“Tell me,” Serena coaxed. “I know something else is on your mind.”
Jimena needed to talk to Serena about Veto, but embarrassment made her hesitate.
“What?” Serena urged.
“Saturday night, I . . .” But as she started to tell Serena about seeing Veto, her amulet resonated against her chest with an electrical hum.
They both looked up, alert to danger.
Cassandra was shoving through the crowd, walking toward them. She wore stretchy black capris with a low-cut, black tank top and too much silver jewelry. Thin white scars formed a crooked S T A on her chest. She had been wildly in love with Stanton, the leader of the Hollywood Followers, and tried to cut his name into her skin with a razor blade before Stanton had stopped her. She might have been beautiful once, but evil had made her features harsh and pinched. She stopped in front of Tattoo You, a small storefront shop where kids got piercings and tattoos.
“What does she want now?” Jimena wondered.
“I told you she’s been following us,” Serena sighed.
“Why’s she so desperate to get into a pleito with us?”
“Followers always want to get in our faces.”
Serena tried to make light of Cassandra’s sudden appearance but Jimena knew her well enough to know it troubled her.
“You’ll lose,” Cassandra whispered—or had she let the words slip across their minds? She was too far away for them to have been able to hear her. Jimena shuddered. She hated the way Cassandra had so easily entered their minds. She glanced at Serena, who seemed more than irritated.
“Steady,” Jimena warned. “Don’t do anything yet.”
Cassandra had been accepted by the Atrox and apprenticed to Stanton to learn how to perfect her evil. Already she could read minds, manipulate people’s thoughts, and even imprison others in her memories, but, unlike Stanton, she didn’t have immortality.
“What’s she up to?” Serena was upset.
Jimena shrugged. “You’d think I’d have had a premonition.” She was almost always forewarned if they were going to have a serious run-in with the Followers.
“You know how she felt about Stanton,” Serena said. “Maybe she suspects that I’m seeing him.”
“You shouldn’t be,” Jimena scolded, as she had a dozen times before. “It’s forbidden. If the Atrox finds out, it’ll send Regulators to terminate Stanton.”
“Like I don’t know that?” Serena didn’t take her eyes off Cassandra.
“Is he worth it?” Jimena felt apprehensive. If Regulators were powerful enough to destroy an immortal like Stanton, then Serena didn’t have a chance against them. What if they caught Stanton while Serena was with him? “You’re risking your life—and besides, it doesn’t feel right keeping secrets from Vanessa and Catty.”
It was more than that. She didn’t know how Serena could trust Stanton so completely. Once Stanton had trapped Vanessa in his childhood memories. While she was there, Vanessa had tried to save a younger Stanton from the Atrox. After that act of kindness he could never harm Vanessa, but Serena didn’t have the same guarantee. There was too much competition among Followers for a place of power in the Atrox hierarchy. Stanton could be using Serena. After all, the biggest prize for any Follower was the seduction of a Daughter of the Moon or the theft of her special power. The Atrox awarded such a deed by allowing those Followers into its Inner Circle.
But Serena cared for Stanton. Sometimes she actually felt sorry for him. His father had been a great prince of Western Europe during the thirteenth century and had raised an army to go on a crusade against the Atrox. But the Atrox had kidnapped Stanton to stop his father.
Serena nudged her. “Now look who’s here.”
Karyl left Tattoo You and joined Cassandra. He turned and smiled at them. He reminded Jimena of a lizard, the way his beady eyes darted up and down her body with frank sexual interest. That wasn’t the only thing creepy about him. He looked their age, but there was something about him that seemed old and made her think he had been alive for hundreds of years.
Jimena turned slightly so that she could watch Karyl more closely. “It’s creepy the way he’s just smiling at us.”
“Hideous,” Serena agreed. “It’s as if he and Cassandra have something big planned.”
“I know, but what?” Jimena knew Karyl’s power. She had faced him in battle the night Karyl and Cassandra had tried to destroy Catty and Vanessa.
“They’re acting weird,” Serena said.
Cassandra had always been vindictive, but something was different about the way she strutted toward them now. Maybe she did know about Stanton and Serena. She stopped a few steps from them.
“Enjoy the nice weather while you can,” Cassandra warned. “You won’t be seeing many more days.”
Behind her Karyl laughed. He opened the door to Tattoo You and Morgan stepped out and joined him. She wore a skimpy black dress and shiny black boots. A new gold hoop pierced the flesh above her eye. The skin looked bright red and sore. Jimena wondered what Morgan’s parents would do when they found out what had happened to her. They’d never fully understand, but they’d see the change. Jimena didn’t feel guilty about it the way Vanessa did. Serena and Jimena had risked exposing themselves in order to protect Morgan, but in the end the Followers had claimed her.
“Nice pierce,” Jimena said. “You just get it?”
Morgan gave her a quick angry look and touched the gold hoop. It was something she never would have done before.
“Can you even believe that?” Serena spoke in a low snickering voice.
“Don’t laugh.” Jimena nudged her.
“I can’t help it.” Serena clapped her hand over her lips.
Jimena shook her head. She wasn’t sure what she saw in Morgan’s eyes now. Sorrow? Remorse? Rage? Morgan had always had an attitude that had made it impossible to be her friend, but now that she had become an Initiate she was even more edgy. Initiates wanted to prove themselves worthy of becoming a Follower. Morgan had a trace of hardness in her face now in spite of her perfect angelic features.
Cassandra’s head whipped around, and she took a step backward.
“What now?” Serena asked.
“It’s Catty and Vanessa,” Jimena answered.
“Maybe she feels outnumbered,” Serena suggested.
Jimena sighed with relief. “Good, I feel low on energy today.”
Catty and Vanessa joined them on the bus bench. Vanessa had gorgeous tanned skin, large blue eyes, and shiny blond hair. She was wearing a pink slip dress and beaded slides. Michael Saratoga’s jacket hung on her shoulders.
Catty was forever getting Vanessa into trouble, but they remained best friends.
“What’s up?” Vanessa looked nervously down the street at Cassandra.
“Looks like the usual.” Catty tried to say the words in an easy manner, but Jimena saw the way she had shuddered when she had first observed Cassandra, Karyl, and Morgan.
Catty took off her yellow slicker and leaned against the bus bench. She was stylish in an artsy sort of way. She wore a split tube top that showed off the piercing in her belly button and a pink hip-hugging skirt with an asymmetrical hem. She had let her perm grow out, and now her straight brown hair billowed in the afternoon breeze.
“Why is she following us?” Vanessa spoke in a hushed tone and fingered her hair nervously.
“We were asking the same question,” Serena said.
“Oh look, it’s Vanessa,” Morgan called in a mocking voice.
Vanessa shook her head sadly. “I hate that we’re going to have one more Follower to worry about, especially someone who used to be our friend.”
“Speak for yourself.” Catty made a face. “She was never my friend. You just don’t remember how bad she was when she was normal.”
Vanessa ignored Morgan’s stare and concentrated on Cassandra. “Do you think she could suddenly have enough power to be a threat to us?
I mean she acts like she’s got some big
secret plan. Maybe I should follow her, you know, invisible.”
Jimena smiled at her bravery. That was Vanessa’s gift. She could expand her molecules and become invisible, but when she became really emotional she lost control and her molecules began to act on their own. When Vanessa had first started dating Michael, she had started to go invisible every time he tried to kiss her.
“Don’t do anything yet,” Jimena cautioned. “Not until we know more.”
Vanessa nodded.
Serena started to stand. “I guess we’re not going to fight them today.”
“Is that what you’re reading from them?” Catty asked.
“No, my bus is coming.” Serena picked up her cello case.
“I’m going with you.” Vanessa dug into her purse for her student bus pass.
“To my cello lesson?” Serena looked bewildered.
“No.” Vanessa hesitated as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell them where she was going. “Okay, I’m going to see Michael. He’s been a little too possessive lately, and I want to talk to him about it after he practices with his band today.”
“A little too possessive?” Catty asked. “I thought you liked the way he was so attentive.”
“I feel like I can’t breathe.” Vanessa looked down. “I just want time for myself.”
The bus pulled up and Serena and Vanessa climbed on.
Catty watched the bus pull away. “I wonder if I’ll ever have a boyfriend. It seems so unfair. You had Veto, and Serena had that guy last year. I’ll probably never have someone.”
“At least you’re not one of those desperate girls who’s willing to date some mutt just so she can go out.”
They started walking through the crowd.
“I still wish I had a boyfriend even if it ended in total disaster. I feel so left out and lonely. Maybe I should go back a few years and trick some guy into falling for me,” she giggled.
“You don’t need to do that.” Jimena punched her arm playfully.
Catty had the freakiest power of all. She could actually go back and forth in time. She missed a lot of school because of it. Her mother didn’t care, though, because she knew Catty was different. She also wasn’t Catty’s biological mother. She’d found Catty walking along the side of the road in the Arizona desert when Catty was six years old.
“You’ll find someone,” Jimena tried to cheer her. “Next time we’re at Planet Bang, stop watching your feet and look at all the guys who are looking at you.”
Catty smiled.
Jimena turned back and looked at Cassandra, Karyl, and Morgan before they turned the corner.
The grim look on Cassandra’s face brought on a premonition. Jimena gasped as the picture struck savagely. She saw Veto clearly, but she couldn’t tell if it was nighttime or day. He was standing in MacArthur Park looking at Jimena. Then suddenly Cassandra came out from behind Jimena, her hands reaching for Veto. Turbulent emotions came with the picture and Jimena clutched Catty for support. Was Cassandra embracing Veto or shoving him? Either way, the mental picture of the two of them together frightened her. She knew Cassandra was going to do something horrible.
CHAPTER FOUR
AROLL OF THUNDER woke Jimena. She sat up in bed with a jerk, remembering the earthquake warning they had issued on TV. She glanced at her venetian blinds. They hung motionless. How could the thunder be an earthquake? Even the smallest temblores made her blinds sway, and there had been no pop and crack of the wooden door frames that always foretold the shaking of the earth. Maybe she had slept through those sounds, but she didn’t think she could have. The Northridge quake had made all Angelenos supersensitive to unnatural nocturnal sounds.
She stretched, then cuddled her pillow. The air felt chilly, and she tried to fold herself deeper under the covers. Rain hit the side of the apartment with a sudden gust.
She turned over and looked at the clock on her dresser. It read 3:00 A.M. There wasn’t much chance she was going to go back to sleep now. Maybe a glass of milk would help. She tossed the covers aside and trundled down the dark hallway to the kitchen.
The apartment seemed too cold. She rubbed her arms and started to turn on a light to check the thermostat, when a sudden sound made her cautious. She flattened against the wall and held her breath. The soft clanking repeated.
She crept soundlessly down the hallway and peered into the kitchen. The window over the sink was open. The curtains billowed out and the wind drove the slanting rain inside. Her grandmother was too careful to leave a window open. Jimena looked carefully around the room. The neon signs outside cast eerie colored light into the room, and the undulating curtains made shadows roll over the table and cupboards.
She didn’t see anything. She stepped onto the cold linoleum and started across the kitchen to close the window, when something moved in the corner of her vision.
She held her breath and froze. On the other side of the table, someone was bent over, going through a bottom cupboard.
A tecato maybe. It wouldn’t be the first time some drug user had crawled up the rusted fire escape and broken inside looking for something to sell quickly for drug money.
She took a quiet step backward, grabbed a cast-iron skillet from the stove, and wrapped her fingers tightly around the handle. She held it up as a weapon and with her free hand turned on the overhead light. For a brief moment the glaring white glow blinded her.
Then the person turned. Jimena drew in her breath with a gasp.
CHAPTER FIVE
“JIMENA.” VETO STOOD slowly, eyes blinking. He seemed uncomfortable. “Turn off the light.”
In the brightly lit kitchen, she could see him more closely than she had the night before. She had the oddest impression that he was embarrassed to have her see him dressed the way he was, in a tight black T-shirt, too-long rumpled jeans, and tennis shoes that were obviously too big for his feet. She could smell detergent and fabric softener, and she had the inexplicable impression that he had stolen the clothes from a Laundromat or stripped them off a clothesline. The clothes dangled peculiarly on his body and looked unlike anything Veto had ever worn before.
He glanced at the frying pan raised in her hand, squinted, and tried to smile. “Still the tough one?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I was going to wake you. I should have, but I remembered your grandmother’s cooking. Her tamales are the best in the world.” He pointed to the empty corn husks piled on the kitchen table.
Crumbs covered the slick oilcloth. A jar of jalapeños sat open next to a dish filled with her grandmother’s chunky sauce of tomatoes, cilantro, onions, and peppers. A ghost couldn’t eat, could it? Surely that was proof he was real.
“I was just looking in the cupboard for something to clean up the mess I made.” He stepped closer to her.
“You should have gotten me up.” Her voice sounded angry, but she felt more hurt than angry. Since when did he need food more than he needed her?
He took the frying pan from her hand and set it back on the stove with a soft clank, then reached behind her and switched off the overhead light. The kitchen was bathed with the throbbing pink-and-blue neon lights from outside.
Veto’s arm stayed behind her as he pressed her against the wall. He was still wet from the rain, and the sudden damp cold hit her with a sweet shock. His closeness made her forget all the questions she had wanted to ask him as her body filled with the delicious reality of holding him tight against her. She closed her eyes. If this was a dream or a fantasy, she didn’t care. She didn’t ever want it to stop.
After a long moment, she whispered against his ear, “Veto, I missed you so much. You have to tell me where you were.”
“I missed you, too, baby.” He rested his lips on her cheek.
“I hate you for leaving me alone.” The words were spoken before she could stop them, but the tone with which she said them was more a confession of love.
“I know,” he murmured and kissed her neck as if he were trying to kiss away her
pain.
They were silent, enjoying the closeness of their bodies.
Veto spoke first. “I know how bad I hurt you.”
“How? Were you watching me?” Her fingers trembled, unsure, as they worked their way up his arms to his shoulders.
“Every day.” The words tickled against her ear.
“Why couldn’t you have told me you were alive? You could at least have sent me a note.” She couldn’t say more. Her words were suddenly caught in the tumultuous emotions that tightened her throat.
“I was away.”
She swallowed and forced her words out. “Away? Why’d you make us all think you were dead?”
“I’m sorry. There wasn’t any other way. If there had been—”
“How can I believe you?” More than anything she wanted to believe him. “You know how much I liked you.” She had started to say loved you, but her hurt wouldn’t allow her to say such a powerful word. She closed her eyes. Maybe it was a dream, only a dream, and he would fade away soon.
Veto pulled back and traced his fingers up her arm and across her shoulder to her lips. “Why are you smiling?”
“I’m laughing at myself,” she answered without opening her eyes. “Because I’m wasting all this anger and pain and longing on you and you’re probably nothing but a figment of my imagination.”
“Can a dream do this?”
He pressed his lips on hers and the warm touch sent a jolt through her. She took in a quick breath, then slowly let her lips open. His tongue traced across her mouth and he pressed hard against her. His arms worked around her back and held her tight.
He pulled away and spread his fingers through her hair. “I promised you I’d never let anything separate us. You remember when I told you?”
She nodded and held up her hand. She still wore the thin gold ring he had given her that day. That was the day she had promised that she would be his someday.