“Jake makes a pretty convincing case that Jennifer is Evil, incarnate,” Allie grumbled, “so I’m surprised to hear that he thought she needed a motive. And our proximity would have been really helpful information to share, by the way. It’s scary to realize that she and Mark Jones live just a three-hour drive from here.”
There was another pause, and Allie didn’t know if Daniel’s silence meant he felt guilty about keeping her out of the loop. He shouldn’t. Jake was her boyfriend, after all. She should have heard this from him first.
“How are you holding up?” he asked gently.
“I don’t know the answer to that question. I haven’t had enough time to process any of this. I’m just going to wait till Jake gets back and try to sort through everything with him. Try to figure out what to do next.”
Allie took what felt like her first deep breath this entire afternoon. She realized then that her foremost emotion was rage. “If I saw Jennifer McGavin right now, I would kill her. I swear to God, that’s what I’d do, Daniel. I would shoot her through the head, so there wouldn’t be any chance that anyone could extract her memories. Then I’d burn down her clinic and her home so that her existing memory device would be destroyed, once and for all.”
“Listen, Allie, we’ll get through this together, okay? You’re not alone. I’ll get in my car right now and be there in six hours. I’ll never desert you.”
Allie felt a terrible pang. She knew she shouldn’t encourage him to ride to her rescue. The three of them—Jake, Allie, and Daniel—knew that it was only Daniel’s friendship with Jake that had kept Daniel from pursuing her romantically. All of a sudden, she knew firsthand how much that kind of bone-deep jealousy could hurt. She didn’t want to increase Jake’s pain. Or Daniel’s.
“We’d better wait until Jake and I have a chance to discuss our next course of action,” she replied. “Maybe we’ll all need to track down Mark Jones in New York. I’ll call you later tonight, okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. Just...know that I love you.”
“Love you, too,” she said, forcing a breezy, buddy-buddy tone into her voice.
She could picture him so clearly, the first time she’d ever seen him, standing in his doorway, wearing just a pair of jeans. Tall, blond, blue eyes: a brilliant computer-geek’s mind inside a swimmer’s body. She’d had to catch her breath at the sight of him. Yet it had been the passionate, complex Jake who’d touched her soul and won her heart.
“Daniel?”
“Still here.”
“I’m sorry about all of this, too. You’ve got your course-load at Georgetown to think about, and here I am, dumping all of this on you once again. This feels...I haven’t felt this helpless and screwed up since waking up as Alexis Bixby.”
“Don’t apologize. I want to be the one person you know you can always count on.” The compassion in his voice had caused his already-low voice to drop half an octave. “Call me as soon as you can. Bye.”
She looked at the screen. The call had ended. “Bye.”
She was feeling that same breathlessness she’d experienced at first sight of Daniel. That was only natural, though, she told herself; Jake hadn’t been the perfect boyfriend, and she was angry with him. Plus, life was so much easier for Daniel. His soul had never been shifted into another person’s body. He didn’t have one tenth of the challenges that Jake faced. Or the challenges that she herself faced, for that matter.
She and Jake had connected even before their souls were shifted into these strangers’ bodies. The two of them were meant to be together. She had made the right choice. Together, she and Jake would help each other become one again.
A terrible thought struck her. She still believed that she and Jake were soul mates. But now Melissa shared her soul. Melissa also shared Ellie’s memory of how she and Jake Greyland had felt a real connection back when they’d both been in their original bodies.
She wanted to call Jake and demand that he not have anything to do with Melissa. He was hurting, too, she knew, but not as badly as she was. It was impossible to feel worse than she did.
“Is that you, Alexis?” her mother called as Allie shut the door behind her. Allie winced. She’d asked both of her parents to call her Allie, but they forgot at least half of the time.
“Hi, Mom,” Allie responded, not wanting to say: It’s me. She wasn’t Alexis.
I miss my real mom. And my dad. Allie shut her eyes and willed herself to stay calm. Pining for the past was pointless. Jake loved her. She loved him. He would get a grip on himself—or, rather, his Eric-self would loosen his grip on Jake. She and Jake had overcome tremendous hurdles before; they would do so again.
She shrugged her backpack off her shoulder and dragged it and herself into the kitchen. Her mother was standing near the stove, chopping red peppers, which meant vegetarian spaghetti was on tonight’s menu. Her mom was a nice person, and Allie cared about her. She knew that her new mother truly loved Alexis. Her mom gave Allie a loving smile.
“How was school today, Allie?” Terry Bixby was an attractive woman in her mid-forties. Alexis had gotten her big dark eyes and high cheekbones from her mother, and her lanky, athletic build from her father—a kind-hearted and affable man.
Not wanting to lie, Allie shrugged. “Not good. I had...trouble with a new girl.”
“There’s a new girl in school? This late in the year?”
“She’s been there for almost two months.”
Her mother furrowed her brow. “What happened today?”
“Nothing, really. We just...have a personality clash, is all.” Allie wanted to end this conversation and go wait in her bedroom for Jake’s call. “We’re probably just too much alike.”
“You two got into an argument?”
“Sort of. She wrote me a weird note, and we exchanged words.” Allie waggled her thumb over her shoulder. “I’m going to hit the books now. I’ve—”
“Oh, Allie.” Her mother’s features looked ashen. “You’re never this evasive unless it has something to do with Elony’s life. Is this girl someone you knew when you were in Philadelphia? Or in Washington?”
Allie was surprised. Over time, Allie’s parents had come to accept that she was part Elony and part their biological daughter. Even so, Allie could count on one hand the number of times that either her father or her mother had brought up the subject of their own volition. “Kind of.” Allie turned away. “I really have to—”
“If you’re in trouble, you need to tell me the whole story. Does she have anything to do with those horrible people at the brain-trauma center?”
“No,” Allie lied. She felt like kicking herself for bringing up Melissa. Of course, her mother would assume the worst. From her perspective, Allie was a flight risk. Her parents would want to pack up the household and book three tickets for Siberia if they thought that could keep Jennifer McGavin away from her. Then she’d never be able to see Jake, Daniel, or Fiona again, let alone help to defend them against Jennifer. Allie had been the one who’d egged Jake and Daniel into this battle in the first place, to get justice for the McGavins’ victims.
“It’s not that big of a deal, Mom. I’m sorry I brought the whole thing up.” Her words reminded her of how she wished Jake had trusted her enough to tell her immediately about the missing memory device. Keeping secrets from loved ones was not the right thing to do. “The new girl and I just clashed because Jake’s here.”
Her mother paled even farther. “Jake is here? He’s in Albany?”
She nodded. “He just got here this afternoon. He’s the one who knows her. She’s his old girlfriend. He’s with her right now.”
“Oh.” Her mother looked relieved. “Oh, I see. You’re afraid you’ll lose him to her.” She sighed. “You must be heartbroken.”
Allie clenched her teeth. Her mother was trying to cover the fact that she no doubt wanted to do a happy dance at the news of possible trouble between Allie and Jake. Allie understood why her mother wanted Jake out of her life; their relations
hip was a dangerous tie to her past. But still.... “It’s not like we’re splitting up,” Allie said firmly. “He’s just giving her a ride home. So I’m not heartbroken, really. I’m feeling...helpless and confused.”
“Long-distance relationships are always a challenge,” she replied, tactfully. “Invite Jake for dinner tonight. He’s welcome to stay in your sis—in our guestroom if he’d like.”
“He’s booking a hotel room.”
Her mom’s eyes flew wide. Once again, Allie felt like kicking herself. So much for her plan to tell her mother she was staying at Fiona’s house tonight. That was never going to fly. Allie once again turned and started to head to her room before she stuck her foot in her mouth again.
“Jake’s former girlfriend coincidentally transferred into your high school?” her mother asked before Allie could get away. “From Washington?”
Her mom knew that Jake, too, was in a host’s body, but she didn’t know that his host’s body came from West Virginia, not from Washington, D.C. “Yeah. I think maybe her dad’s in politics and had to move to the capitol of New York.”
Her mom just nodded, accepting the lie at face value.
Allie’s cellphone rang. “It’s Jake,” she said as she darted out of the room.
“Tell him I absolutely insist on his joining us for dinner tonight,” her mother called after her.
Allie felt as though her and Jake’s dinner with her parents was never going to end. She’d barely had two seconds with Jake before her father got home. She suspected that her mother had called her father to tell him to get home early so that they could make dead certain not to leave the two of them alone for five minutes.
Before sitting down at the dinner table, she’d put a pencil and a small notepad in her pocket, thinking if worse came to worst she could pass notes to Jake. Her mom had drawn Jake into a political discussion, and Allie realized that her doodling had turned into an elaborate portrait of Jake. Disconcerted, she stared at her drawing and was caught off guard when her father leaned toward her and looked at her work.
“Wow, Terry,” he said, interrupting her mother’s spirited debate with Jake about how to repair the country’s economic woes. “Look at Alexis’s drawing!”
“’Allie’s’,” she corrected, immediately hiding it beneath her hand.
“Don’t be shy,” her dad said. “It’s as good a drawing as anything you’ve ever done.”
“No, it isn’t. It took me all of ten minutes.”
“That’s exactly what I mean. You were always doing that. Before your car accident. Drawing at the dinner table. Doing portraits of us, or still-lifes of the candlesticks, or centerpiece.”
Her mother gave Allie’s arm a gentle nudge, and she grudgingly moved her hands away from her artwork. Her mother promptly took the drawing from Allie and held it up for scrutiny. “Wow, Jake. This looks exactly like you.”
She passed the portrait to him. He furrowed his brow as he examined it. “Am I really that sinister looking?”
“You’re not sinister,” Allie’s mom interjected. “You’re just animated.”
“If you call a scowl ‘animated,’” Jake muttered. Allie couldn’t help but notice that he was scowling as he spoke. There was a time when she could have shared that observation with him, and he’d have laughed.
Her father’s grin grew into a proud smile. “You can’t even tell this one apart from Alexis’s drawings last winter, can you, Terry?”
“Yes, you can,” Allie stated. “My drawing is of Jake. Alexis never even met Jake.”
“I mean that the artistic style is the same,” her father explained. “The way you do the shadings and everything. You can tell right away my daughter drew it. That it’s by the same artist.”
That was the last thing that Allie wanted to hear right now. She was turning into Alexis. Jake was turning into Eric. Soon he would turning his loving eyes toward Melissa, who was a pawn in whatever malicious plan Jennifer had in store for all of them.
Chapter 6
Allie saw Jake glance at his watch. This dinner conversation had flat-lined half an hour ago, and it couldn’t have been more obvious that something was up with her parents. Her father was stalling—asking someone to “please pass the peas/salt/potatoes/gravy” and taking miniscule portions of whatever it was. Her mother kept shooting him little glances. Allie suspected that her parents planned to make some sort of proclamation tonight, but that they hadn’t agreed on which of them would actually broach the subject. Unless Allie was way off base, they wanted to cut Jake’s visit short.
She’d had enough of watching her father push the same pea across his plate with the side of his fork. “May I be excused?” she asked her mother.
Her mother furrowed her brow and looked at Allie’s father, who was staring at his hapless pea. “I was just about to serve dessert,” she replied.
“Thanks, but I’ll pass on dessert. I want to give Jake a tour of Albany before it gets too dark to see.”
Her mother’s eyes widened.
Allie threw in: “I’ll be back by eleven, like always.”
“I’m afraid I parked right behind you, Jake,” her father said, making such a staged show of patting his pockets ineffectively that Allie felt embarrassed for him as well as for herself. “Give me a minute or two, and I’ll look for my keys.”
“Aren’t they in your pants’ pocket?” Allie asked. “I thought I heard them jingle just now.”
“I don’t believe so,” he said, patting his pants’ pockets even more delicately than before.
Allie and Jake exchanged glances. He was fighting back a smile; she was gritting her teeth. They don’t trust me to be alone with Jake now that they know he’s got his own hotel room. To be honest, Allie understood where they were coming from. In retrospect, she wished that she’d immediately called home upon learning that Jake was about to arrive. Now that her physical desire had taken a backseat to her angst about Melissa, she’d have felt safer with him here, staying in the spare room.
“Jake,” her mom said, “can we interest you in a slice of cherry pie? I remember that’s your favorite.”
“No, thanks, Mrs. Bixby.” He gave her a charming smile. “Allie and I will wait outside until you have a chance to find your keys, Mr. Bixby. No rush.”
“Thanks for dinner, Mom,” Allie said with as much patience as she could muster.
“Everything was delicious.” Jake rose and smiled at Allie’s mom. “Thanks so much for inviting me, Mr. and Mrs. Bixby.”
They met his gracious smile with a wan smile from her mom, and a nod from her dad. Allie cursed to herself, now certain she’d gotten an accurate reading on their intentions.
Jake took Allie’s hand. His grasp felt so warm and comforting, that it almost compensated for the pall in the room. She led the way outside toward the far corner of their front lawn. They could sit behind a forsythia bush and be partially out of sight from the picture window; she could feel her parents’ eyes on her with her every step.
“That’s the last time I make the mistake of parking in your parents’ driveway,” Jake said as he took a seat on the grass beside her. “They’re obviously hell-bent on making sure we’re chaperoned. Are my dishonorable intentions toward you really that obvious?”
Allie snorted.
“Hey. That was just a joke. I was trying to make you laugh.”
“My sense of humor is buried under a billion raw nerve endings.” She looked over her shoulder. Through the leaves, she could see her parents. They seemed to be having a heated argument while staring out the window at her. “They like you personally, you realize. They’re just scared that you’ll whisk away their precious Alexis.”
“If only I could,” Jake said, lowering his voice. “In any case, they can’t stop me from doing this.” He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her.
Allie welcomed the kiss, and for a second or two, she stopped thinking about anything else. As much as she wanted to turn off her mind and let herself go, she was p
lagued with self-doubt. Jake seemed to sense that she wasn’t fully present and ended their kiss. “We’ve got until eleven. Let’s get away by ourselves for an hour or two. I have a nice room at the Ramada.”
In spite of herself, Allie immediately thought about Melissa, staying at the Benton Inn some four miles away. She averted her gaze. This was supposed to be a romantic, special day that she would be able to remember for the rest of her life. Instead, everything felt as jagged as glass shards. “My parents will sic detectives on us. Maybe we could suggest that you stay in our spare room instead. My mom seems really anxious.”
Jake’s dark brown eyes searched hers as he gently stroked her shoulder-length hair. “Taking your parents out of the equation,” he said lovingly, “what do you want?”
She sighed. “I want Melissa to never have appeared. I want to have my evening go the way I’d planned—to ask Fiona to cover for me, and be able to forget about our unique problems for just one lousy day in my life. I wanted us to make love. I wanted to pretend to be Ellie and Jake tonight, not Allie and...Jake-Eric.”
“Jake-Eric?” he repeated, glaring at her with Eric eyes. “Is that how you think of me?”
“No, I just meant....” She let her voice drift off, not really sure what she meant. She held his gaze. I love Jake. I don’t love Eric. Maybe Fiona is right! “I’m scared, Jake. I can feel myself turning into Alexis. Alexis’s sister died of a brain aneurysm. What if I have also inherited weak spots in the blood vessels in my brain?”
“A propensity for aneurysms is not genetic.”
“Figures. That would have been sudden and painless. As opposed to this sensation that my existence as Elony is slowly slipping away.”
“You make it sound like a slow death,” Jake said, grabbing her hand. “It isn’t, Ellie.”
He’d called her “Ellie” on purpose. Her heart felt a pang, as if she could feel it filling once again with her love for him.
Mind Echoes (Book 2 in the Body Shifters Trilogy) Page 4