Shadow Hills (3 page)

Each of these people had died the same year. I surveyed the vast burial ground.
There must be at least three hundred graves
. I walked up and down the rows more slowly, looking for a death date after 1736. There were a handful from before then, but I couldn’t find even one from 1737 or later.
Something had happened here—a battle or a plague
. I’d never been greatly interested in history, but I was more than a little curious about what had killed hundreds of people in the span of one year. A thought sparked in my mind.
This is exactly the kind of thing they would have information about in that hospital museum
.

“Hey. Are you okay back there?” My heart almost stopped at the sound of the dark velvety voice.
It couldn’t possibly …

I turned around, moving in slow motion while my thoughts raced so quickly I couldn’t make sense of them.

My mouth almost dropped open when I laid eyes on him. He was about my age, well over six feet tall, and absolutely gorgeous. His strong features had a certain sweetness to them, and his unruly black hair curled into his eyes in an endearing way. And those eyes. They were light and sparkling—green and blue and gray all at once—but that wasn’t why I was so stunned.

The real reason I couldn’t tear my gaze away, the thing that turned my muscles to ice even as my skin burned, was the one and only thought running through my mind:
That’s him. That is the guy from my dream
.

I didn’t feel the strap of my purse slip from my grip, but as the contents of it spilled onto the ground, I heard my cell phone skitter across one of the flat headstones.

The guy who had been staring at me in stunned silence, looking almost as surprised as I felt, immediately snapped to attention and started gathering up my things.

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I knelt next to him, scooping up my stuff.

“Sorry if I startled you.” His high cheekbones were stained pink. “I was standing in the courtyard, and I saw you disappear into the trees. When you didn’t come back after a few minutes, I thought you might be lost.”

“Not lost, just checking things out.” I tried to smile at him, but my expression felt stuck. His eyes were unfathomable, pale yet vividly intense. His strong eyebrows and thick black lashes drew even more attention to the strange lightness of his eyes. I was so entranced watching them that it took me a few seconds to register that he was speaking again.

“… and I live in town. Shadow Hills, I mean. Are you a new student at Devenish?”

“Yeah.” I grabbed a magazine that was lying a few feet away and stuffed it in my bag. I was very aware of how close we were, and my body practically vibrated with an inexplicable feeling of anticipation.

“I’m Zach, by the way.”

“I’m Persephone, but I go by Phe.” I busied myself by returning my makeup to its travel case. Thankfully I didn’t have my period right now. I was embarrassed enough as it was, but having a guy as hot as Zach handing me back my tampons would’ve been absolutely mortifying.

“Do you have a standing lamp in there, too?” He nodded at my purse.

“I’m sorry?” I picked up my sunglasses case, a small can of pepper spray, and a pack of tissues that had wound up behind me.

I wasn’t sure why I was so immediately drawn to this guy. Of course, on the surface it made sense. He was so striking, even more attractive than Graham, but it was something else. I avoided his eyes, afraid if I looked in them again I would do something terrible and embarrassing. Like grab his face and kiss him.

“You know … Mary Poppins? When she’s pulling all that stuff out of her bag? Those were some high-tech special effects for back then.” Zach grinned at me, and a warm glow spread through my body.

“I faintly remember that. It’s been a while.” I grasped one end of the iPod he was holding out to me, and the screen lit up.

I frowned as the charging battery symbol came on. It was strange enough that my iPod was even working since it had died
in the middle of my flight to Boston, but it was impossible for it to be charging without being plugged in. Zach followed my gaze down to our hands, then let go of the device like it had scalded him. A split second later the screen went black again.

“Zach!” A girl’s voice filtered back through the trees. “What are you doing?”

“I’ll be there in a second!” he called over his shoulder before turning back to me. “That’s my sister; I gotta go.”

“Hurry up! I’ve got five million errands to run before dinner, and we’re already late for testing!”

“Okay, I’m coming!” Zach stood up, brushing dirt off his jeans. “It was nice meeting you, Phe.”

“Yeah. You too.” I watched him make his way through the trees and disappear from sight.

I looked at the iPod in my hand—it couldn’t have come on. It was dead.
It must have caught the sun for a second and reflected the light, making the screen appear to glow
. Just to make sure, though, I flipped the hold switch to off and pushed the power button. The iPod came on, battery fully charged. My stomach dropped out like I was on the downswing of a roller-coaster.

If I was looking to find something weird here, I’d certainly succeeded.

I started back toward the school, my steps hurried. Something teased at my spine, a sense that I was being watched or followed. It was the same cold prickling I’d had when I first saw the graveyard.

Despite my sincere efforts not to, I couldn’t help but
casually glance over my shoulder a few times. Well, maybe not a few. More like five. Or ten. I kept expecting to see Zach again. It was too surreal—this specter appearing before me, flesh and bone—I had no idea what it meant.

A beep came from my purse and I fished through my jumbled bag until I found my cell phone. I had one text message:
Ready to go. Meet you in the main parking lot
.

Graham. I had almost forgotten about my dinner plans.

When I reached the gravel parking lot, Graham was unlocking the door of a rusted-out 1970s-era Buick.

“Is this your car?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“No. I thought I’d steal one and drive it into town. Think anyone will notice?” Graham reached across to unlock the passenger’s-side door, then pushed it open. “You wouldn’t know how to hotwire by any chance?”

“Very funny.” I slid onto the torn vinyl seat.

The Buick had a musty scent that I found comforting, like an old movie theater or a library. After a few unsuccessful tries, Graham got the car started. The radio appeared to have been ripped out, not that you would have been able to hear it very well with the racket the engine made.

“Will you grab me my iPod? It’s in the glove compartment.” Graham pointed, as if I didn’t know where a glove compartment was located.

I handed over the iPod. It was encased in a portable docking system with small attached speakers. Graham fiddled with it before pulling out of the parking space. I could faintly make out
the song over the jet-plane-like rumbling of the car; thankfully, it wasn’t some awful frat boy crap, but “Save It for Later.”

“You like the English Beat?”

“Yeah. I’m guessing you do as well?” Graham asked, turning out of the parking lot.

“I’m into some of the early ska revival,” I said.

“Me, too. Maybe it’s a California thing.”

“So where are we going to eat?” I asked after a moment.

“I was thinking about something very Shadow Hills, Massachusetts. To get you into the whole vibe of the town. Maybe McDonald’s?” He cut his eyes at me.

“I’m not really much of a junk-food person.”

“I was only kidding about the McDonald’s. I figured we’d go to this market and deli … wait, you don’t like junk food?” A doubtful frown was etched into Graham’s brow.

“Took you a while to register that comment.” I laughed.

“Well, you can imagine why. That is quite possibly the weirdest thing I have ever heard anyone say.” He shook his head. “How can someone not like junk food? It’s
scientifically engineered
to be addictive.”

“What can I say? I guess I’m just strange.” I lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “So what weird quirks do you have?”

“Like what do you mean?”

“How’d you get the chipped tooth?”

“Surfing under the Golden Gate Bridge.” He grinned proudly. “A tugboat went by, causing this huge wave that knocked me off my board. Then while I was struggling to get back on, a
second shock wave sent my board straight into my face and—
voilà
. Chipped tooth.” He paused. “Man, I really miss it sometimes.”

“Chipping your teeth?”

“Surfing, Lombard Street … my mom.” The longing was evident in Graham’s tone.

“You know, I heard a rumor that those crazy flying contraptions can go to San Francisco,” I teased.

“I have to work at the school pretty much year-round. My dad wants me to know this isn’t a free ride. Which is cool. I have the Devenish office job to thank for my trusty car.” Graham patted the cracked plastic dashboard as he pulled into a parking space.

I got out and, with a loud creak of defiance from the rusty hinges, closed the car door. The shops in front of us were a mix of small brick buildings and old-fashioned saltbox wood houses, but they were so close together that they looked almost like a strip mall. The buildings formed a square around a quaint town park, complete with benches, replicas of gas-style streetlamps, and a small pond. I turned back to Graham and found him holding a door open for me with an exaggeratedly patient expression on his face. The wooden sign above the door read
MANSFIELD’S FAMILY MARKET AND DELI
.

“Thanks.” I walked inside, blinking under the fluorescent lights. As the door swooshed closed behind us, it hit a little bell that announced our arrival.

“This way.” Graham took the lead, heading to the back of the small grocery store, where a butcher’s counter had been transformed into a cafeteria-style food line. Graham ordered a Reuben
sandwich and I got a salad. I’d barely started eating when the bell above the front door rang again.

Curious, I looked up to see who had come in and immediately dropped my fork. It was Zach, the guy I had met in the graveyard—apparently I lost my ability to grip objects whenever he appeared—but he wasn’t alone. Standing by his side was a beautiful girl who looked like she was in college, or possibly a very sophisticated senior. She was statuesque and at least five eleven. I would have been painfully jealous of her if I hadn’t been positive she was Zach’s sister. Her bone structure and thick black hair were just like his, though she had a sharp, cold quality that was very different from his demeanor.

Zach’s eyes were riveted on me, and the girl frowned as she followed his gaze over to the table where Graham and I were sitting. Spotting us, her expression turned to one of interest. As she strode toward the table with Zach behind her, I struggled to swallow a hunk of food that I had forgotten to chew.

“Hello, Graham.”

Graham acknowledged the girl with a perfunctory nod.

“Who
is
your little friend here? Because anyone can see she’s not Lauren.” The girl curled a strand of long hair around her tapered fingers, her expression snide. “I guess it’s easier to cheat when your girlfriend’s off at college in Boston.”

So Graham had a girlfriend?
At least that solved my problem of which guy I was more into—not that Zach wasn’t already winning that competition.

Graham laughed. “Sorry to cut short your stint as the morality
police, but I’m not cheating on Lauren. This is Persephone Archer. She’s a new student from L.A.”

“Sorry, my mistake,” the girl apologized, though she didn’t seem a bit remorseful. “I’m Corinne, and this is my baby brother, Zach.” She unwound the hair from her finger and stuck out her hand to shake mine. As I grasped it, a frozen electric current ran up my arm. Instantly, I was dizzy, my head all woozy like I stood up too fast. Quickly, I pulled my hand away. Corinne smiled; either she hadn’t noticed my strange reaction to her touch, or she found it amusing.

“Los Angeles.” She looked me up and down appraisingly. “Well, I guess that explains your name.” Corinne’s tone was light, but her eyes cut into me as if she were trying to see my insides. “So what brings you to our humble little town, Persy?” The nickname dripped with derision.

“Actually, my friends call me Phe. But you can call me Persephone.” I clipped my words carefully. I had known this same girl in L.A.; actually, I’d known dozens of them. The only way to deal with them was to establish straight off that you were not someone to be messed with. “I’m here to eat dinner. Evidently this is about as close as your town comes to a gourmet restaurant,” I said sweetly. “It’s a very cute town, though. Quaint. Austere.”

I smiled, watching the slow crack materialize in Corinne’s glacial veneer.

“Well, unfortunately, we have to be going now. Zach?” She shot a stern look at her brother.

“I’ll be back there in a minute,” he answered gruffly before turning to me. “So I’ll see you at school on Monday?”

“Yeah.” In less than two days I would see him again. School had never been so exciting.

“Cool.” Zach looked like he wanted to say something more, but after hesitating for a second, he turned and took off toward the grocery area of the store.

“I guess you’ve already met some of the townies.” Graham took another bite of his sandwich. “The students from Shadow Hills are a bit … strange,” he said around a mouthful of Reuben.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like people from L.A. are known for being exceedingly conventional.” I picked up my fork again, and a food-induced silence fell over the table for a few minutes.

“So you’ve got a girlfriend in Boston?” I asked after I had finished my salad.

“Yeah, but things are weird with us right now. Ever since she started at MIT”—Graham rubbed his temples—“I never get to see her. She doesn’t visit, and when I go to Boston, she’s so busy with school that I can barely get a minute of her time.”

“I hear the long-distance thing is hard.”

“You done?” Graham nodded at my empty plate. This was obviously a sore subject with him.

“Yeah. I’m gonna hit the restroom, and then we can take off.”