be lost in memories.
"I understand what you're trying to say," Dave said. "I wasn't sure how you were going to take the fact that I've lived for hundreds of years. It's not exactly a very easy thing to believe in. When Beatrix told me you had secrets of your own I wasn't sure what to think. Now I know."
"I had to tell Margo all about my rather sordid past and that wasn't an easy thing for me to do. If she had decided that she didn't want anything to do with me while I would've understood intellectually it would still have destroyed me. I think we always know that we would eventually marry, but it took us awhile to work up to that," Lamont said.
"A couple of years and then nearly another year to plan the wedding," Margo agreed. "Unfortunately, it takes awhile to plan a big event, especially when you're doing it all yourself. I know my mother would have loved to help me plan my wedding, but she had been dead for 15 years, before I met Lamont."
"Well, I want your help mom," Beatrix said. "Things are bound to go faster with more than me."
"I'll be happy to sweetheart," mother said the smiling. "I was planning on offering, as I'm definitely helping out with your brother's wedding."
"He's male that's a totally different kettle of fish," Dave pointed out amused causing Wesley to grimace. "I've never met a male yet that knows the first thing about planning their nuptials, especially big splashy ones. If you want my mother's help I can contact her. She'll be ecstatic to help plan her son's wedding. Her and my father can certainly be here within the week. Traveling isn't as difficult now as it was back when I was born. It's actually quite easy to get from place to place."
"I wouldn't mind the help, as I'm sure she has some good ideas," Beatrix said.
"I'm sure she does. She's helped plan several wedding for her sons by now," Dave said. "Of course, the brides don't always want or need the help, but it will make things proceed faster."
"Anxious are you?" Wesley teased him and Dave took it with good grace.
"Of course, I am and you are bound to be too. If you say you are not I won't believe you. We're both marrying the love of our lives, so of course, we're anxious to get it over with. If it was arranged then I could understand you not being anxious," Dave shot back.
"He has a point son," Lamont said amused. "I was certainly anxious to marry Margo, but my duties as the Shadow kept me busy enough that I managed to distract myself. I never imagined I'd get married at all if you want to know the truth, because as I already said, it would've been hard to explain the Shadow to most women. I'm very happy that two of my children have found the ones for them, now the only one left is Jeffrey."
"Jeffrey is the one that's the most like you, at least personalitywise, though I have to admit he looks the most like me despite the brown hair and blue green eyes," Margo told Lamont who nodded.
"I dated a lot of bubble headed women before I met Margo," Lamont explained to Dave. "It's something I mainly did so nobody would even suspect I was the Shadow. My Uncle Wainwright Barth was actually the police commissioner before he died and he was always complaining when I was late for a lunch date with him. He didn't like Margo, said she was nice enough, but strange. No one knew anything about her family. He also called the Shadow the scourge of law enforcement and if he had never discovered it was his own nephew you don't want to know what his response would have been."
Lamont actually shivered, as he thought about his late uncle's response to finding out he was the shadow.
"Unfortunately, my father was kind of strange," Margo admitted. "Absent-minded and brilliant. He was a scientist before he died and we moved around a lot when I was growing up because he worked for the government."
"And with your powers that were as yet unawakened..." Lamont said.
"After some energy spilled over my barriers causing me to partially awaken I could always tell when a man was lusting after me. I didn't know what was happening of course, just that I had a really bad headache all day. Now I know that so much energy had built up behind my barriers that it eventually spilled over, which of course caused me to partially awaken."
Finally, Richard came and told everyone that dinner was ready.
"It's been a rather interesting discussion," Lamont told Dave.
"That's one way of putting it," Dave laughed relieving the tension that had been building. "I know you and your family were, expecting disbelief, when you told me about your psychic powers."
"Yes, we were, but we got lucky that you had encountered such things before, even if you don't possess the talent yourself," Lamont agreed.
"As an immortal or at least as close to immortal as anybody has ever gotten, it pays to keep an open mind. If people can live for centuries what's to say other things that are so far scientifically impossible aren't real as well?" Dave said smiling a little.
"That's a good point," Lamont agreed. "I have much the same view myself, because if psychic phenomenon can be real who says other strange things aren't? Just because I haven't encountered them doesn't mean they can't exist."
They reached the dining room and Dave pulled out the chair for Beatrix, getting a nod of approval from Margo.
"Thank you," Beatrix said smiling at her fiancé.
"You're quite welcome sweetie," Dave said looking down at her with a tender expression.
Once the two ladies were seated, Dave, Lamont and Wesley sat down themselves.
"So Jeff had a date?" Beatrix asked her brother.
"Yes, he did," Wesley agreed.
"Hopefully, he'll settle down soon," Margo commented.
"I doubt it mom," Wesley said. "With two of your children getting married sometime in the next year I don't think you need to worry about Jeff."
"I have to agree with with Wes here," Beatrix said. "I don't think Jeff is ready to settle down. Of course, if he meets someone special, then he'll probably change his mind."
"I didn't think I was ready to settle down either and then I met Alice," Wesley said. "I always figured I had time, as after all dad was in his late 30s when he met mom."
"I'm glad you didn't follow your father's rather dubious example," Margo mock scolded her son. "If you had, neither Lamont or I probably would have been around to meet your spouses, much less our grandchildren. Now it's possible that we'll live long enough to see our grandchildren grown."
Wesley simply grinned unrepentantly at his mother who mock scowled at him.
"Wesley, don't argue with your mother, especially since she is right. You don't need to follow my rather dubious example. I sincerely hope history doesn't repeat where it concerns getting addicted to opium or any other drug."
"That's not going to happen dad, we're awakened now," Beatrix reminded her father. "You on the other hand, had no idea what was going on in your head. You didn't know that you had enormous psychic potential until the Marpa Tulku saved your life. It's not a secret that's going to go back into a box and be forgotten about. I'm sure at least some of Dave's and my children will inherit my gift, possibly all of them. If Dave had a scrap of psychic talent than all of them would inherit our gifts."
"I know," Lamont admitted to his daughter. "I try not to worry, but that's a parents provocative, even when their children are grown."
Dave helpfully changed the subject to something more lighthearted and everybody's worries and concerns were forgotten about for the moment. What had started to turn into a serious discussion became more lighthearted. There was plenty of laughter as everybody ate the excellent dinner the cook had fixed.
~~~Dave and Beatrix~~~