Chapter 12 #2
Memories of “the kiss” and the overwhelming emotions that had led to it filled my mind. While wondering how I could recreate the experience—for testing purposes—movement across the street drew my gaze.
A girl dressed in black was scanning the waiting students.
Goth girl.
She shifted her weight to the other foot, a move that hinted at impatience, and I noticed a glint of something.
I took out my reader, pretending to read, so I could take a picture. Yes, it would be breaking the privacy law about not photographing someone without their consent, but she was across the street and wouldn’t hear. I just needed to know for sure what was hiding under her thigh-length coat.
When she moved again, I took a quick picture.
Her gaze immediately collided with mine.
No way. She couldn’t have heard that.
The line from one of the werewolf non-fiction books echoed in my head.
Some of the enhanced traits shifters have are hearing, physical strength, sight, and speed.
I looked down, trying not to panic, and zoomed in on the photo as the number of students decreased. It was too blurry to be sure, but it looked like a knife.
And the murder victim had been skinned.
My heart skipped a beat as my stomach knotted with fear.
I peeked at her again. She was watching me steadily now, ignoring the rest of the crowd.
The need to tell security warred with the fear that I might be wrong. Wrong about what I thought I saw. Wrong about what she might be.
I’d be labeled as a panic starter and on the news as the newest “crazy” person crying wolf when one didn’t exist. I’d also be in trouble for taking her picture.
The last car in the pickup line pulled away.
I was alone.
She shifted her weight again, and this time, I was sure of what I’d seen.
A big black knife strapped to her leg.
Panic shot through me.
“Clarity.”
Len’s voice was a lifeline. Pivoting, I hurried toward him. I grabbed his arm when I reached him and looked over my shoulder, half-afraid she was coming after me.
She was gone.
I didn’t feel any safer.
“You all right?” Len asked.
His concern and the way he glanced at my hand clutching his arm made me realize how crazy I looked. I quickly released him.
“I don’t like waiting alone.”
He relaxed and smiled.
“No problem. I’ll wait with you.”
As we returned to the sidewalk, I glanced across the street again.
“You’re really scared, aren’t you?” Len asked.
Wind caught my hair, flinging it across my face as I looked at him. He reached out and brushed it back, tucking it behind my ear.
Two years ago, the move would have had me swooning on the spot. Now, though? It felt too personal.
Thankfully, Mom pulled up just then.
“Thanks for keeping me company,” I said, hurrying to get in.
“See you tomorrow, Clarity.”
I slammed the door closed and focused on buckling.
“Let me guess,” Mom said as she drove away. “Len?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s cute. Still no interest?”
“No. Why were you late today?”
She sighed. “Everyone and their mother was talking about the murder, which slowed everything down. Were they talking about it at school?”
“Yeah.”
“Over one hundred victims, starting in Utah over twenty years ago,” she said, providing more details than I’d heard. “That’s just in the States. Other countries have numbers too, but not as high.”
She turned toward the library, which wasn’t on the way home and not a normal stop for her.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Stress relief.”
The dispensary wasn’t in the same direction as the library, though.
She stopped in front of the ice cream parlor, and dread filled me. She never stopped for ice cream.
Which meant she was planning to drop another bomb.
Great. Loved that for me. Another stressful moment coming up.
“Hesitate and lose out,” Mom said.
I scrambled out of the car and beat her inside. She didn’t say anything when I asked for two scoops, which meant whatever she had to say wasn’t good.
We both had our cones and were sitting at a table a few minutes later.
“This is good,” Mom said.
I ate, ignoring her and the growing sense of impending doom until she pulled out her reader and pushed it toward me. A picture of an older woman was already open. She looked vaguely like me.
“That’s Emily, your dad’s mom,” Mom said, tapping the screen to move to the next picture. “This is her house. She has three open bedrooms.”
I stopped eating.
“I’m not trying to dump you somewhere,” Mom said quickly. “We’d go together. It’s a nice place. Look…”
She flipped through several more pictures that really did show a nice house with a big yard and even bigger garden space.
“I know you’re scared, Mom. I am too, ” I said, thinking of goth girl. “But not enough to leave everything I know again. Please give the police some time. It’s only been two days.”
“It’s been nine, Clarity.”
“But only two since they discovered the body. Please, Mom.”
She looked down at the picture of the house.
“My first priority is keeping you safe, Clarity.”
Which was exactly why I couldn’t tell Mom about goth girl. We’d be packed and heading to Grandma’s before dinner, without even confirming why goth girl was carrying around a knife.
“I’m safer than most teens, Mom. I never went anywhere before this, remember?
And I’ve already promised not to go anywhere alone.
You bring me to school and pick me up. The rest of the night, we’re together.
Please,” I begged. “At least give it a week before we start thinking of making drastic life-changing decisions, okay?”
She closed the reader and ate her cone, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Which meant she wasn’t giving up on moving but wasn’t ready to outright force me yet.
My stomach twisted. I couldn’t let that happen. Not now. Not when Sam might actually be everything I’d been hoping for.
I needed proof before Mom ripped that chance away.
By the time we reached the house, I was a ball of nerves and desperately wanted to see Sam.
“If I leave the front door open, can I go check on Sam?” I asked. “I promise not to go inside.”
She nodded, and I hurried out the door.
However, his door didn’t open when I approached or after I knocked several times.
Just as I was going to give up, I heard the approaching rumble of his truck. I waited on his front step as he parked in the driveway.
All my fear melted away as he got out and walked toward me. He was the calm center of my storming life. The safe harbor I didn’t realize I’d needed.
The second he was close enough, I threw myself into his arms. He caught me like I knew he would, holding me tightly and skimming my temple with his nose.
“You always show up just when I need you,” I said.
I felt him stiffen and realized what I had let slip. Staying silent, I waited, hopeful he’d just admit everything like in the books.
He didn’t. His hand smoothed over my hair.
“I’d rather show up before you need me. Anything interesting happen at school today?”
I snuggled into him just a little more.
“Everyone was talking about the murder and who the victim might be. Today was the first time that I was the only one not staring at my reader. I think the entire student body was going through their contact lists and messaging everyone to make sure they’re all right.”
“What was Len doing?”
“Len?”
I realized several things at once.
Sam wasn’t asking casually. He was jealous. I could feel it. It was subtle, lurking under his growing worry, but there.
And what was even more affirming was how he’d specifically asked about Len while his nose was pressed against the spot Len had touched.
Sam could smell Len on me.