Page 224 of Nobody's Girl

Eden pulls out a chair for me at the enormous table. I sit and he takes the place next to me. The other Phoenix couple sits across from us. It’s odd, but I have no questions to ask them, because they’ve told me everything in short clips of visions in my mind.

When they held my hands, I saw things so quickly it’s not humanly possible to process the information. Yet I did. Here I was thinking this whole time that I was plain old Alyssa Devlin, ordinary girl. I thought my destiny was to become Kyle Boyd’s wife and mother of his children. Nothing more than that.

Wow! I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Apparently, these creatures have existed for thousands and thousands of years. The couple who sits across from us doesn’t look it, but they’re one hundred and fifty years old, and they don’t look like they’re kicking the bucket anytime soon. They appear to be in excellent health. Both are still attractive, with few wrinkles and silky, shiny silver hair.

Grace has green eyes. In her younger years, they were a brilliant almost teal color. The years have faded them some, but not a lot. Rodney had chocolate brown eyes when he was young. His have faded a bit too, but they still radiate compassion. That’s what I feel the most in them is a compassion for others.

I know it dwells in myself, as well as in Eden. It will enhance once we’re able to change. So many things will enhance. They couldn’t show me the future, only the past. What our gifts will be is unknown, as each pair has different ones. But it’s the overwhelming compassion for all creatures which drive the Phoenixes.

An odd fact they shared was about birth control and how it doesn’t work on us. They’ve had five children in their marriage of one hundred and thirty two years. We’ll have children when Our Creator wants us to.

That’s another thing they gave me—faith. I believe without a shadow of doubt in Our Creator. Never have I had such a strong belief.

The only thing which bothers me about all of this is the knowledge that Kyle will never leave my heart. I made a place for him there and he will always reside within me.

My place is with Eden and he has a much larger place in me. He’s in my heart and soul, so much different than the small piece of my heart Kyle’s in. But he is a part of me, and I don’t know how the future will be with him always in my life.

He will be a part of it, though, and Eden, as well as Laura or anyone else who gets involved with Kyle, will have to deal with it the best they can. It’s out of my hands.

A maid fills all the stemmed glasses with a white wine and I look down the table at my parents. Scotty is on the same thought as he says, “Hey, Dad, am I allowed to drink wine?”

“If it’s placed in front of you, it’s yours, son,” my father answers.

Scotty does a funny thing with his eyebrows and says, “Man, life sure has changed, hasn’t it?”

We all find ourselves laughing. Eden’s hand comes to rest on my thigh and I look at him. It’s almost as if I can see right into his soul. I’m so nearly there. I send a thought out to him, shouting it loudly in my head to see if he can see it. ‘Tell me you love me.’ I send it out to him over and over as I look into his emerald eyes.

His knuckles graze my cheek and his caramel lips move as he whispers, “I do love you, Princess.”

Wow!

Grace and Rodney giggle at us, making my attention turn to them. “Did you see that?” I ask.

Rodney answers, “We heard it.”

OMG! They heard it!

‘Taste the wine,’ suddenly fills my head and I reach out to take the glass, taking a sip and finding it sweet and delicious. ‘Do you like it?’ runs through my mind. I turn to look at Eden and smile.

“I do,” I say, and he rewards me with a kiss on my cheek.

“This is fun,” he says as he raises his eyebrows.

Rodney gives Eden a wink, and says, “Just you wait until your wedding night. To be able to communicate with thought will prove quite stimulating to you both.”

I blush and look away, thinking about how men are always thinking about sex.

Grace surprises me as she speaks, “They all do, Alyssa. You’ll see soon enough when you can hear everyone’s thoughts.”

I giggle at the knowledge the couple across from us can hear everything we think. Eden looks at me. “This is so much better now that you know everything about us.”

I kiss his cheek. “It is.”

After dinner, we gather outside in the spacious back yard, if you can call it a yard. It’s roughly the size of a football field and a large and glorious swimming pool is lit up in the middle of it. The sound of the waterfall which flows into it makes a comforting sound in the night.

The Phoenix couple is about to give us a demonstration of their abilities, which will soon be ours. “All you have to do to transform is picture yourself as the bird. You’ll look just like we do, but you’ll keep your distinct eye color,” Rodney tells us.