Intangible (32 page)

And ran.

S
era stood wrapped in Marc’s arms. It was crisp and cold outside, but she much preferred to be snuggled up closely than sitting apart inside the car, not able to feel as much of him. She smiled as she listened to his slow and steady heart beat, felt the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. She inhaled deeply. The air smelled like the promise of snow.

A promise she might not live to see fulfilled.

She looked across the parking lot to the school building where there was a steady stream of students heading for their cars or buses. No Fey, Sera saw with relief. She wanted to relish her time with Marc, stretch it out a little bit, and she knew Fey would want to get back to the house right away to check in with Luke, see if Jonas had come by with news.

Vampires. She hugged Marc tighter. Sera hadn’t said anything about them to Marc. She wasn’t sure he’d believe her. And if he did, it might scare him away from her forever. She didn’t want that to happen. For the moment she was keeping him blissfully unaware.

“Sera?” Marc said.

“Mmm-hmm?”

“Everything okay?” He leaned back a little so he could see her face, concern etched into his features. Luke and Fey were so wrong to be worried about him. And, for that matter, so was Jonas. Marc was wonderful.

For a brief moment she wondered if she’d live long enough for them to realize that. She closed her eyes and snuggled closer. She didn’t want to think about that right now. She wanted a moment—just one moment today—of not thinking about it.

“I’m just really happy to see you today,” she said.

His heart beat sped up, she noticed, and he reached down to release one of her arms. He pushed the sleeve of her coat up to reveal the Mark on her wrist. It still stood stark against her skin. He gazed at it almost lovingly, Sera thought, then he lifted her wrist up and gently pressed his lips to it.

A warm, tingling sensation started where his lips brushed her skin and ran all the way up her arm, and spread to her very core. “Oh,” she said quietly. Boy, she loved the feelings he stirred up in her.

They were all so wrong about him.

He looked into her eyes, a rare thing, and smiled. “Will you do something for me?” he said.

“Absolutely.” She reached up with her other arm, cupped the back of his head with her hand, and brought those amazing lips of his down to meet hers. The kiss shivered through her whole body. Oh, what this boy could do with a simple kiss. There was nothing simple about it.

He laughed a little, lifting his head. “That wasn’t what I meant, but thank you for that.” She couldn’t take her eyes off his lips. “Would you heal me?”

Her eyes locked on his and she frowned slightly. “What do you mean?” She glanced around to be sure no one was nearby to overhear them.

“Heal my mind reading.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t want to be able to hear people’s thoughts anymore. I want you to make it stop, and the migraines that go with it.”

“Marc, I don’t think I can. I don’t think my ability works that way.” She spoke in a quick whisper, and her hand reached up to cover her necklace.

He dropped his arms. “So you won’t even try?”

Sera held her hands out in front of her. “Of course I’ll try. I just don’t think—”

“It has to work,” he said. “I know it’ll work. The medicine works to control it, so it’s something that’s wrong with me.” He closed his eyes and waited.

Sera just looked at him. “Now?” she said.

“Sure.” Marc didn’t even open his eyes. “No time the like present.”

Sera sighed, then hesitantly put her hands on either side of his head, covering his ears. Please let this work, she thought, and closed her eyes to focus on drawing down the warm healing light.

She felt warmth spread through her arms and into Marc’s head, but it wasn’t much energy. It might be enough to relieve some stress, but not to change his inborn abilities. Those couldn’t be healed. At least, she didn’t think they could.

She opened her eyes to look at Marc. His eyes were still closed. “Is it working?” he said, fidgeting a little under her hands. “I feel warmth. Is that it?”

She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t tell him it wasn’t working.

He opened his eyes and saw the expression on her face.

“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Sera said it like an apology.

“Are you really
trying
?” Marc said.

Sera gasped as if he’d slapped her face, and pulled her hands away from him. She didn’t know why it hadn’t worked, other than that he was fine. That his mind reading wasn’t a sickness or something to cure.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” she said again, unsure of what else to say.

“Yes, there is.” He took a step back, away from her. “I get headaches that make me want to shove a metal pike through my eye. And they leave me sick and wasted. Everything is wrong with me.
I hear people’s thoughts.
I’m a freak. And don’t look at me like that, you know what I’m talking about, Sera. You
know
.” He pointed an angry finger at her. “I have nobody because of this. Nobody. My parents don’t want anything to do with me, I lost my friends.”

“You have us. Me, Luke, Fey.”

“That’s not enough.” Marc spat the words out, and Sera flinched at the sting. “Maybe you don’t really know what I’m talking about because no one knows about you. You’re too scared to tell them. I
know
why you’re scared. I’ve been there. So don’t tell me there’s nothing wrong with me, because you don’t know what it’s like.”

“I do know. I told my grandmother a long time ago.”

“So?”

“She looked at me like I was evil, and she never wanted anything to do with us ever again. I get what you’re saying, Marc, I really do. But there’s nothing
wrong
with you. You’re perfect just as you are.”

“Sera?”

Sera whipped her head around to find Fey standing right next to her, eyeing Marc.

“Is everything okay?” Fey said.

Sera looked at Marc. “Peachy,” Marc said, and walked away without looking back. Sera just gaped at him.

“Sera?” Fey followed Marc’s retreat with her eyes. Then she turned to Sera. “Did something happen?”

Sera shook her head. “It’s fine,” she said. Fey didn’t budge. “Let’s go home to Luke.”

“Well, well, well,” Naomi said, veering off from her friends to walk by Sera. She stopped and looked from Sera to Marc and back again. “Has he finally come to his senses and dumped you?”

Sera breathed deep, closed her eyes, tried to keep herself calm. It was not worth it. Naomi wasn’t worth it. Sticks and stones, she thought. Sticks and stones. Her eyes snapped open. Problem was, she was just so tired of it all. And if she was going to die, why not take Naomi down a notch or two.

“Sera,” Fey said, her voice low. “Don’t.”

“Well, skank?” Naomi said, her face an ugly sneer. She stepped closer to Sera. “No one will ever love you. I’m surprised you even have friends.” She looked Fey up and down. “Well,
friend
.”

“Hey, Naomi?” Fey said. “Why don’t you—”

Sera grabbed Naomi by the shoulders. Hard.

“Hey!” Naomi said.

“Sera, don’t!”

But it was too late. She could feel all her anger gathering in her core. She spoke in a quiet rush. “What is the matter with you? What have I ever done to you that would make you hate me so much? Do you have any idea how that feels?” She started to push
Leave me alone
into Naomi, but changed her mind. Instead she planted these thoughts:
You think you are the ugliest person in school, you are paranoid that you smell and have bad breath, and you want to be my best friend more than anything.

Naomi gasped and her face registered shock, then she took a step back and covered her mouth with one hand. She looked around at everyone in the parking lot, her shoulders slumping forward, longing on her face. She turned to Sera, smiled hesitantly, and lowered her hand a little bit. It was the first time Sera had ever seen her looking completely unsure of herself.

Fey grasped Sera’s arm and pulled her away from the other girl. Sera glared at Fey, anger still pulsing through her. She could feel it welling up inside, threatening to explode.

Anger and fear churned. Marc. Luke’s vision. The vampires. Her father. How Luke would cope after she died. How her mom would get through it.

God, she was going to die.

And just like that she was deflated. No anger. No nothing.

“Sera?” Naomi said. “Sorry about…” She waved her hand around. Sera just stared at her. “I don’t know what came over m—”

“Leave me alone,” Sera said, and turned away. She handed the car keys to Fey and got into the passenger seat.

Fey got in and reached over to squeeze Sera’s arm. “You okay?”

“No.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

“Okay.” Fey nodded. “What was wrong with Marc?”

Sera met Fey’s eyes. “Nothing,” she said. “Absolutely nothing.”

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She could feel Fey waiting for more of an answer. But Sera wasn’t going to give it to her. Finally Fey gave up, started the car, and pulled out of the parking lot. Sera was so glad she wasn’t driving.

Her eyes stung under their lids and she could feel years of tears threatening to burst forth. But she was not going to cry. She swallowed a couple of times and could feel the tight grip on her throat loosening.

She was
not
going to cry.

But they had been right. All of them. Even Naomi. Marc had never liked her, he’d only liked what she could do for him.
I’ve been looking for you,
he’d said
. You can heal people.
He’d known about her ability before they’d even met. He’d only come because of their gifts. He’d only wanted to meet her and spend time with her because she could heal. So she could cure him.

It had never been her.

No one was ever going to love her, just like Naomi had said. It was true.

But what did it even matter? She was going to die unless Luke figured out how to change the future. She needed to get home to him.

Maybe if Luke described his vision she might have some ideas about it.

Maybe it took the two of them to change the future.

M
arc sat in his car at the stoplight, his eyes squeezed shut, his mouth tight, and pounded his fists on the steering wheel.

It hadn’t worked.

And he couldn’t figure out why. If the medicine he took helped him, then there had to be something to be healed. The Shadows had promised they could cure him. If that was true, then Sera should have been able to heal him.

Unless she didn’t want to.

He shook his head, opened his eyes, and saw that the light had turned green, traffic was moving forward. He followed along, though he didn’t have anywhere to go. And a crushing weight grew as he realized that he was never going to be free, never going to be cured. Whatever was causing the migraines and the uncontrollable noise in his brain was never going to go away. He knew what Sera could do. He’d seen her do it. And if she couldn’t heal him, no one could.

But part of him wondered—really wondered—if she’d faked it. If there was some reason that she’d held it back, that she didn’t want to heal him. Although he didn’t know what that would be, but he also couldn’t explain why the Shadows tortured him as they did. Just because he couldn’t fathom the reason didn’t mean there wasn’t one.

Maybe she wanted to control him like the Shadows did.

Or maybe he really couldn’t be cured and the Shadows were a bunch of sadistic liars. Everyone was a liar.

He should just leave Sera and Luke to the Shadows. They deserved that. He was in hell, why shouldn’t they be too?

Except he couldn’t do that to them. No matter how pissed he was at Sera right now, he hated the Shadows more than anything and he refused to give them what they wanted.

So he’d have to try to lead the Shadows astray. He could tell them he was sure Luke and Sera weren’t the two, but he’d heard of a pair in Laos, Siberia, or Bora Bora. Anywhere far away from here. Then he’d have to go there and put on a convincing show before pissing them off enough so they’d just kill him and he’d be rid of this torturous life.