Much like I could recognize her voice, being around Electra on an almost daily basis had allowed me to become attuned to her empathically. Thus, it only took me a minute to lock in on her emotional vibe, so to speak, and thereby pinpoint her location. I phased and simultaneously turned invisible (which automatically switched my vision over to the infrared), then flew towards the school building – bypassing the doors in favor of simply going through the walls.
I found her in what appeared to be a math class. Still invisible, I floated up into a corner of the room and hovered there for a second while I cycled my vision through the light spectrum to something approaching normal. Then I spent a moment looking at my girlfriend.
She was dressed in jeans and an oversized, maroon turtleneck sweater. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, revealing a pair of tear-shaped earrings that I had brought back for her from Caeles. As to cosmetics, the only thing I noted appeared to be a light application of shiny lip gloss. All in all, while not as stunning as she had been at the party, she was still storybook beautiful – and as it turned out, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
Electra was actually watching the teacher, who had his back to the class and was writing something on the board about polynomials, when a girl at the desk next to her passed her a note. Obviously surprised, Electra took the note, which had been folded over several times and had a little heart drawn on the outside. She turned to the girl who had given her the note with a perplexed expression, and emotionally I sensed genuine confusion coming from her.
Rather than reply, the girl who had passed the note hooked a thumb over her shoulder. Glancing in the direction indicated, I saw a guy sitting there and took a moment to look him over.
Even though he was seated, I got the impression that he was tall, and he had dark hair that he’d allowed to grow to his shoulders. Good genes had blessed him with a handsome face, and he had a physique that suggested he worked out regularly. He wasn’t wearing a letterman jacket, but I got the sense that he belonged to one of the school’s cool cliques – probably the football team, or something along those lines. Emotionally, I detected a degree of confidence that maybe just crossed the line into the region of arrogance, along with smugness and a roguish sense of entitlement. All in all, he exuded something of a bad-boy element that girls probably found attractive.
Like me, Electra had followed her classmate’s thumb-pointing with respect to who had sent the note. Seeing that he had my girlfriend’s attention, the guy winked at her and flashed a thousand-watt smile. Based on what I was picking up empathically, he was probably used to that routine melting hearts, and thus expected Electra to give him an encouraging smile or something along those lines. What he got, however, was a response he likely hadn’t seen in a while (if ever).
Rather than smile back, Electra frowned in irritation and rolled her eyes. She then crumpled up the note without reading it and flung the wadded ball of paper back at the guy. It hit him in the chest and then flopped to the floor, despite his valiant attempts to catch it.
I smiled. That’s my girl.
A general round of snickering followed Electra’s actions, causing the teacher to turn around. By that time, however, Electra was sitting face-forward again and stone-faced. The teacher eyed the class warily, knowing that something had happened but unable to discern what, then turned back to the board and continued with the polynomials instruction.
I waited a few seconds and then reached out to Electra telepathically.
<Hey, cutie,> I said mentally.
Slightly startled, Electra promptly looked around, head jerking about as she replied. <Jim? What…What…Where are you?>
<Front of the class, near the ceiling.>
She looked up, then almost immediately turned her head towards the upper right corner of the room, where I was hovering. She had obviously used her powers to pinpoint my location, and confirmed the fact by giving me a surreptitious wave. <Just pinged you. What are you doing here?>
<Just had to see you, babe. Missed you.>
<Yeah, right,> she replied sarcastically, but smiling in a way that let me know she liked my answer. <Now why are you really here?>
<You remember yesterday when I said something came up?>
<Are you kidding?> Electra asked incredulously. <You want to talk about it now? I’m about to have a quiz!>
<It’s important,> I insisted.
She sighed mentally. <Okay, but make it quick.>
<You got it.>
I quickly explained to Electra what had happened. Using telepathy, it only took a few seconds to make her fully aware of the entire situation involving my evil twin. Needless to say, she was quite surprised.
<So there’s a guy running around out there with your face?> she asked.
<At least in the one instance,> I corrected. <If he’s a shapeshifter like we think, we don’t know what he really looks like.>
<Still, that can’t be good.>
<Agreed, which is why I’m reaching out to people my double may have contacted.>
<He hasn’t approached me yet, but he will get quite the surprise if he does.>
I frowned, not sure what she meant, then the truth hit me: Electra was one of the people my double wouldn’t be able to fool. Her power let her recognize people by their bioelectric fields – for her, it was as good as a photo. Thus, unless he could change his bioelectric field to match mine (which was a tall order), he’d be wasting his time trying to siphon info from Electra.
And bearing that thought in mind, I suddenly realized I was wasting my time. It was good to have warned Electra about my
