Chapter 15

I was sitting in the school parking lot waiting for Steven and Jodi as the final bell rang. I had to promise Jensen’s mom that if I heard anything from Jensen or anyone else that I would tell her immediately. She’d given me her house and cell phone numbers, insisting that I put them into my cell phone while she watched before she was satisfied and let me leave.

She had confessed to me that Jensen hadn’t been very happy about their move to California; they were from a small town in New Mexico a few hours outside of Albuquerque. Ian had been very excited to get out of the heat and into a town with a “real population” as he called it. She’d said she was terrified that Jensen had run away to go back to New Mexico and that maybe Ian had followed him to bring him home. Somehow that didn’t sound right to me.

I was so lost in my thoughts that when Jodi opened the passenger side door I jumped in my seat. My right hand shot to my chest, as if trying to keep my heart from bursting out of my ribcage.

“Sorry,” Jodi said with a laugh. Steven crawled in back. Jodi slipped in easily next to me, pulling the door closed and adjusting the heating vents. After they were buckled into place and I pulled out of the space and merged with the line of cars trying to escape the parking lot, Jodi turned and looked at me with an expectant look on her face, waiting.

“Sorry I took off like that. I just, I dunno, when I saw Jensen was gone I just couldn’t stop myself. I think it actually pissed me off.” I said in a rush, glaring out the windshield.

“So? Where did you go?” Steven asked, reaching over the seat to shake my shoulder with each word.

“To his house. I had to see him. See his arm.” My voice was desolate, even to me.

“Let me guess,” Jodi said darkly, “He wasn’t there, was he?”

“No, but neither was Ian.” I turned onto the main road out of the parking lot, not totally sure where I was going, I didn’t know if I wanted to go home yet. “But his mother was there and she was practically hysterical.”

“Why?” Steven asked.

“I guess neither of them have been home since Thursday.” A fresh wave of nausea hit me as I spoke. I closed my eyes against the sickness, thankful for the red light we had come to.

“Are you serious?” Jodi’s voice was pitched too high and it hurt my ears. I cringed, not trusting my voice, so I just nodded in answer. “Dude, that’s four days, almost five now,” Jodi said and I was grateful to hear she was speaking in a hushed voice now. I opened my eyes just in time to see the light phase to green and I accelerated slowly into the intersection.

“Has she reported them missing?” Steven asked, sounding genuinely worried.

“Yeah, but since they’re almost eighteen and to the cops it looks like they left voluntarily, they say they can’t do much.” My mood was growing darker with every word. I had desperately wanted to see Jensen and clear his name.

Everything was completely out of control now and I felt lost and desperate. Just to look into his eyes for one of those stolen moments would have been enough. Now I didn’t know what to think. I gripped the steering wheel wishing I was holding onto him. I didn’t understand this overwhelming feeling for having known him such a short amount of time, but there it was.

“Good to know people our age matter so much,” Steven said sarcastically. I saw Jodi shift uncomfortably in her seat. Her father was a local cop, but I wouldn’t hold her or her dad responsible for the policies of the whole police department.

“Well, it’s not like they don’t have enough to do without chasing after two guys that are practically legal adults. I’m sure if it were two seventeen year old girls gone for five days they’d say something different,” I said in defense of Jodi’s father.

“Yeah, definitely,” Jodi said defensively.

“Oh good, so just me then,” Steven said, folding his arms over his chest and falling back against the back seat, brooding.

“Dude, just shut up. Can we focus for one freaking second?” My temper was so close to the surface these days that sometimes it was just easier to let it out in spurts rather than hold it all in all the time. I caught Steven’s glare in the rearview mirror and before I could stop myself I stuck my tongue out at him, crinkling my nose and brow. Steven mimicked me, adding a shake of his head. It was all so serious but we had totally regressed ten years in that moment.

I turned the car then, pulling into a parking lot and driving up to a Starbucks. I eased into a parking space and put the car in park and waited, unbuckling my seatbelt and sighing into the seat, trying to relax my shoulders. I looked at Jodi. Her face was lost in thought, lines creasing her forehead, and her eyes looked like they were focused on my hip, but really, she was just lost.

“So, what now?” I asked no one in particular.

“Jodi, you’re forgetting to tell her something,” Steven said with no inflection to his voice.

“What?” Jodi asked, coming back to reality.

“Tracy,” he said simply.

“What about Tracy?” I asked, sitting up suddenly, looking back and forth between them. Ever since I had saved her from Nick that horrible Friday night, I felt the desire to keep her guarded, like my baby chick to protect.

“She wasn’t at school today, either,” Jodi said, rejoining the conversation totally.

“So?” I asked.

“It could be nothing,” Jodi said, “but we thought it was a little suspicious with Ian missing today.”

“But he’s been gone since Thursday and we’ve seen Tracy since then,” I said.

“Which is why I said it could be nothing,” Jodi said, finally undoing her seatbelt too.

“You think it was Ian in the clearing? I thought you two loved him?” I was totally confused now.

“Isn’t the best bad guy the one you want to be the good guy?” Steven asked a little sarcastically. But something clicked in my memory and with that simple question I realized why Jodi had kept pressing me to think of Jensen as the bad guy. She thought I was too into him to think of him as anything but a good guy.

“Do you know what Ian feels like?” Jodi asked, looking me in the eye.

“Not really. He was so nervous and pent up at the store I couldn’t get a good read on him,” I said, disappointment leaking through every word.

“Too bad,” Jodi said simply, looking out her window at nothing in particular.

“I need coffee.” I grabbed my purse and opened my door, not waiting for the other two to follow, knowing they would anyway. I almost ran to get into the store. I felt my cheeks sting when the warm air rushed over me as I pulled the door open and stepped inside. I felt Steven and Jodi behind me and I walked straight to the counter, grateful the after work rush hadn’t started. I considered all the lovely, sugar infused concoctions, but talked myself into a healthier choice and took a strong, large cup of drip coffee, doctoring it with raw sugar and real cream. I sat at a corner table, waiting for Steven and Jodi to get their drinks, cradling the warm cup between my hands, letting the heat relax my fingers and arms. The whole coffee ritual was one that I loved to indulge in.

Steven and Jodi came eventually, cradling their thousand calorie drinks and sat across from me, enjoying the first few sips before any of us broke the silence. It was more than tempting to just revel in this moment of normalcy, but guilt tugged at the corners of my consciousness and I sighed, knowing we had to get back to work.

“Ok,” I said reluctantly, “so you have a bad feeling about Tracy’s absence. But it’s totally possible it’s just your normal teenage shenanigans and she ditched for the day with her boyfriend.”

“Shenanigans,” Steven repeated with a low chuckle.

“Yeah, that’s possible,” Jodi nodded at her coffee cup.

“And it’s also possible that Ian has nothing to do with any of this and whoever is doing all this is using the twins as a red herring,” I continued.

“Another possibility,” Jodi nodded again, but she was being too agreeable for me.

“And you don’t buy any of that, do you?”

“Not a bit.”

“You are so stubborn.” I didn’t sound nearly as harsh as I meant it.

“Hey, give me a better, more concrete alternative and I’ll consider it. Right now, this is all we got.”

“But it could still be coincidence,” I pressed, setting my half empty cup on the table and sitting up, I could feel my impatience rolling off of me and saw Jodi’s face react to its bite.

“Fine, it could be coincidence,” she conceded, albeit reluctantly.

“Now, I won’t dismiss Tracy’s absence, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on that,” I said, watching her face relax. “Let’s see if she comes to school tomorrow. If she doesn’t, then we’ll start to worry. Fair enough?”

“Fair enough.”

We both nodded and I felt Steven relax, he had been waiting for us to fight. We finished our coffee in silence, but it was a comfortable silence. There wasn’t much more we could do right at this moment and I felt resigned to allow us a few minutes of peace. We would need to start searching for the next ritual spot if we wanted any hope of rescuing the next victim and stopping whatever the ritual would release into our world.

I suddenly had an overwhelming sense of loss. I was terribly depressed and felt my shoulders slump and the edges of my mouth pulled down. I had the desire to cry right then and there. I realized I really missed Jensen. I flashed on the scene in his car and felt the rush of excitement and heat as I relived our first kiss. Jensen was reaching out to me. I didn’t know how, but I knew it all the same.

I reached for the chain of the necklace hidden under my sweater and pulled it out through my collar and grabbed the pendant, squeezing it in my right hand. I could taste wet earth in my mouth and fallen dead leaves; I could almost feel them crunch under my teeth. I could smell the dense foliage only an old forest has. A breeze lifted my hair, pushing it away from my face, and it was almost intoxicating. I blinked and couldn’t see the coffeehouse anymore and, though I knew they were next to me, I couldn’t even see Jodi and Steven now.

I was standing near the clearing I had seen in the scrying bowl, but I was hidden in the shadow of the tree line, looking out at it. It was empty, no table, no altar, no people, just the clearing, but I’d know it from any other clearing in any other forest for the rest of my life. The skin on my arms prickled in goose bumps as the residual power drifted over me, swirling around me and trying to take hold. It was so tempting; seductive like the whispers of a longed for lover. My fingers tingled with the desire to reach out and take hold of the power and wrap it around me. I had never felt that much power and it wanted me. I suddenly had an image of Eve finally plucking the apple from the tree, breaking the red flesh of the fruit and the juices running down her chin and the world exploding into darkness and pain. I flared out my own energy, pushing my shields farther out from my body. The tendrils of power snapped back as if burned by me and recoiled back into the clearing.

I came back to myself in a rush, slumping in my chair and gasping for breath. I held my hand at my heart and concentrated on breathing. From a distance, I was vaguely aware of Jodi and Steven talking to me, but it was like they were speaking to me underwater. Slowly their words grew louder and clearer, breaking through the pressure in my head. I blinked, trying to force my eyes to adjust to the soft light of the coffeehouse. I could feel Jodi and Steven’s hands on my back, a light and familiar pressure.

“Shay? Are you ok? Can you hear me?” Steven’s voice reached me first, but I had to remember how to talk and had a very difficult time thinking of the response he wanted to hear.

“I’m ok,” I managed. My voice was harsh like it would be after screaming for hours. I coughed roughly and they both reached for my coffee cup to hand to me, nearly dropping it in their haste. I took it with trembling hands and slowly raised it to my lips and took a drink. “I’m ok, I’m ok,” I managed to sound normal to my great relief. “I had a vision. He’s going back to his original site. The power is still there, waiting for him.”

Tracy didn’t show at school the next day. All through Home Ec I had this overwhelming sense of anxiety and nervousness, as if I was desperate to get somewhere. I looked at Steven and we both knew that Jodi wanted to find a reason to come find us and tell us that Tracy wasn’t in class as soon as possible. We found out, in the few minutes between classes, that she was so desperate to get to us because Ian was still absent as well. I gritted my teeth, not completely sure just what to do. I didn’t want to sit through class all day while something might be happening to Tracy, but I didn’t know where to find her, so we’d be on a wild goose chase if we ditched early.

“But we have to do something!” Jodi stressed when I decided we would stay for school.

“I know, and we’re going to, I promise,” I said, laying my hand on her forearm, projecting cool and soothing reassurance to her. I felt her fight the tide of emotions. I was more powerful than she, but she was trying. “Look, we just have to remember, the spell says that the victim has to come into the circle of power willingly. If something was happening to her right now, then he’d have to drag her into the circle and it won’t work.” That seemed to speak to Jodi on some level I hadn’t been able to reach yet and she visibly calmed.

“Which ‘he’ are you talking about, by the way?” Steven asked, a strange tone coloring his words.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, who do you think has Tracy?”

I considered that for a few moments. It was difficult for me to assume that either twin was responsible for whatever was going on right now. Jensen, although obviously talented to some degree, just didn’t strike me as malevolent. I wasn’t sure what to think of Ian. If he was innocent, why did he run away from me at the store? But his arm wasn’t burned. I couldn’t think straight.

“I don’t know. I guess the logical explanation would be that she’s with Ian. She’s so happy with him she’d follow him anywhere.” That stopped me. Tracy was a victim. Maybe not on purpose, but if you’re always a follower and never a leader, you’re the victim by default. “We’ll need to work on that when this mess is over.” They both nodded in agreement.

Just then the tardy bell rang overhead, jarring us from our conversation. “Awesome,” Steven said sarcastically and Jodi and I groaned in unison. As much as we would have liked to stroll casually to class, we were all too goody-goody not to hurry. We practically ran the rest of the way to French class, sliding into our seats just as the end of the bell faded away. Luckily, Madame Beaumont was writing on the white board with her back to the class when we slid in and didn’t notice we were late. We all breathed a sigh of relief. All the supernatural crap hanging around us and we were still worried about being tardy for class.

The rest of the day was just like that first hour. Each class dragged on like being caught in quicksand and the few minutes between classes passed in a second, too short to really discuss anything. Math was one of the hardest classes for me again, since Jensen was still suspiciously absent as well. My stomach was in knots by the time I got to my sixth hour elective as a Teacher’s Aide. Luckily, the kids were all taking a pop quiz and Mrs. Porter had the first four classes worth of quizzes to be graded. It was mindless work that left me to my thoughts, only having to line up the answer key to the papers and marking the correct answers with a marker if they got it wrong. I didn’t even have to read the questions. I would have to remember to volunteer to be Mrs. Porter’s aide again next year, God knows I’ll probably need the break again.

In English, I saw Michelle sitting behind Tracy’s empty desk, looking almost as forlorn as I felt and had a spark of inspiration. To my luck, the teacher called for us to pair off for a debate of modern poetry versus classic. I motioned for Steven to come take my seat to pair off with Jodi and I stood and rushed over to Tracy’s empty seat. Michelle was startled to see me and didn’t make any effort to hide that from her face.

“I know you usually pair off with Tracy, so I thought I’d rescue you from being paired off with the teacher.” I flashed my best sympathetic smile and her worry lines faded slightly from her forehead.

“Thanks,” Michelle mumbled, opening her poetry book, fixating her eyes on the page but not taking in the words. I chewed the inside of my cheek, feeling the waves of annoyance coming off of her and snapping at my face. Under that I could feel her embarrassment as she remembered coming to in the backseat of my car looking disheveled and being told that she had passed out in public. There was nothing I could do for that but just ignore it like she was. I glanced up at the clock and saw that I had been sitting there just staring at her for a full minute. I cleared my throat and tried to break the ice.

“Funny that Trace has missed two days in a row, huh? She, like, never misses. Doesn’t she even come in if she’s sick?” I asked as casually as possible.

Michelle hesitated, but I caught a flicker of something pass over her face. Finally she shrugged and said, “It was a pretty bad storm. She probably caught something bad enough to keep her home.”

“You mean you don’t know?” I arched one eyebrow, trying to get her to make eye contact with me.

“No,” she said carefully, finally lifting her eyes from the page to look at me. There was something cold and distant in her eyes. She was hiding anger. I unfocused my stare just slightly, seeming to still look her in the face, but I was really looking at the space just inches away from her skin. Her aura was pulsing red and angry. I nodded, pursing my lips and sitting back casually.

“My mistake. I take it she’s been spending a lot of time with Ian lately?” I glanced at Michelle out of the corner of my eye to see that carefully controlled mask crack for just a second at the mention of his name. “Michelle? You okay?” I asked quietly, leaning towards her again.

“Yeah…” But she sighed, like she was suddenly tired. “She’s like that.”

“Like what?”

“I dunno…” she hesitated. I held my breath, not wanting to push her. “She’s that kinda girl that lets her boyfriend become her world. She’ll blow off her friends if he wants something and it’s like she can’t talk about anything else when he’s not around.” She was concentrating very hard on the corner of her book as she spoke, her hands bending the spine until it creased.

I nodded sympathetically, looking down at my book as well. Sometimes it was easier to vent about something if no one was looking at anyone else. “Yeah, I feel you, a lot of girls can be like that,” I said vaguely, knowing Michelle was just as guilty of what Tracy was doing; it just happened that Michelle was single right at this moment. “Is that why she’s not here today? Because she ditched with Ian?” I tried to keep my voice casual. Michelle glanced up at me, suspicion plain on her face, but underneath that was her bitter anger towards Tracy. Michelle wanted to rat Tracy out.

“Probably,” she shrugged again, looking to the front of the class, past my shoulder. “I mean, if he wanted her to ditch, I’m sure she’d go.”

“I thought you two were best friends. Wouldn’t she tell you if she was ditching?”

“I thought so,” Michelle whispered so quietly I almost didn’t hear her over the din of the rest of the class. Ah, bitter, party of one? “Whatever, he’ll break her heart and she’ll come crawling back to me and we’ll pretend she hasn’t been blowing me off this whole time.”

“Where do you think they would’ve gone if they did ditch together?” I tried not to sound too interested, but it wasn’t easy. Luckily Michelle was starting to let herself be openly angry and didn’t seem to care that I was asking.

“Who knows,” she said with another shrug of her shoulders. I pressed my lips together, trying not to become obviously frustrated with how long this was taking.

“I dunno. Like I said, she’d do whatever he’d want to keep him happy.” She shook her head in disgust. Just then the teacher called for a switch in partners. I stood up and hurried over to Steven and Jodi, pushing Steven towards Michelle, hoping he’d be able to get some more information out of her. I knew she’d be more comfortable talking to him now that I had chipped away at her façade. I told Jodi what I’d gotten out of Michelle, vague as it was.

“So, we’re banking on the fact that Tracy’s the sacrifice and either of the twins is the guy we’re looking for?” Jodi asked.

I sighed, not really wanting to answer the question, but we had no other options right now. “Yeah, I guess so. At least it gives us somewhere to start. I mean, even if we’re wrong, we know it’s gonna be at midnight on Thursday and we know where it’ll be, so that’s something at least.”

We rushed to history class so that we could huddle at our table and talk before Michelle made it to class since she sat in the row in front of us. “Ok, so I guess Ian’s been giving Tracy a lot of gifts, taking her out to nice dinners at least three times a week, she’s hardly ever home anymore. Um, she didn’t seem to know anything about Ian not being home since Thursday…” Steven trailed off, trying to remember any other details we needed to know.

“So he’s a good boyfriend that’s spoiling her, big deal.” Jodi sat back in her seat, a little crease forming between her eyes.

“Oh, that’s right! Ok, so, the gifts!” Steven picked up his train of thought quickly. “I guess one of them was a necklace with this pendant that a symbol of some kind.”

“What kind of symbol?” I asked eagerly.

“She didn’t know, she said she didn’t recognize it, but when she described it, it kinda reminded me of the rune symbols you drew from the vision.” The three of us shared a long, silent look. My stomach was in knots and I knew they were feeling the same cold and clammy sensation I was. “But let me tell you, Michelle is bit-ter,” Steven drew out the syllables of the word.

“Yeah, I got that too,” I agreed, nodding.

“This is still circumstantial,” Jodi said, the crease still prominent between her eyes.

“I know, babe, I agree,” I said, patting her arm. Jodi seemed to be more affected by the unpleasant developments than Steven and that had me curious. I realized I was soothing her more often than I was trying to calm myself. I wanted to explore that, but the bell rang and the teacher called the class to order. I knew I felt like I had something to lose here, no matter how briefly I had known Jensen, but I didn’t understand Jodi’s stake in all this. And that, almost more than Tracy’s safety, had me worried.