Eternal

to face me. “Hey, you okay?”

“Matthew!” I gasped. “What the hell? You scared the crap out of me!”

“Did you really think I was going to let you come here by yourself?”

I shook my head. “How did you even know where I was?”

“A vision. Come on. Sit down for a second and catch your breath. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He took my hand and drew me down beside him.

I sat, the stone step cold and hard beneath me. “A vision? I don’t understand—nothing bad happened to me in there.”

“I know, but I knew you’d be upset afterward. I can’t explain it, Violet, but this is the way it works for me now. My visions, I mean. They’re linked to you. Apparently, any sort of strong emotion on your part is enough to trigger one now.”

I just nodded, unable to speak. I was suddenly glad for his company, happy that I wasn’t alone. I leaned my head against his shoulder, allowing him to wrap a comforting arm around me.

We sat like that for several minutes in silence, listening to the sounds of the city. A car horn honked, brakes squealed. A couple walked by hand in hand, laughing. In the distance, a siren blared. I took a deep, cleansing breath, filling my lungs with the brisk winter air.

“You going to be okay?” Matthew asked.

I swallowed hard before replying. “I think so. This was just . . . not what I was expecting.” I had no idea what I had been expecting, but certainly home ownership hadn’t made the list of possibilities. I glanced down at the ring on my finger, the diamonds glinting in the dull yellow lamplight from the street.

“It’d be easier if you just tell me where you’re going,” Matthew said, drawing me out of my reverie. “You know, rather than making me rely on my visions. They’re pretty damn inconvenient, to tell you the truth.”

“I know,” I murmured. “Sorry about that. I was afraid you’d tell me not to come.”

“As if that would stop you,” he said with an easy laugh. “You want to talk about it? What you found in there, I mean.”

“Not right now,” I said. “Later, okay? I’m assuming you’re here for the weekend, too.”

“If you are, then so am I.”

“Then I guess you might as well come with us tomorrow to the museum—you know, that new exhibit on vampires, werewolves, and zombies at the Museum of Natural History?”

“Sounds right up my alley. It’s a date.” He made a quiet sputtering noise. “Not a date date. I didn’t mean—”

“Yeah, I knew what you meant,” I said, bumping him with my shoulder. “Sheesh.”

He cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable now. “You ready to head back to Patsy’s?” He rose, holding out a hand to help me up. I took it and stood unsteadily, dropping his hand as I reached for my cell.

“Just let me text Sophie and tell her I’m on my way,” I said. My fingers numb from the cold, I clumsily typed out a message—on my way home now—and then glanced over at my Megved. His cheeks were reddened, a knit cap pulled low over his dark hair. He wore a thick fleece jacket zipped up to his chin and warm-looking boots, but his hands were bare, like mine.

It occurred to me that he’d probably been sitting out in the frigid cold this whole time, waiting for me, giving me the space to do what I needed to do without complaint. My heart swelled, and I reached for his hands, rubbing them between mine to warm them.

“I’m glad you found me,” I said, surprised to realize that I meant it. “Let’s go. I think I owe you a cup of hot chocolate, at least.”

10 ~ Invisible

As soon as Sophie and I returned to campus on Sunday, we headed over to the cafe to meet up with everyone else. Our group had grown so large that we actually had to push two tables together. I found myself at one end with Cece and Joshua on one side of me and Tyler and Sophie on the other.

Kate, I noticed, was sitting at the far end of the table with Marissa and Max, as far away from Tyler as possible. Which, of course, made me wonder what I’d missed over the weekend.

When Jack came in, my curiosity was ratcheted up a notch. He sat a couple of tables away with his football buddies, but I noticed him sneaking glances in Kate’s direction every few minutes, causing her to blush.

“I still think Violet should let Cece try,” Joshua said, drawing my attention away from Kate. “Just a quick astral sweep of Mrs. Girard’s office. In and out, and I can cover her.”

I rolled my eyes. “How are you going to cover her? You can’t even see her when she’s . . . you know. Astral.”

“I can sense her,” he insisted.

“Really?”

“Yeah, we’ve”—he cleared his throat loudly, his cheeks reddening—“you know, tested it out.”

Cece giggled, then tried to cover it by reaching for her mug and taking a long, noisy gulp of whatever she was drinking.

“I don’t think I even want to know what you mean by that,” I said, shaking my head. “Anyway, what were you planning to do? Turn into fog? How’s that going to help?”

Joshua fixed me with a level stare. “I can do way more than turn into fog.”

“What exactly can you do?” Tyler asked. “No disrespect, dude. I’m just curious. No one’s ever explained it to me before. The shifters at Summerhaven kept to themselves.”

“And they don’t here?” Sophie asked.

Tyler leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “Uh, last time I checked, Joshua was sitting right there.”

“Because he’s got good taste,” Cece said, smiling coyly. “Anyway, Josh, tell them what you told me. About the shifting.”

Joshua nodded. “Basically, a shifter has two options, distortion or camouflage. Distortion is what you call the fog. It’s not all that different from what micro-telekinetics can do—manipulating matter. Body cells, in our case. And then with camouflage, it’s just an issue of manipulating the cells to blend into your surroundings. Simple, really,” he added with a shrug. “Like a chameleon.”

“I wish you could show them,” Cece said. “You know, just something really quick.”

Joshua glanced around furtively and then nodded. “Blink and you’ll miss it. Camouflage, okay?”

We all nodded. And then . . . for a split second, Joshua was gone, blending into the background, as if his chair were suddenly empty. And then, just as quickly, he was back again.

“Did you all catch that?” Joshua asked, grinning now. “If I’d stayed shifted longer, you probably would have noticed that something wasn’t right. But from ten, fifteen feet away? The illusion is seamless.”

“Okay, that was so cool!” Sophie said.

“I know, right?” Cece was beaming now.

Even Tyler looked impressed. “Way cool, dude.”

“Thank you, thank you very much,” Joshua quipped.

“Hey, what’d we miss?” Marissa shouted down the length of the table.

“We’ll tell you later!” I shouted back, but she wasn’t listening now—Max was nuzzling her neck, making her giggle softly as she made a halfhearted attempt to push him away. My gaze slid over to Kate, who was turned sideways in her seat, still making googly eyes at Jack. Then there were Cece and Joshua, obviously a couple now. I wasn’t sure, but I thought they might be holding hands under the table.

And Sophie and Tyler . . . I didn’t know what the heck was going on with those two. They were both acting really weird around each other, and Sophie had been very careful not to mention him once over the weekend, which was odd in and of itself. Bitching about Tyler was part of our repertoire now. At least, it always had been.

Somehow, I felt suddenly alone. I tried to push aside the thought, telling myself