"You can't tell anyone about this. Ever. Not your mother or your brother or your best friends. Nobody. Ever." I paused, letting it sink in.
"Because if you tell anyone about this, one of two things will happen. The first option is the likeliest - they will laugh at you, and think you are either making it up, or they will dose you up on antipsychotics. The second scenario, where someone actually believes you, will be far worse. You will be tested and experimented on, the media will get involved, and you will be labelled a freak, and held up for public scrutiny and derision. And I will be gone then, and you will be alone." I saw Rebecca flinch slightly, and I understood how she felt. The existence of my brothers had made it so much easier for me, to accept what I was, because I was not alone. Rebecca would fear being left alone. Good. I wanted her to fear it. It might help protect her.
Mark was nodding seriously. I reached out and gently touched his mind, felt the determination, and the love for his sister, and I knew he would never reveal our secret. I shied away from touching Rebecca's mind. There was too much at risk. I didn't want to lose control with her, and if I detected the slightest hint of that same desire I had felt the night before on the surface of her thoughts, I might surrender to that raw, overpowering craving. Cold showers wouldn't work for me.
"But my cast is gone. How can I explain that? I have to go to school tomorrow, and Mum…"
"That we can fix," I said.
"Really?" Mark was eyeing the mangled cast on the floor. "I'd like to see that!"
I grinned at him. "Coffee first. Then we call Fergus. I think we could get away with a knee brace, and you can tell everyone that you fell in the bath and the cast got wet and had to be removed." I looked at Rebecca, and she blushed.
"She's a rubbish liar," said Mark.
"I am," Rebecca nodded, embarrassed. "Everyone knows when I am lying, and nobody ever believes me." She looked forlorn.
"You're going to have to try." I smiled encouragingly at her, and she blushed again.
"Mark, let me teach you how to work the coffee machine. I need to phone my brother."
I showed Mark around the kitchen, and while he enthused about the espresso machine and clattered about, I dialled Fergus on my iphone.