“What were you doing there, Brady?”
The noise he made in the back of his throat told me before he spoke that he was insulted. “A ‘thank you’ would’ve been sufficient, Peyton.”
“Thank you for getting us out of there, Brady,” I said perfunctorily. “Now, what were you doing there?”
I saw his jaw clench several times before he finally answered.
“We’ll talk about this later,” was the only response I got. And that was the end of all conversation until we reached the dirt lane that led to Chad’s dad’s cabin.
Brady pulled to a stop just shy of the area of grass that Chad had designated as the parking lot and slammed the gearshift into park.
“Everybody out,” he snapped.
Jace opened the door immediately, climbed out without a word and stomped angrily toward the party. Harrison pushed the front seat up and followed suit, leaving me and Trace the sole occupants of the back seat.
I scooted toward the door, but Brady brought me up short. “Not you two.”
With a sigh of exasperation, I leaned back in my seat and waited for him to lay into me.
After two excruciatingly long, quiet minutes, Brady finally spoke.
“You both saw that, right?”
“I saw it,” I responded. Trace didn’t speak, simply continued staring blankly out the window.
“What the hell were they?”
“Some sort of werewolf-like creatures.”
“Seriously, P? That’s all you’ve got?”
Even though he wasn’t even turned in my direction, I raised my hands, palm up. “What do you want me to say? That’s what they looked like to me.”
I didn’t want to say too much yet. Besides, I wasn’t entirely sure what all of them were, or what Trace’s thought-to-be-dead father’s role in the whole thing was. As usual, I was likely going to end the night with more questions than answers.
“Well, I know that’s what they looked like, but how can you be so casual about it?”
“Well, um,” I began, debating whether to tell him small bits of the truth. “Probably because I’ve seen something like that before.”
“You
what?”
Brady whipped around in his seat to look at me. From my peripheral vision, I saw Trace’s head jerk in my direction as well. Nervously, I began picking at my fingernails.
“Um, I’ve seen something like that before.”
“Where? When? Who are they?”
“I’m not sure yet who
they
were, but the one I’ve seen that looks similar is someone you know.”
“Who?” When I didn’t answer right away, Brady asked a second time, much more urgently. “Who, Peyton?”
I glanced at Trace, meeting his warm golden eyes.
“Trace.”
A dead, heavy silence fell over the interior of the Jeep like a suffocating blanket.
“So help me—” Brady began, finally turning further in his seat to address Trace.
“You won’t do or say anything, Brady, because you’re not human either.”
“What?”
“You’re a vampire and Trace is a werewolf,” I blurted.
He stared at me, slack-jawed, for several seconds before he snorted, rolling his eyes dramatically.
“This is not the time for your attempts at humor, Peyton.”
“I’m not joking, Brady. I’ve seen it more than once. And you two aren’t the only…creatures in this town.”
“You seriously expect me to believe that I’m a vampire and don’t know it? Seriously?”
“I’m not sure how it progresses, but you’re not fully mature yet. None of you are. I’m the only one who can see you like you are.”
“So, what you’re saying is that you can see like fangs and crap right now?” Brady gave a short bark of laughter, one rife with disbelief, as he turned back around in his seat. With a snap, he pulled the sun visor down and opened the flap that activated the light over the mirror there. “Hey, look at that,” he said sarcastically, pointing to his very human reflection. “Not only do I not have fangs, I have a reflection.”
“You look fine to me now, too. But you weren’t earlier.”
“Peyton, I don’t know what’s wrong with you, if your air supply got cut off at birth or what, but you’re really starting to—”
Rather than slapping him, which was what I really wanted to do, I reached forward and placed my hand roughly against the side of Brady’s face. Like I’d done with Lacey, I concentrated every ounce of my strength on picturing Brady as I’d seen him in his second nature and pushing those thoughts out of me and into him.
At first, I felt nothing, only the stirring of Brady beneath my fingertips. But then the familiar rush came and I knew it was happening, just the way I wanted it to. A fraction of a second later, Brady’s gasp assured me of that.
I showed Brady what I’d seen that first night, the night he likely wouldn’t remember experiencing. I showed him what I’d seen in him as he smelled blood at the party the second time I experienced the party. And finally, I showed him how he appeared to me only minutes before, in the meadow.
When my visions were transferred and there was nothing left to show him, I released him and leaned back. Slowly, Brady turned to me, eyes wide with a mixture of awe and fear.
“How did you do that?”
“I don’t know. There’s something in me, too. Something different. There’s something different in a lot of us in this town.”
“Show me Trace,” Brady demanded.
“I can’t. I can only share visions of you with you. No one else. At least I don’t think I can. I’ve tried before and wasn’t able to.”
“Tried before? Who else knows about this?”
I hesitated before telling him. Not only would Lacey kill me if I told him her secret, but I still wasn’t sure how much I should tell people about what I knew.
“That’s not important. The main thing is that something is going on around here and we need to be civil to one another until we can figure it out. Obviously, we could be in danger.”
In the pause following my statement, Trace finally broke his silence.
“Show me,” he said simply. I turned to look at him. He didn’t need to elaborate. He didn’t need to explain. I knew what he meant.
Pulling one foot up underneath me, I turned to face Trace and leaned forward, gently pressing my palm to his warm cheek. Before I could push my memories of him forward, a little thrill ascended my arm and stirred in my chest like touching him transferred something into me as I was preparing to do to him. I just didn’t know what. But I could feel it nonetheless.
Hyper aware of Brady watching us, I cleared my throat and closed my eyes, focusing on the task at hand. Within seconds, I was able to show Trace what I’d seen of him. When I released him and opened my eyes, he was pale beneath his tan.
“I’m one of those things,” he whispered.
“No,” I responded reassuringly. “Not exactly anyway. There’s something different about us, something that people outside Two Lakes want.”
“Are you saying that based on what happened tonight, or…?” Trace asked.
“Well, that does make it much clearer, but I also just sort of…know. Some things just come to me. It’s like all of a sudden I just…know things,” I said, uncomfortable trying to explain the inexplicable, especially when it involved confessing that I heard voices. That was never a good way to convince people of one’s sanity.
Trace was nodding slowly, watching me closely. I didn’t know what else to say.
“You’re the one,” he announced cryptically.
“Huh?”
“I knew it tonight. I think I’ve known it for a while now,” he admitted then added, “well, sorta.”
“Knew what? I mean…”
“I knew when you could sense the difference at the meadow.”
“Don’t listen to him, Peyton,” Brady said from the front seat.
“Brady,” I began, sighing in exasperation. But he cut me off.
“Did you know he’s taken every girl he’s ever dated to that spot?”
At his words, my heart dropped into my stomach, but I refused to show that I was affected.
“No, but it doesn’t matter, Brady. Nothing happened.”
Brady turned in his seat, fixing me with his angry eyes, completely ignoring Trace.
“Nothing happened because I showed up to stop him, Peyton.”
“Brady, you’re not my keeper. Nothing would’ve happened if you
hadn’t
shown up. Did it ever occur to you that I’m a big girl and that I can take care of myself? That I am perfectly capable of making wise decisions?”
Brady said nothing, only turned back around, away from me.
I was acutely aware of Trace sitting to my left, also not saying a word. On the inside, my heart was breaking and I could feel the sting of tears at the backs of my eyes.
“But something did happen.” Trace’s announcement caused Brady to whirl around in his seat again, his eyes flashing red in the dim light.
“He didn’t mean like that, Brady,” I said, putting my hand out to stop him.
I looked to Trace, silently urging him to continue.
“Yes, I’ve taken every girl I’ve dated to the meadow. And none of them have felt it.”
“O-kay,” I said, not sure what I was supposed to say. I couldn’t help but wonder if he knew he wasn’t helping matters at all by saying things like that.
“You’re the one I’ve been looking for, Peyton,” he confessed quietly, reaching for my hand and bringing it to his chest. He pressed my palm flat against the soft cotton that stretched over his heart. “I know you feel that.”
And I did. I felt life and calm and energy and love and strength flowing from his body into mine as if they were tangible entities. It was though everything I needed to both thrive and survive was pulsing from his being into mine.
“Dude, you are seriously begging for an ass-kicking,” Brady griped from the front seat, although his threat sounded fairly empty in comparison to the ire he’d shown on several previous instances. I could only hope that meant he was beginning to see that there was something very real, very unusual and very important going on. With all of us, not just between Trace and me.
“I think I’ve known for a while, but I tried to convince myself what I was feeling wasn’t real, or that I was mistaken. I knew he’d freak,” Trace said, tipping his head toward Brady, but still addressing me. Reluctantly, Trace tore his eyes away from mine and looked toward my brother. “Man, you know I’d never do anything to hurt her. You know me, Brady. You
know me.”
Brady huffed, but said nothing, only turned back around in his seat and angrily leaned his head against the head rest.
“Look, we have a lot to get used to, but we have even more that we need to figure out. For instance, why Trace’s father who’s supposed to be dead was out in the meadow tonight and why we were attacked by a group of were…things.”
“And just how are we supposed to get answers? I mean, it’s not like we know anyone we can ask,” Brady groused from the driver’s seat. “This stuff is supposed to be make-believe, know what I mean?”
“Well, hopefully I’ll get some answers soon,” I said vaguely. “In the meantime, I think we have a place to start. Sort of, anyway.”