Chapter 34: Plans

While waiting for Michael, Andrea went to the records room and started pulling addresses. There were only four houses in the small town with a street number that matched the one I'd seen. She set the small stack in front of me and sat on the other side of the table.

Chloe, Yvonne and Savannah were all there too. They weren't pressed right up against me but they seemed to have made an agreement that one of them would be within touching distance at all times. Maybe I looked worse off than I felt.

Andrea opened the first folder and pushed it in front of me. The information covered the owners, the original construction and other developments but there were no pictures. I looked up at Andrea, my question obvious on my face.

"There's a guy in House Isaacs who can see things by touching objects. He calls it clairvoyance. I'm not sure if that's the correct term but it's still impressive. Michael told me you have potential and undiscovered abilities. Let's see if we can wake one of them up."

I was doubtful about that and told her so.

"Why?"

"Each of my abilities developed when I bound one of my women to me. There's only one other instance when anything happened that didn't include sex."

"What was that?"

"Erin had been kidnapped. She called out to me for help. As I tracked her down, more abilities came to me and when I confronted the one who had taken her, I gained more."

Andrea nodded. "You're worried about your family, right?"

"Yes, but I can't feel Mandy. If she were calling for help, it would spur me more, but there's nothing."

"Define nothing."

"Well, it's like picking up a phone. There's no dial tone, but you can tell there's still a line."

"And you keep dialing a number hoping it would go through. You can't do the same thing over and over and expect different results. This is different from when Erin needed you; Mandy's in trouble but cannot call you. Try a different route. Try finding her with the map or these files."

I considered what she said. Normally I would just know which way to go to find Mandy, but since I wasn't getting any feedback from her, I had to dial the operator. In this case though, I had to use something as the focus. I looked down at the first file.

The file was just paper with words. I picked it up, looked it over, read the front, and glanced at the back. Nothing. I closed that folder and went to the next one. Nothing again. And again. On the fourth I felt something. It was like being shocked when I picked up the folder, so I dropped it immediately. Papers slid across the table. Andrea and the others watched as I looked over the papers without touching them. Something here had caused the jolt, but what? Gingerly, I picked up the first one. It had the address on it and as I thought about the street, I remembered.

"Third house on the left. Blue with white trim. The last time I saw this house I was twelve..." I looked up at Andrea. "Randal lived there, but I knew him as Mr. Sutton. I had thought for a while that he was related because his name was so close to mine."

"Isn't it amusing that he was?" Andrea was trying to lighten the mood. I appreciated it and gave her a small smile.

"This is where we need to go."

She pulled out her cell phone and I held up my hand, "No, Andrea. I'm going in alone. They need help and it's because of my blood family that they're caught up in this. I'll get them out."

"I'm not sure you going in alone is a good idea, Ral," Andrea replied.

"And why not, do you believe you could break Randal's hold over them?" came a reply from behind me. Michael walked in, his coat hung over one arm and his knowing smile in place.

Andrea looked up at Michael as I turned around. Michael hung his coat over the back of one chair and pulled another around to sit with us. "Ral has bound more people to himself than any Mind Magi I know of. Could you bind three people to yourself to break Randal's hold?"