“You leave me no choice,” I said in glee. “You better run.”
Scarlett tried darting from the room but froze midway in the air when I mentally uninvited her. She fell, stiff as a board, onto the linoleum with a thud. My dad gasped and rushed to pick her up, holding her awkwardly in his hands.
“She’s having a seizure or something.”
“Should I call the Vet?” I laughed inside at the suggestion.
“And I saved your life last night.” Scarlett sounded pained.
My shoulders dropped; her distress sobered me up. I moved next to my dad, petting her fur lightly. He seemed far away, almost like he was in a trance.
“Dad?” I grabbed his arm.
“Huh?” he shook his head and grunted, dragging his free hand down over his face. “Sorry . . . what did you say?”
“I know what to do.” I took her lifeless body from his hands, rubbing fiercely on her ribcage. “Fine, you’re invited.”
Scarlett’s limbs softened and I dropped her to the floor. Without a word, she darted out of sight.
“See? She just needed her lungs massaged.”
He mumbled something and went back to his pancakes, which were smoking.
“I’m just going to put her outside and go to school, okay?”
“What about breakfast?” My dad’s glassy eyes met mine.
“I don’t have time,” I said with a shrug. “I’m running late.”
“No. You need breakfast.”
He wrapped up a few pancakes and bacon on a paper plate while I put coffee in a travel mug, secretly grateful. My stomach was growling something fierce.
Before handing me the plate, he looked into my eyes nostalgically, brimming with loving concern. “I love you, Julia.”
I enfolded my arms around his torso. “I love you too, Dad.”
He hugged back, filled with worry and regret. I had no clue what Scarlett had done to him, but she was going to get it when I found her.
“Just be careful, okay?”
“Of course, Dad,” I said, looking up at him through my eyelashes. “Always.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I hastily closed the door to the house, juggling my breakfast, backpack, and coffee all while cursing at Scarlett under my breath as I headed towards my car. Scarlett sat on the sidewalk and appeared like nothing happened.
“What did you do to him?” I asked bitterly.
“Nothing but a distraction. You left me no choice,” she said, her tail held high in the air, tone lackadaisical.
“No choice? I come down stairs to find you with my dad, reading his thoughts like the morning paper and I’m not supposed to be upset? Are you serious?”
“I know you know it wasn’t like that.”
“Sure it wasn’t.” I folded my arms over my chest. “Your invitation has been revoked. Do you hear me? I’m so done with this—with you. Done!”
“Contrary to what you think, I do not enjoy this.”
I growled realizing she’d pick-pocketed my brain again and threw my arms in the air, looking towards Heaven for a little help, or maybe a thunder bolt.
“You act like you do . . . a little too much actually,” I said with a biting tone. Gingerly, I opened the driver’s door and put my things inside, careful to set the plate of pancakes upright on the passenger seat.
For a brief second, I was tempted to get into the car and drive off, leaving her stranded at the house.
“I’ll just follow you.”
I slapped my hands against the sides of my legs. Grrrr. Of course you will. “I don’t know why I bother speaking to you at all. You never answer my questions; only manipulate me in return to find out what you want to know.”
Scarlett moved aside and continued to look up at me, blocking the path of the door. Her silence suddenly felt a little spooky. She, of all people, was the one person I needed to be able to feel out on a regular basis.
From nowhere, the image of Phil’s angered face after he’d found out I’d become a vampire—at Nicholas’ hand—zinged like a shooting star across my mind. Visions of my funeral and grieving family followed.
I started at the thought. “Is that my future?”
“Possibly,” she said with a sneer. “If you leave me behind.”
I blinked at the idea, tortured by the effect one small decision could have on those I loved.
“Fine.” I gritted my teeth. “If you must, get in and leave your fleas outside.”
Scarlett leapt gingerly into the car, stepping over my breakfast. She perched herself on the front half of the passenger seat, facing straight ahead. “Thank you.”
I slammed the car door and turned the key, revving the engine extra hard before throwing the gear into drive, hoping to dislodge her. Scarlett balanced herself perfectly, like a leaf hanging on a branch in a windstorm, using her tail and paws for balance.
“Don’t claw my leather seats.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she said in a smooth purr.
I clenched my jaw while gripping the steering wheel and forced my mind to remain blank for the few minutes it took to get to school. To annoy her, I ate my pancakes and only thought of my favorite toppings until my mind drifted to the decadent peaches they served at the Beverly Hills Hilton. I stopped the memory before it played on its own when my phone buzzed, reminding me of Sam’s text about Katie.
Scarlett’s voice became agitated. “When did this happen?”
I wiped clean the slate of my mind. “What?”
“When did Tyler visit Katie?”
I snickered. “Oh, interesting thing. Apparently she happened to visit Tyler while we were gone, which you said was unlikely. I can’t wait to tell Phil people at my school have found out vampires exist because you didn’t do your job again. Kind of ironic.”
“Not likely. I’ll stop the rumors.”
“What? With more mind tricks?”
“Selective amnesia actually.”
“Oh, right.”
I tore into the school lot and parked. No one paid attention as I rushed from my vehicle. Driving with a cat perched calmly on the front seat was one thing, but having one follow me through the halls would definitely bring attention I didn’t want. My only hope was distancing myself from her a little bit so people didn’t know she was following me exactly. But honestly, I didn’t have time to care. Finding Sam was my highest priority.
Upon entering the bustling hallway, I hid myself in Mary Jo Montgomery’s aura so I could think freely. She was naturally smart—more so than Cameron—and kept away from the typical emotionally draining drama. She seemed to be headed towards the gym, which was my direction, eliminating the dizzying challenge of jumping from person to person. Sam slammed her locker, turning in the same direction.
“Hey,” I said, lacing my arm within hers, steering her through the crowd behind Mary Jo. “How’s it going?”
I hoped she wouldn’t happen to notice the cat walking behind us, doing God knows what to my classmates. I was unable to tell since I’d invisibly hid elsewhere. Instead, Sam looked at me through the corner of her eye, eyebrows pushed together. “Geez. A call would have been nice. You aren’t contagious anymore, are you? ‘Cause like half the student body, including Morgan and Dena have caught this wicked thing and I don’t want it.”
“Don’t think so,” I said, unable to wait any longer, feeling pressure to get to the point. “I got your text. What’s with Katie?”
“You needn’t waste your time. No one is discussing this apparent sighting.”
I closed my eyes, and exhaled. “Waste my time? Is nothing sacred? This IS my conversation. Get lost!”
“Oh, that,” she said unaware of my internal struggle. “He thinks he might have seen a girl that looked like Katie, but she was all gothed out so he doubts it was her.”
“But your text said vampire,” I corrected.
“Vampire?” she screwed up her face and laughed. “Heck, no. I meant vamped. Doesn’t vamped and gothed mean the same t
hing?”
Inside I breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn’t even going there with her thoughts. “Yeah, I think.”
My thoughts spun. Maybe he really did see her, and what he suspected to be some crazy goth-girl look-alike was really Katie in her new vampy self displayed in her glory.
She smiled and shook her head, but the sadness resurfaced quickly. “Anyway . . .”
I frowned to mirror her heavy heart. “Yeah, I wish he did see Katie.”
“I’ll find out. Go straight to class.”
“Psscht,” I said accidentally, and then coughed afterward to cover it up.
“What?” Sam asked, pulling away from me with a questioning look and anxious to avoid my germs as we pushed open the girl’s locker room door.
“Oops,” I said and covered my mouth. “Sorry. I just remembered I forgot my gym clothes.”
“Oh.” She still eyeballed me like I had the plague.
“Seriously, I feel fine, Sam.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said immediately. “I know. Germ freak. Sorry.”
Sam pouted and walked to the benches to change without me. I gave her a consoling frown before leaving to go sit alone on the bleachers in the gym. Coach Hoffman happened to be at the doors to the gym. I told her my blunder on my way out.
Busy concentrating to find another soul to hide within, I ran smack into Tyler, my radar warning stuck in a jumping limbo.
“Excuse me,” I said, almost teetering over. He instantly caught my elbow and helped me regain balance. I stood up and smoothed my palms on my jeans. “Thanks.”
“Watch out,” he said. His smile covered his hidden sadness.
I bit my lip, wondering how I could have a heart-to-heart about Mandy or even Katie.
“I heard you were sick,” I said quickly before he had a chance to dart away to the other end of the gym where the guys assembled to play basketball.
“I got that flu.”
“So did I.” I smiled, trying to convey warmth. “Felt pretty bad for a few days.”
“Yeah, me too . . .”
We locked eyes for a second. His soul cried out to me from behind his copper colored irises: confusion, pain, conflict. I wanted to bring up the subject with a really good question and find out why, but nothing came out of my mouth.
“Well, take care,” he finally said, which broke the painful silence and walked away from me across the gym floor.
I grimaced; annoyed I let the opportunity go without even one word about Katie, wishing I had a gifted vocabulary instead of a worthless feelings’ detector.
“Crap,” I mumbled under my breath.
“He’ll recover. And Katie did show herself to him briefly, though he’s not planning to reveal that to anyone.”
I glanced down at my obnoxious shadow, wanting to punt her across the gym floor. “Nice. When did that happen?”
“Like you thought. When we were in L.A..”
Of course she did. I snorted softly and walked away from her towards the bleachers. The girls were just starting to file in for volleyball and I didn’t want to be associated with the strange black cat. “What did she talk to him about anyway?”
“Not sure.”
I sighed, completely annoyed that Scarlett only gave me a minimal amount of information, if that. For a mind reader, our conversation shouldn’t require me to ask questions verbatim.
“I don’t work like that,” she snipped.
“OH, I see,” I clenched my jaw. “Fine then, read this. If you don’t start telling me what you know right now, I’m going to march right over to Tyler and ask him myself.”
Scarlett sprawled herself out under the bleachers and began giving herself a bath. “Go right ahead.”
I scanned the gym and zeroed in on Mary Jo’s emotional cloud, only to decide I didn’t want to feel her lack of confidence, fusing to Alexis’ pompousness instead. If I wanted to be successful with my threat, drawing strength in her arrogance would be a far better choice.
With bravado, I left my comfortable seat and joined Tyler who apparently had a pass to stay out of class today too.
“Hey,” I said, eyeballing the spot next to him. “Can I sit here?”
Tyler nodded, studying me with apprehension. “Sure.”
I sat down and smiled at his curiosity, fascinated he didn’t feel disgust instead.
“Too sick to participate?” he asked uncomfortably.
“I forgot my clothes actually,” I said. “One more pass and my grade’s going down to a C.”
“Oh.” Tyler smirked. “My mom doesn’t think I should be over exerting myself yet so she called Coach to get me out of class and football practice. I told her I should just sleep in and come to second period instead, but that didn’t fly.”
“That’s lame,” I said as a cover up, wishing my dad would have done the same for me.
“She just—you know—gets all wigged out about stuff. It’s super annoying.”
“My dad does too, but in a different way. I’ve got these stupid electronic leashes on my car and cell phone so he’ll know where I am at all times.”
Tyler slyly glanced at me while pulling his lips into a tight line, radiating surprise. “Really?”
I sensed he didn’t know what to say as trust suddenly filtered around us. Apparently he’d never suspected I’d need constant monitoring.
“Maybe it’s this whole Katie disappearance thing,” I interjected quickly so he wouldn’t spread rumors I was some bad girl. “My dad’s super over-protective, you know?”
Katie’s name hung in the air, like a soap bubble, ready to burst. I held my breath, hoping he’d talk first.
“She’s your friend, right?” he finally said.
“Ever since the 4th grade.”
“Has she ever done this before? Run away?”
I kept a frown to cover a smile, realizing his words actually admitted he’d seen her. A confession might actually give him the courage to share his secrets.
“Don’t,” Scarlett said earnestly.
My eyes found hers to which I raised my eyebrows slightly, purposefully trying to irritate her. She wasn’t the boss of me and I wanted to remind her of it.
“Well, not to this degree, but I saw her on Monday actually.” I let the confession sink in, and waited, sensing his curiosity peak. “I haven’t told anyone yet. She asked me not to.”
Tyler’s eyes met the floor. The guilt billowed up around us, forming invisible thunder clouds of anxiety. He wanted to tell me. He needed to tell me.
“I . . . um. Well.” He looked nervously around the gym and cleared his throat.
I tried to convey a little safety his way with my demeanor, but he remained silent. We sat, listening to the scores called out on the girl’s side along with a chorus of grunts, shoe skids and whistle blows from the other.
Then his shoulders relaxed.
“I saw her too,” he confessed quietly.
“You did?” I said, scooting closer so our conversation couldn’t be over heard, except by Scarlett, who was now sitting at attention, focused on us intently. “When?”
“Yesterday,” he whispered. “I was taking out the trash after dinner and she was there, watching me. I thought maybe I’d imagined it or something, you know, from being sick, but she gave me this.”
Tyler pulled out a gold locket and opened it up. I gasped. Katie never took off her locket, given to her by her favorite aunt when she turned twelve. She coveted the piece so much; she never showed anyone what was inside. But there they were, a picture of her and Tyler facing each other inside the tiny frames.
“I didn’t know quite what to say when she gave me this, but she’s different now.” His voice cracked. “Do you know what I mean?”
Tyler didn’t reverberate fear, only attraction—strong attraction.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head. “What did she say?”
“If you even breathe a word of this, I’ll deny it,” he murmured, shifting in his seat, eyeballing Matt Henders
on who seemed suddenly very interested in our conversation. I caught Sam gawking at us too.
“Oh, of course.” I pushed a little peace and confidence against his buffer of uncertainty and he relaxed again, bringing down his defenses.
“I thought I saw her the night before too, when my fever was super high, but passed it off ‘cause that’s like weird to see girls staring at you from outside your window at three in the morning.” He looked towards me for reassurance.
I nodded my head.
“So, when I saw her standing in the shadows by the garbage cans, all pale and ghost like, I wasn’t sure what to think, other than I was going crazy. But she smiled.”
“Really.”
“But she’s . . . really . . . pretty now. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she was pretty before but now . . . um . . . she’s just—wow!” His desire sky-rocketed while he cleared his throat. “I wanted to say something, but she only handed me this and said she missed me and that she wanted me to know she wasn’t dead. But when I looked up from my hand, she was gone.”
He closed the locket back tenderly and held it in his hand.
“Yeah, she seemed very. . . different to me too.” My mouth couldn’t form the words hot or even gorgeous, afraid the admission would add to his crush. “How’s Mandy?”
Tyler looked away, expelling jealousy, and shoved the locket into his pocket. “Heck if I know,” he said quickly, skimming across the girls in the gym, finding her then skittering his glance away. “Doesn’t matter.”
Mandy had her back to us, serving the ball. She acted as if we didn’t exist but on the inside she crumbled to bits. I didn’t sense it was over Tyler but something else, something that terrified her.
“Hmmm,” I heard, echoing lightly in my mind.
I glanced at Scarlett who apparently had her eyes locked on Mandy as well. “What do you know?” I asked.
“There was another Katie sighting—with another student.”
“Was it Mandy?” I already knew and didn’t really need confirmation.
Scarlett bobbed her head ever so slightly.
Dang it, Katie. What are you up to?
Putting my hand to my head, I pressed inward on my forehead, waiting for Scarlett to volunteer something insightful. Tyler needed specific encouragement to mend things with Mandy, and Mandy needed to be told she wasn’t crazy—her guest visit by Katie probably was very uncordial. “I bet she misses you,” I said after momentarily meeting his pained glance to which he rolled his eyes.
The Sapphire Talisman Page 22