Alien in the Family

Reader got off the stage, and the curtain rose. I was already on my feet, holding Kimmie up. The band opened with “Cold,” which meant Claudia, Lorraine, and I were already singing along at the top of our lungs. In between screaming.

I’d seen them before, and I had the T-shirts to prove it, but it was different seeing them here, and knowing they were here for, well, me. It was also a really neat surprise to discover that Martini had turned Dazzlers of all ages into TFF fans. I wouldn’t have to worry about finding someone to go with on their next concert tour.

They did song after song, and not just all the hits, but all the ones I liked the best. I assumed Tim had had a lot to do with the song selections. After me, he knew the music I liked to listen to the best, both when and why.

They did a full ninety-minute set without anything other than a water break. They were awesome, charming, and fu

I was shocked, but they came back out for an encore. “We had a special request for this encore, from the groom-to-be.” The band went into a slow song that I recognized in a few lines: “I Choose You.” There was a lot of sniffling in the audience. I did my best not to start bawling my head off.

The band let the end of the song hang on the air, then went into “Closest Thing to Heaven.” I was still trying not to cry. I felt someone watching me and handed Kimmie to Lorraine. Looked around and spotted him. No idea how long he’d been in the room—like the rest of the guys, he was in the shadows. He was leaning against a wall at the end of the row, watching me. I ran past the rest of the front row and jumped into his arms.

Martini caught me and kissed me as the band rolled into “Secret World.” He kissed me all through the song. I heard the band joke that the bride seemed happy with the encore, and I could tell from the way they were laughing and the audience reaction that everyone knew Martini and I were kissing. Didn’t care.

The band said goodnight, screams and thunderous applause were heard, concert was over, and we were still kissing. Best concert of my life.

CHAPTER 65

THE REST OF THE NIGHT WAS A BLUR. Got to meet the band, with Martini keeping a firm hold on me, just in case. How the guys in the band didn’t drop from exhaustion was beyond me—our crowd was pretty well-behaved, but I caught that the Dazzlers felt, particularly after this concert, that musical genius was almost as good as scientific genius, and we had to do some crowd control before we ended up with a mob scene.

Once the band was finally safe, we all went back to the main party. Martini was carrying me around on his hip, which earned us a lot of jokes, all of which he seemed to enjoy. I was just so happy to finally be with him that I didn’t care.

He gri

“Every single time, Jeff.” Had to make out a bit after that, which earned us more ribbing from the various family members.

“So,” I asked after we broke the latest lip-lock, “how long were you watching?”

“Oh, a while before you noticed. I didn’t want you to know I was there until the encore started.”

“And then you did?”

“Then I felt how much you liked it.” He sounded so happy, had to make out again.

“Do you two ever stop?” Christopher was laughing.

“Nope,” Martini said with a satisfied smile.

“Christopher, did you, um, have the wise idea to change viewpoints?”

“You’re trying to be secretive. So not your forté.”

I rolled my eyes. “I had cousins asking me if you guys were Mormons. My sorority sisters seemed clueless. I thought your father and Jeff and Paul’s parents had spilled the beans, so to speak.”

“Oh, you mean the total security breach that could cause untold ramifications?” He sounded as thrilled with it as I was. Thank God someone else saw this as a potentially bad thing. “It’s handled.”

“What did you do?” Martini asked, as he moved the three of us into a quiet corner.

Christopher shrugged. “It dawned on me a few months ago that Kitty was probably right.”

“Wow, I may faint. Right about what?”

“Genetic mutations. Between us and humans.”

“Serene is our poster girl.”

“Right. But Paul’s talents are normal, at least as far as we know. And Michael has no special talents.” Christopher stared at me.

“Um . . . this is a test? You’re testing me at my bachelorette party? Is it just ’cause I talked all smack about this and I’m right or is it because you like to torture?”

“Both.”

Made the exasperation sound. “Fine.” Thought about it. Thought about it some more. “Serene is more powerful . . . Paul and Michael are not . . . oh, wow, really?”

“Yeah.”

“Feeling left out and stupid here,” Martini said dryly.

“I’m guessing that Naomi and Abigail Gower have powers no one’s told anyone else about. Right?”

“Right.” Christopher looked around. I did, too. No one was paying us much attention. “Naomi has Paul’s talent, but it’s different, the way Serene’s an imageer but with expanded powers. Naomi can read dreams and memories, but she can also alter them.”

“Wow. That’s a scary talent.”

“If allowed to go uncontrolled, yes.”

“Does Abigail have a . . . mutation?” Martini sounded worried.

“Jeff, we’re not the X-Men.”

“Starting to sound like it,” Chuckie said as he joined us. “Not that I mind.”

Christopher sighed. “Yeah, we know. This is a great day for the C.I.A.”

“Abigail?” Martini asked, Commander voice on.

“She doesn’t need an implant to affect the gasses. It’s a combo dream-imageer talent, we think. She just moves them around without outside assistance. She can also pick up thoughts, but she feels them as emotions, sort of empathic but not quite. She can pick up if someone is thinking angry thoughts, because she feels angry when she’s near that person, as an example.” Christopher sounded only mildly worried.

“They must have been fun in puberty.”

“They were controlled by then.” Christopher sounded more worried.

“By whom?”

He shook his head. “They have no idea. They just know someone was helping them when they were little girls. They don’t know who, they never met the person, both think it was a man but aren’t sure.” He sounded full-on worried.

“I’m going to bet that when we ask Serene, it’ll be the same for her.”

“Probably.” Martini’s voice was brisk. “So Abigail’s altering what Kitty’s family and friends are seeing and will see?”

Christopher shrugged. “In a way. If she spots people who are afraid, angry, and so on, Naomi will alter their memories. The girls work well together.”

“How long have you been testing them without telling me?” Martini didn’t sound happy.

Christopher shrugged. “A couple of months. Jeff, you were too distracted.”

“With what?”

Christopher coughed. “Marrying Kitty.”

“Oh.”

“We’re going to run some tests on them,” Chuckie said. “Standard emotional and mental stability tests, long-term effects on both of them and those with altered memories.”

“Wait, we don’t know the results? So, what, you’re going to use my family as part of an experiment?”

Chuckie rolled his eyes. “Yes and no. You have a choice: We can let the Gower girls do their thing, or you can allow the security breach the four of us and your mother are all unexcited about. From what White’s told me, the tests they’ve already done are pretty comprehensive; we just want to be more sure.”

“The C.I.A. does not have the right to test any of our people on anything.” Martini sounded like he was heading toward angry with a potential stop at furious.