Later that day, Mary Ann read the bottom of Aden’s note for the millionth time.
I have to find a way to free them. For them. For me. I’m not mental. They’re people, not just voices. But I don’t know what to do. Getting them bodies of their own is all I can think of, but that seems impossible, you know? And if I do manage to find bodies—someone who recently died maybe? — how would I pull them out of me and put them inside?
Mary Ann’s arm fell to her side, the paper crinkling between her fingers. Her mind whirled with questions. Four other people swirled inside Aden’s head, their voices constant, always distracting him. Except when he was with her. Somehow, she quieted them.
Did she believe all of that? She didn’t want to, and honestly hadn’t the first thousand times she’d read his letter. Then her doubts had begun to give way to curiosity. The curiosity had given way to uncertainty, and the uncertainty had finally given way to acceptance.
A week ago, she hadn’t known werewolves and vampires existed. Now, there was no refuting it. Why couldn’t there be a boy with people trapped inside him, as well? People who could time travel and wake the dead. Predict the future and possess other bodies—the last of which she’d seen firsthand.
How was she able to stop them? Why her? She was nothing special.
She nibbled on her bottom lip, no answers sliding into place, and peered up at her bedroom ceiling. It was smooth and white, a blank canvas just waiting to be colored on.
Okay, so. Aden thought the best way to free the souls was to find them bodies.
Maybe they were ghosts and Aden had unintentionally drawn them. With that thought, she found herself eyeing her room for any sign of a spectral being, hands clutching her comforter, breath emerging shallow and heavy. Werewolves and vampires were real, so why not ghosts, too? Were there any around her? People she’d known, perhaps? People who had once lived here?
Her mother?
Mary Ann’s heartbeat skidded out of control, and tears of hope burned her eyes. She blinked them back. Her mother could be here, watching her, she thought, dazed. Protecting her. Her greatest desire was to see her mom again, to hold her, hug her and tell her goodbye. The car accident had taken her so suddenly, there’d been no chance to prepare.
“I love you, Mom,” she whispered.
There was no response.
Good point. Either their memories had been wiped when they entered his body or they were something else. Angels? Demons? Were there such things? Probably. But they probably weren’t the souls trapped inside Aden. Again, they would have remembered their own identities. But again, their memories could have been wiped.
Ugh. This was getting her nowhere. Could the four be talking to him like Wolf talked to her? Perhaps they weren’t truly inside his head but were tethered to him and simply projecting their voices.
She immediately discarded that idea, as well. Aden heard them—if they weren’t actually inside him, wouldn’t he see them, as well?
Mary Ann tapped her chin. First thing she needed to do, as she’d initially thought, was figure out who the four were so that she could figure out what they’d been. Aden said they’d been together since his birth.
“Which means I need to go back to the beginning,” she said, her voice cutting through the silence of her room. To do that, she needed to gather some information. She made a mental list:
Find out who his parents were. Or rather, are.
Find out where he was born.
Find out who was around him the first few days of his life.
At the sound of the masculine voice inside her head, she jackknifed to a sitting position, hand fluttering over her once again racing heart. Wolf loomed in her bedroom doorway, huge and black and beautiful. His fur gleamed in the sunlight, and those pale green eyes regarded her almost gently. His ears were perked, pointing like an elf’s. Clothing hung from his mouth.
“How’d you get in?” she asked.
“Funny.”
His lips seemed to twitch around the material.
“I should have known.” She eyed the clothes. Jeans, a T-shirt. “Are those for me?”
Had she heard him right? “You’re going to…”
Excitement spread through her veins, encompassing her entire body in seconds and making her shake. “Really? Why now?”
Ignoring her, he paced to her bathroom. The door closed with a swish. Mary Ann set Aden’s note on her nightstand and stood. Then she sat back down. Her knees were a little weak. What would Wolf look like? Was he someone she knew? Every time she tried to picture him, all she could see was a hard, muscled body. His face always remained in the shadows.
The phone rang, startling her, and she jumped.
Mary Ann glanced at caller ID, and her trembling intensified. Penny. She crossed her arms over her middle, anchoring her hands under her armpits so that she couldn’t reach for the receiver.
Another ring.
As she sat there, Mary Ann was surprised to feel hurt, pure and undiluted, rather than anger. She loved Penny, she did. And Wolf and Aden were right. Making mistakes and then hiding them was human nature. But she couldn’t act as if nothing had happened, nor could she trust Penny not to do it again. With someone else. Someone Mary Ann actually adored. For some reason Wolf popped into her mind.
At the fourth ring, her machine picked up.
“I know you’re there, Mar. Talk to me. Please. There’s so much I want to tell you.” A pause. Penny sighed. “Fine. We’ll do this over the phone. I wanted to tell you what had happened. I did. Remember at the café, when I mentioned that Tucker would stray? I was trying to work up the courage to tell you but I stopped myself. I was too afraid of
Silence.
Mary Ann’s jaw started trembling, right along with her body.
The phone began ringing again, and she glanced at the caller ID, expecting to see Penny’s number. Would she answer this time? What would she say? She saw Tucker’s number instead, and her teeth ground together in irritation. Was something in the air? A call Mary Ann vibe?
Him, she didn’t love. Him, she wanted nothing to do with. She wasn’t even tempted to pick up the phone.
His message was shorter than Penny’s.