Read Online Qaletaqa by DelSheree Gladden - Free Book Online

morning. I
need to talk to Talon right now.”
    Claire nodded and absently tugged at her
rumpled shirt as she started dialing. The movement drew my eye, and
for the first time I looked at what she was wearing. Green and
yellow were our junior high’s school colors. Claire turned to look
at me and I saw the cracked white lettering on the front of the
shirt. Carlos F. Vigil Junior High School Track and Field. A grin
broke out across my face. Claire never ran track. I did.
    Following my gaze, Claire looked down at her
shirt. She glanced back up sheepishly. “Do you mind?”
    I leaned in close to her. “I love it,” I said
before stealing a kiss from her.
    I was sorry to pull back, but a nudge from
Talon reminded me that he was waiting. I gently closed the truck
door and walked toward the edge of the deserted parking lot where
Talon hid behind a stand of decorative bushes. An old, dark colored
sedan pulled into the far end of the hotel parking lot, leaving me
pretending to casually stretch my legs. I watched the car drive
around the side of the building before continuing my walk.
    “I am going hunting,” Talon said when I
finally reached him, “but before I go, I need to teach you how to
shield your thoughts from me.”
    His phrasing struck me as odd. He needed to
teach me?
    “Yes, I need to teach you. I will hunt, but I
will not go far enough away to be spared what you will undoubtedly
be thinking about tonight,” Talon said.
    Blood rushed to my face, lighting up my
embarrassment. Why hadn’t he taught me to shield my thoughts
sooner? My embarrassment turned quickly into irritation at my
friend when I realized that he could have taught me the trick at
any time, but chose not to.
    Talon’s strange feline laugh filled my mind.
He was not sorry. I wondered if it were possible to embarrass a
cougar.
    “Yes, I could have taught you at any
time.”
    “Then why didn’t you?” I asked. Talon had
proved immensely helpful, as well as being a good friend, but I was
still pretty annoyed with him.
    “I kept you safe by listening to your
thoughts. If I had taught you how to shield your thoughts in the
beginning, I may not have gotten to you in time, and you would have
ended up dead. I could not take the risk of letting you decided
what you would pass on to me,” Talon said. There was no apology
really, just a statement of fact as usual. His logical mind had so
far never been wrong. Most likely he was right again. I gave up my
irritation reluctantly and came back to the reason I was standing
behind a row of bushes.
    “Alright, tell me how to do it,” I said.
    “Close your eyes.”
    I did.
    “Shut away the noise coming from outside of
you.”
    Every distant chirp and purring engine seemed
to rise in volume as I tried to push them away. Talon waited
patiently as I cleared my mind, one by one, of all
distractions.
    “Every thought is a signal. These signals
have substance. Form a thought in your mind and hold it. Feel its
weight and shape.”
    What he asked was not easy. Thoughts flooded
into my mind. I struggled to hold only one and banish the rest.
Eventually I found a thought substantial enough to overpower
everything else. Claire. I focused on my love for her until nothing
else remained. Slowly I began to understand what Talon was talking
about. I began to sense the form and shape of my thoughts. In the
blackness of my mind I saw and felt the single strand that held my
love for Claire. The strand was smooth and long, gliding through my
mind in a beautiful ballet.
    “Forming a shield is very much like forming a
thought. The substance and shape of your thoughts should be exactly
the same as your shield. Try forming a barrier around your mind
that will keep your thoughts safely inside,” Talon instructed.
    My jaw tightened with effort as I attempted
to create a barrier. It was several long minutes before the
invisible cage closed completely and sealed away my thoughts of
Claire. A deep breath blew out of Talon in something