by J. Meyers
Anne studied Sera’s face. “I’m sorry I was staring, but you look really familiar,” she said. “Have we met?”
“I don’t think so. You’ve probably seen me at school things, though.” Sera shrugged. “I’m a friend of Josh’s.”
Anne nodded but didn’t look convinced. At all. “You’re probably right.” She held out her hand. “I’m Anne.”
“Sera.” She hesitated for a moment, but grasped Anne’s hand, only hoping that the warmth Anne might feel from her touch wouldn’t help clarify where Anne had last seen her. Just to be sure, she pushed a thought into Anne. You don’t remember me. Over Anne’s shoulder Sera could see that Luke had finally noticed she was missing and turned around to see where she’d gone. His eyes went wide when he recognized Anne, and Sera nodded at him and waved. Anne turned to see who she was waving at.
“That’s my brother and friends. I gotta go,” Sera said, and moved around Anne to catch up with them. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
“Sure,” Anne said, and Sera walked away as quickly as she could. It took all her will power to not look back over her shoulder to see if Anne was still watching her.
They had already spread their blanket on the grass, and Fey and Marc had sat down on opposite ends. There was space for Luke and Sera in between. When she reached the group, Marc looked up at her with such a sunny smile, she would have sworn her heart went ping. She sat down on the blanket next to him and he immediately reached for her hand. She loved the feel of his fingers intertwined with hers, the look of his strong hands. A small thrill shivered in her heart. It was okay. She could do this. She wanted to do this—be with him. She wouldn’t let it happen again, just had to stay focused even while he distracted her.
Looking around the field, Sera noticed there was a real crowd to watch the game that day. Larger than usual. She spotted Quinn on the other side of the field with some friends and waved. He grinned and waved back. A ten-year-old boy ran too close in front of them and nearly tripped over Marc’s outstretched legs. Boy, there were lots of younger kids running around. Something must be going on at the middle school as well.
Sera suddenly became aware that Luke had gone very still. Then he let out a small, quiet gasp. He’d had a vision. She immediately turned to meet his eyes, read his face.
Luke looked relieved, but grabbed her hand, pulled her up, and said, “Come on.”
Sera glanced back at Marc and Fey but wasn’t able to get any words of apology out before Luke dragged her away.
“Luke, slow down. Where are we going?” Sera tugged on his arm while running to keep up. “Is it Mom?”
“No,” Luke said. “It’s a little kid who’s going to fall off the jungle gym and break his arm. But I want to get there in time to stop it from happening.” He broke into a run. “I have to figure out how to stop them, not just watch things happen like some useless idiot.”
Sera couldn’t help looking over at him as they ran. He was angry, but she didn’t know why. And she’d never seen him frantic like this about some vision. Perhaps this was because of their dad. If Luke had Seen what was going to happen, if he’d had a warning about what was to come, perhaps he could have changed the future and saved their dad’s life. That had to be why he was so intent on saving the little kid from a broken bone.
As they reached the clearing where the playground stood—a brand new, community built playground in bright red, yellow, and blue—they saw a little boy lose his balance from the top of one of the climbing structures and fall. Unfortunately, his arm hit the ground at just the wrong angle, and they could hear him cry out in pain from where they were—too far away to have stopped it.
“No!” Luke reached out toward the playground, then fell to his knees.
Sera rushed to the boy as an older girl ran over to him, too. He was crying hard, and his injured arm was already swelling.
“Is he okay?” the girl said. Her black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she looked like she was about seven years old. “That’s my brother.”
“I think so,” Sera said, and looked around. “Is your mom or dad here?”
“Over there.” The girl pointed to the soccer field. “They’re watching Scotty play soccer.”
“Why don’t you go get them while I stay here with your brother. Okay?”
The girl nodded and ran off.
Sera looked down at the little boy and smiled. “My name’s Sera. What’s yours?”
“Parker.” He looked like he was a couple of years younger than his sister, had light brown curly hair and wore a red baseball cap. He had calmed down a bit, but was still crying. He looked toward the field where his sister had gone.
“Your mom or dad will be here in a minute, and you’ll be feeling better real soon, Parker,” Sera said. She placed her hands on his little shoulders, taking care not to jostle his arm. Her ring began to glow. She stared at it, transfixed as the healing light spread down his arms and into the rest of his body. His broken arm glowed brighter than the rest of him, and Sera thought she could almost see the bones knitting themselves back together as she watched.
She looked into Parker’s face. It was obvious that he was already feeling better. His breathing had slowed down and evened out, his face had relaxed, and he was actually letting his arm rest against his knee. His eyes got really wide as he looked into Sera’s face.
“You’re making me better,” he said, a big grin on his face. “Are you an angel?”
“Nope.” Sera shook her head and smiled at him. “Just a regular person like you.”
“I think you’re an angel. Mama says there are angels and they watch over me to keep me safe.”
“Your mama sounds like a very wise woman.”
Parker nodded.
Sera could feel the energy start to ebb. She let go of Parker and her ring stopped glowing. She shook her head, and wondered if it glowed from the healing energy because the energy went through her hands. It was possible, she guessed. She wondered if Luke’s ring glowed when he had a vision.
Sera stood up as the little boy’s mom jogged over to them, his sister running behind. Parker stood right up and flung himself into his mother’s arms. The surprise on her face turned to worry. She pulled back so she could examine his arm. Sera noticed that it now looked perfectly fine. He was even bending it and using it.
“Thank you,” his mom said, the crease between her eyes deepened as she studied her son.
Sera shrugged. “We had a nice chat. He’s a great little guy.”
The mom kissed the top of his curly-haired head. “Yes, he is.” And she scooped him up, walked him over to the benches to sit down with him, make sure he was okay.
Sera turned back toward the soccer field and saw Fey and Marc both watching her. Marc had a huge smile on his face, like he’d just won the lottery. She didn’t know what that was about. And Fey, she could tell, was just watching out for her. Like she always did.
Fey turned her head suddenly to look toward her left, and Sera followed her gaze.
Jonas.
He stared at Sera. She didn’t know whether to feel annoyed or comforted that he was there. She narrowed her eyes at him, and really studied him from far away for a moment. He had that weird shimmery look to him again. As if he were a hologram, not a solid person. But she knew he was solid. She’d smacked right in him the first time they’d met. There was no doubt he was real, but he strangely didn’t look it from far away.
She looked at the people standing near him. They didn’t flicker. They looked normal. She looked back at Jonas. He didn’t look normal. He was still flickering. She blinked a couple of times as she looked at him, but it didn’t change anything.
And she wondered, hardly believing she was even thinking this, if it was possible that he really was a vampire. That they did actually exist.
A slight shimmer to the far right of Jonas caught her attention, and she turned her eyes toward it. Another person was flickering. And another behind him. And another to the far
left. Sera’s eyes grew larger and larger as they searched the crowd of people. There had to be at least thirty shimmery people scattered amongst the crowd of soccer fans.
They were all staring at Sera. And she fervently hoped now that there was some other explanation for the shimmer, that there weren’t actually thirty vampires staring at her.
She looked back at Jonas. He had seen the others too, and there was no mistaking his displeasure as he glared at them. She looked back through the crowd again, but they were gone.
Gone. Disappeared. Not a shimmer to be seen anywhere. She looked back at Jonas again, and he was gone too. What was going on? Who were these people?
Sera turned and locked eyes with Fey, who looked grim. She tilted her head toward the parking lot. Sera nodded to her. She really didn’t want to hang around here any more today.
Sera’s gaze swept downward to Luke’s tortured eyes. He hadn’t moved from where he’d collapsed. She gasped, and ran over, sat down on her knees in front of him and grabbed his hands. His gaze never left her face. His eyebrows slanted upward over panicked eyes.
“Luke,” Sera said, “what’s wrong? What is it? Is it Mom?”
Luke looked like he wanted to cry. “No,” he said. “It’s not Mom.” He grasped her hands, shook his head, and said, “I can’t change the future, Sera. I can’t do it.”
“It’s okay. The little boy is fine. I healed him.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You don’t have to, Luke.” She squeezed his hands.
“But I do!” There were tears in his eyes. “I do! I have to figure it out. You don’t underst—” He stopped abruptly, almost as if he’d said too much.
But when had Luke ever said too much to her? That wasn’t possible. There was no such thing as too much between the two of them. They shared everything, they knew everything about the other. They were each other’s missing half.
She glanced away from him—he wasn’t making sense—and her eyes were drawn to the soccer field where the crowd had burst out in cheers at the game. All eyes were on the game except Quinn’s. His lone face was turned toward the playground, his mouth gaping, his eyes darting back and forth between Sera and Luke.
Sera turned back to Luke. And his words hit her. “What don’t I understand, Luke?” She put her hands on either side of his face so he couldn’t look away and whispered fiercely. “What are you not telling me?”
He looked at her and she could see fear—real soul-shattering fear—in his eyes. “It’s nothing.” He brushed her hands off and looked away. He had himself under control again. “I’m just frustrated with my visions right now. That’s all. Forget it.” And he stood up, then held out his hand to help Sera to her feet.
But Sera couldn’t move, she couldn’t even breathe. She stared up at him, not reaching for his hand. And the only thing her reeling mind could register was that, for the first time in their seventeen years together, Luke had just lied to her.
TWENTY-SIX
Sera rapped lightly on Luke’s bedroom door. He’d been in his room all afternoon since they’d gotten back from the game. He had shut her out with that lie, and it felt like a wall had sprung up between them. It was completely foreign to her. She just didn’t know how to handle it. She hadn’t said a word to him on the way home in the car. And he hadn’t seemed to notice.
Which had only made her angrier.
She’d locked herself in her room, and spent the afternoon painting furiously on her wall, mumbling to herself the whole time. What she’d figured out, what had brought her here outside his door now, was that he had to have a good reason for lying. There must be something he knew or he’d Seen that scared him and he didn’t want to scare her too. It made her heart ache to think of her brother suffering alone, and she’d come to get him to talk with her, let her in, tell her what was going on so that she could help him figure it out.
She’d spent time imagining what he might have Seen that would have him so worked up and fearful, and she’d figured that maybe it was about Fey getting hurt or, even though he claimed otherwise, perhaps it really was about their mom. In which case, Sera had to be in on it because if he couldn’t stop their mom from getting hurt, then at least Sera could stick close by so she could heal her.
So that their mom didn’t die like their dad had because she hadn’t been there.
She should have been there.
So, she was here now, at Luke’s door, ready to face whatever awful vision he’d had and deal with it together.
She could feel him waiting for her, so she opened the door without pausing for a reply. Luke sat in front of the computer, his head in his hands. He looked up at her when she walked in. His features were drawn tight, his mouth a thin, hard line, his eyes were dull and had deep, dark circles. He looked defeated.
He’d never looked like that.
“Hey,” he said in a quiet voice.
“Hey yourself.” She stepped into the room and closed the door.
He slowly turned back to the computer screen, and Sera stood there for a moment, unsure of how to proceed.
“About this afternoon—”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” He cut her off. “I got a little upset. I’m okay now.”
She smiled at that. “Yeah, you look it.”
He laughed a little, which she thought was encouraging. But he didn’t say any more.
“Luke, what’s wrong? Don’t even try to tell me it’s nothing again. You can’t lie to me. I know when something’s up with you. It’s me. You remember me, right?” She held her hands out in front of her. He rolled his eyes. “I thought so. Good. So tell me what’s going on. I can help.”
“You can’t help.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. I need to figure this out on my own. I’m sorry.”
Sera took a deep breath, trying to keep herself calm. “No, you don’t. There are two of us for a reason, Luke.”
He looked up at her with anguish on his face.
“You look like crap,” she said before she could stop herself.
Luke laughed, really laughed at that. “Oh, so now you’re trying to sweet talk me, huh?” Sera plopped down on his bed. “Actually, there is something I need to tell you. And don’t look so happy, you’re not going to like it.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s about Marc. I know you two are close, which I’ve been really happy about, for you. But—” Luke paused. “I don’t even know how to say this to you.”
“Just say it. I can handle it.”
“He’s going to break your heart. I Saw it.”
That was not what she expected him to say at all.
“Is that the future that you’re trying to change?”
“Uh, yeah.” Luke blinked, then said, “I don’t want you to get hurt. That’s why I’m telling you this now. Before you’re in too deep. You know, while there’s still time.”
Sera crossed her arms over her chest and hugged herself tight. Of all the—why couldn’t he mind his own business? Why did he have the power to See the future?
“Maybe you’re wrong,” she said. He was never wrong.
Luke’s eyebrows shot up. “I’d like to be.”
“You don’t know him like I do.”
“You’re right, I don’t.” Luke paused for a moment. “Sera, I’m not saying this to upset you. I’m trying to help.”
“Well, maybe I don’t want your help.” She needed to get out of there before she said something she didn’t mean and would really regret. She stood up, and walked over to the door.
“Sera?”
She turned back to him and said, “It’s okay, Luke. Really. I’ll be okay. But please don’t say anything else about Marc to me. He’s a really great guy, and I like him a lot.”
“I know. Me too.”
“So, just let it be. Okay?”
“Okay.”
As Sera closed the door to his room, she saw Luke putting his head in his hands again in what looked an
awful lot like despair.
“Don’t spill the lo mein, that’s my favorite.” Sera watched Marc ease himself onto the bed where they’d laid out a tantalizing spread of Chinese takeout on top of a towel.
“This is supposed to be a picnic,” Marc said. “Things get spilled. And carried away by ants.”
“Oh, ants! I forgot to get ants.” Sera looked apologetic. “Can we still call this a picnic?”
“Picnic.” Marc waved his arms over the food in front of them.
“Excellent.” Sera settled herself on the other side of the bed, and dug in. In between mouthfuls of egg rolls and noodles, she said, “Why are you living in a motel?” She looked around the tiny space. “Wouldn’t an apartment be better?”
“I have an apartment,” Marc said.
“Where?”
“Florida.”
“Oh.” Sera fiddled with her chopsticks. “Doesn’t that make for a long commute?”
“Indeed.”
“How are you able to afford all that—motel and apartment?”
“Oh. My parents.” Marc shrugged. “They may be disappointed in me, but they’re also funding what they think is a cross-country quest to find myself.”
“Were you lost?”
“They thought so.”
“But you’ve been in Vermont for a while, right? Why are you still living in a motel?”
Marc looked hesitant, uncomfortable. “I didn’t know how long I’d be here.”
“Oh.” She put down the eggroll and reached for a napkin, her appetite suddenly gone. “So are you leaving soon?” She tried, really tried to hide her unhappiness, but knew she’d completely failed. She just didn’t have the energy to keep everything secret.
Marc reached across the picnic spread, and touched the side of her face, traced his thumb along her lips. Electricity surged through her body at his touch. She took quick, shallow breaths, and fought a losing battle to take her eyes off his lips.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. He slid off the bed and knelt on the floor in front of her. Sera turned to him to say how glad she was, but his lips were right there next to hers and she couldn’t have stopped herself from leaning forward to kiss him even if she’d wanted to.