“You don’t, at first,” he said. “I was about three when I started, too. Course, I had the advantage of a father, uncle, and big brother to walk me through it. At first, it was just fun—a game Matt and I played with our daddy and uncle. But then, they started to take us aside and teach us how to focus, how to control what was happenin’ to us—and how important it was to keep it a secret from anyone outside the family. Truth was we kind of felt sorry for the other kids in school, on account of they couldn’t Shift.”
“I never went to school,” she said. “Granny had to keep me home and close, because I couldn’t ever choose not to change—Shift?” He nodded. “So I was home-schooled, which turned out okay. I mean I probably learned a lot more than the other kids did, since I earned my GED when I was fifteen. I don’t think I missed much.”
Mark raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Fifteen? Wow. I’m impressed.”
“You shouldn’t be,” Addy said. “We have a pretty big library, and Granny’s a terrific teacher. Plus I had one-on-one instruction all the way through, and I’ve always loved to read. And anyway, just look what you can do.” She gestured down the slope toward where he had been standing when he’d Shifted. “Are you always in control that way?”
“Heck, no,” he said, sitting back up. “You remember I said our band avoids all that glitter and bright lights, pyrotechnics and smoke crap? We avoid really big crowds, too, ’cause if any of us start feelin’ cornered, well, we can sometimes Shift without thinkin’ about it, and that can be more than awkward.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Course, sometimes you have to take a chance. That happened to us just last spring.”
“What happened?” This Addy wanted to hear, since these were the times that really scared her.
“Well, me and my brothers and Uncle Bart were playing pool at this place in Nashville. It was a real dump, but we’d found it a good place to hang out on account of they had a bunch of illegal gambling goin’ on.”
“You and your brothers gamble?”
“Heck, no—I mean Ma would kill us, if she ever thought that—but we figured we could really relax there, ’cause no one was likely to ask too many questions.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, well, anyway, we didn’t know Mel was tryin’ to find us.”
“That agency woman?”
“Yeah. Turns out, she’d heard us play, and was trying to track us down. Somebody told her where we liked to hang out.”
“Uh-oh.”
Mark snorted. “You get the picture. See, Mel came in, and we were in the back room. Before she could come find us, some low-life in the bar started hittin’ on her. When she said ‘no,’ he got really mad and started to hurt her.
“That’s about the time Matt went back into the bar to get us some more beer. Well, he heard Mel scream, and jumped in to help, and before we knew it, we’d all Shifted, Matt to handle the guy on Mel, and the rest of us to keep the biker crowd off Matt.”
“Was Mel okay?”
“Oh, sure. A little shaken up—and I’m not sure she would’ve taken us all home with her, iffen she hadn’t been—but everything turned out okay. The thing is, Matt left the guy pretty bloody, and we were lucky nobody in the bar wanted to attract the attention of the police, so they just let us go.”
Addy had mangled a wildflower, while Mark was speaking, and now she tossed it aside.
“How did Mel handle…well, what did she think about…what you can do?”
“I won’t say she accepted it as normal or anything—not right away, that is—but Matt did save her, and we all pitched in to help her keep her job at the talent agency, so it gave her a couple of reasons to be open-minded about the whole thing.”
“And now she’s really goin’ to marry your brother?”
Mark grinned. “Yeah.”
Addy shook her head. “I hear what you’re sayin’, but I don’t know if I can do what you do. I’ve never been to a city before, and I don’t know if I can face all that…well, that newness, all those people…and still stay myself. I can’t just turn it on and turn it off like you seem to be able to do.”
Mark shifted to his knees and held out his hand.
“Let’s see.”
“What?”
“Let’s see if you can ‘just turn it on and turn it off’ if you try,” he said, straightening and offering her both his hands.
“I can’t just…”
“I’ll be you can, Addy. I’ll bet if you just relax and let yourself go, you can do it.”
Addy’s gaze flickered between his golden eyes and his offered hands, uncertain, then she took a deep breath.
“Do you really think I could?” she asked, incredulous.
“There’s only one way to find out.”
Screwing up her courage, she moved to her knees, and after only a moment’s hesitation, she laid her hands in his.
14