The Lost Read Free Page A

dimmed by the shades, the lights in his office automatically adjusted. Once again he sent a scintilla of his energy along the wires to power down the lights.
    Steepling his hands on the arms of the chair, he brought them up to his mouth while he sat in the darkness, considering the exchange with his father. Salvatore had meant well, he knew. No father liked to see his child alone and Salvatore wasn’t much different, even if Adam wasn’t his flesh-and-blood son. But Adam couldn’t envision getting involved with anyone, much less having a family. Not with the way he was. Not even with a beautiful, smart, trustworthy CIA agent his father felt might be right for him.
    Within him the power grew heavy again in response to the emotion troubling him. If he didn’t get the energy under control, its weight would continue to grow, creating that vicious static in his head. The first buzz of that noise was already setting up shop in his brain, and there was only one way to tire the beast so that he could contain it.
    Raising his hands, he outstretched them and focused. Between them a pinpoint of light blossomed, and as Adam centered himself on that dot, it grew in size.Tendrils of energy slipped from his hands and danced around his wrists before they swam through the air toward that solitary point of light.
    Solitary as he was, but not for long, Adam thought. Under his direction, the wisps of energy tangled and weaved together, nurturing that pinpoint until it formed a silver-blue orb about the size of a golf ball. Its light gleamed brightly and reflected off the polished surface of his desk, creating a halo of light.
    Inside him the burden of the power lessened, providing a calming release. He pushed yet more power from inside him into the orb, experiencing a growing lightness of being as he discharged the energy he had gathered earlier.
    The orb slowly blossomed in size from golf ball to softball. Adam imagined tossing it up and down and the ball bounced in the air accordingly.
    Although he was capable of absorbing energy and creating these balls, it was little more than an amusement. He had no clue what he was supposed to do with such abilities. Until he understood that, what he could do was no better than a cheap parlor trick.
    Frustrated, he ripped his hands away and the ball stretched flat as the energy clung to him, feeling almost tacky and elastic before something snapped. With a firework shower of light that dissipated some of the energy, the remaining power surged back into him.
    The weight of it filled him, less than before, since he had expended some energy with his sideshow display, but still demanding. It was almost as if the power needed something from him. Something more than he could provide on his own.
    If he had been a woman, he might have said it was some biological clock ticking, warning him that time was fleeting. But at twenty-five, almost twenty-six, his life had barely begun. Maybe, as his father had hinted, it was time for him to do more than just work, he thought. Maybe that was what was pulling at him so. Not the energy within and around him, but something easily explicable and certainly more human: loneliness.
    With another zap, he flipped the switch and the shades along the exterior windows rose, allowing the bright spring sun to enter. Spring always contained the promise of so many new beginnings.
    Hell, even the squirrels knew that spring was the time to mate and procreate. Adam smiled and thought,
Maybe it’s time.

CHAPTER
2
     
    S alvatore sat in his car, staring at his cell phone. The heat increased within the small interior with each second that he delayed making the call.
    He knew that once he did so, his son’s life might not ever be the same. But then again, his son’s life had never been just like everyone else’s. From the moment Salvatore had found him in the desert, Adam’s life had changed. When Salvatore had realized that the young boy possessed special powers, Adam’s destiny had