Free Dreamveil by Lynn Viehl Page A

go to Haskin’s Ice Cream Shop and have some hot fudge sundaes. I know I do, very badly.”
    From that day on, Drew never had cause to regret revealing his ability to his parents. It didn’t change their feelings toward him, and if anything made them all closer. Over the years his father worked with him on learning the extent of his ability and what he could do with it, and in the process taught Drew more about copper, its properties and uses, than the average metallurgist knew.
    Although she didn’t tell him until he’d graduated college, from that day on his mother quietly began trying to find his birth records and through them his biological parents. She and Ron had adopted him as a baby through a placement program run by their church, but there were almost no records of Drew’s birth aside from a hastily written police report about an older, unidentified man bringing him to an emergency room shortly after his birth and abandoning him there.
    “It’s as if you just appeared out of nowhere,” Bridget said sadly. “Your mother was probably his daughter or granddaughter, and gave birth at home. At least he took you where you’d be safe and cared for.”
    Thanks to the love of his parents, Drew had always lived comfortably with his ability. Even after learning of how he and the other Takyn had been meddled with, knowing what some of the other Takyn could do made him feel as if he’d gotten the kind end of the DNA swizzle stick. One of his oldest friends among the Takyn, a man he knew as Paracelsus, was plagued with visions of the past, often so real that more than once they had almost destroyed his mind. His newest friend, Jessa Bellamy, could see the darkest secrets in anyone’s soul just by touching them.
    And then there was Rowan.
    As he thought of her, Drew settled down at his computer to pull up the tracking program he’d initiated on Rowan. She didn’t know that before they had parted ways in Savannah, he had planted a GPS locator on her bike. Matthias, a former Roman soldier who had survived two thousand years of accidental burial in ice, and the oldest of the Takyn, hadn’t asked him to do it, but at the time Drew had thought it would be a good idea to keep tabs on Miss Independence. When he told Matthias about it, the older man had agreed it was a smart move.
    Drew had followed her progress as she rode from Savannah toward Boston, where she had found a job working for another of their Takyn friends. The signal told him only where she was, not what she was doing, but it comforted Drew to know. Rowan might be tough as nails, but she was also young and on her own—and hurting.
    Jessa had confirmed his suspicions. “I think Rowan left us because she was in love with Matthias. It would have been hard for her to stay and watch me with him, especially now with the baby coming.”
    “How is Maximus Junior?” Drew asked.
    “At the moment, trying to kick a hole through my spleen,” she said wryly. “But that’s better than the morning sickness. Listen, Drew, I know Rowan is proud and needs to go it alone and all, but she’s still so young. If she calls you—”
    “I’ll talk to her,” he assured her. “Don’t worry. With some time and distance, I’m sure she’ll get over it.”
    Tonight he expected her to be through New York City and well into Connecticut, but the signal track still showed her at the border between New Jersey and New York City.
    “What are you doing, stopping for an egg cream?” he murmured as he zoomed in and watched the tiny bright light move across the Hudson. “You should have moved out here with me, girl. I’d have taught you to surf.” Just as soon as he learned.
    Drew picked up his cordless and dialed the number to Matthias’s farm in Tennessee. Jessa answered, and after exchanging pleasantries put Matthias on the phone.
    “Are you well?” was the older man’s first question.
    “Well and truly bored. I haven’t been able to hack through GenHance’s new security