I sighed, mostly because I knew I could never stay mad at him. “Thank you.”
Just as we reached the last few steps, my shoe snagged on the rusted railing and I pitched forward. Michael whirled around and caught me in a blur of motion. For a handful of seconds, his large hands suspended me above him and I stared down into his face, breathless, my head fuzzy with thoughts it had no business entertaining. A slow smile touched those full lips and I felt the vibrations from his chest as he spoke since we were pressed so close together.
“You’re welcome.”
Chapter 20
“As a Seer, you don’t possess what the average person would consider ‘magic.’ It’s more a manipulation of energy through speech. When you acknowledge the true nature of something, you are able to unlock its abilities.”
Michael paced back and forth in front of me as I sat in the grass on top of a small, secluded hill in the park. In the latter part of August, the heat slackened its moist grip on the city, leaving cooling breezes and pleasant atmosphere. I waited until he finished his small speech to respond.
“Now, in English, if you please.”
He rolled his eyes at me, but grinned anyway. “Fine. In Layman’s terms, you’re going to be defending yourself through speech, not some kind of mystical mumbo-jumbo. I’m going to teach you how to channel your energy so you can protect yourself.”
“See? Was that so hard?”
“Not as hard as it’s going to be,” Michael said with a sigh, plopping down in front of me. He crossed his legs and regarded me seriously with those green eyes of his.
“Gabriel has already exposed you to some of the language I’m talking about. When you invoke a spirit’s crossing over, you’re accessing a kind of verbal power. There are three basic versions: to heal, to defend, and to attack. For example, Raphael’s greatest strength is in healing incantations, which is how he was able to bring your body back to life after you were stabbed. Gabriel’s greatest strength is in defending, which you haven’t seen yet, but trust me when I say it’s impressive. My greatest strength is in attacking, but we won’t get to that until you’ve had experience with the first two. It’s dangerous if you try to utilize the energy untrained.”
“What exactly will I be saying to access this power? Bible verses? Ominous Latin chanting?”
He grinned. “More or less. There’s no need for the Latin, in actuality. It only works if the person has faith. There are hundreds of religions, but they all draw strength from the same source. Therefore, the one most relevant to you is Christianity, and since you understand the Bible in English, that’s what you’ll speak. The same would go for a Hindu Seer and so on. It’s the belief that counts.”
Michael scooted a little closer. “Close your eyes.”
I did. “Now keep breathing slowly and tell me if you can feel what I’m doing.”
I arched an eyebrow, though my eyes were still shut. “This isn’t going to be one of those awkward moments that changes our friendship forever, is it?”
He sighed again. “Jordan.”
“Sorry.”
After I had been slowly inhaling for about fifteen seconds or so, I felt a strange sort of warmth surrounding me. It wasn’t exactly physical—it simply felt as if the air around my body had risen in temperature. Then, something within my chest responded to the heat and sent wafting waves of coolness towards it.
“Do you feel that?”
“Yes.”
“This is what I was talking about a moment ago. You’ve been emitting this kind of energy at an unconscious level and that’s what draws the ghosts to you. It calls to them, like it does to anything that isn’t purely human.”
I opened my eyes. “Demons too?”
His expression hardened. “Yes, unfortunately. The Fallen don’t have as many powers as the angels, but they did retain many of their old ones after the War in Heaven. It’s why we’ve had so much trouble fighting them.”
“So this energy I’m feeling now…is that why I can sense your emotions sometimes?”
He gave me a surprised look. “That’s exactly why.”
“So what does it feel like to normal people?”
“Since you’re a Seer, you feel it directly. To them, it’s more like a…mood. If I were to influence, let’s say, one of my bandmates, they would feel a change in mood and wouldn’t know why. It’s not exactly a kind of control, although I could force that on them.”
“And that’s why the demons wanted your body.”
He nodded. “The demons could incite rage, hatred, violence—any sin they could think of—over human beings. It’d be mayhem.”
“Is there anyway to block it?”
“For normal people, no. For you, yes. You can draw your energy back into you and form a sort of shield. Here, I’ll show you.” He straightened his back and shoulders, resting his large hands on his knees.