So easy, and so swift. He had to fight the urge to hug her, and it had nothing to do with his ability or her ability but everything to do with her. With how great she was.
With all the people who had cut him loose over the years, part of him had expected her to balk. “All last week I thought you were frightened of me, that you wanted nothing to do with me. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how you’d react today.”
“Oh, Aden. I truly am sorry about that. I should have told you what I was doing, but I was afraid you’d try to protect me and end up hurt.” Those white teeth emerged and she started chewing on her lip again. “And if you’d gotten hurt because of me, well, the guilt would have killed me.”
He smiled slowly, relieved, and she returned the smile with one of her own.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I promised Shannon I’d eat with him,” he said. “Oh, and I told this really talkative new kid that he could join us. I’m supposed to wait by the doors.”
“A new kid?” Her brow puckered. “I hadn’t heard we’d gotten another.”
“Yeah, just today. His name’s John O’Conner and he—”
“Wait. What?” Her nose wrinkled in bewilderment. “Did you say John…O’Conner?”
“Yeah, why?”
Rather than answer, she said, “Describe him to me.”
O-kay. “Blond hair, brown eyes and his skin looks like he slathered himself with glitter. It’s really weird.”
Her frown deepened. “Except for the glitter thing, that sounds like the John I knew. But someone was clearly playing a joke on you, because John died of a drug overdose last year.”
Aden massaged the back of his neck, his muscles knotting in anger. “A joke.”
“I’m sorry.”
He wanted to punch the wall as he imagined the laugh everyone was probably having at his expense. “Shannon’s somewhere inside,” he said stiffly.
Mary Ann regarded him with sympathy before leading him to the cafeteria.
A few minutes later, he found himself parked at a table with Mary Ann and Shannon. Though they were the only three in that particular section, kids occupied the tables around them, just as he’d seen in movies.
He was very aware of Penny, staring wistfully at Mary Ann, and Tucker, glaring from Mary Ann to Aden with loathing. Shannon kept his head bowed, and Mary Ann kept up a strained, meaningless chatter. Aden looked for “John,” but never caught sight of him. No one seemed to be laughing at him, either, so he was able to relax. A little.
Overall, it was an uncomfortable ordeal. He much preferred the isolation of the forest, and that surprised him. How many hours had he spent daydreaming about friends and normalcy? But maybe, in the woods, he would have found Victoria. If only.
Finally the bell rang, signaling it was time to head to their next class. Chairs were scooted back, footsteps began to pound.
“W-wait for me after school,” Shannon said to him. “We can all walk home together.”
Aden met Mary Ann’s gaze. She’d been rendered immobile, half sitting, half standing. Panic flittered through her eyes. After school, she was supposed to lose the wolf so they could talk.
Shannon must have caught the tension-filled undercurrents, because he said, “N-never mind,” and tried to shuffle away.
Sensitive as she obviously was to others’ feelings, Mary Ann pasted a grin on her face and grabbed his wrist, stopping him. “Walking home together sounds great. I was just trying to remember if I’d told my dad to pick me up or not.”
“Oh. Okay.” Shannon’s posture relaxed.
“See you then,” Aden said, trying to mask his disappointment, and strode to his next class. Looked like his talk with Mary Ann would have to be postponed. Again. They couldn’t spill secrets with an audience present.
Would they be able to talk in the morning? Or would something stop them then, too? And tomorrow after school was out; Shannon would probably want to walk with them again. At this rate, they’d never have a single moment of privacy. Unless…he could tell her everything without ever having to speak a word.
Determined, he used his next three classes to write. About himself, his past, the things he’d done, the things he’d witnessed and the things he needed from Mary Ann. He didn’t skimp on the details, didn’t try to paint himself in a more favorable light. He wanted her to know the truth.
I have a bad feeling about this, Elijah said when he finished.
Aden groaned. Not another one. But it didn’t matter; he wouldn’t let it matter. He was still giving Mary Ann the note. What happened after that would be up to her.
TWELVE
LATER THAT DAY, Mary Ann read the bottom of Aden’s note for the millionth time.
I have to find a way to free them. For them. For me. I’m not mental. They’re people, not just voices. But I don’t know what to do. Getting them bodies of their own is all I can think of, but that seems impossible, you know? And if I do manage to find bodies—someone who recently died maybe?—how would I pull them out of me and put them inside? Hell, as I’m writing this I’m wondering if I AM mental. You’re the only person I’ve ever met who can cancel out what I can do. I figure you know things I don’t, even if you don’t yet realize it. Do you? But I’ll understand if you don’t want to help me.
Mary Ann’s arm fell to her side, the paper crinkling between her fingers. Her mind whirled with questions. Four other people swirled inside Aden’s head, their voices constant, always distracting him. Except when he was with her. Somehow, she quieted them.
Did she believe all of that? She didn’t want to, and honestly hadn’t the first thousand times she’d read his letter. Then her doubts had begun to give way to curiosity. The curiosity had given way to uncertainty, and the uncertainty had finally given way to acceptance.
A week ago, she hadn’t known werewolves and vampires existed. Now, there was no refuting it. Why couldn’t there be a boy with people trapped inside him, as well? People who could time travel and wake the dead. Predict the future and possess other bodies—the last of which she’d seen firsthand.
How was she able to stop them? Why her? She was nothing special.
She nibbled on her bottom lip, no answers sliding into place, and peered up at her bedroom ceiling. It was smooth and white, a blank canvas just waiting to be colored on. I can reason this out, she mused, pepping herself up.
Okay, so. Aden thought the best way to free the souls was to find them bodies. She thought, drastic as it was and impossible as it seemed, that should be a last resort. Until they reached that point, it made sense to figure out exactly who the people inhabiting his head were. Or maybe who they’d been. He’d mentioned that while they didn’t recall any life but the one they shared with Aden, they did have moments of déjà vu and recognition. That had to mean something.
Maybe they were ghosts and Aden had unintentionally drawn them. With that thought, she found herself eyeing her room for any sign of a spectral being, hands clutching her comforter, breath emerging shallow and heavy. Werewolves and vampires were real, so why not ghosts, too? Were there any around her? People she’d known, perhaps? People who had once lived here?
Her mother?
Mary Ann’s heartbeat skidded out of control, and tears of hope burned her eyes. She blinked them back. Her mother could be here, watching her, she thought, dazed. Protecting her. Her greatest desire was to see her mom again, to hold her, hug her and tell her goodbye. The car accident had taken her so suddenly, there’d been no chance to prepare.
“I love you, Mom,” she whispered.
There was no response.
Concentrate, Gray. You have a job to do. She cleared her throat and quashed her disappointment. Where was I? Oh, yeah. If the souls trapped inside Aden’s head were actually ghosts, wouldn’t they remember their lives fully?
Good point. Either their memories had been wiped when they entered his body or they were something else. Angels? Demons? Were there such things? Probably. But they probably weren’t the souls trapped inside Aden. Again, they would have remembered their own identities. But again, their memories could have been wiped.
Ugh. This was getting her nowhere. Could the four be talking to him like Wolf talked to her? Perhaps they weren’t truly inside his head but were tethered to him and simply projecting their voices.
She immediately discarded that idea, as well. Aden heard them—if they weren’t actually inside him, wouldn’t he see them, as well?
Mary Ann tapped her chin. First thing she needed to do, as she’d initially thought, was figure out who the four were so that she could figure out what they’d been. Aden said they’d been together since his birth.
“Which means I need to go back to the beginning,” she said, her voice cutting through the silence of her room. To do that, she needed to gather some information. She made a mental list:
Find out who his parents were. Or rather, are.
Find out where he was born.
Find out who was around him the first few days of his life.
The beginning of what?
At the sound of the masculine voice inside her head, she jackknifed to a sitting position, hand fluttering over her once again racing heart. Wolf loomed in her bedroom doorway, huge and black and beautiful. His fur gleamed in the sunlight, and those pale green eyes regarded her almost gently. His ears were perked, pointing like an elf’s. Clothing hung from his mouth.
“How’d you get in?” she asked.
I walked.
“Funny.”
His lips seemed to twitch around the material. Last time I was here, I left one of the lower windows open, so I would be able to climb through whenever I wanted.
“I should have known.” She eyed the clothes. Jeans, a T-shirt. “Are those for me?”
No. For me. When I switch forms.
Had she heard him right? “You’re going to…”
Show you my human form, yes.
Excitement spread through her veins, encompassing her entire body in seconds and making her shake. “Really? Why now?”
