Samurai Game (Ghostwalkers, #10)(59)

Ryland turned piercing eyes on Azami, waiting for an explanation.

“Your son is an extremely intelligent and curious child,” Azami said. “And very gifted. Perhaps too gifted for his age.”

Ryland reached out and plucked Daniel from her arms. “What do you mean by that?”

Sam bristled at the belligerence in Ryland’s tone. “She didn’t mean anything,” he snapped before he could stop himself.

Ryland’s gaze jumped to his face.

“Sir,” Azami said calmly. “Your son is in the greatest danger possible and not from anyone outside this compound. From himself. Like Sam, like me, he is a teleporter.”





CHAPTER 10




A stunned silence followed Azami’s quiet revelation. The members of GhostWalker Team One exchanged uneasy, shocked looks.

Ryland rubbed his chin over his son’s thick cap of hair, his eyes closed briefly. Sam couldn’t imagine what was going through his mind.

“Are you certain?” Ryland finally asked. “I’ve seen no evidence of Daniel teleporting.”

Azami slowly nodded her head. “I’m very sure. He’s young and there’s an art to it, but learning can be both painful and dangerous, as Sam knows well. The gift didn’t really begin to manifest in me until around the age of ten. I would feel broken apart inside and find I’d moved from one corner of a room to another and couldn’t remember walking across the room. It was frightening. For a while I was afraid to tell my father, afraid I was losing my mind. Your son is a mere baby and he’s already experiencing that same sensation.”

Ryland buried his face against the baby’s neck, his arms tightening until Daniel squirmed and he was forced to ease up. He raised his head, his steel gray eyes meeting Sam’s. “Did you know?”

“I never even suspected, Rye,” Sam said. “Now that Azami pointed out the possibility, I can see that a few times, Daniel was in one spot and then he was a few feet away playing with my tools, but I didn’t feel the ‘broken apart’ effect until I was about eighteen. Neither you nor Lily has the ability to teleport, so it didn’t occur to me that Daniel would have it. But then, I don’t think my parents could do it, or they would have been all over television and selling their story for their drug money. Hell, Rye.” Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose, not knowing how to comfort his friend.

Daniel could very well teleport right into the middle of a wall before he ever fully understood the danger. Ryland and Lily had a difficult time as it was, let alone knowing their child could put himself in the middle of the forest, the mines, or up on the roof. The psychic gifts they had been born with, and then enhanced by Whitney, were both a blessing and a curse. Each talent could be extremely dangerous, especially in one young and inexperienced.

“You snuck past me, didn’t you?” Ian accused. “I knew I hadn’t gone to sleep.”

Sam understood what Ian was doing: giving Ryland time to assimilate the danger to his son and come to terms with it. He deliberately drew attention away from their leader.

“Many times, as a matter of fact,” Azami said, willing to sacrifice herself so that Ryland could take a moment to recover and hold his child close. “I tweaked your chin once.”

Ian rubbed his chin, glaring at her. “You did. I felt it. A draft hit me and it felt like someone pulled a hair from my chin.”

“It was red and I couldn’t resist. You really need to shave,” Azami pointed out. “What’s with that little red fuzz on your chin anyway? Is it some sort of statement I don’t understand?”

“Statement?” Ian flared, stroking the tiny little red vee on his chin. “This is manly, woman. Don’t you know that?”

Azami gave a slight bow, lowering her lashes and chin demurely, but not before Sam caught the sparkle in her eyes. “Forgive me, Ian, I did not know a man of your stature needed fuzz to be manly. I can only plead ignorance of this custom.”

The men snickered and nudged Ian, Tucker reaching out to touch the red fuzz. Ian punched his arm away.

“Tucker,” Ryland said, his voice once more commanding. “Take Daniel to his mother. Make certain she understands the danger. We’ll figure out how best to help my son comprehend the danger he’s facing. Please give her that reassurance.” Stay with her at all times. Be ready. If Azami can slip past our guards, it’s possible her brothers can as well. He added the command telepathically, uncaring if his guest felt the surge of energy accompanying the psychic gift. Aloud he continued. “We’ll be in the war room. I think Ms. Yoshiie has a little explaining to do before we go any further.”

Tucker nodded in understanding. He took the boy into his arms, looking larger than ever with such a small toddler clinging to him.

Sam had known it was coming, but he still had hoped for a little more time to cement his relationship with Azami. He didn’t want her taking offense to the grilling Ryland was certain to give her. Ryland wasn’t privy to her mind. He couldn’t know she wasn’t a threat to Daniel or their team. He would have to find reassurance his own way.

Sam glanced at Azami. She was impossible to fathom, her expression as serene as ever, and that could either mean she’d been expecting Ryland’s interrogation after her revelation, or that she was fully prepared to fight her way out of the compound.