“I thought you had to touch people?”
She nodded. “Usually, but this is called a collective.”
I stared at her, an unspoken question on my face.
She sighed as we stood outside the door to Literature One. “If many people are thinking or feeling the same thing, it can overtake the physical perception.”
“So, since we're all thinking sad thoughts, about the same...” I struggled here, “event, then you don't need the touching because of the sheer amount of ...”
She nodded, “...emotion. Their emotions are focused on Ceci's death.”
She exhaled in a shaky breath and I squeezed her to me. Pulling away, we walked into English together. It was gonna be a long damn day.
CHAPTER 29
I walked toward the front door and saw Onyx standing at the window beside it, his tail a black windshield wiper. It made me feel a little happier because the day had been something to survive.
I turned the knob and immediately sensed that there was someone there.
Jade's Aunt, Andrea, was sitting perched on the edge of our couch with a glass of iced tea and some cookies on a plate in front of her.
I would have been down with that but Dad was home early and that made my bullshit meter sing like a trumpet.
Dad looked up and Andrea nervously wiped her hands off on her pants.
Huh.
My parents and Andrea stood. She gave me a nervous smile and said, “I'll let you all talk about some of the things I've mentioned.”
She walked by me and I looked at her as Onyx gave a soft growl, deepening my sense of foreboding.
Onyx had a sense of things.
Mom and Dad looked at me and I just knew.
“You can't see Jade anymore, son,” Dad said the minute she was out the door.
Those words sucker-punched me and my lungs felt on fire, smothering. I couldn't possibly breathe. Not see Jade? What the fuck was happening here?
Mom moved to touch me and I leaned away, her hand dropping. She looked helplessly at Dad and he continued, “She thinks time with you right now, when this investigation is ongoing for the murderer... well, she thinks it puts Jade in danger.”
Mom said, “So do we, Caleb. Andrea has a point. When it was only Nulls, it didn't seem so terribly close.” She gave a small shrug.
“But now this murderer is moving toward your immediate circle. Don't they have an officer assigned to randomly patrol John's house?” Dad asked.
I nodded, my chest so tight I could barely breathe.
Jade. I needed to get to Jade. Stupid Andrea was going to drop that bomb and Jade was gonna freak.
Onyx whimpered, bumping my hand.
The Boy's scent had changed and become charged with tremendous anxiety and fear. The Dog looked around him to see if there was an imminent threat, seeing none, he leaned against the Boy to lend pack-comfort. He smelled the Boy's anxiety and somehow the Dog had the sense it had something to do with the small female that the Boy wished to mate with. There was a threat to the female? Why was she not here? The Dog bumped the Boy's hand.
“She can't do this. We are being punished for this deranged dipshit!” I yelled, my hands in fists. I wanted to punch something, anything.
“Calm down, Caleb,” Dad said. “I know it's not fair, but she is her guardian. She has to take this threat seriously.”
“Whatever!” I flung out. “Jade is safer with me! I can protect her! Do you think she's safer with her dad, or just her and Andrea? Listen,” my voice lowered to a furious whisper, “she is naked without me, she's already been targeted. The killer, if he's halfway smart, is looking at every one of us. Andrea didn't do anything but strip her of protection.”
I straightened and my parents stared at me.
Finally, Dad said, “All of what you say makes sense, but Caleb,” and he put a hand on my shoulder and I struggled not to throw it off, “she is in charge of Jade.”
“Hell! Couldn't you guys talk reason with her? Dad...Mom...” I looked at them in frustration.
“We tried to outline some basic principles of common sense,” Mom ticked off a few things that they'd mentioned, “your zombies have been sort of opportune,” she hesitated over that. “And now that you are working out and attending Judo, you two are together all the time, Jonesy and the Weller boy are around. Also, the addition of Alex isn't awful either.”
“She didn't want to hear that, son. She had her mind made up before she arrived and there wasn't a lot that could have changed it.”
I calmed down a little then. It was good to know my parents thought it was over the damn top too.
“I need to see her, Dad. She's going to freak; she's going to be scared.” Onyx whined again and I buried a hand in the soft fur of his head.
Dad shook his head sadly. “I'm sorry. I can't willfully go against her wishes. I suggest you pulse Jade and summarize some of the things which were said.” He spread his hands away from his body like, our hands are tied.
Mom's hand covered her mouth, standing tears in her eyes and Dad cradled her into his chest. “She'll be alright; they're going to apprehend this whack-job.”
Whack-job?
I grunted in frustration and disgust and stalked off. I heard Mom say, “Caleb...”
Dad quietly responded, “Let him go. Give him some time, Ali.”
Time! The hell with that. I went straight up to my room, popped the latch on my window and slid out onto the roof.
I wasn't leaving Jade to the mercy of fate. As I balanced on the roof, my pulse vibrated.
Initializing...
Jade LeClerc:
Caleb! Distress Andrea just told me... sobs...
Break in pulse transmission...
I know, I'm coming right over...
No! She said she'll pulse the police if she sees you while this...investigation is going on...
Extreme stress detected in voice modulation; does emergent situation require medical or police assistance?
Jade! Calm down...you're alerting the pulse danger alert system! CH
Break in pulse transmission
I'm sorry! I was just...I didn't think she'd do it.- JLeC
Hang on...meet me on your roof by your bedroom window.-CH
...Okay...come soon, Caleb, I'm scared.- JLeC
I turned and looked through the window, wanting to take Onyx so bad but how to get him off the roof? I looked around, not seeing anything that would work. Dammit, I'd have to leave him.
He seemed to know he couldn't come and whined, his paws resting on the wood windowsill, a soulful look in his eyes.
Sorry boy, I thought at him, not this time.
The Dog had the terrible feeling of something bad happening again. The Boy's smell was filled with protection for the small female. She was in danger. The Dog could help as only pack could. He realized the Boy needed to leave through the clear solid hole that was usually not gone. He wished to come and help the Boy. He whined...as the Dog watched the Boy maneuver off a tall surface that looked very unsure in its footing. The Dog was amazed the Boy could navigate its treacherous shaping. He laid down on the soft nest in the Boy's private cave and waited, his unease increasing.
I hated, hated sneaking off while my parents were downstairs but I wouldn't be able to think until I'd laid hands on Jade, made sure she was okay. Maybe I had about two hours or so until supper.
I booked to my bike, picking it up from its perch along the side of our house and looking around covertly; taking off, pedals twirling, ass in the air. Pumping furiously, I made my way to Jade's house, thoughts of her filling my head into a swirling fog of anxiety.
****
I shimmied up the lone tree (the same one that Brett had, I thought sourly), and eased up next to Jade's window, my feet planted in front of me and spider crawled to the sill. It was an older house and the pitch of the roof was steep. Way older than the other homes that surrounded it. The window jutted out from the main body of the roof, having its own, smaller roof topping
it, with wood grids and wavy, distorted glass.
Jade's face suddenly appeared behind one of the panes, making it waver like she was underwater and I was fiercely gripped by another wave of unease. She used both hands to slide the window up, the thing sticking on the way.
“Come in,” she said.
I did, looking around and seeing all the same stuff she always had. Her room was really neat. She had an iron bed in a pale pink. The dream-catcher that her grandma had made when she was born was strung from one of the stiff, iron posts to the other, its intricate bead work running the entire length. The bed was ultra-Jade, girlie and ornate, she had a pure white bedspread thing on the top with swirly patterns all over it.
Her room smelled like a great big vanilla bean.
We sat down together in the little alcove that had a seat built in under the window, a flowered cushion flung on the top.
I held her small hands in mine and looked into green eyes that were full of tears and I felt bad. Jade had such a tough route. Her dad was a drunken loser, her aunt wasn't really thinking straight. No mom and she was dating a guy with zombies popping up all the time who also helped the cops run around looking for a killer.
Not real normal.
“What is she trying to do to us, Jade? I mean, I will take care of you. You're safer with me. Doesn't she get it?”
She looked down at our entwined hands her hair falling forward and I put some of it behind her ear, trailing a finger along the outside, making her shiver. I loved the way she reacted to me, it was one of the things that I liked the most. We just seemed to fit.
She looked up then, her lips parted. “She thinks she's protecting me, Caleb. After,” she swallowed, “my dad, she's really over-protective.” She shrugged.
“I don't like this sneaking around shit.”
She nodded. “I guess that's what we're going to have to do, though. What choice do we have?”
We sat for a few moments in silence. “Ya know, I think she's kinda right.”
Jade looked at me in surprise.
“We can still see each other in school...”
She shook her head and I raised my brows.
“She wants us to break up.”
“What?!”
“That's why I'm so upset!” she said, the tears cascading down her face. I pulled her to me, pressing her head into my shoulder.
Were the adults insane? What the hell was Andrea thinking?
I thought about our options. I hated being young sometimes; it was the lamest.
“We could fake it...” I said.
She pulled away, a puzzled expression riding her tear-stained face.
“Fake it?”
“Ya know, just pretend until this whole thing is over. You know they're going to catch this bastard soon and the dumb aura reader that's working with him...”
“Even our friends?” Jade asked, sniffing.
Whoa, that seemed like too much.
I shook my head. “No, that's too much pressure. But, if a few key people thought we weren't together, it may even get back to his ears.”
She didn't ask me who He was.
I stood up and so did she. “In fact, this is probably the best solution for a temporary fix.”
Jade rolled her lower lip into her teeth, biting nervously. “Okay, maybe. But for how long?”
“A couple of weeks; max. Before my birthday.”
“That's three weeks away!” she said, looking out the window where the leaves on the tree I'd climbed were starting to turn color.
“It'll be hard to pretend, Caleb,” Jade said.
Yeah, it would.
I shrugged. “We can do it... to keep you safe.”
I tilted her chin up with my finger. “We can do anything,” and I kissed her as she went on tiptoe to reach me. Her fingers moved up in my hair that had gotten long. We melded together and I picked her up, her legs going around my waist as I carried her to the bed. We did a slow fall to the surface of it and started moving into each other, our kisses getting deeper, my hands moving over her body.
“Jade!” Andrea yelled up the stairs and I groaned. There was always an adult interrupting Jade and me. Couldn't they go die? Hell.
I looked down at her and she turned her face to the side. “Yeah?” she called back.
“I need your help with supper!”
“K, I'll be right there.”
She turned her face toward me and we stared at each other, my arms in the push-up position over her. I noticed her lips were swollen from my kisses, her face flushed with color, the green of her eyes a molten emerald and I didn't want to leave her.
I wanted this moment to go on forever.
“Me too,” she whispered, sensing it all from her hands wrapped around my forearms.
I dipped in for one last lingering kiss and stood. Her hands trailed down my arms as I slipped away. I jerked open the window and backed out of it, fingers gripping the rough wood of the sill.
She looked at me and with a half-sob she gripped my shirt and tugged in my face for a last kiss, retreating and slamming the window shut.
I watched her wavering form through the glass as she moved to the door and through it.
She never looked back.
I wanted to puke.
It was my plan but somehow, I had a bad feeling about it.
As it turned out, besides AFTD, I wasn't too bad on intuition either.
CHAPTER 30
The next two weeks were the worst of my life. Jade and I had to act like we didn't like each other. Tiff and I were called in twice for suspicious clues that turned out to be nothing and I was stuck in a ton of core classes that had me bored to weeping.
What was really interesting was that Jonesy was still an Unclassified but we all knew what he was: an Electra-Magnetic. It was sweet. Once again, the adults were in the dark (like mushrooms, singing in their own shit). I liked it that way. The ones I thought were bad were sometimes good, the ones that were good sometimes weren't.
Brett was trailing after Jade and I was on a fine line of tension all the time. She'd spread around the school that we'd broken up and there were a few guys that had taken notice (of course) and Brett was the main one. Always there, always following.
As I was cramming my pulse-readers into my locker, Jade walked by and I stared at her like a guy starving; the sweep of her back with the hair falling in the middle of it, swinging as she walked by. The pink tee she wore underscored by a chocolate-colored lace cami. Her pink flats peeked out from skintight pants, but her face was a pinched mask.
Looking away, I scrubbed a hand over my face and when I looked up Sophie was there. I looked for Jade but could barely make her out. She was getting swallowed in the crowd with Brett trailing after her.
I stood so fast that I was light-headed, my fists curling. I actually moved to go after him when Sophie put a hand on my shoulder and I remembered she was standing there. Jonesy walked up and put an arm around Sophie.
“Hey,” he said.
My eyes strayed to where Jade had been. I looked back at Jonesy, “Hey.”
“Looks like you're wantin' to put a hurt on somebody.”
“Yeah.”
“Is it who I'm thinkin'?”
“Yeah,” I ground out, my fists like hammers by my side.
“Caleb,” Sophie started, “she's not liking it any more than you are. She's as helpless as you.”
“I'm not helpless. I'm steaming, effing pissed.”
Jonesy smiled. “About that...”
John arrived with Tiff, Bry and Mia. “Did you get the pulse, Caleb?” Tiff asked.
I looked at Tiff. Shit, I turned to my locker and found my pulse where I'd left in on the lone interior shelf at the top of the lockers. I depressed the pad and a message was there from Garcia:
Another crime scene; location under strictest confidence.- Garcia, Raul-KCP
Location as follows:
I thought my password again to unlock the location and looked at Tiff with
surprise and she raised a finger to her lips.
Right, couldn't say it out loud. I nodded my understanding.
I began to pulse Jade, I just had to make that connection. Right now, until this shitty investigation was through...it was all we had. The strain was taking its toll. My thoughts touched on Brett again and my expression darkened.
Jonesy got in my grill. “Listen Hart, calm down...”
I looked down at him. Not by much, we were closer in height than we had been. We were towering over the chicks now. A superb development.
“I can't help it. That turd is scenting on Jade and she's not into it at all,” my fists clenching again.
John shrugged. “Just ask to be taken off the case. It's interfering with your life.”
“No,” Tiff said. “We're in it for the long haul. And it isn't gonna be much longer. It's bigger than us,” she motioned to everyone milling around in the hall, spilling out into the huge commons area.
I hung my head and muttered, “Tiff's right, but it blows.”
John clapped me on the back. “Man up, your birthday is coming up and I bet you this will all be over by then.”
John was trying to cheer me up but I was in my own black cloud of agony.
At least we could go to Gramps'. It'd be bonfire time, all the little kiddies out trick-or-treating and us around the fire trying not to freeze our asses off.
“We're going to your grandpa's right?” Sophie confirmed.
I nodded.
“No lake, though?” John asked.
“Yeah, it'll be drained by then,” I said.
“Bunch-o-stumps, Hart!” Jonesy said.
I shook my finger at him. “We're not doin' any of the shootin' off fireworks this year. Gramps about got his ass handed to him for that.”
The Death Series, Books 1-3: Death Whispers, Death Speaks and Death Inception (The Death Series, Volume 1) Page 65