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"I am not a person, and I would not lie to you," he said. Maybe not, but he did conveniently leave out parts of the truth.

"Believe as you wish." He turned his head away from me. That pretty much ended the conversation.

65

The Silver Spoon

Chapter 6

"Stop the vehicle," Caelan said, when my jaw dropped in an enormous yawn for about the fourth time in a minute.

"I'm fine," I said, through another yawn.

"If you kill us by sleeping while driving, you will not be," he responded.

Hard to argue with that logic, I guess. A certain amount of weariness had settled on me, from not sleeping in the last twentyfour hours and not sleeping well in a lot longer than that. We'd been on the road for close to twelve hours now, having escaped Findlay without difficulty. No one knew what car we were in or else we'd have been stopped long before now. Apparently that desk clerk hadn't taken the time to write it down. Maybe that was another thing that would have been bad for business. So, as long as I didn't speed, crash, or otherwise draw attention to us, we were fine.

"Here is good." He gestured to one of the blue signs indicating food and gas at the next exit.

"It's dangerous to stop," I pointed out. "Especially when we still have how many hours to go?"

"Our destination is still a day's travel away," he said. "But we risk more with your weariness, and I'm not yet able to drive." I wasn't sure I'd let him anyway. "And why exactly do we have to go so far?"

"That's where the other three are hiding. The others like me."

"No memories." I signaled for the exit and pulled off the interstate.

"Yes."

"Got it. And what exactly are they going to do for us?" He didn't answer right away. Then finally he said, "We will 66

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be safe from Nevan there, until we can determine a further course of action."

Sounded okay. But I didn't like the way he'd hesitated before answering. "What are you not telling me?"

"Nothing of importance."

"And how do you define important?" I asked.

"Food and fuel." He pointed to the right, changing the subject quite effectively.

I sighed but let him get away with it for now. Besides, food was at the top of my list now too.

We pulled into a Mobile and parked next to a gas pump. "Do you have money?" he asked.

"Not much, a couple bucks. How about you?" It honestly hadn't occurred to me until this second that we might be out of cash and luck. He must have had money to get down to Texas, didn't it make sense that he would have enough to get back? Not like I thought he was carrying around a Mastercard or something.

"That will be enough." He opened the car door.

"What? Wait. No, it won't." I scrambled out after him. I tried to keep my head down once I got out of the car. My picture was all over the news, and bad likeness or not, it wouldn't take much for someone to recognize me. Red hair is hard to hide. Caelan stood in front of the gas pump, studying it. The Impala's gas tank already hung open.

"What are–" I started to ask. But before I could finish, he lifted the nozzle from the holder and fit it into the Impala. He set the handle, and gas that we couldn't afford began pouring in.

"They're going to send the cops after us if we drive out of here without paying." I crossed my arms over my chest, still trying to keep my head lowered.

"No one will recognize you, Zara. They are not watching now, anyway." He looked over at me, seemingly unconcerned with hiding his distinctive height and eyes. "And even if they 67

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begin to, they will not see you or me."

"Great. That trick again," I muttered. "Who'd you turn me into this time? A supermodel?"

He stepped closer to me. I automatically took a step back.

"Humans notice that which is outside the ordinary," he said. Then he reached a hand toward me. I flinched before I realized he was only touching my hair, the ragged wisps that had escaped my ponytail to hang down in front of my face. "So, I have made you ordinary to them. A loss," a faint smile curved up one corner of his mouth, "for you are extraordinary by nature." Heat rushed into my face. But before I could stammer out a reply or even pretend to know how to take those words, he'd turned away to watch the numbers on the pump again.

"So you still haven't explained how we're going to pay for this." I leaned against the side of the car, careful to keep my eyes off of him, trying to chase away that little tingle that had started in me moments ago. Yes, he was better looking than anyone I'd ever seen, something I'd managed to put of my mind, and yeah, that mouth was enough to spark all kinds of fantasies...but he was not human.

"Show me the money you have."

I searched my jeans pockets and pulled out three wornlooking singles.

"That will be enough." The nozzle clicked off, and he set it back into the holder on the pump.

"But–"

He gave me a look, and I snapped my mouth closed. He zipped his leather jacket closed and started toward the gas station/convenience store. This, if nothing else, would get us caught. I followed Caelan, mentally preparing a statement to the police.

Before he pulled open the door, Caelan leaned down to whisper in my ear. "Stay close to me. Select whatever food is 68

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needed, and then we will pay."

Oh, and I bet we would. Pay, that is. Rubbing my ear to remove the sensation of his mouth so close to it and the weird warm, squirmy feeling it started inside me, I walked in behind him.

I avoided meeting the cashier's eyes and grabbed one of those little plastic shopping baskets stacked right inside the door. Caelan started down the first aisle, and I began throwing things in the basket. Not the healthiest of options were available, but I did the best I could, avoiding all beef jerky products. With the basket close to overflowing, including a new T-shirt for Caelan and toothpaste for me, Caelan added a newspaper with my photo and a sketch that I guessed was supposed to be him on the front page.

What are you doing? I thought at him as loudly as I could hoping he could hear me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him flinch and knew I'd gotten through.

"I wish to see what they know," he said quietly. "It will be all right."

I headed to the counter, my heart pounding hard in my chest. I would have used my inhaler, but who knew if they'd included that detail as something to look for. I heaved the basket onto the counter and stepped back my arms shaking from the weight and fear.

"This all?" The guy behind the counter looked annoyed.

"Uh, no, we have gas on pump nine." I stuck my hand into my pocket, still only feeling those three little bills. The attendant began ringing things up and stuffing them, none too gently, in bags. I guess he wasn't used to people actually grocery shopping in here.

"Your total is $74.36." The guy behind the counter looked bored. Wait until we tried to pass off these singles. I pulled the money from my pocket and started to hand all 69

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three across the counter. But Caelan, standing behind me and turned slightly so he could see the rest of the store, stopped me.

"Just one," he said.

So I peeled off one of the singles and handed it over to the clerk, watching his face for the slightest reaction.

"Hey, lady, what do you think this place is?" He scowled at me.

"I'm sorry I–"

"Read the sign." He pointed one grubby finger toward the peeling sticker on the front of the cash register. "This ain't a bank. No $100 bills after dark."

Technically, it was still twilight. But I wasn't going to argue with him about it. "Uh, sorry about that." I snatched my single back from him and stuffed it back in my pocket. "Caelan..." I whispered.

"Give him the other two," he answered. So, I handed across the other two singles and waited for the clerk's reaction again, grimacing in expectation. But this time, he just made an exasperated face and snatched the two bills from my hand. He rang them up as $100, so he must have thought I'd given him two $50s. "$25.64 is your change and have a nice evening." He ripped off the receipt and then got annoyed with waiting while I gathered up all the bags.

"We actually made money doing that," I said once the door closed behind us outside.

"It is a useful gift." Caelan sounded slightly out of breath.

"I guess." I hurried toward the car to toss everything into the back seat. But as I flipped the seat forward to climb in the front again, I looked up and found Caelan only now reaching the back of the car, and he was limping heavily.

I got back out and hurried over to him.

"Are you all right?" I caught him under his arm, as I'd done before.

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"I will be fine. Extending my powers took energy away from healing and I..."

"You still have that big piece of glass in your back," I whispered. Somehow, I'd sort of forgotten about it, figured it must have fallen out already, like all the others. I helped him into the passenger seat. "It is in much deeper than the others. I may need help," he said. That statement alone alarmed me so much I forgot to freak out about him reading my mind. He'd never asked for help this whole time and now...it must have been hurting him badly.

I shut the door after him and ran around to the driver's side and got in.

"I'm sure there's a doctor around here somewhere." I started the car.

"No," he said.

I looked over at him trembling and sweating. "You're kidding right?"

"Find some place out of the main course of traffic and humans. Then I will tell you what to do," he said.

"No way."

"It is not difficult."

"Easy for you to say. You don't have to do it." My chest was starting to seize up again.

"No, but it is my back," he responded. Okay, that was a good point. But still...

He sighed deeply. "If this does not work, you may take me to medical care immediately."

"You think it's not going to work?" My hands were sweating on the wheel as I pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned gas station, just down the road from where we'd bought our gas.

"It will work, but I must convince you to attempt it first."

"So you're manipulating me?" I slammed the gearshift into park.

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"Zara, please." He looked over at me, the weariness and pain weighing heavily on his face.

"All right," I said with a sigh. "I'll try. But I'm not a doctor."

"I understand."

"I don't even play one on TV," I muttered. Either he chose to ignore that last bit, or he didn't get it. He struggled out of his jacket, dropping it to the floor, and then turned on his side, facing the passenger door.

I inched closer, trying to see in the fading light. "Caelan, I think it's almost out anyway." I touched the edge of the glass with a tentative finger. "It just needs a little more time. Couldn't you just wait for it?"

He didn't respond, but I still knew what his answer would be.

"All right," I muttered. Then I moved to kneel on the passenger side floor to get a better grip on the glass.

"Remember," he said. "Don't touch..."

"Yeah, I know. No skin contact." I examined the angles, trying to figure out the best way to approach this.

"Zara," he said, interrupting my thoughts. "Just do it."

"Dear Lord." I gave a whispered prayer as I took hold of one of the visible edges. I could see his body tense in preparation. Then, I pulled.

The glass came free with a gout of blood, but I had nothing to staunch it.

"Towels in the back," came his strangled reply to my thoughts.

I hauled myself over the seat and rummaged in the bags until I found paper towels he'd apparently thrown in our shopping basket. It seemed he'd been planning this for a while. I peeled off the plastic and unwrapped a huge handful of toweling and pressed it to him, taking care to keep my fingers away from his back.

"Are you all right?" With my free hand, I tossed the glass 72

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onto the floor in back of the car, as far from me as possible, and then fanned myself to cool down. Don't get me wrong. I'm no girly girl. I squash my own spiders, open my own jars, thank you very much, and I once had a pet mouse, but show me blood and I'm the biggest sissy girl of them all.

"Yes, thank you," he said, sounding drowsy. He stretched out across the front seat. "I need more rest." And your new shirt, I thought, observing the broad expanse of tanned skin and muscle that was his back. But that would have to wait until the bleeding had definitely stopped. A blood-soaked T-shirt would probably attract more attention than none at all. Though it seemed he wouldn't be up and moving around any time soon, so I didn't need to worry about his clothing or lack there of, just yet.

But in any case, I couldn't stay here, crouched on the floor, next to his legs. My calves were cramping up already. Caelan was taking up the entire front seat, so if I were to have any place to sit, I needed to move to the back. I figured I could close my eyes and try to sleep. At least now I knew my nightmares were no worse than reality.

"Very comforting, Zara," I muttered to myself. I stood as best I could, head bent at a funny angle to avoid the roof, and tried to figure out a way to get into the back without stepping on Caelan or opening the doors. It was full dark out now and I didn't want to attract the attention of anyone passing by opening the door to get out.

I'd managed to get one foot on the seat without bumping Caelan too much and was preparing to swing a leg over into the back when his hand slid under the cuff of my jeans and closed around my ankle.

I barely muffled a shriek of surprise and struggled to keep my balance.

"Stay here," he said. "If someone comes, you may need to 73

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drive right away."

"But there's no room here," I pointed out. I started to go on, but then I realized something. "Hey, you're touching me, and there's no weirdness. No connecting, I mean," I clarified. Because it was weird to feel his hand on me, skin on skin, just not the kind of weird we'd experienced before. This was weird on the good side. His hand was warm, enclosing my whole ankle, and his thumb pressed into my skin, sending that sensation on a direct line north to...