Morgan glanced toward Corbin and Ris just in time to see Corbin touching Ris lightly on the nose, and to see her megawatt smile in return. She turned her attention back to Lucas. “What, you afraid I’m gonna figure out what you’re making and report to the other side or something?”
“Maybe,” Lucas said, pouring a shot of espresso into the glass and mixing the contents.
She smiled at him, watching as he added steamed milk and whipped cream to the drink. “So, you don’t want me to tell Ris you made her a hazelnut mocha?” she asked. When Lucas glared at her with comically pursed lips, she shrugged. “I can smell the flavor shot you snuck in when I wasn’t looking.”
He shook his head in mock disbelief. “To think, just a few short weeks ago, you didn’t know the difference between a latte and a cappuccino, and now…” He gave a theatrical sniff and pantomimed wiping tears from beneath his eyes. “My little girl’s growing up so fast.”
Morgan grabbed a penny from the leave-a-penny plate and lobbed it at him. It struck him in the center of his chest and he grabbed the spot with his hand and staggered around as though he’d been mortally wounded. She laughed at him.
“Morgan!” Ris called from her spot at the table. “Stop flirting with Lucas and get over here!”
“Flirting?” Morgan called back, incredulous. She looked back at Lucas, who waggled an eyebrow at her suggestively. With another laugh, she made her way over to where Ris and Corbin sat. “Please, flirting with Lucas?” she asked, sitting beside Ris. “Yeah, right.”
“I dunno,” Ris singsonged. “Lucas is kinda cute. You know, in a disheveled, nerdy kinda way.”
“I heard that!” Lucas called from the counter.
This knowledge only seemed to spur Ris on. “With those dark raven tresses that always look like he just combed them yesterday.”
“And the way he wears his apron!” Morgan added.
“Yeah!” agreed Ris. “Tied right there above his cute little butt.”
“Hey now,” Corbin said, sounding almost embarrassed for Lucas’s sake.
“Don’t worry,” Ris said, patting him on the knee consolingly. “Your butt is cute, too.” She turned back to Morgan. “And that fedora! Gotta love a man in a fedora!”
Morgan laughed. “Oh, yeah. Fedoras get me hot!”
“How hot?”
“So hot!”
“Why do you think I wear it all the time?”
Lucas appeared, as if by magic, beside Morgan, carrying a tray of drinks. She flushed slightly, but Lucas just ignored her, handing out the different beverages.
“Ris, no matter what Morgan tells you, your drink is not a hazelnut mocha.” He waved his hand at her. “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
Ris let out a delighted cackle at the Star Wars reference. As Lucas walked away, he paused and wiggled his butt, which sent Ris cackling again. Morgan just shook her head and turned away, catching Corbin’s expression. He looked somewhere between amused and uncomfortable.
Morgan cleared her throat. “So, what are you guys playing?”
Ris laughed again. “Oh, just Go Fish. We wanted to wait for you to get here before we decided on a real game.”
Morgan smiled. “So, who won?”
“Neither of us,” Corbin said. “We were still in the heat of battle when you came over here.”
Ris grabbed for Corbin’s cards. “I’ll reshuffle and deal you in.”
“No way,” Morgan said. “I can’t disrupt an epic battle between such equally matched foes. Finish your game. You can deal me in on the next hand.”
Ris looked unsure for a moment, but when Corbin prompted her about it being her turn, she quickly asked if he had any fours in his hand.
Morgan sat back in her chair, watching the game as she brought the drink to her lips. As usual, she found the drink satisfied a craving she hadn’t known she was experiencing. For as much as Lucas liked to experiment with different drinks, and for as seldom he asked for anyone’s opinions on those drinks, he certainly did know Morgan’s tastes. Today he’d made her an iced chai latte, her favorite.
As she sipped the drink, she allowed the taste of the beverage to take her back. She’d been drinking a chai the night she’d activated Lucas. Without really meaning to, she glanced toward the couch at the front of the coffee house, where she and Lucas had been sitting when it happened. She recalled the feeling of immense power that surged through her body that night—how she and Lucas had felt too alive to be sitting around at a coffee house.
Another sip brought her back even further, to the first time she’d been here—with Kellen. He was the first person to ever tell her about the Veneret, the first person to insist her mother was still out there somewhere. And then, along with Wen and Tesin, he’d given her a glimpse into the Veneret lifestyle.
She wondered vaguely about Tesin. She hadn’t thought much of him since Desideration Tower and was curious about what his role in Orrick’s organization was now. Would he have been reprimanded after Wen’s defection? And what about Kellen? When she’d Seen him, it looked as though he might be in some sort of trouble.
The bell over the front door tinkled, and Morgan turned to look, convinced Kellen would be walking in. But instead of Kellen, she saw a blonde in yoga pants heading toward the counter. Morgan smiled at herself, shaking her head slightly as she turned back toward Corbin and Ris. Of course it wasn’t Kellen. He wouldn’t—couldn’t—show up here. Could he?
Something in Morgan’s peripheral vision caught her attention and when she turned her head, she noticed the hallway that led to the private room the Veneret had been in the night Kellen made Corbin take energy from a common girl. She could have sworn someone had just gone down that hallway…
“Be right back,” Morgan said, setting down her chai and standing. Corbin and Ris barely glanced up from their game. Morgan felt hyperaware as she walked toward the hallway, positive Corbin would know what she was doing; however, when she hazarded a glance backward, she saw that Corbin’s attention was still entirely on his game with Ris. A bit of the tension released from her shoulders. Of course she didn’t look suspicious: the bathrooms were down this way. Presently, she turned her attention back to where she was going. As she walked down the hallway, she felt her heartbeat quicken. Just a few more steps to the room. Something in her told her, without a doubt, that Kellen was in that room. Why and for what purpose, she did not know, but—Morgan’s pulse was a bass drum—what if it had something to do with her mother? What if that was why Orrick had been so angry with him in her vision: What if Kellen learned her mother’s whereabouts and now he’d come here to tell her?
The door to the room was slightly ajar. Morgan pressed her palm to the door and took a breath. What would she say to him? The last time she shared the same space with him, he looked like he might kill her. But no, he wouldn’t have let her fall, would he?
Not for the first time, Morgan was reminded of the instant of relenting she saw in his eyes. She had played the moment out in her mind countless times, wondering what he would have done had the Watchers not chosen that moment to make their entrance. Would the mania in his eyes have abated entirely or intensified? Would he have turned on Orrick and helped Morgan get the answers she sought, or would he have pushed her through the glass without a regret?
Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, she pushed open the door.
The room was empty.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true, if Morgan was entirely honest. The sofa, television, tables, and chairs that had been in the room the last time she’d been in it were absent, replaced now by a variety of boxes, some open, some stacked, some big, some small. And, most importantly, no Kellen.
She stepped out of the doorway, considering for a split second checking the men’s bathroom, when she heard the soft click of the back door—the one, Lucas had told her, that employees were supposed to use. Quickly, she scurried to the door and opened it, looking out into the parking lot.
Ther
e was no one in the parking lot. Morgan scanned the nearby cars to see if someone had ducked into one of them, but they were all empty.
When Morgan numbly made her way back to the table a minute or two later, Ris smiled up at her as if everything was right in the world. “Just in time. I just totally owned Corbin. Prepare yourself to be beaten by the Go Fish Queen!”
Morgan hitched her well-practiced everything’s-great-with-me smile to her lips and sat down in her chair. “Sounds good.”
Ris grinned and started dealing the cards. Morgan kept her attention on Ris because, even out of the corner of her eye, she could tell Corbin was watching her.
After she finished dealing, Ris reached for her glass. Not looking at it, she pulled on the straw, only to make a face a moment later upon discovering the glass was empty. “This won’t do,” she muttered, eying the empty vessel as if it had wronged her in some way. “The queen can’t win without a tasty beverage.” Glass in hand, she stood and started toward the counter. “Lucas!”
“I know, I know,” he called back. “The queen can’t win without a tasty beverage.”
Ris turned back toward Corbin and Morgan. “You guys ready for seconds?” Without waiting for a reply, she turned again and continued toward Lucas. “And more for my royal subjects!”
Morgan watched Ris’s progress, the smile on her lips more genuine than the one she’d worn moments earlier. But when she turned back to the table, back to Corbin, her smile faded entirely. “What?”
“There’s something off with you,” he said.
“So they tell me,” Morgan said, trying to be playful.
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
Morgan sighed. “And what exactly do I know, Corbin?”
He stared at her intently for a moment before letting out an exasperated sigh. “Seriously?” he growled. “Seriously?”
She stared at him. “What are you talking—”
“Kellen.” He said the name like a curse. “And you’re… disappointed? What, you thought he was here? And you’re upset that he’s not?”
Morgan rolled her eyes, as if what he was saying was completely ridiculous. “Well, you just think you know everything about everyone, don’t you?”
“Not everyone. Just you.” He reached his hand across the table and placed it on one of Morgan’s. “Can’t you see your life’s better without him? Nothing good can come from him.”
Morgan was just about to respond when Ris reappeared with a tray of beverages. Corbin hurriedly removed his hand from Morgan’s.
“Who’s ready to get their butt kicked?” she asked, smiling brightly.
Morgan took the glass Ris indicated. “Bring it.”
Corbin glared at her for a moment more before Ris glanced in his direction. He took his glass and smiled. “Get ready to be dethroned, your highness.”
Chapter Five
Even after a few spirited rounds of Go Fish with Corbin and Ris, Morgan still felt the steady thrum of adrenaline in her system. As soon as she could make a graceful exit from the Daily Grind, she had bid Ris, Corbin, and Lucas farewell and made her way home.
Kellen hadn’t been at the Daily Grind, she realized that now. But she was equally convinced that he had been trying to contact her. He must have realized that it was she who Saw him and Orrick the other day, and now he had a message for her. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she felt as certain about it as she ever had about anything.
Her father was already home when she arrived. After a quick hello and his announcement that dinner was at six, Morgan excused herself to her room and closed the door behind her. Settling down in the papasan in the corner, she tried to empty her mind of all of the reasons why what she was about to do was foolish. She knew all the reasons the Watchers would give her, heard Corbin’s words echoing in her head, felt a stab of panic when her memory dredged up the encounter with the blinding energy from the other night.
She combated each of these concerns with the same reasoning: it Kellen was really searching for her, he would find her quickly and the two of them would be able to shield themselves from others.
The possibility that Kellen had been behind the blinding energy to begin with was one she dismissed immediately: Kellen was a Mover, not a Seer; besides, the energy hadn’t been familiar as Kellen’s would have been.
Miss Scotford’s words about the safeguards the Watchers had put in place for her and that they would be for nothing if she put herself in danger echoed through her mind as she closed her eyes and centered her energy.
***
“Morgan, it’s almost dinner time!”
Morgan’s eyes snapped open and she grabbed her cell phone to check the time. Six on the dot. She rubbed her eyes and stretched her back, disappointment rising in her chest. She reached out with her abilities, sensed the energies of what seemed like everyone in a fifty mile radius, but she hadn’t encountered Kellen.
Though, as the blinding energy hadn’t encountered her, she figured she must have been doing something right.
She stood and left her room, heading toward the kitchen. The scent of tomato sauce and oregano greeted her on the way.
“Smells delicious, Dad,” she said, walking into the kitchen. “What is it?”
“Crock pot lasagna,” he said, not looking up from the cucumber he was chopping.
“Fancy.”
“Will you set the table?”
“Sure.” Morgan went to the cupboard and pulled out two plates.
“More,” Dylan said, glancing in her direction.
Morgan raised an eyebrow. “Company?”
Dylan paused in his chopping and turned to face Morgan. “Yes. And before you get upset—”
Panic flashed through Morgan. Why would a dinner guest upset her? It wasn’t like he hadn’t had friends from work over before. Unless… “Oh, my god—did you invite a woman? Is this a date?”
Dylan just stared at her for a moment, confused. “A date? Honey, no.” He shook his head. “It’s Uncle Wes and Aunt Ashleigh.”
Morgan raised her eyebrows. “And Joss?”
“Yes, I believe Jocelyn’s coming, too. So grab three more plates.”
Panic ebbed from Morgan’s system. Her father wasn’t dating some strange woman. Why the thought had even entered her mind, she didn’t know. In the ten years since her mother had gone missing, her dad hadn’t dated anyone.
As she set the table, she prepared herself instead for their actual guests. While she and Joss had been nearly inseparable in their youth, things had changed dramatically after Morgan’s mother went missing. Kids at school, spurred on, no doubt, by their parents’ conversations at home, teased Morgan mercilessly for having a psycho for a father—convinced that Dylan had a sinister part in Chelsea’s disappearance. Morgan had taken their insults in stride, developing an attitude of nonchalance when it came to the opinions of others. Joss, on the other hand, had distanced herself from Morgan, not wanting the teasing to encompass her, too. By middle school, Morgan was the consummate outsider, and Jocelyn was reborn as Lynna Rochester, one of the most popular girls in school.
By the time the dining room table was set, the front door opened as Uncle Wes let himself into the house. When he saw Morgan, he smiled. “Look! If it isn’t my favorite niece.”
Morgan walked to the door to greet him and allowed herself to be wrapped up in a hug. “Yeah? Try your only niece.” She breathed in the scent of him. Old Spice. It was comforting that some things in life hadn’t changed.
Uncle Wes just grinned down at her.
Morgan broke the embrace and greeted her aunt with a smile and a hug. Dylan, who heard the commotion from the kitchen, joined everyone in the living room. He shook hands with Wes and kissed Ashleigh and Jocelyn on their cheeks.
“Come on in—dinner’s ready.”
While the guests took their seats around the table, Morgan followed Dylan into the kitchen to help bring out the food. Dylan grabbed the crock pot of lasagna, and Morgan carried in
the bread and salad.
As soon as the food was served, Dylan, Uncle Wes, and Aunt Ashleigh fell into easy conversation about work and home repairs—the dull conversation of adults. Morgan applied herself to her salad, not paying much attention.
Jocelyn cleared her throat. “So, how was your day today, Morgan?”
Morgan choked on a cucumber. After a good cough, she composed herself. “Um, good. Yours?”
Jocelyn smiled. “Oh, really good.”
For a moment, the two stared at each other. Then Morgan turned her attention back to her plate.
After a minute, Jocelyn spoke again. “You doing anything interesting in art class?”
Morgan was taken aback by such a direct question. She was surprised Jocelyn knew with any specificity what classes she was enrolled in. “We’re, uh, working with metal… making, like, earrings and pendants and stuff.”
“That sounds really cool.” Jocelyn looked like she meant it. “Maybe when you’re done, you could show some of it to me?”
“Yeah…. Yeah, sure. I guess.”
The next several minutes passed in similar fashion, and it dawned on Morgan that this was more than she’d spoken to her cousin in years.
Though, to be fair, Jocelyn was doing most of the talking.
Jocelyn kept up a steady stream of questions while she ate her dinner. When she got down to only a few more bites on her plate, she asked, “So, are you and that Luke kid from the coffee house, like, dating or something?”
Morgan nearly spit out the sip of water she was taking. “What? No!”
Jocelyn laughed—a full, real laugh. “Wow, tell me how you really feel. I’m sorry if I offended you. I’ve just noticed you in the halls with him.”
Morgan shook her head. “You just caught me off guard.”
Jocelyn eyed her cousin curiously. “And what would your response be if I didn’t catch you off guard?”
Morgan gave a short laugh. “Still no, but—maybe not quite so vehemently so. Lucas and I are friends.”
“I just wondered.” She paused, taking a sip of water before she continued. “And… Corbin? You two are friends now, too, right?”
The Naturals Trilogy Page 21