This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

© 2012 by Anya Breton

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Contact information: anya@anyabreton.com

Cover Art by Anya Breton
See Cover Art Acknowledgments for information about free stock photography, free images and free fonts used in this and other covers. 

Publishing History
First Edition, May 2011
First Smashwords edition, April 2012
Second Edition, May 2013


Time’s Daughter


Anya Breton

Table of Contents

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty 
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue

CHAPTER ONE

I stretched out my limbs with a ragged yawn, wiped the drool from my chin and then recalled with a groan that I was being filmed. Wonderful. My nation-wide film debut was going to be made with sleep-filled eyes and a crusty mouth. Could I hope the documentary my mom had forced me into would only be shown at small-time film festivals then go direct to the dumpster instead of DVD?
I considered my next move. It was comfortable beneath my afghan on the little twin bed. But school started soon. Staying wasn’t an option. 
Should I get out of bed now or wait until my pillow had dried a little so the cameras wouldn’t show the dark stain on the burgundy fabric? What would a normal person do? 
Stealthily I flipped the pillow over, hiding the drool track. I slowly drew myself into a seated position. It was a barely veiled attempt to appear as if I hadn’t been awake for several minutes already. 
The camera above the door caught my attention. My gaze shifted to the one in the corner to my right and then the last gleaming camera in its spot over the sole window in the room. There was a digital eye installed in such a way that nothing could escape their notice.
I quickly retreated into the one camera-free room in our five-room apartment: the bathroom. It was my safe-zone now. Yeah, my safe-zone had morphed from the entirety of our eight-hundred-square-foot apartment into one ten-foot by ten-foot room.
I gazed at the nondescript female in the mirror and told myself that it was only for six months. Not long when one took into account the average life span of an American female. 
Today marked the beginning of my stint as one of six sideshow freaks. That was how my classmates would view us when we showed up at school with a team of filmmakers in tow. 
It really would be a circus. Already the whole town was in a tizzy about the documentary: “Young America: The average teenager in small-town USA”. 
My mother had seen the advertisements for casting hanging on the bulletin board of our local grocery store and insisted I go. I’d hoped that somehow the Hollywood hotshots would sense I’d been forced to meet with them and that I didn’t want to be a part of the project. Maybe they had. I was certain the fact the casting director wanted a date with my mother was the only reason they’d picked me.
With a defiant glance at the door, I ignored the director’s standing order that we do our hair outside the bathroom. If I ignored enough of the orders early on maybe they’d replace me. It would be the only way I could get out of this insanity.
“Aeon!” My mother’s soprano voice called from the kitchen on the opposite side of the small apartment.
Hands down I had the weirdest name at school. Most of my classmates’ parents thought I’d been named after an old MTV cartoon. In reality I’d been given my father’s name but I would never dare tell them that.
My neck craned in an effort to hear her additional mumble. Had she sounded cheery just now? Tiffany Still was rarely cheery in the morning. Something was up.
The camera mounted on the hallway wall and videographer in black pointing a lens at us reminded me what that was. She was putting on a show for the filmmakers. Great.
For the first time since I was ten, my mother was making actual breakfast instead of sleeping past her alarm and rushing out the door with a fruit bar in hand. It wasn’t that she was a bad mom. She had a lot on her mind. Between working two jobs, taking care of me all by her lonesome and fending off cancer, she had more important things to do than make me bacon.
“You’re going to be late,” she said while setting a plate of newly flipped eggs over-easy and two bacon strips in front of me at the small round table that didn’t really fit in the cramped kitchen.
If one of the two of us were going to be late today it would be her.
The barely-there make-up on her downturned eyelids was obvious to me but I doubted anyone else would have noticed it. Wavy dark brown hair that usually fell past her shoulders was pulled back into a jaw clip in such a way that it looked un-styled. Anyone who knew my mother knew that she was always styled in one way or another. Today was no exception. 
Her manicured wine-colored fingernails glistened over the fork she handed me. It was hard to believe that she’d had two tumors removed from those fingers a year earlier. Even stranger was that she used those fingers to cut hair four days a week nearly non-stop for five years.
She dropped into the chair across from me and pulled her fuzzy green robe tighter around her size ten body. “So what’s going on today?”
I gestured to our left. “You mean besides the guy standing right there with a camera in my face?”
“Aeon.” Her blue eyes were censorious.
Had I ever looked like that when scolding would-be shoplifters at work? 
It was possible. My mother and I shared the same eyes, hair and body-type but the softer nose and fleshy lips I had were from my mystery parent. Maybe I looked sterner than she did.
Appearances were important to her so I gave her the answer she’d sought. “I don’t know. Probably a pop quiz in history. There’s always a pop quiz in history on Mondays.”
“Always?” Her head pulled back as though the wider view would provide an explanation. “You’ve only been in school for three weeks.”
I shoved a chunk of egg into my mouth and chewed it until I could swallow. “And each Monday we’ve had a pop quiz in history.”
“School started on a Wednesday. The first Monday was Labor Day.”
“Okay, so we’ve had one pop quiz,” I said wryly. With a wagging of my fork I added, “But being prepared for the worst is always good.”
She made a sound of disgust. “You’re such a pessimist. I don’t know where you got that from.”
“Maybe my father.”
My mother’s nostrils flared in annoyance as we faced off over identical strips of bacon. I had mentioned my father. He was an unmentionable. The topic of my parentage was right up there with the birds and the bees and where we were going to get the money for my college education.
“Your father wasn’t a pessimist,” she said coolly.
“Good to know.” I drawled the final word and pushed back from the chair.
I rinsed my plate in the sink then stuck it in the dishwasher. Without thinking I grabbed the frying pan she’d used atop the puke green colored stove and started scrubbing it inside the wide aluminum sink.
She hovered behind me with her dish in hand. “Aren’t you going to be late?”
I glanced at the clock on the wall. There were thirty minutes to finish up and get to school. It was a twenty-minute walk. 
 “No.” I reached out for the dirty plate.
She exhaled noisily but shuffled back to her room, probably to ready for work. I finished the dishes with time to spare despite her worries I’d be late. 
After grabbing the backpack laden with the thickest books in the history of man, I headed out the door with the cameraman trailing close behind me.
Perhaps a little optimism was in order—for my mom. I’d look on this Monday as a new start. Maybe I’d have a better chance this time around than I’d had the first. Maybe.

Three weeks into September in northern New England meant the temperature was chilly in the morning. I had to wear my blue fleece pullover—the hand-me-down from my mother when she’d bought her trench coat at the outlet store last month. It was barely keeping the chill from my bones but the next step up in my outerwear collection would have me decked out like an Eskimo. It wasn’t that cold yet. I shoved my hands deep into the pockets of my jeans and drew into myself to stave off the chill.
Today was week four of my junior year of high school. When I should be worrying about studying for college entrance exams and essays, I’d be avoiding cameras and strange looks instead. At least I wasn’t alone. Five others had been picked along with me.
We were a mixed bunch by intent. There was me as well as a role-playing nerd, a tomboy who was rumored to be a lesbian, a football star, the well-off county prosecutor’s daughter who happened to be a cheerleader and a mystery student. The only thing we knew about the sixth person was that it was someone who had recently moved to Junction Hill. The director had said it was an amazing opportunity to document the trials and tribulations of the new kid in town but had refused to give a name.
I hoped the interest in the new kid would trump the interest in the hovering cameramen and the discovery of who had been chosen to feature in the documentary. More than likely it would be a toss up because of the hard feelings involved in those who hadn’t made the cut. Many had tried for a part. I knew my friends would be particularly bitter because it was no secret I hadn’t wanted this.
My trepidation over what was to come grew as the school came into view. I was treated to my first looks of shock in the student parking lot. Loud whispers followed the stunned expressions.
“Aeon Still? Seriously? They picked her over us? You have got to be joking. She’s so weird!” If the disdainful female meant to hide her insults, she’d certainly failed. “I thought this was supposed to be a documentary about average teenagers.”
“Average is another way of saying mediocre,” her companion said. “Maybe we were too extraordinary for them.”
The griping continued even after I’d walked out of earshot. In the distance I spotted another person trailed by a camera walking into the entrance. My lips curved slightly. 
No, I wasn’t alone in this. Some of the other choices were going to get harsher reactions than I had.
I eyed the building, considering how it would look to external audiences. The school had originally been built in the late eighteen hundreds. Now the original stone and brick structure held the auditorium, principal’s offices and three floors of classrooms that were freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer thanks to the oversized and badly insulated windows. 
Tacked onto the end of the original building was a new wing that held the gymnasium, art classrooms and two nice new science labs. Unfortunately my first period science class wasn’t in those labs. It was in a room that made me wish I’d remembered to wear a sweater because the old windows let in a serious draft.
I walked around the stone steps that were primarily for show. The cement sidewalk parallel brought me to a pair of glass doors. From there it was a quick walk down the broad corridor toward the center of the building. 
Act normal, the director had said. I think what he’d meant to say was, act as you normally would. That was only thing that made sense when applied to me. 
Normally I’d meet my group of friends outside the chemistry room. That’s exactly what I planned on doing. 
I turned the corner that would bring me to my first class. There were four loud gasps. Ashley, the de facto ringleader of our group, had adopted her most intimidating pose. That consisted of shoving her left hip out and settling her weight onto it. I ignored her lifted ginger eyebrow, bug eyes and thinned lips by focusing on Melissa, the easy-going member I identified with most. 
Melissa was feigning surprise. I hadn’t been able to keep the news about the documentary from her. The remaining girls, Jenn and Jenny, both variations of blonde, were in identical states of gape-mouthed shock that remained until our friend Ryan barreled around the corner in a speed walk that came to an abrupt halt.
He held his hands up in front of him in mock surrender. “Holy cameras batman! Who got picked?”
Ashley’s reddened finger pointed at me as I drew up near the group of girls resting against the pressed cement wall outside my science class.
Ryan bravely joined us despite the presence of the camera and his obvious distaste for it. “Aeon?” He pointed a look at me. “Seriously?”
I nodded mutely, dropping my eyes to the floor. Being shy didn’t exactly make for great video but that was the director’s problem. Not mine.
“That’s gotta suck.” Ryan chuckled—a sound I thought was slightly nervous.
Did he look as nervous as he seemed?
“Suck?” Jenny’s eyebrows knit as she addressed him. “You didn’t try for a part?”
Ryan hook his head—his mop of wild brown hair shook a second longer than the rest of him. “Nah. I’m too freaky for a documentary on average kids.”
“So is she.” Ashley snorted derisively as if I weren’t standing three feet away. The arms crossed tightly over her barrel chest further illustrated her opinion.
Why did I hang around? A glance at Melissa reminded me. Melissa enjoyed Ash’s company and for Melissa’s sake I stomached her. But if the shrew continued insulting me like that, I’d have to reevaluate how much I was willing to do for that friendship.
Ryan, Melissa and the Jens scattered at two minutes until the bell. Ashley stalked past me into the chemistry room. She then proceeded to ignore my existence despite the fact that I had the seat directly beside her Amazonian build. 
Did she realize the cameraman trailing me would be filming her as well?
My attention switched to our dull chemistry teacher at the front of the room. A momentary spark of life came into her eyes upon finding the cameraman in her classroom. She stared as though star struck for a moment. She then cleared her throat and began staring intently at someone in the front row. Clearly she’d recalled she was supposed to pretend the filmmakers weren’t there.
The lecture started. I dropped my gaze to the wide-rule notebook in front of me. Time to start my daylong doodle session—an activity I hoped would help me avoid seeing the glares from all around.
Today’s theme was “harpy” in honor of Ashley. I drew one of the mythological creatures with pale skin, stubby eyelashes and what would have been flat red hair had I not been drawing in pencil. The image took shape over the course of the class period. The bell rang, cutting short the details in the wings. I glanced over and checked if Ash had noticed my portrait of her. I was treated to her cold shoulder.
History class and the inevitable pop quiz were next. In a last ditch effort not to fail, I scanned the bullet points in the chapter we were supposed to read over the weekend while my classmates filled in the desks around me. Loud whispers interrupted my skimming midway through page seventy-two. I glanced back and discovered a cameraman passing through the door behind an unfamiliar black-clad guy. 
He had neatly cropped short black hair atop a rather normal sized head. What skin I could see over the heads of the kids in the back row seemed to be smooth and a nice bronzed color, perhaps from a summer spent beneath the sun’s rays. But it was the pair of the most startling steel blue eyes that snagged my attention for a moment too long.
This must be the new kid because I never would have forgotten those eyes on any classmate.
I faced forward and concentrated on the book in front of me. I hadn’t looked at him for long but what I had seen was enough to note he was handsome. No doubt his good looks combined with the fact that he was one of the students picked for the documentary were going to propel him straight into the inner circle of the popular clique.
“Take out a piece of paper,” Mr. Zimmerman said from his position behind the desk up front. “Your name is worth ten points.”
I scribbled “Aeon Still” next to the heading “Name” then wrote the numbers one through five down the paper.
“Question number one: the hundred years’ war lasted how long?”
It was a trick question. I knew that much but I didn’t know exactly how long it had lasted. I picked a number between eighty and ninety and hoped it was close enough.
“Two: Who were the primary players?”
I panicked. It had been a bullet point I’d skimmed minutes ago but I couldn’t for the life of me recall the answer. I made an educated guess only to find that questions three through five were similar failures. If I’d learned anything from the pop quiz it was that I really ought to study more on the weekends.
“Pass them forward,” Mr. Zimmerman said and then stepped to the white board. He scrawled notes in barely legible blue dry-erase streaks.
I turned, taking hold of the stack of quizzes handed up from behind me. 
The new kid…he was seated in my row. That meant one of the quizzes in my hand had his name on it. I set the papers atop mine then stealthily peeked at the names. His quiz was on the bottom of the stack. The name was written in chicken scratch. I thought it said “Alex Chattan” but with penmanship as awful as his I couldn’t be certain. 
He didn’t really look like an Alex. I’d have pegged him as a something strong like Troy or Brad.
As we filed out to the corridor after the bell I considered introducing myself. It would be what a well-adjusted person would do. But I wasn’t well adjusted.
The new kid lingered near the door studying a piece of paper held in his bronze fingers. A pair of girls stepped up to him and boisterously gave their names. The girls gave me the excuse I needed to avoid introductions. I hurried down the hallway to my next class without looking back.
* * * *
The glares from classmates continued into my next two classes. I was dreading lunch. Ordinarily it was a respite from boring lectures and something I looked forward to. Today the reprieve meant that I’d be stuck sitting at the table with a pissed off Ashley Dyall and a camera zoomed in on the crumbs I dropped on my shirt.
I lethargically headed to my locker to switch my books out with the afternoon supplies. Only when I had nothing more to futz with in my undecorated metal compartment did I make my way to the lunchroom. 
Ash’s mouth clamped shut when she saw me enter the room. Clearly she’d already been talking about me behind my back.
I glanced around for other cameramen heralding the presence of another documentary subject but saw none. Apparently the other five unfortunate players had lunch during a different period. My shoulders lowered. I’d been hoping for someone to divide the attention. 
I took my seat beside Melissa and pretended not to notice the cameraman requesting a spot at a table ahead of me. Once he was good and settled on the lunch table bench I stood. He scrambled up, nearly falling on his expensive lens in his pursuit of me. I tried to hide a smile. Messing with the camera guy could be an amusing pastime if I were forced to continue with this absurd gig.
As I stood at the back of the lunchroom paying for my ham sandwich I saw another cameraman enter the room. The new kid hovered at the door scanning for a free table. Every eye in the room was on him. I instantly felt bad for him.
Someone crowded behind me. “Uh, do you mind?”
I shook myself to clear my head and took my change from the cashier. Food in hand, I started back for our table. As I walked I forced myself to look at my friends instead of gaping at the new kid like everyone else. 
This time Ashley didn’t clam up when I’d set my tray down a few spots away from her. I thanked my stars she’d found something to gossip about that didn’t involve me.
“He’s cute. Who is it?”
Jenny held a French fry aloft as though caught in the middle of eating. “Megan Carlisle told me that the sixth person who got picked for the documentary is a new kid. I guess that’s him.”
Ashley’s pale eyebrows turned down. “How did Megan Carlisle know?”
“Um,” Jenny stumbled briefly beneath the girl’s glare. “I assume because she’s one of the six. She had a cameraman with her just like Aeon and that guy.”
“You’re kidding,” Ashley exclaimed and tore her gaze away from the newcomer. She leveled a frown at Jenny. “They really did pick all freaks.”
I wanted badly to insult her back, to stand up for myself. In the end it wasn’t worth it. I’d never done anything to merit the abuse. She obviously had issues or she wouldn’t be evil to me.
“I heard Tyler and Summer were picked too,” Jen said.
Ash’s frown darkened. “As in Mr. and Mrs. Popular?”
“Yeah,” the Jens said in chorus.
The de facto ringleader counted off five fingers. “So Aeon, Megan, Summer, Tyler and this new kid. Who is the sixth?”
They exchanged looks but it was Jenny who answered. “No one seems to know.”
Ash snorted derisively. “Probably another freak.”
I smacked my sandwich atop the mint green plastic tray. I murmured something in parting to Melissa, ignoring everyone else. And then I grabbed my stuff before visiting the trashcan. 
I’d tolerated as much as I could. If I stayed any longer I’d say something I’d regret.
I knew who the sixth person was but wild horses couldn’t have dragged the name from me. Ashley would have laughed triumphantly if she’d known Kevin Miller—a guy who lived more in his own fantasy world than the real world—was the sixth person. She’d find out soon enough with or without my help.
A week was how long the director had said would be useless film. He’d said no one, including us, would behave normally until seven days had passed. The newness of the film crews would wear off by then, he’d claimed. All I had to do was make it through the week and then things would go back to relative normalcy.
My destination was a spot I’d found on the first day of my freshmen year when I’d had to escape Ashley’s tale of her alleged summer in Europe. It was a tree on the far side of the school that had a soft mound below it and plenty of shade at midday. The tree was on the edge of the lawn where the underclassmen weren’t allowed to go. I pulled my notebook out once I’d settled against the bark. There were some harpy’s wings to finish and a background to create.
The cameraman failed to stealthily move around me like I’d been promised. I knew he was trying to get shots of what was on the notebook as well as my face but it was annoying how obvious he was being. 
Maybe I should stop being such an easy subject.
A glance at my watch showed that I could probably get into the photography classroom and pick-up a camera for a little bit of extra shooting time. Being behind the lens was preferable to being in front of it. I closed my notebook, stowed it in my overflowing backpack and then stood, dusting off my jeans. Without waiting on the camera guy to get up I headed across the lawn, through the faculty parking lot and into the building.
Mrs. Lozano—the photography teacher who did triple duty as the teacher of journalism and printmaking—stood looking up through a roll of negatives with the assistance of the overhead light. She merely glanced at me as I passed through the photography classroom door.
I was sure the photography classroom had once been basement storage because, well, it was in the basement, and because it had an odd shape. It wasn’t square or rectangle like my other classrooms. Instead the space consisted of five smaller squares that shared at least one open wall or door.
“Hi, Aeon.” Her lips lifted into a smile, I assumed because I was one of her favorite students. Then she saw the cameraman behind me. Her expression quickly faded. “Oh. He can’t go into the darkroom with you.”
I continued past her to the cabinet that held the thirty-five millimeter single-lens reflex cameras. I shook a tube of film at her. “I still have a roll to shoot before I even have to worry about the darkroom.”
“Well, this just stinks,” she said with heavy emphasis on the adjective. “I was counting on you to show the new addition the ropes.”
“New addition?” I tried to feign uninformed interest while opening the back of the camera and my tube of film.
She set the negatives down on the light table behind me. “They sent me a note that I was getting another student in sixth period. I’d already scheduled a make-up session for the twins today. Knowing them, it’s going to take all class period. I won’t be able to give him the run through.”
I remained mute as I threaded my film into the camera because I feared her news meant the new guy was going to be joining my photography class. If that were the case then I didn’t want to be the one to give him the “run through”. The clicking of the shutter on my camera to advance the film broke the silence and spurred her into action. 
“Is there any way I can convince you to shoot up until class starts then come back to help out? You can take him out with you to finish your shoot. I’ll even give you extra credit,” she said.
I restrained a smile because I doubted I’d need extra credit in her class but I wasn’t going to be arrogant enough to say so. 
“How about a free day?” she pressed when that wasn’t incentive enough.
Her desperation finally drew the half smile from me. I wanted to remain a favorite of hers. “It’s a deal.”
Mrs. Lozano exhaled a relieved breath. “Thank you, Aeon.”
I gestured to the clock and tossed my bag down near my usual seat. “I better go while there’s still some time.”
Camera in hand I pushed through the photography classroom door. I ignored that the videographer was following me as I burst through the back door into the sunlight. It was a beautiful day. Perhaps too beautiful for the subject matter I was hoping to capture. 
Dilapidated, derelict and decrepit were the three D’s I’d named in my theme for this quarter’s project. I’d already shot everything that fit the bill on school grounds. I checked my watch, gauging how far I could make it before I’d have to turn around.
Wheezing was audible from behind me after progressing a half-mile. Apparently the smallish hand-held camera the film crew gave their designated guy was too much for him to handle while walking a short distance. Or perhaps it was my rapid pace. It was true that I walked far faster now that I was heading away from campus but it wasn’t as if I’d been running.
I tucked the tidbit of knowledge away for future use. A rusted out El Camino snared my focus. It was perfect for my project. I set to work capturing the best angle. 
Fifteen minutes, three locations and ten photos later, I headed back toward school. The sixth period bell rang in the distance. The fact that no one was outside meant it was the second bell—the one that signified class had begun. I swore quietly and broke into a run.
Camera guy was practically having an asthma attack by the time we stomped onto the pavement behind the building. I felt mildly bad that I’d forced the exercise on him but then recalled I was supposed to be acting normal. It wasn’t my fault if they picked a guy who couldn’t keep up with me, especially considering I could barely run myself. 
But…I could probably use it to my advantage some time in the next six months.

CHAPTER TWO

I peered through the glass window in the photography studio door. Everyone else was already working on developing film, cutting negatives or checking out cameras. Mrs. Lozano stood off to the left side speaking to the new kid. The twins and his cameraman hovered near. The girls had identical expressions of adoration. If the new kid noticed their interest I couldn’t tell because his back was to me.
Mrs. Lozano spotted me at the door. She relaxed her shoulders in relief and reached out a wrinkled finger toward me. By contrast my shoulders stiffened. 
All four of them turned for a look at what she’d gestured. I dropped my attention to the floor, flushing hot. 
Why had I agreed to help? I was shy! Extra credit was a poor excuse when this was one of my best classes and a “free day” was technically against school policy. 
The cameraman’s wheezing cough beside me reminded me that my hesitance was being recorded. I swallowed my trepidation, turned the knob and feigned confidence I didn’t possess. 
“Aeon will show you where everything is,” Mrs. Lozano said when I’d closed the distance to her. “This is Alex. Alex meet Aeon.” She turned to the twins, sighing slightly. “All right, ladies, let’s talk about depth of field. Again.”
I walked ahead of the new kid, rattling information in a nervous ramble. “The cameras are over here in this cabinet. We are supposed to bring our own film, but if you forget, there’s a can of expired rolls here. It’s a crapshoot if they’ll develop so you’ll want to remember to bring your own. Go ahead and grab one. I’ve got to finish up this roll outside before I can develop. I’ll give you a minute to get ready.”
I left him behind and headed to my usual seat. Rustling for lip balm gave me an excuse to ignore everyone. The telltale clunking of the lens shutting came from the spot I’d left the new kid. A few more clunks meant he was probably ready. I stashed the tube of lip stuff and stood.
No sooner had I gotten to my feet did a shutter click again. My attention shot up, finding a camera set against the new kid’s eye, pointed directly at me. He clicked it again. I blushed hot but said nothing as I hurried away. 
The documentary cameramen jockeyed for position in the cramped corridor of the art wing. I assumed that meant the kid had followed me.
Back out into the sun I walked without looking back. No, not with the danger of being photographed. This time I took a different direction away from school grounds. There was an old asylum a half-mile south. My hopes were high for eerie scenes of disrepair in a place like that.
The new kid fell into step beside me despite my rapid pace. I walked onto the cross street in front of the school. 
“We’re allowed to leave school grounds?”
I hadn’t heard his voice until that moment and I wished I still hadn’t. It had a deep almost purring quality to it.
“I dunno,” I said before crossing the busy intersection. I weaved in between the cars waiting at the red light because they’d be waiting a while.
He kept pace with me, chuckling in response as he did. Even his laugh was lovely to listen to. “Where are we going?”
“An old insane asylum,” I said.
“Nice.” He broke the silence after a mere two seconds of peace. “Is it old because there’s a new one or there are no more insane people?”
“There are always insane people.”
“The city could have shipped them south,” he said almost in amusement.
My speed increased across the overgrown parking lot in hopes of losing him. “I’d feign lunacy if that were the case.”
He neared my shoulder, easily keeping pace despite my speed. “Did you know the word lunacy comes from the sixteenth century and was actually a kind of insanity that was attributed to the changes of the moon?” 
I halted, scanning the space for interesting imagery. There were a few good shots for my project.
“Yes,” I said as I lifted the viewfinder to my eye and framed a shot of the ivy that had taken over the building’s facade.
“So you want to be shipped south?”
He too had stopped. A little too close in my opinion. I gave breathy snicker that was a combination of amusement and nervousness. I would love to be shipped south.
“What’s wrong with Junction Hill?”
“It’s cold,” I said. The shutter click punctuated my answer. 
“Does it get colder than this?”
I pinned him with a perplexed look. The camera was lowered slightly in front of me. I instantly regretted it because it framed him a little too nicely. 
The slate-blue eyes that peered over it had me enthralled. He was caught somewhere between boyish good looks and captivating masculinity. The smooth, straight skin stretched over a seeming lack of cheekbones might have been part of why he looked boyish. But the straight Nordic nose, medium width dusky pink lips and squared chin put him closer into grown man category.
It couldn’t have been longer than a second that I’d gazed at him but it felt like a lifetime. I shook myself mentally. “You’re in for a surprise if you think this is cold.” Time to finish up the shoot. I faced the building again.
“Damn. It’s freezing.”
Obviously he wasn’t from the North. I considered asking where he’d come from but figured he’d tell me if he wanted me to know. Instead I concentrated on getting the photographs I needed for my project. His camera shutter opened and closed as though he too had decided to snap a couple of photos. Maybe he’d be occupied enough by the camera that he’d give me some peace.
“You don’t talk much,” he said.
“My thoughts are best expressed through interpretive dance.”
The new kid was blessedly quiet for several moments. Had my dry response finally shut him up? 
“Seriously?”
“No,” I said.
“Oh.” It was an almost glum response.
I was probably coming off as rude instead of shy. My cheeks warmed a little. Maybe it was time to share. “I’m too introverted to dance in public.”
“You had me going for a minute there.” He chuckled softly. “I was trying to picture you in a swan outfit.”
“That’s ballet.”
He lifted one shoulder in a negligent shrug. “I hear the word dance and I think chicks in tutus. Is your project about crazy people?”
That had been a quick topic change. But it was better than discussing me in a tutu. I shook my head. “My project is on things that are dilapidated, derelict and/or decrepit.”
Again he laughed. “Good words.” 
He was quiet while I took two more photos, walked around the building and began looking for a way inside. But the conversation took on an accusatory vein when he spoke again. “Do you have a hatred for the human race or only for me?”
I faced him, surprise drawing my features wide. His eyes, intense and a little narrow immediately enthralled me. I took a stealthy breath. “What makes you think I hate anyone?”
He settled back onto his heels as though he’d expected a fight and hadn’t gotten one. Though his downturned lips didn’t ease. “I’ve been trying to start up a conversation for ten minutes but you won’t budge.”
“So because I’m not a motor mouth that means I hate humankind?”
“Usually girls won’t shut up.”
I didn’t know why but his comments were beginning to offend me. “Maybe you hang out with different girls.”
“Or maybe you’re the different one.”
“Thanks.” I glanced down at my watch. After another quick photo of a dumpster between weeds as tall as trees, I started back for school.
“Aeon.”
I glanced over my shoulder without fully turning or stopping. His camera was once again to his eye. The familiar clunking sound meant he’d snapped another shot of me. No doubt a score of wrinkles formed around my rapidly narrowing eyes. He’d obviously laid in wait for that expression too because the clicking of the shutter echoed in the parking lot again.
I hopped forward, in a hurry to be away from someone who took photographs of me. 
He was quickly on my heels. “That’s a cool name by the way. It’s Latin for ‘time eternal’ right?”
He was the first person who had ever known what my name meant. Most people asked me about the movie with Charlize Theron. He probably read a lot. Maybe his looks weren’t all that he had.
“Yes,” I said, slowing and looking at him.
There was a condescending twist of his lips. “I take it most people have no clue what your name means?”
Reluctantly I nodded for him, relaxing slightly now that I knew that smirk wasn’t meant for me. “They assume it’s from that cartoon and movie.”
“What cartoon and movie?”
“The one with Charlize Theron?”
His head cocked to the left. “Who is Charlize Theron?”
“Have you been living under a rock for the last ten years?”
“No, I just don’t particularly like movies.” His tone had soured. Now I was the one doing the offending.
I shook my head in disbelief and started moving again. “There was a stylized cartoon on MTV back in the early nineties called Aeon Flux. They did a live-action remake of it a few years ago.”
“Was she as mute as you?”
“Yes, actually.”
He chuckled rather than becoming further offended. “Well, mute girl, I didn’t get your full name.”
“Mute girl works for me.”
I was apparently quite amusing because he laughed again. 
“Aeon mute girl? Okay. I’m Alex Chattan and I’m the new guy in town. Pay no attention to the weirdo stalking me with a camera.” He shot a look over his shoulder. “Oh wait, I see you have one too.”
“Seems an epidemic,” I drawled while hiding a smile.
“You have a dry sense of humor.”
“Most think I’m rude and not humorous at all,” I said. Nervousness fluttered in my belly because his comment had sounded like a compliment rather than a complaint.
“They don’t appreciate art when they hear it.”
That drew a chuckle from me but I could think of nothing to say in response that wouldn’t start a more personal conversation about my interests. Conversations with strangers were something I liked to avoid. 
He made a noise of annoyance when I didn’t follow-up but we entered the photography studio before he could comment.
I gestured to the sink of drying metallic objects as I crossed the room toward my usual seat and then rewound the film in my camera. “Grab a tank, a reel, a cover and a pair of scissors. I’ll show you to the boxes.”
He remained quiet while we wound our film onto the reels in our separate tiny light-free rooms within the bigger darkroom. The lack of conversation continued as I showed him where all of the chemicals, timers and sinks were for the developing process. He remained mum during the first minute-long water soak.
Was he embarrassed to talk to me in front of others?
A few murmured words served as a question about the developing time for the brand of film he’d gathered out of the communal tin. I tried not to let it bother me as I helped him figured out the developing time for the film. We set the timers for our respective tanks. 
He faced me, giving a wolfish smile and speaking at full volume. “You like this photography stuff.”
“Yes.” I dropped my gaze to the metal tank. He was so out of my league. I was terribly uneasy around him. But it wasn’t just his good looks. There was something not quite normal about Alex Chattan but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“I guess it makes sense,” he said and gestured to where Mrs. Lozano repeated the lecture about f-stops to the twins for the third time. “She probably wouldn’t ask someone who hated it to help her out. Does that mean you’re the teacher’s pet?”
I couldn’t help but frown. “I didn’t think so.”
“There are worst things than teacher’s pet.”
Yeah, like a freak with a cameraman following her. 
I grabbed my tank as soon as the timer hand neared the zero and switched it off a moment before it would have buzzed. Cold water stopped the developing process. By the time I finished pouring out the water and repeating the steps, Alex was ready for his turn at the water. I measured out enough fixer for the next step, poured the chemical in the tank and shook vigorously for ten seconds as I set the timer for five minutes.
“So what other classes do we have together besides history, lunch and this one?”
He’d noticed I was in those classes with him? I supposed a girl with a camera following her was hard to miss. 
I peered at him from beneath my eyelashes. “Are you asking me my schedule?”
“I guess...”
“After this I have drawing and painting then P.E.”
“So if I have physical education during period eight, does that mean I have it with you?”
Four classes total with the new kid was quite remarkable. I didn’t have more than two classes with anyone else, cameras not withstanding. “Yeah,” was my uneasy reply.
“Tyler says he has physical education then too,” the new kid said.
I’d nearly forgotten Tyler O’Connell—the football star and heartthrob of Junction Hill High—was in my gym class. “Three of us in one class? That kind of sucks.” I lowered my voice. “Dodge ball ought to be fun. I wonder how many times I can get a camera guy hit.”
Alex’s mouth spread wide, revealing straight white teeth. “Oooh, dry wit and an evil streak. I think we could become good friends, mute girl.”
My cheeks went pick. I quickly turned away, using the vigorous shaking of my film tank as an excuse to avoid looking at the cute expression on his handsome face. 
The last timer went off. I poured out the fixer and pulled off the cover. A quick glance at the negatives on the outer edge showed that the film had developed without any problems. I shoved the tank beneath running water then stepped aside to wait on the new kid.
“I’ll show you where everything is in the dark room once you’re finished but I don’t think we have time to make any prints today,” I told him.
He nodded then duplicated the steps I’d taken. Moments later we were standing in the red light of the dark room and I was gesturing to large machines around the room, the trays of chemicals that were already laid out beside the plastic bottles that held the required solutions.
“You need to bring your own photo paper. The photography store at the mall is the only place in town that sells it. There are four enlargers. I think they’re pretty standard but if you have questions about them ask Mrs. Lozano…or I guess me if I’m around.” My cheeks reddened again but I hoped he wouldn’t see it in the already red light. 
I gestured to the manila folder taped to the wall near the door. “Brushes, dodge and burn tools are over here. We go from right to left in the trays.” I waved a hand over the table with the trays at the center of the room. Next I pointed to the huge jugs of liquid. “If one of the solutions is really dirty you can replace it from here but usually they don’t get that bad.” The bell rang in the middle of my final word. “Well, have a good one.”
I rushed back out into the lit area so I could hang up my film to dry. Alex followed me and did the same. 
“I’ll see you at P.E.,” he said on his way out.
It was then that I realized my pale skin would be a beacon outside on a day like today. Briefly I was embarrassed that I had never been out to tan. 
But what did it matter if I were pale? It wasn’t as if someone like Alex would ever be interested in me. I wasn’t sure I’d want him to be. Besides, if I had to have tan skin to interest a guy then he wasn’t worth my time to begin with. Honest.
* * * *
“Still life with camera,” the drawing teacher said with a chuckle as the entourage known as “mute girl” entered the studio next door. “I guess you’re permanently exempt from posing for figure study.”
“Woo!” I cheered playfully. “I’d much rather be drawing than posing anyway.”
“I know, dear.” Ms. Finch patted me on the shoulder as I passed by her desk.
The quiet of still life drawing and peers that respected me meant I got to relax after the frustrating day of glares and insults. I was in the zone. Drawing was one of the only things that made me happy and put me into a Zen-like state. But it would only last until the bell rang. 
No one respected me in physical education class. They had good reason. I stunk at every sport man had created and most physical activities as well. In fact if I sat and thought about it hard enough I couldn’t come up with a single thing I excelled at in that class.
Sluggishly I put my art supplies away, set my still life drawing on the rack and then forced myself out the door to the locker room. The fact that the cameraman wasn’t allowed into the girl’s locker room gave me five minutes of glorious respite from the documentary. 
By the time I’d stepped onto the field and joined the flag football game the groups had been picked. I was sent to join the team without the red mesh shirts. That worked for me. The idea of the mesh being worn by other sweaty students before me gave me the willies.
Two cameras floated behind Tyler and a red-shirted Alex at the other end of the field. Alex dodged Tyler’s swipe for his flags as he ran toward the goal with the ball in hand. I watched in awe at his quick sprints, turns and fake-outs. Not only was he handsome and book smart, but also he could play sports.
“Hey, mute girl,” Alex said on his way down the field in pursuit of Tyler and the football.
It was the extent of what he said to me all period. I was content with that because the small greeting had generated strange looks from my classmates. The final whistle was blown. I started back to school.
The final bell rang on my first day of documented school. Though I was free to go home, my day wasn’t over yet. A paper was due this and every Friday in A.P. History. 
Ordinarily I’d have used the computer at the Henderson’s to do my research while babysitting Jeffery. But since Mrs. Henderson was wary of her son being filmed, she’d told me I couldn’t sit anymore. It wasn’t a big chunk of money but it would hurt my spending money fund, what little of it there was. It also hurt that I now had to use public property to do my work.
I took a different route downtown to the library and hid my smile when the cameraman was hassled at the door. Ultimately he was asked to wait outside. I did the wise thing and tried to argue on his behalf. 
The head librarian listened impatiently to my explanation that he was part of the documentary filming in town. She shook her head sternly and continued to refuse him entrance while he still had the camera. I didn’t know if she thought I was lying or if she didn’t care. After a shrug directed at the glass door where he stood filming still, I headed back to the reference books and computer terminals.
The sun had begun setting when I walked out of the library with my printed paper. My personal videographer joined me.
“Sorry,” I told him in a whisper as if I wasn’t supposed to talk to him. “I tried to explain but she didn’t care.”
“Thanks,” the man said in an average sounding baritone voice.
“It’s going to be a weekly problem. I have a paper due every Friday in history class. Maybe you guys should pick another girl.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
If I was worried about anything it was that they wouldn’t pick another girl.
The little apartment my mother and I claimed was dark when I unlocked the door and waved goodbye to the camera guy. Monday also meant my mom was cutting hair until closing time. She’d arrive shortly before ten in a state of exhaustion. I’d probably get a handful of words out of her before she crashed on the bed.
Cognizant of the cameras stationed around the place, I considered what to do with my time. Monday was one of the few days I didn’t have to work but I was too tired after the library visit to do anything productive. 
I flopped into the sofa and zoned out to escapist television. A Betty Grable musical on the old movies channel was what I selected. During one of the elaborate dance numbers I fell asleep, drool crusting my mouth every bit as much as this morning.

CHAPTER THREE

I delicately slid the photo paper into the tray with the developer solution in it. Within seconds an image appeared from nothing. I smiled. It was almost like playing god.
I glanced at the tray beside. A print from the person who had been in before me floated in the liquid. What looked an awful lot like my face stared out of the glistening reddish water. I glanced around the dark room for the person responsible but found myself alone. Everyone else was out shooting rolls of film for their projects because it was a nice day.
As soon as my print was finished developing I dropped my photo on top of the other one, blotting it out. However it resumed its haunting when I moved my sheet to the next tray. I ignored that tray.
Into the light I returned and checked my negatives for other potential prints while waiting for the photo to finish rinsing. A few students were developing film near the sink and quieted their conversation when the cameraman and I neared. Conscious of the audience, I dropped my negatives onto the light table and looked at them through the magnifying lens. 
I selected the next shot and left the videographer in the studio once again. The photo of my face had disappeared from the darkroom trays. I must have been mistaken. It was probably of someone else.
“Hey, mute girl,” Alex said from one of the enlargers. “I didn’t see you at lunch today.”
“I ate outside.” I’d avoided Ashley because she’d been in a particularly foul mood.
“Lunch alfresco. Nice. I’ll have to try it.” He set the timer. The light flipped on, illuminating the photo paper. The timer click-clicked as he faced me. “I was going to invade your table but dining outside is a much better idea.”
The thought of Alex sitting with my friends was absurd. We weren’t the bottom of the social totem pole but we were pretty damn close. Someone would explain who was who to him soon enough. Then he’d be sorry he’d ever associated with me.
I put my negative in the enlarger’s lens and checked the positioning in the light without my photo paper. “Why would you want to sit with a bunch of gossiping girls?”
He slid by me, brushing my back on his way to the wide sink behind me. “You gossip?” Alex put his print in the developing tray.
“I don’t but my friends do,” I said defensively without understanding why I’d be defensive to a guy I didn’t know.
“Most girls do. I learned to tune it out.”
I arranged the photo paper on the enlarger’s darkened surface. “That’s a handy talent. Could you teach me it?”
“I think having a younger sister helped train me in the skill. You don’t have a younger sister, do you?”
“No.”
“Only child, right?”
“Yeah…”
In my peripheral vision I saw him nod his head. “I can tell.”
I flipped the timer to seven seconds, hit the enlarger’s button and then faced him. “How?”
Even in the dark I could see his smile. “You can’t be a true introvert if you have siblings.”
“So I’m a true introvert?”
Alex cocked his head to the right. His hands were busy moving his print down the line of trays. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Didn’t you just?”
He chuckled softly. “You presumed.”
“Riiiiight,” I said while sliding in beside him. It was my turn to put my print in the developing solution.
Alex said nothing as he peered down at the rapidly appearing image in the liquid. He spoke once the scene was clear. “Your photos really capture the decrepit theme yet still have a flowing, linear feel to them.”
He was an art critic too? Was there anything he couldn’t do well?
I glanced at his photo. He’d printed a shot of the abandoned asylum similar to the one I’d done at the start of class. His had a darker feel and was taken at an odd angle as if it were from the point of view of a predator or serial killer who looked at the world in a skewed manner. 
Was that why I thought he was odd? Was he some sort of serial killer in the making? That would certainly be a big enough offset to his finer qualities.
Alex caught me looking. “I’m thinking of calling it Gacy Vision.”
I stumbled back. “Seriously?”
He laughed and gestured to the door. “Yeah but I won’t tell her that.”
I lifted the tray of chemicals, agitating them. It did little to help me feign nonchalance. “Are you into that sort of thing?”
Alex shifted back against the sink. “What?”
“Serial killers.”
He lifted his shoulders with quick irreverence. “I’ve been reading about human psychology, specifically a book on sociopaths. I guess it’s just on my mind.”
“Why ‘Gacy vision’?”
Alex grinned at me—a show of bright white teeth in the dim light. “Because Dahmer vision or Manson vision don’t have the same ring to them.”
It was my turn to chuckle. “That’s kind of eerie. I had just been thinking that it looked like it was from the view of a predator or serial killer.”
His grin faded. Alex used the tongs to move his latest print into the next tray but he dropped it in face down with an agitated gesture. 
Had I pissed him off?
For some reason I felt the need to break the newest silence. “Is that what your project is going to be?”
He didn’t look up but his voice was lower. “No. I was just printing that one to get a feel for the studio.”
I moved my photo into the next tray and waited to see if he’d answer my question.
“I haven’t decided on a theme.” His tone lightened. “Any ideas?”
I lifted my palms, waving them vehemently. “I have a hard enough time coming up with my own inspiration.”
He made a sound of contemplation. “Are there any public gardens in town?”
“There are some city parks but I don’t think they have any gardens. They just worry about having space for hockey rinks and sledding.”
“Ugh. Sledding means snow.”
“Yeah, that would be a requirement.”
The glance he sent me from under his lashes seemed coy. “Maybe I’ll take a page from your three D’s and do ‘despair’.”
“I’m sure that would be interesting.”
“Then we could easily combine our work into one show when we become famous artists.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Fantasize much?”
Alex set his photo in the rinse and walked into the circular contraption they called a door. I stared after, thinking that he was actually kind of odd. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
By P.E. Alex was back to seeming normal. A rivalry developed in flag football between football quarterback Tyler and spry dodger Alex.
What a curious thing about males—they allowed rivalries to develop without harming friendships. Actually it seemed the opposite. Rivalries inspired them. Why couldn’t females be like that?
* * * *
Downtown bound after school, the cameraman had difficulty keeping up with me. Remorse was the last thing I felt. His slow pace was going to make me late. I stopped in for a sandwich at a convenience store. I needed food and my cameraman needed a moment to catch his breath. Then I continued at my breakneck speed to work. 
Junction Hill didn’t have a Hot Topic. We had a “Burning Idea”. The blatant rip off of the apparel and music store wasn’t nearly as popular as an actual Hot Topic would have been. Most attributed that to its location. Between the CVS pharmacy and the budget grocery store in the strip mall near the state road wasn’t the best of spots to lure in teenagers. The real mall would have been the ideal location.
But I liked Burning Idea because it was within walking distance of home and while I worked I could listen to music by questionable bands at a volume that bordered on unreasonable. Plus it was usually dead enough on my shifts that the owner left me in charge. The only cons had been that I was on my feet the entire time and the constant sneezing due to burning incense. After the first month I’d gotten over my slight allergy to the smoke. Now I loved the stuff.
“Oh, shit,” the owner, Felix Stern said upon finding a camera in his face. He hastily put out whatever he’d been smoking. “I forgot about that.” He backed toward the staff area. “I’m gonna go work on the budget then go to dinner.”
My eyebrows lifted at his strange reaction. “All right.”
Felix had actually meant he was going to go back to his desk, forget what it was he’d gone back for and then go for an extended meal. I waited until he’d disappeared out the back door then changed the music from The Grateful Dead to something a little more contemporary. 
Decent Indie music was hard for me to find because I didn’t have a computer and I lived in a small town that wasn’t near any large city of notice. I ate up what I could get my hands on. 
British bands were my favorite. One of the guys in my drawing class had been burning me CDs of music he’d gotten online since our sophomore year. The latest one had a band from Northern England and an American band that was a particular favorite of a certain Hollywood actress. I’d been playing it in the store nonstop.
Tuesday nights weren’t known for being particularly busy but because I hadn’t worked in two days it usually meant the store was a mess. I pulled a neon green hair tie around my hair then started organizing the t-shirt section. Once I’d gotten everything refolded and put back in the appropriate bins, I counted how many we had of each size, made notes of the numbers then headed into the back room to check on replacements. 
A dozen unopened boxes awaited me. I sent a glare at the office. Felix had neglected to tell me a big shipment from our supplier had arrived. I settled in for a long night of cataloguing and displaying.
All of three customers came in during my six-hour shift. Only one had purchased anything. Sometimes I wondered how Felix was able to stay in business. All other times I didn’t want to know.
It was getting easier to forget that I had a camera on me at all times—unless I was walking the dark streets at night and there was a strange guy stalking my steps. I had to admit that it was a spooky feeling but at the same time I was probably the safest person on the street. Who would dare to mug a girl with a cameraman?
I waved goodbye to the videographer at the apartment door, slipped inside and immediately headed for the bathroom. A book was stowed beneath the sink from the night before. I sat on the carpeted toilet seat cover and read until shortly before my mom got home. 
She and I had a brief chat about how the documentary was going until we could no longer see straight from all the yawning. I decided I’d count the day as a success if I woke up without crusted drool on my mouth.
* * * *
“Lunch alfresco,” a now familiar deep voice said. “Except you aren’t eating anything, mute girl.”
I lifted my eyes from my sketchbook and discovered Alex’s silhouette eclipsing the sun. He’d found me beneath the tree outside ten minutes after lunch had begun. It was surprising that he’d actually sought me out.
“I wasn’t hungry,” I said. It was a lie. I’d been hungry since nine that morning but had forgotten to bring either food or money.
“Do you mind if I share a bit of your shade?”
I shrugged. “It’s a free country.”
He chuckled but didn’t explain why he thought it was funny as he sat two feet beside me. I noted the roast beef sandwich with yellow American cheese in his left hand and the bottle of water in his right. He tore open the plastic wrapper on the sandwich but spoke a second before he took a bite. 
“I think I’m beginning to become desensitized to the temperature. Either that or it’s getting warmer. Is that sad?”
“I suppose you would think so,” I said.
He faced me but waited until he’d finished chewing to speak. “What do you mean?”
My response had sounded rude rather than dry. I tried to soften it with a carefully worded explanation. “I gather you’d rather be back wherever you came from.”
Alex’s head tilted to the left. “Why do you say that?”
I laughed—a soft breathy sound because I hadn’t really meant it. “All that talk about how cold it was. Plus the ‘despair’ theme came up after a discussion about snow sledding.”
His bronze cheeks flushed a little darker. “It’s dang cold here and I’m not looking forward to driving in snow but I don’t want to go back where I came from.”
“That bad?”
Alex shook his head in a slow movement. “You’re really confusing me today.”
“Sorry,” I said. My stomach picked that exact moment to pipe up with a Godzilla-level growl.
“Yeeeaah, that sounds like you’re not hungry,” he drawled and tried to hand me half his sandwich.
“I’m fine.”
Alex grunted but withdrew the sandwich. “I’m thinking about heading downtown with the camera after school to look for some despair. I could use a guide to the most rundown spots, if you’re free.”
“Sorry, I have to work,” I said but my brain continued thinking about his request long after. 
Had he asked me on some sort of after school date? Or was it that he thought the person doing a project on dilapidated things might know where the people in the most despair could be found?
There was a long pause while he ate more of his sandwich. “How about Thursday? Do you work Thursday?”
I contemplated lying but knew the two cameras orbiting us would capture it. “No, I don’t work Thursday but you should probably get a roll of film shot as soon as possible so you’re not even more behind than you already are.”
“I have a roll of film shot.”
“Then why do you need another one?”
“There wasn’t much despair to be found in suburbia.”
My eyes narrowed at the answer. “And you think I know where to find despair?”
“I figured you’d know where the run down spots were because of your project topic,” he said defensively. “And that if you knew where those were, you might know where the homeless congregated.”
I shifted to the side, onto my knees and then stood with a forceful, angry movement. “Why would I know that? You think I have some sort of kindred spirit radar that lets me seek out the poor people?”
I didn’t want to hear the answer so I snatched up my bag and shoved my notebook inside as I stomped away. The problem was that I didn’t know where to go. He was in my next class. The lunchroom would have to do.
No despair in suburbia—that line had annoyed me. I wouldn’t know what suburbia was like. We’d never been able to afford to live anywhere but the small apartment downtown. Even with Mom working two jobs and the paycheck from Burning Idea we barely eked by each month. It was the medical bills that were killing us.
Melissa was gathering up her things when I passed through the lunchroom door. I tried to calm myself before going to her so I wouldn’t be an ogre. But a voice interrupted my steadying breath.
“Aeon, please wait. I didn’t mean it like that at all.” Alex continued speaking rapidly without letting me get a word in edgewise. “I assumed everyone who had lived here a while would know where the homeless hung out. I didn’t mean that there was something about you specifically.”
I stared at the ground, slowly realizing what an idiot I’d been. I’d all but admitted we were from poor circumstances and he hadn’t even accused me of it. How did I get out of this now?
“There aren’t enough homeless people in Junction Hill to really have a congregation place,” I said without looking at him. “Your best bet is the Christian soup kitchen on Fifth Street.”
Once again I tried to leave him behind and this time he let me.
“Hey!” Melissa greeted with a smile but eyed the cameraman behind me warily. “Where you been the last few days?”
“Sketching outside,” I said while pointedly ignoring the entrance the new kid had been near.
“Oh. That’s cool.” She started for a different door and I followed her. “Ashley wants to go to the movies Friday. We’re going to see a show at nine thirty. I can come by to get you after work if you want to go. The previews should be going until like quarter ‘til.”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to check with my mom.” 
It wasn’t that I needed permission to go. It was that I’d used up all my spending money from the last paycheck on photo paper and film for photography class. 
Melissa knew why I needed to check and she also knew that I’d be offended if she offered to pay. “All right,” she said. “Just let me know Friday at lunch.”
We parted ways in the hallway. My pace was slow. I was in no hurry to get to class. But Mrs. Lozano had saved me another discussion with the new kid by forcing him to sit through a make-up lecture. 
In the quiet of the dark room I took my time printing several photos because I was sans camera guy. My project was nearing completion, two weeks earlier than it needed to be. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do during those two weeks. Maybe I’d start a second project.

CHAPTER FOUR

I managed to get out of the photography studio and into the drawing room next door without running into Alex. My music buddy, Stan, was waiting for me with a CD in hand.
“My musical savior.” I smiled and bowed from the waist down.
“It’s got some new Elbow on there and a little bit of quasi-electronic stuff. I know how you like that,” Stan said in a strangely mechanical voice.
I tried to ignore the fact that he was obviously freaked out by the camera. “Awesome. I can’t wait to listen.”
Mrs. Finch cleared her throat. Stan flushed pink and walked to his own desk. My attention was focused on the typed insert that Stan had put with the CD. There were some new names along with some old favorites. The new tunes would get me through the night of stocking ahead of me.
Forty minutes of drawing a large metal ball, a bicycle tire, two wooden boxes, a cow’s skull and a plastic cone had me in a relaxed state. For once it didn’t bother me that the videographer couldn’t seem to stay still. Even the bell ringing did little to ruin my calm.
I was apathetic about P.E. until Alex broke away from talking to Tyler so he could bug me. Apathy turned to frustration.
His eyes had appeared pleading during the nanosecond I’d allowed myself to look at him. “You’re not mad at me, are you? Because I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
I continued walking toward an empty spot where I could wait for class to begin. “I know. It’s fine.”
He lowered his head closer toward mine. “You sure?”
“Yeah.” I stepped away because his proximity was uncomfortable. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Alex,” Tyler said as if he were picking him for a team. After another person was called I realized that he had.
“I gotta go,” Alex murmured before dashing to the football star’s side.
Two more names were called and then my own was said. I looked up in surprise because only a handful of people had been picked. My uncoordinated self was usually reserved as the last place pick. 
Alex stood upright as though he’d leaned over to speak to Tyler. Did that explain the change in order? I breathed an irritated breath through my nose then walked across and took my spot behind them.
Alex took four steps back so he could stand beside me. “So where do you work?”
“Burning Idea,” I said without looking at him.
“I’m sorry?”
“It’s a store,” I said. “A knock off of Hot Topic.”
“Oh. You like that kind of stuff?”
With a typically noncommittal shrug I said, “I guess.”
The physical education teacher tossed his bag down at Tyler’s feet. “Okay guys, you get the mesh shirts.”
I groaned but pulled on a red mesh shirt as request. Alex did the same. He gave a little wave then left me alone. With the two athletes on the same team flag football team they could have had a team compromised of ten of me and still won the match. 
Usually physical education class consisted of me doing whatever I could to avoid effort. The guys made it so I didn’t have to try. After ten minutes of merely standing off to one side without a ball nearing me, I’d taken to creating haikus in my head describing the flora and fauna. As soon as the whistle was blown, the mesh shirt was tossed down and I was headed to the locker room to finish out my school day.
* * * *
Felix’s younger brother was snoring against the register when I walked through the door to Burning Idea with a panting cameraman in tow. The noise of me setting my backpack on the counter woke Trey with a start. He wiped drool from his mouth then fixed me with a grin.
“When are you going to have dinner with me?” Trey’s speech was typically nasally.
Dinner sounded good right about then. I hadn’t eaten anything since the sandwich the night before. My breakfast—a fruit bar—had been forgotten in my haste to get to school on time. But I wasn’t hungry enough to agree to a date with Felix’s stoner brother. 
“We’ve had this discussion,” I said.
He walked around the counter toward me. “I’m going to keep asking until I get a better answer.”
“They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” I’d heard it in a movie but hadn’t check to see if it was correct. It seemed fitting to me.
The guy’s hazy eyes tried to focus on me unsuccessfully. “What?”
I laughed once—a soft sardonic sound as I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Uh, right,” he said above a cough he didn’t bother to cover. “I’m out of here.”
“Enjoy,” I called after his retreating figure.
As soon as the coast was clear I glided to the storeroom and put my newest music CD in the stereo to break the obvious silence in the store. The first song started out with a bang. I was instantly hooked. Around the store I lugged boxes while bouncing to the music like the uncoordinated goober I was.
I feigned respectability for a pair of customers. The girls browsed the t-shirt section for ten minutes. They left without buying anything and I resumed head-bopping. By seven, I had the new shipment stocked or stowed and the CD had looped five times. I settled in behind the counter and read a chapter in the history textbook in the hope of acing my next quiz.
At a quarter after nine the videographer shuffled behind me up the hilly street toward home. Everyone who saw the footage would think I walked with Bigfoot’s gait because of how loud he was. Without thinking about the camera between us, I turned around and glared at him.
Headlights blinded me briefly before they cast aside in a weaving pattern. My eyes widened at the oncoming threat. An obviously impaired driver was swerving dangerously at the base of the street.
“Hey!” The viewfinder permanently glued to the cameraman’s eye meant he saw nothing but me. I jabbed at the car behind him. “Watch out!”
The car swerved toward us on a collision course for the videographer. He hadn’t so much as glanced up. 
Judging the speed and distance of the car, I knew I couldn’t make it to him in time without getting hit myself. My heart stilled. I threw a hand out in front of me as if it alone could stop a barreling car.
Somehow the scene went deathly quiet. The roaring of the car’s engine, the click-clack of a train south of us along with the crickets and everything else in the vicinity had silenced in an instant. The only sound I heard was my heartbeat resuming in my ear. 
But that wasn’t the worrying part of the situation. 
No. The worrisome part was the hovering red leaves and motionless dust. Everything on the street except me had frozen in place. 
Time was quite literally stopped. 
I slapped my forehead with a heavy groan. “Not again.”
Moving a hundred-and-ninety pound five-foot-ten man lugging a video camera was much harder than it looked in the movies. Tugging at his legs had been futile. He wasn’t cognizant enough to move on his own because along with the rest of the area, his brain was frozen in time. 
Panic made it difficult to come up with a good plan. How long would the scene remain frozen? This was only the second time I’d accidentally stopped time and the first had only been for five seconds. Five seconds weren’t enough to save the camera guy.
I loosened the guy’s grip on the camera, slid it off his shoulder and then set it near the building behind us. Next I did the only thing I could think of—I tipped him until he fell like a bovine in jeans. I rolled him on his side until he was beside his camera against the wall. Then I retrieved the camera and set it a short distance away from him. 
It had to look like he’d dropped it. Now the device was too nicely positioned. I turned it over on its side but didn’t have the nerve to scuff it any. I did, however, stealthily hit the off button in the hope when time unfroze, the camera would turn itself off.
But the videographer’s new spot might not be enough to save him. I’d have to try to do something about the driver as well. I stepped around the cameraman’s legs and started toward the car. 
A noxious stench immediately slammed into my nose once I got the door open. I choked automatically. The interior of the cabin smelled like a liquor cabinet. 
A scruffy beard that hadn’t been shaved in days coated the pale skin of the man behind the steering wheel. In his right hand he held a cellular phone. The position of his fingers and the items on the screen proved he was past the point of being an impaired driver. His attempt at text messaging while driving drunk meant he was an idiot as well. I tore the phone from his hand and belted it in the floorboard in the back. 
Now what? 
I positioned his hands on the steering wheel and his body is such a pose that I hoped momentum from his weight would turn the wheel when things went back to normal. Filled with worry and a tiny bit of hope, I returned to where I thought I’d been standing when I’d hit the theoretical pause button. I took in a deep breath, held my hands out in front of me once again and exhaled. 
Roaring echoed in the narrow space and instant later, heralding time was back on course. The car’s headlights swerved away violently then started on a straighter path. Unfortunately, though the path was straight, it was aimed at me.
“Aeon!” the cameraman shouted.
I did the only thing I could think of—I ran toward him and the building beside us. Maybe I could narrowly avoid the drunkard as he passed by if I kept close to the building. It seemed like my only option short of stopping time and I wasn’t sure I could do that again. 
The idiot hit the breaks at the last moment. His vehicle spun in a one hundred and eighty degree angle then slammed into the building across the street. I let out a ragged breath as my heart slammed fearfully within my chest.
The cameraman scrambled to his feet and ambled toward me. “Are you okay?” 
 “Yeah.” I stared at the steam coming from the car’s front end for a moment in disbelief. “Are you?” No doubt I’d scraped him up when I’d rolled him back to the building. I might have sprained something too.
“Me?” He sounded incredulous. Was that because he suspected something was awry? “Yeah, I’m fine. He was heading for you.” 
The camera guy was camera-less. It was the first time I’d actually seen his face. From the few gray hairs I’d spotted on his head I’d thought he was in his thirties. Looking at him now he probably hadn’t been out of film school for all that long. 
 His wasn’t a face for movies. He wasn’t what most people would call handsome but he also wasn’t ugly. Generic would be the term I’d have applied to his unremarkable features. But his eyes, as concerned as they looked now, made up for the lack of looks.
“He was heading for both of us,” I said.
He pulled a phone from his front pocket, flipped it open and dialed three numbers. I didn’t need him to explain to understand what he’d done. 
“I need to report an accident on… Aeon, where are we?”
My reply was robotic. “Lower Eagle Drive down by East Land Shopping Mall.”
“I need to report an accident on Lower Eagle Drive down by East Land Shopping Mall. It’s only one car but you might need to send an ambulance. Thanks.” He shook his head in disbelief after he’d snapped it shut. “One second I was following you and the next I was on my butt over there. I don’t remember a thing. Did he hit me?”
“I think he grazed you,” I said and kept my eyes on the ground. 
For a moment I felt bad that I was falsely accusing the drunk of hitting the cameraman. But it would have been far worse than a graze if I hadn’t gone all supernatural-girl.
He turned and shuffled back to the camera. “Phew, it’s still fine.”
I didn’t share his relief. 
What would the camera show? Could it somehow continue recording when everything else was frozen in time? Maybe I should have done more than turn it off.
The videographer resumed his job without another word. I collapsed against the wall, folding my arms across my chest. Then I watched the slumped figure in the car while silently waiting for the police. 
To say I wasn’t frightened would have been a lie. I’d been terrified since I’d spotted the headlights headed for us but taking action had taken precedence over my fears. Now that it was over, I was struggling to control my emotions.
Not only had I saved man’s life and nearly been hit myself, I’d also learned that the first time wasn’t a fluke. 
I could stop time.
It also meant one other thing—my mystery parent was no mystery. 
He was a god.
Not just a god in the sense of him being divinely handsome—he was literally a Greek deity. Chronos, or his alter ego Aeon, was likened to Father Time. I had met him in a dream months earlier but hadn’t believed it to be anything more than that until now.
I resisted the urge to tug at my hair. This was insanity. There was no way my mom had met up with a Greek god seventeen years ago. It was impossible because the gods weren’t tangible. They were matters of faith. Faith couldn’t impregnate a beautician, unless of course it was to bring forth a prophet. I was no prophet.
In my dream, Chronos had said nothing about sins or leading mankind to a brighter future. He’d gruffly introduced himself, told me something bad was about to happen in Junction Hill, that I’d need part of my heritage to stop it and then he’d disappeared into thin air. It had been such a disjointed visit that it was no wonder I’d assumed it was a dream.
Flashing lights and a siren heralded the arrival of the ambulance. The EMTs checked the driver out first because he looked to be in the worst shape. He’d apparently passed out at the wheel rather than keeled over dead. The medical team had to force the guy to sit by the ambulance to keep him from trying to flee the scene. Several minutes later a police officer arrived.
It was eleven by the time I walked through the apartment door. 
My mother grabbed hold of my arm, yanking me further into the room and nearly screamed. “Where have you been?”
With the door standing wide open, the cameraman had a front row seat to her fury. 
She was already worried so I left out key details. “There was an accident on the way home from work. I witnessed it so I had to stay and give a statement to the police.” 
Her hand was over her heart, matching the worry that had filled her features. “You had me scared half to death.”
“I’d have called you but I don’t have a phone,” I said. 
Everyone else I knew had a cellular phone. My bitterness had gone unvoiced for a long time but I hadn’t been able to stop myself this time. A mobile phone would have come in handy tonight.
She frowned at me. “You’re okay?”
“Yeah.” 
I was physically okay but I’d never be the same. Now I knew without a doubt that I truly was a freak.
The glance she sent at the door implied she’d remembered we were being recorded. She let go of my arm with a long sigh. “I’m glad you’re okay. What happened?”
“It was just some drunk guy who ran into a building.” I shrugged. “No one was really hurt but they could have been.”
“Damn drunk drivers,” she said in disgust.
“He was arrested and I think they were going to take his license so you won’t have to worry about that one.” I released a loud yawn. “I’m exhausted. I need some sleep.”
“Okay, hon.” She was still frowning when she stepped forward and kissed my forehead. “Sleep well.”
I waved limply, cast a last glance at the cameraman and then disappeared into my bedroom. The front door closed moments later. She quieted after a five-minute visit to the restroom.
In bed minutes later my eyes refused to close. Each time they did I saw the frozen scene on Eagle Drive. 
It was difficult to decide what was scarier, averting a fatal accident by using supernatural abilities I hadn’t been aware I had or if I’d done nothing at all. I was no closer to an answer when my alarm went off at six.

CHAPTER FIVE

There were two fruit bars with my name on them on the counter. Well, not literally. I tore open the foil covering on one and stuffed half in my mouth only to have the phone ring. With a grumble I chewed quickly and swallowed without enjoying the bite so I could answer the grating noise.
“Hello?”
“Aeon?” An unfamiliar male voice spoke through the handset. “This is Mark Green.”
The director of the documentary. My stomach flipped sickly. I was glad I hadn’t eaten more of the fruit bar. I forced myself to answer. “Hi.”
“Listen, can we get together after school?”
They’d reviewed the tapes. Something out of the ordinary had appeared. They were going to have me locked up. 
“Okay.”
“I’ll be in the lunchroom after eighth period,” he said. “See you then.”
I hung up the phone without saying goodbye and stared at the plastic phone in my hand. What was I going to say? How would I explain the freeze in time?
It was a glitch in the film. But wait…the cameras were all digital now. I’d make-up something about bad memory. Did they even take memory?
I slumped forward.
My mom stepped in the room. “Who was that?” Her yawn had garbled the words but I understood her nonetheless.
“The director,” I said in a hollow voice.
Whatever grogginess she’d possessed moments ago was instantly gone. “What did he want?”
“He wants to meet me after school.”
Her frame stiffened. Worry quickly strained her features. “Did he say why?”
Now I was even more worried. “No. I’ll find out later, I guess.”
My mom stared at me silently for five seconds. It was clear she was concerned about something but I doubted it was the same thing that plagued me. Money had been the reason she’d forced me to try out for the documentary in the first place. The salary they were going to pay me was going toward paying medical bills. We needed that money. 
Her voice was tight when she finally responded. “Well, good luck.”
“Thanks.”
I followed her to the door, fruit bars in hand but stopped in the hallway in front of my videographer. His camera was lowered to his chest. We each spoke at the same time.
“Are you…still okay?”
“Did you…” He chuckled. “Just a little scrape on my nose but otherwise no worse for wear.”
I breathed a sigh of relief but stood awkwardly. A moment later I pushed off the door. “I’m gonna be late,” I said without stopping.
We returned to our usual videographer and subject roles. Somehow that was a more comfortable position to be in. I didn’t try to understand why that was.
The walk through the student parking lot across the street from Junction Hill High didn’t merit me any dirty looks this morning. In the hallway in front of chemistry Ashley was still bitter but had taken to silence rather than insults. We were nearly back to normal with days to go before the director’s first week was up. Maybe the six months wouldn’t be as awful as I’d thought.
I expected that the new kid would at least acknowledge my existence in history as he had done each day for the past two. But he didn’t so much as look up from his textbook when I passed. I assumed he was behind on reading.
At lunch Alex didn’t join me at the tree outside. Once again I decided he was probably busy playing catch-up. But part of me wondered if these excuses were just my hope it wasn’t something worse. Someone had probably explained to him that I was beneath his notice.
What little hope I’d had flitted away when Alex refused to meet my eye in the photography studio. I was glad I’d refused his invitation to an after school photo shoot downtown. But there wasn’t enough “glad” to cover the hurt. I scolded myself for caring at all.
As soon as Mrs. Lozano was finished with announcements and reminders, I grabbed my negatives and headed into the safety of the dark room where the cameraman couldn’t follow. I slumped against the dividing wall between enlargers until one of the other students joined me. The work wasn’t enough to keep my thoughts occupied.
Alex had shown interest in me, hadn’t he? Had I read too much into his friendliness? Was it only temporary camaraderie because we were both in the documentary? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about it?
My fingernails dug into my palms as I waited for my print to develop. In an effort to take control of my wayward mind I forced myself to come up with silent poems about photography while making two more prints. My companion in the darkroom left after she’d finished two of her own. I couldn’t force myself back into the real world. There were recording devices there.
A strange noise caught my attention moments later. I glanced toward the front of the room but could only see darkness near the door. Then the darkness moved forward in the shape of a man. I scrambled toward the lightless rooms at the back but the shape pursued me until I could go no further.
“What are you?”
I recognized the demanding deep voice as Alex’s. That knowledge didn’t make me any more comfortable about the fact that he stood inches away, towering menacingly over me. 
“Wha-aat?” The word came out in two syllables as my pitch lifted in alarm and confusion.
He grabbed my biceps, shoving me back against the wall. I made a sound of surprise but was too startled to do anything else. 
“You aren’t normal. What are you?” 
In the dim red light I could somehow make out his narrowed eyes with ease and the grim set of his lips. He looked truly fierce. For once I wished the cameraman had followed me into the darkroom.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I stammered stupidly.
He loosened his fingers and took a step back. “We’ll find out what you are whether you tell us or not.” The frigid tone made him just as menacing despite the space now between us.
Though I was frightened I still managed to stammer out a question. “Us?”
He whirled away with a blurring motion. His dark shape stalked to the door. The noise I’d heard earlier was duplicated a second before he disappeared into the round contraption that served as the door. 
I stared after in mute shock.
He was right. I wasn’t normal. 
Questions crowded my head. 
How did he know? And what did he mean by “us”? Had the director told others about what they’d seen on the videos? Did everyone on the documentary know I was an even bigger freak than they first thought?
What was I supposed to do now? 
I was torn between fear of another confrontation with Alex in the classroom and the fear of being alone in the dark room where he could easily get to me. In the end I returned to the light and sat quietly at my usual seat. 
Alex was nowhere to be seen.
* * * *
The bell’s ringing and a change of scenery didn’t help. I couldn’t concentrate on drawing. My still life was nearly ruined before I recognized I’d messed up more than I’d improved. I made myself stop working on it.
I thanked Stan for his music CD before heading down the hallway to my final class of the day. Soon enough I would find out what the director had seen on the footage but first I had to get through another class with Alex. 
Lingering in the locker room killed enough time that I was spared the embarrassment of being picked last for the teams. Thankfully I was assigned to the team opposite the new kid. More than once I caught him eying me suspiciously but he didn’t come near and he certainly didn’t greet me. 
Whatever friendship we’d had for a few days was officially over. But why?
The whistle was blown, signifying the end of class. I stayed behind and helped pick up the mesh shirts. I was the last off the field. The locker room was empty by the time I walked in. Though the final bell of the day had already rung I wasn’t in a hurry to leave.
My assigned cameraman awaited me impatiently at the door. On my way to the lunchroom he nearly tripped over me twice because of my unusually slow pace. After readjusting his speed, he kept his distance. But when we reached the lunchroom for my meeting with the director he disappeared seemingly into thin air. I felt alone and extra scared now without him.
Mark Green read today’s newspaper at a table by himself. He had a large moleskin notebook in front of him that he opened as I neared. A smile spread across his thin lips. I couldn’t tell if it was faked or not.
He gestured a tanned hand to the seat across from him without losing the smile. “Have a seat, Aeon.”
I sat stiffly in front of him but kept my backpack on so I could leave at a moment’s notice. It wouldn’t take long for him to tell me I was a freak and I was fired, would it?
His chemically whitened teeth spread in a warm smile that made me even more ill at ease. “How has it been going?”
“Um,” I said, confused by that conversational tone. I scanned his face for an idea of what was going on.
Mark’s smile deepened and his voice softened. “I’m meeting with everyone today to get a feel for how the project is going so far. We’re going in alphabetic order so we’re starting with you first.” 
The smile seemed to extend to his eyes. Was this truly only a progress report meeting? 
“It’s going okay, I guess,” I said, glancing around nervously.
He adjusted his pose in his seat, relaxing into the uncomfortable furniture as much as one could. “Is your cameraman getting in the way too much? Are you comfortable with him?”
“I’m starting to forget he’s there,” I said. At least I’d been starting to forget he was there until he’d nearly been killed.
“So you’re comfortable with him?”
I lifted my shoulders in my usual noncommittal gesture. “I guess.”
Mark’s head bobbed. “Good. Good. We have a few alternates for vacations and days off. If you wanted to try someone new—”
“No, he’s fine.” 
The last thing I needed was to freak out more than one cameraperson. They would talk and perhaps come to the conclusion that something was off about me.
My brain screeched to a halt on the previous thought. 
If this meeting wasn’t about last night’s accident—if I hadn’t been called onto the carpet to explain strange footage—then what had Alex been talking about in the darkroom?
“Are you okay?”
I shook myself mentally and focused on the director. “Yeah. Sorry. I’m just tired.”
“I bet.” He chuckled. “I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t really sleep last night. That accident really did a number on you, didn’t it?”
I stared at him in silence for a moment. He’d noticed I hadn’t slept but he hadn’t noticed I’d stopped time. 
Uneasily I said, “I guess.”
Mark stood and offered his hand with that same smile stretched across his tan features. “I won’t keep you from work or homework any longer. Thanks for meeting with me. We really like what we’ve been seeing so far. Keep on acting normal.”
If I hadn’t been shocked into silence I was certain I’d have laughed in his face. That would have been difficult to explain. 
I stood from the bench and walked to the door. My head remained down and eyes on the ground halfway across the room. A bare glance up at the door showed me Alex was waiting. My frame stiffened. 
His eyes darted away from me as if he hadn’t wanted to be caught looking at me. My spirits lowered as he turned to go into the lunchroom without a word.

I took my time walking home because I didn’t have to work and because I wanted to give my cameraman a chance to walk without panting. The repetitive sound of traffic made it easy to get lost in my thoughts. 
I came to one jarring realization: Mark Green had said they liked what they were seeing so far. That meant they weren’t going to replace me with another girl.
I halted in the middle of the sidewalk and slumped over dramatically. The videographer crashed into me. Unable to maintain my balance, I fell over, skinning a knee beneath my jeans on the cement.
“Are you okay?” The videographer sounded nearly as frantic as my mother had the night before. I found him standing with the camera lowered, staring at me with widened brown eyes. “Are you sick?”
I burst into laughter from the combination of his concern and my stupidity. “No.”
He offered me a hand. I took it without a thought because I was still too amused by his reaction to consider declining. 
“What happened?” 
He was actually speaking to me. I’d assumed that was against some documentary rulebook. Given that he was talking and there wasn’t an accident involved, I felt the need to answer.
My mirth faded to a half smile. “I just realized you guys aren’t going to let me out of this documentary thing.”
He gave me a crooked frown. “Well, that explains your friends’ comments.”
“You mean about how unfair it is that I was picked?” I bobbed my head. “Yeah, it does. It’s no secret I never wanted to do this.”
There was a little shake of his head. “Then why are you doing it?”
I shrugged in answer and turned back around. Time to finish our trip. 
Rustling and creaking implied he’d scrambled to get the camera back in place. It amused me. 
“What’s your name, camera guy?”
“Guy.”
“Guy, the camera guy. Okay.” I laughed at the oddity of his name and vocation. “Well, hi, Guy, nice to meet you.” I sent a glance over my shoulder. “If you’re going to be following me around for the next six months then maybe we should get to know each other. Got any kids?”
“No.”
“Wife? Girlfriend?”
“Kind of difficult with this gig.”
I let out a light laugh. “Yeah. I can imagine. What made you want to be a professional voyeur?”
He inhaled a quick breath, perhaps a snort or a laugh. “A girl your age isn’t supposed to know terms like that.”
I sent a sharp look over my shoulder at him. “Aren’t you a little young to be turning geezer on me? You gonna regale me with tales of walking barefoot up the mountain in the snow both ways next?”
“No,” he said. His breathy tone hinted he was amused as well. “I saw Psycho in high school and decided I wanted to be in film.”
“So is camera guy your ultimate goal or do you want to be the next Hitchcock?”
“I want to master the camera before I try anything else.”
“That’s cool.” I said, deciding it was. “I’ll do my best not to mess this gig up for you, Guy. But you have to try not to get hit by cars for me. Okay?”
He inhaled again. “Okay.”
At the apartment door I faced the camera. “Good news, Guy. I’ll be doing homework all night. So you get to get off work early. Go have fun, or at least as much fun as you can have in this town.”
He lowered his camera enough to smile at me. “Good luck, Aeon. See you tomorrow.”
Secure in the knowledge that I was safe from drunk drivers and new kids, I settled down in front of the television and began on my homework from the week. At six I made something to eat, devoured it far faster than I ought to and put the leftovers away for another day. I fell asleep in front of the television until Mom woke me at ten. 
She forced me to relay the entire conversation with Mark Green before going to bed. Her worries had been squashed and smiles were once again prevalent on her face. She’d sleep better because of it.
I only wished I could say the same.

CHAPTER SIX

I wanted my money back. This was the worst waste of time and cash since the carnival had come to Junction Hill over the summer. Ashley had horrible taste in movies. She might be content to sit through a B-movie horror film simply to watch the actors from a teenage television drama on the big screen, but I certainly wasn’t.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Melissa, who was also my ride, before standing up in the middle of the darkened theater. “Just going to the bathroom,” I said for Guy’s benefit as I made my way across the aisle then to the door at the back. 
I faltered upon finding a familiar set of steel blue eyes watching me from the back row. I pretended I hadn’t seen Alex. But walking slowly to the exit took effort. Once I stepped into the lobby lights I practically a ran to the ladies’ room.
When I emerged five minutes later, the concession area was free of anyone but the people who worked there. The theater’s back row was empty of steel blue eyes. I stiffly sunk down into my seat. There was no one who looked like Alex when I glanced around next. But it was difficult to identify people in the dark. I could have been mistaken. 
Maybe he hadn’t been there at all.
The movie let out. I walked behind the others to the parking lot. 
How could a girl with a camera on her twenty-four hours a day still feel uneasy about being watched?
“That was so good,” Ashley said once we’d broken through the glass doors. “Brandon is so hot.”
“It wasn’t bad,” Melissa said by way of an agreement.
I rolled my eyes. On a scale from one to five, I’d have given the movie a negative two for the fact that it was two hours of my life I could never get back. Melissa had been yawning throughout the movie. That usually meant she was bored.
“It was awful,” I said, earning me the glare from Ashley. “Bloody for no reason, gratuitous sex scenes that made no sense and what little plot there was had so many holes it could easily have been confused with Swiss cheese. Actually, no, it wasn’t even good enough to be considered cheesy.”
Jenny chuckled. “Cheesy. That word always makes me laugh.”
Ashley turned her ire on Jenny. “It would.”
Everyone shut up before Ashley started on them. Once she’d reached her Jeep Cherokee, she faced us and spoke as if nothing had happened.
“I’m meeting William tomorrow,” she said. “He’s taking me to dinner and the ballet in Burlington.”
This was our cue to ooh and ah over her fortune. No one had ever met this mysterious William whom she’d met over the summer at a camp for gifted children, even though I’d seen her twice at the grocery store while she’d supposedly been out of town. 
Melissa responded with the appropriate reaction.
“What ballet?” Jenny said.
Ashley glared at her again. Her nose lifted in the air. It had apparently been on a list of unauthorized questions. “He won’t tell me. It’s a surprise.”
“Cool,” Melissa said for us all. “You’ll have to tell us how it went.”
“And get pictures. I love the ballet!” Jenny added.
“My camera is broken.” 
A hooded figure appeared between two cars, heading for us. His face was hidden but his hand was shoved in the front pocket of the hoodie he wore. I went into panic mode. 
We were about to be mugged in the theater parking lot!
I shoved a hand out in front of me as though my mere will would stop the event from happening.
The scene froze before my eyes. My heart pounded hard as I glanced at each of the mannequin-esque figures around me. Two nights in one week of using my power couldn’t be good. Surely I was breaking a cosmic rule.
“What are you?”
My scream echoed across the parking lot. The hooded figure was in front of me before I’d finished blinking. Beneath the black fabric I could make out Alex’s steel blue eyes. I frantically looked for help. My friends were still frozen. Jenny was midway through a blink, Melissa’s mouth was open as if she were about to speak and Ashley looked like she’d sneeze at any second. But I knew otherwise. 
No one would move until I fixed this.
“How are you doing this?” Alex roared and jabbed a finger at my unmoving friends.
I stared at him in disbelief. How was he able to move and talk while everything else was frozen?
He grabbed me by the arms and shook me violently. “Answer me!”
His aggressive shaking successfully intimidated me into answering. “I don’t know! It just happens. Okay?”
“What are you? Tell me!” The growling voice coming from his throat was almost animalistic as he shouted.
“I don’t know. I don’t know!”
“You have to know! How did you get this power?” His pointed back at my motionless friends again.
I slowly regained some of my sense back. There was no mugger. There was only Alex stalking me. “How are you able to ignore it?”
“I’m the one asking the questions,” he snapped.
“Why? Why do I have to explain anything to you? You’re the new person in town! Not me.”
He let go of my arm but didn’t step away. I didn’t like his proximity but I feared he’d grab me again if I made a move.
“Because if you don’t tell me, others will investigate and they may not be as nice.” His pitch went low.
A harsh noise escaped my throat. “This is you being nice?”
“Yes.”
“Is that why you were nice to me for three days? Did you get impatient because I didn’t just come out and say ‘hey, I’m a freak, nice to meet you’?”
“No.” He glanced behind him at the immobile figures. “How long will it stay like this?”
I folded my arms in front of me. “I don’t know.”
The steel blue eyes focused on me once again. “Do you really not know, Aeon? Or are you just telling me that?”
Here we were, two people carrying on an argument while time was frozen around us. I didn’t think I had much of a choice except to tell him the truth. He now had seriously damaging information about me. 
“I really don’t know,” I said.
He took a single step back as if he trusted me enough not to bolt. “You don’t know how you got this power?”
“No,” I lied.
Alex inhaled noisily. “You’re lying.”
My eyes rounded at the low declaration. “What?” I croaked the question.
“You may not know how it works, but you do know how you got it.”
How had he known? I added a kernel of truth as a test. “I just woke up one day and I had it.” 
His lips thinned but he didn’t instantly discount what I’d said. “This is serious, Aeon. The more you tell me, the safer you’ll be.”
“Safer?” I exclaimed. “Safe from what? The only thing that is dangerous right now is you. I thought you were a mugger!”
“There are others like me—others who won’t be stopped by your magic. They don’t like it when people mess with the status quo.”
“Magic,” I said in slow disbelief. “What are you talking about?”
Alex shook his head and paced a few steps away. “You’re not a Time witch?”
I felt the space between my eyes crinkle in serious confusion. “What’s a ‘Time witch’?”
“How can you halt time and not know what a Time witch is?” Alex swore quietly but offered up a definition. “A Time witch is a witch capable of manipulating Time, just like the name sounds.”
“I don’t believe in witches or magic.”
“Well, sweetheart, this is magic.” He gestured to my friends.
His condescending tone rubbed me all wrong. Eyes narrowing I snapped, “Don’t call me sweetheart. This isn’t magic, this is just some weird fluke.”
“A fluke you control at will? I don’t think so.” He snorted. “Are you really as clueless as you’re acting or is this just to confuse me?”
“All right, that’s it.” I stomped a foot like an angry toddler and waved him away with an equally pettish gesture. “Get out of here now before I undo this and scream like the girls in that movie we just watched.”
Surprisingly he actually listened. Alex sprinted to a car parked at the far end of the lot where there were no lights. Once he was seated in the car I exhaled—a long intentional movement that coincided with my wish for everything to return to normal.
My friends picked up precisely where they’d left off.
“You can borrow mine,” Melissa said.
Ash sneezed, shook her head and then started for her Jeep. “I want to concentrate on William. Not on taking photos. You’ll have to live vicariously through someone else.”
Rocking onto the ball of her left foot, Melissa made the usual post-movie suggestion. “Do you want to go for ice cream?”
Jenny lifted her arm. “I’m in!”
“Yeah, sure,” Jen said.
“Ash?”
“I guess.” She sighed melodramatically. “But I can’t stay long. I want to be rested for tomorrow.”
It was automatically assumed that I’d be going probably because Melissa was my ride. I’d had enough money for the movie thanks to a donation from Mom’s tip jar. There wasn’t enough for a sundae. It was just as well. I was sick to my stomach after the latest run-in with the new kid.
I slid into the passenger seat of Melissa’s family-sized sedan while Guy took a seat in the back. She was mute for much of the drive. I attributed it to a combination of the camera on us and my anti-Ashley behavior. 
Halfway to our destination she spoke. “Are you working tomorrow?”
“As always,” I grumbled.
“That sucks,” she said in distraction.
“Yeah.”
It was the extent of our conversation until we got to the restaurant. Ashley did most of the talking while the rest of us laughed at the appropriate pauses. Everyone but me ordered desert. I picked water.
“Sugar this late will keep me up all night. I have to work in the morning,” I said lamely. There was little point in the explanation. They all knew what the real reason was.
I tapped my finger against the table during one of Ash’s William-related monologues and scanned the room in boredom. Half the restaurant was filled with people from school who had probably turned up from a football game or the movies. But there was a figure in black with black hair seated in the far corner. I stopped upon finding familiar eyes fixed on me.
Alex really was following me! 
What did he want now? I’d have demanded an answer if it wouldn’t have caused a scene. What did he think would happen? What kind of mischief could I get into at a restaurant? Food theft?
I dropped my gaze back to the table and sipped my water while the others gorged themselves on whipped cream and hot fudge. Several minutes passed before I realized an important note. Alex was without his cameraman. How had he managed to get rid of him?
Melissa and I were the first to leave. I couldn’t help glancing behind us several times to see if I was being followed. The only thing I could see was Guy lugging the camera.
The ride back to the apartment was quiet. Melissa wished me luck at work then left quickly. I had the sensation that I was being watched but I couldn’t see anyone around us as we walked into the building. Guy hovered near me while I unlocked the door.
“I won’t be leaving until nine thirty so you can sleep in a little,” I told him.
“See you tomorrow.”
My mom was readying for bed but lingered long enough to hear about my day. I left out the part about being stalked by a psycho and the fact that I’d stopped time. 
She had enough on her mind. I didn’t want to worry her by bringing up the topic of Chronos again. The one time I’d mentioned my dream she’d nearly had a panic attack. What would she do if I told her it hadn’t been a dream?
Minutes later I sat on my bed and contemplated what I was going to do. While the cameras had been unable to detect my power anomaly, Alex had. He now knew I was different. He’d said others would want to know what I was and how I’d gotten my power. 
But what others were there? Were they like me? Was Alex part of the bad thing that was going to happen in Junction Hill? The thing I was supposed to stop? 
If so, what hope did I have of stopping him when he was able to ignore the only power I had?
None, that’s what.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Do you have this in medium?”
I held out my hand for the t-shirt junior Jenna Brand waved at me. “Let me check.”
Burning Idea was busy enough that Felix and Trey were forced to work. I gestured to them that I was going to the back. 
I had no idea why the store was so busy. 
Two girls chatting while looking at make-up near the employees-only door soon gave me the explanation. There’d been a parade downtown. Everyone had hit the stores afterward.
I grabbed three sets of medium t-shirts that matched Jenna’s then returned to the front. Pleased with the garment, she folded it over her arm and then moved into the quickly lengthening line. I stayed and put the extra mediums I’d brought out away in their spots near the window.
“Hi, Aeon!” Jenny said boisterously as soon as she stepped through the store’s glass entrance. She bounced beside me with Jen and Melissa in tow. “I love this store. I always forget it’s here.” She shook a hoodie at me. “Look, Gir from Invader Zim. He makes me laugh.”
Jen attempted an impersonation of the cartoon character, “I love this show.” 
The others giggled. I forced a smile. 
Melissa leaned in. “When do you finish?”
 “Five—” Felix’s frantic wave diverted my attention. 
“Can you stay late, Aeon?” he called out.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Scratch that.”
Melissa shook her head in mock dismay. “Workaholic.”
“As if.” I laughed. “Have fun guys. Shop some for me.”
“Call me if you get done early,” Melissa said. “We’re going to Bogies.”
“All right,” I fibbed. Even if I finished at five I couldn’t afford miniature golf.
My friends got in the ever-increasing line. I decided to shove Trey off his register so that we could efficiently get the customers rung through. He muttered something unintelligible as he shuffled off toward the back room. Within five minutes the crowd was down to a manageable size. 
Felix joined his brother for lunch shortly after. I dutifully called my mom and warned her I’d be late. For the rest of the afternoon I did my best to answer customer questions while manning the register too. The work kept me occupied and made the day go by quickly. Before I knew it the sun had set and my stomach was growling voraciously. 
I wanted to go home but Felix had never returned from lunch. How late did he expect me to stay? An eleven-hour shift was technically illegal for someone my age. At least I thought it was.
My hunger made me sluggish. By eight thirty I was energized with anger. Felix was abusing my good nature and need for money. I had homework to do. He shouldn’t have left me alone with his store when I was supposed to leave hours earlier.
The pair of reprobate brothers walked through the front door at five minutes before closing time. Their bloodshot eyes implied they’d been up to no good. Felix came around the counter and slumped against it.
“Thanks for helping out, doll,” he crooned and shoved something in my hand.
I glanced down to find I was holding a wad of twenties. “Felix—”
He held up a finger to his lips while nodding his head toward Guy the camera guy. Then he turned, put his key in the register and opened the drawer so he could close it out. The money in my hand hadn’t come from Burning Idea’s daily profits. 
I was too angry with him for making me work alone when I wasn’t scheduled that I didn’t try to give the money back. Instead I shoved it in my pocket for later.
“I gotta get something to eat,” I told Felix in an effort to excuse myself.
Trey sidled up to the counter. “How about that dinner?”
“I’d prefer to get food from someone that isn’t going to expect I put out after. You know, like the Colonel.”
My answer in reference to KFC made Felix laugh. Trey’s frown wasn’t quite as amused. I headed into the back room before he could ask me again. Within the camera-less bathroom I pulled the cash out of my pocket and counted it. Felix had handed me one hundred and twenty dollars! 
I did the math. At seven dollars an hour that was seventeen hours worth of pay before taxes were figured in. Felix had never paid me in cash before. What was this for and why did it have to be a secret from the cameraman?
I struggled with the ethical implications of keeping the money. Mom and I could really use it. But I didn’t know what it was for, where it had come from and if Felix was going to sober up and wonder where his withdrawal had gone. But he owed me for the extra work. I’d consider it time and a half pay.
The money was stuffed into the bottom of my backpack. I rejoined Guy in the storage room without a word and headed through door into the store. I cringed, fearing Felix would demand the hundred bucks back. He barely looked up from counting the ones in the drawer.
Sniffles from beside the front door drew my attention. Trey stood outside, rubbing his nose and smoking.
“C’mon, just one little dinner and I swear I’ll leave you alone,” he said in his nasally voice.
“My mom is waiting,” I told him lamely. He settled into step beside me. I shuffled faster.
“Tell her you’re going on a date,” he said. “You’re a big girl. You’re allowed to date, ain’t ya?”
“Trey, I really don’t want to date anyone I work with.”
“I barely work here. I just help out my brother sometimes.” 
He dropped a hand onto my shoulder. I gave a startled scream because I hadn’t realized he was that close. A snarl echoed in the air. There was a slamming noise followed by Trey yelping. The grip on my shoulder abruptly released. 
I twirled on my heel and found Trey holding a bleeding arm aloft while another figure stood behind the fallen cameraman. Steel blue eyes glared from beneath a black hooded sweatshirt. The ferocious gleam was fixed on Trey. 
Without warning, Alex shot into a run around the building. I lost track of his sprint in the darkness. Guy got to his feet and tried to get the camera back in working order. Thankfully he’d been unhurt when he’d been knocked over. That was more than I could say for Trey.
“Jesus Christ,” Trey exclaimed in a higher-pitched voice than usual. He lifted his arm, showing four deep wounds on his forearm. Blood dripped far too rapidly for my comfort.
“We need to get you to a doctor,” I blurted out.
“Shit,” he screeched. “I’m high! They’re gonna find it in my blood!”
“It’s either that or risk bleeding to death.”
Trey’s gaze zipped around the parking lot. “What the hell was that? Did Wolverine just attack me or something?”
I took hold of his good arm and led him back toward the store. The door was locked. I banged against the glass several times. Felix unlocked it for us, looking put out.
 “What the—” Felix’s features widened at the wound. My boss was a little more lucid than his brother. “There’s a first aid kit in the back. Let me see if there are any bandages in there.”
Was he going to avoid the doctors too? 
“He’s gonna need stitches, Felix,” I said. He disappeared into the back. I called out at a volume I knew he’d hear. “You need to take him to the hospital.”
Trey continued to curse and stomp his feet from the pain.
Felix returned with the kit. “I’ll take it from here.”
I didn’t agree but there was no point in trying to argue with them. “All right. I’ll see you Tuesday.”
“Aeon,” Guy said, surprising me. “Whatever attacked him is still out here. It knocked me down. It isn’t safe even with a camera.”
He was right. If Alex had been brave enough to attack Trey in front of a camera then he might be brave enough to attack the cameraman himself or even me. But what choice did we have?
“You can’t call the cops,” Trey moaned. “They’ll arrest us for being high and then they might—”
Felix shushed him quickly. “We’ll go out back. I’ll give you a ride home on our way to the hospital.”
“But Felix—” Felix pinched Trey, cutting his argument short.
“That works for me,” Guy said for us both.
It was silly to go in the direction the assailant had gone but it was the best idea we had. We filed through the storage room, between the boxes and to the loading dock door. Felix’s Escalade was parked almost on top of us. I forced Guy to get in first, glanced around for a sign that the coast was clear and then got in myself.
Felix drove like an old man through downtown. It took almost as long to get home as it would have if we’d walked but I was thankful that we’d arrived in one piece considering his impaired state. 
While Felix and Trey looked on, I hurried to the side porch and Guy walked to his car in the light cast by the headlights. I watched through the blinds in the living room, making sure he made it safely inside the vehicle.
“What?” my mother asked in concern when I didn’t immediately greet her.
“Nothing,” I lied. “I just wanted to make sure the camera guy got to his car.”
Her eyebrows knit in confusion.
I nodded toward the bathroom. “I want to show you this new shade of lipstick I bought.” 
It was code. Mom knew I never wore lipstick and that I wouldn’t buy anything so frivolous as make-up. She also knew even if I had, I wouldn’t feel the need to show her.
“What’s going on?” she demanded once we were closed off from the cameras in the small room with the overhead fan going on full blast.
“Felix gave me a bonus but it was under the table.” I lowered my voice. “You know—tax free? So I couldn’t let the cameras see it or he’d get in trouble with the IRS.” At least that was the assumption I was going on. 
I pulled the money from the bottom of my backpack and set it in her hands.
Mom cast me several suspicious glances as she counted it. “How did you get this?”
“I told you. Felix gave me a bonus.”
She tilted her head to the left. “You’re sure?”
“How else would I get a hundred and twenty dollars while being videotaped twenty four hours a day? It’s not like I can sell drugs or work the streets, Mom.”
“Don’t take that tone with me.”
I cast my eyes down to the throw rug at my feet. “I’m sorry.”
She handed me one of the bills. “Here, take twenty of it.” 
“No, it’s okay.”
My mother shoved it into my pocket anyway. “You earned it all. You should be able to keep at least twenty dollars. Get yourself something nice.”
“Right now all I want is food. I’m starving.”
“Let’s get pizza,” she said brightly.
“Mom—”
“Oh hush. We can get pizza once in a while. We’re not poor. We’re just in debt.”
It seemed like the same thing to me but I didn’t argue.
* * * *
Two hours later I’d finally soothed my stomach by stuffing my face with pepperoni pizza and a can of sugary soda. I’d be awake later than usual but I knew I could sleep in the following morning to make up for it. 
My mother excused herself to bed at midnight. I turned out all of the lights in the apartment, retreated to the bedroom and waited several minutes. I waited until snores came from her room before I tiptoed to the front door, pulled it open as quietly as I could manage and then raced outside. On the darkened sidewalk I waited. Long enough passed that I slid into a crouch atop the cement and eventually sat.
Alex slowly emerged from the darkness. I got to my feet and eyed him warily. The only adjective I could think of to describe his movement was “predatory”. My breath quickened. 
He stopped several feet in front of me but said nothing, hands in the pockets of his black jeans and his shoulders hunched slightly forward.
I inhaled for bravery. “Why did you do that?”
“He was accosting you.”
“No, he wasn’t.”
“He was going to,” he said in a lower voice.
“How do you know?”
“Call it a hunch.”
“What did you do to him?”
“Just gave him a little scratch.” His shrug was far too flippant give the blood I’d seen.
“A little scratch? You almost cut his arm in four pieces! How did you even manage that?”
Alex mutely stared at me in the dim light of the street.
“You’re not normal either, are you,” I blurted out.
He slowly shook his head.
I couldn’t breathe for a few seconds. When I could I whispered, “Are you a witch?”
His nose crinkled in obvious distaste. “No.”
“Are you like me?”
“I don’t know what you are,” he said in a dark voice.
I didn’t know what he was. He didn’t know what I was. And he’d hurt someone. Yet I didn’t feel like he’d hurt me. If I had, I wouldn’t have come outside. 
“The people you say will investigate me, are they like you?”
“They are,” he said.
“Why do they want to know about me so badly?”
“Because you aren’t normal and that makes you potentially dangerous.”
My stomach flipped. They thought I was dangerous? “Until a few months ago I didn’t know there was anything abnormal about the world. Two nights ago I finally believed it. And tonight I know I’m not alone. How am I dangerous when I know so little?”
“I don’t think you’re dangerous, Aeon.” He paused a beat then amended, “At least not to us. But until we know exactly what you are and where you got this power, we can’t be sure.” His tone went soft and urging. “I’ve stalled them as long as I could. Please, tell me the answers. It’s the only way I can protect you from them.”
There was no way I was going to come clean with my secrets. He’d given me no reason to. Whatever Alex Chattan was seemed far more dangerous than what I was. 
I let out a hollow laugh. “I’m supposed to trust you when you just attacked someone in front of me?”
“I attacked him to protect you.” His words were rapid as if he were defensive.
“So it’s okay for you to grab me and shove me against walls but it’s not okay for my co-worker to put a hand on my shoulder?”
Alex exhaled noisily through his nose. “No. Neither is okay.” He was silent for a long moment. “I’m sorry I grabbed you like that. I was angry,” he said in a hard tone that was at odds with his words.
I folded my arms in front of me. “Well, I’m angry right now but you don’t see me manhandling you.”
“We believed Junction Hill was free of witches. To learn we were wrong upset me. And the fact that it was you…” He lowered his gaze. This time he was remorseful, voice softening as he said, “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“If I’m so dangerous then why are you trying to protect me at all?”
Alex’s pretty steel blue eyes lifted again. “Because I believe you know nothing of the supernatural things around you. That makes you an innocent and when I’m able, I protect any innocent.” His attention snapped to the left as though he’d heard something. “I have to go and you need to go inside,” he said in distraction before darting away.
That dart was unreal. It was far faster than a normal human could run. I’d barely believed his speed the first time I’d seen it. Now… I didn’t know what to believe. 
I went inside like he’d said, tiptoed into the bedroom and then sat staring sightlessly at the wall.
What was Alex Chattan? More importantly, what were the things he was supposedly protecting me from?
Did I want to know? 
No. I didn’t. I would be happy to never learn the answer.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“They’re going to come for you.”
I looked up from the tray of developing solution and found Alex standing beside me in the darkroom. His low voice sent my heart into a rapid pace.
“Tonight,” he said. “I couldn’t convince them to let me try a little longer.”
My lungs stilled. I didn’t know what to say.
“If you care about the safety of your cameraman you’ll ditch him before it gets dark.” He turned as though to leave me but paused. “Please, Aeon, tell them the truth when they ask you. Don’t lie like you did to me. They’ll know.”
He was gone seconds later.
I stared mindlessly at the dim red light in the dark room until the bell rang. The print I’d been making had been ruined because I never pulled it out of the developing solution. I used the tongs to fish it out so I could throw it away.
Like the shambling dead I walked to the next class. When the bell rang at the end of seventh period I looked down and found I’d done nothing at all in class. A flush heated my cheeks. But no one had noticed my failure.
Alex avoided me during our game of flag football as he’d done for days. I didn’t understand why he would follow me after school and speak to me outside my house at midnight but wouldn’t so much as look at me during class. It was as if he couldn’t be seen speaking to me on camera.
The trip to the library after school was a quick one. I checked out five books on my history topic so that I could do the research at home. Lugging them to the apartment was no picnic.
“I’m going to be working on homework all night,” I told Guy after I’d set the books on the top stair inside the side porch so I could rummage for my keys. “So you get another night off.”
“Okay. See you tomorrow,” he murmured as he drew the camera down off his shoulder.
I waved limply and hoped he was right.
* * * *
I tried to skim the books for excerpts about my topic. It was impossible to concentrate with the sense of impending doom hanging over me. I flipped the television off and tried again without the distraction the flickering light posed. It hadn’t helped. After stowing the books beside my bed, I returned to the living room for some mindless entertainment.
As the sun set outside I wrote a note to my mom letting her know I was going to be out late studying at the library and not to wait up for me. I’d probably signed my death warrant. But if Mom thought something had happened to me she would try to find me. She needed to stay safely inside the apartment.
There was a loud bang on the door. My heart jumped into my throat. On silent feet I walked to the peephole. No one stood on the other side. 
I turned, meaning to walk back to the television. Another loud knock halted my progress. I whirled to the door. Still, no one appeared in sight.
This was the part in the horror movies where the stupid girl dared to open her door and the monster got her. But the monster had already attacked one person because of me. I didn’t want them to hurt anyone else. 
I flipped the television off, took a deep breath for courage and then I took hold of the knob. Nothing was in the stairwell exactly as I’d seen. They were going to make me go outside, away from the cameras. It made sense really. Still terrified of what I’d find but concerned for everyone else, I made myself step onto the landing. I closed the door behind me and went down the stairs.
I stepped off the side porch’s final cement step. Something large hit me from behind. I careened forward, letting out a startled yelp. Before I could think to struggle my limbs were yanked back and my attacker bound them behind me. Yet another person blindfolded me and gagged me.
Someone hoisted me across the sidewalk. Moments later I was dropped onto a frigid metal floor within something that had an idling engine. A rolling door shut beside me and the engine gunned.
If there were others with me I couldn’t tell. No one spoke, coughed or so much as moved. There were no sounds other than that of a moving vehicle and my heart pounding in my ears.
I prayed to someone, anyone, to keep me alive through this. Only the thought that if they’d wanted me dead they wouldn’t have taken the trouble of tying me up gave me hope that I’d live to see tomorrow.
My inability to see meant I couldn’t gauge how long I’d been inside or how far we’d traveled before the vehicle’s engine went quiet. Once again I was lifted, carried a good distance and then dropped on a hard floor—this one stone. The room smelled of fire as if a wood-burning stove was in use. I could make out the crackling in the distance. The thing did a poor job of warming up the place because I chattered and shivered.
Someone tore the rope from my legs. Another individual yanked me into a standing position. I stood blind and shaking in a strange place with what I assumed were abnormal creatures. I’d never been more terrified in my life.
The blindfold and gag were removed with little care for my hair. I winced as a few strands were ripped out of my scalp.
Slowly, reluctantly, I drew open my eyelids. And I wished I’d kept them shut.
It wasn’t one, or two kidnappers but five black-haired individuals standing in front of me. Out of the corner of my eyes I could tell there were more beside me and no doubt a few behind me. My terror grew in the form of faster shivers.
The figure at the center had an intimidating frame and regal air that marked him as the boss of this gathering. This man with raven-hair and penetrating dark eyes shared many of Alex’s traits—that Nordic nose, those unremarkable lips and a lack of cheekbones. He was certainly a relation perhaps thirty-years Alex’s senior, and he was a fine looking man. 
Two men stood to his left. One appeared to be in his twenties. The other male—sporting a head of silver-threaded black hair—was older than anyone in the room. To the man’s right were two women with straight raven hair that fell to the middle of their backs. They shared Alex’s steel blue eyes.
“You are the one who has been time-stopping,” the man spoke gruffly in a voice that was deeper than Alex’s. “And yet you refuse to declare yourself to us.”
I’d have been annoyed if I hadn’t been so fearful of the gathered beings. They were new in town. If anyone was supposed to be declaring themselves, shouldn’t it be them to me?
“What are you?” he demanded in a voice that couldn’t be ignored.
“I don’t know,” I said with a frightened croak.
The man’s eyebrows drew inward, clearly irritated. “You’re not a Time witch?”
I was too scared to even shake my head. “I don’t think so,” I squeaked.
“How is it that you stop time?”
“I’m not really sure.”
“What did you do just before you stopped it during the most recent incident?”
I mimed my movements as I explained. “I held out my hand, inhaled and wished I had more time to stop the mugging.”
“The mugging?” He swiveled his head to the side.
I resisted the urge to look. No doubt Alex was one of the figures in my peripheral vision to the left. “Yes, I saw someone in a black hood with his hands hidden. I assumed he was going to mug my friends and me. So I froze time to stop it.”
The man grunted, drawing his attention back toward me. “Where did you get this power?”
I inhaled an unsteady breath. I was near to tears. I could barely admit the truth to myself let alone a room full of scary strangers.
“Well?” he demanded fiercely.
I remembered what Alex had said. If I lied, they would know and by the look of them, lying would be worse than telling the truth. 
“I don’t think I’m allowed to say,” I whispered.
A low growl came from his part of the room. “Girl, you are here because you refused to tell my son the answer to this question. You will tell me or I will be forced to do something rash to protect my clan.”
“Please.” My voice shook miserably. “I don’t even know how to use it and the few times I have, it hasn’t affected Alex. I’m not a danger to any of you.”
“A Time witch can wreak all manner of havoc we can’t control. An untrained Time witch is far worse. You aren’t just a danger to us, you’re a danger to the universe.”
A danger to the universe? That was serious! “But I don’t think I’m a Time witch!”
The man stepped forward until he was halfway between the line behind him and me. “Were you born like this?”
“No.”
“Did someone give you this power?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
My eyes slid shut. Tears slipped from beneath the lids and streamed down my face.
“Look at her. She’s terrified,” Alex said anxiously from beside me.
“Silence! Girl, who gave you this power?”
I was crying in earnest when I answered. “My father.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” one of the females behind him chimed in. 
I didn’t like the bitter, sardonic delivery of it. Wasn’t it enough that I had the patriarch shouting at me?
He continued with his interrogation with an impatient, “Is your father a Time witch?”
I nearly laughed—little more than a breath left my nose.
“That’s funny?” the man roared and took two steps toward me.
I shrunk back, wide-eyed and petrified but I managed to answer him. “My father isn’t a Time witch.”
“What is he then?”
I looked the man in the eye and gave him the ragged answer he was looking for. “Time.”
The slate eyes narrowed angrily. “Time? Are you toying with us, girl?”
“My father is Time,” I answered him in a steadier voice.
There was a commotion from all around as the figures spoke over each other furiously. I didn’t understand any of what was being said but I heard many snarls and growls.
“You are toying with us,” the man said. He faced Alex. “You told us she truly didn’t understand.”
“She doesn’t,” Alex said.
He thrust a long golden finger at me. “Then what is this blatant defiance?”
“She isn’t lying,” Alex insisted. “You know she isn’t. Ask her another question. Aeon, lie to him.”
“Who is your father?” the man demanded once again.
“Bob,” I answered with a lie as requested.
The man grunted but turned away. He walked back to the others. “Time,” he said. “How can something abstract like ‘time’ be your father?”
Clearly they weren’t going to let me go until I explained more. 
“His name is Aeon,” I said. “You might know him by his alter ego Chronos.”
“Chronos?” Someone echoed from behind me. “The Greek god?”
“Yes.”
The leader snorted sardonically. “You expect us to believe you are the daughter of a god?”
“No.” The man’s face darkened. I quickly qualified my answer. “I barely believe it myself so of course you shouldn’t.”
“How did this happen?”
I couldn’t look him in the eye when I relayed the tale. “I don’t know the full story but I know he met my mom seventeen years ago at a picnic in the park. They hit it off and nine months later I was born.”
He laughed harshly. “The daughter of a god.”
“Maybe she’s delusional,” another male voice said from beside me. “She truly believes this madness.”
The leader turned back to me. “Why did your father give you this power?”
They already knew the most ridiculous parts of the tale. I might as well come clean with the rest of it. I lifted my gaze to his. “He told me something bad was about to happen in Junction Hill and that I’d need part of my heritage to stop it.”
Many of them exchanged looks. Several began quiet conversations.
The leader questioned again. “Part of your heritage?” 
He wanted a better explanation. I didn’t have one. “He didn’t explain what any of it meant. Just mumbled some words in a language I didn’t understand and then disappeared.” 
The longer I spent surrounded by these menacing people, the more I began to think they were the “something bad” Chronos had warned of.
“Do you know of any other abilities you have apart from the ability to stop time?”
“No,” I said.
The leader made a dismissive gesture. Someone jerked me back. During the half second before I was twirled around and forced forward I saw Alex watching me with pained eyes.
Apparently they’d gotten all of the information they’d wanted out of me. Now it was time to dispose of me and they didn’t want to mess up their nice floor. Would they take me out back and shoot me like a rabid dog?
My handler shoved me through a door into a pitch-black room—a space little bigger than a closet. He left me alone. The raised voices of an argument were obvious through the door but I couldn’t make out what was said. 
Perhaps they were debating over who got to do the honors.

CHAPTER NINE

I slid my fingers around the wall behind me until I found where the doorknob was. It was locked. What was I supposed to do now? 
I couldn’t go down without a fight. Maybe I could escape if I had the element of surprise. I moved directly behind the door—where they’d look last.
The voices quieted until fewer and fewer could be heard. Then it went silent. That was when I began to truly fear.
The doorknob quietly turned and then light poured into the room. A silhouette of a man was cast against the back wall. 
Strangely he stepped inside and closed the door behind him without looking for me. I launched myself where I thought he’d be. He nearly fell over with a ferocious snarl but somehow he maintained his balance. A hand shoved me back. I slammed into the wall. My teeth snapped down on part of my tongue. I howled in pain. 
“What the hell are you trying to do, Aeon?” Alex’s annoyed voice cut through the darkness. “You’re lucky it was me. If it had been any of the others…”
Until the pain subsided I couldn’t speak and I didn’t know what I’d say anyway.
“Aeon?”
“Ouch.”
“I’m sorry,” he said but didn’t sound all that regretful. “You startled me. It was reflexive.”
I snorted. I could care less if I’d startled him. His family was going to kill me.
His sigh filled the tiny room. “They’ve sent me in to see if I can get more information.” There was a pause. “What’s supposed to happen in Junction Hill that you have to stop?”
“I don’t know. I already told you guys that.”
“Is it us?”
I nearly smiled until I realized that it was possible somehow they could read minds. How else would they know when someone was lying? 
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I can say that right now you guys do seem like the most dangerous things in Junction Hill.”
“I tried to avert this,” he reminded me. “But you wouldn’t answer my questions.”
“Do you blame me? I mean, now that you know the answer, do you blame me for trying to keep it a secret?”
“Are you really the daughter of a god?”
I exhaled noisily. “I don’t really know. All I know is months ago I had a weird dream where a guy claiming to be Chronos said he was my father. When I told my mom about the dream she had a panic attack, said something about a hot guy at a picnic seventeen years ago and then passed out. The next day I stopped time for five seconds and Wednesday I saved Guy the camera guy by freezing it for far longer.” I turned it back on him. “So you’ve never heard of children of the gods before?”
“No.”
That meant he was abnormal in a different way. “Then what are you all?”
“Have you heard of other children of the gods?”
It annoyed me that he’d ignored my question but there was little I could do about it. I was still at their mercy. “Other than Hercules? No.”
It sounded as if his head shook but I couldn’t be sure because it was dark. “My family thinks you’re insane.”
“Well, I think your family is a menace.”
“You shouldn’t say things like that while in our house,” he hissed quietly. “They can hear you.”
My stomach flipped at the thought of them hearing me. “They haven’t exactly been hospitable. Anyone who kidnaps a girl, demands an accounting of her parentage and then shoves her bound into solitary confinement is getting nothing but disdain from me.”
“Again, if you’d—”
“Yes, yes,” I’d have gestured dismissively if I could have moved my arms. “It’s all my fault. Look, did you get the answers you came in here for or what?”
“I guess,” he grumbled. “I’d hoped you’d be more cooperative.”
“I’ve told you literally everything I know. There is nothing left to tell.” I slowed the words down so he’d be certain to grasp them all. “I. Know. Nothing.”
He exhaled once more then turned for the door. 
After I’d been left in the darkness again I found it nearly impossible to ignore the pain in my tongue. It was such a minor discomfort compared to the prospect of death and yet I couldn’t seem to get past it.
An argument broke out again further in their house. This time snarls and growls were easy to pick out through the door. An inhuman screech shook the walls. I scrambled into a corner. Silence followed it.
Minutes later the door opened and light poured in. No silhouette blocked it this time. I craned my neck to see who was waiting out there but saw nothing. 
Huddled within the corner I remained. I wasn’t foolish enough to fall for this trap again.
“You can come out now.” Alex appearing around a corner. He held a downturned knife in his right hand. “You have to come out if you want me to cut the rope.”
I didn’t know why I trusted him enough to listen but I did. Into the light I crept and stopped in front of him with a deep breath. I knew Alex could have hurt me with the knife in the dark if he’d wanted to.
A swift movement freed from the bind. He stepped around me and gestured forward. We walked across the cut stone floor into the broad room they’d first dropped me. 
The leader stood with a hand to his chin and another wrapped around his middle. There were decidedly fewer people in the room now. The older male remained in his position directly beside the leader along with the younger male and one of the women. The room was empty of all others.
“I apologize for the rough handling, Miss Still.” The leader bowed his head to me. “The most important thing to me is the protection of my family. I had to know we were safe.” His arms dropped and curled behind him. “Clan Chattan would like to extend the olive branch to you.”
Something told me Clan Chattan didn’t want to but the few people in the room did.
The leader adopted a grave tone. “But we think it is important that you know of the danger you wield. My father would like to say a few words.”
The older man nodded once then began in a gravelly voice. “Should you learn the art of Time travel you need to take care not to alter anything in the past. As you’ve no doubt seen in popular culture, it can have major ramifications on the present.”
My stomach flipped sickly at the thought of time travel. I didn’t want to go to the past or the future. The present was frightening enough.
“Additionally, each time you freeze Time, you send a shockwave across the world,” the older man added. “Those shockwaves can be felt by anyone who is immune to the affects. They can also be traced.”
The leader took over from there. “We came here to be free from witches and have no wish to bring them to our door. You must curtail your power. In exchange, we offer you protection.”
I eyed him warily. First they’d kidnapped me and now they wanted to help me? All I had to do was not use the power I’d barely realized I’d had all this time. It seemed too good to be true…which meant it was. 
“What do I need to be protected from?”
“Rogue witches, vampires who would enthrall you—”
“Vampires? They’re real?”
The leader’s dusky pink lips turned down in a frown. “Unfortunately.”
My eyes widened yet further because that was unbelievable! But then, if I really could stop time and my father really was a god, vampires would be easy to believe. “Are there any in Junction Hill?”
“Not that we’ve seen,” the older man said.
“Which of those are you?”
The leader grunted in annoyance. “We are none of those.”
I stared at him in silence but a dozen questions swirled in my head. They could protect me from vampires and witches? What did that make them? I glanced at Alex. His gaze met mine for a moment before he looked at the leader. The expression on his face was grim.
“I will show her,” he said in a tight voice.
“Alex—”
“How can we expect her to trust us if we hide ourselves?”
“I had hoped it wouldn’t come to that.”
“You had hoped she’d blindly follow us out of fear.”
“Alexander! Do not speak to your father with such defiance,” the nearby woman said in a motherly scold.
But the leader’s lips lifted slightly a moment before he gave a small chuckle. “He is right.” There was a short pause. “But you may serve only to frighten her further.”
Alex’s shoulders squared as he glanced at me then back at his father. “It’s a chance we have to take.”
The leader waved a dismissive hand toward me. “Very well then.”
The woman sighed wearily. “Do it outside.”
“Yes, Mom.”
I glanced between the three, marveling over the likeness between them.
“This way.” Alex stepped in front of me and gestured in the direction we’d come.
Unwilling to stay in the room with four strangers, I followed him through the hallway and out what looked to be the front door. Fixtures beside the door cast light on a nearby black utility van. Now I knew how they’d gotten me to wherever we were.
“Gah, it’s dang cold,” Alex said while tugging at his sleeve.
A second later the shirt was pulled over his head and dropped to the ground. My eyes widened. Then his fingers went to the waistband of his jeans. I turned away with a blush and covered my eyes.
“You kind of have to watch otherwise you won’t believe me,” he said with a wry tone.
My mouth dropped open in horror. “I’m not watching you get naked!”
Alex let out a quick laugh. “Fine, I’ll hide behind this bush if you’re so worried.” He took several steps on the cement. “Okay, all hidden.”
Slowly I turned back and peeked between my fingers. “You’re not all hidden,” I said because I could still see him from the waist up behind a dwarf evergreen tree.
“Like I said, you have to watch or you won’t believe me.” His lips spread into a small grin. “You got a problem with seeing me shirtless? Am I that ugly?”
The problem was that he wasn’t. The shirts he wore to school concealed a collection of defined muscles across his arms, chest and stomach that weren’t all that common with guys his age. I forced myself to look at his face rather than note them.
“I’m watching,” I said without answering his questions.
“Good, cuz I’m freezin’ my bare butt off.”
Crimson filled my cheeks again at the mention of his bare butt. 
It earned me a laugh. He went serious a moment later. “Okay, here we go. Watch carefully.”
I didn’t know what I was supposed to be watching for but I watched all the same.
Alex held up his hands in front of him as if he wanted me to look at those as well. He grunted once, then after a movement that was little more than a powerful sneeze his bronze body disappeared and in its place was only gleaming black…fur? I could barely make out the shape of a black back in the light cast by the fixtures behind me.
The lack of illumination had made it nearly impossible to understand what had happened to him. From behind the bush I heard a menacing sound. It was a growling hiss the likes of which I’d never heard in person. But I’d heard it on television—on shows about jungle cats attacking lesser creatures.
With a dull thump the miniature tree shook. I could hear sniffing as if something were trying to smell my scent in the air. My heart pounded faster. Instinctively I took a step back. Three additional dull thumps echoed against the cement drive.
I stood frozen, staring in horror at the thing in front of me. The black back that had been hiding behind the bush had stepped into the light. 
In front of me was a three-foot tall black panther with its steel blue eyes trained on me.

CHAPTER TEN

The black panther took a step forward. I took two backward. The creature advanced once again. I retreated until I smacked into something behind me. The obstacle had me nearly falling over before two hands set atop my shoulders to steady me.
“He won’t hurt you,” a deep male voice said. I recognized it as their leader. The assurance meant little when faced with a wild animal.
The panther lowered its haunches to the ground and stared at me. Its broad black nose shimmered with moisture in the light and several long whiskers stretched out on either side of his mouth. That mouth opened, revealing two large white canines and a wide pink tongue. The creature blinked its steel blue eyes while making a grunting noise. 
His father laughed. “What did you expect her to do?”
“Is that—”
“Yes, that is Alex,” he assured me as he released my shoulders.
“What is he?”
“We are shapeshifters.”
I visibly shivered but said nothing.
“You had better shift back.” The leader’s firm voice soothed little.
The black panther stood on all fours once again. It’s mouth closed with another grunt before it stepped back behind the evergreen. A cat-like sneeze started the process in reverse. The black fur disappeared until the back I saw peeking over the evergreen was bronzed. Several curses in a growling tone followed. Alex stood to his full height once again.
“It’s stupid cold,” he whined in a more familiar voice.
The figure behind me moved away. The door creaked open and shut. Apparently the leader had returned inside.
Alex’s hands lowered, no doubt to put on his clothes. I dropped my eyes to the ground in front of me to avoid seeing it. His bare feet soon stepped into view.
I could think of nothing to say. My shock was too great. 
“I’m sorry,” he said tentatively. “It isn’t really something I could explain.” 
As it stood, I wasn’t sure I believed what I’d seen. There was no way he’d turned into a giant cat!
He breathed noisily through his nose. “I totally freaked you out, didn’t I?”
The answer would have been “Yes. Yes, you did” but I wasn’t about to admit it to a guy who could scratch me in half. So I said nothing.
“Come on, let’s go back in where it’s warm,” he said.
I was quick to start for the door to avoid him. He followed me in then walked past me toward where the others had been. The large room I’d been brought to first was now empty. Alex continued through it into a sitting room that held actual furniture. 
The four people who had remained were congregated in a more familial grouping among the sofa, love seat and chair set instead of menacing lines in the stone-floored room. Their leader sat in a high-backed chair beside a crackling fire while his wife rested against the right side. The older man sat on the far edge of the couch nearby while the younger man stood warming his hands over the flame.
The youngest faced us. “She didn’t run screaming?”
“No,” Alex said flatly.
“Damn it.” The younger male jerked his head down.
“Pay up, Drew.” The leader’s father made a grabby gesture, grinning as he did.
Alex’s eyes narrowed into fine slivers. “You had a bet on her reaction?”
Drew shrugged his larger shoulders in mock-innocence but he did pull his wallet out. Seconds later he was walking to the older man.
“Like taking candy from a baby.” The older man laughed as the younger placed a ten-dollar bill in his outstretched hand.
“I’m embarrassed to be related to you,” Alex said.
A sound of displeasure came from the beautiful raven-haired woman who stood behind the leader.
Alex grumbled an apology.
That was when the leader cleared his throat for attention. “Since she didn’t run screaming, perhaps we ought to cease our rudeness and introduce ourselves.”
The younger man was the first to step forward. He held his hand out to me. His mouth spread, revealing a white smile of perfect teeth. The expression reminded me so much of Alex that I had to glance aside to make sure it wasn’t him. 
“Andrew Chattan, the coolest member of the clan.” After Alex snorted, he added, “But everyone calls me Drew.”
I looked at his hand for a moment then took it tentatively.
He dropped my hand like a hot potato. “Dang, you’re freezing!”
The leader stood from his chair, closed the distance and offered his palm. “Please excuse my son’s insult. We’ve yet to adjust to New England weather. I’m Arthur. I apologize for how we began the evening. I hope you can forgive me.”
I shook his hand in good faith but I wasn’t certain I was ready to forgive them.
Arthur stretched his arm behind him and waved a hand forward. “This lovely creature is my wife Anna.”
The woman hesitated forward and stopped three feet in front of me. She gave me a brusque nod in greeting. She was indeed lovely despite her slight frown.
Arthur gestured behind him. “That incorrigible man is my father Arnold. He is the wisest of us all.”
“And don’t you forget it, scamp.” The older man chuckled while folding his ten dollars in half.
Arthur nodded to the person beside me. “And you already know my youngest son Alexander.”
They all stared at me for several moments before I realized that it was my turn. “Hello,” I stammered. “I’m Aeon Still.”
“That is such a cool name,” Drew said.
“May we call you Aeon?” 
I nodded at Arthur’s question.
He bowed his head. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Aeon.” He took his original seat and his wife followed him. 
“I’d introduce you to my little sister but she’s at a friend’s house tonight,” Alex said.
No one mentioned the others that had been in the room when I’d first arrived, blindfolded and bound. Where had they gone? Were they not part of the “clan”?
I glanced around. “Where are all the cameras?”
Alex was part of the same documentary I was in. That meant the entire house ought to be wired with cameras. But I’d seen none. I hadn’t really been looking but it stood to reason that they couldn’t kidnap me while being recorded.
“There and there.” Alex pointed out the little digital eyes. “Everywhere.”
“Did they…”
“Drew hacked the feeds the day they were installed. We control what Mark sees.”
“Oh.”
“Do want something to drink?” Drew asked helpfully.
“No, thanks.” I dropped my eyes again and spoke tentatively. “My mom is going to be worried if I’m not home soon.”
“Alex will take you home, whenever you’re ready,” Arthur gestured beside me.
I bravely lifted my gaze. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go home now. I might be able to beat her home.”
The patriarch gave a regal nod. “Of course.”
“My car is out back.” Alex gestured to the French doors at the back of the room.
“It was…interesting meeting you all,” I said before stepping toward the doors.
Arthur chuckled with good-natured mirth. “Our next meeting will be on better terms, Aeon. This I promise.”
I murmured good night as I stepped outside. The youngest waved with a smile then twisted back to the fire. 
Alex crowded me out, closed the door behind us and walked across the deck we’d emerged onto. Down the stairs into what sounded like a gravel drive he walked. I followed several feet behind him.
“Be our downfall and he doesn’t care,” a snarling female voice echoed from within what I assumed was their garage.
“He cares,” a male voice said. “He thinks what he is doing is right.”
Yet another male voice answered impatiently. “You always defend him, Aaron.”
The response from the first male voice was sour. “And somehow I’m always outcast with you two.”
“My car is just over there,” Alex said far louder than he needed to. I assumed it was for their benefit.
The trio inside immediately ceased their discussion. One by one the intimidating figures emerged from the darkness. Their raven hair, dark eyes and penetrating gazes were all hallmarks of the clan. The suspicious glares they gave me weren’t. I stood stiffly while they walked around us into the house.
“Let me back it up first.” Alex disappeared into the pitch-black garage.
The headlights flipped on and I could see that it was a four-car garage much like every other except theirs actually had four cars within instead of seasonal storage like most. The black Chevy Cobalt backed up beside me. Alex reached over and unlocked the door for me then sat back to wait.
I got in quickly, but only because I’d rather get home than remain where I was. Sitting in a car alone with him was the price I had to pay to get there.
He backed around the house, turned in a hundred and eighty degree angle in front of the van they’d used to kidnap me then started down a narrow driveway. Several turns, bumpy roads and miles passed before I realized the Chattan family must live near the lake on the outskirts of Junction Hill.
Alex broke the silence once we’d pulled onto a smoother road. “Do you like Indie?”
I glanced over at him in confusion. “Indy?”
He gestured at his stereo. “Indie rock or independent music.”
“Oh.” A moment later I was able to give a better reply. “I like some of it.”
He reached forward, turning up the volume on his stereo. One of the songs Stan had given me that week played in the background. I wondered if Alex had heard it before I’d gotten the CD from my music buddy.
Once again I had dozens of questions. 
Did his entire family shapeshift? Even the ones that didn’t like me? What about his little sister? Why were three of his family members upset about the decision to protect me instead of kill me? And how could a black panther hope to protect me from a rogue witch or vampire? Had he ever seen one? 
I didn’t dare ask any of those. Instead I sat in the passenger seat mutely staring out the window all the way to downtown Junction Hill. My hand was ready on the door handle when he pulled up outside our apartment building. 
“See you tomorrow.” Alex waved as I stepped out of the car in front of our apartment.
I waved in distraction while looking up at our windows. They were dark. I didn’t know what time it was but that either meant my mother hadn’t gotten home yet or she’d already gone to bed. Either way, it was a good sign.
I unlocked the door, stepped through and saw the open bedroom doors. The DVD player’s green LED readout said it was nine fifteen. My mother would be home in forty-five minutes.
After tossing the note I’d written into the trash I retreated to the bedroom. Time to attempt my homework once again. 
I was no closer to a finished paper when my mom got home than I had been when I’d sat to read. With a sigh I got up to greet her.
She chattered about her day, a particularly rude customer and how she’d paid the last two hundred dollars on one of her medical bills thanks in part to my bonus. It was very good news but not nearly enough to make-up for the day I’d had. We hugged goodnight and went into our respective bedrooms.
I flopped onto my bed and stared at the wall. It would be another long night. Each time I closed my eyes I saw the piecing gaze of a black panther with steel blue irises. That was enough to keep anyone awake.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It was my turn to play the avoidance game. I couldn’t look Alex in the eye the following day without seeing the black panther. So I didn’t look at him at all.
Evasion was easy in history class because I arrived moments before Mr. Zimmerman began lecturing. Alex seemed to have been watching the door in concern. His shoulders relaxed when Guy and I appear around the corner. I intentionally walked in front of the class to get to my seat in an effort to avoid him.
Lunch would be more difficult. He knew the few places I went to hide from my friends. He also knew who they were and where they sat in the lunchroom. I would have to find a new place to hang out.
I headed to the photography studio after the fourth period bell rang in the hope that I could catch Mrs. Lozano before she left to eat.
“Hi, Aeon,” she said with a smile. Her hand was on the studio door as though she’d been about to shut it. “Do you need in?”
I shook my head. “I was hoping to talk to you for a minute.”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I’m already finished with my project. Now I’m just taking up space and chemicals by printing stuff I don’t really need. Is there any chance I can cut class so I can finish my AP History homework?”
Mrs. Lozano nodded. “Sure, I owe you a free period anyway.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem.” The older woman smiled warmly. “Good luck with your homework.”
We waved to each other then departed in different directions. I took the back hallways to the school library. Maybe there’d be enough material about my history topic there that I could finish what I’d neglected to do the evening before. More importantly I hoped Alex wouldn’t think to check for me in the library. 
Guy settled in to record two hours of a dull performance. I printed the paper for Friday on the library printer with two minutes to spare. Guy and I hurried to drawing class across the school. I pushed through the door minutes after the bell had rung.
“Tomorrow we’re doing critique of the still life drawings you’ve done,” Mrs. Finch said as I hastily fetched my drawing from the rack.
I looked down at what I had and frowned. With the deadline over my head, I worked feverishly to make up for the two days I’d been distracted. At the end of the period I had a finished piece that was a poor example of my skill but it was a finished piece all the same.
Unintentionally I had forgotten my things for gym. Guy and I had to hightail it to my locker and then to the locker-room. I stepped onto the field out of breath and dismayed that we were still playing something that required mesh shirts.
I pulled the shirt over my t-shirt and pretended I hadn’t seen Alex starting for me. He’d not been wearing a mesh shirt. He wouldn’t be able to follow me to the end zone. When I turned around again I caught him watching me with a frown before I glanced away. After that point Alex concentrated on playing the game of soccer.
Class dragged on. Finally the bell rang. Guy and I walked speedily from the locker room, out the door and toward Burning Idea. My trepidation grew the closer we got to my after school job. 
Would Felix ask me for the money back? Had they gotten Trey’s arm stitched up? Would Alex attack someone else?
Now that I knew what the new kid was, I had to reconsider the attack on Trey. How had Alex been able to scratch him without shifting into a big cat? Could he shift parts of himself without a full transformation? Did the fact that he could turn into panther explain how he was able to run faster than a normal human?
Felix was arguing with a customer when I walked through the door. “Never had talking Invader Zim key chains.”
“Not Invader Zim,” the woman said. “His dog, Gir.”
“We’ve never had talking key chains period.”
I grabbed one of the items the woman was asking after on my way to the register. “Maybe I can help.” I smiled at them both and then nodded toward the back room.
Felix took a few steps back so I could take the counter. I waited until he disappeared into the back before pulling the key chain out and hitting the button that made the plastic box speak a quote from the television show.
“That’s it!” The woman jabbed a finger toward where Felix had gone. “That guy is an idiot.”
“Were you looking for anything else?”
“No. This is what my daughter wanted.”
“Good choice.” I smiled and rung up the purchase.
With the customer happily on her way I did a circuit around the store, tidying up the displays. As usual, my two-day absence meant the place was a mess. Guy hovered around me taking noticeable shots of my actions from new positions. It annoyed me, but not enough to gripe at him.
At the end of the evening I hadn’t seen Trey. Felix had neglected to mention anything about the hundred and twenty dollars he’d given me. Guy and I took lower Eagle Drive to the apartment at quarter after nine. Though neither of us mentioned the attack on Saturday night we were both more aware of our surroundings while we picked through the darkened streets.
I felt eyes on me at all times. There was little doubt what was watching me but I didn’t know which of the black-haired, steel blue eyed creatures it was. 
Protected wasn’t what I felt. I felt stalked.
* * * *
“William wants to go to the lake.”
“Isn’t it a bit cold to go to the lake?”
Jenny’s question had been the wrong response. Ashley’s glare proved that. I turned my head so I could roll my eyes without being seen. The movement was an unfortunate one because I caught Alex’s eye because of it.
He was seated alone across the lunchroom with the cameraman standing a short distance behind him. The expression on his face was grim as he watched me. I faced forward and dropped my gaze to my tray.
“The Mount Washington is still running,” Ashley said with a disgusted snort. “Besides, if it’s cold, who do you think will warm me up? I think it will be romantic.”
“Lake Winnipesaukee is boring in the summer,” Jenny said. “I can’t imagine how bad it would be if the slides and arcades were shut down.”
“Lake Winnipesaukee is not boring in the summer.” Jen’s lifting pitch emphasized her dismay. “Fun Spot? Hello?”
“Pffft.” Jenny snorted. “A glorified bowling alley. We have a bowling alley in Junction Hill. We don’t need to drive two hours to bowl there for twice as much.”
“And like five different kinds of Pac Man, dozens of games, indoor golfing, miniature golf, go carts, pizza. Plus there’s the beach and boating. You’re crazy if you think it’s boring. Junction Hill is boring.”
“I gotta agree with Jen,” I said. “Lake Winnipesaukee was always fun when we went during the summer. The Hill is pretty damn boring.” Or at least it was until shapeshifting southerners moved in.
“In any case,” Ashley said sharply. “William’s family has a sailboat. We’re going to go sailing too.”
“Sailing on the lake when it’s forty degrees? What fun,” Jenny drawled sarcastically.
“You have to ruin everything just because you’re jealous, don’t you?”
My eyebrow lifted. It was one of the most hypocritical things she’d ever said. None of us spoke. Eventually she sighed and took her tray to the trash.
I shoved my food around my plate in distraction.
Ashley returned, settling herself onto the bench. “You know, that new kid has been sitting alone for two days. We should invite him to sit here. I mean he’s in that documentary with Aeon so that should be reason enough to be hospitable.”
No one argued.
“Aeon,” Ashley said. “You should go invite him.”
“Me? Why me?”
“You know him.”
It was unfortunate, but I did. “Just because he’s got a camera with him, that means we must be friends?”
“We shouldn’t be rude.”
I glanced over and saw that another girl was standing in front of his table. He looked up at her from beneath his eyelashes as if he hadn’t wanted to put forth the effort of lifting his head. The girl jerked her head, sending pretty blonde hair floating out and then she stalked away. The new kid had sent Chelsea away? She was one of the most popular kids in Junction Hill!
“I am not going to talk to him,” I said now that I had more of a reason to argue.
“He’s looking at us,” Ashley said.
“Then he can come over here himself.”
“Maybe he’s too polite to impose,” Melissa said.
I snorted at that.
“He looks like a nice guy, too nice to hang out with Chelsea,” Melissa said. “I say we invite him.”
My heavy sigh didn’t change anyone’s mind. “Fine.”
“He’s in my math class,” Ashley said as I stood from the bench. “He’s always staring at me.”
Tray in hand, I walked to the trashcan with the cameraman trailing my steps. Then I took the long way back to the table by way of Alex’s. He’d taken to staring straight ahead. His eyes widened in surprise when I stopped beside him.
“My friends are forcing me to invite you to sit with us,” I said.
“Are they?”
I turned and headed back to the table where the four girls watched avidly.
“He’s coming!” Jenny said.
“Move over so he can sit there.” Ash gestured to the Jens in front of her.
Dutifully they slid closer to the middle of the table so that when he sat, he’d be face to face with our de facto leader. Alex arrived a moment later but instead of go where Ash wanted him, he stopped directly behind Jenny. Her eyes widened at me as she stared across.
“May I sit with you?” he asked.
Jenny stammered as she moved back to where she’d been. “Um, sure.”
He slid his legs over the bench and dropped down in front of me. I lowered my gaze to the table.
“Well, aren’t you going to introduce us?” Ashley’s grating voice broke the brief silence.
“I’m Alex,” he said. “And you are?”
Everyone at the table gave their names. 
Ashley spoke next. “Where you from, Alex?”
He was looking at her when he answered. “Florida.”
“Cool,” Jenny said.
“It’s rarely cool in Florida,” Alex said while looking at Jenny. “Like it’s rarely warm here.”
“It gets warm,” Melissa said. “In the summers it can get up to one hundred and it can be humid. Just not like Florida.”
His gaze switched to the next speaker. “That’s good to know. I’d been picturing snow year round and six months of darkness.”
Ashley rolled her eyes while the others laughed. “That’s Alaska.”
Alex’s attention shifted back to Ash. “Alaska, New Hampshire—above the Mason Dixon line it’s all the same to me.”
“Why did you move here then?”
I tried to hide my interest in the answer. 
Alex glanced at me before speaking. “My family moved. I kind of had to go where they went.”
“That sucks—moving in junior year,” Jen said. “I’d never forgive my parents if they did.”
He shrugged. “I’ll get by.”
“Do you play any sports?” Ash asked.
“I was on track and field at my old school.”
“Which event?”
“Hundred meter dash.”
I struggled not to laugh. A guy who could shift into a black panther and run however supernaturally fast he could run was certainly cheating by joining in track and field.
“And long jump,” he added.
Did that mean he had some extra help jumping too?
“But not football?” someone pressed.
“Nope.”
Ashley’s eyes rolled a little. “Too bad. All the popular guys are on the football team.”
“Good for them,” he said in a condescending tone.
I hid a smile behind my hand. Her glare meant she’d seen it anyway. 
“So were you excited when they picked you for the documentary?”
Alex shrugged. “I don’t think of it as being picked so much as having it forced on me.”
“Ugh. You sound just like Aeon,” Ash said.
He chuckled and leaned forward, resting his forearms on the tabletop. “There are worse people to sound like.”
He was trying to be nice to me. I didn’t want him to be nice to me. I wanted to continue avoiding him.
“Did you leave a special girl behind in Florida?” Jenny asked wistfully.
“Nope.”
Ashley jumped on the answer. “No? No girl at all or just no special girl?”
“No girl at all,” Alex said with a firm shake of his head.
She pressed onward. “Are you gay?”
I closed my eyes in embarrassment for her.
“No, I’m not gay.”
“Then why no girl? You’re a handsome guy.”
He didn’t seem fazed by the compliment. “I never found one that would be able to impress my family.”
With a family like his it was no wonder he hadn’t found a girl they’d like. 
Jen giggled. “Most teenagers look for the one that will piss their family off the most.”
“Then I guess I’m not most teenagers because family is important to me.”
“That’s cool.” Melissa smiled warmly. “Family is important to me too.”
“My family loves my boyfriend,” Ashley said as if he’d care.
I checked my watch. There was a drawing table with my name on it behind a locked door. But instead I was forced to sit listening to her while I waited for the bell to ring.
Alex faced me. An eyebrow lifted. “Got someplace to be?”
How had he seen my small movement while he’d been turned in the other direction?
“I have to work on a drawing,” I said. “We’re doing critique today.”
“Is that why you weren’t in photography class yesterday?”
“No.”
His lips thinned, I assumed at my lack of explanation.
The bell rang, saving me from further discussion. I wasted no time before jumping from the bench, grabbing my bag, waving to the others and then heading out the far door. Unfortunately despite the fact that I wasn’t going to the photography studio, I was still going in the same direction as Alex. He left me alone. I reached the drawing room without him so much as speaking a syllable to me.
The extra hour of work on my picture was enough that it was closer to my usual efforts. Though not one of my better works, it didn’t get pulverized by my classmates during the constructive criticism portion of critique. I left feeling a little better about it and thankful that I’d put in the extra time.
Soccer was the activity of the day once again in gym. I arrived on the field prior to the choosing of teams. The captains were picked first. Tyler and Alex were forced to choose team members.
Names were called one at a time. Alex said mine fourth after he’d picked three other athletic people. But when the game began he kept his distance from me.
Discreetly I watched him for what seemed like the first time. Alex had powerful looking legs that were overly muscled in the thigh. His arms appeared similar. I compared that to what I knew of cats and decided it made sense.
I tried not to recall what was under the t-shirt as he ran by me with the ball. With a dark flush of my cheeks I lowered my gaze, keeping it on anything but him for the remainder of class.
Guy and I walked quietly downtown after the last bell. My thoughts kept straying to Alex. I slowed until the cameraman was almost on top of me so I could talk to him. A conversation might take my mind off of Alex.
“Did you do anything fun Sunday or Monday night?”
“Two of us went over to Burlington to visit the Ben and Jerry’s factory,” Guy said in a voice that was slightly breathless from the walk.
I didn’t really care but I didn’t want to walk in silence. “Oh yeah? Was it good?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve never been.”
“You should go…uh, I mean, if you like ice cream.”
“Who doesn’t like ice cream?”
“People who are lactose intolerant?”
I chuckled. “Touché. Do you guys have plans for this Sunday?”
“No. I wasn’t sure if you would be staying in again or not.”
I gave a big nod he was sure to see. “I pretty much always study on Sundays. I have no life to speak of.”
“You have plenty of life,” Guy said. “Just some of it isn’t fun.”
“You can say that again.”
“One of the guys suggested a trip into Canada so we might do that.”
“Cool,” I said even though I wasn’t particularly interested in Canada. “I’ve never been there either.”
“This close to Canada and you’ve never been?”
“Into Quebec? Why would I go there? They speak French.”
He chuckled. “Because its basically a foreign country. Experiencing new culture is neat.”
“There are many things that might be neat. Going into Quebec isn’t one of them.”
“You can’t say that if you’ve never been,” Guy said in one of those annoyingly sensible grown-up tones.
I shook my head. He wasn’t local. He didn’t understand. “They come down here and most of them are rude. A whole country of the rude people where I’m the outsider doesn’t appeal to me.”
Guy shrugged as we walked into Burning Idea. “Suit yourself.”
Felix stood up from a slouch. “Afternoon.”
“Hi,” I said in distraction on my way behind the registers.
The camera guy took his spot on the side of us.
Felix leaned over and nearly whispered. “My accountant says I need more than one employee and my brother on the payroll.” He stood upright and reverted to a normal volume. “I’m thinking about putting a Help Wanted sign out. You know, for Sunday, Monday and Thursday.”
I didn’t try to argue with Felix. “Speaking of your brother, how is he?”
Felix snorted derisively. “He’s been in bed for days pretending to nurse that wound despite the fact that we got it stitched up shortly after. It’s healing well so I don’t know what his problem is. But he is running a fever so it might not be all in his head.”
I frowned but didn’t say anything.
For once my boss stuck around and helped me set out the new shipment. But when he left for dinner at six, I doubted I’d see him again until close. 
I turned my music on and worked on math homework until he got back at five minutes to nine. He closed up the registers and had me lock the door early. Guy and I were on our way to the apartment minutes later. We told each other goodnight, waved and then parted at the entrance to the stairs. 
It was like a ritual now. Much like the daily pre-bed discussion with my mom and a similar parting at our bedroom doors. 
I settled into bed contemplating all of the little rituals in my life.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Alex was at our table with Ashley and Melissa. Had they invited him again or had he imposed himself? I didn’t wait to find out. Out to my tree I fled. There was math homework to be done.
“Can you help me with this print?” one of the twins asked with a wide-eyed plea when I passed through the photography studio door twenty minutes early.
I’d come to see if I could get out of class again but Mrs. Lozano hadn’t gotten back from lunch yet.
“I guess,” I said.
“Thanks, Aeon. You’re the best.”
We took her strip of negatives into the darkroom, made a proof sheet to calibrate the exposure time needed and then started on her print. By the time it was in the rinse both bells had rung. Class was about to begin.
“I’ll be right back,” she said before disappearing out the door.
I stood helplessly waiting for her. I’d done what she’d asked. Her print was finished. Even if she came back, and I doubted it would be as soon as she said, I wasn’t obligated to help any longer.
The round door turned. A figure emerged. I already knew by the shape who it was. Alex made the sound that I now knew meant he’d locked the door behind him. Too soon he stood feet in front of me.
“You’re avoiding me now,” he said and somehow managed to sound upset about it. His voice dropped in volume. “I did freak you out.” He sighed then turned away. In the red light I could tell his expression was as troubled as his voice.
I felt slightly guilty until I recalled that he was far more popular than me despite the fact that he was different. If anyone was the freak, it was me.
“I wish I were normal.” He pressed his forehead against the divider wall between the enlargers. “Especially if it freaks you out that I’m not.”
Now I felt really guilty. Wasn’t I being a little hypocritical? A girl who could freeze time and was supposedly the daughter of a god shouldn’t shun a guy who could turn into a big black cat.
“You did freak me out,” I said quietly. “And your family scares me. And yes, I was avoiding you.”
His profile turned toward me. “Was?”
“I think I just realized that I was being a little hypocritical. But it wasn’t just that you freaked me out. It was that you guys represent this whole other world I didn’t know existed. Now everything is different.”
“I don’t understand what that is like. I’ve always known it existed.”
I shook my head in slow disbelief. “That’s just unreal.”
He lifted his head from the wall and took a step closer. In the red light I could somehow see his eyes clearly. His mouth was parted slightly as if he wanted to say something. It closed again. He’d decided against it? 
“I like you, Aeon.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“And not because you’re different. I liked you before I knew about that.” He paused. “But now that I can be myself around you, I like you even more.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. So I said what was actually on my mind. “I think you’re out of my league.”
Alex barked in laughter. “What?”
“You could be popular if you wanted to.”
“So could you.”
“No.” I shook my head firmly. “I’ve been here long enough and made a big enough fool of myself that people know I’m too weird to be popular.”
“Do you want to be?”
My first response was a snicker. “Not really. Those people are worse backstabbers than even my friends.”
“I like weird,” he said with what sounded like a smile. “But I really doubt you’re that weird.”
“That weird?”
He gave a negligent shrug rather than answer.
“You’re trying reverse psychology on me,” I said.
“I wouldn’t try to manipulate you like that. But I doubt you’re all that weird. Remember, I live in that other world. I’ve seen a lot of stuff.”
“Touché.”
He learned forward a little closer, crowding my personal space. “I like you, Aeon, and I don’t think I’m going to leave you alone until you like me too.” He didn’t wait for a response before unlocking the door and disappearing into it.

I was still staring at nothing in particular when the twin I’d been helping returned with her sister. Due to my inability to speak, I was conned into helping the other because she claimed Mrs. Lozano had sent her to me. That, of course, meant that the twins gossiped while I did most of the work. Sabrina was at least attempting a print on her own since I’d already done one with her but it didn’t make listening to them any easier.
“I heard Chelsea asked that new kid Alex if he wanted to join her study group for Latin and he told her no,” Sasha said in a conspiratorial tone.
Sabrina shook her head. “Does he want to be outcast?”
“I think so because the rumor was that he told her he didn’t need any help and she got annoyed because he was basically saying they did. I guess she accused him of being rude and he turned it back on her.”
“She must have thrown a fit.”
“I heard she tried to start a rumor about him but Tyler stopped her because they’re friends.”
“What rumor did she try to start?”
Sasha giggled for several seconds before answering. “That he’s gay.”
“Ashley thinks he is. She says he’s never had a girlfriend.”
“Okay,” I said in annoyance and pointed to the wall. “Just follow that chart over there and you’ll be fine.” My fingers gestured to the trays in front of us. “Right to left. I gotta go.” I jumped into the door, turned it quickly and emerged squinting into the light.
I couldn’t find him at first. He was in the unlikely spot of the matte cutter. Guy stood and started for me as I walked toward Alex.
I quietly asked a question and hoped the new kid remembered the conversation from last week. “Do you still need to find rundown places downtown?”
The startled expression on Alex’s face implied I’d snuck up on him. “I could use a better roll…yeah.”
My gaze remained on the table rather than him. “I’m not working tonight so today is as good as any for a photo shoot.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw his lips lift. “All right, mute girl. You’re on.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the use of the nickname. It was cute. 
“After P.E. then,” I said and returned to my usual seat. There was homework to be done until the bell rang.
* * * *
Two different students were picked as captains in gym class. Tyler and Alex were split up and I was picked last on Tyler’s team. Alex smiled at me but didn’t try to talk in between scoring several goals against our team.
Somehow I managed to beat him out of the locker room. I waited in the gym between the two exits. Everyone but him had come out already. It was possible that he’d hurried and gotten out far earlier.
He emerged clad in his usual black clothing but smelled as if he’d put on a little cologne. I hid a smile behind my hand while starting for the door.
Alex fell into step beside me. “Do you need to go to your locker?”
“Nope.”
“I need to go to mine. Do you want to meet me at my car? It’s in the lot—”
“I’ll just follow you.”
He hesitated. “Okay.”
We walked across almost the entire school and to the second floor before we got to his locker. I was beginning to see why he’d wanted me to meet him at his car. He put his bag down beside it and shifted so he was in the way of the door. It seemed like an odd movement but I didn’t question him. It took him two tries to get the lock undone. He moved closer and rummaged inside. I leaned against the ones beside him, gazing across the hallway.
Something fell out and rolled behind him. Alex cursed and turned to get it. It was then that I saw what he’d obviously been trying to hide.
The black and white print I’d seen in the trays in the darkroom was taped between the narrow metal door’s frame! It had in fact been my face I’d seen. And Alex had been the one to make it.
I shoved off the locker, poking a finger at the photo. “That is seriously weird. You didn’t even know me then.”
He grabbed the pencil sharpener he’d dropped and faced forward. “I don’t know you now.”
“You know me better.”
Alex set the sharpener back on the shelf. “Should I take a new photo then? Print another one?”
“No. You should burn all likenesses of me.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
Alex fixed me with those intense eyes of his. “Because why?”
I folded my arms in front of my chest, dropping my gaze to the floor as a frown made its way onto my face. “Because I’m not locker door worthy.”
“I think you’re lovely,” he said. “You’re billboard worthy.”
A snort was the only response I was capable of giving. I didn’t understand why he was saying things like that. He couldn’t honestly mean them, could he? 
No one thought I was lovely. Maybe cats had poor vision.
“Maybe if the billboard were about freaks.” I laughed nervously as I started down the hall.
“That we are,” he said while hurrying to catch up to me. He had a camera in one hand and struggled with his other to get his backpack on. “So where to first?”
“Dewey elementary. It’s four blocks away.” I pointed in the direction of the rundown school. “They say it’s haunted.”
“Excellent.” He sounded like he meant it. 
Actually, he sounded like he meant everything he said. I liked that about him.
I had to consider that if vampires and witches were real, ghosts might be too. “Have you ever seen a ghost?”
“No, but my grandfather has.”
It would figure their clan’s wisest member would be the one who had seen a ghost. The mention of a specific family member had me contemplating his relatives again. If I had the well wishes of the leader and his wise old father, then it couldn’t be all bad could it? Except that there were three of them who despised me. Not to mention Alex’s mother hadn’t seemed overly pleased with me either.
“Have you?” Alex asked.
“Nope. It would probably scare the heck out of me.” I laughed a little nervously.
“I’m sure you’d be fine.”
Was he saying that because I hadn’t run screaming away from him when he’d turned into a giant cat? I’d tried to back away at least. Maybe I would have run screaming if his dad hadn’t stopped me.
“The parking lot is this way,” he said as I stepped onto the sidewalk in the opposite direction.
“And Dewey is only four blocks this way.” I pointed in a diagonal. “Save your gas for later.”
“Do you walk everywhere?”
I glanced over. He watched me through eyes that feigned ignorance. Alex knew I walked everywhere and I knew that he knew. But the cameras didn’t.
So I played along. “Unless Mom and I go grocery shopping or I go to the mall with Melissa, yeah, I walk everywhere.”
“Do you have your license?”
I faced forward. My cheeks warmed. “No.” It was something I was embarrassed about. Everyone I knew had gone through driver’s education but we hadn’t been able to afford it. 
“Just didn’t want it?”
“I walk everywhere. And if I can’t walk to it, then I don’t really need to go there.”
“But there’s so much around here that you can’t get to by walking—Vermont, Maine, Canada,” he said the last almost wistfully.
What was it about Canada that got everyone so excited?
“I’m good with the Hill until college,” I said. It was a fib. I wanted more than anything to be able to get out of Junction Hill as soon as I could. At the rate we were going, I doubted I’d be able to afford to go to the Tech school let alone a college far from home.
“Where are you thinking of going?”
I glanced at him in confusion. “Hmm?”
His handsome face tilted closer. “To college?”
The proximity addled me. “Oh. Um. I don’t know. I haven’t started looking. Probably someplace warm.”
“I’ll probably go to the same one my dad went to.”
“Which is that?”
“Eastern Illinois.”
“Eastern Illinois? I’ve never heard of it.”
“My dad went there because he liked the mascot. He’s got a thing for black panthers.”
He held my widened gaze firmly until I glanced away. Had Alex admitted that aloud in front of the cameras?
“Panther is just another word for cougar but he likes to use it instead,” he said. “He claims it sounds more exotic. Did you know that black panthers are melanistic? It’s the opposite of albinism and a genetic mutation. If you look closely at them you can see the markings in their fur like printed silk. It’s actually cool.”
“Neat,” I said in distraction because I wondered why he’d brought this up. And I still wondered if he could actually shift into an animal. It was too unreal.
“My mom likes white panthers best,” he said. “She says they’re mellower.”
“That must cause arguments.”
“Sometimes, but in the end Mom always supports Dad,” he said. 
We weren’t talking about the white versus black panther discussion any longer, were we? Had he told me that to make me feel better? It hadn’t.
Our chat ended as we neared the fenced-off boarded-up elementary school. There was a portion of fencing that had been forced apart. We headed for it. We picked our way around broken stone, shattered glass and wooden splinters within the school’s old yard. Several of the basement windows were uncovered. I thought I could make out eyes in the darkness within. I shivered without realizing it, worried that those weren’t simply people. What if they were vampires?
“It looks like we might have found some squatters in despair,” Alex whispered. “I’ll be right back.”
He took his camera to one of the larger uncovered windows and slipped inside. Worry instantly rose. Even if they were just regular homeless people, they could have weapons! What if they didn’t appreciate their home being invaded by a punk kid with a camera?
A flash of light startled me. Then two more followed. The click of the shutter closing was audible but quiet. Moments later Alex appeared again.
He dusted off white powder from his black pants. “I think I got what I needed here.”
“Okay,” I said in a perplexed voice.
Alex started for the opening in the fence. “What’s next?”
I gestured in the appropriate directions as the ideas came to me. “Um, there’s the old asylum a half mile that way that we’ve already been to and an old mill down by the river. ”
“Let’s do the mill next,” Alex said.
I decided I was in no hurry to go home.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

There was a strange tugging sensation on my sleeve seconds after we’d started walking from the school. I glanced back, finding Guy’s face instead of the camera. He looked at Alex. “Can you drop me off at her apartment on the way? We don’t need two cameras on you at the same time.”
“Sure,” Alex said with a half-smile.
I returned my attention forward, stealthily gnawing on the left edge of my lip. Guy had been a silent buffer. If he left me I’d be nearly alone with Alex. 
To the black Chevy Cobalt we walked, part of the way in silence. As I was coming to expect, Alex didn’t let us walk quietly for long.
“When do you think it will snow?”
“Usually around the beginning of November,” I said while checking the clouds for rain.
“That soon?”
This was a perfect chance to poke at him. “Yup and it will continue right through until the end of March.”
An expression of absolute horror filled his face as he stumbled over his feet. “Nonstop?”
I laughed at the reaction. “No. But if we get a good coating and it stays cold then the snow won’t melt until spring.”
“Ugh.” He resumed his walk. “I’m both dreading it and excited. I’ve never seen snow in person.”
The idea of never seeing snow in person had never occurred to me. If he’d never seen it in person then he wouldn’t know about the bad parts. “It’s not as neat as it seems on television. It gets dirty quick but they never show the brown stuff on TV.”
“Will you go sledding with me?”
I turned in surprise at his seemingly sudden question. His hopeful expression was so adorable that I couldn’t help but give a nervous laugh. “I haven’t been sledding since I was ten. I wouldn’t even know where to go now.”
Alex gave me a soft smile. “We’ll figure it out together.”
“We may have to because I can’t picture you on a sled.” I grinned playfully. “It will be good for a laugh.”
“You’d laugh at me?”
“Oooh, yesssss.” I nodded slowly for emphasis as I held the words out.
Alex feigned a hurt expression. “That isn’t very nice.”
“Never said I was.”
His answer was soft. “I think you are.”
I shot a sidelong look at him, seeing he was sincere. “You seem to have some weird opinions, Mr. Chattan.”
“Mr. Chattan.” There was an uneasy laugh following it. “That’s my dad.”
The reminder of his family made me clamp my mouth shut. Alex sighed, perhaps understanding why I had. He didn’t speak again until we were seated in the car. It looked the same as it had before, still clean and free from wrappers. 
After turning down the volume on a song I’d never heard but thought I might like, he looked at me and asked a dumb question. “So where do you live?”
I turned in confusion. He knew where I lived. He’d dropped me off there.
But the cameras were on us. As far as the documentary was concerned, Alex knew next to nothing about me and I him.
“Down on Eagle Drive.” I pointed to the opposite side of the parking lot. “Take a left onto that road and I’ll tell you where to go from there.”
He started in the direction I’d pointed. “I bet you know all of the shortcuts.”
“For walking, yeah.”
“Ah, right.” He glanced at me in between turning onto the street. “Is that why you work at Burning Idea? Because it’s within walking distance?”
I bobbed my head. “That and Felix was the first one to offer me a job after I’d interviewed at a few places.”
“Where else did you interview?”
“The pharmacy, Hallmark and the tuxedo shop that used to be down there.”
“Tuxedo shop?” His eyebrows lifted. “I bet that would be boring.”
“Yeah, I’m glad I took the job at Burning Idea. I get to do homework there when it’s dead.”
The Cobalt soon pulled up in front of the apartment building. Guy grunted several times as he struggled to get out of the small backseat of the four-door car with his camera. 
He waved from the sidewalk. “Bye, Aeon.”
I waved for him. “See you tomorrow, Guy.”
“Guy?” Alex queried after his cameraman shut the door and mine started walking toward his rental car.
“That’s his name. Guy the camera guy.”
Alex shook his head and pulled the car forward. “I don’t even know my camera guy’s name. I didn’t know we were allowed to speak to them.”
I leaned back in my seat until I could see Alex’s camera guy. “What’s your name, camera guy?”
“Peter.”
“Hi, Peter. I’m Aeon and this is Alex.” Back to the front I faced but not before casting Alex a triumphant smile. “See? He talks and even has a name.”
The camera guy chuckled from the back seat.
“I think it’s funny that you’re shy at school and yet you made friends with your camera guy before I even considered it,” Alex said with a shake of his head.
“Well, we did almost get flattened by a drunk driver.” I lifted eyebrows knowingly at him. “Then Guy got knocked to the ground during that attack on my co-worker. He and I have already been through a lot together. I figured if he was going to be following me around for six months then we might as well learn each other’s names.”
Alex’s lips lowered into a frown at the mention of his “attack”. I hoped he felt bad. There had been no need for it and Trey was still nursing the wound.
“Besides, I can be not-shy when I want to be,” I said.
“Do you want to be not-shy with me?” He was watching me when he should be paying attention to the road. 
By the expectant look in his eye, I knew what answer he wanted. But I couldn’t give it to him yet. 
“I haven’t decided yet.”
The road claimed his attention once again. 
I let out the air I hadn’t realized I’d been holding in when he didn’t growl or slash me with claws.
Alex spoke without looking away from the windshield. “I’ve been wondering something since class. Why did you offer to go on this photo shoot with me today out of the blue?”
My cheeks flushed a little because I hadn’t expected to have to explain why I’d done it. “To be perfectly honest, the twins were yakking about rumors involving you and it made me feel bad for you.”
Alex let out a breathy laugh—a sound that might have been incredulous. “This is a pity date?”
“This is a date?”
His lips slid together as the smile faded. “I guess not.”
Now I felt bad again. He seemed to be good at garnering sympathy from me. “I didn’t exactly have time to get all dolled up or anything,” I said in an effort to soothe any ruffled feathers.
“Then I’ll have to try again.” He sent me a bright smile. “I’m dying to see what you look like ‘dolled up’.”
“It’s this.” I gestured to myself. “But I pull a comb through my hair twice.”
Alex’s laugh was lyrical and lovely. It was too nice a sound in my opinion so I focused my attention on the passing street. 
“You’ll want to take the next left,” I said. “Then two blocks after that you’ll turn right.”
With the quick turns in the route to keep him occupied, I was saved from further discussion of dates. It was abundantly clear now that Alex did in fact like me. His admission in the darkroom hadn’t been enough to make me believe it. But the photo in his locker and his behavior since we’d left school had backed those words up. And now he was even doing it in front of the cameras.
I didn’t know what I was going to do. I’d never dated anyone in all my sixteen years. I had no idea how that worked. There had been a few boys who had seemed to like me but had never had the guts to ask me out. Alex didn’t lack in the guts department. I liked that about him.
If I allowed myself to think about it, I actually liked a lot about him. He was intelligent, kind and didn’t seem to care what anyone thought about him. It helped that he seemed to share my love of photography and Indie music. Plus, he knew my darkest secret. He knew I was truly a freak and yet he still liked me despite it.
Bravely, or foolishly, I hadn’t decided which it was, Alex waded through the crumbling door of the mill building minutes later. He was still on his quest to see if more homeless people were squatting. I stood outside gnawing on my fingernails with Peter the cameraman, worrying that Alex would fall through a floor or have a wall collapse on top of him. 
He emerged dusty but unharmed five minutes later and put my fears to rest. It was a little startling to realize that I’d known him for less than two weeks but already I cared about his wellbeing.
“What’s next?” he asked while tapping the grey from his pants.
I shrugged because I had no idea what was next. “There really isn’t much else except that soup kitchen.”
“I went there last week like you suggested.” Alex started for the car. “It’s just as well that there isn’t another spot. I’m out of cash.”
My forehead knit in confusion. “Huh?”
“Er, nothing.” He changed the subject. “Do you need to get home or can we hang out?”
Hang out? With Alex? I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. And I did have a bunch of homework. 
“I probably need to study for my math test,” I said, avoiding looking at him.
Even out of the corner of my eye I could see his bright smile. “Maybe I can help. I’m good at math.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
It was his turn to be confused by something I’d said. “What?”
“Nothing.” And mine to change the subject. “So did you get all of the photos you needed?”
“I think so.” He shook the camera at me. “We’ll see when I develop this roll. The inside of that mill was cool. I’d like to go back some time when there’s more light from the west.”
Alex spent the time it took us to get back to the apartment explaining all of the cool things he’d seen inside the run-down mill. The car came to a stop outside the apartment building a few short minutes later. I glanced at him awkwardly with my hand on the door handle.
It hadn’t been a date but I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to tell him I’d had a good time. I couldn’t really say that I had. Standing around worrying about his safety hadn’t been my idea of fun.
He seemed to grin, a toothier version of his usual smile. “Is it too soon to ask you for that real date?”
“No.” My answer was breathy from nervousness.
Alex’s grin faded into a serious expression. “When is your next day off?”
“Sunday,” I said. He frowned a little. “But I’m supposed to finish at five on Saturdays.”
The grin was back. “Would picking you up at seven-thirty on Saturday give you enough time to get dolled up?”
A laugh shook out of me. “I might only have enough time to run the comb through one and a half times.”
I swear Alex’s eyes twinkled. “Then I guess I’ll have a reason to ask for another one.”
I opened the door before he’d see my heated cheeks and think less of me, murmuring, “See you tomorrow.”
His voice softened. “Night, mute girl.”
I was smiling like a weirdo when I walked through the apartment door.
“I was just getting worried about you,” my mother said from the sink.
“Sorry, I should have left a note.”
She shrugged her narrow shoulders lightly as she fiddled with something beneath the water. “I assumed you were at the library or conned into working more at the store.”
“I have a date.”
She turned with round eyes, forgetting to turn off the water. “Really?”
I nodded.
She stared mutely for a pair of seconds. A smile burst onto her lips. “My little girl has a date?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s your first one, right?”
“Yes.”
She lifted a hand to her heart, dampening her shirt. “Phew, I thought I hadn’t missed it but I never know…”
“I wouldn’t hide something like that from you, Mom.”
“Oh, come give me a hug. I’m so happy for you!” Mom held out her arms. She made grabby gestures because I hadn’t moved fast enough. She wrapped her damp hands fully around me. “What’s the name?”
I almost laughed at her tactful question. She wasn’t even sure if I liked boys. It made me hug her tighter.
“Alex Chattan, he’s new.”
“Tell me allll about him over dinner.”
And I did, but I left out a few key bits.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Dolled up. That was exactly what I looked like—a porcelain doll complete with ringlets framing my face. I hadn’t let my mom put me into a frilly dress. I might as well have. It was the only thing I was missing to complete the look. She’d done up my face with make-up from her personal stash, forced me into one of her black dresses when she’d heard Alex preferred the color and then tortured my hair for a half hour.
Mom’s thin index finger and thumb fussed with my curls long after she’d declared it perfect. “It’s called an up-do.”
“It’s called a half hour of my life I can never get back,” I said.
“I’d do your nails too but you bite them too much.”
“And he’ll be here soon.”
I was a little nervous about that part. Would he knock on the door? Was I supposed to introduce him to my mother if he did?
The knock on the door seconds later answered one of my questions.
“I’ll get it!”
My mother’s exclamation answered the other. She slammed the bathroom door shut on her way out, perhaps giving herself a head start before I stopped her. I decided to hide instead. 
I was left staring at my “dolled up” face, thinking about how ridiculous I looked. The black-lined and dusky eye-shadowed eyelids made my blue irises appear darker, a dusting of bronzer on my cheekbones made them looked higher, and the brownish-red lipstick added three years to my look. I could easily pass as nineteen tonight.
“Hi?”
“Hello,” Alex’s deep voice greeted my mother. “I’m Alex. I believe I have a date with your daughter Aeon.”
My heart skipped. A date with Aeon. I had a date! With Alex. It was so unreal!
“I’m Tiffany. Come on in. She’ll be out soon. She’s probably in there wiping off all the make-up we put on. Have a seat.”
I shook my head in dismay. As usual, Mom was too forthright. 
He broke the short silence. “That is a lovely cross-stitching.”
Alex was remarkable. Of all the things we had on display in the living room, he’d picked the one thing that would please my mom most.
“Thank you, Alex. My mom made that for me.” Pride warmed her tone.
“She’s very talented with a needle.”
“Thank you. She was. She made this afghan as well.”
I saved him from an accounting of everything else Gran had made us by emerging from the bathroom. My mother was seated on the other end of the couch from Alex and he had his back to me. I grabbed my purse from the table and stepped closer to the door where he could see me without craning his neck.
He turned slightly and his eyes widened. I couldn’t tell if it was surprise or if my appearance disturbed him. Alex got to his feet with a sudden motion.
He was all dolled up as well. While he wore black pants as usual, he had on black leather dress shoes and his black button up shirt had a slight pattern to it that was invisible except in certain light. The significance of it wasn’t lost on me.
“I see you’ve met.” I forced a smile despite my nervousness.
Alex’s head bobbed. “Your mother was telling me about the cross-stitching.”
“The Siamese cat in a garden.” I gestured to the framed piece on the wall by the sofa. “Her favorite. How did you know?”
He smiled slightly. “It caught my eye.”
“Gran made that for me,” Mom said. “Because she knew I loved cats.”
Alex turned back to her. “Do you have one?”
“No, Aeon is allergic.”
His focus was on me again in an instant. I covered my mouth with my hand to hide the smile I knew would be there. A cough obscured my slight laugh. 
“I’m ready when you are,” I said.
My mom waved. “Have a good time.”
Alex’s long legs carried him near the door in half a second. He followed me into the hallway but not before waving at my mom. He’d parked his car front of the building with the flashers on as though concerned about the law but not wanting me to have to walk far. Still behaving the gentleman, he opened the passenger door, waited until I was in and then closed it gently. I watched him walk around the front to open his own and as I did so I noted there was no cameraman waiting in the back like I’d assumed there would be.
“What happened to Peter?” I said as soon as he’d sat.
Alex faced me in confusion as he turned on the engine. “Peter?”
“Your cameraman?”
“Oh.” He pulled onto the street. “I thought yours would be with you.”
“I thought yours would be with you so I sent Guy away after work.”
Alex chuckled. “I guess we’re camera free.”
I went quiet—suddenly uneasy about being truly alone with him.
Alex glanced at me. “You look…amazing.” His quiet voice turned mischievous. “That must be some magic comb of yours. If that’s after one and a half times, do you turn into a goddess after two?”
A snort escaped my nose. “That has to be the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard.”
His lips crinkled together in a wince. “Ouch. Tough Crowd.” He laughed lightly. “It was pretty bad, wasn’t it?”
After a soft laugh with him I said, “I’ll say.”
“So, you’re allergic to cats.”
The topic had come up sooner than I’d expected. My gaze swiveled away. “Yes.”
“Well, you’re not sneezing now so I’ll take that as a good sign.”
My cheeks reddened. I could think of nothing to say so I remained silent.
He filled the quiet with, “I didn’t have a lot of advance notice so unfortunately tonight won’t be spectacular. But I don’t think I could have waited until next weekend to ask you out.”
The bronzer Mom had used on me had been wasted. My cheeks would be naturally dark because he’d have me blushing all night.
“Plus I’m kind of at a disadvantage—being new to the area and all. I asked a few people for advice. They all told me to take you to make-out point.” Alex chuckled a little nervously. “That isn’t really my style. Serves me right for asking hormonal teenagers. So I’m winging it. Go easy on me.”
Alex’s idea of “winging it” was to take me to a restaurant that had amazing food and a talented live band. The band—a quartet of guitarist, violinist, violist and cellist—played string versions of popular songs I hadn’t known I liked. More than once I caught myself ignoring the band altogether so I could stare at Alex and he me.
“I think I won’t mind the cold now,” he said over the main course. 
There was significance in his intent delivery—as if he meant he wouldn’t mind it because of me. Would I ever get used to the things he said?
“Mute girl, you’re really living up to your name,” Alex chided gently.
“Sorry.” I blushed for the hundredth time. “This is my first date.”
“Mine too.”
“You’re joking,” I said with a laugh and an incredulous shake of my head.
“No.” He let the word stretch as he turned his head to the right in a half shake.
“I don’t believe it.”
Alex set his fork down atop his plate. He sat back in his seat, peering at me with a singular focus. “Why?”
“Because…” I let my voice trail off while I considered how to answer. I couldn’t look at him while I thought. His gaze made my nervous. “You’re…”
“I’m what?” His mouth toyed with a smile.
I gestured at him. “Well, look at you.”
“That’s kind of difficult without a mirror.”
“You’re so handsome.” I blushed and dropped my gaze to the plate in front of me. “Every girl looks at you when you walk into a room.”
Alex leaned forward against the table. “Do you know want to know why I knew I had to meet you?”
“Why?”
“You were the only girl who didn’t look at me when I walked in the room.”
I lifted my gaze again. “But I did.”
His gaze was fixed on my face with such a serious gleam that I almost couldn’t hold them. I made myself anyway. “You might have glanced but I didn’t see it,” he said. “You didn’t gawk at me like they all did.”
“I knew what it was like to be gawked at because of the rude stares they were giving Guy and me.”
Alex nodded as if he understood. “It made you stand out from everyone else. I didn’t even notice the cameraman until you walked into the photography studio with him trailing behind. I’d seen you twice before that.”
“Twice?”
“History and lunch.”
“Oh.” I blushed. There was a short pause. “Alex?”
“Hmm?”
“Something has been bugging me. Why did you start ignoring me halfway through last week?”
His throat worked as he noticeably swallowed. He picked up his fork and poked at the steak he’d ordered—perhaps because it gave him a reason to avoid looking at me. “It was because of what happened with the drunk driver.”
“You followed me?”
Alex nodded. “Yes. I saw how you saved your cameraman. I thought you were… Well, you know what I thought you were.”
A Time witch. But I was worse than that. I was Time’s daughter.
“I knew my family was going to flip out,” he said. “When I got home they were already trying to figure out who was responsible for the shockwave. If they’d found you they would have acted first and asked questions later.” He paused, lifting his gaze. “And to be honest, I was furious. They’d told me we’d be safe from all that if we moved here. I’d hoped I could have a normal year for once.”
“I’m sorry, Alex.” 
And I was. I hadn’t known about the other part of the world as long as he had. But I could understand what it was like to be different.
He set the fork down and smiled. “I’m okay with being abnormal now.”
His smile didn’t stop me from frowning. “I wish I could say the same.”
Alex shook his head slowly as he sat back in his seat. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to wake up one day and know you’re different.”
I laughed suddenly. “Oh, I’ve always known I was different. Just didn’t think I was that different.”
His expression warmed. “Well, I think you’re awesome.”
“And I think you have weird opinions.”
“Is it too soon to ask you to be mine?”
I stared at him in wide-eyed shock, unable to think a single thought. A thrilled carried up my chest and heated my face.
“I’m going to take that as a yes.” Alex laughed nervously, dropping his attention to the table.
There was a long silence while the band played a love song and I tried to think of something to say. We hadn’t gotten through our first real date. Barely an hour had passed since he’d picked me up from home. Yes, it was too soon but for some reason I didn’t want to tell him so.
“To be yours?” I repeated his words back to him. “What does that even mean?”
“You know.” He shifted uncomfortably. Alex glanced up at me from beneath the fringe of his eyelashes. “If someone asked you if you were taken, you’d have to say yes.”
“Do people ask that? I mean, you didn’t.”
“I guess what I meant…” Alex’s hand went behind his head as his face scrunched up. He gave a single laugh. “Well, this is awkward.” The hand returned beside him. “I’m just going to come right out and say it.” Alex looked me in the eye. “I want to be able to call you my girlfriend.”
I jerked as my eyes bugged out. “Girlfriend?” I couldn’t stop the word from coming out of my mouth in surprise.
“Oh, burn.” His eyes and mouth wrinkled in dismay.
“It’s not like that,” I said. “It’s just… I hadn’t expected that.”
He looked at me again. “I don’t know why not. I’ve been acting like an idiot since I met you.”
“Wouldn’t I have had to see you acting like a not-idiot first to know the difference?”
“Good point.”
“So if you called me your girlfriend, then I’d have to call you my boyfriend, right?”
Alex laughed. His hand was behind his head again, rubbing nervously. “That’s kind of the idea, yeah.”
“All right.”
He stared at me for a moment. “All right?”
That cautious question made me grin. “Yeah, you can call me your girlfriend on one condition. Your family never does that thing they did to me again.”
Alex’s eyes seemed to darken as his pupils dilated. He dropped his hand back to the tabletop. “They won’t. You saw to that yourself.”
“But what about those other three?”
He looked toward the band. “They’re not happy but they wouldn’t do anything like that.” Then as suddenly as the serious expression had appeared on his face, it faded into an adorable grin when he glanced back. “Especially not after I tell them you’re my girlfriend.”
My cheeks warmed again. “You know there are rumors circulating at school that you’re gay.”
“I hadn’t known.” Alex tossed his head back in a chuckle. “It never ceases to amaze me how cruel people can be.”
“I wonder what they’ll say now.”
Alex gave a flippant shrug. “I could care less.”
“So what happens now?”
His lips spread into a heart-stopping grin. “Now you come back over to my house to properly meet my family.”
I swallowed hard. “Do I have to?”
“You don’t have to. But it would mean a lot to me.”
I gave him what was probably a lopsided frown. “When you put it like that I can’t very well say no.”
“Just give them a chance,” he said. “I promise you’ll like them.”
“You mean when they aren’t trying to kill me?”
Alex exhaled loudly. “They weren’t. It was all intimidation techniques meant to establish superiority. It was stupid and I told them they didn’t need to resort to that because you aren’t like the others we’ve come across. But old habits die-hard. It’s out of their system now. They’ll be cool.”
I inhaled a steadying breath. “Okay. I’ll give them a chance.”
“Monday after school?”
“What?” My eyes spread wide. “So soon?”
He exhaled shakily in some sort of laugh. “I was going to say tomorrow but thought that was too soon.”
Almost automatically I shook my head in a slow, awed motion. “You’re crazy.”
“Like I said, I’ve been acting like an idiot since I met you.” He shifted uncomfortably in the seat despite his cute half smile.
I relented before I lost my nerve. “Okay, Monday.”
“Really?” He sat back and stared mutely for a moment. “I’ll make sure my cameraman is around so Guy can have the night off.”
Ugh. I’d nearly forgotten about the documentary. How mortifying was it that my first boyfriend was going to be a televised event?
I recalled something he’d said. “Did your brother really hack the feeds?”
He finished chewing a bite of steak. “Yup. We send them old footage whenever we need to have a family meeting. Sometimes we just cut it off completely. Mark has sent people up to fix it twice. My father has him convinced there’s interference from the weather station up the hill.”
“They believed that?”
“Apparently. Mark stopped complaining and trying to fix it. He said the important part was at school anyway.” Alex rolled his eyes. “The whole ‘see how the new kid in town fits in’ bit.”
It forced another burning question from me. “How did Mark manage to convince you to do this?”
Alex rolled his eyes. “We’d told him no three times but he kept coming back with bigger and better deals. He was so persistent that my father decided it would be more suspicious if we didn’t agree than if we did.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“I’m glad you think so,” he grumbled. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
I shrugged. “Sometimes you have to behave differently than you normally would just to keep from making waves.”
“I don’t have any problem with making waves,” he said.
“Making waves is different from just not caring what people think. Waves can cause problems later.”
He shook his head almost in disgust. “You sound like my father. ‘Stay below the radar, Alex’ he says.”
“Probably good advice.” I glanced away. “Mine didn’t give me any at all.”
“So you didn’t know who your father was until recently?”
I couldn’t look at him. The subject was another that bothered me too much to discuss. “Nope. It was one of those topics we avoided.”
“Does she know?”
He was asking about my mother and if she knew about my “special” ability. “After she freaked when I mentioned the dream, I decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell her about the rest of it.”
“So she thinks I’m normal.”
I bravely met his eyes “She thinks I’m normal.”
“That must be awful.” Alex took an awed beat. “I couldn’t deal with things if I didn’t have my family’s support.”
“The worst part is I hate lying to her,” I said. “I’ve always told her everything.”
“Dessert?”
Alex and I looked to our server at the same time in surprise. We had barely touched our food because we’d been talking.
“Not for me, thanks.” I poked at the no doubt cold meal, blushing. “Can I get a box for this?” There was no sense letting it go to waste. I could have it for lunch the next day.
The interruption effectively ended our dinner. After we got our boxes for the leftovers we realized the band had stopped playing some time ago. We walked back to Alex’s car ten minutes later.
He had his hand behind his head awkwardly again. “I don’t have anything else planned.”
“It’s okay. I should do some homework.”
Alex’s lips turned down into a disappointed frown. “I don’t want to leave you yet.”
My heart surged at the sweet admission. I didn’t hide my smile. “It won’t be for long.”
“Promise?”
I laughed at his hopeful tone. “Yes.”
We listened to his music on the drive home. I didn’t hear a single song I disliked and I questioned him on each band. I may have found another source for new tunes. It made me smile.
The trip didn’t take nearly long enough. Alex turned the car off in front of the building and came around to open the door for me. I blushed when he offered his hand. He waited until we’d gotten inside the entrance to the stairs to speak again in that same soft voice.
“Is it too soon to kiss you?”
Alex leaned in before I could answer. He gifted me with a lovely, light kiss on the lips that warmed me twice as much as my blush had. I smiled as he pulled away. He watched me through unreadable eyes for a moment. My smile faded a little. A second later he slid his hand behind my neck, stepped closer and took my breath away with another, firmer kiss that stole my breath.
“Good night, mute girl.”
I stared dumbly after him on rubbery knees.
I was still staring a minute later when I realized several things—I had a boyfriend. He was the new kid in town. And he was a shapeshifter.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Alex appeared at the entrance, scanned the room and then started toward me with the determined gait of a predator. I considered shrinking back between the doors. What would he do once he’d reached me? Would Alex kiss me again? In front of all of these people?
“Hi,” he said a little awkwardly from the end of the lunch line.
“Hi.” I stepped out of line so the others could go ahead of me. Guy scrambled to get out of the way as well.
Alex’s unremarkable lips lifted into a very remarkable smile. “You promised it wouldn’t be for long. It’s been an eternity.”
I laughed at his melodramatic tone. “I guess I owe you one.”
His eyes sparkled. “Oooh, you’re in my debt now. I like that.”
The line had already moved behind me and the person who waited on Alex gave me a dirty look. I walked between doors and took a blue marbled plastic tray. Whatever we were supposed to be eating today did not smell all that appetizing.
“You look nice,” Alex said from close beside me.
I glanced down at the short navy blue silk skirt and cream-colored shirt that would no doubt get stained within the hour. “This is my mom’s idea of casual. She got a little freaky when I told her what I was doing after school.”
He chuckled. “That’s cute.”
“I had to fight her off with my toothbrush to keep her from putting make-up on me.”
Alex’s barking laughter drew the attention of everyone within earshot. I blushed at the looks and dropped my gaze.
“So to the table with your friends or lunch al fresco?”
“Probably the table. I don’t think I’d be very comfortable sitting on the ground in this skirt.”
“Tater tots it is,” he said as he handed the plastic tray to the first lunch lady.
Alex tried to cut in front of me so he could pay—I assumed for me as well as him. I put my arm out and pushed him back while handing the person at the register my two dollars.
“Suit yourself,” he muttered.
“This isn’t a date.”
“Does that mean I can’t kiss you when we leave?”
My cheeks flamed as I hurried away. I sat beside Melissa and asked her about her weekend so I’d have time to gather my wits.
“We went apple picking,” she said with a smile while Alex settled onto the seat in front of me. “Musta gotten four huge bags. There are all different kinds. Mom made a pie. She’s going to make apple bread for Tiffany.”
I could already imagine my mom’s response. The visual made me laugh. “She’ll flip.”
“But I’m supposed to tell you that she can’t have it until you guys come over.”
“Oh, we’ll be over,” I said with an amused half smile. My mother loved Mrs. Butler’s cooking almost as much as she liked Mrs. Butler.
Melissa set her milk down in front of her, lifting her eyebrows at me. “So how was your weekend?”
I glanced at Alex and blushed. “It was good.”
Ashley yanked a tater tot into two pieces with a vicious gesture. “Sarah Wright said she saw you two together on Saturday night at the Red Fiddle.”
Everyone at the table glanced at me and then Alex. My skin flushed from head to toe. But he remained quiet.
“Alex took me there for dinner,” I said barely above a whisper.
Melissa sounded surprised. “Dinner? Like a date?”
“Yes.”
Ashley snorted. “I thought he was gay.”
He was two seats away from her! “If he’s gay then I must be his boyfriend.”
Surprise filled my friends’ faces. Alex beamed brightly and far too cutely. I focused on my food. 
I hadn’t meant to tell everyone so soon but Ashley always managed to irk me into saying rash things. No doubt the entire school would know before the day was out thanks to her big mouth.
The revelation put a damper on the chatter at the table. I wasn’t sure why. But I didn’t want to stick around to find out. Alex and I fled the silent weirdness for the photography studio as soon as we were finished eating. As we walked I realized there weren’t nearly enough footsteps following us.
I leaned back, motioning at Guy. He poked his head around the camera. 
“Where did Peter go?”
“Mark got complaints about multiple cameramen in classes,” Guy said. “So we’re going to take turns when there is more than one of you in the same class.”
“That explains the stupid push to talk phone you have now,” I said in a sour voice.
Guy glanced at his pocket and paled a little. “Sorry, I forgot to turn the volume down before we got into class.”
The phone picked that exact moment to chirp loudly. Guy ducked back behind the camera. “We just got word mute girl is going to le chat’s house later. Peter is on cam duty starting at eighth period.”
I knew enough French to be surprised and apparently Alex did as well. We exchanged wide-eyed glances. I decided to broach the subject about the cameramen calling him “the cat”.
But first there was another question to ask. “You guys are calling me ‘mute girl’?”
The cheek I could see beside the camera flushed. “Uh, yeah.”
I tried to sound nonchalant. “I guess I can understand that but why ‘le chat’?”
Guy’s left eye appeared again. “His last name? Someone on the team is from Scotland and said it’s the name of an association of clans—the ‘Clan of the Cats’.”
I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or not. It seemed odd that Alex’s family would have a last name that so clearly declared what they were. Then again, I hadn’t known what it meant until now.
As we entered the nearly empty studio, Alex and I split off to do separate things. I took my negatives to the light table to look for other shots I could print that might be better than what I already had. He took the roll of film he’d developed Friday into the darkroom.
With little actual work and too much silence, I struck up a conversation with Guy. “How was your Sunday off?”
He moved around me so he could get a shot of the tabletop and speak at the same time. “It was good.”
“Did you go to Canada after all?”
“Yup,” he said quickly, as thought he’d been dying for a chance to chat. “We drove over to Montreal and spent a day drinking overpriced coffee and speaking horrible French.”
I laughed because that sounded like something they would make into a movie. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Je nes sais pas.”
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah, that’s all the French I remember.” He let out a chuckle then quickly went serious. “You should go sometime. There’s this town right over the border that’s like…a ghost town. It would fit right in with your project here.”
“A ghost town?” The idea of a ghost town captured my interest enough that I glanced at him. Unfortunately I’d forgotten that all I’d see was the camera lens. My eyes dropped back to the table. “Really? I’ve never heard of anything like that.” 
“No? We stopped for gas before we crossed the border back. The station looked open because the lights were on but there was no one to take our money. We tried a convenience store up the street but it was the same. Same goes for the restaurants—lights were on but nobody was home.”
“Hmm. Maybe they close up on Sundays. Do you remember the name of the town?”
“Nah. Peter might know. Or James—he was driving. We got the hell out of there because we saw some huge dark thing in the shadows. Thought maybe it was a bear.”
He’d used another cameraman’s name as if I’d know who it was. I didn’t question him on it because I’d spotted another angle for a photo that might trump all of my others. With photo paper in hand I waved to Guy, stepped into the round door and disappeared into the darkness of the darkroom. 
It was crowded with four of us working in the dim red light. I took my time setting up the print in the enlarger on the far wall because the trays already had photos in each. One by one the photos were moved down the row until they were in the rinse.
“I don’t think I have time to do another print,” a classmate told her friend.
“Me either. This sucks.” Their voices faded as they went out the door. “We only have a few days to finish…”
The door quieted. Footsteps padded toward me. I knew what I’d find when I looked but still I slowly turned my head toward him. Alex stood at my arm with his face in shadow. He leaned in, sending his lovely scent into my nose as he neared. I didn’t dare breath while his lips hovered over mine. He feathered them along my mouth before settling in for a nice kiss.
Alex drew back. “I’ve been waiting thirty five hours to do that again.”
I broke into a stupid smile. “And I’ve been thinking about the last time for that long.”
His arms slid around me, pulling me close. I hadn’t realized I was cold until he warmed me up. I rested my head against his chest and put my arms around him too. He smelled like a wood-burning stove and like the wild at the same time. I memorized the scent and the feel of his back beneath my fingertips.
It was surreal. A stranger stood before me and yet I’d never felt so at ease. The door squeaked, alerting us seconds before someone would interrupt. Alex jerked away. I almost pulled him back to me. He must have had the same idea because he stole a kiss before heading back to the trays where his prints awaited.
I exposed my photo paper for seven seconds then dropped my print in the developer solution before I’d have to fight for the trays. Alex moved to the enlargers for a second photo. We worked in silence while our classmate chattered on a cellphone.
With our photos rinsing we returned to the light seconds before the bell rang. Alex hovered near me even though we were going to different classes. He snatched my hand up as we walked next door then begrudgingly gave it up so I could go into my drawing class. Yet another kiss was deposited before he left.
Every time he kissed me felt nicer. What would it feel like in a week?
I couldn’t wait to find out!

Stan waved a new CD near my drawing table. My face brightened even more than it had been. I dropped my things down and grabbed it.
“Oh, awesome! More Elbow,” I said a little too vibrantly. “I could kiss you for this.”
“My girlfriend might have a problem with that,” Stan drawled.
“So would my boyfriend.”
He pulled his head back as if he needed the extra space to fully see my face. “The Still has a boyfriend?”
I blushed upon thinking of Alex. “Yeah.” It was still too unreal to believe he’d asked me to be his girlfriend.
“Good for him.”
The answer made me laugh because he hadn’t said good for you. 
“Thanks again, Stan.” I shook the CD at him. “I can’t wait to listen.”
We started our figure study section in drawing class now that we’d finished with still life. Stan was picked to be our model today. I did a few preliminary sketches in my sketchbook to get the composition right then began on the larger paper. Stan had such a unique look that it was a treat to draw him. I took care with his features, making sure his personality came through on the paper.
Stan peeked at my drawing as I stowed it in the racks. “It’s like a mirror, Still,” He chuckled. “You even got that humorous gleam in my eye.”
I followed him to the door. “The arrogant gleam you mean?”
“You say arrogance, I say humor. Later, Still.” 
He waved genially but my eyes weren’t on him. They were on the dark-eyed person standing across the hall. Alex looked furious. I swallowed a lump and wondered if I’d unknowingly used a new power that had angered his family. 
He strode stiffly beside me as we walked to the gym. His attention was on Stan’s disappearing figure. “Who was that?” His cool tone didn’t easy my trepidation any. 
“Stan.”
“And why ‘could you kiss’ Stan?”
I burst into nervous laughter. He’d heard me at the beginning of my art class. Alex’s dark expression didn’t lighten.
“He’s my music buddy,” I said. “He’d just given me a new CD.”
Alex pointed to the open page of my sketchbook where the two hasty drawings of Stan were visible. “Do you sketch pictures of all your music buddies and tell them you could kiss them?”
A cool chill wound its way up my spine because he was really upset and I’d already seen what he was capable of doing. “He was our model for figure study class today,” I said. “I was kidding about kissing him. Apparently you didn’t hear where I told him about my boyfriend.”
“I forced myself to leave after I heard that,” he said with a growling voice.
“Ordinarily I never would have said something like that but I guess I was stupid giddy because of my really good mood.” I glanced at him surreptitiously. He was still scowling. “Aww, is le chat jealous of my music buddy?”
“Apparently so,” he said with a pettish grumble. He’d nearly thawed back to the Alex I knew. 
I leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek to send the remaining ice away. “You’re the only one I want to kiss.”
He blinked lazily and then allowed his lips to spread into his smile.
“That’s better.” I smiled back.
Alex took my hand and squeezed it then refused to let it go until we’d reached the locker room doors. I waved goodbye to Guy and went inside. Alex waited for me at the door before class, took my hand again and kept it until the game of basketball started.
Basketball wasn’t Alex’s best sport but he wasn’t awful at it like me. Catching the ball was easy for him but his aim left much to be desired. 
It was nice to finally find something he didn’t excel at. Maybe he wasn’t quite so perfect after all.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Alex waited for me at the locker room door after gym class. I’d taken longer than usual to get changed because I was concerned about my appearance. Family was important to him. I wanted to be as impressive as a former enemy could be.
He cornered me at his car door in the student parking lot for another quick kiss before Peter caught up with us. I blushed and hoped I never got used to his kisses.
Alex held out his palm. “So let’s hear what this music buddy of yours gave you.”
I handed the CD over, praying Stan hadn’t unknowingly loaded it up with love songs. It started out with another lively song that wasn’t about love at all. I settled back in my seat in relief then remembered where we were going. The relief was short lived.
Alex spoke after three songs. “His taste isn’t bad. But you just got a rival for your music buddy. I’ll be making you a CD later.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Awesome. The more music the better.”
“You’re going to be sorry you said that, mute girl,” he chided playfully.
“I highly doubt it, le chat.”
We both heard Peter’s chuckle in the back seat.
I kept the conversation going. “I noticed we left the town behind about two minutes ago. Where are we going?” I sort of knew where we were going but it had been dark and I had been in fear the first time I’d “visited” his family.
“North Junction Lake.”
“Wow, the lake.” My tone was a little disgusted. “Let me guess, your family has one of those pricey massive mansions on the waterfront?”
“Mansion? No.” Alex let out a light chuckle. “But there are nine of us so it can’t be a cottage.”
“What do your parents do for a living anyway?”
Alex glanced at me as if to gauge my mood. “My father used to own a construction company. But he’s gotten more specific. Now he installs full electrical systems in homes.”
My eyes crinkled in confusion. “Don’t most houses already have electric?”
He bobbed his head. “Yes, this is different. He installs automation systems. The kind where the lights, heating, cooling, stereo and appliances are all connected to a computer system.”
“Why would anyone want that?”
“I guess it saves money.” He shrugged without looking away from the road.
“So they pay a bunch of money to save money?”
He chuckled at my disgusted question. “Yeah. Sounds weird, doesn’t it?”
With a roll of my eyes he wouldn’t see I replied, “I’ll never understand people who have too much money.”
“Maybe one day you’ll have too much money.”
I snorted. “Highly unlikely.”
Alex turned onto a rockier road then brought the subject back to my original question. “My mom is an interior designer.”
“Like on Trading Spaces?” It was the only thing I knew about interior design so I latched onto it.
Alex gave another bob of his head. “Yeah, like that.”
“Cool. The things those people do always look so nice after.”
“My brother and uncles work for my father. My aunt works with my mom. Often my father’s clients will hire Mom to decorate as well and vice versa. So the whole family works together most of the time.”
“And they all get along?”
“Most of the time.”
I shook my head in awe. “That’s wild.”
The rockier road turned into a dirt road. We’d moved in a slight incline for at least a mile. The tree cover was thicker here than back before we’d turned. No doubt we were getting close. My unease grew at an exponential rate. Alex switched hands on the steering wheel so he could grasp mine. The reassuring squeeze of his fingers over mine helped a tiny bit.
“It will be fine.” He glanced at me and gave me his best smile. “I promise. Just give them a chance.”
“I’m more worried that they won’t give me one.”
“They will. They know how important it is to me.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I wasn’t even sure what it meant.
Alex slowed his car and then took a left onto a narrow drive. I remembered enough to know we were almost there. I clenched my fingers without realizing it. He clenched back.
“Tomorrow you’ll wonder why you’d been so worried.” Alex shot me a grin. “And you’ll beg me to bring you back.”
Because I had to ruin everything, I snarked, “Tomorrow I’ll be stocking shelves and folding t-shirts while my boss angers the few customers we have. The only thing I’ll be begging for is a fifteen minute break so I can eat dinner.”
The grin faded but Alex said nothing. I stared out the window of his car at the steadily approaching lights on the front porch and wondered why I’d had to ruin the moment. Then I remembered why. It was impossible not to recall that those very lights had been the spotlights on a supernatural transformation I’d never forget.
I was insane! Was I actually coming back here? They’d kidnapped me and had definitely seemed like they were going to kill me. Now I was dating their son?
The front of the house was immaculate with timber accents, spiral evergreens, colorful mums and holly. Best of all, the big black van was missing. Alex drove his Chevy around the side of the house to his parking spot in the large garage that sat partially behind the house. It was then that I saw he’d lied. They did live in one of the pricey mansions on the lake complete with a private dock and motorboat.
Alex came around to help me out while Peter struggled to get out in the small space with his camera. He gestured to the house and spoke for the cameraman’s benefit. “The whole place is wired up so you can go ahead and take off.”
“But sometimes they go haywire—”
“I’m sure it will be fine tonight,” Alex said with a slight edge to his voice.
“Oh, okay,” Peter lowered the camera dutifully and “took off” as suggested.
I stared after him. My last remaining ally had left. 
I faced forward and found Alex staring at me. His attention darted across my face as though looking for a sign. 
He must have gotten it because he took a step forward in an already cramped space. With deliberate care he lifted his hands to my face, pushing the hair beside my cheeks away before he took hold of them. The feather touch against my hair drew a shiver. Our eyes locked. I didn’t dare to breathe. Up close, even in the dimming light, Alex had never looked better.
His steel blue eyes sparkled like a thousand lights lit them from within. In that moment I believed perhaps those lights were lit for me. My gaze lowered to the mouth that was the most remarkable part about him just then. I saw the intent seconds before he acted. His lips parted slightly. He took a single breath. 
My eyelids slid shut as Alex’s lips glided forward. I sighed into him, exhaling the breath I’d been holding through my nose. We could have been anywhere then. It didn’t matter. I only wanted him to kiss me like that until the universe crashed down around us.
A girlish voice broke into the lovely moment we’d been sharing. “I’m coming out!”
Alex groaned against my mouth then pulled back. “Abby,” he said as if I’d know the name. “She’s been dying to meet you. I guess we kept her waiting too long.”
He dropped one of his hands to his side while the other grasped mine. We emerged from the dark garage and find a girl who looked to be about thirteen waiting on the deck. 
She had lovely long platinum blonde hair and startling blue eyes that fixed on me. The girl, Abby, gave an impatient tap of her purple Keds. While I searched her face for signs of familial resemblance, she scanned mine every bit as critically. A moment later she bounded off the stairs, raced to us and snatched my hand away from Alex. She tugged me after her.
“He’s going too slow,” she said. “And I need a partner for Wii bowling. No one else will play with me.”
Alex chuckled from behind us. “That’s because you always beat us.”
The girl shot a look over her shoulder. “It isn’t my fault you all suck and are such sore losers.”
“You might want to introduce yourself, Abs,” he said.
“Ugh, I hate when you call me that.” She yanked me up the stairs but paused long enough at the top to greet me. “I’m Abby, his only sister and way cooler than him.”
I glanced back to a very amused Alex. “Way cooler? Really?”
“Yup,” she said with a triumphant nod of her head.
“Well, dang.” I feigned dismay. “Too bad I’m not a boy.”
“I know.” She rolled her eyes. “It sucks, right?”
“Yeah, I mean, he’s the coolest person I know.” I pointed at him. “So that must mean you’re ‘the awesome’.”
Without batting an eyelash, the girl said, “I am.” A moment later she burst into laughter. “‘The awesome’? I like that. Can I use it?”
“Knock yourself out.”
As quickly as she’d burst, the mirth was gone and she was back to business. “Okay. Wii bowling. Let’s go.” Abby tugged me through the door. “It’s going to take forever for you to make a Mii so we better hurry if we want to get in a game before dinner.”
As far as I was concerned she was speaking a foreign language. But I had caught the part about dinner. I hadn’t realized I’d be staying that long. Could I eat dinner with the people who had kidnapped me?
We passed through the room with the fireplace and furniture, through the empty stone room that I recalled vividly and into a third room that was as large as all the others but had far more in it. It was warmly lit with broad windows all around and thick beige carpet. The space had a homey modern yet homey feel thanks to the many cushioned seats and a massive television displaying an odd picture of a Weeble with platinum blonde hair and blue eyes. 
We hadn’t come across any other family members yet. If I could go the whole night with only seeing Alex and his little sister, I would count it as a resounding success.
Abby shoved two white plastic things into my hands. She pointed to the large sectional sofa behind us and then to the screen. “Okay. Make a Mii.”
“A what?” I looked at the things in my hands then sent a helpless look at Alex.
He took up the spot beside me. “I don’t think Aeon has used a Wii before, Abs. We’re gonna have to help her out.”
“Okay. You help her. I’m going to get us juice.”
The girl ran out of the room with energy I didn’t think I ever had even after chocolate and a can of soda.
He laughed. “We better get this Mii made or she’s gonna flip.”
Several minutes passed as Alex attempted to explain the theory behind the game console, the creature we were “making” and what I was about to be subjected to. I was starting to think I should have had some advance warning about this portion of the evening and maybe some practice. I didn’t need a game’s help to make me look stupid.
Abby returned with three kinds of juice, a package of short bread cookies, two apples and a banana. She dropped it all onto the table in front of us then picked up her own set of white thingies. A few buttons were pushed. The picture on the screen changed. Abby turned to me. “You’ve been bowling, right?”
“Yeah.” 
Bowling was one of the few things we had for entertainment in Junction Hill.
“This is like that but without the heavy ball.” She demonstrated with her platinum blonde character.
Then it was my turn to emulate her movements with the brown-haired character that Alex had made for me. Twenty minutes and a game later I was actually getting into it. Alex joined in with his black haired Mii on the second game. While I wasn’t as good as Abby, I beat Alex’s score by two strikes.
He leaned over as Abby carefully lined up a shot. “We’ll have to try bowling for real sometime and see if you can still beat me, mute girl.”
“You’re on, le chat.”
Abby halted in mid motion. Her ball went into the gutter but she didn’t seem to notice as she stared at us in shock. “Does she know?”
Alex’s throat worked noticeably on his next swallow. He glanced at the cameras on the walls then back to his sister. “Yes.”
The girl’s attention switched to me. Her mouth moved as though she wanted badly to say something but was keeping quiet because of the remote audience. What else had the family neglected to tell her?
It proved too much for her. Abby closed the distance so she could whisper to her brother. “Is she…like us?”
“Not exactly.”
She pressed further. “Mutt or teddy?”
“Neither,” he said. “It’s not like that.”
They were speaking in yet another language I didn’t understand.
Alex leaned forward, speaking directly into her ear.
“What?” Abby exclaimed in a loud enough volume that I jumped a little. “Seriously? That’s freakin’ cool!”
“Mom would swat you for that,” he said.
The girl eyed me with slight suspicion. I attempted a smile but I was as nervous as she was. No doubt I grimaced instead. 
How could this adorable platinum blond girl transform into a black panther? It didn’t seem possible.
She jerked toward the television. “Dangit! Gutter ball. I want a rematch.”
“You’re going to win anyway, Abs.”
“But there’s no chance I’ll beat my old score now,” she said in dismay.
“You’d need to be hopped up on Redbull and Pixie Sticks again to beat your old score,” said a gravelly male voice from behind us.
Abby turned, sticking her tongue out. “Got any, gramps?”
The new addition chuckled as he came around the sofa closest to Alex. He winked a thick black brow me. “I’m still paying for the last time I gave you that cocktail.”
“Play with us,” she said and tossed him another set of white plastic contraptions.
The eldest Chattan settled down into the cushions. “I’m content to watch, munchkin.”
“Ugh.” She gave an overly dramatic roll of her eyes.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your lovely friend?”
“It’s Alex’s girlfriend,” Abby said with a shake of her head and hips to emphasize her mocking tone.
I blushed and dropped my gaze. Technically I’d met most of the family but the cameras didn’t know that. We had to go through the introductions all over again. I also hadn’t met them as Alex’s “girlfriend”.
“Thank you, Abs,” Alex said sarcastically. “Allow me to introduce the lovely Miss Aeon Still. And yes, I have asked if it would be all right for me to refer to her as my girlfriend and she’s accepted.”
My cheeks reddened further. I forced myself to look up.
Alex gestured beside us. “This is my wizened grandfather Mr. Arnold Chattan.”
“How do you do, sir?”
Arnold burst into laughter. “You two are priceless. I haven’t heard such a fine introduction since the fifties.”
The laughter made me a little less uneasy but I was more embarrassed now.
“No need for ‘sir’ or ‘Mr. Arnold Chattan’. Arnie works just fine.”
Abby poked her brother in the stomach with the plastic paddle. “It’s your turn.”
“Oh, right.” He lined up his shot then made the gesture to send the bowling ball down the alley. It knocked down all of three pins.
When it was my turn I did little better. I blamed the poor performance on stage fright now that we had an audience. By the time the game had finished, Abby had convinced her grandfather that it was integral to her happiness that he join in. We were halfway through the third game when the next family member arrived.
“Oh, no,” a female spoke from the doorway. “She managed to con you all into playing?”
“Con?” Abby set a hand to her chest in mock distress. “There is no conning involved in fun.”
I glanced back. A beautiful woman with long-black hair stood within the entrance to the room. Alex’s mother?
“Hello.” Her smile tonight made her look prettier than the frown of the last time we’d met. She stretched a finger out toward the kids. “I’m Anna and I’m responsible for those two.”
“Then I guess I should thank you because they’re both wonderful.”
“I am, thank you,” Arnie said. “‘Bout time someone recognized my worth.”
Anna crossed the room and rested against the back of the sofa. She swat him on the head. “I was talking about my children.”
“This is Aeon Still,” Alex said, halting an extended argument. “And this is my mother.”
We spoke at the same time. “Nice to meet you.”
Anna glanced at her son before relaying some information I hadn’t expected. “Alex hasn’t stopped yapping about you since…well, since he started school.” She cast him a brief glance. “We knew something was up the moment he mentioned any girl.”
“I don’t yap.” Alex sounded distinctly petulant. “You asked me about my day and I told you.”
She pushed off the sofa with a small chuckle. “I’m going to start dinner so it’s ready when the men get home. You have an hour left to play, Abby. Then you need to set the table.”
“Fine,” the girl grumbled. As soon as Anna had left, Abby was gesturing wildly at the television for her grandfather to play his turn.
A touch on my hand had me looking over. Alex looked adorable with an expectant smile. He squeezed my hand until Abby exclaimed that it was his turn. Alex reluctantly released me and stood.
So far I’d met three of the eight Chattan clan members. One of those three had been one I’d had concerns about. But Anna had seemingly thawed since I’d seen her last. Had she changed her opinion on how they should have handled my situation?
The hour went quickly. We changed games to tennis. Abby still beat us but Alex excelled at it more than bowling. In the end Arnie and I were tied for being the worst players.
Abby was called away to set the table, effectively ending our time with the games. Her grandfather followed her out. It gave me a few moments alone with Alex.
He grabbed my hands in his, leveling a grin at me. “See? Not so bad.”
“Three out of eight, we’re not even halfway through,” I whispered.
“There’s only two more who matter.”
“You said family was important—”
“They are.” He frowned at the wall as if he could see something beyond it. “But some are more important than others.”
“Okay.”
He glanced behind us. Alex looked mischievous when his attention returned to me. “I’d kiss you for being such a good sport but then someone would walk in.”
“I’d be too embarrassed to enjoy it.”
“Then I’ll just have to count the times I want to and make them up later.” He looked to the ceiling as though counting. “Wait—that could take a while.”
My laugh was little more than a breath. “Should we go help?”
He shook his head and held onto my hand tighter. “Nah, she’d gripe at us for being in the way. Besides, you’re the guest. Guests aren’t supposed to help.”
Several male voices echoed in the corridor. There were so many speaking over one another than I couldn’t make out how many distinct sounds there were. My back stiffened. Alex’s hand squeezed mine.
“Alex,” the leader called from outside the room. “She made it through Wii bowling with your sister?”
“Yup,” Alex said.
Footsteps tramped closer. The intimidating figure of Alex’s father appeared in the living room. 
“She’s just as lovely as you said.” He smiled broadly. 
I tried not to flinch as he stepped forward and held a hand out to me. I recalled him roaring at me, threatening me and generally being menacing. But I also recalled his polite behavior after. I took it, hoping I’d successfully displayed something a little calmer than terror on my face. 
“Arthur Chattan.” The older man nodded toward Alex. “He gets his finer qualities from me.”
I managed a smile. “Aeon Still.”
“Lovely name to match a lovely girl.” He held out his arm. “Won’t you allow me to escort you to dinner?”
A glance at Alex showed I was supposed to let him. I took Arthur’s arm and followed him out of the giant room into another portion of the house we had yet to visit. Alex lingered long enough to turn off the television.
I hoped I could handle whatever happened next. If Alex was there, I was certain I’d be okay.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Are you sure you’re not a witch?” Arthur questioned quietly on our way to the dining room. He spoke before I could swallow my fear enough to answer. “Because you have bewitched my son.”
My cheeks seared.
Alex burst into laughter behind us. “And you said my goddess thing was cheesy.”
“It was.” I cast a glance over my shoulder. “But now I know where you get it from.”
Arthur patted my arm. “Finer qualities, m’dear, finer qualities.”
We passed a staircase made of sturdy timber that matched the accents on the front of the house. The second floor was open on one side so that light streamed down from skylights on the cathedral ceiling and a bank of doors was barely visible on the other. Rustling from the second floor meant that some of the family had yet to come down to dinner.
The dining room was massive by my standards but I could tell by the place settings on the table that it was tiny by theirs. Ten spots were free for ten people. The family could never have a sit down meal with more than one guest at a time without someone being left off the table.
For a family of supernatural creatures, they seemed to have a thing for glass. The dining room was set between walls with exposed beams and a bank of French doors overlooking the lake that shimmered in the setting sun. Exposed rafters with two rustic iron chandeliers hung above the table and matched the candelabras on either end. Each place setting had a cream colored plate, far too many forks, a dark orange napkin with iron holder and a matching dark orange suede cushion on the seat.
Abby was busy filling glasses with ice water as Anna bustled around the attached kitchen and Arnie sat waiting at the foot of the table. I was guided around the long table. Arthur gently released my arm so he could pull out the chair beside the head of the table. 
Was I supposed to sit there?
I sent another glance at Alex. He gave me a barely perceptible nod. I settled myself down. The Chattan men took the seats on either side of me. As I’d expected, Arthur sat at the head of the table while Alex sat beside me. 
But something told me I had someone else’s seat. I hoped it wasn’t someone who despised me. I doubted the fact that their leader had personally seated me would help any.
Alex’s hand sought mine out beneath the table. I clung to it tightly for support. So far the visit had been a success but I was positive it wouldn’t stay that way.
Anna and Abby brought ceramic dishes filled with steaming goodness in twos. Identical bowls of mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, seasoned pork and glazed carrots held spots on both ends of the table. The last item the ladies brought were baskets of rolls. 
Anna took the seat across from me after setting the basket down. And Abby sat beside her grandfather near the kitchen door. 
Anna leaned back so she could shout. “Soup’s on!”
Footsteps pounded on the stairs. Not so much as a peep emitted from Alex when I squeezed his hand with all my might. Instead he covered my hand with both of his so that he could lightly rub the skin over my knuckles. I tried to concentrate on it instead of the impending awkwardness.
A man I didn’t know stopped suddenly in the doorway. “Wow, Drew. You got prettied up for dinner.”
Alex’s older brother Drew shoved by and smacked the newcomer upside the head on his way. Drew took the seat beside Alex.
The newcomer neared Anna and held his hand out to me. “You must be the girlfriend we’ve heard so much about. I’m Aaron, Arthur’s youngest brother.”
I shook it and responded with a quiet volume. “Aeon.”
“Good to finally meet the girl behind all the fuss.” He nodded firmly then moved down and took the seat across from Abby.
He’d been nice. The conversation I’d overheard in the garage replayed in my head. Aaron had defended Arthur’s decision. The defender should have sat closer.
When I’d begun thinking everyone had arrived, the final two family members appeared at the door. The male’s attention was fixed on the female at his side. However she glared at me from beneath lowered kohl lashes that matched the color of her long hair.
Arthur cleared his throat. The male’s gaze snapped to the head of the table. They then switched to me. 
“Hello.” The man gave a sober nod. “I’m Antonio.” 
He didn’t explain his connection to the family before walking further into the room and taking the seat beside Aaron. The family resemblance was so strong that I guessed he was another of Arnold’s sons.
“That is my sister, Alicia,” Anna said without turning. “Won’t you sit, my dear?”
“If I must.” Alicia’s icy tone made me uncomfortable but not as much as how she eyed me warily.
“It would please me.” Arthur smiled at no one in particular.
“And we must always please you.”
“Alicia!” Anna snapped.
The woman inhaled sharply before taking the seat beside her sister. I lowered my attention to my plate. 
Had I witnessed a rare occurrence or a long-standing feud? 
Alex squeezed my hand with both of his. I glanced over and forced an uneasy smile for him.
Arthur picked up the plate of seasoned pork and chose a slice. He started a new, lighter conversion. “Why don’t you tell us about the games you played, Abby?”
We were regaled with tales of Wii bowling for ten minutes while the food was passed around. The males on either side of me had loaded my plate up with food. I kept my head down, picking at it in silence. By the close of Abby’s story everyone had relaxed except Alicia and me.
“So tell me, Aeon,” Anna began the inevitable questioning. “What subject do you enjoy most at school?”
I set my fork down on the edge of the plate, put my hands in my lap atop the cloth napkin and then answered. “Drawing.”
Her lips lifted upward. “An artist. How nice. I enjoyed art most in school as well.”
“Aeon also excels at photography,” Alex said proudly.
Anna chuckled. “So you’ve said.” She gave the mischievous grin I’d seen on his lips. “What subject does my son excel at most?”
Alex snorted. They seemed like a close-knit group. Surely she already knew the answer.
I gave her an answer anyway. “Alex seems to excel at everything.”
He sent me a look and grumbled, “I do not.”
“He aces pop quizzes in A.P. History, needs no help in the darkroom and wins just about every game for his team in physical education class. Those are the only subjects I have personal experience with.”
“I didn’t win the game today,” he said while pushing around potatoes on his plate.
Arthur asked the next question. “What did you play today?”
“Basketball.”
Drew guffawed from the other end of the table. “Yeah, he sucks a basketball.”
“Do you have much family, Aeon?”
I turned toward Arthur. “No, it’s just me and my mother.”
Abby’s head peeked from around Drew. “Just you two? Wow. It must be quiet.”
“It is. But Christmas is cheaper.”
My lame attempt at a joke was met with polite laughs. I dropped my gaze to my plate and tried to take the fork back up.
“We place great importance on family,” Arthur said. “This is my entire living family with the exception of some cousins on my mother’s side.”
I shook my head in awe.
His tone warmed as he continued. “We’re lucky to be able to pool our resources together to be able to afford a place large enough to fit us all.”
“It is a beautiful home,” I said quietly. 
“It will be better when we’re finished with it,” Drew said.
“What will you do to it?”
“I’m installing cat five, cable and central stereo connections in every room.”
I nodded as if I understood what Alex’s brother had said.
“We should let her eat,” Anna said with a motherly tone. “How is the work going on the Shipley’s condo?”
“We’ll have it done tomorrow.” Arthur’s answer was all business. “I’ve got an appointment with Sam Denoncourt on Wednesday.”
The food on my plate held my attention even though I wasn’t hungry. Contemplating what seasoning was used in the roasting of the pork kept my mind off the fact that a woman glared across the table. What little I’d had swallowed of it was delicious but I didn’t think I could eat more. I still felt sick to my stomach from the anxiety of meeting Alex’s massive family.
Business discussion ended quickly and was replaced by what activity the family would be doing the next weekend. Anna took suggestions. Abby piped up with a vote for Wii bowling that was met by groans all around. Drew suggested a trip to Burlington.
“Apple picking,” Alex said.
Anna’s face lit into a stunning smile. “Fresh apples right off the tree. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“On Sunday,” he added.
“Sunday?”
“So Aeon can go with us.”
I set my fork down but didn’t look up.
The suggestion wasn’t immediately discounted. Instead Anna added to it. “Perhaps she can invite her mother to come with us.”
My face paled. The thought of introducing my mother to a clan of shapeshifters made me twice as queasy. I tried to get the color back in my cheeks through sheer force of will so they wouldn’t know how I truly felt.
“I will see if she’s off that day,” I said, 
Mom often worked a few hours on the weekends but it wasn’t consistent and relied on regulars’ appointments.
“Since it was your idea, Alex, you are in charge of research.”
He nodded in agreement.
Anna gestured toward the nearly empty bowls in front of her. “Drew, Aaron, and Antonio are on dish duty tonight. The sooner we get it cleaned up, the sooner we get cookies.”
The pressure at my hand made me look over at Alex. He slid off his chair on the edge closest to me then stood. I let him pull me to my feet with him. 
“We’ll be out back until then,” Alex said. He tugged me to the door.
Anna nodded as she lifted the plate of pork up. “Okay, hon. Take a sweater.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I eagerly followed him through the house to the room with the fireplace and onto the deck outside. The further we got from the dining room the more relaxed I got. But when we stepped out into the chill, took the stairs down and walked down the pebble path toward the lake my teeth began chattering.
Alex slowed and faced me. Concern filled his handsome features. “You’re freezing.”
I let out a nervous laugh. “I don’t think I am.”
His hands slid along my arms. “You’re right, you aren’t. It must be nerves.” Alex pulled me forward until my head rested against his chest. “Thank you for coming. I know this was hard for you. Was it as bad as you thought?”
“Are they always like that?”
“Like what?”
“So…perfect?”
“Perfect?” Alex’s quick laugh sounded incredulous. The sound of it rumbled the chest beneath my cheek. “You think that’s perfection?”
I pulled back to see if he was joking. He wasn’t? “Yes. I do. I mean, that was like Leave it to Beaver except no one said, ‘golly gee, Pa’.”
“I guess they were well behaved today.” He laughed. “Usually rolls are flying, people are arguing over the last slice of meat and no one agrees on the weekend activity.”
“You guys really do a weekend activity every week?”
“We try. Doesn’t always work out.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s insane.”
“What?” His slow delivery sounded a little embarrassed.
“That you guys are…well…so different, and yet so perfect.”
“We’re not perfect. Did you forget about the aunt?”
“No, I didn’t.” I frowned, looking away. “What is her deal anyway?”
“Long story.” He took hold of my hand, lifted it outward then tugged lightly on it until I was forced to walk forward. “Come on, let’s sit by the water until they send Abby after us.”
Abby was one Chattan I wouldn’t be upset to see. “Your sister is adorable.”
“Nothing like me, eh?”
A snicker left me before I could stop it.
“She adores you.” He chuckled lightly. “I can tell. The minute you leave she’s going to be hounding me to have you back over.”
I blurted the question out before I realized what I was doing. “Why does she have light hair when you all have dark?”
“Well…” He helped me sit down on the edge of the dock. “She’s the opposite of melanistic. She takes after her albino grandmother on our mother’s side.” 
“That’s neat.”
The dock was soothing. Moonlight cast a blue glow over everything including us. Gentle sloshing of the water against the dock gave me something calming to concentrate on. I closed my eyes to intensify the sound. Several deep breaths of lake air did me wonders.
He’d gone so quiet that I was concerned he wasn’t breathing. I turned my head and opened my eyes. Alex had been watching me silently with an unreadable expression. I tried to smile for him. 
Rather than smile back he slid his hand beneath my hair along the base of my neck, pulling me closer. A shiver of sensation slipped down my back from where he’d touched.
His warm breath caressed my mouth before his lips did. Alex gathered me into his arms, chasing away any chills that remained from meeting his family. It was soothing enough that I let my eyes shut with a content sigh.
A catlike scream leapt from his chest. His arms tore away from me. My eyes shot open. Alex was crouched with his back to me, staring up at a seven-foot creature that sported ragged clothing and sallow skin. The creature’s lips were torn and blackened. I froze, staring at the missing eyelids around its frighteningly dark eyes and the complete lack of a nose. I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from screaming.
“I’m going to shift, Aeon.” Alex seemed to sneeze into his new shape. Up close the transformation was even more unbelievable than it had been behind the bush. But my attention was fixed on the thing in front of us as it lunged for me now that Alex was decidedly shorter and furrier.
The black panther pounced. His momentum, even with the short distance, was enough to knock the thing back. But the creature wouldn’t be stopped. With hand over hand on the dock’s planks the thing clawed toward us. I stepped backward toward the lake with my eyes fixed on its corpse-like hands, fearing what would happen if it touched me.
The cat hunkered down. A low warning growl announced his intentions. The feline scream echoed in the night as he sailed through the air, landing atop the creature. Ferocious snapping and tears made me gnaw on my fingers. I didn’t know if I was frightened for Alex or the thing he was attacking.
With a broad swing of its arm the creature sent the cat into my chest like a canon ball. We both went over the dock’s edge into the water in a tangle of fur and limbs. The frigid temperature knocked the breath from me in an instant. Down we plunged into the murky depth. 
Thanks to the shoes, skirt and shirt I wore, I was weighed down more than the cat and fell far faster. I could see the shadow of him above me in the moonlight and that he tried to get to me.
Something warm slid beneath me. Before I knew it I’d surfaced above the water. I immediately sputtered for air. A rough cough racked my lungs from the small bit of liquid that had entered them before I’d had a chance to close my mouth. Once I’d drawn in a breath of air I made myself swim for the shore. 
Snarling beside me drew my attention as I crawled onto the mud. A dripping black panther was hunkered down at the end of the dock readying to attack the creature that even now was turning toward me. In confusion I looked at the soaked cat on the dock and the one beside me on the mud. 
My companion eyed me long enough to make sure I was well before padding away from the shore into the grass. In the brief moment I’d looked in its eyes, I knew the cat that had helped me to the shore had not been Alex. That meant Alex had crawled out of the water back onto the dock to finish what he’d started.
I pulled myself up on unsteady legs to survey the situation. Surely the other cat had gone into the grass so that it could double back to the dock. Any moment now it would hop onto the wood and the fight would be over before it had started. Wouldn’t it?
I wiped the moisture from my eyes, focused my vision in the direction the cat had gone and stared in horror when the figures sharpened. Seven midnight black cats were crowded at the foot of the dock while one smaller white cat hung further back. A panther with gray threaded fur blocked the gathering from stepping onto the dock.
I stalked toward them and shouted through chattering teeth. “Why aren’t you helping him?” I gestured at Alex as he used the creature’s lunge toward me as leverage to knock it over again. 
The only answer I got was a low growl from the gray threaded cat. 
Another feline scream from the dock tore at my heart. I shoved my way through the furry backs. Something held me back. I glanced back, noting one of the larger panthers had taken hold of my skirt in its mouth. 
I tore the delicate fabric from its teeth. “You can stay back here like cowards but I’m helping.”
 Even without a nose our attacker smelled me. The mangled body struggled to drag itself toward me while the cat clawed at its head from atop its back. I didn’t know what I was going to do but I knew it wanted me, not Alex. I stomped loudly across the wood and kicked it in whatever was closest. Working on instinct alone I grabbed onto some part of it. It sat up and reached for me too.
I made a single, guttural demand. “You stop.”
The black cat continued its abuse for two minutes longer before stepping back with a confused snort. The creature had literally stopped. A hand hung in the air and its chest was posed at a thirty-degree angle. The water lapped gently against the dock proving that time wasn’t frozen. I tested it by walking backwards a few steps. It didn’t follow or make any noise. The cat pawed the mangled shirt a few times to no effect. 
Somehow I had frozen only the creature without affecting time itself.
My fingers went to my mouth now that we were safer. Alex was a three-foot tall beast with black fur. I couldn’t tell he were hurt or not. If the screams I’d heard from him earlier were any indication, he’d sustained at least one injury.
He padded carefully around the creature then stopped in front of me. I dropped down to my knees and felt him for wounds. Within ten seconds a deep rumble that sounded suspiciously like a purr met my ears. The cat nuzzled my chin with its big nose moments later. 
I blushed crimson then burst into nervous laughter. “I’m worrying about your wounds and you’re trying to get your ears scratched?”
“Aeon.”
Anna’s voice made my blush deepen. I guiltily faced her. She stood several feet from the dock in a white bathrobe. Over her arm was a pile of robes I assumed were for the others.
“Come away from the dock,” she said in an even voice.
A glance at the creature showed it was still frozen. It seemed safe for the time being to leave it. Alex refused to move until I did. He hovered beside my legs, nearly tripping me as I moved.
One by one the Chattan clan appeared from the darkness dressed in a robe until Alex was the only member left in cat form. Anna held out the final white garment. Warily I watched as the eldest members spoke together a distance away while casting glances back at me.
“Alex.”
He grunted at Anna’s firm demand but let her drape the robe over his back. I watched him run into the darkness. Anxiously I bit my nails as I worried that he’d emerge limping or bleeding. A few moments later the Alex I knew stepped into the moonlight. His perfectly bronzed fingers tied the robe around himself. He walked toward me purposefully. The robe was still immaculate white.
He spoke first, eyes scanning up and down me as quickly as mine did to him. “Are you okay?”
I couldn’t help but smile at him. “Yes. Are you?”
He nodded slowly. Our attention switched to the figures gathered in various spots on the lawn. I eyed them angrily. 
There were many things I wanted to say but I knew I wouldn’t be able to control my fury if I dared utter a single word.
“Thanks for the backup.” Alex’s resentful delivery about summed up my feelings.
“I helped her out of the water,” Drew said.
“Thank you, brother.” Alex’s volume lifted for the benefit of everyone else. “Why didn’t you help?”
“Arnold forbade us,” Anna admitted quietly.
Alex stomped across the lawn to where the elders stood. “What happened to protecting her?” he shouted at his father. “What happened to protecting the clan?”
Arnold spoke up in lieu of the leader. “We were protecting the clan, Alex. It was a wendigo.” 
Arthur’s darkened gaze fixed on his son. “We’re going to have to isolate you for a few days until we know if you were infected.”
“Infected? What are you talking about?” Alex’s crinkled features made him appear as confused as I was.
“Their madness is spread through their fluid,” the eldest explained. “You bit it, Alex.”
Alex clamped his mouth shut but was still visibly angry.
“We haven’t finished this yet.” Drew gestured toward the dock. “And what happened to it anyway?”
Arnold pointed at me. “She froze it.”
“But nothing else froze.” Drew’s point was made when a falling leaf passed in front of him.
“She’s learned another power.”
My eyes widened in shock at his grave answer. Antonio and Alicia fixed dark gazes on me. I shrunk back but recalled the creature was still on the dock behind me.
“It needs to be burnt,” Arnold told the others. 
“Will it stay frozen in time while we burn it?”
“I don’t know. It all depends on how powerful she is.”
Anna stepped beside me and spoke quietly while the others debated. “Thank you for helping my son.”
I scowled at the ground. “He was helping me, not the other way around.”
“You tore your lovely skirt to go back for him. We will not forget your bravery.”
“Is he going to be all right?”
Anna looked to the group of males with concern in her eyes. “I hope so. We’ve only heard tales of the wendigo. We’ve never come across them in the wild. They are northern creatures and we’ve always been in the south.” Anna glanced back at me. Her features softened. “You must be freezing. Let me get you a blanket.” With a single nod of her head Anna requested Abby join her.
While the pair retreated to the house the males lowered their voices in discussion. Their conspiratorial huddle worried me. Was I an enemy again now that I’d learned another power?
If I were, then they had yet to inform Anna. She returned quickly and pulled a soft blanket around my shoulders. It hadn’t seemed like she’d been gone for long but she’d had time enough to get dressed again. Maybe she’d been designated my guard to keep me from interrupting the others.
The next few minutes were surreal. I stood wrapped in a warm blanket, shivering uncontrollably while watching the family of bathrobe clad people set fire to a creature I hadn’t known existed prior to a half hour earlier. Shudders shook my legs enough that I nearly fell over. Anna steadied me silently and kept her arm behind my back.
Despite the flames licking its tattered clothing, the seven-foot creature in front of us remained completely still.
“This is horrible,” I whispered to no one in particular. “I shouldn’t be able to do that. No one should.”
“That thing was an abomination.” Anna said.
“No more than I am.”
“You are nothing like that creature.” Her tone took on a fierce note. “It would have killed until there was nothing left to kill.”
Another argument broke out from within the ranks of the Chattan clan. I could hear Alex’s voice above the others. From the tone and word choice I could tell he was still furious.
“No! I am fine. No thanks to you. I’m taking her home.”
“Your mother will take her,” was Arthur’s firm response.
“There isn’t a scratch on me. I’m taking her back.”
“This isn’t open for discussion, Alex. You are to go to your room and you aren’t to leave it except to use the restroom until your grandfather gives you a clean bill of health.”
“You are being completely ridiculous. If you’d been so worried about my health then why didn’t you step in and help me?”
“Because we couldn’t risk infecting the entire clan.”
Alex faced off with his father silently. In the end he shook his head in disappointment. He stalked toward the house but not before calling out, “Coward.”
“Come.” Anna patted my back in what was probably meant to be a soothing gesture. “I’ll take you home now.”
I simultaneously wanted away from the Chattan family as soon as I could manage it and to run inside after Alex. Would he be okay if the thing hadn’t scratched him? Would they bother to tell me if he weren’t?
I let Alex’s mom guide me to the garage where her Volkswagen was stored. A noise to my right startled me enough that I nearly screamed. Anna shot toward it with supernatural speed. 
She exclaimed in surprise a half second later. “It’s the cameraman!” 
Peter spilled out of the Chevy as soon as she’d opened Alex’s car door.
The camera guy slumped to the ground, breathless with fright. “Oh, thank god it’s you!” He exclaimed with eyes wildly darting around the garage. “Something tried to attack me!”
Anna’s tone reverted to her calm manner. “What attacked you?”
“I don’t know! It was like seven-feet tall and really ugly. I ran to the car, hid in the floorboards and then I guess I passed out. It was gone when I woke up but I was too scared to get out of the car.”
“Come with us.” Anna’s demand brooked no argument.
While we crossed the gravel to the deck he relayed the tale of how he’d been walking toward his car when the creature had emerged from the woods surrounding the driveway. Once inside the house, Anna settled him on the sofa near the fire and left us to fetch the others.
Three minutes later Arnold and Aaron appeared within the inner room clothed in what they’d worn prior to the attack. They listened to the tale, questioning him here and there and glancing at each other at key moments. I awkwardly stood damp beneath the blanket contributing nothing and wishing I could take a hot shower.
Anna soon returned to grant my wish. I would simply have to sit through the uncomfortable drive home first. We headed back outside while the others continued questioning the frightened cameraman.
Little was said in the car until we’d pulled onto the smoother roads. Anna glanced at me, forced a smile and then asked me about my family. I answered with the bare minimum of information. Eventually she gave up trying. I hoped she’d realize I was worried and not trying to be rude.
“Drew is just behind us.” She gestured to the headlights that had turned onto Eagle Drive. “He’ll be watching out for you. The others said that if you get in a pinch, you can use your newest power. It won’t send shockwaves out. But they would prefer it if you continued to refrain from using the other.”
I nodded.
“It will be okay, Aeon,” Anna assured me even though she didn’t know that. “I’m so sorry that your visit to us was spoiled. It was nice having you over.”
“Thank you. I’d better go in before my mom wonders.” 
I hopped from the car then set the blanket they’d loaned me down on the seat first. I folded my arms in front of my chest and hurried to the door.
My mom was watching television in the dark. I took advantage of the lack of light to sneak through the room toward the bathroom in the hope she wouldn’t see the state of my skirt.
“How did it go?”
“It was good,” I lied. “Until I stupidly lost my balance and fell off their lake-side dock into the water.”
“Oh no! You’re all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just going to take a shower to warm up.”
“Okay.”
I stripped the tattered skirt and muddy shirt off, started the water then stepped beneath it. Though the shower was steamy I continued to shiver. Rinsing my hair several times kept my mind occupied but it didn’t last for long.
“So…” Mom prompted from the door of my room minutes later.
I rubbed the moisture from my hair with a towel. “He has a huge family, a massive house that you’d love and his little sister is adorable. Other than that, there isn’t much to tell.”
“What do his parents do for a living?”
Every question she could think of was answered to the best of my knowledge without letting on that anything bad had happened. In the end I told her I thought I’d caught a cold because of falling into the water. She let me call it an early night without rehashing the entire visit down to the second.
I couldn’t seem to get warm. After doubling up on socks, pulling a sweater on and fetching the afghan from the other room I managed to get my shivers down to a mere chill. I considered taking aspirin for a possible fever but knew a cold wasn’t my problem.
My problem was that I’d assisted in killing a living creature. I’d used the power my father had given me to destroy something instead of to protect. 
Yes, it had been trying to harm us, but surely there was something we could have done to stop it that didn’t involve death. And such a horrible way to go—frozen in time and set aflame. 
I was an abomination.
* * * *
The car at the end of the street had a familiar looking black-haired male in it, Aaron, Alex’s youngest uncle. I puffed out my breath, stepped onto the sidewalk to the right and then started for school. Two days had passed without news from the Chattan family. It was Thursday, my day off from work. Less than a week had passed since I’d gone on the photography trip downtown with Alex.
He was my every worry now. I resisted the urge to demand my stalker tell me what was going on for the thousandth time. But with Guy recording my every word, it would be impossible to explain why a member of the Chattan family was casing my house.
I went through the motions in my classes. At lunch my friends sent me retreating to my tree when the inevitable question of where my boyfriend was came up. I stepped into the photography studio in dismay upon finding it empty of shining faces. 
Alex had become an integral part of my life in a frighteningly short span of time. Now that part was gone and I missed it terribly.
I walked to the library downtown with my head hanging after a lonely gym class. Thursday was nearly over and still I knew nothing about Alex’s health. No news was not good news. There was little doubt that the Chattan family would see no need to tell me if something had happened to their youngest son. 
The thought of him becoming like that thing that had attacked us made me ill enough that I raced to the bathroom in the county library and didn’t emerge until everything I’d eaten, what little it was, was purged from my system. 
I walked to Eagle Drive with a stapled paper in my backpack and little memory of what I’d put on that paper. It was the poorest work I’d done in my entire high school career. There’d be no way I could explain my way to a make-up assignment without making myself seem crazy. But right then I didn’t care about grades, college or my future. 
All I cared about was whether I’d ever see Alex Chattan again.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“I’m going to ace this test. What about you? Aeon? Aeon!”
A hand shoved at my shoulder with a quick jab. I forced myself to look over at the person who had hit me. Ashley frowned at me as usual. She stood surrounded by her posse of friends outside the chemistry room.
“Huh?”
“The chemistry test today?” Ash’s tone soured. “Did you study?”
“Oh.” I answered robotically. “No.” 
I’d forgotten there was a test this morning. Ordinarily that would have made my stomach flip but today I couldn’t muster the energy to care. Tests meant little in the grand scheme of things.
Ashley snorted in disgust. “I hope you know this stuff already, cuz I hear the first test is a killer.”
“I heard that too,” Jenny said with a comically sober nod of her head and gravely widened eyes. “That’s why I took biology two instead.”
Melissa leaned over, speaking near my ear so that the others wouldn’t hear. “Are you still sick?”
“Yes,” I lied through my teeth. 
My chills had subsided over night and by Tuesday I’d been back to normal. But the guilt and concern had me in a different kind of sick state.
She gave me a sympathetic smile I thought she actually meant. “I’m sorry. I hope you feel better for the weekend.”
“Me too.” 
But I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel better again.
I heard Ashley’s sound of surprise but thought nothing of it until the others made similar noises. It occurred to me that a normal person would look up as well but I didn’t care if I appeared normal anymore. I certainly didn’t care about whatever it was that interested them so much. 
I folded my arms in front of me petulantly as I scowled at the floor. 
Why did I even need to be here? I hadn’t learned anything useful in days and all I was doing in my art classes was ruining perfectly good paper with awful sketches and photos.
A pair of black-clad legs appeared a few feet in front of me. I cautiously lifted my eyes. My gasp was loud enough that the discussion inside the chemistry room behind me came to a halt. If that hadn’t gotten their attention my cry would have certainly done the trick.
“Alex!” I launched myself into his waiting arms and kissed him without a thought to who might be watching. “I was so worried. Are you okay?”
He kissed me twice more before answering in code. “Yes. My fever broke early this morning. The doctor gave me a clean bill of health a half hour ago. I raced in as soon as I could.”
My friends reluctantly left us alone to head to their classes. I clung to him even though I knew he had to leave too.
“I would have called you.” Alex looked into my eyes with a lovely earnest expression. “I wanted to so badly. But I didn’t know your phone number. We tried to get the information out of the cameraman but he was useless.”
How had I’d neglected to give it to him? What kind of girlfriend was I? 
“I’ll give it to you in history,” I said, blushing furiously.
He gave me a little push toward the door. “You better go study.”
“You heard that?”
“Yeah.” Alex chuckled. It was so nice to hear that sound again that I almost forgot I was going to fail a test in a few minutes. “Go on, I’ll see you next period. Good luck.”
My lips turned down because he was leaving me. “Thanks.”
He kissed my frown a last time then walked down the hall in the direction the others had gone. I rushed to my seat, yanked open the textbook and studied like mad until the test was in my hand. Now that I knew Alex was well, the prospect of flunking one of the few tests we’d have in chemistry worried me more than a little.
When I left the room my mood was a mix between dismay at no doubt bombing the test and anticipation. 
Alex wasn’t sick. He was back and I couldn’t wait to see him again. 
* * * *
I hurried through the hallway with my bag barely on my shoulder. I broke into a run when I spotted him heading toward me. Alex was laughing when we reached each other. I threw my arms around him for a hug that lasted several seconds.
It was lovely to feel his arms squeezing me and have his warmth around me. I had been so worried for him. And I’d missed him dearly.
But I owed him one thing. I tugged my arm back then punched him in the arm.
“That was for laughing at me,” I grumbled near his ear. “And for not sending so much as a note. You have a hundred family members. One of them could have dropped word off.”
“I’m sorry, Aeon.” He squeezed my sides tightly. “I spent most of the time ranting and railing at them to let me leave. I thought you’d prefer to see me in person than read my chicken scratch.”
“Anything from you would have been better than nothing.” I softened my hard-edged eyes. “But you’re here now.”
He pulled back for a look at my face. “I’ll find some way to make it up to you.”
My lips spread wide until my cheeks ached from it.
“Come on, we’ll be late,” he said.
We left Guy in the hallway behind us while Peter followed into history class. The highlight of the forty-minute period was handing in that week’s paper. Briefly I considered hanging onto it and asking for an extension. But with one paper due a week, I could probably afford to have at least one awful assignment.
Reluctantly Alex left me for his next two classes but vowed to meet me for lunch at the tree. I gnawed on my fingernails impatiently through the two hours, barely listening to what was said. Dimly I recognized that an assignment was being given moments before the bell rang. I hastily scribbled it down in my notebook, saw the face at the door and shot up. It was a nice surprise to see Alex there when we’d agreed to meet outside.
The amused smile on his face was more adorable than the little chuckle he gave. “I’m getting the impression that you might have missed me a little.”
“You have no idea,” I said with a dramatic widening of my eyes.
“It’s nice to be missed. But not nearly as nice as not having to be missed.” He leaned forward to whisper in my ear. “Think we can ditch these guys?”
I nodded eagerly and followed him as we darted through the crowd. Try as we might, one of the cameramen kept up with our steps at every turn. We gave up after our third attempt failed and eventually went outside. Beneath the tree Alex adjusted our poses until my head rested against his shoulder and his arm was curled around me. The air was chilly but I was warm with him.
“Are you free after work tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I said.
“And are we still on for apple picking Sunday?”
I shifted enough to look at his face. “Sunday? I don’t know. I never asked my mom because I… Well, I wasn’t sure…” I glanced at the camera nervously. “If you were going to be well enough to go.” 
I stealthily wiped the tear that had threatened to drop from my eye. Now that he was here, it was easier to admit to myself that I’d thought I might never see him again and that it had scared me nearly to death.
He pressed a soft kiss to my left temple. “Ask her. We’ll understand if she’s busy.”
“Okay.”
“Do you really have to work tonight?”
I sounded rather like he did when I replied. “Unfortunately.”
Alex leaned in, whispering directly into my ear. “Meet me tonight.” He masked it with a kiss then pulled back to help me onto my feet. “Your stomach is growling like crazy. Let’s get something to eat.”
We grabbed sandwiches from the lunch line on our way to the photography studio. Alex had some last minute work to do before the first quarter project critique. I had no idea how he would pull off finishing it in time after missing most of the quarter. 
I nibbled on my sandwich crusts while watching him work near the matte cutter. He wouldn’t let me peek at his work. I could wait to see it. 
Something told me Alex would have something amazing to show us.
* * * *
My stomach was upset for a different reason when Mrs. Lozano called attention five minutes after the bell rang. Critique always twisted up my insides. I was working on not taking constructive criticism of my artwork personally but it was still hard.
Mrs. Lozano took volunteers to show their work first. Several projects were displayed, critiqued and met with varied reactions. Most students had yet to master anything but point and shoot. The myriad of photos of flowers, trees and buildings were far from interesting but everyone was kind. I forced myself to give a comment about each project, even if it was only to say that I’d enjoyed the contrast on images that had been unintentionally underexposed.
“Aeon? Would you like to show your work now?”
I nodded reluctantly for Mrs. Lozano then pulled the four photographs I’d decided on out of my backpack. Three days without Alex had given me plenty of time to mount them on gray matte board. None of the others except Alex had bothered to do so.
I spoke with feigned confidence. “I chose to focus on three D’s for my project: dilapidated, derelict, decrepit. But I didn’t want to just show what the eye saw. I wanted to do something more like macro-photography. So here is what I came up with.” I stepped aside, dropped my eyes nervously and let them take aim with words.
No one said anything. I hadn’t realized my photos were quite that bad. 
Had I made a poor choice? Should I have printed photos of entire buildings in disrepair instead of focusing on specific elements?
“They’re beautiful, Aeon,” Mrs. Lozano said at last. “There’s a kind of visual poetry to each one. Even without the big picture, the message comes across.”
Alex’s deep voiced soon joined in the discussion. “And though you originally focused on your three D’s, each photograph fuses the feeling of neglect with one of hope. Here you show crumbling stone with the contrast of a newly budding flower.”
“Excellent observation, Alex,” Mrs. Lozano said. “Anyone else?”
“They’re interesting,” one of the twins replied flatly.
“I like the frames around them. They make the pictures stand out,” another classmate added.
Mrs. Lozano nodded. “Yes, matting wasn’t a requirement but it certainly does improve the photo.” She paused for more comments then nodded at me politely when no one spoke. “Thank you, Aeon. Alex, would you go next?”
I took my photos with me to my chair and turned back anxiously to see what it was Alex had finished. He too had four matted photographs. One by one he placed them above thumbtacks for all to see.
The first was little more than a silhouette with eyes amidst a room that was alternately dark and light because of the windows behind the subject. The subject’s eyes were the only items in the composition that held any importance. They were so sorrowful that my heart went out to the model. 
Two grizzled figures warming their hands over a flaming oil drum were the subjects of the next photograph. I knew Alex had shot it within the old mill because he’d described it to me afterward. But the crevices of their faces were so intricately displayed in shadow that he hadn’t done it justice in his description. 
Alex’s third photograph was startling because I recognized the subjects. His uncle Antonio stood at the head of the dock behind his house gazing across the wood to the figure seated at the water’s edge. The figure’s smaller size and hunched back made me think it was probably his aunt Alicia but I couldn’t be sure because she was looking away from the camera. The set of Antonio’s shoulders and the expression his profile held could only be described as longing.
So far the pieces he was displaying were amazing. The fact that he’d shot, developed and printed them in two and a half weeks time while everyone else had four weeks was even more mind-boggling. Alex was a talented artist, of that there was no question.
All eyes turned to me when he flipped over the fourth photograph. I blushed hot at the sight of my own figure on his photo paper. At some point last Thursday, Alex had caught me staring into the sunset and snapped a picture without me realizing it. 
My pensive expression must have interested him enough to capture it. But I didn’t understand why it had the captivation needed to be one of the four photos he’d picked from two rolls of film.
“Originally I’d decided to work on capturing photos of ‘despair’ but I decided to contrast the despair with photographs of ‘hope’.” Alex’s voice oozed confidence. “The first two photographs are of homeless in town. The last two are of family and friends that will no doubt kill me for snapping these photos without permission.”
I frowned at him but said nothing. And no one else in the class was brave enough to critique his beautiful photographs. 
Then a single female voice spoke up. “Is that Aeon?”
Alex’s dark head bobbed. “Yes.”
“It barely looks like her but I thought so.”
“It looks exactly like her.” His eyes went a little fierce, emphasizing exactly how much he meant the woods.
I had to admit my classmate was correct. Something was strange about the photograph. It was almost as if he’d used a different lens. I didn’t look quite like myself in it. Perhaps it was because the black and white coloring gave me a Film Noir heroine look.
Since he’d critiqued mine, I returned the favor. “The setting, light choice and exposure time on your first photograph were expertly chosen to create a stunning focal point. Those eyes tell the complete story without the need to see anything else. 
“The depth of field in photo number two brings the focus where it should be, on the faces that have a line for each sorrow they’ve experienced. I could sit here all afternoon tracing the patterns of those lines imagining what each one signifies. 
“Photographs three and four are similarly brilliantly executed but I disagree on their theme. The third one, to me, illustrates longing, not hope. The gentleman near the dock is obviously longing to speak to the female but something is holding him back. 
“And as far as the photograph of me, because I know my own thoughts, I know when I’m staring into the sun like that, I’m not being hopeful at all. I too am longing.”
The look in his eyes after I’d finished speaking startled me. There was intent in their gleam I knew meant he wouldn’t be quite so still and silent if we’d not been in a classroom full of people. My gaze dropped my fidgeting hands while I contemplated what that intent was. 
Was he upset I’d disagreed about the images showing “hope”?
Mrs. Lozano spoke up. “I couldn’t have critiqued the first photographs any better if I’d tried. But I can see how the second two photographs could be viewed as ‘hope’. It’s all in the perception of the viewer. Of course, you as the subject know that you weren’t in a particularly hopeful mood when that was shot. But a person gazing into the sunset could be construed as being hopeful that the next day will be better or enjoying the beauty of the landscape. And the shot of the man behind the woman could have been the moment right before she turned to him at long last. Anyone else?”
“I like the frames on these too,” our classmate declared.
Mrs. Lozano cleared her throat then nodded to Alex. “Thank you, Alex. Very strong work. Who is next?”
One by one Alex took down his photographs. I kept my eyes lowered to avoid the odd expression on his face. He took his seat behind me but didn’t try to speak to me.
We were treated to one more presentation. The subject of this one was “muscle cars”. It interested me little. Neither Alex nor I added anything to the discussion of how “cool” the cars looked at the angles he’d picked, which consisted of right and left views as well as front and back.
“Monday we start on project number two so come ready for lecture,” the teacher said as we wrote our names on the back of our photos and handed them in.
I pulled my backpack strap up over my shoulder and started for the door. I’d moved a few bare steps before a grip on my wrist tugged me aside and into the darkroom door.
Alex soon tugged me directly into the wall of his chest. His hands slipped into my hair, holding my head firmly in place for his urgent kiss. Any thought in my head fled in an instant. I reveled in the feel of his lips against mine, the warmth that spread across my skin.
The bell rang ruining the moment. Alex pulled back with a grumble. Reluctantly he slid his fingers out of my hair. A slight shiver shot through me.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into me,” he said with what looked to be flushed cheeks but it was hard to tell in the red light. “I didn’t mean to cause a scene but I couldn’t wait. What you said…about my photos, it was so nice that I had to thank you somehow.”
“But I disagreed with you.”
He took my hands for a squeeze. “The fact that you were willing to disagree with me made it all the better. It means you really meant what you said about the others. I know I can count on you to give me your real opinion, not just what you think I want to hear.”
My head cocked to the left as I stared at him in confusion.
“I want a girlfriend, Aeon. Not a sycophant.”
“Wow.” I laughed nervously on my way toward the door. “There had to have been someone who was willing to give you her opinion—”
“It doesn’t matter now. There’s only you.”
I avoided commenting on that by returning into the lit classroom. Thankfully everyone was gone already including Mrs. Lozano. We snuck out of the room but paused in front of the drawing room door.
“You’re going to be late,” I said as if he needed the reminder.
“I know.”
“We’ll see each other later.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.” With a light push to his arm and a laugh I sent him on his way.
I watched his figure disappear down the hall and couldn’t help but smile to myself.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Stan waited at my desk with yet another CD. My smile didn’t wane. I snatched it from his hand and eagerly read the label.
“You’re dating Alex Chattan?”
I lifted my eyes from the plastic in front of me slowly because I’d been reading a long title. Stan’s steady expression gave me no indication of how he felt about his question. 
“Yes, is that bad?”
“Nah. He’s just crazy smart. He’s in my math class.” Stan snickered and grinned. “Pissing me off actually. He’s screwing up the bell curve.”
I beamed. “I guess he wasn’t fibbing when he told me he was good at math.”
Stan leaned against my drawing desk. “You’re friends with that redhead, aren’t you?”
“Um, maybe?”
“Ashley?” Stan prompted. “She’s been flirting with him like a desperate girl at prom, or at least trying.” Stan’s eyes slid shut as he gave a disappointed shake of his head. “Might want to watch your back with that girl.”
I inhaled a long, irritated breath of air. “I’ve never really considered her my friend anyway but thanks for the heads up.”
“No prob,” Stan drawled then slowly made his way to his own table.
It was easy not to be upset about his revelation. Alex had made his interest known to anyone who was willing to look at us. And even though I’d only known him a very short time, I trusted that he wouldn’t give Ash the time of day.
Rain and chilly temperatures meant we’d be holding P.E. class inside the gym today. I discovered Tyler already tossing around a basketball when I emerged from the locker room. A grumble escaped me because I was tired of basketball. 
Alex shot from the locker room and raced across the glossy gymnasium floor until he was inches in front of me. His fingers slipped around my sides so he could lift me off my feet. Alex swung me as he hugged me and kissed my cheek. He set me down on my feet where I wavered slightly from rubbery knees. 
“Sorry.”
My eyebrows lifted at his annoyed sigh because he’d seemed happy seconds earlier. “For what?”
“I was going to meet you at your class and walk with you but the teacher held me late to complain about my absence.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Aww, how sweet.”
He flicked my nose then tugged me over to where the others were congregated. 
“Hey, you’re back. Was starting to think you’d moved away.” Tyler smacked Alex on the shoulder. He lifted his chin in my direction. “Hey, Aeon.”
Tyler knew my name?
I merely nodded back.
Tyler’s attention switched to Alex. “Summer is having a party at her place tonight. You guys should come.”
It seemed odd that a girl with a camera crew would hold a party and invite other people with camera crews. How much fun could the party be if it were being recorded from four different angles? I supposed it didn’t really matter. Summer’s parties were the ones everyone wanted to go to.
Alex answered for us both. “Thanks for the invite but I think I’ll take a rain check. I’m still getting over whatever I had for the past few days.”
“Cool, dude. I’ll let you know next time.”
Alex reluctantly let go of my hand so he could play the game. I pretended to wait for the ball as usual and was relieved when another student arrived to take my place on the court. It gave me the chance to watch Alex and Tyler at work. Their rivalry extended to basketball even though it wasn’t Alex’s best sport. I covered my smile with a hand every time he missed a basket. I loved that he wasn’t afraid to fail.
“You were staring at me throughout that whole game,” Alex chided playfully after we’d met up outside the locker rooms.
“Should I stare at Tyler instead?”
“No!” He pulled me into the crook of his arm while we walked. “You’re going to let me give you a ride to work, right?”
I felt myself smiling stupidly. He was so sweet. “If you insist.”
“I insist.”
My cheeks colored a little at the firm answer. “Then I guess I’m letting you.”
“What time do you get a break?”
“Most nights I don’t get one.”
Alex grunted. “Why is that?”
“I’m not going to tell you.”
He leaned over, lowering his voice. “I already know why. So you might as well tell me.”
I remained mum on the subject. Another grunt was the only argument he gave.
Alex sighed. “All right then. What time would you like me to bring you something?”
“Something?”
He unlocked the passenger side door on his car and held the door open for me. “Dinner.”
I groused playfully because I was a little embarrassed. “When did you turn into my mother?”
“When has your mother brought you dinner?”
The question made me jerk. He had no right insulting my mother like that. He didn’t know us. “Last time she had a day off when I didn’t. We try to work the same nights so that we have our days off together.”
He didn’t say anything until he slid down into his seat beside me in the car. “I’m sorry.” He sounded legitimately contrite. “I shouldn’t have assumed the last few weeks were routine.”
“They were routine. For the most part. But I’ll be fine with the snack I brought. Don’t worry about it.”
Alex concentrated on getting out of the parking lot without hitting anyone instead of debating with me further. I settled back in the seat, conscious that Guy and Peter were behind us recording everything. Once we’d gotten a half-mile from the school traffic Alex relaxed again.
He glanced over at me. “You didn’t want to go to that party tonight, did you?”
I turned in surprise at the subject change. “No.” 
Summer’s parties were the event of the season and I’d always been curious but I knew better than to want to actually go. It wasn’t my scene. They weren’t my people. I would only be uncomfortable.
“Because we could go if you wanted. I have his number…”
“No, it’s fine.” 
But the fact that he had Tyler’s phone number seemed proof he’d gotten in good with the popular clique after all.
“Good. I didn’t want to share you with anyone.”
I blushed. “Besides I have to work,” I said and then spoke a complete lie. “And after that I’m going home to study for a test in English.”
His profile swiveled toward me. I hoped he’d realize his error and keep quiet about my lie. 
Alex grunted yet again. “At least I’ll have you tomorrow.”
“Yes.” 
He’d gotten the hint. I’d known he would. He was smart.
The Cobalt pulled to a stop at the curb in front of Burning Idea. I lifted my heavy bag from the floorboards, put my hand on the handle then faced him. The expectant expression on his face made me blush.
“Thanks for the ride.”
“There was a price,” Alex said with a smirk. “A kiss.”
I chuckled lightly even as my cheeks flushed. “Of course, always a price.”
He sat still and refused to help me at all. I awkwardly leaned over the armrest until my face was inches from his. The cheeky grin he gave me did nothing for my self-consciousness. 
What if I were a poor kisser? What if he laughed at me because I slobbered him too much? I would be devastated. Already I’d let myself get too attached to the handsome new kid.
Alex impatiently closed the remaining distance and kissed me himself. 
I smiled against his lips. “See you tomorrow.” 
“I’ll miss you until then.”
I pretended not to hear him.
* * * *
Having to work on Friday nights had never bothered me until now. It was especially irritating that my boss left me alone at the store and that we’d had all of two customers. Even more so was that one of those customers had demanded to see the owner because the triple extra large shirt she’d bought didn’t fit her husband. I managed to persuade her to come back Sunday when I was certain Felix would be there. But I was smart enough to apologize profusely for his absence tonight.
Reaching the apartment after work without incident was a minor win. But explaining to my mom about why I was about to disappear without my cameraman for who knew how long would require a bigger win. We’d never discussed curfew or being alone with boys before because it hadn’t been an issue. I hoped to avoid the discussion for a bit longer.
“Eliza from the salon wants to see a movie tonight but her boyfriend has to work an extra shift. Do you have any interest in seeing a chick flick with us?”
I pulled my head out of the refrigerator and sent a look her way. “I need to get through some of the mounds of homework I have.”
Mom gave me a crooked frown. “On a Friday night? Come with us, hon.”
“Studying on a Friday night is no worse than being seen with my mother at the movies.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Besides, I have another date tomorrow night so I need to do my Saturday evening studying tonight…oh!” I stepped out of the fridge with an excited hop. “I almost forgot!”
Mom’s eyes widened at my sudden animation.
I could barely hide my happiness. “The Chattan family has invited us apple picking on Sunday. Alex had been sick and I wasn’t sure he’d be well enough to go so I didn’t ask you. But he’s better now.”
She slid over to the sink and ran her freshly painted nails under the cold water. “Apple picking? That might be fun. We haven’t done that in years. Brigit asked me to work at the last minute but I’ll see if I can get out of it.” She glanced over her shoulder with a sly smile. “He’s really cute.”
My eyes bugged out, illustrating my disbelief over having a boyfriend as amazing as Alex. “I know.”
“I’d hug the stuffin’ out of you but I just did my nails.”
“You can owe me one.”
“Deal.” She smiled then glanced at the clock. “All righty. I’m going to go get ready.”
She left me to scrounge for food alone. I ate a ham sandwich then gnawed on my fingernails for a half hour until my mom emerged from her bedroom looking stunning. She kissed me goodnight, told me not to wait up and then headed out for girls’ night out. 
For the cameras’ benefit I pretended to ready for bed by brushing my teeth, combing my hair and gathering clothes to wear. After a forced yawn I shut off all the lights and sat on my bed for several minutes.
This sneaking out thing was both exhilarating and frightening. But it was well worth it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Alex was already waiting for me on the front step when I walked out of the front door ten minutes later. 
He lifted himself to his full height. Alex folded his arms in front of his chest and fixed me with a dark eye. “You owe me a kiss.”
“I do?”
“Yes.” He gave a firm nod of his dark head. “For that ride to work. I got tired of waiting for you and didn’t want you to be late. Remember?”
Curiously enough, with the cameras absent I was brave enough to admit what the problem had been. “You don’t want me to kiss you. You might find out I suck at it.”
He chuckled lightly. “I’m willing to take the chance.”
“But it would be forced now,” I complained in a last ditch effort to avoid the inevitable awkwardness. “I’m not feeling it. Wouldn’t you much rather I kiss you when the fancy strikes me?”
Alex shook his head in slow disbelief. An amused smile spread his lips. “You’re good.”
“I try.” I grinned at him then flounced a few steps passed him. “So why did you want to meet me sans camera?”
“I thought you might want to talk…about what happened the other day.”
I glanced around us. I did want to talk about it but not there, not on the sidewalk in front of the apartment.
Alex must have recognized my unease. “We could go someplace. My car is parked on the next street over.”
“Where would we go that would be safe to talk?”
“Um,” he shrugged. “You know the area better than I do.”
“I guess if we’re in your car then just about any place is safe.”
Alex held out his hand to me. As soon as I’d reached him he pulled me into the crook of his arm. There he guided me to the car. The small action made a big impact on me. I felt wanted and protected. It was such a nice feeling that I almost protested when he helped me into the passenger’s seat of his car and pulled away.
I waited until he’d closed himself in the car before making a suggestion. “There’s a factory down on third that has swing shifts. They won’t notice an extra car parked in their lot.”
“Third it is.” Alex nodded while starting the engine.
I settled back to watch him stealthily. Occasionally he’d glance over at me with an odd expression on his face. It was almost as if he couldn’t believe I was in his car anymore than I could believe it. But that couldn’t be right.
He turned the car off again in the parking lot. 
I turned enough in my seat to see him. There was no hesitation in my first question. “What’s a wendigo?”
He lifted his forearm onto the armrest while he adjusted his pose so he saw me better. “If I had to compare it to something, I’d compare it to zombies. The flesh-eating brain-craving kind we see in the movies. That’s what a wendigo is.”
My nose crinkled in disgust because that sounded simply awful. “What did your family mean that the madness was spread through the fluids?”
“The natives thought people turned into wendigo if they succumbed to starvation enough that they resorted to cannibalism. Most people think it’s just an old wives tale meant to scare them into other alternatives. But it wasn’t really.” He adopted a grim tone. “The creatures are real. From what we can tell, a wendigo was a person at one time. A virus transmitted through the fluids—saliva, blood, that sort of thing—turned it into that thing.”
My stomach threatened to turn at the thought of it being human once. “But you didn’t catch it?”
“No.” He shook his head. “My grandfather thinks maybe we’re immune in our animal form.”
The mention of his grandfather reminded me of their behavior that night. “I can’t believe they didn’t help you. I was so furious.”
“Yeah, that pissed me off too. But they were right to try to protect the others.” He was firm as if he believed it now. “And you shouldn’t have come back for me. You should have stayed where it was safe.”
“It wanted me anyway—”
“It wanted you because you were the only human around.”
“And I was worried about you.”
He grinned broadly. “That’s sweet. But I can hold my own.”
I glanced out the windshield. “I know that now.”
“I still freak you out, don’t I?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s the situation more than anything.” I considered what about the situation freaked me out. “I mean if I were that close to a wild animal attack I’d probably be just as freaked out.”
“I’m not a wild animal,” Alex said in a grave tone. “When I’m like that I’m completely in control of my faculties. I still think like a human.”
“But apparently you purr,” I added with a smile.
“Was I supposed to dislike that you were touching me just about everywhere?”
My cheeks flushed hot at the reminder. Not only had I been touching him everywhere, for all intents and purposes, he’d been nude. “I was feeling for wounds.”
His grin returned and increased mischievously. “In that case I ought to get into fights more often.”
I swatted him on the arm, frowning as I did. “That isn’t funny. I was really worried.”
Alex snatched up the hand that had hit him and pulled me forward until I was inches from him. He kissed me lightly on the nose. “Well, you really worried me too. Do you always run into a fight instead of away?”
“I don’t know. It was the first time I’ve been involved in one.”
“You earned my mother’s respect.”
“But not the others.” It was a guess on my part based on his wording.
Alex snorted in irritation. “I’m not sure you’ll ever be able to win Alicia over because of what you are.”
“What I am?”
“A Time witch.”
“But I’m not a Time witch.”
“You manipulate time. It’s enough to earn her anger.” He glanced away as he spoke. “Her husband was killed by someone who could.”
My eyes rounded at the idea of someone good, someone’s husband, being killed by a time manipulator like me. 
“That’s awful. No wonder she hates me.”
“She doesn’t hate you.” He assured me though I didn’t believe it. “She hates what you are. If she knew you at all, she’d adore you like the rest of us.”
“You adore me?”
A slow smile spread across his face. His gaze lowered to my mouth. Alex gave a lazy blink. My pulse quickened in anticipation. It amazed me that he didn’t have to touch me to get such a reaction. 
Alex’s hand lifted to my right cheek as he leaned forward to meet my lips.
Nervously I laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I more than adore you, Aeon.” The serious expression that had descended into his eyes made me take note. He truly believed it. “And I’d adore you even more if you’d kiss me.”
“I am kissing you,” I said with a gesture to our nearly touching lips.
Alex pulled back into his seat with a sly half smile. I considered following him so I could continue to kiss him but decided against it. We were in a car, alone, at night. There was only so much kissing we could do before it would have to go further.
“I hate that we are hounded by cameras,” Alex said as I slid back to my own seat. “I want to take you out for a nice date tomorrow but I know we’ll have at least one person following our every move.”
“It will be a nice date anyway.”
His lips twisted at me. “How do you know?”
“Because it’s with you.”
He breathed through his nose in a slight laugh. “Look how well our last date ended. I want to do something special to make it up to you.”
I assumed he was referring to my visiting his family. I hadn’t really considered it a date. “You could take me to McDonald’s for fries you won on a coupon and it would be special.”
Alex stared at me silently for a long moment with a frozen expression. I contemplated adding more to my cheesy line to make it less pathetic but couldn’t seem to form words on my lips. He adjusted himself so that he was seated normally in the seat again and threw his hand up to his forehead.
I’d said something wrong. He was upset now. Why did I always have to mess everything up?
“I must be crazy.” He pressed his eyes shut and gave a shake of his head.
My stomach flipped sickly. He’d obviously realized how much of a loser I really was. How could I have said that about McDonald’s? People like Alex probably never ate fast food. 
I followed his lead by sitting in the seat as designed and waiting with an unsettled stomach for him to explain why he was crazy.
“You’re going to run screaming to the hills,” he said at last.
Me? What could possibly make me run screaming to the hills if a flesh-eating zombie-thing hadn’t done the trick?
Alex continued speaking in what sounded to be sincerity. “I don’t know how it’s possible after only a few weeks but I think I’m falling in love with you.”
My unsettled stomach flipped again while my heart skipped several beats. I stared forward in shock, unwilling to look at him in case he recanted. Gorgeous new guy Alex Chattan thought he was falling in love with me? How had that happened?
“I mean, I knew I liked you, a lot,” he said at a rambling pace. “But when you stepped back on that dock and demanded the thing stop, I was floored. I was also so scared I could hardly think. I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened to you.”
I turned toward him, grasped his face in between my hands and kissed him full on the lips. The startled eyes that looked into mine slowly slid shut a moment later. I let my eyes shut as well. Then I kissed him harder.
He was smiling more broadly than I ever recalled seeing when I pulled back. It was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen. I couldn’t help but smile back.
“You’re not screaming,” he said sheepishly.
“No.”
“That was nice.”
I nibbled on my lower lip. “I don’t suck at it?”
Alex laughed quickly. “No. No, you definitely don’t suck at it.”
When am I going to wake up from this dream, Alex?”
“What?” He’d sounded confused.
“You’re too good to be true. That usually means I’m either dreaming or I’m missing something.”
He shifted his pose abruptly, facing me more. Alex’s tone was incredulous. “You think I’m too good to be true?”
“Well…yes.”
“I’m a shapeshifter,” he said. “I turn into a cat. How can I be too good to be true?”
“The fact that you’re different makes you even more too good to be true. Like you said, we can be ourselves together.” I paused for a breath. “Alex, I barely functioned all week because I was scared I’d never see you again.”
He slid his arm behind my shoulder and pulled me to him for a hug. “We Chattans are a hardy bunch. You’ll be seeing a lot more of me.”
I couldn’t stop my stupid smile because that was exactly what I wanted.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The glass behind Alex’s head shattered. A hand curled over the top of his hair, yanking him away from me. An animalistic growl emitted from him followed by a cat-like shriek as his body was pulled through the glass shards into the parking lot beyond. 
Alex shifted into his other form midair and quickly broke free from his attacker. A half second later his huge midnight paw clawed the creature in the face.
The shock of it all kept me quiet but it didn’t keep me frozen. I bounded from the car without a thought for my own safety and ran around the front of the Chevy to gauge the situation. 
Another seven-foot tall ghastly thin creature with tattered clothing was attacking my boyfriend. I tried to find an opening in the fight to apply my special power. Limbs moved far too quickly as they clawed and swatted each other. Despite the color difference I could barely make out where the tattered creature ended and Alex began. I needed them to split apart.
As if hearing my wish, the creature lunged for me, no doubt because I was tastier smelling than my animal companion. It was the opening I needed. I jumped forward, laid a hand on its arm and made it freeze.
The panther clawed and snarled a few more times. He soon realized his quarry had stopped moving. Alex pulled back cautiously and eyed the creature closely before trotting to the back door of his car. He turned to look at me and then nudged the handle with his nose. I covered the small smile on my face. 
Poor Alex. With no opposable thumbs he couldn’t do something as simple as open the car door on his own. It was sweet in a bizarre way. 
I didn’t know why he wanted in the car but I wasn’t going to argue with him. It was his car. If he wanted to tear up the upholstery with his massive claws then who was I to stop him? 
I closed the distance, waited for him to step back so there was room and then opened the door for him. He hopped in, pawed at the door again as if he wanted me to close it and then settled into the back seat until I had.
A sneezing noise from within had me turning quickly on my heel to face the opposite direction. I took the opportunity to pick up Alex’s shredded clothing off the blacktop so that no one would know we’d been there. The black jeans and gray thermal shirt he’d been wearing were torn into pieces by the force of his body changing. Even his tennis shoes had been split in two. How many sets of clothes did the Chattans go through in a month?
The door opened behind me. I assumed that meant he’d shifted back but I didn’t dare turn around. Who knew what he was wearing now.
I blushed at the sight of his naked upper half. He’d pulled on sweat pants that he’d no doubt stashed in the back of his car. Apparently he hadn’t thought to bring extra shirts, socks or shoes. The sight of his wounds offset my embarrassment. Three long gashes from the glass of the window glistened painfully. I was instantly concerned that they might not heal properly if he didn’t get them stitched soon.
“We can’t leave that thing here and we certainly can’t set it on fire here. I need to get it home where it’s safe,” Alex said.
He had a point. The parking lot outside the factory operating on second shift was not the best place to dispose of a supernatural creature. I closed the distance to it and waited to be told what to do.
Alex took hold of the wendigo from behind, careful not to touch any fluids on it. The thing’s bulky frame was nearly impossible to get into the car. Alex was forced to climb in the back seat and tug with all his might until we got the thing halfway in.
Back in the passenger seat, I sat with a keen gaze fixed on the disgusting sunken eyes in the seat behind us. If it awoke from its frozen state, I’d have to put the whammy on it pronto before it distracted my driver. The last thing we needed was a bloodthirsty cannibal playing backseat driver.
“I hope you don’t mind coming out to the house again,” Alex said as we pulled onto the main street.
I laughed a little hysterically that he was bothering to worry about something as simple as that. “No. I wouldn’t let you drive with this thing in the car without me.”
“I’m definitely falling in love with you.”
My heart skipped again. It was an odd time to tell me something like that but somehow it fit perfectly for us. 
“Here.” He handed me a cellular phone from beneath the armrest before I could respond. “Can you find ‘home’ and call it? The speaker phone button will show up once you’ve hit call.”
I fumbled with the digital menus until I found the item for home. Seconds later the phone rang loudly in the car. I kept an eye on the wendigo in the back seat in case the phone disturbed it while holding the screen in between us.
The sugary sweet voice of his little sister answered. “Lex!”
“Put Dad on the phone, Abs,” he said brusquely.
“Dad!” she shouted without pulling the phone away. The sound reverberated in my eardrums. “It’s Lex! He wants to talk to you on the phone.” Abby wasn’t content with waiting quietly for her father to come to the phone. “Did you kiss her?”
Alex glanced at me briefly and smiled. “Of course I kissed her.”
“Did she notice your foul cat breath?”
“Abs,” he griped petulantly.
“So you had a breath mint first?”
“She can hear you, Abs.”
“Oh, oopsie,” Abby responded sheepishly. “Hi, Aeon!”
I chuckled for her benefit. “Hi, Abby.”
“Here’s Dad.”
The phone changed hands noisily. Arthur’s smooth voice spoke over the speaker. “Hello?”
Alex was all business. “We’ve got another one of those things in the back seat. It attacked me while I was in the car but Aeon froze it. We’re bringing it to you. I’m going to need help getting it out of the car and doing something with it.”
Arthur swore quietly. “I’ll get the clan together. Be safe, Alex.”
“I will.”
The call disconnected abruptly. I set the phone in the area beneath the armrest then resumed my vigil over the thing behind me. 
Alex’s car stunk now. The odor was unbearable. I had to open my window to keep from gagging even though it was thirty degrees outside. The stench was definitely because of the wendigo because the car had smelled perfectly fine the few times I’d been in it. It had smelled more than fine. It had smelled like Alex.
“I’m gonna need a new car,” Alex grumbled.
“We’ll spray three bottles of Febreeze in here.”
“Well, not only that, but the window.” He gestured beside him.
“Your back!” I frowned upon remembering what it had looked like.
“Mom will take care of it after we’re done.”
“It must hurt.”
“It doesn’t feel good,” he said. “But I’ll be fine. All things considered, it could have been far worse. That thing could have bitten me.”
“Where are they coming—” 
Alex had slammed on the brakes to avoid something in the middle of the darkened country road. My heart jumped into my throat. A large silhouette coming for us in the headlights was no moose. 
“Another wendigo! Alex, we can’t let it—”
“I know. Can you freeze it?”
“Not without touching it.”
He cursed then maneuvered the car to the shoulder. Alex was out the door a split second later. He pulled off his sweat pants as though he meant to shift there on the side of the road while the thing lumbered toward us. 
The black panther tackled the wendigo before I’d realized he’d finished transforming. He hadn’t explained any plan to me but I assumed he’d want me to freeze the creature while he distracted it. I stepped out of the car, crept behind them. Alex held the creature down so I could touch its foot, freezing it. Alex pulled back as soon as he realized the wendigo was no longer moving.
Glass crashing a short distance away was the final straw. I let out the scream I’d been holding in since the initial attack.
“Shhh,” Alex crooned softly in my ear. His bronzed arms pulled me back for a tight hug.
“I can only hold one of them at a time,” I said miserably.
“It will be okay.” 
How could he be so calm when there were two of these things? 
“I’m going to distract the one in the car,” he said. “I want you to freeze it again. Then you need to call my house and have them give you directions. Can you do that?”
“Yes, but what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to draw the other one home on foot.”
“Alex, no.” I twisted in his arms until we faced each other.
His slate-blue eyes were far too serious for his young age. With a bittersweet smile he replied, “It’s the only way we can make sure they don’t attack anyone else.”
I winced as his finger slid beneath my chin, lifting my lips to his. It felt too much like a final gesture. He’d just come back to me after days of being apart. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him again.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “I can easily outrun it. I’ve got to shift now before the thing trashes my car anymore than it already has.” 
He pulled me upward onto the tips of my toes for another firm kiss. I clung to his sides desperately but the soft fur was already breaking out across his skin. 
I jumped back in time for him to fall onto his front paws and start into a run. The ferocious snarl ahead seconds later meant he’d already engaged in battle.
The wendigo had gotten halfway through the window before Alex attacked. With flailing arms the massive creature tried to fight against the powerful slices the panther’s claws made on each pass. I snuck around the car to the opposite door as quietly as I could but its senses caught on my presence. The wendigo pulled itself away from the fight into the backseat toward me. Recklessly I pounced on it and froze it in place.
The black panther shot out toward the tree line a breath later. I made myself get out of the back seat. On my way to the driver’s side I made sure to pick up his sweatpants. Down into the front seat I sunk inside the stinky Cobalt. 
I took hold of the phone I’d used minutes earlier. My fingers trembled on the buttons until I got the correct entry up. Soon it was ringing.
“Lex!” Abby had answered once again.
“It’s Aeon,” I said in a wavering voice. “I need someone to give me directions to your house.”
“Um, one second.”
Anna’s voice spoke next. “Where are you?”
“I have no idea. We were on our way there so I assume we’re close.” I trembled from the fear for Alex more than the cold flowing in through the broken windows. “It’s dark. There are no street lamps and there are a ton of trees but the road is still paved. I don’t see lights anywhere around so I can’t be near any houses.”
“Okay. You’re probably on Brown. Go ahead and start driving. Describe anything you see that isn’t a tree.”
Anna’s calm was inspiration enough draw in a deep breath and try to focus. “I have to turn on the car. One second.” 
My trembling fingers fumbled with the keys. I started forward at no faster than ten miles per hour. Driving wasn’t a skill I’d perfected and I was even worse at doing it in the dark.
“What happened?”
“We almost ran into another one with the car,” I said. “When I froze it, the one in the backseat woke up. Alex is trying to lead the other one to you. I’m so scared.” A terrified snuffle escaped me.
“The one with you is frozen though, right?”
“That isn’t what I’m scared about.”
Anna’s voice softened. “He’ll be fine. Just worry about getting here. Okay?”
“Okay. I see a mailbox. Hold on.” I slowed in front of it. “Yeah, two thousand and forty one Brown Street.”
“Okay, hon. You’re going to have to drive two miles down this road and look for the Lake Shore street sign on the right.”
I checked the trip counter on the speedometer and tried to add two to it. The simple math was nearly impossible in my frazzled state. My eyes were peeled on the road for wild life—supernatural or otherwise. 
An oncoming car made my stomach flip sickly. I nearly forgot to turn the high beams down in my worry. What if the driver could tell there was a seven-foot monster in the back seat?
Anna’s voice broke into my worried thoughts after the car had passed. “Aeon? Did you find it yet?”
“No. I’m doing like ten miles per hour.”
She gently scolded me. “Honey, you need to speed up a little more or someone is going to think you’re a drunk driver.”
“I can barely drive,” I moaned pitifully.
“You have your license?”
“No.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine, Aeon. It isn’t really that hard. Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly.”
I did as Anna requested.
“Feel any better?”
A nervous laugh was my first answer. “Not really. Oh! I see the sign!”
“Take the right at Lake Shore. You’re almost here.”
It was a fib but I didn’t fault her for it. I knew half of the trip had been on dirt roads. I’d turned onto the first. I’d wanted to gnaw on my fingernails badly but didn’t dare pull my hands from the steering wheel.
“Okay. I can hear the car,” Anna said fifteen minutes later. “You’re going to come upon a hidden driveway to your left.” She paused a long moment. “Okay, slow down. See it?”
The opening in the greenery was so overgrown that I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t spotted the sparkling eyes of Anna beside it. “Barely, but only because I see you.”
“Want me to drive now?”
I heard her voice both over the phone and from outside the window. “Yes, please.”
She disconnected the phone. We exchanged places but not before she cast worried glances at the thing in the back. I hurried around and got into the passenger seat as her foot revved the engine.
Anna drove like a NASCAR driver up to the house. The clan converged on the car before she’d turned it off. No one asked where Alex was, what had happened or why I was in his car without him. Their primary concern seemed to be ridding the world of the creature in the backseat. 
Drew, Aaron and Antonio removed the wendigo from the car with ease. The guys made it look easy even though the thing had to weigh a ton.
A bonfire was already going in the backyard. I turned away, moving toward the car again because I didn’t want to watch what followed. My fingernails went to my mouth for a good biting session as I stood in the lamplight out front.
Alex was out there somewhere. A monster was chasing him. We’d run into two of them within a half hour’s time. There was no telling how many more of them there were. He might be able to easily outrun one wendigo. Could he handle more than one? I hoped he wouldn’t have to find out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“He’ll be fine.” Anna’s soothing voice did little to chase away my fear. Nor had her squeeze of my arm.
“We ran into two,” I repeated my worries aloud. “There may be more.”
She nodded mutely while looking into the darkness ahead.
“And he got pretty scratched up by the car window,” I added.
Anna’s eyes snapped to mine. Worry flickered in them before she hid it behind another reassuring smile. “We’re going to go out after him. You were ten miles from here. If he’s moving at the wendigo’s speed it will take him nearly an hour to get home.”
“You need me. I’m going too.”
She shook her head. “We’ll make do without putting you in danger.”
“But I can freeze it so we can get it back here.”
Her eyes scanned mine for a moment. “I’m sure he’d prefer you not be involved in this anymore than necessary.”
The answer irritated me enough to give her the truth. “I don’t want him involved in it either. But he is. So I think it’s only fair that I help.”
She gave brief smile. “I know you want to help but you have no immunity to their attacks—”
“What if this is why Chronos gave me my power?” They couldn’t leave me behind. I had to make sure Alex was safe. “This might be the bad thing that happens to Junction Hill. He gave me the ability to manipulate time for a reason. I need to go with you!”
Anna sighed in defeat. “You can come if you insist. But you’re staying at the back with Abby and Arnold. Alex will never forgive me if anything happens to you.”
I threw my arms around her for an impulsive hug. “Thank you!”
She was smiling when I pulled back.
Crimson flushed through my cheeks. “Sorry.”
Gravel crunching beneath boots meant the rest of the clan was about to join us. I was ushered into Arnold’s care. He, the youngest clan member and I got into his gold Cadillac while the others got into a blue SUV and the black van.
The SUV took point and we followed behind the van down the winding drive to the road. No one spoke. Even the chatterbox Abby was grimly quiet. Without the noise of the radio to distract me I could only soothe my worries by biting my pathetically stunted nails.
The caravan came to a halt shortly before we would have turned onto the paved road. Each of the three vehicles pulled off to the side of the dirt road, turned off their lights and sat quietly. A moment later Arnold and Abby reached for their handles as the doors of the other cars opened in synchronization. It was almost as if they’d coordinated silently. I was clearly the odd man out.
I could barely make out the two figures beside me in the inky darkness. “We’re going to shift,” Arnold said gruffly. “But we’re going to stash our clothes out here. I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”
I stood stock-still as the sound of their foot falls quieted in the distance. Several sneeze-like sounds echoed from ahead.
Rustling in the brush worried me. I hoped it was one of the Chattan clan but I couldn’t be sure. It was too dark.
A soft nose pressed against my hand startling me. It nudged me again. I could barely make out the white fur. Something brushed against my other side. Arnold? His midnight fur made it impossible to see him.
It was slow going through the trees beside the white cat. As soon as I heard the scuffle ahead our pace increased as if the white cat were raring for action. The fight was over in an instant with little fanfare. She turned with a small snort and nudged me backward.
After much confusion I was guided back to the cars. The white cat left me beside the Cadillac before disappearing to where I assumed her clothes had been left. She rejoined me in her original outfit minutes later but didn’t speak.
In the glow the van’s interior lights cast I could see that Drew and Aaron were dressed again. They’d managed to find two pairs of gloves someplace and were now lifting pieces of the wendigo onto the van floor.
The thing’s severed head was tossed atop the stack of pieces. Something grabbed from behind. I nearly jumped out of my skin but I did scream.
“Shhh,” Alex whispered in my ear. “It’s only me.”
I turned and threw my arms around him. “I was so worried.”
Someone must have lent him clothes because he had on a t-shirt and track pants. “I was fine. No worries.” He hugged me tightly. “You should have stayed back at the house.”
“I thought they’d need my help.”
Alex’s right arm slid away so he could move us toward the car’s door. “Now that we know we’re immune in our animal form, the clan can easily handle them. It’s just the proper disposal of the body that’s a little tricky.”
He opened the back door of the Cadillac and helped me inside then sat beside me. Abby was already in the front seat. She twirled in her seat and smacked the headrest.
“I always miss out! Alex, you promised you’d talk to dad.”
“I did talk to him. He said the same thing he always does: you’re too young.”
“I’m thirteen! He let you fight when you were thirteen. This isn’t cuz I’m young. It’s because I’m albino.”
“Abs, it’s not because you’re albino. It’s because you’re his little girl and he doesn’t want to see you get hurt. Plus, the few times you have joined in, you’ve been reckless.”
Her lips pursed. “That’s only because no one would let me do anything so I jumped in where I could.”
“You can’t do that. You know we all have our place. Until you learn yours, he isn’t going to let you join.”
She tossed her hands up. “How can I learn my place when they make me stay fifty feet back?”
“I know it’s tough but you have to be patient.”
Arnold approached. 
Abby righted herself in the seat but she grumbled a comeback when it was too late for Alex to retort. “You weren’t.”
The Cadillac was the only vehicle to start back. Perhaps the others were scouring the forest floor to remove signs of the struggle. It seemed like a reasonable explanation.
Without a caravan to follow, the eldest member of the clan drove like a bank robber fleeing the police. I quickly put on my seat belt then grabbed onto Alex’s arm for dear life. He laughed and covered my hand with his.
The trip that had taken fifteen minutes when I’d driven it and eight minutes with the caravan took Arnold a mere four minutes. Up the winding drive he drove like a man who had lived there his entire life and was impatient to get back. We slowed only when we neared the garage around the side of the house.
The car’s brakes applied far earlier than they should have. I saw why when I followed their gazes to the glow that had once been the bonfire. In the dull orange light stood the figures of six wendigo.
Arnold put the car in reverse and began backing the car slowly down the driveway. The figures broke into a run for us. He slammed the breaks and put it in park.
“Aeon,” Arnold said rapidly. “We’re going to shift. You’re going to open the car door, run into the house and lock the door behind you.”
For once I had no interest in arguing with their overprotective demands. I nodded my assent. The creatures barreled down on us. I opened the door as soon as I heard the tearing of their clothing. Alex sprung over me onto the gravel drive. He knocked over the closest wendigo. I bolted from the back seat toward the house.
The front door was thankfully unlocked. I slammed it behind me and then peered out the narrow glass windows on either side. There was nothing to see from that vantage point. It was infuriating. How could I hope to help if I couldn’t see anything?
I made my way through the house until I found windows looking out onto the fight. The ferocious battle was loud enough that the sound was easy to follow. Even the white cat had a foe. Alex checked on her before heading to his second victim. His concern had earned him a swat on the nose from the pale white paw.
The French doors ten feet from me shattered in a deafening crash. I screamed in terror even as I tried to process what had happened. Five wendigo had found their way onto the deck stomped through the room toward me. I bolted for the front door and struggled to lock it behind me in the hope they weren’t smart enough to get it open. 
“There are more in the house,” I shouted at the cats. I pounded onto the front steps and down into the gravel driveway. Four more creatures emerged from the forest on the opposite side of the driveway. I halted, fear slicing through me. “And four more just walked out of the trees beside us!”
If only the other clan members would hurry up! We stood a far better chance against the horde with all nine cats. What could they possibly be doing? 
I headed toward the fighting cats because I didn’t know where else to go. Two sets of headlights appeared in the trees, moving far faster than was legal. Soon the cars weaved up the driveway at maniac speeds. Six individuals jumped from the SUV and van, shifted into their animal forms as they ran and engaged the monsters in combat.
A massive pack of creatures appeared from the same copse of trees as the previous four. The sea of heads and tattered clothing made me nearly lose my lunch. There were dozens within the light and perhaps more I couldn’t see in the shadows behind. 
I held my breath. And then wished for time to stop.
I knew it was against the Chattan clan’s rules for me to freeze time but I had to think. How could nine cats and one of me hope to fight against a number so large? Even if they were immune to the creature’s madness in their animal form, they weren’t immune to physical attacks.
The cats’ attacks continued even though time had stilled. My heart soared. I’d forgotten the Chattan clan was immune to my power. The wendigo weren’t quite so lucky.
I nervously watched as the beleaguered family methodically handled the sea of monsters until I could barely keep my eyes open. The longer I held time captive, the less I was able to hold myself up. 
When the final wendigo fell, I exhaled deeply, allowed time to resume and promptly passed out on the driveway.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Warm, comfortable and safe—those were the adjectives that came to mind when I awoke. I was in a bed in a room I didn’t recognize. But I knew the face in the chair beside me. Alex. He was snoring quietly. I had the urge to kiss him but didn’t want to wake him from his slumber.
“Aeon.” He said my name like a prayer.
I hadn’t realized his eyes had opened. He blinked with the lazy gaze of someone who had recently woken from a sound sleep.
“Are you okay?” We both asked at once. Our answering chuckles were a little too cutesy.
“I’m fine,” I said. “You?”
“Tired.”
“Is it over?”
Alex shook his head. “We don’t know. There were stragglers all night. They stopped coming when the sun rose. Father thinks we’ve taken care of the majority of them. We’re going to canvas the area tonight but I think we’ve probably saved Junction Hill from a catastrophe thanks to you.”
I winced because I recalled what I’d done to help. “They’re not mad that I broke the rule and froze time?”
He laughed quietly. “No. Even Alicia knows we would have been toast if you hadn’t helped.”
I glanced at the window next to me. The light pouring in meant I’d been away from home all night. A blush colored my cheeks. My mom was going to flip.
I couldn’t tell her I’d spent the night at the Chattans’ without her thinking something improper had happened. It would be nearly impossible to convince her otherwise.
“What’s wrong?”
I forced a smile for Alex. He’d sounded so concerned. It was sweet. With a soft shake of my head I replied, “It’s silly.”
He slid from the chair and sat next to me on the bed. His warm hand covered mine. “I like silly.”
My attention dropped to our hands. “I know I should be worrying about life and death but right now I’m just trying to decide how I’m going to explain to my mom why I’m not in bed at home.”
“You should tell her the truth.”
I swallowed hard and nodded that he was right. I did need to tell her the truth. There was no time like the present.
My gaze lifted and held his. “You’d better take me home before I lose my nerve.”
* * * *
Minutes later Alex and I drove down the dirt road away from the Lake in Anna’s Volkswagen. I couldn’t help but look for signs of the wendigo and their attack in the trees. There seemed to be little evidence of anything at all.
Alex held my hand during the entire drive but said little. I imagined it was hard to talk between his near constant yawning. I hoped he’d be able to make it home safely in his exhausted state. It would have been smart for us to bring another family member but neither of us had wanted to bother them while they scoured for stragglers and slept in shifts.
We reached Eagle Street far too quickly. I leaned over and kissed him before he could initiate. The pleased smile on his face afterward was worth my effort. He certainly seemed to enjoy when I kissed him far more than he enjoyed kissing me. I guessed I really didn’t suck at it.
His smile fled quickly as if he’d remembered something upsetting. “Unfortunately I’m going to have to postpone our date tonight.”
“Its okay. I understand.”
“It sucks too,” he groused petulantly. “I had tickets to the symphony.”
I blushed while smiling a little too broadly. “Alex, you’re too perfect.”
He gave an adorable laugh. “And your only flaw is that you think I’m perfect.”
Alex kissed me, cutting short any argument I might have given. I instantly forgot what I would have been disagreeing with. 
We hugged tightly while he wished me luck and told me to call him when I’d finished. My trepidation exploded as the Volkswagen pulled away from the curb and I was left standing in front of the entrance.
I took the stairs up, stepped through into the kitchen and stared at the closed door to my mother’s bedroom. She hadn’t woken up yet. She might not have realized I was gone.
But I still needed to tell her. It was time.
I showered away the grime of my ghastly night, dressed in comfortable clothes and sat on the couch with the intent to wait until she woke. With a call into Felix, I gave myself a few extra hours. Now the tricky part would only be getting Mom out of the house before Guy appeared with the camera. This was definitely not a poignant mother-daughter discussion that could be filmed.
She appeared bedraggled at her door after I’d banged a few pans too loudly in the kitchen. I let her visit the bathroom first then declared that we were going out to breakfast together and that she had to hurry or I was going to be late to work. Ten minutes later she emerged from the bedroom with an intentionally disheveled appearance. 
She covered a yawn as I tugged on her arm to the car parked out back. My hands didn’t stop tapping the door handle with a rhythmic beat until she griped at me to hush up. I sat on them in an effort to still their nervous movement. I’d start up again as soon as I let my thoughts drift off to how I’d broach the subject.
I handed the breakfast menu to the waitress at our favorite breakfast haunt. 
The words tumbled out of my mouth as soon as she was gone. “Mom, I have something to tell you.”
My mother’s drowsy eyes cleared in an instant while her fingers stilled on the cup of coffee she’d been about to lift. “You’re pregnant.”
I gasped in horror. “No!”
Her hand went to her chest. “Oh, thank god.” She lifted the coffee and took a sip.
“I know who my father is.”
Mom choked on her drink. With a hasty gesture she set it down and snatched up her napkin, covering her mouth.
I continued before I lost my nerve. “The dream I told you about, well, it was no dream. I know who my father is and I can manipulate time. I can freeze it and freeze specific things in it.”
She slowly lifted the cloth from her mouth and dabbed her eyes. “Oh, Aeon. I’m so sorry I never told you. I didn’t think you’d believe me. I didn’t believe it myself.”
She hadn’t freaked out? Had she heard me when I’d told her I could do things with time? Was I going to have to say it again?
I reached across and took her hand. “I know, Mom. I completely understand.”
She smiled ruefully. “I always knew you’d be an extraordinary girl. And you are, even without any of that.” My mother seemed to be the nervous one now. She launched onto a completely different topic. “The documentary people saw that too. That’s why they picked you even though you had no interest in it.”
“They picked me because that casting guy wanted a date with you,” I reminded her with a grumble.
“The casting guy?” Mom dropped the napkin onto the table. “He’s the director’s boyfriend.”
“Then why did he ask you for your number?”
“He wanted the salon’s number so he could make an appointment for a hair cut. He never did show up for that appointment even though I went in early for him.”
I stared at her in confusion. If the casting director was gay then he couldn’t possibly want a date with my mom. Had they really picked me on my own merits?
My head spun as I recalled the conversation at hand. “You’re not freaked out that I can do special things?”
She gave me a wide smile that extended to her eyes. “I love you, Aeon. Everything you do is special to me and nothing you could ever do would freak me out enough to change that one bit.”
It was my turn to dab moisture from my eyes. “I love you too, Mom.”
She squeezed my hand. I returned her broad smile eagerly. 
If my life had ever been more perfect I couldn’t recall it.
“There you are.” An average male voice interrupted our tender mother-daughter moment. “We’ve been looking for you all over.”
I glanced to the side and discovered a video camera’s lens in my face. With a groan I picked up my orange juice, sipped and mentally counted the days until the documentary was over. 
Then my life could truly be perfect.

EPILOGUE

Mom valiantly tried to hide her grin when we stepped into the Chattan family’s dining room. She never ceased to amaze me with how accepting she was of all things weird and unusual. Though she’d gaped for a few seconds when I’d told her that my boyfriend was a shapeshifting panther, she’d nevertheless treated him and the whole Chattan clan with her usual warmth. That had made the remainder of the documentary a whole lot easier.
The past eight months had been lucky. I suspected that had a little something to do with the black-haired individuals seated at the dinner table. 
Anna started around the wooden obstacle so she could give my mother a large hug. The two women retreated into the large kitchen. They returned carrying the remaining dinner dishes while chatting animatedly about a new recipe Anna had tried.
Since the documentary had wrapped we’d been able to pay off all of my mom’s medical bills and set aside a little savings for the future. It had helped that Anna had secured my mom a better paying job with a law office that had recently done a redecoration. She now made enough money to only work one job and that one job made her far happier than the two she’d worked previously.
To top it off, two months ago Arthur had found us a beautiful condominium off the lake on the edge of suburbia. It had one of the Chattan clan’s complex electrical systems installed. We were still trying to understand how it all worked. Best of all, it didn’t have a single camera. We were thrilled about that.
Alex stood so he could pull out the seat beside him like a regular gentleman. His smile was sweet and gorgeous as he gazed across the room at me. I tried not to give in to the urge to rush to him for a hug. I had news he was going to want to hear first. 
His eyebrows lifted questioningly when I tugged a thick envelope from my purse. I waved it around playfully for him to see. 
“I have news,” I said, barely able to keep my voice steady.
Abby spoke up with a wry delivery, “Is it about the new Zelda game?”
I turned the envelope around, showing Alex the castle-like logo of Eastern Illinois University on the front. “I got in.”
Alex’s eyes rolled. “Duh.”
“And I got a full ride.”
This time his response was wordless. I couldn’t help but grin when his mouth went slack. 
It was Drew who shot up and gave me a large hug first. “Congratulations, Aeon!” Ruffling my hair, Alex’s brother added, “You’re one step closer to becoming a panther.”
Arthur got to his feet to join in the well wishing. “She’s already part of Clan Chattan. She’ll always be an honorary panther.”
“Honorary panther?” Anna queried on her way back into the room, carrying bowls brimming with vegetables and my mom trailing behind her shoulder.
“Aeon got a full ride to Eastern Illinois,” Abby explained.
“Oh, Aeon, that’s wonderful news!”
I nodded eagerly as I made my way around the table to where my boyfriend still stood gaping. His lack of a response made me a little uncertain. Did he want to go away to Illinois together next year? Or had he hoped to get rid of me when we graduated?
“Looks like you’ll have to wait another four years to get rid of me,” I joked.
“You’re part of Clan Chattan,” Alex said. He stepped forward until he was inches from me. He set his hands to my shoulders, lowering his head just enough until we were eye-to-eye. “You’re an honorary panther. And once we’re of age I’ll ask you to be my mate now and forever.”
My cheeks flushed warm because I knew this mate business was serious. Nonetheless I found myself smiling. “And once we’re of age I’ll accept you as my mate now and forever.”
The declaration began a torrent of hugs and happy exclamations. I had little doubt that this was the beginning of a beautiful life.
<<<>>>
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