“Okay, I’m game-”
Wyatt’s lips prevented any further words.
One minute later than they’d been given, Charley headed back to the kitchen as her stomach grumbled its reminder that they hadn’t eaten. Wyatt strolled a few steps behind, a look of pure satisfaction in his silly grin and twinkling eyes.
Lily’s head popped up from her spot at the counter. “You look like a woman glowing with the passion of really good-”
“Bananas.” Charley tilted her head-a reminder to Lily that Chase had ears like an elephant, even when asleep.
Lily mouthed ‘Oh, yeah’ and slid a sandwich in Charley’s direction. “Looks like you could use some energy, too. Expend a bit of it today, have you?”
“A few times.” Charley grinned and pulled herself up on the barstool.
“I’ll take half of that, seeing as how half yours and half of mine is in the near future.” Wyatt slid behind her, rested his head on her shoulder.
Lily smacked his hand with her spatula. “I have yours here.” She pulled another from the cabinet chiller and pushed the plate toward the lip of the counter.
Wyatt pulled himself up onto his own seat.
“He talked in his sleep,” Lily said.
Charley craned her neck to find Chase-she’d given him only a cursory glance as she walked by. He continued to lie in Sophie’s arms. “What did he say?”
James and Cael strolled in. “You guys are really bad, you know,” James said.
“Where’s Maggie?” Charley bit into the ham, tomato, cilantro and mayo creation Lily concocted; it never ceased to amaze her what Lily could do with food.
“Showering,” Cael said. “Said she needed a few and took off after you guys did. She’s using my room.”
Charley noted Lily’s pause, for the briefest of seconds, before she continued her kitchen cleanup. “What did Chase say?”
“He’s a good sneaker-outer,” Lily said. “We’re going to have to keep any eye on him in the future.”
Cael and James intermingled their stories from Chase’s sleep-induced recollection with what other facts and details he’d told them over the course of a couple days. A bramble bush, under which he transformed from mouse to human the second time, gave him the scratches. He’d had plenty of time to regret his clothes hadn’t changed with him. The socks and underwear had been castaways he’d found on the side of the road. Yet, his biggest fear had been getting in trouble for leaving without an adult.
“You guys must be slave drivers.” Wyatt winked at Charley.
“I think we’ve just had to instill so many levels of secrecy in him that, at his age, he hasn’t yet found the line of what to keep secret without guilt,” James said.
Charley nodded as she finished her bite. “I’d agree with that.”
Cael rubbed the space between his eyes. “He said I taught him stuff, Charley, but I didn’t show him how to freely transform and definitely not how to move to an animal. I showed him Boy Scout stuff-getting out of ropes and ties and some survival techniques we learned together from TLC, combined with… well… a little of what I can do.”
“It’s in his DNA.” Maggie came in, walked around the counter, and took her own stool at Lily’s right. “May I?” She pointed to a sandwich.
Lily pushed the tray to her. “All yours.”
“Can you elaborate, Maggie?” Charley took another bite.
“You guys were all taught to wait. I wasn’t. You guys were all taught to keep secrets. I wasn’t.” Maggie dug into her sandwich. “But I do, of course.”
Charley leaned into Wyatt’s shoulder. “Maggie’s a big-time Hollywood body double.”
“Along with a few others,” Maggie said through a mouthful of food.
“Wait.” Wyatt rattled his head. “There are more of you?”
“Somewhere around a hundred, maybe a few more. We don’t know the exact count because most of us live everyday normal lives and pretend we don’t have supernatural abilities,” Maggie said. “Some of us are talented enough to hide it unless our eye color changes, and some can even manage to swing that.”
“She’s right.” Cael dropped his forearms to the counter. “Some of us are on the good side of the law, others not so much. Some smarter than others. Some more talented. Have you ever known someone to up and change jobs, and they were just as good at the second as they were at the first but didn’t have any training that you knew of?”
Wyatt nodded.
“Probably one of us,” James said. “Some of us prefer to stay under the radar because when we give up our secret, the bad guys like to look for us to… keep us for themselves. Foreign governments… our own… the mob. We can take our skill and use it for good or evil. Those of us here use it for good.”
“I do, too.” Maggie’s statement came out a whine. “Britney and Halle both needed doubles.”
“And Benji, too?” James smirked.
“I did not double as the dog.” Maggie clenched her teeth. “Just because I can doesn’t mean I do.” She emphasized her point with a finger to the granite.
“No, of course not.” James’s voice grew deep and sad. “And just because you do… oh, yeah, that’s right… you don’t.” He pushed away from the bar and stalked out of the room.
“You’re going to need to play nice, Maggie.” Lily waved one of her more shiny blades in Maggie’s direction.
“What’d I do?” She shook her head. “Look, you guys asked me here. I’m here. Now tell me what I need to do so I can get back to my crazy life and leave James to his.” She shook her head and mimed wild hands in the air.
“I think it’s time to strategize,” Charley said. “Shall we move to the dining room? The table will give us a wide expanse on which to draw, color and finish our plans for tonight.”
24
Wyatt snuggled into Charley as the rest of the group left the island. His arms wrapped around hers from behind, and she clung to them at her chest.
He rested his head on her shoulder. “Why doesn’t the government have you guys locked up in some lab, running tests?”
“Who says they haven’t already done that?” Charley craned to the side and added a not-so-subtle kiss to his cheek. “There’s a lot of stuff you don’t know that doesn’t matter anymore. Some of us managed to make peace with and capitalize on our abilities. Others are still flitting about trying to find the right home for theirs.”
“Like Maggie?”
Charley shrugged. “When I hung out with you in high school, I listened to so many of the kids’ woes and whines about what they were going to be when they grew up. Girls wanted to be doctors, writers, or just stay home and produce loads of babies. Guys wanted to be police, football pros, or rock stars-their bands worse than anything I’d ever heard. Everyone wants to be someone else or a grown-up with a purpose and an exciting or glamorous way to fulfill it. It’s a fantasy that gets us through the tough years.”
“And some of you actually get to do that, which I think totally rocks, and I am so jealous.” Wyatt mimicked the voice of his younger generation.
“But sometimes it gets old. I have been under the government’s control-well, I have my fair share in making decisions after so many years-but I’ve been there long enough to know we have to find happiness in our lives and go for it.”
“Then why didn’t-” He stopped when she tensed.
Charley turned, laid a hand against his cheek. “The grass will not be greener no matter how much we try. Learn
