~
Ethan’s fingers caressed the soft velvet of the plush sofa as he waited for his date to return from the powder room. He’d taken her to dinner at an elegant restaurant, and she’d thanked him by inviting him to her place afterward.
He wasn’t sure why he’d gone to so much trouble this time. Maybe it was to vary the routine, or maybe because she was the most beautiful woman he’d found in months… other than the one who’d drawn him back to Colorado Springs in the first place. He hadn’t forgotten about her, of course, and he was still working on the plan forming in his mind. But there was something about this one’s timid nature and the way her dark hair cascaded around her shoulders that was particularly appealing. Her soft-spoken tendencies required him to expend more effort.
Either way, the two-hour dinner was laborious, and he was growing antsy—eager for the real fun to begin. If she didn’t come out of the bathroom soon, he would go in after her.
At that moment, fate (or chance, whichever) presented him a small gift. The power went out. The instant the darkness hit, he was transported into high-definition. The entire room became clear to his eyes and he could make out every minute detail as if he were wearing X-ray glasses. The only thing providing him this advantage was his own pair of extraordinary eyes.
Inhaling deeply, he stood and peered out the window of the high-rise. The entire city was dark—a full-on black-out. And it was a new moon, to boot. Perfect. Pure, unadulterated darkness. What more could he ask for?
For as long as he could remember, Ethan had been able to see in the dark. And even in pitch blackness, his vision was sharper than most. It was one of the reasons he was so gifted. And why his work was so easy.
There was a scream and the bang of a door from the other room as his date fled down the hallway and stumbled into the living room. She must be afraid of the dark—how pathetic… and tantalizing. He strode the few steps to meet her and pulled her to her feet. She hung onto him like a limp, pitiful leaf clinging for dear life against a turbulent wind. She clung now, but she’d be fighting him soon enough.
This was going to be way too easy.
The rest of the week was so busy that Jade barely had any free time to think about Logan and his secret. She went from class in the morning to work in the evening and straight home to study until she was too exhausted to stay awake any longer. She couldn’t find time to write in her journal. Work was busier than normal too, with Mr. Thompson receiving shipments of new books that had to be processed and labeled.
On Thursday she and Cam walked out of the lab, hand in hand as normal. Inwardly, she cringed with guilt at his touch. Fortunately, holding hands was the worst she had to worry about because there hadn’t been much opportunity for anything else. Jade was procrastinating, but every time she thought about saying something, her insides tightened.
Cam was chatting excitedly about some upcoming family reunion. Jade didn’t understand why it was such a big deal, but she was only partially listening. She scanned the campus absentmindedly until she saw Logan and his eyes met hers.
“Who’s that?” Cam asked. Only then did Jade realize he’d halted mid-sentence.
“Hmmm?”
“You weren’t listening to me.”
“Yes I was.”
Cam gave her a look. “No, you were distracted. Who’s that guy you were smiling at?”
“Oh.” Jade hadn’t realized she was smiling. “That’s Logan… er, Professor Henry. He teaches here on campus.” She’d expected a pang of jealousy, but Cam only exuded mild curiosity. “He helped me out when I was struggling in philosophy class.” She watched Logan, wondering if he would come over, but he only smiled casually, nodded her way, and kept walking.
They’d made it to Jade’s car. She thought about Cam’s absence of jealousy, and wondered if his feelings toward her had changed. That thought was abashed only a second later when, in the silence between them, she saw the telltale look in his eyes and felt the surge of passion as he began to lean in. Pretending she hadn’t known his intentions, she pulled out her cell phone to check the time.
“Crap, I’m going to be late for work. We must’ve taken longer than normal in lab today.” Without looking directly at him, Jade tuned into the flood of emotions and was thankful to feel their intensity subside. He didn’t seem hurt, even at her lame diversion. She wondered if she should feel worse for letting things progress like this, or for the fact that she was procrastinating telling him at all.
Once Cam had left and she was alone in her car, Jade sat for a few moments, thinking about Logan and letting her delayed emotions, now free from their invisible cage, wash over her. Seeing him today sent excitement through her, but reveling in that was dangerous, and she knew it.
~
On Friday afternoon, Jade was starting her closing routine when someone entered the shop. She looked up to see the handsome subject over whom she’d been brooding.
“Hello.” As Logan strode up to the counter, Jade had to steady herself, overwhelmed by the nearness of him.
“Hi.”
“How’s work today?”
“Busy. I’m finally getting things under control.”
“I decided to come see how you were doing. And to talk to you about Saturday.”
Her cheery exterior faltered. Was he coming to cancel? Had he changed his mind about spending time alone with her? Was it the photo-lab scenario all over again? She’d been afraid of this. “What about Saturday?”
“I wanted to make sure you were still available. That you still wanted to go hiking.”
Relief washed over her. “Of course. I’m still in. Do you still want to go?”
“Sure. I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t changed your mind.”
“So should I meet you?”
“You could… Or, I could pick you up and we could ride together. Would that work?”
“Sure, that’s fine.” She explained how to find her apartment.
After Logan left and as she was counting the cash drawer, her thoughts lingered on their plans for the next day. She had to keep reminding herself not to get carried away. She hadn’t sensed a single emotion from him that afternoon, including romantic interest or attraction. Tomorrow would be innocent enough, and she must leave it that way.
~
The next day, when Logan showed up at Jade’s door, he was dressed simply in jeans, hiking boots, and a white T-shirt. She felt a calm warmth spread through her, and wondered if Logan was purposefully controlling his mood for her sake now. For once in her life, she was free to be herself.
Logan drove the winding road through the mountains, his truck climbing higher and higher until they left the tall, dense trees behind and the landscape slowly changed to sparse vegetation hugging the rocky ground. The view of the mountains beyond was expansive when it wasn’t blocked by boulders on one side or the other. He turned off into a designated overlook area.
They grabbed their backpacks and headed up a narrow trail that cut between the large rocks. Logan asked about her other interests, her taste in music, literature, art. They chatted casually, sometimes pausing to catch their breath. After a while they stopped to rest, and he grabbed a camera from his pack.
He looked through the eyepiece and snapped several pictures of the scenery. Then he aimed it at her and she blushed, unsure whether to smile or pose or what. Logan chuckled. “Just be natural.”
She wasn’t sure what that meant, but he snapped a couple of photos of her and brought it away from his face. There was a lingering trace of a smile. He held out the camera to her. “Do you want to take a few?”
“Sure.”
Jade peered through the lens, rotating the camera slowly. The panoramic view was breathtaking. The snow-covered tips of the largest peaks stood in the distance in blues and grays. In front of them rose a range of smaller, jagged mountains, faded red and orange in the distance. Deep below in the valley, the lush, deep-green foliage crept up the foothills. She could see for miles.
&
nbsp; Jade panned until Logan’s face was in her sight, a large mountain peak looming behind on the right. She snapped the picture and lowered the camera, her eyes fixed on his face. The contrast of his bright eyes and dark, wild hair was striking. He remained silent, his gaze intent, watching her.
The wind caressed his wavy, brown hair, tossing a lock across his forehead and blowing it away before she could get up the nerve to reach out and touch it. “Your hair was longer… the first time we met.” The memory of that day suddenly rose to the surface of her mind. In one instant she had traveled light years away to another moment in time.
“Yes.” He seemed to be remembering that day too, from the look of reflection on his face. He took several steps forward, closing the gap between them. “I used to keep it longer when I wasn’t teaching. I guess I started cutting it short ever since the time I let things get out of hand…” His voice trailed off as his gaze dropped away from her.
For a moment Jade felt she’d made the situation awkward with a reminder of his abnormality. She racked her brain for a way to regain the ambiance. “I like it long. It looks nice now, too, of course,” she added, handing the camera back to him.
“Maybe I should let it grow out again. Since you prefer it that way.” He grinned at her playfully as he took the camera. Delight and an almost flirtatious energy engulfed her, fading predictably as he squelched it.
“No, don’t,” Jade said.
“Don’t grow it out?”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about stopping your emotions. I hate the thought of you having to hide your feelings from me. It’s not fair to you.”
“Oh.”
“I mean, just now, I felt something nice—happiness. It was your emotion, but I felt that way too. Sharing that with you felt really great.”
“But isn’t it difficult for you? I mean, not knowing which emotions are yours, and not having any control over them?”
“Well, yes, sometimes. But it’s different with you.”
“It still seems selfish to force my emotions on you.”
“Not coming from you. I want to know what you’re feeling.” Jade stopped, wondering if she’d gone too far.
Logan didn’t seem entirely convinced. “Well, maybe sometimes. But that’ll be hard for me to do. Like I told you, I’m really not used to giving myself over to emotions. Blocking them comes more natural.”
“I just want you to be able to be yourself.”
He smiled and shook his head. “Sometimes you’re too much. As if it weren’t enough of a struggle for you to conquer the emotions of the rest of the world, and now you’re asking for mine, too?”
Under his gaze, Jade blushed deeply and looked away. She wasn’t trying to be sacrificial—she just wanted to know the real Logan.
Suddenly, a wave of intense happiness washed over her, making her almost giddy. She grinned widely and threw her arms around him in a spontaneous hug, surprising herself as much as him.
When her arms went around him, something clattered onto the rock. Quickly she pulled back to see what had fallen. Logan’s camera lay on the ground.
Oh no! What had she done? Maybe she was wrong to ask for his emotions. If she couldn’t control herself…
He picked up the instrument and turned it in his hand. Something rattled inside.
“I’m so sorry!”
He shrugged, surveying the instrument. Nothing external seemed to be damaged, but she was sure it hadn’t made that sound earlier. “It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t worry about it.” His emotions had vanished again, so Jade couldn’t tell whether or not he was upset.
“It’s broken, isn’t it? I feel horrible!”
Logan tried the camera. “Hmm. I think so, but I know a guy who can look at it.”
“I’ll pay for the damage—or buy you a new one,” she said in a rush.
“No. I’m not going to let you pay for it.” Logan didn’t appear too concerned, but he didn’t respond to her affection either. “Come on. Let’s hike some more.” He returned the camera to his backpack.
~
Ethan looked down at the body before him, admiring the contrast of the dark blood on her fair throat. She had been pretty. Short, dark hair, pale skin, and eyes that had only moments ago been vibrant and full of life. The catch had been easy. She’d approached him in a bar, already tipsy, and had offered to buy him a drink. Over the course of the next hour, he’d bought her two more.
Once she was good and drunk, he’d called a cab and guided her inside. The driver dropped them in front of a decrepit apartment building twenty minutes away. After the taxi drove off, Ethan took her to an abandoned warehouse on the same block behind the apartments. It was one of the locations in the city he’d scouted earlier. The inside of the building was perfect: dark, dirty, and deserted.
As he looked at her still form, lying on the concrete floor, he regretted the briefness of their time together. By the time she had awakened from the drunken stupor, conscious enough to have a ripe sense of fear, it was already well past midnight and creeping into the early morning. His games, though enjoyable, had been shorter lived than he preferred. But in just over an hour, the sun would start to rise. And now he had work to do.
Ethan carefully removed his prize from the body and stored the valuables for his own later use. How he enjoyed collecting. Carefully he packed up the glass jars and returned them to his pack. He took the cans of gasoline he’d brought to the warehouse the night before and doused the entire place. With something close to regret, he drenched the woman who lay in a pool of her own blood. Cleaning up was never the fun part.
As he left the building and its evidence to burn to the ground, Ethan pondered the downside of his hobby. The time he spent with each girl was so short. He imagined the increase of anticipation, and thus the increase of his enjoyment that could be possible if only he could have more time. Especially for that one, special girl. He was saving her for when he found a place that was more permanent.
Bright, orange flames licked at the windows behind him. Pulling the sunglasses down over his eyes, he turned away and disappeared into the darkness.
In the following weeks Jade was overwhelmed with work and the culmination of her biology class. They had passed page 198, so now Cam had to work just as hard, much to his chagrin. It wasn’t for lack of trying that he’d been unable to reproduce the episodes of déjà vu that had come in so handy once. He’d even convinced Jade to assist in the recreation attempt, having her flip through pages of their biology book several times. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make it happen.
Jade was still procrastinating talking to Cam, although the status of their relationship seemed trivial compared to prepping for their upcoming final. Every waking minute was spent studying. Even her weekends were devoid of extracurricular activities. Whenever Cam became antsy and suggested that they go out or do something for fun, Jade strictly said no.
The last day of class arrived. During the final exam, Jade silently said a quick prayer and summoned her total focus as she filled in the answers, pushing the feelings of stress and anxiety permeating the classroom out of her mind. When she turned in her test and left, she was accosted by a feeling of intense elation and triumph. Cam was waiting for her in the hallway.
“We’re done!” He tackled her in a bear hug and squeezed her so tightly she could barely breathe.
“Finally,” she said.
As ever, Cam’s joyful mood enveloped her. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the building, nearly skipping along the way. Swinging her hand back and forth like a little boy would, he grinned broadly until they reached the grassy area. At that point, he reached down to pick her up and twirled her in a circle. She squealed in surprise and clung to him, trying not to fall out of his arms.
When the twirling stopped, she looked around, trying to reorient herself, fighting dizziness. She stopped laughing when she saw Logan staring at them from across the lawn. Cam saw him too, and put her back down onto
her feet as the man approached. The weeks since they had gone hiking had flown by.
Jade tried to gauge Logan’s expression as he closed the distance between them, but she couldn’t read him. He wasn’t exactly smiling, yet not frowning either.
“Hi,” she said. “Logan, this is Cam. Cam, Logan.”
“Hey,” Cam said, barely glancing at Logan.
“Hello,” Logan said.
“We just had our final,” Jade said.
“Congratulations. You must be relieved,” Logan said.
Cam’s presence was a sudden barrier between them, adding social tension, even though he seemed oblivious to the fact.
“Extremely,” she said.
“I’m not sure how well I did on the test,” Cam said, “but at this point, I don’t even care. I’m just glad it’s over. I’m sure Jade aced it, though.”
“I hope so.”
“I’m sure you did fine,” Logan adjusted the bag on his shoulder. “Well, I need to get going. I’m heading to the lab.”
“Good seeing you again,” Jade said.
Seeing him today made her realize how much she missed him. Their distance was probably for the better, she mused, trying to ignore the subtle ache that arose at the thought. The less often she saw him, the less chance that she would become attached.
“Good to meet ya, dude,” Cam said.
With a fleeting glance at Jade, Logan departed across the campus.
~
“I’m all in.” Cam pushed a pile of M&M’s across the table toward Josh.
Jade sat at the kitchen table with the three Schuylers, watching the two brothers face off against each other. She knew little about poker, but she was having a good time despite being the first one out.
Josh gave a confident smirk. “Okay, let’s see it. What do you have?”
Empath: The Flawed Series Book One Page 13