When Lightning Strikes [COMPLETED]

Truth Hurts (Part 3)

I'm not human.

Her skin crawled. "But I won't be able to do what you or Jamie can?"

Rory hesitated but shook his head. "It doesn't look like it. I wondered a little about it when you said that you figured out the emotional mind washing trick. But I think that may be your stubborn nature. I can't sense anything about you. It drives me nuts. It would be so much easier if I knew what you were thinking or feeling most of the time. Which is odd, since usually even with the duds, we can sense something."

He tipped her head up to kiss her nose. Julie barely felt it. He wanted to be able to read her thoughts and emotions, even if she couldn't do the same back? What about her privacy? She let out a breath, glad that she somehow was able to block him out.

She wasn't human. Her brother and father could do things. Her mother was like her.

"What did you mean, the duds can't return?"

Rory hesitated. "If they choose to go out in the human world to live normal lives, they can, but they have to wipe their memories clean of anything but human-like ones. It's why you and the others are kept apart. It's to help you have more memories for when you leave. There are only a few who choose to stay with their families here who don't have abilities. Your mom, Ariel, the lady at the coffeehouse, and a few others you probably haven't met are about it. They're allowed to keep their memories. But they're not allowed to leave. They are trapped on the island. Or in your mom's case, with your dad."

"Like prisoners?" That was why Ariel and Andromeda were such good friends.

He shook his head. "No, they can leave at any time. They have to agree to leave their families and memories of what's here behind. You can understand why your mom wouldn't want to do that. If she moved away from here with you, both of you would be made to forget your father and Jamie."

Julie shivered. Andromeda had chosen a half-life to be with Lir. She had to agree to be under his watch all the time. Did he read her thoughts and emotions all the time, making sure she didn't want to leave him? She had to move back here so she wouldn't be made to forget her family, which is why she couldn't go to New York. She would have had to give up all she loved, and Julie would have had the same fate. Andromeda's misery made more sense now.

"Everyone else leaves? They leave behind their families?"

Rory frowned. "Yes, I think it's too hard to live here and see what others can do and they can't—knowing that it passed over you for some random reason, that you'll always be inferior to the others. It's one of the reasons I should let you go. Let you go live a better life than you'll have here—a better life without me."

Julie stiffened. "Is that how you feel about me? That I'm inferior?"