Intangible (7 page)

It’s not like she was devastatingly gorgeous. Not like Fey. Fey was breathtaking—she smiled and people melted, she talked to you and you felt all giddy and warm inside. But Sera? She considered herself pretty. Maybe. On a good day. In the right light.

And it’s not like she didn’t want to date any of them. Of course she did. She was just like any other seventeen-year-old girl. Except she wasn’t. And she just couldn’t take lying to anyone else she loved. Her parents and Fey were enough. She didn’t want to feel bad about anyone else. So she didn’t date. Anyone. Ever.

Unfortunately, her healing power had an aftereffect that drew people to her. Like she was a drug that they couldn’t get enough of. A simple silent suggestion from her negating the pull usually took care of it. But she didn’t always want to. Like now with Josh, who had his hopes up and was about to become the latest casualty of that no-dating policy. She took a deep breath and smiled sadly at him.

“I was wondering, if, um, once my mom is out of the hospital, whether you might—”

“Hey, Josh?” she said.

“Yeah?”

“I think you’re really great. But let’s be
friends
. Okay?” She reached out, touched his arm, and pushed a feeling into him.
You don’t want to date me. You just want to be friends.

He opened his mouth, stopped, closed it again. Then something seemed to shift in him—she could see it in his eyes. “Yeah, okay. I’ll give these back to you tomorrow in class.” He ruffled the chemistry notes he was holding.

“Great.” She watched him walk away, and found herself wishing her life could be different. It would have been nice to go out with Josh. He was such a nice guy.

Luke was leaning against the side of their car, waiting for her. She settled herself next to him. “Your new boyfriend?”

“No, but he tried to ask me out.”

“You stopped him,” Luke said. She turned to look up at him and nodded. “I could tell.”

“I like him.”

“So why not say yes?”

“I don’t want to lie to him,” she said.

“You could at least get to know him, and then see where things go.”

She eyed him, then said again, “I don’t want to lie to him.”

“So you’re going to avoid the situation entirely. Excellent.” Luke sighed. “Well, Anabelle will be happy, at least.”

They were silent for a moment, watched Josh get into his car.

“He doesn’t even like me for me,” Sera said in a quiet voice. “He only likes me because I healed him and he feels the draw.”

“He likes you.”

“Yeah, but it’s not a choice he’s made. It doesn’t come from any true feelings. It comes from my healing.”

Luke turned to look at her. “Even if that were completely true—and I don’t think it is—if you gave him a chance, he would like you just for you. It would become his choice.”

Sera shook her head, her lips tight.

“That’s true of friends, too. You could have more friends than anyone if you wanted them. If you let them in. You could be the most popular girl in school.”

“But they wouldn’t really be my friends. They wouldn’t have a conscious choice. I don’t want followers.”

“They would if you gave them time. If you let them get to know you.”

“I don’t want to lie to anyone else,” she said, and Luke threw his hands in the air. “Besides, I’m good with the friends I have.”

“You mean me, Fey, and Quinn?”

Sera nodded. “All I need.”

“Speaking of Fey, where is she?” Luke searched the throng of students still exiting the buildings.

A prickly feeling started between Sera’s shoulder blades. Someone was watching her. Her eyes scoured the parking lot.

There. Beyond Josh’s car, leaning against a blue, two-door, beat-up old car. He was tall, had dark red hair down almost to his shoulders and long muscular arms like a basketball player.

He was remarkable, to put it mildly.

He wore a pair of faded Levi’s and an old black rock concert t-shirt stretched tight across his chest. She was sure he didn’t go to their school—she’d never seen him before—though he looked like he could easily have been a senior.

He was looking right at her, and smiled wide when their eyes met. Almost as if he’d been waiting for her. Something fluttered in her chest, her face felt suddenly warm. She didn’t smile back.

“Who’s that?” She indicated with her head and Luke turned to look.

“By the crappy blue car?”

“Yeah.”

“No idea.”

L
uke crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his weight as he studied the stranger. He just lounged there, openly watching them. There was something kind of familiar about him. And Luke could sense the guy—felt as if he could even pick him out of a crowd. He was aware of the guy’s presence. Could actually
feel
it. It was bizarre. He had that ability with only a few people—Sera most strongly—but he knew them all well. It was unsettling to have this with a stranger.

It didn’t help that his sense of impending doom was still with him, that he felt hard-wired into everything around him. Maybe that explained his extra perception of the stranger. He could feel the slight wind ruffling individual hairs on his head, could make out the distinctly different scents of every person in the parking lot. The world, he thought, would smell a lot better if people would lay off the perfume.

He was about to tell Sera as much, when Luke saw him again in his mind.

Luke stood in the room where he had watched Sera die. The monstrously beautiful woman laughed as she raked her long sharp fingernails down the guy’s face. Blood oozed from the cuts. She leaned in close to him, inhaled the scent and let out a slight moan of pleasure. She slowly, gently licked the blood from his face. Luke was too far away, he couldn’t reach out to help him. The guy looked at him, desperation and deep fear on his face.

Luke gasped, suddenly back in the parking lot again. His heart thumped wildly in his chest, and sweat covered his body. Sera turned toward him quickly. She searched his face.

“You okay?”

He looked at her, and it took a moment for his eyes to focus and his mind to return to the present. He looked around—the world had dimmed and muted—all his senses back to normal. Then he glanced over at the guy again. Still there. Still watching. Luke heard Sera’s words in his head again—
You okay?
—and nodded.

“You don’t look it,” she said. “Did you just have a—”

“I’m fine.” He cut her off before she could ask the question. Before he’d be forced to tell her or lie. “I’m just…” Just what? He shook his head, trying to regain at least the appearance of fine. From the look on Sera’s face, he had not succeeded. “Just…nothing. It’s nothing. Are we going to Muddy’s?”

“As soon as Fey comes out.” Sera stared at him like she knew he wasn’t telling her something. That was definitely, Luke thought, one of the drawbacks to having a twin—you couldn’t hide anything.

He nodded in the direction of the stranger staring at them. “That guy?”

“Yeah?” She looked wary, like she knew he was deliberately trying to distract her.

“Your new boyfriend.”

She rolled her eyes and gently nudged him with her elbow. “We need to find you a new joke.”

But as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Luke knew they were true. It had never been true before, it had always been a joke. But this time, he felt it.

And though he did not have a bad feeling about the guy himself, this future did not feel good.

SEVEN

I
t’s them,
Marc thought as he watched the pair across the parking lot. It had to be them. They were obviously related—he could see it in their smiles, their eyes—and looked the same age. There was also an almost palpable connection between the two of them in the way they interacted. They moved and talked in sync. It was different from everyone else on the school grounds.

And there was something else about them—something intangible. He didn’t know what it was, but he could feel it. Feel them. Their presence. Almost as if he recognized them or knew them already.

It
was
them.

At last.

He’d already known he was in the right place. He’d heard a lot of talk about a woman’s remarkable recovery since he’d gotten into town a few nights ago: in the diner, the gas station, as he checked in at the motel. Man, this place was like a small town, which he thoroughly appreciated. Everybody seemed to know about everybody else. It made his job that much easier. Figuring out which local high school was home to brother and sister twins was cake. And now he was looking right at them.

Marc focused on the other guy who’d borrowed the notebook from the sister. He was sitting inside his well-worn silver Civic, shuffling through some papers, his head bowed down. Marc tuned in to the slight hum in his mind and zeroed in. He opened his mind and reached out.

Found him.

…catch up on chem while I’m at the hospital. I didn’t miss much. So glad Sera takes good notes…

Marc watched him flip through the notebook he’d gotten from the sister. Sera. Her name was Sera. He smirked. Sometimes it was so easy. Now all he had to do was tap into Sera’s thoughts to confirm she’s one of them and then turn them in. He could be out of here and free again within the week.

…soccer practice first. Then dinner with Mom. Can’t wait for her to come home. Oh, I forgot to call Mrs. Brandt back about dinners…

Marc let go of the thoughts. He was of no more use. He needed Sera and her brother.

But there was a slight problem—he hadn’t been able to hear their thoughts. He should have been able to do it easily—they’d been well within range. But even more troublesome was that he hadn’t been able to hear the thoughts of anyone near them. He’d tried, especially while this guy had been talking to Sera. As he’d walked back toward Marc and away from them, the thoughts had seemed to suddenly turn back on, as if they’d been muted.

That was a first.

It had to be them.

He’d heard about them when he was searching New York City. He’d spent every morning getting his caffeine quota filled at Mocha Café just off Central Park. It was well lit and the chairs were hard so customers wouldn’t get too comfortable there. But Marc found it a great place to hang out and listen. He’d spent time living in his car—hard chairs weren’t going to put him off. Plus the coffee was stellar.

A week ago he’d overheard a man in a business suit talking about a recent trip to Vermont. As the haze of sleepiness eased into caffeinated alertness, Marc tapped into the guy’s thoughts about that trip.

The guy was talking about a hike up Mt. Mansfield, but his thoughts focused on a strange incident. One that he didn’t tell his friends about. He’d fallen and injured his knee on the way down. It was bad enough that he hadn’t been able to walk. As he was trying to figure out how he was going to get down the mountain, a couple of teens stopped to help. A boy and a girl. When they’d helped him up, he’d started to feel better, and the pain in his knee had ebbed away until it was gone. A few steps and his knee was fine. In fact, it felt better than it had in years. He’d walked down on his own, and hadn’t had any knee problems since.

The man couldn’t make sense of it even now. That knee had given him trouble for years, but now it felt perfectly fine. There was a small part of him that wondered if it had been them—those kids, if they’d somehow healed him—even though he knew it was crazy to even think that. But he’d felt a strange warmth spread through his body at their touch, and it had faded away when they let go. The whole experience had been so odd. Strange enough that he wasn’t sharing it with his friends.

Marc gasped as he was swallowing—it was them, he’d actually
found
them—and shot to his feet. Coughing, spewing coffee down the front of his brown t-shirt, he fought for breath as his throat closed and his lungs protested. He drew in a loud, tight wheeze of a breath when he finally could, then took a drink of water. The muscles in his throat released and he could breathe again.

When he looked up, the businessman and his friends were gone.

He ran outside, looked up and down the street for them, opened his mind up to find the man’s distinct thoughts again, but they were gone. Out of range. He could have used more information, could have listened further for more details. But he grinned suddenly, as realization hit, and felt like jumping around like a squealing toddler in a kiddie pool.