So we continue to chase a feeling.
Can she feel us? Does she see us searching? Does she even care?
Chapter 25
Charles
“Son of a bitch!”
My eyes snapped open. I was flat on my back on the wooden planks of Dinah’s porch, feeling like I got punched in the back of the head. My elbow was throbbing too, keeping pace with my heartbeat. I groaned and almost choked on a mouthful of copper. I assumed my stinging lips were the cause of the blood. Running my hand over my face confirmed it.
Slowly, I turned to look at Esmer. She lay curled up on her side, hugging her bad knee and grimacing into the planks. I sat up right away. Because I suddenly remembered what we’d been doing before the vision had come.
I jumped to my feet, my face becoming toasty warm in the cold afternoon air. “Shit. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just tired of being broken.”
She took the hand I offered and let me pull her up. With a hiss, she collapsed against me. I held her upright, my arms circling her waist. Esmer’s face was pressed into the side of my neck as she took deep breaths; her hands were caught between her chest and mine. Her shoulder was exposed. The sweater dress must’ve slipped when she fell. I wanted to press my lips against that patch of skin. Instead, I forced myself to lift a hand and tug her sweater back into place. Bouncing a bit on her good foot, Esmer managed to put a hair’s breadth between us and look at me.
“So…” An awkward little smile formed on her lips. “Who died?”
I opened my mouth to tell her what I’d seen but then my stomach dropped. “Jasmine!”
Esmer adopted a look of horror. When she twisted around to look for her crutches, her sharp hip bone practically stabbed me in the stomach. I swallowed back a grunt and tugged her closer to the porch’s railing. I only waited a second longer to be sure she had a good grip on the wood before I lunged for the back door. My sneakers squeaked against Dinah’s pristine hardwood floor as I raced down the hall and swung around the corner, into the sitting room.
My heart slammed into my Adam’s apple at the sight of my sister on the carpet, Dinah crouched next to her. Panic told me to push past the old lady, snatch my sister, and dart out the front door. I shoved the instinct down deep in my gut.
Dinah thought Jasmine had epilepsy. We could play this off as another episode. We’d thought this through. It was going to be okay.
The old woman must’ve heard my ragged breathing because she scowled over her shoulder at me. “There you are! Your sister has fallen. What can we do?” Even though she was practically barking at me, I heard the undercurrent of fear in her voice.
“She needs to stay put for now. Did she throw up or mess herself?” My voice went up a few octaves at the end but I had to ask. After all, those were common results of a seizure and things I—as someone who was supposedly used to this—would be comfortable talking about.
Too bad I wasn’t. Not even a little bit.
If Dinah noticed how uneasy I was, she didn’t say so. She turned back to Jasmine. “Not that I can see.”
I knelt beside Jasmine and gently shook her shoulder. “Jazz? Talk to me. Are you all right?” Thankfully, our most recent victim hadn’t been beaten to death. Drowning couldn’t have been fun but at least there wasn’t any evidence of the curse on Jasmine’s skin.
The clack, creak, clack, creak of Esmer’s crutches announced her arrival. I shot her a quick glance as she joined us on the carpet. She was wearing my hat with the bill pointed off to the side.
“Everything a’ight?” she asked, taking in the scene.
Jasmine peered up at me with glassy eyes. “Death doesn’t know what she is. What do you think she is, Charlie?”
Dinah and I shared a look of confusion; hers was actually genuine.
I pretended to shake off my concern. “Can you stand?”
“She’s not human,” Jasmine murmured. “She can’t be a demon; she’s not pure evil. But she can’t be an angel either.”
Esmer raised her eyebrows at me.
“You’re delirious,” I told my sister, fighting to keep the edge of urgency out of my voice. But she had to hear the telepathic message I was sending.
You need to stop talking. Now.
“M’fine,” Jasmine murmured, her eyelids drooping shut. “But Death isn’t. I think she…might be…”
I sighed in relief when she passed out.
“I’ll phone your uncle.” Dinah rose and marched out of the room, giving me the distinct impression that she was running away.
She didn’t suspect the truth. She couldn’t. I mean, who would come to that conclusion on their own? She was probably just uncomfortable because she didn’t know how to handle something like this. My skin crawled as I remembered flashing cameras and questions and recording devices shoved in our faces. Memories of persistent fans came next; they used to follow us like shadows from crime scene to crime scene. Those stalkers didn’t ask for details about our abilities. They just wanted to “see us in action,” the freaks.
Suddenly, I was exhausted. Scooping Jasmine up and lowering her into the couch took more effort than it should’ve.
“This is normal,” I told Esmer. “She’ll sleep for a few hours and then wake up like nothing happened.”
Esmer glanced back as if to be sure her aunt was out of hearing range before she lowered her voice and leaned toward me. “What was she saying about Death?”
“Beats the hell out of me.” I smiled a bit, flicking the bill of my hat. “It looks good on you. Maybe you should keep it.”
“Nah, you look weird without it.”
I made a face at her as I plucked the cap off her head and slapped it on mine.
Esmer lowered herself into an armchair. “I
